News Hounds: Fear

Fear

November 15, 2011

Fox And Friends Outsource Smears To Comedian Brad Stine Again

Proving they learned absolutely nothing from the Hank Williams, Jr. fiasco—when he blurted out that President Obama was the enemy, leading to Williams being forcibly retired as ESPN’s Football Readyist—those Foxy Friends on Fox and Friends dragged out comedian Brad Stine for his weekly attack on the left. [Does two Mondays in a row on Fox “News” constitute “weekly”?] After last week’s appearance Priscilla noted that Stine, “as a youth, led the ‘carny life’ and went on to doing stand-up. After his conversion to Christianity, he made his faith the focus of his acts. Because he's a Christian, he doesn't use profanity… He founded ‘God Men’ a Christian group that emphasizes ‘spiritual Christianity’ and who ‘give thanks’ to God for their testosterone.” Yet, despite his proclaimed deep faith in Christianity, Stine demonstrated none of the compassion and charity that one might expect from Jesus, even a Jesus with balls. No matter. Stine was brought on to smear unemployed ‘Merkins as lazy people and he didn’t disappoint. Watch:

Reported by Aunty Em at 9:47 AM

November 10, 2011

Fox and Friends To Florida Inmates: Let Them Eat Soy

The Foxy Friends on Fox and Friends proved Wednesday morning they don’t even need guests to push the Fox “News” agit-prop, or to have some fun at someone else’s expense. At issue was Eric Harris, an inmate in central Florida who is suing for “cruel and unusual punishment” because the prison system is serving a soy-laden, meat-free vegan diet. According to the Florida News Journal “Harris is claiming that it has threatened his thyroid, caused painful gastrointestinal cramping, and compromised his immune system, all things which he says are medical problems for him and are listed as possible side effects of eating too much soy.” However, you wouldn’t hear any of that from The Three Stooges, who seemed to be echoing Bizarro Marie Antoinette. Watch:

Reported by Aunty Em at 7:31 AM

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:

Reported by Aunty Em at 11:11 AM

October 18, 2011

Pat Buchanan Too Bigoted Even For Hannity

Regular readers know that Sean Hannity has a very, very disturbing record on race. But even he seemed skeptical about Pat Buchanan’s theory that diminishing numbers of white people represent an existential threat to the Republican Party and, by extension the country. Buchanan's solution? Cut off immigration so that the current under class can “move up” and become Republicans. Hannity didn’t want to go there but he warmly offered to have Buchanan back (i.e. help rehabilitate his image) when he gets in trouble for those views.

Reported by Ellen at 2:47 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: