Fox Nation

US News & World Report Gives A Lesson In Dishonest Polling

Posted by on January 10, 2012 at 1:02 pm. 4 Comments :

If you are looking for a reliable way to conduct a poll that will provide bad news for a designated adversary, US News & World Report has a helpful example of how to accomplish your goal. All that’s necessary is to select a few unrelated questions that leave respondents with little leeway to actually express what they feel. For example, here are the questions that appeared on the poll that US News published yesterday:

As we enter the presidential election year of 2012, what potential news event do you fear the most?

  • President Obama wins reelection: 33%
  • Taxes will increase: 31%
  • Iran will get a nuclear weapon: 16%
  • Obama will lose reelection: 16%
  • North Korea will attack South Korea: 4%

How did the US News pollsters decide which potentially fearful events would appear in the poll? They have little correlation to one another, and even less correlation to the issues that Americans are actually concerned about. The top issues in almost every poll are jobs and the economy, none of which were represented in this poll.

Instead, the pollsters included two mirror images of a question about President Obama, and three responses about things that no one thinks are likely to occur. Consequently, it should not be surprising that the response from those fearing Obama’s reelection would draw the third of the country that are already committed opponents of the President. [Note: 67% of respondents do NOT fear Obama’s reelection most] The other responses are just filler designed to make the responses to the presidential question stand out. Even the response for those who are most afraid of Obama NOT being reelected is deliberately misleading. Most Obama supporters are fairly confidant that he will be reelected and, thus, would not select the option indicating that they fear that he would lose.

On the basis of this intentionally fraudulent survey, US News publishes an article with a headline that falsely declares “Americans, 2-1, Fear Obama’s Reelection,” which, even by the results of this phony survey, is not true. According to their own results only 1 out of 3 said that. But that doesn’t stop Fox News, and other biased entities that have no integrity, from re-posting the article. Fox Nation’s headline is “Obama Re-election Is Americans’ Top Fear.” Sure it is, except for all the other fears that weren’t included in the survey.

That’s how it works folks. Pay attention, because these charlatans are out to swindle you. They simply don’t care about making truthful representations. The only thing they care about is advancing their agenda at all costs. These are not bona fide news enterprises. I”m still trying to figure out if they are secretly published by The Onion.

How Stupid Are The Fox/Tea Party Nuts Who Want To Impeach Obama?

Posted by on January 10, 2012 at 12:59 am. 26 Comments :

In case anyone is still wondering how stupid the Fox News/Tea Party crowd is, they have announced that they are trying to raise money to fly a banner over the Super Bowl that will say “Impeach Obama.”

Fox Nation Impeach Obama

That’s right. The Super Bowl, over which it will be illegal to fly. The Super Bowl, which will be held in a covered stadium. These geniuses are plotting to hire an airplane to fly in restricted air space, pulling a banner that no one in the stadium would be able to see, that advocates a criminal procedure for which there is no legal basis. And presumably there are dimwits willing to donate to this quixotic scam.

The video above was posted with their pitch for contributors. It proudly displays a prior banner overflying of the Rose Parade which, due to weather and a late takeoff, they missed all but the last half hour. That ought to convince their victims, I mean donors, to dig deep.

I’ve gotta come up with a really dumb idea to fleece these morons. I can’t shake the feeling that I’m missing a rare opportunity to bank some coin before the Tea Party is over. Any suggestions?

Fox Nation vs. Reality: Beware The Lethal New Ice Age

Posted by on January 9, 2012 at 10:49 am. 10 Comments :

Fox Nation is starting off the new year determined to exceed last year’s Cavalcade of Crackpottery. An article posted this morning sports the headline, “Human Carbon Emissions Could Put OFF a Lethal New Ice Age, Say Scientists.” According to the Fox Nationalists, the perpetrators of Global Warming are actually rescuing the planet from a frigid doom.

