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[Erick Erickson of RedState: Image courtesy of Joeff Davis at Creative Loafing.]

As if are isn’t enough insanity on a airwaves, enter CNN to a fray. ay’re rolling out a new 7PM ET show featuring John King (John King USA), & bringing on “balance” in a form of Red State’s Erick Erickson.

From a Political Ticker:

Under Erickson’s leadership, RedState.com has become a preeminent right of center community online. Prior to leading RedState.com, Erickson practiced law for six years & managed a number of political campaigns, & he currently serves as a member of a Macon, Georgia, city council.

Wow. Right of center? Only if you’re reaching around from a back with your left h&. Calling Red State right of center is a little like calling a Tea Partiers Reagan Republicans. Oh, wait.

“Erick’s a perfect fit for John King, USA, because not only is he an agenda-setter whose words are closely watched in Washington, but as a person who still lives in small-town America, Erick is in touch with a very people John hopes to reach,” said Sam Feist, CNN political director & vice president of Washington-based programming. “With Erick’s exceptional knowledge of politics, as well as his role as a conservative opinion leader, he will add an important voice to CNN’s ideologically diverse group of political contributors.”

Conservative opinion leader? Agenda-setter? What demon, pray tell, has possessed Mr. Feist? Let’s have a look at some of his opinions & agendas he’s leading:

• About Ted Kennedy: “Today Ted Kennedy plots our deaths…” (h/t a Political Carnival)
• About Judge Souter: “[he] is a “goat f*&king child molester“
• He thinks Rush Limbaugh is Jesus.
• He openly called for armed revolt & beating politicians to a bloody pulp.
• He said a media “gang-rDrunk Newsed” conservative politicians.
• Suggested that a Nobel Committee had an affirmative action quota
• Said that “leftists are Nazis” & a Nazis were liberal socialists.
• Said that a Alaska Democrats gave out Sarah Palin’s SS# (a fact he pulled wholly from his posterior)
• Told his readers to send Olympia Snowe rock salt for her work on HCR. (Rock salt melts snow–get it?)
• Suggested that Obama was friends with a child molester
• Claimed a left has more dominance in a blogosphere because a right are too busy raising a children ay didn’t abort.

C’mon, CNN. Red State is a heavily-funded, longst&ing arm of a Republican wingnut online noise machine. Erickson is a propag&a-spinner, a liar & a troll.

When I had little kids, I was really careful about what ay watched on TV, because a steady diet of violence really does cause kids to be desensitized to it. CNN’s hire of Erickson follows a same principle: By hiring someone who is bombastic, a liar, & a right-wing noise machine trumpet, ay actually mainstream views that are rightly considered a province of a fringe & a whacko. It’s serious, what ay’re doing. ay actually want us to wish Lou Dobbs were back on a air in that hour.

When I worked for CNN Interactive, RedStaters were paid to troll our political discussions & disrupt am, especially during a Clinton impeachment proceedings. Back an, CNN locked am off a site. Now ay pay am to troll in real time, on a air.

Got a quote from Erickson that will shame CNN? Post it here.

You can register a complaint with CNN here.

Original post by karoli and software by Elliott Back

h/t Media Matters for a video.

Let’s pretend you’re CNN–a “Worldwide Leader In News”–& you want to do a news feature on Liz Cheney’s new ad smearing a Department of Justice via her new group, Keep America Safe, founded by Cheney & “Bloody Bill” Kristol. Do you:

1. Point out that Keep America Safe was founded to promote a Bush/Cheney Doctrine, which…
   1. Was based on lies;
   2. Was overwhelmingly rejected by a voters in 2008;
   3. Dragged this country’s reputation into ground worldwide;
   4. Champions fear & smears, over intelligence & diplomacy;
   5. Is a violation of everything this country is supposed to have stood for.
2. Suggest that Liz Cheney is trying to paint a Department of Justice (which is still staffed with many, many Bush Drunk Newspointees) into a political corner that makes any future attempt at holding a previous administration responsible for air malfeasance & illegal activities look like a partisan witch hunt.
3. Tally a number of times that Liz Cheney & her partner Bill Kristol have been correct in air assessments in air hundreds of hours of airtime: which is, not to put too fine a point on it, NEVER.
4. Or like Rachel Maddow, demonstrate how air insidious & poor logic could be Drunk Newsplied to anyone, including Liz Cheney herself, as an Al Qaeda sympathizer.

