Fox News Channel

For those unfamiliar, Christopher Horner is undoubtedly a rising star on the conservative political landscape. A Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the author of the new book “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism,” he was a guest of the “Fox & Friends” crew Tuesday.

Given the subject matter, Horner had a lot of fun slamming Al Gore, Ellen Goodman, and the global warmingists (video available here). Goodman was Horner’s first target:

Well, let's say this Ellen Goodman a columnist just joined the parade of those who call people who deny climate change – that’s what they call it -- Holocaust deniers. Okay, now think about this. You decide which is being trivialized: a few tenths of a degree increase over a hundred and something years, or 20 million people dead on the basis of their religion or sexual preferences.

Horner then made an interesting historical climate observation that has conveniently eluded all the global warming alarmists and their devotees:

This Sunday at 10pm Eastern, Fox News Channel is going to show a pilot episode of a news satire show it's commissioned from "24" executive producer Joel Surnow.

Here at NB and MRC, we often rightly complain at the media's leftward slant. This slant exists largely because the news and entertainment media shun and blacklist people with known conservative and libertarian politics, however, it's also a question of the right's interest in media.

If you're sick of every comedy show being run by left-wingers like Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, and David Letterman, join me in watching the "Half-Hour News Hour" this Sunday and tell everyone you know who might like it to tune in as well.

For a sample of the show and its format, click on over to this YouTube excerpt. There's also another promo where the show's producers discuss who might be offended at it. Click past the fold to watch the first spot right from this entry.

Washington Post arts reporter Jacqueline Trescott reports on the front page of the Style section today that the Smithsonian Institution (with its fresh new contract with the Showtime cable network) is shutting Oliver North's Fox News Channel cameras out:

The Smithsonian Institution rejected a request from Oliver North to film a stand-up in front of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb. This is the latest flap in the Smithsonian's development of programming for a cable television network.

North, who hosts a Fox News Channel series called "War Stories," returned fire, condemning the Smithsonian's decision. He said in an opinion column that the museum's action raises questions about the propriety of the contract between Showtime Networks and the Smithsonian, which limits access of film crews.

Trescott's story is a reasonable recounting of the battle -- first revealed in North's column in Sunday's Washington Times. (Be sure that the Post hates following in the wake of the conservative Times.) But she omits a crucial fact: the Smithsonian institution is private, but receives most of its funding from the federal government.

Brent Bozell, President of the Media Research Center which operates NewsBusters, appeared Sunday night on FNC's Hannity's America. Sean Hannity set up the February 11 segment by playing an exchange Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton had in New Hampshire with a voter who wanted her to apologize for her pro-war resolution vote and to apologize for it. After Hannity ran video clips to contrast Clinton's current distancing from the Iraq war with how before the war she warned of the threat from Iraq and advocated war, Hannity and Bozell discussed how the news media have avoided pointing out such contradictions.

Video clip, including Hannity's collection of Clinton flip-flops (6:50): Real (5.1 MB at 100 kbps) or Windows Media (4.3 MB at 81 kbps), plus MP3 audio (2.4 MB)

I was curious as to how Neal Gabler would opine. Surely, there was no way the resident aggressive lefty at Fox News Watch would defend the odious statements of William Arkin, who in this column libeled the US military as "mercenaries" and claimed we treat them to "obscene amenities." As it turns out, Gabler didn't, even going so far as to call Arkin's statements "idiotic."

However . . . that doesn't mean that Gabler didn't find something to complain about in the way conservatives reacted to the column. Kvetched Neal:

"There are literally tens of millions of bloggers out there. Singling out this particular blogger is an instance of cherry-picking by Fox News, who've been on this story, by Rush Limbaugh. And what's worse, in my estimation, as idiotic as these words are, is then to ascribe these to ascribe these attitudes to the entire left, which O'Reilly has done, and which Rush Limbaugh has done, and that is idiotic."

View video here.

Have you ever watched a book-based TV segment in which the hosts never mentioned the book's title? Fox & Friends Weekend pulled off the feat this morning -- presumably because the title of the cookbook in question was a bit too spicy for Fox's taste.

With Valentine's Day looming, Martha Hopkins was in to suggest some sensual dishes to share with one's sweetie. Her claim to expertise? She is co-author of a book entitled . . . "Inter Courses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook." Hopkins treated the Fox hosts to two of her recipes: artichoke hearts and strawberries and whipped cream.

