Just last week Sean Hannity of Fox “News” was forced to offer an apology of sorts for “inadvertently” using falsified footage to make a recent tea bagger protest look larger than it was. The admission came only after Comedy Central’s The Daily Show called Fox out for the scam. Though Hannity suggested he was sorry for the “mistake” where two-month-old footage apparently edited itself into a report on a D.C. rally held earlier that day, nobody has been held accountable for what appears to have been a not-“inadvertent”-at-all attempt at deceiving viewers.
As we noted at the time, had Keith Olbermann done the same thing, we can only imagine the organized wingnut campaign that would still be howling for his firing, boycotts of MSNBC and GE, CBS/Dan Rather-styled witch-hunt “internal investigations,” and more. But, since Hannity’s a “conservative” Republican, it’s okay, and no sense of accountability or personal responsibility is necessary for such folks.
Well, that’s good, because yesterday Fox did it again when “news” reporter Gregg Jarrett noted that Sarah Palin is “continuing to draw huge crowds while she’s promoting her brand new book.”
“Take a look at — these are some of the pictures just coming in to us,” Jarrett told viewers as they rolled footage of Palin speaking at campaign rallies from last year’s 2008 Presidential race. (See video above right.)
Fox has since issued a statement calling it all “a production error” and promising “an on-air explanation” during Thursday’s broadcast of Jarrett’s ironically named Happening Now “news” program on which the footage aired yesterday. Chicago Tribune’s “The Swamp” blog reports that “serious disciplinary action will be taken for those responsible.”
Sure it will. And how about for that whole Hannity thing? “Serious disciplinary action” there as well? How about for these “errors”? Don’t hold your breath.
(Related Note: On Monday, the UK Guardian ran my opinion piece on the propaganda outlet that is Fox “News” and the Obama Administration’s correct and long-overdue decision to call them out as such. The article certainly brought out the tea baggers on both sides of the pond, bringing in some 261 comments in reply.)
Brad,
The Guardian article was great. A whole load of wingnuts posting in the comments. I enjoyed your comments to one of the posters. Keep up the good work.
So glad to see that the Obama’s response to Faux “News” is to appoint the Dancing Demon of Deception and Lying Sack of Crap known as Dana Perino to a prestigious government position.
I’m just SURE that will shut her up. NOT.
Damail? You out there? Other Fox viewers? I am sincerely interested to know how you can square watching (let alone defending) Fox News when incidents of them lying to you keep compounding.
While crowd embellishments / doctored or just plain wrong footage used to create false appearances are MISLEADING DISTORTIONS and Textbook Propaganda – anyone with a Googlin’ finger and enough residual gray matter to know how to make toast can tell you that Fox intentionally lies to it’s viewers and has gone to court to defend it’s right to do so:
http://www.librarygrape.com/2009/06/court-fox-news-has-first-amendment.html
Why do you choose to watch a News Outlet that makes you wrong about the facts when defending your positions (here at Bradblog)or anywhere?…
Why do you prefer news that uses you?…
You have an internet connection, you read the Bradblog – you’re clearly not entirely a lost cause…
I know you love your right tit for left tat – but without making MSNBC the reason this is okay (I don’t watch MSNBC either, fyi, even though I understand the distinction between what MSNBC does and the kind of information manipulation we are seeing from FOX)- so without slinging innocuous, unlinked, unconfirmed blah blah about the evils of blowhard Olbermann, can you please explain why you love and defend Fox?
Is it like having a family you really can’t stand but can’t muster the nuggets to write them out of the will?…
Production error? While many would suspect that Fox employees are incapable of reflective thought, the inescapable fact is that some level of thought was required to even attempt this unsuccessful deception.
There’s the graphic, “Palin’s Drawing Crowds” which had to be prepared in advance of the broadcast as the footage was assembled before the on-air misrepresentation.
While I agree with Jeannie Dean that anyone with “enough residual gray matter” to use Google “can make toast” of Fox propaganda, the fact is that Fox propaganda is directed at those who accept their distortions at face-value without an inkling that they are being deceived — a point underscored when Brad interviewed a number of tea baggers.
But, of course, the corporate media, as a whole, frequently engages in deception, as we saw during the run-up to the war in Iraq. It’s usually not as blatantly obvious clumsy lies that emerge from the Faux News network, but that’s what makes it so effective.
It would be unbelievable if it weren’t true.
Is it true that yesterday, with Byrds notable milestone, that they put an R beside his name in the crawl at the bottom?
