Day: 4/4/2013

Fox Nation vs. Reality: Constrained By The Constitution?

Posted by on April 4, 2013 at 3:11 pm. 9 Comments :

One of the favorite methods of misinforming the public employed by Fox Nation is to pinch a snippet of text from an Obama statement and misconstrue it to suggest a meaning it never actually had. One famous of example of this was the phony “You didn’t build that” controversy. Today Fox Nation adds to this legacy with this contrivance: “Obama Complains He’s Constrained By the Copnstitution.”

Fox Nation

As you might already suspect, that is not at all what happened. While discussing the concerns of gun worshiping radicals that new legislation was going to result in widespread confiscation of all weapons, Obama noted that their nightmares could not possibly come true because they are constitutionally prohibited. This is what he said:

“You hear some of these quotes: ‘I need a gun to protect myself from the government.’ ‘We can’t do background checks because the government is going to come take my guns away. Well, the government is us. These officials are elected by you. They are elected by you. I am elected by you. I am constrained, as they are constrained, by a system that our Founders put in place. It’s a government of and by and for the people.”

Obama was plainly attempting to ease the irrational fears of a few conspiracy nuts. His remarks were not the least bit controversial and were not anything that hasn’t been expressed before. For instance, this guy:

There is nothing in Obama’s statement that could be plausibly interpreted as a “complaint.” Nevertheless, the Fox Nationalists (with help from Glenn Beck’s site which they used as their source) presented it that way while neglecting to publish the entire quote so their readers would have the full context. The only part they posted was their bastardized headline. But since that fit their mission to misconstrue everything the President says in a derogatory manner, they leaped at the opportunity.

More Fox Nation vs. Reality

If you’ve ever longed for a collection of documented examples of the dishonesty and hostility of Fox News presented with facts, insight, and humor, here it is: Fox Nation vs. Reality

Fox Nation

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Fox News Advocates Insulting Latinos While FoxNewsLatino Panders

Posted by on April 4, 2013 at 1:00 pm. 5 Comments :

There have been numerous incidents where Fox News posted articles that were overtly derogatory toward Latinos, presenting them as criminal, drug-abusing, freeloaders. At the same time their web site aimed at this market would publish an article on the same subject that was fair and accurate. The clear intent on the part of Fox is to pander to Latinos on the site where they segregate them, and insult them to the rest of the Fox audience of bigots and nativists. It’s a practice handed down from the highest echelons of Fox News. Yesterday Fox gave us another example of it:

Fox News

The Fox News Latino web site topped their article with a descriptive and straightforward headline regarding the decision by the Associated Press to refrain from using the term “illegal immigrant.”. The headline on Fox News, however, highlights a manufactured controversy that diverts from the actual news. The AP explained the new policy saying…

“The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term ‘illegal immigrant’ or the use of ‘illegal’ to describe a person. Instead, it tells users that ‘illegal’ should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally.”

Rather than simply reporting that perfectly reasonable clarification, Fox set out to find objections to the policy and subsequently reported that…

“The Associated Press is being accused of trying to influence the immigration debate following a decision to stop using the term “illegal immigrant” in its coverage — despite the fact it is still being used by U.S. government officials. […] [S]ome are wondering why the AP decided to nix the phrase when high-ranking government officials don’t seem to have a problem with it.”

It is unclear how changing the guidelines so that instead of saying “illegal immigrant” authors say something like “entered the country illegally,” will influence the immigration debate. But that isn’t the point. Because Fox is wedded to their bigotry (and that of their audience), they are insistent that terms regarded by the subjects as epithets be used unreservedly.

What’s more, Fox employs the old “some say” dodge to infer that the press ought to embrace the phrase because someone in government used it. So apparently Fox wants the press to parrot whatever people in the government say. That’s a peculiar stance considering they spend so much time faulting the press for parroting whatever people in the government say.

So in this one incident Fox has affirmed their racial prejudices and demonstrated their trademark hypocrisy. Nice work, Fox.