They’re not even hiding it anymore.
Fox News knows that it is losing its grip on the country. Democrats have woken the fuck up and are realizing that hey, maybe handing over the elections to the Republicans wasn’t the best fucking idea they’ve ever had, and are starting to take THEIR country back, bitches.
So what does Fox do? Why, just make shit up, of course. I mean, this is a news organization. They are totally serious, y’all, with the fairness and the balance and the other stuff:
Yesterday, USA Today and Gallup released a new poll that found that a whopping 61 percent of Americans oppose efforts like those of Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) to strip public sector unions of collective bargaining rights. The poll also found that only a third of Americans support such a policy, indicating that Walker is pandering to the far-right of the American electorate and is hardly representative of mainstream political thought in this country.
This morning, during a debate about the situation in Wisconsin and collective bargaining rights in general, the Fox News show Fox & Friends referenced the USA Today/Gallup poll. With incredible brazenness, the Fox hosts actually reversed the results of the poll in order to claim that two-thirds of Americans supported Wisconsin-style laws rather than opposed them.
During the discussion, Fox host Brian Kilmeade asked pro-labor guest Robert Zimmerman if President Obama was taking a “big risk” by opposing Walker’s law. Zimmerman responded by saying that Obama was speaking “for the mainstream of our country, and the mainstream of Republican governors who are not siding with Governor Walker.” Kilmeade responded by saying, “I think Gallup, a relatively mainstream poll, has a differing view. And here’s the question that was posed. Do you favor or disfavor of taking away collective bargaining when it comes to salaries for government workers. 66 percent in favor, 33 percent opposed, 9 percent up in the air.”
Oh, and in case you missed it, Scott Walker is bought and paid for by the Kochs. He fell hook, line, and sinker for a prank call, and the result is GLORIOUS:
Listen to him babble like a goddamn fanboy. He won’t talk to the fugitive Democrats, but he’ll talk for twenty minutes to this Koch-knocker.
Amazing.
Stick a fork in this asshole. He’s done.
[via Think Progress; via Rump Roast]
stuckinred
Sheeet. it’ll take more than this. Just wait for the backlash from these motherfuckers. That brietbart punk is already on it:
“A kind of tactic that would have been derided by main stream journalists if used by conservative, new media outlets is being celebrated as “gonzo journalism” in the media.
Meanwhile, the secretly recorded tape shows that Gov. Walker is the same man with the same message in the public eye as he is in private.”
Zifnab
I do love the token sincerity and factual bait-and-switch they play. A segment dedicated to sucking anti-union dick, followed by plausible deniability if anyone calls them on it.
Pooh
America is a center-right nation!
joes527
a) 20 minutes later (at the end of the same show) they issued a correction and showed the right chart.
b) They seemed to have a lot to say about what the wrong chart was telling us, but when they corrected it, they didn’t correct any of the spin form earlier, they just put up the corrected chart and moved on.
In the end, I think that this was just incompetence. Some ppt lackey at fox saw that there had been a poll, and saw that it had numbers, and instead of understanding what they were looking at, they just created a slide which matched their preconceptions. Not a deliberate falsehood, just a blatant lack of regard for “facts” and “numbers” and other LIE-beral constructs.
trollhattan
@Zifnab:
The non-apology after achieving the effect they wanted reminds me of how Fox occasionally mixes up the “R” with a “D” when reporting on a Republican politician’s misdeed.
It’s all an accident, donchano?
Poopyman
Bullshit. He can endure for 3 years and 9 months until the next election. But he needs to be made a punching bag for that entire time, or the electorate is going to forget yet again.
Poopyman
@joes527: Why do Fox’s “mistakes” always always ALWAYS go against Democrats?
Funny, that.
Sentient Puddle
Hey let’s be fair to Fox ‘n Friends. We know they have trouble with numbers. Cut ’em some slack!
cokane
BB’s website is down? what gives? just too popular of a story i hope.
opie jeanne, formerly known as Jeanne Ringland
@Pooh: Sure is, just ask Fox.
agrippa
Democrats do need to wake up. Maybe now they are starting to wake up. We shall see.
