Monday, November 26, 2012

Thomas Ricks blasts Fox News

By Frank Moraes

(Ed. note: Make sure to watch the great clip below. Ricks punctured a hole in Fox News's propaganda and was summarily silenced. But he certainly got his point across, to his bemusement. Check out the look on his face when he's told the interview is over. -- MJWS)

 

This is amazing. I can't say that I blame them, but Fox News quickly got rid of Thomas Ricks after he blasted the network over its Benghazi coverage. Jon Scott interviewed Ricks. He is what Fox News claims is a "straight news reporters." I've always felt that these were the most dangerous people on the network because they deceive the audience in much more subtle ways -- in particular, by skewing what they choose to cover. This is clear in the topic of this segment: who else is covering the supposed Benghazi scandal? And now that there is little to report since John McCain has realized that he's only embarrassing himself, Fox is covering the fact that there isn't anything to cover.

Ricks was on for less than one minute. In that time, he does manage to provide answers to two questions, but it is all about the same thing: why are McCain and the others cooling off on what Fox News has trumped up to be a bigger scandal than Watergate? 

Ricks replies:

I think that Benghazi generally was hyped by this network especially and now that the campaign is over, I think [John McCain] is backing off a little. They're not going to stop Susan Rice from being Secretary of State.

Scott asks how Ricks can call the deaths of four government personnel "hype." Rick responds with the question, "How many security contractors died in Iraq, do you know?" Scott responds that he does not know, which was kind of nice when you consider how O'Reilly or Hannity would have responded. Ricks continues:


No, nobody does, because nobody cared. We know that several hundred died, but there was never an official count done, of security contractors dead in Iraq. So when I see this focus on what was essentially a small fire fight, I think number one, I've covered a lot of fire fights, it's impossible to figure out what happens in them sometimes. And second, I think that the emphasis on Benghazi has been extremely political partly because Fox was operating as a wing of the Republican Party.

 I've always felt that Thomas Ricks was a fairly conservative guy. I still think so. But he certainly isn't a Republican Party hack. As a result, such a criticism of Fox News has a lot more weight. But Ricks wasn't on screen for long enough for anyone to notice other than the host and some executive producer who was probably screening in Scott's ear, "Get him off!"

Anyway, watch it. It is a thing to behold.

(Cross-posted at Frankly Curious.)

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3 Comments:

  • That is why the majority of people refuse to speak Truth to a power structure. That is why Grover hold sway over the hacks he controls because few people stand up to those who would otherwise prefer mindless zombies to human being who speak for themselves and the greater commons.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:48 AM  

  • You know, I hope the Great GOP Propaganda/Noise Machine keeps hyping "scandals" like Benghazi and Solyndra. In fact, I wish they'd bring back Ken Starr and launch a big multi-million-dollar investigation. Of course, all of this would hurt the GOP with mainstream voters far more than it ever would hurt Obama. It'll get to the point where the GOP brand is poisoned for many years to come.

    By Blogger Marc McDonald, at 1:14 AM  

  • Four dead Americans that the White House watched die on the cameras that were there. A stand down order from the WH while it was happening. A false claim that it was an out of control protest movement when it was a terrorist attack. A media that reported every detail during Bushes term but interferes in a Presidential debate to protect President Obama. Sure, nothing to report. No big deal. As to the contractors in Iraq, I do remember when there were four dead contractors hanging from a bridge after being tortured the founder of the Dailykos did care. He cared enough to say about the contractors "Fuck Them".

    By Blogger akotf, at 2:44 PM  

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