Last updated on July 19th, 2012 at 11:07 pm
Fox News has turned the Bain/Bane Batman conspiracy theory into an attack on the fans of the movie, who the network believes are ugly threatening Obama thugs.
Here is the video from Media Matters:
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The segment started out normally enough with Fox News’s Dennis Kneale wondering if The Dark Knight Rises will be able to catch The Avengers for the summer box office crown, but then it took a gentle right wing detour to conspiracy land,
Now, The Dark Knight Rises has had far more buildup as it opens at midnight on Thursday. On the Rotten Tomatoes movie site, 95% of fans say they want to see it, 86% of the critics reviews are raves, which is why some of the doubters now have begun to bash Batman’s latest vehicle. I mean the film is self indulgent two hours and forty minutes long. Under two hours is the norm, and when a scant few critics dared call out the Caped Crusader, one guy called it nonsensical. The fan boy responses got so ugly and threatening that the Rotten Tomatoes site shut down comments for the first time. Now that site by the way is owned by Warner maker of The Dark Knight Rises, and one more thing, the trilogy has always been a metaphor for America itself. Is it mere coincidence that the name of the villain is Bane, spelled differently from Bain Consulting and Bain Capital?
Fox News anchor Jon Scott drolly replied, “Mmmm, I that Bane has been around for a long time though.” Not to be deterred Neale responded with, “Maybe, so.”
Maybe? Definitely. The character Bane has been around since 1993, and is making his second movie appearance.
Facts aside, did you notice what Fox News did there? They created a portrait of Batman fans as intolerant, ugly, and threatening thugs. A few commenters were dissing The Dark Knight Rises, and they were jumped on by a mob of fans.
Here is Bill O’Reilly on March 22, 2012 claiming that the left doesn’t want to hear opposing points of view:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed that Obama was turning loose his liberal thugs on Fox News:
Here is Karl Rove claiming that Obama is political thug who threatens the Supreme Court:
Fox News was painting fans of The Dark Knight Rises with the same brush. Fans of the movie are Obama supporters who are buying into the Bane/Bain propaganda who are ugly and threatening to anyone who questions their views. Neale’s comments were actually an attempt to delegitimatize Batman.
Fox is worried that there is an anti-Obama message inside The Dark Knight Rises, and the summer blockbuster is all part of an Obama plot to win reelection in November.
In short, FNC was trying to tell their audience that everyone who is going to see the movie is a no good, ugly, threatening liberal.
Fox News never had to come out say that the same fans are Rotten Tomatoes who disagreed with the criticism are liberal Obama thugs. Their viewers have been conditioned by their constant messages about the left’s intolerance. They get it. The Bain/Bane conspiracy combined with the comments on Rotten Tomatoes are proof of the Obama conspiracy to use Batman to attack Mitt Romney.
Those few critics who were fighting the brainwashed Obama masses on Rotten Tomatoes are just like Fox News who is doing battle against the liberal media machine.
It is a pile of BS, but is a load of bull that a couple of million mostly older white Americans believe everyday with a religious fervor. It also just so happens that Fox News’s audience of 65 and overs are the least likely demographic group to go see The Dark Knight Rises.
Not content with spreading silly conspiracy theory, Fox News is now attacking the fans of the film.
Fox News let all of their senior citizen tea partiers know to be afraid when they see a young person in a Batman t-shirt coming towards them. That person who looks like your grandson or granddaughter is really an Obama thug in disguise, and they probably have a death panel waiting with your name on it.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
