Just Sayin'

ABC’s Sam Donaldson Tells Obama to Take On Fox News Posted on July 25, 2010 by Jason Easley

Posted on July 25, 2010 by Jason Easley

Today on ABC’s This Week, Sam Donaldson urged President Obama to stand up to and take on Fox News. Donaldson said, “President Obama, don’t be afraid of them. Take them on, and let the people judge.”

Here is the video on the round table discussion on This Week:

While speaking out the Shirley Sherrod story, Sam Donaldson compared racist witch hunts at Fox News to McCarthyism, “But I think, except for her, there’s enough blame to go around for everyone here. The people who maliciously and with intention misrepresented the facts, I mean, I — I believe in the First Amendment. There’s nothing you can do about them, although you wish for Joseph Welch to say as he did to Joe McCarthy when Joe McCarthy was destroying someone on television, have you no decency, at last?”

He also had a message for President Obama, “But from the standpoint of Obama and the administration, who are these people that they should pay attention to and be afraid of? Who’s Glenn Beck? I mean, who’s Bill O’Reilly? Who’s Brett whatever his name is?… I want to quote another president who also said he had enemies, I’m going to — of financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sexism. They are unanimous in their hatred for me, and I welcome their hatred, said Franklin Roosevelt, who said I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made. So, President Obama, don’t be afraid of them. Take them on, and let the people judge. You may lose, but if you lose, you will lose grandly.”

The tactics Fox News has been employing are straight out of the playbook of Sen. Joe McCarthy, and that is not a coincidence. Fox News intentionally targets African Americans who are relatively unknown and easily defined. Much like McCarthy was, they are bullies pick on those who can’t fight back. (Actually very few people have the resources to fight back against a 24/7 cable news network). Donaldson brought up a great point here. If Fox News was an actual news organization, they would not go around inventing baseless scandals and attacks.

On his second point, Donaldson’s advice to Obama concerning Fox News, I agree that there is no reason why this administration should give Fox credibility that they don’t have. If Obama is worried about FNC, he shouldn’t be. Fox News viewers represent a tiny sliver of America. These are also the people who would not support Obama under any circumstances. They can’t be swayed, and their closed minded objections render them irrelevant for political purposes.

I think it would be a mistake for Obama to go after Fox News, because that is what they want. Instead of giving credibility to their attack machine, Obama should ignore them. Fox News needs Obama to engage them. The worst thing that could happen to FNC would be if Obama simply didn’t acknowledge them. The president listened to them once and was made to look like a fool, so let’s hope that his administration has learned something from this embarrassment, and tunes out Fox News.

About Jason Easley-Author Of Post

Jason Easley: Owner/Editor in Chief A lifelong lover of politics, Jason Easley is a little older than some but not as old as others. Jason spent four years as a political columnist and the politics editor at 411mania.com, where he covered such issues as the Iraq War, warrant less wiretapping, and the daily workings of the American legislative process. Jason has also written for the Blogger News Network, and saw his 2008 presidential election coverage quoted in over 300 newspapers worldwide. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements. When Jason is not writing he can be found endlessly courting his girlfriend, and expressing his loyal fandom for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Black Caucus head: Government ‘held hostage’ by Fox and other media

By Michael O'Brien - 07/22/10 10:34 AM ET

The government is being sometimes “held hostage” by Fox News and other media outlets, the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus charged Thursday.


Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the caucus, said she was concerned that outlets like Fox were creating a culture of “misinformation” that has led to controversies like the one following Shirley Sherrod.

Lee said on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal”:

When you look at how, not only Fox, but other media outlets — but we focus naturally, because we know how this has evolved with Fox — how many including, sometimes, our government is held hostage, mind you, by the fact that Fox and other media may run wild with snippets and misinformation and create a media frenzy based on half-truths, no-truths.

Sherrod, the director of rural development in Georgia for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), had been fired from that job after video came to light suggesting that she’d purposefully denied assistance to a white farmer. But the full video showed that Sherrod, who is black, was telling a story about overcoming racial prejudice.

The edited video had first been posted on Big Government, the website of the conservative activist and pundit Andrew Breitbart. He has since acknowledged that the video was edited, but said it was presented to him that way, and has denied editing it in-house.

The error forced the Obama administration into a political quagmire on the issue of race, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack publicly apologized to Sherrod, and offered her a new job.

Lee lashed out at outlets like Fox and Breitbart’s website, and urged the public to demand more accountability from the media.

“They can create what we just saw happen,” she said. “So I think it’s really incumbent upon the public to ask for fair reporting, objective reporting, and to not try to use scare tactics and fear tactics to create an outcome that furthers some right-wing political agenda.”

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Sarah Palin Blames the Media for Her Quitting on Alaska

Posted By Jason Easley On 22 Jul 2010

Here we are over a year later and Sarah Palin is still looking for someone to blame for her decision to quit her job as Governor of Alaska, and cash in on her fame. Her latest excuse is the media, “The media incentivized political opponents to file false ethics charges and expensive, wasteful, frivolous lawsuits against me, my family and my staff.”

The Daily Caller, gave Palin a platform to vent her paranoia that the media was out to get her from day one. Specifically she now claims that media incentivized her opponents to file complaints against her that forced her out of office, “The media incentivized political opponents to file false ethics charges and expensive, wasteful, frivolous lawsuits against me, my family and my staff, in an obvious attempt to destroy us.”

