Fox Nation Declares Victory: Health Care Edition

Posted by on July 23, 2009 at 3:38 pm. 1 Comments :

For the third time Fox Nation is declaring victory. For the third time they have done nothing for which they can claim any credit. And, as usual, there is no evidence that the victory they claim actually occurred.

Fox Nation has decided to make a habit of these “Mission Accomplished” moments. That stance in and of itself is evidence of Fox’s bias. They have ceased to even pretend to be a neutral news enterprise. They are now openly admitting that they have a stake in the outcomes of political affairs. And when they think their side has won, they won’t hesitate to declare victory and commence a celebration.

Fox Nation Victory 1: Climate Change
Fox Nation Victory 2: CNN Reporter

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Congressional Vets Condemn Fox News Analyst Ralph Peters

Posted by on July 22, 2009 at 3:03 pm. 11 Comments :

A few days ago, Fox News military analyst Ralph Peters appeared on the network to discuss PFC Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier captured by the Taliban. In the course of the interview Peters, acting as judge and jury, declared that Bergdahl was a liar, a deserter, and that “the Taliban can save us a lot of legal hassles and legal bills,” presumably by killing him. (Watch here)

Last night Peters went on Bill O’Reilly’s show to explain his position. What took place was another episode of bashing Bergdahl wherein both Peters and O’Reilly branded him as “crazy.” However, they both also completely ignored Peters’ previous remarks regarding permitting the Taliban to execute an American soldier. (Watch here)

Now a truly bipartisan assembly of Congressional veterans is speaking out about this atrocious behavior. A letter from Rep. John Boccieri (D-OH) was sent to Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes. It was co-signed by 22 colleagues. It said in part:

