News Hounds

Frank Luntz' Focus Group Overwhelmingly Votes Romney The Winner Of Fox News' GOP Presidential Debate

Reported by Ellen - Fri 12:32 AM

Participants said Romney "looked presidential," called him "Reaganesque," "elegant," and "decisive," and praised his "specific answers." Perry, on the other hand, was pegged as "too defensive" and "such a waffler." One woman called his support for education for illegal immigrants "absolutely disgusting." The focus group was part of a special post-debate Hannity show. Oddly, Perry was one of the few candidates not to appear on it. Could it be he didn't want to answer any questions about that cervical cancer patient he claimed lobbied him to require girls to get the HPV vaccine - even though he didn't meet her until after his executive order had been issued?

Fox Nation Uses Photo Of Black Man To Headline Thread About White Supremacist

Reported by Priscilla - Thu 10:14 PM

In a stunning example of either poor editing or straight out race baiting, Fox Nation used a picture of Troy Davis, the African American man who was executed by Georgia, to headline this article: "Texas Abolishes 'Last Meal' Request For Death Row Inmates." The material on the Fox Nation thread reports that Texas will no longer honor the tradition of the choice of the last meal for convicts sentenced to die. The change of policy is because a Texas state senator was outraged about the size of the meal chosen by Lawrence Russell Brewer who was sentenced to die for dragging an African American, James Boyd, to his death more than ten years ago. While the Fox Nation "front page" references the crime as a "hate crime," it neither identifies the killer as a white supremacist nor the victim as black. The casual reader (and for Fox Nation the term is used quite loosely) who is not familiar with the crime is left with the impression that the death row inmate of the story is an African American who committed a hate crime against a white man. You just can't make this stuff up. Oh, right. This is Fox Nation. Nuff said!

Live Blogging Fox News GOP Candidates Debate

Reported by Ellen - Thu 8:39 PM

The debate starts in about 20 minutes. Join us with your thoughts and opinions.

Fox News Too Busy With Its GOP/Obama-Bashing Agenda To Cover Troy Davis Execution

Reported by Ellen - Thu 3:16 PM

As many know, Georgia prisoner Troy Davis was executed last night after an 11th hour request to the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay was denied. Davis’ execution was controversial because, as CBS News reported, "Hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions on Davis' behalf, and prominent supporters included an ex-president and an ex-FBI director, liberals and conservatives. His attorneys said seven of nine key witnesses against him disputed all or parts of their testimony, but state and federal judges repeatedly ruled against him -- three times on Wednesday alone." So how did “we report, you decide” and “fair and balanced” Fox News cover this last night? Barely. In three hours of prime time that included The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity and On The Record, there was only one brief Fox News alert when the Supreme Court denied the stay. Segregation-apologist Ainsley Earhardt didn’t even mention it in her news break during On The Record.

FoxNews.com Readers' Racist Bloodlust For Troy Davis Execution

Reported by Ellen - Wed 11:46 PM

To be fair, there were several comments opposing the execution, but if you were wondering about the people cheering for death at recent Republican debates, here they are. The comments include cheerleading for the KKK (a white supremacist was executed in Texas earlier today), calling for champagne to celebrate Davis' death and complaining that he got "special rights" because he was black. And why do FoxNews.com moderators allow "nappybegone2012" as a user name?

Another Fox Nation Death Threat Against Obama Reported To The Secret Service

Reported by Ellen - Wed 9:22 PM

Today's threat comes from the thread called, Obama Gets Deep At U.N.. What's sickening is that the comment has four likes (so far). Screen grab after the jump. UPDATED WITH ANOTHER DEATH THREAT.

Cavuto Gives A Friendly Platform For Tea Party Challenge To “Socialist” John Boehner

Reported by Guest Blogger - Wed 8:46 PM

By Brian

Apparently, no (right-wing) view is too extreme to get a warm welcome on Fox News. On Monday (9/19/11), Neil Cavuto and Your World gave a warm welcome to Tea Party candidate and primary challenger to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), David Lewis. Lewis quickly proved just what kind of candidate he is – by calling Boehner a socialist and complaining that he “refuses to phase out” such “socialist policies” as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps.”

