Media Matters : The Full Serving….Blame It On M & M… la, la, la…

Media Matters : The Full Serving….Blame It On M & M… la, la, la…

 

 

I wanted to make sure you saw this... [Your additional comments will appear here.] For news coverage to be "fair and balanced," there has to be a line separating news and legitimate commentary from political activism and demagoguery. Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace has repeatedly characterized his network as "fair and balanced," and as one that should be taken seriously. However, several recent actions on Fox News illustrate that the network is contributing to a culture of conservative paranoia and anti-Obama political activism. Please join me in asking Wallace to publicly denounce Fox News' recent actions. If 25,000 people sign our petition, we'll deliver it to Wallace and Fox News this week. http://mediamatters.org/action_center/wallace/ Recent events undermine the argument that Fox News should be treated as a credible, "fair and balanced" news outlet. For example, since launching his Fox News show, Glenn Beck, who has emerged as a prominent player in the network's lineup of weekday programs, has engaged in increasingly outrageous rhetoric that promotes a culture of conservative paranoia. His recent actions include: Imitating President Obama pouring gasoline onto the "average American": On April 9, Beck responded to, among other things, reports that President Obama will pursue immigration reform by imitating Obama pouring gasoline onto the "average American." After lighting and extinguishing a match, Beck asked: "President Obama, why don't you just set us on fire?" Mocking Obama's aunt's "limp": On April 2, Beck -- using a cane as a prop -- devoted large portions of a segment to mocking Obama's aunt's "limp." Portraying Obama and Democrats as vampires: On March 30, Beck portrayed Obama and Democrats as vampires "going after the blood of our businesses" and suggested "driv[ing] a stake through the heart of the bloodsuckers." Also, in recent weeks, Beck and Fox News have engaged in anti-Obama political activism through their aggressive promotion of the upcoming tea party protests, which the network has portrayed as a response to Obama's fiscal policies. In addition to repeatedly airing graphics describing the protests as "FNC TAX DAY TEA PARTIES," Fox News has run advertisements promoting them, listed information about the parties on its various websites, and aired graphics touting the date, time, location, and website of specific tea parties. And Fox News hosts such as Beck have encouraged viewers to attend the protests. If Wallace wants to continue to portray his network and influential Sunday show as a credible source of news, he owes it to his viewers to speak out publicly against Fox News' recent behavior. So please join us and take action today by signing our petition: http://mediamatters.org/action_center/wallace/ In the past, Wallace has criticized his Fox News colleagues when they have undermined his network's credibility. In March 2008, when he confronted the hosts of Fox & Friends for distorting Obama's words during what he described as "two hours of Obama bashing," he said that "one of the things that's great about Fox News is that we don't all follow talking points and we disagree about things." Following that incident, he said that "we really are, despite the sniffing or dismissals of our liberal critics, 'fair and balanced' at Fox News" and said that the news network does not "espouse" a "conservative point of view." The recent actions of his colleagues suggest otherwise. If Wallace wants to repair the damage done to his network's credibility, he needs to speak out publicly against the recent political actions by his colleagues on Fox News: http://mediamatters.org/action_center/wallace/ I hope that you'll join me in asking Wallace to hold his network accountable.

 

National Tea Parties Will Be Held In Over 1,900 Communities Across The Country, According To Latest Estimates.   Choose A State………   Alabama  Alaska  Arizona  Arkansas  California  Colorado  Connecticut Delaware  Florida  Georgia  Hawaii  Idaho  Illinois  Indiana  Iowa  Kansas Kentucky  Louisiana  Maine  Maryland  Massachusetts  Michigan  Minnesota Mississippi  Missouri  Montana  Nebraska  Nevada  New Hampshire  New Jersey  New Mexico  New York  North Carolina  North Dakota  Ohio  Oklahoma Oregon  Pennsylvania  Rhode Island  South Carolina  South Dakota Tennessee  Texas  Utah  Vermont  Virginia  Washington  West Virginia Wisconsin  Wyoming   Washington D.C.

