Author: David Grossman

(Cross posted at Daily Kos.)

Today, CNN took yet another turn towards becoming the Fox News Channel by hiring Glenn Beck (less then two weeks after reportedly hiring right-wing commentator Bill Bennett).  But wait!  Who’s this guy?  And why does he get a “nice feeling” when Bush winks at him?

It’s CNN photojournalist Mark Walz!

In a short segment on CNN this past Saturday, CNN decided it would showcase — themselves!  Walz, who covers the White House, got a few minutes of air-time to himself, and here’s he had to say about his job:

WALZ: What I find most rewarding about the job is covering the office of the president. Everything that he does is history, and we are there to record history. There are often little gems where you get recognized by the president. He gives you a wink. That’s a nice feeling.

Just in case anyone’s feeling a little down today and needs that “nice feeling” of getting a wink from President Bush, here you go:

Now, isn’t that special? (Saturday Night Live, anybody? Anybody?)

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Don’t forget the magnets, mousepads and mugs!

(Cross posted at Daily Kos)

We have documented an upcoming Newsweek article that casts the Bush administration’s warrantless domestic spying program was “predictably partisan”.  It’s not — not even close.  We have compiled a comprehensive run-through of the numerous influential Republicans and conservatives who have voiced criticisms of the program.  Without, further ado, here’s why claims that Bush’s warrantless spying on Americans is a “partisan” issue are plain, flat out, wrong.

Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME): “We … express our profound concern about recent revelations that the United States Government may have engaged in domestic electronic surveillance without appropriate legal authority.”

Read below the fold for more.

“Predictably partisan”?  I don’t know think so, and neither do these folks:

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA): “I think it does not constitute a check and balance … you can’t have the administration and a select number of members alter the law. It can’t be done.”

Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN): “I think the Congress quite rightly is trying to take a look at now the fact that we’re past 9-11, we’re going to have to live with the war on terror for a long while. And whether it’s the treatment of prisoners that we’ve been discussing, for example, or elements of the Patriot Act, likewise intercepts are going to have to be given, I think, a pretty good hearing.”

Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) called the allegations of surveillance abuses ‘extremely troubling.’ Collins said the report ‘warrants further inquiry by Congress’ and that she has asked the NSA for a full briefing.”

Senator John E. Sununu (R-NH): “I don’t think the ‘use of force’ resolution authorized this use of NSA resources for domestic surveillance … this is the kind of activity that should be approved in statute.”

Senator Larry Craig (R-ID): “I’m particularly concerned about the long-term effect of the line we may be crossing. When we flipped the FISA over from just foreign governments and known spies and blended it into a gray area of the Patriot Act, we’re now talking about somebody who we have reason to believe is connected to a foreign government, but they are a U.S. citizen.”

Rep. C.L. “Butch” Otter (R-ID): “The Founders envisioned a nation where people’s privacy was respected and the government’s business was open … these actions turn that vision on its head. If the government is willing to bend the rules on this issue, how are we supposed to believe it won’t abuse the powers granted by the Patriot Act?”

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC): “We can’t become an outcome-based democracy. Even in a time of war, you have to follow the process, because that’s what a democracy is all about: a process.”

Senator John McCain (R-AZ): “Why did the president choose not to use FISA? That’s a legitimate question.”

Former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA): “Exactly like Nixon before him, Bush has ordered the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct electronic snooping on communications of various people, including U.S. citizens. That action is unequivocally contrary to the express and implied requirements of federal law that such surveillance of U.S. persons inside the U.S. (regardless of whether their communications are going abroad) must be preceded by a court order.”

William Safire, a former speechwriter for President Nixon: “During wartime, we have this excess of security, and afterwards we apologize. And that’s why I offended a lot of my conservative and hard-line friends right after September 11th, when they started putting these captured combatants in jail, and said the president can’t seize dictatorial power. And a lot of my friends looked at me like I was going batty. But now we see this argument over excessive security, and I’m with the critics on that.

