CNN Tea Party Flack Dana Loesch Has Some Explaining To Do

Dana Loesch, CNN’s senior Tea Party correspondent and editor of Andrew Breitbart’s BigJournalism, is engaged in a dust-up with Eric Boehlert of Media Matters over her delusional campaign to disparage the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement as anti-Semitic. Her claim is wholly unfounded, although typical of her deceitful brand of yellow journalism.

The squabble began when Loesch appeared on CNN attempting to smear OWS due to a report that the American Nazi Party had endorsed the movement. That is the sort of dishonest associative logic that propagandists like Loesch love to employ to bash their opponents. Commentators who are not pathological liars know that fringe groups frequently try to align themselves with popular movements to draw attention to themselves. Perhaps she should be made to explain why the Tea Party is not racist in light of the fact that they were endorsed by white supremacist and KKK leader David Duke.

Boehlert responded to Loesch’s ravings with a series of Tweets that made the point that these endorsements exist on both sides and that they aren’t necessarily indicative of anything. Loesch fired back that Boehlert had not proven his argument – even though he had. Then she set forth a list of demands that she expected Boehlert to comply with. I don’t know if Boehlert has any intention of wasting his valuable time answering Loesch. After all, he is running a busy media monitoring and analysis organization. On the other hand, I’m an unemployed, Cheetos-munching, blogger in my mother’s basement with nothing but free time due to all the government handouts I scam. So I thought I’d take a stab at Loesch’s list where she asks: “I need Eric Boehlert to do the following:”


Back up his analogy that Fox (and other network coverage) of the tea party is the same as NBC’s Ratigan writing messaging while pretending to report on OWS by showing examples of Fox writing tea party messaging.

First of all, Ratigan never wrote messaging for OWS. He merely made comments on an email list that expressed his opinions. He was not serving as an adviser and the list was not even an official OWS group. The emails were stolen by a hacker and published by Breitbart.

What Fox did, however, was much worse than what Ratigan was accused of. They openly promoted Tea Party events, even branding them as “FNC Tax Day Tea Parties.” They sent their producers out to ride Tea Party buses, attend rallies, and try to whip up the crowd when they did not seem sufficiently excited. Sal Russo, founder of the Tea Party Express, gushed that “There would not have been a tea party without Fox.” That’s a good deal more damning than an assertion of message writing.


Explain why Obama was present at a rally with hate leader Malik Shabazz.

Obama was not present at a rally with Shabazz. He was present at the 42nd anniversary of a famous 1965 civil rights march in Selma, Alabama. As the event was open to the public and thousands of people attended, there is no way that then-Senator Obama could have known who else had shown up.


Explain why Obama’s DOJ refused to prosecute the NBPP for voter intimidation.

It was the Bush administration’s Justice Department that made the decision not to pursue criminal charges against members of the New Black Panther Party for alleged voter intimidation. And it was Obama’s DOJ that successfully obtained a default judgment against Samir Shabazz for carrying a nightstick outside the Philadelphia polling center on Election Day 2008.

A subsequent investigation concluded that the department acted appropriately and that there was “no evidence of improper political interference or influence from within or outside the Department in connection with the decision in the case.”


Explain why the ADL had to issue a condemnation to Occupy Wall Street for antisemitism.

The ADL did not issue a condemnation to Occupy Wall Street for antisemitism. That is an outright lie. They issued a statement that condemned remarks by individuals attending OWS events, but also stated that “antisemitism has not gained traction more broadly with the protestors, nor is it representative of the larger movement at this time.”

Perhaps Loesch can explain why the ADL had to issue a condemnation to Fox News and Glenn Beck over comments about Jews that “demonstrate his bigoted ignorance.” And again with regard to Beck’s vilification of George Soros saying that Beck was “completely inappropriate, offensive and over the top.” Not to mention the apology they graciously accepted from Roger Ailes after he called NPR executives Nazis.


Explain the antisemitism at occupy protests and give video equivalence of equal or greater antisemitism at tea parties since no one has seen such.

