The Horror: NYT's Timothy Egan Forced to Watch Fox News
I only am escaped alone to tell thee: Timothy Egan, a liberal reporter turned columnist for the New York Times, was forced to watch Fox News at the gym and lived to tell his readers about the horror in a Thursday post at nytimes.com, "The Clown and the Cop."
Trapped with a Fox News big screen in my stable of fellow trotters at the gym a few weeks ago, I took in the worldview that may give the White House to Republicans this year. After burning 400 calories, I was ready to torch the capital.
For almost half an hour I heard another rehash of how my tax dollars were spent on a clown, a comic and a mind reader at a retreat for government workers outside Las Vegas in 2010. Those tin-eared bureaucrats in the General Services Administration spent a total of $835,000. An outrage, of course, and it was typical, I was informed, of runaway government spending under Barack Obama.
Not mentioned during my face time with Fox was a defense bill passed by the House that same day authorizing $642 billion in spending next year -- almost $8 billion more than the Defense Department asked for. And this vote broke a promise by the Tea Party-backed Congress, when they agreed last year to cut defense spending over 10 years.
Later Egan, facetiously asked permission to give the facts a try but instead forwarded a widely discredited opinion piece trumpeted by Obama that claimed to show he is actually a spending "miser."
First, you have to go back to Dwight Eisenhower’s administration, more than 50 years ago, to find a rate of federal spending growth lower than that of the Obama administration. This counterintuitive conclusion was reported last month by Rex Nutting in MarketWatch, a Web site affiliated with The Wall Street Journal. It’s been labeled “mostly true” by the nonpartisan referee Politifact, though others have challenged the premise of the piece. Nutting took much of 2009 out of Obama’s column because the spending was authorized in the last year of the Bush presidency.
But even when he’s tagged with most of 2009’s outlays -- including the stimulus, which saved more than one million jobs -- Obama is a relative miser on the growth chart. Still, Mitt Romney continues to say that under Obama, federal spending “has accelerated at a rate without precedent.” Of course, Obama would like to spend more, and if given a free hand, may rise to a level justifying Romney’s claim.
Hans Bader at the Competitive Enterprise Institute dissected Nutting's claims, which even the New York Times questioned, and has links to other economics writers who did the same.
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Comments
At my club...
Submitted by bigdaddy on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 1:15pm.
...they have CNBC on one screen and MESSDNC on the other. If you think MEEEEEEEKA is funny to listen to, you should read her on captioning. I call it "Sweating to the Stoopid".
Mine showed CNN, Fox and
Submitted by ricklail on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 3:12pm.
Mine showed CNN, Fox and Oprah or the local station. You could plug in a set of headphones and tune to the one you wanted to hear. I noticed one time a lot of folks had their dials on 2 which was Fox.
Now you you know how the rest
Submitted by ex buff e-dub on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 1:19pm.
Now you you know how the rest of America feels when traveling through airports and nothing but CNN is on
Or hospitals with their primitive cable systems
Submitted by frank14 on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 1:39pm.
from the 1970s.
That's probably the reason
Submitted by ricklail on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 3:13pm.
That's probably the reason that their ratings are as high as they are.
You read my mind
Submitted by okie-pastor on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 11:47pm.
You read my mind
You were trapped in the gym?
Submitted by CobraMan on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 1:24pm.
Next time, I suggest you look for the "Exit" sign.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
There was a hamster on either side of him on . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 1:50pm.
. . . the treadmill.
So, his counter to the blatant waste and fraud in the GSA conference is a defense bill, which he presumably considers waste.
I guess that makes it all okay.
Cognitive dissonance, anyone?
Submitted by drsamherman on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 1:32pm.
He knows wasteful government spending is wrong, but then mitigates the cognitive dissonance with the mention of a large defense bill (which will be automatically reduced under the debt limit compromise--Egan failed to mention that inconvenient little fact) in the usual narcissistic liberal moral equivalency.
