Fox News And Andrew Breitbart Have Weiner Envy

Posted by on June 2, 2011 at 9:59 am. 10 Comments :

There has not been a more obvious case of penile obsession than that exhibited by Andrew Breitbart and the pervs at Fox Nation. Since the non-story about Anthony Weiner’s alleged Twitter escapade, these alleged “news” sources have maintained a frenzied focus on it. Despite the utter lack of verifiable evidence, the Fox Nationalists have posted FOURTEEN articles on the subject:


That’s fourteen separate articles on this one issue that hardly compares to the urgency of other matters currently in the news cycle. The second most reported story on Fox Nation, with two whole articles, was the Palin/Trump pizza summit. They sure know their priorities.

As for Andrew Breitbart, he puts Fox Nation to shame. It has now been four days since the story broke and Breitbart’s BigGovernment blog still features it in a big way. In fact, EVERY SINGLE HEADLINE on the site is Weiner-related. There is no other story (with the exception of Breitbart’s lame book) that warrants a headline on that pseudo-news site.


I know these weasels live to smear their liberal adversaries, but this ridiculous. When Americans are desperate for information about pressing issues concerning jobs, the economy, health and Medicare, and national security, the rightist media is glued to titillating irrelevancies. Weiner is one Congressman from New York who is not even a member of the Democratic leadership. He is in a heavily Democratic district that would likely elect another Democrat if the worst case scenario were to occur and he left office. The GOP has little to gain from hyping this other than to remind people of the verifiable incidents of Republican malfeasance in office.

So why are they doing it? Because they are being hurt so badly by their own news that they are desperate for a distraction. Their presidential candidates are a laughing stock, even amongst Republicans. And their budget plan that kills Medicare is unpopular with every sector of the electorate, including conservatives and Tea Partiers. They are in a rapid meltdown and they think that this will save them. Thus the fixation that blots out every other news story for these losers. Pathetic.

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May Cable News Ratings: Fox News Gets Stomped

Posted by on June 1, 2011 at 8:29 pm. 33 Comments :

Ratings for cable news for the month of May 2011, bring bad news for Fox News. In the key demographic group of 25-54 year-olds, Fox was alone in declining during the primetime hours.


This was a really bad month for Fox News which lost viewers in the demo for every primetime show. Bill O’Reilly dropped 9%, Sean Hannity dropped 6%, and Greta Van Susteren dropped 12%. These declines occurred while almost every primetime program for both CNN and MSNBC gained by double digits. The only good news for Fox is that Glenn Beck, which sunk 17% in the demo, has already been canceled so he can’t do too much more harm.

An interesting wrinkle in this book is that MSNBC was also the number one cable news network among 18-34 year-olds in primetime, with a 7% advantage over CNN and a 14% lead over Fox News. That is not a demo that gets much attention from an advertising point of view, but it signals an opportunity for future growth that the network can exploit. It also affirms the weakness of Fox among young viewers. That explains why Beck is so openly hostile to young people.


Lies And Porn: Andrew Breitbart’s Brand Of Journalism

Posted by on May 31, 2011 at 1:04 pm. 38 Comments :

Committed news junkies this morning are following a ludicrous story about New York Congressman Anthony Weiner. I’m not getting into it now because at this point there is nothing substantive to report. There are only salacious accusations with no proof whatsoever.

What I will get into is the fact that Andrew Breitbart, the notoriously dishonest purveyor of right-wing lies and propaganda who has been caught disseminating slanderous videos that were proven to be faked, has now expanded his field into porn and the yellowest of journalism. Here is a screen capture of the top of his BigGovernment web site:


Note that every single story is on one subject – the alleged Weiner controversy that Breitbart himself invented. (Well, there is one exception – an ad for Breitbart’s thoroughly dishonest book). Apparently Breitbart considers this non-story more important than any other news story on the planet. There is literally no other story worthy of covering than this one. Not the presidential campaign. Not the congressional vote on raising the debt ceiling. Not the tornadoes in the Mid-West. Not the War on Terror. Nothing.

Breitbart’s desperation to hoist a fake scandal on his dimwitted readers is palpable. Seriously – EVERY SINGLE HEADLINE! It exposes Breitbart as obsessed with advancing his slander. And to make matters worse, Breitbart went on CNN this morning (shame on CNN) and talked about “relationships that Congressman Weiner has been having with women, young women…” That despicable quote was wholly unsupported by even the flimsiest of facts. Breitbart even tried to qualify it later, after he had already set it loose into the mediasphere. He knows very well that that’s all it takes to set ignorant tongues wagging, and that was his intention. His whole existence is reliant on the slobbering imbeciles who live for dirt on their liberal adversaries and don’t care if it’s real or manufactured.

