Earlier this week, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer delivered a speech that contained some revealing comments about Fox News. Here's the key passage, with the best stuff highlighted.
"Fox has done a great service to the American polity - single-handedly breaking up the intellectual and ideological monopoly that for decades exerted hegemony (to use a favorite lefty cliché) over the broadcast media....The reason Fox News has thrived and grown is because it offers a vibrant and honest alternative to those who could not abide yet another day of the news delivered to them beneath layer after layer of often undisguised liberalism.
"What Fox did is not just create a venue for alternative opinion. It created an alternate reality."
"An alternate reality"...Krauthammer sure got that right, although probably not in the way that he intended. Here's a classic example of how the crafting of "an alternate reality" works in practice:
On his Fox show one week ago, Sean Hannity told his credulous fans that President Obama had made a deliberate effort during his Cairo speech "to give 9/11 sympathizers a voice on the world stage." Wow, that certainly did sound like major news - the president of the United States taking the time to appease all the crackpots who applaud the murders of 3000 Americans. Hannity even backed up his reporting by airing a video clip from the speech, with Obama saying: "I am aware that there are still some that would question or even justify the events of 9/11."
Great stuff, right? Fox News, by exposing Obama as indulgent of 9/11 sympathizers, was surely giving viewers "a vibrant and honest alternative" to the "undisguised liberalism" of the monopoly media, right?
Bull feces.
I can't imagine how this happened, but for some reason Hannity's video clip of Obama was truncated after that single quoted sentence, omitting everything that followed. Here's what Obama said next, none of which was aired for the Fox viewers:
"But let us be clear. Al Qaeda killed nearly 3000 people on that day. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody. And yet al Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. They have affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with."
In that passage, there isn't a single syllable that could not have been uttered by George W. Bush. But Hannity excised it, in order to provide the "alternate reality" that Fox viewers apparently would prefer. This kind of practice has nothing to do with being an "honest alternative." It has everything to do with dishonestly distorting empirical reality and circulating falsehoods - in this case, the delusion that Obama had actually sought to indulge the 9/11 sympathizers.
Obama's foreign policy positions are obviously grist for debate. But a quality debate hinges on both sides at least agreeing on the same set of empirical facts...such as an accurate record of what Obama actually said. This debate can hardly be substantive if one major broadcast network concocts an "alternate reality" that at its worst seems little more than a license to lie.
Posted by Dick Polman @ 2:18 PM
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126 comments
jwad: Bush expanded executive power like no other president. But that doesn't mean that a government that asserts itself is a bad thing. The Republicans don't want to do anything to overhaul our healthcare system. I think spending money to update our infrastructure is a wise investment. If our government had been serious about regulating Wall Street, maybe we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now. I've heard too many conservatives that seemed to be against any government spending other than for the military.
Kind of like FoxNews "commentator" (is there anything but "commentators" at that station?) Michelle Malkin insinuating that John Kerry shot himself to get out of military service during Vietnam. This is niche marketing, not journalism: figure out what you're viewers wish to be true and provide them with it.
Vandy, first your numbers are off. Your taking the entire package and jamming it in to one year. His spending plan, whether you agree or not, is spread out over 10 years and much of the spending is on programs that probably won't actually happen. If you know anything about budgets as they are proposed, much of what is proposed never happens. And like I said before, there are more than $600 Million in tax cuts which your math includes as spending. I don't know about you but when someone cuts taxes they aren't spending money but every time you read an account of the programs it always gets added in as spending......I laughed at the part where you said Bush and veto in the same sentence. That was hysterical. Bush didn't veto one single bill for six years. It wasn't until Dems took control of Congress that he found that pen. Had he been a little more of a true conservative then we wouldn't be in the financial stress we're in. Now I'm not saying Obama's plan is going to fix it all or that I agree with the whole plan but the fact remains that if Bush was not so stinking free with the checkbook perhaps McCain would be President right now and this would be a moot point.
"Oh, right, because of all the tax increases we'll eventually face as a result of years and years of outspending the budget." Bush was mistaken when he refused to use his veto pen to cut spending. I take it from this comment that you recognize the problems with Obama's policies--he's QUADRUPLING the deficit from $459 billion in Bush's last year to over $1.7 trillion this year alone. Why do you support this fiscally irresponsible president?
"Vandy, couple of things, 1st, the stimulus package includes roughly $600 Million in tax cuts." amg, a $600 million tax cut represents LESS THAN ONE-TENTH OF ONE PERCENT OF THE TOTAL $787 BILLION STIMULUS SPENDING. You think less than 0.1% is a meaningful number??? Get real.
Vandy, couple of things, 1st, the stimulus package includes roughly $600 Million in tax cuts. There goes one of your arguments. Now 2nd, if the stimulus plan actually has tax CUTS in it, how is that our money is being "confiscated"? Oh, right, because of all the tax increases we'll eventually face as a result of years and years of outspending the budget. Well, since your boy W outspent the budget for 8 straight years, I guess he needs to share some of that burden and blame too right? RIGHT? Right!!
Mike, I hope you didn't sprain an ankle jumping to that conclusion about me. I personally don't know any liberals that would call Chila and idiot and ask for Sweeney to be gone, but go ahead, use the labels if you like. At least that way you won't have to admit you're overreacting just a tad. As for Letterman himself, he's made just as many jokes about Dems as he has Repubs. He's a topical humorist so whichever politician is making an idiot of themselves, he'll make a joke about. Unfortunately both parties have supplied plenty of grist for that particular mill and guess what, he'll keep on doing it because that's what he gets paid for. As for the joke itself, I thought it was sort of funny but dated since Palin lost and Bristol is essentially meaningless in the political context. But hey, neither of us are paid to write jokes for him so I guess we don't know as much as we think.
