Fox News Says Healthcare Reform is the Beginning of Armageddon
Healthcare reform has passed. It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing and almost universally a good thing. Unless you're Fox News or Sarah Palin, in which case it's the end of the world. We watched today's apocalyptic coverage, mystified.
Fox Newshas been peddling false information and bad journalism throughout the debate. They've been deliberately misinforming their viewers by featuring, and skewing towards, poorly-researched and ideologically motivated Republican talking points. Today's coverage hit all the buttons — the emphasizing of protests, sad, resigned GOP-ers talking about rationed healthcare, the use of quotation marks in captions (it's a healthcare "fix" according to Fox News), and the posing of ridiculously provocative questions "what is the TRUE cost of this bill — we report, you decide." Even the New York Post — owned, like Fox, by Rupert Murdoch — is condemning them. Which is maybe the lowest moral high ground to be looked down at from. Here's the crazy through the day, until the bill passed.
Here's a lady comparing the Congressional Budget Office report on how much the bill will cost to... Enron and Madoff.
And here's a typical airing of some unquestioned scaremongering from a Republican on abortion — the talking point being that Obama's executive order to prevent federal money being spent on abortions is flimsy and will mean that there will be Federal abortion parties in every town across the nation.
A classic Foxian move, this — let a panelist say something completely ridiculous which stands as fact because it's totally unquestioned. "This will bankrupt the country," says Steve Hayes, columnist for the Weekly Standard. No, it won't.
Aaaaaaand here's Sarah Palin, talking to Bill O'Reilly. She said too many ridiculous, illiterate things about a "leftist" conspiracy to turn America "European" to sum up. Do not watch this if you are easily angered.
Who could possibly make Palin look considered, intelligent and sensible? Michele 'I can't spell' Bachmann, who says, this is a "takeover".
And when the bill finally passed, Fox News talked about... the deficit. Which is a common scare tactic that puts the GOP red in red herring. So a very apt finale.
