Recently, Fox News has declared their intention to crack down on distortions, false statements and other such violations of proper journalistic behavior. They might not be off to the best start, though, with the new Fox News poll, containing an amazingly loaded question.
To be specific, here’s what the poll asked: “What do you think President Obama would like to do with the extra bank bailout money — save it for an emergency, spend it on government programs that might help him politically in 2010 and 2012, or return it to taxpayers?”
The basic assumption here, of course, is that the only reason Obama would want to spend money on the economy is to use the cash as a sort of political slush fund –Â not simply saying that one disagrees with spending the money or thinks it’s a bad idea, but that it is inherently illegitimate — while saving the money or cutting taxes have purer motives.