Around The Country Tomorrow Supporting Media And Corporate Sponsors Will Be Hailing The” Tax Revolt Tea Parties” As: Real Grassroots America.   A careful examination will reveal that to be anything but the truth.  The danger in this action is that people who become involved, ensnared in the actions/”The Movement” will soon find themselves the dupes of a broader more far-reaching and sinister agenda…the rumination of the Obama Presidency and the Restoration of the Republican Party  and the agenda of the corporate right. Give credit where credit is due.  The organizers have gone great lengths to maintain focus on their primary theme of the moment, discouraging more radical right single issue anti-abortionists, anti-gay and anti-immigrationists from either participation and/or open advocacy at these events tomorrow. Their story for the day:  America, taxpayers have had enough. They are fed up with excessive spending, planned tax increases and a federal government that first caused the financial bubble through “misregulation”, and then grabbed power in order to "fix" it, they're hitting the streets in protest. They will hero praise CNBC talker Rick Santelli who  his "rant heard 'round the world," calling for a "tea party" protest in Chicago on July 4. The name stuck, and further Tea Parties began popping up around the nation. Organizers want us to believe that just really ordinary people discussing things on Twitter, blogs and chat boards and decided that Tax Day, April 15, would be the perfect day for a coordinated national day of protest. Some of that maybe true, but last night’s expensive political campaign style professional telephone assault nationwide belies the Grassroots identity of what is in progress. Online lists of protests (such as taxdayteaparty.com) predict 300 to 500 marches on Wednesday all across the country.  Now it’s 1,900 as “The Movement” looks likely to be big and successful. Various established groups (mostly on the right, though a lefty counterpart will march this weekend) are getting involved. But its genesis and enthusiasm are to be billed as pure grassroots: a lot of people who've had enough, brought together by the power of the Web. No doubt they'll be dismissed by much of the Big Media.  They have become accounted acclaimated (the same folks who sent more reporters than there were protesters to a staged ACORN protest over AIG bonuses), but these Tea Party protests aren't the same old rituals with the same old marchers. These aren't the usual semiprofessional protesters who attend antiwar and pro-union marches. These are people with real jobs; most have never attended a protest march before. They represent a kind of energy that our politics hasn't seen lately, and an influx of new activists. Simply become acclimated/accustomed to ignoring public protests. Many in the punditocracy will ignore this week's protests, to the extent possible. But, thanks to alternative media,  talk radio and FOX and Friends; they'll still get noticed -- in particular, by the members of Congress in whose districts they take place. And that’s where they want to start….”all politics being local”. The organizers will attempt is their sounds bites, which will be extensive on the FOX affiliates, via instructions already handed down and reported here today, to depict these Tea Party protesters as true American Patriotic types and not the same “old ritual leftists” with the same old cadre of marchers.  This is an authentic popular protest movement not a bunch of weekend social theater players.” You will hear: (script) “These aren't the same old usual semiprofessional protesters who attend antiwar and pro-union marches. These are people with real jobs; most have never attended a protest march before. They represent a kind of energy that our politics hasn't seen lately, and an influx of new activists who want to take America back and back to “Greatness”. In the short run, the protests and media follow-up is likely to provide at least a bit of resistance to “the borrow-and-spend-like-there's-no-tomorrow approach that now governs Washington”; their words. In the longer run, they can be manipulated as a source of new energy and enthusiasm in politics -- bringing in a lot of voters, organizers and even candidates from among those who were previously on the sidelines…that is what the as yet unknown shadow thinkers and planners have in mind. Sound bites to look for: “ The Tea parties have sparked an online insurgency, with independent media sites driving coverage of the protests, suggesting that conservatives may be catching up with their liberal counterparts in building a Web-driven, grassroots campaign to push their agenda.” And the preemptive strike language designed to deal with folks like you and me: “If the Tea Party movement is acknowledged in the Main Stream Media at all, the movement it will be portrayed by the liberal Soros Obama media as (a) organized by the GOP (or FOX News) or (b) an opportunity for racists to vent. Media Matters will come under attack: “So true to form, Media Matters sounded the horn that this was not a real protest, it's a Fox News segment. Kind of a made for T.V. reality show, with a cast of tens of thousands. Think Progress joined in with "Spontaneous Uprising? Corporate Lobbyists Helping To Orchestrate Radical Anti-Obama Tea Party Protests." The script, sound bites talking points and the deflection demonization lines are readied and rehearsed. Blogger stock rebuttal: “And the netroot blogosphere heard the call.  FireDogLake proprietor Jane Hamsher posted "What Part of 'FNC TAX DAY TEA PARTIES' Don’t You Understand?"Hamsher also promoted "citizen-organized protests" which were unlike the "Fox-organized" Tea Parties; I guess she didn't catch the irony of promoting counter-protests to protest other people promoting protests. Anyway, almost no one showed up for the counter-protests.” “Well-known blogger Oliver Willis protested that the Tea Parties are not really "Grassroots." Willis works for Media Matters, but blogs under his own name. Yet another irony lost, a blogger who works for a media organization promoting opposition to a protest movement because the protest movement is promoted by a media organization.” These right-wing events aren't just coming together naturally; they're the product of Fox News and corporate lobbyists. This is practically a textbook example of "astroturf." That Glenn Beck is charging $500 a plate to have lunch with him, to help subsidize the effort, only helps reinforce the larger dynamic. Conservatives too often think, "We'll get some money together, deliver a right-wing message, and the grassroots will come together. It'll be awesome." Except, it never is. But we can’t take a chance and ignore these folks…a watchful eye is required. This isn't to say turnout will necessarily be low on Wednesday; I wouldn't be surprised if far-right voters turned out in substantial numbers. What is it that we, Media Matters and its progeny must be concerned with?  What do we care if people protest, if they are confident in the power of their views?  We must be concerned with not appearing to be or painted as fearful of these folks while opposing them. The answer lies in one of the most ingenious marketing events of all time, the Ben & Jerry's "What's the doughboy afraid of?" campaign. In the early 1980s, Ben & Jerry's was an upstart "premium" ice cream maker in Vermont struggling to get shelf space to compete against Pillsbury's Haaagen-Daz brand. But Pillsbury, as do many food wholesalers, wasn't keen on giving a competitor room to grow, so it pressured stores not to give Ben & Jerry's shelf space. In response, Ben & Jerry's hit on a protest theme: "What's the doughboy afraid of?" The campaign took off, sprouting bumper stickers, t-shirts, and generally great publicity for Ben & Jerry's. Pillsbury eventually gave in, and Ben & Jerry's got its shelf space. The doughboy campaign holds several lessons for the Tea Party movement. First, the left cannot be framed as fearing the loss of our alleged internet domination and control. As a really good blog post notes, the left dominates the mainstream media and to a lesser extent, the internet. So the right is moving to Twitter, and now to the streets, to avoid the filtering of its message. We must meet an engage them at every step with sure and thoughtful steps. The left-wing media machine embodied in Media Matters is seen as “having trouble dealing with these alternatives, and so it attacks”. It/we are being depicted already as seeking to assert our control by framing the protests as contrived, when it will be sound bite asserted that in fact the opposite is true. The second lesson is that our opposition is banking on the Pillsbury back lash that the more Media Matters attacks the Tea Parties, the stronger the Tea Parties will become. Pillsbury learned the hard way that trying to muscle a legitimate brand with a loyal following can backfire. We will see through the Sunday Talking Heads segments the assertion that there is a sense that people are fed up with having liberal ideology and politics shoved down their throat, and that Obama's overly ambitious agenda is a turning point. The movement may not be as organized as some would like, but that is what happens when movements start from the ground up, rather than in a community-organizer's playbook or a media boardroom. But they have entered the play ground and organizing will grow rapidly. The disparate groups involved, the great variation from location-to-location, and the sometimes disorganized nature of the protests demonstrate to the real powers who would co-opt the movement for their purposes, must move quickly, deftly and somehow carefully so as not to utterly destroy “innocent image” the :genuine nature of the movement”. The fact that some have lent a promotional hand is already taking away from this Grassroots façade. The opinion of the deep backers that the mainstream media practically elected Obama through its over-the-top cheerleading coverage and refusal to ask hard questions, and that Media Matters and other liberal organizations are extremely well funded in their efforts, far more so than the Tea Party movement. They will assert that nothing any conservative organization is doing to help the Tea Parties even comes close.  That is the BIG LIE! Getting law-abiding people onto the streets cannot be ginned up by promotion (ask me I know!). There has to be a true feeling to motivate people who never before have protested and could be placing their lives on the line to get involved. And that is what should frightens us if the turnout is massive and looks like it has growth potential because these folks have a feeling of mission and a false sense of security in the streets..   We can loose  of control over the message, is the only thing we can do is  attack the messengers. Show a campaign that is always reacting and I’ll show you a campaign that is losing.  Show me a campaign that can respond and I’ll show the winner. Don’t become a doughboy and watch carefully; we may all be meeting and greeting each other soon…in the streets!

