fox news

Today was a real treat in just how screwed up our media is. It all started when CNN reported that they have a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing. That quickly changed to an arrest being made. Soon after Fox and the AP went with the same story. Suddenly, the Boston Police Department and FBI announce that no arrests have been made.

If you like roller coaster rides, then today was a big one! But instead of pulling into the station at the end of the ride, we ended up with some of our biggest names in news with a lot of egg on their face. So how does the media respond to such an utter-failure in journalism? Well, if you are Fox's Megyn Kelly, you go on the defense and try to switch the story back to the actual bombing.

They key part is about half way through, when Kelly went on this little rant:

This is troubling to new levels:

An Indiana man convicted of setting fire to a mosque in Ohio told a judge on Wednesday that he committed the crimes because Fox News and conservative talk radio had convinced him that “most Muslims are terrorists.”

Randolph Linn, 52, accepted a plea deal in which he pled guilty to all charges in connection to setting a fire in the prayer room at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo on Sept. 30. Under the deal, Linn is expected to serve 20 years in prison instead of 40.

Linn explained to the court that he had gotten “riled up” after watching Fox News.

“And I was more sad when Judge [Jack] Zouhary asked him that, ‘Do you know any Muslims or do you know what Islam is?’” one mosque member who attended the hearing recalled to WNWO. “And he said, ‘No, I only know what I hear on Fox News and what I hear on radio.’”

“Muslims are killing Americans and trying to blow stuff up,” Linn also reportedly told the judge. “Most Muslims are terrorists and don’t believe in Jesus Christ.”

Sure it isn't the first time we have heard such things. Countless times, when the authorities bust some person or group planning to bring down the government, we find out their reading material includes Bill O'Reilly, Michelle Malkin and Rush Limbaugh. The hatred spewed by these right wingers has been breeding this kind of behavior for years now, and it has got to stop.

It's interesting that this happens while our nation is in a big debate over our constitutional rights. What Republicans fail to realize is that with those rights comes responsibilities. Sure, you have a right to arms, but if you use those arms to cause harm or damage to others, then you face punishment. The same must be said about our right to free speech.

Yesterday Chris Wallace challenged Romney adviser Ed Gillespie on rather Romney's tax cut plans were feasible. At issue was the "six independent studies" that the Romney campaign has been touting. Here's the exchange from Think Progress:

GILLESPIE: Six different studies have said this is entirely doable.

WALLACE: Those are very questionable. Some of them are blogs, some of them are from AEI, an independent group.

GILLESPIE: These are very credible sources.

WALLACE: One of them is a blog from a guy who was a top adviser for George W. Bush. These are hardly non-partisan studies.

GILLESPIE: Look Chris these AEI and other studies are very credible sources of analysis

So to Romney, an adviser to George Bush is non-partisan.

It's also amazing that the hundreds of other analysis that have come out, which say there is no way that Romney can cut the top earners tax rate by 20% without significantly raising taxes on the middle class, is just impossible. Instead Romney has chosen the very few studies that say it can be done.

But there is something even more interesting in this exchange. It's something I have hammered Romney on before - a lack of plan. Well Gillespie offers more insight into that. It shows that Mitt Romney is a man not worried about country, but worried about only him:

Ed Gillespie went on TV this morning and said Mitt Romney would only reveal the details of his tax plan after he’s sworn into office as President.

Drudge's big headline last night:

Which links to this piece on the Daily Caller:

Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, according to a survey released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association.

The DPMA, a non-partisan association of doctors and patients, surveyed a random selection of 699 doctors nationwide. The survey found that the majority have thought about bailing out of their careers over the legislation, which was upheld last month by the Supreme Court.

And has been hammered on by every right wing blog around:

And even the "fair and balanced" Fox News:

Credit: MMFA

Fox really knows their viewers and their lack of education, especially when it comes to the U.S. Constitution:

For the second day in a row, Fox's "straight news" division has hyped the claim that U.S Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan should recuse herself from the case involving the constitutionality of a provision of the Affordable Care Act. Fox pointed to an email Kagan sent to then-Justice Department adviser Laurence Tribe on the day the House of Representatives passed the Affordable Care Act in which Kagan said, "I hear they have the votes, Larry!! Simply amazing."

Legal ethicists have thrown cold water on the argument that Kagan needs to recuse herself over that email. But Fox seems to have an argument that the legal ethicists haven't thought of: Fox national correspondent Steve Centanni said Kagan's recusal may be required by "Article 28 of the Constitution." Fox's graphics department provided the relevant quote from the "U.S. Constitution, Article 28, Sec. 144":

The problem is that the Constitution has only 7 articles and what they are quoting appears in none of them. I'm sure that Fox will quickly blame the graphics department for it, but watch this video:

How hard? This hard:

EXCLUSIVE: ACORN Playing Behind Scenes Role in 'Occupy' Movement

The former New York office for ACORN, the disbanded community activist group, is playing a key role in the self-proclaimed “leaderless” Occupy Wall Street movement, organizing “guerrilla” protest events and hiring door-to-door canvassers to collect money under the banner of various causes while spending it on protest-related activities, sources tell FoxNews.com.

The former director of New York ACORN, Jon Kest, and his top aides are now busy working at protest events for New York Communities for Change (NYCC). That organization was created in late 2009 when some ACORN offices disbanded and reorganized under new names after undercover video exposes prompted Congress to cut off federal funds.

That would be non-other than FOX news pushing a story that an organization, which closed-up shop 19 months ago, is behind the #OWS movement. Of course the actual article isn’t as eerie to the tinfoil hat wearing right as the headline. All we find out is that “someone” told Fox that one of the people involved in the protest used to work for ACORN, or shorter wingnut meme “how dare you liberal hippies go out and find a job after losing yours, not get to work you unemployed freeloaders!”

Irene hit New York as a category 1 hurricane, which is much less than the category 3 originally predicted. Since that happened the right has launched a major attack on the Obama administration, accusing them of “over-hyping” the hurricane for political purposes. This started with a bunch of links on Drudge over the weekend that quickly garnered the attention of the right blogosphere (see here and here for starters) and even Fox News. Of course this helped lead to the bigger issue on the right – getting rid of the National Weather Service:

As Hurricane Irene bears down on the East Coast, news stations bombard our televisions with constant updates from the National Hurricane Center.

While Americans ought to prepare for the coming storm, federal dollars need not subsidize their preparations. Although it might sound outrageous, the truth is that the National Hurricane Center and its parent agency, the National Weather Service, are relics from America’s past that have actually outlived their usefulness.

For anyone out there thinking News Corp is innocent, we just need to look back to 2009:

News Corporation admitted at a trial in 2009 that computers at its U.S. marketing division, News America Marketing, hacked into the secure website of a rival U.S.-based company 11 times, according to Bloomberg.

The FBI is currently investigating allegations that News Corp, the parent company of Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, attempted to bribe police and hack into the cell phones of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) wrote Tuesday to Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller to highlight the hacking allegation made by Floorgraphics Inc.

Floorgraphics claimed in a lawsuit that News America Marketing stole business from the company by hacking into Floorgraphics website between October 2003 to January 2004. The company agreed to dismiss the case after receiving a $29.5 million payment from News America Marketing.

So we've got an actual admission by News Corp that they have engaged in this illegal activity before, yet somehow Murdoch thinks he is innocent?

Welcome to ultimate responsibility Rupert! Your company paid out almost $30 million and admitted to hacking just two years ago, yet you claim you have no responsibility? Maybe it's time for you to go back to the land you were born, the land that was once known for being a place that criminals were sent. You should feel right at home there you ass hat!