Cheating The Honest Men

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Originally posted at Hullabaloo

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Cheating The Honest Men

by digby

Matt Taibbi watched an exchange between Janet Tavakoli and Rick Santelli in which the former tried to explain why the financial crisis wasn't precipitated by a bunch of poor people illegally obtaining loans and observed that Santelli wasn't having any of it:

While she’s saying all this stuff, Santelli, who is one of the fathers of the Tea Party movement, is shaking his head furiously, video-scoffing at everything she’s saying. When he finally does get a chance to speak, this is what he says:

Here’s my problem with this. It takes two to tango. You can’t cheat an honest man.

You can’t cheat an honest man? What the fuck does that mean?

That one's a doozy, for sure. Have you ever heard that before?

Taibbi then gets to the heart of the problem with the tea partiers and their cheerleaders like Santelli:

This whole scene sort of encapsulates what’s wrong with the Tea Party movement. The movement, and let’s admit this, has some of its roots in legitimate grievances about government waste and some not-entirely-inaccurate observations about what’s left of the American welfare state. Of course what resonates most with the suburban whites who mostly make up the Tea Party are stories about minorities and immigrants using section 8 housing, food stamps, Medicaid, TANF and other programs, with the Obama stimulus being for them a symbol of this ongoing government largess. The heat of the Tea Party movement comes from the racial frustrations that actually exist out there, in the real world outside New York and LA, as urban expansion and immigration increasingly throw white and nonwhite communities together, with white Tea Party types more and more often blowing gaskets over increased crime rates, declining school standards, and mislaid or wasted tax revenue.

That this perception that minorities are the prime or sole consumers of government entitlement programs is absurdly inaccurate — white people, for instance, are overwhelmingly the largest nonelderly recipients of Medicaid, making up 42.8% of the program’s rolls nationwide, compared to 22.2% for blacks and 27.9% for Hispanics — is beside the point. The point is that the Tea Party is built largely on this narrative of “personal responsibility,” where the central demons are unwed black and Hispanic mothers and absent black and Hispanic fathers, who are, let’s face it, not uncommon characters in the American melodrama.

Which is another subject for another time, but let’s just say this: the Tea Party movement contains a lot of people who are far more impressed by what they can see with their own eyes than with what, for instance, they read about. I’ve been to Tea Party events where global warming was dismissed by speakers who, without irony, pointed to the fact that there was snow on the ground outside. And while very few people have ever actually seen a CDO manager or a Countrywide executive, or were aware if it when they saw them, the Tea Party folks sure as hell have seen who their neighbors in foreclosure are.

The Fox/CNBC types have very cannily latched on this narrative to rewrite the history of the financial crisis. They know that Tea Partiers will go for any narrative that puts blame on poor (and especially poor minority) homeowners, because the idea of poor blacks and Hispanics borrowing beyond their means fits seamlessly with their world view. But this is a situation where poor minorities were really incidental to a much larger fraud scheme that culminated in a welfare program — the bank bailouts — that dwarfs the entire “entitlement” infrastructure. But the millions of people who are actually in the Tea Party movement seem to have absolutely no idea that their so-called leaders, the Santellis of their world, are shilling for tax cheats and crooks and welfare bums of the sort they would despise (perhaps even more than their black and Hispanic neighbors), if they could actually see them.

Unfortunately all the elites, political and otherwise, have a vested interest in keeping the rubes focused on the blacks and browns so it's hard to see the mechanism by which they will be revealed. And that's the whole purpose of right wing populism.

Media Matters: Move over, Drudge, there's a new sheriff in town

FROM: Media Matters for America

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It used to be common knowledge that Matt Drudge ruled the media's world. These days, Drudge must be jealous. If the past few months have shown us anything, it's that Drudge's position as the media's assignment editor is now filled by Fox News' Glenn Beck.

Beck has made no bones about his desire to shape the media's agenda. He's Fox News' Czar War commander in chief, lead ACORN crusher, resident conspiracy theorist, and favored "rodeo clown," all wrapped into one.

One would think that the mainstream media would be wary of covering stories promoted by a man who, while role-playing as President Obama, pretended to pour gasoline on the "average American" and asked Obama, "[W]hy don't you just set us on fire?" But one would be wrong.

