Glenn Beck’s Conspiracy Theory About Conspiracy Theories

Posted by on January 24, 2013 at 2:40 am. 3 Comments :

Sometimes the dementia of right-wing fabulists is a richer vein of comedy than a Marx Brothers marathon. And speaking of Marx (Karl), his press agent, Glenn Beck, is contributing more than his fair share of unintentional hilarity to a nation thirsty for humor.

On his silly and mostly ignored webcast, Beck set out to warn his flock of the dangers of getting sucked into conspiracy theories. He expressed his deep concern that people understand that the real reason these tall tales are disseminated is to distract unsuspecting citizens from the evils being perpetrated by the government. You know…evils like the conspiracy theories Beck espouses.

Beck is America’s preeminent source for conspiracy theories. He just published a book titled “Agenda 21” that is based on a nightmare fable of the United Nations subjugating the world to slavery on the pretense of building sustainable communities. He produced a three day Fox News spectacular revealing that George Soros is also plotting to rule the world. He’s certain that the art and architecture of Manhattan conceals communist propaganda. And who can forget his sermons on the Islamic cabal, in league with Western European socialists, to restore the ancient Caliphate and, of course, rule the world.

Now the master of conspiracy madness is revealing a deep cover plot too scandalous to believe (video below). Beck has discovered that the whole birther mess was actually devised and implemented by a scheming White House in an attempt to divert attention away from a dastardly blueprint to bankrupt America and deliver its carcass to her enemies.

Beck: “The only time you ever heard about [Obama’s birth certificate] was from the lunatic fringe – and I mean a very, very, small group of people that were talking about it – but the White House was the one that was constantly bringing it up and stirring the pot.”

That’s right. It was a very small group of people consisting mainly of Fox News anchors and pundits, right-wing activists and Tea Partiers, and the lunatic fringe more commonly known as the Republican Party. The mini-faction included unknown, media-shy characters like Mitt Romney surrogate, Donald Trump. This tiny, almost imperceptible, collective of outliers had little influence on public opinion unless you count the polls that show nearly half of “staunch conservatives” saying that they think Obama was not born in the U.S.

Now that Beck has exposed the truth that conspiracy theories are really covert diversions, the only unanswered question is whether the conspiracy theories Beck spins are themselves distractions from the government’s clandestine plots. How can we know that Beck is not a part of the plot to draw attention away from far more fiendish exploits contrived by federal super-villains? If conspiracy theories are government plots, and no one is more adept at constructing them than Beck, well ….. connect the dots.

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Fox Nation vs. Reality: Clinton/Benghazi Facts Don’t Make A Difference On Fox

Posted by on January 23, 2013 at 5:25 pm. 4 Comments :

The congressional hearings on Benghazi continued today with their star attraction, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It was as predictable a production of theatrics as might have been expected with Republicans spewing outlandish accusations at Clinton and Democrats rushing to her defense.

Watching from their secret lair, the editors of Fox Nation picked apart the testimony looking for soundbites they could misrepresent. They found one in an exchange with GOP Sen. Ross Johnson (WI-Tea Party) and quickly posted it with a thoroughly dishonest headline: “WH Says It Agrees With Hillary When She Said ‘It Doesn’t Make A Difference’ Who Killed 4 Americans In Benghazi.”

Fox Nation

There are two obvious falsehoods contained in that item. First, Clinton never said that it “doesn’t make a difference who killed 4 Americans,” or anything remotely similar. She was responding to a question from Johnson about the early descriptions of what had taken place. There are still varying reports that are being sorted out. Clinton was saying that the debate over what was said in the first few hours or days after the assault was not as important as completing the investigation and bringing the perpetrators to justice. Here is the whole exchange:

JOHNSON: Again, we were misled that there were supposedly protests and then something sprang out of that, an assault spread out of that and that was easily ascertained that that was not the fact and the American people could have known that within days and they didn’t know that.

CLINTON: With all due respect, the fact is, we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or because of guys out for a walk one night and decided to go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator. Now honestly, I will do my best to answer your questions about this but the fact is that people were trying in real time to get to the best information. The I.C. [Intelligence Community] has a process, I understand, going with the other committees to explain how these talking points came out. But to be clear, it is, from my perspective, less important today, looking backwards, as to why these militants decided they did it than to find them and bring them to justice and then maybe we’ll figure out what was going on in the meantime.

