I'm So Happy we have Faux News to tell us the Truth ... or at least what we want to hear. Fox News is still trying to sell the Shrub's lies that there was a link between Iraq and al Qaeda that made it imperative to go to war against Iraq.

Low on the Hog published an article on 28/11/05 scrupulously detailing the Administration's lies, half-truths and distortions that were designed to convince a large portion of the public that there was such a link, in order to "justify" Bush's drive for a war in Iraq as self-defence and anti-terrorism, rather than an aggressive action to punish Saddam Hussein for embarrassing the Shrub's Daddy.

The reason that such an article seemed like a good idea was (and still is), of course, that various right-wing types were (and still are) saying the man didn't lie.

The proximate cause of the Low on the Hog article was an incident involving Chris Wallace (Mike Wallace's son) on FOX News Sunday, 27/11/05. Quoting the post:

Yesterday, FOX's Chris Wallace went after Carl Levin on Fox News Sunday. He was ostensibly questioning Levin about his position that Bush mislead Americans by linking Iraq and al Qaida. In fact, he was overtly arguing the Bush line, using a single piece of incomplete footage and then trying to bully Levin into agreeing he was mistaken. (Crooks and Liars has footage.) I'll leave aside, for the moment, the egregious departure from journalism this represents (though it's a rich vein to mine).

I find this amusing, if only because any number of right-wingers have accused Mike Wallace, over the years, of distorting facts and bullying interviewess into saying things they didn't mean that weren't true.

The reason i'm coming to it at this late date is because i started working on an essay for an apa-zine (for any who read this who don't know what an apa-zine is, e-mail me and i'll try to explain; my favourite simile is that it's like a USENET newsgroup with a two-month latency...); inspired by several recent little snippets i've seen quoting one or other Wallace.

I wasn't aware of just how far Wallace the Younger has gone in attempting to discredit his father; and then i hit this little goodie:

Chris Wallace: Mike Wallace Has 'Lost It'

(...)

"He's lost it. The man has lost it. What can I say," the younger Wallace lamented to WRKO Boston radio host Howie Carr on Friday.

"He's 87-years old and things have set in," the Fox anchor continued. "I mean, we're going to have a competence hearing pretty soon."

Nice way to talk about your 87-year-old father on broadcast radio.

Back in early November (o2/11/05), Chris interviewed Mike on his FOX Sunday show; apparently things sounded a bit different, though there was some sniping:

Mike and Chris warmly shook hands as they met in the green room. They talk frequently, but hadn't seen each other in months.

Fox News Channel chief Roger Ailes was there to see the confrontation.

Chris said he gets e-mails saying "You're just like your father." He says it's not intended as a compliment.

"Even a liberal reporter is a patriot, wants the best for this country," Wallace the Elder said. "And people, your fair and balanced friends at Fox, don't fully understand that."

At the interview's end, Mike said "I love you and I'm proud of you."

"All right, we don't want to cry. We're done," said Chris.

(assembled from various souces)

Of course, what apparently set Chris off was Mike's interview with the Boston Globe on 08/12/05, in which he said, in response to the question

Q:What would you ask President Bush [who has refused, showing more intelligence than i usually credit him with, to even consider doing an interview with Wallace] if you had the chance?

A. What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn't want to travel. You knew very little about the military. . . . The governor of Texas doesn't have the kind of power that some governors have. . . . Why do you think they nominated you? . . . Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?

In the same interview, in what i suspected was snarkiness as soon as i heard it, and still do, Wallace referred to FOX Chairman/CEO, Roger Ailes, and the way he built FOX:

Roger Ailes is a man I admire very much. He understood there was a market that was not being served. He was right.

Yeah, there were a lot of knuckle-draggers out there who really needed something that would claim to be a "Fair and Balanced" news organisation while feeding them justifications and rationalisations of their Neanderthaloid view of the word.  ¶ 5:54 AM