Fox Makes the News — Literally
From Steve Benen:
Fox News spent months promoting last weekend’s right-wing protests in Washington, encouraging viewers to go register their outrage. And during the event itself, the Republican news network went a step further, encouraging the crowd to get louder once the cameras were on.
As Danny Shea reported this morning, Fox News producer Heidi Noonan rallied the crowd during an on-air segment in which Glenn Beck chatted with activist Griff Jenkins. Viewers at home, of course, were not told that a Fox News producer was encouraging the protestors to make some noise for the cameras.
A network spokesperson told the Huffington Post, “The employee is a young, relatively inexperienced associate producer who realizes she made a mistake and has been disciplined.”
Sure she has. I’m sure Fox News is all broken up about this.
Here’s the video that viewers saw at home. The cheerleading producer, obviously, is out of camera range.
Torture Architect John Yoo Gets Monthly Column in Philly Inquirer
John Yoo has written freelance commentaries for The Inquirer since 2005, however he entered into a contract to write a monthly column in late 2008. I won’t discuss the compensation of anyone who writes for us. Of course, we know more about Mr. Yoo’s actions in the Justice Department now than we did at the time we contracted him. But we did not blindly enter into our agreement. He’s a Philadelphian, and very knowledgeable about the legal subjects he discusses in his commentaries. Our readers have been able to get directly from Mr. Yoo his thoughts on a number of subjects concerning law and the courts, including measures taken by the White House post-9/11. That has promoted further discourse, which is the objective of newspaper commentary.
Dear LA Times: Are you kidding me?
The LA Times glowingly extolling about the anti-stimulus “tea parties” and their connection to social media pisses me off more than you can imagine. Let’s see what’s wrong with the first sentence and a haf of this crappy article:
In the latest example of how user-produced media can capture so-called “massively-shared” events in a way mainstream media can’t, a wave of images, blog posts and videos from a nationwide protest has been washing across the Web. The protests, dubbed “tea parties”…
Ahhh, “massively-shared” — really now, LA Times! Nationwide how many people have this protests against a popular president churned out? A thousand people, perhaps? Maybe two thousand? I’m willing to bet they’ve brought out a lot less.
These “tea parties” are like slumber parties compared to protests from the left — which you ignored.
Carrying GOP water?
First impressions mean a lot. In that vein, here’s the first paragraph from the front page story in today’s New York Times about Obama’s budget proposal, to be revealed later today:
President Obama will propose further tax increases on the affluent to help pay for his promise to make health care more accessible and affordable, calling for stricter limits on the benefits of itemized deductions taken by the wealthiest households, administration officials said Wednesday.
Now what NYT could have said is that Obama is reversing the massive tax cuts that former President Bush gave to “the affluent”, tax cuts which ran in excess of a trillion dollars that did absolutely nothing to help our economy and we can no longer afford anyway. I realize that’s biased, but A) It’s true; and B) Is it anymore biased then this crap NYT wrote which basically mouths the GOP talking point of class war?
Maybe something inbetween these two views would work. Perhaps the phrase “tax adjustment” would be more objective? It would, at least, veer more towards accuracy — which is what I thought the news media was supposed to do anyways.
The media’s inept coverage of all issues related to race.
The thing about the dead monkey cartoon that really stuck with me — is the fact that I was not surprised.
I kind of expected it. I certainly expected the reaction from the right wing, who automatically began denying it had anything at all to do with race, was just another example of Rev. Al Sharpton playing the race card and was just more liberal whining. I certainly expected that. That’s what they do. They deny, ignore and trivialize dissent.