"However, I would find it very difficult to articulate exactly what is the conservative position on the economy and the stimulus." The basic philosophy is that a person should be able to keep as much of his/her hard-earned money as possible, and ensuring this is a better benefit to the national economy than confiscating that money for questionable projects that don't actually stimulate anything. (Consider how little of the $787 billion has actually been employed thus far, how the administration pushed for the bill's passage by saying it would prevent unemployment from going over 8%, etc.). Economic cycles come and go, irrespective of what party is in power, and it seems like the Democrats are following Rahm Emanuel's advice to "never let a crisis go to waste."
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jwad (D) I think the Republican party and many on the right have thought the Bush (43) years were not happy with them. Many jumped ship, many didn’t vote last election. This parallels the Carter into Reagan years. Many Democrats rethought the Democratic ideology. I am still not sure what Obama’s ideology is but so far it has been all about his way and for the good of the country.
With Tom of Wilmington's prodding on 21-May "Be Very Scared" blog, I posted: "I voted for and support President Obama. I believe that keeping detainees in Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan without habeas corpus, legal counsel, and charges against them is a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda, a violation of the rule of law, and against our basic values. Obama is the president of my native country which I love dearly. He's not infallible." While we're at it, I'm none too happy with the deficit spending, but (thanks to my BDR - Bush Derangement Syndrome) I think it's a necessary evil to address the near collapse of the economy. I was also disappointed to hear that the rules for "no lobbyists" changed 29-May-2009. However, that issue may be more complex than the right-wing bloggers had suggested. (That's what I get for believing what I read on the web, especially comments on a blog. I've jumped to conclusions before and not liked where I landed.)
Well it wasn't an attack. People on the left will not admit Obama mistakes just like on the right people won't admit Bush mistakes. It's just a fact. As far as discussing issues and policies what is the point? The standard retort on here is to accuse people of spouting off Rush or Hannity messages and then call them stupid. Frankly I haven't listened to Rush since about 1991 and I can't stand listening to Hannity repeat the same god awful sentences over and over again. But I can see how you can't see that spending all this money might mess things up. I can see how you might think that paying a third world counrty $500,000,000 to take a few terrorist trained Chinese men is a good idea. I can see how you think that the government can run everything better. After all just look at the last 8 years! I have news for you. After Obama is done with this power grab eventually there will be another Republican president and then you will have to deal with that person ruling by almighty fiat.
"...the current policies are an absurd disaster. For people of your view, you will never admit that." «--- @jwad (D), I read that to be both a talking point and a personal attack.
jwad--good for you. Now can't we have an actual discussion of conservative economic, health, energy, and other policies? What are they?
liberal you don't get attacks or talking points from me.
jwad, OK I admit for the sake of argument that liberal policies are an absurd disaster. Now tell us what you would do. Specific policies, not a lot of ideological bull, talking points, and personal attacks.
My suspicion that you conservatives out there are all under-30 pukes is confirmed by the fact that in the current discussion of the impact of rightwing hate-spewing, nobody brought up the hate-spewing by the New Left in the 1960s that did in fact result in some incidents of criminal violence. For your information, since you don't seem to know this, liberals were among the prime targets of the New Left in those days; I remember it well as I was one of their targets. The New Left is now dead or toothless, fortunately.
liberal you hear nothing but negativism because the current policies are an absurd disaster. For people of your view, you will never admit that.
Tom--thank you for confronting the strawman issue, the thing that bugs me most about current political "debate." Obama's comment about "doing nothing" could fit that category. However, I would find it very difficult to articulate exactly what is the conservative position on the economy and the stimulus. Many conservative posters on this blog actually did advocate doing nothing, as I recall, on the ground that the economy would turn around by itself. Many others seem to advocate cutting spending and balancing the budget, exactly the Herbert Hoover strategy that turned the 1929 crash into a major depression. I would really welcome actual conservative proposals for restarting the economy, solving the health care crisis (many of you seem to think there's no problem at all, as long as your own plan is working OK), etc. I may be wrong, but I hear nothing but negativism from the Republicans.
"I could not agree more about the right's spewing of hatred. Take George Tiller the doctor who performed late term abortions. I have yet to hear O"Reilly, Malkin or any of the other blowhards talk about the woman's lives that he in fact did save." Marge, nobody is going to dispute your support of jokes about the rape of 14 year old girls and your support of the following procedure typically performed by Tiller: "According to nurse Shafer, the baby was alive and moving as the abortionist “delivered the baby’s body and arms - everything but the head. The doctor kept the baby’s head just inside the uterus. The baby’s little fingers were clasping and unclasping, his feet were kicking. Then the doctor stuck the scissors through the back of his head, and the baby’s arms jerked out in a flinch, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks he might fall. The doctor opened up the scissors, stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening and sucked the baby’s brains out. Now the baby was completely limp.” Be proud of yourself.
Djoko Pritza Krugman is a smacked behind. There are radicals of all stripes. And as far as hate goes, I believe the left has that market nearly cornered.
“No century has seen more leaders with more charisma than our twentieth century, and never has political leaders done greater damage than the four giant charismatic leaders of this century – Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler and Mao.” (Drucker) Charisma itself is not the issue, it does create arrogance and programs which are not thought out. --
Obama has charisma, arrogance, and programs which are not thought out. They are always, we need it now pass it, and we will work out the details later. Stimulus package has spent less than 6% of package (NYT). “In five months, President Obama has delivered a massive economic program — a $3.5 trillion budget, a $787 billion stimulus package, a $75 billion housing plan and a $100 billion takeover of the U.S. auto industry. Not one of these programs is working as advertised.” (WSJ ) Chrysler was handled so poorly the Supreme Court was involved. --
A desire to set executive pay rates, increased government, increased deficit, a failing stimulus package, failed auto industry, banking rules overhaul, new credit card rules, and a healthcare program all lead to much change to quick for a country already in a recession. Everyone has a right and should question these actions. The budget was passed without being fully read and same with the stimulus package. To many government hands are involved in too many failed programs. Our President and Congress, on both sides of the isle, fail to bring out good for the American people. They vote and posture to where the money takes them. --
Failed government allows the growth of radical elements and government leaders to take high risk actions. Radical elements destroy. Govt leaders will make poor decisions not based on historical fact or nor empirical evidence but on what the polls state and their personal bias. We have a govt failing us, because of apolitical topics and personal bias. It is not a left or right issue, but a leadership void, personal ambitions, and poor decision making problem.
