WITH FOXES, WE MUST PLAY THE FOX
Why Fox News Must be Taken Off the Air, And How it Can Be Done
by Johnny Strife
Part One: The Problem
In the midst of America’s Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus to shut down newspapers that were fueling insurrection by printing what he considered to be seditious material. He stated his rationale for such seemingly draconian measures by asking, “Are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated?” Today, another President from Illinois (kind of), Barack Obama, is the Commander-in-Chief of a nation at war on two fronts, Iraq and Afghanistan. He might also, one might argue, be presiding over a nascent civil war at home. Granted, this civil war is now only a war of words, but in history, words have often been the genesis of real battles.
Although Obama had grand hopes of unifying a country so endemically fractured by its ideological, religious, racial and sexual differences once he took office, we are now arguably more divided than ever before. Loud, toxic voices are stirring up winds of anger, hatred and fear. The most overbearing of these voices is that of the media leviathan Fox News Channel. In America, a land where pride and greed are tacitly considered virtues, he who speaks with the loudest voice is often considered the most righteous, which might be why Fox News Channel (FNC) garners more viewers than any other news provider.
For eight long years, FNC played the cheerleader to President George W. Bush and his administration, lauding his every action as heroic and unconditionally omitting all of his mistakes and crimes. But after Fox-endorsed Senator John McCain lost the 2008 election, FNC turned 180-degrees and became a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week Obama-bashing marathon. Mere minutes after FNC aired the Presidential Inauguration on January 20, 2009, Glenn Beck, apocalyptic fear-monger and host of FNC’s Glenn Beck Program, came on the air and started to verbally tear the new President to shreds, invoking the name of the Christian God to do it. There was no grace period; the crucifixion began before the First Couple’s first dance, and it hasn’t stopped since.
From its humble beginnings in 1985 until now, FNC has promulgated a gospel of hatred and fear, degrading the level of mainstream American journalism to a nadir so abysmal and vile that it has made tabloid fluff like CNN look like a real news channel by comparison. You can usually spot a hardcore FNC viewer (and really, is there any other kind?) by their harried, distracted appearance and their almost palpable aura of barely suppressed hysteria. They have the demeanor of the doomed, as if America is on the brink of collapse. Out of nowhere, they’ll make bizarre statements with the conviction of a street preacher; stuff like: “Barack Obama said if he gets elected he’s going to throw out the Constitution.” (I actually heard that, more than twice.) Or, “Did you hear that Barack Obama promised all the black people that if they got him elected he’d give them $500 each?” And they usually have something bad to say about Oscar-winning actors and any musicians that don’t sing country or gospel.
This proposal isn’t for those people; they’re already lost. They wouldn’t read it anyway, even if they are semi-literate; they’d think it was a product of the “liberal media elite”. Fox Fans like their information disseminated with a fist and condensed to the simplest of sound bites; they don’t want to read something with a lot of big words in it. I used to have a modicum of pity for FNC viewers, akin to that which I hold for those simple folk who offed themselves back in 1938 because they believed Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” radio drama was an actual, live news broadcast. But now the hateful bile and deception spewed daily by their oracle into the national consciousness has reached a critical mass, and it’s time for those of us whose love for America isn’t limited to its straight, white, conservative, and evangelical citizens to start taking the future of our country a little more seriously. I know this is a case of preaching to the choir, but everyone else in the church seems to have fallen asleep.
FNC’s proponents vehemently deny that it is a conservative network, claiming their programming is “Fair and Balanced” (FNC’s trademark), that they show all sides of an issue, unlike all the other “media elite,” which have a hidden liberal agenda. But the fact is, FNC is the American version of Al Jazeera: a tool used by the conservative party to control the miniscule minds of the ignorant masses. The only substantive difference is that FNC isn’t motivated by religious fanaticism, but rather by greed: the more people it gets to watch its product, the more advertisers pay it to air their commercials. Rupert Murdoch, FNC’s owner, knows something about making money. He is a conservative Australian media tycoon with a Ronald Reagan infatuation and, apparently, a desire to own all media in the world. In 2004, he owned nine satellite television networks, 100 cable channels, 175 newspapers, 40 book imprints, 40 television stations, and a movie studio. His U.S. television network reached 180-million viewers, while his Asian satellite network reached 300-million. His cable channels reached 300-million homes. His magazines reached 28-milion readers. His total audience was 4.7 billion people, which is three-fourths of Earth’s population, and that was five years ago. He went on to buy MySpace in 2005.
Murdoch gave birth to Fox News when he bought Washington D.C.’s Metromedia News Channel WTTG in 1985. The man he chose to be FNC’s President, Roger Ailes, was a Republican media strategist employed by Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. His game plan for Bush Sr.’s campaign featured a preincarnation of the smear tactics of Karl Rove: he used the image of William Horton, a black convict serving a life sentence in Massachusetts for murder. While released from prison on a weekend furlough program – which Bush’s opponent, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, had supported – Horton raped a woman, pistol-whipped, stabbed and tied up her fiancé, and stole their car. Ailes used this tragic incident as the centerpiece of Bush’s campaign, painting Dukakis as a bleeding heart liberator of black rapist murderers. He said of his own strategy, “The only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it.”
