Day: 7/25/2011

Fox Nation vs. Reality: On Al Sharpton

Posted by on July 25, 2011 at 11:45 am. 1 Comments :

Fox Nation - Al SharptonIn the latest episode of Fox Nation’s departure from reality, the Fox Nationalists have jumped on remarks by Al Sharpton that suggest he intends to refrain from ever criticizing President Obama. The headline: NBC News Hires Anchor Who Pledged to Not Criticize Obama About Anything.

First of all, That is not exactly what Sharpton said. The reference is to a 60 Minutes interview (via Cenk Uygur) where Sharpton said that criticizing Obama with regard to a black agenda would diminish his role as President. What he said was…

“What I don’t want to see is because he is black we act like he’s not the real president – he ought to be leading the black cause or the labor cause. He’s the President. To minimize who he is, I think, is an insult to the achievement of having him there.”

So this was not about never criticizing Obama, just not obsessing over a single issue. For the record, I’m no fan of Sharpton, but I do think that accuracy and honesty are important. And in that regard Fox should acknowledge that their whole business model rests on not criticizing Republicans and conservatives. In a specific example you have Dick Morris, who has been on the Fox payroll for years, and recently pledged never to criticize GOP front-runner Mitt Romney:

“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.”

It’s safe to say that he has the same policy toward any other prospective Obama opponent. And the same goes for his Fox colleagues. Remember that when you hear any of them talking about any of the GOP candidates.

Fox Nation - Obama PathologicalAnd just for fun, take a look at the featured story on Fox Nation this morning: Opinion: Is Obama a Pathological Liar?

Hmmm. That’s something to ponder. Along with: Is John Boehner a Child Molester? Is Michele Bachmann in League with Al Qaeda? Is Rupert Murdoch a Reptilian Alien? Does the Republican Party and Fox News shill for billionaires and anti-American multinational corporations to advance their own personal interests and greed? (Oh, wait a minute. That last one has already been verified).

Sarah Palin’s Undefeated Headed For TV Already

Posted by on July 25, 2011 at 3:53 am. 5 Comments :

Stephen Bannon, the writer/director of Sarah Palin’s The Undefeated, has announced his next documentary project: Custer’s Victory – The inspirational saga of a brave general whose tiny band of soldiers tossed King Tut’s tea into San Francisco Bay. But seriously…..

OverratedThe Undefeated is having as difficult a time living up to its name as its subject does. After pretending the opening was a massive success, the film’s defenders tried to make excuses for its obvious failure by whining about how little promotion it had. To the contrary, it was promoted heavily to its target audience. It had a screening at the RightOnline Conference hosted by Andrew Breitbart. It’s official premiere was in Iowa with Sarah Palin in attendance. The Fox News television and Internet PR machine was hyping it non-stop.

Now, after its second weekend in theaters, the film has sunk to even more embarrassing lows. Despite promises that it would roll out nationally, it added only four new theaters. The total boxoffice for the weekend was just $24,000, a 63% decline from last weekend. And perhaps most emblematic of a cinematic fiasco, the producers just announced that the movie is going straight to video – after less than two weeks in theatrical release. The press release from the distributor is a hilarious feast of hallucinatory grandeur. It reads like an announcement of triumph:

“Victory Film Group and ARC Entertainment, the distributor of ‘The Undefeated,’ the film about Gov. Sarah Palin’s rise from obscurity to national prominence, jointly announced today that beginning on September 1st the film will be available to 75 million homes via Video on Demand and Pay-Per-View access through national and regional cable and satellite operators.”

Translation: Our movie sucked so bad in theaters that we’re desperately trying to salvage our investment and reputation by jumping immediately to television in the hopes that we can con some addled-brained Tea Baggers out of a few more bucks.

The press release went to say that “a ‘Special Edition’ DVD will contain additional new content and will only be sold in Walmart stores.” Now that’s an affirmation of achievement if there ever was one. The CEO of ARC Entertainment remarked that the company has been “inundated with requests from people wanting the film to be made available in their market.” Just not in their theaters. He continued by expressing how excited he is “about having this film made available to the entire country earlier than expected.” The producers of Harry Potter must be mortified that their movie will be stuck in cinemas for another six months and won’t be “available to the entire country” for a year or more.

These entertainment geniuses are attempting to argue that the empty theaters are a sign of “overwhelming demand” from the public who are just so darned anxious to see the picture in their own homes. Despite this hankering for the film, the producers assert that they will still have to embark on a multimillion dollar campaign to promote the TV offering. It’s a good thing that that’s a load of BS, because otherwise they would be losing even more money on this turkey.

This pathetic display of disinterest in the Palin crockumentary that was heralded as the true story of the half-term governor, and that would polish her image and reveal her greatness, cannot portend well for her presidential ambitions, if she really has any. If the people who would be her most ardent supporters won’t go to see her vanity bio-pic, then we shouldn’t expect voters to go out of their way either. America views Palin as a quitter, a loser, and a washed up reality star. At this point Khloe Kardashian would probably out-poll Palin.