We have been informed that Fox's "America Live" is part of their official "fair & balanced" "news" programming. That this claim lacks veracity has been amply demonstrated by Megyn Kelly's in-your-face advocacy of right wing positions. Kelly is no longer host of the program; but the propaganda beat goes on. Tuesday, Shannon Bream not only lied about how the evil Dept. of Justice pulled funds from a youth program; but she dredged up a former Bush DOJ appointee to validate her. Yesterday, she validated opposition to Pres. Obama's nominee that is now hot, hot, hot in right wing, anti-choice, and Christian hate group circles. Joining her in the not so fair & balanced segment was conservative, anti-choicer, Ed Whelan, who got the smear ball rolling in the first place. As Fox News propaganda, it was all good. As fair & balanced, not so much!
Pres. Obama has nominated litigator and Georgetown law professor Cornelia Pillard to the DC Circuit. This is a court which is dominated by right wing ideologues and which the right wing wants total control over as this court makes decisions which affect the entire country. Despite her impressive qualifications, the right wing hates Ms. Pillard because she supports a full panoply of women's rights including, gasp, women's reproductive rights. Ed Whelan, of the right wing, neo-con "Ethics and Policy Center" and the conservative National Review started the campaign against her which was then picked up by the SPLC designated hate group, "The Family Research Council" which is circulating outright lies about Pillard. So obviously Whelan was perfect for Bream's propaganda piece about a "controversial" nominee.
As the Fox chyron defined the message, "Controversial Judicial Nominee, Obama Pick Described As Divisive, Radical," Bream reported that a Senate Committee was concluding its hearing on a "controversial" Obama nominee. She noted that "critics are pushing back hard" on Ms. Pillard who is described as, OMG, "the most potentially left leaning judge" in OMG American history. She introduced Whelan who once said that because Obama's mother didn't have an abortion, Obama should rethink his position on reproductive rights and call for more "protective" anti-abortion laws.
Whelan claimed that any Obama nominee to this circuit court will "wipe out any limits on government" and rubber stamp his "left wing agenda." Bream read a Pillard quote about the relationship of abortion rights to women's freedom. She claimed that Pillard said that those who oppose government mandated birth control are practicing discrimination. Bream is partially lying - the Pillard quote is from a 2007 article which states that for women to have workplace equal rights, they need to be valued for more than their reproductive capacity. It has nothing to do with the HHS mandate because Obama wasn't president in 2007. Bream, who asserted that the mandate is being "hotly debated in the courts," said that according to one author,"if you oppose the mandate, that's what she thinks of you." The author is hate group head Tony Perkins whose commentary about Pillard is full of lies intended to smear Pillard.
Whelan droned that this is "the far left rhetoric on abortion." He claimed she has said that judges should rule that abstinence only sex education "violates equal protection" when, in reality, Pillard suggests that certain aspects of abstinence only programs promulgate sex stereotypes and could, thus, violate the "constitutional bar against sex stereotyping." As Amanda Marcotte points out, Pillard "said in the hearing, she has no objection to teaching kids to say no to sex, but she did object to teaching kids these unequal gender roles." Bream cited GOP Senator Mike Lee's contention that Pillard equates anti-abortion protestors to KKK members. After Bream noted that Pillard has criticized mandatory ultrasound abortion laws (taken straight from Perkins commentary), she said that "it sounds like she isn't a fan of the pro-life movement either." (So that's a litmus test for Circuit Judges?) Whelan continued to drone about how she is unqualified.
So this is what Fox News claims is "fair & balanced?" Seriously?