Clinton’s statement was the exact opposite of what the Fox Nationalists wrote in their headline. She was unambiguously stating that her specific concern was about who killed the Americans at the Benghazi facility. That could not have been missed unless it was a deliberate attempt to deceive.

The second falsehood in the headline is, of course, that the White House was not agreeing with the false characterization that Fox posted. They did, however, agree with what Clinton actually said. In fact, press secretary Jay Carney was explicitly agreeing that “whatever was said — based on information provided by the intelligence community – on a series of Sunday shows bears no ultimate relevance.”

So the statements of Clinton and Carney were in alignment, while the reporting of Fox was delusional. And as a small side note, Fox Nation sourced their report to the Washington Post in a link that went somewhere else. If you clicked the “WaPo” link you would have been taken to a right-wing blog called Weasel Zippers. That’s just another example of why you can’t trust anything you read at Fox Nation.


Canada’s Failing Sun TV (Fox News North) Appeals To Government For Help

Posted by on January 23, 2013 at 11:31 am. 4 Comments :

Harmful If SwallowedSun TV is a rabidly right-wing cable network in Canada that has been compared to Fox News. However, Canadians do not seem to be as gullible as America’s Teabaggers and are not tuning in. From the Hollywood Reporter:

“To get Sun News back on its feet, the Quebec media giant is asking for a mandatory distribution order from the CRTC. That would force the all-news channel on Canadians by ensuring carriage on all domestic analog and digital basic services.”

Mandatory distribution? Sounds like socialism! The level of hypocrisy required for a conservative network to beg the government to force private companies into doing business with them is off the scale. What ever happened to the free market? It appears that Canadian viewers have made their choice, but Sun isn’t satisfied and wants to shove their programming down the throats of viewers who don’t want it. In the process they would compel cable operators to pay them fees against their will.

Just imagine how conservatives would react if MSNBC tried to do the same thing. They are presently carried on fewer cable services than Fox, and where they are carried they are often relegated to higher tier packages while Fox is on the basic tier.

This is a brilliant example of the right-wing hypocrisy that condemns welfare when it is provided to low-income Americans who are struggling to get by, but supports welfare for wealthy corporations in the form of subsidies and tax relief. They reject government if it serves the people. They embrace it when it serves the rich.


Fox News Is The Biggest Ratings Loser On Inauguration Day

Posted by on January 22, 2013 at 6:43 pm. 7 Comments :

Monday’s presidential inauguration was a television event that was heavily promoted by all of the networks covering it. But one network was conspicuously short of viewers during President Obama’s speech and throughout the broadcast day.

While overall viewing was down for all three cable news networks compared to 2009’s inauguration, Fox took the deepest dive. CNN led during the President’s address with 3.1 million total viewers. MSNBC came in second with 2.3 million. Fox was dead last with 1.3 million. In the critical 25-54 year old demographic the numbers for Fox were even more dismal: CNN had 1.1 million in the demo. MSNBC had 706,000. Trailing significantly was Fox News with only 294,000, which was less than half of MSNBC and just over a quarter of CNN.

To some extent it is not surprising that the network that appeals most to Obama haters did not deliver their audience of whiny-ass sourpusses. It’s a constituency of sore losers who aren’t interested in staying informed and were probably busy cuddling their Bushmasters and forwarding chain emails about tyranny and the collapse of civilization.

What’s most startling in the ratings data is the relative disparities between the networks and their declines. Fox News was off a jaw-dropping 75% (82% demo) from 2009. CNN sunk a hefty 61% (67% demo). MSNBC, by comparison did fairly well with a mere 25% decline (37% demo). Digging deeper, these numbers tell us something that is even more foreboding for Fox. The percentage of their audience composed of the lucrative younger demos falls way below that of their competitors. CNN’s demo audience was 35% of their total viewers. MSNBC has 31% in the demo. But only 22% of Fox’s viewers are 25-54 years old.

Inauguration Ratings

That means that the next generation of news consumers is avoiding the severely conservative channel in droves. What’s more, MSNBC’s primetime anchors Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell were number one in their time slots for 2012 in the 18-34 demo. MSNBC has also led in African-American and Latino viewers. So by every measure MSNBC is positioned for future gains, while Fox is bracing for the bottom to fall out.