Now, does anyone want to tell us what the compensation is for the pay czar? I am very curious as to why we need an un-elected and un-confirmed person being the arbitar of executive income. Just a thought, since were are in such dire debt could we perhaps give this duty to someone already on the payroll instead of creating a new postion? Just thinking like a businessman. Can anyone explain this madness.? I don't want to even get into the debate of wether we should or shouldn't have a pay czar but WTF! 1.8 trillion added to the deficit this year and we are going to create positions to determine compensation? Not for nothing but couldn't the commerce secretary do this? Or Perhaps Joe Biden? Isn't Joe Biden going to figure out and eliminate wastefull spending of the stimulus? Just a few questions but I'm sure you rather spend more time bashing Sarah Palin, the GOP or Fox News.
Marge- once gain you are playing games with numbers. Very few cases are acccepted for appeal to the Supreme Court. 6 were appealed and 4 were overturned. Those are the facts. Alito had 2 and both were overturned. Alito surely had hundreds of cases as well. Not sure what the point of all this is. Bottom line is that she will get confirmed due to the makeup of the Senate. Obama thought Roberts was qualified but voted against him just the same. This particular jurist would appear to have some prejudices that could render her decisions prone to partiality. Now if that makes you foam at the mouth and your head spin around than so be it.
Dick, The silliness in your style is showed by comparing your blog above to today's commentary by Peggey Noonan of the WSJ. She wrote an educated, thougt provoking piece on the problems of the "base" media, i.e. the highly partisans on both sides who write partisan junk. You could have written a piece like hers, instead, you once again demonstrated that you are a major part of the problem in America. It is good reading. I suggest it to you. You might learn something.
S-Mike is right....not too many people on this sight want to discuss what Obama has done and is doing. The only person who said this is not the Obama he voted for is still_independent...who said he did not vote for Obama. I know ModMarge fawns all over Obama and his wise ways, but when will others acknowledge if this is what they wanted when they voted on Nov 4. Obama ran on a platform of fiscal discipline (just as the Dems did when re-taking Congress in 2006). Since then, we have had record deficits and a deteriorating economy. Liberal talks about Fox using strawmen, has he read and heard Obama constantly refer to "those who said" or "those who say" in his speeches? Example, about the stimulus bill, Obama would say "there are those who say we should do nothing...". But nobody I ever heard or read said we should do nothing...who are these people? Obama said McCain taxing health benefits would be the largest tax increase on the middle class in our history, and cause millions to lose employer provided benefits as they switched to a government plan. Now he is proposing the same thing he criticized back in 2008. We reportedly gave Palau $200 million to take some of the Uighirs....and you are okay with that? We need to gove the IMF $108 Billion, money we do not have....and you are okay with that? The Treasury just had to increase its yield by the largest amount ever during an auction..because of inflationary and deficit fears of investors...and you are okay with that? Government is threatening to fire CEO's, control compensation, run companies...and you are okay with that? You all yelled about spending and deficits under Reps...and you are okay with trillion dollar deficits for the next several years?
Marge...sometimes you are so funny I think you should do stand-up. First, Bush never had a $1 trillion budget deficit. Congress writes the budget, not the president. Second, this is not the "Bush depression", this is all Obama's. He signed the $787 Billion non-stimulating stimulus bill, he signed the $450 Billion onmibus bill (which contained a 6% increase in discretionary spending). These were also written by a Democrat Congress (as were Bush's last two budgets...before the recession). I find it funny that the recession began after the Dems took control of Congress, but that is never mentioned. Unemployment was 6.7% when Obama took office, he said it would hit 8% without the stimulus, it is now at 9.4% with the stimulus (not counting those who stopped looking for work, as some used to say when Bush was president). Congress is pushing for the next budget to increase non-discretionary spending by 12% for 2010, the third year Democrats want a double digit increase in this category (of course, Bush's fault, right?). Obama says he does not want to control compensation, run health care, the auto industry or banks....but he has czars to do that, right? He said the private sector will no longer be the driving force of the economy...it will be government...which along with Healthcare is the only sector currently adding jobs. No, this was Bush's economy...but with all the spending and projected deficits, this is now Obama's baby..100%.
djoko...you've got to be kidding, right? Examples? First, you make a relevant point in a post instead of just insulting others. Second, turn on your TV and watch Countdown, or The Rachel Maddow Show. In fact, Maddow did it tlast night. Mike Pence co-authored a piece in the WSJ yesterday calling for more nuclear power to generate electricity. The proposal is to build 100 nuclear reactors over the next 20 years. Maddow spun it into a "danger danger" story based on nuclear waste, never mentioning it can be re-processed as the French are doing. She also never mentioned anything to do with generating electricity, never mentioned how in France they get 80% of their electricity from nuclear power and re-process the waste. She never mentioned how the Obama admin has recently given nuclear technology to the UAE for them to build a reactor for nuclear power (it is okay for them, but we get windmills?). Her whole story was about how absurd and dangerous an idea it is, but never gave the other side of the story. That is a perfect example. At least on Fox News they would have had both an opponent and a proponent of the idea.
Djoko Pritza your discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed towards Catholics. This puts you next on list to be shooting up somewhere. 1. I do not watch the news, I read it from various sources (though never Inky) 2. If have every read my post, my concerns are more on the economics issues and sometimes abortion. 3rd Fear the Charismatic Leader with radical changes, they always sink a country. More on that later today
CD, Xi, fisher, Vandy, axxel, reddog44, bill at, pizzed, CB, steimel, Bud Fox, jmc, Greg S, jwad -- Krugman calls out the haters. Are you among them? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/opinion/12krugman.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
fisher says: "Djoko Pritza in DC then need a new supremacist. it goes well with your extremism and racism. keep making stupid remarks." fisher, at least when I make stupid remarks, you can understand them. I have no clue what you're saying here. Do you?
read Krauthammer's Friday columns and get some insight into the garbage swirling in your heads that otherwise masquerades as objectivity and broad awareness
tom says: "That being said [about Hannity], it is not unusual for those in the media (including Polman) to do the same thing to fit their arguments." Examples, please.
