FDL: We're Not Your Fucking Monkeys

[SlowDownFast]

Late Nite FDL: We’re Not Your Fucking Monkeys
By: TRex

Tucker Carlson: I thought you were going to be funny. Come on!

Jon Stewart: No, no. I'm not going to be your monkey.

("Crossfire", Oct. 15, 2005)

Do you guys remember this moment on CNN's "Crossfire" a couple of years ago? You know that Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala do. That was the day that a talk show host from a fake news show on a comedy network came on their supposedly erudite and intelligent show and inflicted mortal wounds on both men's careers (although Tucker's is still on life support, apparently) and drove a harpoon so deeply into "Crossfire" itself that the show was gone within eight weeks. Ipso facto. Kaput.

-SNIP-

But it's the sweep of the disinformation campaign that suggests a genuine pattern of propagandistic manipulation of the public. The Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland conducted a study in October 2003 of public knowledge and attitudes about current events, focusing on media consumption habits. The study examined three generic misconceptions about the march to war in Iraq – alleged WMDs, purported Iraqi involvement in 9/11, and supported international support for a U.S. invasion of Iraq. While three-fifths of Americans held at least one of these misconceptions at the time, speaking to the poor quality of American punditry, Fox News viewers stood out – their viewers were "three times more likely than the next nearest network to hold all three misperceptions."

More than 80 percent of Fox News viewers had a basic factual misconception about the war in Iraq, which were coincidentally used by the Bush administration to justify their policies at the time.
This should not be a surprise, as the leadership of Fox News is heavily tied into the Republican Party apparatus.

Fox News hurts America. It's actively making people dumber and more susceptible to governmental manipulation.

-SNIP-


FOX NEWS IS NOT NEWS!

Okay? Democrats, are you listening? Fox News is nothing but a propaganda mill. Any and all stories and commentaries on Fox News end the same way, i.e., Republicans are good and Democrats are bad. Period. They barely even play at a pretense of objectivity.

Any attempt by Democrats to make nice with Fox is doomed from the outset. The Nevada debate was a set-up, an ambush. Nevada Democrats did the right thing by telling Fox where they could stick it. We need more of this, please. And we, the netroots, need to pound this into the heads of any Democrats who will listen:

Fox News is determined to destroy you. In their ideological casino, all the games are fixed and the house always wins. Unless you're Joe Lieberman, Fox is going to find a way to discredit, drown out, and humiliate you. It is their sole purpose in the world. Nothing that they say will ever, ever truly be "fair and balanced".

But this is exactly where we want the conversation going right now. We want people to be actively questioning Pox's credibility. And as for Fox, we just want you to know that we're not your monkeys anymore. We know what you're doing and we've known for years. When the Dems dropped their plans for the debate, Matt Drudge immediately proclaimed it "WAR!".

Well, for once Mattress Drudge may have gotten something right. Yes, it is a war. And the Free Media are the guerrilla troops. We may never be able to break down and dismantle the Reich Wing's message machine, but we can sure stop dutifully wandering into their traps and snares. And maybe, just maybe set a few traps of our own.

full piece:
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/03/13/late-nite-fdl-were-not-your-fucking-monkeys/

[illinoisprogressive]

1. I saw that while strolling thru and laughed in rememberance

[grannylib]

2. This should come as no surprise to anyone with functioning grey matter.

Fox Fraudcasting has NEVER been anything but a reich-wing mouthpiece for the illegitimate and unqualified unelected MORANS running our great country into the ground.

I don't even watch stuff other than the supposed "news" on Faux - I refuse to support it in any way, even if it means I miss "House" dammit!

[Elidor]

3. Let me be the first to recommend that!

He's on fire!

Fox News is determined to destroy you. In their ideological casino, all the games are fixed and the house always wins. Unless you're Joe Lieberman, Fox is going to find a way to discredit, drown out, and humiliate you. It is their sole purpose in the world. Nothing that they say will ever, ever truly be "fair and balanced".

