Tag Archives: Fox & Friends

Ted Cruz Praises Sarah Palin On Fox For ‘Fearlessness’: Helped GOP Discover ‘A Backbone’

One of the right-wing blogs called the Fox News program in question a “Trifecta of Awesome”.  To that I say, “I think not!”

Mediaite

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made her first appearance on Fox News on Monday after being resigned as a contributor with the network. Sitting down with the hosts of Fox & Friends, Palin questioned Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) about the revelations surrounding the National Security Agency’s communications monitoring regime. During that interview, Cruz praised Palin for serving as an example to conservative politicians and the “fearlessness” with which she has “advocated conservative principles.”

Palin recently told a crowd in Washington that she wished the federal government would spend some time on “cruise control… Ted Cruz control.” She clarified that what she meant was that she hopes his fellow senatorial colleagues would “let him speak.”

“I certainly think it would help if we got back to the principles our county was founded on,” Cruz replied.

RELATED: She’s Back: Sarah Palin Rejoins Fox News As Contributor

Cruz said that he is witnessing a more robust anti-establishment sentiment in Congress and commended Palin on setting an example for others to follow in that regard. He said to Palin that he “the fearlessness with which you’ve advocated conservative principles.” Cruz added that it was likely Palin’s example has helped some Republicans who have “magically discovered a backbone.”

Turning to the NSA scandal, Cruz said that he was concerned about those revelations but urged that the public “not rush to judgment about the entire program.”

“Part of the problem is that we’ve seen a pattern from the Obama administration – whether it’s the IRS, whether it’s targeting journalists, whether it’s Benghazi – of a willingness to use the machinery of government to implement political and partisan ends, and then to mislead the American people about it,” Cruz said.

Cruz chided the administration for claiming that the Congress was briefed on the NSA programs. He said that only the intelligence committees were fully informed.

Watch:

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Fox And Friends: Polar Bears Prove Climate Change Is ‘Not Really Real’

Oh my goodness!  The ignorance…it hurts…

Think Progress

Polar bears can’t catch a break anywhere, least of all Fox News.

On Fox and Friends this morning, Fox Legal Analyst Peter Johnson Jr. was asked about last week’s ruling by the D.C. Circuit to uphold the decision to protect polar bears as a “threatened” species. He made the case that environmentalists use polar bears as a fundraising tool, and that the threat to polar bears may be imaginary:

JOHNSON: It really depends upon whether you believe the global warming is real, whether polar bears are actually threatened or not. This has become a big fundraising tool and it’s become a problem, too, for oil interests throughout the world because they have to act in a way that is very expensive in terms of making modifications.… So is global warming real or not real? I’ve heard a lot of people say it’s not really real.

Watch it:

Global warming is undoubtedly real. In fact, the real climate debate has shifted to how much climate scientists have actually underestimated global warming impacts.

With regard to polar bears, the court said that the Fish and Wildlife Service listed the polar bear correctly as “threatened”:

“The Listing Rule rests on a three-part thesis: the polar bear is dependent upon sea ice for its survival; sea ice is declining; and climatic changes have and will continue to dramatically reduce the extent and quality of Arctic sea ice to a degree sufficiently grave to jeopardize polar bear populations…. No part of this thesis is disputed and we find that FWS’s conclusion – that the polar bear is threatened within the meaning of the ESA – is reasonable and adequately supported by the record.” [Page 14]

It went on to say that 13 out of 14 peer reviewers found the rule generally “represented a thorough, clear, and balanced review of the best scientific information available from both published and unpublished sources of the current status of polar bears.”

Polar bears depend on sea ice for feeding. Arctic sea ice volume has collapsed. The question on threats to polar bears is not over whether general population estimates are stable. (Where there is sufficient data, many more sub-populations are decreasing than are increasing.) If Fox and Friends wants to get to the root of the issue, they should host a discussion about whether polar bears should be classified as “threatened” or “endangered.”

Polar bear ranges will only get more crowded by other animals. Under an incorrect-yet-ironic headline (“Study: Global Warming Helps Polar Bears,”) Fox News reported in January that many mammal species will expand their ranges northward as the Arctic warms. As the sea ice melts, the polar bears will surely welcome their new grizzly bear overlords from the south.

