By Harold Meyerson
Editor-at-Large, The American Prospect
Hard though it be to believe, a Wall Street Journal editorial Monday actually had the temerity to criticize Fox News. Not by name, of course—Murdoch editorialists are nothing if not discreet when going after other parts of the Murdoch empire—but the criticism was directed at some unnamed organization that puts Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly on television every night.
The criticism came in an editorial on the late, lamented Herman Cain campaign. After noting that Cain was in no way ready for prime time, the editorial asserted that Cain had too many flaws to take on President Barack Obama. At that point, the Journal dipped its toe, gingerly, into criticism of the right-wing media. Cain’s unelectability, it said,
is the weakness that the talk-radio establishment overlooked when it dismissed the sexual-harassment accusations against Mr. Cain as one more left-wing conspiracy. Whether true or not, the accusations resulted in settlements by the National Restaurant Association, where he had been CEO. These were facts on the record. They were bound to come out, especially if he won the nomination.
And it wasn’t just the talk-radio establishment that was to blame for trying to dismiss the Cain brouhaha. (more…)
By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
President, Waterkeeper Alliance; Professor, Pace University
As America’s middle class battles for its survival on the Wisconsin barricades – against various Koch Oil surrogates and the corporate toadies at Fox News – fans of enlightenment, democracy and justice can take comfort from a significant victory north of the Wisconsin border. Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all!
The reason: Canadian regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada’s right-wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.
Canada’s Radio Act requires that “a licenser may not broadcast … any false or misleading news.” The provision has kept Fox News and right-wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom. As a result of that law, Canadians enjoy high quality news coverage, including the kind of foreign affairs and investigative journalism that flourished in this country before Ronald Reagan abolished the “Fairness Doctrine” in 1987. (more…)
The Bush administration told taxpayers to hand over hundreds of billions of their hard-earned dollars to bail out Wall Street banks because the financial institutions were too big to fail. Now, Rupert Murdoch, owner of politically powerful publications and broadcast stations, claims his News Corp. is too big to know.
Murdoch, who’s in the news industry, essentially a business based on knowing and knowing first, told an investigating committee of the British Parliament this week that he’s a know-nothing. The CEO of News Corp., owner of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, said he was clueless about the phone hacking and other illegality endemic at his company. News Corp., he said, was just too big for him to keep track of its criminal activity. Others were to blame, he blathered. Others are responsible. But not him, not the guy in charge. Here’s what he said:
“I feel that people I trusted — I don’t know who, on what level — have let me down, and I think they have behaved disgracefully, and it’s for them to pay.”
Basically, he said, he deserves the profits that his underlings make for him by bribing police officers and hacking phone lines. But if his underlings do something wrong —like bribing police and hacking phones — he can’t be held accountable because News Corp. is too big for him to know. He claims he certainly would not be behaving disgracefully as CEO for failing to know. And he’s saying he certainly shouldn’t have to pay for his underlings’ bad behavior on his watch. No, the way it works is he gets paid. No matter what.
Brilliant, as the Brits would say.
Banks are too big to be held accountable. Murdoch is too big to be held accountable. Only the little guy, like a laid off minimum wage earner, should be held accountable when he can’t make his mortgage or car payment. (more…)
A spate of recent Fox News attacks on Media Matters tax-exempt status for partisanship included one last week with Steve Doocy interviewing Jordan Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice that not only relied on an argument that assumes Fox News is an arm of the Republican Party (which could have legal consequences for Fox), but also came from a guest whose own 501)c)(3) tax-exempt organization has problems with partisanship as I show in this video.
The clips I use of Steve Doocy’s interview with the ACLJ’s Jordan Sekulow come from a longer segment of Fox News’ June 27, 2011, broadcast of “Fox and Friends” that’s currently available online at http://bit.ly/ktInmz(more…)
EXPOSE THE KOCHS: The Koch brothers fund multiple think tanks and academic centers to promote their ideology and grow their profits, a Brave New Foundation investigation reveals. Let’s create an echo chamber of truth (more…)
So the calvary’s here huh? The Tea Party is going to save the day right? I’ve heard those terms used by others in referring to the Tea Party and the new blood in our political leadership. Congratulations, you wanted it and now you got it.
What you got is leadership that would turn Medicare and programs like it into something totally different. Starting in 2022 their plan would no longer directly pay bills for senior citizens in the Medicare program. Instead, recipients would choose a plan from a list of private providers, which the federal government would subsidize. This proposed plan by Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, is very similar to what is affectionately called “Obamacare” by the Paul Ryan types and Tea Party types in that it would create a government subsidy for Americans to help them purchase healthcare.
The thing is “ObamaCare” doesn’t include senior citizens in its dynamic but does include younger healthier Americans who would be more apt to afford it. When it comes to Ryan’s bill, the older population is naturally more illness prone and therefore their healthcare would cost more. The government can provide subsidies of $1000 a month for healthcare, but if a senior citizen’s healthcare costs him $3000 a month and his retirement and social security totals a fixed amount of $900 a month, there’s nothing to live off of.
Talk about killing grandma. Oh, by the way, this same leadership is the one that balks at increasing taxes on the wealthy. As a matter of fact, Ryan’s bill which passed on the 15th of April in the Tea Party/Republican controlled Congress would lower the top income and corporate tax rates from 35% to 25%. What an outrage at this time of such a large deficit right? (more…)
As America’s middle class battles for its survival on the Wisconsin barricades — against various Koch Oil surrogates and the corporate toadies at Fox News — fans of enlightenment, democracy and justice can take comfort from a significant victory north of Wisconsin border. Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all! The reason: Canada regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada’s right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.
Canada’s Radio Act requires that “a licenser may not broadcast….any false or misleading news.” The provision has kept Fox News and right wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom. As a result of that law, Canadians enjoy high quality news coverage including the kind of foreign affairs and investigative journalism that flourished in this country before Ronald Reagan abolished the “Fairness Doctrine” in 1987. Political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the U.S. airwaves. When Stephen Harper moved to abolish anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio. Harper’s proposal was timed to facilitate the launch of a new right wing network, “Sun TV News” which Canadians call “Fox News North.” (more…)
Since government workers refuse to live up to the greedy goon stereotype, the Tea Party must do it for them. Stephen Colbert shows how they accomplish this.
