Finally! Fox News admits it isn't really news

Fox News made a rather shocking admission the other day, letting slip that they view their programming not as news, but as comparable to the “editorial page” of a newspaper. See for yourself:

“An increasing number of viewers are relying on Fox News for both news and opinion,” Fox News Senior VP Michael Clemente said in the statement, “and the average news consumer can certainly distinguish between the A-section of the newspaper and the editorial page, which is what our programming represents.

“So with all due respect to anyone who might still be confused about the difference between news reporting and vibrant opinion, my suggestion would be to talk about the stories and the facts rather than the attack the messenger.”

So there you have it. After all the years of Orwellian branding as “fair and balanced” and “we report, you decide” (code for “we report information to support what you’ve already decided”), Fox is finally being honest about its purpose: not to report the facts, but to report talking points that “balance out” any facts that make its viewers uncomfortable.

For an example of the Fox machine at work, watch this amazing (and disturbing) video showing how Beck, Hannity, and others transform a scientist's statement that "we all believe this long-term global warming trend is man-made" into a prediction of "decades of global cooling":

If you can't watch the video, here's a transcript of the important parts. First, the statement from the scientist, Dr. Mojib Latif:

What you see here is just the globally averaged temperature during the 20^th century, and you can clearly identify the long-term warming trend, and we all believe that this long-term warming trend is anthropogenic in nature, is man made. However, you see a lot of fluctuations superimposed on this trend, inter-annual as Tim has pointed out, but also decadal.

Now people who know me, at least my German colleagues, know that I do a lot of media work. There is almost no day in the year when I am not called by some media person. And so they basically think about global warming as a kind of slowly evolving process, and monotonic process, so each year is warmer than the preceding year.

However, we all know there is variability, okay, and this variability may look like this [graph]... And the two of course superimpose. And the real evolution of say globally averaged temperature would look like this [graph]. And then you see right away that it may well happen that you enter a decade, or maybe even two, you know, when the temperature cools relative to the present levels, alright.

And then, I know what’s going to happen, you know. I will get millions of phone calls, you know, “what’s going on? Is global warming disappearing? Have you lied on us?" And therefore, this is the reason why we need to address this decadal prediction issue.

Latif's prediction did happen. His reference to "a decade, maybe even two when the temperature cools" was clearly a hypothetical used to illustrate a point, but here's how Glenn Beck interprets it:

The leading climate model guy that has just backed out and said, "yeah, sure, I was wrong… we’re going into 30 years of cooling right now. At least!"

And Sean Hannity:

One of Al Gore’s most prominent allies in this global warming hysterical movement has just pulled the rug out from under the former vice president, and now says the world more likely faces decades of global cooling!

What can be done about Fox News? Well, that's the subject for another post.

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If Obama supports the Olympics, they must be bad: cutting off your nose to spite your face

Despite the shouting and name-calling, our politicians and pundits earnestly want what’s best for the country; they merely have different ideas about how to achieve it. When President Obama’s fiercest opponents endlessly criticize him and obstruct his agenda, they’re doing it because they genuinely believe that his policies will make the country worse off, not out of petty desire for short-term political gain (or to protect powerful interests). If he had ideas they agreed with, they would support him. Right?

Let’s test that assumption by looking at an issue that’s not ideological at all: the Olympics. Unlike health care, where you can make a legitimate case that there are better and worse ways of improving the nation’s health (and whether that is even a legitimate outcome for government to pursue), the Olympics are unambiguous in terms of the desirability of the outcome and the means of achieving it. That is, we all agree that bringing the Olympics to Chicago would be a good thing for the country, and there is no debate over the means for doing that – you either bring them here or you don’t.

So how did Republican activists react to the news that our country had lost its bid to host the 2016 Olympics? See for yourself (the clip is from the conservative Americans for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream Summit):

I mean, wow. A room full of Americans absolutely giddy that America lost its bid for the Olympics – or rather, giddy that the Olympic Committee delivered a loss to President Obama. And that's after Glenn Beck insinuated that the Olympics would lose Chicago $1 billion, and Republican Congressmen criticized the President for pitching the United States to the Olympic Committee. Seriously people, you don't have to stop liking the Olympics just because Obama likes them too.

We’ve thus come full circle since Rush Limbaugh’s infamous quip that he “hopes Obama fails”:

This isn’t the first time conservatives have called for their followers to inflict damage on the country out of spite for President Obama. Conservative radio hosts have, for instance, advocated a boycott of General Motors to ensure the company fails, knowing that a successful emergence from bankruptcy would be a victory for Obama (and more importantly, vindication of a greater role for government in the economy). Glenn Beck says that because Obama supports AmeriCorps, it must be a secret Nazi army. Michele Bachmann warns that the Census has been infiltrated by ACORN.

The smug giddiness over losing the Olympics only confirms the larger trend, showing just how fanatical opposition to Obama has become; for the most conservative of Republicans, it’s no longer principled opposition to specific policies – it’s a hope that the country itself will fail in order to vindicate conservative ideology. What scares die-hards the most isn’t that progressive policies will fail – it’s that they will succeed. Because that would prove liberalism correct after all.

Hence campaigns to destroy General Motors, to keep affordable health care out of the hands of millions of Americans, and even to oppose bringing the Olympics to the US. If the country must burn to prove an ideology – even if the flames are deliberately set by the ideology’s defenders – then so be it. The ability to never change your mind comes at a high price.

And congratulations to Rio for becoming the first South American country to host the Olympics. I’m not going to cheer my own country’s defeat, but I’m happy for another part of the world having its chance to shine.

*Note* Does anyone have video editing skills? It’d be great to create a mash-up of the Rush Limbaugh clip and the one of the people cheering over the Olympic decision. Leave a comment with contact info if you know how to do that.

UPDATE: Paul Krugman totally steals my argument

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Some shocking news: according to the AP, a US Census worker was found hanged in the Kentucky backwoods, possibly by right-wing radicals:

MANCHESTER, Ky. (AP) -- A U.S. Census worker found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery had the word ''fed'' scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment.

The law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, did not say what type of instrument was used to write the word on the chest of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and teacher. He was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky.

Lest we forget, here's what Rep. Michele Bachmann, a conservative Republican from Minnesota, said about Census workers back in June:

There’s great concern that’s being raised, because now ACORN has been named one of the national partners, which will be a recipient again of federal money, and they will be in charge of going door to door and collecting data from the American public. And that’s very concerning, because the mother lode of all data information will be from the Census. And of course we think of the census as just counting how many people live in your home. Unfortunately, the Census data has become very intricate, very personal, a lot of the questions that are asked. I know for my family, the only question we will be answering is how many people are in our home. We won’t be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn’t require any information beyond that.

If the Census worker's death was indeed a murder, had the murderer listened to Michele Bachmann's warning? Was he afraid that the Census worker was a socialist ACORN employee out to collect his sensitive personal information for a black president's government? Did he think his "very personal" Census information might be used to determine his "level of productivity in society" if he should ever go before a death panel, or that data on his race could be used against him by a president with a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture"? With all the vitriol over ACORN from Bachmann and Beck, it's not hard to make the leap from Census worker = ACORN = fascist, and decide to take matters into your own hands. After all, Michele Bachmann has advocated armed, violent resistance against the government before:

I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us, “Having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,” and the people – we the people – are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States.

This is a developing story, so it's too early to rush to conclusions, but it does sound bad. What's certain is that this should be a wakeup call to politicians and pundits that their fiery, conspiracy theory-supporting rhetoric has consequences beyond its cynical usefulness in rallying their bases -- there are legitimately crazy people out there, and inflammatory politics can inspire them to do legitimately terrible things.