News from the Front

A Telepalmer President?: Sarah Palin

By Jeffrey Joseph on February 8, 2010 – 3:21 pm

FOX continues to deny, despite all available evidence, that it did anything to promote the Tea Party movement. Still, FOX’s latest pundit, Sarah Palin, delivered the main speech on Saturday night (an appearance for which she was paid $100,000) one that revealed Palin as not only a liar and misinformer but also reinforced the hypocrisy in her criticism of President Obama.

Palin, in a speech delivered from prepared remarks, complained about the president’s handling of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, occasionally known as the underwear bomber, claiming that he “lawyered up” and would not provide further information. Reports from FBI Director Robert Mueller and Director of Intelligence Dennis Blair suggested quite the contrary. According to them, Abdulmutallab has and continues to provide valuable intelligence, even after the US granted him the same constitutional rights Palin worried would protect him too well.

Another invalid concern of Palin’s had to do with what she perceived as President Obama’s inability or unwillingness to use the term “war.” Hardly an original accusation, Palin’s sentiments echoed those of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Neither apparently did the research to recognize President’s use of the terms more than half a dozen times throughout his State of the Union speech, an especially troubling lack of attention paid by someone FOX bothered to bring in to analyze the speech before and after its delivery.

However, she also took a familiar swipe at President Obama, one that even the Palin cheerleaders at FOX & Friends‘ Brian Kilmeade found disrespectful in referring to the president as a “guy with charisma and a teleprompter.” The “teleprompter” criticism, hardly a new one and proven totally unsubstantiated when President Obama took on the GOP en masse, struck an acutely hollow note when close inspection of the Q and A session Palin had at the convention revealed she required crib notes to survive the softball interview. Reviews of the earlier speech showed exactly what Palin had written down, namely generalizations such as “Energy,” “Tax,” and “Lift American Spirits.” Making the situation that much worse for her, researchers have successfully isolated images of Palin needing to look down at those terms to find her footing during the simplest of questions. The situation so undercuts Palin’s tired criticism of the president that her fellow FOX employee Steve Doocy made a mocking allusion to it on air.

FOX’s investment in the would-be telepalmer president shows just how little commitment they have toward responsible, intelligent journalism. Their newest pundit and FOX’s most prominent bridge to the Tea Party movement turned one of the network’s favorite memes into that much more of a joke than it had already become, endangering all the other misinformation FOX likes to perpetuate since Palin’s echoing of them further diminishes their credibility. Viewers deserve better than to endure an intentional misinformer and hypocrite — and should choose to Turn Off FOX.

Please send in tips and success stories to turnofffox@gmail.com, look out for us on Twitter @turnofffox, and join us at BuzzFlash in the Campaign to Turn Off FOX News.

Posted in News | Tagged Crib Notes, Fox News, Sarah Palin, Tea Party, Telepalmer | Comments (1)

Bill O’Reilly’s Defense of FOX to Jon Stewart Riddled with Fallacies

By Jeffrey Joseph on February 4, 2010 – 3:34 pm

Jon Stewart has, time and again, shown the ineptitude of the bias and selective amnesia characteristic of FOX News. After years of FOX serving as a punching bag for Jon Stewart, Bill O’Reilly, FOX’s main ratings leader, had to bring Stewart to defend himself and his network against the host so often exposing their errors.

One accepts that Jon Stewart works in the name of comedy more than in the news world, hence the Comedy Central icon on-screen during his shows. In fact, he admits as much many times on his own, claiming no vestige of journalism. Nonetheless, O’Reilly took such great offense at Stewart’s portrayals of FOX that he attacked Stewart’s credibility and that of his audience. Early in the interview, O’Reilly asked Stewart the very broad question of how he felt President Obama had done thus far. Stewart offered a humorous, cogent, and detailed answer, and O’Reilly responded by saying, “You know, that’s a pretty smart analysis. You know, a lot of people don’t think you’re smart. Did your writers come up with that?” Stewart responded by quipping, “No, they’re in my pocket.”

