Fox News

How Conservatives Really Control the Media

Sean Hannity calling President Obama on Fox News Channel a “socialist” every night in prime time on the Fox News Chanel is only the visible tip of the conservative propaganda iceberg. The Right’s real power lies in its ability to shape the narrative and define what is fair and out of bounds for the rest of the media.

Last week MSNBC reported the following:

“So you may not hear Mitt Romney say ‘Keep America American’ anymore, because it was a rallying cry for the KKK group, intimidation against blacks, gays and Jews, and the progressive AMERICAblog was the first to catch on to that.”

Within hours, so-called liberals at MSNBC like Chris Matthews and Al Sharpton were falling over themselves to see who could offer the most debasing, abject apology to Mitt Romney.

My office just got off the phone with Erin Kelly, head of political ad sales at the Fox News Channel. She told us our ad “French Romney” was rejected because everything Fox airs “has to be truthful.”

No, I’m not making this up. 60 seconds after the call ended, Erin called back to clarify. She says our ad was rejected because it was “misleading.”

Really.

Because if it’s one thing we can all agree with, there would never be anything on the airwaves at Fox that a fair-minded person could construe as misleading.

To borrow a phrase from Fox, “We report, you decide” Here is the ad in question below.
My office just got off the phone with Erin Kelly, head of political ad sales at the Fox News Channel. She told us our ad “French Romney” was rejected because everything Fox airs “has to be truthful.”

No, I’m not making this up. 60 seconds after the call ended, Erin called back to clarify. She says our ad was rejected because it was “misleading.”

Really.

So I thought I was going to have another Jay Inslee story for y’all today, but it turns out that I’m going to have to do more research before we can “come to press” with that one.

But that’s OK, because the world’s been busy doing a lot of other things – and while many of them get media coverage, some don’t get a lot of notice at all.

And of course, there are also those stories that look one way at first glance…but look a lot different when you dig a bit deeper.

We’ll hit a few of those today, have a bit of fun doing it, and get ready for what promises to be another busy week of strategically not doing things in Washington.

To make things even better, some of the stories will be real, and some won’t.

We’ll see if you can tell the difference.

Barack Obama brought justice for 9/11 victims. Now we can bring our brave, successful men & women home?

This morning in the WaPo: OSAMA BIN LADEN KILLED; ‘JUSTICE HAS BEEN DONE’

So, the thing is, I’m not the one who tends to follow the herd.

If everyone’s backed up on the freeway, I’m the one who will look for the longer but less crowded country road. When everyone’s talking about whoever out-sang or out-danced or out-cake-bossed someone else, I’m the one with the blank face—and if there’s a room full of people line dancing, I’ll be the one over in the corner having a smoke and wondering what went wrong with y’all.

And that’s why, while everyone else is all excited about Glenn Beck’s imminent “disappearance” from the television firmament…I’m not so sure.

In fact, I can easily see a scenario that leads to a lot more Beck, and that’s what we’ll be talking about today.

Upset over NPR's firing of Juan Williams:

Volunteers taking calls during WUNC Radio’s annual fall fund-raiser this week are hearing from listeners who have strong opinions about the firing of NPR news analyst Juan Williams.

“We’ve heard from quite a number of people upset that he was let go,” said David Brower, WUNC’s programming director. Brower said he personally talked to 19 people Thursday night after they called in on pledge lines.

The thing is (and you should already know this), most of those people barking on the phone aren't regular NPR listeners, they're reactionary sheep responding to this viral conservative e-mail:

I am confident many of you get the emails from Credo Action as I do, but like me you may not always have the time or energy to read dozens of emails from groups like this every day. But please read this excerpt from their Friday email:

Byron Williams is just one example of the very real and growing danger of political violence from the far-right — and FOX's continued promotion of hatemongers like Glenn Beck only fans the flames.

That's why we've partnered with Color of Change to launch a campaign to reduce FOX's poisonous, dangerous influence on our nation. More than 200,000 people have signed the petition asking businesses and public places to stop playing FOX News. Will you add your voice?

Watch the video and sign the petition to Turn Off FOX on public TV's in your neighborhood.

Fox News asked today about the wisdom of building a mosque near ground zero, and this is how our President responded:

I've got your "fair and balanced" right here, pal:

The contribution from Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation, which owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and other news outlets, is one of the biggest ever given by a media organization, campaign finance experts said.

Mr. Horner said that the company’s corporate side made the donation with no involvement by its news operation and that the gift would not have any impact on newsgathering operations. “There is a strict wall between business and editorial,” he added.

While many news organizations reported Tuesday on the $1 million gift, a late-afternoon search of Fox News’ Web site produced no mention of it.