The Almighty Lord I hope he has a good therapist. With such astounding amorality, it's a wonder he isn't in Attica by now.
Libs suffer from Pauline Kael Syndrome
Submitted by frank14 on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 1:38pm.
That's why they were so shocked by the 2010 election and the Wisconsin recall...they only consume leftist propaganda and have a physical reaction to devils advocates.
Funny how they forget to mention...
Submitted by c5then on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 1:53pm.
The last budget passed included almost $1.5 trillion in emergency spending (TARP, Stimulus, AutoBailout, Iraq war, etc.) that was over and above the regular budget. Then Obama and the democrats hit on a brilliant strategy...just don't pass another budget (the Dems control the senate so that is do-able)and keep spending at the same level for as long as possible.
That is exactly what has happened. The last budget was supposed to be a spike in the chart, but it has become a plateau.
As a result, Obama has almost doubled the national debt from when he took office until today. Obama has incurred more debt than all the previous President's combined from the beginning of the Republic until his term.
How fiscally responsible of him!
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
What's typical
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 2:19pm.
What's typical is that Egan equates the Defense Bill with hiring a clown.
Newsflash for you, Egan. We're firing two clowns, Bozo and Bite-Me, in November.
I think the biggest
Submitted by rwesley2.0 on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 2:39pm.
I think the biggest embarassment of the story is that he can only burn 400 calories in his workout. What kind of pansy workout did he do?
LOL
Submitted by StarAZ on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 2:51pm.
Funny. I liked that one. That was meant for the comment on how few cals Egan expended during his ordeal.
Also
Submitted by StarAZ on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 2:50pm.
Was there some buffed out monster standing there keeping him from changing the channel? So far as I know, Fox is not hurting for new viewers.
Eye Rolling.
Submitted by CobraMan on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 3:35pm.
"What kind of pansy workout did he do?"
Aerobic Eye Rolling, obviously.
Come on, ladies, you can do it! Roll to the left. Roll to the left. Scrunch those brows! Keep huffing, Ladies!
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
kegels
Submitted by ex buff e-dub on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 7:56pm.
kegels
It's all about Priorities
Submitted by James Youngblood on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 2:40pm.
So in Timothy Egan's mind, it's OK to spend taxpayer money on clowns, comics and mind readers for government worker parties, but not OK to spend taxpayer money for national defense. If I'm not mistaken, the preamble to the Constitution clearly states that the government shall "provide for the common defense". I missed the part about providing clowns, comics and mind readers.
J. Youngblood
Hey, pipe down, Timmy!
Submitted by CO2Maker on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 2:53pm.
Neil, other NBers, all of us have to read you and your paper and watch the likes of MFNBC and the band of merry idiots over there, CNN, the Viewgina Monologues, and all the other venues in the MSM-SUM.
I think the greater burden is on us. Nomesayin'?
Oops. He let the cat out of the bag
Submitted by Cappmann1962 on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 3:17pm.
After burning 400 calories, I was ready to torch the capital.
Typical liberal reaction to something he doesn't like. Even though he was referring to the conservative viewpoint, his first reaction was to commit violence.
As day follows day, I find myself despising liberals more and more. They are getting more heinous with each sucessive generation. I truly believe they nee the help of good psychiatrists, since even I can see that they project their psychosis onto conservatives. No conservative, watching MSLSD, would consider bombing the (republican-controlled) House of Representatives. Said conservative might not be able to keep from destroying the television, but that's about it. Yet the liberals CONSTANTLY attribute acts of violence to conservatives, when it is they themselves that condone, encourage, and/or perpetrate such acts. Their mental health is certainly a serious issue...
Would it assuage your hatred, Cappmann...
Submitted by Jer on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 12:01am.
to point out the fundamental flaws in your analysis?
