Salon.com > Fox News

Ann Coulter’s astounding gun control diatribe

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:40:00 +0000

In this video Ann Coulter discusses the Journal News gun map controversy. Also of note is the graphic Fox News chooses. Three weeks after the Newtown rampage, it's the gun owners they're worried about. What does Rupert Murdoch think about that?

Watch:

h/t HuffPo

Sean Hannity lost half his TV audience after the election

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 23:12:00 +0000

Conservative mouthpiece Sean Hannity lost about half of his TV audience in the weeks after the election while his colleague Bill O'Reilly's viewership only dropped by about a third, the Daily News reported:

The Daily News:

So what happened to Hannity?

The going wisdom is that viewers who basked in his preelection anti-Obama rhetoric tuned him out when they were stunned to wake up on Nov. 7 and discover that the President had won a second term — a scenario that Hannity had all but promised could never happen.

Before the election, Hannity was riding high in the ratings and topped thought leaders on the right, like Dick Morris, Ann Coulter, Peggy Noonan and talk radio bulldog Mark Levin, who predicted Obama would lose in a landslide.

Hannity performed even worse in the "money-demo" of viewers aged 25-54. More than half of them deserted his show.

8 shocking takeaways from the UK media ethics inquiry

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 21:00:00 +0000

  LONDON, UK — A staid courtroom may seem a world away from the glamour of Tinseltown, but in many ways Britain's Leveson inquiry into media ethics was not unlike a Hollywood blockbuster.

Commissioned by Prime Minister David Cameron in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal at the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World tabloid, the independent judicial probe by Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson had a multi-million dollar budget and an all-star cast with performances from the likes of Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller.

The investigation delivered its findings on Nov. 29. As with most modern movies, it was too long, featuring 378 separate testimonies. But it had a riveting plot with startling revelations about the pervasive influence of Britain's press, and witness performances that ranged from tear-jerking to hilarious.

Ultimately, just like the latest movie releases, it failed to deliver what it promised. Its inconclusive ending left audiences feeling dissatisfied and opened up the depressing possibility of a sequel.

Fox News thinks anti-gay protesters are “left-wing”

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 20:50:00 +0000

What do you call an organization that despises gay people, hates Muslims and thinks Barack Obama is the Antichrist? If you’re Fox Nation, the spinoff website that's all Fox and none of the News, you call them “left-wing.” Or at least that’s what the site -- best known for attacking Obama’s “Hip-Hop Barbecue” for creating no jobs (but featuring plenty of black people) -- called the Westboro Baptist Church, the notorious cult that pickets the funeral services of fallen soldiers.

When Westboro members planned to protest the funerals of children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, they were met by counter-protesters, including a group of bikers called the Patriot Guard Riders, which specifically organized to “shield the mourning family [of fallen servicemembers] and their friends from interruptions created by any protestor or group of protestors,” i.e., Westboro activists.

Is Bill O’Reilly America’s most popular historian?

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 16:15:00 +0000

Most Americans associate Bill O'Reilly with his perch on "The O'Reilly Factor," the most-watched show on cable television. But the conservative commentator is making a name for himself elsewhere, too: The New York Times bestseller list.

The New York Times notes that his recently published presidential biographies, "Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever" and "Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot," have been the top two books on the list for the past full week, with the latter having sold about one million copies.

In fact, the Times suggests that O'Reilly might be "the most popular history author in America" in part due to his television fame, and partially due to the sheer volume of work he has pumped out over the years:

Mosque arsonist: Fox News made me do it!

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 15:00:00 +0000

An Indiana man who pleaded guilty yesterday to setting an Ohio mosque on fire told a judge he was motivated by media accounts – specifically those on Fox News – suggesting Muslims were threatening Americans and were in control of parts of the federal government.

Details made public at the plea hearing also revealed that the arsonist, Randolph Linn, was carrying a pistol when he entered the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo on September 30, only minutes after several worshippers had left, and that he had more guns in his car.

Linn, a 52-year-old truck driver from St. Joe, Ind., expressed no remorse when he admitted trying to burn down the third largest mosque in the United States. Under the terms of a plea agreement, prosecutors and Linn’s defense attorney will recommend a prison term of 20 years when he is sentenced early next year.

Accounts of the federal court hearing were provided to Hatewatch by Mahjabeen Islam, president of the mosque, who was present along with 10 other members of the mosque.

Has Fox News silenced pro-gun advocate?

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:31:00 +0000

John Lott is one of the most prominent advocates of the "more guns, less crime" theory. Indeed, that's the title of his book: "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws." The economist has taught at Yale, the University of Chicago and Penn's Wharton School. He's co-authored a book with Grover Norquist. And he's a Fox News contributor with a frequent column on FoxNews.com.

But as Erik Wemple points out in the Washington Post today, Lott has not appeared on Fox News or its web site since the Newtown massacre -- but he has been a regular on CNN, on various panels and in much-talked-about arguments with Soledad O'Brien and Piers Morgan.

