Sometimes you can learn all you need to know about the precarious state of the right-wing media by looking at who they select as opponents for public scraps in their never-ending cultural war battles. Sometimes by examining the unsuspecting adversaries, you learn more about the confused far-right players than you do by paying attention to their diluted arguments.

I'd suggest now is one of those helpful, crystallizing moments as the right-wing media, supposedly led by adults, have recently whipped themselves into various states of frenzy while calling out the evil forces behind The Muppets, the Girl Scouts of America, and a song sung by third graders in Virginia. (For the absurd sets of circumstances, see here, here and here.)

Talk about a Murderer's Row.

Now, anyone who regularly reads Media Matters as we monitor the dim stars of the conservative Noise Machine understands that being robotically, systematically unserious  remains a prerequisite for a leadership role in that community. So the notion that misguided conservative media outlets waste their time concocting nonsense isn't exactly news. And I guarantee you that as 2012 unfolds, we will uncover countless instances of head-scratching ineptitude that will replace the current meltdowns that seem so defining.

But it's worth noting, I think, this current trilogy of insipidness disguised as political commentary, and to pay particular attention to the targets of of the burning right-wing wrath. I repeat, The Muppets, the Girl Scouts of America, and a song performed by third graders.

Among the many things Fox & Friends does that betrays their "fair and balanced" mantra is how the hosts interview guests of different ideological backgrounds. Their habit of lobbing softball questions to GOP candidates and officials even got so bad that Fox's own Las Vegas affiliate slammed the show for their kid-glove treatment of then-Senate candidate Sharron Angle.

On this morning's broadcast, the co-hosts invited both Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, and Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, to comment on last night's Republican caucus in Iowa and the presidential election in general.

First up was Wasserman Schultz. Co-host Gretchen Carlson led the interview by claiming she was "looking forward" to one of their "spirited discussions." In the discussion that followed, Carlson asked Wasserman Schultz if Gov. Mitt Romney "is the worst nightmare for Democrats," and, "How can it not be bad news for you that Mitt Romney wins Iowa." Carlson touted the "record turnout" in last night's caucuses and declared that "there doesn't seem to be a tremendous amount of enthusiasm" for President Obama. Carlson also made dubious claims about Romney's history of creating jobs as CEO of Bain Capital. Watch:

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On Fox & Friends this morning, Peter Johnson Jr. decried those who "pretend" to be a "newsperson" but engage in activism, politics, and propaganda, leading to what he called "an unfair portrayal of the news to the American people."

Watch:

JOHNSON: If you're a commentator and an analyst -- and I'm a commentator and analyst -- say you're a commentator and analyst. If you're an activist, say you're an activist. But to pretend that you're a newsperson, to pretend that you're giving a fair and balanced view of things -- when, in fact, you have no credentials to do that and your only history is to engage in activism, is to engage in politics, is to engage in propaganda -- then that's an unfair portrayal of the news to the American people.

It's no secret that many of Fox News' opinion show hosts openly advocate for Republicans and conservative policies. But Fox News "straight news" hosts also routinely engage in the activism, politics, and propaganda that Johnson decried -- often by pushing Republican positions, parroting GOP talking points and research, and promoting phony scandals pushed by right-wing activists.

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Rep. Michele Bachmann suspended her presidential campaign today after a sixth place finish in the Iowa caucuses. The result may be a surprise to those who listened to the analysis of Fox News contributor Dick Morris.

Morris, author of the political classic Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race, has a staggeringly bad record of political prognostication. Morris once predicted that "Bachmann is probably going to win" or "have a strong second-place finish in Iowa." He also said that Bachmann "is likely to be one of the two semi-finalists" overall for the nomination.  

Morris' analysis on Bachmann was mired in ethical problems. He previously conducted a series of softball interviews with Bachmann for DickMorris.com. Emails sent to Morris' list promoting the interviews were "Paid for by Bachmann for President" and included direct links to the Bachmann campaign's fundraising website. (Bachmann had previously rented out Morris' list in June to send out a fundraising appeal.)

Here's a look back at some of Morris' predictions about Bachmann and the Iowa caucuses.  

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On cue, Fox News is carrying water for GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney, claiming to have proved the former Bain Capital executive's unsubstantiated claim that he helped create 100,000 jobs by restructuring struggling companies.

Discussing the 2012 campaign during an interview on Fox & Friends, DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz said that Democrats were willing to "stack up President Obama's job creation record versus Mitt Romney, who was a specialist at Bain Capital in dismantling companies and cutting jobs and forcing corporate businesses into bankruptcy."  

