The Free Market Speaks: 98 Advertisers Ditch Rush Limbaugh – And More

Posted by Mark NC on March 10, 2012 at 2:02 pm. 10 Comments :

The fallout from Rush Limbaugh’s attacks on Sandra Fluke is growing exponentially. Reports to date have shown that advertisers are responding to the public revulsion of a political heavyweight battering a private citizen who was exercising her right to free speech. The latest accounting of bailing advertisers was reported by Radio-Info via an internal memo they acquired from Limbaugh’s syndicator:

“Premiere Networks is circulating a list of 98 advertisers who want to avoid ‘environments likely to stir negative sentiments.’ The list includes carmakers (Ford, GM, Toyota), insurance companies (Allstate, Geico, Prudential, State Farm) and restaurants (McDonald’s, Subway).”

However, the memo made news of a different sort when it addressed specifics regarding which programs represent the negative environments to which it alluded. The memo continues:

“To all Traffic Managers: The information below applies to your Premiere Radio Networks commercial inventory. More than 350 different advertisers sponsor the programs and services provided to your station on a barter basis. Like advertisers that purchase commercials on your radio station from your sales staff, our sponsors communicate specific rotations, daypart preferences and advertising environments they prefer… They’ve specifically asked that you schedule their commercials in dayparts or programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial (for example, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity).”

What this means is that the advertiser exodus will not be limited to just Limbaugh. Equally offensive radio bloviators like Beck and Hannity and Savage are going to see their ad placements, and revenue, decline.

In anticipation of the professional apologists and distracters, I would like to note that nobody’s First Amendment rights are being violated here. The government is not mandating any restriction of speech. Advertisers are freely deciding what is in the best interests of their businesses.

Conservatives are supposed to support free markets. Well, here’s their chance. If Limbaugh et al want their advertisers back, all they have to do is refrain from their overt incivility and slander. They don’t have to change their political beliefs or prejudices. And if that’s too much to ask, they can take their programs to venues that will support them without a dependence on commercial markets that must answer to their customers.

And for those who think that there is a moral equivalence between Limbaugh and Bill Maher, I would like to note that Maher is a comedian. He has a history of harsh satire directed at people across the political spectrum, including President Obama. That said, I personally don’t approve of racism or misogyny, even as a joke. But I do recognize the difference between a comedian and a political operative. Limbaugh has been an avowed advocate for Republicans and conservatism for decades. Maher has been an equal opportunity basher and satirist. While I would like to see the political discourse in this country become more civil and substantive, I would not impose those same standards for civility on people like Maher or George Carlin or Dennis Miller. Or for that matter John Rich or the Dixie Chicks. The arts have a unique role in expressing a broad range of opinion from a personal, creative perspective. Artists are expected to inspire, challenge, and even shock from time to time. Politicians and pundits are expected to inform, persuade and, hopefully unite.

It is also important to recognize that Maher’s offenses were always directed at public figures who had the resources and media access to defend themselves (i.e. Sarah Palin), while Limbaugh takes aim at people without such advantages. Where could Sandra Fluke ever reach 20 million people a day the way Limbaugh does? On MSNBC?

The beating that Limbaugh is taking at the hands of his advertisers is entirely deserved. And if conservatives want to cancel their subscriptions to HBO to protest Maher, then by all means go for it. If the final result is a more elevated discussion of the issues that impact us all as citizens, then it will have been worth it.

Glenn Beck: We Are All Catholics Now – Except For Muslims

Posted by Mark NC on February 20, 2012 at 7:38 pm. 2 Comments :

Evanga-Pundit Glenn Beck is once again sermonizing on religious freedom as he interprets it. By his account any church that engages in any activity, even those that have nothing to do with the practice of their faith, deserve the protection of the First Amendment of the Constitution.

That, of course, is absurd. If a church buys a chain of Jack-in-the-Boxes, they are not permitted to force their employees and patrons to adhere to their spiritual doctrine. The freedom that religion is granted under law is specifically applicable to the practice of the religion, not every other enterprise they may engage in. There are innumerable examples of limitations on the absolutist theory of religious freedom. For instance, the use of peyote by some Native Americans is not legal in most of the country, despite it being a legitimate and long-standing religious practice. And who would argue that human or animal sacrifice ought to be a protected activity?

