After Smearing Obama For Years, Fox Decries Supposed “Insults,” “Scare Tactics” From Obama, Biden
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on October 22nd, 2011 4:41 am by HL
After Smearing Obama For Years, Fox Decries Supposed “Insults,” “Scare Tactics” From Obama, Biden
Fox News has recently expressed outrage over alleged “insults” and “scare tactics” that President Obama and Vice President Biden have used during speeches around the country, with Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy asking if such strategies are “turning off the independent voters.” But Fox News has spent years relentlessly insulting and smearing both Obama and Biden, and have used scare tactics to attack Obama.
Fox Decries Supposed “Insults” And “Scare Tactics” From Obama And Biden
Doocy: “You’ve Got To Wonder Whether The Use Of The Insult[s] And The Scare Tactics Is Turning Off The Independent Voters.” On the October 20 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy discussed President Obama and Vice President Biden’s remarks on the American Jobs Act. Doocy claimed that “it sounds like [Biden has] been using some scare tactics” and that Obama “has been insulting Republicans” and asked “whether the use of the insult and the scare tactics is turning off the independent voters.” From the broadcast:
DOOCY: Let’s talk a little bit about this. The president of the United States and the vice president have been all over the country pushing their $35 billion jobs bill. And if you’ve been watching, the vice president in particular, it sounds like he’s been using some scare tactics. Either pass the bill or rape is going to go up across the country, who knows? And the president of the United States himself has been insulting Republicans. And you’ve got to wonder whether the use of the insult and the scare tactics is turning off the independent voters who wind up putting people into the White House. Are they? Here are the president and vice president.
[start video]
OBAMA: Maybe they just couldn’t understand the whole thing all at once. So we’re going to break it up into bite-sized pieces. So they can take a thoughtful approach to this legislation.
[cut]
BIDEN: This is an emergency. Three-hundred thousand teachers have been laid off.
[cut]
BIDEN: In many cities, the result has been, and it’s not unique, murder rates are up. Robberies are up. Rapes are up. [cut] Ladies and gentlemen, response times have gone from five minutes to over an hour in some of your cities.
[cut]
OBAMA: And then you got their plan, which is let’s have dirtier air, dirtier water. [cut] They want to gut regulations. They want to let Wall Street do whatever it wants. They want to drill more.
[end video]
BRIAN KILMEADE (co-host): Now, I mean, you know the counterargument to that, because this is not the picture dictionary section of life. You know that the Republicans aren’t going on the dirt — running on the dirty water, dirty air platform. You just know that regulation seems to be stifling the economy. And you also know that it’s not a matter of people not wanting to hire cops and retain teachers. It’s wondering if we’re running in a deficit, is it worth putting $35 billion into the black hole after you did that three years ago? But in the big picture, do independents look at that and hear the counterargument? Do they understand that that necessarily isn’t the fact?
DOOCY: That’s the question.
GRETCHEN CARLSON (co-host): I don’t know. It’s obviously a strategy that this administration has come up with, and maybe they have some internal polling that shows them that this works, to vilify other Republicans, and maybe it works with independents when they just hear those quick little pieces of sound, that they think, “Oh, Republicans do want to make water dirtier.” I don’t know. They must have some research — or, this is the only campaign strategy left with 9.1 percent unemployment. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 10/20/11, emphasis added]
During the segment, on-screen text read, “A Campaign Of Insults?”:
Hannity: Biden “Upping The Ante When It Comes To Absurd And Irresponsible Scare Tactics.” On the October 20 edition of Fox News’ Hannity, host Sean Hannity claimed that “the vice president is now upping the ante when it comes to absurd and irresponsible scare tactics.” Fox News contributor Ann Coulter called it “part of the theme with the Democrats” to try to “produce mobs when they don’t get their way politically.” From Hannity:
HANNITY: And the president has trumpeted the fact that the GOP jobs bill will bring you dirtier air, dirtier water. But his vice president is now upping the ante when it comes to absurd and irresponsible scare tactics. Now, without stimulus two, according to the vice president, rapes and murders will skyrocket. Take a look.
[…]
HANNITY: Hey, don’t screw around with me on this. Rape and murder is going to go up unless you pass the president’s bill. Your reaction?
COULTER: I’m so glad you played that for me. Because I’d heard about it, I had no idea how completely crazy it was.
[…]
COULTER: This is part of the theme with the Democrats. I mean, for 30 years they have been trying to get, you know, be able to miraculously produce mobs when they don’t get their way politically. Back in 2004, Elizabeth Edwards warned that there would be riots if John Kerry didn’t win. Al Gore specifically speaking to a black audience warned them not to react with violent acts if Kerry/Edwards ticket didn’t win.