There is no justification for antisemitism anywhere, but as noted in the answer above, the anti-Semitic remarks of a few repugnant individuals is not representative of OWS. But maybe Loesch would like to answer for these remarks:

David Duke: The Tea Party movement is a great sign that the people are finally waking up.
Tea Party, Republican Activists Circulate Anti-Semitic E-Mails Against Presumptive Texas Speaker.
Weisel blasts the tea party ‘antisemitism’: ‘Indecent and disgusting.’
White Supremacists and Anti-Semites Plan to Recruit at July 4 Tea Parties.
California GOP Decries Anti-Semitic Tea Party Activism.
GOP must condemn “Tea Party” signs.

For Loesch to assert that no one has seen any antisemitism, racism, or other bigotry at Tea Party events illustrates the selective recall of a bigot.


Explain why there have been over 1,o00 (sic) OWS arrests and zero tea party arrests if the tea party are “violent racists.”

There are two reasons there have been so many OWS arrests. One is that the participants believe passionately in their cause and the honorable practice of civil disobedience as demonstrated by leaders like King and Gandhi. The other is that the police are often utilized by the corporate classes to protect what they regard as their assets rather than protecting the rights of the people.

It also needs to be noted that Loesch makes an absurd correlation between the arrests of peaceful OWS protesters and the violent tendencies of some in the Tea Party. OWS protesters never carried signs saying “We came unarmed – this time.” And then there’s this:

Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street


Explain why communists are endorsing OWS.

Already answered above. However, I’ll humor you: To exploit a popular movement to draw attention to themselves.


Explain why felons need to carry guns at OWS.

Just because someone may have found a single person doing that does not mean that there are wild gangs of felons running around Zucotti Park with guns. It’s a rather idiotic insinuation that you should be embarrassed for having brought up. And again, it has nothing to do with any official representation of OWS. However, It is good to hear that you are in agreement with the majority of progressives who support stricter gun control laws that would prevent such behavior.


Explain what a man who has exposed himself repeatedly to children was doing at the occupy protests.

Same answer as above. Do you really think that in any group of thousands that there aren’t some despicable low lifes with questionable character? Hell, you can’t even say that about a few hundred people in Congress. Have you not heard about the GOP senators who solicit sex in airport restrooms (Larry Craig) or patronize prostitutes (David Vitter). Perhaps you could explain Charles Leaf, the Fox News reporter who was arrested on charges of aggravated sexual assault on a four year old girl.


Loesch’s tirade failed utterly to prove any point. The only thing she succeeded in doing was to open the door to the dark side of Tea Party and force her to answer for it. That’s what she is asking Boehlert to do. So either she steps up to take responsibility for all the nutjobs in the Tea Party, or she admits that she is an unscrupulous hypocrite. Technically, the latter is a given so don’t hold your breath waiting for her to respond.

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Fox Nation vs. Reality: On Imaginary Terrorist

For this installment of my Fox Nation vs. Reality series, the Fox Nationalists have generously helped to illustrate how distanced they are from the real world that the rest of us inhabit.

Fox Nation

Notice that the headline Fox uses explicitly describes someone trying “to Break Into Southwest Cockpit.” But read a little further down and you’ll see that the article unambiguously contradicts the headline. The headline was wholly the creation of Fox News. Fox Nation links to an article on FoxNews.com with a similar headline that says “Southwest Flight Lands After Cockpit Break-in Try” However, that article is attributed to the Associated Press who got the headline right: “Southwest flight makes emergency landing in Texas.”

So what we have here is Fox deliberately falsifying the headline in order to make a derogatory insinuation about a man of Iranian descent who just happens to be an American citizen born in Mississippi. The article states that there is no indication of terrorism and additional reporting describe the incident as an episode of mental illness triggered by an argument with another passenger.

Fox’s attempt to incite a racist response from their addled-brained audience was abundantly successful. The vast majority of the comments below the article address the story in the context of the headline as if they didn’t even read the excerpt that Fox published. Which, of course, they didn’t. Here are a couple of examples:

  • WaterBoardHisAzz!
  • This should be a quick execution. A bullet to the head.
  • Of course it’s a muzzzybroassclown…most likely related to Obama

That’s the response that the Fox Nationalists advocate for a non-terrorist American citizen who was emotionally disturbed (and perhaps provoked) and had harmed no one. And it’s exactly the response that Fox intended to produce when they composed their fictional headline.


