Month: June 2011

Two Things That Will Not Change When Glenn Beck Leaves Fox News

Posted by on June 30, 2011 at 11:09 am. 3 Comments :

Today is a day that will not live in infamy. If remembered at all, it will not be for what happened, but for the disgusting and divisive error that was excised from our airwaves. Today is the day that Glenn Beck’s Acute Paranoia Revue and Disinfotainment Revival Hour will broadcast its last episode on Fox News. After that Beck will pack up his congregation and sail away to darker, stormier waters.


That event has many sane and compassionate people celebrating. But they should not be to hasty in their glee. While removing Beck from the air can only be a step in a positive direction, as the headline of this article states, there are:

Two Things That Will Not Change When Glenn Beck Leaves Fox News:

  1. Glenn Beck
  2. Fox News

Beck may be leaving television, but he will still be broadcasting to a fairly large audience of miscreants on the radio. His Internet venture is less likely to cause much of a stir because, if people weren’t going to watch him on TV for free (his audience was in a downward spiral for the last year), they certainly aren’t going to pay to watch him on the web. Except, of course, for his most devoted disciples of misinformation and hate. Nevertheless, Beck will have a platform to spew division and lies and he will do everything in his power to exploit it. For instance, he will be venturing off to torment the already suffering people of Israel in August to instruct them on how to “Restore Courage.”

As for Fox News, last April I documented the “10 Reasons Why Fox News After Glenn Beck Will Still Suck.” They include Bill O’Reilly. Sean Hannity, Megyn Kelly, and seven more. I pointed out that…

“…any suggestion that Beck’s departure polishes Fox’s reputation is pure folly. The worst of Beck’s haunted imagination is securely woven into the Fox News dis-comforter. The trademark Fox invective, sophistry, and bias predate Beck and will outlive him.”

For anyone who is worried that they will suffer withdrawal symptoms, they will be relieved to know that Fox News will continue to feed their revolting habit. There will still be unfounded conspiracy theories. President Obama will still be a Kenyan Muslim who is deliberately trying to destroy America. Saul Alinsky and Bill Ayers and ACORN will remain lurking in the shadows. And George Soros will still be manipulating every evil on the planet. Not to worry.

And if Fox News isn’t enough, you also have CNN whose new president, Ken Jautz, is the man who gave Beck his first job in television. In his brief tenure at CNN, Jautz has already partnered with the corrupt Tea Party Express to host a GOP debate. He hired Andrew Breitbart’s editor-in-chief, Dana Loesch. He set CNN apart as the only network to broadcast Michelle Bachmann’s embarrassing Tea Party response to the State of the Union address. Here is what Jautz said when announcing his new host, Glenn Beck, at Headline News:

“Glenn Beck is the next piece of the puzzle. Glenn’s style is self-deprecating, cordial; he says he’d like to be able to disagree with guests and part as friends. It’s conversational, not confrontational. […] We didn’t look for a conservative, a liberal or anyone of a particular ideology.”

If Jautz really believes that Beck was cordial, non-confrontational, and did not have a conservative ideology, he is in need of serious pharmaceutical therapy. Jautz’s delusional mindset hasn’t improved since then. In an interview after being promoted to head CNN, Jautz summed up his idea of what the news network should aspire to by saying, “I do not believe that ‘facts-only’ programming…it will not work.” That’s comforting, isn’t it? So Beck’s audience will have plenty of options for their fact-free, pseudo-news consumption and indoctrination.

Finally, for those who want a keepsake of the Freak Show Beck starred in for the past two years, Media Matters has been kind enough to provide one:

If you feel the need to take a shower, go ahead. The Internet will be here when you get back.And if anyone wants to buy a used URL, I may be interested in unloading my GlennBeckUnhinged.com

Fox News Continues Ratings Slump – Q2 2011

Posted by on June 29, 2011 at 12:41 am. 5 Comments :

This is becoming redundant, but the latest ratings survey once again has Fox News slouching alone as the only cable news network to lose viewers year-over-year. The decline holds for both total viewers and for the 25-54 year old demographic, with the worst showing a double-digit decline in the demo for primetime.


The next quarter will be interesting in that it will be the first without Fox’s big asylum draw, Glenn Beck. Beck’s program signs off in two days, after which Beck promises that liberals will pray for the days when he was on TV. If he believes that his delusions are becoming more severe.

The big question for Fox is what will take his place? His disciples are not going to be satisfied with some run-of-the-mill lunatic. What’s odd is that there has been no announcement of any replacement for Beck. It appears that they intend to run with fill-ins for the time being. But there’s going to have to be a new title come Friday. Perhaps they will just start Bret Baier an hour early. We’ll see.

