smirkingchimp.com
In April of this year, Bill O'Reilly wrote that "The New York Times is most definitely a committed left-wing concern that is openly contemptuous of the conservative, traditional point-of-view. That is the primary reason the paper may soon dissolve." He's layed the same wood to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times and pretty much any newspaper or mainstream media outlet who wrote or said something Bill disagreed with.
This week I'm sure he will offer the same rationale in explaining why The Washington Times, the decidedly right wing newspaper arm of the Republican Party, announced Wednesday that it is laying off at least 40 percent of its staff and shifting mainly to free distribution.
Different than any of the newspapers who Bill has blamed left-wing leanings for their losses, the Times pretty much admitted its long time bias saying that it will cease any presumed semblance of being a bona fide full-coverage daily, factual coverage of the news and instead offer "cultural coverage based on traditional values" - right wing code for right wing.
Obviously, Bill will spend this week's column and any number of his Factor's Talking Points explaining how The Washington Time's collapse is the result of it being a committed right wing concern that is openly contemptuous of the middle of the road, traditional point of view.............
Friday, December 04, 2009
Tell-all book could embarrass Christian right with stories of sex, scandal
RAW STORY
If excerpts from Lisa Baron's upcoming book are anything to go on, it's sure to be a scandalous read.
My Burning Bush, Baron's memoir of her days as the spokeswoman for Ralph Reed -- the former Christian Coalition leader and the man Time called "The Right Hand of God" -- is being shopped around the New York publishing houses. And it promises to embarrass more than one figure in America's conservative movement.
In one excerpt, Baron addresses the claims that Reed was behind a smear campaign against Sen. John McCain during the 2000 Republican primaries that implied the Arizona senator had had a love-child with a black woman.
"How would I know?" Baron writes, according to the New York Daily News. ""I was too busy giving [George W. Bush's future press secretary] Ari Fleischer [oral sex] in a Greenville hotel room."
Whether or not she was joking in that statement, Baron's attitude towards Fleischer appears to be making the former Bush White House spokesman less than happy.
If excerpts from Lisa Baron's upcoming book are anything to go on, it's sure to be a scandalous read.
My Burning Bush, Baron's memoir of her days as the spokeswoman for Ralph Reed -- the former Christian Coalition leader and the man Time called "The Right Hand of God" -- is being shopped around the New York publishing houses. And it promises to embarrass more than one figure in America's conservative movement.
In one excerpt, Baron addresses the claims that Reed was behind a smear campaign against Sen. John McCain during the 2000 Republican primaries that implied the Arizona senator had had a love-child with a black woman.
"How would I know?" Baron writes, according to the New York Daily News. ""I was too busy giving [George W. Bush's future press secretary] Ari Fleischer [oral sex] in a Greenville hotel room."
Whether or not she was joking in that statement, Baron's attitude towards Fleischer appears to be making the former Bush White House spokesman less than happy.
“He declined to be my Facebook friend about a year ago,” Baron told Politico.
But then, there are already plenty of things making Baron's associates in the American conservative movement less than happy. Several years ago, her columns about sex for Atlanta's Sunday Paper became the stuff of scandal.
“I was leading a double life — by day, a Christian crusader; by night, slinging the sexy details of my private life,” Politico quotes Baron. She describes herself as "a drinking, swearing, fornicating, socially moderate, fiscally conservative Jew" -- an unlikely candidate for employment at the Christian Coalition, to say the least.
Reed was named in the criminal case surrounding lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was convicted of corruption charges after it emerged he had fabricated threats to the continued existence of Native Indian casinos, in order to charge them for lobbying on their behalf. Reed was alleged to have taken money from Abramoff to lobby against native casinos, and was said to have celebrated when the casinos handed over millions of dollars to Abramoff.
Baron has revealed very little about what her book has to say about the Abramoff scandal, if anything. For his part, Reed seems to be taking news of his former employee's tell-all book in stride.
"I'm all for supporting aspiring authors," he told the Daily News. "Lisa did a great job for me. I wish her the best."
