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On this Tuesday evening's edition of Hannity on Fox, Rep. Keith Ellison let Hannity have it when he made an appearance directly following one of Hannity's fearmongering video mashups, with President Obama speaking about the sequester and the damage the spending cuts might do to the economy, with O Fortuna playing in the background. Ellison was shocked by what he just watched, which Hannity asked him to respond to as soon as he came on.

HANNITY: I guess that's what we could describe as "staying on message." Something the Democratic party, I would argue, is very good at. Let me ask you...

ELLISON: You're pretty good at it too.

HANNITY: I... I... well thank you.

ELLISON: Quite frankly, you are the worst excuse for a journalist I’ve ever seen.

HANNITY: I am the what? I didn't hear you.

ELLISON: You heard me.

HANNITY: Say it again. I didn't hear you.

ELLISION: What you just displayed was not journalism. It was yellow journalism. It wasn’t anything close to try to tell the American people what’s really going on. I mean it’s just shocking.

HANNITY: Yellow journalism?

ELLISON: You. Yes.

And everything went downhill (or uphill, depending on your view) from there. Ellison called Hannity a "shill" for the Republican party, which Hannity denied, saying he's a "Registered Conservative.©" (I wasn't aware we had a "Conservative party" other than the Republican party, but whatever.)

Of course, Hannity didn't take too kindly to the fact that he was called out for doing what he does daily on Fox, which is just that -- shilling for Republicans and for lying to his viewers day in and day out.

After several more minutes of the two of them arguing about the sequester and who is responsible for our budget deficit and Hannity still laying that at the feet of President Obama, Hannity finally cut off Ellison's mic, saying that his "audience deserves better."

UPDATE: I did not include Hannity's intro in the segment above. To see the piece of garbage Rep. Ellison was reacting to, here's how Hannity opened up his show:

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Jon Stewart took the GOP and their propaganda arm, Fox "News" to task for their recent effort to rebrand the Republican party after their losses in the last election. After showing clips of some pundits complaining that their "messaging was bad" Stewart wondered if this might solve their problems:

STEWART: If only people knew what the Republicans were about. What the Republicans need is some kind of twenty four hour a day, seven day a week perpetual messaging refinement and distribution resource. Preferably one cloaked in the trappings of journalistic authority, but without any of its ethical constraints.

What would we call such a place? Elephant News is too obvious. Insane Clown Posse is already taken. Ferret! Ferret News! I'll work on it.

Yeah, it's just too bad they haven't had a chance to adequately get their message out to the voters. After noting that the Republicans don't want to actually change any of their policies, but just make them sound more palatable to the public instead, Stewart told his viewers that there's just one person left that they could turn to in order to save them, which is their wordsmith Frank Luntz -- or there's that other option, which is rigging elections if they can't win over the voters.

Stewart's got their number alright. Lie, obfuscate, "rebrand," pretend you give a damn about representing your constituents when you don't, propagandize and when that doesn't work -- cheat.

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After discussing Sarah Palin's departure from Fox "news" right after Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told his party that they need to "stop being the stupid party," Real Time's Bill Maher reminded his audience during his New Rules segment that people like Palin always seem to land on their feet, like her cohort who they finally fired, Glenn Beck. And as Maher noted, there's really only one thing that people like Palin, or Beck or Limbaugh care about -- and that's separating the rubes who take them seriously from their money.

And as long as that's the case, they're going to be causing problems for Republicans winning elections. These carnival barkers might not have much influence in national races, but they're doing their best to do real damage when it comes to any sane Republicans being able to make it through a primary race.

Here's more from Raw Story: Maher: ‘Con men’ like Beck and Limbaugh ‘don’t care about winning elections,’ just making money:

Maher then mentioned Glenn Beck, who was also fired by Fox News. “But then he saw an open window: the internet. Who needs Fox News when he could take his patented brand of apocalyptic race-baiting directly to the fans?”

Maher said that “con men” like Beck and Rush Limbaugh are why the GOP is in “dire straits. They don’t care about winning elections. They care about separating rubes from their money.”

