Category Archives: Television

February 28, 2011 · 8:53 pm

James Franco Skips Out On His Own Party After Critically-Panned Hosting Gig | Radar Online

I always thought he was one smart guy…

He knows when to walk away…

And get out of town…

James Franco reportedly didn’t show up for his own post-Oscars party at Los Angeles’ Supper Club Sunday, as the dashing star, possibly upset by his performance on the show, tweeted a pic from his private jet while leaving the City of Angels.

“Goodbye L.A.,” Franco wrote in one pic from aboard his plane, and in another wrote, “It was fun! Time to jet back to class.”

While Franco’s bash was attended by stars such as his Pineapple Express co-star Seth Rogen and two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey, an insider at the affair summarized it as a “bust “, according to usmagazine.com.

via James Franco Skips Out On His Own Party After Critically-Panned Hosting Gig | Radar Online.

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February 27, 2011 · 1:13 pm

FOX NEWS BOSS ROGER AILES TO BE INDICTED???

If only this is true!!!

From Henry Blodget

Last week it was revealed that legendary FOX News boss Roger Ailes allegedly told underling Judith Regan to lie to federal investigators to protect Rudy Giuliani.

Regan reportedly has a tape of the telephone call in which Ailes urged her to do this.

If this story is true, and the telephone call is clear, Ailes would obviously be exposed to obstruction-of-justice charges.

And now the scuttlebutt is that Ailes will in fact be indicted.

Here’s financial commentator Barry Ritholtz:

Someone I spoke with claimed that Ailes was scheduled to speak at their event in March, but canceled. It appears that Roger’s people, ostensibly using a clause in his contract, said he “cannot appear for legal reasons.”

I asked “What, precisely, does that mean?”

The response: “Roger Ailes will be indicted — probably this week, maybe even Monday.”

If the scuttlebutt is true, THIS will be the trial of the century.

via FOX NEWS BOSS ROGER AILES TO BE INDICTED???.

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February 24, 2011 · 6:51 pm

FLASHBACK: Mr. Rogers’ Stirring 1969 Defense Of Public Broadcasting (VIDEO) | TPMMuckraker

From Talking Points Memo…Link to their article at the bottom and a link to donate to PBS is under the video:

At a time when some Republicans are calling to defund public broadcasting, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has added a link on its homepage to an appearance Fred Rogers made before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications on May 1, 1969, when President Nixon was proposing to cut federal funding for public broadcasting from $20 million to $10 million. In the video, Rogers offers a defense for his show over the other kinds of programs made for children at the time.

“I’m very much concerned, as I know you are, about what’s being delivered to our children in this country,” Rogers tells subcommittee chairman Senator John O. Pastore (D-RI). “We deal with such things as the inner drama of childhood. We don’t have to bob somebody over the head to make drama on the screen. We deal with such things as getting a haircut, or the feelings about brothers and sisters, and the kind of anger that arises in simple family situations.”

Rogers asks permission to recite the words to a song he sings on the show, “What Do You Do With The Mad That You Feel?”

When Rogers is done, Pastore says, “Looks like you just earned the twenty million dollars.”

 

Donate to Public Broadcasting via UNC-TV!  I do…

https://secure.unctv.org/pledge/index.do

 

via FLASHBACK: Mr. Rogers’ Stirring 1969 Defense Of Public Broadcasting (VIDEO) | TPMMuckraker.

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February 16, 2011 · 7:31 pm

CNN’s Anderson Cooper reported the truth – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com

Great article from Leonard Pitts on our “press problem”….

In his reports on Egypt’s crisis, Cooper repeatedly scored Mubarak’s government for untruths. He did it in pointing out that journalists had been beaten and detained, in contradiction of the government’s contention that they were being allowed to report freely. And in discussing a claim that the government had directed that protesters not be pursued or harassed. And in dismissing a government statement that only 11 people had been injured in the protests when an independent human-rights group put the figure at close to 300.

