A Fight With Obama: Fox News Admits That Their Immigration Coverage Is Purely Political

Posted by Mark NC on July 11, 2014 at 1:49 pm. 2 Comments :

The ongoing protests at Murrieta, California have exposed a nauseating dark side of nativist prejudice on the part of right-wing anti-immigrant activists. Their hostile screamfests aimed at frightened children on buses is almost too barbaric to be believed. And now their media champions at Fox News have revealed that the motivation behind the coverage of these troglodytes is purely political.

The headline on the lie-riddled Fox Nation website cheers that “Murrieta Wins Fight With Obama.” With Obama? So the Fox Nationalists see this humanitarian crisis as just another partisan scuffle with the president they despise so ferociously? They don’t recognize the plight of children who are alone, impoverished, scared, and uncertain of their future? They obviously aren’t concerned with working on possible resolutions to the problem. The only thing relevant to them is that their designated enemy in the White House can be tagged with a defeat.

And what is the victory of which they are so proud? Hundreds of kids are terrorized by bitter, hateful clods with grimacing faces and intimidating signs that the kids can’t even read. The process of getting these kids through the immigration bureaucracy is stalled, exacerbating the problem to which the protesters supposedly are objecting. And politicians are swept up in the tide of racism that makes legislative solutions even more remote. Congratulations.

It should also be noted that the victory of hate being celebrated by Fox is another Fox lie. Although officials have temporarily halted the busloads of children into the San Diego area, citing reduced backlogs in Texas, Lombardo Amaya, union president of the El Centro chapter of the National Border Patrol Council, told The Desert Sun that “This does not mean that we will not continue to receive more loads in the future.” No doubt the child-haters will be back on the protest line should the busing resume. And with them will be Fox News and the rest of the wingnut press who will hype this beastly crusade just like they did for deadbeat rancher, Cliven Bundy.

Shameless self-promotion…
Get Fox Nation vs. Reality. Available now at Amazon.

Finally, the reaction from the right to Obama’s proposal for $3.7 billion to address the current crisis has been resoundingly negative. On Fox News they resorted to complaining that this is a large sum of money to be allocating to immigrant children when there are still American children who are hungry, homeless, or otherwise deprived. ARE YOU FRIGGIN’ KIDDING ME? These are the same jerkwads who have been viciously condemning what they derisively refer to as “The Welfare State.” They oppose every form of relief from housing aid, to food stamps, to school lunches, to Head Start, to tax reform, etc.

Now Fox News expects us to believe that they favor allocating funds to needy American kids? Message to Fox News: We are not as stupid as your standard viewer. If you really care about American kids, then show it by supporting the programs listed above. And if you still think that immigrant kids should be left to starve, or be returned to poverty and violence in their home country, then just make that argument without pretending to care about Americans.

Fox Nation vs. Reality: Tweets That Are Not By The President Are Not By The President

Posted by Mark NC on July 8, 2014 at 3:51 am. 3 Comments :

It takes a remarkably obstinate personality to insist on a position even after acknowledging that the position is false. But that’s precisely what the editors at Fox Nation did when they reported on an exchange between Jonathan Karl of ABC News and Josh Earnest, the White House Press Secretary.

For more blatant lies from the Fox Nationalists…
Get Fox Nation vs. Reality. Available now at Amazon.

At yesterday’s daily press briefing, Karl sought to determine whether President Obama was responsible for, or aware of, a tweet that was posted by Organizing for America [OFA], a political enterprise that was spun off of the Obama campaign for the presidency. In his preface to the question he appeared to already know the answer, but persisted with his contrived query anyway.

Karl: The President’s tweets – those tweets that go out @BarackObama – I understand those that aren’t signed “BO” aren’t directly written by him. Does he even read the others, does he know they’re going out? Are they reviewed by senior people at the White House or is that just simply OFA doing something on his behalf?
Earnest: The @BarackObama Twitter handle is maintained by OFA. That is the political organization that was the offshoot of the campaign, and that is a Twitter handle that is maintained independent of the White House.