 

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Filed under Fox News Fail, U.S. Politics

Fox News Claims Solar Won’t Work in America Because It’s Not Sunny Like Germany

“It’s always sunny in Germany”

Can they really be that dense over at Fox News or are they just playing to their low-information base?

Slate

Thanks to Fox News and its expert commentators, millions of Americans now understand the real, hidden reason why Germany’s solar-energy industry is so much further along than ours. Turns out it has nothing to do with the fact that Germany’s government has long supported the industry far more generously, with policies like feed-in tariffs that stimulate investment in green technologies. No, the real reason is much simpler, explained a trio of journalists on Fox & Friends: It’s always sunny in Germany!

“The industry’s future looks dim,” intoned host Gretchen Carlson at the beginning of the segment, which was preserved for posterity by the liberal blog Media Matters for America.  She and her co-host went on to ridicule Obama’s “failed” solar subsidies, adding, “The United States simply hasn’t figured out how to do solar cheaply and effectively. You look at the country of Germany, it’s working out great for them.” Near the end of the segment, it occurred to Carlson to ask her expert guest, Fox Business reporter Shibani Joshi, why it might be that Germany’s solar-power sector is doing so much better. “What was Germany doing correct? Are they just a smaller country, and that made it more feasible?” Carlson asked.

Joshi’s jaw-dropping response: “They’re a smaller country, and they’ve got lots of sun. Right? They’ve got a lot more sun than we do.” In case that wasn’t clear enough for some viewers, Joshi went on: “The problem is it’s a cloudy day and it’s raining, you’re not gonna have it.” Sure, California might get sun now and then, Joshi conceded, “but here on the East Coast, it’s just not going to work.”

Gosh, why hasn’t anyone thought of that before? Wouldn’t you think that some scientist, somewhere, would have noticed that the East Coast is far less sunny than Central Europe and therefore incapable of producing solar power on the same scale?

You would—if it were true. As Media Matters’ Max Greenberg notes, it isn’t. Not even remotely. According to maps put out by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, virtually the entirety of the continental United States gets more sun than even the sunniest part of Germany. In fact, NREL senior scientist Sarah Kurtz said via email, “Germany’s solar resource is akin to Alaska’s,” the U.S. state with by far the lowest annual average of direct solar energy.

Solar resources: United States, Germany, Spain

I look forward to Fox News’ correction. Meanwhile, enjoy toggling between the video above and the map below and shaking your head.

 

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Wednesday Blog Roundup – 10-10-2012

President Barack Obama

The Day In 100 Seconds

Overload: Polling hype sways voters

Romney’s chance to win still only 28%

Fox News Starting To Get A Wee Bit Cocky

Stupid Right-Wing Tweets: Donald Trump Edition

CNN Poll: Ohio Stays In Obama Column After Debate

Romney’s Foreign Policy a Puzzle That Doesn’t Fit Together

Fox & Friends Cheerleads Paul Ryan ‘Sticking It To The Press’

Fox’s Neil Cavuto To “BB”: “We All Love You, Big Bird. We Just Think It’s Time You Flew The Coop”

Fox News Analyst: Deadly Meningitis Outbreak Demonstrates Need For Less Government Regulation

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Fox News and Matt Drudge turn ‘pirate’ gag into international incident

"Fox & Friends" attempts to turn a Twitter prank into an international incident. Photo: Screenshot via FoxNews.com.

 

Anything Fox News or Drudge Report can find to negatively portray President Obama, they will jump on it and repeat it over and over again.

However, there’s just one problem…

The Raw Story

If you were watching Fox News or reading The Drudge Report on Thursday morning, you might mistakenly believe that President Barack Obama blew off the prime minister of Israel this week to chat up a colorfully costumed man who looks more like “Captain Morgan” than any government leader.

“TOO BUSY FOR ISRAEL,” a “Fox & Friends” kicker headline read in all-caps, stamped below a photo of Obama sitting next to man dressed like a pirate. “PRESIDENT FINDS TIME FOR PIRATE, LETTERMAN.” Hosts Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy piled on, attributing the photo to “International Talk Like A Pirate Day,” an unofficial holiday marked every year on Sept. 19.