But this is exactly where we want the conversation going right now. We want people to be actively questioning Pox's credibility. And as for Fox, we just want you to know that we're not your monkeys anymore. We know what you're doing and we've known for years. When the Dems dropped their plans for the debate, Matt Drudge immediately proclaimed it "WAR!".

Well, for once Mattress Drudge may have gotten something right. Yes, it is a war. And the Free Media are the guerrilla troops. We may never be able to break down and dismantle the Reich Wing's message machine, but we can sure stop dutifully wandering into their traps and snares. And maybe, just maybe set a few traps of our own.

Give em hell, Matt Stoller! That's the fucking spirit! Yeeeeeeeeaahh!!

Never defend.

Never explain.

ATTAAAAAAAAAACK!!!

[Old and In the Way]

6. Joe gets hi-roller comped at Fox.

As long as he keeps supporting Bush and this war, he can play at their tables anytime and he'll never have a problem paying the house.

[bbgrunt]

4. I'll second that.

[Broken Top]

5. We're Not Your F*****Monkeys

Finally, people are waking up. What has taken so long? Even though the Dems came to their senses and refused to participated in that set-up "debate" engineered by FOX, they still persist in attempting to carry on intelligent interviews with that collection of attack dogs at FOX. What is even more annoying is Congressional Democrats stubbornly clinging to bi-partisanship and "working across the aisle" blather when it is dead, dead and buried in tons of political toxic sludge. What can we do to wake these people up? Democrats, stop allowing yourselves to be the punching bags of smash mouth politics and fight back!
If anyone was paying attention, they would have known since 1998 that FOX was the best propaganda machine since the Nazi Josef Goebbels perfected his operation in the 1930's.
Broken Top

[fooj]

7. Fox News is a cancer.

:grr:

[tbyg52]

8. Protest Faux everywhere you see it!

I just got it taken off the TVs at my gym. All it took was a comment card.

[Canuckistanian]

9. Are you listening, DENNIS KUCINICH?

You're not defending free speech when you're propping up Fox News.

And don't think they'll cut you any slack if you say something they don't like.

[SlowDownFast]

10. Big mistake on Kucinich's part...

to appear on Faux deriding Dems choice to nix debates.

Not that what he thinks is going to matter much, anyhow...

His hearts in the right place, but he's got no political savvy at all.

[rman]

12. Not going on FOX helps not get the Dem message out

to FOX viewers. I'm not sure how that's going to help dems.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

13. I understand your point,

but I disagree. I think it's time that progressives start trying to marginalize Fox the same way that Fox marginalized us for much of the Bush presidency.

Their argument was always implicitly "Ignore them. They're not worth listening to."

Now it's our turn. And, unlike them, we are correct: Fox has consistently been wrong and has nothing of value to add to the public debate.

And best of all, I think (hope) that most of the public is finally beginning to realize it! The core of idiots will always exist, but there seems to be fewer and fewer of them.

[Canuckistanian]

14. They're not going to let any Dem message out

They'll just delete, spin or gloss over any message Dems want to get out.

It's what they do. And they're very good at it.

[rman]

15. It's just a matter of staying on message,

and keeping your wits.
FOX can't delete everything Dems say and still claim they are covering the Dem debate.

[Geek_Girl]

11. I don't know if it was a trap

But they would have some ammo to defend themselves. If their public image is tarnished as being unfair to Democrats (and right now the pendulum has swung to the left) then they may be wanting to untarnished themselves. Democrats would be giving them a pretense to say "see we are fair and balanced, we aired the democrat party debates." "No one can say we are a propaganda machine for the white house."

[Miss Chybil]

16. I was watching the day Jon Stewart killed Crossfire.

It was great. He was right. They were hurting America. Goodbye, Crossfire and yes, Faux News is headed for the gallows, too. They are through. They're the National Enquirer of the cable news business. Trash. Pure trash.