New Study: The Fox News Obsession With ObamaCare Is Nearly Off The Scale – Literally

Posted by on November 20, 2013 at 1:52 pm. 9 Comments :

The Pew Research Center conducted a study to measure how the major cable news networks covered the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) as compared to other breaking news like the typhoon in the Philippines. The difference between Fox News and their competitors was striking.

Fox News

The Pew study monitored broadcasts that included an hour of midday programming and three hours of prime-time each day, from November 11-15. Both MSNBC and CNN programmed a fair amount of reporting for both stories, with CNN giving a little more time to the typhoon and MSNBC giving more time to ObamaCare. But Fox News was alone in devoting almost no time to the typhoon while blanketing their air with ObamaCare.

For those who would argue that, unlike Typhoon Haiyan, ObamaCare is an issue that affects the American people, they should note that the United States is committing significant financial, military, and human resources to the recovery efforts in the Philippines. And any international tragedy on the scale of this typhoon, with estimates of as many as 10,000 fatalities and hundreds of thousands dislocated, is a story that requires coverage and has ramifications that impact the rest of the world, including the U.S.

The Pew study also included another angle that affirms the strident bias of Fox News. The substance of the coverage that Fox gave to ObamaCare was almost entirely dominated by opinion. The study reported that “when it came to commentary and opinion versus reporting or fact-based statements,” Fox News coverage was 97% opinion. It may be safe to assume that the other 3% was reporters identifying themselves and asking the audience to stay tuned for more “after a word from our sponsors.”

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Fox Nation vs. Reality: A Birther’s ObamaCare Conspiracy Pushed By Fox News

Posted by on November 20, 2013 at 9:27 am. 27 Comments :

In my book, Fox Nation vs. Reality, I document more than 50 examples of outright, provable lies that appeared on the Fox News community website. Obviously, no one expects an enterprise that cares so little about truth to demonstrate much integrity. However, it is still jarring when a major news organization mainlines reporting from disreputable outlets like WorldNetDaily.

WND is America’s Birther Headquarters. It’s founder and editor, Joseph Farah, has been the most aggressive skeptic of President Obama’s national origin. Farah financed a billboard advertising campaign with the message “Where’s the Birth Certificate?” And Farah’s publishing arm put out the widely ridiculed book with the same title by crackpot conspiracist Jerome Corsi.

Fox Nation

Sitting atop the Fox Nation website yesterday was a feature article by Aaron Klein, the author of the WND published book of bullcrap, Impeachable Offenses. Klein’s headline declared that “Media Matters Funded ObamaCare Deceit.” Clicking through to the WND source revealed a rehashed jumble of articles that Klein had written years ago. The centerpiece of his so-called reporting was his unsupported assertion that Media Matters had bankrolled an imagined campaign to deceive the public about ObamaCare. However, the only thing the article succeeded in revealing was the fact that a progressive think tank, the Herndon Alliance, was the beneficiary of support from a Media Matters affiliated entity, along with a couple of hundred other progressive groups. There was no evidence presented of any Media Matters role as the financier of anything having to do with ObamaCare. Neither was there any evidence of any intent to deceive. But there was an abundance of wild accusations and fear mongering about Saul Alinsky and George Soros, two of the right-wing, tin-foil hat brigade’s favorite bogeymen.

Apparently WND and Fox News found it shocking that like-minded progressive organizations would rely on one another to advance their common interests. Conservatives never do that. Unless you count the highly coordinated activities of the Koch brothers, Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, Club for Growth, the Heritage Foundation, the Heartland Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Mackinac Center, Tea Party Nation/Express/Patriots, the Franklin Center, the State Policy Network, the Family Research Council, the National Rifle Association, the Republican National Committee, [oh, I could go on] and of course Fox News.

There really is a “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy,” and it is working feverishly to fabricate the existence of a vast left-wing conspiracy, while concealing its own nefarious activities. And Fox News, as a founding member of the VRWC, is doing its part to slander progressive groups by promoting the dishonest cretins and professional liars at WorldNetDaily who are obsessed with impeaching our gay, Kenyan, Muslim, socialist president.


