http://mediamatters.org/countyfair/200902110016

Caught red handed using GOP talking points, Fox caves with apology…for typo

Published Wed, Feb 11, 2009 2:24pm ET by Karl Frisch

Yesterday, Media Matters noted:

In purporting to “take a look back” at how the economic recovery plan “grew, and grew, and grew,” Fox News’ Jon Scott referenced seven dates, as on-screen graphics cited various news sources from those time periods — all of which came directly from a Senate Republican Communications Center press release. A Fox News on-screen graphic even reproduced a typo contained in the Republican press release.

My, how a day of criticism from media critics and progressive bloggers changes things – even at Fox News. Today, Scott offered… an apolog of sorts (emphasis added):

Yesterday on Happening Now we showed you how the stimulus bill has grown over time. Our story prompted by a news release from the Senate Republican Communication Center. There point that a $56 billion proposal in September has grown to $838 billion in five months. In compiling the story, our producers and researchers did what we always do — we verified the accuracy of the material. But in double checking the newspaper quotes referenced in that news release we made the same mistake they did. We labeled a Wall Street Journal article as having run in 2009 when in fact it was 2008. That was our error, and we apologize.

Of course, I’m kidding.

See what Scott does there? He apologizes, not for passing along a one-sided argument made in a Senate Republican Communications Center’s press release as Fox News’ original reporting, but for reporting the typo.

In his initial report, Scott didn’t tell his audience that the citations in his report were based entirely on a press release from the Senate Republicans – a fact he glosses over in his half-hearted apology for the typo.

I’d question Fox News’ journalistic integrity; that is of course if they had any to question in the first place.

“I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress.” Daniel J. Broorstin Idealogue-an often blindly partisan advocate-Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary I’ve been struggling to understand the nature of some heartless statements made by South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford with regard to the current state of our economy. During a recent appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union with John King” Sanford speculated that President Obama’s proposed economic stimulus package would have “disastrous consequences not just for the economy of South Carolina but frankly the economy of the nation.” Sanford went on to say that it would be better to let some banks and other industries fail than have the federal government step in to help, even if it means throwing tens of thousands of people out of work.

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Paul Krugman presents the most effective and articulate defense of the Democrats economic policy, destroying the myth of GOP fiscal restraint.

Watch this!

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/paul-krugman-joe-scarborough-youve-got-mythical-image