The press has to recognize that Breitbart has zero credibility. How many incidents have to arise where he is proven to have fabricated videos, documents, and testimony, before the media stops treating him as if he were their peer? It’s just embarrassing to see them sully themselves by cozying up to this dirtbag. It has got to stop.


Sarah Palin: From Grizzly Mama To Harley Mama

Posted by on May 31, 2011 at 10:59 am. 2 Comments :

The Fox News Party candidate for president and former half-term governor, Sarah Palin, did what she does best this Memorial Day weekend: Exploit others to promote herself.


Palin and Fox are playing an unethical and dishonest game to fatten their wallets. When will Fox News either admit that they know she isn’t running for president, or take her off the air until she comes clean? And more importantly, when will the brain-dead media stop salivating every time the Palin bell rings? The press has no more business hyping substanceless photo-ops for Sarah Palin than they would for Ronald McDonald.

By the way, what’s the difference between Fox News and McDonald’s? One sells cheap crap with lots of filler & seasoning to masses with no taste. The other is a fast food restaurant.

[Update] Palin spoke to Greta Van Susteren of Fox News (of course) and complained about the media saying “this isn’t a campaign tour.” and that “it’s not about me, it’s not a publicity-seeking tour.” Of course not. She is only traveling around in a massive custom bus with full exterior graphics of herself and her non-campaign logo, One Nation (stolen from the union rally last year in Washington, D.C.). Clearly she just wants to be left alone.

Palin also said “I’m like A) I don’t think I owe anything to the mainstream media.” First of all, I want to point out that there was no B or C, etc. She keeps her lists short as befits her attention span. Secondly, I agree with her. she doesn’t owe anything to the mainstream media, and they owe nothing to her. Stop following her, dumbasses!


Markdown: Glenn Beck’s Groupon Ripoff Shills For His Sponsors

Posted by on May 28, 2011 at 2:44 pm. 4 Comments :

When Glenn Beck announced that he was launching a new discount service similar to the popular Groupon, it was widely dismissed as just another obvious vehicle for Beck to squeeze more money from his glassy-eyed congregation. He is rapidly developing a new brand of consumerism that merges the Home Shopping Channel with the Christian Broadcasting Network were it all presented by the John Birch Society.

The first offering at Beck’s Markdown.com was innocent enough – a chocolate retailer that aggregated unique sweets that almost anyone could enjoy. The second offering, however, is a different story.


That’s right – LifeLock. One of Beck’s biggest and most reliable advertisers on both radio and television. I’m sure the decision to feature LifeLock on his new web site had nothing to do with the fact that they have been paying him handsomely to sponsor his broadcasts for years. It was a totally objective choice with no ulterior motives or backroom profiteering. Uh huh.

Beck didn’t wait long to reveal the true intent of this knockoff site. He could have promoted a half dozen innocuous businesses before shilling for one of his sponsors. The fact that he didn’t wait tells us just how confident he is that his followers won’t object to being scammed so openly. They are so securely under his spell that no effort to disguise his self-serving intent is required. And they undoubtedly believe the mission statement Beck posted for his service:

“Markdown.com is a different kind of e-commerce site. Sure, we care about revenue and profit, but we care about honesty and integrity just as much. We believe in value, but we also believe in values—the idea that we should be guided by a set of principles that transcends money.”

Apparently disclosing that the product you are supposedly promoting impartially is actually your long-time sponsor is not amongst the set of principles that guide Beck. What’s more, Beck presents LifeLock as a company that adheres to high standards of integrity and says that…

“…the idea that you should always do what’s right, no matter the situation – can be found in everything the company does.”

That, however, is not the view of investigators at the Federal Trade Commission who charged Lifelock with “operating a scam and con operation.” The FTC, along with 35 state attorneys general, levied a fine of $12 million against the company for “deceptive business practices and for failing to secure sensitive customer data.” In short, investigators found that LifeLock failed to provide any of the services they promised.

