News Hounds

Ann Coulter on The O'Reilly Factor: "If All Muslims Would Boycott Airlines We Could Dispense With Airline Security Altogether"

Reported by Julie - Fri 12:18 AM

On last night's (3/25/10) O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly hit it again, defending Ann Coulter against the "radical students" who "shut down" her speaking engagement at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. Claiming that "those kids were egged on" by university officials, who wrote a warning letter to Coulter in a preemptive strike against her usual brand of hate speech, O'Reilly introduced a very proud, pleased, beaming Ann Coulter, now in Calgary, to shrug in bewilderment at the atrocity committed upon her person in Canada. Hate speech? Moi? Whatever are you talking about? With video.

Tell The GOP To Stop Inciting Tea Party Racism

Reported by Ellen - Thu 11:14 PM

Robert Greenwald and our friends at Brave New Films' Cuentame have a petition demanding that the GOP apologize for the tea party racism and telling them it is not acceptable to build their party's political fortunes by encouraging and defending bigotry and hatred among their supporters. Video after the jump.

O'Reilly Defends Ann Coulter's Rhetoric to Canadian Journalist as "Jest," "Exaggeration" and "Hyperbole"

Reported by Julie - Thu 10:04 PM

On last night's (3/24/10) O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly defended hate speaker Ann Coulter, who was recently "shut down" at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. Rolling a clip of protesters chanting, "Get Ann Coulter off our campus" and "No more hate speech on our campus" -- including a segment which included a black individual challenging a (presumably) right-winger, and being bleeped out (funny, all those people and Fox could only find an African American to portray negatively) -- O'Reilly went on to say that a university official had sent Coulter a letter saying she "could be prosecuted" in Canada if she said anything hateful. Considering that O'Reilly liberally uses the term "left-wing loons" to refer to progressives who protest pretty much anything (if this were Janeane Garofalo, for example, being drummed out of Canada, would O'Reilly be so quick to defend her right to free speech?), O'Reilly's defense of the Queen of Hate Speech, Ann Coulter, makes Sisyphus' job look easy. With video.

Karl Rove Uses Disingenuous Plea For Restraint As Excuse To Fan Flames Against Democrats

Reported by Ellen - Thu 3:45 PM

On America Live today, Megyn Kelly trotted out Karl Rove to “put into perspective” the gunshots fired at Republican Eric Cantor’s office in the wake of health care reform. First, Rove made a nod toward urging restraint and denouncing anyone in authority who might be using the incidents to “fan the flames” of hostilities. But, sure enough, before long, Rove was doing exactly that – and suggesting Democratic lawmakers were responsible for what happened to Cantor's office. With video.

Bill O’Reilly Doesn’t Agree with Dana Loesch’s Nasty, Right Wing Invective? Go Figure!

Reported by Priscilla - Thu 3:23 PM

I don’t know if this is a sign of the coming “end times;” but Bill O’Reilly actually disagreed with a guest whose right wing blather made Bill look actually sane. I don’t know if it’s because Glenn Beck takes up all the Fox airspace with his brand of crazy talk and Bill doesn’t want to compete or if it’s just good pharmaceuticals; but the old red-faced “shut-up” Bill, on occasion, has been replaced with a more mellow and reasoned one (The invasion of the Obama body snatchers? Quick, Glenn, get on it!) During his interview with up and coming Misssouri teabagging mom turned hate radio jock, Dana Loesch, Bill actually showed that even he has limits. Who knew!!! Ms. Loesch made Bill look normal. It must be the end of the world as we know it.

After Dismissing And Excusing Attacks On Democrats, Fox Helps Cantor Make Partisan Hay Out Of Shots Fired At His Office

Reported by Ellen - Thu 2:52 PM

For the past few days, Fox News (Shepard Smith notwithstanding) has mostly either underplayed, ignored, dismissed or excused the violent, bigoted rhetoric and actual violence that has erupted against Democrats over health care reform. But now that shots have been fired at Republican Eric Cantor’s office, Fox is singing a whole new tune. Even worse, they are using the incident to ramp up further hostilities against Democrats, even suggesting anti-Semitism may have been involved in the attack on Cantor. With video.

Senator “Waterloo” DeMint Uses Fox News As Platform For More Health Care Reform Battles

Reported by Ellen - Thu 1:09 AM

Not that Sen. Jim "Waterloo" DeMint’s anti-health care campaigning on Hannity last night (3/14/10) was any big surprise, given what anti-health care reform activists the “fair and balanced” network has become. But it’s still worth noting how blithely DeMint put forward his activism without any apparent concern that he might have been overstepping his bounds as a news guest. First, DeMint used the issue to get viewers to sign a petition that was purportedly to help elect candidates to repeal the bill. But there’s no doubt the petition would be used for fundraising. Later, DeMint implicitly acknowledged that repeal was unlikely – further suggesting that the real purpose of the petition was to fundraise – so he urged state governors to “really push back.” It’s also worth noting how nobody mentioned that Senator “Waterloo” himself may have brought about the unintended consequence of causing the Republican Waterloo. With video.

