Breaking News: George Zimmerman to Host FOX "News" Program, Stand Your Ground

Image from source, the brilliant NewsCorpse

No, not really. But would it surprise you?

[Excerpt]

Fox News Signs George Zimmerman As Host: “Stand Your Ground” Premieres This Fall

. . .Sources inside Fox News have confirmed that Zimmerman has agreed to host a nightly crime and social affairs program on the network that is set to premiere in October 2013. The controversial signing is consistent with Fox’s programming philosophy of exploiting the transient publicity of media spectacles by drafting the beneficiaries of inordinate press attention, despite a lack of experience or qualifications – e.g. Sarah Palin. . .

Read more at: NewsCorpse

More from the Front of The War on Christmas™

Spoiler alert: Bush's cards didn't mention Christmas either.
Image from NewsCorpse

I was just debating whether I should run my old War on Christmas™ post from the early days of the blog, revamp it, or rewrite it entirely. And then I stumbled upon a post by the wonderful News Corpse, and decided I'd put mine off, and excerpt his!

[Excerpt]


The Annual Fox News Tradition Of Bashing The Obama’s Holiday Greeting 

It’s that time of year again. The time when winter’s chill nips at your nose and poinsettia blooms abound. The time when children’s laughter echos through the streets and families come together for joyous feasts. And the time when Fox News lambastes the President and his family for not celebrating the holiday in the manner that they think good American, Christian, patriots ought to. . .

Read more at: News Corpse

A Tea Party? How Many Lumps do You Want?

Image from source, News Corpse

I know that the whole tea party movement is quite overblown by the media, and by bloggers like me.  The tea partiers are the same 25%-ers who've kept Karl Rovian politics alive for the last ten years, they just have a new name. But there is no question that--given the right circumstances--they can have quite an impact.  We're still in primary season for the mid-term elections, and the tea party's presence has been felt.

Here in Nevada, we have the culmination of tea bag politics with the primary success of Sharron Angle, who beat out more establishment candidates to take on Harry Reid in November.  While we still don't know how that will play out, there is no doubt that Harry Reid will have a greater chance of re-election against Angle than he had against virtually any other candidate.  Reid has a giant target on his back--just as his predecessor Tom Daschle did--simply by virtue of being the Senate Majority Leader.  He's been painted as a villain by Rush Limbaugh, FOX "News" and the rest, so that people who otherwise wouldn't know his name are now rooting for his demise.  But now, Reid gets to fight for his job against an extremist, far-right cartoon character.

That may be the ultimate test of the tea party:  they can get their base to the polls in the primaries, but can their candidates convince mainstream voters to accept their extremist views?  Hoping not, but watching with interest anyway.  And now, an excerpt on the same subject by a far more talented blogger. . .

[Excerpt]

The Many Faces Of The Tea Party

On the cover of the new Weekly Standard is a caricature of two people that the magazine’s cover story regards as the banner carriers of the Tea Party movement. They are Rick Santelli, a correspondent for the cable business network CNBC, and Glenn Beck, a delusional Fox News host with a Messiah complex. The title of the cover story is The Two Faces Of The Tea Party. . .

Read more at: News Corpse

Karl Rove, FOX "News" and Why Do We Keep Pretending it's News?

I've lost count how many times I've declared that FOX "News" isn't news (hence the quotes). I've offered up evidence, anecdotal, transcriptual and uh, video. . .al. Everybody knows that FOX "News" is infused with a right-wing slant all day long. The only ones not admitting that are FOX themselves, and "FOX fans." Who are, it should be pointed out, nearly exclusively right-wingers.

Here, one of FOX's many arch right employees, Karl Rove, sort of admits it. But he once again tries to draw a line between FOX's opinion and "hard news" programming. It is a distinction without a difference, as anyone with a functioning brain can see, by merely sampling some of their daytime or weekend programming. Virtually all of these "hard news" programs feature the same right-wing terminology in the stories, the same story topics, and the same pundits in Q&A segments as their opinion shows. For all the crap FOX fans give MSNBC for featuring Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann in political news programming, they seem not to notice people like Karl Rove being right there in the mix for the same sorts of shows.

