THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2024
Paraphrase can be powerful too: The propaganda came early and often on this morning's Fox & Friends TV program.
Our "cable news" is built on a system in which no one disagrees or pushes back or questions anything anyone else has said. As a result, Ainsley Earhardt was offering the statement shown below by 6:04 a.m.
The friends were discussing, or were perhaps pretending to discuss, President Biden's announcement that the United States will pause the delivery of certain weapons to Israel. In a front-page report in this morning's New York Times, the decision is described as shown:
BAKER (5/9/24): Mr. Biden hopes the selective pause will prompt Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to forgo a long-threatened invasion of Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than one million Palestinians have taken refuge. The president has objected to such an operation out of fear that widespread civilian casualties could be caused by American bombs. He said on Wednesday that he would also block the delivery of artillery shells that could be fired into the urban neighborhoods of Rafah.
Mr. Biden’s decision to pause the delivery of 3,500 bombs to Israel was meant to convey a powerful signal that his patience has limits. While insisting that his support for the Jewish state remains “ironclad,” Mr. Biden for the first time since the Gaza war erupted last fall opted to use his power as Israel’s chief arms supplier to demonstrate his discontent.
That's the general lay of the land. On Fox & Friends, the commentary all went one way—and Earhardt was soon saying this:
EARHARDT (5/9/24): Well, I mean, no one wants innocent lives taken, but this is what war looks like. They started this on October 7th.
They're holding Israelis and American hostages in Gaza, in that area. And Hamas is a terrorist organization. They killed—they killed women and men, they raped many of the women, they amputated the limbs of children and then they killed them. They burned babies alive.
Biden, don't those lives matter?
"Biden, don't those lives matter?" Yes, that what she actually said! It was 6:04 a.m., and President Biden was being boldly called out.
For all we know, Earhardt may be the world's nicest person, but she seems to be a highly unsophisticated political observer. The leading authority on her career at the Fox News Chanel starts by saying this:
Ainsley Earhardt
Ainsley Earhardt is an American conservative television host and author. She is a co-host of Fox & Friends.
[...]
Earhardt moved to New York City and began working at Fox News Channel in 2007. Earhardt has stated that she "did not know the first thing about politics" before she was hired by Roger Ailes to work at the network.
She appeared on Hannity with her own segment called "Ainsley Across America," and has co-hosted Fox and Friends Weekend, All-American New Year's Eve, America's News Headquarters. She has appeared as a panelist on The Live Desk and Greg Gutfeld's Red Eye.
Earhardt became a co-host of Fox & Friends in 2016.
She was seven years out of college when she started at Fox. Also, she may be the world's nicest person! We have no way of knowing such things as that.
That said, she "didn't know the first thing about politics" when she started at the channel. Today, she specializes in offering the most simple-minded possible version of her channel's mandated point of view when she comments on world events.
Should the United States supply very large bombs to Israel for use inside Rafah? Presumably, opinions may differ on that question, but Earhardt rarely makes it past the "They started it" level of analysis.
The three Fox friends pounded away at American traitor Biden. That may sound a bit overstated, but with Sen. Rick Scott live in the studio, this exchange was ringing out by 6:07 a.m.:
SCOTT: I mean, I am on Israel's side. I support Israel. I support Jews. This is disgusting what the president is doing.
STEVE DOOCY: So whose side is Joe Biden on?
SCOTT: Well. he's—he's clearly on Hamas' side...He's got a pro-Hamas group in the Democrat [sic] Party and he's part of it now.
It was only 6:07 a.m. Already, President Biden was "clearly on Hamas' side!" He's part of the pro-Hamas group!
The performance continued until 6:13, with Kilmeade vast in his standard role as chief spokesman for the IDF and Earhardt popping up with simple-minded, feel-good groaners of this general type:
EARHARDT: And Israel gave the civilians an area to go to that's safe. They dropped the pamphlets again to warn them that this invasion could be happening—it's imminent. So they gave them a path to safety.
With Earhardt, it's no Fox Point Left Behind! Under current organizational arrangements, no one will ever challenge, question or disagree with anything that ever gets said.
In fairness, it's hard to be totally wrong as a Fox News host at this point in time. At 6:13 a.m., Earhardt quoted something President Biden said on CNN last night, correctly noting that what he said was just plain flat-out wrong.
At 6:13 a.m., Earhardt got it right! Also, "this is what war look like" and, of course, "they started it." The civilians have a safe place to go, and Biden is pro-Hamas.
In our view, it's surprising that this sort of thing goes on all day and other news orgs don't report or comment on it. For the record, the Fox News audience is currently larger than the audiences of MSNBC and CNN combined.
