All Entries in the "Media" Category

Al Franken: Comcast Merger OK Opens Doors For More Big Cable Deals

The approval by federal regulators of the planned combination of Comcast Corp. and NBC Universal is a “tremendous disappointment” that could pave the way for other big telecom companies to gobble up other big broadcast networks, according to a chief critic of the merger.

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday officially gave its blessing, with conditions, to the long-planned merger of cable giant Comcast and the NBC-Universal media conglomerate. The largest U.S. cable provider, Comcast announced in late 2009 that it wanted to acquire the NBC television network and its associated cable outlets and other media properties.

The FCC approved the deal on a 4-1 vote, with Democratic commissioner Michael Copps dissenting. In a statement, Copps says the merger “grievously fails the public interest.”

Full Story Here: On The Hill: Al Franken: Comcast Merger OK Opens Doors For More Big Cable Deals.

Fox News abruptly cuts away from Tucson vigil after mourner mentions Sarah Palin

The Fox News Channel abruptly cut to commercial after a mourner attending a Tuscon, Arizona vigil for those killed in Saturday’s shootings mentioned Fox employee Sarah Palin as one of the culprits behind a rising tide of violent rhetoric in US politics and media.

As they awaited the beginning of a Pima County Sheriff’s Department press conference, Fox News host Shep Smith cued a live video from the vigil for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), who sustained a bullet wound to the head and was among a total of 19 shot in a sudden attack outside a grocery store.

At the vigil, which was carried live by some — including CNN’s website — a man stepped up to the microphone holding a candle and implored those in power to ask themselves why they actually want to be in such a position.

Full Story Here: Fox News abruptly cuts away from Tucson vigil after mourner mentions Sarah Palin | Raw Story.

The Economist’s “Happy” Ignorance

The Economist is undoubtedly the smartest weekly newsmagazine in the English language. I always look forward to its quirky year-end double issue. With articles ranging from the evolution of the suit to the dangers of medieval warfare, I was not disappointed with this year’s. The cover story, however, was perhaps the most interesting. It investigated recent research into happiness and discovered, encouragingly, that after one reaches the age of roughly 46, people tend to get happier as they get older.

“The notion that money can’t buy happiness is popular, especially among Europeans who believe that growth-oriented free-market economies have got it wrong,” the authors explain. But according to the magazine’s reading of the data, “four main factors” determine happiness: “gender, personality, external circumstances and age.”

Some of the research, however, proves puzzling. “Hong Kong and Denmark, for instance, have similar income per person, at purchasing-power parity; but Hong Kong’s average life satisfaction is 5.5 on a 10-point scale, and Denmark’s is 8. … the ex-Soviet Union [is] spectacularly miserable, and the saddest place in the world, relative to its income per person, is Bulgaria.”

Full Story Here: On The Hill: Think Again: The Economist’s “Happy” Ignorance.

What the Lame Street Media Doesn’t want you to Know

Thom Hartmann: :

Many stories of 2010 had not received attention they deserved from the main stream media. Most American people remain unaware of the events of 2010 that have been changing the global landscape. Thom Hartmann on failure of the US news media.

Greenwald trashes CNN contributors for ‘extreme misinformation’ on WikiLeaks

Salon’s Glenn Greenwald tore into two CNN personalities Monday for their framing of a discussion about secrets outlet WikiLeaks.

First, Greenwald blasted CNN’s Jessica Yellin for suggesting that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was profiting from the disclosure of classified information. Assange has said that he agreed to a $1.3 million book deal to help defray legal costs.

Then he tore into CNN contributor and former Bush Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend, calling out her lie that WikiLeaks had dumped 250,000 US State Department cables without redacting sensitive information.

Full Story Here: Greenwald trashes CNN contributors for ‘extreme misinformation’ on WikiLeaks | Raw Story.

Conservative candidates received more news coverage during 2010 elections, surveys find

Right-wing candidates received more news coverage from mainstream media during the 2010 mid-term election season, according to a recent study.

A Pew Research Center survey found that although the Democratic President Barack Obama topped the list, the next three of the top 10 candidates in the media spotlight were members of the so-called tea party movement.

Directly running behind Obama’s coverage and leading the conservative pack was GOP candidate Christine O’Donnell of Delaware.

Full Story Here: Conservative candidates received more news coverage during 2010 elections, surveys find | Raw Story.

Jon Stewart Did What Pundits and Reporters Should Have Done

There’s lots of media chatter about Comedy Central host Jon Stewart in the wake of yesterday’s Senate vote to pass the 9/11 first responders bill. The chatter surrounds what appears to be the central media role Stewart played in shining a spotlight on how Republicans were blocking the legislation and, just as importantly, how the Beltway press was, inexcusably, ignoring the unfolding story.

Indeed, as Media Matters first noted, the day after the initial vote was held two weeks ago in which filibustering Republicans unanimously voted to not let the first responder bill proceed, none of the network news telecasts that night reported on the story. None. And in the 48 hours that followed, the cable news channels didn’t have much to say either, nor did many print or online pundits. The bill to aid Sept. 11 heroes had been dealt a rather stunning blow in the Senate, and most mainstream media players didn’t care, to the point where the story wasn’t even covered.

But yes, on the night of the vote, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart covered the vote. And Stewart, in his signature way, highlighted the stunning hypocrisy in play.

Full Story Here: Eric Boehlert: Jon Stewart Did What Pundits and Reporters Should Have Done.

The Little Bill That Could

Little noticed but extremely important to progressives, on Saturday afternoon Congress also passed the Local Community Radio Act.

This legislation opens up radio spectrum to hundreds, if not thousands, of local independent radio stations (also known as LPFM).

Its passing will bring new choices and voices on the radio dial nationwide, but is especially relevant to a broadcast area reaching 160 million people who lived in areas where these stations had previously been barred from local airwaves.

Anyone tracking the rise of radio personalities like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage understands the primary political significance of gaining access to spectrum.

With the opening of the airwaves to LPFM stations, progressives can gain a small but consequential spot on the radio dial. The challenge now is to organize local groups to gain access to licenses. Follow and support the Prometheus Radio Project to learn more.

via Timothy Karr: The Little Bill That Could.

CNN’s Tea Party Debate Fail

Mother Jones:

CNN today announced that it would team up with the Tea Party Express to host a GOP presidential debate over Labor Day next year in Tampa, the site of the Republican National Convention in 2012. Sam Feist, CNN’s political director, says the arrangement was designed to give undecided voters a way to educate themselves about “diverse perspectives within the Republican Party, including those of the Tea Party.” It’s not the first time CNN has partnered with the group. Earlier this year, CNN embedded with Tea Party Express on one of its bus tours, giving the group extensive coverage. But this joint venture is odd for two reasons.

Reason No. 1. The Tea Party Express isn’t exactly a grassroots activist group. It’s a political action committee created by longtime California GOP political consultants with the firm of Russo Marsh. The PAC has been criticized for raising gobs of money and spending most of it on the services of the consulting firm that founded it. Last year, grassroots tea party activists were up in arms over federal elections filings showing that the PAC had spent donor money lavishly, not on candidates, but on its operators. One particularly outrageous item, by tea party standards: a nearly $1,600 tab for a small meal at a fancy steakhouse in Sacremento. In 2009 almost $900,000 of the $2 million raised by the PAC went to Russo Marsh.

Full Story Here: CNN’s Tea Party Debate Fail | Mother Jones.

Think Again: The Fox Propaganda Train Rolls On

Another day, and another piece of incontrovertible evidence that the folks at Fox News are exclusively in the business of pushing propaganda, rather than reporting “news.”

Last week, The Daily Beast reported the existence of a memo by Fox News Vice President and Washington Managing Editor (and former Washington Times editor) Bill Sammon, on October 27, 2009. It advised all on-air personalities to “use the term ‘government-run health insurance,’ or, when brevity is a concern, ‘government option,’ whenever possible.”

The memo followed an on-air conversation between right-wing Republican consultant Frank Luntz and Fox News host Sean Hannity, in which the former advised, “If you call it a public option, the American people are split,” but “If you call it the government option, the public is overwhelmingly against it.” “A great point,” Hannity replied. “And from now on, I’m going to call it the government option, because that’s what it is.”

Full Story Here: Think Again: The Fox Propaganda Train Rolls On.

Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid

A new survey of American voters shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources.

Yet another study has been released proving that watching Fox News is detrimental to your intelligence. World Public Opinion, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, conducted a survey of American voters that shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources. What’s more, the study shows that greater exposure to Fox News increases misinformation.

So the more you watch, the less you know. Or to be precise, the more you think you know that is actually false. This study corroborates a previous PIPA study that focused on the Iraq war with similar results. And there was an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that demonstrated the break with reality on the part of Fox viewers with regard to health care. The body of evidence that Fox News is nothing but a propaganda machine dedicated to lies is growing by the day.

Full Story Here: Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid | Media and Culture | AlterNet.

Key FBI whistleblower: Had WikiLeaks existed, 9/11, Iraq war ‘could have been prevented’

A Time Magazine ‘Person of the Year’ argues WikiLeaks serves the public good

A member of a group of former intelligence professionals that has rallied behind WikiLeaks suggested in a recent interview with Raw Story that the world would be a different and better place had the online secrets outlet come into existence years sooner.

“If there had been a mechanism like Wikileaks, 9/11 could have been prevented,” Coleen Rowley, a former special agent/legal counsel at the FBI’s Minneapolis division, told Raw Story in an exclusive interview.

Rowley and her colleague Bogdan Dzakovic, a special agent for the FAA’s security division, explained this position in an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times in October. However, they admit no claim to the original idea of an established pro-whistle-blower infrastructure. It’s purely the US government’s, she said.

Full Story Here: Exclusive: Key FBI whistleblower: Had WikiLeaks existed, 9/11, Iraq war ‘could have been prevented’ | Raw Story.

Exclusive: ‘The Fourth Estate is dead,’ former CIA analyst declares

‘The Empire’ is ‘being threatened by a slingshot in the form of a computer’

RayMcGovern Exclusive: The Fourth Estate is dead, former CIA analyst declares Traditional lines of communication between the people and the press have fallen into such disrepair in America that a whole new approach is necessary to challenge the military-industrial-governmental complex, according to a former CIA analyst sympathetic to WikiLeaks.

“The Fourth Estate is dead,” Ray McGovern, of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, told Raw Story in an exclusive interview. “The Fourth Estate in his country has been captured by government and corporations, the military-industrial complex, the intelligence apparatus. Captive! So, there is no Fourth Estate.”

Full Story Here: Exclusive: ‘The Fourth Estate is dead,’ former CIA analyst declares | Raw Story.

Having ‘political objective’ disqualifies Assange ‘from being considered a journalist,’ State Dept. says | Raw Story

Who is and is not a journalist? In a hyper-connected age where anyone and everyone can become a publisher in seconds, the word’s definition seems increasingly intangible and ever-evolving.

