Fox Deceptively Crops Secretary Sebelius' Comments On Obamacare Implementation

JUSTIN BERRIER/Media Matters For America

Fox News deceptively edited a clip of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to make it seem as though she had not anticipated how complex implementation of President Obama's health care law would be when, in fact, Sebelius was pointing to the problems created by relentless political opposition to the bill.

On America's Newsroom, guest host Gregg Jarrett played a portion of Sebelius' appearance at the Harvard School of Public Health. Jarrett introduced the clip by claiming Sebelius "admitted there's been a lot of confusion associated with the rollout." Jarrett then played a portion of the clip in which Sebelius said, "There was some hope that once the Supreme Court ruled in July, and then once an election occurred, there would be a sense of, 'this is the law of the land, let's get on board, let's make this work,' and yet we find ourselves still having sort of state-by-state political battles."

After the clip, Jarrett responded by saying, "She underestimated its complexity. Well, my goodness, the law is 2,700 pages long with more than 15,000 pages of [regulations]. What does she expect?"

But Jarrett's interpretation of Sebelius' appearance is based on deceptive editing. Sebelius wasn't complaining about the bill's length or complexity -- she was explaining that political opposition to the law has made implementation more difficult. Fox began the clip after Sebelius pointed out that  "politics has been relentless and continuous." In the portion after Fox's edited verision (comments begin around 13:30),  Sebelius went on to explain that states which have expressed consistent opposition to the law make it more difficult to implement the law and explain benefits to health care consumers. In Sebelius' comments below, the portion aired by Fox is in bold:

SEBELIUS: The second thing that probably has been more difficult is just the politics has been relentless and continuous. And I would say I think there was some hope that once the Supreme Court ruled in July and then once an election occurred there would be a sense that, 'This is the law of the land, let's get on board, let's make this work.' And yet we will find ourselves still having sort of state-by-state political battles and again creating what I think is a lot of confusion. It is very difficult when people live in a state where there is a daily declaration, 'We will not participate in the law,' for them to figure out whether there are any benefits that they actually have a right to access and so getting that word out about setting up the infrastructure has been more complicated.

Later in the segment, guest Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large of National Review Online, provided the context that Fox left out, saying, "Basically what she is saying is that any problems they are running into with Obamacare have to do with Republican governors not agreeing to the Medicaid expansion," an argument Goldberg claimed was "dishonest."

Fox's Hannity Joins Right-Wing Media In Selectively Editing Panetta's Testimony

TERRY KREPEL/Media Matters for America:

Following in the footsteps of others in the right-wing media, Fox News host Sean Hannity selectively edited a video of outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to portray President Obama as "virtually absent" during the September 2012 attack on a diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya. In fact, Panetta testified that White House officials were kept informed of events throughout the incident.

On the February 7 edition of his Fox News program, Hannity said "a major bombshell was revealed" during Panetta's testimony during a congressional briefing that Obama "was virtually absent" during the Benghazi attack. Hannity then played segments of Panetta's testimony.

But Hannity did not air the section of Panetta's testimony in which he pointed out that information about the attack "went to the White House" and that Obama stayed in contact with military officials and was "well-informed" during the attack. Hannity also failed to air a clip of Gen. Martin Dempsey stating that White House staff "was engaged with the national military command center pretty constantly through the period, which is the way it would normally work."

Hannity joins numerous other right-wing outlets in selectively editing the testimony of Panetta and Dempsey.

REPORT: Fox News Spends Two-Plus Hours Distorting Obama's Small Business Comments

JUSTIN BERRIER, MELODY JOHNSON, ANDY NEWBOLD, & CHELSEA RUDMAN/Media MAtters for America:

Over two days, Fox News spent 42 segments and more than two hours of airtime manufacturing a scandal by deceptively editing comments President Obama made at a campaign appearance in Virginia.  