Fox & Friends host Gretchen Carlson responded by claiming that Fox's "research also shows that Mitt Romney created 150,000 jobs when he was in that position."

After Wasserman-Schultz interjected that neither Romney's campaign nor anybody else has been able to validate that claim with "actual facts," Carlson insisted: "We did."

Talk about burying the lede. One day earlier, Greg Sargent issued a challenge to the media, calling on them to press Mitt Romney to provide evidence supporting his claim that he created 100,000 jobs during his tenure at Bain:

These claims are absolutely central to Romney's entire rationale for runing for president. Is it too much to expect reporters and news outlets to scrutinize them or to ask him to substantiate them?

[...]

It's obviously too much to expect Fox to challenge these claims. But Romney has made this assertion about 100,000 new jobs in variousother settings, too. As Steve Benen noted, his Super PAC is also making a very similar claim in ads. And as far as I can tell, only two lonely fact checking operations -- one at the Post, the other atFactCheck.org -- have scrutinized it. They have found that the assertion is at best unsubstantiated and that there may have been more layoffs than jobs created by Bain; there's no way to tell for sure. When will reporters push Romney on this?

Now the crack researchers at Fox & Friends are not only claiming to have proved Romney's controversial statement correct -- they've padded it by an additional 50,000 jobs.

Fox is going to have to show its work on this one.

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Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has canceled the climate change chapter in his upcoming book of environmental essays after Rush Limbaugh and other commentators targeted its author, atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe.

At a recent campaign event, Gingrich told a woman he had cut the climate change section after she expressed concerns about it, citing what she heard from "Rush." "That's not going to be in the book. We didn't know that they were doing that and we told them to kill it," Gingrich says in the video provided by National Journal. The woman replies, "That sounds like a good idea because I thought, why would you want to have somebody like that in there."

By "somebody like that," she was referring to a scientist who, like the vast majority of climatologists, will tell you that human activities are driving climate change. Gingrich's comments came as a surprise to Hayhoe, who said on Twitter that she spent "100+ unpaid hrs" on the project. According to emails reported by the Los Angeles Times, Hayhoe was asked in 2007 to write "a good opening chapter that lays out the facts on global climate change," including "a sense of what needs to happen." She said via email that her chapter did not include specific policy prescriptions. Gingrich's collaborator Terry Maple told the Times that the book will probably be released in 2013.

Hayhoe, an Evangelical Christian who often speaks about climate change to faith-based communities, has noted in the past that "there is a very intelligent, well-planned effort to deliberately try to muddy the waters on this issue." This month, she became the target of that very cohort of activists and commentators.

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Michelle Obama is making a guest appearance on the January 16 edition of iCarly, which Entertainment Weekly describes as a "hit Nickelodeon sitcom." Entertainment Weekly reported that in the episode, "Mrs. Obama surprises Carly and Co. to commend them for supporting military families (as part of the First Lady's Joining Forces initiative)."

Because this involved Michelle Obama doing something -- anything -- right-wing blogs took this as an opportunity to attack her.

In a clip of Obama's appearance posted by Entertainment Weekly, one of the characters on the show refers to the first lady as "your excellency." Another character corrects the first, saying, "You don't call her 'your excellency.' " Obama responds, "No, no. I kind of like it." Laughter is heard after she delivers this line.

In a post on his Gateway Pundit blog, Jim Hoft wrote, "Michelle Obama makes an appearance on Nickelodeon this month where she jokes that she 'kind of likes' being called 'Your Excellency.' Yeah, we know." He illustrated his post with an image depicting Obama as Marie Antoinette -- with a large, muscular arm (other right-wing bloggers have used the same image):

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Over the past weekend, E.D. Hill anchored CNN's Saturday and Sunday morning news hours, covering topics like President Obama and the Republican contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. Hill may seem like an odd choice to anchor a straight news program on CNN. Hill has been identified by CNN as a "conservative analyst" and previously headlined a Republican fundraiser. She is perhaps best known for her time on Fox News, where she once asked if Obama and his wife were engaging in "a terrorist fist jab."

Hill made the infamous remark in June 2008, when she introduced a segment by asking: "A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently. We'll show you some interesting body communication and find out what it really says." Fox News canceled Hill's show the following week and later announced that Hill's contract would not be renewed. Hill also co-hosted Bill O'Reilly's late radio show.

The "terrorist fist jab" remark drew criticism from some in the media. It also received play on CNN. During the August 19, 2010, edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, John Roberts noted the false belief that Obama is a Muslim is "on television news, the better outlets merely covering the controversy, the not-so-better ones stoking it." Roberts then ran video of Hill's remarks, among others.

