Day: 8/15/2013

IMPEACH, IMPEACH: A Frenzy Breaks Out At Fox News

Posted by on August 15, 2013 at 3:43 pm. 11 Comments :

Is it a slow news day, or just another day at Fox News? For some reason Fox is exposing their wacko side (again) over at their community web site Fox Nation (See Fox Nation vs. Reality for an in-depth look at the site’s blatant dishonesty). In two days they have posted two articles about fishy fringe groups proposing phony “Articles of Impeachment” against President Obama.

The first thing to note is that such articles cannot be drafted by citizens. It is a legal process that begins in the House of Representatives. So these charades have no meaning other than as political publicity stunts. Secondly, the allegations must assert criminal wrongdoing that amount to “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Being unsatisfied with explanations about what took place at Benghazi, or opposition to a health insurance law, that was passed by congress and upheld by the Supreme Court, do not rise to that standard.

Nevertheless, Fox News is going all out to promote these absurd spectacles. The first was posted yesterday with a headline that shouted “Black Citizens Group Files ‘Articles of Impeachment’ Against Obama”

Fox Nation NBRA

In fact, the group was actually the National Black Republican Association, a shadowy organization with no visible means of support who exist primarily to advance false claims about the historical relationship of Democrats and Republicans to the black community. For instance, they produced radio ads and billboards declaring that Martin Luther King was a Republican, a claim that is demonstrably untrue.

The Fox Nationalists sourced their story to Watchdog.org, a division of the Franklin Center which is financed by the Koch brothers as an “investigative” journalism service. Both Watchdog and the Franklin Center espouse rabidly right-wing/Tea Party propaganda disguised as news reporting – much like Fox News.

The next impeachment article was posted today in the form of a video “trailer” for a new book by noted birther Aaron Klein. The book is titled “Impeachable Offenses: The Case for Removing Barack Oabam from Office.” It suffers from the same deficiencies of law and logic as the NBRA’s article.

Fox Nation WND
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Klein’s book was published by the book division of WorldNetDaily, the far-right home of the wildest conspiracy theories on the net, many of which are manufactured by Klein himself. In addition to a variety of birther myths, WorldNetDaily is the source of such reputable reporting as terrorists building “boob” bombs (seriously, you have to see the graphic), and Obama using the movie “The Butler” to incite race wars. The site features such distinguished contributors as Ted Nugent, Victoria Jackson, and Donald Trump.

So that’s two articles in two days planting the asinine idea of impeachment in the minds of Fox’s gullible and glassy-eyed audience. Both are from sources that represent the dregs of the uber-rightist conspiracy swamps with no credibility whatsoever. I can’t wait to see what the Fox Nationalists post tomorrow. And Fox wants people to regard them as a reputable news organization? Yeah, sure.

The Mistake Meisters At Fox News Bash MSNBC For Making A Mistake

Posted by on August 15, 2013 at 1:07 am. NO Comments :

From the Throwing Stones division of Glass Houses, Inc., comes this story of Fox News finding it irresistible to hammer MSNBC for airing a segment with a conspicuously mislabeled map. This evening their community web site, the Lie-riddled Fox Nation, posted an item pointing the finger of shame at MSNBC.

Fox Nation

To be sure, MSNBC’s graphics department has cause to be embarrassed. They managed to post a map with four cities highlighted and misplaced every one of them. It’s hard to imagine how they could have screwed up so badly without suspecting that new intern who used to work for Fox.

However, it takes a special kind of Chutzpah sauce for Fox to go out of their way to report their competitor’s error. Fox has made so many mistakes of this sort that they had to send out a “Zero Tolerance” memo threatening their staff with termination if they didn’t clean up their act:

“Mistakes by any member of the show team that end up on air may result in immediate disciplinary action against those who played significant roles in the ‘mistake chain,’ and those who supervise them. That may include warning letters to personnel files, suspensions, and other possible actions up to and including termination.”

Faux PasThat memo appeared to have no effect since the errors kept occurring unabated. Fox would mess up charts. They would mess up photos. And most of all, they would mess up maps.

The graphic below shows just a few of the egregious errors that have graced Fox News. They placed Egypt, instead of Iraq, in between Syria and Iran. They labeled Vermont as New Hampshire. They colored in Utah but called it Nevada. And, my personal favorite, they listed one of Japan’s nuclear power facilities as “Shibuyaeggman.” The problem is that there is no reactor in Shibuyaeggman. In fact, there is no Shibuyaeggman. Although, there is a disco called Eggman in a Tokyo neighborhood called Shibuya, and while the dance action is hot, it is not reported to be radioactive.

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Fox News Map Mangles

It’s bad enough that Fox gets their actual “news” stories wrong with phony reports and analyses that distort facts, or leaves them out altogether, but they can’t even get the simple things right. Sure, everyone makes mistakes, but Fox has made mistakes their specialty.