On July 13, Obama made the unremarkable observation that business owners do not achieve success in a vacuum, but that public infrastructure - such as roads, schools, and fire departments - create a community that supports businesses:

OBAMA: If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.  Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. 

The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don't do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires. 

Media conservatives have distorted those comments to accuse the president of expressing hostility toward business.

In discussing the speech relentlessly in the past 2 days, Fox has fixated on the passage where Obama said, "If you've got a business, you didn't build that." But Fox ignores what Obama was talking about before saying "you didn't build that," when he touted "this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive," and said: "Somebody invested in those roads and bridges."

Fox's manufactured controversy has now become the focus of an official Mitt Romney campaign ad.

Fox Devotes More Than Two Hours And 42 Segments To Manufactured Controversy

Fox's campaign began during the July 16 edition of Fox & Friends, where Obama's comments were edited to make it seem as though Obama said small business owners do not deserve any credit for their own success. The edited clip featured the following two lines:

OBAMA: If you've got a business, you didn't build that, somebody else made that happen.

[...]

The point is that, when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.

Co-host Gretchen Carlson called the heavily edited clip "most startling." 

Media Matters monitored Fox's coverage of Obama's comments on July 16 and July 17, and found that Fox News devoted 2 hours and 19 minutes to covering the controversy -- one largely manufactured by the network itself. The coverage culminated with Fox's afternoon and primetime lineup on July 17, with Your World with Neil Cavuto, The Five, Special Report, The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity, and On the Record with Greta Van Susterencontributing 1 hour and 5 minutes to the story.

Two prime-time shows, Hannity and On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, devoted a total of more than 15 minutes to the story on July 17. The O'Reilly Factor similarly devoted more than 14 minutes.

Including teases that perpetuated Fox's distorted portrayal of Obama's comments, Fox News dedicated 42 individual segments to the story over the course of two days. Fox & Friends alone ran nine segments in two days, while the "straight news" program America's Newsroom covered the story six times, inviting guests such as Fox Business host Stuart Varney, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), and Donald Trump to attack Obama.

Conservatives Selectively Edit Obama’s Speech To Claim He Hates Small Businesses

By Aviva Shen/Think Progress

Attempting to change the subject from the latest scandal over Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, conservatives have seized on new fodder for the narrative that Obama is secretly out to destroy small businesses. Fox and Friends on Monday morning aired a clipfrom an Obama campaign speech in Roanoke, Virginia, in which he says, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else did that.”

The sound bite soon reverberated throughout conservative media outlets. Fox News later ran the headline, “Obama Insults Small Business Owners,” and House Speaker John Boehnerscoffed, “He said that because he has no idea what it takes to build or run a small business.”

The quote also prompted talk show host Rush Limbaugh to declare that President Obama “hates this country.”

Of course, Obama’s supposedly insulting comment is somewhat different in context. The full text of his speech, rather than denigrate small business, challenged the idea that wealthy and successful individuals have never benefited from government programs:

I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.

Without the context, Obama’s point that individual effort is bolstered by community systems is completely lost. The idea is nothing new; Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) made very similar comments that went viral in September of last year. Indeed, far from denigrating small business owners, Obama has cut taxes on small businesses 17 times.

Deliberately editing Obama out of context is not a new tactic for conservatives. In one blatant example, a recent Romney campaign ad quoted Obama saying, “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose,” a quote Obama was in fact using to criticize then-candidate John McCain for his refusal to discuss the economic crisis in 2008.

Romney Pushes Altered Versions Of Newspaper Endorsements, Edits Out Criticisms

By Adam Peck/Think Progress

In the weeks leading up to this Tuesday’s Republican presidential primary in Michigan, Mitt Romney hasstruggled to defend his 2008 editorial in the New York Times that argued against a government rescue of the US auto industry that the state is so dependent on.

And even while several newspaper editorial staffs have offered endorsements of Romney, many of them have included paragraphs criticizing Romney for his position on the successful Detroit rescue.