Beck brought to us the 9-12 Project, which served as the inspiration for the 9-12 "March on Washington," when Americans tearfully came together as we did "the day after 9-11" ... to protest taxes, health care reform, government spending, and an African-American who has taken over the White House. Did the media sit out the story of tens of thousands of Beck and Fox News fans invading D.C. to protest these things? Nope. While Fox News claimed that media outlets "missed" the story of the 9-12 protests, as TVNewser.com noted, "those other networks were there" at the 9-12 protests. As Howard Kurtz wrote in The Washington Post, "[T]he other networks indeed covered the protest, which -- like similar demonstrations across the country -- were heavily promoted by Fox, especially talk show host Glenn Beck."

The media have paid equal attention to Beck and Fox News' war on Obama's "czars." Beck led the charge in attacking White House green jobs adviser Van Jones, accusing him of all manner of sins. After ColorOfChange.org -- a group co-founded by Jones -- initiated a campaign against Beck for calling Obama a "racist," Beck amped up his attacks on Jones. But instead of pointing out the potential motive behind Beck's relentless assault, the media merely credited Beck for keeping the Jones story alive. Now that Beck has shifted his sights to other Obama "czars," the media have dutifully followed, increasing their coverage of FCC chief diversity officer Mark Lloyd and Cass Sunstein, who was confirmed to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Beck has also repeatedly promoted allegations -- originally made on Beck favorite Andrew Breitbart's BigHollywood.com -- that the National Endowment for the Arts and its former spokesman Yosi Sergant were "creating a propaganda machine for the president of the United States." Once again, the media were right behind Beck. On the September 22 edition of his CNN program, Lou Dobbs advanced attacks on the White House, stating that there are "[n]ew concerns tonight that the Obama administration may be politicizing the arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, encouraging groups to produce art work promoting the president's agenda." George Will wrote in his September 17 Washington Post column that the controversy shows "the Obama administration's incontinent lust to politicize everything." The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, and ABC News? Each covered the White House's issuing of new guidelines that, as The New York Times wrote, "instructed government agencies to keep politics away from the awarding of federal grants."

Beck's been busy. In addition to making plans to hijack the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, September 22 brought us the release of Beck's second book of 2009, the ironically titled Arguing with Idiots. In it, Beck is engaged in an ongoing argument with "the idiot," who comes armed with some truly idiotic statements, such as, "They may not be perfect, but France is doing socialism right -- we should be more like them," and, "Private schools aren't beholden to unions, but they should be closed because they're only for the rich." Beck fearlessly tears down these strawmen throughout the 300-page book.

Beck attacks "Nanny State-ism" by criticizing drunken-driving laws, writing, "The Nanny State approach is to use the police department to set up roadblocks and spot-checks," and stating that since "[t]he largest percentage of vehicular deaths related to alcohol are from repeat offenders," the "commonsense solution is that you lose your license after a second DUI. Forever. Problem solved." Beck never says whether he felt the same way when he was reportedly arrested for "speeding in his DeLorean with one of the car's gull-wing doors wide open," after which a former colleague said Beck was "completely out of it."

Beck's book has also raised the question of whether Beck supports the slave trade. While purporting to explain to an "idiot" the Founding Fathers' true intentions, Beck praises an obsolete provision of the U.S. Constitution that prohibited Congress from outlawing the slave trade before 1808 and capped taxes on the slave trade at $10 per slave. In explaining the provision, Beck doesn't mention slavery, saying instead that the provision means that the Founders apparently "felt like there was a value to being able to live here" and lamenting: "Not anymore. These days we can't ask anything of immigrants -- including that they abide by our laws." Umm ...

If one were yearning for some good ol' fashioned racial stereotyping, Beck doesn't disappoint! His attack on the 14th Amendment, which guarantees that "[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States ... are citizens of the United States," comes complete with illustrations of a man and baby wearing sombreros. Yes, his book has illustrations. In fact, the entire book is designed to look as though it were printed on antiqued, dog-eared paper. You know, like the Constitution.

Beck also subtitled a section of his book "The chapter Americans just won't write," which is little more than 18 pages of Mexico-bashing lined with text insets that parody NBC's "The More You Know" public service announcements. In these insets, the familiar shooting star of the NBC graphic has been replaced with a cartoon sombrero, and the slogan "The More You Know" has been changed to "The Less You Know." The chapter features cartoonish Mexicans wearing sombreros and absurdly thick mustaches, and a cartoon of a Chinese takeout container that's meant to represent -- you guessed it -- Chinese immigrants.