“As members of Congress and veterans of the United States Armed Forces, it was with incredulity and disgust that we watched Fox News Strategic Analyst Lt. Colonel Ralph Peters (Ret.) suggest on your airwaves that Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl, “abandoned his buddies, abandoned his post, and just walked off,” and stated that, if this is true, ‘the Taliban can save us a lot of legal hassles and legal bills.'”

~~~

“We demand an apology to PFC Bergdahl’s family and to the thousands of soldiers who put their lives on the line for our country. As a member of the military family, Mr. Peters should measure his remarks and remember that the United States will never abandon one of its own.”

One of the co-signers of the letter is Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) who goes even farther to call for Fox News to immediately fire Peters and O’Reilly. There is probably little chance of that, particularly with regard to O’Reilly who is Fox’s cash coward. But if there are no consequences for this sort of irresponsible behavior where will it end? It could conceivably progress to the point where Fox News programs host analysts who believe that our country’s only hope is for Osama Bin Laden to attack us again. Oh wait, Glenn Beck already did that.

It’s time for Fox News to start paying a penalty for these repulsive remarks, and it’s good to see members of Congress, who are also veterans, asking for some sort of redress. Frankly, I don’t think an apology is enough. Fox News has been piling up atrocities with impunity and it won’t stop until there is a price attached to their disgusting antics. We must make them pay that price.


Walter Cronkite On Fox News: Beyond Conservative

Posted by on July 18, 2009 at 11:51 am. 7 Comments :

There are really very few times when the phrase “the end of an era” is actually true. But in the case of Walter Cronkite, it could not be more appropriate. He presided over so many of the most significant events of the latter half of the twentieth century that it almost seems as if he were a part of them.

Cronkite represented a generation of television journalism that can never be repeated. The concentration of media to only three networks elevated their impact and influence. So when a dignified and experienced reporter rose to the position of anchor at CBS, it was just matter of time before his calm and confidant delivery inspired a measure of respect that has never been matched. And if ever there were a time to heed his words, it is now:

Cronkite: It was quite clear when they founded the Fox network that they intended to be a conservative organization. Beyond conservative, a far right-wing organization.

It must have been comments like those above that led to Bill O’Reilly dismissing Cronkite as a leftist a couple of years ago:

“Just look at what Walter Cronkite and Bill Moyers have done since they left CBS News; both men allied themselves with the far-left and are proud of it.”

But that’s nothing compared to what the Fox Nation community is saying about Cronkite today:

  • Cronkite was a commie sympathizer, only in his day most of us didnt realize it.
  • Cronkite was about a far left-wing, Marxist ideologue as there ever was.
  • Oh, come on. Let’s be serious. This guy put the BS and CBS.
  • He was a left wing liberal. I turned Fox off as soon as they started on their all nite rant about him.

Remember, O’Reilly is the guy who is so outraged about what he considers to be Internet hate sites. His bellicose rants against any blog that would dare to disagree with him are legendary. He has compared Daily Kos and the Huffington Post to Nazis and the KKK. And he attaches full blame to the site’s namesake even if it was an anonymous visitor making the offending comments. So what will O’Reilly say about these comments on the very same day that Cronkite passed away? Will he accuse Fox Nation of being a hate site that’s worse than the Nazis?

O’Reilly likes to position himself as an everyman who is looking out for “the folks” (despite his multimillion dollar media empire). And he relentlessly badgers his viewers with ratings data to satiate his massive ego. But for some perspective on the relative influence of O’Reilly and Cronkite, note that some 18 million people watched Cronkite on a typical night. About the same number continue to watch the nightly broadcast network news programs. O’Reilly pulls in about 2% of that.

And that’s the way it is. R.I.P. Uncle Walter.



Fox Nation Declares Victory: Susan Roesgen Edition

Posted by on July 16, 2009 at 11:52 pm. 2 Comments :

In yet another example of the Fox Nation’s embarrassing unprofessionalism and arrogance, they are once again claiming victory for something they had absolutely nothing to do with. On this occasion they are suffering from the delusion that they are responsible for CNN not renewing the contract of reporter Susan Roesgen.

In last April’s Tea Parties, Roesgen confronted a teabagger who was blathering incoherently about Obama being a fascist. The crowd became increasingly hostile making it impossible to continue the segment. She eventually signed off saying that…

“I think you get the general tenor of this. It’s anti-government, anti-CNN, since this is highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network, Fox.”

