FOX News' Chris Wallace called VP Joe Biden a "crackpot" over flu comments
By John Amato Sunday May 03, 2009 10:05am
(h/t Heather for the vid)
ON FOX News Sunday, Chris Wallace really got into Joe Biden's remarks from the Today Show about the flu and ran with them pretty hard. It's been almost a week and the administration has clarified his statements, but that didn't stop Wallace from FOXing them up.
First he brought up a conspiracy theory that says the Vice President slipped up and was giving us information that the government didn't want Americans to know. Namely, that the swine flu is highly contagious and you had better stay in your house and lock your doors.
Wallace: I have to tell you, some people have said to me since Vice President talked. Maybe you guys are telling the public one thing, but at the highest levels of government you've heard something else, no -- you're saying to me that everything the Vice President Biden said, I'm not talking to the travel to Mexico. Being in a confined space, being in a classroom. Being in a school. Being in a subway, no health danger to any of that?
Sebelius: Again, with, we're letting the science lead this investigation and trying to be prudent...
Second, he asked if Biden was just insane.
Wallace: So why would the Vice President tell his family that? Are we to believe that the Vice President of the United States is a crackpot?
Sebelius: I think that each member of our country makes decisions about themselves and their family and about safety and security. What we're telling you is what the science says.
Kathleen Sebelius should have gotten up in his grill on that last point, but she's trying to be reassuring to the American people. We hope the next time a talking head gets out of line she will call them on it.
Wow, Chris Wallace had plenty of good reasons to call out Dick Cheney on a host of topics, but he never would have ever used that language to describe a "Vice President" of the United States during Cheney's tenure. FOX News has completely gone off the rails since President Obama was elected. They were always a propaganda arm for the GOP, but the ad hominem attacks have escalated to monumental proportions among their talk-show hosts.
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Notice he didnt say 'Bidens a crackpot'. On Fox (and in all media, really) all you have to do to fend off accusations of disrespect is to tack on a question mark.
Thats all you need.
Bill O'Reilly is a child molestor...isn't he?
well...of COURSE, he isnt. but tacking on a question mark arbitrarily turns into something besides a blanket statement.
I thought O'Reilly was? Oh wait, thats Limpballs. O'Reilly's the phone perv, right? And Beck is the dry-drunk rodeo clown. Now I remember.
Its tough keeping track of all these family values creeps.
.
Have you stopped beating your wife... YET?
.
Chris Wallace has no idea how cracked his own pot is? how about his kettle?
One crackpot to a vice president. who cares.
Question mark or no!
That's a Cavuto!
It's been pointed out by Newshounds.us and Jon Stewart. It stemmed from the outrageous things Cavuto, and the "financial" block on Saturdays, put up on the lower third of the screen while they're talking.
A proper Cavuto is an affirmative statement, ending in a question (Cavuto) mark - usually stretched vertically to look more like a an exclamation point. A few (REAL) examples:
DEMS IN CONTROL, WORST THING FOR YOUR MONEY?
OBAMA, DEMS, WORKING FAMILIES' WORST ENEMY?
OBAMA WEAKENING AMERICA'S DEFENSES?
(Sorry for caps-lock, but chyrons are all upper-case on Fox)
..
He just wishes he had Joe Biden's good looks.
having this idiot partisan son of his aborted. sheesh, the apple fell really far from that tree when it comes to journalistic skills. chris has none.
windfall blew from?
I think the secret intent behind Joe Biden’s flu remark was to show why President Obama uses a teleprompter.
Well, you gotta admit, if anyone should know a crackpot - its gotta be Fox news!
the best part of him ran down his mothers leg.
What a red face for his father.
The Pot called........he said that you're black.
S-E-B-E-L-I-U-S
It's fixed..
Am I supposed to know what that is?
but it was still disrespectful to refer to the VP as a "crack-pot". That sort of thing is what we’ve come to expect from Fox News when reporting on this administration. It's not surprising whatsoever.
P.S. I'm no Biden fan and the worst of Biden is yet to come. Watch this week as he reignites ethnic tensions in the Balkans. [Just a heads up, folks. You heard it here first. It will signal the beginning of the end of his vice-Presidency.]
Maybe not what the public wants to hear -- but correct, nevertheless. In 1969, I was working in Manhattan and taking the subway downtown to my job every day. And of course, I got the Hong Kong Flu. What would one expect when he is packed like a sardine into a crowded subway car with everybody sneezing their head's off.
