Having failed to ignite a fire under Obama’s presidency with such memorable pseudo-scandals as Benghazi, Solyndra, Fast & Furious, gun confiscations, the climate change hoax, Sharia Law, death panels, pallin’ around with terrorists, and the Kenyan nativity, Fox News has latched onto an innocent moment of human behavior that took place at the memorial for Nelson Mandela.
As ludicrous as it was for so much of the media to focus attention on this dab of triviality, leave it to Fox News to escalate it into an international incident. If they could they would surely find a way to turn it into an Archduke Ferdinand moment that will precipitate World War III (Don’t laugh. Glenn Beck’s been doing it for years).
The article associated with this absurd headline did not in any way support the matter-of-fact declaration that Obama had created an international incident. There was no author identified and it was filled with erroneous assertions and commentary from partisan pundits like Fox News contributor Erick Erickson. Not a single reference to any diplomatic agency or individual was included. So how did this qualify as an international incident?
Well, obviously, it was because Fox could manufacture lies and fling them feverishly at the President they so fervently despise. Never mind that it wasn’t Obama taking the selfie, it was the Danish Prime Minister, Helle Thorning Schmidt. And forget that British Prime Minister David Cameron was also in the picture but the white guy has not been accused of creating an international incident. And don’t bother mentioning that the photographer dismissed all the hyperventilation about whether the First Lady was upset in a blog post he wrote saying that “photos can lie. In reality, just a few seconds earlier the first lady was herself joking with those around her, Cameron and Schmidt included. Her stern look was captured by chance.”
But if you think that fabricating an international incident is the worst that the propagandists of the Murdoch empire can do, you clearly don’t appreciate the depths of their determination and depravity. Fox’s community website, the lie-filled Fox Nation, has had three stories on this so far. And Murdoch’s New York Post weighed in on the matter with an article titled “Flirty Obama owes us an apology.” The article was filled with gratuitously insulting and sexist remarks such as…
- [The President] lost his morality, his dignity and his mind.
- [The President] made a damn fool of himself at first sight of Denmark’s voluptuously curvy and married prime minister.
- The Danish hellcat hiked up her skirt to expose long Scandinavian legs covered by nothing more substantial than sheer black stockings.
- The president leaned into the air space of the cross-legged Danish cupcake.
- The president’s cackling head moved inches from the Danish tart’s.
That’s the Prime Minister of Denmark that they are calling a hellcat, a cupcake, and a tart, and implying is a conniving slut. And they say that Obama is creating an international incident? Obama owes us an apology?
Why aren’t more outraged over the selfies that leaders took at a party after the memorial? Truly upsetting. http://dandygoat.com/world-leaders-criticized-for-taking-selfies-at-wild-after-party
FOX “News” also glosses over the fact that George W. Bush grinned for photos with BONO, of all people, at the same event.
Not to mention, of course, Bush’s “massage” of Angela Merkel. Which of course never happened, according to Shlox Snooze.
So 2 of you (kali and James L Greenlee) are suggesting there is bias in the coverage of the president – ooooh, what a surprise. What are you clowns worried about? – this president won’t be sunk by a silly thing like a selfie pushed by Fox News – his total incompetence on soooo many other issues will more than tarnish his reputation much more than a stupid non-issue like this – Fox News isn’t going to have any impact, the president is doing it all himself. Your fixation with Fox News is a joke – they will have no impact on the broader population, just their own true believers – and it won’t make anyone change their mind. His approval rating stinks with or without his stupid selfie. Oh – don’t forget, George W Bush isn’t president anymore so your desperate attempt to distract from this dope’s failings won’t make any difference. You are all so blind to his idiocy – I know it well as I was just as blind to the incompetence of GW Bush. First step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.
Fox has “no impact on the broader population”? Gee, what planet are you from, anyway?
We’re not saying there’s bias in the coverage of the president. We’re saying that FOX’s bias always governs its coverage of the president — regardless of who it is. If they like the president (Bush and his ilk), they will treat him nice (complete with planted questions by fake reporters programmed not to press hard for answers). If they think the president is an atheist Muslim Catholic Communist Fascist Nazi Socialist Evil Kenyan native from Australia, they will treat him differently.
Since Fox insists on treating Obama like the ultimate enemy, this is where we find ourselves. And we treated the Lord Emperor Cheney the same way — and partisans will feel they have every right to do so, on either side of the fence. So, where’s the difference?
Yes, we know Fox is always biased and loved Bush/Cheney – what more do can you say about it. I don’t think, today at least, that Fox is as influential with the broader population as you suggest. They will always hold sway with those who choose to believe everything they say or watch them exclusively, but you don’t give the broader population any credit for seeing through bullshit and propaganda. I think their game has pretty much been exposed by lots of different groups. Maybe 20 years ago or pre-internet, you’ve got a point, but today, there are way too many sources of information for them to put the blinders on everyone, same goes for MSNBC and anyone else who chooses to represent a specific point of view in their reporting. I’m way more right wing than the average person and Fox holds zero sway over me – I’m sure there are a lot more that think as I do with respect to Fox than you think.
I forgot to hit reply to Kali – oops.