Steve Doocy Proves He Is Not A Journalist (As If He Needed To).

"Fox & Friends" television personality and part-time Strutting Leo Impersonator Steve Doocy (pictured above) recently came under fire for his underhanded interpretation of something that President Obama said.  He and the rest of Roger Ailes' cronies over at Faux News have been trying to twist Obama's "silver spoon" quote for a few days now by making seem like it was an attack on Romney.  This all culminated on Thursday when none other than Mitt Romney himself was interviewed on "Fox & Friends" by Doocy.

Wondering how Romney was reacting to the latest jab from the president, Doocy brought him up to speed: "He said, uh, 'Unlike some people, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth'."  Burn, right?  Except President Obama never said, "Unlike some people."  In fact, he wasn't even talking about Mitt Romney.  He was talking about education beyond high school.

What he said was: "We created a foundation for those of us to prosper.  Somebody gave me an education.  I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth.  Michele wasn't.  But somebody gave us a chance."

As many have pointed out, President Obama has used the idiom of "being born with a silver spoon in his mouth" since 2009 (at the latest).  This was no jab at Romney.  It was the president talking to a crowd about education. 

Essentially, Doocy has offered further proof of something that most people have known for quite sometime: that he is not a journalist.  He is a television personality with a strong opinion.  Unfortunately, a self-proclaimed "news network" has no place for such creatures.  If you look at Faux News closely, you'll notice that a strong majority of their programming is based around opinion-spewing hosts (O'Reilly, Hannity, etc) or opinion-spewing pundits (Malkin, Coulter, etc).  So... where are all the journalists on this news network?

They get waved around every once and awhile to show off the network's credibility before getting shoved back into their dark corners.  I think it's safe to say that they are practically non-existent.

So where are we at now?  After Stephen Colbert gave Doocy quite the facetious tongue-lashing on Monday's episode of The Colbert Report, Doocy hit the airwaves on Tuesday to apologize for distorting the president's language.  Which would have been great had he actually apologized.  Instead, he said this:

"Last week, President Obama talked about not being born with a silver spoon in his mouth. That was interpreted as a big dig at Mitt Romney. When I was interviewing Governor Romney on this show, I asked him about it. However, I did some paraphrasing that seemed to misquote the president.  So to be clear, the President’s exact quote was 'I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.' And I hope that clears up any confusion."   

Sorry, Doocy, but that doesn't clear up much.  First of all, what the president said was interpreted as a big dig at Mitt Romney by you and your fellow personalities.  Secondly, you didn't "paraphrase."  The word according to Merriam-Webster means, "A restatement of a text, passage, or work giving the meaning in another form."  The meaning!

What you did was make shit up and then pretend that the president said it.  That's not paraphrasing.  That's called "pulling words out of your ass." 

Speaking of that, I think Faux News did just that when they said Doocy was issuing an "apology."  I see no apology anywhere.  If anything it was a snide admission to having been called out for his severe lack of journalistic integrity.  "I did some paraphrasing that seemed to misquote the president."  Seemed?  That word does not belong in your sentence.  You did misquote the president.  STOP.  LYING. 

As TPM fantastically points out, "It isn’t the first time Doocy has put words in Obama’s mouth. Last October he falsely reported the president was planning on apologizing to Japan for U.S. actions during World War II, only to later concede that what he said was false."

Well I for one have had it with Faux News and, what's more, with Steve Doocy.  He strikes me as a man that has one of those condescending tones that he saves for conversations with people he doesn't agree with.  You know, the "I want to get punched right in the teeth" tone.  There should be a journalistic set of standards that not only individuals adhere to, but networks do as well.  I am very thankful that we have watchdogs keeping an eye on all of the media for foul play like this, but maybe it's not quite enough.  Freedom of the Press is a great thing, but it shouldn't be interchangeable with the "freedom to lie."  They simply aren't the same, and they never have been.      

That's enough of my ranting.  As Stephen Colbert sarcastically praised on last night's show, "Excellent reporting, Steve Doocy, and I know good reporting. I am an independent news man, not some smug, self-satisfied brown-noser toadying for the Republican establishment… unlike some people."