If there's a better example of the alternate reality Fox News and "The Five" creates, I haven't seen one as good as this segment on the Benghazi movie "13 Hours."
Their hypothesis is that angry liberal bloggers, in their underwear, eating Ramen noodles in their parents basement, politicized the movie so much that they were the cause of the flop of a movie that director Michael Bay has created. I kid you not. In their world, conservatives never politicize anything at all, they just talk amongst themselves, like they did when 13 Hours was being released.
GREG GUTFELD: Since Friday, liberal critics have been claiming that other movies outsold the Benghazi film, 13 Hours...
But they hate that a movie with western sympathies actually exists, so they delight that a movie chronicling the deaths of four Americans was outsold by crud. True the Benghazi movie didn't make as much money as others. But let's use that metric of success on the sad lefty blogger, you're still at home in your stained sweats, eating top-ramen over the sink, waiting for the next comic book blockbuster to rescue you from your finger-sniffing misery. And finger-sniffing it is. Hey, you know who is going to be on Bill O'Reilly tonight? Michael Bay. Let's show that clip, America.
Digby gets it right when she tries to calm him down:
Benghazi movie makes babies cry
Somebody find Greg's security blankie. He needs to self-soothe.
The poor baby. The crew at The Five are not only lying about what's happening, they were furious that 13 Hours isn't causing the kind of whiplash that the movie Zero Dark Thirty did. Michael Bay knew exactly what he was doing making a movie about Benghazi and the politics that come with it. That's why he did it. He wanted to capitalize on the recent success of war movies being produced and figured the political banter from conservatives would help sell huge amounts of tickets. He was wrong. The public is fed up with the Trey Gowdys of the world.
Back to The Five, here's Eric Bolling actually telling their audience that nobody injected politics into the movie except for the left.
ERIC BOLLING: He didn't put politics in the movie, he put no -- he didn't even mention Hillary Clinton's name in that movie. It was an account, he recreated the account that he got from Michael Zuckoff, is that his name, Zuckoff? Which was written with the help of five people who were there on the rooftop defending the C.I.A. annex and the Benghazi consulate. The politics got injected by the left, only when it suits their narrative. -- They were worried it would be too honest, too sincere and too documentary-like, but see the movie.
This is a complete fantasy and Bolling knows it. When Juan Williams tried to inject some reality into their discussion, it turned really nasty:
JUAN WILLIAMS: Wait a second. The left introduced politics? Funny, I mean my experience of it, is that the right made it out, everybody should go see this film because then you will be more aware of Benghazi and the failures and it was supposed to be an indictment of Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration?
GUTFELD: But Juan, don't you think that conservatives, we are just desperate for finding an objective firm about history, that's not Oliver stone, that's not Michael Moore? Does it hurt that we're grateful?
WILLIAMS: No I would appreciate it -- This is not a documentary. Let me just tell you. But I would agree with you --
BOLLING: Michael Bay put no politics in this.
WILLIAMS: This thing has been so politicized by the right, when you have Tom Cotton -- (Guilfoyle: Oh, my God.) when you have Trump, and the other guys, buying tickets, telling people to go, come on of course it's politicized.
GUILFOYLE: You know what, Juan? You know what smacks of hypocrisy? You know what it...your commentary.
WILLIAMS: Why?
GUILFOYLE: Because all you do is bash the right and say, "Oh, they're politicising it.? Let me tell you something. Your side, ain't so innocent.
WILLIAMS: What are we talking about, this movie?
You can see the hate dripping off of Guilfoyle's pores.
Obviously, that's a load of donkey doo. Here's the truth. Fox News was hyping this movie to their viewers on a constant loop, hoping to make it a major hit and in the process, help take down Hillary Clinton if she is the nominee.
Kirsten Powers, a conservative Democratic Fox News contributor wrote this in USA Today: Can Hillary take '13 Hours' of truth?
Conservative mags like the NRO wrote this back in November about the upcoming movie: 13 Hours: The Non-Political Benghazi Movie that Hillary Can’t Avoid
Glenn Beck went on a crusade to politicize the movie to his listeners in an effort to make it a huge success. New Movie About Benghazi Is an ‘Indictment’ on the Obama Administration
“It’s an indictment. It’s an out-and-out indictment,” Beck said on The Glenn Beck Radio Program. “This is one of the first movies I’ve seen that I believe every American should have to watch.” “I’ve never been more angry and more ashamed ever,” Beck said. “I’ve been ashamed of my country in the last eight years.”
As for the GOP presidential candidates campaigning, here's whatVariety reported:
Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, made a point of name-checking the movie in a recent debate, and his opponent Donald Trump one upped him by offering free tickets to an Iowa showing of the picture. A recent Washington D.C. screening brought a packed crowd that included Republican operatives and politicians such as GOP lawmakers Senator Tom Cotton and Representative Darrell Issa.
Trump is buying tickets and Cruz injected the movie answering a debate question that had nothing to do with Benghazi, yet, if you only tune into conservative media, especially Fox News, you'd hear a very different story being told.