The media is not overly liberal, but Faux News and the fear mongerer Limbaugh tell the sheep everyone else in the media is liberal and are against them and they suck it up. The Right Wing feels that whenever one of their own errors, it is not their fault, it is the leftist media's fault for reporting it. The term "liberal media" was coined by Spiro Agnew in the 70's because he was upset that the media was reporting on his and Nixon's scandals. The media did not get Obama elected like Faux News would like you to beleive. If the media could get someone elected just because they're a democrat, then why didnt they get Gore and Kerry elected???? Obama won because this country is fed up with Wall St/GOP/Evangelical BS. As for Faux News take it for what it is, the Mad Magazine of cable news. You can complain all you want about Chris Matthews and Keith Olberman, but unlike Oreilly and Hannity, they back up what they say with real facts.
the biggest crime of the alleged liberal media is to break up the propaganda platform for the mass psychology of facism. Liberalism is the softer side of capitalism and conservatism, its iron fisted brother. The drooling fanatics of conformity hate, beat, spy and kill their opposition, pacifists on the other hand do not believe in violence and do not even like conflict. That is why liberalism pushes such right wing bug a boos as The United Nations, International Law etc etc. The brutal militarists and their nationalist agenda at all costs of blood and treasure, no retreat no surrender will watch our social order collapse from imperial overreach and a shrinking economic base to support the worldwide military empire. Even though we do not brutally exploit in an outright colonial conquest, our American based multi-nationals extract as much wealth and profit as feasible. Now, as the end game of Soviet collapse is matched by Fortune 500 collapse, the key to American survival does not lie in war, more war and the contracts that go with it to military industrial complex and their allies. Liberalism understands how to keep the social order from collapsing while changing it adaptively. The conservatives by their very nature do not know how. They hold onto the last rays of light of a setting sun. Liberals will make the electricity to light the night. You can't honor and glory your way into the future, you can't pray your way into high technology and can't shoot your way into civil law and order. We need an expanding economy with a lot of high paying jobs. Obama has the team and the plan to do it. Everyone else is an enemy to progress and American survival.
Mike - The world is worried about Korea and Iran and the nukes. The budget deficits are yet another way you and others LIE. Bush ran up a deficit of more than a trillion NOT including off budgeting gimmikry for Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama's deficit is higher but don't forget he is working hard to get us out of the Bush depression so will need some leeway. Many GOP bankers including DIMON AND JOHN THAIN have said Bush's Iraq budget gimmikry is what has caused much of the WORLDWIDE slowdown. In time the stimulus will work, it is starting to anyway.
Mike - Are you willfully ignorant or just doing some pretend game ??? Druggie Limbaugh or Half Story Hannity spew the latest GOP talking point and even when that talking point is shown to be misleading you and Tom and others cannot let them go. She was reviewd 6 times and overturned 4. That is out of 600 CASES NOT 6. Have you read those cases to see why they were overturned ? The fact that you will not admit to the obvious is troubling.
Smike, you are making Polman's point right here. talk about making a new reality.The remark about courts/policy were in a forum where she joked about being recorded. She DIDN'T say judges made policy - she said appelate court is where policy is often made. She didn't defend it - she was right- it is in fact where test case is made for the high court. The case of the promotional test was a group decision - not a single writing. She will have to answer for the stupid remark about gender (latina-hispanic is not a race) during the process. She may fall yet. And YOU made the challenge about her ratio of cases - now you're throwing up the smokescreen. The unemployment numbers are too high and this joke of spending a fortune of tax money isn't helping it but you weren't quoting that when you gave us the daily updates o the DJIA months ago. Iran and N.Korea have been building nukes for a number of years, so spare me the sanctimony and the trashing of Obama.
Just an observation- No blogger on here tonight wanted to contend with the current issues. Rising unemployment, insourmountable debt and problems with North Korea and Iran. And you won't want to deal with the here and now tommorow either is my guess.... Perhaps another hit piece on Sarah Palin would be in good order. No?
JimR- Oh please. Can we get real? The problems with Sotomayer are.1.......... She thinks here race and gender make her opinions wiser........2. She thinks judges make policy ( speech at Duke Univ.)..............3. Her ruling in a case currently about to be overturned by the Supreme Court where she ruled that a test where where Whites performed better than minorities could not be used as grounds for a promotion. So spare me the friggin sancitimony if you don't mind. She should not be confirmed. And might I add that as I write this the unemployment rate is rising and Iran and Korean are building bombs.
hey mojo...can you find any quotes on the Islamist terrorists who gunned down two soldiers in Arkansas, killing one. No? I wonder why that is the case? Nothing about how he was trained in Yemen. Nothing about how he had a list of other potential targets? Nothing about how he targeted the recruiters because of the murder being committed by our troops against Muslims? I wonder if he listented to Obama ("just aerating villages and killing civilians"); Kerry ("terrorizing women and children in the middle of the night"), or Murtha ("cold blooded murder" in Haditha). I just wish that conservative media would publicize this stuff as much as they are interviewing Tillers patients and relatives. How about an interview on Olberman with the dead soldiers father and how he feels about the troops mirandizing combatants in Afghanistan (which, under Geneva, we could detain indefinitely as POW's with no Miranda). I wonder if the FBI is dusting the caves, deserts and mountains for fingerprints.
Beware everyone! of the " Out of context" line being used by the liberals. It's starts with Robert Gibbs and by the end of the day everyone from surrogates like Olberman, Pollman down to bloggers on this site are calling any liberal indiscretion "out of context". Don' wait for them to put it into context as that will never happen. It's just all "out of context"
Smike, 100% is greater than 66% in liberal and conservative math.
