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Paranoia Runs Amok as Fox News Claims that President Obama Controls the Media

Paranoia is black coffee to the right wing, and Fox and Friends provided their viewers their daily dose by claiming that President Barack Obama controls the media. Host Steve Doocy said, “The funny thing normally it’s the Barack Obama White House (who) controls the media with the media’s full consent.”

Here is the video courtesy of Media Matters:

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Fox reports that the WH “stopped press from covering story – reporters were forced out of Lafayette Park,” Doocy continues, “It just said, ‘you gotta go.’ Was it censorship or was it a police issue? You be the judge.”

Yes, let’s see. You be the judge. The good puppets at Fox and Friends told you that Obama runs the media, but provided no proof of it. They then told you the media is complicit in allowing Obama to run it. They then show Lafayette Park police, with a lower third crawler running the announcement that “WH stopped press from covering story”.

Then they say, “Censorship or police issue, you decide.”

Yes, by all means, you decide, now that Fox has lit the disingenuous news runway showing you just where to land. Cue the tin foil hats and the rage.

In reality, Fox News is owned by News Corp, which is the second largest media conglomerate in the world, behind Disney. According to the Government Accountability Office, News Corp has 152 subsidiaries in low or no tax countries, one of only four companies to have more than 100. A company of this size has a vested interest in politics, as they are impacted by tax policies, regulation policies and party platforms in general.

The fact that Fox has been busted as a PR arm of the Republican party is only reinforced when you realize just how much News Corp has on the line. Of course Rupert would be pro-Republican platform: deregulation (e.g., The FCC voted in 2007 to eliminate some media ownership rules which benefits congloms like News Corp), lower taxes for the rich and corporations, corporations allowed to move to tax-free countries, etc.

Rupert has a vested financial interest in getting people in America to vote Republican. In fact, according to Media Matters, Fox News hosts and contributors continue to raise money for Republican candidates and causes using political action committees, 527 and 501(c)4 organizations. It’s interesting that Fox never feels itself ethically compelled to reveal its media holdings or political activism.

Furthermore, the park was shut down after a demonstration involving gay service men who had chained themselves to the White House fence in protest against the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy., a fact which other news outlets had no problem identifying. Video here:

Hey, you know, it’s possible that there were security risks involved in having people chained to the WH fence during a time of rampant right-wing craziness involving our President, who receives more death threats than any other President. I also believe Obama was a little busy yesterday because he was actually in California. He returned to the WH yesterday at 4:20 PM from Los Angeles. Clearly, Obama didn’t make this call; it was made by law officials. I’m just sayin’.

As for the evil media being controlled by Obama (whom we all know is a leftist Socialist), entertainment congoms like Disney, News Corp, Viacom, and Time Warner don’t exactly scream socialism. That leaves me wondering if Obama is controlling them, why he doesn’t start promoting his own agenda?

But even if you are an epically misinformed Fox Viewer, and therefore unaware of Fox’s media conglom status, does it not occur to you to question the logic of Fox’s premise: If Obama owns Fox, why would he let them run this story?

Oh, god. The logic failure –- it hurts.

By all means, let’s not allow reality to get in the way of rampant paranoia, er, profits.