As President Joe Biden approaches the 100 day mark of his presidency, his critics at Fox News are struggling to find anything coherent to complain about. That’s a profound failure coming from the network whose CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, publicly declared that the network’s “job” is to be “the opposition” to the Biden administration. Apparently they are doing a lousy job.
Consequently, Fox News has had to resort to petty and embarrassing contrivances and manufactured “scandals” involving such political luminaries as Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head. Yet somehow, these tactics haven’t produced the avalanche of anti-Biden sentiment that Fox News hoped for. As a result, the right-wing propagandists at Fox are attempting to misinterpret the mostly positive polling that Biden has enjoyed. Monday morning Fox contributor Liz Peek reported that…
“They want us to believe that Biden’s progressive juggernaut is wildly popular, and that the president’s obvious inadequacies are a figment of right-wing imagination. They want us to think that common-sense Americans are OK with having our schools closed and our borders open, that we are on board with declaring our country racist and allowing riots to wreck our cities. They want us to believe that Biden is way more successful – already – than President Trump ever was. It is not true. None of it.”
For the record, literally everything in that paragraph is a lie. No Democrat has ever suggested that closed schools are OK. Nor have they ever advocated for open borders. Nor have they declared the country racist (just the cretins like Tucker Carlson who are proudly racist and those who deny that it ever existed). And certainly no Democrat has ever supported “allowing riots to wreck our cities.”
However, Peek’s reference to Biden being “way more successful – already – than President Trump ever was” is demonstrably true. In four years Trump has nothing substantive to show for himself. He failed at everything that he defined as his top priorities. His border wall was never completed or paid for by Mexico. He didn’t eliminate the national debt. He never brought jobs back from foreign countries, but he did lose more of them than any president in modern times. And he presided over the loss of more than half a million America lives due to his negligence and incompetence. His only “accomplishment” was the passage of a tax bill that overwhelmingly benefited corporations and his wealthy pals.
Biden, on the other hand, ushered through a two trillion dollar pandemic relief and stimulus plan. He rejoined the Paris Climate Accords. He signed numerous executive orders reversing much of the damage done by Trump. He is advancing historic infrastructure legislation. He’s moving forward expeditiously on reforms for immigration, gun safety, and voting rights. And he effectively managed COVID vaccine programs that have already resulted in 30% the country being fully vaccinated.
To support her flawed analysis that Biden is broadly unpopular, Peek cited a Gallup poll that found that only “32% of the nation is “satisfied” with the way things are going, while 67% is dissatisfied.” What she left out was that the same poll showed only 11% satisfied at the end of Trump’s term three months ago. All this proves is that Americans are notoriously unsatisfied, but that Biden produced a 21 point increase in short order.
Further distorting reality, Peek cherry-picked a poll that shows Biden with a plurality approval of 48%, which is pretty good in these divisive times. But then she spins it negatively because the “strongly approve” number is only 34%, which is still pretty good. She neglects to note that many other polls show Biden’s approval comfortably above 50% and as high as 61%. And his policies – including on the economy, jobs, terrorism, immigration, and COVID-19 – are similarly favored by significant majorities.
Interestingly, Peek notes that a majority of Biden voters said they were voting against Trump rather than for Biden. That’s nice of her to concede that Trump is widely despised. She also pointed out that voters approve of Biden’s jobs plan, but only if it’s paid for “through higher corporate taxes or hiking taxes on high earners.” Which is another helpful concession on her part that Trump’s tax scam was a disaster, and that the nation wants the rich to pay their fair share.
In the end, after dismissing the obvious distortions and lies, Fox’s analysis is fairly positive for Biden. That’s how difficult it’s been for them to land a punch against this President, even in spite of all the dishonesty they pack into the effort. If they were smart they would back off until there’s a realistic issue to whine about. Something will always come up. But the operative word there is “smart,” which may be too high a bar for anyone at Fox News.
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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.
