Justin's Political Corner
A new book from Jonathan Alter claims that Fox News President Roger Ailes told producers to cut off the microphone used by Fox host Geraldo Rivera as he pushed back against Fox’s politicization of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
Appearing on Fox & Friends the day before the 2012 election, Rivera accused The Five’s Eric Bolling of being “a politician trying to make a political point” with Bolling’s claim that the government did “nothing” in response to the attack.
The New York Times reports that Alter writes in the upcoming book The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies that “Ailes called the control room and told the producers to cut Rivera’s mic.”
Mediaite reports that their sources claim that Ailes never called the control room, but that Fox News Executive Vice President of Programming Bill Shine did. They go on to write, “Shine did not order Rivera’s mic to be cut. Instead his call was to urge the show to move on because the segment had come to its conclusion, as the EVP seemed to believe that two Fox personalities calling each other liars with an escalating tone made for bad morning television and could potentially alienate their audience if it continued.”
h/t: MMFA
(via Crooks and Liars: ESPN Reporter Slams Hannity and Fox For Defending Abusive Coach)
On this Sunday’s Reliable Sources on CNN, ESPN senior writer Andy Katz was asked by host Howard Kurtz about Fox hosts Eric Bolling and Sean Hannity and their defense of the abusive Rutgers basketball coach last week and Katz was more than happy to give Kurtz an earful with what he thought of them.
Fox hosts Eric Bolling and Sean Hannity respond to abusive coach Mike Rice being fired by defending, and even praising his behavior. Stay classy, Fox News.
Eric Bolling and people like him are out of touch with what’s happening with America.
Fox News host Eric Bolling bemoaned Rutgers University’s decision to fire men’s basketball coach Mike Rice, after video surfaced of Rice abusing players by throwing basketballs at them, shoving them, and harassing them with profane and homophobic language, including “fucking faggot.”
“We’re in the midst of political correctness crushing our ability to teach kinds, to discipline kids, to disagree with people or one another or kids,” Bolling complained. “Our culture is in decline, but this is an example of our culture in free fall and I’m saying this because he got fired, not because of what he did.”
But Bolling dismissed all this, arguing that the players are “used to this coach, he does this.”
Fox News commentator Eric Bolling on Tuesday marked the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq by arguing that launching the unpopular war was “the smartest thing George Bush did.”
Bolling, a co-host of Fox’s evening program “The Five,” began by establishing the premise that late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein “was a bad guy” who had openly threatened to to invade Kuwait in 1990. Co-host Bob Beckel then pointed out that Hussein did launch an invasion and occupation of Kuwait, a correction that annoyed but didn’t deter Bolling.
Bolling then got back on track, asserting that deposing Hussein was a no-brainer and an unassailable decision by Bush.
It wasn’t the first time Bolling presented a dubious history of the Iraq War. In January, he took to Twitter to justify the 2003 invasion was justified because Hussein “financed” the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Last night on The O’Reilly Factor, previewing Sen. Marco Rubio’s response to President Obama’s State of the Union speech, Fox News political analyst Karl Rove labeled Rubio “the American experience” and declared him “probably one of the best communicators since Ronald Reagan.”
Over-the-top praise of Rubio on the network is nothing new. Rubio’s increasingly prominent role in the national political conversation is thanks, in part, to the help of Fox News, which has served as his primary cheerleader since his 2010 Senate campaign.
In recent weeks, Rove in particular has showered praise on Rubio and his role in the debate over immigration reform. His comparison of Rubio to Reagan on The O’Reilly Factor wasn’t even the first time he had done so on Fox’s airwaves this month; he made similar comments during a February 4 appearance on Special Report.
Rove isn’t alone in his adoration of the Florida senator. Fox personalities have fawned over Rubio on-air for years, boosted his 2010 Florida Senate run (including helping him fundraise on-air), hosted him for dozens of primetime appearances on the network, and repeatedly touted him as an ideal vice presidential pick for former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
When Marco Rubio declared his intention to run for the Florida Senate seat left open by Mel Martinez, he trailed Gov. Charlie Crist — then still a Republican — by a huge margin and seemed like a longshot candidate.
Less than a year and a half later, Rubio was elected comfortably. According to Rubio, his meteoric rise in the race is thanks in no small part to Fox News political analyst Karl Rove.
Appearing at a fundraising breakfast for Rove’s Crossroads political groups at the 2012 Republican National Convention, Rubio claimed it was “big news” when Rove personally donated money to his Senate campaign because it meant that ”someone of his stature would actually take a bet on someone who was such a long shot.”
Rove’s help for Rubio extended well beyond sending personal checks; the Crossroads groups poured nearly $3 million (by Rove’s accounting) into the race. During his fundraising pitch for Crossroads at the RNC, Rubio specifically praised the ads Rove’s groups ran in his favor, saying “you would turn on the TV and there were ads that created a clear distinction, and did so in ways that were meaningful.”
Rove wasn’t the only Fox personality that helped Rubio’s Senate run — the network practically went all-in for him.
