The Young Turks: Cenk, Ben Mankiewicz and Brett Erlich discuss troubling reports that the Department of Justice tapped Fox News reporter James Rosen’s phone line – and his parents’. Cenk says the journalist wiretapping is the only actual scandal going on right now (as opposed to the IRS audits and Benghazi). But because Fox News flips out over everything, it’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff on the rare occasion that they’re right about something.
“Part of the problem is that Fox News cries wolf so much that once they have a legitimate argument… you’ve lost a little credibility,” Cenk says.
I'm not sure when, or if, Fox News ever had a legitimate argument -- or credibility -- but they do cry wolf rather often.
According to The Washington Post, the Department of Justice examined Fox News reporter James Rosen’s personal emails, phone records, and visits to the State Department in order to investigate a leak of classified information. Rosen came to the attention of the DOJ after writing an article about CIA analysis of how North Korea might respond to sanctions. The DOJ traced the leak back to State Department worker Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, who now faces charges for leaking intel. Unlike the AP investigation, however, it was thought that the reporter may also face charges as a “co-conspirator.” However, statements made Tuesday by White House spokesman Jay Carney indicate that the Fox News reporter is likely off the hook.
The Kim case began in June 2009, when Rosen reported that U.S. intelligence officials were warning that North Korea was likely to respond to United Nations sanctions with more nuclear tests. The CIA had learned the information, Rosen wrote, from sources inside North Korea.
The story was published online the same day that a top-secret report was made available to a small circle within the intelligence community — including Kim, who at the time was a State Department arms expert with security clearance.
FBI investigators used the security-badge data, phone records and e-mail exchanges to build a case that Kim shared the report with Rosen soon after receiving it, court records show.
In the documents, FBI agent Reginald Reyes described in detail how Kim and Rosen moved in and out of the State Department headquarters at 2201 C St. NW a few hours before the story was published on June 11, 2009.
“Mr. Kim departed DoS at or around 12:02 p.m. followed shortly thereafter by the reporter at or around 12:03 p.m.,” Reyes wrote. Next, the agent said, “Mr. Kim returned to DoS at or around 12:26 p.m. followed shortly thereafter by the reporter at or around 12:30 p.m.”
The activity, Reyes wrote in an affidavit, suggested a “face-to-face” meeting between the two men. “Within a few hours after those nearly simultaneous exits and entries at DoS, the June 2009 article was published on the Internet,” he wrote.
Rosen and Kim used coded signals in emails to communicate, “One asterisk means to contact them, or that previously suggested plans for communication are to proceed as agreed; two asterisks means the opposite.”
Notorious oxygen thief Michelle Malkin joined Sean Hannity Wednesday evening to express her outrage of the moment; in this case, with the Obamas over what they referred to as "a lavish party" being held next week, with guests like Justin Timberlake and Queen Latifah. They both called out the White House for spending money on such a "gala affair" only weeks after warning of the devastating consequences of the sequester.
Malkin derisively referred to President Obama as the “party animal in chief,” and then broke into her own version of LMFAO‘s “Party Rockers in the White House Tonight.” I caution you to wait at least 30 minutes after eating before viewing.
The Obamas are hosting the 'Memphis Soul' concert, which will include music legends and contemporary major artists.
The folks at Fox News say that a new book written by a fire fighter in a Canadian town known as the "Polar Bear Capital of the World" is proof that "the polar bears are doing just fine." However, years of extensive research by scientists shows that many areas populated by polar bears are in decline, and that these beautiful creatures are at risk of extinction due to climate-driven loss of Arctic sea ice.