I didn’t see it but that is floating around.
I said that FOX will start “pre-emptively” apologizing for doctoring videos.
“We apologize for the doctored video we are about to show you”.
Ernest Canning said: “the fact is that Fox propaganda is directed at those who accept their distortions at face-value without an inkling that they are being deceived”
That’s why these people are dangerous. They’re not based in reality. They don’t care that it’s distorted or false. They don’t care when “their guys” are lying. They don’t care if their guys are fascists. They don’t care what Bush did. They wouldn’t care what Sarah Palin would do if she were president. That’s exactly why they’re dangerous. And they’re in the minority, the vocal minority with the entire media distorting this minority making it appear they’re the majority.
You libs make me laugh. You call yourself patriots but you’re fine with Barry Hussein Obama traveling around the world groveling before world leaders as if he has something to apologize for. Libs are the most guilt ridden people in the world. Everything they do or think about is motivated by correcting alleged “injustice.”
When you make decisions via emotions, you lose every time.
You’re only interested in “leveling the playing field” for your preferred political constituency, which is any under-represented minority or special interest not in a position of real power.
Your power derives from what these wretched underclasses can do for you.
I’m not a big Sarah Palin backer, but it’s clear that libs are afraid of her, otherwise, why would they be spending so much time bashing her?
Ditto for Fox. According to the TV ratings, Fox outdraws every other 24/7 news net and you people can’t stand it. Why? because they don’t favor your lib views. It has nothing to do with distortions, otherwise, you’d be citing Olbermann every day as well.
You just can’t stand competition.
I hate to burst yer bubble, Dave, but “you libs” are keeping “you cons” in gravy with all the mentioning of those fiendish twits… making money and gathering eyeballs off deriding their circus acts in oh-so-many clever ways… sort of like MSM tracking Balloon Boy… only sustainable, more pruriently entertaining, and egging on the apocalypse. A number of right wing tv and radio hosts and bloggers are making a killing off it. A number [though fewer] of left wing tv and radio hosts and bloggers are making a killing off it. We’re going to be griping about President Piglips soon because of all the name recognition spewed into the general consciousness by our basest motives being stroked this hard. She and her near-miss son-in-law are never off heavy rotation at the biggest blogs there are… or the various hugely successful comedy shows. Catnip tea bags! Left and right alike are too drunk on the seamy pleasures of it to stop themselves. It’s all good as far as the real power structure you seem to trust and revere is concerned. So, you should not gripe….
President Piglips and her near miss son-in-law?
Sorry, I don’t get the reference.
I take it that you resent those in power who make more money than you do.
I don’t have time for populist battles between haves and have-nots. Have-nots exist for a reason. They do not possess the sufficient intellectual capital to figure out how to prosper on a grand scale. It’s the same as some people can hit 95 mph fastballs and others cannot.
Have-nots should look to haves and think very carefully about how they were able to achieve instead of complaining about those achievements.
Oh, good. You don’t have time. So that means all your lame anti-populist attempts at provocation will cease now, right? Right? Am I right?
You call it provocation, I call it refutation.
Do you think that you can sail through life without having your particular views challenged?
Please, you are welcome to visit my blog and attack any view I hold, that is, if you are courageous enough to step outside of your comfort zone of only posting to blogs where you’ll receive a warm reception for your views.
For one thing, Agent99, you can’t even bother to clarify your obscure reference.
I should clarify that I don’t have the patience to coddle have-nots with their petty problems, needs, and wants. They are consigned to their own personal hells due to their own ineptitude and inferior brain development. I’m all too happy to ensure they don’t think they are entitled to any higher station in life because some power hungry lib politicos think they should be.
David Black said:
I don’t have time for populist battles between haves and have-nots. Have-nots exist for a reason. They do not possess the sufficient intellectual capital to figure out how to prosper on a grand scale. It’s the same as some people can hit 95 mph fastballs and others cannot.
Have-nots should look to haves and think very carefully about how they were able to achieve instead of complaining about those achievements.
You’re an idiot. You should be banned not for having really good opposing views, but because you’re an idiot.
David Black also says:
Here is an example of the deft misdirection of the right wing. It is, of course, the right that preys (and prays) on fear, anger, hatred, jealousy. It is the right that stirs the reptilian brain to fight or flight response (would that they encourage flight rather than fight, what?)
A developed sense of fairness, decency, and community does not serve the right wing leadership – they profit from calamity and misery, this is well-known. If only people like Mr. Black could be honest with themselves about this.