GOP Civil War will soon be televised

Talking Points Memo: Fox’s monopoly on conservative cable news may soon come to an end.

A Bloomberg Businessweek profile published Thursday revealed Newsmax.com founder and CEO Christopher Ruddy’s plans to expand beyond his highly-trafficked website and influential magazine into television with a 24-hour cable news channel called NewsmaxTV — described as a “kinder, gentler Fox” — launching as early as June.

“Our goal is to be a little more boomer-oriented, more information-based rather than being vituperative and polarizing,” Ruddy told the magazine.

Business-wise, this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Demographic trends show that Republicanism — kinder and gentler or not — isn’t exactly a growth industry. Why you’d want to compete with Fox for an ever-shrinking piece of the pie is a bit of a mystery. Maybe a show on Fox or a syndicated Sunday morning yack show, ala “Meet the Press,” but 24 hours of “Gee, but aren’t Republicans swell”? Yeah, I’m not seeing the genius behind this particular business model.

Still, if conservatives want to start whacking away at Fox News, I can’t say I’m against the idea. But Fox is aimed straight at the brainless ‘bagger base, while it sounds like NewsmaxTV would be aimed more at the people that National Review used to try to attract — i.e., conservatives who take a moment to think about things — before they too decided that the gullible and easily riled dummies were easier to milk. That audience that Ruddy seems to want to appeal to may have passed on with Reagan — that is, the real Reagan, not the cartoonish Reagan ‘bagger’s worship now. That audience would be the Reagan/Dole/Kemp conservatives. Or as Tea Partiers call them these days, “RiNOs.”

The GOP Civil War might take to the upper channels of cable, but you’ve got to wonder how long it’ll last.

Fox News — pro-criminal about more than just guns

Raw Story: Fox News host Jon Scott on Wednesday advised former IRS official Lois Lerner that she should give up her constitutional rights and testify before Congress if she wanted death against her life to stop.

During a House Oversight Hearing on Wednesday, Lerner invoked her right under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, and refused to answer Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) questions about the IRS targeting Tea Party and other conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status.

Lerner’s attorney had previously asked the committee not to call her to testify, citing numerous death threats.

After an commentator mentioned the death threats, Scott went on to say that Lerner should give in to them. “I can see why if you’re getting death threats, why you wouldn’t want to open yourself up to more scrutiny,” he said. “But at the same time, it would seem that answering some of the questions might cause some of these people who are so angry to ease up.”

And if you give bank robbers a million dollars and a helicopter like they demand, they’ll let the hostages go, fly away, and stop bothering everyone. Sure, Scott frames his question as advice, but he’s pretty clearly trying to play good cop to Fox audience goon squad’s bad cop. And this whole IRS thing has fallen apart anyway, so the goon squad only exists because Fox keeps beating this dead horse and getting their gullible and mentally unstable base all riled up about it. Sure, Darrell Issa’s trying to do CPR on his cooked up “scandal,” but heroic measures aren’t going to revive this corpse. As the Dr. McCoy says on the teevee, “He’s dead, Jim.”

So, since there’s no there there, Fox’ Jon Scott urges (in abject desperation) that Lois Lerner give the terrorists what they want. Because what they want is what Fox wants — and if it takes a few death threats to create the story they want to cover, then that’s just Fox’s brand of “journalism.”

O’Reilly distills conservative cluelessness about race down to one perfect moment of stupid

Talking Points Memo: Fox News host Bill O’Reilly on Thursday advised Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett to get “gangsta rappers” like Jay Z and Kanye West to say their behavior is wrong if the White House really wants to improve minority communities.

President Barack Obama had invited O’Reilly to the launch of his new initiative called “My Brother’s Keeper” earlier Thursday. The program aims to create opportunities and improve conditions for young minority men, but O’Reilly said he doesn’t believe the White House sees the “urgency” of the situation in the streets.

"You have to attack the fundamental disease if you want to cure it," O’Reilly told Jarrett. "Now I submit to you that you’re gonna have to get people like Jay Z, Kanye West, all these gangsta rappers to knock it off."

