Fox Nation vs. Reality: Obama’s Imaginary Foreign Fundraising

Posted by Mark NC on October 8, 2012 at 1:35 pm. NO Comments :

A new report released by a right-wing organization is receiving a great deal of attention from the conservative media circus. The Government Accountability Institute’s report alleges that President Obama is unlawfully soliciting and receiving donations from foreign nationals.

At Fox Nation the headline is a sensationalistic “Foreign Fundraising Scandal Rocks Obama Campaign.” But it appears that their idea of “rocking” is something like the Eagles on Valium. Others in the anti-Obama press posted stories blaring that “Obama bundler tied to Chinese government? (Hot Air);” “Is the Obama Campaign Being Financed by Foreign Donations? (Examiner);” “How Much of Obama’s $181 Million September Haul Was Illegal? (Breitbart);” “Corruption: Exposing Barack Obama’s Illegal Foreign Campaign (Townhall);” “Obama Campaign Receiving Illegal Donations from Foreigners (Media Research Center).” And of course, the kiddies at Fox & Friends chimed in with an interview of the study’s authors that began with Steve Doocy asserting that “the Obama campaign is breaking the law.”

There’s just one little problem with all of this frothing outrage. There isn’t any evidence that any of it is true. The study doesn’t cite a single example of a foreign donation to the Obama campaign. The authors admitted to Doocy that there is no such evidence. The study’s premise is based entirely on their discovery of the Obama.com domain, which is not owned by or affiliated with the campaign or the President. The domain is registered in Shanghai and redirects to the official Obama web site (BarackObama.com). Donations cannot be made at Obama.com.

So the whole scandal consists of a foreign registered web site that cannot receive donations and links to President Obama’s campaign web site, but offers no proof that any non-American citizen made a donation. SHOCKING!

What the articles reporting this study leave out is that its authors are rabid right-wingers with long histories of bashing Obama and Democrats. Stephen K. Bannon, the co-founder and Executive Chairman the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) is also the Executive Chairman of Breitbart News and the director of disreputable and unsuccessful films such as Sarah Palin’s “The Undefeated,” and the anti-Obama diatribe “The Hope and the Change.” Steve Doocy of Fox News has interviewed Bannon before in connection with his films, but today introduced him only as the co-founder of GAI. His co-author is Peter Schweizer, a research fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution and former aide to both George W. Bush and Sarah Palin.

The failure to disclose the true identity of the study’s authors is another example of the utter lack of ethics on the right. But the most brazen dishonesty is that Breitbart News ran this story in an article by Mike Flynn asserting as fact that Obama had taken illegal donations and stating that “details about Obama’s fundraising windfall and a new report this morning from the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) raise troubling questions.” But Flynn never disclosed that the GAI he referenced in his story is run by his boss, Stephen Bannon.

This is a common tactic on the right. They create a bunch of shell organizations that release versions of the same propaganda and then refer to each other for verification of the things they already said. Eventually they cast the net wider to include friendly media like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, and the circle of disinformation keeps spinning their lies. Then they complain that their fake news items are ignored by legitimate media. I wonder why.

Pure Idiocy From Fox News On The Stock Market

Posted by Mark NC on October 5, 2012 at 4:12 am. 5 Comments :

OK, just about anyone with a functioning brain already knows that Fox News is a biased player working on behalf of the GOP. But their analysis of financial matters and stock market activity is not just biased, but astonishingly stupid. Yesterday on Fox Nation they posted this “news” item: Romney Rally? Stocks Close Higher One Day After Debate.

Any time someone makes projections based on a single day of activity it is regarded by professionals as naivete and/or ignorance. So it goes without saying that Fox did just that. On the Fox Business Network, Stuart Varney dropped this mind-numbing stupidity: “Some will say this is a Romney Rally.” And Fox’s Lou Dobbs said “This is the beginning of what will be an even bigger Romney rally as the days unfold.”

Of course, any credible economist knows that market activity is based on a variety of financial data. Yesterday there was an abundance of factors to which the market’s movement could be attributed, including better than expected economic data and the European Central Bank’s freeze on interest rates at 0.75 percent.