That’s about as clear as it can be said. OFA is an independent operation that is not run through the White House. Neither the President, nor his staff, is responsible for what it posts, unless explicitly signed by the President. Yet somehow the editors at Fox Nation plastered a headline atop this story that falsely states “White House Not Sure If Obama Aware of His Own Tweets.”

The severity of the cognitive disconnect here is magnified by the fact that the video they themselves attached to the story contradicts their own headline. So how can they post a video that declares in absolute terms that these are not the President’s tweets, and still call them his tweets in bold type? Simple. They’re shameless liars. What’s more, the source for the story is the disreputable, GOP-run, Koch brothers affiliated, phony news service, the Washington Free Beacon. They are a brazenly biased organization for whom spreading lies is an integral part of their mission. With deception and disinformation being such an important facet of these operations, you would think that they would be better at it.

The article went on to further discuss the content of the tweet despite having already established that the President had nothing to do with it. In the process, the White House was able to reinforce their position in opposition to the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case that elevated the rights of a corporation’s religious beliefs over those of the human beings who work for the corporation.

Karl: The tweet I’m gonna ask you about is after the Hobby Lobby decision, it’s a “Throwback Thursday” tweet: “Throwback to last week when a woman—not her boss—made her own decisions about her health care.” Does the president believe that because of the Hobby Lobby decision, women are not allowed to make their own decisions about their health care unless they consult with their boss?
Earnest: That is certainly true of women in some cases, and that’s the concern that this administration has. That the consequence of the Supreme Court ruling is that it will allow bosses to interfere with what the President believes should be the freedom any woman has to make her own decisions about her health care.

While Earnest handily disposed of the clumsy and argumentative question by a reporter who has repeatedly demonstrated his political prejudices, the truly pathetic part of this is the manner in which it was framed by the Fox Nationalists and their pals at the Free Beacon. These folks should try to comprehend the stories they cover before making fools of themselves by authoring articles that are contradicted by the story’s content.

Cliven Bundy 2.0: Fox News Makes Heroes Of American Border Jihadists

Posted by Mark NC on July 6, 2014 at 3:24 pm. 6 Comments :

The border wars continue on Fox News as the network repeatedly portrays the immigration issue in partisan terms and likens the influx of immigrants to an “invasion” or a conspiracy by President Obama to mint new Democratic voters.

In another new escalation of their radical rhetoric, Fox News is now heralding the participation of right-wing militia organizations who say that they will take it upon themselves to patrol the southern borders (funny that they are never concerned with any other border), an activity for which they have no legal authority.

The Fox Nation website is currently featuring an article that promotes a positive impression of violent and racist extra-legal militias that they describe as “defenders” of the U.S. border saying that…

“We have independent units from the Bolinas Border Patrol and the Central Valley Citizens militia joining forces with independent citizens militia units of Texas to defend our southern border in Texas, to protest Obama’s lawless open borders policies and to rally support for Governor Perry to officially call out Guard units and Texas militia units at his disposal to defend the border!! Lawsuits will not cut it. The invasion is happening now. Action must be taken NOW!!”

These border jihadists have no official authorization to conduct the activities that they have announced. Any harm that might come to themselves or others would constitute criminal misbehavior for which they could be prosecuted and punished. Their hollow exclamations of lawlessness on the part of the federal government are completely without merit and they offer no argument to support their claims. Contrary to the charge of “open borders,” the Obama administration has significantly improved border security and has actually intercepted and deported more immigrants than their predecessors in the Bush administration.

None of that gets in the way of promulgating false and hysterical allegations that are designed to incite racial disharmony among the Fox News Chicken Littles who see this administration as a sign of the Apocalypse. It is a call to battle in the Texas territories that the righteous must heed, just as they did up in Nevada where deadbeat rancher Cliven Bundy amassed militia groups to stare down federal law enforcement agents. That incident ended in a moment of candor with Bundy revealing his racist tendencies and a couple of his former associates murdering two police officers in Las Vegas.

