Day: 7/4/2011

Fox News Twitter Account Hacked – Hacker Hired To Replace Glenn Beck

Posted by on July 4, 2011 at 10:23 am. 12 Comments :

Reports are circulating this morning about an apparent hack of the Fox News Twitter account @FoxNewsPolitics. The hacker, falsely identified as Anthony Weiner in early reports, posted several tweets asserting that President Obama had been assassinated. The report of the hacking was confirmed by Fox News who issued a statement of regret for “any distress the false tweets may have created.”

Immediately after posting their regrets, Fox announced that they had hired the hacker to be the host of a new program to be aired weekdays at 5:00pm, Glenn Beck’s old time slot. Praising the hacker’s ingenuity and initiative, Fox VP Bill Sammon said, “He’s at least as accurate as the rest of our Fox News team.”

This acquisition should insure a steady supply of the sort of delusional conspiracy theories that epitomized the Beck brand. To date Fox News has not issued any regrets for the distress caused by the thousands of other false stories they broadcast on a daily basis.

Leave It To Blather: A Holiday Memorial To The Media Madhouse

Posted by on July 4, 2011 at 9:14 am. 1 Comments :

In honor of Independence Day I offer this reprise of a video I produced almost five years ago that embraces the naive wisdom found in the Golden Age of American television. Is this a great country or what?

Who would have thought that after 50 years the Cleaver brothers would be looked back upon as media visionaries? The insight and stark analysis preserved in this video unmistakably marks them as the intellectual peers of Minow, McLuhan, and Colbert.

The video above contains an actual clip from Leave It To Beaver. In the episode’s customary moralistic epilogue, the boys tackle the same defects in television news that Jon Stewart so elegantly skewered in his now famous Crossfire appearance.

Seeing this icon of innocence and family values humorously addressing a media problem that persists 50 years later, illustrates just how entrenched these problems are (and how easy they are to make fun of). But the fact that we’re still laughing at the same jokes is a bit disheartening. It’s not exactly an affirmation of progress.

The parade of prattling pundits that populate the closing credits are only a taste of the Blathering Class that infects our national discourse with deceit, diversion and division. And yet, people watch. Are we gluttons for punishment, addicted to conflict, or just starved for knowledge and hoping some will inadvertently reveal itself?

I don’t know. I guess I watch too much TV. Have a Happy Froth of July.