Even those of us who are fed up with Washington D.C. had to smile the other day when Barney Frank gave an eloquent verbal smackdown to a protester at one of those Town Hall meetings who compared health reform efforts to Nazi policy and and waved a photo of Barack Obama with a Hitler mustache. Frank's response to the Lyndon Larouche activist was all the more inspiring because Larouche is an antisemite and Frank is a Jew.
So Fox News did itself a real disservice yesterday morning when it spun the story against Frank by re-editing the video to make it appear that Frank was dressing down a nice lady in a funny hat, not showing the statement that led to his reaction, taking Frank out of context so it looked as if he was yelling at ordinary folks trying to have their say-- and using former DC weatherman and funny features reporter Steve Doocy to lie and claim that Frank was responding to two different people instead of the single Obama-Nazi protester. Doocy said Frank was "downright rude" and suggested that he might spend "a little too much time in Washington, D.C., away from real people."
So Fox News did itself a real disservice yesterday morning when it spun the story against Frank by re-editing the video to make it appear that Frank was dressing down a nice lady in a funny hat, not showing the statement that led to his reaction, taking Frank out of context so it looked as if he was yelling at ordinary folks trying to have their say-- and using former DC weatherman and funny features reporter Steve Doocy to lie and claim that Frank was responding to two different people instead of the single Obama-Nazi protester. Doocy said Frank was "downright rude" and suggested that he might spend "a little too much time in Washington, D.C., away from real people."
Bad stuff. And way too obvious. Doocy probably never saw the original footage and was made into a fool by his producrs who were probably working off of Roger Ailes' talking points of the day. Doocy ought to apologize. And Fox News should save its lying for the O'Reilly and Hannity shows.
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Transcript From the August 18th Town Hall meeting in Dartmouth, Mass:
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy, as Obama has expressly supported this policy?
FRANK: Well, let me --
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Why are you supporting it?
FRANK: Let me -- wait, I will --
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: A real solution.
FRANK: When you asked me that question, I am going to revert to my ethnic heritage and answer your question with a question: On what planet do you spend most of your time?
[...]
FRANK: Do you want me to answer the question?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Yes.
FRANK: Yes. As you stand there with a picture of the president defaced to look like Hitler and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis, my answer to you is, as I said before, it is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated.
Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.
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