Media Malpractice: Fox News Rejects Pro-DADT Repeal Advertisements

But they are totally fair and balanced right?  It's not like they are trying to push an agenda.  Who would ever suggest such a thing...

Huffington Post

Common Sense

Sweet Justice: Mojave Desert Memorial Cross, Stolen

Perhaps you recall a recent dust-up (primarily reported by the one and only Fox News) of a cross in the mojave desert, that memorializes the veterans of foreign wars.  It's a pretty random sight, but the ACLU filed suit claiming that it was a violation of separation of church and state because it was on federal land.  The bitter Supreme Court battle resulting in a 5-4 decision in favor of the leaving the cross standing.  A Not so surprising outcome considering the conservative leanings of the current court.

In what can only be described as an act of cosmic justice against the arrogance the Religious Right, the cross has been stolen.  While I sympathize with the veterans groups involved in this fight, there was an easy fix to this entire problem.  Simply don't use religious symbols in war memorials.  Since we are NOT a Christian nation, crap like that is bound to offend someone, and you reap the rewards of your arrogance in believing that it wouldn't.

Though I feel slightly bad that many veterans will be hurt by this story, I could not help but laugh at the irony of this situation.  The Religious Right spent years defending this cross in court, only to have to lopped off in the middle of the night.  Now that is what I call sweet justice winning out in the end.

(Also, please enjoy the fact that the fox news writer on this story appears to be so angry that he might have an aneurism at any moment)

Common Sense

Media Malpractice: Media Obsession With "Slam"ing

Ok, so I've started to notice a trend in recent reporting.  What is with the media obsession with politicians "slam"ing, "rip"ing, or "blasting" other people or organizations?  the media can't come up with better verbiage than that?  Here are some examples:

Palin "slams" sexist Newsweek cover (CNN)

Critics "rip" new mammogram guidelines (Fox Noise)

AG "Blasted" for Bad History (Fox Noise)

DCCC "slams" Shadegg for suggesting Bloomberg's daughter will be kidnapped (CNN)

Palin "slams" Levi for "Porn" (CNN)

Axelrod "slams" Romney (CNN)

Thats just from the past 4 days!

Perhaps CNN and Fox News can find more descriptive ways to express their ideas, instead of using words that, I can only assume, are appealing only to the ignorant, uneducated, ill informed masses who think politics is a wrestling match.

Common Sense

You Might Be a Racist: Special Screenings for Muslim Soldier

Check out this video:


You know, I never thought I would think Geraldo Rivera would say anything worth hearing, but you know, in this segment I kinda fond myself agreeing with some of the things he said.  Clearly, his family has a history of being singled out in racial terms and so it's nice to hear him expressing that story to attempt to stop the race baiting going on in the room.  I wish he had stopped short of saying that this guy got off easy because he was a muslim, but we'll give Geraldo credit for not being totally nuts today.

As for everyone else.  Really?  this is the first time since the US "War on Terror" began that something like this has happened.  don't you think it's a little inappropriate and incendiary to claim that it part of a bigger problem?  Yes, he should have been screened out when he made the more sketchy comments but you can't lump him in with a whole group of people especially in the military where the only people who would want to get into that are patriots.  This is not a racial or religious issue (although I think there is an argument to be made here that religion is once again front and center in a bad way), the issue is what kind of person enters the military?

Even though I'm sure I could easily be called unpatriotic for saying this, you have to ask yourself is this indicative of a larger problem in the armed forces?  We all know that the armed forces is the perfect place to go when you are in the closet and want to stay that way.  It's also the perfect place for kids from the streets and troubled youths whose parents don't want to deal with them anymore.  I'll admit that there is probably a fair number of true "patriots" in the military who want to do good in the world, but our military is also home to people who have serious mental problems, and we sweep that under the rug because its not PC to say so.  The reason no one called this guy out wasn't the fact that he was Muslim, it was because of misdirected "hero worship" that allows the military to continue to be a safe-zone for people to avoid treatment for mental problems or suppress their own psychological battles.  If we didn't want this to happen again we would double both the number of WELL TRAINED psychologists on military bases and the services we provide to service men and women.  And just to be safe we would provide exceptional services for the military psychologists themselves, who probably need services even more than a normal psychologist.  But that would make too much sense, so instead, we're going to take the easy road and we're going to blame Muslims.  God Bless America!