 

REPORT: Emerging Culture of Paranoia

Obama Derangement Syndrome epidemic on conservative airwaves

Summary: Conservative media have directed their violent, doomsday, and anti-intellectual rhetoric at progressives in power, and specifically at President Obama, whom fake populists in conservative media depict as a threat to their audience's very way of life.

 

 

In recent months, the violent, doomsday, and anti-intellectual rhetoric that has long been a staple of conservative media has taken a notable turn in at least three significant ways: previously confined to the right-wing media fringe, the rhetoric is now a constant across the full spectrum of conservative media; it is louder and meaner, with conservative media figures appealing overtly to feelings of anger and paranoia in their audience; and it is focused, tied to the specific political aim of undermining the Obama administration and the Congress.

None other than David Horowitz notes "an interesting phenomenon on the Right, which is beginning to cause me concern": "the over-top-hysteria in response to the first months in office of our new president." Horowitz calls this "hysteria" "Obama Derangement Syndrome."

Indeed, the rise of anti-government speech -- and the explosion of anti-Obama rhetoric -- on right-wing radio, Fox News, and among conservatives in other media outlets tracks directly with the arrival of the new administration and its broad efforts to address the myriad and interlocking problems confronting the country. Rather than engaging in substantive policy analysis and critique, the Glenn Becks, Sean Hannitys, and Rush Limbaughs of radio and television insult their audience with simplistic attacks on Obama and his administration's initiatives.

Far from informing the public, Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, and numerous others on Fox News and elsewhere launch attacks at Obama, progressives, and their policy proposals with accusations of any one or more "isms" that bear no relationship to reality or even to each other. They warn darkly of purported efforts by the Obama administration to cede U.S. sovereignty to a world order rather than engaging in meaningful discussions about the United States' role and image in the world. They scapegoat vulnerable groups, encouraging the perception that undocumented immigrants, the poor, and racial and ethnic minorities are to blame for economic problems in this country. During a time of numerous high-profile acts of gun violence, they claim with alarm that Obama intends to seize their guns. Fox News has adopted the Tax Day "tea parties" as its own, urging its audience to organize and attend what it characterizes as protests of Obama administration tax and economic policies; the network's promotions of these tea-party protests have been largely devoid of meaningful and truthful discussion of the actual merits and flaws in the administration's proposals for reform -- and of little substantive attention to the question of whether Fox News' audience would be better or worse off under those proposals the network is encouraging its audience to protest.

On his show, Beck has gone so far as to purport to imitate Obama pouring gasoline on the American public to light it on fire.

The demagoguery in the conservative media could have real consequences for the country and for efforts by law and policymakers to address serious problems. It is a disservice to the conservative media's audience and to the country, involving distortions of issues with falsehoods and with rhetoric and imagery that incite anger rather than encouraging citizens to engage meaningfully in political and legislative debate and process.

