Misleading headlines: Politico tries to save the GOP on Bunning
Politico’s grand headline: “Republicans rip on Jim Bunning” doesn’t quite match the actual story, in which exactly one Republican — Susan Collins of Maine — “rips,” while the exactly three other Republicans quoted or named in the article either 1) express generic concern, but only when asked by the reporters, 2) express support for Bunning and then jump on their cellphone to avoid further self-immolation, or 3) “rip” on Democrats. Read more
Mr. Stenographer
Politico’s Mike Allen gets the shaming he deserves for his faithful transcription of all things Cheney. Andrew Sullivan sums it up:
“There he goes again … the mouthpiece for Rove and Cheney, believing his ‘access’ as a stenographer makes him a journalist. It doesn’t. It makes him a stenographer.”
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
How much longer can Shep Smith take it?
Fox News’ lonely champion of “fair and balanced” reporting continues to fight the good fight:
We’re with you, Shep. And when you’ve finally had enough and leave Fox News, I’ll be sure to tune in to your next gig.
Axelrod states the obvious: Fox is not ‘news’
Why is this still surprising to anyone? We all know what Fox is, and accept it. What would have really been newsworthy would have been Axelrod taking a firm position on whether the president will or won’t sign a healthcare bill without a public option. Now THAT would have been shocking. Anyway, if you care to watch Axelrod take his only firm position of the interview, here it is:
And the up-shot, which may be more relevant, which is that the White House is using attacks on Fox News to influence not the Murdoch organization, but the actual news organizations they want to steer away from following Fox’s lead when it comes to story selection: Read more
Operation ‘Protect Fox Noise’
CNN’s Campbell Brown’s doing it … so is CNN’s Howie Kurtz. Now, New York Magazine’s Chris Rozwar’s doing it to: whingeing that Barack Obama should stop being mean to Fox News. Really? Rozwar’s arguments break down to the following:
1. Ignoring them will only make them angrier …
But there are plenty of negatives to this take-no-prisoners approach. To begin with, each regular Fox News viewer does not only represent one vote lost to President Obama. There is literally no limit, other than cholesterol-induced high blood pressure, to how angry this constituency can get. And an angrier group — which, we have seen, is easily organized and mobilized by the network — is one that is more likely to try to win over other voters, more likely to donate and raise money, and more likely to engage in the kind of meaningless, but attention-getting, tactics that make their views seem more widely held and genuinely American than they actually are.
In other words … if you don’t go on Fox News, Mr. President, the crazy wingers will recruit other … crazy wingers, to their cause. Left open is the question of how an enraged, eye-bulging teabagger could possibly recruit someone who otherwise would be an Obama voter. Bottom line: the chances of ANYONE who regularly watches Fox News EVER viewing President Obama with anything like objectivity — even if he personally discovered the cure for cancer, they’d accuse him of a socialist attempt to destroy private oncology — is approximately ZERO. He can’t win them over. He can’t reason with them. He’d have better luck sitting down with actual terrorists. Read more
The Friday funnies: Sarah Palin, also too…
It’s all part of a media busting “documentary” being filmed by a guy named John Ziegler, who according to a caller on the Stephanie Miller Show today, was seriously picked on in high school, poor thing. He wants you to know that Sarah is not an idiot! It’s the evil liberal media that’s making you THINK she’s an idiot… Also there too, she tells Ziegler that the media bias there, and also too Keith Olbermann, that guy’s evil!
Anyhoo, gotta sign off now, cause it’s time to practice my fancy pageant walkin’!
Update: Sarah says the mainstream media elite are taking her Ziegler interview out of context. No seriously, she’s really saying that…
And U.S. News’ Robert Schlessinger says that for her own good, Sarah needs to just go away.
From the wilderness: Barbara West
Having pushed her television station into right wing news exile (and probably boosted her chances of becoming the next Fox News babe … blonde … check … former beauty queen … check … right wing talking points … check, check and double check… at 60, she’s a bit long in the tooth for the folks at Fox, but I’m sure with enough hair dye she can work that out…) during her now infamous Joe Biden interview, WFTV’s (or as the Guardian UK calls them, WTF??? TV’s) Barbara West explains herself to the Orlando Sentinel’s TV News guy:
Many readers are wondering if Barbara West was hoping to snag a national job with her oft-seen interview with Sen. Joe Biden.
“This is the most insane thought of all,” West told me Monday. “If I were intending to do that, wouldn’t I have done that years ago? I love Orlando. I love Channel 9. It’s not my goal to land a network job.”
West, who is 60, said that she was stunned that the Biden interview had become about her. But it has, in a big way. She was a guest on Monday’s “O’Reilly Factor.” Bill O’Reilly wondered if she had gone into the interview with the mindset to go after Biden.
