Barack Obama

WTG: Obama Stiffs Fox News

Posted by on September 14, 2009 at 8:59 pm. 10 Comments :

The Washington Post is reporting that President Obama will appear on five of the Sunday news programs this weekend. Apparently this is a notable achievement immortalized by William Ginsburg, attorney for Monica Lewinsky in 1998. It has since become known as “the Full Ginsburg.”

The difference in this instance is that Ginsburg appeared on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox. But Obama has ditched Fox and replaced it with Univision.

Obama has gone off the reservation in the past, consenting to interviews with Chris Wallace, Bill O’Reilly, and others. It isn’t to late for him to squeeze in Fox if he wants to. That would be unfortunate. This administration has already caved in to right wing pressure on too many important matters – from health care to Van Jones. This would be a good time to demonstrate that the network that is so openly hostile to the President and his agenda, the network that employs a man who has called the President a racist, does not deserve to be graced with his presence.

It would be best if no one from the Democratic or progressive communities ever appeared on Fox News. As I have written in Starve the Beast, Fox News is focused on doing as much harm as possible to Democrats. They will exploit every opportunity to make them look bad and to disparage their political goals. Fox News spends 24 hours of every day debasing the debate on vital issues and promoting incivility and even hostility. It is not a serious venue – it is a circus.

There is simply no justification for rewarding Fox with a presidential booking – or any booking at all. Obama is doing the right thing by turning his back on Fox. Let’s just hope he doesn’t change his mind.

Van Jones Defeats Glenn Beck

Posted by on September 6, 2009 at 4:34 am. 148 Comments :

That’s right, you heard me. Van Jones defeats Glenn Beck.

The big news of the night is that Van Jones, the President’s advisor on green jobs and the economy, has resigned under pressure from far-right brownshirts. On the surface this is disappointing, to say the least. Jones has proven himself to be a creative and effective advocate for environmental reform. His book, “The Green Collar Economy,” became a best-seller despite having little support from the conventional publishing circles. But after weeks of battling rightist slander and disinformation, Jones issued this statement:

I am resigning my post at the Council on Environmental Quality, effective today.

On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.

I have been inundated with calls – from across the political spectrum – urging me to “stay and fight.”

But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future.

It has been a great honor to serve my country and my President in this capacity. I thank everyone who has offered support and encouragement. I am proud to have been able to make a contribution to the clean energy future. I will continue to do so, in the months and years ahead.

The near-term downside to this is that the residents of the Beck Asylum for Paranoid Thumb Suckers are going to be celebrating triumphantly for a while. That will be annoying but bearable. Beck himself will feel emboldened and anxious to take aim at a new target. He has already laid the ground work for post-Jones assaults on Valerie Jarrett and Mark Lloyd. (Do I need to point out that Jones, Jarrett and Lloyd are all African American members of the Obama administration?)

My personal regret is centered on what I consider to be a flaw in the administration’s strategy. I suspect that they view this matter as a distraction and want to focus on health care. That is a worthy goal. However, to the extent that this is a distraction, it will not be alleviated by jettisoning Jones. For the rightist bullies Jones was not really the issue. He was a symbol and, with him out of the way, they will just find another symbol to attack. Consequently, Obama will not be relieved of the so-called distraction. It will just have a new face attached to it. The question is, how will he respond to the next contrived controversy? How many qualified and capable advisors will be hung out to dry in a vain search for comity – an outcome for which Republicans have zero interest.

But Beck and his ilk may rue the day they set Jones free. As a private citizen he will not be constrained by diplomacy and the political fear of controversy. He will be able to speak with conviction and take aim at the real villains in our midst. The organization he co-founded, Color of Change, was largely responsible for Beck losing 57 advertisers (so far). And, let’s face, Beck’s obsession with Jones was driven by vengeance for that association, even though Jones has not been affiliated with the group for over two years. Clearly Beck is afraid of Jones, hence the incessant coverage. But Beck has made a serious strategic error, because Jones is a far bigger threat to Beck outside of government than inside of it.

The effectiveness of the advertiser boycott can now be expanded upon by an unfettered Jones, who can bring his skill, experience, and passion to a new field of battle. He will be joined by an invigorated community of reform-minded Americans who believe that aggressive advocacy will lead to social, political, and legislative victories. Beck has given Jones a gift of sorts, in the form of valuable and hard to procure media attention. If Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber can parley their media notoriety into national prominence, despite their abundance of ignorance and deficit of charisma, just imagine what Jones can do. This fight has only just begun, and progressive activists are committed to principle, not President or party. We will not be cowed by demagogues and fear mongers.

