Huckabee: Obama Needs To Stop Blaming Bush Because Bush Didn’t Complain About Inheriting Clinton’s Economy
Huckabee: Obama Needs To Stop Blaming Bush Because Bush Didn’t Complain About Inheriting Clinton’s Economy
On Fox and Friends this morning, host Gretchen Carlson asked former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R) about Vice President Biden’s comment that the Obama administration “misread the economy” when they made predictions about the impact of the stimulus earlier this year. “Here goes Biden again and he says something that is really in this case true,” said Huckabee. “They didn’t realize how bad things were.”
Huckabee claimed that “there’s one thing though that Biden and President Obama have got to get under control. And that is quit blaming George Bush.” He then made the common conservative claim that Bush inherited a recession from Bill Clinton, but didn’t complain about it:
HUCKABEE: There’s one thing though that Biden and President Obama have got to get under control. And that is quit blaming George Bush. George Bush inherited an economy when he became president back in 2001 that was already beginning to show real signs of the stress from the breaking of the technology bubble. George Bush didn’t go out whining and complaining every day, he stood up like the president of the United States and he worked on trying to get it fixed.
Then 2001, 9/11 came, things really went tough, but he worked on the economy and it was in much better shape for most of his presidency. Then the recession started, wasn’t totally his fault for sure and all you hear from Joe Biden and President Obama is how, how terrible it was, what they inherited, how it wasn’t their fault. No, look, you own it now. You got elected, you wanted the job. Stand up and take it and get this thing rolling. But quit spending money.
Watch it:
As ThinkProgress has pointed out, it’s false to say that Bush and his colleagues refrained from “whining and complaining” about the economy they inherited. In fact, Bush complained about it right up until he left office:
“When I took office, our economy was beginning a recession.” — Bush, 8/7/02
“The president inherited a Clinton recession and turned it into the early stages of Bush prosperity.” — Secretary of Commerce Don Evans, 9/2/04
“In terms of the economy, look, I inherited a recession, I am ending on a recession.” — Bush, 1/12/09
As Media Matters noted in their comprehensive report on the backdating of the 2001 recession, which actually began in March 2001 according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, Bush OMB Director Mitch Daniels once used the inherited a recession talking point in three separate interviews on the same day.
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Beck Falsely States The U.S. Bought Alaska In The ‘1950s’ So We Could Drill
Beck Falsely States The U.S. Bought Alaska In The ‘1950s’ So We Could Drill
While appearing on Fox & Friends this morning, Glenn Beck managed to make a trio of mistakes when he attacked the Waxman-Markey clean energy bill passed by the House last week. The Fox News pundit falsely asserted the legislation’s effect on our oil dependency would be “none.” Beck then pointed out, incorrectly, that the U.S. purchased Alaska in the “1950s” and that we did so because of our interest in its “resources,” a subtle way of advocating for more drilling in Alaska:
CARLSON: But nowhere in that bill is anything about reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
BECK: None. […]
You know Donald Trump, I want to talk to this guy. When he was on the show just a few minutes ago I was thinking how can you not be laughing at us? How can the world not be laughing at us? We have all these resources. Why did we buy Alaska in the 1950s? We bought Alaska for the resources. And now we say no!
Watch it:
During his weekly address on Saturday, President Obama specifically focused on how the legislation would help lift “our dependence on foreign oil.” Obama said the bill would “spur the development of low carbon sources of energy,” which includes wind, solar, and geothermal power. He added the bill would result in “new energy savings like the efficient windows,” thereby reducing “heating costs in the winter and cooling costs in the summer.”
Beck’s attempt to rewrite history to fit his talking point is also troubling. For clarification, Alaska was purchased in 1867 for $7.2 million and soon became known as “Seward’s Folly,” named for Secretary of State William H. Seward, because at the time it was widely regarded as foolish to spend so much money on remote tundra. (Perhaps Beck was thinking of Alaska becoming the 49th state in 1959.) The resources the U.S. was after in 1867 weren’t oil, but fish, furs, and the prospect of closer proximity to Russia from the North American continent.
