Too Progressive

It’s supposed to be funny.  It’s supposed to be witty.  It sometimes plays on the dimwitted people it’s making fun of.  That having been said, can everyone (especially Democrats, because we’re smarter than this) please cease with the calls for boycotts and chemical warfare against The New Yorker over a satirical image (pictured right) that appears on the cover of the magazine’s current issue.  Please?  Seriously, when I first heard about the “mass outrage” over this, the first thing I thought of was the woman (seen below) who stood in front of McPherson Square metro last Summer protesting after an article in The Onion claimed that the U.S. planned to re-hang Saddam Hussein.  Are you all really that dimwitted?

I’ll be calling Comcast within the next few days to have them come collect their cable boxes and cancel my subscription.

Via The Boston Herald:

CN8 has fired veteran TV journalist Barry Nolan for publicly protesting the decision by the local Emmy Awards to honor Fox News blowhard Bill O’Reilly.

Nolan tells MediaBiz he was fired Tuesday following a two-week, unpaid suspension.

“I knew going in that there was serious risk that I’d lose my job,” Nolan said yesterday, “but nobody likes it when people tell them to stifle, not even Edith Bunker.”

Not only that, but Comcast also decided to take MSNBC off the air in Oregon.  According to Comcast, this was MSNBC’s decision, but given the fact that Keith Olbermann decided to address the situation on tonight’s episode of Countdown, I somehow find the Comcast explanation extremely hard to believe.

Chris Wallace accuses Fox news of Obama bashing and distorting statements made by the Democratic Presidential front runner:

Via News Hounds:

This could be exactly what it seems to be, a difference of opinion. But knowing that FOX is so carefully messaged and controlled top-down, it could also be a staged event to reinforce the faux notion that Chris Wallace is independent. Were the three stooges set up? In any event, it was refreshing and anything but par for the course.

“Your own advisers are slowly killing your chances to become President. Senator their words and your own are slowly killing the chances for any Democrat to become President.”

“You are now campaigning as if Barack Obama were the Democrat, and you were the Republican.” Wow… Just wow!

That’s right, MSNBC’s Conservative talk show “Tucker” hosted by Tucker Carlson has been cancelled with it’s final show to run next week.  However, Carlson will remain with MSNBC through the 2008 election and is expected to be reporting from the campaign trail.  Via Media Bistro:

Insiders tell TVNewser Tucker Carlson’s 6pmET show Tucker is getting the axe, but Carlson stays on as a political contributor to all MSNBC shows at least through the 2008 election. The official announcement, expected tomorrow, will include details about who will replace Tucker at 6pmET as well as other political programming additions. Sources say the network is going to beef up its schedule with more NBC News talent.

In recent days, Jossip, as well as other blogs, ratcheted up the talk that Tucker would be replaced “for a new project.” In its 33-month run, Carlson’s show has had two names, four time slots and multiple formats. At 6pmET, it builds on its Harbdall lead-in on some days, but loses audience on others.

Oh this is an instant classic. John McCain became annoyed earlier today with a New York Times reporter who asked about his 2004 conversation with the then Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry regarding McCain possibly running as Kerry’s vice presidential nominee.

[Cross posted on Raising Kaine]

Via Media Matters:

From the February 19 edition of Westwood One’s The Radio Factor with Bill O’Reilly:

O’REILLY: Maryanne, Woodbury, Connecticut: What say you, Maryanne? Maryanne –

CALLER: I’m here.

O’REILLY: — you’re on the air.

CALLER: Here I am.

O’REILLY: OK.

CALLER: I just wanted to say that I think Michelle Obama is an angry woman — is speaking, I think, with her real voice for the first time. And –

O’REILLY: But how do you — what do you base that on? You’re basing that on what?

CALLER: Well, your representative asked me not to talk about this, but I have a friend who had knowledge of her and said to me months ago, “This is a very angry,” her word was “militant woman.”

O’REILLY: All right. What I want you do then, Maryanne, if — I want you to stay on the line.

CALLER: OK.

