FLAIT

By now everyone has heard about Andrew Breitbart slandering Shirley Sherrod, a USDA official. Mr. Breitbart took parts of a video taped speech Mrs. Sherrod was giving about how she overcame her own racial bias 20 years ago, and accused her of being a racist. Unfortunately, the truth about Mrs. Sherrod and the edited video didn't come out until after Fox "News" spent hours playing it over and over and over again, accompanied with their (manufactured) incredulous outrage.

Mr. Breibart claimed that he never saw the entire video. Fox "News" blasted the White House for "jumping to conclusions" and firing Mrs. Sherrod before all the facts were in. No, really. That's how Fox was spinning it - with a straight face no less (Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, and Rush Limbaugh were spinning it by speculating that this was all a set up by the White House. That's a page straight out of the right's "the best defense is a good offense" playbook which I wrote about in May.).

Anyone at Fox who fails to acknowledge the network's responsibility in this matter, and has the nerve to blame others for "jumping to conclusions" when the reason this happened is because Fox "News" "jumped to conclusions," has to be mentally ill. Then again, blatant hypocrisy and sociopathic behavior is what you'd expect from a cult.

This isn't the first time Mr. Breitbart and Fox "News" got a story deliberately wrong by using cherry-picked video. Last year they spent weeks accusing ACORN of illegality and impropriety based on an "undercover" video made by Sean O'Keefe. Fox's ranting and raving eventually brought the community-based organization down (when Fox "News" says "jump"...). But it turns out, Fox was wrong (go figure). There was no illegality and impropriety (oh, wait, I'm wrong. There was. By Mr. O'Keefe. He's being sued.).

So here's two examples - four if you include the Van Jones overreaction and the whipped up Black Panthers "scandal" - of Fox's "fair and balanced reporting" (MSNBC's Rachel Maddow does an excellent job illustrating how the right uses these racial "news stories" for political gain, here).

I must say, it's nice to know that Fox "News" and the conservative media is constantly looking to find, and, um, "report" illegality, impropriety and racial bias...as long as it's coming from the left, of course. But even if Mr. Breibart was right and Mrs. Sherrod was a racist, did it warrant endless looping coverage on Fox "News" and an exorbitant amount of (manufactured) incredulous outrage that would have gone on for days, if not weeks? I ask because where was this incredulous outrage when:

1) George Bush ignored the al-Qaeda warnings in 2001 and failed to even try and prevent the 9/11 attacks?
2) George Bush lied the country into an unnecessary war in Iraq?
3) George Bush pulled troops and resources out of Afghanistan to conduct this unnecessary war in Iraq, turning the Afghan war into a colossal disaster?
4) The unnecessary war in Iraq turned into a colossal disaster?
5) George Bush was creating more terrorists?
6) George Bush turned his back on offers from Iraq (before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power) and Syria to open diplomatic relations.
7) The name of a secret CIA agent - whose job it was to keep an eye on Iran's and Iraq's weapons programs - was leaked strictly for petty, vindictive and childish reasons?
8) George Bush was wiretapping Americans without a warrant?
9) George Bush, Dick Cheney and members of their administration were guilty of war crimes (hey conservatives, forcing you to spin/defend that sure makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it?)?
10) George Bush turned his back on New Orleans after Katrina?
11) The budget deficit was exploding under George Bush?

And while there was a lot more important news worth covering at the time - such as the series of articles in the Washington Post about the country spending tens of billions of dollars a year on an outsourced, out-of-control, lack-of-oversight surveillance program - Fox "News" was spending hours looping the Sherrod's video just to inflame their viewers; which is what they did with ACORN, Van Jones and the Black Panthers video. They sure know what's important, don't they?