During his Senate run, Rubio was also formally endorsed — in addition to being praised on-air — by several Fox personalities, including former contributors Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and Rick Santorum. In addition to endorsing Rubio, Fox host Mike Huckabee gave material support to his campaign in the form of a $5,000 donation from his political group, Huck PAC.
h/t: MMFA
Crooks and Liars: Fox’s Bolling and the Cashin’ In Panel Blames Union Contracts for the U.S. Postal Service’s Financial Woes
Leave it to Fox to do the bidding of the House Republicans and their allies, who are doing their best to try to destroy the U.S. Postal Service. Never mind the damage that would be done to the elderly who rely on the mail to receive their prescriptions, small businesses and Americans who live in rural areas with shoddy Internet service and the thousands of Americans who earn a decent middle class living from being employed there.
No, in the view of the majority of the panel members on this Saturday’s edition of Cashin’ In, that’s a terrible thing that those people are gainfully employed and heaven forbid have union representation and it’s all their fault that the Post Office is in financial straights. And par for the course with these “business block” shows of theirs, the only voice of reason was the one, poor, lonely outnumbered “liberal” Christian Dorsey, who did actually tell the truth about one of the problems — which is that Congress has “forced the USPS to pre-fund 75 years’ worth of pensions for its employees, a requirement not made of any other public or private institution.”
Instead we were treated to the rest of them screaming that we need to privatize the Postal Service, lying and telling the audience that other industries would provide the same services less expensively and ignoring, other than Dorsey again, that they have a mandate to serve all Americans which those other companies are not bound by. It really just boiled down to another shameful exercise in union bashing, which is what these Saturday shows on Fox do week, after week, after week, or at least when they’re not attacking the poor and demonizing liberals in general.
Fox News “The Five” co-host Eric Bolling is adding to his duties at the network. According to Hal Boedeker at The Orlando Sentinel, Bolling will become the anchor of “Cashin’ In,” one of FNC’s weekend financial shows.
h/t: TVNewser.com
Bolling = Grade-A++++++ idiot.
From the 01.09.2013 edition of FNC’s The Five:
In 2012, like most years, U.S. gasoline prices fluctuated according to global market conditions, seasonal changes in demand and several other factors. Fox News fluctuated too, finding bad — often contradictory — news in the ups and downs alike. No matter which way gas prices went, the network always found a way to forecast doom for the economy and pin it on Obama. But experts agree that no president can control gas prices.
Early in the year, Fox News launched a relentless campaign to pin unseasonably high gasoline prices on President Obama. The network had tried this before, but this time the coverage reached a fever pitch. During the first two months of 2012, Fox News blamed gas prices on Obama more than three times as often as all other major news outlets combined, even distorting charts to serve their agenda. To do this, Fox often claimed that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline or expanded domestic drilling could lower gas prices, while ignoring that Obama has significantly raised fuel economy standards — a measure that would help consumers reduce their dependence on oil and vulnerability to price spikes.
The network gloated that prices at the pump could be an “opportunity to disrupt” good economic news for Obama, or maybe even “enough to derail his return to the office.” To support that goal, Fox News regularly hosted Eric Bolling, a former minor league baseball player and major Wall Street oil and energy futures trader. While Fox News presented him as an expert, actual experts, even those who support increasing access to oil, have called his claims “absolute and utter rubbish,” “idiotic,” “nonsense,” and “not correct.”
In May, as gas prices began to fall, one Fox News legal analyst took to “hoping gasoline’s going to stay close to five dollars in November.” Apparently worried that low prices could be a boon for Obama’s reelection campaign, anchors on Fox News and Fox Business suddenly began warning that “CHEAP GAS ISN’T GOOD.”
These anchors tried to explain that low gas prices could be “just a sign of a weakening economy,” or as Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer put it “a sign of a looming global economic crisis.” The networks’ sudden concern came after months of ignoring broader economic factors in its gasoline price reporting.
With gasoline prices predictably rising in summer and election season kicking into high gear, Fox News once again portrayed high gas prices as a problem, and suggested that Mitt Romney’s energy plan could be the solution. In August, Neil Cavuto twice hosted former Shell Oil executive John Hofmeister to announce that he would vote for Romney and claim that gasoline prices were high because of a lack of domestic production under Obama. Cavuto failed to note that Hofmeister is currently a director at several oil and gas companies (and that his entire premise was baloney).
Throughout 2012, Fox News pushed the talking point that gasoline prices had nearly doubled since Obama took office — failing to mention that when he was inaugurated in January 2009, the U.S. was in the middle of a recession and low demand had depressed the price of oil and gasoline. During the second presidential debate, President Obama explained this point, to no avail: Fox News figures claimed Obama’s comments were “totally bogus” despite all evidence to the contrary.
FNC and FBN cannot be trusted to tell the unbiased truth if it bit them on the ass.
Post: http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/12/29/2012-a-year-of-gas-price-fibs-on-fox/191943