Co-host Gretchen Carlson added: “I’m going to have to see more on that story because it doesn’t totally seem to gel.” Still, the show went on, with the “Fox & Friends” production team repeatedly displaying the pirate photo and even cuing up pirate music. Doocy later said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “getting the Clint Eastwood treatment” from Obama, and showed a photo of the Israeli president cross-cut with an image of an empty chair.

Matt Drudge, the conservative media aggregator behind The Drudge Report, took the bait. “BUT NO TIME FOR NETANYAHU…” a headline on his popular conservative website declared, according to a record of the post captured by liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America.

It didn’t take long for savvy web users to point out that the pirate photo not is new. It turns out the image was taken as part of a Twitter joke for the White House Correspondents Association dinner, which typically features a night of political comedy and a satirical speech by the president. It has been available online since May 2009.

Reacting to the obvious blunder, a Twitter account for “Fox & Friends” corrected the repeat error. “The picture we aired this morning of the President & the pirate was from 2009,” they explained. Drudge, however, did not offer a correction.

This video is from “Fox & Friends,” broadcast Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, as snipped by Talking Points Memo.

 

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Filed under Drudge Report, Fox News Lies

Geraldo Rivera: Hoodie ‘allowed’ Zimmerman to kill Martin

Geraldo should just pack it in, he’s quickly becoming irrelevant, so a statement like this gives him an additional “fifteen minutes”…

The Raw Story

Fox News host Geraldo Rivera thinks he knows who or what is to blame for the slaying of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin: the hoodie did it.

Appearing on Fox News early Friday morning, Rivera conceded that George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who shot Martin, should be investigated, but he urged black and Latino parents to not allow their children to wear hooded sweatshirts.

“I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was,” the host ranted. “You have to recognize that this whole stylizing yourself as a gangsta — you’re going to be a gangsta wannabe, well people are going to perceive you as a menace. That’s what happens. It is an instant, reflexive action.”

Rivera compared the situation to NPR firing Fox News contributor Juan Williams for saying he was scared of Muslims at the airport because of the way they dressed.

“That’s an automatic reflex,” Rivera explained. “When you see a black or Latino youngster, particularly on the street, you walk to the other side of the street. You try to avoid that confrontation. Trayvon Martin, God bless him. He’s an innocent kid, a wonderful kid, a box of Skittles in his hand, he didn’t deserve to die, but I’ll bet you money if he didn’t have that hoodie on, that nutty neighborhood watch guy wouldn’t have responded in that violent and aggressive way.”

Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy noted that New Yorkers on Wednesday had held a “Million Hoodie March” in support of Martin.

“You cannot rehabilitate the hoodie,” Rivera insisted. “I understand that the reaction might be overzealous or even irrational in some extent. You are not going to rehabilitate the hoodie. Stop wearing it!”

“There are some things that are almost inevitable. I’m not suggesting that Trayvon Martin had any kind of weapon or anything. He wore an outfit that allowed someone to respond in this irrational, overzealous way. And if he had been dressed more appropriately — I think unless it is raining out or you are at a track meet, leave the hoodie home.” [Edit: Doh! It was raining outside!]

“Perception is reality,” guest co-host Juliet Huddy agreed.

In fact, Zimmerman told the 911 dispatcher that it was raining as he was pursuing Martin.

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs or something,” the neighborhood watch enthusiast said. “It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about. … These assholes always get away.”

Watch:  

Baratunde R. Thurston’s response:

parents, please don’t let your children go out wearing Geraldo Mustaches. Based on the facial hair alone, people could think they are attention-seeking, victim blaming, simple-minded idiots and in the worst case, hurl turtle shells at them

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Fox And Friends Pretty Sure The Labor Department Is ‘Cooking The Books’ On Jobs Numbers | ThinkProgress

Think Progress

On Friday, ThinkProgress noted that Fox News appeared to be systematically ignoring the strong jobs report that day, perhaps in an effort to avoid giving President Obama any credit. The network mentioned the jobs numbers half as often as some of their competitors, and buried the big news on their website, but on Fox and Friends today, the network went a step further.

