Fox News Boss Caught Manipulating News

You know how Fox News claims to be the "fair and balanced" source for your news? It looks like Fox News' Washington managing editor, Bill Sammon, was caught red-handed telling Fox News' journalists to avoid using generally accepted terms for more conservative framing to manipulate public opinion.

Here is the email from Sammon instructing his news staff to use conservative-friendly phrasing: 

From: Sammon, Bill
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 8:23 AM
To: 054 -FNSunday; 169 -SPECIAL REPORT; 069 -Politics; 030 -Root (FoxNews.Com); 036 -FOX.WHU; 050 -Senior Producers; 051 -Producers
Subject: friendly reminder: let's not slip back into calling it the "public option"
1)      Please use the term "government-run health insurance" or, when brevity is a concern, "government option," whenever possible.
2)      When it is necessary to use the term "public option" (which is, after all, firmly ensconced in the nation's lexicon), use the qualifier "so-called," as in "the so-called public option."
3)      Here's another way to phrase it: "The public option, which is the government-run plan."
4)      When newsmakers and sources use the term "public option" in our stories, there's not a lot we can do about it, since quotes are of course sacrosanct.

Makes you think of other conservative terms promoted by the right-wing media - Media Matters had a great post last year detailing some of the right wing terms like "death tax," "death care," "death book," "death card," "deathpanel," and "party of death."