Douchebagsayswhat?

I'm not the biggest fan of reading The New Yorker...I tried it for a while, and have to concede that they usually have very interesting articles, but given their output, I just couldn't make the time for it in a week and I have to admit it can come off as somewhat snooty for my tastes at times.

But I did enjoy their election seasons podcasts and will occasionally go over to Hendrik Hertzberg's blog.

Bill O'Reilly decided to start going after my boy this week about something he wrote about Newt Gingrich, who I think is the man of Bill's fantasies.

I could care less about his little rants on the show, but this week, they pulled the old 'catch him on camera while walking out of his apartment' routine which is just so low-class. Faux News continues to earn its reputation as the WWF of the news media.

I weep for the future.

Oh God, I Wish I Had the Video to Post for You

I slept uncharacteristically late this morning and just got up. As I flipped on the news nets, Colin Powell was out there explaining why he's endorsing Barry.

Well, the pluckers on Fox are just beside themselves right now. This is downright funny watching their Fox and Friends Weekend show. They're now just winding up on Powell, pulling out everything negative they can about him...including speculation that he's merely bitter about not having been picked as McCain's veep.

I'm usually one to just giggle at these assholes and find their sensationalism more annoying than any apparent ideological bias, but this one was just over the top. I'm sure Arianna and some of the other left wing kooks will have video up as the day progresses.

Fox News at This Hour

Oh, how great...

Fox News Announcement

Not Sure If This Will Make The Grapevine on Special Report Tonight

The New York Times is reporting that Fox News Channel Managing Editor Brit Hume will step down after the 2008 elections...or at least take a lower-profile role at the powerhouse.

While everyone's leaving their current job is in some way inevitable, after the deaths of Tony Snow and Tim Russert, this is at least the third big media disappointment we've had this summer.

I was always a fan of his evening show, Special Report. While I occasionally do stray over to MSNBC's up and coming coverage, this was always a nice roundup of the day and his All-Star Panel usually acts as an appetizer, as it's just before supper time.

Brit is either an actual conservative or a pretty good actor. I suspect the former. His arguments, as a panelist, on Fox News Sunday, with Juan Williams are priceless (especially when he rolls his eyes, smacks Juan down, or incites him almost to screaming) and I hope he keeps this up as he eases into semi-retirement.

He's one of the few anchors/personalities on that network that I can tolerate and I'll miss hearing this in the evenings:

That's Special Report for this time, please tune us in next time, and in the meantime, more news is on the way— fair, balanced and unafraid.

One of the Good Ones

It was a bummer this morning to wake up and read about Tony Snow going down to colon cancer.

There's no shortage of people who have differences with his politics or association with Fox News, but I always got the impression that he was a true believer in what he was going out and speaking for...a quality that there probably is a shortage of when it comes to national politics.

Jesse Scissorhands

Don't f-ck with this man of God.

He'll cut your balls off!

Later in the show, Ted Baxter left an implied threat out there for the Rev to come on Fox to talk...since they still have more damaging footage that they've not played yet.

In Case You Missed Bill O This Week...

...This is what you missed.

You can thank me anytime you want...

(and 236.com)

Editorial Cartoon of the Weekend

I thought this was quite funny...

Mike Peters, Dayton Daily News

George Herbert Walker Bush...Terrorist Sympathizer?

E.D. Hill again brings home the bacon when it comes to idiocy on the Fox News Network.

Last week, teasing a segment on one of their favorite topics (which I often find interesting, truth be told), body language.

She referred to the fist bump that Barry and Michelle did at his St. Paul victory speech last week as possibly being some kind of "terrorist" gesture.

The bump is something that I took note of when she was on stage with him and actually found it quite charming. Luckily, their expert seemed to give little credence to Blondie's suggestion, but ... what a dipstick!

Media Matters has also put together a nice pictorial layout of the fist bump's notable practitioners.

History Lesson, From Your Friends at Fox News

Was His Name Naughtius Maximus?

Paul Verhoeven, the director of Basic Instinct, has a biography of Jesus coming out soon.

In it, he hypothesizes that Jesus was the son of a Roman soldier, via rape.

Fox News says that this claim is "incredible" in comparison to the more believable explanation of a virgin birth.

Funny, though, I think I've seen a similar theory about this in a movie...

