Do Americans Favor Or Oppose Collective Bargaining Rights? [FOX lies about the answer]

Ken AshfordEconomy & Jobs & Deficit, Right Wing and Inept MediaLeave a Comment

There have been a few polls on this, but none from a non-partisan pollster.  Until yesterday. USA Today and Gallup released a new poll that found that a whopping 61 percent of Americans oppose efforts like those of Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) to strip public sector unions of collective bargaining rights. The poll also found that only a third of Americans support such … Read More

Fox News Makes Stuff Up, Says Insider

Ken AshfordRight Wing and Inept MediaLeave a Comment

At Media Matters: FOX NEWS INSIDER- “Stuff Is Just Made Up”. A former Fox News employee who recently agreed to talk with Media Matters confirmed what critics have been saying for years about Murdoch’s cable channel. Namely, that Fox News is run as a purely partisan operation, virtually every news story is actively spun by the staff, its primary goal is … Read More

More Evidence of Fox News Bias Emerges

Ken AshfordEnvironment & Global Warming & Energy, Right Wing and Inept Media1 Comment

About a year ago, Fox News correspondent Wendell Goler delivered a live report from Copenhagen and told viewers the truth. The United Nations' World Meteorological Organization, Goler said, had announced that that 2000-2009 was "on track to be the warmest [decade] on record." Not quite 15 minutes later, another memo was sent by Fox News Washington managing editor Bill Sammon. In the … Read More

How Fox Slants The News

Ken AshfordHealth Care, Right Wing and Inept MediaLeave a Comment

During the heated health care debates last year, the Washington editor of Fox News sent a memo to Fox News employees instructing them not to call it the "public option", but to call it the "government option".  Why?  Because polls showed that people had a much more negative reaction to "government option". From: Sammon, BillSent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 8:23 AMTo: 054 -FNSunday; … Read More

The Sanity Effect

Ken AshfordRight Wing and Inept MediaLeave a Comment

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann announced that he is suspending, perhaps permanently, his "Worst Person In The World" segment in an effort to reach a new tone on his show. Will such a move be made by Fox's Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck? Don't hold your breath.

Exercises In “Fair and Balanced”

Ken AshfordRight Wing and Inept Media, Sex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

Personally, I don't care all that much that Ken Mehlman, the former chair of the Republican National Committee, is gay.  I think it is relevant, considering that when Mehlman was Bush's chief campaign strategist in 2004, he was instrumental in the plan to thrust DOMA into the limelight in order to motivate the (homophobic) Republican base. So Mehlman's revelation is … Read More

Fox News = Terrorist Funder

Ken AshfordRight Wing and Inept Media, Right Wing Punditry/Idiocy, War on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

Yesterday morning on Fox & Friends, Fox News contributor Dan Senor observed that The Kingdom Foundation, whose chairman is Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, is a funder for the Cordoba House Initiative.  “The Kingdom Foundation, so you know, is this Saudi organization, headed up by the guy that tried to give Rudy Giuliani $10 million after 9/11 that was sent back, funds radical madrassas … Read More

Truth Gets Its Boots On

Ken AshfordConstitution, Godstuff, Right Wing and Inept Media, War on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

The Associated Press sent out a memo today to its writers and editors advising that they should no longer use the phrase "Ground Zero mosque" to describe the controversial Islamic cultural center and former Burlington Coat Center store, located in lower Manhattan two blocks (and out of view) from Ground Zero. While I applaud the Associated Press for its stance, this would … Read More

Palin And The Angry Inch

Ken AshfordElection 2012, Right Wing and Inept Media, TheatreLeave a Comment

Wow.  The "respectable" right-wing blogs are just as mean as they are inaccurate. It all started when Sarah Palin, while shooting her reality for The Discover Network, was confronted by a woman with a huge home-made sign saying "Worst Governor Ever", in reference to Palin.  The whole thing was caught on video, including the moment when Palin asked the woman … Read More

More Attempted Journalistic Lynching of Shirley Sherrod

Ken AshfordRace, Right Wing and Inept Media, Right Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

One would think that the right would want to move past the Shirley Sherrod story. For those living under a rock last week, the story in a nutshell is this:  Right wing provocateur Andrew Brietbart, pissed that the NAACP had accused the Tea Party movement of racism, fired back on his blog magazine by posting a video of a low-level … Read More

Journalistic Error

Ken AshfordRight Wing and Inept MediaLeave a Comment

According to Gawker, the Washington Post was debating which cover story and art to feature on its online page.  It was either going to be this:   or this: Apparently, somebody messed up, because for a few hours yesterday (until somebody fixed it), the online Washington Post looked like this: Ooopsy.