The US State Department, however, appears to have crossed that very muddy line with its criticism of secrets outlet WikiLeaks.

Speaking to reporters recently, State Dept. Assistant Secretary Philip Rowley said that the United States does not consider WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be a “journalist” or “whistleblower.” He insisted that, under US law, he’s to be considered a “political actor.”

Full Story Here: Having ‘political objective’ disqualifies Assange ‘from being considered a journalist,’ State Dept. says | Raw Story.

OPS: LOL So is the State Department going to revoke all of the FOX and other Reichwing  journalist credentials?

Fox News accused of violating campaign finance laws

Fox News appears to be gearing up to defend themselves after being accused of illegally helping a Republican candidate raise money on the air.

The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) filed a lawsuit in August claiming that Fox News had violated campaign finance laws by allowing Republican candidate for Ohio governor John Kasich to raise money on the air.

Ohio Elections Commission filings obtained by The Huffington Post indicate that Fox News has retained Larry Noble, a nationally recognized campaign finance attorney at the firm Skadden Arps, to represent them.

Full Story: Fox News accused of violating campaign finance laws | Raw Story.

Tina Fey’s Palin jokes edited out of PBS broadcast

Tina Fey made Sarah Palin the butt of many jokes with her impersonation on Saturday Night Live during the 2008 presidential campaign.

But during the Sunday night PBS broadcast of the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Fey’s Palin jokes were left on the cutting room floor.

Fey had slammed Palin while accepting the award Tuesday.

Full Story: Tina Fey’s Palin jokes edited out of PBS broadcast | Raw Story.

False Promise Of ‘Objectivity’

Video:

Keith Olbermann Special Comment: False Promise Of ‘Objectivity’ Proves ‘Truth’ Superior To ‘Fact’ – 11/15/10

Olbermann Apologizes to Viewers, But Not to MSNBC

In an aggressive statement questioning the legitimacy of his two-day suspension from MSNBC, Keith Olbermann addressed his viewers Monday night, saying that they were responsible for his scheduled return to the air on Tuesday, following revelations that he had contributed to the campaign funds of three Democrats in last week’s election.

In an open letter to “Countdown” viewers, he blamed NBC for creating a donation policy that was “inconsistently applied,” and said he did not know the rule existed. He also, referring to what he called a “ground-rattling” outpouring of support from viewers, said their efforts “should remind us of the power of individuals spontaneously acting together to correct injustices great or small.”

He acknowledged that there should have been a conversation with NBC executives, saying that the donations merited public acknowledgment and perhaps an internal warning. Instead, he said, he was suspended even after one of his representatives was told he would not be, and he learned about the suspension through the media.

Full Story: Olbermann Apologizes to Viewers, But Not to MSNBC – NYTimes.com.

Sanders Cites Olbermann Suspension in Bid to Block NBC-Comcast Merger

A prominent progressive senator is citing MSNBC’s decision to suspend on-air personality Keith Olbermann as grounds to put the breaks on a merger between the network’s parent company and cable giant Comcast Corp.

MSNBC brass late last week suspended Olbermann, the host of the network’s flagship “Countdown” program, for making political donations to Democratic candidates in violation of NBC News policy. That suspension will end Tuesday, when Olbermann is expected to return to the airwaves.

“I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the hundreds of thousands of progressives and others who demanded that Keith Olbermann be reinstated to his position at MSNBC,” says Sen. Bernie Sanders, the left-leaning independent from Vermont. “These people understand the enormously important role that the media play in contemporary American politics. They know the recent ascendancy of the Republican Party and right-wing politics had less to do with the leadership skills of Mitch McConnell or John Boehner and far more to do with the enormously powerful role played by Rupert Murdoch, Fox News and right-wing talk radio.

Full Story: On The Hill: Sanders Cites Olbermann Suspension in Bid to Block NBC-Comcast Merger.

Fox News viewership numbers plunge as audiences wise-up

The right wing GOP propaganda channel Fox “News” has seen a dramatic drop in their number of viewers since last year. Fox third quarter numbers for 2010 have decreased by 21 percent over the same period last year, and they have dropped 26 percent with younger viewers (25-54), and since this is an election year expectations would be that the numbers would increase, not decrease.

Fox “News” which is still the number one “News” channel on Cable (off-air channels ABC, CBS and NBC average between 11-13 million viewers per night) is now averaging 1.831 million prime time viewers a day, and only 443,000 viewers in the age demographic of 25-54. MSNBC which is second in viewership on cable news is seeing their primetime numbers increase. MSNBC is now averaging 687,000 viewers per day in the third quarter of this year compared to last year.

The top 11 cable news programs are still on the Fox network with Bill O’Reilly’s “The O’Reilly Factor” still at number one, but his show has seen the largest decrease in viewership with a loss of 12 percent of his total viewers and 21 percent of his young viewers. Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Bret Baier, and Greta Van Susteren round out the top five cable news shows, and they each posted double digit declines.

Full Story: Fox News viewership numbers plunge as audiences wise-up – Las Vegas Democrat | Examiner.com.

George Soros Donates $1 Million To Media Matters To Fight Fox News

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has donated $1 million to Media Matters for America in an effort to fight Fox News.

Soros, a prominent Democratic fundraiser and donor, is a frequent target of Fox News hosts, particularly Glenn Beck. He said in a statement that he is donating the money — his first donation to the group — because of “recent evidence suggesting that the incendiary rhetoric of Fox News hosts may incite violence”:

Despite repeated assertions to the contrary by various Fox News commentators, I have not to date been a funder of Media Matters. However, in view of recent evidence suggesting that the incendiary rhetoric of Fox News hosts may incite violence, I have now decided to support the organization. Media Matters is one of the few groups that attempts to hold Fox News accountable for the false and misleading information they so often broadcast. I am supporting Media Matters in an effort to more widely publicize the challenge Fox News poses to civil and informed discourse in our democracy.

Soros funds the Tides Foundation, the organization recently targeted by an assassin who claimed to have been inspired by Beck’s program.

Full Story: George Soros Donates $1 Million To Media Matters To Fight Fox News.

How Will The Media Cover The Rally To Restore Sanity, Which Apparently Terrifies Them?

Looking over the various guidelines that news organizations are laying out so that their reporters will know what to do about the upcoming Rally To Restore Sanity/March To Keep Fear Alive, I have to confess that I am astonished.

Don’t get me wrong! I am not surprised by the stupidity of it all. I’m just surprised by the way they boldly, proudly, fetishize the stupidity. This is not a stupidity that comes in the form of an inter-office memo that quietly enforces some officious round of B.S. This is a stupidity that is trumpeted, proclaimed, shouted from the hillside, with the expectation that we should be impressed with it.

It would appear that your New York Timeses and your APs and your Politicos are of the opinion that what is going to transpire on October 30th will amount to some sort of super-corrupting thought-crime that might cloud the minds of their employees and leave them with an array of baffling new opinions. In nearly every case, reporters are to treat the Rally/March as a “political event,” though it’s not clear what explicitly political outcome they expect to arise as a result. There is a deep worry, I gather, that it might instill bias in their reporters that could lead to — well, I’m not sure! I guess that’s why no one can take the chance!

Full Story: How Will The Media Cover The Rally To Restore Sanity, Which Apparently Terrifies Them?.

British media scrambles to prevent Murdoch takeover of Sky Broadcasting

UK’s largest newspaper publisher, television network may soon be under one roof

rupertmurdochsmiles British media scrambles to prevent Murdoch takeover of Sky BroadcastingAn unprecedented coalition of British media outlets have banded together in recent weeks, insisting the government intervene in a planned buyout of British Sky Broadcasting by American media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch, owner of Fox News Channel parent company News Corporation, already has a 39 percent stake in Sky, but he’s looking to up that to 100. The broadcaster’s total value is estimated at around 12.3 billion euros, according to The Financial Times.

Raising objections to the takeover were the heads of the BBC; Associated Newspapers, which owns The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail; The Guardian Media Group; The Telegraph Media Group and Trinity Mirror, which owns The Daily Mirror: they and other all signed a petition directed toward UK Business Secretary Vince Cable, asking that he consider halting the proposed 8 billion euro buyout.

Full Story: British media scrambles to prevent Murdoch takeover of Sky Broadcasting | Raw Story.

Video: Arianna Debates WSJ Columnist About Jobs Crisis, Economy On CNN (VIDEO)

Arianna debated Wall Street Journal columnist Stephen Moore about the continuing jobs crisis and the state of the economy. Arianna argued that the initial stimulus had not been big enough, and we’re seeing that play out now with persistently high unemployment. She also said it’s imperative that we begin rebuilding our nation’s aging infrastructure.

For more on the how the middle class is being battered and abandoned and what we can do about it, check out Arianna’s new book, “Third World America.”

WATCH:

Full Story: HuffPost TV: Arianna Debates WSJ Columnist About Jobs Crisis, Economy On CNN (VIDEO).

In 1932, Fox Helped Make Propaganda Films for Hitler

Observers of the current US election season have noted the prominent role of Rupert Murdoch’s reactionary Fox News Channel, which currently employs GOP and “Tea Party” partisans Sarah Palin, Glen Beck, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Sean Hannity, and others. Some have alleged that a television network carrying so many potential political candidates and propagandists on its payroll is unprecedented. But there is a precedent for large-scale Fox intervention into a political campaign.

In 1932, the German newsreel subsidiary of Fox News Channel’s corporate ancestor, Fox Films, intervened in national elections in Germany.

The Candidate Fox Supported Was Nazi Leader Adolf Hitler

Full Story: In 1932, Fox Helped Make Propaganda Films for Hitler.

CNN fires host Rick Sanchez over controversial remarks

CNN host Rick Sanchez came under fire Friday after making controversial remarks the previous day on a satellite radio show.

Sanchez called out Comedy Central host Jon Stewart as a “bigot” for mocking him, and complained that Jews — like Stewart — don’t face discrimination. He also suggested that CNN, and perhaps the media industry more broadly, is run by Jews and elitists who look down on Hispanics like himself.

Clearly, those comments didn’t sit well with the network, which put out a terse statement around 6 p.m. Friday.

Full Story: CNN fires host Rick Sanchez over controversial remarks | The Upshot Yahoo! News – Yahoo! News.

Progressive political forum fights lawsuit over five sentence news excerpt

he practice of excerpting news and linking to its source is what drives the blogosphere, engages millions in political discussion and aides the dissemination of information the world over.

However, if the so-called “copyright troll” company Righthaven LLC is successful, a vibrant political forum for American progressives could be shut down, all thanks to a five sentence excerpt from the Las Vegas Review-Journal that caught the paper’s attention.