In his chapter titled "U.S. Presidents: A Steady Progression of Progressives," Beck treats us to his list of the "Top Ten Bastards of All Time." The occupants of that list, in ascending order, are Pol Pot, Robert Mugabe, Teddy Roosevelt, Bernie Madoff, Adolf Hitler, Keith Olbermann, Pontius Pilate, FDR, Tiger Woods, and Woodrow Wilson. That's right, in Beck's book, mass slaughter of millions of innocents makes you a less reprehensible person than the presidents who won both World Wars for the United States.

Because with Beck, regardless of their actual ideology, these people are all progressive, with the exception of Tiger Woods, who appeared to make the list because he has "a Swedish-supermodel wife, a gazillion dollars, and ... plays golf for a living ... bastard!" In Beck's world, any progressive is an enemy, and any enemy is progressive.

Beck's conspiracy-addled mind treated us this week to hysterical rantings about how Obama, the SEIU, ACORN, the Tides Foundation, and other unnamed unions will "set wage[s]" in this country by dictating "maximum wage" to redistribute wealth. Beck viewed a video of schoolchildren "singing a song for Barack Obama" as an "indoctrination" linked to Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, the NEA, the Tides Foundation, and Jones. If one were to tune into Beck's television show, one would likely find Beck furiously scribbling on a chalkboard, desperately trying to illustrate the elaborate progressive conspiracy to overthrow the republic. On September 22, Beck laughably denied being a "conspiracy theorist" to CBS News' Katie Couric, but the next day, he admitted his conspiracy theories sometimes make him "feel like Russell Crowe from A Beautiful Mind."

No one should be surprised by Beck's behavior. As Salon's Alexander Zaitchik reported, "In his 2003 book, 'Real America,' Beck refers to himself as a borderline schizophrenic." Zaitchik also documented Beck's rise as a broadcaster, which was marked by cruel attacks and "racial hang-ups." According to Zaitchik, after a rival radio host's wife had a miscarriage, " 'Beck called her live on the air and says, "We hear you had a miscarriage," remembers Brad Miller, a former Y95 DJ and Clear Channel programmer. 'When Terry [Kelly, wife of Beck's rival] said, "Yes," Beck proceeded to joke about how Bruce [Kelly, the rival DJ] apparently can't do anything right -- about he can't even have a baby.' " Racial hang ups? Vicious personal assaults? Over-the-top childishness? Sounds familiar.

Other major stories this week

Does Lou Dobbs think he works for Fox News?

Speaking of Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs has recently pushed a number of the same right-wing narratives that have been aggressively championed by Beck and Fox News, in addition to defending Beck's remarks calling Obama a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred for white people." In recent weeks, Dobbs -- like Beck and many others on Fox -- has called for a "vigorous investigation" of ACORN and said that unless there is a "full-blown FBI investigation," then it will amount to "a sham." He's pushed the conservative attack that the NEA is "politicizing the arts" and has decried as "propaganda" an educational video.

On the September 22 broadcast of his radio show, Dobbs referred to ACORN's decision to appoint former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger to lead an internal inquiry into the organization as "such a sham" and called for "a full, and, I mean, absolutely righteous, vigorous, investigation of everyone running that organization, everything it's tried to do," and "its relationship to the Obama administration." Dobbs added: "I truly believe, unless there is that full-blown FBI investigation that you've asked for of ACORN, that -- you know, that is, to me, prima facie evidence that this Justice Department, under Attorney General Eric Holder, has been absolutely politicized to the point that it is not functioning and serving the interests of the American people or this country." Beck expressed similar opinions during his September 15 Fox News show.

On his September 22 CNN television show, Dobbs hyped a story favored by Beck and Fox News, reporting that there were "[n]ew concerns tonight that the Obama administration may be politicizing the arts. The National Endowment for the Arts encouraging groups to produce artwork promoting the president's agenda." As mentioned earlier, Beck was at the forefront of promoting and advancing these allegations, interviewing the artist who secretly taped the NEA conference call on September 1 and claiming that the "people involved in a conference call, including the White House, knew that this was on the fence, if not outright illegal. They knew for sure that this would outrage you if it would ever get out."