For that, Cooper was ridiculed by James Rainey of The Los Angeles Times. CNN media critic Howard Kurtz questioned whether Cooper should be “taking sides.” And one Liz Trotta said that “any correspondent worth his salt knows that you shouldn’t be making editorial comments.” She, amusingly enough, is employed by Fox News.

All three critics concede Cooper was accurate: The regime did lie. Yet they question whether it was journalistically ethical to say it.

Take a close look. You will seldom see a clearer portrait of the timidity and obsequiousness that have infected and, increasingly, defined, American journalism.

Here is my pet theory: After years of criticism for their liberal bias — some of it merited – news media, eager as a puppy to be liked, have corrected by over correcting. Which is to say that in the search for that mythical beast, objectivity, they have sought to banish from the news-gathering process an indispensable element: judgment. Excluding, of course, Fox, for which a reluctance to judge has never been a problem.

The rest of the journalistic world seems to have embraced its own version of those robotic, idiotic zero-tolerance policies where some kid gets suspended for bringing Midol to class. Meaning, in other words, a paradigm from which human reasoning and common sense are exiled.

So, on any given story, a reporter is encouraged to get the facts, make sure the liberal and conservative talking points are represented and, once those boxes are checked, to feel as if she has done her job, has been objective. No thinking required.

via CNN’s Anderson Cooper reported the truth – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com.

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February 16, 2011 · 7:54 am

“We Were a Stalin-esque Mouthpiece for Bush” — Fox News Insider | Media | AlterNet

This can’t be said often enough…

Fox News isn’t News, it’s propaganda….

Asked what most viewers and observers of Fox News would be surprised to learn about the controversial cable channel, a former insider from the world of Rupert Murdoch was quick with a response: “I don’t think people would believe it’s as concocted as it is; that stuff is just made up.”

Indeed, a former Fox News employee who recently agreed to talk with Media Matters confirmed what critics have been saying for years about Murdoch’s cable channel. Namely, that Fox News is run as a purely partisan operation, virtually every news story is actively spun by the staff, its primary goal is to prop up Republicans and knock down Democrats, and that staffers at Fox News routinely operate without the slightest regard for fairness or fact checking.

“It is their M.O. to undermine the administration and to undermine Democrats,” says the source. “They’re a propaganda outfit but they call themselves news.”

And that’s the word from inside Fox News.

via “We Were a Stalin-esque Mouthpiece for Bush” — Fox News Insider | Media | AlterNet.

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February 11, 2011 · 4:53 pm

Former Fox News employee: ‘Stuff is just made up’ | Raw Story

This isn’t news to most of us…

A former employee of Fox News called the company a “propaganda outfit” that is determined to undermine the Obama administration and Democrats.

“I don’t think people would believe it’s as concocted as it is; that stuff is just made up,” the employee, whose name was kept anonymous, told the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters.

“They say one thing and do another,” the former employee said. “They insist on maintaining this charade, this façade, that they’re balanced or that they’re not right-wing extreme propagandist.”

“You have to work there for a while to understand the nods and the winks,” the former employee added. “And God help you if you don’t because sooner or later you’re going to get burned.”

The former employee’s comments did not come as a surprise to many critics of Fox News, who have long suggested the channel is biased in favor of conservatives. The 2004 documentary film “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism” criticized the channel and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, for skewing its reporting of events to promote conservative viewpoints.

via Former Fox News employee: ‘Stuff is just made up’ | Raw Story.

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February 11, 2011 · 7:46 am

Standing Up to Glenn Beck

Great article from Kevin Drum at MotherJones.com…

I’m convinced watching Fox News and Glenn Beck sped up the deterioration of my Mother’s mental capabilities….

I really think Glenn Beck is employed by the Assisted Living Industry to help make older people so crazy their children have to spend a fortune to put them in their facilities.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t get a kickback….

 

Glenn Beck is, for a liberal like me, far more entertaining to watch than, say, Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly. The latter are garden variety blowhards and their subject matter is predictable. But Beck? He’s crazy! He thinks the Muslim Brotherhood is going to take over the entire Mediterranean! Fabian socialists are a fifth column working to subvert everything that makes America great! (But slowly. Sneakily.) The Tides Foundation is on a mission to “warp your children’s brains”! And Obama the secret Marxist is behind it all! It all fits together!

