More convenient on-screen "errors" that damage Dems on Fox

Fox News has had a curiously high rate of error as of late, and for some reason, the mistakes have a tendency to damage those who are at odds with the network.

Raw Story has more.

Harvesting the Conservative Media's Terrified Crops

Today's post is less about the actions of mainstream media per se and more about its consequences. I feel like a broken record here, but the conservative media's fear machine has been on full blast since last January, and the people who buy this stuff are honestly scared shitless; though they can't say why.

New Left Media was at the scene last Friday to speak to Sarah Palin's adoring fans at her book signing outside a Columbus, OH Borders bookstore. The eight minutes of video reveal something that we've come to expect from crowds at Palin's events, and yet I'm shocked at the deterioration each and every time I see it.

I hope you'll take a few minutes and watch these glassy-eyed ignoramuses regurgitate conservative talking points, so that you can appreciate just how far the right-wing base has declined. Without any knowledge of anything that has actually happened in the last 11 months, they drone on and on about Czars and abortion. If you know someone like this, please, shake them and do all you can to convince them, for everyone's sake, to lay off the conservative lies and try to get to something that actually matters.

Fox, once again, runs footage from a completely unrelated story.

I get the impression that Fox just isn't trying anymore. My very last post was on the subject of Hannity running footage of the Tax Day Tea Party protests last April alongside footage of Rep. Michele Bachman's so-called Super Bowl of Freedom to give viewers the impression that Bachmann's event was much larger than it actually was.

Just a few days later, Fox was at it again. This time they conveniently, "accidentally," aired footage of Palin's infamously hysteric campaign rallies from last year.

I'm almost positive that if you read this blog, you probably don't also watch Fox News, which makes their numerous--I'm not even going to call them mistakes--lies, so much more insidious. The viewers eagerly gobbling up Fox's nonsense are more and more living in their own paranoid reality, and these kinds of mistakes simply strengthen the delusion. The frequency with which they mince footage like this makes it hard to believe that they are honest mistakes. Fox has precious little credibility left and would be wise to err on the side of caution when splicing footage like this.

In case you're wondering, Fox did release a statement calling it a "production error," and also issued an on-air apology later that afternoon.

Stewart checks Hannity: Daily Show continues to flex media monitoring muscle

In a rare break from unyielding stupidity, Sean Hannity actually admitted a mistake after Jon Stewart at the Daily Show made it known that Hannity had misused footage of the Tax Day Tea Parties to create the illusion that Rep. Michele Bachmann's November "Super Bowl of Freedom" on Capitol Hill was much larger than it really was.

The shocking part is not the misuse of footage, but rather the admission of wrongdoing by Hannity. The clip is Stewart at his best.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Sean Hannity Apologizes to Jon
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Daily Show scoops Meet the Press, Destroys Election Coverage

The Daily Show has been growing in legitimacy in leaps and bounds over the past several years since the Colbert Report first aired. Perhaps The Colbert Report's monopolization of absurdity during Comedy Central's 11 p.m. to 12 a.m. block has allowed The Daily Show to hone its watchdog skills, or maybe I've just grown to appreciate it more over the year, but either way, the oft-dismissed infotainment platform warrants another look.

First off, The Daily Show scooped Meet the Press by about a month on General Stanley McChrystal's involvement in the cover-up of Pat Tillman's death. The Daily Show hosted Jon Krakauer on 9/30, and it's clear that Stewart put Meet the Press's David Gregory to shame in questioning Krakauer.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jon Krakauer
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Secondly, Stewart devoted the first 10 minutes of last night's show to mocking the media's lack of perspective in discussing the elections that took place on Tuesday.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Indecision 2009 - Reindecision 2008 And Beyond
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

War on Fox update

This video comes from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Yesterday, The Daily Show finally brought up the "War on Fox," and I'll just let them take it from here:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
For Fox Sake!
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Please, discuss and comment.

Mainstream media goes to bat for Fox

Mike Madden at Salon.com raised an important question on his blog yesterday about the ongoing "War against Fox." Despite the fact that Fox has been nothing but combative toward other mainstream media outlets, relentlessly alleging liberal bias, etc., the media has largely flocked to Fox's side since the network was outed as a right-wing media operation. Mike Madden asks us, "Why?"

From Mike Madden at Salon.com:

Why is the media defending Fox and attacking Obama?

It could be a simple matter of who's in the club, and who isn't

By the time the White House got around to declaring that the administration had simply had enough of Fox News Channel, it wasn't exactly a surprise to anyone. Just three months into President Obama's term, Fox's broadcasting parent had stopped showing presidential news conferences, sticking with regularly scheduled fare like "Lie to Me" instead; returning the favor, Obama froze them out last month when he appeared on every other network's Sunday show to pitch healthcare reform. An armada of Fox News hosts spend their time getting the right-wing troops hot and bothered about creeping socialism and murky conspiracy theories, and the network's fodder often quickly becomes a GOP talking point.

So on the face of it, there wasn't much to argue with when White House aides started saying most of the Fox News crew wasn't giving them a fair shot. Still, listening to some Beltway pundits react to the administration's decision, you might think the White House had ordered Fox boss Roger Ailes to be shipped off to Guantánamo. Fox News isn't exactly universally admired by other political reporters -- after all, the network's "Fair and Balanced" slogan is pretty obviously meant to be a shot at the rest of the press corps, and its cable news competitors get almost as many barbs from Fox as the administration does. But some talking heads from other news organizations started scolding the White House as soon as the battle was joined.

"It makes the White House look childish and petty at best, and it has a distinct Nixonian -- Agnewesque? -- aroma at worst," Ruth Marcus wrote on a Washington Post blog. Her colleague Sally Quinn told Fox News the episode reminded her of Watergate. (Likewise, NPR's Ken Rudin initially compared the White House move to Nixon's enemies list, though he later apologized for the comparison.) ABC News' Jake Tapper pressed the White House on whether it was appropriate for officials to weigh in on what was or wasn't a legitimate news organization. On Time's Swampland blog, Joe Klein said the White House was better off ignoring Fox than trying to hit back

...continue reading at Salon.com