Daily Archives: December 26, 2012

December 26, 2012 · 7:36 PM

Fox News Lies To It’s Gullible (Low-information) Readers Once Again

Once again, Fox News via Fox News Nation has blatantly lied and it seems like their hoping their readership don’t notice the lie:

Americablog

When’s the last time you met a gay-hating, Obama-hating (they think he’s literally the anti-Christ), Muslim-hating, Catholic-hating (conservative Baptists think Catholics worship Satan) evangelical Baptist church that was full of Democrats?  Oh yeah, they also really really don’t like Jews.  Well, if you believe Fox News (your first mistake), Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church is really a bunch of liberals.  Albeit, liberals who hate gays, Obama, Muslims, Jews and have the same view of Catholics as the Republican-loving religious right.

Other than that, very liberal.

This story is a perfect example of why Fox News is not a “news” network, but rather, is little more than a propaganda arm of the Republican party.  And the far right wing of the GOP, at that.

As you may know, the evangelical anti-gay activists at the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas regularly picket the funerals of gay people.  They’re the kind folks who operate the “God Hates Fags” Web site (those are also generally the type of signs they hold at their protests).  Over the last several years they’ve started to picket the funerals of non-gay people as well, including US service members, though it’s not entirely clear why, other than as a means of getting attention.

Well, this time they’re picketing the funeral of the dead children in Newtown, Connecticut.  Anonymous hacked the church’s Web site after the protests were announced, and it’s still rather difficult to pull the site up – I was finally able to get to their home page: GodHatesFags.com.  Here it is, in all of its “left wing” glory:

God Hates Fags home page

Hmm… Let’s see. The Democratic party is on the record supporting gay marriage. The Republican party is on the record opposing gay marriage. And the Baptist “God Hates Fags” church is virulently opposed to gay marriage. Let’s all guess which political party is more like to garner their sympathies.  But that didn’t stop Fox News.  Fox thrives on the fact that their viewers are dumb, unaware of the facts, and awfully gullible.  Nothing better than a gullible blank slate if you’re trying to peddle lies.  So here is how Fox News describes Phelps’ church when it was protesting the funerals of the children mass-murdered by a gun nut in Newtown, Connecticut (check the description under the photo):

Fox News says Fred Phelps is "left wing"

Did you catch that?

“Bikers turn out to protect Newtown mourners from left-wing Westboro cult”

Left-wing Westboro cult.

Uh huh.

This is how Fox News operates.  You can argue that MSNBC has a bias, and the network does – now, and in response to Fox.  But while MSNBC has a liberal bias, Fox just lies.

Now, as Kerry Lauerman points out in this Mother Jones piece from 1999, Fred Phelps was a Democrat before he went bonkers over 20 years ago.  Yeah, and I was a Republican back then as well.  I’m not a Republican now.  And it would be factually incorrect to call AMERICAblog a “right-wing Web site” because its founder was a Republican over twenty years ago before his political views shifted markedly.  Same goes for Fred Phelps, whowas a Democrat over twenty years ago, before he ventured into anti-gay crazyland, but then turned on Democrats when he saw the party embracing gays in the 1992 presidential election.  That’s when Phelps’ anti-gay animus exploded.

But don’t tell that to Fox News.  Fox News isn’t about nuance. Fox News isn’t about the truth.  Fox News is the propaganda wing of the Republican party, and truth isn’t their goal.  Electing Republicans is their goal.  At all costs.  That’s why their viewers are routinely found to be the most uninformed of any, and why studies have found that you’ll be more informed on the issues if you simply don’t watch Fox News.

Related articles

 

1 Comment

Filed under U.S. Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

· 6:37 PM

Sam Donaldson to tea party: ‘It’s not your country anymore – it’s our country’

Sam Donaldson

Clearly no one of any prominence in the political media or in congress has spoken out against the Tea Party before.  This is why former ABC News anchor man, Sam Donaldson is in the news…

The Raw Story

During an appearance on Chris Matthews‘ syndicated weekend talk show, ABC News contributor and analyst Sam Donaldson criticized the tea party and argued that the movement and the Republican party were becoming increasingly in danger of irrelevancy.

“It’s the Tea Party and thinking of the Tea Party and people like that that are driving the Republicans out of contention as a national party,” he said.

Donaldson said that he had a particular aversion to the campaign slogan “We want to take back our country.”

“Guys, it’s not your country anymore – it’s our country and you’re part of it, but that thinking is going to defeat Republicans nationally if they don’t get rid of it,” he said.

Watch the video, via Newsbusters, below.

Related articles

2 Comments

Filed under Sam Donaldson, Tea Party Rhetoric

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

· 11:04 AM

British create a petition to keep Piers Morgan in U.S.

British create a petition to keep Piers Morgan in U.S.