Hill headlined a fundraiser for the Nashua Republican City Committee's September 12, 2009, "Steak Out." Hill was a guest speaker along with then-candidates Kelly Ayotte, Ovide Lamontagne, and Charlie Bass.

Media Matters asked CNN for clarification about Hill's role at CNN; whether Hill's Republican fundraiser should be disclosed; and if CNN believes she can be an impartial anchor. A spokesperson for CNN replied through email: "ED was filling in for the holiday schedule. We utilized others to fill in for our anchors during the same period."

I've just finished watching the latest cartoon from Mike Huckabee's Learn Our History series of educational videos, and I once again find myself gobsmacked at the celebratory propagandism the former Arkansas governor has injected into cartoons geared towards children -- or rather, parents who want to insulate their children from the liberal conspiracy to accurately retell American history.

In this newest cartoon, Huckabee's troupe of poorly animated grade-school protagonists travel back in time to witness Christopher Columbus' voyage to the New World. 

For those who can't see the video, at voyage's end Columbus and his sailors are greeted by a party of Arawaks, who provide them with food. The Arawaks are depicted as bald, grass skirt-clad, spear-clutching stereotypes. And they all look exactly the same. Seriously: the animators designed one Arawak and just copied-and-pasted to fill out the tribe. Each European character, in contrast, gets their own face, clothes, hair, and period headgear. I guess if you've seen one Arawak you've seen them all.

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Bill Kristol is offended.

Just "a little offended," but offended all the same.

The cause of Kristol's ire is President Obama's "cheesy" and "pathetic" decision to address caucus goers in Iowa tonight, thereby "butting in" on the process:

It's not clear why Kristol finds this offensive. After all, there is a Democratic caucus in Iowa tonight, a fact also noted by Crooks and Liars.

And Kristol shouldn't be offended by incumbent presidents who are unopposed for their party's nomination addressing supporters at a caucus in Iowa. As Kristol himself said, he worked for Reagan. Who addressed the Iowa GOP caucus as an incumbent in 1984. When he was unopposed for his party's nomination.

Responding to a relentless wave of Iowa attacks ads produced by a Mitt Romney-friendly Super PAC, an angry Newt Gingrich last week challenged Romney to debate the "dishonest" commercials. Over the holiday weekend, Gingrich said of the ads, "I feel Romney-boated."

As the Associated press noted:

Gingrich's nautical attack was a reference to a 2004 TV ad campaign by a group called the "Swiftboat Veterans for Truth" that bloodied Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Gingrich's turn of phrase was telling. Why? Because this was Newt Gingrich, a leader of the modern-day conservative movement, presidential candidate, and proud Republican partisan adopting language that acknowledged the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are synonymous with unsubstantiated campaign attack ads. With his "Romney-boated" comment, the former Republican Speaker of the House reinforced what progressives have been saying for years.

But wait, everyone knows the Swifties peddled slanderous lies about John Kerry, right? Everyone acknowledges their ad campaign represented a new low point in American politics, right?

Wrong.

For years, prominent right-wing bloggers have clung to the parallel universe belief that the Swifties were honorable men and that none of their wild Vietnam War claims about Kerry were ever debunked. Within the right-wing media, the Swift Boat Veterans are fondly remembered as heroes who "courageously told the untold truths."  

Previously, from Michelle Malkin:

A reminder to conservatives: "Swift-Boating" does not equal smearing. Swift-Boating means exposing hard truths about corrupt Democrats.

From Powerline:

Most of what the Vets said in their ads has never been disputed, let alone discredited.

From Patterico's Pontifications:  

The canard that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was a "smear campaign" is so well accepted by Big Media that ABC NEWS feels comfortable in portraying the Swifties' ad campaign as "slanderous" and "smear ads."

On and on the denial goes as far-right bloggers cling to their Swift Boat fantasy. But now, with the likes of Newt Gingrich using the Swift Boat handle as bipartisan shorthand for claims of duplicitous campaign lies, that fantasy is being put to bed.

By Republicans. 

Summary

Gingrich As A Contributor And Host

American Solutions for Winning the Future

Center for Health Transformation

Gingrich Productions

The Americano

Summary

In November 1998, following midterm losses and a Republican revolt, Newt Gingrich announced he would step down as House speaker and resign from Congress. Thirteen years after his downfall, Gingrich is now a contender for the Republican nomination for president.

During his years away from office and campaigning, Gingrich stayed in the public spotlight as a frequent contributor and occasional host on Fox News. Between October 1999, when he was hired, and March 2, 2011, when his contract was suspended, Gingrich appeared on Fox News over 600 times.