HANNITY: Wait, I can one-up you. He also said to predominantly black audience “Republicans don’t even want to count you in the census.”
COULTER: No, but what I’m talking about – yes, he said a lot of stupid things. What I’m talking about is specifically trying to get blacks to riot. You know, how about you riot, white boy?
HANNITY: Oh, boy.
COULTER: I mean, they aren’t rioting. It’s always Democrats trying to gin up this mob by threatening. [Fox News, Hannity, 10/20/11]
Yet Fox Has Spent Years Insulting And Smearing Obama And Biden …
OBAMA WAS NOT BORN IN THE U.S.
Hannity On Obama’s Birth Certificate: “Can’t They Just Produce It, And We Move On?” On the March 23 edition of his Fox News show, Hannity asked, “What do you think about this birth certificate issue? I mean, it has not been my main issue, but it kind of does get a little odd here after a while. Can’t they just produce it and we move on?” [Fox News, Hannity, 1/7/10, via Media Matters]
Dobbs: Obama To Start Ruling “By Fiat” Because “This Has Been Too Complicated, This Democracy Thing.” On the February 16, 2010, edition of Fox & Friends, guest Lou Dobbs responded to a story about Obama’s ability to communicate his message by falsely claiming, “What I find interesting, Steve, is now they’re announcing that they’re going to do things by executive order, by fiat” because “this has been too complicated, this democracy thing.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 2/16/10, via Media Matters]
OBAMA IS A “RACIST”
Beck: Obama Is A “Racist” With A “Deep-Seated Hatred For White People Or The White Culture.” On the July 28, 2009, edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, Beck called Obama a “racist” with a “deep-seated hatred for white people.” From the show:
BECK: This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture. I don’t know what it is, but you can’t sit in a pew with Jeremiah Wright for twenty years and not hear some of that stuff, and not have it wash over.
[…]
BECK: I’m not saying that he doesn’t like white people, I’m saying he has a problem. He has a — this guy is, I believe, a racist. Look at the things that he has been surrounded by. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 8/30/10]
Hume Claimed Jerusalem Post Story Quoted Obama’s Half-Brother About “Muslim Background.” On the June 16, 2008, edition of Special Report, then-host Brit Hume stated that Malik Obama, Obama’s half-brother, “tells The Jerusalem Post that ‘if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background.’ ” [Fox News, Special Report, 7/27/09, via Media Matters]
Johnson: Provision “Is Kind Of Our 2009 Brave New World, Soylent Green, 1984, Aldous Huxley Kind Of World.” Johnson said on the July 28, 2009, edition of Fox & Friends:
JOHNSON: Advanced care planning consultation is kind of our 2009 Brave New World, Soylent Green, 1984, Aldous Huxley kind of world where you come in and see a doctor at age 65, and if you’re chronically ill you come in every year, and your doctor who will be trained — and they will spend billions of dollars on training doctors to be counselors — that you have options. You don’t have to go into a hospital. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 7/28/09, via Media Matters]
Kilmeade Wonders If “Seniors [Are] Going To Be In Front Of The Death Panel.” On the August 10, 2009, edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade said:
KILMEADE: [E]veryone’s talking about seniors, and they’re talking about the middle class and affordable health care. If the upper class is paying for the next two classes, and are seniors going to be in front of the death panel? And then just as you think, OK, that’s ridiculous, then you realize there’s provisions in there that seniors in the last lap of their life will be sitting there going to a panel possibly discussing what the best thing for them is. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 8/10/09, via Media Matters]
Morris: Medicare Advisory Board “Is Really The Death Panel That Sarah Palin Was Talking About.” From the December 23, 2009, edition of Fox & Friends:
MORRIS: The Medicare Advisory Board you speak about is a particularly dangerous thing, because it’s going to set up for Medicare only, for the elderly only, protocols and standards of care where they are going to be saying no, you can’t give this person a hip replacement, they are too old, and no, you can’t treat this person with colon cancer with the best drug available. I know it increases the chance of his dying, but it’s beyond the cost parameters that we are prepared to allow. And this will be done by this federal board, which is really the death panel that Sarah Palin was talking about. That’s an oversimplification, but the basic concept isn’t far wrong. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 12/23/09, via Media Matters]
For the full timeline of the “death panels” smear and the real facts on the health care law, SEE HERE.
