Bill O’Reilly STILL Needs To Fire His Research Staff: The Drone Edition

Posted by on February 7, 2013 at 10:29 am. 5 Comments :

Last night Bill O’Reilly mustered up his signature pomposity in a debate with Bob Beckel over whether or not NBC had ever criticized President Obama on the use of drones or even reported on the controversy. O’Reilly was almost shaking with contempt at what he considered an outrageous example of hypocrisy. Beckel didn’t seem to care much about NBC’s reporting or pretend that he knew anything about their coverage of this story. But O’Reilly was relentless about NBC’s reporting and refused to let it go.

O’Reilly: “Remember the outcry about waterboarding? You know, everybody jumping up and down? Uh, NBC News, I thought they were going to, like, melt down over there. You heard anything on NBC about the drones? […] Neither have I. Neither has my staff.”

O’Reilly went on to accuse NBC of deliberately avoiding the story “because they are protecting the President.” There’s only one small thing wrong with O’Reilly’s bombastic condemnation of NBC: It was NBC who broke the story that made the drone controversy the lead on every news network on television. A little exclusive published by NBC’s investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff revealed the memo that outlined the administration’s rational for drone strikes targeted at American citizens.

The intensity with which O’Reilly insisted that NBC was derelict in their reporting only made his egregious mangling of the facts all the more preposterous. And by explicitly affirming his mistaken assertions with his staff, he casts doubt on their competence as well. In that regard, this isn’t the first time that O’Reilly’s staff has let him down in spectacular fashion. Back in April of 2010, O’Reilly reproached GOP senator Tom Coburn for suggesting that Fox had aired allegations that failure to get health insurance under ObamaCare would subject you to a prison term. He vigorously denied that anyone at Fox had ever said such a thing saying…

O’Reilly: “It doesn’t happen here, and we’ve researched to find out if anybody on Fox News has ever said ‘You’re going to jail if you don’t buy health insurance.’ Nobody’s ever said it. So it seems to me what you did was, you used Fox News as a whipping boy when we didn’t qualify there.”

Unfortunately for O’Reilly and his crack research team, the video record was readily available (And this pretty hilarious stuff. The “jail” assertion was even made on O’Reilly’s program by Glenn Beck):

Fox News has been blathering for much of this week about what they delusionally call the “liberal” media for ignoring the drone story. One of the more prominent critics is the fake Fox version of a Democrat, Kirsten Powers. She has taken to the Fox airwaves to lambaste liberals and Democrats for not challenging the administration on their drone policy. However, no one has been more critical of the President on this than Isikoff, the reporter who broke the story, and Rachel Maddow, who devoted extensive portions of her show to it.

If anyone is guilty of hypocrisy it’s the Fox/GOP crowd who only seem to care about human rights when a Democratic president is accused of violating them. Both Fox and the Republican Party fiercely defended George Bush’s use of torture and wiretapping. Democrats opposed those breaches of human rights, and they are consistent today in opposing the use of drones and the targeting of Americans without due process. But these facts escape dullards like O’Reilly whose only purpose is to bash his adversaries and the facts be damned. However, if there is one thing that O’Reilly is consistent about, it’s his indifference to journalistic ethics or standards.

Bill O'Reilly

I couldn’t agree more, Bill-O.

[Update] O’Reilly addressed the response to his deliberately deceitful characterization of NBC’s reporting the following night. As might have been expected, he lied through his teeth absolving himself of any responsibility. His argument was simply that “I didn’t say NBC broke the memo story because we weren’t talking about that.” Not true. For the record, let’s review what he was talking about: “You heard anything on NBC about the drones? […] Neither have I. Neither has my staff.” Either he and his staff weren’t listening very closely or they don’t regard talking about drones to be talking about drones.

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Fox News Hits Record Low In Viewer Trust (Just Like Their Ratings)

Posted by on February 6, 2013 at 3:31 pm. 6 Comments :

Public Policy Polling just released their 4th annual poll on the measure of trust Americans have in TV news. Like previous polls, Fox News topped both the “most trusted” and “least trusted” categories. However, the striking thing about this year’s poll is that Fox dipped to a record low in viewer trust and lost a huge amount of the trust by Independents. From the poll:

“Fox News has hit a record low in the four years that we’ve been doing this poll. 41% of voters trust it to 46% who do not. To put those numbers into some perspective the first time we did this poll, in 2010, 49% of voters trusted it to 37% who did not. Fox has maintained most of its credibility with Republicans, dropping just from 74/15 to 70/15 over that period of time. But it’s been losing what standing it had with Democrats (from 30/52 to 22/66) and independents (from 41/44 to 32/56).