Fox has a long history of making idiotic assessments of the stock market. In May of 2009, Brenda Buttner gushed, “Call it a tea party rally. Wall Street’s sure partying, up six weeks in a row.” In September of 2011, Fox Nation reported “Stocks Tumble Worldwide After Obama Speech.” Then in June of 2012, they fantasized that “Stock Market Drops After Obamacare Upheld.”

This tendency of the right to misinterpret all market activity as being the result of Obama (if stocks go down) or some conservative (if stocks go up), extends all the way back to Rush Limbaugh’s nutty commentary on February 8,2009, a mere two weeks after Obama’s inauguration, when he said “The Obama recession is in full swing, ladies and gentlemen. Stocks are dying, which is a precursor of things to come.” Since then stocks have died to the tune of doubling from about 6,600 to over 13,500. Nice call, Rush.

Even Mitt Romney got into it a few days ago saying that “If it looks like I’m going to win, the markets will be happy. If it looks like the president’s going to win, the markets should not be terribly happy. […] Without actually doing anything, we’ll actually get a boost in the economy.” Romney, who considers himself an expert in finance, thinks the markets will advance by doing nothing. His magical name alone will rescue the economy.

What they commonly miss at Fox is that markets traditionally perform better under Democratic administrations than Republicans. And note that that link is to an article on the Fox Business Channel’s web site.

The one lesson that people can take away from this display of ignorance, is that anyone who relies on Fox News for economic advice deserves the economic ruin they suffer.

BENGHAZI-GATE: How Fox News Is Shamelessly Politicizing Terror In Libya

Posted by Mark NC on September 29, 2012 at 1:43 pm. 12 Comments :

The attack on the U.S. embassy in Libya was a tragic event that took the lives of four Americans serving their country. But rather than reporting what occurred with dignity and respect, Fox News immediately sought to politicize the tragedy in an effort to damage President Obama during a heated campaign. Unfortunately, their zeal to create a phony election issue has also harmed the families of the victims and the search for the truth.

In the wake of the attack there was rampant speculation as to the cause and the participants. Right-wing pundits and politicians didn’t wait for any facts before declaring their conclusions that it was premeditated terrorism. The Obama administration took a more thoughtful and responsible approach by not making any definitive statements. Conservatives portrayed that as weakness and continued to muddy the waters with baseless yammering.

As usual, Fox News took the lead in propagating rumors and innuendo. Their Fox Nation web site has published a steady stream of one-sided criticisms of the Obama administration. Amongst the wildly unfounded accusations are charges of deliberate cover-ups complete with comparisons to Watergate. Thus was born Benghazi-Gate.

Ever since the mid-1970’s scandal that drove Richard Nixon from office, partisans have been attempting to slap a “gate” at the end of any controversy. But it should be remembered that Watergate was not simply some government gaffe. It was an intentionally criminal act that included breaking into Democratic headquarters, paying off accomplices for their silence, and lying to investigators from law enforcement and congress. All of that unlawfulness was in pursuit of personal political benefits to the Nixon White House and reelection effort.

What occurred in Libya was tragic, but it was certainly not the result of someone in the White House pursuing personal gain. Nor was there any hint of corruption or clandestine plots to sabotage a political foe. Nor were there any attempts to covertly mask unlawful activity. In other words, there is nothing in this story that remotely resembles Watergate. This is just an attempt on the part of Fox to throw more mud at the President and hope that some of it sticks. It is their contribution to the Romney campaign that has been so woefully inept.

It has been less than three weeks since the Libyan embassy attack. That is hardly enough time to have conducted a thorough investigation and arrive at a conclusive decision. It doesn’t help matters with bitter partisans screaming for the heads of government agencies and even the impeachment of the President. In fact, that’s the kind of background noise that actually inhibits the process and unnecessarily incites further hostilities. Imagine the glee with which Al Qaeda would greet the news that their violent protests led to the downfall of the American president who ordered the killing of their leader. That is who the Republicans are aligning themselves with in this attempt to oust Obama from office.

Fox Nation Admonishes Their Faithful: Don’t Believe The Polls

Posted by Mark NC on September 25, 2012 at 3:37 pm. 3 Comments :

As Mitt Romney sinks further into an abyss of electoral sludge, his Pharisees at Fox News dispense divine guidance to their disciples. The word from on high at Fox Nation is: “Don’t Believe the Polls.”