The Next CNN Debate: Affirming Their Mutation Into A Fox News Clone

The evidence that CNN is aggressively seeking to out-Fox Fox News is rapidly accumulating. Just last week I enumerated many examples of CNN adopting Fox’s notoriously biased, wingnut perspective. (See The Foxification Of CNN). Included in that list was their decision to partner with a corrupt Tea Party group to host a Republican presidential primary debate. That was just a foreshadowing of what was yet to come.

Today CNN has announced a new GOP debate on November 15, that will focus on foreign policy and national defense. Their partners for this affair are the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute, two of the most far-right, extremist conservative thinks tanks in Washington.

The Heritage Foundation is backed by uber-rigtists like energy magnate Charles Koch and media maven Richard Mellon Scaife. A couple of their recent policy papers include Robert Rector’s terminally flawed study that claims there is no poverty in America because the poor own appliances, and Hans von Spakovsky’s advocacy of voter suppression.

The American Enterprise Institute is a champion of big-business that boasts affiliations with Dick Cheney (and his daughter Lynne), Newt Gingrich, and John Bolton. They also receive funding from the Scaife family as well as corporations like Philip Morris and ExxonMobil. Amongst their notable endeavors was a campaign to discredit Global Warming studies by offering scientists and economists $10,000 each to refute them, and issuing policy papers that assert that middle class homeowners were to blame for the 2008 economic collapse, not Wall Street and bankers.

For CNN to align themselves with these overtly partisan players reveals their utter lack of journalistic independence or integrity. This was a deliberate choice to skew their coverage of political affairs to the far-right. They cannot possibly engage or challenge the debate participants by limiting their ideological exposure to only representatives of conservative doctrine. Imagine how much more enlightening the debate would be if the hosts included the Center for American Progress or the Institute for Policy Studies.

But just as CNN chose the Tea Party over the Progressive Caucus or MoveOn, they have chosen, once again, to lean hard to the right at the expense of illuminating their viewers and providing a public service, which ought to be the core mandate of a responsible media enterprise.

This is the sort of news that should put a nail in the heart of the myth that the media is liberal. Yesterday the Pew Research Center published a study that proved, contrary to right-wing protestations, that the media has not been “in the tank” for Barack Obama. The study showed that, in fact, news coverage of Obama was far less positive than for any of his potential Republican opponents.

Pew Study

Also yesterday, an executive with the Fox Business Network sent a memo to his staff advising them not to copy Fox News because “If we give the audience a choice between FNC and the almost-FNC, they will choose FNC every time.” If Fox itself recognizes the foolishness of such ideological plagiarism, what the hell is wrong with CNN?


Memo From Fox Business To Staff – Don’t Copy Fox News

Reuters is reporting that the Vice-President of the Fox Business Network, Kevin Magee, has distributed a memo to his staff admonishing them for being too much like their sister network, Fox News.

Magee: “I’ve been asked to remind you all again that they are separate channels and the more we make FBN look like FNC the more of a disservice we do to ourselves. I understand the temptation to imitate our sibling network in hopes of imitating its success, but we cannot. If we give the audience a choice between FNC and the almost-FNC, they will choose FNC every time.”

Excellent advice. CNN, which has been trying hard to emulate Fox News, should take this advice to heart.

The Reuters article implies that it was Roger Ailes, CEO of Fox News, who asked Magee to issue this reminder. FBN has been floundering in the ratings despite optimistic predictions by Rupert Murdoch and others that it would be trouncing CNBC by now. Not only have they not reached that goal, CNBC is pulling in about three times as many viewers.

The curious part of this memo is that it comes in the form of a reminder, as if the network were attempting to focus on business news all along and simply got distracted. That can hardly be asserted when the network’s programming consists of fare that was obviously never intended to be anything but political. They start their day with three hours of Don Imus. That segues in to the overt partisanship of Stuart Varney. In the afternoon they feature right-wing blowhard Neil Cavuto, Libertarian wacko and 9/11 Truther Andrew Napolitano, and immigrant basher Lou Dobbs. The primetime lineup is capped by Glenn Beck wannabe, Eric Bolling. Reminding these conservative evangelists to be less political is like asking a skunk not to stink.

Illustrating their new-found commitment to business journalism, FBN carried the Reuters story about Magee’s memo briefly, but later scrubbed it without explanation leaving a broken link (here is the cached version). Apparently an article reporting that Fox News ought not to be the model for a network ostensibly about business and finance was too much for FBN. And they probably weren’t thrilled about reporting the dismal ratings data either.

