Faux News at Its Worst

I’m returning to the world of people who can breathe through their noses. I have a lot of catching up to do, but do see Jonathan Chait’s “The Fox News–iest Segment in Fox News History.” It’s a clip of Bill O’Reilly in full Bullying Purveyor of Ignorance mode that is horribly fascinating. It’s like animated road kill — ghastly, but try not to watch.

Also don’t miss Alan Colmes, playing the role of useful idiot/alleged liberal foil, whose “defense” of President Obama is just mushy enough to give O’Reilly’s tirade a veneer of plausibility. As PM Carpenter says,

Yet to me the most captivating character on the “Factor”‘s set is not Bill O’Reilly, but Alan Colmes, Fox News’ “feeble” and “sniveling” token of liberalism who appears regularly on the network only to be abused, interrupted, and humiliated. Colmes is all too happy to oblige, hence his regular appearances; plus, he routinely delivers some of the weakest intellectual arguments for and wimpish defenses of liberalism, or the left, or the center-left, or whatever you care to call it. Fox calls it delightful, since it’s so poorly represented.

Is Holmes real, or is he a CGI?

23 thoughts on “Faux News at Its Worst

  1. FUX Noise LOOOOOOOVES them some Alan Colmes.
    They’re beyond delighted to have Liberals look like sniveling, cowardly, lily-livered, dwarfish, bridge trolls, who couldn’t get laid with a fistful of pardons in a prison – female, OR, male!
    And, on a channel with big handsome manly men, and short-skirted pretty women, someone like Alan Colmes sticks out even more. So should that dick, Dick Morris, but he was on THEIR side!

    I’ve heard his radio show at times, and he actually does a pretty good job representing Liberalism there. And he can be tough with idiotic Conservative (but I repeat myself) callers.
    I think being the guy in JHS and HS who had his lunch stolen, and who was the designated wedgie recipient, on a daily basis, has left him pretty cowed when he’s in the presense of big egomaniacal bullies.

    And the feck’s at FUX won’t let him on solo, not because they’re afraid he’ll scare their viewers with his looks, but that he might “edumacate” ’em! As if they were “edumacatable…”

  2. Last night, O’Reilly doubled down on the “no specific cuts” lie and attacked another Fox News liberal, Kirsten Powers, for pointing out that he is wrong.

    I thought Colmes did fine, and O’Reilly looked like a bully and a fool. I understand that the typical Fox viewer might see it differently.

  3. The actual barometer of success or failure in the sequestration gambit is the polls. From a recent NBC/WSJ poll, 2/21 to 2/24.. sample size 1000, which is respectable….

    “GOP’s poor standing with the public –
    While Obama has seen his poll numbers drop – albeit within the survey’s margin of error – his political standing remains significantly stronger than Republicans’.

    Only 29 percent of respondents say they agree “with most” of what Republicans in Congress have proposed (versus 45 percent for Obama and 40 percent for congressional Democrats).

    An identical 29 percent have a favorable view of the Republican Party (compared with 49 percent for Obama and 41 percent for the Democratic Party).

    And the public believes the GOP is more interested in partisanship than Obama is: 48 percent say Obama is pursuing a path on unifying the country in a bipartisan way, while 43 percent say he’s taking a partisan approach that doesn’t unify the country.

    By comparison, 64 percent say Republicans are taking a partisan approach, versus 22 percent who say it’s focused on unity.

    What’s more, the polls shows the Democratic Party beats the Republican Party on almost every issue – looking out for middle class (by 22 points), Medicare (by 18 points), health care (16 points), reducing gun violence (15 points), Social Security (14 points), immigration (7 points) and even taxes (3 points) and the economy (2 points)….”

    As the effects start to be felt in the real world.. and as sequestration takes a toll on the economy, poll numbers will shift. Perhaps radically. You can find pundits who will tell you whatever you want to hear but.. WATCH THE POLLS!

    http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17105540-nbcwsj-poll-public-wary-about-sequester-cuts-but-obama-in-stronger-political-position-than-gop?lite

  4. What’s CGA? He appears more like a GDI. Well, in defense of Colmes..trying to reason or present a point in the face of such a bombastic,obnoxious, weaseling bully slimebucket like O’Reilly is a near impossible feat. I assume his role is to serve as some sort of sounding board or catchers mitt to absorb O’Reilly’s bombast to boost O’Reilly’s ratings.
    I see it all as part of the sickness that’s destroying our country..I’m seeing the same thing with Rand Paul’s little fillibuster espisode yesterday..The problem could lie with,perhaps my expectations are set to high, but I’m seeing a very low level of intellectual honesty or integrity. I can understand the dynamic of grabbing attention, but I can’t understand not seeing the costs in doing so.. If money is their god..It might make some sense to me, but if not that than it’s just sickness.

  5. “Alan Colmes, Fox News’ “feeble” and “sniveling” token of liberalism who appears regularly on the network only to be abused”

    In Al Franken’s book lies and the lying liars he referred to Colmes as “Alan Colmes” in font so small it was hardly visible, Franken is a genius i wish he would give up the serious senator shtick and get back to brilliant sarcasm!!!

    Bill-O’s show is taped far in advance and highly edited so his seemingly “spontaneous” outrage is completely, staged, manufactured, edited and rolled out for maximum effect. It works perfectly for the ignorant dimwitted mouth-breathers that watch his show.

  6. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with a group of mouth foaming righties? This reminds me of my dogs, little rat terrorists who are not bad little fur bags one on one, but put the entire pack together and oh shit…there goes the neighborhood. The pit bull who just moved in behind us just sighs and walks away..even with his great big voice he can’t get a word in edgewise with the four yipsters yapping away. Sort of like talking to gunnies..they think if they drown out what your saying with all their yapping, that they win!