But, Democratic elected officials actually have to govern. Which the Dems in the 111th Congress did not do. If they get back in power, they will have to have their act together; step up and write encat laws that solve problems.
Governing and doing politics are separate matters. Governing requires courage and wit and wisdom. Do the Democrats have any of those qualities? We shall see.
Maude
It reminds me of the Clash of the Titans scene, killing Medusa.
How many arrows does Walker have in his quiver?
And how many do the whackos have?
RobertB
@joe527 – I know that you should never ascribe to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity, but I’m with ABL and think that this was just flat-out lying. They have a history of this sort of thing, and since they won’t get called out, why change?
Matthew
I’m tempted to call Walker and ask him for his credit card numbers.
Sockpuppet
Do the writers of this site bother to actually read it? I’m seriously curious.
Or do you all just get really, really excited to see your name on bylines? The phrase echo chamber comes readily to mind.
Sentient Puddle
@agrippa: Have you been asleep for the last two years? There has been some governing that occurred between the years of 2009 and 2010.
Richard W. Crews
Why didn’t they expose themselves to him on tape?
Why not prank him out loud and see what he says on his own? Could have been so much better – unless this was taken seriously and played on FOX before the exposure – or better, make Kochwhores scream wait a minute! that wasn’t us!
But was it?
Violet
This sentence actually made me LOL.
Maude
@Sockpuppet:
Read what? We don’t need no stinkin’ readin’.
Shade Tail
@agrippa:
So what would you have had democrats do differently? *Not* pass a huge chunk of their agenda? The first real health care reform in decades, student loan reform, Al Franken’s “Defense Contractors Can’t Rape Their Employees” amendment, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, repealing DADT, and those are just the big ones I can think of off the top. This was one of the most productive Congresses in a very long time.
So what kind of “governing” are you looking for?
Bulworth
And here I was wondering where the heck ABL was.
Faux does this all the time, when the need arises, labeling a Republican congresscritter who’s been bad with a magical (D) and visa versa.
Gravenstone
Any BJers with Photoshop skillz able to whip up an overlay of a pic of Gov. Brawndo with the words “Koch-sucking Whore”, something along the lines of the Tea Bagger/Koch Sucker motif that was going around prior to the elections? Daddy needs a new Facebook pic to go with the posts that will be highlighting the Beastly takedown.
Sockpuppet
@Maude:
The other posts by other writers.
Does everybody really feel they have some new thoughts worth sharing on the same topic? How many times can you talk about Koch brothers and prank calls and Scott Walker before you’re oversaturated? Because five new posts an hour is just yanking the commenters chains here. I don’t think we have anything new to say about things either…
Jeff richter
He is eligible for recall in 2012. See ya later asshole!!!
Citizen_X
OT: ABL, have you seen this? Wherein conspiracy nutter Alex Jones goes into a screaming rant against THE BIEBER (pbuh). He’s raging mad because the kids follow “Biebler” and not Magellan.
I am not exaggerating in the slightest.
NonyNony
@agrippa:
The fuck?
Governing was ALL that the Dems in the 111th Congress did. What they didn’t do was play hardball politics, but they had the governing bit down cold.
Governing isn’t the problem – Dems do a reasonably good job of governing – the problem is prioritization and a distinct lack of political skills. Republicans know that politics is all about the “quid” and the “pro quo” – when you’re in power you advance the agendas of your constituents in every way possible. That’s what Republicans do and they’re very good at it. They’re also terrible at governing because of it. Democrats take the reverse approach – when in power they govern at the expense of their constituencies. They do a reasonable job of governing but they piss off their constituencies, who then don’t turn out to vote, and power gets handed over to Republicans.
Democrats need to figure out how to mix some good “quid pro quo” in with their governance. Part of the reason that labor doesn’t vote overwhelmingly Democratic anymore is because Democrats don’t do much for labor voters. Republicans NEVER leave their constituencies out to dry the way Democrats do – and that’s why they can continue to win elections time after time after time despite being lousy at governance. At least they get results for their core constituencies.
