Saturday Funnies: BBC Admits Faking Audience Phone Calls

It appears the BBC condones faking...audience phone calls, that is. In a not so stunning revelation, the BBC admitted to allowing employees to call in to shows either asking for audience involvement, or offering prizes, when the network wasn't receiving enough real feedback. Gotta love it. One truly delicious example occurred during Comic Relief back in March (emphasis added, h/t Tim Graham):
Noel Sheppard
 

Foreign Investors More Confident in U.S. Economy Than Media Are

As NewsBusters has been reporting this week (see this and this), as the stock market hit new all-time highs, the media have been dour Nervous Nellies carping and whining about gas prices, the low value of the dollar, the housing slump, and the rising trade deficit. Yet, there are a variety of issues that press outlets have conveniently ignored during this record bull run that not only explain…
Noel Sheppard
 

ABC Legal Analyst Admits to Media's 'Jerry Springer-esque' Supreme Cou

Jason Aslinger
 

Open Thread

Ah, Saturday morning. Is there a better time of the week?
NB Staff
 

Much Apu About Nothing? Writer Responds to PC Controversy Over 'Simpso

P.J. Gladnick
 

Brian Williams, Pompous Snob, Mocks Bloggers as Poor, Uneducated, and

Tim Graham
 

Tucker Carlson Demolishes NY Congressman's Fairness Doctrine Position

Apparently, MSNBC's Tucker Carlson is getting fed up with hearing Democrats talk about the need for reinstitutiing the Fariness Doctrine.All those that agree say "aye."With this in mind, on Thursday evening, Carlson absolutely demolished the absurd positions his guest, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-New York), was espousing for the need to bring back this archaic doctrine that was thrown out by a…
Noel Sheppard
 

Catfights and Cleavage: Epic Dust-Up on Hardball Pits Morgan vs. Wolf

UPDATE: View video here via HotAir.I tuned in to watch "Hardball," and the Miller Beer catfight commercial broke out, right down to the cleavage . . . There was an epic dust-up on this afternoon's show between feminist Naomi Wolf and conservative radio talk show host Melanie Morgan.At the risk of burying the lead a bit, I can't resist observing that Naomi Wolf might just be the most passively…
Mark Finkelstein
 

CNN Continues Liberal Questions During YouTube Special

In last night’s CNN special on their upcoming YouTube debate, Paula Zahn previewed some of the video questions that had been sent in. The topics up for debate last night included faith and values, the environment and gay rights. Zahn led the segment on faith and values with the comment, “we are seeing an amazing variety of questions about faith and values for next Monday’s debate.” Unfortunately…
Joe Steigerwald
 

Green-Eyed Newsweek Calls for Tax Increase on Fund Managers

Using disparaging comments to stoke class warfare, Newsweek called for higher taxes on the “super rich” in the July 23 issue. The magazine called private-equity partners “Masters of the Universe,” “the true aristocrats” and remarked snidely that “even their secretaries, it seems, have English accents.”
Julia A. Seymour
 

Newsweek Slams 'Private-Equity Billionaires - the New Masters of the U

Magazine favors huge tax increase because they pay 'far lower rates than the rest of us.'
Jeff Poor
 

Spike TV Movie Iraq Vet Bank Robbers Upset by Treatment and 'Against t

As NewsBusters reported Wednesday, this Sunday the Spike TV cable channel will start a mini-series, The Kill Point, centered around Iraq war veterans who rob a bank and end up with hostages in a standoff. A review in Friday's USA Today related how the leader of the robbers, Iraq vet “Mr. Wolf” played by John Leguizamo, “plays for sympathy before the news cameras, stripping down to show war…

Brent Baker
 

Bill O’Reilly, JetBlue, Daily Kos, Susan Collins, and Corporate Cont

As NewsBusters reported Tuesday, Fox News's Bill O'Reilly went on a mission this week to get JetBlue to renounce its sponsorship of the upcoming convention held by the liberal website Daily Kos. Depending on which side you believe, O'Reilly has either been extremely or moderately successful.Here's what O'Reilly had to say about the subject Friday at the Fox News website (emphasis added):
Noel Sheppard
 

CNN's Profile of Pastor Parsley Turns Into Attack on Christian Conserv

CNN correspondent Tom Foreman's examination of the role of faith in the 2008 presidential race on Thursday night's "Anderson Cooper 360" featured the standard left-wing labeling of Christian conservatives. The segment, an  examination of the so-called "separation of church and state," featured extensive soundbites from Pastor Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church in Ohio, characterized Parsley…
Matthew Balan