Blue America, Red America!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2024

Fox News takes the hand-out and runs: The ironic old bromide goes like this:

Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?

The current instance calls for a bromide adjustment. The question would now be this:

Who are you going to believe, Paul Krugman or Jesse Watters?

At issue is a basic question about the current state of the economy. We'll let the economics professor go first, with this passage from his latest New York Times column, which we just saw today:

Why Trump Is Lying About Disaster Relief

[...]

...At this point, Trump’s campaign rests heavily on made-up stuff. And he clearly seems to believe that he needs new material, because the old material seems to be losing some of its effectiveness.

Before I get into the disaster relief issue, let me note that Trump has been a true innovator in political dishonesty...[He has] constructed a whole dystopian fantasy world, trying to persuade voters that America is a nation with a collapsing economy overrun by violent immigrants.

In reality, America has low inflation and low unemployment, and the average worker’s purchasing power is higher than it was five years ago. Yes, some Americans are struggling, but that was as true when Trump was president as it is now.

"The average worker’s purchasing power is higher than it was five years ago!" Or at least, so Krugman says—but we're a bit suspicious because of yesterday's pronouncement by Watters.

According to the leading authority on his career, Krugman was "the sole winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences" back in 2008. On the other hand, Watters served, for many years, as the snarky "man-in-the-street" interview sidekick for Bill O'Reilly.

Based on that experience, Watters is now the anchor of the Fox News Channel's weeknight lineup. When the channel had to show Tucker Carlson the door, they decided to fill the 8 p.m. slot with Jesse Watters Primetime. 

Watters also serves as a regular cast member on The Five, the highest rated program in all of "cable news." 

On that show, he tends to engage in silly towel-snapping with fellow savant Greg Gutfeld. Did we mention the fact that this journalistic garbage can is the most heavily watched of all "cable news" shows?

We've already shown you what the Princeton / MIT / NYU professor said about purchasing power. Yesterday afternoon, on The Five, the other fellow said this (some early towel-snapping included):

WATTERS (10/3/24):  For the last four years, wages have gone nowhere and prices have gone up. Yet, take-home wages—

Yet, she says Bidenomics is working. Now she has to know that Bidenomics isn't working because she gets briefed by her economics team. She has to know because she reads the newspaper—we assume. 

So she knows Bidenomics isn't working, and she goes and tells the voters it's working. So she's lying about how the plan is working...

On Fox, it almost always turns out that "she's lying." It's one of the mandated claims.

As you can see if you click that link, the silly savant went on from there at considerable length. But you can see our conundrum.

Professor Krugman has now said this:

The average worker’s purchasing power is higher than it was five years ago.

Almost surely, we would have believed it! But we'd already seen Watters say this:

For the last four years, wages have gone nowhere and prices have gone up. 

We're guessing that Krugman is right about this, and that Watters is wrong. But for four hours each morning on Fox & Friends, then for eleven more hours starting at 5 p.m., people like Watters are dragged on the air to say such things on Fox.

Just a guess: Most people who watch the Fox News Channel assume that Watters knows what he's talking about and is making accurate statements. Over at the New York Times, but also on MSNBC, the finer people from the finer backgrounds just keep averting their gaze from what transpires on Fox.

Over here in Blue America, our tribunes keep trying to earn our way out. 

As part of that never-ending project, everyone gives Fox free rein. No one wants to talk about Fox.

Fox takes the hand-out and runs.