Day: 5/9/2012

Fox Nation Hyperventilation: Obama Flip Flops, Declares War On Marriage

Posted by on May 9, 2012 at 2:54 pm. 6 Comments :

Good grief…another war. Fox News is the most war happy confederation of dunces since the Huns. For Fox it is absolutely impossible to have a position on any subject without it being an official declaration of hostilities. Whether it’s Christmas, Easter, Halloween, light bulbs, the Constitution, hybrid cars, salt, or Happy Meals, Fox has cut off diplomatic relations and is mobilizing its military forces. Now it’s marriage.

Fox Nation War On Marriage

This afternoon President Obama told a reporter from ABC News that his position has evolved and that he now supports the right of all people to enter into same-sex marriage. It is a position that is supported by a majority of Americans including Dick Cheney. But rather than approach this news in a rational manner that promotes civil discourse, the Fox Nationalists sensationalized it by asserting that Obama is at war with somebody.

Never mind that no one can explain how same-sex marriage in any way interferes with straight marriage, or that the divorce rate among straight couples is far more destructive to the “institution” than anything gay couples could ever do, this is WAR and Fox will not back away.

Remember, Fox is the network that featured such marriage-honoring programs as “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?,” “Temptation Island,” “Married by America” and “Joe Millionaire.” All of these programs pitted contestants against each other for the opportunity to marry a perfect stranger. How romantic and respectful of traditional marriage.

Mitt Romney responded to the President’s remarks saying…

“I have the same view on marriage that I had when I was Governor. I believe that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman. I know other people have differing views. This a very tender and sensitive topic as are many social issues, but I have the same views I’ve had since running for office.”

Not exactly. In 1994, Romney told the Log Cabin Republicans (a gay GOP group) that “We must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern.” He ran for the senate in Massachusetts saying that he would be “a stronger advocate for gay rights” than his opponent, Ted Kennedy. More recently Romney bowed to the demands of Bryan Fischer, an anti-gay preacher who objected to an openly gay spokesman on Romney’s foreign policy team. Then Fischer blasted Romney as weak for having capitulate to him.

I would agree that Obama’s position on this issue has changed over time. Even Obama would agree with that and has said so himself. But for Romney to assert that his position has never changed is an outright lie. Although that shouldn’t surprise anyone coming from the man who now takes credit for saving the auto industry with policies he claims to have proposed, when in fact he opposed those policies and argued that we should “let Detroit go bankrupt.” Romney is also the guy who today claims he would have made the same call as Obama on getting Bin Laden. However, he previously blasted Obama’s position and said that he (Romney) would not go into an ally like Pakistan to chase down the terrorist leader.

Hypocrisy and dishonesty are traits that Fox and Romney share. That makes Romney the perfect Fox News candidate for president. What’s really pathetic is that Fox is the general in this war and Romney is their figurehead who lacks any real aptitude for leadership. And Fox’s war plan is to lie by presenting articles like this one that accuses Obama of flip-flopping and declaring war on marriage when any sane observer can see that he did neither.

[Credit where credit’s due] Fox’s Shepard Smith is an island at the network. He wisely wonders “if Republicans would go out on a limb and try to make this a campaign issue while sitting very firmly, without much question, on the wrong side of history.”

Without much question, Republicans will ignore Smith’s inquiry. You can bet they will this an issue. And, as can be seen above, Fox News already has. I can’t help thinking that Smith has sex videos of Roger Ailes with an underage boy from Thailand. How else does he manage to keep his job?

Fox Nation vs. Reality: West Virginia Is For Lovers Of Felons

Posted by on May 9, 2012 at 9:57 am. 13 Comments :

Yesterday was another election day in this seemingly never-ending primary season. And, true to its nature, Fox Nation has managed to mangle reporting of what took place. Here is the headline they went with this morning: “Democrats Pick Jailed Felon Over Obama.”

Fox Nation

There are only two reasons that Fox would run with this story: 1) It makes Obama look bad. 2) They had funny pictures of Obama and a pony-tailed felon. The decision to publish this obviously had nothing to do with truthful reporting because, contrary to the sensationalistic headline, the Democrats did not pick a jailed felon over Obama. The felon lost. Nevertheless, Fox posted this story at the top of their web page indicating that they considered it more important than any other election news, such as the defeat of veteran senator Dick Lugar in Indiana and the victory for homophobes in North Carolina.

More to the point, however, the Fox Nationalists failed to provide any context for this item. They never mentioned that in West Virginia Independents are permitted to vote in any primary. What’s more, all voters are permitted to declare and/or change their party affiliation in the voting booth. Consequently, there is a pretty good chance that the votes for the felon were actually made by Republicans seeking to cause mischief. Since Obama was not being challenged by any serious candidate, the turnout for Democrats was probably quite low. And since Romney’s opponents had all quit, GOP voters could safely cast their votes for a joker on the Democratic ballot.

In any case, the tendency for some portion of West Virginians to align themselves with a white criminal over the President says more about them than it does about Obama. And a closer look at the felon reveals a decidedly Republican mindset. His FEC filings resemble the mission statements of Tea Partiers that rant about gun rights and the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution. That affirms the likelihood that his voters are predominantly right-wingers.

Another bit of context that was left out is that 30% of Republicans voted against Romney in the GOP primary. That means that 30% of West Virginian GOP voters preferred people who were not even in the race to their presumptive nominee. And more West Virginians overall cast ballots for Obama (70k) than for Romney (54k). But don’t expect to hear any of this from Fox News.

Rush Limbaugh Affiliates Losing Millions As Advertisers Flee

Posted by on May 9, 2012 at 2:14 am. 4 Comments :

When Rush Limbaugh called law student Sandra Fluke a slut he may not have grasped how expensive his despicable misogyny would be. Yesterday Politico reported that the CEO of Cumulus Media revealed that…

…the advertiser boycott against Rush Limbaugh cost his company millions of dollars in revenue for the first two quarters of the year.

“It hit us pretty hard,” [Lew} Dickey said during a call with financial analysts yesterday. “A couple of million bucks in the first quarter and a couple of million bucks in quarter two.”

Thirty-eight Cumulus-owned radio stations currently carry Limbaugh’s show. The public admission that the cost of the advertiser exodus has reached into the millions directly contradicts Limbaugh’s transparently phony assertions that the defections have had no effect on him. Limbaugh is broadcast on about 600 stations nationwide. If the loss at 38 stations runs into the millions, extrapolate what the losses must be across the whole Limbaugh network of 600 stations.

Coincidentally, the same day that news broke of the costly repercussions of Limbaugh’s beastly behavior, Limbaugh announced the launch of his response to the controversy. In an attempt to prove that he does not hate and disparage women, he created “Rush Babes for America.” That’s right, Limbaugh’s way of demonstrating his respect for women is to start a self-promotional campaign that disparages women right in the name. Perhaps we should be thankful he didn’t call it FemiNazis for America.