Marge-In fact it is quite remarkable that in all the years as a circuit judge and an appeltate judge that only 2 cases were heard at the Supreme Court. It's ok Marge. Everything is out of context. Right?
Madmojo...I agree with you about the media not being liberal. I mean, just look how the conservative media outlets like CNN, MSNBC, NYT and LA Times ripped Jeremiah Wright for saying "them Jews will not let me talk to Obama". Just who are "them Jews" anyway? How about that right wing extremists who hated Neocons, possibly had that liberal rag "The Weekly Standard" on his list of targets (reported by Politico), he thought the Holocaust was a hoax (I guess he knew Ahmadinejad, another right wing extremist), in 1981 he tried to kidnap some Fed members, he is a real nutjob.
Marge- You are playing such a disingenious game. Alito had two of his cases appealed to the Supreme Court. 2! and both were over turned. So he has a 100% overturn rate. My municipality is the fastest growing in the state of NJ by percentage. Because we used have 7 people, 5 pigs, two cows, and miles of farmland. Do you get the point?
HandNik ? The washington post has written several articles on Sotomayor record. Most has not be positive. The NYTimes has also had a balanced approach concerning her. However, those papers are right wing papers. You again prove yourself to be a incapable of common sense. <-- Drunker in his book New Realities 1989ish discusses how the apolitical environment will divide the country into 6 countries or more. TPS and you bring about the rational to divide this once great country.
The selected cut from Hannity is no revalation. It's what he does. If you are a regular Hannity viewer, you are a member of the choir. Polman does it, a lot of folks on this site do it too. It's wrong and everyone thinks it's OK for them and evil for the other guy. Hannity is not the place to go for the news.
It really scares me that anyone (and I know CD75 isn't a legitimate representative of the human race) thinks Fox is fair and balanced. I mean, I'm a leftist, but I realize if I like what I'm reading, it is probably biased. Also, Fisher...you're doing what I like to call Rush-reaching. Grabbing on to anything that a right-winger says and reporting it as relevant.
Marge, lets give that the murder of Tiller is a horrid act by a deranged loon. But let's acknowledge some numbers. If evey one of the rapes recorded in FBI records (~90,000) resulted in pregnancy, assumed every late term abortion was a necessary tragedy (10,000+), and added 50,000 cases of conception through incest, we still have over a million abortions. We get the tired talk about choice. How about we talk about responsible behavior.
I actually saw that Hannity with the truncated quote and just shook my head at what was done.....it was just plain wrong and misleading. That being said, it is not unusual for those in the media (including Polman) to do the same thing to fit their arguments. It should not be a case of "what is good for the goose is good for the gander" but instead a case of "two wrongs do not make a right". What Hannity did to Obama is the same thing Olberman and Maddow have done to Conservatives. Also, wasn't Polman on this site just a few weeks ago arguing about some taking Sotomayor out of context? Yet that is exactly what he does to Krauthammer. Like I said about two wrongs...
Washington Post: Plato "The judge should not be young; he should have learned to know evil, not from his own soul, but from late and long observation of the nature of evil in others; knowledge should be his guide, not personal experience." Compare that to the philosophy of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, who said: "... a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male." Plato would not have endorsed Judge Sotomayor.
Tearing down the Obama Myth: Washington post: Sotomayor belongs to the Belizean Grove, a highly selective club for women only. a double standard is in play. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s supposed membership in an all-male eating club while an undergraduate at Princeton became an issue during his 2006 Supreme Court confirmation hearing. When Judge D. Brooks Smith was nominated to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 2001, his confirmation was held up for almost a year in part because he belonged to an all-male fishing and gun club. <-- Alternate reality
I could not agree more about the right's spewing of hatred. Take George Tiller the doctor who performed late term abortions. I have yet to hear O"Reilly, Malkin or any of the other blowhards talk about the woman's lives that he in fact did save. We get the tired baby killer bs, never the talk about the woman with the conjoined twins, one already dead .... Who are WE to make those decisions for the nameless, faceless ???
With Hannity O'Reilly, Rove, Beck and Malkin feeding hate to the feeble minded we can expect another shooting daily
Glad to see you and your friends are sweating the details. Given the recent antics by Joey B's press maven (s) and chief economist, perhaps a job opening will still come your way.
Djoko Pritza in DC then need a new supremacist. it goes well with your extremism and racism. keep making stupid remarks.
Comment removed.
in ADD society we live, 'Earlier this week', means last year.
Mike - How soon you forget Druggie Limbaugh's joke about why President Clinton's daughter is so ugly !!! Me thinks the right does protest far too much.
Mike - And EVERY opinion written by Justice Alito prior to his becoming a justice WAS OVERTURNED. One has a 66 percent overturn rate, one has a 100 percent overturn rate. I would hope that you'd have the intelligence and integrity to admit that that stat pushed by Hannity was MISLEADING at best but more probably DISHONEST. How many opinions did Judge Sotomayor write or was part of that were not reviewed by the Supreme Court ???? (Clue about 600). So to use your analogy she had a 99 percent plus success rate in her appellate decisions !!! So Mike which is it - is Hannity just stupid or dishonest ???
amg- thank you for explaining the joke. My thinking is that if it needs to be explained it isn't funny. I don't see how you can say it was taken out of context. My guess is that you would hyperventilate if the joke was about a liberal.
Nigelthemastiff- I don't know what to tell you. If one invective is enough for you than perhaps I suggest just watching the Home and Garden network. It is relaxing
Marge- 4 of 6 were overturned.
