Obama Issues A "Major" Smackdown On Iran

Fox News' Major Garrett's question today was meant to knock the President for not being strong enough with the events occurring in Iran. Barack however, saw this one coming a mile away, and puts this fastball way back into the seats.

Move Over Media Matters, Here Comes Fox News

Whenever I need a laugh, or a reason to throw something at the television/computer monitor (take your pick) I catch a video clip from Fox News. Their latest talking point goes after ABC for committing the unspeakable crime of giving President Obama a platform to talk to the nation about his health care plan. I know, I know, I'm just as outraged as you.

Sen. Shelby Tries To Play Revisionist Historian, Fails

Senator Shelby went on Fox News to talk about bank bailouts yesterday, but he mysteriously forgets that last fall when the President approved of bank bailouts, it was Bush, not Obama who started doling out hundreds of billions to the banks.

How Fox News Did "Fair And Balanced" With Obama's First 100 Days

You know how they say (or said) "We Report, You Decide" with as much seriousness as the Fox narrator can muster? I assume he doesn't watch the network much, in order to not burst out laughing everytime he's paid to say the tagline.

Obama Mocks Teabaggers And Their Cheerleaders At Fox News

I couldn't even imagine an elected Democrat do this to fringe conservative protest group five or ten years ago. Yet the President of the United States has no qualms about calling these teabaggers out for the loons that they are:

Fox News...Crazy As Ever

Sometimes, it really is hard to understand the talking heads on this network. Then again, you have to be at least partially deluded to believe what they are saying about current events.

NYC Needs A Mayor Like This

Via Skype, Mayor Virg Bernero of Lansing, Michigan laid it into Fox News on Tuesday and stood up for the working man with avengence. He talked about fighting the race to the bottom and completely dominated the four minutes he was on the air. He was absolutely nothing like our plutocratic current Mayor and damn, am I itching for a candidate like that. Could it be within Thompson, Weiner or a dark horse we don't know yet?

This Year's War On The War On Christmas Floundered

Yet again, Bill O'Reilly and his gang at Fox News tried to paint the mean ol' Democrats as trying to ruin Christmas. Apparently, trying to extend the holiday spirit to Americans that aren't Christian is a terrible thing and must be wiped out. To nuts like O'Reilly, saying "Happy Holidays" will make it hard for observant Christians to make it to mass and be able to fill their trees with ornaments at home.

At least fewer people are taking him seriously anymore, hopefully that attitude can be extended to his network throughout the year.

Oh Noes!!! Fox News Shows Terrorists Our Strategy In Pakistan!

How do they explain to President Bush how they are with us when they help those against us? Where's the outrage from the right? Calling Mr. Kristol!!! Sean Hannity? Rush? G. Beck?

Joe The Plumber Continues To Embarrass Himself

If I were Joe Samuel television would be the last place I'd be, but he really wants to keep his fifteen minutes going, presumably until his country music contract comes through. On Hannity and Colmes, Alan slams him over and over, with one key fact that should have been expounded upon. Joe was on welfare? Joe used that to better his family and came out of poverty because of a government-run program? Oh. My. God. Wow, that is incred....exactly how it is supposed to work.



Seriously this man is a hypocrite, dude, walk off the stage already and spare yourself.

Another Right Wing Hack And Washed Up Journalist Join Fox News

As far as talent goes, Fox does very well if you count the ability to sell your soul and bash Democrats for personal gain. O'Reilly, Hannity, Doocy and the rest already do a fantastic job at spreading the propaganda for Murdoch, Ailes and the entire VRWC. In the past week, Fox News has announced two more additions that fit in nicely with their particular brand of news. One is Bush Administration lackey that went to jail to protect her sources from being implicated as traitors to our country and the other is just an extremist goofball put on the wrong network.

From ThinkProgress:

Today, the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz reveals that Fox News has hired former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who will be an on-air analyst and write stories for Fox’s website:

“She has a very impressive résumé,” says Senior Vice President John Moody. “We’ve all had stories that didn’t come out exactly as we had hoped. It’s certainly something she’s going to be associated with for all time, and there’s not much anyone can do about that, but we want to make use of the tremendous expertise she brings on a lot of other issues. … She has explained herself and she has nothing to apologize for.“

Miller, however, had more problems than her stories not turning out “exactly” as she had “hoped.” Miller has been a willing participant in the Bush administration’s quest to peddle lies to the American public. She was a key player in pushing false intelligence that led the public into the Iraq war, and was central to the Valerie Plame leak scandal.

