Fox News Eduction Redux

In an earlier post I discussed how Fox News used eduction (taking a quotation out of context) to make it appear as if President Barack Obama was claiming that small business owners did not create their businesses. In reality, Pres. Obama was merely claiming that they didn't build the roads and bridges that small business (and all businesses) depend on.

The Republican Party has decided to run with this piece of misinformation and make it a centerpiece of their national convention.  As Politico has reported, the theme for Tuesday night of the convention is "We Built It." As the Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus has noted, this is a direct adoption of the misquoting of Obama discussed in my earlier post. From a press release issued by the Convention:

At a campaign rally in Roanoke, Virginia, last month, President Obama declared, “if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”  Priebus said that Tuesday’s convention proceedings “will remind America that we are a nation made great not by Washington but by the men and women who summoned the inner drive, discipline and persistent effort to achieve their dreams within the free enterprise system.”

So, clearly the RNC is following the lead of Fox News, and is actively adopting the false impression of Obama created by eduction. As the article form Politico notes, it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between the Republican Party and Fox News, and it clearly appears that Fox is now simply a media and messaging outlet for the RNC (or perhaps it goes the other way with Fox developing the agenda and messaging that the RNC adopts).