Fox Nation vs. Reality: Fox News Recycles Three Year Old ObamaCare Lie

The professional prevaricators at Fox News really had to extend themselves to achieve their latest pinnacle of dishonesty. The lead story on their community web site, and Home of Flagrant Fallacies, Fox Nation, was another in their series of attacks on the Affordable Health Care Act (aka ObamaCare). The blazing headline read “Even Obama Buddy Warren Buffett Has Soured on ObamaCare: Scrap It and Start Over!”

Fox Nation

That would be a disconcerting development if it were true. But like so many things on Fox, it is not only untrue, it is an embarrassing fictionalization that reputable news enterprises avoid at all costs. Fox, it seems, seeks out this sort of malarkey.

Here’s the story. An obscure web site (Money Morning) that appears to thrive by hooking readers into dubious investment schemes, published an article that purported to be a recent interview with the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett. The article, titled “Buffett: Scrap Obamacare and Start All Over,” presented quotes that were portrayed as his current, and negative, opinions about ObamaCare. For instance…

“We have a health system that, in terms of costs, is really out of control,” he added. “And if you take this line and you project what has been happening into the future, we will get less and less competitive. So we need something else.”

There are just two little problems: 1) The comments were actually made three years ago and 2) They were so far removed from context that Buffett’s spokesman disavowed them. The truth is that Buffett was commenting on a draft version of health care reform that was being debated in the senate in 2010. Contrary to the impression left by Money Morning that Buffett was criticizing ObamaCare in its current state as the law of the land, Buffet was merely offering his opinion of what he would prefer while the bill was still being crafted.

It is fair to say that Buffett had some constructive criticism at that stage of the bill’s development. However, when asked directly whether he would support the bill, he said that he would favor it over the other option of no bill at all. So Money Morning misrepresented the timing of the quotes, as well as the substance of their meaning. And to make matters worse, their blunder was picked up by numerous right-wing news outlets who were more than happy to hype what they thought was a falling out between Obama and Buffett.

Along with Fox Nation, the false story was published by the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, and the highly choleric NewsBusters. Since the publication, Money Morning edited their article to reflect that the content was three years old, but they did not acknowledge that their previous version was wrong (here is a link to the cached original text). Both the Weekly Standard and NewsBusters posted corrections. But neither of Rupert Murdoch’s properties, the Wall Street Journal and Fox Nation, have bothered to set the record straight.

The degree of dishonesty exhibited here was documented by PolitiFact, who did a thorough analysis. Their conclusion was that the misrepresentation of Buffett’s comments was a “Pants On Fire” lie. It is well worth reading their entire article. Included in their findings is the fact that Buffet expressed his support for ObamaCare just last year, and he praised the Supreme Court’s decision upholding it.

Be Sure To “LIKE” News Corpse On Facebook

It’s noteworthy that the Fox Nationalists posted their phoney story well after it was already known that it was wrong. And they have had plenty of time to discover the error and correct it, but have not done so. That’s because they don’t care whether their reporting is true or not. They only care if they can influence their gullible audience, even if that means misinforming them. And that is something that they do better than just about anybody else.

Advertisement:

6 thoughts on “Fox Nation vs. Reality: Fox News Recycles Three Year Old ObamaCare Lie

  1. It doesn’t take a genius to see what it says about an ideology in which its biggest and most supported propaganda outlets constantly lie and misinform, bordering on disinformation.

      • It’s really not that hard, is it?

        • I ask because I’m sure people that frequent this site blindly accept the idea that this “ideology” is conservatism – which it’s not. The current GOP doesn’t operate with any true ideology anymore – no ideas, no plan for moving forward with where they want the country and government to go. You want it to be conservatism because it’s easier to attack with this current group of clowns doing their thing. The current GOP leadership still hasn’t figured out why they are hated so much by the average conservative voter – they are a disaster. In 1994, they had ideas and were voted into the majority, then they got stupid and turned their back on what got them elected. Then George W. Bush happened and things really went down hill. Those of us who actually believe in conservatism know a hell of a lot more than the likes of you when talking about what is wrong with the current GOP.

          • And what exactly do you think I was referring to?? Your point is completely….well, pointless. That’s where conservatism is now, whether you and I like it or not, if even for different reasons. Your party’s made people like you irrelevant, and if people like you are in the minority within the greater party, then you’ll stay irrelevant. The only thing that comment did was make a martyr out of yourself. Do you honestly expect me to believe that you didn’t vote for Romney, or W for that matter? People who were republicans back in the 90’s are still republicans now, I don’t know who you’re trying to fool.

Comments are closed.