Before a Fox News apologist comes on the defense, they better make sure Media Matters isn't ahead of them. . I'll make a video compilation of the most memorable moments.
Research Courtesy of Media Matters:
Baier
Responds: "We Found No Examples Of A Host Saying President Obama Is A
Muslim"
Baier: "For The Record, We
Found No Examples Of A Host Saying President Obama Is A Muslim." On Special Report, Bret Baier pushed back
against a new book reporting that President Obama blamed Fox News in December
2010 for spreading the myth that he is a Muslim by saying: "For the record, we
found no examples of a host saying President Obama is a Muslim." [Fox News, Special
Report with Bret Baier, 3/19/12]
In Fact, Fox -- Including Special
Report -- Has Repeatedly Questioned Obama's Faith
Special Report On Obama: "Islam Or Isn't He?" During a June 2009 segment, Special Report
aired a quote by Obama foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough, in which he
talked about how Obama "experienced Islam on three continents" and spent part
of his childhood in Indonesia with a Muslim father. Special Report
included this question above the quote: "Islam Or Isn't He?" [Fox News, Special
Report with Bret Baier, 6/3/09]
Hume Falsely Claimed
Obama's Half-Brother Said Obama Had A "Muslim Background." On the June 16, 2008, edition of Special Report,
then-host Brit Hume stated that Malik Obama, Barack Obama's half-brother,
"tells The Jerusalem Post that 'if elected his brother will be a good
president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background.'"
[Fox News, Special Report, 6/16/08]
Hume
Issued On-Air Correction For False Claim. From
the June 24, 2008, edition of Special Report:
HUME:
And finally, last week, we quoted The Jerusalem Post in the story about
Barack Obama's half-brother Malik Obama. The Post reported that in an
interview with Israeli Army Radio, Malik Obama said his brother would be a good
president despite his Muslim background. It now turns out that the Post
did not quite understand what Malik Obama was saying in the interview and
paraphrased him incorrectly. Malik Obama did not say that his older brother has
a Muslim background. The Jerusalem Post has since removed the story from
its website, and we regret the error. [Fox News, Special Report, 6/24/08]
On Fox, Donald Trump
Claimed Obama's Birth Certificate "Maybe ... Says He Is A Muslim." On The O'Reilly Factor, frequent guest Donald
Trump said:
TRUMP:
Listen, I have a birth certificate. I have my birth certificate. And in fact,
they said the one I gave yesterday wasn't good enough. So I actually got the
one from the Health Department, which is the perfect one. Because they were
saying the one I gave yesterday wasn't good enough, so I got the other. People
have birth certificates. He doesn't have a birth certificate. He may have one
but there's something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim. I
don't know. Maybe he doesn't want that. Or he may not have one. But I will tell
you this. If he wasn't born in this country, it's one of the great scams of all
time. [Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, 3/28/11]
Fox Nation Promoted Trump's Claim That Obama May Be A Muslim. Fox
Nation promoted Trump's claims that Obama may be a Muslim, writing: "Trump On
Obama: 'Maybe He's a Muslim.' "
[Fox Nation, 3/30/11] Fox Guest Suggested Obama
Is Secretly Muslim.Fox &
Friends hosted controversial Pastor Robert Jeffress, who said:
JEFFRESS:
Steve, let's look at what really is going on here. On the one hand, we have a
president who never met a Muslim holiday he didn't like, or at least wasn't
willing to issue a proclamation for, and on the other hand, here he is refusing
to acknowledge publicly the most important event in Christian faith, the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And yet the White House is
wondering, why do 20 percent of Americans think the president is a Muslim?
Well, as my kids would say, duh. I mean, it's actions like these that really
make people wonder what it is the president really believes. [Fox News, Fox
& Friends, 4/26/11]
Hannity: "I'm Not
Questioning His Religion, But People" Asked Why Obama Wouldn't Issue Easter
Proclamation. Discussing why
"the White House doesn't release an Easter proclamation despite several
proclamations for holidays of other religions," Sean Hannity stated,
"I'm not questioning his religion, but people said, 'Why wouldn't he do it
on this?' " [Fox News, Hannity, 4/25/11]
During '08 Campaign, Fox News
Promoted Smear That Obama Was Raised In A "Madrassa"
Fox & Friends Pushed False Smear That Obama Attended A "Madrassa." On the January 19, 2007, editions of Fox & Friends First and Fox & Friends,
co-host Brian Kilmeade, along with co-hosts
Steve Doocy and Gretchen Carlson, spent several segments advancing a
false report that then-Sen.