Tea Party Republican Is Florida’s Own Version Toronto’s Crack Smoking Mayor

Posted by on November 19, 2013 at 4:00 pm. 4 Comments :

Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto has consumed an enormous amount of media attention since he was exposed as an unrepentant crack smoking slimeball. In the wake of that scandalous affair on America’s northern border, Florida, in a fit of envy, has entered the sweepstakes to claim the title of “Most Depraved Politics.”

Trey Radel is a freshman congressman who won election in a conservative Florida district by running as committed Tea Party crackpot. True to form, Radel began his term in the House by advocating the impeachment of President Obama without bothering to come up with any justification for doing so.

Today it was announced that he was arrested for cocaine possession in the District of Columbia. In the customary statement of contrition that is always delivered after getting caught, Radel used a familiar excuse for his depravity:

“I’m profoundly sorry to let down my family, particularly my wife and son, and the people of Southwest Florida. I struggle with the disease of alcoholism, and this led to an extremely irresponsible choice. As the father of a young son and a husband to a loving wife, I need to get help so I can be a better man for both of them.”

Just like Mayor Ford, Radel only submitted to the sin of cocaine use because he must have been in a drunken stupor. In addition to his substance abuse problems, he had an interesting career prior to getting elected to Congress, including brokering pornographic Internet domain names. But even more interesting was his media resume:

Radel was trained as an actor and a comedian and performed improvisational work at Second City in Chicago. Radel began his working career as a journalist, working as both an anchor and as a reporter. He interned for CNN at their Headquarters in Atlanta. He then worked for the CBS affiliates in Houston and Chicago. He was a TV and radio talk show host of Daybreak, on WINK-TV & 92.5 Fox News Radio.

Fox News is deeply ingrained in this family as he is married to FOX-4 anchor Amy Wegmann. It will be interesting to see if Fox News reports Radel’s arrest on the air. A fallen Tea Party congressman ought to be big news. Fox would certainly report it if it were Democrat. Of course, Fox always has the option of reporting it but identifying him as a Democrat, a tactic they have used before.

Fox News

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Fox Nation Posts Radio Rant Against MSNBC That Also Attacks Fox News

Posted by on November 19, 2013 at 9:58 am. 3 Comments :

One of the most notoriously hyperactive conservative radio shoutcasters is Mark Levin. Some of his on-air convulsions boil over into such bombastic rage that he seems close to having a cerebral aneurysm. He is filled to the brim with contempt for those with whom he disagrees, and that’s a long list.

Fox Nation

This morning his target was MSNBC (again) and the roster of hosts whom he regards as vile character assassins. But while lashing out in what was pure projection, Levin also snared Fox News in his net of wild invective. The subject of his attack was what he considered to be an affront to his Wingnut Queen, Sarah Palin. So he let loose…

“We’re getting way too comfortable with these character assassination efforts by the media, by the left, by the sycophants and their operatives against certain individuals in this country. Did the Republican National Committee speak up for Sarah Palin? No. Did Karl Rove go on Fox to defend one of his colleague? No. Did all of those folks on Fox, with a few exceptions, stand up for her? No.”

In defending Palin’s alleged honor, Levin orchestrated something short of a surgical strike that left his pals at Fox News bleeding in the rubble. This isn’t the first time either. Levin has frequently attacked Fox News and its so-called personalities. He has blasted Rove as “sleazy” and a “liar.” He has called Dana Perino a “jerk.” He hammered Bill O’Reilly as a “fraud.” And, remember, Levin is a frequent guest on the network he is lambasting.

However, what’s notable in today’s news is that the Fox News community website (and Fib Factory), Fox Nation, posted an audio clip of Levin that included his condemnation of Fox. Apparently Fox is so consumed with disseminating anything negative about their enemies that they were either unaware or indifferent to the negativity aimed at themselves. You could probably go on Fox and call the network a festering boil on the ass of television, so long as you also said something nasty about President Obama in the same sentence.

Just for fun, Levin also took a swing at Jon Stewart saying that “Stewart is quoted all over like he’s some kind of a news guy, some kind of an analyst. He’s a comedian, and he’s vile and repulsive and dimwitted. Nobody writes my stuff.” Like anyone would dare to take credit for the asinine swill that Levin pukes.


Toronto’s Crack Smoking Mayor To Get TV Show On “Fox News North”

Posted by on November 18, 2013 at 12:35 pm. 5 Comments :

The ever-shrinking standards for cable television programming that have brought us Honey Boo Boo and Ted Nugent’s “Gun Country,” have once again established a new low. Apparently all that is necessary to get your own cable TV show is to shamelessly humiliate yourself in public. On that measure, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is destined for cable TV stardom.

