At the height of the health care reform debate last fall, Bill Sammon, Fox News' controversial Washington managing editor, sent a memo directing his network's journalists not to use the phrase "public option."
Instead, Sammon wrote, Fox's reporters should use "government option" and similar phrases -- wording that a top Republican pollster had recommended in order to turn public opinion against the Democrats' reform efforts.
We report the GOP talking points, you decide that they still have objective credibility. Steve Benen notes this is part of a larger pattern:
Sammon's email had a subject line that read, "friendly reminder: let's not slip back into calling it the 'public option.'" He urged the network's on-air staff to "use the term 'government-run health insurance' or, when brevity is a concern, 'government option,' whenever possible. He added that if it's "necessary" to refer to the public option by name, Fox News staffers should "use the qualifier 'so-called,' as in 'the so-called public option.'"
And since Sammon's edict was a "reminder" to the staff, it seems likely Fox News employees had been told about using Republican-preferred rhetoric before.
So yes, here we have some pretty damning evidence that FOX News exists to push GOP talking points. This is their news division, mind you, not the opinion show stuff. It doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to Roger Ailes and friends, however.
They just think you're too stupid to notice.
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8 comments:
Considering Media Matters here is the corporate propaganda arm of the Democrats that makes a certain amount of sense.
After all they just hired a guy whose sole job was harassing Glenn Beck's sponsors on Twitter.
Way to stay out of the mud there Zandar...
We report the GOP talking points, you decide that they still have objective credibility.
As opposed to everyone else who used the Democratic talking point to refer to the same thing as the "public option".
If anything, it's just more evidence showing the rest of the media pushing Democratic talking points instead of objectively reporting the news. But we knew that already, didn't we?
yes how dare fox news refuse to use the democrat public option instead of the truth of government health care it might cause people to want to repeal socialist obamacare
Man, the right wing wank-jobs are out in force today.
Even Slate is calling bullshit on this.
Sorry Zandar! You lose again!
You've been called out by conservative bloggers.
Plan to do anything about it other than be wrong?
I didn't think so...
great link. media matters is a bunch of marxists too? okey doke. you guys'd be pathetic if you weren't so gosh darned funny.
Nope.
Don't plan to do a thing.
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