The Cult Of Foxonality™ Part II

Posted by on September 4, 2009 at 4:59 pm. 10 Comments :

A little over two years ago I wrote an article titled, The Cult Of Foxonality™. It’s premise was that…

“Fox viewers appear to be more loyal to Fox than to Republicans or conservatism. This misdirected allegiance bestows a far more influential authority onto a media entity than ought ever to be considered. It suggests that the bombastic demagogues that Fox has shaped into celebrity anchors truly do weigh down their transfixed disciples.”

That piece employed an analysis of ratings and viewer habits at the time that confirmed that Fox News viewers were wedded to their cable hearth and would not be moved. Subsequent events reinforced the theory. For instance, prior to the election, a Rasmussen poll reported that nine out of ten Fox News viewers intended to vote for John McCain. That’s a higher percentage of McCain voters than amongst Republicans.

Recently, Fox News has been building on their ratings dominance. In an attempt to understand why Fox would be increasing their audience at a time when Republicans are reaching new lows, I revisited the cult hypothesis. No other model adequately explains the stark divergence of the fates of Fox News and the Republican Party.

Looking at the current cable news landscape, there is an obvious separation of the primary players. Fox News is far and away the leader. MSNBC is the spunky challenger that has recently overtaken the old master, CNN. It would be easy to assign labels that reflect the partisan programming philosophy of these networks. However, in truth, there is only one truly partisan network among them.

Fox News’ success is firmly rooted in its primetime lineup. With Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Greta Van Susteren all easily winning their time periods. Add to that Glenn Beck’s arrival that has put him in competition with perennial leader O’Reilly. But it doesn’t stop there.

Fox’s business anchor (and head of their business network) is Neil Cavuto, an aggressively conservative advocate for right-wing viewpoints. Fox’s Washington editor is the blatantly partisan Bill Sammon. The White House correspondent is the equally biased Major Garrett. The Fox morning program is an almost laughable cliche of wingnut dunces.

Compare that to MSNBC’s schedule that consists of only two reliable liberals. Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. [Edit: Add Ed Schultz] Chris Matthews swings both ways and is close buddies with folks like Tom Delay and Rudy Giuliani. Their morning program is three hours hosted by the conservative Republican, former congressman, Joe Scarborough. (Can you imagine Fox News giving three daily hours of airtime to a liberal Democrat?) CNN has become devoid of any personality at all. Their leading figures are null types like Larry King and Anderson Cooper. Although Lou Dobbs does stand out a bit.

So here is the interesting part. Glenn Beck was on CNN just a few months ago with nowhere near the audience he has today on Fox. CNN’s Dobbs, and MSNBC’s Scarborough are as conservative as anyone on Fox, but they can’t duplicate those numbers. What this tells us is that cable news success has little to do with partisanship. If it did, Dobbs and Scarborough would be doing Fox-like business, and Beck would not have had to move to Fox to find an audience. But he did have to move. Because Fox viewers, despite their obvious idolization of him now, were not going to go to CNN to see him. And it wasn’t because they didn’t know who he was. He was already the third biggest star on talk radio.

Therefore, the key to the popularity of Fox is that it is Fox. Their viewers are not interested in programs that feature the same ideology if presented on other networks. CNN could hire Sarah Palin and she would flop. But not on Fox. In fact, I would wager that if Dobbs and/or Scarborough shifted to Fox, everyone would be astonished at their newfound popularity.

Fox is the home of the forlorn, conservative, tea bagging, town howler. They have found their happy place, and they have no intention of moving from it. It is what gives them solace in a time when liberals (or socialists/fascists) have taken over the House, the Senate, and even put a dark-skinned, Muslim, illegal alien in the White House. They need the camaraderie. They need the affirmation. They need the reassurance that the world isn’t crumbling beneath them (or in Beck’s case, that it is). They are even marketing the Fox Nation web site with the undisguised message of a promise of togetherness.

It’s just so sad. I think I’m gonna cry. But that would be Glenn Beck’s shtick.

