Howell Raines: “For the first time since the yellow journalism of a century ago, the United States has a major news organization devoted to the promotion of one political party. And let no one be moved by occasional spouts of criticism of the GOP on Fox. In a bygone era of fact-based commentary typified, left to right, by my late colleagues Scotty Reston and Bill Safire, these deceptions would have been given their proper label: disinformation.”
Raines’ Washington Post op-ed is spot on.
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The disease injected by Murdock-Ailes into the body of national discourse is a cancer that can only be eradicated if professional journalists publicly defend the Fourth Estate against FNC’s far-right subterfuge. Fox purports to be a legitimate news operation, not another Comedy Central. Ailes dodges accountability by claiming evening programming is nothing more or less than televised editorials -- meaning views expressed represent the host’s personal opinion. But then Ailes is just another over-paid Republican Philistine. There is no disclaimer attached to these “shows” that identifies content as prejudicial, fact-free hit pieces. Of course the work-a-day talking heads are held to a slightly higher standard. Who could argue that “Fox and Friends” doesn’t bend over backwards to avoid the appearance of blatant political partiality?
Roger Ailes shrugs when pressed to defend his slanted “news” operation. He's on record muttering that his only obligation is to ensure Rupert Murdock makes money. In his warped universe selling garbage repackaged as serious content is fine as long as it’s profitable and helps keep Republicans in power; if viewers aren’t able to disseminate the difference between honest journalism and agenda-driven drivel, that’s not his problem. Pretending that every other for-profit news outlet is tainted with liberal bias, Ailes implies that his 24 hour hyper-partisan attack against President Obama and the Democratic Party provides “balance” to the mainstream media’s non-existent love affair with progressive ideology. In short, Glenn Beck’s psychotic episodes are a reasoned rebuttal to Rachael Maddow’s researched and sourced reporting.
It’s unlikely there would be a ‘grassroots groundswell’ of tax-hating Tea Baggers protesting Obama’s $298 billion dollar tax cut without the “news” channel’s active encouragement and promotion; nor would Sarah Palin’s vast reservoir of expertise concerning “Death Panels” be exploited without Ailes supplying her a “fair and balanced” platform to expose the murderous intentions American Medical Association Marxists have in store for senior citizens.
And where else can cable television subscribers hear Frank Gaffney rattle his plastic saber, demanding yet another unfunded, preemptive invasion? Because the unnecessary aggression against Iraq was such a smashing success (he predicted Operation Iraqi Freedom would be a “cake walk”), Gaffney must be taken seriously. After all, he does have a track record. Assuming FNC junkies are lucky and William Kristol joins Gaffney in a rousing round of Sunday morning Obama bashing, local airheads will have two foreign policy “experts” to ape when concern trolling the president’s lack of commander-in-chief credentials. Compared to Gaffney, Kristol is a fucking military genius.
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This should make Anson Burlingame's Ayn nice and Rand:
Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is taking full advantage of the court's recent ruling that gave corporations the unalienable right to play Pinocchio and become a real live boy. She is using corporate funds to start a new Tea Party lobbying group. And who said this fairy tale wouldn't have a happy ending?
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