Cliven Bundy 2.0: Fox News Makes Heroes Of American Border Jihadists

Posted by Mark NC on July 6, 2014 at 3:24 pm. 6 Comments :

The border wars continue on Fox News as the network repeatedly portrays the immigration issue in partisan terms and likens the influx of immigrants to an “invasion” or a conspiracy by President Obama to mint new Democratic voters.

In another new escalation of their radical rhetoric, Fox News is now heralding the participation of right-wing militia organizations who say that they will take it upon themselves to patrol the southern borders (funny that they are never concerned with any other border), an activity for which they have no legal authority.

The Fox Nation website is currently featuring an article that promotes a positive impression of violent and racist extra-legal militias that they describe as “defenders” of the U.S. border saying that…

“We have independent units from the Bolinas Border Patrol and the Central Valley Citizens militia joining forces with independent citizens militia units of Texas to defend our southern border in Texas, to protest Obama’s lawless open borders policies and to rally support for Governor Perry to officially call out Guard units and Texas militia units at his disposal to defend the border!! Lawsuits will not cut it. The invasion is happening now. Action must be taken NOW!!”

These border jihadists have no official authorization to conduct the activities that they have announced. Any harm that might come to themselves or others would constitute criminal misbehavior for which they could be prosecuted and punished. Their hollow exclamations of lawlessness on the part of the federal government are completely without merit and they offer no argument to support their claims. Contrary to the charge of “open borders,” the Obama administration has significantly improved border security and has actually intercepted and deported more immigrants than their predecessors in the Bush administration.

None of that gets in the way of promulgating false and hysterical allegations that are designed to incite racial disharmony among the Fox News Chicken Littles who see this administration as a sign of the Apocalypse. It is a call to battle in the Texas territories that the righteous must heed, just as they did up in Nevada where deadbeat rancher Cliven Bundy amassed militia groups to stare down federal law enforcement agents. That incident ended in a moment of candor with Bundy revealing his racist tendencies and a couple of his former associates murdering two police officers in Las Vegas.

Just to make sure that the message sent to the militia brigades is not misunderstood, the photograph that Fox Nation used to illustrate their border defense jihad was actually taken during the Bundy ranch standoff. It is telling that Fox would use this photo to represent events at the border when it wasn’t taken there. And it is journalistically unethical to do so without proper disclosure. This is a not-so-subtle attempt to interweave the Bundy affair with this new group of lawless missionaries. So even though Bundy was discredited and abandoned after flaming out in the Nevada desert, Fox News is still peddling the agenda of insurrectionists who believe that they can take the law into their own hands.

The ignorance required to link immigration to an invasion is substantial. Invaders are overtly hostile enemy assailants who seek to overthrow the target of their attack. However, no one disputes that immigrants are drawn here by their reverence for American values and opportunities. They are not enemies advancing to conquer. They were invited by the words engraved in brass at the base of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

With regard to the alleged voter creation conspiracy theory nonsense, even the most liberal interpretation of the immigration policies currently being discussed would require new residents to have been in the U.S. since childhood and to have completed high school or be serving in the military. Additionally, they would would have to pay all taxes and penalties and go to the end of the line to qualify for citizenship. All told it is estimated that it would take about thirteen years to become a citizen with voting privileges.

Unfortunately, the themes being hyped by Fox News are being echoed throughout the conservative media circus. The extremists and wackos who inhabit that realm are eagerly latching on to this new cause for panic. And the possibility of it producing another tragedy similar to the one that cost two Las Vegas police officers their lives is ever more likely.

Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, but with accomplices like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh treating violent criminals like heroes, we may not have seen the worst of this yet.

