Fox Nation's Spin

How about "Wisconsin Citizens Storm Capitol After Illegal Vote"? Or "Pro Worker Wisconsinites React To Union Busting Vote"?

But no.  "Rabid Leftists" is the term of preference.  Fox Nation never fails, do they?

Olbermann Signs Off!

With no pomp and circumstance, Keith Olbermann revealed that Friday's Countdown telecast would be the last.

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After eight years, Countdown is done. TPM's Josh Marshall was a guest on the show and was shocked to discover that he was on the final broadcast - the professionalism of the staff and crew didn't give it away.

According to the New York Times...

MSNBC announced that “The Last Word” with Lawrence O’Donnell would replace “Countdown” at 8 p.m., with “The Ed Show” with Ed Schultz taking Mr. O’Donnell’s slot at 10 p.m. Mr. Olbermann did not discuss any future plans, but NBC executives said one term of his settlement will keep him from moving to another network for an extended period of time.

And thus begins Comcast's demise of the liberal media.

ADDING... After letting it sink in for a few minutes, this was definitely personal. Lawrence O'Donnell can be just as bombastic as KO was. And Ed Schultz and his beady, red eyes can come across as a loon sometimes. Maybe even a firebagger. This was definitely a personal matter - there was always friction between Olbermann and his bosses.

Moral Panic

POSTED BY JHW22

I wish I wrote this:

Back in the early 1970s — an era whose tumult we yet may come to regard as benign — social scientists here and in Britain coined the term "moral panic" to describe what can happen when groups of people are seized by an exaggerated fear that other people or communal forces threaten their values or way of life. The scholars described those who promoted the panic's spread as "moral entrepreneurs" — a term that takes on a deep resonance when you consider the commentators and politicians who have attached themselves, and their interests, to the "tea party" and its attendant movements.

In the midst of moral panic, inchoate indignation stands in for reason; accusation and denunciation supplant dialogue and argument; history and facts are rendered malleable, merely adjuncts of the moral entrepreneur's — or should we say provocateur's — rhetorical will. As we now also see, a self-interested mass media with an economic stake in the theatricality of raised and angry voices can transmit moral panic like a pathogen.

~Timothy Rutten, L.A. Times

Well That Didn't Take Long

A couple of weeks ago, after almost daily embarrassments due to inaccurate information that they'd then have to apologize for, Fox News decided to implement a "zero tolerance" policy for on-screen errors, complete with possible termination for offenses.  I commented then that it would be two or three days max before FNC went out of business for firing it's entire staff. Well, I was wrong... but not really. If they make a mistake, they'll just deny it was a mistake.  Problem solved!

... Lauren Petterson, executive producer of Fox & Friends, told POLITICO that she sees no error in the graphic. And for that reason, there will be no reprimand of staff under the "zero tolerance" policy.

"We were just talking about three interesting pieces of information from Rasmussen," Petterson said. "We didn't put on the screen that it added up to 100 percent."

[...]

While Petterson maintains that Fox & Friend's didn't err in displaying the information from Rasmussen, she acknowledges that the presentation wasn't perfect. "The mistake I do see is we could have been a little clearer here," she said.

Right.  A poll showing 94% of respondents favoring an outcome that Fox News prefers with totals equalling 120% would never be misconstrued as manipluating the data, especially in a poll about manipulating data.  As usual, Jon Stewart and his finely honed staff eviscerates the mistake and takes no prisoners on Fox & Friends.