The forum Democratic Underground (DU) which frequently reposts news excerpts for users to discuss, was sued in August for quoting and linking to the Nevada paper. Backed by Internet freedom advocacy group Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF), DU filed a counter-suit on Monday, accusing the paper and Righthaven of engaging in copyright fraud.

Full Story: Progressive political forum fights lawsuit over five sentence news excerpt | Raw Story.

New York Times Actually Announces A Mass Progressive Demonstration in DC! Better Late Than Never!

From The New York Times:

September 26, 2010

Liberal Groups Planning to Rally on National Mall

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Hoping to overshadow last month’s large rally led by Glenn Beck that drew many Tea Party advocates and other conservatives, a coalition of liberal groups plan to descend on Washington on Saturday to make the case that they, and not the ascendant right, speak for America’s embattled middle class.

Predicting a crowd of more than 100,000, some 300 liberal groups — including the N.A.A.C.P., the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the National Council of La Raza and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force — are sponsoring a march on Saturday in the hope of transforming the national conversation so it focuses less on the Tea Party. The groups sponsoring the rally, which is called “One Nation Working Together,” say they hope to supplant what they say is the Tea Party’s divisiveness with a message of unity to promote jobs, justice and education.

“The Tea Party has been getting much more media attention than it deserves, and it’s been saying it represents the voice of middle-class America,” said George Gresham, president of 1199 S.E.I.U., a New York health care union local, who says his union has chartered 500 buses to carry 25,000 union members to the rally. “A lot of us feel we have to get a different voice out there speaking for working people, one respecting the diversity of this country, which the Tea Party does not.”

Full Story: New York Times Actually Announces A Mass Progressive Demonstration in DC! Better Late Than Never! | War Is A Crime .org.

What Colbert said at the end of the hearing that the media isn’t showing you

Video:  Stephen Colbert cites Matthew 25 in answering Congresswoman Chu’s question as to why he’s interested in advocating for immigrant rights. Colbert was testifying before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security.

Desperate For Support, Republicans Tout Colbert’s Fake Endorsement Of ‘Pledge To America’

House Republicans have had a tough time getting anyone — even fellow conservatives and Republicans — to endorse their new gimmicky “Pledge to America” they rolled out yesterday. Newt Gingrich, David Frum, Erick Erickson, the Club for Growth, conservative radio hosts, and even some GOP House candidates aren’t too thrilled with the recycled Republican pledges.

It seems Republicans are so desperate for someone to endorse the Pledge that they are now touting the fake support from a fictional character. Today, Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert testified — in character — before Congress on migrant labor issues. During the hearing, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) noted that Colbert supports giving lawmakers 72 hours to read bills before they’re voted on and extrapolated that Colbert must support the entire Pledge because that “idea” is within it. Later, Colbert reassured Smith with this satirical response:

COLBERT: By the way I do endorse your policies. I do endorse your policies. You asked me if I endorse Republican policies. I endorse all Republican policies without question.

SMITH: Okay, including the requirement that members have 72 hours to read a bill before we vote on it?

COLBERT: Absolutely.

SMITH: Thank you for your endorsement of the “Pledge to America.”

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Desperate For Support, Republicans Tout Colbert’s Fake Endorsement Of ‘Pledge To America’.

Net Neutrality absolutely vital to assuring progressive free speech

The mass media remains one of the most powerful forces blocking social and economic progress in the 21st century.

It is because of the mass media that tens of millions of Americans are convinced that budget deficits are more important than the lives ruined by unemployment, or that Social Security won’t be there for them when they retire. Or that their government’s occupation of Afghanistan and its hundreds of military bases around the world, are protecting the “national security” of U.S. citizens.

All of these destructive myths _ and many more _ could be dispelled within a relatively short time if there were a free marketplace of ideas, instead of the “free press for those who own it” model currently in place.

Full Story: Net Neutrality absolutely vital to assuring progressive free speech.

Study: ‘People Who Matter’ To Sunday Talk Shows Are ‘White, Male, Senior, and Republican’

NBC’s Meet the Press, CBS’s Face the Nation, Fox News Sunday, CNN’s State of the Union, and ABC’s This Week are the five major Sunday talk shows that aim to bring “a diverse group of voices” that “reflect the cultural, economic, and political landscape” of the U.S. However, according to a new study published by George Mason University School of Law this month, the Congressional guests featured in 2009 were anything but diverse, failing not only to represent the demographics of the American population but also the diversity of Congress. In fact, according to the study, the congressional voice was disproportionately represented by one type of guest in 2009: “white, male, senior, and Republican”:

“In 2009 the talk shows told us (by their selection of Congressional guests) that the people who matter are disproportionately white, male, senior and Republican — disproportionate not just when compared to the American population overall, but also when compared to the population of Congress itself,” concluded a study published this month in The Green Bag, a quarterly journal supported by the George Mason University School of Law.

Full Story: Think Progress » Study: ‘People Who Matter’ To Sunday Talk Shows Are ‘White, Male, Senior, and Republican’.

Read all about it: The secret dossier of lawbreaking that spells trouble for Rupert Murdoch…and David Cameron – UK Politics, UK – The Independent

Rebekah Brooks was among journalists who used a private detective who was later convicted

The News of the World paid a private detective to provide hundreds of pieces of confidential information, often using illegal means, a confidential document obtained by The Independent on Sunday has revealed.

The “Blue Book”, a ledger of work carried out by Steve Whittamore for News International titles, including the NoW and The Sunday Times, details a series of transactions including obtaining ex-directory phone numbers, telephone accounts, criminal records checks and withheld mobile numbers. It reveals the itemised details of checks on public figures, including Peter Mandelson, ordered and paid for – at up to £750 a time – by reporters working for the redtop. Staff from a number of other national newspapers made similar requests, and their details are contained in further dossiers held by the Information Commissioner, the privacy watchdog.

Full Story: Read all about it: The secret dossier of lawbreaking that spells trouble for Rupert Murdoch…and David Cameron – UK Politics, UK – The Independent.

Major Garrett Leaving Fox News For National Journal

Fox News’ Chief White House Correspondent is leaving the network — and TV entirely.

Fox News announced Wednesday that Major Garrett, who covers the Obama White House for the network, will “return to his roots in print journalism” effective September 3.

Garrett will join the National Journal as a congressional correspondent, the New York Times reports.

Wendell Goler and Mike Emanuel will share the White House beat.

Full Story: Major Garrett Leaving Fox News For National Journal.

Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed

Files declassified in America have revealed covert public relations and lobbying activities of Israel in the U.S.

The National Archive made the documents public following a Senate investigation. They suggest Israel has been trying to shape media coverage of issues it regards as important. You can download the files from the web-site of the Institute for Research on Middle Eastern policy.

Grant F. Smith, who is a director of the institute in Washington, explained to RT what had been uncovered.

“These files are from a sealed Senate investigation which was the result of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the US Department of Justice looking into groups that brought $36 million into the US to plant stories in the US media and promote Israeli foreign policy objectives in the US,” he said.

…snip…

She believes Israeli influence is corrupting the American media, which no longer represents the views of the country’s people.

Full Story: Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed — Signs of the Times News.

How Fox Betrayed Petraeus

THE “ground zero mosque,” as you may well know by now, is not at ground zero. It’s not a mosque but an Islamic cultural center containing a prayer room. It’s not going to determine President Obama’s political future or the elections of 2010 or 2012. Still, the battle that has broken out over this project in Lower Manhattan — on the “hallowed ground” of a shuttered Burlington Coat Factory store one block from the New York Dolls Gentlemen’s Club — will prove eventful all the same. And the consequences will be far more profound than any midterm election results or any of the grand debates now raging 24/7 over the parameters of tolerance, religious freedom, and the real estate gospel of location, location, location.

Here’s what’s been lost in all the screaming. The prime movers in the campaign against the “ground zero mosque” just happen to be among the last cheerleaders for America’s nine-year war in Afghanistan. The wrecking ball they’re wielding is not merely pounding Park51, as the project is known, but is demolishing America’s already frail support for that war, which is dedicated to nation-building in a nation whose most conspicuous asset besides opium is actual mosques.

So virulent is the Islamophobic hysteria of the neocon and Fox News right — abetted by the useful idiocy of the Anti-Defamation League, Harry Reid and other cowed Democrats — that it has also rendered Gen. David Petraeus’s last-ditch counterinsurgency strategy for fighting the war inoperative. How do you win Muslim hearts and minds in Kandahar when you are calling Muslims every filthy name in the book in New York?

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – How Fox Betrayed Petraeus – NYTimes.com.

Fox News stays silent on News Corp’s controversial $1 million donation to Republicans.

One of the top political controversies this week has been the news that News Corp., the Rupert Murdoch-led parent company of Fox News, donated a whopping $1 million to the Republican Governors Association (and $0 to the Democratic Governors Association). The contribution, noted Politico’s Ben Smith, was “new step toward an open identification between Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and the GOP.” As ThinkProgress reported, it may also violate News Corp’s own “standards of business conduct.” According to a search by ThinkProgress, there has so far been no mention of the News Corp/RGA story on Fox News so far. Fox Business and FoxNews.com have also ignored the news, notes Media Matters. Also, as Huffington Post’s Sam Stein reports, Fox has even refused to allow the head of the DGA to come on and talk about it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Fox News stays silent on News Corp’s controversial $1 million donation to Republicans..

WikiLeaks prepares to release more Afghan war files

WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange said his organisation is preparing to release the rest of the secret Afghan war documents it has on file.

The Pentagon warned that would be more damaging to security and risk more lives than the organisation’s initial release of some 76,000 war documents.

That extraordinary disclosure, which laid bare classified military documents covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010, has angered US officials, energised critics of the NATO-led campaign, and drawn the attention of the Taleban, which has promised to use the material to track down people it considers traitors.

Full Story: WikiLeaks prepares to release more Afghan war files – Technology – NZ Herald News.

Poll: News Media Is Just As Unpopular As Least Popular Political Group: Republicans in Congress

Last week we learned from the new Wall St. Journal/NBC poll that the most unpopular group in politics today is the Republicans in Congress.

While Pres. Obama has the approval of just under half the respondents in the poll, and congressional Democrats have a troubling 33 percent approval among voters, the Boehner-McConnell team in Congress is at an all time low of 24 percent.

Now a new Gallup finds that the news media is just 1 point more popular with the public than congressional Republicans, 25 percent/24 percent:

Full Story: Pensito Review » Poll: News Media Is Just As Unpopular As Least Popular Political Group: Republicans in Congress.

Meet Dylan Ratigan, That Guy on MSNBC Who Can Talk a Mean Streak About the Scam Artists on Wall St.

Dylan Ratigan is an unlikely champion of the common man, yet is emerging as one of the strongest voices for economic reform in the United States.

