How much do lefties dislike Glenn Beck? So much that the vitriol has bled over into low-rent, soon-to-be-obsolete publications like Playboy magazine.

In the December 2009 issue of Playboy, Thomas Frank "takes down" the Fox News Channel host by analyzing the conservative movement and how Beck rose to prominence. Frank, with an obvious need to meet a high-word count in mind, attempts to dismantles Beck by attacking his Christmas book, "The Christmas Sweater" and his other books, his admiration for Thomas Paine, his fear the U.S. Constitution is being trampled upon and his activist efforts to curb this intrusion by combating socialism, communism and other ideologies that could be deemed un-American.

Beck Response on his Nov. 12 program below

The Style section of the Washington Post isn’t exactly a repository of old-fashioned small town values, which made staff writer Monica Hesse’s Nov. 12 article that much more surprising.

Her piece: “Publicly, a whole new lewdness,” related the stories of commuters, airline passengers and others exposed to “secondhand smut” – that is, people in the uncomfortable position of having neighbors watching porn in public on laptops and BlackBerrys.

“But the increasing popularity of laptops and handheld devices, and the prevalence of wireless Internet access, means there’s a greater chance of becoming a bystander to a complete stranger's viewing proclivities,” Hesse wrote.

One anecdote involved a woman who was on a long flight with her young children, when “her friendly seatmate cued up a cartoon on his laptop. Her four children were enthralled; she hoped listening in might keep them occupied. Then the cartoon characters started doing things that cartoon characters should not be doing. Naked things …”

If we’ve learned anything in recent months, it’s that if you’re a racist, a Marxist, a Maoist, a domestic terrorist or any other variety of anti-American nut, the safest place to be is in the company of Barack Obama. If you can stay off the radar of Fox News and don’t get caught on tape giving advice on running a brothel for fun and profit, you get to influence the most powerful executive in the world.

Case in point: Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar,” Kevin Jennings. While nobody’s yet found out exactly what he knows about safe schools, we do know he’s an expert at pushing a gay agenda in public grammar schools. We know he’s praised the founder of the North American Man-Boy Love Association. And thanks to “the pro-family action center for Massachusetts,” Mass Resistance, now we know he’s an art maven. (Warning: site contains many offensive images from the installation. The site’s blog has also been flagged by Google as objectionable – which, given Google’s political leanings, may be a badge of honor.)

The programming gurus at MTV are basing their profit-making strategy on the viewer demographic of 12 to 34 – as if there’s no difference in maturity level between 12 and 34. MTV’s brand of sensationalistic "reality TV" was easily demonstrated on the night of October 5, when they aired a prime-time marathon (from 7 pm Eastern to 1 am) of their hour-long documentary series called "True Life." Just the episode titles were jaw-dropping.

1. "I’m Out."

2. "I’m Polyamorous."

3. "I’m Bisexual."

4. "I’m Changing My Sex." (This ran twice in a row.)

5. "I Work In The Sex Industry."

To the Washington Post editorial board, restrictive campaign finance measures are perfectly valid, constitutional exercises in protecting the public, but heaven forbid a state lawmaker would want to prevent the taxpayer-subsidized screening of porn on public college campuses.

In "Rated XXX," the Post's editorial board today declared obscene a mild measure aimed at preventing -- but not banning -- porn on campus.

You may recall that earlier this year, a student committee that selects films for screening at the University of Maryland's Hoff Theater picked a XXX skin flick as part of its repertoire. Following scrutiny by legislators, University of Maryland administrators forbade the ticketed screening of the entire film, although a student group was permitted to screen a small portion of the film as part of a panel discussion on obscenity and free speech.

"Can skimpy bikinis raise awareness about breast cancer?" asked 'Good Morning America's Robin Roberts.

 

On September 22^nd Roberts and Andrea Canning discussed a new public service announcement campaign called "Save the Boobs" that uses a "less-is-more approach" to call attention to breast cancer.