After arguing that they have found a way to profit from making boogie monsters out of organizations like Planned Parenthood or advocates for immigrant and LGBT rights, he said. “They don’t want a majority. They want a mailing list,” he said.

“Why not just hogtie your audience and steal their disability checks?” he went on.

“I don’t know why being a Republican means needing to have your faith recharged five times a day like Dick Cheney’s heart, because there’s no comparable industry on the left, dedicated to separating liberals from their cash. I mean, unless you count Whole Foods.”

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After reading this nonsense from over at TPM this Sunday, where Republicans are just desperate to glom onto any ridiculous talking point they think might gain them an inch of ground -- Republicans Seize On O’Malley’s Remark That We Aren’t Better Off Than Four Years Ago -- I was really happy to come across this post by Dean Baker at CEPR.

"Are Americans Better Off Today Than They Were Four Years Ago?" The Question That Exposes Incompetent Reporters:

While the source is not clear, someone developed a simple way to identify incompetent news reporters. If you hear a reporter ask people in President Obama's administration, ideally in a belligerent tone, "are the American people better off than they were four years ago?,"the reporter is trying to tell you that they are not qualified to do their job.

The reason we know that the questioners are incompetent reporters is that this is a pointless question. Suppose your house is on fire and the firefighters race to the scene. They set up their hoses and start spraying water on the blaze as quickly as possible. After the fire is put out, the courageous news reporter on the scene asks the chief firefighter, "is the house in better shape than when you got here?" [...]

A serious reporter asks the fire chief if he had brought a large enough crew, if they had enough hoses, if the water pressure was sufficient. That might require some minimal knowledge of how to put out fires.

Similarly, serious reporters would ask whether the stimulus was large enough, was it well-designed, and were there other measures that could have been taken like promoting shorter workweeks, as Germany has done. That would of course require some knowledge of economics, but it sure makes more sense than asking if a house is better off after it was nearly burnt to the ground.

As Baker cited in his post, examples of such hackery are shown above with the questions given by Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace, Face the Nation's Bob Schieffer and This Week's George Stephanopoulos. Sadly I'm sure we will see more of this from all of them as the campaign season wears on.

I will take issue with one portion of Dean's post though. Calling any of these corporate beltway Villagers "reporters" is giving them way too much credit. They're not reporters or journalists, and they're not incompetent. They're propagandists. They'd be incompetent if they weren't fully aware of what they're doing. They all just care more about keeping their paychecks coming than keeping their viewers informed on issues that might actually matter to their lives.

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Leave it to Stephen Colbert to take some of the talking heads on cable news to task in a way that only he can. After pointing out that even Fox's web site featured an article which called Paul Ryan's speech "an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech" and the Romney campaign stating that "We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers," Colbert made a mockery of some of CNN's coverage which we featured here at C&L.

Thank you Stephen for putting into perspective why allowing these lies to go unchecked or to excuse them is so dangerous. It's really pathetic that we continually have to turn to a fake news show on a comedy channel to debunk the propaganda on the "news" channels.

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After the disappointing and frankly frightening results in this Tuesday's Wisconsin recall elections for someone like myself who has been a decades long union member and what it might mean for the future of the union movement if this emboldens Republicans to try to get rid of every union on the country, and the real possibility of seeing them push for putting a national right to work law on the books, I was glad to see at least one person leading a discussion on what's happened where we've got the working class voting against their own economic interests, and that was Ed Schultz.

If we had a few more discussions like this in our national media, rather than the constant union bashing we see instead, maybe more voters would be aware of the fact that pitting one group of workers against another just harms all of us. Sadly as Thomas Frank pointed out, this is something that's been going on for decades. And as E.J. Dionne noted, the severe decline in union membership on the United States has made it much easier for Republicans to play this game of divide and conquer with the working class.

This segment hit home for me particularly hard because it mirrored a conversation I had with a co-worker earlier the same day, who was asking me what I thought about what happened in Wisconsin and all the money poured in there and wondering how we've got so many within our own ranks who are union members and who are happy to have the security of that union membership when it comes to everything from decent wages, to health and retirement benefits, and some recourse with safety issues on the job to not worrying about being fired if they dare to speak up about problems in the work place, and yet consider themselves part of this ridiculous AstroTurf "tea party" movement.

