COMMENTARY | Fox News on Thursday continued its attack on White House green jobs adviser Van Jones. Fox posted the headline “October Offensive — Van Jones Threatens Violence Next Month” over a video of Jones’ appearance on MSNBC.
Yet Jones clearly didn’t use those words, or anything inferring violence at all. This is not a mere twisting of the facts, it is an outright lie. Jones’ attorney has sent Fox a cease-and-desist letter to demand they stop the “sensational and inflammatory” assailment.
Jones’ comments can be heard on “The Last Word,” and in reality he refers to his effort to counterbalance the tea party to save America’s middle class and to take back America’s dream. In no way could his remarks even be mistakenly misconstrued as violent.
Fox has had an agenda to spread messages of hate and false rumors to discredit President Barack Obama and even positive progressive efforts that democrats make. It is not just a sporadic occurrence, it seems to happen almost daily.
While it’s fine to take a conservative slant, creating falsehoods to encourage conspiracy rumors, such as the ridiculous rumor of Obama’s fake birth certificate, only helps to create a larger divide in our country then there already is.
In another one of its latest attacks, it accuses Michelle Obama of faking a shopping trip to Target in an effort to pretend she is “one of us.” Well, Fox, you are not “one of us,” and the messages you send sound like you’re coming from a middle school playground.
Earlier this year, Rush Limbaugh, who wouldn’t know the truth if it hit him square in the eye, promoted a story that tried to infer the first lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign was causing pedestrian deaths. It appeared with the headline: “Michelle Obama’s ‘Get Moving’ Program Linked to Pedestrian Deaths.”
Jim Hoft, who is known for spewing ignorant and nasty attacks to benefit his conservative agenda, was the writer of the story, and with absolutely no facts to base his statement with, tried to link her campaign for getting people active and outdoors to the increase in deaths.
Fox News has apparently gone the way of the “Weekly World News,” the supermarket tabloid that could be found in the checkout aisle with headlines such as “SANTA’S ELVES REALLY SLAVES FROM THE PLANET MARS!”
The Weekly World News closed in 2007, and I can only hope that Faux News is headed in the same direction.