Fox News Watch Obsesses Over Media Matters

Posted by on July 3, 2011 at 3:34 pm. 9 Comments :

The Fox News weekend schedule seems to have been interrupted. First by nearly non-stop coverage of the trial of Casey Anthony which, judging by the amount of airtime it is receiving, it is the most important event facing the country. More important than the economy, the war on terror, or where the royals are spending the weekend.

In addition, the Fox News Watch program that airs every weekend was taken over by a single subject that consumed fully half of the program. Fox has become desperately fixated on the perceived threat of Media Matters. They have been reporting all week on an attempt to shut it down by challenging their tax-exempt status (a challenge that has no merit whatsoever). They have even been directing viewers to a web site where they can file their own complaints with the IRS. Fox Nation posted this link a week ago and keeps moving it to the top of their web page above other more recent news.

Obviously Fox is scared. They are afraid that Media Matters’ practice of documenting Fox’s own words and pictures is having a detrimental effect on the network. They are afraid that the successful campaign against Glenn Beck will continue to reveal that Fox News is a bastion of lies, racism, and partisan propaganda. And so Fox has embarked on a mission to destroy Media Matters with all the weight of their vast media empire.

Fox News Watch opened by playing a biased story from Fox reporter James Rosen in full. I have never seen that happen on News Watch before. The story included former Bush lawyer, C. Boyden Gray, making this ludicrous assertion:

“When you start to accuse Fox News of being the spokesman for the Republican Party, which is demonstrably false – there’s no basis for that. Brock, Media Matters, makes no effort to substantiate any of that – That’s when it crosses the line.”

There is ample evidence that Fox News is operating as the public relations arm of the Republican Party. They have had in their employ up to five potential GOP candidates for president. They interview Republican candidates almost exclusively. They have distributed memos instructing their anchors and reporters to use language that parrots Republican talking points. They have even broadcast reports written by the Republican National Committee word-for-word, displaying accompanying graphics that contained the same typos in the original RNC document. That last bit of journalistic cronyism was the work of current Fox News Watch host, Jon Scott.

Media Matters has more than made an effort to substantiate the overtly partisan behavior of Fox. They have proven it beyond a shadow of a doubt. That’s why Fox is scared.

The News Watch segment went on to note the recent financial history of Media Matters. They displayed a chart showing that the group received $8.4 million in grants and contributions in 2007, $8 million in 2008, and 6.7 million in 2009. Then, without any evidence whatsoever, asserted that the decline in receipts is what prompted George Soros to make a $1 million donation in 2010 (his first donation ever, by the way). Jon Scott characterized the donations as “drying up.” I suppose it never occurred to him that the time period he singled out was precisely when the economy collapsed, which undoubtedly impacted the donations of every charitable organization. There was no reason to assume that there was any problem with supporters that involved anything other than the state of the economy.

This was followed by a chart showing that Media Matters had done more stories on Fox News than any other news entity. Why would that surprise anyone? If the mission is to document media misinformation, the most frequent offender is going to show up most frequently. Fox knows that they perpetrate more misinformation than any other news source. That’s why Fox is scared.

The News Watch panel was composed of four conservative defenders of Fox and one lonely, but earnest, liberal, Jehmu Greene. Jon Scott brought up Soros three separate times, but were it not for Greene no one would have heard about the uber-conservative Media Research Center (operator of NewsBusters). The MRC has its own army of billionaires (Koch, Murdoch, Scaife, etc.) funding their partisan enterprise, but no one other than Greene would discuss it. Even after she brought it up, the other panelists scurried away refusing to hear of it. And it should not go without mentioning that Fox News itself is one of the MRC’s biggest supporters. They regularly feature the MRC’s Brent Bozell and much of their news content comes straight from the MRC. Fox’s former news chief, Brit Hume, thanked the MRC saying “I don’t know what we would’ve done without them.”

This farce took up half of the program. As a result, notable media events of the past week were ignored or abridged. Those events included Michele Bachmann’s entry into the presidential race, Glenn Beck’s final show on Fox, and the President’s contentious news conference. Why would Fox News Watch, a show dedicated to the media, deliberately excise and/or abridge coverage of such significant stories in order expand coverage of a media monitoring organization that most Americans have never heard of?