Encourage the public to avoid mass transit. Sure that's the solution. How would millions of Americans get to work? Maybe they should stay home and lose there jobs. That will help. They'll become a special category of Americans. What shall we call them, the "healthy unemployed?"
Yes, I know that the spin from the White House is that Biden meant that sick people should avoid mass transit, but that's certainly not what he said, and if meant to say that, he certainly could have corrected himself on the spot or shortly thereafter, but he didn't.
Seriously, a man or woman in his position has a responsibility to speak responsibly, and not encourage panic.
Biden is turning into a liability. Watch the Balkans next week. You'll see.
Unfortunately, mass transit systems can be wonderful ways to spread almost any sort of illness. Why pretend that they're not?
I seriously doubt people are going to stay home and lose their jobs to avoid taking the subway. But it might be a nice idea to remind them that they're in a large crowd packed into a small space, and perhaps they should, oh, be extra careful with the health precautions? Try not to stand next to the guy that insists on coughing without covering his mouth - or at least turn your back on him? And for god's sake, wash your hands, there's no telling who's been touching that pole you're hanging on to.
Tensions are already re-ignited in the Balkans .. and Biden had nothing to do with it.
Evidently YOU heard THIS here first!
due to his strident and persistent position on the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state. But that's certainly off-topic, and I'm not going to get in trouble with the moderators today. Not today. I'll save it for next week.
The topic is Biden's mouth and Fox News. Both are troubles I can do without.
[Edited to remove reference to Albanian PACS. Biden does not take money from PACS. Sorry.]
...is that he uses it well to remind the entire world of the Bush Administration's gross incompetence.
... pay no attention to the pigs.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/swi...
It's not even a "swine flu" anymore. *waves hands like a jedi* Pig Farms are not the virus incubators you are looking for. If you've not visited one, come down to sunny NC and have a tour.
Visual tours: http://www.doveimaging.com/picturelibrary/hog...
Problem is you can't smell those.
At first it was the **MEXICAN SWINE FLU** !!!
And then evidence emerged that it had its origins (in 1998) in an industrial pig farm in North Carolina.
So .. was it renamed **NORTH CAROLINA INDUSTRIAL PIG FARM FLU** ???
Of course not!!!
Now it's the H1N1 Virus ..
I have to tell you, some people have said to me, since Mike Wallace talked, that they can see clearly now why FAUX ratings are tanking.
..be a credible source of news for most people, as if they ever were.
They don't present news at all. Never have! Rants, hysteria, uninformed speculation and bigotry are their stock in trade.
I, for one am glad that they are still sticking to their original format.
Admin Dems DOING on Faux ANYWAY? Yet another Carebear cave to an echo chamber with a WHOLE half million viewers? Shiver. Shake. Roll over.
It's not just the on air talking trashcan heads that are off their rails, the employees are little repeat-o-cons too.
I know someone who went to work there a year and a half ago, just right of center when he arrived.
Now? Full blown Murdoch mantra spouting believer of the NeoCon way.
Weird how that is, makes me wonder how much subliminal they put into their crap.
..how much Kool-Ade they force their employees to drink in order to "function properly" while working there.
I think they're already pre-programmed by TV when they apply.
TV has altogether too much to do with our lives, and TV is only looking out for TV, so too much TV is just fine by TV. Too much FAUX is just fine by FAUX. Too much monkey POX is just fine by monkey POX too.
I think FAUX operates to a large degree on projection and deflection. Crackpot TV station looks for a way to call others exactly what they are. Tomorrow it will be something else, but they will really talking about themselves again, and looking for signs of their own weeknesses in the rest of us.
A few surfers weigh in from different parts of Mexico.
Apparently it's all over Baja too.
Better a crackpot, than a lying, hypocritical, useless, smirking, winking, brainless piece of trailer trash, any day of the week!
God only knows how many times I've head a very nasal sounding Shepherd Smith on Fox News, meaning he has another head cold and I bet he caught it in crowded New York City! Again, Joe Biden's comments were more than correct!
than someone for whom the military bands all over the world involuntarily strike up this little ditty when he enters a room (in my mind, anyway), as was the case in the eight years immediately preceding now.
Haven't clicked on the link yet, but let me guess...Darth Vader's theme, right?
look, dammit!!
:P
Well I doubt if it's gonna be the Teddy Bear's Picnic, but I'll give it a look anyway.
;)
so I'm not going to parse every word or phrase that Biden or Obama says. I don't think he meant anything like what the right wing, fascist, nazi, neocon, corporatist media says.
