Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:59 pm
The cleverest thing the Right Wing ever did was to get people to believe the lie that all of the media is Left Leaning. A non-thinking audience depends on it and “some people say” Fox “News” is the antidote to that, which — right there — destroys the empty FAIR & BALANCED motto.
That’s why it’s been HIGH-LARRY-US to listen to Fox News pundits freak out over Facebook news ‘slant’ without a shred of self awareness, including Fox’s Outnumbered Hosts [who] Slam Facebook for Bias, ‘Unethical’ Lack of Transparency.
So the question being asked: Is Facebook — and the broader Internet — against conservative thought? Bill O’Reilly thinks so. Watch:
You really can’t blame O’Reilly for thinking that. I might take the same stance if I was always being called RACIST — or if people were proving me a liar over and over again — on the internet.
Meanwhile, always willing to do what Fox “News” tells them to do, GOP demands answers from Facebook over links to conservative stories. That’s why With Nothing Else To Do, Senate GOP Probes Facebook For Alleged Bias Against Conservative News and why Now Zuckerberg Wants to Talk to “Conservatives” about Facebook Bias Accusations.
Not only does the Facebook CEO wants to meet with conservatives amid bias allegations, but Facebook, Facing Bias Claims, Shows How Editors and Algorithms Guide News in the interests of transparency. In fact, Facebook Clarifies How Trending Topics Work: We Do Not Discriminate and Here’s Facebook’s guide to how its ‘Trending Topics’ tool works.
We will never see such transparency from the Fox “News” Channel, of course. Meanwhile, here are some thoughtful articles on the topic which are worth your time:
Facebook And The First Amendment:
Legal Challenges To Trending
Controversy May Prove Difficult
Does Facebook Suffer From
Unconscious Bias? An Insider
View Into Human Cataloging
Facebook trending news: Thumbs
down on government involvement,
plus is there really a bias?
And, from Fox’s own web site comes this truth:
So What If Facebook Is Biased?
Here’s my question: What if there is bias? Is that a news flash? Really? Gee, biased news. I mean, who knew?
Not to be overly cynical, but seriously folks: Is there anyone reading this who doesn’t agree with me that all news is biased? Who doesn’t see, as I do, that journalistic integrity in online reporting is an oxymoron? Who gets all their news from one source? Who doesn’t realize that all news aggregation requires human curators?
OK, maybe that last one is news to some of you, so allow me to explain: If you try to use algorithms alone to determine trending news, you end up with mostly redundant and nonsensical topics that are unfit for human consumption. Now you know.
However, you can bet before next week is over Fox “News” will have convinced its unthinking audience that Facebook is not to be trusted. Viewers will, no doubt, be calling for a boycott, just like they have done with Target restrooms.
RACE TO THE BOTTOM: As Friday Fox Follies likes to remind readers, neither Fox “News”, nor its viewers, do well when the issue is Race.
Last week FFF reported on The Hate Club, those Fox “News” viewers who so pollute threads with ugly racist comments that Fox is forced to close and delete the threads.
Well, no surprise: It happened again this week after Fox News Posts A Gorilla Picture, The Racist Anti-Obama Family Messages That Followed Will Blow You Away. That’s right. Fox News Posted A Photo Of Two Gorillas, So Their Racist Fans Trashed The Obamas.
Where would the viewers get the idea these comments would be welcome? They’re just following in the metaphorical footsteps of those who appear on air at Fox:
On Hannity, Geraldo Rivera Calls
Black Male Voters “The Hip Hop Vote”
Ben Carson Hates Jim Crow
And Slavery References
Except When He Uses Them
Fox’s Allen West Likens Photo Of
Black Women Graduating From West
Point To Confederate Sympathizers
However, one of the biggest race-baiters on Fox is The Falafel King:
In Eric Wemple’s Bill O’Reilly’s blindness to bigotry, he writes:
What on earth would trigger O’Reilly’s alarm for bigotry, racism and offensiveness? Certainly nothing he’s seen from Trump over their many, many years of enjoying ballgames and milkshakes together. Earlier this year, O’Reilly fielded an allegation from PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley that Trump was a “racial arsonist.” The host responded with his trove of personal exposure to Trump. “I have known the man for a long time. I have never seen him do anything racial,” argued O’Reilly in an early April edition of “The O’Reilly Factor.”
If that’s the case, Trump is an interesting fellow: someone who makes bigoted and racist remarks in public, but not in private.
How absurd are O’Reilly’s defenses of Trump? Well, consider that Trump has told falsehood after falsehood on the campaign trail; that he announces positions, then reverses them; that he has been caught in various lies. After an early March GOP debate, O’Reilly asked Sen. Ted Cruz whether he thought Trump was honest. “I’ve known him for about 30 years,” said O’Reilly. “I think he’s an honest man.”