Fox News

The program announced by the Sun News Network in Canada will feature the Mayor and his brother Doug, who is also a city councilman. The program my not actually be on the air very long because Ford has indicated his intention to run for reelection next year. If he files papers for the race in January he will have to leave the show due to Canada’s laws prohibiting active candidates from having their own broadcast programs.

What has not been mentioned by most of the stories about Ford’s television career is that Canada’s Sun News Network is known as “Fox News North,” due to its similarity to the hyper-partisan conservative network in the U.S. It’s chief architect is Kory Teneycke, the former press secretary to right-wing Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has met privately with Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes.

Sun News has been a controversial entity in Canada while failing to corral much of an audience. At one point they appealed to the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission to get mandatory distribution on Canada’s cable networks. It takes a fairly big chunk hypocrisy for a conservative network to beg the government to force private companies into doing business with them. What ever happened to the free market? Canadian viewers obviously don’t want to watch Sun, and they certainly don’t want to be forced to pay for it. So Fox News North is trying another approach to scare up viewers: hire scumbag, drug-addled mayors as hosts. How long before Fox News itself offers Ford a contract?

As an addendum to the Ford story, CNN did not acquit itself particularly well yesterday when they aired a segment on damage control that juxtaposed the repugnant Mayor Ford’s vile personal behavior with President Obama’s political tribulations. Seriously, CNN?

[Update 11/19/13] After one broadcast, Ford Nation has been cancelled. According Sun News it was a financial issue and had nothing to do with the controversial nature of the program’s host. Sun News also reported that the program exceeded the ratings of its previous top rated show, which just happened to also feature a disgraced ex-politician. Oh Canada.


Comedy Or Dementia? Townhall’s “8 Reasons The Republican Party Has A Bright Future”

Posted by on November 17, 2013 at 8:43 am. 4 Comments :

It’s been a rocky couple of months for Democrats. After suffering through a government shutdown orchestrated by wing-nutsack Ted Cruz and the baleful John Boehner, Republicans embarked on a wild ride of ObamaCare bashing, Benghazi hoaxes, and all around crackpottery of the highest odor. So just in the nick of time the uber-rightist news aggregator, Townhall, has excreted a blast of crapola with the deranged headline, “8 Reasons The Republican Party Has A Bright Future.” Now, there could actually be some plausible reasons for Republicans to be throwing a Mad Tea Party, but the ones itemized in this article are uproariously funny.

gop-bright-future

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1) We have the most potent grassroots movement in politics:
Their very first reason for jumping for joy cites their ownership of the Tea Party. If that is representative of the GOP’s bright future, then they can throw away their sunglasses. The Tea Party has been steadily losing support since their debut. Their “very unfavorable” numbers have tripled since 2010, and they currently can brag about an approval rating of 30%, an all-time low. That’s about the same as the Republican Party itself. And we’re just getting started.

2) 2010 was the GOP’s best year since 1948:
Recognizing a sixty-five year slump hardly seems like a good place to start a celebration. Especially when the only thing that Republicans have to look forward to is looking back fondly on the anomaly of an off-year election where low turnout and corrupt gerrymandering helped them to temporarily win control of the House. Even so, somehow they have erased from their simple minds the 2012 election where they lost to a gay, socialist, Muslim from Kenya, for the second time. And they also lost eight of the House seats, and two in the Senate, that they won two years earlier in their much ballyhooed best year in six decades.

3) We should control the House at least until the next census:
The article makes this assertion without providing any evidence to back it up. It is, at best, wishful thinking. They also seem to think that the past three years of having accomplished nothing more than 47 failed attempts to repeal ObamaCare amounts to “control” of the House. The truth is that, after being handed the reigns of power, they demonstrated their pitiful incompetence and a unique inability to govern. In addition, the article admits that their current majority is the result of gerrymandering, and that their primary legislative goal is to “slam the brakes on government.” However, most polls show that Democrats are in a better position than ever to retake the House in 2014, and last month’s government shutdown helps them toward that goal immensely.

