Day: 3/21/2013

So F**king What? Fox News Bigots Falsely Tie Islam To The Aurora Theater Massacre

Posted by on March 21, 2013 at 8:28 pm. 3 Comments :

In this edition of “So F**king What?” we are treated to a repulsive display of bigotry by the Islamophobes at Fox News. Their Fox Nation web site (renowned as world-class liars) saw fit to republish a story from the uber-conservative Washington Times that alleged that James Holmes, currently in prison for the Aurora, Colorado theater massacre, has converted to Islam.

Fox Nation
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The story in the Washington Times was based on uncorroborated information from an anonymous source. The basis for the assertion that Holmes is now a Muslim is, according to the source, that “the beard James Holmes sported in court last months represents his new-found faith.” Were that the criteria, it would make everyone from Abraham Lincoln to George Clooney Muslim.

So F**king What?

The first question any reasonable person would ask is “What difference does it make if Holmes did convert?” How would that change any aspect of his prosecution? The facts of the case are the same and the jury will decide the outcome based on the evidence and not (hopefully) on what religion he practices.

The point of this Fox posting is to malign Muslims by associating them with a mass murderer. The implication is that Holmes, by adopting Islam, validates what right-wing bigots regard as the heinous nature of the religion. They point to this news as proof that homicidal maniacs like Holmes have an affinity for the Islamic faith.

The problem with that shallow attempt at logic is that many more homicidal maniacs have converted to Christianity while in prison. They include murderers like Tex Watson of the Manson family and serial killer Ted Bundy. If conversion to a religion is to be regarded as an endorsement of criminal behavior, then Christians have a lot for which to answer.

The posting by the Fox Nationalists carefully edited the text from the Washington Times to exclude a paragraph that substantively altered the impression that the article would have. That paragraph said…

“[M]ost Muslim inmates are not happy with the convict’s new religion. ‘None of them condone forms of terrorism or extremism,’ the source added. ‘And they don’t want their religion to be connected to that awful shooting.’

Isn’t it interesting that that part of the article didn’t make it into the Fox posting? If it had, it would have been a lot more difficult for Fox Nation’s commenters to engage in a rabid feast of bigotry and hate. The majority of the comments expressed the belief that it was expected that a sicko like Holmes would be a Muslim. And some of the more creative cretins attempted to tie President Obama to the story, suggesting that he shared both the faith and the madness of Holmes.

Ultimately, that was the purpose of posting the story to begin with. It was an opportunity to bash the President and Muslims at the same time. For the editors at Fox it was the perfect alignment of politics and religion and they surely knew that their readers would slobber it up. There is one thing you can say about Fox: They do know their audience.

Roger Ailes Kept Glenn Beck On The Air To Irritate MoveOn And Media Matters

Posted by on March 21, 2013 at 2:25 pm. NO Comments :

Roger AilesThe new biography of Roger Ailes by his hand-picked fluffer, Zev Chafets, is getting some exposure in the press via reviews and excerpts. News Corpse recently reported that Ailes agreed to cooperate with Chafets in order to make a preemptive strike against a more critical look at his career by journalist Gabriel Sherman, whose book will be published in May. The New York Times published a scathing review that ripped Chafets for producing a book that…

“…reads like a long, soft-focus, poorly edited magazine article. For the most part Mr. Chafets serves as little more than a plastic funnel for Mr. Ailes’s observations […] he doesn’t ask his subject many tough questions about Fox News’s incestuous relationship with the Republican Party, its role in accelerating partisanship in our increasingly polarized society or the consequences of its often tabloidy blurring of the lines between news and entertainment.”

Now the New York Observer has posted another excerpt that reveals the lengths to which Ailes will go to annoy his enemies. Chafets writes that Ailes had already decided “he would have to get rid of Glenn Beck,” but he didn’t take any actions to do so for many months. This stalling occurred even though he was aware that “An advertising boycott organized by ColorOfChange.org hurt revenues, and Beck’s ratings declined.” This reference to the Color Of Change action is the first time that Ailes has admitted that Fox lost money due to the boycott. He previously made emphatic denials that there had been any impact on revenue. The reason Ailes gave for putting off Beck’s departure, according to Chafets, was that he “didn’t want to give MoveOn and Media Matters the satisfaction.”

So there you have it. The CEO of a news network had concluded that Beck’s rhetoric was divisive and “over the top,” but he permitted him to continue broadcasting his race-baiting, Nazi-inflected, conspiracy theories for several more months because he was afraid to give his critics something they might celebrate. Ailes would rather poison the airwaves (and the minds of his viewers) with lies and hatred than to let his ideological adversaries think they had scored a victory. That’s the true nature of Fox News and its philosophy of journalism.

It goes without saying that Ailes’ ego-driven decision-making was flawed from the start. Delaying the cancellation of Beck had zero effect on how his critics would respond. Removing Beck from the air was a victory whether it occurred in January or July. The only person whose “satisfaction” was affected was Ailes himself. Chafets never recognizes this fact and the excerpt irrationally concludes with him asserting that “Ailes was right again.”

Chafets further sucks up by saying that, as a result of his maneuvering, “Ailes could plausibly say that he had moved Fox safely away from the fringe.” Where he gets that notion from is a mystery. Particularly in light of Fox’s acquisitions since the election that include Mark Levin, Herman Cain, Scott Brown, and Erick Erickson (who once called a Supreme Court Justice a “goat-fucking child molester”). They join fringe all-stars Sean Hannity, Eric Bolling, and Steve Doocy, among others. This is not what most people would describe as plausibly moving away from the fringe, but it is the Fox way.