JON STEWART USES THE "TRUTH" TO "SLICE & DICE" THE FOX NEW´S LIES

Using the political fact-checking efforts of the non-partisan "Politifact", comedian Jon Stewart shows why his show continues to have better news ratings than Fox News.

...The award winning comedian, Jon Stewart

For years now, I have been preaching to the choir, not only about the falsehoods being offered up by the conservatives and the GOP, but to also make known the overall objectives of billionaire, Rupert Murdock, for his selling the Republican´s lies 24/7, on his Fox Network.

Well, this last Sunday, comedian Jon Stewart went for the Fox network´s jugular when he was invited to appear on the Sunday political show, Fox News Sunday.

For those that did not see Jon Stewart on Fox News Sunday with the Fox anchor, Chris Wallace, at the very end of the program, Stewart stated to Chris Wallace that, "All the polls showed that Fox News viewers were the most misinformed TV viewers in the nation."

After making this statement, the political fact-checking organization, "Politifact" took up Stewart´s challenge and put together a long sample list of false Fox Network statements that Mr. Stewart then offered his viewers on Jon´s Comedy Central, The Daily Show cable TV program. (Should you want to watch what Jon Stewart offered on his show, go to: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-june-21-2011/fox-news-false-statements )

While on his Daily Show, Jon Stewart stated that he had watched so many of Fox´s misstatements over the last two years, he had to admit that his statement about all the polls saying Fox viewers were the nation´s "most misinformed TV viewers", was incorrect. He then told his Daily Show audience that this statement was wrong because, of ALL of the 25 listed polls, Fox viewers were only at the very bottom of the "most uninformed" in over 20 of them. (Two of the polls that had more uninformed individuals than those that watched Fox, were those individuals that either had no TV or those that only watched the Weather Channel.)

Below are the 21, Politifact confirmed false Fox claims that Stewart referenced for over 5 minutes during his comedy show. In this list, there are included : 2-Politifact "Lies of the Year" awards, 5-"Pants on Fire" liar awards, and 14 regular "Fox-False" statement awards.

Here is the full list in the order in which Stewart named them, and it shows who and when on Fox made the statements.

Fox´s Glenn Beck: "Less than 10 percent of Obama's Cabinet appointees have had any experience in the private sector." — False (December 2, 2009)

Fox´s Steve Doocy: "White House Political Director Patrick Gaspard once served as the right-hand man for Bertha Lewis, who heads up ACORN." — False (September 30, 2009)

Fox´s Gretchen Carlson: Said, "The Texas State Board of Education is considering eliminating references to Christmas and the Constitution in textbooks." — A Pants on Fire! liar award (March 12, 2010)

PolitiFact's 2010 Lie of the Year: "Obama care is a government take-over of health care" (December 16, 2010)

Fox´s Glenn Beck: "The Muslim Brotherhood has openly stated they want to declare war on Israel." — False (February 15, 2011)

Fox´s Karl Rove: "American troops have never been under the formal control of another nation." — False (March 29, 2011)

Fox´s Brian Kilmeade: Says: "Florida Gov. Rick Scott's approval ratings are up." — False (April 15, 2011)

Fox´s Laura Ingraham: "The Massachusetts health care plan is wildly unpopular among state residents." — False (May 16, 2011)

Fox´s Sarah Palin: "Look at the debt that has been accumulated in the last two years. It's more debt under this president than all those other presidents combined." — False (June 1, 2011)

PolitiFact's 2009 Lie of the Year: "Obamacare has Death Panels" (December 18, 2009)

Fox´s Kimberly Guilfoyle: "If you log into the government's Cash for Clunkers Web site (cars.gov) from your home computer, the government can seize all of your personal and private information, and track your computer activity." — False (August 3, 2009)

Fox´s Sarah Palin: "We're going to be looking at $8 billion a day that we're going to be pouring into foreign countries in order to import that make-up fuel that we're going to need to take the place of what we could have gotten out of the gulf." — A "Pants on Fire!" liar award (June 3, 2011)

