Fox News -- home of outrageous smears, falsehoods -- promotes "tea parties" protesting "journalistic malpractice"
Fox News has promoted what it has referred to as October 17 "tea part[y]" protests by "Operation: Can You Hear Us Now," an organization that plans "to show the MSM [mainstream media] that we as the American Public are absolutely fed up with their journalistic malpractice." However, Fox News has committed acts of "journalistic malpractice" including outrageous smears against Obama administration officials, passing off Republican press releases as its own research, deceptively editing videos and quotes, and invoking the Nazis to smear President Obama.
Fox News promotes October 17 "tea parties" protesting "journalistic malpractice"
Fox News website The Fox Nation has promoted October 17 "tea parties marching on media outlets." Linking to the website OperationCanYouHearUsNow.com, a post on The Fox Nation stated:
Operation: Can You Hear Us Now? organizing October 17 protests against "journalistic malpractice." According to the Frequently Asked Questions page of the Operation: Can You Hear Us Now? website, the protests are a "nationwide event meant to show the MSM that we as the American Public are absolutely fed up with their journalistic malpractice."
Fox News has repeatedly promoted other "tea party" protests. Fox News aggressively promoted and covered what it labeled "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties" that took place on April 15. It has since promoted and covered numerous follow-up protests.
Fox News has run with numerous outrageous smears against individuals and organizations
Beck: Obama is a "racist" and "has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture." Glenn Beck has said: "This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy -- over and over and over again -- who has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture -- I don't know what it is. But you can't sit in a pew with Jeremiah Wright for 20 years and not hear some of that stuff and not have it wash over." He later added, "I'm not saying that he doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem. He has a -- this guy is, I believe, a racist. Look at the way -- look at the things he has been surrounded by." [Fox & Friends, 7/28/09]
Fox hosts falsely claimed that Kevin Jennings covered up sexual assault. Sean Hannity repeatedly ignored evidence to falsely claim that Jennings, director of the Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, ignored the statutory rape of a 15-year-old student, even advancing the falsehood after the claim had been widely debunked. Fox News hosts Bill Hemmer and Bret Baier also advanced this smear. Additionally, Hannity and Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers also smeared Jennings -- who counseled someone who was of age at the time and who has said he did not have a sexual relationship -- with the outrageous suggestion that he is comparable to film director Roman Polanski, who was charged with rape and pleaded guilty to having sex with a girl who was 13 at the time after allegedly plying her with drugs and alcohol.
Hannity falsely claimed that State Department official Koh wanted Sharia law in the United States. Hannity has also claimed that Harold Koh, the State Department's legal adviser, "advocates the use of Sharia law in America" and that Koh has said "Sharia law can be applied in American courts." The claim has been denied by Koh himself during Senate testimony, Koh's spokesman, and the organizer of the event at which Koh supposedly made the remarks about Sharia law. In addition, University of California-Davis law professor Anupam Chander wrote in an April 2 blog post that "[i]n the 71 articles penned by Harold Koh that appear in the Westlaw law review database, there is but one article that mentions Sharia," and in that article, Koh "denounces the government of Iran for 'impos[ing] a strict form of Sharia law that denies basic rights to women and minorities.' "
Fox News promoted fake murder story from ACORN video. On September 15 and 16, Fox News devoted significant programming to conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe and Townhall.com columnist Hannah Giles' video of their interactions with a San Bernardino, California, ACORN worker who claimed that she had murdered her ex-husband and gave advice on how to run a brothel. The ACORN employee stated after the video was released that she had merely been attempting to "shock them as much as they were shocking me." In running with the video, Fox News hosts frequently promoted the fake claim that the ACORN employee killed her ex-husband without fact-checking the allegation or indicating that they had contacted ACORN for a response. [Media Matters for America, 9/16/09]
Fox personalities falsely claimed White House official opposed rat elimination, supported forced organ donations. Beck falsely claimed that Cass Sunstein, head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, "believes that everyone must be an organ donor." Beck also falsely claimed on September 9 that Sunstein said "you should not be able to remove rats from your home if it causes them any pain." Similarly, Fox News reporter James Rosen claimed: "Rats could attack us in the sewers and court systems if all of Cass Sunstein's writings became law."