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Media Matters Daily Summary 12-03-09
Quick Fact: Ignoring that rationing already exists, Bream advanced GOP attacks on health care
On the December 2 edition of Fox News' Special Report, correspondent Shannon Bream advanced the Republican argument that recommendations like the mammogram screening guidelines recently released by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force "will enable insurance companies to ration care and deny reimbursement for various procedures," suggesting that insurance companies don't already ration care. Indeed, many insurance companies already keep patients from getting the medical treatments they need and the recommendations are not legally binding. Read More
Hannity falsely suggested "mainstream media" did not cover "General Betray Us" ad
On the December 2 edition of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity asked: "[W]hy wasn't there more media coverage -- in the mainstream media" of MoveOn.org's "General Betray Us" ad? In fact, the media provided extensive coverage of the MoveOn ad, while largely ignoring Rush Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" controversy. Read More
Gingrich pushes debunked claim on private sector experience of Obama Cabinet
During the December 2 edition of Hannity, Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich claimed that the stimulus has "failed" and cited "a study at the American Enterprise Institute" indicating that "only 8 percent of the senior appointees have a private sector background." In fact, there is a broad consensus among economic experts that the stimulus has boosted the economy, and after analyzing the "study" Gingrich cited, PolitiFact.com concluded that the claim that less than 10 percent of Obama's Cabinet appointees have private sector experience is "False." Read More
Fox & Friends crops Jon Stewart quote to suggest "Climategate" emails made him a global warming denier
While discussing the purported "Climategate" emails stolen from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, Steve Doocy claimed that Jon Stewart "really took a shot at Al Gore," then aired a clip of Stewart stating, "Poor Al Gore. Global warming completely debunked via the very Internet you invented." But Doocy -- in a possible violation of a recent Fox News memo on "Quality Control" -- did not air Stewart's subsequent statement in which he said the emails don't "disprove global warming," but do offer ammunition to global warming deniers. Read More
Hemmer falsely claims CRU emails show scientists hiding "evidence of a decline in global temperatures"
During the December 3 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, Bill Hemmer falsely claimed that "recently leaked emails reveal that scientists use, quote, 'tricks' to hide evidence of a decline in global temperatures over the past, say, few decades." In fact, the email in question discussing hiding the decline refers to efforts to account for unreliable tree ring data, but instrumental temperature data do not show a "decline in global temperatures," as Hemmer claimed; moreover, the email Hemmer cited was written 10 years ago, immediately after the warmest year on record. Read More
Kilmeade, Wash. Times make false claims about people "not invited" to White House jobs summit
On Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade falsely claimed that the White House did not invite "corporate executives" to its December 3 Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth; in fact, numerous corporate executives are reportedly scheduled to attend the summit. Moreover, The Washington Times falsely claimed that "critics" of President Obama's policies were "not invited to [the] White House 'jobs summit.' " Read More
Fox & Friends coverage of CRU emails disregards facts, context
Fox & Friends hosts Brian Kilmeade, Steve Doocy, and Gretchen Carlson have repeatedly advanced the right wing's distortion of emails reportedly stolen from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (CRU) by hyping a litany of falsehoods that climate skeptics have propagated about the emails without any regard for facts or context. In fact, despite the hosts' claims, the content of the emails do not "prove" the scientists doctored or destroyed data, nor do they undermine the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activities are causing global climate change. Read More
Fox ignores evidence supporting Obama's claim that reinforcements "did not arrive" under Bush
A FoxNews.com article headlined, "Rumsfeld cries foul on Obama claim troop requests for Afghanistan were denied," uncritically reported that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "said in his statement the White House should make public any such requests if they exist to back up the allegation" and repeated his comments that "[t]he president's assertion does a disservice to the truth and, in particular, to the thousands of men and women in uniform who have fought, served and sacrificed in Afghanistan." FoxNews.com ignored the fact that a request for additional troops from Gen. David McKiernen, then commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, went unfulfilled during the Bush administration and was granted by President Obama in March. Read More
The conservative media's increasingly lame attacks
For all the hype about energized Republicans and independents abandoning the Democrats and town-hall outrage over President Obama's agenda and tea-party protests, if you look closely, it seems the conservative media are getting a little timid. Read More
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Glenn Beck-Inspired Tea Party Candidates Step Up To Oust Veteran GOP Lawmakers
THINK PROGRESS
Glenn Beck, who has waged a conspiratorial, hateful campaign against liberals and his other political enemies all year, has been galvanizing his supporters to run for office. Today, conservative activist Eric Forcade announced that he is running in the Republican primary to unseat longtime Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-FL). In explaing his reason for running, Forcade said he was inspired by the “values that have been popularized by Glenn Beck.”
