Quote of the Day: This is why I have no hope for America anymore edition

by folkbum

Back in Washington, Graham warned Lieberman and Kerry that they needed to get as far as they could in negotiating the [energy/ climate change] bill “before Fox News got wind of the fact that this was a serious process,” one of the people involved in the negotiations said. “He would say, ‘The second they focus on us, it’s gonna be all cap-and-tax all the time, and it’s gonna become just a disaster for me on the airwaves. We have to move this along as quickly as possible.’ ” [via]

It's bad enough when a single senator can block legislation or appointments on a whim, or when a whole bill is rewritten to suit a single senator's needs (how often in the last year have we seen legislation altered to get Collins's or Snowe's vote, or Baucus's vote, or Scott Brown's?). But now apparently legislation can also die because a single senator is afraid someone will say mean things about him on Fox News.

I don't care where you were on the specific bill here, if you're glad it died or worried now over the fate of the planet. You ought to be just as disgusted by this new reality as I am.

If I tweeted

by folkbum


@JamesTHarris B sure 2 mention we at the blog also ? journalistic integrity of Kilmeade &Co., not just guests http://tinyurl.com/2d89fcn

Ailes Is Analyzed by Freud

By Keith R. Schmitz

Pull up a front row seat. This is good.

Trouble in the House of Murdoch.

It appears that the monster created by father Rupert -- Fox News -- has become an embarrassment to his kids. And it's not just financial.

Here's the story:

The first shot—really a nuclear device—was fired today on The New York Times’ Web site by British public-relations executive Matthew Freud, Murdoch’s son-in-law. Freud’s on-the-record quote, for a front-page profile of the 69-year-old Ailes, who launched and runs News Corp.’s most profitable division, is stunning in its condemnation—a frontal attack on Ailes and an apparent attempt to force News Corp.’s founder to choose between blood and money, between his progeny and his most-prized executive.

“I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes’ horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to,” Freud told the Times. A News Corp. spokesperson fired back: “Matthew Freud's opinions are his own and in no way reflect the views of Rupert Murdoch, who is proud of Roger Ailes and Fox News.”

Wonder how they are grooving on Fox's latest addition to their staff?

WTMJ, WISN: Pimples of the GOP Party

by bert
Predictably -- and right-wing radio shows are always predictable – the talk shows of our local AM stations WTMJ and WISN spent last week hammering the White House’s criticism of Fox News.

What's provoked their push-back was that President Obama’s staff members said in interviews since last Sunday that we Americans, and especially other reporters, should all just stop pretending Fox is journalism.

Dan Peiffer, an Obama spokesman, said "we simply decided to stop abiding by the fiction, which is aided and abetted by the mainstream press, that Fox is a traditional news organization.” Anita Dunn, another White House flak, stated the obvious when she said Fox News is an arm of the Republican Party.

If Fox’s defenders had an argument it was that you can’t confuse commentators in the evening such as Beck or Hannity with the serious, balanced journalism the Fox channel presents during the day. I had to laugh, recalling the teabagger protests last summer when Fox reporters were literally cheering on and pumping up the protesters. I also seem to recall that Hannity never makes those distinctions in declaring all media except Fox as inthetankforObama.


I think it is rich that the local radio is acting all shocked at such an accusation, that a news organization would carry water for a political party. Because I know what folks like Dunn would conclude if she listened to these stations around here. She would see very quickly that, while too insignificant nationally to be an arm of the GOP, WTMJ and WISN are at least pimples of the party.

The local stations, like Fox, pretend they have “news departments” apart from their talk shows. At WISN in the morning the straight news guy is Ken Herrera. True, many times Herrera will just deliver a straight news story, say the spillage of animal offal on the freeway.

But at other times you'll see him serving as the sort of Ed McMahon to talk-show-host Jay Weber. I remember Herrera, for example, gushing his enthusiasm for Sarah Palin, agreeing with an equally aroused Weber about how awesome she was going to be on the day Palin was announced as John McCain’s V.P. candidate a good year ago.

Even worse is another WISN fill-in Nick Reed, who does both straight news and fills in for other hosts. One afternoon Reed is going off forever against Doyle or Pelosi, blah, blah, blah. Then the next day he’ll be the guy reading a story at the top of the hour about state government.

