Glenn Beck Defends Terrorists To Attack Olbermann

Posted by on May 12, 2007 at 3:35 pm. 2 Comments :

Last week Keith Olbermann delivered a whithering verbal assault on the New Jersey nutjobs accused of plotting a terrorist attack on Fort Dix. These brain surgeons took a video of their training exercises to a Photo Mat for duplication. Olbermann succinctly articulated what everyone else was thinking about these jerks:

There have been far too many instances of over-hyped, hero- worshiping, morality plays being thrust on the public as if we were children over the past half dozen years.

Olbermann: “In other words, the FBI has arrested six morons.”

But for some reason, Glenn Beck is offended by Olbermann’s insult. Beck is upset that the reputations of these fine, young, upstanding terrorists are being belittled and he is coming to their defense. [Transcript / YouTube]

Beck: “…and then it’s six morons, huh, Keith? Is that really what we’ve come to? We can`t even take one night to applaud law enforcement or the FBI for protecting us and our soldiers that are here and they’re saving lives without launching into insults and politics?

How dare you, Keith! These are some the best terrorists America’s broken borders have to offer, and all you have to say is that they’re dumb. Show some respect for heaven’s sake.

To be fair (not that Beck would recognize fairness if he saw it), Beck’s pique actually appears to stem from the notion that apprehending stupid terrorists is a less worthy acheivement than were they Mensa terrorists. Beck would prefer that the plotters be characterized as masterminds of evil so that the FBI heroes could be lauded as mighty dragon slayers who shielded civilization from certain doom. Olbermann, by merely pointing out the obvious, let the air out of that fable. That’s what irks Beck.

This would not be the first time that tales have been woven to craft an idealized version of history. There have been far too many instances of over-hyped, hero-worshiping, morality plays being thrust on the public as if we were children over the past half dozen years. The fabricated legends of Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman stand as evidence of how far our government, in concert with a compliant media, will go to deceive and manipulate us. And shills like Beck encourage the dissemination of falsehoods in the service of propaganda.

The truth is that the heroism of patriots like Lynch and Tillman is evident in their character and their pride of service. It does not need to be embellished by the lies of self-serving promoters of war. And when law enforcement professionals in the FBI and elsewhere do their jobs with dignity and skill, I couldn’t care less about the IQ of the perp. In fact, I presume that most captured criminals are less than brilliant. First of all, they chose crime as their profession. Secondly, they weren’t good enough at it to avoid being caught. For me, that does nothing to degrade the value of good police work, as it does for Beck.

But beck takes his condescension even further by depreciating the contribution of the FBI in the Fort Dix affair:

“…we the people, are the best and sometimes only defense against terrorism. Remember, if it wasn’t for one alert Circuit City employee, we might be talking about a completely different situation right now.”

I think the FBI might take issue with that statement. I doubt that they view an untrained and distracted populace as the best and/or only defense against terrorism. And while they are surely grateful that an observant, concerned video store clerk brought a suspicious activity to their attention in this case, that doesn’t mean they believe that they would not have uncovered and foiled the plot had this citizen not come forward.

So while Beck pretends to be supporting law enforcement, he is actually insulting them. And when Olbermann insults terrorists, Becks rises to their defense. Could he possibly have got this more backwards? Or is he just this desperate for a reason to attack his TV rival?

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Michael Moore And U.S. Government Conspiring to Promote Sicko

Posted by on May 11, 2007 at 9:58 am. 2 Comments :

It is now being widely reported that the U. S. Treasury Department is investigating filmmaker Michael Moore in connection with his upcoming documentary, “Sicko.” The feds are alleging that Moore made an illegal trip to Cuba with a group of 9/11 rescue workers who are suffering from health problems related to their relief efforts. But only News Corpse has the courage to reveal the truth:

Michael Moore and the U.S. government are now working together! Despite the protestations published on Moore’s website that the investigation of Michael Moore is “politically motivated,” the more significant revelation is this:

“Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in just one week and opening across the U.S. on June 29th, ‘SiCKO’ will expose the corporations that place profit before care and the politicians who care only about money.”

This kind of publicity is worth millions and is almost never available for documentaries. Are we supposed to think the timing of this investigation is a mere coincidence? How stupid do they think we are? There are only two possible explanations for this investigation being commenced at this time:

  • The Bush administration, with the permission of its pharmaceutical benefactors, is actively promoting the film and its message.
  • The Treasury Department made a clumsy mistake in the execution of their official duties.

The clockwork-like efficiency of this administration effectively rules out option two, so that leaves us with option one: Collaboration!