John Moody, FNC Senior Vice President, is a stout conservative with a long career in journalism. Moody is the actual ideological force behind FNC; all of its shows and reports are basically a mouthpiece for his arch-conservative views. He controls the daily talking points that every FNC host, anchor, commentator and reporter will follow by disseminating daily memos. These memos are usually taken directly from the daily press releases of the Republican National Committee. These talking points are echoed, often verbatim, through every show in the course of a news day, beginning with the morning show, Fox Friends, and continuing through the news, punditry and business segments. There is a unity of purpose and message at FNC that exists nowhere else in American journalism, and it is a message that parallels, without the slightest deviance, that of the Republican Party. Like the Biblical demon that Jesus exorcised in The Gospel of Mark, one can almost imagine Moody intoning, “My name is Legion… for we are many.”
Tony Snow, who died of colon cancer in 2005, was the host of Fox News Sunday. Before that, he was a speechwriter for the first Bush administration. He actually left FNC to replace Scott McClellan as the Press Secretary for the second Bush administration. Brit Hume, Fox’s managing editor and anchor of Special Report, used to contribute to the conservative magazines American Spectator and the The Weekly Standard. Catherine Crier, anchor of Crier Report, used to be a Republican judge.
As the years passed, FNC gradually become more flagrant in their partisanship. In 2000, for instance, Carl Cameron was FNC’s Senior Political Correspondent, covering the presidential election. Meanwhile, his wife Pauline was working for then-Texas Governor Bush’s presidential campaign. FNC didn’t even blanch at this blatant conflict of interest, though even CNN had the journalistic integrity to pull one of its top reporters from the campaign trail when it was discovered her husband was one of Al Gore’s lawyers. In a videotaped interview he conducted on June 19, 2000, Cameron blushed like a ten-year-old girl with a backstage pass to a Hannah Montana concert as he told Bush that his wife was “hanging out” with Bush’s sister, and overcoming her fear of talking before crowds. “She’s a good soul,” said Bush, nodding sagely. “She’s a really good soul.”
As if that wasn’t bad enough, it got even worse five months later. In a diabolically cynical, blatantly political move that permanently obliterated any arguments FNC might ever raise about being a non-partisan news channel, the man FNC put in charge of its Election Analysis Division, stationed in Florida, on election night, was George W. Bush’s cousin, John Ellis. It was him who made the call to FNC headquarters reporting that Bush was the next President of the United States, even though the data from the exit polls hadn’t yet been crunched. (As is now public record, when the exit polls were finally counted, Al Gore had won, but who cares now, right?) Mere minutes after FNC joyfully and “officially” announced that their man had won, ABC, CBS and NBC, not wanting to appear sluggish at getting the news out, followed suit and echoed the same faulty information. The falsehood became fact in the public’s perception, and the Democrats, as is their wont, went down without a real fight. To put into perspective just how inconceivable this farce was: in 2000, there were roughly 281-million people living in America. Is it numerically possible that out of all those souls, the man who made the call that essentially elevated Bush to the office of the most powerful man on the planet was his cousin, and the governor of the state that helped him do it was his brother? If former Vice President Al Gore, Bush’s opponent, had pulled those kind of shenanigans, FNC would have torn him a new asshole. (Actually, FNC’s goons do, still, mostly because he believes in global warming, but perhaps also because they’re jealous of him: nobody at FNC will ever, ever win a Nobel Peace Prize.)
Since that victory, FNC’s reporting has gotten exponentially more partisan and divorced from reality. Its Vice President of News, Bill Sammon, said the 2005 Hurricane Katrina debacle wasn’t the Bush administration’s fault; rather, that it was the fault of local governments for not being able to take care of their constituents.
Scrutinizing this sampling of FNC’s leaders and “news” correspondents, one can see that there is not one liberal, or even a moderate, among them. In my next segment, some examples of FNC’s “commentary” people will be presented.
This is stunning, and a disappointment...
I wish someone could explain to me why the best candidate we've had for President of the United States continues to have to be drug into the media to defend himself over two individuals. Whether it's a former pastor or real estate developer, why do we continue to see any candidate weather a storm like this with so much as stake right now?
Have we forgotten about the characters in the lives of both Bill & Hillary Clinton? Of John McCain? In our own lives?
Again, it is stunning to see that in the year 2008 we are here on a Tuesday night in the Spring season and our attention remains fixed on this while gas is almost unaffordable, food choices at the grocery store are having to be seriously altered to meet a budget that no longer can sustain it, and jobs that can sustain average Americans are harder and harder to find. We have troops on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and all over the world. A soaring trade deficit, national debt, and we are talking about a man not even in the running for the most powerful political office in the world?
Where is our Leadership? Where is the muscle in the Democrat and Republican Parties of the United States? Where are the decent political leaders who should be outraged that Barack Obama is continually being attacked over this mess? Where are any of our leaders?
Are we going to gamble away this wonderful opportunity we have to shake this off, roll up our sleeves, and make a fantastic nation even better?
Still want answers? How about asking Illinois? I ask you. Barack Obama is the junior Senator from your state. Are we to believe that your collective judgment somehow overlooked this man, passing through your State Senate, onto the U.S. Senate, and to the position of Presidential Candidate Frontrunner and you somehow missed whatever secret everyone keeps digging for? Or, can we just say that Senator Obama is a great guy, and we can all follow him together?
GREETINGS OBAMITES!Some of you know that I lead an ongoing "charge" against the insidious journalism practiced by FOX NEWS and SHAWN HANNITY. I have taken it personally, as have many of you, when these Neoconservatives apply these dangerous, misleading and offensive practices to our candidate. While the attached letter was sent to over 80 newspapers, Editors and pundits, I took the liberty of forwarding it, separately, to Mr. Keith Olbermann and COUNTDOWN at MSNBC. I did so, because I know NO OTHER PUNDIT who could vocalize the feeling of indignation that so many of you have told me that you have felt. It warranted, I felt, the castigating tone that is one of Mr. Olbermann's "to the point" hallmarks. I was honored in that he conveyed my message "loud and clear." This, my friends, was beyond imperrative, because Mr Hannity's incidiary tone could have reasonably been expected to incite radicals who, in an a "John Wilkes Booth-like" show of mutated patriotic bigotry, could very well attempt to do PHYSICAL harm to Senator Barack Obama or to members of his family. Keith, however, took it ONE STEP FURTHER, and exposed the expressions of SANCTIONED HATE that have come forth from FOX owner, RUPERT MURDOCH and the patrons of his public-opinion boards and blogs. I have posted the TWO relevant links in the "boxed" section immediately following this one, as well as at the points of relevance in the main body of this piece for easy reader correlation. It may interest you to know that, yesterday, it was made clear, that Democratic Governor, and staunch Clinton supporter, Governor Ed Rendell, of Pennsylvania, has endorsed…FOX NEWS! (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23889508#23889508). The Governor described it as "a fair and balance"news service. Keith immediately bestowed upon him the same "testimonial" earned only by the members of that most "exclusive of exclusive," "members only" order; THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD! Subsequent letter: Shawn Hannity: STOP the anti-OBAMA “FOX-VIRUS” NOW (http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/rickbasora/gGBnpb)
GREETINGS OBAMITES!
Some of you know that I lead an ongoing "charge" against the insidious journalism practiced by FOX NEWS and SHAWN HANNITY. I have taken it personally, as have many of you, when these Neoconservatives apply these dangerous, misleading and offensive practices to our candidate. While the attached letter was sent to over 80 newspapers, Editors and pundits, I took the liberty of forwarding it, separately, to Mr. Keith Olbermann and COUNTDOWN at MSNBC. I did so, because I know NO OTHER PUNDIT who could vocalize the feeling of indignation that so many of you have told me that you have felt. It warranted, I felt, the castigating tone that is one of Mr. Olbermann's "to the point" hallmarks. I was honored in that he conveyed my message "loud and clear." This, my friends, was beyond imperrative, because Mr Hannity's incidiary tone could have reasonably been expected to incite radicals who, in an a "John Wilkes Booth-like" show of mutated patriotic bigotry, could very well attempt to do PHYSICAL harm to Senator Barack Obama or to members of his family. Keith, however, took it ONE STEP FURTHER, and exposed the expressions of SANCTIONED HATE that have come forth from FOX owner, RUPERT MURDOCH and the patrons of his public-opinion boards and blogs. I have posted the TWO relevant links in the "boxed" section immediately following this one, as well as at the points of relevance in the main body of this piece for easy reader correlation. It may interest you to know that, yesterday, it was made clear, that Democratic Governor, and staunch Clinton supporter, Governor Ed Rendell, of Pennsylvania, has endorsed…FOX NEWS! (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23889508#23889508). The Governor described it as "a fair and balance"news service. Keith immediately bestowed upon him the same "testimonial" earned only by the members of that most "exclusive of exclusive," "members only" order; THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD!
Subsequent letter: Shawn Hannity: STOP the anti-OBAMA “FOX-VIRUS” NOW (http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/rickbasora/gGBnpb)
KEITH OLBERMANN presents: THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
March 19, 2008 - Hannity's Site Features Outrageous Obama Posts http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23716643 March 21, 2008 - FoxNews.com HATE SPEECH http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23750779
March 19, 2008 - Hannity's Site Features Outrageous Obama Posts
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23716643
March 21, 2008 - FoxNews.com HATE SPEECH
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23750779
From: Rick Basora [the_dragonwolf@comcast.net]
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 11:23 AM
To: KEITH OLBERMANN & COUNTDOWN [countdown@msnbc.com]
Subject: FW: SHAWN HANNITY - THE PINNACLE OF IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM AT ITS WORST
The very “worstest” person in the world
Keith, You are my absolute “bestest PUNDITARIAN hero.” I’ve circulated this “modestly” but my deepest hope is that it gets to you. Kindly note the “Olbermannisms.”