Does anyone remember when, as part of their straight news, WISN would run a feature during their straight news called “good news from the front” that would try to sell the wars under George Bush with fluffy features about schools being built in Karbala, or an election, etc.? That feature stopped about when Bush’s term stopped. Hmmmm?


When it comes to their competitor WTMJ and its supposed journalism, it's hard to know where to start. What contaminates any claim that WTMJ can make that it engages in actual news is the damage wrought by the influence at that company wielded by show-host Charlie Sykes, who is an open GOP operative and MC of GOP fund-raisers.

Like the tick on a rat, Sykes is the carrier of GOP infection afflicting WTMJ’s news. The exposé by former WTMJ news and programming guy Dan Shelley documented how Sykes would rant and throw his weight around. Here's an excerpt of Shelley's article:

Another tense moment arose when the Harley-Davidson 100th anniversary was captivating the community – and our on-air coverage – in 2003, but Charlie
wanted to talk about school choice for seemingly the 100,000th time. He literally threw a fit, off the air and on, belittling other hosts, the news department and station management for devoting resources to Harley’s 100th coverage. “The Green House” newsman Phil Cianciola countered that afternoon with a joke about Charlie riding a Harley wearing loafers. Charlie complained to management about Phil and wouldn’t speak civilly about him in my presence again.

Cianciola was fired from WTMJ recently, by the way.

Although Shelley claimed in this article there is a sort of church-state barrier at the station between news and talk, I see a lot of leakage. Routinely, the news portion runs sound bites from folks who had been “interviewed” by Sykes.

But the problem is that Sykes does not interview. His questions lovingly caress the likes of Dick Cheney, Scott Walker, or Jim Sensenbrenner. While, if the interviewee is an enemy, Sykes uses questions to bludgeon them. For example, while interviewing then County Chair Karen Ordinans, Sykes attacked with interjections such as “I mean, hello??!!”

A print reporter would not run as a quote for an article about Taco Bell the line “think outside the bun” -- or quote "you're in good hands with All-State" while writing about insurance -- as if those quotes came from an interview with company executives. So why should WTMJ news re-run supposed interview bites that in fact were situated within the 3.5-hour commercial for the GOP that Sykes orchestrates every weekday?

So, no, I’m sorry, the White House is obviously correct here about even more than the Fox News they were talking about. And so they shouldn't back down.

Tenuousness Lyrical Love

by 3rd Way

One of the many charms of the blogosphere is it's inhabitants proclivity towards promoting their musical tastes. My blog reading habit has turned me onto some musicians I may not have found otherwise, but I fear most musical posts are skipped over by the average reader. Blog-centric communication is likely most successful when the content is literary and visual opposed to aural.

Tonight I decided from now on I will start to share selected lines from musicians whose lyricism moves me enough to make me want to share with others.

To kick off my new tradition I wanted to post some lines from Andrew Bird's "Tenuousness". I really wish I would have seen him when he was in town last weekend.

Love of hate acts as an axis
First it wanes and then it waxes

(So procreate and pay your taxes)

...

When Copraphagia was writ
Know when to stand know when to sit

Can’t stand to stand can’t stand to sit and
who would want to know this
Click click click

I had to go "click click click" to find out what copraphagia means. I guess those that consume what Beck and other Fox commentators expel could be described as Copraphagians.

Health Care Myth Blasting #1

By Keith R. Schmitz

Let's dive into the murky world of the fear generated by the rad right courtesy of Media Matters.

MYTH 1: There is no health care crisis

CLAIM: The health care system currently works fine, and only a purportedly small number of uninsured people would benefit from reform.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: "There really isn't a crisis in health care in this country. The crisis in health care that -- if you wanna say, that does exist -- is the fear that a major illness or catastrophe could wipe you out, which isn't gonna change. In fact, the odds of you being wiped out by a catastrophe or accident once the government gets started running this stuff is greater than if the private sector -- but day-to-day, there's no health care crisis in this country. You can get it. So, it isn't about health care, per se. This is just about gaining control, taking money, and controlling people's lives, and wiping out Republicans -- a nice cherry on top." [Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show, 6/18/09]
STEVE DOOCY: "Currently, 90 percent of all Americans have got some sort of health care coverage, which means they are effectively blowing up the system for 5 percent. Now, the 5 percent, you gotta worry about them -- you gotta worry about everybody who doesn't have it. But is it worth all of this for 5 percent?" [Fox News' Fox & Friends, 7/30/09]
REALITY: Roughly 25 million Americans were underinsured in 2007. According to Cathy Schoen, senior vice president of The Commonwealth Fund, "From 2003 to 2007, the number of adults who were insured all year but were underinsured increased by 60 percent. Based on those who incur high out-of-pocket costs relative to their income not counting premiums despite having coverage all year, an estimated 25 million adults under age 65 were underinsured in 2007." [Testimony from Schoen before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, 2/24/09]

