Tucker Carlson Flips/Signs Off MSNBC

Posted by on November 8, 2007 at 4:11 am. 2 Comments :

Last Friday Tucker closed his show by saying:

“That does it for us. Thank you for watching as always, we mean that sincerely to all eight of you.”

That sounds ominously like a farewell. This will come as no surprise to News Corpse readers who are well aware of the train wreck that Tucker’s show is on MSNBC’s schedule. I published my analysis of his subterranean ratings last August, and followed up with a prediction of his demise in September.

Now Jacques Steinberg at the New York Times is citing a source at MSNBC as saying that Liar Tuck “…is in real danger of being canceled.” Thanks for the news flash, Jack. What gave it away? (The remainder of the article is a pile of nonsense that posits a leftist tilt at the network, supplying as evidence the liberal contributions of Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough and Dan Abrams. They’re about as liberal as Limburger is fragrant).

FTVLive has an explanation for why Tucker has lasted this long. He allegedly agreed to cut his salary in half in order to save his worthless program and persist in dragging the rest of the schedule down with him. Why MSNBC would think that that is a good deal is beyond me. FTVLive also elicited a response from Tucker himself, saying that reports of his show being quietly canceled are, “complete and utter bullshit.” This is reminiscent of his response a year ago to the same speculation when he said that…

“It’s bullshit. It’s total bullshit. I talked to Abrams last night. I’ve got another year on my contract. That’s my comment: Bullshit.”

Well that was a year ago and now the chickenhawks may be coming home to roost.

Find us on Google+
Advertisement:

Jonah Goldberg’s Stench Of Humor

Posted by on November 7, 2007 at 6:39 pm. NO Comments :

In another classic example of the wanker’s prose, Jonah Goldberg has penned a column for the Los Angeles Times that proves he can’t tell reality from satire.

The column begins with a quotation from Saturday Night Live’s news spoof about the the recent news conference held by FEMA wherein they planted agency stooges who pretended to be reporters asking real questions. Any ethical journalist would be appalled at such a fraudulent tactic designed exclusively to deceive. But Goldberg, of course, is not an ethical journalist. He actually dismisses the deceit by saying that…

“There’s no such thing as fake questions, after all, only fake answers.”

What the HELL does that mean? If there are no fake questions then there are no fake answers either. There may be false answers or lies, misrepresentations, obfuscations, or diversions. But all of those are as real as 90% of the answers that come out of the present White House.

If anything, Goldberg has it bass ackwards. There are indeed fake questions. They come from people who are fake reporters or reporters who have surrendered their independence to powerful figures in government. For examples of fake questions see Armstrong Williams or Jeff Gannon.

Goldberg goes on to excuse FEMA’s deception by asserting that all of the media is guilty of the sort “foolishness” FEMA was caught committing. I can’t really argue with the notion that the media is rampantly foolish, but Goldberg supports his claim, not by citing instances of media failures, but by citing comedy shows that mock the media. He points to Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart as evidence that the media is fake. Somehow it has escaped him that Colbert and Stewart are comedians and not journalists. The fact that they are more informative, relevant, and honest than most news enterprises is just a coincidence that delivers a sad commentary on the state of the news media.

Ultimately, in a fit of classic dementia, Goldberg declares that Murphy Brown is to blame for the problem of parsing fact from fiction. That’s right, the same sitcom character that vexed Dan Quayle. Goldberg says the show is…

“…about a fictional TV newswoman who talked about real newsmakers as if they were characters on her sitcom. When Brown had a baby out of wedlock, Vice President Dan Quayle criticized the writers of the show. Liberals then reacted as though Quayle had insulted a real person.”

Not exactly, Jonah. It was Quayle who insulted a fictional character as if it was real. Liberals just laughed at him for doing so. (By the way, he was also insulting every real, unmarried woman who chose to carry a baby to term). And now we laugh at you for ascribing all the flaws of modern journalism to the same figment of a TV scripter’s imagination.

It is Goldberg, however, who is the joke. His attempt to compare the inexcusable dishonesty of the FEMA event with the antics of comedy programs would be hilarious if it weren’t so depressing. Whatever his opinion of political satirists, he ought to be able to tell the difference between them and government agencies whose mission is to protect real people from real disasters.


