A weblog by Knot O'Reilly

If so, we can expect a lot more witch hunts in the future.

Among other false statements, Beck has claimed Obama and his administration are communist, radical, scary, frightening, anarchist, Marxist, Maoist, terrorist, mafioso, Stalinist, fascist, Saddam-esque, Internalionalist, youth-indoctrinating, racist, Black Liberationists looking for reperations and hating white-culture, Hitler idolizing Brownshirts, Muslim, the Anti-Christ, Grandma murderers, and cigarette smoking Gangster Manchurian candidates out to rob, rape and murder everything good about America.

I have followed Beck’s boss Roger Ailes for quite a while, and have long assumed that he and his cronies had a lot to do with the smear campaigns Beck is a pitchman for.

Today it was reported that the man who cut his teeth working for Tricky Dick, and gained prominence linking a presidential candidate to a convicted rapist, is reported to be making a run at the presidency.

It is juicily ironic that Ailes (Mr. Willie Horton) has an employee, and frontman, that has unanswered questions about a rape and murder in 1990.

I think if Beck does not answer these questions his boss may just have to let him go, unless he wants to see his opposition hiring Azdavid to produce campaign ad’s.

This is from Media Matters:

Following 9-month political campaign against administration, Fox chief Ailes reportedly pushed to run for president

“The only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it.” — Roger Ailes

“I have known Roger Ailes for 29 years…No one knows how to win better than Roger.”– Frank Luntz

Washington, DC – In light of reports that “friends and associates” are pushing for Fox News president Roger Ailes to throw his hat in the ring for the 2012 presidential race, Media Matters for America released the following statement:

“Though he claims to be in the business of ‘fair and balanced’ news, Ailes’ heart clearly belongs to partisan politics,” said Eric Burns, president of Media Matters. “This Bush campaign veteran and his news channel have been on a nine-month campaign to destroy the Obama administration.”

BACKGROUND

The Politico reported today that “[f]riends and associates are encouraging Fox News chief Roger Ailes to jump into the political area for real by running for president in 2012.” Though Ailes has said he would “decline” because “[t]his country needs fair and balanced news more now than ever before,” the network chief is no stranger to the political arena.

Earlier in his career, he served as a political consultant for a number of Republican candidates, including Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and was credited, along with Lee Atwater, with helping George H.W. Bush come from behind to beat Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election. Part of that winning strategy included portraying Dukakis as “soft on crime” and connecting him with convicted felon Willie Horton. Horton committed assault, armed robbery, and rape during a weekend furlough – a program granting temporary release to prisoners that Dukakis supported but was created under the previous governor.

While the Bush campaign did not produce the Horton ad that was widely criticized as “racist,” Ailes and Atwater did produce the “Revolving Door” ad that similarly attacked Dukakis for the furlough program. Ailes has been quoted as saying, “The only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it.”

As Media Matters has noted, Fox News has been waging a partisan political war against the White House since Inauguration Day, revealing both its disdain for journalistic standards and its all-consuming political agenda — qualities that clearly differentiate Fox News from any credible news organization.

Beck is now calling for a coup, which is what I take it to mean when he says he is going to “take the administration out”. I wonder which high position he is going to appoint himself? I assume Sean Hannity will be Secretary of the Department of Defense.

I guess if there was incompetence or lawbreaking he would call for impeachment or trials, but no, he just has some info that may or may not be true. And may or may not bring down the government. Sounds like McCarthy saying “I have in my possession a list of names”.

I wonder if Sarah Palin will call someone a communist every night on her new FOX show?
And will Beck and her pick the same person to witch hunt, or will they tag-team attack like Beck and Hannity?

This is a a link to Media Matters research on Beck calling the President a fascist/communist/Marxist just like Saddam Hussein. I am surprised that he does not accuse him of having weapons of mass destruction.

http://mediamatters.org/research/200910190036

I have been distracted for the last while, but this clip from Media Matters of Beck on today’s FOX news show fit too many categories here to not post. Beck plays a long clip of White House communications director Anita Dunn and claims he played the whole thing(even though he didn’t) so ‘the blogs’ would not claim he was taking her words out of context, then he proceeds to take her words out of context.

