A front-page story in today’s New York Times strongly suggests that Roger Ailes–the News Corp executive who runs the Fox News Channel, the Fox Business Network, and Fox broadcast stations–urged a witness to lie to federal officials in order to protectfriend and politician Rudolph Giuliani.
If true, what may be most remarkable about the story is how unsurprising it is coming from Fox. Other networks surely harbor biases, but it would be surprising to find, say, that a top ABC News executive had suborned perjury in a partisan ploy to protect a politician.
But if the allegations against Ailes are true, it’s only the latest glimpse of the culture of lying that pervades Fox and its News Corp parent.
In addition to a well-documented habit of on-air distortion, it’s important to remember that Fox has argued in court that that the First Amendment gives broadcasters the right to lie.
The case, heard before a Florida court in 2002-03, was appealing a $425,000 judgment against Fox, that found its local Tampa affiliate WTVT had wrongfully fired reporter Jane Akre when she refused to falsify a story about the safety of Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH). WTVT‘s pressure on Akre and her partner Steve Wilson to insert false material into the story reportedly came after Monsanto, which produces BGH, complained to Ailes about the anticipated report.(Ailes was not directly in charge of Fox broadcast stations at the time; he wouldn’t assume that job until 2005, but was known as one of the most powerful and influential News Corp executives.)
Well, it makes sense for FOX to argue for the right to lie, doesn’t it?
Otherwise, there’d be nothing on the network but dead air.
That goes in large measure for the rest of the corpress as well, of course, but they don’t make quite as much of a fetish of it, do they?
Yes, it IS hardly surprising. What is truly sad is to watch the decimation and total emasculation of the fourth estate as it becomes nothing more than a corporate profit center and independent media is destroyed. All we have left is PRAVDA-Fox and the rest. Welcome to Soviet America, where the Corporate media kills you.
Maybe ‘FAIR’will listen to M.S.N.B.C. one night and see what hatred is really like.Everyone that i know feels the same way.As a senior citizen on Social Security i have not received an increase since Obama and the Democratic party has been in office.Inflation is sky high on everything;food ,rents,transportation,electric,etc. and Obama and the Democratic party keeps saying their is no inflation.Obama and the Democratic party tells General Electric to tell M.S.N.B.C. to attack fox news.When the government and other news media attack another news outlet something is terrible wrong.
Have I missed FAIR stories on MSNBC’s culture of lying? Fox spews Right propaganda and MSNBC just as vociferously spews Left propaganda. I watch both, including Glen Beck and Chris Matthews. So far, in 6 weeks of watching, Matthews is far and away the number one dissiminator of false propaganda. Beck’s conclusions are frequently stretch the envelope, but the info he puts on the air to back up his conclusions are factual–and he always says to do your own research to see if you agree with his conclusions. Matthews, on the other hand, seldom offers fact to back up conclusions and usually grossly misrepresents Beck. Since I record both and always watch Beck first, Matthews’ misrepresentations are immediately apparent.
The most recent Fox “Lies Again” article is in the reporting of USA Today Polling Figures that gave support to Wisconsin strikers, and public employees 61% to 32 % that was reversed to to give opposite results ( i.e. 61% unfavorable-to-32% favorable). It is the duty of USA Today to sue. Until someone does, as it was said of Pravda (Truth) and Isvestia (News),” there is no truth in News and no news in the Truth.”
How anyone in their right mind can say that Glenn Beck spouts “facts” is beyond me. Beck spouts “opinions” and “analogies” and neither for the most part are factual or accurate. And for the senior citizen complaining about being on a fixed income and likely Medicare. Do you think the money that you are getting grows on trees? It comes from taxation, and since Reagan the top 1% now own 48% of America’s wealth due to the lack of taxation at the top, but the continued taxation, via inflation, for the rest of us.
The middle class voting Republican these days is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders. But Beck has them bamboozled into thinking he is on their side.
While I’m a progressive, I’ve come to believe that the devicive approach of our media and the “wedge issues” used by politicians and pundits, is merely to distract us from the massive redistribution of wealth to the top that has been going on in earnest for the last 30 years by public policy. It is clear that there is a concisous agrressive war against the shrinking middle class, the growing working poor and the
being conducted by the very wealthy and their political shills on both sides. The politics of devicivness, hate, fear, etc. is merely to divide and conquer.
It simply amazes me that anyone would believe that Glenn Beck would say something factual. James D. Sanders, if you are sincere in wanting to know the truth, then do as Glenn Beck says and do the research. You would be surprised at what you would find out about Glenn’s facts!
