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Thus speaks Fox News

By Al Owens 4 min read
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Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro exaggerates a lot.

ThatĢƵ her style.

A couple of weeks ago, she engaged in some hyperbole about the tense situation involving truckers along the U.S.-Canadian border.

President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had discussed the truckers’ blockades at key bridges.

That set Pirro off.

As one of the Fox News co-hosts of the show, “The Five,” Pirro is tasked with aggressively finding out something wrong – and that Biden caused it, I suppose.

“Biden, the same guy who in the summer of 2020 decided he would allow people to burn down streets and businesses and create all kinds of problems,” Pirro declared.

Therein lies a problem.

In the summer of 2020, Biden wasn’t even the president. He held no public office.

Pirro somehow found fault in something Biden hadn’t done, but she blamed him for it anyway.

Thus speaks Fox News.

Biden is the source of daily ridicule on Fox News.

The only times they lay off Biden is when thereĢƵ a chance they might be able to find some reason to attack Hillary Clinton.

If thereĢƵ even a hint of an infraction that could lead the authorities to “LOCK HER UP,” well, thatĢƵ a bonus.

All thatĢƵ needed is for Mrs. Clinton to be mentioned for any reason, and Fox News (with an able assist from Donald Trump) fires up their anti-Hillary machine.

ThatĢƵ precisely what happened after Feb. 11, when a court filing by Justice Department special counsel – John Durham – was released, that had nothing to do with Clinton.

True, Durham is investigating the legal case involving Michael Sussmann, a lawyer for ClintonĢƵ 2016 presidential campaign.

In short, though, the filing contained some legal mumbo-jumbo about a potential conflict of interest between the judge hearing his case and the law firm Sussmann worked for.

But since Sussmann had worked for Clinton, on Fox News, a collective “BINGO” could be heard throughout Fox News headquarters.

Fox News’ Jesse Waters opined that the filing meant, “DurhamĢƵ documents show that Hillary Clinton hired people who hacked into TrumpĢƵ home and office computers before and during his presidency and planted evidence that he colluded with Russia.”

Yeah. But thatĢƵ not what the filing said.

On Feb. 14, Fox News Business host Maria Bartiromo began reading these words: “Back in 2016, Democrat paid operatives illegally hacked political opponents’ communications during a presidential campaign. And then did it again to a sitting president.”

Once again, that filing had nothing whatsoever to do with “illegal hacking.”

When thereĢƵ any story that supposedly involves Hillary Clinton, Trump is sure to come out of the shadow of which heĢƵ been lurking – and attack.

“This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate, and those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution,” he said.

That statement was peculiar for two reasons. First, that legal filing didn’t mention the word “spying.” And second, “magnitude” is a three-syllable word. I never knew he was capable of using one of those.

But he went even further.

“In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death,” he wrote in a Trump communique.

Meanwhile, Fox News made mention of the supposed “spying” by the Clinton campaign 669 times (according to a CNN word count).

The false claims about ClintonĢƵ attempted “infiltration” of the Trump Empire became so ridiculous that the special counsel himself responded to them.

“If third parties or members of the media have overstated, understated, or otherwise misinterpreted facts contained in the governmentĢƵ motion, that does not in any way undermine the valid reasons for the governmentĢƵ inclusion of this information,” John Durham wrote.

That led Clinton, herself, to respond.

“ItĢƵ funny, the more trouble Trump gets into, the wilder the charges and conspiracy theories about me seem to get,” she said during a speech at the New York State Democratic Convention.

There hasn’t been a word about HillaryĢƵ alleged “infiltrations” since.

Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 40-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.

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