News Hounds

Brian Kilmeade Apologizes For Yet Another Stupid Comment

Reported by Priscilla - Mon 10:56 AM

Last year, Fox “Friend” Brian Kilmeade apologized for his statement about how Americans don’t have the pure genes of the Swedes because they marry other species (Shitake mushrooms? Chilean sea bass?). Because that remark, according to “Journalists of Color,” had a taint of white supremacy (whites and non whites are different species) Kilmeade (Irish and Italian) did issue an apology for his “inappropriate” comment. Flash forward to 2010 and Kilmeade is once again apologizing for not just an inappropriate but a seriously uninformed and possibly Islamophobic (history of Kilmeade's anti-Islamic comments here) assertion that “all terrorists are Muslim.” It was short and not very sweet. An acerbic Kilmeade explained that his remark was made during a discussion of Bill O’Reilly’s “View” appearance. He repeated his infamous quote, “not all Muslims are terrorists; but all terrorists are Muslim” and said that he “misspoke” and that he doesn’t "believe that all terrorists are Muslims.” He said that he was sorry if he “offended or hurt anybody’s feelings.” He ended with a defiant “but that’s it.” So there it is, folks. Was this a sincere apology from somebody who realized that words do matter or was this just a response to management’s request (not a "reprimand" because Brian said that doesn't happen to him) as in “I’m only doing this because I have to, nyah, nyah, nyah….!!"

Fox News Cooks Up A Voting Controversy In Illinois And Adds A Racial Spice To The Mix

Reported by Ellen - Mon 10:02 AM

I’ve long thought that Fox News’ obsession with voter fraud in years past was a way of laying the groundwork for challenging any disagreeable outcomes of a close election. So imagine my non-surprise when Republican activist Eric Eversole fear mongered yesterday (10/17/10) about the possibility that the State of Illinois – where Democratic candidate Alexi Giannoulias is tied with Republican Mark Kirk for Barack Obama’s old Senate seat – had not sent its military ballots out on time. Eversole offered host Shannon Bream no evidence that that was the case, he just likened Illinois’ election official to a murder suspect and complained that the DOJ had not been suspicious enough. Eversole also added a bit of racial color by opining that the reason the DOJ doesn’t investigate problems with military ballots enough is because military voter problems don’t “fall within the traditional framework of the civil rights laws… It’s just not something that they have shown much interest in.” Oddly, both Bream and Eversole focused more on the Obama DOJ than on discussing the extent of the problem and what’s being done – or not – to remedy it.

Neil Cavuto Still Loves Free, Fat American Kids!

Reported by Priscilla - Sun 6:06 PM

Gotta love the hypocrisy of the right wing. They don’t want taxpayer dollars “killing babies” in taxpayer funded abortions; but, if Neil Cavuto is an arbiter of the right wing, they have no problem with taxpayer dollars funding poor nutrition in our taxpayer funded public schools. Earlier this week (October 14th), Cavuto hosted two women who are fitness and nutritional gurus – and, who, I enviously say, look absolutely fabulous. The Lakatos twins oppose a new federally funded study of childhood nutrition. Thus, the fleshy Neil Cavuto assumed that they would be simpatico with his philosophy that government needs to stay out of school nutrition and give those little chubbies as many Crispy Cremes as they can stuff down their gullets. Thing is that the ladies said that the money would be better spent in setting up nutritional counseling for parents as well as restructuring the way that school lunches are being served. Neil, who joked about how he took two plates of food when he was in school, wasn’t happy with their responses to him. He thinks that our taxpayer funded schools should be free to serve crap because otherwise it would be a nanny state. And who cares about the cost of juvenile diabetes and all the other health consequences cuz “real” American kids need their Freedom Fries, praise Jesus. And lest the Fox loving sycophant (and you know who you are) claims that I am being cruel to a person with MS, here’s the thing. Weight control is very important for those with MS. But in Neil Cavuto’s America, taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund reproductive health care; but when it comes to crappy diets for American kids, who care about costs? In Neil Cavuto’s America, freedom’s just another word for nothing left to eat….!!!!