What an adorable irony that FBN, after being scolded by their own management for being to Fox Newsy, behaved identically to Fox by censoring the article. Now, do you really think that their lineup of uber-rightist anchors and pundits is going to stick strictly to business in the future? Don’t bet on it.


#OccupyWallStreet Hacked? Andrew Breitbart Publishes Stolen Emails

Andrew BreitbartThe last time Andrew Breitbart got any significant notice in the media was when he publicized the Twitter sexting of former congressman Anthony Weiner. It was a particularly repulsive bit of gossipy sensationalism that furthered no public interest, but ruined a man’s career (and possibly his family), just to satisfy Breitbart’s craving for attention and his obsession with destroying what he calls “the institutional left.”

That was four months ago and Breitbart must be getting antsy about having been ignored by the press ever since. Now, on his BigGoverment web site, he has published an article asking his readers to comb through thousands of emails that he says are from OccupyWallStreet organizers. He claims to have acquired them from Thomas Ryan, a “private cyber security researcher.” Breitbart provides links to download these emails so that his minions can scour them for evidence of “links to socialist, anarchist, and possibly even jihadist organizations.”

This article also appears on Alternet.org.

It’s not bad enough that right-wing media have attempted to portray the Occupy Movement as dirty hippies, lazy freeloaders, ignorant dupes, leftist traitors, godless heathens, diabolical Marxists, violent revolutionaries, and White House plants, Breitbart is adding Al-Qaeda terrorists to this list. If it wasn’t so dangerously provocative it would be moderately humorous. But Breitbart’s accusations are irresponsible and his activities may be illegal. The first paragraph of the story says…

Breitbart: “In keeping with the new media notion of crowdsourcing–enthusiastically embraced by the mainstream media when trawling through Sarah Palin’s emails–Big Government will be providing readers later today with links to a document drop consisting of thousands of emails.”

The correlation Breitbart draws between these emails and those of Sarah Palin is entirely inapplicable. Palin’s emails as governor of Alaska were released through a lawful process that requires communications by government officials to be available to the public. Both the state of Alaska and Palin’s attorneys had an opportunity to examine the emails for any privacy concerns and neither expressed any objection to their release.

Breitbart, however, is publishing emails that were expressly created by individuals for their personal use. They were private communications amongst people who did not grant their publication and were not advised of it. The emails were literally stolen by a hacker who admits that he gained access to them through deception and misrepresentation (social engineering). And Breitbart is now complicit in the crime by publishing the ill-gotten goods with full knowledge of their origins.

[Update: Gawker has more on Thomas Ryan and his “Black Cell” campaign to infiltrate and discredit the movement. Ryan’s activities include forwarding emails to the FBI, the NYPD, and companies targeted for protests.]

Anyone familiar with Breitbart’s Legacy of Sleaze will not be surprised by this latest atrocity. He previously was best known for unfairly smearing ACORN, Shirley Sherrod, and others, with videos that were deliberately edited to produce a false and negative impression.

It should be noted that, thus far, none of the emails that Breitbart or his lackeys have reviewed contain anything remotely embarrassing. That, however, hasn’t stopped him from lifting words like “destabalization” and “unrest” out of context to suggest something more devious than the public protesting that is protected by the Constitution. Breitbart will surely employ such tactics to demonize the movement, just as he did with his attacks on ACORN, etc. It’s hard-coded in his deviant nature.

Even if there are some unsavory comments sprinkled amongst the thousands of emails, they could not plausibly be attributed to the Occupy Movement as a whole because the movement has no leader or authoritative spokesperson. It would just be one person’s opinion. The possibility that someone in a group of passionate dissidents wrote something offensive is not inconceivable. But it is also not official doctrine and cannot honestly be represented as such. The key word there being “honestly.” If Breitbart finds something controversial he will no doubt try to tarnish the movement with the indiscreet remarks of a single, marginally associated individual.

In the telling of this story it must not be forgotten that the emails being reviewed by Breitbart & Co. were obtained in manner that is at least immoral. And this isn’t the only example of such despicable, and possibly unlawful, behavior on the part of right-wing activists.

