DOWNLOADS: (260)

PLAYS: (3370)

Embed

Fox faux outrage has been in overdrive since the release of a comedy video by actor Jim Carrey ("Cold Dead Hand") yesterday. Carrey's spoof of the NRA and Charlton Heston had The Five spitting nails, with Greg Gutfeld leading the charge, calling Carrey "a pathetic, sad, little freak" and "a modern bigot", among other epithets.

GUTFELD: “He is the most pathetic tool on the face of the earth. And I hope his career is dead, and he ends up sleeping in a car the way his life began. This video only made me want to go out and only buy a gun. He thinks this is biting satire and going after rural America and a dead man. Let’s talk about Charlton Heston. Charlton Heston was one of the first actors to be behind the civil rights movement and march. What did this jackass Jim Carrey do? He was behind the anti-vaccine panic. There are what, 165,000 people that died from measles last year, according to the World Health Organization.”

“Jim Carrey has killed more people than all the rifles combined,” Gutfeld continued. “He is a dirty, stinking coward. He is a moral coward. He did a video attacking rural America. But he wouldn’t do video about gangs, which kills way more people with handguns — he wouldn’t do that because he is worried about his career. Such a pathetic, sad, little freak. He is a jiberring mess. He is a modern bigot, he is a modern bigot. He is a bottomless pit of insecurity and the desire for acceptance is why he is doing this, because he knows in his heart he is a fraud.”

Dana Perino chirped in that Carrey was attacking rural America, while Eric Bolling saw it as self-promotion. Token liberal Bob Beckel wondered why "a foreigner" (Jim Carrey is Canadian) was commenting at all.

And on and on it went. This is just one of several more versions Fox has aired since, with Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham also giving their brand of faux outrage.

DOWNLOADS: (127)

PLAYS: (744)

Embed

Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham -- who once accused opponents of the Iraq invasion of trying to "subvert America" -- is now blasting the The Wall Street Journal for beating the "war drums" because the editorial board expressed support for President Barack Obama's use of drones.

Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday asked Ingraham what she thought of the split within the Republican Party after Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) criticized Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) filibuster of CIA Director John Brennan over speculation that President Barack Obama might target citizens inside U.S. borders with drone strikes.

"John McCain, Lindsey Graham and The Wall Street Journal editorial board, extremely dismissive of Rand Paul," Ingraham pointed out. "Wall Street Journal said, 'Calm down;' said, 'You don't have to do more than fire up impressionable libertarians in their college dorms.'"

"I thought to myself, when is the last time a Republican managed to capture the imagination of young people, some people on the left, Mitch McConnell, John Thune, John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio?" she added. "There was a wide range of Republicans and people on the left who said, 'You know something? I think the attorney general should be able to answer a simple question [about the use of drones] with an unequivocal yes or no.' He couldn't do that, and Rand Paul served an enormously important function during that filibuster. He wasn't waving his hands and ranting and raving, contrary to what the Journal condescendingly said."

Liberal contributor Juan Williams argued that the targeted killing policy needed to have transparency and judicial review, but Paul was "grand standing" with his filibuster.

"But the fact is that no U.S. citizen has ever been targeted or killed by a drone on U.S. soil," Williams explained. "And secondly, the Constitution gives the president authority to go after a U.S. citizen if that U.S. citizen is somehow involved in colluding with an enemy of the United States."

"I just want to say that I love the fact that we have the hawk, Juan Williams, and the dove, Laura Ingraham," Wallace snarked.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (139)

PLAYS: (652)

Embed

Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday accused President Barack Obama of abusing members of the media like "battered" women and prostitutes -- that he had a one-night stand with and then left them because "he got what he wanted."

Ingraham told the hosts of Fox & Friends that "you can see the whole Obama machine begin to crumble" if members of the press began to doubt the president's assertion that Republicans should get most of the blame for refusing to avert automatic spending cuts in the so-called sequester.

Fox News host Alisyn Camerota noted that Obama had recently asked the media to leave a meeting with members of the National Governors Association.

"It's like the battered press syndrome," Ingraham opined. "These people are so in love -- many of them, not all of them -- so in love that, like, 'Oh, he's telling me to leave? I guess that means he loves me.' I mean, at some point -- the battered press syndrome -- you have to shake them from this and say, 'You guys have been used and played and manipulated.'"

"Should we tell them he's just not that into you?" Camerota asked.

"Well, he used them," Ingraham explained. "It's like the one-night stand that lasted for four years. He got re-elected, he got what he wanted. 'So, sweetheart, I'll leave your payment on the table and I'm gone.' I'm sorry, but it's embarrassing."

(h/t: Media Matters)

DOWNLOADS: (128)

PLAYS: (1491)

Embed

After complaining about the fact that the economic recovery in the United States hasn't been as robust as most people would like to see and of course blaming President Obama for the number of people who are still out of work, The O'Reilly Factor's guest host, Laura Ingraham, brought in Fox regular Gary B. Smith and Demos' David Callahan to discuss the topic. To no one's surprise, when Callahan suggested that the wealth being generated by our economy is going to the 1 percent and that stronger labor unions and a higher minimum wage might help to fix that problem, he was immediately pooh-poohed by Ingraham.

