Not Even Trying To Hide It

I guess Fox News is allowed to run whatever series of Republican press releases as "news" that they want. It certainly makes it a lot easier for them. It's the specificity of this one - and the lie that this was a result of their crack investigative team - that makes it so pathetic.

During the February 10 edition of Fox News' Happening Now, co-host Jon Scott claimed that "the Senate is expected to pass the $838 billion stimulus plan -- its version of it, anyway. We thought we'd take a look back at the bill, how it was born, and how it grew, and grew, and grew." In tracking how and when the bill purportedly "grew," Scott referenced seven dates, as on-screen graphics cited various news sources from those time periods. However, all of the sources and cost figures Scott cited, as well as the accompanying on-screen text, were also contained in a February 10 press release issued by the Senate Republican Communications Center. One on-screen graphic during the segment even repeated a typo from the GOP document, further confirming that Scott was simply reading from a Republican press release. The Fox News graphic and the GOP press release both claimed that a Wall Street Journal report that the stimulus package could reach "$775 billion over two years" was published on December 19, 2009 [emphasis added].

Today the host of Happening Now apologized - for the typo.

If Fox News anchors want to admit to typing up press releases from the GOP, I really don't have a problem with it. The propaganda is going to get in the hands of the base anyway. This method seems weirdly more honest to me than the whole "fair and balanced" thing.

(Oh, and the price tag for the stimulus got bigger because the problem got bigger, but I won't let "adapting in response to events" get in the way of Republican spin.)