Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin

[jim]

Sometimes when I see how my fellow Americans act and think, it really makes me wonder. FOX is a mainstream news channel, how could they do this unless there is a large number of people gobbling this stuff up? I know I occasionally get the crazy email from the crazy relative, but I just assumed it was pretty relegated to the absolute most ignorant of my countrymen. If it is not, if there truly is a large number of people walking around thinking about this stuff FOX is doing and thinking it is news and worth thought and conversation .... Well that's downright pathetic and depressing.

I was at a comedy club a couple of weeks ago and the comedian had a theory about the good ol' U.S. of A and Elvis. According to the comic, both were really something in their prime. But he thinks the U.S. has turned into Fat Elvis - we think we are good and we still put shows and people come out to see us and listen to us. But all we do is waddle up on stage, stumble through our old hits, farting and belching all the while a stunned audience looks on and remembers how great things were back when.

When I see this I wonder if that comic wasn't on to something.

edit - and I really hope that this is fake or the proper context would make sense out of it. Otherwise it really ruined my day.

[Freed Roger]

Who knows. It could definitley be a fake; it would certainly not be hard to do. We also don't know the context. They very well could have been doing a ridiculous emails from viewers segment or something. Not that I care or am defending fox, just making the point.

I do think its a fake. like you said -easy to do. But I don't see your point about context... hypothetically, someone would have had to type that in, knowing its a message that Fox would want to convey. for example if they were doing viewer email, and some viewer wrote in "Obama is a "expletive" " -then would they type that in as well, and play innocent that they were just printing some viewer's message.

I've seen Colbert's show - he does a satirical schtik like this called "The Word" and while he's saying one thing, his true message is printed on the screen.

[Cole Burns]

ridiculous

Looking at this again, I don't think its real. The type is not the same on all the lines.

Friends of Fox and Haters of Fox both would both have obvious motives in creating such an image - but I think the Friends of Fox would have the larger motive. They could get the message across. Then also point out all us people who believe the hoax are Fox-haters.

I think it is real, but I bet the context is different. I used to watch FNC a lot, but can't stand any cable news during an election cycle. One thing that struck me about FNC was that the bottom line note would always try to be witty without being witty and usually missed the mark. It would often misrepresent what was being discussed. I wondered if the programmer who was typing that in was some frat boy turned video editer who was trying to sneak stuff in.

[Fat Strat]

But I don't see your point about context... hypothetically, someone would have had to type that in, knowing its a message that Fox would want to convey. for example if they were doing viewer email, and some viewer wrote in "Obama is a "expletive" " -then would they type that in as well, and play innocent that they were just printing some viewer's message.

I'm just saying that we don't know the context. We don't know the graphics that were up just prior to this. We don't even know if it's a fake or not. We don't know what they were talking about.

I had a smart professor once say that "taking a text out of its context is a pretext for making it say whatever you want it to say".

Context is everything, especially when an item is being used to illicite a very specific response in people.


And again, I'm not defending Fox. I could care less about Fox or any other news program for that matter. Just making a point.

[TheoSqua]

more important political information: Obama isn't a cubs fan..

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/polit ... rious.html

[maddash]

So who here is going to break the news to Snayke?

[Freed Roger]

But I don't see your point about context... hypothetically, someone would have had to type that in, knowing its a message that Fox would want to convey. for example if they were doing viewer email, and some viewer wrote in "Obama is a "expletive" " -then would they type that in as well, and play innocent that they were just printing some viewer's message.

I'm just saying that we don't know the context. We don't know the graphics that were up just prior to this. We don't even know if it's a fake or not. We don't know what they were talking about.

I had a smart professor once say that "taking a text out of its context is a pretext for making it say whatever you want it to say".

Context is everything, especially when an item is being used to illicite a very specific response in people.


And again, I'm not defending Fox. I could care less about Fox or any other news program for that matter. Just making a point.

Hey Strat -I know we both must be bored to be debating a hypothetical situation like this. But you may have missed my point. Again, hypothetically, if a message like that was typed-onto a screen, it would be presumed that it is a stand-alone message - regardless of what is being said by the commentator or context. Half the people watching the news wouldn't even have the sound on - think of all the people on treadmills or in lobbies If it were to be someone else's message - it would need quotations. I can't think of any contextual way that would explain away that message.

...Ouch my head hurts now.

[Fat Strat]

Hey Strat -I know we both must be bored to be debating a hypothetical situation like this.

That's certainly true.

[GatewaySnayke]

This is fair and balanced at work:

From Fox News' August 25 coverage of the Democratic National Convention:

KELLY: Now let me ask you, because you heard Chris Wallace say it may have been a wasted night, and apparently James Carville did him one better, saying moments ago -- this is according to the RNC, which is reporting from another network -- saying James Carville said, quote, "If this party has a message, it's done a hell of a job hiding it tonight. I promise you that."

WOLFSON: Well, I disagree with James. I think that there was a lot of business that needed to be accomplished here, and I think that humanizing the Obamas, that showing her patriotism, pushing back on this attack on her that she's not patriotic, and rooting them in America's middle class, that was all important pieces of business that the Obama campaign had to get done, and they did do it.

KELLY: Do you think that, you know, her saying that she loves America, that she loves this country, is going to do it for those who questioned her patriotism? Because she said something -- what she said was, and I wrote it down, was, "The world as it is just won't do." If you replace "world" with "country," you're back to the same debate, arguably, that you have been having about Michelle Obama's feelings about this country. Did she give her critics any fodder with that comment?

Colbert took the piss out of her when he said something about how angry he gets any time he replaces the word "hope" with "sodomy."

So who here is going to break the news to Snayke?

Snayke saw it and still hasn't figured out if it is legitimate.

[stlouie_lipp]

Hunter Biden could not have been worse IMO. It was a "my dad walked 9 miles in the snow with no shoes" speech (and my mom died too).