I never thought I’d see this day, but the evidence of conspiracy is overwhelming. We have to wake up to reality, people. Follow the money!

Update: For good measure, the conspirators have recruited the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post to further advance their plot. The Post is alone in reporting a number of shocking sidebars to this disturbing story that the rest of the media is actively suppressing.

For instance, they describe the film as “an attack on American drug companies and HMOs that Moore hopes to debut at the Cannes Film Festival next month.” This is obviously disinformation as the film has actually already been selected as an official presentation at Cannes.

The Post further reports that, “the sick sojourn, which some say uses ill 9/11 workers as pawns, has angered many in the responder community.” And we all know how reliable “some say” are as witnesses.

Then there is the testimony of Joe Picurro, an ailing relief worker who said, “I would rather die in America than go to Cuba.” I’m sure that’s a sentiment with which all Americans can relate.

But the icing on the conspiratorial cake is this:

“Although he has been a critic of Cuba, Moore grew popular there after a pirated version of his movie, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” was played on state-owned TV.”

That’s right, Moore is popular in Cuba! The Post’s disclosure of this classified intelligence seals the case that they are in cahoots with the government’s scheme to help Moore generate valuable controversy and media attention. This should put an end to any stray skepticism.


Big Media: We Are The Sioux Nation – Google Is Custer

Posted by on May 9, 2007 at 12:44 pm. 4 Comments :

As the giant multi-national media conglomerates continue to grow, they are becoming even more brazen in their ambition and arrogance. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., in the midst of a proposed acquisition of Dow Jones, doesn’t intend to slow down. The president of Fox Entertainment, Peter Chernin, spoke at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association conference yesterday and declared that…

This is a market that Murdoch and his ilk do not intend abandon to the unwashed hordes of a free blogiverse.

“You’ll see more acquisitions. This is a world where the big get bigger. You’ll see increased consolidation.”

That statement should not be construed as an executive assessment of future corporate activity. It is a threat. It is a loaded missile launcher aimed at free thinking, independence minded citizens of America and the world. These words must be taken as seriously as the man who uttered them.

Even as Chernin spoke, his boss News Corp. was in the process of gobbling up Photobucket, an image storage and sharing web site. While this may not be as consequential as the Dow Jones deal, it does give Fox’s Interactive Media group another 41 million users and advances the imperial interests of its MySpace division. The impact of this should not be underestimated. In this morning’s, release of its quarterly earnings, Cisco’s CEO, John Chambers predicted that…

“…consumer Internet traffic will surpass corporate traffic for the first time this year ‘because of next-generation services such as blogs and wikis.’“

This is a market that Murdoch and his ilk do not intend abandon to the unwashed hordes of a free blogiverse. Time Warner CEO, Dick Parsons spoke at the same NCTA conference where he boastfully vowed that he and his corporatist troops will not surrender ground to upstarts and insurgents:

“The Googles of the world, they are the Custer of the modern world. We are the Sioux nation. They will lose this war if they go to war. The notion that the new kids on the block have taken over is a false notion.”

It is somewhat beyond ironic that Parsons would align himself analogously with the oppressed and overwhelmed nation of Native Americans when he has so much more in common with a clueless general fighting for an aggressive and imperialistic state. His words reek with hostility toward a new media world he seems incapable of comprehending. This is not the first eruption of Parsons’ cluelessness. He was quoted in Siva Vaidhyanathan’s book, The Anarchist in the Library, defending corporate dominion over creative and intellectual property and making the absurd and repulsive assertion that such authority is a requirement for the advancement of culture:

“This isn’t just about a bunch of kids stealing music. It’s an assault on everything that constitutes cultural expression of our society. If we fail to protect and preserve our intellectual property system, the culture will atrophy. And the corporations won’t be the only ones hurt. Artists will have no incentive to create. Worst-case scenario: the country will end up in a sort of Cultural Dark Age.”

If Parsons thinks that the reasons artists create is for material compensation, he has no business running a company that represents artists. His astonishingly ignorant point of view deserves an extended essay all its own. For now I’ll just link to this well articulated response from The Future of the Book.

Unfortunately, the Cultural Dark Age to which Parsons alludes is a very real possibility, though not for the reasons he suggests. It is corporations like the one he heads that will lead us over that cliff. Big Media still has more in common with Custer’s army than with the Sioux. The difference is that in today’s theater of war Custer’s reinforcements would be a phone call away and the Sioux nation would be reduced to rubble. That’s kind of the way it turned out anyway, it would just happen faster today.