The encounter drew criticism from right-wing blogizens who pounced on her for daring to tell the truth about Fox News. In all honesty, I feel that Roesgen did cross a line by appearing to be confrontational. It is appropriate for her to challenge a subject, but not to become emotionally connected. However, it is exceedingly hypocritical for FoxPods to complain so bitterly about Roesgen’s alleged bias without ever acknowledging the far greater bias exercised by Fox News. Remember, Fox correspondents were actually participating in the Tea Parties as promoters and even hosts.

Nevertheless, Fox’s declaration of victory is hysterical. First of all, there is nothing to suggest that Fox deserved any credit whatsoever for this personnel decision by CNN. They don’t even offer any evidence that Roesgen’s separation from CNN had anything to do with the Tea Bag affair. In case they haven’t noticed, lots of people at all networks have succumbed to downsizing in recent months due solely to market conditions.

While Roesgen could have conducted herself better, her actions did not merit termination. So the fact that so many rightists on sites like Fox Nation and TVNewser are so giddy upon hearing this news is revealing. After all, none of them were calling for Glenn Beck’s head when he agreed with his guest that “the only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States.” Apparently, to conservatives, it is a worse offense to take a clumsy rhetorical swipe at a competitor than it is to advocate terrorist attacks against America.

Less than a week ago, Fox Nation triumphantly declared that they were the victors over President Obama because a climate change bill had been delayed. In that case as well, Fox had nothing to do with it and it wasn’t much a victory because the delay was temporary and had no material effect on the bill’s progress.

It appears that Fox Nation is going to make a habit of these “Mission Accomplished” moments. That stance in and of itself is evidence of Fox’s bias. They have ceased to even pretend to be a neutral news enterprise. They are now openly admitting that they have a stake in the outcomes of political affairs. And when they think their side has won, they won’t hesitate to declare victory and commence a celebration.


Al Franken, Sonia Sotomayor, and Perry Mason

Posted by on July 15, 2009 at 8:58 pm. 3 Comments :

In today’s Senate hearings on the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, Sen. Al Franken sparked a mystery that has consumed Washington and beyond. Both Sotomayor and Franken were fans of the 1960’s version of Law and Order, “The Perry Mason Show.” Throughout its run, Mason, a defense attorney, had lost only a single case.

Well, after extensive and costly research, I can now reveal what that case was:

The Case of the Deadly Verdict
Janice Barton is found guilty of the murder of her wealthy relative and sentenced to death. Can Perry find the evidence to clear her of the crime before the pellets in the gas chamber fall?

Interestingly, one of the guest stars on the program was an actor named Steve Franken, who may be better known as Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. III from the “The Dobie Gillis Show.” Also on Dobie was Bob Denver (later Gilligan) and Sheila Kuehl (presently a former California State Senator). So you figure out your own “6 degrees” stories.

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Media Reform Advances Courtesy Of The Economy

Posted by on July 15, 2009 at 6:09 pm. 5 Comments :

One of the biggest contributors to the woeful state of modern media is the extent to which media companies have consolidated into giant conglomerates with near monopoly power. Some of these corporations control majorities of communications enterprises in numerous markets nationwide.

It has long been a goal of media reform activists to bring about greater independence and diversity by implementing market caps to limit the reach of these companies. That goal has been hindered by the well-heeled media industry’s lobbying efforts. Now, it appears that the economy is stepping in to enact some free market reform of its own:

Is the bell tolling for Clear Channel?
“Analysts believe Clear Channel, now with about $22 billion in total debts, will have trouble making scheduled payments later this year. The company, already down to about 800 stations from its peak of about 1,200 stations, either will have to start selling stations itself or go into bankruptcy, where lenders will put stations up for sale.”

Sinclair Eyes Chapter 11
“Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. said in a regulatory filing that it may file for bankruptcy protection, reports the Associated Press. A miserable advertising market and crippling debt burden may force the Baltimore-based broadcaster into Chapter 11.”

Clear Channel and Sinclair are leaders in their markets. They are also prominent purveyors of right-wing propaganda. No one likes to see businesses fail, but the prospect of these companies succumbing to recessionary forces could produce real benefits for the business of news. It would be preferable if similarly situated conglomerates were to divest their holdings and downsize operations voluntarily. But if they insist on clinging to power, at the expense of both shareholders and citizens, then this outcome is better than nothing.

The underlying television and radio stations impacted by this news will continue to broadcast. The prospect of them operating as independent, or as components of smaller station groups, is promising. The danger is that the troubled assets could be picked up by other big conglomerates. We’ll have to wait and see if this turns out to be beneficial or just more of the sort of consolidation that enhances the power of corporations and gags the voice of the people.


Gov. Sanford’s Treatment By The Liberal Media

Posted by on July 15, 2009 at 1:50 pm. 3 Comments :

Here are a few examples of how the so-called “liberal” media rushed to smear Republican Gov. Mark Sanford after he surfaced from his hike in Appalachia …er… vacation in South America …er… tryst with his Argentinian mistress. These are emails sent to Sanford to solicit him for interviews.

Griff Jenkins of Fox News
“Having known the Governor for years and even worked with him when he would host radio shows for me — I find this story and the media frenzy surrounding it to be absolutely ridiculous! Please give him my best.”

If the Gov does an interview and its exclusive, it will make air on the tv channel and our radio news service all across the country. And I’m not sure if you’ve seen the stuff I do on the channel as a reporter, but I work mostly for our primetime coverage – Oreilly, Hannity, Greta, Beck – so there likely would be primetime coverage as well for some soundbites of the gov dispelling this flap.

Jenkins, you may recall, is one of the contingent of Fox News ambush journalists (along with Jesse Watters, and Porter Barry). He was also prominent in last April’s Tea Baggery. In this affair he is unabashedly promising a political delinquent favorable treatment.

Brendan Miniter of the Wall Street Journal
“Someone at WSJ should be fired for today’s story. Ridiculous.”

Miniter is actually bashing his own paper for publishing a story that merely reported that Sanford was off hiking the Appalachian Trail. So I guess that I’d agree with Miniter. Someone should be fired for having gotten the story so wrong. And Miniter should go with him for pandering to the story’s subject.

Joseph Deoudes of the Washington Times
“If you all want to speak on this publicly, you’re welcome to Washington Times Radio. You know that you will be on friendly ground here!”

Isn’t nice to know that there is “friendly ground” available for wayward Republicans? Not that this is news coming from the Moonie Times, a perennial happy place for rightists.

Ann Edelberg of MSNBC’s Morning Joe
“Of course the Gov has an open invite to a friendly place here at MJ, if he would like to speak out.”

And if anyone can call themselves a friend of Sanford, it’s Joe Scarborough, the former Florida congressman who had his own problems with the press when an intern turned up dead in his office.

Jake Tapper of ABC News
“NBC spot was slimy.” […] “For the record, I think the TODAY show spot was pretty insulting.”

Tapper’s main problem here is not that he is offering Sanford a safe haven, but that he is deliberately bashing his competition. Tapper is crossing the line in order to get a story. To his credit, he apologized and acknowledged that what he did was inappropriate. None of his colleagues have yet to do so.

Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central
As you may know, I declared myself Governor of South Carolina last night. I went power mad for abut 40 seconds before learning that Gov. Sanford was returning today.

If the governor is looking for a friendly place to make light of what I think is a small story that got blown out of scale I would be happy to have him on. In person here, on the phone, or in South Carolina.

Stay strong, Stephen

Et tu, Colbert? As the most reputable journalist of the bunch, it is disheartening to see that Colbert has compromised his impeccable journalistic credentials (a Peabody winner) in order to suck up to this miscreant governor. Since Colbert is on record as being philosophically opposed to apologies, I wouldn’t expect one to be forthcoming. In fact, it would hardly be necessary for him to bother correcting the record since, as he has noted, “reality has a well known liberal bias.” So what’s the point?


Emmy News: Nominations – PBS 41 / Fox News 0

Posted by on July 14, 2009 at 5:57 pm. 1 Comments :

The Emmy nominations for News and Documentaries were released today by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. PBS scored the lion’s share with 41 nominations, including two more for Bill Moyers, who has won more than 30 Emmys already. CBS was a distant second with 23. One notable name missing from the list of honorees is the #1 cable news network in the country, Fox News. There are two principle reasons for the absence of Fox News.

First, Fox claims to have declined to participate because they believe that the Emmys are biased against them. That’s a rather piddling complaint that, more than anything, exposes their self-centered pettiness with an attitude that recalls a school child taking the ball and going home.

The more likely reason for their Emmy snub is that Fox is not actually a news network and, knowing this, they are acknowledging that nominations will not be forthcoming. I suspect that they are preparing to submit their programming for Emmys in the drama and, perhaps, comedy categories, where they have a better chance of being recognized. Of course then their other fictional fare, like “24” and “The Simpsons” will have to compete against the far more flagrant fiction produced by Fox News. Whatever will they do?