As a Fox News commentator, Gingrich regularly made incendiary and false remarks that helped ingratiate himself to the conservative base. But Gingrich's time at Fox News went beyond conservative punditry and attacks against progressives.

Fox News was a powerful ally when it came to boosting Gingrich's political and business groups. As The Atlanta Journal Constitution noted, Gingrich "built a network of for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations that seamlessly promote his vision of American government and politics. ... Well before Gingrich announced his candidacy, those groups were providing him with money and public exposure."

Fox News heavily promoted American Solutions for Winning the Future, which served as Gingrich's non-profit political organization before he ran for president. Fox News boosted the work and profile of the Center for Health Transformation, Gingrich's for-profit health care consulting company, and The Americano, Gingrich's Hispanic outreach organization. Fox News also served as a constant and reliable promotional vehicle for Gingrich Productions, a for-profit conservative multimedia company run by Newt and wife Callista.

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Former National Rifle Association (NRA) chief Ray Arnet once said, "You keep any special interest group alive by nurturing the crisis atmosphere." The organization has long taken this sentiment to heart. For years, the NRA has warned that nationwide gun bans and confiscation were right around the corner. These threats made up in hysterical rhetoric for what they lacked in credibility.

Arnet's comments demonstrate why the organization has adopted such a dishonest strategy. To sustain its $200-million-plus annual budget, the organization relies upon donations from both its members and the gun industry; constant fearmongering boosts donations from both. By working their members into a frenzy, they can better convince them to financially support the NRA and thus stave off that dark future.

The effort also encourages existing gun owners to purchase more firearms in case such laws are actually passed; new sales to current gun owners are essential to the gun industry given that the number of households owning a gun is in long term decline. Terrifying gun owners bolsters gun sales, which in turn keeps the gun industry profitable enough to direct more funds back to the NRA.

But sometimes, your run-of-the-mill fearmongering just isn't enough. In 2011 the NRA repeatedly turned to one of their favorite weapons to keep alive this crisis atmosphere justifying their extremist political agenda and their own existence: conspiracy theories. Below, Media Matters documents a few of our favorites of the year.

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Yesterday, ABC News released excerpts from Barbara Walters' interview with President Obama and the First Lady, scheduled to air on tonight's 20/20. Several news outlets have focused on President Obama's comments about the "laziness in me," featuring headlines that lack needed context.

Politico headlined their story "Obama: I have some Hawaii laziness," while the Daily Caller went with "Obama: "There's a laziness in me," and National Journal selected "Obama Blames Hawaii For His 'Deep Down' Laziness."

All of these headlines would likely give readers the impression that Obama was saying that he tends to avoid doing work, which would fit neatly into a common conservative attack on Obama. But the full context of the interview shows that Obama was actually saying just the opposite. Obama told Walters: "It's interesting, there is a -- deep down, underneath all the work I do, I think there's a laziness in me." [Emphasis added.] He later added: "when I'm mad at myself, it's because I'm saying to myself, you know what, you could be doing better; push harder.  And when I -- nothing frustrates me more than when people aren't doing their jobs."

While some reports on the Walters interview have included parts of this key context, the headlines generally have not.

From the full transcript of the interview, obtained from the White House [emphasis added]:

The portion of the interview released by ABC News does not include this part of Obama's statement: "But when I'm mad at myself, it's because I'm saying to myself, you know what, you could be doing better; push harder. And when I -- nothing frustrates me more than when people aren't doing their jobs."  

Politico's Ben Smith is calling this the "next anti-Obama talking point," while Mediaite's Jon Bershad says, "If you're a fan of right wing media ... you're probably going to be seeing that clip about 5,000,000 times in the next week." Which is all the more reason why responsible journalists should be emphasizing what Obama actually said rather than writing sensationalist, misleading headlines.

Fox News' animosity toward President Obama, three years into his presidency, is by now well-known. This is the network that routinely calls Obama a socialist, accuses him of being involved in all sorts of conspiratorial plots, and claims that he hates America. But, as witnessed Thursday on Hannity, Fox's attacks have taken an increasingly racially charged tone: Brent Bozell, who runs the factually challenged outfit of conservative misinformation known as the Media Research Center, likened Obama to "a skinny, ghetto crackhead."

Bozell appeared on Hannity as part of the show's weekly "Media Mash" segment to talk about purported mainstream media failings. After listening to a clip of MSNBC host Chris Matthews saying that Newt Gingrich "looks like a car bomber," Bozell responded:

BOZELL: How long do you think Sean Hannity's show would last if four times in one sentence, he made a comment about, say, the President of the United States, and said that he looked like a skinny, ghetto crackhead? Which, by the way, you might want to say that Barack Obama does. Everybody on the left would come forward and demand he be fired within five minutes for being so insulting towards a leader of the United States.

