HEY FOX NEWS: We Didn’t Start The Class War Fire

Posted by on November 3, 2011 at 1:14 pm. 14 Comments :

The top headline today on Fox Nation is a conspicuously slanderous lie (as opposed to their conventional slanderous lies): Oakland on Fire: Obama Gets Class War He Asked For.

Fox Nation

First of all, not only has Obama never asked for a class war, he has never even expressed support for the Occupy movement that the Fox Nationalists are inferring is a class war. This has been a disappointment to progressives who want the President to go beyond acknowledging the frustration of the protesters and the 99% of the nation whom they represent.

More importantly, the class war theme has been beaten to death by right-wingers intent on blaming the American people for the obscene economic disparity that is the work of wealthy corporations and their benefactors in Congress. If the elitist One-Percenters are afraid (and they should be) of the rampaging hordes approaching their villas with torches and pitchforks, then they should stop behaving like robber barons and start acting like patriots. They should care more about their country and fellow citizens than they do about hoarding wealth, ripping people off, and destroying the economy.

As Billy Joel said (sort of), “We didn’t start the [class war] fire,” but we’ll be more than happy to finish it, and we will prevail. Revolution is in our DNA. It’s how we gained liberty from lords and monarchs a couple of hundred years ago, and we will do it again. And this time many of the lords are actually on our side. The enemy isn’t really the Upper Crusties, it’s the conservative media and politicians acting on behalf of a minority of ultra-rightist neo-fascists (and that is not a reference to Hitler, but to the actual definition of fascism, which Mussolini called “corporatism.”). With respect to the foregoing, the best thing I can do in response is to just reprise an article I wrote a few days ago on this very subject:

CLASS WAR VICTORY! The Wealthy Have Surrendered, So Who’s Still Fighting?

“Conservatives say if you don’t give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. As for the poor, they tell us they’ve lost all incentive because we’ve given them too much money.” ~ George Carlin

The national debate triggered by the Occupy Wall Street protests has given the wealth gap a renewed focus in the public arena. And with good reason. That gap is wider today than it was just prior to the Great Depression; wider, in fact, than it has ever been. The brutality of that economic disparity has thrust our nation into a bitter and persistent recession. But it has also inspired millions of Americans to step forward and demand reforms that not only restore fairness, but readjust the balance of political power.

Conservatives regard this new activism as a declaration of class war. But it’s important to note that they only call it war when we fight back. The war was already in progress and, as Warren Buffett said, “We (the rich) are winning.” Now a new survey reveals that Buffett is not the only one-percenter that is fighting on our side. The Wall Street Journal (ironically) is reporting that…

“A new survey from Spectrem Group found that 68% of millionaires (those with investments of $1 million or more) support raising taxes on those with $1 million or more in income. Fully 61% of those with net worths of $5 million or more support the tax on million-plus earners.”

We can also count Bill Gates amongst the one-percenters who advocate more progressive taxes.


[Note: The same segment from ABC’s This Week was posted on Fox Nation with a headline that perverts reality beyond all recognition: “Bill Gates Knocks Down Obama’s Millionaire’s Tax.” Gates did no such thing. He continues his remarks saying that taxing millionaires by itself will not solve the debt problem, but no one is suggesting that it will. And his support for taxing the rich more is clear and unambiguous.]

When two-thirds of the people that will be affected by a tax increase support the increase, it begs the question, who are the opponents? For the answer you need look no farther than the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives:

John Boehner: “[T]here’s nothing that’s disappointed me more over the last 8 weeks than to watch the President of the United States basically give up on the economy, give up on the American people.” […] “People are frustrated, and that’s why the House has been focused all year on trying to create a better environment for job creation in our country.”

Boehner is wrong about Obama. The President has not given up on the economy or the American people. He has given up on Boehner. And Boehner’s assertion that the House has been focused on creating jobs is laughable. He and his Republican troops have done nothing but obstruct progress on every legislative attempt to stimulate job growth. In fact, they have been working hard to recast the issue as one that is centered on those they call the “job creators.”

House Republicans have a web site at jobs.gop.gov. The funny thing about the site is that it has no content whatsoever that addresses the plight of workers or the unemployed. The site isn’t really about jobs at all, as the heading makes abundantly clear: The House Republican Plan for America’s Job Creators. That’s an admission that the Republican agenda for jobs is really just an agenda for business owners and corporations. Click through to their plan and you will see a short list of proposals that hew narrowly to tax cuts for business, deregulation, and deficit reduction. It’s the same tired parade of failed policies that Republicans put forth as their solution to everything. None of those policies will produce jobs and, more importantly, they aren’t even what small businesses, the biggest driver of jobs, say that they want.

A new Gallup poll asked small business owners “What would be a primary motivation or reason for hiring any new employees?” The top three responses, representing 63% of respondents, were all related to demand.

