Fox News Not So Fair and Balanced Toward Immigrant Children

President Barack Obama has eased restrictions for immigrant children residing in America. Gabe Ortíz tweeted this less than fair and balanced graphic Fox News used to report on white adult protesting against immigrant children. This is the same network that employs anti-immigration xenophobe Lou Dobbs. Bill O'Reilly floated the conspiracy theory that children maybe abducted from their villages across Central America and sent to the United States.

“The media is telling the folks that if they come to the United States now, because of the DREAM Act and some of the other things that have been proposed, they’ll be able to stay,” he told Dobbs. “So then the people smugglers, the human smugglers, which take the children out of their villages and shepherd them all the way through Mexico, they’re making a ton of money.”

O'Reilly is making a ton of money gining up fear with his 72 year-old demographic.

The median age for Mr. O’Reilly’s audience reached a new high, 72.1. And less than 15 percent of his audience fell within the 25-54 group. (He still dwarfs his news competition in terms of numbers: CNN averaged 145,000 viewers in that hour among the 25-54 year old audience, and MSNBC just 127,000.)

The Fox News audience is old and terrified of brown people. The coverage by Fox News plays into the fears of its audience.

Quote of the Day

"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."

Malcolm X

Headline of the Day

This is from Media Matters.

O'Reilly: Media Covering Malaysian Airliner Because It "Doesn't Want To Cover Important Stories Like The IRS And Benghazi"

O'Reilly has been on this rant that that networks are refusing to cover real news by covering the missing Malaysian airliner. O'Reilly shouldn't talk. O'Reilly works for a network that reported Noah's Ark has been found. This happened when Fox News host Bill Hemmer was covering the Malaysian airliner story. I thought O'Reilly said Fox News wasn't wasting time covering this story.

Russia's Bill O'Reilly

It is nice to know Russia has their own version of Bill O'Reilly. Dmitry Kiselev, a host of the Russian news show News Hour told his audience that Russia could reduce the United States to "radioactive ash." It's nice to see that Kiselev is trying to be the voice of reason.

Politisite has the English translation.

“Russia – the only country in the world, capable of transforming the U.S. into radioactive ash ! I do not know whether the match , but Obama called Putin on January 21 , but the next day , literally January 22, as the official organ of the Russian government appears article [ in "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" ], where quite lucidly chewed how our system works guaranteed nuclear retaliation “Perimeter” . In the U.S., call her dead hand – « dead hand .” Even if all the people in our command posts after enemy nuclear attack silenced , invulnerable system will automatically send to our strategic missile flight from mines and submarines in the right direction “, – announced Kiselev , recommending interesting to read in ” Rossiyskaya Gazeta ” , calling it ” extremely interesting . ”

Kiselev is either extremely stupid or a total Russian propaganda tool. Kiselev is discussing nuclear warfare as a viable option to end the diplomatic disagreement between the United States and Russia over the Ukraine. What nuclear war would likely do is kill every single person on the planet.

The good news is Russia has television pundits just as stupid as America's talking heads.

Hurricane Katrina Talking Point From Fox News

Jon Stewart has this reaction to Fox News comparing the Obamacare rollout to Hurricane Katrina.

“Are you out of your –” Stewart began to say, before stopping once he heard his audience’s collected groan. “Do you know you’ve disappointed our audience? They think you might be out of your f*cking mind.”

Fox News is running hard with the Hurricane Katrina talking point.

Make Chuck Todd Do His Job Petition

I don't hold out much hope on Chuck Todd being an actual journalist. I do support Nicole Belle's petition as a way to call out Todd on his open hostility to fact-checking.

In a Morning Joe segment this week on misinformation about the Affordable Care Act, NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd made the outrageous claim that it isn’t his job to inform viewers when Republican politicians lie about political issues.

How is it possible that the Political Director of NBC News doesn’t think it is his job to inform NBC viewers with facts about important political issues?

Todd appeared on Morning Joe and made this remark to Ed Rendell.

"What I always love is people say, 'Well, it's you folks' fault in the media.' No! It's the President of the United States' fault for not selling it."

I do agree with Todd that it is not the media's job to sell Obamacare. What angers Belle and other progressives is Todd's glib attitude on fact-checking the MSNBC guests he interviews. Being a member of the Village is more important than journalistic accuracy to Todd.