Common Sense

Fox Noise: Election Coverage 09

In the wake of three high profile off-year races, republicans have declared the results are a referendum on the Obama administration and that "voters" are unhappy with his policies.  I went on the Fox News website because all the other news sources have been relatively quiet on the whole thing.  CNN followed the races on the "Ticker" and had an article on the loss of same-sex marriage in Maine, but the only article analyzing the election seemed to have mixed messages.  Think Progress seems to be equally quiet, and not surprisingly when they do talk about it, they are very hostile to the concept that it had anything to do with the president.  So I figured I would check out the "fair and balanced" website.

Here is what I found on the front page:

The first think you see is a laundry list of "you decide" questions that are asked in a conservative way, followed by the usual propaganda articles about how it was a referendum on the Obama administration.  Their version of a fair appraisal of the election apparently comes from the Chairman of the RNC.  Notice how they celebrate the GOP victories, in multiple articles, but when it comes to the defeats, they talk about lessons learned.  Heaven forbid the "fair and balanced" news channel should celebrate the democratic victory in NY 23, where the conservative candidate was supposed to win.  Why not analyze how the GOP civil war may have damaged the candidate in a district that has been conservative since the actual civil war?  That might shine an unwanted negative light on the GOP, so we can't have that now can we?

The second thing I noticed was the two elections that were prominently posted on the front page of the Fox News website.  They only posted the elections where Republican candidates won.  Again, where is NY 23?  wasn't that supposed to be a victory for conservative values because the conservative candidate beat out the republican candidate?  or do they not want to talk about the fact that Hoffman's extreme conservatism and scorched earth tactics against the GOP candidate might have cost him the race in a heavily Republican district?  Either way, the gloating continues.

Finally, I went to the bottom and checked to see what the Anchors were talking about, and who they were talking to.  here is a break down:

• Hannity is talking to two Republican Congressman (Cantor and Allen) about Democratic Liberal Extremism.
• Greta is talking to a Republican Congressman (Shultz) about how these two elections area forecast of 2010.
• Bret Baier is talking to Brit Hume (Fox News Anchor) about how health care isn't going to become law.
• Neil Cavuto is talking to former republican speaker of the house Dennis Hastert about how Health Care reform will break the bank.
• O'Reilly is taking a swipe at the New York Times
• Glenn Beck is talking to Al Gore (The only liberal) about eating meat...

So basically, 5 of the 6 anchors are talking to neo-cons about Republican talking points.  The only one who isn't is talking to Al Gore about eating meat.  Sounds fair and balanced to me!  hahaha.  what a joke!

Here's the truth.  Corzine was a screw up, who deserved to lose, and it fits with the pattern in New Jersey of electing governors of a different party than the president.  Deeds was a weak candidate in a conservative area, he was going to get killed and we all knew it.  So really, the republicans beat two weak democratic candidates, and got beat in their own back yard by a democrat.  Is that really a win for them?  and if it is, is that REALLY a referendum on the president.  There is spin and then there is outright misrepresentation of the truth.  The Republicans are flirting with that line on this one.

Common Sense

Fox Noise: 30 Reasons why Fox News is Not Legit!

Media Matters Article

I can hardly do it justice and it would take forever to redo all the link, so rather than plagerize, I'll just let you read it.

My Commentary:
BRILLIANT!

Common Sense

Fox Noise: Cash 4 Clunkers = Spread the Wealth

Today Fox News reported that the Cash 4 Clunkers program cost taxpayers $24,000 per vehicle.  Interesting.  Most of the comments express anger at how they are paying for this program and their money is being given to others.  I decided to do a little research, but I decided in order to be fair to Fox News' limited resources and competence I would just use their numbers.

Facts:
Cash 4 Clunkers cost: $3B
Number of Taxpayers in 2008: 154M (2008 IRS Data Book, see Page 4)
Number of Car sales that benefited from C4C: 125,000 (Conservative estimate provided by Fox News)

So,
Average Cost Per Taxpayer = $3B/154M = $19.48

Average Cost Per Taxpayer Per Car = $19.48/125K = $.0001
(again note that this is a conservative estimate.  For an estimate based on the total number of cars sold during the program replace 125K with 690K)

Congratulations Obama you have successfully spread the wealth by $.0001, Mao would be proud.

