Here We Go Again: Fox News’ War On Christmas Lunacy Returns

It happens every year at this time. Chestnuts roast over open fires; Jack Frost nips at your nose; and Fox News declares that there is a “War on Christmas” that only they can see.

Fox News War on Christmas

Of all the phony stories that Fox News can invent, this is one of the silliest. This a nation in which a sizable majority is Christian. And many who are not also celebrate the Christmas holiday out of convenience. It is a national holiday for which most people, Christian or not, get the day off of work. Every store in America features Christmas sales with products designed for the holiday. Christmas decorations adorn homes, restaurants, offices, lampposts, and anything else that tinsel can be wrapped around. And amid this all-consuming, orgy of Candy Cane colors and Bing Crosby tunes, Fox News still thinks that Christmas is facing some sort of hostile threat.

Never mind that there is good reason for many Americans to feel slighted by the rampant yuletiding going on all around them. Jews don’t get a national holiday. There are no Muslim films scheduled to run non-stop for eight weeks on thirty different TV channels. Hindus and Buddhists and even Unitarians have to fend for themselves. And don’t even bring up atheists.

Nevertheless, the War on Christmas is something that seems to dominate the Fox News Channel every year despite having no evidence that any war is in progress, except against all of the non-Christians. And if it weren’t enough that Fox is once again ranting over a non-existent war, take alook at what else they are railing about as this holiday season commences:

Fox News Doomsday

Yep, that’s a real thing. “Countdown to Doomsday.” Fox News Reporting is covering this vital subject beginning this Wednesday. They are outraged over a made up war on Christmas, but they are producing specials about an expired Mayan calendar. They are committing their awesome journalistic assets to uncover the truth about an alleged Mayan prediction of the demise of planet Earth. Mark my words, brothers and sisters, Fox will get to the bottom of this and declare it to be an ancient hoax. They will firmly denounce any possibility that a civilization from the past can accurately prophesy the end of the world in an apocalyptic holocaust.

Oh wait a minute. I guess there is one ancient civilization’s prophesy of an apocalyptic holocaust with which Fox concurs. And that’s the one that is at war with … someone, maybe the Mayans.

One Term And Out: Allen West Finally Concedes Loss

Allen West (R-Whackjob), has finally given up his quixotic legal charades and conceded to Congressman-elect Patrick Murphy of Florida.

Allen West

In a rambling whine to the press, West complained that the election was fraught with corruption and wrapped his concession in a lame excuse, saying…

“Our legal team does not believe there are enough over-counted, undercounted or fraudulent votes to change the outcome of the election.”

Getting out our West-to-English dictionary reveals that the translation is: “We didn’t work hard enough on getting out our fraudulent vote.”

There is already much speculation on what West will do next. After being tossed out of the Army (and nearly court martialed) for malfeasance while serving in Iraq, and then being tossed out of congress for being a nut case who called his Democratic colleagues communists, his prospects are fairly narrow. What it comes down to is either a gig at Fox News or a talk radio show. He could also try a congressional comeback in a different district, or take up residency at a think tank. Ordinarily a think tank job would require being able to think, but that wouldn’t be the case for any of the right-wing organizations that would consider West.

Whatever West may chose to do in future, at least he will be unable to cast votes for the loony legislation that the Tea Party caucus in the House has been peddling. Perhaps he could join up with his fellow losers (Joe Walsh, Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, Linda McMahon, etc.) and form a support group for delusional ex-candidates.

MSNBC’s Primetime Trounces Fox News Since Election Day: Maddow And O’Donnell Soar

Fox News is continuing to show weakness in its primetime schedule in the wake of President Obama’s reelection. In the eight days since election day MSNBC’s average audience for the key 25-54 year old demographic drew about 8% more viewers than Fox. [Source: TVNewser, weekday Nielsen ratings from 11/7-11/16]

MSNBC-Fox Chart

Particularly impressive were the results of the two powerhouse programs on the MSNBC lineup: Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell. Maddow won seven of the eight days against her Fox competition, Sean Hannity. For the 8-day run Maddow beat Hannity by 18% and her 544k average was second to only Bill O’Reilly in all of cable news. O’Donnell won all eight days against Fox’s Greta Van Susteren. His margin of victory over Van Susteren was 17% for the eight days.