The commoditization of culture is much more harmful to open societies than is its free distribution. The American Idolization of America presents a truly nightmarish scenario that trivializes creativity and expression. And as the media behemoths expand beyond all proportion, there is a risk of the bubble bursting like a car bomb in the marketplace of ideas.


National Review’s Cruise Spews Skewed News

Posted by on May 8, 2007 at 4:35 pm. NO Comments :

In case you haven’t already booked your summer vacation, you might want to look into this event brought to you by the folks at The National Review:

National Review's Ghost Ship

That’s right…Now you and your family can enjoy a leisurely trip to the Last Frontier state with many of the same people that hope to destroy it’s native beauty by drilling for oil in the Alaskan National Wilderness Area. Imagine the thrill of hobnobbing with your favorite neo-Icons, like…

  • Arthur Laffer, author of the widely rebuked “Laffer Curve.”
  • Ed Gillespie, former chairman of the Republican National Politburo.
  • Dick Morris, renowned political turncoat and self-promoter.
  • Robert Bork, rejected Supreme Court nutjob nominee.
  • Kate O’Bierne, reliable right-wing propaganda hustler.
  • Jonah Goldberg, the gold medal model for editorial hackery.

And just added…

  • John Bolton, hot-headed former ambassador and diplomatic self-destruct mechanism.

This promises to be an adventure that the Poseidon’s passengers could not even have imagined. If you have the courage to board a vessel helmed by the same crew that has steered America’s ship of state into the sandbars of Iraq, a perfect storm of corruption, and the depths of economic deficits and gross inequality, then be sure to book your room soon. This will be a Titanic affair that you’ll remember long after the Global War on Terror has metastasized into a perennial nightmare that your children’s children will still be fighting.

When you return your friends will be consumed with envy and will hungrily interrogate you for details. But having endured the torture that this trip is certain to inflict, you will be able to resist and maintain a Dead Calm. So get ready to board because, if you pass up this once in a lifetime opportunity, the terrorists win.


Murdoch Burned By Dow Jones Spurn

Posted by on May 8, 2007 at 2:09 am. NO Comments :

While Rupert is Wall Street Jonesin to expand his empire, the Dow J contingent just aint feelin it. Aside from the fact that the DJ’s controlling family, the Bancrofts, have already expressed their opposition to the takeover; and the paper’s union is firmly against Murdoch’s proposal; and journalism experts have denounced the plan; a couple of new wrenches have been thrown into the gears of Murdoch’s machine.

Ottaways Deplore Bid by Murdoch
This New York Times report discloses the not-so-subtle view of the Ottaway family, another major Dow Jones shareholder group. James H. Ottaway Jr. is adamant that, “Dow Jones is not for sale, at any price, to Rupert Murdoch.” His son goes into a little more detail:

“As an investor, I would be very concerned to live in an era of making investment decisions based on the Murdoch-filtered business information. As a citizen, I would be afraid to live in a world where news is solely entertainment, and there is an agenda behind every story I read, watch or hear.”

Authorities investigate trading in Dow Jones options
This story speculates that somebody knew about Murdoch’s intentions before they were publicly disclosed:

“More than 10,000 call options on Dow Jones stock were traded in late April, compared with about 7,000 during all of the January-March quarter.”

Both Dow Jones and News Corp acknowledge receiving subpoenas from the New York attorney general’s office and inquiries from the SEC.

This could get interesting – fun even. And I could get a chance to practice my New York Post-style headlines like the one above.


Bush: Don’t Believe Me. Listen To Zawahiri

Posted by on May 6, 2007 at 12:44 pm. NO Comments :

George Bush makes a lot of noise about fighting terrorists. And although his efforts have met with something far less than success, he sputters on about the clash of civilizations, fighting them over there, and some ill-defined notion of victory. The media eats it up and regurgitates it back to the sparrowlings in the audience to sustain our hunger for war. That partnership reinforces the fable of Bush as a courageous defender of America’s huddled masses, cowering in the shadow of terror.

But Bush has also been known to approvingly take the counsel of our enemies and use it to validate his woeful failures. In a press conference on October 11, 2006, the president warned of dire consequences should we conclude our occupation of Iraq that would provide al-Qaeda with a “new safe haven.” And how did the president know this? Let him tell it:

“How do I know that would happen? Because that’s what the enemy has told us would happen. That’s what they have said. And as Commander-in-Chief of the United States military, and as a person working to secure this country, I take the words of the enemy very seriously, and so should the American people.”

