Throughout this presidential campaign, observers of the political landscape are more than aware of the liberal bias of MSNBC and the conservative bias of FOX News. However, while MSNBC hosts may be "in the tank for Obama" (or, perhaps, just not ignorant of the flaws within the McCain campaign), FOX News has gone in the gutter by promoting "terrorist fist jabs", "Obama's Baby Mama", and virtually everything Sean Hannity spews from his mouth.
But this morning we may have just seen the worst.
On Thursday, it was reported that a McCain staffer named Ashley Todd was robbed at an ATM, and then was attacked once a John McCain bumper sticker was discovered on her car. Todd says that the attacker became infuriated and carved a "B" into her face.
Of course, now, it has been reported and confirmed that the Ashley Todd made the whole thing up.
My beef with FOX News? They took this story and tried to use race to alter the race.
Aside from blowing up the victim's picture on the front page, the initial FOX News.com report of the incident itself was fair and straightforward. However, below the link to the report was another link titled "FOX Forum: Moment of Truth". Upon clicking this link, I was "treated" to a commentary from the Vice President of FOX News, John Moody:
It had to happen.
Less than two weeks before we vote for a new president, a white woman says a black man attacked her, then scarred her face, and says there was a political motive for it.
Ashley Todd, a 20-year-old white volunteer for John McCain's presidential campaign, says she was mugged at an ATM machine in Pittsburgh (my hometown) by a big black man. She further says he threw her down, then disfigured her by carving the letter "B" into her face with a sharp implement when he saw that she supported McCain, not Barack Obama.
Part of the appeal of, and the unspoken tension behind, Senator Obama's campaign is his transformational status as the first African-American to win a major party's presidential nomination.
That does not mean that he has erased the mutual distrust between black and white Americans, and this incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election.
If Ms. Todd's allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.
If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.
For Pittsburgh, a city that has done so much to shape American history over the centuries, another moment of truth is at hand.
Seriously?
Did FOX News just tell us that a story of a black man mugging a white woman will ... make us realize we don't know enough about Obama?
Seriously?
That is just plain pathetic, and the American public should be outraged at Mr. Moody's insinuations.
It is completely and utterly not fair to tie this story immediately to a Republican talking point.
And while it is not fair to link this to the McCain campaign either, Mr. Moody is not saying anything about the "attack" making voters think about whether we really know enough about John McCain.
And just what is the "Moment of Truth" reference for? Surely Mr. Moody wouldn't personally go so far as to bring up the possiblity that the vicitim is lying (though now we know she is), because that would be over the line. The news media can mention other sources as saying the story may be skepitcal (as the official report did), but the VP of FOX News doesn't want to step into this territory until he has confirmed sources, nor should he.
The "Moment of Truth" that FOX was trying to subtly insert, then, is whether or not Barack Obama is truthful about his past.
Tying the story of how an African American man mugged a Caucasian woman to how voters may question the authenticity of a African American Presidential candidate is awful, unethical, undisciplined, biased, disturbing, and worse than "terrorist fist jabs", "Obama's Baby Mama", and Sean Hannity all put together. It is racist!
Mr. Moody should be ashamed of himself.