This can no longer be considered a temporary blip on the ratings scales. With two weeks having elapsed, the MSNBC programs are showing steady strength against competition that was once thought insurmountable. Only Bill O’Reilly is holding his top position for Fox in primetime. This may indicate that Sean Hannity is wearing thin with viewers who are likely disappointed with his overly confident (and harebrained) assurances that all the polls were wrong and that Mitt Romney would emerge victorious.


Hannity is perhaps the most stridently partisan host on the Fox News network and frequently augments his analysis with that of the pundit world’s most notorious nutcase, Dick Morris. As for Van Susteren, she never had the cult-like following of her Fox comrades, but she has been closely associated with her good friend (and client of her husband), Sarah Palin. That association may also have become a drag on the ratings of her show. Hannity has been with Fox since its launch and is still a top-rated radio talker. Van Susteren, on the other hand, had better start to show some improvement or her time slot will go to daytimer Megyn Kelly, a Roger Ailes favorite whose contract is expiring next year and likely wants to move to primetime.

MSNBC has an opportunity here to expand on the progress they have made in the past two weeks. They need a stronger lead-in to the primetime block. Ed Schultz has been doing OK, but he has not kept up with his colleagues. It might be a good idea to move both Maddow and O’Donnell up one hour, find an edgy, provocative host(s) for the 10pm slot (Harry Shearer & Co.?), and give Schultz the Hardball rerun at 7pm (Harderball?). But one thing is for sure, Fox will not be sitting this out. If MSNBC doesn’t build on their momentum, Fox will dial up the heat and retake the lead they’ve had for the past decade. Hopefully MSNBC recognizes the short window they have to make these gains permanent and jump through it.

Fox Nation vs. Reality: The White House Did Not Edit CIA Talking Points

Earning a place at the top of the Fox Nation web site this morning is story that complies perfectly with the non-existent journalistic standards of Fox News. The article cites the uber-conservative blog FreeBeacon and features the headline “White House Deleted Al Qaeda From CIA Talking Points.”

Get the New eBook Fox Nation vs. Reality from Amazon.com.
Fox Nation

As usual, the Fox Nationalists only got one thing wrong with their story: the whole story. As it turns out, there is no evidence that the White House deleted Al Qaeda from the CIA talking points. What’s more, there is nothing in the article that affirms the falsehood in the headline.

This story hinges on the latest effort by the right and Fox News to malign President Obama and to politicize the tragic deaths of Americans in Benghazi, Libya. There has been a well coordinated smear campaign seeking to blame Obama not only for attacks perpetrated by terrorists, but also for a cover-up of information about those attacks. The GOP is also exploiting the affair to derail the possible appointment of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to be the next Secretary of State.

However, the partisan outrage has been woefully short of any substance. The right has been clamoring for answers from the White House, but when they get the answers they pretend that they didn’t hear anything. The official White House response from Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor, stated clearly that…

“This question came up as to whether the White House had edited Susan Rice’s points and the points that were provided to Congress and the administration — the only edit that was made to those points by the White House, and was also made by the State Department, was to change the word “consulate” to “diplomatic facility” since the facility in Benghazi had not — was not formally a consulate. Other than that, we worked off of the points that were provided by the intelligence community.”


And if that weren’t clear enough, recent testimony by Gen. Petraeus backed up the White House’s version of events in closed-door testimony before congress. Rep. Peter King (R-NY), a harsh critic of the President, spoke with reporters after the testimony and said that Gen. Petraeus told the committee that the CIA approved the talking points after they were edited and said it was “Okay for it to go.” When asked if he was upset about Al Qaeda being removed, he said that he was not, according to King.

Ordinarily that would suffice to quell speculation about some far-ranging conspiracy to murder American diplomats and sweep the scandal under the rug. But Fox News was never interested in the facts in the first place. They have latched unto this invented controversy to damage the President and they don’t intend to let go merely because the truth contradicts their narrative.