On Sept. 7, 2002, she and fellow New York Times reporter Michael Gordon reported that Iraq had “stepped up its quest for nuclear weapons and has embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an atomic bomb.” As proof, she cited unnamed “American intelligence experts” and unnamed “Bush administration officials.” Subsequently, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Donald Rumsfeld all pointed to Miller’s story as justification for war. On April 22, 2003, she told PBS’s Newshour that WMD had already been found in Iraq: “Well, I think they found something more than a ’smoking gun.’”

Glenn Beck's problem was that he was pouring Kool-Aid for a network who's primary viewers who prefer reality over right wing talking points delivered with what passes for humor. He should do much better at Fox where many that tune already have extra large straws for that sweet, sugary concoction.

Judith Miller's "analysis" will go nicely with the other hacks at Fox. She had no problem parroting what the GOP whispered in her ear while at the Times so listening to Roger Ailes and regurgitating that should go swimmingly. When it comes to hiring credible journalists, the "fair and balanced" Fox News shows their willingness to counter other news outlets that are more in tune with the reality-based world.

Even On Fox, Campaign Aide Struggles To Explain McCain's Ridiculous Behavior

Tucker Bounds might have thought he'd have it easy on his home network today but things are so bad for the campaign that he has to defend himself everywhere. This interview was definitely a struggle, but thankfully for Tucker nowhere near as painful as it will be for McCain to go up against Barack Obama tonight at Ole Miss.

Neil Cavuto Is A Racist Bastard

There really aren't many nice things to say about the on-air personalities at Fox News. It takes no a certain character of person to be able to spew the lies of the right day in and day out. So it wasn't surprising to that Neil Cavuto tried to blame brown people for the fiscal crisis we are currently suffering, despite the overwhelming load of facts that show the blame lies with rich, stuffy and ignorant white people like Neil.

From RawStory:

In an attempt to blame the Democrats in Congress for the current economic meltdown, Cavuto told Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) last week that he should have warned bankers about possible problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"I'm just saying," Cavuto insisted, "I don't remember a clarion call that said, 'Fannie and Freddie are a disaster. Loaning to minorities and risky folks is a disaster.'"

"Wow," commented Olbermann. "Usually they hide their racism a little bit better at Fox."

Nah, I've got to disagree with you there Keith. Neil Cavuto and Fox News as a whole do not really give a rat's ass what people think of their racist attitudes and remarks. Their bigotry and ignorance shine through on a regular basis and no one is really ashamed of it there. Roger Ailes wouldn't have it any other way.

Just like the GOP candidates, the use of fear and manipulation to drive home their talking points is part of the well-oiled machine that got Fox to the top of the charts and the Republicans in power. While they still dominate among older and more conservative audiences that like to hear the " I hate brown people" so its ok for you to as well, society as a whole is generally moving away from the old racist attitudes of the past. That doesn't mean that racism as an institution will disappear in 20 years, but it will most certainly be significantly reduced. That goes double for the ratings and popularity of the right's favorite propaganda organ.

Greta Van Susteren "Grills" The First Dude

I wonder if the lawyer within Greta is humiliated by what the "journalist" has become. Working for Fox News, this story (albeit edited to some degree) is indicative of her downward slide as a credible member of the Fourth Estate:

It's Bad When Rove Calls Out Your Lies

Even the official chief liar and manipulator Karl Rove couldn't spin away the blatant string of lies that McCain has tried to pull over the American people:

Griff Jenkins Needs A Civics Class

Yesterday afternoon hilarity ensued when Griff Jenkins of Fox News tried to interview a group of marching protesters at the DNC in Denver. Throwing oneself into a crowd that is specifically trying to cause trouble is not a smart thing, but Griff goes in headfirst and comes out looking like a moron.



And that "Freedom of Speech" question is the perfect mark of the reporter's stupidity, wtf do you think protesting and marching is Griff? Hmm, maybe Mr. Jenkins only thinks that you can properly exercise that right in a First Amendment zone? Having an employer such as Fox News will seriously dumb you down.

12 Yr. Old Girl Who Witnesses Bombs In Georgia Punk Fox News

Fox News has led the charge in the corporate media to spin lies about the conflict between Russia and Georgia. The narrative they peddle is that this whole thing is Russia's fault and that Georgia is a good democracy. However when Shepard Smith had young Amanda Kokoeva on his program, she showed him up with a heavy dose of truth....and all he could do was cut away to commercial.

