Friday, November 20, 2009

The Fox News Network: Unfair, Unbalanced and UnAmerican

For the second time in the past two weeks Fox News showed footage of two separate events and passed them off to their viewers as a single event. It happened on Gregg Jarrett and Sean Hannity's watch. Jon Steward picked up the phony video on Hannity's show and exposed it for what it was, an out right lie.

Michael Clemente, Fox's Senior V.P. said the merging of the two video's as one event on Jarrett's show was unintentional and apologized. Sean Hannity also apologized. Jarrett's video covered an event for Sarah Palin and Hannity's video an event for Michele Bachmann. It was an attempt to convey to their viewing audience inflated attendance to promote what Bachmann and Palin were trying to sell.

Fox News has a habit of trying to mislead their viewers on purpose to foster their own warped ideology and then apologize if caught. That is how little they regard the people who watch the Fox network. They figure the poor suckers will accept their apology, believe they made an unintentional error and keep on watching Fox.

Rupert Murdoch, Fox's honcho dislikes the fact that the Obama administration understands Fox's programs are way out of balance, unfair and phony so what has been Murdoch's reaction? He says judge Fox News by its real news programs and not its other opinion shows. Yet, on Fox's opinion shows, (O'Reilly, Hannity, Beck and others) Fox flashes their fair and balanced propaganda sign on the screen.

The bottom line is The Fox News network is neither fair or balanced and often misleads the viewers on purpose. Its ideology is dangerous to the news media in our country. Nothing will change at Fox News despite the phony apology until the people tune them out. That says it all.

The Health-Care Reform Issue

Sixteen years after Health-Care reform was sent to its death by the Medical Profession, Health Insurance Companies, The Pharmaceutical Industry and Republicans, the U.S. House has passed Health-Care legislation and the U.S. Senate is slated to take up their own version this week end in Congress. Those same negative voices sixteen years ago predicted doom and gloom and are predicting the same think once again. The only doom and gloom that has transpired in those sixteen years are millions of more Americans are without health insurance and the cost of health care has risen beyond the pale.

Those negative voices have also done nothing in the way of reforming the health-care system during that same period. It was recently announced name brand prescription drugs have increased 9% in the past 6 months while the consumer price index actually was in negative territory to the tune of -1.3%.

The negative voices are repeating the past which means they have not learned anything to guide our future. The CBO who reviewed both the House and Senate plans say both plans will lower the deficit and health care cost. The negative voices dare not debate the fine print in the health-care plans because it would show how their position would be one of opposition based on falsehoods and in some cases, out right lies.

Those industries opposed to health-care reform have proven over and over again they can not be trusted to reform health care themselves. Greed is the driving force behind their opposition and their inability to face up to the health of America.