Later O’Reilly mentioned a Washington Post article from Howard Kurtz citing Stewart as “an important cultural arbiter,” but primarily as a setup to mock that claim. Possibly auditioning for some comedy gig himself, O’Reilly said, “That is frightening, though. Do you understand the implications of you being important in any context?” He continued, “I’m just stunned that this has found its way into print.” Stewart downplayed the comment, saying to O’Reilly, “Listen, Mr. O, I’m just happy to be in the major leagues here. Thanks for calling me up to the show. Listen, I don’t take any of that stuff seriously.” Even O’Reilly chuckled at Stewart’s response, but he again attempted to question Stewart’s credibility by retorting, “When you deliver your stuff, are you cognizant of the fact that your audience are [sic] primarily stone slackers who love Obama and when you criticize Obama, you may be turning on them?”

O’Reilly asked such pointed questions as, “Are you shocked that a Democratic poll operation shows that FOX News is the most trusted news operation in the country? Forty-nine percent of Americans trust FOX News.” Returning the volley with his characteristic wit, Stewart simply replied, “No. Are you shocked that an internet poll said I was the most trusted newscaster in America?” O’Reilly proceeded to diminish the value of the latter poll before Stewart began to explain his thoughts on FOX’s ratings. As Stewart put it, “Fox News is the most passionate and sells the clearest narrative of any news organization — if that’s, are you still referring to it in that manner?” Obviously, O’Reilly maintained that it was and presented as evidence of his own nonpartisan efforts the fact that John McCain would not come on the show as a presidential nominee and that Dick Cheney, who O’Reilly referred to as “Mr. Republican,” also never came on the show.

Unfortunately, the facts disagree with O’Reilly’s stance. For one, McCain did appear on O’Reilly’s program after he had locked up the nomination and he had intended to appear with Sarah Palin a week before the election save for O’Reilly’s team canceling the event “due to weather concerns.” McCain also appeared on Sean Hannity’s program during his campaign, once appearing alongside his wife, further undercutting O’Reilly’s defense of the network. Dick Cheney made parallel visits to visit Hannity during and after his vice presidency, including when Hannity shared the set with Alan Colmes. However, Cheney never fielded questions from Holmes, once again supporting Stewart’s idea of a “narrative” FOX refuses to stray from with its guests. At best, O’Reilly showed that he largely does work as a “Republican shill,” but that aside from instances explained by his occasional amnesia and “bad weather,” some people just may not like him personally and opt for another shill instead.

O’Reilly may want to reconsider bringing in people like Jon Stewart on his show in the future. Too often and plausibly, Stewart’s analysis of O’Reilly and his compatriots at FOX suggested that they may as well switch networks to make the network names more credible, especially when O’Reilly’s only counters were jabs at Stewart and his audience and warped interpretations of O’Reilly’s own biased approach to the news. Though Stewart’s does make O’Reilly more entertaining by intelligently responding with aplomb to O’Reilly’s subtle condescension, people should generally avoid listening to “Bill O” — and choose to Turn Off FOX.

Posted in News | Tagged Bill O'Reilly, Dick Cheney, Fox News, John McCain, Jon Stewart, Sean Hannity | Comments (3)

Morality and Hannity: Sean Hannity and Richard Miniter Question Obama’s Faith

By Jeffrey Joseph on February 3, 2010 – 3:13 pm

After President Obama so soundly defended his intellectual and policy credentials before the GOP, FOX had to approach denigrating President Obama from a different angle. Sean Hannity decided a great way to begin, and to further his goals with Republicans, included making a discussion introducing doubts and unfounded assertions about President Obama’s theological leanings.

Searching the archives for an ABC interview with President Obama from July of 2009, Hannity aired footage to his guests for his “Great American Panel” of President Obama mentioning that he begins his days with a daily devotional from Josh DuBois, head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Hannity’s problem arose from President Obama mentioning that the devotional includes “a passage — Scripture, in some cases quotes from other faiths — to reflect on.” Immediately, Hannity complained about the devotionals, sent directly to President Obama’s Blackberry, because “if he ever says ‘GD America’ or ‘America’s chickens have come home to roost,’ we won’t know about it.” If Hannity had done any homework on DuBois, he may have found him hardly a radical, having helped President Obama meet with evangelical leaders on the campaign trail, but Hannity preferred to simply suggest otherwise to see who would pick up on the meme.

