Tuesday, April 27, 2021

But How Do They Feel About Eating Crow?

 I love it when there is even an iota of accountability at Fox.


If you would like to read further about this political madness, check out Edward Keenan, who also sets the record straight:

Joe Biden is not cancelling burgers. Or any other kind of meat. Despite what you may have heard, there’s no U.S. government plan to limit red meat consumption. There’s no reason to think Americans will be asked to carry a beef ration card in their wallet on future trips to the supermarket.

Perhaps to the surprise of no one, the American right, led by that red-meat party, the Republicans, has gone into a frenzy over a fabricated 'crisis.'

Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, Tweeted Saturday, “Joe Biden’s climate plan includes cutting 90 per cent of red meat from our diets by 2030. They want to limit us to about four pounds a year. Why doesn’t Joe stay out of my kitchen?” Fellow congressional Trump acolytes Madison Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene piled on. Fox News, the most-watched cable news network, did several segments over the weekend warning of the plan.

Facts don't seem to matter in this feeding frenzy, but here they are:

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale did a good job of retracing how this fear campaign emerged: The British Daily Mail, reacting to Biden’s proposal to cut carbon emissions in half from 2005 levels by 2030, found an old, pre-Biden administration academic paper that suggested if people cut their red meat consumption by 90 per cent it would cut emissions from dietary sources by 50 per cent. As Dale points out, that paper didn’t suggest mandating this dietary change, and it didn’t mention Biden, and Biden’s plan doesn’t refer to — or have anything to do with — the paper. But the Daily Mail story was picked up by Fox News, which led to repetition by influential Republicans, and soon barbecues across the land were being fired up in protest.

As usual, the unhinged right has given its base something to chew on, while the  rest of us just sigh over the insanity to the south. 

 

4 comments:

  1. How much involvement in echoing this disinforming did J.D. Roberts have? Was he just the straight face they forced forward to apologize for the impostors, or has he become one of them? It would a shame if he has.

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    1. The very fact that he works for Fox is sufficient indictment of his character in my mind, John

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  2. And that old Canadian DJ -- J.D (now John) Roberts has peddled this stuff -- and recanted.

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    1. The latter must be a rare experience for anyone at Fox, Owen.

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