Mike, two things, first from yesterday, you're right, I do know my Woolwich Twp politics. It's amazing to sit and watch what is going on down there and how it's so nonsensical but despite that Chila won the last election by a huge margin. I think that's more of an indictment of the local Repub party as much as anything...... Second, regarding Letterman, whether the joke was funny or not is irrelvant. You're doing exactly what everyone is saying is the problem with people who watch FoxNews and/or listen to Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck, you're buying a half truth as if it's gospel. Letterman was CLEARLY making a joke about the elder Palin who just recently had a child out of wedlock which makes her appear to be promiscuous. Letterman and the collective laughing audience had no idea it was the younger daughter at the game. What you're doing is exactly what Polman is talking about in this post, you're taking things out of the context in which they were intended and twisting them to make someone who is not like-minded seem evil. The vilification of Letterman over a lame joke is ponderously stupid and only offensive to those that want to believe he knew it was a 14 year old and not her big sister. Don't be so single-mindedly myopic.
Mike - Of Course Half Story Hannity LIED about soon to be Justice Sotomayor ! First we get she's a liberal who gets overturned a majority of the time by the Supreme Court. How many opinions Mike ???? Either he's willfully ignorant or he's deliberately misleading his audience !!! Which is it ???
SMike, I more than most on this site, have seen two sides of an issue. But all I have to do is hear someone spew invective once and I will not watch or listen to that person again. And that includes both sides. Quite frankly, I have never seen you, at least on this site, ever give the other side even a hesitant "Well, I can see your point, but there's also this side." Frankly, I resent your remarks about what's "wrong" with me -- simply because I'm a liberal.
djoko, the whole middle of the country that fuels their houses w/coal, likes pickup trucks, believe in God/Life and traditional marriage! We will see you in 2012 as Pres. Obama's true beliefs will be more apparent to the masses by then:)! marge, Hannity doesn't portray himself to be a regular newsman, just a conservative radio host with an opinion and an big audience! I realize MSNBC has opinion shows and news shows so does CNN, the real culprits are ABC, CBS, NBC that were once bastions of fair and balanced news and now are full of Dan Rathers, Katie Courics, et al with their own agenda (not to mention newspapers across the major cities of this country)!
What is really lost in Polman's column and is lost on this blog tonight is that it's another distraction from the growing unemployment numbers. Another 610,000 filed for unemployment last week and the total number of unemployed is at a record number. With 2000 car dealerships either closing their doors or downsizing and selling used cars the numbers of unemployed will grow significantly. This also has a ripple effect on adverstising in local papers and sponsorships for kids sports teams. You can get unhinged all you want over Fox News but the fact of the matter is that the economy is worsening under Obama not getting better. Not to mention I see no more goodwill in the world or help from our allies in the war on terror. It would appear to me that Iran and Korea are becoming more of a threat not less of one. All this runs contrary to Obama's good timey campaign nonsense.
Marge- You calling Hannity a liar does not make it so. Now you told us Hannity lied about Sotomayer. How is that? What did he lie about? I think sometimes you confuse commentary that you do not like with lying.
Nigelthemastiff- You obviously never watch O'Reilly. He's been very critical of the Bush Administration. Very critical of big oil. He's really not a guy who would always vote for the Republican. I would challenge you to watch O'Reilly for a week and see if your opinion changes. This is part of what is wrong with liberals. They are very intolerant to the point they will never give someone a chance. You can see this when conservatives speak at Universities. Rather than wait to ask a well thought out question the liberal students jump on stage and throw a pie in the face of the speaker. There is no tolerance and no engagement of ideas when it comes to liberalism.
Letterman used to be funny. Now he looks old and bitter. While massively innappropriate for a 62 year old man to make fun of statutory rape of a 14 year old, the joke isn't remotely funny even if she was 21. And just who where the mindless people in the audience who laughed at that? They must have a big screen that tells the audience when to laugh.
Is this all Polman has on Fox News? The other six networks routinely skew the news so much towards the liberal point of view that Fox unfairly gets labled as a conservative network. Hillary Clinton's campaign manager even stated that it was only Fox News that was fair and balanced in their coverage of the primary. Most of the people who get unhinged over Fox news don't watch Fox News. And the women are way better looking than the ones on the other stations.
Hey, reddog44, I hear Penn has an opening for illiterate-in-residence. You should hurry and apply.
Dick Polman - quick question. When will you stop stealing U of Penn's money by hiding as a "writer in residence" move out of your parents basement, get a real job outside for the college fantasy land YOU live in and please, please focus on Americans who actual HAVE a job, not a run down of TV shows you watched last night while you and Will Bunch text each other over who loves Obama more. MSNBC is even worse than Fox, and does the exact same thing, but you fail to mention that in this blog you scribbled on toilet paper this morning when you woke up around 10:30. You and Will never write about anything excpet your mancrush for everything FoxNews related. No articles what so ever about Pelosi lying about waterboarding, no articles about a 31 year old, not even done school making recommendations about what GM plants to close, nope just your hate filled trashing of Palin and FOXNEWS. It is lazy people liek you taht make me despise everything liberals stand for - weakness.
Bill, case in point re my post. Of course that wasn't funny. Children should be off-limits, in my opinion. They didn't have any choice about their parents' public persona.
No attacks on Palin today? What's the problem Polman? Tell us how funny you found Letterman's joke about the statuatory rape of her 14 year old daughter. Cause it's about Palin. And a 14 year old getting 'knocked up' by an adult make is funny when it's about a Palin, right?
I think it's good to have both points of view represented in the media. What gives me the creeps is the amount of vitriol and hatred spewed by some of these people. I saw O'Reilly once and that was enough. When I want to understand the opposite point of view I want opinions, but I want them presented with facts and sources as the basis for them. The Limbaughs et al are just vicious hate-mongers. And that's what I really object to. That doesn't help people make decisions about what they think based on solid arguments -- it just promotes hate and meanness. And those same kinds of exchanges are reflected on this site. It's sad and it's destructive to our country and our common ideals.
NEPhilly - I beg to differ on Half Story Hannity's radio and tv shows. He lies like hell all the time and his "news" does far less than educating us ! Take his BS on Judge Sotomayor - either he is wilfully ignorant or deliberately trying to mislead his listeners. EIther choice is not good !
