Thursday, May 6, 2010

Fox News Blames Sharp Drop In Dow On Greek Riots

I had Fox News on just now when I heard the anchor announce breaking news, interrupting the normal programing with reporters from Fox Business Network.  I didn't catch his name, but he was co-hosting with Gerri Willis.

The anchor claimed that riots in Greece, due to the economic instability of the country, were to blame. Shortly after the claim, the reporter corrected himself, attributing the sharp drop of almost 1000 points to a bad trade for Proctor & Gamble. The folks at Fox were not quick to throw out their Greek comments, but I found it interesting that they jumped to attack Greece.

The picture above is from my television (pardon the blue shadow).  The image on my television was taken after they had corrected themselves, attributing the drop to a bad P&G trade.

Following the breaking news, Neil Cavuto picked up the conversation, having Jim DeMint on his show, in which DeMint continued on the Greek tangent, claiming American taxpayers were going to bailout Greece...

Cavuto continued to question the validity of the claim that human error caused the drop, seemingly trying to keep the Greek tragedy alive.  The guests pretty much stated that the system is sound, and all it took, in this particular instance,was a "fat finger" on the right stock to make the markets tumble.

Fox's website didn't quite hop on the P&G talking point though, and continued to attribute the decline to Greek economic drama:

On top of all that, conservative talking point king Rush Limbaugh chimed in, declaring the Dow drop a result of the Greek riots (as well as future yet-to-be-announced German, Austrian, and Spanish riots), labeling the drop "Obama's Market." Where was Limbaugh when the Dow rose above 11,000?




Another interesting comment Limbaugh made on his program was that America would eventually bailout Greece. Sound familiar?

I bet tomorrow, the crazies are going to insist a socialist rogue trader orchestrated the whole thing...

6 comments:

  1. I especially like when Rush keeps calling out Obama for being "AWOL"! I didn't realize Obama went missing today for a few minutes?

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  2. I get so aggravated when I watch these guys. I like to watch things and keep a very rational opinion. It bothers me when I see these guys make these crazy assumptions but speak of them as fact.

    What bothers me more is that people take this information as news...

    What I saw on Fox was a show host dig and dig for a response he wanted

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  3. Since it was a typo on a P&G trade that set off the hiccup, Fox's chyron was actually correct. Whover is responsible for letting some truth slip into one of their broadcasts will be fired for sure.

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  4. I didn't like that before Fox had the P&G info available, they blamed it solely on Greece.

    While I would understand a little hit to the markets for Greece's economic stability, to blame the entire drop on the riots would be totally inaccurate, and would only serve to further their agenda...

    I also found it interesting that I have heard conservatives love the idea of the Greek collapse and the damage done to the Euro versus the dollar, but at the same time they attacked the Greeks, claiming it will destroy the American economy.

    Another example of conservatives getting their propaganda signals crossed. Is it good for the dollar or bad for the economy?

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  5. I would think it would be bad for the economy. Markets are so interconnected anymore, that whenever a Moldavian peasant farts, they smell it in Hong Kopng.

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  6. The Greek problem is surely going to cause some problems in the future, but not as serious as the right makes it out to be. It fits their agenda to make it an apocalyptic scenario. I think this is why they had placed the blame of the Dow drop solely on Greece, when in reality, it was a combination of issues... In my opinion, Greece didn't play that major of a role in stock prices, considering the Dow was only down a couple hundred points until the P&G trade, in which it plummeted another several hundred points.

    I had also read that there was something involving a correction of the markets that further impacted the situation...

    Fact is, the markets are complex, but the news made it out to be a simple issue - riots = plummet...

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