Hours after Beck decried as "propaganda" an educational video called The Story of Stuff, Dobbs, too, took to the television to warn of "more evidence of left-wing propaganda in our schools: An outrageous new video has surfaced -- this video being shown in classrooms all across the country. It is The Story of Stuff, as it's called, blatantly making false accusations against capitalism and the effects of human consumption on the environment."

This week's ACORN update

The conservative media's feeding frenzy on all things ACORN has continued, resulting in more ethically questionable actions on behalf the videographers involved and the right-wing press fighting for scraps. In a recent "exclusive" report, RedState.com editor-in-chief Erick Erickson analyzed "a list of [ACORN CEO] Bertha Lewis's contacts" that "just showed up one day unsolicited" from "a credible source who is no fan of ACORN" and claimed, "We did not ask for it. We did not expect to get it. But now that we have it, we should see who is in there." However, the private contact list was apparently obtained without Lewis' knowledge or permission, raising the question of whether RedState's "exclusive" was the result of theft. Not surprisingly, the questionable nature of how this information was obtained didn't stop Sean Hannity or Beck from promoting it.

Incidentally, on September 23, Los Angeles Times media critic James Rainey reported that ACORN official Lavelle Stewart "told me this week" that when the videographers, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, came to Stewart's ACORN office in Los Angeles disguised as a pimp and prostitute, Stewart "tried to get the 'prostitute,' who claimed she had been beaten by her pimp, to go to a women's center." This report is further evidence undermining O'Keefe's and Giles' repeated claims that they were never rebuffed at any of the ACORN offices they visited. Also, in a September 22 article, the Associated Press reported that California police said an ACORN worker contacted them about "possible human smuggling," reportedly as a result of O'Keefe and Giles' visit to a San Diego ACORN office. As you might recall, word broke last week that O'Keefe and Giles were indeed rebuffed at the Philadelphia ACORN office they visited; the employees there went so far as to file a police report, which you can view here. The conservative activists have yet to release video from the Philadelphia and Los Angeles encounters.

Also, O'Keefe's claims to have been "completely independent" were undermined by a report that O'Keefe had received thousands, possibly even tens of thousands, of dollars from a wealthy conservative donor.

Nonetheless, this week also birthed a new right-wing talking point: that Attorney General Eric Holder should appoint an independent special prosecutor to investigate ACORN. You know, because Holder can't be trusted to remain impartial. Better get Ken Starr on the phone pronto!

This week's media columns

This week's media columns from the Media Matters senior fellows: Eric Boehlert looks at how Fox's Chris Wallace became irrelevant, and Jamison Foser explains how the media's treatment of the ACORN story again demonstrates conservatives' ability to shape the debate.

Greg Lewis shows us that when Rush Limbaugh discusses Obama's foreign policy, his hyperbole is hyper in The Friday Rush, a review of Limbaugh's radio shows over the past week.

This weekly wrap-up was compiled by Julie Millican, a senior researcher at Media Matters for America.

Health Care Mobs = Swift Boat Vets... And the Press Plays Dumb, Again

By Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America. Posted August 21, 2009.

Mini-mob members being treated as deeply important newsmakers is reminiscent of August 2004.

Here we go again.

During August's summer daze, right-wing mini-mobs (egged on by corporate interests) have run wild at town hall meetings, propagating all kinds of smears and misinformation in an effort to derail an important Democratic campaign. Yet the mini-mob members have been treated as deeply important newsmakers by the press during a slow summer news month.

MORE ON ALTERNET Unmasking Astroturf: Smear Campaigns Threaten Health Care and Net Neutrality Timothy Karr Michael Moore on His Latest: 'I Made This Movie As If It Was Going to Be the Last I Was Allowed to Make' Diane Sweet Rachel Maddow Slams Dick Armey for Stirring Up Hate in Town Halls Staff Rush Limbaugh's "Nazi" Rhetoric: Where's the Outrage? Eric Boehlert Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs Enflame Scary Right-Wing Rage John V. Santore Whatever Happened to Progressive Talk Radio? Did Air America Kiss it Good Bye? Cynthia Lowen More stories by Eric Boehlert

Sound familiar? Recall August 2004, when the right-wing Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (egged on by corporate interests) stole a month's worth of campaign headlines by propagating all kinds of smears and misinformation in an attempt to derail an important Democratic campaign. Yet they were treated as deeply important newsmakers by the press during a slow summer news month.