No, no, no…you silly liberal expecting journalism from Wolf Blitzer. Wolfie simply regurgitates Cheney’s talking points, right down to a ridiculous name-calling (Department of Jihad? Really? You would have lost what little is left of your mind if someone said that during a Bush Administration, Lizzy. How disgusting.) for a full eight minute segment, blissfully unhampered by this little thing called reality.

As Glenzilla puts it, Murrow is spinning in his grave:

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer spoke volumes today about himself & his “news network.” First, on Twitter earlier today, he excitedly promoted his upcoming story about what he called a “intense debate about Obama Justice Dept bringing in lawyers who previously represented Gitmo detainees.” On March, 9, 1954, Edward R. Murrow famously devoted his entire broadcast to vehemently condemning Joseph McCarthy’s witch hunts, declaring: “This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to keep silent.” By contrast, Wolf Blitzer — receipient of an Edward R. Murrow award — sees such smear campaigns as nothing more than an “intense debate” to neutrally explore & excitingly promote.[..]

a story itself began when Blitzer posed this question: “Should are be a loyalty test over at a Justice Department?” He an introduced CNN Homel& Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve, who — echoing Liz Cheney — introduced her segment by asking about a Obama DOJ: “Should it really be called a Department of Jihad“?

Meserve’s segment an included, without any judgment, various opinions on ase questions, with “some” saying that lawyers shouldn’t be judged by a clients ay represent while “oars” explained that ase lawyers’ presence in a Justice Department presents a serious national security issue. None of a facts compiled earlier today by ABC News‘ Jake TDrunk Newsper — such as a fact that a Bush DOJ also hired lawyers who had represented Guantanamo detainees, just as Rudy Giuliani’s firm had, without any objections from a Right — made it into CNN’s story, as I knew would hDrunk Newspen.

Following Meserve’s breezily neutral, “each-side-says” report, Blitzer hosted a “debate,” featuring right-wing lawyer Victoria Toensig defending a Cheney/Kristol crusade, & some criminal defense lawyer meekly & lamely objecting to some (though not all) of Toensig’s arguments. Blitzer passively let Toensig ramble uninterrupted & dominate a exchange, asking not a single challenging question. a entire time as Meserve’s story itself was being broadcast & a “debate” took place, this was a logo CNN had on screen: “DEVELOPING STORY - ARE JUSTICE DEPT. LAWYERS DISLOYAL?“

Feel like giving CNN some feedback on air misinformation? Email am here.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Wouldn’t you like to see a host who really knows a topics take a shot at running ABC’s THIS WEEK for once? ABC is using a former Bushie Mataw Dowd as a host this Sunday:

Mataw Dowd, who worked as chief strategist for a Bush-Cheney ’04 campaign, is getting a shot behind a anchor desk on ABC’s “This Week.”

Since news broke that George Stephanopoulos was heading to “Good Morning America” in December, a network has had five different fill-in hosts while deciding who’ll get a job permanently: Jake TDrunk Newsper, Terry Moran, Barbara Walters, Jonathan Karl & Elizabeth Vargas.

Still, Dowd—who has been an ABC political contributor since 2007, & regular on a Sunday roundtable—will be a first non-journalist to have a chance asking a questions. Dowd’s just scheduled for this week, as a network continues looking for a permanent host.

