Fox News - Wisconsin Thugs are So Tough they Wear T-Shirts and Fight Mounted Police in Front of Palm Trees

Apparently, someone went to Madison, Wisconsin, and planted palm trees in front of the capital. In other news, the Wisconsin police department decided to put their mounted police on the street in 15 degree weather, and the Union "Thugs" are now fighting in t-shirts, rather than coats.

At least, that is what The O'Reilly Factor would have imprinted on you.

Here is video of those violent protesters in Madison, courtesy of Bill O'Reilly:



Notice anything funny? The palm trees, the t-shirts, the mounted police? The video they used was stock - not from Madison at all. There doesn't seem to be any proof that it is from this year, either.

Again, perhaps it was a mistake in the editing room. And those mistakes keep piling up.

Again, it doesn't matter what happens after the fact. The viewers were imprinted with the image of violent protests and Union "Thugs" in Wisconsin.

In all fairness, there was an incident last week where a Fox News reporter was violently "punched on the arm" and "punched in the face" by a protester, albeit off camera at the time.

Except that he wasn't. A protester captured the entire exchange on video. Behold, as the protesters feed on his flesh!

I can see rather clearly a person tapping the reporter on the shoulder, perhaps trying to get his attention. Not sure this classifies as "unwanted touching".

But again, the job has been done by Fox News. The story is fixed to their image - Union Thugs occupy the capital. Those greedy, greedy teachers are after your tax dollars. And there is no reason whatsoever for them to be angrily marching on the state house.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Gets Prank Called. And he talks. And talks.

For the love of all things holy, make sure that the person you are talking to is really the person you are talking to. Especially if you are a state official.

And no excuses for "But my secretary put the caller through." There are procedures that can be followed at the lower levels as well.

Aside from rampant stupidity by either himself or his staff, this may also be circumstantial evidence of Walker's close ties to David Koch. They seem to speak on rather friendly terms for two people who live a country apart.

Nothing illegal about such a relationship, or for David Koch to donate to Scott Walker. But this recording is not good politics.

This guy is going to deep six himself and the Republican Party in no time if he doesn't change course.

Fox News Still Keeping it Classy

Take a look at the poll results above. Now, tell me what they mean?

The way I read the poll is that 61% of those interviewed Favor Taking Away Collective Bargaining.

Only they don't.

Here are the actual results from the USA Today/Gallup Poll:

The exact opposite is true: 61% of those surveyed support collective bargaining rights.

In fact, this particular poll is rather damning for the Republican Party. There is a 62/31 split in favor of collective bargaining rights among independents, and only a 54/41 split among Republicans themselves for terminating collective bargaining rights.

Let me say that again: 41% of Republicans do not believe collective bargaining rights should be terminated.

Of course, and as always, this may have just been a simple mistake. But it gets harder to concede that point because it took place on a heavily produced morning show, and not in the midst of a hastily-crafted 24-hour news report.

Again, Fox News, through malice or mistake, imprinted these results on its viewers as fact. And this false impression of fact plays to support the views of the Republican Party.

Here's the video if you want more.

(I have to wonder if anyone in the news media was asked, would they be able to define what "collective bargaining rights" are? What about the general population?)

Have the GOP really lost the message this quickly?

I have to admit, I didn't see this coming.

I didn't see the GOP shooting themselves in the head so quickly, if at all. With only the House in their immediate control (with the filibuster they wield a lot of indirect control in the Senate), they are losing the message and quickly turning themselves into the national electoral boogieman. And at a time when they could be reaping massive rewards by a public in dire financial straights.

Instead of lying low, tapering the debt, paying lip service to tearing down Obamacare (they don't have to do much more while the courts deal with it first), and publicly speaking about making jobs, they instead go straight to the lightening round: Actually de-funding labor unions and striking up the abortion chorus.

Items that would mean something other than a wolf whistle if they could actually get them passed by the Senate. But they can't. And they know it.

Instead, they are acting as a Get Out the Vote (GOTV) program for the Democratic Party.

De-fund Planned Parenthood? Nope. Won't go anywhere. Senate will block it.
De-fund the National Labor Relations Board? Nope. Senate will block it.
Help the National Democratic Party raise money and design campaign ads at the same time? Yes. Oh yes.

I know that the Tea Party and many other Republicans are rather distrustful of Rep. Boehner, but they should have trusted his long term planning instincts before this Congress was seated. This crazy train has overshot the station and is going nowhere fast.

The National Republican Party wants an Own Goal Too!

Why let Wisconsin have all the fun?

It appears that a move to take away collective bargaining rights is also going forward in Tennessee and Ohio.

Wow.

Other states rumored to have similar bills are:

Missouri
Iowa
Indiana
Michigan
New Hampshire
Maine
Pennsylvania

So what's the big deal? They are Republicans, you say. They don't like unions. They want to bust them. Why so shocked?

I'm not shocked by the union busting. Republicans are as anti-unions as they are pro-business. But I will let someone else argue the pros and cons of not letting public school teachers negotiate their salaries and benefits, in one go, through their unions.

What eats me is that this is happening in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Ohio, less than two years before the November 2012 general election for President.

Are these names ringing any bells now? Say it with me friends, "Swing States".

All Republicans and conservatives have to do for 2012 is lie low. Either enact some awesome way to make jobs and gain credit for it, or enjoy the current fester. If they really want to get involved to feed the base, do something that doesn't equally or more so arouse the opposing base. Keep saying you won't take any of that Health Care money. Or that you have been taxed enough already. But whatever you do, don't give the other side a reason to have a bigger voice than you.

And yet here it is. The Democratic Party is being reborn by the Republicans themselves. And the Republican Governors or prospective republican candidates for governor in these states are putting themselves in a very difficult electoral position early on.

