#Faux News supports teabagging
4929 Dead, 62 since 1/20/09
http://mediamatters.org/columns/200904100001
Warning: This tea may cause severe damage to journalistic integrity
by Karl Frisch
Talk to any political organizer and they'll tell you the hardest part
about pulling off a successful protest rally is building a big enough
crowd for the press to show up and cover the festivities. As tax day
approaches, conservatives planning anti-Obama "tea party" demonstrations
across the country have found a way around this once-daunting organizer's
dilemma: Fox News.
That's right. Despite repeatedly claiming its coverage is "fair and
balanced," despite its attacks on anyone who dares claim or imply the
cable outlet tilts to the right, despite encouraging viewers to "say 'no'
to biased media," Fox News has frequently aired segments imploring its
audience to get involved with tea-party protests across the country --
protests the "news" network has described as mainly a response to
President Obama's economic policies.
Organizers of these tea-party protests have no bigger cheerleader (or
crowd-builder, for that matter) than Fox News, which has provided
attendance and organizing information for the events on air and online
dozens of times. You name it, they've likely done it. Fox has offered
viewers and readers such vital organizing information as protest dates
and locations and addresses of websites where people can learn more. It
has even posted information and publicity material for the events on its
own website. Tea-party planners are now using the planned attendance of
Fox News hosts to promote their protests and listing Fox News
contributors as "Tea Party Sponsor[s]" on their website.
You see, Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Neil Cavuto, and Greta
Van Susteren are all scheduled to broadcast live from tea parties in
different cities across the country, and they've wasted little time in
diligently working to boost attendance levels for the April 15 events.
On his Fox program, Hannity has told his viewers, "And don't forget, you
can log on to our website to get all the details one week from tomorrow,
our special, 'Tax Day Tea Party' show. You can attend. It's live. It's in
Atlanta." Cavuto struck the same note, telling his audience, "By the way,
this tea party movement that's going against largesse, it is growing. And
folks are fed up with out-of-control spending. To that end, we are going
to be broadcasting live from one of the biggest of these rallies on April
15, Tax Day. We are at California's state capitol in Sacramento. This is
the epicenter of this tax revolt beast, if you will." Buried under the
fault line of this "epicenter"? Cavuto's integrity.
For his part, Beck, Fox's conspiracy-theorist-in-chief, managed to escape
his "doom room" -- Beck's words -- where he regularly hosts survivalist
fringe characters prophesying our impending demise as a nation, long
enough to encourage his viewers to come "[c]elebrate with Fox News" at
any of four "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties."
It's sounding more and more like a nerdy third-grader begging classmates
to show up for his birthday party: "Come on, guys! There's gonna be pizza
and a clown -- you've gotta come!"
In all seriousness, it's one thing for a news outlet to cover a political
protest -- that's pretty logical. It's quite another for a news outlet to
repeatedly encourage its viewers to attend a political protest. Far from
practicing legitimate journalism, it's blatantly and unabashedly
political.
Beck isn't just helping with turnout. Discussing his participation in the
upcoming protest at the Alamo in San Antonio on his syndicated radio
program, Beck announced, "I'm going to do a fundraiser for them" to help
defray costs. "So you can come and you can have lunch with me. ... I
don't know any of the details, but I've heard it's like $500 a plate or
something like that." I'm guessing they won't be serving pizza with a
price tag clocking in at 500 bones per ticket. The clown, on the other
hand? I'm told Beck makes amazing balloon animals.
At this point, Fox News might as well retire its worn-out "we report, you
decide" slogan in favor of something more accurate and timely. Perhaps
"we incite, then report; rinse and repeat" would do the trick.
Taking all of this into consideration, it's logical for people to be
upset over the horrible state of affairs at Fox these days. Some might
even be inclined to blame Beck, Hannity, and the rest of their right-wing
broadcasting colleagues, but they should resist such temptation. You see,
it really isn't their fault at all.
They are simply fulfilling the charge of their boss, Fox News senior vice
president Bill Shine, who, in an interview last month with National
Public Radio, described the conservative cable network as "the voice of
opposition on some issues." Indeed.
At least someone's finally being honest at Fox. Now, if that's not a
reason to party, I don't know what is.
Karl Frisch is a Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America, a
progressive media watchdog, research, and information center based in
Washington, D.C. Frisch also contributes to County Fair, a media blog
featuring links to progressive media criticism from around the Web as
well as original commentary. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook
or sign up to receive his columns by email.