It is true that most of the recent polls show President Obama widening his lead over Romney. Even the polls from Fox News report Obama ahead by significant margins. That news is triggering a severe case of paranoia resulting in a defensive overreaction on the part of Romney’s PR team (aka Fox News).

So Fox found an article on The Hill and linked to it with a headline of their own making. The actual source was nothing more than a report on the comments by Romney’s pollster Neil Newhouse, who just happened to disagree with all the polls showing Romney behind. But Fox, in their headline, failed to attribute that opinion to a Romney operative. Newhouse, it should be noted, is the adviser who declared that “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.” To his credit, the campaign has kept that promise.

This admonition to cast out the demon polls is typical of the behavior of a cult where the first sacred lesson is to accept that anything told you by anyone outside the order is a lie. Therefore, all the pollsters are agents of the unholy and must be shunned. Never mind that all of these same pollsters were once embraced by the Foxists as prophets:

Rasmussen Poll: Romney 50%, Obama 42%
Poll: Romney Beating Obama Among Women Voters
Poll: Romney Up Double Digits With Swing State Independents
NBC-WSJ poll: On economy, Romney Opens Up Lead Over Obama
Rasmussen Poll: Romney 48%, Obama 44%
Fox News Poll: Romney Edges Obama as Approval of President Drops
Two National Polls Show Favor For Romney

You have to wonder what calamity befell these pollsters since their prior celebration by those at Fox. It must be that the mortal sin of reporting the results of surveys that show the Kenyan, socialist, anti-Christ defeating the Magic Underwear, White Horse Savior, is sacrilege to the Fox Nationalists and must not be tolerated at the risk of sacrificing your soul. So put the evil polls aside, children, and glory in the Truthiness of Fox.

The War On Women: Hammering Pelosi In The Head – Literally!

Posted by Mark NC on September 20, 2012 at 1:49 pm. NO Comments :

The cretins at Fox News have once again revealed their innate hostility, in general, and toward women specifically. The joint appearance of John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi at a groundbreaking ceremony for next year’s inaugural stage produced a photograph that inspired an offensive attempt at humor by Boehner and a despicable reaction from the denizens at Fox Nation.

The title, “Boehner Cocks Hammer At Pelosi,” sets the scene for the bloodlust that will follow. Directly below the photo, Fox News writes…

“Very funny on-cam moments at the ceremony on the West front of the Capitol this morning. […] As he walked up, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) immediately grabbed his hammer, made a funny face and acted like he was going to hit House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.”

Oh, such funny on-cam moments. I can hardly catch my breath. The GOP Speaker of the House of Representatives pretends to murder the Minority Leader by bashing her skull in with a hammer. Boehner certainly has a sharp wit. And it’s not the least bit disrespectful, nor a veiled sanction of violence against women. What will those scamps do next?

Well, actually, for a sense of how this news was received by the miscreants at Fox Nation, take a look at a sampling of the comments:

This is the character of the Fox Nationalists. They encourage this behavior. As of this writing, they have not removed any of these comments that openly advocate the assassination of an elected American representative, who also happens to be the first woman Speaker of the House in our nation’s history.

It’s one thing for a bunch of ignorant weasels to spew their violent wet dreams on the Internet, but it’s another thing entirely when their platform is the web site of a national, mainstream “news” network. This is not an isolated incident. Violent, racist, and other hateful rhetoric is a regular feature at Fox Nation. And President Obama is frequently the target. Ironically, the Fox Nationalists are also the first to castigate even mild expressions of dislike by liberals.

It goes without saying that these sort of boorish ravings are not the equivalent of the violence we are presently seeing in Libya, Egypt, and elsewhere. However, while the practical manifestation of these ideas is not the same, the mindset is identical. They both view their ideological enemies as subhuman and worthy of death. And they are both directing their anger at American representatives and policymakers. The right-wing in America behaves as if they hate this country as much as Al Qaeda does.

To make matters worse, they have Fox News to help them promulgate those views. It’s disgusting, divisive, and unpatriotic. And, unfortunately, it’s probably going to continue, and may even get worse, after Obama is reelected.