Because Fox News is scared. They are scared of the truth. They are scared that more people will discover that they are a network that peddles garbage and partisan tripe. And as an enterprise with zero journalistic credibility, Fox News has good reason to be afraid. An organization like Media Matters that merely records and replays the lies and bias on Fox News is certain to be their worst enemy.

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Fox Nation vs. Reality: On Israel

Posted by on July 3, 2011 at 12:41 pm. 1 Comments :

This is the inaugural edition of a new feature: Fox Nation vs. Reality.

There have so many incidents of the Fox Nationalists distorting stories from other sources that it warrants special attention to illustrate their relentless dishonesty. A recent example was their twisting of an Associated Press story with the headline, “Economic worries pose new snags for Obama.” Fox Nation contorted that into, “Obama Has A Big Problem With White Women.” And the article had little to do with women, white of otherwise.

Today Fox Nation posted a story that linked to Greg Sargent’s column in the Washington Post, “Obama campaign to go on the offensive against conservative critics of Israel stance.” The Fox version became, “Obama Campaign To Go After Conservative Critics Of Anti-Israel policies.”


The Post version, and the article that followed, was a neutral description of a proposed strategy being discussed by Obama insiders. It was an entirely rational response to attacks on the President by Republican opponents trying to muddy the waters for Jewish voters.

The Fox version inserts commentary that presumes the existence of administration policies that are anti-Israel. Of course, that is false. Every credible analyst, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, agree that Obama’s positions are closely aligned with Israel’s best interests and that the two nation’s alliance is as strong as ever.

The Fox Nation doesn’t care about the facts. They only care about how badly they can mangle reality so as to keep their audience mired in ignorance.


Hypocrisy Watch: Casey Anthony Trial Preempts Debt Crisis On Fox News

Posted by on July 1, 2011 at 2:01 pm. 6 Comments :

Neil CavutoNeil Cavuto opened his program today by chastising the President and Congress for taking the holiday weekend off in the midst of a looming and unsolved debt crisis. He was appalled that these people could be so cavalier under such desperate circumstances. Then he interviewed some toady he found under a Tea Party toadstool who agreed with everything he had just said.

For the record, the Washington set was scheduled to be out of town for all of next week until President Obama shamed them into changing their plans. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, declared that the Senate would be open for business Tuesday, and for the remainder of the week. It was on the President’s initiative that Congress was called back into service immediately after the Independence Day hiatus.

So Congress will not be taking their customary holiday to celebrate the Fourth of July. They will simply be off for the weekend and the fourth to be with their families and constituents, then right back to work on Tuesday. And this has gotten Cavuto’s knickers in a knot.

What came next made this already asinine whining ever more stupefying. Cavuto introduced the panel of business commentators that he would normally be hosting tomorrow morning on Saturday’s “The Cost of Freedom” program on Fox News. The reason he hosted this panel today is because the program is being preempted tomorrow to make way for special coverage of the Casey Anthony murder trial.

So Cavuto rails against the President for allegedly neglecting our nation’s economic emergency (even though Obama was responsible for pressuring everyone to come back to work early), while Cavuto and Fox News cast the crisis aside in favor of tabloid coverage of a trial that will have no effect whatsoever on the economy or anything else of national importance.

What a revealing demonstration of twisted priorities and hypocrisy. What a callous and insufferable clown.


When Fox News Attacks: The Assault On Media Matters [Updated]

Posted by on July 1, 2011 at 10:45 am. 12 Comments :

[Update July 1, 2011] Fox News continues to hype this issue. They have run numerous stories on air by James Rosen, Steve Doocy, and Bret Baier, many of which include instructions and appeals to file an IRS complaint against Media Matters. Fox Nation has bumped the story to the top of their page all week, including the IRS link. See below for new action items.]

[June 29, 2011] In case you haven’t noticed, Fox News has recently initiated a sustained assault on the media watchdog group, Media Matters. In the past week they have featured numerous stories with the express purpose of challenging the group’s right to exist.


