Salon.com > Fox News http://www.salon.com Wed, 30 May 2012 06:12:34 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Communist accusations matter http://www.salon.com/2012/04/23/communist_accusations_matter/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/23/communist_accusations_matter/#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:28:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12908324 Bill O’Reilly, the tumescent personality of Fox News, said on his Friday show “Robert Reich is a communist who secretly adores Karl Marx.”

It’s an odd charge. If we were living in the 1950s, amid Senator Joe McCarthy’s communist witch-hunts, O’Reilly’s accusation might have some bite and cause me real injury. But these days it’s hard to find a full-throated communist anywhere in the world.

O’Reilly’s accusation isn’t even logical. How can he know if I secretly adore Karl Marx, if it’s a secret?

For the record, I’m not a communist and I don’t secretly adore Karl Marx.

Ordinarily I don’t bother repeating anything Bill O’Reilly says. But this particular whopper is significant because it represents what O’Reilly and Fox News, among others, are doing to the national dialogue.

They’re burying it in doo-doo.

O’Reilly based his claim on an interview I did last week with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, in which I argued that because America’s big corporations were now global we could no longer rely on them to make necessary investments in human capital or to lobby for public investments in education, infrastructure, and basic R&D. So, logically, government has to step in.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/23/communist_accusations_matter/feed/ 117 Fox: “Glee” makes you trans http://www.salon.com/2012/04/20/fox_glee_makes_you_trans/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/20/fox_glee_makes_you_trans/#comments Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12898791 "Here we go again," says the blond lady from Fox. Gretchen Carlson, I assure you I feel exactly the same way.

On Thursday's "O'Reilly Factor," Bill O'Reilly grappled with the terrible, terrible paradox that while "Glee" may have some merits, it also sends the message "that alternative lifestyles for children may be positive." And then, oh no, he showed a clip of the character Unique performing a KC and the Sunshine Band song in a dress and heels. O'Reilly, who is terribly concerned that America's youth "might go out and experiment with this stuff," next welcomed Carlson, along with Judge Jeanine Pirro, for an old-fashioned round of pearl-clutching. "Here we go again," said Carlson, "pandering to .3 percent of the American population that consider themselves transgender. Now I get to explain this to my 8-year-old, if I just wanted to watch a nice family show with some nice music?"

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/20/fox_glee_makes_you_trans/feed/ 48 Fox’s misinformation effect http://www.salon.com/2012/04/10/foxs_misinformation_effect/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/10/foxs_misinformation_effect/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12835921 In June of last year, Jon Stewart went on air with Fox News’ Chris Wallace and started a major media controversy over the channel’s misinforming of its viewers. “Who are the most consistently misinformed media viewers?” Stewart asked Wallace. “The most consistently misinformed? Fox, Fox viewers, consistently, every poll.”

AlterNetStewart’s statement was factually accurate, as we’ll see. The next day, however, the fact-checking site PolitiFact weighed in and rated it “false.”In claiming to check Stewart’s “facts,” PolitiFact ironically committed a serious error—and later, doubly ironically, failed to correct it. How’s that for the power of fact checking?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/10/foxs_misinformation_effect/feed/ 112 How billionaires destroy democracy http://www.salon.com/2012/04/01/how_billionaires_destroy_democracy/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/01/how_billionaires_destroy_democracy/#comments Sun, 01 Apr 2012 21:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12758431 There are many words that could be used to describe Barack Obama, but one adjective decidedly doesn’t fit: Aggressive. So it was more than passing strange when a prominent member of Wall Street — Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of the private equity giant Blackstone Group — compared actions by President Obama to one of the most notoriously aggressive acts by one of history’s most aggressive villains. Speaking to the board of a nonprofit group, Schwarzman fiercely denounced initiatives by the Obama administration: “It’s war. It’s like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/01/how_billionaires_destroy_democracy/feed/ 47 Geraldo’s hilarious non-apology http://www.salon.com/2012/03/28/geraldos_hilarious_non_apology/ http://www.salon.com/2012/03/28/geraldos_hilarious_non_apology/#comments Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:10:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12746341 Ah, the non-apology apology. It's a classic. But leave it to Geraldo Rivera to take it to a whole new level.