But while the camera flashed on her book sitting on the buffet, items were artfully arranged to obscure its full title. I'm providing a larger-than-normal screencap so readers can see the careful camouflaging. The book title once appeared briefly at the bottom of the screen, and a full image of the book was flashed at the end of the segment. But the two Fox hosts, Kelly Wright and Brigitte Quinn, managed to avoid ever mentioning its title.

MRC/NB media watcher Tim Graham was interviewed on the Fox News Channel show "Hannity & Colmes" on Wednesday night on media coverage of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's request to be flown to San Francisco on (some say extravagant) military aircraft with 42 seats and a crew of 16. The other guest was former ABC News veteran Bob Zelnick. Video: Windows (2.4MB) or Real (2.86MB) Plus: MP3 (1.1 MB)

Zelnick expressed satisfaction that the story was being aired. Tim disagreed, saying the Pelosi story has not aired on ABC, NBC, NPR, and so on. (CBS aired their first story on Wednesday's Evening News.) Print coverage is also lacking: no story in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, or USA Today. The Washington Times was first on the story last week, and the Washington Post ran a small 273-word piece on A-15 on Tuesday.

"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo comic strip, 1971

Nicholas Kristof has apparently embraced the Walt Kelly view of America. When it comes to the war in Iraq, the only evildoers the New York Times columnist seems to see are Americans.

At the foot of his pay-to-play of column of January 23rd, Kristof invited readers to submit their literary analogies for President Bush and Iraq. In today's columnn, Kristof mentions having received over 400 reader responses.

And which entry does Kristof choose to feature at the column's beginning and that might fairly be taken as his unofficial winner? One that analogizes the various actors in the play to characters from Harry Potter. I set forth below the reader's analogies, followed by a description of the character as culled from their Wikipedia entries.

Well that certainly didn’t take long, did it? I hope everyone is safely tucked in their bomb shelters, for the war of the cable networks is in full swing, and shrapnel is now dangerously flying in all directions.

In response to Fox News’s ad attacking Anderson Cooper while promoting Greta Van Susteren as reported by NewsBusters here, CNN has now released its own ad.

In it is are couple of strikes right at those claiming to be “fair and balanced”:

As the Beatles sang years ago, It’s getting better all the time.

Forget about this Sunday's Super Bowl, sports fans. World War III in the arena of cable news is raging on, and the players have started taking prisoners.

As NewsBusters reported here and here, the most recent escalation between heavyweight Fox News and steadily becoming also-ran CNN started when the former took out an ad in Television Week magazine describing Anderson Cooper as “the Paris Hilton of television news.” This was actually a promotion for Fox News’s “On the Record” with Greta Van Susteren.

On Thursday, the New York Post reported that folks at CNN didn't find this at all funny (h/t to FishbowlNY):

Does Barack Obama have a thick enough skin to survive another nineteen months of constant media attention and scrutiny on the presidential campaign trail?

An article by the Washington Post’s Mary Ann Akers has to make one wonder (emphasis mine throughout):

Sources tell The Sleuth that the Obama camp has "frozen out" Fox News reporters and producers in the wake of the network's major screw-up in running with the erroneous Obama-the-jihadist story reported by Insight magazine.

Please tell us more, Sleuthy. As you might imagine given the subject matter, we're all ears:

As global warmingists breathlessly await a new report from the United Nations about the imminent doom of our planet, and Democrats convene highly publicized panels in Congress to discuss how only they can save the world, two well-known skeptics were guests on “Hannity and Colmes” Tuesday.

What ensued could only be improved upon if the discussion was to be required viewing all over the country – especially in public schools – as a rebuttal to Al Gore’s schlockumentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Fred Singer of the University of Virginia began:

The cable news war is certainly getting hotter. After a Fox News spokesperson was quoted last week by the New York Times as calling CNN’s Anderson Cooper “the Paris Hilton of television news,” the “Fox & Friends” morning crew took the baton and really ran with it.

The following video posted Monday at YouTube shows “F&F” personalities having fun with a new Fox News print ad depicting Cooper as losing the ratings battle with FNC’s Greta Van Susteren.

With the caption at the bottom of the screen reading, “Greta Ad Puts CNN’s Anderson Cooper In His Place…2nd,” Steve Doocy commented derisively:

The dust-up over where Anderson Cooper hangs his hat is heating up again with ex-Fox News "whistleblower" Charlie Reina going back to the MSM gossip boards to drop unverified bombs.

You've probably never heard of Charlie Reina. He made news by his report in a MSM forum claiming to have witnessed bias first-hand at Fox News. This was swallowed by all the usual co-conspirators and parroted throughout the net. He claims he was told how to frame stories. What his followers refuse to address is that he worked on an opinion-based show. As a columnist at The Huffington Post , Reina should understand better than anyone the difference between news and editorial.