Media Matters for America is tracking this explosion of anti-government rhetoric in the conservative media and has published the following:

Violent, Revolutionary Rhetoric

Conservative media unleash violent, revolutionary rhetoric

Since Obama's inauguration, Media Matters has documented numerous instances where conservative media figures have called for a "revolution" or have invoked violent rhetoric while discussing the Obama administration or government in general. In addition to encouraging violence, such violent rhetoric has also included suggesting Obama's policies were doing violence to the American people and depicting Obama as a rapist, spousal abuser, or mobster.

Beck imitates Obama pouring gasoline on "average American"; says: "President Obama, why don't you just set us on fire? ... We didn't vote to lose the Republic"

Newsbusters' Sheppard fans the flames

Levin: Government engaging in "economic child abuse" and is "enslaving" our children

After Washington banned some kinds of dishwasher detergent, RedState.com's Erickson pondered committing violence against state legislators

Morris: "Those crazies in Montana who say, 'We're going to kill ATF agents because the U.N.'s going to take over' -- well, they're beginning to have a case"

Beck portrays Obama, Democrats as vampires "going after the blood of our businesses," suggests "driv[ing] a stake through the heart of the bloodsuckers"

Fox & Friends hosts former mobster to compare Dems to crime family

Newsbusters' Sheppard defends Limbaugh by pointing to patriotism of secessionists

World Net Daily columnist compares Obama to spousal abuser, while calling abused women "dunderhead[s]"

Warnings Of Incipient "Isms"

Conservatives warn of social-fasc-commun-Nazi-McCarthy-Marxism

Media Matters has documented numerous examples of conservatives in the media warning of socialism, fascism, communism, Nazism, McCarthyism, and Marxism, or using such language to describe Obama or other Democrats.

Beck: "I was wrong. Our government is not marching down the road towards communism or socialism... they're marching us to a brand of non-violent fascism... towards 1984"

Jonah Goldberg on auto bailout: "You can call it corporatism, you can call it socialism, you can call it fascism, what it is not is liberal democratic capitalism"

Beck: "The government is a heroin pusher using smiley-faced fascism to grow the nanny state"

FNC's Napolitano says Wagoner's resignation is "an absolute power grab and it's the road to fascism", "this is Mussolini on the Potomac"

Fox News' Carlson asks, "Are we headed toward socialism?"

Discussing Obama "power grab," Gingrich says Goldberg's "frighteningly prescient" Liberal Fascism describes "how the left is thinking this year"

Hannity: Obama administration is pushing "the single biggest power grab and move towards socialism in the history of the country"

MacCallum on Rep. Bachmann's claim that Obama proposals are a "lurch toward socialism": "I think you're absolutely right about that"

Scarborough declares "Socialism is hard...you want to socialize entire sectors, and you can't even get people to work in the Treasury Department"

Limbaugh expands upon his Frank-McCarthy comparison and the "popular myth that McCarthy falsely accused people of things"

Echo chamber: Fox News' Smith joins Limbaugh, MacCallum in comparing Rep. Frank to McCarthy

Hannity declares today "Day number 52 of the socialism that you've been waiting for"

Rodgers claims Obama "clearly is more sympathetic with the long-term goals of world communism, and let's be blunt about it, Muslim terrorists, than with any legitimate American goals"

Fox News' Asman warns "[w]e ignore" Czech President Klaus' "advice" that "the road to socialism is the road to serfdom" at "our own peril"

False advertising: Beck show promo denounced calling Dems communists, but he often does that on his show

Scarborough on America "moving closer toward European-style socialism:" "That's not a right-wing claim it's the truth"

Fox News VP and Washington Managing Editor Sammon: Obama has an "agenda towards socialism"

Buchanan offers mixed metaphors on socialism in response to Obama proposals, claims, "for conservatives, this is pitchfork time"

On Beck, Byrnes smeared CO solar energy company as "socialist"

Fox & Friends asks: "Are we headed towards Socialism?"

Special Report takes a "fair and balanced look" at whether the recovery plan is "socialism"

Wash. Times invokes Nazism, publishes Hitler photo while criticizing health-care provisions in stimulus

On CNN, Rollins and Castellanos compare recovery plan to Soviet and Cuban communism, socialism

Beck on O'Reilly Factor: "We are really truly stepping beyond socialism and starting to look at fascism"; compares proposals to Nazi Germany

Numerous media figures equate Pelosi's defense of family planning provision in recovery package to China's "one-child policy," eugenics, Nazism

KFSO's Sussman compares Pelosi's contraception comments to Nazism, claims we're on our way to a "one child policy in this country"

Days after decrying those who say Democrats are "trying to turn us into communist Russia," Beck claimed Obama "has Marxist tendencies"

Promoting upcoming Fox show, Beck -- who has called Obama "a Marxist" and criticized "Comrade Clinton" -- decries communist name-calling

Dobbs: America is "moving toward a combination of corporate power and political power" that is "disturbingly similar to what we witnessed in Italy in the 1930s"

Hannity claimed the "federal government...is destroying our economic system as we currently know it"

Hannity on auto bailout: "The administration is on a mission to hijack capitalism in favor of collectivism... The Bolsheviks have already arrived"

Napolitano: "[T]he Obama administration is trashing the Constitution in order to micromanage the economy, Soviet-style"

New World Order

Black helicopter alert! Conservative media suggest Obama supporting one-world government

Since Obama's inauguration, Media Matters has documented many examples where conservative media figures have asserted or suggested that U.S. sovereignty may give way to a one-world government.