This is too funny, and I support his position on gun control, but I definitely see the logic in this…

Salon

After a petition to deport the pro-gun control CNN host gains momentum, a counter-petition emerges

A petition calling to deport pro-gun control CNN host Piers Morgan back to England has easily surpassed the 25,000 that requires a response from the White House. Started on Friday in Texas a few days after Morgan called gun advocate Larry Pratt “an unbelievably stupid man”, the petition accuses Morgan of engaging “in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution” and wants to deport him “immediately for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens.”

More than 70,000 people have signed the petition. But what if the UK doesn’t want him back?

A new petition called “Keep Piers Morgan in the USA” has emerged:

We want to keep Piers Morgan in the USA.

There are two very good reasons for this. Firstly, the first amendment.

Second and the more important point. No one in the UK wants him back.

Actually there is a third. It will be hilarious to see how loads of angry Americans react.

So far, the petition only has 67 signatures. It needs an additional 24,933 by Jan. 24 to merit a response from the White House.

 

Related articles

Comments Off

Filed under Piers Morgan

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

· 10:32 AM

New York Firefighters In Guarded Condition

New York Firefighters

Homes burn on Lake Road, Monday, Dec. 24, 2012 in Webster, New York. A former convict set a house and car ablaze in his lakeside New York state neighborhood to lure firefighters then opened fire on them, killing two. (AP Photo/Democrat & Chronicle, Max Schulte)

More crazies with semi-automatic weapons…

The Huffington Post

Two upstate New York firefighters remain hospitalized in guarded condition Tuesday, a day after being shot in a hail of bullets that killed two other firefighters responding to a house fire that investigators say appears to have been set as a trap.

Firefighters Joseph Hofstetter and Theodore Scardino are recovering at a hospital in Rochester, New York.

They were among four firefighters who responded to the blaze in the suburban Rochester town of Webster Monday morning. Authorities say William Spengler set a house and car ablaze and then opened fire when the firefighters showed up. He later exchanged bullets with a police officer before killing himself.

Spengler’s sister is missing. The 62-year-old was released from prison in 1998 after serving 17 years for killing his grandmother.

Video

Related articles

4 Comments

Filed under Gun Control Debate, Gun Violence

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

· 2:05 AM

The grassroots movement to get Piers Morgan deported: Could it actually work?

Piers Morgan on stage at a BritWeek 2012 event in Beverly Hills in May.

The batcrap-crazy crowd has found a new target to bully…

The Week

More than 60,000 people have signed a petition to get the CNN commentator kicked out of the country for his outspoken views on gun control

Can a foreign-born political commentator be deported for making political comments? That’s the question — and the goal — of more than 60,000 Americans who have signed a petition to deport British journalist Piers Morgan for his outspoken views on gun control. On a recent episode of his CNN series Piers Morgan Tonight, Morgan called guest Larry Pratt, the executive director of Guns Owners for America, “dangerous” and “an unbelievably stupid man” for arguing that the U.S. needs more guns to fight gun violence. Pratt responded by calling Morgan “morally obtuse.” (Watch a video of the heated exchange below.) The subsequent petition to get Morgan deported, which was started by “Kurt N” from Austin, Texas, argues that Morgan is “engaged in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment” and “[demands] that Mr. Morgan be deported immediately.”

The irony, of course, is that deporting Morgan for his “hostile attack” on the Constitution would be a violation of the constitutional right to free speech. Even as a British national, Morgan is “afforded various rights under national security law and due process,” says immigration attorney Mark Schifanelli at ABC News. Morgan’s comments are protected unless they present “immediate danger” to the United States, and his opinion on gun control isn’t likely to meet that requirement.

So the government is very unlikely to take action against Morgan — but what about CNN, which airs Piers Morgan Tonight? “His bosses have every right to fire him if they want: That’s not a breach of First Amendment rights,” says Tim Worstall at Forbes. But there’s no indication that Morgan’s job is on the line, and given that he was hired as a political commentator, he’s not likely to land in hot water for making political comments. In fact, the controversy may end up proving to be a ratings boost, offering a life raft to the relatively low-rated show.

Getting past the fairly ludicrous question of deportation, there’s a much more serious issue at hand: Is Morgan doing damage to the gun control movement? ”He’s certainly given conservatives a gift by allowing them to portray gun control as the issue of choice of foreign liberals,” says Tim Stanley at The Telegraph. “And, frankly, asking an interviewee ‘You’re an incredibly stupid idiot, aren’t you?’ fosters the impression that liberals are engaging not in constructive debate but an assault on the character of their opponents.”

Morgan, for his part, remains unrepentant:

Piers Morgan

@piersmorgan

I don’t care about petition to deport me. I do care about poor NY firefighters murdered/injured with an assault weapon today.

Related articles

2 Comments

Filed under Gun Control Debate, Gun Violence

Tagged as , , , , , , ,