INGRAHAM: Stronger labor unions? How do we compete with China, Vietnam, South Korea, India, when we are going to have stronger labor unions that insure that we have more work place regulations, more ways that business has to pay more money to make ends meet? The two things don't add up.

Ingraham went on to complain that it's unfair to blame our obstructionist Congress for any of the problems with our economy. She then allowed Smith to make the claim that unionization doesn't work and that is why we have record low levels of unionization in the United States.

Sorry Gary, but record low numbers of union members is not because unions "don't work" or because people don't want to join unions. It's due to union busting and having the laws stacked against them. Unions have worked just fine for what they're supposed to do, which is collectively bargain for better working conditions and wages for their membership -- and we can thank unions for things like ending child labor, the 40 hour work week, overtime pay, and a long list of other protections for workers too long to list here.

I have a question for Laura Ingraham. If she would like a race to the bottom in the name of staying competitive, maybe she can volunteer to work for that same wage, instead of being paid millions to bloviate on the radio and Fox “News”. If below-minimum wage keeps us competitive with Asia, I say let's start with her salary. What do you think Laura? You ready to work for a few dollars an hour or less?

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Ingraham has a net worth of $45 million and is paid $15 million a year. There's nothing like listening to a millionaire telling the rest of us how horrible it is for business that someone is actually paid a living wage.

DOWNLOADS: (157)

PLAYS: (1267)

Embed

Fox News host Greta Van Susteren on Sunday offered a defense of conservatives on her network who suggested that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could have been faking a concussion in order to delay testimony on attacks in Benghazi, saying that the conspiracy theories were put forth "before she was hospitalized" with a blood clot.

In December, Republicans like former Florida Rep. Allen West and former United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton — and numerous other Fox News personalities — had repeatedly mocked Clinton by suggesting that her illness was a manufactured “diplomatic illness” or “Benghazi allergy” to avoid testifying before lawmakers.

After the Daily Beast published an article which incorrectly said that Van Susteren was also peddling conspiracy theories about Clinton, the Fox News host took to her blog to demand that the website "CORRECT THIS PRONTO — and do so in a BIG WAY."

"Of course I will accept an apology but I’m more interested in the TRUTH getting out and that I did not make this crack about the Secretary of State," she wrote, stopping short of also calling on conservatives to apologize to Clinton.

On Sunday, ABC News host George Stephanopolous offered Van Susteren another chance to appeal for a retraction from West, Bolton, Laura Ingraham and others.

"I'm responsible for what I say, number one," Van Susteren explained. "Those were all very dated, before she was hospitalized. And there was not much information coming out of the State Department and very early on with those quotes."

"Look, not for one second did I doubt it," she added. "Once these people heard that she was seriously ill, that all changed. The secretary of state will have to -- should answer questions about Benghazi. There's a lot of mystery... I have nothing beyond to say to that."

DOWNLOADS: (245)

PLAYS: (2056)

Embed

I expect the talking heads over at Fox to be attacking President Obama during these negotiations on the upcoming "fiscal cliff" or as some have called it, the "fiscal curb," but how bad are things for John Boehner and the House Republicans when even Bill Kristol and Laura Ingraham can't manage to come to your defense? We had an agreement among the panel on Fox News Sunday this week, and they all believe that Republicans refusing to negotiate with President Obama is just going to lead to them getting a worse deal later.

Which is good news as far as a lot progressives are concerned, since Republicans think a good deal is destroying our social safety nets and sadly there are too many Democrats happy to help them chip away at them with this talk of a "grand bargain." It seems a lot of us should be grateful that John Boehner is really bad at his job.

And of course there was no mention of just who is responsible for that debt that has been run up since President Obama has been in office. As we've noted here before on too many occasions to count, most of that deficit was due to Bush's policies.

You're not going to hear anyone say that over at Fox though. Quite the opposite as we saw with how Wallace opened the segment.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (102)

PLAYS: (267)

Embed

Who knows how much truth there is to any of this, but I'm rather enjoying watching House Speaker get thrown under the bus by his own: Laura Ingraham: ‘Well-placed conservative voice’ says Paul Ryan in line to replace Boehner:

On Friday night’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” fill-in host Laura Ingraham said her sources indicate a coup may already be underway in Congress.

“I had a well-placed conservative voice today on the Hill email me and said he’s beginning to hear rumblings — I already gave something away, ‘he’ — he’s beginning to hear of a move to replace the speaker of the House,” Ingraham said. “We’re in the middle of this tussle with the Democrats, more than a tussle, and is that the right time to put that out there? And people are floating the name of Paul Ryan to be House speaker. But Ryan did support … Plan B.”

And for anyone who wasn't fully aware of just how big of a debacle Boehner's attempt to get his "Plan B" passed was, Robert Costa over at The National Revue filled their readers in on all of the ugly details this week here: Inside the Meltdown.