In a gesture of appeasement after the outcry over his stunning assertion last week that "Trayvon Martin’s hoodie killed him as surely as George Zimmerman did," the mustachioed Fox pundit sent an email to Politico in which he offered a "sincere and heartfelt apology" for his words. On his radio show, he added that his "own family and friends believe I have obscured or diverted attention from the principal fact, which is that an unarmed 17-year-old was shot dead by a man who was never seriously investigated by local police." And then he went and threw in, "And if that is true, I apologize." If it's not, suck on it, I guess.

But the best line in Rivera's mea culpa was his explanation that "I apologize to anyone offended by what one prominent black conservative called my 'very practical and potentially life-saving campaign urging black and Hispanic parents not to let their children go around wearing hoodies.'" See that? Geraldo is sorry if you, a no doubt hoodie-wearing tiny brain, were offended by Mr. Rivera's AWESOMENESS. But an actual black person was not, so, maybe it's on you.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/03/28/geraldos_hilarious_non_apology/feed/ 54 Hoodies don’t kill http://www.salon.com/2012/03/23/hoodies_dont_kill/ http://www.salon.com/2012/03/23/hoodies_dont_kill/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12727001 You'd better hope Geraldo Rivera never ventures into an Old Navy. He's going to freak out. In a wildly absurd, calculatedly provocative post on Fox News Latino, Rivera declared Friday that  Trayvon Martin's hoodie killed him "as surely as George Zimmerman did." Which is kind of like saying mayonnaise causes earthquakes just as surely as plate tectonics.

When the 17-year-old Florida resident died a month ago, was he wearing a lethal hoodie, one packed with explosives or poisons? No, he was just walking home from the convenience store, carrying a bag of Skittles, and attired in a manner that roused self-appointed neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman's suspicions. "This guy looks like he's up to no good, on drugs or something," Zimmerman told police. And soon after, he shot the kid in the chest.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/03/23/hoodies_dont_kill/feed/ 155 The fake “War on Christmas” outrage http://www.salon.com/2011/12/23/the_fake_war_on_christmas_outrage/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/23/the_fake_war_on_christmas_outrage/#comments Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10762371 One of the defining qualities of late December is the predictable and ritualized nature of America's holiday season. Other than discovering what's inside the wrapped gift boxes, there's no mystery or suspense to it anymore. The Christmas music starts right before Thanksgiving. Then come the flickering lights, the red-and-green decor, Hollywood's vacation movie blitz, and finally, with media charlatans turning the key, the fake outrage machine rumbles back to life.

Like a narcissist's souped-up 4-by-4, this turbocharged colossus of self-righteous indignation makes a lot of noise and leaves a mess in its wake -- but ultimately says a lot more about its drivers' pitiable insecurities than anything else.

This year has been particularly illustrative, as the fake outrage machine has caricatured itself like a Bigfoot-esque monster truck in a desperate bid for attention. In just the last few weeks, the Heritage Foundation billed an Agriculture Department initiative to raise revenue for tree farmers as a "Christmas Tree Tax"; Fox News said that standard federal safety warnings were proof that the government wants to "tell you how to decorate your Christmas tree"; and conservative activists criticized Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, an Independent, for daring to consecrate a "holiday tree" -- rather than a "Christmas Tree" -- at the statehouse.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/23/the_fake_war_on_christmas_outrage/feed/ 196 13. Megyn Kelly http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/13_megyn_kelly/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/13_megyn_kelly/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10354291 Megyn Kelly is one of Fox News chief Roger Ailes' favorites, and it's easy to see why: She's equal parts gorgeous and belligerent. She's smart and quick enough to hold her own in any interview, and she has no qualms about beating the drum for whatever crackpot right-wing story line the network's lead propagandists are currently pushing, no matter how dubious. Hence, we get a year's worth of terrifying stories on the awesome political power of the New Black Panther Party, complete with unlikely Justice Department conspiracy theories and b-roll footage designed to unnerve old white viewers. When the story has outlived its usefulness, it's summarily forgotten, and we move on to the next tale.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/13_megyn_kelly/feed/ 24 17. John Stossel http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/17_john_stossel/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/17_john_stossel/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10319101 I'd say it's nice to have a libertarian presence on television regularly, but there are I believe more libertarians on television regularly in 2011 than there are morally ambiguous antiheroes on premium cable dramas. (What we really need are more socialists -- Americans are sick of capitalism!) And Stossel is not a great brand ambassador for the "free minds, free markets" crowd, because he's a silly clown.