“Small-business owners point to increased revenues (27%), an improving economy (20%), and growth or expansion of their business (17%) as their top motivations for hiring new employees in 2012.”

This survey affirms the analysis of most economists who agree that companies do not expand hiring when their taxes are cut or regulations are relaxed. They hire when they need to satisfy increased demand or exploit an economic opportunity. The Wall Street Journal surveyed a group of economists and concluded that…

“The main reason U.S. companies are reluctant to step up hiring is scant demand, rather than uncertainty over government policies, according to a majority of economists in a new Wall Street Journal survey.”

Once again, that’s the conservative Wall Street Journal reporting. It’s fair to presume that the economists the Journal surveyed were not from some sleeper cell of de-thawed Bolsheviks. In addition to this widespread agreement by experts that the GOP fixation on tax relief for the Upscalers is fiscal folly, the popular sentiment on Main Streets across the nation overwhelmingly favors making those who have benefited the most contribute more to restoring our country’s economic health. After all, the rich are the only ones who have not been called upon to share the sacrifice.

Shared Sacrifice

When the big picture is unfurled there are conclusions to draw that are too obvious to ignore. The American people support raising revenue via taxes. Economists agree that demand, not tax relief, drives job creation. And a majority of millionaires believe that their own tax rates are too low. Yet Republicans in Congress continue to stonewall. The intransigence of the GOP serves no constituency and has no discernible benefit politically. The only plausible return for their bullheadedness is in the form of financial support from a deep-pocketed minority of one-percenters who simply cannot abide one more cent in taxes.

That’s the naked truth that Boehner & Co. are having such a hard time defending. That’s why the Occupy movement has captured such a broad swath of public support. And that’s why it is all the more peculiar that the media still fails to present these issues honestly, and that many in the Democratic Party, including the President, have not unambiguously acknowledged the voice of the people and joined the fight for economic justice. If the wealthy have conceded that the people’s position is the one that ought to prevail, then where are the people’s representatives?

Find us on Google+
Advertisement:

Fox Nation’s War On Youth And Education

Posted by on November 3, 2011 at 11:15 am. 3 Comments :

It is no wonder that Fox News is the oldest skewing network in cable news. They have captured the curmudgeon demographic and completely abandoned any attempt to appeal to a young audience.

Today’s headline on Fox Nation is a good example of the animosity that drives away young viewers and readers: Obama Reduced to Writing Op-Eds in Student Newspapers.

Fox Nation

Reduced? Since when is communicating with college students considered to be some sort of lowered standard of engagement? The student newspaper to which Fox referred is the Harvard Crimson from Obama’s alma mater. The President’s column addressed the steps his administration is taking to ease the burden of the crushing debt students suffer due to the high cost of education.

In one headline Fox has insulted students as being unworthy of attention, and diminished education as a frivolous endeavor. And the headline was entirely the work of Fox’s editors. There was nothing in the source article that sunk to such disparaging terms. In fact, the article offered an uplifting message of hope for restoration of the opportunity that was once so much a part of the American Dream.

Obviously the Fox Nationalists think that communicating such hope directly to the next generation of America’s leaders is a contemptible act that reflects poorly on the President. It is that condescending perspective that makes Fox a pariah amongst everyone but the codgers who drool over photos of Sarah Palin in red leather.

GOP IgnoranceIt is the same perspective that elevates ignorance as an aspiration. Fox is the nation’s preeminent purveyor of distrust for intellectual achievement. They are the partners of the Republican Party in an effort to dumb-down the citizenry by mocking education and promoting idiots to positions of authority. And make no mistake, it is intentional. They know that it is far easier to manipulate people when they are uneducated and uninformed. They know that it is the only way that they can advance their agenda that benefits the wealthy and corporations at the expense of those they are deceiving. And they are good at it. Studies show that Fox viewers are significantly more misinformed than viewers of other networks. What’s more, the studies show that the more one watches Fox News, the more misinformed they become.

So the next time you see Fox slamming the President for daring to lower himself to communicating with college students, remember that this is in line with their business model of targeting the stupidest and oldest segment of the audience. And so far as I’m concerned, they can have ’em.


Where Have All The Palins Gone?

Posted by on November 2, 2011 at 11:56 pm. 16 Comments :

Running for president was once the province of seasoned public servants with extensive knowledge of law and history, and practical experience managing complex enterprises. Today running for president is a public relations strategy for boosting book advances and landing contracts with television news networks.

Remember when Sarah Palin was the darling of the right and she was on the news every day pontificating in her uniquely incoherent way? Remember when reporters followed her brightly colored bus around the country desperately trying to get her to look in their direction?

Remember when Donald Trump was on the news every day with increasingly wild assertions about his own magnificence or the President’s citizenship? Remember how unquestioning the press was about his phony resume and declarations of achievement and wealth?

