Right-Wing Pundits Strive to Keep Americans Dumb

Bill O'Reilly

I do not understand the American right wing. I don't understand how people who make less than $100,000 vote for policies that benefit millionaires, and I don't know why people who are on their third marriage constantly prattle about family values.

Much of the commentary coming from the right wing is baffling because it is glaringly inaccurate. Some would say it is blatant lies. Liberal media watchdog group Media Matters is constantly kept busy fact checking and stating the errors from the right-wing noise machine.

In many cases, it is obvious that the commentary is incorrect, so I must conclude that this is done deliberately. Right-wing commentators must know they are talking nonsense, but they continue to say it because they need the great unwashed masses to believe, and act on it.

For example, Americans are lead to believe universal health care is an evil socialistic plot . This message is constantly repeated in the right-wing media, yet European countries like Sweden, Norway, France and Britain, have socialized medical systems which are far superior to the U.S. The United Nation ranks France as having the most efficient health care system in the world. (The U.S. is ranked no. 37.) In addition, you don't see Canadians scurrying across the border to use our profit-driven health care system.

I was reminded of the fallacy of the right-wing media when watching Bill Maher's "Real Time," often the most intelligent hour on television. Right-wing commentator Margaret Hoover, a great-granddaughter of President Herbert Hoover, said that you could not compare Andres Breivik, the suspect in the Norwegian massacre, to Muslim terrorists. Hoover said that unlike Al-Qaeda, Breivik was not connected to an internationally terror network.

Huh? How can a commentator with a national stage spout such nonsense? There is a long trail of evidence showing that Breivik had connections with Islamophobes in America, such as Pamela Geller, author of the blog Atlas Shrugs, and the neo-fascist English Defense League in Britain. Geller has gained prominence for her virulent hatred of Muslims. She has also been given a platform on FOX News to promote wacky views such as accusing Jewish Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan of supporting Nazi ideology.

Commenting on Breivik's ties to the international Islamophobe network, Max Blumenthal writes: "Judging from Breivik’s writings, his hysterical hatred of the Labor Party’s immigration policies and tolerance of Muslim immigrants likely led him target the government-operated summer camp at Utoya. For years, the far-right has singled Norway out as a special hotbed of pro-Islam, pro-Palestinian sentiment, thanks largely to its ruling Labor Party In 2010, for instance, the English Defense League called Norway a future site of 'Islamohell,' where unadulterated political correctness has ruled the roost, with sharp talons, for decades.'"

And Slate.com writer William Saletan states: "In a manifesto posted online, the admitted killer, Anders Behring Breivik, praised Geller. He cited her blog, Atlas Shrugs, and the writings of her friends, allies, and collaborators—Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, Islam Watch, and Front Page magazine—more than 250 times."

To add insult to injury, FOX News blowhard Bill O'Reilly said that the liberal media was eager to brand Breivik a Christian. According to O'Reilly, "no one believing in Jesus commits mass murder." Of course, as Bill Maher pointed out, anyone with a superficial knowledge of history can reel off a long list of "Christians" who have killed large numbers of people.

This is ridiculous. O'Reilly and other right-wing commentators must know what they are saying is BS. O'Reilly is not a stupid man, before he went down the FOX News hole, he was an Emmy-winning journalist and he also has a master's degree from Harvard -- one of those Ivy League colleges that he lambasts.

In a Playboy magazine interview Deepak Chopra says that O'Reilly is not as ignorant as he seems, and just plays a bigot on TV. And this may be true with other FOX commentators. A few years ago, Gretchen Carlson, a Rhodes scholars, said she had to go and look up what the word ignoramus meant.

So if we assume that FOX News commentators know what they are saying is incorrect, what is their goal? To keep the ignorant in the dark, if that is the case, they may be a method to their madness and it seems to be working.

A 2010 University of Maryland study described FOX News viewers as "the most consistently uninformed." The study said that FOX News viewers were more likely to believe blatantly incorrect statements like Saddam Hussein was behind 9-11 and President Barack Obama was largely responsible for the deficit. (All the facts point to the Bush tax cuts, two underfunded wars and the Medicare drug benefit as causes of the budget deficit.)

Is it any wonder that FOX News viewers constantly regurgitate these lies? And maybe that was Roger Ailes goal all along. Ever since his days in the Nixon White House he has dreamed of creating a propaganda network that broadcasts directly to American living rooms. Maybe FOX should change its motto to "We report the propaganda, you decide to believe it."

Lupe Fiasco Bashes Obama, Gets FOX Gig

Lupe Fiasco

We live in cynical times. Many black people have realized the best way to get publicity it to say something negative about President Barack Obama. FOX News loves this stuff and this has been proven accurate by the recent news that conscious rapper Lupe Fiasco has recently been invited to debate Bill O'Reilly on "The O'Reilly Factor."

