"What Hawaiian earthquake?" Fox News again runs with Internet falsehoods to attack Dems
Fox & Friends perpetuated the false claim advanced on right-wing blogs that President Obama was incorrect in stating during a Fox News interview that Hawaii suffered an earthquake in 2006 -- a disaster Fox News itself reported on at the time. In a 2007 memo, a Fox News executive reportedly warned staff that "seeing an item on a website does not mean it is right. Nor does it mean it is ready for air on FNC."
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Obama cites earthquake in Hawaii during Fox News interview
Obama: Medicaid fix "also affects Hawaii, which went through an earthquake." During an interview that aired during the March 17 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Obama discussed certain provisions in health care reform legislation that would affect various states and said of a proposal to adjust Medicaid reimbursement rates for states affected by natural disasters, "It also affects Hawaii, which went through an earthquake."
A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hit Hawaii on October 15, 2006. As Media Matters for America's Adam Shah noted in response to right-wing bloggers who claimed Obama was "making up" an earthquake, the U.S. Geological Survey states that Hawaii suffered a magnitude 6.7 earthquake on October 15, 2006.
Right-wing blogs: "What earthquake in Hawaii?"
Jim Hoft: "Um... What earthquake in Hawaii?" At 6:54 p.m. on March 17, right-wing blogger Jim Hoft wrote a Gateway Pundit post that stated, "Either Obama's completely making up stuff now or we all missed some horrible devastating earthquake in Hawaii." He later wrote: "In 1868 there was a major earthquake in Hawaii that killed 77 people. In 1975 an earthquake in Hawaii killed 2 people."
Breitbart.tv links to Hoft. At 10:18 p.m. on March 17, Andrew Breitbart's website Breitbart.tv linked to Hoft's post and displayed the headline, "Puzzling statement: Obama says 'Louisiana Purchase' will help with the earthquake in Hawaii."
Drudge links to Breitbart.tv post. From the Drudge Report:
Hot Air follows Hoft focusing on 1975 earthquake. At 10:20 p.m. on March 17, HotAir's Cassy Fiano embedded video from the Fox News interview and wrote: "This moment, from Bret Baier's interview on Fox News with Obama, might just be one of the biggest 'WTF?!' moments from Obama's presidency yet. Obama is either completely making things up, living in an alternate reality, or really, really confused."
Malkin links to HotAir post. At 12:15 a.m. on March 18, Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin linked to HotAir's post on the Hawaiian earthquake in her blog, posting the following passage from HotAir:
Cassy Fiano and Allahpundit intrepidly attempt to decipher:
Apparently, there was a devastating earthquake in Hawaii that we all somehow missed.
Oh, wait, no. That's right. There was no earthquake, and Obama is just totally clueless, as usual. In fact, the last earthquake in Hawaii to cause any deaths at all was in 1975, and two people died.
In any case, why is he using this argument, anyways? He's turned this health care bill into a one-size-fits-all solution for everything. Not only will it fix our health care, but it will apparently create jobs and give disaster relief around the country!
...Update (AP): ...My guess is Obama meant to say that Hawaii went through a tsunami caused by the quake in Chile and got distracted in his irritation at Baier. But who knows what goes on in his mind at this point? This is a guy who thinks universal health care is going to reduce the deficit.
Internet's earthquake falsehood spreads to Fox News
Doocy follows talking points from right-wing blogs. During the March 18 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy played the quote in question from Obama's interview and responded: "Hold it. What Hawaiian earthquake? There was an earthquake in 1868 that killed 77. There was an earthquake in 1975 that killed two."
Ex-FNC VP for news Moody: "Seeing an item on a website does not mean it is right." Fox News has a documented pattern of news reports based on Internet rumors that turn out to be false. In January 2007, after Doocy retracted his false assertion that Obama "was educated in a madrassa," then-Fox News' vice president for news, John Moody, reportedly said in a memo to Fox News staff: "For the record: seeing an item on a website does not mean it is right. Nor does it mean it is ready for air on FNC. The urgent queue is our way of communicating information that is air-worthy. Please adhere to this."
