Faux News
My obsessive relationship with the news is often fuelled with hatred and anger. I’m sometimes criticised for being cynical, overly suspicious or flat out dismissive of some of the things said (or not said) by our trusty talking heads so I’m going to give one small example of why mainstream news is so infuriating. Yes this is Fox and yes this happened in America but none the less it’s a good example of why I am suspect of so many talking points, buzz words and opinions thrust down our throats by the news.
From think progress:
This afternoon Fox News’s Martha MacCallum introduced a segment highlighting Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Christina Romer’s claim yesterday that the “fundamentals of the economy are sound.” “After weeks of economic doom and gloom, the Obama administration is now singing a slightly different tune,” MacCallum said.
She then played clips of Romer and other administration officials making seemingly positive comments about the current state of the economy. One of the clips was of Vice President Biden saying, “The fundamentals of the economy are strong!” After the segment, MacCallum said, “All right, well the mantra for the weekend is clear, looking at what was said over the course of the shows on Sunday.” Watch it:
But the clip of Biden seemingly making a recent remark about the strength of the economy is grossly inaccurate. The Biden statement was actually from last September — during the presidential campaign — when he was quoting Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Here’s what Biden really said:
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that’s why John McCain could say with a straight face as recently as this morning and this is a quote, “the fundamentals of the economy are strong.” That’s what John said. He says that “We’ve made great progress economically in the Bush years.”
Watch it:
This is one good example of how severely the news media can distort reality to fit their own agenda, despite this being a fairly potent example I’d be confident saying that this sort of thing happens on a fairly regular basis. And for anyone who thought “it was probably was a mistake”, let me assure you; it wasn’t.
Don’t believe the hype.