Fox Uses Routine Park Service Disruption To Accuse Obama Of Politicizing The Shutdown

Written by Laura Santhanam

Published

Fox host Martha MacCallum falsely accused the Obama administration of closing national parks in order to play political games.

On the October 2 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, co-host Martha MacCallum asked if the Obama administration had closed national parks because of “politics,” saying “is this just a political, you know, game, really, to say, 'Oh, well, if you're not going to let us, you know, move forward with this, well then we're just going to shut down all of these places, and it's going to look bad publicly for you?'”:

National parks are not closed because of political games, but because the shutdown mandates that nonessential employees be furloughed, including park personnel. According to the National Park Service's contingency plan, the shutdown requires the suspension of “all activities except for those that are essential to respond to emergencies involving the safety of human life of the protection of property”:

Effective immediately upon a lapse in appropriations, the National Park Service will take all  necessary steps to close and secure national park facilities and grounds in order to suspend all activities except for those that are essential to respond to emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.

The Congressional Research Service reported that the National Park Service was also closed during the 1996 government shutdown, losing millions of visitors as a result:

Closure of 368 National Park Service sites (loss of 7 million visitors) reportedly occurred, with loss of tourism revenues to local communities; and closure of national museums and monuments (reportedly with an estimated loss of 2 million visitors) occurred.

A demand to shut down the federal government has been a frequent refrain among Fox News hosts and pundits in recent months, often dismissing the devastating consequences of this decision. Prior to the government shutting down, Fox host Sean Hannity said on the September 30 edition of Fox News' Hannity that “This doesn't impact me mentally.”