Tag Archives: Fox News

Sarah Palin, Influence and Influencing

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Dan Szymborski

STEPHON JOHNSON: So, Sarah Palin wants us to hold her to a different standard than she holds others? Why am I not surprised?

CHRIS PUMMER: All of the events of the last two weeks probably don’t shift any opinion about Sarah Palin. Not an inch for anybody.

AKIE BERMISS: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: ultimately we, the people, are responsible for those we put in power. In our representative democracy the masses are the king-makers. Yes, they may be being manipulated by the powerful few on high, but they can only be manipulated if they allow themselves to be manipulated. I say all this because I don’t think its fair to simply blame Sarah Palin for being Sarah Palin. While I think she is a deplorable person politically and probably a dangerous person to give any kind of serious power, I also think that Sarah Palin was created by some subset of “the people” and, ultimately, she therefore represents some subset of our society. Continue reading →

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Jon Stewart and His Critics

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Jeff Morrow

JEFF MORROW: The vision of “reasonableness” I saw at the Rally to Restore Sanity wasn’t about chastising liberals and conservatives, or freeing ourselves of ideology. It was about ignoring the conflict-driven sideshows that thwart useful discourse, and it was about regaining perspective. The need to fit it into a left/right box shows how ingrained these habits are. Continue reading →

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Firing of Juan Williams

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Allison Reilly

HOWARD MEGDAL: The debate about NPR’s firing of Juan Williams is as nonsensical as the comment Williams made that led to his termination by NPR.

ALLISON REILLY: Should Williams have been fired? No. Could NPR have done a better job handling the whole thing? Yes. Did Williams cross some sort of line or do something wrong? Perhaps. Continue reading →

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Fox News Lawsuit

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Allison Reilly

HOWARD MEGDAL: Make no mistake about it- the Fox News lawsuit isn’t just an in-kind contribution to Roy Blunt’s campaign (making a well-matched set with their monetary contribution), it is a new twist on an old way the powerful exploit the court system.

ALLISON REILLY: A poll conducted by the Missouri Democratic Party was released Monday and showed Carnahan just four points behind Blunt, and a much closer gap between the two when compared to the results from the Rasmussen poll from earlier this month. In that poll, Blunt has 53 percent of the vote, compared to 43 percent for Mrs. Carnahan, Missouri’s secretary of state. Is is possible, that this lawsuit could work in Carnahan’s favor? Continue reading →

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Reflections on Shirley Sherrod

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Jessica Bader

AKIE BERMISS: Let us take a minute and think about the amount of time that has elapsed since the first Shirley Sherrod video broke. Just about week ago the media/blogosphere was all a twitter over a video of the Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the United States Department of Agriculture[ speaking at an NAACP function and APPARENTLY confessing to having committed reverse racism. Just a week ago, but of course it seems like ages ago. What are we talking about today? Probably the final death throws of the not-so-important Wikileaks/Afghanistan story, right? I mean, before the Sherrod story broke, all the talk was about Charlie Rangel and the ethics committee. Before THAT scandal we were talking about how watered-down but symbolically-good the financial reform was going to be. We live in the age of the instant story, the instant story. The 24-hour news cycle and all the spin that is fit to print. Trouble is all this new coverage hasn’t led to MORE coverage or MORE news — its led to more coverage of less topics. Its almost fetishistic myopia.

JESSICA BADER: Of everyone even peripherally involved in the Shirley Sherrod saga, only three people – Sherrod herself and the white couple whose farm she helped save all those years ago – came out of it not looking bad in some way. In a slightly gentler universe, the story Sherrod had told at that NAACP function would be the inspiration for a saccharine Lifetime movie chock-full of important lessons. In the universe as it is, things took a far more depressing turn.
And so for a few days last week, Sherrod, the NAACP, Obama, and “reverse-racism” were the story burning on all cylinders. Continue reading →

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Obama and Fox News

Posted on March 25, 2010 by Howard Megdal

MOLLY SCHOEMANN: Obama’s interview on Fox news had me wondering whether his intention might have been recapture some of the magic that he worked so well during his visit to the GOP retreat in January. Unfortunately, Fox pit the President against Bret Baier, an awkward, oddly youthful-looking reporter who resembled a cranky sixth-grader on school picture day.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe the President ought to go on Fox News every once in a while, just to show he cares.

But we live in a world where 67 percent of Republicans think Barack Obama is a socialist, 57 percent think he is Muslim, 38 percent see him with an agenda like Hitler’s, and 24 percent – 24 percent! think he may be the antichrist. So while that doesn’t all come from Fox News, legitimizing their “news organization” at all seems like a huge mistake to me. Continue reading →

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