These numbers are not merely tabulated for bragging rights. They represent the potential for ad revenue. As the numbers fall, so do Fox’s profits. And with their dearth of the desirable youth demos, the advertising Fox maintains will command lower rates.

To top it off, Fox is actually advertising their own unpopularity. Today an article on Fox Nation beamed that “Viewership of Obama’s 2nd Inauguration Plunges.” It’s one of those rare occasions when Fox Nation posted something that was true.

Fox Nation

However, it is also true that the lion’s share of that plunge was the 75% of Fox viewers who tuned out. Apparently Fox is so intent on publicizing information that they believe reflects badly on the President that they didn’t even notice that it looks even worse for themselves. Well, nobody ever accused them of being brainiacs.


Fox News Covers the Obama Inauguration: ‘Saddest Day Of The Year’

Posted by on January 21, 2013 at 3:12 pm. 10 Comments :

Seconds after the first inauguration of President Obama, Chris Wallace of Fox News speculated that he wasn’t really president because the oath was flubbed by Chief Justice John Roberts. That suggestion that Obama was not a legitimate president foreshadowed what would become a cacophony of Birthers and Republicans determined to reject any and all of what Obama put forth.

On this morning’s broadcast of Obama’s second inauguration, Fox News continued their dismissive coverage of the President. They led it off with the kiddies at Fox & Friends who exhibited their respect for this historic day by reporting what an awful day it is.

Steve Doocey: “As if a cold Monday in January wasn’t dreary enough, today has been dubbed ‘Blue Monday’, the most depressing day of the year.”

I’m quite sure that the day of Obama’s inauguration is decidedly depressing for the these remedial, right-wing buzzkills. But Fox was not through casting aspersions on this day and the President. Immediately following the inaugural address, Fox’s panel of sourpuss pundits picked apart the speech, which they universally agreed was a partisan screed aimed at bashing the GOP.

Chris Wallace: “This was an unyielding, uncompromising espousal of a liberal agenda.”
Brit Hume: “This is utterly bereft of an outreach to the opposition.”

Never mind that the President repeatedly spoke of how the nation’s greatest accomplishments were achieved by working together and how that was a necessity for moving forward today in light of the difficulties that lie ahead. Fox is positioning itself for another four years of blind opposition to anything that might help this president – or this country while this president is in the White House.

Fox Nation

Their community web site, Fox Nation, went to even further extremes to disparage the President with at least five derogatory articles by virulent Obama adversaries, including their headline piece featuring Mark Levin who was quoted from a Breitbart interview where he ripped the President in the most repulsive terms.

Levin: “I think there’s a lot of perverse thinking that goes on in Obama’s mind, radical left-wing thinking. He was indoctrinated with Marx and Alinksy propaganda.”

And this is how Fox News covers Obama on the day of his inauguration, a day usually set aside to celebrate America’s democratic principles and offer best wishes for the new administration’s efforts to meet the challenges facing the nation. We can hardly wait to see what Fox is dreaming up for tomorrow, or the next day, or the next four years. And Fox wonders why they are shunned by the White House.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.


Questions Martin Luther King Might Have Asked Obama On Inauguration Day

Posted by on January 21, 2013 at 9:30 am. 3 Comments :

Martin Luther King, 1967:

Martin Luther King

“The movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. There are forty million poor people here. And one day we must ask the question, Why are there forty million poor people in America? And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I’m simply saying that more and more, we’ve got to begin to ask questions about the whole society.

We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life’s marketplace. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. It means that questions must be raised. You see, my friends, when you deal with this, you begin to ask the question, Who owns the oil? You begin to ask the question, Who owns the iron ore? You begin to ask the question, Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that is two-thirds water? These are questions that must be asked.”

President Barack Obama, 2013:

For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it […] Our journey is not complete…”

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FoxBusters: Right-Wing Media Seek To Disown GOP Crooks

Posted by on January 20, 2013 at 11:36 am. NO Comments :

On several notorious occasions Fox News has “accidentally” labeled dishonest or scandalized Republicans as Democrats. It seems to be a strategy on their part to protect the GOP from bad publicity while tarnishing their opponents. And despite their “zero tolerance policy” for such errors, they never air corrections or apologies.

