Eyes On Fox News Network

I’ve witnessed a lot of outrageous crap on Fox News but even considering their usual lousy standards of ethical journalism this is a low ebb. The kindest thing I can say about this segment from Hannity is it’s blatant character assassination that rises to a level of in-your-face hypocrisy rarely attempted on television.

At the root of this is an interesting propaganda trick: plant a ringer and pretend it’s a found fact. I’ll reveal Tucker Carlson’s dirty little secret in a moment.

Tucker Carlson, a 2nd string conservative pundit and Hannity wannabe, gets to sit in daddy’s chair. To prove his right-wing street cred, he invites Brent Bozell onto Hannity as a panelist to pound on one Harry Knox, a man next to nobody ever heard of until social conservatives decided it was time to smear the man as an anti-Catholic bigot and even an anti-Christian bigot. Which is a strange charge to direct at a man who sought ordination and heads the Human Rights Council’s Religion and Faith Program.

The first question out of Tucker’s mouth is to ask who’s fed more people? Catholic charities or the gay rights movement. It’s the sort of “What’s the price of tea in China” off-the-wall non-topical question which telegraphs gay bashing is going to be in full force. You see, as Brent Bozell puts it, Mr. Knox is an “activist homosexual” (if you watch the video you’ll witness he says this with the distaste of someone who just ate a bad spicy dinner). So we’re in the ‘gay agenda’ terroritory so loathed by social conservatives which quickly makes one wonder who are the real bigots.

The panel is nothing but right-wingers who think alike, a Hannity staple. In addition to Bozell there’s a Catholic blogger, Thomas Peters. Both Bozell and Peters have signed a petition seeking Mr. Knox’s removal from Obama’s faith-based advisory board. If there’s any real agenda going on here it’s to stomp out a critic of the Catholic Church’s stances on gay rights while rallying the socially conservative base to vote Obama out of office.

The slick trick Carlson plays is to base the segment upon a question asked by a CNSNews reporter during a press conference. For those who aren’t aware, Brent Bozell - that would be the Brent Bozell on this Fox News panel - runs CNSNews. It’s a neat trick never divulged to the Hannity fanboy audience. It’s amusing to watch a well-prepped Brent Bozell putting on his reading glasses to search for his scripted answers to the questions he knows Tucker is going to softly toss him. Since CNSNews (their slogan is “The Right News, Right Now”) is a fake news organization feeding this smear-fest it’s only fitting that Bozell should pile on with pre-prepared, completely out of context quotes from Mr. Knox so he can eventually compare the “activist homosexual” with the KKK. No, I don’t kid.

The good news is my video provides most of the quotes in full context to explode the lies Tucker, Bozell, and Peters are spreading.

Amid all the angst about the KKK and bogus claims like Mr. Knox thinks the Pope is a tool of Satan (again, I don’t kid) something gets lost. It’s the basic story feeding the steaming meadow muffin of a debate: Is the Pope or Mr. Knox right about condoms spreading or preventing AIDS? Mr. Peters claims the Pope is right without providing a shred of evidence. However, CDC research would beg to differ. In between CDC and Mr. Peters’ studies that fit his religious faith there’s stuff to debate.

A failure to discuss real issues makes sense since what unfolds has nothing to do with informing and is simply a mechanism to whip up anger against the Obama administration to continue the Fox News “narrative,” as Jon Stewart puts it, that our president is a radical leftist.

February 7th, 2010
Categories: Commentary, Hannity . Author: sknabt . Comments: No Comments

By now even the casual observer of Fox News realizes Jon Stewart appeared on The O’Reilly Factor. Obviously, Fox News promoted the money-maker to death, Stewart has covered it on his show, Keith Olbermann has had his fun with it, bloggers have beat it to death, there are a huge number of YouTube videos ‘rebroadcasting’ it, and even some newspapers have covered the event. However, with all that attention something quite important, in my most humble opinion, has been largely missed.

Most of the media reviews I’ve read echo a theme of the interview being a bit dull, anti-climatic considering the hyped-up expectations. Jon entered Papa Bear’s den and, given home field advantage, a well-prepped O’Reilly loaded up on data-mined talking points to keep Stewart a bit off balance.

To be sure, that was my impression after watching the live broadcasts. Stewart, with his permanent frown etched into his eyebrows, kept his head cocked to one side and, like a scolded puppy dog, cast sheepish glances toward Bill. When I originally cut my video I found little of interest - despite the interview covering two nights - to use. In fact, I dug up video from his previous 2004 visit to the set of The O’Reilly Factor to use. After viewing it, the two broadcasts looked almost identical except for the political players they were debating. John Kerry fades to black and President Obama comes to the spotlight. Little did I realize I was missing the elephant in the room!

