I’ve written recently about the inflammatory rhetoric of Fox News, Bill O’Reilly, etc., and how it can lead to events like the murder of Dr. George Tiller this weekend. Some people get it. This is a thoughtful post from Rod Dreher, a conservative, at Belief.net: Unsurprisingly, on this blog’s comboxes and elsewhere, some are blaming the entire pro-life movement for … Read More
The Hate Rhetoric
At some point, the right wing media has to be called out. Oh sure. As Slate's Gabriel Winant points out, Bill O'Reilly will be on television tonight tut-tutting the murder of Dr. George Tiller. But this come about after O'Reilly has made Tiller the subject of 28 "Factor" news stories, starting in 2005. Almost invariably, Tiller is described as "Tiller … Read More
National Prayer Day
The rightwing just lies and lies and lies. Obama, like his predecessors, issued a proclamation(pdf) honoring today's "holiday." What he didn't do is what Bush did — open up the White House and make it a public event. Instead, he kept it a private event. And that's the full story. But that doesn't stop the lies: Rush Limbaugh said Obama tried … Read More
Economic Difficulties For Clear Channel
CNBC: Clear Channel, the nation’s largest radio station operator and an outdoor billboard company, last year became the biggest leveraged buyout ever in the media business, after it was taken private by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital. Now its revenues are plunging and so is its cash flow, making it harder to meet the payments on the billions … Read More
Obama’s Press Conference — Literally No Fireworks
Media Matters: Here's what the following media figures and outlets had to say about Obama's April 29 press conference: During the April 29 edition of Fox News' Hannity, contributor Karl Rove said that the press conference "was boring," "flat" and "dull." He later stated: "There were a couple of very important moments in it — I don't deny that — … Read More
The First 100 Days
Instead of reflecting on Obama's first 100 days, let's reflect on Fox News's first 100 days of the Obama administration: At last night's press conference, Obama took questions from every major news outlet — CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC — and a few other outlets (like BET), but he didn't go to the FOX News reporter. Well, why should he? … Read More
Associated Press Isn’t Very Bright
The Associated Press is sent a cease-and-desist letter to WTNQ-FM in Tennessee accusing the country music radio station of copyright violation. Now, there are a couple of things to keep in mind: WTNQ-FM is an AP affiliate; The so-called incident came about because the radio station embedded a video from AP's channel on Youtube. Apparently, the Associated Press doesn't seem to understand … Read More
I’m Not Sure How Much More Of This I Can Take
Second perhaps to Rush Limbaugh is Glenn Beck, in terms of rightwing popularity. That means he has millions of followers. He gets serious Republican politicians and pundits on his show. But isn't this just a tad too far? I mean, putting a camera and microphone in front of this guy is just plain dangerous. Do people at Fox News truly advocate … Read More
Faux News Strikes Again
Jeez. How do they get away with this? This afternoon, Fox News aired a series of video clips which had various members of the Obama administration saying, "the fundamentals of the economy are strong". This was the statement that McCain used during the campaign, and for which was soundly ridiculed. Now, Fox says, the Obama administration is using the exact … Read More
Fox News Busted
Still have doubts that Fox News is an arm of the Republican Party? This should lay those doubts to rest. Yesterday, on Fox News' Happening Now, host Jon Scott told his viewers: "The Senate is expected to pass the $838 billion stimulus plan — its version of it, anyway. We thought we'd take a look back at the bill, how … Read More
Washington Post Delivers News Of The Obvious
Apparently — hold on to your hats, now — some conservatives think that Obama's Administration is too liberal.
Fox News Shut Out Of Obama Press Conferences
Oh, they are allowed in. It's just that Obama has had five post-election press conferences, and not once has the Fox News reporter been called on. Fishbowl DC has been keeping the tally. It might seem mean at first, I suppose. But then again, they're not really a news organization.
Who Will Be Time Magazine’s “Person Of The Year”?
You know, they can try to make it interesting, but I think this year, it's a pretty obvious foregone conclusion.
Digby Coins A New Term I Like
Jon Stewart's interview last night of Bill O'Reilly was fascinating for a number of reasons, but Digby picked up on something. Here's the entire interview, but the relevant moment comes toward the end. Here's the setup, as explained by Digby: Stewart kicked off the segment by showing a bunch of quotes about how nervous and scared Billo is with the … Read More