Bipartisanship, Nonexistent CBO Reports, and Misattributed Quotes
Commentary’s Jennifer Rubin tsk-tsks that “bipartisanship didn’t make it to the weekend“:
The problem is not just the Democrats’ high-handed process that shuts out Republicans. The issue is that the bill itself is objectively awful. If you think tax cuts and defense spending are better ways to “jump start” the economy, there is precious little to like. But even if you accept the Democrats’ premise that we should have a bunch of “shovel ready” projects and immediate infusions of spending into the economy, the bill doesn’t do that either. The Congressional Budget Office tells us: “For example, of $30 billion in highway spending, less than $4 billion would occur over the next two years. Of $18.5 billion proposed for renewable energy, less than $3 billion would be spent by 2011. And of $14 billion for school construction, less than $7 billion would be spent in the first two years.”
Dear Politico
Is it really a ’slam’ if the new administration (new administration!) has simply offered an honest account of how the previous administration (previous administration!) conducted itself during Katrina?
Rick Sanchez Pwns Joe the Plumber
Oooo–that’s gonna leave a mark.
Transcript @ Crooks & Liars, h/t Chet Scoville.
*facepalm*
There’s so much wrong here that I don’t know where to begin. So I’ll just point out that while working for a supposed media organization as a reporter to comment on the war in Gaza, Joe the Plumber has said that the media shouldn’t be allowed to report about wars.
I think we all know what this kind of quality wingnut reporting deserves…
Dear Associated Press
1992 called–it wants its appalling lack of journalistic ethics and standards back.
Inverted Priorities and Blagojevich Coverage
Apparently the general public isn’t as concerned about the faux-Blagobamagate taint as the MSM would love to believe:
Public ratings of Barack Obama are unscathed by the scandal swirling around Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich’s apparent effort to trade off his power to appoint Obama’s successor to the U.S. Senate, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
More than three-quarters of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling the presidential transition, up significantly from three weeks ago, and a slim majority in the new poll said the president-elect has already done enough to explain any connections his staff may have had with Blagojevich.
Foser: “[T]his week brought signs that much of the media is set to resume the absurd and shameful behavior that defined the 1990s”
Jamison Foser on the Blagobamagate!!1 media circus:
If the news media regains a bit of the skepticism so many of them set aside for the past eight years, that would be an unequivocally good thing, and it should be applauded.
But this week brought signs that much of the media is set to resume the absurd and shameful behavior that defined the 1990s — guilt by association, circular analysis whereby they ask baseless questions about non-scandals, then claim they have to report on the “scandal” because the White House is “besieged by questions,” grotesque leaps of logic, downplaying exculpatory information, and too many other failings to list.
If that happens — if the media continue to behave as they did in covering Whitewater — they will damage the country. It’s really that simple. We cannot afford to be distracted from serious problems by overheated conjecture and baseless insinuation masquerading as journalism.
IOW, less Blago, more bailout.
Dear Murdoch Times
…ahh, fuggeddaboutit. Y’all are beyond redemption– making shit up is standard operating procedure for many in the UK press, ethics and standards be damned. At least folks in the Mother Country readily acknowledge this fact, making its impact far less potent (at least domestically–there are those here in NA, many of whom should know better, who actually treat the Daily Mail as something resembling a legitimate source, rather than discount bird cage liner. No, seriously!)
Media Maestros Strike a Sour Note
Via Hugh Hewitt groupie Mark Halperin, we see that The Politico is still going strong in its crusade to make the Blago affair into Whitewater 2.0. Incidentally, Halperin, in a move that will shock and disgust you (cough) jumps on the irresponsible headline bandwagon–um, “Obama Faces the Blago Music” implies that Obama will soon be forced to confront the unpleasant results of his own actions (oh noes!) Kinda difficult, when you aren’t, y’know, actually accused of doing anything, apart from being a bit player in Gov. Blago’s comedy of errors.
Even more difficult when the author of the original criminal complaint , US attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, plainly stated “We make no allegations that [Obama] was aware of anything.”
Of Fools and Folly
How much you wanna bet that the only reason Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith cobbled together this rickety structure of baseless speculation about Obama and the potential (yes, potential) scandal that might (yes, might) arise (passive voice!) for the President-elect and certain members of his team, following yesterday’s dramatic arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, was to frame the following paragraph:
One prominent Chicago Democrat close to many of those named in the indictment suggested the risk for Obama is “Whitewater-type exposure.” That was a reference to an Arkansas real estate deal that produced a series lengthy and highly intrusive investigations in the 1990s that never proved illegality by the Clintons.