Check out a comprehensive round-up of these and many more statements at Media Matters.  The criticisms of Bush’s ‘warrantless spying on Americans’ program aren’t partisan.

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Don’t forget the magnets, mousepads and mugs!

(Cross posted at Daily Kos)

Media Matters is back for 2006 (and we have already posted a number of items and clips today).  On his radio show yesterday — billed as a “Best of The Radio Factor” special — Bill O’Reilly featured a clip of himself talking about financier George Soros from last October.  Here’s what he had to say:

O’REILLY: Where does George Soros have all his money? Do you know? Do you know where George Soros, the big left-wing loon who’s financing all these smear [web]sites, do you know where his money is? Curaçao. Curaçao. They ought to hang this Soros guy. His money is in Curaçao. Mr. Socialism. But not for him. Not for him. Oh no, he’s got his money in Curaçao. It drives me nuts.

Indeed.

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(Cross-posted at MyDD)

Anyone who follows politics knows that there are many polls in the world.  Sometimes, polls all say the same thing, so one can make a blanket statement like “Bush’s approval ratings fell in 2005”, which, according to every poll I’ve seen, is true.  Even when reviewing each poll’s margin of error, one can still conclude the statement that “Bush’s approval ratings fell in 2005” is accurate.  What was the cause of his fall in approval ratings?  That’s open for debate (and plenty of folks here and everyone else in the world have weighed in with their two cents)

The latest spin from the right-wing is that Bush has “turned a corner”, “hitting back successfully”, or whatever else sounds nice and butch.  Last week, we caught CNN’s Bill Schneider claiming that all recent national polls show President Bush’s approval ratings increasing.  Not true.  A Zogby poll showed Bush’s approval ratings going down.  Now, if Schneider said (for example) “some polls show BUsh’s approval rising slightly, while others don’t show a change or show his approval rating dropping further” that would have been accurate.  Maybe not music to those who wish Bush’s approval ratings would maintain their complete free-fall towards zero, but accurate.  However, when Schneider says “all polls”, and “all polls” aren’t saying it, Schneider is wrong (and CNN cites Zogby polls all the time along with tons of other media outlets, so saying “we didn’t see Zogby” doesn’t pass anyone’s laugh test).

Today, we noted that Fox News AND CNN both highlighted the results of a recent ABC/Washington Post poll showing an improvement in the president’s approval rating (from 39% to 47%, which of course still means a minority of the country don’t approve of President Bush).  Here’s the kicker — both CNN and Fox News failed to tell their viewers that THEIR OWN polls show ZERO increase (or a slight within-the-margin-of-error decrease) in Bush’a approval ratings.

The news isn’t made by a machine — it’s made by small groups of people (usually producers) who work with their on-air talent to create presentations to their audiences.  Do Fox News producers work in tandem with the Republican National Committee to coordinate their reporting with the latest RNC talking points memo to further a political agenda?  Maybe, maybe not.  Does CNN?  Maybe, maybe not.

So my question — why are both CNN and Fox News ignoring their own polls and focusing on another poll to further the right-wing spin that Bush has “turned a corner”, yadda yadda yadda?  I report, you discuss and make snarky comments.

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We’ve noticed something of a pattern developing on Fox recently.  As part of several recent segments, Fox has aired a series of photographs and videos of scantily-clad women, and blurred images of nude women. We reviewed Fox News from December 5 through December 15 found at least eight different segments featuring photographs or video footage of nude or nearly nude women, as well as discussions on news programs of “hot” videos, and an item on provocative attire in the workplace. One program, Your World with Neil Cavuto, a weekday business program that airs at 4 p.m. EST, featured six of the eight segments. While host Neil Cavuto offered little in the way of explicit justification for the use of the material, the segments listed below were all cast as business stories.

