On The Internets 07.21.2010
- How interesting that in the supposed "year of the Republican comeback" that the Republican National Committee is trying to hide $7 million in debt from the Federal Election Committee. The treasurer blames the chairman, and the chairman blames the treasurer. Either way, the RNC has hired outside counsel to deal with the FEC. That is a move generally reserved for folks who have run into some serious trouble with breaking election law.
- Former George W Bush speechwriter and adviser David Frum has a smart column at The Week where he attempts to shame the conservative media for its blatant dishonesty in its latest faux-scandal regarding the USDA employee accused of racism. "When people talk of the 'closing of the conservative mind' this is what they mean: not that conservatives are more narrow-minded than other people — everybody can be narrow minded — but that conservatives have a unique capacity to ignore unwelcome fact." He is 100% accurate on that note.
- Let this be a lesson to everyone: don't leave your car running in the garage, it can kill you. It seems obvious, right? Well, I thought that one could only die from carbon monoxide poisoning if you remained in the car or garage. Unfortunately, two of my neighbors now know that it can kill you even if you are inside your home. The couple accidentally left their car running, went inside their townhome, and then retired for the evening. They and their dog are now dead, and their next door neighbor nearly died. Scary.
- The Most excellent show, Mad Men, returns this Sunday and the hype machine is beginning to rev its motors. Not a bad thing when websites start assembling the hottest pics of Christina Hendricks filling out those dresses the way only she can.
- As a general rule, you do not want to mess with Ice-T. Singer Aimee Mann almost had to find out the hard way. On her twitter feed, she wondered why anyone would cast Ice-T in a television show. Ice heard the diss and responded: "hey @aimeemann stop worrying about my acting bitch, and worry about your WACK ass music. In the meantime...eat a hot bowl of dicks! Ice T." Sensing trouble, Mann quickly apologized - four times - and the issue was settled. Ice accepted the apology, "OK. Homegirl apologized...Say No More. FLTG cease fire! 'Once again, there is peace in twitterland' Ice T" Glad that was settled.
- Lastly, has anyone seen the Beatles tribute act, Yesterday and Today? They are playing in Omaha on Friday, and I'm curious. Tribute shows are a serious hit and miss proposition.
12 comments:
I already know how my comments will be taken but… you are doing the exact same thing that was done to Sherrod, Mr. Splash.
You are castigating others without having all of the facts clearly in front of you.
The incompetent and dishonest White House claimed that they fired Sherrod because of Breitbart’s video and the fact that it was aired on Hannity and O’Reilly’s shows. The only problem is that the White House fired Sherrod BEFORE the shows even came on air later that evening.
Further, yesterday, I saw O’Reilly apologize and said that he did not do his due diligence in researching the story prior to airing it. I haven’t heard what, if anything, Hannity had to say.
As for Beck, he intentionally did not even mention the story because he couldn’t corrborate the context. In fact, when he did speak about the incident, he spoke out on behalf of Ms. Sherrod.
Even the idiot Breitbart apoligized and put the other parts of the video on his website after the error was discovered. I do not know whether he intentionally misled people, or didn’t have the full video as he claimed.
Regardless, it is the White House that should be ashamed of their lies and behaviour yet again. They fired a person without having full knowledge of the facts and then blamed it on Fox and conservatives in general when nothing at that point had even been said by them; in fact many of the folks had not even heard of the story yet.
Secretary Vilsack, to his great credit, did the right thing by apologizing to Sherrod without excuses, and offering her the job back. I applaud him accordingly. His boss should take notice and take responsibility in a similar manner. I won't hold my breath on that though.
You are falling into the Breitbart/Fox trap that makes this a story about the administration rather than a story about a fake, doctored, altered video that was aired hundreds of times on Fox News for three days straight.
This was a manufactured scandal by the right.
Why no condemnation on your part of Fox airing a video provided by a blogger (who has already been proven to be deceptive in the past) without even asking to talk to the person in the video or asking for the full tape? Why didn't Fox contact the NAACP and ask for the tape? Why not ask to interview the farmer who was supposedly wronged? You see, that is what journalists do, and Fox is not journalism.
Sorry, Paine, I'm not falling into the Fox spin trap on this one.
There is only one way to see this story and that is this: this was an intentionally distorted and altered video meant to show the exact opposite of what it actually showed. Breitbart lied and said it was not edited (just like how he lied about the ACORN tapes), Fox aired it hundreds of times without doing any standard journalistic checking.
Breitbart did not apologize in any real way. He said he was sorry she got fired, not sorry for him releasing the edited video which caused her to receive death threats from Fox News viewing whackjobs. He continued to lie all day yesterday and say the tape still proves what he says it did - even though it does not. Breitbart is a lying racist. Those are facts.
