Fox News Fakes the News on North Korea

Donald Trump has scored a coup in bringing about a peace offering from North Korea's Kim Jong-un, but wouldn't you know, the liberal media have heaped nothing but scorn on this breakthrough. That's the Fox News take.

Given the past history of deceit by North Korea, all media coverage of course had to be a mixture of promise and circumspection. But prime time stars Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity both showed short clips from rival shows carefully selected to suggest "the media's absolutely reprehensible coverage — 91% negative — of President Trump's big foreign policy victory with North Korea". It was nothing of he sort, from one who combs through that media. As example, both showed Jeremy Bash, former Defense Department chief of staff, and at CIA before that, simply saying, it's "a roll of the nuclear dice". Which it is. We don't know where it will lead. But for Hannity, it's peace in our time: "We may have peace on the Korean peninsula". He tells us the announcement of the North Korea offer…

"sent the media into a hate-filled frenzy. The partisan press is going absolutely apoplectic over President Trump's peace through strength approach with dealing with little rocket man… To discuss denuclearization is now apparently aggravating and incensing liberal lapdog media people as they're physically and mentally incapable of reporting any positive news about this president".

Well, funny thing. The headline of the lede article in that hopelessly liberal New York Times read "Offer From North Korea To Enter Nuclear Talks With U.S. Raises Hopes". That was followed by an editorial titled "Some Hope From North Korea". A scan of Washington Post headlines shows none of what Hannity accuses. Instead articles with headlines such as "North Korea won’t give up its nuclear weapons. The U.S. has three good reasons to talk anyway". Anything short of euphoric praise is Hannity's "reprehensible".

Here's irony. The negativity — a hint anyway — that the two insist pervade the media could be found at thre conservative Walt Street Journal. Its lede article's headline was "U.S. Wary Of Offer For Talks With Kim" and its editorial, titled "North Korea's Negotiation Play" had the subhead, "Maybe this means pressure is working, or maybe it's another con".

One has to wonder what sort of mania is it that drives Hannity to such abject dishonesty. They both, Carlson as well, can deliver fake news confident that the Fox News audience strays no further. There is little risk they'll encounter what's actually being said elsewhere in the media. A great swath of the American public is told alternate truth. Rather like North Korea.

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