Wonderful: FCC Commissioner Wants Government Hand in Media Policy

Of course to this twit, real journalism means anything but Fox News, of course. Had your fill of state-run media? Apparently Michael Copps feels you're not getting enough.

Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps made a case for a government hand in media policy in a speech to the FCBA on Tuesday.

A government hand in media policy. That normally wound send shivers down the spine of the media, except they're mostly in the tank already.

"The commission can act now. It should have acted on the media before now. I am disappointed that it has not," he said.

Translation: Time to up the ante in the War on Fox News.

The decline of "real journalism" justifies federal involvement, according to Copps. "The news is suffering from a bad case of substance abuse," he said.

The Democratic commissioner pointed to Fox News' Bernie Goldberg and Bill O'Reilly as examples of the problem with today's media landscape, saying the pair has taken his own words out of context.

So because Copps doesn't like Goldberg and O'Reilly, we now must have federal intervention in media policy. Sure, that'll go over well. This segment from the O'Reilly December 6 program apparently got under the very thin skin of Copps.

As The Factor reported last week, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps implied that government action may be needed to correct America's lack of "news and information." FNC's Bernie Goldberg contended that Copp represents a legitimate threat. "When an FCC commissioner complains about the way news is covered," Goldberg said, "and talks about a 'government test of public values' to determine who gets their licenses reviewed, that's something my liberal friends would normally call a 'chilling effect.' But they're not concerned about this because Copps has only one goal, and that's to shut down conservative talk radio and move on from there." The Factor argued that the FCC is unlikely to target conservative media: "If they tried that, they would then have to intrude in NBC and PBS and NPR - all of the liberal organs would be under the same scrutiny as Fox News and talk radio. And if President Obama gets behind this effort, I predict that would be the end of his administration."

Sounds like two men voicing opinions. If Copps is unable to differentiate that from some real journalism, he's unfit for his job.

Strangely enough, it's diversity Copps seeks.

Congress has given the FCC power to get involved in the Communications Acts, according to Copps. It may want to give the agency more power to promote media diversity and competition, he said.

Except for those diverse opinions he doesn't like, of course.

A curious aside today is this story about Obama's state run media from state run ABC.

A Lie and the Lying Liar Who Told It: "I Didn't Raise Taxes Once"

Before yesterday's Obama-O'Reilly interview inevitably descended into Jeff Zeleny territory about 9 minutes in, the President slipped one of his patented bald-faced lies right past the Fox News host.

But the Wall Street Journal editorial board didn't miss it.

Bill O'Reilly's Fox interview with President Obama on Sunday was fascinating, and not merely because Mr. Obama made clear he's an ardent fan of these pages. What really caught our attention was the President's claim that "I didn't raise taxes once. I lowered taxes over the last two years."

The Presidency is demanding, and with the Egypt mess and his other duties, perhaps Mr. Obama has forgotten some of his tax achievements. Allow us to refresh his memory. In his historic health-care bill, for example, there is the new $27 billion "fee" on drug companies that is already in effect. Next year, device manufacturers will get hit to the tune of $20 billion, and heath insurers will pay $60 billion starting in 2014—all of which are de facto tax increases because these collections will be passed on to consumers as higher costs. Of course, these are merely tax increases on business.

Read the whole thing.

Obama also found a way to work in the "If you have health care that you like, you keep it" howler that he still likes to riff on from time to time.

O'Reilly's scathing rebuttal? "I know all that. I listen to it every day."

Remind me again - what was the point of this interview?

Cross-posted.

Biggest Blowjob Ever

For all of O'Reilly's crowing last week about how it would be the most widely viewed in history (and therefore the most important), this was an interview (transcript) of the Larry King variety. No here, much less a there.

As far as the numbers go, given same or similar circumstances, they would be about the same regardless of the interviewer. Even Keith Olbermann.

Or Ed Schultz. :-))

Why not ask about betraying the Brits? (See also the Geneva meeting notes)

One thing that should now be crystal clear to all NATO members: The military national security secrets (and more) of each should now be considered as being on the table whenever this administration is 'consulting with our Russian partners'. It will be interesting to find out to what extent Team Obama has compromised the national security of Israel or Romania.