This is actually sort of entertaining in small doses. But in bigger doses, not so much. Conor Friedersdorf:

“As I’ve said before, lots of Glenn Beck listeners aren’t in on the joke. Unlike Roger Ailes, Jonah Goldberg, and every staffer at the Heritage Foundation happy hour, they don’t realize that the Fox News Channel puts this man on the air fully understanding that large parts of his program are uninformed nonsense mixed with brazen bullshit.”

….Conjure in your mind a retired grandfather. He served in World War II, voted twice for Ronald Reagan, and supports the Tea Party. Awhile back, he started watching Glenn Beck….

Actually, we don’t have to conjure this. Richmond Ramsey has done it for us. I’ve mentioned before that lots of Fox viewers have the channel on all day long, basically as background noise, and Ramsey says he’s noticed this too. His piece is called “Fox Geezer Syndrome”:

“Over the past couple of years, I’ve been keeping track of a trend among friends around my age (late thirties to mid-forties). Eight of us (so far) share something in common besides our conservatism: a deep frustration over how our parents have become impossible to take on the subject of politics. Without fail, it turns out that our folks have all been sitting at home watching Fox News Channel all day — especially Glenn Beck’s program.”

“….I asked my father privately why Mom, who as far as I know never before had a political thought, was so worked up about Obama all the time. “She’s been like that ever since she started watching Glenn Beck,” Dad said.”

“….Then I flew out for a visit, and observed that their television was on all day long, even if no one was watching it. What channel was playing? Fox. Spending a few days in the company of the channel—especially Glenn Beck—it all became clear to me. If Fox was the window through which I saw the wider world, for hours every day, I’d be perpetually pissed off too.”

“….Back home, I mentioned to a friend over beers how much Fox my mom and dad watched, and how angry they now were about politics. “Yours too?!” he said. “I’ve noticed the same thing with mine. They weren’t always like this, but since they retired, they’ve gotten into Fox, and you can’t even talk to them anymore without hearing them read the riot act about Obama.”

And that’s from a conservative. It’s all entertaining enough until you come face to face with the consequences. Sure, Beck’s audience is relatively small: a few million, probably no more than one or two percent of the adult population of the country. But that’s misleading. These are the shock troops, the true believers, the ones who have turned our politics so toxic. And worse, they’re being deliberately conned by Roger Ailes and his pals, who know perfectly well that this stuff is nonsense. And it’s all in the service of selling yet another con, getting the geezers to invest their money in endless gold scams.

I know this is whistling into the wind, but it’s long past time for the adults in the Republican Party to speak up about this. Glenn Beck is the Father Coughlin and the Robert Welch of his generation rolled into one, and his brand of noxious conspiracy theorizing isn’t something to be tolerated just because it produces a few useful idiots. It’s time for this to end.

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/02/standing-glenn-beck

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February 8, 2011 · 8:03 pm

Glenn Beck: Should Fox Toss Him Out of the Coop?

If only….

I keep hoping people will get wise to him or he would self-destruct, but I never thought it would be over something like the Egyptian protests..

From David Corn at AOL Politics Daily:

For years, Beck has pitched various conspiracy theories with a rather predictable thrust: The left is out to take over and/or destroy the United States. (The relationship between assuming control of the country and scheming its decimation has always been a bit fuzzy.) And his targets have been sinister lefty outfits that are not household names: the Tides Foundation, ACORN, and others. As long as Beck stuck to this classic tale — secret commies undermining this great land of ours — he wasn’t much of a problem to most conservatives and his patrons at Fox. Sure, some conservative commentators (such as David Frum) derided Beck. But Beck was more like the crazy uncle in the attic who could be ignored. And Fox News could bank the revenue Beck generated without worry. Good ratings forgive much.

But only so much.