Beck claimed Van Jones was a "convicted felon." On August 11, Beck accused Van Jones, whom he described as Obama's "green jobs czar," of being a "convicted felon ... who spent, I think, six months in prison after the Rodney King beating." In fact, as Eva Paterson, president and founder of the Equal Justice Society, has explained, "Van [Jones] has never served time in any prison. He has never been convicted of any crime."
Beck falsely claimed Anita Dunn "worships" "her hero" Mao Zedong. Throughout most of his October 15 Fox News program, Beck falsely claimed that White House communications director Anita Dunn "worships" and "idolizes" "her hero" Mao Zedong. In fact, in the video that Beck aired as evidence to support his claims, Dunn offered no endorsement of Mao's ideology or atrocities -- rather, she commented that Mao and Mother Teresa were two of her "favorite political philosophers," and based on short quotes from them, she offered the advice that "you don't have to follow other people's choices and paths" or "let external definition define how good you are internally
Fox trumpets CAIR conspiracy theory charges made by author with anti-Islam history. Repeated Fox News segments reported that, in Bret Baier's words, "Republican lawmakers say the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, is trying to infiltrate Capitol Hill by placing interns in key positions," an allegation stemming from a right-wing book whose author has a history of making outrageous and anti-Islamic assertions and is published by WorldNetDaily, which has its own history of making outrageous allegations and inflammatory remarks. Moreover, the document that Republican Reps. Sue Myrick (NC), John Shadegg (AZ), Paul Broun (GA), and Trent Franks (AZ) cited as evidence of CAIR's alleged activities is stolen and does not support their claims.
Fox News guilty of doctoring quotes
Fox News doctors Biden quote to falsely claim he was praising economy in March. On March 16, Live Desk co-host Martha MacCallum claimed that "after weeks of economic doom and gloom, the Obama administration is now singing a slightly different tune. Take a look at what was said in recent interviews this weekend." Live Desk then aired clips of administration officials purportedly giving an optimistic view of the economy, which included video of Vice President Joe Biden stating, "The fundamentals of the economy are strong." However, Biden did not make those remarks during an "interview" that weekend; he made them at a September 2008 campaign event in which he criticized statements by Sen. John McCain. MacCallum apologized the next day.
Fox News reporter distorts Obama comments on health care. On April 24, White House correspondent Wendell Goler cropped a comment by Obama and took it out of context -- effectively reversing the statement's meaning -- to falsely suggest that Obama supports creating a health care system "like the European countries."
Happening Now crops clips of Obama to promote "another apology tour." On June 2, Happening Now co-host Jon Scott asked if "the president's upcoming trip [to Europe and the Middle East will] be what conservatives might call another apology tour," and both Scott and co-host Jane Skinner aired cropped clips of Obama's remarks from an April 3 speech in France to falsely suggest that Obama only criticized the United States. In doing so, Happening Now joined conservative commentators and Fox News hosts who have cropped or misrepresented Obama's overseas remarks to falsely suggest, in the words of Hannity, that Obama was "blam[ing] America first" and, more broadly, that Obama's earlier overseas trip constituted an "apology tour."
Fox News passes off GOP research as its own
Fox News' Hemmer "keeping track of the stimulus money" -- by lifting research from GOP website. On April 23, Hemmer repeatedly suggested information about four "interesting" projects reportedly funded by the economic recovery act was obtained through Fox News' own research, even though nearly all of the information Hemmer mentioned, as well as that included in on-screen text and graphics, first appeared on Rep. Eric Cantor's Republican Whip website.
America's Newsroom pushes discredited GOP calculation of Obama's cap-and-trade proposal. On April 2, guest host Alisyn Camerota asserted that the cost of Obama's cap-and-trade proposal "would be $3,100 per U.S. household." The claim was advanced by the House Republican Conference in a March 23 "Talking Points" press release, and the Republicans reportedly purported to back up the claim by pointing to a 2007 study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). But MIT professor John Reilly, one of the authors of the study, has disputed the GOP's calculation, stating that his study "has been misrepresented" and that the Republicans' claim of an average household cost of $3,128 was significantly higher than the correct figure. PolitiFact.com rated the $3,100 figure a "pants on fire" falsehood.