Media figures advance false claim that Obama ceded economic sovereignty at G-20 summit

Morris: "Those crazies in Montana who say, 'We're going to kill ATF agents because the U.N.'s going to take over' -- well, they're beginning to have a case"

Fox's Charles Payne: "[O]ne day, I think that we are heading toward a one-world sort of government. I think Obama probably likes that"

Obama will "take away your gun"

Media conservatives fearmongering: Obama will "take away your gun"

Since President Obama's election, several conservative media figures have warned their audiences that Obama is planning to, according to Beck, "slowly but surely take away your gun or take away your ability to shoot a gun, carry a gun" or have suggested that a government effort to ban guns is likely.

Boehlert: Glenn Beck and the rise of Fox News' militia media

After criticizing people alleging that Poplawski "killed three cops because he thought Obama was coming to take his guns," Mike Gallagher proposes "a national movement to register as many people as we can ... to become gun owners"

Liddy advises listeners: "[N]o matter what law they pass, do not -- repeat, not -- ever register any of your firearms"

Tea Parties

"Fair and balanced" Fox News aggressively promotes "tea party" protests

Despite its repeated insistence that its coverage is "fair and balanced" and its invitation to viewers to "say 'no' to biased media," Fox News has frequently aired segments encouraging viewers to get involved with "tea party" protests across the country, which the channel has often described as primarily a response to Obama's fiscal policies. Media Matters has compiled an analysis of Fox News' promotion of these events.

Beck says you can "celebrate with Fox News" at any of four "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties"

Scapegoating Of Vulnerable Groups

Conservative media consistently scapegoat undocumented immigrants, ACORN

In discussions of major news stories, conservatives in the media have repeatedly turned to two favorite bogeymen -- undocumented immigrants and ACORN -- in place of substantive analysis, even when those groups have little or nothing to do with the issue.

Limbaugh forwards myths that Community Reinvestment Act, Rep. Frank responsible for mortgage crisis

Fox News' Baier advanced conservative attacks on CRA, repeated falsehood about Rep. Frank

Myths and falsehoods about the purported link between affordable housing initiatives and the financial crisis

Politico's Libit repeated Gingrich's false claim days after Politico reported such claims were inaccurate

Media figures falsely accuse Democrats of attempting to direct millions of dollars to ACORN

WSJ's Fund falsely claimed that ACORN "almost got a slush fund in the housing bailout bill"

WSJ editorial leaves out relevant information in smear of ACORN

On Dobbs, radio host claimed HUD said "about 5 million illegal alien home mortgage loans ... have gone bad," but HUD reportedly says stat is bogus

Conservative radio hosts claimed HUD said 5 million illegal immigrants were given subprime mortgages, despite HUD's reported denials

Faced with economic turmoil, media conservatives turn to class warfare

CNN reports leave out relevant facts on ACORN voter registration allegations

Fox News' Kelly mocked ACORN for accurate statement about Florida registration law

Dick Morris baselessly accused ACORN of "committing voter fraud"

Myths and falsehoods surrounding the economic recovery plan

The Hill, UPI uncritically reported false GOP claim that Dems steered recovery money to ACORN

SF Chronicle reported false claim that $4.19 billion of recovery plan "would go to" ACORN

Parroting GOP, Dittohead Limbaugh dutifully launches false ACORN attack

Limbaugh says ACORN "got three and a half billion dollars from the stimulus bill"

Fox Business Network joins with GOP senators to further spread false ACORN attack

Fox & Friends' Doocy repeated false claim that stimulus package includes $4 billion for ACORN

Wash. Times echoes recovery bill falsehoods on undocumented immigrants, ACORN

Parroting GOP, CNN's Dobbs baselessly claimed recovery bill provides $4 billion in funding for "so-called advocacy groups such as ACORN"

Dobbs again peddles baseless GOP claim that recovery bill has $4 billion for "groups such as ACORN"

Fox News' Van Susteren ignored Graham's economic recovery falsehoods

Rove latest to advance false claim that recovery bill "funnel[s]" money to ACORN

Morris uses boogeyman of nonexistent ACORN funds to solicit funds for GOP group

Bill Cunningham claims stimulus "give[s] ACORN up to $4.2 trillion" and contains "$350 million to hand out condoms and birth control pills so the poor can fornicate like rabbits"

Cameron uncritically repeats GOP talking point that final version of stimulus bill includes funds that will go to ACORN

Confirmed: AP has received GOP talking points

For four hours after AP correction, Drudge flogged false claim about undocumented immigrants

Limbaugh, Hannity, and the GOP: an iron triangle of stimulus misinformation

AP's retracted stimulus bill falsehood finds a new home at Fox

Will Dobbs retract his stimulus bill falsehood?

Politico advances GOP's communist smear against MN secretary of state

Pat Robertson says "it's time the Republicans gave the Democrats a dose of their own medicine," states they "ought to filibuster every single one" of Obama's judicial nominees

Fox News' Bream uncritically repeats conservative claim Obama judicial nominee "has ties" to ACORN

At Fox News, guilty until proven innocent

Fox's Megyn Kelly asks ACORN spokesman: "You're going to send child rapists out to conduct the census?"