"They idolize these guys with the hats on backwards, and the terrible rap lyrics and the drug and all of that," he continued, adding that high-profile figures need to hammer young people with that message to "reverse the peer pressure."

O’Reilly also challenged First Lady Michelle Obama to come on “The Factor” and tell teenage girls “You stop having sex. You stop getting pregnant. This is wrong.”

In O’Reilly’s world the biggest stumbling block for African-Americans is other African-Americans, with whites mere observers to some sort of cultural self-destruction they have absolutely nothing at all to do with. It’s a view that seems to be shared by your average conservative — racism is over and any problems that black people may face are now the fault of black people. “I’m not racist,” a typical rightwinger might say, “but black people are all the same.”

Worse, minority attempts to improve situation are always attacked as “reverse racism” or some sort of plot to steal money and power from white people (see ACORN). Income inequality isn’t a thing. Institutional racism in the criminal justice system isn’t a thing. Ongoing discrimination in hiring and pay isn’t a thing.

But kids listening to “guys with the hats on backward” — now that’s a thing. And O’Reilly is so damned smugly proud of himself for spouting this marshmallow fluff inanity that he practically craps himself with joy.

"[I]t’s yet another demonstration of the rules both prominent and ordinary black people have to live with," writes Paul Waldman. “Unlike white Americans, they are subject to an entirely different and far more wide-ranging kind of responsibility. A black senator has to answer for the remarks of every black activist, black musicians are responsible for the actions of every wayward teenager, and black people everywhere carry with them a thousand sins committed by others. That burden isn’t just psychological; as we’ve seen in cases like those of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, it can be deadly.”

It’s no wonder Bill O’Reilly has such a masterful grasp of the conservative mindset when it comes to race. Who better than a simpleminded clown to embody such a simpleminded understanding of America?

Megyn Kelly, Duck Dynasty, and the 'Debate' Over Sexual Orientation

“Is he ever coming back? It remains to be seen, but that will certainly shut down debate. There really won’t, I mean, he’s a Christian man — I grant you, he did not say this in the kindest way – but why can’t there be a debate about it? Why can’t there be a back-and-forth, a discussion — you know, that’s how he feels, and you say how you feel, instead of saying, ‘You are fired, you are basically canned.’”
— Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, defending Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson, who was suspended for remarks in an interview comparing people in the LGBT community to drunks, thieves, and prostitutes. Robertson was suspended indefinitely by A&E for the comments.

Here’s the thing Megyn, we’ve had that conversation. We’ve had that debate for decades. What more do you think we need to say here? And what new info did this clown supposedly bring to the table here?He’s not the first guy who’s ever said, “Them homersexuals is bein’ immoral ‘cause th’ Bible.” He’s not exactly breaking new ground here. How long are we supposed to sit back and listen to the same tired, unconvincing, insulting arguments and over and over?

Kelly isn’t calling for a debate — and neither are the rest of Roberston’s defenders. She’s asking for the right to hurl insults at people in the LGBT community, while members of that community shut up and take it.

Sorry folks, that part of the “debate” is over.

The New Foxified Santa

Joel Pett, Lexington Herald-Leader.

Megyn Kelly on white Santa controversy: ‘Nuh-uh, you’re the one being racist’

Politico: Megyn Kelly said Friday evening she was making off-hand and “tongue-in-cheek” comments about Santa Claus and Jesus Christ being white, and that the controversy over the segment is a result of “race-baiting” while the real debate was lost.

Devoting more than 15 minutes of “The Kelly File” to the subject and bringing on two panelists to discuss the reaction, Kelly said the original Wednesday segment was just a way to bring some humor to her show.

"I realize that the piece by [Aisha] Harris which went on to argue that Santa should be a penguin was also tongue in cheek. That’s in part why we covered the story in the first place,” Kelly said. “Humor is part of what we try to bring to the show. Sometimes that’s lost on the humorless.”

