Monday, October 26, 2009

Not getting it

On Saturday, conservative blogger Hugh Hewitt tried to raise some concerns about Democratic criticisms of Fox by suggesting some future news stories, such as the following (note the dateline):
Oct. 28, 2009 12:43 PM. This just in from Speaker of the House Pelosi. In an interview with MSNBC's Keith Olberman last night, Nancy Pelosi announced that she would move to bring a vote to the floor of The House of Representatives as early as next week to ban Fox from covering Congress. "That Fox regularly grants access to Republican Congressman to spread their lies and propaganda on their airwaves is a violation of the public trust, and their continued desire to challenge such well documented facts as Global Warming, and the efficacy of single payer health insurance, proves that they are simply doing the work of the special interests. They should thus be stripped of their journalistic access in the halls of Congress," argued Pelosi.
He had a few other news items in there, all with future datelines.

This got picked up as truth, however, by Recliner Commentaries, which editorialized:
This is an unbelievably shocking abuse of power! In the Orwellian world of the Democrats, apparently Freedom of the Press only applies to news organizations that promote the Democrats' Leftist, socialist agendas.
But that wasn't nearly as good as some of the comments, including:
She should be hanged.
A few noted that it wasn't real, but that, of course, just confirmed its truth:
While Hugh's futurist post was amusing, the fact that it could seem so plausible is a chilling indicator of how close we are to losing our country and our freedoms.
And, of course, demonstrating a patent inability to understand satire:
I emailed the Hugh Hewitt site to ask for a correction on the date. It could just be an error. Why would Hugh Hewitt just make something like this up? I think it would be in poor taste.
I respect conservatives for trying new tactics. Last spring, they were marching on Washington. Now they're trying satire. Good for them! They'll work out the kinks eventually.

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