Remember when Chris Christie was on the news everyday parading his arrogance around as if it represented moral character? Remember how he led the polls for the GOP nomination despite not even being a candidate?

Remember when Michele Bachmann was on the news every day after she won a straw poll in Iowa that had a notoriously spotty record for predicting the GOP nominee? Remember when she was the front-runner for the Republican nomination and the heir to Sarah Palin’s Tea Party princess crown?

Remember when Rick Perry was on the news every day and was heralded as the serious contender for the GOP nomination with executive experience and bona fide credentials? Remember when his name could mentioned without invoking uncontrollable laughter?

Before long we will be asking: Remember when Herman Cain was on the news every day and leading in the polls against more establishment candidates with conventional backgrounds? Remember when people actually took seriously the former head of a pizza chain as a possible president of the United States?

But the real question we should be asking is what has happened to our national pride? What has happened to the aspiration for excellence and the admiration for brilliance? Why have so many Americans embraced an anti-intellectual pursuit of averagism? When did their standards decline to the point that they have contempt for Harvard graduates and reverence for governors who quit mid-term?

The parade of Republican front-runners would be an embarrassment to any party other than one preoccupied with tea. And the thinness of their character is evidenced by how quickly they disappear, leaving merely remnants with vague resemblances to persons we think we used to know. Which leaves us asking, Sarah who?


Idiots At BigGovernment Post Video That Proves They Are Idiots

Posted by on November 2, 2011 at 2:05 pm. 3 Comments :

This never fails to brighten my day. Some right-wingers are so stupid they don’t even know they are refuting their own positions with some of the attempted slander they present.

Today Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment (notoriously stupid to begin with) posted an interview of an Occupy Wall Street protester. She was prodded about reports of malfeasance on the part of the Occupy movement or some of its participants. The purpose being to smear the protest movement with phony allegations and rumors. The result was an article with the headline: ACORN Front Group Pays Homeless People ‘$10 a Hour, $100 a Day’ to Protest at Occupy Wall Street.

The only problem is that the woman in the video did not say that the allegedly hired homeless persons were paid to be protesters. What she said was…

“I know some people, homeless people, are getting paid to come here and mess things up.”

So her actual charge is that they were provocateurs hired to disrupt the protest, not to support it. She seemed earnest and well-meaning, but somewhat ill-informed in that her comments appeared to conflate reports of paid instigators with unrelated reports of ACORN hiring protesters. The ACORN story itself was obvious propaganda which I debunked last week. The absurd assertions of Fox News and others painted a picture of a bankrupt and disbanded non-profit group shelling out a quarter of a million dollars for extras to populate the scene at Zucotti Park.

As further evidence of the confusion of the woman in the video, her story didn’t even make sense. Why would ACORN pay people to disrupt a protest that they presumably supported? Anyone who has watched the news the past few weeks would have readily recognized the flaws in her comments and reputable journalists would not have used them, at least not without attempting get a clarification. But that doesn’t stop the rocket scientists at BigGovernment who saw fit to post this interview anyway. Never mind that it fingered the Occupy movement’s opponents as saboteurs and dirty tricksters. What’s more, it revealed that Breitbart’s prior efforts to miscast the Occupiers as shills was a lie. If this woman is to be believed, it was Breitbart’s side that were the shills. And she very likely got her misinformation (the ACORN nonsense) from “news” reported by Breitbart.

Despite the frequency with which right-wingers make themselves look like fools, it still astonishes me when they do so. And they even manage to escalate the flamboyancy of their blockheadedness with each new incident. With all the turmoil and tribulation in the world these days, I suppose I should grateful for the little bit of cheer they bring to my life. There really is nothing I enjoy more than when my ideological opponents show up for a debate with big, red, rubber noses and clown shoes.


Glenn Beck Sponsor Goldline Charged With Theft And Fraud

Posted by on November 2, 2011 at 7:08 am. 2 Comments :

Glenn BeckABC News is reporting that Glenn Beck’s long-time sponsor Goldline has been formally charged by the Santa Monica City Attorney with a 19-count criminal complaint for defrauding customers.

The complaint alleges that Goldline “runs a bait and switch operation in which customers, seeking to invest in gold bullion, are switched to highly overpriced coins by using false and misleading claims,” according to a statement released by the consumer affairs division of the Santa Monica City Attorney’s office.

The company has been charged in the court filing with misdemeanors that include theft by false pretenses, false advertising, and conspiracy, the City Attorney’s office said.

The allegations stem from complaints that Goldline deliberately pressured customers to purchase overpriced gold coins rather than the bullion featured in their advertising. The pitch often included false representations that coins are a safer investment because bullion could be confiscated by the government. That is a claim specifically cited by Beck in his ads.

