Fox News Likes Cheap Fruit
By on Oct 17th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
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I would say the immigration issue is a pressing issue.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:18 pmEver since this b*tch tried to defend DeLay, with her nonsense, well, its all nonsense now.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:19 pmlooking at her, they must mean ‘Fruit Cake’…..
October 17th, 2006 at 5:20 pmFox news even had a “poll” on it. Most people were willing to pay significantly more for vegetables and fruit if it meant getting rid of illegals. Somehow I think they are just saying that, and will whine if it really happens.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:20 pmThere is a really tasteless joke in there somewhere.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:21 pmMost of the fruit cakes they have on are not that cheap !
well their Morals arent
October 17th, 2006 at 5:23 pmCheap fruit? They’ve already got Bill O’Reilly.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:23 pmWell, if fruits and vegatables go up, it really only effects crazy liberal tree hugging communist Democrats.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:24 pmAre you willing?
October 17th, 2006 at 5:25 pmFox News Likes Cheap Fruit – - Fox News segues from the Eucharist slant to the euphemism angle.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:26 pmTalk is really cheap.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:26 pmHere in Washington state, we are having an apple crop rot on the trees, as there is not sufficient labor to pick them. Hmm. I wonder why? The growers are pissed. We’ll see how you all like 3.99 a pound delicious reds next summer…
cheap fruit? is geraldo rivera going to be on?
October 17th, 2006 at 5:27 pmBeats talking about all of the other GOP “fruits” in all three branches of government!
October 17th, 2006 at 5:28 pmIs Fox Calling Kay Bailey Hutchinson a fruit?
Hutchinson (F-TX)
October 17th, 2006 at 5:29 pmcheap fruit? is geraldo rivera going to be on?
Comment by pablo
No Geraldo is cheap suit.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:29 pmAre there any serious economic studies dissecting what would happen if no illegal immigrants were working in America? Until then, any discussion of whether or not the American people would be willing to pay more for produce harvested by citizens is just conjecture and has no place in the immigration debate.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:30 pmLighten up SpudgeBoy, you know I resemble that remark, with the exception of the communist part….LOL….Say, liked you’re Compton in the spring time remark in another thread….Way to funny but it wasn’t alway’s so….Back in the 50’s had an aunt and uncle who lived there and it was a quiet great place to live…….Blessings
October 17th, 2006 at 5:33 pmI don’t care about the fruit baskets. I find the ‘crack down’ verb really really offensive. Especially if used in conjunction with people who would like to, you know, work. SA troopers ‘crack down’ on illegal immigrants…
October 17th, 2006 at 5:34 pmIt’s a good question. If illegal immigration is controlled, farmers would lose a source of labor that would work for very little. How much would you want to get paid per hour to pick oranges or other fruit?
October 17th, 2006 at 5:35 pmThinkProgress complains about fox devoting news time to this story. ThinkProgress could have used this post to vet out the ethics violations of Harry Reid.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:36 pmoxillini
October 17th, 2006 at 5:38 pmhere’s one I know about
http://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=486
Doesn’t get to a dollar value, but points out some of the larger issues.
How is Fox News like a bowl of granola? What isn’t fruits and nuts in flakes.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:38 pmpaul, do you mean the allegations against Reid?
October 17th, 2006 at 5:38 pmThey also could have used this post to discuss how Hastert’s net worth went from $300,000 to $6 million.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:40 pmKevin – it’s not just working for very little. There is a migrant lifestyle that is also involved, picking up and moving from area to area as crops ripen for picking. How do your children get educated? Not many Americanos I know would be willing to adopt that life.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:40 pmI think the immigration issue is very simple. The boarders are not being protected. People are just walking across at alarming rates. That has to be stopped. Businesses that are employing illegal should be fined. I also believe the legal process of immigration can be made easier.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:45 pmSen. Hutchison is a piece of cheap fruit > what a bigoted bitchy old hag!
October 17th, 2006 at 5:46 pm#23. no, ethics violations. at a minimum not reporting required information. Don’t forget, Reid is in the leadership of the ethics committee. Ignorance here is not an excuse.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:47 pmThanks, RUCerious. So I wonder what the price of produce and other goods really would do. And would some of that be offset by more individuals contributing to the tax base? (Assuming you naturalize even a percentage of the illegals)
October 17th, 2006 at 5:48 pmOk, paul, so what do you propose the Ethics Committee do with Reid?
