DOWNLOADS: (738)

PLAYS: (10481)

Embed

After a week or so of watching the right wing and pundits on television either make excuses for the Romney campaign taking President Obama's "you didn't build that" comment out of context, or as Jon Stewart showed in this segment, going out of their way to repeat the distortion, it was nice to see them get taken to the woodshed again on The Daily Show.

Last night it was Lewis Black ripping up the Romney campaign, and tonight it was Stewart's turn.

After showing a compilation of some of the various talking heads out there, with Erick Erickson calling President Obama's remarks "grade school Marxism," Stewart responded:

STEWART: Yes! Grade school Marxism... or, as your second grade teacher might have referred to it... sharing.

Stewart went on to show the hacks over at Fox & Friends doing their best to make things worse as Media Matters clipped here: Fox Claims To Offer "Context" For Obama Comments -- Then Airs Another Deceptively Edited Clip and we brought you here: Kilmeade Asks Little Girls if Government Built Their Lemonade Stand .

He followed that up with these remarks:

STEWART: Look, the campaigns all like to have fun with gaffes, making it a big deal out of a misstatement is a great way to win a news cycle. [...] but this ain't a gaffe. And Mitt Romney's not having a little fun with it. This deliberate misstating and misrepresentation of his position is now the centerpiece or Romney's entire campaign. He's got signage, T-shirts, and this unrelenting ad. [...]

Mr. Romney, hanging your attack on a person's slight grammatical misstep is what people do in an argument when they're completely f**ked and they know they have no argument.

I know you, Mitt Romney would like this election to be a stark choice to the American people and to Obama's vision of a Marxist state-run oligarchy and your simple and your simple ode to the freedom our Founders envisioned, because given that choice, you would... come really close. But, you're not running against this guy, Straw-Man Johnson.

Stewart wrapped things up with a mashup of Romney repeating all of the same lines as President Obama on the need for infrastructure and the fact that no one makes it on their own.

DOWNLOADS: (394)

PLAYS: (846)

Embed

The Daily Caller Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson on Thursday blasted "the average working journalist" for having a "slavish, dog-like loyalty" to President Barack Obama.

Guest hosting on Fox News' Hannity, Carlson told the conservative Media Research Center's Brent Bozell that he was outraged because the media had not spent enough time promoting Ed Klein's anti-Obama book, The Amateur.

"What is it about this president that so commands the slavish, dog-like loyalty of your average working journalist?" Carlson wondered.

"[Obama is] a radical and there are so many that are just radicals in the liberal media," Bozell speculated. "But it's also that they were completely vested in him in 2008. They gave him 100 percent positive treatment. And the last thing a liberal likes to admit is that he was ever wrong."

Carlson saved his harshest criticism for MSNBC host Chris Matthews, who recently accused Newark Mayor Cory Booker of "an act of sabotage" for saying that Obama campaign ads about presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital were "nauseating."

"What a Stalinist!" Carlson exclaimed. "So it's not criticism, it's betrayal."

"He really is the original throne sniffer of the Obama administration," he added, referring to Matthews.

A recent study from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism determined that Romney's coverage was twice as favorable as Obama's between January and April. Romney's coverage was 39 percent positive during that period, while Obama's coverage was only 18 percent positive.

"That means Romney’s depiction by the media was more than twice as positive as the president’s," The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz wrote. "So much for liberal bias."

(h/t: Media Matters)

DOWNLOADS: (933)

PLAYS: (11093)

Embed

Jon Stewart took a shot at Republicans and the talking heads over at Fox for their latest round of feigned outrage for the week -- whether it be Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mitch McConnell now suddenly upset that President Obama dared to say something about judicial activism by the Supreme Court -- or the likes of Judith Miller and Brent Bozell decrying NBC playing an edited recording of the George Zimmerman 911 call the night of the Trayvon Martin shooting.

DOWNLOADS: (196)

PLAYS: (646)

Embed

While attacking the Affordable Care Act along with the rest of the wingnut teabaggers that attended during this weekend's rally on Capitol Hill, hoping that the Supreme Court will repeal the health care law, the Media Research Center's Brent Bozell took his turn in the round of right wing pundits, who I'd say fortunately did not get a lot of attention anywhere else in the media, but C-SPAN aired their event.

I'd actually be happy to see this footage aired in our corporate media if it was fact checked properly and not just given the type of coverage as we normally see where it's the sort of fake balance and both sides have a point to make lazy excuse pretending it's “journalism” that is sadly all too often what fills our airways on almost all of the networks. I'm happy not to see it showing up for exactly that reason.

Brent Bozell has told this lie before, and while railing against the Affordable Care Act at this weekend's rally and the hope that the Supreme Court over turns it, told this whopper again over the weekend:

BOZELL: I'm speaking here as a Catholic and as an American. This president came out with a mandate and he ordered me as an employer to fund somebody's abortifacient, to fund somebody's abortion. Or as an employee, to put up the money for it.

