Rupert Murdoch

Peter Chernin Breaking Up With Rupert Murdoch

Posted by on February 23, 2009 at 4:23 pm. 1 Comments :

The most talked about thing on the Fox studio lot this morning, after Slumdog Millionaire’s eight Oscars, has got to be the news that CEO Peter Chernin is heading for the exit. Chernin has run the entertainment side of Rupert Murdoch’s empire since 1996, the year Murdoch launched Fox News.

The Chernin legacy is one of profound accomplishment. He is an old school Hollywood exec who demonstrated his skill as an effective manager in a creative business. He was also at the opposite end of the political spectrum of his boss. Chernin gave generously to Democratic candidates and causes. And he would have to be the person who gets credit for the humor directed at the right on programs like The Simpsons. Of course, he would also have to take the blame for reactionary programs like 24.

According to reports, Murdoch does not intend to replace Chernin, and will assume much of those responsibilities himself. I would expect that to be a temporary situation. One of the probable reasons for Chernin’s departure is that there is no upward mobility for him at News Corp. Murdoch will be grooming family members for expanded rolls in the future. He needs a successor and he isn’t going outside of his family to find one. So goodbye Chernin.

This is bad news for News Corp on many levels. Losing an experienced, respected, and connected Hollywood veteran is certain to be troublesome. But even worse is the prospect of Murdoch taking the reins himself. Chernin has had near autonomy running the entertainment group. It is not an area in which Murdoch has much experience or affinity. His focus has always been on his newspapers. And if we were to judge him on the performance of that sector, his future is bleak indeed. The New York Post has lost tens of millions of dollars annually for every year he has owned it. The percentage of the newspaper segment of News Corp is now 19%, the largest piece of the company. And the company is careening toward collapse, having lost about 70% of its market cap in the last year. That is significantly worse than competitors like Time Warner and Disney. Financial analysts are getting nervous about News Corp and Murdoch, and their ability to weather these storms.

The timing of this could not be worse for Murdoch. As the company is trying to stay afloat in one of the worst economic downturns in decades, and while still trying to integrate Dow Jones and the sickly Wall Street Journal into the company, Murdoch now has to divide his attention between his failing publishing interests, his falling stock valuation, and now the helm of the movie and television concerns that Chernin had managed so well. Why should any investor have confidence that Murdoch will succeed at Chernin’s job when he has failed so badly in the newspaper realm he loves so much and has been engaged in for over 50 years? More likely, he will do to the entertainment group what he did to the rest of the company.

Now if only Roger Ailes would leave Fox News and let Murdoch destroy that too.

Rush Limbaugh’s Ego Is Fatter Than He Is

Posted by on February 19, 2009 at 12:22 am. 5 Comments :

President Barack Obama reiterated today that he is does not support the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine. He said so previously, during the campaign, and has been consistent in this regard. That hasn’t stopped the hysterical ranting of rightist fear mongers who seek to use the issue to stir panic amongst the peasants, and to shake them down for contributions.

There are even reports of clandestine meetings between mysterious plotters in Congress and the FCC. The purpose of these cabals is to impose the evil specter of fairness on America. Never mind that the alleged FCC and congressional participants flatly denied that any such meetings took place – and, of course, that the President wouldn’t sanction it anyway.

It is, however, no longer sufficient for one to unequivocally state opposition to the Doctrine. The anti-Fairness fanatics now insist that such proclamations are simply not to be believed. The plotters are purposefully prevaricating to permit them to proceed with their plot. What’s more, they contend, without any evidence, that the threat now extends to cable TV and the Internet, mediums for which the Doctrine never applied. None of these accusations are supported by facts – or reality – they are just regurgitated repeatedly by right-wing conspiracy theorists.

At the top of that heap is Rush Limbaugh. On his radio program today, he rambled through all of the usual delusional blather about the Fairness Doctrine, but strayed into territory even further from sanity. He now says that ACORN is “gearing up to enforce the same type of restrictions on broadcasting that the Fairness Doctrine would require.” He doesn’t bother to explain when ACORN got into the media business. I guess they are just a proxy for anything these braying asses feel like wailing on. After falsely accusing ACORN of voter fraud, and blaming them for the mortgage meltdown, and asserting that they are behind the return of the Fairness Doctrine, I expect the next startling revelation will be their membership in Al Qaeda (A-Qaorn?).

But Limbaugh is not off the crazy train yet. In a grand feat of self-obsessed paranoia, Limbaugh imagines that his thoughts on the Fairness Doctrine are being stolen:

“The Wall Street Journal, two days ago, asked me for an op-ed on this. I submitted the op-ed this morning. It is an open letter to President Obama asking for clarity and definitive answer on — on censorship of the media. Now, I’m wondering. I am just wondering if somebody along the line did not leak my op-ed and the White House heard of it coming and they want to preempt its publication.”