October 17th, 2006 at 5:49 pmI didn’t realize the Ethics Committee had come to a determination on Reid yet.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:50 pmAre you willing?
Comment by Kevin
I would pay more if I had to, but I am not whining about illegals either.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:52 pmNo, fruit cakes work for less, so the cost is less. Cheap fruit shit. Everybody happy?
October 17th, 2006 at 5:54 pmI’m sure Paul’s point is that TP is giving Fox a hard time for what it considers a non-story but has not mention Reid’s issues. I don’t know if they have said anything about the issue. I have been out of town away from computers. It was a goooood weekend.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:55 pmox – Good point.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:55 pmIf there were a decent system of providing jobs, housing, health care and education for agricultural workers, you’d have no problem finding enough labor to harvest all our crops.
Haha. Love the use of the “Cavuto” Does FOX know we make fun of them for the? Are they idiots? Is Tony Snow gay?
Just wondering?
October 17th, 2006 at 5:56 pmDo you think it’s an issue that should be talked about?
October 17th, 2006 at 5:56 pmmaybe we ouight to be paying more for fruit. because the people who pick it should be being paid a living wage. We need to “crack down” on those who employ illegals. americans will do this work for the right price.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:59 pm#38. I would agree with everything you wrote with the exception of the “living wage.†You have a task that needs to be preformed, you set a wage that you are willing to pay for that task to be completed. If no one is willing to work for that wage you raise the wage but the government should not be a factor is this process. The labor market would do nicely
October 17th, 2006 at 6:07 pmYou think fruit is going to be costly? Wait til you see what happens to the price of meat when the meat packing industry has to go back to paying real wages, cleaning up their factories and complying with safety regulations.
October 17th, 2006 at 6:15 pmThe title of this article is probably the funniest thing I’ve seen all day. Thank you ThinkProgress!
October 17th, 2006 at 6:17 pmKevin, free-market principals have been applied in cases like this, and resulted in child labor, unsafe factory conditions, and other abuses. People will adapt to very bad conditions to earn money, and business will drop to the lowest possible wage in order to increase their profit. Around the turn of the last century we all decided that regulation was needed. It’s not likely to be better this time around without regulation.
October 17th, 2006 at 6:19 pmRepublican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho got OUTED as Gay today > lol. Zooey how does it feel to have a “Brokeback Mountain” hypocrite senator for your state?
Other GOP Senators to be outed soon:
Sen. John Thune > fem bottom boy > client of Jeff Gannon.
Sen. Norm Coleman > likes discreet male on male action.
Sen. David Vitter > likes the Gay parades in New Orleans.
October 17th, 2006 at 6:28 pmSharon Cox,
You know I am just being stupid. I like trees too, I just don’t hug them. I use them for shade, they make oxygen for me to breathe. When I was younger, I used to climb them and make forts in them. And there is nothing like growing your own tree fruit.
October 17th, 2006 at 6:30 pmRepublican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho got OUTED as Gay today
That’s only rumor. It’s probably true though. I live like a block away from his office in Northern Idaho, so maybe I should go and ask him if the allegations are true. Good for a laugh.
October 17th, 2006 at 6:33 pmSafety principals I understand. Health and safety codes are needed to protect the labor and the consumer. But the wage a person works is a personal choice. If I make X per hour and will not work for Y per hour then I don’t work for Y. Forcing an employer to pay a higher wage will only raze the price for goods and services. Hurting the people that need the goods and services at a reasonable price.
Take Wal-Mart for example. I would not work for them. They don’t pay well enough. But they have goods at a very reasonable price because they have employees that do not make a lot of money. Most of who are part-time as a second job or in retirement. No one is forcing them to work for Wal-Mart. If they want to make more money they can find a better job.
October 17th, 2006 at 6:35 pmI see the picture of the coconut on this article, where is the lime?
Sadly she is one of my Senators…..
October 17th, 2006 at 6:48 pmThe Republican Party likes low-hanging fruit.
October 17th, 2006 at 6:48 pmDo you think it’s an issue that should be talked about?
Comment by Kevin
Yes I do because it does pertain to votes and public opinion.
October 17th, 2006 at 6:50 pmKevin,
I agree this space would be better utilized to talk about Harry Reid. I am a big boy, I can handle it. If Reid did something illegal, he should pay the consequence. That applies to any public office-holder.