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Fox News Falsely Reports That Court Docs “Shatter” Benghazi Video Narrative

Posted by Mark NC on July 4, 2014 at 6:33 pm. 3 Comments :

The attempt by Fox News to manufacture a phony version of events leading up to the terrorist attack in Benghazi continues at full speed. The latest chapter in their fictional tale revolves around court documents released by the Department of Justice in a pretrial motion to secure the detention of suspect Ahmed Abu Khatalla. The report by Fox News begins with the allegation that…

“Court documents filed by the U.S. Justice Department in the criminal case against Benghazi attack suspect Ahmed Abu Khatallah provide unprecedented details about the evolution of the assault and further shatter the Obama administration’s initial claim that it sprouted from protests over an anti-Islam film.”

The problem with Fox’s reporting is that nothing in the rest of their story supports the charge in their opening paragraph. Not only is there nothing that shatters the claim that an anti-Islam video played a part in the violence that night, there isn’t any reference to the video at all. There is no assertion that the video was a trigger for the attack, and no assertion that it was free of some responsibility for motivating the attackers.

A possible reason for there being nothing conclusive regarding the video is that the court documents referenced by Fox were merely a motion presenting the state’s arguments for maintaining Khatalla in custody while awaiting trial. The purpose of this motion is solely to establish that the defendant is a flight risk and a potential danger to the community. It does not pretend to include every bit of evidence or testimony that will be presented in court.

Nevertheless, Fox sought to portray the motion as containing material that it simply does not contain. That’s why the article never bothers to quote anything from the motion that supports the contention that the video narrative was put to rest. The best they could do was to say that…

“The motion says that in the days preceding the attack, the defendant ‘voiced concern and opposition to the presence of an American facility in Benghazi.'” [and that] “The motion filed this week said Khatallah ‘was motivated by his extremist ideology.'”

There’s no surprise there. The defendant, after all, was a leader of the anti-Western extremist group, Ansar al-Sharia. Of course he was opposed to the American presence on Benghazi. That, however, doesn’t negate the possibility that Khatalla’s plans to attack the diplomatic facility may have been inspired by, or opportunistically coordinated to, the numerous protests that were occurring simultaneously throughout much of the Middle East that were directly the result of the anti-Islam video.

What Fox fails to mention in their story is that Khatalla himself is reported to have admitted that the Benghazi attack was revenge for the video. According to the New York Times…

“What he did in the period just before the attack has remained unclear. But Mr. Abu Khattala told other Libyans in private conversations during the night of the attack that he was moved to attack the diplomatic mission to take revenge for an insult to Islam in an American-made online video.”

Fox’s reporting on this is all over the map. Aside from their obsessive fixation on the issue as a cudgel with which to pummel President Obama, Fox has previously labeled Khatalla the ringleader of the Benghazi attack, only to demote him to an irrelevant foot soldier after his capture.

What this tells us is that the value of any element of this story to Fox News is determined solely by its ability to reflect negatively on the President. Consequently, anyone who buys into anything that Fox says is being deliberately and willingly deluded.

Happy Birthday News Corpse – And America. Plus: See How Fox News Dishonors This Holiday

Posted by Mark NC on July 4, 2014 at 1:00 pm. 1 Comments :

Today is the ninth anniversary of the launch of News Corpse. It has brought great satisfaction exposing the deceit and inbred hatred of the right-wing media for these past nine years. On the other hand, it has brought great frustration that such unethical miscreants continue to distort the truth in pursuit of their extremist, uber-conservative agenda. On the other hand (that’s three hands so far if you’re counting), the wingnut press is a bottomless pit of material for satire and mockery.

For any of you who wish to give News Corpse a birthday present, you can buy our book, Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Community’s Assault On Truth, on Amazon. Or you could dump your Tea Party, KeystoneXL, GOP funding, mobile phone providers (i.e. AT&T and Verizon) and switch to the progressive cell phone service, CREDOMobile Be sure to use the special offer code “newscorpse”, for which we will receive a modest commission. Both presents will be a gift for you as well.