Or have they? The Romney campaign is facing a fresh round of criticism for selectively editing out paragraphs that hit Romney for his position on the bailout, as well as his job performance at Bain Capital and involvement in the Massachusetts health care bill. In endorsements from theDetroit News and Grand Rapids Press circulated to reporters covering the campaign andpublished on his campaign website, any mentions of Romney’s political liabilities have been removed. Here’s one paragraph from the Detroit News editorial that was omitted by the Romney campaign:

At least one editor is not happy about the move. Media critic Jim Romenesko reported that Nolan Finey, the editorial page editor at the Detroit News, was planning on calling the campaign to make his displeasure known. “They should have run the complete, original version,” Finey told Romenesko.

The Romney campaign has defended the decision by claiming that publishing the full editorial would violate copyright law. But it didn’t take long for a commenter on Romenesko’s site to point out that the campaign’s use of the editorial would qualify as fair use, and thus not be subject to any required editing. Not to mention the fact that the Detroit News was asking for the campaign to republish their editorial, as is common when any newspaper endorses any candidate.

Conservative Media Edit Out Government's Role In Texas Economy

From media matters

Conservative pundits have attributed economic growth and job creation in Texas to the success of conservative policies like low taxes and small government. But government has played a significant role in Texas' recent economic record: Federal spending helped balance the state budget, and strict regulation helped shield it from the housing bubble.

Conservatives Tout Texas' "Embrace" Of "Fiscal Conservatism"

Wash. Times' Kuhner: "Embrace" Of "Fiscal Conservatism" Led To "Stellar Economic Record."From The Washington Times:

[Perry] also has a stellar economic record. From June 2001 until June 2010, Texas added more jobs than the other 49 states combined. Since June 2009, it has generated nearly 40 percent of all net jobs in America. His formula is simple: Embrace fiscal conservatism. His administration has controlled spending, balanced budgets and slashed burdensome regulations. Texas is a right-to-work state. It does not have a personal income or capital gains tax. It is a magnet for businesses, job creators and investment capital. [The Washington Times, 8/18/11]

Fox & Friends' Carlson Repeats "Lowering Taxes And Regulations" Has Led To Texas' Job Growth. From Fox & Friends:

GRETCHEN CALRSON (co-host): So what has happened in Texas? The governor says it's simple. It's all about lowering taxes and regulations. And look at what's happened as a result. Texas has added 37 percent of all U.S. jobs since the recovery began. That's astounding. And Governor Perry makes no bones about it. He's like, "Look, yeah, I've gone to other states like California and tried to recruit people to come and work in Texas," because he believes it's a better environment to work in Texas. Keep in mind, no state income tax there as well.

BRIAN KILMEADE (co-host): Yeah, no state income tax. In fact, they have tort reform. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 6/15/11]

WSJ Editorial: "The Government In Austin Is Small, Taxes Are Low, Regulation Is Stable," Which Is "A Magnet For Private Investment And Hiring." From a Wall Street Journal editorial:

Some of this Texas growth is due to high birth rates, some to immigration. But it also reflects the flight of people from other states. People and capital are mobile and move where the opportunities are greatest. Texas is attractive to workers and employers alike because of its low costs of living and doing business. The government in Austin is small, taxes are low, regulation is stable, and the litigation system is more predictable after Mr. Perry's tort reforms -- all of which is a magnet for private investment and hiring. [The Wall Street Journal,8/19/11]

Weekly Standard's Hemingway Cites "Tax" And "Regulatory Climate" As Reasons For Texas Job Growth. From a Weekly Standard blog post by Mark Hemingway:

[Paul] Krugman's paragraph here explains a lot about why "Keynesian" should probably be a bigger slur than "former Enron adviser." For one thing, job creation is not a zero-sum game. Texas hasn't created over 40 percent of the country's new jobs just by taking them away from other states. A lot of those jobs wouldn't exist, period, if Texas didn't create a tax a regulatory climate to encourage them -- Texas added 732,000 jobs in the last decade, and no other state created more than 100,000. If Krugman's unimpressed, that's because he's the one that's trading in fallacies here.