I’m Baaack…

Posted by on November 7, 2007 at 4:02 pm. NO Comments :

Look out media overlords – News Corpse is back. I took a vacation to recharge although I’m not sure it had that effect. My two week visit to Europe may have been more exhausting than my routine existence here at home. Plus, I still have to recover from jet lag.

My trip began in Barcelona where I was greeted by this warm tribute to tourism. This message was strategically placed on a rooftop that is visible to the many visitors to the Gaudi-designed Park Guell.

We hopped on a train north to Figueres, the site of the Salvador Dali Museum. The taxi driver that took us up to the museum neglected to inform us that the museum was closed on Mondays until after he had dropped us off and collected his fare. As it turned out, it was a pleasant scam. We decided to spend a night in Figueres so that we could see the museum the next day and it turned out to be one of the best stops on the trip.

From there we went by car to Avignon and Nice in the south France. Avignon was exactly the charming and historical town we had expected. We also drove through Arles with its Roman-style Colosseum and Van Gogh landmarks. Nice was somewhat more of a commercialized tourist trap than we had expected. But all of it was fun and enriching.

The final stop was Florence. I’ve always considered Florence the Mecca for artists (if you are an artist you have to visit at least once in your lifetime or you won’t go to Heaven). It was astonishingly beautiful with art literally around every corner. As an extra added bonus, I badly sprained my ankle at the Uffizi Museum. If you’re going to injure yourself, you might as well do it at one of the world’s great repositories of art.

I apologize for not posting more while I was on the road. I intended to but there just wasn’t time. I noticed that during my absence, Glenn Beck’s hordes discovered a post I wrote last August that featured a rather repulsive Photoshop satire of Helen Thomas. Beck’s childish minions descended on News Corpse demonstrating that they couldn’t get a point if it was on the top of their little heads. But it was nice of them to boost my traffic for a few otherwise non-eventful days.

Now it’s back to the work of bringing down the corrupt and compromised Corporate Media. The fight continues…


Not Much Going On

Posted by on October 29, 2007 at 1:15 pm. NO Comments :

While I have been preoccupied with unspecified clandestine activites, not much has occurred in the world of media – unless you consider FEMA staging a fake press conference with FEMA staff posing as reporter “something.”

And it is certainly nothing groundbreaking when Fox News analysts spend their air time promoting a U.S. attack on Iran.


News Corpse On Assignment

Posted by on October 24, 2007 at 12:41 pm. NO Comments :

For the next couple of weeks I will be engaged in activities that will preclude me from delivering my usual stream of enlightening essays and insights. Is it the intrusion of work? Vacation? Or a top secret mission to infiltrate Rupert Murdoch’s international disinformation cartel? I’m not saying.

I should be resuming my regular schedule of posting on or about November 5. In the meantime, I will be linking to other fine blogs and news sources that are working hard to reform our media.

Like this one from ThinkProgress:

Fox News: Al Qaeda is causing the CA wildires

This morning on Fox News, hosts of the show Fox and Friends blamed the wildfires in California on a new culprit: al Qaeda. They pointed to a 2003 FBI memo, which raised the possibility that al Qaeda may try to set wildfires around the western United States. They also noted that men in a “hovering helicopter” saw “a guy starting one of these fires.”

Conspiracy theorists will want to know if the hovering helicopter was black. The rest of us can’t stop laughing.


The Stephen Colbert Campaign Catches Fire

Posted by on October 23, 2007 at 12:23 pm. NO Comments :

Since announcing his intention to seek the nomination of both parties for President of the United States, Stephen Colbert has demonstrated a deft media strategy (appearing on Meet the Press, Larry King, etc) and popular appeal. In the first poll to be released since his announcement he shows both strength and promise. Here are the results:

Candidate: Percent:
Clinton 40
Obama 19
Edwards 12
Biden 2.7
Colbert 2.3
Richardson 2.1
Kucinich 2.1
Gravel <1.0
Colbert has surged ahead of New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and is threatening Sen. Joe Biden in the Democratic primary. On the Republican side he is lagging in Tancredo territory.