In other news…

Fox News is engaging in a peculiar manner of celebration this Independence Day. Their Fox Nation website decided to display their patriotism by posting an editorial by impeachment advocate, and Fox senior legal analyst, Andrew Napolitano, that declared that America has “Gone From An Inherited Tyrant To An Elected One.” Hooray for the USA!

Over on the Fox News website they featured an article by Dan Gainor, the VP of the ultra-rightist propaganda factory, the Media Research Center. Gainor’s column was headlined “July Fourth: Be especially proud to be an American in 2014.” It was long discourse that covered many subjects, but left out just one: Any reason to be especially proud. Gainor just ranted about the evils of liberals and President Obama. For example, note these excerpts:

[Liberals are] largely in charge of educating our children, running our government and manipulating the media we consume.
Government is both pro-left and pro-union.
No wonder America is in trouble. The Us in USA have a $17.5 trillion national debt, an unchecked parade of illegal immigration and off-the-charts moral decay (including epic out-of-wedlock births).
Look who they learn love of country from – the president.
Patriotism and love of country are under attack, just like faith.
The flag and those who care for it are under attack across the nation.
Don’t let liberals talk down the Founders unopposed. Don’t let local tyrants force you to take down the American flag.
The next time someone asks you if you are proud to be an American, you can answer: “Damn right I am.”

Yippie-Ki-Yay, America.

Richard Mellon Scaife died. Scaife was the media baron who spent a lifetime attacking Democrats, and particularly the Clinton family who he accused of everything from drug-running to murder. He was an early and aggressive advocate of Clinton’s impeachment. He was 82.

Disgusting, hate-filled, Tea Party, racist, protesters continue to camp out at the site of a Murrieta, California, facility where immigration officials are hoping to temporarily house women and children while being processed. These pseudo-patriots are actually impeding the authorities from completing deportation proceedings, and at the same time they are subjecting the children to terrifying experiences and forcing them into unsafe, overcrowded facilities. What a wonderful way to spend the Fourth of July and honor these words:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Finally, let’s all wish this beautiful young woman the very happiest Sweet Sixteen ever. That’s right, Malia Obama is a real Yankee Doodle Dandy who was born on the Fourth of July.

While Suppressing Good Jobs Data, Fox News Slams Obama For Trying To Create More Jobs

Posted by Mark NC on July 3, 2014 at 11:18 am. 5 Comments :

This morning the new unemployment report was released showing that 288,000 jobs were added during the month of June and the unemployment rate went down to 6.1%, the lowest since September of 2008. Not surprisingly, Fox News virtually ignored this report as they do with anything that might reflect positively on this administration. And in their abbreviated coverage they made sure to focus on whatever negative spin they could muster.

Making matters worse, Fox Nation chose this day of uplifting economic news to criticize President Obama for paying too much attention to improving the economy. Yes, you read that right. Fox is very upset that Obama has made economic renewal a key part of his agenda. It’s just another reason for them to commence impeachment hearings.

For more absurdities from the liars at Fox Nation…
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The Fox Nationalists posted an article from the Washington Examiner that took the President to task for raising the issue of our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and urging Congress to act on his proposals to fund the repair of roads, bridges, and other public works projects. The Examiner’s story began sarcastically by saying…

“When the going gets tough, and it seems like everything is falling apart, everyone likes to retreat to their safe place. Some find comfort in their faith. Others find comfort in family. For President Obama, it’s a ‘pivot’ to jobs and the economy.”

Setting aside the clumsy backhand at Obama’s commitment to faith and family, the charge that he is seeking to exploit the issue of jobs and the economy as a refuge from other more pressing matters couldn’t be more ridiculous. It would require one to be so dense and/or dishonest that they fail to recognize that jobs and the economy are consistently the most important issues to the American people in poll after poll, including the latest Fox News poll. And Obama addressed this in his latest speech highlighting what he called “Economic Patriotism.”

