Tag Archives: Fox News Channel

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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Sean Hannity On NSA Surveillance, Then And Now

Media Matters

Sean Hannity is warning that data mining and surveillance are “very clear violation[s] of the Fourth Amendment,” a drastic change for the Fox News host, who was a loud defender of National Security Agency surveillance during the Bush administration.

Media Matters offers a look at Hannity on NSA surveillance, then and now.

 

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What Really Went Wrong For MSNBC, And How To Really Fix It

To paraphrase a famous quote: The reports of MSNBC’s demise are greatly exaggerated.  

We’ve seen this before, but in reverse.  Last fall, MSNBC was beating Fox News in certain demographics.  Ratings go up and down and with that thought, there’s no doubt in my mind that MSNBC is here to stay…period.

Mediaite

There has been a lot of virtual ink devoted to the two months of dismal ratings that MSNBC has just endured, some of it sincere, some of it concern-trolling, and much of it tinged with Schadenfreude. There has even been talk that the network might never recover, at least not unless it abandons its Lean Forward identity. In order to figure out how to fix MSNBC’s problems, you have to understand what went wrong in the first place, and you have to actually want the network to thrive.

Before I even start, and more importantly, before any of you even start, let me set the record straight: I hate everything about TV ratings. I hate writing about them, reading about them, and I especially hate getting PR pitches about them. ratings are a terrible way to measure quality, especially in news programming, there are a million ways to slice and dice them, and just looking at them gives me a headache. This is not an invitation for you to email me about how your show is #1 with carpentry aficionados age 63-97. My concern for ratings is confined to their effect on whether I can continue watching programming that I enjoy.

That’s why I took notice when Salon‘s Alex Pareene, in an otherwise excellent column, suggested that MSNBC’s bad stretch has put the network’s progressive-leaning orbit into fatal decay. Are the ratings really that bad?

Well, they are pretty bad, from what I can see, and as Pareene notes, lots of people are taking this opportunity to beat up on All In host Chris Hayes. The launch of the former Up star’s 8 pm show just happened to coincide with an extended series of news cycles that played to rivals CNN and Fox News’ strengths, along with the climax of the HLN-owned-and-operated Jodi Arias trial. Here’s how Pareene describes it:

Meanwhile, CNN’s been given gift after gift by whichever minor demons are responsible for the creation of cable news stories. The channel’s new Zucker-approved softer focus and lack of dignity allowed it to capitalize on Jodi Arias nearly as much as its trashy sister station HLN did. The Boston bombings were a perfect CNN story, even if CNN botched the hell out of its coverage. The Dzhokhar Tsarnaev manhunt was precisely the sort of story that makes people go through their channel guides trying to remember which one CNN is. And then there was the West, Texas, explosion. CNN capitalized on all of this because CNN’s brand is “breaking news.” Fox capitalized because there are simply a whole bunch of people out there whose TVs are tuned to Fox basically all the time. MSNBC’s brand is “people either talking calmly or yelling at you, or each other, about politics.” These weren’t stories that made people think, “What does Chris Matthews have to say?” (Another problem: During huge stories, like the Boston bombing and subsequent manhunt, MSNBC frequently finds itself in the odd position of competing with its own sister network, when NBC News takes over the broadcast network.)

Ironically, MSNBC was alone among its cable news competitors in getting the Boston manhunt story right, a good deed for which they appear to be being punished. Fox News, meanwhile, has been carb-loading like Jabba the Hutt with ringworm on the three-headed Scandalabra™, and bloating its endlessly voracious audience in the process.

Continue here…

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List of Companies Supporting Right-Wing and Tea Party Causes and Candidates

FYI…

Liberals Unite

As we discussed in our recent article, 4 Effective Ways to Fight the Tea Party, there are many things we can do to combat their agenda.  We can work to advocate truthfulness, avoid television stations that air conservative Super PAC propaganda.  WE can support candidates facing elections against Tea Party candidates…

And we can boycott companies whose products and services help fund the Tea Party agenda and candidates.

For your convenience, here is a list of but a few of those companies we should avoid.  Be sure to share with your family and friends. This is by no means a fully comprehensive list, but it is a good beginning.