He's back. This time claiming that he was in a meeting where Fox News tried to recruit Anderson Cooper.

Bill O’Reilly’s war on liberal bias at NBC took an interesting turn Sunday evening when one of the network’s hit dramas decided to attack Ann Coulter for no apparent reason (h/t Hot Air with video available here).

As Dr. Nigel Townsend (Steve Valentine) attended to a whiny blonde woman, he asked, “So, how long have you suffered from “ACS”? When she gives him a blank stare, he responded: “Ann Coulter Syndrome, wherein the afflicted gains strength through the hatred of others.”

She answered in a voice clearly designed to somewhat sound like Coulter:

As NewsBusters has been reporting for the past couple of weeks, a battle is being waged between liberal bloggers and a conservative radio station in San Francisco. Those that are unfamiliar with this issue should read articles covering both sides of the matter here and here.

Two of the most outspoken voices on the Internet regarding this subject have been Mike Stark, who writes for Daily Kos and his own blog Calling All Wingnuts, and Noel Sheppard, a contributing editor of NewsBusters as well as a frequent contributor to the American Thinker.

In order to further an understanding of this complex issue, Sheppard and Stark have decided to debate one another at their various Internet venues. The ground rules are as follows:

NewsBusters readers are certainly aware of the controversy created by ABC’s docudrama “The Path to 9/11.” In fact, we reported extensively on this issue here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

To bring people back up to speed, the left and former President Bill Clinton went absolutely berserk the week before this program aired due to some of the content. In fact, it culminated in ABC finally giving into all the pressure, and cutting some scenes from the final version aired.

It's turning out to be quite a day for pugilistics. Earlier, I noted how Hillary threatened to "deck" her opponents. Now, just about a month to the day after the holiday is observed by the Brits, Brit Hume celebrated a personal Boxing Day of his own. On this morning's Fox News Sunday, the FNC DC managing editor landed some heavy body blows on Chuck Hagel and John Kerry.

Alluding to Hagel's self-righteous soliloquy about the war in Iraq, Hume unleashed this right cross:

The battle of the cable news networks rages on, and gets funnier and funnier by the minute. In this latest installment, a Fox News spokesperson has deliciously disparaged one of CNN’s biggest stars.

As reported by the New York Times (emphasis mine throughout):

A Fox News spokeswoman, Irena Briganti, said CNN was mainly looking for publicity in attacking its higher-rated rival. Of Mr. Cooper’s comment, she said, “Yet another cry for attention by the Paris Hilton of television news, Anderson Cooper.”

What was this recent fracas about? You’ll never guess:

As reported by NewsBusters, the Fox News Channel lobbed quite a shot across the bow of its cable competitors Saturday with a new promo claiming it to be “The Only Cable News Channel That Does Not Bring You The Usual Left Wing Bias.” Feeling that he was up to the challenge, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann fired back on Monday’s “Countdown” (video available here):

Speaking of satire, the Fox nothing channel, sorry we can no longer seriously use the word news in connection with what they put out.  They have launched a new advertising campaign. Nobody would ever accuse the Fox nothing channel of being honest or principled, but they used to be good at stuff like that. 

That’s quite a fine example of the pot calling the kettle black, dontcha think? After all, nobody has ever accused KO of being honest or principled including his former employers and colleagues that Olby seems to constantly be at odds with as reported here, here, here, here, and here.

Yet, this wasn’t KO’s only swipe at Fox News Monday evening, for the cable station was also part of a quartet of media outlets he named as his “Worst Persons in the World”:

One of my correspondents on my own site, Publius' Forum, has been trying to clear up a wretched email that was sent to one of our boys in Iraq refusing him service and telling him he should "pull out of Iraq".

Fox News has picked up this story that I have been watching for a few days. I've been trying to ascertain if it was real or another example of an internet hoax -- sometimes it isn't easy to tell these days -- but I think I can safely say it is real at this point. It has been rather hot news in Wisconsin over the last 48 hours, too.

The question is, will we see it farther and wider? Will the MSM pick up this story of our solder being ill treated by Discount-Mats.com, a Muslim owned, Wisconsin based floor mat company?

Army Sgt. Jason Hess, stationed in Taji, Iraq wanted to purchase a few floor mats for use in his station in Iraq and emailed the Wisconsin based floor mat company to ask if they would ship to an APO address in Iraq?

Here is the text of his original email:

UPDATE 2: Full video (3:18) posted at the BMI Audio/Video Vault. What's linked in the first update is the highlight reel, as it were.