Jay Kanter, would you and your friends agree that PRESIDENT Obama gave you a $250 check in 2009 under a Democratic controlled Congress, and requested another $250 for you in 2010 and was turned down by a Republican controlled Congress? The same Republican Congress who extorted a tax cut for the wealthy by threatening to vote against extending unemployment benefits.
To the gentleman on social security who believes Glen Beck and doubts Chris Matthews I can’t help but wonder what his other income (investments) is. I suspect large enough that he is quite content with the continued tax breaks and sees no reason he should be asked to give more to help others.
This is the mantra of the Republican party … get what you can and don’t worry about anyone else.
This being the case, hopefully people who voted for Republicans in the recent election will some day realize they are supporting corporations on the backs of the middle class and change their vote next time.
Walt in Indiana
I am a disabled 67 year old senior who joined the liberal party in NYS (when there was one) in the 60’s but often voted for a Republican. Today I’d join the Communist party if there was one (as just did a teacher friend of mine in Texas). My husband & I had no health insurance when we had our 3 daughters as he had changed jobs so frequently (no Cobra remember?) In 1963 we paid $372 cash ($182 clinic – MISERABLE as it was & $100 2 1/2 days hospital) In 1964 (cheap birth control failure) we paid $200 to obstetrician (wonderful holocaust survivor) & $150 to hospital for 3 days. In 1967 we pad $!50 to GP – great doctor – & $180 for hospital stay. It now costs thousands of dollars to have uncomplicated delivery. One pill can cost $1000 (antibiotic for MERSA infection.) I have spent years fighting with private Health insurance who took my money to cover me & my children for over 40 years until I became ill. I am so grateful to Medicare but no one is asking the logical questions – why does medical cost so much? No one is looking at the truth anymore – the worldwide global economy has disintegrated because of Corporate greed. And because of this disintegration there will be continuous wars, deaths & poverty which will also afflict America certainly the inventor of capitalism. There is no money today not because the middle class or poor stole it away but because it is sitting at the top where the CEO of Chase gets a bonus of $13,,000 because of the great job he has done. Doctors are corporate, medicine is corporate, the military is corporate, – think corporate when you want to assign blame. And if you want to say private medicine is the best ask your nearest elderly neigbor if he thinks he is getting either respect or his money’s worth from the doctors to which his HMO sends him. (*I am what I call a socialist capitalist – free enterprise with safety net for the poor & ill.)
Yes, J.D. Sanders, it ran right up to the moment you checked in here–odd, isn’t it? Almost like there’s a conspiracy afoot to paint Beck as lying fathead and jabbering dumbell. Go through the archives and find the Truth, sir: FAIR is out to get Beck!
What part of this Fascist news corp network – they merely follow infamous press membership they adore , Franco for one comes to mind.
Roger Ailes in a Federal Prison? He’ll be right at home.
I am constantly amazed by anyone who thinks Glenn Beck “educates” them. He tells you to research it for yourself because he knows that no one who listens to him would actually take the time, or know how to do it. The most that would ever happen is that a few would go to his website, I think he calls it “The Blaze” in his non-combative terminology and see his fans once-again threaten the life of the President or complain about how Michelle Obama is going to outlaw fast food.
If you don’t like MSNBC you just don’t like the facts. I don’t like the facts either but I still think it’s important to know what’s really going on instead of listening to Glenn Beck’s paranoid delusions. Yes, I watch him from time to time. I even occasionally listen to Sean Hannity or Michael Savage so I can know what the talking points are for the day.
I agree about Chris Matthews though. He’s very aggravating and provincial. I know he’s Irish-Catholic from Philadelphia. I just don’t want to hear about it every night. As far as the rest of MSNBC’s shows from Cenk, to Lawrence, to Rachel to Ed-they are superb. If they make a mistake they immediately apologize but you can check their facts and they are correct 99.9% of the time. If we lose MSNBC we’ll have to go back to pamphleteering (or the internet version thereof) to be heard at all. There is no liberal media besides them and America Left on Sirius satellite radio. I don’t think that adds up to the liberal bias that the right-wing has drilled into everyones’ heads.
Regarding income disparity- the latest figures I have read say that the top 1% makes 48% of the income but since the Great Recession the top 1% own more than 70% of the nations assets-the 400 richest people int the U.S. own more than the bottom 155 MILLION-So lets keep voting Republican, the rich are in danger of starving. The Hedge Fund Managers’ tax rate of 15% is sacrosanct. They couldn’t afford to contribute a penny more to the country that has made them billlionaires, could they?
