The national embarrassment to honest journalism that is Fox News continues to contaminate our country's airwaves with false and misleading information designed to promote a conservative Republican agenda and to demonize Democrats and progressives. Almost a year ago I wrote an article that asked the question: "Who's Afraid Of Fox News?" My answer was: "The Rest Of The Media!" It was an examination of how Fox aggressively attacked their competitors and how their competitors simply rolled over, apparently afraid to fight back. Now, a year later, not much has changed.
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Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Britain’s Conservative opposition party, facing a general election battle with Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour Party in the next three months, have hired the team that advised President Barack Obama in his televised debates with rival John McCain, the Wall Street Journal said ...
Conservative leader David Cameron is due to face Brown in the first-ever television debates between leaders ahead of a general election, and Washington-based Squier, Knapp Dunn Communications have been hired to advise on the debate as well as offer broader advice to Cameron on other issues, the newspaper said.
Senior partner Anita Dunn served as Obama’s communications director until last November, and Bill Knapp is a close adviser to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ...
Recently Janet Napolitano and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gave a message to the American people, in response to the latest Al Qaeda attack, that was clouded and too nuanced to fly. Immediately pounced on by the opposition and the media, the message was changed into an admission of systemic failure that was also ineffective and unsatisfactory. This is only the latest of the "message" failures of the Obama White House. From a high powered campaign communications machine to a stumbling, unfocused and badly coordinated media operation, the Obama White Houses' communications operation is clearly dysfunctional.
I had stopped following the antics of Glenn Beck on a day-to-day basis, only noting those that seeped into the consciousness of the mainstream media. After all, every day it is the same: "How do I hate Obama? Let me count the ways..."
After hearing everything from "Obama wants to enslave everyone," to "Obama is the reincarnation of Hitler," (paraphrasing), Beck had lost his power to surprise me.
Any possible scenario one could fabricate I would not put past Glenn Beck. But some things he said on his radio show yesterday have demonstrated that Glenn Beck still has the power to surprise me.
Sam Stein notes that in Anita Dunn's parting shots at Fox she not only accused them of "inventing the story," but also tossed aside the notion that Joe Scarborough's network was Fox's liberal equivalent, said her criticisms of Fox weren't just expressions of her personal views, and mocked Fox for falsely claiming to have gotten an exclusive interview with President Obama.
Last month, Dunn got caught up in a war of words between the White House and Fox News when she made the rather bland observation that the network carries a Republican agenda. On Friday, she was asked whether she considered MSNBC to have a counter-balancing bias -- a common retort offered by Fox's defenders. Dunn replied by noting that for three hours every morning that network handed over its programming to "a former Republican congressman who was a member of Newt Gingrich's revolution": Joe Scarborough.
Elsewhere in her remarks, Dunn acknowledged that her decision to go after Fox News was not an example of her "going rogue." White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and perhaps even the president himself gave her the green light. She also mocked Fox for proclaiming that it had secured an exclusive sit-down interview with President Obama during his trip to Asia when, in actuality, it was simply part of a rotating pool of reporters.
Dunn also saluted Jon Stewart for his take downs of both Fox and Sean Hannity.
Much of the press today is reporting the announcement that White House communications director, Anita Dunn, is leaving her post at the end of this month. And many of them are getting it wrong. This is a curious news item because it has been known since she accepted the position that it would be temporary. Nevertheless, right-wingers are falling all over themselves with delusional glee that Dunn has been "ousted." It is just a matter of time before Glenn Beck takes credit and the Fox Nation claims victory.
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I just finished reading this poor excuse for what has come to be journalism and it made my blood boil. Peter Nicholas, a Times staff writer reported today that he was told by democratic strategist not to appear on Fox News again or else. At least that's what the Journalist seemed to be conveying.
Here is the untold story. While the media has largely focused on Fox News' ratings, they have missed the real story behind the cable news wars. I watched Meet the Press and Chris Matthews Show and other news programs on the Sunday, October 18th, and listen to Joe Scarborough, Tavis Smiley and others discuss Fox news ratings as "shooting through the roof" as a result of the White House's attack on Fox News. I thought it ludicrous to make such claims so soon after the attacks, and suspected that these commentators were simply repeating the unsubstantiated claim. I decided to review and track the ratings for Fox News and the other cable shows to see if I could determine a change in cable news viewership.
The following graphs display the results of cable news program ratings trends over a 5 week period starting on September 28th, 2009 and ending October 30th, 2009.
I had been reading articles on how wrong it was for the White House to criticize Fox News all day, but it was the one in this post that Eric Boehlert so expertly responded to on his "County Fair" blog that made me just snap. Here's an excerpt:
Boehlert: Over at Mediaite.com, Glynnis MacNicol offers up some of the more ridiculous the-White-House-is-trying-to-trample-journalism rhetoric:
From the beginning, the ultimate danger of allowing the-White House to take on a news organization the way it has with Fox, is that it has now set a precedent. One that they apparently have no qualms about extending. Does the public really want its president determining what news is fit to consume?
I was going to respond with something to the effect of does the public really want its news agencies lying without consequence? when my brain suddenly stopped in its tracks and went: you know what? SCREW YOU.
During the 2008 election, there was a single moment in time where Robert Gibbs, fed up with conservative smears, obliterated Fox News. He didn't do it by shunning media opponents - instead, in an articulate, full-frontal assault, he diminished them to the vapid characters that they truly were. In essence, he gave them a taste of their own medicine. He was calm, intelligent and strong. And, he won.
President Obama doesn't have to cater to Fox News' scheduling requests; however, I am of the mind that President Obama's staff can and should take on every media outlet to ensure that his agenda spreads beyond his base - yes, Independents and Conservative Democrats matter (and, yes, many of them watch FOX News).
Watch these videos and I think this will make more sense....
Yesterday's edition of Glenn Beck's Acute Paranoia Revue contained a remarkable confession from Beck. He embarked on an elaborate demonstration to illustrate how political operatives in the White House use misdirection to achieve their goals. In order to convey this concept to an audience he apparently believes are rejects from remedial kindergarten, he performs a hackneyed magic trick wherein a coin astonishingly disappears from one hand and then magically appears in the other.
Ooh...aah.....
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For those tired of reading anything about this insane woman or who think this is not newsworthy or do not want to read a rehash of things they may have already read, you may want to click the "back" button on your browser.
For those who never fail to marvel at the universe of conspiracy that people like Orly Taitz and Glenn Beck live in, join me in this brief rundown of some conspiracies Orly has "uncovered."
If you heard Joe Scarborough today, moment ago, you will think that Glenn Beck had a "smoken gun" on Anita Dunn because of her "Mao" comments. But anyone with brains will realize that she was joking. And someone should tell Joe that Newt Gingrich used to quote Mao, same for McCain and Karl Rove said once that Dubbya offered him a Mao Book.
It isn't the first time a Fox News anchor edits out a comment belonging to a member of the Obama White House. This week, Glen Beck manufactured that Anita Dunn was a Mao's lover, which turned out to be false.
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