Happening Now passes off GOP press release as its own research -- typo and all. During the February 10 edition of Happening Now, Scott purported to "take a look back" at how the economic recovery plan "grew, and grew, and grew." In doing so, Scott referenced seven dates, as on-screen graphics cited various news sources from those time periods -- all of which came directly from a Senate Republican Communications Center press release. A Fox News on-screen graphic even reproduced a typo contained in the Republican press release. The following day, Scott apologized -- for running the typo. Scott's apology was criticized by Washington Post media critic and CNN host Howard Kurtz, who said: "We sometimes jab at the pundits for using talking points, but in the case of Fox News anchor Jon Scott, it was literally true this week. ... You should be apologizing for using partisan propaganda from the GOP without telling your viewers where it came from. Talk about missing the point."
Happening Now posts "FOXfact[s]" about GOP budget nearly identical to GOP Rep. Ryan's op-ed. Two segments on the April 1 Happening Now aired "FOXfact[s]" purporting to describe facts about the House Republican budget. However, all seven of the "FOXfact[s]" displayed on-screen were nearly identical to portions of an op-ed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) published in that day's Wall Street Journal.
Fox News' Beck repeatedly compares Obama administration people, policies to Nazis
Beck compared auto bailouts to the actions of German companies "in the early days of Adolf Hitler." On April 1, after stating, "I am not saying that Barack Obama is a fascist," Beck said, "If I'm not mistaken, in the early days of Adolf Hitler, they were very happy to line up for help there as well. I mean, the companies were like, 'Hey, wait a minute. We can get, you know, we can get out of trouble here. They can help, et cetera, et cetera.' "
Beck compared TARP to "what happened to the lead-up with Hitler." On the April 21 edition of Fox Business' Money for Breakfast, Beck said of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, "This is not comparing these people to the people in Germany, but this is exactly what happened to the lead-up with Hitler. Hitler opened up the door and said, 'Hey, companies, I can help you.' They all ran through the door. And then in the end, they all saw, 'Uh-oh. I'm in bed with the devil.' They started to take their foot out, and Hitler said, 'Absolutely not. Sorry, gang. This is good for the country. We've got to do these things.' And it was too late."
Beck said "the Germans" during Hitler's rise "were an awful lot like we are now." On the June 10 edition of his Fox News program, Beck stated: "I think the Germans, however, were an awful lot like we are now. We're kind of living in a denial, like, 'No, no, that can't really be happening. No, that really -- I' -- you don't want to believe some things, but you have to. You have to actually think about them."
Beck airs photos of Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, asks, "Is this where we're headed?" On the April 2 edition of his Fox News program, while teasing the next day's show, Beck asked, "Is this where we're headed?" while airing photos of Hitler, Josef Stalin, and Vladimir Lenin.
Why are they even claiming "journalistic malpractice"? Glenn Beck claimed he was not a journalist, but claims to give people the news. I guess you can watch Sesame Street and try to understand domestic policy, but you are not going to walk away with any deep knowledge. I hope the Republicans wake up to the fanatical Fox News and start speaking out, but most likely they will see it as a way to get votes, and keep their mouth's shut until it is too late and something horrible happens.
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The Midnight Review
Mum Is The Word
What does anything that FoxLand says have to do with reality? Claiming journalistic malpractice against competing news media is just another classic textbook case of psychological projection bias from the conservatives,screaming about liberals and nutroots while they are guilty of every single offense themselves. Their fight is all about tactics and forsakes even the appearance of having core principles.
The alternate universe that conservatives have built was years in the making. Their idealogy is about strategies that enable tactics above truth. Now we have conservative publishers who pump out anti-whatever books on demand. We have conservative school of journalism that produces the Ann Coulters. Conservative law school that grinds out a stream of lawyers to staff a Whitehouse that subverted the legal system and was hellbent on institutionized torture. A national "news" network that is a vendor of dedicated propaganda. They control the Christian churches and talk radio. They hijack the national lexicon and the concepts of Constitution and American and truth and control their meaning within an impenetrable bizarro-land of smug satisfaction that their stategies have bared their fruit and their tactics propagate enough fear and loathing and hysteria to sustain a new reality where liberalism is the enemy of humanity.