Financial markets had just opened on a Thursday morning in mid-November, but business journalist Dylan Ratigan was nowhere near his old stomping grounds on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. He was wearing a huge, ridiculous black wig, gold-rimmed aviator sunglasses, and a white broad-collared jumpsuit while attempting to wrest a purse from a gray-haired grandmother. He looked like a homeless Elvis impersonator accosting a stranger on the subway. He was hosting a news program.

The sketch was theatrical and over-the-top, but on cable news, the subject of Ratigan’s dramatization was actually a farther-flung outlier than the rhinestones on his bellbottoms. Ratigan blasted the repeal of Glass-Steagall, a Depression-era law that banned risky securities trading from the banking business. The repeal, Ratigan demonstrates, allowed boring old bankers to become risk-driven casino gamblers, taking grandma’s deposits to the capital markets craps table. Today, few deny that the Glass-Steagall repeal was at the least a major contributing factor to the financial disaster of 2008. But in November 2009, this view was restricted to a handful of economists and reform advocates – Wall Street rejected it out of hand, and mainstream liberal publications were still defending the repeal and its architects.

Full Story: Meet Dylan Ratigan, That Guy on MSNBC Who Can Talk a Mean Streak About the Scam Artists on Wall St. | Economy | AlterNet.

Fox analyst slams Republicans for forgetting their ‘oath to uphold the Constitution.’

Today, Fox News analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano slammed Republicans trying to change the 14th amendment to end birthright citizenship. When asked about the effort to change the amendment, Napolitano derided it as “nothing but political chatter.” He then went on to castigate the Republicans who are advocating for ending birthright citizenship, saying, “These people took an oath to uphold the Constitution whether they agree with it or not! All of it not part of it!”:

NAPOLITANO: The law has been upheld uniformly since 1868 and without exception. And we start with a couple of basics. The Congress cannot change the constitution of the 14th amendment on its own. It takes 2/3 of each house of Congress and 3/4 of the states to change the amendment. […] so this is nothing but political chatter by those who are concerned understandably by problems at the border. [...] I can’t imagine that there’d be a consensus to change the 14th amendment. [...]

HEMMER: But if the [Birthright Citizenship Act] were carried out, you had 100 co-sponsors about a year ago, it would require at least one parent to be a US citizen for a baby to become an american citizen at birth. If you were to enact the BCA as some refer to it, is that a way to get around the 14th amendment, and get done what people like John Cornyn, and John Kyl and John Mccain, and we heard John Boehner are trying to do.

Full Story: Think Progress » Fox analyst slams Republicans for forgetting their ‘oath to uphold the Constitution.’.

Kimmel: Uncle Frank points out that when Palin attacks Obama she’s projecting HER FAULTS onto him

Jimmy Kimmel Live – Uncle Frank Mad Libs Sarah Palin

WikiLeaks to publish new documents

The online whistle-blower WikiLeaks said it will continue to publish more secret files from governments around the world despite U.S. demands to cancel plans to release classified military documents.

The online whistle-blower WikiLeaks said it will continue to publish more secret files from governments around the world despite U.S. demands to cancel plans to release classified military documents.

“I can assure you that we will keep publishing documents – that’s what we do,” a WikiLeaks spokesman, who says he goes by the name Daniel Schmitt in order to protect his identity, told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday.

Schmitt said he could not comment on any specific documents but asserted that the publication of classified documents about the Afghanistan war directly contributed to the public’s understanding of the conflict.

via AP Interview: WikiLeaks to publish new documents | AP Technology – The News Tribune.

Rachel Maddow KicksThe Snot Out Of Billo The Clown

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Responds To Bill O’Reilly’s Attacks – 08/06/10

WATCH: Right-Wing Activist’s ‘Ambush Interview’ Backfires

How Not to Be a Tracker

Wednesday afternoon as our building held an ice cream social in the lobby, a young man showed up at Media Matters office armed with a camera. Positioning himself outside our office, he proceeded to ask people leaving the building what is was like to work for George Soros.

I decided to go have a conversation with him:

Full Story: Ari Rabin-Havt: How Not to Be a Tracker.

AlterNet Investigation on Right-Wing Censorship of Digg Makes Huge Waves on the Internet

“Massive Censorship Of Digg Uncovered,” published on AlterNet Thursday, has been picked up by hundreds of sites and quoted throughout the media.

“Massive Censorship Of Digg Uncovered,” an investigative article published on AlterNet by the News Junkie Post’s Ole Ole Olson on Thursday spread like wildfire through the media and social networking sites, from ABC News and the Washington Post to film critic Roger Ebert and Digg founder and CEO Kevin Rose’s Twitter feeds.

The Atlantic Monthly‘s Jared Keller writes, “There’s been a tremendous uproar in the social media world since AlterNet published a story accusing a group of influential social media users of actively engaging in political “censorship” on Digg.com, the popular social news network.” ABC News’ article, by Ki Mae Heussner summarizes Olson’s story: “A group of conservative members of the popular link-sharing website Digg may be deliberately suppressing liberal stories submitted to the site. … AlterNet said an undercover investigation revealed that the group of about one hundred conservative members is able to bury 90 percent of articles by certain websites and stories within three hours of their submission.”

Full Story: AlterNet Investigation on Right-Wing Censorship of Digg Makes Huge Waves on the Internet | Media and Culture | AlterNet.

Learning About Reality From Fiction: “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”

Thom Hartmann:

Sometimes politics and nonfiction writing can seem altogether too intense and we feel like we need a break. For some, like myself, reading fiction is a guilty pleasure that is re-energizing.

In that respect, the best-selling novel – the first in the acclaimed trilogy, – “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” by Stieg Larsson, is both a brilliant page turner and raises a number of interesting and important issues of our day.

The first among these is the debate over what is news and whether corporations can “own” it. Since the hero of this novel (although, over time, he becomes a secondary character) is the co-owner and editor of a pro-democracy magazine in Sweden, the entire realm of issues having to do with news comes to the fore. Who owns the news? Who controls the news? What is the importance of independent media in a world where giant monoliths and monopolies have become the norm? And, most important, what is the relationship between news, in a free and open society and democracy?

Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Learning About Reality From Fiction: “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”.

Chuck Todd shows what’s wrong with political journalism

Chuck Todd the “senior” MSNBC political editor ( I have no idea who the “junior” editors are) appeared on MSNBC recently and gave a stupefyingly inaccurate take on congressional Democratic anger at Robert Gibbs statement on Meet The Press that “without a doubt the Republicans can win back the House”.

Todd referred to the anger of congressional Democrats and Nancy Pelosi’s anger at Gibbs as ” the Democrats circular firing squad”. He had nothing to say about the political stupidity or the potential consquences of Gibbs’ statement as coming from the White House.

That assessment was, as we say in Brooklyn, not just dumb but stupid. But Todd seemed to think that Obama and Gibbs were blameless in what was an act of political ineptitude and a political tin ear on the part of the Obama Administration. Mocking the Democrats reaction seemed to indicate that in Todd’s political world the Democrats should have what? Kept their mouths shut? Agreed with an assessment that three months before the election was specious to say the least?

Full Story: Tom In Paine: Chuck Todd shows what’s wrong with political journalism.

Fox News Audience Just 1.38% Black

…..Majority Are the ‘Absolute Oldest’ Viewers on Cable

Fox News may be the undisputed ratings champion in cable news, but not among black viewers.

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter tweeted that, according to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News has averaged just 29,000 black viewers in primetime so far this television season (9/09-7/10). That represents just 1.38% of its 2.102 million total viewer audience.

CNN and MSNBC, meanwhile, both have far more black viewers, both in absolute terms and as a proportion of their overall audiences.

MSNBC has averaged 145,000 black viewers, representing 19.3% of its 751,000 total viewer audience.

CNN has averaged 134,000 black viewers, representing 20.7% of its 648,000 total viewer audience.

Full Story: Fox News Audience Just 1.38% Black.

O’Reilly Responds to Maddow’s Race-Baiting Charge Against Fox News: But We Get Bigger Ratings

On her MSNBC show on July 20, Rachel Maddow lambasted Fox News over its race baiting campaigns, including its current attack on USDA staffer, Shirley Sherrod, who was fired, in part, because Fox aired video that had been deceptively edited to appear to depict Sherrod admitting she discriminated against white people. (See Maddow’s detailed indictment against Fox’s racist coverage in the video above and transcript below — and note that we had published a similar charge against Fox earlier that day, even before the truth about the Sherrod video had come out.)

Last night Bill O’Reilly offered a tepid apology to Sherrod, admitting that he should have listened to her entire speech before judging her to be a racist — he couldn’t resist adding a caveat, of course. “If a white public servant referenced ‘his own kind’ or ‘one of his own’ when speaking about an African American,” O’Reilly claimed, “that white person would be fired on the spot.”

O’Reilly went on to answer Maddow’s attack on his network’s racist editorial policies — first he played a segment of her show in which she said: “Just like the fake ACORN controversy, Fox News knows it has a role in this dance. That’s not new. That’s not even interesting about this scandal. Fox does what Fox does.”

Full Story: Pensito Review » O’Reilly Responds to Maddow’s Race-Baiting Charge Against Fox News: But We Get Bigger Ratings.

NY Times columnist: Fox News ‘exploited’ New Black Panther Party case

Fox News has gone too far in hyping 2008 case of alleged voter intimidation, according to one New York Times columnist.

The conservative news network has recently produced a flurry of reports about a case where a member of the New Black Panther Party is accused of wielding a billy club outside of a polling place in Philadelphia. Appearing on MSNBC Monday, The New York Times’ Charles Blow called out the network for exploiting the case.

“I think that the media, depending on what you call the media, some parts of the media, I think have exploited this to a degree that the president of the New Black Panther Party is on Fox on a regular basis now, it seems,” Blow told MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski.

Full Story: NY Times columnist: Fox News ‘exploited’ New Black Panther Party case | Raw Story.

The Day The Controversy Over The New Black Panther Case Fell Apart.

So, a number of things have happened in the past few hours that should really discredit the entire conservative conspiracy theory behind the New Black Panther Party case.

Earlier today, I reported that J. Christian Adams, in his testimony to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, said that there was no indication of pressure from outside the Civil Rights Division to dismiss the civil complaint against the other two plaintiffs named in the original complaint–meaning that even Adams admits there’s no evidence Barack Obama or Eric Holder had anything to do with deciding to narrow the case.

Ben Smith reported this evening that Abigail Thernstrom, a conservative voting rights expert and one of George W. Bush’s appointees to the commission, says that the conservative bloc explicitly discussed a “wild notion they could bring Eric Holder down and really damage the president.” This was clear from the beginning, but it’s the first time anyone on the commission has said with first hand knowledge that the conservatives on the commission had deliberately decided to do this to damage the administration.

Full Story: Adam Serwer Archive | The American Prospect.

