Fox Facts on NSA
While Glenn Greenwald cites CNN, USA and other polls to support the view that Americans are actually opposed to Bush policies, I’m afraid that Bush supporters with the help of Fox News have their very poll that – or so they claim – proves just the opposite.
This Fox poll is being cited as showing that “By 58 percent to 36 percent, Americans think the president should have the power to authorize the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor electronic communications of suspected terrorists without getting warrants, even if one end of the communication is in the United States. Furthermore, six in 10 say they are personally okay with the NSA monitoring their international telephone calls.”
AJ Strata has a round up of right-wing thought on this phenomenon, and dishonestly concludes, “As it became clear FISA was stonewalling the same kinds of leads that would have prevented 9-11, any politician worth their salt was not going to stand against Bush’s decision. The media was played by PR experts - and duped.”
This is why the moderate Republicans are caving to Cheney on this issue, says the right-wing meme, it had nothing to do with the heavy-handed tactics or threats to withhold campaign funding etc. No, it’s because the American people want to reward Cheney by giving them legal carte blanche to do whatever they want.
Of course, there is no evidence that allowing warrantless wiretapping would have prevented 9/11, we don’t have the capabilities to translate all the calls we monitor – that has been proven in the investigation.
And if a poll was conducted regarding the issue of “breaking the law” the results would be quite different.
Yet, opinion is now a “fact” or at least a Fox Fact – and this is a huge problem. It used to be that political opponents argued their positions from the same facts. Now the authoritarian cult has its own facts, and absolutely no qualms about being totally dishonest.
These distortions have been intentional and very effective. And, quite frankly, I don’t have a clue how to deal with this phenomenon. I wish I did.
No wonder Cheney says:
"It's easy to complain about the press -- I've been doing it for a good part of my career," Cheney said. "It's part of what goes with a free society. What I do is try to focus upon those elements of the press that I think do an effective job and try to be accurate in their portrayal of events. For example, I end up spending a lot of time watching Fox News, because they're more accurate in my experience, in those events that I'm personally involved in, than many of the other outlets."
This Fox poll is being cited as showing that “By 58 percent to 36 percent, Americans think the president should have the power to authorize the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor electronic communications of suspected terrorists without getting warrants, even if one end of the communication is in the United States. Furthermore, six in 10 say they are personally okay with the NSA monitoring their international telephone calls.”
AJ Strata has a round up of right-wing thought on this phenomenon, and dishonestly concludes, “As it became clear FISA was stonewalling the same kinds of leads that would have prevented 9-11, any politician worth their salt was not going to stand against Bush’s decision. The media was played by PR experts - and duped.”
This is why the moderate Republicans are caving to Cheney on this issue, says the right-wing meme, it had nothing to do with the heavy-handed tactics or threats to withhold campaign funding etc. No, it’s because the American people want to reward Cheney by giving them legal carte blanche to do whatever they want.
Of course, there is no evidence that allowing warrantless wiretapping would have prevented 9/11, we don’t have the capabilities to translate all the calls we monitor – that has been proven in the investigation.
And if a poll was conducted regarding the issue of “breaking the law” the results would be quite different.
Yet, opinion is now a “fact” or at least a Fox Fact – and this is a huge problem. It used to be that political opponents argued their positions from the same facts. Now the authoritarian cult has its own facts, and absolutely no qualms about being totally dishonest.
These distortions have been intentional and very effective. And, quite frankly, I don’t have a clue how to deal with this phenomenon. I wish I did.
No wonder Cheney says:
"It's easy to complain about the press -- I've been doing it for a good part of my career," Cheney said. "It's part of what goes with a free society. What I do is try to focus upon those elements of the press that I think do an effective job and try to be accurate in their portrayal of events. For example, I end up spending a lot of time watching Fox News, because they're more accurate in my experience, in those events that I'm personally involved in, than many of the other outlets."
posted by Zack at 1:58 PM
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