As a liberal, this all makes me crazy......and proud to be a liberal.
Part of me wants to change affiliation, but another part believes I could do more good remaining a moderate member, although it would be wonderful if this shift would help bring rise to a third party.
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The Midnight Review
Mum Is The Word
DO NOT make the mistake of associating us with the GOP, Glenn Back, Fox News, Michelle Malkin et. al. Help us, liberals, get they're filthy hands out of the pie...because underneath all of these contrived left wing-right wing facades, we have a lot in common.
Ron Paul '90s newsletters rant against blacks, gays
The bigoted past of Ron Paul...
No one gets into politics unless they are compromised and subject to blackmail...whether the politician knows about it or not.
I want to have a tea party to protest tea parties. But does that mean I should or should not bring teabags? I can't figure it out.
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God forbid they ever smear with actual defenders present.
The conspiracy theorists on the right who allow the hate-mongering and racism to flourish in the name of their agenda should be ashamed of themselves. They hope Obama and any of his policies for the good of America fail so they can point the finger and regain power once again. They don't care if they tear down America and if any efforts to rebuild our country from the shambles it was taken to during the past administration fails in the process.
It's a sad situation and its a shame more people don't see through the smoke and mirrors to the real agenda at play here. As during the Clinton era, the Right are acting like a pack of rabid dogs on the attack and they are bloodthirsty and don't care who gets hurt in the process. I fear for our President's safety in this time of great media power. The spin and hatred being spewed by Fox and other right-wing arms of the Republican party who have never once backed away from using lies, fear and smear in their campaigns is dangerous, and there should be some kind of standard or oversight group demanding accountability in media organizations such as these.
Jesus said "Love one another"
you could have fooled me
I SAY THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO DIVIDE US. THEY WANT US TO HATE EACH OTHER, AND I SAY NO!!! I WON'T HATE SOMEONE BECAUSE THEY DISAGREE WITH ME. HOWEVER, I WILL CLAIM MY RIGHT TO DISAGREE AND FIGHT FOR WHAT I BELIEVE IS RIGHT, JUST AS YOU SHOULD.
LET'S STOP WASTING OUR TIME FIGHTING AND DO THINGS ON THE LOCAL LEVEL TO HELP OUR COMMUNITIES. THAT IS WHERE WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE, WHETHER WE ARE LEFT, RIGHT, OR MIDDLE, WE ARE ALL HUMAN AND ALL AMERICANS!!! I THINK WE ALL LOVE OUR COUNTRY. LET'S TRY TO CARE ABOUT ONE ANOTHER!!! LET'S LEARN HOW TO GET ALONG EVEN THOUGH WE MAY HAVE DIFFERENT VIEWS!!!
Obama, like Bush has also trashed the Constitution. Neither one had Constitutional authority to take our tax money and bail out failing or corrupt corporations (GM, Chrysler,etal.). If my business were to fail because of corrupt practices or poor management decisions, I wouldn't be bailed out and shouldn't be!
You say complaining about what is going on now compared to what happened during the Bush administration is specious (deceptive, false). Well considering that we are all entitled to our own beliefs, that is pretty harsh. I was simply pointing out the hatred spewed by both sides, and there was and is a lot of hatred. Disagreement is one thing, hatred is another. Both sides are guilty.
Personally, I can't understand why we can't meet in the middle. To me that would be reasonable because both sides would get some of what they wanted. Ted Kennedy was good at working to reach a compromise in order to get something done. We all should be.
