OK, let’s face it. No one expected Fox News to express even the weakest praise for President Obama’s State of the Union speech. Never mind that 91% of Americans who watched the speech approved of the proposals presented in it. Fox has a reputation of knee-jerk negativity to uphold, and they didn’t disappoint. Here is a selection of some of the articles posted on Fox Nation following the speech:
- SOTU- Too Long, Too Partisan, Too Barren of Policy
- Obama Milk Joke Bombs at SOTU
- Opinion: Obama State of Union Proposals Evasive, Irresponsible
- Opinion: After Three Years, It’s Time to Admit President Obama Has Failed
- Obama Plagiarized His SOTU…from Himself
And my personal favorite: Daniels (R) Delivers Poetic Pro-American Response to Obama SOTU. This title deftly depicts Daniels nightmarish rendition of the nation’s state as “poetic,” while simultaneously implying that Obama’s speech was anti-American. If you missed it, Daniels’ poetry included recasting the poor as “soon-to-haves” (which must be a great relief to them), and quipping that Steve Jobs had a fitting name (which made me wonder if “Steve” means “Chinese” in Mandarin).
[Update] Jon Stewart’s Daily Show perfectly characterized the Daniels response:
Finally, Fox Nation posted an item that suggested that the country is tiring of the President and offered as proof the low ratings for the speech’s broadcast.
The Fox Nationalists cited an article in the New York Times that noted that…
“The State of the Union address Tuesday night was seen by 37.8 million television viewers, according to figures released by the Nielsen company, by far the fewest who have watched President Obama give the address.
“The number was down from 42.8 million last year, 48 million in 2010, and 52.3 million for the president’s address to Congress during his first year in office in 2009.”
Had Fox bothered to go back just one more year, they would have discovered that George W. Bush’s last State of the Union speech was viewed by only 37.5 million people in 2008, slightly less than Obama’s speech on Tuesday. But we really can’t expect Fox to report that fact because it wouldn’t jibe with the fiction they are trying to foist on their audience.
The numbers cited in the CBS poll are especially impressive when contrasted with the polling numbers of the same people before they heard the speech, as the general conclusion seems to be that only half the people polled expected the President to impress them with his policy ideas, but after the speech nine out of ten were impressed!
That makes the speech an unqualified success, nay it makes it a case study for effective speaking.
On the other hand, look at the over-the-top negative dripping malice of Mitch Daniels’ response, and the trumpeting that News Corp’s Fox gave to it and to him…
That serves as an unqualified failure on their part, in consideration of how many Americans disagreed with Daniels and with Fox, and it serves also as proof of how ineffective is News Corp’s malice and manipulations on the hearts and minds of the American people, as News Corp engages in their non-stop irrational and blind hatred for the President.
Good points. I saw the before and after numbers for the speech and it was truly remarkable.
And while Fox gets a lot of attention, we must remember that even with all of their feverish propaganda, they were unable to prevent Obama’s election in 2008. And it doesn’t look like they are being any more effective now.