Many of Beck’s sponsors are firms that benefit from his Apocalyptic delusions. They include Survival Seeds, Liberty Safes, and CheaperThanDirt, an online gun dealer. The Beck business model is to so thoroughly frighten his audience that believe they need these products to protect themselves and their families from the imminent End Times. Sadly, for the pathetic nimrods whom Beck has deceived, it’s a lucrative con job.

Last year another gold peddler, and Beck sponsor, Superior Gold was placed into receivership and all of its assets frozen. And that’s just the tip of the corruption iceberg associated with firms that finance Beck’s disinformation factory. Regular advertisers on Beck’s radio and Internet properties include LifeLock, Tax Masters, and Free Score, all of whom have had brushes with the law for engaging in questionable business practices.

I guess it’s to be expected that someone as dishonest as Beck is going to align himself with the same sort of scoundrels.


Fox Nation vs. Reality: On Angry, Unpopular Michelle Obama

Posted by on October 31, 2011 at 3:28 pm. 15 Comments :

For today’s episode of Fox Nation vs. Reality, we’ve got a twofer.

Fox Nation

The Fox Nationalists are reviving an old and insipid insult directed at First Lady Michelle Obama. Right-wingers are obsessed with portraying her as angry, but the op-ed to which Fox Nation links goes even further. Joseph Curl, for the Moonie Washington Times, blasts Obama for being…

“…ready to spew her bilious disgust with America on the campaign trail. A dignified, transcendent first lady? No chance. Michelle is going to break with a hundred years of tradition and play the role of attack dog, heaping derision on her husband’s political opponents like no other first lady before her.”

Seriously, where do they get this stuff? Curl expects us to believe that he is clairvoyant and can predict what Obama will do in the future. And just by chance, everything he predicts casts her as rabidly un-American.

The other Fox Nation anti-Michelle article bears the headline, “Michelle Obama Approval Drops.” Technically, Fox got this one right. The Hill reports that the results of a new Marist poll show Michelle Obama’s approval rating collapsing from 65% in September to 63% now.

Call in the undertaker, it’s all over folks. Obama’s approval suffers a steep decline that is less than the poll’s margin of error. Although her approval still far exceeds her husband, Congress, Republican candidates, the media, and probably ice cream. But Fox Nation selects a headline that is so hysterically twisted that the writers at the Onion are getting nervous.

What is it that Fox is afraid of? The First Lady is a strong, intelligent, accomplished woman, who is popular with fellow Americans. So obviously Fox has to try to turn her into an acerbic witch whom every hates. It is the same tactic they have used with some success to tarnish the President with phony slurs alleging that he is a Kenyan, Marxist, Muslim who wants to destroy the country and re-crucify Jesus.

But as troubling as it is to hear these ridiculous and childish assaults, what is truly pathetic is that Fox has so many viewers and readers who actually buy into it. Sadly, in the 21st century, there is still no shortage of idiocy.

Find us on Google+
Advertisement:

CLASS WAR VICTORY! The Wealthy Have Surrendered, So Who’s Still Fighting?

Posted by on October 31, 2011 at 1:41 pm. 3 Comments :

“Conservatives say if you don’t give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. As for the poor, they tell us they’ve lost all incentive because we’ve given them too much money.” ~ George Carlin

The national debate triggered by the Occupy Wall Street protests has given the wealth gap a renewed focus in the public arena. And with good reason. That gap is wider today than it was just prior to the Great Depression; wider, in fact, than it has ever been. The brutality of that economic disparity has thrust our nation into a bitter and persistent recession. But it has also inspired millions of Americans to step forward and demand reforms that not only restore fairness, but readjust the balance of political power.

Conservatives regard this new activism as a declaration of class war. But it’s important to note that they only call it war when we fight back. The war was already in progress and, as Warren Buffett said, “We (the rich) are winning.” Now a new survey reveals that Buffett is not the only one-percenter that is fighting on our side. The Wall Street Journal (ironically) is reporting that…

“A new survey from Spectrem Group found that 68% of millionaires (those with investments of $1 million or more) support raising taxes on those with $1 million or more in income. Fully 61% of those with net worths of $5 million or more support the tax on million-plus earners.”

We can also count Bill Gates amongst the one-percenters who advocate more progressive taxes.


[Note: The same segment from ABC’s This Week was posted on Fox Nation with a headline that perverts reality beyond all recognition: “Bill Gates Knocks Down Obama’s Millionaire’s Tax.” Gates did no such thing. He continues his remarks saying that taxing millionaires by itself will not solve the debt problem, but no one is suggesting that it will. And his support for taxing the rich more is clear and unambiguous.]

When two-thirds of the people that will be affected by a tax increase support the increase, it begs the question, who are the opponents? For the answer you need look no farther than the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives:

John Boehner: “[T]here’s nothing that’s disappointed me more over the last 8 weeks than to watch the President of the United States basically give up on the economy, give up on the American people.” […] “People are frustrated, and that’s why the House has been focused all year on trying to create a better environment for job creation in our country.”

