Is it possible that a similar scenario regarding the administration's nagging Fox News Channel problem was executed by the administration in the Sherrod case? I'd love to believe that some ruthless political operative within the Obama administration -- a certified cut-throat like Rahm Emanuel for example -- saw this whole thing coming early and realized he'd found yet another crisis "too serious to go to waste." Perhaps Rahm caught the video in its preliminary viral stages and -- exceedingly mindful of the "facts-be-damned" modus operandi of Fox and the rest of the vast right-wing media -- decided to go full steam ahead with a quick firing of Sherrod, fully aware that it needed to be done before the story caught up to itself.
That could be one possible explanation for the frantic procession of events that concluded with Sherrod having to pull off the road to call in her resignation because the tape would be broadcast "on Glenn Beck tonight" as Sherrod says she was told. Of course, prior to making that call, Sherrod's hasty condemnation by the NAACP injected a kind of fuel of credibility to an already roaring flame which of course, provided justification for the wearily sanctimonious "all Americans should be outraged" shtick coming later from Beck, Hannity, and O'Reilly. Then, perhaps as if on cue, shortly after Sherrod's resignation surfaced waves of exculpatory information. The rest of course, is history.
Although that history now includes yet another installment of what has been an on-going narrative of Fox getting caught in its own crude traps of journalistic subterfuge, this time, it got caught in a far more blatant, red-handed kind of way. As a result, when the Obama administration now accuses Fox of doing what Fox does -- either creating or shaping news instead of simply reporting it-- the evidence will be more than anecdotal.
At the very least, the unfolding of the Sherrod case certainly comes with unintended consequences for Fox News that translates into a silver lining for the Obama administration. Whether or not it was actually orchestrated by the administration most likely is a bit of a stretch. I certainly wouldn't take issue with anyone -- even a fan of Fox News --who would assert that this scenario is in fact very far-fetched. It's certainly not something I'd bet on.
But as to odds about whether Fox will in fact someday announce that the world is flat? Let's put it this way: it doesn't take a psychic to predict that Fox will continue to be Fox. If anything, the real challenge is trying to foresee which Fox personality will make that earth-shattering announcement -- Huckabee, or Beck?
As of now, I'd say it's a toss-up.
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