The Egypt uprising has raised the stakes for Beck — and Fox. In the past two weeks, Beck has viewed events in Egypt through his own rather warped filter. He claims that the rebellion is not about the people, not about democracy. Instead, he says, it’s a move by radical Islamists to take over Egypt, as part of a larger plan to install a caliphate that stretches from the Middle East through Europe and toward the United States. And he contends that “uber-leftists” and Islamic extremists are “plotting together” toward this end. Last week on his radio show, he declared, “Groups from the hard-core socialist and communist left and extreme Islam will work together because they are both a common enemy of Israel and the Jew. . . . Islam wants a caliphate. Communists want a communist new world order. They’ll work together, and they’ll destabilize. Because they both want chaos.”

Austin Powers, anyone? But it gets better. This grand cabal also includes . . . the Establishment. Beck points out that Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush refrained from bombing “ancient Babylon” during their respective wars against Iraq. “Why?” he asks. “Because the Bible tells us that that is the seat right there of power of a global evil empire,” meaning that Islamic caliphate. Bush father and son each wanted to preserve the heart of a radical Islam caliphate? That seems to be what Beck is saying.

via Glenn Beck: Should Fox Toss Him Out of the Coop?.

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February 5, 2011 · 11:51 pm

Wallflowers at the Revolution

Another insightful column by Frank Rich in the Sunday New York Times:

Unable to watch Al Jazeera English, and ravenous for comprehensive and sophisticated 24/7 television coverage of the Middle East otherwise unavailable on television, millions of Americans last week tracked down the network’s Internet stream on their computers. Such was the work-around required by the censorship practiced by America’s corporate gatekeepers. You’d almost think these news-starved Americans were Iron Curtain citizens clandestinely trying to pull in the jammed Voice of America signal in the 1950s — or Egyptians desperately seeking Al Jazeera after Mubarak disrupted its signal last week.

The consequence of a decade’s worth of indiscriminate demonization of Arabs in America — and of the low quotient of comprehensive adult news coverage that might have helped counter it — is the steady rise in Islamophobia. The “Ground Zero” mosque melee has given way to battles over mosques as far removed from Lower Manhattan as California. Soon to come is a national witch hunt — Congressional hearings called by Representative Peter King of New York — into the “radicalization of the American Muslim community.” Given the disconnect between America and the Arab world, it’s no wonder that Americans are invested in the fights for freedom in Egypt and its neighboring dictatorships only up to a point. We’ve been inculcated to assume that whoever comes out on top is ipso facto a jihadist.

This week brings the release of Donald Rumsfeld’s memoir. The eighth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq is to follow. As we took in last week’s fiery video from Cairo — mesmerizing and yet populated by mostly anonymous extras we don’t understand and don’t know — it was hard not to flash back to those glory days of “Shock and Awe.” Those bombardments too were spectacular to watch from a safe distance — no Iraqi faces, voices or bodies cluttered up the shots. We lulled ourselves into believing that democracy and other good things were soon to come. It took months, even years, for us to learn the hard way that in truth we really had no idea what was going on.

More: Wallflowers at the Revolution – NYTimes.com.

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January 25, 2011 · 6:44 pm

Fox News’ $55 Million Presidential Donation | Media Matters for America

I’ve always thought this really should be either a Campaign Finance Law violation or they should at least declare it an “in kind” donation.

In addition to the millions of dollars they give in cash to the GOP.

Fair and Balanced?  Yeah, right….

Faux News….

Last year, five potential Republican presidential candidates (Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, John Bolton, and Rick Santorum) who also serve as Fox News contributors or hosts appeared on the network for more than 85 hours. Media Matters for America estimates this time to be worth approximately $54.7 million in free advertising.

Fox News Candidates Appeared On The Network For More Than 85 Hours In 2010. Media Matters calculated the amount of on-screen time each of the five potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates appeared on Fox News as contributors or hosts in 2010. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee appeared for a total of almost 48 hours. Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska, appeared for close to 14 hours. Fox gave former House Speaker Newt Gingrich almost 12 hours. John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under George W. Bush, and Rick Santorum, former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, each received around six hours.

More:   UPDATED REPORT: Fox News’ $55 Million Presidential Donation | Media Matters for America.

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