That’s the Wall Street Journal – Rupert Murdoch’s propaganda rag – that Limbaugh is accusing of sabotaging his op-ed.

“And outta nowhere, out of nowhere, on Fox, some spokesman says Obama’s not even considering it? Why now? I mean that didn’t come up at the housing meeting today. It didn’t come up in Denver yesterday. It hasn’t come up on Air Force One. Where did it come up from? I didn’t tell anyone. I mean, I told, you know, a couple friends that I was going to write this thing. It’s fascinating stuff going on there. The intrigue, ladies and gentlemen.”

That’s Fox News – Rupert Murdoch’s propaganda cable net – that Limbaugh is accusing of invading his mind.

The only problem with this exhibition of ego gone wild is that the issue of the Fairness Doctrine has been coming up for weeks. It has been written about in numerous conservative publications and web sites (see Human Events and World Net Daily). Robert Gibbs, the President’s Press Secretary, has taken questions about it in White House briefings – TWICE. It seems to be the most talked about issue in the media other than the Stimulus Bill. Just ask Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and even Rush Limbaugh. Yet Limbaugh says that it hasn’t come up, and some unseen enemy with access to his dementia is leaking his brain droppings to Fox News and the White House. The dark forces are descending upon him even as he laments that he must refrain from speaking it aloud:

“I’m reluctant to talk about this, because I don’t want to sound like a victim. I don’t want to sound like, ‘They’re coming after me! They’re coming after me! (crying).’ But they’re going after any area there is dissent.”

For a guy who doesn’t want to sound like a victim, he sure seems to be focusing a lot on how the world is conspiring against him.

Racist New York Post Continues A Murdoch Theme

Posted by on February 18, 2009 at 12:30 pm. 3 Comments :

In today’s New York Post, and on their website, is a cartoon that shows two cops shooting an ape and saying “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” I’m not going to help the Post out by linking to it. You can find it on your own if you’re interested. But here’s my response:

New York Post Parody

I suppose there will be apologists for the Post who will deny the obvious racist intent, but it’s hard to find another interpretation when the Stimulus Bill is so closely associated with President Obama and the cartoon depicts the author as a dead ape. In the best light, it is still an overtly hostile response to the serious issues facing our nation.

It is not however the first time a Rupert Murdoch property “joked” about assassinating Obama. Last year Fox News contributor Liz Trotta said:

“…and now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama …uh… Obama … well, both if we could.”

Very funny, huh? And then there was the time Bill O’Reilly declared that he didn’t want to “lynch” Michelle Obama. That was considerate of him.

Bill O'Reilly's Lynching Party

This recurring theme of racism and violence directed at the President and his family is just more proof that News Corp is not a legitimate news enterprise and should not be taken seriously or supported by consumers.

Good News And Bad News For News Corp

Posted by on February 6, 2009 at 6:32 pm. 2 Comments :

This is a fairly busy news day for the man who owns the news. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp released its quarterly earnings report and is still smarting from the smack it received by the marketplace. While the economy overall is in a dismal state, and particularly media enterprises, News Corp has suffered a loss that exceeds all of their competitors. Murdoch acknowledged the significance of their record-setting $6.4 billion loss, saying the pitiful results were…

“…a direct reflection of recession that is deeper than anyone predicted. Indeed this is the worst global economics crisis we witnessed since NewsCorp was established more than 50 years ago.”

Almost every division, film studios, TV stations, Internet, and especially, newspapers, suffered steep losses. The company wrote down $3.6 billion on the Wall Street Journal alone. And going forward, News Corp advised Wall Street that income will decline another 30% for fiscal 2009. By way of explanation, Murdoch confirmed a theory that I set forth last year. He revealed that the loss of advertising revenue from auto manufacturers was the “thing that really is killing us.” That’s not surprising when you note that four of the top five advertisers are car makers. Murdoch also revealed something with which regular viewers of Fox News should be well acquainted:

“Even on [finance] terms, we have never been a company that tolerates facts.” [Some reports now say that Murdoch said “fat” not “facts”]

The good news is that the cable group was not amongst the contributors to the downside. Part of the reason may be that Fox News recently renegotiated their carriage agreements with cable operators, which likely produced a favorable comparison to the previous year’s income.

In addition, Fox News seems to be enjoying a ratings revival. For the two weeks following Barack Obama’s inauguration the network performed markedly better than the two weeks prior. However, it appears that the bulk of the improvement came from just two programs – the newly launched Glenn Beck and the reconstituted Hannity (minus Colmes). So the Fox strategy of doubling down on the neanderthal conservatism may be paying off.

I would conclude that this bump was the result of frightened and depressed right-wing viewers huddling in the warmth of the channel where they get the most comfort. It must be a lonely and harrowing experience to have witnessed the election of a Socialist Muslim who was born in Kenya and refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The red glow of the Fox “Breaking News” graphic is soothing in a way that can only otherwise be achieved with an abundance of prescription drugs. I would just like to remind the Fox Junkies that there will always be a morning after.