Fiorina Refuses To Answer Wallace’s Question: Name One Single Entitlement Expenditure You’re Willing To Cut

Reported by Ellen - Sun 6:06 PM

Chris Wallace showed some real journalistic integrity on Fox News Sunday today as he pressed Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina to specify how she’d pay for the $4 trillion cost of extending the Bush tax cuts. Fiorina tried to wriggle out of the question by saying she’d “put every agency budget up on the internet for everyone to see, ban earmarks, and we ought to give citizens the opportunity to desginate up to 10% of their federal income tax toward debt reduction.” But Wallace repeatedly highlighted the non-responsiveness of her answers, leaving Fiorina looking foolish and smarmy – especially when she insisted that her lack of specifics was “not a question of not wanting to answer it!” OK, so maybe she couldn’t answer it. That wouldn't exactly make her look better.

Ben Stein And Neil Cavuto Echo Republican Attacks On Obama’s “Shovel Ready” Comments

Reported by Guest Blogger - Sun 4:29 PM

By Brian

Last week, President Obama said in an interview that there’s “no such thing as ‘shovel ready’ projects.” As The New York Times reported, Obama meant that he had learned that local bureaucratic procedures delayed those project a lot longer than anticpated. Despite White House statements confirming Obama's belief in the stimulus package, Republicans spun Obama’s remarks as a flip-flop and/or an admission the stimulus failed. Not surprisingly, the same "failed stimulus" spin appeared on Fox News when Ben Stein visited your World Wednesday (10/13/10).

Glenn Beck’s Latest Mickey Mouse Conspiracy Theory

Reported by Guest Blogger - Sat 11:55 PM

By Aunty Em

Glenn Beck never seems more cartoonish than when he’s spinning those whacky Conspiracy Theories linking the government to Marxism, or Fascism, or Socialism, or Communism or Nazism. Notoriously thin-skinned, Beck has now taken to arguing with actual cartoons found on the innertubes and has woven a very funny cartoon mashup into every Conspiracy Theory he’s ever spewed about the Obama administration. As far as Beck is concerned, if it walks like a Donald Duck, talks like a Donald Duck, then it is a Donald Duck, therefore all part of a federally funded smear campaign against him.

Is Carly Fiorina Really Sarah Palin?

Reported by Ellen - Sat 10:38 PM

Our friends at Brave New Films have a new video out showing that despite the disater that we recently saw in the Gulf, Carly Fiorina's continued support of offshore drilling makes it difficult to tell her apart from Sarah Palin.

Got Stupidity? Brian Kilmeade Says All Terrorists Are Muslims And Abortion Clinic Bombers Aren’t Terrorists!

Reported by Priscilla - Sat 3:39 PM

Brian Kilmeade is very upfront about his opposition to Park 51. He thinks that it could be a haven for big, bad Islamic terrorists who, according to Kilmeade, are the only kind of terrorists. In a discussion of Bill O’Reilly’s View appearance, Kilmeade, whose “expertise” (?) is in sports and not history or political science, he told his Fox friends that “a religion attacked us on 9-11.” He added that “not all Muslims are terrorists; but all terrorists are Muslims.” Just when you think that Kilmeade’s level of stupidity, ignorance, and (yes) Islamophobia couldn’t get any worse, Kilmeade exceeds all expectations!

Sean Hannity Presents Sarah Palin As Abraham Lincoln

Reported by Ellen - Sat 10:19 AM

Author Stephen Mansfield sounded a bit sheepish as he admitted to the Hannity audience last night (10/15/10) that it seemed like he was trying to turn Sarah Palin into Abraham Lincoln. “But the fact is,” Mansfield told a very credulous Sean Hannity, Palin’s childhood was “as much of a frontier existence as you could have at that time (in the 1960's) and it profoundly shaped her.” Maybe so. But I’ll bet rural Americans across the country were laughing outright at what Mansfield considered a “frontier existence.” As for it “profoundly shaping” Palin, I’d like to know whose childhood did not profoundly shape them?

When GOP Propaganda And $2 Million Are Not Enough

Reported by Ellen - Fri 11:19 PM

We've previously reported about News Corporation's $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association and its $1 million donation to the GOP-aligned U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Now we have learned that News Corp. has donated another $250,000 to the RGA.