CNN's Sylvester misled on House SCHIP bill's effect on budget and its citizenship verification process

Dobbs again promoted GOP claims that SCHIP could benefit undocumented immigrants

AP, CNN report that Obama represented ACORN, but not that DOJ was also a plaintiff in the lawsuit

Doom And Gloom

Outbreak: Limbaugh spreads Obama Derangement Syndrome

Since Obama's inauguration, Limbaugh has made numerous baseless and ominous claims warning of what will happen if the United States adopts either Obama's policies or those pushed by other progressives, often while invoking fears of rising socialism, communism, and tyranny.

Limbaugh "concerned" that under Obama, "our greatness is going to be redefined in such a way that it won't be great, that we're just going to become average"

Limbaugh: "Thank you President Obama. Thank you CNN. You are doing the job that everybody expects of you, taking every tradition and institution that defined this country's greatness and trying to rip it to shreds"

Limbaugh: "I want the stimulus package to fail," "I want everything he's doing to fail."

Limbaugh on "the economic war": "If Obama is our general, this war is lost"

Limbaugh says Obama wants I-bankers "to be hated," asks, "You don't think this guy has a bug up his dress ... chip on his shoulder about wealthy people?"

Limbaugh on Obama administration: "They are focused on the destruction of the private sector. This is an all-out assault on capitalism"

Limbaugh on people who work on Wall Street: "People want families like yours to suffer. They want you to understand how hard life is for them and that's why they support Obama"

Limbaugh: Obama "is a gutless wonder; he is seeking as much chaos and depression among average Americans as he can get"

Limbaugh: Geithner testified about "how he intends to destroy our capitalist system with Barney Frank banging the gavel in support"

Limbaugh: "If President Obama succeeds with this, our nation fails"

Limbaugh: "Based on what we've seen with General Motors and the banks, if he fails, America is saved. Barack Obama's policies and their failure is the only hope we've got to maintain the America of our founding."

Limbaugh quotes Ayn Rand - "The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters and intends to be the master" - and says, "That is President Obama."

Limbaugh on difference between Dems and GOP: Dems hate life, liberty, happiness

Limbaugh on calls for political "compromise" and "bipartisanship": "Should Jesus have made a deal with Satan?"

Limbaugh likens Democrats to murderers, rapists, and "this Muslim guy" that "offed his wife's head"

Limbaugh on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA): "One day Tony Soprano will walk in with a lead pipe and he will start beating people upside the head to vote to unionize"

Limbaugh is "sure" threats to AIG execs were made by "deranged leftists from the Democrat blogs" because "they're the ones that hate capitalists"

Limbaugh expands upon his Frank-McCarthy comparison and the "popular myth that McCarthy falsely accused people of things"

Returning to "Tony Soprano ... with his lead pipe" analogy to blast EFCA, Limbaugh declares: "Nobody wants their kneecaps busted. I'm speaking figuratively, of course"

Limbaugh: Rep. Frank and Sen. Dodd are "toxic congressmen," "poison members of our government"

Limbaugh on the Pay for Performance Act of 2009: "When the leftists start talking about fairness, they are the slave masters"

Limbaugh continues mob references in discussion of EFCA: "Tony Soprano standing in your business with a baseball bat or a lead pipe"

Limbaugh's website claims of Obama: "His education plan is Maoist ... and he is otherwise a Bolshevik. ... [H]e would be a Stalinist if he thought he could get away with it"

Limbaugh on Cuomo's letter asking for names of AIG bonus recipients, negotiators: "Is [Cuomo] working out of the Reichstag or what?"

Discussing upcoming "Earth hour," Limbaugh calls Obama "an extremist tyrannical president"

Limbaugh: "Maybe we have descended into a nation that sort of loves the concept of soft tyranny."

Limbaugh: "We are Venezuela in the early years."

Pandemic: Limbaugh's Obama Derangement Syndrome spreads through conservative media

Numerous conservative media figures have followed Limbaugh's lead in making increasingly dire predictions about the consequences that policies sought by Obama and other progressives might have for the country.

Hannity: "Robert Gates ought to resign, and resign now" because he "wants to preside over the single dumbest defense scale-down in American history"

Hannity suggests America is "no longer the land of the free and the land of opportunity, but the land of the nanny state"

Hannity falsely claimed Obama administration "taking steps to cut defense spending"

Hannity claimed the "federal government...is destroying our economic system as we currently know it"

Hannity on auto bailout: "The administration is on a mission to hijack capitalism in favor of collectivism... The Bolsheviks have already arrived"

Hannity promo asks if Obama budget is "a way for the government to completely control our lives"

Hannity fear-mongering: "If the government takes too much money ... just like if it was a terror attack against America, Americans will get hurt."