If Glenn Beck is proud that he was able to demonize an honest and patriotic man like Van Jones, he may soon discover that he is not immune from the hardball tactics he employed to tarnish this man’s reputation. There is plenty of video evidence of Beck’s repulsive commentaries wherein he…

  • agreed that America’s only hope is for Bin Laden to blow us up.
  • fantasized about choking Michael Moore to death.
  • advocated beating Rep. Charles Rangel with a shovel.
  • declared that he hated the families of 9/11 survivors.
  • declared that he hated Katrina victims, whom he called scumbags.
  • incited people to commit tax evasion.
  • accused Obama of having a deep seated hatred of white people (but isn’t a racist?).

Glenn Beck hates America. He has said so explicitly. He proves it everyday with his hate-filled screeds and his promotion of anti-American rhetoric. His show is a compendium of insults, provocations to violence, secession, and revolt. It is imperative that his treasonous ravings be exposed so that the people can make an informed judgment of him. And Fox News must be held accountable as well for their complicity in this abomination of truth and justice. Even though the inanity of Fox News has done more to hurt the Republican Party than anything the Democrats have done, they must still shoulder the responsibility for the harm they produce to civil discourse and honest journalism.

If you believe this country is great but it is suffering from a tiny but virulent infection of hatred and stupidity, then stand up and, come on, follow me.

Update: Beck responds to Van Jones resignation – and proves my point:

“The American people stood up and demanded answers. Instead of providing them, the Administration had Jones resign under cover of darkness. I continue to be amazed by the power of everyday Americans to initiate change in our government through honest questioning, and judging by the other radicals in the administration, I expect that questioning to continue for the foreseeable future.”

As I said above, this distraction will not be alleviated by Jones’ resignation. Beck will continue to make mischief for “the foreseeable future” regardless of what Obama does. Therefore, Obama should just Ignore Beck and Fox News altogether.

The Pentagon Approved Press Corps

Posted by on August 27, 2009 at 11:27 am. 1 Comments :

Stars and Stripes is reporting a disturbing initiative emanating from the Pentagon’s communications office:

“As more journalists seek permission to accompany U.S. forces engaged in escalating military operations in Afghanistan, many of them could be screened by a controversial Washington-based public relations firm contracted by the Pentagon to determine whether their past coverage has portrayed the U.S. military in a positive light.”

This is another example of the government attempting to color the coverage of military affairs in favorable terms. It is nothing short of propaganda, which is illegal when conducted by government agencies and aimed at the American public:

“No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other Act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by the Congress.” [Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-447, div. G, title II, 624, 118 Stat. 2809, 3278 (Dec. 8, 2004). (The language of the prohibition has remained virtually unchanged since 1951.)]

What makes this story something of a surprise is that this isn’t the Bush Defense Department implementing this policy – it’s the Obama administration. And to add further to the offense, the contractor hired by the Pentagon to perform these screenings is The Rendon Group, a PR firm that was used by the Bush administration to justify the phony war in Iraq by producing false reports that asserted the presence of weapons of mass destruction. Rendon was also responsible for the Iraqi National Congress, a front group formed to oust Saddam Hussein. Ahmed Chalabi, a criminal, liar, and, not surprisingly a favorite of American neo-cons, was installed as the head of the INC.

There is no justification for the sort of manipulative practices revealed by Stars and Stripes. The press should not permit themselves to be controlled by government and/or military bureaucrats. And there is no excuse for the current White House to affiliate itself in any way with the disreputable likes of the Rendon Group. If this President expects to be taken seriously as a reformer, and an advocate of transparency and honest governance, this relationship with Rendon must be discontinued immediately.

Update 8/30/09: Good news. The Pentagon has canceled the Rendon contract. That was fast.

