FoxNews Thinks It’s 1954

Articles — By forcechange on January 14, 2009 10:10 pm

FoxNews’s homepage ran the following headline on Wednesday evening: “Obama Climate Czar’s Socialist Ties: President-elect’s climate czar pick Carol Browner served as member of global socialist umbrella group.”  While this statement is apparently accurate, the intent of the headline was clearly to be sensational and to tap into a deep seated distrust of anything stigmatized as “socialist.” 

Inside the article, which is somewhat less sensational, there is also the accusation that “Browner’s name and biography have been scrubbed from the Web site of Socialist International” [emphasis added].  Again, while this could be an accurate statement, the use of the word “scrubbed,” of course connotates a hidden conspiracy– again, tapping into a sense of distrust.

We don’t disagree that administration officials’ political beliefs should be public knowledge, as they are relevant to how they will make policy decisions.  However, there is a big difference between reporting facts, on the one hand, and making sensational declarations that are intended to provoke an emotive response that is only tangentially related to the underlying evidence, on the other.  A little bit more decency would be nice.