Glenn Beck, who has waged a conspiratorial, hateful campaign against liberals and his other political enemies all year, has been galvanizing his supporters to run for office. Today, conservative activist Eric Forcade announced that he is running in the Republican primary to unseat longtime Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-FL). In explaing his reason for running, Forcade said he was inspired by the “values that have been popularized by Glenn Beck.”
Beck’s 9/12 project and its closely related “tea parties” have inspired a number of other challengers to Republican lawmakers deemed insufficiently “pure”:
– Phil Troyer, an attorney and former staffer to Republican Sens. Dan Coats (R-IN) and Richard Lugar (R-IN), is challenged incumbent Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN). An avid tea party supporter, Troyer has attacked Souder as a “big spending liberal.” Rachel Grubb, who is involved with Beck’s 9/12 project, is also challenging Souder.
– Matt Sakalosky, a businessman who is a member of Beck’s 9/12 project, is challenging Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE).
– Earlier this year, Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) had the audacity to criticize Beck. Beck has marshaled his supporters into a crowded primary to take out Inglis. One of the challengers, college professor Christina Jeffrey, directly cites Inglis’ criticism of Beck as part of the reason she is running.
– Liz Lauber, a former aide to tea party leader and corporate lobbyist Dick Armey, is challenging Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO).
– Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL) is being challenged by Jason Sager, who said he is running because of Brown-Waite’s support for moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava, the opponent of Beck mentee Doug Hoffman.
– Even NRCC Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), charged with recruiting Republicans to challenge House Democrats in 2010, is facing a contested primary. Conservative activist David Smith says he will rely on the tea party movement to bring down Sessions.
The effort to oust imperfect conservative Republicans is buoyed by an internal Republican National Committee struggle to create an ideological litmus test for judging candidates. Elsewhere in the Beck-inspired movement, conservative activists are eagerly sending rubber chickens to Senators who voted for cloture to begin debate on health reform.
Former Fox News Host Calls Fox A ‘Right-Wing Partial-News-But-Mostly-Opinion Network’
THINK PROGRESS
In February 2008, Eric Burns, who had worked at Fox News since the network launched in 1996 and served as “the closest person Fox had to an ombudsman” as the host of Fox News Watch, “was told he would be terminated within the next two months.” Since his firing, for which he said “he was not given a reason,” Burns has largely avoided discussing his former employer. In a September 2008 blog post about MSNBC’s opinion shows, Burns wrote that “Fox is a topic for another article, and another writer.”
In February 2008, Eric Burns, who had worked at Fox News since the network launched in 1996 and served as “the closest person Fox had to an ombudsman” as the host of Fox News Watch, “was told he would be terminated within the next two months.” Since his firing, for which he said “he was not given a reason,” Burns has largely avoided discussing his former employer. In a September 2008 blog post about MSNBC’s opinion shows, Burns wrote that “Fox is a topic for another article, and another writer.”
Burns has ended his Fox News silence, writing on the Huffington Post that he used to work for a “right-wing partial-news-but-mostly-opinion network.” In particular, Burns takes aim at Glenn Beck, who he calls “a problem of taste as well as ethics”:
I speak out now because it is the time of year when one is supposed to count blessings. I have several. Among them is that I do not have to face the ethical problem of sharing an employer with Glenn Beck.
Actually, Beck is a problem of taste as well as ethics. He laughs and cries; he pouts and giggles; he makes funny faces and grins like a cartoon character; he makes earnest faces yet insists he is a clown; he cavorts like a victim of St. Vitus’s Dance. His means of communicating are, in other words, so wide-ranging as to suggest derangement as much as versatility.
Comparing Beck to Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and John Birch, Burns asks himself “what I would have done if I worked at Fox now.” Noting that Jane Hall — who had regularly appeared on his Fox Show — recently left the network partially because of Beck, Burns admits that he might not have acted “as admirable as” she did:
I ask myself what I would have done if I worked at Fox now. Would I have quit, as the estimable Jane Hall did? Once a panelist on my program, Hall departed for other reasons as well, but Beck was a particular source of embarrassment to her, even though they never shared a studio, perhaps never even met.