The Fox Nation Makes (Up) The News

Posted by on August 26, 2009 at 12:59 pm. 5 Comments :

Over at Rupert Murdoch’s Internet propaganda outlet, The Fox Nation, they are stridently pushing forward on their mission to mis- and dis-inform their readers and the world. Here are some examples of this week’s outrageous departures from honesty, decency, and journalistic ethics:

1) The Fox Nationalists see fit to juxtapose an image of the burning World Trade Center towers with that of President Obama, as if he had something to do with it. Apparently they object to September 11 being designated a Day of National Service, because who would ever want our memory of that tragedy being tarnished by Americans coming together to make their country better?

Also note that Sen. Kennedy’s passing was the second most important story according to Fox Nation.

2) This one will piss off Ron Paul supporters. A survey conducted by US News and World Report asked a dozen GOP and conservative leaders to come up with a top 10 list of people who would be the leaders of the “town hallers” (or should that be howlers?). The image posted by the Fox Nationalists shows those who came in second through fifth. Ron Paul came in first, but somehow his photo got lost.

I want to go on record as casting my vote for Sarah Palin – A Howler leader if there ever was one.

3) Here is a revealing graphic that I thought should be noted for the blatant association of Obama with a famous fictional crime family. What provoked this visual editorializing? It was Obama saying that he liked the movie “The Godfather.” If everyone who likes that movie was alleged to be a Goodfellow, it would mean most of the free world are criminals.

4) Another story featured on Fox nation was titled, “Griff Jenkins Confronts Howard Dean at Town Hall.” But if you click on the link you will see a five minute video that contains a ten second exchange with Dr. Dean and four minutes and fifty seconds of tea baggers. Some confrontation.

5) In addition to the Fox Nationalists opposing Americans participating in a Day of Service, they are also opposed to Organizing for America offering internships to young Americans. I wonder if they would also object to these internships offered by Fox News.

6) And just to get that awful taste of patriotism and public service out of our mouths, Fox Nation celebrates Town Howlers who threaten to incite “An Uprising That’s Going to Make the Boston Tea Party Look Like a Picnic!” Now that’s the sort of wholesome activity that Fox can support for America’s youth.

That’s all for today. Stay tuned for more flagrant and asinine propaganda from the Fox Nationalists.

Fox Nation Declares Victory: Death Panels And Hitler Edition

Posted by on August 14, 2009 at 9:55 am. 5 Comments :

This is the fourth time that the Fox Nation has declared a “victory” on their web site that is not attributable to Fox Nation nor even a victory:

Quoting me: Fox Nation has decided to make a habit of these “Mission Accomplished” moments. That stance in and of itself is evidence of Fox’s bias. They have ceased to even pretend to be a neutral news enterprise. They are now openly admitting that they have a stake in the outcomes of political affairs. And when they think their side has won, they won’t hesitate to declare victory and commence a celebration.

However, on this occasion there was an even worse display of the repugnant character of Fox Nation. Accompanying a link to a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, Fox Nation selected an image that illustrates perfectly the Fox doctrine of division and hatred:

Take a good look at that picture. It is no accident that the Obama as Hitler poster is the first thing that draws the eye. Yet there is no editorial connection to that visual cue. The graphic links to a poll conducted by Fox News with predictably negative results for President Obama. But the revolting context suggested by the image is affirmed in the caption:

“FNC Poll: America Sides With Town Hall Protesters.”

The inescapable conclusion is that town hall protesters regard Obama as equivalent to Hitler and that the rest of America concurs. This is not merely a snapshot of a vile assemblage of ignorant hate mongers, it is confirmation that Fox is amongst those who side with the Hitler-invoking protesters. It was Fox editors who made the decision to publish this photo that was deliberately cropped to deliver a visual message.

What makes this even more repulsive is that Fox persistently denies the allegations that the Tea Baggers who populate these town halls are racist. Yet here they plainly flaunt the transparent loathing that infects these objectionable objectors and furthermore, they exalt them as the essence of American values.

Were this just an example of photojournalism capturing a real moment in the quilt of characters that make up our nation, it would be appropriate and enlightening. But to deploy this image in this context is simply disgusting, but not surprising coming from Fox.

Fox News Pulls The Plug On The President

Posted by on August 11, 2009 at 4:55 pm. 10 Comments :

Today’s town hall meeting in New Hampshire with President Obama was highly promoted by all the major television news organizations, including Fox News. However, when the event took place, Fox News decided to bail out of the live broadcast just as the floor was opened to questions from the audience. Both CNN and MSNBC broadcast the Q&A in its entirety.