It's very hard to find an excuse for the pseudo-journalistic conduct which rules the roost at Red America's "cable news" channel. On the other hand, we'll show you a paraphrase tomorrow—a paraphrase Andrew Weissmann offered on yesterday's Deadline: White House.
Under current arrangement, very few people enter the meat grinder known as "cable news" and come out fully whole. Tomorrow, we'll show you the text of Hope Hicks' testimony—and then we'll show you where her statement has gone on the "cable news" channel which is designed to advance and promote Blue America's storylines.
We'll show you what she actually said. Then, we'll show you the standard way it's being paraphrased.
Paraphrase can be a powerful tool. We first shared that wisdom with you a very long time ago.
"Earhardt has stated that she "did not know the first thing about politics" before she was hired by Roger Ailes to work at the network."
ReplyDeleteThis is the way someone disavows all previous remarks on any topic, made prior to joining Fox. Somerby complains that she has since toed the mandated line at Fox, but that is exactly what she was hired to do.
Fox is a propaganda network. MSNBC and CNN are not. Generalizing from what Fox does to what happens on other media is inappropriate without some evidence that they are the same.
"At 6:13 a.m., Earhardt quoted something President Biden said on CNN last night, correctly noting that what he said was just plain flat-out wrong."
ReplyDeleteThe link provided by Somerby leads to a discussion of Biden's remarks on inflation and job creation, which Somerby says she got right. She is supposedly fact checking Biden's interview with CNN, but CNN itself reports the same info she presents.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/politics/joe-biden-interview-cnntv/index.html
CNN says: "Biden said on Wednesday that “no president has had the run we’ve had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation.”
“It was 9% when I came to office. 9%. But look, people have a right to be concerned. Ordinary people.”
CNN says: Inflation actually peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. In January 2021, when Biden was sworn in, it was 1.4%." And this is the statement lifted by Earhardt. But they do not mention that inflation is now down to an optimal level (3.48%), and that has occurred during Biden's term and due to his efforts following covid. The failure to mention the current low inflation is anti-Biden propaganda by Fox and CNN.
This "mistake" arises because there is some confusion in the interview when comparing pre-covid numbers with during and post-covid numbers for inflation and other numbers. Biden's term spanned the height of covid, but Biden is correct when he points out that the predictions were for an economic disaster that did not materialize. Earhardt gets that part wrong because that is what Biden was attempting to describe, the post-covid improvement is the context of the excerpted remarks Somerby quotes without mentioning.
What Biden actually said about Trump's job creation is that Trump lost more jobs than he created. Then Earhardt repeats the usual border and immigration complaints. Somerby may agree with that too, but it wasn't part of Biden's recent remarks. He talked at length about the job creation in WI and the need for a permanent solution in Gaza, the right of students to protest along with the need to recognize that anti-semitism is still with us.
Earhardt manufactures a supposed lie out of an out-of-context quote that Somerby does nothing to correct. The idea that Biden should have been expected to maintain the 1.4% inflation rate during the height of covid's economic disruption, and that he does not deserve praise for the soft landing after covid, is ludicrously unfair to Biden. And Somerby buys into it, asshole that he is.
This kind of dishonesty means that anyone watching Fox would need to do a great deal of cross-checking. They are not trustworthy in their reporting. But neither is Somerby.
Biden said he went from 9.1% inflation to our current lows. That is true. He didn't say he went from 1.4% to 9.1% to 3.4% and that is his supposed crime. Somerby should be ashamed of playing these tricks on his readers. But this does illustrate the bad faith that Biden is up against whenever he speaks in public. And no, Somerby is not a Biden supporter.
I resent that I had to go listen to the CNN interview with Biden in order to find out that Somerby was being dishonest. We shouldn't have to do that much work. That's why I watch MSNBC instead of Fox and I never believe anything Somerby says without checking it.
ReplyDeleteBiden said inflation was 9% when he took office. In reality, it was 1.4%. I doubt that what Biden said was a "lie," but in my view it was worse. Someone in charge of the economy should be well-versed in the trends and levels of the inflation rate.
ReplyDeleteThe point is that Biden said 9% in the context of discussing the covid economy. It is excessively literal to take “beginning of my term” as day one, when they were discussing the covid recovery. Go listen to the interview, like I did. Context matters.
DeleteBiden is not in charge of the economy.
DeleteIf you’re saying presidents don’t influence the economy you’re nuts.
Delete5:13 - I listened to the interview. Biden's statement that the rate was 9% when he took office was not out of context.
DeleteHave you seen that well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory on tv? Please. He's not in charge of anything.
DeleteDG, It directly followed the statement that economic disaster was predicted due to covid. It was about the recovery.
DeleteSomeone determined to portray Biden as forgetful can warp almost any innocent remark to fit their narrative. It is dishonest.
DeleteBiden's age has been a growing concern among voters, with his gaffes and falls raising eyebrows.