Mr. President, I'll get around that stupid law, but if I can't get around that stupid law, here I am, bring out the hand cuffs, because you're going to have to arrest me.

Ladies and gentlemen, destroy this bill! Destroy this law! Thank you.

We've been down this road already with the likes of Peter Johnson on Fox pretending emergency contraception is an abortion drug. And with Karl Rove pushing the same line.

Apparently Brent Bozell doesn't have any more respect for those in the audience at this event in D.C. than Johnson or Rove did for those at Fox. For anyone that's in the mood for a couple of hours or so of wingnuts going crazy over the health care law coming before the Supreme Court this week and that feels like torturing yourself with watching the entire, sorry event, here's the video at C-SPAN's site -- Tea Party Patriots Health Care Law Repeal Rally.

DOWNLOADS: (164)

PLAYS: (1150)

Embed

Tea party Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) thinks that the color of the president's skin will play a big part in next year's election.

"[Y]ou see this administration playing class warfare and race warfare games," Media Research Center's Brent Bozell told Walsh during a recent interview. "Now, that’s their problem. But what does it say about the national media that they are aiding and abetting this by not exposing the dishonesty here?"

"This guy pushed every one of the media’s buttons," Walsh replied. "He was liberal, he was different, he was new, he was black. Oh my God, it was the potpourri of everything."

"They are so vested in our first black president not being a failure that it's going to be amazing to watch the lengths they go to to protect him."

Earlier this year, Walsh claimed that Obama was elected because he was black.

"Why was he elected? Again, it comes back to who he was. He was black, he was historic," Walsh told Slate's Dave Weigel in May. "They were in love with him because they thought he was a good liberal guy and they were in love with him because he pushed that magical button: a black man who was articulate, liberal, the whole white guilt, all of that."

(H/T: ThinkProgress)

DOWNLOADS: (261)

PLAYS: (1948)

Embed

It's hard to say what was more disgusting about this "awards ceremony" hosted by Brent Bozell's right wing rag, The Media Research Center; the horribly bad jokes or the blatant dishonesty with the better part of the clips that they showed that were highly edited and chopped together apparently for the entertainment of the audience there.

For anyone who's up to watching the entire thing it's posted on C-SPAN's site here -- Dishonors Awards Ceremony. Here's their description of the event:

The Media Research Center held its annual gala to roast media they feel show liberal bias with "DisHonor Awards." Ann Coulter, Neal Boortz, Andrew Klavan, and a Who's Who of national conservative leaders will participate in the 2011 Dis Honors awards roast hosted by Brent Bozell and the Media Research Center. The Outlaws will provide live entertainment and Cal Thomas will receive the William F. Buckley Award for Media Excellence.

And of course what would one of these events be without giving Ann Coulter a chance to pretend she's still relevant and to spend some time trashing Keith Olbermann. Ann's criticism basically boiled down to calling Olbermann a girl, stupid, getting in a fat joke on Michael Moore and trashing his new upcoming show at Current TV. She also gave him credit for contributing to Scott Brown being elected after he did one of his special comments about him, as though the terrible campaign run by Martha Coakley had nothing to do with that. Yes folks, Keith Olbermann apparently is presonally responsible for Scott Brown being elected in Massachusetts because he did a special comment on him at MSNBC if you live in Ann Coulter and The Media Research Center's world.

Ann apparently also confused who was watching Olbermann's show on MSNBC when she said the only people watching him were right wing bloggers, to laugh at him. Sorry Ann, but the show on MSNBC where the ratings suck and it's left wing bloggers watching it to debunk the crap said there, is Morning Joe. Keith didn't go off the air because he lost his audience. He went off the air because he didn't want to be hamstringed by the management there once Comcast took the network over. And I would guess his new show will be every bit as relevant as Bozell's rag you're out there carrying water for during this event.

And to wrap this segment up, they brought on wingnut Rep. Steve King to accept the award for Olbermann, who apparently still has a craw stuck in his neck for being made one of his Worst Persons way too many times.

DOWNLOADS: (285)

PLAYS: (696)

Embed

And a final note on this, can anyone imagine a liberal group doing anything even remotely similar to this without being absolutely savaged by the "mainstream media" for it? I can't.

DOWNLOADS: (335)

PLAYS: (1397)

Embed

Sean Hannity and Brent Bozell of the right-wing Media Research Center decided to attack Chris Matthews and Jimmy Carter for truthfully pointing out, on Hardball this past Monday, the fact that these Tea Partiers have been co-opted by Big Money interests, and the dupes out there protesting on their behalf don't have a clue as to who is funding this astroturf "movement".