Patrick Howley, an assistant editor for the uber-conservative American Spectator magazine, admitted to infiltrating OccupyDC for the purpose of undermining it. He then attempted to lead a group of protesters into storming the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. The protesters, being much smarter than Howley, did not play along. Howley stormed the museum alone and was pepper-sprayed by security.

Mark Williams, former spokesman for Tea Party Express, told his radio listeners that he was planning to sabotage union rallies with the intention of making them look “greedy and goonish.” And he beseeched his listeners to do the same. Williams was the one-time spokesperson for the Tea Party Express, but was dismissed for publishing a virulently racist article on his blog.

Mike Vanderboegh, a militiaman from Alabama, encouraged his followers to break the windows of Democratic offices with rocks and baseball bats. More recently Vanderboegh published a Photoshopped picture of Attorney General Eric Holder in a Nazi uniform.

Rush Limbaugh delivered a radio sermon in which he called for riots at the Democratic National Convention. The rant was titled “Screw the World! Riot in Denver!” He was specific in describing his objective as “burning cars, protests, fires, literal riots, and all of that.”

This illustrates just how afraid the right is of the 99% of Americans who are waking up to the injustice and corruption of the 1%. They are increasingly fearful that their free ride is over. When people like Rush Limbaugh call the Wall Street protesters “human debris;” when Glenn Beck asserts that they “will come for you and drag you into the streets and kill you;” it is all too clear that they have lost control of their senses. They are so deranged by fear that there is no limit to the absurdity of their claims and actions.

It also illustrates the sort of desperation that leaves the likes of Breitbart clinging to the hope that he can find damning rhetoric that he can misrepresent in emails that were illicitly acquired. And it isn’t going to end any time soon. This is something that progressives and occupiers are going to have to be aware of as the struggle proceeds. Vigilance of the conservative whack jobs and their media accomplices must be an ongoing focus of the campaign for economic justice.


Glenn Beck’s Mentor Sympathizes With #OccupyWallStreet

This has got to hurt.

Glenn Beck

The New York Times published a profile of Jon Huntsman, Sr. this weekend. Huntsman is the billionaire chemical magnate best known for manufacturing fast-food containers. He is also the father of GOP presidential hopeful, Jon Huntsman, Jr.

Glenn Beck featured Huntsman on his Fox News program several times and awarded him the Badge of Merit for charity at the “Restoring Honor” rally. Beck spoke effusively of his admiration for Huntsman.

“He is the only man I have ever met that I believe has the character of George Washington. Jon Huntsman, Sr. is a good friend and mentor of mine.”

[And…]

“…a man I look up to and try to model myself after.”

I have to wonder how Beck is going to take it when someone reads him the Times’ profile and Beck learns this about his mentor:

“He sympathizes with the Wall Street protesters. The political system, he agreed, is broken. Ethics have foundered.”

[And…]

“Mr. Huntsman said his charitable work, and perhaps the influence of his son — regarded as a moderate in Utah in advocating civil unions for gays and reform of the state’s strict liquor laws as governor — had shifted his own conservative views toward the center over the years. Among his best friends, he said, are Glenn Beck, the conservative commentator, and Michael Moore, the left-wing polemicist filmmaker.”

[Note that the author of the article for the Times, a bastion of the so-called “liberal” media, found it necessary to describe Michael Moore as a “left-wing polemicist” while declining to characterize Beck as anything other than conservative, despite Beck’s far more persistent and hostile display of polemics.]

But the kicker is this quote exposing Huntsman to be an advocate of economic and social justice for those less fortunate than himself:

“All men and women need a roof over their heads, and need to be fed and have proper health care. I don’t know that I believed that, or even understood that, in the early days.”

That’s about as succinct and eloquent a personal statement of compassion as any heard at Zucotti Park by the protesters occupying Wall Street.

So presumably Beck will shortly denounce his mentor as a progressive, socialist, Marxist, bent on destroying America, murdering millions, and plunging the world into tyranny and darkness. Then he will be free to find a new mentor who hopefully won’t betray him by evolving into a caring human being.

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Glenn Beck Unveils His Latest Paranoid Delusions To Bill O’Reilly

If you thought that Glenn Beck was nuts when he had a daily program on Fox News, get a load of him now that he’s been unleashed on his own web site that he thinks is a TV network.