DeleteYes, that’s much worse than Trump with his lies, rambling idiocies, fraud trials and poopy diapers.
DeleteI'm not sure if that is true.
Delete6:06,
DeleteBe honest. Do you ever see yourself forgiving Biden for not Nationalizing the fossil fuel companies?
"He's clearly on Hamus's side."
ReplyDeleteWell, this is likely to be standard issue for the American Right for a long, long time. This is the Trump era. He didn't do it alone, some joined him out right, some looked away, some
(like Bob) looked at the shortcomings of others to make endless excuses.
Bob is right about one thing, there is not much left of our discourse. Many good people will finally look away as it gets worse.
“ President Biden was "clearly on Hamas' side!"”
ReplyDeleteOne gets the impression that Somerby disagrees with this. But he doesn’t actually explain why it’s false or attempt to debunk it. What do you want to bet DiC believes it? Maybe for his sake, Somerby ought to explain why Biden doesn’t support Hamas here.
He's on Hummus' side.
DeleteI got fanny worms.
Delete"In fairness, it's hard to be totally wrong as a Fox News host at this point in time. At 6:13 a.m., Earhardt quoted something President Biden said on CNN last night, correctly noting that what he said was just plain flat-out wrong."
ReplyDeleteOur Host doesn't tell us what Earhardt got right and Biden got wrong. Presumably, it was Biden's misstatement about inflation rates. For some reason, Biden insisted that inflation was at 9 percent when he took office. Of course, it wasn't.
So what did Earhardt say that prompts Our Host to say she got it right? Here's the transcript from the Internet Archive:
Ainsley: "What did you think of the interview last night? Two things that really stood out to me. He said inflation was 9% when he came into office. That is a lie. It was 1.4%. It went up to 9% in June 2022, a year and a half into his presidency."
Will Our Host scold Earhardt for using the forbidden L-word? Not today!
Earhardt went on to note that when Trump left office, "the border was secure, the economy was great, and we weren't at war." After three plus years of Biden's term, Earhardt claims, "Inflation is out of control. They can't control it. All right. The border is wide open. Wide open. And now we have got all these wars."
"All these wars"? Earhardt seems to think the Unites States is at war somewhere on the planet. So doesn't say where, though.
If this is "getting it right," Our Host is applying his standards for accuracy with an uneven hand.
I don’t think Biden was lying about reducing inflation if it went from 9.1 to 3.4 in his term.
DeleteSince Biden took office, prices have increased by 19%, compared to 8% during Trump's presidency. Polls show that voters trust Trump more on the economy.
Delete@7:59 Biden specifically said inflation was 9% when he took office. That's not true. It was 1.4%.
DeleteWas Biden lying? I think we need another word or phrase.. A politician often has to say what's he's supposed to say, regardless of reality. To a politician it's part of the job, not really a lie. Corporations do something similar when they boast that their product is better than all the others.
How about "mandatory spin"? Or "politicianese?"
If prices had gone down during Trump’s term, his supporters might have a point. They went up during covid. Covid wasn’t Biden’s fault.
DeleteYes, Quaker, the US is not directly involved in the current wars. But, we are deeply involved by providing funds, weapons and other resources and also by laying down demands and requirements on the war strategy.
DeleteOddly. we are supporting both Hamas and Israel in the Gaza war. Fortunately there aren't that many Russian-Americans, so we're only supporting one side in the Ukraine war
Quaker - you are a fucking idiot if you don't know what wars she was referring to. You are so partisan you have to play stupid? Why is that???????
DeleteYou make the host look like a towering giant of intellect with your petty, disingenuous, partisan bullshit.
DeleteMy uncle was eaten by cannibals.
DeleteI am Zorby. I grew up in an African-American synagogue surrounded by Indians.
David, if you count material support as engaging in "all these wars," the US was at it all through the Trump administration, all the way back through WW2.
DeleteEarhardt says "We weren't at war," under Trump. Trump endlessly brags about how he wiped out the Islamic State. We had combat troops in Afghanistan throughout Trump's term. We sent troops into Africa.
How is it we weren't at war?
It’s long past time to stop giving these people 2,000 lb bombs:
Deletehttps://www.yahoo.com/news/strapped-down-blindfolded-held-diapers-080008283.html
Netanyahu’s far right wing government has succeeded in alienating an entire generation of young American. The dynamic of US/Israeli relations should have been normalized a long time ago. Time for a sovereign wealthy country to get off the teat of the US taxpayer. The US does not need to be held accountable to an apartheid country. David in Cal is right. We should not be involved in this war. Let Israel put on their big boy pants at this point and quit on the one hand asking for money from us, and on the other, engage in the indiscriminate killing of tens of thousands of women and children.