Eric Boehlert Weighs in on the Media Coverage of the Murdoch Hacking Scandal
July 16, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Keith Olbermann took the night off on Current TV with his fellow former MSNBC contributor David Shuster filling in for him, which makes me wonder if Shuster might be one of the next people to be announced as one of Current TV’s new lineup as they bring in new shows. Speculation aside, Shuster talked to Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert about the scandal with News of the World and how that has been covered at their American “news” channel, Fox News here in the U.S., and as Boehlert and Shuster noted here it’s either been all but ignored or their coverage has tried to deflect it as part of some problem that has nothing to do with the media company’s legal problems. You can read more at Media Matters and how this story has been covered by our corporate media here — REPORT: How CNN, MSNBC, And Fox Are Covering News Corp. Hacking Scandal* : News Corp.’s long-simmering phone-hacking scandal has reignited, throwing its global media empire into turmoil. As allegations of hacking into private citizens’ voicemail increase, media and tabloid practices have been called into question. With a large and influential presence in the United States, News Corp. and its subsidiaries (including Fox News) should be under intense scrutiny in the American press. A Media Matters analysis has found great disparity in the amount of coverage given to the scandal by CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. Analysis: CNN Covered News Corp.’s Hacking Scandal In More Than 100 Segments CNN And MSNBC Report On News Corp. Scandal More Than Twice As Often As Fox News. According to a Media Matters analysis**, in the nine days since the News Corp. phone-hacking scandal reignited, CNN reported on the developing story in 108 segments, MSNBC covered the story in 71 segments, and Fox News covered the story in 30 segments. enlarge Credit: Media Matters
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Friday night on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees, the lead story was on a counseling clinic owned by presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and her husband.
Continue reading …Palin’s propaganda movie does not-so-boffo biz — even in right-wing markets
July 16, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media We noticed last week that Sarah Palin was opening her propaganda movie, The Undefeated on the same day as the final Harry Potter movie. It’s turning out about as well as you’d expect. Like Dolores Umbridge and the centaurs. As Reuters reports , the movie is only being released in 10 theaters nationwide, all focused on right-wing precincts like Orange County and Dallas. And the folks who are showing up are certainly enthusiastic: “Run, Sarah, run!” shouted Californian Sherman Roodzant, 64, as the final credits rolled on the 1:10 p.m. showing in a half-filled theater in Orange. Roodzant drove 150 miles (240 km) to see it and said it was worth every mile. “It was awesome,” Roodzant said. “It showed her life story and showed what a great American she is and what a great potential leader she is. It made me feel stronger toward her.” That kind of fervor is exactly what distributors are banking on. They saw it at the premiere last month in a small town in conservative-leaning Iowa. “I couldn’t believe the crowd reaction” in Iowa, said Trevor Drinkwater, CEO of ARC Entertainment, which is handling the film’s distribution. “It is a biased crowd, but still.” And of course, they’re outraged that the movie isn’t showing in more theaters RIGHT NOW: Gay Meador, 62, said she was “shocked and ashamed” that the Orange AMC theater was the only place where “The Undefeated” was showing in her area, let alone California. Except, of course, for the little problem that, as Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic reports, most of the seats in the 10 theaters where it’s showing are going empty: I hurried through the teenage hordes, bypassed a concession stand that sold 1,020 calories of soda for $5.25, and entered theater number 30, hoping I’d have ample time before the previews to talk to some people. But inside, the theater was empty. I sat there alone for 20 minutes, at which point an usher stuck his head in the door, gave me a quizzical smile, and said, “How come you’re not watching Harry Potter?” Then he left me by myself again, and without any good answer. And those who have seen the film with, ah, more objective eyes seem to want the hour and a half of their lives back — such as Marlow Stern at The Daily Beast : When Palin is selected as John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election, and the small-town girl is besieged on all sides, the film loses its grip entirely. In a classic film-propaganda tactic, personal attacks on Palin by media pundits correspond with shocking videos of avalanches, packs of lions feeding on zebras, people being buried alive in sand on the beach, and medieval knights with arrows in their backs. At times, the viewer feels like he or she is playing out the iconic scene in Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, where criminal Alex DeLarge is strapped to a chair, eyes spread wide, and subjected to a series of violent images as a brainwashing technique. Me? I’m going to see the Potter film this afternoon. In IMAX 3-D. The Palin film isn’t showing anywhere in Seattle.
Continue reading …Rupert Murdoch Reminds ABC’s Kofman of Ebenezer Scrooge Instead of Shakespearean Tragedy
July 16, 2011 No Comment
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Click here to view this media Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) has a solution for determining who won’t get paid if Congress fails to raise the debt limit and the U.S. defaults. The congressman brought a large wheel with him to the House floor Friday. Spinning the wheel determines which group won’t get paid when the Treasury runs out of cash. “[Republicans are] paying a game with our economy to force through an extremist agenda,” Deutch explained. “That’s what we’ve been battling against. That’s what you’ve been watching. That’s what people all around the country are so incredibly frustrated with. It’s a game that I have right beside me. It is, in fact, the GOP Wheel of Misfortune, except in this game there are no winners.”