Barack Obama was
raised a Muslim and attended a madrassa, or Islamic school, as a child
in Indonesia. At
one point, Doocy asked: "When people find
out this stuff, they're going to go, 'Why didn't anybody ever mention
that that man right there was raised as -- spent the first decade of his
life raised by his Muslim father as a Muslim and was educated in a
madrassa?' " [Fox News, Fox & Friends First and Fox & Friends, 1/19/07]
Fox & Friends Had To "Clarify" Their Remarks. On the January 22, 2007, edition of Fox & Friends First, Doocy said he had to
"clarify" the show's reporting
on the fabricated madrassa story, stating that "Mr. Obama's people called and they said
that that is
absolutely false. They said the idea that Barack Obama went to a
radical Muslim
school is completely ridiculous." [Fox News, Fox & Friends First, 1/22/07]
On
Fox News,
Coulter Repeatedly Claimed Obama "Attended Madrassas." On the December 28, 2009, edition of The O'Reilly Factor
and the December 30, 2009, edition of Glenn Beck, conservative columnist
Ann Coulter
said Obama
attended madrassas as a child. [Fox News, The O'Reilly
Factor, 12/28/09; Glenn Beck,
12/30/09]
Yesterday, Bill O'Reilly on his show claimed the media watch dog Media Matters for America posted and edited a video saying he (O'Reilly) didn't criticize Bush during the Bush administration for record high gas prices. He's referring to the video Media Matters posted called "FLASHBACK: Fox News On Gas Prices In 2008" regarding Fox News defending President Bush and saying there was nothing he could to control the gas prices.
Now, for years "Talking Points" has been telling you that Media
Matters, heavily funded by people like George Soros, has been corrupting
the editorial process in America. And tonight we will give you one more
vivid example. As you may know, I have been very critical of the oil companies
jacking up gas prices when there's plenty of supply available in the
U.S.A. Also, I've criticized President Obama for doing nothing about it when
he could call the oil chieftains into the White House and get behind
legislation to limit oil speculation. Enter Media Matters who calls me a hypocrite because they say I
didn't hammer President Bush when gas prices rose during his tenure.
O'Reilly has several problems with his criticism of the Media Matters video. Media Matters in their article and in the video didn't even say O'Reilly didn't criticize Bush or call him a hypocrite. In fact reading the article and actually watching the video shows no such thing.
Media Matters points out what Fox News was saying about gas prices in 2008. Compare it to now.
From the Media Matters website:
Following GOP strategy, Fox News is againblaming the Obama administration
for rising gasoline prices -- a claim that has been repeatedly debunked
by energy analysts. But back in the summer of 2008, when the average
U.S. gasoline price hit a record high
of $4.11, Fox said that "no President has the power to increase or to
lower gas prices." In 2008, Fox's coverage occasionally even mirrored
the facts: expanding domestic oil drillingwillnotsignificantlylowerprices, and the only way to reduce our vulnerability to gas price spikes is to use less oil.
This is the only part of the video O'Reilly aired on his show:
O'REILLY: So the next time you hear a politician say he
or she will bring down oil prices, understand its complete BS. If
Americans want lower gas prices? Cut back.
If your only watching Fox News, you would never have known what the video was actually about seeing only 10 seconds of the 5:26 video that was all O'Reilly aired. O'Reilly could have actually said the title of the video. That would tell you more about video than the 10 seconds O'Reilly aired. The video showed Fox News' tone when it came the president and gas prices in 2008 which included O'Reilly. To his credit, Bill has stayed consistent when it comes to politician promises and gas prices. I think he's the only one on Fox News that hasn't changed his tone as of now. That doesn't excuse his blatant dishonesty on Media Matters.
Now you see it now you don't. Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center launched a campaign to downplay Rush Limbaugh's misogynistic attack on the law student Sandra Fluke. Now for some reason the website IStandWithRush.org now redirects to the MRC's "Tell the Truth!" website. A staffer at Newsbusters has addressed a different problem being that when you click sign it says "error". He says it should be working now, but now the website is gone. Con Web Watch has details and the original website in Google Cache.
I've just verified the video that Bill Maher put out about people from the South.
Alabama and Mississippi Republicans are not that far apart on whether
President Obama is Muslim according to new numbers by
Democratic pollster PPP. Its worse than the the poll on Republican voters nationwide.
Asked whether Obama is Christian or Muslim, some 45 percent of
Alabama Republican respondents picked Muslim; 14 percent correctly
identified him as Christian. Another 41 percent said they were unsure.
In Mississippi, a majority of Republicans, 52 percent, identified Obama
as Muslim; 12 percent said he was Christian and 36 percent were
undecided.
Derrick Bell is the recently deceased African American law professor Andrew Breitbart is attacking from his grave.