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Glenn Beck Has Seen Things You People Wouldn’t Believe

Posted by on September 3, 2009 at 11:29 pm. 9 Comments :

In the 1982 film Blade Runner, Rutger Hauer plays a replicant (human clone) who returns to Earth from an extraterrestrial labor colony to find what all humans want – more life. In a climactic scene with Harrison Ford he tries to convey the depth of his passion for life saying that “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.” His character’s name is Roy Batty. And batty would certainly describe Glenn Beck’s latest hallucinatory escapade in pursuit of demonizing progressives. He too is seeing things, and yes, we don’t believe it. [See Beck’s previous Messianic Delusions]

“I’m trying to show you the things that seem to be hidden but they’re not. They are out in plain sight. Those with eyes will not see and those with ears will not hear. You’re awake. You need to see the things that are hidden in plain sight.”

Those with fingers will not touch and those with feet will not smell. If only some of those with tongues did not speak.

Beck has used his divine vision to reveal the evidence of Satan’s secret seeds. Planted amongst us are the vile devices of communists and fascists meant to steal our thoughts and sway our allegiances to the dark side. And what are these tricks of the netherworld’s master? They are paintings and sculptures and other works by history’s subversives – the artists! These mental traps were set decades ago by devious social perverts with a century long plot and an abundance of patience.

In this sermon (captured on YouTube), Beck associates the evil artists with their patron, Rockefeller. Unfortunately, he doesn’t specify which one. In fact, he jumps around to several of them without making any distinction. It’s as if they were all incarnations of the same demon spirit. Was Beck referring to John D. Rockefeller, Sr., the ultra-capitalist business maven who founded Standard Oil? Or was it his son, the real estate magnate who built Rockefeller Center? Or was it Nelson, who was the Republican Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States? Or was it Jay, the current Senator from West Virginia? No matter. In Beck’s mind, they were all socialist stooges.

Beck begins his unveiling with a denouncement of a relief at the entrance to Rockefeller Center. The work shows two men on either side of the doors. Beck tells us that one is holding a hammer, and the other a sickle. Ergo communism! It’s right there in plain sight. Except that the first man is actually holding a shovel according to the historians curating the Center’s artwork. The figures were meant to represent the strength of America’s industry and agriculture, which I’m sure Beck views as treasonous.

Then Beck focuses on a bas relief carving by Italian American sculptor Attilio Piccirilli called Youth Leading Industry. Beck’s interpretation of this work centers on his theory that the artist, and thus the work, were avowedly fascist. Beck asserts that a strong male figure in the piece is Mussolini. Whether or not that’s true, and there is some debate, it is illustrative of Beck’s dementia that he can jump from warnings about progressives being communists to progressives being fascists without taking a breath. In the real world, Mussolini was a bitter foe of Stalin and vice versa. And the artwork itself is simply heralding a young, creative, and prosperous America. Another subversive concept in Beck’s mind.

Turning to a more conventional subject matter for art, Beck finds fault with a biblical representation of the verse regarding turning swords into plowshares. I’m not even sure what Beck’s complaint is here, but he’s upset about something. Perhaps it just has to do with the fact that there is another swords/plowshares sculpture on the grounds of the United Nations. And the site for the U.N. was donated by – Rockefeller. Obviously there’s something sinister in there somewhere. I also like Beck’s explanation for why he keeps his own sculpture depicting the swords and plowshares. It isn’t because of the message of a peace delivered by God. It’s because it reminds him that something beautiful (the statue) can come from someplace ugly (Russia). Evidently he has never heard Tchaikovsky or seen Chagall or read Dostoyevsky.

The next piece for which Beck provides his striking analysis is a painting by renowned Mexican artist Diego Rivera. Beck is concerned by the presence of people like Stalin and Lenin in the artwork. The funny thing about this hypothesis is that the painting Beck is reviewing doesn’t exist at Rockefeller Center. Beck is reviewing a version of the painting that Rockefeller rejected because of his objection to the very iconography that Beck is pointing out. Rockefeller had commissioned a work from a draft that did not contain those elements. Yet Beck still blames him for the piece he had thrown out. And, of course, it is not one of those works of propaganda that Beck said is hidden in plain sight. Unless you’re walking around Mexico City.