O’REILLY: Because it’s not fair to Michelle Obama for you –

CALLER: Oh no, all I’m saying is –

O’REILLY: — because we don’t know who you are, and we don’t know who your friend is, but we want to know. We want to know, OK. But it’s not fair at this point for you to say, “My friend said X and Y,” because we just don’t know. But if you would give us your information, we would like to talk to your friend. And then whatever your friend tells us, we’ll track it down. We’ll do it in a fair and balanced and methodical way. That’s how we’re going to cover this campaign — all of them, all of them. So stay on the line, give us your information. If indeed Michelle Obama is angry about something, if she has a history, we would like to know that, and then we can put it into some kind of context so that we can be fair to everybody.

You know, I have a lot of sympathy for Michelle Obama, for Bill Clinton, for all of these people. Bill Clinton, I have sympathy for him, because they’re thrown into a hopper where everybody is waiting for them to make a mistake, so that they can just go and bludgeon them. And, you know, Bill Clinton and I don’t agree on a lot of things, and I think I’ve made that clear over the years, but he’s trying to stick up for his wife, and every time the guy turns around, there’s another demagogue or another ideologue in his face trying to humiliate him because they’re rooting for Obama.

That’s wrong. And I don’t want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there’s evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that’s how she really feels — that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever — then that’s legit. We’ll track it down.

How much longer is this man going to have a job? The answer would (and should) be not long (NOTE: you see how swiftly MSNBC dealt with the David Shuster situation), but since it’s Fox News, and their viewers (and radio listeners, as is the case here) actually support this kind of talk, and it’s truly saddening.

But not all media coverage is good.

Sure it may be true that 492 term Senator John McCain is receiving more media coverage than anyone else in the race for President, but it seems to me he’s not getting very favorable coverage either (being constantly bashed by members of his own party and all). Remember Ann Coulter claiming she’d rather vote for Hillary? Then there’s Michelle Malkin who’s been railing on and on about how “liberal” he is for weeks on her blog. Also, questions about McCains bad temper. And more on McCain’s temper.

In the last week, Senator John McCain has surpassed even Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton in the amount of news coverage he has received.

The media effectively anointed Mr. McCain as the Republican front-runner after he won Florida. At the same time, reporters were writing up a storm about how conservatives were trying to deny Mr. McCain the crown. All of this made for a frothy brew of coverage for the week of Jan. 28 to Feb. 3.

Last week the presidential election dominated 51 percent of the nation’s news coverage, the highest level since PEJ began counting. The week’s events included the Florida primary, a Republican debate and the first one-on-one Democratic debate between Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Obama, who got 34 percent of the coverage last week, was about even with Mrs. Clinton, who got 32 percent. These two have long dominated the political coverage, so Mr. McCain’s spike in visibility is noteworthy.

And for the record, Bill Clinton only garnered six percent of the media coverage last week.

UPDATE: And how could I have forgotten to mention the “not so breaking news” that John McCain dumped his first wife after she was crippled in a car crash and the fact that Cindy McCain is a known pill head! I’m sure the media will reemphasize this story when John McCain wins the Republican nomination too. And they should too, given that McCain comes from a party that rails on and on about their “morals,” but as we all know, in reality, they’re nothing more than a bunch of hypocrites.

McCain fell like a brick for Cindy, who was the heir to a brewery distribution business worth millions. For several years afterwards the McCains endured Washington gossip that he had dumped his first wife - who had been crippled in a car accident - in favour of a trophy bride to enhance his political ambitions.

It was in the late 1980s, after a series of miscarriages and giving birth to three children, that Cindy developed spinal problems and was prescribed painkillers after surgery. Her husband and family had no idea she was secretly taking pills stolen from a charity she had created called the American Voluntary Medical Team, which sent mobile surgical units to war zones. When federal agents began to investigate gaps in the charity’s records, Cindy telephoned her husband, a senator in Washington, and confessed.

She admitted at the time that the 1994 episode had “nearly destroyed both of us”. But she underwent treatment and attended meetings of Narcotics Anonymous as part of a deal with prosecutors who dropped charges.