Now you would wonder why O'Reilly, a noted hip hop hater, would have a mildly famous rapper on his show. FOX tends to view any rapper (and black person) as a thug, as seen in it recent trashing of Common, a rapper famous for writing love songs and being a vegetarian. However Lupe Fiasco recently called Obama a terrorist, for his support of the American war machine and in particular his support of Israel.

Lupe Fiasco is considered to be one of the more deeper thinkers in the rap community -- but even that isn't saying much. Hip hop's golden era of Public Enemy is long gone. Most of today's hip hop is knee-deep in materialism, violence and sex -- all messages approved by Corporate America.

I tend to think that entertainers should stick to entertaining and people shouldn't turn to them for political guidance. Political comic Bill Maher said he deliberately changed the format of his show "Real Time," to limit the celebrity segment, because so many of the entertainers could not string together an intelligent sentence.

Fiasco has written some intelligent songs criticizing conflict diamonds and has supported worldwide clean water iniatives, but you wonder how deep his knowledge is? Some of his comments on Global Grind, show he is all over the place. He said "admires some of the things that Glenn Beck does," and questions why Obama is raising funds for his campaign, but doesn't give "$100 million to the people of Detroit." Even more damning in his initial interview, where he called Obama a terrorist, was his admission that he doesn't vote.

Lupe Fiasco simply does not understand how the political system works. I remember reading an Vibe magazine interview with Jessie Jackson about 10 years ago. Jackson said he once encountered an young man who was angry at the economic situation. After listening to the man rant for several minutes, Jackson asked him if he voted, the young man said no. Jackson then said that he was outside the political system, and the only way to effect change is from inside the system.

The political system runs on money, and in this society money equals power. Lupe Fiasco is a man of means, I bet he could raise $1M. He could use that to create a Political Action Committee (PAC), called say LupePAC, and donate $1M. That PAC could hire a dozen lobbyists who could badger politicians until they affect the political change that Lupe Fiasco wants. A PAC could also hire a PR company to make sure the airwaves are flooded with issues that LupePAC supports. They could also make sure armies of volunteers are kept informed with e-mails and phone calls urging them to contact their elected representatives. That is how you get things done, son.

And this has actually happened. Hip hop veteran Russell Simmons has created political action groups to lobby politicians to reduce mandatory drug sentencing laws, which have been responsible for sending many black and Latino men away for long sentences.

Maybe Lupe Fiasco, like a lot of people on the far left, simply do not have a realistic understanding of the political system. The system is horribly tarnished by money, and it moves at snail's pace. More pointedly, the Supreme Court's Citizen's United ruling allows unlimited amounts of money to be dumped into the political process. If liberals want real change, they need to reelect Obama so he can appoint more progressive voices to the Supreme Court. They also need to elect more progressive representatives and senators, and make sure they stick to their campaign promises. But this is like the chicken and the egg problem, in a political system ruled by money, progressive voices have a hard time getting elected because they get outspent in the fundraising arms race.

As Jesse Jackson said, if you want to effect change you have to work within the system. Choosing not to vote is like opting out of the system. And those who choose to opt out of the system have no room to complain when things get worse. Just look at what Republican governors like Rick Scott and Scott Walker have done in their short terms. This is what happens when people on the left stay home.

FOX News, Right-Wing Media Propagate Racism 2.0

Roger Ailes, president FOX News

Many people on the right like to think that with a black president in the White House, racism is dead. They even have prominent spokespeople like Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who beat their chest and say, "How can America be racist if a black person is the Tea Party's leading candidate for president?"

Racism exists in 2011, but in a different form from the racism that existed in the 1960s. Back then racism was blatant -- whites only lunch counters, segregated drinking fountains, and black people completely barred from high-level jobs.

However, because racism was out in the open, it was much easier to challenge by direct action such as protests, boycotts and marching. Forty years later we have made a lot of progress, but there are still many racial disparities. Structural racism exists, but in a more subtle and amorphous form.

Right wingers fail to see these disparities. So I ask them, if you think America doesn't have racial problems, let's look at this from a scatological approach. Let's analyze America by its by products.

And what do we have? An ineffective criminal justice system that is predominately black and brown, black unemployment at twice the unemployment rate of white people and consistent evidence of police brutality and extra judicial killings mainly focused on black people.

What we are dealing with in the 21st century is what I would call Racism 2.0. Racism 2.0 is much more difficult to analyze and fight. At times it is like boxing a ghost, an enemy you can't see or lay a finger on.

With Racism 2.0 we do not have blatantly segregated neighborhoods, but we have redlining, where black home buyers are steered into black neighborhoods, or given loans with higher interest rates than whites. There are also incidents where white homeowners refuse to sell their homes to people of color to make sure the neighborhood's complexion doesn't change.

Racism 2.0 is seen in white flight, where wealthy and middle-class whites move to the suburbs, ostensibly for better schools, but also to get away from the colored folks. It is also seen in public education where wealthier whites take their kids out of the state-funded school system and enroll them in private Christian academies. Then these same people refuse to vote for funding increases to public schools, because they claim they don't have children in the system.