But, as they say on tee vee, that’s not all!!!
And, while we’re discussing HATE, let’s not forget the patented Fox “News” Islamophobia:
Fox Host: It’s “Offensive To Me”
That Muslims Don’t “Do A Better
Job” Of Defining Their Religion
Fox’s Perino: London’s New
Muslim Mayor Is “Not Like ISIS”
Fox “News” also likes to attack poor folks, who may or may not be persons of color:
Fox Panel Calls Working
Dad A ‘Looter’ For Using
Food Assistance To Feed Family
WATCH: Fox Panel Glorifies
This Vile Poverty Shaming
Assault At Walmart
Jonathan Hoenig, a hedge fund manager who is famous mostly for being a rich a**hole was on the Fox News panel, defended the woman’s attack saying:
“I’m proud of this woman. This is the producers and the looters. And you know what, she’s absolutely right. You have every right to keep every cent of your money.”
It should be pointed out that this all happened at a Walmart. Walmart costs the U.S. about $6.2 billion dollars a year providing benefits such as SNAP to their employees because they refuse to pay their employees a higher wage. It’s very likely that any Walmart employee who was working at the time of the incident would be using SNAP, or some other form of government assistance. In Hoenig’s mind. those people are “looters” as well as everyone else who has ever struggled in their life.
That’s just a small taste of the hate and ignorance to come out of this particularly horrible Fox News panel.
I wonder if Hoenig will continue to retweet me now.
WAS THIS REALLY A TYPO?
Funny How That Particular
Fox Typo Still Hasn’t Been
Corrected Everywhere
We report. You decide.
THE TRUMPET SECTION: A Journalism Professor Exposes The Weakness In How The Press Interviews Trump and nothing proves the point better than how Fox “News” covered Trump on the subjects of Taxes & Tacos this week.
TAXES:
Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs
cover for Trump: ‘Jesus never
put out his tax returns! Ever!’
Fox’s Lisa Kennedy Montgomery:
“I Really Don’t Get” The “Fetish”
With Trump’s Tax Returns
Trump Dares The Press
With His Tax Returns
Trump’s Own Precedent For
Releasing Tax Returns While Under
Audit Burns Those Defending Him
Trump Loses His Temper And
Accidentally Reveals Why He
Won’t Release His Tax Returns
Here’s what you’ll never hear on Fox: Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin: It Is “One Hundred Percent” The Media’s Obligation To Ask For Trump’s Tax Returns.
TACOS:
Trump Defends His Taco
Bowl Tweet: ‘I’m Gonna Do
Great With The Hispanics’
O’Reilly Defends Trump’s Taco
Tweet: How’s That Offensive?
Bill O’Reilly Calls Criticism Of
Trump’s Taco Bowl Tweet “Insane”
O’Reilly Thinks It’s ‘Crazy’
And ‘Insane’ To Think Trump’s
Taco Tweet Was Offensive
But that’s not the only way Loofah Lad covered for his buddy Trump this week:
Gut-ripping hilarious:
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly
actually believes Donald Trump
After Prodding By O’Reilly, Trump
Floats “Overturning” Roe V. Wade
Bill O’Reilly presses Donald
Trump: How are you going to
get Paul Ryan to come around?
