Monday, April 20, 2009

I may need some help with this one

Steve Benen at Political Animal points out a bit of Fox News BS* from last week. According to Media Matters:
An April 17 headline posted on TheFoxNation.com -- Fox News' new and allegedly bias-free website -- claimed that the "Taliban Copies Democrat Playbook." The headline linked to an April 16 New York Times article headlined, "Taliban Exploit Class Rifts in Pakistan." In fact, the Times article -- which described insurgency tactics such as roadside bombs -- made no mention of the Democratic Party.

Benen comments picks up the story by pointing out Fox News' hypocrisy** in in this:
This, apparently, is "Fox Nation's" idea of being clever. You see, the Taliban is exploiting class rifts in Pakistan, so the Taliban is necessarily emulating the "Democrat [sic] Playbook." How droll.

But the reason this was of particular interest is because there was one recent instance in which a leading American politician really did want to see a major U.S. political party share a playbook with the Taliban. It wasn't, however, a Democrat -- it was National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas), who said GOP lawmakers should emulate the Taliban because "they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person's entire processes."

Let me see if I understand this. Fox News (a wholly owned subsidiary of the GOP Big Wurlitzer) thinks the Taliban are using the Democratic playbook. Pete Sessions thinks Republicans should use the Taliban playbook. Does that mean Sessions thinks the Republicans should use the Democratic playbook? The Democratic Leadership Congress thinks the Democrats need to be more like the Republicans who should be imitating the Taliban who are copying the Democrats who... My head hurts. I'm going to go gargle Scotch till the world makes more sense.

* The phrase "Fox News BS" would like to give a big shout out to its friends at the Department of Redundancy Department.
** The phrase "Fox News' hypocrisy" also wants to give a big shout out to its friends at the Department of Redundancy Department.***
*** The Department of Redundancy Department wants nothing to do with this post.

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