Beaver County Reds – 2/12/11

This page was last updated on February 14, 2011.

Fox: The Twisted Source of News for Most in Beaver Country [sic] Exposed as Dangerous Sham; Eric Boehlert; Media Matters for America; February 10, 2011.

The above title is the one Beaver County Reds supplied when they posted the article. The real title of the article is “FOX NEWS INSIDER: ‘Stuff Is Just Made Up’.” Further, the image of Nazi-looking guys representing Fox News Channel (FNC) isn’t in the original article on the Media Matters website; Beaver County Reds added it. Other than being a tired tactic that desensitizes us to the true horrors the Nazis inflicted, it doesn’t make sense because the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) was/is on the left, like Beaver County Reds, and this article is all about alleging FNC is a tool of the right. My guess is Beaver County Reds hopes readers don’t know the Nazis were leftists.

The leadership of Progressive Democrats of America – PA 4th CD Chapter consists of Tina Shannon (chairperson), Randy Shannon (treasurer), Robert Schmetzer (vice president), Peter Deutsch (secretary), and Carl Davidson (webmaster), a self-described Marxist who once “tr[ied] to create a new communist party.” They also appear to be the leaders of Beaver County Peace Links. The Shannons were also leaders of the apparently-defunct Beaver County Coalition for Social Justice. In the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS) [originally a splinter group of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA)], Mr. Davidson is a co-chair and the Shannons are members of the CCDS national coordinating committee. Robert Schmetzer is Democrat party local town chair for South Heights.

There is nothing new in this article. This piece seems to contain just about all the claims about Fox News Channel (FNC) chanted by lefties for years. What’s interesting is why anyone would give credibility to the piece. After all, this is the equivalent of a politician critiquing his opponent. I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust the Democrat party for info about Republicans or vice versa.

This article falls pretty close to the “you can’t make up this stuff” category. An article entitled “FOX NEWS INSIDER: ‘Stuff Is Just Made Up’” actually claims its source is an ANONYMOUS FNC ex-employee. Maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t charge someone else with making stuff up while using an anonymous source myself. I got a kick out of a response posted on the Media Matters website by MagCynic: “I talked with a former MSNBC ‘insider’ who told me all sorts of stories about how the television personalities were taught to always spin political stories to paint the right as sadistic morons and the left as patron saints of goodness. He told me to look at how they constantly insulted and berated the Tea Party. It’s true. My source told me so.”

You’ll note the article is vague about when the anonymous ex-employee was at FNC and for how long. The article also doesn’t tell us what the anonymous ex-employee did at FNC, the circumstances of her/his leaving FNC, where the person now works, or anything that would allow us to judge her/his credibility. Then again, you can supply all that info and it means nothing as long as your alleged “insider” is anonymous because there’s no way to confirm the info.

Though the article was vague on this point, it appears the alleged ex-employee was at FNC for at least five years. If the anonymous ex-employee was so opposed to the activities he/she claimed took place, why did he/she stay at FNC for so long? Is an anonymous FNC ex-employee really the source for this story, or is the author the “source?” Who knows? Heck, just about every large business has former employees with axes to grind.

Finally, in the title Mr. Davidson gave the article on Beaver County Reds, he asserts FNC is the “Source of News for Most in Beaver Country [sic].” I wonder where Mr. Davidson got his info. I would be surprised if Mr. Davidson’s claim is correct given Democrats hold an almost 2:1 (66% to 34%) registration advantage over Republicans (as of the 2010 primary election) in Beaver County.