Sadly I didn't have any good answers for him other than to make some of the same points made by Frank and Dionne here about the propaganda those members have been exposed to and the huge uphill battle we're facing to try to overcome that and the way unions are portrayed in the media.

Here's part of the conversation from Schultz's show where he was more or less following up on a discussion he'd had on MSNBC earlier that day on Alex Wagner's show and the need for union leadership to be doing more to educate their members. I agree with the points he made. The question is how do unions use the limited resources they have to potentially follow up on them when their ranks are under assault, which means their finances are as well.

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From our friends at Newshounds, Mike Huckabee treated his viewers to this lie-packed bit of anti-abortion propaganda on this weekend's edition of Huckabee on Fox News. The forced birth crowd over there is determined to keep the culture wars going with their war on women's reproductive rights.

It's downright infuriating that the Obama administration and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius gave them some food for fodder with this one.

Mike Huckabee Lies About "Plan" B While Pimping Anti-Abortion Movie:

As the mouthpiece for the rabid political right, it's not surprising that Fox News is America's pro-life newsroom. You won't see Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood on Fox; but you will see Fox hosts and guests who hate women's reproductive freedom. Fox can be proud of how its top rated Bill O'Reilly contributed to a climate of fear and hatred in which abortion doctor, George Tiller, was assassinated. Bill also did his pro-life duty in presenting a parade of guests who support congressional attempts to defund Planned Parenthood. But while Bill and the other Fox pundits don't seem to, outside Fox, take an anti-abortion activist role, there is one Fox pundit who does and that's Mike Huckabee. He's up to his eyeballs with the "pro-family" anti-women's reproductive rights crowd that wants to provide "personhood" rights from the moment of conception. Mike, who "proudly stands" with homophobic and anti-Islamic hate group leader Bryon Fischer of the American Family Association, lauded the failed Mississippi personhood initiative. And now, he's promoting an anti-abortion rights movie for whih he provides an introduction. In a shameless act of self-promotion and anti-choice activism, Huckabee used his latest show to pimp the movie while telling a shamelss lie about the emergency contraception "Plan B." If Fox viewers are misinformed, this is why.

After telling a folksy story about how he "told" his little grandchild about how he would vote for people who would "protect little guys like him before and after he was born," Huckabee segued into his upcoming forum in Iowa which will include the premier of a new anti-abortion film, "The Gift of Life." After he described the film as "refreshing and uplifting," he asserted that this film will remind candidates and voters that "treating every human with worth and dignity is still essential in selecting a leader." This reverence for life, Hucakbee asserted, is even more important since the FDA recommend that over the counter sale "of a drug that kills a developing baby." He noted that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius is continuing the policy of requiring girls to be 17 if they are "purchasing this what has been termed abortion in a bottle." (He didn't say that a doctor could still prescribe the drug to these girls.) He then went into the standard "pro-life" canard that girls need parental consent to take an aspirin at a school. (A girl of any age can purchase aspirin at a drug store). He continued with the anti-abortion misinformation with a comment about how the government "was on the brink of letting her purchase a pill that will kill her unborn child with neither your consent nor your approval."

Go read the rest, but as they noted, that movie Huck was pimping was brought to us by none other than Citizens United, the same group that led to the disastrous Supreme Court ruling that's made the money pouring into our political coffers from corporations that want to buy off our politicians even worse. Lovely.

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On Tuesday's morning call-in show on C-SPAN, Washington Journal, a caller from Texas demonstrates what happens to your brain after watching too much Fox News and paying attention to Red State's Erick Erickson and his ridiculous "We are the 53%" campaign he launched in response to the Occupy Wall Street protests.

SAMUAL FROM TEXAS: I think a lot of people are getting onto the whole 9-9-9 plan because it's something easy to remember and you know, we're just overburdened with the tax system we have. People lately are really talking the ninety nine percent verses the one percent. I think something more here is another number – it's forty six, fifty four. I may be a little off there but I believe those are the numbers.