And most importantly it's seen in the right-wing media, which is full of race-baiting stories. Last year, the White Right, as activist Tim Wise likes to call them, spent hours of air time running stories about the New Black Panther Party and alleged voter intimidation.

After months of hype, the story was eventually debunked when a Bush appointee said that the right-wing's accusations about the Justice Department's failure to look into incidents of vote intimidation against white people were false.

The main culprit of Racism 2.0 is FOX News. The brain child of Roger Alies, who cut his teeth running dirty tricks for Richard Nixon, FOX News is a primary distributor of neo-racist propaganda. With Barack Obama, a black man with a Muslim name, in the White House, FOX News has made its viewers feel they are under siege. FOX realizes that is audience is about 90 percent white (figures backed by Nielsen), and they make sure they fine tune their message to fit the tastes of their audience, who are scared about the nation's changing demographics.

But in 2011, it is politically incorrect to say that you don't like black people and even FOX realizes this. So instead they use a series of code words to imply animosity. These phrases include implying Obama is a Muslim, using his middle name, Hussein, and implying he has foreign values, as mentioned by Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee.

And then there are phrases that skate as close to outright racism as you can get. FOX commentator Eric Bolling recently said Obama should have been dealing with the tornado victims instead of "drinking 40s." (He was actually drinking Guinness while he was in Ireland.)

Now anyone familiar with urban media realizes that 40-ounce malt liquor is associated with inner city black people and was heavily marketed towards this group. It has also been embraced by the hip hop community.

And not surprisingly FOX News tried to turn rapper Common's appearance at a White House poetry reading into an example of Obama associating with a gangster and thug. By the way, Common is an intelligent rapper, who is also a vegetarian and has campaigned for gay rights and animals rights. He has also appeared on Sesame Street and in Gap ads. Yeah, real dangerous.

As the great comedian Dave Chappelle once said, "I am a connoisseur of racism." And I think that applies to black people in general, we know it when we see it, even it comes in version 2.0.

Corporate Cynicism, Personality Clashes End Olbermann’s MSNBC Career

Keith Olbermann

People familiar with the workings of Corporate America should not be surprised by the sudden departure of MSNBC star Keith Olbermann.

Olbermann's focus on liberal issues, and passionate denunciation of the Bush administration and its disastrous Iraq war, turned him into star and raised the network’s profile. MSNBC carved out a reputation as place where progressives could go to hear opinions that echoed their views and even beat CNN in the ratings. Buoyed by the success of Olbermann’s “Countdown,” the network later added similar voices such as Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell and Ed Shultz.

But cracks were beginning to appear in the Olbermann-MSNBC union. Olbermann himself is a prickly character, who had a history of clashing with networks chiefs and being fired from other cable channels. Things came to a head last year when he was suspended for making donations to Democratic politicians.

The suspension was odd, because the NBC’s policy was not clear. Olbermann said he was not aware of the ban on political donations, and other MSNBC hosts such as Joe Scarborough were only punished after Olbermann, even though they had done the same thing. But this foreshadowed things to come. Just like other corporations, MSNBC decided that they did not want to fire their problematic star, so they would just make life so difficult for him that he would not want to stay.

I am sure that MSNBC’s recent purchase by COMCAST had something to do with the hostility directed at Olbermann. COMCAST chairman Ed Snider also owns the Right Network which is trying to create another channel dedicated to conservative programming. The last thing he wanted was an employee, who had a reputation from mocking conservative icons like Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly.

MSNBC was always an oddity. It recently billed itself as a home for liberal voices, but it was still owned by corporate titan, GE, the same company that owns major defense contractors. This was the same station that fired Phil Donohue, also it’s top-rated star at the time, for his criticism of the Iraq War, back when they were trying to be conservative.

And although MSNBC promoted liberal talkers like Maddow and Olbermann, you had to believe that they didn’t want them to be too critical of right-wing politics. The network probably decided that Olbermann was too much of a wild card and decided to offload him before the new management started sending them angry memos. So much for progressive commentary on TV.

But, I am not worried, I get most of my information from the Internet, and I am sure Olbermann will turn up on another outlet. He has a following, who will stay with him, if he has a radio show, newspaper column, TV program or Internet production. The firing of Keith Olbermann shows me that there is little room for independent thought on network TV. And as for Maddow and co., I would suggest they start dusting off their resumes. Olbermann was first, but your next on the chopping block.

'View' Women Say O'Reilly did it for the ratings

Beck Rally Confirms Maher’s Claims About Dumb Americans

Political humorist Bill Maher often gets in trouble for calling Americans stupid. But after watching about 90,000 people show up to a rally thrown by entertainer/cult leader Glenn Beck can there be any further discussion?

Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally simply revealed that Americans are willing to follow a charismatic leader even if he has a wacky agenda. After all, televangelists who hawk the widely discredited prosperity gospel also have huge followings, and Beck’s credibility is on par with the men who beg for money on TBN and professional wrestlers.

The rally itself was a strange event, which moved away from a political fest, (Tea Baggers were told to leave their hate signs at home) and turned into a quasi-religious revival. And this too is strange because Beck is a Mormon, and follows a faith that many Evangelicals don’t even recognize as mainstream Christianity.

Marsha White, writing on the conservative web site RenewAmerica, said, “Mostly he (Beck) uses Christian terminology, which is misleading. It would seem that Beck is a Christian. But how can that be? Mormons deny the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. Mormon beliefs do not line up with Scripture yet they insist on calling themselves Christian when they clearly are not.”

If the curious religious nature of the event is surprising. It is nothing compared to the political comments of the attendees:

• According to Talking Points Memo, Carolyn Cassaberry of Newport News, Va, who attended the rally, said that she was not sure if President Barack Obama is a Muslim and needed more documentation.

• Many attendees were happy at the religious tones of the rally, but they had no idea Beck is a Mormon.

• The Velvet Revolution website interviewed a Black Tea Bagger from New Jersey who felt that something needed to be done about the health care system, but believed the “free market” was the answer, even though countries like France, Germany and Canada have much more efficient government-run health care systems.

• Other rally attendees supported Tea Party supporter Ted Nugent’s idea of “putting a bullet in illegal immigrants.”

• But the best quote comes from an AP story that interviewed Ricky Thomas, a father from Chesapeake Beach, Md., who said he wanted the government to stay out of people’s lives. Thomas is a SWAT officer who makes his living kicking down doors and arresting people, who may or may not be guilty. He also draws a nice government pension and has employer-provided health care. So if Thomas hates the government so much why doesn’t he quit his job and give up those tax-payer provided benefits?

But this is the level of discourse we expect from people who gather all their information from FOX News, a station that runs race-baiting stories round the clock and tells its viewers that Obama is a Marxist-Muslim terrorist who wants to destroy America.

And why should we expert accuracy or intellectual honesty from a rally organized by a man who says he wants to reclaim civil rights, but thinks the president is a racist? Beck also later said that he did not agree with the economic goals of the Civil Rights movement.

In a rambling interview with Chris Wallace on “FOX News Sunday,” Beck also called Obama’s faith a “perversion of Christianity” (even though many Christians do not identify with Beck’s faith). He also criticized people on the left for using racial politics, even though he works for a network that has spent the entire summer running what MSNBC host Rachel Maddow calls “scare white people stories,” such as the false Shirely Sherrod story and the fake New Black Panther story.

It pains me to write about Beck, who has said that his primary goal is making money and doesn’t care about the political system, but when almost 90,000 show up to follow the rantings of a clueless man, something has to be said. Beck is a showman who thrives on attention, negative or positive, but liberal writers have to at least point out his lies and hope someone is paying attention.

During his interview with Wallace, Beck did drop a few nuggets of honesty into his sea of lies. He said that even though his followers wear Palin-Beck T-shirts, he could never get elected president. And that is something we can agree on.

FOX Using Black Panthers Case to Stoke White Fear

President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder

Just when you thought FOX News could not get any lower, they prove you wrong. FOX News' audience is 95 percent white and many of their stories play on white fears. John Gibson, a former FOX News contributor, reporting on a story about the nation's changing demographics came out point blank and said that "white people need to have more babies."

The latest story to get white people diving under the beds and reaching for their guns is a claim that the Department of Justice dropped a case involving white voter intimidation. During the 2008 election some members of the New Black Panther party were spotted patrolling election booths to guard against voter intimidation. They were armed with dangerous weapons such as "sticks."

FOX News tried to promote the story, but it disappeared quickly. Now former Justice Department lawyer J. Christian Adams is claiming Attorney General Eric Holder deliberately dropped the case because "voter intimidation cases involving white people were not important."Adams is a self-described conservative who also writes for Pajamas Media, a right-wing web site, so he is not exactly objective. Media Matters also reports that while Adams was with the Justice Department, officials declined to pursue civil rights charges against the Minutemen for intimidating Hispanic voters.

Justice Department officials have described Adams as a "disgruntled employee who distorted the facts." And judging by the many incidents of death row inmates being released due to false testimony, this would definetly not be the first case of a prosecuting attorney embellishing the facts.

There are several things wrong with this story. First of all, any black person who has had a run in with the law knows that the authorities have no problem throwing brothers in jail. Secondly the Justice Department, under the Bush administration, was a hot bed of cronies who were selected based on their loyalty to the president, rather than on their legal ability. In addition, the Bush Justice Department was infamous for not acting on civil rights cases. The Black Panthers in question where guarding a voting booth in a largely black neighborhood, which probably did not attract many white voters. And it is sadly ironic that the Bush administration tried to pursue a voting intimidation case against black people, when there were hundreds of clear cases of voter intimidation in black neighborhoods in the 2000 election.