Fox´s Sarah Palin: "Democrats are poised now to cause this largest tax increase in U.S. history." —Another "Pants on Fire!" liar award (August 4, 2010)

Fox´s Bill O'Reilly: "Attorney General Eric Holder is involved in the dismissal of the criminal charges against the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation." — False (July 23, 2010)

Fox´s Sarah Palin: "Barack Obama had 150 days in the U.S. Senate where he was able to vote quite often ´present´. " — False (February 8, 2010)

Fox´s Glenn Beck: "John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population." — A "Pants on Fire!" liar award (July 29, 2009)

Fox´s Glenn Beck: "Labor union president Andy Stern is the most frequent visitor at the White House." — False (December 7, 2009)

Fox´s Glenn Beck: "Why do we have automatic citizenship upon birth? We're the only country in the world that has it." — False (June 19, 2009)

Fox´s Bill O'Reilly: "Says he didn't call Dr. George Tiller a baby killer, as liberal groups charge, but was merely reporting what some pro-lifers branded him." — False (June 5, 2009)

Fox´s Bill O'Reilly: "When White House communications director Anita Dunn said that Mao Tse-tung was one of her favorite philosophers, only Fox News picked that up." — False (October 27, 2009)

Fox´s Bill O'Reilly: "We researched to find out if anybody on Fox News had ever said you're going to jail if you don't buy health insurance. Nobody's ever said it." — A "Pants on Fire!" liar award (April 27, 2010)

Fox, the GOP, and the fully financed conservative "Think-Tanks" such as The American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute in Washington DC, they are all very aware that when you are trying to get ordinary people to believe things that are blatantly false, it is imperative that the lies be repeated over and over, again and again. With the help of the millionaire Koch Brothers and the money from other major corporations and the Fox Network, they are successfully getting their falsehoods imbedded into the minds of the nation´s voters.

I find it highly ironic that it´s the Internet, a political comedian and a cable comedy channel that is actually informing the average American about the nation´s news, better than today´s network or cable TV news programs, (which today are all under corporate control). It actually shows that today´s news shows are not actually offering real "news", they are instead providing biased information and "Infotainment". Networks and Cable TV networks are today in the business of making profits, not for informing the public on critical political issues.

Since President Ronald Reagan got rid of the 1930´s requirement for the networks to provide unbiased news for the general public, all the networks have moved their news operations into their entertainment divisions, which are "for-profit" divisions, not "News organizations".

And at Fox, they are also in the "we only support the politics of the GOP", Fox division.

During the interview with Jon Stewart, Chris Wallace even made a comment that proved that Fox was not the "Fair & Balanced" network that they claim. This occurred when Mr. Wallace actually stated to Mr. Stewart that, "Fox offers the other side of the issues". Which begs the question, "The other side of what issues?" In other words, they are not offering a balance for showing both sides of the issues, Fox just shows the "far right" side.

Actually, it's not wrong for Fox to show only the far right's position on their network. It's all their lying that's the key issue. In additiron, as it is with MSNBC, who states up front that their programs are political, NOT news, Fox continues to try and pass their infotainment off as "real news".

It is very sad that this great nation´s communications systems have degenerated to this level.

My hope is that the next two generations of middle-class Americans (if the middle-class can survive) recognize what is happening and that they make the difficult and needed political changes. But I am concerned that with the large amounts of money currently being invested in promoting the falsehoods from the far right, it may already be too late.

I guess we are currently in the "wait and see" mode, but just as it was at the beginning of the 20th Century that eventually led to the Great Depression, it took decades to get us into this current mess. And it will take more decades to get us out. Hopefully, the average younger American is starting to wake up and is strong enough to stand up and take back what is theirs.

But they don´t have very long to make that happen.

With today´s big multi-national corporations; an un-elected US Supreme Court that is now the strongest, right wing division of the government; and with the wealthiest Americans now virtually running the government; there isn´t much time left before the US becomes a very large, "third-word nation". In fact, in some ways, we are already there.

I don´t believe that I will live long enough to see America come back to the prosperity of the 1950´s. But I´m seriously hoping that it will eventually get there.

Copyright G.Ater 2010

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