And deficit spending in a time of great economic crisis is the ONLY reasonable thing to do - for you to criticize it shows us that you don't know what you're talking about, Jake. Deficit spending like what Bush did - invading a country that he knew didn't have WMD's. And yeah, he knew when he invaded in March of 2003 that there was almost no chance they had WMD's. The intelligence (AKA educated guesses) was wrong, and the feet on the ground had already told him that. How many billions of dollars did Bush waste with that war? And two tax cuts, one after we'd gone into a recession and had invaded a country? No President has ever pushed through a tax cut while at war, but Bush did.
Now, tell me how many deficit spending rallies you attended while Bush was in office? See, this isn't about deficit spending, really, it's about Obama.
And yeah, the federal govt can bail out companies. It's not banned by the Constitution. It was the best thing for our nation - it would have cost our economy a great deal more had we entered a Depression! Preventing a Depression was urgent and was an imperative. Sometimes the government has to spend money to save money, and this was one of those times.
Your small business? Not important to the US and world economy. Huge banks and auto manufacturers? Vital to the US and world economies. Even if they did get themselves into the mess - Obama had no choice. But you want to fault him for making that choice? He made a great choice, but you fault him for it? Well, it's not because it was a bad choice, so it must be because he's a Democrat or because he's black. That's either unpatriotic or bigoted. Which is it?
And there's no equivalency between the left and the right. There was a ton of valid criticism of Bush, and some non-valid. There's been a ton of invalid criticism of Obama, and very little criticism based upon reality that actually attacks his political philosophy!
And there has been a lot of outreach from the Dems. Tons more than there was from the right when they were in power. The Republicans treated the minority Democratic Party with contempt and distain. The same thing hasn't happened since Obama has been in office. Not at all. Heck, almost half of the stimulus bill was tax cuts - ALL of those were a concession to the right. Obama put them in because he knew the right wanted them and they STILL wouldn't vote to save our nation from going into a Depression because it was a Democrat who was suggesting it. Republicans won't cooperate with a bipartisan effort. It's not our side's fault.
People have different views and go about policies in different ways. You may not like Bush's policies, I don't agree with all of Obama's policies. That is no reason to spew hatred toward the other side.
You say Obama made a great choice. Fine, you have every right to believe that and I have every right to disagree. That does not make me a racist. I wasn't thrilled with all
of Bill Clinton's policies either so am I racist toward him considering I am white? As for the democrat part, I voted for democrat mayors when I lived in Chicago several times. That's nonsense. I vote for who I agree with.
Interesting to note again, that a democratic congress saw all the same intelligence on Iraq as did Bush and they unanimously voted to fund the war in Iraq.
As far as the statement that Republicans won't cooperate with a bipartisan effort is a joke. Democrats and Republicans idea of bipartisanship (not all of course, because you can't label everyone the same) is that the other side go along with whatever they want.
No all of the spending except the stimulus in the past year was not on Bush's shoulders. Obama did not have to sign those bills. Obama has tripled the deficit-even the CBO states that.
The difference is that, now, those kind of outrageous accusations are being given a national platform. A major cable new network is pushing these crazy ideas, accusations of communism, comparisons to nazi germany, saying that Obama wants to destory America, etc.
SIDES!!!
FoxNews doesn't stop with their distortions and omissions. MSNBC doesn't do the same amount of partisan distortion and omission.
Your allegation just doesn't hold water.
Imagine if the Gay pride folks tried to claim that their rally last week, which from news footage looked very similar in size, had drawn 2 million people to D.C. Fox Nation would snuff that conflation in a heartbeat.
Thankfully this media outlet does so. I don't watch commercial TV but have heard that MSNBC does also. Stupid HAS taken over a large part of our country but take heart, stupid never wins in the end. They destroy themselves and eat their young.
Your suggestion that GE is bad for fighting for business to supply those machines, and that it influences MSNBC to support Obama (what about when a Republican is in office, dum-dum) is ludicrous!
The US military will get new jets whether the war in Afghanistan continues or not. We are going to have an army at the ready whether they are already fighting a war or just ready to fight a war.
Whoa there! Your entire rant is lifted vebatim from the Hannity/O'Reilly/Beck playbook. You just prove the entire premise of the root MMfA article you are commenting on and you show all of us here that you don't think for yourself.
