Fox has never been busted for shit like this. If you think they have, provide a link or reference.
Fox News, whose slogan is Fair and Balanced, seems to have gone above and beyond in its anti-Obama rhetoric, which also includes smears and misinformation about Obamas outspoken wife, Michelle.
Some examples:
A June 11 Fox News broadcast graphic identified Michelle Obama as Obamas baby mama rather than as Obamas wife.
On the night that Obama secured the Democratic Party nomination, he and Michelle bumped knuckles, a gesture that the Fox News anchor referred to as a terrorist jab. To his credit, the anchor has since apologized for the remark.
On a Fox News broadcast during the Puerto Rico primary campaign, Republican strategist Roger Stone alleged that Michelle Obama had publicly referred to Whites as ****** and that a tape existed that would back up the charge of her alleged racism. The smear that Stone passed along originated with right-wing blogger Larry Johnson and made the rounds of right-wing blogs, repeated by talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.
Stone was soon forced to admit that he had not talked to anyone that had viewed the tape. Indeed, no such tape appears to exist.
While Obamas father may be Muslim, the repeated veiled references on Fox News to Obama himself being an unpatriotic Muslim who refuses to say the pledge of allegiance or wear an American flag lapel pin while intending to destroy the United States are too numerous to mention in this space.
The breathless non-stop coverage of the controversy surrounding remarks by Obamas pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, has been covered extensively elsewhere and is also too voluminous to chronicle in this space. This occurred simultaneously with Fox News failure to cover outrageous comments made by McCain supporters John Hagee and Rod Parsley.
Several Fox News personnel have been only too happy to smear Obama by assertion, using such tactics as equating Obamas first name with Osama bin Ladens name and Obamas middle name (Hussein) with Saddam.
One notable example was a joke made by Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, who reportedly said in a speech, Its true that Barack Obama is on the move. I dont know if its true President Bush called [Pakistan President Pervez] Musharraf and said, Why cant we catch this guy?
Last year, the Fox News program Fox and Friends aired a report that Obama had attended a radical Islamic school in Indonesia when he was a child. When the allegation was shown to be false, Fox and Friends co-hosts distanced themselves from the story, which had begun as an unsubstantiated story in Insight Magazine, a publication by the right-wing Washington Times newspaper.
On June 6, Fox News anchor Brit Hume said about Obama: His campaign has emphasized his faith in part to dispel what the campaign calls an online smear campaign which contends among other things that Obama was raised a Muslim. There is even a statement on his official campaign website reading, quote, Obama has never been a Muslim, and is a committed Christian. But Obamas half brother is not so sure. Malik Obama tells The Jerusalem Post that, if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background.
The quote from Obamas brother was dutifully repeated on fan sites for Fox News Sean Hannity as well as by conservative bloggers. ABC News obtained a tape of the interview in question, and although the questions arent clearly heard, what Obamas brother said was perfectly audible.
What Malik Obama apparently did say, in part, was: ...I cant go in terms of Israel and Kenya and America, and so forth, you know, but based on what else Ive heard him say and what I know of him as an individual, I dont think Israel should worry too much, you know, about the connection. Because, I am a Muslim myself, and I dont think that my being a Muslim has got anything to do with my brother being the President of the United States.
Brit Hume has, as far as we can determine, yet to issue a correction or retraction.
Obamas recent announcement that he would forego public financing for the general election was portrayed, through selective editing of what Obama actually said, as a hypocritical flip-flop from his earlier statements. The distortion occurred on Fox News June 19 Special Report broadcast, which also omitted the context in which Obama had said, If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.
In addition, across the board, Fox News personalities have uniformly declined to inform viewers of Republican challenger John McCains problems with the public financing system, which was intended to reduce the role of special interests and the wealthy on campaigns.
When McCains campaign was floundering in the primary election season, the Republican candidate is accused of having secured public taxpayer funds to keep the campaign on life support. To secure the public funding, McCain had allegedly signed a binding agreement with the Federal Elections Commission that obligated him to accept spending limits and agree to other conditions for accepting the funds.
McCain has since withdrawn from the public finance system, a move that apparently has legal repercussions. There are other allegations of improprieties on McCains part that, if demonstrated to be true, would leave his campaign in legal trouble. None of this gets reported on Fox News, however.
Again, Fox News is not the only media outlet guilty of distortions and smears against the Obamas. They do seem, however, to be the willing source of many of the smears and have displayed an unhealthy willingness to pass on as fact any unsourced or unfounded allegation that will put the Obamas in the worst light possible.
Fox News has been shown despite its claims to fairness and balance to be one of the last places those two journalistic values can be found. Again, we stress that media bias is pervasive; Fox News just appears to be the worst purveyor. In fact, some media figures have been accused of being too blatantly pro-Obama, perhaps most notably MSNBCs Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann.
