VICTORY!

First, my new video showing how FOX doctored their website to hide John McCain saying he “didn’t really love America” until he was a POW hits #1 on Digg. And now, due to the enormous attention the video has been getting, FOX has undoctored their site so it now shows the correct transcript and video! Thanks so much to all of you who watched the video, sent it to friends, contacted FOX, and voted it up on Digg and Reddit. Because of you, now everyone can go to FoxNews.com and see what McCain really said.

In some of the comments, some people have said that it was “unfair” to take McCain “out of context” and that by trying to make McCain look bad by using a soundbite of him, I was being just as bad as FOX. But this seems like a case of projection — nowhere in the video or the blog did I criticize McCain for saying he “really didn’t love America” until he was a POW, and the video includes the full "context" of the comment he made.

Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with what he said, exactly as I think there is nothing wrong with what Michelle Obama said when she said "for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback."

This video is about proving once again that FOX is the Republican propaganda channel, and they’re willing to lie about and doctor their own material if it helps Republicans. If someone thinks that this video is trying to make McCain look bad, it’s only because they themselves think that McCain looks bad in the video. Maybe that’s because they’ve been so convinced by the Republicans and the corporate media that Michelle Obama’s statement is so unforgivable that they don’t know how to respond to seeing McCain saying virtually the same thing. Repeatedly. The video says nothing bad about McCain — it just shows that he has said something similar to what Michelle Obama said, and FOX tried to cover it up. If you want to absolve McCain for this statement, you should do the same for Michelle Obama — otherwise you’re a hypocrite.

And in case anyone thinks that I faked this story, all I have to say is TGFSC (Thank God For Screen Captures).

Luckily, I captured FOX’s transcript screen last week showing that they started the transcript after the discussion of McCain’s time as a POW in Vietnam, when he made the statement that he “didn’t really love America” (go here to see a close up). And in the video, you can see on the foxnews.com video player that it says “Part 1: Sen. McCain on his record, tax cuts, immigration and border security,” even though it wasn't part 1 of the actual interview. Otherwise I’m sure all the wingnuts would say I just made it all up. But that’s how the Republicans do things — it’s not how we roll.

In any case, this shows something important about FOX. They are willing to try just about any dishonest tactic they can get away with. But if we don’t let them get away with it, if we are vigilant, if we gather irrefutable evidence that they are liars and Republican propagandists, they’ll cave. Because much of FOX’s power and influence comes from the fact that they claim to have no bias and are, in fact, the only unbiased news source on TV. To protect that image, they have to relent when we nail them to the wall.

We definitely got them this time, but it will be hard to get them every time. Unless you help.