Sunday In The Park With Glenn Beck

Posted by on June 28, 2011 at 3:52 pm. 11 Comments :

Glenn BeckIf you encounter Glenn Beck in public be very careful what you say. There is a strong likelihood that he will turn it into maudlin sniveling about the travails of his own victimhood.

That’s what happened this weekend when Beck claims that he was nearly lynched by a crowd of movie-goers in Manhattan. Beck relates a tale wherein he, his wife, and his daughter, was verbally accosted while laying on a blanket in Bryant Park to watch a free screening (socialists?) of Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps.” Allegedly there was also a spilled beverage in the melee. See? It was almost exactly like a lynching. And this is the lesson that Beck would have you learn from his tribulation:

“I have to beg you that if you ever find yourself on a blanket, or in a restaurant, or anyplace next to a guy that you vehemently disagree with – be it Van Jones or Michael Moore, it doesn’t matter – don’t kick your beverage on them.”

Excellent advice! Beverages are off-limits as weapons in public disputes. Surely we are better than this. In fact, just heed this prior lesson from a previous Beck Sermon for guidance:

“Let me just tell you what I’m thinking. I’m thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I’m wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out.”

That was from Beck’s radio show on May 17, 2008. A few months later he told a similar story about an unpleasant encounter he had with the public. On that occasion a trucker in a Wendy’s was not particularly pleased to make Beck’s acquaintance. In both of these stories Beck uses Michael Moore as an example of his tolerance despite his professed desire to murder Moore with his bare hands.

It’s touching to hear Beck speak of his innate humanity and his concern for his family’s welfare. Too bad he doesn’t have the same concern for his ideological enemies whom he regards as evil, as cancers that must be cut-out, and who cannot be stopped except by shooting them in the head.

[Update] It seemed odd that with hundreds of other moviegoers in the park there wasn’t a single person to corroborate Beck’s story. And although Beck said everyone was taking pictures of him and his family, there were no pictures of any disturbance. Well, now a witness has come forward and given her account of the incident to New York Magazine. Here’s an excerpt:

“It was my friend that spilled the glass of wine on Tanya -and I can assure you that it was a complete accident. A happy one, to be sure, but nonetheless a complete and utter accident. As soon as the wine spilled (and I question how Tanya became soaked from a half glass of wine) apologies were made and my friends pretty much scrambled to give Tanya & co napkins -no doubt aware that it would look terrible and that their actions could be perceived as purposeful. No words were exchanged after that, as I think that it became pretty clear to Beck & co that my friends and I were doing everything in our capacity to help clean the ‘mess.'”

Gee, who would have thought that Glenn Beck would lie through his teeth and accuse others of being hateful – an activity he seems to want to keep exclusively to himself.

Chris Wallace Begs Michele Bachmann’s Forgiveness

Posted by on June 28, 2011 at 10:31 am. 4 Comments :

On last Sunday’s broadcast of Fox News Sunday, Anchor Chris Wallace listed a few of examples of why many people, including Republicans, consider Michele Bachmann to be a “flake.” Bachmann expressed her dismay at being insulted by Wallace, then left the studio to tell a Fox News reporter that she has the same spirit as serial murderer John Wayne Gacy.

After receiving harsh feedback from Bachmann’s supporters and Fox News disciples, Wallace immediately posted a video apology on the Fox News web site. However, that wasn’t enough because Wallace also had to call Bachmann that evening and personally kneel to kiss her ring.

All of this genuflection on the part of the Fox News anchor toward a favorite character on the network’s political soap opera is rather curious. One has to wonder why Wallace never apologized for calling President Obama and his administration “the biggest bunch of crybabies” he’d ever dealt with. Wallace also never apologized for calling Democrats “damn fools” for not gracing his program with their presence. These were insults that were aimed directly at his adversaries and represented his personal opinion, unlike the Bachmann episode where he was relaying the opinions of others. Yet he never felt compelled to apologize.

Does this represent Wallace’s fairness and balance? Or is it more representative of the point Jon Stewart made after getting Wallace to admit that Fox News “tells the other side of the story.” Wallace has since tried to back away from that comment by claiming he meant to say the “full” story. However, this isn’t the first time Wallace has used that framing to explain the Fox News bias. In July of 2008, Wallace told an interviewer that…

“…whether you like Fox News or don’t like it, it seems to me that it is a healthy development if only because it creates another view point.”