Fox News likes to promote itself as “fair and balanced.” Anyone with a functioning cerebrum knows that that isn’t true, but the brazen nature of this programming bias deserves special recognition. Fox has unambiguously proven that they are the network of melodrama. A civil discourse on public matters, no matter how important, will always lose out to a wild police car chase (which was actually on Fox prior to the Obama town hall).

The moment that Fox chose to abandon the event was just after the audience started asking questions. What became immediately obvious was that Fox had no interest in continuing coverage because they concluded that the event was not confrontational enough. The first couple of questions were not the sort that would incite the frothing anger that has become a staple of Fox News’ coverage of the health care debate. Even David Bauder of the Associated Press recognized the barely hidden motivation of Fox:

“Fox News Channel cut away from President Barack Obama’s town hall meeting on health care reform Tuesday as he faced a far more polite crowd than has attended many meetings hosted by members of Congress recently. CNN and MSNBC carried the session in full […] The loud public debates have been a tonic for cable news networks during normally quiet August.”

If the AP gets it, you know it’s reached new levels of clarity. As the town hall progressed, the questions became more probing. They included inquiries into some of the most controversial matters that have characterized this issue: death panels, taxes, rationing, etc. But Fox News’ audience saw none of this despite the notice that anchor Trace Gallagher gave after they broke coverage:

“Any contentious questions, anybody yelling, we will bring it to you here.”

Well, that’s comforting. The striking thing about that statement, other than the fact that he did not adhere to it, is that it is an admission that Fox News is only interested in contentiousness and yelling. It is rather startling that Gallagher would make a promise to his viewers that amounts to a declaration that Fox will only present the President when he can be made to look embattled or unpopular. Fox never did return to the event.

Gallagher did, however, keep his promise to provide contentious programming. Much of the time that the Obama town hall was in progress, Fox News replayed arguments captured at town halls for senators Cardin and McCaskill. These shoutfests were aired with a little box in the corner showing Obama’s event minus the sound. So Fox made a deliberate decision to avoid the President’s newsmaking appearance and replace it with yesterday’s more pugnacious, albeit stale, news. The rest of the time was spent with Fox pundits predictably bashing the President even though they weren’t even listening to what he was saying.

It appears that the only way for Obama to get any airtime on Fox News would be to cater to Fox’s appetite for sensationalism and lead the police on a wild car chase. Or maybe to be caught having dinner with the OctoMom. Or better yet, lead the police on a wild car chase with the OctoMom, Michael Jackson’s doctor, and a piece of the Shroud of Turin.

This is, of course, all Obama’s fault. He should know by now that the one thing you never do if you want to be on Fox News is to be reasonable, intelligent, and honest. He should be ashamed of himself.

Irony Alert: Glenn Beck Says Obama Is A Racist

Posted by on July 28, 2009 at 12:51 pm. 2 Comments :

Fox News freakshow and rodeo clown, Glenn Beck, appeared on Fox & Friends this morning and had an amusing exchange with the mental deficients that inhabit the A.M. program.

“This President has, I think, exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep seated hatred for white people or the white culture. I don’t know what it is.”

When the brown haired guy who isn’t Steve Doocy challenged Beck by noting that “70% of the people we see everyday” from the Obama administration are white, Beck clarified his remarks:

“I’m not saying he doesn’t like white people, I’m saying he has a problem. He has a…This guy is, I believe, a racist.”

That should explain it for all the liberal media weasels out there who want to smear Beck. He is definitely not saying that Obama “doesn’t like white people.” He is merely saying that Obama is a racist who has a “deep seated hatred for white people.” Two completely different things. No?

Update: Fox News VP Bill Shine released a statement distancing the network from Beck’s remarks:

“During Fox & Friends this morning, Glenn Beck expressed a personal opinion which represented his own views, not those of the Fox News Channel. And as with all commentators in the cable news arena, he is given the freedom to express his opinions.”

What I find interesting is that he never thought it necessary to release a similar statement when Fox News contributor Ralph Peters said that the Taliban should execute an American soldier. Or when Michael Scheuer said that America’s only hope was for another attack by Bin Laden.

Fox News Is Killing The Republican Party

Posted by on July 24, 2009 at 11:56 am. 38 Comments :

The case was made long ago that Fox News is a blight on the media map. It is bad for journalism. It is bad for Democracy. It is bad for America. A so-called “news” network that repeatedly misinforms, even deliberately disinforms, its audience is failing any test of public service embodied by an ethical press.