Here's the transcript from Hardball that they went after them for.

MATTHEWS: Well, what you think of these Tea Party people? Mr. President, I look at a lot of them as, they‘re not all crazies. They‘re regular people, a lot of middle-middle-class people and they‘re very religious. They‘re churchgoing people, like yourself. And I wonder, do they know that they‘re being backed by big corporations and all this conservative money at the top?

CARTER: The ones that know it deny it. And, obviously, the Tea Party movement has been completely financed—almost completely financed by hard-right oligarchs who want to prevent the oil companies and major corporations from having to pay their share of taxes or to comply with environmental laws.

MATTHEWS: Right.

CARTER: And so the Tea Party movement has been suborned by these very right-wing people who don‘t give a darn about low-class working people, but just want to feather their own nests.

MATTHEWS: I wish they knew that.

Their response... to laugh it off since Hannity obviously don't want his viewers to know that Fox is just as big of a player in this as groups like Dick Armey's are, and then Bozell makes a personal attack on former president Jimmy Carter.

BOZELL: You know, first comment on President Carter. Doesn't he sound like that proverbial college freshman who spouts neo-Marxist pablum after one too many hits on the bong? I mean he... Mr. President, it's time, you know it's time to put up shutters in your houses and really shut up now because you are making a fool of yourself.

Sorry Brent, but the only "fools" are the ones who watch Hannity's show or read your site and believe that anything you say is credible. You're both the same sort of tools that Carter called out on Hardball spouting the corporate line as long as it lines both of your pockets. If anyone's had too many "hits on the bong" it's anyone who takes either of you seriously.

h/t to Media Matters for the catch and whose title I borrowed since I could not have written a better one myself. I can only watch so much of Sean Hannity's show without starting to feel like Jon Stewart and his staffer did after Hannity's lame "apology" to Stewart and too much of Fox "News" in general. They're better taken in small doses to keep the television set intact.

"Go ahead. Just try it."

That was Alan Grayson's response for anyone who wants to collect the $100 'bounty' made by rightwing blogger Dan Gainor:

"I'll give $100 to first Rep. who punches smary [sic] idiot Alan Grayson in nose."

Grayson put it best himself, in his own words:

This is their response. This is how the right wing does it. They pay people to clean for them, to cook for them, to drive for them, and now:

To punch for them. Or, more specifically, to punch me for them.

We knew they're crazy. It turns out that they're also lazy. Too lazy to throw a punch themselves.

So here they are, inciting violence against our elected officials. Just as they did during the healthcare debate, when many of my Democratic colleagues - and my five-year-old son -- got a death threat.

But they're forgetting something. Something very important.

We punch back. We punch back with our votes, and our voices. And we will be heard.

Here's the Donation link for Alan Grayson.

Countdown's Worst Persons for Jan. 4, 2009 with winner Brent Bozell.

Ignoring his past remarks, Bozell says "if" Limbaugh said liberals "want to kill people," "[i]t would be the end of his career"

In a December 31 Newsmax article, Media Research Center president Brent Bozell is quoted as saying that if Rush Limbaugh said liberals "want to kill people," then "[i]t would be the end of his career." But Limbaugh has made numerous remarks of the sort, including declaring that "It's the American Left that wants you to die" and that the Democratic Party is "obsessed with your death."

Runners up Scott Rasmussen and The Politico.

Politico fails to fact-check Rasmussen’s claim that he ‘has never been a campaign pollster or consultant.’

Reporting on criticisms of right-leaning pollster Scott Rasmussen, Politico presented as fact his official bio as “an independent pollster” who “has never been a campaign pollster or consultant.” The article quotes Rasmussen’s critics, but fails to question his supposed independence.

And Gretchen Carlson.

Gretchen Carlson Promotes Bogus Bertha Lewis White House Visit Story On Fox & Friends

Gretchen Carlson is a graduate of Stanford where, one assumes, she learned that information must be properly sourced and vetted before it is used in a report. Thus, one has to question why former Miss America pushed a discredited Andrew Breitbart report which claimed that ACORN’s CEO, Bertha Lewis, recently visited the White House. Fox Nation ran with the smear for three days before taking it down*. But today, pretty in pink Gretchen reported that “ACORN's chief Bertha Lewis got an inside look at the White House just days before those explosive undercover tapes about ACORN were released. Could her relationship with the First Family affect the way the administration ended up viewing those tapes?” Ah, the “explosive” tapes that resulted in a Congressional Committee concluding that ACORN hasn’t violated any federal regulations in the last five years. Gretchen didn’t mention that little detail.

DOWNLOADS: (205)

PLAYS: (431)

Embed

Brent Bozell makes Ed Schultz's Psycho Talk segment for coming on the Lou Dobbs radio and saying that "You can't point a finger to anything that Fox News has done incorrectly".