Rupert Murdoch Tweets His Blatant Anti-Semitism

If you’ve ever wondered where Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and other News Corp properties get their tone of division and hatred, you need look no further than the corporation’s head, Rupert Murdoch. On Saturday Murdoch sought to express his disagreement with coverage of the escalating violence in Israel. But his tweets on the subject reveal more about him than anything else.

Rupert Murdoch

Murdoch began by criticizing CNN and the Associated Press for what he called “bias to the point of embarrassment.” It was difficult to ascertain what he meant because he offered no examples of the alleged bias. However, he later seemed to make clear what he regarded as the problem when he tweeted his complaint that the “Jewish owned press [is] so consistently anti-Israel.”

The outrageous offensiveness of that remark is its obvious link to derogatory, anti-Semitic assertions that the media is run by Jews. It’s a demonstrably false assertion that is commonly used by hate groups and was exploited to tragic effect in Nazi Germany. For Murdoch to use this sort of language against his competitors is further evidence that he is unfit to lead an international news enterprise.

In between the tweets mentioned above, Murdoch inserted an equally offensive tweet aimed at President Obama wherein he attributed the shelling of Israel to Obama’s “friends” in Egypt. For Murdoch to suggest that the Hamas terrorists (who, by the way, are not in Egypt) are friends of the President goes far beyond what can be considered civil discourse. Murdoch is effectively accusing Obama of complicity with the attacks on Israel. That is the sort of repulsive and delusional opinion one would expect to hear at a KKK rally.

There are some who believe that Murdoch has been a stalwart defender of Israel, however, there is a big difference between pro-Israel and pro-Jewish. Murdoch, like many neo-con right-wingers, is only supportive of Israel in connection with the right’s strident Islamophobia. They hate Muslims so much that they embrace Israel to the extent that they can exploit its conflicts with the Muslim world, and particularly Iran, with whom they are itching to go to war. But there is nothing remotely pro-Jewish about that stance. It is similar to the apocalyptic Christians who pretend to support Jews, but only because they are a necessary component of the End Times prophesies, after which they will burn in Hell.

On Sunday morning Murdoch became aware of the criticism of his tweets and posted another that entirely missed the point saying: “Jewish owned press” have been sternly criticised, suggesting link to Jewish reporters. Don’t see this, but apologise unreservedly.

There are two glaring problems with that absurd attempt at a public relations fix. First, the criticism had nothing to do with reporters, but with his reference to Jewish “owners” of the media. Secondly, how can he claim to “apologise unreservedly” when he admits that he doesn’t see any reason for the criticism? It is an utterly disingenuous apology that doesn’t even address the insult.

Rupert Murdoch is a vile man filled with hatred and greed. He should do himself, his business, and the world a favor by stepping down as CEO and Chairman of News Corp and fade ignobly into history.

[Reprise] The REAL Job Creators: Share This Infographic To Undo GOP Fallacy

With the presidential election behind us, the public discourse turns once again to more substantive matters, first of which is the fearful prospect of the so-called “fiscal cliff.” Setting aside the fact that the cliff itself is a figment of media imagination, it is nevertheless necessary for congress to address tax policy.

As the debate heats up in advance of the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, conservatives are trotting out their tired rhetoric about the risk of allowing tax cuts for the rich to expire and the allegedly detrimental impact it would have on what they call job creators. However, they are deliberately distorting facts in order to benefit their wealthy patrons. Last year I published an analysis of the right-wing effort to confuse the issue along with an infographic that laid out the case for who the real job creators are. This seems like a good time to re-publish it and direct credit for creating jobs to those who actually deserve it.


Occupy Messaging: Who Are The Real Job Creators?

December 13, 2011

For too long now, right-wing propagandists like Frank Luntz have been manipulating language to distort the real issues that impact so many lives of American citizens. They engage in dishonest wordcraft that disguises their true meaning in order to shape public opinion and deceive voters. It’s time to counter that rhetorical offensive by restoring definitions that actually reflect reality.

One of the most recent and insidious examples of this practice is the conservative effort to replace references to “the rich” with the phrase “job creators.” It is of no interest to these hacks that no evidence exists to validate the claim. In fact, NPR’s congressional reporter, Tamara Keith, asked members of congress and representatives of conservative business groups to refer her to business people who could substantiate the assertion that tax cuts for the wealthy would induce them to increase hiring. They were unable to come up with a single name or example to affirm their half-baked theory. However, Keith found several examples of her own that utterly refuted it. This caused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to note that “Millionaire job creators are like unicorns. They are impossible to find and don’t exist.”