As this blog has proven, the entire right-wing movement is a cult that has zero interest in governing responsibly, ever. Their only priority is to keep their brainwashed followers riled up and enraged at the left. So Fox "News" and the conservative media - as well as the GOP - are looking for any misstep, any misstatement, any mistake or any impropriety from the left so they can spend days weeks using it to further inflame their moronic viewers, listeners and readers. And when they can't find anything, they'll just make it up (see Climategate). What do they care if/when they're wrong and wind up with egg on their face? All the conservative columnists who were for the Iraq war, who said Iraq had WMD's, who said we'd be greeted as liberators, who said the war would pay for itself, and who kept saying "we're making progress," couldn't have been more wrong more often. But they either kept their jobs (George Will, Charles Krauthammer, etc.) or eventually got an opportunity to became an Op-Ed columnist in the LIBERAL New York Times (Bill Kristol). So much for the "liberal media".

But if it were the liberals that couldn't have been more wrong on the Iraq war - i.e., "tons" of WMDs were found, a legitimate, stable government that respected minority rights had been elected, a free, peaceful democracy emerged, and our troops, suffering minimal casualties, all returned home by the end of 2003 - the right would have made sure that liberal pundits and the Democratic Party were never heard from again because their credibility would have been shot (and the GOP/conservatives would have also reminded the world that they were right on Iraq, every hour on the hour...forever. And yet, God forbid liberals remind conservatives who supported the war - without reservation and no questions asked - that we told you so, just once.).

So conservative pundits and politicians can get away with anything and say anything because their level of credibility is irrelevant. But if someone on the left gets caught with a misstep, misstatement or impropriety - whether it's true or not - you can be sure that Mr. Breitbart, Mr. Limbaugh, Mr. Beck and Fox "News" will not only scream about it, for weeks, but tear down the "liberal" as much as possible (see Dave Weigel. Author Eric Alterman goes into these double standards, and more, here. I strongly recommend reading it.).

Fox "News" thinks the one time they get something right, it will absolve them of everything they got wrong. It's similar to the "elections in Iraq." The Bush White House and the conservative media used them to justify the war and make everyone forget that the war was a colossal disaster. But just because the 1962 New York Mets won 40 games, it doesn't undue the fact that they're one of the worst teams in baseball history. So Fox "News" getting it right, once, doesn't undue the fact that they're the "1962 Mets" of news really the RNC's megaphone.

But there's a lot more to this. Through cynical intimidation, the GOP and the conservative media manipulates the rest of media into covering or not covering certain news. Former George W. Bush speech writer and former fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, David Frum:

It’s my business model to craft strategies to make sure that the mainstream media is forced to reckon with stories that it would love to ignore because it doesn’t fit their narrative. (Aug. 24 insert: a good example would be the Community Center/Mosque American-Muslims want to build two block from the WTC. It wasn't news, or a controversy, until Fox "News" turned it into one.)

Mark Halprin, editor-at-large and senior political analyst for Time:

The Sherrod story is a reminder — much like the 2004 assault on John Kerry by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth — that the old media are often swayed by controversies pushed by the conservative new media. In many quarters of the old media, there is concern about not appearing liberally biased, so stories emanating from the right are given more weight and less scrutiny. (bold mine)

Columnist E.J. Dionne:

The traditional media are so petrified of being called "liberal" that they are prepared to allow the Breitbarts of the world to become their assignment editors. Mainstream journalists regularly criticize themselves for not jumping fast enough or high enough when the Fox crowd demands coverage of one of their attack lines.

Slander, hostility, confrontation, intimidation, manipulation, misinformation, exaggerated cynicism, (manufactured) incredulous outrage, double standards, (no standards), sociopathic hypocrisy, obsessive paranoia, inciteful propaganda, and inflammatory non-news is the state of America's conservative media empire in the 21st century; an empire that has gotten its viewers, listeners and readers to not only trust them, unconditionally and unequivocally, but to distrust and disbelieve the conveniently labeled "liberal media". But that's exactly what cults do.

And this powerful right-wing propaganda machine will grow. Even though he's been publicly embarrassed (on more then one occasion) and has a long list of lies, smears and distortions, Mr. Breitbart has no credibility whatsoever. But with the way the conservative media operates, he'll undoubtedly be rewarded with his own show on Fox (or some other right-wing media outlet) where he'll join the rest of the conservative pundits, former and future GOP Presidential candidates, GOP insiders, and right-wing rabble rousers who couldn't have been more wrong more often.

