Dewey Beats Truman!

What happened at Fox News and CNN?!

In what appears to be a case of premature ejaculation on the part of the networks for the intense need to come out with the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act first, they both got it wrong.

 

Now, while I understand the need to put out information as they get it, maybe they could get past the first page of a 50+ page ruling before jumping to conclusions. They were so intent on putting out the news that the individual mandate was not necessarily covered under the Commerce Clause, it is permissible as a tax, and in their haste, they assumed the mandate was struck down and got the story completely wrong. In the case of Fox News, I'm sure it was also a bit of wishful thinking on their part.

As for CNN, they have apologized for the mishap. No so at Fox.

Fox issued a combative statement in which the network claimed they "gave our viewers the news as it happened," and went on to say that CNN's reporting had been worse. CNN issued a statement hours earlier that included a full-throated apology for their misstep.

I Really Tried

I took a deep breath, grabbed my remote and tuned in to CNN last night to watch the latest Republican debate. Normally, when I flip these things on in passing (the GOP debates, I mean) it's just to make sure something miraculous hasn't happened and they started debating in truths rather than whatever fantasy world they live in. But alas, that moment never comes.

Well, while still not living in reality, this night had the makings of being different. After all, Rick Perry had bowed out just that morning and now the GOP Nomination Clown Car was down to four. Newt Gingrich's second ex-wife, Marianne, accused him of wanting an open marriage after he began an affair with his now third wife, Callista. And after two weeks of recounting Iowa caucus votes, we found out that Rick Santorum actually beat Mitt Romney, but since Iowa takes its voting so seriously and eight precincts worth of votes went missing, the recount will never be complete, so we'll never really know, will we?

I knew I was in for a long night when the first question out of the gate was directed at Newt and the open marriage accusation. And an angry, defiant Gingrich went after moderator John King for having the gall to ask such a question at the debate, blamed the media for attacking him and "protecting Barack Obama" and the crowd lapped it up and went along for the ride.

And I think that's what disgusted me most about this South Carolina debate - the audience was chomping at that red meat like there was no tomorrow. They were cheering Gingrich's "fuck you" attitude while simultaneously forgoing their Christian conservative selves in support of a thrice married, twice divorced, serial adulterer. Let alone the hootin' and hollerin' when Newt once again chose to go after welfare recipients (you know, because there are no white people on government assistance) to appease the blood thirsty crowd who'd left their torches and hoods at the coat check.

Somewhere along the line I felt my blood pressure rise and decided my health was more important than a futile exercise. I noticed the time was 8:36pm EDT, probably the longest I've sat through a GOP debate this season... and actually the first time I consciously tried. But to tell you the truth, besides the Newt opener and Santorum claiming victory in Iowa, the rest is a blur. It's hard to concentrate when you have blood boiling in your eyes.

Hey CNN, WTF?!

Holy crap!



ADDING... The more I think about this, the more I realize that this was inherently racist. Accidentally playing the wrong music track for bumper music is one thing, but you have to realize that they were looking for some kind of rap music. Because what else would a 103 year old woman who drives a two-tone 1979 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, and happens to be black, listen to while she's cruising down the block?

Whoever decided that rap music would be the proper choice of music for this clip should be dismissed.

Andrew Card is Sad...

...because there will be no Democratic debate before President Obama is chosen as the nominee.



And yes, this is the same Andrew Card who was George W. Bush's Chief of Staff during the 2004 election cycle... when Bush was the incumbent and didn't have to debate fellow Republicans before he was chosen as the nominee for his party.

...The stupidity, it burns!

SURPRISE! Trump Not Running

And really, did you expect anything different?

CNN: "After considerable deliberation and reflection, I have decided not to pursue the office of the Presidency," Trump said in the statement.

The famously confident reality television star, who has spent the last few months openly considering a run for president said, "I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and ultimately, the general election."

And that's the way it's done. Declare victory even though you're not going to bother running. What a petty, petty man.

We Don't Care

Reuters: Sixty-five percent of Americans have no interest in Prince William's pending marriage and only a small minority are paying attention...

Four percent of 1,058 people questioned in the 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll said they were interested in all of the wedding and wished they could go and 21 percent considered it a "harmless spectacle."

So if "four percent of Americans" tune in to CNN to watch this generation's royal wedding, they'll have a ratings bonanza of 12 million viewers. Not bad. And no, I won't be watching.

Perspective

Here's Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi on what she thinks of President Obama's performance and giving us a little perspective on the way our system of government functions... or doesn't as the case may be.

Fair and Balanced: Fox Gets Outfoxed

Via TPM:

Quote of the Day

"All he has to do is apologize to us, and we'll hire him back."

~ Jon Stewart on the firing of CNN's Rick Sanchez after Sanchez called Stewart a bigot and claimed that Jews control the media.