Boehner is wrong about Obama. The President has not given up on the economy or the American people. He has given up on Boehner. And Boehner’s assertion that the House has been focused on creating jobs is laughable. He and his Republican troops have done nothing but obstruct progress on every legislative attempt to stimulate job growth. In fact, they have been working hard to recast the issue as one that is centered on those they call the “job creators.”

House Republicans have a web site at jobs.gop.gov. The funny thing about the site is that it has no content whatsoever that addresses the plight of workers or the unemployed. The site isn’t really about jobs at all, as the heading makes abundantly clear: The House Republican Plan for America’s Job Creators. That’s an admission that the Republican agenda for jobs is really just an agenda for business owners and corporations. Click through to their plan and you will see a short list of proposals that hew narrowly to tax cuts for business, deregulation, and deficit reduction. It’s the same tired parade of failed policies that Republicans put forth as their solution to everything. None of those policies will produce jobs and, more importantly, they aren’t even what small businesses, the biggest driver of jobs, say that they want.

A new Gallup poll asked small business owners “What would be a primary motivation or reason for hiring any new employees?” The top three responses, representing 63% of respondents, were all related to demand.

“Small-business owners point to increased revenues (27%), an improving economy (20%), and growth or expansion of their business (17%) as their top motivations for hiring new employees in 2012.”

This survey affirms the analysis of most economists who agree that companies do not expand hiring when their taxes are cut or regulations are relaxed. They hire when they need to satisfy increased demand or exploit an economic opportunity. The Wall Street Journal surveyed a group of economists and concluded that…

“The main reason U.S. companies are reluctant to step up hiring is scant demand, rather than uncertainty over government policies, according to a majority of economists in a new Wall Street Journal survey.”

Once again, that’s the conservative Wall Street Journal reporting. It’s fair to presume that the economists the Journal surveyed were not from some sleeper cell of de-thawed Bolsheviks. In addition to this widespread agreement by experts that the GOP fixation on tax relief for the Upscalers is fiscal folly, the popular sentiment on Main Streets across the nation overwhelmingly favors making those who have benefited the most contribute more to restoring our country’s economic health. After all, the rich are the only ones who have not been called upon to share the sacrifice.

Shared Sacrifice

When the big picture is unfurled there are conclusions to draw that are too obvious to ignore. The American people support raising revenue via taxes. Economists agree that demand, not tax relief, drives job creation. And a majority of millionaires believe that their own tax rates are too low. Yet Republicans in Congress continue to stonewall. The intransigence of the GOP serves no constituency and has no discernible benefit politically. The only plausible return for their bullheadedness is in the form of financial support from a deep-pocketed minority of one-percenters who simply cannot abide one more cent in taxes.

That’s the naked truth that Boehner & Co. are having such a hard time defending. That’s why the Occupy movement has captured such a broad swath of public support. And that’s why it is all the more peculiar that the media still fails to present these issues honestly, and that many in the Democratic Party, including the President, have not unambiguously acknowledged the voice of the people and joined the fight for economic justice. If the wealthy have conceded that the people’s position is the one that ought to prevail, then where are the people’s representatives?


Fox News Fiasco: Pollsters Forget To Lie

Posted by on October 30, 2011 at 9:23 am. 4 Comments :

Heads Are Gonna Roll. When Roger Ailes gets a hold of the polls just published by Fox News you can expect to see blood in the hallways of the Fox executive suites. There will be outrage at the pollsters who permitted the results to be released without first twisting them to reflect the Fox viewpoint. And there will be fury at the anchors and editors who botched their mission to infect public opinion with their distortion of reality.

Take a look at these results from polling data this week:

On the question of favorability, President Obama scored higher than any of the top candidates for the Republican nomination:

Obama 48% Romney 40% Cain 33% Perry 23%

On the question of which issues are most important, it was the economy by a mile. Social issues barely registered:

Economic issues, such as taxes, government spending 76%
National security issues, such as military, foreign policy 8%
Social issues, such as abortion and gay marriage 6%

On whether the respondent would be enthusiastic/pleased with the election of each candidate, again Obama trounced the Republicans:

Obama 37% Romney 21% Cain 23% Perry 17%

On the question of tax tax reform, a graduated tax was preferred by a wide margin over a flat tax or a national sales tax:

Graduated Tax 39% Flat Tax 35% Sales Tax 12%

On the question of immigration, respondents favored allowing citizenship for immigrants who came to this country as children:

Allow citizenship 63% Oppose citizenship 31%

It’s starting to look like the American people aren’t as repulsed by this Kenyan, Marxist administration as Fox wants them to be. From the same poll (released the next day) these results painted a similar picture.