Last night Bill O’Reilly hosted Beck to hear his ruminations on the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Beck began his tale spinning by asserting that this is the start of a global revolution orchestrated by those two internationally powerful provocateurs, Code Pink and a union of service employees (SEIU). These monolithic enterprises, according to Beck, are funding the omnipresent Working Family Party to perform some unexplained treachery aimed at “collapsing the system.”

For his part, O’Reilly is upset that MSNBC is “promoting” the movement, perhaps with the consent of Comcast, the new corporate parent of NBC. Surprisingly, O’Reilly was never the least bit upset at Fox News for promoting the Tea Party, even to the extent of branding their rallies as Fox events and sending their anchors across the country to serve as MCs.

In response to O’Reilly’s inquiry as to “the George Soros factor,” Beck advanced the discredited assertion that Soros money was funneled to the movement through one of Beck’s favorite instigators of evil:

“George Soros is connected to this through the Tides Foundation. The Tides Foundation, his Open Society, and Code Pink are involved in what is called the Wall Street Journal…Occupied Wall Street Journal. And it is a full color newspaper. You know what it costs to print a newspaper. Huge money.”

Actually, newspapers are one of the least expensive publications to print. And Beck’s assertion that the Occupied Wall Street Journal is a project of Soros and Code Pink is hysterical and, of course, false. It is well known that the satirical newspaper was produced by pranksters, The Yes Men, and funded by donations. But it is probably asking too much to expect Beck to present arguments based on facts.

In summation Beck illuminates his theory that the Occupy movement is growing like a tree with two branches: a Marxist, revolutionary, angry branch, and a more peaceful, Tea Party like branch that will be run by Van Jones. Then this mutant tree will somehow produce chaos and violence in the streets. And don’t forget that “the President knows everything that is going on, he knows everyone that is involved.” So the conspiracy is almost complete. Now all Beck needs to do is unify this theory with his global caliphate of Muslims and western progressives and we’ll have the makings of his long promised Perfect Storm.


Fox News’ Unbelieveably Shameless Distortion Of #OccupyWallStreet, George Soros Story

Yes, Fox News lies on a daily basis. Yes, Fox News is utterly unethical. Yes, Fox News flagrantly promotes Republican dogma. But today they demonstrated how utterly shameless they are and how little regard they have for journalism. Take a look at this headline they posted:

“Reuters Under Fire For Confusing Report Alleging Soros Connection to ‘Occupy Wall Street’

Fox Nation

On the surface this seems like a respectable effort to hold Reuters accountable for sloppy reporting. In fact, Reuters did publish a story that implied a connection between the Occupy Movement and George Soros. The substance of the article did not support that implication and Reuters received some criticism for the article. Later the same day Reuters removed the story and replaced it with one that made it clear that there was no such connection. The lede of the new article stated that…

“George Soros isn’t a financial backer of the Wall Street protests, despite speculation by critics including radio host Rush Limbaugh that the billionaire investor has helped fuel the anti-capitalist movement.”

Reuters is still deserving of some criticism for replacing the flawed story rather than correcting it and acknowledging the error. That’s generally how reputable news organizations handle mistakes. But what Fox did is simply mind boggling.

When the original Reuters story ran yesterday, the headline was “Who’s behind the Wall Street protests?” But Fox Nation ran the item with a differnt headline that they composed themselves: “Is Soros Behind ‘Occupy Wall Street?'”

Fox Nation

I reported this mangling of the truth yesterday pointing out how Fox went out of their way to distort a weakly sourced article by Reuters. But it isn’t enough for Fox to merely twist a set of non-facts in order to “cast doubt on the authenticity of the movement.” Now that Reuters has been shamed into revising their article, Fox is stepping forward to chastise Reuters while letting themselves off the hook.

What we have here is Fox calling out Reuters for publishing an inaccurate article that they themselves republished after making the error even worse. So if Reuters is under fire for a “confusing report,” Fox should be a blazing inferno for their deliberate deceit. Yet the Fox Nationalists fail to acknowledge their own malfeasance as they wag their finger at Reuters. What a pathetic bunch of disreputable losers.


The Foxification Of CNN: New Management Pushes The Network Into Crazy Territory

This article also appears on Alternet.org.

In the fiercely competitive world of cable news, the players have been jockeying for position as they battle for viewers and advertisers. Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN, each with their own models of programming, seek to gain scale and influence.