Rick Sanchez Calls Jon Stewart a "Bigot" - UPDATED

What the fuck? CNN's Rick Sanchez is apparently a very thin-skinned person, or at least suffering from a severe inferiority complex.

In an extended radio interview with SiriusXM's Stand Up! with Pete Dominick, Rick Sanchez basically suggested that Jews run the media, Jon Stewart constantly makes fun of him not for the stupidity that occasionally comes out of his mouth, but because he is Hispanic, and called him a "bigot" although later walked back the word but still called him prejudicial.

...Sanchez started out expressing an anecdote from his own experience, when someone who was “top brass” at CNN told Sanchez to his face that he saw Sanchez as “more as John Quiñones,” referring to the Hispanic ABC News reporter. Sanchez’s example was an illustration that the problem of racism in the media business goes further than many expect, enveloping “not just the Right,” but also “elite, Northeast establishment liberals” that “deep down, when they look at a guy like me, they see a guy automatically who belongs in the second tier, and not the top tier.”

That’s when Sanchez really let his feelings loose: “I think to some extent Jon Stewart and [Stephen] Colbert are the same way. I think Jon Stewart’s a bigot.“

... I think he looks at the world through, his mom, who was a school teacher, and his dad, who was a physicist or something like that. Great, I’m so happy that he grew up in a suburban middle class New Jersey home with everything you could ever imagine.

Pete pressed, “What group is he bigoted towards?”

Sanchez replied: “Everybody else who’s not like him. Look at his show, I mean, what does he surround himself with?”

Well, let's see. I would say he surrounds himself with talented writers and comedians first and foremost, but if you want to look at the demographics of his on air personalities, there's Wyatt Cenac and Larry Wilmore, both African American, Samantha Bee and Olivia Munn, females, and Aasif Mandvi, an Indian born Muslim. But continue, Rick. Please tell us why you think Jon Stewart is a bigot.

Here’s what they do. This is the game they play. “I just picked on Fox News, because they just had a bold-faced [sic] lie about something — damnit, that means I gotta find something on CNN. Oh, I know… wait, hold on, let me find, oh that Rick Sanchez, that little Puerto Rican guy. I’ll make fun of him. Do you have anything.” “Uh, yeah, last week, he mispronounced the word indutably or whatever.” “Yeah, that’s it, find me that and we’ll do a whole 4-minute segment on how he mispronounced the word arithmetic.”

Rick Sanchez is Cuban, by the way. And as far as throwing Stephen Colbert into the mix, I suppose he missed Colbert's testimony during a hearing on immigration and US harvests on Capitol Hill. Or did he not understand the sarcasm?

Sanchez snickered sarcastically at the idea that Jews are as much minorities as Latinos in the US.

Very powerless people… [snickers] He’s such a minority, I mean, you know [sarcastically]… Please, what are you kidding? … I’m telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they — the people in this country who are Jewish — are an oppressed minority? Yeah. [sarcastically]

I'm guessing this is going to come back and bite him in the ass big time with his evil, Jewish overlords at CNN.

Ricky, you got some 'splainin' to do.

UPDATE (8:50pm): Rick Sanchez was promptly fired from CNN today.

“Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company. We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well.“

Well, that was quick. Now I'm expecting A) Sanchez to accuse CNN of discrimination against him because of his Hispanic heritage and not because he's actually the bigot and/or B) Sarah Palin to defend Sanchez through a tweet explaining how his First Amendment rights are being violated.

Tweet of the Day

CNN's ratings are in the shitter and have been for some time, but instead of maybe trying something new like being a real news organization again with no bias like the BBC, they decide to go the Fox News route and kowtow to the right. Nevermind that Fox has that demographic sewn up, CNN is following them down the road to perdition in the hopes of gathering Roger Ailes' table scraps.

So they hire right wing loon and Red State editor Erick Erickson, who immediately says something ridiculous about pulling out his wife's shotgun should a census worker come on his property.

Bill Press then asks White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs for a reaction to the statement and reports it. CNN, who has since stopped reporting in lieu of four hours of Wolf Blitzer and his Magical Beard, instead of researching for verification accuses Press of making it up, to which Press comes back with the impressive Tweet above.

CNN - the most trusted name in news indeed.

I Loves Me Some Alan Grayson

Florida Congressman Alan Grayson was interviewed this morning by New York Daily News reporter and radio talk show host Errol Louis and revealed that an official tea party member is challenging him for his seat this November.

Sarah Palin had targeted Grayson in her recent appearance for America's first Tea Party candidate, Peg Dunmire, raising half a million dollars for her, but it didn't take long for Grayson to respond in kind.