SIC’EM!
Nothing can excuse the extremes of irresponsible journalism exhibited by Shawn Hannity and FOX on the 3/9/08 edition of Hannity's America. There, he deliberately attempted to vilify a Presidential candidate with tabloid-worthy disinformation. This is how tyranny is raised; by feeding it. I wrote this letter and sent it to the journalistic world in order to expose this un-American "jester". I am forwarding it to the respectable and credible Keith Olbermann, in hopes that he may use it as a "belt" with which to "spank" this buffoon for discrediting your legitimate profession of "informers of the world." If this “Roman Circus” of an election campaign succeeds in its apparent objective of robbing America of its “popular” will, let all Americans know, that Shawn Hannity stands charged and convicted of complicity.
From: Rick Basora Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 11:26 PM
To: Hannity@foxnews.com; Feedback@foxnews.com; yourcomments@foxnews.com
Cc: 'americasnewsroom@foxnews.com'; 'Myword@foxnews.com'; 'Friends@foxnews.com'; 'Jamie@foxnews.com'; 'Newswatch@foxnews.com'; 'Foxreport@foxnews.com'; 'Atlarge@foxnews.com'; 'JER@foxnews.com'; 'Lineup@foxnews.com'; 'Martha@foxnews.com'; 'Ontherecord@foxnews.com'; 'Special@foxnews.com'; 'Cavuto@foxnews.com'; 'editor@ajr.org'; 'mailto:editor@ajr.org'; 'rrieder@ajr.org'; 'rsmolkin@ajr.org'; 'tkunkel@ajr.org'; 'executive-editor@nytimes.com'; 'managing-editor@nytimes.com'; 'washington@nytimes.com'; 'national@nytimes.com'; 'metro@nytimes.com'; 'news-tips@nytimes.com'; 'public@nytimes.com'; 'president@nytimes.com'; 'CEO-CarolineLittle@wpni.com'; 'executive.editor@washingtonpost.com'; 'wsj.ltrs@wsj.com'; 'a.murray@wsj.com'; 'a.latour@wsj.com'; 'd.pettit@wsj.com'; 't.cullen@wsj.com'; 'j.fry@wsj.com'; 'darren.mcdermott@wsj.com'; 'ombudsman@washpost.com'; 'metro@washpost.com'; 'national@washpost.com'; 'tips@tribune.com'; 'ctc-tribletter@tribune.com'; 'publiceditor@tribune.com'; 'EAchenbaum@tribune.com'; 'ctc-editor@tribune.com'; 'bdold@tribune.com'; 'TMcNulty@tribune.com'; 'gdelama@tribune.com'; 'JCWarren@tribune.com'; 'aaguilar@tribune.com'; 'aahmed@tribune.com'; 'KAlleynemorris@tribune.com'; 'LBAnderson@tribune.com'; 'rranderson@tribune.com'; 'kataiyero@tribune.com'; 'NBendavid@tribune.com'; 'lbowean@tribune.com'; 'SChapman@tribune.com'; 'LCohen@tribune.com'; 'JChase@tribune.com'; 'JCrewdson@tribune.com'; 'HDardick@tribune.com'; 'MDorning@tribune.com'; 'askamy@tribune.com'; 'national@latimes.com'; 'tvtimes@latimes.com'; 'op-ed@latimes.com'; 'letters@latimes.com'; 'info@ap.org'; 'mediainquiries@msnbc.com'
Subject: SHAWN HANNITY - THE PINNACLE OF IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM AT ITS WORST
To Shawn Hannity and to the Management of Fox Broadcasting;
Last night, as I watched Shawn Hannity, on Hannity’s America, corrupt the minds of “the corruptible” with a program that tendered accusations of “terrorist” affiliations between Barack Obama and William Ayers of the former Weathermen, I was reminded of the collective “brainwashing” that, as a child, I was taught to believe was a characteristic only of “evil” nations like the former Soviet Union and of former Nazi Germany. As a child, I recall being assured by my 6th grade teacher that such a robbery of the human “will” would never be tolerated in America. FREEDOM, she said, could only be achieved by a people who were empowered with TRUTH as the element that, along with a sense of identity, made valid their RIGHT to CHOOSE it. Last night, your Shawn Hannity usurped that right from those Americans susceptible to the inflammatory; from those vulnerable to the politics of FEAR and from those ignorant BY CHOICE to the REALITIES of the Presidential candidates at large.