[...]

This isn't exactly a surprise, but Krugman's being spectacularly dishonest here. He also fails to mention that Texas has twice closed massive budget deficits under Perry's tenure as governor -- without raising taxes. The fact that Texas has its fiscal house in order, unlike just about every other blue state, surely has something to do with Texas' economic growth. The reality is that just about every other blue state is a governing basket case when compared to Texas, and the comparison is revealing and instructive. [The Weekly Standard, 8/15/11]

Hot Air's Ed Morrissey: "Jobs Got Created" In Texas "Because The State Government Got Out Of The Way Of Job Creation And Business Expansion." From Hot Air's Ed Morrissey:

Jobs didn't grow because people came to Texas.  People came to Texas because jobs got created there.  And jobs got created there, especially over the last two years, because the state government got out of the way of job creation and business expansion.  In fact, the results have been so dramatic that other states have sent delegations to Texas to see how they can duplicate the success. [Hot Air, 7/26/11]

But Federal Spending, Public-Sector Jobs Have Buoyed Texas' Economy

BLS: Texas Has Added Around 100,000 Government Jobs Since Beginning Of Recession. From the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

[StLouisFed.org, accessed 8/22/11]

Wash. Post: Much Of Texas' Economic Strength "Has Come Because Of Government, Not In Spite Of It." From The Washington Post:

Perry says the "Texas miracle" rests on conservative pillars that he would bring to the White House: minimal regulation and government, low taxes and a determination to limit the reach of Uncle Sam.

What he does not say is that much of that job growth has come because of government, not in spite of it.

With a young and fast-growing population, a large and expanding military presence and an influx of federal stimulus money, the number of government jobs in Texas has grown at more than double the rate of private-sector employment during Perry's tenure. [The Washington Post, 8/20/11]

CNNMoney: Texas' 2010-11 Budget Filled "Nearly 97%" Of $6.6 Billion Deficit With Federal Stimulus Funds. From CNNMoney:

Turns out Texas was the state that depended the most on those very stimulus funds to plug nearly 97% of its shortfall for fiscal 2010, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Texas, which crafts a budget every two years, was facing a $6.6 billion shortfall for its 2010-2011 fiscal years. It plugged nearly all of that deficit with $6.4 billion in Recovery Act money, allowing it to leave its $9.1 billion rainy day fund untouched.

"Stimulus was very helpful in getting them through the last few years," said Brian Sigritz, director of state fiscal studies for the National Association of State Budget Officers, said of Texas. [CNN.com, 1/24/11]

CNNMoney: With Stimulus Funds Drying Up, Texas Faces $31 Billion In Cuts In Next Budget Cycle, Hitting Schools, Colleges, Medicaid, And Social Services For The Needy. From CNNMoney:

Unfortunately for Texas, and for most other states in the union, the stimulus safety net has dried up. So they are now facing draconian spending cuts as they try to close yawning budget gaps for fiscal 2012, which starts July 1 in most states.

Texas is in trouble too. State lawmakers last week unveiled an austere budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal years that cuts $31 billion in spending. Schools, colleges, Medicaid and social services for the needy will be hit especially hard. [CNN.com, 1/24/11]

Wash. Post: Population Growth Has Necessitated Public-Sector Growth In Texas, Including "More Teachers, Budget Analysts, Compliance Officers, And Police Officers." From The Washington Post:

Analysts call the growth in government employment in Texas a natural consequence of the surging population, which has grown by more than 20 percent in the past decade to 25.1 million. The increase has caused local governments and school systems to hire more teachers, budget analysts, compliance officers and police officers.