The Holder Justice Department looked into the case and likely dropped it because they knew there was nothing to it. One of the Black Panthers was an accredited poll watcher and he did not have a weapon in his hand.

Of course that never stops FOX. They have folded this story into their continued narrative about white people being under threat by the encroaching black and brown hordes. Evidently FOX never lets the truth get in the way of a good story. By the way Adams' story has been picked up by Stormfront, white supremacists' favorite online destination.

Beck Considering Fans' Pleas To Run For President

In another one of those, "I had to read it twice" stories, FOX News comedian and book peddler Glenn Beck says that he would not rule out running for president in the future, providing Washington cleaned up it act. Beck said that the current political atmosphere robs people of their soul.

Now while you might think that this is a joke, there are Glenn Beck fans who are so delusional they think this is a good idea. There are so many things wrong with this concept, it makes my head ache. Firstly, there is no way in hell that Beck would give up his $32 million salary for the presidential gig which only pays $400,000. Secondly, Beck has admitted he has no interest in politics, all he cares about is selling more junk to his followers. And lastly, Beck sold his soul when he joined FOX.

Beck will keep making noises about a presidential run as long at it gets him ratings and allows him the opportunity to push his books, but his fans shouldn't hold their breath. Beck couldn't even get elected dog catcher with his history of drug use, racial remarks and on-air crying. Mississippi Gov. Hailey Barbour, who is a member of the Council of Conservative Citzens (CCC), a white supremacist organization that thinks that blacks are genetically inferior to whites, has a better chance of being president than Beck.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/glenn-beck-testing-waters-on-future-presidental-run/

Beck made $32M in 09, Doesn't Care About Political Process

Here is a depressing thought. While millions of Americans are struggling with mounting bills and long-term unemployment, self-described "entertainer" Glenn Beck made $32 million in 2009.

His earnings come from speaking engagements, books sales, his radio show and TV show. I guess being a right-wing loony, and selling crap to gullible Americans is a lucrative business. (Further proof that Americans are not too bright.) It has made people like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter millionaires.

In an interview on Bill Maher's "Real Time," Keith Olbermann once said that most right-wing propagandists simply do it for the money. And if you need further proof of that consider this quote from Beck. In an interview with Forbes magazine he says, "I could give a flying crap about the political process. We're an entertainment company."

These people don't care about the issues, and they definitely don't care about the middle class and blue-collar Americans, they lionize. Rush Limbaugh can afford the best health care in the world, and so he doesn't care if average Americans are dying by the thousands because they can't get decent health coverage.

Limbaugh, a thrice-divorced, ex-junkie, whore monger, makes his living selling "traditional values" to blue-collar Americans. Coulter who makes racist jokes about Middle Easterners, was pictured with African American Jimmie Walker, who later proclaimed how much he loved her. And Beck, who equates social justice with socialism, is a member of the Mormon Church, who regularly set aside money for the poor and underprivileged. These people don't even believe in the very crap they are selling!

Beck says that he is a "regular guy." Hard to believe that when you have two bodyguards and are pulling down $32 million a year. So now Americans know these guys are just saying whatever they have to do to sell books and ads -- stop buying their products!

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0426/entertainment-fox-news-simon-schuster-glenn-beck-inc.html

Saudi Prince Owns A Major Stake in FOX News

Arab Muslim is fourth largest owner of Conservatives' Favorite Channel

International politics is often like a chess game, but at times it's more like the 3-D chess that Kirk and Spock played in "Star Trek." People who come across as friends are really enemies, and enemies are often friendly with people they portray a sworn rivals.

In Craig Unger's book "House of Bush, House of Saud," he details the long-standing ties between the Bush family and the Saudi Arabian royal family. These ties go back almost 60 years and through two generations of both families.

Many journalists argue that these ties were the reason why we did not launch military attacks against Saudi Arabia, even though nine of the 9-11 hijackers were Saudi nationals. Unger also points out that just after 9-11 Prince Bandar, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S., was allowed to round up members of Bin Laden's family and ship them out of the country. This is also mentioned in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9-11." In addition, Unger also says that Prince Bandar had advanced warning of the invasion of Iraq, before even then Sec. of State Gen. Colin Powell.

The Bushes and the Sauds have a lot in common, apart from oil. Both are powerful, dynastic families and they have both exploited religious fundamentalists to further their causes. (George H.W. Bush serves on the board of the Carlyle group along with Obama Bin Laden's brother.) Unger argues that the Sauds have played both sides of the field. They have funded Wahabi fundamentalists at home and abroad, and at the same time kissed up to the 'decadent' West. Tea Baggers like to play up images of Obama bowing to foreign leaders, but seem to have forgotten Dubya kissing and holding hands with Saudi King Abdullah.