Stossel's a ridiculous local-news "consumer watchdog" reporter who discovered Milton Friedman. He's the worst of simple-minded sensationalist television news masquerading as a maverick because he's "politically incorrect" (a term that when self-applied invariably means "an asshole").

If I were a libertarian, I'd be embarrassed by Stossel's prominence. Sneering contempt for supposed liberal shibboleths is not actually a well-considered political philosophy. There's nothing "libertarian," for example, about not believing in climate change. That's just tribal corporatism, totally disconnected from any economics-based belief about the superiority of market forces over government industrial policy.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/17_john_stossel/feed/ 35 Who’s winning the Fox primary? http://www.salon.com/2011/12/01/fox_treading_carefully_in_gingrich_romney_race/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/01/fox_treading_carefully_in_gingrich_romney_race/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:45:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10278712 The Republican primary campaign has become a two-man race, with unloved ostensible front-runner Mitt Romney currently suffering the indignity of trailing in the polls to self-satisfied serial adulterer Newt Gingrich. Where does the unofficial communications arm of the conservative movement stand on the race? They're noncommittal, thus far.

We all know the basic facts: A lot of conservatives see Romney as completely unacceptable. The more pragmatic ones see Gingrich as wholly unelectable. Fox News is run by consummate conservative elite Roger Ailes. Ailes has two objectives: Generate ratings and elect Republicans. The Gingriches of the world excite Fox viewers, because of their shamelessness. Romney excites no one, but he'll need Fox's support if he ends up the beneficiary of a Gingrich collapse.

Fox has indulged its audience's brief surges of affection for unelectable fringe candidates, from Trump through Cain, but the channel's always been careful to remind the base that they may eventually have to hold their noses and vote for Romney. Karl Rove, who's already running a shadow campaign against Obama, has made this point explicitly during his Fox appearances.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/01/fox_treading_carefully_in_gingrich_romney_race/feed/ 22 Right-wing press demands liberal media repeat “Occupy shooter” smear http://www.salon.com/2011/11/20/right_wing_press_demands_liberal_media_repeat_occupy_shooter_smear/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/20/right_wing_press_demands_liberal_media_repeat_occupy_shooter_smear/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10234739 Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez tried to kill President Barack Obama, by firing a gun at the White House, and one would think that that combination of "hating Obama" and "using a gun" would make using him to smear liberals a bit of a stretch, even for Fox and the rest of the right-wing press. You'd think that they'd shy away from even mentioning the guy, as they generally do in prominent cases of decidedly right-wing politically motivated violence. You'd be wrong, though, because they've all decided that Ortega-Hernandez is the Occupy Wall Street shooter.

Ortega-Hernandez will soon be a minor historical footnote, like the guy who tried to crash a plane into Nixon's White House, Squeaky Fromme and Sara Jane Moore, the weird guy who may have been a part of a secret plot to kill or scare Jimmy Carter, John Hinkley, the guy who tried to crash an airplane into Bill Clinton's White House, the guy who fired bullets at Bill Clinton's White House and the guy who fired bullets at George W. Bush's White House. What did all of these people have in common? Their motives were ... slightly difficult for rational people to comprehend. They tended to be paranoid and disturbed and their stated reasons for wishing the president dead were usually fairly incoherent.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/20/right_wing_press_demands_liberal_media_repeat_occupy_shooter_smear/feed/ 92 I watched two days of Fox News coverage of OWS http://www.salon.com/2011/11/16/i_watched_two_days_of_fox_news_coverage_of_ows/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/16/i_watched_two_days_of_fox_news_coverage_of_ows/#comments Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10228498 I watched Fox News during the daylight hours for two days this week, to see what the conservative cable shouting channel's "straight news" programs had to say about the Occupy movement. And ... they really don't have much to say about it.

Fox is not normally my background noise of choice. When I'm at home, I have local news channel NY1. At the office, it's usually MSNBC. So watching Fox from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. for two days was sort of edifying. I learned some things!