“It’s not crazy, it’s not socialism. It’s not the imperial presidency — no laws are broken. We’re just building roads and bridges like we’ve been doing for the last, I don’t know, 50, 100 years. But so far, House Republicans have refused to act on this idea. I haven’t heard a good reason why they haven’t acted — it’s not like they’ve been busy with other stuff.”

The fact that Fox regards jobs and the economy as distractions, and downplays positive economic news, tells us that they have a weak grasp of what’s important to the American people. And instead of taking these issues seriously, Fox obsesses over IRS emails, and Hillary Clinton’s book tour. The result is that Fox and their mush-brained viewers will be caught off-guard again, just as they were in 2012 when they were certain that Romney would crush Obama in a landslide.

When you construct a fantasy dream world of heroes and villains and contrived realities, it will always end badly when you wake up and learn that you were lied to by the media storytellers in whom you put your faith. So thank you, Fox News, for keeping your audience mired in myths and irrelevancies while the rest of the country tries to move forward. And in November, if the Democrats make unexpected gains in the congressional midterm elections, you can console yourselves with the knowledge that you built that.

Fox News Champions Right-Wing Bigots Protesting Against Immigrant Children

Posted by Mark NC on July 2, 2014 at 10:39 am. 8 Comments :

The American conservative, as represented by the Republican/Tea Party, is so consumed with hatred that they are now forming blockades to prevent busloads of children from being transported to safe and secure facilities while waiting to be processed by immigration authorities.

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After weeks of media reports showing severely overpopulated facilities in Texas, where young children and even infants are housed in prison-like conditions, sleeping on concrete, lacking air-conditioning, federal officials are attempting to provide some relief by dispersing the thousands of child immigrants to various locations so that they can be processed faster and under more humane conditions. And this act of compassion and responsibility is being met with opposition by right-wing, bigoted protesters who favor mistreatment of kids simply because of their immigrant status.

The protesters literally blocked the roads preventing the buses from arriving at their destination in Murrieta, California. The kids had already been traveling for hours, and now were forced to remain in the buses for an additional two hour trek to a different facility. They chanted “USA,” “Impeach Obama,” and “Deport,” with a hostility that could only have exacerbated the kids anxiety and fear.

This unconscionable behavior was reported on Fox News in glowing terms, elevating the protesters to heroes and patriots who had simply “had enough.” It was reminiscent of the Fox News glorification of the criminally deadbeat rancher Cliven Bundy and his militia thugs. On Fox & Friends Steve Doocy introduced the segment saying…

“Now some people in one city in California have had it. There was a plane full of people flown from Texas to California and they were then put on a bus and they were taken up to Murrieta, California where they were gonna be processed. That was the plan. It did not go as planned.”

Notice that his intro left out entirely the age of the people on the buses. He and his co-hosts later acknowledged that these were children, but disparaged them as disease-ridden carriers of scabies, lice, Ebola, dengue virus, and Tuberculosis. To the extent that any of that were true it would be further justification for more humane treatment, not less. The Fox & Friends Krew seems to think that sick kids should be thrown back across the border to die.

Fox News continues to use repulsive language like their on-screen graphic that likened the kids in this relief effort to garbage by calling it a “Federal Dumping Grounds.” They also use the insulting term “illegals” even though almost every other media enterprise has banned its use. Note that wingnuts justify using the term because laws were broken. But drivers who speed are not called illegals. Patients who take medicine not prescribed to them are not called illegals. Bank presidents and oil companies executives who break financial and environmental laws are not called illegals. Apparently it’s term reserved to dehumanize immigrants alone.

It takes a special kind of bitter soullessness to protest children who are being brought to safety. These cretins apparently prefer that the kids remain corralled in hazardous conditions where they will suffer and be vulnerable to greater harm. And, ironically, the effort to transport the kids to other facilities is not only meant to ease their suffering, it is also necessary to expedite their processing. That would result in many of them being reunited with their families in their native countries, something the protesters ostensibly favor. But their actions, born of hate and ignorance, actually delay that. What a sad picture of American goodwill these vile protesters paint for the rest of the world to see and judge us by.

