The Friday Blog Round-up

Here's a new feature that showcases the blogs I follow.

This section will ( hopefully ) be a continuous Friday feature that showcases both the Left and Right. Not in the spirit of "fairnessy and blancyness", but just to show you how completely off base the Modern American Right are and make you understand that the Mainstream Media aren't digging in like they should on the real issues - while favoring the framing of the Right.

- It's certain to be a Right Wing, GOP, Tea Bagger talking point that Anthony Weiner's seat ( oh wait, are we supposed to say it's "the poople's seat"? ) will tilt to the Republicans, but Nate Silver tells us why Rep's should be tepid in their insistence.

- John Cole how Republican/Conservative/Libertarian/Randian? posturing gets mixes in a pot and either comes out as Galt-Cultist goulash, or just idiocy disguised as important socio-political dialogue.

- My Twitter Pal ( @bluegal - you're "it" ) briefly talks about the different from "non-profit" charter schools and "for-profit" charter schools ( read: Tea Bagger Institutions Of "Learning" ).

- Occasional commenter Busted Knuckles over at "Ornery Bastard" has the greatest description of what it means to be a Republican and really break the law in reference to extra-marital exercises.

- Gryphen over at The Immoral Minority points out what Fox"News" and Fox"Nation" will attempt to spin before we can say "Paul Revere actually brewed that beer with Samuel Adams, donchaknow"

- Former "I'm really the intellectual guy" MTV anchor ( and that's fucking funny on it's own ) Kurt Loder takes to the Doughy Pantload path and ends up highlighting how "Fascism" is part of the Green Lantern movie storyline. Yeah, you knew it was coming.

- Breitbart's "Big Gov't" site continues to push their ignorance ( wait, is it really ignorance or just a veiled attempt to protect those businesses that are more than willing to shaft the consumer if they can have accountability removed? ) of Net Neutrality with another call for "defunding".

- The internet's Dumbest Man is more than eager to show his hatred for women's reproductive systems while stalking his employer Andrew Breitbart at the so called "Right Online" convention to attempt to tell people he knows that his decisions are more important than any woman's. Typical.

- Oh, so the Romney "hey, guys I'm unemployed too" bit was just an innocent joke?

- Once again, Brent Bozell's easily lead employee's equate low ratings with "Liberal Media Bias"

Got a link for me to use? You know where I am.............

How It Works

If anything, Pam Gellar is great at fabrication and fear-mongering.

When 60 Minutes caught up with her and challenged her on the blatantly false narrative she created surrounding Park51, she took the standard line of response.



So what does Gellar do when in the safe confines of the Fox"Business" noise machine?



That's right, 60 Minutes - a well respected news program for decades - is now nothing more than a tool of the "Islamic supremacist agenda".

Make no mistake, this works quite well within the modern conservative movement - especially when their own rhetoric is reasonably questioned by actual news organizations.

And almost on cue, Fox"Nation" highlighted a "study" that shows alleged bias towards Islam and "the Left".

On Sunday, the season premiere of 60 Minutes will include an anticipated Scott Pelley report on the Ground Zero mosque. Will the story be pro-mosque, just like President Obama? The first clips displayed softballs of sympathy, that it should be seen as "a hub of culture, a hub of coexistence, a hub of bringing people together." To underline the overwhelming sympathetic tilt of this program in the Obama era -- especially all the Steve Kroft hope-and-change goo before the 2008 election -- the MRC has a new special report called "Syrupy Minutes." Here's my executive summary:

In the last five years, CBS’s 60 Minutes has become infamous for letting its left-wing ardor get way ahead of its journalistic mission. Dan Rather destroyed his own reputation in 2004 with a 60 Minutes II “expose” of President Bush’s incomplete Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard which relied on falsified documents. A CBS-appointed panel found “myopic zeal” in Rather’s professional demise, but no one would admit a political bias.

It doesn't take long to realize that this "study" isn't exactly non-partisan itself, as it was conducted by the ultra-rightwing group Media Research Center - a group known to have nothing but glowing words of praise for Fox"News" and who continually lambaste any reasonable challenges other news outlets put towards figures the MRC is attempting to shield from criticism.

This is how the modern conservative movement works: when you can't defend your own standpoints, simply claim that it's "liberal media bias" or "Islam" that is to blame.

The Pee-Wee Herman Defense : Pt. 648

Conservatives love to use the "I know you are, but what am I" approach to socio-political debate, so it's not a surprise to me to read a laughably predictable piece over at NewsBusters that insist that conservative talk radio isn't full of hate - it's liberal talk radio that's the real villain.

The so-called “news” media have spent much of the past two decades demonizing the rhetoric of conservative radio talk show hosts as mean-spirited, divisive or a menace to civil discourse. But these same journalists — who gleefully castigate Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and other conservatives — are silent about the vile and vicious rhetoric that spews from the Left’s leading radio talk show hosts.

Since late 2007, the Media Research Center has collected numerous examples of the outrageousness of left-wing radio hosts. And, unlike the Left — which attempted to smear Rush Limbaugh with phony quotes — readers can find an audio or video of every one of these quotes (46 in all) posted at our Web site: www.MRC.org.

So places like Media Matters, Think Progress, and Crooks And Liars, or Daily Kos have no audio or video of conservatives being - well - conservatives? Apparently the fine folks at the Media Research Center don't know much about media or research.

Let's take a look at some of these 46 "hate-filled" examples.

1 - Ed Schultz

“I really think there are conservative broadcasters in this country who would love to see Obama taken out.” – August 11, 2009.

This is all too easy, as Fox"News" let one of their contributors openly and unblushingly wish that Obama be "taken out".



And while Trotta offered a pretty poor apology and clearly knew she had to offer some form of explanation in order to make it seem like Fox"News" was displeased with what she had said. It really wasn't an apology, outside the fact that she used the words "I'm sorry".

2 - Montel Williams

“If, in fact, the GOP doesn’t like any form of health care reform, what do we do with those 40 to 60 million uninsured?...When they show up in the emergency room, just shoot ‘em! Kill them!...Do we have enough body bags? I don’t know.” – July 21, 2009.

I'm reminded of the fact that conservatives fought tooth and nail against healthcare reform, and also the fact that they had no alternate plan that would remotely come close to what the remainder of Congressional members knew had to be done. And when you are an tasked with representing the people of America - many of whom don't have health insurance or can barely afford the coverage they do have - ignoring the issue is almost as bad as letting people die.

3 - Randi Rhodes

“They just come town to town, and they stand there with their stupid signs screaming and yelling about corporations need to be protected. It’s the sickest movement I’ve ever seen in my life!”

The continued documentation of how ill-informed and outright ignorant the Tea Baggers are is something that conservatives will deny until their last ounce of strength leaves them.

In all the examples listed at the MRC's website, you get the sense that this is more of a personal score to settle with Mike Malloy, as more than half the quotes are from him. But not only that, the MRC knew that they would ultimately have to defend the blatant racism of Rush Limbaugh, so they fall back on the tried and true "out of context" talking point. I noticed that they didn't bother to defend Micheal Savage at all.

But here's the exit question: why would conservatives, who continually espouse the preposterous notion that the higher your audience share the more factually accurate your show is, even be remotely worried about what liberal/progressive radio hosts have to say?