I could go on defense for MSNBC here, but it is not necessary. They are not declaring themselves "fair and balanced." FOX is. And it is just stupid that we have to keep dancing around this subject, keep acting as though FOX "News" is merely somewhat right-leaning. They're far further around the bend than that. And you know what? If the channel was called FOX News & Opinion, and their motto was "The Other Side of the News," or something like that, there would be no problem here. But they keep insisting on keeping the charade alive.

[Excerpt]

Karl Rove Confesses: Most Of Fox News Is Unfair

Today on Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw (sitting in for David Gregory) interviewed Fox News contributor Karl Rove. In the course of the discussion Rove spewed the routine misrepresentations and falsehoods that one one might expect of him. But there was one exchange that was surprisingly honest:

TOM BROKAW: You’re now at Fox News. Do you think that Fox News is fair to President Obama?

KARL ROVE: I think they - on the news side, absolutely. I think that they’ve got first-rate individuals at the White House who - do their job. And in an objective, fair, and balanced way, yeah, absolutely. . .

Read more at: News Corpse

Bill O'Reilly is Outraged!

Bill O'Reilly claims to have 35 years in journalism. That right there is pretty funny, because I wasn't aware he was a journalist. But right now, O'Reilly is outraged that MSNBC dared wonder, "how many houses does Sarah Palin (yes, her again) add to the Republican ticket?"

This is a pretty funny video (though the sound is a little grating, sorry NewsCorpse!). So turn the sound down a little, but enjoy the things that don't outrage Bill O'Reilly.



Source: NewsCorpse

Hope vs. Nope

As a graphic artist, I'm impressed by both of these images, and heartily endorse both of them!

Barack Obama image from: ObeyGiant.com

John McCain image from: NewsCorpse.com

Murdoch Media Monopoly... Nope, not yet...

Photo of 'Murdoch in the bush' Courtesy of Satan
Well Mr. Moneybags was out smarted on this one. Good. That will be one less opportunity for a foreigner to control & destroy our (and I say this laughingly) freedom of press, assembly & speech.

Story courtesy of the AP via MSNBC
NEW YORK - News Corp., the media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, has withdrawn its bid to purchase the Long Island daily paper Newsday, a News Corp. spokeswoman said Saturday.

The decision to revoke the offer came just days after Murdoch confidently predicted he would clinch a deal to buy the newspaper within a week.

...more at MSNBC

FOX "News" Not the Powerhouse it Claims to Be

Image from source, News Corpse

Well, this is encouraging news. While the state of news in general is rather dismal--focusing on fluff and silly stuff, while ignoring important stories--at least America is beginning to tune out the most frivolous of the 24-hour news stations. FOX "News" is still the highest rated of the three major channels (3½ if you count CNN Headline News), but it is slipping, and slipping noticably.

My dream for a 24-hour news channel would be one that is publicly funded like PBS. No allegience to sponsors, no marching orders from "corporate" to increase profits. Just hard-hitting, actual news. Remember investigative journalism? The big corporations aren't ever going to revert to offering news as a public service, so we need some other sort of plan. Just my two cents.

[Excerpt]

Fox News In Critical Condition

In the first quarter of 2008, Fox News was the slowest growing cable news network (10%), behind MSNBC (66%) and CNN (87%). For the first time in six years they finished in 2nd place. Now, in the first month of the 2nd quarter, the diagnosis is even worse. . .

Read more at: News Corpse

Is FOX "Business" Channel Killing the Market?

Image from source, News Corpse

I don't know diddly about the stock market, so I will defer to the people at News Corpse, who have an interesting theory. . .

[Excerpt]

Fox Business Network Jinxes The Markets

Murdoch’s machinations of late have not met with the success to which he is normally accustomed. Fox News is presently the slowest growing cable news network. FBN got off to a pathetic crawl. And I wonder if anyone else has noticed this sign of the Apocalypse: When the Fox Business Network launched on October 15, 2007, the Dow Jones had just hit its all-time high. Since then the markets have collapsed, diving 15% in the four months since FBN’s debut.

Read the whole post at: News Corpse