Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota has been quite busy during the short time he has been in the United States Senate. It doesn’t seem as though his late start caused by Republican sore loser Norm Coleman, has slowed him down a bit.
The first bill that was his very own helped military vets get service dogs. After passage of that bill Senator Franken went on to speak passionately for the people of this country on the floor of the Senate. He has made Progressives stand up and cheer with his questioning of bankers and most recently his dismantling of BPs so called safety executive.
However, he may have topped himself when he spoke to last weeks meeting of Netroots Nation in Las Vegas, Nevada. His topic was our First Amendment rights under the Constitution of the United States and how they are being threatened by the media mergers now taking place. He lets us know how our Internet is in danger from what is happening and calls on all of us to stand up before it is too late to do anything. As Senator Franken says Net Neutrality is the First Amendment challenge of our lifetime. He also asks for us to help him in the fight.
The video below is of Senator Franken at Netroots Nation. Please listen carefully to what he has to say. We must keep abreast of this issue and work hard to stop any further erosion of our right to free speech.
I don’t know about you, but I will do all I can to help the Senator. Just tell me what to do and where. If it is within my power I will be there.
We all are aware that Helen Thomas has left a vacancy in the White House Press Corps. The recent departure has left her front row seat at White House press briefings vacant.
Fox really covets this front row seat. But the question is, do they deserve it? My answer is no. In fact, I don’t think Fox should really be at the press briefings at all. They should go to RNC briefings and press conferences held by Republican lawmakers or candidates. However, since Fox is an arm of the Republican Party and not a legitimate news network, it seems to me they should not have a seat at the table, any more than other strictly political organizations should.
National Public Radio would also like to have the front row seat in question. NPR has been reporting on government for four decades and they have given the public some of the best press coverage available during that time. In my opinion they deserve the seat and have put in the time and effort to earn it.
Bloomberg is the other news group vying for this coveted seat. I would much rather see a Bloomberg press representative in the chair than any of the Fox want to be journalist lackeys.
It will be decided Monday just who gets the prized front row seat at White House press briefings. Credo has a petition up which asks that Fox not get the seat and asks that NPR be moved into the vacancy.
If you feel as I do about this, please sign the petition. Remember, this seat is a big prize to Beltway journalists. Lets try to keep the communal Fox head from swelling any further and give the seat to the people who have really earned it. Besides, it will be fun to hear O’Reilly and the rest whine about losing. Hey, maybe Beck will cry for us!
Below is the link to the petition. If you sign it please also take the time to post it on Twitter and Facebook too.
The writers here at LunaCanus are not, and have never claimed to be journalists. We try to look at the world and our nations issues from the standpoint of a common everyday person. Then we tell you what we think about what is happening and hope that you will agree. We try to present you with facts that back up what we say and never intentionally lie about a topic or a person.
That being said, I would like to ask all the wing nut, tea bagger, holy rolling, gun packing, right wing fringe followers out there why they are so loyal to FOX news? Is it that you like having lies told to you? Do you really want your news to come from the equivalent of a five year old child attempting to lie their way out of the last lie they told you?
On this topic I think we can all agree on one thing, when we look for news we are seeking some kernel of truth. Granted that different outlets will slant that truth in a wide variety of ways, but that same kernel of honesty should be at the core of the issue. This is not the case with FOX news, nor has it been the case for some time, if ever.
When you knowingly edit video tapes to forward your political agenda, when you knowingly lie about an issue, when you set out to destroy a persons reputation and career you are no longer a news network. You are a weapon in the hands of those you serve. Your credibility is reduced to nothing and your so called news stories are viewed as political hatchet jobs.
Then you commit the crime that any parent would skewer their child for. When caught in a lie, you tell an even bigger lie in a vain attempt to cover your ass. Of course, you have already done the damage you set out to do by telling the lie in the first place, so you are happy. In the meantime the entire neighborhood is left cleaning up after your dirty diapers.
FOX news is now more like a 24 hour a day infomercial. They no longer report the news, they just make it up. Just like the products you buy from the 3A.M. loudmouthed salesman on an infomercial, the product they sell never seems to be quite what they said it was.
So, as it is proven over and over and yet over again that FOX is a network of liars, I am forced to ask how long will you believe them?
Fox learned a valuable lesson from a TV show I watch. On it a character talks about the story of the boy that cried wolf and why by the end of the story people did not believe him. Upon hearing the tail the character named “Garek” says the problem was not that the boy lied, but that he told the same lie twice!
That is the level to which FOX news has sunk. Attempting to fill the airwaves 24 hours a day with lies, while never repeating a lie. They solved it by just hammering the same lie for a short period of time into the eyes of the viewers over and over and over and over and over again and again and again and again.
Shame on FOX. Shame on their lies. Shame on their cover ups. Shame on their lame ass excuses. Shame on the so called journalists that make up the news and do not report it. Shame on all those who have been lied to over and over and still believe the children at FOX when they lie to you yet again.
Your brain extends beyond emotions and bodily functions. Ir developed over a long time so that you can actually THINK! I know it may hurt some of the hardcore FOX news junkies to put their brains through that much work, but I would like to ask them to think once in a blue moon for themselves and not just let Billo, Beck and Hannity do all the thinking for them fill their minds with falsehoods.
