Fox "Investigations" Strike Again

The last investigation by Fox News that I covered was the stalking of Think Progress reporter Amanda Terkel. O'Reilly summed up that stunt by placing the blame of MSNBC as the heart of evil -- naturally, this investigation went right into the heart of darkness. (Image: YouTube) The network O'Reilly hates with such a passion is a division of NBC, which is owned by General Electric (GE). At the recent GE shareholders' meeting was our good friend and stalker from the last investigation, Jesse Watters.

Here's a video from The O'Reilly Factor in which Bill introduced the work of Watters:

I want to just highlight one part of this clip (at the end):

"This is obviously a major story, when a powerful corporation, which controls a major part of the American media, may be using its power and the airwaves to influence politics in order to make money from government contracts. That kind of corruption would make Watergate look small."

While I disagree with everything said in this segment, I want to highlight those two points to address the larger issue. The first bolded segment speaks to the general hypocrisy of Fox News in this situation. Fox uses its power to influence politics in order to make money from a variety of sources. They draw a huge audience to sell to advertisers, and, of course, they all have a bit fatter of wallets when their guy wins and lowers taxes.

The second point I find more funny than anything else. I think true party-line conservatives associated with the Republican Party are still hung up on Nixon. Why? Because of this:

This graphic comes by way of RealClearPolitics. The die-hard Republicans can't accept that their golden boy was caught in his web of lies. Discussing this "evil" at MSNBC is ridiculous -- especially to compare it to the term synonymous with political corruption. What's this all about? Was it supposed to link Obama to the heart of evil? Is Fox the only news organization allowed to have an open bias? Are the rich shareholders of GE that afraid of a left slant? Do they want another Fox News? Madness.
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Limbaugh Beat By Caller On Own Show

During a recent radio show, Rush Limbaugh accepted a call from a disgruntled right-of-centre voter. Much to Limbaugh's surprise, however, the caller turned on Limbaugh, blaming him for the Republican Party's woes. (Image: The Raw Feed) The caller makes a strong argument against Limbaugh's antics, calling him a "brainwashed Nazi" for his pro-torture position. Though this quote may seem extreme, the caller justifies his opinion to Rush.

Here's an audio clip of the entire conversation between Rush and the caller who identifies himself as Charles provided by MediaMatters:

You can read a transcript at The Huffington Post.

I think this is a great example of how flat the arguments of Republicans like Rush are in a factual sense. A key moment at the end of the clip, when Limbaugh must have muted the call, was when Rush accused Charles of not being a real Republican. But who is the real Republican?

I would argue that while Rush Limbaugh represents the current state of the Republican party, he doesn't represent the original values of the party. Rush Limbaugh is part of the neo-Conservative movement -- which is responsible for turning the empowering principles of true conservatism into the twisted power-grabbing desire that defines conservatives today.

I think the caller, Charles, really handled himself well and proved his point to any receptive audience. Limbaugh could not argue substantively, so Rush attacked the caller in order to hurt his credibility. Maybe Limbaugh should read the constitution again as well as the founding platform of the Republican party. Those two things he claims to represent are far removed from his antics.
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Bill O'Reilly's Blogger Witch-hunt

Making fun of Bill O'Reilly on a blog might be a bad idea, unless you enjoy being stalked by his producers. I think it's safe to say the O'Reilly Factor won't be hunting me down, but they recently attacked a blogger over at Think Progress. (Image: Huffington Post) Earlier today, The Huffington Post reported on a confrontation between between a O'Reilly Factor reporter and a blogger. Bill O'Reilly's henchmen followed a Think Progress blogger around on her vacation following comments she posted on the blog.

Basically what happened was the blogger pointed out the irony of Bill O'Reilly speaking for a group that helps rape victims because he has placed blame on raped women on his show before. The following comments, via The Huffington Post, were said by O'Reilly on the subject:

"Now Moore, Jennifer Moore, 18, on her way to college. She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at two in the morning. She's walking by herself on the West Side Highway, and she gets picked up by a thug. All right. Now she's out of her mind, drunk."

Here's a video of O'Reilly's response to the blooger, Amanda Terkel, during a recent show:



So let's summarize that clip; he says:

• The blogger is evil
• Attacking him was aimed at hurting the rape foundation
• NBC is a lie-filled news broadcast
• NBC controls the Blogosphere
• He doesn't defend his statements, only that they were 3 years ago

This is so filled with hypocrisy it's beyond belief. This is FOX! What more? O'Reilly dispatched a producer to stalk a female blogger who questioned him on rape. The producer asks leading, weird questions.

If this distortion wasn't enough, he insists NBC is the heart of all evil. I don't know what to think about this conspiracy theory, but it's really over the top. O'Reilly should have owned up for his comments, played something to prove his comments were out of context, or offered some defense. But he didn't. Maybe that's because there is no defense for such comments as the one I posted earlier.

So why do you guys think O'Reilly targeted a small blogger and not the hosts at MSNBC or other major outlets reporting this? Maybe because he can't bully them on vacations and get away with it.
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Harper Dividing Country; CBC Complacent again

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is again trying to divide Canadians sharply on issues. Meanwhile, the CBC seems to be practicing Yellow Journalism yet again as they report on the latest move by the current government. (Image: BBC) Stephen Harper's government decided to bar British Member of Parliament George Galloway from Canada due to supposed links to Hamas. Hamas has been deemed a terrorist organization by Canada; Galloway is accused of funding Hamas because of his attempts at providing relief to Palestinians after the 2008 invasion by Isreal.