The underinsured do not receive adequate care and face financial hardship. Schoen explained that the "experiences" of the underinsured were "similar" to those of the uninsured, noting that "over half of the underinsured and two thirds of the uninsured went without recommended treatment, follow-up care, medications or did not see a doctor when sick. Half of both groups faced financial stress, including medical debt." [Schoen testimony, 2/24/09]

Insurance companies currently rescind policies when their insured customers need treatment. Insurance companies restrict or deny coverage by rescinding health insurance policies on the grounds that customers had undisclosed pre-existing conditions. On June 16, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee held a hearing exploring this practice, with the goal of examining "the practice of 'post-claims underwriting,' which occurs when insurance companies cancel individual health insurance policies after providers submit claims for medical services rendered." The committee also released a memorandum finding that three major American insurance companies rescinded 19,776 policies for over $300 million in savings over five years and that even that number "significantly undercounts the total number of rescissions" by the companies.

Currently, insurance companies deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen wrote in a May 14 CNN.com article, "According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 21 percent of people who apply for health insurance on their own get turned down, charged a higher price or offered a plan that excludes coverage for their pre-existing condition. ... The health insurance industry doesn't deny that people are rejected or charged higher premiums because of pre-existing conditions."

Are You Ready for Some Journalism!!??

by bert
Today Sean Hannity of FoxNews gives us our second peep at the person who could be the leader of the free world. What's important here is that he be nice to her.

Taxes, Lies and Videotape

by capper

Well, since Jay went ahead and stole most of my thunder, I will settle for pointing out how the local Faux News (WITI-TV) disproves the notion of liberal media with their cheerleading cover of this story.

The Faux News sends their intrepid crew to the Tosa Home Depot to cover Walker's grandstanding. They repeat the Tosa Ranger's talking point by saying that if the sales tax were to pass (failing to mention that it was only a referendum), that consumers would only have to "go across the street" and do their shopping in Waukesha County, which has a lower sales tax.

There are two faults with this argument. One is that Waukesha County already has a lower sales tax, and that apparently hasn't hurt local merchants.

The other is purely logistics. Unless, Home Depot, and every other store would build a store immediately across the street from their existing stores, it wouldn't save the consumer any money, except for very large purchases, like a car.

Gas has just went up to over $3 a gallon in most locations. Now, I live within a mile and a half of the Milwaukee-Waukesha border. Let's say that I need a loaf of bread, which sells for a dollar. Would I go to the local store, a mile away, and pay the extra penny, or would I want to drive 5 miles extra miles to save that penny. Now, even though my vehicle gets good mileage, the cost of the gas, not to mention wear and tear on the car, would be much more than a penny.

The government standard for mileage reimbursement is 48.5 cents per mile. To drive that six mile round trip, the proposed cost would be $2.91. To break even on the penny sales tax, that means I would have to spend almost $300 dollars.

But the best part of the report is when they show Walker himself repeat the party line, "We're already taxed too much, we need to do a better job with the money we already have."

Here's a news scoop for you, Mr. Walker. You were the one in charge of the money we already have, and you were the one that blew it.

So obvious it shouldn't need to be said

By Bert

But a New York Times review of this new Fox News comedy show "The 1/2 Hour News Hour" says it anyway:

Almost 30 years after the Reagan revolution, conservatives have to tilt pretty far to portray themselves as marginalized and downtrodden. Republicans controlled the House and the Senate until only recently, and they still run the White House, but the impulse to paint themselves as a persecuted minority leading a cultural war against the Hollywood-led liberal media dies hard.