Attack on global warming, health care, common sense: the hypocrisy of Fox “News”

 

September 3, 7:27 PM

Something insidious and ugly is happening in America and it is being fueled by a network that has become the platform for more misinformation on health care, global warming, and political issues, than all the other networks put together—Fox News.

The word “news” is a euphamism for toxic right-winged commentary by the likes of Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, Bill O’Reilly, and regular contributor: Rush Limbaugh. These individuals are not above taking extreme measures that include cropping, editing, and taking quotes out of context in order to distort and manipulate a statement in a way that substantiates their point.

In May, 2009, Laura Ingraham hosted a segment of Bill O’Reilly’s show. Ingraham used a cropped interview from Gore’s April 24th congressional testimony, to accuse him of making money from his climate and energy activities. However, the fact that Al Gore donates all the money he makes from his environmental foundations to non-profit interests was conveniently cut out of the video.

Introducing the segment, Ingraham stated: "It seems that being green does pay big time -- just ask Al Gore. Mr. Global Warming was worth about $2 million or so when he left office in 2001, but after eight years of tirelessly working to save the world, the planet, he's now reportedly -- get this -- worth a whopping $100 million. His financial windfall came up at last week's Capitol Hill hearing." Ingraham then aired the edited video.

Big steaming pile of misinformation, slanted for the purpose of smearing an individual who has worked most of his life to bring the urgency of global warming to the attention of a complacent world.

According to Dana Milbank’s article in the Washington Post May 12, 2009 Limbaugh recently claimed that he is the architect of the global warming naysayer’s movement. Milbank reports on this line of conversation delivered by Rush during his Monday program:

"I normally don't pat myself on the back, but today global warming is an issue that has the concern of 30 percent of the American people, and years ago it was over 50 percent," he said.
(Par for the course that he doesn’t cite any statistics to back up his claim)

"That's because somebody spoke up day in and day out and said, 'This is a hoax, this is BS.' That somebody was me."

To express pride in the mass distribution of ignorance and undermining societal response to global warming, is a badge of honor that conservative talking heads, like Limbaugh, wear proudly.

More recently, Rush, the king of hype, used his radio program to spew more misinformation, and vocalized ridiculous characterizations of President Obama and his proposed health care reform, with this astonishing statement:

“Obama's got a health care logo that's right out of Adolf Hitler's playbook,” Rush Limbaugh said.

Actually, the logo, which combines Obama’s campaign logo with the Ancient Greek symbol for medicine looks nothing like Hitler’s Nazi party symbol. It would have to take a person hell-bent on

creating fear and intolerance, like Limbaugh--to see it that way. It inspired some fans to carry posters of Obama with a Hitler mustache to recent town hall meetings.

Limbaugh then proceeded to rant on about how the Democrats are like Nazis and rattled off an absurd list of offenses that included being against animal cruelty, smoking, and pollution.

The ignorant, misinformed, flawed, twisted, and blatantly erroneous message being distributed in this manner—is simply stupefying.

However, the ALUMINUM-HAT-WEARING prize for promoting ignorance, fear, and stupidity has to go to Glenn Beck. A person who swears Obama is building an underground army that is going to take over the government in the middle of the night, while unsuspecting people sleep peacefully in their beds.

Even conservatives cringed, when Beck called President Obama “prejudiced” against “white people”. Some one should tell Beck that Obama is half “white people.” Beck mocked Nancy Pelosi, in an infantile skit on his show, where he offers a staff impersonator a poison-laced glass of wine.

Then, Glenn Beck mesmerized the world, in a dizzying display of intellect, as he scrawled out the acronmyn OLIGARHY on a chalk board, trying to make a connection to Obama and an ancient form of government. But he out “Foxed” himself, by misspelling the word; leaving out the C before the HY. The word he was going for: oligarchy.

Glenn Beck’s introductory statement as he rants on about health care:

“You should be afraid [because] the President is remaking America. He's just not remaking it the way you thought he would. He's just remaking it into a place that's a whole lot crappier. Kind of a hybrid between France and Venezuela... He's taking the beacon of freedom and turning it into an apologetic, hey, what can you do for me, wannabe European, spread the wealth, socialist wonderland.”

Mr. Beck’s latest brain storm has been to proclaim the art work on the Rockerfella Center building, to be symbols of progressive, socialism, and communism.

“Wake up America,” he warns, “the signs are right in front of you.”

Glenn Beck’s lunacy has driven advertisers away from Fox News, like their hair was on fire.

"We applaud those companies that have recently pulled their support from Beck," said James Rucker, executive director of ColorOfChange.org. "There are at least 57 companies who will not tolerate Beck's race-baiting comments and we will continue to reach out to those who are still supporting him."

The real tragedy in all of this war on science and common sense by Fox’s liberal-hating political posse is that people, who are normally rational in all other regards, are so hungry to denigrate the opposition that they succumb to the conservative-hyping ideology…without the common sense to check other sources or challenging a single word.

Related articles:

Will Obama give up on bipartisan health care reform?

Rush Limbaugh, global warming, and susceptible conservatives

*** For photo credit run cursor over photograph * Copyright Jean Williams 2009 * Author also writes under pen name DelilahStarling. Permission to reprint up to three paragraphs with a direct “read full story” back to this page. Contact creatinggreenpiece@juno.com

Attack on global warming, health care, common sense: the hypocrisy of Fox “News”