This day in ‘fair and balanced’ — Fox News makes Pelosi a ‘monster’?
Who's Fox calling a "monster"?
Notice anything strange about the above picture? While Googling for a picture of House and Senate leadership for a post about healthcare reform, I happened to come across this pic that was posted as part of this Fox News story on how resignations were complicating Democrats’ 2010 election picture. And while I couldn’t find anything about “monsters” in the story, the picture, an AP photo that’s also not about “monsters,” was given this title by the news editor: “pelosi_clyburn_110709_monster_397×224.jpg.” What’s that all about? I used to work as an online news editor, and I can tell you, NBC wouldn’t have been amused if we had, say, created news photos with a Republican lawmaker, let alone a senior one or a female one, with “monster” in the title. I guess the standards are just a little bit different at “fair and balanced” Fox News … Read more
Charlie Crist’s salty Fox News interview
Maybe the stress of the campaign, and the polls are getting to Charlie Crist. But his interview this morning on Fox was kind of salty. Crist had some audio problems at the top of the interview, and then snapped at the (insert generic blonde Fox News Host here) for interrupting him. For her part, the Fox-y lady kept pressing Crist to explain just how he’d fallen so far behind Marco Rubio, and why he so foolishly accepted that stimulus money that every other governor accepted too, except without the hugging. Well Crist was in no mood for that. He cut her off a couple of times but eventually responded that people haven’t begun to look at Rubio’s record, which apparently is full of nasty tax hikes. Crist ended the interview on an up-note, telling the Fox-y lady how much fun it was to “play with their cameras.”
And just in case Camp Crist doubted that Fox is unfriendly territory, the network has forced Youtube to yank a DNC ad that mocked Marco Rubio for the “back wax” (or whatever he got for $134 at a chichy Miami salon with donor money. But as Media Matters points out, Fox doesn’t always mind political parties using its video: Read more
Sarah Palin’s FNC debut: talking points, Iran incoherence, and 9/11
In her Fox News debut on The O’Reilly Factor, Sarah Palin (whose candle wattage Chris Matthews has been having lots of fun with this week, and maybe, just maybe, O’Reilly too…) seems to be trying so hard to sound intelligent (and remember her talking points), you can actually see her eyes roaming the room in search of her mental cliffs notes. In this segment, the Facebook blog millionaire declares that Nancy Pelosi is out of step with San Francisco, calls Alaska a “very diverse state” (it’s 75 percent white, 18 percent Alaskan native, and about 4 percent black) and says the time for talk and sanctions on Iran is over, so now it’s time that we impose those financial sanctions there (even O’Reilly catches the contradiction.) Watch:
But wait, there’s more! Read more
Let the incoherence begin!
I for one can’t wait to see Sarah Palin make her Fox News debut. Oh, the sentences she can mangle — the facts she can confuse! And she’s about to create jobs — there will soon be a serious need in the mainstream media for people who can translate — whatever that language is that Ms. Palin speaks. Once I’m able to figure out what in god’s name she’s saying, it’s gonna be great! (And she’s going to get great ratings, for cable, of course, and her goofy soundbites will spread the ratings around to MSNBC, CNN and of course, the blogosphere…)
Meanwhile, the HotAirians are still taking Sarah seriously as a potential president. Seriously? I guess they haven’t figured out what this gal is up to — why would she want a dumb job like being presuhdent, when she can make sooo much more money just being Sarah? Think Paris Hilton, but not as skinny or knowledgeable about geography (why are there two Koreas again…???)
Sarah’s new gig
Ms. Palin goes home. The self-retired ex governor and official Queen of Mo Money Alaska officially joins the Fox News family (where she’s been unofficial talent since last fall.)
UPDATE: Who else but Mike Allen serves up the hilarious Republican quote of the day:
“I am thrilled to be joining the great talent and management team at FOX News,” Palin said in the Fox announcement. “It’s wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news.”