Fox Nation Ice Age

“Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere could actually insulate against a catastrophic ice age which would see glaciers advance over Europe and north America.”

The conclusion drawn by Fox Nation is that rising levels of CO2 are actually beneficial and that we should continue to pollute the atmosphere if we are to survive an icy catastrophe in the year 3512. The only problem with that conclusion is that the scientist they reference for the article, Luke Skinner, has a completely different conclusion. He says that he anticipated this response amongst climate crisis deniers and that they are…

“…missing the point, because where we’re going is not maintaining our currently warm climate but heating it much further, and adding CO2 to a warm climate is very different from adding it to a cold climate.

“The rate of change with CO2 is basically unprecedented, and there are huge consequences if we can’t cope with that.”

Skinner told the BBC that the results of the study point to the sensitivity of the climate system to “quite small changes in CO2, let alone the huge changes that we’ve been responsible for over the last 200 years.” Of course, none of that is included in the Fox Nation article. They flagrantly neglect the obvious point that by the time the presumed ice age begins in 1,500 years, global warming, if unchecked, would have already put half the planet’s current land mass under water.

It is also worth noting that the Fox News climate crisis deniers have long argued that temperatures are not rising and that, even if they were, it could not possibly be due to anything that human beings are doing. But in order to adopt the dishonest interpretation that Fox puts forth here, they would have to reverse that argument and agree that the planet is warming and that humans are responsible for it.

It’s nice to see that Fox is now admitting that man-made global warming is real. Now, if they would just take in the entirety of Skinner’s research, rather than their cherry-picked, out-of-context soundbites, we might actually be able to get together and solve the bigger problems that are facing us.

Fox News Promotes Violent Oil Industry Threats Against Obama

Posted by on January 5, 2012 at 11:25 am. 3 Comments :

The Keystone XL oil pipeline was one of the most controversial issues of 2011. The project has raised concerns amongst environmentalists, labor unions, and the oil industry. President Obama kicked the matter down the road by delaying a decision until after the 2012 election in order to have more time to study the environmental impact and alternative routes.

Throughout the year, Fox News has openly sided with oil industry interests in favor of expediting the pipeline. They have repeatedly aired segments with proponents falsely claiming that the project would create anywhere from 20,000 to a million jobs. (Opponents note independent studies that place the figure closer to 6,000 jobs that are mostly temporary).

This morning Fox News escalated the public relations campaign on behalf of big oil. Megyn Kelly (the female Glenn Beck) conducted an interview with Jack Gerard, the president of the American Petroleum Institute, a lobbying association. Just to be clear, this was not a Republican congressman who supports the project. It was not a director of a citizens group. It was not a labor spokesman representing the interests of workers. It was a paid lobbyist for the oil industry. Can you guess what position he took?

This is just another example of Fox serving the interests of wealthy corporations (and advertisers) at the expense of actual people who will have to live with the consequences of these projects. There was no spokesperson for the other side of the debate. It was a segment devoted solely to giving free air time to an industry public relations executive.

And, by the way, here is how the matter was handled by Fox Nation:

Fox Nation Horse's Head

For those who don’t recall, the symbolism of a horse head in bed comes from a gory scene in the film “The Godfather.” It was done as a warning to the victim that he and anything, or anyone, that he cared about could end up the same way. Therefore, the Fox Nationalists are suggesting that Obama or his family could be slaughtered by oil barons if they do not submit to their demands to approve the pipeline.

In the most generous interpretation, it could be assumed that all Fox meant was that there would be “political consequences” for his refusal to kneel before Big Oil. However, the “horse head” imagery was entirely the work of Fox News. It was never mentioned in the article from The Hill that Fox used as its source.

So you cannot blame the oil industry lobbyist for this offensive and hostile rhetoric. It is the sole responsibility of Fox News. Remember that when anyone suggests that Fox has had a course correction and is attempting to moderate their radical and dangerous extremism.