Déjà Vu: Fox News Rallies Viewers To Participate In Radical Anti-Obama Tea Party Protests On July 4
Déjà Vu: Fox News Rallies Viewers To Participate In Radical Anti-Obama Tea Party Protests On July 4
This morning on Fox News, Glenn Beck joined the Fox and Friends hosts to promote new anti-Obama, anti-tax tea party protests on July 4. Steve Doocy introduced the segment, “This weekend, of course the 4th of July, Americans are gearing up for a second round of tea parties to protest massive government spending.”
Reprising their role in orchestrating the first tea parties, the lobbyist-run groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks are again helping to organize the July 4 protests. FreedomWorks is working alongside other right-wing groups on a new website to publicize the events, and Americans for Prosperity is hosting several rallies on the 4th, including one with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
But while these lobbyist-run groups played a pivotal role in financing the logistics and coordination of the tea parties, Fox News was certainly the megaphone for the movement. Just as Fox News became a full-fledged sponsor of the April protests, running back-to-back segments and broadcasting live from protests across the country, the network is attempting to motivate another round of radical, anti-Obama protests on July 4th. In recent weeks and this morning, Fox News has run several segments, including one featuring disgraced Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC), to promote tea parties. Watch it:
Already, Fox News contributor and former News Corp. lobbyist Angela McGlowan is scheduled to appear at the Memphis tea party later this week.
Last year, in the final year of Bush’s presidency, Beck penned an op-ed about how Americans should celebrate July 4 by talking not about “our problems,” but by celebrating “what’s right about America.” Beck also downplayed the “much maligned economy” under Bush, and told readers that the media should use Independence Day to take a break from reporting on “crooked politicians” or “high gas prices.”
Though he demanded that the media depoliticize July 4 last year, Beck and his colleagues at Fox News now seem preoccupied with rallying radical opposition to President Obama.
Fox Nation Pushes ‘Satire’ Site’s Article About Ridge Attacking Limbaugh As Fact-Based Truth
Fox Nation Pushes ‘Satire’ Site’s Article About Ridge Attacking Limbaugh As Fact-Based Truth
Last Thursday, while appearing on C-Span’s Washington Journal, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge (R) was asked about former Vice President Dick Cheney’s statement that “Rush Limbaugh is Republican and Colin Powell is not.” “Colin Powell was a Republican as far as I’m concerned,” said Ridge, adding that “it’s that mindset” displayed by Cheney that is hurting the GOP’s “unity.” Watch it:
On his radio show, Limbaugh responded to Ridge, saying, “I must have missed something, because I remember that Colin Powell endorsed the Democrat, Barack Obama, at a strategic point in the campaign in 2008.” The blog, Elective Decisions, which features “the satire of Chris Davis,” then wrote up a post saying that Ridge responded to Rush by challenging him to a fight:
So this morning, Ridge went back on Washington Journal, responding to Limbaugh’s rhetoric. “I’m so sick of Rush Limbaugh. He’s the reason we lose elections. He needs to get the hell out of the Republican Party. As far as I’m concerned, he isn’t a Republican anymore. The man’s running. The man’s hiding. He’s too scared to face me!”
Ridge continued his rant, threatening Limbaugh. “Meanwhile, he sits there in his ‘Southern Command Post,’ and destroys the Republican Party! I’d like to just have three rounds in a boxing ring with that guy so I could shut him up! I’m caling (sic) you out, Limbaugh. Let’s see if you have a big enough set of marbles to back up your crap!”
Though the “Elective Decisions” blog is clearly marked as “satire,” the Fox Nation linked to the post and promoted it as if it were based on reported facts:
This isn’t the first time Fox News has promoted a parody as truth. In 2007, the network aired at least eight segments on a purported “news” story that was actually a parody article.
