FOX News "Identifies McCain As Democrat

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2008-02-08 12:48am

How many times have they done this sort of thing? I've lost count!

Now, I know "D" is just below and to the left (THE LEFT!!!) of "R" on the keyboard, but this is just getting silly.

Vaporous · Post by **Vaporous** » 2008-02-08 01:15am

Really, this is the saddest propaganda move possible, and yet they use it over and over.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2008-02-08 01:25am

I'd have a much easier time buying into the whole conspiracy thing if the 'D' key wasn't right next to the 'R' key. I'm not saying they wouldn't do it, though. They clearly have no ethical or moral standards.

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2008-02-08 01:32am

I see that Faux news wishes to indulge in a duel with McCain's "truth squad".

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2008-02-08 01:45am

Flagg wrote:I'd have a much easier time buying into the whole conspiracy thing if the 'D' key wasn't right next to the 'R' key. I'm not saying they wouldn't do it, though. They clearly have no ethical or moral standards.

Are there any examples of Fox labelling Republicans they weren't in some way pissed off with as 'D's or Democrats they hate as 'R's? If not it's rather hard to believe they just happen to keep on making the exact same 'mistake' at such fortuitous times.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2008-02-08 02:14am

Plekhanov wrote:
Flagg wrote:I'd have a much easier time buying into the whole conspiracy thing if the 'D' key wasn't right next to the 'R' key. I'm not saying they wouldn't do it, though. They clearly have no ethical or moral standards.
Are there any examples of Fox labelling Republicans they weren't in some way pissed off with as 'D's or Democrats they hate as 'R's? If not it's rather hard to believe they just happen to keep on making the exact same 'mistake' at such fortuitous times.

I don't know. But if they did, who would care enough to point it out? It only seems to get brought up when it's perceived as making the Democrats look bad.

But like I said, I wouldn't put it past them.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2008-02-08 02:19am

Actually there's precedent for this chicanery, Flagg. Apparently any R that doesn't toe the Bush Party Line gets the D.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2008-02-08 02:43am

One more reason why McCain is my favorite republican candidate. If the evangalicals en Fox News hate him, he must be doing something good

Ubiquitous · Post by **Ubiquitous** » 2008-02-08 06:57am

Bloody hell, that's fucking pathetic on FN part. Who did that, a child?

Post by **RogueIce** » 2008-02-08 12:36pm

You know, I wonder if all this conservative hate isn't simply helping McCain. I mean if he's hyping up his "maverick" thing, then having FOX News, Limbaugh, Coulter, et al hating him is only going to boost his "I'm a political maverick" street cred.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2008-02-08 01:51pm

Flagg wrote:I'd have a much easier time buying into the whole conspiracy thing if the 'D' key wasn't right next to the 'R' key. I'm not saying they wouldn't do it, though. They clearly have no ethical or moral standards.

I don't buy the whole accidently typed a D when they meant R. Look at it mechanically. Put your hands on the key board in the typing position. Now try to hit the D key with the finger you hit R with. Notice that you can't because there is alright a finger hovering above the D key. It would be extremely hard to accidently type a D when you meant an R. I could see it if they were attempting to type a T or an 4 instead of an R, but a D would be difficult since it's an unnatural lateral move for your hands when typing.

Besides, FOXNews does this all the time. It's almost certainly deliberate on their part, if you look at the people who they tend to identify as Democrats.

Oni Koneko Damien · Post by **Oni Koneko Damien** » 2008-02-08 01:55pm

Flagg wrote:I'd have a much easier time buying into the whole conspiracy thing if the 'D' key wasn't right next to the 'R' key. I'm not saying they wouldn't do it, though. They clearly have no ethical or moral standards.

Really? So you insinuate that this is a common mistake that... only happens when typing the single-letter abbreviation for party affiliation... only to people your handlers vastly dislike... only from r to d, and never the other way around... and so far hasn't been found to occur under any other circumstances?

If this is such an easy to commit mistake, as you imply, how come we never see "Dussia announces renewed arms race", or "Canada/US bodrer security tightened"? More importantly, how come we've never seen a democrat identified as a republican?

Oni Koneko Damien · Post by **Oni Koneko Damien** » 2008-02-08 01:57pm

Edit: By 'your handlers', I mean the right-wing owners of Faux Noise, I wasn't referring to Flagg and didn't mean to imply that he was a right-wing hack or anything like that.

Pint0 Xtreme · Post by **Pint0 Xtreme** » 2008-02-08 02:05pm

Gil's right about the way the letter D and R on the keyboard are positioned in that a typo of that kind is very unlikely. A mistake of party denomination labeling is far more likely than a typo. And given the FOX News' record of labeling unsavory Republican candidates as Democrats tends to make the idea of an intentional mislabeling even more likely.

Metatwaddle · Post by **Metatwaddle** » 2008-02-08 02:48pm

They've shown how many Republicans on TV? And yet the only ones that get 'accidentally' labeled Democrats are Arlen Specter, Mark Foley and John McCain.

How can this not be intentional?

Kuroneko · Post by **Kuroneko** » 2008-02-08 03:18pm

There's also Bob Corker. I'm not certain what his particular sin was precisely, but it was probably over abortion. It would be interesting to try to compile a more complete list of misidentifications and possible reasons why they might have occurred on purpose. Are there any others?

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2008-02-08 03:28pm

Eh, well, McCain has massive problems for the Left as well. How does being unemployed for years before getting drafted to go to war in Pakistan sound?

That NOS Guy · Post by **That NOS Guy** » 2008-02-08 03:31pm

Fox news attacking McCain only serves to reinforce the divisions within the Republican party. I love it when they do this, and just for ol' times sake:

Metatwaddle · Post by **Metatwaddle** » 2008-02-08 03:35pm

Kuroneko wrote:There's also Bob Corker. I'm not certain what his particular sin was precisely, but it was probably over abortion. It would be interesting to try to compile a more complete list of misidentifications and possible reasons why they might have occurred on purpose. Are there any others?

At the end of 2006, Corker ran a very nasty campaign against Harold Ford, which included an ad with racist overtones. I'm guessing Fox News didn't want people to believe incumbent southern Republicans would do such a thing.

So we've got:
Bob Corker, for a nasty campaign with racist advertising
Arlen Specter, for sticking it to Alberto Gonzales
Mark Foley, for sending inappropriate messages to 16-year-old boys
John McCain, for not being a "true conservative"

It's surprising that they didn't give the same treatment to Larry Craig. They did manage to publish an entire article without explicitly saying he was a Republican, though. (They did say it implicitly; one person is described as a "fellow Idaho Republican".)