Because the one Democratic voting block that Republicans do not want mobilized in 2012 is Unions.

On Wisconsin, On Wisconsin!

This morning, my cat Basil asked me, "Overlord, what is the best losing strategy for the GOP in Wisconsin?"

My answer to Basil was, of course, for this national minority party to paint a big-ass target on themselves. You know, as opposed to lying low and letting the economy and governing Democratic President do their work for them. Instead of playing an offensive or even neutral game, the GOP should go score on itself to guarantee failure.

More specifically, I told my cat that the Wisconsin GOP could go after state unions in such a way that the voting public actually feels sorry for them.

And what do you know? Basil the Cat is oddly prescient on the topic. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker took my suggestion and ran with it last week, publicly calling for the end of public employee union collective voting rights (except for fire and police).

I say "publicly" because that makes all the difference.

Of course the Governor wants to pull the state out from under water, and limiting what is given away in public employee contract negotiation is a valid way to shore up the state economy in the short term. But he also wanted to use it politically as a wolf whistle to his conservative base.

It is big time back-lashing. And it should have been no surprise. Nothing says, "Suck it, GOP Governor" quite like teachers going on strike.

Let's Review: General statements of dislike for an opponent work well to rally the base, but the effectiveness wares off if it also rallies the opposition.

Put another way, general statements that have no immediate threat of application sound good to the ears of the base, but immediate threats of application have a way of rallying those who are targets, while engendering support from the public.

Examples:

"Public Union Employees drain our state coffers! I won't negotiate with them until Wisconsin is healthy once again!" GOOD.

"I am hereby retracting public union employee collective bargaining rights. Except for police and fire men, I will make it so no public employee can negotiate better health or retirement benefits, or increase their job safety." VERY BAD.

Wisconsin Democrats might as well pull their shirts over their heads, waive their arms about, and run around in circles. GoooooOOOOooooaaal!

Reuters

Fox News: Ron Paul, No Favorite Among Non-Libertarian Conservatives, Gets Screwed.

Edit: Fox News did apologize. Here is all 39 seconds of it, shown in the middle of the afternoon on Thursday, Feb. 17.


Instead of apologizing and walking away, the anchor excused himself and Fox News due to error: the two clips looked a lot alike. Never mind that one of them was recently filmed footage, while the other had to be dug up from the archives.

The story now slips into the 24 hour news cycle while the majority of viewers who saw the original interview carry on with the intentionally imprinted message. Bravo.

Perhaps I'll have to write a wee bit about message imprinting and political psychology in a later post. Political Scientists take the topic for granted because it is old news; Poli Sci PhD candidates write on it almost as often as English PhD's think about putting their heads in the oven.

Original Entry Below:
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Occasionally (every day) someone questions how Fox News could be biased for conservatives. Fox News, after all, says they are Fair & Balanced, so they must be, right?

And if bias is admitted by a Fox News supporter, the acknowledgment is usually coupled with the argument that MSNBC is biased, too, but for liberals.

I agree.

However, the angle of Fox News with respect to conservative reporting is so severe that comparison to other news channels sometimes breaks down, especially regarding Fox News' concern with fact-based reporting and malicious editing.

The following video is a prime example of both Fox News' clever editing and their disregard for fact. It is rather long, so I will recap below.


In short, before Fox News conducted a live interview with Perennial Libertarian Presidential Candidate Ron Paul, following his win at the straw poll for President at this year's CPAC, Fox News surreptitiously edited in (skip to 0:22)the scene at last year's CPAC, where Ron Paul was resoundingly booed for having won. By doing so, Fox News set up the interview so that the main topic was not why he won but rather why no one likes him at CPAC?

So why did he win this year? Probably because the majority of the audience at the announcement was raucously in favor of him (skip to 4:40). The cheering and adoration for Ron Paul at this year's CPAC was unmistakable. (The booing of Paul's win last year at CPAC can be attributed to the large amount of Romney supporters who saw their favorite come in second).

So what gives, Fox News? Why the chicanery? Well, through malicious editing and ignorance of fact, Fox News was able to actively set the tone of the interview for their own editorial desires. Namely, they destroyed any credibility Ron Paul had with Fox News viewers, a group composed of conservatives and conservative-leaning independents that might otherwise vote for Ron Paul in a real election.

The first question that may come to mind is, "But Ron Paul is a conservative, and Fox News does not eat their own kind!"

Yes they do. Especially when they are Libertarians.

Unlike his son, Rand Paul, Ron Paul has little respect among traditional conservatives for his strict libertarian views. He wants government control out of everything, whether it be marriage, drug control, or guns. He may share views with other conservatives on the right to bare arms, but his open views towards gay marriage do net exactly gel.

If Ron Paul were to be shown respect by other conservatives he might become an electoral threat to them. But Fox News was able to keep him in check for those conservative candidates they would otherwise have on the ballot. A group of candidates who, ironically, are mostly on the Fox News payroll.

Remaining questions are throwaways.

- Isn't that libel? (Too tough to prove, especially for a public official.)
- Won't Fox News get caught for clever editing? (They may, but would they care? Besides, in the 24-hour news cycle it won't stick around for long)
- Isn't what they did unethical? (Show me the rulebook for ethics in media.)
- How would Fox News answer if called on it? (Oops! Our mistake.)
- Won't Fox News viewers care about a retraction? (Um. No. Not even the ones who hear it being made live, once, from 8:41:34 AM to 8:41:45 AM)

Last, the best question of all: "But what if it was just an honest mistake?"

Sure. I'll grant it.

The producers in the editing room accidentally came upon and cued up a year-old newsreel instead of the clip produced that day and plugged it in. Same kind of argument as, "I slipped on some soap and got your mother pregnant." It could have happened.

But in the off-chance that this didn't, way to go Fox News. Keep it classy.