However, when the Catholic church complains that they have to live by the same rules as the rest of society, even when they leave their churches to operate hospitals or other non-religious businesses, folks like Beck insist that their rights are being violated. And yesterday, in the Washington Post, Beck made that exact argument. It really is too bad that the Post sullied themselves by giving Beck that platform for his crackpottery.

So Beck has proclaimed that “We are all Catholics now.” No, actually, we are not. And Beck’s assertion that “Americans are offended by the ruling from the White House” fails to note that most Americans agree with the President’s position – even most Catholics. But that doesn’t stop Beck from spewing phony bravado like this:

“[W[hen the state comes against the Catholics, or the Jews, or the Muslims, or the Pentecostals, or the Mormons or those of any other faith – exotic or familiar – we must all stand up as one: We are all Catholics now. “

That’s funny. I don’t remember Beck or his ilk standing up as one with the Muslims who wanted to build a community center in lower Manhattan. While he was slow to condemn the project, and made some noises about respecting their rights at the outset of the controversy, he eventually found cause to oppose it based on spurious and unproven allegations about the Imam who was spearheading it. In other words, Beck came around to the same position that his rightist compatriots had already assumed. Here’s what Beck had to say about it:

“[T]here are some highly questionable statements surrounding this man that should be looked into before he is allowed to build a mosque a block away from Ground Zero or for that matter, in Kansas.”

That’s Beck’s version of religious freedom, wherein it is perfectly acceptable to trample the rights of religions you find distasteful as a result of your own bigotry. I’m sure he would also want to investigate the backgrounds of every Catholic or Mormon who proposes building a place to gather and worship. I can’t wait to hear Beck challenge the building permits for a new YMCA in his neighborhood.

Glenn Beck Celebrates The Death Of A President

Posted by Mark NC on February 4, 2012 at 9:06 am. 14 Comments :

For anyone who was wondering, yes, Glenn Beck is still around. He may have been ousted from Fox News and reduced to posting Internet videos from his basement, but he’s still out there spewing his hate speech and conspiracy theories.

It’s actually a pretty sad spectacle. He’s taken to dressing like a field marshal of some fantasy army, and he insists on referring to his pathetic home movies as a television network, despite the fact that it isn’t a network and it’s not on television.

On Friday’s episode of his radio program, Beck launched into a typically repulsive tirade against one of his favorite targets, President Woodrow Wilson, whom Beck regards as evil. As it turns out, today is special day for Beck:

“This is the happiest day of the year for me. Every single year I celebrate. I’m thinking about putting up a tree today. Today is the day that in 1924 Woodrow Wilson dies – that son of a bitch. And I’m happy.”

It isn’t often that you hear public figures express such joy over the demise of national leaders who were democratically elected by the American people, particularly when they are known for being so pretentiously patriotic that they break down sobbing at the thought of how much they love their country. Imagine Beck’s reaction if someone were to throw a party commemorating the day Ronald Reagan descended to his eternal resting place in Hell. But Beck has a palpable lust for this self-declared holiday of morbidity. And that isn’t even the worst part of his ravings. He went on to say that Wilson was…

“…one of the worst presidents in the United States. He’s one of the founding fathers of the new United States of America. Theodore Roosevelt was of them too. This guy that we have in office now … he’s doing the same thing.”

So let me get this straight. Beck thinks that Woodrow Wilson is an evil S.O.B. whose death is cause for celebration. And Barack Obama is doing the same things for which Beck hates Wilson. The clear message that Beck is sending to his rabid disciples is that Obama’s death would also be a cause for celebration. That’s the level of hostility that Beck projects almost every day. Let’s just hope that none of his followers are motivated by this disgusting rhetoric to attempt to impress Beck by carrying out his fantasy.

The End Of The Romney Campaign, Courtesy Of George Soros

Posted by Mark NC on January 30, 2012 at 12:09 pm. 1 Comments :

The Tea Party contingent of the right-wing Republican set has long regarded George Soros as the mastermind of every evil they imagine has been perpetrated in America for the last half century. It is full-on fixation that connects Soros to everything from the Holocaust to Global Warming. And, like most psychotic fixations, it has no basis in reality.