Also, change.org has a petition you can sign telling “Cannon Pharmacy, Quicken Loans, Angie’s List, & 37 Limbaugh Sponsors – We’re Not Buying”.

NEWS CORP

Be sure not to watch:

  • 20th Century Fox Television programs on other networks (24, Married with Children, etc.)
  • Big Ten Network (49%)
  • Fox Business Network;
  • Fox College Sports
  • Fox Movie Channel
  • Fox News
  • Fox News Channel
  • Fox Reality Channel
  • Fox Soccer Channel
  • Fox Sports en Español
  • Fox Sports Enterprises
  • Fox Sports Net
  • Fox-branded local television stations
  • Foxtel (25%)
  • FUEL TV
  • FX Networks
  • National Geographic Channel (International) (50%)
  • National Geographic Channel (US) (67%)
  • Speed Channel
  • Sport South

Do not watch movies produced by these studios:

  • 20th Century Fox Español
  • 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
  • 20th Century Fox International
  • 20th Century Fox movies;
  • Blue Sky Studios pictures;
  • Fox Searchlight Pictures;

On the web, avoid:

  • AmericanIdol.com
  • AskMen.com
  • Authonomy via HarperCollins
  • Fox Interactive Media
  • Fox.com
  • Foxsports.com
  • GameSpy
  • Hulu.com
  • IGN
  • MyNetworktv.com
  • MySpace (5%)
  • News Digital Media
  • Scout.com
  • TheSimpsons.com
  • TheXFactorUSA.com
  • WhatIfSports

Do not buy/subscribe to magazine/print publications or read books from:

  • Alpha
  • Barron’s – weekly financial markets magazine.
  • Big League
  • Chopper
  • Country Style
  • Financial News
  • Harper Collins
  • Lifestyle Pools + outdoor design
  • Live to Ride
  • Marketwatch – Financial news and information website.
  • MasterChef Magazine
  • Modern Boating
  • Modern Fishing
  • New York Post
  • Overlander 4WD
  • SmartSource Magazine
  • Super Food Ideas
  • Tattoo
  • The Wall Street Journal
  • Truck & Trailer Australia
  • Truckin’ Life
  • Two Wheels
  • Two Wheels Scooter
  • Vogue Entertaining + Travel
  • Zondervan Publishing

THE KOCH BROTHERS

  • ADI-Pure ®
  • Antron ®
  • Brawny brand paper towels and other products;
  • Chemical products including: •Sure Sol ® products
  • Comforel® fiberfill
  • CoolMax ®
  • Cordura ® fabric
  • DACRON ®
  • DBE ® dibasic esters
  • Delica ®
  • Demak’Up ®
  • Dixie® Brand cups plates, and other products;
  • European brands: •Colhogar ®
  • Georgia-Pacific lumber and paper products;
  • Inversoft ®
  • Kitten Soft ®
  • Koch Agricultural – Operates cattle ranches
  • Koch Fertilizers
  • Lotus ®
  • Man-made fabrics and fibers including: •LYCRA ®
  • Mardi Gras brand paper goods;
  • Matador Ranch – Hunting ranch.
  • Moltonel ®
  • Northern brand toilet paper;
  • Nouvelle ®
  • Okay
  • Oxyclear ™
  • Performa ®
  • Polarguard ®
  • Polyclear ®
  • Polyshield ®
  • Soft-n-Gentle® brand toilet paper;
  • SolarMax ®
  • Somerelle ® Bedding
  • Sparkle brand paper goods;
  • Sparkle brand paper napkins;
  • Stainmaster® carpet and fabric care products;
  • Supplex ® Fabric
  • Tactel®
  • Tactesse ® Carpet Fibers
  • Tenderly ®
  • Terathane
  • Thermolite ®
  • Tutto ®
  • Vanity Fair brand paper napkins;
  • Zee brand paper goods