This is one of Osama Bin Laden's main bones of contention, and he is right. The Saudi royal family is notoriously corrupt and decadent. While they ban women from driving in their country and make them wear the hijab, they are infamous for whoring and gambling in Europe. The Sauds were highly embarrassed by 9-11. Unger argues that the Saudis prefer that fundamentalist Muslims wreak havoc in America, instead of launching a revolution at home. In his book Unger cites several cases of Saudi money ending up in terrorists hands.

The Bushes' and the Sauds' real agenda is to support the oil industry and keep the money flowing. And this might explain why Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal is the fourth largest stake holder of FOX News, the American propaganda channel that vigorously supported the war.

According to Think Progress, his 7 percent stake, makes him the largest stakeholder, outside the Murdoch family. But here is where it gets really bizarre. FOX News guests are renowned for their inflammatory comments about Arabs and Muslims and the war on Terror. Critics of FOX have also implied this is the reason why FOX News hosts are big-time global warming deniers. Of course a billionaire Saudi prince, who made his money from oil, would have a vested interest in shooting down global warming science which blame fossil fuels for climate change.

Bush tapped into the Fundamentalist wing of the GOP, by proclaiming himself a born-again Christian, who also had no trouble killing thousands of innocent people. At the beginning of the War on Terror, he referred to the war as a "crusade" and Osama Bin Laden as "the Evil One," language designed to appeal to Evangelicals. Some Evangelicals believed that Bush was anointed by God, and it was impossible for a true Christian to vote Democrat. Writing in a Salon.com article, titled "Battle of the Bushes," Unger says, "On the other hand was his son George W. Bush, a radical Evangelical poised to enact a vision of American exceptionalism shared by the Christian Right, who saw American destiny as ordained by God and by neoconservative ideologues, who believed that America's "greatness" was founded on "universal principles" that applied to all men and all nations -- and gave America the right to change the world."

Many Americans believe that the War on Terror is the opening skirmish of Armageddon, a final struggle between the Christian West and the Muslim East. There have been reports of gun makers inserting Bible verses into scopes of guns sent to Iraq. And Erik Prince, founder of the notorious Blackwater security company, is a fundamentalist Christian, who saw the Iraq war as a Christian holy war against Muslims. Last year, a GQ article reported that some American soldiers in Iraq had painted Christian verses on the sides of their tanks. The article also explains stated that Bush received war briefings with Bible verses sprinkled in them.

I wonder how Conservatives, who see the war in religious terms, like the idea of a heathen Muslim owning a large stake in their favorite news outlet? And it's also bizarre that an Arab owns a channel that spends much of its time demonizing Middle Easterners. But this goes to show that both the Bushes and the Sauds see the war as a battle over resources, and use religion as a smoke screen to divert the attention of the masses.

poll by twiigs.com

FOX News Compares Scott Brown to Reagan

In his book, "The Truth, With Jokes," Sen. Al Franken talks about how the Bush White House said they were in the reality creation business. By that they mean that their version of reality did not come from history books, or from journalism, which is often the first draft of history. They stated an idea, and then adjusted reality to fit that idea. It sounds pretty crazy, but that is where FOX News comes in. They bombard, the poorly-educated American public with enough propaganda to convince them that the FOX version of reality is true.

It was the same with the Iraq war. In 2002, most Americans, didn't think that Saddam Hussein was a threat, but by the time FOX News and the so-called liberal media had finished, a large percentage of the public believed that Saddam wrote the check for 9-11. (He had absolutely nothing to do with it.)

FOX's latest campaign is to brand Sen. Scott Brown, who has been in the Senate for less than a month, as the next Ronald Reagan. I don't hate Scott Brown, although I don't agree with his politics, but he has hardly done anything, apart from serving in the Massachusetts Senate for nine years and serving in the National Guard. But FOX News is already billing him as the next Great White Hope. The only thing that Reagan and Brown have in common is that they are both good looking. Reagan managed to carry his aw-shucks charisma all the way to the White House.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-leo/chyron-of-the-day-scott-b_b_468041.html

poll by twiigs.com

Right-Wing Commentators Don't Believe Their Own Hype

Jimmy Walker and Ann Coulter

Jimmy Walker Brags About His Romance With Far-Right Commentator Ann Coulter

MSNBC host Keith Olbermann once said that most right-wing commentators are just in it for the money. If you ever needed further proof of this, consider shrill neo-fascist commentator Ann Coulter.

Coulter, who extols family values, is 48 and never married. She has an active social life, which I assume must include extra marital sex, and has dated liberals in the past. (even though she has called them treasonous.) Coulter is infamous for her racist comments such as calling for Muslims to be "sexed up" at airports. She also also referred to Arabs as "jihad monkeys" and "ragheads" and defended white supremacists. She defended the Conservative Citizens Council, an organization which claims that blacks are interior to people of European descent. (I wonder how they feel about her dating choices?). Commenting on Barack Obama's book, "Dreams of My Father," Coulter said, "Here's an insider scoop about white people: We're not thinking about you. Especially WASPs. We think everybody is inferior, and we are perfectly charming about it. " She also was fired from the conservative National Review for saying that America should invade "Muslim countries and force them to convert to Christianity."