Monica Crowley Accuses CBS' Bob Schieffer Of Offering Secretly Coded Campaign Suggestions To David Axelrod

Reported by Ellen - Fri 6:08 PM

During a “Barack and a Hard Place” segment earlier this week (10/12/10) on The O’Reilly Factor, Bill O’Reilly asked the panel about what he thought were unusually tough questions from CBS’ Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation to Obama advisor David Axelrod about accusations that foreign donors are secretly funding the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other “independent” election organizations. O’Reilly was obviously impressed with such a challenging stance from the supposedly liberal media. But conservative Monica Crowley had a different interpretation. It was a secret way of helping Axelrod reconfigure his 2010 campaign strategy. An incredulous O’Reilly asked, “So you think he was trying to help Axelrod by humiliating him?” Yes, that’s what she was saying.

On Fox & Friends, Right Wing Media Critic, Brent Bozell, Discusses Media Bias Towards Teabaggers – LOL!

Reported by Priscilla - Fri 1:48 PM

Fox & Friends does love a persecuted right winger. Be it persecuted Christians or persecuted patriots, there is always a warm place on Fox & Friends for a right wing victim of evil libruls. It’s ironic. The right wing are the ones who bray about how poor people (read minorities) play the victim and should suck it up; but judging from what is seen on Fox & Friends these right wingers take the Oscar for best whining. There’s an ongoing meme on Fox “News” about how unfair the evil, librul media is to anything connected with the conservative right. It’s a meme that forms the basis for “Newsbusters,” a right wing site dedicated to ferreting out librul bias in mainstream media which encompasses obscure websites and magazines and, of course, anything said by Joy Behar, Janeanne Garofalo, and Bill Mahr. This website is the love child (but from a chaste and very heterosexual philosophical coitus) of Brent Bozell who is head of the right wing partisan “Media Research Center” and who spends a lot of his time railing about “The Family Guy” and that nasty anti-Christian Jon Stewart. But Brent is a fave on Fox “News” where his macho (?!) hirsute visage is frequently seen. And in a quid pro quo, his Fox appearances are heralded on “Newsbusters.” Last week, on Fox & Friends, he bitched about Christiane Amanpour’s unfair treatment of the anti-Islamic right wingers on her discussion panel. Today he appeared with the morning right wing bobbleheads (whoops, Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy) regarding how the evil, librul media treats the teabaggers unfairly. Yeah, right wing hack Brent Bozell complaining about media bias – during which time he worked in standard right wing agitprop about the “failed” stimulus. Gotta love it!

Fox News Uses France Protests To Beat The Drum To Privatize Social Security

Reported by Guest Blogger - Fri 1:48 PM

By Brian

On the October 12, 2010 Your World, Neil Cavuto hosted Dave Ramsey for a discussion ostensibly about workers in France walking off their jobs to protests the idea of raising the retirement age from 60 to 62. Instead of a real discussion with facts and balance, Ramsey called the protesters “juvenile delinquents” and he and Cavuto turned the segment into a fear-mongering argument for privatizing Social Security.

After Attacking Jerry Brown’s Lack Of Sensitivity To Women, Bernard McGuirk Calls Congress “A Pack Of Teenage Girls At The Mall With Daddy’s Credit Card”

Reported by Ellen - Fri 10:58 AM

Sean Hannity was in a Hanctimonious snit last night (10/14/10) over someone in Democrat Jerry Brown’s camp calling his opponent, California’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, Meg Whitman, a “whore” in a phone message that was accidentally recorded and then left on a union official’s voice mail. During the “Great American Panel” segment, Don Imus producer, Bernard McGuirk (of “nappy-headed ho” fame), joined the attacks and claimed that Democrats “have a history of throwing women under the bus.” But moments later, McGuirk likened Democrats to “teenage girls with their father’s charge card.” Hannity laughed at the comparison. Also on this “sensitive” panel was a Republican Congressional candidate, Rocky Raczkowski, who nobody revealed to the "we report, you decide" network's audience is a birther.

Christine O'Donnell Reportedly Says, "I've Got Sean Hannity In My Back Pocket"

Reported by Ellen - Thu 11:49 PM

Christine O'Donnell is not getting much support from the Republican Party. According to Howard Fineman, she has struck back by publicly complaining in an effort to motivate Tea Partyers to rally to her side - with cash, of course. Fineman reports that "two top GOP insiders" told him that O'Donnell "said at a strategy meeting with DC types last week: 'I've got Sean Hannity in my back pocket, and I can go on his show and raise money by attacking you guys.'"

Glenn Beck Blames Health and Spiritual Problems On Walter Lippmann. Really.