I, personally, have made the case for an embargo of Fox News by Democrats and progressives (see Starve the Beast: Part I, Part II, Part III), documenting via studied analysis that there is no affirmative value to appearing on Fox News – a network that has established itself as overtly hostile to the Democratic message and its messengers.

However, there is another side to this that has not been addressed previously. Republicans might be well advised to avoid Fox News as well. There is a case to be made that Fox News is demonstrably harmful to the Republican Party. In fact, it may be the worst thing to happen to Republicans in decades. That may seem counter-intuitive when discussing Fox News, the acknowledged public relations division of the Republican Party. Fox has populated its air with right-wing mouthpieces and brazenly partisan advocates for a conservative Republican agenda. They read GOP press releases on the air verbatim as if they were the product of original research. They provide a forum where Republican politicians and pundits can peddle their views unchallenged. So how is this harmful to Republicans?

If all we were witnessing was the emergence of a mainstream conservative network that aspired to advance Republican themes and policies, there would not be much of note here. Most of the conventional media was already center-right before there was a Fox News. But Fox has corralled a stable of the most disreputable, unqualified, extremist, lunatics ever assembled, and is presenting them as experts, analysts, and leaders. These third-rate icons of idiocy are marketed by Fox like any other gag gift (i.e. pet rocks, plastic vomit, Sarah Palin, etc.). So while most Americans have never heard of actual Republican party bosses like House Minority Leader John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, posers like Joe the Plumber and Carrie Prejean have become household names.

Fox News has descended into depths heretofore reserved for fringe characters. They are openly promoting the wackos who believe that President Obama is ineligible to hold office because he isn’t a U.S. citizen. They feature commentaries by secessionists and even those calling for an overthrow of the government and the Constitution. This explains how folks like Ralph Peters, a retired military officer who said that the Taliban captors of a U.S. Soldier would be saving us a lot of trouble and expense if they would just kill him, earn airtime on Fox. Peters previously told Fox News that he favors military strikes against media targets. This explains how Glenn Beck can agree with a guest that it would be a good thing if America were attacked again by Osama bin Laden. And don’t even get me started on Victoria Jackson, who has joined an ever-lengthening line of psycho-Chicken Littles who compare the President to Hitler.

Good Advice:
“If crazy ideologues have infiltrated the news business, we need to know about it.”
~ Bill O’Reilly, 7/16/09

The list of loonies extends to politicians like Michele Bachmann, entertainers like Ted Nugent, and of course, the talk show pundits like Rush Limbaugh, whose maniacal rantings are elevated by Fox into their version of political dialogue. It’s a dialogue that is consumed with ACORN conspiracies and Manchurian presidents. The problem is that by elevating bona fide nutcases, they are debasing honest and informed discourse. The mental cases are crowding out any reasonable voices that might exist amongst the more moderate Republicans (if there are any left). Fox appears to have made a tactical decision to permit the inmates full run of the asylum.

As a result, the Fox News audience is being dumbed down by a parade of paranoid know-nothings. This strategy appears to be successful for Fox in that it has attracted a loyal viewership that is eager to have their twisted preconceptions affirmed. The conflict-infused fare in which Fox specializes is a ratings juggernaut – just like any good fiction. However, this perceived popularity is having an inordinate impact on the GOP platform. By doubling down on crazy, Fox is driving the center of the Republican Party further down the rabid hole. They are reshaping the party into a more radicalized community of conspiracy nuts. So even as this helps Rupert Murdoch’s bottom line, it is making celebrities of political bottom-feeders. That can’t be good for the long-term prospects of the Republican Party.

With the Fox network unabashedly promoting the most ridiculous rumors, myths, and nightmares of the rightist fringe, moderate and independent Americans will grow ever more suspicious of the Fox/GOP agenda. Most Americans do not believe that Sonia Sotomayor is a racist; or that FEMA is constructing concentration camps; or that we are on a march toward socialism, communism, fascism, or whatever the right is peddling this week. Most Americans do not believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim, a reptilian alien, or the anti-Christ. In short, most Americans think that the loopy yarns spun by Fox News are fables told by madmen – and believed by even madder men and women who wallow in their doomsday utopia.