Bill O’Reilly: “Talking Points
Fully Expects The Republican Party
To Rally Around Donald Trump”
Then comes all the rest of the Fox Trump Apologists:
SEAN HANNITY: Hannity: Sen. Ben Sasse Is Rejecting Trump To Fulfill “His Own Desire” To Run Third Party • Hannity: “Best Contribution I Could Make To The Trump Effort” Is To Attack Clinton’s Voice • On Hannity, Trump Attacks Jeff Bezos And Floats Conspiracy About Washington Post’s Reporting • NEIL CAVUTO: Fox’s Neil Cavuto: Paul Ryan Isn’t Endorsing Trump To Add Suspense To Convention Like “Professional Wrestling” • Cavuto Rips ‘Babies And Whiners’ Republicans Who Won’t Endorse Trump • ‘Time to Move On’: Fox’s Cavuto Scolds GOP ‘Whiners’ for Not Backing Trump • Fox’s Cavuto Asks For Advice On Republican Latino Outreach From Anti-Immigrant Sheriff Arpaio • GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: Fox’s Van Susteren: Trump’s “Tone And Rhetoric Has Drawn People To The” GOP • ERIC BOLLING: Eric Bolling Tells Anti-Trump Republicans to ‘Get in Line, Take the Medicine’ • Fox’s Bolling Battles Guest Saying Trump Is ‘More Dangerous’ Than Hillary:
FOX & FRIENDS: Donald Trump Thinks Budweiser Rebranded as “America” Because of His Political Campaign • Of Course Donald Trump Is Taking Credit for Budweiser’s New Name • Donald Trump is pretty sure he inspired Budweiser to rename itself ‘America’ • It Is the Duty of Every American To Go See ‘Amerigeddon’ • OUTNUMBERED: Fox’s Outnumbered Hosts Cheer Trump Attacking Opponents With “Genius” Name-Calling • MISC: Fox Slobbers Over ‘Big Star’ John Ratzenberger As Trump Endorser • Herman Cain to Trump foes: ‘Get your egos out of the way’ • Fox Guest: Everything Trump Said About Mexicans ‘Was True’ • AND, FINALLY, THE BS TRUMP GOT AWAY WITH SAYING ON FOX WITHOUT ANY PUSHBACK: Trump Advisor Manafort Defends Attack On Elizabeth Warren: ‘If She Can’t Take it, That’s Her Problem’ • Paul Manafort: Hillary Clinton And Elizabeth Warren Are ‘Hiding’ Behind ‘Their Sex’ • Donald Trump Discusses His ‘Muslim Ban’ On Fox News • Trump Considers Tapping Rudy Giuliani To Lead Anti-Muslim Commission
Then, there’s this:
‘Your Mic Is Hot!’: Hannity Catches
Geraldo Rivera Insulting Bernie
‘Your mic is hot!’: Sean Hannity
screams for Geraldo to stop
insulting Bernie during victory speech
LOOFAH LEFTOVERS:
MEGGY MANIA: As we count down the days until her big effin’ deal prime time special, Trump Excuses Attacks on ‘Terrific’ Megyn Kelly by Saying He’s an ‘Entertainer’, while Donald Trump Threatens Megyn Kelly In Their Upcoming Interview. Watch:
Meanwhile she goes the full celebrity route during contract negotiations: She’s Just Not That Into You: Megyn Kelly Snaps Selfies with Celebs at Star-Studded Kentucky Derby. Whaddaya wanna bet these pics turn up on her special?
Meanwhile, here are some other random Kelly headlines:
Megyn Kelly Finds A Way To Tie
Iran Nuclear Deal To Benghazi
Texas TV pastor: I’ve never seen
anybody that detests Christians
and conservatives like Megyn Kelly
Media Criticism of Megyn
Kelly’s Interview With Eric Trump
is Just Veiled Anti-Trump Bias
Megyn Kelly Smacks Down
Reporter for Quoting Bill Maher,
‘Who Refers to Women as the C-Word’
Reince Priebus Says Trump Agrees With
GOP Platform on ‘Vast Majority’ of Things
Kelly challenged Priebus with a catalogue of Trump’s stated positions that are not aligned with the Republican platform — on health care, Planned Parenthood, mass mandatory deportation, NATO, to name a few — and indeed had been disavowed by many party standard-bearers. Priebus said that Trump was “visiting some of those subjects again.”
Priebus continued: “He understands that he’s moving into a general election, he understands he wants to be presidential and gracious, and focus on Hillary Clinton and how she’s not a good answer for our future.”
“Given that, given his win,” Kelly said, “does he has to move closer to the party on these issues […] or do you need to move closer to him, because he’s the one with these votes?”
“The party’s the party,” he responded averring that the GOP would not change. But he conceded that the party’s “same old way of doing things” and selecting candidates hadn’t worked out. (“You’re talking about yourself!” Kelly observed.) However, less than a minute later, when pressed on the fact that Trump did not align with the party platform, Priebus argued that that didn’t matter by pointing to previous nominees, including Mitt Romney and John McCain.
Like so many others, I can’t wait for Kelly’s interview with Trump. I want to see if she’s become another victim of the Stockholm Syndrome.
TUCKER WITH AN F: Whiny little man-boy Tucker Carlson occupies a unique niche on the Fox “News” Channel. He’s the incredibly opinionated (sometimes) host of Fox & Friends Weekends, appears all around the clock as the CON in phony FAIR & BALANCED debates, and — for good measure — is the publisher of The Daily Caller, a Right Wing rag that Fox “News” likes to quote when “some people say” gets old and tired. This week he was extra-specially stupid:
Fox’s Tucker Carlson:
Extending Title IX Protections To
Transgender People Is “Frivolous”
Carlson: ‘What If Romney Said Be
Proud Of Your Whiteness At BYU?’