The Fox News Conservative Book Promotion Channel

Posted by on February 3, 2009 at 2:42 am. 3 Comments :

Anyone who watches Fox News with any frequency is painfully aware that it is little more than a marketplace for rightist propaganda and rancor. But lately, I noticed another kind of hucksterism that is rampant on the network. Several of their regular anchors and contributors are identified as authors in the graphics at the bottom of the screen. This happens often enough that I began to wonder just how widespread this practice of co-promotion of TV and publishing was. As it turns out, it is pretty damn widespread. If you were to populate your library with books by Fox News personalities, you would have to purchase all of these – to start:

Bill O’Reilly
A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity
Culture Warrior
The O’Reilly Factor
Kids Are Americans Too
The O’Reilly Factor for Kids
Who’s Looking Out for You?
The No Spin Zone

Dick Morris
Fleeced
Outrage
Rewriting History
Power Plays: Win or Lose
Because He Could
Off with Their Heads
Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race

Michele Malkin
Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild
In Defense of Internment
Invasion

Mike Straka
Grrr! Celebrities Are Ruining Our Country

Sean Hannity
Deliver Us from Evil
Let Freedom Ring

Glenn Beck
The Christmas Sweater
An Inconvenient Book
The Real America

John Gibson
The War on Christmas
Hating America
In Defense of Religion

Laura Ingraham
Power to the People
Shut Up and Sing
The Hillary Trap

Major Garrett
The Enduring Revolution: The Inside Story of the Republican Ascendancy and Why It Will Continue
The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics

Ann Coulter
Guilty
Slander
Godless
Treason
If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans
How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)
High Crimes and Misdemeanors

Bernie Goldberg
A Slobbering Love Affair
Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right
110 People Who Are Screwing Up America
Bias
Arrogance

James Rosen
The Strong Man

Greta Van Susteren
My Turn at the Bully Pulpit

Updated to add:
Fox News Washington, D.C., deputy managing editor, Bill Sammon
At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election
Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism from Inside the White House
Misunderestimated: The President Battles Terrorism, Media Bias and the Bush Haters
Strategery: How George W. Bush Is Defeating Terrorists, Outwitting Democrats, and Confounding the Mainstream Media.
The Evangelical President: George Bush’s Struggle to Spread a Moral Democracy Throughout the World

This a wholly unprecedented marketing partnership between a so-called news organization and a right-wing political crusade. The books being plugged by the Fox spokesmodels are hardcore partisan tracts that all reflect the same regressive ideology. They have implemented a campaign that blankets their airwaves with pitches for published opinion pieces that are mostly dishonest, manipulative, and overtly hostile.

So where is the other side in this debate? Of course there are no anchors or hosts that lean even modestly left on the “fair and balanced” network. But even amongst their pseudo-liberal commentators like Kirsten Powers, Bob Beckel, or the recently departed Alan Colmes, you would be hard pressed to turn up a handful of literary works. Even so, I have never seen any of their limited line advertised on the air. Conversely, grousers like O’Reilly hawk their books on every broadcast. And you’ll find that appearances from the Coulters and Goldbergs increase coincident with the release of each new product. As for the other networks, there are a few authors scattered about, like Lou Dobbs, but the shelf space they would consume would be a mere fraction of the Fox Book Club.

The truly astonishing thing about all of this is that anyone would want to read (or watch) any of these pathetic characters to begin with. They represent a collection of the world’s most ill informed, logic deprived, truth averse losers in modern media. Bernie Goldberg, the fired CBS alum, is an unrepentant propagandist who writes books about media bias. Well, I guess he should know. Major Garrett, Fox’s White House correspondent, presciently penned a tome with the subtitle of “The Inside Story of the Republican Ascendancy and Why It Will Continue.” That was published just prior to the Democratic takeover of Congress in 2006, followed up in 2008 with additional congressional gains and an historic White House victory. Good call, Major

But my favorite is the Clown Prince of Fox, Dick Morris. His 2006 book, “Condi vs. Hillary,” predicts the prospects for the commencing presidential election. Here is a sample of his astute analysis from the introduction to the book:

[T]here is no doubt that Hillary Clinton is on a virtually uncontested trajectory to win the Democratic nomination and, very likely, the 2008 presidential election. She has no serious opposition in her party […]

The stakes are high. In 2008, no ordinary white male Republican candidate will do. Forget Bill Frist, George Allen, and George Pataki. Hillary would easily beat any of them. Rudy Giuliani and John McCain? Either of them could probably win, but neither will ever be nominated by the Republican Party.

So Morris got the Democratic nominee wrong. He got the Republican nominee wrong. And the Republican who Morris said could win if he were nominated actually lost. It is on the strength of this sort of analysis that Morris gets asked back to provide additional insights.