Fox News is fond of boasting about their ratings dominance. It is a daily occurrence and the structural core of their argument that they reflect the mood of America. The GOP has bought this argument in its entirety. So it is important to note here that success in the Nielsen ratings has no correlation to public opinion polling. The ratings only measure the program choices of Nielsen’s survey participants. That is a subset of the population at large, and not a particularly representative one. It is a sample focused on consumers, not voters. And its respondents are just those willing to have their TV viewing monitored 24 hours a day, which skews the sample in favor of people who aren’t creeped out by that. What’s more, viewing choices are not necessarily an endorsement of the opinions presented in the program. There are many reasons people choose to watch TV shows, the most frequent being its entertainment value. So any attempt to tie ratings to partisan politics is a foolish exercise that demonstrates a grievous misunderstanding of the business of television.

As for what constitutes success in the television marketplace, due to the broad diversification of available programming, it doesn’t take much to be heralded as a hit. A mere 3 share (3% of people watching TV) will land you in the top 10. For cable news the bar is set even lower. In fact, the top rated show on the top rated cable news network (The O’Reilly Factor) only gets about 3 million viewers. That’s less than 1% of the American population. It’s also less than World Wrestling Entertainment, SpongeBob SquarePants, and the CBS Evening News (the lowest rated broadcast network news program). By contrast, America’s Got Talent is seen by 12 million viewers – four times O’Reilly’s audience.

Numbers this low ought not to inspire much excitement from political operatives. Nevertheless, Republicans are riding the coattails of Fox News as if it were representative of a booming conservative mandate in the electorate. They are embracing Fox’s most delusional eccentrics. This is leading to the promotion of similar eccentrics within the party. Which brings us the absurd spectacle of the network’s nuts interviewing the party’s pinheads.

The inevitable result of this system of rewarding those farthest from reality is the creation of a constituency of crackpots. It is an endorsement of the philosophy brewed by the Tea Baggers that espouses racism, tyranny, and armed revolt. It is enabling a frightening corps of openly militant adversaries of democracy, free speech, and Constitutional rule. It is the sort of environment that produced the murders of Dr. George Tiller and Holocaust Museum guard Stephen Johns.

This is a textbook example of how the extreme rises to the top. It is also fundamentally contrary to the interests of the Republican Party. The more the population at large associates Republican ideology with the agenda of Fox News, and the fringe operators residing there, the more the party will be perceived as out of touch, or even out of their minds. It seems like such a waste after all of the effort and expense that Fox put into building a pseudo-journalistic enterprise with the goal of confounding viewers with false news-like theatrics.

Make no mistake, Fox News is still managed by hard core party patrons. And I’m not referring just to opinion-driven commentators like Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, and Sean Hannity, although they are bad enough. No, I am talking about executives and editors like CEO, Roger Ailes, former Nixon and Bush media consultant. I’m talking about Washington Managing Editor and VP, Bill Sammon, an avid right-wing alum of the Washington “Moonie” Times. I’m talking about Business News Chief and VP, Neil Cavuto, antagonistic interrupter extraordinaire. And let us not forget the head hype-master, Rupert Murdoch, whose UK operations were just discovered to have been unlawfully wiretapping celebrities, politicians, and even members of the Royal Family. Augmenting that executive roster are the GOP regulars who are straight out of the just retired Republican White House: Karl Rove, Dana Perino, John Bolton, Dan Senor, and Linda Chavez. And then there are the Fox News clowns…er…“contributors” like Dick Morris, Ann Coulter, Fred Barnes, Charles Krauthammer, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Bernie Goldberg, Michele Malkin, and on and on. If nothing else, Fox is a full-employment program for rightist weasels (and they also operate the Conservative Book Promotion Club).

The mission of Fox News from its inception was to be more than just a voice of opposition to Democrats. It was to utterly crush the left end of the political spectrum leaving only a teetering right wing with no counter balance. Yet, despite the torrid embrace between Republicans and Fox News, it is apparent that Fox is the source of a sort of friendly fire that is decimating the GOP by exalting its most outlandish and unpopular players. And since Republicans have not been particularly popular anyway lately, the anchor being thrown to them by Fox can’t be all that helpful – – – Except to Democrats.

