I like to change my routine while on vacation. I sleep on the other side of the bed, do much of the cooking but don't make coffee and do many other things that I don't usually get a chance to do thus the vacation aspect. It works for me anyway. Well this year I decided to get as much of my news as possible from Fox News. Now I didn't follow every story in detail but I did a fair amount of sampling Fox’s offering while watching TV in Cancun (BTW, The English shows with Spanish subtitles seem to be helpful in learning some simple sentences in Spanish. But don't bother trying to watch The Simpsons in Spanish without English subtitles unless you know Spanish already. They could be saying ANYTHING).
Anyway, back to Fox. There seem to be two basic show designs. The solitary reporter/commentator like Brit Hume who I found to be the best on the network or the blowhard type like O'Reilly vs. the foursome model which has two dark haired horn-rimmed guys who came out of Brigham Young and Duke (optionally, one can be black with an Indiana accent), a smiling liberal professor or columnist who takes all the shots with a laugh and the perky blond out of the Ann Coulter mold who pillories the professor. Fair enough, that's the general format they choose. But what comes out of their mouths is most interesting. On every show with the exception of Brit Hume (which may account for my favorable view of him) one or more of the righties is telling us "What the liberals would like you to think...." or "The Democrats would like to see this happen....." with the liberal and Democrat labels easily juxtaposed in any context and for every story. It was a regular drumbeat and the number of times that paricular phraseology was used was very noticeable to me as a regular non-viewer. I hear that line of argument from hard core Republicans. So that's where it comes from. Hmmm, it must be working.
Even the simpleton Colmes will jump on the repetition/minimization background noise soundtrack that they create in the name of making their case. Give us facts about what's being discussed and don't be simply counter to the left. People who think differently on an issue aren’t necessarily Democrats or worse yet Liberals. It seems to me that Fox News IS the right wing propaganda mouthpiece that a lot of people say it is. Better to get your fake news from The Daily Show since at least it's product is labeled correctly.
Some stories snuck beneath the radar....
Submarine attack on Arlen Spector deflected using the old Capitol Hill standby. Launch a review by the Ethics committee. That'll learn you other buggers who might be thinkin' about....well, thinkin'. Stay in line and nobody gets hurt.
Cheyney's facts waited 24 hours to be sure they came out right only that "zilch alcohol" became one beer at lunch. Mary Joe Kopekne's folks may see this a different way.
The Dubai port hubbub is more another shrewd political move than the stumble it’s being portrayed as. Even the much practiced Scott McClelland couldn’t convince anyone that Bush learned of this from the news reports. Bush isn’t running in November so Republicans in Congress just got a softball lobbed to them. Meanwhile, Bush might either just win or just lose a veto override vote if it ever comes to that. The real trick now is to get the Republicans to disagree with it because they are strong on security and the Democrats to disagree because they are prejudiced and/or unwilling to support our partners in the War on Terror. Besides, the British think its okay. Must be a Frenchy idea. And it takes the surveillance issue off the front page to boot.
Good to see that the same old, same old prevailed while we were gone.
(Interestingly, the promo and introduction for one of the shows Fox and Friends or something like that has a One Way sign showing. It points to the right. What's that all about?)
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