Hosts Eric Bolling, Steve Doocy, and Gretchen Carlson went beyond merely downplaying the numbers to contriving a conspiracy theory to explain them away:

BOLLING: So are they playing around with the numbers? Look, it’s the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it’s supposed to be non-partisan, but that’s the Department of Labor. Hilda Solis heads the Department of Labor, Hilda Solis works directly to Obama. I’m — you know.

DOOCY: Are you saying they’re cooking the books?

BOLLING: I’m saying there’s room for error. There’s room — when you’re talking about 4 million people, how do you know?

DOOCY: How do you know?

CARLSON: I don’t think anyone should surprised that in an election year — [...]So it’s interpretation, I think is the way in which we’d describe it.

Watch it, via Media Matters:

If it weren’t improper to psychologically analyse strangers, one might think the Fox hosts are displaying a textbook example of cogitative dissonance here, a psychological phenomena in which people who hold on strong belief about something invent (sometimes far fetched) explanations for new evidence that conflicts with their existing views. Obama is bad for the economy, the jobs numbers show the economy is doing better, so there must be something wrong with the jobs numbers. Needless to say, this is hardly the behavior one expects from fair and balanced journalists Fox hosts claim to be.

Meanwhile, some conservatives have developed a more sophisticated excuse for the jobs report, saying the drop in unemployment rate is only due to decreasing participation in the jobs market. Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman and others have refuted this claim.

Related articles

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Mitt Romney: Newt Gingrich never calls to congratulate

It appears that Newt Gingrich is just as petty as many of us thought…

Politico

The morning after his win in the Florida primary, Mitt Romney suggested on the morning TV shows that Newt Gingrich may have missed the memo on one important campaign etiquette: extending the winner a congratulatory phone call.

“Newt didn’t call after Iowa or New Hampshire. I called him after South Carolina, his win there, but he didn’t call again last night. The other candidates all called. But I don’t know, I guess [former] Speaker Gingrich doesn’t have our phone number,” Romney said Wednesday, laughing, on NBC’s “Today” show.

Asked again about whether Gingrich had called to congratulate him on Fox News, Romney repeated that Gingrich had failed to do so on multiple occasions.

“By the way, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul and I talk after each campaign, congratulate one another on the campaigns the others have run, but Speaker Gingrich I guess doesn’t participate in that tradition,” Romney said.

When “Fox & Friends” host Steve Doocy joked that the candidate should give Gingrich his phone number on the air, Romney laughed and said, “Sure, give me yours first.”

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Jerry Springer calls out Fox News’s perpetual Obama bashing

I didn’t know Jerry Springer was still around…

The Raw Story

Appearing on the Fox News morning show Fox & Friends on Wednesday, former Cincinnati Mayor Jerry Springer, notorious for his low-brow talk show, criticized host Gretchen Carlson for pretending to be fair when it comes to matters of presidential politics.

Speaking about the recent Newsweek cover story by blogger Andrew Sullivan, Springer complemented the author and agreed with its overall message. “He’s saying that the critics are dumb — obviously that’s a headline to grab your attention — but it’s not really that the people are dumb, it’s that they’re missing a point of how he’s been successful in a very difficult time.”

“He saved our financial system when it was just about to go under, people had lost almost half of their life savings in pension funds and things like that, so clearly that. He saved the auto industry. He got Osama bin Laden. The economy is now growing, we’ve added in the private sector 2.6 million jobs in the last two years. I mean, the fact of the matter is, he’s doing very well, and it is a little disingenuous — here we are at Fox, complaining that, gee, Newsweek may be a little partisan.”

See video here (at bottom of article)…

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Think Progress

No wonder Roger Ailes is trying to change Fox News’ image from ultra conservative to moderate. Looks like Fox and Friends didn’t get the memo.

Think Progress

Despite the fact that the Obama administration succeeded in killing one of the most dangerous and wanted men on the planet, conservatives have been reluctant to give him credit.

Fox and Friends host Gretchen Carlson used the moment to both suggest that the president is too soft on terror and to make an implicit plug for the Bush administration’s use of torture:

CARLSON: Let me ask you this, would you be in the camp of having rather captured him…to try to get more information? But then I brought up the fact that under this administration it seems that we don’t prosecute or ask the same questions that we might have under the Bush administration, so would we get anything out of him anyway if we captured him?

Watch it, via Media Matters:

Think Progress, posted with vodpod

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