Once again, the fair and balanced bastion of journalistic excellence that is Fox News has shown its true colors by blatantly lying about President Obama's supposed lack of an "Easter Proclamation" after the president issued a statement marking the beginning of Ramadan yesterday.
Some of the lowlights, if I may:
Fox & Friends co-hosts falsely declared that he issued a "proclamation" in honor of the Ramadan. He issued a statement in honor of the holiday, but he did not issue a proclamation.
A presidential proclamation is "an instrument that states a condition, declares a law and requires obedience, recognizes an event or triggers the implementation of a law (by recognizing that the circumstances in law have been realized)" (Cooper 2002, 116). In short, presidents "define" situations or conditions on situations that become legal or economic truth. These orders carry the same force of law as executive orders - the difference between the two is that executive orders are aimed at those inside government while proclamations are aimed at those outside government. The administrative weight of these proclamations is upheld because they are often specifically authorized by congressional statute, making them "delegated unilateral powers." Presidential proclamations are often dismissed as a practical presidential tool for policy making because of the perception of proclamations as largely ceremonial or symbolic in nature. However, the legal weight of presidential proclamations suggests their importance to presidential governance. (Thank you to the American Presidency Project.)
Reviving their attack on Obama for not issuing an Easter proclamation, the co-hosts acknowledged that Obama hosted the White House's annual Easter Egg Roll, they suggested that the rest of Obama's official recognition of the holiday was limited to a brief "mention ... in his weekend address." In fact, in addition to the Easter Egg Roll and his weekly address, Obama hosted an entire Easter Prayer Breakfast in which he discussed how the "resurrection of" his "savior, Jesus Christ ... puts everything else in perspective." In his very personal speech, Obama quoted the Scripture and said of Jesus' "slow march up that hill" and "the pain and the scorn and the shame of the cross" Jesus was subjected to.
Fox News Lobs False Attacks After Obama Ramadan Statement
It seems to me that this begs the question of whether Faux News is once again trying the gin up those who insist that President Obama is a Muslim when he obviously is a devout Christian. I should like to point out, once again, that despite the president's obvious Christian faith, Muslims are not precluded from the presidency or any other elected office; so even if the man were Muslim, why would it matter? Is Fox attacking the president's faith? It would seem that this is their intent.
Why does Fox News continue to spread lies about the president? I would assume for the same reason that they interviewed three times more Republicans than they did Democrats regarding the just resolved debt ceiling crisis. They are nothing more than the propaganda wing of the Republican Party. Fair and balanced indeed. I realize that there are media outlets that exhibit a leftist bias as well. Newsweek, which I read religiously, and MSNBC, whose news coverage or commentary I would not watch if they paid me, come to mind immediately, but I have never seen either of these outlets tell bold faced lies about elected officials like Fox consistently does. Again, fair and balanced, indeed.
Fox likes to say "(They) report, you decide". Well, I have decided that they are a a sodding joke and an insult to serious television journalism worldwide. Maybe they will go down in flames next to "The News of the World"............. We can only hope.
Peace and love, my brothers and sisters.
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