On the February 5 edition of Fox News' America Live, Trace Gallagher reported on a new book by firefighter Zac Unger that chronicles his experiences living in Churchill, Manitoba, a small town on the Hudson Bay that is known as the "Polar Bear Capital of the World." Unger planned to write a book about how climate change is impacting polar bear populations in the Arctic, but instead he concluded that "polar bears were not in as bad a shape as the conventional wisdom had led me to believe." Gallagher seized on this to suggest that despite being cast as a symbol of the impact of climate change, "the polar bears are doing just fine" and their populations are "exploding":
While polar bear populations have increased since the 1970s thanks to conservation efforts, climate change could threaten "the survival of polar bears as a species," according to a 2004 assessment. And the U.S. Geological Survey projected in 2007 that changes in Arctic ice conditions could result in "loss of approximately 2/3 of the world's current polar bear population by the mid 21st century."
And while Gallagher suggested that the prevalence of polar bears in the town of Churchill indicates that the population is "exploding," it may actually be a result of climate change. Polar bears in the region return to shore each year to await the freezing of the Hudson Bay in early autumn. But experts say that Arctic warming has already shortened amount of time that the bears can hunt for food in the bay, increasing the risk that bears will wander into town in search of food.
Conservative shill Ann Coulter appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox News show Thursday night completely out of her mind over a local New York newspaper's decision to publish the names and addresses of local gun permit holders.
Coulter's rant went all over the map, and in just a matter of minutes.
First, she argued that public records of gun permit holders should not be available because "people with gun permits by definition do not have criminal records." Then she began demanding various lists of things including "recently-paroled criminals," rent-controlled apartments, and women who have had abortions.
"Why can't we get a record of women who have had abortions? They get money from Planned Parenthood, they get money from Medicare and Medicaid, much of these are tax subsidies. I think mothers might want to know what other women on their street might be willing to murder a child."
"How about a list of the rent-controlled apartments in New York? And by the way, if we're producing lists of gun permit owners, I want 'em for Manhattan! I want to know how many rich liberals with their bodyguards have gun permits."
Then Coulter demanded the names and addresses of the armed guards at the Journal News who were hired after the paper received what Coulter mocked as, "Ooooh some mean emails!" Then she bounced back to the bodyguard "issue" and said that if there is tighter gun control in the future, people who make $200,000 or more should not be allowed to hire armed bodyguards and should be as "defenseless as the rest of us."
She then compared gun control advocates to "hysterical women" who "refuse to go after criminals."
"They will not do anything about manifestly crazy people—no, no, no—we have to let them walk the streets of Manhattan, defecate in the street, you have the ACLU defending crazy people. All of these shoot-ups, this precious protection for obviously mentally-disturbed individuals, there is certainly no effort to reduce single-motherhood, something that is also a contributing factor in many of these cases. In New York City, you can't take a subway without somebody getting pushed onto the tracks by mentally disturbed individuals. And liberals won't let us go after the criminals, no they specifically go out and try to harm people who by definition do not have criminal records so that their guns can be stolen by criminals!"
How did she wrap up her insane, hate-filled diatribe? She suggested that the New York Times be shut down. Why? Who the hell knows.
In 1983, 50 corporations controlled a majority of American media. Now that number is six. And Big Media may get even bigger, thanks to the FCC’s consideration of ending a rule preventing companies from owning a newspaper and radio and TV stations in the same big city. Such a move — which they’ve tried in 2003 and 2007 as well –would give these massive media companies free rein to devour more of the competition, control the public message, and also limit diversity across the media landscape. On this week’s Moyers & Company (check local listings), Senator Bernie Sanders, one of several Senators who have written FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski asking him to suspend the plan, joins Bill to discuss why Big Media is a threat to democracy and what citizens can do to fight back.
Sanders also expresses his dismay that such a move would come from an Obama appointee. “Why the Obama Administration is doing something that the Bush Administration failed to do is beyond my understanding,” Sanders tells Bill. “And we’re gonna do everything we can to prevent it from happening.”
Sanders explains why even "ordinary people" should be concerned the media and increased concentration of ownership in the media: "Bill, many of the viewers there are concerned about the growing gap, unequal distribution of wealth and income. They're concerned about health care, concerned about global warming, concerned about women's rights, health, and many, many other issues."