Now, Mr. Breitbart is playing the role of victim. But his readers and soon-to-be viewers will believe it. And that's all that matters. So the more misinformation you spew, the more wrong you are, and the worse your credibility, the more opportunities the conservative media will hand you.

While the Breitbart/Sherrod fiasco was taking place, Senate Republicans were holding up the unemployment benefits extension by invoking a rarely used rule that requires a 30-hour delay for a floor vote after breaking a filibuster. Why did they do this? To stick it to Democrats (and the unemployed) because nothing rallies the Republican base more then obstructive partisan politics.

But as Mrs. Maddow points out, this bill wasn't only about extending unemployment benefits. Originally, it was a jobs bill that would have provided, among other things, aid to states (for teachers and Medicaid), infrastructure development, and additional funding to the Small Business Association (you know, the one "big government" bureaucracy that conservatives should really love).

But since it's in the GOP's selfish political interests to run the country into the ground, and since Democrats are wimps who've allowed themselves to be bullied and intimidated and are all rolled up into a fetal position, it couldn't get the 60 Senate votes needed to pass a filibuster. So most of the bill - the jobs part - was taken out, leaving just the unemployment extension (as Mrs. Maddow once said with a confused look on her face, "the weaker legislation gets, the more votes it gets." And we wonder why the country's in the shape it's in. Note: The education and Medicaid funding did pass Congress with the help of Maine's two Republican Senators. However, just two Republicans voted for it in the House. You know, if I was a Republican, I'd be embarrassed. And that's what's scary. None of them ever are.).

So the GOP did what they always do: obstruct, pick a fight with Democrats and water down the legislation so it won't improve the economy as much as it could have. And during the fall campaign, Republicans will blame Obama and the Democrats for the lousy economy (talk about sociopathic hypocrisy).

I brought that up because it's fitting that Mr. Breitbart's bogus allegation and the way Fox "News" reacted to it, and Senate Republicans watering down and then holding up the unemployment extension, happened at same time. Because even though one's media-related and the other is legislative partisan politics, the tone, the behavior, the propaganda and the objective behind both...events...were the same: to inflame the brainwashed conservative base to keep them perpetually enraged at Obama and the Democrats. It goes to show that the media side of this cult, and the political side of this cult, are basically one and the same. Don't believe me? Check out this and this (Aug. 16 insert: and this. Aug. 18 insert: this and this.). Oh, and look who the "special guest" is at an RNC fund raiser (that didn't take long, did it?).

And it continues every day. From Juan Cole:

In this quite insane rant, (Glenn) Beck accused Barack Obama of maneuvering to reorient the machinery of the ´war on terror´away from the real threat (Muslims) and to be able to direct it instead at ¨you¨(i.e. at white people, Tea Partiers, whoever he thought he was addressing). He was saying that Obama intends to make a constitutional coup via National Security Council fiat, so that he can launch the drone strikes against Arizona ¨patriots,¨ and Missouri libertarians.

I am also troubled by the drone strikes in non-war contexts, and not just on US citizens. But Beck is not really worried about civil liberties. He is painting a picture of a Black Hitler, who is developing sinister Storm Troopers to use for a Final Solution of the ¨white¨ problem. Ironically, it is Beck who ends up sounding like Mein Kampf.

The political side knows how to whip up rage as well.

This daily barrage of inciteful propaganda has created a "mob mentality" resulting in this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this (Aug. 24 insert: and this, this and this.). Every American - at least those not members of this cult - should be disgusted, and embarrassed, because political intimidation, threats and violence are more commonly seen in uncivilized banana republics, not the United States.

Congratulations Republicans, conservatives and Tea Partiers, you're turning America into Afghanistan. I'm serious. The Taliban are religious fanatics who rule under an Islamic Theocracy, "govern" through threats and intimidation, use fear of America/infidels to build support, don't care about providing government services, have brainwashed followers, and exercise "Second Amendment rights" every day.