Tucker Carlson Slams Obama
Blackness Riff: What If Romney
Said ‘Be Confident in Your Whiteness’?
What’s truly depressing is that Tucker Carlson is actually a very intelligent and insightful person in real life, and he’s just exploiting white ignorance for profit. Since he asked, though, President Obama did actually get “specific” about blackness in that speech, and even had a message for Tucker’s viewers, too:
“But we must expand our moral imaginations to understand and empathize with all people who are struggling, not just black folks who are struggling — the refugee, the immigrant, the rural poor, the transgender person, and yes, the middle-aged white guy who you may think has all the advantages, but over the last several decades has seen his world upended by economic and cultural and technological change, and feels powerless to stop it. You got to get in his head, too.”
When you do, say hi to Tucker Carlson. He’s already there.
Tucker Carlson And Stephen
Hayes Clash Over Donald Trump
CLINTON CONTEST: Every week, when no one wins our Big Effin’ Deal Prize Pack, we up the ante for anyone who spots a positive story about Hillary Clinton on Fox. This week’s losers include:
Sean Hannity’s Latest Clinton
Attack Traces Back To Conspiracy
Website That Writes About Aliens
Fox’s Clinton-Email Scare Tactics
Media Falsely Accuse Clinton
Of Making Up “Security Inquiry”
Characterization Of Email
Fox News Uses Unemployed
Coal Miner To Take Down
Hillary Clinton In WV
Fox News Resorts To Anonymous
Sources In Attempt To Revive
Debunked Benghazi Claim
Trump’s Latest Clinton Attack
Comes Straight Out Of Fox
News’ Benghazi Playbook
Who says Fox “News” is FAIR & BALANCED?
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT’S DUE: Or, even a broken squirrel is right twice a day, or sumptin’.
He makes this section rarely because he rarely says anything that I can agree with. That’s why it’s such a big effin’ deal that O’Reilly Says George Zimmerman is ‘Despicable’ — ‘You Simply Do Not Profit From a Tragedy’. Come to think of it, that’s pretty much a no-brainer. Never mind.
Here are some other examples of Fox “News” appearing reasonable for a few minutes:
Chris Wallace Challenges Gov.
McCrory Over NC “Bathroom Bill”
Meghan McCain: ‘There
Were No White Nationalists
On My Father’s Campaign’
Fox Conservative: We Can’t
Afford Donald Trump
Juan Williams Confronts Co-Hosts:
Is Fox ‘Harshly Critical’ of Dems?
Fox’s Charles Krauthammer
Calls Trump’s Meeting With
Paul Ryan “A Sham Marriage”
Fox’s Gutfeld On Trump: “The
Elephant In This Room” Is That
“We’re Bending Over For” A “RINO”
PASSAGES #1: THE TARANTULA:
With no word from Fox News on
Andrea Tantaros, anxious fans
take matters into own hands
PASSAGES #2: Things have gotten worse for suspended reporter Ed Henry:
Fox News chief Roger Ailes
questions Ed Henry’s ‘judgement’
amid more tabloid reports of affair
Fox News’ Ed Henry’s Latest
‘Crotch Shot’ Stunt Has Boss Roger
Ailes Sending Out a Stern Message
Fox News CEO Roger Ailes:
Ed Henry affair rumors
raise ‘serious questions’
BLAMIN’ ‘BAMA:
Fox panel slams Obama’s
decision to honor the buffalo
Fox Hosts Attack Obama’s
Trip To Hiroshima: ‘He’s
Ashamed Of America’
FOX BYTES: Fox Guest: American Schools Are “Indoctrinating Our Children Into Slavery,” Bernie Sanders Is Proof • Fox News Falsely Suggests Planned Parenthood Is Swapping “Sex Changes” For “Baby Body Parts” • Fox Drags Pat Buchanan Out Of Mothballs To Rant About HB2 Lawsuit • Pat Buchanan: I Hope The Obama Administration Gets ‘Stuffed’ For Suing NC Over Bathroom Law • Pat Buchanan On Fox News: “The Minority That Is Griping” About NC Bathroom Bill Should “Simply Deal With It” • Fox Hosts Call Federal Agencies Investigating Gender Bias In Hollywood “Meddlers” • Fox’s Neil Cavuto Tells Billionaire Guest That “It’s Not A Good Time To Be Rich” • Bernie Sanders: Democrats Should ‘Start Funding The Equivalent Of Fox News’ • Fox News’ Liberal: I Hope Your Husband Never Cheats On You’ • Watch the widely discredited Dr. Oz teach Fox & Friends how to drink coffee
Headly Westerfield likes tacos, too. You can read more of his work at the Not Now Silly Newsroom.
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