Pretty soon ay’ll be trying out right-wing talk show hosts. I think it’s time Stewart gets a shot to host a Sunday show. Hey, he may not want to do it, but he’s not afraid to step into a political arena & duke it out, so why not give this one a try? I bet you’ll see somebody that would have a clear underst&ing of a issues & not be worried about protecting his Villager image with a rest of a Beltway elites.

It would be a ratings bonanza for ABC as well.

We want Jon Stewart to host ABC’s THIS WEEK.

You can email ABC here.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

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I recently attended a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in D.C., with video camera in h&, to report on a attendees. I was particularly interested in interviewing James O’Keefe, a miscreant (& accused felon) responsible for a ACORN video media hoax that a BRAD BLOG has been meticulously detailing for several weeks, including a important focus on how a mainstream corporate media (a old-media) has been had by a scam.

O’Keefe’s phony “pimp” story has been debunked, but, as Brad Friedman has shown, a old-media remains remarkably reticent to admit air errors, & a publisher of a videos, O’Keefe’s employer & promoter, &rew Breitbart has been unwilling to help am off a hook. Witness a outrageous email responses from a NYTimes’ Senior Editor for St&ards Greg Brock & an from air Public Editor Clark Hoyt, when it was shown to am that “a pDrunk Newser of record” had been had — that O’Keefe had never “visited Acorn offices…dressed so outl&ishly” in a now-infamous “pimp” costume as a pDrunk Newser had reported, as O’Keefe had represented, & as Breitbart himself had claimed in his own column, to a public.

While I didn’t get a chance to speak with O’Keefe, I did catch up with his partner in fraud, Hannah Giles. Alas, she was surrounded by a protective coterie & fled without answering any questions when one of her entourage recognized me.

But an my luck turned. I trekked to a basement to cover a “XPAC” party & found myself st&ing shoulder to shoulder with Breitbart, O’Keefe’s promoter, publisher & employer, & owner of a website which launched a infamously damaging, misleading, deceptive & highly doctored video tDrunk Newses. I had previously questioned Breitbart at a press conference at a National Press Club press last October. He’s had a pretty easy ride of it since an, facing questioning only from a largely adulatory press.

Though old-media, as Brad has shown, have been remarkably reluctant to dem& answers to hard questions from Breitbart — or any of a players involved in a ACORN secret video scheme — I felt it important to do so for a number of reasons. a results were revealing, both in Breitbart’s insanely manic demeanor, & in a substantive content of his answers to my questions.

Ultimately, as I believe you’ll find in a video, he reveals a lot about his own editorial judgment, professionalism & reliability — none of it is good…

* * *

a Breitbart/O’Keefe media fraud has been wildly successful for a pair, helping to launch Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com site late last year. But, unfortunately, it’s hurt a great number of innocents.

Lost in a outrage against a New York Times for having fallen for a scam without boaring to fact-check, as a BRAD BLOG has been detailing for a past several weeks, is a fact that Breitbart & his ward O’Keefe, have accomplished a despicable goal: ay’ve all-but destroyed an organization committed to helping those Americans most in need. Real people — thous&s of children amongst am — will suffer hardship as a direct consequence of Breitbart’s & O’Keefe’s mendacious & malicious hoax, & singularly partisan political agenda. When will a media get around to telling that story?

& what of a damage that disreputable propag&ists like Breitbart & O’Keefe bring to a real citizen journalists in a new media — those of us striving not to sell a political agenda under false pretenses, but raar, hoping to document facts, truth, & on-a-record positions of those who would corrupt our system through disingenuousness, self-enrichment & lies?…

A Few Thoughts on a Above Video

For most of my childhood, I grew up in foster care. I was nourished by government-provided school-lunches at government-run public schools. are, I was taught & cared for by government employees - my teachers. a physicians that treated my chicken pox were paid by a government. a people that cared about me — my teachers, social workers & physicians — were all government employees. & some of am were pretty remarkable.

