A false Huffington Post claim that Fox Business Network’s Eric Bolling called the Muppets “communist” quickly spread to other news and entertainment outlets on Dec. 5. A segment on the latest Muppet villain, oil tycoon Tex Richman, was quickly twisted by the left into an attack on Fox and showed where news organizations and comedy shows get their information.
In the movie, the Muppets are out to save their studio and prevent Richman from destroying it to drill for oil. “Follow the Money” host Bolling said at the end of his segment, “We’re teaching our kids class warfare. What are we, communist China?” Apparently this expression of exasperation caused HuffPo to say he went “McCarthy” on the movie.
Conan claimed that Bolling called the Muppets communist, “That’s what he said about the new Muppet movie. Left-wing communist propaganda.” Not exactly, Conan, he just said liberals are trying to brainwash children against capitalism. The liberal elites in Hollywood make the rich oil man a sinister capitalist and happily portray the rich as evil.
Other news outlets jumped on the story that the Muppets are communist and went after Fox Business making this claim. The Washington Post picked up on the story and wrote an article about “communist Muppet brainwashing” without actually looking at the facts.
The Guardian, along with Slate, Hollywood Reporter, and other outlets continued the discussion of communist Muppets. Jon Stewart even included in his Moment of Zen Andrea Tantaros of Fox Business discussion of the Muppets later in the same segment.
In the original segment, Media Research Center Vice President Dan Gainor said that the spin of the Muppet movie wasn’t unusual for Hollywood. “They've been doing it for decades. Hollywood, the left, the media, they hate the oil industry,” he said.” “They hate corporate America. And so you'll see all these movies attacking it, whether it was 'Cars 2,' which was another kids' movie, the George Clooney movie 'Syriana,' 'There Will Be Blood,' all these movies attacking the oil industry, none of them reminding people what oil means for most people: fuel to light a hospital, heat your home, fuel an ambulance to get you to the hospital if you need that. And they don't want to tell that story.”