Forty six percent of Americans or right around there pay no personal income tax. And the other fifty four percent pay all of it and I think that's the real number and you know, we're basically having to carry the rest of the country on our back. And I'm not saying, you know, all these ninety nine percenters out there are poor people or anything. I think a lot of them are just people who've been handed everything in their life. But I like the ninety nine plan. If nothing else, everybody starts to pay their fair share, instead of one part of the country carrying the rest who's not doing anything.

Listen to the caller try to respond after host Greta Brawner points out that under Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan, billionaire investor Warren Buffett would likely pay no income tax at all as the Huffington Post reported here -- Warren Buffett Would Most Likely Pay No Income Tax Under Herman Cain's '999' Tax Plan: Analysis.

You can almost smell the hairs burning off their head through the television screen. Sadly, Brawner did not point out the the caller that even though many do not pay any federal income taxes, they pay plenty of other taxes and many of them are also Social Security recipients.

Solidarity Pizza Fund:

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I expect we'll see more of this over at Fox "News" and at their sister channel Fox Business as well as the ten year anniversary of 9-11 draws closer, but I wonder how many unsuspecting viewers who tune into News Corporation's National Geographic Channel will realize that what they're watching has been brought to them by the owner of the Fox Republican propaganda networks, Rupert Murdoch.

The segment above is a preview available right now on their web site here -- George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview.

Here's more from Think Progress -- News Corp Set To Air 9/11 Documentary Glorifying Bush; Producer Says He’s Not Interested In ‘Facts’:

After spending over a decade promoting President Bush, the PATRIOT Act, and the Iraq War, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation appears to be up to the same tricks, this time with an hour-long promotional video about Bush’s leadership during the 9/11 attacks. Although News Corp. is perhaps best known for its Bush cheerleading through its Fox News subsidiary, the Bush documentary is airing on another News Corp. company with a better brand image, National Geographic.

The documentary has not aired yet, but is scheduled to come out a few days before the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Early reviews of the program, however, paint Bush as a hero who discarded politics and his right-wing agenda once the planes hit the towers. The film also depicts Bush as a leader bent on capturing Osama bin Laden, no matter what. [...]

In reality, within hours of the 9/11 plane hijackings, Bush’s Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld began drawing up plans to launch a war in Iraq “even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks.” Indeed, Bush aides quickly went to work undercutting the proposed commission to study the events leading up the 9/11, and despite the growing evidence linking the terrorist act with Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda group, Bush never made bin Laden a priority. By January 2002, Dick Cheney told the press that bin Laden “isn’t that big a threat.” The next month, Bush said bin Laden was “not the issue.”

Will producer Peter Schnall critically, and accurately, explain to the public Bush’s actions during and after the horrific 9/11 terrorist attacks? In a recent interview about the program, Schnall said he tried not to push “it too far” with the former president, and that he was “less interested in facts than how” Bush “was feeling”. Read on...

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Keith Olbermann talked to ThinkProgress' Faiz Shakir who helped author a new report from the Center for American Progress -- REPORT: $42 Million From Seven Foundations Helped Fuel The Rise Of Islamophobia In America:

Following a six-month long investigative research project, the Center for American Progress released a 130-page report today which reveals that more than $42 million from seven foundations over the past decade have helped fan the flames of anti-Muslim hate in America. The authors — Wajahat Ali, Eli Clifton, Matt Duss, Lee Fang, Scott Keyes, and myself — worked to expose the Islamophobia network in depth, name the major players, connect the dots, and trace the genesis of anti-Muslim propaganda.

The report, titled “Fear Inc.: The Roots Of the Islamophobia Network In America,” lifts the veil behind the hate, follows the money, and identifies the names of foundations who have given money, how much they have given, and who they have given to [...]

The money has flowed into the hands of five key “experts” and “scholars” who comprise the central nervous system of anti-Muslim propaganda:

FRANK GAFFNEY, Center for Security Policy – “A mosque that is used to promote a seditious program, which is what Sharia is…that is not a protected religious practice, that is in fact sedition.” [Source]

DAVID YERUSHALMI, Society of Americans for National Existence: “Muslim civilization is at war with Judeo-Christian civilization…the Muslim peoples, those committed to Islam as we know it today, are our enemies.” [Source]

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