--
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to
Steve
<ze...@finestplanet.com> wrote:
>
>http://mediamatters.org/columns/200904100001
>
>Warning: This tea may cause severe damage to journalistic integrity
Warning: Anything that comes from Mediamatters is likely to smell
like old garbage..
milt....@gmail.com
this.
The obviously unintentional humor aside, does one get a sense that
wingnuts really don't GET the purpose of the original Boston Tea
Party? It wasn't the "taxation" part that they objected to, so much as
the "without representation" part. A normal person might have gotten
the hint from the fact that, once they were rid of the Brits, one of
the first things they did was institute a system of taxation...
4929 Dead, 62 since 1/20/09
The Boston Tea Party wasn't even that. The English had actually just
LOWERED the tax on tea. The protesters at the tea party were outraged
colonists, to be sure, but they were a particular type: they were
smugglers, upset that the lower tax meant lower prices for legitimate
tea, and cut deeply into their profits.
The value of propaganda can be seen in the fact that 230 years later,
most Americans still think it protested a tax hike.
milt....@gmail.com
That's exactly what it was.
They didn't LOWER the tax on tea in the colonies, not really. They
reduced the tax on tea imported to Britain, but at the same time, they
passed the Townsend Acts, which instituted a bunch of new taxes in the
colonies, including a new tax on tea. It was the first time the
British had levied a series of special taxes on the colonies, and the
colonists kind of objected. Most of the Townsend Act was repealed
within a few years, but in one of the more spiteful acts seen in
British history, they kept the tea tax.
The issue was that the colonies were required to pay a tax to the
Crown, but they could get no representation in Parliament. It doesn't
matter that it went down; the issue was that it went down MORE in
Britain.
> The protesters at the tea party were outraged
> colonists, to be sure, but they were a particular type: they were
> smugglers, upset that the lower tax meant lower prices for legitimate
> tea, and cut deeply into their profits.
Actually, Massachusetts was the area LEAST dominated by smugglers.
The Dutch were the biggest smugglers at the time, and they had
cornered New York and Pennsylvania.
>
> The value of propaganda can be seen in the fact that 230 years later,
> most Americans still think it protested a tax hike.
>
No one but a wingnut believes it was due to a tax hike. But it was
about taxation. And they didn't reduce the tax; they instituted a new
tax, and then several other new taxes, and the colonists got nothing
in return. That was the issue. The British attempted to use the North
American colonies as a piggy bank, and people objected. Not to paying
higher taxes, but for getting nothing for the money.
4943 Dead, 76 since 1/20/09
Of course, the main reason for those taxes was to cover the costs of the
French and Indian War, or Seven Years' War, or whatever the hell they
call it in the US. While nobody is pretending the English weren't seeing
to their own interests, the fact is they saved the colonies from becoming
French Colonies, and figured (fairly reasonably) that the colonists OWED
them for that.
--
“Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the
entrails of the last priest.” -Dennis Diderot Pay your taxes so the
rich don't have to. Atheist #2211
salted sesame
salted sesame
Uneventful drive back home to Chandler, Milly?
Gandalf Grey
"salted sesame" <su...@bz.xy> wrote in message
news:74aj7lF...@mid.individual.net...
Gandalf Grey
"salted sesame" <su...@bz.xy> wrote in message
> The Doctors tell me my brain biopsy was "Uneventful"
milt....@gmail.com
Gotta love it when they pretend they can read a header and to a
geolocation from it.
I'm a good 100 miles from Chandler, genius... I'm in Vail, Arizona at
the moment. Why do you ask?
milt....@gmail.com
The main reason for the tea tax was to stick it to the colonies,
honestly. They repealed most of the other taxes instituted by the
Townsend Acts, but they left the tea tax, because the PM at the time
didn't want the colonies think they could tell Parliament what to do.
It was really very much a "fuck you" to the colonies, which is exactly
how the colonies took it. And thank goodness they did, because I love
my country... :)
milt....@gmail.com
Yeah, I go to Starbucks at times and use their Internet... it beats
sitting in my room all of the time. You have a problem with that, Rudy?
4943 Dead, 76 since 1/20/09
Trying to pretend the English coffers weren't depleted by the Seven
Years' War?
Steve
I figure that Shook's old man get's a little miffed at having Shook
sitting around drinking his coffee all the time... and shook does
need to get out once in a while to look for a job.
salted sesame
Why the Chandler connection then, Milly.
salted sesame
You're wasting your money on burnt coffee, Milly.
salted sesame
salted sesame
Gandalf Grey
"salted sesame" <su...@bz.xy> wrote in message
> I was cracking up
Gandalf Grey
"salted sesame" <su...@bz.xy> wrote in message
Gandalf Grey
"salted sesame" <su...@bz.xy> wrote in message
> I'm a good 100 points away from normal let alone genius...
