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.
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.
The more I watched Fox News and the Daily Caller's endless campaign against Media Matters for American (MMFA), the more conservatives threw up all over each other. In my last video and blog post, I only listed three myths the right wing throws against Media Matters. Now I'm going to go more in detail with the claims of illegality put on Media Matters by the right wing.
I was actually surprised to see Brent Bozell President of the Media Research Center (MRC) go on television to discuss to the recent stories the Daily Caller has put out about Media Matters.
During his interview with Sean Hannity, Bozell actually said he has a policy not to talk about MMFA “Well, let me first preface this by saying as a matter of policy I refuse to talk about this organization. I’m making an exception tonight because I do want to comment on it tonight,”Now that sounds similar to what happened nine months ago when the MRC dodged an appearance Roland Martin discussing the media's role in Obama releasing his long form birth certificate. Knowing MMFA would appear with them Martin said they declined saying "they don't debate Media Matters".
Now its important to know the difference between Media Matters and the Media Research Center since both are considered to be counter parts of each other ideologically. MRC focuses on so called "liberal media bias" and MMFA focuses on conservative misinformation. In my last video and blog post I mentioned how MMFA played a role for me leaving the right wing. MRC also played a role when I compared the two organization. I realized accuracy in the news media is more important than the bias. I'll discuss more about the Media Research Center's propaganda model later.
Bozell made my point when he falsely claimed in order to make a case on MMFA's bias that MMFA took issue with Fox News' conservative commentators and found no bias in its "straight reporting," He said, “They (Media Matters) don’t talk about Bret Baier… they don’t talk about the news, they talk about the commentators.” On the contrary, doing a simple search on their website, and you'll find hundreds of articles criticizing bias from “objective” hosts such as Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, Megyn Kelly and others. So the word "research" in MRC's name must only be a brand name.
When Bozell was asked by Politico about the parallel between Media Matters and the Media Research Center given that they both criticize the media and they're both are tax exempt organizations, he said:
“Media Matters stands accused of violating its tax-deductible status, and I think that fact speaks for itself.” [Politico 7/1/11]
That was all Bozell had as a response. Apparently according to Bozell's logic until someone accuses his organization of violating its tax exempt status, then their is a parallel. Actually, you can find many parallels between the things the Media Research Center has been of doing and what the Media Matters is also doing that right wing claims is illegal.
Both are in full compliance with the law, but the right wing misinterpreting it much like they do the First Amendment is putting the Media Research Center in the rumble.
Both organizations (MRC and MMFA) are 501(c)(3) tax exempt organizations.
Both are ideologically partisan with what with they write about.
Both have pressured advertisers of to drop programs for certain content.
Both have agreed or had agreed that pressuring advertisers to drop an offensive program is not being anti-free speech or pro-censorship which is the charge as of now being put on Media Matters.
Despite the right wing pounding on the organization they can still nothing illegal, unethical, deceptive, or political in promoting or training candidates for office. Their just shooting themselves in the foot over and over and over again. You'd think they'd learn checks from their tactics, but they don't.
Media Matters for America (MMFA) is a self described progressive media watch dog organization dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. It was founded by former conservative journalist David Brock, famous for writing the book "Blinded by the Right". As a former Republican, I use to think as do many other right wingers, that Media Matters was a George Soros funded, free speech hating, smear website. However, this website had a profound influence on me coming to realize that my conservative beliefs and my way of thinking were based more on core ideology than by facts.
Fox News' supposed "straight news" program is at it again. Two weeks ago, Bret Baier gave a dog whistle to the birthers. This time he blew their trumpet. Special Report with Bret Baier gave air time to a story on a birther lawsuit requesting President Obama be subpoenaed for a court hearing. Once again, Baier still didn't inform the 63% of his viewers that Obama WAS BORN in the United States. When you hear the way he reported it, it sounds like to the viewer that there still must be something to Obama's birth certificate still. Some viewers might think if the lawsuit its reported on cable news, it must not be a frivolous one. That's Fox News for ya.
A new poll from Public Policy Polling, asked people whether they trust a long list of news outlets:
Outlet
2012 Trust/Distrust
2011 Trust/Distrust
2010 Trust/Distrust
PBS
(52/30) +22
(50/30) +20
Not Tested
NBC News
(44/38) +6
(41/41) 0
(35/44) -9
CNN
(43/39) +4
(40/43) -3
(39/41) -2
Fox News
(45/42) +3
(42/46) -4
(49/37) +12
CBS News
(40/42) -2
(36/43) -7
(32/46) -14
ABC News
(37/40) -3
(35/43) -8
(31/46) -15
MSNBC
(38/43) -5
Not Tested
Not Tested
2010-2012 Which news outlet has gained the most distrust since 2010? Only Fox News.
Fox News +5
CNN -3
CBS News -3
ABC News -6
NBC News Trust -6
Which News Outlet has Gained the Most Trust? Fox News is the only network that has lost trust.
NBC News +9
CBS News +8
ABC News +6
CNN +4
Fox News -4
-Democrats trust everything - except Fox News. NBC does the best with them at +50 (67/17), followed by PBS and CNN at +49 (66/17 and 65/16 respectively), ABC at +38 (57/19), CBS at +35 (58/23), MSNBC at +33 (56/23), and even Comedy Central at +4 (36/32). Fox News comes in at -36 (25/61).