Quote of the Day

"I'm really sorry, Milissa Harris Perry, that I forced you to talk about Snowden & barred you from discussing our multiple NSA revelations."

Glenn Greenwald, on Melissa Harris Perry's shoot the messenger coverage of Edward Snowden.

Quote of the Day

"Lawrence O'Donnell is the guy who makes Piers Morgan look like I.F. Stone."

Jason Linkins

I will explain in a longer post why I think O'Donnell is a partisan hack. For now, you should learn more about the brilliant investigative journalist I.F. Stone.

Quote of the Day

"We’ll make something up."

Bill Hemmer, Fox News host on how to fill the news cycle due to the lack of Supreme Court news.

The Liberal Media

I'm so glad the press pool took time to play some hard-hitting flag football with Mitt Romney's campaign staff. I look forward to Michelle Malkin expressing her outrage.

Fair And Balanced: Fox News Orlando Edition

Fox News Orlando ran the headline, "Civil rights group patrolling Sanford." This maybe the first and only time the National Socialist Movement has ever been called a civil rights organization. The NSM was founded by former American Nazi Party member Robert Brannen. The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed the NSM as a hate group. The NSM didn't lose the Nazi uniforms until 2007.

This is what Fox News Orlando calls a civil rights group.

Update: I should note that the National Socialist Movement claims they came to Sanford because they received calls from local citizens concerned for their safety. Don't people usually call the police before an out of state neo nazi group on matters of public safety? The NSM is just exploiting Trayvon Martin's death for publicity.

Another thing that always bothered me about neo nazis is they don't seem to realize Germany lost during WWII. The neo nazi movement didn't work out well for the German people.

Update: Fox News Orlando changed the web page without a correction. Above is a screenshot from the original version.

Update Here is the shocking bad Fox News Orlando video story. There is a problem in media when the media doesn't challenge people that call President Obama a socialist. Yet, calls neo nazis a civil rights group. It truly is sickening.

Jason Mattera: Worst Journalist Ever

Andrew Breitbart lackey Jason Mattera grills a Bono impersonator. Mattera complains about the liberal media. If Mattera was an actual journalist and not a partisan hack, he would have realized he did an ambush interview on someone who actually isn't Bono. Breitbart.com editor Joel Pollack refused to admit to NY Magazine that they interviewed a fake Bono.

"We went through a vetting process on this and appropiate questions were raised and appropiate answers were given," Breitbart.com editor Joel Pollack assured us by phone. "But the videographer then asked us to take it down, so we did." But Pollack said he would neither "confirm or deny" that mistaken identity was the reason for the scrubbing.

I would love to sit in on a Breitbart.com editorial meeting to find out what the vetting process is. It surely doesn't involve posting corrections on the Breitbart.com web site. I look forward to future posts at Breitbart.com about how the liberal media doesn't fact-check.

Newspapers Won't Carry Doonesbury

Doonesbury has been pulled from several national newspapers today for running a strip dealing with the intrusive ultrasound bills being written in red states. Garry Trudeau deserves praise for doing this strip. Doonesbury will spend the week focusing on the ultrasound storyline.

Jodi Jacobson has a good round-up of the media reaction to Doonesbury. My favor nonsensical reason comes from the SC Herald.

“I am concerned about the graphic content.”

We are talking about a comic strip. Newspaper editors are acting like this is the torture scene from Reservior Dogs. If this doesn't prove that the media doesn't have a liberal bias then I don't know what will.

Update: Trudeau talks to the Washington Post about the content of this weeks strip.

A: Oddly, for such a sensitive topic, I found it easy to write. The story is very straightforward — it’s not high-concept like [the satiric] Little Timmy in “Silent Scream” — and the only creative problem I had to work through was the physician’s perspective. I settled on resigned outrage.

Texas’s HB-15 [bill] isn’t hard to explain: The bill says that in order for a woman to obtain a perfectly legal medical procedure, she is first compelled by law to endure a vaginal probe with a hard, plastic 10-inch wand. The World Health Organization defines rape as “physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration — even if slight — of the vulva or anus, using a penis, other body parts or an object.” You tell me the difference.

Fox News: Still Reciting GOP Talking Points

Fox News was caught running a Senate Republican Communications Center press release verbatim. Fox News does no actual reporting. That would require hiring actual journalists and firing partisans whom regurgitate Republican talking points. Roger Ailes has no interest in running an actual news organization. Fox News has been caught so many times reading Republican talking points that Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy read a RNC memo for pundits to the audience with no shame. Jon Stewart takes Doocy to task.



Remember this the next time a Fox News host complains about how liberal and unbalanced the media is.

Jon Stewart & Chris Wallace Interview

The Chris Wallace interview of Jon Stewart was fascinating. Stewart easily deflated Wallace's charges of liberal media bias.

The bias of the media is towards laziness, conflict, and sensationalism.

What was laughable was Wallace telling Stewart that Fox News employees do not get marching orders. John Moody's "marching orders" show a conservative bias. Moody has been more than happy to carry water for President George W. Bush.

"His political courage and tactical cunning ar[e] [wo]rth noting in our reporting through the day"

Fair and balanced!

Justin Sayfie of Sayfie Review Co-Chair of Pawlenty Florida Campaign

I am sure that we are going to see a lot of friendly articles on The Sayfie Review about Tim Pawlenty.

Phil Handy will head up Tim Pawlenty’s Florida operation, the campaign announced today. Justin Sayfie will serve as co-chairman, reports Alex Leary of the St. Petersburg Times.

In Sayfie's defense, he has not made his ties to Jeb and George W. Bush, and now Pawlenty. Sayfie is not traditional media anymore than Pushing Rope. I think the conflict of interest should be pointed out.

Disclosure: Pushing Rope's RSS feed is syndicated on Sayfie Blue I did not ask for this. The links to Sayfie Review does bring in a good deal of traffic to PR.

New York Post Headline: Allah Right By Me

The Ruport Murdoch owned New York Post decided to worsen the dialogue on the Cordoba Initiative by running the headline "Allah Right By Me" with Obama' face underneath. Yet another example of liberal media bias. If we could only get a cable news network and talk radio to express a conservative viewpoint.

Questions on questions

Here's the cover of the latest issue of Foreign Policy magazine, featuring a darkened photo of Obama looking distressed with the caption "Yes, he did -- But what if he can't?"

I just checked Foreign Policy's archive to see if their covers from November 2000 - January 2001 had a similar theme, questioning Bush's ability to lead and govern. They didn't.

Foreign Policy magazine is hardly the only entity that pitches such questions of Obama; this cover symbolizes a seeming anti-Obama mindset among some in the media. And I understand that Obama starts his presidency during perilous times, which plays a role in desperation-themed covers him -- his policies needed to be questioned right from the get-go because his decisions right now may effect us for generations to come. Whereas when Bush came into office, what's the most important things we were thinking about? I remember tax cuts, stem cell research, and yet another sex scandal were in the news before 9/11. That's certainly small potatoes compared with the problems Obama faces (cleaning up Bush's mess).

But the fact still stands that in early 2001, outside of the pages of such not-exactly well read magazines like Mother Jones (though they should be taken more seriously, especially for their investigative reporting), and websites like Common Dreams and MoveOn, the media mindset of questioning Bush (like they are of Obama right now) didn't exist. Given the problems our country faces now, maybe it should have.

Regardless, I can't help but find it a mite offensive that Obama is subject to such criticism. "But what if he can't?" This, in effect, implies that Obama can possibly do a worse job then Bush; a man they didn't apply such questions to. I've got an easy answer to this question: We're fucked if he can't. Stop asking stupid questions. If you want better questions, here's a few to whet your inquisitive appetite: Why couldn't Bush do it?; What did Bush do wrong?; Why didn't the media question Bush enough? And how about Why are we treating Obama like a child when he's not representative of the people who fucked up, and by all accounts are still taken seriously as some sort of brainiacs?

I know the usual suspects will point to his lack of government experience, but Obama sure demonstrated a hell of a lot more aptitude to solve today's problems then McCain or Palin did -- and if the latter team were elected, I doubt magazines like Foreign Policy would run cover stories critical of them.

So cut the shit. Actual adults are in charge now, and it's about time some stopped acting like children.