And pushing a false story (a conspiracy theory without any evidence to back it up - how unique, huh?) without doing the proper vetting is NOT the way a legitimate news organization should behave. But all this continues to show is that FoxNews is NOT an honest and legit media resource!
Took me longer to write this then for my wife to look it up!
That's probably the most accurate thing I've heard come from anyone at FOX in years.
Their interns don't follow good research practices.
They believe anything they read -- as long as it supports their twisted view of reality.
Just to remind folks, it wasn't so much the hurricane that caused all the damage, it was the failed levee's that did the majority of the damage in New Orleans. Man-made levee's!
Now how did Louisiana qualify for "natural-disaster" money for man-made failures, and the other states didn't.
Obama wants to compare the Katrina damage with the Hawaii earthquake. OK
Katrina disaster killed 1,836, 705 missing, and cost $81.2B.
Hawaii earthquake killed 0, cost $73M.
I believe his perspective has been skewed by the price of political votes.
On April 4, 2006, Secretary Alphonso Jackson approved Mississippi's initial Disaster Action Plan to distribute $3.4 billion in CDBG funds.
On May 1, 2006, Secretary Jackson approved Alabama's supplemental CDBG Disaster Action Plan and awarded the state $74 million.
On May 9, 2006, Secretary Jackson approved Louisiana's initial supplemental CDBG Disaster Action Plan and awarded the state $368.4 million
On July 26, 2006, Secretary Jackson approved Florida's CDBG Disaster Action Plan and awarded the state $82.9 million
Looks like Mississippi made out pretty well.
She got that fix created because her state deserved to have that fix created, and it will benefit any other state that ever finds themselves similarly disadvantaged.
And there's no evidence, none whatsoever, that she would have voted NO if the fix hadn't been attached to this bill rather than some other bill. The fix was well-deserved.
You're lying now - you know it's not true, yet you continue to repeat it.
When you don't know that something's not true, it's solely a falsehood. After you KNOW that it's not true, yet you say it again anyway, you're a liar.
Nope. Obama supports the correction of federal funding formulas because the funding amounts have been skewed by excess, one-time, limited-duration additional federal monies coming to a state.
If ANY other state can show how their federal reimbursements have been skewed by one-time payments of federal funds to deal with emergencies and national disasters, then those other states can ALSO get adjustments made to the formulas they use to determine future funding!
This is NOT rocket science. Louisiana didn't "qualify..." where "other states didn't".
And I posted this more than 4 hours before you made YOUR post.
Do you REALLY read that slowly that you couldn't already HAVE this answer?
And doofus - apostrophes are NOT used to make words (common nouns) plural.
So, it's NOT "levee's". It's "levees".
The deal that's derisively called the Louisiana deal is a deal that ANY state that finds itself to be in similar straits can use.
It's a fair deal for Louisiana to get - they shouldn't be punished by a temporary influx of federal dollars that skews their future funding in an unfair way!
And it DID NOT secure a vote. There's NO evidence of that - that's simply another baseless conspiracy theory that your side has such a pattern of believing without any evidence. There's NO evidence that Senator Landrieu was going to vote no before this vote.
And on top of that, this IS an appropriate place to HAVE this correction placed, so that Louisiana can benefit THIS TIME and ANY OTHER state can benefit if faced with similar circumstances another time.
As I have said repeatedly on this forum, this is a fix that needed to be made. It wasn't fair to Louisiana that they were being disadvantaged because of a one-time, natural disaster-related funding excess!
And if Hawaii finds themselves in similar straits because of a natural disaster that's already happened or one that might happen in the future, they can apply for this same fix! Aberrations in funding shortfalls or excesses should NOT be allowed to skew future funding.