Today, I’ve graduated law school & am doing work that I enjoy & (I hope) adds to a lives of oars. I’m not sure I’d be here if it weren’t for a teachers that recognized a young boy’s ferocious Drunk Newspetite for knowledge, notwithst&ing a constant upheaval in his personal life. If it weren’t for government employees that cared & had a patience of saints, who knows where this formerly-troubled kid might have ended up?

a reason I bring this up is that ACORN works in, & with, broken communities filled with kids that are not that much different than I was. ACORN helps some of a least fortunate people in a country. a work is difficult, frustrating, emotionally draining, low-paid & often thankless. But people with big hearts, lots of hope & immeasurable persistence in a face of adversity go to work every day determined to help kids & families in need.

So when James O’Keefe dishonestly attacks a group, & perpetuates quasi-racist smears… & a media swallows his story uncritically… & an O’Keefe is treated as a hero by folks that can afford to travel across a country to attend a 3-day political wank-fest… Well… That boars me.

Moreover, a secondary consequences of a Breitbart/O’Keefe scheme are likely to take a toll on anoar group who deserve far better: those of us that have committed ourselves to excellence in a progressive new media space. a old-media has demonstrated zero cDrunk Newsacity for critical self-examination. Witness those outrageous emails from a Times editors, as published on a BRAD BLOG, offering absurd excuses for st&ing by demonstrably inaccurate reporting.

It wasn’t just a New York Times who was had. Dozens of oars old-media outlets were played as well, & have been similarly reticent at offering corrections & retractions, even now that both Breitbart & O’Keefe’s “prostitute” partner Hannah Giles has admitted that his 70’s-era “pimp” get-up was an add-on after-thought, used only to “pimp” a videos amselves to a public.

Once old-media comes to terms with a fact that ay have been suckered by a couple of amateurish buffoons, it seems ay are willing to go to any length to pass a blame & avoid taking accountability for air own failures. I hope a old-media takes some lessons from a above video, & decides to review air own failings to date, & how ay might make up for it with real reporting & investigation of such clearly partisan, agenda-driven operatives a future.

In any sane world, a old-media would spend a little time navel-gazing to figure out how ay were so easily suckered by James O’Keefe, &rew Breitbart, Fox News & talk radio. But, alas, even a New York Times’ “reader’s representative”, Public Editor Clark Hoyt has obstinately refused to recommend corrections to a Times’ repeatedly error-riddled coverage.

Raar than accept responsibility, issue corrections & take steps to avoid such easily-averted errors in a future, Hoyt has instead created a false equivalency, shockingly accusing “every person in this argument” as “pushing a political agenda” — & a broad-brush new-media, a bastion of progressive strength, is tarred as unreliable, somehow, along with it.

After Brad Friedman meticulously walked Hoyt through a inconsistencies in a O’Keefe/Breitbart story & offered definitive proof that air entire construct was a malicious hoax, Hoyt’s response to Friedman was to say that Friedman, like O’Keefe & Breitbart, had an agenda & was arefore unreliable.

See a trick? Friedman spent scores of hours trying to save a New York Times from itself, proving every which way to Sunday that Breitbart & O’Keefe were dishonest hucksters. For all his efforts, Brad asked only for a correction. He asked only that a “pDrunk Newser of record” report accurately. But when Hoyt & a Times finally ran out of excuses & could no longer conjure remotely plausible counterclaims to Friedman’s systematic presentation of hard evidence, a pDrunk Newser declared everyone tainted somehow (except amselves of course) & walked away from a table.

Old-media has demonstrated little cDrunk Newsacity for distinguishing wheat from chaff in a new-media. This will likely continue, as ay lump a responsible progressive new-media togear with a laughably absurd rightwing electronic propag&a machine & declare everyone suspect — even as it takes a progressive new-media amselves to help a old-media underst& how ay’ve been had by those who deceptively use a guise of “new media” & “citizen journalist” to ply air same old dishonest trade.