Another Shameless Self-Promotion For The Hottest eBook Mentioned In This Headline: Fox Nation vs. Reality

Posted by Mark NC on July 1, 2014 at 4:21 pm. 2 Comments :

News Corpse has been publishing exposes of the conservative media, and particularly Fox News, for almost a decade. In that time we have revealed the dishonesty, duplicity, and deception of the wingnut press as no one else can. If you are a regular reader you know the value of having reliable, well researched rebuttals to the certifiable crap that emanates from the right.

So the question now is: If you haven’t bought our book yet, what the heck are you waiting for? Fox Nation vs. Reality is jam-packed with more than 50 examples of Fox’s utter disregard for the truth. It’s a great resource for setting your Tea-publican friends and family straight. We all have one one of them crazy uncles, admit it.

[Stephen Colbert endorsement is a dramatization of what we’d like to believe
would happen if he knew the book existed]

Plus, your purchase will help News Corpse continue to shine the light of truth on the right-wing media machine with the logic, insight, and humor regular readers have come to expect. It’s like donating three bucks to a worthy cause and getting an awesome book for free.

Wonkette called Fox Nation vs. Reality, “A valuable contribution to the effort to chip away at Bullshit Mountain.” Who can argue with that? They also touted the book’s “Solid, fact-checky blogging that systematically takes apart the exaggerations, cherry-picking of facts, and outright lies that regularly crop up in Fox Nation articles.” And they cryptically noted that “Fox Nation vs. Reality is definitely not hastily written Furry porn.” High praise indeed.

As an example from the book of one of the blatant departures from reality employed by Fox, take a look at this article where Fox Nation published an item with the headline “Obama More Unpopular Than Tea Party.” However, the New York Times poll cited in the article actually reported Obama’s favorability at 48% and the Tea Party at 20% – a complete reversal of the declaration in the headline.

So get your copy today at Amazon. You won’t regret it. Just wade through a few dozen of the glowing reviews on Amazon for an idea of what to expect. And if you do regret it…hey, it’s only three measly bucks. What are you, cheap or something? [Seriously, thanks for your support. News Corpse could not be here without the generous support of our readers]

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Days Of Our Lies: The Epically Stupid Fox News Soap Opera Starring Hillary Clinton

Posted by Mark NC on June 30, 2014 at 1:58 pm. 5 Comments :

Much of the routine disinformation and scandal mongering that is the core of Fox News programming is designed to produce melodrama in order to enrapt their dimwitted viewers and warp their grasp of world affairs. It is key to the editorial philosophy of Fox’s chairman and CEO, Roger Ailes, who conceived the “Orchestra Pit” theory of journalism.

Shameless self-promotion…
Get Fox Nation vs. Reality. Available now at Amazon.

So it is no wonder that Fox would recruit Edward Klein, an author so disreputable that he has been renounced by a broad range of critics, both liberal and conservative. As an example of his derangement, he once wrote that Chelsea Clinton was the spawn of Bill after raping his lesbian wife, Hillary. Now, in an editorial for Fox titled “Hillary down in the dumps: Is Clinton about to drop out of 2016 race?”, Klein delivers an account of a conversation between Bill and Hillary Clinton to which he could not possibly have had access without having hidden in the broom closet. Here is the opening scene:

“During a recent break in her national book tour, Hillary Clinton sat at her kitchen table in Chappaqua, N.Y., rubbing her forehead. She had been experiencing splitting headaches and was finding it increasingly difficult to hide the throbbing pain in her head while doing television interviews.”

From his vantage point in the closet, Klein managed to observe Clinton alone in her kitchen nursing her headache and sinking into despair. His representation of her mood is in stark contrast with the video evidence of her media interviews where she appears to be engaged and upbeat. Klein also contends that she is depressed because her book is an historic flop. However, that is also contrary to the facts. But the real drama has yet to begin.

