Carl Campaigns For McCain while Jennifer Tries to Rehab Him

Guest blogged by Priscilla

Last night's (March 20th) Fox Special Report provided more Obama bashing and McCain cheerleading. "Campaign Carl" Cameron reported on McCain's visit to London where he met with the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. After playing McCain's comments outside 10 Downing Street, Cameron played a segment of his "exclusive" interview with Senator McCain.

Cameron introduced the interview by saying that although the "reputation of the United States has declined worldwide since the start of the Iraq war, McCain insisted that it's not as bad as the blame America first followers believe." (Comment: great right wing talking point straight out of the Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, and other rightwing hate media school of "journalism." To whom was he, specifically, referring and what was the standard by which "not as bad" is measured? Those who compiled this Pew Poll, which shows that worldwide respondents want the US out of Iraq, are not, I believe, "America haters.") I should add that nowhere in the interview did McCain refer to "America haters."

McCain then spoke about how the world "looks to America to lead" and the world "admires and respects us." (Comment: According to the Pew Poll, John, not so much – especially in the Muslim world). Cameron commented that "most Europeans mistakenly believe that if elected, McCain will mimic Bush's policies." (Excuse me, Carl, but how do you know that the Europeans are "mistaken?") Cameron added that McCain disagreed with Bush on some issues, such as global warming, to which McCain commented "I'm not coming to Europe to highlight differences." Cameron then claimed that McCain has flip-flopped reversed his position on his (McCain's) understanding of the economy and played McCain saying "I'm very strong on the economy" and adding that he was present when President Reagan created an economic resurgence. (Comment: so were the Capitol janitors, what's your point?)

Cameron quickly finished the piece by reporting that McCain did attend a fundraiser in addition to his political appearance.

Comment: Cameron followed the Fox "journalism" model perfectly. He worked in the right wing talking point which paints all those who legitimately criticize the United States as "America haters." He editorialized about the "error" of European thinking. His "interview" was actually an opportunity for him to frame what McCain was saying by first presenting his (Cameron's) opinion and then showing pieces of the interview where McCain agreed.

The next segment was introduced by Alexander Britton Hume who said that McCain quickly retracted his comments about Iraq and Iran. (Comment: you mean the four gaffes one of which was made the day before on the Hugh Hewitt show?) Hume then added that the "truth is more complicated." Fox's Jennifer Griffen then proceed to do a very confusing and very confused piece about possible Iran/Sunni/Al Qaeda links. She showed a 2007 clip of Major General William Caldwell saying that there was "some evidence that Iran provided support to Sunni insurgent groups." She also referred to the discovery, in Diyala province, last year, of Iranian made rockets which the US did not link to the Iranian government. She cited the 2004 Iraq Study Group, which, according to Griffin showed a link between Iran and Ansar Al Islam. She then claimed that the Iraqi Perspectives Project showed that Saddam Hussein had a "marriage of convenience to various terrorist groups." She further claimed that "what many in the media missed was the training provided by Saddam Hussein which showed the connection between Saddam and Islamic and other terrorist organizations."

Comment: Griffin did two things here, albeit in a very muddy way. She tried to show that McCain was right about the Iran/Sunni connection and that the recent Pentagon Report (The Iraqi Perspectives Project), which stated that there was no Saddam/Al Qaeda connection was wrong – a contention held by rightwing war supporter, Cheney biographer, and Weekly Standard writer Stephen Hayes. As we see with Fox so often, if reality isn't acceptable, you can just change it. This is just the beginning of a long inning of McCain softballs to be pitched by Fox News.

Guest blogged by Priscilla