And then, Allen gets all moist in the underpants:
Palin, often described [in my gauzy, moss-colored daydreams...] as having the hottest brand in American politics after President Barack Obama, was eagerly courted by both cable and broadcast networks beginning the day she announced she was leaving the Alaska governorship.
Okay, I added the “daydreams” part … but if you read that last bit in Keith Olbermann’s hilarious Glenn Beck voice, it’s super creepy…
Now the question: will Glenn Beck be a) happy to share the spotlight with the Queen of the Teabaggers, or b) jealous as hell and apt to throw major hissy fits in the green room? And what will Hannity and O’Reilly do for attention now that they have to deal with BOTH OF THEM???
Roger Ailes: fear and loathing in America
The New York Times’ profile of Fox News Channel’s Roger Ailes reveals that he’s one scary dude. Even the Murdochs seem to be afraid of him. Meanwhile, page two of the piece seems to reveal something else: Roger Ailes IS Dick Cheney:
National security had long been a preoccupation of Fox News, and it was clear in the interview that the 9/11 attacks had a profound effect on Mr. Ailes. They convinced him that he and his network could be terrorist targets.
On the day of the attacks, Mr. Ailes asked his chief engineer the minimum number of workers needed to keep the channel on the air. The answer: 42. “I am one of them,” he said. “I’ve got a bad leg, I’m a little overweight, so I can’t run fast, but I will fight.
“We had 3,000 dead people a couple miles from here. I knew that any communications company could be a target.”
His movements now are shadowed by a phalanx of corporate-provided security. He travels to and from work in a miniature convoy of two sport utility vehicles. A camera on his desk displays the comings and goings outside his office, where he usually keeps the blinds drawn.
Geez, there are two of two trolls under that bridge! Three if you count Liz…
Brit Hume doubles down on Jesus
Asked tonight by Bill O’Reilly about why his Tiger Woods prescription (turn to you neighbor and say, “neighbor! … The way to redeem your cheatin’ behind is not marriage counseling or an industrial strength zipper for those hot pants of yours … it’s a quickie conversion to Christianity!”) elicited so much chatter, Hume said that throughout history, just the mention of the name of Jesus has caused (his words, not mine) “all hell to break loose.” He said it’s in the Bible. (Actually, there’s nothing like that in the Bible, since the Bible wasn’t about Christians — all the main characters were Jews or Roman and Egyptian pagans — but I digress…)
Brit also denied that his Tiger rant amounted to proselytizing:
“I don’t think so,” Hume said, before reiterating his comments from Sunday that Woods should convert to Christianity.
Hume said that given Woods problems, he “needs something that Christianity, especially, provides, and gives and offers.” That includes, he said, the chance for “redemption and forgiveness.” Later in the segment, Hume said: “I think that Jesus Christ offers Tiger Woods something that Tiger Woods badly needs.”
Sadly, on the proselytizing front, Hume is pretty much on his own. Luckily, the good folks over at Politico are dutifully copying and pasting whatever their friends at Fox dictate to them via email on the matter, and Michael Calderone promises to get back to us once they’ve given him a statement. Meanwhile, could Brit actually have a point about Tiger benefiting from a post-ho-down conversion? Read more
And now: things we’d call ‘crazy, dangerous fundamentalism’ if said by a Muslim
Brit Hume urges Tiger Woods to fix his extra-marital “issues” by fixing his religion:
And you thought it was only Muslims who still want to convert the entire world even though it’s the 21st century and not the 6th … Hey, wasn’t there a time when having 14 concubines was very much the Christian thing to do? Just askin…
From the desk of: ‘No S–t, Sherlock’ … Murdoch’s Post out to ‘destroy Obama’
Well there’s a surprise. And now, there’ll even be discovery! Read more
Blasphemy on Fox! Liz Trotta vs. Caribou Barbie
Watch this completely flummoxed Fox News anchor try to steer commentator Liz Trotta back onto the winger reservation as she calles Sarah Palin “inarticulare,” “undereducated” and the stuff of which William F. Buckley grave rolling is made:
Ha! The poor Fox guy was literally wringing his hands by the end!
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