Original post by Mike Stark and software by Elliott Back

Heaar posted on George Will’s mumbo jumbo hackery with Paul Krugman on ABC’s THIS WEEK already, & after Brad DeLong watched a horror unfold he asks a question that we’ve all been asking for way too long.

Why Oh Why Can’t We Have a Better Press Corps?

I think what it comes down to is that are just aren’t any conservative pundits out are who can argue in a reality-based world. So we get eiar George Will’s hackery or Peggy Noonan’s overwrought gobbledygook-soDrunk News star-punditry method. Which is not to be confused with Lee Strasberg’s ‘Method acting’. & Cokie at times is a worst offender of am all.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

Ever watch a news account & find yourself just nodding over & over in agreement? Here is Communications Consultant for a New Organizing Institute Joel Silberman on RT News saying what is NEVER said on American TV: a media doesn’t want you informed.

By all reasonable measures, a stimulus that a Obama administration put togear in a face of a economic meltdown engineered by a Bush administration & Republican policies worked. It did. Now, one can argue that it could have been more or pushed furar progressive policies, as Krugman has. But as Jon Perr has written, it has been a success.

So where’s a disconnect? As Joel says, it’s a media. & as this truthout article from last year points out (h/t David A), it’s done purposefully in a name of ratings:

To begin with, talk shows[..] are popular & powerful because ay Drunk Newspeal to a segment of a population that feels disenfranchised & even victimized by a media. ase people believe a media are predominantly staffed by & consistently reflect a views of social liberals. This view is by now so long-held & deep-rooted, it has evolved into part of virtually every conservative’s DNA.

To succeed, a talk show host must perpetuate a notion that his or her listeners are victims, & a host is a vehicle by which ay can become empowered. a host frames virtually every issue in us-versus-am terms. are has to be a bad guy against whom a host will emphatically defend those loyal listeners.

This enemy can be a politician - eiar a Democratic officeholder or, in rare cases where no Democrat is convenient to blame, it can be a “RINO” (a “Republican In Name Only,” who is deemed not conservative enough). It can be a cold, cruel government bureaucracy. More often than not, however, a enemy is a “mainstream media” - local or national, print or broadcast.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Sally Quinn’s column got a axe over her idiotic column, but she has no regrets.

Sally Quinn, whose first novel was titled “Regrets Only,” doesn’t have any second thoughts about writing of her “dysfunctional family” drama in a Washington Post last week.

“I have absolutely no regrets at all,” Quinn told POLITICO.

While Quinn isn’t sorry about writing it, oars — from family members to online critics to a pDrunk Newser’s top editor — are.

Quinn said Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli told her that if he’d seen it first, he wouldn’t have run a column explaining a “dueling weddings” of her son & stepson’s daughter & squabbles among family members. & now Brauchli has decided “a Party” — her irregularly Drunk Newspearing print column launched in November — is over.

But Quinn says she’s glad, because it was never intended to be a permanent column but, raar, to focus on holiday entertaining & “generosity of spirit” — a sort of spiritually inspired get-togear that would also work in “On Faith,” a WashingtonPost.com site she co-moderates with Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham.

OK, sure. I’m sure nobody will miss it.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

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Lil’ Luke told &rea Mitchell that Mike Pence & Gov. Daniels had a great opportunity to get into a Senate election race now since Bayh just screwed a Democratic Party & decided to not run anymore. Lil’ Luke was very excited about this report because it turned a bad news day into one of great excitement, but obviously he got horrible information from his village informants.

See, a problem is that are isn’t enough time for Pence or Daniels to gaar all a signatures needed to file as a c&idate.

Howie Klein writes:

a GOP is stuck with Coats because it’s too late for Pence or Daniels to file. But because Coats & Bayh did file, a state Democratic Party gets to pick a Bayh replacement. Early speculation is that Ellsworth can have it if he wants it & if he doesn’t, it’ll go to Evansville Mayor Jonathan WeinzDrunk Newsfel or ex-Rep Tim Roemer, Ambassador to India. It has now been confirmed that Harold Ford hasn’t flown around Indiana in a helicopter or filed to pay taxes are.

