Fox 19 Cincinnati's Sherrod Brown Interview Typifies Weak Media Coverage, Dems' False Talking Points

Saturday night in Cincinnati, Fox 19's Kimberly Holmes Wiggins interviewed Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown from Washington about the state of the debt-ceiling debate. A full transcript follows.

Contained therein readers will see the untruthful establishment press memes which have dominated their coverage, and all too typical disgraceful and predictable demagoguery by Brown. Similar reports involving other Democrats likely played on stations across the nation this past weekend.

Strap on the duct tape. Here goes (bolds and numbered tags are mine; link is to the station's video home page):

Wiggins: Hi, in Washington now, there are just three days until the U.S. defaults on its debt [1], and still no compromise.

The President and GOP leaders [2] are expressing confidence that lawmakers will reach a deal to avoid default [1] and end the spectacle in Congress. [3] This as plans from both sides of the aisle have been rejected. Still, even one of Ohio's senators agreed the deal can be reached.

And joining me now is Senator Sherrod Brown in Washington. Now Senator, we are three days away from D-Day when we could default [1], and the House just rejected Senator Reid's debt bill. Now earlier today, you seemed optimistic that we could come up with a compromise. Now, uh, how (laughing incredulously -- Ed.) are you still optimistic that this could happen? How, because a lot of Americans don't believe that? [4]

Sen. Sherrod Brown (never tagged as a Democrat -- Ed.): Well, I'm, I'm optimistic because I think that, uh, I spoke yesterday, uh, with a conservative Southern Republican Senator, friend of mine, about how, how we do this. He thinks we're very close. He thinks as I do that the, that the the leaders, that Senator Reid and Senator McConnell [5], will come together in a bipartisan way in the Senate. Uh, they may be filibustered for a while. That's why we will maybe stay in tonight, all night if necessary, until we get to 60 votes, until we pass it, send it back to the House of Representatives, and I think that they will do their patriotic duty. [6] It's simply too dangerous to default [1] on the full faith and obligations of the United States of America.

Wiggins: Now you have pledged to reject a GOP plan of having a temporary increase of the debt ceiling. [7] Now at this point, Americans are just frustrated. [4] Are you sticking with that plan right now?

Brown: Well, with the, I think the Reid plan in the Senate, which has a, a lot of the requests of the Republican leader in the bill, a lot of it is uh, is uh bipartisan in that way, makes sense. I-ah-I-I did vote against the House plan, because the House plan, number one, it jeopardizes Medicare and Social Security and Medicaid. [8] Number 2, the House plan most damagingly would put us in this situation again in six months. And I don't know any sen-, I don't know any businesspeople in Cincinnati and Blue Ash or Hamilton or Norwood or anywhere in Southwest Ohio that think that we should do this again in six months. It's terribly damaging to the economy. It's terribly damaging to consumer confidence. It's terribly, it, it injects all kinds of uncertainty that, that business, that business can't operate under, in terms of investing, in terms of creating jobs, in terms of growing their companies.

Wiggins: Now some voters and viewers are saying this isn't about balancing the budget at all but about 2012. What do you say to those critics?

Brown: Well, I-I think there's always politics in this, and I, y'know, we've, we've done this, the Congress, long before I got there, raised the debt limit many times, 18 times under Ronald Reagan. There was, there were no political opponents that tried to, tried to make this all about politics to raise the debt ceiling, as have, people have now. [9] And it clearly is about politics. It's about, in many cases, people that are, that are holding the debt limit hostage. [10] And that means holding the full faith and credit of the United States of America, uh, through default [1], ho-holding it hostage. [10] And, uh, it's just wrong. But we've got to do this, we've got to raise the debt ceiling. We don't want to go through it again in six months. We don't want to jeopardize Medicare and Social Security. [8] That's why the, the Reid plan, which is bipartisan I think will pass the Senate, and ultimately the House, and signed by the President.

Wiggins: And real quick, if a plan is not placed by Tuesday [1], what will happen to folks here in the Tri-State on Wednesday?

Brown: Well I was on the phone today with, uh, in the front office, I was taking phone calls, and uh, people, including three from Cincinnati, of the ten or so calls I took, [11] said, said, "We're very concerned about what would happen should Social Security [8], if we don't do this by Tuesday." I'm concerned about border security. [12] I'm concerned about paying our troops in Afghanistan. I'm very concerned about what would happen to the dollar. I'm concerned about interest rates, and businesses that trying, are trying to expand, borrowing for their payroll, or local governments, all the things that, or 401(k)s, all the things that would be affected [13] if we don't do this by Tuesday. See that's why I think we get it done. We have to.

Wiggins: Senator Sherrod Brown. Thanks for that.

Brown: My pleasure. Thanks Kim.

Notes:

• [1] -- As explained earlier today (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), failing to reach a deal by August 2 would not trigger a default. Moody's said so, and Obama has privately said so. The misrepresented prospect of default was mentioned by Wiggins or Brown a total of six times.
• [2] -- What happened to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Kim?
• [3] -- "Spectacle"? What about the "spectacle" of a president who never had a plan, and whose spokesman actually had to fend off establishment press reporters impatient with the presidential cajoling when he hadn't stepped up with anything?
• [4] -- So nice of you to pretend to speak for "Americans," Kim. You're not speaking for me, and I daresay you have no credible support for your contentions.
• [5] -- Say what you want about his performance, Mr. Brown, but the only "leader" in Washington during the past few weeks who was actually willing to craft something specific was House Speaker John Boehner. The nation has had no budget for 800-plus days, because previous Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Reid wouldn't pass one, and because the President of the United States had zero problem with the idea of running the world's largest single entity without one.
• [6] -- So if Boehner and the House vote down the Sentate's ultimate concoction -- and please note that Sherrod Brown more than likely has NO idea of what it contains -- they're not patriots. They're traitors. Gosh, Dems play the patriotism card over any attempt to rein in a runaway government, while taking umbrage at any attempt to call them on their clearly questionable patriotism when they advocate compromising military readiness. With all due respect (i.e., none): Bleep you, Senator Brown.
• [7] -- Whoa, Kim. Why isn't Sherrod Brown not "doing his patriotic duty" when he promises to reject the GOP plan? (crickets)
• [8] -- I looked really hard for anything in the Boehner v. 2.0 as scored by the Congressional Budget Office Wednesday. There isn't anything that would "jeopardize" those programs.
• [9] -- As pointed out earlier today (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), the Senate vote to raise the debt ceiling in March 2006 was 52-48. Every Democrat, including Barack Obama and Harry Reid, voted against it, and Dick Cheney was on hand in case he was needed to break a potential tie.
• [10] -- Orchestrated Democratic talking point alert.
• [11] -- Senator Brown, the question wasn't, "What are your callers afraid of?" It was "What (do you think or know) will happen to folks here in the Tri-State on Wednesday?"
• [12] -- Senator Brown, if you're so concerned about border security, why did you first vote FOR illegal-immigrant amnesty in 2007, and then when you realized it was going to go down in flames, change your vote to against (covered here and here)? If you think we're going to forget that, pal, you've got another thing coming.
• [13] -- Typical Armageddon-like litany.

The entire interview was based on a false premise, contained false assertions about the House and Senate bills, and was conducted with a senator whose only mission was to further fan the flames of baseless fears. This is what passes for "news" at Fox 19.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.