Harmful If SwallowedFox News, we know, has established its place as the leader in right-wing advocacy and Republican PR. MSNBC, while not a full-fledged counter to Fox, has allotted a fair portion of its programming to more liberally leaning fare. But CNN, the innovator and one-time leader in cable news, has wavered between those poles emerging as somewhat of a journalistic mutant – neither left nor right nor neutral.

The past year, however, CNN has been attempting to fashion a more recognizable persona. The shift coincides with the promotion of Ken Jautz, formerly the president of CNN’s sister network, HLN. At HLN Jautz succeeded in raising both ratings and revenue by turning the channel into a trashy TV tabloid reliant on celebrity gossip and characters like Nancy Grace and Glenn Beck (yes, Jautz gave Beck his first job on television).

Now presiding over CNN, Jautz has brought his brash and distinctively commercial style to the network that once aspired to be a model of journalistic integrity. He is employing the same sensationalist philosophy at CNN that brought him success at HLN, along with a decidedly conservative bent. In an interview he gave after his promotion was announced Jautz delivered a tribute to Fox News and a preview of what to expect from his tenure saying that he does not believe that “facts-only” programming will work. True to his word he has endeavored to give CNN a shiny Fox-like hue and assembled a team that shares his aversion to facts.

Here are some examples of the lowlights of the Jautz era at CNN:

1) First and foremost, Jautz brought Glenn Beck into the CNN family saying that “Glenn’s style is self-deprecating, cordial…not confrontational.” That sort of delusional analysis ought to have been a red flag that disqualified Jautz from running a news network.

2) Erick Erickson, the RedState blogger who once called Supreme Court Justice David Souter a Goat-f**king child molester, became a CNN political commentator. Since his hiring he has cheered the S&P’s downgrading of the U.S. credit rating and agreed with Rick Perry that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme.

3) CNN signed Dana Loesch, the editor of Andrew Breitbart’s BigJournalism, to be a contributor. Loesch has alleged that President Obama “sided with terrorists,” and she embraced the overt bigotry of notorious Islamaphobe Pamela Geller. Breitbart, of course is famous for promoting deceptively edited videos that smeared ACORN, NPR, Shirley Sherrod and even CNN reporter Abbie Boudreau. Loesch was hired by CNN after these events were widely known.

4) Jautz brought Erin Burnett over from CNBC. In her debut she broadcast a story that portrayed the protesters on Wall Street as unfocused neo-hippies that didn’t understand the issues they were protesting. Burnett would have fit in well on the curvy couch of Fox & Friends where they routinely disparage the movement without ever addressing the substance of it.

5) CNN had the distinction of being the only network to air Michele Bachmann’s Tea Party response to the State of the Union Address. Even Fox didn’t think it was worthy of live coverage. The result is that CNN had two opposing viewpoints to the President’s address, one from the GOP and one from the Tea Party which, of course, is just an affiliate of the GOP. We’re still waiting for CNN to air a response from the Progressive Caucus or MoveOn.org.

6) Another new CNN political analyst is Will Cain, who CNN acquired from the ultra-conservative National Review. And if that credential isn’t far enough out in right field, Cain just announced that he is joining Glenn Beck’s web site, The Blaze.

7) CNN locked arms with the Tea Party to co-host a Republican presidential primary debate. By choosing Tea Party Express as their partner they embraced a dubious organization that was booted out of the Tea Party Federation due to the racist commentaries of a spokesman. It was also revealed that most of the funds raised from donations wound up in the coffers of Russo, Marsh, the Republican PR firm that founded Tea Party Express.

8) Former Fox News anchor and Bill O’Reilly fill-in, E.D. Hill, is now a CNN contributor. Hill was dumped by Fox after a segment that showed President Obama giving the First Lady a friendly fist bump and Hill called it a “terrorist fist jab.”

So CNN is now employing Fox News rejects, Andrew Breitbart lieutenants, and Glenn Beck associates. They’ve entered into covenants with unscrupulous Tea Partyers. On the flip side, former CNN reporters Ed Henry and John Roberts are now comfortably ensconced at Fox News. The lines between CNN and Fox News are blurring to the point where the networks are becoming indistinguishable. And most of this occurred since Ken Jautz assumed the helm of CNN.