“We find once again this year that Democrats trust everything except Fox, and Republicans don’t trust anything other than Fox. Democrats put the most faith in PBS (+61 at 72/11), followed by NBC (+45 at 61/16), MSNBC (+39 at 58/19), CBS (+38 at 54/16), CNN (+36 at 57/21), ABC (+35 at 51/16), and Comedy Central (+10 at 38/28). Out of the non-Fox channels Republicans have the most faith in PBS at -21 (27/48), followed by NBC (-48 at 18/66), CNN (-49 at 17/66), ABC (-56 at 14/70), MSNBC (-56 at 12/68), CBS (-57 at 15/72), and Comedy Central (-58 at 8/66).

When it comes to asking Americans which single outlet they trust the most and least out of the ones we polled on, Fox News once again wins both honors. 34% say it’s the one they trust the most, compared to 13% for PBS, 12% for CNN, 11% for ABC, 8% for MSNBC, 6% for CBS, and 5% each for Comedy Central and NBC. Fox News is the choice of 67% of Republicans, while Democrats basically split their allegiances four ways between ABC and CNN, both at 17%, and MSNBC and PBS, both at 16%.”

Even more Americans identify Fox News as the outlet they trust the least – 39% give it that designation [compared] to 14% for MSNBC, 13% for CNN, 12% for Comedy Central, 5% for ABC and CBS, 3% for NBC, and 1% for PBS. 60% of Democrats give it their lowest marks while Republicans split between MSNBC (24%), CNN (19%), and Comedy Central (14%) on that front.

The fact that Fox comes out on top of the “most trusted” list is not particularly noteworthy. That only occurred because Fox viewers voted en bloc for their favorite network while all other viewers split their votes across the board. Liberals are not as hypnotically attached to any single source of news as are the disciples of Fox. It is far more significant that Fox has a net negative rating despite the glassy-eyed devotion of their audience. Also significant is the fact that the combined non-Fox networks beat Fox for trustworthiness by 60% to 34%. Finally, the sharply downward trend has to have Fox worried.

This massive leak of faith in Fox is accompanied by their corresponding unpopularity as measured by their Nielsen ratings. The most recent numbers showed Fox dropping to a twelve year low, which puts them back at their position prior to 9/11.

Fox News Ratings

The collapse of Fox is also occurring at a time when their competition at MSNBC is enjoying double-digit gains. The trends have all been severely negative as far as Fox is concerned, and this new poll affirms that direction.

Fox seems to be aware of the danger they are in and have been making some adjustments to their roster. They already flushed Sarah Palin and Dick Morris down the drain. However, they do not appear to be shifting their tone in any noticeable manner. Those expulsions were counteracted by the acquisition of far-right crackpots like Erick Erickson and screeching extremists like Mark Levin.

Consequently, there won’t be any real difference in the faulty news product that Fox broadcasts. They seem wedded to the ultra-conservative fringe philosophy that is bringing them, and their benefactors in the GOP, crashing down. They are operating with an acute case of tunnel blindness that is driving viewers away. And for that, I suppose, we should all be grateful.


Jon Stewart Dismantles The GOP/Fox News Messaging Machine

Posted by on February 6, 2013 at 10:05 am. 6 Comments :

It’s been three months since the Republican Party took a beating at the polls losing the White House as well as two Senate seats and seven in the House. Yet they are still immersed in a vicious debate over whether their policies are driving away majorities of the electorate or if it’s just a messaging problem.

Heavyweight GOP operatives like Karl Rove, Eric Canter, Jim DeMint, Rush Limbaugh and various Tea Party goons are polishing their finest bluster and throwing blame around like cream pies at a clown convention. What they seem to be missing is that their messaging has been the one part of their tactical campaign that has been working. Americans, for the most part, know exactly what Republicans stand for, they just don’t like it and voted against it in droves. So the the response from the GOP is to take another stab at obscuring their true intent by developing another phony facade behind which to campaign. That effort was mercilessly skewered last night by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show:

Stewart’s focus on the self-described “Word Doctor” Frank Luntz could not have been more appropriate. Luntz has positioned himself as the poster boy for political window dressing.