"A lot of growth has been happening in the public sector to respond to a growing population," said Don Baylor Jr., a senior policy analyst with the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a research and advocacy group in Austin. "That has been an ongoing driver of our job growth." [The Washington Post, 8/20/11]

Wash. Post: Texas Received "More Than $227 Billion In Federal Spending In 2009" And "The Third-Highest Amount Of Stimulus Money In the Nation." From The Washington Post:

The Texas economy also has benefited from the huge sums spent by the federal government. The state is home to several large military installations as well as NASA, which helped Texas reap more than $227 billion in federal spending in 2009 -- more than double its 2001 total, according to the Census Bureau. Texas is the nation's second-most-populous state, behind California, where the federal government spent almost $346 billion in 2009.

In the wake of the Great Recession, the state has raked in nearly $25 billion in federal stimulus money, which has gone to everything from road projects and unemployment benefits to helping to balance the state budget. Befitting its population, Texas has received the third-highest amount of stimulus money in the nation, behind California and New York. [The Washington Post, 8/20/11]

Strict Home-Loan Regulation Helped Shield Texas From Housing Boom And Bust

Wash. Post: "Tight Regulation Of Home Equity Loans" And "Tightly Regulated" Mortgage Lenders Helped Shield Texas From Housing Bubble. From The Washington Post:

Texas was shielded from the worst of the housing-market bust by the state government's tight regulation of home equity loans, which were not permitted until the late 1990s and are limited to 80 percent of a homeowner's equity. Elsewhere, property owners often took out riskier home equity loans and mortgages that left them financially crippled when housing prices collapsed, causing damaging ripples across the economy.

At the same time, mortgage lenders in Texas are tightly regulated, which prevented abuses that were prevalent in many parts of the country. Taken together, the regulations helped keep Texas housing prices in check. [The Washington Post, 8/20/11]

Wash. Post: Housing Problems In Texas "Are Orders Of Magnitude Less Than They Would Have Been Without The Home-Equity Limits." From The Washington Post:

But there is a broader secret to Texas's success, and Washington reformers ought to be paying very close attention. If there's one thing that Congress can do to help protect borrowers from the worst lending excesses that fueled the mortgage and financial crises, it's to follow the Lone Star State's lead and put the brakes on "cash-out" refinancing and home-equity lending.

A cash-out refinance is a mortgage taken out for a higher balance than the one on an existing loan, net of fees. Across the nation, cash-outs became ubiquitous during the mortgage boom, as skyrocketing house prices made it possible for homeowners, even those with bad credit, to use their home equity like an ATM. But not in Texas. There, cash-outs and home-equity loans cannot total more than 80 percent of a home's appraised value. There's a 12-day cooling-off period after an application, during which the borrower can pull out. And when a borrower refinances a mortgage, it's illegal to get even a dollar back. Texas really means it: All these protections, and more, are in the state constitution. The Texas restrictions on mortgage borrowing date from the first days of statehood in 1845, when the constitution banned home loans.

[...]

Until 1998, Texans couldn't take out home-equity loans at all. The roots of this fierce resistance to debt's temptations go deep in Texas history. Seven years before the republic joined the Union in 1845, many homesteaders lost their property because of a bank panic and the resulting foreclosures. Drawing from Mexican codes protecting landholders, the new constitution of the state of Texas forbade lenders from peddling mortgages to homesteaders.

The home-equity restrictions have not only helped keep cash-out refinances a rare breed in Texas; other risky mortgages were scarce there, too. The home-equity borrowing restrictions helped keep home prices from overinflating, and home buyers therefore didn't need to turn to exotic mortgages with such features as 2/28 ARMs, interest-only payments, or negative amortization in order to buy a home. Even when they did, Texas law requires these risky features to be clearly disclosed. Fewer than 20 percent of Texas subprime mortgages included any of them.