DOWNLOADS: (529)

PLAYS: (6128)

Embed

After the recent freakout on Fox, with Bill O'Reilly, Laura Ingraham, Eric Bolling and their ilk all attacking Bob Costas for speaking out about gun violence, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart slammed them pretty hard this Monday evening for their pious proclamations that now is the wrong time to talk about gun violence -- "now" meaning "anytime whatsoever".

Unless of course you're Ted Nugent, or someone trying to make light of the need for gun control. Then it's perfectly alright.

Media Matters has more on that here: For Fox News, It's Never The Right Time To Discuss Gun Violence:

Fox News is helping to lead the right-wing media charge against NBC sportscaster Bob Costas after he brought up the issue of gun violence during halftime of Sunday night's NFL telecast. Fox's heavy-handed move reflects a long pattern of gun advocates trying to make sure a larger media discussion about gun violence in America does not take place.

Sadly, they appear to be succeeding. [...]

As I've noted for years, the mainstream media long ago stopped covering gun violence as a major issue. And even in the wake of horrendous massacres, like in July when a gunman armed himself with a Smith & Wesson M&P15 and shot 70 moviegoers in Aurora, CO., the press has routinely turned a blind eye to the American epidemic. High-profile shootings are mostly covered as a crime issue, not a larger social one.

And even when the topic is covered the press has done a woeful job including crucial context, like the fact that 30,000 people die and 70,000 more are wounded each year from gun violence in this country. Those figures represent eye-opening details that help tell the larger, disturbing story about gun violence in America. But they're ones that rarely get cited by the U.S. news media when covering gun deaths.

That may be why Fox was so quick to slap down Costas: The GOP channel doesn't want any semblance of a media debate about gun violence to take hold. And Fox certainly doesn't want it to take hold in the high-profile forum of a primetime NFL telecast.

Note that the now-is-not-the-time-to-discuss-guns line of attack pushed by Fox has become common practice among conservatives and Republican politicians. Following the Aurora massacres, Sean Hannity and Fox contributor Michelle Malkin were furious the "left wing" was trying to "politicize" the story when they simply made the obvious connection between run-away gun violence and the movie theater mass murder.

I just want to say kudos to TPM's video editor, Michael Lester, for having the stomach to sit through enough hours of Fox to put this video mash-up together. It seems they couldn't even make it until Thanksgiving this year to start fearmongering over the drummed up "war on Christmas" over there.

Fox News Brings You The Scariest Christmas Ever (VIDEO):

In the days before Thanksgiving, Fox filled its shows with dire, sometimes terrifying segments about all the threats surrounding the merriest season of the year. There’s the eradication of free speech by atheist “loons,” the possibility of choking on our food, the diseases spread on airplanes, and the endless depression that comes from Christmas commercials.

If we even make it to Christmas, that is. Fox’s morning man Bill Hemmer charted the possibility that the “apocalypse” would arrive on Dec. 22, and just how sad it will be when we all get wiped out, leaving all those unopened presents under the tree.

So, sit back and take in the best of Fox’s holiday doom and gloom. And as you endure the season, take a moment to think of all those over at Fox News, who clearly need a little cheering up.

DOWNLOADS: (382)

PLAYS: (9553)

Embed

Two anchors who have worked at Maine sister television stations, ABC affiliate WVII and Fox affiliate WFVX, for a combined 12 years cited "unbalanced news" after they surprised staff on Tuesday by tendering their resignations on the air.

At the end of the 6 p.m. newscast, Cindy Michaels and Tony Consiglio thanked viewers and said that departing together was the best alternative because of some "recent developments."

Consiglio told the Bangor Daily News that he quit because "I just wanted to know that I was doing the best job I could and was being honest and ethical as a journalist, and I thought there were times when I wasn’t able to do that."

Michaels, who also served as the station's news director, said that there was a "regular undoing of decisions" that she made.

"There was a constant disrespecting and belittling of staff and we both felt there was a lack of knowledge from ownership and upper management in running a newsroom to the extent that I was not allowed to structure and direct them professionally," she explained.

“It’s a culmination of ongoing occurrences that took place the last several years and basically involved upper management practices that we both strongly disagreed with,” Michaels continued. “It’s a little complicated, but we were expected to do somewhat unbalanced news, politically, in general.”

WVII/WFVX vice president and general manager Mike Palmer, however, insisted that management did not interfere with decisions in the news room.

"Upper management is not involved in the daily production of the news. Period," he told the paper. "We’ve made great changes over the last few months and are not slowing down."

While neither of the former anchors would go on record to detail how they were being pressured to slant the news, some bloggers have speculated that Fox affiliate WFVX had been moving to emulate conservative bias at Fox News.

The WFVX 10 p.m. newscast is simulcasted on talk radio station WNZS-AM 1340, which also airs shows hosted by conservative personalities Laura Ingraham, Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher and Michael Medved.

(h/t: Mediaite)