Fox Nation vs. Reality: Inventing The “Emperor Obama” Badge Of Honor

Here is a typical demonstration of how Fox News purposefully distorts statements from White House spokespersons in order to slander President Obama.

foxnation-reality-obama-emperor

Press Secretary Josh Earnest responded to a loaded question during yesterday’s daily press briefing (video below). The question rested on a premise attributed to GOP House Speaker John Boehner accusing the President of “governing with lawlessness” if he proceeded with an executive action addressing immigration.

Let’s set aside for the moment the fact the President is acting wholly within the law as affirmed by legal experts across the political spectrum. In the process of reporting this exchange, Fox News posted an item on their community website Fox Nation that relied on an account from the uber-rightist Washington Free Beacon that badly mischaracterized Earnest’s answer. The headline that adorned the top of the article read “White House: Obama Being Called Emperor Is ‘Criticism the President Wears with a Badge of Honor'”

Suffice to say that this is not remotely what Earnest said. But to make matters worse, the Fox Nationalists badly transcribed Earnest’s remarks to fit their bogus portrayal. They wrote…

“We heard rhetoric for some time. Their most recent statement referred to ‘Emperor Obama.’ The fact is the president is somebody who is willing to examine the law, review the law and use every element of that law to make progress for the American people and that’s a criticism the president wears with badge of honor.”

For the record, here is what Earnest actually said with the relevant excisions by Fox in bold:

“We heard [this kind of] rhetoric [about lawlessness from the House Republicans] for some time. I know that Their most recent statement referred to ‘Emperor Obama.’ The fact of the matter is the president is somebody who is willing to examine the law, review the law and use every element of that law to make progress for the American people and [if that is something that Republicans are critical of then] that’s maybe a criticism the president wears with badge of honor.”

An objective reading of that statement shows that Earnest was not referring to the pejorative “emperor” as the subject of his “badge of honor” remark. He was plainly referring to the criticism of Obama as being determined to “make progress for the American people.” Indeed, that is an honorable pursuit and one that Republicans abhor. So they have to invent a connection that grievously contorts the language in order to cast the President as the tyrant they so often accuse him of being.

For Fox News to publish this brazenly distorted transcript of remarks that are easily verified on video illustrates just how shamelessly they are devoted to false representations of the truth. It’s more evidence that anything Fox News reports has to be carefully vetted before accepting as fact. Indeed, it’s probably safer to assume that Fox “News” reports are false until proven otherwise.

For more examples of blatant lies from Fox…
Get Fox Nation vs. Reality. Available now at Amazon.

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16 thoughts on “Fox Nation vs. Reality: Inventing The “Emperor Obama” Badge Of Honor

  1. If he was at all up for his job, he probably wouldn’t need to act as he does. Bill Clinton had it just as bad and he accomplished a lot – President Barack Obama is a shitty president with absolutely no experience to perform any job requiring leadership or related skills – face it. He is a joke here and around the world.

    • Steve:

      Don’t mince words: tell us how you really feel.

      You sound like an ignorant, hater filled bigot. Maybe the circus can capture you and put you on display…along side the Wild Man of Borneo and Jo Jo, the Dog Faced Boy.

      Gene

    • Yeahhh, but I don’t remember the Senate Minority leader publicly crowing that the republican’s sole job was to make Clinton a “one term president” immediately after he was elected. Kinda hard to lead when you’ve constantly got a knife to your throat.

      • How ridiculous to think the Republicans at the time “we’re not trying to do anything to keep Clinton a one term president”! Were you alive then? I was. I mailed (no email) detailed information on all the crap the Clinton’s was doing that was not reported on by CBS, ABC, etc. BTW, you “outrage” and “knife in the back” comments make me believe that when Reagan was in office the Congressional Democrat stance was “Oh boy, we get to have all these wonderful conservative things happen by way of Reagan the Republicans in office. We so much want to get along and help them succeed”. WOW, OF COURSE they wanted Reagan to be gone in 4 years!!!! THAT IS NOTHING NEW IN POLITICS – McConnell was just stupid for saying it out loud – because there are too many stupid people in the world…….

