Fox News Sucker Punches American Workers Every Day

The InterTubes are abuzz with a piddling story about a douchebag from Breitbart/Fox News who got what looks like a popped pimple on his forehead after confronting union protesters in Michigan.

Steven CrowderSteven Crowder, is a self-described comedian (though there is no evidence to document that) who is trying to make a name for himself by emulating faux-journalist James O’Keefe. That mission brought him to Lansing, Michigan yesterday where he somehow managed to rile up an otherwise peaceful gathering of 13,000 union protesters. One has to wonder why the only report of hostility just happened to be where Crowder was stationed with his video team.

The video Crowder later posted on line was, in the style of O’Keefe, heavily edited. The portion that showed an alleged union member swinging at Crowder was cut to exclude most of the activity prior to the altercation. However, in a longer clip that was shown on Hannity (below), it could be seen clearly that just prior to the swingfest, the union member was on the ground. There is no explanation for how he got there, such as the possibility that he had been assaulted first by Crowder and was retaliating. Crowder has repeatedly lied in saying that he was sucker-punched, because the video also clearly shows that he was facing the union member at the time the punches were thrown. And it appears that the union member was reacting with the sort of anger that someone who had just been assaulted might be feeling. Also, Crowder rushed the union member after the first punch, displaying his size advantage, but then pulled back as if he just remembered that the cameras were rolling and he had forgotten momentarily his goal of portraying the protesters as violent.

For someone who was allegedly brutalized by fiendish thugs, Crowder seemed rather giddy in his subsequent appearances on Fox News (twice in less than 24 hours). He confessed to Sean Hannity that he intentionally sought to provoke the protesters, saying with a smarmy smile…

“I went out here to prove the left for who they truly are. Certainly, these union thugs. And I’ve achieved that.”

On Fox & Friends Crowder issued a contrived macho challenge to the union member to engage in a Mixed Martial Arts match – an absurd suggestion considering that he is bigger and younger than his opponent, and trained in MMA. Crowder is scheduled for another Fox stint with Neil Cavuto tonight.

The entire demeanor of Crowder in his post-bout media tour is one of someone proud of having successfully carried out a preconceived mission to fabricate bad publicity for the workers seeking to defend their rights. This is not a game to them. They have just been sucker punched themselves by a right-wing state regime that is assaulting their jobs, their livelihoods, and their families. The Michigan governor and legislators rammed this law through without notification or public debate.

To make matters worse, Fox News, and others in the conservative mediasphere, have thrown their own sucker punches at America’s working families by promoting right-to-work (for less) laws that have been proven to result in lower wages, worse working conditions, and have never been shown to create additional jobs. Nevertheless, Fox has characterized the Michigan law as a “victory for capitalism.” They have long sought to portray union members as thugs, rather than as the families they are, struggling to support themselves in a society that permits corporations to make record profits, lavish million dollar bonuses on executives, and then whine that they have no money to fairly compensate their working-class employees.

This sort of misrepresentation and vilification of average Americans goes on daily in the right-wing press. It is emotional abuse that has to pile up over time and create anxiety and frustration. While violence is never an appropriate response to a political dispute, these occurrences have to be evaluated in the broader context of the environment that surrounds them. And when people are being attacked by their so-called representatives, and their lives are being upended by out-of-touch elitists, it is hard not to expect that tempers will flare.

That may have occurred yesterday in Lansing. Or it may be that an overzealous media whore initiated the entire affair with his own provocative behavior and hostility. Time may shed more light on the facts, but it is undeniable that working Americans are not going to give in to the corrupt bosses in executive suites and statehouses. Nor should they. Working people are the backbone of our nation and they deserve better than to be exploited by self-serving politicians and third-rate clowns acting as outside agitators.

PolitiFact’s Lie Of The Year: The Romney Campaign’s Ad On Jeeps Made In China

Once again, the proclivity for deception and dishonesty as practiced by Republicans and right-wing media has earned them the honor being awarded “Lie Of The Year” by the fact-checkers at Politifact.

Mitt Romney Pathological Liar

There were so many deserving lies told by Mitt Romney and his campaign that it must have been a difficult choice for the folks at PolitiFact. The particular lie that captured the prize this year was Romney’s claim that Barack Obama “sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China” at the cost of American jobs. As noted by PolitiFact:

“It was a lie told in the critical state of Ohio in the final days of a close campaign — that Jeep was moving its U.S. production to China. It originated with a conservative blogger, who twisted an accurate news story into a falsehood. Then it picked up steam when the Drudge Report ran with it. Even though Jeep’s parent company gave a quick and clear denial, Mitt Romney repeated it and his campaign turned it into a TV ad.

“And they stood by the claim, even as the media and the public expressed collective outrage against something so obviously false.”

Indeed, the Romney camp dug in their heels when criticized about the brazen dishonesty of their claim. But then this is the candidate who proudly declared that “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers [who have] jumped the shark.” It is the campaign whose strategist admitted that they could simply “Etch-a-Sketch” away the extremist conservative positions they touted in the GOP primary. And Romney set a record for assaults on the truth by earning 84 citations of falsehoods (41% in all) by PolitiFact, 19 of which were “Pants-on-Fire.”

It would, however, be unjust to let Romney walk away with all the glory. He had plenty of help from right-wing media, most notably Fox News. Most of the Fox menagerie joined in to defend Romney’s fibbing, including Neil Cavuto, Sean Hannity, and the incorrigible kiddies at Fox & Friends. And, of course, Fox was backed up by notorious prevaricators across the web like the Drudge Report and the anti-fact-checkers at NewsBusters.

Lest anyone come away with the impression that the reality-based community as represented by PolitiFact is secretly in league with the Obama cabal, none other than Fox Nation has endorsed them on numerous occasions, eagerly citing their analyses when it served their purpose. Of course, they also conveniently lost their link to PolitiFact when the results didn’t go their way. That’s the modus operandi of the fair and balanced network.

This addendum to the campaign of 2012 puts a lovely bow around what was the most consistent theme of the GOP throughout the year: Lies, lies, lies. And in the days following the election, Republican operatives have declined to acknowledge that this strategy hurt them in the minds of voters. Consequently, we can expect this sort of duplicity to be a part of future Republican campaigns. The GOP may not be doing all that well getting their candidates elected, but they might very well have a lock on PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year award for many years to come.