Mr, Hannity, I am compelled to remind you that, despite your reluctance, we still reside in a country where the rule of law prescribes that a person is innocent, and not by association, until proven guilty. I feel further obligated to engage your cynical racial and religious bigotry by reminding you that, if African Americans find refuge in institutions and churches whose very names herald a predictable WELCOME, it is because the sins of our fathers have forced them, however subconsciously, to find refuge in an identity. (Keith Olbermann's observations - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23750779) No, Mr. Hannity, a church with a name that speaks to a black congregation is not a racist statement; it is a statement of fraternity that you and our forefathers insisted on disallowing white America from fully participating in…and yet…they welcome us. Further, you “mouth” the word “Muslim” as if it were the very “sound” of social and religious leprosy. You might recall that legitimate Muslims are a peaceful people in non-complicity with the fanatics that did us and still wish us harm. Your message, sir, is one that has a history of inciting lynch mobs and, just in case Jenna, LA taught you nothing, ALL OF AMERICA will put that mob DOWN. While I am certain that Senator Obama would strongly sensor my statement, I will ask you that, if you must hate the mutations of religious principal, then, Sir, hate the religion of The Crusades, of the THOUSAND YEARS of European Inquisition, of Waco, Texas and of The Salem Witch Trials. Hate whatever fed the narcissism of Reverends Jim Baker and Jim Jones and you can start by hating the perversion of 10,000 pedophile priests, the Institutions that fed them our children. Hate those who sanctioned their rape and that, in doing so, stripped many of us of the comfort that one should find in the words “In God We Trust.”
As it has become commonplace with radical Conservatives, last night Mr Hannity invoked the late President Reagan and his anecdote of a father who, back in the days of the “cold war”, declared that he would prefer to see his two little daughters dead…rather than to see them live under a faithless and godless Communist regime. With that story, Mr. Hannity attempted to rouse his audience to a “pitch” of nationalistic outrage. It appeared to me that he was IMPLICIT LY charging Senator Obama of practicing a communist-like godlessness. Allow me to remind FOX and Mr. Hannity that it was Mrs. Hillary Clinton’s Wellsley College thesis honoring her ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT mentor, Saul Alinsky and his MARXIST teachings, that earned her the appellative “Alinsky’s daughter.” The document necessitated its being SEALED to the public by a 1993 special Presidential order issued by her husband who considered it a political liability because of its “radical” content. This document was “unsealed” in 2001 after the Republicans took office and is currently available for your scrutiny and review. What happens to human convictions after 40 years have passed is known only to those minds that contain them and to God Himself who made them; not to Shawn Hannity.
He went on to showcase President Reagan in a clip from his “Star Wars” speech, where he indicated that America was “a country that did not start wars.” Gentlemen, if this was Shawn Hannity’s way of weaving “illusions of war-mongering” with which to surround a Presidential candidate who stands on a platform of DIALOGUE as his preferred weapon of pre-emption of war, you may want to advise him about the fact that we ARE, in fact, in a war unjustly started; a war that he endorsed and that he is a member of the political party that started it. Senator Obama was the legislator who attempted unsuccessfully to galvanize an effective movement to avoid it. History has proven him to have been STRATEGICALLY CORRECT and no degree of Mr. Hannity’s resenting him for it will grant him access to that elite minority reserved solely for the JUDGEMENTALLY SOUND.
As the pariah of last nights “Hannity’s America” unfolded, it was clear that Mr. Hannity extended warm and humane concern for the life and wellbeing of one Britney Spears. In stark contrast, was his misguided and malicious presentation of the character, principals, religion and persona of one Barack Obama; a legitimate Senator of the United States, respected by what most polls reflect as the majority of our country’s electorate. In doing so, this contemporary carpetbagger has insulted the MILLIONS whose voices are the mandate that drives his candidacy. Hannity has slapped the essential face of Democracy; of the decent journalists and pundits of FOX and of our media. He attempted a coupe on the people’s right for TRUTH to be allowed to guide the American Electoral process. Most of all, Mr. Hannity has provided the most educated minds in America, described by Frank Newport of the Gallup Organization as being the core of Senator Obama’s support, with irrefutable evidence that any legitimate opposition to Senator Obama’s Presidential bid can only find momentum in feeble minds inspired by synthesized realities delivered by “tabloid” journalists beholden to tyrants who, regardless of their party affiliation, are certainly worthy of the descriptive, “MONSTERS.” It is no wonder, gentlemen that we are referred to in Europe as “hypocritical contradictions of ourselves.”
Perhaps, Mr. Hannity, you may want to discuss issues that are current and of legitimate concern to America. I might suggest that you begin with programming devoted to the more than TEN MILLION DOLLARS in Saudi, Middle Eastern and Taiwan contributions received by the Clintons and disclosed by The Washington Post, The NY Times, Jihad Watch and more. Some good questions to begin with would be; how will this impact “President” Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy decisions regarding the war on terror if she and her husbands personal interests are funded by the world’s largest supporters of it? How will this Saudi endorsement affect her right to speak to women’s rights? How will Taiwan’s “offering” temper her engagement of China as the possible new “owner” of America? There are REAL issues, I assure you, that scream for addressing; issues of far greater nobility than your need for tabloid ratings. If, however, that is all that we can expect from you, you might consider a piece on the story that just broke on New York’s Governor Spitzer admitting to involvement in a prostitution ring. It is, as you know, yet another scandal from a State plagued by the seemingly polar opposites of unspeakable hardship and of chronic corruption by its politicians. That should be sordid enough to satisfy your personal and/or political libations, Sir.