Getting Ugly: Down To The Wire For The Iowa Caucus

Posted by on January 3, 2012 at 11:26 am. 1 Comments :

I’ve been saying all along that Willard Mitt Romney will be the GOP nominee for president. I said it when Bachmann was the frontrunner; when Trump was the frontrunner; when Perry was the frontrunner; when Cain was the frontrunner; when Gingrich was the frontrunner; when Santorum was the frontrunner. I stand by my prediction.

However, the roller-coaster ride that the Republicans have provided has been enormous fun. And it has also provided a truck-load full of material for the Democrats to use during the general election. Including these headlines from Fox Nation this morning:

Fox Nation Disgusting Liars

Here we have the four current leaders of the Republican primary campaign slamming one another mercilessly. Gingrich calls Romney a liar. Santorum calls Paul disgusting. Perhaps it would be easier if we just called the whole bunch of them disgusting liars.

The problem for the GOP is that they are looking for a vestal conservative, but can’t find one that was immaculately conceived. And the Tea Party right is adamant about not tolerating the flip-flopping moderate, Romney. In the end they will surrender and accept the inevitable: Romney will be their nominee. Then look for the commencement of a half-hearted campaign featuring their new rallying cry: Settle For Mitt, 2012.

Fox News: The Most Powerful Propagandist Since Goebbels

Posted by on January 1, 2012 at 10:33 am. 9 Comments :

Fox News waited until the last day of 2011 to publish the most absurdly hyperbolic piece of journalistic comedy/trash of the year. And that’s a high bar for Fox.

Dan Gainor is a VP for the Media Research Center, an ultra-conservative operation that exists to bash Democrats and advance the myth that the media is liberal. In an op-ed for Fox, Gainor breaks all records for overstatement and ironic tunnel-blindness. He begins the unintentionally hilarious article by declaring that the…

“Huffington Post, HuffPo, as it is sometimes called, has evolved from a simple news aggregator into one of the most sophisticated propaganda operations the world has ever seen. […and that Arianna Huffington is…] the most powerful propagandist since a guy named Goebbels.”

That’s the kickoff to Gainor’s Fox News article that castigates Arianna Huffington and the Huffingtong Post as left-wing missionaries of fascism. [This just in: The CEO of Huffington Post/AOL, Tim Armstrong, has contributed the maximum donation this year to the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.]

It doesn’t get much better after that. Gainor carelessly contradicts one of the primary edicts of conservative free marketing: that Fox News and talk radio are so abundantly successful because the media consuming public prefers the conservative message. He says of Huffington that…

“The site was started by political chameleon Arianna Huffington, who used to be conservative before she discovered it was far more lucrative to be liberal.”

There you have it. Apparently the people do want liberal media. From there Gainor goes into a diatribe against HuffPo that would make a much better tirade were it directed at Fox’s own Fox Nation. It’s astonishing how oblivious he is to the twisted irony of his words. For instance, he wonders aghast that “Everywhere you look on the site, Republicans and conservatives are doing something bad.” Replace “Republicans and conservatives” with “Democrats and liberals” and you have a perfect description of Fox Nation. Then he continues his HuffPo rant…

“The few stories that mention Democrats at all are such puff pieces that most journalists would be embarrassed to be associated with them. One shows a baby putting his hand in Obama’s mouth: ‘Obama Gets A Mouthful,’ readers are told in this thoroughly silly story.”

Fox Nation - Obama Eats Baby HandIndeed. A thoroughly silly story that most journalists would be embarrassed to be associated with. Which must be why Fox Nation featured it for six days running as their “Pic of the Day.” And their version was adorned by a mocking headline that evokes child abuse and cannibalism. Would they have chosen that imagery for a white president?

