Dana Perino and Forgetful FOX News: Neglect 9/11, Claim No Terrorist Attacks with Bush

BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Jeffrey Joseph

Even by its own standards, FOX News has been getting an awful lot wrong in its broadcasts of late. Somehow, though, they managed to forget one of their favorite rallying cries in an effort to heap praise upon President George W. Bush and simultaneously denigrate President Obama.  On an appearance on Sean Hannity's show, Dana Perino exhibited an immense lapse in memory in stating with relief that "we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term," conveniently forgetting, of course, the most pivotal attack on American soil within the last sixty years--9/11.

Hannity, Perino, and Stuart Varney were discussing national security at the time, and Perino began her discussion with the obviously political qualification of "and I don't say this to be political," going on to label to the Ft. Hood shooting a terrorist attack and comparing it to the allegedly terrorist-free Bush administration.  BuzzFlash, of course, has a very different opinion on the prevalence of terrorist attacks in the US.  Unsurprisingly, neither Varney or Hannity had the presence of mind on the show to correct Perino on her glaring error in recollecting recent history, preferring instead to attack the current administration for opting to investigate the incident rather than immediately referring to it as a terrorist act.

FOX News has recently endured a number of public mistakes on its network, such as Jon Stewart calling out Sean Hannity for using inaccurate footage of an event and FOX airing campaign footage rather than the described Palin book signing.  In an effort to stem the criticism against them, FOX took the heretofore unprecedented move of having its on-air personalities like Sean Hannity actually apologize for the errors.  Furthermore, soon after the Dana Perino appearance, a FOX memo leaked that discussed drawing down the content on FOX News programming to the most basic and easily verifiable elements in light of inaccuracy issues until FOX can pull itself together to avoid "having to explain, retract, qualify or apologize again."

Of course, the likelihood of any serious crusade for honesty and solid reporting at FOX News is pretty dismal given their extended history of lying.  Whether it comes to something as mundane as a commentator lying about a chance encounter on a train or something more insidious like constantly misidentifying disgraced Republicans as Democrats on the air, FOX News has long had issues with credibility.  For FOX, the revisionist history of Dana Perino and Sean Hannity that eliminates 9/11 simply represents another example in a continuing trend of news without integrity that offends more people seeking worthwhile journalism with every passing day.  The question is not about how long before the next rash of FOX gaffes, but really how long will people continue to tolerate them?

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BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

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