...In response to Palin's attack on Rep Grayson, Grayson actually complimented Palin. Grayson praised Palin for having a hand large enough to fit Grayson's entire name on it. He thanked Palin for alleviating the growing shortage of platitudes in Central Florida. Grayson added that Palin deserved credit for getting through the entire hour-long program without quitting. Grayson also said that Palin really had mastered Palin's imitation of Tina Fey imitating Palin. Grayson observed that Palin is the most-intelligent leader that the Republican Party has produced since George W. Bush.

... "I look forward to an honest debate with Governor Palin on the issues, in the unlikely event that she ever learns anything about them," Grayson added...

Here's more from Grayson during an interview with Rick Sanchez.



Is Grayson over the top? Maybe. But you have to fight fire with fire, and I have to say, it's kind of fun to see a Democratic politician dish out as much as the Republicans shovel in. You can donate to Grayson's campaign here.

Lou Dobbs Quits CNN

NY Times: Lou Dobbs, the longtime CNN anchor whose anti-immigration views have made him a TV lightning rod, said Wednesday that he is leaving the cable news channel effective immediately.

And Dobbs' new Fox News show starts in 5... 4... 3...

SURPRISE! (Not.) Balloon Boy Hoax

Falcon Heene: "You guys said that we did it for the show."



When I found out about Balloon Boy, my first instinct after I heard he wasn't on the balloon after it had landed was that he had untethered it, and fearing the wrath of mommy and daddy, decided to hide out. When I found out that these people were on ABC's Wife Swap, my cynical side immediately took over and I thought mom and dad might be attention hounds or that it might be a publicity stunt. Luckily for us, six-year olds are too honest when under pressure, you know, like during a live TV interview.

I wonder if Mr. Heene is going to get a nice, fat invoice for the emergency resources that were used in searching for a child that wasn't lost?

The World Stops When Bizarre Things Happen

How else do you explain the nonstop coverage of today's story about a runaway balloon allegedly with a six-year old boy along for the ride? Once the balloon landed, and no boy was found, the very first thing I thought was that the boy let the balloon go and realizing how stupid it was, decided to hide for fear of getting in major trouble. If I were six years old and did something as asinine, I'd hide too!

The story has a "happy" ending. Despite horrid thoughts and speculation by bearded CNN pundits of a box or basket that was attached to the balloon in which the little fly boy hopped in and eventually plummeted to his death while 10,000 feet high, he was eventually found hiding in his attic, scared shitless of the Major League trouble he would be in.

And yet, hours after the homemade weather balloon landed two counties away sans kid, we were forced to watch speculators and and pseudo-pundits trying to figure out how high the balloon got, if it could handle the weight of a child and the basket he was supposedly in, all while watching the same 30 seconds of footage of the flying balloon, followed by 30 seconds of the balloon landing, followed by 30 seconds of the flying balloon that we'd just seen.

The world stopped while this balloon was in the air. Nothing else was happening. At least not according to the 24/7 news media outlets. And even after the boy was found, they kept talking about it! Nothing happened on the health care front. Everyone forgot to criticize President Obama's trip to New Orleans. Yet we were mesmerized by the balloon story. That silver, mylar, flying saucer shaped balloon put most of us in a trance even when there was NO NEW NEWS to report for hours.

This is the problem with 24 hour news outlets. When does breaking news stop becoming breaking news? Even when the story is long over, it's still "Breaking News" and real news gets ignored. Sensationalism is only sensational when something sensational happens, whether it be the balloon boy, or Natalee Halloway or Anna Nicole Smith or Michael Jackson. I wish someone would let cable news producers in on that little tidbit of information.

Mixed Messages?

When you have multiple people going out on the Sunday talking head shows to push health care reform, there's bound to be a screw up when you're not repeating faxed talking points verbatim, which the Democratic party does not do.

Sebelius' comment on the public option not being "an essential element" was definitely a hiccup. But she did clarify her statement.

When John King asked her, "So the public option is not a deal-breaker from the president's standpoint?", Sebelius did not deny his assumption and answered:

"Well, I think there will be a competitor to private insurers. That's really the essential part, is you don't turn over the whole new marketplace to private insurance companies and trust them to do the right thing. We need some choices, we need some competition."

It may have been a verbal slip. But the main goal remains: the essential part is competition. If you don't trust private insurers then what's the other option? A public plan, because the co-op idea is still private.

I'm happy with the following statement and that's what I'm holding on to while every pundit tries to convince us of hedging by President Obama because, after all, that's news, isn't it?

Nothing has changed," said Linda Douglass, communications director for the White House Office of Health Reform. "The president has always said that what is essential is that health insurance reform must lower costs, ensure that there are affordable options for all Americans and it must increase choice and competition in the health insurance market. He believes the public option is the best way to achieve those goals."

Keep It Up, Lou Dobbs

Lou Dobbs' fanning of the Birther flames aren't doing much for his ratings.