The Beck Week That Was; Just Another Manic Thursday

Reported by Guest Blogger - Wed 10:16 PM

Guest blogged by Aunty Em

It was just a small item buried near the bottom of the year-end column I wrote about Glenn Beck and his eponymous tee vee Conspiracy Calvacade. It didn’t take a Kreskin to guess the self-professed Rodeo Clown would, “find a new target to smear with lies and distortions [each week]. As each new target is acquired this year, another organized group will begin to howl in righteous indignation. Eventually, Big Mouth Beck will say something so outrageous, so off-the-wall, so ridiculous that a “Dump Glenn Beck” movement will coalesce and pick up steam.” The prediction was based on previous history, of which he insists we learn.

Is The GOP Now The Legislating Arm Of Fox News?

Reported by Ellen - Wed 7:07 PM

John Amato at Crooks and Liars caught this interesting comment from David Frum, "Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us, and now we are discovering we work for Fox."

Shepard Smith Confronts Michael Steele On GOP's Violent Rhetoric

Reported by Ellen - Wed 4:37 PM

On Monday (3/22/10) on Studio B, Shepard Smith did an excellent job of politely but firmly challenging RNC head Michael Steele about the obstructionist tactics and over-the-top and violent rhetoric espoused by the Republicans in the health care reform debate. Sadly, Steele defended the rhetoric and refused to commit to any more civility. With video.

Fox Only Cable News Network Not Carrying Obama's Speech At Interior Department

Reported by Guest Blogger - Wed 2:36 PM

Guest blogged by Brian

From the March 23, 2010 Long Island Press: "Fox gave Tuesday’s (health care) bill signing full coverage, but sensed that its viewers had only so much interest. When the president spoke at the Interior Department less than an hour later, with Vice President Joe Biden by his side and two American flags as his backdrop, CNN and MSNBC carried the remarks. Fox did not."

Jason Mattera, On Fox & Friends, Says His Generation Are Stoners And Porn Addicts?

Reported by Priscilla - Wed 12:06 PM

As an example of Christian conservative “jungen,” Jason Mattera is fierce. While at college, he tried to start a whites only scholarship in order to protest the injustice of scholarships for minorities - despite the fact that he benefited from an Hispanic scholarship. After graduation, he was in the vanguard of those young conservative storm troopers who cheered for the Iraq War. During an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, he claimed that his fellow young people are more conservative than those nasty, bad, book burning, classroom disrupting youth of the 60’s. When Matthews asked Mattera why he hadn’t enlisted to fight in Iraq, Mattera said that he was “fighting the culture war here.” As a proud, Christian heterosexual, Mattera also viciously attacked the mother of Matthew Shephard, the young gay man whose murder, by homophobes, is the reason why our national hate crimes legislation is named for Shephard. Mattera, who is the head of the right wing Young America Foundation and who writes for Michelle Malkin’s blog, “Hot Air,” recently gained some notoriety for his rip roaring, “bombastic” speech at the 2010 C-PAC Convention during which he attacked diversity in homophobic terms, mocked Barney Frank, and said that President Obama snorted cocaine. But he’s just your typical American Gen Nexter and as such, Fox & Friends wanted his opinion on health care reform as it related to today’s youth. He also got to pimp his new anti-Obama book; so it’s all good.

Glenn Beck Issues Guidelines To Help You Know If Your Church Has Been Infiltrated By Marxists

Reported by Ellen - Wed 2:42 AM

In one of his more bizarre shows yesterday (3/23/10), Glenn Beck lectured us on the dangers of Marxists infiltrating churches. If we’re not careful, he explained, we’ll wind up like Latin America where the infiltration has already occurred! He also gave out handy tips so that his audience can recognize the difference between Jesus’ teachings and Commie propaganda. This being Beck, he also tied it into Obama (who, as any Beck fan knows, is the second coming of Marx), and Obama’s latest commie preacher, Rev. Jim Wallis. Apparently, this is the start of the attacks on Wallis Beck promised in lieu of accepting Wallis’ challenge to a public debate. And in the most bizarre (and self-centered) twist of all, Beck suggested that Obama/Wallis might try to kill him. With video.

Fox Nation Reacts to Biden's F-Bomb With Its Ever-Present Racism . . . Stay Classy, Fox Nation!

Reported by Julie - Wed 12:25 AM

Nothing like a visit to Fox Nation, the home of, what is it, "civil discourse" and respect? Yeah, that must be it.

As most of you know, Joe Biden dropped the F-bomb on an open mic -- and the intellectual powerhouses on Fox Nation seized the opportunity (any reason is an opportunity for Fox Nation) to take racism against our President to new heights, reacting in predictable outrage. Screen grabs you gotta see . . . .

Sarah Palin Lectures Fox News Viewers About The Importance Of Being Well Informed

Reported by Ellen - Tue 6:02 PM

Last night (3/22/10) on Hannity, it was time for another round of Fox News’ “Let’s pretend Sarah Palin actually knows something about policy.” Despite the coaching Palin has obviously received, she remains blatantly, hugely and laughably uninformed. But that didn’t stop her from opining to Fox News viewers that THEY need to become well informed. With video.

