Fox News Sanitizes Family Research Council?
The right wing has seized the shooting at the Family Research Council as an opportunity to denounce the designation, by the Southern Poverty Law Center, of the FRC as a "hate group" - a designation that has been used by some media in reporting the shooting. Naturally, as the right's media arm, Fox News has provided a platform for those who defend the FRC. Michelle Malkin did her usual verbal histrionics about the unfairness of labeling, as a hate group, a group that supports traditional values. Both Megyn Kelly and Bill O'Reilly provided a platform for FRC President, Tony Perkins, to say that the SPLC provided "license" for the gunman to attack. On none of these shows was there any attempt to articulate the basis for the SPLC's categorization. The viewer is left with the impression that the FRC was unfairly maligned because of its position on gay marriage when the reason for the SPLC classification is that it "has knowingly spread false and denigrating propaganda about LGBT people." That wasn't mentioned on any of the segments. Fox News, "fair & balanced?"
Read moreMike Huckabee's "Historian" Pal, David Barton, Under Fire For Historical Inaccuracy
Mike Huckabee once said that he wished that every American could be forced to listen to the message of radical Christian nationalist "historian," David Barton, whose bizarre and inaccurate revisionist history of the US includes the myth that the Founders were fundamentalist Christians (Enlightenment? What Englightenmen!) who sought to create a country based on biblical principals. (And did ya know that they opposed the teaching of evolution and that the Revolution was all about ending slavery?). He has been denounced by reality based historians for years but his reputation is now even further sullied - but ya probably won't hear anything about it from Mike Huckabee!
Read moreO’Reilly Tries To Use Family Research Council Shooting To ‘Prove’ He Was Wrongly Accused In Dr. Tiller Shooting
Bill O’Reilly apparently saw the recent shooting at the ultra-conservative Family Research Council as some kind of proof that he bore no responsibility for the death of abortion doctor George Tiller. O’Reilly’s thinking seemed to go something like this: a politically-motivated maniac tried to shoot up the FRC (but only succeeded in wounding a security guard) and the liberal media thought it no big deal. Therefore, that proved that when a politically-motivated maniac shot and killed Dr. Tiller, the harsh (liberal media) spotlight on O’Reilly’s inflammatory rhetoric was simply more liberal-bias baloney. Unfortunately for O’Reilly, FRC head Tony Perkins was more interested in blaming the Southern Poverty Law Center, a staunch critic of the FRC, for “creating an environment that led” to the shooting than he was in attacking the media.
Read moreHow Many Fox News Talking Heads Can You Spot In The OPSEC ‘Swift Boat’ Video?
As I posted yesterday, the Fox News Nation has been “inspired” by the news that there’s a new video out, called Dishonorable Disclosures, from a group of supposedly non-partisan military and intelligence operatives accusing President Obama of taking too much credit for the killing of Osama Bin Laden and also of endangering national security with intelligence leaks. Of course, it’s just a coincidence that the video is being released now, during the height of the 2012 presidential campaign and that the group behind it shares an office space with a Republican consulting firm. But another funny coincidence is that there are some Fox News talking heads involved. So these guys are not only in bed with the right-wing but are or have been paid to speak for them, too.
Read moreFox Psychiatrist Dr. Keith Diagnoses Vice President Biden Without Examining Him
Fox News' psychiatrist and "Medical A-Team" member Dr. Keith Ablow didn't let a little thing like not having examined Vice President Joe Biden get in the way of arriving at an analysis of his mindset. That "gaffe" about chains Fox News is so fascinated with, wasn't a gaffe at all but a "moment of truth" that reveals Biden's "contempt" for "financial success." Oh, and while he was at it, Ablow came up with a few conclusions about President Obama's, too. Ablow's conclusions were more than a little racially tinged, too. (H/T Headly Westerfield)
Read moreSteve Doocy Promotes Water Park Discount For Christians
As part of its trademark persecuted Christian meme, Fox & Friends never wastes an opportunity to cast atheists as a bunch of godless evil doers who are out to make life difficult for Jesus' BFF's. This morning, Jesus BFF Steve Doocy interviewed a Christian water park owner who has received a letter of complaint, by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, for his special discount which includes seniors, military, and church groups but not inner city kids. In typical Fox fashion, this gentleman was allowed to present his view while Steve Doocy smiled and nodded, especially when the park owner made a statement which, coincidentally (?), underscored an ongoing Fox & Friends narrative; i.e. that one person or group can spoil things for good Christians: "As Christians we've given up way too much for way too few." As the "Church Lady would say, "Isn't that special."
Read moreDonald Trump Joins Chorus of Fox Pundits Painting Romney as Victim of ‘Vicious’ Obama Campaign
Add Donald Trump to the list of Fox talking heads who are bemoaning the nastiness of the Obama campaign, now that the Democrats are starting to use traditional Republican tactics against them. Talking on the phone to Greta Van Susteren last night, he called the Obama campaign "vicious" and urged the GOP to “fight fire with fire”.
Read moreMichelle Malkin's New Whine: Anti-Gay Family Research Council Not A Hate Group!
In the Orwellian, bizarro world of the Christian right, homophobic "family values" groups are considered to be exemplars of all that is good and noble while those who criticize these values are considered to be "haters." This type of doublethink has been on display since the unfortunate shooting incident at the headquarters of the Family Research Council. Because the Huffington Post accurately described the FRC as a Southern Poverty Law Center identified hate group, the right wing are outraged. And whenever the right wing is outraged, you can count on Michelle Malkin to bring her reasoned discourse to the discussion. (Just kidding) Malkin, whose Christian family values seem to include distaste for minorities and Muslims, got some recent notoriety when she posted a photo of Trayvon Martin which made him look like a street thug. This morning she brought her patented snark and snarl to Fox & Friends where she pontificated about anti-FRC haters. Oh, the irony.
Read moreDennis Miller ‘Jokes’ He Wishes It Was Nancy Pelosi In The Granny-Over-The-Cliff Ad
Paging Greta Van Susteren! Given your concern about denigration of women, I’m sure you’ll want to know the kind of joke that your colleagues, Dennis Miller and Bill O’Reilly, think is funny: fantasizing about throwing Nancy Pelosi off a cliff.
Read moreGet Ready For The Swift Boating Of Obama Over Killing Of Bin Laden
It's Swift Boat time on Fox News again - this time, instead of a book and a video of veterans accusing a Democrat of lying about his military service, we'll have a Fox News media campaign "that scolds President Barack Obama for taking credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden and argues that high-level leaks are endangering American lives," as the lede paragraph of the post on Fox Nation puts it. This is also currently the top story on Fox Nation and it's rated "inspiring" by its readers.
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