Tag: Fox News

Even (Neo) Conservatives are Tired of Low-Information Republicans

Trish

Conservative columnist and neocon Bush II speechwriter David Frum wrote recently that he is tired of being surrounded by dumb people. At least, that was basically the point of his article, “When Did the GOP Lose Touch with Reality?” in the November New York magazine.

On a recent CNN appearance, Frum tried to expand on the harmful affect of FOX News on American discourse although CNN’s Howard Kurtz seemed determine to err on the side of championing FOX.

Note: We wrote last year about the example Frum cites, a story that first surfaced broadly on the Drudge Report web site and was then taken up with fervor by FOX.

Republicans Take Direct Hit in War on Xmas

Trish

Apparently Florida Senate candidate and former fill-in Sen. George LeMieux didn’t get the memo. He sent supporters and those on his email list a message entitled “Happy holidays” with a link to this “Happy holidays” video, in which he takes 24 seconds to wish everyone, whether they are celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah, a happy holiday.

Do we even need to say it? O.K., here goes. Had a Democrat running for office wished people the polite, “Happy holidays” instead of the hot button, “Merry Christmas,” the egregious liberal socialist atheist communist slur would have been noted. I guess the Catholic Mr. LeMieux is held to a different standard. One which, by the way, I applaud.

But still, I would have liked to know what battles were fought behind the scenes for this video to be made. As a Republican friend on Facebook said the other day, “Happy Hanukkah, or as they call it on FOX News, Happy Jew Christmas!”

FOX Exploits Their Feckless Viewers by Switching Romney Picture for Obama

Trish

In what has become standard operating procedure at the so-called news organization, FOX, a graphic “accidentally” swapped out a photo of someone FOX doesn’t like and replaced it with a photo of a Democrat they like even less. Media Matters has both the original, from Wednesday, Nov. 14, and the “correction,” used later in the day.

Note to Romney: This is how you know FOX hates you. They show a picture of Obama while Megan talks about you. And then, when they announce the error, she says, “As it turns out, Romney and Barack Obama are not the same man.”

Romney Self-Destructs During Softball Interview on Fox

Jon Ponder

The spin in the corporate media is that putative GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney wilted under tough questioning during a one-on-one interview with Fox News’ fake journalist, Brett Baier, earlier this week. But that is not what really happened. Baier lobbed a series of tough-sounding softball questions at Romney, but there were no “gotcha” questions. The topics he covered were predictable to anyone who has been following the GOP presidential campaign.

Romney should have been prepared with answers that deflected the implied criticism and steered the interview back onto his campaign talking points. That’s politics 101. Instead, Romney was defensive, over-used his fake laugh and even had the audacity to complain about being taken out of context less than a week after he approved an ad that deliberately took Pres. Obama out of context. His performance has been panned by pundits of all persuasions, and rightly so.

But it wasn’t because of Brett Baier’s hardball interview tactics. Not hardly.

[…]

Real Versus Artificial: Not the Christmas Tree, the Story About the Christmas Tree Tax

Trish

fakexmastrees

As American Christians begin making their annual decision about whether to go with a real Christmas tree (love the pine aroma!) or an artificial one (love the easy clean-up!), there is another real vs. artificial question hanging.

That’s about a story on the Drudge Report claiming the Obama administration is taxing sales of real Christmas trees. The answer is: FAKE.

Ads for fake trees are run by big box retailers like Walmart and Target, leaving Christmas tree farmers outgunned

In the Drudge Report’s world of sensationalist all-caps headlines, it doesn’t get much better than “OBAMA’S NEW ‘CHRISTMAS TREE TAX.'” In five sparse words, the headline captured pretty much everything Drudge and its readers believe about the current administration, in which big-government liberals would figure out a way to tax Christmas during hard economic times.

The only problem? It wasn’t true. The 15-cents-a-tree charge that caused so much commotion earlier in the week was not a tax, and it has little to do with the Obama administration.

But sad experience has taught that things don’t have to be true to be repeated in the rightwing echo chamber and instituted as memes on FOX News, and next thing you know, outraged seniors (who make up the majority of FOX’s viewers) and other low information voters (who make up the rest) are calling their elected representatives demanding change. Which, in this case, is a dumb idea. Read on to find out why.

[…]

Fox News President Roger Ailes Dishes on His Network’s Hosts

Jon Ponder

In an interview with the Daily Beast, Fox News President Roger Ailes spoke candidly about the news anchors and show hosts he employs. Predictably, Alies does not like it when Shepard Smith, the only actual journalist employed by the network, goes off script and reports reality-based news that runs counter to Fox’s GOP-propaganda narrative:

Hannity’s show uses a logo that asks, “Can You Afford Four More?” Ailes calls him “predictable,” but Hannity says he’s not a party man …

Ailes seems to relish the feuding among his stars, saying, “O’Reilly hates Sean and he hates Rush because they did better in radio than he did.” ….

Ailes keeps a wary eye on anchor Shepard Smith, who occasionally backs aspects of the Obama record: “Every once in a while Shep Smith gets out there where the buses don’t run and we have a friendly talk.” And Ailes likes to tease O’Reilly: “You gonna suck up to Obama so you can get another interview at the next football game?”