Use the internet and just try and find the weapon system that GE manufactures. You won't find one. They manufacture military and commercial aircraft engines and thousands of generic components used in virtually infinite products. If the manufacturer of a weapon system uses some GE components, or a military plane is powered by a GE engine and that qualifies GE as a bloodthirsty killer, then you need a reality check.
If you are anti-war, as you imply, you can't afford to be so narrow-minded in who you choose to blame and hold accountable for profiting from bloodshed. That list of culprits is much larger than your apparent imagination.
So I guess the people from NYC, Chicago, Orlando, Miami, and other large cities who attended the 9-12 march on D.C. are hicks and rednecks also.
As for Fox New reporting that there were 2 million at the march, Beck said 1 million or so. O'Reilly said 75,000, which was an official estimate.
British sources stated there estimates to be over a million. I would say the British do not have any reason to overstate.
The bottom line is it doesn't matter how many were there, it was a
lot of people who are simply fed up with the Federal government.
Now I know someone will use the argument: Why now and not before?
This frustration started with Bush and TARP. It didn't just happen because Obama was elected. That is what woke many people up. We were asleep before, now we are paying attention.
The 9/12 protesters did not have a message. What political message does a sign depicting Obama as a witch doctor with a bone through his nose send?
Google "9/12 march with interviews" and watch the video that comes up first. Do those people have a comprehensive understanding of what they are protesting? Is that reasoned dissent?
Glad to see that your "research", as is typical, only went skin deep, and you didn't look into any info that would rock your boat.
But we've already debunked the idea that there was more than 100,000 or so, and FoxNews reported much more than that many times. When they got it right, that was terrific. They shouldn't have gotten it wrong so many times. They shouldn't have gotten it wrong for such a long time after the event. Beck trusted a totally flawed estimate from a student from a Midwest college, and announced it during an interview. We aren't saying that FoxNews is never correct. We're saying that they're wrong too often, and that there's clear evidence that they distort reality for a political agenda!
There weren't very many people who were fed up is the point. It was a tiny number, really, who showed up on 9/12. The vast majority of them didn't have good reasons to appear there too - Obama is their devil, yet shouldn't be if one looks fairly at reality.
It doesn't matter if there were 75,000 or 1 million. The bottom line is that these people have the right to protest just like anyone else in the country has that right!!! I don't care if you like them or not, it is their right.
The D.C. police said the crowds were polite,cleaned up after themselves and that not one arrest was made.
And no one, not one person, has said that people don't have the right to protest.
But we have the right to say that they are fools for protesting against required and reasonable deficit spending when they never protested against Bush's voluntary deficit spending. In fact, we have an obligation as loyal Americans to debunk nonsense that misleads others. We have an obligation to refute their assertions about Obama stealing away their Constitutional rights - that was Bush who did that. We have an obligation to challenge and disprove their allegations about Obama's place of birth.
See, you have a right to your own opinion, but not your own facts. We don't dislike the people - we dislike the lies, distortions and omissions of factual info.
Randy
Rather than grow introspective, and examine their beliefs to determine where it is they lost the backing of the American people, they've turned their attention outwards, in effect blaming the rest of the world for not 'keeping the faith', as it were. For not living up to the principles they believe they hold dear. The problem with this position is that they have no principles, and are almost completely reactionary. Our current President's health coverage reform initiative is a prime example.
Do the FauxCons admit that there is a problem in the health coverage industry? Largely, no they don't. Rather, they see it as a problem of government intervention in corporate policy. It is not the insurance companies who are to blame, rather it is too much government oversight and regulation. In forwarding this argument, they overlook the disasters in the energy industry and the financial industry when these two segments of our economy were allowed to write their own rules. Enron, $5/gallon gas, Bernie Madhoff, and the collapse of the 'housing bubble' are all attributable to lack of oversight by the government. They let the foxes guard the hen house, in simple terms.
In the health coverage debate, does anybody have any reason to suspect that the insurance executive who cancels someone's policy in order to guarantee a fatter Christmas bonus is actually the victim? Isn't it much more likely the victim is the person who suddenly has no way to pay for their chemotherapy? Not according to FauxCons, of course.