"If you are concerned about those issues, you must be concerned about media and the increased concentration of ownership in the media. Because unless we get ordinary people involved in that discussion. Unless we make media relevant to the lives of ordinary people and not use it as a distraction, we are not going to resolve many of these serious crisis, global warming being one. There are scientists who will come on your show and say, "Hey, forget everything else. If we don't get a handle on global warming, there's not going to be much left of this planet in a hundred years." Do you see that often being portrayed in the corporate media? I fear not."
The folks at Fox News ran a segment with host Stuart Varney speaking with a Wal-Mart spokesman about the planned Black Friday strikes without mentioning a single concern of Wal-Mart's employees. Varney instead praised Wal-Mart for "taking on" the unions, and asked if they were planning to fire striking workers, and even praised the company for its charitable efforts after Hurricane Sandy.
Following the segment, Fox News ran a banner ad explaining that "this program is brought to you by Walmart," followed by an advertisement for the company's Black Friday promotion.
A thousand store protests are planned in Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C., the group says.The workers, who are part of a union-backed employee coalition called Making Change at Wal-Mart, say this is the beginning of a wave of protests and strikes leading up to Black Friday.
Talk about politically incorrect! Comedian Bill Maher was the guest on Hardball Wednesday evening to discuss the election outcome. After Matthews wondered about Rove's incorrect predictions, Maher began to compare Karl Rove and the GOP to Hitler,
"It was a little Hitler's bunker, wasn't it? I wanted to rush in with a cyanide capsule there. I thought he was going to say, 'I don't want to live in a world without national socialism.'"
Maher continued the Nazi humor when Matthews asked how Mitt Romney took the campaign loss, "Yes, Mein Fuhrer, you have 12 divisions on the eastern front. I mean, until they actually heard the artillery–' I guess I should stop with the Hitler analogies."
Matthews replies "I think Hitler jokes never work myself. It never works. You know that."
Matthews has to take some of the blame for the Hitler jokes, as he began the segment comparing Karl Rove to "Baghdad Bob," a former propaganda henchman for Saddam Hussein.
I've got a feeling that there's a new Hitler Youtube video about to start making its rounds. Oh noes, I was right.
Transcript follows:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: So, Bill, Karl Rove, I think, has offered some material. Is he the Baghdad Bob of the 2012 election, the last guy to admit something's new and something bad is happening?
BILL MAHER: It was a little Hitler's bunker, wasn't it? I wanted to rush in with a cyanide capsule there. I thought he was going to say, "I don't want to live in a world without national socialism." "Okay, Mrs. Goebbels." But, you know, I think it gets to a bigger point there, Chris, which is that Republicans have to start getting their information from a better source than Fox News. I'm not kidding about this. I think this really screws them up. You know, all year long we have had this segment on our program called "dispatches from the bubble." We actually had a bubble made and put a Republican in it. And you know, with the Rasmussen poll, they actually closed the last hole in the bubble. Now they have their own polling. They believed it right up until the end. They were shocked by this election. They have to somehow fix the way they get information, because they only talk to each other and they don't know what's going on in the real world. And they were rudely awakened last night.
MATTHEWS: What do you think it was like to be in that bubble with Mitt Romney in that time– I call it the knockout in the sixth round. All of a sudden, mid-evening, east coast time last night, it just started to go in that direction, the Democratic direction, just so powerfully. What do you think they were telling him when he's running around, saying "This isn't supposed to happen, you guys were told me I was winning this thing?"
MAHER: I mean, I think they were still saying, "Yes, Mein Fuhrer, you have 12 divisions on the eastern front. I mean, until they actually heard the artillery–" I guess I should stop with the Hitler analogies.
MATTHEWS: I think Hitler never works myself. It never works. You know that.
New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to endorse President Obama for re-election on Thursday, after realizing that Republicans just don’t care about climate change.
It seems that the folks at Fox News didn’t take this news well at all. The Fox News homepage links to a story called “Bloomberg Backs Romney,” which then does describe Bloomberg’s Obama endorsement. But a headline on the homepage? Even I wouldn't want to see Tucker Carlson hyperventilate. There are enough gases in the air as it is.
