Fox and the Fallacy: How they do it

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4478160

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x488936
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SIJQoxyuVw

AT 2:10, approximately, Chris Wallace asks if "Speaker Gingrich's" earlier remarks were racist or unfair.
AT 4:19, approximately, Chris Wallace brings in "Governor Dean." At this point Dean attacks Fox's racism. Wallace says, 4:52, Wallace remarks, that "facts are inconvenient things...the Obama administration fired, er, or forced Shirley Sherrod to quit before her name was ever mentioned on the Fox News Channel. Did you know that?"

Clearly, Dean did not; he was flustered and lost credibility after that.

And yet, see the Timeline at MediaMatters.org - here: http://mediamatters.org/research/201007220004

Breitbart posted at 11:18 AM July 19. Fox followed with this:

Fox News amplifies Breitbart's deceptively edited video. On July 19, FoxNews.com reported: "Days after the NAACP clashed with Tea Party members over allegations of racism, a video has surfaced showing an Agriculture Department official regaling an NAACP audience with a story about how she withheld help to a white farmer facing bankruptcy." The FoxNews.com article further reported that "he video clip was first posted by BigGovernment.com" and that "FoxNews.com is seeking a response from both the NAACP and the USDA." The article is no longer available on FoxNews.com but was republished on another website:

Then this:
1:40 p.m. (approximately): Fox Nation accuses Sherrod of "discrimination caught on tape" before she resigned. Fox Nation linked to Breitbart's Big Government piece and posted the deceptively cropped clips of Sherrod's speech at the NAACP in a post titled, "Caught on Tape: Obama Official Discriminates Against White Farmer":

(Go to mediamatters.org to see logo, full script, etc.)

So, Wallace was technically correct. But when Fox identified an "Agriculture Department official regaling an NAACP audience" and then an "Obama official" - it amounts to identifying her, since she was the only one they could be talking about. It's like saying "a broadcaster for Fox News who is the son of a founder of 60 Minutes on CBS engaged in manipulation and used distorted rhetoric to defend an ad hominem smear intended to exacerbate racial polarization." But I never said it was Mike Wallace who did that.

Notice the contrast with his response to Gingrich's defense - another fallacy, that of "they did it, too." Not quite true. More on this later.

He was very careful to parse it in certain way -- "we Fox didn't mention her by name and air the video before she was forced to resign."

No . . . they just talked about it breathlessly, taped segments to appear later that day, and put the video up on their website.

See Ockham's New Razor.

I thought Dean was momentarily caught off balance, but he returned to message well--Fox contributes to racism.