Sure enough, Richard Miniter quickly caught on to Hannity’s sentiment. Miniter’s first comment attempted to attack both Islam and the president, saying, “Sean, the question is, what are the other faiths? Is he talking about Islam?” Fellow panelist Kirsten Powers stated the obvious: “Who cares if he’s talking about Islam?” She attempted to explain that a person did not necessarily have to believe in Islam to learn from at least parts of it, but Miniter cut her off and pivoted to another attack by saying, “It’s kind of weird. Every president has had a personal relationship with God, and for him to say some days it’s Buddha, some days it’s Jesus, it’s kind of strange.” Of course, nothing about President Obama’s comment substantiated Miniter’s accusations of him switching religious allegiances on a regular basis, and coming from a guy who previously complained about others refusing to respect his personal faith, one might have hoped for more consideration of the facts.

Hannity could have challenged Miniter on the paucity of substance in his argument but chose instead to help ratchet up the attacks. As an established member of the GOP media, he preferred the kind of softball approach and loaded questions that let charged felon James O’Keefe feel comfortable enough to make an appearance on Hannity’s show to try to exonerate himself with the public. Regarding the president, Hannity appeared content to cast doubt on his faith by invoking a months-old interview to manufacture controversy with little substance to it. Viewers have a responsibility to resist Hannity’s artificial scandal — and choose to Turn Off FOX.

Please send in tips and success stories to turnofffox@gmail.com, look out for us on Twitter @turnofffox, and join us at BuzzFlash in the Campaign to Turn Off FOX News.

Posted in News | Tagged Faith, Fox News, Islam, Josh DuBois, President Obama, Richard Miniter, Sean Hannity | Comments (1)

FOX Fudging-the-Numbers Freak-Out

By Jeffrey Joseph on February 2, 2010 – 1:43 pm

No stranger to widespread misinformation, something Roger Ailes unconvincingly defends, FOX personalities have taken to the air in the hopes of misrepresenting President Obama’s stimulus plan and the budget for fiscal year 2011. Unlike another fox-themed fudging, the effects of FOX’s misrepresentation intends to sour people on the president’s efficacy, but with some worthwhile analysis, FOX’s attempts work to no avail.

Recent numbers from the government indicated that stimulus funding helped save or create almost 600,000 jobs. Given the record of FOX hosts against the Obama Administration, one might expect them to ignore any job creation from the stimulus. Instead, the FOX & Friends hosts complained that the finding showed the stimulus provided job creation to a degree “less than many people had hoped,” as Alisyn Camerota put it. Camerota later criticized any attempt to create another stimulus plan “when much — half, I think — of the $787 billion hasn’t been spent yet, and the half that has been spent has only created the 600,000 jobs, if you believe the website. But again, it’s a moving target, because you heard 2 million, 1.5, then thousands and thousands, and 600,000.”

However, the FOX crew failed to recognize that the figure only accounted for those jobs saved or created in the final quarter of 2009. Later in the show, Peter Orzag of the Office of Management and Budget also explained why administration officials had referenced numbers as high as two million jobs created or saved as the report’s figures “only applied to about a fifth of the recovery act funding, so when you scale it up, you’re talking about one and a half to two million jobs created or saved as a result of the recovery act.”  So FOX tried to complain about 600,000 jobs only to find out the administration could claim responsibility for two million. No one expects that to be enough for them, either.

In keeping with the theme of attacking President Obama’s ability to handle the economy, FOX later aired Art Laffer, previously of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board, to discuss his opinions about the 2011 budget plan from President Obama. Quickly, Laffer rushed to claim that all of the Bush tax cuts would expire in 2011. However, President Obama already planned to keep tax cuts available for working families making less than $250,000.