Just to make sure that the message sent to the militia brigades is not misunderstood, the photograph that Fox Nation used to illustrate their border defense jihad was actually taken during the Bundy ranch standoff. It is telling that Fox would use this photo to represent events at the border when it wasn’t taken there. And it is journalistically unethical to do so without proper disclosure. This is a not-so-subtle attempt to interweave the Bundy affair with this new group of lawless missionaries. So even though Bundy was discredited and abandoned after flaming out in the Nevada desert, Fox News is still peddling the agenda of insurrectionists who believe that they can take the law into their own hands.

The ignorance required to link immigration to an invasion is substantial. Invaders are overtly hostile enemy assailants who seek to overthrow the target of their attack. However, no one disputes that immigrants are drawn here by their reverence for American values and opportunities. They are not enemies advancing to conquer. They were invited by the words engraved in brass at the base of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

With regard to the alleged voter creation conspiracy theory nonsense, even the most liberal interpretation of the immigration policies currently being discussed would require new residents to have been in the U.S. since childhood and to have completed high school or be serving in the military. Additionally, they would would have to pay all taxes and penalties and go to the end of the line to qualify for citizenship. All told it is estimated that it would take about thirteen years to become a citizen with voting privileges.

Unfortunately, the themes being hyped by Fox News are being echoed throughout the conservative media circus. The extremists and wackos who inhabit that realm are eagerly latching on to this new cause for panic. And the possibility of it producing another tragedy similar to the one that cost two Las Vegas police officers their lives is ever more likely.

Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, but with accomplices like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh treating violent criminals like heroes, we may not have seen the worst of this yet.

While Suppressing Good Jobs Data, Fox News Slams Obama For Trying To Create More Jobs

Posted by Mark NC on July 3, 2014 at 11:18 am. 5 Comments :

This morning the new unemployment report was released showing that 288,000 jobs were added during the month of June and the unemployment rate went down to 6.1%, the lowest since September of 2008. Not surprisingly, Fox News virtually ignored this report as they do with anything that might reflect positively on this administration. And in their abbreviated coverage they made sure to focus on whatever negative spin they could muster.

Making matters worse, Fox Nation chose this day of uplifting economic news to criticize President Obama for paying too much attention to improving the economy. Yes, you read that right. Fox is very upset that Obama has made economic renewal a key part of his agenda. It’s just another reason for them to commence impeachment hearings.

For more absurdities from the liars at Fox Nation…
Get Fox Nation vs. Reality. Available now at Amazon.

The Fox Nationalists posted an article from the Washington Examiner that took the President to task for raising the issue of our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and urging Congress to act on his proposals to fund the repair of roads, bridges, and other public works projects. The Examiner’s story began sarcastically by saying…

“When the going gets tough, and it seems like everything is falling apart, everyone likes to retreat to their safe place. Some find comfort in their faith. Others find comfort in family. For President Obama, it’s a ‘pivot’ to jobs and the economy.”

Setting aside the clumsy backhand at Obama’s commitment to faith and family, the charge that he is seeking to exploit the issue of jobs and the economy as a refuge from other more pressing matters couldn’t be more ridiculous. It would require one to be so dense and/or dishonest that they fail to recognize that jobs and the economy are consistently the most important issues to the American people in poll after poll, including the latest Fox News poll. And Obama addressed this in his latest speech highlighting what he called “Economic Patriotism.”

“It’s not crazy, it’s not socialism. It’s not the imperial presidency — no laws are broken. We’re just building roads and bridges like we’ve been doing for the last, I don’t know, 50, 100 years. But so far, House Republicans have refused to act on this idea. I haven’t heard a good reason why they haven’t acted — it’s not like they’ve been busy with other stuff.”

The fact that Fox regards jobs and the economy as distractions, and downplays positive economic news, tells us that they have a weak grasp of what’s important to the American people. And instead of taking these issues seriously, Fox obsesses over IRS emails, and Hillary Clinton’s book tour. The result is that Fox and their mush-brained viewers will be caught off-guard again, just as they were in 2012 when they were certain that Romney would crush Obama in a landslide.