This latest batch of complaints stem from comments made last March by Media Matters founder, David Brock. He was quoted in Politico as saying that the organization was shifting its focus toward Fox News to one of “guerrilla warfare and sabotage.” Under those circumstances it may not be surprising that Fox has taken up a barrage of criticism aimed at Media Matters. It seems only fair that Fox defend itself from such an overt declaration of war.

The only thing that might refute that perspective is – reality.

Fox News began this war long ago with aggressive and false assertions that cast Media Matters as hacks, anti-American, violent, and communist. They alleged that George Soros was pulling their strings long before Soros ever made any contributions the group. Fox stalwarts like Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck engaged in rhetoric so hostile that it inspired actual physical attacks against Media Matters and their progressive allies. So if this is war, it is one wherein Fox is the aggressor.

Another thing that makes this blitzkrieg unseemly is that Fox likes to pretend that it is a news enterprise. While Media Matters has as its mission to monitor the press, report their findings, and take actions to improve the state of the media, Fox is over-stepping ethical boundaries in becoming an activist enterprise targeting ideological foes. That is not the role of legitimate journalism.

The most recent line of attack by Fox is that Media Matters has violated the terms of their tax-exempt status by setting their sights on Fox. They quote from the rules governing non-profits that state that…

“…501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”

On the basis of that criteria, Fox News argues that Media Matters is in violation and should have their tax-exempt status revoked. That’s an interesting argument because it implies that attacks on Fox News qualify as opposition to political campaigns and/or candidates. Without that stipulation there is no violation on the part of Media Matters. So Fox is, in effect, admitting that they are a political operation. Shocking, I know.

If Fox wants to acknowledge that they are not a news network, but a political entity, and change their name to the Fox Republican PR Agency, then I would be willing to call on Media Matters to lay off. Absent that, Fox should drop this inane pretense and go back to pretending they are a news network.

Even if Fox were to come out of the propaganda closet, Media Matters would still be in the clear because the non-profit prohibition is explicitly related to campaigns and candidates. While Fox is obviously promoting both on behalf of their conservative pals, Fox itself is neither.

What makes this even worse is that Fox is not merely retaliating to what they regard as attacks on them. Fox is actively participating in a campaign to shut Media Matters down by challenging their tax status. On Fox Nation they posted an article that was nothing more than an appeal to their readers to file complaints with the IRS. The article’s headline says it all: “Want to File an IRS Complaint Against Media Matters? Click Here.” And after posting that article, Fox anchor Steve Doocy made this announcement on his morning show Fox & Friends:

“Somebody has set up a web site and we have linked it, actually, at FoxNation.com. If you go down about half way down you’ll see that logo. If you want to file a complaint with the IRS against Media Matters because you feel they have gone political, they have abandoned their initial quest, then go to that site and go ahead.”

Not only is that a waste of time, because of the reasons stated above that prove the complaint has no merit, it is also unethical. Has anyone ever heard of a news enterprise directing its viewers to file official complaints against another organization that it regards as an enemy? If NBC were to instruct its viewers to file tax status complaints against the Tea Party because its leaders attack the network, would the folks at Fox News consider that acceptable?

Of course not. Fox would regard that as unethical, outside the jurisdiction of a news network, and deliberate harassment. Which is exactly what it is when Fox does it, and it is exactly what Fox is doing.

[Take Action] Fox News is dishonestly attacking Media Matters and harassing them through an organized effort to barrage the IRS with complaints. However, they have no problem with their right-wing allies, like the Media Research Center, who do precisely the same thing that Media Matters does. Therefore, if anyone is interested in filing a complaint against MRC, feel free. Here is the Complaint Form (pdf) and some of the information you’ll need to include.

Media Research Center – A right-wing group that runs Cybercast News Service (CNSNews.com), a conservative news site; NewsBusters.org, a blog devoted to media criticism; the Business & Media Institute, which promotes conservative economic principles; and the Culture and Media Institute, which promotes traditional values in the media. They are funded by the Scaife family, the Koch brothers, Coors, Exxon Mobil, and DeVos (Amway).

