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10 October, 2010

Faux News Megafail

Read.  Marvel.  Weep.

Just how desperate to find a story--and a controversy--do you have to be to believe this is real:
Anchors at the Fox News national morning news show "Fox and Friends" reported Tuesday that the city of Los Angeles had ordered 10,000 jetpacks for its police and fire departments. The price tag: a whopping $100,000 per unit.
Yes, jet packs. Thousands of them. Maybe that should have set off warning bells. Well, actually it did, but this being Fox News, well... (italics mine):
For those doing the math at home, the cash-strapped city of Los Angeles, which is regularly sending its police detectives home because it can't pay all their overtime, allegedly shelled out a billion dollars on space-age transportation that it has never used in an emergency situation, much less tested.

"We certainly haven't bought any jetpacks," said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. "We haven't bought [squad] cars for two years."

As Gawker.com was the first to note, the "Fox and Friends" report appeared to contain material taken right out of a story from the Weekly World News tabloid, which bills itself as "The World's Only Reliable New Source."
Look.  I know the tabloids were right that one time when they broke the story of John Edwards's love child.  But that was the Enquirer, which is attempting some respectability (perhaps trying to fill a sucking void of respectability left in journalism when Faux News started broadcasting), whereas the Weekly World News is the same as it ever was - a rag full of made-up shit that only complete fucking morons believe is true. Shit, I'll bet you cash money you could present it to a classroom full of special needs kids and a good majority of 'em would know it's complete bullshit. 

The problem is this: Faux News fucktards likely don't watch Mythbusters because they believe it's a librul conspiracy, and we know they think science is a bunch of left-wing hooey (except the science they agree with, of course), so they probably aren't aware that we aren't yet living la vida Jetsons.  They're easy marks for anyone who wants to sell them a guvmint waste line.  And, apparently, any rag that claims Hillary Clinton's adopted an alien baby rates high on their truthiness scale.

There's something that the folks who do the ratings need to keep in mind, here: yes, Faux News has high ratings.  That's because a handful of very insanely stupid viewers believe every word they say, and because a large number of people tune in because they can't believe what the fucktards just said and keep watching to see what shit-for-brains dumbfuckery gets spouted next.

It's really too bad Faux News is televised, not printed on pulp.  But I suppose it's just a bit too stupid to be called tabloid journalism.  At least the tabloids understand they're reporting made-up shit.  The same, alas, is not true for the gullible goobs at Faux.

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