Kelly played several clips of other networks and late-night comedians discussing or making jokes about the Santa segment. The frenzied reaction would be funny Kelly said, “if it were not so telling of our society if any the knee jerk instinct to race bait” and attributed part of the blow back to Fox News’ popularity.

See, Kelly was just joking around. But liberals are so brainwashed by their PC rules that they have no sense of humor any more. That explains why late night comedians couldn’t tell either, because… OK, you just lost me there Megs. The undisputed experts at comedy detected no comedy — attempted or otherwise.

What we see here is the time-honored “I am rubber, you are glue” defense. Conservatives love to defend racism by claiming the people who notice it are the real racists. That’s how their whole “reverse racism” scam got started in the first place — as a way to claim that anti-racist policies and sentiments were in themselves racist.

In other words, people who complained about her segment are just racist against white people and Megyn Kelly — like every conservative everywhere in every minute of their lives — is the real victim. Just ask any of them, they’ll show you all the victim cards you want.

Conservatives often go off on long lectures about “personal responsibility.” You’d think they’d try a little themselves occasionally.

Fox News celebrates the 50th anniversary of MLK’s ‘I have a dream’ speech by blaming rap music for stuff

Dylan Matthews: The great thing about this is that the formulation works for anything. “50 years after March on Washington, the bees are dying.” “50 years after March on Washington, some worry about Miley Cyrus’s ‘twerking’.” “”50 years after March on Washington, my sink is leaking.” “50 years after the March on Washington, we still don’t have jetpacks.”

50 years after the March on Washington, they still let stupid people say stuff on TV.

Conservatives shocked to discover that the White House practices leadership

Fox News: The federal government is hiring what it calls a “Behavioral Insights Team" that will look for ways to subtly influence people’s behavior, according to a document describing the program obtained by FoxNews.com. Critics warn there could be unintended consequences to such policies, while supporters say the team could make government and society more efficient.

While the program is still in its early stages, the document shows the White House is already working on such projects with almost a dozen federal departments and agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.

"Behavioral sciences can be used to help design public policies that work better, cost less, and help people to achieve their goals," reads the government document describing the program, which goes on to call for applicants to apply for positions on the team.

The document was emailed by Maya Shankar, a White House senior adviser on social and behavioral sciences, to a university professor with the request that it be distributed to people interested in joining the team. The idea is that the team would “experiment" with various techniques, with the goal of tweaking behavior so people do everything from saving more for retirement to saving more in energy costs.

Needless to say, the rightwing blogosphere believes this is the worst thing ever! Who knows, maybe they’ll manage to work themselves up into a Benghazi-style hysteria over it. In any case, it’s definitely a Benghazi-style scandal — i.e., not a scandal at all.

How long as government been doing this sort of thing? Pretty much forever. From the Forest Service’s Smokey Bear campaign to the Department of Health and Human Services ads raising awareness of various health issues, government tries to shape behavior without resorting to legislation.

I suppose the freak out may be over the fact that the White House isn’t trying to legislate behavior. After all, that’s the “limited government" conservative approach. From when you’re allowed to be free of pregnancy to who you’re allowed to love and marry, rightwingers are all about micromanaging people’s lives.

Maybe they look at efforts to shape behavior like this and think, “You’re doing it wrong!"

Fox News’ sick priorities

ThinkProgress: Fox News host Andrea Tantaros attacked MSNBC for covering the Senate military sexual assault hearings on Tuesday instead of the concurrent House IRS hearings, saying “what they consider to be priorities” is “unbelievable”.

On the June 4 edition of The Andrea Tantaros Show, Tantaros, who is a co-host of Fox News’ The Five, said:

“Sex crimes in a military, they are a real issue. There’s no doubt about that. I’m not going to poo poo it and say it’s not. What baffles me though is the way they prioritize these issues. The timing and the tone of them. If these were liberal groups targeted by George W. Bush, they would not be covering sex assault in the military. … Why is MSNBC devoting so much time to this issue when, as David Axelrod points out, there are so many other issues to deal with?”