Breitbart's website headline: THE VETTING: OBAMA EMBRACES RACIALIST HARVARD PROF. This is the video I mentioned in my last post Andrew Breitbart claimed he had from Obama's college days. I'll be covering the other stuff their claiming to expose about Obama as they release them. So far they are just rehashing old Obama mythology with Saul Alinsky mythology. Regarding the Derrick Bell video, Bell himself is well respected and there's nothing too controversial to see it even when Breitbart.com editor John Pollak is pressed on the so called "bombshell".
There's something else that might catch a right winger's attention. In another video of Bell posted online, he gives a lecture on the election of Barack Obama as President and the effect its had on America. He brought up how his critical race theory fits into that. Through what he calls interest convergence, he argues the equality, achievements, and interests of African Americans would be nothing like it is today if whites hadn't had their interests at stake. One of the most interesting examples he brings up is Brown v. Board, calling it an "anti-communist decision" rather than an equality decision.
Bell is right that passing laws combating inequality and discrimination in the United States were a strategy against Communism particularly from Franklin Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower. Racial discrimination was becoming the Communists' most valuable assets in propaganda against the United States during the early Cold War. That's a critical analysis when you look at the writings of the previous presidents, you see they saw racial discrimination as a national security priority. Fascinating that it was a contributing force in passing equality laws. Same applies to the Civil War being fought that freed the slaves. Most Northerners were fighting primarily to save the union. If it weren't for the South trying to secede, President Abraham Lincoln probably wouldn't have had the support to free slaves in the Southern states.
Finally, that fits with the first African American elected president, Barack Obama. Obama did not win a majority of white votes, but enough saw him as the best man to lead our country. It was wondered that Obama would suffer the Bradley Effect, in which the polling was wrong because some voters, who did not
want to appear bigoted, said they voted for Obama even though they did
not. Bill Maher on Larry King Live in 2008 joked about there being a Reverse Bradley Effect saying: "The reverse Bradley Effect is the racists who get together with each
other down by the moose lodge -- and, of course, they couldn't admit
they're voting for Barack Obama, but they get in the voting booth and
they go eww, you know what, my kid's teeth are falling out and it did
sound like he had the better health care plan. I hope that curtain is
closed all the way, because I'm going to vote for Barack Obama." Although the number of racists who did that is likely small, that would be an example of interest convergence. Bell did not refer to racists like Maher did, but the whites in general. Obama was seen by enough in that population as the best man.
Recently after Rush Limbaugh issued a non-apology, Media Research Center (MRC) President Brent Bozell finally spoke out about Limbaugh's attack on Sandra Fluke testifying on contraception.
As the organized left mobilizes to silence once of the most effective conservative voices of our generation, we are providing an opportunity for patriotic Americans to stand with Rush Limbaugh who has fought so hard for our first principles and commonsense conservatism!
Petition States:
I stand with Rush Limbaugh and appreciate the massive contribution that he has made to the conservative movement and our nation over the last 25 years. Rush has apologized. But the radical left will never accept it because they despise him and want him off the air. I condemn attempts by radical left-wing organizations and the media to censor Rush and his commonsense conservative message.
Once again, Bozell is contradicting himself with what he believes censorship is. Also what does patriotism have to do with this? ConWebWatch has pointed out the crucial difference between Sarah Palin and Fluke Bozell is missing when trying to put the same standard on Bill Maher with Sarah Palin.
Palin is a nationally known political figure, while Fluke's testimony was her very first appearance in a major political forum. Also, Maher made his "c-word" attack on Palin in a stand-up comedy appearance in Dallas; Limbaugh ranted for three days about Fluke's sex life on a nationally syndicated radio show. [ConWebWatch 3/5/12]
MRC does not apply their belief of what censorship is with themselves.
"It's not 'censorship' if ABC decides that Mr. Maher's regularly kooky left-wing remarks are too offensive to its audience or advertisers."- Brent Bozell
Petition states: “I demand that NBC take immediate action by terminating the employees who used a Sunday sports broadcast to insult people of faith.”
"It's perfectly acceptable for an organization to lobby to cancel a program they think is inappropriate. I don't think there's anything wrong with that at all."- Brent Bozell Los Angeles Times 3/20/00
Fox News had a different position back in the summer of 2008, when the average U.S. gasoline price hit a record high of $4.11, Fox said that "no President has the power to increase or to lower gas prices."Which by the way is true.
In 2008, Fox's coverage occasionally even mirrored the facts: expanding domestic oil drillingwillnotsignificantlylowerprices, and the only way to reduce our vulnerability to gas price spikes is to use less oil.