The truth is, it doesn’t matter on Fox (or almost any of the TV news nets) if you’re wrong. The only thing that matters is that you faithfully regurgitate the conservative dogma and talking points. If you do, then you will have a job for life, and your books, web sites, and other media spew will become part of the marketing machine that props up conservatism. It’s an elegantly parasitic relationship. TV exposure begets propaganda which begets book deals which begets TV exposure which begets propaganda, ad infinitum.

And at the center of it all is Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., a vertically integrated media empire that channels disinformation throughout it’s layers of television, radio, newspapers, magazine and book publishers, and the Internet. This complex web of entanglements insures multimedia distribution of the right wing’s political philosophy. Each props up the other to produce an architecture of lies in support of their lust for power and their Utopian dream for social Darwinism. Goebbels would have been proud.

Bill O’Reilly Is Scared Out Of His Mind

Posted by on January 23, 2009 at 2:15 pm. 2 Comments :

All the symptoms are present. The shameless self-glorification. The lashing out at perceived enemies. The mangling of reality. The desperate grasping for affirmation. Bill O’Reilly is scared out of his mind. To be a little more accurate, I should break that sentence apart: Bill O’Reilly is scared – and – Bill O’Reilly is out of his mind.

His latest journey into bombast is titled, “The Collapse of the Left-Wing Press.” In it he makes claims that illustrate the severity of his tunnel-blindness. As evidence of this imagined collapse, O’Reilly cites the financial misfortunes of newspapers like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Never mind the fact that the entire newspaper business has been hit by a perfect storm of a declining economy, an anemic advertising environment, and competition from the Internet, O’Reilly also ignores the troubles of conservative publications like the bankrupt Tribune Company. And he predictably attacks NBC/GE. They are a favorite target of his due to Keith Olbermann, who has challenged the Factor on the air and in the ratings. O’Reilly’s dementia produced this babble:

“General Electric, which owns NBC, has taken a sharp turn to the left in its corporate philosophy, while at the same time it watched its stock price decline from about 50 dollars a share to around $13. The fact that CEO Jeffrey Immelt still has his job ranks up there with the miracle of the US Airways water landing.”

First of all, GE is the largest defense contractor in the world. The notion that its corporate philosophy has turned sharply left is simply delusional. It is the sort of multinational conglomerate that benefits most from rightist politics and policies. What’s more, it’s the sort of patriotic institution that O’Reilly would ordinarily praise for supplying our soldiers with arms and equipment. All it takes for O’Reilly to turn on them is a cable network pundit mockingly calling him the “Worst Person in the World.”

Now, let’s take a look at the stock performance of News Corp, the parent of O’Reilly’s employer, Fox News. It has suffered an almost identical percentage decline from about $25 dollars a share to around $7. By O’Reilly’s own standard it is a miracle that Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes still have their jobs.

Next O’Reilly seeks to explain why America voted for Barack Obama and Democrats in congress. Essentially he boils it down to the economy, but hastens to add that the country is actually more conservative, the election results notwithstanding:

“Despite the power shift in Washington, America remains a traditional country that largely rejects big government and radical social change. The former hippies running the crazy left media will never get that.”

So the people didn’t really vote for change. It was just some sort of mass hysteria brought on by the reefer madness emanating from “Abbie Hoffman wannabes” in the press. O’Reilly’s Talking Points Memo last night went even further, asserting that the far-left media advocates a socialist economy and is filled with hate:

“And the hate the far-left media traffics in has alienated many folks. I mean, the disrespect shown to President Bush is disgraceful, and most decent people know it.”

Apparently O’Reilly doesn’t read Foxnews.com – or News Corpse. Yesterday I documented some repulsive comments on the Fox web site that called Obama the anti-Christ and wished for his family to be burned alive. O’Reilly doesn’t seem to care about that disgraceful show of disrespect. And he has no claim to decency when he himself has said that law-abiding citizens exercising their First Amendment rights are worse than Nazis and the KKK.

All of this suggests that O’Reilly is desperately afraid. Why else would he feel the need to repeatedly fluff himself and his ratings? Why else would he need to maliciously attack the lurking enemies he imagines around every corner? Why would he find it necessary to construct false and misleading arguments against those shadows that torment him? It is fear that has consumed him and is now his most profound motivation. It’s a fear that has clouded a mind that wasn’t all that sharp to begin with. And now that mind is MIA.

The truly sad epilogue to this story is that he is not alone. It seems that the entirety of the Republican establishment media has decided on a strategy of shock and awe aimed at the new administration. There has been a concerted and coordinated effort launched before the echos of the inauguration speech have faded from the Capitol Mall. It’s purpose is to discredit and diminish Obama and his team prior to their having even done anything. As usual, Jon Stewart of the Daily Show has encapsulated this development perfectly.