Bachmann’s Latest Irrational Fear About The Census: It Was Used To Intern The Japanese
Bachmann’s Latest Irrational Fear About The Census: It Was Used To Intern The Japanese
Last week, Rep. Michele “I’m not a kook” Bachmann (R-MN) boasted about breaking the law in refusing to complete the 2010 Census. The Census is the perfect boogeyman for Bachmann in that it unites her conspiracy theories about the Obama administration with her monomaniacal determination to crush the community organizing group ACORN, which is one of over 30,000 partner organizations helping to promote the 2010 Census among the people it reaches.
On Fox News this morning, Bachmann repeated her determination to break the law. She also suggested that the Obama administration could use the Census data for nefarious purposes — including the imprisonment of Americans in concentration camps:
BACHMANN: If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the census bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations, at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I’m not saying that’s what the Administration is planning to do. But I am saying that private, personal information that was given to the census bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them up.
Watch it:
There are many things wrong with Bachmann and host Megyn Kelly’s so-called analysis: First, both women were shocked that the Census would ask for people’s telephone numbers. However, that information is not required by law, and is used only to contact recipients who have incomplete forms.
Second, Bachmann is confusing the 2010 Census and the American Community Survey (ACS), a long-form survey sent out to one in 40 households (0.0028 percent of the American public) each year. The Census, sent out once every ten years, asks only about one’s age, race, and the type of home one lives in. The ACS, started in 1996, collects more detailed data used to distribute more than $300 billion in federal funds to local communities.
Most importantly, the questions that Bachmann is so concerned about — questions she suggests might somehow lead to internment — are not new questions (not to mention they frequently overlap with information given to the IRS every year). Census questions on race have been asked since 1790; home language since 1890; rent since 1880; and income since 1940. The Census has asked what kind of heating fuel heats Americans’ homes since 1940.
Finally, it’s a federal crime for any Census worker to violate the confidentiality of the Census form, punishable by a federal prison sentence of up to five years, a fine of up to $250,000, or both.
Krauthammer on Sanford: ‘I think he doesn’t last a week in the office of governor.’
Krauthammer on Sanford: ‘I think he doesn’t last a week in the office of governor.’
Following the surprising news that South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had an affair with a woman in Argentina, Fox News’ right-leaning “All-Stars” declared yesterday that Sanford’s political future is in serious trouble. “I think he’s toast,” said the Washington Examiner’s Byron York. The Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer agreed, saying “I think he is toast politically”:
KRAUTHAMMER: And resigning from the Republican Governors’ Association chairmanship is not going to do it, and the reason is that there is a dereliction of duty here. I know that’s the titillation of the reason for it, but even apart from that, he is the governor of the state.
The governor of the state is chief executive, and if there is a disaster in the state, and this guy is incommunicado, he is nowhere to be seen and he doesn’t transfer authority to his lieutenant governor who calls out the National Guard, you cannot recover from that. I think he doesn’t last a week in the office of governor.
Watch it:
Transcript: More »
Hannity Reluctantly Calls On Ensign To Resign
Hannity Reluctantly Calls On Ensign To Resign
On his Fox News show last night, Sean Hannity touted a poll showing that Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), who admitted to an affair with a campaign staffer last week, has a higher favorability rating than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). “Ensign remains more popular than another Nevada politician whose popularity is remarkably low,” said Hannity.
In the next segment, however, Democratic strategist Bob Beckel called out Hannity for seemingly “defending John Ensign” despite being “a big family values guy.” “Here’s a guy that cheats on his wife, not just with somebody, but somebody on his staff who’s married. Now what do you think?” asked Beckel. Hannity reluctantly admitted that he thinks such behavior warrants a resignation:
BECKEL: Excuse me. Excuse me for a second, Mr. University Prager. I want — I want him to answer this question.
HANNITY: My answer is, if you’re going to be a family-values candidate and a family-values politician, and you don’t live up to that, I think you should resign.
BECKEL: Well…
HANNITY: I don’t know where he stands.
