O’Reilly: Fox News Turned Down Pro-Constitution Ad Because It Was ‘Anti-American’

The Center for Constitutional Rights recently produced an ad called “Rescue the Constitution” that criticizes the Bush administration for “destroying the Constitution” through the use of tactics like renditions and torture. Fox News refused to air the ad, claiming that it needed “documentation” that the constitution “is indeed being destroyed.”

In the ad, actor Danny Glover states, “Trials. Renditions. Torture. The Bush administration is destroying the Constitution. They can be stopped. Rescue the Constitution.”

Yesterday, while discussing NBC’s recent refusal to run an ad from the White House front group Freedom’s Watch, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly explained why Fox News turns down ads:

Yeah, but I understand why. Fox News turns down blatantly anti-American ads. We just turned one down recently. I understand that.



It is not “anti-American” to believe that President Bush has shredded the Constitution. In fact, 55 percent of voters believe Bush “has abused his powers in a way that rises to the level of impeachable offenses.”

But protecting Bush’s power is a priority for Fox News. The network previously refused to run an ad that was critical of then-Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. The decision was seen as an “effort to shield President Bush’s choice for the high court.”

Tancredo to boycott tomorrow’s Univision debate.

Tomorrow, Univision will be hosting a GOP presidential debate at 7 PM EST. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) is boycotting the event, and yesterday put out a statement criticizing the other candidates for attending:

“It is the law that to become a naturalized citizen of this country you must have knowledge and understanding of English, including a basic ability to read, write, and speak the language,” Tancredo said, in a press release e-mailed by his campaign to reporters. “So what may I ask are our presidential candidates doing participating in a Spanish speaking debate? Pandering comes to mind.”

“America has been a melting pot of people from all over the world but it can not survive as a nation if our immigrants do not assimilate. A common language is essential to that goal. Bilingualism is a great asset for any individual but it has perilous consequences for a nation. As such, a Spanish debate has no place in a presidential campaign.“

Dumbass Billy'O: Interrogation Tapes Destroyed Blame Far-Left

From Matthew Yglesias:

How, you wonder, does the CIA get away with something like destroying video evidence of illegal activity? Surely there's some congressional oversight. Well, as it turns out, there sort of is: Senator Jay Rockefeller and Rep. Jane Harman knew some of what was going on and were maybe kinda sorta upset about it, but they didn't take any public action of the sort that might have actually prevented the evidence from being destroyed. As Marty Lederman observes, "Jay Rockefeller is constantly learning of legally dubious (at best) CIA intelligence activities, and then saying nothing about them publicly until they are leaked to the press, at which point he expresses outrage and incredulity -- but reveals nothing."

The Democratic leadership really needs to start taking these Intel Committee postings more seriously. These are jobs that require smart, savvy, credible people who are prepared to wield the authority of their offices effectively. The country, by necessity, is going to have intelligence services who do a lot of things in the dark with someone minimal oversight. The burden of doing that oversight falls on the intelligence committees, and it's an extremely important job. Time and again Rockefeller looks not ready for prime time.

O’Reilly: Progressive blog readers = ‘devil worshippers.’

On Fox News yesterday, Bill O’Reilly let loose on “far-left websites” like DailyKos, stating, “If you read these far-left websites, you’re a devil worshipper. You are.” O’Reilly’s ombudsman responded, “As a journalist, you know better than that.” O’Reilly shot back: “Satan is running the DailyKos. Yes, he is!”

At the end of the segment, O’Reilly said, “That was a little satire there…don’t get too upset about it.” But he then added, “I still think they are satanists.”

MEDIA BIAS...MY ASS

Former Bush communications director Dan Bartlett gives his views on the political press:


TM: Do you think the press corps is responsible for putting that word out—that the president was lying [about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq]?

BARTLETT: I don’t think they’re purposely doing it. Look, I get asked the question all the time: How do you deal with them when they’re all liberal? I’ve found that most of them are not ideologically driven. Do I think that a lot of them don’t agree with the president? No doubt about it. But impact, above all else, is what matters. All they’re worried about is, can I have the front-page byline? Can I lead the evening newscast? And unfortunately, that requires them to not do in-depth studies about President Bush’s health care plan or No Child Left Behind. It’s who’s up, who’s down: Cheney hates Condi, Condi hates Cheney.