The Republican "Party" are religious fanatics who try and rule as a Christian Theocracy (Aug. 27 insert: here. Scary. Very scary.), "govern" through threats and intimidation, use fear of liberals, Democrats, Socialism, Muslims, the media, etc. to build support, don't care about providing government services, have brainwashed followers, and Tea Party protesters have warned that they "didn't come armed...this time," while Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle declared:

You know, our Founding Fathers, they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. And in fact Thomas Jefferson said it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years. I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around?

Um, that's how the Taliban came to power.

And yet, the right that has the nerve to demand that "they want their country back."

No, I want my country back.

While the Fox/Sherrod story was unfolding, conservative bloggers were spreading the story of a Mexican drug gang crossing the boarder and taking control of two ranches in Larado, Texas. But unfortunately for them (conservatives), it wasn't true (go figure). I say "unfortunately" because the right-wing wanted and needed it to be true so they can use it to further their "mob mentality" crusade against illegals. You see? We told you how dangerous illegals are to Americans!

Again, just because the Mets won 40 games in 1962, it doesn't mean they were a good baseball team. So even if this story was true, it doesn't mean conservatives are right on immigration. But unlike liberals who can never be right, regardless of how many facts are on their side, conservatives only have to be right once. So had this story been true, Fox "News" and the right-wing media would have picked it up, played it over and over and over and over again - accompanied with their (manufactured) incredulous outrage, of course - and "reported" it as if it proves conservatives right on illegals and immigration. If only you would have listened to us!

Not to be left out, the political side of this cult was doing its part to increase the base's hatred and fear of illegals when Senator Kyl and Sen. McCain were making stuff up about Arizona's crime rates.

If that's not enough, Sam Seder explains how the right-wing media makes stuff up - in this case about Muslim-Americans - which, predictably, sparked a new round of hate and fear of Muslims, and the GOP raising money off it. Naturally, the lies were believed by the conservative base (they always are) because they came from the right-wing propaganda machine. See how this works now?

So the Republican "Party," Fox "News" and the conservative media has a habit of trumpeting "facts" - some manipulated, some made up and some taken out of context - that support their side of a particular issue. But they have to do that because, for the most part, real facts don't support their side of the issues. And that's another reason why they've created such a venomous, enraged and pugnacious political atmosphere: to prevent a mature, honest, intelligent debate from ever taking place on, well, anything. Because they'd lose. But in this poisoned political atmosphere - the lying, the spinning, the shouting, the slandering, the blaming and the bullying - the right "wins" because 1) they've trained their base, viewers, listeners and readers to believe what comes out of this propaganda machine and disbelieve the "liberal media", 2) it diverts attention from the Republican "Party" and their historically disastrous record, and 3) both sides get blamed for "all this partisanship in Washington" (when the bully beats up the wimp for not handing over his lunch money fast enough, they're both sent to the principal's office for fighting. But the bully ends up keeping the money.).

Mr. Alterman couldn't sum up Fox "News" any better:

...Fox is a conservative propaganda network, not a news station. Fox News broadcasters regularly distort what the president says or cut away before letting him finish. They invite Republican politicians and conservative propagandists to come on and lie, outright, about both people and policy and then build on those lies to tell even larger lies.

In doing so, they engage in conspiracy theories so lurid and outlandish that one is tempted to turn on “The Twilight Zone” for a reality check. They all but ignore Republican scandals and obsess about Democratic ones. Their hosts openly raise money for Republican causes, promote and appear at their rallies, and pass along their propaganda appeals. Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee (to say nothing of Karl Rove) are paid to play presidential politics on Fox programs.