Media Matters reports that on June 4, MSNBC devoted an hour and twenty minutes to the eight-hour sexual assault hearing, and an hour and thirteen minutes to the IRS hearing. Meanwhile, on the same day, Fox News spent four hours on the IRS hearing and a scant 14 minutes on the sexual assault hearing.

So MSNBC devotes roughly equal time to the two hearing, while Fox virtually ignores one in favor of wall-to-wall coverage of the other. Priorities!

And what a dull four hours that must’ve been, since the IRS hearings have so far resulted in almost nothing newsworthy. The health of the IRS “scandal” is so poor that Republicans are forced to put it on life support.

The idea that sexual assault in the military is a 14 minute story in a 24 hour news cycle is ridiculous. And, as you may recall, much of what little coverage they’ve given the issue has been appalling.

Huffington Post: Fox News pundit Liz Trotta made a series of incendiary statements about rape in the military during a Sunday appearance on the network.

Trotta was reacting to news that the military will allow women to work closer to the front lines. Speaking to Fox News host Eric Shawn, she alleged that feminists wanted “to be warriors and victims at the same time.”

She cited a recent Pentagon report that sex crimes committed by army personnel have increased by 64% over the past six years. Then she made a startling statement:

“I think they have actually discovered there is a difference between men and women. And the sexual abuse report says that there has been, since 2006, a 64% increase in violent sexual assaults. Now, what did they expect? These people are in close contact, the whole airing of this issue has never been done by Congress, it’s strictly been a question of pressure from the feminists.”

So really, Fox News shriekers get to STFU about media priorities and rape in the military.

Things that happened today: sun came up, tides shifted, John Stossel was 100% wrong

Raw Story: Fox Business host John Stossel on Thursday declared that government programs should be cut based on the false assertion that “no one” died of starvation in the Great Depression before the modern “welfare state.”

Stossel told the hosts of Fox & Friends that he had taken his cameras out on the streets of New York and no one he spoke to had any idea about how to fix the nation’s growing national debt.

“You cut whole departments,” the Fox Business host explained. “Why do we have a Commerce Department? Commerce just happens! Agriculture, farmers do that! You don’t need bureaucrats.”

He added that the Department of Education was also unnecessary.

“Isn’t that part of what the government does in a lot of people minds?” Fox News host Steve Doocy asked. “They need to help people rather than let people help themselves?”

“And when people are needy you want them [to get] help,” Stossel agreed. “But think about the [Great] Depression. That was before there was any welfare state at all. How many people starved? No one.”

“Right, good point,” Doocy agreed.

For future reference, when Steve Doocy tells you you’ve made a good point, you’re probably pretty far off the mark. The report goes on to say that “according to historians Steven Mintz and Sara McNeil, the number of cases of starvation in New York City alone had increased from 20 in 1931 to 110 in 1934.”

So yeah, plenty of people died of starvation. John Stossel is absolutely wrong, because John Stossel is always absolutely wrong. Checking with the actual historical facts would jeopardize Stossel’s Libertarian Utopianism, so no fact-checking was done. He just declared it true — and he probably assumed it was true — because that’s what his ideology tells him. This was the same method he used to conclude that dioxin — a byproduct of industrial bleaching processes and the most toxic chemical known to man — was completely harmless. So if it’s in your food or drinking water, that’s cool. No reason to regulate industry or anything.

Stossel is one deadly “journalist” and should be drummed out of the profession forever. He’s a hack and a propagandist. And his lies have the potential to kill.

Rubio thanks Fox News for helping with Benghazi propaganda

Raw Story: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Thursday thanked the Fox News channel for everything they had done to promote the idea that President Barack Obama’s administration deliberately allowed four Americans to die in Benghazi, Libya last year.

Following a day of near wall-to-wall Fox News coverage of the House Oversight Committee hearings on Benghazi, Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy asked Rubio for a reaction.

“Very insightful and there’s a lot more to be learned now,” the Florida Republican opined. “Here’s what we know about Benghazi. First of all, that post probably shouldn’t have been opened. And the people in charge, Secretary Clinton and the State Department, they had a steady stream of reporting that showed how dangerous it was.”