For Glenn Beck to set himself up as an art critic/historian is funnier than anything Monty Python ever thought up. While his interpretations lack any knowledge of the subject, they are jam-packed with paranoid fantasies that would make David Berkowitz’ dog shudder. And Beck is the only one who can see any of it. He’s the only one who can see that Rockefeller (whichever one) was not a capitalist captain of industry at all, but a clandestine communist (or was it fascist) revolutionary. He is the only one who can see the coded symbols in the wicked artwork.

Beck has just recently recognized the malicious power of art as propaganda. He took on the National Endowment for the Arts for holding a tele-conference with artists for the purpose of promoting public service and volunteerism. Now I actually would have agreed with him that that may be outside the mandate of the NEA, but his manic distortions of reality make it impossible to even tangentially agree with anything that comes out of his warped brain. If he regards an initiative to boost the Peace Corps as a dangerous example of propaganda, how can he be taken seriously?

Rightist demagogues have long feared the power of artistic expression. In January of 2003, shortly before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Colin Powell assembled the media at the United Nations to comment on his presentation in support of war. But before the media arrived, the tapestry of Picasso’s masterpiece, Guernica, was covered by a blue drape. A press conference to discuss launching an unprecedented war of aggression could not be held in front of one of the twentieth century’s most moving anti-war statements. The symbolism of literally throwing a blanket over this representation of truth is unmistakable.

But Beck is not demystifying art, he is attacking it. He is assigning false intentions to the artists and their work. He is denigrating these long-respected icons of free expression and celebrations of American prosperity and spirit. And worst of all, Beck is virtually inviting his disciples to do harm to these works, or any others in which they imagine horrors lurking. He is no better than the Taliban mullahs who destroyed the Buddhas of Bamyan, giant statues in Afghanistan that were over 1,500 years old.

If Mullah Omar had a show on the Taliban Fox Network he would have been making the same sort of claims about the Buddhas that Beck is making about this art. Hopefully Americans are more tolerant than the Afghans that allowed Omar to blow up the Buddhas. And hopefully they are smarter than Beck and his congregation of glassy-eyed followers who wouldn’t know art if it was right in front of them everyday – like the over 100 works commissioned for Rockefeller Center.


Rupert Murdoch’s Organization Wants Another 9/11

Posted by on September 2, 2009 at 12:58 pm. 3 Comments :

The faux patriots at Fox Nation are continuing to make a habit of exploiting the image of 9/11 and contriving false and negative associations with Democrats. This time Rupert Murdoch and Co. have outdone themselves by accusing President Obama of politicizing the anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center and other targets.

It takes a pretty hefty portion of chutzpah for the Fox Nationalists to sell this falsehood. Particularly in light of how brazenly they themselves have been politicizing 9/11:

In this latest episode, Fox Nation links to an article at RedState, the blog of the uber-rightist magazine, Human Events. The RedState column credits the equally right-wing Heritage Foundation for discovering what they characterize as a despicable act of political exploitation.

What these stalwart detectives found was a notice on the website of Organizing for America (OFA), the Democratic National Committee’s social networking site for Democratic activists. Note: This is NOT a site that is affiliated with the White House or the President.

The offending notice was posted by a user seeking participants for a health care reform event. The notice itself could reasonably be regarded as offensive and inappropriate, but no more so than what Fox Nation has published itself.

The content of the notice said (click to enlarge):

“Sep 11, is Patriot Day, designated in memory of the nearly three thousand who died in the 9/11 attacks.

“All 50 States are coordinating in this – as we fight back against our own Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists who are subverting the American Democratic Process, whipped to a frenzy by their Fox Propaganda Network ceaselessly re-seizing power for their treacherous leaders.”

I can’t say that I disagree with the assessment of Fox News, but the reference to right-wing domestic terrorists was unnecessarily contentious. However, the response by Heritage/RedState/Fox Nation is ludicrous beyond imagination.

First of all, the OFA web site is a user driven site. That means that anyone can post comments, blogs and even announcements of upcoming events, as is the case here. So those responsible for the site’s administration (the DNC) cannot be blamed for inappropriate material that they did not produce or authorize. The site’s administrator did become aware of the posting and promptly removed it. Now you would think that the martinets of manners at RedState would be assuaged, even encouraged, by this behavior, but no. They quickly leaped to a new accusation that the web site had “scrubbed” the embarrassing content. How can OFA win? If they leave the posting up, they are guilty of denigrating the memory of 9/11. If they take it down, they are alleged to be hiding something.