For instance, I learned that basically everyone in Congress is demanding that Eric Holder retire because of something to do with Solyndra. Someone on a panel said that the people in Congress demanding Holder's retirement were not very important members of Congress but that person was shouted down because every member of Congress is important, especially when they are providing grist for the Fox faux-scandal mill.

I also learned that there is a baby missing, named Baby Lisa, and that Baby Lisa's mother almost certainly is responsible, because Baby Lisa's mother had an online dating profile. I had literally never heard of Baby Lisa before Monday, but Fox covered Baby Lisa more than any other story save the Penn State situation. The Murdoch tabloid ethos still drives Fox as much as the Ailes political agenda.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/16/i_watched_two_days_of_fox_news_coverage_of_ows/feed/ 77 Trump will endorse a candidate (in a month) http://www.salon.com/2011/11/14/trump_will_endorse_a_candidate_in_a_month/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/14/trump_will_endorse_a_candidate_in_a_month/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:31:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10216382 Oft-bankrupt former fake presidential candidate and television clown Donald Trump announced on "Fox and Friends" this morning that he is very close to announcing his presidential endorsement. I am guessing he won't pick Jon Huntsman.

Trump still has a regular Monday morning "Fox & Friends" call-in deal? I guess Fox can overlook a regular guest being a loyal employee of a rival media conglomerate -- Trump abandoned his publicity stunt presidential campaign when NBC threatened to find a new "Apprentice" host, remember -- as long as they're willing to spout birtherist bullshit on live television.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/14/trump_will_endorse_a_candidate_in_a_month/feed/ 12 Karl Rove finds the non-Romney candidates unacceptable http://www.salon.com/2011/10/28/karl_rove_finds_the_non_romney_candidates_unacceptable/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/28/karl_rove_finds_the_non_romney_candidates_unacceptable/#comments Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:28:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10150867 Karl Rove has already begun his independent, well-funded campaign to return a Republican to the White House. Any Republican will do, honestly, but he would strongly prefer a somewhat competent and "electable" one, thank you very much. So he's attacking all the non-Mitt Romney candidates, not because he is under the impression that voters care what Karl Rove thinks, but because he knows that the GOP professionals with a vested interest in winning elections care what Karl Rove thinks.

Rove is very much in a "do I have to do everything myself" mode these days, which is why he's also running the GOP's congressional campaign as an independently funded venture. Here he is practically acting as a Romney surrogate on Fox and attacking Herman Cain, because actual Romney surrogates seem unable to.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/28/karl_rove_finds_the_non_romney_candidates_unacceptable/feed/ 25 Rupert Murdoch faces angry investors http://www.salon.com/2011/10/21/rupert_murdoch_faces_angry_investers/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/21/rupert_murdoch_faces_angry_investers/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10133864 Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is holding its annual shareholder meeting in Los Angeles. And a vocal group of News Corp. shareholders are a bit peeved at the media conglomerate's performance recently. The performance that has upset them the most: all the phone hacking and police bribery followed by a lengthy coverup that has been rapidly unraveling this year.

The rebellious shareholders include British MP Tom Watson, who was personally lied to by James Murdoch at a Parliamentary hearing, and various pension funds. Also present: The secretary of the ethical investment advisory group of the Church of England. The Church would like Murdoch removed as director of the company.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/21/rupert_murdoch_faces_angry_investers/feed/ 5 Fox Business Network exec: Channel has too much Fox, not enough “business” http://www.salon.com/2011/10/20/fox_business_network_exec_channel_has_too_much_fox_not_enough_business/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/20/fox_business_network_exec_channel_has_too_much_fox_not_enough_business/#comments Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:36:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10130438 In 2007, Rupert Murdoch started the Fox Business Network to crush CNBC using the same tactics that Fox News used to surpass CNN: Make a louder, sexier, angrier, more right-wing populist product, and the old people who watch TV during the day will tune in. Except it didn't really work with Fox Business.

CNBC averages 263,000 viewers during the workday, according to Nielsen. Fox Business tops off at 85,000 from 4:30 to 8 p.m., and that period includes daily shows hosted by Fox stars Lou Dobbs and Neil Cavuto. Fox Business executive vice president Kevin Magee had a great idea to finally turn things around, according to a memo Reuters obtained: Maybe focus more on business news?