Greta Van Susteren Further Legitimizes Wingnut Cuccinelli And Gives A PR Boost To His Health Care Legislation Lawsuit

Reported by Ellen - Tue 4:20 PM

Last week, we posted about Greta Van Susteren’s very friendly interview with Virginia’s wingnut Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli that overlooked the many aspects of his record that might scream, “Extremist Loon!” if they were revealed. Last night (3/22/10), Cuccinelli was back on On The Record for another chat about the lawsuit he said he would initiate against the federal government the moment President Obama signed the health care legislation into law. Once again, Van Susteren failed to report to the “we report, you decide” network’s viewers any of the factors that might have cost Cuccinelli some credibility: his recent revocation of policies banning discrimination against gays and lesbians at Virginia’s public colleges, his sympathy for birthers, and his reluctance to get his son a Social Security number because “it is being used to track you.” But unlike Cuccinelli’s last appearance, when Van Susteren was more obviously dubious about his legal argument against the federal government, this time Van Susteren pointed out he had the strongest of all the threatened cases and even wished him good luck with it. With video.

Fox Nation Fear Mongers About Armed IRS Agents Enforcing Health Care Reforms

Reported by Ellen - Tue 2:37 PM

Fox Nation linked to an article from the Daily Caller called "IRS looking to hire thousands of tax agents to enforce health care laws" and changed the title to make it more inflammatory: "IRS Hiring Thousands of Armed Tax Agents to Enforce Obamacare?" (my empahsis) The original Daily Caller article said nothing about agents being armed to enforce the law. The Caller did mention that the additional agents are "in line with a long-term agency goal of ending the 'tax gap,' bureaucratese for the amount of uncollected taxes each year. In 2001, the IRS estimated the gap at around $300 billion." In other words, the hires are almost certainly not going to be solely dedicated to enforcing health insurance scofflaws as Fox Nation suggests. But that part got left out of the Fox Nation excerpt. Fox Nation took the first three paragraphs of The Daily Caller's article verbatim, except for one addition: Fox changed the sentence, "Republican lawmakers estimate the legislation will require the hiring of many thousands of new tax enforcement agents" to "Republican lawmakers estimate the legislation will require the hiring of many thousands of new (and armed) (my emphasis) tax enforcement agents" to again baselessly suggest that armed agents would be swooping down on and terrorizing unsuspecting citizens. Shame on them! You can contact Fox Nation about these tactics here. (H/T Thomas M.)

Bill O’Reilly Says American Military Are "Pinheads?"

Reported by Priscilla - Tue 12:28 PM

Bill O'Reilly has a regular feature titled “Pinheads and Patriots” during which these designations are given to those whom America’s Daddy feels are naughty and nice. And while it appears relatively innocuous and humorous, it does allow Bill, on occasion, to present right wing propaganda for those with short attention spans and those who don’t want to be burdened with details. Bill gets to divide folks into bad and good – or in this case, “pinheads” and “patriots” – a term which has little to do with the characteristic being praised although for Bill’s jingoistic audience, anything to do with patriotism has them standing at attention, hands over hearts. (One would be hard pressed to say that American Olympic women skiers, posing nearly nude for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, are “patriots.”) But the “pinhead” characterization does allow Bill to communicate his disapproval within a short sound bite. There is no further context to an issue which is more complex than Bill would have his audience believe. But the details could detract from the propaganda and that, as the Bard would say, is the rub!

Glenn Beck Spins Health Care Vote As His Victory

Reported by Ellen - Tue 12:17 AM

Glenn Beck was surprisingly unvitriolic yesterday (3/22/10) in the wake of the passage of the Democrats’ health care plan. Oh, sure he called Michael Moore a “big fat cottage cheese butt” and attacked civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis for having the nerve to “compare” himself to a civil rights activist - and failed to mention that racial epithets had been hurled at him and others by tea party protesters. But, overall, Beck was thankful. Really. Why? Because the Democrats had finally outed themselves as the kind of radicals Beck had always said they were. So the heck with the country going to hell in a handbasket, as Beck sees the health care legislation. He had been vindicated! With video.

Fox News Largely Ignoring Tea Party Racism And Immigration March

Reported by Ellen - Mon 5:39 PM

I can't swear that Fox never covered the big immigration rally yesterday but it certainly got far less coverage than the tea partiers. Fox Even worked them into their coverage of Bart Stupak's press conference announcing his momentous decision to support the health care bill. This, despite the fact that, as Think Progress noted, the immigration rally was significantly larger. Fox News' support for the tea partiers has been widely noted here and elsewhere. Similarly, the "fair and balanced" network has played down racial issues involving the tea partiers. Can there be any doubt that if Obama supporters had hurled anti-white epithets toward Republicans that Fox News would be covering it 24/7? Yet, as our friends at Brave New Films reveal via their Facebook page at Cuentame, there is much disturbing racism among the tea partiers. Why is Fox News not covering this more closely? Videos after the jump.

UPDATE: A Foxnews.com article suggests no slurs or spitting came from tea party protesters.