“Say it Ain’t So”: FOX’s Chris Wallace Takes Hardline With McCain Advisor Rick Davis

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We are making a policy of giving credit when credit is due, and this will be implemented across the board - regardless of who, or what is causing a stir for the right reasons. With that we are going to go ahead and tip our hat to FOX NEWS Sunday’s Chris Wallace for his interview with McCain campaign manager Rick Davis on his program which aired yesterday. Wallace did what so many of his coworkers on FOX simply refuse to do — break from the usual “script” of coddling anything on the “right”, while lambasting without regard anything coming from the “left”.

In what Roger Ailes (Murdoch’s number one over at FOX) will undoubtedly take as an act of defiance, Wallace opened a relentless series of questions focusing on McCain’s latest attacks on Obama - the vast majority of which happen to be completely baseless, and downright inaccurate in their message.

Rick Davis, the beltway lobbyist turned McCain campaign manager appeared to be quite surprised with the rather tough line of questioning, and for good reason. Up until now McCain and company have had a virtual pass among members of the mainstream media regarding his false accusations dealing with everything ranging from Obama’s tax and energy plans, to McCain’s personal voting record and platform.

Needless to say Wallace exhibited that he does in fact have the traits of a first class journalist, and here is the video accompanied by partial transcript to prove it:

“this morning Chris Wallace called out the McCain campaign on their latest but most egregious (and potentially effective) lies. He began his interview of Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, by playing McCain’s scandalously false commercial, which accuses Obama of seeking to raise taxes on the middle class. Of course, Obama’s proposed tax cuts for the middle class are almost nine times greater than McCain’s, but facts be damned.”

“NARRATOR: Life in the spotlight must be grand. But for the rest of us, times are tough. Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Mr. Davis, especially that last sentence, isn’t that misleading?

DAVIS: Nothing misleading about it. Barack Obama voted for a budget resolution that would have increased taxes on people, families, making $42,000. What’s misleading about that?

WALLACE: Well, in fact, it only would be single people making $42,000. It would be families making over $60,000. But Obama — as you say, he voted for a non-binding budget resolution that overall talked about doing away with the Bush tax cuts. In fact, he says, that’s not his tax plan, that he supports a middle-class tax cut. And I want to put something up on the screen. The non-partisan Tax Policy Center says someone making $37,000 a year under Obama’s plan would get a tax cut of $892. Under McCain’s plan, they get a tax cut of $113.”

Here are a couple video clip that manage to capture some of the interviews highlights, including the exchange documented above. It also manages to offer up a better feel for the underlying “tone” of the interview, one which has Rick Davis cringing somewhere as he watches the replay:

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Wallace was trying to paint McCain as a fourth Bush term! Drunk with the power of the first amendment and not content with commiting two acts of journalism in a single interview, Chris Wallace then hits Davis squarely on the chin for his DHL lobby ties”

Wow, this interview is more telling then anything CNN or MSNBC have done combined in terms of pressing McCain and/or his representatives for answers to their blatant lies as of late. This is not the first time Chris Wallace has broken from FOX’s script. If you remember back a couple months ago Wallace took the cast of FOX and Friends to task over their relentless Obama bashing - a “live on the air” dressing down that left many speechless, but with a smile on their face none the less.

Will this trend continue? I don’t know. I definitely wouldn’t bet on it - but hey, maybe I’m wrong. Heck, I hope I’m wrong. And if I am you can count on us documenting every second of it here on HyerStandard.

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