The agenda that Republicans have adopted has literally no popular constituency. Every poll taken on the subject reveals that majorities of Americans (including majorities of Republicans) favor increasing taxes on the rich. Even polls of the rich show that they believe that they are not presently sharing the sacrifice required to restore the nation’s economic health. An independent group of Patriotic Millionaires released a video beseeching Congress to raise their taxes.

So the next time you hear some GOP flunky whining about the plight of the rich whose only desire is to be unburdened from the shackles of what are the lowest taxes in decades, remember that they have not, and cannot, certify any claim that lower taxes will spur hiring. In fact, the evidence is all to the contrary. And whenever possible, we need to recapture the phrase “job creators” and use it in a manner that is more in line with reality. Here is a handy, shareable chart that illustrates who the real job creators are:

(click to view larger)
Job Creators


Some conservatives are beginning to admit that lavishing benefits on those who are already wealthy does nothing to stimulate the economy. Bill Kristol recently said that “It won’t kill the country if Republicans raise taxes a little bit on millionaires.” Ben Stein, with some apparent reluctance, told Gretchen Carlson that “With all due respect to Fox…” “We’re going to have to raise taxes on very, very rich people.”

This is the beginning of the wall crumbling down. The right knows that they cannot continue to be seen as only fighting for the welfare of the rich. They know that they have already lost this argument and that now it is only a matter of finding a way to concede without losing face (or Tea Party support).

CEO Roger Ailes Says That Fox News “Has No Agenda”

Roger AilesDemonstrating that a fish stinks from the head, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes made some remarkably dishonest remarks in an interview with TVNewser’s Chris Ariens. Ailes was asked how he thought the next four years of the Obama administration would play out. He said…

“It’s day to day for us. We don’t — I know no one believes it — we have no agenda. If he runs into a burning building tomorrow and saves four kids, he’s gonna be the biggest goddamn hero Fox News ever saw. But if he leaves four guys behind on the battlefield but can’t explain it, then he’s gonna have a problem with Fox News.”

This is pretty good evidence that the liars on Fox News have taken their cues from the boss. The reason they are so comfortable making outrageous statements that are utterly devoid of factual basis is that Ailes has communicated clearly that it’s acceptable and he’s shown them how it’s done.

The notion that Fox News has no agenda is a fallacy that no one with a functioning brain would give credence. Even the most ardent conservatives recognize the partisan bias exercised at Fox, and they exploit it to their advantage. Sarah Palin once counseled a troubled GOP senate candidate to “Speak through Fox News.” Ailes himself has described his vision of Fox saying “I see this as the Alamo. If I just had somebody who was willing to sit on the other side of the camera until the last shot is fired, we’d be fine.” The network worked feverishly to oppose President Obama’s first term and reelection.

Ailes’ suggestion that he would praise the President if he did something worthy is provably false. In the days that followed the killing of Osama Bin Laden, Fox News ran numerous stories suggesting that the mission was unlawful. Their coverage of the same issue during the presidential campaign portrayed Obama, not as a heroic and decisive leader, but as an egotistical braggart. It’s likely that Fox would handle a story about Obama saving children from a burning building in the same disparaging manner. And even though Obama did not leave “four guys behind on the battlefield,” an obvious reference to Benghazi, Ailes and Fox still characterize the story that way.

Ailes likes to pretend that he’s a “fair and balanced” journalist. But the assertion that he has no agenda is belied by what actually gets on the air. A couple of years ago he told the conservative National Review that he saw himself as merely a contrarian. “To be honest with you,” he said, “if all the media was tipped to the right, I’d be the biggest liberal in New York.” But he had plenty of opportunity to be contrary after 9/11 when the rest of the media was propping up George Bush, whose administration had failed to prevent the attack. He could have been a big liberal in 2003 when the rest of the media was jumping on Bush’s bandwagon for an unjustified and illegal war with Iraq.