So, rather than come up with policy, rather than come up with solutions to the many problems that actually face this country, rather than trying to help, this particular group of people have done two things. First, they have used every bit of influence and power they have to oppose anyone trying to actually fix these problems. They resort to ad hominem attacks, strawman arguments, they appeal to authority, in short they commit every logical fallacy they can think of to try to stop any progress being made. Those involved in helping to make progress, whether they work in government or for the media, have been slandered and libeled, lied about and vilified to an extent rarely seen before in this country, and on a nationwide, 24/7 basis.
What they are trying to achieve is to consolidate their power over the fourth estate. Since the elections are still over a year away, and since the last two elections did not turn out at all as they expected, they have decided instead to take control of the media. This conveniently ignores the fact that they never did have control of the government, of course. Rupert Murdoch, one of the prime players in this game, already has been granted exceptions to the rules preventing one man from owning too many media outlets in a given area, rules designed to prevent the very kind of takeover they seem to be attempting.
It is time to repeal these exemptions. It is time to begin to dismantle the gigantic corporations that control almost all the media in this country, giving control over what opinions will and will not be heard on public airwaves into the hands of a small group of very powerful men. This ability to control the information available to the average American is a dangerous situation. The laws are in place to break up these mega-media corporations. Considering the uses they have found for their power this last nine months, the time has come to enforce these laws.
Fox will say and do whatever it wants to as long as it gives the anger an acceptible outlet. Truth be damned! Fox hypocracy is ok as long as the lefties remain the targeted cause of all that is wrong with the world.
Its ironic to an extreme. The stereotype of liberals is that they are ideologically driven and will bend the truth for political gain according to politcal correctness. Its funny how ruthless people will actually do what they accuse their enemies of doing.
They are "party of blame". Republicans never look to themselves as a cause of any problem. As their popularity dwindles to the point of being irrelevant, they can only blame outside nasty influences.
they didn't because the reporter retracted his statement. Don't jump down my throat about Limbaugh either. I know you guys don't like him. I don't care, I don't listen to him.
All I'm saying is they all lie.
In 1897 the term "yellow kid journalism" was coined to describe what the Hearst newspapers were doing (such as instigating the Spanish American War). In 1941 Frank Mott (an American historian) listed five hallmarks of "yellow journalism":
1. scare headlines in huge print, often of minor news
2. lavish use of pictures, or imaginary drawings
3. use of faked interviews, misleading headlines, pseudo-science, and a parade of false learning from so-called experts
4. emphasis on full-color Sunday supplements, usually with comic strips (which is now normal in the U.S.)
5. dramatic sympathy with the "underdog" against the system.
Given the change in technology, do these things sound familiar? If Hearst had access to television, would he be sponsoring Fox News and Glenn Beck?
I suspect Hearst and Rupert would get along just fine...
This is similar to something I heard Micheal Moore say to Charley Rose recently. The frustration people feel is being managed and deflected away from the true cause of the frustration. You would think free market republican libertarianism would be discredited after recent events. The financial powers have had their way and made a mess, yet the pitchforked mob goes elsewhere.
You might want to take a history lesson. Joseph Pulitzer and his paper introduced Yellow Kid, not Hearst. It was a comic strip and a battle between Puliter & Hearst. Did it migrate into today's meaning of Yellow Journalism? Yes, so you are half right......
BTW, Fox, MSNBC and CNN are not "news" networks. They are "opinion" networks. If you are relying on any of these, particularly Fox, to get your "news," you are WOEFULLY uninformed.
And also, what is their message, exactly? What are they protesting against specifically? And what kind of political message are you trying to send with a poster depicting Obama as a witch doctor with a bone through his nose, who's also somehow a communist? And what about a poster bearing the message, "what's the difference between the Cleveland Zoo and the White House? The zoo has an African Lion and the White House has a lyin' African"? What political message does that send? Again, I repeat, this is not reasoned dissent.