Congratulations to Kiran Chetry of CNN for somehow managing to make it through this painstakingly boring (but funny!) live interview:

[h/t Gawker]

Keith Olbermann’s special comment regarding the “compromise” between George Bush and Democratic party leaders to continue funding the war in Iraq entirely on George Bush’s terms:

As some of you may have heard, Rupert Murdoch put in a bid to purchase The Wall Street Journal yesterday (currently owned by Dow Jones), which was turned down by the current owners. Today, on “Your World With Neil Cavuto” Neil and his guests used parts of the show to try and “play up” the bid, and one of the arguments used was that the stock market was actually signalling that it “approved” of the deal. Give me a break!! Cavuto even went as far as to say that he believed the deal would ultimately get done because the family which currently owns the paper would start to fight amongst themselves and eventually give in to Murdoch.

Does anyone (on either side of the aisle) seriously still consider FNC a valid news channel? Or is everyone pretty much in the same boat as I, watching only on a rare occasion, strictly for the comedic value….

You all will recall the Disney/ABC “documentary” entitled “The Path To 9/11″ that was scrutinized, and ultimately edited to delete scenes that were shown to be false. Well guess what! Sean Hannity and Fox News plan to air the inaccurate scenes, while ABC refuses to act on it’s copyright! Via MediaBistro:

“Fox News Channel is touting the fact that it has obtained controversial unseen footage from ABC’s miniseries ‘The Path to 9/11′ and is planning to air the video during ‘Hannity’s America’ on Sunday night,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“Fox News obtained the outtakes by taping a public talk that Cyrus Nowrasteh, writer and producer of ‘The Path to 9/11,’ gave to a World Affairs Council chapter last Friday at Cal State Channel Islands. Nowrasteh discussed making the docudrama and played several minutes edited out of the movie,” the Los Angeles Times adds.

Fox News takes another step away from reality.

Stephen Colbert (also the official mascot of The Ditzocrats) appears on The O’Reilly Factor:

And Bill O’Reilly appears on The Colbert Report:

Hmm, which segment did you like more?

This is truly pathetic. On Monday, January 15, 2007 during his show on Fox News, Bill O’Reilly accused a kidnap victim, who had been held captive for four years of “enjoying” his circumstances.

Looks like the narrow mind, and all around stupidity of a group of Virginia GOP “bloggers” has gotten them in trouble again. Via The Richmond Democrat, seems members of the media agree with the rest of the sane bloggers (on both sides of the aisle, mind you) in thinking that the “Swaction” (as it’s been dubbed), is nothing more than a bunch of NUTS pretending to be bloggers! Dennis Neal, the CONSERVATIVE Opinions Editor of The News Leader, wrote an article publicly calling out the “Swaction” for being a cancer to the Virginia blogosphere:

One of the things that has really disturbed me about the local right-wing bloggers (the habituals, anyway), (and this SHOULD NOT be seen as applying to some of the posters at this blog), is their unabashed embrace of templates. THESE BLOGS ALL LOOK THE SAME. Every last one of them has the same graphic: “IT’S THE JIHAD STUPID (blood drop) DEMOCRATS JUST DON’T GET IT” and many of them are just repeating the same message.

The great thing about blogging has always been its individuality and non-adherence to outside direction — even though I publish under the aegis of The News Leader, I don’t clear my blog posts through the executive editor, publisher or anybody else. What I am seeing locally from the SWAC-GOP-ers is not individuality; it’s hive-think. And that’s pretty sad. Boring, too.

My, my, that’s sure to cause the PRETEND bloggers of “Swacland” to create 15 ADDITIONAL aliases in an effort to back themselves up.

The best comment yet came in the comments section of The Richmond Democrat’s entry, when Jaime posted:

“So, we aren’t crazy for thinking that the “contributors” to the “Swaction” are a. one person, pretending to be 5, and/or b. a bunch if insanely hateful people who call each other on the phone and meet to discuss being the definition of an uneducated echo chamber.“

As many of you know, I’ve had no problem calling out my favorite pretend bloggers of THE “Swaction” either. “SwacGirl” in particular when she actually accused a kid’s movie of being political propaganda! For more on the ignorance of the Swac, also see: her feverish moderation of comments posted to her blog to avoid having to respond to anyone she disagrees with via her comments section.

Now, c’mon, a group of bloggers asshats that are SO obnoxious, that not only are they kicked off of one of the most trafficked aggregators used by Virginia bloggers, but SO ridiculous, and such an utter embarrassment to the Virginia blogosphere, that they end up getting publicly “owned” by local media.