Gingrich says Democratic proposals "absolutely moves you towards a political dictatorship"

Hannity: "It sounds to me like in many ways, even linguistically, we have literally, you know, surrendered" to terrorists

Beck denies responsibility for Pittsburgh shooting, adds that Obama "will slowly but surely take away your gun or take away your ability to shoot a gun, carry a gun"

Beck portrays Obama, Democrats as vampires "going after the blood of our businesses," suggests "driv[ing] a stake through the heart of the bloodsuckers"

Beck claims Americorps bill "basically indoctrinates your child into community service through the federal government"

Beck: "I read an article ... that said 'the Manchurian Candidate couldn't destroy us faster than Barack Obama' "

Tax deduction change latest Obama proposal Beck claims "involves enslaving people"

Morris again falsely claimed Obama "gave away our economic sovereignty to Europe" by agreeing to international financial regulation

Media figures advance false claim that Obama ceded economic sovereignty at G-20 summit

Morris: "Those crazies in Montana who say, 'We're going to kill ATF agents because the U.N.'s going to take over' -- well, they're beginning to have a case"

Savage: "Obama has a plan to force children into a paramilitary domestic army"

Savage declares emerging "dictator[]" Obama to be "out of control" and says "I think it is time to start talking about impeachment"

Gaffney: "[H]ow Barack Obama spells respect is S-U-B-M-I-S-S-I-O-N"

Gaffney in Wash. Times: "[I]t increasingly appears" Obama "will be embracing the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood"

O'Reilly asks if Obama is "selling out America" in favor of a "global justice jihad"

Dobbs: America is "moving toward a combination of corporate power and political power" that is "disturbingly similar to what we witnessed in Italy in the 1930s"

Fox News' Varney: Obama administration will "coerce or force us all into buying the small cars that it insists Detroit puts out"

Napolitano: "[T]he Obama administration is trashing the Constitution in order to micromanage the economy, Soviet-style"

Scarborough on America "moving closer toward European-style socialism:" "That's not a right-wing claim it's the truth"

On Dobbs, WOR's Malzberg claims Obama "does not love this country" and "is trying to do what Hugo Chavez has done to Venezuela"

Limbaugh guest host Steyn declared U.S. is "hanging upside down in the bondage dungeon being flogged and humiliated by the rest of the planet"

Levin: Government engaging in "economic child abuse" and is "enslaving" our children

Radio host Lee Rodgers on Obama's relationship with the Islamic world: "I think the guy's out to sell us out"

Larson on Obama: "A lot of us want him to fail in most of what he's asking the country to do because we view it as an existential threat."

Burnett claims bailout recipient bonus tax "to some echo[es] the Russian and French Revolutions," asks: "[I]s America starting to look like Venezuela?"

On Today, Cramer attacked Obama's "radical agenda" and claimed "this is the most, greatest wealth destructive I've seen by a President"

Given The Fact That The “Tea Parties” Are A Recipe For The Most Likely Flash Point For Violence On America’s Streets…

Conservatives Warn Of Social-Fasc-Commun-Nazi-Mccarthy-Marxism

http://mediamatters.org/items/200904090032

Since January, Media Matters for America has documented numerous examples of conservatives in the media warning of socialism, fascism, communism, Nazism, McCarthyism, and Marxism, or using such language to describe President Obama or other Democrats.

Beck: "I was wrong. Our government is not marching down the road towards communism or socialism... they're marching us to a brand of non-violent fascism... towards 1984"

April 1

Jonah Goldberg on auto bailout: "You can call it corporatism, you can call it socialism, you can call it fascism, what it is not is liberal democratic capitalism"

March 31

Beck: "The government is a heroin pusher using smiley-faced fascism to grow the nanny state"

March 31

FNC's Napolitano says Wagoner's resignation is "an absolute power grab and it's the road to fascism", "this is Mussolini on the Potomac"

March 30

Fox News' Carlson asks, "Are we headed toward socialism?"

March 25

Discussing Obama "power grab," Gingrich says Goldberg's "frighteningly prescient" Liberal Fascism describes "how the left is thinking this year"

March 25

Hannity: Obama administration is pushing "the single biggest power grab and move towards socialism in the history of the country"

March 24

MacCallum on Rep. Bachmann's claim that Obama proposals are a "lurch toward socialism": "I think you're absolutely right about that"

March 24

Scarborough declares "Socialism is hard...you want to socialize entire sectors, and you can't even get people to work in the Treasury Department"

March 20

Limbaugh expands upon his Frank-McCarthy comparison and the "popular myth that McCarthy falsely accused people of things"

March 19

Echo chamber: Fox News' Smith joins Limbaugh, MacCallum in comparing Rep. Frank to McCarthy

March 18

Hannity declares today "Day number 52 of the socialism that you've been waiting for"

March 12

Rodgers claims Obama "clearly is more sympathetic with the long-term goals of world communism, and let's be blunt about it, Muslim terrorists, than with any legitimate American goals"

March 11

Fox News' Asman warns "[w]e ignore" Czech President Klaus' "advice" that "the road to socialism is the road to serfdom" at "our own peril"

March 10

False advertising: Beck show promo denounced calling Dems communists, but he often does that on his show

March 5

Scarborough on America "moving closer toward European-style socialism:" "That's not a right-wing claim it's the truth"

March 4

Fox News VP and Washington Managing Editor Sammon: Obama has an "agenda towards socialism"

March 3

Buchanan offers mixed metaphors on socialism in response to Obama proposals, claims, "for conservatives, this is pitchfork time"

March 2

On Beck, Byrnes smeared CO solar energy company as "socialist"

February 19

Fox & Friends asks: "Are we headed towards Socialism?"