Remember, this is the same organization that permitted Michael Scheuer to appear with Glenn Beck and openly root for another terrorist attack on America:

“…the only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States.”

So, does Murdoch’s organization want another 9/11? That sounds much more plausible than the assertion that Obama’s organization is politicizing 9/11. This is nothing more than the routine disingenuous outrage from people who only know how to stir up mischief, even when none occurs. And for the Fox Nationalists to raise the ante by publishing gut wrenching photos of the 9/11 attack, with a completely dishonest headline, is the height of cynical and grotesque politicization. Especially after all of the examples above of obvious and intentional politicization on the part of Fox.

But don’t get comfortable yet. Fox News has been running promos today for tonight’s O’Reilly Factor that promise to blow the lid off of this fake scandal. So this nonsense is going from a bunch of ignorant think tankers and bloggers, to the number one cable news program in America.

Seriously…Is this all they’ve got?


Charlie Gibson Stepping Down As ABC News Anchor

Posted by on September 2, 2009 at 9:58 am. NO Comments :

When Charlie Gibson approached ABC News president David Westin to advise him of his intention to step down as anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight, I have to wonder if Westin asked, “In what respect, Charlie?”

Gibson hardly distinguished himself as an anchor or an editor. The moist prominent role he played was as a pitifully poor moderator for a Democratic presidential primary debate in Philadelphia, where he was universally panned.

Diane Sawyer has been announced as Gibson’s replacement. She is presently the host of ABC’s morning show, Good Morning America. But it is notable that she was once Richard Nixon’s press aide and was on the team that prepped him for the Nixon/Frost interviews.

Despite Sawyer’s political past, I think she’s marginally an improvement over Gibson. Plus, it will mean that two of the Big Three networks have female news anchors. That is a profound advancement in a business that is notoriously male-dominated, and has been for decades. It could bring some new perspectives to television news. These broadcast news programs have twice the viewership of the highest rated cable news programs, so her exposure will be significant.

So goodbye Charlie, and “Yahhh Charlie, Yahhh!”


Even More Glenn Beck Messianic Delusions

Posted by on September 2, 2009 at 2:07 am. 7 Comments :

The rate at which the wheels are coming off of Glenn Beck’s crazy train is dizzying. He must surely be disturbed by the success of the campaign that has resulted in forty-six advertisers (so far) ditching his program. It shows in his obsession over Van Jones, whom Beck still neglects to inform his audience was a co-founder of Color of Change, the group spearheading the advertiser boycott (although Jones has had no affiliation with the group in over two years).

Beck is continuing his practice of taking things out of context and twisting them into ghastly conspiracies. For instance, he played a clip from a speech Jones gave wherein Jones sought to inform people that the environmental movement is not just about solar panels and hybrid cars. It has to be considered more fully to include the broad spectrum of eco-issues, i.e. water safety and availability, endangered species, agricultural reform, etc. Beck played a clipped (three times) of Jones saying…

“This movement is deeper than a solar panel! Deeper than a solar panel! Don’t stop there! Don’t stop there! We’re gonna change the whole system! We’re gonna change the whole thing!”

Beck then contorted that to mean that Jones was advocating changing the whole government, presumably to some sort of Muslim Socialist dictatorship. But then, Beck can’t be blamed for the hallucinatory fantasies that crowd his diseased brain. On his show today he exhibits more of the messianic delusions that have made his train-wreck of show so popular:

“You know… I… I’d really like to share with you a personal story from today, but I can’t, because it puts my family in danger.”
[Because everybody is after you, aren’t they?]

“Do you think I want to get on the air every night and tell you this stuff?”
[Of course not. God is commanding that you do it.]

“Do you know who I am?”
[We know who you are, Glenn. And we’re watching you right now.]

“The media will say ‘he’s just a clown.’ Well you know what, I am a clown. I am a guy who just…I just want to have laughs and fun, I’m a capitalist, I want to make money, all that stuff.”
[Well then, mission accomplished, you fun-loving rascal.]