Reported by Guest Blogger - Thu 5:26 PM

By Aunty Em

Glenn Beck shocked his fans last week, leading to more prayers and the lighting of candles than you could shake a dashboard Jesus at, when he announced on his radio show he needed a few days off this week to get tested at an unnamed hospital “out west” using his unnamed Health Care Plan. Yet it didn’t take long before talk of his health problems led Beck right down the Crazy Rabbit Hole again <>, where everything bad can be blamed on progressives, even his own rotten health.

Got Islamophobia? Bill O’Reilly Says “Muslims Killed Us On 9-11” During Discussion Of NY “Mosque”

Reported by Priscilla - Thu 1:33 PM

Bill O’Reilly was a guest on this morning’s “The View” and things got a little lively. During a discussion of Park 51, O’Reilly said that Obama’s support for the mosque demonstrates the “gulf” between Obama and the American people. When Joy Behar said, “this is America" and "I'm an American," America’s patronizing daddy reprimanded her with “listen to me because you’ll learn.” There was more back and forth about “the mosque” before America’s Catholic daddy said that the location of the "mosque" was inappropriate because “Muslims killed us on 9-11.” Whoppi Goldberg said that this was “bullshit” and cited Timothy McVay’s having been a Christian (he received the "last sacraments" from a Catholic priest before his execution) after which she and Behar walked off the set. As they walked off, O'Reilly "joked" that they were leaving because "Muslims killed us." Barbara Walters chided her co-hosts; but she did assert that “You cannot take a whole religion and demean them because of what some did.” (So I guess it’s cool with Bill if we say that Catholics killed innocent British and Irish civilians and Catholics put the Jews on the trains to Auschwitz! And did Bill refer to anti-abortion domestic terrorist, Eric Rudolph, as a Catholic cuz he was!) After the walk off, however, Bill did assert that he wasn't demeaning all Muslims and admitted that he expressed himself "inartfully." He then used the term "radical" Muslims as a result of having been "schooled" by Ms. Walters. I guess that's progress!

Bill O’Reilly Is Wrong – Target Does Not Have 100% Rating From Human Rights Campaign

Reported by Priscilla - Thu 11:10 AM

During last night’s diatribe about the nasty, librul MoveOn’s Ad targeting retailing giant Target for its contributions to the far right wing, Minnesota gubernatorial candidate, Tom Emmer, Bill commented, in an incredulous voice, that despite both Emmer and Obama/Biden both being opposed to gay marriage, MoveOn is accusing Target of bias. He then stated that Target had a 100% rating from the Human Right’s Campaign. He’s either lying or he is misinformed because Target (along with Best Buy and 3M) has been stripped of its 100% rating in the HRC’s 2011 Corporate Equality Index. And the reason that the score went down was because – ready for it – “failing to respond to requests to take corrective actions following their sizable contributions to MN Forward, a political committee supporting the election of an anti-gay candidate for governor of Minnesota.” And that’s Tom Emmer. And while Bill’s statement about the HRC is categorically wrong, his comparison of Obama/Biden’s position on gay marriage with Tom Emmer’s is correct – but it really doesn’t tell the whole story. But when ya want some nice, juicy right wing agitprop, who cares about the details!

O’Reilly Obsesses About Target Boycott, Uses It To Deflect Criticism Of Rove’s Anonymous Donors

Reported by Ellen - Thu 9:04 AM

The O’Reilly Factor “discussion” last night (10/13/10) about a boycott against Target is a perfect example of what bugs me the most about Fox News - besides its constant hate mongering. Rather than explore the issues behind Target’s decision to give $150,000 to a group that paid for ads supporting Minnesota’s virulently anti-gay, Republican gubernatorial candidate or the ensuing boycott by MoveOn.org and others, we got a one-sided, anti-MoveOn editorial from O’Reilly followed up with “analysis” from hyper-partisan Republican Karl Rove. Even worse, O’Reilly’s attack on the left over Target served as a neat set up to deflect attention from Rove’s role in a GOP slush fund, American Crossroads, for which he has come under a great deal of critical scrutiny lately.

News Corp Shareholders Object To Political Donations

Reported by Ellen - Wed 11:39 PM

Two institutional investors in News Corp. have spoken out against its million dollar political donations to the Republican Governors Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. One shareholder, F&C; Investments has announced that it will vote against the re-election of News Corp's audit committee chairman because of the lack of transparency and oversight.