Glenn Beck Is Overwhelmed By Barack Obama

Posted by on July 13, 2009 at 9:16 pm. 4 Comments :

Poor Glenn Beck. He’s having such a hard time keeping up. The burden on him must be horrendous. Day after day he has to maintain a level of maniacal terror that would lead an ordinary man to suicide (which Beck has attempted twice). Every show has to reveal a conspiracy of Satan worshiping liberal traitors that are right outside of your window, preparing to molest your children.

How does he do it? How does he survive the pressure? Of course, it would be a strain for Beck to intellectually keep up with a jellyfish – that’s had a lobotomy – and has been dead for two hours. But somehow he manages to deliver the steadiest stream of stupid in modern media.

Today Beck editorialized that the hearing to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court Justice is actually just a ruse to draw attention from other more important issues. Barack Obama’s agenda to restore the economy, reform healthcare, clean the environment, and manage two wars and an ongoing terrorist threat, has Beck thinking that a conspiracy has evolved between the administration and the media:

“President Obama is simultaneously dumping so many huge agenda items on the system, even if the media wanted to cover each of the big stories they wouldn’t be able to devote enough time to do it. So instead, we get stuck watching yet another pathetic confirmation hearing.”

And what is it that the “pathetic confirmation hearing” is distracting us from? Beck tells us that it is things like a second stimulus package (which Obama has said is unnecessary at this time), and a photo of Russian President Medvedev holding a coin that Beck says is the future world currency. Then there’s something about Al Gore and General Electric that Beck throws in.

That’s funny. All of Beck’s examples of things that Obama is talking about that will be missed because of the Sotomayor hearings, are things that Obama is not talking about at all. Nevertheless, Obama is still deliberately attempting to overwhelm the system with his overly ambitious agenda. Also, for the record, after this tirade against the conspiracy to use Sotomayor to hide the real news, Beck spent several minutes of his precious airtime discussing…Sotomayor. Apparently Beck has been recruited into the conspiracy himself.

The truth is, Beck isn’t accustomed to seeing what it look likes when a president is actually working and getting things done. He is used to the the sort of progress made by the C- under-achiever that we just booted from office last January. By that measure, Obama is doing the work of ten men. And the sad consequence of it is that ignorant trolls like Beck are going to be left in the dust because their brains can’t fire synapses fast enough to comprehend.

It is a sad thing to witness, but unlike the famous motto of the United Negro College Fund, we need not worry about a mind going to waste. Where there is no mind, there is no waste.

The Fox Nation Declares Victory Over Obama

Posted by on July 11, 2009 at 12:01 am. 4 Comments :

From the start, the Fox Nation presented itself as a community intended to reflect “your values, your voice.” In its official Statement of Purpose they claim that…

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

And from the start, that has been a lie. The brazenly partisan web site has never bothered to uphold even a pretense of tolerance, open debate, or civil discourse. A brief venture into the comments posted on their overtly biased news items exposes a population consumed with hostility and a bitter disgust for government and the democratic process they profess to revere.

Displayed on the site’s featured stories today is headline that goes farther than ever to reveal the true role that Fox Nation was created to play. The role, not of a fair and balanced source for news, but of an advocate for a far-right agenda and an opponent of the progressive policies and values for which the American people just voted. The headline reads “FOX Nation Victory! Obama’s Drive for Climate Change Bill Delayed!”

The obvious bias expressed in this item destroys any pretense of neutrality. What’s more, it arrogantly assigns to itself the credit for this alleged victory. Fox Nation appears to believe that they are responsible for the legislative delay that they herald as a triumph. They fail, however, to offer any evidence for why they deserve to share in this pseudo-glory. This should put an end to any debate as to whether Fox is pursuing its own ends. It should, but it won’t. Fox defenders, blinded by dementia, will undoubtedly continue to insist that Fox is merely a counterweight to the rest of the media that they falsely regard as liberal.

To compound the absurdity of this item, the article linked to the headline is a story in the Washington Post that merely describes a delay due to the fullness of the Senate calendar. The Senate is busy with its top priority, the healthcare bill, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, the chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, insists that the Climate Change bill will be addressed when the Senate returns from its August break. In other words, there is no “victory” in any legislative sense. The bill is moving forward in a relatively routine fashion.

So while the Fox Nation swaggers before its Mission Accomplished banner, the only real victory they have achieved is the unmasking of their deceit and their intent to manipulate public opinion. Now that is a cause to celebrate.