Keith Olbermann Nominated For Emmy Award

New York, N.Y. – July 15, 2010  – Nominations for the 31st Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards were announced today by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS).  The News & Documentary Emmy® Awards will be presented on Monday, September 27 at a ceremony at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, located in the Time Warner Center in New York City. The event will be attended by more than 1,000 television and news media industry executives, news and documentary producers and journalists. Emmy® Awards will be presented in 41 categories, including Breaking News, Investigative Reporting, Outstanding Interview, and Best Documentary, among others.

“From the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to the struggling American economy, to the inauguration of Barack Obama, 2009 was a significant year for major news stories,” said Bill Small, Chairman of the News & Documentary Emmy® Awards. “The journalists and documentary filmmakers nominated this year have educated viewers in understanding some of the most compelling issues of our time, and we salute them for their efforts.”

The Emmy Awards – - 31st Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards nominations.

Dylan Ratigan Rips GOP Congressman Kevin Brady Over Wall Street Greed

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) looked uncomfortable when MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan introduced him Tuesday afternoon to talk about unemployment benefits and Wall Street greed. Brady’s discomfort proved well-founded.

Ratigan tore into the Texas Republican, who voted against the extension of unemployment benefits but for the Wall Street bailout known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Brady repeatedly attempted to deflect Ratigan’s harsh line of questioning on the nature of Wall Street by arguing that potential — not actual — tax increases are stifling capital investment and thus job creation, but the MSNBC host didn’t let up.

“I know you have an issue with the government, but I’ve got an issue with a private industry that’s using the government to rape my country of its money, and I’d like to try to put a stop to that,” Ratigan said.

Full Story: Dylan Ratigan Rips GOP Congressman Kevin Brady Over Wall Street Greed.

Megyn Kelly Flips Out At Fox Contributor In Effort To Push Faux Scandal About New Black Panther Party

Today on Fox News’ America Live, host Megyn Kelly discussed the manufactured right-wing “scandal” surrounding the New Black Panther Party, and whether the Department of Justice is being insufficiently tough against black defendants. As Media Matters has documented, the “scandal” surfaced on Fox News and has slowly migrated to more mainstream networks. (Read background on the issue here.)

This afternoon, Kelly invited New York Post columnist — and regular Fox contributor — Kirsten Powers to debate the importance of this story. Kelly bemoaned that “no one seems to give a darn” about the allegations promulgated by former Bush DoJ lawyer J. Christian Adams. The conservative activist claims that the Obama Justice Department dropped voter intimidation charges against the New Black Panther Party due to racial considerations. Contrary to the claims, the Obama DoJ has issued an injunction against the member of the NBPP who was seen engaging in voter intimidation tactics, prohibiting him “from displaying a weapon within 100 feet of any Philadelphia polling place through 2012.”

Powers effectively dismantled the faux scandal for what it is, telling Kelly, “You can put me in the same category of people who don’t really give a darn.” “You don’t seem to know what you’re talking about,” Kelly immediately responded, growing more enraged as the two wrestled, jabbed, and bickered over the facts:

Full Story: Think Progress » Megyn Kelly Flips Out At Fox Contributor In Effort To Push Faux Scandal About New Black Panther Party.

Fox legal analyst: Bush should have been indicted

Fox News’ senior judicial analyst made some surprising remarks Saturday that may go against the grain at his conservative network.

In a interview with Ralph Nader on C-SPAN’s Book TV to promote his book Lies the Government Told You, Judge Andrew Napolitano said that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should have been indicted for “torturing, for spying, for arresting without warrant.”

The judge believes that it is a fallacy to say that the US treats suspects as innocent until proven guilty. “The government acts as if a defendant is guilty merely on the basis of an accusation,” said Napolitano.

Full Story: Fox legal analyst: Bush should have been indicted | Raw Story.

Fox News promoted Tea Party town halls because they made ‘better television.’

Bill Hemmer, a co-anchor of Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” program, revealed in a profile of him published today why his network decided to highlight last August’s violent, tumultuous congressional town halls. In an interview with Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz, Hemmer discussed how his show’s ratings have grown over the past year and suggested that the program’s decision to promote Tea Party town hall antics was based on attracting viewers:

A turning point, in Hemmer’s view, came during the health care debate in the summer of 2009: “We covered those town hall meetings with greater vigor than our competition, and we were rewarded with viewers. It was better television.”

Another view is that Fox seized upon the footage of angry constituents shouting at Democratic members of Congress because it undermined the president’s push for health care reform. Hemmer begs to differ. “I don’t think it was anger toward the Obama administration,” he says. “It was an honest insecurity on the part of average Americans.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Fox News promoted Tea Party town halls because they made ‘better television.’.

A White God Freakout

Matt Taibi:

Thanks to Jonathan Schwarz of TinyRevolution.com for passing along this hilarious exchange between Time reporter Alex Perry and Julie Hollar of FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting). It’s one of the best case studies in the dangers of Google that I’ve ever seen.

The thing about Googling yourself — look, everyone’s done it. In the most literal sense, it’s like jacking off, and find me the grown man who’ll deny that he does that. But part of the growing up process is learning that playing with oneself, if not shameful and sordid exactly, it’s certainly something to be done at all times in private. Not even your average eight year old will go charging bug-eyed into a room full of grownups frantically pulling on his Johnson. Time reporter Alex Perry turns out to be a different story, however.

Background: last week, the press watchdogs at FAIR did a review of Perry’s scare piece about how the Chinese are taking over Africa (China’s New Focus on Africa, June 24th). The Perry piece used the standard Western-correspondent formula for covering the third world, a formula I’m very familiar with from my Russia days. In it, the moral of every story you write has to be that the backward subject country cannot survive without the indulgence, political protection, and gigantic brain-power of the superior Western societies. At the eXile we used to call this “White God” reporting.

Full Story: A White God Freakout — RollingStone.com.

CNBC host slams right wing’s false Jones Act meme as ‘offensive to intelligence.’

Since BP’s oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico began, a common right wing refrain has been that the Jones Act — a 1920 law stipulating that commerce between U.S. ports needs to occur on U.S. ships — has been hindering the cleanup effort by forcing the federal government to reject aid from foreign nations. Conservative lawmakers and pundits have been claiming that the Obama administration is refusing to waive the Jones Act out of deference to the will of labor unions. Earlier this month, McClatchy demolished this meme, but that hasn’t stopped the drumbeat, with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) going so far as to say that aid from 17 countries has been rejected because of the Jones Act. Yesterday, on CNBC, Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute repeated the talking point, but he ran into a host who had done his homework. CNBC’s Mark Haines noted that 68 different offers of foreign cleanup help have been accepted, and then challenged Bader to cite examples of the Jones Act causing a problem:

HAINES: How many rejections under the Jones Act?

BADER: I don’t know how many.

HAINES: Excuse me, Senator McCarthy, you can’t tell us how many there are? I want the facts, give us hard facts, give us evidence, not innuendo, not baseless accusations, okay? It’s offensive to intelligence. The fact is sir, you have told us there are examples of rejections and you can not name a single one.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » CNBC host slams right wing’s false Jones Act meme as ‘offensive to intelligence.’.

CNN Caves To Right Wing Neocons By Firing Its Mideast Reporter Octavia Nasr

On Sunday, Octavia Nasr — CNN’s Senior Editor of Mideast Affairs — acknowledged the death of Lebanon’s Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah by tweeting:

Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot..

Fadlallah was well known for a number of relatively liberal views, such as his support for women’s rights and fatwas against the brutal practices of female circumcision and honor killings. But Nasr’s comment was enough to spark fierce outrage from the various precincts of the neocon blog/twittersphere, who went after Nasr for her egregious failure to reduce Fadlallah to an anti-Israel, anti-American terrorist bogeyman.

Responding to the uproar, Nasr wrote, “It was an error of judgment for me to write such a simplistic comment and I’m sorry because it conveyed that I supported Fadlallah’s life’s work. That’s not the case at all”:

Full Story: Think Progress » CNN Caves To Right Wing Neocons By Firing Its Mideast Reporter Octavia Nasr.

Utah radio station drops Hannity from its lineup, possibly for being uncivil.

This past week, Utah’s KSL Radio announced that it will be dropping Fox News host and radio personality Sean Hannity from its regular programming lineup. Although the company was tight-lipped about why it chose to end its relationship with Hannity, Utah’s ABC-4 speculates that Hannity’s uncivil behavior on air was behind the move:

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – KSL Radio announced that they will no longer air Sean Hannity’s syndicated national talk show.

The last KSL broadcast of the Sean Hannity show will air on October 1, 2010. The announcement comes after speculation that Hannity’s on-air style was not in line with Deseret Media Company’s mission statement that calls for civility and other ethical stances.

Deseret Media Companies (DMC) is a for-profit arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and manages KSL radio and other media outlets.The DMC “Mission Statement” calls for the dissemination of “light and knowledge” along with the promotion of “integrity, civility, morality, and respect for all people.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Utah radio station drops Hannity from its lineup, possibly for being uncivil..

New study documents media’s servitude to government

- Glenn Greenwald -

A newly released study from students at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government provides the latest evidence of how thoroughly devoted the American establishment media is to amplifying and serving (rather than checking) government officials. This new study examines how waterboarding has been discussed by America’s four largest newspapers over the past 100 years, and finds that the technique, almost invariably, was unequivocally referred to as “torture” — until the U.S. Government began openly using it and insisting that it was not torture, at which time these newspapers obediently ceased describing it that way:

Similarly, American newspapers are highly inclined to refer to waterboarding as “torture” when practiced by other nations, but will suddenly refuse to use the term when it’s the U.S. employing that technique:

Full Story: New study documents media’s servitude to government – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

OPEN MIC CATCHES REPORTERS TELLING THE TRUTH..

Former half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) spoke at a California university fundraiser last week, which generated some controversy due to her excessive speaking fees. Now, it appears the event has become controversial for an entirely different reason.

The local Fox affiliate overheard a variety of journalists reflecting on Palin’s remarks on a live mic, with reporters unaware that they were being recorded. The result was some unexpected candor.

“I feel like I just got off a roller coaster, going round and round,” one reporter is heard saying on audio captured by Fox40 News. “S— flying out everywhere.”

“She didn’t finish a statement,” another reporter says.

“Did she make a statement?” another asks, drawing laughs.

“I don’t know how we’re gonna make a story out of that,” a voice is heard saying.

“Now I know that dumbness doesn’t come from just sound bites,” yet another reporter

Full Story: The Washington Monthly.

Brian Kilmeade Provides Fox News Entertainment By Embarrassing Himself

Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade has been embarrassing himself more than usual over the last few days on Fox & Friends. Yesterday, after news broke that the cap BP placed on its leaking oil well had to be removed because one of its robots bumped the well’s venting system, Kilmeade had some harsh words for the robot. “I’d love to talk to that robot that knocked…the top off the cap that was in the bottom of the Gulf yesterday,” Kilmeade said. “What was that robot thinking?” he asked in disgust.