On the question of Obama’s approval compared to that of Congress:

Obama 43% Congressional Democrats 29% Congressional Republicans 22%

On the question of support for the President’s jobs bill that Republicans filibustered:

In favor 48% Opposed 44%

On the reason for the economy not improving under Obama:

His ideas are good, but he hasn’t been able to get them implemented 52%
His ideas are bad, and too many of them are being implemented 37%

Imagine that. The American people are pretty well informed despite Fox’s attempt to mold them into cretinous zombies. These are not the sort of numbers that Fox News has been working so hard to manipulate in order to cast the President as an incompetent socialist bent on destroying everything America stands for. However, the pollsters did work in a few questions that only Fox would ask. The overt bias in these inquiries is exceeded only by their utter stupidity. And even on these the responses did not follow the Fox line. For instance:

How concerned are you that the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations will eventually turn into street riots? (Did Fox ever ask that about gun-toting Tea Baggers?)

Very/Somewhat concerned 47%
Not very/Not at all concerned 51%

Do you think the Occupy Wall Street movement is anti-capitalist, or not? (Way to spike the punch, guys. The Occupiers are not anti-rich, they are anti-corruption)

Yes it is 37% No it isn’t 46%

Would you rather see your child grow up to be a Wall Street executive or an Occupy Wall Street protester? (Does Fox think that’s an actual career goal?)

Wall Street executive 48% Occupy Wall Street protester 26%

And to top it off, Fox asked what Obama should do about his stolen TelePrompter: Replace it with another, use note cards instead, speak off-the-cuff, or stop giving speeches? Now that is a question that really gets to the heart of the nation’s concerns.

Who are Fox’s pollsters? They must have scoured junior high schools across the nation looking for Nelson Muntz types to lead their research department. And after putting in all that hard work and expense that can’t even get a good “Ha ha,” out of it.


The Bill O’Reilly Lecture: On Making Statements You Can’t Back Up

Posted by on October 29, 2011 at 3:17 pm. 8 Comments :

If there is anyone in the media whose experience and integrity has earned them the respect of their peers and the right to provide guidance to others – well, it isn’t this guy:

Bill O'Reilly

Indeed, Bill O’Reilly is proof that journalistic standards have waned. It’s nice of him to admit it. He is perhaps best known for telling guests to “Shut up,” and for declaring imaginary wars against holidays. Last night on his Fox News program he decided that he would promote himself to professor and lecture a guest on the standards of journalistic conduct, a field he has studiously avoided.

The guest was liberal commentator Leslie Marshall. In response to O’Reilly’s diatribe against Occupy Wall Street protesters, Marshall noted that the Tea Party had many of the same problems that O’Reilly assigned to the Occupiers. Specifically she raised the issue of the Koch brothers and their role in creating and promoting the Tea party.

Incensed, O’Reilly demanded to know whether Marshall had any direct evidence that the Koch brothers had bankrolled the Tea Party:

“Leslie, you are a Fox News contributor, you have a responsibility. Can you prove that the Koch brothers are tied into the Tea Party financially? Can you? […] I want to remind you not to make statements you can’t back up on this network. We don’t do that on this network. Other networks do. We don’t.”

The involvement of the Koch brothers in the Tea Party is not a secret. They flaunt it. Their Americans for Prosperity pays the expenses for speakers like Sarah Palin to travel the country on buses painted with Tea Party logos. Unfortunately, Marshall was ill-prepared to respond. She stumbled and conceded that she had no “check in hand.” That led O’Reilly to declare his hollow victory and tell her, in effect, to shut up as he turned to another guest with whom he agrees.

More interesting is O’Reilly’s arrogant scolding that making statements that cannot be backed up is not permitted at Fox News. Of course, there are warehouses full of documentation that reveal the absurdity of that assertion. From death panels to birth certificates to global cooling to monkey mercenaries (I’m not kidding), the list is too long to condense here. However, for convenient evidence to the contrary, all you would have to do is rewind your DVR to watch O’Reilly’s “Talking Points Memo” delivered at the top of this program. In it he castigated the Occupy movement as pawns of nefarious behind the scenes power brokers:

“These people are being exploited by powerful radical organizations. They are being used in the hopes of embarrassing the USA. The Occupy Wall Street movement is not – is not – a spontaneous protest against inequality. It is a well thought out campaign to bring down the infrastructure of this country. To turn us into a Western European type entitlement state. That’s what George Soros, MoveOn, the SEIC (sic), and many far-left journalists want. And they are using the protest to that end.”

And what did O’Reilly have to back up any of that? Not a dang thing. MoveOn and some unions (including SEIU) have expressed support for the movement, but they were not involved in organizing or directing it. Soros has no association with it whatsoever. And the allegation that the the goal of these clandestine conspirators is to “bring down the infrastructure of this country,” must be O’Reilly’s attempt to fill Glenn Beck’s shoes now that Beck has descended into Internet purgatory.