This is me laughing at how stupid people are.

Common Sense

Fox Noise: Is it "News" or "Opinion?"

I'll let you be the judge on that question, but here is some food for thought from Media Matters for America.



The News and Opinion segments sound pretty similar... hmmm...

Common Sense

Fox Noise: Fox News vs. The White House

here is a wonderful little clip by Media Matters for America.

Here's a little background for those who haven't been following the news.  The Fox News channel has been engaged in an all out war with the Obama administration since day one (actually even prior to that).  They have accused him of everything from socialism, to murdering old people, to condoning child rape.  Now, the Obama administration is fighting back.  Yet for some unknown reason people are surprised by this!  In my opinion, it's about bloody time!

Here is what Fox has been doing for the past 8 months:


Doesn't sound like news to me.  It sounds like slander, but who am I to judge.

P.S. can we just take a moment to appreciate how pathetic Sean Hannity is if he truly believes that Fox, Talk Radio, and the Drudge report are the only news organizations left?  First of all, Talk Radio and Drudge are opinion.  Second, Fox news on its best day is poorly researched reporting on conservative pet issues laced with neo-con propaganda.  On it's worse days it sounds more like a bunch of howler monkeys looking for conspiracy theories (Glen Beck all the time).

Common Sense

Fox Noise: Glenn Beck s. Volunteerism

Watch this and someone please tell me what his point is because it sounds to me like he is asking stupid questions just to ask them.  Either that or he legitimately doesn't like volunteerism.



From what I can tell his point is that Obama is trying to force volunteerism.  Because he couldn't possibly be suggesting that it is bad for the President of the United States to promote volunteerism.  Well, no one is actually saying we should force volunteerism, just that it is good and we should partner with anyone who will partner with us regardless of their political persuasion.

Then I thought, wait, is he saying we have enough volunteers already?  no, he couldn't be saying that, because I can't imagine someone saying that more volunteers would be a bad thing.  We could always use more people doing good work.  Isn't that what the church preaches too?

Then I thought, wait, is he suggesting that we should leave it to churches to promote volunteerism?  well no, he couldn't be saying that because it would also seem to suggest that they are the ONLY ones who can support volunteerism.  and if he believed that then he should have a problem with a LOT of other organizations in this country, not just the President.

So, I'm still a little lost as to what his point actually is, and all I get from this is that he was looking for an excuse to compare Obama to Mao, because that's what he does.  He manufactures fear and ignorance to help the Republicans who own his soul (assuming he hasn't already sold it to something else in red).

Once again Glenn Beck proves why even the most radical of right-wing extremists will still distance themselves from him, because he's a little crazy.

Common Sense

Fox Noise: Top 10 Fox News Distortions

This is actually a series of clips from the Huffington Post, but I thought it was worth reposting them here, with a little of my commentary in between.  I have posted them in the same order as HuffPo and they do not correspond to the ratings

#1 Bill Hemmer Accuses Kevin Jennings of Condoning Statutory Rape:
Average Visitor Rating: Very Biased (9/10)
My Rating: "Please Check Your Facts" with a dash of "Homophobe Much?"


What happened to fact checking?  I put this on my blog as soon as I found out about it and I was able to easily find support for Jennings.  Not only that, I found information that debunked this whole controversy, and here is Fox News going off on how this guys is condoning rape?  come on, a little fact checking please, don't just accept it because it comes from a Conservative source.  Oh and did I just hear the anchor claim that it would have been different for a girl????  suddenly he's getting off easy because it was a gay student?  what a B***H!!

#2 Martha MacCallum Misquotes VP Biden to Prove a Point:
Average Visitor Rating: Very Biased (9.4/10)
My Rating: "Just Plain Unethical" with a sprinkle of "Please Check Your Facts"


Here is the full VP Biden quote:


Oops, someone screwed up!  It's too bad Fox News is too corrupt to fire anyone over something that stupid.  Oh well, guess we'll just have to mock them instead. =)

#3 Obama Wants a European Health Care System?
Average Visitor Rating: Very Biased (9.4/10)
My Rating: "Can You Play That Tape a Little Longer?"