Then today, as Media Matters notes, the Fox co-host had had this dim-witted question for President Obama:

KILMEADE: The President took a matter of hours to pick a commander in Afghanistan so why is it taking months to plug the leaking oil?

Full Story: Think Progress » Brian Kilmeade Provides Fox News Entertainment By Embarrassing Himself.

Lawrence O’Donnell To Host MSNBC 10PM Show

Lawrence O’Donnell will host the 10PM hour on MSNBC, the network announced Tuesday.

O’Donnell will develop a show to round-out the network’s primetime lineup; currently, a repeat of the 8PM show, “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” airs in the 10PM timeslot, after “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

“Lawrence O’Donnell is an incredible talent, who our audience has gotten to know throughout the years, most recently as Keith Olbermann’s principal guest host on ‘Countdown,’” MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in the announcement. “It’s great to have another anchor of his caliber on the network,” said Griffin. “This makes us a bigger and better network.”

“I’ve had a part-time job at MSNBC for 14 years,” O’Donnell, who has been an MSNBC political analyst since the network launched in 1996, added. “Now that the network and I have gotten to know each other, I’m thrilled to be going full time.”

Full Story: Lawrence O’Donnell To Host MSNBC 10PM Show.

After Years Claiming He’s ‘Not A Journalist,’ Beck Calls Himself A ‘Journalist’ Without ‘Formal Training’

In a recent interview with USA Today, Fox News host Glenn Beck was asked to define what he does. “I’m a little of everything,” replied Beck, saying that included being a “‘concerned dad,’ ‘faith-based guy,’ ‘businessman,’ ‘entertainer’ and, after a long pause, ‘journalist.’” “I don’t have formal training as a journalist, but I think that works to my advantage,” said Beck.

Though not shocking, Beck’s claim to be “a journalist” is surprising, given how often he has rhetorically shielded himself by saying, “I’m not a journalist.” In fact, as recently as April 5, 20

Full Story: Think Progress » After Years Claiming He’s ‘Not A Journalist,’ Beck Calls Himself A ‘Journalist’ Without ‘Formal Training’.

Allen Has Ordered ‘Uninhibited Access’ to Oil Spill Operations

Admiral Thad Allen told me he has ordered that oil spill operations be open to the media. The National Incident Commander for the oil spill efforts said in my “This Week” interview, “I put out a written directive and I can provide it for the record that says the media will have uninhibited access anywhere we’re doing operations, except for two things, if it’s a security or safety problem. That is my policy. I’m the national incident commander.”

When I was in Louisiana over the weekend, I experienced stony silence from government workers and private contractors working for BP who were told not to talk about the work they are doing. Allen pledged to make sure word about his directive gets out to workers.

TAPPER: Lastly, I saw firsthand when I was down in Louisiana over

the weekend, all the workers there, whether they work for the governor

or for BP or for private contractors who work for BP, they’ve all been

told not to talk to the press, not to talk to the public about their

work. Shouldn’t they be allowed to share with the public the work that

they’re doing?
Full Story: Allen Has Ordered ‘Uninhibited Access’ to Oil Spill Operations – Political Punch.

Federal Communications Commission to debate Comcast-NBC merger

Debate over Comcast’s $30 billion bid for NBC Universal heads to Chicago next month, where the Federal Communications Commission plans to hold its first field hearing on the proposed mega-merger.

The FCC will announce the July 13 public forum as soon as Thursday afternoon, an agency official told POLITICO. Regulators selected Chicago in part because Comcast and NBC maintain equal footing in the city, which is well regarded for its diversity.

The announcement arrives as the House Judiciary Committee revs up its own regulatory engine ahead of a scheduled Monday field hearing in Los Angeles. That forum comes at the insistence of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who long implored the FCC to incorporate community reaction in its review of a merger that would combine the country’s largest cable and broadband provider with one of the nation’s top broadcast stations.

Full Story: Federal Communications Commission to debate Comcast-NBC merger – Tony Romm – POLITICO.com.

Media Watchdog FAIR Slams ABC, Stephanopoulos for Repeating NYT’s False ACORN ‘Pimp’ Coverage

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), the decades-old media watchdog group whose condemnation of the NYTimes mis-reporting on the ACORN Pimp Hoax picked up on our detailed exposé here, and ultimately helped force the “paper of record” into a begrudging partial correction, has now picked up on our coverage earlier this week of ABC News’ Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos’ and his near-verbatim use of the Times discredited reporting in his introduction to an interview with Rightwing hoaxsters James O’Keefe and Andrew Breitbart on Tuesday…

From FAIR’s Peter Hart last night:

Full Story: The BRAD BLOG : Media Watchdog FAIR Slams ABC, Stephanopoulos for Repeating NYT’s False ACORN ‘Pimp’ Coverage.

Van Susteren runs opinion poll on her intelligence — and loses

Fox News host Greta Van Susteren was so upset by a recent viewer email calling her stupid that she put up an opinion poll asking followers to rate who’s smarter — Van Susteren or her detractor, “Brian.”

“Who is dumber?” the poll asks. “Greta? Or Brian for spending his time watching someone he thinks is dumb?”

So far, Brian is winning. As of May 29, 78 percent of poll respondents agreed that Van Susteren is dumber than Brian.

Of course, Internet polls aren’t scientific and are often hijacked by particular groups to make a particular point. But it seems, at the very least, that Van Susteren’s fans didn’t show up in enough numbers to defend her.

Full Story: Van Susteren runs opinion poll on her intelligence — and loses | Raw Story.

FoxNews.com edits out applause during Obama’s West Point speech.

In his commencement address to graduating West Point cadets on Saturday, the President outlined his upcoming national security strategy that is focused on international cooperation to meet the nation’s security challenges. He also praised American troops for their performance in Iraq. “A lesser Army might have seen its spirit broken,” he said, adding that “through their competence and creativity and courage, we are poised to end our combat mission in Iraq this summer.” At that point, cadets and the audience applauded for at least 12 seconds (starting at roughly the 10:24 mark here). However, as Michael Moore observed, video from the speech on FoxNews.com edits out that applause entirely, making it appear as if Obama is bizarrely staring silently for a long period of time. The audio is cut (starting at the 0:44 mark) for the 12 seconds of applause, and then skips to another part of the speech. Watch it (the first clip is from FoxNews.com, the second clip is from WhiteHouse.gov):

Full Story: Think Progress » FoxNews.com edits out applause during Obama’s West Point speech..

Pirates take over small-town radio signal

Residents of San Mateo County, California are hearing an unusual sound on the 89.3 frequency of their FM radios these days. Commercial-free radio programmed by real, local people.

San Francisco-based Pirate Cat Radio has put KPDO on the air full-time. The station’s new home, nestled among coastal farmlands, is about an hour south from the studio cafe in San Francisco’s Mission District.

Pirate Cat Radio founder Daniel Roberts and his crew took over the radio frequency May 8, after years of defying the Federal Communications Commission by broadcasting without a license. Roberts was recently fined by the FCC for just that, as Jennifer Waits writes in Spinning Indie.

Full Story: Pirates take over small-town radio signal | Raw Story.

Rand Paul Cancels His Meet The Press Interview

Kentucky Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul has been lampooned in recent days for his radical anti-government views. First, he expressed opposition to parts of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act. Today, he attacked President Obama’s criticism of BP as “un-American,” and refused to say whether or not the minimum wage is legal. MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell joked that Paul is the “gift that keeps on giving.”

But he is giving no more. He “simply does not want to answer direct questions about the proper role of the Federal government in regulating the private sector,” the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent noted. “He visibly bristles when asked to clarify his views on these matters,” Sargent added.

After his upset victory Tuesday night, Paul agreed to appear on NBC’s Meet The Press Sunday for what would surely be wide ranging interview that would delve into these issues:

Full Story: Think Progress » Rand Paul Cancels His Meet The Press Interview.

Morning Joe Crew Rip Gingrich For His ‘Sick,’ ‘Shameful,’ ‘Pure Wingnuttery’ Nazi Comparison

As ThinkProgress has noted, Newt Gingrich’s latest book, To Save America, argues repeatedly that the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress are a “secular-socialist machine” that “represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union.” Gingrich has defended his assertion in recent media appearances, saying that “it’s a question of finality” and “if the secular socialist machine wins, we are going to be in a country which no longer resembles America.”

Gingrich’s comments have already elicited outrage from those outside the conservative echo chamber. On Monday, former GOP congresswoman Susan Molinari called his Nazi comparison “outrageous” and “crazy.” On Morning Joe today, former GOP congressman Joe Scarborough and his guests unleashed on Gingrich for making the “sick” and “shameful” comparison:

– “That’s sick. I hope you sell books. I hope you apologize for that shameful remark,” said Scarborough.

– “This is pure wingnuttery. It’s the worst thing about it is you know that Gingrich is extremely scholarly, highly educated historian. So it’s even more lamentable if he starts to revert to this kind of rhetoric,” said The Daily Beast’s Tina Brown.

Full Story: Think Progress » Morning Joe Crew Rip Gingrich For His ‘Sick,’ ‘Shameful,’ ‘Pure Wingnuttery’ Nazi Comparison.

Glenn Beck Hits 2010 Ratings LOW

Glenn Beck has hit a new low for the year — literally.

Beck’s Fox News program saw its worst ratings of 2010 Friday, averaging just 1.776 million total viewers. Of course, that’s more than his competitors — MSNBC’s “Hardball” (528,000), CNN’s “Situation Room” (481,000) and HLN’s “Showbiz Tonight” (197,000) — combined, but it represents a continuation of a trend that began last month.

For the month of April, Glenn Beck suffered his first year-over-year decline since joining Fox News in January 2009, declining 7% in total viewers and 6% in the demo compared to April 2009. Moreover, Beck shed 28% of his audience between January and April in both total viewers and the demo.

Friday’s program was Beck’s fifth worst since joining Fox News.

Politicususa’s Jason Easley notes that Friday’s total was “50% off of [Beck's] peak audience of 3.4 million” total viewers.

Beasley also writes that Beck is losing viewers because he sees himself as a political force more than an entertainer:

Full Story: Glenn Beck Hits 2010 Ratings LOW.

Rep. Anthony Weiner Wants FTC and SEC Action for Goldline, Beck and the FOX Gold-Shilling Narrative

Critics have reprimanded Glenn Beck before for his advertising-turned-conservative-talking-point shilling for Goldline in the past, but never quite on the level that Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) demands now.

Beck has long held a close relationship with the gold seller, including advertisements throughout his radio career with spots on his show and ads placed openly on his website. The conflict arises from the fact that Beck’s content, full of blatant fear mongering about the potential decline of society and of paper money, appears to fit too perfectly with Goldline’s advertising agenda. In effect, Beck’s content seems driven by his advertising, and since Beck’s rhetoric tends toward the extreme, it presents a noticeable danger to the public.