The Roots Of Romney’s Rage: Where His 47% Fiasco Came From

Posted by Mark NC on September 18, 2012 at 3:45 am. 39 Comments :

The Making of a Meme
Just in case anyone is wondering where Mitt Romney came up with the data behind the contemptuous affront he leveled at half of the population that he hopes to serve as president, it is a tenet of conservative philosophy that has been expressed repeatedly by pundits and politicians alike, although rarely with such disdain. Here is what Romney, a man who accuses President Obama of being divisive, told a roomful of wealthy donors:

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.”

The erroneous charge concerning an alleged 47% of American freeloaders is one that has been exciting right-wingers for more than two years and has been notably championed by Fox News. To fill in the background of this story, I am re-posting an article I wrote in August of 2011 that describes the length and breadth of this fictitious political assault on the middle and working class of America. It illustrates explicitly the themes that Romney articulated to his wealthy supporters.

Debt Wish XI: The GOP/Tea Party Plan To Tax The Poor
(August 24, 2011) America’s Republican/Tea Party contingent, who are defined by their dogmatic devotion to lower taxes as a panacea for everything, have finally found a sector of society that they can comfortably saddle with a higher tax burden: The Poor.

That’s right. These anti-tax zealots have concluded that fairness cannot be achieved in the country’s tax code as long as there are disadvantaged freeloaders who are allegedly not paying into the system. While they fight tooth and nail to protect wealthy individuals and corporations from contributing even modest amounts to the nation’s recovery, the rightist brigade is marching lock-step in favor of soaking the poor in order to heal the malaise on Wall Street and the misery of long-suffering bankers. Their battle cry goes something like this: “Half of the Country Doesn’t Pay Any Taxes At All.” Fox News has been pushing that theme for quite a while. For the past two years they headlined it on Fox Nation right at tax time.

This movement is not some scruffy assemblage of disorganized trust-funders seeking to upgrade their yachts. It is a coordinated campaign that has pulled together high profile proponents from politics and the press. Here is a sampling of the breadth and unity of the movement and the message:

Rick Perry (R-TX): We’re dismayed at the injustice that nearly half of all Americans don’t even pay any income tax.
Michele Bachmann (R-MN): A system in which 47% of Americans don’t pay any tax is ruinous for a democracy.
Sarah Palin (R-AK): The problem is more than 40% pay no income taxes at all.
Orrin Hatch (R-UT): 51 percent don’t pay anything.
Jim DeMint (R-SC): Over half of Americans pay no federal income tax.
Mitch McConnell (R-KY): In fact, about half of Americans don’t pay any income taxes at all.
John Boehner (R-OH): Fifty-one percent — that is, a majority of American households — paid no income tax in 2009. Zero. Zip. Nada.
Eric Cantor (R-MD): We also have a situation in this country where you’re nearing 50 percent of people who don’t even pay income taxes.
Alan West (R-FL): Currently we have some 40-45% of Americans who are not paying any taxes.

We’re not through yet.

Donald Trump (R-HisOwnEgo): You do have a problem because half of the people don’t pay any tax.
Bill O’Reilly (Fox News): 50 percent of Americans don’t pay any federal income tax now.
Stuart Varney (Fox News): About half the people who work in America, half the households, actually, pay any federal income tax at all.
Dave Briggs (Fox News): [A]lmost half of this country pays no income tax whatsoever.
Gretchen Carlson (Fox News): But what does that mean when you factor in that 50 percent of the nation doesn’t even pay federal income tax? Is that fair?
[Idiot Award Winner] Steve Doocy (Fox News): With 47% of Americans not paying taxes – 47% – should those who don’t pay be allowed to vote?
Sean Hannity (Fox News): 50 percent of Americans no longer pay taxes.
Neil Cavuto (Fox News): I’ve discovered nearly half of this country’s households don’t pay any taxes at all.

Oh yes, there’s more.

Dave Ramsey (Fox News): This idea that 42% of Americans don’t pay anything…that’s just morally wrong.
Brian Kilmeade (Fox News): Fifty-one percent of the country isn’t paying any taxes at all.
Eric Bolling (Fox News): 43 percent of households don’t pay any federal tax.
Glenn Beck (Right-Wing Radio): There was like 48 percent say they pay their right amount of taxes and 49 percent don’t pay any tax.
Rush Limbaugh (Right-Wing Radio): Meanwhile, 45% of Americans pay nothing.
Gary Bauer (Right-Wing Evangelist): But the reality is that nearly half of Americans don’t pay any income tax.
Rick Warren (Right-Wing Evangelist): HALF of America pays NO taxes. Zero.
Ted Nugent (Right-Wing Douchebag): This, of course, will not apply to those 50 percent of Americans who pay no income taxes.