Nope. Ailes is as he has always been: an unrepentant arch-conservative activist running a pseudo-news enterprise on behalf of a starkly right-wing agenda.

YOU’RE FIRED! Mitt Romney To Replace Donald Trump On NBC’s “The Apprentice”

NBC: Mitt Romney To Replace Donald Trump On NBC’s “The Apprentice”
[New York, NY, November, 15, 2012] NBC Entertainment announced this afternoon that the upcoming season of The Apprentice will feature former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the role of the corporate boss previously played by Donald Trump.

The Apprentice - with Mitt Romney

Eric Fehrnstrom, the newly appointed NBC Entertainment president of alternative and late-night programming, praised Romney’s business background and experience at Bain Capital as an ideal prerequisite for the corporate-themed reality game show.

“The Governor has a great deal of business experience,” Fehrnstrom said, “And he was in a position to evaluate employee performance and make decisions regarding their future. That’s a core function of the Trump role on Apprentice that Mitt will be assuming.” For his part, Mr. Romney reminded reporters that his remarks during the campaign that he “likes to fire people” make him the perfect successor to adopt Mr. Trump’s signature phrase, “You’re fired.”

At Bain Capital, Romney was indeed closely involved with establishing whether or not businesses were fit for continued investment or were better subjects for liquidation and bankruptcy. And Romney is no stranger to terminating people on a broad scale due to outsourcing their jobs to foreign countries or closing domestic plants.

NBC appreciates Mr.Trump’s contributions to the Apprentice over the years, however, his usefulness may have waned. The program debuted twelve seasons ago in 7th place with more than twenty million viewers. The audience has declined significantly in every subsequent season with last year’s audience dwindling to just seven million and a ranking of 73rd in the ratings. With that downward trend NBC decided that it was time to freshen the franchise.

Programming executives at NBC have reiterated their respect for Mr. Trump. They deny rumors that his departure had anything to do with his declining reputation amongst the American public due to his political activities and birtherism. NBC does not believe that Mr. Trump’s pursuit of evidence that President Obama was not born in the United States has anything to do with The Apprentice’s ratings downfall. Likewise, they do not regard his allegations that the President is a Muslim, a socialist, and a poor student, as contributing to the program’s loss of viewers.

Mr. Trump is well known for his outspoken personality and NBC has always regarded that as an asset, even after the election when he tweeted that, due to the President’s reelection, “We should have a revolution in this country!” Neither was NBC concerned when Trump was universally ridiculed for what he promoted as “very big news” but turned out to be a clownish challenge to donate $5 million to charity in exchange for Obama’s college transcripts.

More recently Trump engaged in a public argument with NBC News anchor, Brian Williams. Responding to Trump’s post-election call for revolution, Williams said that he “has driven well past the last exit to relevance and peered into something closer to irresponsible here.” Trump fired back at the top-rated news anchor saying that “his newscast has become totally boring,” and that “Williams was never a smart guy.” According to NBC insiders, this slanderous insult to a top NBC asset also had nothing to do with Trump’s departure.

Nevertheless, NBC still wishes Mr. Trump well in his future ventures, insisting that none of the aforementioned controversies contributed to the decision to fire television’s most famous pink-slipper. NBC is confidant that he will succeed with his many business activities, including his lucrative marketing deal with Macy’s. Although a petition demanding that Macy’s sever their relationship with Trump has acquired more than 500,000 600,000 signatures, NBC believes that they will continue to be mutually beneficial.

The all new Apprentice with Mitt Romney will debut next year and is expected to return with more of the drama, humor, and personal struggles for excellence that have made the program a hit for so many years. The new star is anxious to assume the role of a fake corporate bully who likes to fire people and has some ideas of his own to bring to the show. For instance, some of the contestants may be voted off to China when they fail to perform their assigned duties. With ideas like these, and other innovations yet to be revealed, the Apprentice is certain to surprise and entertain audiences for many years to come.

Bill O’Reilly Inadvertently Tells The Truth About Fox News Promoting Ideology

Last night Bill O’Reilly engaged in a particularly obtuse and angst-ridden defense of himself. His pique was inflamed by critics who brought attention to the commentary he gave on election night when he slammed voters who “want stuff” and seemed nostalgic for a majority white, “traditional America.”