Consequently, what could be a more damning allegation against a Republican than that they are allied with Soros? It’s the knockout punch. It’s the death blow. It’s the Newtron bomb. And it’s what Mitt Romney is staring down this morning. In an interview in Davos, Switzerland, Soros finished Romney off with these words:

“Well, look, either you’ll have an extremist conservative, be it Gingrich or Santorum, in which case I think it will make a big difference which of the two comes in. If it’s between Obama and Romney, there isn’t all that much difference except for the crowd that they bring with them.”

That settles it. Romney is toast. How could he possibly survive such a wound?

But there must be more to this than what is observable on the surface. After all, if Soros is the evil genius the right believes him to be, then to what end would he make such a comment? He certainly knows how his opinions are magnified through his web of media minions. There can be only one possible answer. Soros is deliberately sabotaging Romney. He wants Gingrich to be the GOP nominee because he knows that Gingrich will not only lose the race for president, but he will also likely cause the loss of the GOP control of the House and much of their power in the states.

It’s a devious plot that has already taken in Gingrich, who quickly jumped on the story and is excitedly pushing this quote to the press. It will probably become a part of his stump speech, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it featured in his next TV ad. It’s just too juicy a plum to leave dangling.

The Soros Fixation is so toxic that it causes hallucinations in those infected. For instance, conservatives are convinced that Soros commands a media empire that blankets the planet despite the fact that he has zero interest in any prominent media enterprise. He may have donated large sums of money to Media Matters and NPR, but he has no editorial authority over them, and they are not exactly the equivalent of Time Warner or NBC News. That is starkly distinct from the influence of a mogul like Rupert Murdoch who is directly in charge of a worldwide criminal … I mean media conglomerate.

The depths of the Soros fixation are nearly immeasurable. Cliff Kincaid, the director of the right-wing Accuracy in Media actually argues that Soros is pursuing an acquisition of Fox News and that he is “getting his way.” Kincaid believes that it was Soros who pressured Fox to dump Glenn Beck, and he is now trying to launch an effort to force the network to rehire Beck. Says Kincaid…

“It’s time for Glenn Beck, now on Internet TV, to return to the cable channel so that he can continue his investigative journalism into the rapidly expanding influence of the Soros network of organizations.” […He continues…] “Fox is moving to the left and filling its ranks with the kind of shallow commentators we have come to associate with the little-watched cable channel MSNBC.”

That quixotic fantasy reveals just how severely the fixation has damaged some sufferers. When someone can seriously portray Beck as an “investigative journalist” and Fox as “moving to the left,” you know it’s time to increase the dosage. And the notion that any of the brass at Fox want Beck back is belied by the fact that, in their separation announcement, they said there would be specials and documentaries from Beck, but none have materialized.

The question is: Will the right be fooled by this attempt by Soros to deep-six Romney and, subsequently, Republican hopes for retaking the White House? And the answer is: Of course they will! Once the name Soros has entered their psyche they lose what little cognitive ability they had. For Romney to recover from the devastating impact of this blow will take superhuman strength (which Romney lacks) or buckets of cash (which Romney bathes in).

Either way it affirms the mental and strategic superiority of George Soros who is capable of upending his enemies anytime he wants. Other political players could learn from this example. Nancy Pelosi, for instance, could doom the career of any Republican she chooses by simply endorsing them. And if President Obama were to come out against raising taxes for the rich, there would be a GOP drafted bill to do just that on his desk by the next morning.

Apocalypse Soon: Is Glenn Beck In Financial Trouble?

Posted by Mark NC on December 16, 2011 at 10:06 am. 5 Comments :

For several years now the shlock jock turned evangi-pundit, Glenn Beck, has been frightening his glassy-eyed viewers with exhortations that some Apocalyptic Perfect Storm is upon us. He has been predicting the imminent end of the world on a nearly daily basis. Little did we know that he was only referring to his own batty world.