Just to illustrate how deluded the typical FOX viewer is, watch while Rachel Maddow shows Bill O’Rielly lies as he tries to cover for the lies his network already told. They lie about their own lies folks!
Fox is losing ground. Even some of its own people are starting to show the cracks brought on by constantly spouting lies and innuendo. After a while, this stuff will catch up with you and it appears that Fox is feeling the nip of truth on their heels.
The video below is from a C-Span broadcast on July 11th. After seeing this program, I waited for a storm of press reports and the inevitable questions for Fox. It didn’t happen.
This video is astounding due to the fact that a frequent Fox contributor blatantly spits out the truth. Not just any old truth either, Andrew Napolitano very forcefully comes out and says both George Bush and Dick Cheney should be indicted for acts they perpetrated while in office.
Amazing….just amazing. Watch the video and see for yourself.
I do wonder how many more times we will be seeing Mr. Napolitano on Fox to share his views and give comment. My bet would be you will have to watch Fox for quite some time and at very off hours to see him. So if he is one of your favorite Fox commentators, try listening to what he is saying here, you might get enlightened.
We certainly hear someone in the press yammering every day about what President Obama has done that is wrong and how his numbers are slipping (really?). If you didn’t look a bit beyond the media noise, you might just think the Obama Administration along with Democratic Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) and Speaker of the House Pelosi (D-CA), have done nothing but wring their hands since the President took office.
According to Fox and most of the conservative or Republican press, Obama is a threat to the very existence of the United States. Wild eyed conspiracy theories with the President at their center spout from Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh on a daily basis.
According to the liberal, Progressive or Democratic press seem to complain incessantly about President Obama, the Senate and the House. They haven’t done enough or they disappointed too many folks or the base is fading away and is too unenthusiastic to win. The praise, even from this side seems faint, indeed.
This all leads to the fact that I was very happy to see one of the people I consider a good example of press integrity, Rachel Maddow, come out on her show last week with a good piece and a laundry list of the many things this administration has accomplished in the short time President Obama has been in office. You will find the video of this Maddow piece below.
Whether you are talking about health care, Bank and Wall Street reform or the economy, there has been a lot done in a short period of time. Some of the accomplishments like health care have been historic. Some of them like Bank and Wall Street reform are still being pushed through. S, like the economy and jobs need a lot more to make them get back on track. We are also fighting two wars and were left with a huge pile of dung to clean up from the previous administration.
When you consider those things plus the obstructionist tactics the Republicans continue to use, the number of nominations that are held up and the worst environmental disaster in the nations history all coming in the first two years of this term, you can see that the accomplishments have been surprising , to say the least. Maybe it is time for all of us to take a deep breath and begin to give credit where credit is most certainly due.
By the way, one other thing needs to be said here. There are way more Democrats than there are Republicans even if you count their fringe which will vote for tea baggers. A mid term election doesn’t get the turn out a presidential election does, but Democrats would have to stay away in historic numbers to even the score. One thing to also bear in mind, even if Democrats said they were not overly enthusiastic, they didn’t say they weren’t going to vote. So your polls are skewed on this count. An unenthusiastic vote counts for just as much as a rabidly enthusiastic vote does.
Today in our nation we all think we know the face of the terrorist extremist, or the masked face of the same.
The sad fact is that our nation has faced terrorist extremists from the beginning. Only the way they seek to destroy our country and their tactics have changed. Add to that today’s 24 hour news cycle and it is all geared to one thing…. making us live in fear.
The pablum the news networks feed us is geared toward making us afraid of things that currently have little or no impact on our day to day life. Check the three major news channels and you will hear a lot about the “terrorist threat” posed by that goof that could not even manage to set fire to a car. CNN’s Larry King will tonight host a debate on the “true intentions of ET”, are they a threat? The ‘raging’ debate.
You can see interviews with cast off wanna be celebs from reality T.V. shows and gossip about real celebs like Sandra Bullock and her almost was famous, soon to be ex Jessie James. You can see how people in Iowa set the clogging world record and a bear shot out of a tree. Pure pablum.
You would think at this point in time our news networks would have some things to pound into our brains besides how the DOD spends tax dollars or how aliens will act if and when they manage to get here. A few examples of what I would like to see more in the news are:
What actions are being taken to stop the largest environmental disaster facing our world today. I think this little news tidbit should have more coverage than three or four minutes every half hour. I know that the clogging world record may be important to some but the oil still spewing into the Gulf Of Mexico has the potential to affect food sources, energy resources and the income and jobs of people around the world. I think that deserves a closer look.
A closer look at the impact of what is happening in Greece. How it is going to affect our economy and what we can do about it. This will affect our nations stock market once again, the value of our currency and our jobs. I would like to know and see a little more than your initial reports and the same old riot footage replaying over and over again from Greece.