This is NOT rocket science. I've explained it about 6 times now - have you FINALLY gotten it through your thick skull?
"2) In this subsection, the term ‘disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State’ means a State that is one of the 50 States or the District of Columbia, for which, at any time during the preceding 7 fiscal years, the President has declared a major disaster under section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act and determined as a result of such disaster that every county or parish in the State warrant individual and public assistance or public assistance from the Federal Government under such Act and for which"
So your "ANY state that finds itself to be in similar straits can use" is FALSE!
It was after this provision was written into the deal that she came out publically for the bill. Coincidence? OK, I'll give you that one just for the sake of argument.
Was this intelligible enough for you? Did I spell and punctuate everything correctly? I don't want to offend you delicate sensibilities. You know, me and my "thick skull".
BAIER: Do you know which specific deals are in or out, as of today?
OBAMA: I am certain that we've made sure, for example, that any burdens on states are alleviated, when it comes to what they're going to have to chip in to make sure that we're giving subsidies to small businesses, and subsidies to individuals, for example.
BAIER: So the Connecticut deal is still in?
OBAMA: So that's not — that's not going to be something that is going to be in this final package. I think the same is true on all of these provisions. I'll give you some exceptions though.
Something that was called a special deal was for Louisiana. It was said that there were billions — millions of dollars going to Louisiana, this was a special deal. Well, in fact, that provision, which I think should remain in, said that if a state {ANY STATE - my emphasis} has been affected by a natural catastrophe, that has created a special health care emergency in that state, they should get help. Louisiana, obviously, went through Katrina, and they're still trying to deal with the enormous challenges that were faced because of that.
OBAMA: That also — I'm giving you an example of one that I consider important. It also affects Hawaii, which went through an earthquake. So that's not just a Louisiana provision. That is a provision that affects every state that is going through a natural catastrophe.
It could benefit ANY state that was adversely affected, as Louisiana was.
Again, this is NOT rocket science!
Baier's another salesman on Fox's 24/7 infomercials for the conservatards.
Gotta hand it to Obama. The guy's got class - unlike Baier.
Interview? Oh, that was supposed to be an interview?
Since when did an interview turn into a one-way barrage of questioning without letting the person respond? That crap may work for Billy-boy, but not in a real, grown-up, rational interview.
No. What you want to believe was Obama not liking "his authority or his policies being questioned", was an adult talking to a child (Baier) in the middle of a tantrum.
Baier showed no respect for the office of the President, nor for an interviewee, no matter who they were.
This may be the way fringe dwellers communicate (left and right), but it's not the way reasonable people communicate.
Actually, I'd be willing to bet that Obama and his folks thought the interview went well, just because it proved that Baier and FOX are tools for the right-wing fringe dwellers.
To me, I was under the impression of that's how an interview should go: Ask a question, answer it; ask another question, answer it. Not go off on a tangent that does not answer the question. If Baier let him go on without trying to bring him back to the question each time, there would have been time for 5 questions of which, none of them would have ever been answered.
USGS clearly states in 2006 Hawaii had an earthquake measuring 6.0 and costing in excess of $100M in damages.
To keep it real, it was a pretty lame excuse to justify his flip-flop, again, on his objections to provisions of the bill using taxpayer monies to bribe Senators for votes. BO got smacked down by his own Senators, who refused to remove the 'sweeteners', after BO asked them to - so, he tucked tail and tried to act like it's all good. Bo gets a big "L" on his forehead for this one.
The Dems are going to implode. They have already started the self-destruction sequence,IMHO. Seriously - they are fighting amongst themselves and throwing taxpayer money without any care or concern. And I include (R)'s and (D)'s in this - I think the whole lot of 'em need to be taught a lesson on the Constitution.
I do like checking out your site to get perspective - some good stuff, some not. I think you're stretching a bit here to cover for BO. So much for fair and balanced! Oh wait, you're not, never mind......
Take it EZ