Posted 8:16 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must View: The Rand Paul Stomp Ad
Glenn Beck came out against it today so it has to be good:

Posted 8:07 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must View
David Brock's appeal to Sarah Palin.

Posted 9:37 AM by Scoobie Davis

Firing Policies: NPR Versus Fox News

Fox News president Roger Ailes hires Two types of progressives or Democrats: 1) Those who have noting nice to say about the Democratic Party (e.g., Tammy Bruce, Pat Caddell, and Zell Miller; remember him and his claim that the Democratic Party was no longer a national party?) or 2) liberals who have no clue. Included in this category are Alan Colmes, Lanny Davis (click here and here), Terry McAuliffe, and Juan Williams.
After National Public Radio fired Williams, he's been taking the role of victim. Two days ago, on Fox News Sunday, he and the other panel members bemoaned NPR's alleged unfairness.

What a sham.

When Rupert Murdoch brought Roger Ailes on as head of Fox News, one of the first things Ailes did was to purge liberals from the staff, not because of anything they did but because of their personally held political beliefs. Former president of Fox News Joe Peyronnin told Al Franken the following things:

I had about forty people working for me and [Roger Ailes] asked some of them if they were liberal or not. There was a litmus test. He was trying to figure out who was liberal or conservative when he came in, and try to get rid of the liberals.

Ailes not only purged liberals form Fox, he has promoted right-wing operatives like Bill Sammon who have engaged in serious acts of journalistic misconduct (Sammon is now Fox News' Washington Managing Editor and a Vice President for the network).

Williams has had a thirteen year gig on Fox News mainly because he's a pushover. In the words of Salon.com's David Talbot: "Fox likes its liberals soft and chewy, the better to eat them, my dear." During his tenure at Fox, had Williams grown a pair (and a brain) and assertively debated the right-wingers, Ailes would have found a way to get rid of him, too.

ADDENDUM: Just How Clueless is Juan Williams? Last Friday, Williams was a guest on Sean Hannity's radio program where he complimented the host on his "integrity."

Posted 8:15 AM by Scoobie Davis

Three Cheers for E.J. Dionne!
Click here and here.

Posted 9:08 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Sean Wilentz on the Tea Party’s Wold War roots.

Posted 8:27 AM by Scoobie Davis

NPR Should Have Fired Juan Williams

Yesterday, National Public Radio fired Juan Williams because of some of his opinion about Muslims voiced on The O'Reilly Factor.

Williams should have been fired, but not for making those comments. He should have been fired because he was being paid to be a correspondent for a fraudulent pseudo-journalistic organization, Fox News. This association is clearly in violation of The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's code of ethics.

I addressed similar issues with Mara Liasson a few years ago.

UPDATE: A couple years ago, I spoke with Williams about Sun Myung Moon and his influence on the Washington media and he didn't have a clue.

Posted 8:35 AM by Scoobie Davis

Pink Marble Driveway
Listen to this: Commonsense Ten's radio ad "Funny" being used against Senate candidate John Raese from Florida--er, I mean, West Virginia. Click here and hit the "Campaigns" link and then the West Virginia "Funny" link.

Posted 4:12 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Greg Palast on Rove-Clone Tim Griffin and vote caging.

Posted 9:36 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
To the progressives who want to teach the Democrats a lesson in November by sitting out the election, Robert Parry asks them if that strategy has ever worked.

Posted 9:44 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Media Matters for America's coverage of Beck-inspired "progessive hunter" Bryon Williams.

Posted 9:13 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must See YouTube
Don't call West Virginians "hicks":

Posted 7:41 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Paul Krugman's latest column.

Posted 8:28 AM by Scoobie Davis

The Harassment and The Invasion of Privacy of Gay College Students: The 1980's Versus 2010
It was disheartening to hear about the outrageous invasion of privacy of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi that led to his suicide. Although there has been a lot of progress in terms of attitudes toward members of the LGBT community over the past few decades, there will always be those who hassle others because of their differences.

However, there is one important thing to keep in mind: the people who harassed Clementi are facing serious criminal charges and ostracism from most Americans, in the 1980's, Laura Ingraham used harassing and violating the privacy of gay college students as a a launching pad for a talk radio career and a gig as a Fox News News contributor.