What this suggests is that Colbert may be the conservative candidate best able to make inroads into Democratic and Independent ranks. These early poll results should tell the rest of the field that voters are anxious for new ideas and are looking for candidates who espouse Truthiness as opposed to the same old so-called “facts” that are scattered by pundits and spinners.

Congratulations Stephen, and good luck.


Find us on Google+
Advertisement:

Olbermann Tops O’Reilly Again

Posted by on October 22, 2007 at 6:36 pm. 4 Comments :

It happened again last Friday. Keith Olbermann’s Countdown beat Bill O’Reilly’s Factor in the key 25-54 demo. And this time it was without the benefit of an NBC appearance to boost Olbermann’s numbers.

10/19/07 5p: 6p: 7p: 8p: 9p: 10p: 11p:
FNC BigStory: Hume: Shep: O’Reilly: H&C: Greta: O’Reilly:
  143 201 257 238 248 253 218
CNN Blitzer: Dobbs: Blitzer: Honest: King: Cooper: Cooper:
  197 229 190 172 283 136 150
MSNBC Hardball: Tucker: Hardball: Countdo.: Investig.: Investig.: Investig.:
  110 58 113 263 186 251 325

O’Reilly has been chalking up some high numbers recently, but he is still vulnerable and Olbermann is still growing at a much faster rate.



John Edwards’ Letter To The FCC

Posted by on October 20, 2007 at 1:33 am. 1 Comments :

Responding to the FCC’s proposed new rules for media ownership, John Edwards has written a letter addressed to Commission chairman Kevin Martin. Like his predecessor Michael Powell (Colin’s boy), Martin has drafted a set of rules aimed at advancing the interests of Big Media conglomerates and permitting them to get even bigger and more powerful. Powell’s initiative was halted by over three million Americans rising up to oppose the media’s power play and now we have to do it all over again.

The letter Edwards sent is a great way to reignite this fire. Edwards is showing the sort of leadership that is in short supply in Washington. He is the only candidate of either party to speak so forcefully on behalf of a diverse and independent media.

Some excerpts:

“I urge you to cease your efforts to radically rewrite the rules preventing excessive media consolidation. You and your fellow commissioners have the responsibility to ensure that our nation’s media is open, democratic and as diverse as the American people, and not – like too much of our economy and our political system today – dominated by the wealthiest Americans, large corporations and their lobbyists.”

“The result of all this over-concentration, Mr. Chairman, is a poorer democracy, with a few loud corporate voices drowning out independent perspectives and local participation.”

“High levels of media consolidation threaten free speech, they tilt the public dialogue towards corporate priorities and away from local concerns, and they make it increasingly difficult for women and people of color to own meaningful stakes in our nation’s media.”

This is the kind of courageous and principled action that we ought to be getting from all of our candidates and representatives. Who do they think they are representing anyway? It certainly is not the people if they continue to act on behalf of giant multinational corporations that are only interested in their own wealth and power.

John Edwards deserves a lot of credit for getting in front of this train. The media is quite capable of ruining the reputation and electoral prospects of candidates they oppose or fear – just ask Howard Dean. I urge everyone to reward Edwards with support, donations, or just a few kind words of appreciation. But it is just as important to let the other primary candidates and current members of Congress hear from us about this. We must flood their email boxes and jam their phones. Visit Stop Big Media for more information and assistance with contacting your representatives.


Rejected PBS Documentary To Air On Fox News

Posted by on October 19, 2007 at 12:45 pm. 2 Comments :

The “Islam vs. Islamists,” episode of the PBS series “America at a Crossroads” is now scheduled to air on The Fox News Network. PBS had declined to broadcast the segment because they deemed it “alarmist” and “overreaching.” That description must have made Fox’s mouth water. Seeing as how alarmist and overreaching is the stock in trade for Fox, they probably couldn’t have signed this deal fast enough.

The Fox airing will bundle the documentary into a program that will also include interviews of the producers, giving them a platform from which to bash PBS as a bastion of liberal bias. Never mind that the president of the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, Patricia S. Harrison, is a former chair of the Republican National Committee. She was installed by the thoroughly corrupt Kenneth Tomlinson. The bashing of PBS has already begun .

This broadcast follows similar projects by Fox, airing or reporting on discredited or otherwise unreliable programs including:

Seems like Fox is ratcheting up their already prodigious propaganda machine.