But Gainor is clearly unaware that he is insulting the journalistic integrity of his pals at Fox. Just as he is unaware of the similarity of the following invective aimed at HuffPo to the Fox Nation business model:

“Of course, they don’t write it all themselves. The HuffPo staff is masterful at combing the internet for stories and digging through them for one nugget that makes their point. They write a couple graphs about the nugget, package it with a sometimes huge headline and a stock photo and, voila, their work is done.”

That’s Fox Nation in a wing-nutshell. Except that they write none of it themselves. Every single article on Fox Nation is merely a reference and a link to some other (usually brazenly biased) source. And often its presentation is overtly dishonest as demonstrated here. And Gainor isn’t through yet.

“But the site doesn’t work if it doesn’t generate traffic. After all, Americans aren’t forced to read Arianna’s propaganda. So it’s filled with sex, more sex, comedy and enough other trash to keep people visiting.”

You mean like this? I took a look at Fox Nation’s “Pic of the Day” for just this year and found an abundance of evidence that they are obsessed with naked women, particularly their breasts.

Fox Nation - Sex

And being a young blonde in a short skirt appears to be a prerequisite to be a female reporter on Fox News. Just ask Megyn Kelly, Martha MacCallum, Shannon Bream, Gretchen Carlson, Monica Crowley, Ainsley Earhardt, Courtney Friel, Alisyn Camerota, Molly Line, Molly Henneberg, Julie Banderas, and Steve Doocy. [Oops. I have to scratch one of those. Julie Banderas is not a blonde].

For Gainor to use an editorial on Fox News as a platform to gripe about the Huffington Post being a liberally-slanted web site is an Olympian feat of hypocrisy. But for him to venture off into Nazi references is offensive in the extreme. Arianna Huffington is not responsible for the slaughter of millions of innocents and the comparison to Hitler’s regime trivializes the horror that was the Holocaust. Furthermore, his assessment of HuffPo as biased is an affirmation of acute self-delusion. He is so altogether unaware of his perversion of reality that he can utter this phrase about HuffPo without meaning it sarcastically: “It’s also unmatched on the right.”

Unmatched on the right? Certainly Gainor has read Fox Nation. He is also presumably aware of The Daily Caller, The Blaze, BigGovernment, Townhall, National Review, Weekly Standard, Drudge Report, RedState, WorldNetDaily, Washington Times, NewsMax, and many more.

Gainor’s editorial is typical of the ignorance-inducing disinformation that is the hallmark of Fox News and his own Media Research Center (publisher of the reprehensible net newsrag, NewsBusters). He launches odious insults, accuses his targets of improprieties that he engages in himself, and ignores obvious information if it contradicts his predetermined conclusions. And all of this intellectual mendacity comes together at the start of a new year as if to christen 2012 for a journey to new and more loathsome states of dishonesty and thought control.

Happy New Year, America.

Fox Nation Posts Creepy Article: Win A Night With Mitt Romney

Posted by on December 31, 2011 at 12:24 pm. 2 Comments :

Get out your checkbooks, America. An unprecedented opportunity has just presented itself and, trust me, you do not want to miss it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to rub shoulders (and who knows what else) with the Grand Old Party’s grandest candidate, former Massachusetts governor, quarter-billionaire, and champion job killer in both the public and private sector, Willard Mitt Romney.

Fox Nation is promoting an exciting new contest sponsored by the Romney campaign. The winner of the contest gets to “Spend the Night With Mitt for Just $1.”

Wow, really? The whole night? Will his wife be there? What will he be wearing? I know there won’t be any alcohol (he’s a Mormon, you know), but who supplies the Viagra? Can I bring my video camera?

The comedic and disturbing inferences that spring to mind upon reading this news write themselves. But the Fox Nationalists published it with a straight face and no mention of the inherently creepy nature of the contest. What, you might ask, makes it inherently creepy? Well, that’s exactly what Fox Nation called it when they reported that the Obama campaign did precisely the same thing.