Yep. Fox News has been creating another point of view for years. Creating it from scratch at the behest of the conservative Republican hierarchy. That’s why no affront to liberals or Democrats is deserving of an apology, but when it comes to folks like Bachmann the amends must be made within minutes and repeatedly.

Michele Bachmann: I Have The Spirit Of A Serial Killer

Posted by on June 27, 2011 at 1:10 pm. 4 Comments :

It just doesn’t get any better than this.


Michele Bachmann officially entered the race today for the Republican nomination for president of the United States. This comes just one day after Fox News’ Chris Wallace asked her if she was “a flake” for having committed numerous gaffes. But today Bachmann responded to a question from a reporter from Fox News (of course) by saying how proud she was to be from the same place as another famous American:

“Well what I want them to know is just like, John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That’s the kind of spirit that I have, too.”

Bachmann may want to consult an exorcist to see if that spirit can be cast out because the actor John Wayne, while from Iowa, was not from Waterloo. However, the serial murderer, John Wayne Gacy, called Waterloo home when he began his life of crime.

This is the woman who told Chris Wallace that it was insulting to be referred to as a flake because she is a “serious” person. I’m sure Gacy was pretty serious also, so it’s easy to see why she admires him.

Fox News Continues To Demonize George Soros

Posted by on June 27, 2011 at 11:34 am. 2 Comments :

After fabricating nightmarish tales of a Hungarian Puppet Master who controls the media and the banks and topples nations in his pursuit of tyrannical power, Fox News is now advancing the assertion that George Soros is trying to buy America’s courts.



You’ve got to hand it to Fox – they have managed to assemble almost every anti-Semitic slur against Jews into the persona of a single man. Soros, by their estimation, fulfills the racist stereotypes of Jewish dominance of money and media, and now they add legal shysters to the mix. And note that this is actually Fox News, not the rabidly partisan Fox Nation, who is propagating this vile perversion of journalism.

The substance of the controversy involves reported donations to legal reform groups who advocate “merit selection” of judges rather than elections. Many states already use merit selection which, proponents say, takes politics out of the judicial system so that judges don’t have to raise funds or mount campaigns to retain their seats. Elections open up the judiciary to judges pandering to contributors or partisan voter groups rather than staying focused on the neutral application of the law.

The Fox article is based on a report that even Fox’s research debunks. The study by Colleen Pero asserts that Soros has spent $45,000,000 on this issue. A merit selection advocate says the amount is closer to $2,000,000. And Fox itself reported that they could only find $5,000,000, or about 11% of Pero’s figure.

But Pero’s analysis misses the mark on an even more fundamental basis by asserting that if judges are picked by committee it will give left-wing judges the upper hand. How so? The committees already in place are composed mostly of lawyers and former judges chosen by state representatives and governors. That means there is just as much opportunity for the judiciary to be stacked by conservatives as liberals. Ideally the selection committee would be constructed in a way that prohibits partisan influence.

Since the truth is that merit selection would give conservatives just as much potential influence over the process as liberals, why are they so adamantly opposed to the notion? Simple. They prefer a process that allows them to funnel their abundant funds from rightist activists like the Koch brothers into campaigns so that they are the ones who are buying the judges. If Soros actually did want to stack the courts he would line up with right and support judicial elections where he could throw money at liberal candidates. But Soros is advocating a position that would actually give him less influence.

These facts, however, don’t interrupt the relentless Fox News machine’s unsupportable allegations and twisting of the debate to falsely portray Soros as the one manipulating the process. And Fox deftly maneuvers their political advocacy in a manner that insults Jews along with the intelligence of their viewers.

More Fox Nation Bias And Hate: Judge Prosser Edition

Posted by on June 27, 2011 at 9:26 am. 2 Comments :

The battles going on in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court may require a U.N. peacekeeping team. Justice David Prosser, having just won a suspicious victory for reelection, has now been accused by colleagues of assaulting a fellow judge, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley.

Bradley: The facts are that I was demanding that he get out of my office and he put his hands around my neck in anger in a chokehold.

The circumstances of this altercation are in dispute as Prosser is denying the charge and counter-claiming that he was the victim of an attack by Bradley. The police and court authorities are investigating the incident, but Fox News has already solved the case with this headline on their Fox Nation web site: WI Judge Prosser Smeared: ‘He Put His Hands Around My Neck’


The Fox Nationalists never explain how they concluded that Prosser was “smeared.” They just expect their brain-dead readers to accept it on faith. But notice also the reaction of their readers that display their blood lust for the woman serving as a Supreme Court judge who may have been assaulted. They are disappointed that she wasn’t murdered.