Bill O’Reilly - to his credit - posted the entire video on Fox News’ web site. Obviously, it was protection to claims he creatively edited the broadcast. Which is ironic since after viewing the uncut interview it has become an object lesson in creatively editing an interview. If you watched the broadcast version I can’t emphasize enough you have no clue about the true nature of Stewart’s torching of Fox News. There’s little doubt in my mind he wanted to repeat his performance on CNN’s Crossfire which he shamed off the air.

Briefly stated, Stewart wants viewers to take away the fact that Fox News is running a consistent conservative narrative. Fox News has been forced to concede its editorial content is conservative but fiercely denies this bias infects their hard news as well. Stewart skewers this notion. He points out how Fox & Friends kicks off this narrative and it is handed off to their news division to be carried throughout the day. He points out how Neil Cavuto shamelessly smears Obama by asking loaded questions. He absolutely destroys O’Reilly’s claims Obama’s on the road to Socialism by getting Bill to admit he wouldn’t abolish the biggest - but highly popular sacred cows - examples of Socialism: Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. It’s a brilliant point I’ve been praying someone would dump in Bill’s lap. Naturally, all of this got cut out.

O’Reilly can apologize until the end of times that he had non-political reasons for cutting out huge edgy swaths of the interview but it doesn’t wash. In an interview devoted to two nights it would be too easy to cut out all the pointless conservative punditry from Dennis Miller, Laura Ingraham, and especially his body language expert on the interview which adds nothing to our understanding of it. There’s no doubt in my mind that Bill O’Reilly’s tolerance for criticism of Fox News overloaded especially when Stewart violated the first law of Fox News: you do not criticize fellow Foxies. Bill was unable to mop up all the mess so he swept it under the rug.

Update

It appears I’m not the only one who caught the night and day difference between the dreadful live broadcast most Factor fanboys witnessed and the real deal, the unedited version posted on Fox News’ web site. Ken Tucker over at Entertainment Weekly has experienced a 180 degree opinion shift on what he originally viewed as a “love-fest.”

February 6th, 2010
Categories: Commentary, Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor . Author: sknabt . Comments: 2 Comments

How much hypocrisy can Bill O’Reilly stuff into a segment on the The O’Reilly Factor? Prepare to be amazed.

Bernie Goldberg, of course, is a regular on Bill’s show and a usually reliable salesman of Fox News’ conservative causes. However, last night he took exception of right-wingers who are going outside the bounds of reasonable debate attacking President Obama. Bill - who appeared prepared for this line of thought judging by his introduction - got lost down the winding Hypocrisy Road as he felt the need to defend himself and his buds on Fox News. The results are simply hilarious.

The unfortunate thing is Bernie knows where his meal ticket is and went out of his way to talk in generalities so he mentions none of the conservative demagogues guilty of said nastiness. No wonder. Not only would the Fox News audience likely be fanboys of them but many would be too close to home for Roger Ailes to swallow: Hannity and Beck come immediately to mind.

February 3rd, 2010
Categories: Commentary, The O'Reilly Factor . Author: sknabt . Comments: No Comments

If you want a measure of how badly the Republicans performed during their Friday question and answer session versus President Obama all you have to do is look at how Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck covered the event. Which is to say they didn’t. Well, I exaggerate. They covered it for a total of 4 minutes and 5 seconds. Obviously, they didn’t find it as interesting to talk about as ACORN.

This confirms what the 2 videos I’ve put together document: Fox News’ comical attempts to filter the bad news - for conservatives - from their viewers’ eyes.

If this isn’t bad enough it gets worse. While I’ve mentioned before Fox News pulled away 20 minutes early from the Q&A session they covered the Republican response in its entirety.

Now isn’t that fair and balanced?

February 1st, 2010
Categories: Commentary, Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, Glenn Beck, Hannity . Author: postmaster . Comments: 3 Comments

As I said in my last post, you can tell how poorly Republicans did in their televised question and answer session with President Obama by how much Fox News brings on conservatives to discuss it while showing very little of it - particularly anything the president had to say outside of a few mistakes. Add this “America’s News HQ” segment to the long list of fast ones Fox News has pulled to keep its conservative audience blissfully ignorant of the event to set them right on course down Talking Point Lane.

Senator John Barrasso is the latest solo conservative performance I’ve witnessed on the topic. The formula remains the same. Present surgically cut clips to contain any stink. In this instance we see Republicans asking questions but we get no substanative response from the president. We’re told by Fox News’ anchor this is to set the tone. Typical of these interviews with conservatives the senator is given softball questions to coax out all the standard talking points we’ve heard a zillion times on Fox News. A zillion and one hardly is too many for the Kool-Aid drinkers glued to their sets.