October 17th, 2006 at 6:51 pmIf you put a black hat with a Buckle on it; on her head…She could be the “Quaker Oats Man”
October 17th, 2006 at 6:55 pmagreed.
October 17th, 2006 at 6:56 pmI agree this space would be better utilized to talk about Harry Reid. I am a big boy, I can handle it. If Reid did something illegal, he should pay the consequence. That applies to any public office-holder.
If Reid did something illegal, he should pay the consequence. That applies to any public office-holder.
Comment by ForTruth — October 17, 2006 @ 6:51 pm
agreed.
Comment by Kevin — October 17, 2006 @ 6:56 pm
reason #2556 why we cannot win a f#cking election….
October 17th, 2006 at 7:01 pmPaul: “ThinkProgress could have used this post to vet out the ethics violations of Harry Reid.”
Hey Paul, why don’t you go over to Little Green Footballs or Johna Goldberg’s site and suggest that they talk about any one of the many repubs sliming up congress. See what kind of a response you get.
October 17th, 2006 at 7:03 pmKay Baily Hutchison, just could be the only person more stupid than bush.
October 17th, 2006 at 7:05 pm#55 except for Kevin and ForTruth… what the hell?
October 17th, 2006 at 7:09 pmBy the way. I am a fan of Fox News. They truly are ‘fair and balanced. They always have people on the left and right of every issue on there shows. They are entertaining. TP presents this piece as if they had better things to talk about. Cavuto is the business reporter. The question is obviously exploring a different aspect to the immigration issue. This is a good thing. Talking about an issue and its many perspectives.
October 17th, 2006 at 7:10 pmBy the way. I am a fan of Fox News. They truly are ‘fair and balanced. They always have people on the left and right of every issue on there shows.Comment by Kevin — October 17, 2006 @ 7:10 pm
October 17th, 2006 at 7:19 pmWow, so dumb and yet so stupid, I don’t know if there is a difference between being retarded and being stupind anymore…..
stupid obviously, ttttypo..
October 17th, 2006 at 7:21 pmKevin, if Fox is “fair and balanced,” why didn’t Chris Wallace challenge Rice the way he challenged Clinton?
October 17th, 2006 at 7:31 pmThis just in: local news stations are putting the Bilbray/Busby race at 49%/46%, with only1% saying they’re undecided.
October 17th, 2006 at 7:37 pmWallace asked what Clinton himself called a “legitimate question†and he freaked out. Rice did not get angry and crazy.
October 17th, 2006 at 7:46 pmI’m looked at Randy Rhodes site. I don’t see any conservative guest on her show. Now I only looked for the month of October. O’Reilly had Charlie Rangal on today. Yesterday he had Bob Woodward. Randy is not ‘Fair and Balanced.’
October 17th, 2006 at 7:56 pmBush signs torture bill; Americans lose essential freedom. October 17, 2006
George W. Bush got what he wanted, ostensibly as a tool in his unfocused “war on terror”: By signing into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Bush has made it legal for the C.I.A. to continue operating torture facilities in undisclosed, foreign countries, and for the writ of habeas corpus to be suspended for individuals who are designated “enemy combatants” against the U.S. (Designated by whom? That question remains unanswered.) The law also “establishes military tribunals that would allow some use of evidence obtained by coercion [that is, torture], but would give defendants access to classified evidence being used to convict them.” (Reuters)
The provisions of Bush’s new torture law mean that Americans have lost the key, constitutional right on which Anglo-American criminal law (and criminal-law procedures in true democracies in general) is founded; that’s the basic right of an individual to know why he or she is being apprehended and detained. Now, technically, as in Stalin’s Soviet Union, Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China or Pol Pot’s Cambodia, anyone labeled an “enemy combatant” – again, by whom; by Bush? – can be whisked away and never heard from again. That kind of authority, in the hands of corrupt or untruthful politicians, may or may not be an effective tool in some kind of “war on terror,” but it certainly can be a useful tool when it comes to silencing their opponents.
In an Orwellian pronouncement dutifully reported by Voice of America, the taxpayer-funded “news” service that acts as a mouthpiece for the administration, Bush said: “The United States does not torture….It is against our laws and it is against our values. By allowing the C.I.A. program to go forward, this bill is preserving a tool that has saved American lives.” Bush’s claim flies in the face of numerous reports of torture conducted by American officials at U.S. military prisons or secret locations overseas.