4) The party is thriving on the state level:
They may have a point here. Republicans have concentrated fiercely on state politics for the past few years. Their financiers, including the Koch brothers, have devoted hundreds of millions of dollars to local races in order to hijack state governments for the purpose of suppressing votes, subjugating women, and subverting democracy through partisan redistricting. But Republican governors are still amongst the most reviled office-holders with characters like Rick Scott (FL), John Kasich (OH), and Rick Perry (TX), competing for Biggest Boob in America.

5) Our numbers with minorities are only going to go up:
Huh? Perhaps they didn’t finish that sentence and meant to say their numbers are going to go up in flames. After the 2012 election the GOP conducted what they themselves called an “autopsy,” in which they confessed to having no noticeable support from African-Americans or Latinos. So they set about to remedy that situation by passing laws aimed at keeping them from voting, by snubbing them by refusing to attend the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, and by opposing any immigration reform that might treat them with respect. The article makes the racially insulting and absurd statement that “White Americans tend to vote Republican.” But the actual election results don’t concur. Obama won 40% of the white vote in 2012, which is more than Clinton did in 1992. It isn’t that whites vote Republican, it’s that Republicans are almost all white. Those are two very different things.

6) Short Term: Obamacare means a strong 2014:
So this is what the GOP is hanging their asshats on? To be sure, if things with ObamaCare go as badly in the next year as they have for the past month, Democrats will have a tough time of it. But if the ObamaCare website is fixed, and people like having access to affordable, quality health care, Republicans are going to be punished severely for opposing it. Remember, Social Security and Medicare also encountered resistance in the beginning.

7) Barack Obama gives us a medium term opening:
The crux of this reason for Republicans to cheer is their contention that Obama is “the single worst President in American history.” The article regurgitates just about every assault on the President that was lobbed during the 2012 election. Remind me again, who won that one? Additionally, Obama has lead a recovery from his predecessor’s economic debacle that has seen the stock market soar to all-time highs, businesses reporting record profits, and the only reason the economy isn’t producing more jobs is because the GOP has blocked every attempt to create them, even through infrastructure development that is critically necessary anyway. Then the GOP harangues the victims of their policies as lazy moochers, and moves to cut food stamps. If Obama is giving Republicans an opening, Republicans seem to be scurrying to fill it in with fresh dirt.

8) Long term, the ground is very unfavorable to the Democrats:
Once again, the article has no certifiable facts to support this argument. They quote Grover Norquist and Margaret Thatcher as if they are popular contemporaries whose ultra-conservative rantings are shaping the modern political landscape. Funny…they didn’t mention Ronald Reagan. They also didn’t mention that in 2016 Republicans will be defending 24 senate seats versus only 10 for Democrats. In 2014 the GOP is already setting up their next roster of Todd Akins and Christine O’Donnells. And the way the Tea Party is imploding, Nancy Pelosi will probably be returning to the speakership before too long.

Perhaps the funniest thing about the article is the photo that accompanied it. You really have to wonder whose great idea it was to feature a picture of John Boehner atop an article heralding the GOP’s bright future. But in their defense, who else would they use? Rand Paul? Ted Cruz? Sarah Palin? Or maybe the vulgar Jersey philistine, Chris Christie? Oh yeah, Republicans have nothing but blue skies ahead.

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Rachel Maddow Exposes GOP Obstructionism, While Media Is Shocked By Democratic Bipartisanship

Posted by on November 16, 2013 at 11:35 am. 9 Comments :

Conservatives have been hammering at President Obama for having promised that anyone who wants to keep their health care plan would be able to do so after the implementation of ObamaCare. That turned out not to be entirely accurate. Although, for the most part, those who would lose access to their existing plans would gain access to better, cheaper plans, there would be a few for whom that would not hold true.

Republicans took great joy in blasting the President over this anomaly that probably affects only 3% of the population, dismissing the fact that ObamaCare will benefit tens of millions more than it allegedly harms. They demanded that he take remedial action to permit people who have plans they like to keep them. So Obama announced that he would do just that, which led Republicans to criticize him for doing precisely what they asked.

Not content to take “yes” for an answer, the House GOP drafted legislation to fix the problem. However, rather than simply permiting people to keep their current plans, the GOP bill would allow insurance companies to sell those junk plans to new customers who never had them to begin with. That would seriously endanger the viability of ObamaCare because it take people out of the larger pool of covered individuals necessary to make the program work.