“You know, I just want to congratulate those like Fox News and others that have kept on this issue,” he added. “Because this is not about politics. This is about accountability. Someone needs to be held accountable for what’s happened here. But it’s also about preventing this from happening in the future.”

Rubio asserted that the administration had tried to cover up “any reference to terrorism” because of political motivations during an election year.

Of course, if the Obama administration was trying to cover up “any reference to terrorism,” they pretty much failed immediately, since the President called it an “act of terror” the very next day. Viewers of Fox were probably disappointed, since the wall-to-wall coverage was of a yawnfest that turned up nothing new.

But Rubio and other Republicans are pleased as punch with Rupert Murdoch’s propaganda shop, since this whole Benghazi “scandal” is such an obvious load of horseshit that no one other than Fox will give it more than passing mention. According to the report, “Even Fox News host Megyn Kelly observed during the Wednesday hearings that the network had gotten a ‘little lopsided’ by favoring Republicans.”

If it weren’t for Fox, the Benghazi hearings would be a lame sideshow without a barker. As it is, it’s a lame sideshow with various every Foxbot trying to lure rubes off the midway with false promises to shock and amaze.


Related: Jon Stewart rips conservative attempts to create Benghazi hysteria to shreds.

MI prosecutor determines Fox contributor picked fight, then claimed he was attacked

Lansing State Journal:

Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said he won’t file criminal charges after reviewing unedited video showing events that led to a Fox News contributor being punched during December’s right-to-work demonstrations.

Steven Crowder filed a police report following the Dec. 11 incident at the Capitol, which Michigan State Police had referred to Dunnings’ office for review. The fight occurred amid generally peaceful demonstrations involving more than 10,000 people who had gathered in Lansing that day as lawmakers voted on a package of bills that ban requiring union dues as a condition of employment.

Dunnings said today the first video his office reviewed had been edited. After reviewing an unedited clip, he decided to not pursue the case.

“It’s pretty clear the person that they wanted to charge was acting in self-defense,” Dunnings said of the union member who apparently slugged Crowder.

Crowder posted a heavily edited video of the altercation, which made it seem as if he’d been attacked out of the blue by Fox News patented “union thugs.” Needless to say, Crowder accompanied the video with a pocketful of victim cards. But a second, less dishonest video completely undermined his story.

Crowder said on Twitter later day that he suffered a minor cut to the forehead and a chipped tooth after being “sucker-punched” four times.However, unedited footage shows that the union member who apparently punched Crowder appeared to have been pushed to the ground seconds before the brawl.

It’s unclear who pushed the union member. Crowder was standing nearby and appears to throw his hands up in the air in a gesture of innocence after the man fell, the video shows.

If you see someone fall over, you don’t immediately claim you’re innocent unless you’re not. He might as well have shouted, “Wasn’t me!” He also provided the prosecutor with the dishonestly-edited version of the incident, which you would only do if you had something to hide. Both videos are at the link.

If you ever thought that maybe Fox News wasn’t really a propaganda outfit, that they were simply a conservative-leaning network in a mirror opposite mold of MSNBC, you can disabuse yourself of those notions. This “news” outfit was actively engaged in making pro-union people look bad, by trying (and succeeding) to incite them to violence. By all appearances, Crowder attacked a man to get him to take a swing at him.

One thing’s for sure, you’re probably not going to see this story on Fox News

Fox News CEO messes up, reveals network is a GOP mouthpiece

Steve Benen:

Roger Ailes, the Fox News’ high-profile CEO, realizes that the Republican Party has a serious demographic problem, most notably when it comes to Latino voters. But Ailes told The New Republic that he’s on the case.

Mitt Romney lost the Latino vote by nearly 50 points, and now almost everyone agrees that the Republican Party needs to improve with Hispanic voters to have a shot at the White House in 2016. That could also be Ailes’s last year at Fox News: His contract expires then, when he’ll be 76 years old. So if Roger Ailes wants to see a Republican win what may be his last presidential election as a major player, he’ll need to try to make conservatism more palatable to Latinos. Which, of course, he will.