THE DeVOS FAMILY

  • AMWAY products (much of which are made in China) including: •Nutrilite ®
  • Artistry make-up and skin care products
  • Body Series personal products;
  • DITTO Delivery
  • eSpring laundry and cleaning products;
  • Fulton Street Market products;
  • Glister oral care products;
  • Hi-Gear automotive products
  • iCook
  • Legacy of Clean;
  • Miss America make-up and skin care products
  • NUTRIPET ® products
  • Nutriplant agricultural products;
  • Perfect Empowered drinking water
  • Personal Accents ® scents;
  • Satinique bath products;
  • The Creme LuXury Collection make-up and skin care products
  • The NBA ® Orlando Magic
  • Trend Collection make-up and skin care products
  • XLP automotive products
  • XS energy drinks

 

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Malkin on London attack: British ‘brought it on themselves’ by not deporting Muslims

Michelle Malkin speaks to Fox News

Great Britain is a democracy Ms. Malkin, let’s start from that premise?  Those guys did horrific things yesterday and there’s no defense for their actions.  Whatever their fate, they will deserve it.  However,  to put every Muslim into the same category is just plain ignorant.

The Raw Story

Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin on Wednesday asserted that the British people “brought it on themselves” after an apparent terrorist used a meat cleaver to hack a soldier to death in London.

Following Wednesday’s horrific slaying, Fox News host Sean Hannity speculated that President Barack Obama would have refused to call the incident a “terrorist attack.”

“What do you need to have? Neon lights that say, ‘Islamic jihad,’ ‘Islamic jihad?’ I mean, duh,” Malkin agreed. “They were screaming at the top of their lungs, ‘Allahu Akbar,’ and repeatedly swore in the name of Allah that they would continue to fight against us.”

“And in large part, unfortunately, in British culture, among the progressives there, they brought it on themselves in some ways because of lax deportation policies, and an unwillingness to screen out and profile Islamic militants who are now doing this in a homegrown manner on British soil,” she added. “It’s tragic.”

Hannity, however, suggested that greater access to guns could have prevented the attack.

“And also it does bring into question gun laws,” the Fox News host opined. “If the soldier had been able to protect himself and defend himself, which people all over the media in this country bragging about the fact, well, people don’t have guns in England.”

“Well, do you know who did have a gun? One of the assailants had a pistol!” Malkin exclaimed. “And everyone else was unarmed! Completely!”

Prior to being shot by police, the terrorist suspects also expressed the sentiment that the British people were to blame for the attacks.

“The only reasons we killed this man … is because Muslims are dying daily,” one attacker was caught on video saying. “This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth.”

 Watch this video from Fox News’ Hannity, broadcast May 23, 2013.

 

 

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The only thing Boehner can’t imagine is that Obama isn’t guilty. Of something.

John Boehner

Poor Speaker Boehner, he’s just a one-trick pony

Daily Kos

House Speaker John Boehner can’t imagine President Obama didn’t know about the IRS investigation until it became public:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in an interview aired late Wednesday that it’s “inconceivable” someone didn’t inform President Obama about the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups.“It’s pretty inconceivable to me that the president wouldn’t know,” Boehner said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Greta van Susteren.

And why can’t he conceive of this?

“I’m just putting myself in his shoes. I deal with my senior staff every day. And if the White House had known about this, which now it appears they’ve known about it for about a year, it’s hard to imagine it wouldn’t have come up in some conversation.”

Note that Boehner says the White House has known about the IRS probe for about a year, but according to the White House, they first learned about it in late April. No evidence has emerged suggesting that’s untrue, which means that Boehner’s explanation for why he can’t imagine Obama didn’t know is based on imaginary fact.

Adding to the irony, it turns out that House Republicans have known about the probe for roughly a year—the IRS Inspector General informed Darrell Issa and Jim Jordan of the inquiry last July. So, by Boehner’s own logic, it’s “inconceivable” that Boehner didn’t know about the IRS inquiry, yet he remained silent. The logical conclusion from that flows from that “fact”—which was established by the first constructive law of inconceivability—is that House Speaker John Boehner covered up the IRS investigation.

Sure, those logical leaps are nonsense, but it’s no different than what Republicans are doing here. Every day they have a new theory, but the end result of their theory is always the same: Obama is Nixon. Sure, as Steve Benen writes, when the IRS story first broke, Republicans accused President Obama of using the IRS as a political hit squad against his enemies. But that theory has been debunked, so now they are trying to accuse him of covering up knowledge of the investigation into the activities after the activities had been stopped.