Laffer also implied that the budget creates new taxes when he said, “They’re raising the highest personal marginal income tax rate from 35 to 39.6. They’re raising the capital gains tax, the dividend tax, the inheritance tax, and payroll taxes.” However, all but the payroll tax actually have increases simply due to an expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the legislation providing for the end of said cuts all got passage by a Republican Congress and president. A responsible discussion would have included that information rather than simply blaming the current administration, but FOX is hardly renown for its display of the facts.

Aiming to undermine President Obama’s ability to stabilize the economy, FOX mostly illustrated their inability to comprehend the numbers and willingness to misinform when they can. As they strive to be the media arm of the GOP, though, they can probably write it off by stating what may become the new party response on whether they will correct any mistakes:  ”Oh, no. Accidents happy, baby.” Hence, it behooves most to simply avoid the clear attempts to make, rather than report, news — and to choose to Turn Off FOX.

Please send in tips and success stories to turnofffox@gmail.com, look out for us on Twitter @turnofffox, and join us at BuzzFlash in the Campaign to Turn Off FOX News.

Posted in News | Tagged Alisyn Camerota, Art Laffer, Budget, FOX & Friends, Fox News, Peter Orzag, Stimulus | Comments (1)

Should Obama Fear the Left, or the Bat Man? Glenn Beck Pretends to Warn Obama of His Own Party

By Jeffrey Joseph on February 2, 2010 – 12:28 pm

President Obama, fresh off of taking on the GOP during their retreat, has a message from the man dubbed Fear-Monger-in-Chief, Glenn Beck. Now that President Obama has shown he can handle confrontation from the right, Beck claims the president should worry about the truly dangerous people  — not Beck’s own listeners, but the left.

On his radio program, Beck claimed that President Obama said things to appease the left because “since I found Van Jones in the White House, and since we knew who he was and saw how dangerous this guy was, I maintain that the president is in more danger, in all of the meanings of that, from the people he surrounds himself with on the uber, uber left than anybody on the right.” Beck fails to recall for his audience his problem with facts as they relate to the Van Jones, who happened to champion a boycott against Beck in the first place, but he goes on to accuse the left of adhering to such “dangerous radicals” as Saul Alinsky that will “do whatever it takes to get their agenda.”

Despite his projection of radicalism onto the left, Beck’s boss Roger Ailes was the one who had to defend Beck on Sunday on the charge of inciting Americans. Specifically, Ailes had to defend Beck going on the air, baseball bat in hand, and claiming people should fear the Obama Administration “because you too could be the next victim of the killing spree.” Ailes tried to defend the statement by saying Beck spoke only of Hitler and Stalin, but given the context (and given that Hitler and Stalin are long past dead), Beck pretty clearly referenced the administration and implied physical damage would come to those who would oppose it. As much as Beck tries to claim danger from the left, his warnings sounded increasingly like a call to arms against them.

Beck’s appreciation of James O’Keefe, recently up for felony charges from the FBI, also calls into question Beck’s ability to criticize his opponents. O’Keefe reportedly took inspiration from the same Alinsky Beck repeatedly refers to during his diatribes against the left. With O’Keefe, the sentiments proved only that he was “courageous“; for someone on the left, Alinsky must signify a radical to Beck. Fortunately for Beck, no matter what happens with the O’Keefe case in court, he already has a conspiracy theory to explain it all away.

No matter how many times Glenn Beck tries to suggest a kind of revolution against the current administration, he will continue to sheepishly blame any radical sentiments as a characteristic primarily of the left. As much rampant misinformation and posturing with a weapon in hand as Beck has made against the president, Beck leaves no ambiguity to his truly dangerous element. Since he refuses to do the nation a favor and keep his fear mongering to himself, viewers should turn away from the vitriol — and choose to Turn Off FOX.

Please send in tips and success stories to turnofffox@gmail.com, look out for us on Twitter @turnofffox, and join us at BuzzFlash in the Campaign to Turn Off FOX News.

Posted in News | Tagged Fox News, Glenn Beck, James O'Keefe, President Obama | Comments (0)
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