It's pretty interesting how little attention the mainstream media seems to pay to the ongoing smear campaign the Fox News Channel is conducting against Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama.
On June 18th the Media Matters Website reported that Fox anchor Brit Hume distorted a transcript of an Israeli Army Radio interview with Obama's half-brother Malik Obama; Hume incorrectly quoted Malik Obama as saying Barack Obama was a Muslim. Obama is NOT a Muslim, has stated so on multiple occasions and yet Fox continues to assert that he is in an obvious effort to discredit the Democratic candidate and recklessly pander to the cultural fears and prejudices of white conservatives.
Fox has practically made a sport out of slandering Obama's wife Michelle. In a recent report they called her "Obama's Baby Mama", a derogatory slang term for the unwed mother of a man's child. It's particularly disturbing given the fact that the mother of two is a Harvard Law graduate and a distinguished attorney in her own right - and I don't think anyone thinks Fox would call a married white woman with two children anyone's "baby mama, it's racist and everyone knows it. There's hardly a television news story about Michelle Obama that doesn't refer to, or indirectly bring up her quote about being proud to be an American for the first time.
But fortunately Fox doesn't hold a monopoly on media access. The FoxAttacks.com website posted unmistakable evidence that Fox edited out a portion of an recent Sean Hannity interview with John McCain in which the Republican front-runner says he "Didn't always love America". That's right. Virtually the same thing Michelle Obama said, but you won't hear anything about THAT on Fox. In fact, use the FoxAttacks link about to see the video evidence for yourself.
Fox edited out that portion of the original interview then re-cut it entirely. They also EDITED THE ACTUAL TRANSCRIPT. Only after the video was posted online and became hit #1 on Digg did Fox quietly re-add the footage with the quote and fix the content of the transcript. Will they hold McCain accountable for HIS statement that he "didn't always love America"?
Don't hold your breath, Fox's notorious double-standard policy will not apply any criticism of John McCain; they tried to conceal that he said it - but fortunately, responsible citizens and organizations like FoxAttacks monitor this sad excuse for television journalism 24 hours a day.
People have the power to confront the lies that Fox spews out 24 hours a day. Fortunately this is the age of information and there is a growing movement of bloggers, citizen journalists and Websites who recognize that Fox is nothing more than a PR firm for the Republican Party.
More than 100,000 people have signed a MoveOn.org petition demanding that Fox stop using racism, lies and fear to smear Barack Obama - use this link to sign it and tell Fox to stop trying to use racist fear-mongering and lies to discredit a political candidate because he is black.
It's unacceptable.
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