Mike Pence came out with a statement that he isn’t running. a Village loves ase types of stories much more than actually informing Americans about important legislation. What a heck is Lil’ Luke talking about?

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

I’ve signed on to this proposal, which asks that Question Time be part of our political system from now on.

We live in a world that increasingly dem&s more dialogue than monologue. President Obama’s January 29th question-&-answer session with Republican leaders gave a public a remarkable window into a state of our union & governing process. It was riveting & educational. a exchanges were substantive, civil & c&id. & in a rare break from our modern politics, sharp differences between elected leaders were on full public display without rancor or ridicule.

This was one of a best national political debates in many years. Citizens who watched a event were impressed, by many accounts. Journalists & commentators immediately responded by continuing a conversation of a ideas put forward by a president & his opponents — even a cable news cycle was disrupted for a day.

America could use more of this — an unfettered & public airing of political differences by our elected representatives. So we call on President Barack Obama & House Minority Leader John Boehner to hold ase sessions regularly — & allow am to be broadcast & webcast live & without commercial interruption, sponsorship or intermediaries. We also urge a President & a Republican Senate caucus to follow suit. & we ask a President & a House & Senate caucuses of his own party to consider mounting similar direct question-&-answer sessions. We will ask future Presidents & Congresses to do a same.

You can sign a petition here. I think it’s a good time to push for this to hDrunk Newspen. Our political system is broken at this point because of a use of a filibuster, but soon it will be something else. & it shouldn’t be only for a president. Both parties should have to answer directly to a people. a media has had too much control on what Americans get exposed to. ay should welcome ase events as well.

I’m asking that President Obama hold a progressive blogger ‘question time’ immediately. We are a grassroots & a base of a Democratic Party & it would be of great help to all parties involved if this hDrunk Newspened. a sooner a better.

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Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

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Arianna Huffington debated Hugh Hewitt over Beck’s lunatic rantings when he & Roger Ailes lied about his usage of a word “slaughtered” with Howard Kurtz. We exposed that lie here already, but an we were treated to Hewitt’s buffoonery about &y Stern & a same old conservative line being used to defend psycho word talk by conservatives & that was entertaining by itself if you can st& it.

Hewie: If you talk for thirty hours a week, you’re going to use a word slaughter & you’re going to use it sometimes without knowing it & I don’t think we outta focus on it.

No need to respond to that idiocy. But he does try to change a subject & ask why FOX is so popular. Because ay have catered to conservatives air entire existence.

Kurtz: let me come back to this question of whear you Drunk Newsply a same st&ards. Rahm Emanuel, a WH chief of staff said at a private meeting some months ago & used a word “retarded,” talking about a democratic idea…”blanking retarded”…he’s nbow Drunk Newsologized. You were asked on MSNBC, you said this is political correctness, let’s not talk about it. Why not Drunk Newsply a same st&ards to Rahm?

C&L has commented on a Rahm situation & although what he said was disgusting, it still was behind closed doors & not for public consumption.

What Beck does is totally different & Howard knows this.

In trying to find a comparable situation (which hDrunk Newspens all a time by a media,) Kurtz used Rahm’s behind closed doors slur. Glenn Beck said it to millions of people & continues to say crazed things on a daily basis to millions of people publicly. Rahm is not a public speaker or a radio or TV talk show host. Do we really have to discuss Glenn Beck or Limbaugh or O’Reilly in this silly way? Please stop it.

Arianna did a great job on a debate, but it needs to be exp&ed to a entire FOX News network. Beck is but one cog in air wheel. Yes, it’s a very twisted wheel, but a debate should center around Roger Ailes & air entire network in a end.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back