Frank LuntzIn the pre-2012 election warm-up he conducted a seminar for the Republican Governors Association to teach them how to practice more effective deception. He told his pupils that he was “so scared” of Occupy Wall Street and laid out a directive for them to refrain from using damaging phrases like “tax the rich,” “sacrifice,” and “capitalism,” and replace them with his equivalent of verbal comfort food.

While desperately dishonest, Luntz is actually closer to solving the GOP’s problems than most of his comrades in the communications arena who are Apocalypse vendors trying to outdo one another with tales of doom. They want to keep the right-wing sheep in state of constant and debilitating fear by insisting that America’s demise is imminent, freedom is hanging by a thread, and the foreign-born usurper in the White House is amassing his troops for a run at dictatorship. Compared to that, Luntz is as warm and fuzzy as you can get, albeit just as averse to the truth.

The Apocalyptists, however, are winning the internal GOP war. Their gloomy forecast has prevailed as happy-talkers like Luntz fade into the woodwork. Luntz even acknowledged the defeat in a post-election commentary about why “Fox News viewers ought to be outraged.” The doomsayers have a much higher wattage broadcast platform. And although they whine incessantly about what they imagine to be a liberal media, their own role in propagandizing the nation is far more aggressive. As Jon Stewart sarcastically put it…

“If only people knew what the Republicans were about. What the Republicans need is some kind of a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week perpetual messaging refinement and distribution resource. Preferably one cloaked in the trappings of journalistic authority but without any of its ethical constraints.”

Yeah, if only they had that. Then their message wouldn’t be getting suppressed by media titans like Current TV. Wait a minute – that doesn’t exist anymore. Well the leftists certainly have dominated the airwaves on talk radio for the last few decades. Oh wait, that isn’t true either.

I guess the fact remains that the only billionaire sponsored mouthpiece for extremist right-wing thought control is still Fox News. And despite their monopoly on media manipulation they still can’t stop whining about what victims they are.


Fox News Trades Toe-Sucking Dick Morris For Goat-Fucking Erick Erickson

Posted by on February 6, 2013 at 12:37 am. 6 Comments :

The mediasphere is buzzing tonight with the news that Fox News is not renewing the contract of the world’s worst pundit, Dick Morris. Shortly after last November’s election Fox announced that he and Karl Rove would not be permitted on the air without special permission from the network brass. Since then, Rove’s contract was picked up, but until today no one knew what the fate of Morris would be.

Well, now we know. Morris has been thrown out in the cold along with Sarah Palin. This development has caused some analysts to ponder whether Fox is rethinking their signature news model of fabricating scandals and fomenting fear. But fear not. Any notion that Fox would alter the formula that earned them the disrespect of actual journalists everywhere can be set aside.

The fact is that, while Fox is jettisoning Morris (the former Clinton adviser who was caught sucking the toes of a prostitute while they both listened in on calls to the Oval Office), Fox has also hired recently dumped CNN contributor Erick Erickson (who honored retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter by calling him a “Goat-fucking child molester”). So as you can see, Fox’s reputation remains in tact.

Dick Morris

Dick Morris did become somewhat of an embarrassment for Fox after insisting that Mitt Romney would win a landslide victory over Barack Obama. However, that was only his most recent exhibition of idiocy. Morris has been making an ass of himself for years. Particularly notable was his book, “Condi vs. Hillary,” in which he predicted that they would be the candidates in the 2008 election. But Morris got the Democratic nominee wrong; he got the Republican nominee wrong; and the Republican who Morris said could win if he were nominated (McCain) actually was nominated and lost. Is there any way Morris could have been more wrong?

It is nevertheless curious that Fox thinks Erick Erickson will somehow be less embarrassing. He is a vulgar and ignorant ultra-rightist partisan whose observations are shallow and factless. On second thought, he should fit right in at Fox. CNN’s decision to nix him seemed, momentarily, to be a possible sign of redemption. However, CNN just announced that Morris would be a guest on this Wednesday’s episode of the Piers Morgan show. Hopefully that is a one-time booking for the purpose of grilling him and then casting him back into the garbage where he belongs. But with CNN it’s hard to tell where they might be going with this. After all, they did employ Erickson for the past three years.

