The Fox Nation Of Fanatics Fails Again: Health Care Edition

As if it weren’t bad enough that Fox Nation populates its web site with right-wing hysteria and links to uber-conservative purveyors of propaganda, they have now demonstrated that their editors are (at least) as stupid as their readers are gullible.

Today I observed a graphic at Fox Nation linking to a column in the Washington “Moonie” Times written by Amanda Carpenter, an O’Reilly Factor frequent fluffer. The article itself was chock full of nuttiness that I’ll get to momentarily. First I need to point out that Fox Nation is so desperate to disparage its enemies that they will project whatever demon suits them into their coverage whether it’s there or not. Here is the graphic showing the groups they say are allegedly mobilizing against town hall protesters:

The National Endowment for the Arts??? Are they really mobilizing against town hall protesters? Were those artists who were crashing community centers and public halls where Tea Baggers were fighting to keep the insurance companies between you and your doctor?

The problem with this picture is that Carpenter’s article says nothing about the National Endowment for the Arts whose logo is prominently displayed in the upper-right corner. There is a passage that mentions the NEA, but she is referring to the National Education Association. Rather than ascertain the facts, Fox Nation saw an acronym that could just as well have belonged to a favorite foe of theirs, so they giddily inserted the wrong logo into their graphic. And they consider themselves to be a “news” organization. I suppose it’s easier to demonize artists than teachers. The only thing Fox Nation cares about is assembling the usual targets of their wrath – community organizers (ACORN), unions (SEIU), minorities (NCLR), and, of course, those subversive artists – for a public whipping.

As an artist myself, I wouldn’t mind seeing the Endowment get more actively involved in countering the thugs who are brazenly trying to shut down democratic discourse. I have long believed that the role artists have traditionally played in social movements has been diminished in this age of corporate controlled marketing and the cultural aversion to artists who speak their minds (i.e. shut up and sing). But for Fox Nation to falsely charge that the NEA is mobilizing against protesters (an absurd charge in any context) is slanderous. And it is especially egregious when the slander is the result of an idiotic editor who can’t figure out which organiztion he’s supposed to be hating.

The article itself is rich with ridiculous reportage. It’s premise is that there is something terribly wrong with the way that Democrats plan to respond to the right-wing mobs that are disrupting town hall meetings between congressional representatives and their constituents.

It has been well documented that the right is coordinating their protests through political and industry front groups like Conservatives for Patients Rights, Americans for Prosperity, and FreedomWorks. These organized creators of chaos have distributed instructions on how to cause a commotion. Participating in a productive and civil discussion is the farthest thing from their minds.

What makes this article exceptionally ludicrous is that Carpenter’s examples of what she characterizes as untoward behavior from leftie activists pales in comparison to what the Tea Bagging bullies have put forth. Let’s take a look:

Left-Wing Mob Right-Wing Mob
Ask the Member’s staff what would be most helpful and talk through a strategy for making sure the right messages don’t get drowned out by chaotic protesters. Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up.
Address the [Member of Congress] directly with a positive message: Remember, these Members need cover and they are getting beaten up by right wing zealots in these meetings. Be Disruptive Early And Often: You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early.
Don’t get into a shouting match with them. Instead, prep people on our side to keep raising the questions that we want answered. Try To “Rattle Him,” Not Have An Intelligent Debate: The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda.

So while the left wants to be helpful, positive, and avoid shouting matches, the right wants to lie, disrupt and rattle the targets of their tantrums. Which side really sounds like a mob to you?

The fact that Carpenter and the Washington Times thought that it served their purpose to illustrate these differences just defies comprehension. And to complete the circle of the Murdoch-driven disinformation campaign, Carpenter appeared on Fox News this morning to make the same scandalous assertion that health care advocates are conspiring to be “helpful.” OMG!

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9 thoughts on “The Fox Nation Of Fanatics Fails Again: Health Care Edition

  1. As an additional point of curiosity, Fox Nation actually modified the image above after its original posting. But they didn’t correct the error. They merely swapped the places of the ACORN and La Raza logos. I guess they wanted to lead with ACORN.

  2. Uk health care wait times

    Cataract Surgery- 8 months
    Hip Replacement – 11 months
    knee replacement- 12 months
    Slipped Disc- 5 months
    Hernia Repair- 5 months

    These are just a few reasons why people don’t want Obama Care!

    • Those are just a few of the lies that Glenn Beck has drilled into the heads of his zombie army.

      And btw, don’t you believe in American Exceptionalism? Wouldn’t we do it better than the Brits? Why do you hate America?

      • Don’t you just love “people” like Chaser who refuse to quit when they’ve been beaten…and beaten…and beaten….so much of life is so hard, it’s nice to have something easy once in a while…like beat Chaser at his/her own game.

  3. Anything you don’t believe is a lie to you. Grow up!

    • As the author of – hands down – the most childish comments on this blog and others, you give new meaning to the term “richly ironic.”

    • and clearly anything you believe is coming from the lying mouths of everybody at fox news… why dont you grow up?

  4. I really do hate Fox as much as the next guy but people don’t just protest because somebody told. If we can’t listen people exercising their freedom of speech then who do we listen to? Many protesters are very upset at their representatives and the push for Obamacare as the congressional budget office has said that it won’t work financially. Perhaps right-wing organizations are trying to direct the protesters but I believe the people really have something to say and we really should, at least, consider it for a moment.

    http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/includes/templates/library/flash_popup.php?pID=288294-6&clipStart=1526.01&clipStop=1755.65

    • First of all, people DO protest because somebody told them to. Particularly if that somebody is a powerful and wealthy lobbying enterprise or a national cable news network who are fomenting fear, via lies, amongst otherwise rational citizens

      I have no problem with legitimate protests, and there certainly are sincere people who are troubled by the specter of reform, but they have been listened to, and for the eight years of the previous administration, they got everything wrong.

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