Apparently The Politico brain trust is still stuck in 1992. Not surprising, considering that throughout the ’90s Politico editor-in-chief John F. Harris and his then-colleagues at the Washington Post reported extensively on many now-infamous media-and-Republican-manufactured Clinton-era scandals that would not fucking die. Eric Boehlert, critiquing a 2006 book written by Harris and ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin, puts “Whitewater-type exposure” in proper context:
The duo devotes an entire chapter detailing Clinton’s often troubled first term in office, yet the phrase “Whitewater” never appears in print there. Keep in mind that reproducing The Washington Post’s library of breathless Whitewater stories printed during Clinton’s first term would likely fill three volumes the size of The Way to Win, while ABC’s Whitewater archives could fill a weekend of around-the-clock coverage. But for Halperin and Harris, the story, and the media’s absolutely central role in keeping alive a Republican-generated hoax about a long-ago real estate deal, goes down the memory hole.
The old proverb about dogs and vomit comes to mind.
Update: More from Steve Benen, who looks at AP’s latest “wildly irresponsible” example of “cutting through the clutter” by not relying on such hoary journalistic conventions as “facts” or “evidence” to support ones assertions.
Teh LOLZ (Oh, That Village!)
Townhall.com is a mainstream, legitimate, comprehensive, informative, and entertaining conservative news and opinion magazine and website. Disclosure: they’ve written nice things about me.
- Serious Political Journalist™ and Paid Blogger™ Marc Ambinder, curbstomping irony and his already suspect credibility, all in one shot.
Thers does the heavy lifting (well, ok, more like like shunting half-filled crates at a feather supplier’s warehouse) so I don’t have to:
I don’t doubt for a minute that Townhall really does represent the finest, most cutting edge conservative thought available anywhere, online or off. That’s why it features Chuck Norris. Not to mention Mike Adams. Or Doug Giles.
[...]
Anyone surprised to discover at Townhall Dot Com a completely ludicrous smear against an astoundingly centrist Democratic president is either dangerously naive or an “MSM” journalist, or both. Gonna be a fun four years for those of us who like saying “fuck” online, I’ll tell you that for free.
Fret not, Marc. I’m totally sure Hugh Hewitt isn’t saying nasty things about you (and your barely concealed Liberal Bias™) behind your back. *snicker*
(Cue backpeddling “you foul-mouthed angry left bloggers don’t recognize teh jokes” post in 3…2…1…)
Ethics Smethics
Novakula, Prince of Darkness, appears to be petulantly nursing a grudge like Phil Anselmo nurses a 40 of Jack Daniels:
I’d go full speed ahead because of the hateful and beastly way in which my left-wing critics in the press and Congress tried to make a political affair out of it and tried to ruin me. My response now is this: The hell with you. They didn’t ruin me. I have my faith, my family, and a good life. A lot of people love me — or like me. So they failed. I would do the same thing over again because I don’t think I hurt Valerie Plame whatsoever.
But, as Ben Armbruster at Think Progress notes:
…Plame was “hurt” because of Novak’s column — she no longer has a career as a covert CIA agent. Moreover, Plame has said that she feared for her and her family’s lives after Novak revealed her identity.
But Novak ignores the point that Plame’s outing had broader national security implications. In fact, Plame’s CIA job was to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and as one former senior intelligence officer put it, the leak made “it harder for other CIA officers to recruit sources.”
Yeah, fuck piffle like Plame’s livelihood or national security. There are more important things at stake here. Like crazyglueing Robert Novak’s fragile-as-an-eggshell professional ego.
Hey, don’t worry, Bob — at least Travis Tritt understands your pain, and has some heartfelt advice on how to move on.
h/t Mustang Bobby
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