The cable news wars have been in a state of flux lately, with MSNBC overtaking Fox in parts of primetime with important audience segments. CNN just hired the former NBC/Universal chief, Jeff Zucker, and is beginning to shuffle their programs and people. But Fox still has the most stagnant schedule in cable news with old timers like Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto, and the Fox & Fools in the morning. So anybody expecting to see much of difference in the future for Fox is likely to be proven as mistaken as Morris has been.


Fox Nation vs. Reality: Amnesty For 9/11 Hijackers?

Posted by on February 5, 2013 at 2:36 pm. 2 Comments :

Conservative myth-makers have long held that the immigration reform measures advocated by Democrats were back-door paths to amnesty. That has never been true in the past, and it is not true for the most recent proposals put forth by the Obama administration and a bipartisan committee of senators. Nevertheless, the Fox Nationalists are engaging in their trademark brand of hysterical panic-mongering to incite fear among their gullible readers.

Fox Nation

The claim featured here that “Obama’s New Immigration Rules Would Have Spared 9/11 Hijackers” is re-posted from the “Moonie” Washington Times. The implications of this assertion would be troubling but for the fact that it is completely false. There is nothing in Obama’s proposal that would have had any affect on the immigration status of the 9/11 plotters for one simple reason: None of them had entered the United States illegally.

That’s right. Every single one of the nineteen 9/11 terrorists came to America on legal visas. The only point at which any of them might have been affected would be via an enhanced tracking procedure to identify visitors who overstay their visa, which only applied to perhaps three of them. So since the proposed immigration rules were never designed to address legal immigration, it is absurd to assert that they would have “spared” anybody. By the same logic you could say that laws against littering or jaywalking “spared” the terrorists, because nothing in those laws would have prevented the hijackings either.

The Fox Nationalists are making an argument that is as nonsensical as accusing Ronald Reagan of aiding Al Qaeda because he once fired a bunch of air traffic controllers. It appears that Fox is graduating from merely lying about everything to inventing surreal theories that seem to be hallucinogenically inspired.


Glenn Beck Calls Obama The Worst Thing He Can Think Of: ‘A Girl’

Posted by on February 5, 2013 at 12:04 pm. NO Comments :

Cover the children’s eyes and carefully consider whether you want to read further because what follows is not for sensitive readers. Glenn Beck, that macho icon manliness, has been driven to distraction by President Obama’s exhibition of icky feminine traits. Something Beck himself would never do.

Glenn Beck

During the Superbowl interview of the President, Scott Pelley asked him if he would allow his hypothetical sons to play football in light of recent news about the dangers from concussions which can lead to severe mental illness, dementia and death. Obama thoughtfully responded that he “would have to think about it.”

Apparently Beck would not need to think about it at all. He would gleefully encourage his sons to participate in an activity that has been known to cause serious injuries. Why would he need to give any thought to that? In fact, Beck was so offended by the President’s response that he played it on his little Internet blog and, the whole time Obama spoke, Beck kept repeating “He’s a girl…He’s a girl…”

One thing we can ascertain without doubt from observing his behavior is that Beck is a boy – an immature, ignorant, petulant, emotionally stunted, bitter, little boy, who thinks he can “revoke” Obama’s “man card.”

What’s worse is that Beck, in his haste to repudiate Obama’s thoughtfulness, has revealed his innate disrespect for women. In searching for the appropriate insult with which to bash the President, Beck can only come up with one that he repeats in a manic display of childishness: “You’re a girl. You’re a full-fledged woman.” Beck fervently believes that calling Obama a girl is the most damning epithet he can hurl. What could be worse, in his cartoon brain, than being compared to a young woman?

This isn’t the first time Beck has exposed his overt misogyny in this manner. When Jimmy Fallon’s TV house band, The Roots, played Fishbone’s “Lyin Ass Bitch” as Michelle Bachmann was introduced, Beck demanded that Fallon fire the band, but that he wouldn’t because he is – you guessed it – a girl.

