NOT BREAKING NEWS: No one is going to have to interrupt regular programming to announce that Fox News is overflowing with hypocrisy, but their latest example of it is a delicious foray into obliviousness on a grand scale.
This week New York governor Andrew Cuomo told a radio interviewer that “extreme” conservatives have “no place in the state of New York.” The statement was immediately picked up by every right-wing media outlet and reported with the typical context-extracted zeal for which the wingnut media is so well known. Cuomo’s full remarks reveal that he was referring only to politicians and candidates who embrace far-right fringe opinions, not mainstream Republican citizens of New York. Here is what he said:
“Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are and they’re the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.”
The gist of his commentary is plainly true. New York is not, in general, a state that will welcome politicos who advocate assault weapons and hate homosexuals. And with regard to reproductive choice, even conservative New Yorkers do not sway so far left that they would favor indicting doctors and mothers for murder.
Nevertheless, conservatives nationwide took Cuomo’s words to heart and feverishly sought to imply that he was referring to, and insulting, all Republicans. It’s interesting that they would all classify themselves as extremists in order to be included in Cuomo’s criticism. This includes Sean Hannity who threatened to leave New York. Of course, most New Yorkers would volunteer to help him pack. Glenn Beck also chimed in with his standard Nazi-inflected rhetoric, saying that Cuomo’s remarks were similar to those that led to the Holocaust. Then he went further than Hannity, who merely threatened to leave the state. Beck actually threatened to renounce his American citizenship (video below).
Not surprisingly, Fox News was all over this phony controversy. The have run numerous segments portraying Cuomo as intolerant of diversity and berating him for offending his conservative constituents, about whom he was not talking. Beck himself made a rare appearance on Fox with Megyn Kelly where the two of them joined to misinterpret Cuomo’s remarks. But it was only one year ago that Fox News promoted a right-wing group’s plan to build a conservative utopia somewhere in Idaho that explicitly forbade liberals. The Fox Nation headline blared “No Liberals Allowed.”
It’s almost too easy to mock this. Notice that on the same graphic as their prohibition against liberals they say “Live And Let Live.” I guess they mean unless you’re a liberal. And contrary to Cuomo, this cult conclave was specifically referring to ordinary citizens with progressive views. The graphic also has icons indicating that there will be no anarchy or peace tolerated in their Randian haven. The website formally discourages prospective liberal applicants saying that they “will likely find that life in our community is incompatible with their existing ideology and preferred lifestyles.”
Glenn Beck, by the way, is also in the utopia business. His Armageddon getaway will be called Independence, USA. Always the entertainer, he is positioning it as a hybrid conservative village/theme park with shops, rides, media studios, and residential tracts. However, like most projects initiated by Beck, this one will also never see the light of day.
The rampant public displays of outrage that emanate from Fox News always have at least a hint of hypocrisy. But when they venture this far into the hypocritical swamp it becomes more comic relief than anything else. The acrimony they hope to incite by deliberately misrepresenting Cuomo’s comments is only made more absurd by the fact that their own advocacy of intolerance is even worse. Lucky for them, their audience is populated by imbeciles who will never put this all together. Their business model works because it requires low-intellect consumers and Fox just keeps making more of them everyday.
Well, my delicate TeaParrot flowers, You KNOW I feel your pain, since you called for the commie-muslim president of the United States to be dragged out of the White House and hanged, and went on to suggest that all liberals be shipped to an island and be nuked. Come over here, so I can hug you with a fucking rock upside the head.
Violence-filled comment. Go ahead, Mark, do the right thing and delete that last sentence. The rest of his screed is just plain lies, but the part about braining conservatives with a rock needs to go.
The part about dragging the “commie muslim President” out of the whitehouse and hanging him isn’t a lie, it was actually what a number of extremist conservatives (you know, the ones that Cuomo is referring to?) actually wanted.
But yeah, ignore that and only focus on the “liberal violence” as you always do.
A teeny tiny handful of bigoted morons have undoubtedly said that about President Obama. You also had a whole bunch of people last decade who wanted to do the same thing to President Bush.
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/p=621
Oops. I got the link wrong.
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621
You got more than the link wrong (points to Scott’s worldview and core beliefs.)
When it comes right down to it right-wingers like Beck and Hannity are the biggest cowards on the planet. They are terrified of everything and it shows with the extreme paranoia they demonstrate daily. They are some of the most incurious people as well.