Nevertheless, the bill passed in the House with 39 Democrats voting along with the majority Republicans. The media response to this act of bipartisanship was surprise and characterizations of Democratic defiance and betrayal. It is exactly that sort of closed-mindedness that produces the unprecedented dysfunction we currently see in Congress. Any measure of cooperation is regarded as treason rather than teamwork. And that is also the guiding principle of the modern Tea Party Republican junta.

Fox News

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While Democrats behave in a manner that is consistent with advancing the country’s best interests, Republicans are fixated on crushing the Democrats. Even legislation that enjoys broad support by majorities of the American people is snubbed the GOP simply because it is also supported by Democrats or the President. Rachel Maddow illustrated this brilliantly on Friday’s program (video below).

The examples that Maddow highlighted were all issues that have extraordinarily wide support by the American public. From background checks on gun purchases, to immigration reform, to ending discrimination against gays, to raising the minimum wage, these are all issues that are backed by majorities of Democrats, independents, and even Republicans. But the GOP in Congress refuses to even bring these bills up for a vote, even though their own constituents want them to do so.

Rachel Maddow

This makes the media reaction to Democrats behaving bipartisanly all the more disturbing. It’s as if they prefer the sort of hostility that is routinely exhibited by Republican and Tea Party extremists. And of course, that is precisely the problem. The media does prefer open battling and distrust because it serves its purpose both for manufacturing the sort of drama that generates ratings, and for obstructing national policies that their corporate boards oppose. Here is a sampling of the reporting that followed the House vote:

  • NPR: With Democrats’ Help, House Votes Against Obamacare
  • Politico: With 39 Dems behind it, House passes Obamacare fix
  • Wall Street Journal: Democrats Defect on Health Rules
  • ABC News: 39 Dems Defect as House OKs ‘Keep Your Health Plan’ Bill
  • U.S. News & World Report: Democrats Break With Party to Support GOP Obamacare Fix
  • Los Angeles Times: Dozens of House Democrats back Republican healthcare bill
  • Fox News: Dems in disarry over ObamaCare fix [Note: Fox Nation also ran the same item. For more Fox Nation lies see Fox Nation vs. Reality]

Clearly the tone of the reporting is one that implies a negative result for a small number of Democrats who are portrayed as traitors simply because they had the temerity to agree with Republicans. It is reporting like that that discourages politicians from being productive in concert with their colleagues across the aisle. It reinforces the notion that bipartisanship will be punished in the press, so there better not be any of it.

Apparently, Republicans have already learned this lesson and have staunchly refused to cooperate with Democrats for at least the last five years. The real betrayal is that of the GOP against the nation and their own constituents in order to avoid media criticism, primary challenges, and most of all, to retain power, even at the expense of the national welfare. That’s the thinking that causes Republicans to shut down the goverment and defy the will of the voters. And they have the media to thank for enabling that destructive behavior.


So The Media And Congress Want To Bash Obama’s Low Approval Ratings?

Posted by on November 15, 2013 at 12:10 pm. 4 Comments :

Let’s face it, the botched rollout of the ObamaCare website has been an enormous black eye for the administration. While there were numerous obstacles that included a GOP opposition that threw everything they could find into the path, the administration should still have anticipated and accounted for that and completed the project successfully.

That said, the response from the politicians and the press who get tingly whenever they can land some punches on the President has been absurdly oblivious to the reality of their own status with the public. Republican members of congress are rushing to their podiums to declare that President Obama simply cannot be trusted. The media is making grossly inappropriate analogies with former President Bush’s mishandling of the response to Hurricane Katrina. [Note: The number of deaths caused by Katrina: 1,800. The number of deaths caused by Healthcare.gov: 0]

These opportunistic Obama bashers are aggressively insisting that Obama’s presidency is effectively over. His low poll numbers are all the evidence needed to validate their declaration of the end of a term that still has three years ahead of it. However, if poll numbers are the measuring stick that these critics want to hit Obama with, they had better take a look at their own:

congress-media-approval

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Even after the website debacle, Obama’s approval rating is 42%. That’s actually up three points in the past couple of days from his all-time low of 39%. But Congress is still wallowing at their bottom of 9%, less than a quarter of the President’s number. And the media isn’t doing much better at 11%. So it’s curious that these pathetic losers are citing polls as proof that Obama is such a failure that there is no hope for the remainder of his term.