    I have a question for New Yorkers. I keep hearing sean insannity saying he is a “registered conservative”. I have lived in 5 different states since I became voting age and I had 3 choices. Register republican, democrat or independent. When I registered the first time..well lets just say the political climate was different.I rarely agreed with republicans, but they were not the totally bat shit insane party they have become today. I have always been a Harley lady and many on the left were spending their time trying to make me wear a helmet( LET THOSE WHO RIDE DECIDE)- I registered as an independent and have stayed that way,but before you get too miffed with me you should know I support Democrats with my vote, my time and when I was a rich housewife I supported them with cash too. Not sure if anyone remembers stupak, but he and I went around on the helmet law a million times. On other issues we agreed but I fought tooth and nail with him over helmets. The man never got my vote and if there is a heaven when I get there someone will be smacking him ( not hard, just enough to be annoying) over the head with a helmet for eternity( or at least making him wear one forever)…

    But back to the question. Can you register as a con. in New York? Do you have some special magic registration we don’t get in the rest of the country? Or is it time to call sean out on his crap?

  7. and as sequestration takes a toll on the economy, poll numbers will shift.

    Doug, I assume toward Obama’s position? Is that a correct assumption?

  8. Doug, I assume toward Obama’s position? Is that a correct assumption?

    Swami –

    Which direction is the 54 thousand dollar question. The GOP is sure that the public will blame Obama for manufacturing any ill effects – because reducing spending by mammoth amounts will have no effect on services.

    In the same way a drought has no effect on crops. But that’s the gamble and the GOP is playing it out.

  9. justme277…He might be registered with CPAC, but not for an official political voting option.

  10. justme,
    Yes, there is a “Conservative Party” here in NY State, and you can register as a “Conservative.”

    If you’re interested, here’s their contact info:
    http://www.cpnys.org/contact
    😉

    We have quite a lot of party choices here in NY:
    (D) = Democrat • (R) = Republican • (C) = Conservative • (CNST) = Constitution
    (G) = Green • (IP) = Independence Party • (I) = Independent/No Party • (Ind) – Independent (L) = Liberal • (LIBT) = Libertarian • (NL) = Natural Law • (RTL) = Right to Life (SJ) = Save Jobs • (SWP) = Socialist Workers • (WF) = Working Families.

    And I’m sure everyone can figure out that there are a lot of the same candidates amongst all of these parties.
    Like, the Working Families, Liberal, and Socialist Workers parties, if not running one of their own candidates, will usually fall in with the Democrats and their candidate(s). And the usual suspects will fall in with the Republicans.
    But, on local issues, some of these parties have quite a bit of impact, like Working Families.

  11. Doug…I see that they have already assured the military full funding until september, so that’s out of the equation for the time being. But in the mean time, if other proposed cuts do take effect than I’d suspect the GOP will get some serious egg on their face. Too many people will be effected, not to the point of disaster, but to the point of paying attention..
    Even with things like food stamps..the ultimate financial recipient and beneficary is American businesses. We are so interdependant that there can be no winners …But it wouldn’t hurt to go back and review the Bush years at least to help people understand how we got to where we’re at now.

  12. justme277..Ooops, you can just color me moron!

    Thanks Gulag, for exposing me for the idiot I am. I appreciate looking stupid… 🙂

  13. Swami,
    Like I never need any help in that regard, you don’t either! 🙂

    I was actually writing my comment when yours went up, so I didn’t even see it before I posted mine.

  14. Oh. Now I see where this is going.

    The only prominent NY Conservative Party ‘success’ story was James Buckley, who won the 1970 US Senate race because Charles Goodell (Nelson Rockefeller’s appointed replacement for Bobby Kennedy) switched to an anti-Vietnam War stance while in office. Aside from being that SOB William F’s older brother, James Buckley is also the uncle of Brent Bozell and – wait – – – Bill O’Reilly!

    ‘Liberal’ Alan Colmes is the brother-in-law of Dick Nixon-acolyte, Washington Times and Fox News favorite Monica Crowley. Is that sorta like the Carvilles?

    …and they try to push this system on us as a ‘meritocracy’. Oy.

  15. Welcome back, Maha. You were missed, but likely didn’t miss a thing. Not much ever changes.

  16. This fits into Fox News’ claim that it is “fair and balanced.” You have a loudmouth like O’Reilly and doormat like Colmes, and the people at Fox can say, “see, we had a liberal on.”

  17. wow Gulag, out here in the rest of the world we don’t get that many choices. I think Libertarian is an option now and maybe(just maybe) the green party but thats it out here in the midwest. I didn’t live in California long enough to vote in an election so they may have a bunch of party options, I am not sure. It seems, looking back, all I did was fight with stupak….grrrrrrrrrrr. Oh to ride down the 101 with the wind in my hair instead of a helmet getting caught by the wind and knocking my back out of place, getting a splitting headache and having my field of vision impaired- it’s a dream but it’s mine!

  18. justme,
    It only seems like a lot of choices.
    In reality, in almost all national, and most state elections, almost all of these parties line-up with their Democratic and Republican big brothers.

    But, like I said, “The Working Families Party,” in more local elections, can, and has, made a difference in getting some genuine Liberals and Progressives into office!

    Hey, change has to start somewhere!

  19. I sent Alan Colmes an email several years ago when he was on the FOX show, Hannitty and Colmes.I wrote that watching his show is like watching a train wreck in slo mo.
    He responded that train wrecks can be fun. I guess they pay him well to be a human pinata.

  20. He responded that train wrecks can be fun. I guess they pay him well to be a human pinata.

    OMG.

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