"The problem that I think is reasonable to assert about Fox and its coverage is that they make up stories out of whole cloth and then make a big deal out of them"
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Maddow isn’t trying to win a semantic argument about bias; she’s charging Fox with fabrication, and she chooses the most textile, almost old-fashioned phrase for it: “whole cloth.” It’s a vivid, domestic metaphor that turns newsmaking into counterfeit manufacture. Not spin, not selective framing - a loom, a costume shop, a prop department. The image matters because it drags the dispute out of the mushy realm of “both sides” and into a harder allegation: this isn’t interpretation, it’s invention.
Her syntax does a second job. “The problem that I think is reasonable to assert…” is lawyerly padding, a preemptive self-defense against libel standards and the predictable backlash. Maddow signals she knows the terrain: media criticism is a contact sport, and precision is armor. That careful throat-clearing also frames her as measured, not hysterical, even as she levels a scorched-earth claim.
Then comes the clincher: “and then make a big deal out of them.” She’s not only indicting a false story; she’s indicting the business model that turns a made-up premise into a multi-day outrage cycle. The subtext is about incentives: attention is currency, and manufactured controversy is scalable content. In the cable-news ecosystem where narrative beats verification, “big deal” is a blunt phrase with an insider’s sting - a reminder that amplification, not accuracy, is often the point.
Contextually, this lands in the long trench war between partisan outlets and fact-driven branding, where each side accuses the other of propaganda. Maddow’s intent is to shift the argument from ideology to epistemology: if you can’t agree on what’s real, politics becomes performance art with consequences.
Her syntax does a second job. “The problem that I think is reasonable to assert…” is lawyerly padding, a preemptive self-defense against libel standards and the predictable backlash. Maddow signals she knows the terrain: media criticism is a contact sport, and precision is armor. That careful throat-clearing also frames her as measured, not hysterical, even as she levels a scorched-earth claim.
Then comes the clincher: “and then make a big deal out of them.” She’s not only indicting a false story; she’s indicting the business model that turns a made-up premise into a multi-day outrage cycle. The subtext is about incentives: attention is currency, and manufactured controversy is scalable content. In the cable-news ecosystem where narrative beats verification, “big deal” is a blunt phrase with an insider’s sting - a reminder that amplification, not accuracy, is often the point.
Contextually, this lands in the long trench war between partisan outlets and fact-driven branding, where each side accuses the other of propaganda. Maddow’s intent is to shift the argument from ideology to epistemology: if you can’t agree on what’s real, politics becomes performance art with consequences.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
|---|
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