Weiner has served notice that he has had enough of Beck’s crass shilling for the gold industry. Weiner has taken note of the conservative strategy to promote gold as a safe bet in the current political and economic climate. Though consumers would need gold to exceed record highs to reach a return on their investment, while the hosts promoting the gold reap the benefits in simply selling to those consumers now. Consequently, commentators like Beck, who have invested in the gold they advertise and thus have a vested interest in its doing well, can push the narrative of the decaying U.S. to benefit themselves, regardless of its distance from reality.

Full Story: Rep. Anthony Weiner Wants FTC and SEC Action for Goldline, Beck and the FOX Gold-Shilling Narrative | BuzzFlash.org.

Shep Smith SCOLDS BP CEO: ‘At Least Act Like You Care’ (VIDEO)

Fox News anchor (and Mississippi native) Shep Smith ripped the BP CEO over his comments on the Gulf oil spill Friday on his Fox News show.

BP CEO Tony Hayward told a British newspaper that the oil spill was a relatively small leak in the scheme of the Gulf of Mexico, and that he expected many frivolous lawsuits over the spill.

Smith’s full comments (via):

Mr. Hayward, that Gulf is the source of life for millions upon million of people, and plants, and other creatures on this earth. Jobs are lost, beaches and birds are tarred, fisheries are closed, tourists are canceling, economies are threatened, and people from Florida to Texas are in some cases concerned for their very livelihoods, and you speak of ‘comparative volume’?

Mr. Hayward, British Petroleum has caused the proud people of the Gulf Region great pain. If you think your statements on this subject are helping your company’s cause — you are wrong. And if you think the people of the Gulf Region and the rest of America will take lying down without a fight a poorly handled aftermath of what your company has done to our Gulf and our people – you are horribly mistaken.

Full Story: Shep Smith SCOLDS BP CEO: ‘At Least Act Like You Care’ (VIDEO).

Brit Hume: Where Is The Oil? (VIDEO)

As I was taking in the Sestak-versus-Specteriana on CNN’s State Of The Union yesterday morning, I missed Fox News Sunday’s typically entertaining panel discussion. But this segment shouldn’t go unnoted, seeing as how former newsman Brit Hume was wondering if the BP oil slick was so awesomely terrifying, why couldn’t he see any of the oil? Seriously! This happened!

WATCH:

Full Story: Brit Hume: Where Is The Oil? (VIDEO).

Bill Maher New Rules 05 14 2010

More truth about Obama, Capers, Oil Spills, Our Country, Our Monetary Change System And Steve Jobs.

Lewis Black: “Glenn Beck Has Nazi Tourette’s” (VIDEO)

Glenn Beck’s antics have always proved to be great fodder for the “Daily Show.” Lewis Black took it a step further with an entire segment mocking the Fox News host for his tendency to make everything Nazi-related.

Full Story: Lewis Black: “Glenn Beck Has Nazi Tourette’s” (VIDEO).

Stewart Hammers Conservatives For Hypocritical Obama-Bush Comparisons (VIDEO)

When Jon Stewart’s on his game, it’s a thing of beauty. And considering he’s always on his game, last night’s opening segment was flat-out gorgeous, as he ripped hypocritical conservatives for constantly comparing Obama to Bush – but only terms of missteps.

Comcast CEO: We Won’t Interfere With NBC News

The chief executive of Comcast says he won’t interfere with the editorial decisions of NBC’s news programs.

Brian Roberts said Tuesday at a cable industry trade convention in Los Angeles that NBC News is an “awesome asset” that needs to be protected. He also called “Meet the Press” an “incredibly important institution in this country.”

Roberts said he won’t interfere in NBC’s editorial decisions.

“Let it have its own voice,” he said.

Full Story: Comcast CEO: We Won’t Interfere With NBC News.

OPS: Wanta bet?

Donna Brazile: Let’s Get Rid Of The Pundits!

The Washington Post apparently asked various luminaries to name one thing the world should just get rid of (sadly, none said “jeggings”) and Donna Brazile offered a suggestion that would afford her considerably more free time: let's get rid of the pundits!

If a single move could restore civility to politics, that is it. Get rid of the left-vs.-right commentators who are just out scoring points for their team. This sort of opinion-mongering is not only boring and predictable, it is destructive of the truth. If your only credentials are “GOP shill” or “Democratic hack,” you've no business cluttering up the airwaves or the op-ed pages. My momma always told me that if you don't know what you're talking about, it's best to keep your mouth shut. That's good advice.

Whom do we put in their place? I say replace the pundits with people who have genuine expertise — whether from their academic work, professional life or personal experience — on the key issues of the day. Instead of partisan talking heads or mad hatters from the “tea party” preaching their views on, say, health care and taxes, let's hear from doctors and insurance professionals, or the number-crunchers from the Congressional Budget Office. They're much better equipped to help viewers, listeners and readers wade through the facts, arguments and data.

Full Story: Donna Brazile: Let’s Get Rid Of The Pundits!.

They Don’t Report. You Don’t Have to Decide.

Frank Rich :

“DESPITE the major environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf and the attempted terror attack on New York’s Times Square, President Obama spent his Saturday night laughing it up at the White House Correspondents Dinner,” griped Sean Hannity of Fox News last week. His complaint is not inaccurate. But it’s hardly the whole story. Also laughing it up at that dinner were many of the country’s television news potentates, including some of Hannity’s own colleagues. And unlike the president, they were caught napping on a night that could have been 9/11 redux.

Here’s the time line from last Saturday. At 6:30 p.m. the abandoned Nissan Pathfinder was found smoking in Times Square. Relevant public officials marooned at the correspondents dinner in Washington quickly got word. Over the next hour and a half, several news organizations spread it as well while Times Square was evacuated. To clear the Broadway theater district at curtain time on Saturday night isn’t like emptying a high school; it’s a virtual military operation. By 8 p.m., the crossroads of the world looked like a ghost town, yet if you tuned in to a cable news network, it wasn’t news. No one seemed to know or to care. On MSNBC, which I was watching, it didn’t even merit a mention on a crawl.

MSNBC was instead busy covering the correspondents dinner itself, so we could feast on journalists schmoozing with mostly B-list show business folk — and sometimes C-list, as in Kim Kardashian. (Another NBC employee, Jay Leno, was the evening’s mirthless comic headliner.) This annual Beltway fete, once safely quarantined on C-Span, has now mutated into a poor man’s Golden Globes on all three cable news networks. On MSNBC, this meant red-carpet arrivals, in-depth historical analysis of past dinners, and morning-after post-mortems by network news stars wearing sunglasses on camera (just like Hollywood!).

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – They Don’t Report. You Don’t Have to Decide. – NYTimes.com.

Papantonio: BP – Shills, Shills, and More Shills

Video:

Even with more than 200,000 gallons of oil being pumped directly into the Gulf of Mexico everyday (thanks to BP's negligence on the Deepwater Horizon well,) right wing wackos are still clinging to their “drill baby, drill” mantra. We're being told that yes, this is an atrocity, but we still need that oil at the bottom of the sea floor. Mike Papantonio appears on MSNBC's The Ed Show to take on the offshore drilling cheerleaders, as well as explain the basics of his class action suit against BP.

Donald Sutherland: Get Rid of Morning Joe

Are the programmers at MSNBC nuts? They give us refreshing afternoons with Chris and Ed, put us to bed with the clarifying sensibilities of Rachel and Keith and then, idiotically, wake us up with Mr. Small Mouth.

Who is this idiot? Why is he there? He can’t even listen. He doesn’t conduct a decent conversation. He runs over everyone else’s words with a landslide of diarrhea. I saw him on Friday, stomping around the stage like a posturing rooster, calling Paul Krugman a political hack. Paul Krugman’s a political hack? Surely they put make-up on Mr. Small Mouth. Doesn’t he look in the mirror? That’s where he’d see what a political hack looks like.

For god’s sake, MSNBC, get rid of him, he’s beneath you. This guy makes Pat Buchanan look embarrassed. Go out and get the television equivalent of David Brooks to chair your program. He’d be worth listening to. He’d give conservative opinion a rational voice. That person would be calmly articulate, and that’d make for worthwhile conversation. Reminiscent of William Safire or, better still, William F. Buckley. That’d be fair and balanced broadcasting!

Full Story: Donald Sutherland: Get Rid of Morning Joe.

CBS News and CNN Are Back in Partnership Negotiations

CBS News and CNN are in advanced negotiations about signing a news-gathering partnership, according to executives familiar with the discussions. The talks revolve around how the two news divisions can combine operations in a bid to cut costs and expand audiences on both sides. While such conversations have occurred over the last decade, the current news-business climate — plummeting CNN ratings, ever-shrinking evening-news audiences, major layoffs at ABC — make a deal more logical than ever before. The talks are still fluid, which means that executives would speak only on condition of anonymity, but CNN and CBS began negotiations some time ago. “It’s been going on for a couple of months,” one person with knowledge of the matter said. “They’re in deep talks.”

The discussions resume years of on-and-off flirtation between CBS News and CNN. In the past, talks have broken down over issues like how marquee talent at each network would be shared across the combined entity or which channel would retain control of editorial decisions. “There were huge structural issues, like who would be on the air,” one executive explained. CBS and Time Warner remain on friendly terms, and the talks are happening soon after CBS Sports and Time Warner signed a $10.8 billion deal to broadcast the NCAA basketball championship for the next fourteen years.

For CBS CEO Les Moonves, a deal with CNN makes sense at this difficult moment for network news. Late last month, ABC News completed a brutal round of layoffs that gutted its news division by 25 percent. CBS, like ABC, lacks a cable channel that could help shelter the costs of staffing a news division. Rival NBC has been increasingly steering its highly paid network talent, from Andrea Mitchell to Tom Brokaw, to its MSNBC cable outlet. Both CBS and ABC have long thought CNN might make an attractive partner. At one point several years ago, ABC News and CNN got into advanced talks that even involved Time Warner’s board of directors, one executive with knowledge of those talks said. But again, a final deal fell apart.

Full Story: CBS News and CNN Are Back in Partnership Negotiations — Daily Intel.

Ed Schultz & Papantonio Go After BP

Things are heating up on the Gulf Coast as oil from the Deep Horizon rig explosion is now washing up on shore. Over the weekend, BP attempted to get Gulf Coast citizens to sign away their right to sue the company for a mere $5,000, but they’ve since been reprimanded for doing so. Mike Papantonio appears on Ed Schultz’s radio program to talk about the latest developments in the case.

MSNBC boss Phil Griffin compares his channel to Fox

Phil Griffin says he learned a valuable lesson from Roger Ailes, creator of Fox News Channel: Viewers will stand behind a news outlet that stands for something

MSNBC boss Phil Griffin looks at what Roger Ailes created at Fox News Channel with no small amount of awe.

