Posted 10:36 AM by Scoobie Davis

More Fox News Horseshit

From this month's (June 2006) Playboy interview of Fox News operative Shepard Smith:

PLAYBOY: You broadcast from a network that has been charged with bending over backward in support of the president, but you're making a serious accusation against the Bush administration [about it's Hurricane Katrina efforts].

SMITH: When you talk about this sort of thing, some people are convinced that you're politically motivated and trying to bring down the government, that you want to hurt the president. But I do not come at life from tht place. I just think we as a country need to answer those questions before it's too late. As to bending over backward to support this administration, I don't toe anyone's line. No one in this building toes anyone's line. The moment they try to tell me to distort reality, I tell them to fuck off it has never happened.

PLAYBOY: Do you deny that Fox is conservative and pushes a conservative agenda?

SMITH: If you hear something enough, you come to believe it, [note from me: like "Fair & Balanced"?] and yes, some people have come to believe that we are right-wing and in the hip pocket of the administration. But I know better.

PLAYBOY: Have you seen Outfoxed, the documentary that purports to exposeFox News Channel's right-wing political agenda?

SMITH: I've never seen it.

PLAYBOY: How do you respond to its premise that Fox is a political tool for the right, backed by owner Rupert Murdoch and chairman Roger Ailes?

SMITH: I know the premise, and I know the truth. I'm real comfortable here. I sleep well at night.

PLAYBOY: That doesn't address the charge that the network has a political agenda.

SMITH: A lot of our critics come from the competition. No one cared until we started beating everyone. They think, Who the hell are you, getting these crazy numbers? Who are the hell are you, attracting all this attention from media all over the world. Why does everybody care? Here you upstarts come along with your damn Rupert Murdoch. That's what it comes down to.

PLAYBOY: Fox News Channel's slogan is "Fair & Balanced." Do you maintain that it is?

SMITH: It's our mandate.

In other news about the propaganda network, Fox News Democrat Tammy Bruce once again showed her true colors in her discussion of recent events revolving around US/Mexican relations. While she was discussing these matters on her weekly radio show yesterday, she played the Frito Bandito theme song. For those of you not familiar with him, the Frito Bandito was the cartoon mascot for the Frito Lay Corporation during the late 60's. He was a Pancho Villa-type character with a thick accent. He was dropped by Frito Lay after Mexican-American groups justifiably complained that the Bandito was an offensive ethnic stereotype. (quick aside: a little background on Bruce and US-Mexico relations, Bruce supported the congressional candidacy of American Independent party candidate and Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist--he received 14.8 percent of the vote).

This isn't the first time Bruce engaged in crude stereotyping of minority groups. I had previously called Bruce on her offensive anti-gay stereotypical graphics that she put on her web site (Bruce is a lesbian). Some people don't learn.

Addendum: Blast from the past: Here and here are the transctipts of my phone calls to Bruce's radio show.

Whenever Playboy has a college pictorial, I usually write about it. Last month, they did The Women of the Top 10 Party Schools. I packed my issue when I moved and I can't find it right now. I will report on it later. This month they did a pictorial on the women of Myspace.com. My favorite: Carrie Vaughn (who according to the pictorial had recently graduated from Cal State Long Beach). Second place: Heather Lynn. Honorable mention (in ascending order) go to Jeska Vardinski, Chantal Alexandria, Heather Lutz, Jessica Difeo, Brittany Fuch, and Betty Lipstick.