Shade Tail
@NonyNony:
Tell that to the religious right. They’ve been getting pretty antsy for the better part of the past ten years now, because abortion is still legal and Moslems haven’t been packed into concentration camps (among many other things).
And don’t forget the teabaggers, who are already screaming bloody murder because the proposed budget cuts aren’t as big as they were promised.
It seems to me the real reason the GOP still win so often is because of the unending lies and propaganda being spewed into the mass media, not because they actually give their supporters what they want. The only supporters who are not left out to dry are the ultra-wealthy fat-cats who already own the GOP anyway. Most of their other core constituencies get nothing.
freeulysses
66 + 33 + 9 = ?
agrippa
I do not consider that the Dems did a good job of governing:
1. They should have passed a much larger stimulus than what was passed.
2. They should have passed a stronger financial reform bill.
3. The best thing to do with health care was to have expanded medicare. That was the best route to single payer.
I regard their performance as mediocre — a ‘gentleman’s C ‘.
I think that if they had done that, I think that the loss would have been no more than 30 seats, at worst. probably less with a good campaign.
Now, the Dems have to rely upon the GOP making big mistakes. Which is a reasonable expectation.
Curious Bystander
ABL, I’m mystified if you think this shows Walker in a bad light. With one tiny exception — where he said they’d thought about bringing in troublemakers, but clearly rejected doing so — Walker said nothing embarrassing at all. He never really fell for any of “Koch’s” attempts to bait him and in the end his closing remarks are all about doing the right thing for the right reasons. Walker’s supporters will hear this and swoon.
When we complain about spineless Democrats, aren’t we longing for someone like Walker, i.e., with his steadfastness, but with politics antithetical to his?
Chris Grrr™
What would Rupert’s minions have to do to lose that seat in the White House press room?
Maude
@Sockpuppet:
It is important to talk about what is going on. If the posts annoy you, skip them and read another.
The change that is going on is long in coming.
The front pagers are in different places and don’t always read the posts before they publish a post.
I don’t have a problem with the different aspects on the same event.
someone
In a day filled with stupid statements, this one is the top so far:
As if Fox has ever, for even 1 instant, tried to conceal their intent.
chopper
@Gravenstone:
you mean governor Scott Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Walker?
Emerald
@agrippa: And your strategy for getting all that past the conservadems would be . . . ?
Problem was that for only a very few months, we had 58 Dems in the Senate. We needed every single one of them, plus Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders. Those Dems included people like Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who is more conservative than the Northeastern Republicans. The rest of the time we needed at least one, usually more, Republican votes to pass anything.
Example: for that larger stimulus we needed three Republican votes, and they all insisted on cutting the bill. Your strategy for getting those three to vote for more stimulus would have been . . . ?
Ditto for every other bill you mention, except for Health Care, which needed people like Ben Nelson. Your strategy for getting Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, and Joe Lieberman to vote for single payer would have been . . .? (BTW, Lieberman, after suggesting that Medicare be made available to people at age 55, then reneged and said he’d sink the whole bill if his own proposal were included. He could have sunk it. We needed every vote, including his. So they had to take that provision out of the bill.)
And by the way, the House passed over 200 bills that the Senate never even considered.
I think the difficulty you really have here is that you don’t know how legislation is made and passed. But I won’t give you a grade (although I’m tempted).
agrippa
@Emerald:
Yes, that was the problem. The Dems did not agree amoung themselves – the blue dogs and Conservadems were a real problem. The result was mediocre laws.
If our problems are going to get close being solved, the Dems will have to get their act together. And, more progressive Reps and Senators will have to be elected.
jim
How shocking that FOX would misreport a poll … given that they literally fought (& WON) a lawsuit to defend their right to knowingly lie to their audience.
“Koch” calling Walker? Yeah, great yucks – too bad it does absolutely jack-shit to alter his agenda or remove him from power. “Koch” has a golden one-time opportunity to get him to say something that could land him in a courtroom, & he’s plainly a raging dipshit who’d be easy as pie to take down, who gives him no less than 20 minutes to do it in – so why NOT talk about what a hottie Mika Brzezinski is instead? But wow, they got him to admit to THINKING about using dirty tricks – that’s sure some hardcore “Gonzo Journalism” right there. Way to go, Beast! A WINRAR IS YOU!
