It has come to my attention repeatedly that by providing anchor chairs to partisan wonks such as Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity that Fox News has some problems with maintaining even a passing appearance of being fair or balanced in regards to political issues. Somebody like Brit Hume, the straight-man of Fox News lending a much less shrill neo-con flavor to the Fox lineup, should be above this sort of thing:

…it turns out that FDR himself planned to include private investment accounts in the Social Security program when he proposed it. In a written statement to Congress in 1935, Roosevelt said that any Social Security plans should include, ‘Voluntary contributory annuities, by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age,’ adding that government funding, ‘ought to ultimately be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans.’

This is a gross distortion of the facts. It’s a gross distortion of rather easily-checked facts, as the United States of America has a long and distinguished record of keeping track of just about every little thing a sitting President has to say about just about anything. Here’s what Roosevelt actually had to say, context included:

In the important field of security for our old people, it seems necessary to adopt three principles: First, non-contributory old-age pensions for those who are now too old to build up their own insurance. It is, of course, clear that for perhaps thirty years to come funds will have to be provided by the States and the Federal Government to meet these pensions. Second, compulsory contributory annuities which in time will establish a self-supporting system for those now young and for future generations. Third, voluntary contributory annuities by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age. It is proposed that the Federal Government assume one-half of the cost of the old-age pension plan, which ought ultimately to be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans.

There are three possibilities I can think of for why Brit Hume said what he did that I can think of:

1. Brit Hume is not a journalist, as purported in his official Fox News Bio, and was reading the teleprompter without any prior preparation or though processes
2. Brit Hume was involved on at least a cursory level with the preparation of this report, but lacked the intellectual capacity to recognize FDR‘s careful use of the terms “pension” as opposed to “annuity,” or did not understand what these terms mean, or was otherwise incapable of recognizing his error
3. Brit Hume intentionally manipulated the 1935 quote to fit some agenda, likely that of encouraging Social Security privatization

In the first case, this is a problem that can be solved by simply redacting his bio; he isn’t a journalist, he’s just a talking head. In the second case, he should be fired; incompetence of this magnitude is inexcusable when fulfilling as important a role in informing this nation’s electorate. In the third case, Fox should extend a public apology in prime time, and Hume should commit seppuku; there is honor in death.