When Beckel said he wanted to “let the record show that that you called for John Ensign to resign,” Hannity tried to hedge his words again, saying “I don’t know where he stands on the issues.” Watch it:
Hannity claims to not know where Ensign stands on “family values” issues, but as ThinkProgress has pointed out, Ensign has previously positioned himself as a protector of “the institution of marriage.”
In 2007, Ensign called on then-Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) to resign after he in an airport men’s restroom on disorderly conduct charges, but he declined to call for Sen. David Vitter’s (R-LA) resignation after he acknowledged an affair involving prostitution. In July 2007, Hannity said that Vitter should resign as well.
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Shep Smith responds to right-wing critics: ‘I do belong here’ at Fox News.
Shep Smith responds to right-wing critics: ‘I do belong here’ at Fox News.
On June 10, Fox News anchor Shep Smith made headlines with his response to the shooting by a white supremacist at the Holocaust Memorial Museum. He said the incident showed that the much-maligned DHS report on violent, right-wing extremists was a “warning to us all,” even though “the right went absolutely bonkers” in response to it. The right quickly went after him, calling for his resignation from Fox News. In a new interview with the New York Times, Smith responds:
“When a crazy man has walked into a Holocaust museum and shot the security guard, maybe that’s an appropriate time to warn people: you’ve got a crazy person in your life, keep an eye on him,” he said in an interview in his Manhattan office last week.
Mr. Smith said he fully anticipated one result of those comments: the nasty e-mail increased.
“Thousands of them,” Mr. Smith said. “And I know they don’t mean the things they say. I know they don’t hate me and want death on my family.”
What they mostly say, he explained, is: “You don’t belong there.” Mr. Smith paused a moment before adding: “I do belong here.”
Smith said that his colleagues, such as Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, are “fascinating, terrific entertainer,” but that he tries to provide the “news” in Fox News.
Rove: I’m Horrified That A News Network Would Be A ‘Cooperating Partner’ Of The White House
Rove: I’m Horrified That A News Network Would Be A ‘Cooperating Partner’ Of The White House
On Wednesday, Fox News’ Sean Hannity brought on former Bush White House adviser Karl Rove to gripe about ABC’s upcoming “Questions for the President: Prescription for America,” which will feature President Obama answering “questions offered by audience members ’selected by ABC News who have divergent opinions‘” on health care. Rove called it “unprecedented access to the White House and more importantly an unprecedented use of the White House.”
Last night, Rove was back on Fox News — this time with Greta Van Susteren — and argued that it was improper for ABC to get the access, considering that former ABC reporter Linda Douglass is now working in the White House:
ROVE: If it’s not crossing a line, it’s getting comfortably too close to a line of where a news network becomes a cooperating partner of and an adjacency to the White House communications shop. And I think the presence of a former ABC reporter as the communicator-in-chief inside the White House on this issue also raises questions about how it ended up in the hands of ABC.
Watch it:
It’s hard to take Rove’s outrage seriously. After all, Fox News’ Bret Baier received “unprecedented access” to the White House (as well as Air Force One and Bush’s ranch in Crawford, TX) in February 2008 for a “documentary” on President Bush. Baier said that the piece offered “a President Bush you’ve never seen before.”
In October 2007, Baier also hosted a special titled “Dick Cheney: No Retreat,” which was “a rare glimpse into the life of the vice president.” Of course, in the period leading up to Fox gaining such extraordinary access, who was the White House press secretary?
Tony Snow…who had previously worked for Fox News.
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Perino laughs at idea of Fox News getting unprecedented access to the Bush administration.
Perino laughs at idea of Fox News getting unprecedented access to the Bush administration.
Appearing on the Washington Times’ America’s Morning News radio show today, former Bush press secretary Dana Perino jumped on the conservative bandwagon and criticized ABC News’ upcoming special “Questions for the President: Prescription for America.” Asked by right-wing host Melanie Morgan what the reaction would be if Fox News had similar access at the Bush White House, Perino laughed and said that “there are a lot of double standards“:
MORGAN: I just keep wondering, you know, what would be the reaction of these same people in the mainstream media if President Bush had allowed, say, Fox News to turn over their entire broadcast from the Blue Room at the White House.