Rove Defends Lobbyists

Alan Colmes calls Karl Rove out on McCain's lobbyist connections...and Rove performs poorly:

The Depths Wingers Go To..."Obama Kills Live Babies"

Fox News, always the network trying to be fair and balanced, invited wingnut swiftboater Jerome Corsi onto Fox and Friends today. Corsi believes (or pretends) that Obama has done every ghastly act that any decent human being can think of. To Corsi (and unfortunately those that read his book) Obama is black militant who is hiding a far left agenda who likes to kill live babies.....yes, live babies.

From RawStory:

Jerome Corsi, co-author of the book Unfit for Command which swiftboated John Kerry in 2004, has now leaped into the 2008 campaign with Obama Nation, a book which Media Matters finds "contains numerous falsehoods about Sen. Barack Obama."[...]

Corsi insisted that after an incident in Illinois where an infant had survived for 45 minutes following a late-term abortion, Obama had "said that woman had an absolute right to abortion, to kill the baby even if it survived that abortion."

"That is patently untrue," Beckel countered, to which Corsi replied, "You haven't looked at the case."

According to Seth Colter Walls, the "infanticide" charge against Obama stems from his "present" vote on a bill debated in Illinois in 2001 that "would have required that any 'viable' fetus surviving a late-term abortion receive sustaining medical care (something which opponents of that bill said was already required by a 1975 bill in the state)."

Media Matters further explains that Obama's "present" vote was the result of a deliberate strategy worked out in concern with Planned Parenthood:

"We at Planned Parenthood view those as leadership votes," Pam Sutherland, the president and CEO of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, told ABC News. "We worked with him specifically on his strategy. The Republicans were in control of the Illinois Senate at the time. They loved to hold votes on 'partial birth' and 'born alive'. They put these bills out all the time ... because they wanted to pigeonhole Democrats. ... He came to me and said: 'My members are being attacked. We need to figure out a way to protect members and to protect women.'"

For Corsi, protecting women is akin to desecrating the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. How dare anyone want to watch out for the health of American women. Perhaps Corsi would rather us go back to a time when women were treated as second class citizens without right to hold property, who were seen and not heard and basically were at the mercy of their men.

As Sutherland alluded to, this is merely a wedge issue to deflect voters from focusing on issues that truly affect them, such as legislation that protects workers more so than the corporations that stretch employees to their limits and then some.

Fox News Falls For A Finger Lickin' Hoax

Fox News, in their desperate attempt to show any sign of good news coming from Iraq, fell for a hoax of fried chicken proportions. Apparently there is a sign above a storefront in the war-torn city of Fallujah that has a picture of the Colonel next to the letters "KFC." So the *cough* journalists *cough* at Fox News decided to put it on the air, even getting a comment from General Tommy Franks. Yet, something about it just didn't add up and Talking Points Memo did the math.

From TPM:

Last Thursday, Fox News ran a brief segment on a KFC restaurant opening in Fallujah before segueing into an interview with former CENTCOM Commander Tommy Franks, who was asked to comment on the presence of an American fast food restaurant in the notoriously violent Iraqi city. "Do they have a drive-thru window?" Steve Doocy asks. "They get in and get out. And, so far, they do it safely," answers Brian Kilmeade.

Now, call us cynical, but something about that segment seemed off -- oddly upbeat even. On Friday I put in a call to KFC headquarters to ask if the Fallujah chicken joint is the real deal. KFC told me they were looking into the matter. Today, Yum! Restaurants International spokesman Christophe Lecureuil wrote me back:

I understand you wanted some details about the store in Falluja that looks like a KFC. This store is not approved by KFC International and we have working with the US Military to warn the troops of this situation.

Details are still hard to come by. Lecureuil said that the company doesn't have more information at this stage because "we've just started investigating the matter." Asked how KFC was working with the military, Lecureuil wrote only that: "Concerning the military, we have a long-standing and excellent relationship with them as we have quite a few KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut stores in military bases outside the US."

You'd think that those highly paid, qualified and journalism-degree-holding people at Fox News would check on the facts of the story by calling KFC's parent company before airing this (like TPM did). I guess "fair and balanced" doesn't exactly cover "getting the story straight" at Fox News, of course that isn't anything new over there when you have a running theme of glossing over the news coming out of Iraq for the last five or six years.