There are many of the president’s responses cut from this segment. However, since much of what is discussed regards the standard Obama-bashing smear that him and the Democrats ignored Republican health care ideas I’ve included some of what President Obama had to say on the topic when asked at the Republicans’ retreat. There’s a bit of a history lesson in it that few Republicans - and certainly not Fox News - want to hear because it puts a whole new perspective on all the charges by Glenn Beck and others at Fox News that the Democrats are a pack of radical Marxists.

If you’re used to fiesty give and take between guest and anchor keep in mind there’s a conservative in the house - two if you count the anchor. So when Senator Barrasso boasts a single piece of the Republicans’ health care plan, portability across state lines, will boost the ranks of the insured magically by 12 million don’t expect a correction by the anchor that, in fact, the Congressional Budget Office scoring of their entire plan only increases that number by 3 million through 2019. Just enough to keep up with population growth.

February 1st, 2010
Categories: Commentary, Fox News, America's Newsroom . Author: sknabt . Comments: No Comments

Friday was a historic moment. In the wake of his State of the Union speech President Obama gave a speech before the Republican House caucus. This had been arranged a while back; however, the White House contacted the GOP the night before to request the question and answer session following the speech be broadcast for the first time in history.

It’s a perfect moment. The Republicans have been continually stirring up a stink over Obama’s lack of transparency plus constantly are whining he doesn’t reach out to them. Figuring a full room of Republicans armed with all their favorite talk radio inspired sound-bites could crush President Obama they accepted the offer.

A funny thing happened. President Obama was smooth. So smooth even when he was wrong he looked right. The only thing working in the Republican’s favor is it wasn’t a prime time event severely limited the breadth of the audience’s exposure. Fox News bailed early. CNN and MSNBC kept carrying it. Liberal MSNBC was so excited they put Chris Matthews, Rachael Maddow, and Keith Olbermann together in special “President’s Question Time” post-event coverage.

I hardly watch Fox News 24/7 but what I’ve personally observed during several hours of post-event coverage is both amusing and disturbing. Like a cornered animal the network has lashed back. Not that Fox News is ever bashful about spewing propaganda but the level of spin is bumping up to furious levels. Their presentation of the video clips is surgically precise to contain the stink. I’ve even seen clips where only Republicans asking questions are shown with the president’s response entirely edited out.

Fox News’ normal imbalanced guest list is reaching the absurd. I witnessed a brief segment with Susan Estrich debating Rick Santorum. She’s the only liberal voice I’ve witnessed. Rick Santorum did another solo segment. Rudy Guiliani, Steve Moore, and Karl Rove also have been featured in solo segments.

The Fox News shtick is predictable. Pound, pound, pound on the president’s handful of slip-ups. Emphasize the Republican’s talking points then pound, pound, pound where they view his responses incomplete. Ignore at all costs the many points in the give and take where President Obama deflated stale conservative talking points heavily favored on Fox News like the Democrats have ignored their ideas. It’s especially interesting to me that Fox News hasn’t to my knowledge touched the points the president made about the enablers of the current hyper-partisanship. No wonder since the examples he mentions lead one to immediately think of the vomit their headlining demagogues like Glenn Beck spew every day.

January 31st, 2010
Categories: Commentary, Fox News, Fox & Friends, The Live Desk . Author: sknabt . Comments: No Comments

I’ve been criticized in the past for only focusing on the conservative demagogues on Fox News. Well, as luck would have it, I just happened to channel surf to Keith Olbermann’s meltdown over Scott Brown’s Senate win. Like Brown’s politics or disagree with them but it’s hard to say everything about the man is evil which is essentially the data-mined spew I witnessed Keith dump in his audience’s lap. It comprised every negative smear he could mouth without taking a breath.

If MSNBC is going to copy Fox News’ propaganda factory format they need to quit calling themselves a news outlet because, like Fox, they’re simply lying their asses off.

For comparison sake, I ripped a recent Glenn Beck video from Fox News’ web site. I warn you in advance it doesn’t take the former Morning Zoo alumni long to pull out the Nazi analogies (proof of an argument lost).

I’m sure partisans will hair split differences to prove their guy is justified in his rant while the other guy needs to be run off the air. However, I’m going to call this one a tie. Shame on both of these demagogues.

January 30th, 2010
Categories: Commentary, Glenn Beck . Author: sknabt . Comments: No Comments

We have all seen Bill O’Reilly tout his research and facts on his segment and declare that only his facts are accurate and indeed at times they are, but at other times its appallingly and sloppily bad to non-existent. Case in point is a piece done by our friend Liberal Viewer on Bill’s baseless smear on Amsterdam.

Take a look.