PERINO: Well, you know…
MORGAN: Hahaha, I think we both know the answer that question.
PERINO: Yeah, look, I think there are a lot of double standards. Both, maybe you know, from the right and the left. And so I try not to use it as an excuse or a grudge.
Listen here:
As ThinkProgress noted earlier today, the Bush administration regularly gave Fox News “unprecedented access” to the White House, allowing the network to produce hagiographic documentaries for both President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Who was press secretary when those documentaries aired? Dana Perino.
Hannity: Only Fox News Deserves ‘Unprecedented Access’ To The White House
Hannity: Only Fox News Deserves ‘Unprecedented Access’ To The White House
Last night on Fox News, Sean Hannity interviewed Karl Rove about ABC’s upcoming special “Questions for the President: Prescription for America,” which will feature President Obama answering “questions offered by audience members ‘selected by ABC News who have divergent opinions in this historic debate’” on health care. Hannity and Rove — echoing a recent Washington Times piece — raised questions about what they called the “unprecedented access to the White House” granted to ABC for their “infomercial” on health care reform:
HANNITY: Karl, it seems rather unprecedented. You were there in the White House for the better part of eight years. Did this ever happened while George W. Bush was president?
ROVE: You know, look, it’s normal for the networks to want to come in and do an interview inside the White House or to get a glimpse behind the curtain as to what goes on there. This is an unprecedented access to the White House and more importantly an unprecedented use of the White House. I can’t remember a time when the network came in and was going to devote a significant block of time to covering an issue that was on the president’s agenda.
As Media Matters first noted, when Fox News’ Bret Baier was granted “unprecedented access” to the White House in Feb. 2008, the network billed it as a “documentary,” not an “infomercial.” Further, Fox was not only welcomed into the White House, but aboard Air Force One, to Bush’s ranch in Texas, and into the Oval Office. Baier introduced the “documentary” saying, “Fox News has been granted unprecedented access inside the President’s world. … It’s a President Bush you’ve never seen before.” Watch a compilation of Hannity last night and Baier’s special:
Prior to airing the Bush special, Baier hosted a special on the famously-reclusive vice president entitled “Dick Cheney: No Retreat.” Fox billed it as “a rare glimpse into the life of the vice president” and aired the program Oct. 13, 2007. Similarly, on Oct. 30, 2007, Fox’s Greta Van Susteren was granted what she called “unprecedented access” to First Lady Laura Bush’s tour of the Middle East.
In the period leading up to Fox gaining such access to the Bush White House, former Fox News Sunday host Tony Snow was serving as White House Press Secretary, leaving office just weeks before Baier’s first documentary aired.
Krauthammer concedes Fox News is the ‘voice of opposition’ to Obama ‘in the media.’
Krauthammer concedes Fox News is the ‘voice of opposition’ to Obama ‘in the media.’
In an interview with CNBC this week, President Obama noted the constant criticism he receives from Fox News, saying, “I’ve got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration.” Some Fox regulars, like Bill O’Reilly, adamantly objected to Obama’s claim. But on Special Report yesterday, Fox contributor Charles Krauthammer admitted that Fox News can “accurately” be described as the “voice of opposition” to Obama:
KRAUTHAMMER: But what’s really interesting, the president yesterday has said, he complained about FOX, and he said, I think accurately, that it is the one, only voice of opposition in the media.
And it makes us a lot like Caracas where all the media, except one, are state run, with the exception that in Hugo Chavez-land, you go after that one station with machetes. I haven’t seen any machetes around here, so I think we are at least safe for now.
Watch it:
Krauthammer isn’t the only person at Fox who views the network as working in opposition to Obama. In March, Bill Shine, Fox News’ Senior Vice President for Programming, told NPR that the network views itself as “the voice of opposition on some issues” with Democrats in power in Washington, DC.