Of course, this theory won’t work, because even if the White House is lying (a claim for which there is no evidence), we know that Republicans were aware of the probe. Nothing was stopping them from talking about it publicly, but they didn’t. But even though it’s clear this latest Republican theory is going to go up in smoke, it doesn’t mean they’re going to stop arguing that Obama = Scandal = Nixon. It just means they’ve yet to imagine their next theory on why.

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Fox News Gives Karl Rove’s Crossroads Groups Millions In Free Airtime

Karl Rove on Fox News Channel

It’s important to review why the Tea Party groups were petitioning the I.R.S. anyway. They (the Tea Party) were seeking approval to operate under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. This would require them to be “social welfare,” not political, operations. There are significant advantages to being a 501(c)(4). These groups don’t pay taxes; they don’t have to disclose their donors—unlike traditional political organizations, such as political-action committees. In return for the tax advantage and the secrecy, the 501(c)(4) organizations must refrain from traditional partisan political activity, like endorsing candidates.  (The New Yorker)         Ed. Note: Emphasis are mine

Think Progress

Though Karl Rove receives a salary from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for his work as a Fox News Channel “political contributor,” his compensation doesn’t end there. The network frequently airs ads by his American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS political committees, as “news,” free of charge.

A review of Fox News Channel broadcasts over the past twelve months revealed that Fox News programs ran all or a significant part of Crossroads ads at least 34 times — an estimated value of more than $3.6 million in free air time. Frequently, the network’s hosts run the ads during Rove’s segments and then allow him to explain and repeat their charges.

On Monday, for example, Fox News aired a significant chunk of a new American Crossroads ad attacking former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her handling of the attacks in Benghazi, Libya. Noting criticism the ad received from conservative columnist William Kristol, host Martha MacCullum asked Rove: “What say you?”

Watch the video:

Continue reading here…

 

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Bernie Goldberg To O’Reilly: Obama Could ‘Literally’ Cure Cancer And GOP Would Still Hate Him

billbernie

 Many pundits have exposed the GOP for their utter disdain for President Obama

Mediaite

Bernie Goldberg sat down with Bill O’Reillytonight for a round of media criticism that hit the liberal media for its months-long reluctance in covering Benghazi, with Goldberg arguing that it was a report by ABC News that finally “gave permission” to other news organizations to pursue the story. And while Goldberg differed with O’Reilly on the latter’s insistence that the AP monitoring story is not a scandal, he agreed that conservatives are too obsessed with tearing down Obama, saying that the president could cure cancer and the GOP would find a way to avoid giving him credit.

Goldberg claimed that liberal reporters have been playing down Benghazi because the White House wants that, but after ABC released a report on the changed talking points, “that gave permission” for the rest of the media to scrutinize Obama. He said that the media never really takes the word of conservative reporters seriously, that they need one of their own to jump on it first.

But on the Associated Press story, Goldberg challenged O’Reilly’ downplaying of the scandal, asking him how he would feel if Fox News was similarly targeted. O’Reilly defended the FBI for conducting a legal investigation into national security leaks, and while he did criticize the attorney general for denying involvement, he argued that it “hurts the cause of legitimate investigations” of the Obama administration by jumping to conclusions without the facts to back them up.

Goldberg agreed on this point, saying there are liberals who won’t acknowledge Benghazi as a scandal at all, but also conservatives who wouldn’t give credit to Obama even if he “literally” cured cancer, pointing to this new era of “raw partisanship” in Washington.

Watch the video courtesy of Fox News

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Congressman Tears Into Fox News Host For Obsessing Over Benghazi Talking Points

As Daily Kos reminded us…If it’s Sunday, It’s Benghazi All Day Long…

Think Progress

Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) tore into Fox News’ Chris Wallace and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) for obsessing over the talking points U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used when talking to the media in the days following the attack in Benghazi, Libya rather than focusing on identifying the perpetrators of the killings. “I think the desire of the Republicans to create a scandal here has really undermined any ability to have a credible look at what actually happened,” Smith said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday alongside Rogers.