LifeLock is just one of Beck’s advertisers with dubious histories. Goldline, TaxMasters, and FreeScore, have all been under legal scrutiny and drawn rebukes from consumer advocates. But that hasn’t stopped Beck from shilling for these firms and now hoisting LifeLock to a position of honor at his phony coupon shop. It just makes you wonder what’s next: Glenn Beck’s Patriot Tears?


[h/t Stephen Colbert]


Fox News MUST Make Sarah Palin Declare [Updated: Fox Responds]

Posted by on May 27, 2011 at 1:30 am. 8 Comments :

Sarah PalinIs Sarah Palin running for president? Who knows.

What we do know is that she recently hired a chief of staff. She stars in a new bio-pic that will premiere next month in the early primary state of Iowa. She told Fox News that she has the “fire in the belly.” And now she has announced that she is embarking on a nationwide bus tour to “educate and energize Americans.”

Earlier this year Fox News suspended Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum pending their decisions on whether they were running for president. There was far less activity on their part indicating a candidacy, yet they were suspended and given a deadline for making their intentions known. When the deadline expired their contracts were terminated even though they still had not declared a candidacy.

Why isn’t Palin being held to the same standard? There is more than enough evidence that she is contemplating being a candidate seriously enough to warrant her suspension from Fox News. She can be reinstated later if she decides not to run.

How can Fox cover the campaign with her on their payroll? Her commentary with regard to the other candidates is tainted by the fact that she may be competing against them soon. One has to wonder if Fox already knows her decision and is keeping it under wraps to permit her, and Fox, to earn more money and promote her campaign.

Will Fox cover the premiere of her movie? Will they cover her bus tour? If she then announces that she’s running, didn’t she then get suspect contributions to her campaign from Fox? More broadly, no one in the press should cover her movie or her bus tour. She refuses to engage the press or the people in any open forum. Her only methods of communication are through Fox News, Facebook, and Twitter. Last week Palin told Sean Hannity that

“Candidates need to get their message out through the new social media. Don’t even participate in that goofy game that’s been played for too many years with the leftist lame-stream media.”

Fine. Let her have it her way. Until Palin is willing to stand before the people, or the people’s representatives in the press, she should be ignored. The press has no obligation to participate in the marketing of her brand.

Fox entered this year with five potential GOP presidential candidates in their employ. They still have two remaining. It is time for Fox to insist that Palin either declare for office or step aside. If she doesn’t, Fox should pull her off the air immediately. That’s what a responsible media enterprise would do. Which is why Fox will probably not do it.

[UPDATE] Fox News has lived down to expectations:

“”We are not changing Sarah Palin’s status,” Bill Shine, Fox News executive vice president of programming, told The Cutline.”

If anything, I think this indicates that Palin is NOT running. It seems unlikely that Fox would go to the trouble of affirming her status if they thought they would have to reverse themselves in a few weeks. I think they already know she isn’t running and are keeping it secret because once she is out of the contest her relevance (and value) crumbles. It’s a shame because I was hoping she would run. I even made a campaign bumper sticker for her and a possible Tea Party running mate that would save a lot of money and recycle some old campaign materials that were never used:

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ACORN Pimp And Prostitute Going To Trial

Posted by on May 26, 2011 at 7:29 pm. 18 Comments :

O'Keefe and GilesJames O’Keefe And Hannah Giles are being tried for violations of California’s privacy laws. The plaintiff, ACORN employee Juan Carlos Vera, contends that O’Keefe and Giles unlawfully recorded conversations with him that were later edited to misrepresent his remarks.

O’Keefe and Giles filed separate motions to dismiss the case and the court ruled against (pdf) both of them.

O’Keefe claimed that, the California law not withstanding, he had a First Amendment right to surreptitiously record and publish private conversations with anyone he felt like. The court disagreed saying that the law prohibiting recordings to which both parties have not agreed, and for which there was a reasonable expectation of privacy, did not have an exception for the media. The court cited precedent that said:

“…the state may not intrude into the proper sphere of the news media to dictate what they should publish and broadcast, but neither may the media play tyrant to the people by unlawfully spying on them in the name of newsgathering.”

Giles motion contended that she was not liable because O’Keefe was the one doing the recording. This laughable defense misunderstood the law to argue that only the person holding the recording device was liable. But it also demonstrated the shallowness of her loyalty as she quickly heaped all the blame on her partner to save her own skin.

Having ruled against both motions, the pair will go to trial for their offenses. If justice is served this won’t be the only time, and they won’t be the only ones. Ya hear that Andrew Breitbart?


