Nov 29
Nov
29
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 3:46 pm
In the past few weeks there has been a flurry of activity on Capitol Hill to dump truckloads of cash on ailing industries. Insurance companies, banks and financial services, mortgage lenders, and auto makers are all heading for Washington with their hands out. But who is the real beneficiary? Keep this in mind when you [...]
Nov 28
Nov
28
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 1:00 pm
The question of Rupert Murdoch’s relationship with his top-rated TV blowhard, Bill O’Reilly, has come up before. Now, courtesy of Michael Calderone at Politico, an excerpt from Michael Wolff’s upcoming biography of Murdoch is asserting that: “It is not just Murdoch (and everybody else at News Corp.’s highest levels) who absolutely despises Bill O’Reilly, the [...]
Nov 26
Nov
26
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 11:33 am
Paul Bond, writing for Reuters, has produced an outstanding object lesson in how NOT to write responsible journalism. His article, that has appeared in the Washington Post, the Hollywood Reporter, and many other Reuters affiliates, is filled with novice mistakes – at least I hope they’re mistakes. Bond’s very first sentence asserts that the end [...]
Nov 25
Nov
25
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 12:13 pm
The lines between Fox News and the Republican National Committee just keep getting blurrier. The latest evidence that this media giant is in bed with the political party came last night on Hannity and ???. Dick Morris was the guest and he made an overt solicitation for donations to the GOPtrust, a group that bills [...]
Nov 24
Nov
24
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 12:51 pm
After twelve years, Fox News “liberal” Alan Colmes has announced that he is leaving his TV perch, the “Hannity And Not Hannity Show.” Many viewers are now asking themselves, “Alan who?” Colmes was never a particularly effective foil for Hannity. He was more like Ed McMahon, taking the show into and out of commercial breaks. [...]
Nov 23
Nov
23
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 12:28 pm
Mark Halperin is a political analyst for Time Magazine and runs “The Page,” a political website, for Time.com. Prior to that he was the political director for ABC News for ten years. It’s important to know this about him when considering what he said at a conference on the recently concluded election this past week [...]
Nov 21
Nov
21
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 10:03 pm
If there is a more disingenuous hypocrite in American media, I swear, I can’t think of who it might be. Glenn Beck, who is twiddling his thumbs until his new show premieres on Fox News, tells this story of a recent encounter he had with a truck driver at a Wendy’s Restaurant. Here is the [...]
Nov 21
Nov
21
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 2:54 pm
The signature slogan for the 2008 campaign season was a single word that can spark a thousand interpretations: CHANGE! [It narrowly beat out "Maverick" and "You Betcha"] And change there will be. This week, something happened in the House of Representatives that is almost unheard of. The sacred principle of seniority was set aside when [...]
Nov 20
Nov
20
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 6:44 pm
“Get ready for an unprecedented government assault upon the First Amendment. President Obama will be at the heart of it.” These are the words that open an article in the ultra-rightist Human Events by notorious kook, Jack Thompson (more on him later). The article is another in a series of hysterical rants from conservative Chicken [...]
Nov 19
Nov
19
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 4:56 pm
The presidential election was a boon for the news business, especially cable TV news. All three players boosted their year-ago numbers, but it was not an equal opportunity affair. Network Prev Week +/- Prev Year +/- Fox -30 +40 CNN -58 +36 MSNBC +40 +143 Once again, MSNBC delivered far stronger growth numbers than any [...]
Nov 19
Nov
19
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 12:35 pm
What is it with these Fox News contributors who are incapable of repressing their fantasies of violence against Barack Obama? This morning on the Live Desk, a discussion on Obama’s emerging cabinet led to another disturbing and repulsive threat directed at the President-elect. Eric Metaxas, an author of (get this) children’s books, was making the [...]
Nov 18
Nov
18
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 7:08 pm
In Bob Dylan’s classic “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” he makes the counter-intuitive observation that “There’s no success like failure.” Well, much of the establishment of America’s politics and press have taken that to heart. The latest example is that of the Senate Democrats who have opted to let Sen. Joe Lieberman get away with political [...]
Nov 17
Nov
17
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 12:48 pm
In a New York Times column today by Richard Perez-Pena, the case is made that the New York Post’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, has gone soft on Barack Obama and liberals in general. The evidence cited for this ideological tectonic shift is a shallow observation that the Post has not published its usual brand of slander [...]
Nov 14
Nov
14
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 4:51 pm
In an upcoming article in the National Review, Rich Lowry interviews John McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis. Much of the interview deals with the handling of Sarah Palin, the VP candidate who Lowry says… “…was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. [Her TV appearance] sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living [...]
Nov 12
Nov
12
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 3:44 pm
Let’s face it – Change is scary. America now has a new President-elect swept to victory on a wave of change. Those on the winning side are anxious to implement a new agenda, but are also wary of the movement being diluted by political cowardice. The losers, however, are struggling to retain their composure as [...]
Nov 11
Nov
11
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 5:20 pm
With the election over, prognostications about the new administration of Barack Obama, and the fate of the losers, began in earnest. Almost simultaneously, speculation arose concerning the direction and prospects for the media in general, and the cable news networks in particular. The conventional wisdom (always conventional, rarely wise) is that Fox News will thrive [...]
Nov 07
Nov
07
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 1:41 pm
Bloggers on Free Republic, AKA Freepers, are mad as Hell and they aren’t going to take it any more. The treatment of Sarah Palin by Fox reporter Carl Cameron and others has incensed them to the point where they are vowing never to watch again. I’ve compiled some of the comments from the site for [...]
Nov 07
Nov
07
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 10:17 am
Just in case anyone still thinks that Fox News is merely an overtly biased right-wing mouthpiece for Republican issues and people, here’s a story of what trafficking in hate and lies can lead to in the real world: “The white co-owner of a Palm Beach restaurant told her black employees they’d be fired if they [...]
Nov 06
Nov
06
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 3:43 pm
In its quarterly earnings report released yesterday, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation reported a net income decline of 30 percent: “Fiscal 2009 profit will drop in the ‘low to mid teens’ in percentage terms, New York-based News Corp. said on a conference call yesterday after U.S. markets closed, citing falling advertising sales and the stronger dollar. [...]
Nov 06
Nov
06
2008
Posted by: Mark @ 1:10 am
It’s been less than 24 hours and already the wheels are coming off of Sarah Palin’s wagon. Fox News’ Campaign Carl Cameron is reporting what those of us with a functioning cerebral cortex already knew: Sarah Palin is an idiot. Cameron’s sources with the McCain campaign are leaking tales of infighting between the Palin and [...]