Probably not, but nevertheless your errors beg for correction. Egan was referring [metaphorically, by the way] to the capitAl, i.e. Washington, DC, the seat of our federal government, rather than the CapitOl, the locus of the House of Representatives. And his "torching the capital" rhetoric was obviously a tongue-in-cheek nod to the ant-government theme which he believed to be the disproportionate focus of Fox News reporting on that occasion.
It was no more a call to actual violence than were the "burn it down" [likewise metaphorical] exhortations which appeared in the conservative National Review fifteen years earlier in connection with Republican threats to shut down the government during the Clinton presidency, nor did it condone violence any more than--indeed, not as much as--had Ann Coulter's expression of regret that Timothy McVeigh hadn't bombed the NYT.
Jer
Well, that's one way to look at it. The ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 12:05am.
view from the left, as it were.
MD
It's a view from neither the left nor
Submitted by Jer on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 12:29am.
the right--just a reasonable interpretation unencumbered by a factual error.
Jer
Unless there are now two posters with the same ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 6:20am.
username --- that of "Jer", and the newest one is a conservative; then any post by someone named Jer is going to contain a view from the left.
Therefore; a "reasonable interpretation" is out of the question - and the phrase "unencumbered by factual error", flowing through a lefty's keyboard, would resemble some type of bizarro oxymoron.
It should properly read "unencumbered by
factual errorfacts." :o)MD
Is that all you have Jer?
Submitted by Cappmann1962 on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 9:54am.
There are no "flaws" in my analysis. An avowed liberal suggested committing an act of violence simply because he was "forced" to see a fair example of the news. He is #1. unreasonably biased against FOX News, and #2. unreasonably biased against conservatives. His little tirade, " tongue-in-cheek" or not, was his representation of what conservatives think and act like because of what they get from FOX News. And don't even try to intimate that if a conservative, " tongue-in-cheek", suggested the slightest act of violence, the liberals wouldn't use it as justificatin for their "hate-filled, racist, violent conservative" meme. So stop making excuses for liberals, who, without factual basis, generalize all conservatives as such. They do it with republican politicians, they do it with the TEA Party, and they do it to virtually all conservatives on a regular basis.
And BTW Jer, I never said a thing about hating anyone, so your refenence to "assuaging my hatred" is itself fundamentally flawed.
Cappmann, that is a remarkably weak rebuttal.
Submitted by Jer on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 11:28pm.
But I realize you had very little to work with. You did the best you could.
Cappmann: "And, btw Jer, I never said a thing about hating anyone..."
Cappmann's original comment:
As day follows day, I find myself despising liberals more and more.
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/clay-waters/2012/06/15/horror-nyts-timothy-egan-forced-watch-fox-news#comment-1710728#ixzz1yCse0lkI
From the Free Online Dictionary:
de·spise (d-spz) tr.v. de·spised, de·spis·ing, de·spis·es
1. To regard with contempt or scorn 2. To dislike intensely; loathe: 3. To regard as unworthy of one's interest or concern
Synonyms for "despise":
Verb 1. despise - look down on with disdain; "He despises the people he has to work for";
contemn, disdain, scorn detest, HATE [my caps] - dislike intensely; feel antipathy or aversion towards; "She detests politicians" look down on - regard with contempt;
But moving along...do I understand correctly that your position is Egan's statement about "torching" the government is an actual, incendiary call to violence, but the National Review's "burn it [the government] down" rhetoric is, well, acceptable and benign hyperbole?
Jer
A "torch" is a professional arsonist, and ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 11:54pm.
"torching" something would be a felony crime.
In that regard, 'torching' is weighted with a more sinister meaning than is 'burn it down', as it exemplifies an absolute, purposeful act of malice.
While 'burn it down' may be construed as a threat or a proposed action, that same consideration cannot reasonably be attached to 'torching,' as that word definitely alludes to a prescribed intention or act that is criminal in nature.
MD
So, Egan, a NYT liberal reporter/columnist
Submitted by Jer on Tue, 06/19/2012 - 12:15am.
is, for some godonlyknows reason, advocating the actual, physical destruction of the federal government by literally setting fire to DC.
