The Rise And Fall Of Fox News
By Cliff Kincaid
October 6, 2008
The coverage of the financial crisis has been helpful in demonstrating that many of the "conservatives" in the media are not so conservative after all. When the going gets tough, they are quick to abandon their principles. Several commentators on the Fox News Channel joined Senators Barack Obama and John McCain and most congressional Democrats in supporting the socialist-style bailout scheme.
Exhibit number one is Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard, who declared (web site) on "Special Report with Brit Hume" on Fox News on October 2 that conservatives in the House of Representatives opposing the plan were crazy, nuts, and idiots. This vicious personal attack was followed by Barnes claiming that President Reagan would have supported a $700-billion federal takeover of the financial sector in the U.S. He cited no evidence for that claim.
In fact, wasn't it Reagan who said, "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem?"
A new Rasmussen poll (web site) finds that 59 percent of Americans still agree with Reagan on that. Just 28 percent disagreed. Rasmussen reported, "The fact that most Americans still agree with Reagan helps explain the ongoing public resistance to the bailout bill currently working its way through Congress and the fear of many voters that the federal government will do too much rather than too little to deal with the current economic situation."
Of course, thanks to people like Barnes - and the votes of Barack Obama and John McCain and most congressional Democrats - the bill has now passed.
The assumption by all of these people, rarely examined by commentators in the media, is that a massive expansion of federal power over the economy, and more federal spending and more debt, will somehow "solve" the financial crisis. But there is no reason to believe this is the case. Indeed, as financial analyst and investor Peter Schiff argues, it can only makes things worse by facilitating the policies that created the problems in the first place. (web site)
I had always laughed in the past when people on the political Left referred to Fox News as "Faux News." They were upset because Fox News has been successful airing programs including conservative viewpoints. But during coverage of the financial crisis, all of the conservative panelists on Brit Hume's usually first-rate program were cheerleaders for the takeover scheme. These included Barnes, William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer. It was not "fair and balanced."
Yet, despite all of this pressure, when the takeover plan passed on Friday, most House Republicans stood on principle and opposed it. Indeed, House conservatives had led the opposition. They voted it down 108-91. By contrast, House Democrats voted for it 172-63.
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