Since he wasn't making a statement about Obama wanting a European health care system I'm willing to let this one slide as coincidental and not underhanded subliminal propaganda (and not very good).  However, if that is the case, the guy who put this together is kinda stupid.

#4 Accusations of "Reverse Racism" toward Justice Sotomayor:
Average Visitor Rating: Pretty Biased (8.4/10)
My Rating: "Can you play that tape a little longer?" with a dash of "Was that Racist?"


A Savvy move?  That's what you're going to say about the motivation to appoint a latina woman??  it couldn't possibly be because she is over qualified, well educated, well regarded, and brings a wonderfully diverse background to the court?  If that's not bias, I don't know what is.  But lets get back to the meat, shall we.  Are we noticing that the same person is asking the same question over and over?  is she maybe trying to stroke the flames?

And since when is it racist to suggest that racism might still exist?  Yes, a Latina woman is going to see the law differently than a white man, if for no other reason than white men, most of whom have never experienced oppression, probably see the law as a set of rules, while the Litina woman sees it as a vehicle that has been used to oppress minorities and women, and continues to be used in that fashion today.  you don't think that is a pretty big difference?

#5 Fox News Uses GOP Talking Points:
Average Visitor Rating: (9.4/10)
My Rating: Two parts "Please Check Your Facts," one part "Oops!"


Wow, ok, so that sounds like legit news right?  well actually, check out the date on this slide:

Would you like to know WHY that typo is there?  because the copied and pasted it right out of the GOP talking points.  Shouldn't people get fired for this garbage?

#6 Democrats want to dismantle PATRIOT ACT:

Average Visitor Rating: Very Biased (9.1/10)

My Rating: equal parts "Just Plain Unethical" and "Just because you say it loud and with gusto doesn't make it true."

Again, just because you yell it at the screen doesn't make it true.  What is wrong with these people, is it so hard to check your facts????

#7 The "Death Book":

Average Visitor Rating: Very Biased (9.3/10)

My Rating: This isn't just normal stupid, this is "Sarah Palin" stupid

Someone please spare me this mockery of that facts.  Since when is end of life counseling is a bad thing?  oh yeah, since we started talking about health care and we can play on people's fears of death.  Get over it people, you are going to die one day.  When you do, face up to it and do it with a little dignity.  I want to hear all my options when I'm close to my end, please don't deny me that option just because you are scared shitless of death.

#8 Fist Bump = Terrorist Fist Jab?

Average Visitor Rating: VERY Biased (9.5/10)

My Rating: It'll be easier for you if you play the "moron" card.

This is just so stupid that she should just claim momentary stupidity (or perhaps permanent stupidity) and move on.  It's not clear from the clip whether she is using it or saying that is what others call it, but either way she never should have said it or she should have immediately clarified her words.  That is unless she was trying to suggest that he might be a terrorist and if that is the case, then well done lady, well done.

#9 Math is hard for News Anchors:

Average Visitor Rating: VERY Biased (9.5/10)

My Rating: "Please Check Your Facts"

This is just depressing.  These people should go check into a high school somewhere and do some serious reviewing.  Click here to read two of Bush's budget requests asking for $2.9 Billion in 2007 and $3.1 Billion in 2008.  Oops!  someone didn't do their homework.  And a quick note on why it was so expensive.  Obama included the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in his budgets, Bush didn't (those were separate requests).  So who really spent more?

#10 Teabagging Parties represent the American People:

Average Visitor Rating: The Most Biased of All (9.6/10)

My Rating: It doesn't get more biased than claiming 20,000 nutjobs on the mall represent the opinions of the other 300,000,000 people in the country.

Are you kidding me with this?  I mean really, these people are a bunch of selfish nutjobs who think that they can get something (services, national security, representation, and a COUTRY) for nothing (not paying taxes).  You do not get much stupider than these people, and they represent America?  I think not, but nice try.  Oh yeah, and by the way if those 20,000 people represent America, what about that other equally large protest that happened a few months later?  you know the one with all the rainbow flags?  oh you conveniently missed that one huh?  big f***ing surprise.

For your amusement:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Queer and Loathing in D.C.
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Fair and Balanced?  Yeah Right!

Common Sense