Steve
Good lord, Shook, couldn't you find a better job than that? It's got
to be a good 40 miles from where you're living in your dad's
trailer....
salted sesame
> I was cracking up
>
>
true.
salted sesame
> The Doctors tell me my brain biopsy was "Uneventful"
>
salted sesame
> I'm a good 100 points away from normal let alone genius...
>
>
Gandalf Grey
"salted sesame" <su...@bz.xy> wrote in message
> I was cracking up
Gandalf Grey
"salted sesame" <su...@bz.xy> wrote in message
Gandalf Grey
"salted sesame" <su...@bz.xy> wrote in message
Billary/2008
>
> - Show quoted text -
Shookie is in Arizona because it's an open carry state. He's got a
six-shooter straped to his leg and he's shooping at walmart to see if
he can shock anyone. Unfortunately for him, no one gives a fuck.
Gandalf Grey
"RightWingShill/2008" <BillaryCl...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ca2f7b00-c3ec-4b9e...@v9g2000vbb.googlegroups.com...
^ Shookie is in Arizona because it's an open carry state.
and Bill the Shill has never crossed the Mason Dixon Line. Is it just
culture shock or are you still wearing that ankle locator the cops put on
you when you went down on the sexual predator charge, Shill?
Billary/2008
> "RightWingShill/2008" <BillaryClinton2...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> - Show quoted text -
Whenever I vist Arizona I see lots of guys wearing guns. I doesn't
bother me one bit.
Gandalf Grey
^ Whenever I vist Arizona I see lots of guys wearing guns. I doesn't
bother me one bit.
Since the only way you visit Arizona is by surfing the net, I'm not
surprised, Shill.
Steve
His father lives there... in a dumpy little house trailer SW of
Tucson. Shook lost his job in Maryland and is holed up there on his
dad's couch trying to recover....
milt....@gmail.com
> On Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:17:43 -0400, Steve
>
> <stevencan...@yahooooooo.com> wrote:
> >His father lives there... in a dumpy little house trailer SW of
> >Tucson. Shook lost his job in Maryland and is holed up there on his
> >dad's couch trying to recover....
Jesus... is he still trying to guess what I'm doing? He's not very
good at it...
>
> Well, better that than your momma's whore house, I
> guess, StevieLoon
His momma's? That's assuming a lot...
>
> Lochner smack the shit out of you lately?
He wishes... I think he enjoys the abuse...
milt....@gmail.com
> On Sun, 12 Apr 2009 09:37:56 -0400, Steve
>
> <stevencan...@yahooooooo.com> wrote:
> >Good lord, Shook, couldn't you find a better job than that? It's got
> >to be a good 40 miles from where you're living in your dad's
> >trailer....
Still guessing... and badly... how sad...
>
> You have internet at that bathhouse of yours......?
No... he's running a really long cord to his "boat."
Steve
>On Apr 12, 2:35 pm, M...@dick.com wrote:
>> On Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:17:43 -0400, Steve
>>
>> <stevencan...@yahooooooo.com> wrote:
>> >His father lives there... in a dumpy little house trailer SW of
>> >Tucson. Shook lost his job in Maryland and is holed up there on his
>> >dad's couch trying to recover....
>
>Jesus... is he still trying to guess what I'm doing? He's not very
>good at it...
Hell no, Shook, I don't claim to know what you're doing, but it's
obvious that you aren't doing anything profitable... I mean, you
still have to sleep on your daddy's couch and all.
Maybe you found a job clerking in a store again... that seems to be
your strong suit.
Steve
>On Apr 12, 2:34 pm, M...@dick.com wrote:
>> On Sun, 12 Apr 2009 09:37:56 -0400, Steve
>>
>> <stevencan...@yahooooooo.com> wrote:
>> >Good lord, Shook, couldn't you find a better job than that? It's got
>> >to be a good 40 miles from where you're living in your dad's
>> >trailer....
>
>Still guessing... and badly... how sad...
So tell us again how you bought Citigroup stock at 94 cents when it's
all time low was 97 cents...
"Hey, Canyon, here's a hardball for you; sometimes I lie about my
personal life on Usenet"
--Milt Shook
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.society.liberalism/msg/f2f538a583cb79c3
<Canyon note>: No shit Sherlock...