Address:
325 S. Patrick Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
Federal Employee Identification Number: 54-1429009


Two Things That Will Not Change When Glenn Beck Leaves Fox News

Posted by on June 30, 2011 at 11:09 am. 3 Comments :

Today is a day that will not live in infamy. If remembered at all, it will not be for what happened, but for the disgusting and divisive error that was excised from our airwaves. Today is the day that Glenn Beck’s Acute Paranoia Revue and Disinfotainment Revival Hour will broadcast its last episode on Fox News. After that Beck will pack up his congregation and sail away to darker, stormier waters.


That event has many sane and compassionate people celebrating. But they should not be to hasty in their glee. While removing Beck from the air can only be a step in a positive direction, as the headline of this article states, there are:

Two Things That Will Not Change When Glenn Beck Leaves Fox News:

  1. Glenn Beck
  2. Fox News

Beck may be leaving television, but he will still be broadcasting to a fairly large audience of miscreants on the radio. His Internet venture is less likely to cause much of a stir because, if people weren’t going to watch him on TV for free (his audience was in a downward spiral for the last year), they certainly aren’t going to pay to watch him on the web. Except, of course, for his most devoted disciples of misinformation and hate. Nevertheless, Beck will have a platform to spew division and lies and he will do everything in his power to exploit it. For instance, he will be venturing off to torment the already suffering people of Israel in August to instruct them on how to “Restore Courage.”

As for Fox News, last April I documented the “10 Reasons Why Fox News After Glenn Beck Will Still Suck.” They include Bill O’Reilly. Sean Hannity, Megyn Kelly, and seven more. I pointed out that…

“…any suggestion that Beck’s departure polishes Fox’s reputation is pure folly. The worst of Beck’s haunted imagination is securely woven into the Fox News dis-comforter. The trademark Fox invective, sophistry, and bias predate Beck and will outlive him.”

For anyone who is worried that they will suffer withdrawal symptoms, they will be relieved to know that Fox News will continue to feed their revolting habit. There will still be unfounded conspiracy theories. President Obama will still be a Kenyan Muslim who is deliberately trying to destroy America. Saul Alinsky and Bill Ayers and ACORN will remain lurking in the shadows. And George Soros will still be manipulating every evil on the planet. Not to worry.

And if Fox News isn’t enough, you also have CNN whose new president, Ken Jautz, is the man who gave Beck his first job in television. In his brief tenure at CNN, Jautz has already partnered with the corrupt Tea Party Express to host a GOP debate. He hired Andrew Breitbart’s editor-in-chief, Dana Loesch. He set CNN apart as the only network to broadcast Michelle Bachmann’s embarrassing Tea Party response to the State of the Union address. Here is what Jautz said when announcing his new host, Glenn Beck, at Headline News:

“Glenn Beck is the next piece of the puzzle. Glenn’s style is self-deprecating, cordial; he says he’d like to be able to disagree with guests and part as friends. It’s conversational, not confrontational. […] We didn’t look for a conservative, a liberal or anyone of a particular ideology.”

If Jautz really believes that Beck was cordial, non-confrontational, and did not have a conservative ideology, he is in need of serious pharmaceutical therapy. Jautz’s delusional mindset hasn’t improved since then. In an interview after being promoted to head CNN, Jautz summed up his idea of what the news network should aspire to by saying, “I do not believe that ‘facts-only’ programming…it will not work.” That’s comforting, isn’t it? So Beck’s audience will have plenty of options for their fact-free, pseudo-news consumption and indoctrination.

Finally, for those who want a keepsake of the Freak Show Beck starred in for the past two years, Media Matters has been kind enough to provide one:

If you feel the need to take a shower, go ahead. The Internet will be here when you get back.And if anyone wants to buy a used URL, I may be interested in unloading my GlennBeckUnhinged.com


Fox News Continues Ratings Slump – Q2 2011

Posted by on June 29, 2011 at 12:41 am. 5 Comments :

This is becoming redundant, but the latest ratings survey once again has Fox News slouching alone as the only cable news network to lose viewers year-over-year. The decline holds for both total viewers and for the 25-54 year old demographic, with the worst showing a double-digit decline in the demo for primetime.


The next quarter will be interesting in that it will be the first without Fox’s big asylum draw, Glenn Beck. Beck’s program signs off in two days, after which Beck promises that liberals will pray for the days when he was on TV. If he believes that his delusions are becoming more severe.