Take heed of these, my closing words. The irresponsibility of Shawn Hannity’s “rabble rousing journalism” could very well inspire right wing radical extremists to commit acts in PATENT SUPPORT of his bastardized rant. Because you, Mr. Hannity, are in contempt of the most basic of professional standards and of the ethics of personal decency, we, the majority of America’s electorate hold you and The Fox Network personally responsible for any such actions and further hold you accountable for promoting them and for inspiring them. (KEITH OLBERMANN'S observations - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23716643)
If we are to learn the lessons willed to us by the American “giant” that was Robert F. Kennedy, it behooves us to recognize that YOU, Mr Hannity, are THE EXTREMIST.
“What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.” Robert Francis Kennedy
Rick Basora
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2008 6:00 PM
To: letters@time.com; WebEditors@newsweek.com; Letters@newsweek.com; letters@usnews.com
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Subject: Shawn Hannity - STOP the anti-OBAMA FOX VIRUS NOW
Dear Mr. Hannity;
By now you must certainly be aware that a NATIONAL MOVEMENT is in motion against you and against what America has come to know as THE FOX VIRUS that comes forth from the RADICAL EXTREMIST NEO-CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN mouthpiece that you and FOX have become. Presenting our voice to the media of America now comes in the form of the Robert Greenwald film “Fox Attacks Obama (Spreading the Virus)” which, as you can see, is the envelope sent “special delivery” and containing the national petition now underwritten by moveon.org and their Political Action’s Adam Green.
After the travesty of ethical journalism perpetrated by FEMA on October 26, 2007, where it hosted its own “staged” televised news conference reporting on the state of EMERGENCY SERVICES to victims of Hurricane Katrina, it was brought to the attention of America that, not only was the person addressing this “skit” a FEMA official, but so were those asking the questions who, while posing as reporters, were exposed by Al Kamen of The Washington Post in his article FEMA Meets the Press, Which Happens to Be . . . FEMA. The fact that the article alleges that you carried this charade LIVE, and then passed on the video to MSNBC and other news outlets, renders FOX Television, and its agents, complicit in the efforts of what Christy Hardin Smith, of FIREDOGLAKE, calls The Department of Planting Your Own Propaganda And Hoping No One Notices assigned to the Bush administration.
Mr. Hannity, neither you, nor your colleague-at-arms, Rush Limbaugh, can be allowed, by a nation on the very brink of social, economic, political and global chaos, to continue manipulating puppet strings, pushing buttons and pulling levers the outcome of which you CLEARLY know nothing about. Mr. Limbaugh’s disgracefully titled attempt at hijacking the current Presidential election has earned him the dubious distinction of being named WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23908634#23908634) by MSNBC's KEITH OLBERMANN. It now appears on his own website with the headline Operation Chaos Under Assault.
As you frantically attempt to continue the milking of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright controversy, synthetically created by your Conservative minions, you appear less than pathetic before an increasingly intolerant nation that, as you can see, by Senator John McCain’s attainment of the honorable position of The Republican Presidential Nominee, America has declared you and your Neoconservative “cult”, politically, philosophically, morally and subversively UNDESIREABLE.
I, and America, continue to observe your frenzied contribution to the engineering and staging of a premeditated and choreographed conspiracy aimed at discrediting the legitimacy of Senator Barack Obama as a Presidential candidate, as well as the WONDER of the grass-roots movement taking shape around him. We watch in dismay as you question your guests, carefully selected to provide the most desirable answers for the damming of the voice of HOPE that FOX radio has described as “sounding like Hitler.” Yet, when Democratic Analysts, Tanya Acker and Bob Beckel, as well as your own Alan Colmes, have asked you questions as simple as “So, are you saying that every child whose parents took them to the Trinity United Church of Christ is, therefore, disqualified from growing up to aspire to one day becoming President of the United States,” you conspicuously, and at every turn, refuse to answer the question. You are fully aware that, answering that question, honestly, would reduce you to the hypocritical contradiction of yourself that you are. Take note, Mr. Hannity, your refusal to respond implicitly convicts you in spite of you.
I was held in utter disbelief … which then slowly grew to anger when, last night, you summoned former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, to join in the spreading of THE FOX VIRUS. I found two things to be in poignant opposition with your intention of subverting America. The first was Mr. Gingrich’s repeated insistence that he did NOT question Senator Obama’s integrity, his loyalty to America or his non-alignment with Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s apparent anti-American rants. Later in the same program, and despite your best efforts, this same opinion was echoed, with even greater emphasis and eloquence, by Senator John McCain, who insisted on addressing issues of legitimate concern to our country and clearly, refused to participate in your scripted outcomes. You must, as a consequence, Sir, be torn between wondering if the walls of correctness are closing in on you or whether they, in fact, are spreading so far apart that your only company would be the members of your own League of Liars.
