In his acceptance speech last night Sean Penn mentioned the "signs of hatred" he passed on the way into the Academy Awards. He was referring specifically to Shirley Phelps Roper and the rest of her "God Hates Fags" brethren from the Westboro Baptist Church. Since I didn't have a ticket to get into the awards ceremony I spent a bit of time interviewing Shirley Phelps Roper. Note that many of my questions were culled from the comments section of a video I posted last year of Shirley Phelps Roper also from outside of the Academy Awards.
NOTE: There are some really entertaining parts if you can stand to make it through the entire video!
Fox 'News' admits to propaganda! Maybe the mouthpiece of the right wing propaganda machine felt compelled to come clean after Ann Coulter recently outed the company.
Clearly the right is fearful of the progressive blogosphere. What really pains me when I watch this is that I personally know so many people that still believe Fox 'News' is a legitimate source for news. Sure, it leans right, but it provides a good counterweight to the lefty media they say. Right, and pigs can fly. But, who am I, but a lefty blogger, to tell anyone that Fox 'News' is pure, 100%, unadulterated propaganda. That's why we have Ann Coulter who, in her latest hate-filled diatribe against the left, made the mistake of actually revealing a piece of truth:
Fox News ought to buy a copy of Monday's Democrat debate on CNN to play over and over during the general election campaign. For now, the Democratic candidates need to appeal only to their nut-base. So on Monday night, the candidates casually spouted liberal conspiracy theories that would frighten normal Americans, but warm the hearts of losers blogging from their mother's basements.
What an odd thing to write. Why would Fox 'News' be interested in replaying something that made Democrats look bad over and over again? Is that “Fair and Balanced”? Or, a tacit admission that Fox 'News' is the leader of the propaganda wing of the Republican party. Nobody would know this more than Coulter.
And how great that Coulter and her editors made such a large gaffe. Maybe Coulter's feeling the heat from all her recent errors and hate-filled rhetoric which has earned her plenty of public condemnation. On the other hand, the mistake is completely understandable when you consider that anyone that read the piece prior to publishing would obviously know the statement to be true. That being the case, they'd have no reason to spot the mistake as we are taught from grade school on to proofread for grammar, spelling and fact checking -- not to spot the truth. Thus, it appears that even the serial dishonest Coulter is capable of making an honest mistake.
The “error” earned Coulter Keith Olbermann's “Worst Person in the World” honors...
In addition to the hypocrisy noted in the video mashup it's worth pointing out of the extremely obvious and effective propaganda techniques used by Fox “News” in dealing with the Scooter Libby news. Mainly, it approached the breaking news in a manner to make it as insignificant as possible.
On the O'Reilly Factor, for example, the first mention that Bush had commuted Libby's sentence came 38 minutes into the show during a segment where two Fox “News” analysts also discussed other matters. In fact, guest host Mchelle Malkin even goes so far as to emphasize that they would be discussing a “whole slew of other political stories” during the same segment. And, just in case viewers failed to grasp the insignificance of the commuted sentence by all the unsaid propaganda, Malkin and her two guests repeatedly minimize the import of the story.
Contrast this with the normal O'Reilly Factor story which uses similar propaganda techniques to emphasize a story. It is not uncommon for O'Reilly to hype a story throughout the broadcast “preparing” viewers into commercial breaks with mentions of the usually inflammatory story yet to come. See this example where O'Reilly hyped a sex tape between two fringe celebrities four times, including with statements like, “you are going to find this story fascinating, I promise you”, before finally getting to the story and dismissing it altogether as not important. And that was the understatement of the year.
Important or not, by repeatedly showing bits of the tape and referring to the story, O'Reilly was able to effectively convey many of his regular themes to viewers like California and Hollywood's destructive impact on our culture. Never mind that the reality was that O'Reilly used the non-news story as a segue-way to a seven minute discussion about the O.J. Simpson murders! Thus, in the world of Fox “News” Propaganda, Scooter Libby's sentence is far less important than a ten plus year old murder and a celebrity sex tape.
And this is merely one of the many effective propaganda techniques employed by Fox “News” on a daily basis.
John Edwards explains Ann Coulter and the regular Swift Boating of Democrats from the right wing fanatics. He covers the reasons why they do it and how to combat it. Be sure to check out the last minute when Edwards shows big time class going to bat for Hillary and Barack Obama.
This is a much watch video. Elizabeth Edwards, who is truly the epitome of “good people”, calls up Chris Matthews on the air to politely ask his guest, Ann Coulter, to stop personally attacking her opponents. Coulter's endless list of grossly distasteful and inappropriate attacks include calling John Edwards a “faggot” and, I kid you not, stating that Edwards made campaign bumper stickers that said, “Ask me about my son's death in a horrific car accident”. There are no words that can adequately describe the level of distaste involved in Coulter even mentioning the tragedy that took the life of the , never mind the unfathomable context of her quote. Reprehensible, disgusting, revolting and beyond the pale all fail to convey the hate, spite and hurt of her words on their target and the damage such vitriol does to society.
And one should not underestimate the damage that Coulter does to society. It is because of people like her, Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh that hate speech which would have been condemned 10 to 15 years ago is now part of the daily Republican lexicon. This hurts political discourse (which is the main point) and divides the country (also the point) so that the open debate necessary to make democracy work vanishes. This enables government's to carry out policies that benefit corporations at the expense of the people and still win reelection by demonizing their opponents. Red state America might be struggling like never before with fewer, lower paying jobs, expensive healthcare and rising energy and education costs, but will that matter when they are faced with voting for a “faggot” for president?
Now, while everything I've written thus far is certainly true, it is misplaced. This isn't really about Ann Coulter. Maybe someone doesn't know the story about Coulter and the bumper stickers but we all certainly know that Ann Coulter has made a living off of unconscionable hate speech. A quick google search turns up site after site after site after site evidencing Coulter's endless transgressions. Thus, the real question we should be asking is why is she being given a public forum to espouse her hate. Elizabeth Edwards is correct to confront the hate but she really should be directing it at Chris Matthews and MSNBC. He should be ashamed of himself, booed, picketed and avoided until he stops giving voice to such hatemongers like Coulter. Yes, this also means that Fox 'News' should be boycotted altogether irrespective of the fact that it is a right wing propaganda machine.
Simply put, we should be outraged with Chris Matthews for enabling Coulter by giving her a microphone. He gave voice to outrageous and unacceptable hate speech that he knew had often caused harm in the past and was likely to do so again. And since Matthews was in a position to prevent this harm and chose not to, he should be held accountable.
Matthews position is akin to that of a bartender. We rely on bartenders to stop serving highly inebriated patrons in order to protect society from harm often caused by very drunk people. History tells us that as people get drunker the likelihood for accidents, fights and drunk driving increase, all of which take a toll on society. Thus, bartenders can and should be held liable when they fail to act responsibly and harm ensues. And the same should be true for Matthews.