The big question for Fox is what will take his place? His disciples are not going to be satisfied with some run-of-the-mill lunatic. What’s odd is that there has been no announcement of any replacement for Beck. It appears that they intend to run with fill-ins for the time being. But there’s going to have to be a new title come Friday. Perhaps they will just start Bret Baier an hour early. We’ll see.

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Sunday In The Park With Glenn Beck

Posted by on June 28, 2011 at 3:52 pm. 11 Comments :

Glenn BeckIf you encounter Glenn Beck in public be very careful what you say. There is a strong likelihood that he will turn it into maudlin sniveling about the travails of his own victimhood.

That’s what happened this weekend when Beck claims that he was nearly lynched by a crowd of movie-goers in Manhattan. Beck relates a tale wherein he, his wife, and his daughter, was verbally accosted while laying on a blanket in Bryant Park to watch a free screening (socialists?) of Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps.” Allegedly there was also a spilled beverage in the melee. See? It was almost exactly like a lynching. And this is the lesson that Beck would have you learn from his tribulation:

“I have to beg you that if you ever find yourself on a blanket, or in a restaurant, or anyplace next to a guy that you vehemently disagree with – be it Van Jones or Michael Moore, it doesn’t matter – don’t kick your beverage on them.”

Excellent advice! Beverages are off-limits as weapons in public disputes. Surely we are better than this. In fact, just heed this prior lesson from a previous Beck Sermon for guidance:

“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.”

That was from Beck’s radio show on May 17, 2008. A few months later he told a similar story about an unpleasant encounter he had with the public. On that occasion a trucker in a Wendy’s was not particularly pleased to make Beck’s acquaintance. In both of these stories Beck uses Michael Moore as an example of his tolerance despite his professed desire to murder Moore with his bare hands.

It’s touching to hear Beck speak of his innate humanity and his concern for his family’s welfare. Too bad he doesn’t have the same concern for his ideological enemies whom he regards as evil, as cancers that must be cut-out, and who cannot be stopped except by shooting them in the head.

[Update] It seemed odd that with hundreds of other moviegoers in the park there wasn’t a single person to corroborate Beck’s story. And although Beck said everyone was taking pictures of him and his family, there were no pictures of any disturbance. Well, now a witness has come forward and given her account of the incident to New York Magazine. Here’s an excerpt:

“It was my friend that spilled the glass of wine on Tanya -and I can assure you that it was a complete accident. A happy one, to be sure, but nonetheless a complete and utter accident. As soon as the wine spilled (and I question how Tanya became soaked from a half glass of wine) apologies were made and my friends pretty much scrambled to give Tanya & co napkins -no doubt aware that it would look terrible and that their actions could be perceived as purposeful. No words were exchanged after that, as I think that it became pretty clear to Beck & co that my friends and I were doing everything in our capacity to help clean the ‘mess.'”

Gee, who would have thought that Glenn Beck would lie through his teeth and accuse others of being hateful – an activity he seems to want to keep exclusively to himself.


Chris Wallace Begs Michele Bachmann’s Forgiveness

Posted by on June 28, 2011 at 10:31 am. 4 Comments :

On last Sunday’s broadcast of Fox News Sunday, Anchor Chris Wallace listed a few of examples of why many people, including Republicans, consider Michele Bachmann to be a “flake.” Bachmann expressed her dismay at being insulted by Wallace, then left the studio to tell a Fox News reporter that she has the same spirit as serial murderer John Wayne Gacy.

After receiving harsh feedback from Bachmann’s supporters and Fox News disciples, Wallace immediately posted a video apology on the Fox News web site. However, that wasn’t enough because Wallace also had to call Bachmann that evening and personally kneel to kiss her ring.

All of this genuflection on the part of the Fox News anchor toward a favorite character on the network’s political soap opera is rather curious. One has to wonder why Wallace never apologized for calling President Obama and his administration “the biggest bunch of crybabies” he’d ever dealt with. Wallace also never apologized for calling Democrats “damn fools” for not gracing his program with their presence. These were insults that were aimed directly at his adversaries and represented his personal opinion, unlike the Bachmann episode where he was relaying the opinions of others. Yet he never felt compelled to apologize.