-Republicans meanwhile don't trust anything except Fox News. PBS comes the closest to breaking even among non-Fox outlets, although not very close, at -30 (26/56). It's followed by CNN at -49 (18/67), MSNBC at -51 (18/69), NBC at -52 (17/69), CBS at -54 (17/71), ABC at -56 (14/70), and Comedy Central at -59 (12/71). But Fox News comes in at a stellar 73/17.
This polarization among Republicans and only Republicans comes from hatred of the media being core component of their ideology. This becomes reinforced in their enclosed echo chamber through repetition. Americans themselves are not polarized when it comes to the media and there is no equal argument to be made with when it comes to Democrats and the left. Again look at the numbers.
Yesterday on Fox News' supposed "straight news" program Special Report with Brett Baier, Baier gave a story about birthers still trying to prove Obama was not born in the United States.
First, he gave a preview:
And then the story:
BAIER: And now, some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine. A state judge in Georgia has denied a motion by the Obama administration to dismiss a complaint challenging the president's eligibility to be on the ballot there. Attorney Orly Taitz filed the complaint back in November on behalf of a Georgia resident, contending President Obama is not a natural-born citizen and therefore should not be on the March presidential primary in Georgia.
You will remember last year, the White House released the president's long-form birth certificate. However, Taitz, along with many others in the so-called birther movement, is still not satisfied. Some in that movement call it a fake. Others say the real issue is that he's not a natural-born citizen. A hearing has now been set for January 26. The president's lawyer in Atlanta says he's optimistic the judge will decide in the president's favor.
Hey Brett, aren't you missing something? Obama WAS BORN HERE. It's a wonder on whether he didn't say it because it's already obvious where Obama was born or he's pandering to the 63% of his audience which don't believe he was born here or don't know.
Shepard Smith is fighting this War on Misinformation solo at Fox News unfortunately.
SMITH: Well, he has produced a birth certificate. It shows his mother gave birth to him in Hawaii. It is stamped and sealed by the state of Hawaii. It is confirmed, and Fox News can confirm the president of the United States is a citizen of the United States, period.
And that was two days before the White House actually released the long-form birth certificate.
I was watching Fox and Friends and they had Larry Sabato UVA Political Science professor discussing Ron Paul's successful polling. It was between 7:40 a.m - 7:50 a.m CT today when they showed a graphics poll. Romney's name was listed twice in place of what I think was suppose to be Ron Paul or Newt Gingrich's name. The graphics poll was only on the screen for two seconds, so Fox must have realized the error.
This isn't their first similar graphics fail. I don't have the screen shot or video for this but once I obtain it I'll show it.
I'm not going to waste to much time on this, so I'm going to try to keep it short.
Ellen Barkin in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Barkin criticized Fox News for what it is saying:
"The blatant lying that passes itself off as journalism. I don't even need to get there to go mental. Can you imagine a legitimate newsperson -- Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw -- just lying on the news?"
Off course Fox News wouldn't have that, so Bill O'Reilly went on the attack. Of course, he lies while doing it.
He called her criticism a "flat out lie" "I have never mentioned Ellen Barkin on this broadcast - ever. And I would never call her names."
One problem, Ellen Barkin did NOT say Bill O'Reilly said anything about her on his broadcast.
Ellen Barkin Attacks Fox News, Calls Its Correspondents Liars Ellen Barkin lashes out at Fox News in a recent interview, accusing the network of "blatant lying." The outspoken Barkin has a reputation for candor, whether in person or on her Twitter account, and her take on the News Corp. entity is no exception. She tells the Los Angeles Times magazine, "Well, we’re experiencing divisiveness in terms of our politics. Like, the Religious Right has identified themselves because of the propagandizing and illiteracy of...I don’t know...News Corp, maybe? "They have identified themselves with this extremist, right-wing insurgency of a party—this Tea Party. They call it a grassroots movement. Grassroots? You’re attached to the wrong ship. And that just shows you the enormous—and don’t misquote me here!—the enormous success that has killed us in terms of Fox News." Barkin then attacks the channel for lacking journalistic integrity, "The blatant lying that passes itself off as journalism. I don’t even need to get there to go mental. Can you imagine a legitimate newsperson -- Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw -- just lying on the news? Let alone the entertainment factor -- you know, news as entertainment." (Hollywood Reporter)
In other news: Ellen Barkin is still alive! Ellen Barkin is still alive! There can now be a Johnny Handsome II! [November 8, 2011 Daily Brief]
Sean Hannity actually gave air time to Herman Cain's boss WorldNetDaily (WND) founder Joseph Farah on his Fox News show. They discussed whether the allegations against GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain are valid "from a journalistic perspective. Hannity should already know that WorldNetDaily is the "news" website responsible for propagating birtherism and all the "Where's the Birth Certificate?" billboards. These billboards are part of a campaign by WND to keep the issue alive.
Ellen Barkin lashes out at Fox News in a recent interview, accusing the network of "blatant lying." The outspoken Barkin has a reputation for candor, whether in person or on her 