“I want to live my life with my family. I don’t want to have to live with security, and walls, and gates, and everything else. Do you think I want to live that way? Maybe there are some people like that. That ain’t me. That is not me.”
[If only there was some way that you could retire and enjoy your life and family and money.]

“I don’t want to believe these things, but unfortunately I find them true.”
[The voices compel you to believe. You can’t resist.]

Here are some of Beck’s prior incantations, just to keep you up to pace with his Besieged Cult Leader Syndrome:

“They can take my job and they can take my wealth but that’s okay….even if the powers to be, right now, succeed in making me poor, drum me out, and I’m just a worthless loser… which I’m just about that much above that now… I will only be stronger for it. “I will use American ingenuity and my ingenuity to pull myself up, and I will find another way to get my message out on a platform that will be a thousand times more powerful! Because of my faith, I know how this story ends. The truth will set you free! America, you prepare to witness mighty and powerful miracles in your lifetime!”

~~~

“Many people will ask you, ‘Well, if these things are so true, why is that only Glenn Beck is saying them?’ Believe me, I have asked myself that question many, many nights. Usually about 2:00am when I couldn’t sleep. Why is no one else asking these questions?”

~~~

“You ever see those movies where they say, ‘I gave a note to my attorney, and if I’m found dead, open the note.’ I kind of feel like you’re my attorney. If I show up, you know, in Thailand, dead from auto-erotic asphyxiation, don’t believe it.”

~~~

“If I’m ever in a weird car accident, or I commit suicide or something, after the media stops celebrating my death, could they check into it? Because I’m not suicidal. And I’m a pretty good driver.”

~~~

“I fear that there will come a time when I cannot say things that I am currently saying. I fear that it will come to television and to radio, and I will stop saying these things. Understand me clearly. Hear me now. If I ever stop saying these things, you will know why. Because I will have made a choice that I can only say certain things, and I haven’t lost all of the rights. But know that these things are true. And if you hear me stop saying these things, it’s because I can no longer say them to you. But hear them between the sentences. Hear them, please. I will be screaming them to you.”

Seriously, Beck is just a hair’s breadth away from Nikes and castration.


Fox News Is On Board The Tea Bagger Express – Again

Posted by on August 31, 2009 at 2:58 pm. 13 Comments :

In a reprise of last April’s Tea Party propaganda campaign, Fox News is once again heavily promoting the latest Astroturf movement by rightist opponents of the administration. This episode of tea baggery is focusing specifically on health care reform.

Recall last April, when Fox News not only aired millions of dollars worth of free publicity for the Tea Baggers, they also assigned their anchors to host the events. Neil Cavuto in Sacramento. Greta Van Susteren in DC. Sean Hannity in Atlanta. Glenn Beck in San Antonio.

The latest promotional effort is already underway. One of the first assignments is Griff Jenkins (Bill O’Reilly’s ambush specialist) who is actually tagging along with the Tea Party Express bus tour. His reports consist of unabashed cheerleading for what he falsely identifies as a grassroots movement (It’s more like grassROTS. After all, these people don’t care much for nature). The Express is winding its way across America. paid for by the Our Country Deserves Better PAC, an organization headed by far-right talk radio host Mark Williams.

But the “fair and balanced” network is demonstrating its bias by ignoring another bus tour that is generating as much or more popular appeal as the Tea Baggers. This project, sponsored by Organizing for America and Health Care Reform Now, is taking a similar path across the country, stopping along the way for rallies, and is scheduled to wrap up in Washington, D.C. on September 13, one day after the Tea Baggers. OFA has reported brisk attendence of their events so far:

“…hundreds of health insurance reformers [in Milwaukee] […] Earlier today, more than 3,000 reformers gathered in New York City with the same message of hope. One thousand came out in Portland. Another 1,800 are finishing up a reform event in Austin, Texas. And, nearly 800 rallied for health insurance reform in Fargo, North Dakota today.

