As this piece from Crooks and Liars last December indicates, a leaked email from Fox “News” Washington Managing Editor Bill Sammon demonstrates how Fox deliberately and calculatedly uses language to slant news stories in favor of Republicans and/or against President Obama and the Democrats.
The issue was health care and, in 2009, Republican language guru Frank Luntz (a name you will likely hear a lot on this blog) advised Fox’s Sean Hannity to use the label “government option” in place of the Democrats’ “public option” proposal, because, according to Luntz, that simple one-word change caused a shift in voter reaction against the public option. According to Crooks and Liars, Sammon picked up on this advice and sent an email instructing Fox employees: “Please use the term ‘government-run health insurance’ or, when brevity is a concern, ‘government option,’ whenever possible”.
This is why mentions of “Fox ‘News'” will appear in quotes in this blog. It isn’t a news organization. It is the propaganda arm of the Republican Party.