Continue reading …Maher: Palin Is ‘A Bully Who Sells Patriotism Like a Pimp and the Leader of a Strange Family of Inbred Weirdos’
July 16, 2011 No Comment
As NewsBusters has been reporting, Friday's installment of HBO's “Real Time” contained possibly the most vile political talk ever aired on national television. In the final segment, host Bill Maher said, “Sarah Palin is a vainglorious braggart, a liar, a whiner, a professional victim, a scold, a know-it-all, a chiseler, a bully who sells patriotism like a pimp, and the leader of a strange family of inbred weirdos straight out of 'The Hills Have Eyes'” (video follows with transcript and commentary): BILL MAHER: And finally, New Rule: Republicans have to stop thinking up intricate psychological explanations for why liberals don't like Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann. Let me save you all some time. Are you ready? Because they're crazy people, people who are not that bright and full of awful ideas. Pretty much the exact same reasons we didn't care for George Bush and made jokes about him. So trust me, it's not because they have tits. It's because they are boobs. Now, I'm not saying that sexism doesn't exist and isn't real. And we can’t, but we can't throw around the word “sexist” just to stop people like me from pointing out that Michele Bachmann, now running second for the Republican presidential nomination, isn't a dangerous nincompoop. And when I point out that Sarah Palin is a vainglorious braggart, a liar, a whiner, a professional victim, a scold, a know-it-all, a chiseler, a bully who sells patriotism like a pimp, and the leader of a strange family of inbred weirdos straight out of “The Hills Have Eyes,” that's not sexist. I'm saying it because it's true, not because it's true of a woman. This came after: two of his guests talked about having violent hate sex with Bachmann and Rick Santorum; Maher compared Republicans to homocidal maniac Yasser Arafat, and; one of his guests said he wished Republicans “were all f–king dead.” Is this really what passes as civilized political discourse on HBO today?
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Claims of illegal attempt to gain 9/11 victims’ numbers bring outrage from Democrats and caution from Republicans The battle over Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is splitting American politics along party lines, with senior Democrats calling for investigations into the company while some senior Republicans play down the crisis. Allegations that News International reporters may illegally have attempted to obtain the phone numbers of 9/11 victims have prompted an FBI probe into the company, which last week launched a preliminary investigation into the allegations. But a backlash has begun, focusing on the source of the claim: a single story in the Daily Mirror . The former Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain has criticised the decision to investigate, saying there is little evidence so far that the problem of phone hacking had spread to the US and the probe was unjustified. “It seems to me that this is a British issue that needs to be resolved first,” he told Sky News. “I’ve heard of no evidence or allegation yet of anything being done in the United States of America.” His defence is significant not only because he is a senior Republican but also because he has criticised News Corp in the past. In 2001, he publicly questioned its plans to take over the satellite television service DirecTV, citing concerns over media consolidation. The Washington Post yesterday criticised the Mirror report, saying it “appears to be based on a shaky foundation. The Mirror names no specific sources in its reporting, and it relies on a single anonymous second-hand source for its account.” More predictably, support has also come from News Corp’s right-leaning cable channel Fox News, where there has been a reluctance to devote as much time to the story as other outlets, especially the left-leaning MSNBC network. A recent episode of the show Fox and Friends featured a media consultant, Robert Dilenschneider, who said that the scandal was being overplayed and Murdoch had “done all the right things”. Though one Republican congressman, Peter King, has been influential in calling for probes into News Corp, the bulk of the anger has come from Democrats. Four Democratic senators have written letters to the department of justice and the securities and exchange commission asking for investigations. They include powerful figures such as California senator Barbara Boxer and West Virginia senator Jay Rockefeller, who chairs the influential senate commerce committee. At the same time John Podesta, a former Clinton chief of staff who is close to Obama, has come out swinging against News Corp. In an interview in Canada last week, he attacked Fox News and declared that the company might have broken US laws if it paid bribes to police in Britain. “This is not one rogue editor. This is an empire that was built on a set of journalistic ethics that’s beginning to explode and unravel,” he said. Liberal campaigning groups have mobilised against News Corp: a protest was organised last week outside Rupert Murdoch’s New York apartment, and there is a petition drive calling for an official investigation into the company. There has also been a focus on the company’s political contributions, notably to the Republican Governors Association and the US Chamber of Commerce. That issue may prove less suitable for clear-cut campaigning, however, because News Corp has given money to politicians from both parties in the past. Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers John McCain US politics United States Paul Harris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …It’s important that Democrats inform themselves all about the dangerous religious extremists with whom Texas Gov. Rick Perry is aligning himself: So you have to wonder: Is Rick Perry God’s man for president? Schlueter, Long and other prayer warriors in a little-known but increasingly influential movement at the periphery of American Christianity seem to think so. The movement is called the New Apostolic Reformation. Believers fashion themselves modern-day prophets and apostles. They have taken Pentecostalism, with its emphasis on ecstatic worship and the supernatural, and given it an adrenaline shot. The movement’s top prophets and apostles believe they have a direct line to God. Through them, they say, He communicates specific instructions and warnings. When mankind fails to heed the prophecies, the results can be catastrophic: earthquakes in Japan, terrorist attacks in New York, and economic collapse. On the other hand, they believe their God-given decrees have ended mad cow disease in Germany and produced rain in drought-stricken Texas. Their beliefs can tend toward the bizarre. Some consider Freemasonry a “demonic stronghold” tantamount to witchcraft. The Democratic Party, one prominent member believes, is controlled by Jezebel and three lesser demons. Some prophets even claim to have seen demons at public meetings. They’ve taken biblical literalism to an extreme. In Texas, they engage in elaborate ceremonies involving branding irons, plumb lines and stakes inscribed with biblical passages driven into the earth of every Texas county. If they simply professed unusual beliefs, movement leaders wouldn’t be remarkable. But what makes the New Apostolic Reformation movement so potent is its growing fascination with infiltrating politics and government . The new prophets and apostles believe Christians—certain Christians—are destined to not just take “dominion” over government, but stealthily climb to the commanding heights of what they term the “Seven Mountains” of society, including the media and the arts and entertainment world. They believe they’re intended to lord over it all. As a first step, they’re leading an “army of God” to commandeer civilian government. In Rick Perry, they may have found their vessel. And the interest appears to be mutual.
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When an adoring mainstream media suspend their fawning long enough to point out that he's lying, Barack Obama must realize his presidency is in trouble.
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