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This has to be one of the more pitiful segments I've seen on Fox in a while. I'll just say I don't envy either Bill-O or his guest Laura Ingraham with feeling they've just got to defend the Romney campaign if they would like to continue their employment for Uncle Rupert after the disastrous month or so that campaign has had, but this has to be one of the most lame excuses ever for why voters might not be too happy with Mittens.

Heaven forbid they're not watching enough of the GOPTV propaganda channel and getting some of their information off of the Internet -- O'Reilly Wonders If Romney Is Trailing In Polls On The Economy Because Voters Are "So Dumbed Down Now By The Internet" .

While sadly there is a slew of misinformation floating around on the web, I don't see how any of it could possibly be any worse than getting all of your information from ClusterFox, or the likes of hate mongers Bill O'Reilly and Laura Ingraham.

As we've noted here before, Fox viewers are less informed than anyone else. If anyone would like to know where that misinformation, or what most of us who speak plain English call lies, is coming from, just take a look at the screen shot above for a couple of the main culprits. I've got a lot more that could be added to that list and they're not all on television

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From the BBC -- Hillary Clinton: Internet repression 'will fail'. Sadly she did not have the same concern for the US government's treatment of WikiLeaks. It would be nice if our government finally decided that allowing people to openly communicate rather than dropping bombs on poor people's heads and creating new terrorists was a way to actually spread democracy rather than just pretending you believe in it. This appears to be a step in the right direction.

Given our terrible history with being on the wrong side of dictatorships and repression in the Middle East when it suits our needs, I'll reserve final judgment until we hear more details on this and whether it might have worked and where.

In what is being hailed as a major policy speech, Mrs Clinton announced that the US government would invest an additional $25m (£15m) to help online dissidents and digital activists fight state repression.

She named China, Syria, Cuba, Vietnam and Burma as countries restricting online speech, and noted that Egypt's attempt to stifle protesters by switching off the internet was unsuccessful.

Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook were important tools that gave voice to people's aspirations, Mrs Clinton said.

She said the US state department would start Twitter accounts in Chinese, Russian and Hindi, adding to a suite of feeds that already includes French, Spanish, Arabic and Farsi.

She acknowledged that the internet has a problem with hateful speech which can inflame hostilities, but said that efforts to curb such content often become an excuse to violate rights to free speech.

"The best answer to offensive speech is more speech. People can and should speak out against intolerance and hatred," she said.

Mrs Clinton also linked internet freedom with economic prosperity.
Wikileaks 'theft'

Mrs Clinton's speech comes amid a divisive debate in the US over the leaking of thousands of classified government documents to Wikileaks.

She drew a sharp distinction between Wikileaks' possession of secret government correspondence and internet freedom.

"Fundamentally, the Wikileaks incident began with an act of theft," Mrs Clinton said. "Government documents were stolen, just the same as if they had been smuggled out in a briefcase."

She pushed back against critics who argue that government should conduct all its work openly and transparently.

"The United States could neither provide for our citizens' security nor promote the cause of human rights and democracy around the world if we had to make public every step of our most sensitive operations," she said.

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Rachel Maddow takes us on a tour of right-wing world where everything that is on the Internet is true and Obama sent 34 warships off of the coast of Mumbai and spent $200 million a day on his trip to India. The right is having themselves a nice little freakout over this malarkey today and as Paul Krugman wrote, The Fake Scandals Begin.

Fact Check has more on this latest made-up scandal by the right.

It's going to be a long next two years, folks.

Timothy Karr has a nice summation of Sen. Al Franken's keynote speech at Netroots Nation this year.

Sen. Franken to the Netroots: Only You Can Stop the Corporate Takeover of Free Speech:

Over the weekend, Sen. Al Franken (D.-Minn.) made the corporate takeover of our media, and the government's acquiescence to these corporations, frighteningly clear. Franken told more than 2,000 bloggers and organizers attending the Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas that our media system is at risk everywhere we turn - from our free speech online to the growing power of companies who own a massive number of media outlets. Read on...

Al did a fantastic job. Part one is above. Parts two, three and four are below the fold.

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Greg Sargent of The Plum Line makes his picks for the top 5 online news stories of the year.

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CNN's Jeanne Moos takes a look at some of the treatment Joe Lieberman has been receiving on line. I think she picked out some of the nicer stuff that's out there.

Jon Stewart rips old "Pony Express" John McCain for stepping into the void left by Ted Stevens and his support of the "Internet Freedom Act of 2009".

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From Democracy Now. This looks like a good step in the right direction.

The Federal Communications Commission has announced a new set of proposals to prevent internet service providers from curbing or blocking online services. On Monday, FCC Chair Julius Genachowski unveiled a plan that would make permanent existing safeguards that ensure open access to websites and other online content. The new rules would also extend to barring companies from limiting certain kinds of data, such as free internet phone services and file-sharing applications. The safeguards would also apply to wireless phone carriers for the first time. Supporters call the proposals a major step forward in the campaign for net neutrality.

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September 21, 2009 News Corp

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Carlos Watson talks to The Nation's Ari Melber about the growing influence of the online community on politics and the potential for reverse fundraising to make sure there are primary challengers when candidates don't support progressive causes.