This afternoon Ted Cruz launched a filibuster against funding Obamacare, which Fox News did their part to sabotage, by showing the video, but substituting their own discussion of how Cruz will fail.
Here is the beginning of Cruz’s filibuster on C-SPAN:
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Because he can’t stop anything, Sen. Ted Cruz is not calling this a filibuster. Instead, Cruz has promised to speak until he can no longer stand. This means that Ted Cruz is filibustering.
Fox News is doing everything they can to make sure that their viewers know as little as possible about Cruz’s efforts. Their strategy is to cut to a breaking news update, and show Cruz talking on the Senate floor. What they don’t provide is audio of what Cruz is saying. Instead, Fox News has guests talk about how Cruz’s efforts are going to fail, and what will happen in the House after the Senate sent them a clean continuing resolution.
In short, Fox News put a gag on Ted Cruz. Fox has banished Cruz to a live video stream on their website. Fox News’ strategy is to take live looks at Cruz while providing no sound. Fox News described what Cruz is doing in their 3:30 PM ET update as, “He’s talking, and he’s talking. He’s probably going to talk for several hours.” Fox News then helpfully added that Cruz doesn’t have the votes to stop the vote.
It is interesting to see the Fox News tactics usually used on Democrats being turned on Ted Cruz. As the Republican heavily hitters have taken action, we have seen the life sucked out of the defund Obamcare or shutdown the government movement. Now Fox News is doing their part to keep their viewed informed with only the information that they want them to have.
Fox News hasn’t put a syllable of what Ted Cruz is saying on the air. They keeping the Texas senator almost out of sight, and definitely out of mind.
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