“The fact is, we have a lot — Republicans have a lot more opportunity for them,” Ailes says. “If I’m going to risk my life to run over the fence to get into America, I want to win. I think Fox News will articulate that.”

Yes, Ailes accidentally used the word “we” when talking about Republicans, before correcting himself.

Ailes then went on to get things substantially wrong, like a true Foxbot. Ailes went on to the tired talking point that Latinos are natural Republicans because they’re religious and family oriented — unlike liberals, who I guess are all atheists who hate their families.

“This has been the subject of considerable research, and there’s ample evidence to the contrary,” Benen points out. “Indeed, most polls suggest most Latino voters support center-left candidates because they are, in fact, center-left voters.”

You wonder if this is just another case of Republicans believing their own propaganda. After all “anti-faith” and “anti-family” are the way that the AFox and Republicans portray liberals,

In any case, Ailes’ Freudian slip didn’t really let any cats out of any bags. He merely confirmed — albeit accidentally — what everyone already knew: Fox News is the GOP press office. “Not to put too fine a point on this, but since when is it the job of a cable news network to help persuade a voting constituency that one political party is good for them?” Benen asks.

Since the day Fox News went on the air, I suppose.

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After Fox firing, Dick Morris desperately scrambles to remain relevant

Political Wire:

National Review points out that Dick Morris, who is the author of books such as Here Come the Black Helicopters!, Screwed!, and Revolt!, says that “he’s now fighting to do for the Republican party what he did for the Democrats during the Clinton years — moderate it.”

[…]

Jonathan Chait: “It’s probably a better way to get airtime on CNN. It’s also a logical persona for a huckster who is quickly running short on them.”

So Dick Morris, former Fox News Tea Party screamer, is now going to drag his party back to the middle. Not because he actually believes that’s where the GOP needs to go, but because he’s got to stay on TV or people will unsubscribe from his newsletter and quit sending money to his PAC.

But the real lesson here is that this is what happens when you’re addicted to exclamation points, kids. Friends don’t let friends abuse exclamation points. Don’t be a hack like Dick Morris. Don’t write a book called BANG!

The neverending story: Conservatives don’t understand their problem

Politico:

Republicans and Fox News are moving to purge the controversial political creatures they created.

Both were damaged badly in 2012 by loud, partisan voices that stoked the base — but that scared the hell out of many voters. Now, the GOP, with its dismal image, and Fox News, with its depressed ratings in January, are scrambling to dim those voices. To wit:

• Fox ousted contributors Sarah Palin and Dick Morris, two of the most obnoxiously partisan figures on the network’s air.
• Karl Rove, himself sidelined by Fox after the election, has helped start a new super PAC, the Conservative Victory Fund, designed to keep controversial conservatives like Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) from winning Senate primaries.
• Senate GOP leaders created what amounts to a buddy system with their caucus’s most popular tea party members, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas, to get their help in taming anti-establishment conservatives.
• Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has been running around the country warning anyone who will listen that Republicans must quit being the “stupid party” that nominates nutty candidates.

“The fact that we lost a winnable election has caused Republicans to take this very, very seriously,” Jindal told us in an interview. “I don’t think it’s just a marketing change. I don’t think it’s just cosmetic changes. It is going to require some serious changes, not in principles, but in the way we talk and act.”

That would be the same Bobby Jindal who is currently busy screwing the poor with regressive taxation and pushing creationism in schools. The changes are totally cosmetic, despite what he says. They’re getting rid of the people who say stupid things, but you’ll notice there’s no mention of people who do stupid things. If that were the case, Bobby Jindal himself would have a lot to worry about.

They plan to be the same old GOP you’ve come to know and hate, they just plan on doing a better job of hiding it. Of course, eventually they’re going to have to pass laws and cast votes, so they aren’t going to be able to hide it for long.

Fox's Doocy wonders if Hillary Clinton's 'glamorous new face' the result of a facelift

Yeah, Steve. They certainly look different don't they? It could be that she had a facelift or it could be -- now try to follow me here, Speedy -- that one is obviously a professional portrait and the other is obviously not.