Fox Nation Creepy Contest

Just a reminder: The Fox Nation “Statement of Purpose” says…

“The Fox Nation is committed to the core principles of tolerance, open debate, civil discourse, and fair and balanced coverage of the news.”

Yet somehow, when Obama has a contest to join him and Michelle for dinner it’s creepy, but no such derogatory editorializing for Romney. Furthermore, they make no comparison between the contests themselves. Obama offered any donor who contributed $3.00 or more an equal chance at the prize dinner. Romney’s contest offers donors an entry for each dollar they donate. Therefore, if you donate $1.00 you get one entry. If you donate $1,000 you get a thousand entries. Consequently, wealthy donors will have far more chances to win. That should help Romney avoid having to spend the night with the unclean lower and middle class Republicans who might enter the contest.

Perhaps a corporation will win the night with Romney, since he says that they are people too.

Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Non-Poor Non-Tax

Posted by on December 29, 2011 at 4:02 pm. NO Comments :

After just publishing my year-end Fox Nation retrospective of their stupidest posts, they come out with a new one that definitely would have made the list.

Fox Nation

The assertion that President Obama has okayed a tax on the poor is blatantly false. Not only is this not a tax on the poor, it isn’t even a tax. It requires a special kind of audacity for Fox to manufacture a story alleging that Obama wants to tax the poor when his administration has been fighting right-wingers for three years to enact tax relief for the poor and middle classes, and a small increase on upper income earners. Even worse, it is the right who actually have advocated for raising taxes on the poor.

What the Fox Nationalists are talking about is simply a legal opinion issued by the Justice Department that “allows states to authorize Web-based, non-sports gambling within their borders.”

This would seem to be the sort of free market, libertarian initiative that Fox and their right-wing audience would support. It grants authority to the states to decide their own course. It relies on the personal responsibility of citizens to make choices for themselves. It benefits businesses seeking to expand and create jobs. It raises revenues without raising taxes. So what’s the problem?

The problem is that President Obama’s administration implemented it. If Obama advocated a flat tax of 9% for every person and enterprise, Republicans would immediately oppose it and call for tax increases. If Obama announced that he re-registered as a Republican, the GOP would become Democrats overnight. These radical contrarians might as well stop pretending and just adopt this as their theme song:

Fox Nation’s Extra Special Stupidest Lies About Obama In 2011

Posted by on December 28, 2011 at 8:46 am. 2 Comments :

In compiling another retrospective of the soon to be completed year, I thought I would present a list of all of the lies featured by the folks at Fox News for 2011. Turns out that there isn’t enough bandwidth on the Internet for that. So I sought to narrow down the list by only including the lies that appeared on Fox Nation, the Fox News web site and community of glassy-eyed disciples. That was still too voluminous. So I filtered it even further by selecting just the lies that appeared on Fox Nation that concerned President Obama. That didn’t narrow it down much further. Finally I chose to feature only the lies that appeared on Fox Nation, concerned President Obama, and were really, really stupid. Since that was a more subjective criteria I was able to shorten the list to a manageable and entertaining length. So without further ado here are…..

Fox Nation’s Stupidest Lies About Obama In 2011

Fox Nation - MarxistCollege Mate: Obama Was an ‘Ardent’ ‘Marxist-Leninist’
In this article the Fox Nationalists rely on the testimony of one person who now admits that he was never a “college mate” of the president. It is a wholly uncorroborated account that smears Obama as a Marxist despite the contrary accounts of virtually everyone else that knew him, including those cited by the article’s dubious source.

Fox Nation - Christmas Tree TaxObama’s New ‘Christmas Tree Tax’
This was not actually a tax at all, and wasn’t proposed by Obama. It was a fee requested by the National Christmas Tree Association during the Bush administration, passed by a Republican controlled Senate and House, and was co-sponsored by John Boehner.