You see, in Beck’s mind, only real men are capable of making difficult personnel decisions. Likewise, only real men understand that worrying about the welfare of your children is the mark of a sissy. And pretty much anything that stirs Beck’s ire is sufficient cause to castigate someone with aspersions to womanliness – the most horrible state of being that Beck can imagine. So horrible that I’m sure the very thought of it makes him cry.

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Brilliant Breitbart Investigation Exposes: The Plot To Eat LUNCH!

Posted by on February 4, 2013 at 7:47 pm. 4 Comments :

Breitbart News appears to be angling to overtake The Onion as the funniest Internet site. Unfortunately for them, they aren’t doing it on purpose.

The geniuses at Breitbart News blasted out a shocking expose today that threatens to blow the lid off of Obama’s Justice Department. After an investigation that included the filing of numerous Freedom of Information Act requests concerning “questionable behavior by agency personnel” and their relationship with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Breitbart’s crack team of reporters (or is that team of reporters on crack?) published the shocking results of their investigation.

Breitbart News

The DOJ had invited Morris Dees, founder of the SPLC, to speak at a Diversity Training Event. Dees was a particularly appropriate choice to address the group because of the SPLC’s long record of fighting bigots and hate groups and advocating for, and teaching, racial tolerance. The SPLC has also worked with both federal and local police agencies to identify racist individuals and groups who engage in criminal activities.

What Breitbart found, via their pals at the right-wing legal group, Judicial Watch, was a batch of emails that revealed … well, see for yourself (cut and paste from Breitbart News):

  • May 3, 2012 email – “We would like to tape the [Morris Dees] remarks and, at the same time, out Morris real time on the DOJ system can watch from their desks. Is that okay with Morris?”
  • June 27, 2012 – “Let me know Morris’ air schedule so I can pick him up at airport and plan an evening for us if he stays over.”
  • July 11, 2012 – “I will be at National in my [REDACTED] in which he has ridden before … I can arrange dinner. If he has a preference in DC where he wants to eat … tell him to let me know his druthers.”
  • July 16, 2012 – “The AAG’s office want to take Morris out to lunch before the 1:30 pm July 31 remarks … I’d pick Morris up at his hotel at 11:30 am if that worked for him.”
  • July 23, 2012 – “I will pick you [Morris Dees] up at the airport July 30. Would you go out to dinner with my wife and me and our two teenage daughters that first night? The girls need some inspiration from a master of inspiration.”

That’s it. Really! The DOJ communicated with a guest speaker to arrange airport transportation and meals. And for this Breitbart seems to think that prison, or perhaps waterboarding, would be warranted.

This article, written by former “Moonie” Washington Times reporter Kerry Picket, castigated the SPLC as an “attack group” and complained about them allegedly “labeling organizations with conservative views on social issues as ‘hate groups.’” However, it is hardly the SPLC’s fault that many so conservative groups are so often found to be bleating overt hate-speech. The SPLC carefully documents every allegation they make and they are respected by the nation’s foremost experts on organized bigotry.

This is another example of the BreitBrats simply targeting an ideological opponent and, lacking any evidence of actual wrongdoing, manufactures an imaginary outrage with which to regale their easily misled audience. But when the pickings are so slim that they are reduced to fanning a scandal comprised of dining reservations, you just have to laugh. It doesn’t get much more pathetic than this.


Al Gore Hurts Fox News’ Feelings, So Fox Bashes Current TV Sale Again

Posted by on February 4, 2013 at 12:00 pm. 6 Comments :

This morning on Fox & Friends, the kindergarten crew welcomed Rupert Murdoch’s personal attorney, Peter Johnson, Jr. (the man with three euphemisms for penis in his name), to engage in yet another round of bashing Al Gore for selling his Current TV network to Al Jazeera.

Fox News

In this episode, Johnson demonstrated an embarrassingly poor ability to make a cogent argument, which should worry his client Rupert who is engaged in numerous legal entanglements related to the News Corp hacking scandal in the UK.

