Roger Ailes, chairman of Fox News and a far-right zealot, is at it again with the talking points that his network has made famous: Barack Obama is socialist.
Fox News, which long ago divorced itself of any hint of objectivity, has now gone to openly cheerleading for far-right causes and candidates and against anything viewed as left of the political middle. The comments of Ailes, as documented by Howard Kurtz, are indicative of a man who is no journalist and essentially overseas a network that is a 24-hour right-wing propaganda machine.
Ailes: Obama was "told by the French and the Germans that his socialism was too far left." From Howard Kurtz' November 17 Daily Beastarticle:
"The president has not been very successful," the Fox News chairman says in a lengthy interview. "He just got kicked from Mumbai to South Korea, and he came home and attacked Republicans for it. He had to be told by the French and the Germans that his socialism was too far left for them to deal with."
The 70-year-old Ailes, dressed in a lavender shirt and tie, goes on in this vein, saying the network isn't singling out Obama for criticism but that its style "tends to be more direct" in challenging presidents. Then he offers this observation about Obama:
"He just has a different belief system than most Americans."
That seems a rather loaded phrase--different belief system--even if you strongly disagree with most of Obama's policies. It fits the view of those who are trying to paint the president as being outside the mainstream. But from the big second-floor office at Fox's Midtown Manhattan headquarters, it's the rest of the media that are using a distorted lens.
This is nothing new with Fox News, a network that now clearly is devoted to advancing Republicans, tea baggers and nearly all conservative causes.
It's not an actual lynching, but it sure sounds like a symbolic lynching that is a frightening reminder of an era that many of us thought was long gone.
This is a reach by even the low Fox News standards for objectivity.
Fox News on-air personalities have been whining about President Obama not coming to them and kissing their butts when he made appearances on major television networks, but skipped Fox (which has skipped out on him during a few of his speeches and meetings when other networks covered them). Was that a case of putting financial gain before country? (If Fox can ask these kind of loaded questions then I guess others can, too). But, perhaps part of the reason the president has avoided Fox News is its ongoing campaign to demonize him and hint that he may somehow be anti-American or that supporters of him may be anti-American. The latest from Fox News is a video it has plastered all over its homepage of young school students from B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, N.J., singing songs about the messages they’ve heard from President Obama. But, instead of looking at it as students learning about the presidency and the messages of equality they were actually singing about, Fox News takes it and turns it into the most negative interpretation possible.
Here is the image it put on the Web and (below it) how Fox News described the video:
Here is how Fox News describes the video of those evil messages such as lending a hand, making the country strong, equal work means equal pay and being fair.
Video shows little kids at the B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, N.J., being taught to sing Obama’s praises — have they already learned the Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful and God Bless America? • VIDEO: School Kids’ Song Praises Obama
The messages below the Fox headline don’t match. The kids, based on those lyrics were not singing the president’s praises, but rather singing about his messages that all good people should embrace. A large majority of the people who are angry are those who just can’t stand that a black man is in such a prominent position and can’t handle the historical significance of his presidency, with positive messages and that people are listening and being moved. None of these people cared about this kind of stuff when Bush was in office or even when President Clinton was in office.
Now, notice the part where Fox asks if the children have already learned the Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful and God Bless America? This is of course done to again raise the idea of the president and those who support him being anti-American or not having the best interest of the country first and foremost. This is yet another case of Fox News injecting its right-wing bias into what should have been a fair and balanced news story. But, as we know, Fox is neither fair nor balanced its news and is especially unfair and unbalanced when it is reporting on almost anything it feels can portray Barack Obama in a negative light.
I bet none of the right wingers at Fox cared about praise from school children toward President George W. Bush when he was in office or since he has been out of office. No, the bigotry of Fox News is on display only in matters related to President Obama.
Watch the video for yourself. The video is completely innocent. I did stuff like this when I was in elementary school where we talked about national leaders, historical figures and others.
This is just stupid, far-right political hate from conservatives , such as those we see from morning to evening on Fox News, who didn’t (and still don’t) care about praise school kids have given to previous presidents.
Angry right wingers, such as the people who run Fox News, are in full-blown attack mode as they go at President Obama and we still are not even a year removed from Election Day 2008.
This one is weak even by far-right standards (on the YouTube page some nut compares President Obama to Kim Jong il, Fidel Castro, Adolph Hitler and others). These right wingers are overflowing with hate. My goodness, well-known people who speak to elementary school students often are praised with songs or get handmade drawings, paintings or handwritten thank yous. This is weak.
Far-right extremist Roger Ailes of Fox News