George Soros Triggers Rightist OCD

Posted by on May 26, 2011 at 2:53 pm. 9 Comments :

The uber-conservative Media Research Center has been fixated lately on a pathetic “study” of the media reach of George Soros. The author, Dan Gainor, may be one of the most ineffectual researchers to ever publish on the InterTubes. The product of his research seems more like a symptom of the debilitating syndrome that hobbles many of his ilk, OCD: Obsessive Conservative Disorder. The latest chapter is the third of a four-part series. Let’s re-cap:

In Part One, Gainor introduced his premise that George Soros “has ties to more than 30 mainstream news outlets.” He never documented any ties other than some donations to charitable organizations, none of which were major news outlets. There were some non-profit institutions that focus on journalism, but even in those examples Gainor didn’t explain how Soros’ donations would have given him any control over them. Neither did he cite any evidence that the organizations were influenced by Soros’ donations.

In Part Two, Gainor claimed to expose millions of dollars of influence peddling by Soros to media enterprises. For the most part it was a rehashing of Part One. The new information turned out to reveal that the organizations Gainor disparaged for their connection to Soros were also connected to right-wing billionaires like Rupert Murdoch and T. Boone Pickens. Gainor himself is the Boone Pickens Fellow at the Media Research Center.

Now, in Part Three, Gainor asserts that Soros-funded media “reach more than 330 million people around the globe.” Again, he never reveals how he arrived at that calculation. He merely cites a few examples that figure into the total without actually adding it up. And his examples are hysterically misconstrued. For instance, Gainor cites a $1.8 million contribution to NPR. That would represent a fraction of 1% of NPR’s funding, not exactly enough to wield much influence. And then Gainor frantically reports that…

“Soros funds nearly every major left-wing media source in the United States. Forty-five of those are financed through his support of the Media Consortium. That organization ‘is a network of the country’s leading, progressive, independent media outlets.'”

Did you get that? Nearly every major left-wing media source in the United States! Really? The forty-five that Gainor mentions as receiving funding via their membership in the Media Consortium actually receive nothing for their membership. In fact, they pay the Consortium to belong.

However, I think I discovered the real reason Gainor has been hammering on this. The Media Research Center is now featuring an ad that asks “Help us expose George Soros.”

“Left-wing billionaire George Soros has undertaken a war on conservative media to make it easier to spread his anti-American views, and the liberal media are his willing accomplices.”

The MRC says that if you make a donation today your donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar. Will those matching funds come from a right-wing billionaire who has undertaken a war on liberal media? I don’t know. They don’t say where the money will come from. But we do know that the MRC is funded by Pickens and another media billionaire, Richard Mellon Scaife. We also know that they have partnered with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News whose former managing editor, Brit Hume, considered them indispensable.

So perhaps this is just a symptom of another sort of OCD: Obtain Conservative Donations.


Fox News vs Fox News vs Girl Scout Cookies

Posted by on May 25, 2011 at 5:54 pm. 1 Comments :

This morning on Fox News there was a segment featuring two Girl Scouts who had initiated an ambitious campaign to save endangered orangutans. Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen were researching the project when they discovered that the palm oil used to make the famous Girl Scout Cookies was a major factor in the depletion of the rainforest that is the orangutan’s habitat. Thus began their effort to get the Girl Scouts to find an alternative to the palm oil in the cookies.

Anchor Jon Scott complimented the girls saying that “You’ve got quite a story to tell and quite a determined nature to take into college. […] Congratulations. I’m sure the orangutans are very happy.” Co-host Jenna Lee effusively praised them and suggested that they be “signed up” right away.

This would seem seem like a rather typical, albeit inspiring, human interest story for most news organizations, but for Fox News there is always something nasty squirming beneath the surface. And the nasty squirmer is frequently Glenn Beck. On May 6, these industrious Girls Scouts were cited by Beck in an entirely different, and decidedly negative, context.

In a program about “Indoctrination in the Classroom,” Beck runs through a list of incidents involving young activists that he portrayed as reckless and insubordinate. I covered the program at the time noting Beck’s animosity toward youth in general. His targets included students in Tucson who protested the elimination of Mexican-American studies classes. He also criticized a group of young environmentalists who are taking action to protect the environment that they will inherit. And he had this to say about the little troublemakers who were messing with his cookies:

Beck: “We also have two Girl Scouts in Michigan leading a campaign against their organization’s cookies saying the heavy use of palm oil contributes to destroying the rain forest and killing endangered species like orangutans.

