Fox News Omits Crucial Statement In Discussion About A United Nations “Global Tax”

Written by Thomas Bishop

Published

On the September 29 edition of Fox News' Bulls and Bears, host Brenda Buttner and fellow Fox News contributors persisted in fear-mongering about a United Nations proposal for implementation of a “global tax” and failed to report on a statement from the U.S. Mission to the U.N. that threw cold water on the claim.

Buttner argued to a panel of Fox News contributors that the U.N. global tax proposal “could happen, couldn't it?” She was referring to a FoxNews.com report on the United Nations, which summarized the tax proposal as the following:

A 1 percent tax on billionaires around the world. A tax on all currency trading in the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound sterling.   Another “tiny” tax on all financial transactions, including stock and bond trading, and trading in financial derivatives.  New taxes on carbon emissions and on airline tickets. A royalty on all undersea mineral resources extracted more than 100 miles offshore of any nation's territory.

Approximately 24 hours after this story was published, a spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations sent the following “unsolicited statement” to Fox News:

The United States opposes global taxes because we believe that any source of revenue should remain under the control of national authorities. This is an idea that has been kicked around for years. Fortunately, it hasn't gone anywhere, nor will it.

In fact, Fox News reported a similar story over a decade ago, but the host of Bulls and Bears Brenda Buttner, nor her panel -- consisting of Gary B. Smith, Stephane Fitch, Kyle Harrington, Jonas Max Ferris, and Tobin Smith -- presented the facts of the global tax initiative.

Instead of acknowledging the statement or the tax proposal's impotent history, Buttner's panel - consisting of Gary B. Smith, Stephane Fitch, Kyle Harrington, Jonas Max Ferris, and Tobin Smith -- largely buttressed Buttner's fear-mongering about global taxes. Only Fitch questioned the necessity of the segment, arguing that “it's not going to happen,” in part because “the U.N. has no taxing authority.”

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