Day: 5/24/2012

America’s Barack: Get A T-Shirt That Celebrates The Obama Recovery

Posted by on May 24, 2012 at 5:31 pm. 1 Comments :

America's BarackWould you like to wear your heart on your sleeve? Crass Commerce, the eShop for News Corpse, has this original design on T-Shirts and stickers. America’s Barack!

Your purchases will help to maintain this web site and it’s mission to expose right-wing bias in the media.

Our nation has been struggling to recover from the economic calamity that a conservative philosophy thrust upon us. Tax cuts for the wealthy and dangerous deregulation led directly to the Great Recession of 2008. Now we are beginning to dig our way out of that hole, and it is due to an agenda of stimulus and investment in the American middle class. We need to stay on this path and that means staying with a forward-looking administration that understands that prosperity is the byproduct of a financially healthy middle class that has money to spend in their communities.

The Constitution begins “We the People” not “We the Corporations.” (And no, corporations are not people). We are America, and America’s Barack!

Mitt Romney Still Trying To Kill Big Bird And PBS

Posted by on May 24, 2012 at 1:15 pm. NO Comments :

Big BirdIn Mitt Romney’s recent interview with Time’s Mark Halperin, he reprised his attack on one of his favorite targets: PBS. Romney listed public television as one of the first cuts that would come during a Romney administration. In his remarks he even managed to insinuate a commie angle to continued support for the network of Sesame Street.

“I like PBS. I’d like my grandkids to be able to watch PBS. But I’m not willing to borrow money from China, and make my kids have to pay the interest on that, and my grandkids, over generations, as opposed to saying to PBS, look, you’re going to have to raise more money from charitable contributions or from advertising.”

What Romney didn’t say is how that cut would impact the federal deficit. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is the agency that receives congressional funding for a variety of projects of which PBS is just a part. The entire allocation to the CPB represents about 0.00014 percent of the federal budget. That’s not going to make much a dent in the deficit. But it will have a severe impact on public broadcasting.

This is not the first time that Romney has taken swipes at PBS. Last year he said that he would stop all subsidies to PBS. Here is how I responded at the time:

When Romney says that he wants to “stop certain programs…even some you like,” he is referring to programs that are of significant value to average Americans, but that he can live without because his quarter of a billion dollar net worth enables him to acquire whatever he wants. Romney demonstrates how pitifully out of touch he is by proposing to eliminate funding for PBS, a network that provides educational programming that is not available anywhere else, certainly not in commercial television. He is explicit in what he plans to do:

“We subsidize PBS. Look, I’m gonna stop that. I’m gonna say that PBS is gonna have to have advertisements. We’re not gonna kill Big Bird, but Big Bird’s gonna have advertisements.”

Despite his denials, killing off Big Bird is precisely what his plan would accomplish. There is a reason that commercial TV does not produce the sort of programming seen on PBS. For-profit networks have to cater to advertisers in order to stay in business. By necessity they are more concerned with generating profit than with quality programming. Take a look at tonight’s primetime schedules of the cable nets that were supposed to compete with public television:

  • Bravo: 8:00pm Top Chef: Texas; 9:00pm Top Chef: Texas; 10:00pm Top Chef: Texas
  • Discovery: 8:00pm Sons of Guns; 9:00pm Sons of Guns; 10:00pm Moonshiners
  • Learning Channel: 8:00pm Toddlers & Tiaras; 9:00pm Cheapskates; 10:00pm Toddlers & Tiaras

That’s not exactly entertainment designed to enrich America’s children. It’s a jumble of insipid reality programs that repeat ad nauseum. It’s Real Housewives, Swamp Loggers, Hoarders, and info-mercials. If Big Bird were required to rely on advertisers for funding it would not be long before Sesame Street was just another avenue on the Jersey Shore.

That’s the free market model for public broadcasting that Romney and the right advocate. It’s a model that would replace Bert and Ernie with Kim and Chloe. Is that really the example we want to set for our kids?

And is that really the kind of leadership we want for America?