Now we hear stories that Jimmy Walker (J.J. from "Good Times.") is extolling the virtues of his loving relationship with Coulter. Yeah, wrap your mind around that for a while. This is not surprising because rumors about this have been floating around the blogosphere for years. "The Boondocks" also depicted Coulter in a relationships with a shiftless black man. (Turns out they were pretty close to the truth.) See the video below.

Consider the lifestyle choices of these right-wing commentators:

• Rush Limbaugh, a rabid homophobe and misogynist, has been divorced three times and never fathered any kids. He also lived separately from third wife for the last 10 years of their marriage and took an all-male trip to Dominican Republic, a notorious child sex hot spot. Limbaugh was busted returning to the U.S. with a bottle of Viagra,
• Radio show host Michael Savage, who was booted from MSNBC for making homophobic comments, was pictured nude with his close friend Timothy Leary, a noted homosexual. Savage who espouses neo-racist views is Jewish and his real name is Michael Wiener.
• Armstrong Williams, a discredited right-wing commentator and longtime bachelor, has been accused of sexual harassment twice -- by men.
• Bill O'Reilly, who bills himself as Mr. Conservative Family Values, bragged about cheating on his wife with hookers and settled a $5 million sexual harassment lawsuit. The employee who filed the suit had O'Reilly on tape making explicit sexual comments.
• Glenn Beck says he is "just an ordinary guy" but makes about $20 million a year. He is also a former drug addict who has said that he "doesn't feel comfortable around black people," and belongs to a religion, whose founder thought that black people were cursed by God.

Coulter's hypocrisy indicates that most right-wing media figures are just putting on a show. They are like the "heels" in pro-wrestling. Heels are the cartoonish villains that audiences love to hate. Many wrestlers say they prefer playing the heel because they make more money. Just like in the movies the villains get all the good lines. But when the show is over, the heels probably go out and share a beer with the "good guys."

Well that is what is going on in the political arena. Commentators like Coulter, Beck, Hannity and Michael Savage don't believe their hype. They make outrageos comments to sell books, push ads and get ratings -- and they get handsomely rewarded for it.

Limbaugh often says he is just a comedian, and I think we need to take him at his word. But don't believe what Limbaugh and fellow right-wing commentators are saying, because they sure don't. They just want to keep white people angry and keep the dollars rolling in. Remember what Rev. Rollo Goodlove, from "The Boondocks, says about Coulter, "She just do that for that redneck money."

FOX News Declares War on Columbia Journalism School...?

Roger Ailes

I guess the people at FOX News must have of lot of free time on their hands since they are avoiding real news stories like torture, the economy and foreign wars. Now the FOX brain trust has declared war on the Columbia School of Journalism, which is regarded as the Harvard of the Journalism business. I am not sure why Columbia has generated such hatred from FOX. Maybe it's because the professors at Columbia know FOX is anything but a news organization, and use FOX as a text-book example of what budding journalists should not do.

FOX is accusing Columbia's J school of being "out of touch" and part of that mythical "liberal elite." This is ironic because FOX's Bill O'Reilly, for all his blue-collar posturing, received a master's degree from Harvard. George W. Bush was a third-generation Ivy league graduate, and it does not get more elite than that.

In response, Nick Lemann, dean of the Journalism school, says FOX's attacks are great advertising. He said that he doubted if FOX President Roger Ailes had the skills to go out and cover a regular story. Judging by the new stories that come out of FOX, I am sure much of the on air- talent doesn't have the same skills either.

FOX is doing this to play to it's audience, which is 95 percent white, and largely rural. To people like that, New York is Sodom and Gomorrah, and not even part of America. After all Sarah Palin said that "real Americans," don't live in places New York.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/teaching-fox-news-a-lesson-and-upholding-the-spirit-of-pulitzer-1899389.html

poll by twiigs.com

Mass. Man Arrested With Stockpile of Weapons

Paranoid, white people with guns always scare me. According to this story from Talking Points Memo, the latest is Gregory Girard of Manchester, Mass., who was recently arrested by agents of the Bureau of Alchohol, Firearms and Tobacco.

Girard, a technology consultant, was arrested with camouflage uniforms, guns, knives, bullet proof vests, night vision goggles and a six-month supply of food! He is believed to have been hoarding supplies in preparation for Armageddon. Girard's wife became alarmed when he suggested that she "stop talking to people, and just shoot them in the head because traitors deserve it." That sounds awfully like some media commentators I know.

It's easy to laugh at this kind of behavior, but this kind of paranoia is being fueled by FOX News, which has Glenn Beck running "The sky is falling," type stuff every night.