January 29th, 2010
Categories: Commentary, The O'Reilly Factor . Author: Sword of Damocles . Comments: 3 Comments

All Hands Assault on Obama

Let me first say I did not vote for Obama. I did not even think he
was quite ready for the office yet and I believe in divided government.
When one party is in power, Katie bar the door!

Having said that, I have to say I have never witnessed such an all
hands battle station assault like Fox has going on Obama. Virtually
every show is on the battleorder and is firing broadsides into Obama.
Even Greta’s show, On The Record has gone from endless reporting
on missing blonde-haired white women possibly in the clutches of
some pervert, to a venue of having the exclusive guest on the
phone, Rush Limbaugh, fed softball questions so he can go on for
minutes in a massive monologue while Greta dutifully remains
silent as the pearls of wisdom roll off his tongue.

I had thought that Bill Clinton by winning against George Bush Sr. and
then having theaudacity to win a second term had unhinged the right.
He was the ultimate boogieman. I thought wrong. Obama has the right
completely unglued to the point of near hysteria for just winning once
and its out with the dogs of war and the standard bearer of Fox leading
the way.

Such is the trauma, Clinton is referred to in almost civilized terms
compared to Obama these days.

According to the forces arrayed on Fox, Obama is everything from
the Anti-Christ, to the wiley Chief conspirator of making the US into
a fascist state. All this while still claiming Fair & Balanced.

In this 6-22-09 clip from Hannity with Dick Morris we can see the
level of hysteria breaking through. Morris claims that the simple
existence of Obama’s policies BEFORE he is even elected would
send markets spinning. Wow! Such power in an un-elected candidate.
Hannity buys into it.

Later, Morris says the recession was designed to implement Obama’s
policies (post election). Morris seems to be saying that Obama brought
the recession about to make his road easier as President to get his way.

The Illuminati could learn a thing or two from Obama!

Here is the clip that shows the creeping conspiracy hysteria start.
Its ramped up a lot since then.

January 29th, 2010
Categories: Commentary, On The Record, Hannity . Author: Sword of Damocles . Comments: 1 Comment

During my absence blogging, I watched a fair amount of Fox News. Certainly more than most outside the fraternity of right-wing fanboys making up the core of their audience. However, now that I’ve once again started to dig through the garbage dump of right-wing talk radio talking points which is Fox News I’m getting an education on their new avenues of propaganda.

Under “Opinion” on their web site is a new category - at least for me - of “Defcon-3 by KT” videos. The “KT” is Kathleen McFarland, a Republican Senator wannabe who got whipped running for Hillary Clinton’s vacated New York seat. Fox News apparently thinks it has a shortage of Republican views being expressed on their “fair and balanced” network. However, if that’s true how come all of her talking points sound exactly like those I’ve heard endlessly already there? How much reinforcement of the same stale punditry is needed?

The only advantage I see to McFarland’s spin is it’s short, breathless and filled with scary images to maximize the fear-mongering that America simply isn’t safe under Obama. The only way to keep us safe, apparently, is to strip anyone we capture of more (all?) rights, never release them, keep them away from lawyers, torture them - that’s “enhanced interrogation” in conservative politically correct speak - and get aggressive with any nation which disagrees with us. In other words, nativist flag waving will save the day.

This is the simple-minded stupidity which has helped froth up a populist rage in America. This is not me saying I’m a big fan of Obama’s on topics like holding civilian trials for detainees. However, to arrive at McFarland’s conclusions you have to overlook many military lawyers appointed as defense council for GITMO detainees seeing their careers end trying to fight some of the more ridiculous conditions of the Bush administration’s military procedures which make a mockery of justice and reduce military tribunals to kangaroo court status. Again, I’m not talking about some bleeding heart ACLU lawyers trying to give terrorists a hug either.

Yet, this is an example of a reality covered by, say NPR, that I’ve never heard from the propaganda factory that is Fox News. Since I work, sleep, and have somewhat of a life I can’t claim 24/7 coverage. Maybe it’s been mentioned but certainly it hasn’t been given the weight it deserves.

So McFarland’s rants become a pat example of Fox News’ habit of skipping over uncomfortable truths to promote an ideology. In my video I provide a couple more specific examples of her overlooking the facts to sell her slam dunk spin.

Update

Huge shock - not.

As I pointed out in my video being read Miranda rights didn’t prohibit further interrogations. It just wouldn’t be admissible as evidence in court. It came out today in Congressional hearings that the so-called underwear bomber is still being interrogated post-Miranda and yielding some valuable intelligence.

Any bets on whether or not the Fox News pundit corps stops demagoguing on the “he lawyered up and shut up” talking point?

January 24th, 2010
Categories: Commentary, Defcon-3 . Author: sknabt . Comments: No Comments