It's no small wonder that Israel has been critical of the Obama Administration's public posturing throughout the Egyptian protests. By going public with demands that a transition "must begin now" or "yesterday", Smart Diplomacy™ has left Hosni Mubarek without the wiggle-room needed to save face and to arrange for a soft landing in say, Fwance or the Magic Kingdom. Thus his insistence upon not leaving office until after the September elections. This will cause the protests to continue, allowing groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood to further ingratiate themselves into Egyptian society during the interim.

Because public meddling into Egyptian affairs has forced Mubarek into a corner, those Egyptians truly desirous of a democratic government have also been forced into a corner: They will have no choice but to continue their efforts, regardless of concessions made by veep Suleiman. Should they stop now, Mubarek wins and the September election results will show that whomever he supports will be the next president of Egypt.

So much for Smart Diplomacy™.


Photo credit: NBC News


Updated: 4:40PM

We Now Interrupt Your Super Bowl Viewing Pleasure to Bring You More Obama

It's not enough that we have to suffer this tool every time the NCAA basketball tournament rolls around. Now we have to see him during the Super Bowl. Just what America has been clamoring for: More Obama.

If there's any doubt President Obama is moving to the right, this should end it.

Obama will sit down with Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly for an interview that will be aired during Super Bowl XLV on Feb. 6, which will be broadcast on Fox network affiliates.

The sports-fan president has made the pre-Super Bowl interview a tradition since taking office.

He chatted with Katie Couric before the big game last year and with Matt Lauer in 2009.

No doubt O'Reilly will hit him with some tough questions like "who are you rooting for tonight?"

Speaking of the canard that the far-left Obama is supposedly moving to the right, some cretins on the left his his appointment of Chicago hack Bill Daley means he's abandoning his dwindling base.

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said picking Daley "was a real mistake."

"Bill Daley consistently urges the Democratic Party to pursue a corporate agenda that alienates both Independent and Democratic voters," Green said.

"If President Obama listens to that kind of political advice from Bill Daley, Democrats will suffer a disastrous 2012."

We can only hope.

Laura Ingraham Exposes Bloated Bigot Joy Behar

That slob Joy Behar had a temper tantrum over Bill O'Reilly's truthful statements today. O'Reilly led off his show tonight with clips and then Laura Ingraham laid waste to the bigoted Behar.

Behar is obviously too stupid to even remember, or realize, what a vile bigot she is.

H/T Gateway Pundit.

Angry Hippos Can't Handle the Truth

You have to give Bill O'Reilly credit. I don't know if I could stand being around these two lardasses for more than five seconds. Like babies they storm off the set when he reminds them of a painful truth.

At the exact moment these two walked off seismograph needles were set off along the eastern seaboard.

Via Fox Nation.

Poll: Americans Love Fox, Have No Idea Who These Losers on MSNBC Are

I think MSNBC's ratings might actually get a bump today as people tune in to see if any of their low-rated liberal hacks lose it on the air. When they realize nobody know who they are while at the same time admire Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck then you know heads are going to explode.

More people are getting their news about the upcoming election from cable television than any other source, and from Fox News more than any other cable channel, according to a POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll released Monday.

The poll found that 81 percent of those polled get their news about the midterm elections from cable channels, like Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, or their websites, compared with 71 percent from national network news channels, such as ABC, NBC or CBS, and their websites.

Among cable news channels, Fox was the clear winner, with 42 percent of respondents saying it is their main source, compared with 30 percent who cited CNN and 12 percent who rely on MSNBC.
...
Fox’s opinionated personalities were also rated as having the greatest positive impact on the political debate in the country. Bill O’Reilly was rated as having, by far, the greatest positive impact, with 49 percent of respondents rating him positively, and 32 percent negatively.

Glenn Beck was the second most-positively rated personality, with 38 percent of respondents saying he had a positive impact, and 32 percent saying he had a negative impact.

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was the third-most-positively ranked, with 36 percent saying he has a positive impact on the discourse, but his negatives far outweighed his positives, with 52 percent saying he has a negative impact.

“To some extent, Limbaugh has become almost a caricature in a way, so I don’t know how much influence he has beyond entertainment value,” Arteron said. “Whereas, in some way, the other people on Fox are seen as more legitimate news operations.”

MSNBC’s personalities were largely ranked as unknown by respondents: 70 percent said they had never heard of Ed Schultz, 55 percent said they had never heard of Rachel Maddow and 42 percent said they had never heard of Keith Olbermann.

Bill Clinton and John Kerry would call those people ignorant and uninformed.