To the gentleman on Social Security-Obama didn’t invent the inflation index or the rules about Social Security COLAs but your friends at Fox and the Republicans are actively striving to cut your Social Security payments and the COLA (Cost Of Living Adjustment) is their first target. Know your enemy!
To the lady on Disability- I became 100% disabled a few years back with a very rare paralysis disorder which causes me to become completely paralyzed from time to time and has caused broken bones and injuries requiring emergency room or hospital stays. To get the budget under control we have to stop paying at least two to four times what other developed nations pay for healthcare FOR ALL! And they have better outcomes! I had one one night emergency room visit followed by an overnight admittance and tests-no surgery or treatment- and the bill was over $15,000.00. That is absolute robbery. We have to GET RID OF INSURANCE COMANIES! Single payer is much cheaper. Even Costa Rica has full healthcare for all citizens and tourists are even covered, just like in Europe. Why can’t we figure this out?? Follow the money………………………..
Well I just spent some time looking into this case.ONE words jumps out in every sentence of the case record FAIR Is talking about regarding Roger Ailes.ALLEGED!!!! Nothing has been proven. Nothing. And yet in the liberal world innocent until proven guilty -seems to be one of those forgone conclusions.
It is humorous at a time when the president has simply said he will not execute or prosecute the law of the land(gay marriage)because he no longer likes it.And indiana legislators head for the hills because they don’t like a law.That you then reach back to some weak unproven allegations to show the conservatives have some warped perspectives.This article is the definition of the word ” spurious”. Empty mud slinging.
Fox is a bulldog that pulls the covers off the guise of liberalism.It is not perfect by any means. But all in all it has done a great job at showing an alternative perspective of the state owned media. People are not in lockstep.THANK GOD!
I watch Al Jazeera, Mosaic on link TV and Democracy Now I also get news from Eurpoean sources that Link TV broadcasts. and the internet. I listen to independent radio stations which are incresingly hard to find because they are mostly low powered. The out right lying, spin and censoring of US news is a slap in the face when compared to these sources. All our news sources lied at our Government’s requst about the real status of the CIA thug in Pakistan until the Guardian blew his cover. Our governemnt didn’t even try to back pedal out of that one. No shame, no apology just move on to the next lie. (I wonder how that happened because Britain is a US lapdog). So much for the independence of the Fourth Estate. Now our media working hard at turning Regan into Saint Ronald!!! I need a Tums
The perpetually confused Mikey e “It is humorous at a time when the president has simply said he will not execute or prosecute the law of the land(gay marriage)because he no longer likes it.”
Uh, that’s not what’s going on, he simply instructed the DOJ to no longer defend the law in court because it’s clearly unconstitutional. The law , which is DOMA, not gay marriage, is still on the books.
As for Ailes, the NYT reports: Court documents filed in a lawsuit say that Ms. Regan taped the telephone call from Mr. Ailes in which Mr. Ailes discussed her relationship with Mr. Kerik.
J.Steven Livacich, upthread, beat me to it, but earlier this week Fraud & Friends, the morning show, reported a Gallup poll about public support for unions with the numbers reversed and built an entire unionbashing segment around it.
And for more proof that Ailes and Faux push stories to help or hurt their preferred candidates, last week Faux got caught using footage from CPAC 2010 where Ron Paul was booed and misrepresented it as footage from 2011, where he was cheered….
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=34396
Who says America no longer manufactures anything anymore? News Corps’ Roger the Dodger Ailes and his ass-lickee Rupert ( “faster…faster”) Murdoch are merely sunspots on a truly 4th dimension in consumer production. Which, of course, nobody gives them credit for. Becauise they’re either jealous or still have a spleen to vent after driving thru Florida. Besides, unemployed people HATE other people with jobs paying 6 or 7 figures. Especially the ones in the public sector (who refused to be interviewed for this blogging). Yet I also cannot truly exonerate News Corpse in that Faux’s trend-setting, Orwellian-yet-purifying, legally-obtained rite of passover vis-a-vis reality is at the heart of the matter. I mean…why else wouldn’t we know about it? That is, unless your lawyer can beat up their lawyer.