October 17th, 2006 at 8:40 pmRandy is not ‘Fair and Balanced.’
Comment by Kevin — October 17, 2006 @ 7:56 pm
I’d rather have journalists that are “Objective and Truthful” -after all, there is such a thing as an objective truth in almost all situations, if not all. Giving the same weight to both sides of an argument in one such situation, for the sake of being “fair and balanced”, can be misleading.
Convincing your audience that “fair and balanced” is a good approach in all circumstances is also misleading.
That FauxNews has adopted such a motto should come as no surprise: Misleading is their business.
October 17th, 2006 at 8:56 pmSen Craig gay? Wow. I bet Mrs Craig surprised/not surprised. Whichever is appropriate.
I know he hasn’t got a genuine bone in his entire body, but maybe I was just sensing he didn’t have a bone the fairer sex might enjoy.
Where did you hear that, Jay?
October 17th, 2006 at 9:06 pmSo, this is like a Repuplican tax hike.
Oh, kevin, your pathetic little Chris Wallace got thousands of emails to ask Kindasleazy a tough question. Why didn’t he ask her?
October 17th, 2006 at 10:07 pmI agree this space would be better utilized to talk about Harry Reid.
Personally, I think it would be more instructive to discuss Denny Hastert’s dirty land deal rather than Reid’s clerical error. And then we could go over how Hastert covered up for Mark Foley. Much more interesting than a small filing omission.
October 17th, 2006 at 10:32 pmren,
didn’t mean to mess with your world, lets get the Reid thing out in the open, so we can move on. Thats all. It also de-fused the dork.
October 17th, 2006 at 10:41 pmAnd that is Kay Bailey Bitchinson according to Delay.
October 17th, 2006 at 11:48 pmZooey > it’s being reported on Americablog.com and some other sites about Sen. Craig having sex with men in restrooms in DC. Several young men have come forward to out him > you will be hearing more about it soon!
October 18th, 2006 at 12:20 amFor Zooey and those interested in the Sen. Larry Craig being OUTED as Gay/Bisexual story: Go to blogActive.com for all the details of him seeking sex with men in Union Station restrooms in DC. Larry is one of those GOP closeted hypocrites!
October 18th, 2006 at 2:47 amBreaking News for today: In 1983 when 2 Congressmen were censured for affairs with Pages, Rep. Studds with a 17 year old teen boy and Rep. Crane with 17 year old teen girl, there was a 3rd Congressman who was not censured > Rep. Larry Craig who is now Senator Craig of Idaho > he supposedly was fooling around with male Pages, so now he gets OUTED over 20 years later having sex in restrooms with other men > this may become a big huge story soon!
October 18th, 2006 at 3:47 amI work (part-time) as an AV engineer at Seagate here in MN. They have a cafeteria with TVs playing CNN 24/7. One day I walked in and found someone higher up had decided to change the channel to FUX news. Instead of Lou Dobbs, it was some stripper talking about a sex scandal. One employee came up to me and asked me to change it back to CNN. “Sorry, out of my hands”. It wasn’t long before they received dozens of complaints, now it’s locked on CNN.
October 18th, 2006 at 7:00 amMark Foley does not like cheap fruits.
October 18th, 2006 at 9:02 amYou make fun of FOX by saying -
“Fox News zeroes in on the day’s most pressing issue:”
But you bring this up as one of your big issues. Why don’t you take aobut Reid?
October 18th, 2006 at 9:07 amHappy+Guy, you mean Reid’s filing error on his land deal? What about it? It’s under investigation, what do you suggest he do?
October 18th, 2006 at 9:29 amKay Bailey Hutchison – talk about an empty suit. I am embarrassed to say that she represents Texas. She pledged, two terms ago, to only serve two terms in the Senate. Gee, what a surprise. She is running for re-election again. If Republicans didn’t have hypocrisy, they’d have no values at all.
October 18th, 2006 at 10:32 am[...] Original post by Think Progress [...]
October 18th, 2006 at 10:36 amI’ve been saying this for years…in this life, you simply cannot have your cake and eat it too. Everything comes with a price — and anyone who’s not willing to pay it should probably just siddown and shaddup. There’s no way around the fact that businesses which don’t turn a profit don’t stay in business — and if you want cheap *anything* (let alone fruit), it inevitably means cheap labor to some extent. For pity’s sake, how do people think many of us are able to afford to buy so much stuff? Rightly or wrongly, this is at least in part because many of the things we buy are manufactured overseas in poorer countries where employers are under less stringent requirements regarding such things as wages and occupational safety.