“These crowds come on the heels of last night’s 1,500-plus reformers gathering in Denver, Thursday’s 1,000 plus rally in Albuquerque and another 1,100 on Wednesday night in Phoenix”

With turnout like that, these events are at least as newsworthy as those by the tea bag/insurance lobby. Yet Fox News has invoked a virtual blackout on any news of reform activists. Not only do they not have someone like Griff Jenkins riding along with the reform bus, they haven’t even reported that the effort exists (except for a couple of tangential and backhanded references). What might the media landscape look like if there were an alternative to the overtly partisan Fox News that published something like this:

I harbor no illusions that anything like that will happen. It isn’t an accident that Fox News is ignoring these events – it’s deliberate. They have a vested interest in keeping this information from their viewers. In addition, they surely don’t want to raise the profile of these events for fear that it might enhance turnout. So Fox has committed to suppressing coverage as part of their political agenda.

What would it take to get Fox News to assign a reporter to the Reform Now bus tour? Could any amount of phone calls or emails turn the trick? Could a sustained campaign of exposing and/or ridiculing Fox for their journalistic dishonesty result in a reporter (even a biased one) embedded with the reformists? Probably not. But here’s another question: What would it take for the rest of the media to cover the reform bus tour? Because they aren’t in the game either.

There are going to be two events on the weekend of September 12 and 13. One of them is getting premium promotional services from a major television network and its extended media platforms in print, radio, and online. The other is not. It’s impossible to predict the attendance for either of these rallies, but if progressives could draw more reform advocates in spite of the media imbalance, it would go a long way toward educating our representatives, and the press, as to where the people really stand on this issue.

Your assignment, if you chose to accept it, is to get to D.C., if you possibly can, on September 13. If that’s not possible, get to a local reform event. And by all means contact every media outlet, not just Fox, and ask them why they are not covering this truly grassroots movement.

The Organizing for America Action Center:
Where you can find local events and send letters to your local and national newspapers.

Contact these National TV news networks and ask them to cover the Health Reform Now bus tour.
Fox News / CBS News / NBC News / ABC News / CNN News

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The Man Behind The Defend Glenn Beck Web Site

Posted by on August 29, 2009 at 1:57 pm. 36 Comments :

Shortly after Glenn Beck said that President Obama is a racist who has “a deep seated hatred for white people,” the activist group Color of Change launched a campaign aimed at Beck’s advertisers. The campaign has enjoyed unparalleled success, persuading over forty companies to withhold their advertising dollars from Beck’s program.

In response to the action by Color of Change, a conservative activist created a web site to counter the growing opposition to Beck. DefendGlenn was created to instigate complaints directed at the companies who pulled their ads from Beck, and to thank his remaining advertisers. Instead, the site has become a repository of lies and disinformation, as well as a sycophantic center of blind adulation for Beck.

It is impossible to gauge whether the site has any measurable influence, except to note that none of the companies boycotting Beck have reversed their positions, nor cited DefendBeck as motivation for their actions. However, the press has taken notice and is beginning to treat the site as the legitimate counterbalance to Color of Change. Consequently, whenever there is a mention of Color of Change, the media, in its misguided pursuit of balance, will mention DefendGlenn as well. This is another example of media laziness. Balance is not achieved by juxtaposing truth with lies. Color of Change documents its impact with letters from the companies they have solicited, and their leaders and staff are identified on their web site. But DefendGlenn provides no such documentation, and their leadership is a mystery to anyone who visits their site.

So who is DefendGlenn? The only identifying information on the site is a disclaimer at the bottom of its donations page:

DISCLAIMER: DEFENDGLENN.com is a FAN SITE, and is not affiliated with Glenn Beck, the Glenn Beck Program, Fox New Channel, NewsCorp Inc., or Premiere Radio Networks. DEFENDGLENN.com is a project of United States Justice Foundation. The United States Justice Foundation (USJF) a non-profit organization, whose tax-exempt status under IRS section 501(c)(3) has been recognized by the Internal Revenue Service. Your contributions are tax deductible. Corporate contributions may be accepted.

The United States Justice Foundation describes itself as “a nonprofit public interest, legal action organization dedicated to instruct, inform and educate the public on, and to litigate, significant legal issues confronting America.” The issues they regard as significant span the conservative spectrum from reverse discrimination to taxation to term limits. They litigated on behalf of lobbyists who opposed the Clinton Health Care Task Force in 1994.

