Perfect Timing

Sept 28th, 2011

Everyone has been talking about the Howard Kurtz profile of Fox's Roger Ailes. I think it pertinent to highlight this particular section today:

"Ailes raises a Fox initiative that he cooked up: “Are our producers on board on this ‘Regulation Nation’ stuff? Are they ginned up and ready to go?” Ailes, who claims to be “hands off” in developing the series, later boasts that “no other network will cover that subject … I think regulations are totally out of control,” he adds, with bureaucrats hiring Ph.D.s to “sit in the basement and draw up regulations to try to ruin your life.” It is a message his troops cannot miss."

Indeed, this theme has been spun hour after hour, day after day, for weeks on the Murdoch Device. It's no longer clear if Fox parrots the GOP or vice versa. However, it is worth contextualizing their mission to deregulate pretty much everything with this breaking news via HuffPo:

"Health officials say as many as 16 people have died from possible listeria illnesses traced to Colorado cantaloupes, the deadliest food outbreak in more than a decade.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that 72 illnesses, including 13 deaths, are linked to the tainted fruit. State and local officials say they are investigating three additional deaths that may be connected.

The death toll released by the CDC Tuesday – including newly confirmed deaths in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas – surpassed the number of deaths linked to an outbreak of salmonella in peanuts almost three years ago. Nine people died in that outbreak."

If it's a choice between "job-killing" regulations and a people-killing absence of regulations, which do we prefer?

It seems clear. If you aren't a sociopath. Speaking of sociopaths, here is part of the Fox editorial response to the aforementioned outbreak. Below is the headline. That's their message. It's really your fault when food kills you. So there.