Daily Howler: In Scarborough Country, viewers got worked by a brilliant ”Nobel nominee”

What are the two Americas? If you read the Washington Post, you read about a woman who had a heart attack and suffered brain damage in the process. In Scarborough Country, you hear something else. You meet an impressive Nobel nominee — and he makes “explosive allegations.” He tells you she had no such heart attack. Instead, he suggests she was strangled by her husband.

These two Americas have existed for years. If you live in cable America, you routinely hear whole sets of things that never appear in the Washington Post, things that the Washington Post rarely attempts to discuss, describe or debate. Cable viewers live in one world; newspaper readers exist in another. Newspaper readers rarely hear what’s being said in the other America. And for that reason, people who live in the cable America sometimes get played for plain fools. …

Does Terri Schiavo respond to commands, as cable America heard last night? …

Judge Greer counted.

“By the court’s count, (Hammesfahr) gave 105 commands to Terri Schiavo and, at his direction, Mrs. Schindler gave an additional six commands,” Greer wrote. “He asked her 61 questions and Mrs. Schindler asked her an additional 11 questions. The court saw few actions that could be considered responsive to either those commands or those questions.”

In cable America, viewers weren?t asked to hear about that. Hustlers like Scarborough know a good story. And they know facts can mess such tales up.
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News Hounds: We watch FOX so you don’t have to.
In Case You Haven’t Had Enough of Terri Schiavo…