{"id":1507,"date":"2010-01-01T12:28:25","date_gmt":"2010-01-01T20:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1507"},"modified":"2013-05-30T13:47:16","modified_gmt":"2013-05-30T20:47:16","slug":"the-fox-nation-is-a-nation-of-idiots-acorn-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1507","title":{"rendered":"The Fox Nation Knowingly Lies About ACORN Chief Visiting The White House"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starting the new year off right (extremely far-right), the folks at the Fox Nation are featuring as one of their top stories a report that is completely false. In other words, they appear to be entering 2010 doing exactly what they have done since their inception a few months ago. On this occasion, however, the truth is so readily available that you have to conclude that they have just given up entirely on even pretending to associate themselves with the news business. This is their web page topping scoop:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Accompanying a headline that declares: ACORN CEO Visited White House Week Before Scandal Broke<\/strong>, the Fox Nationalists posted a picture of Bertha Lewis and linked to a story about her sojourn to the President’s abode. The only problem with the story is that none of it is true. Other than that, it’s a world-class expose.<\/p>\n

The source for this fake news is Andrew Breitbart’s notoriously untrustworthy BigGovernment site. Their columnist, identified only as Publius, writes that the name Bertha E. Lewis appears on a White House visitor’s log. So far so good. And there is a Bertha Lewis who is the CEO of ACORN. Hmm, maybe they’re on to something. Maybe not. As it turns out, the visitor to the White House is not the same person as the ACORN chief. This fact was readily apparent to anyone who bothered to call<\/a> and ask either the White House or ACORN, which neither BigGovernment nor Fox bothered to do. Even without calling it would have been obvious that these were different people because ACORN’s Lewis had a middle initial of “M”<\/em> (for Mae), not “E.”<\/em> But checking facts has never been a strong suit for Fox and its affiliates.<\/p>\n

What makes this negligence even more extraordinary is the fact that this is not the first time that Fox has fumbled with easily verified facts concerning White House guests. A couple of months ago Fox reported that Jeremiah Wright, Michael Moore, and William Ayers had all visited the White House. Of course those were all people who merely had the same names as the more famous persons who Fox implied were actually White House visitors. Yet even after making that embarrassing mistake, Fox now repeats the error with Bertha Lewis.<\/p>\n

But it gets even worse. The article on BigGovernment snidely acknowledged that this might be a case of mistaken identity saying…<\/p>\n

“Of course, it is possible that this isn’t ACORN’s Bertha Lewis. […] Sure, possible, but we’d love to see a bookie’s odds on that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is at best a marginal disclaimer that ends up contradicting itself. But at least they slipped in a mention of the possibility that this was a different Lewis before opining (without checking) that it was not. However, Fox’s headline story not only made a declarative statement that it was ACORN’s Lewis, they also cut out BigGovernment’s half-hearted disclaimer from their otherwise verbatim version of the story. That’s right. The Fox Nationalists reprinted the bulk of the article but deliberately left out the bit that acknowledged that it may not be true. And then they let stand their false, stated-as-fact headline even though they knew that it was, at the very least, unverified.<\/p>\n

Another year, another pile of lies from Fox and Rupert Murdoch’s devotedly dishonest anti-news enterprise.<\/p>\n

Update (1\/4\/10):<\/strong> Days after this story was debunked, Gretchen Carlson ran with it<\/a> on Fox & Friends. The truth really doesn’t matter to these sleazeballs. They’ve got lies to disseminate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Starting the new year off right (extremely far-right), the folks at the Fox Nation are featuring as one of their top stories a report that is completely false. In other words, they appear to be entering 2010 doing exactly what they have done since their inception a few months ago. On this occasion, however, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,684,8],"tags":[414,641,527],"class_list":["post-1507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-media-bias","category-propaganda","tag-acorn","tag-bertha-lewis","tag-fox-nation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-oj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10598,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10598","url_meta":{"origin":1507,"position":0},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: Here’s How To Fear Monger About ACORN","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/22\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"After all these years, the right's fixation on ACORN is still burning with the heat of a thousand white-hot suns - with an emphasis on the white. The chronic liars at Fox Nation posted an item that purported to quote Bertha Lewis, the former head of ACORN, as giving advice\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1490,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1490","url_meta":{"origin":1507,"position":1},"title":"Study: ACORN Did Nothing Illegal – Fox News: So What?","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/13\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Last summer Fox News participated in a media frenzy surrounding some sensationalistic videos produced by conservative activists and promoted by right-wing propaganda outlets. The ACORN representatives in the videos appeared to counsel a couple of cartoonish characters posing as a pimp and a prostitute on how to apply for loans\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1403,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1403","url_meta":{"origin":1507,"position":2},"title":"The Pimp Show: Exclusively On Fox News","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/17\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It should surprise no one that Fox News is hammering the ACORN affair with characteristic rightist zeal. They have featured the story across their media platforms on TV, radio, print, and the Internet, almost to the exclusion of all other news. Watching Fox would leave one with the impression that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1401,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1401","url_meta":{"origin":1507,"position":3},"title":"Fox Nation News Priorities: An ACORN Obsession","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/16\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Our nation is facing some formidable problems in these turbulent days. We have an economy that is struggling to recover from the worst meltdown in decades. We are engaged in two wars and at least two other diplomatic crises that threaten to escalate. Our environment is being assaulted by toxins\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9794,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9794","url_meta":{"origin":1507,"position":4},"title":"Scandal Fever Is Making Fox News Even More Demented Than Usual","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/30\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It must be a terrible burden to have to manage as many trumped up scandals as Fox News is currently struggling with. The sheer volume of fabricated nonsense to manufacture and inventory would be a strain on any propaganda outfit. But the pressure is showing now as Fox appears unable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1411,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1411","url_meta":{"origin":1507,"position":5},"title":"Fox News Is Soliciting Donations For ACORN Foe Hannah Giles","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/25\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In yet another example of the interconnectedness of Fox News to blatantly partisan political activities, a \"news\" link on the Fox Nation website actually goes to a defense fund donation page for ACORN foe, Hannah Giles. You may recall that Giles is the YAFfie who dressed up as a hooker\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9793,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507\/revisions\/9793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}