I think…I think the answer to my question does not do me proud. I think, more concerned about income than principle, I would have continued to work at Fox, but spent my spare time searching avidly for other employment. I think I would not have been as admirable as Jane Hall. I think I would not have reacted to Beck with the probity I like to think I possess.
It is interesting that Burns would compare Beck to John Birch, considering that before he joined Fox News, Beck told a spokesman for the John Birch Society that they were “starting to make more and more sense” to him.
Al Franken fallout has GOP fuming
POLITICO
Republican senators feel burned by Al Franken — and not by his old jokes.
The Republicans are steamed at Franken because partisans on the left are using a measure he sponsored to paint them as rapist sympathizers — and because Franken isn’t doing much to stop them.
“Trying to tap into the natural sympathy that we have for this victim of this rape —and use that as a justification to frankly misrepresent and embarrass his colleagues, I don’t think it’s a very constructive thing,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in an interview.
“I think it’s going to make a lot of senators leery and start looking at things he’s doing earlier on, because I don’t think it got appropriate attention ahead of time.”
In a chamber where relationship-building is seen as critical, some GOP senators question whether Franken’s handling of the amendment could damage his ability to work across the aisle. Soon after Tennessee GOP Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander co-wrote an op-ed in a local newspaper defending their votes against the Franken measure, the Minnesota Democrat confronted each senator separately to dispute their column — and grew particularly angry in a tense exchange with Corker.
People familiar with the Corker exchange say it was heated and ended abruptly — a sharp departure from the norm on the usually clubby Senate floor.
At issue is an amendment to the Pentagon spending bill that would bar “future and existing” federal contracts to defense contractors and subcontractors “at any tier” who mandate employees go through a company’s arbitration process for workplace discrimination claims — including claims of sexual assault. The measure passed 68-30, with 10 Republicans voting yes and 30 voting no.
Franken, who declined to be interviewed, has said previously that the measure was inspired by the story of former KBR employee Jamie Leigh Jones, who alleges that she was drugged, beaten and gang-raped at age 19 when stationed in Baghdad. She fought the arbitration clause in her contract, and in September the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that Jones’s sexual assault allegations were not “related to” her employment, allowing her to proceed in court. KBR is fighting the ruling....more...
Republican senators feel burned by Al Franken — and not by his old jokes.
The Republicans are steamed at Franken because partisans on the left are using a measure he sponsored to paint them as rapist sympathizers — and because Franken isn’t doing much to stop them.
“Trying to tap into the natural sympathy that we have for this victim of this rape —and use that as a justification to frankly misrepresent and embarrass his colleagues, I don’t think it’s a very constructive thing,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in an interview.
“I think it’s going to make a lot of senators leery and start looking at things he’s doing earlier on, because I don’t think it got appropriate attention ahead of time.”
In a chamber where relationship-building is seen as critical, some GOP senators question whether Franken’s handling of the amendment could damage his ability to work across the aisle. Soon after Tennessee GOP Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander co-wrote an op-ed in a local newspaper defending their votes against the Franken measure, the Minnesota Democrat confronted each senator separately to dispute their column — and grew particularly angry in a tense exchange with Corker.
People familiar with the Corker exchange say it was heated and ended abruptly — a sharp departure from the norm on the usually clubby Senate floor.
At issue is an amendment to the Pentagon spending bill that would bar “future and existing” federal contracts to defense contractors and subcontractors “at any tier” who mandate employees go through a company’s arbitration process for workplace discrimination claims — including claims of sexual assault. The measure passed 68-30, with 10 Republicans voting yes and 30 voting no.
Franken, who declined to be interviewed, has said previously that the measure was inspired by the story of former KBR employee Jamie Leigh Jones, who alleges that she was drugged, beaten and gang-raped at age 19 when stationed in Baghdad. She fought the arbitration clause in her contract, and in September the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that Jones’s sexual assault allegations were not “related to” her employment, allowing her to proceed in court. KBR is fighting the ruling....more...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)