When you construct a fantasy dream world of heroes and villains and contrived realities, it will always end badly when you wake up and learn that you were lied to by the media storytellers in whom you put your faith. So thank you, Fox News, for keeping your audience mired in myths and irrelevancies while the rest of the country tries to move forward. And in November, if the Democrats make unexpected gains in the congressional midterm elections, you can console yourselves with the knowledge that you built that.

Another Shameless Self-Promotion For The Hottest eBook Mentioned In This Headline: Fox Nation vs. Reality

Posted by Mark NC on July 1, 2014 at 4:21 pm. 2 Comments :

News Corpse has been publishing exposes of the conservative media, and particularly Fox News, for almost a decade. In that time we have revealed the dishonesty, duplicity, and deception of the wingnut press as no one else can. If you are a regular reader you know the value of having reliable, well researched rebuttals to the certifiable crap that emanates from the right.

So the question now is: If you haven’t bought our book yet, what the heck are you waiting for? Fox Nation vs. Reality is jam-packed with more than 50 examples of Fox’s utter disregard for the truth. It’s a great resource for setting your Tea-publican friends and family straight. We all have one one of them crazy uncles, admit it.

[Stephen Colbert endorsement is a dramatization of what we’d like to believe
would happen if he knew the book existed]

Plus, your purchase will help News Corpse continue to shine the light of truth on the right-wing media machine with the logic, insight, and humor regular readers have come to expect. It’s like donating three bucks to a worthy cause and getting an awesome book for free.

Wonkette called Fox Nation vs. Reality, “A valuable contribution to the effort to chip away at Bullshit Mountain.” Who can argue with that? They also touted the book’s “Solid, fact-checky blogging that systematically takes apart the exaggerations, cherry-picking of facts, and outright lies that regularly crop up in Fox Nation articles.” And they cryptically noted that “Fox Nation vs. Reality is definitely not hastily written Furry porn.” High praise indeed.

As an example from the book of one of the blatant departures from reality employed by Fox, take a look at this article where Fox Nation published an item with the headline “Obama More Unpopular Than Tea Party.” However, the New York Times poll cited in the article actually reported Obama’s favorability at 48% and the Tea Party at 20% – a complete reversal of the declaration in the headline.

So get your copy today at Amazon. You won’t regret it. Just wade through a few dozen of the glowing reviews on Amazon for an idea of what to expect. And if you do regret it…hey, it’s only three measly bucks. What are you, cheap or something? [Seriously, thanks for your support. News Corpse could not be here without the generous support of our readers]

Curmudgeon Watch: Bill O’Reilly Wags His Finger At Jon Stewart’s Daily Show

Posted by Mark NC on June 26, 2014 at 2:27 pm. 7 Comments :

Pandering to his geriatric demographic, Bill O’Reilly of Fox News devoted his lead segments to concern-trolling the welfare of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert. The theme of his Talking Points Memo was whether or not the Comedy Central duo would have to “change their tone” now that “things are not going very well for the Obama administration.”

O’Reilly opened by asserting that Stewart and Colbert are unrepentant liberals who are committed exclusively to attacking conservatives and promoting President Obama:

O’Reilly: Here’s the problem with these guys. They prop up the Democratic Party and the liberal line, President Obama, by denigrating the opposition, the Republican Party, conservative people. That’s what they do. That’s how they function on a daily basis over there. Does it get more difficult to do that when the President and the party, the Democratic Party, are descending in the court of public opinion?

First of all, O’Reilly’s logic that Republicans cannot be satirized if Obama’s approval ratings decline is ludicrous on its face. If popularity, or the lack of it, is the driving factor as to whether a potential target of satire will be selected by a comedian, then it’s the Republican Party that can breathe a sigh of relief, because no matter how badly the President is doing, he’s miles ahead of the GOP.

But more to the point, O’Reilly is absolutely wrong in his assessment that Stewart props up Democrats and lives to denigrate the right. Apparently he doesn’t watch The Daily Show or even read Fox Nation (which is edited by his own producer, Jesse Watters). Over at the Fox Nation Lie-Fest they have published dozens of articles heaping praise on Stewart for either “destroying, tearing apart, eviscerating, or grilling” Obama and other liberals (see this list here). And if that weren’t enough, they also highlighted the many times Stewart “mocked, roasted, savaged, scorched, ridiculed, and obliterated” the President and his lefty allies (see this list here).