Mr. Dobbs' first began reporting on Obama birth certificate conspiracy theories on the night of Wednesday, July 15. In the roughly two weeks since then, from July 15 through July 28, Mr. Dobbs' 7 p.m. show on CNN has averaged 653,000 total viewers and 157,000 in the 25-54 demo.

By contrast, during the first two weeks of the month (July 1 to July 14) Mr. Dobbs averaged 771,000 total viewers and 218,000 in the 25-54 demo. In other words, Mr. Dobbs' audience has decreased 15 percent in total viewers and 27 percent in the demo since the start of the controversy.

Arguably, interest in cable news has slumped across the board since early July when attention over Michael Jackson's death was still at a fever pitch.

But, that said, Mr. Dobbs' ratings over the past two weeks, during the height of the "birthers" controversy, are also down significantly compared to his overall numbers during the second quarter of 2009 when he averaged 769,000 total viewers and 222,000 in the 25-54 demo.

In summary, if Mr. Dobbs' affinity for "birthers" is a ratings ploy, it's a pretty ineffective one.

Although his birther bullshit has calmed down a little after getting a cease and desist e-mail from the CNN president, he continues the lunacy on his radio program.

More Birther Bullshit - UPDATED

On yesterday's Hardball, Chris Matthews went after Rep. John Campbell (R-Douchelandia) for being asinine enough to co-sponsor the "birther bill" requiring future Presidents to provide proof of citizenship with their birth certificate. Campbell thinks it will lay doubts to rest, not realizing (or maybe realizing all too well) that it's only fueling the fire for the nutballs who don't like the idea of a black man being the President and are using this sorry excuse to discredit Obama's rightful place in office.

He argues that this would have been the same for John McCain or George Romney, but I don't remember anyone seriously doubting the citizenship of McCain during the campaign. And if they did, it was only in response to the craziness of the issue coming from the wingnuts. I think Chris does a good job of putting Campbell in his place.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

UPDATE (2:25pm): Does anyone think Lou Dobbs has any credibility left after this?

Media Matters: Dobbs joins right-wing media promoting birth certificate conspiracy theories

July 22, 2009: In light of CNN host Lou Dobbs' recent promotion of conspiracy theories about President Obama's birth certificate, Media Matters for America is re-publishing the following item, which was originally posted June 18.

Even Joe Scarborough isn't falling into the Birther trap.

Judge Sotomayor's "Racist" Comments

Does context mean anything? FUCK, YES! The GOP bandwagon to attack Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor has boiled down to one sentence made in a speech in her 2001 address at the 'Raising the Bar' symposium at the UC Berkeley School of Law.

The quote: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

Not only have the right wing operatives taken that quote out of the context in which it was used, they've even parsed it further, usually omitting the ending, "who hasn't lived that life." Pat Buchanan even goes ahead and argues the plight of the white man.

Pat Buchanan: "...she thinks "Latina women," because of their life experience, make better judicial decisions than white men, that discrimination against white men to advance people of color is what America is all about..."

Oh, the white male has had it hard in these United States, haven't they? The affirmative action claim Buchanan makes is based on his interpretation (or lack of) of Sotomayor's ruling in the New Haven firefighter case which, I'm sure if you asked him, he would categorize as being an "activist" ruling not realizing that the basis for the three judge panel's decision was due to past precedent as well as upholding the District Court's decision.

But no matter. She said "white male" in a speech eight years ago and the white males are crying "RACISM!" while their scrotums shrivel up. After all, she's a "brown woman" according to Tom Tancredo. Lordy, we can't have that on the bench.

Keith Olbermann does a great job here in not only putting the quote into context, but debunking the "racist" poo flinging from the actual racist monkeys on the right, while at the same time employing a scorched earth policy taking on Karl Rove, Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, CNN and Tom Tancredo.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

In that CNN segment, Tancredo also likened the National Council of La Raza to the "KKK without the hoods and the nooses." What the fuck?

From their website:

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) – the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States – works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans. Through its network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations (CBOs), NCLR reaches millions of Hispanics each year in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. To achieve its mission, NCLR conducts applied research, policy analysis, and advocacy, providing a Latino perspective in five key areas – assets/investments, civil rights/immigration, education, employment and economic status, and health. In addition, it provides capacity-building assistance to its Affiliates who work at the state and local level to advance opportunities for individuals and families.

Founded in 1968, NCLR is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization headquartered in Washington, DC. NCLR serves all Hispanic subgroups in all regions of the country and has operations in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Yeah... sure sounds like a lynch mob to me. Does the KKK have a lobbying firm in Washington, DC? Perhaps the National Rifle Association? I kid, but you get the point. What an insufferable, racist douche, that Tom Tancredo. And you can quote me.

President Obama's Notre Dame Commencement Speech

Text here.

David Axelrod: "Everybody here sort of lives with the reality that the president is the best speechwriter in the group."

(H/T Paddy)