Consequently, it should not come as a surprise that Fox, in tandem with the uber-rightists at NewsBusters, have ratcheted up a phony controversy concerning the party affiliation of former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, who was just indicted by a federal grand jury on 21 counts of conspiracy, bribery, money laundering, tax fraud and filing false tax returns.

Ray Nagin

The right’s panic over whether or not the media should have identified Nagin as a Democrat ignores the fact that his association with the Democratic Party was a matter of political opportunism. Nagin had been a registered Republican for most of his adult life. He only switched parties when he decided to run for mayor of the heavily Democratic city of New Orleans. Even after his election he associated with, and behaved as, a Republican. As mayor he routinely favored the interests of his business constituents over the people. He was an avid supporter of George W. Bush prior to his election, and GOP governor Bobby Jindal afterwards. The most damning evidence that Nagin is, and always has been, a Republican is the nature of the crimes for which he was indicted.

“Nagin used his public office and his official capacity to provide favorable treatment that benefited the business and financial interests of individuals providing him with bribery or kickback payoffs.”

That’s pretty much the hallmark of Republican politics. Were he a Democrat there would have been charges connected to union malfeasance or public works projects. But Nagin was acting on his nature as the life-long Republican he truly is. Neither Fox nor NewsBusters bothered to point out these facts.


Has Obama Shunned Fox News At His Press Conferences?

Posted by on January 19, 2013 at 9:32 pm. 8 Comments :

Fox NewsA study out of the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs ranked the number of times various news outlets were called on by President Obama in a press conference. The results have stirred some controversy with regard to whether certain outlets were favored, or disfavored, by the President.

The University’s Smart Politics blog revealed their own prejudicial assessment in a headline that declared “FOX Still Shunned at Obama Press Conferences.” There is much to ponder in that headline. For instance, the characterization of Fox being shunned “still” made no sense because they never bothered to establish that Fox had been shunned previously. But even worse, the overall assertion that Fox was shunned is not borne out by the study’s results.

Fox earned a ninth place showing by having been called on for questions fourteen times. That is only two fewer nods than CNN and the New York Times received. And if Fox can be described as having been shunned, then the Washington Post, USA Today, and NPR were victims of blatant and deliberate neglect since they came in even lower than Fox at tenth, eleventh, and thirteenth.

Nevertheless, Fox seems to be the only news outlet that is complaining about their treatment by the President. They devoted a segment of their Fox News Watch program to whining that they aren’t getting enough attention, poor things. Host Jon Scott started the bitch session by crying “Why does the president not like to call on us?” Jumping in without being recognized was Fox’s fake Democrat Kirsten Powers who shot back “Because he doesn’t want to be embarrassed. When Ed Henry asks questions to Jay Carney, inevitably Jay Carney ends up looking stupid because he doesn’t know how to answer the question. He’s used to pushing people around.” And she’s supposed to be the voice of the left on Fox’s fair and balanced roster.

With friends like Kirsten Powers who needs enemas? And that is a perfect illustration of why Obama ought to start shunning Fox News. It has never been a credible journalistic operation. It is an unabashed agent of the Republican Party whose only purpose is to bash the President and support the right-wing agenda.

While the study’s results show that Fox was treated no worse than several other prominent news outlets, the record of overt bias exhibited by Fox should excuse the administration if it decides to banish Fox altogether from the White House press room. They are no more deserving of press credentials than the Sasquatch Gazette or the Journal of the American Astrological Society.


House Republican Leader Proposes Unconstitutional Debt Ceiling Bill

Posted by on January 19, 2013 at 9:26 am. 8 Comments :

Eric CantorEric Cantor, the Republican Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, has posted a message on his website that spells out the terms of his compromise debt ceiling legislation. It says…

“Next week, we will authorize a three month temporary debt limit increase to give the Senate and House time to pass a budget. Furthermore, if the Senate or House fails to pass a budget in that time, Members of Congress will not be paid by the American people for failing to do their job. No budget, no pay.”

There is one minor problem with that. It is a violation of the Constitution’s 27th Amendment which states that…

“No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.”

When alerted to his prospective breach of the law, Cantor’s office insisted that the plan complies with the Constitution because it does not change the rate of pay, it only defers payment. However, the law says nothing about “rate” of pay. It merely says that “varying” compensation is prohibited, and a deferment is unarguably a variance.