A few months ago, Fox's Eric Bolling came under fire for his racially charged criticisms of Obama, including his claims that Obama was "chugging 40's in IRE while tornadoes ravage MO" (which he later tried to amend), and that Obama was hosting "hoodlum[s] in the hizzouse" when he welcomed Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba and rapper Common to the White House.

These attacks have become a pattern at Fox News. 

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In its latest attack on American electric vehicles, Fox is echoing claims that the Chevy Volt is costing American taxpayers $250,000 per vehicle in subsidies and tax incentives.

Fox's source is a wildly inflated estimate from James Hohman of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, an oil-funded, conservative think tank known for its "low quality" research.

By the author's own admission, Mackinac's analysis uses "simple math": "I added the known state and federal incentives that have been offered and divided by the number of Volts sold." Hohman also acknowledged on Fox Business that he is "not an expert on the auto industry." But it doesn't take expertise to realize that Hohman's methodology is deeply flawed.

First, he does not take into account future Volt sales, which, as Fox Business' Stuart Varney pointed out, will substantially reduce the cost-per-vehicle number. In the coming months, GM plans to expand manufacturing plants and increase production of the Volt to keep up with rising demand from dealerships. As production and sales ramp up, the per-vehicle subsidy cost will continually drop.

Furthermore, the $3 billion figure includes a broad range of state and federal incentives not only to GM, but to any company supplying parts for the Volt. For example, it includes $100 million in tax credits and subsidies to Compact Power, which manufactures lithium ion batteries for the Volt. But the company also supplies batteries to several other automakers, including Ford, Renault, and Hyundai. Therefore, it is misleading to include the full $100 million as government support for the Volt.

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Every year, "Culture Warrior" Bill O'Reilly devotes considerable time on his Fox News show to the "War on Christmas." This December, O'Reilly has covered the imaginary "War on Christmas" more than three times as much as the actual wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

O'Reilly's years-long obsession with the "War on Christmas" has turned each winter on Fox News into an overwrought spectacle lamenting the supposed "secular-progressive" conspiracy to end Christmas. (For an example of how much the "War on Christmas" has permeated Fox's coverage, Fox & Friends spent three consecutive days earlier this month throwing a fit over the fact that Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee called the tree at the Rhode Island statehouse a "holiday tree" and not a "Christmas tree.")

O'Reilly's focus on the non-existent "War on Christmas" apparently comes at the expense of coverage of the actual wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the course of December, O'Reilly spent roughly 42 minutes covering the "War on Christmas" and approximately 13 and a half minutes covering the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie repeatedly denied rumors that he would run for president, yet Fox -- which functions as a veritable GOP campaign arm -- frequently hyped him as a possible presidential contender anyway.

Fox's decision to hype Christie came straight from the top. Fox News CEO Roger Ailes reportedly "fell hard" for Christie and encouraged him to run.

But Fox hasn't completely given up on the dream. Fox Nation is now hyping a potential Vice President Christie:

Once again, Fox News has leapt to flog something as wasteful spending without bothering to find out what they're talking about -- something they've done many times before. Today on Fox & Friends, the co-hosts eagerly hyped highlights of Senator Tom Coburn's (R-OK) annual "Wastebook," which purports to show examples of "wasteful and low-priority government spending." One of their targets was $765,000 spent on what the co-hosts called "pancakes for yuppies":

STUART VARNEY (guest): Do you want a list of how they're blowing your dough? Let me rip right into it. How about $113,000 for video game preservation? $765,000 for pancakes for yuppies in Washington, DC.

STEVE DOOCY (co-host): Hold it right there.

ALISYN CAMEROTA (guest host): Hold it right there.

VARNEY: I don't know about --

DOOCY: Wait, wait, wait. Wouldn't yuppies prefer like a crepe rather than a pancake?

CAMEROTA: What are pancakes for yuppies? We don't even know.

VARNEY: I don't know.

DOOCY: Three-quarters of a million dollars.

CAMEROTA: That's a lot of pancakes.

Watch:

The co-hosts really make it sound as though the government spent "three-quarters of a million dollars" on handing out "a lot of pancakes" to "yuppies" -- which, indeed, would be outrageous.

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Before 2011 comes to an end, let's look back at the year that was. We assembled some of the most notable images from the right-wing media into a slideshow. Some are outrageous, some are amusing, and some are just plain horrifying. So gird your loins, strap in, and peruse just a fraction of what the right-wing media produced in 2011.



Happy Holidays from all of us at Media Matters for America.