Polls change with great frequency as events occur that influence the people’s opinions. A month from now, if the website is functioning properly and people are satisfied with their insurance plans, Obama’s polling could be in the 60’s. But there isn’t any foreseeable event that could raise the numbers for Congress or the media into positive territory. Given these facts, it’s clear that Obama is in a better position to restore his reputation with the public. And if the politicians and pundits know what’s good for them, they will stop citing polls to firm up their already weak arguments.


How Fox News Links ObamaCare To Falling Into An Orchestra Pit

Posted by on November 14, 2013 at 1:17 pm. 8 Comments :

“If you have two guys on stage and one guy says ‘I have a solution to the Middle East problem,’ and the other guy falls into the orchestra pit, who do you think is going to be on the evening news?” ~ Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes

The “Orchestra Pit” theory of news programming by Roger Ailes perfectly describes the way much of the mainstream media, and particularly Fox News, responds to current events. Whatever angle they can wrench themselves into that results in producing more superfluous melodrama is the one they choose, regardless of how far that diverts from real substance or even reality (see Fox Nation vs. Reality for some flagrant assaults on truth).

Roger Ailes

Yesterday the administration released data on the number of people who enrolled in new health insurance plans made available by ObamaCare. In the first month there were 106,000 people who got new plans via Heathcare.gov and the state-based exchanges. Almost immediately that number was decried as a catastrophic failure by the media. However, very few reporters actually provided the necessary context within which to view this data. They leaped at the opportunity to bellow ignorantly about what they characterized as an insurmountable defeat. Bill O’Reilly and Charles Krauthammer even discussed the possibility that this would herald the end of liberalism.

A more thorough analysis of the data shows that the magnitude of the fiasco was not nearly as pronounced as the media declared. First of all, everyone knew that there were functional problems with the website that would hamper enrollments. So to register surprise when numbers were released that fell below estimates made a year ago is plainly dishonest. The lower figures were expected by everyone involved and the feigned shock illustrates the devotion that media has for hysterical theatricality.

Furthermore, the numbers are not even all that bad despite the botched technology. Comparing this rollout to the rollout of RomneyCare in Massachusetts shows a similar pattern wherein enrollments started out slowly and rapidly increased as it got closer to the deadline. The Washington Post reported last month that…

“Just 123 people signed up during the Bay State’s first month of open enrollment. By contrast, 20 percent of the first year’s 36,000 enrollees purchased coverage in the last month before an individual mandate penalty kicked in.”

It is also notable that the states that provided their own exchanges signed up many more people than those that failed to do so. For instance, Kentucky’s exchange signed up five times more citizens than its exchange-less neighbor, Tennessee. Of the “Four Corners” states (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah), only Colorado has its own exchange. But it signed up three times the number of citizens as the other three combined. In fact, California’s exchange enrolled more citizens than all 36 exchange-less states combined. What’s more, many in the media are conveniently forgetting that the expansion of Medicaid is also a part of ObamaCare. And 400,000 Americans now have health insurance through Medicaid as a result. That brings the total to half a million.

By this measure, with four months left in the open enrollment period, ObamaCare is on track to meet or exceed its estimates so long as the website problems are resolved, or people have adequate access to alternatives. But another factor that comes into play is the relentless attacks on ObamaCare by Fox News and other right-wing media. The consequences of this coordinated effort to frighten the American people include both dissuading new enrollments and prodding Congress to push for crippling legislation to delay and/or defund the program. It’s a self-fulling prophecy of doom wherein critics blast ObamaCare as failing to meet expectations, act to disparage and dismantle it, and then complain when it falls short of inflated expectations. Extremist right-wingers have been working furiously to sabotage ObamaCare, and it is no coincidence that almost every state without an exchange has a Republican governor and legislature.

The downside of this unfolding of ObamaCare news is the allegedly poor rate of enrollment. And on that matter, Fox obsessively focuses on negative reports that characterize the program as having tripped and fallen into a bottomless (orchestra) pit. But the other newsmaker on the stage is Obama’s plan that has provided 48 million Americans with access to health care that they had been denied previously. This solves a problem that prior administrations, going back FDR, have tried and failed to solve.