If there is one thing that American media doesn’t need, it’s another Fox News. The first one is already doing a stellar job of misinforming the public and advancing the agenda of the Republican Party. What’s more, emulating Fox has done nothing for CNN’s ratings. Why should it? Viewers who are in the market for dumbed-down histrionics, Democrat bashing, and a steady diet of right-wing falsehoods, already have a proven provider. Fox’s audience has shown that they are not the least bit interested in looking for the remote that slipped under the sofa years ago. They don’t even change the channel when their heroes are just a click down the dial.

Consequently, if CNN is gaining nothing from reshaping their editorial slant to mirror Fox, the only conclusion is that they are deliberately making a hard right turn because that is the direction they want to go. But this path has only resulted in their dropping to third place behind Fox and MSNBC. If CNN ever hopes to regain some of the luster of their glory days, they will need to differentiate themselves from Fox. They might want to take a stab at journalism. That would be novel in these days of advocacy tabloidism.


GOP Talking Points Pass For Reporting On Fox News

Fox NewsThe next time you hear some FoxPod complain about Fox News being called the PR division of the Republican Party, show them this example of Fox using GOP talking points and passing them off as news developed by their “brain room.”

Today on Megyn Kelly’s program she moderated a discussion that was based on a series of “Fox Facts” that appear to have been cribbed directly from a Republican National Committee press release. The similarities are unmistakable. [h/t Media Matters]

RNC says: “$4.2 Trillion: Added To The National Debt Since Obama Took Office.”
Fox says: “DEBT: Total Public Debt Outstanding has increased by $4.2 trillion.”

RNC says: “40.5: Number Of Weeks That It Takes To Find A Job.”
Fox says: “AVERAGE WEEKS UNEMPLOYED: Unemployed out of work for an average of 40.5 weeks – that’s more than double since Jan 2009.”

RNC says: “2.2 Million: Jobs Lost Since Obama Took Office.”
Fox says: “JOBS: 2.22 million jobs lost.”

RNC says: “15.1%: Americans Living In Poverty.”
Fox says: “POVERTY: Nearly 3 million more Americans in poverty–poverty rate has gone from 13.2% to 15.1%.”

RNC says: “$1.17 Trillion: American Debt Held By China.”
Fox says: “CHINA: Owns $1.17 trillion of our debt (as of July) – a 58% increase from January 2009.”

RNC says: “45,696: Pages Of New Rules Added To The Federal Register During Obama’s First Two Years In Office.”
Fox says: “REGULATIONS – FEDERAL REGISTER: 45,696 pages of new regulatory rules were added to the Federal Register.”

RNC says: “818,000: Manufacturing Jobs Lost Since Obama Took Office.”
Fox says: “MANUFACTURING: 818,000 manufacturing jobs lost — a -6.5% drop since.”

This is not the first time that Fox News tried to pass off Republican dogma as their own original reporting. Fox anchor Jon Scott was caught reading an RNC memo that he reproduced as a graphic complete with the same typos as on the original RNC document.

In another example of Fox News carrying water for the Republican Party, their White House correspondent, Ed Henry, asked President Obama a question today at a press conference. The question was ostensibly about the President’s response to the arrests of Iran-affiliated suspects in a plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador. But Henry embellished his question in a peculiar way. Obama handled it nicely:

Henry: What specific steps will you take to hold Iran accountable, especially when Mitt Romney charged last week, “If you do not want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, I am not your President — you have that President today?”

OBAMA: Well, I didn’t know that you were the spokesperson for Mitt Romney.

Henry’s shout to Romney was entirely out of place. Romney was not commenting on the Iranian plot that was the subject of Henry’s question. In fact, Romney made the comment before the arrests. Henry just included it as a gratuitous slap at the President that was unrelated to the topic at hand. That’s what made the President’s retort so appropriate.

However, when Henry appeared on Megyn Kelly’s program and the press conference was brought up, the interview was limited to the crack about Romney and completely ignored Obama’s substantive answer to Henry’s question about Iran. That’s pretty clear evidence that Henry wasn’t the least bit interested in his own question. The whole thing was a setup to inject Romney’s criticism of Obama into the news cycle.

Like I said above, Fox News is the PR division of the Republican Party, and they don’t even seem to be hiding it anymore.