The Fox News headline on their website proclaims “Obama Botches Bible Verse at Prayer Breakfast“. They claim that Obama misquoted a familiar Bible verse, and even accompany it with a rather unflattering photo of the president.
OMG! Is this proof that Obama isn’t really a Christian? Are conservatives right when they claim he is a secret Muslim, and only pretends to be Christian so he can get elected?
There’s just one problem. As most people know — but apparently Fox News doesn’t — there is more than one version of the Bible, two of the most popular being the New International Version and the King James Version. Obama was quoting from one, while Fox News was quoting from the other to debunk him.
So my question is, is Fox News lying on purpose, or are they just really stupid? And now that their error has been pointed out, why haven’t they corrected the article?
Even more stupid, in a poll done last year, only one-third of Americans believe that Obama is Christian. Where would they get an idea like that?
13 Comments
“is Fox News lying on purpose, or are they just really stupid?”
Sounds like a trick question.
Oh wait, I know this one…. BOTH!
I think the problem was less that he was quoting from another Bible, but that he essentially got the content of the verse correct.
Obama’s verse: “Those who wait on the Lord will soar on wings like eagles, and they will run and not be weary, and they will walk and not faint.”
Fox Nation verse: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
No person would seriously call that “botched.” In my experience it is common for people to put their own emphasis on verses. For instance, someone talking about John 3:16 (probably one of the most well known verses), might say:
“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, so that anyone who believed in Him would not be destroyed in the fires of Hell, but instead would have eternal life through Him.”
Again, this is not “botched.” Unless of course, you are talking about Obama and you are desperate to paint him as anything that scares Republicans. Then it is clearly his socialistic Muslim roots that caused him to deliberately misquote the Bible.
This is my new take on Fox News…they arent really stupid…or really dumb…They just know that 50% (I’m being generous here) of the American population…is dumb as shit. So Fox believes, rightly so, that all they gotta do is make a crazy claim, and provide believable proof, like this bible thing, and peeps jump right on board.
I’ll take the President that can Pronounce Nuclear…
The President that can get the saying “Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice shame on you” right
The President who sounds like an intelligent human being
Over the President who probably gets the Bible quote right for Fox News
FYI – the book that Obama was quoting from, The New International Version is published by Zondervan — a division of Harper Collins and, yes, News Corp. So, in effect Fox News may have been criticizing their Boss Rupert Murdoch.
I agree with 1032 and NoU: even if it wasn’t a VERBATIM quote, it shouldn’t matter.
FOX, on the other hand, has just gotten crazier and more partisan as the years have gone by. By time the 2012 elections are here, they are not going to even bother listening to the president. Instead, they are going to just make stuff up completely 100%.
FOX “News” February 2012:
Anchor 1: “Today, Barrack Obama said that he likes to kill and eat babies.”
Abchor 2: “That’s proof that he is a cannibal. I just don’t think that’s right. ”
Actual quote from Obama: “I had eggs for breakfast.”
FOX “News” September 2012:
Anchor 1: “Today, Barrack Obama said that he likes to kill babies.”
Abchor 2: “That’s proof that he is a Satan. I just don’t think that’s right. ”
Actual quote from Obama: “I like jogging.”
Here the secret obama agenda.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj3qFw4AiLk&feature=related
@No U – you know how ignorant the average American is? Well, that means 50% are MORE ignorant than that 🙂 And that assumes we’re talking about the median average – if we’re talking about the mean average, it may be more than 50% *grins*
The reason Faux News is the way it is is simple – in today’s media, audiences are increasingly fragmented and always shrinking. A huge hit show on TV has 20 million viewers. Faux News, the leading cable news channel, has about 2.5 million viewers (http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/category/cable-news)
There are about 225 million US citizens old enough to vote, of which about 75% are registered (169 million in the 2008 presidential election) of which about half typically vote, of which about half actually decide the winner – so the President is elected by about 42.6 million people. There are about 55 million registered Republicans (72 million Dmeocrats, 42 million Independants).
So if Faux can get fanatic viewership of 5% of the Republican party, they hit their numbers. If they get 10% they would double in size, and if they could capture 50% they would have the largest audience on all television. Since making money is what business is all about, and on TV money = audience, they have no interest in being “fair and balanced” when being partisan and attracting attention can make them MUCH richer.
So we just have to keep in mind that when we see things on Faux News (or hear them from Guy) what we’re seeing is targeted marketing (pandering) to the most fanatical 5-10% of the conservatives in an attempt to increase audience. And since their strategy is working, it is likely to continue.
You guys are totally cracking me up. Excellent comments.
Jason Ray — Thanks for the figures — but one question (a serious one) — if the President is elected by about 42.6 million people and there are about 55 million registered Republicans, 72 million Democrats and 42 million Independents — what happened last November? Does anyone have the break-out for that voting pattern??? And everyone: thanks for your remarks — they help me maintain sanity!
Do you suppose that the Bible was written in English? Can it really be “misquoted”? Anything said in English would be a “misquote”
This is pure Rove. I saw him once in a video. “That was a very good speech that Clinton gave,” Pause. “But I’m not sure that blue pant suit she wore was the most flattering.” Total pick, pick, pick. I turned it off at that point.
It is worse than that. For some parts of the Bible, we only have Greek translations of the original (lost) text. Which were then translated into English. So a direct quote is impossible, and would be meaningless anyway.
And then there are the people who want to rewrite the Bible to put it more in line with conservative principles. https://www.politicalirony.com/2009/12/04/remaking-god-in-their-own-image/
What happened in November is that a majority of independent voters, who voted Democratic in 2008, went Republican in 2010, and the Democrats were depressed enough to have a lower turnout. If every registered Democrat that voted for Obama in 2008 also voted in 2010 the Republicans would either have not gained the House majority or only gained it by a couple of seats (depending on whose analysis you read).
The Democrats always have more registered voters, and the Republicans reliably have a higher percentage turnout, so they typically offset each other leaving the independents to swing the results. This is why “get out the vote” activities are so critical.
As for quoting the Bible, it is logicially impossible to simultaneously believe in a single deity and also believe that ANY version of the New Testament is the word-for-word dictation of that deity. And that’s ignoring every other sacred text, of course, which I wouldn’t 🙂 It’s clear, however, that people on Faux News have no trouble handling multiple logical impossibilities at the same time without batting an eye.
My friends and I used to watch the (very bad) science fiction TV show “Space 1999” while competing to see how many violations of the laws of physics we could spot in each episode (the pilot had 8). I’ve been wondering if I should repeat that experience watching Glenn Beck and see how many examples of fallacious reasoning occur per episode, but in the end I decided it wouldn’t be challenging enough to be fun 🙂
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