So where does O’Reilly get the idea that Stewart is propping up liberals? Like almost everything else that O’Reilly (and Fox News) spews, it is made up from whole cloth to advance the conservative agenda. But O’Reilly has his sycophantic guests that appear mainly to agree with him. On this program it was Fox News media correspondent, Howard Kurtz, who declared that Stewart and Colbert are now “out of the zeitgeist” due to their alleged failure to criticize the President. And who knows more about the zeitgeist than Kurtz?

However, Kurtz doesn’t seem to be paying any attention to Fox’s reporting either. That’s pretty damning for the person on the Fox roster whose job is specifically the media. Kurtz criticized Stewart’s coverage of the IRS affair because it contained “nothing about a cover up. He glossed over President Obama’s role.” Kurtz must have missed the fact that there is zero evidence of a cover up or any role by the President. That may have something to do with why Stewart left it out.

When Kurtz’s co-host on Fox’s MediaBuzz, Lauren Ashburn, chirped in to disagree with O’Reilly, she was immediately interrupted so that O’Reilly could ridicule her viewpoint and segue to insulting Stewart’s audience as San Francisco liberals smoking pot. That’s actually a reprise of an insult he flung a couple of years ago when Stewart was a guest on his show. At that time O’Reilly slammed the Daily Show audience (which is documented as being younger, smarter, and more successful than O’Reilly’s) by saying…

“You know what’s really frightening? You actually have an influence on this presidential election. That is scary, but it’s true. You’ve got stoned slackers watching your dopey show every night and they can vote.”

If that’s scary, then how much more frightening is it that the imbeciles who watch O’Reilly, and believe the fairy tales he spins, can vote (or buy guns, or operate cars and other heavy machinery)? O’Reilly concluded by thoughtfully worrying about Stewart and Colbert losing their audience since “they are going to have a harder time pleasing them with the collapse of the liberal establishment.” O’Reilly may have buried the lede in this program. Up until now, most people were probably unaware that the liberal establishment had collapsed. That should have been his headline. Of course, it’s just as phony as everything else he says, but why should that matter to the biggest phony on the phoniest network?

Fox Nation Follies: The “Stupid People Are Ruining America” Edition

Posted by Mark NC on June 22, 2014 at 9:30 am. 13 Comments :

We at News Corpse will risk life and limb to ride the rapids of the ridiculousness that emanates from Fox News, but there are times when the flow is difficult to keep up with. At times like these it may be necessary to compile some of the most significant stories into one article. But rest assured, we will always persevere in order to bring you, our readers, the critical information that you need to get through your busy day. You’re welcome.

First out of the gates is a ripe bit of nonsense from pizza magnate, and former GOP presidential front-runner, Herman Cain. Cain spoke at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference last week. This is an affair produced by Christian Coalition founder, and Jack Abramoff accomplice, Ralph Reed. The competition for “Most Ludicrous Comment” is stiff at this conference that hosted rightist luminaries like Michelle Bachmann, Ted Cruz, and Rick Santorum. It’s the classy sort of gala where one can find Obama figurines in urinals. But it was Cain who came away with the zinger of the week:

“I have even heard people say, ‘Well I don’t vote because I don’t know what’s going on.’ And I say good. Stupid people are ruining American and I’m glad some of them stay home. The solution is real simple folks. Those of us who are informed have got to out-vote the stupid people.”

Exactly! What this nation needs is more people like Herman Cain deciding America’s fate at the polls. After all this is the man whose encyclopedic knowledge of the world gave birth to the state of Uzbeckibekistanstan. And the coverage of Cain’s comedy routine at the conference provided additional examples of the not-stupid by the geniuses at Fox Nation:

The Fox Nationalists also reached out to their ideological allies at Infowars, Alex Jones’ ultra-fringe conspiracy theory website, to find an article that alleged that border agents were resigning en masse over their objections to foreign-born gang members being allowed to freely invade our peaceful, white, Christian neighborhoods. These alleged gangsters were reputed to be coming from the ranks of the immigrant children being housed at federal facilities while awaiting deportation or unification with their families.