Sometimes I wonder whether Fox & Friends isn't really just performance art meant to demonstrate what the world looks like to horrifically stupid people.

Not even Fox News is buying the NRA's crap

Fox's Chris Wallace to Wayne LaPierre: "That’s ridiculous and you know it, Sir!"

Mosque arsonist cites Fox News, talk radio

Digital Journal:

An Indiana man convicted of setting fire to an Ohio mosque attributed his crime to the influence of Fox News, which he says convinced him that “most Muslims are terrorists.”

Randolph Linn, 52, of St. Joe, Indiana pleaded guilty to arson for burning the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo. His plea will result in a 20-year prison term; prosecutors had sought a 40-year sentence.

Linn told the court that on September 30 he had gotten “riled up” as a result of watching Fox News and drinking beer. Linn claims to have drank 45 beers in seven hours before heading to the mosque and setting a fire in the prayer room. He was also reportedly armed with a revolver at the time.

During the court proceedings, Judge Jack Zouhary asked Linn if he knew any Muslims or knew what Islam was about.
“No, I only know what I hear on Fox news and what I hear on [right-wing talk] radio,” Linn replied.

“Muslims are killing Americans and trying to blow stuff up,” Linn told the judge. “Most Muslims are terrorists and don’t believe in Jesus Christ,” Linn falsely stated, ignorant of the fact that Jesus is revered as a prophet in Islam.

After he was arrested on October 2, Linn told officers, “Fuck those Muslims… they would kill us if they got the chance.”

The report goes on to explain the obvious: Fox News is an awful, awful news source. “A 2010 University of Maryland study found that Fox News viewers are the most ignorant on key issues,” we’re told. “And another study conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University determined that Fox News viewers know less than people who watch no news at all.”

Fox News and talk radio: a really great way to become stupid and bigoted.

BREAKING: Fox News host Brian Kilmeade is a neanderthal

ThinkProgress:

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade today referred to his female coworkers as Victoria’s Secret models who can also speak.

During Kilmeade’s Fox radio show, he joked to his female co-host Alisyn Camerota that that the way he and his network pick out female hosts is, “we go into the Victoria’s Secret catalogue and we said, ‘Can any of these people talk?’ And they all could and they all went to college.”…

Hahahaha! It’s funny because pretty ladies are all dumb, not smart like Brian Kilmeade.

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Fox News accidentally reports economic truth

Hilarious.

Steve Benen:
The economy grew a little faster than expected in the third quarter (July through September), with the GDP report showing 2% growth. I suggested earlier that the right would likely start pushing conspiracy theories, and I wasn't kidding.

Fox News' Stuart Varney suggested that third quarter economic growth as measured by the Commerce Department was a conspiracy to help reelect President Obama, pointing to the fact that economic growth was driven in part by increased government spending. [...]

Varney, discussing the figure on Fox News, raised doubts about the numbers, saying: "Dig deeper. Look inside that report, and you see a big 9.6 percent jump in government spending. There is some suspicion that these numbers have been juiced by government spending deliberately in that quarter, in the report, right before the election."

In fairness to Varney, it looks like I predicted the wrong conspiracy theory. I thought Fox News and others would accuse Commerce Department officials of manipulating data and deliberately releasing fraudulent figures, just as the right did with the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It turns out, Varney is pushing a different conspiracy theory -- that government spending went up, which in turn "juiced" economic growth.

Of course, there's a term for that particular "conspiracy theory" -- Keynesian economics. After years of shrieking that you can't spend your way to economic recovery, Varney's basically saying, "Of course the GDP numbers are up -- government's cheating by spending their way to economic recovery! They're using Keynesian Jedi economics tricks to fool us into believing that Keynesianism works!"

What we're seeing here is the rare 360-degree spin. Varney's twisted his story so badly that he's turned everything completely around in one orbit -- and now finds himself accidentally reporting the reality that Keynesian spending boosts economic growth. I'm surprised Fox producers didn't cut him off and put up a "technical difficulties" message over the screen.