The executive director of the USJF is Gary Kreep. His biography reveals that he is the general counsel to the racist, anti-immigration group, The Minutemen. He has been affiliated with the radical and violent anti-choice group, Operation Rescue. He was a California delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1976 and 1980.

Most recently Kreep has been a leader of the “birther” movement that seeks to nullify last November’s election on the grounds that Obama is not a U.S. citizen. He has been one of the most vocal proponents of the birther myths going back to at least November 2008, when he tried to prevent California delegates to the Electoral College from casting their votes. He originally worked with birther queen, Orly Taitz, representing several clients, including Alan Keyes. He has since replaced Taitz as counsel to birther litigant “Rev.” Wiley Drake. Drake is notable for publicly praying for the death of Obama. When a man like Drake selects you to represent him, over Orly Taitz, that is quite an endorsement.

Obviously Kreep is a far-right extremist and an enabler of some of the most dangerous and radical people and organizations in the country. But none of this portion of his resume is disclosed by the press when they help to promote his activities. That oversight needs to be corrected immediately. The urgency for this rests on more than just the potential for mischief from the DefendGlenn project. As noted above, any funds collected from the donation page on DefendGlenn is actually going directly to the USJF. So on the pretense of supporting Glenn Beck, money is being diverted to causes like the Minutemen, Operation Rescue, and efforts to advance the birther myths and to defeat health care reform. Infact, it might actually be Kreep’s sole intention to exploit the popularity of Beck, and the loyalty of his disciples, to further his other political objectives. Beck certainly has a broader fan base than the birthers or the USJF, and consequently, greater revenue potential.

It is important, therefore to apprise the media of the truth with regard to DefendGlenn the USJF, and Gary Kreep. Whenever we see a press citation of DefendGlenn as the opposite side of the Beck boycott debate, we must take the initiative to inform them of the facts. We cannot allow this front group for wacko rightists to successfully deceive the media and public.


Rupert Murdoch Says 9/11 Is Bullshit And Should Be Forgotten

Posted by on August 28, 2009 at 11:58 am. 1 Comments :

The faux patriots at Fox Nation are making a habit of exploiting the image of 9/11 and contriving false and negative associations with Democrats. Last week the Fox Nationalists published an article accusing President Obama of desecrating the memory of 9/11 because he supported a National Day of Service to be held in conjunction with other memorials. The view at Fox is that Americans coming together to make a better country is a horrible insult to the anniversary of the terrorist act. So Fox Nation posted this image juxtaposing the burning World Trade Center towers with the President:

Their undisguised intent was to visually associate Obama with a horrific event that he had nothing to do with. Well, today Fox is at it again with an even more repulsive and dishonest defamation:

Just three days after the death of Sen. Kennedy, Fox Nation found a way to denigrate his memory in the same fashion as they did with Obama. In this case, however, they really had to test their capacity for lying because the headline attached to the image is 100% false. The Fox Nationalist’s editors title the item “Huffington Post Compares Kennedy Death to 9/11.” But the Huffington Post did no such thing. There was no article about Kennedy and 9/11 at all, much less one comparing them. The headline is a blatant, brazen, bald-faced lie.

The article that Fox Nation links to is from Newsbusters, the uber-conservative media watch/lap dog of Brent Bozell’s propaganda tank, the Media Research Center. Newsbusters reported that Matt Cooper, editor of Conde Nast Portfolio, tweeted:

“It feels a bit like 9/11 on Martha’s Vineyard. End-of-summer weather is achingly beautiful but the mood is melancholy because of Teddy.”

For the record: After receiving some replies on Twitter that questioned whether the simile was appropriate, Cooper tweeted that he had clumsily stated his observation and only meant that both were otherwise pleasant summer days that were marred by sadness, and that is was not a comparison of Kennedy’s death to the 3,000 murders on 9/11.