Conservatives will always be in the minority and will always be pushed aside in the end by the majority. The majority will never accept being held back by the minority. Tactics to stall and disrupt only doom their causes and erodes their political position. Why do liberals always inherit economic disasters from previous conservative admin and yet always deliver a stable economic situation to the next admin. We need to reign GOP monster and cut the beast down. In my 50 years, I have seen the cycle repeat to many times to believe it is coincidence. The GOP consistently wrecks the stability of this country and artificially creates wars, while crying over and fighting every bit of social and economic progress made when they get booted. Beck is just a talking head that can’t remember what he said. It’s the grass roots conservative that are the real danger to this country. The idiots get big$ from corp. america to create negative policy and they don’t even know it. Wake the F up sheeple.
Can someone create a “No Morons Allowed” community?
I’d like to see Beckie go through with his threat to renounce his American citizenship. Right after he learns how to spell. And think. But he won’t have the will to do it even if he did.
Hannity still needs to keep his promise to be waterboarded for charity. That never happened either. Idiot probably forgot about it already. We won’t.
Michelle Malkin’s latest column absolutely destroys this pitiful little Andrew-Cuomo-is-wonderful thread. Nobody does it better than Michelle.
You must mean this piece, figures that you can’t even do a simple link:
Lets see now:
Well now did Cuomo actually refer to mainstream conservatives? Malkin sure as heck thinks so but doesn’t show so, in fact that assertion is the centerpiece of her article yet isn’t proven. Are conservatives in New York really who Cuomo was referring to when he made his his speech? Or did he refer to extremists? The answer is extremists as indicated above explicitly when he talked about the divide between moderate and extremist Republicans.
The rest of Malkin’s article, based on this assertion, is nothing more than an attack piece rather than a clinical rebuttal, however to folks like you who lap up ANYTHING you see as “against libs” no matter how dumb, idiotic or senseless it may be, it’s the perfect example of a “destroys this pitiful little Andrew-Cuomo-is-wonderful thread” (which this thread clearly isn’t since no one here but YOU has stated that Cuomo is wonderful).
No. Cuomo was talking about conservatives PERIOD. Talking about pro-lifers as if they are all like Randall Terry is BS. Mark is once again pulling things out of his nether regions.
For one please stop using Pro-Life… it is Anti-choice. If it was actually Pro-Life you would care even after the fetus is out of the womb. But mostly all those so called Pro-Lifer’s don’t give a rat’s backside what happens after that moment of the first breath. You know what Roe v Wade really was about, the woman’s right to not die while having an abortion. Not having a back alley rusty hanger kill you. Mostly all of these woman who did have or going to have abortions probably don’t like it as much as you “pro-lifers” do. But they don’t have a choice. If you are a true Pro-life person, where is the conservatives that are setting up a national database of those who will take the babies for these woman that can not afford, or can not keep the kids? Where is the line of people to sign up at the front of these clinics to help these woman out with the new babies??? Please show me one – the long line of women that have appointments monthly or so because they use abortions as birth control, or the long lines of conservatives who are signing up to adopt these kids. Until then, please stop calling it Pro-Life …
“conservatives PERIOD” – really, when did “these extreme conservatives” become every conservative??? I know many conservatives that are NOT anti-gay, pro-gun, or anti-choice. I know many that have the let and let live (takes care of the anti-gay). Who prefer woman not get, but understand the reasons behind the pro-choice. And who are for guns, but not military/assault rifles and want stricter background checks done. So, please do not give me the whole “conservatives PERIOD” BS.
“Stop using pro-life… it is anti-choice.”
Lie. It’s not a choice to the baby inside the womb. Sounds like you have never seen a picture of an aborted fetus. Pro-lifers (yes, I will continue to use that phrase) sincerely believe that abortion is the taking of a human life.
“…anti-gay…”
Conservatives who believe that same-sex marriage is not marriage are not bigots or homophobes.
Cuomo made a horse’s patoot of himself. Period.
Scott, I suggest you stop wasting effort with these people – I did and it feels pretty good. Liberalism is truly a mental disorder, so any attempt to get through should be left to psychotherapy, not blog posts.
“Lucky for them, their audience is populated by imbeciles who will never put this all together. Their business model works because it requires low-intellect consumers and Fox just keeps making more of them everyday.”
Regardless of whether you believe these carnival barkers actually believe what they say or not (I, for one, do not), what they all have in common is they prey on the mush-brained masses who just somehow are unable to think for themselves. The Becks/Hannitys/Limbaughs, et al all count on the fact there is always going to be an intellectually lazy contingent they can manipulate.
They are con men, pure and simple and they’ve found a way to make money at it. They should also be afraid for what they wish in that they would be miserable if they didn’t have some sort of liberal boogeyman to rant about. They make their best money when a republican is not in the whitehouse or has a predominantly democratic congress.