Changing Channels: Fox News In the Age Of Obama

Posted by on January 20, 2009 at 4:24 pm. 3 Comments :

In 1996 Rupert Murdoch hired Roger Ailes, a Republican media consultant, to build a new 24 hour cable news network. Fox News immediately went to work to disparage Democrats and liberals. They spent their early years mired in debt, losing $80-90 million annually. It was only Murdoch’s deep pockets that kept them out of bankruptcy. Still, they had some strategic success as they badgered Bill Clinton with Whitewater and Lewinsky, and they corralled Republican and evangelical voters so that George Bush and Karl Rove could reach them more easily.

However, it was during the Bush years that Fox News began to outperform the cable competition. CNN, HLN, and the launch of MSNBC diluted the non-rightist audience giving Fox a plurality of viewers and bragging rights for ratings victories. Fox enjoyed first shots at interviews and scoops from the administration and Congressional Republicans. That brought them greater influence and gratitude from the halls of power. In addition, the White House kept its TVs tuned to Fox, as well as those at Camp David, the Crawford ranch, and even on Air Force One. Vice-President Dick Cheney even had a travel directive that required that “all televisions [be] tuned to Fox News.” Woe to those staffers who failed in that duty.

There may never have been (and hopefully never again will be) such a close relationship between a news organization and a presidential administration. In the end, they were even trading places as if they were merely different departments of the same enterprise: When presidential advisor Karl Rove moved out of the White House to become a Fox News contributor, Fox anchor Tony Snow moved in to become Bush’s press secretary.

Going forward, Fox will find themselves on a new frontier. It is highly improbable that they will be the exclusive broadcaster in the White House of Barack Obama. Although, I certainly hope that the new administration will pay close attention to the spew emanating from Fox, I don’t expect them to be in cahoots. Murdoch and company are definitely going to lose some of their clout. There will be a new Chairman at the FCC, and a new position for a White House Technology advisor. These will be knowledgeable and independent people who will serve the public interest – for a change. Here is a sampling of the views of Fox News, and Big Media in general, from some senior members of the new administration:

President Obama: “In recent years, we have witnessed unprecedented consolidation in our traditional media outlets. Large mergers and corporate deals have reduced the number of voices and viewpoints in the media marketplace.”

Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State Designate: “There have been a lot of media consolidations in the last several years, and it is quite troubling. The fact is, most people still get their news from television, from radio, even from newspapers. If they’re all owned by a very small group of people – and particularly if they all have a very similar point of view – it really stifles free speech.”

Eric Holder, Attorney General Designate: “With the mainstream media somewhat cowered by conservative critics, and the conservative media disseminating the news in anything but a fair and balanced manner, and you know what I mean there, the means to reach the greatest number of people is not easily accessible.”

More President Obama: “I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls. If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn’t vote for me, right? Because the way I’m portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?”

This can’t be good news for Fox News. But the network seems to be aware of the shifting landscape and has been preparing for battle. They signed new long-term contracts with Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, and Sean Hannity. They axed Hannity’s foil, Alan Colmes. They hired reinforcements like Mike Huckabee, Glenn Beck, and Judith Miller. Clearly they see trouble ahead and are responding by stocking their armory with ever more weapons of mass deception.

Unfortunately for Fox, forecasts are not rosy for the disinformation station. They are consistently the slowest growing cable news network, particularly in the all-important 25-54 demographic. They have the oldest skewing cable news audience. They are facing stiffer competition than ever, with the surging Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow’s record-breaking debut. The Fox News ratings crown was once unassailable. Today, while still maintaining their first place average, they often come in second and occasionally third. That was unthinkable two short years ago.

As for their future prospects, it is difficult to make a case for Fox to be optimistic. In addition to their recent ratings woes, they are entering a period wherein the American public may not appreciate a network that is hostile to a new president who is held in high regard. Obama is beginning his term with an 80% approval rating. Of course, that won’t last, and Fox will surely seek to shorten Obama’s honeymoon. But contrary to some media analysts who suggest that an adversarial relationship with Washington will benefit Fox, the truth is that Fox experienced its strongest growth amidst the friendliness of Bush years. This suggests that it is not simply drama and controversy that propelled Fox (although that is their preferred programming model), but that having powerful political allies helped them to succeed. When looked at objectively, that shouldn’t surprise anyone. When has having powerful political allies ever been a disadvantage?

Nevertheless, Fox is pursuing the path of most hostility, as evidenced by their new schedule. For further evidence note the response by Fox News commentators following Obama’s inaugural speech. Brit Hume’s first comments were to find passages that might please the right. Chris Wallace actually speculated that the flubbed oath of office (due to Chief Justice Roberts mangling the text) might mean that Obama isn’t really president (Let the conspiracy emails begin). Glenn Beck spent the whole hour of his second show on Fox heaping scorn on Obama. And while Rush Limbaugh isn’t technically on Fox, he is a charter member of the same ideological fraternity, and he has published a long dissertation on why he hopes Obama fails. These guys aren’t wasting any time.