It will be interesting to see what media sources Girard was reading.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/police_ma_man_stockpiled_weapons_feared_armageddon.php?ref=fpblg

poll by twiigs.com

Need a Reliable Uncle Tom? Call Project 21

Jesse Lee Peterson

FOX News knows that its a right-leaning/white-leaning network, but they realize that these days neo fascists, like Sean Hannity, cannot just came out and call black people, lazy shiftless bums, even though that is what is going through their minds. To vocalize these ugly ideas, they turn to a small cadre of black conservatives. While there maybe some black conservatives, who believe in the principles of fiscal moderation and traditional values, there are also several black straw men.

People like the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a notoriously self-loathing African American, who is happy to vocalize every racist and offensive comment white commentators are too scared to say. The good Rev. Peterson, showed true Christian spirit, when he blamed the Hurricane Katrina disaster on the poor moral values of the mainly black residents of New Orleans. Some of his other hits include:

• Calling civil rights leader W.E.B Dubois "a communist pig."
• And calling black men "weak and insecure."
• He also said Obama was elected by "black racism and white guilt"

Another Project 21 member Kevin Martin compared the NAACP to the Ku Klux Klan in an appearance on Hannity's show. Peterson is close friends Hannity, who was a major contributor to his Brother Organization of a New Destiny (BOND) foundation, a fact that Hannity failed to mentioned when he regulalry hosted Peterson on his show. So effectively Hannity was writing Peterson a check, and then asking him to appear as an "objective" guest. (But really, is any guest objective on FOX?.) Peterson has also associated with white sepratist and immigrant hating groups.

If you ever wondered where these professional Uncle Toms come from, you need to look to Project 21. Tomming has been a pretty good gig for Patterson, who has gotten a book, radio show and numerous television appearances out of it. According to left-wing journalist Max Blumenthal Project 21 was created by the National Council for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), a right-wing think tank, who were looking for black faces to rebut the many charges of racism levied at the Los Angeles Police Department after the Rodney King riots in 1992. Project 21 provided black media pundits who could refute these charges, and in many cases vocalize the offensive comments that white pundits where too scared to say.

NCPRR Executive Director David Almasi, who is white, almost blew the lid of the Project 21 scam, when he stood in for one of his talking heads. Almasi also coordinates Project 21 media strategy and tells its pundits what to say.

poll by twiigs.com

Poll Says FOX News is Most Trusted News Source

74 Percent of Poll Responder Where White

Here is a sign of the apocalypse, if the ever was one. A recent poll by Public Policy Polling states that FOX News is the most trusted news source. Yes, I had to read that twice too. The poll states that 49 percent of the responders said they trusted FOX News and 37 percent of responders said they did not trust FOX. Not surprisingly, 74 percent of Republicans said they trusted FOX, compared to only 30 percent of Democrats. The polls also shows that only 33 percent of African American voters trusted FOX News.

CNN was the next most trusted news source, with 39 percent saying they trusted it, compared to 41 percent who didn't. 59 percent of Democrats said they trusted CNN, while 33 percent of Independents and only 23 percent of Republicans said they found CNN credible. Public Policy Polling surveyed 1,151 registered voters from Jan. 18-19.

Polls can be designed to say whatever you want. We don't know what part of the country the responders came from. I am sure California voters would respond differently to Alabama voters. The racial breakdown of the responders to the poll is illuminating. 74 percent of responders where white, 12 percent where African American and 10 percent where Hispanic. So a poll of mainly white men stated that they found FOX News the most credible news source. This is not surprising since 95 percent of FOX viewers are white, and their programming is tailored to angry, white men.

You also have to factor the stupidity of the average American. (Most Americans can't pick out Europe on the map, and can't tell you the difference between Iraq or Iran, talk less of locating them on the map.) I don't know how anyone with a half-functioning brain could think that FOX is a credible news source. I knew our education system was in trouble, but we should all be worried when Americans considered the notoriously-biased FOX News as a credible news source.

This is the channel that gave us Glenn Beck, a host who can't even spell oligarch correctly. Beck also peddles a different conspiracy theory every night. And they also made Sarah Palin, a woman who thought Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9-11, a pundit.

There are numerous other incidents of FOX news error that would get a rookie reporter fired such as:

• Referring to Rep. Mark Foley, the congressman busted for sexually harassing minors, as a Democrat. (This is not the only time they have misidentified a disgraced Republican as a Democrat.)
• Running a story claiming then Sen. Barack Obama attended a Muslim school, which was later discredited by CNN.
• Accusing the Obamas of performing a "terrorist" fist bump.
• Running fake footage of the Tea Party rally to make the numbers seem larger.
• Deliberately editing footage to create misleading quotes.

Check out Media Matters for more of FOX's never-ending lists of journalistic sins.

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_National_126.pdf

poll by twiigs.com