Reining in banks and financial groups along with big business interests and Wall Street. Why is it that these special interest groups seem to get a pass in most of what we see in the news? Yes, we see some in depth reporting on the dangerous games they play with our health, our lives, our economy, our homes, our jobs and our very world but for the most part the media just regurgitates the press releases these groups issue. What is the other side? I don’t like the idea of our news networks just recycling the corporations propaganda. They do not hammer home the betrayal of trust and abuse of power these groups commit every single day.
Environmental news. Just like the oil leak the major networks ignore environmental problems caused by major industries. Tainted foods, poisoned water and dirty air slip by the wayside as they reap the profit from the pollution creating companies running commercials on their programs. The irony is that the majority of the commercials talk about how much these companies care about our environment.
The list can go on and on. E.T.’s intentions, the Octomom and John and Kate will still be lead stories over anything I have mentioned.
You are left with asking yourself what news is important to you and the world you live in?
What matters more to you? The food you eat, water you drink and air you breath or the last contestant voted off from American Idol?
The future of our world or the last cast off from Survivor?
The destruction of the Gulf of Mexico or the debate over the intentions of E.T.?
The stripping of our civil liberties or the world record in clogging?
Our world financial structure and economy or the bear in a tree in California?
Stop being afraid. Stop eating the pablum being spoon fed to you.
Become more aware!
Fear and terror. Terror and fear. Shouldn't our news networks report on the things that have REAL meaning and pertinance in our daily lives?
I know all I have been doing for the past week is following and working on health care reform. However, I also know that there are people out there who, while wanting health care reform passed, have had other important issues they are working on. Of course, life goes on and things continue to occur no matter what is going on in DC. There is a whole other world out there.
So, while I was working to try to get health care reform passed I continued to grab articles and stories about events that I thought would be of interest to readers and bookmarked them for after the vote. The following is one of those stories.
If you were really, really, really involved in working on or watching the health care debate raging in DC, you probably didn’t notice or hear about over 200,000 people showing up in that same city on Sunday which was the day after the historic health care reform vote.
The crowd that gathered at The National Mall was estimated by various organizations to be between a quarter of a million and one half of a million. They were overwhelmingly Latino and they were there marching for real immigration reform. It was appropriately named March for America. The strangest thing though is that America’s press largely ignored it. I guess I can understand this. There were a few die hard tea baggers still around and they deserved all the media attention.
From America’s Voice Online;
Coverage in the blogosphere is still picking up after Sunday’s historic health care vote, but here’s an initial roundup of blogging on Sunday’s massive rally and march for real immigration reform.
First, check out Rachel LaBruyere’s amazing March For America liveblog, here (UPDATED LINK), complete with feedback from advocates supporting the march.
Next, Nolan Treadway, blogging at Daily Kos, provides an important media critique:
You may not have been aware such a large gathering took place if you were watching the news around the country. It seems a couple dozen dead-ender Tea Partiers determined to thwart progress are more newsworthy than a crowd 1/3 the size of the population of DC gathering to fight for social and economic justice.
Indeed, according to Maegan Ortiz of Vivir Latino (<–click for a photo slideshow):
Depending on who you ask, between a quarter of a million people to half a million people, overwhelmingly Latinos, went to the National Mall this past Sunday in support of immigration reform in what was called the March for America.
Talking Points Memo founder and editor Josh Marshall also critiques the coverage in, “SLIDESHOW: Quite a Turnout!”:
Immigration reform, financial reform, green energy and jobs bills will all be coming up very soon in both the House and the Senate. Let us hope the press does a better job of covering these fairly than they have done so far on health care reform.
At one time all of our families were immigrants, that is unless we are Native Americans. We all should help these people not defame and blame them.
Here is some really good news for all the people out there that really, really cannot stand Glenn Beck, his racism,his conspiracy theories and his show. We all know there has been a big effort to separate Beck from his sponsors and it has been very successful in the United States.
But, did you know that Glenn Beck and his loony show are on in the UK too? They are and the effort to shame Beck’s sponsors has been working there too. Perhaps even better than it has in the States.
From Stop Beck dot com:
During the last week and a half, Glenn Beck lost his 100th, 101stand 102ndsponsors. A full list of all 102 sponsors that dropped Mr. Beck (or Fox News as a whole) can be found here. Please note that this total includes sponsors that have dropped him both United States and/or in the United Kingdom.
It seems like our efforts are having an effect…
Glenn Beck’s show in the United Kingdom has not run any commercials during the past three days (Tues-Thurs). Glenn Beck’s show in the UK used to run commercials. The shows that come on before and after Glenn Beck still run commercials. But, for the past three days, Mr. Beck hasn’t had any sponsors in the U.K. During the commercial break, instead of running ads, they cut away to Sky News updates or the weather. Perhaps they’re having trouble finding sponsors willing to subsidize Glenn Beck’s misinformation, vitriol, sexism and race-baiting?
Read more about the effort to separate Beck from his advertising and the results it is having here.
Maybe someday Fox andthe rest of the so called press will wake up to the fact that this kind of hate and crazy just doesn’t work. Politics can be loony enough without adding a truly insane person into the works. Wait, what am I saying, it is Fox and they are all insane. That includes their Conservative Republican commentatrs and their wingnut viewers.
