More Fox Balance

Our previous post pointed out that Fox is really an advocacy organization that poses as one that is delivering news, thus making it far more effective, and appealing, than outright advocacy.

As the cleverly named site "Balloon Juice" notes, Fox just decided that Democrats were calling for Janet Napolitano to step down.

We're not convinced Napolitano's initial reaction to the news of the Christmas airline bomber was all too swift., but still, a random state senator somewhere, and the former aide to moderate Republican in name only Joe Lieberman, does not exactly represent Democrats.

Except to "Fox," of course, who started off their article, entitled, "Democrats call for Napolitano to Step Down Following Failed Attack," with the sentence "Democrats have joined the ranks of those calling..."

Yeah, technically true, since former Lieberman aide Dan Gerstein and New Jersey State Senator Richard Codley, are "Democrats."

But blatant spin from an organization that bills itself as a news organization.

But is not:



(Or, regarding Fox, see this video, ignoring the first thirty seconds of similarly counter productive, liberal Keith Olberman spin. (As if what Fox did was "bias," and Olbermann did not just play right into the common, but false, "the media is liberal, Fox balances it out" perception. But then Olbermann sometimes writes on this site.))

This is not to weigh in on the substantive merit of Codley or Gerstein's view. It is to point out that Fox clearly cherry picked two random Democrats out of the top several thousand of the country's leading Democrats, to push their own idea that Napolitano should step down and make it seem like there was a wider bipartisan chorus in support of this than their is.

That's not news. That's a clear agenda. Except, of course, to Glenn Reynolds.

Yeah, the System Worked: "Great"

Although it's not clear what system Janet Napolitano is talking about here when she makes this comment.

Because it's certainly not the system that is designed to keep radical terrorists out of America:

The alleged perpetrator in the recent failed airline bomb attempt had been denied re entry into Britain.

Britain's reason? A pretty good one:  He allegedly claimed his intent to study at a bogus University. 

His own father, a former economics minister of Nigeria, is reported by the UK's Independent to have warned the U.S. that his son was tied to al-Qi'da  almost half a year earlier.  In November, his father went to the U.S. embassy in Nigeria to warn the U.S. about his son and these same ties.

ABC's Jake Tapper also notes that on Dec. 16 he bought a round trip ticket with 3k cash and no address or contact info, and on Dec. 24 boarded a flight from Nigeria to the U.S. with no luggage. 

These latter two things are not that big of a deal; but in combination with his father', an extremely prominent Nigerian, warning of ties to al-Qida, and Britain banning him from entry prior to that for other reasons?

Seems like, in fact, the system didn't work so well.