O’Reilly: “The white establishment is now the minority. And the voters, many of them, feel that the economic system is stacked against them and they want stuff. You are going to see a tremendous Hispanic vote for President Obama. Overwhelming black vote for President Obama. And women will probably break President Obama’s way. People feel that they are entitled to things and which candidate, between the two, is going to give them things? The demographics are changing. It’s not a traditional America anymore.”

That’s fairly typical for an O’Reilly rant and isn’t newsworthy in and of itself. what’s interesting is that he had the gall to wrap this screed in an attack on left-wing critics who merely reported what he said. This led to him saying even more things for which he surely will be remembered. For instance:

O’Reilly: “There are entire media operations that exist solely to promote ideology.”

Bill O'Reilly - Ideology

Indeed there are. And O’Reilly should know. He is the kingpin host for just such an operation. Fox News was built from scratch to promote the ideology of a lizardly old Australian and is run by the former media guru to Richard Nixon and the Republican Party. There was never any intent for Fox to be anything other than a conservative propaganda machine. So this makes O’Reilly’s remarks drip with irony. And it isn’t the first time he has obliviously wandered off the reservation. A few years ago he was candid enough to make this observation:

O’Reilly: “There are few journalistic standards left these days, as we’ve proven on this broadcast again and again.”

Bill O'Reilly - Journalistic Standards

Yes, bill, you have certainly proven that many times over. I can’t think of another program that proves it more conclusively.

O’Reilly’s homage to a bygone era of a “traditional” nation that was predominately white and never asked for handouts is remarkably similar to Mitt Romney’s vision of an America where 47% of the people are moochers who won’t take responsibility for themselves. Romney even reiterated that thought post-election when explaining to his fleeced donors that he lost because “the President’s campaign focused on giving targeted groups a big gift.” To Romney, the race was determined by loafers whose votes could be bought by promises of federal swag – inconsequential things like health care and food. It’s funny that Romney neglected to note that his own campaign also promised big gifts to targeted voters, except the voters he targeted were wealthy folks who yearned for lower taxes and federal subsidies.

I suppose we should be grateful that O’Reilly has come forward to admit the existence of ideological media enterprises. If only he knew what he was actually talking about and recognized his own complicity for slinging the most biased hunks of pseudo-journalistic gruel ever broadcast.

Dick Morris Hopes People Aren’t Mad At Him For Lying About The Election

The undisputed champion of political idiocy is still Dick Morris of Fox News. In a play to solidify his standing, Morris visited with Sean Hannity to commiserate about their monumentally incompetent analysis of the presidential election. Attempting to defend his fatally flawed punditry, Morris told Hannity…

“Sean, I hope people aren’t mad at me about it … I spoke about what I believed and I think that there was a period of time when the Romney campaign was falling apart, people were not optimistic, nobody thought there was a chance of victory and I felt that it was my duty at that point to go out and say what I said.”

So Morris abandoned all the reality-based data that had driven Mitt Romney’s campaign into despondency in order to raise their spirits and to deceive the public into believing that Romney still had a chance to pull it out, contrary to what the actual numbers said in the most credible surveys, including those within the campaign. And now conservatives wonder how they could have been caught so off-guard by Romney’s decisive loss. It wasn’t skewed polling. It was the fact that they were deliberately lied to.

Dick MorrisThis shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with Morris’ prior work. This is the guy who said that Bill Clinton was going to vote for Romney. This is the guy who said that the Todd Akin “legitimate rape” controversy was a “big plus” for Romney. And most significantly, this is the guy who confessed last year that he intended to be a political hack on Romney’s behalf:

“I decided a couple of – a month or two ago to stop dumping on Mitt Romney, for example … Not because I approve of Romneycare, not because I approve of his flip-flops, flip on abortion, but because I may have to be one of those who carries this guy for a couple of months when he’s running against Obama and I don’t want to make my own task harder.”

You see, it doesn’t matter what his actual opinion is about anything, he is only going to comment in a manner that benefits his GOP clients. That’s what Fox News is paying him for.