That's not to say that Texas borrowers didn't get into bubble trouble. Plenty bought overpriced houses, which is why one in eight Texans now owe more than their home is worth. And it was easy enough for lenders to get around the home-equity borrowing limits by using creative appraisals that pretend a home is worth more than it really is. But the casualties are orders of magnitude less than they would have been without the home-equity limits. [The Washington Post, 4/4/10]

Fox News Sunday Edits Out Jon Stewart's Criticism Of Fox Exec

by Eric Hananoki

Yesterday, Jon Stewart appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss his sharp criticism of Fox News. But one uncomfortable reference to marching-order emails from a Fox News executive was cut from the program.   

Speaking with host Chris Wallace, Stewart referenced emails from Fox News vice president and DC managing editor Bill Sammon to bolster his case that Fox News resembles "ideological regimes" who receive "marching orders." Stewart told Wallace that Fox News "reminds me of, you know -- you know, ideological regimes. They can't understand that there is free media other places. Because they receive marching orders." Stewart then said "and if you want me to go through Bill Sammon's emails" but was cut off by Wallace.

Stewart was referencing a series of leaked emails that Media Matters released showing Sammon slanting his bureau's reporting. In one email, Sammon ordered his news staff to cast doubt on established climate science. In another, Sammon directed staff not to use the phrase "public option," but instead the GOP-friendly "government option" and similar phrases. Sammon also sent emails highlighting "Obama's references to socialism, liberalism, Marxism and Marxists" in his 1995 autobiography and slanting Fox's coverage of President Obama's 2009 Cairo speech.

But viewers watching Fox News Sunday on-air wouldn't have heard Stewart's reference to Sammon because it didn't appear on air. Stewart's reference instead appears in the "unedited" interview that Fox News posted online.

The following is a transcript of Fox News Sunday's conversation with Stewart. In bold and caps is the portion of that conversation that was cut from the portion that aired on the show.

STEWART: You can't understand because of the world you live in that there is not a designed ideological agenda on my part to affect partisan change because that's the soup you swim in. And I appreciate that. And I understand that. It reminds me of, you know -- you know, in ideological regimes, they can't understand that there is free media other places. Because they receive marching orders. AND IF YOU WANT ME TO GO THROUGH BILL SAMMON'S EMAILS AND --

WALLACE: DO YOU THINK I'VE EVER -- How do you explain me?

STEWART: OH I THINK YOU DO A NICE JOB. AND I'VE TOLD YOU THAT ON THE SHOW. I THINK YOU'RE ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING --

WALLACE: Do you think I get marching orders?

STEWART: I think that you are here in some respects to bring a credibility and an integrity to an organization that might not otherwise have it, without your presence. So, you are here as a counterweight to Hannity, let's say, or you are here as a counterweight to Glenn Beck, because otherwise, it's just pure talk radio and it doesn't establish the type of political player it wants to be.

To be clear, programs - including The Daily Show - routinely air edited versions of pre-taped interviews, mainly because of time (Stewart's unedited interview was roughly 24 minutes while the on-air version was roughly 15 minutes). But it's hard to imagine that Stewart's five-second reference to Sammon - a Fox News executive and boss at the DC bureau where Fox News Sunday is produced - was excised just because of time.

Fox News Sunday's avoidance of Sammon fits a pattern of the network publicly avoiding uncomfortable questions about the controversial Sammon while it touts the credentials of the news bureau he manages.

Here's the full exchange:

  

And here's what Fox News Sunday aired yesterday:

Previously:

Fox's Bill Sammon Problem

CRUISE SHIP CONFESSION: Top Fox News Executive Admits Lying On-Air About Obama

NY Mag: Sammon "Angered" Fox Reporters For "Pushing Coverage Further To The Right"

Fox's Jenkins Claims He "Didn't See" Sammon Admission That He Lied On-Air About Obama

Kurtz: Sammon "Privately Found" Allegations Far-Fetched, "But Kept On Raising It Anyway"

Fox's Media Criticism Show Ignores Bill Sammon's Cruise Ship Confession

Stewart: Sammon Confession Exposes Fox's "Thinnest Possible Patina of Objectivity"

Veteran D.C. Bureau Chiefs Rip Sammon: 'This Isn't Journalism'