While acknowledging that the administration’s initial assessment of Bengazi did not reflect what officials later learned about the incident, Smith criticized Fox for suggesting that that Rice’s remarks on five Sunday news shows presented a definitive picture of the events of Sep. 11, 2012.

“[The administration] didn’t reach conclusions the way you just presented that was that by the Sunday afterwards that the administration said here is what happened, here is our conclusion,” Smith explained. “But the president never said, no terrorism, no Al Qaeda. There was a dispute about how soon to lead to specific conclusions that now is being made into Watergate and Iran-Contra.” Watch it:

Indeed, during multiple appearances on the Sunday shows Rice said that the attacks were in part a response to the anti-Islam video that had spurred protests across the region, but did not offer a definitive answer as to what exactly took place in Benghazi and predicated the administration’s assessment as “based on the information that we have at present.” The CIA and State Department did initially believe that the attack was spontaneously inspired by the protests in Cairo, Egypt.

Still, in the days after the attack, both Obama and then Secretary of State Hillary Clintondescribed the events in Benghazi as an “act of terror” and pledged justice against the perpetrators.

Wallace responded to Smith pointing out that intelligence officials changed Rice’s talking points at least 12 times, taking out references to prior attacks and specific terrorist groups. “We’re talking about talking points,” Smith reminded the host. “There was no question this was a it terrorist attack. They didn’t deny it. I would much rather get into investigation of the groups that threatened the U.S., figure out how they are, and how to stop them instead of debating how one memo was put together in the immediate days after the attack.”

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Filed under Benghazi, Sunday Talks Shows

Sunday Talk: The truth is out there

This Sunday’s Daily Kos entry is especially humorous…

Daily Kos

In this week’s episode of “GOP Theater of the Absurd,” former car thief Darrell Issa presented incontrovertible evidence that former Secretary of State/current 2016 presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton personally murdered Ambassador Ben Ghazi—or something to that effect.

Despite this revelation being hyped as a “bombshell” by Fox News et al., it wasn’treally all that shocking to anyone who’s been following the Clintons for the past few decades; after all, their body count has been well documented.

In fact, being the Machiavellian-type characters that they are, it seems likely that Bill and Hillary orchestrated Ambassador Ghazi’s murder (and the subsequent “cover-up“) in order to get President Obama impeached (as retribution for his 2008 primary victory)—but only time (and “whistleblowers“) will tell.

Be sure to tune in next week for the latest developments in this never-ending story.

Morning Lineup:

Meet the Press: Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA); Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA); Former Ambassador Thomas PickeringRoundtable: Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), David Brooks (New York Times), Katty Kay (BBC) and Author Wes Moore.

Face the Nation: Former Defense Secretary William Gates; Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL); Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH); Poet Maya AngelouRoundtableDavid Sanger (New York Times), Bobby Ghosh (TIME), David Rohde (Reuters) and Sharyl Attkisson (CBS News).

This Week: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ); Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI); Foreign Policy RoundtableGeorge Will (Washington Post), Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chair Gen. James CartwrightRuth Marcus (Washington Post) and Jonathan Karl (ABC News);Political RoundtableGeorge Will, Democratic Strategist Donna Brazile, GOP StrategistMatthew Dowd, Former Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-NH) and Jonathan Karl.

Fox News: Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI); Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA); Rep.-Elect Mark Sanford (R-SC); RoundtableBill Kristol (Weekly Standard), Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Kimberley Strassel (Wall Street Journal) and Juan Williams (Fox News).

State of the Union: Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL); Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI); GOP Strategist Alex Castellanos; Democratic Strategist Mo ElleitheeKaren Tumulty(Washington Post); Reliable Sources: Pop Culture Commentator Lola OgunnaikePaul Farhi (Washington Post); Jim Warren (New York Daily News); Connie Schultz(Cleveland Plain Dealer); Margaret Carlson (Bloomberg News); Bob Cusack (The Hill);Jim Geraghty (National Review).

The Chris Matthews ShowHoward Fineman (Huffington Post); S. E. Cupp (MSNBC);Joe Klein (TIME); Kelly O’Donnell (NBC News).

Continue reading article here

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