Much has been said about Fox News' propensity for fallacies over the years, but nobody has nailed it quite so simply and perfectly as CNN's Jim Acosta.
During a broadcast on Saturday, Acosta dispensed with all niceties and just called Fox News "the bullsh*t factory."
You can see the moment here:
The internet is lauding him as a hero for finally saying what so many have been thinking.
Acosta made the comments while reporting on Republicans' most recent obsession, a now retracted New York Post story which claimed, erroneously, migrant children detained at the southern border were all given copies of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' children's book, Superheroes Are Everywhere.
In discussing the way the right has turned the story into its controversy du jour, Acosta pulled no punches.
"This [story] was USDA Grade A bullsh*t and the reporter who wrote the story resigned claiming she was forced to make it up. But the damage was done, pumped out over the airwaves at the bullsh*t factory also known as Fox News."
Acosta's blunt appraisal of the controversy is pretty hard to argue with.
The New York Post story claimed Harris' 2019 book was included in all migrant children's welcome packets upon arrival at the border—the truly damning implication being that taxpayer dollars were spent to purchase the copies of the Vice President's book.
The claim was false and easily disproven.
In reality, one single copy of the book, donated by a private individual, was distributed. After a furor erupted online about the fallacies in the piece, the journalist who wrote it, Laura Italiano, resigned in protest, calling the piece her "breaking point" and admitting she did not "push back hard enough against" it when she was "forced" to write it.
But as with so many other fake controversies, conspiracy theories and false accusations against Democrats and those on the left, Fox News made little effort to set the record straight, leading to Acosta's rebuke.
On Twitter a new nickname for Fox News was born.
In a subsequent broadcast, Fox News did admit the story was "not accurate."
But they continued raising questions about the book itself and speculating private individuals were donating Harris' book instead of more worthy items or supplies.