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Obama: ‘I’ve got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration.’
Obama: ‘I’ve got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration.’
During an interview with President Obama that aired on CNBC yesterday, chief Washington correspondent John Harwood said, “When you and I spoke in January, you said — I observed that you hadn’t gotten much bad press. You said it’s coming.” Harwood added that since then, Obama still hasn’t received much critical press and wondered if his administration isn’t being “sufficiently held accountable.” Obama, however, disagreed:
OBAMA: It’s very hard for me to swallow that one. First of all, I’ve got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration. I mean, you know, that’s a pretty…
HARWOOD: I assume you’re talking about Fox.
OBAMA: Well, that’s a pretty big megaphone. And you’d be hard pressed if you watched the entire day to find a positive story about me on that front.
Watch it:
Seeming to undermine the premise of his question, Harwood said after the interview that Obama has “gotten slapped around pretty good on our network for a while” too.
Angered By His Holocaust Museum Shooting Coverage, The Far Right Goes After Shepard Smith
Angered By His Holocaust Museum Shooting Coverage, The Far Right Goes After Shepard Smith
On Wednesday, Fox News’ Shepard Smith responded to the tragic shooting at the Holocaust Museum by a white supremacist by saying that it was time to re-think the Homeland Security report on right-wing extremism that conservatives disparaged. “The right went absolutely bonkers!” said Smith, adding that the report was a “warning to us all” and that DHS was “warning us for a reason.”
Later in the day, Smith said that the e-mail he’s been receiving from viewers has become “more and more frightening.” “It’s been happening over the last few months,” said Smith. “There are people now who are way out there on a limb.” Watch it:
As Media Matters noted yesterday, the right-wing has now turned its fire on Smith. On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh mocked Smith’s “whining and moaning and complaining about e-mails”:
LIMBAUGH: As for Shepard Smith whining and moaning and complaining about e-mails, nobody needs to tell me about hateful e-mails, for crying out loud. I get the most vile, sick e-mails attacking me as a “Jew lover” that you can imagine. I don’t read ‘em. I hear about them. They’re in a public account, of course, as you know — and I’m a conservative. Who do you think these hate e-mails from coming from? Where are they coming from? Yeah, I get people, “You Jew lover, you Jew lover!” because I am faithful to Israel and a number of other things.
So, Shep, you got nothing on anybody out there. The vile hate that was 24/7 in most of the American media for the eight years of Bush — and particularly from 2003 on after the Iraq war — nobody, nobody at this point in time has ever done, in our society, anything comparable to the kind of hate that we got from mainstream sources.
Allahpundit of Michelle Malkin’s Hot Air wrote that if Smith truly believes his viewers are “would-be presidential assassins,” then “why doesn’t he quit?” Further out on the fringe, conservative blogger Pamela Geller, who writes at Atlas Shrugs, titled a post, “Please Shepard Smith Out the Door!” She followed it up with a post saying, “Shepard Smith has got to go.” Geller’s call for Smith to be fired is beginning to get traction with some conservatives online.
Fox News poll: ‘Do you think Obama is still sneaking cigarettes at the White House?’
Fox News poll: ‘Do you think Obama is still sneaking cigarettes at the White House?’
Huffington Post’s Sam Stein highlighted an eye-catching question in the Fox News poll that was released yesterday. Noting that President Obama “says he quit smoking,” Fox’s poll asked whether people believed he was “still sneaking cigarettes.” Thirty-seven percent said that they did:
As ThinkProgress has previously noted, Fox News polls are known for often including a few loaded and misleading questions. In May, a Fox poll asked, “Who do you think the White House will put in a muzzle first — Vice President Joe Biden or First Dog Bo?”
Megyn Kelly claims that the only reason people consider Fox News conservative is because of Sean Hannity.
Megyn Kelly claims that the only reason people consider Fox News conservative is because of Sean Hannity.
Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, who was hired because she believed there is “a left bias in the news,” tells Haute Living that she thinks the network’s conservative reputation is unfounded. Claiming that Bill O’Reilly is “all over the board” politically, Kelly claimed that people only think Fox is right-wing “because of Hannity”:
When asked about her employer’s reputation for being conservative, she attributed those perceptions to the network’s primetime host lineup, not its news coverage. “There is no question that Hannity is a conservative,” she says. “But I can tell you from personal experience after having worked with O’Reilly for years now, you never know where he is going to come out on an issue. He definitely leans right when it comes to certain social, traditional value issues, but he’s all over the board on certain other issues. And Greta-nobody knows exactly what her stripes are. I think [the conservative reputation is] really because of Hannity.”
Kelly is wrong. Fox is considered “the most biased name in news” for much more than just Sean Hannity. Not only does Fox regularly parrot right-wing talking points and promote right-wing events, but its executives want the network to be the “voice of opposition” to the Obama administration. Kelly also neglected to mention Fox’s rising star, Glenn Beck, who proudly calls himself a conservative.
O’Reilly Defends Gay Penguins: ‘God Made The Penguin That Way’
O’Reilly Defends Gay Penguins: ‘God Made The Penguin That Way’
Last night, Bill O’Reilly discussed the “gay penguins” at a zoo in Germany with guest Dennis Miller. O’Reilly shocked Miller by being eminently tolerant of the penguins, saying the zoo should “leave the penguin alone” because “God made the penguin that way”:
O’REILLY: Number one, if the penguin’s gay, leave the penguin alone. God made the penguin that way and I agree — I mean, I’m not one of these guys who thinks you should be converting anybody to anything. If you’re that way, and you’re not hurting anybody, I think you and I agree, we’re libertarians. So who cares? … If they’re happy, they’re happy. That’s my philosophy.
Watch it:
If only O’Reilly were as tolerant of gay humans; alas, his record shows quite a different picture:
— O’Reilly complained that J.K. Rowling is making children “tolerant” of homosexuality.
– O’Reilly warned that if gay marriage were allowed, people could marry ducks, turtles, and dolphins.
– O’Reilly censored a photo of two men kissing.
– O’Reilly claimed J.K. Rowling is a “provocateur” for “the gay agenda” of “indoctrination.”
– O’Reilly was disgusted by a transgender couple, saying, “Imagine a poor kid getting born into that family.”
– O’Reilly was furious that “thousands of gay adults showed up and commingled with straight families” at a Padres game, and suggested that gay couples hugging were making “over-the-top displays.”
In O’Reilly’s world, gay penguins should be left alone, but gay people should be mocked, reviled, and censored.
O’Reilly Ignores Holocaust Museum Shooting, Wonders Whether It’s Even ‘Newsworthy’
O’Reilly Ignores Holocaust Museum Shooting, Wonders Whether It’s Even ‘Newsworthy’
Last week, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly went on a tirade against CNN for supposedly failing to cover the shooting of Pvt. William Long, an Army recruiter in Arkansas. Of course, O’Reilly’s claims were blatantly false — but that didn’t stop him from claiming to be “shocked” that he “can’t find any information about” the shooting in the mainstream media.
Exactly one week later, after a white supremacist shot and killed a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, O’Reilly never covered the shooting on his show. In fact, the only mention of the act of domestic terrorism came in a segment that, ironically, decried the media’s inadequate coverage of Long’s death:
O’REILLY: But the central question remains according to a new Pew study, the American media spent far more time on the murder of Tiller than on the murder of Private Long. … 10 to 1 the Pew study which was released yesterday, 10 to 1 more coverage. I mean, come on, come on.
[...]
O’REILLY: All right. Now, we had a murder today at the Holocaust Museum in D.C.
HENICAN: That was an awful case. Awful.
O’REILLY: Now, this is an 89-year-old anti-Semite bigot kills an innocent guy in the Holocaust Museum. OK? Now, what about the newsworthiness of this? … Is it as newsworthy as Private Long?