She now claims this is why she quit her job and now avoids all, but the friendliest of media, “I said, ‘Enough. Political adversaries and their political friends in the media will not destroy my State, my administration, nor my family. Enough.’ I knew if I didn’t play their game any longer, they could not win. I would not retreat, I would instead reload, and I would fight for what is right from a different plane.”

While trying to justify the fact that she quit on the people of the state of Alaska, Sarah Palin admitted that she could not take even the most mild of questioning. It just so happens that her taking the fight to a “different plane” allowed her to cash in and become a millionaire. Notice how Palin’s excuses keep changing. During her resignation speech she said she was resigning to avoid being a lame duck, “And so as I thought about this announcement that I wouldn’t run for re-election and what it means for Alaska, I thought about how much fun some governors have as lame ducks… travel around the state, to the Lower 48 (maybe), overseas on international trade – as so many politicians do. And then I thought – that’s what’s wrong – many just accept that lame duck status, hit the road, draw the paycheck, and “milk it”. I’m not putting Alaska through that – I promised efficiencies and effectiveness! ? That’s not how I am wired. I am not wired to operate under the same old “politics as usual.” I promised that four years ago – and I meant it.”

Palin has for the past year blamed everybody and everything for her decision to resign with the exception of herself. It is obvious that she is looking for the magic excuse that will make the fact that she is quitter acceptable, and take the issue off the table before her presidential run in 2012, but the reality is outside of health of the officeholder or family, there is no acceptable reason for what Palin did. Sarah Palin has an aversion to the truth, so she will never ever admit that she was itching to capitalize on her new found fame.

Sarah seems to forget the adoring national media coverage that greeted her selection by John McCain in 2008. The media did not turn on her. She could have been a media darling if she could have demonstrated to the American people that she possessed the tiniest bit of competence. Palin did not sit down with hardcore political journalists in 2008. She was softballed by Katie Couric and Charles Gibson. The negative opinion of Sarah Palin was one that she created herself through her own words.

I am sure that the adoring empty headed throng of Palin follow will lap up her latest media bashing comments like the hungry dogs that they are, but to the rest of us her continued whining and hiding from the media is proof that she is and always will be a political lightweight who can’t handle the glare and scrutiny of the national spotlight. Sarah’s paranoia and base insecurity will not allow her to escape from her media bubble, and this is the main reason why any potential presidential bid by Palin is doomed to fail.

Fox hates getting caught in the hen house so they blame the hen?

In typical fox form they blame the victim for their lies and race baiting!~Mem

Posted By Jason Easley On 21 Jul 2010
Fox News claims they are the Real Victim Not Shirley Sherrod

On Special Report with Bret Baier, the host and Charles Krauthammer denied Shirley Sherrod’s claim that Fox News has a racial agenda. Charles Krauthammer said, “She is a victim, but that doesn’t entitle her to victimize others, and to use these kinds of attacks.” In essence, Fox News smeared Shirley Sherrod then claimed to be the real victim.

Here is the video courtesy of Media Matters:

Shirley Sherrod spoke about Fox News to Media Matters, “When you look at their reporting, this is just another way of seeing that they are (racist), but I have seen that before now. I saw their reporting as biased during the Bush Administration and the Clinton Administration.” Later she directly discussed Fox News’ broader racial agenda, “They are after a bigger thing, they would love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person.”

Host Bret Baier replied, “Ms. Sherrod that is just not true. It’s not true.” Charles Krauthammer said, “She is a victim, but that doesn’t entitle her to victimize others, and to use these kinds of attacks. I think she’s wrong, and even though she is a person who needs restitution on the part of those who wronged her. This is not something that anybody can endorse, and again it is a part of this cycle that really ought to stop.”

The evidence though tells a different story. The edited videos used to bring down ACORN to the bogus attacks against Van Jones, the phony New Black Panthers/DOJ scandal, and now the railroading of Shirley Sherrod all have one thing in common. They targeted African Americans as part of a larger narrative designed to make a segment of America afraid of the black man in the White House. Fox News has been race baiting since Obama took office. I agree with Ms. Sherrod that it is a part of larger strategy. Not a racial one as Ms. Sherrod suggested, but a political one.

Fox News wants to deny President Obama a second term by making his reelection about race. They assume that if they terrify enough people about Obama, he will be denied a second term. The victims in each of the FNC attacks were targets of opportunity. None of them have/had the resources to combat a full on assault from Fox News. Charles Krauthammer decried the cycle of race based accusations in this country without pointing out that it is Fox News that is instigating and perpetuating the cycle on a daily basis. FNC can try to claim that they are the real victims here, but without Breitbart’s edited video and their endless, relentless promotion of it, Shirley Sherrod would never have been fired. The real victim is Shirley Sherrod, and the racist attacks are originating from Fox News.

Rachel Maddow Hammers the Myth of the Fiscally Responsible GOP

By Jason Easley

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was on Meet The Press today where she pointed out that the Republican Party is asking voters to make a fatally flawed choice in November, if they insist on portraying themselves as the fiscally responsible party. Maddow said, “If Republicans want to run as this fiscally responsible party, it’s neat, but it’s novel. It’s not how they’ve actually governed.”

When asked about the 2010 election, Maddow discussed the two different frames each party is presenting to voters in November, “Well, sure. And what the Republicans are trying to do is trying to make this a referendum on the, on the Democrats and on President Obama, on Harry Reid, on the people in power. And what Democrats are trying to do is make this a choice.” She then added why Democrats are facing a tough climb this fall, read more...