Media Matters Morons: Bill O'Reilly Wants to Waterboard Nancy Pelosi

It's hilarious seeing these Soros-funded twits from Media Matters flail away in futility as they do anything they can to undermine their enemies. If it's not lifting passages out of context of Rush Limbaugh and using their media dupes to spread the message, then it's usually anyone at Fox News, and in this case they're going after Bill O'Reilly for some facetious comments he made last weekend. Naturally, some schlub at the New York Daily News dutifully regurgitates their drivel, along with Bathtub Boy, Keith Olbermann. Clearly, nobody at Media Matters has anything remotely close to a sense of humor.

Conservative rabble-rouser Bill O'Reilly ventured his solution to D.C.’s partisan gridlock during a lecture on Saturday - kidnap Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, and possibly waterboard the House Speaker.

"I told Obama that the best thing he could do would be hire me as his main adviser," he said.

"If [Obama] did hire me . . . I'd get Leon [Panetta] in . . . And I'd say, Leon, look . . . You gotta kidnap Pelosi and Reid.

"Don't hurt them. Don't hurt them, okay? But take them to an undisclosed location," he told the laughing audience. "No waterboarding, well maybe with Nancy."

Audio of his remarks, made during his Saturday stop in Westbury, N.Y., for his "Bold and Fresh Tour" with Glenn Beck, was first posted on the liberal Web site MediaMatters.org.

"Once that happens . . . once you get the real loon fringe out of there," he continued, "If you got . . . somebody else in there, who they [Republicans] didn't loathe so much, there might be a little detente, and we might be able to get something done."

Long time O'Reilly foe Keith Olberman responded by crowning the Fox News host his "Worst Person in the World" on last night's episode of MSNBC's "Countdown."

The liberal TV presenter claimed he finds nothing funny in remarks, calling them O’Reilly’s stock "violence fantasies."

"He says it because he wants somebody to do it," the liberal TV presenter said.

Notice O'Reilly is called a conservative rabble-rouser while the deranged Olbermann is merely a liberal TV presenter.

Of course Olbermann, known to tell people to kill themselves and who last week called Scott Brown every vile name in the book, isn't a rabble-rouser.

He also doesn't have any ratings and Fox is the No. 1, most-trusted name in news, so he's still desperate enough to use material from the long ago discredited Media Matters.

How sad.

Stunner: Palin's First Fox Appearance Crushes the Competition

It's not as if Bill O'Reilly doesn't crush the meager competition weeknights at 8 pm, but when Sarah Palin made her debut as an FNC contributor the other night she helped him completely obliterate the pretenders.

Sarah Palin was a smart hire for Fox News Channel, judging by the ratings for her debut on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Tuesday. The former Alaska governor's first appearance as an analyst drew 3.954 million viewers -- more than everything else on other cable new shows combined in the 8 p.m. hour. CNN's "Campbell Brown" placed second with 999,000 total viewers, MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" placed third with 906,000 total viewers and HLN's "Nancy Grace" brought up the rear with 704,000. Compared to host Bill O'Reilly's ratings the night before, the Palin push was worth a 22 percent rise in ratings, or more than 1 million more viewers including the repeat of O'Reilly's show at 11 p.m.

The most amusing part is Olbermann is now getting beaten by CNN, although they likely got a bump by Haiti coverage. Still, O'Reilly and Palin had more than four times the ratings than the lowly Olbermann.

O'Reilly Chugs the Obama Kool-Aid

For a guy whose own network is under withering assault by the left and the White House in particular, blowhard Bill O'Reilly has no shame in showing up at the White House and slobbering like a schoolboy over the Obamas. It's bad enough we've got 99% of the media smitten with these thugs. Now we get an "objective" personality like O'Reilly gushing over them.

Uh, Bill, kiss your credibility goodbye.

One of the good things about being a media loudmouth is that occasionally you get invited somewhere you actually want to go. This year, I was lucky enough to get an invitation to the White House media holiday party which would have been called a Christmas party if U.S. Grant was still president.

Dude, it wasn't luck. They know a useful idiot when they see one.

Anyway, this is the fourth time I've attended the annual event, and I count myself very fortunate. I love the White House; it symbolizes the greatness of America. The courage and goodness that has been displayed inside this residence ever since John Adams moved in has dramatically changed the world for the better.

Last year, President and Mrs. Bush hosted their final party, and it was fairly extravagant. This year, the crowd was much smaller and the atmosphere toned down a bit, perhaps because of the government spending controversy and the recession.