S.E. Cupp Thanks Hustler For Publishing Obscene Photoshopped Picture

Posted by on May 24, 2012 at 5:38 am. 10 Comments :

“The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
~ Oscar Wilde

This month’s Hustler Magazine is reported to have published an altered photo of Glenn Beck’s GBTV host, S.E. Cupp. The fake picture is an obscene and repulsive depiction of Cupp that is an insult to her and all women, particularly professional commentators who put themselves in the public view by expressing their opinions. The exercise of constitutional rights ought not to be an invitation to engage in profane humiliation.

S.E. Cupp in Hustler

That said, it didn’t take long for a chorus of right-wing opportunists to embrace this repugnant graphic for political gain. There was an immediate rush to associate Hustler’s Larry Flint with Democrats and to compare his literal pornography to the figurative porn of Rush Limbaugh. Conservatives from all quarters began demanding that every progressive women’s organization issue a public condemnation of Flint.


There is, however, a chasm of difference between Flint’s obscenity and Limbaugh’s vulgar characterization of law student Sandra Fluke. Flint is fringe purveyor of pornography who does not lead an army of disciples in a political war. Limbaugh, on the other hand, is a hugely popular rightist icon who commands the attention of his loyal followers and much of the media. It is precisely because of Limbaugh’s success and popular acceptance that his contemptuous incivility be challenged. And it is precisely because of Flint’s aberrant irrelevancy that he can be largely ignored. Flint is a notorious manufacturer of outrage, but when was the last time anyone ever paid close enough attention to him to demand an apology or retraction?

The response from the right to this affair is as fake as the photo in Hustler, and nearly as distasteful. Their unambiguous aim is to cast aspersions on liberals as being responsible for, or aligned with, Flint’s depravity. And leading the pack is Glenn Beck, who so often considers himself the victim of abuse. On his webcast today he interviewed Cupp and conflated this episode with both Limbaugh’s assault on Fluke and, shockingly, the Trayvon Martin shooting. He thinks there is some reason for the National Organization for Women and President Obama to lower themselves to respond to Flint. That would be like asking Mitt Romney to take a position on something said by NAMBLA. For her part, Cupp seemed oddly appreciative in this exchange with Beck:

Cupp: If I could just express a little gratitude for Hustler – and I’m being completely serious here – There is an accompanying sidebar to this story and why they did this to me. And in that paragraph they say it’s because she’s lovely, she’s smart, she’s fine, but she happens to be a crazy conservative, she’s pro-life, and wants to defund Planned Parenthood. And for that she deserves a phallus in her mouth. That is essentially what they’re saying and I have to commend that as being incredibly honest. […] So I wish that the media entities that perform this kind of misogyny would just come out and do what Hustler did instead of just beating around the bush and pretending to be fair, pretending to be above that.

Beck: So may I translate? I think what I’m hearing you say – correct me if I’m wrong – is that Hustler Magazine has higher standards than the media and the National Organization of Women.

Cupp: That’s exactly right. They are more straight forward. They have uncomplicated this belief system, which exists on the left and the right, that my being pro-life, my political views make this OK. It justifies it and I, essentially, deserve it. That is honesty on this issue I have never seen before.

Really? That’s a pretty clear indication that Cupp is actually thankful for the publicity she’s receiving. It is evidence that she is not really disturbed by any of this, but rather is encouraging others in the media to “do what Hustler did.” And both she and Beck seem happy to have this spotlight so that they can turn it on NOW and unnamed persons in the press. That’s just brazenly cynical and dishonest, and it exposes their disingenuousness and their desire only to exploit this as a partisan weapon against their ideological foes.

For the record, some of those whom the right are castigating for not speaking out about this have already spoken out about this. Sandra Fluke, Planned Parenthood, Fox Democrat Jehmu Greene, the Women’s Media Center, and others have Tweeted their disapproval. However, I hope this doesn’t devolve into a parade of forced condemnations from high officials. It serves no purpose for people of integrity to mud wrestle with the likes of Larry Flint. It should suffice that all thoughtful, conscientious people affirm that women be treated with respect. It would be nice if conservatives held that position even when it involves liberal and/or Democratic women like Fluke, Hillary Clinton, and Michele Obama.