Faux News, Faux Fair, Faux Balanced, Faux Guest

Fox News Regular Indicted Over Allegedly Concocting Bogus CIA Past:

A frequent guest on Fox News claimed he worked 27 years for the CIA but in fact never worked for the agency, according to a federal indictment announced Thursday.

Wayne Shelby Simmons was arrested following his indictment by a federal grand jury for fraud, accused of lying about his employment at agency, the U.S. Attorney's Office of Eastern Virginia announced. Simmons was often a guest on Fox News and touted as a national security analyst. He is being charged with major fraud against the United States, wire fraud, and making false statements to the government, the U.S. Attorney's Office press release said.

My Proposition

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH:


I propose that we try Opposite World for one year and see what happens. Pay the people at the bottom of the economic ladder what the CEO’s make and pay the CEO’s minimum wage. Then let’s see if FoxNews has the discussion "Lowering The Minimum Wage: Is It Better for CEO’s?

From Off To On

Shepherd Smith: Now that the election is over, Carl, tell us more about all those reports of infighting between McCain and Palin staffers.

Carl Cameron: Well, I wish I could have told you back at the time but all of it was put off the record until after the election. There was great concern in the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin lacked the degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, and a heartbeat away from the presidency. We’re told by folks that she didn’t know what countries were in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that being Canada, the US, and Mexico. We’re told she didn’t understand that Africa was a continent rather than a country just in itself ... a whole host of questions that caused serious problems about her knowledgeability. She got very angry at staff, thought that she was mishandled… was particularly angry about the way the Katie Couric interview went. She didn’t accept preparation for that interview when the aides say that that was part of the problem. And that there were times where she was hard to control emotionally there's talk of temper tantrums at bad news clippings…

Put off the record by whom? Why isn’t it off the record anymore? Did Carl Cameron and Fox News want another idiot to be president?

"This marching thing" in Denver

Griff Jenkins of FoxNews in Denver:

How much money does FoxNews pay Griff Jenkins and Jamie Colby to come up with these words of wisdom?

• “This is the recreate 68 crowd” (Yes, they really do exist. How nice it was of Griff and Jamie to give us so much information and background on them. Not!)


• “This marching thing” (Not to be confused with the talking thing, pretending to be a news person.)


• “I don’t know how rowdy this is going to be” (How about reporting the news, not predicting it.)


• “These people say they believe in freedom of speech” (Meaning what, exactly?)


• “Not all of them are Obama fans. That’s perhaps the biggest surprise of all. Obama’s getting not as much love as even Bush.” (It’s no surprise to me, Obama is simply the lesser of two evils. Where is the proof to support such an inane statement that these people dislike Obama more than Bush, because I really doubt that it is true.)


• “But Griff, Puerto Rico and Hawaii as well, what is their concern there?” (Don’t the citizens of Puerto Rico and Hawaii vote?)


• “I guess they don’t believe in freedom of speech” (In response to someone saying: “Fuck corporate media.”)


• “Let’s just work this crowd, and see who else we can talk to” (Work this crowd?)


• “Do you not believe in freedom?” (In response to someone saying: “Stop the torture, stop the war.”)


• “It is out of control” (What? They seemed pretty peaceful and reasonable to me, given who they were talking to.)


• “This group saying that they want to recreate 68” (But Griff Jenkins had previously said: “There are a lot of different groups represented.” Which is it? One group, or many?)


• “Giving them a chance to speak out, to tell what their message is, and they’re not even talking, all they’re doing is screaming and yelling at him” (The message is that FoxNews sucks, lady. Clean out your ears.)

Thanks to onegoodmove, where I first stumbled upon this video.

And thanks to johnny dollar's place for the video.

Obama's Baby Mama Is Not A Gaffe

Gaffes and misstatements? From Fox News and Michelle Malkin? Is this for real?

From News Outlets Face Increasing Scrutiny in Campaign by Sam Schechner and Rebecca Dana:

For the second time this week, Fox News Channel was driven to respond to criticism over on-air statements about Barack Obama, in this case for screen text that described the Democratic presidential candidate's wife as "Obama's baby mama." The term is often applied pejoratively to unwed mothers.

Television news organizations, facing unprecedented scrutiny, have often expressed contrition for poorly chosen words during this election season.

In a campaign that includes the first viable African-American presidential candidate, the lines of appropriate speech have become fuzzy. News organizations are under pressure from a broad network of self-appointed watchdogs, including organized groups like Media Matters and individuals. These watchdogs are likely to remain vigilant about gaffes, misstatements and potentially biased language through the November vote. Just this week, Gina McCauley, a well-known blogger in Austin, Texas, started michelleobamawatch.com to track the portrayal of Mrs. Obama in the news media.

Read the rest here.

Will The Real Mike Huckabee Please Stand Up

Who is Mike Huckabee? Is he an ordained Baptist minister? Is he the head of a political action committee raising money for John McCain and other Republicans? Is he a political commentator on Fox News? Is he John McCain’s potential running mate?

The answer would be “all of the above.” Does anyone else see a glaring conflict of interest here? Fair and balanced all right.

From Mike Huckabee Joins Fox News by Andrew DeMillo:

Mike Huckabee, a former Republican presidential hopeful, has been hired by Fox News Channel as a political commentator.

Read the rest here.

Fox News And Karl Rove

From That Pundit on Fox News? An Upstart Named Rove by Jim Rutenberg and Jacques Steinberg:

George Stephanopoulos’s abrupt move 11 years ago from the Clinton White House to ABC News — initially as a partisan member of a Sunday political panel who would also do some reporting — raised hackles inside and outside the network.

Speaking at the time to The American Journalism Review, the Washington Post columnist David S. Broder complained about what he saw as a worrisome trend. “One day they are calling journalists to write favorably about their prominent political patrons,” Mr. Broder said, “and the next minute they are sitting at the table with journalists and indistinguishable from the journalists.”

This year, there has been hardly a hiccup as the cable news networks and other outlets have sought to stoke interest in the presidential race — already a huge ratings boon — by signing up strategists who have either left politics only recently or still work in campaigns, a detail that is usually shared with the audience but not always.

Read more here.

One Reason To Not Vote For Hillary Clinton

Clinton Accepts Fox News Debate:

"The candidates that can't face Fox, can't face Al Qaeda," said Roger Ailes, the Fox News CEO.

From thinkprogress.org:

Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly has compared people who oppose participating in Fox News’ presidential debates to Nazis, claiming they “lie, distort, defame, all the time” using “propaganda techniques perfected by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of information.” Fellow Fox News anchor Mort Kondracke claimed they are “not about free speech” and guilty of “junior grade Stalinism.”