OK then, Bush takes the words of the enemy very seriously and so should we. In fact, Bush even subjugates his viewpoint to that of bin Laden and Zawahiri:

“…all you got to do is listen to what Osama bin Laden says. Don’t believe me that it’s a part of the war on terror; listen to the enemy, or listen to Mr. Zawahiri, the number two of al Qaeda, both of whom made it clear that Iraq is central in their plans.”

Alright then, let’s listen to what Mr. Zawahiri said yesterday about the legislation that Bush just vetoed calling for a redeployment of American troops to begin in October:

“This bill reflects American failure and frustration. However, this bill will deprive us of the opportunity to destroy the American forces which we have caught in a historic trap.”

“We ask Allah that they only get out of it after losing 200 to 300 hundred thousand killed, in order that we give the spillers of blood in Washington and Europe an unforgettable lesson, which will motivate them to review their entire doctrinal and moral system which produced their historic criminal Crusader-Zionist entity,”

So Zawahiri wants us to stay in Iraq and Bush also wants us to stay in Iraq. This harmony of purpose affirms the Bush campaign slogan extolling him as a “uniter, not a divider.” Never mind that he is in unity with the terrorists and in division with the 70% of Americans that want us out of Iraq.

Once again, Bush is listening to our enemies – just as he told us he would.

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Bill O’Reilly: Propaganda Pimp

Posted by on May 4, 2007 at 7:56 pm. 1 Comments :

Bill O’Reilly: Propaganda Pimp
In a roomful of egomaniacal bloviating pundits, Bill O’Reilly would stand out as a towering infernal display of delusional demagoguery. Almost any random sampling of The O’Reilly Fester will reveal a man obsessed with his own righteousness.

Click the link above to experience an interactive portrait of O’Reilly that puts his unique abuse of language on display.


Villains And Victims In Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin Zone

Posted by on May 2, 2007 at 11:35 am. 1 Comments :




Researchers at Indiana University have published the results of a study that documents the intimidation and propagandizing employed by Fox News’ resident bully, Bill O’Reilly. The study, sub-titled, “Revisiting World War Propaganda Techniques,” finally paints an academically verified picture1 of O’Reilly’s repulsive modus operandi. Contrary to O’Reilly’s assertion that he doesn’t, “do personal attacks,” the IU study spells out the truth:

The IU researchers found that O’Reilly called a person or a group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds, on average, or nearly nine times every minute during the editorials that open his program each night. [See the Stalking Points Memos].

This may not seem like news, but we now have data that is backed up by the reputation of researchers from a respectable American university. While it may appear that O’Reilly is a cartoonish character, he is following the model of Father Charles Coughlin, the early 20th century American racist/fascist. There were probably those who thought Coughlin was cartoonish at the time. And like Coughlin, O’Reilly does have a huge audience of blind ducklings that take his word as gospel. The lesson we must learn is that this sort of evil cannot be ignored.

O’Reilly is man that cannot say the word “left” without appending modifiers like “far,” “ultra,” “committed,” or “looney.” He is a man who is convinced that every critic is a “smear merchant.” And his opponents are never merely disagreeing with him, they are “vile.”

While the researchers never overtly associate O’Reilly with the work of his propagandisitc predecessors (i.e. Goebbels, Coughlin), they do point out some more subtle connections. The study itemized seven propaganda devices as defined by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis. O’Reilly was found to have employed six of them nearly 13 times each minute:

  • Name calling – giving something a bad label to make the audience reject it without examining the evidence.
  • Glittering generalities – the opposite of name calling.
  • Card stacking – the selective use of facts and half-truths.
  • Bandwagon – appeals to the desire, common to most of us, to follow the crowd.
  • Plain folks – an attempt to convince an audience that they, and their ideas, are “of the people”.
  • Transfer – carries over the authority, sanction and prestige of something we respect or dispute to something the speaker would want us to accept.
  • Testimonials – involving a respected (or disrespected) person endorsing or rejecting an idea or person.

Sound familiar? Every now and then, an academic institution will conduct an exercise in the obvious. It would not take much in the way of intuition to have predicted the results of this study, but it is still useful to have compiled an accurate and scholarly paper on the subject to wave in the face of skeptics, not that O’Reilly’s minions will pay much mind. They will likely respond with the indignation of Stephen Colbert and proclaim that they don’t care much for “book-learnin.” And we know, because Colbert has told us, that the truth has a well known liberal bias.

