In December, FOX News had some fun at Gov. Bill Richardson’s expense by turning his hypothetical answer to a question into a bogus announcement that he was running for president.
Now, Richardson is returning the favor with a cheap shot of his own.
The network reported six weeks before Richardson’s formal announcement that he told one of its reporters he was running for president. But the network never showed a clip of Richardson saying anything like, “Today, I’m announcing that,” or other such standard statements announcing a presidential run. What it showed was a clip of Richardson saying this:
“But I’m not running as a Hispanic. I’m running as an American who’s proud to be a Hispanic.”
Richardson said he was responding to a hypothetical question and misspoke. Clearly, he screwed up and needs to work on his word choice, but a trained and ethical journalist wouldn’t have done what FOX News did – taking such a statement and blowing it up into a major announcement, at least without asking more questions first.
Anyway, the Associated Press today ran a short feature listing each presidential candidate’s favorite reality television show. In response to the question from the AP, Richardson said – you guessed it – FOX News.
Answers varied widely. Some, including John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani, listed sports. Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd and Mitt Romney listed American Idol. Dennis Kucinich and Barack Obama said they only have time to watch C-SPAN.
Richardson’s was the only really clever answer. Wikipedia points out that reality TV frequently portrays “a modified and highly influenced form of reality, with participants put in exotic locations or abnormal situations, sometimes coached to act in certain ways by off-screen handlers, and with events on screen manipulated through editing and other post-production techniques.”
Richardson’s experience with FOX News certainly shows the networks’ aptitude for manipulation. I’ll tell you about another: I have a friend who used to work for a FOX News affiliate. He was assigned to edit a package on a governor’s race.
The Republican in the race was featured prominently with a close-up of his smiling face. The Democrat was shown in a crowd and, if you weren’t familiar with his face, you might not be able to pick him out in the crowd.
My friend began looking for better video of the Democrat. A higher-up told him not to and, when asked why, told my friend that FOX News is Republican.
In December, FOX News had some fun at Gov. Bill Richardson’s expense by turning his hypothetical answer to a question into a bogus announcement that he was running for president.