Oh, and for the record, by my count, SwacGirl has posted a total of FIVE SEPARATE ENTRIES “responding” to the article (which JUST got published YESTERDAY), all referring to The News Leader as “The MisLeader.” Hm, how clever of her, let’s just hope with all that “blogging,” she’s finally figured out how to spell correctly and/or got her hands on a dictionary.

After it was divulged that Dick Cheney requires that all TVs be tuned to Fox News in his hotel suite’s while travelling, it should come as no surprise to you to learn that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ALSO favors the wannabe “news” reporters over at Fox News too!

Earlier today, Rice was overheard between television interviews saying of Fox News correspondents:

“My Fox guys, I love every single one of them.”

She then went on to make a seemingly snide remark about CBS’ “The Early Show” while expressing her “desire” to do a one-on-one interview with anchor Harry Smith:

“He’s a decent guy. I know they are, like, 55 in the ratings, but I like him.”

I guess it must be hard giving an interview to anyone other than Fox News. You know, those “ultra liberal leaning media outlets that just live to hate the Bush administration.” Furthermore, I don’t know what ratings Condi has been looking at, but I don’t believe “The Early Show” is anywhere near 55th in ratings. Must be part of the Faux News world she lives in.

And in other news, Senator Chuck Hagel dropped a hammer on Rice this morning in a Senate committee hearing with the Secretary of State.

Well, most of us were already aware that reporters for The Washington Times aren’t very good journalists, but checkout this fine elementary style journalism regarding FORMER Senator Macaca:

“[He] is enjoying quiet walks with his family along the shores of the Potomac River,” this column was told yesterday. “On one recent stroll, they discovered a beach, and his eight-year-old daughter [Brooke] found, to her delight, snails. Sometimes, getting out of the rat race brings great results.”

There you have it, REAL news from The Washington Times.

Via News Hounds I see that Fox News had a terrible time keeping up in the ratings this past quarter. In fact, if you compare quarter four in 2005 to the same time period in 2006, Fox News lost 15 percent of it’s viewers! Although, I’m sure FNC anchors will continue to LIE about how “well” they’re doing.

I’ve tried to refrain (for the most part) from bringing you updates on how pathetic Fox News is, but tonight, I can’t resist.

Instead of actually talking about relevant news, or the Democratic takeover in Congress, Fox News’ top story tonight on Hannity & Colmes (a show that is geared to a political audience) was the TRUMP V. ROSIE feud. As you might imagine the entire segment was geared at slamming Rosie O’Donnell, with one contributor even saying that Rosie came up with the whole attack on Trump to promote a “gay cruise line.” Sean Hannity didn’t use that defense for Trump, but the one he did use, “well Rosie started the whole thing” was equally pathetic and juvenile.

How pathetic. Whatever will Fox News do when it’s already shrinking audience of the ignorant whittles away to nothing?

The New York Post is reporting that Charlie Rangel has booted Dick Cheney from his office on Capitol Hill. Cheney’s staff’s belongings were removed over the holidays. Rangel reportedly moved quickly to boot Cheney who Rangel once told the Post was a “son of a bitch”.

Rep. Charles Rangel has evicted Vice President Dick Cheney from his office in the Capitol, and the Harlem heavyweight is moving into the prime digs today, The Post has learned.

Gilded letters were freshly painted atop the office door yesterday proclaiming “Ways and Means Committee” - confirming that the office now belongs to Rangel, the House panel’s new chairman.

Cheney enjoyed the office which was normally designated for the Ways and Means Committee chairman, but the puppeteer Republicans on the Hill gave it to Cheney after he won the Vice Presidency.

Meanwhile, the New York Post proved yet again that it is indeed an insignificant partisan piece of garbage though when it closed the article saying:

“Cheney’s office took the high road yesterday. Spokeswoman Mary McGinn told The Post, “It was always our understanding that that office was on loan.”

I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware so called journalist were supposed to interject their UNWANTED opinions. Furthermore, what the Post FAILS to mention is that Cheney has no role in the House. He’s the President of the Senate. But, he needed the House office so he could be the puppet master and prevent any oversight of the Bush/Cheney administration.