Thursday, May 31, 2012

Time to kick Fox out of the White House Press Corps

I'm serious. They kicked Helen Thomas out for less. Fox spewed four minutes of pure GOP propaganda into the airwaves yesterday morning. I would love for someone to explain to me why they should still have a seat in the front row after doing this:
With Mitt Romney now officially President Obama's opponent, it truly appears to be game on at the Fox News channel -- at least, if this morning's "Fox & Friends" is any indication.

Today's version of the morning show featured an anti-Obama video that resembled propaganda films from 1930's Europe more than it did responsible TV politics of today.

And the remarkable thing was the witless crew on the couch that serves as hosts for this show had the audacity to present it as journalism and congratulate the producer who put it together.
Fox claims Roger Ailes had no idea such a shamelessly partisan hit piece was in the works. If you believe that, I have some ocean front property in Arizona I can sell you at a bargain rate. Nothing happens at Fox and Friends that Roger doesn't know about. They didn't say anything he would find objectionable.

They will get away with making some junior associate producer the scapegoat. Maybe he'll even get fired instead of merely enduring a sternly worded reprimand. But that's not enough. The video can't be unseen. It has already done its damage to responsible journalism and the integrity of the electoral process. And as Oliver points out this Fox hit job is worth 100K of in-kind political contribution. Possibly more, since they aired the video twice.

Of course, the WHPC isn't going to be making a big deal about their "sister network" effectively acting as a media contractor for Mitt Romney's campaign. No one will even think of kicking Fox out of the front row, ironically a seat they only "won" after they all decided Helen Thomas committed a mortal sin by making one intemperate remark at a private event. A remark that only became public because somebody put a video on the internet and then Helen's "brothers and sisters" in the media joined in collective outrage and broadcast it all over creation. Hardly rises to the level of deliberately airing a virtual campaign ad, filled with false innuendo, to millions of viewers on an national TV.

So far, the worst thing that's going to Fox appears to be the junior producer lost a job offer at CNN. [More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

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