Fox News Journalist’s Bad Form
Where has common sense gone? To its credit, Fox Television has provided a refreshing conservative alternative to the liberal-bent news shows of the other three major networks and PBS. It brings stories and angles that the other major television news shows ignore. Yet a recent Fox story defies all imagination and ignited a nation. Fox’s Carl Cameron came up with the implausible story that Sarah Palin did not know the three countries of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the knee-slapping story that she did not even know Africa was a continent and not a country. It is almost hard to believe a reasonably educated third grader does not know that Africa is a continent, let alone a vice-presidential candidate and a governor. If you honestly believe that Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent, you’d believe Obama was born on Mars if a national news reporter said so. In case you think I am a rabid McCain/Palin supporter, I voted for Obama. I just do not like seeing politics turn into a blood sport.
The story would almost be humorously absurd if reported by a high school student in a high school newspaper. But when a reporter from a major news channel makes such a preposterous allegation, well, you wonder if Fox has been getting its reporters from the National Inquirer. Didn’t Camon do that piece on the torrid love affair between Oprah and Barack that is getting Michelle so upset? And if Mr. Cameron is thinking of doing a follow-up, I have already learned that Palin knows her colors and can identify pictures of farm animals, so don’t try to claim she cannot.
So what was Cameron’s source of this fish tale? Anonymous aids. To be sure, to avoid legal liability, Fox did not report that “Palin did not know that Africa was a continent†but rather that “McCain aids said that Palin did not know that Africa was a continent.†The trick is to always say someone else said something, and no matter how completely unreliable the source, the media outlet can never get sued for libel. But when a major network makes such a disclosure, the intent is to have people believe “the source†is passing along a true statement. Wink. Wink.
When people have axes to grind are given anonymity and an outlet in the media, they are capable of saying just about anything, regardless of truth, knowing they will never be taken to task. With anonymous sources it is also far more difficult to prove that something is not true than if the identity of the source had been revealed. If the source was revealed, Sarah Palin could simply show with other witnesses to the conversation that the ridiculous allegation was not true, or that she had little to no involvement with the aid. The problem with today’s media is that it is far less interested in truth and unsensational analysis rather than provoking with stories of dubious integrity to give the façade of crack investigative journalism “that is only on Fox.â€
This just in. Anonymous sources at Fox have indicated to me that Carl Cameron will stoop to no level to come up with a “revealing†story “exclusive to Fox†and that underneath his suit he wears a women’s garter belt and stockings to get in touch with his feminine side. Hey, it’s a heck of a lot more believable than Sarah Palin doesn’t know Africa is a continent.
Rinaldo Del Gallo is an attorney in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
About Rinaldo Del Gallo Rinaldo Del Gallo, III, Esq. is the spokesperson of the Berkshire Fatherhood Coalition, whose website is BerkshireFatherhood.com. He has been practicing family law attorney and has been a member of the Massachusetts bar since 1996. Mr. Del Gallo has handled a wide variety of family law cases including issues of child custody, child visitation, child support, restraining orders, grandparent visitation, contempt of family court, access to academic records, guardianship, allegations of abuse, criminal allegations related to domestic violence, disputes over the care of a child, and care and protection proceedings before the Department of Social Services. For years, he has hosted bi-monthly free legal seminars for people of any gender having problems in family court. On behalf of non-custodial parents, he has had made numerous media appearances in printed news, radio, and television. He has authored numerous family law related articles and columns. He has performed extensive bro bono work for fathers. Attorney Del Gallo also has extensive experience as a civil rights attorney, working in the areas of free speech rights and ballot access. Mr. Del Gallo is also an intellectual property attorney and a patent lawyer, and has written what is regarded as one of the most famous law reviews in the area of patent law, “Are Methods of Doing Business Finally Out of Business As A Statutory Exception?,†that helped end the so-called “business method exception,†which paved the way for an entire field of software and Internet related patents. Attorney Del Gallo graduated from Northeastern University (Boston) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, and graduated from George Washington University (Washington) in the top of his three-year class. | More from Rinaldo Del Gallo, III
Stumble It!
November 20th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I know I know, my screen name globs me into a category and sets your expectations at mundane. Just another Hannibaugh maybe?
I need to change that….my name that is.
That you voted for Obama (and I knew that was coming….you warned us) ruins your credibility for me sir, and it, well, it bugs me worse than most because you are not essentially vacant….you get it about family law and such, which seems such beliefs would be born of a reasonable template of thought processes.
Alas, you voted for Obama…..
November 21st, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I am as astonished as Conservativation.
What is it with some people. There were not enough awful candidates to avoid? Could you not have made a protest vote? The best of two evils is still friggin’ evil. Don’t you get that?
In a Democracy, and an integrated Western world dominated by America, some of us have to wear the Government YOU voted for so YOU carry the can.
Rinaldo. Whereas previously I sought out your views as being well thought through and as close an approximation to the truth as you could manage in a complex world, I now have to place you with the mass of ‘good men’ who not only do nothing but aid and abet the destroyers through sheer laziness. Perhaps any comments I make on your views in future, views which criticise the destruction of America’s values and Character and Integrity, I will have to add a coda – YOU are responsible in part for this.
I fear, Sir, that your profession has got the better of your sensibilities. Never trust a Lawyer.
By the way, do you wear ladies underwear too?