The Two Faces Of Fox News (And The Upcoming War With China)
On Sunday, Fox News Anchor Chris Wallace asked Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi about her comments on February 24th that people should still visit San Francisco's Chinatown.
Now, fair is fair, and Fox News was right in how they characterized Pelosi’s statements. On 2/24/2020, Speaker Pelosi did say the following:
Precautions have been taken by our city. We know that there is concern surrounding tourism, traveling all throughout the world, but we think it’s very safe to be in Chinatown and hope that others will come. It’s lovely here. The food is delicious, the shops are prospering, the parade was great. Walking tours continue. Please come and visit and enjoy Chinatown.
Wallace calling this out is one of many examples of the tough on China policy promoted by Fox News. On Friday, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs even went so far as to say that he wants war with China:
If we don’t go to war over the loss of … 31,000 American lives, what do we go to war over? When do we quit sending strong letters and talking tough? At what point are there consequences for this kind of behavior? Because whether they did it intentionally or not, we do know this: That virus was unleashed on the world, and they lied, and that is the same as making it an intentional and conscious act of warfare, as far as I’m concerned.
But wait, on that same day Fox New’s morning show Fox And Friends promoted various protests against social distancing restrictions. So 31,000 Americans dying is worth going to war over, but not worth doing anything domestically to stop it? What kind of sense does that make?
It doesn’t, nor is it supposed to. Hence why you’ll never hear anyone on the Fox News Network call Trump out for saying “It’s going to disappear. One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear,” four days after the comments they’re currently crucifying Speaker Pelosi over.
People mock the media over falling for the “just the flu” narrative, one I myself fell for when this first started. However, that was based on the information we had at the time, because that was the only information the executive branch allowed us to have.
In truth, not only has the administration been looking for an excuse to fight China, they’ve already been doing it. That’s why we entered this trade war three years ago, that was supposed to be quick and easy to win — and we’ll be greeted as liberators in Iraq.
One of Trump’s biggest economic bulldogs is Office Of Trade And Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro, who is a tried and true protectionist to his heart. He is even the author of the book The Coming China Wars: Where They Will Be Fought, And How They Can Be Won back in 2006. Meanwhile, despite the ongoing smear campaign by people like him, the majority of Americans still support both free trade and NAFTA.
One steel manufacturer even sued the Department Of Commerce — ran by longtime protectionist Willbur Ross — over protectionism hurting his business. And since the start of the pandemic, Trump has doubled down on his anti-free trade ideology in the most disastrous ways. As I have covered, this administration has banned all Chinese imports of medicine — yes, medicine — from being bought by the federal government. Republicans have since dedicated a large amount of time to trying to “move the medical supply chain” as if the average American cares about where life saving medicine comes from. Odd, I thought this president believed in a right to try — guess that applies to dangerous anti-malaria medications and now proven medicine made in the wrong country.
How bad has this protectionist gotten? The makers of hand sanitizer have been denied relief from tariffs.
So how does this connect back to Fox News? The Daily Show has a three minute video called “Saluting The Heroes Of The Coronavirus Pandumbic” where they go over various commentators promising us COVID-19 is no big deal. No surprise, it’s mostly Republican commentators, Representives, and members of the Trump Administration — the ones who currently want us to go to war with China over something they promised us was no big deal.
This was their plan from the start, they wanted to downplay the fears of COVID-19 so it would spread as far as possible, to make sure that afterwards we could go to war with China. It should not surprise you that Fox News was the first to claim that COVID-19 was made in a lab and released to help China compete with the United States — after all, the President believes Climate Change is a hoax designed so US manufacturing will become non-competitive.
The game is already in motion, and we must be the ones who will stop it.