The GOP is constantly waving the Constitution in everyone’s face as if they have some sort of privileged relationship with it or its authors. What makes this all the more ludicrous is that when Republicans took control of the House in 2010 they initiated a childish procedure wherein they recite the entire document on the opening day of the session as a symbolic message that they will be conscious of what it says. That took place just last week, but it apparently did not help them to understand what’s in it.


Fox News Mounting Campaign to Foment Hostility, Insurrection, Civil War

Posted by on January 17, 2013 at 12:22 pm. 21 Comments :

The lust for open hostilities and bloodshed is palpable amongst the folks at Fox News who are deliberately inciting all out war and encouraging their audience to embrace their most malevolent tendencies and act them out.

Fox Nation Gun War

This dangerously irresponsible effort is revealed on the network broadcasts and in the editorial decision making on their web site. There are presently at least fifteen separate stories with delusionally hyperbolic headlines. Fox is feverishly framing the debate on gun safety as one that is un-American, unconstitutional, and an elaborate scheme by a tyrannical administration whose desire they believe is to subjugate the nation’s population and force them into slavery. They present President Obama’s proposals as an imminent threat to liberty and personal safety.

What does Fox expect to happen when they terrify their viewers with assertions that their very freedom is at risk? Is Fox conscious of the animus that is already prevalent among right-wingers who are convinced that the President is a foreign agent working on behalf of our enemies? Are the network executives taking these delirious fictions into consideration when they publish headlines like these?

  • King Of The Gun Grabbers
  • NRA: Obama Wants ‘War’ So We’re Preparing for ‘Battle’
  • Nation’s Biggest Gun Store Calls for Revolt
  • Across Heartland, Sheriffs Vow to Fight Obama’s Gun Ban
  • Rand Paul Pledges to ‘Nullify’ Obama’s Executive Orders
  • Rubio: ‘The President Doesn’t Have the Guts To Admit He Doesn’t Believe In The 2nd Amendment’
  • Rand Paul Unveils Plan To Stop Assault On 2nd Amendment
  • Rubio: Obama Is Abusing His Executive Powers
  • Missouri House Proposes Jail Time for Federal Gun Grabbers
  • Levin: ‘This is 1930s Stuff … Why Do We Need a National Database of Citizens Who Own Guns?’
  • HURT: Gun Edicts Put Personal Liberty Under Fire
  • Starnes: Freedom, Tyranny and Granny’s .38
  • Oregon Sheriff to Biden: We Won’t Enforce Your New Gun Laws
  • Congressman Seeking Obama’s Impeachment Compares Him To Saddam Hussein
  • TEXAS THREATENS TO ARREST ANY FEDS WHO TRY ENFORCING NEW GUN REGS

There can be only one purpose for this sort of inflammatory rhetoric. Fox intends to increase the heat beyond the boiling point for people who are already on the verge of drastic action. The people for whom this resonates are deeply disturbed by delusional threats of oppression and servitude. What makes this even more troublesome is that these same people are likely to be heavily armed and not averse to using their firepower to defend their country from phantom enemies.

Fox seems to be trying to convince these Psycho Chicken Littles that now is the time to step forward and pledge their lives to the cause of freedom as defined almost singularly by the right to possess weapons of carnage that were never meant to be deployed outside of military use in wartime. But that’s what Fox thinks this is: Wartime! And their obsession with portraying fellow Americans who have a difference of opinion with them about the interpretation of the Second Amendment, as traitors can only have tragic consequences.

Pew Gun PollA brief review of the stories illustrated above is evidence of the extremism that Fox is tapping into. It is not accidental. They are executing a deliberate strategy that is fraught with risk and is contrary to the views of the majority of Americans. A new poll by the Pew Research Center shows that large bipartisan majorities favor bans on semi-automatic weapons (58%), bans on high-capacity ammunition clips (54%), and universal background checks (85%). The only option in the poll that garnered less than 50% was the one advocated by the NRA to increase the number of guns in our communities.

With support like that from the people, it is plain that Fox is directing their rhetoric at the fringes – the malcontents and miscreants who are most likely to wreak havoc. Exacerbating this problem is the fact that the fringes are no longer relegated to their traditional place at the outer rungs of society. Today they are on television and in congress. We have numerous public “servants” talking about secession, insurrection, nullification, and impeachment. And the presence of Fox News, a cable news network that rewards such talk, and participates in it, is only asking for trouble.