The US — which used to be first among the giants of heavy industry has moved on to becoming the world’s leader in converting its decrepit old Rust Belt into something even more satisfying and — dare I say –downright transcendental. To wit: the US has long since passed Nepal and Tibet in the production of the truly metaphysical. [I’ve always wanted to work the phrase “to wit” into a discourse — or anything besides the divorce decree I signed while bending over a table in civil court. By the way: What the hell does “metaphysical” mean? And — just to note here — you can buy my “vis-a-vis” for a $1.98 — or less.]
Let’s see. Where was I? Oh, yeah — that “phenomenon” I was referring to before I lost my train of thought is called “dystopia.” It’s lingua franca is doublethink. And, Zen Buddhism would be its first and only true religion, its ultimate source of enlightenment and spiritual nourishment, and, last but not least: an alchemist’s dream of turning today’s shit into tomorrow’s solar furnaces. That is — unless some unforeseen dark matter polluted the process and resulted in short-term profits NOT meeting investors’ (aka: the financial sector’s “Trekkies”) prerequisite return on investment.
Otherwise, who’d give a shit about some Sanskrit concept bordering on mumbo-jumbo? That’s what memory holes are for.
However, do connect to this source at Wikipedia:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jane_Akre_and_Steve_Wilson
and get the Sgt. Joe Friday “Dragnet” summary of News Corpses’ triumphant appeal to the Florida “High” Court in 2005 — which restored their 1st Amendment right to lie.
PS: Mr and Mrs. Wilson (Akre and Wilson were married at the time and might be able to resume their marriage when they’re finally released from Floridas Debtors’ Prison — which is located just outside the state capital at Losersville.
NPR and PBS is being defunded because Demo analyst Williams for Fox news was fired. Fox news comentators ORielly Hannity and others said that they should defund PBS because they fired Williams. Afther that Speaker of the House Mr B and Cantor plus others decided to defund the PBS and NPR. Paul Ryan took over 2 years to come up with 61 billion in small cuts against the needy. I can come up with 100 billion in cuts in 5 minutes by cutting subsidies for big oil and large corps. This is not a tax increase this is tax payer dollars that we give them for no reason when they are doing so well. Why is Paul Ryan there????
Helen not defending a law is the same thing as no longer prosecuting that law .Lets say Sarah Palin gets in, and says all those laws on the books that give gay folks legal rights are no longer going to be defended in court.What????His job is to defend in court all laws on the books wether or not HE believes them to be unconstitutional.He pushed through a healthcare law we all knew was unconstitutional.The laws he follows seem to be only the ones he agrees with.If this were a conservative saying he would no longer defend the right to abortion cases because HE considers it unconstitutional how would you feel?
Keep saying the word …alleged.
“Helen not defending a law is the same thing as no longer prosecuting that law”
No, it’s not….the law is on the books, no one is saying it can’t be enforced.
By the way, there have been five court decisions on the health care law, current scorecard: constitutional 3, unconstiutional 2
To blame Fox on this issue is to give them too much credit. They are scavengers, not creators.
Look to the corporations who sponsor them and who now own our legislative branch. Also blame
an deliberately eviscerated education system which is designed to create followers with an
ever decreasing attention span and no knowledge of history. Try to engage most young adults or teens on any serious subject that requires depth of analysis and doesn’t have a pre-packaged answer readily available on Google search or wikyepedia and you’ll get blank expressions and eyelids & braincells drooping into a somnambulistic state. Predator missiles dropped on women and children? US military aid to half the despotic leaders in the world? “Don’t make me think, it hurts!” Stop addressing the symptom only and look to the cause. Pogo said it long ago: “We have met the enemy and he is us”.
Enforcing a law and defending a law are two entirely different legal activities. Enforcement is applying the law as written, the other is saying that a challenge to the legitimacy of the law is or is not valid. There are still people who would defend a state’s right to segregate by race or have child labor.
I would first like to make a comment about what Maureen Donahue said. I believe she mis-defined Capitalism. True Capitalism would never have allowed the banks like CitiBank not to fail. It would also not allow people like Rupert Murdoch monopolize the media. He controls approximately 25% of the world’s media outlets(& one is Fox).
The other point I want to make is I agree with most of what you said. I worked in health insurance and things have gone from bad (in ’92 when I left GHI in NYC). This country needs to stop selling it’s people out. Everyone says we have a better medical system, yet others live longer than us – places like Europe and Canada- and they spend alot less than we do! Perhaps they are looking at Congresses’ Healthcare when they make this assessment? All I know is the they do not need referrals for their medical care.