Yeah, that interpretation makes a whole lot of sense.
Time to cut your losses and move on to the next topic.
Jer
Nope, didn't say, intend to say, nor ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Tue, 06/19/2012 - 2:28am.
did I elucubrate anything of the sort.
I merely pointed out the meaning of a word based on how it was used in my line of work.
That said, I notice you always seem anxious to move on to the next topic whenever you are unable to
successfully blow smoke up a conservative's buttconvince a conservative of the righteousness of your lefty arguments.MD
You're getting high marks for that effort for no other reason
Submitted by Jer on Tue, 06/19/2012 - 2:53am.
than your having the balls to use the word "elucubrate" in the course of a routine discussion on a political blog.
Jer
I only used the word on the off chance that you ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Tue, 06/19/2012 - 3:57am.
might have to grab your Funk & Wagnall's. :o)
The only thing routine about a discussion with a lefty, a liberal, or a progressive, is the cliched BS they use to extol their odd views of how to make the world a better place .
MD
Really Jer
Submitted by Cappmann1962 on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 10:56am.
"Remarkably weak reubttal"? After your grasping at straws to find "errors" in my post? And then you decide to go personal with "I realize you had little to work with"? Your own reference puts the lie to your challenge - The DEFINITION of "despise" does not include "hate". You had to dig up a synonym. Give it up Jer. You have no argument.
And as for getting personal - Here's a synonym for you:
Noun: liberal moron
1. Jer
Just when I thought you could not dig the hole any deeper...
Submitted by Jer on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 2:55am.
you kept right on shoveling.
Do you really want to split hairs over "despise" and "hate"? That's the foundation of your defense?
Okay, so check here,
and here,
and here,
and here,
and here,
and here...
for starters. Then you might consider the wisdom of not further beclowning yourself.
Jer
PS...And just for the record Cappmann, when I stated you had little to work with, I was referring to the merits of your argument--not your intellectual ability.
You know what Jer?
Submitted by Cappmann1962 on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 12:10pm.
I see why NBers slam you so often. You just can't stop harping on a non-issue. YOU'RE the one splitting hairs here, and I certainly feel no need to "defend" myself from the likes of you. Most of you're rebuttal here has been over ONE word in my post.
Okay, so I'm TELLING you - I'm picking the definition below, option #1 (with more than a touch of #3). It's what I said, it's what I meant, and suits my opinion of liberals succinctly. I actually hate few people or things. Terrorists I hate. Criminals I hate. Child abusers I hate. Liberals - not really worth my effort. So I will stick with holding them in despite (using the original definition - Origin: 1250–1300; orig. in despite of; Middle English despit < Old French < Latin dēspectus view from a height, scorn) - just to clarify...
de·spise (d-spz) tr.v. de·spised, de·spis·ing, de·spis·es 1. To regard with contempt or scorn 2. To dislike intensely; loathe: 3. To regard as unworthy of one's interest or concern
I'm sure (if I decided to devote the time) I could find a suitable definition for virtually ANY word that would fit my agenda. That doesn't make it define someone's intent. If someone says "The sky is blue", is blue a noun, a verb, an adjective? Are they referring to the color blue, or the feeling of hopelessness? Are they a scientist, referring to the specific wavelength of light? Or maybe they're a racist, equating the sky with the Union army in the American Civil War. If I were a liberal, I'd probably go with the racist definition. Pretty easy, huh?
So basically, stop putting words in my mouth. I said I find myself despising liberals more and more, and dealing with someone like you over this petty BS pushes my opinion even lower (making #2 in your definition above look more appealing).
Have a nice day in La-la land researching what NBers (and conservatives in general) REALLY mean when they say something.
For Heaven's sake...
Submitted by Jer on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 11:35pm.