February 18

Special Report takes a "fair and balanced look" at whether the recovery plan is "socialism"

February 17

Wash. Times invokes Nazism, publishes Hitler photo while criticizing health-care provisions in stimulus

February 13

On CNN, Rollins and Castellanos compare recovery plan to Soviet and Cuban communism, socialism

February 9

Beck on O'Reilly Factor: "We are really truly stepping beyond socialism and starting to look at fascism"; compares proposals to Nazi Germany

February 6

Numerous media figures equate Pelosi's defense of family planning provision in recovery package to China's "one-child policy," eugenics, Nazism

January 27

KFSO's Sussman compares Pelosi's contraception comments to Nazism, claims we're on our way to a "one child policy in this country"

January 27

Days after decrying those who say Democrats are "trying to turn us into communist Russia," Beck claimed Obama "has Marxist tendencies"

January 14

Promoting upcoming Fox show, Beck -- who has called Obama "a Marxist" and criticized "Comrade Clinton" -- decries communist name-calling

January 8

 

Rep. Michele Bachmann has sump’m to say, she does! She wants everyone to get a gun and go kill the Democrats and establish a new government, because of some tax: “I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us ‘having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,’ and the people — we the people — are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States.” How very inappropriate! [Huffington Post]

 

Corporate Lobbyists Raising Money for Tea Parties

Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake at 8:41 AM on April 13, 2009.

During the April 14 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson interviewed Atlanta tea party organizers Jenny Beth and Lee Martin, saying to them at one point, "Now you characterize yourselves as everyday Americans." However, Carlson did not mention during the interview that Jenny Beth Martin has been a paid Republican consultant. During the interview, on-screen text identified Jenny Beth Martin simply as "Atlanta Tea Party co-chairman."

 

As Media Matters for America senior fellow Jamison Foser recently noted, USA Today reported on April 12 that Jenny Beth Martin is a "former paid consultant for local Republican candidates." Foser further noted that Martin's blog makes no mention of her having ceased her work for the GOP. Martin states on her blog, "Recently, I began getting paid for my political consulting services for the first time. From 1992 until July, 2007, I volunteered my time and services."

During the Fox & Friends interview, Jenny Beth and Lee Martin discussed their employment history, and Jenny Beth Martin noted, "I do a lot of blogging."

As Media Matters has noted, Fox News has aggressively encouraged participation in the tea parties, which the channel has often described as primarily a response to President Obama's fiscal policies. According to Fox News host Bill Hemmer, Fox News' new website, The Fox Nation, will "host[] a virtual tea party" for those who "[c]an't get to a tea party." Fox News has also repeatedly labeled the protests "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties."

In recent days, MSNBC and CNN hosts have criticized Fox News' aggressive promotion of April 15 tea party protests -- in some instances questioning the journalistic credibility of the network for its coverage of the protests. 

As Media Matters for America has documented, Fox News has frequently aired segments encouraging viewers to get involved with tea party protests across the country, which the channel has often described as primarily a response to President Obama's fiscal policies. Indeed, Fox News has gone so far as to take ownership of the tea party events by repeatedly describing  them as "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties." On April 15, four of the network's hosts will be broadcasting live from various tea party protests across the country. While Fox News has asked whether the media will give "positive coverage" to the tea parties, others in the media are now questioning Fox News' involvement with those protests.

For instance:

• During the April 13 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, media critic and Reliable Sources host Howard Kurtz asserted that Fox News "practically seems to be a co-sponsor" of the tea party protests. Kurtz pointed out that Fox News contributors Newt Gingrich and Michelle Malkin are supporting the protests and noted that "Fox News, whose new online slogan is 'Just say no to biased media,' began publicizing the protests. And, soon, some hosts were signing on." Kurtz later added that "[t]hese hosts said little or nothing about the huge deficits run up by President Bush, but Barack Obama's budget and tax plans have driven them to tea," and said that, while Fox News hosts Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity "and the gang" are "paid for their opinions," "[t]he question is whether Rupert Murdoch's network wants to be so closely identified with what has become an anti-Obama protest movement."

• After airing a Fox News promotion of its upcoming "fair and balanced" coverage of the tea parties, Chris Matthews stated during the April 13 edition of MSNBC's Hardball: "I have got to believe that [Fox News president] Roger Ailes has the biggest tongue in his cheek when he does these ads. 'We report. You decide.' I mean, what are you -- balanced coverage of an anti-government rally, an anti-tax rally -- balanced coverage of that, it's so amazing."

• On the April 13 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, guest host David Shuster described the tea parties as a "movement that's short on outrage and long on Republican manufacturing" and reported: "Then there is the media, specifically the Fox News Channel, including Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. Both are looking forward to an up-close-and-personal taste" of the tea parties "at events this Wednesday." Shuster also noted that Fox News host Neil Cavuto had been "defending his network's promotion" of the events. Later in the segment, MSNBC political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell said of Fox News' involvement with the event: "What they're trying to do is create gigantic television events for their shows on that day. They have to pretend that they are covering a news event rather than trying to create one, which they've very clearly done when you look at the history of -- in the last month of the Fox News discussion of this, and how they've built it up."

• On the April 9 edition of her MSNBC show, Rachel Maddow stated that "our colleagues at Fox News are not just reporting on" the tea party protests, "they are officially promoting" them. After airing a clip of Beck asserting that you can "celebrate with Fox News" at the tea parties its hosts will be attending, Maddow noted that "Fox News Channel has described the Tax Day events on-screen as 'FNC Tax Day Tea Parties,' and they are dispatching some of their hosts to take part in" the events.