So, what does Cooper’s tweet have to do with the Huffington Post? Absolutely nothing. There was no article on HuffPo that was remotely associated with this. However, Cooper has written articles in the past that appeared on HuffPo. The last one was in December 2008. So according to Fox Nation, if you are the editor of Portfolio, but you wrote something for HuffPo nine months ago, and then you tweet something on your personal Twitter account not affiliated with either publication, then obviously you are speaking for the Huffington Post and even your misstatements are attributable to them.

And best of all, for the Fox Nationalists, is that you get to post a disgusting image that conflates the recently deceased senator with a national catastrophe, and place it all above a headline that is a lie.

So did Rupert Murdoch actually say that 9/11 is bullshit? Well he is certainly exploiting it for crass political purposes which could be construed as regarding it as excrement that is not worthy of respect. So by that measure, my headline is just as accurate as the one on Fox Nation.


Glenn Beck Is (Still) A Dirtbag

Posted by on August 27, 2009 at 8:55 pm. 7 Comments :

This is day four of Glenn Beck’s special, “The New Republic.” In today’s sermon, Pastor Beck sought to inspire his flock with tales of his own decrepitude. He started with a reminder of his past as an alcoholic:

“After I sobered up I admitted that I was a dirtbag, man, I was DIRTBAG!

I have tried my hardest to not be a dirtbag anymore.”

He’s going to have to try harder, because the latest raving installment of his Acute Paranoia Revue is a downhill skid into utter dementia. The premise is that President Obama is recruiting a force of civilian troops that Beck speculates will be aimed at his parishioners, Sarah Palin, Tea Baggers, and most frighteningly, himself. However, A quick glance at the non-partisan Factcheck.org tells us that the “civilian national security force” Obama referenced is not the dark conspiracy imagined by Beck. In fact, Beck appears to have deliberately misrepresented Obama’s remarks on the subject. In the following quote from Obama, note the highlighted snippet in the middle, which is the only part that Beck cited:

“We will enlist our veterans to find jobs and support for other vets, and to be there for our military families. And we’re going to grow our Foreign Service, open consulates that have been shuttered and double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 to renew our diplomacy. We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set.

“We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded. We need to use technology to connect people to service. We’ll expand USA Freedom Corps to create online networks where American can browse opportunities to volunteer.”

Obviously Obama was not talking about a military force. He was talking about AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, the USA Freedom Corps (a Bush initiative), and the Foreign Service. Just as obviously, Beck knew the complete quote but chose to play only the bit of it that he could frame as scary. This could not be more dishonest if Beck just declared that Obama was the Queen of England. And this was not an incidental segment, Beck devoted the whole hour to this fabrication even though he knew it was a lie.

At one point Beck asks why no one in the administration is answering his questions. It’s probably the same reason that they wouldn’t answer questions posed by Charles Manson or Fred Phelps. Paranoid schizophrenics are not entitled to have presidents respond to their delusional queries.

Is it any wonder that more and more major American corporations want nothing to do with this nutcase? Today, Color of Change announced ten more companies pulling out of Beck’s show. Here is a the complete list. And for a good laugh, check out the list of advertisers remaining with Beck.

Fox News is pretending that the boycott has no had effect on their business. They’ve said that any advertisers that pulled out of Beck’s show just shifted their ads to other programs on Fox. Even if that’s so, it doesn’t erase the fact that the telemarketing ventures that now make up Beck’s ad clientele are certainly not paying the same rates that Procter & Gamble or GEICO did. And the best evidence that the boycott has drawn blood is Beck himself. He is too cowardly to directly address the matter, but today he made a thinly disguised reference to “powers” that are trying to “drum him out.” And, dagnabbit, he’s not backing down…

“I will use American ingenuity and my ingenuity and I will will pull myself up. And I will find another way to get this message out on a platform that will be a thousand times more powerful. Because of my faith, I know how this story ends. The truth shall set you free. America, you prepare to witness mighty and powerful miracles in your lifetime.”

What I’d like to know is, what is this platform, to which he refers, that is a thousand times more powerful than what he’s currently using? And if he can use it to get his message out, why isn’t he doing so now? And just what is he alluding to when he talks about the “mighty and powerful miracles” we’re about to witness? If I didn’t know better, I’d think he is prophesying the Apocalypse. Nah…He’s no messianic cult leader. Is he?


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.