I have little problem with anyone wanting to protest the policies of a president. I do have a problem when a 24-hour news network shamelessly promotes that protest, and then a few weeks later when a gay rights protest draws a crowd similar in size, they almost entirely ignore it. I thought that thousands of people marching on DC was news, right?
i still dont see how you can make that mistake with the biden quote where they claimed he said it during that time when he said it way back in the campaign. i mean, they doctored the quote, took it out of context and didnt even cite it on the right day. and then they apologize and act like it never happened.
Remember, they're the folks who put McCain and Kyl into office.
My G*d, for 8 years all I heard on MSM was everything anti-Bush and Cheney, from pleadings to impeach, to demands for prosecution, to endless jokes about Bushs ineptness at public speaking, to Cheneys bad aim while hunting, and to the bottom line: Bush did it (whatever was wrong at the moment).
You claim that Fox News has transformed itself into the Opposition Party of the Obama White House, when, in reality, Fox is taking the hard road in saying, Wait a minute, let's take look at what is going on that others are missing. Imagine the audacity of a news outlet being a watchdog? What I want to know is this. What happened to all of the media outlets being watchdogs? Did that go out the window with Hope and Change?
What is blatant and exponentially wrong is this. We have an angry White-House that declared war on Fox News, conservatives, tea partiers and town hall demonstrators while going around the world kissing the hind quarters of our real enemies and apologizing for America! Mr. President, you and your followers, what you are saying to millions of Fox News viewers, is that you declared war not only against Fox News, but also against the many millions of us who view and support Fox. So, pray tell, does that make me (a law abiding, tax paying 8th generation American citizen) an enemy of the state? Shall this piece of trailer trash crawl back inside her home on wheels in the Smokey Mountains and make more moonshine now? Please, the stereotype some of you paint of those of us who lean right of center is outright pathetic.
FauxNews is an insult to anyone that has a brain.
Where were their tough questions and watchdog methods while Bush/Cheney et al were violating federal laws and the consitution ?
And that would be lies, manufactured news, blatant partisan spin and attack journalism.
I'm a consumer of MSM and I saw nothing resembling that. What I was was a lot of making excuses for the WPE Bush administration, copious amounts of air time given to his supporters and veiled aspersions cast on his critics.
That's exactly what I've wondered for the entire term of the previous administration.
Lastly, it's paranoid hysteria to suggest that the White House has "declared war" on Faux Snooze. They've expressed the contempt for Faux that it has earned, but haven't taken a single action that could be reasonably be described as an attack. Take a deep breath, relax and get a grip on reality.
Right,Dixiechyc, opinions presented as fact and 24/7 right wing propaganda. You were doing well up to this point.
An angry White House? Somebody has declared war on you? Sounds a little paranoid, but fits right in with your distorted view of recent history.
No, we've just replaced the administration that was in cahoots with this conservative misinformation outlets with one that is not afraid to have a laugh at Fox, and say publicly what most of us already know; Fox is not news.
Come to the light, DixieChyc. This is not opinion, it's reality. It's difficult for a Fox viewer to recognize, but you're never going to get better until you can see the difference.
Honestly, I think this is going to be a waste of time, but to sort of see if you're mature enough and logical I gotta ask,
See the examples MMFA gives at the top of the page? Do you agree that they happened? And if not, what is MMFA not showing me in each example?
And, if you think the examples above of Fox are examples of journalistic malpractice, do you think its ok for it to happen?
Really simple questions, anyone can answer them, can't they?
And it wasn't true any of those times, either.
hmm-- you mean watchdog that is only 9 months old, eh?
BTW, there aren't "many" millions who watch Fox. Their prime-time ratings show no more than 3-4 million for ALL programs at night.
If they didn't claim to be fair and balanced, it wouldn't be so bad. And if they didn't choose to lie and deceive their viewers, we wouldn't refute those lies and distortions and omissions.
Free speech doesn't mean that they get to say all those offensive things without being challenged. That's the fatal flaw in your argument.
blake_braesicke@netzero.net
And if you haven't seen any journalistic malpractice coming from Beck, et al, then there's no hope for you.
Pushing distortions, lies and omissions of relevant info, even on opinion shows, isn't okay. It doesn't have to be a news show for that behavior to be wrong.
Beck is certainly entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.