The Ag Secretary definitely acted badly, and should have done more research before making such a rash decision. But the perpetrators of the wrongdoing was Andrew Breitbart and Fox News.
Funny how every single Breitbart/oriented "scandal" involves the attempt to take down a prominent black person. Why is Breitbart so obsessed with hurting black people in positions of power and making up scandals to destroy them? Same goes for Fox.
I absolutely agree with your comments regarding those folks that did not check on the veracity and context of the video. They absolutely owe an apology to Ms. Sherrod and their viewers.
That being said, it still does not excuse the administration for doing the exact same thing. They jumped to conclusions without having all of the facts. They fired Sherrod because she was going to be "on Glenn Beck that evening", despite the fact that nobody at Fox or the Beck show had even aired or said ANYTHING about her before she was fired.
The White House lied about this to deflect blame. They lied and used, effectively once again, the Alinsky power tactics.
I won't even bother responding to your ridiculous comments regarding Fox being racist. I am sure that news would be a great surprise to the multiple anchors and reporters of color that work for them.
Again, if you cannot argue with facts, use emotionally charged allegations such as "racism" against your opponents. Again, Alinsky would be proud.
You just did it again. You fell for the Fox/Breitbart trick again. You said, "nobody at Fox or the Beck show had even aired or said ANYTHING about her before she was fired."
That is patently, 100% false. Fox News aired the Breitbart video for two full days before she was fired. Every single host on the network (except Shepherd Smith) showed the footage, and explicitly called Sherrod a racist. Every single one. Including Beck, O'Reilly, and Hannity, but also the supposed "non political" shows like Fox & Friends. It's on tape, my friend, and easy to access.
This was a Fox invented national story, just like the ACORN doctored tapes, just like Van Jones, and just like the New Black Panther Party stuff. In fact, Fox News chastised the other cable networks for not following the story (the same one made up by Breitbart and Fox).
Fox is not innocent in this.
Like I said, Vilsak acted badly, and should have investigated this more. And if anyone from the White House was involved, they should be criticized/demoted as well. They should have known this was another manufactured Fox scandal as soon as they saw Breitbart's name all over it.
How is what I said about the Breitbart manufactured scandals incorrect? They all - ACORN, Van Jones, NBPP, and Sherrod - attempt to show evil black people taking something away from the poor, harmed, helpless, oppressed white person. Everyone. Breitbart is a racist, and Fox is complicit in his racism by running his stories without doing any due diligence.
The only positive thing to emerge from this sad, sordid affair is that Breitbart's credibility is completely tarnished. No one takes him seriously anymore after this. Even the National Review has criticized him. And the next time he and Fox and Limbaugh try to coordinate another, race-based, fake scandal, hopefully the rest of the media won't fall for it again.
One correction. Fox ran the video for a day before, not two days before. I was using the date Breitbart posted his little video. Fox then covered it 39 times in one day. If she had already quit, as you say, how was this even a story, let alone one that required discussing more than once every hour?
And, by the way, I do not absolve CNN and MSNBC from guilt either. They absolutely should have done more due diligence also. But, it was MSNBC that first showed that the video was altered and it was CNN who first talked to the farmer who was the supposed victim of Ms. Sherrod. They should have done that before airing the video at all, but it was Breitbart who posted the doctored video - one that he said on MSNBC that he has had since March. Are you saying that between March and July, Andrew Breitbart didn't have any time to try and verify the story or try to obtain the full tape? He calls himself a reporter. But, of course, we all know he isn't.
Dave, I agree with you about Breitbart. He absolutely should have investigated further before releasing the video. He was wrong as hell for not doing so.
That being said, your information is whacked! You even said Beck was guilty of this. That is patently false. Beck intentionally did NOT air the video that first night like everyone else did because he was having his staff check the context and veracity of it. When he did air the topic, he came out ON THE SIDE OF MS. SHERROD!
Stop relying on Daily Kooks or Madcow or wherever you are getting your talking points from, because they are in error as much as those people on Fox were for running the story in the first place.
If I unfairly mentioned Beck, then whoops, sorry.
Look, I'm already on a higher ground than he is, since he never even goes that far towards acknowledging being wrong. Still, Beck was heavily involved in the other fake scandals from Breitbart, so...
But it was Shepherd Smith who said he was the only one on Fox that didn't air the video. I should not have relied on him for that information.
Who's Madcow?
Madcow... she follows Keith Blubberman on PMS-NBC... :)
Oh, Rachel Maddow. You righties must be really threatened by her if you're attacking her for telling the truth. I thought she had no ratings and no one cared?
Kind of like Sarah Palin isn't a threat to the left. The exception being is Maddow's irrelevance is a few orders of magnitude lower...
Palin is a threat to the left and to America in general. She is an ignorant demagogue who routinely tries to divide America. Maddow does a TV show, Palin is running for President. The greater threat to anyone, hands down, is Palin.
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