  2. Where precisely does this “narcissistic Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico” meme come from anyway? I have never seen any occasion where Obama lives down to this description except when the FoxPods reinterpret reality to fit their diseased point of view, as once again, in this case. What you have with Obama is what you get: a community organizer who has problems with actually leading, but does a good speech. As usual, the FoxPods want it both ways: Obama is the all-powerful schemer who wants to take over the world for the Muslim brotherhood or whatever and he’s the most incompetent fool who ever held the office. Even the Lord Emperor Cheney and his puppet had a hard time being both simultaneously.

    Oh, and Steve? Obama’s predecessor was a bigger joke than any other president of the 20th and 21st centuries — and I’m not talking about the Lord Emperor Cheney, who cannot be described that way at all…

    • I won’t argue how bad our previous president and VP were – they were bad, but they are not in power anymore. So where does that leave us – I’m seeing things clearly, you’re in denial. I understand, I was there when GW Bush was finishing up his disastrous 2nd term. You’ll get there, it’s only a matter of time.

      • Steve:

        Tell us what you see. What I see is unemployment down, the stock market up,m GDP up, debt to GDP ratio down, deficit halved, over 2 million new jobs,, 20 million people without health insurance now covered…

        Gene

        • You forgot 92 million stopped looking for work or doing part time work or under employed. Medium income down about $3,000 per family (which will get worse once 5 million more are in the job market legally), “real inflation” out of control (I just got a pasta dish at the deli counter at Target – b/4 crash – it was enough to feed 2 or 3- since crash – it is half the size and same price). ISIS out of control. Syria, Lybia, Epypt……EPA about to double or triple our energy bills, gas still about a buck higher, insurance is much higher (tons higher for some) except for those who are low income or poor, many have lost their doctors or insurance plans, 5 kids have died from Entero virus (EV68) and some are crippled and can’t walk from it – and this is a virus that has come directly by the kids that came from Central America (that is where the virus is prevalent – it is not common here – that is why the kids are dying…), Ebola in our country FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, National debt is higher then ever and climbing (ACA will be about 1/3 of the debt in 25 years – per the Congressional Budget Office)…….get all the facts before you judge.

  3. Mark, does steve in york just come here to annoy you (and the rest of us)? He never seems to make much sense so maybe he just has nowhere else to go. I’m glad you posted the actual statement made by Josh Earnest. Now I’ll have some facts to use when I have to respond to my Republican friends who will, no doubt, be attacking President Obama over this.

    • Steve:

      But you’re not diversity Steve: you’re a source of unsubstantiated rants.

      What blogs need is reasoned, informed discourse: you don’t seem to be qualified on either adjective.

      Gene

    • Try letting go of the hate. Not only do you get bored hating all the time, everyone else gets bored of reading your same hateful shit over and over.

  4. Doesn’t matter what Fox says and what you think . If you think for yourself and heard him talk why would someone need Fox to interpret what he said.? Because ,,,the so-called experts say so ,,experts like Johnathan Gruber? We shall see if it is unconstitutional or not by the SCOTUS , If it is found not to be ,It is temporary and can be undone . Congress can pass a law which the President can either veto or accept. So Obama can go up against some experts also. Johnathan (ironic) Turley. Yes he was on Fox and his background speaks for itself and I do not need a interpreter. When they start tearing him down We may just see some back-lass as he has taught and is respected. Turley and Gruber 2 experts. I have heard them both and do not need a interpreter.

  5. I watched the video and it sure sounds to me like Earnest said He (the scumbag in the oval office) wears it as a badge of honor. That was the CNN video in your post, and I’ll be damned if it isn’t word for word the same video on FOX!

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