Perhaps the left in the US should reconsider the tactic of bringing a whoopee-cushion to a gunfight.
Colleen
Curious Bystander, if I may point out something to you, aren’t you a little curious as to why Scott Walker is talking to the fake David Koch just like he’s his boss? I mean this isn’t a little chat, he’s literally reporting to him what he has planned, etc. Who the hell is David Koch to what happens in WI? According to Walker, Obama should butt his big nose out of WI politics but David Koch is “one of them”. I also loved the part when he discourages the fake Koch brother from calling the centrist Dem. who occasionally votes with Walker. Apparently that State Sen. isn’t in it for politics, he’s just in it to get things done! Imagine that. You need to listen to this tape a little closer.
Goldie Singleton
I for one is all for the power to be taken away from unions. I know some of you are going to balk at that, its okay, this is my statement. I worked in Michigan in the early seventies, in a cast iron foundry, making car parts. The union did some good things and some terrible things. We all made good money and had good benefits. The union wanted more and we didn’t know the difference. The company was losing money because of gas prices and there huge cars were not selling. The union ask for more benefits and more money, they didn’t care that the business wasn’t making money, it was all about power. The company said they couldn’t afford it right now, the union told us to strike, we did. It lasted one year. After the year was up, the business closed. In the next three years 4 other plants closed for the same reasons. That put a very bad test in most folks mouth. I don’t like unions today because of it. Everyone wants their money including the unions. I’m not sure if anyone knows this but the unions gave the democrats $400 million for the 2008 election. This money is given to the union in dues from the people, the union does what the want with the money. What if I don’t want to be in the union and what if I don’t want my money going to democrats. I have no choice but to join the union if I want a government job. Is that fair, maybe I don’t want to give my thousand dollars to the union that really has their own agenda. Its all about power folks and the unions want to keep it. Look at states like California, Michigan, Ohio Indiana, New jersey and New York, all of them going bankrupt because of unions and democrats that don’t know how to stop spending. Sooner or later something has to give. I’m glad someone is finally stepping up and showing what unions really do today. Unions destroy business. The sooner we rein them in, the better our country will be.
Davis X. Machina
@Shade Tail: Property is still theft, dammit.
Davis X. Machina
@Shade Tail:
Any political party predicated on playing to the worst in people has a governing coalition by default.
Never bet against the fundamental depravity of mankind.
James E Powell
@Emerald:
I totally get what you are saying, but the Democratic leadership never took their case to the American public. If a larger stimulus was needed, then they should have made that case and pushed for it. On every issue, the administration and the leadership let the Republicans control the public debate. And they never put the wood to the Republicans for their bad policies. When they say ‘tax cuts’ instead of stimulus, you have to point out that the Bush tax cuts did not work. When they cry about deficits, you have to say, ‘where were you when Cheney said they did not matter?”
The Democrats never fought for anything, never made the Republicans take responsibility for their filibustering, never made an argument to the public to ignore the Republicans.
Allan
@Goldie Singleton: You’re going to have to troll better if you’re going to convert any liebruls to your point of view.
The fact-based, edumacated readers of this blog are already aware that there is no demonstrable relationship between the unionization of a state’s workforce and its current fiscal health. For every state you named, there is a right-to-work state in an equivalent or deeper hole.
And your heart-breaking “personally lived experience” only serves to illustrate that the unions should have been pressing not only for increased wages and benefits, but also for more input into the corporate leadership’s business strategies, which were responsible for their companies’ decline.
James E Powell
I don’t think the data will support your assertion that these states are bankrupt because of unions and Democrats who don’t know how to stop spending.
Is it worth it to remind you that we were doing fine with the tax rates and the estate tax we had before Bush? Have you considered where our federal and state governments wold be right now if the US had not invaded Iraq? Or where California’s finances would be right now if Prop 13 only applied to residential property? Have you examined why states like Texas, with a paucity of unions and Democrats, are struggling financially?
