Fox News: Part of the Problem and NOT Part of the Solution

I have said this repeatedly, and it remains true. Fox News is part of the mainstream media soulution .  From Sean Hannity's obsession with exit polls (and polls in general) to Drew Peterson/Anna Nicole Smith insanity, Fox News is fully as bad as CNN, or anyone else in the mainstream media.  Yes, Fox News has LESS of an overall, partisan agenda than the other "news": networks, but Fox does no better in reporting actual FACTS.

For example, I just heard radio Fox News repeat the Orwellian, "1984" type Big Lie that Barack Obama is "within 70 votes of winnging the nomination".  That is simply not true (see my recent entries on "superdelegates", and on "Anderson Cooper:  Complete and Total Fool").

Barack Obama--true, also of Hillary Clinton--has "won" NO superdelegates.  Under Democratic Party rules, superdelegates do NOT vote until the convention.  Until then, their statements of intentions do not COUNT.  Even if declared publicly, a superdelegates statement of intention is NOT "binding".  A superdelegate CAN CHANGE HIS OR HER MIND (as some already have).

The "count" of delegates that Fox News referred to is a MEDIA COUNT.  It is in the nature of a pre-election POLL.  Nothing illustrates the ARROGANCE of the media, including Fox News, than their assumption that their delegate count determines when Barack Obama "wins" the nomination. 

Nope.  This is NOT the same as John McCain being the presumptive Republican nominee.  McCain has WON enough delegates to claim the nomination.  No matter what Obama does, he (or Hillary) cannot "win" any supredelegates before the convention.  And without counting superdelegates (who do NOT "count" until they vote at the convention), Barack Obama will reamin several HUNDRED delegates short of the nomination until the Democratic convention in August. 

Obama, under Democratic Party rules (even apart from Michigan and Florida), absolutely cannot "win" the nomination before the convention.  All he can do is claim that enough superdelegates have stated their INTENTION to vote for him to give him the nomination.  As stated, that is merely a POLL.  Just as voters can change their minds from what they tell pollsters, superdelegates can change their minds from the way they presently say they are going to vote.

This is NOT nit picking.  It is a matter of acting like the FACTS don't matter.  I understand full well that Barack Obama is going to CLAIM lthe nomination as soon as his PROJECTED (including this poll of superdelegates) reaches the number needed to win the nomination at the convention.  And I understand there will be enormous lpressure on Hillary Clinton, partly because of this media Big Lie, to concede before the convention.  That does not change the FACTS.  Under the Democratic Party rules, Hillary Clinton has not "lost" the nomination until the superdelegates vote at the convention.   That is the way the Democratic Party rules are set up, and this has nothing to do with trying to "raid" pledged (won in primaries and caucuses) delegates.  Superdelegates are NOT "pledged" in that ssense, and cannnot be until they vote at the convention. 

Something could HAPPEN to convince superdelegates to switch to Clinton when they actually vote.  A few have SWITCHED to Obama, without the media seeming to notice the hypocrisy of hyping those switches as coups for Obama, while failing to recognize that such switches could continue all of the way up to the convention vote--including switches from Obama to Clinton. 

I agree that superdelegate switches to Clinton from Obama are unliely, but some information may come out between now and the convention to convince them. This  Fox News "Big Lie" is the same Big LIe being put out by the rest of the mainstream media.  Whatever happened to the idea that "journalists" report the FACTS, rather than taking their PROJECTIONS as a FACT.