Krauthammer may be intelligent -- or he may have been at one time -- but he has long ago sold his integrity for blind ideology. He writes this about Obama's demand that Israel adher to agreements it not build settlements in the West Bank: "It means no increase in population. Which means no babies." That's intelligence?
Here is a link to some interesting numbers on ratings regarding cable news programs. The interesting numbers are the tremendous jumps in viewers during Hannity and O'Reilly's respective programs. The ratings numbers nearly double the viewership for the rest of the day. http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/04/17/cable-news-ratings-for-thursday-april-16/16968
Liberals are so used to hearing biased, one-sided leftist news that when they here both sides of an issue on Fox News they scream that Fox News is right wing. It is not. It is called fair and balanced.
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Fox news as well as most of the TV personalities or commentators or what ever they are on Fox, know their viewers watch them because they are anti Dem and anti Obama. If they were to say or show anything that makes Obama and the Dems look good the viewers would turn them off. Hannity isn’t concerned about being fair and balanced, he is concerned about making money. Buy giving his audience what they want to hear, he makes his money. CNN, MSNBC, and Fox all do it. The only difference is the other networks don’t lie about being fair and balanced. Anyone who is being honest knows Hannity is only feeding his viewers what they want to here which is Dems are bad and Repubs are good.
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You are all missing one major point which Polman should have mentioned, it's nearly irrelevant what the content of the non-opinions shows are on FoxNews, what is relevant is the ratings of the programs. Hannity and O'Reilly are the highest rated "news" programs on cable. While some may argue that others on the network are more fair and balanced, they aren't drawing the viewing numbers of Hannity or O'Reilly. Therefore, if the majority of the viewership is tuning in to get opinions stated as fact then an alternate reality has indeed been created. And that fact that the ratings list both of those commentators as well as Olbermann, Maddow and now Ed something on MSNBC as "news" programs tells you all you need to know, opinion has replaced fact and propaganda has replaced journalism. And it doesn't matter which network it's on.
What is disturbing about the leftist rants about Fox News is how broad they paint with their brush. Hannity, O'Reilly and their shows are commentary shows, just like Olberman and Hardball. They are not news. However, Fox News' news shows like Fox and Friends, The Fox Report, and American Newsroom are the most fair and balanced shows in the media. Let's keep apples to apples and oranges to organges. I know it is hard for the leftists, but that is what rational people do.
Here's the Fox-like NEP: "The reason they do so well in the ratings is because there is a whole country between New York, Wash DC and Los Angeles and San Fran!" You mean that whole country that went for Obama last election?
"With all the big stuff going on in politics and the world this is all Dick can write about?" Yes, fans, that's CD again. He writes the same thing every day, yet he keeps coming back. You'd think with all the big stuff going on, CD would go elsewhere. So, CD, what is it you love about Dick that keeps bringing you back?
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All the people jumping on Polman for his opinion sound foolish considering his column is an opinion-based column, just like NEPhilly said about Hannity using his opinions. He makes his living writing his opinions. Also, I read many publications and I did not read anywhere that the Democrats were nearing extinction.
Your opinion of what is reality is just that an opinion Dick. Remember that Mr. Blogger. In 2004 the Democratic party was the one who were going extinct according to many publications. Guess they made a pretty good recovery from that situation. With the debt that Mr. Obama and the spend thrifts are building up in this country, we will certainly see another shift in a couple of years with the R's coming back into the majority and the D's back on the verge of extinction. It's called the pendelum effect, look it up smart guy.
Hey Comrade Xi, if that is what you "see" from Fox, you must be blind and/or brainless.
Liberal, isn't that what all columns are about?
liberal you could insert Polman for Krauthammer in that rant and come to the exact same conclusion. What do you think made Krauthammer switch sides?
MadMojo, your hate does not really become you. You liberals forget that you won the election, you control both houses of congress and depending on the mood of Justice Kennedy, you control the Supreme Court. Does any of this back and forth BS do any good for anybody.
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I read Krauthammer's column with interest as a high-end example of neoconservative thinking. It is generally an exercise in one or more logical fallacies, the most common of which is the straw-man attack. For example, in his column on Sotomayor, he said little about the actual beliefs of the judge herself, but instead attacked a certain type of "liberal" believer in an identity politics doctrine which as described by Krauthammer is clearly ridiculous and dangerous. The problem is that you would have to look long and far to find anybody who actually believes in this imaginary doctrine, certainly not Sotomayor herself. So the column, as is often the case, was just a lot of huffing and puffing about nothing.
NE--it's something approaching slander to call the Chinese Uighurs terrorists. They are people from a minority group in China and they were fighting against domination by the atheistic communist government that was trying to suppress their religion and their nationality. They had essentially nothing to do with the islamists terrorizing the West. They were sold out to the Pakistanis, who just considered them foreigners. It was just another indication of the sloppiness of the Guantanamo operation that these people were held for all these years.
Phrossty, that would work :) Next we will be sending them to Cancun and Jamaica!
Polman actually proves Krauthammer's theory. His American Debate is nothing more than a liberal biased column that does nothing more than bash the GOP. Get real. To deny biased reporting is actually ... biased.
"Can't we resettle some of these terrorists in a really cold place...?" Hey, NEPhilly, how about Todd takes them on a dog sled ride north of Noatak National Preserve?
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this is my problem with the media... instead of commenting on how both sides are clearly guilty of this- there isn't a single mention of the lunatics over at MSNBC (cough, olbermann, cough). you would think Fox News was the only place guilty of this. give me a break dick!
yoda, when you listen to political commentators on any station you get mostly their opinion (see Olbermann, Hannity, Maddow, O'Reilly, Wolf Blitzer, McLaughlin Group, etc), but Fox has other news shows that are good conservative programs, like Chris Wallace's and the before mentioned Shepard Smith and Brett Baier! To knock Fox as a whole for the people they have on who are meant to stir it up is just silly. Fox is doing something right if you look at the ratings of their tops shows versus CNN, MSNBC, etc. :)
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Any network that boasts Hannity and Beck among their "personalities" really has a lot of issues. All you have to know is that this is the same network that brought you American Idol and Are you smarter than a 5th grader.