Or maybe because they shot their wad on the tent party a couple of weeks ago, when they had those "uninvited" guests, the Salahis (hey, whatever happened to that story, by the way?)

My brief meeting with President and Mrs. Obama went well. Even though I have challenged the president on a number of occasions, I believe I have been fair to him. We chatted briefly and he said that I looked to be in better shape than the last time we saw each other. I said that's because he's keeping me on my toes.

Michelle Obama, whom I had never met, was stunning. She was warm and kind to my ten-year-old daughter and gracious to me. My quick assessment of her: Strong, charismatic, and beautiful.

Stunning? Huh?

He goes on to regale us about how he alone helped refurbish the image of racial arsonist Al Sharpton by fawning over him on his program.

Nice work, chump.

Bye-bye, Bill. Nice knowing you. Have a good time trying to regain your street cred on the right. I just can never understand these people who try to cozy up with those who want to destroy them. Does O'Reilly think for a second Obama and Sharpton wouldn't do anything to get him off the air? These are gangsters he's making nice-nice with and he'll be the last one to figure it out.

9/11 Lawyer Pretty Much as Obnoxious as You'd Expect

Bill O'Reilly puts it as diplomatically as possible toward the end when he reminds him "you know people hate you."

Oh yes, we do indeed. Naturally, the slimy scumbag flips it and say anyone who hates him hates the rule of law. On the Kuntsler-Kuby scale of vile douchebaggery, this guy is a perfect 10.

Previously.

Update: It's time to fight back and be heard.

Thanks to Allahpundit for the link.

Update: Hmmm. Looks like Fenstermaker has some explaining to do. More on his chicanery here.

Thanks to Instapundit for the link.

'How Many Black People Are Watching Your Show?'

Bernie Goldberg destroys Chris Matthews and MSNBC. For good measure he smacks down Jon Stewart. The fun starts around the 3:00 mark.

Amazing that white people like Sarah Palin.

"Not that there's anything wrong with it," Mr. Tingles says.

Some background on the idiocy here.

Via Hot Air, here's the girl who was ambushed by the MSNBC twit Norah O'Donnell.

In one day I met a role model, and met the liberal media and their crafty schemes. I fell prey to liberal bias, but I’d like to think I did an okay job. We always want do-overs, and I can assure you if I had a do-over with Miss O’Donnell you’d see a much more prepared (well rested) and ready to go at it side of this 17 year old. But unlike Norah I didnt have my note cards with me. I was forced to think on the spot and answer a gotcha question. Her goal was clear, make this teenager look like an uneducated Palin supporting buffoon. To liberals, and the 5 people who watch MSNBC she succeeded. To conservatives, she was the only buffoon during that interview.

Heh.

"Biggest Bunch Of Crybabies I Have Seen in 30 years"

Pure gold. Chris Wallace appeared on Bill O'Reilly's show tonight and they discussed Obama's snubbing of Fox News Sunday talk show. The reason is real simple they are skeered.

Hell Bertha Lewis from ACORN is going to be on but the wimp in chief can't? Putin may have to be hospitalized after this from laughing so hard he busts a gut.

Sorry for the Media Matters video but it was the only place I could find it.

Bill O'Reilly, Pinhead

Somebody have a chat with this guy. How he can object to the notion of Megan Fox and Olivia Wilde throwing down is beyond me.

Imagine the possibilities.


Olivia, meet Megan.

Enough said.

Bernie Goldberg Explains The Left: 'They're Humorless'

With props to Ms. Underestimated for grabbing the video, a magnificent segment of Bernie Goldberg on O'Reilly tonight.

I love his gesture of bring it on. Is there anyone out there who will?

Tammy Bruce: 'This Is Classic Bush Derangement Syndrome'

Awesome clip of Tammy Bruce on the O'Reilly Factor Tuesday night. She pulls no punches while discussing the insane notion of charging George W. Bush with war crimes for liberating 53 million people.

More from Gateway Pundit.

Ayers Yuks It Up With Obama Supporters in NYC

Naturally, the unrepentant terrorist spent part of his time whining about the evil Fox News at this closed-door gathering of Barack Obama supporters in Manhattan.

The man the GOP loves to hate tiptoed out of hiding Sunday - if only to blast Fox News and the rest of the media for his predicament.

William Ayers, the '60s radical who is one of John McCain's talking points in his criticism of Barack Obama, told a Manhattan panel discussion audience he was tired of being used as cannon fodder in America's political wars.