“He’s changed media. Everybody does news differently because Roger’s changed the world,” Griffin said over coffee on a visit to Chicago the other day. He was taking a break from making a case for his own cable network to ad buyers here to make the case for changes in the media landscape to a reporter. “Roger early on figured it out and was brilliant.”

With so much news coming from so many places, so often in much the same way, a leader distinguishes itself by anticipating what its audience wants and needs beyond the immediate headlines. In doing so, the most successful — and in cable, that’s Ailes’ FNC — will establish its own identity.

The critical lesson Griffin took from Ailes was that a news outlet that stands for something is one that consumers can stand behind and rally around.

Full Story: MSNBC: MSNBC boss Phil Griffin compares his channel to Fox – chicagotribune.com.

Hume Acknowledges Oil Spill Disaster ‘Verifies’ The Concern Of Environmentalists

Today’s Sunday morning news shows were dedicated, in large part, to the unfolding oil spill disaster in the Gulf Coast, as efforts continue to contain the 210,000 gallons of oil a day that are still leaking. The leak has reignited debate over offshore oil drilling, with the Obama administration saying that “further commitments for offshore drilling must await an investigation of the causes of the rig explosion and leak.” Even conservative darling and drilling proponent Marco Rubio said that the spill should make us “rethink” our drilling technologies.

Today, on Fox News Sunday, Fox’s Brit Hume said that, while his pro-drilling stance has not been changed by the disaster, the spill validates the concern of environmentalists who warned that such a disaster was inevitable:

Think about what the environmentalists have always said about this. Is it’s not a matter of if there’ll be a disaster of this kind resulting in this kind of offshore drilling, it’s only a matter of when. This verifies that argument, and becomes a powerful factor in the debate over what to do next. I don’t see any way around the political reality that this will set back the cause of offshore drilling in the United States.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Hume Acknowledges Oil Spill Disaster ‘Verifies’ The Concern Of Environmentalists.

Hume Acknowledges Oil Spill Disaster ‘Verifies’ The Concern Of Environmentalists

Today’s Sunday morning news shows were dedicated, in large part, to the unfolding oil spill disaster in the Gulf Coast, as efforts continue to contain the 210,000 gallons of oil a day that are still leaking. The leak has reignited debate over offshore oil drilling, with the Obama administration saying that “further commitments for offshore drilling must await an investigation of the causes of the rig explosion and leak.” Even conservative darling and drilling proponent Marco Rubio said that the spill should make us “rethink” our drilling technologies.

Today, on Fox News Sunday, Fox’s Brit Hume said that, while his pro-drilling stance has not been changed by the disaster, the spill validates the concern of environmentalists who warned that such a disaster was inevitable:

Think about what the environmentalists have always said about this. Is it’s not a matter of if there’ll be a disaster of this kind resulting in this kind of offshore drilling, it’s only a matter of when. This verifies that argument, and becomes a powerful factor in the debate over what to do next. I don’t see any way around the political reality that this will set back the cause of offshore drilling in the United States.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Hume Acknowledges Oil Spill Disaster ‘Verifies’ The Concern Of Environmentalists.

Fox And Friends Pushes ‘Conspiracy Theory’ That Massive Oil Spill Was ‘Deliberate’ ‘Sabotage’

As the scale of the disaster caused by the explosion at an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana became more apparent last week, right-wing radio talker Rush Limbaugh unleashed a conspiracy theory suggesting that someone intentionally blew up the rig in order to “head off more oil drilling”:

LIMBAUGH: I want to get back to the timing of the blowing up, the explosion out there in the Gulf of Mexico of this oil rig….Now, lest we forget, ladies and gentlemen, the carbon tax bill, cap and trade that was scheduled to be announced on Earth Day. I remember that. And then it was postponed for a couple of days later after Earth Day, and then of course immigration has now moved in front of it. But this bill, the cap-and-trade bill, was strongly criticized by hardcore environmentalist wackos because it supposedly allowed more offshore drilling and nuclear plants, nuclear plant investment. So, since they’re sending SWAT teams down there, folks, since they’re sending SWAT teams to inspect the other rigs, what better way to head off more oil drilling, nuclear plants, than by blowing up a rig? I’m just noting the timing here.

As part of their inquiry into the explosion, federal investigators are not ruling out any possible causes, including the possibility of criminal acts or negligence. But other than Limbaugh’s rant last week, oil spill truther theories initially appeared only on fringe websites. That is…until today.

Full Story: Think Progress » Fox And Friends Pushes ‘Conspiracy Theory’ That Massive Oil Spill Was ‘Deliberate’ ‘Sabotage’.

Unification Church will put Washington Times up for sale

Washington Times executives are negotiating to sell the newspaper, after the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s family cut off most of the annual subsidy of about $35 million that has kept the Unification Church-backed paper afloat, company officials said.

Nicholas Chiaia, a member of the paper’s two-man board of directors and president of the church-supported United Press International wire service, confirmed that the paper is actively on the market: “We recently entered into discussions with a number of parties interested in either purchasing or partnering with the Washington Times,” he said in a statement to The Washington Post

Full Story: Unification Church will put Washington Times up for sale.

Bill Moyers on Retiring from the JOURNAL

Thanks to all of you who wrote to express your disappointment and dismay at hearing me say last week that the JOURNAL will be coming to an end with the April 30th broadcast. My team and I were touched by your messages, but I want to disabuse those of you who fear that we are being pushed off the air by higher-ups at PBS pointing to the door and demanding that we go. Not so. PBS doesn’t fund the JOURNAL; our support comes from foundations and our sole corporate funder, Mutual of America. Together they’ve given me an independence rare for broadcast journalists. Our reporting and analysis trigger controversy from many quarters, as any strong journalism will, but not one – not one! – of my funders has ever mentioned to me the complaints directed their way. They would continue their support if I were to stick around.

I’m leaving for one reason alone: It’s time to go. I’ll be 76 in a few weeks, and while I don’t consider myself old (my father lived into his 80s, my mother into her 90s) there are some things left to do that the deadlines and demands of a weekly broadcast don’t permit. At 76, it’s now or never. I actually informed my friends at PBS of my decision over a year ago, and planned to leave at the end of last December. But they asked me to continue another four more months while they prepare a new series for Friday night broadcast. I agreed, but said at the time – April 30 and not a week longer.

It wasn’t easy deciding to close the JOURNAL. I like what I do, I cherish my colleagues, and my viewers remain loyal and engaged. I will miss the virtual community that has grown up around the broadcast – kindred spirits across the country whose unseen but felt presence reminds me of why I have kept at this work so long. But it has indeed been a long time (almost 40 years since I launched the original JOURNAL in 1971), and that’s why I can assure you that my departure is entirely voluntary. “Time brings everything,” an ancient wise man said. Including new beginnings.

Full Story: Bill Moyers Journal: Bill Moyers on Retiring from the JOURNAL.

OPS: A sad day for democracy, and , America

Bill Maher Slams Obama, Oil Companies After Gulf Coast Oil Spill (VIDEO)

Bill Maher slammed President Obama Friday for supporting a repeal of the moratorium on offshore oil drilling.

During the panel segment on “Real Time,” Maher pointed to the Gulf Coast oil spill and wondered why less than a month ago, President Obama proposed lifting the ban on offshore oil drilling along much of the East Coast.

While the president's proposal was part of a larger climate bill, for Maher, it was an unecessary concession to Republicans.

“I understand politics is the art of the compromise and all that,” Maher said. “But you know, when you compromise on something like that, that's a bridge too far to me, as a supporter.”

He went on to compare oil companies to banks that were too big to fail and suggested higher taxes for oil companies that will reflect the real cost of oil.

Full Story: Bill Maher Slams Obama, Oil Companies After Gulf Coast Oil Spill (VIDEO).

Glenn Beck has lost 1/3 of its TV audience since January

Should we blame it on the Massa Moment?

Will that Hindenburg performance soon be seen as the turning point for Glenn Beck: the pivotal moment when the Fox News show began to permanently leak viewers?

Who can forget the March day that will live in cable news infamy, when Beck invited embattled Democratic Congressman Eric Massa onto his show, for an entire hour, to blow the whistle on Democratic Party corruption? Or so Beck thought. Instead, Massa went on and on about tickle fights, and Beck became a laughing stock — the butt of endless Geraldo-opens-Al-Capone’s-vault jokes.

Prior to the Massa Moment, Glenn Beck was averaging 2.6 million viewers each week, and the show was still flying high. And in the short term, the wildly hyped Massa episode produced ratings gold, generating 3.4 million viewers that night, thank you very much. Long-term though, the effects have proven to be disastrous.

Full Story: Glenn Beck has lost 1/3 of its TV audience since January | Media Matters for America.

Washington Times Publisher Jonathan Slevin OUSTED

The president and publisher of conservative newspaper The Washington Times has been ousted after a clash with the editor.

Politico’s Patrick Gavin reported that Slevin would step down on Friday, a claim the newspaper initially denied; it has since confirmed that Slevin’s contract will expire at the end of the month and will not be renewed.

“I can now confirm that Jonathan Slevin’s contract with the Washington Times will be allowed to expire effective April 30, and that the Times is actively seeking a replacement,” TWT spokesman Don Meyer told Gavin Sunday.

In Slevin’s memo announcing his departure, he took several shots at the newspaper’s board and its new editor, Sam Dealey, who he blames for leaking the news of his exit.

Full Story: Washington Times Publisher Jonathan Slevin OUSTED.

Bill Maher BECOMES a Teabagger

Real Time with Bill Maher: New Rules from April 23, 2010 in which Bill Maher puts on his teabagger hat and tells it like it is.

You’re Embarrassing Caucasians In This Country!

Ed Schultz -

Sad Day for America: Moyers down to 2 final shows on PBS

Bill Moyers Journal: Simon Johnson and James Kwak on Real Financial Reform

Sadly, Bill Moyers Journal is going off the air at the end of the month. This was one of Moyers’ better segments to finish off his return to PBS after some time in exile, which started with his documentary that is a must see from back in April of 2007, Buying the War. If you’ve never seen it, go watch it on line at Moyers’ site here.

Bill sat down with Simon Johnson and James Kwak to talk about Wall Street and their dirty dealings that have yet to be reformed, why we need to get rid of “too big to fail”, whether the reforms being considered by the Congress now are strong enough and what we need to do to keep from having another collapse of our financial system.

Sadly there’s a huge hole that is about to be left in what’s left of real journalism in our country with Moyers leaving the airways. Mr. Moyers, you will be missed. He did say that he’s not going away all together thankfully.

Full Story: Bill Moyers Journal: Simon Johnson and James Kwak on Real Financial Reform | Video Cafe.