Normally I’d just Google Reader link to this little goody from Boing-Boing, but this is so utterly, damnably shameless in its out-and-out dishonesty, it beggars the imagination. I mean, yeah, you expect Fox News to shade the truth to fit the desired narrative, but outright fraud? Direct lies? And not just a casual error, but something that clearly has to be fabricated, explicitly planned and put together and used to create a story.
For those who don’t want to sit through it …
CPAC (the Conservative conference just wrapped up) did one of their usual presidential candidate straw polls. Now a straw poll at CPAC has about as much relevance to the final outcome of the election as, well, what you’d expect, but the media always loves a straw poll, and loves reporting on it. It’s something to fill a minute or three on the nightly broadcast.
In 2010, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) won the straw poll. It was somewhat infamous at the time that the auditorium was full of Mitt Romney supporters, who proceeded to boo the vote (which, as a straw poll, makes no sense whatsoever) and then cheered and chanted for their man when he came in second.
Fast forward to 2011. Paul wins the straw poll again, with Romney second. This time the crowd erupts in cheers, chanting Paul’s name, etc.
The problem is, Fox doesn’t like Ron Paul. He’s cantankerous. He’s a bit of a loon in a number of areas, but he’s got a strong, half-way sound true libertarian streak that plays well with neither the Neo-Cons nor with the Business Wing of the GOP.
So Fox News reports on this year’s CPAC straw poll.
And they run last year’s footage of the announcement, portraying it as this year’s. Complete with boos. Because, really, who’s going to remember last year?
This is prefaced with comments from the female Fox News talking head, noting the dissension, and then followed by chuckles about the boos from the male Fox News talking head, who then segues into a live interview with Paul, asking him in a jocular fashion about all those people who were booing him. And Paul, who wasn’t actually at the conference and doesn’t realize that he’s being lied to as well, answers as gamely as he can.
And the audience is left with the clearly presented and easily grasped information that, despite winning the CPAC straw man poll, Paul isn’t really the clear choice of the conservative conference. Which, coincidentally, is just what Fox News, and News Corp, and Rupert Murdoch, would like you to believe.
And it’s all a lie. Because they didn’t boo him this year. They (the Mitt Romney supporters) booed him last year. But that’s the footage that Fox News ran, and that the talking heads made all the joke about, and seeing is believing. Right?
The Founders spoke frequently about the value of a free press, as a means of informing the populace and, in so doing, bringing that informed wisdom to the election of representatives. I frequently criticize Fox for conflating opinion with fact, saying things that are arguably wrong or false under the guise of expressing opinions and beliefs. That’s bad enough.
But outright fraud, like this?
How can you trust anything that Fox ever shows you, let along tells you about? And I’m not asking those of you who already recognize Fox News for the agitprop organization that it is, but those few of my readers who actually watch it and think you’re being told the truth — maybe, you’ll concede, with a bit of bias or predisposition in the analysis, but that the facts you’re being shown, the videos you’re viewing, the reality that’s there and live on videotape is, in fact, real.
It’s not. Or it certainly can’t be relied upon as such.
Subscribing. Waiting for responses.