Aww, the poor guy. Well, Professor, maybe this is the price you pay for trying to murder people and never saying you're sorry.

"[Fox host] Bill O'Reilly comes on his show and first thing he says is, 'Why won't this Ayers story die?'" Ayers told well-wishers. "And then he spends 10 minutes talking about it."

Ayers, a University of Illinois education professor in Chicago, has mostly kept a low profile since McCain started using him as a poster boy for Obama's supposed left-wing leanings.

Supposed left-wing leanings? Supposed???

Good grief, we're losing the language.

The former member of the Weather Underground beamed at the attention paid by the audience of about 60 people, many of whom were decked out in Obama gear.

The crowd gave Ayers a warm welcome, guffawed at jokes about "redistributing the wealth" and nodded at his complaints about the "Republican revolution."

After the talk was over, event organizers attempted to sneak Ayers out a back door to avoid the media.

If they're so happy to have this lowlife, why do they have to sneak him out the back door?

Gateway Pundit links. Thanks!

O'Reilly Goes Nuclear on Barney Frank

Bill O'Reilly goes nuts on the perfidious leftist clown Barney Frank, who should be removed from office. The guy has no shame and takes no responsibility for his actions.

Community Organizer Finally Figures Out There's a War on Terror

He's obviously a slow learner. Good thing he'll have a couple more years in the United States Senate to figue out whether he wants to actually help fight it.

Barack Obama says the United States is engaged in a "war on terror" - using the same wording as President Bush to describe the global battle against Islamic extremists.

In his first sit-down interview with Bill O'Reilly of "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News Channel, Obama said he absolutely" believes the United States is fighting a war on terror.

Obama said the enemy was "al Qaeda, the Taliban, a whole host of networks that are bent on attacking America, who have a distorted ideology, who have perverted the faith of Islam."

Many Democrats reject the use of the term, which the administration has used to argue for a global conflict that extends beyond national boundaries, and includes the war in Iraq, which Obama opposed and called a "dumb war."

Scapegoating Speculators

I know it is the current fashion to blame "speculators" for the skyrocketing oil prices. Bill O'Reilly has made this a particular cause of his. However, there appears to be no clear evidence to support this assertion:

Speculators are often scapegoats, economists say

Once again, it's open season on speculators.

The popular tale holds that with the rise of long-only commodity index funds and increased interest in commodities from pension funds and other players, speculators must be to blame for surging oil prices and have probably been the prime culprit in the steep rice in prices for food and other commodities as well. Politicians are on the war path, promising to bring speculators to heel. There's just one rub: Economists say they have yet to see the commodity markets exhibit the symptoms they would expect to find if speculators were pushing commodity prices above levels dictated by supply-and-demand fundamentals and geopolitical concerns.

You see folks, it's one thing to make a claim, it's another thing to prove it. Destructive speculation leaves tracks in the market, such as more speculators bidding prices up than down, more long positions than short positions, that kind of thing. Unfortunately for the conspiracy theorists, these indicators do not exist in the market right now.

In a recent paper, Irwin -- along with Dwight R. Sanders of Southern Illinois University and Robert Merrin of the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands -- delved into the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly reports on trader commitments and other data. Their task was to gauge whether speculative players in agricultural commodity markets were trading primarily with other speculators or with farmers and commercial interests who use the futures markets to hedge risk.

Speculators are crucial to futures markets. By taking the opposite side of trades with farmers, end-users and other commercial players, they help ensure markets are liquid. Without enough speculators, markets can become illiquid and increasingly volatile.

Speculation can get out of hand, however. If speculators are primarily trading with each other, bubbles can develop, Irwin said.

But the study found that levels of speculation in the agricultural futures pits were well within historical norms, despite a surge in participation by long-only index funds and other speculators in recent years.

In other words, the rise in speculative long positions -- bets that prices will move higher -- was equaled or surpassed by an increase in short positions -- bets prices will fall -- by commercial hedgers.

I repeat, speculative long positions were equaled or surpassed by speculative short positions. So more speculators are betting that prices will drop than go up. So there is no destructive speculation artificially driving prices up. No, the reason that prices have been jumping is no more complicated than supply and demand, and in fact the speculators are figuring that supply will catch up with demand pretty quick. So to the conspiracy theorists out there, especially Bill O'Reilly, who should know better, what say you?