Beck’s company, Mercury Radio Arts, just announced that they will be leasing studio space from The Studios at Las Colinas, a production facility in Irving, Texas. I’m sure that’s a lovely facility, however, there is a marked difference between that space and the former Gateway Church complex that he had previously announced would be his production home. Take a look at these photos for comparison:

Beck was set to move in to the Gateway Church when he suddenly withdrew his zoning requests and abandoned the deal. The Gateway can accommodate 20,000 people, far more than the 500 seats at the Las Colinas site. That’s a substantial downsizing. Beck has apparently come to his fractured senses and realized that he cannot afford the extravagance of the Gateway hall. And he is likely also aware that his ability to draw big crowds has withered.

Beck’s popularity is in a nosedive since he was booted off of Fox News. He has been struggling to attract the sort of media attention to which he had become accustomed. Perhaps that’s what led to his remarks last week that the Tea Party is racist for preferring Newt Gingrich over Barack Obama. Insulting your fan base may generate controversy, but it is not the best way to boost ticket sales. And with his latest public revival meeting, “Restoring Love,” scheduled for next summer, he is going to have a hard time filling seats without Tea Party behinds – I mean behind him.

The only predictions that will be fulfilled for Beck are the Biblical ones that News Corpse has pointed out before: Deuteronomy 28:27-29, describes the punishment from the Lord if you should fail to follow his laws:

27: The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.
28: The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart.
29: And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

We hardly need to speak of Egypt and how badly Beck botched that. The emerods (or hemorrhoids) he has already had, and it nearly killed him. The potential blindness he announced tearfully last year. The madness is self evident. And now even his prosperity is being plundered as this year he lost his television program, numerous radio stations have canceled his show, and he has to live with a puny 500 seat theater instead of the 20,000 seat stadium he really wants. And all because he has pissed off the wrong guy:

With all of these foreboding signs of doom, it must be time to buy more gold. Too bad Beck’s gold merchant, Goldline, has been indicted for fraud.

Lyin’ Ass Bitch: Michele Bachmann Appears on the Jimmy Fallon Show

Posted by Mark NC on November 22, 2011 at 2:17 pm. 4 Comments :

You gotta love this. When Michele Bachmann was introduced on last night’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Roots, the show’s house band, played a particularly appropriate number as she walked out onto the stage:

Yep, that was “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” by the incomparable Fishbone. This was an inspired selection by The Roots that went undetected by Bachmann. However, Glenn Beck took note and was overwhelmed with apoplexy. He called Fallon a “despicable human being,” and insisted that Fallon fire the band, saying…

“Fire them! You won’t. You know why? Because you’re a girl.”

Way to go, Glenn. The best insult you can come up with is one that shows contempt for all women? And this is what you use for your defense of a woman running for president. Would Bachmann also be incapable of terminating an employee? What would your pal Sarah Palin say?

Beck claimed that he never would have done such a vile thing. He said that he wouldn’t even do that to Michelle Obama or George Soros. But Beck’s phony indignation is repudiated by the fact that he has been far more repulsive in his attacks. He routinely insults Michelle Obama’s appearance and refers to her as a dictator just because she advocates healthy diets for children. And speaking of children, Beck has called the Obama kids stupid. And after apologizing for that he called John McCain’s daughter, Meghan, fat.

As for George Soros, Beck produced a three day series on his Fox News show dedicated solely to Soros whom Beck labeled the “Puppet Master,” an old Nazi slur for Jews. Beck also falsely accused Soros, a Holocaust survivor, of sending fellow Jews to the gas chambers. Soros was nine years old at the time.

And then there’s Beck’s comments on President Obama. Beck has called the President a liar, an idiot, a racist, and a traitor. While the Fallon show, a comedy program, merely played a few bars of a song with a provocative title without ever mentioning the title or the lyrics, Beck has used explicit language to express his repulsive thoughts and he did so on a so-called “news” network.

Does Beck really think that his direct and repeated insults are less abhorrent than a suggestive musical introduction for Bachmann? It should also be noted that this morning Beck made an announcement on his radio program that, although he does not endorse candidates, he would vote for Bachmann, and then he spent several minutes explaining why she is now his choice for president.