With regard to food, especially since we live in a large country where there is a lot of relatively fertile land, the American agricultural industry faces a particular challenge. Let’s face it…people who are looking to make the big bucks usually don’t go into agriculture! Given that food is a necessity and readily available, they’re not entirely at liberty to set prices however they see fit the way that other kinds of companies can and do — which means that it’s not as easy for them to turn a profit or to increase profits. One way in which some have chosen to cut corners and increase profits is by hiring illegal immigrants — if there weren’t a market for them, there would be no motivation for illegal immigrants to come here. Unethical, yes — illegal, yes — but at the same time, aren’t the people who run our agricultural businesses entitled to aspire to a better life for themselves and their families just like anyone else int his country? When prices for other commodities rise faster than their profits (gasoline leaps to mind, especially these days), should they simply give up and accept that they’re never really going to catch up or keep up?
Some people would argue that such defeatism is not the American Way, but this also raises an uncomfortable question which a lot of people are disinclined to confront but which applies across all kinds of businesses — how much profit does someone need to turn before they’re willing to be satisfied, especially in a society which promotes consumption as heavily as ours does? At what point are people willing to put people ahead of profits — or are they willing to do it at all? It’s a question which applies equally well to the consumer as well as the business owner…is someone who wants to eliminate the problem of illegal immigration willing to bite the bullet and potentially pay higher prices in order to do it, or will they only complain? This is a complex problem for which there is no simple solution. The older I get, the more convinced I am that one of my favorite authors (the late Douglas Adams) was absolutely right when he said that life is like a piece of badly-hung wallpaper — push a bubble down in one place, and it just pops up somewhere else.
October 18th, 2006 at 11:45 amHow on earth did we ever have food production in the US before illegal aliens??? Raise the prices of fruit and veggies, pay legal farm workers more….voila…soon, you’d have legals willing to earn the additional cash.
October 18th, 2006 at 12:08 pm*soda shoots out of noses!*
Man… The fox question mark subtitle gang gets more amusing every day…
October 18th, 2006 at 12:13 pmVery true. And yet somehow I can still find reasonably priced (and sometimes quite cheap) fruit and veggies at my local farmer’s market where the only employees are the farmers and their families. How does that work now that a giant corporation — let’s say Green Giant — can’t find a way to pay their farmers enough so they can pay their employees a livable wage to bring me cheap corn, but my local organic farmer, although not rich by any stretch, CAN do it and still makes a living and, most importantly, enjoys his work? And trust me, my local farmer’s corn tastes much better.
Corporate Greed. Gotta Love It!
October 18th, 2006 at 12:19 pmI personally prefer combining cutting the salaries of CEOs and other chief officers and upper management with the small rise in prices of fruit and veggies, but that’s just me.
Additionally, a better and more stream-lined seasonal guest worker program for agriculture is needed. Nobody is saying these seasonal workers need $40K plus benefits and also amnesty, but minimum wage and seasonal legal status would be quite fair.
I can’t believe MA had a half-way intelligent post. What’s the temperature of hell right now?
October 18th, 2006 at 12:24 pmWhat is the big deal? It is the hypocrisy of this website. The total one sidedness. Reid was in a shady land deal with mobsters. He had the land turned from a residential to commercial zone and made a $1,100,000 from the deal. If he was a Republican, this website would have a new headline every 5 minutes like it did with Foley. But is it a topic here?
Crickets . . . . .
October 18th, 2006 at 4:02 pmThis is no surprise, as Fox is the media arm of the GOP, and the GOP represents the wealthy elite who run this country. And the last thing that American business wants is a crackdown on illegal labor, because it would put big-time upward pressure on wages. Hence Fox News is trying to gradually indoctrinate the faithful into believing that unrestricted immigration is in their best interests, too.
Bushian loyalty is no virtue–it’s the loyalty of thieves
October 18th, 2006 at 8:12 pmGuess you lefties are not going to answer that one. Sure, I will get a stupid comment eventualy. But still no real answer. When is TP going to bring up anything wrong with a Democrat? The party of hypocracy.
KKK Byrd
Drunken Murderer Kennedy
Mobster Reid
Any one of these guys was a Republican and you would not shut up until they left office. Hypocrites.
October 19th, 2006 at 3:43 pm