This Country needs to wake up. All I hear is Medicare and social security are entitlements. I didn’t know you had to pay to get these services. Well maybe not everyone – there are many undocumented people who get many of these services for free. One other thing, didn’t the banks take an entitlement (called “The Bailout”). I guess it is ok for the rich, just not the reast of us.
Helen it will be deemed unconstitutional. Bank on it.It simply is.Liberal supreme court justices will not be able to circumvent the basic premise.Not this time.Also it will be defunded from the inside now that sanity has returned.It aint dead yet- but it is terminal.
Imagine if our president told his people to no longer defend(fill in the blank)certain laws he feels this way or that about.CKROB you are talking legalese mumbo jumbo.The president must defend all laws.The justice dept shall enforce those laws.
Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feburary 2nd, Ronald Reagan’s Solicitor General Charles Fried said that even though he believes that there are lots of problems with the Affordable Care Act, he’s “quite sure that the health care mandate is constitutional.”
Fried, now a Beneficial Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, told the committee in his opening statement that the commerce clause of the Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate, which is precisely what the law signed by President Barack Obama does.
“To my mind, that is the end of the story,” Fried said. “The mandate is a rule. More accurately, it is part of the system of rules by which commerce is to be governed.”
In his prepared remarks, Fried said the argument that the health care regulation is not regulation of commerce because it requires an economic act (instead of prohibiting or limiting an economic activity) is “entirely wrong and even worse quite confused.”
————-
And lest we forget, rather than veto a bill passed by Congress George W. Bush would sign it â┚¬” then quietly issue a â┚¬Ã…“signing statement’ proclamation declaring he wouldn’t obey parts of it.
Helen the Bush thingy is apples and oranges, and cherry picking. Small potatoes(isn’t that great the way i just used all those edibles in my sentence?:)
A far as the healthcare debate you correctly outlined one of the chief problems with the constitutional legality. The commerce “trick” is just that. Found by lawyers not at the inception of this play but a bit later in the game. One of those late night scrambles for legalize to push past an outcry .I am trying to find other things the government has forced us to personally purchase using this commerce clause.So far Im not doing too well. Certainly if this by law is constitutional there are tons of examples of its use.
I believe when this is shot down the libs will find other legal tricks .Some more crazy than others.I am not completely sure that even if the supreme court shoots this down if Obama will comply.Maybe he will say “rather than pass a bill passed by congress George W. Bush would sign it-….”You know pull out the Bush card.
Can you offer any evidence that Ronald Reagan’s Solicitor General Charles Fried is a liberal?
Bush’s Medicare part D has an insurance purchase mandate and a penalty for opting out. Is that unconstitutional as well?
Can you provide an example of any President reacting to a Supreme Court decision by ignoring it?
PS: I haven’t the foggiest idea what this: “Maybe he will say “rather than pass a bill passed by congress George W. Bush would sign it-â┚¬Ã‚¦,” is supposed to mean.
Drawing a blank here.
Helen i was quoting your quote…..Saying that is the kind of card the Dems would play.
As far as a president ignoring a supreme court decision……No we have had lower court rulings like the Federal court contempt charge brought against the labor dept on the moratorium drilling issue recently. Stunning as that is, it is not the supreme court. Would Obama defy a supreme court ruling ?Um I don’t like to use such nasty terms as defy.How about sidestep?His whole game plan has always been a simple one.He knows once a nanny state program is put in place it is almost impossible to dismantle.Wether it works or not.So he is ramming this in on all fronts, hoping enough will get in as to make it permanent.
Im familiar with medicare part D.Not really a mandate but damn close.And remember I was no fan of Bush.He often played fast and loose with constitutional issues.Of course you can refuse medicare. You wont be able to refuse Obama care.
While the administration’s DOMA shift is unusual, it is not rare. It has happened more than a dozen times since 2004 and many more times in the past 60 years…..Eisenhower, Kennedy and Truman refused to defend separate-but-equal facilities in schools and hospitals….The Ford Justice Department, The Reagan administration, The Clinton administration, The George W. Bush administration and the George H.W. Bush administration all refused to defend certain laws, some of which were found to be constitutional.
To all Democrats and Republcan voters TheUs Gov gave large corps a tax cut now WI Governor gave large corps in that state another tax cut for example the Koch brothers corps in WI States Governors are giving more tax cuts in there states also.How much more tax cuts do they need?. Can,t you see what is going on Middle Class Republicans And Democrats I am a Inde. voter.