Enter Bill Clinton, who Klein apparently observed as he “poured Hillary a glass of green tea, and massaged her shoulders.” Then, in the privacy of their kitchen, unaware of the guest in the closet, they began to discuss the hardships of her book tour and prospective presidential campaign. And for some reason they chose to speak in a dialog that emulated junior high school playacting. Here is the script exactly as Klein “heard” it:

Hillary: The media have me in their cross-hairs. Everything I say is twisted and used against me. I can’t get any traction. They are pouncing on everything I say.

Hillary hesitated for a moment, and then continued.

Hillary: I’m seriously losing my appetite for combat. I never thought I’d say that. I’ve been a fighter all my life. You guys have never seen me back down, but right now I am punch drunk.

Bill bit his lip and said…

Bill: We all have a right to feel sorry for ourselves from time to time. But you’ve got history to make.

Hillary: Right now I’m feeling like they can all go f**k themselves. I know the country needs us, but they aren’t acting like they deserve us. Just f**k ‘me (sic).

Bill: We’re going to fight and win the White House. That will be our reward and our revenge.

It would be one thing if this was a fanciful dramatization of a conversation that Klein imagined might have taken place. But he is offering it as a factual account of an actual discussion between two people in their own home. And Fox News was so impressed with its veracity that they went ahead and published it. But anyone who believes that this is how adults talk, particularly Yale-educated lawyers with decades of political experience, is flakier than a day-old croissant.

It’s pathetic that Fox would post this nonsense, but it’s even worse that they know their audience so well that they can have a fair measure of confidence that it will be accepted as reality.

Sunday Morning Republicans Gone Wild: Boehner, Issa, Krauthammer, And Gohmert

Posted by Mark NC on June 29, 2014 at 12:11 pm. 3 Comments :

This week has been a festival of Republican derangement on a scale that is impressive for its magnitude and breadth. A party that is notorious for inane policies and political stunts has really knuckled down and exceeded its previous masterworks of idiocy. And it starts at the top with GOP House Speaker John Boehner.

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This week John Boehner leaped to the front of the pack by announcing the Tea Party’s wet dream of a lawsuit against President Obama for abuse of power and political overreach. However, when asked precisely what actions by the President were going to be the basis for the litigation, Boehner responded “When I make that decision, I’ll let you know.”

Brilliant! Boehner has invented the “Mad-Libs” lawsuit. Just fill in the blanks as you go along. For instance: Whereas the President has violated the ________ Act by issuing an order to _________ citizens, he is guilty of _________ing the _________. Case closed.

Next up we have Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Phony Scandals Committee. This week he appeared on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News program to discuss the IRS and said of Lois Lerner, without qualification, that “Of course she broke laws and of course she broke regulations and we need to hold her accountable.”

That is a remarkably irresponsible position to take for someone who is ostensibly undertaking an investigation with the pretense of relying solely on the facts. But when Issa was challenged Sunday by CNN’s Candy Crowley as to whether he had any proof of wrongdoing by Lerner, the IRS, or the White House, Darrell Issa said “I don’t play the game of ‘no evidence.'” Just let that one sink in for a while.

Enter Fox News super-pundit Charles Krauthammer. Old Chuckie Sleaze visited with his Fox colleague Greta Van Susteren this week to pontificate over the Supreme Court decision on presidential recess appointments. Krauthammer opined that the court’s rebuke was proof that Obama is a lawless tyrant who rules by fiat. And then he introduced the “I” word saying that “If this were a Republican president, he’d be impeached now over all of these abuses.”

The problem with Krauthammer’s analysis is that Republican presidents have been far more generous with their recess appointments than Obama. Since 1981, Ronald Reagan led the field with 232. He was followed by Bush, Jr (171), Clinton (139), Bush, Sr. (78), and then Obama trailing with a mere 32 recess appointments. So Krauthammer’s speculation about what would happen to a Republican couldn’t be more wrong.