West said no. She said she had “some serious questions” that “need to be answered and we’re running out of time.”
… [MSNBC's Keith] Olbermann wondered where she got the questions and added, “Surely, it’s just a coincidence that her husband is GOP media consultant.”
Not true, she told me. “Let me clear this up,” she said.
West said her husband, Wade West, used to do media coaching for Republicans during the Clinton administration. But he’s out of that line of work and running America Fundraising Auctions, which stages charity auctions.
Oh, and she’s doing the full FNC circuit today. Go figure…
West also appeared on CNN this morning, and called the Obama campaign reaction “silly”:
Really? Let’s have a look at Ms. West interviewing … oh, I don’t know … John McCain:
Chummy! And here’s a split screen of Barbara, for the prosecution with Joe Biden, and for the defense with John McCain:
Best of luck to Ms. West in her future as an FNC star. On the up-side, Biden, as Monsters and Critics puts it, gave as good as he got. And he proved that he’s as good on the parry as anybody in the business.
Last, but not least, watch Barbara’s interview with Bill O’Reilly, in which she actually admits that the toughest question she asks of McCain was why his campaign is so disorganized. Seriously. She asked Biden if he’s embarrassed by ACORN, which has nothing to do with the Obama-Biden campaign, and if Obama is a Marxist, and she asks McCain why he’s disorganized. … um … okay… here it is:
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Righties try for ‘television that decides elections’ in Florida
Check out Joe Biden’s unbelievable interview with Fox News anchress wannabe Barbara West at WFTV in Orlando, Florida:
See what the redstaters are consuming? Talk about media bias… More about Ms. West, from her station bio. Here are the first two graphs:
I have covered stories of people, politics and medical breakthroughs. My work has taken me across the country and around the world. From Washington, D.C. I covered the inauguration of President Bush and the impeachment of President Clinton.When Hillary Clinton attempted to reform our health care system, I traveled to Canada to examine the Canadian national health care system as a possible model for the U.S.
Uh huh… Ms. West also used to be an assistant to Peter Jennings, and she’s a pageant girl, just like Sarah Palin! The last two paragraphs of le bio:
Prior to working in television news, I was an assistant professor at the University of Vermont and represented Vermont in the Miss America Pageant. I hold a Master’s Degree from the University of Vermont.I am married to Wade West, an international media consultant to politicians, professionals and organizations. Together we often serve as auctioneers at various fundraising events throughout the state.
In her previous incarnation she might have been Barbara Ann Schmitt, Miss University of Vermont, 1969, who repped the state in the Miss America pageant that year.
And the hubby? If he’s this Wade West, he’s one of the guys who’s been serving up Pentagon propaganda to U.S. TV news outlets under the guise of “actual news” for the last several years. From the desk of: MediaPower, the company for which West serves as director:
As a television news anchor with experience in the “major leagues” at both ABC and NBC in New York, Wade West’s interviews with business, professional and political leaders give you a unique insight into what really brings increased results, profits and performance. Your group will benefit because his programs and books focus on what works in the REAL WORLD. He provides you with simple, proven strategies for applying this information to benefit your group and situation.
Experience:
- Television News Reporter and Anchor
- Media Trainer for high level public figures including political office holders, leading professional athletes, prominent physicians and attorneys, as well as the president of a major television network
- Faculty, AMA Physician-Reporters Program
- Infomercial Producer; Senior Media Briefer for U. S. Department of Defense
- Coach for on-air broadcast television reporters and news anchors
Mr. West has been a small-time donor to Republicans, nothing major. But his company? It’s got a lot on its plate:
Television establishes buying trends, creates public preferences, and drives public opinion. Television news sets the national mood, links important political and commercial centers around the world and is even so powerful it decides the outcome of elections long before the first voter steps into the voting booth. Television earns billions of dollars a year … and it earns even more for the people who know how to use it wisely.The MediaPower Group is the leader in debunking the myth that the power of television is reserved for huge companies located in global power centers. Television’s profits, decision making process and its strength are diversified into local markets throughout the country and around the world. As a result, the people and firms that profit from television are primarily small and medium sized entities located throughout the world too.
MediaPower creates free television coverage, commercials and infomercials that make tremendous profits for their clients. They also produce television that decides elections, creates trends and even saves lives. MediaPower’s work has increased some professional practice profits more than 800%. They work with clients throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
(Emphasis added.) So, is it crazy to think that Mrs. Webb also is trying to “create television that decides elections? It’s worth asking…
And now, for the funniest Fox News video EVER
Watch for the old couple near the back. Priceless.
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