UPDATE 1: Video posted. Dan's segment aired at 4:50 EST.

Video (Windows Media format)

Video (Real Player format)

Dan Gainor of the MRC's Business & Media Institute will be on "Your World with Neil Cavuto" today at approx. 4:40 p.m. EST to talk about the Depression/Recession of 2006.

Fans of Fox News's the "O'Reilly Factor" are familiar with a war started by the host over liberal bias in the media. It appears that Bill O'Reilly's employer is also interested in this fight, and that the battle over media bias is on:

                                                            

For its opening salvo, Fox News aired a new promo Saturday which pointed a huge and unmistakably accusatory finger at its liberal competitors (hat tip to Hot Air with video available here). In it, the script deliciously read:

I'd say Bill Kristol nailed it on this morning's Fox News Sunday. And while his comments were directed at Democrats, they're equally applicable to the MSM IMHO, making them NB-worthy.

Kristol: "People are being too complacent or forgiving to the Democrats: 'Oh, it's politics; one of them has a non-binding resolution and another one has a cap.' It's all totally irresponsible. It's just unbelievable. The president is sending over a new commander, he's sending over troops, and the Democratic congress, either in a pseudo-binding way or a non-binding way is saying: 'it won't work -- forget it! You troops, you're going over there on a pointless missions. You Iraqis who might side with us, forget it, we're going to pull the plug." It's so irresponsible . . . You really wonder: do they want it to work or not? I really wonder that. . . Do they want this to succeed or not?"

Here’s a shocker: The Council on American-Islamic Relations is unhappy about the hit television series “24”. Imagine that.

With that in mind, CAIR’s legal director, Arsalan Iftikhar, went on the “O’Reilly Factor” Friday to discuss his organization’s views on this subject (video available here). O’Reilly marvelously set the discussion up:

Isn't this political correctness gone crazy? I mean, let's face it, come on, you have a program that's a fictional program. Everybody knows it. You have in this world Muslim villains. They are on the other side of the war on terror from us. There are Muslims who want to kill Americans, you know that. So you combine fiction with reality in this program. And now you guys are complaining about it? And the far left nuts are complaining about it? What's going on?

Iftikhar answered:

As reported by NewsBusters, Bill O’Reilly and Stephen Colbert squared off Thursday evening in well-publicized meetings on each other’s popular programs. According to the Los Angeles Times, this was a ratings bonanza for both:

Colbert helped O'Reilly draw more than 2.9 million viewers, a boost of 46% over last quarter and a hike of 67% among 25- to 54-year-old viewers.

With O'Reilly on his show, Colbert garnered 1.64 million viewers, up 50% over last quarter, and his biggest audience ever.

Nice numbers. The article also addressed how cordial the meeting between the two stars was, and included an interesting video of the event created by the Associated Press:

NewsBusters fans are certainly aware that former Partridge Family member Danny Bonaduce is a highly outspoken conservative that doesn’t mince words as reported here and here. On Friday, Bonaduce was John Gibson’s guest on Fox News’s “The Big Story,” and the pair took issue with the following statements recently made by Robert Redford (video available here courtesy of our friend at Ms Underestimated):

ROBERT REDFORD, ACTOR/DIRECTOR: In light of what's happened in the last six years, political diversity has been attempted to be thwarted, and we have kept it alive here. We have nodded here to any of the snuffing attempts that have come from the administration.

I think anybody with a rational mind, with a sense of decency, is being positioned as a lefty by the behavior of the extreme right.

Gibson was first up to take swings at this piñata:

Conservative fans of the right-leaning TV show 24 shouldn’t be surprised that liberals such as Keith Olbermann are now savaging the program. However, the leftist host also mentioned NewsBusters in his diatribe. "Newsweek" magazine went further and speculated that the show is a "neocon sex fantasy."

The recent announcement by Illinois Democratic Senator Barack Obama that he’s running for President resulted in media swooning over his "big step." "Good Morning America" wondered if Obama’s "fluid poetry" could overcome Hillary’s "hot factor." (Another example of hard hitting journalism?)

As many folks are aware, Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly and Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert decided to finally meet one another and be interviewed on each other shows Thursday night.

Strangely, the segment on the “O’Reilly Factor” was actually much funnier than “The Colbert Report,” as Stephen began: "I want you to know that I spend so much time in the world that is spinning all the time, that to be in the no spin zone actually gives me vertigo."

However, I don’t want to spoil any more of the fun. As such, the video of Thursday’s “Factor” is available here, and “The Colbert Report” here.

What follows is a full transcript of the fun on the former. Enjoy.