“Keep killing the orangutans. The cookies are yummy.”

What a jerk! Here are the two girls, to whom Beck was being so arrogantly disrespectful. They hardly deserve that sort of treatment. In fact, they have been remarkably successful in getting the Girl Scouts to address their concerns. Yet Beck still laments the devolution of schools where he now believes that “our children are not only being short-changed, they are being turned in to slaves eventually.” He goes on to complain that “They are removing God and the Bible out of schools and replacing him or it with intellectual neutrality.”

Intellectual neutrality in an academic institution? Oh, the horror! The only place I see slavery being imposed is by the likes of Beck who think that kids should keep their mouths shut and refrain from committing themselves to improving their world. Even Beck’s colleagues, Scott and Lee, applaud these young activists. Here’s hoping that Madison and Rhiannon continue to speak out and provide a positive role model to other young people.


UNDEFEATED? Sarah Palin Goes Hollywood

Posted by on May 25, 2011 at 2:45 pm. 6 Comments :

Sarah PalinSarah Palin is about to hit the big screen with a two hour fantasy adaptation of her career in politics. Conservative filmmaker Stephen Bannon produced the crockumentary at the behest of TeamPalin. And if the comedy potential for this project weren’t inherent, the title of this tale of the half-term governor and defeated candidate for vice-president is reportedly “Undefeated.” I suppose that she and President McCain are getting ready for their walk down the red carpet when this thing premieres at the White House.

[Update] Reviews are beginning to trickle in.

Scott Conroy at RealClearPolitics was invited to review a rough cut of the film and wrote an extended analysis that described a work of blatant propaganda. The film lionizes the Mama Grizzly as a fighter against government corruption while omitting her own ethical lapses (i.e. TrooperGate) and pretending that embarrassing episodes, like her inability to tell Katie Couric what she reads, didn’t exist. Anyone who thinks that this fluff piece will provide useful information about Palin might better spend their time watching Alice in Wonderland. Conroy offers this synopsis of Palin’s morality play:

“Divided into three acts, the film makes the case that despite the now cliched label, Palin was indeed a maverick who confronted the powerful forces lined up against her to achieve wide-ranging success in a short period of time. The second part of the film’s message is just as clear, if more subjective: that Sarah Palin is the only conservative leader who can both build on the legacy of the Reagan Revolution and bring the ideals of the tea party movement to the Oval Office.

Rife with religious metaphor and unmistakable allusions to Palin as a Joan of Arc-like figure, “The Undefeated” echoes Palin’s “Going Rogue” in its tidy division of the world between the heroes who are on her side and the villains who seek to thwart her at every turn.”

The question I have is: at what point do Palin’s activities constitute a presumption of a candidacy for office? Conroy notes that she has hired a chief of staff and that “her team of advisers is operating under the notion that they are laying the groundwork for a future campaign, until they are told otherwise.” Yet she still retains a position with Fox News. Fox previously suspended (and later rescinded) contracts with Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich due to their campaign activities. Mike Huckabee came under similar scrutiny but then announced that he would not run. It is time for Fox to demand that Palin declare her intentions or to remove her from her duties as a political analyst and contributor.

One explanation for the inaction by Fox is that they already know her intentions and are keeping them under wraps. That, of course, would be an egregious violation of journalistic ethics. A credible news enterprise would not withhold such obviously newsworthy information. The only reason to do so would be for the political and/or financial benefit of the subject and/or netowrk, and that is not the role of the media. Just the appearance of this conflict is enough to justify that Fox insist upon Palin making an announcement, one way or the other, or cutting her loose.

In closing, Conroy says that…

“The film’s impending release — and the frenzied media attention that it is sure to generate — will serve as a vivid wake-up call that despite the many obstacles in front of her, Palin’s entry into the race would turn the campaign on its head in an instant, just as it did in 2008.”

That may very well be true, but it should not be. This film is just an extension of Palin’s public relations strategy. She has not had a news conference, or an interview with an impartial, non-Fox reporter, since she quit being governor. Her sole methods of communication have been through Fox News, Facebook, and Twitter.

Consequently, the media should not be assisting her PR campaign by hyping her Tweets or this movie. Until she stands up before real representatives of the press, she should be ignored by the press. She is not a public figure, she is a product. And the media has no business participating in her marketing.