It’s official, straight from the mouth of Bush’s former press secretary, Scott McClellan — FOX is Republican propaganda.

From Chris Matthews’ interview with McClellan last Friday, 7/25/08 (full transcript):

MATTHEWS:  Did you see FOX television as a tool when you were in the White House, as a useful avenue for getting your message out?

MCCLELLAN:  Well, I make a distinction between the journalists and between the commentators.  Certainly, there were commentators and others, pundits, at FOX News that were helpful to the White House. Certainly, we got talking points [to] those people.

MATTHEWS:  Did people say, call Sean [Hannity], call Bill [O'Reilly], call whoever?  Did you do that as a regular thing?

MCCLELLAN:  Certainly.  Certainly.  It wasn‘t necessarily something I was doing, but it was something that we at the White House, yes, were doing and getting them talking points and making sure they knew where we were coming from. –snip-

MATTHEWS:  You were using these commentators as your spokespeople?

MCCLELLAN:  Well, certainly.  I mean, certainly.

Of course, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who frequents this site, though it is nice to have official confirmation. McClellan went on to try to draw a distinction between FOX’s “commentators” and their “journalists,” but FOX has purposefully blurred the line between the two. That’s how “journalist” Brit Hume suddenly becomes a noxious hard right “commentator” when he’s a guest on other FOX shows and how “commentators” like Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity can claim to be “journalists” doing “investigations” when they want to give their propaganda an air of legitimacy. And if you think FOX maintains some sort of principled policy delineating the two, well, you probably also believe they’re “Fair & Balanced.”

So to FOX viewers, defenders, and apologists — what now? You bought the propaganda. You’ve been played for fools by both the Bush administration and FOX. Not only did you allow yourself to be duped, you defended the propaganda mouthpiece that was deceiving you. Not only did you believe that a propaganda mouthpiece is actually a news network, but you were fooled into believing that it is the most honest news network on TV. That's like being convinced not only that a pile of shit is meat, but that it is the finest filet mignon on the market and the only meat worth eating. And because you allowed yourself to be duped by FOX and Bush, people died and the world has suffered.

An apology would be nice, but I’m not holding my breath. And if you want to yell at me, maybe you should direct your anger at the people who fed you lies and played you for easy marks — FOX and the Bush administration.