Honestly, the only thing missing this time around is a crackpot, best-selling book. In 2004, the Swifties used the release of Unfit for Command to launch their media-based smear campaign. This summer, it could have been something like ObamaScare: How Liberal Health Care Will Destroy America. (The Swifties' right-wing publisher must be kicking itself over the missed marketing opportunity.)

But what has been perfectly consistent is the way the press has, again, fallen for a right-wing smear campaign and dressed it up as news. Just as with the Swifties, the press has turned over its summer coverage to a band of agitators spreading misinformation. Five summers ago, the Swift Boat Vets helped hijack the election. They lied about documents, they lied about eyewitness, and they lied about their partisan affiliations and connections. For several crucial weeks during the campaign, journalists turned away from the pile-up of Swift Boat falsehoods and contradictions, rarely daring to call the Swift Boat attack out for what it really was -- a hoax. Too spooked by the GOP Noise Machine and its charge of liberal media bias, the press propped up the Vets as serious men and showered them with attention.

This year, the press has handed over untold hours of free airtime to mini-mob members whose sole purpose seems to be to spread as much fear as possible. (The ones who show up toting guns and Nazi posters make that point rather emphatically.)

Fringe players on the right are making wild accusations that cannot be backed up by fact. The mainstream media response? We must cover the phenomenon daily, even hourly!

So, day after August day, these vacuous health care "debates" are aired on cable television, just as news consumers suffered through night after night of vacuous Swift Boat "debates" five summers ago. In both cases, the press for the most part handed in its referee's whistle and focused its attention on simply reporting the fact-free claims and then getting the Democratic response. (i.e. he said/she said.) It turns out journalists are petrified of calling out right-wing activists as liars, and the other side knows it.

What's amazing is that even a conservative Republican congressman has conceded that the mini-mobs (this summer's news superstars) appear to be completely detached from reality. "You cannot build a movement on something that is not credible,'' Rep. Bob Inglis of South Carolina told the Los Angeles Times after being confronted by belligerent, fact-free protesters who were convinced that as part of health care reform, children would soon be forced to receive swine flu vaccinations. "At town meetings, the hostility went straight through to hysteria,'' said Inglis.

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You might be interested in:

• Infamous Astroturf Lobbying Firm Behind New Anti-Health Reform Group (AlterNet)
• Like Your Private Health Care? Here's Why You Can Actually Thank the Government for That (AlterNet)
• Can Brutal and Racist Cops Change to Become More 'Sensitive'? (AlterNet: Rights)
• Why Are Cops Tasering Grandmothers, Pregnant Women and Kids? (AlterNet: Rights)

Health Care Reform and The Media: Who is Wendell Potter?

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This is a story that any one who feels that we should have Health Care for everybody must see and share with others, there is so much propaganda as to why Health Care Reform, as proposed by President Obama, is VERY BAD! How it would lead us to... SOCIALISM! How it would destroy the very fabric of our society or something of that sort.

We hear Senators and Congressmen, both Republican and BLUE DOG Democrats, tell us through all the media outlets that the Public Health Systems in Canada, England and France are total disasters, how Public Health leads to health rationing and blah, blah, blah... The interesting part is that these elected Representatives are in the pockets of the Health Care Insurance Companies - I mentioned Blue Dog Democrats, but it also includes other Dems who are closeted Blue Dog Democrats, and who are no friends to common folk's interests, that's for sure.

As somebody who is very concerned and well informed of how the media allows itself to be used as long there is a lot of money to buy space, it doesn't surprise me to see how gleefully they join in the campaigns of misinformation, they have a license to lie to the public, as Producer Director Sue Wilson documents on her movie "Broadcast Blues" , there is at least one court ruling which said that there is no law which prohibits or sanctions lying while presenting "News" (FOX NOISE ANYONE?) or on their Ads, while the FCC may have Administrative Jurisdiction in some of these matters, it doesn't even want to look into it, much less do something about it, till now that is.

As a learning bonus, it is very interesting to see how the 'Media Personalities' put these sellouts on their programs and allow them to make their claims without a challenge to provide evidence on the failures of Government-run Health Care in other industrialized countries, needless to say, they do not challenge any claim no matter how outrageous and patently false it may be.