Wemple writes:

While Lott has been given ample opportunity on CNN to air his views on the Newtown massacre, he hasn’t yet spoken up on the matter on FoxNews.com. His last column surfaced Dec. 6, a second critique of Costas’ call for a new look at guns. He has written a column on the implications of Newtown — for U.S. News & World Report.

Sarah Palin: TIME is irrelevant – after all, I was on “Person of the Year” list too

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 14:07:00 +0000

On Fox News last night, Sarah Palin admitted some skepticism about the relevancy of TIME magazine, which named President Obama as "Person of the Year," because, she said, she was also on that list.

"I think there's some irrelevancy there, to tell you the truth," Palin told Greta Van Susteren. "I mean consider their list of the most influential people in the country and the world, some who have made that list -- yours truly! That ought to tell you something right there regarding the credence that we should give TIME magazine and their list of people."

The comments about TIME are around the 4:20 mark:

Report: Fox News producers told to avoid gun policy talk last weekend

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:26:00 +0000

In the wake of the Newtown school shootings on Friday, Fox News producers were reportedly told to stay away from talk of gun control policy during their weekend coverage.

Gabriel Sherman of New York Magazine reports that David Clark, an executive producer in charge of the weekend coverage, instructed producers to stay away from the topic -- much to their chagrin. Sherman writes:

"This network is not going there,” Clark wrote one producer on Saturday night, according to a source with knowledge of the exchange. The directive created a rift inside the network. According to a source, one political panelist e-mailed Clark that Bloomberg was booked on Meet the Press to talk about gun control. Clark responded, “We haven't buried the children yet, we're not discussing it.” During the weekend, one frustrated producer went around Clark to lobby Michael Clemente, Fox’s executive vice-president for news editorial, but Clemente upheld the mandate. “We were expressly forbidden from discussing gun control,” the source said. Clark's edict wasn't universal: On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace talked with Democratic Senators Joe Lieberman and Dick Durbin about gun control, and later in the program, panelists Bill Kristol and Fortune editor Nina Easton weighed in on the issue.

Rupert Murdoch, on the other hand, made no secret of his views on gun control policy, tweeting several times about the tragedy in the last few days:

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Huckabee blames gays for the Newtown massacre

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:26:00 +0000

In the wake of the horrific massacre in Newtown, Conn., last Friday, it didn't take long for the gun apologist trolls to come out of the woodwork. Gun Owners of America's appropriately named Larry Pratt insisted that an unarmed school faculty was at fault, saying, "Gun control supporters have the blood of little children on their hands," and Texas congressman Louie Gohmert declared that "I wish to God [the principal] had had an M4 in her office." But it took former Arkansas governor and current Fox News windbag Mike Huckabee to really torpedo our national conversation to a whole new low. It was Huckabee who didn't just mouth off once, but kept mouthing off, clarifying his original vituperative inanity with ever more vituperative inanity from his apparently limitless supply.

Fox News revealed selective editing of punched Fox News contributor

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:00:00 +0000

A video of Fox News contributor Steven Crowder getting punched by a Michigan union protester was selectively edited, and that editing was revealed during Crowder's appearance on Sean Hannity's show on Fox News.

The original video shows Crowder getting punched by a protester on Tuesday while Crowder was trying to stop an Americans for Prosperity tent from being torn down. The video, which is approaching a million views on YouTube, was picked up by the right as evidence of "union thuggery":

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But on Wednesday, Eclectablog's Chris Savage argued that Crowder's video is "actually a composite of things that happened over the course of the day, many of them hours apart."

Crowder defended himself on Twitter:

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He added that the full footage was shown on Sean Hannity's show the night before.

As Robert Mackey of the New York Times' Lede Blog points out:

Fox News contributor punched during right-to-work protests

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Yesterday, the right was all over this video of Fox News contributor Steven Crowder getting punched by union protesters in Michigan, over the state's right-to-work law.

The video is edited so it's tough to nail down the sequence of events specifically, but Crowder appears to have gotten punched while trying to stop protesters from tearing down an Americans for Prosperity tent.

Watch:

The right pounced on Twitter:

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On Sean Hannity's show, Crowder said: “I literally believe, Sean, that if I had defended myself at all, even flicked a small little jab, that they would have killed me where I stood."

Don Imus: “There’s no ‘war on Christmas’ … It’s absurd”

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 18:54:00 +0000

Conservative radio host Don Imus dismissed the War on Christmas to Stuart Varney on "Imus in the Morning" on Fox Business, saying that "it's absurd." He added: "I don't care. I think it's fine. It just doesn't mean anything."

Imus was railing against trumped-up outrages, particularly the War on Christmas, and told Varney: "The uproar, this War on Christmas. There's no War on Christmas, I mean it's absurd."

Varney objected, saying that twice when he gave money to Salvation Army bell ringers, they told him "Happy Holidays." Imus shot back: "Can't we as Christians, though, be all-inclusive, and wish happy holidays to our Jewish brethren."

Watch:

Via MediaMatters.

Karl Rove wasn’t benched from Fox News for long

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:32:00 +0000

For the first time since he refused to accept the Election Night returns from Ohio, Karl Rove made an appearance on Fox News.

Politico counts 27 days since Rove's last appearance on Fox, a brief hiatus that ended with last night's appearance on "Special Report" with Bret Baier.