This disgusting little hypocrite continues to prove that he has no moral center whatsoever. He behaves like an emotionally stunted delinquent who mocks people he despises but shrinks back into a defensive crouch if anyone should mock him or his idols. I can’t wait for him to appear on Fallon’s show. The band wouldn’t even have to learn a new song. Beck is at least as much a lyin’ ass bitch as Bachmann.

Glenn Beck Sponsor Goldline Charged With Theft And Fraud

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

ABC 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.

Glenn Beck, David Duke, And Occupy Wall Street

Posted by Mark NC on October 25, 2011 at 12:17 pm. 8 Comments :

Glenn Beck spent a good chunk of his morning radio program today lambasting the Occupy Wall Street movement. It’s a pastime that he has become obsessed with, and his obsession grows every day as OWS gets stronger and garners more support from the American people. Today’s tirade centered on the news that former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke said something nice about OWS.

Duke: “I cheer the men and women on the streets condemning international banks that hold America hostage. […] Finally Americans are rising up and it feels great.”

Duke’s remarks were focused on the movement’s opposition to giant, multinational banks and the power that they wield. While the protesters are concerned that a small minority of wealthy individuals and corporations have an inordinate amount of influence over our society and government, in Duke’s acutely bigoted brain that means Jewish domination of world finance. The two parties could not be further apart. OWS wants fairness for all and democratic rule. Duke wants all Jews stripped of their status and deported – or worse.

Beck made much of Duke’s commentary and concluded that the unsolicited and unwelcome “endorsement” proved that the Occupiers were anti-Semites aligned with Duke’s repulsive agenda. What then would Beck have to say about Duke’s endorsement of the Tea Party?

Duke: “The Tea Party movement is a great sign that the people are finally waking up.”

Obviously Duke seeks to latch onto any convenient movement in order to promote himself. Self-promotion is an endeavor with which Beck should be well acquainted and it’s something he has in common with Duke.

Furthermore, if anyone has a commonality of purpose with Duke, it’s Beck. They both hate New York and all it represents. Last February Beck said that Reform Jews are “almost like…radicalized Islam.” In January he produced a program in which he listed the nine people whom he said most contributed to the 20th century being the Era of the Big Lie. Eight of them just happened to be Jewish. His attacks on George Soros as a tyrannical “Puppet Master,” (another common derogatory insult aimed at Jews), are infamous. And Beck has even perpetuated the intentionally incendiary allegation that Jews killed Jesus. He has been denounced by the Anti-Defamation League for his “bigoted ignorance.” And who can forget his complaint that President Obama “has a deep-seated hatred for white people.”

The fact that Beck didn’t know about Duke’s easily discoverable affinity for the Tea Party is typical of his lazy, fact-free practice of character assassination. But what’s worse is that the Duke video that Beck posted on his own web site, TheBlaze, featured this picture of a Tea Partier while Duke was praising those who protested Wall Street:

Did Beck even bother to watch the video he posted? Or is he just so fixated on slandering his enemies that he doesn’t care that he looks like an idiot? He certainly doesn’t have much respect for the intelligence of his audience, but at least so far as that’s concerned, he has good reason.

Glenn Beck’s Mix ‘n Match Conspiracy Cabal

Posted by Mark NC on October 24, 2011 at 10:57 pm. 4 Comments :

This afternoon Glenn Beck posted a video promo for his GBTV presentation of who is behind the Occupy Wall Street movement. The promo featured Beck disclosing that he has been asked by presidential candidates, members of Congress, the business community, and faith leaders, for confidential briefings on his unique insights into the movement. He responded by saying that he would not provide the briefings, but that he would lay the case out tonight on his television show.

That’s so sad. Glenn Beck thinks that he still has a television show. He thinks that by calling his web site GBTV it actually makes it TV. It’s a pathetic little utopia that he inhabits.

I intended to review Beck’s presentation on the Occupy movement, but after watching it I was struck by how redundant it was. The entire thing was a rehash of his sermons from the past two years of his Fox News soap opera. It was immediately apparent that Beck has a grab bag of rogues that he repurposes for any crisis. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Global Warming, or the Arab Spring, or social justice, or terrorism. The same band of clandestine plotters are responsible for every horror that invades his psyche. Here is the abridged list:

Unions
60’s Radicals
Anti-Semites
Anti-Capitalists
George Soros
The Obama Administration
The Tides Foundation
Center for American Progress

To this first-level manifest, Beck adds personalities that include Van Jones, Francis Fox Piven, Cass Sunstein, and Saul Alinsky.