I don't know what else to say about how important it is to also fight this battle, I'm constantly reminded of the saying that 'you can lead a horse to the water, but you can't make it drink', all we can do is make the truth available.

For those interested in to at least know how we, our children and our children's children are and will be royally screwed and even killed for lack of care if the Insurance Companies have their way, there is some info below, and for those also interested and willing to join the fight for Media Reform, send me an email to get connected with other people who will not go quietly into the night without a fight.

Wendell Potter interview on the Bill Moyer on his July 10 PBS Program, "Profits Before Patients",

In his first extended television interview since leaving the health insurance industry, Wendell Potter tells Bill Moyers why he left his successful career as the head of Public Relations for CIGNA, one of the nation's largest insurers, and decided to speak out against the industry. "I didn't intend to [speak out], until it became really clear to me that the industry is resorting to the same tactics they've used over the years, and particularly back in the early '90s, when they were leading the effort to kill the Clinton plan."

Even so he doesn't tell us anything new, as a former insider, he confirms what we have been saying all along about the current Health "System", what is very revealing is to confirm their tactics to keep the 'status quo' hence their profits, as of last week, the Health Insurance Company's Lobby was spending $1,000,000,00 a day, yes, you read right, ONE MILLION DOLLARS A DAY TO DEFEAT THE PUBLIC OPTION (They do not want any competition that would drive down the cost of buying Health Care).

He also confirms that Michael Moore's "SiCKO" Is right on target and describes how they went about discrediting Michael and the Documentary, if you didn't get a chance to see the Movie, you can watch the full version here (02:03:12), I have also embed the video at the foot of this post.
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Even so this movie came out in 2007, two years later it is still current and highly pertinent.

In his Moyer's interview, Potter reveals his struggle in deciding what to do about his epiphany on the horrible reality of Health Care in These United States, going as far as quoting Dante Alighieri "The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis."

In closing, let me just tell you a little known secret, the current media status is literally killing people, the Fourth State has failed us and many of our Representatives have betrayed us, for money.

On the bright side, there are exceptions in the Media chicanery, there are many journalists who still do their work with honesty, under traditional journalist's guidelines and principles, on the down side, these honorable Journalists are outnumbered by a ratio of at least 10 to 1 according to the Sept. 12 2007 Media Matters' Report: Black and White and Re(a)d All Over (PDF) which should tell us that before we can realistically have any type of just and comprehensive reform on Health Care, Immigration, Working conditions, Education, etc., WE NEED TO HAVE MEDIA REFORM FIRST.

I present to you the class of 2009... By Karl Frisch

I saw this post and I knew I had to publish it on my blog too.

The ignorance, misinformation, desinformation, et al or the Shock Jocks in Right Wing Media is so out of hand that when I just consider the harm it causes, my head goes reeling and I get a feeling of sadness at witnessing people selling their souls, willing to lie ad infinitum et ad nauseam.

I believe in Free Speech but, the people who are privileged to have a microphone which reaches millions of listeners / viewers, should be held accountable when they abuse it, furthermore, the outlets which hire these Shock Jocks, should answer by having their broadcast licenses not renewed or canceled for failing to live up to the conditions under which these were issued, specifically, one of the clauses is that they provide a public service, lying, misinforming, defaming, attacking members of that public, fosters a climate of intolerance, ignorance and hate, it doesn't affect the population in a positive manner, quite the contrary.

COUNTY FAIR - MEDIA MATTERS

I present to you the class of 2009...

June 09, 2009 9:17 am ET by Karl Frisch

The path here was long. Some said it would never end.

You lost your integrity. You lost your senses. But you did it with gusto!

You lied. You misled. You twisted the truth beyond recognition.

Together, you may not have learned much, but you certainly sounded convincing to the unsuspecting ear. And that's what really matters, right?

History, science, economics, pre-med, pre-law... the degrees you have earned may mean nothing in real life but in the cable news business, well, it's solid gold (and if you need the money, G. Gordon Liddy will gladly sell it for you at 2 a.m. on basic cable for a modest commission.)

Friends.

Family.

Fellow wingnuts.

I present to you, the Conservative Misinformation University class of 2009!