This is just a preview of what we have to look forward to. The influence of Fox News is bound to decline. The Obama camp would be justified in giving Fox a cold shoulder. Fox deserves it for their brazen partisanship and for failing the test of responsible journalism. Other networks should now get some exclusives and scoops. And the more that this historic administration ignores Fox, the less relevant they will be.

We will now see Fox revert to the behavior of an injured wild beast that becomes even more ornery and more dangerous. We see it already. It’s important that we keep an eye on this threat, as it is not retreating to its lair. But it is retreating in the hearts and minds of the American people, and for that we should feel some sense of relief.

Glenn Beck: Believers In Global Warming Are Socialists

Posted by on January 13, 2009 at 12:05 pm. 3 Comments :

Next Monday Fox News will premiere a new program hosted by fabulist radio jock, Glenn Beck. In advance of this debut, Beck has dropped a bomb on his new boss and millions of others around the world.

On his radio program, Beck spun a tale of McCarthyistic intrigue that slammed President-elect Barack Obama, his designated Climate Change advisor, Carol Browner, and environmentalism in general. The gist of his blathering (most of it incoherent) was that Browner’s association with the Global Warming initiatives of an organization called Socialists International, is proof that Obama intends to impose a left-wing dictatorship in America. SI is a worldwide enterprise that includes in its membership the ruling Labour Party in Great Britain and the center-left New Democratic Party of Canada. Browner’s connection is through her involvement with SI’s Commission for a Sustainable World Society, a cooperative effort to address global environmental concerns.

Where Beck goes completely off the cognitive cliff is when he asserts that…

“…almost everyone who does believe in global warming is a socialist. I mean, believes in manmade global warming that now can be fixed and reversed or whatever. And we’ve got the tools to fix it. Almost everybody who says, ‘I’ve got a plan to fix it’ is a socialist.”

Global Warming believers like George Bush, John McCain, Lindsay Graham, and Newt Gingrich may take umbrage at being called Socialists. Beck is also tagging 71% of the American people as Socialists, including about half of Republicans (Rep:49% / Dem: 84% /c Ind: 75%). To be clear, there are many Republicans who dispute the threat of Climate Change, like Sen. James Inhofe who likens its adherents to Nazis. But they are an increasingly out of touch cult of reality deniers who have also rejected scientifically validated views on evolution, stem-cells, tobacco, etc.

For Beck, this may not be the best way to start off a professional relationship with the owner of the network from which he is about to be broadcasting. Rupert Murdoch has publicly stated that he believes that Global Warming is real and he has committed his corporate empire to trying to fix it and reverse it, or whatever. Even Bill O’Reilly is on board. While he believes the causes are still open for debate, and he will gleefully attack environmentalists for sport, he concedes that Global Warming is occurring and must be dealt with:

“I have never understood the resistance to the concept of global warming. […] America needs to stop arguing over the cause of global warming and begin a disciplined 10-year plan to use fewer polluting agents, more conservation, and tons more innovation.”

But now Beck contends that Murdoch and his ilk are Socialists. Beck, however, doesn’t explicitly cite the Murdochian clan or other reasonable, environmentally conscious conservatives, because he would rather direct his fire at Obama and the Democrats in his aborning administration. And he’s not alone. Bret Baier of Fox News, the Moonie-run Washington Times, the uber-rightist American Spectator, the neo-con Heritage Foundation, and the rest of the Dark-Agist spin machine is out in full force screaming about the new “Green” red menace. Green is the new red.

This is particularly ironic because the ads promoting Beck’s new Fox program feature him becoming exasperated at people who make wild accusations about Democrats being Communist subversives. He literally cries out for them to “STOP” that sort of “blatantly stupid” ideological headbutting. Yet that is precisely what he is doing (and has done repeatedly as documented by MediaMatters).

What’s worse is that Beck swings from ludicrous allegations that environmentalists are Socialists to preposterous charges that they are also Fascists, in the span of a single rant. The Fascism jab arises from the desire on the part of environmentalists for government to participate in the solution. Well that settles it. He further alleges that the culmination of this debate will result in the resurrection of the Cold War with Russia, which he fears will not long remain cold. Think about that – Glenn Beck actually believes that the pursuit of solutions to a pending Climate Crisis will lead to war with Russia!

I’m beginning to look forward to Beck’s new show on Fox. If it contains a fraction of the flashes of delusional instability as the radio broadcast that contained the above screed, it could be one of the funniest TV shows ever. You know, funny in the way that schizophrenia or Armageddon is funny.

Media Milestones And Millstones For 2008

Posted by on December 30, 2008 at 12:38 pm. NO Comments :

At the conclusion of a year that few people will miss, it is time once again to indulge in the hackneyed cliche of annual list-making. While some events are already etched into our collective memories (i.e. the election of our nation’s incoming, first-ever, African-American president; the shoe attack on our nation’s out-going, worst-ever, remedial president), other events may be more subject to fading recollection as a new year of stimuli compete for a place in America’s short attention span.