Krauthammer has already forgotten all that Polman will ever know. His intellect is at a Buckley-esque level, and our friend DP is no match.
Can't we resettle some of these terrorists in a really cold place, like Siberia, instead beautiful tropical islands like Bermuda and Palau? ***WASHINGTON - Four Guantanamo Bay detainees have been released and resettled in Bermuda, U.S. officials said Thursday. The four are part of a group of 17 Chinese Muslims who have been in legal limbo at the military detention center in Cuba.****
Hannity hates Obama and his so called 'liberal agenda'. He has absolutely no problem in doing everything in his power to discredit a man that has just gotten started attempting to fix our problems left by Hannity's hero, George Bush. All the right wing has is sabotaging the efforts of Obama. They have no new ideas so they just smear and attack. It's all about power and the GOP will do anything to get back in power.
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I highly recommend that you all watch "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" to see what Fox News is all about.
NEPhilly, you and I may realize that Hannity, O'Reilly, and their ilk are opinion bloviators, but there are millions of people who take everything they say as gospel truth (like "There is no God..." - good one, Phrossty!). Therefore, Polman is absolutely right in saying Fox can be held responsible for the intellectual and moral felonies, misdemeanors, and lies that they allow to be propagated on their network.
CD75 said: "I am a silly ... Dick ... job."
Whoa, he totally said that! That's a blockbuster admission from the usually very self-confident CD75. Stay tuned for more shocking revelations!
The shame of it is, he is right, that Fox News provides an alternative to the typically liberal other television news outlets. If they did this with some more intellegence and level headedness it would be a good thing. But Fox News and its personalities feel the need to go the extra mile, and not appeal to the average conservative/republican, but to those on the far right who just want to tear down every liberal idea out there. It is as if to counterbalance the fact that Fox News is outnumbered by liberal outlets, they lean waaayyyy far right. In response almost, many of the liberal pundits on the other outlets now seem to be taking it to the extreme on the left. I think its as much of a reflection on modern society than actual political ideaology. Your cant be on TV or in print unless you are loud and bash the other side. Rational debate is a thing of the past.
The shame of it is, he is right, that Fox News provides an alternative to the typically liberal other television news outlets. If they did this with some more intellegence and level headedness it would be a good thing. But Fox News and its personalities feel the need to go the extra mile, and not appeal to the average conservative/republican, but to those on the far right who just want to tear down every liberal idea out there. It is as if to counterbalance the fact that Fox News is outnumbered by liberal outlets, they lean waaayyyy far right. In response almost, many of the liberal pundits on the other outlets now seem to be taking it to the extreme on the left. I think its as much of a reflection on modern society than actual political ideaology. Your cant be on TV or in print unless you are loud and bash the other side. Rational debate is a thing of the past.
The blatant difference, CD, is that Hardball and Olbermann are SHOWS on a network - not a complete network dedicated to giving their kool-aid drinking dimwit viewers the complete alternate reality they so desire...But hey, they're still trumpeting Walin' Palin and Newt "She a Racist, no she isn't, yes she is, no she's a racialist" Gingrich as the next generation of GOP leader - Which only confirms the GOP's complete and utter disconnect from reality. Think things are bad for the GOP now?....Wait until 2010, then 2012......BTW - the DOW is now offically up in 2009. God forbid if the economy has improved (which is almost a given considering the cyclical nature of economics) - the GOP won't be able to win a high-school government election with the dreck they keep trotting out.
Quoting Hannity, who is an opinion personality, and saying that is what Fox News is all about is disingenuous at best! It's like quoting Lou Dobbs and saying that is what CNN is all about! They have quality shows w/Brett Baier and Shepard Smith, that are not opinion programs like Hannity's and O'Reilly's are. The reason they do so well in the ratings is because there is a whole country between New York, Wash DC and Los Angeles and San Fran that the main stream media underserves and underreports on, that is the secret to Fox's success! And I have a thing for Julie Banderas :)
In the past, I have suggested that when people expect words to be taken out of context, they use a comma in the text instead of a period. It seems to make the cherry picking more obvious no matter what direction the cherry picker is coming from, when the nugget isn't even a full sentence.
Dick, if you watched (which I know you do) Hardball or Olberman for just 5 minutes you could also find out-of-context facts and even lies. Would Dick ever write about that? Of course not. Because he will not, today's entry from Disingenuous Dick shows how leftist he is and nothing he says should be trusted.
That Fox News has an agenda, and is willing to throw accurate reporting out the window isn't really a revelation. We have a free press. This is the unfortunate bi-product. But I can live with it for the sake of the good stuff we get from other outlets.
This is news? With all the big stuff going on in politics and the world this is all Dick can write about? Lame. Dick is sounding more and more like a mini-Olberman or an Olberman wannabe every day. Can Dick say " I am a silly left-wing partisan quasi-journalist". He could also now say his name is "Dick the Democratic Guard Dog who needs a job at MSNBC really badly".
Before you wingnuts start commenting please be advised no liberal new organization has ever taken anything out of context.
Of course, I expect the usual suspects to come a-posting about the unfairness of lambasting one of their unofficial spokespersons and "butwhaddabouting" the talking points and/or recriminate the author's tendency to inculpate the "out of power" party. Counting down. 3... 2.... 1...
Half truths and semi-quotes like the one used by Hannity allow one to quote from the Holy Bible thusly, "There is no God." [Psalm 14:1] Yet there is no shortage among extremists on both sides of the aisle who think the tactic is fine for debate and context doesn't matter. That's ridiculous. I could not agree more with the author's assertion "a quality debate hinges on both sides at least agreeing on the same set of empirical facts." It's why there's so little quality debate on the internet....
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