Employing some truly twisted logic, Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt had this to say on Fox & Friends of Hillary Clinton’s coughing fit yesterday while giving a Labor Day address in Cleveland, Ohio:
“We all have our coughing spells but it doesn’t look good when you have all of these conspiracy theories about her health.”
Watch courtesy of Media Matters for America:
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): This is why I think [Hillary Clinton] talked [to the press onboard her plane] — because when she was speaking at the podium in Ohio she had a hacking fit. She could not — she coughed for two minutes.
[…]
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Now people are saying, why is her, you know, throat sore, why is she hacking? I know Ed Klein who’s written a couple of books about the Clintons, he has talked about how famously she fell down a couple of years ago, got the blood clot in her brain and then she’s been taking medicine for that and for a thyroid condition and one of the side effects of the thyroid medicine is you do wind up with these bouts of coughing.
EARHARDT: See I was thinking, so she coughed. We all have allergies, we all have our coughing spells but it doesn’t look good when you have all of these conspiracy theories about her health. And I’m sure when she was at the podium she was freaking out, thinking, oh my gosh, what am I going to say? She came up with that clever line, which diverted the attention. Everyone started clapping, thinking she came up with a good line. Then she goes on her plane and I think she thought, I needed to divert attention away from my hacking, from my coughing so let me speak to the press and that’s why she went on the plane and was so excited. Then she started coughing on the plane.To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
How Earhardt’s logic works is this:
1) Fox News cooks up conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton’s health; then,
2) Hillary Clinton coughs; and, on cue,
3) Fox News points and says, “it doesn’t look good when you have all these conspiracy theories about her health.”
Fox News regularly employs truly reprehensible tactics when talking about Hillary Clinton, including the creation of mock scandals, and, of course, this conspiracy theory about her health.
Never mind that this particularly conspiracy theory, like the others, has already been thoroughly debunked. No lie is ever too old to dredge up and throw around when you are Fox News and Hillary Clinton is the target.
Photo: Screen capture/C-SPAN
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