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It is a historic achievement, but the media is fixated on the website that fell into the Orchestra Pit, while ignoring the far greater achievement of making health care accessible to millions. So thanks, Roger Ailes, for helping the press to neglect what is truly important in order to promote relative trivialities and misrepresentations, and thereby advancing your personal agenda of Tea Party extremism and callous insensitivity toward those less fortunate than you. Despite your campaign to destroy a program that will bring life-saving relief to millions of Americans, the people are going to discover the benefits of this innovation and reward those who delivered it – and punish those who tried to kill it.


Serial Liar, James O’Keefe, Releases Another Deceitfully Edited Video: ObamaCare Edition

Posted by on November 12, 2013 at 1:28 pm. 14 Comments :

Some people are just gluttons for punishment. Take James O’Keefe for instance. The petulant, wannabe ambush journalist has already been exposed as a purveyor of dishonest videos that are deceptively edited in order to slander his victims. He was caught trying to execute a perverse scheme to seduce a CNN reporter. He had to pay a $100,000 to settle a defamation suit brought by a former ACORN staffer. And he was convicted of criminal behavior in a stunt he tried to pull in Louisiana.

James O'KeefeSince then his projects have been few and even many of his former allies declined to promote them. But now he has a new video that purports to expose some malfeasance on the part of some ObamaCare “navigators” who are helping people to acquire health insurance. As I’ve noted before, O’Keefe’s inner sadist assures that his projects are almost always aimed at attacking people and programs that serve the less fortunate. That’s true in this case as well.

The ObamaCare association seems to have loosened up those who abandoned him in the past, including Bill O’Reilly of Fox News. However, his reputation for producing video fiction is fully intact. In the new video he sends in a shill to pretend to inquire about enrolling in a health care plan. In the process, the shill attempts to trick his unsuspecting victims into giving bad advice. However, we can’t know for sure whether they did that because the videos are so heavily edited that there is no way to discern the actual context. Also, the people O’Keefe’s shill spoke with weren’t certified navigators, but were in fact trainees. So the prospect of them making a few mistakes shouldn’t shock anyone.

In one case, though, it is apparent that the navigators did not do what O’Keefe accused them of doing. O’Keefe alleged that the navigators advised the shill to misrepresent his income. In reality, they simply told him to report on the ObamaCare website the same amounts he reported to the IRS. It’s his responsibility to file his income taxes honestly. But the conclusions drawn in the video conceal that. That’s just one example of how creative editing can distort the true picture of what occurred.

Given that Fox News is immersed in an obsessive campaign to cripple ObamaCare, they must have given the green light to O’Reilly to readmit O’Keefe into their good graces – sort of. O’Reilly devoted most of his opening segment to O’Keefe’s video, but without ever mentioning his name. That may have been wise considering the disrepute associated with O’Keefe and his band of dissemblers. O’Reilly only identified the video as the work of Project Veritas, which he helpfully explained to his viewers means “truth,” something with which O’Reilly and O’Keefe have limited experience.

Even Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze couldn’t post O’Keefe’s video without disclaiming that “It should be noted that the video is heavily edited and employs deceptive tactics in order to catch the navigators offering the shocking advice.” When Beck’s crew is disturbed by deceptive tactics, you know you’ve crossed a line that most charlatans never see in their whole lives.

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Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Community’s Assault On Truth

What’s worse, a United States senator, John Cornyn, Republican of Texas (where else?), also cited the O’Keefe video as evidence that ObamaCare needs to be stopped immediately. Cornyn said that “This behavior is unacceptable, and is yet another broken piece of a deeply flawed system. The Obama administration should stop this program immediately.” Obviously – if a trainee tells a dishonest, partisan shill something that isn’t quite accurate, in a video produced by a known liar and criminal, then an entire government program that was set up to help 48 million previously uninsured Americans get access to health care should be thrown out.

That’s the quality of the logic in use by Republican and Tea Party opponents of ObamaCare. And, as such, is more than ample justification for ignoring them completely. It also explains how the pathetically amateurish video fabrications of James O’Keefe get taken seriously by idiots in politics and the press.

[Update 11/14/2013] Another Fox News program is hyping the O’Keefe lies. Sean Hannity did a segment during which he also referred to Project Veritas as the video’s producer and never mentioned O’Keefe’s name. He also spewed other lies about the cost of the website, the navigators not getting background checks, and the scope of the people whose current plans will be terminated by insurance companies.