Jon Stewart Again Nails FOX to a Cross of Lies

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

By Mark Karlin

He may come off as a modern day version of the mischievous, naughty Puck from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," but Jon Stewart is masterfully exposing FOX for the fraud that it is.

On Thursday, November 12, Stewart again used humor and facts to shoot a torpedo straight into the belly of FOX's increasingly shredded pretense of being "fair and balanced." In fact, Stewart claimed the real motto of FOX "News" should be: "We alter real life. You are sold a preconceived narrative."

I've written a series of blogs on Stewart's devastating exposure of FOX's "subtle altering of reality to sell a preconceived narrative."

In fact, in the November 12 segment that ends with Sean Hannity admitting that a report on a Michelle Bachmann Right Wing Nut Job/Corporate Sponsored Teabagger Rally used misleading footage to embellish the crowd size, in that segment Jon Stewart is shown increasingly distraught as he is forced to watch the entire alternative reality scare fest Hannity program before Sean gets to the acknowledgement that he was caught without an excuse creating a fiction.

But the narrative that FOX uses to alter reality has a goal: to bring down Obama, just as the right wing tried for nearly 8 years to bring down Bill Clinton. And no fact or real news will get in the way of Rupert Murdoch's goal.

In fact, a journalist who worked at Murdoch's money losing right-wing rag, the New York Post, in its D.C. Bureau has filed a lawsuit that -- among other charges -- accuses the Post's coverage of having as its goal to "destroy Obama." That was revealed shortly after Rupert Murdoch condoned Glenn Beck's accusation that Obama is a racist.

What's central to the importance of Stewart's continuing witty skewering of FOX is that Stewart is one of the few television personalities who has the influence to put FOX on the defensive.

Many sites and campaigns on the Internet have targeted FOX and the other right-wing media shills who use liberals and Democrats as scapegoats to protect those with wealth and power who are destroying the working and middle class in America. In fact, BuzzFlash has been moving along with its "Get America to Turn Off Fox Campaign." That's because we believe we must all take personal action and not just express disdain for FOX's propaganda techniques, which Stewart has so skillfully exposed.

The preconceived narrative of FOX is to preserve the power and wealth of greedy corporate barons such as Murdoch by creating an alternative fictional universe of liberals as evil.

We owe so much to Stewart for fearlessly -- and humorously -- tearing off the mask of "fair and balanced" from the FOX face and revealing the pit of lies that they broadcast as both opinion and "news."

But it isn't news; it's a Murdoch narrative around which fictional factoids are presented as news, and since so many Americans look to television as the source of news, FOX has held a dangerous power over American politics.

That must end before we can restore a civil society based on reality, not fear-inducing propaganda.

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

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