And now that Beck has been cast out of the mainstream media that enriched him so abundantly, he is escalating his attack on his former keepers. He now charges that “the media knows and supports the destruction of capitalism.” Of course they do. Obviously the media has no interest in the formation of wealth or the consumerism that drives the billions of dollars spent on advertising and entertainment. It’s an irony that only Beck can see.

Beyond that twisted vengefulness, there was absolutely nothing new in his dissertation on Occupy Wall Street. And whether he is inciting fears about radicals from 50 years ago or Soros connections that never actually connect to anything, he delivers his delusional assertions with a sarcastic smirk that he inserts in place of evidence. He just needs to curl his lip and utter a mocking “Oh really?” and he has satisfied the standard of proof required by the dimwits who pay the tuition for his Internet seminary.

In some respects this is a brilliant gambit on Beck’s part. For someone so intellectually lazy, he doesn’t have to do any actual research to construct a new thesis of evil. He just picks a handful of those on his list of prefab villains, throws them up on the blackboard and waits for the chalk dust to settle. Then he sells the same leftovers to his flock in new wrappings over and over again.

There is one problem, as he discovered with his old Fox show. Even sheep get bored and wander off the ranch. That’s why his ratings were cut in half by the time he was canceled. And that’s why he must be feeling so unappreciated now as he garners less attention than than that woman…oh what’s her name? You know, Bristol Palin’s mother.

Liberal Media My Ass!

Posted by Mark NC on October 23, 2011 at 1:39 pm. 3 Comments :

Nothing will make me happier than when the utterly delusional notion that the media in this country is liberal has been refuted, defeated, exterminated, and cremated.

While most observers are already aware of the fact-hating editorial policy of Fox News, at least they did fire Glenn Beck earlier this year (although only because his increasingly hysterical ravings were making them look bad). What people may not have noticed is that CNN is taking up Fox’s slack.

This morning on CNN viewers could have awakened to see two of Beck’s surrogates bloviating on the events of the day. Amy Holmes, an anchor on Beck’s GBTV was a guest commentator on Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz. A couple of hours later, Will Cain, a repoter for Beck’s The Blaze appeared on CNN’s Your Money.

For CNN to feature two representatives of Glenn Beck’s insignificant and failing Internet venture is unbelievable. Is that the best they could come up with? Was CNN unable to find any reputable commentators from distinguished networks, newspapers, or universities? Or maybe their attempts to book members of the John Birch Society fell through.

Elsewhere, NPR made news by firing the host of an opera program because she had taken part in an OccupyDC protest. According to NPR, Lisa Simeone was sacked because her activity “has the potential to compromise our reputation as an organization that strives to be impartial and unbiased.”

Never mind that Simeone hosts a music program and does not cover politics or any other subject that could pose any kind of a conflict. Unlike NPR’s Mara Liasson who is a political reporter as well as a commentator on Fox News. Somehow NPR justifies Liasson’s fraternizing with Fox on matters that are explicitly political, but Simeone can’t introduce classical music after having exercised her Constitutional right to free speech on her own personal time.

Conservatives assail CNN as the Communist News Network due to their perception of it as unabashedly liberal. NPR is a perennial target of right-wingers in Congress who seek to defund what they considered to be a hopelessly biased mouthpiece for the left. At what point are these fallacies laid to rest? Do we really need any more proof than when CNN hosts two Glenn Beck flunkies on the same day, or NPR fires an opera program host because she is a liberal outside of work?

The Occupy Wall Street movement has done a great job of defining the 99% of Americans who are being rolled over by the !% of wealthy, corporate interests who are dominating our political culture. Something the Occupiers need to remember and focus on is that the media in this country is also wealthy and corporate, and they are Platinum members of the 1%. Wall Street firms and bankers spend billions on advertising and the media rewards them with positive coverage and the sort of ludicrous editorial decisions noted above. This needs to be addressed and corrected if we are to see any substantive improvement in the massive social and economic disparities that are threatening our nation’s welfare.

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