The ties are weak at best, but Galloway is outspoken in his support for Palestinians and for peace in the Middle East. His support of Palestine has drawn negative attention from Jewish groups who see Galloway's efforts as supporting a group that seeks to destroy Isreal. Harper is playing into these divisions and politicizing the issue. So what has the CBC done that I find questionable?

Well, in the printed Globe and Mail and practically all results of a Google Image Search, Galloway is wearing normal attire, but CBC selected an image of Galloway wearing a Keffiyeh scarf -- a traditional patterned headdress for Arab men that is now often wrongly associated with Islamic terrorism. This type of association is often made by those who are passingly aware of the symbol. CBC's selection of this image is questionable at best -- the image goes one further due the the background architecture. Here is the image used by the CBC:

This is the second time I have blogged about irresponsible reporting by the CBC in a way that seems to satisfy the current government. Seeing this trend makes me question the CBC's independence from the government. I would expect this type of Yellow Journalism from a small-time, openly-biased paper like the London Free Press, but the CBC is supposed to be Canada's public, neutral news organization. The ironic part is that the CBC pulls such a manipulative trick while writing about free speech.

I encourage you all to read the Globe and Mail article and compare the background information they give to the information the CBC gives. Whether I agree or not with Galloway, I think everyone deserves a fair shake. Manipulative journalism denies everyone the information they need.
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Carlson Still Upset With Jon Stewart

This one has a bit of a background story. Tucker Carlson -- previously a failed host on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox -- has returned to CNN as an analyst. Carlson experienced the most success early in his career at CNN, hosting the show CrossFire. (Image: YouTube) Jon Stewart fits into this because Stewart is often credited with destroying CrossFire by lecturing the hosts during his appearance (video later). Tucker tended to make huge claims, eventually get caught in lies, and became a joke to viewers. So, what's this all about?

As many of you know, Jon Stewart recently ripped into Jim Cramer on his show (Strong language in link), and Cramer accepted the criticism of himself and MSNBC without much opposition. Now, with this in the news, Tucker Carlson appears on CNN's Reliable Sources to attack Jon Stewart:



From that clip, Carlson seems a bit confused about what partisan means in practice. In the United States there are two political parties representing the two sides of politics. Just because Carlson wants to pretend he isn't associated with the Republican party, I would bet that he has never voted for a Democrat in any election. He may not exemplify the party-ties part of partisan, but he is exactly what's wrong with the political system. He won't listen to reason, only his side.

Jon Stewart was not even discussing politics on his show, as much as Carlson likes to pretend Stewart's outrage over CNBC's irresponsibility is due to partisan politics. CNBC got media attention recently by going after the budget, and they were put under a microscope as a result. Cramer went after Stewart as a result of Stewart insulting CNBC generally, and the result was Cramer getting ripped by Stewart for being totally irresponsible.

Carlson needs to let the past go and grow up a bit. He's kept around for entertainment, but he ends up just coming off as a bit stupid. I'll leave you with this clip of Jon Stewart talking sense on CrossFire, leading to its demise:


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Fox Says Obama Administration Worse Than Madoff

Bernie Madoff is the recently convicted man behind the largest ponzi scheme in history. A ponzi scheme, practically a pyramid scheme, claims to be an investment, but pays returns to its investors with the money of other investors. (Image: DailyKos) Basically, what this means is that some scammer pretends to be investing money in the market, but is really just taking the money for their own use. Madoff got away with his scheme for decades -- robbing thousands of investors of billions.

So, what has the Obama administration done to be compared to Bernie Madoff's scam? Well, according to Fox the bailouts are equally big schemes aimed at ruining the lives of many. Check out this video posted on DailyKos:

If this isn't yellow journalism, I don't know what is. How do you feel about this? Outraged? Annoyed? Or maybe you're like me and are just getting sick of Fox pretending to be a news organization. If this is how the Conservative movement continues to answer the positive message that Obama carried to victory, they'll be in for a shock the next election.
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Limbaugh: Popularity Up, Classiness Down

I really didn't want to write about Rush Limbaugh again so soon, but I missed something he did this Friday that is too insulting to not bring up. It seems most of the media missed this, as the first I heard of it was on Huffington Post today. (Image: Wikipedia) On his show, Rush was criticizing the Obama health care plan and got on the topic of the ailing champion of the health care reform movement, Senator Ted Kennedy. Limbaugh made light of the bill, stating that "[by the time it passes], it will be called the Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill."

Here is an audio clip of the comment via Media Matters:

This comment about Kennedy really is tasteless. Senator Kennedy is among the most respected Democrats in congress and is fighting cancer which caused a nearly fatal brain tumor in the past year. Limbaugh has no respect or regard for anyone but himself -- personifying the Republican brand. If anything this is icing on the cake as to what's wrong with the Republican party. When a man who says things like this is your de-facto leader, that speaks volumes.

In case anyone needs a refresher about Limbaugh, here's an article via the Huffington Post that highlights some of Rush's worst comments including:

• Calling Abu Ghraib abuse an "emotional release"


• Saying America should ship its stupid jobs to Mexico


• Explaining women were "doing quite well in this country before feminism"


• Saying the NFL looks like continuous "game between the Bloods and the Crips"

Go away, Rush.
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