SHAFTWAXER

For my birthday, the woman got me (among other things) a book that I had seen on The Daily Show as well as heard about on The Al Franken Show. It’s called “Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season” by Matt Taibbi. Essentially, it looks at how the lead up to the war in Iraq as well as the election coverage in 2004 was cheapened by the media. He challenges why the media doesn’t bother to hold the government in check any more, instead lofting softballs at the administration in fear of losing their press core status and access to the White House.

This general laziness and apathy has been something that has been bugging the hell out of me for a while now, so naturally, reading a book that continues to affirm things I already believed or suspected is just fine with me. I readily admit I’m the choir and I’m being preached at. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s a great example of the media being beyond lazy, almost to the point of being insultingly stupid.

Naturally, it involved our good friends at Fox “News”.

Fox reported a story on August 7th about somebody in Orange County who was supposedly suspected to have terrorist connections to an extremist Islamic group. Former federal prosecutor John Loftus (who has a delightful little segment on Fox called “Inside Scoop with John Loftus”) “reported” the exact address of the suspected home of Iyad Hilal. Later, rabid Fox viewers would post satellite photos of the home. John claimed that this was somebody “linked with the London bombings”.

Unfortunately, Hilal moved out of that house roughly 3 years ago. Apparently fact checking is too time consuming these days.

That really didn’t matter though, never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Randy Vorick and his family has since been offered special police protection since people have been driving by, screaming profanities at their home, and threatening his family. Also, as a tribute to the average mentality of the Fox “News” viewer, somebody spray-painted “TERRIST” on their home. Randy is now afraid to leave his home for fear of what will happen to him or his children. Only last Friday did Fox offer an official apology and reprimand John for his “careless error”.

John’s response? “Mistakes happen. It was the best information we had at the time.” He thought he was helping the Orange County police by alerting the community of the “terrist” threat that lived in their own community. Maybe next time he can help himself to a PHONE BOOK. Instead, the Orange County police have a marked cruiser parked outside their home 24 hours a day to protect them from the average Fox viewer.

Fuck you, John. Seriously. Fuck you.