FOX "News" Sunday with Chris Wallace is easily the least in every category for the Sunday morning political shows. It is also the easiest one to breeze through on the DVR, since it has the most commercials. The always vaguely creepy host is the most likely of the bunch to lob softballs at guests, and to set up perfect hits to his ludicrously named "Power Panel" of pundits (nearly always one-half of the show's running time). I always stop the DVR and erase right after the last of those segments, skipping the last segment.
At the end of each show, Wallace has a segment titled Power Player of the Week. I don't know who that title is supposed to impress, and I can't imagine ever anticipating with excitement just who it's going to be this week. So I skip it. But not this week. This week, FOX inexplicably picked James O'Keefe, video hoaxster. O'Keefe is the one who "punks" organizations and individuals who are on the far right's hit list. O'Keefe's videos are nearly always creatively edited to make them far more incendiary than they otherwise would be.
The weird part of this is, even though these "exposés" are 95% hokum, they have an effect anyway. ACORN--which did nothing wrong--is now gone. NPR, another target, is shedding personnel and is in danger of losing funding, even though the "punk'd" executive merely told the truth. This punk's dodgy antics are effective, often even when he really doesn't expose anything. Wallace and FOX are apparently awarding this creep with their alleged weekly honor, and for what? Being a partisan asshole?
FOX "News" is extremely good at injecting false or distorted narratives into political discourse. Do "death panels" ring a bell? ACORN itself would probably still be around were it not for the grossly inflated and embellished claims about them getting air on FOX. So I guess it makes sense after all that O'Keefe be given their big "honor." He's doing exactly what the network as a whole does. Fair and balanced, my ass.
[Excerpt]
Chris Wallace Ignores James O’Keefe’s Dodgy Past While Promoting Him As The ‘Power Player Of The Week’
Right-wing activist James O’Keefe recently released a video showing how he deceived NPR fundraisers into thinking they were having a discussion with members of a Muslim non-profit organization. One of the fundraisers was caught criticizing Republicans and the Tea Party and NPR CEO Vivian Schiller subsequently resigned. . .
Read more at: ThinkProgress
Sunday, March 13, 2011
FOX "News" Sunday Promotes O'Keefe as "Power Player"
Labels:
ACORN,
Chris Wallace,
FOX "news" Sunday,
Hoaxes,
Punk'd,
Sunday Political Shows
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So, you will of course condem what that fool did to Scott Waker? The guy that pranked Walker about 2 weeks ago?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you will, right?
No, I don't think I will, Dan. First of all, the dude that punk'd Walker was sort of a big doofus, who didn't realize what a big fish he caught. I heard Randi Rhodes interview the guy, and he did that mostly as a lark, amazingly not quite "getting" what he'd done. Plus, Walker came off pretty slimy, and willing to spill his guts to essentially a complete stranger who he THOUGHT was a billionaire contributor.
ReplyDeleteO'Keefe on the other hand, picks targets he knows to be right-wing targets, and then sets up elaborate "sting" operations. He then EDITS those tapes to appear worse than they really are. In the case of NPR, the "patsy" didn't even say anything particularly incriminating. With ACORN and Planned Parenthood, the "patsies" called authorities immediately after the tapings took place!
The tactics have their similarities, and their differences. But the Walker "fake Koch brother" guy didn't have to get all skeevy and re-edit his material.