Posted on 11/06/2008 3:32:09 PM PST by big black dog
Normally, Fox News is a quality news outlet that has more integrity and balance than any other news outlet. Not so, today. Somehow, Fox let itself slide to the level of the National Enquirer when it ran with some wild rumors about Sarah Palin that originated from “unnamed” sources.
Kerri Houston Toloczko wrote a nice column for Regular Folks United in which she identifies the sources and has some choice words for them. From her column: News has been circulating around GOP insiders for weeks that McCain campaign honchos Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt were planning to blame Sarah Palin for McCain’s loss. This was expected to be an effort to punt the blame for their own failures to the side of the ticket that was most popular with the base, attracted the largest rally crowds, and scared the living bejeepers out of the opposing party.
The slander was projected, and appeared immediately after the election.
What was not anticipated was the disgraceful level of venom-laden vitriolic drool that dribbled from their camp, and their use of a respected Fox News reporter as their personal tool for deflecting their own accountability.
Last night on the O’Reilly Factor, McCain campaign embed Carl Cameron laid out Davis and Schmidt’s case against Palin with glee that channeled junior high mean girls, and details only worthy of the National Enquirer on its darkest day.
If these were real charges and real concerns, Schmidt and Davis would not have hidden behind the cloak of anonimity and would instead have put their names out for all to see right from the very start. This is clearly a sour grapes response to the election loss. Further, I doubt that Schmidt and Davis would have started such idiotic rumors about any male candidate.
The slanders included idiotic notions that Governor Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent or that she didn’t know the three nations that made up NAFTA. Only the most gullible and naive (or the most die-hard Democrat) would believe such nonsense slanders. These slanders are right up there with Barack Obama claiming there are 57 states, or Joe Biden claiming that President Franklin Roosevelt got on TV after the market crash in 1929. Hell, even the bit about Biden telling a man confined to a wheelchair to “stand up and take a bow” didn’t reach this level.
Given that Sarah Palin was reared by two school teachers, owned a business and rose up to become the Governor of Alaska, it is pretty easy to see how idiotic Davis and Schmidt are for starting such rumors.
Toloczko goes on: As a human person, I was shocked. As I woman, I was disgusted. As a conservative who understands how important this new fresh face has been to our political renewal; I was incensed.
As a Republican, I was ashamed.
…
Senior campaign officials should stand up like grownups and take responsibility for the outcome of the campaign instead of throwing the girl under the bus. Fox News’ Carl Cameron should go to rehab for his apparent case of Stockholm Syndrome after spending months on McCain campaign planes and buses.
And Bill O’Reilly should designate all of them as “pinheads” and apologize to Governor Palin for showing such personally damaging and politically counterproductive rumors and innuendos the light of day.
Ironically, as the head honchos of McCain’s failed campaign attempt to deflect their own inadequacies in such a disgusting and defamatory manner, they have ensured that they will never be hired again. What they have demonstrated without question is that they cannot be trusted.
I would have expected something like this from, say, Kathleen Parker or Christopher Buckley or even Peggy Noonan. But for Bill O’Reilly to consciously participate in this kind of slander was unthinkable up until now.
Turn them off......how long will we let the MSM run this country?
I’m very selective on what I watch on Fox anymore and that is not much.
I am DISGUSTED they resorted to gossip as news.
There, fixed it.
Now that Birt is leaving, I’m done with FNC.
I know why O’Reilly ran this. He ran the story because he wants an interview with Palin.
He wants ratings and knows she can deliver so he gets Carl Cameron to tell the story and then asks Palin to come on his program Monday.
The guy is a snake!
The only person responsible for McCain’s loss is McCain, period. Any thing else is CYA BS.
Faux News wants access to Our Leader, The One (piss be upon him), just like the rest of the MSM.
Because Faux News is now mainstream.
I haven’t watched Fox news since Tuesday night. I don’t plan on watching any news for a while. I can get all the news I want off the net.
FOX was the last news station left on my Direct TV line up. The rest, CNN, MSNBC, etc. I blocked. Today FOX joins them. I don’t need TV news and do not want TV news. I’m done with news with an agenda.
Fox went tabloid long ago with missing/abused/dead/runaway girlfriends/wives/daughters/children stories. It is hardly surprising that “hard” news stories are taking the same turn. The anti-Sarah stories will find a ready market at Fox, as Murdoch seeks to protect the licenses of his broadcast stations from General Secretary Obama.
I turned off CNN and MSNBC about two months ago....Fox News followed about a month later.
If I can't watch something unflitered on C-Span, I don't watch it.
The shakes DO subside and life IS better without the vapid noise from cable news.
I can’t recall the source (it may have been Dick Morris) but he printed an article that alleged that the McCain Campaign had been handled with “political misconduct” (and this was two weeks before the vote!). In fact, it may have been Luntz or another talking head.
In short, the whole thing was “amateur hour.” The only thing worth a dang was Sarah Palin who kept the whole charade alive...
Ditto... It is no longer news. It is “entertainment.”
“But for Bill O’Reilly to consciously participate in this kind of slander was unthinkable up until now.”
Read BOR was doing this and didn’t watch. Will no longer tune in to FAUX except for Hannity and Neil Cavuto (my mom loves them).
And I’m not at all surprised at BOR’s behavior regarding Sarah. He has a HUGE problem with women and he’s a self-aggrandizing tabloid gossiper from way back (yet he calls facts innuendo when it suits his purpose). I’ll not waste my time watching the pinhead.
It certainly was important to Obama who visited dozens of times.
A slight correction - he WANTED an interview with Palin, as in pre-election. And he didn’t get it so now his famous Irish temper comes to full blast. He has been pissing and moaning the past few weeks about how he “hopes she’ll come on the Factor” and how they could possibly pass up such an honor. Cameron and the snakes in the McCain campaign who now need to find real jobs gave him a scapegoat and he took it.
You caitiff, O’Reilly!
Methinks we’re being played. Beware the bait!
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