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Terrorizing Viewers

November 5, 2011

Peter Johnson Claims Occupy Movement Is Unacceptable

The “Fear and Balanced Network,” aka The Fox “News” Channel, seems happiest when its personalities are able to instill fear in its audience. Among the Fear and Balanced things you should fear include, but are not limited to, Muslims; labor unions; The Phony Wars on Christmas and Halloween; Immigrants, especially the undocumented kind; creeping Socialism; creeping Sharia Law; the creeping President of the United States of ‘Merka; and Black ‘Merkins in general that are neither president, nor Herman Cain. However, judging by the sheer amount of airtime devoted to it in such a short period of time—not to mention the over-the-top demagoguery—the thing Fox “News” wants its viewers to fear the most these days is the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Seeming to be leading the Fox pitchfork crowd are Eric Bolling and Peter Johnson, Jr., both of whom go farther in their condemnation of OWS than other Fox “News” readers. Therefore, it was a glorious two-fer Friday when Eric Bolling (filling in on Fox and Friends for one of the blonde Foxy Friends) hosted the Knight of Malta, Peter Johnston, Jr.

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Reported by Aunty Em at 4:49 PM

November 3, 2011

Fox News Joins The Republican War On (Democratic) Voting

As Rolling Stone reported in an article called The GOP War on Voting, a number of Republican state governments – many in important swing states – have imposed new legal impediments to voting. America Live with Megyn Kelly held a discussion yesterday on the situation deliberately framed so as to suggest that the Obama campaign is stealthily working to undermine voter integrity and enable voter fraud. Guest and conservative talk show host Chris Plante not only grabbed that ball and ran with it, he began by openly accusing the Obama administration of voter fraud (unchallenged by Kelly) and later laughed heartily at every mention of voter disenfranchisement. UPDATED.

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Reported by Ellen at 5:34 PM

October 25, 2011

Against All Facts Fox’s Phony War On Halloween Grows More Incomprehensible

When Fox “News” starts hammering at a meme it’s never hard to figure out why. Usually it falls into one (or more) of the following rubrics: Defending the GOP; defending the Teabaggers; defending the latest Republican to say something stupid; attacking President Obama; deflecting blame of President George W. Bush by attacking Obama; deflecting blame of the GOP by attacking Obama; defending Jesus; defending Christians; defending the flag; and defending Patriots both true and phony. That’s why Fox’s Phony War on Halloween™ is so incomprehensible. To start, it doesn’t fall into any of the above categories. Furthermore, the holiday itself seems to be diametrically opposed to Fox Audience Values™. In fact, there are whole swaths of ‘Merkin Fundamentalist Communities (traditionally a big part of the Fox “News” audience) who believe that Halloween is the devil’s holiday and, if they had their way, they’d ban it. Furthermore, the aims of those who wish to moderate the holiday (during school hours) would seem to dovetail with several Fox memes, mostly those about how the educational system is failing our children. So, when The Foxy Friends on Fox and Friends doubled down yesterday and called it an “all-out assault on Halloween,” I listened extra carefully to see if I could hear the dog whistle. Watch:

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Reported by Aunty Em at 11:11 AM

October 19, 2011

How Fox News Uses Weak Democrats And News Corp Synergy To Play Pretend

Nothing demonstrates how frightened The Right Wing Establishment™ is of the Occupy movement than the continuing, and seemingly never-ending, Fox “News” effort to smear the world-wide protests. The Fox tele-prompter readers have used every trick in the book, to the point where the so-called news network is actually touting the Nazi Party’s endorsement of OWS. Leave it to Doug Schoen—a so-called Democratic Pollster who was awarded “Democratic Wanker of the Decade” in these pages—to take Fox’s side. Yesterday he used the pages of the Wall Street Journal (owned by News Corp, not coincidentally the parent company of Fox News), to publish an absolutely stupid column titled “Polling the Occupy Wall Street Crowd.” And, leave it to Stewart Varney to appear with the Foxy Friends on Fox and Friends to pretend that Doug Schoen is onto something when he’s really full of crap.

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Reported by Aunty Em at 1:19 PM

October 14, 2011

A Friendly Fox And Friends Welcome To “We Are 53 Percent”

If any more proof is needed that Fox “News” has taken a stand against Occupy Wall Street, one only has to look at the warm welcome given to Mike Wilson, described as “Conservative Filmmaker” and “Developer” of “We Are The 53 Percent,” the newest Right Wing protest group on the ‘Merkin political scene. While The 53ers seem to be quite a small group, that didn’t stop the Foxy Friends (in the persona of Gretchen Carlson) from giving Wilson as warm an embrace as Fox “News” did Teabaggers…or Joe the Plumber. That’s because Fox doesn’t care how big or small a group is, as long as it’s on the right side, pun intended. Clearly Fox “News” believes “We Are The 53%” is on the right side, as evidenced by the chyrons alone. As Wednesday’s interview began the following words appeared at the bottom of the screen: Taking on ‘Occupy Wall Street’; ‘We are the 53 percent’ claims middle ground. At the 23 second mark that’s replaced by “Mike Wilson; Conservative Filmmaker” which, at the 33 second mark faded to “Mike Wilson; Developer, “We Are 53%.” Oddly enough, this only stayed up on screen for a mere 3.5 seconds. Suddenly the chyron is dropped entirely so that Fox can show full screen the pictures that Wilson was currently talking about. WOW!!! Talk about synergy. It’s almost like that was planned because Fox almost never drops the chyron unless it’s for Hooters babes. Twenty seconds later the screen returned to a regular shot of Wilson with the words Counter protest movement; Telling Wall St Demonstrators to ‘Suck it up’ below him. Less than 10 seconds later those words are replaced by ‘We are the 53%’; Blame themselves, politicians for their angst, followed a short time later by “Anti-Occupy Wall St Movement; Says be responsible for your own destiny.” Media Matters also contrasted the treatment of OWS with this new group in an article titled “Fox Attacks ‘99 Percent’ To Support ‘53 Percent,’ ” posted a day before this softball interview. As comprehensive as MMfA's article might be, as much—if not far more—is said by Gretchen's kiss, kiss, kiss ending to this interview. The Gretch wrapped it all up in a nice pretty bow for those who didn’t get the less-than-subtle propaganda, “It’s a very interesting reaction to what’s going on on Wall Street. And we’ll check back in with you because I have a feeling it’s going to continue to grow.” Translation: “We’ll keep pushing your group and, just like we did for the Teabaggers, we’ll help you grow.” Watch:

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Reported by Aunty Em at 12:30 PM
The Five: Islamophobia On Parade, reported by Aunty Em,
Fox News Jihad Against Obama, reported by Ellen,
FOX News' Militia Media, reported by Ellen,