And saving the best for last, GOP Reps. Bill Flores and Louis Gohmert (aka Flo-Mert) have drafted legislation that would pay a million dollars to anyone who can provide the emails that were allegedly lost by Lois Lerner. Setting aside the fact that there may not be any lost emails at all because they may have been retrieved from servers or files residing with the recipients, Flo-Mert’s bill is epically idiotic.

First of all, they are essentially outsourcing their duties to unknown persons who they are enticing, via greed, to produce evidence of crime. That can result in unscrupulous individuals manufacturing evidence or breaking the law to acquire it. Secondly, they are proposing to spend taxpayer money on a purely partisan activity. Thirdly, they are conceding that they are too incompetent to do their own jobs. Fourthly, they are implying that there is a conspiracy to conceal the emails that can only be broken by cold, hard cash. And lastly, they included a provision in the bill to cut the salaries of all IRS employees by 20% until the possibly non-existent emails are turned over to Congress. That would punish people who have nothing to do with the matter, not to mention everyone in perpetuity if, in fact, there are no lost emails to recover.

This brief collection of Republican stupidity demonstrates how seriously devolved the GOP (Greedy One Percent) have become. They appear to have entirely stopped trying to be a reputable political enterprise and are competing to see who can be the imbecile of the week (although it will be hard to beat the inimitable Fox News “Psycho” analyst, Keith Ablow). But stay tuned as the contest continues and new aspirants arise to challenge the old hands. This is entertainment at its best.

UH-OH: Bush Released The Real Terrorist Mastermind Of The Benghazi Attack

Posted by Mark NC on June 28, 2014 at 12:04 pm. 1 Comments :

Last week Fox News and their Republican cohorts went berserk over reports that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS in Iraq, was a former prisoner at Guantanamo Bay but was released by Obama. That happens to be another Fox manufactured lie, but that didn’t stop them from promulgating it repeatedly.

This week Fox News broadcast a report that has a similar revelation buried deep in a story notable for an unrelated, but equally disturbing. bit of disinformation. The article was about the captured Benghazi suspect Ahmed Abu Khattala, who has generally been regarded as a leader of the terrorist militias in Libya. At least until he was was apprehended by U.S. military forces under Commander-in-Chief Barack Hussein Abu Obama Bin Kenya (as he is known to Fox News and their viewers). Suddenly, Khattala has been transformed from a ringleader to a bit player and, according to Fox’s anonymous sources, “low hanging fruit.” The exchange on Fox between anchor Martha MacCallum and reporter Adam Housley went like this:

MacCallum: Is he really believed to be the mastermind behind this night?

Housley: Well, it depends on who you talk to, Martha. When you talk to the administration they’ve touted this as being a big get for them, a big win for them as well. When we talk to those having direct knowledge of this from the very early days, they’ll tell you that Khattala really wasn’t that big of a deal at all.

There you have it. A “big get” according to the administration, but according to “those having direct knowledge,” as opposed to the administration, it’s no big whoop. Despite repeatedly referring to “them,” Housley never identifies a single one of his numerous alleged sources.

What’s more, the contention that Khattala was a mere pawn is one that has only emerged after his capture, presumably as an effort by Fox to avoid ever giving credit to Obama for anything that might be perceived as positive. However, before Khattala was nabbed he was considered to be a dangerous honcho in the top ranks of the terrorist infrastructure. Back on January 8, 2013, none other than Fox News super-pundit Charles Krauthammer had this to say about Khattala (@5:20 in the video):

“We know the leader of the attack was a certain, Ahmed Abu Khattala, who was seen a few days later in a coffee shop outside Benghazi.”

That was the Fox view a year and a half ago when they were still bashing Obama for not having arrested anyone. So if Khattala is not the Benghazi leader as Krauthammer said, then who was? Well, buried in Housley’s report is the answer. it was one Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda bin Qumu:

“He was a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay for more than five years and at the time was classified by analysts at the prison as ‘a probable member of Al Qaeda.’ Despite this significant threat to American security and allies, bin Qumu was released as part of an amnesty for militants in 2008.”

Actually, Housley’s facts are a bit muddled. Bin Qumu was released from Gitmo in September of 2007, and handed over to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. It was Gaddafi who, in 2008, declared an amnesty and released bin Qumu and other Libyan prisoners. Either way, it was the Bush administration who sent bin Qumu home where he eventually took command of the militia that Fox News now says orchestrated the Benghazi attack and the murder of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

If bin Qumu had been released from Gitmo while Obama was president, you can be sure that Fox News, and a horde of wild-eyed Republicans, would be aghast at such a treasonous breach of judgment and law, and would be calling for his impeachment (again). That is, after all, precisely the way they reacted to the false accounts of Baghdadi’s release. But since bin Qumu gained his freedom thanks to President Bush, Fox will never mention it outside of incidental references like Housley’s, which was probably an oversight.

Shameless self-promotion…
Get Fox Nation vs. Reality. Available now at Amazon.

Reporting like this is a revealing window into the dishonesty that infects virtually everything that Fox News does. In this one story they contradict their previous analyses of Khattala as the ringleader of Benghazi and demote him to foot soldier. At the same time they expose the Bush administration as being responsible for the release of the real Benghazi mastermind, but mention it only in passing and leave it utterly unexamined in any credible manner. And that’s how propaganda is done.

About Those Lost Emails: Not The IRS, The Ones Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Deleted To Cover Up Phone Hacking

Posted by Mark NC on June 27, 2014 at 3:35 pm. 2 Comments :

In recent weeks Fox News has been feverishly hyping a story about IRS emails that were allegedly lost due to a computer crash. The story has far less substance than Fox heaps on it because it is likely that most of the emails were retrieved via other sources (servers, recipients, etc.) White House Press Secretary Jay Carney outlined the facts noting that 24,000 emails were collected and delivered to investigating committees in Congress. But that wasn’t enough for the lackeys of Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News team.

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Ever since the story broke, Fox News has mired itself in waist-deep hypocrisy by inferring all sorts of unfounded wrongdoing by Obama administration officials, even though Fox defended the Bush administration that lost over 22 million emails, including those relating to ongoing investigations over the outing of a covert CIA agent, and the improper firing of U.S. Attorneys. [See the Perino hypocrisy and the Issa hypocrisy]

But there is a bigger problem here than mere hypocrisy, which Fox News commits by the hour. The phone hacking scandal that brought down much of Rupert Murdoch’s international newspaper enterprise had an email component as well. Only this one was documented, intentional, and highly illegal. Looking back on the details it makes it impossible to grant any moral authority for Fox News to express the indignation they have regarding the IRS. In February of 2012, the Guardian reported that…

“Rupert Murdoch’s News International took active steps to delete and prepare to delete the publisher’s email archives as phone-hacking allegations and lawsuits against the owner of the now-defunct News of the World mounted in 2009 and developed in 2010.

“According to court documents filed by victims of hacking, the newspaper publisher allegedly produced an email deletion policy in November 2009 whose aim was to “eliminate in a consistent manner” emails “that could be unhelpful in the context of future litigation”.

So how does Fox News report so judgmentally on missing emails when their own company was caught deleting incriminating emails? The same way they reported so judgmentally on NSA spying when their own company was caught spying on hundreds of private citizens, politicians, celebrities, and royals.

Remember this the next time you hear someone on Fox News chastise the Obama administration for the management of emails. Remember that the parent company of Fox News was caught deliberately deleting, and plotting to delete, emails that they regarded as incriminating in order to avoid the rendering of justice. It’s the height of arrogance for them to now whine about a contrived scandal wherein they have far less evidence of wrongdoing than exists against them and their leader, Rupert Murdoch.

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