This seems like a shockingly reasonable assessment of the situation. One might add that a huge amount of the problem is lock-in. If the incentives facing the people who do this kind of coverage point in the direction of pointless, dumb stories then people who are strongly averse to doing that kind of work tend to get out of the business. Those who succeed are the ones who not only understand the incentive structure but who embrace it, thus further re-inscribing it.

Savage echoes Rush: Gay general is a ‘phony general.’

At a recent CNN/YouTube presidential debate, Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr, an openly gay man, asked the Republican candidates why they “think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians.” On his radio show yesterday, right-wing host Michael Savage said that Kerr is a “gay, phony general“:

CNN is a bear trap for anybody conservative. Look what they did the other night, last week rather, with the YouTube/CNN debate, when they put a planted, gay, phony general in the audience to throw out a question, and then Anderson Cooper followed up with intelligible, “Did you get the question answered adequately?” That’s your idea of a fair debate? It’s like a Stalinist show trial.

Savage’s line echoes that of Rush Limbaugh, who recently attacked soldiers who speak out against the Iraq war as “phony soldiers.”

Bill O'Reilly vs. The USO & Drowning Pool

Bill O'Reilly is an irrelevant, lying, moron....and this proves it.

Does the U.S. tolerate anti-Muslim speech?

From Think Progress: In October, right-wing radio host Michael Savage went on an anti-Muslim tirade on his show: I’m not gonna put my wife in a hijab. And I’m not gonna put my daughter in a burqa. And I’m not gettin on my all-fours and braying to Mecca. And you could drop dead if you don’t like it. You can shove it up your pipe. I don’t wanna hear anymore about Islam. I don’t wanna hear one more word about Islam. Take your religion and shove it up your behind. I’m sick of you. Since that time, a “handful” of companies have pulled their advertising from Savage’s show. But he’s still on air. According to a piece in the Christian Science Monitor today, “That leaves many Muslims-Americans — and non-Muslims like Mr. Gronseth — suspicious that Americans have a double standard when it comes to Islam.”

UPDATE: Yesterday, Savage sued the Islamic civil rights organization CAIR for “copyright infringement over the organization’s use of a 4-minute segment of his show in which he called the Quran a ‘book of hate.’“

CT-04 Chris Shays should resign...

and go to work for Blackwater. This video is about 2 months old but i can't resist posting it, try not to get sick it's messy.

WATCH NOW:

Craig: I’m still not gay

After the Idaho Stateman reported five separate new accounts of gay men claiming to have encounters with Larry Craig (in addition to three earlier reports), the Idaho senator has responded by sticking with his claim that he’s never been gay. A statement from Craig:

It is unfortunate that the Idaho Statesman has chosen to continue to lower itself to the standards of what can best be described as tabloid journalism. Like its previous coverage, these latest allegations are completely false and have no basis in reality.

In fact, the paper itself states that these baseless accusations contain no definitive evidence yet they still decided to print them anyway. However, despite the fact the Idaho Statesman has decided to pursue its own agenda and print these falsehoods without any facts to back them up, I won’t let this paper’s attempt to malign my name stop me from continuing my work to serve the people of Idaho.

In August, Craig said it was the Idaho paper’s fault that he pled guilty to disorderly conduct.

Blogs thrive because people like David Gregory Fail to report

From Think Progress
David Gregory: Blogs are to blame for polarization: At a National Press Club event earlier this week, NBC White House correspondent David Gregory argued that, because is so much polarization in politics today, “people try to divine or assign our motives” for asking certain questions at the White House press briefings. When Helen Thomas asked Gregory what was responsible for the polarization, Gregory answered:

I think it’s because of the internet largely. The polarized atmosphere in the internet and blogs and whatnot have been a major contributor to that.

Watch it:

In February — at a similar event at the Press Club — Gregory pointed the finger at blogs for the reason that “politics and political coverage has become so polarized.” Glenn Greenwald wrote at the time:

The reality, of course, is that most media-criticizing bloggers do not want journalists to be “political advocates.” They want them to do what journalists are supposed to do — which is not…sit around with their good, trustworthy, nice-guy friends in the White House and simply “ask questions” and “get information,” but instead to scrutinize that information, treat it with doubt, investigate it before passing it along to determine whether it’s true.

And the reason bloggers want them to do that, the reason that bloggers demand more of journalists…is not because bloggers are enraged, confused, unreasonable partisans. It’s because bloggers are American citizens who are deeply concerned about what has happened to their country over the last six years.

New York Public Library Criminal Mug Shot Art Of Pres. Bush

ANOTHER FAKE OUTRAGE FROM FAUX NOISE