What? What? What? Fox News Agree with Obama...

[nmbluesky]

Fox Hosts Agree With Obama’s Defense Of Mosque: ‘He Has To Stand Up For Our Constitution’

Reacting to President Obama’s forceful defense of Muslims’ rights to build a new Islamic community center near Ground Zero, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) — who believes there are “too many mosques in this country” — said, “It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero.” King’s statement underscores one of the least understood facts of the new project: there is already a mosque near Ground Zero.

Today, the New York Times reports on Masjid Manhattan (located four blocks from Ground Zero) and Masjid al-Farah (located 12 blocks from Ground Zero):

But what the two mosques have in common — besides the sense of celebration and camaraderie that comes at the beginning of Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic calendar, in which Muslims fast from sunup to sundown, give alms and focus on self-improvement — is that both have existed for decades, largely unnoticed, blocks from the World Trade Center site.

The Times goes on to note, “Both mosques — essentially one-room operations — routinely turn people away for lack of space.” And thus, the need for a new, larger location.

The unique aspect of the Cordoba House is not the mosque, but rather the fact it will “house a cultural centre, a 500-seat performing arts centre, culinary school, exhibition space, swimming pool, gym, basketball court, restaurant, library and art studios.” The vision of the project spearheaded by Imam Abdul Faisal Rauf is that it will function like the nearby Jewish-run cultural center, which had a role “in helping the Jewish community become part of mainstream America.” Rauf insists the facility “will serve as a YMCA-type community center for interfaith bridge-building.”

Obama’s defense of the mosque has found some support on the right. Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said Obama’s comments were “ultimately the right thing to do,” adding, “Obama is correct that the way to marginalize radicalism is to respect the best traditions of Islam and protect the religious liberty of Muslim Americans.”

Even on Fox News this morning, the Fox & Friends weekend hosts all agreed that Obama is performing the job that’s required of him. “Obama has to stand up for religious freedom,” said co-host Alisyn Camerota. “He has to stand up for our Constitution,” co-host Dave Briggs offered, to which co-host Clayton Morris added, “That’s the job he gets…defend the Constitution.” Watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5F-3OTxdKk&feature=player_embedded

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. I guess Fox found out it wasn't a Mosque but a cultural center

and the fact which Palin and Grinch overlooked that there have been 2 real Mosques there for a Looooong time.

what fools

[dipsydoodle]

2. I've always been a bit suspicious

of blanket condemnation of Fox. I only get glimses channel flicking here in the UK and aside from Beck's rants it don't seem that much different from other news channels. Maybe we just don't get everything you do. :shrug:

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. 98% of Fox News programming is pure right wing propaganda

It's not even well disguised. It's shameless.

[dipsydoodle]

5. If you think about it

that is an impossible figure - 98%. It would need ALL news to have some political slant which is unlikely.

[JoePhilly]

7. Fox can make any story political ... absolutely any story ...

Let's imagine a story about a fireman rescuing a cat from a tree. Clearly non political.

If that story occurs shortly after 9/11, just prior to the next election cycle ... then it could be used to show how compassionate first responders like this fireman, and those on 9/11 were. The 9/11 reference can then be used to expand on how we have to keep up the fight against the Islamic-fascists.

However, if that story were to occur now, if could be used to show what a waste it is to spend stimulus money on fire-fighters and teachers ... after all, here we see a fireman, not stopping a fire, but wasting tax payer money climbing a tree to rescue a cat. And its summer time, so clearly those dead-beat teachers are working anyway. No wonder the debt is soaring!!!

Turn on Fox anytime of the day and try to find a story that is not made political. Perhaps when they have some entertainer on to plug a movie, or they have a band on, and the band is actually singing. Maybe then you get no political spin from them.

[ThatPoetGuy]

9. You are mistaken.

Completely, 100% mistaken.

It's impossible to give a percentage figure to news coverage, unlike false posts, like yours. Because a media outlet decides not only the slant of the stories it covers; it also decides whether or not to cover stories at all. It decides how much emphasis to give to stories, when to run them, and so on.

This is the station that called Florida for Bush before they even had results. This is the station that volunteered its news helicopters to the Bush legal team when they were trying to stop the recount, which was a huge advantage and a huge money saving. This is the station whose weather reports routinely contain derisive comments about Al Gore and global warming. This is the station whose viewers STILL believe that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear weapons program, and still believe the US FOUND PROOF of it. Because this is the station that reported a building was being used to make WMD's, and never ran a retraction after it turned out that the building had been used to make ice cream.

