News Hounds

Van Susteren Helps Palin Play A Haiti Expert On TV

Only on Greta Van Susteren’s On The Record would Sarah Palin be presented as a serious commenter on the situation in Haiti. But even with all the help that Fox News could offer, Palin still came out looking like a lightweight with no real understanding of the country.

Bill O’Reilly Says American Military Are "Pinheads?"

Bill O'Reilly has a regular feature titled “Pinheads and Patriots” during which these designations are given to those whom America’s Daddy feels are naughty and nice. And while it appears relatively innocuous and humorous, it does allow Bill, on occasion, to present right wing propaganda for those with short attention spans and those who don’t want to be burdened with details. Bill gets to divide folks into bad and good – or in this case, “pinheads” and “patriots” – a term which has little to do with the characteristic being praised although for Bill’s jingoistic audience, anything to do with patriotism has them standing at attention, hands over hearts. (One would be hard pressed to say that American Olympic women skiers, posing nearly nude for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, are “patriots.”) But the “pinhead” characterization does allow Bill to communicate his disapproval within a short sound bite. There is no further context to an issue which is more complex than Bill would have his audience believe. But the details could detract from the propaganda and that, as the Bard would say, is the rub!

Fox News Turned Its Back On Haiti Benefit Concert

Fox News was the only news network and almost the only network, period, not to air the Hope for Haiti telethon tonight. Instead, it chose to air The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity in full. Hannity didn't even discus Haiti. According to MTV, the sponsor of the telethon, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox (broadcasting), CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, CENTRIC, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, EPIX, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health, Planet Green, CNN en Español, HBO Latino and Canadian networks, including CBC Television, CTV, Global Television and MuchMusic were to broadcast the fundraiser, as would BET International, CNN International, National Geographic and MTV Networks International.

But not Fox News.

What You Can Do To Help Haiti

I've not posted links for ways to help the earthquake victims in Haiti because I've been leery about which charities to recommend. But Priscilla, Alex, Julie and BlogAds have stepped up to the plate: Priscilla notes that MSNBC has been promoting YeleHaiti, run by Wyclef Jean. You can text the word “Yele” to 501501. Alex recommended Doctors Without Borders. Julie found that Huffington Post has a place where you can purchase goods, such as first aid kits, water purification tablets, etc. needed for Haiti. There's also the Red Cross. You can donate to the American Red Cross by texting the word HAITI to 90999 -- an automatic $10 donation is made. There's also the newly minted Clinton/Bush Haiti Fund. You might note that we are running an ad this week (we're doing it free of charge) for the California Nurses Foundation to send nurses to Haiti.

The Beck Week That Was; The “News? What News?” Edition

Guest blogged by Aunty Em

As Monday rolled around this last week, hordes of viewers dropped everything in eager anticipation of a whole new Glenn Beck Show on the not-so-new Fox News Channel. Since November Glenda has been promising his Beckerheads his show would be entirely different this year because he’s “moving on.”