Earlier this year, we noted that Fox News gave scant coverage to the funeral of Rosa Parks in favor of extended discussion, with accompanying visuals, of the top-five ranked celebrities from In Touch Weekly magazine’s Best Cleavage in Hollywood poll, including speculation whether each was real.

Here’s a screenshot from a recent Cavuto segment:

A business show or a “big” show?

(Cross-posted from Daily Kos)

Here are two of the 20 comments from this cross-post on Daily Kos:

Bussiness stories?

I’d say business as usual.

They need to keep their ratings high and they don’t care how they achieve that goal.

They were bringing us stories about improvements in Iraq, but when the story about brining electricity to the Iraqis turned out to be shocks to torture victims’ butts before Iraqi residents received electricity in their houses, FOX changed the message.

And more…

Sex sells

and liberals are going to have to get over their Puritanism if they want people to tune into them.

I still find it hard to believe there was so much bandwidth wasted here over a video pie fight when Tom Cruise as St. Sebastian (with its homoerotic implications) was not discussed. Why are nearly naked women somehow politically incorrect while nearly naked men are not? If men can go topless shouldn’t women have the same rights?

There are enough hypocrites here on D-Kos without tuning on Faux News to find more.

What say the good folks here at Booman?

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I remember the first glorious time I saw the South Park movie when it came out in ’99 — I laughed for a good 3 hours after the movie was over (totally sober too).  Anyway, for those who don’t remember, one of the signature songs was called “Blame Canada”, and it went a little somethin’ like this:

Time’s have changed — Our kids are kids are getting worse — They wont obey their parents — They just want to fart and curse! — Should we blame the government? —  Or blame society? — Or should we blame the images on TV?

No, blame Canada!  Blame Canada — With all their beady little eyes and flappin heads so full of lies — Blame Canada, Blame Canada — We need to form a full assault — It’s Canadas fault!

Recently, after Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin’s made remarks criticizing U.S. global environmental policies, a number of conservative media figures have attacked Canada, hurling baseless accusations and derogatory comments at America’s northern neighbor (maybe the book South Park Conservatives had some kind of effect on this crowd — not so sure).  Here’s Tucker Carlson:

Canada is essentially a stalker, stalking the United States, right? Canada has little pictures of us in its bedroom, right? Canada spends all of its time thinking about the United States, obsessing over the United States. It’s unrequited love between Canada and the United States. […] Canada is a sweet country. It is like your retarded cousin you see at Thanksgiving and sort of pat him on the head. You know, he’s nice, but you don’t take him seriously. That’s Canada.

Cue up Fox News’ Neil Cavuto:

All right, well, could our neighbors to the north soon be our enemies? The U.S. finally losing patience with Canada. […]  So have the Canadians gotten a little bit too big for their britches? […] What I’m asking you, whether the Canadian people hate America as much as your politicians seem to?

(Image courtesy of Air America’s Majority Report)

Conservatives channeling South Park like the book told them to?  I report, you discuss at great length.

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Just when you thought the “War on Christmas” (a.k.a. right-wing strawman argument to raise money and sell books) was in it’s “last throes”, we get the latest from Bill O’Reilly:

O’REILLY: Yeah, Target’s changed its policy. And we appreciate that.

CALLER: That’s fantastic. So, I hope now you can do something about Circuit City. I was in there last week —

O’REILLY: [Laughing] Circuit City —

CALLER: — and —

O’REILLY: I think people from India own Circuit City. I think that’s the problem there.

Unfortunatly, like many of O’Reilly’s claims around the “War on Christmas”, this one isn’t true either:

Contrary to O’Reilly’s ownership theory, none of the major, direct, institutional, or mutual fund holders of the publicly traded company is Indian. The same appears to be true of the company’s senior management and its board of directors. In addition, the retailer limits its business to the United States and Canada.

Well, there you go.  Since this is my first posting to BooMan, do let me know your thoughts on Media Matters (good, bad and funny) and how I can best assist everyone here at BooMan (and what kind of topics you enjoy reading and discussing the most).

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