"I've been asked to remind you all again that they are separate channels and the more we make FBN look like FNC the more of a disservice we do to ourselves," Magee said in the memo dated October 5, carrying the subject line "Fox News and Fox Business."

"I understand the temptation to imitate our sibling network in hopes of imitating its success, but we cannot," Magee went on to say in the memo. "If we give the audience a choice between FNC and the almost-FNC, they will choose FNC every time. Earnings, taxes, jobs etc give us PLENTY to chew on."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/20/fox_business_network_exec_channel_has_too_much_fox_not_enough_business/feed/ 7 Is Mitt Romney passing the Hannity Test? http://www.salon.com/2011/10/06/is_mitt_romney_passing_the_hannity_test/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/06/is_mitt_romney_passing_the_hannity_test/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:07:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10104691 As you've probably noticed, this has been a good week for Mitt Romney, who seems to be winning over the elite Republican donors who'd been trying to recruit Chris Christie into the race and who has regained the lead in national polls thanks to Rick Perry's self-initiated free fall. But how good?

To answer that, I decided to check in on Sean Hannity's Fox News show last night. As I've written before, I'm using what I call the "Hannity Test" to gauge Romney's progress in the GOP race. The basic idea is that Romney, because of the party base's deep suspicion of him, needs Republican opinion leaders to vouch for him, and to play along with the rationalizations he's desperately trying to sell to GOP voters.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/06/is_mitt_romney_passing_the_hannity_test/feed/ 47 Which network asks the best presidential debate questions? http://www.salon.com/2011/09/22/gopquestions/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/22/gopquestions/#comments Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/09/22/gopquestions Newt Gingrich may be a joke of a candidate, but he made a serious point the last time Fox News sponsored a presidential debate: Moderator Chris Wallace should "put aside the gotcha questions." With Fox News (and Google) sponsoring Thursday's night's debate, there is a risk of another gotcharama. A semi-scientific review shows that Fox and MSNBC are more likely to play gotcha. If you want to hear what the candidates have to say about public policy, wait for a debate sponsored by CNN.

Sparked by Newt's complaints -- and my own sense that the debate questions were poorly done -- I went back and coded the questions in each debate. I divided them into five categories:

• Basic policy questions, which simply ask the candidates their positions on issues of public policy. For example, Tea Party voter Sandra Jones asked: "What would you do to get the economy moving forward? Do you have a plan? And, if so, what is it?"

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/22/gopquestions/feed/ 11 Carlson, DNC head trade blows over Hoffa remarks http://www.salon.com/2011/09/06/morning_clip_7/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/06/morning_clip_7/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/09/06/morning_clip Before Barack Obama began his Labor Day address in Detroit yesterday, Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa Jr. spoke to the Michigan crowd about the Tea Party, and used a little bit of incendiary language in the process: "Let's take these sons of bitches out, and give America back to America."

"Fox and Friends" co-host Gretchen Carlson thought Hoffa crossed the line, and this morning she asked DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz if the statement was inappropriate. The congresswoman refused to take the bait, and the ensuing back-and-forth turned tense, and memorable: When Wasserman Schultz suggested that "Fox and Friends" has rarely, if ever, denounced the rhetoric of the Tea Party, Carlson shot back with: "I sit in the middle of the couch. I"m fair and balanced, Debbie."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/06/morning_clip_7/feed/ 37 Today’s must-see viral videos http://www.salon.com/2011/08/12/viral_videos_john_stamos/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/12/viral_videos_john_stamos/#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/08/12/viral_videos_john_stamos 1. This is Sparta a setup!:

Turns out "Jersey Shore" isn't the craziest thing in Italy these days. Like, how about its undercover cops, who dress up like gladiators in order to infiltrate the rival "families" that control all of Rome's lucrative tour guide industry? Amazing.

This is totally the missing season from "The Wire."

2. Jay-Z and Kanye West's official video for "Otis":

What a great video. Seriously. It's totally SFW (the video, not the lyrics), and is as squeaky-clean fun as a hip-hop video can get. Compare it to Kanye's last masterpiece "Monster,"  and you'll see why he and Jay make the perfect yin-yang team.

 

3. "The Stiller Foundation":

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