Fox’s Gretchen Carlson introduced the segment with a video clip of Gore commenting on Fox News and right-wing talk radio, saying “The fact that we have 24/7 propaganda masquerading as news, it does have an impact.” It was that swipe at Fox that prompted this rehashing of old news. And rather than try to dispute the obvious truth of Gore’s comment, Johnson launched into his harangue about Gore permitting a news enterprise based in the oil-producing nation of Qatar to buy his network, thus affirming Fox’s status as The Whiniest ‘News’ Network Ever:

Johnson: This is the ultimate Lear Jet liberal who’s lost his mind. He is richer though. They made a half billion dollars on it. And you know the reason he said it’s a good sale? “I’m not gonna sell to Glenn Beck. I’m not gonna sell to American media folks. I am gonna sell to Al Jazeera. You know why? Because they’re the best at discussing climate change.” That’s like saying “I’m gonna sell it to the NRA because they’re the best at discussing gun control.”

Setting aside the fact that Johnson thinks Gore, who just made $100,000,000, has lost his mind, the case he is making defies logic. If it is, as Johnson says, like selling to the NRA who cannot report objectively on guns because they are proponents of guns, then Johnson is asserting that Current cannot sell to Al Jazeera and expect objective reporting on climate change because Al Jazeera is a proponent of climate reform measures. Except that Johnson just got finished criticizing the sale because Al Jazeera’s oil-rich Qatari base would oppose such measures.

So which is it? Is Gore a hypocrite for selling an environmentally conscious network to a bunch of fossil fuel fanatics? Or is he handing off his company to a news outlet that is going to advocate for alternative energy rather than cover the issue objectively? Johnson wants to characterize Al Jazeera as beholden to oil interests and biased against them at the same time. And he has the nerve to say that Gore has lost his mind?

It’s bad enough that Fox News is the public relations arm of the Republican Party. And it’s all the worse that they brazenly lie to fulfill that role. But do they have to be so staggeringly stupid while they’re at it?


Weird Video Pops Up On YouTube For “Fox Nation vs. Reality”

Posted by on February 3, 2013 at 9:42 am. 3 Comments :

I swear I had nothing to do with this:

Yep, that’s my ebook “Fox Nation vs. Reality.” I’m not sure how that got posted to YouTube or who was responsible, but I am oddly drawn to the electronic, British narrator’s sultry recitation.

And speaking of my book … It is currently #4 in Media Studies, and #4 in Political Advocacy, on Amazon. If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, please consider doing so now. It’s a revealing and entertaining look into the blatant dishonesty practiced by Fox News at their bile-drenched community web site, Fox Nation.


So F**king What? Students Pledge Allegiance To The United States In Arabic. Fox Freaks Out

Posted by on February 2, 2013 at 2:06 pm. 8 Comments :

Isn’t this a good thing?

Fox Nation

The rabidly Islamophobic racists at Fox News have found yet another manufactured threat over which to obsess. It seems that a high school in Ft. Collins, Colorado, has taken the radical step of embracing the patriotism of all of its students. The horror of this activity prompted the Fox Nationalists to rush out a story with an alarmist headline saying “School Pledges Allegiance in Arabic, One Nation Under Allah?”

So F**king What?

What we have here is a group of students with diverse national and cultural backgrounds who are proud to be Americans. They are explicitly articulating that pride by pledging their allegiance to the country they love. Where’s the harm in that? Apparently the bigots at Fox are only comfortable with stereotypes of foreigners who are angry or violent or otherwise cast as enemies of the United States. The Foxies simply cannot comprehend the notion of patriotism unless it is expressed by white Christians.

One thing we can rely on with certainty is that Fox Nation is either lying or they are oozing bigotry on many levels. First of all, The question as to whether these students are making an oath to Allah ignores the fact that there are millions of Christians in the world who speak Arabic, which is a language, not a religion. Fox is making an assumption about the faith of these students that is based on prejudice. Which brings up the second point: What’s wrong with Muslims pledging to their God that they will be loyal to America? Would Fox prefer that anyone who believes in Allah reject this country? Or does Fox think that in order to love America you first have to convert to Christianity? Where would that leave Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Native Americans, atheists, etc.?

While this is just the latest example of the blatant racism that is frequently expressed on Fox News, it is still unnerving to witness this sort of overt hate speech emanating from a major so-called “news” network. And it is more than a little ironic that a man named Al-Waleed bin Talal, a Muslim and a Saudi prince who has not pledged his allegiance to America in any language, is the largest shareholder of Fox’s parent corporation outside of the Murdoch family.