It is in this spirit that I submit the following collection of awards in the hopes of preserving these moments for history, if not for comedy.

Starting with the history-making presidential election, Barack Obama wins the Somebody Had To Say It Award for this:

Obama: “I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls. If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn’t vote for me, right?”

Sticking with the campaign theme, Sarah Palin has repeatedly demonstrated her ignorance of the media’s role in public life. She believes that it is unconstitutional to criticize her, and that she is the one to restore the media’s credibility. That alone would be enough to merit an award, but Palin wins the What Constitution? Award by showing Carl Cameron of Fox News that she has no comprehension of the Constitutional role of the office she sought:

Palin: “The vice president, of course, is not a member – or a part of the legislative branch, except to oversee the Senate. That alone provides a tremendous amount of flexibility and authority if that vice president so chose to use it.”

Of Course, Palin has her fans – like Ann Coulter who along with Human Events Magazine named Palin Conservative of the Year. But that was not enough to pry away the Fatuous Infatuation Award from Rich Lowry of the National Review:

Lowry: “I’m sure I’m not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, ‘Hey, I think she just winked at me.’ And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America.”

On the plus side, CNN’s Jack Cafferty played a stream of gibberish from Palin’s interview with Katie Couric. After which he said that if you aren’t afraid that she is a 72 year old heartbeat from the presidency, you should be. Then Wolf Blitzer tried to cover for Palin by saying that she was just trying to squeeze a lot into her answer. Cafferty’s reply earns him the Anchor Smackdown Award:

Cafferty: “Don’t make excuses for her. That was pathetic.”

I suppose I should give an award to Palin’s running mate…what was his name? Oh yeah…John McCain certainly deserves a mention for his aggressive attacks on the media. But that’s all he gets. While it takes real guts for a former press darling who hosts barbecues for his reporter pals to turn on them when the next object of media affection pops up, the act for which I will remember McCain is his promotion and exploitation of Samuel Wurlzebacher – aka Joe the Plumber – whose name is not Joe and who is not a plumber. Despite his obvious deficiencies, Plumber Joe became a staple of Fox News, particularly business chief Neil Cavuto. On one notable occasion, Cavuto queried Joe on the subject of Barack Obama’s patriotism. And for his response Joe gets the McCarthyism Reprise Award:

Wurzelbacher: “Oh you know, [Obama’s] ideology is something that is completely different than what democracy stands for, so I had some question there. In my opinion.”

However, Joe will have to be satisfied sharing this award with News Corp Chairman, Rupert Murdoch, who also earned this honor in an interview with Cavuto:

Murdoch: “[Obama’s] policy is really very, very naive, old fashioned, 1960’s socialist.”

Old Rupert was destined to have an over-representation on this awards program. That’s partly because of the expansive nature of his media empire, but mostly because that empire is a repulsive purveyor of smears and propaganda. There is so much of it that I could devote an entire set of awards to News Corp alone. Consequently, I’ll focus here on the more peculiar instances of journalistic abuse. Starting with Amy Chozick of the Wall Street Journal who wins the Biggest Loser award for an article titled, “Too Fit to Be President?” which asks:

Chozick: “…in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama’s skinniness be a liability?”

Then there is Fox News’ own Liz Trotta, winner of the Death To America Award for her public call for assassinating Obama:

Trotta: “…and now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama …uh… Obama … well, both if we could.”

And don’t think I’ve left out the Grand Wizard of Fox News, Bill O’Reilly. Oh…where to begin? I’m going to skip over O’Reilly’s generous offer not to lynch Michelle Obama, and his assertion that 200,000 documented homeless veterans don’t exist, and even his delicious submersion into lunacy as demonstrated in any of the “Don’t Block the Shot / Dodge Us at Your Peril / We’ll Do It Live” rants. For some reason I get a kick out his delusional conspiracy theory that the TV ratings are fixed and that Nielsen is intent on destroying him. Never mind the fact that he is number one in those ratings and he frequently cites them as evidence of his ego-starved greatness. So for inventing enemies around every corner, O’Reilly gets the Paranoia Strikes Deep Award:

O’Reilly: “The bottom line on this is there may be some big-time cheating going on in the ratings system, and we hope the feds will investigate. Any fraud in the television rating system affects all Americans.”

