"Outfoxed." There's been a lot of hubbub the last couple days over this documentary which looks at the Faux News channel and Rupert Murdoch empire and the ways in which it is a propaganda machine for the GOP (watch the trailer). Among the evidence to come out of all this are a series of memos sent by Fox News Chief John Moody giving the daily talking points. Wonkette has posted all of the memos, and they give insight to the many ways in which Faux is neither fair nor balanced. But two passages in particular struck me as being especially cynical:

From: John Moody

Date: 4/22/2004

THURSDAY UPDATE: let's rock n roll with the korean train explosion. korean websites are speculating freely that it was a mistimed hit on kim. that gives us the right to quote them, and let guests etc speculate. it is eerie that it happened just hours after the dear leader finished his business in china and pointedly took the train home.

..........

From: John Moody

Date: 4/23/2004

As we worried yesterday, the death toll in the N Korean train wreck looks like it's being drastically revised downward. that doesn't mean we won't follow the story, to the exten we can get information from the Hermit Kingdom. The chance that it was an assassination against Kim is slim ( i took a poetry class to do this stuff). But it's not impossible.

Okay, "Hermit Kingdom" is kinda funny, but only if you forget the terrible oppression suffered by many in N.Korea. The initial reports of that explosion were estimating that up to 3000 people had been killed or injured, and the Faux News chief says "Let's rock n roll with the korean train explosion"? And then the following day, the memo expresses regret that the death toll has been revised downward??? Can you imagine the outrage that Faux would express if an overseas news memo was released from 9/11 saying "Let's rock n roll with the Twin Towers" and the next day expresses regret that more hadn't died? As my dad would say, "What a jerk." (and note their high standards of journalism, "korean websites are speculating freely that it was a mistimed hit on kim. that gives us the right to quote them"...what a bunch of utter and complete whores.)
No wonder watching Faux News makes people stoopid.