Where are the subways? New York, Boston, Philly, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles. By the way, how many New Yorkers stayed home from work after 911? How come Wallce isn't concerned about THAT work stoppage?
I remember that after 9/11, people were admonished to get back to work.
They were told that the air around the trade center was fit to breathe.
When one huge financial institution had a bomb scare, workers were told to "ignore the butterflies".
Our government continues to fail us.
Our government continues to show contempt for us.
.....I remember that after 9/11, people were admonished to get back to work. They were told that the air around the trade center was fit to breathe.....
And Joe Biden advising people to avoid the virus harboring subways in wrong because......?
It's wrong because it was said by Joe Biden who (apparently according to the press) can't say one sensible thing. They're are just waiting to pounce on his next "gaffe" and, although this is pretty minor stuff, it's the best they have. Why is it so weird to think that if there really is a contagious disease going around it might be a good idea to aviod crowds if possible?
Biden is a straight forward guy when it comes to informal statements and discussion. He was sharing common knowledge about how flu spreads. The airlines came back with a "we have that all taken care of with advanced technology" and "nothing to see here". His statement is still true for ill-equipped air craft.
No, not a crackpot statement coming after eight crazy years of republican ruin.
to know that Biden is, shall we say, a wee bit off.
If you care about civil liberties, war and peace or even intelligent conversation, Biden is not your man.
Obama picked this guy so he could appeal to conservatives, not so that he could appeal to liberals.
So, yes. Biden is a crackpot. The fact that he is our crackpot doesn't lessen the sting.
Real crackpots are very consistant in their madness. Take the republican party, or FAUX for example.
It's like the Mad Hatter calling you crackpot because you still believe a chill will give you a cold.
FOX News is the biggest joke of all. They do not even realize how big a joke they are compared to all other news media. As for Wallace, I am not even sure that apple belongs to that tree.
So Biden is a crackpot for advocating extreme precautions against a verified threat, but Wallace is a "journalist" for publicly espousing conspiracy theories and government cover-ups by repeating stupidity that nameless people have allegedly shared with him? Good grief, what a joke. It astonishes me that anyone still watches this network.
Coming from Chris Wallace and the screaming memes is a damn compliment. Chris Wallace wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for his daddy Mike Wallace.
Obviously Mike didn't get the paddle out nearly often enough.
... or make him hold a bar of soap between his teeth for a full two minuets.
Who else would create an eternal hell and condemn everyone to it before they are even born? Sounds like a class-A dick to me!
Of course, Dr. Doom and Magneto have similar aspirations. All fictional characters need to appear larger than life to make a great story.
Again Fox News just plays to it's base. I watch/listen to Fox Sunday all the time but I know they are full of shit. I suspect hat the majority of people who listen to Fox News knows they are full of shit. Fox News and in this case Mike Wallace's son just confirms their bias and that they cannot be trusted.
Biden's flu comments were taken straight out of the crackpot manual. Avoid planes, buses and subways?
Sir, the CDC lists flu deaths at tens of thousands every year in the US. Do you suggest we permanently disable our public transportation?
Meanwhile, his boss is trying to outBUSH BUSH, and is doing a very good job!
VP Biden is much safer than Darth Cheney, but ultimately almost as mentally challenged as VP Dan Quayle. Is there any way to put him into a coma for 20 years?
Can someone remind me why this dumb ass was chosen by Obama for such an important position?
Yes, sometimes Joe Biden opens mouth and inserts foot. But let's have compassion for this man whose wife and daughter died in a car wreak that almost took his sons lives too. If that was me, I'd not want my family to take chances either with getting this flu.
I still don't understand why Democrat go on this fake news network, and lend legitmacy to them. It's a travesty.
It does seem logical that being in an enclosed space with sick people who have a contagious disease probably isn't too healthy an idea. I've been around for 60-plus years and I seem to remember every year during cold and flu season at least one public health official warning the public to stay away from crowds.
If Chris Wallace had said similar things about Dick Cheney, he would have been shot in the face!!
Dickhead Cheney shot a man in the face. But Joe's the "crackpot" because of a statement over swine/bird/elephant flu?
You stay classy Fox!
If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black! Chris "Fish Lips" Wallace put the crack in crackpot. He is about as big a political hack as he is a crackpot as a so-called "news broadcaster." A true Fox "News" truth twister and propagandist.
Yeah right chris.....the VP is a crack-pot. Of course, the last ass holes in the WH were totally up and straight jacks.
What a turd.
Perfect Faux noise example of "The pot calling the kettle black".
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