Even repeats typo -- Dec. 19, 2009
Fox News Channel has hit a new low.
A GOP press release was turned into a series of graphics and passed off as the network's own research -- so exactly that the graphics even included the Republicans' original typo.
Fox host Jon Scott, speaking on Fox News' "Happening Now," asserted that "the Senate is expected to pass the $838 billion stimulus plan -- its version of it, anyway. We thought we'd take a look back at the bill, how it was born, and how it grew, and grew, and grew."
"We thought," apparently includes the Senate Republican Communications Center.
Not only do the dates and sources of the stimulus history on the graphics match, the sources even follow in the same order as the press release. All of the sources and cost figures cited were mirrored in the Republicans' release.
The similarity was first noticed by Media Matters for America, a media watchdog group.
Fox News' accompanying on-screen text was also contained in the Republicans' release.
"One on-screen graphic during the segment even repeated a typo from the GOP document, further confirming that Scott was simply reading from a Republican press release," Media Matters remarked. "The Fox News graphic and the GOP press release both claimed that a Wall Street Journal report that the stimulus package could reach "$775 billion over two years" was published on December 19, 2009" -- even though December 2009 remains a good 10 months in the future.