Sarah Palin Lectures The Republican Presidential Candidates On How To Campaign

Reported by Ellen - Wed 5:43 PM

Sarah Palin followed up her lecture for Warren Buffett last night with a lecture for the Republican presidential candidates. After a ploy to maintain her political relevancy the myth that she might yet run, Palin made her demands for the GOP slate. I suspect it’s going to go down about as well as if Rev. Wright announced a set of requirements for President Obama. Meanwhile, host Sean Hannity ignored Palin’s statement last month that she’d decide by September whether or not she’ll run and pretended it was still a big, intriguing mystery.

Monica Crowley Plays The Race Card Against President Obama And African American Communities

Reported by Ellen - Wed 2:36 PM

Although Fox News can’t seem to get enough of demonizing the Congressional Black Caucus for “playing the race card,” Bill O’Reilly didn’t mind a bit last night when Fox News contributor Monica Crowley argued that Obama’s “anti-American policies” are popular in poor and African American communities because they are all “committed wealth redistributionists… and some demographics (she named the African American communities) benefit from that, disproportionately from everybody else. But it is a fundamentally anti-American proposition.”

Eric Bolling: Fox's New Conspiracy Theorist

Reported by Aunty Em - Wed 12:14 PM

When Fox “News” unceremoniously dumped Glen Beck, conspiracy nuts across the planet not only mourned his loss, but actually spun it into their web of conspiracy theories: authorities needed to silence The Beckinator because he was getting too close to the truth. With Beck off cable, where could nut jobs go to get their [free] daily adult requirement of conspiracy theories? Not everyone is flush enough to fork over whatever crazy amount it costs to subscribe Beck’s webalicious GB[L]TV. Genius that he is, Eric Bolling has recognized that fact and has sought to fill the gap by spewing one whacked out conspiracy theory after another. Hardeep Dhillon of Media Matters makes that very point in an article titled, “Bolling Uses Obama's Support Of Israel To Claim He Doesn't Support Israel.” According to Dhillon:

Multimillionaires Hannity And Palin Lecture Warren Buffett Over Tax Increases For The Wealthy

Reported by Ellen - Wed 1:31 AM

Sarah Palin, that font of knowledge and wonkishness, visited with Sean Hannity Tuesday night (9/20/11) to offer her special brand of insight and analysis to President Obama’s economic plan, described by the two multimillionaires as class warfare. Hannity hilariously pretended he was not one of the wealthy class and told Buffett to “put up or shut up.” Palin, on the other hand, “explained” how Buffett was “totally incorrect” in his assessment that his secretary paid a lower tax rate than he did.

Bill O'Reilly Drops His Threat Of Quitting If His Taxes Go Up

Reported by Ellen - Wed 12:12 AM

Monday night (9/19/11), Bill O'Reilly threatened to quit working and investing if higher taxes on the wealthy go up. That got quite a bit of notice - as of this writing my post has gotten more than 163,000 page views - plus I've seen a lot of comments and tweets that were not exactly broken up at the prospect. Tuesday night (9/20/11), O'Reilly continued harping on the tax issue, but somehow, he didn't mention a word about quitting.

Murdoch Fetes Perry

Reported by Ellen - Tue 4:54 PM

Rupert Murdoch may have his hands full with News Corporation's phone hacking scandal but he's still a political playa, at least in Republican politics. NY Magazine reports that Murdoch took GOP candidate Rick Perry to a New York steakhouse for dinner last night. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that Perry will appear in a special pre-debate "exclusive" on Hannity tomorrow.

News Corp. Willing To Pay Big Bucks To Murdered Teen's Family

Reported by Ellen - Tue 4:16 PM

Not surprisingly, News Corporation seems willing to pay a pretty hefty sum to the family of murdered teen Milly Dowler whose hacked voice mail led her family to believe she was still alive.

Fox Nation Fans Make Vile Comments About Chaz Bono

Reported by Priscilla - Tue 1:42 PM

Despite it's mission of being "for those who oppose intolerance," Fox Nation, an adjunct of Fox News, is, as is Fox News, dedicated to fomenting intolerance of the most crude and base variety which includes homophobia. That it knows exactly to whom an for whom it exists is shown by today's thread which seems innocent enough: "Watch Chaz Bono Dances With The Stars." Suffice to say the thread is filled with the same kind of mouth breathing, knuckle dragging hatred that is characteristic of every thread on this vile hate site. Wonder how long it will take for Fox Nation to shut down this Chaz Bono thread.