This hostility is typical of the Fox Nationalist mindset. There is a vile string of hate and prejudice that weaves through that community everyday. How can Fox News continue to be regarded by anyone as a legitimate news enterprise when they post such blatantly dishonest stories and permit this sort of violent rhetoric?

An Alien Discovers Paul Ryan’s Republican Budget

Posted by on June 26, 2011 at 2:45 pm. 6 Comments :

Last week the Republicans walked out of the congressional deliberations regarding the debt ceiling. They continue to hold the nation’s economic survival hostage to their obsession for ever more benefits for the wealthy and cuts for the needy – the Republican Model of Shared Sacrifice. As usual, the press fails to put into context the core differences between the Democrats and Republicans. However, those differences are pretty easy to figure out and they have been itemized by economists at the Center On Budget and Policy Priorities.

“House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan would get nearly two-thirds of its $4.5 trillion in budget cuts over 10 years from programs that serve people of limited means.“

If an alien exploring the Earth were to draw conclusions about what the most pressing problems are for its inhabitants based on the Ryan budget, it would probably look something like this:


What it boils down to is that Republicans think that the current deficit problems should be resolved by cutting services to seniors, poor children, the disabled, and other low-income Americans. These freeloaders should bear the the burden of restoring our economy’s health, while the wealthy get more tax relief so that they can buy bigger boats and save for their luxury retirement.

Why anyone would think that working Americans and their families should suffer in order to repair problems caused by corporations and Wall Street bankers is unfathomable. But that’s what the GOP is proposing and they’re willing to send the nation into a disastrous default if they don’t get their way.

Fox News vs Jon Stewart vs Politifact

Posted by on June 25, 2011 at 1:41 pm. 2 Comments :

Last week The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. The interview included a discussion of Fox’s well known conservative bias and disinformation. While noting that Fox’s Washington chief, Bill Sammon, dictated “marching orders” to the network’s anchors and reporters (a segment that Fox edited out of the television broadcast), Stewart remarked that “the most consistently misinformed? Fox. Fox viewers, consistently, every poll.”

Subsequently, the non-partisan fact-checkers at PolitiFact analyzed Stewart’s comment and concluded that it was false. This set off a flurry of activity in the blogosphere with lefties defending Stewart and righties hailing PolitiFact.

To be sure, there is room for debate on the matter of Stewart’s accuracy. Stewart himself accepted PolitiFact’s findings and apologized. But Media Matters made an excellent case refuting PolitiFact’s analysis and charging that they were making dissimilar comparisons. For instance, PolitiFact cited surveys that measured the civic knowledge of viewers. However, asking whether a viewer knows how many amendments there are to the Constitution is not the same asking whether the viewer believes that the health care bill contains “death panels.” The former is a civics lesson, the latter is misinformation.

One fact that is inarguable is that Fox is responsible for a great deal of misinformation. Politfact’s conclusion was strictly literal, holding Stewart accountable for saying specifically that “every poll” found Fox viewers the most misinformed. That may have been an exaggeration and, had Stewart said simply that many polls placed Fox viewers at or near the bottom of the pack, he would have been correct and PolitiFact would have agreed. On several points PolitiFact noted that…

  • Fox isn’t last on the list, although it’s close.
  • Once again, Fox News as a whole ranked fairly low among regularly used media outlets.
  • Fox clearly did the worst among the major news outlets.

