As part of Fox News’ sycophantic coverage of Ted Cruz’ announcement that he’s running for president, the “fair and balanced” network made a point of promoting Cruz’ argument as to why his foreign birth does not disqualify him from running. But Fox was missing that “perspective” when it promoted bogus questions about President Obama’s birth.
Fox carried Cruz’ speech live. Afterward, hosts and guests alike had nothing but praise – while ignoring the extremism Cruz had exhibited. As Yahoo News described the speech, “ Cruz “asked Christian conservative voters to imagine a United States without the IRS, Obamacare or abortion rights — and to imagine they can make that happen by supporting him.”
But when Cruz’ speech ended, Fox’s cohost Martha MacCallum spoke admiringly of a “huge crowd at Liberty University” where Cruz made his announcement. She didn’t mention that attendance was mandatory.
“No teleprompter for Ted Cruz. Pretty amazing,” MacCallum said to cohost Bill Hemmer. “He went on through… 40+ minutes without the use of any teleprompter, Bill, and we’ve seen him do that before, at the Republican Convention.”
Hemmer picked up the cue. “When we were in Tampa,” Hemmer continued, “we remarked, during the Republican convention, he was the only speaker that entire week to lower the podium and just breezily walked right, stage right, back stage left and seemed to be without a teleprompter that time as well.”
You probably don’t need to be as familiar with Fox News tea leaves as I to see the faint praise behind this GOP happy talk. I can assure you that if it had been Jeb Bush or Scott Walker announcing, there would have been mentions of applause lines, discussion about “an agenda to move forward” and so on.
Republican guest Ed Rollins was asked to discuss Cruz’ “Act One” as Hemmer put it. The parameter kept the discussion out of the “candidacy as a whole” territory.
Rollins called the speech “extraordinary” and “magnificent.” For those unfamiliar with Cruz, Rollins said, this impression “had to be a very favorable one.”
Democratic guest Joe Trippi might as well have been another Republican. He didn’t say a word about Cruz’ extremism or the venue. He called “Act One” “outstanding.” Trippi added, “He’s smart to go first. I’m one of those who believes on your announcement day it’s your day. And I thought he did a great job again reaching out to the audience he’s trying to reach out to. …With no prompter. Look, I just don’t think that you can detract from the speech.”
Trippi’s only “criticism” was to raise the possibility that Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum may have a leg up on Cruz for the religious right. But even so, Trippi praised Cruz' use of social media and texting. “Certainly he has the ingredients, I think, to put money together.”
Later, Hemmer addressed Cruz’ birthplace. “A lot of people write in about where Ted Cruz was born. He was born in Calgary. But his mother was born in Delaware,” Hemmer said.
“Exactly,” MacCallum chimed in.
Hemmer continued, “And what he will tell you is that, ‘My mother’s an American citizen by birth.’ Under federal law that made him an American citizen by birth. He put out his birth certificate of his mother two years ago to try and clarify any of that up.”
“Trying to put that to rest,” MacCallum agreed.
But President Obama’s mother was an American citizen by birth, too. So even if Obama had been born abroad (which he was not), this same argument could have and should have been applied to him. Instead, Fox hyped Donald Trump’s spurious accusations for weeks.
Watch the hypocritical slobbering below, from today's America's Newsroom.
OTOH, if Obama (or a potential Democratic contender) were to speak at a college—even a private college—where attendance were mandatory, you just know that FoxNoise would turn that into a “scandal” and how students’ rights were being infringed. I imagine there would also be one or two “outraged” parents, upset at the idea that their "babies"* were forced to listen to the speech against their will—because we all know that FoxNoise looks for victims to further their own agenda.
By the by—anyone else remember the 2012 campaign where factory workers in Ohio were coerced by their Romney-supporting boss to attend a Romney rally—most of whom were being forced to attend on their own time, rather than “on-the-clock?” Why does it seem right-wingers (and their supporters) don’t have a problem with “mandatory attendance” (up to expelling students or firing employees) when it comes to political rallies but they do seem taken aback at the mere suggestion of mandatory/compulsory voting?
*Obviously, the FoxNoise viewers would forget those “babies” would be at least 18 years old—even though they might be in college with financial aid from their parents, they would still be legal adults.
Fox loves Ben Carson but their choice for president is Jeb or Scott Walker. Maybe Rubio. I’m pretty sure the first choice is Jeb.
King on Cruz today: “To me, he’s a guy with a big mouth and no results,” the New York Republican told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an interview on “The Situation Room.”
“We have very, very complex issues facing the country today, and he goes out of his way to oversimplify,” King said of Cruz. “Ted Cruz may be an intelligent person, but he doesn’t carry out an intelligent debate. He oversimplifies, he exaggerates … he doesn’t provide leadership and he has no real experience.”
[…]
Earlier Monday, King had issued a written statement criticizing Cruz’s announcement that he was running in 2016 and said the Texas Republican isn’t qualified to serve as president.
“Shutting down the federal government and reading Dr. Seuss on the Senate floor are the marks of a carnival barker not the leader of the free world,” King said in a written statement on Monday."
Oh snap! Let’s see FOX “news” spin that!
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/23/politics/peter-king-ted-cruz-carnival/
Bill, his mother isn’t running for president — he is.
Senator, I don’t care about your mother’s birth certificate: I would like to see YOUR birth certificate — the LONG-FORM one — to ensure your eligibility to hold the office of POTUS . . .
.
How about regular teleprompters, there’s a few of him using those…
How about all the times he got caught wearing an earpiece- Including debates? Never mind that it’s cheating in debate, and worse than a teleprompter or notes in a Q&A…
Oh, wait- If Cruz’s foreign birth, as well as his daddy’s insane religious views and BFF relationship with Fidel Castro don’t matter to the right, why would something as petty as him using teleprompters and earpieces matter? IOKIYAR!!!!
Fox’s token eggs are all in the Ben Carson basket- Cruz is just a desperate attempt to deflect anti-latino and anti-immigrant arguments while they groom the non-white they want. And believe you me, Carson needs a lot of grooming after his incredible stupid movie of saying he ain’t gonna talk about Gays because he can’t stop giving the media ammo on that. We may be hearing about Cruz for a while.
The only notable thing in all this is wondering just how bad Rubio burned his bridges to fall out of their favour so quickly. Not how, we all know how, I’m wondering how much in disrepair he is that Cruz replaced him.