[1] I have also painted a picture of O’Reilly’s repulsive modus operandi. Actually, it is an interactive artwork that documents O’Reilly’s attempts to demean and belittle his perceived enemies. Unfortunately, the piece is a day or two from completion. I was surprised that this study from IU was released so close to my completion of this artwork. Coincidence? I’ll have the artwork posted by Saturday. It’s posted now: Bill O’Reilly: Propaganda Pimp
Contine reading →


More Fallout From the Fox Street Journal

Posted by on May 2, 2007 at 10:19 am. NO Comments :

Dow Jones’s Bancroft Family Rejects Murdoch’s Offer:
Dow Jones & Co. said Bancroft family members who control more than 50 percent of the company’s voting shares will reject a $5 billion takeover bid by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

This still doesn’t mean it’s over. Murdoch could sweeten the offer and there may be offers from other media companies like the New York Times or the Washington Post Co. Even Google has been mentioned in speculation. This could drag on for a while.

IAPE/Communications Workers of America Oppose News Corp. Bid:
Mr. Murdoch has shown a willingness to crush quality and independence, and there is no reason to think he would handle Dow Jones or The Journal any differently.

Ben H. Bagdikian, author and former journalism dean, UC Berkeley:
If Murdoch gets control of the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones and if he follows the pattern of his past acquisitions, he will use the Wall Street Journal to serve his own purposes, financial and political.


Murdoch Makes Bid For Dow Jones

Posted by on May 1, 2007 at 1:16 pm. NO Comments :

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. has made an unsolicited offer to purchase the Dow Jones Company, owner of, among other things, the Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones is majority controlled by the Bancroft family, who have been reluctant to sell in the past. But the combination of the poor performance of newspaper investments and the nearly 50% premium that Murdoch is offering may represent a more tempting proposal than they have seen before. The significance of this potential acquisition extends to a variety of concerns that should raise field of red flags.

News Corp is rapidly overwhelming the most intimate and influential components of our society.

The first and most obvious concern relates to the ongoing problem of media consolidation. The News Corp. empire already owns the nation’s largest cable news network, a major broadcast entertainment network, numerous TV and radio stations, a prominent film/TV studio, entertainment and sports cable networks, magazine and newspaper holdings, publishing companies including HarperCollins, and Internet properties including the world’s largest social networking site, MySpace. Dow Jones, in addition to the Wall Street Journal, owns the Dow Jones Newswire, Barrons Magazine, the Dow Jones Indexes, and popular Internet destinations spun off of the Journal and Barrons.

The thought of these two highly influential media conglomerates merging should stir up some anxiety under any circumstances. But add in the recent announcement by Fox of their intention to launch a new Fox Business Channel this fall and that anxiety should escalate into full blown vertigo. Placing the assets of Dow Jones under the same umbrella that runs what will be a formidable player in cable financial news will produce an anti-competitive megalith that can only result in a decline in journalistic aspirations as well as further erosion of the public interest. But the problem is worse than just any media group acquiring Dow Jones. The Fox aqcuisition brings along with it Murdoch’s previously admitted biases and rejection of the most basic principles of journalism. As a reminder, Murdoch told conferees at a McGraw-Hill media summit that…

“…a Fox channel would be ‘more business-friendly than CNBC.’ That channel ‘leap[s] on every scandal, or what they think is a scandal.'”

If that’s a preview of what we can expect from the Fox Business Channel, and the Fox-run Wall Street Journal, we do have real cause for concern. It would mean an end to objectivity and accuracy in favor of being more “friendly” toward the institutions that are being covered.

But that’s not all. The assets of Dow Jones span a unique stretch of the American landscape. The Wall Street Journal, while widely considered to have a conservative slant on its editorial pages, is often a valuable contributor to serious investigative journalism. And its management of the stock market indexes that influence much of the economic activity in the country, and the world, depend on fealty to the marketplace and not other subjective criteria. How can such impartial management be expected from Murdoch, who also made this confession at a conference in Davos, Switzerland, when asked if he had managed to shape the agenda on the war in Iraq:

“No, I don’t think so. We tried.” Asked by [Charlie] Rose for further comment, he said: “We basically supported the Bush policy in the Middle East.”

Would he try to use his new toys to shape the economy by publishing articles supportive of Bush (or other neocon) policy? Would he try to manipulate the contents of the Dow 30, or other market indexes, for partisan purposes?

Murdoch’s ambitions are notorious and frightening. These latest moves bring us closer to the tightening of the noose around America’s throat. News Corp is rapidly overwhelming the most intimate and influential components of our society. They may soon control the perceptions of our politics (Fox News), our culture (Fox Entertainment), and now our economy (Fox Business Channel/DowJones). And anyone who isn’t afraid of this – afraid enough to be motivated to act – is probably already infected, likely beyond salvation. I hope that does not include YOU!