Does this represent Wallace’s fairness and balance? Or is it more representative of the point Jon Stewart made after getting Wallace to admit that Fox News “tells the other side of the story.” Wallace has since tried to back away from that comment by claiming he meant to say the “full” story. However, this isn’t the first time Wallace has used that framing to explain the Fox News bias. In July of 2008, Wallace told an interviewer that…

“…whether you like Fox News or don’t like it, it seems to me that it is a healthy development if only because it creates another view point.”

Yep. Fox News has been creating another point of view for years. Creating it from scratch at the behest of the conservative Republican hierarchy. That’s why no affront to liberals or Democrats is deserving of an apology, but when it comes to folks like Bachmann the amends must be made within minutes and repeatedly.


Michele Bachmann: I Have The Spirit Of A Serial Killer

Posted by on June 27, 2011 at 1:10 pm. 4 Comments :

It just doesn’t get any better than this.


Michele Bachmann officially entered the race today for the Republican nomination for president of the United States. This comes just one day after Fox News’ Chris Wallace asked her if she was “a flake” for having committed numerous gaffes. But today Bachmann responded to a question from a reporter from Fox News (of course) by saying how proud she was to be from the same place as another famous American:

“Well what I want them to know is just like, John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That’s the kind of spirit that I have, too.”

Bachmann may want to consult an exorcist to see if that spirit can be cast out because the actor John Wayne, while from Iowa, was not from Waterloo. However, the serial murderer, John Wayne Gacy, called Waterloo home when he began his life of crime.

This is the woman who told Chris Wallace that it was insulting to be referred to as a flake because she is a “serious” person. I’m sure Gacy was pretty serious also, so it’s easy to see why she admires him.


Fox News Continues To Demonize George Soros

Posted by on June 27, 2011 at 11:34 am. 2 Comments :

After fabricating nightmarish tales of a Hungarian Puppet Master who controls the media and the banks and topples nations in his pursuit of tyrannical power, Fox News is now advancing the assertion that George Soros is trying to buy America’s courts.



You’ve got to hand it to Fox – they have managed to assemble almost every anti-Semitic slur against Jews into the persona of a single man. Soros, by their estimation, fulfills the racist stereotypes of Jewish dominance of money and media, and now they add legal shysters to the mix. And note that this is actually Fox News, not the rabidly partisan Fox Nation, who is propagating this vile perversion of journalism.

The substance of the controversy involves reported donations to legal reform groups who advocate “merit selection” of judges rather than elections. Many states already use merit selection which, proponents say, takes politics out of the judicial system so that judges don’t have to raise funds or mount campaigns to retain their seats. Elections open up the judiciary to judges pandering to contributors or partisan voter groups rather than staying focused on the neutral application of the law.

The Fox article is based on a report that even Fox’s research debunks. The study by Colleen Pero asserts that Soros has spent $45,000,000 on this issue. A merit selection advocate says the amount is closer to $2,000,000. And Fox itself reported that they could only find $5,000,000, or about 11% of Pero’s figure.

But Pero’s analysis misses the mark on an even more fundamental basis by asserting that if judges are picked by committee it will give left-wing judges the upper hand. How so? The committees already in place are composed mostly of lawyers and former judges chosen by state representatives and governors. That means there is just as much opportunity for the judiciary to be stacked by conservatives as liberals. Ideally the selection committee would be constructed in a way that prohibits partisan influence.

Since the truth is that merit selection would give conservatives just as much potential influence over the process as liberals, why are they so adamantly opposed to the notion? Simple. They prefer a process that allows them to funnel their abundant funds from rightist activists like the Koch brothers into campaigns so that they are the ones who are buying the judges. If Soros actually did want to stack the courts he would line up with right and support judicial elections where he could throw money at liberal candidates. But Soros is advocating a position that would actually give him less influence.

These facts, however, don’t interrupt the relentless Fox News machine’s unsupportable allegations and twisting of the debate to falsely portray Soros as the one manipulating the process. And Fox deftly maneuvers their political advocacy in a manner that insults Jews along with the intelligence of their viewers.