When O’Reilly isn’t threatening “the folks,” his colleagues in conservative crime are doing it. Rush Limbaugh is this year’s recipient of the Domestic Terrorist Award for exhorting his listeners to attend the Democratic Convention and to “Screw the World! Riot in Denver!”:

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

Glenn Beck, not to be outdone, issued his own threats. But in an attempt to boost the degree of difficulty, Beck went off the scale. In November he told a story of how we had been accosted in a diner by a hostile trucker who threatened to run him down. He summarized the experience by saying that, no matter how much he disagreed with someone, he would never say such horrible things – not even to Michael Moore. However, just a few months prior, Beck said this about Moore and, thus, earned his Serial Hypocrite Award:

Beck: “Hang on, let me just tell you what I’m thinking. I’m thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I’m wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out – is this wrong?”

The Grand Prize for a year of countless media atrocities is reserved for a despicable act of greed and betrayal. Actually, it is a pattern of acts that has persisted for many years, but came to a head during the Bush administration and was courageously uncovered by the New York Times. It has been called the Pentagon Pundits scandal, though I call it SPINCOM. It centers around an initiative to stack the press with analysts who were willing to lie to support an illegal war and to fatten their own wallets. The Times gets the Milestone of the Year Award for revealing the rancid corruption of the media, the military, and the Bush warmongers:

NY Times: “Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance.”

“The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.”

Sadly, the heroic work of the Times was largely ignored by the rest of the press, particularly television. Of course, the TV news networks were the most aggressively abusive employers of the tainted pundits. It would have taken a powerful dose of integrity to criticize behavior that they were in the thick of engaging in. The failure to cover such a controversial issue that impacts so directly on themselves is further evidence of a media community that is untrustworthy and uninterested in serving the public. However, the story in the Times has resulted in an investigation at the FCC and another proposed in the next Congress. So, hopefully, some accountability will be brought to bear.

The fight for honest and independent journalism will continue into the new year. While there are some promising signs accompanying the incoming Obama administration, there will undoubtedly be much work to do. So in the spirit of optimism and renewal, and hopes for better future, I wish everyone a…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

How Green? Is Fox News?

Posted by on December 24, 2008 at 5:46 pm. 4 Comments :

The folks at Fox News have published a new environmentally focused web site called “How Green?” The site appears to be in the early stages of development with just a few articles posted, mostly re-posts from Associated Press.

Once again, Fox News is demonstrating a measure of hypocrisy that flies off the scale. The right-wing network still regularly hosts Global Warming deniers, and its top anchors scoff at what many of them call environmental “hysteria.” For example…

Sean Hannity: One of the reasons we’re so energy dependent is because of the global warming hysteria and extremism.

In an article on Foxnews.com, James O’Brien, a professor from Florida State University, continued the hysteria theme saying…

“Global climate change is occurring in many places in the world,” O’Brien said. “But everything that’s attributed to global warming, almost none of it is global warming” […] He called sea level changes a “major scare tactic used by the global warming people.”

And Jennifer Lawinski of Fox News wrote this bit of nonsense: Children’s Books Use Christmas to Push Global Warming Agenda. These dangerous tomes include one wherein Santa is so moved by a young boy’s efforts to save his adopted polar bear, that he decides to re-use last year’s wrapping paper, recycle toys and start using wind to generate power for his toy shop. OH NOOO!

In an effort to support her premise, Lawinski quoted a critic of the book “Santa Goes Green”:

“The global climate change alarmists are now trying brainwash our kids by infusing their unproven and baseless climate change rhetoric into Santa books,”

Was this critic a scientist? A climate expert? An authority on literature? Nope. It was a review written by a visitor to Amazon.com. In fact, it was the whole review. And to be clear, Amazon permits anyone to post comments on their products regardless of their credibility, or lack thereof. In all likelihood, this reviewer didn’t even read the book. This is the authority that Lawinski cited to buttress her reporting. And it’s typical of Fox News who often imbue partisan propagandists and ignorant nobodies with qualifications they haven’t earned and don’t deserve. (see Joe the Plumber).

But what’s occurring here is more than hypocrisy – it’s schizophrenia. News Corp Chairman, Rupert Murdoch has become an outspoken advocate of reducing greenhouse gasses. He accepts that Global Warming is a real concern and that human behavior has an impact on climate. He pledged the corporation to reduce its carbon footprint 10 percent by 2012 via energy reduction initiatives, and to become carbon-neutral by 2010, by buying carbon offsets.

Despite that commitment, Murdoch’s minions still vigorously oppose any suggestion that there is a climate crisis that demands our attention. Everyone from Hannity, to Brit Hume, to Neil Cavuto, to Steve Doocy, routinely dismiss the subject as Junk Science. And to top it off, a poll on the How Green? website that asks “Is Global Warming Real?” presently has a 63% majority answering “No.”

That makes it pretty difficult to square Fox’s eco-activity with the views of its staff and audience. Their overt hostility toward the environmental agenda makes their token gestures seem all the more cynical and exploitative. Most likely, these fleeting eruptions of green are just an attempt to curry favor with millions of concerned conservationists. Fox thinks this will give them cover so that they can claim to be responsible citizens. And if it weren’t for the fact that they contradict themselves at every turn, it just might have worked.