After reporting PolitiFact’s findings, and apologizing, Stewart made a another attempt to illustrate the point he was originally making with Chris Wallace: that Fox misinforms their viewers, and they do so frequently. He used PolitiFact’s own research to make this point by enumerating some of the incidences where PolitiFact ruled against Fox News. It was a hilarious bit that itemized them in a rapid-fire fashion. As a public service I am reprinting them here, following the video, for those who wish to take their time to savor the irony:
  • Glenn Beck: “Less than 10 percent of Obama’s Cabinet appointees have worked in the private sector.” — False (December 2, 2009)
  • Steve Doocy: “White House Political Director once served as right-hand to ACORN chief.” — False (September 30, 2009)
  • Gretchen Carlson: “The Texas State Board of Education may eliminate references to Christmas and the Constitution in textbooks.” — A Pants on Fire! liar award (March 12, 2010)
  • PolitiFact’s 2010 Lie of the Year: “Health care reform is a government take-over of health care.” (December 16, 2010)
  • Glenn Beck: “The Muslim Brotherhood has openly stated they want to declare war on Israel.” — False (February 15, 2011)
  • Karl Rove: “American troops have never been under the formal control of another nation.” — False (March 29, 2011)
  • Brian Kilmeade: “Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s approval ratings are up.” — False (April 15, 2011)
  • Laura Ingraham: “The Massachusetts health care plan is wildly unpopular among state residents.” — False (May 16, 2011)
  • Sarah Palin: “There’s been more debt under Obama than all other presidents combined.” — False (June 1, 2011)
  • PolitiFact’s 2009 Lie of the Year: “Health care bill includes Death Panels” (December 18, 2009)
  • Kimberly Guilfoyle: “Cash for Clunkers will give government complete access to your home computer.” — False (August 3, 2009)
  • Sarah Palin: “Halting Gulf drilling costs $8 billion a day in imports.” — A “Pants on Fire!” liar award (June 3, 2011)
  • Sarah Palin: “Democrats plan largest tax increase in history.” — A “Pants on Fire!” liar award (August 4, 2010)
  • Bill O’Reilly: “Attorney General Eric Holder was involved in the dismissal of criminal charges against the New Black Panthers.” — False (July 23, 2010)
  • Sarah Palin: “Obama voted ‘present’ in the U.S. Senate quite often. ” — False (February 8, 2010)
  • Glenn Beck: “John Holdren proposed forced abortions and putting sterilants in drinking water.” — A “Pants on Fire!” liar award (July 29, 2009)
  • Glenn Beck: “Labor union president Andy Stern is the most frequent visitor at the White House.” — False (December 7, 2009)
  • Glenn Beck: “America is the only country without automatic citizenship upon birth.” — False (June 19, 2009)
  • Bill O’Reilly: “O’Reilly never called Dr. George Tiller a baby killer, only reporting what others called him.” — False (June 5, 2009)
  • Bill O’Reilly: “Only Fox News picked up that Anita Dunn said Mao was one of her favorite philosophers.” — False (October 27, 2009)
  • Bill O’Reilly: “Nobody at Fox News ever said you’re going to jail if you don’t buy health insurance.” — A “Pants on Fire!” liar award (April 27, 2010)

Is that misinformed enough for y’all?

Fox Nation: Obama Has A Big Problem With White Women

Posted by on June 23, 2011 at 4:07 pm. 11 Comments :

Conservatives have lately been escalating their umbrage at being called racist. I keep telling them that the best way to get people to stop calling you racist is to stop being racists. But do they listen?

Today on Fox Nation there is a featured story with the headline: “Obama Has A Big Problem With White Women.” Could they have come up with a more racially charged banner with which to introduce a story on a public opinion poll? This framing deliberately recalls the worst of a hate-filled era characterized by irrational fears of marauding black predators stalking innocent and vulnerable Caucasian virgins.

Fox Nation

What makes this even worse is that the article to which the Fox Nationalists linked was an Associated Press report on presidential approval polling that cited numerous reasons for recent declines. Among those were that support from women declined about 9%. However, support from independents declined 19%. The AP’s headline had nothing to do with women, reading: “Economic worries pose new snags for Obama.” The main focus of the article pointed to issues like jobs, housing, and gas prices, as the the primary factors contributing to weakening poll numbers. So Fox had to purposefully stretch the story to fit their predetermined racist theme.

They could have borrowed the economic angle that the AP used in their headline. They could have noted that independents were leaving the Obama camp, which would have been more correct because more of them were leaving. They could even have broadened the angle to attribute the polling slump to women generally. But, no. The issue was white women. I’m just a little surprised that Fox didn’t go with this headline: “Obama Polling: Where Da White Women At?”

Fox Nation, in citing the AP, also conveniently left out that…

“…16 months before the November 2012 elections, Obama also is perceived favorably by 56 percent of respondents and 52 percent approve of his job performance overall. Despite the overwhelming sentiment that the national economy is in poor shape, more than three of five of those polled rated the financial situation of their own households as good. And, echoing previous findings, about three-quarters of the survey participants said it is unrealistic to expect noticeable results on the economy in one term.”

These numbers are not particularly bad. And that last statistic is pretty remarkable. That’s about 75% who say that Obama should not be regarded negatively for not having repaired, in a single term, the titanic destruction done to our nation by the previous administration and GOP policies. And since Republicans have been throwing up obstacles to everything the President has proposed from Inauguration Day on, we’re lucky to see the progress that we have.

In light of this, the Fox Nationalists deemed it necessary to twist the story into something that would harm the President and stir up vile, anachronistic fears. And their implementation of that spin could not be more offensive. This is not the way to get open-minded, tolerant people to stop calling you racist.