Fox News is editing reports filed by the Associated Press and replacing “shutdown” — as in government shutdown — with “slimdown.” Because apparently shutting down the federal government is just one easy trick for shaving a few inches off the federal waistline.
via Media Matters
Fox News is trying to downplay the effects of the Republican-led government shutdown by replacing “shutdown” with “slimdown” in Associated Press reports posted on FoxNews.com. The changes have appeared in headlines, a photo caption, and story ledes. [...]
An unbylined FoxNews.com story offered a rationale for using “slimdown,” suggesting that “shutdown” is the Obama administration’s preferred term but it’s “turning out to be more of a ‘slimdown,’ as all but non-essential workers reported to their jobs Tuesday.
The Obama administration is calling this government shutdown a government shutdown therefor we must refer to it as something else. Something that sounds chic or healthy. After all, only the non-essential employees have been furloughed without pay, and if they’re non-essential, why do we have them? It’s time to ‘slim down.’ We need less jobs.
I jest, but the Right is already running away with the idea that, if we actually have this many non-essential employees, we can afford to let them go. Perhaps permanently. I mean, who needs a job anyway? Just dip into that trust fund your parents left you.
But let’s be clear. This is no ordinary diet plan. It’s more like Fox News and congressional Republicans have chosen to starve the prisoners into submission.
I don’t think it would be a great stretch to say that Fox News and the Republican party are a criminal enterprise.