It’s rather astonishing to watch O’Reilly pivot from hurling a load of nonsense like this in a prepared segment, without backing it up, to chastising a guest for not having reference materials to affirm comments made extemporaneously in a live debate. But that’s not even the worst of it. O’Reilly’s opening segment also attacked MoveOn for producing a video to solicit support for a Marine who was seriously injured by police at the Occupy Oakland demonstration.

“Enter the radical MoveOn organization which is funding some of the occupiers. It took just hours for them to produce this video. [MoveOn Video] Now it’s obvious that MoveOn was ready to exploit any violence so that they could portray the USA as a police state. That is part two of the Occupy movement. First demonize capitalism, tell the world how unfair the U.S. economic system is. Then show the world the cops are fascists. Disgracefully the mayor of Oakland, Jean Quan, caved into the radical left. [Quan Video] Nice job Mayor. Throwing your entire police department under the bus. That’s what real leadership is all about.”

For some reason O’Reilly is surprised that MoveOn was able to post a one minute long video within a few hours of a breaking news event. That shows how little O’Reilly knows about the news business. But in telling this story, O’Reilly criticizes the video only after cutting out 22 critical seconds – the entire portion that showed Scott Olsen, the injured Marine, and the police assault on the demonstrators who tried to help him. (See the whole MoveOn video here). Removing that footage distorts the context of Mayor Quan’s statement. She was not apologizing for the police behavior, or throwing them under the bus. She was expressing regret for the grievous harm suffered by a veteran who was demonstrating peacefully.

O’Reilly’s objective here is to characterize the Occupy protesters as violent thugs itching to incite a riot. Rush Limbaugh posited the same theory on his radio show:

“They are hoping some sort of Kent State type massacre is gonna take place. They are hoping that there’s gonna be some kind of civil disobedience. They are hoping that general unrest is gonna take place, a riot is gonna start, the cops are gonna go in there to try to quell the riot, and I think that’s what they’re hoping for. This is the chaos that everybody is looking for.”

The irony of Limbaugh articulating such a devious plot is sublime. A few years ago he expressed his hopes for the Democratic National Convention in Denver saying “Screw the World! Riot in Denver!”

“[T]he dream end of this is that this keeps up to the convention and that we have a replay of Chicago 1968, with burning cars, protests, fires, literal riots, and all of that. That’s the objective here.”

Rush Limbaugh

Let’s face it, it’s miscreants like Limbaugh and O’Reilly who are hoping for chaos and violence. The protesters of the Occupy movement have been consistent in their insistence on peaceful behavior. That contrasts with Tea Partiers who carried guns to rallies or signs saying that “We came unarmed THIS time.”

Bill O’Reilly does not have the moral standing to criticize other people’s intentions or behavior. His personal history is rife with examples of low character and shamelessness. And so far as lecturing others on making statements that are not backed up, he really needs to shut up. In fact, that would hold true for everyone on Fox News.


Fox News Raises ACORN From The Grave To Bash The #Occupy Movement

Posted by on October 28, 2011 at 4:16 pm. 10 Comments :

Another day, another Fox News attempt smear the Occupy Wall Street movement.

This article also appears on Alternet.org.

Fox News has been feverishly trying to dampen the viral growth of OWS ever since it sprouted in a park in Lower Manhattan about a month ago. Their overt hostility is in sharp contrast to the love affair they had with the early Tea Party. Now they are slandering decent and passionate protesters as communists, whining about class war, comparing them to hippies, accusing them of violence, and associating them with Nazis. All of these attacks have collapsed from the weight of their own dishonesty, and support continues to grow for the movement. But does that stop Fox News?

Of course not. Their determination to crush this populist uprising is fueled by a cabal of bitter elitists with deep pockets. Rupert Murdoch’s pals on Wall Street have no intention of sitting still while they are asked to be accountable for their chicanery. So yesterday Fox’s Megyn Kelly featured a story based on an article at FoxNews.com with a provocative headline: EXCLUSIVE: Ex-ACORN Operatives Behind the Scene of ‘Occupy’ Protests.

Fox News on ACORN

Run for the hills, Helga. A defunct organization of community organizers who helped low-income citizens to vote, find housing, get an education, and navigate the complexities of government agencies, has risen from the dead to take control of a leaderless rabble of park squatters demanding an end to financial and political corruption. It’s Armageddon!

The FoxNews.com article was based on is a collection of unattributed sources making unsubstantiated allegations about New York Communities for Change (NYCC), the group Fox says is the ACORN spinoff. Most of the claims are so far-fetched as to be beyond believability. For example, one source flatly claims as a matter of fact that “there is a still a national ACORN.” The Fox reporter never bothers to confirm the demonstrably false assertion, nor to challenge the source. And then there’s this…

“Sources said NYCC has hired about 100 former ACORN-affiliated staff members from other cities – paying some of them $100 a day – to attend and support Occupy Wall Street. Dozens of New York homeless people recruited from shelters are also being paid to support the protests, at the rate of $10 an hour, the sources said.”