Roberts tsked at the "provocative footage," quoting critics that say the ads are "distracting from the message." Canning agreed, adding, "One PSA even looks more like a beer commercial than a breast cancer awareness spot."

But the ladies did protest too much, since as they spoke, clips of that beer commercial-like ad - featuring slow-motion footage of a  girl wearing a skimpy white, string bikini - rolled over and over. GMA showed another spot that zoomed in on women putting their right hand over their left-breast, reciting a pledge that went, "I pledge allegiance to my girls. To my cheechees, to my hooters, to my tatas. And to tell my doctor about any changes I see or feel immediately."

What is up with the media pitying the pornography industry?

On July 15, CNBC aired a special highlighting the industry’s financial woes. Then the Los Angeles Times did the same Aug. 10, in the article: “Tough Times in the Porn Industry.” Ben Fritz's article described the same economic problems the industry is facing, a weak economy, online porn and piracy, but failed to include any industry critics or point out negative aspects of porn.

Instead, Fritz focused on a porn actress who is struggling financially. He said Savannah Stern used to earn $150,000 a year, but now only makes a $50,000. Stern used to drive a Mercedes, but Fritz wrote, “She’s replacing it with a used Chevy Trailblazer-from her parents.”

Stern lamented that, “The opportunities in this industry really are disappearing. It’s extremely stressful.”

Here’s a dilemma: You come to find out that Cilla, the sister who’s been generously contributing thousands of dollars to your three kids’ college funds, is actually a porn star. The college cash turns out to be the ill-gotten gains of immoral exploitation. You’re horrified and consider returning the money. Your husband disagrees. What do you do?

“G-Rated Sister in San Diego” wrote to the syndicated advice column “Dear Abby” for advice. Understandably, she wrote, “Abby, I don't want my sister's sexual exploits paying for our kids' education … Should we return the money? And if we do, is it possible to do it without causing a rift between my sister and me?”

Imagine you live in the Washington, D.C. metro area, and you’re wondering what to do with weekend guests after church on Sunday. Quite sensibly, you turn to the “Local Events” section of the “Going Out Guide” on the Washington Post’s Web site.

So much to choose from … best to rely on the Editors’ Picks – there are only five of them. Two of the five look promising. First, you can enjoy a “Drag Queen Brunch” in Dupont Circle, then it’s off to the African American Civil War Memorial for … “Bare Breasted Women Sword Fighting.”

This topless dueling took place yesterday, as part of the “Capital Fringe Festival,” a performing arts festival that bills itself as “Rebellious and adventurous.”

“Bare Breasted Women Sword Fighting” was, according to the Post’s “Quick Take,” “A martial whirl of femininity and breasts.”

But an editorial review by Nelson Pressley assured readers that there was more to the event. “They'll show some skin, but this ain't yer daddy's strip club. They're going to play with conventions and make you think about it.” Bare breasted women sword fighting, Pressley said, was “some of the most sophisticated comedy I've seen so far on the Fringe.”

Sophisticated. Got that?

On society’s list of most shameful professions, the pornographer would be near the top. What must pornographers think of themselves? They would argue that their industry has joined the mainstream, yet for porn performers, it’s a sordid career fraught with perils of drugs, disease, and in the darker corners of porn, exploitation and abuse.

Take the case of a true pervert, Paul Little, who calls himself "Max Hardcore." The British author Martin Amis submerged himself in the sleaziest subcultures of sex on film for the British newspaper The Guardian a few years ago. He recalled the making of Little’s "Hollywood Hardcore 13." The film included a series of...excretory humiliations.

Looking for wholesome family television oh, say, about 9 pm on July 15? Then make sure not to tune into CNBC. The network will air “Porn: Business of Pleasure,” hosted by Melissa Lee. The special, as touted by the network, will give viewers a look at the pornography industry. But if the marketing is a reliable indication, “Porn: Business of Pleasure” is nothing more than an attempt to normalize, and even promote, the porn industry.