Fox "News" and the conservative media empire will never change because their objectives have nothing to do with mature, honest, intelligent discussions, let alone responsible journalism. So they'll continue to push their neanderthal right-wing agenda; they'll continue their antagonistic war against liberals and Democrats; they'll continue to use contradicting propaganda to conform to "the policy of the day;" they'll continue to make up "facts" and manipulate the news to validate their side of an issue (Aug. 19 insert: here's an example); they'll continue to turn non-news into news/controversy; they'll continue to make a big deal out of small "facts"; they'll continue to use lies, fear, hate and paranoia to deliberately inflame their viewers, listeners and readers (which the GOP uses to raise money), and they'll never learn from their mistakes actions to ensure that "stories" such as Shirley Sherrod and ACORN never happen again. Because if you haven't figured it out by now, the right-wing media isn't concerned with the truth, the facts, the news or their credibility. Their priorities, as well as the Republican "Party's," are - stop me if you've heard this - to keep the brainwashed conservative base in a perpetual state of incensed rage at all the enemies the right has conveniently created . And that's exactly what a massive powerful cult, that has a massive propaganda machine, and tens of millions of brainwashed followers, does.

Note: Although it's not even close to being true, the right will spin all this by saying that MSNBC is the "liberal" Fox "News." Of course they would, they have to spin this some how. But the conservative base believes it and that's all that matters.

September insert: Fox "News" makes stuff up again, deliberately. Okay, that's not exactly earth shattering news. But in this instance, they did it by using the "Red Herring fallacy." Here.

October insert: A lot more proof that Fox isn't a news network at all is here.

Nov. 6 insert: Rachel Maddow did an excellent job illustrating how the right perpetuates lies and turns them into news.

What happens is a bogus story gets published, somewhere, and it gets picked up by a conservative blog. And instead of the conservative media doing the responsible thing and either ignoring it or correcting it, they report it as fact over and over again. So bogus information becomes "news" because it was previously "reported" by one of their own who "read it on the Internet."

This "news" not only riles up the conservative base and hands them their daily dose of talking points, but it creates "news" in which they can attack Obama, Democrats, or whoever the liberal target happens to be.

I'll take it a step further. When this "news" doesn't turn up on the so called "liberal" media, it validates what the brainwashed conservative base has always been told about the "liberal" media. And that, in turn, increases the, um, credibility of the right-wing media. Twisted logic I know, but that's how the right works.

The segment can be seen here. I recommend it.

As far as Keith Olbermann contributing over $7000 to three Democratic candidates is concerned, Rachel Maddow does a good job putting it into perspective compared to Fox "News" and its hosts, here. However, just because they're worse, doesn't make it right. Contributing $1 to one candidate is wrong. And Olbermann should have to face the consequences.

That said, this should in no way make MSNBC's 8-10 PM time slot comparable to the 24/7 RNC propaganda you get from Fox "News." Yes, Olbermann and Maddow are cheerleaders for Democrats (Rachel much more then Keith) and they treat them way too softly. But their shows are factual and substantive, and they don't promote or take part in DNC activities, functions or fund raising.

If Fox "News" wants to do that, fine. But then don't call yourself a news organization...a "fair and balanced" news organization.

November insert: The Fox Nation web site posted an anti-Obama article from the satire web site The Onion as real news. That couldn't illustrate Fox's agenda any better. Either that or Fox "News" is grossly incompetent and an embarrassment to the news profession.

Hey Fox, which one is it?

December 13 insert: When the 9/11 responders health care package failed to pass a Senate filibuster, Fox "News" didn't mention that the reason why was because all 42 Republicans voted against it.

The GOP can get away with that vote, politically, because when the legitimate media reports that it didn't pass because of the GOP, well, that's the "liberal media" being "unfair," which reinforces the myth that the media is liberal and should not be listened to.

December 14 insert: I gave the "liberal" media - you know, the networks who supposedly lie, distort and make stuff up just to make Republicans look bad - too much credit. Forget why the 9/11 health care package failed, they didn't even report it! And the rest of the so called "liberal" media pretty much ignored it too.

Hey Republicans, if the media's so liberal, then why did ABC, CBS and NBC pass up this opportunity to make the GOP look bad?

At least Jon Stewart reported it. In fact, he did an excellent job calling out the GOP for what they are. All of that is here and here.