Doing the math, that comes to $10,000 a day for the staffers and another $8,000 (approx) a day for the homeless recruits. The Wall Street Occupation has just entered its sixth week, but if we assume that these folks worked for just three of those weeks, that’s $270,000 (with weekends off).

Remember, ACORN is an organization that disbanded when their funding dried up as a result of the negative publicity generated by the thoroughly discredited smear campaign of video-dissembler James O’Keefe. Every investigation of ACORN subsequent to their dissolution failed to find any wrongdoing except on the part of O’Keefe, whose videos were deemed to have been deliberately and unethically deceptive.

Nevertheless, Fox is now reporting that the spawn of this bankrupt non-profit “raked in about $5,000” via fundraising efforts by hired canvassers. And with that puny take they managed to pay over a quarter of a million dollars to 150 people. That sort of magical fiscal management hasn’t been seen since Jesus fed the multitudes with five loaves of bread and a couple of fish. And all of this was supposedly orchestrated in order to make a crowd of thousands look marginally bigger. This doesn’t even take into consideration any of NYCC’s other expenses like rent, utilities, office equipment, etc., despite a specific assertion in the article that the money raised was used “to buy supplies, pay staff and cover travel expenses.”

NYCC has issued a response to Fox News:

“Fox News is trying to discredit Occupy Wall Street. New York Communities for Change is a new organization that fights for low- and moderate-income families. We don’t pay protesters and any monies raised by NYCC’s canvass are used in support of our ongoing issue campaigns. Period.

“The reality is that Occupy Wall Street is an organic movement of the 99% outraged at the ability of the 1% to corrupt America’s political and financial systems for personal gain while middle class families lose their jobs, their homes, and see their economic future devastated. We call on Fox News to stop its unseemly attacks and to respect the views of the overwhelming majority of Americans who believe that our nation needs a more equitable distribution of wealth.”

The Fox News article’s author, Jana Winter, claims to have interviewed insiders with specific knowledge of private details. Winter cites her interview subjects twenty times in the article but only once puts a name to a comment. Her negligence to identify anyone even includes a spokesman for the United Federation of Teachers and a Fox News producer – two people who presumably are not averse to attribution.

The one identified source is Harrison Schultz, an Occupy Wall Street spokesman, whom Winter quotes as saying that “he knew nothing about NYCC’s involvement in the Occupy movement. ‘Haven’t seen them, couldn’t tell you,’ he said.” So the only on-the-record quote in the whole article was an unambiguous denial of any OWS coordination with NYCC. That’s what Fox News considers an “exclusive” expose of ACORN’s clandestine domination of the movement.

For the past few weeks Fox News and the broader right-wing media has relentlessly hammered at OWS. They have tried in vain to drive down support for the movement by associating it with a different villain on an almost daily basis. Bill O’Reilly and his guest, Glenn Beck, discussed how George Soros was funding the protesters and their newspaper, The Occupied Wall Street Journal. In fact, there is no verifiable tie to Soros and the newspaper was produced by notorious pranksters, The Yes Men, and funded by donations. Glenn Beck took pleasure in a report that former KKK leader David Duke had “endorsed” OWS. What Beck failed to mention is that Duke, a pathological self-promoter, had also endorsed the Tea Party. But Andrew Breitbart took the top dishonors by speculating that OWS might be affiliated with Al Qaeda.

Despite this barrage of hogwash, the Occupy movement continues to gain popularity. A CBS/New York Times poll shows that 43% of the country agree with the Occupiers. An Associated Press poll shows that 37% of Americans view the protesters favorably. That compares to only 28% who have a favorable view of the Tea Party. Even more significant is the support expressed for the movement’s economic justice agenda, particularly raising taxes on the wealthy. A Bloomberg poll shows overwhelming support by 68% of the American people, including a majority of both independents and Republicans. And poll after poll affirms those results.

Is it any wonder then that Fox News is so frantically flinging fistfuls of mud in the hopes that something will stick? And since the usual name-calling they employ (socialists, thugs, deviants) has failed to make a mark, they are pulling out oldies like ACORN. Even if the association with ACORN were true, what would be the harm? We know now that ACORN was fully exonerated, while their critics were repudiated. There is certainly no shame in being associated with an organization that fought for decades on behalf of the disenfranchised members of our society.

This is a desperation move on the part of Fox News that reveals the weakness of their position. If this is the best that Fox can come up with, expect the Occupy movement to continue gaining strength. But also expect Fox to escalate their attacks into even more bizarre territory. Before long they will find a way to associate the Occupiers with an underground civilization of Molemen seeking to overthrow the surface-dwellers. Occupy Overground!