Fox Nation Comment Encourages Terrorism Against "Ground Zero Mosque"

Reported by Priscilla - Tue 1:07 PM

Fox Nation has a thread which reports that the "Ground Zero Mosque" (No quotes are used in their headline) will be opening the first part of the Park 51 Islamic Cultural Center tomorrow with an exhibit of children's art. Naturally, the comments from the nice pro-life Christians revolve around how Islam is a religion of violence. (As opposed to those nice Christian crusaders, inquisitors, Nazis, and abortion clinic bombers). Several of the comments "joke" about how awesome it would be if somebody flew a plane over the site and dumped pig guts. But "A Mighty Wind" doubled down with something far more insidious but typical of Fox's Islamophobic fans. Wonder if this dude knows that his avatar is the name of a satirical movie about the reunion of a folk group, written and directed by one of the writers for "This is Spinal Tap?" Anyway, check out this comment on a website for those opposed to intolerance. And BTW, the article links to "Weasel Zippers" which is another radical right wing, Islamophobic hate site. All kidding aside, I hope that the center has good security.

Dana Perino Pimps Christian Kids Book About Heaven

Reported by Priscilla - Tue 11:09 AM

In addition to being a venue for persecuted Christians, Fox & Friends is also a venue for Christian evangelizing and books by those who are just spreading "the word." Last December, Fox & Friends promoted radical Christian dominionist Jim Garlow's book about angels. Today, none other than Billie Graham's daughter, Anne Graham Lotz was on the curvy couch to discuss her new book about how children's fears, particularly about death, can be assuaged by telling them about heaven and, according to Dana Perino, how "they can turn to faith for support." Perino just gushed over the "honor" of interviewing Graham who said that her book is "true, because it's based on what the bible said" such as the bible description of heaven having walls that are 200 feet thick. Bet ya didn't know that!

Bob Beckel Is A Punching Bag For Fox "News"

Reported by Aunty Em - Tue 7:56 AM

The Five is never going to win any Emmys because it remains the worst show on tee vee. One reason is how much disinformation is pushed in that hour; seemingly more than any other single hour on Fox “News,” and that’s saying something. Another reason it won’t win any awards is how they treat Bob Beckel. Beckel is the lone liberal lined up against the four conservatives on the show. Four against one is a formulation that Fox seems to think is “fair and balanced.” Therefore, no matter who sits in that seat, they would find themselves ganged up on. [Juan Williams has appeared in that spot a few times and is The Five’s back-up Liberal when Beckel’s not available.] While the other 4 interrupt Beckel constantly, it wouldn’t matter because Beckel interrupts himself constantly to go off on strange tangents. He even interrupts his own strange tangents to go off on even stranger tangents. Most of those tangents seem to be about Bob’s previous substance abuse problems, of which there seems to have been many substances to abuse. He also, apparently, has had several relapses over the years while trying to dry out. While I applaud Beckel for finally kicking his habit(s), The Five is not Beckel’s personal AA meeting and the other four are no friend of Bill’s. Nor are they friends of Bob’s. They gang up on him daily and it comes off more like cruel fraternity hazing than convivial badinage. They don’t treat Beckel with any degree of seriousness. In fact, he’s basically treated like a joke by the other 4 hosts. Just the mere mention of his name is used as a punch line. I had been lulled into thinking Goody Two Shoes Dana Perino was different because she refrained from engaging in this locker room towel-snapping. However, it turns out she’s no different. She used her regular Monday appearance on Fox and Friends, in part, to make fun of Bob Beckel. Watch:

Bill O’Reilly Threatens To Quit If Higher Taxes For Millionaires Are Enacted

Reported by Ellen - Tue 2:37 AM

Guess what, America? Bill O’Reilly plans to take his marbles and go home if we don’t play by his rules. Apparently, looking out for the folks has its price and it’s a steep one. Never mind that a large majority of Americans (i.e. “the folks”) want tax increases on the wealthy. If O’Reilly doesn’t get his way, he’s going to quit his job and stop making investments. Way to show your love for your country, O’Reilly!

Fox News Civil War! Greta Van Susteren Vs. Tucker Carlson Over Sarah Palin!

Reported by Ellen - Tue 12:42 AM

One of the most hilarious Fox News segments ever aired tonight as Greta Van Susteren followed up her internet attack with a live confrontation with her colleague, Fox News contributor Tucker Carlson. Carlson, you see, had the gall to report Mike Tyson’s disgusting comments about Sarah Palin in an effort (according to Carlson) to attack the mainstream media for ignoring them. Van Susteren accused Carlson of lying and called him “the purveyor of the worst smut… violence against women.” Must see TV!