According to a preview, those with qualms about pornography need to get over it. A voiceover explained how porn “is here. People want to see it.” Over images of naughty nurses and various scantily clothed people, a female explained how she wanted to be sex symbol, and another voice said that “pornography has been around since the time of the caveman. It’s not going anywhere.” And that’s just the preview.

The show will be much more than that. CNBC described it as “an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look inside the multibillion dollar pornography business, from the threats to its profitability to exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews with the industry's biggest stars to the one issue that could bring the adult industry to it's knees.”

Pornography is no longer a poison creeping into the crevices of our popular culture. It is part of the very fabric. One sensation at a recent Apple conference for new and developing applications in San Francisco was the "i-Porn bikini girls" advertising free X-rated films for your i-Phone. It sounds like a whole new reason to fear people using their mobile phone while they drive.

Free porn sites are all over the Internet now, with zero restrictions or minimal electronic barriers against curious children who might be in for a very crude shock within seconds, just with the still photos on the home page. Even the most mainstream of video sites are inundated with pornography and its promoters. YouTube touts itself as the world’s most popular portal for Internet videos. It has become so big it’s even promoting a new technology called YouTube XL to put its videos directly on your big-screen TV.

A new study by Matthew Philbin and Dan Gainor of the Culture and Media Institute (CMI) found that YouTube is stuffed with porn videos.

On June 17, FNC’s “O’Reilly Factor” focused a “Viewer Warning” segment on the Culture & Media Institute’s new Special Report: “Blue Tube: Four Reasons to Keep Your Kids Away From YouTube.”

“A new study by the Media Research Center – a conservative group, but an accurate group – indicates that pornographic content is available to kids on YouTube pretty much all the time,” host Bill O’Reilly said.

Amanda Carpenter of the Washington Times, “The Factor’s” regular Internet correspondent, explained some of the study findings. “If you put in a search term like ‘porn,’ into the YouTube site,” she said, “you’ll come up with 330,000 different hits. And, while the Web site says it warns … it bans, excuse me … explicit pornography, there are tons of things out there that resemble, you know, soft-core type of porn, girls stripping, allusions to lesbianism, fetishes. And they say its porn – they advertise it as porn. Other pornographers put links to their own real sites that are pornographic.”

O’Reilly asked about the lack of safeguards that the CMI study uncovered. “So say a 12-year-old wants to see this stuff,” he said. “All they have to do is lie about their age, right?”

Early Saturday morning new developments arose in the controversy surrounding AOL News' decision to fire liberal writer Tommy Christopher. As first reported by NewsBusters many believed that the evidence pointed to Tommy Christopher's critique of Playboy writer Guy Cimbalo's attack on conservative women as the catalyst for his firing. However, though NewsBusters has still received no response to our repeated attempts to contact both Time Warner and AOL Politics Daily Chief Editor Melinda Henneberger, Henneberger has released this statement to Jason Linkins of The Huffington Post:

Does it make a lick of sense to you that I would fire anyone for standing up for women, or for taking on that disgusting story in Playboy? The bloggers for the old AOL site, Political Machine, weren't retained for the new site, Politics Daily, which has only been in existence for the last five weeks, and which we're just staffing up. Sorry so dull, but there's nothing more to it than that.

Tommy Christopher has posted a response at DailyDose.us strongly disputing Henneberger's claim that she supported his coverage of the Playboy story:

Editor's Note/Update below: AOL editor's email and further business connections revealed.

AOL News has been bending over backwards lately to make sure that they do not cover the controversy surrounding Playboy.com writer Guy Cimbalo's vile attack on conservative women. AOL News has taken some drastic steps to censor any mention, let alone criticism, of Playboy's screed. They have deleted posts about the article, banned contributors from mentioning it, and even fired one of their liberal writers over it.

The fact that banning reporters from, well, reporting is so contrary to the purpose of a news organization it really is puzzling. It seems to be in direct contrast to their commitment to "traditional journalistic values".