Is there anyone who could seriously argue that this is not a coordinated effort aimed at demonizing low-income and working class citizens? The conformity and ubiquity of the identical messaging from such a broad spectrum of players is audacious and disturbing. And what’s worse, it is deliberately misleading and/or false.

Tax Payer Chart Click chart to enlarge.

First of all, claims that half the population pay no taxes at all are factually wrong. (See the chart at the left from the Wall Street Journal). There are about 46% who do not pay federal income taxes, but most of them do pay many other taxes including Social Security, state and local, sales, property, gas, etc. Secondly, it should come as no surprise that those with little or no tax liability have little or no income. The majority of this group is comprised of senior citizens, students, the disabled, and the unemployed. Those are the folks that the right wants to tap for new revenue rather than the rich who they have taken to calling “job creators” despite the fact that they haven’t created any jobs since they got the Bush tax cuts a decade ago.

To put this into perspective, federal income taxes account for just 20% of all taxes. When you include all the other sources of tax revenue, people making $20,000 a year pay approximately the same effective tax rate as people making $500,000, give or take 5 percent. However, those earning a half-million have seen their rate decline almost 50% since 1980, while the rate for the 20K earners barely budged.

What’s more, corporate taxes as a percentage of federal revenue dropped from 27.3% in 1955, to 8.9% in 2010. During that same time period individual income/payrolls as a percentage of federal revenue skyrocketed from 58% to 81.5%. Thus the burden of paying for our government shifted broadly from corporations to ordinary people (notwithstanding the Supreme Court ruling that corporations are people). These facts prove that the whole faux controversy over the tax liability of low income Americans is, in technical terms, a crazy zombie lie.

Also worthy of note is that one of the main reasons that many Americans owe no federal income tax is due to the earned-income tax credit that was introduced by Republican President Gerald Ford and expanded by Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. And now the GOP is threatening to impose a tax hike on working people by opposing the extension of President Obama’s Payroll Tax reduction. This relief was passed as a temporary measure and is set to expire at the end of this year. Obama has proposed extending it for another year, but House Republicans are balking, saying that “not all tax relief is created equal” (Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX), and that tax reductions, “no matter how well-intended,” will push the deficit higher (Rep. David Camp, R-MI). Camp is a member of the deficit reduction seeking Super Committee. A spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), says the legislator “has never believed that this type of temporary tax relief is the best way to grow the economy.”

Really? Is this the same Eric Cantor who fought so fiercely for the temporary tax relief produced by Bush’s tax cuts for the rich? Cantor, and the rest of the Tea-publicans, are putting their deficit cutting necks on the line to raise the 120 billion dollars that would be restored to the treasury by letting the Payroll tax relief expire, but they will take the fight to Hell and back before considering the recovery of 800 billion dollars from the expiration of Bush’s gift to taxpayers earning more $250,000 a year. Apparently Republicans are opposed to temporary tax relief when it benefits the middle and working classes, but they are wildly in favor of it when it benefits the wealthy.

How can the GOP get away with portraying themselves as tax-cutters while advancing an agenda that would increase taxes for most Americans who happen not to be rich? How can the Tea Party assert through their acronym that they have been “Taxed Enough Already” when they view seniors, and other low-income Americans as not taxed enough? And when will the media expose this brazen hypocrisy?

So it’s clear that Romney was not speaking off the cuff in this newly released video. He merely reiterated what has been a mainstay of the conservative agenda for some time. If he tries to explain this away as a mistake or a gaffe, he is going to have to provide explanations for all of the identical statements itemized above. There is nothing out of character in the remarks he gave at his fundraiser. He is, after all, the same guy who said “I’m not concerned about the very poor.” He’s the same guy who said “If you’re looking for free stuff you don’t have to pay for, vote for the other guy.” His denigration of Americans struggling during hard time is entirely on message, just as RNC chairman Reince Preibus said following the release of the video.