The problem with this story is that the local newscast from which it was derived interviewed a border patrol union official who said only that some of his agents were suffering from low morale and were looking for other jobs, but that none had quit. He was also asked how many gang members he estimated were crossing the border. His answer was “A few, not too many,” thereby dispensing with the whole false premise of the article. And the photo in the Fox Nation posting is of gang members in Central America who have nothing to do with the current crisis of minor children immigrating unaccompanied into the U.S.

But what’s really troubling is that the Fox Nationalists saw fit to cite Infowars as the source for their disinformation. And this isn’t the first time. They have previously sourced articles to Infowars with similarly absurd reports. For instance:

Homeland Security to Purchase 141,000 Rounds of Sniper Ammo
Ex-TSA Screener: Officers ‘Laughing’ At Passengers’ Nude Images
DHS Video Characterizes Terrorists as White Americans
TSA Deploys Weiner Watchers at Super Bowl
Anarchists Plan War on Tea Parties April 15th

For more examples of Fox Nation’s lying ways…
Get Fox Nation vs. Reality. Available now at Amazon.

Finally, Fox News has shamelessly exploited the terrorist attack in Benghazi for their craven political objectives. In the process, they have tried to cast Hillary Clinton as responsible for the tragedy and uncaring about the consequences. However, it is Fox, and their right-wing cronies, who have sullied the memory of those killed in the service of their country. Fox, and their GOP pals, has even used the deaths as a means of raising money for Republican organizations.

Now another example of that callousness is on display on Fox Nation. Jason Mattera, a blitheringly idiotic wingnut who has carved a reputation out of embarrassing himself by attempting to embarrass others in foolishly contrived ambush videos, makes an appearance in a new video where he approaches Hillary Clinton at a book signing. When Clinton asks for his name, Mattera asks that she make it out to Christopher Stevens, the murdered ambassador who was also a friend of Clinton’s. Clinton refused his crass request and politely dismissed him saying “I think it would be great if you read.” the book. Mattera then made a couple of snarky remarks about Clinton’s security, who quickly ushered him away. However, he did successfully demonstrate how to disparage the memory of fallen patriots in pursuit of self-serving publicity.

And that’s today’s episode of the Fox Nation Follies. We hope you enjoyed the parade of repugnant imbeciles that populate the Fox newsroom. And with any luck, Herman Cain’s vision for America will come to pass and the sort of dimwits who make up the Fox News/Tea Party audience will stay home in November and stop wrecking the country for the rest of us.

Fox Nation vs. Reality: Hillary Clinton’s High Ethical Standards Infuriate Fox News

Posted by Mark NC on June 16, 2014 at 12:34 pm. 5 Comments :

The folks at Fox Nation are working overtime to unearth scandals they can attribute to Hillary Clinton. Lately their crack(head) reporters have discovered that, although Clinton did leave the White House in debt, she later made lots of money (Oh my!). They ferreted out that she is no longer young (You don’t say?). They alleged that she had suffered brain damage (Uh-oh!). And they continually try (and fail) to blame her for Benghazi. But now they may have hit on a charge that could stick: Hillary Clinton is an ethical attorney! (Yikes!)

For more documented examples of Fox Nation lies…
Get Fox Nation vs. Reality. Available now at Amazon.

The Fox Nationalists posted an article that they sourced to the ultra-rightist Washington Free Beacon announcing the discovery of “The Hillary Tapes” from deep within the – well, the very public archives of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. The release of these tapes were intended to tarnish Clinton’s reputation as an advocate for abused women and children. The article began saying that…

“In 1975, the same year she married Bill, Hillary Clinton agreed to serve as the court-appointed attorney for Thomas Alfred Taylor, a 41-year-old accused of raping the child after luring her into a car.

“The recordings, which date from 1983-1987 and have never before been reported, include Clinton’s suggestion that she knew Taylor was guilty at the time. She says she used a legal technicality to plead her client, who faced 30 years to life in prison, down to a lesser charge.

