Fox News's shameless lying for Rick Scott
Fox News's shameless lying for Rick Scott
They're turning the concept of "fact checking" upside down.
Last March, Rick Scott went on Fox News Sunday and, in footage that quickly went viral, was grilled about the implications of his plan to cut Social Security and Medicare.
“Why would you propose something like that in an election year?” host John Roberts asked. And when Scott dismissed the question as a “Democrat talking point,” Roberts fired back.
“No, no! It's in the plan! It's in the plan. But senator, hang on, it's not a Democratic talking point. It's in the plan.”
Fast forward 11 months, and Fox News is no longer interested in holding Scott accountable. With Republicans now in control of the House and talk of spending cuts in the air, the network is trying to convince viewers that accurate descriptions of Scott’s plan to shred the safety net are “false” and “debunked.” The lengths to which even Fox’s supposed “hard news” side is going to run interference for Scott and Republicans like him underscores how the whole operation is little more than an arm of the GOP.
President Biden for months now has taken every opportunity to highlight the fact that a number of influential Republicans — Scott, the junior senator from Florida, foremost among them — want to cut Social Security and Medicare. The president presents plenty of receipts to make his case, including citing policy plans and direct quotes. But after Biden’s comments on this topic blew up into one of the most-watched moments from last week’s State of the Union, Fox started working overtime to deceive its viewers into believing they have nothing to fear from Republicans — an effort lowlighted by one of the silliest “fact checks” you’ll ever see.
But before we get to that, let’s back up and talk about how Scott said the quiet part out loud, handing Biden and Democrats a line of attack that not only hurt the GOP in the midterms, but is still causing them headaches today.