A "think tank" smears Fox, and the Outfoxed gals chime in as well. Who told The Lie of the Week? With J$P Video!

There is always an abundance of fruit on the Fox haters' grapevine, even if those grapes are invariably sour. This week is no exception. Let's look at Think Progress, the unreliable propagandists who masquerade as a nonpartisan think tank. They claim that the evil Fox News "smeared" Barack Obama as a "possible covert Muslim extremist":

This morning, Fox News featured a segment highlighting a right-wing report that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) attended an Islamic “madrassa” school as a 6-year-old child.... The Fox hosts failed to correct the false claim that Obama is Muslim. One caller, referring to Obama, said, “I think a Muslim would be fine in the presidency..."

Note that there was no claim that Obama was Muslim. The caller didn't claim that (the "referring to Obama" part is TP's invention), and neither did anyone on Fox. TP's transcript and video montage, with three huge edits, is designed to snip out anything that doesn't fit their slant. That's why they didn't include this [QuickTime video]:



How exactly could Fox be smearing Obama as a Muslim extremist when they said, both before and after that call, that he is in fact a Christian? Why do you suppose TP left that out? And that's not all they omit. What they dishonestly term a "right-wing attack" was actually reported as a leak from the Hillary Clinton campaign. For Think Propaganda, that's Too Much Information. Of course, genuine information is in short supply over at the newshounds (another fine product of the Outfoxed syndicate). They're too busy playing little semantic games, like this HeadLie:

Fox Says Bush Backed Down on Wiretaps to "Please the New York Times"

Their own quote from Neil Cavuto shows that he in fact said the Bush decision was pleasing to the Times, not that it was done to please the Times. And there are the usual inanities, like complaining that Sean Hannity is "partisan" (um, like, that's why they hired him...as well as Alan Colmes). Or a screaming headline that an interview guest on Fox analogized Barack Obama to "Mamie". (Eisenhower? Van Doren?)

But the biased bassets can't resist going over the top. And invariably, it turns out to have been a bridge too far...or in this case, a Hill. Deceitful Donna serves up this classic newsmutt prevarication, taking aim at "John" [sic] Scott, who was in the host chair for coverage of Hillary Clinton's Iraq press conference:

The Fox Hosts continue to call her Hillary or Hillary Clinton and do not call her Senator Clinton. [Juan] Williams at one point caught himself and called her Senator Clinton.

Let's start with this particular incident. We pointed out that Mr Scott referenced her as "Senator" multiple times, but the credulous denizens of the dog pound preferred fiction to fact:

• put your money where your mouth is johnny boy...show us all how smart you are.
• what a pathetic hypocrite you are...and proof of how easy it is to bitch slap a phony neocon.
• still waiting on your "proof" johnny boy that the post was a lie. where is it?
• do you have a transcript Johnny Dollar? How in the hell do you know? you don't so by definition you are making it up as you go along.

The gullibility of the kennel-dwellers is nothing new. See for yourself how Mr Scott referenced Hillary Clinton [QuickTime video]:



Obviously, we have here another hound lie. But how big a lie is it? Let's check some transcripts to see how all those Fox hosts "do not call her Senator Clinton":

• John Gibson: Sen. Hillary Clinton is moving fast to the top of the list...
• Alan Colmes: ...whether or not Senator Hillary Clinton decides to toss her hat into the ring.
• Chris Wallace: ...do you think that Senator Clinton and the Democrats...
• Fred Barnes: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton Wednesday made a speech....
• Mort Kondracke: New York's Senator Hillary Clinton...
• John Gibson: Sen. Hillary Clinton is stepping out in the public eye
• Bill O'Reilly: We're down to three: Jesse Jackson, Al Gore, Senator Hillary Clinton
• Alan Colmes: Democratic Senator Barack Obama defended Senator Hillary Clinton...
• Sean Hannity: Senator Hillary Clinton accused the Republican Party...

And if the transcripts aren't enough, here's what a few minutes with our tivo turned up [QuickTime video]:



Wow. Could one sentence from the newspoodles possibly have been more dishonest, deceptive, and false? Donna is our winner--she told The Lie of the Week.