Gabe Sherman of New York Magazine reported last week that Fox News chief Roger Ailes instructed staffers to keep Rove and Dick Morris off the air, as "a pair of pundits perhaps most closely aligned with Fox’s anti-Obama campaign," as Sherman put it.

Fake study says Fox News viewers have lower IQs

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 21:18:00 +0000

Over the weekend, a study that claimed Fox News viewers have low IQs went viral. But it turns out that the study was a big fake.

A press release about the study was posted on the website PRWeb, which distributes news releases online, and was then reposted by Yahoo News, and picked up by liberal sites like Daily Kos and Current.

The release said that a group called the "Intelligence Institute," a "conservative non-profit group," did a study finding that "Fox News viewers have an IQ that is 20 points lower than the U.S. National average." The release claims that the study was conducted over four years, tested 5,000 people, and found that Fox News viewers have an IQ of 80, compared with the national average of 100.

The release also included sensationalistic quotes from lead researcher "P. Nichols" about the findings, such as, "We have never seen such a homogeneous group teetering so close to special needs levels."

Jobs truthers’ latest myth: Government doing all the hiring

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 19:20:00 +0000

Have you heard the news? While us workaday job-creating CEOs are about to get hit by Obama’s tax hike on the wealthiest 2 percent, those fat-cat municipal sanitation workers and public schoolteachers are adding to their ranks at an alarming rate. According to the latest meme ricocheting around the conservative blogosphere and Fox News, almost three-quarters of the new jobs created in the past five months have been government jobs.

The figure, first reported Friday by the social conservative news website CNS.com, has immediatly gained traction on the right. It hits all the right buttons of demonstrating out-of-control government spending while exposing the sham that is the supposedly improving economy. And it does it all in a nifty little eye-popping statistic: First there was the 1 percent, then the 53 percent, followed by the 47 percent, now we have the 73 percent. The one problem is that it's total baloney, but we'll get to that in a second.

Bill O’Reilly agrees: Roots of the War on Christmas are gay rights and abortion

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 18:55:00 +0000

Bill O'Reilly agreed with "Imus in the Morning" producer Bernard McGuirk last night that the "roots" of the War on Christmas are not just atheists, but also "abortion and the gay rights agenda, because Christianity is against those things."

MCGUIRK: The war on Christmas is very, very real, and if you ask me, in addition to some grouchy misanthropic heathen atheists it has to do — at the root of it — it has to do with two things — abortion and the gay rights agenda, because Christianity is against those things. It’s subtle but that’s why it’s so pronounced in recent years, in my opinion.

O’REILLY: Hundred percent agree. I absolutely agree 100 percent that it's the diminishment of Christianity is the target and Christmas is the vehicle because the secularists know the opposition to their agenda -- legalized drugs is in there as well -- comes primarily from the Judeo-Christian traditionalist people.

Watch:

Via ThinkProgress/Towleroad.

When will Ailes rein in O’Reilly?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:37:00 +0000

I wrote earlier today about Fox boss Roger Ailes' humiliation of longtime "contributor" Karl Rove. After Rove's embarrassing meltdown on election night, when he tried to stop Fox from calling Ohio for President Obama, Ailes told his staff that any booker who wanted to use Rove had to get permission from a higher-up. Ailes apparently woke up and realized that peddling his audience self-soothing falsehoods is probably not the way to build a GOP majority coalition in this country any time soon. And it might even be bad for business, too.

But what about Bill O'Reilly? He had his own meltdown on election night, blaming Obama's reelection on the disappearance of "traditional America" and "the white establishment." A few days later he began an ongoing jihad against "secular progressives" and the "far left" that was as fact-free as it was vicious. I wrote at the time that O'Reilly seemed to be going the way of Glenn Beck, who lost his Fox show after his paranoia and anti-Obama vitriol became too much even for Ailes.

Fox News correspondent: Fox might have overdone the Benghazi coverage

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:01:00 +0000

Fox News' White House Correspondent Ed Henry suggested that the network may have over-covered the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

"I wouldn't lie to you. I see that we're covering Benghazi a lot, and I think that should be something that we're asking about. We've had the proper emphasis. But I would not be so deluded to say that some of our shows, some of our commentators, have covered it more than it needed to be covered," he told the AP.

Laura Ingraham’s newsletter forgets that Laura Ingraham met with Bush

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:09:00 +0000

A newsletter for conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham attacked President Obama for meeting with MSNBC pundits after the election, but left out the fact that George W. Bush met with conservative analysts -- including Ingraham herself -- in 2006.

"If Fox News hosts and conservative personalities had stopped by the Bush White House to discuss policy" the media "would have been rightly outraged," Ingraham's Dec. 5 newsletter said. "Given MSNBC's history of blatantly promoting the DNC's talking points and spewing left-wing talking points, maybe it's time they just became Obama's official mouthpiece."

As MediaMatters points out, in October 2006, the New York Times reported on a meeting between President Bush and several conservative radio hosts, including Sean Hannity, Mike Gallagher, Neal Boortz and Ingraham.

The Times described the meeting: