Fox News It's been a full decade since Fox News dropped its "Fair and Balanced" slogan and more than three years since the network got sued for defaming Dominion Voting Systems and had to pay $787.5 million, but every once in a while, the Republican entertainment network does tell the truth. For example, after airing a wildly incorrect gas price graphic on-air, the Huffington Post reports Fox actually issued a correction admitting that gas isn't actually cheaper now than it was a year ago. Progress! On Sunday, Fox News cut to a graphic that purportedly showed how gas prices had changed recently. It showed the national average was $4.06 a gallon at the time, up from $4.00 the week before. It also showed that a year earlier, gas was $4.13 a gallon. While the graphic appeared on the screen, Fox Business's Ed Lawrence can be heard saying, "President Trump asking Americans for patience in paying a little bit more for gas, because the unified message from here is that gas prices will drop quickly once the operations finish. The president says that the has to do this to make sure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon." How handing control of the Strait of Hormuz to a now-more-hardline Iran and allowing it to collect billions of dollars in "fees" from ships transiting the strait is supposed to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon isn't clear, but there's a bigger issue with the graphic. The average gas price a year ago wasn't $4.13. According to the fact-checking site Snopes, the actual price was either $3.14 or $3.13, depending on the source. Gas isn't a little cheaper than it was a year ago. It's more expensive by a whole dollar. Oops! We're talking about Fox News here, not a real news network, so you wouldn't think yet another lie would be that big of a deal. Viewers who care about the truth don't watch Fox News. Ignoring facts — and reality in general — is pretty much their whole thing. Then again, Republicans have managed to bungle this war so badly, they've even managed to lose the support of MAGA voters. The states where pricier gas is costing households the most are also all Republican-controlled. Whether viewer complaints led to a correction or not, the most notable thing here is that Fox News actually did issue a correction. In a correction that the Huffington Post reports aired on both Fox Business and "America Reports," Ed Lawrence said, "Yesterday, we aired a graphic that showed gas prices incorrectly last year were $4.13 a gallon. They are, in fact ... $3.13 a gallon. That's 90 cents more in the past year." Of course, he couldn't issue a correction without throwing in some pro-Republican spin, adding, "The Trump administration says those gas prices will fall quickly once the operations in Iran end." You can add this event to the pile of evidence that shows gas prices are going to be a major liability for Republicans in the midterms. As they should be. Trump started a war with Iran that made gas expensive, elected Republicans lined up to support it, and the current mess is entirely their fault. Turns out, even with your head firmly buried in the sand, some facts are just impossible to avoid.
Liked by Abigail Rogers, Lily Girard
Liked by Abigail Rogers, Lily Girard
Liked by Abigail Rogers, Lily Girard