“The full story of the Taylor defense calls into question Clinton’s narrative of her early years as a devoted women and children’s advocate in Arkansas—a narrative the 2016 presidential frontrunner continues to promote on her current book tour.”

Apparently the Fox Nationalists, and their ignorant pals at the Free Beacon, are unaware of the constitutional provision that grants all defendants the right to competent counsel. It is the responsibility of the attorney to work on behalf of the client’s best interests regardless of guilt or innocence. And in this case Clinton did just that after being assigned the case by the court. It would have been unethical to do anything else.

What’s more, the “technicality” that Clinton employed was that the lab contracted by the prosecutor had lost the material evidence in the case. That’s a pretty significant technicality. The defense can’t examine or rebut, nor can the state convict, on evidence that doesn’t exist.

So Clinton did her job as the law requires her to do. And for demonstrating those strong principles Fox tries to twist the story into something negative. Instead, they expose themselves as opponents of the Constitution and those who respect it. Descending to these depths of dishonesty in order to demean Clinton tells us something about Fox in the clearest terms: They are staggeringly scared of Clinton and the prospect of her candidacy in 2016.

Fox Nation vs. Reality: Gun Nuts Fight For The Rights Of Nuts To Own Guns

Posted by Mark NC on June 7, 2014 at 1:28 pm. 3 Comments :

The debate over regulating firearms that has erupted following a series of horrific mass shootings has been mired in partisan arguments for and against measures such as universal background checks, bans on assault weapons, and limits on high capacity magazines (although the public at large favors all of these by significant majorities). But one frequently discussed solution has always seemed to attract bipartisan support: Mental health checks.

That is until it was actually proposed by Democratic members of Congress (Rep. Lois Capps and Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein) in the “Pause for Safety Act.” This legislation has three primary functions, as described by Capps…

“Through establishing a new grant program, the bill would help ensure that family members can go to a court to seek a ‘gun violence prevention order’ to temporarily stop someone who poses a threat to themselves or others from purchasing or possessing a gun. The bill will also ensure that a court can issue a ‘gun violence prevention warrant,’ allowing law enforcement to step in if the court determines the individual poses a threat to themselves or others. Finally, the bill ensures that law enforcement can make full use of all existing state and local gun databases when investigating a warning or request from a family member.”

This bill is a creative attempt to empower family members, the people who are in the best position to know whether someone is a danger to themselves or others, to take action to prevent a tragedy. It also protects the rights of the subjects by affording them a fair court hearing to respond to the allegations raised. In the recent shootings in Isla Vista, the parents of the shooter were aware of his disturbing state of mind and reported it to the local sheriff. But neither of them had the authority to go farther than a brief conversation with the soon-to-be murderer. This bill addresses that legal flaw in a rational way.

Shameless self-promotion…
Get Fox Nation vs. Reality. Available now at Amazon.

Unfortunately, the gun fetishists at the NRA, and their PR division Fox News, are already lining up to oppose the bill. Fox News posted an article on their lie-riddled Fox Nation website sourced to the ultra-rightist Breitbart News with the panicky headline “Dems Introduce Firearm Confiscation Legislation.” The obvious intent of their wording is to incite the NRA-Theists into a mouth-foaming tizzy at the notion that government stormtroopers will be coming for their guns. Needless to say, that is an outright lie that is easily debunked by the language in the bill.

The truth is that only persons who are identified as dangerous by family members (or other close associates), and who are affirmed to be so by a court, would be subject to any sanctions on purchases or ownership. Which is precisely what the gun nut crowd has been clamoring for. When any other form of regulation is proposed, they viscerally object and claim that the only thing that’s relevant is the emotional stability of the person seeking to obtain firearms. But now that a bill has been proposed that addresses exactly that, they are trying to slither out of supporting it. In effect, they are arguing on behalf of mentally unstable people to acquire, maintain, and ultimately use guns.