I see why NBers slam you so often. You just can't stop harping on a non-issue. YOU'RE the one splitting hairs here, and I certainly feel no need to "defend" myself from the likes of you. Most of you're rebuttal here has been over ONE word in my post.
Unbelievable. And I get accused of word parsing. You are the one who made an issue of the word. You are the one who has literally screwed himself into the ground desperately fighting to draw a virtually negligible distinction between the meaning of "despise" and "hate". Okay, Cappmann, please consider my initial response amended by supplanting the word "hatred" with "contempt and scorn". Happy? You may now commence your pyrrhic victory dance.
It was by no means the central point of my reply to your original post. You had clearly confused "capital" and "Capitol" and that blunder--along with your failure to recognize obvious satire and rhetorical imagery--compromised the indictment of liberals which you had constructed on a flawed premise.
Admitting a mistake would serve you far better than does your Custer/Little Big Horn martyrdom over a single word.
Jer
Sorry Jer
Submitted by Cappmann1962 on Fri, 06/22/2012 - 11:10am.
You're sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher. All I can hear is "Waa, waa. Waa, waa." Give it up. Everyone viewing these lame posts of yours see how weak they are, and that you began this inane "discussion" by accusing me of saying I hated libs. Now, we've gone through like 20 posts and rebuttals, and suddenly it's MY fault? I'VE made an issue of it? Damn right I did, when you put words in my mouth and accuse me (as most libs do) of hating.
I'm done with your twisting words. Have a nice time posting on this thread, but you'll be talking to yourself from here on. Come to think of it, that would probably be a good idea. It's the only way you;ll get a receptive audience...
Call me Ishmael
Submitted by jakee308 on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 3:49pm.
.
sorry bout that
Submitted by paulnashtn on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 7:49pm.
bet he loves to travel as we have to endure CNN at every airport
There just may be a nugget of hope for the country.
Submitted by UpNorth on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 8:26pm.
My wife and I had lunch in a college town the other day. The Taco Bell emporium had Fox News on one TV and Fox Business on the other TV. And, the students who wandered in were actually watching them.
Gyms and Outlets
Submitted by Netstatter on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 10:32pm.
I pity the poor guy. I know how he feels, as my gym always has CNN on at least one screen and never has Fox. But it motivates me to work out harder so I can work off the frustration about how biased CNN is.
What would be the real horror is if this Left has their way and this country becomes the Big Brother nanny state they want to force us to be. Talk about a dystopia.
OBAMA HAS SPENT LESS?
Submitted by squirefld on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 11:06pm.
This guy says that you have to go back 50 years to find a rate of Federal spending growth lower then Obama's. He mentioned a report by Rex Nutting that justified this conclusion. But if you read the last three papagraphs you see the word chart used more then once.
The report by Nutting was put together with charts produced by the aides in "NANCY PELOSI'S' office.
I DVR and watch Fox News top three shows every night.
Submitted by jawebster1 on Sat, 06/16/2012 - 2:52am.
There is no way on God's green earth would I be caught reading a copy of the New York Slimes, er Times. So I know exactly how that person feels, except I feel just the reverse!
oh poor little fella
Submitted by Mark81150 on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 3:44am.
He lives outside the glorious peoples republic known as New York, where never a conservative view be seen as to not sully the minds of liberals with opposing opinions.
They the dainty little flowers they are, must be coddled and nurtured with the endless disinformation of CNN and blissfully, MSNBC where the left beclowns itself on a daily basis.
...
This guy is that much the ideolog, he can't handle that most folks do not worship at the altar of ever bigger government... and much as it pains him, the Constutition does actually say that the primary business of government is to deliver the mail, and national defense..
doesn't say anything about the left's beloved treasure trove of endless new spending..
He doesn't seem to get how popular the FOX worldview is, if they don't just change the channel, obviously, he's in the wrong health club, if there are so many conservatives in it. That must just fry his curlies to live among us Philistines in the Heartland.
Boo-flippin-hoo.....