The second observation, born of your program’s intentions, last night, was your patent set-up of “JUDGMENT” as the supposedly flawed characteristic displayed by Senator Barack Obama in his choosing to continue to attend Wright’s Trinity church. You spoke the word “JUDGMENT,” with diacritical accentuation, no less than a dozen times and consistently modified it with adjectives such as “flawed,” “poor,” etc in your transparent attempt to pre-empt the Senator’s platform of SOUND JUDGEMENT in the furtherance of his Presidential bid. I will excuse myself from redundancy and I will quote my own words from the letter that, on March 16, 2008, I sent to you and Fox Management titled SHAWN HANNITY - THE PINNACLE OF IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM AT ITS WORST:
“Gentlemen, if this was Shawn Hannity’s way of weaving “illusions of war-mongering” with which to surround a Presidential candidate who stands on a platform of DIALOGUE as his preferred weapon of pre-emption of war, you may want to advise him about the fact that we ARE, in fact, in a war unjustly started; a war that he endorsed and that he is a member of the political party that started it. Senator Obama was the legislator who attempted unsuccessfully to galvanize an effective movement to avoid it. History has proven him to have been STRATEGICALLY CORRECT and no degree of Mr. Hannity’s resenting him for it will grant him access to that elite minority reserved solely for the JUDGEMENTALLY SOUND.”
Last night, what achieved the “apex of the offensive,” Sir, was that you utilized former Speaker, Newt Gingrich, to assist you in making the point of presenting Senator Obama’s judgment as, somehow, flawed. Might I remind you that Newt Gingrich headed the 1998 charge to impeach President William Jefferson Clinton on charges stemming from the extramarital affair that he sustained with one Monica Lewinsky. In a March 8, 2007 Associated Press article featured on your very own FOX News, titled "Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich Acknowledges ...Having Affair During Clinton Impeachment," we are presented with an interview with James Dobson of Focus on the Family that reveals the following:
“Gingrich argued in the interview, however, that he should not be viewed as a hypocrite for pursuing Clinton's infidelity.”
"The president of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge," the former Georgia congressman said of Clinton's 1998 House impeachment on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. "I drew a line in my mind that said, 'Even though I run the risk of being deeply embarrassed, and even though at a purely personal level I am not rendering judgment on another human being, as a leader of the government trying to uphold the rule of law, I have no choice except to move forward and say that you cannot accept ... perjury in your highest officials."
Sir, translated into common English, this says…There are rules and laws that apply to ALL, including the President of The United States, but that I, because my name is Newt Gingrich, a Neoconservative, reserve the right to exempt myself from them. No, Mr. Hannity, your show, your network, your self-righteous, pontificating ploys called supporting guests, your intentions, your manic obsession with imposing dynastic rule… but most of all, YOU… are tacitly UNACCEPTABLE as is your effort to present this morally diseased neoconservative “fowl” as someone qualified to “judge the judgment” of EAGLES. I am taking the liberty of forwarding this correspondence to Representative Henry Waxman, who, last year moved to have yours and Mr. Rush Limbaugh’s actions investigated, as well as to Federal Communications Commission Chairman, Kevin Martin, who, I am advised, has been put on notice of the nature of your endeavors, that now appear to many, as being contrary to our very national security.
America will NEVER belong to your minion of disguised patriotic indigence, Sir, and, least of all, to YOU. I would suggest that you listen to a song, considered by many of my generation as an American Anthem, and that I recently sent to the Democratic Superdelegates as well. In ’64 Bob Dylan spoke of times that were “a-changing. I submit to you, Shawn Hannity, that there is an unmistakable wind of CHANGE in the air and MILLIONS, like me, bear witness to its hopeful reality. To you, and to those like you, frantically trying to stop this will be like trying to stop the wind. We have paid for this campaign and for this movement, unlike the politicians of yesteryears and of today, with our own monies, 5, 10, 25 dollars at a time. I know that you must resent the force that such a movement presents. Your colleagues must , as well, fear the threat to their lifetime relationships with lobbyist dollars that will scatter like fallen leaves on this wind. Yes, Mr Hannity, make no mistake. More than times a-changing, Sir, the times …THEY DUN HAVE CHANGED!
Come senators, congressmen Please heed the call Don't stand in the doorway Don't block up the hall For he that gets hurt Will be he who has stalled There's a battle outside And it is ragin'. It'll soon shake your windows And rattle your walls For the times they are a-changin'.
From the song The Times They Are A-Changin’ by Bob Dylan (1964)
Complete lyrics - http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/times.html
Listen to it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vou4qUu5YY
RICK F. BASORA
If you're like me, you think the last thing you want to do is watch a sermon by Jeremiah Wright. That is unless, you want a "context", as it is called, for the incendiary vitriol of those snippets we were bombarded with by the media, with FOX News leading the charge.