This is pretty good evidence that they have no intention of supporting any regulations on guns for any reason. They are so enamored of their weaponry that they will willingly accept tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths every year in order to maintain access to any weapon for anyone at any time.

Consequently, it is clear that they are utterly disingenuous when they speak of compromise or bipartisanship in the effort to find solutions. It is now justified and necessary to ignore them and go directly to the people and our representatives and insist on concrete action. The American people want something done, and compassion for the past (and future) victims demands it. We no longer need to be concerned about what the gun fetishists say because we know they don’t mean it and won’t help. So now the only question is, will our representatives in Congress help?

Flakes On A Plane: Is This The Stupidest Fox News ‘Exclusive’ Ever?

Posted by Mark NC on May 24, 2014 at 11:57 am. 10 Comments :

The never-ending fount of lies, distortion, and disinformation that is known as Fox News has long ago ceased to surprise media watchers who are accustomed to their shameful propagandizing and absence of journalistic ethics. Yet every now and then, Fox still manages to find a way to embarrass themselves with ever-lower descents into idiocy. For example, Fox News contributor and hero-hating war criminal, Allen West, has provided Fox with an “exclusive” that will surely blow the lid off of the Benghazi affair: “Confidential Source Reveals To Me What Really Happened In Benghazi.”

For more outrageous lies from Fox…
Get Fox Nation vs. Reality. Available now at Amazon.

The significance and credibility of this story was so profound that the Fox Nationalists featured it at the top of their website. West began his shocking expose by revealing that…

“Today as I returned from Detroit, I had a moment that I truly felt was God sent, as I don’t believe in coincidences. It happened on one of my flights, and it was two hours I will never forget.

“I was seated beside someone who personally knew one of the men who was there on the roof in Benghazi. This person was excited to share with me the ‘ground truth’ of what happened September 11, 2012.”

So West’s source for his exclusive was God, as represented by an anonymous stranger that happened to be sitting next to him on a plane. And who could possibly have more authority and respect than some dude (not to be confused with Jeff Lebowski) in the aisle seat on a flight from Detroit? The Dude then proceeded to tell West what some other dude, also anonymous, told him.

“My seat mate drew schematics to orient me to the ‘time and spacing’ and the direction of the attack. I learned about the repeated orders to the men at the CIA annex to stand down and do nothing — thank God two of them, Glenn Doherty and Ty Woods, lived up to their code of honor and ran to the sound of the guns, resulting in their loss of life.”

While West says he learned of orders to “stand down,” every credible, independent investigation found that no such orders were ever given. But West has the word of the dude on the plane, so that settles that argument. And why West thanks God that two men lost their lives while engaging the attackers can only be known to him.

West’s Dude also told him that “the attackers were indeed Ansar al-Sharia” and why Amb. Chris Stevens was in Benghazi in the first place (which West neglects to disclose in his article). He also alleged that there are others who are “being threatened with their pensions being cut off if they come forth to speak.” That’s a convenient excuse for the failure of any corroborating witnesses coming forward. However, it is also insulting and improbable because it presumes that people who put their very lives on the line for their country are scared off by losing some retirement income. In other words, what West expects us believe is that these patriots will throw their bodies in front of enemy bullets, but losing a paycheck will frighten them into silence.

West further alleges that his Dude told him about “covert weapons schemes” that involve the U.S. “supplying radical Islamists with weapons” in an international conspiracy that stretches from Libya to Syria and beyond. And for some reason the Dude was perfectly comfortable to spill his guts on a commercial airliner to the guy that sat down next to him. Of course, the Dude, as noted above, had no direct knowledge of anything he was saying. He was relaying what some other unidentified dude, who supposedly was in Benghazi at the time, told him.

This is what passes for an “exclusive” news report on Fox News? A third-hand tale of conspiracy theories and previously debunked allegations? There is absolutely no evidence that any of these assertions are accurate. To the contrary, some of them have already been proved false. And furthermore, there is no reason to give any credibility to a partisan wingnut who was forced to resign from the Army (West), recounting the ramblings of an airline passenger who says he knows someone who says that these myths are true. And yet, Fox News made this their top headline. Fair and balanced.

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