Watch it:
Sean Hannity, whose show follows O’Reilly’s, never once mentioned the Holocaust Museum shooting — though he did discuss Miss California’s firing and played host to Newt Gingrich, Ann Coulter, and a star of “Miami Ink.”
O’Reilly slammed Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson for having “ignored” Long’s murder, which he said was an ideological decision:
O’REILLY: Look, Katie Couric didn’t cover Private Long. Charles Gibson ignored Private Long. Ignored it. Didn’t — didn’t say a word about it. … It’s a news decision, and our news decision is based on what is important. Their news decision is based on ideology.
If O’Reilly bases his coverage “on what is important” and not ideology, why did he fail to “say a word about” the single largest news story of the day?
In Wake Of Shootings, Conservatives Rush To Defend Disparagement Of DHS Report On Right-Wing Extremism
In Wake Of Shootings, Conservatives Rush To Defend Disparagement Of DHS Report On Right-Wing Extremism
Following yesterday’s tragic shooting at the Holocaust Museum — reportedly carried out by white supremacist James von Brunn — two Fox News personalities, Shepard Smith and Catherine Herridge, suggested that critics of the Department of Homeland Security’s report on right-wing extremism should re-think their criticism. ” “The right went absolutely bonkers,” said Smith, adding that DHS was “warning us for a reason.”
But later on Fox, New York Post columnist Ralph Peters attacked Smith and Herridge for claiming that the shooting “validated” the DHS report. “It had nothing to do with the Department of Homeland Security report,” declared Peters. Watch it:
Though some conservatives have concluded that the recent string of right-wing violence has “vindicated” the DHS report, many others agree with Peters. Michelle Malkin, who led the charge against the DHS report, approvingly linked to a milblogger that called Smith and Herridge “pathetic” for reconsidering the report. Malkin’s Hot Air colleague, Ed Morrissey, defends the criticism of the report by claiming that it didn’t “mention anti-semitism at all.”
But as Huffington Post’s Sam Stein points out, the DHS report “warned specifically about an upswing of anti-Semitic behavior.” “Anti-Semitic extremists attribute these losses to a deliberate conspiracy conducted by a cabal of Jewish ‘financial elites,’” the report read. “These ‘accusatory’ tactics are employed to draw new recruits into right-wing extremist groups and further radicalize those already subscribing to extremist beliefs.”
Fox News’ Shep Smith: DHS Report Was A ‘Warning To Us All,’ But ‘The Right Went Absolutely Bonkers’
Fox News’ Shep Smith: DHS Report Was A ‘Warning To Us All,’ But ‘The Right Went Absolutely Bonkers’
This afternoon, a gunman — reportedly white supremacist James von Brunn — shot and killed a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington. Discussing the shooting, Fox News’ Shepard Smith reminded the audience that when the Department of Homeland Security released a report warning of violent, right-wing extremists earlier this year, “the right went absolutely bonkers!” He called the report a “warning to us all,” and said DHS was “warning us for a reason.” Watch it:
Southern Povery Law Center’s Heidi Beirich told Smith that the shooting is a reminder of the real danger extremists and “crazies” pose to the U.S.:
SMITH: There’s these crazies out there. And we know it’s absolutely — there is no truth whatsoever — zero to any of those ideas. Yet, they live within the computer and they fester within people’s minds.
BEIRICH: Shepard, you’re hitting the nail on the head. We’re extremely concerned about these kinds of crazed conspiracies, whether they’re about the President, or the fact — we’re hearing things like FEMA setting up camps to round up Americans and put them in. I’m getting bad sort of deja vu from the 1990s, when anti-government militias were on the rise, when Tim McVeigh committed that violence in Oklahoma City. I’m really hoping we’re not going through a repeat of that.
Watch it:
The Wonk Room’s Andrea Nill highlights anti-immigrant screeds written by Brunn.
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