Or are you just spewing right wing bullshit because it makes you feel good?
dlnelson
@Goldie S. Comparing the unions of the 1970s to today is a gross miscalculation. That is decades ago. Back in the 60’s and 70’s after the new deal, unions were large. Today the unions are about 7%, there is not a comparison. I do not have the links, and do not have time, but will be back later. You are talking about 30 years or more of union busting. Are the unions perfect, no, but it is a better system than forced labor with no obvious protections for lungs, hands, etc. There is a reason why folks live longer, there are certain protections in place that serve the general public at large better.
dlnelson
I could not edit, but the 7 percent was Joe S. today on the View, take it for what it is worth. He never provides details.
Little Dreamer
@freeulysses:
I don’t know about your reading skills, but your numbers are off – 61, 33, 6 (not, as you stated, 66, 33, 9).
Charlie
@joes527: Doubtfull that it was an honest mistake. Fake news seems to make quite a few of these “honest mistakes”. Listing criminal reTHUGlicans with a D by their name many times. They know the short attention span of their followers so if they lie to them for the first minute and correct in the last 5 seconds they have already lost the attention of their audience.
Curious Bystander
@Colleen:
I’m not curious at all. It didn’t seem like a boss-employee conversation, but more peer-to-peer. There doesn’t seem to be anything unusual about Walker’s tone. He was conversational, but certainly not subservient. I thought he avoided taking any of the meager bait the phony Kock tossed out.
I imagine President Obama has phone calls like this (different subject matter) with big financial backers. Money is access. That’s true for both parties. I’ve seen enough of Obama to expect him to be very personable on the phone. If I call the White House, I don’t get to speak to the president. If George Soros calls…?
I’ve never talked to David Koch on the phone, but the impersonator sounded like a cartoon or cardboard cutout of a Republican bad guy. Was the caller doing a really convincing impersonation of Koch, or does Walker not really know what Koch sounds like on the phone? I don’t know the answer. I wondered if Walker didn’t realize he was being pranked…until he made the comment about having considered bringing in trouble makers.
I really don’t think Walker has anything to worry about. I expect him to win this fight and some of Wisconsin’s public employee unions will lose their collective bargaining rights. The American people, despite the polling, won’t really care. The lesson for other Republican governors will be that refusal to negotiate, even on a policy that is unpopular, is a winning strategy. Some liberals and progressives will claim a victory (see Kevin Drum at Mother Jones) because there were some protests and the affair was dragged out a little. Then, we’ll return to the Republicans taking over the country.
Ija
@Goldie Singleton:
We need better trolls who can actually spell.
Shade Tail
@James E Powell:
How do you know? Seriously. Where did you look for it, the “liberal” media who have heart attacks when the GOP accuse them of bias? Or the right-wing media like Faux “News” and the Wall Street Journal? Democrats never get invited onto TV shows unless there’s a loud-mouthed Reich Winger who can be put on the opposite side for “balance”.
And journalists at major TV channels and news papers have admitted on the record that they ignore anything that they can’t sell as sensationalist “news”. Perfect example: those August “Town Hall” meetings regarding the health care reform bill. There were plenty where rowdy teabaggers were not allowed to scream their lungs out, but the media ignored all of those. It (quite purposefully) created the impression that every Town Hall was met by angry protesting teabaggers, making them seem a far bigger part of American politics than they really are.
If you looked primarily on-line, it was pretty easy to find Democrats and liberals making the case for better policies. But the entire traditional media are cowed by the GOP and never let the left-wing message out, and that is where most Americans still get their news. So don’t be surprised that Reich Winger misinformation tended to rule the day. It’s not that Democrats never made a counter-argument, it’s that the media purposefully drowned it out.
And they did such a good job of drowning it out that they even have people like you convinced that the argument was simply never made at all.
Angry Black Lady
@Curious Bystander: Great Scott! It took y’all nearly 8 hours to get your trolling orders. I was wondering what the Republican Position would be.
Frankly, I’m disappointed. I was hoping for something melodramatic, like Obama’s personal witch doctor did that pokey thing with the needles and the dolls.
Death Panel Truck
I for one believe you is an idiot.