The evidence is stacking up quite high that AOL News fired liberal writer Tommy Christopher today due to his repeated attempts to get coverage of the Playboy attack list on AOL's Politics Daily. Christopher had first attempted to post this criticism of Playboy's sick list the day it was published on their website. However, he was surprised to find that shortly after putting his article on Politics Daily it was deleted by an editor.

His surprise stemmed from the fact that in his two years of writing for the site not one other post had ever been deleted by an editor.

You know the saying, "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging"? It seems liberal journalist Bonnie Erbe either never heard it, or just doesn't care.

Yesterday I noted how the PBS "To the Contrary" host denounced Playboy writer Guy Cimbalo's list of 10 conservative women he's like to "hate-f***," only to hint that she thought syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin deserved to be degraded by the nudie mag writer.

Today, the U.S. News & World Report contributing editor took to her Thomas Jefferson Street blog to take on conservative blogger Gateway Pundit for supposedly distorting her argument. You see, Erbe insists, she never said she thinks Malkin would have it coming to be raped, only that she has it coming to be viciously and obscenely degraded by some loser writing for a softcore porn mag:

Updated below

It was wrong of Playboy to publish a top ten list of conservative women its writer Guy Cimbalo would like to "hate-f***" but, c'mon, we all know Michelle Malkin had it coming. That's the gist of PBS "To the Contrary" host and U.S. News contributing editor Bonnie Erbe's June 3 blog post, "Playboy Mix of Sex, Hate, and Politics Demeans Conservative Women" (emphasis mine):

Yesterday, I was contacted by the executive director of SmartGirlPolitics.org, a conservative women's website, to stand up for conservative women treated despicably by the media. Here I am, doing just that.... A couple of caveats are in order. First, I probably disagree politically with much of SmartGirlPolitics.org's agenda--I know I disagree completely with the group's position on abortion rights. But as a nonpartisan, I'm also a firm believer in supporting all members of my gender when attacked due to their gender. I am supporting these women herewith.

UPDATED below: Politico removes item, writer explains/apologizes decision to highlight the list.

Yesterday, Playboy writer Guy Cimbalo published a top ten list of conservative women against whom he would like to commit vulgar and violent sexual acts. His piece, which has since been removed by the skin mag's Web site, was actually promoted to conservative sites like NewsBusters by Playboy's PR people (see editor's note at bottom of the post). Cimbalo's hate-filled and misogynistic write-up drew the condemnation of many conservatives and even some liberals.

Yet Anne Schroeder Mullins of Politico.com remains unimpressed and disturbingly amused by Playboy's sick hit list. She was so amused in fact that she playfully white-washed Cimbalo's violent sexual rhetoric as the "lighter side of politics." But what if the tables where turned in this story?

There's a legitimate debate to be had about the media's coverage of the alleged epidemic of "sexting" -- teenagers sending pornographic or suggestive photos of themselves nude or semi-nude via cell phone.*

After all, the media are well-known to glom onto a few anecdotes and drum up a "growing trend" without the benefit of empirical data to back up the alarming claim. That being said, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford is not the petulant adolescent man to make that point.

Indeed, Morford actually aims at excusing sexting altogether, all while distorting and mocking average Americans' sexual mores in his May 15 column, "You Dirty Kids!":

I have to say, this tea party effort has the unhinged left more unhinged than usual. Here we have another example of that from a purported dictionary wiki called the "Urban Dictionary" where users can add kitsch definitions to words used on the "street." In this case the registered users posted to the pseudo dictionary some entries connecting the tax protests with a sexual perversion practiced in their circles. Apparently there is nothing by way of moderating going on at the Urban "Dictionary" site. Anything can be added whether useful or true or not.

Now, I won't give a direct link to this site because the entries added by its users are often profane. If you are that interested, go to the Urban Dictionary site and search the term "teabagger" or "teabagging," etc.and you'll get all the ignorance you desire. In fact, it couldn't be worse if you watched MSNBC all day, it's that mindnumbingly stupid.