Please take 10 minutes and watch the more fulsome version of the "chickens coming home to roost" quote in the post-9/11 sermon.
What you will learn is that Wright is quoting a former U.S. Ambassador, Ed Peck, in a FOX News appearance. Peck is a retired State Department "Arabist" who has made it his business to criticize US Middle East Policy on everything from our support for Israel to the sanctions on Saddam Hussein's Iraq. When you hear Wright's sermon in its context, not just the sound bite we were treated to previously, what is your reaction? Please comment below.
This was crossposted on March 21 at One Millions Strong, where you can read a number of good comments.
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 11:26 PM
To: 'Hannity@foxnews.com'; 'Feedback@foxnews.com'; 'yourcomments@foxnews.com'
Mr, Hannity, I am compelled to remind you that, despite your reluctance, we still reside in a country where the rule of law prescribes that a person is innocent, and not by association, until proven guilty. I feel further obligated to engage your cynical racial and religious bigotry by reminding you that if African Americans find refuge in institutions and churches whose very names herald a predictable WELCOME, it is because the sins of our fathers have forced them, however subconsciously, to find comfort in an identity. No, Mr. Hannity, a church with a name that speaks to a black congregation is not a racist statement; it is a statement of fraternity that you and our forefathers insisted on disallowing white America from fully participating in…and yet…they welcome us. Further, you “mouth” the word “Muslim” as if it were the very “sound” of social and religious leprosy. You might recall that legitimate Muslims are a peaceful people in non-complicity with the fanatics that did us and still wish us harm. Your message, sir, is one that has a history of inciting lynch mobs and, just in case Jenna, LA taught you nothing, ALL OF AMERICA will put that mob DOWN. While I am certain that Senator Obama would strongly sensor my statement, I will ask you that, if you must hate the mutations of religious principal, then, Sir, hate the religion of The Crusades, of the THOUSAND YEARS of European Inquisition, of Waco, Texas and of The Salem Witch Trials. Hate whatever fed the narcissism of Reverends Jim Baker and Jim Jones and you can start by hating the perversion of 10,000 pedophile priests, the Institutions that fed them our children. Hate those who sanctioned their rape and that, in doing so, stripped many of us of the comfort that one should find in the words “In God We Trust.”
Take heed of these, my closing words. The irresponsibility of Shawn Hannity’s “rabble rousing journalism” could very well inspire right wing radical extremists to commit acts in PATENT SUPPORT of his bastardized rant. Because you, Mr. Hannity, are in contempt of the most basic of professional standards and of the ethics of personal decency, we, the majority of America’s electorate hold you and The Fox Network personally responsible for any such actions and further hold you accountable for promoting them and for inspiring them. If we are to learn the lessons willed to us by the American “giant” that was Robert F. Kennedy, it behooves us to recognize that YOU, Mr Hannity, are THE EXTREMIST.
“What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents." Robert F. Kennedy
Pundits have claimed that the only difference between Hillary and Obama is health care. It's much more than that. It's the way they do things. What we need is an election that repudiates 8 years of identity politics, spin, and lies. Barak Obama does that. Hillary Clinton uses the same Bush tactics to push new policies.
She's taken to heart the Bush lesson of claiming a strength where she is weakest. At her Super Tuesday speech, she said: "After seven years of a president who listens only to the special interests, you’re ready for a president who brings your voice... to your White House." Yeah, and the Clear Skies Initiative would reduce air pollution. Hillary has entrenched her campaign in special interest money, accepting millions Obama has refused to take. Accepting the money is not disturbing. Lying about it is.
Hillary learned from Karl Rove. Obama wants to prove Karl Rove wrong. The concrete under Obama’s platform is that Americans are smart enough for honesty to win.
The difference between Obama and Hillary is HOW they will go about things. For young Americans, the change that matters is the restoration of the America we love: an America based on the idea that given the facts, reasonable people make reasonable decisions, and every citizen is competent to make a choice. We see 7 years of incompetence as the root of a broken system. Both candidates will bring competence. Obama will bring honesty and openness. That's the healing America needs. The fact that he keeps gaining on someone who holds IOUs in every district proves that America is beginning to believe, too.
Rupert Murdoch is sponsoring Hillary Clinton fundraisers. The corporate media got us into messes in both elections and in Iraq. The 1996 Telecommunications Act created a media that allowed George Bush to get away with lies. I guarantee you Obama won’t be soft on media consolidation. Clinton knows she needs media support to win reelection. Clinton claims competence. Obama will change the fundamental sources of incompetence. A vote for Hillary is "not in the next four years." A vote for Obama is "never again."
RUPERT Murdoch's Fox News network might lean to the right and its commentators are harsh critics of Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, but it seems the boss has backed her campaign, along with many of his News Corporation executives.
ARTICLE-http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/murdoch-inc-digging-deep-for-hillary/2007/11/30/1196394621263.html