>> Addendum, earlier, I had only a link to a generic MP Wiki page. Upated it to my original intented landing page.

MSNBC's Embeddable Content Move Pays Off

It is no surprise at all that MSNBC's video request traffic skyrocketed recently after they decided to make the jump and make all of their online video embeddable.

I applauded the move here in January and I continue to enjoy their high-quality video and 2.0-friendly site.

Foxnews.com has followed suit.

Campaign Carl's Really Stupid Blog

I appreciate that blogging should allow one to be free of New York Times Manual of Style standards, but Carl Cameron's blog over at Foxnews.com is something you should keep your children away from.

I know that I take certain shortcuts here from time to time, but I at least try to refrain from excessive use of redundant punctuation (???), intentional misspelling in the place of punctuation (or a post-fifth grade vocabulary), non-sequiturs and the mentioning of sites that I don't have the courtesy to hyperlink.

While I don't have hundreds of regular readers, I at least try to keep up my end of the bargain, given than you've taken the time to indulge me and my hobby.

In just the last few posts, Campaign Carl has committed these and other offenses that make his blog painful to read.

Silly Season in the Barack Campaign

All the Jeremiah Wright coverage going on is, in my opinion, a bit silly.

As I've opined here before, what the guy was saying was not nearly as "dangerous" as some would have you believe and his observations may not even be that far out of the mainstream.

While I don't have the data here to show you that each of the three cable news networks are wringing the Wright story to comparably-excessive levels, I hope my dear reader won't have too much trouble accepting my claim.

That's why I found it so funny this afternoon when the chatterboxes over at the Obama campaign decided to single out Fox's coverage of the story and complain about it.

Fox is a convenient target and they certainly have engaged in drumming up a substantively-irrelevant story, but it takes a lot less courage and honesty for a Democrat to only go after them and exonerate CNN and MSNBC.

Funny Fox Item

Someone running with the dastardly rumour that Brit would give up his election night thrown to BillO.

It ain't so...some things are still sacred.

clipped from bigheaddc.com Crain’s Reporter Has an Omelet Worth of Misinformation on His Face Today As one wag us, “Just the fact that the notion of O’Reilly anchoring election coverage even passed Flamm’s smell test is off the charts. This guy should run fleeing from the media beat immediately before he suffers any further embarrassment.” Friday February 29th, 2008 12:16 PM by BHDC Staff Filed under: Journalism, FOX News, Bill O'Reilly, Brit Hume, Matthew Flamm Looks like Crain’s New York Business reporter Matthew Flamm royally screwed up with a doozie of a “report” today, which indicated Bill O’Reilly might be “anchoring” FNC’s Ohio and Texas primary coverage Tuesday night. This guy doesn’t just have egg on his face – he has an entire omelet. As soon as we saw this story, alarm bells went off. Anyone who covers FOX knows that Brit Hume would never be dethroned from anchoring the network’s political coverage.

Those Foxy Freudian Slips!

The Most Important News of the Day...From Fox

A. Yes, this is a legit story and pretty much deserves top billing.

B. The brown people are out to get you.

C. The liberals are out to get you.

D. Competitors to Newscorp are out to get you.

Karl Rove to Join Fox News?

Well, this is somewhat predictable, I suppose. During this campaign season, I've been settling in on MSNBC as my network of choice.

They seem to cater to the junkies like myself. They don't have such a high ratio of hot-chick-time (which I'm not always opposed to, mind you) like Fox and they don't dumb it down like CNN.

But for no other reason than curiosity, I might just have to check out boy wonder over on Fox.

clipped from insidecable.blogsome.com Karl Rove to join Fox News Channel… ICN hears that Karl Rove will join Fox News Channel as a contributor and will likely be used throughout Super Tuesday coverage…

Faux News

This is actually quite odd...

Even during the day yesterday, Major Garrett on Fox had been reporting, as fact, that Paul Begala and Captain Cueball were going to be joining the Clinton campaign.

Knowing that they were paid analysts at CNN, when I got home, they were the first network I tuned into.

After finally getting fed up with Bill Schneider and Soledad, I settled on MSNBC for most of the rest of the night.

Anyway, the nut of the story is that Fox was knowingly reporting a false story most of the night. Begala kept telling them, over and over, that he was not joining the campaign in any way. Yet FNC ran with the story.