A Fox News Channel post Monday.
We're not shocked, just amused, by how the national Fox News Channel chooses to see the water woes in Flint.
It's not as though Michael Moore, Jesse Jackson, Jennifer Granholm, Progress Michigan and Cher present neutral views on this mess, after all.
So the network founded by Rupert Murdoch and run by Roger Ailes isn't alone in presenting point-of-view reports from a city where filtering now doesn't refer to media coverage.
While acknowledging that "the state bears significant responsibility for the public health crisis," Fox makes us grin about a Monday post that leans on the scale, as shown below. (The cable and satellite channel shouldn't be confused with the Fox 2 Detroit local station.)
Monday's thumb-on-scale post by Fox News Channel.
► Headline: Blame game erupts over Flint’s toxic water, Dems target GOP gov
[Not "criticism" or "debate" about a serious topic, but the image of childish Dems playing a familiar game.]
► Lead sentence: ". . . [Democrats] line up to lambaste the Republican governor while saying little about the role of a former Democratic mayor or federal agencies in the public health emergency."
[Right, critics say little about an ex-mayor superseded by an appointed emergency manager and misled by false state water safety assurances. As for the federal EPA, its inaction was faulted prominently last week by The Detroit News, Slate and others. National Journal columnist Ron Fournier tweets that the regional administrator lied about the situation.]
► Shot at presidential candidates: "Neither [ex-mayor] Dayne Walling nor the EPA’s alleged role in the crisis appeared in any criticisms from either [Hillary] Clinton or [Bernie] Sanders."
[Their time-limited comments during Sunday night's debate focused solely on Snyder, as did earlier statements. He's the Michigan official whose administration's response pace is a national issue, though it's fair to say critics also should mention the similarly lax federal environmental agency.]
► Labeling a son of Flint: After introducing him as "left-wing activist Michael Moore," Fox notes that he speaks as a Flint native. A later reference says he "isn’t the only liberal activist to blast the situation as criminal."
[Accurate descriptions, though more loaded than, say, "consumer advocate" or "ally of hometown residents."]
Ah, but we quibble about framing of a story that's political by its nature. So as we say up top: Amusing, not shocking.