Fox Nation - OhioUgly For Obama In Ohio
To support this declaration, Fox Nation referenced a poll by Quinnipiac University that shows Obama out-polling every leading Republican challenger at the time. Obama beat Cain 47–39, Romney 45–41, and Perry 47–36. I can see why Fox thinks that’s ugly. Apparently they also thought no one would click through to read the actual poll.

Fox Nation - StocksStocks Tumble Worldwide After Obama Speech
Despite the deceptive headline, the article states that it is actually the “speculation congress won’t pass” the President’s proposals that contributed to the market decline. In other words, the markets favored Obama’s plan but declined due to the obstruction of the GOP Congress. And it even said just that in the text below the photo.

Fox Nation - UnpopularNYT Poll: Obama More Unpopular Than Tea Party
In truth the New York Times poll reported just the opposite – that Obama was viewed favorably by 48% with the Tea Party at only 20%. What’s more, Obama was viewed favorably by slightly more people than viewed him unfavorably, while the Tea Party was viewed unfavorably by twice as many people as view it favorably.

Fox Nation - Palin Bus TourObama Copies Palin, Plans Bus Tour
In their own photo accompanying the article about how Obama allegedly stole the idea for a bus tour from Sarah Palin (as if she were the first), there is an “Obama 08” poster in the window of Obama’s bus proving that he was doing bus tours long before Palin’s 2011 excursion. Did I mention that this was their own photo?

Fox Nation - White WomenAP: Obama Has A Big Problem With White Women
Here we have the Fox Nationalists attributing a repulsively racist headline to the Associated Press However, the AP’s actual headline was: “Economic worries pose new snags for Obama.” And the article’s focus was also on polling concerning economic issues like jobs, housing, and gas prices. So Fox had to purposefully stretch the story to fit their predetermined racist theme.

There was so much more dishonesty and deception disseminated by Fox News this year that it could not possibly be recounted in full. But these are some of the most egregiously idiotic. Sometimes Fox spends considerable energy and effort to construct their falsehoods. They hire specialists like Frank Luntz and partisans like Karl Rove to deliberately mislead their naive viewers. But these examples show that at other times they don’t even seem to be trying. Their own texts and images expose their deceit. Lucky for them their audience is too dumb and too deluded to detect the vast quantities of bullshit that Fox passes off as news.

Politifact Lie Of The Year Confirmed True By Fox News

Posted by on December 20, 2011 at 7:35 pm. 5 Comments :

The widely respected and Pulitzer Prize winning Politifact has announced their annual selection for “Lie of the Year.” Unfortunately, they have selected something that is demonstrably true: “Republicans voted to end Medicare.”

There has already been a tidal wave of criticism for this selection, which I will not regurgitate. If you’re interested in reading some of the takedowns, Media Matters has complied a few and posted their own cogent remarks.

“Paul Krugman and Dan Kennedy and Steve Benen and Jonathan Cohn and Jonathan Chait and Matthew Yglesias and David Weigel, among countless others, have debunked Politifact’s ruling, which holds that as long as something called ‘Medicare’ has something to do with health care for the elderly, it’s a lie to say the program has ended, no matter how ‘dramatic’ the ‘change of course’ has been.”

My contribution to this discussion will be to point out that Fox News reported on Politifact’s finding that the claim that Republicans voted to end Medicare was a lie, and at the same time published an article wherein Republicans advocated an end to Medicare:

Fox Nation

That’s right. The Fox Nationalists, who ordinarily revile Politifact as just another liberal mainstream media outlet, now regale in this award. But they also publish an editorial wherein the resident Fox News MD, Marc Siegel says this:

“Not all practicing doctors will readily admit this, but we all look at Medicare (and all health insurance for that matter, public or private), the same way. Medicare is cumbersome, an unnecessary interface between us and our patients…”

The fact that Republicans have been trying to kill Medicare is irrefutable. And now the evidence is right on the web site of the GOP PR machine, Fox News. It takes some massive cajones to place these conflicting stories in such close proximity, but that’s what Fox was created for.