This is the station that puts a (D) next to the name of Republicans caught in scandals, and doesn't retract the "mistake." This is the station that runs doctored videos like the Acorn fraud, and insults the other networks for refusing to run it unless they could see the unedited tape.

This is the station that plastered fake photos of the Tea Party gatherings, showing hundreds of thousands of people, and somehow missing a number of buildings that had been constructed there in the years since those photos were taken. This is the station whose news manager was caught, behind the camera, rallying the Tea Party so they'd look more enthusiastic than they really were. This is the station that took out ads in the newspaper attacking the other networks for not giving enough coverage to the Tea Party gathering -- despite Fox's fraudulent photos and rallying the people off camera.

This is the station that spent millions arguing in court that they have the right to fire reporters who refuse to knowingly tell lies on the air. They won the case.

If their news were all slanted, all the time, that would make it 100% slanted. But concealing or underreporting stories that go against their lies would make it, what, 200%? Or inventing false claims out of thin air? Or pushing right-wing lies, even in their weather reports? Or connecting videos to trick viewers into thinking that Samir Shabazz was shouting racial rhetoric outside a voting center? Or choosing to focus, hour after hour after hour, on a non-story like the charges being dropped against Samir Shabazz, in order to riled up viewers' racial fears?

What would that make it? 800%?

Again: the harm that Fox News does is not merely in presenting a conservative slant. It's in selectively reporting. It's in suppressing facts that go contra their argument. It's in engaged activism. It's in outright fraud. It's in the deliberate placement of emphasis upon non-issues. It's in the conscious, collective shaping of messages. It's in the constant distortion of science and reality.

Fox News is a constant, deliberate attack upon everything that makes America great. The "yellow journalists" of our history had nothing on this highly-honed propaganda outfit.

[The Wizard]

12. This post should be sent

to every member of the FCC with the demand that Fox be labeled a propaganda outlet in the tradition of Joseph Goebbels.

[Diamonique]

13. Wow. This post is pure gold. Thank you ThatPoetGuy!

[Kind of Blue]

17. Masterpiece! Bravo! n/t

[Exilednight]

14. If a kid gets hit by a car while crossing the street, Fux news will find a way ............

to politicize it.

I can hear it already.

Bill O'Reilly: Where was this kids parents while he was crossing the street?

Sean Hannity: Only a Democrat would let their kid cross the street by himself.

Bill: And I'm not picking on him or his family because they are black. Their race has nothing to do with it.

Sean: Exactly! It's their lack of parenting.

Bill: That's right, Sean. No right minded parent would let their 17 year old child cross the street by themselves.

Sean: I know I wouldn't allow it.

Bill: And if he was driving an SUV, something like a Hummer, he wouldn't of died.

Sean: Right! This kid died because liberals have convinced this kid's family that global warming is real and SUVs are bad for the environment.

[JoePhilly]

6. They will use this to demand prayer in school next ....

You watch ... the will compare letting Muslims build this center to school prayer, and demand that the local school districts should be able to include mandatory school prayer.

That's my bet.

[boppers]

10. If you're only "channel flicking" you wouldn't notice it as much.

If you watch it for several hours, you'll notice things in a different way.

[Hansel]

15. They have some news. But the vast majority of Fox is propaganda..

and they don't really try to hide it. Seriously. It's a front for the GOP and not even members of the GOP keep that a secret.

Edit to add: Posters above are absolutely correct that even the vast majority of their news stories are slanted and given some angle to make what happened the fault of this administration.

An undocumented Hispanics who got in a car accident and people were killed was Obama's fault because he didn't get all undocumented Hispanics out of the country. They can turn ANY and I mean ANY news story into being Obama's fault. And they do it at every chance they get.

[brewens]

3. Must be all that acid he did back in the 60's. n/t

[Schema Thing]

8. meh, they read the tea leaves as to how this story is going to play next week.

...and decided to at least try to salvage their 'constitution lover" identity out of this.

[hayrow]

11. Although I, and any thinking American must agree with Obama on this issue

The fact is that a big chunk of Fox News is owned by the Saudi's. The commentators on Fox News will say what their masters tell them to say, no matter what.

[Phx_Dem]

16. They'll be walking that back as soon as Ailes hears about it.

I'm surprised Fox even knows what's in the Constitution.