Well, we can expect Bill O’Reilly to issue a blistering condemnation of the Academy shortly. He did the same thing when the Peabodys snubbed him (again), despite honoring Moyers and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on multiple occasions. What does it say when a comedy network’s fake news programs receive more plaudits from their journalism “peers” than a network that pretends to be a bona fide news enterprise? And furthermore, what does it say about the viewers of a so-called news network that is held in such ill repute by other news professionals?

Amongst the Emmy hopefuls is David Barstow, the New York Times reporter who wrote Message Machine. This article, which has already won a Pulitzer Prize and the New York Press Club’s Golden Keyboard, described how the Pentagon in the Bush administration conspired to train and deploy former military personnel to spread propaganda in support of the war in Iraq. And if that weren’t bad enough, the program also permitted them to use their high profile media platform to enrich themselves and the defense contractors to whom they were attached.

Despite the acclaim the article has received, Barstow has still yet to be invited to tell this important story in any conventional media venue. The only in-depth broadcast interview was conducted by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. This may be the most egregious example of a heralded, Pulitzer caliber investigation being so brazenly suppressed. The obvious explanation is that the media organizations that have actively blackballed the story are also the subjects of it. They are the news enterprises employing the compromised Pentagon Pundits, and they have a vested interest in preventing the truth from getting out.

Now that the report has been awarded another honor, will Barstow’s phone start to ring? Will the media pay attention to what may be the worst instance of propaganda executed by the U.S. government against its own people? At the very least, MSNBC has a special obligation to pursue this story. They have a contractual relationship with the New York Times, and their own John Harwood is a frequent guest on both MSNBC and CNBC. Why on earth wouldn’t the Times be lobbying to promote a story by their own Pulitzer award winning reporter who has now been nominated for an Emmy?

Contact MSNBC and tell them to book David Barstow:
MSNBC General
Keith Olbermann
Rachel Maddow
Ed Schultz
David Shuster
Chris Matthews


Glenn Beck Is Overwhelmed By Barack Obama

Posted by on July 13, 2009 at 9:16 pm. 4 Comments :

Poor Glenn Beck. He’s having such a hard time keeping up. The burden on him must be horrendous. Day after day he has to maintain a level of maniacal terror that would lead an ordinary man to suicide (which Beck has attempted twice). Every show has to reveal a conspiracy of Satan worshiping liberal traitors that are right outside of your window, preparing to molest your children.

How does he do it? How does he survive the pressure? Of course, it would be a strain for Beck to intellectually keep up with a jellyfish – that’s had a lobotomy – and has been dead for two hours. But somehow he manages to deliver the steadiest stream of stupid in modern media.

Today Beck editorialized that the hearing to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court Justice is actually just a ruse to draw attention from other more important issues. Barack Obama’s agenda to restore the economy, reform healthcare, clean the environment, and manage two wars and an ongoing terrorist threat, has Beck thinking that a conspiracy has evolved between the administration and the media:

“President Obama is simultaneously dumping so many huge agenda items on the system, even if the media wanted to cover each of the big stories they wouldn’t be able to devote enough time to do it. So instead, we get stuck watching yet another pathetic confirmation hearing.”

And what is it that the “pathetic confirmation hearing” is distracting us from? Beck tells us that it is things like a second stimulus package (which Obama has said is unnecessary at this time), and a photo of Russian President Medvedev holding a coin that Beck says is the future world currency. Then there’s something about Al Gore and General Electric that Beck throws in.

That’s funny. All of Beck’s examples of things that Obama is talking about that will be missed because of the Sotomayor hearings, are things that Obama is not talking about at all. Nevertheless, Obama is still deliberately attempting to overwhelm the system with his overly ambitious agenda. Also, for the record, after this tirade against the conspiracy to use Sotomayor to hide the real news, Beck spent several minutes of his precious airtime discussing…Sotomayor. Apparently Beck has been recruited into the conspiracy himself.

The truth is, Beck isn’t accustomed to seeing what it look likes when a president is actually working and getting things done. He is used to the the sort of progress made by the C- under-achiever that we just booted from office last January. By that measure, Obama is doing the work of ten men. And the sad consequence of it is that ignorant trolls like Beck are going to be left in the dust because their brains can’t fire synapses fast enough to comprehend.

It is a sad thing to witness, but unlike the famous motto of the United Negro College Fund, we need not worry about a mind going to waste. Where there is no mind, there is no waste.