This will be a simple diary because I think my IQ just fell 100 points this past hour after I read all the stories and comments on the internet concerning Thomas Ricks and Fox News. I need to map this out because this is the craziest shit I've ever heard happen on the fucking news. That's how crazy Fox is. They create crazy shit that makes people stupid. Now they've done it to ME. I can't afford to lose IQ points. I'm only average smart not super-duper smart.
Okay, so this happened yesterday;
After Ricks tells Scott that Benghazi was hyped by Fox and that it was operating as a wing of the Republican Party, they abruptly end his interview and all hell breaks loose on the internetz. I have Bing as my home page and preferred search engine and at the bottom left are clickable keywords to six popular news stories of the day. Today, "Thomas Ricks FOX" is the second most popular news story according to Bing.
So, millions of people are reading about this according to the number of articles written about this. The articles go on for pages.
THEN, The executive vice president for news editorial at Fox, Michael Clemente told The Hollywood Reporter,
"When Mr. Ricks ignored the anchor’s question, it became clear that his goal was to bring attention to himself -- and his book... He apologized in our offices afterward but doesn’t have the strength of character to do that publicly."
Okay, so, then Thomas Ricks was like NUH-UH!!! HE went and told The Hollywood Reporter this;
"Please ask Mr. Clemente what the words of my supposed apology were. I'd be interested to know... Frankly, I don't remember any such apology."
Then Ricks told Politico this;
“Clemente is making it up, and it is sloppy of Hollywood Reporter to not ask him for specifics — what exactly am I alleged to have said? — and also to seek a response from me,” Ricks wrote in an e-mail. “Why are they doing this? Because their MO is that when the facts aren’t on their side, they attack the person.”
DAYUM!!! BUUUUURN!!!! Okay, Fox is gonna STFU now before they dig the latrine deeper....right?
NOPE.
THEN what had happened was, Clemente told The Newser that Ricks said this;
After the segment, Clemente said that Ricks told Fox News staffers, "Sorry…I’m tired from a non-stop book tour." Clemente added, "Perhaps now he can finally get some rest.”
Wow. I just...I feel like I'm insane.
So then Politico tried to straighten it all out;
Ricks added that the first person he spoke with after going off-air was Fox News’s Bret Baier. Baier has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Asked about the discrepancy, Clemente referred POLITICO to Fox News communications representative Dana Klinghoffer, who has yet to respond. Neither Clemente or Klinghoffer responded when asked to comment on the charge that Clemente lied about Ricks' apology.
WTF is happening to the world?
News: What do you think about that?
Guest: I think it's all YOUR fault.
News: Your interview is over, sir.
News: Yeah, that guy totally apologized off camera for blaming our news channel.
Guest: WTF? No I didn't!
News: Yes, you did.
SRSLY?! This is the "news" now?
You know what, Fox? You're not the news. You're fucked up and you're fucking us all up. You're trying to create a scandal about Benghazi and when it doesn't work, you bring a Pulitzer Prize-winning expert on your show and the shit doesn't work on him, either. Then you kick him off your show and repeatedly LIE about what he said off camera??
I just got my brain cells back. This lying about liars performance is just more hype. This is just more deflection and distraction from the fact that your network is NOT "fair and balanced" and everyone, except the poor folks whose brain cells are never coming back, is taking notice.
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain..." Well, the man behind the curtain just revealed himself with this petty back and forth of who said what and who apologized for what. I've known about you, Fox "News", for years but hopefully, with the internet burning up with this story, more people will sit up and pay attention. It's bad enough that three Senators are making fools of themselves. (link to DKos diary on the rec list written by agnostic)
I'm having a really rough time and terrible things have happened to me the past two weeks but when I followed this developing story today, it took me out of my head for a while. I have a sudden urge to troll for old SNL clips of Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler's "REALLY?!" segment and forget about my own problems for a while. ;-P