I've often posted here about the horrors of Fox News. Each time I do, friends ask me a very simple and valid question: "If Fox News upsets you so much, why do you continue to watch?"
I always give them the same answer -- "Fox News is the train wreck from which I am unable to avert my eyes."
But, let's face it, my friends have a good point. Do I enjoy the high blood pressure? Do I need it? No. Even though it does give my face a welcome bit of color, there's really no up side.
So I have been in Fox Detox. I've been voluntarily avoiding the network in hopes of improving my health. No Doocy, Kilmeade or Kelly. No Morris, Kristol or Krauthamer. No Wallace, Hannity, O'Reilly or Beck. No Ailes mis-infotainment of any kind. I've been going cold turkey. And, to be honest, I've been feeling better. Much better.
So I just stuck to reading The Huffington Post. I thought that would be safe.
I was wrong.
I've been like an alcoholic staring at all the delightfully tempting bottles of amber liquid behind the bar then forcing himself to order a glass of soda. It's healthier but without much buzz.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I fell off the wagon. I honestly didn't mean to. I didn't even think I was. After all, it was Huffington. They wouldn't hurt me, would they? Well, they didn't mean to, but they did.
I followed a link to Jason Linkins' recent post about the way Sean Hannity selectively edits film to make it tell whatever story he wants to tell instead of telling the truth. Jason's piece is upsetting, but wonderful.
He included film from Media Matters showing how Hannity sliced and diced an interview that Major Garrett did with President Obama. Garrett's questions elicited thoughtful responses. But apparently they were too thoughtful for Sean so he took the President's words out of context and gave his audience a totally different and dishonest accounting of what was said. He also played with Obama's words from various speeches so that he could portray the President as an un-American terrorist sympathizer.
Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address said of our fallen soldiers -- "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." Sean and his editor would have had Lincoln say that "The world will little note what they did here," then use the clip as proof of how little regard he had for our troops. That's because Hannity's a liar.
If you haven't seen Jason's post, I invite you to take a look.
Horrible, right? You bet. Taking someone's words and rearranging them to tell a completely different story is wrong. It's not journalism, reporting or even commentary. It's lying. It's Hannity, once again, proving himself to be a revolting manipulator of the facts. No surprise there.
What I don't understand is why this story isn't the lead on every newscast in the country. Why isn't it on the front page of every paper? Why isn't everyone being shown what a truth-bending biased psuedo-news organization Fox really is?
I fear I know the answer. We collectively don't care. We're numb. We don't think it matters.
It does. Believe me, it does.
Like Obama or hate Obama, that's your choice. But Fox is not telling the truth about who he is or, even more importantly, who we are.
Having recently traveled out of the country I was stunned to find that Fox is often the only television station one can receive. Why? Because in many places they do not charge for their services. Fox makes their satellite feed available for free. So in many places Fox is the only representative of American society and its political views. In many places around the world, people think that Fox fairly represents all of our opinions.
Of course, they do not.
Please, read Jason Linkins' post here at Huffington and watch the clip he included. Then... please... send it to as many people as you possibly can and ask them to do the same.