The condescending tone of Romney’s comments is what is likely to cause the most damage to his campaign. But let us not forget that the substance of his remarks is consistent with Republican ideology, and it is woven intricately into the fabric of the party’s structure. It reflects the views of their congressmen and senators and state officeholders. And it flows through the airwaves of their PR division, Fox News, and down the media food chain from there.

[Update] Romney may want to do some research into those 47 percenters he is writing off. Of the ten states with the highest percentage of residents who pay no federal income tax, ten are solid red, Republican states.

Fox Nation’s Shameless Politicization Of The American Diplomats Who Were Murdered In Libya

Posted by Mark NC on September 14, 2012 at 5:08 pm. 7 Comments :

It’s not bad enough that Fox News lies incessantly and engages in ongoing campaigns to insult President Obama, and the millions of Americans who support him, but today they posted an entirely unnecessary triviality that served only to tarnish a day of remembrance solely for the purpose of landing a political low blow against the President.

The breaking news story that Fox Nation was compelled to report was “Obama’s Twitter Feed Hawks Campaign Sweatshirts During Ambassador’s Casket Transfer Ceremony.” What they thought was important about this information is a mystery. After all, Obama’s Twitter account is run by campaign staff, so it’s not as if the President was Tweeting from the Oval Office. But Fox found it necessary to diminish the President’s tribute by juxtaposing two completely unrelated occurrences.

And what makes this all the more repulsive is that Fox’s intent was so pointedly partisan. They obviously never even looked at Mitt Romney’s Twitter feed (or they did but didn’t care) or they would have seen that, at the same time, he was doing the very same thing. He was hawking “a chance to join [him] on board the campaign plane” for a donation to his campaign.

That sort of unfair, unbalanced, and hypocritical coverage is why Fox has so little credibility outside of the mental deficients who make up their audience. It is just unfortunate that they have to demonstrate their disgraceful lack of decency on a day like this, and that a ceremony to honor murdered Americans was turned into a circus on the Fox News web site.

Fox News Banishes Their Own Polls From Fox Nation

Posted by Mark NC on September 13, 2012 at 9:07 pm. 7 Comments :

There is a conspicuous trend developing at Fox News that indicates the depth of their desperation in light of the momentum President Obama is enjoying coming out of the party conventions. They are so afraid of an Obama victory in November that they are burying their own polls when the results show Obama leading.

Most recently, the Fox News poll published yesterday gave Obama a pronounced lead of 48% to 43% for Romney. It included a 12 point swing in Obama’s favor by Independents, and the GOP advantage in enthusiasm has evaporated. In virtually every category of voter attitude Obama held a lead: On foreign policy (+15), education (+14), Medicare (+11), health care (+9), terrorism (+8), immigration (+4), taxes (+3), making the country a better place to live (+2), honesty (+11), steady leader (+10 ), the right experience (+7), keeping promises (+4), and strong moral values (+2). Romney led only in helping small businesses (+2) and understanding capitalism (+25).

There has been no mention of this poll on the Fox News community web site, Fox Nation. And this is not the first time that’s occurred. Last month the Fox Nationalists posted the results of a Rassmussen poll that put Romney in the lead. The article neglected to say that three other polls released the same day had Obama ahead, and one of those was a Fox News poll that put Obama up by nine points.

The same thing occurred last May when Fox News published a poll featuring an Obama lead of seven points. The Fox Nationalists missed that one as well. But it’s not as if they don’t like to post poll results. Take a look at the frequency with which they publish polls that have Romney out in front:

Fox News is acting like a PR agency that is dutifully serving their client. Always hype good news and squelch bad news. It doesn’t change the reality of the electoral contest, but it keeps their audience hypnotized with the sort of disinformation that will eventually bite them in the ass. When Obama wins in November, Fox’s viewers will be stunned, having no idea that Obama was ever competitive. They currently are convinced that he has no chance of winning and that misconception is affirmed by Fox News pundits who assure their glassy-eyed disciples that Obama is toast. Bill O’Reilly even hosted Dick Morris (the world’s worst pundit) to predict that Romney would win big, and to mercilessly rip apart the poll conducted by the people who are paying his salary.

When the folks at Fox are running so scared that they choose to hide the polls they spend so much money on, you know they are trembling severely. More importantly, they are exposing themselves as frauds who are more interested in deception than journalism. But then, that isn’t exactly news.

Crybaby Republicans Imagine Media Conspiracy To Trip Up Romney

Posted by Mark NC on September 13, 2012 at 11:00 am. 3 Comments :

Mitt Romney proved yesterday that he lacks the character and experience to manage sensitive foreign relations. His politically motivated rush to judgment was criticized by a broad swath of politicians and pundits including conservatives like Peggy Noonan, Matt Lewis, Bill Kristol, and even Romney’s campaign chair, John Sununu.

Now the dead-enders in the right-wing press are slobbering over what they believe is a smoking gun that implicates the media in a vast conspiracy against Romney. Their evidence is a short video (posted below) wherein a couple of reporters discuss the questions they plan to ask Romney about the tragic events in the Middle-East. Fox Nation tacked on a sensationalist headline that read: HOT MIC: ‘Objective’ Reporters Caught Conspiring to Trip Up Romney at Press Conference.

The Fox Nationalists (via The Daily Caller) implied that there was some sort of collusion between a roomful of reporters to ambush Romney. In fact, the video shows that it was only one reporter mentioning to another what she intended to ask. So what was the question at the heart of this conspiracy to embarrass the GOP candidate? “Do you stand by your statement or regret your statement?”

What an outrage! The liberal lamestream media is seeking to nail a Republican candidate for the highest office in the land by requesting that he affirm something that he had already said. This is nearly as despicable as the time the media hurled a gotcha question at Sarah Palin about what newspapers she reads. And it’s a particularly egregious affront since Romney earlier in his campaign informed the press that “I stand by what I said, whatever it was.” Shouldn’t that have sufficed for the remainder of the campaign?

Fox Nation vs. Reality: Another Imaginary Apology – UPDATE: Romney vs. Reality

Posted by Mark NC on September 12, 2012 at 9:44 am. 4 Comments :

UPDATE: Mitt Romney has weighed in on this matter by demonstrating his complete unreadiness for leadership, and a lack of character and diplomacy, with a statement that advances the same lies as Fox News did. He said that it was…

“…disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks. […] It’s a terrible course for America to stand in apology for our values.”

As described below, there was never an apology, and the remarks Romney is referencing were not the Obama administration’s first response – or a response at all – since they occurred before the violence took place. The administration’s actual response was an unequivocal condemnation.

So Romney jumped the gun with a clumsy, political attack on the President without having first gotten all the facts. That’s not a demonstration of the sort of leadership skills required by a prospective president.

The original article (published 9/11/2012 at 6:45pm) begins below.

Let’s start out this edition of Fox Nation vs. Reality with a message from PolitiFact:

Mitt Romney has been rated as untruthful 68 times by PolitiFact, and 15 of those were “Pants-on-Fire” lies. Three of his fiery pants lies involved the right-wing myth that President Obama has a habit of apologizing for America. It has been proven repeatedly that it isn’t true, but that hasn’t stopped Romney from saying it.

Now Fox News, whose pants are similarly ablaze on this matter, has posted a brazenly false article on their site for delusional wingnuts, Fox Nation.

The headline said, ” Muslims Attack US Embassy, Burn American Flag on 9/11, While Team Obama Apologizes?” It is true that protesters in Egypt breached the perimeter of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and took the flag down from the pole and subjected it to abuse it. However, there is no truth whatsoever to the assertion that Obama, or anyone on his team, apologized while that occurred.

The protesters were reportedly angered by vague news of either a film being produced in the United States that insulted the Prophet Mohammed, or the antics of deranged pastor Terry Jones, who has promised to burn copies of the Koran. In response to growing anger about the alleged insults, the embassy Tweeted:

“We condemn the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims, as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.”

That Tweet was posted well before there were any protesters at the embassy. So the assertion by the Fox Nationalists that an apology was offered “while” the protest was in progress is an outright lie. And in any case, the Tweet wasn’t an apology by any objective standard. It was, in very literal terms, a condemnation. It begins “We condemn…” That is not a typical way to commence an apology. And who could argue with the message in the Tweet? Is there anyone who favors misguided individuals offending religious believers?

Nevertheless, the Fox Nationalists chose to lie about an imaginary apology; to lie about when it occurred; and to lie by associating it with the President. Clearly they are going for some sort of record for most lies in a single headline.

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