Beck has done a pretty good job of following the republican effort at equating liberals with fascists, which I believe is an effort to stop people equating the far-right with fascism, something similar to taking the peanuts out of peanut butter.

In this clip, Beck forgets the talking points of his leaders for a minute, though and says that a democrat praising Mao is like him praising Hitler. Something that places Hitler back on the right, where he always was.

This is another short clip from Media Matters that has a shot of Beck’s ‘crazy chalkboard of commie doom’ or the CCCD.

FOX News issued a retraction (see update) for smearing Kevin Jennings, the highly qualified and respected assistant-deputy of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, with a false and malicious claim that he helped conceal a rape that did not occur.

UPDATE FOX did issue a retraction, but they have now continued with the false allegation that the student counseled by Jennings was 15 and that a sexual relationship took place. Media Matters has video and fact checks.

This is Hannity on his show, pretending to speak to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs:

The truth, Robert, is that Jennings admitted he was aware of a sexual relationship between a high school sophomore — who now claims he was 16 at the time — and an older man. It was Jennings who originally said the boy was 15, and Jennings who admits that he did nothing wrong.

CNN and others have proven that the boy in question did not ‘claim’ he was 15, he was 16, and he did not have sex with the man in question. Media Matters compiled this clip and asks if Hannity will retract his statements:

Not only does Hannity not offer an apology or retraction, he raises the stakes by using a guilt by association tactic that he lifted straight from the far right Powerline blog and smears Jennings again by falsely connecting Jennings to the National Man Boy Love Association.

It is a good thing that Glenn Beck is fighting a legal battle against a satirical website mocking and pointing out his ad hominem and guilt by association attack style that includes a ‘rape accusation’ as a parody, otherwise he would surely be joining in this attack.

Media Matters has an extensive fact check on the latest smear campaign, and they start with this:

The Fox Nation and The Washington Examiner linked Department of Education official Kevin Jennings to the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) based on a 1997 speech in which Jennings praised gay rights activist Harry Hay, who had spoken in support of the organization. But like many obituaries written about Hay upon his death in 2002, Jennings was touting Hay as a gay civil rights pioneer for his role in helping start “the first ongoing gay rights groups in America” in 1948, and Jennings’ comments had nothing to do with NAMBLA.

Hannity finishes his attack on the renowned author and educator that he has now linked with rape and child abuse in the minds of his viewers with this ludicrous statement showing his intentions to be nothing more than raw political power over others:

I said it last week and I’ll say it again: It is time for Kevin Jennings to resign.

UPDATE #2 Oct 7 News Hounds has a good informative post with video of Hannity continuing his smear campaign on his show last night. He has some comments that pretend to be including balance, but he claims it is not important if the boy in question was 16, because Jennings mistakenly said he was 15, so Hannity can continue to feign outrage and keep calling for his resignation. Mostly, they just rehash the same bogus claims and fear-mongering that gays are infiltrating and sexualizing elementary schools, so it is time to bring back the republicans.

From Raw Story:

The upscale British grocery store which has a Royal Warrant to provide foodstuffs to the Queen of England says it’s done with Fox News for good.

The Waitrose grocery store chain, which has roughly 200 stores across the United Kingdom, has announced that it will suspend advertising anywhere on the Rupert Murdoch-owned cable network after customers complained about their brand’s placement during a segment of The Glenn Beck Show. According to a British newspaper, a shopper who emailed management expressing outrage that they were “associated with this particular form of rightwing cant” received a humbled reply.

…

Among those who quit Beck’s show included big-box juggernaut Wal-Mart and consumer products behemoth Procter & Gamble, as well as Travelocity and Best Buy.

Waitrose’s announcement, however, doesn’t mean the chain won’t simply stop advertising on Beck’s show; it means they won’t be advertising on Fox News Channel entirely. Waitrose advertises on the channel carried by Sky in the United Kingdom, the Guardian says.

http://rawstory.com/2009/10/queens-grocer-yanks-advertisements-from-all-fox-news-shows/

Glenn Beck continued his partisan witch hunt on his show last night, making connections, distorting the facts, posting a new ‘crazy tree’ on his ‘chalkboard of hate’ and talking to his audience as if they were seven year olds. He finished the segment by pinning the warning notice below beside pictures of the Obama’s, which are just above a hammer and sickle, Valerie Jarrett, and SEIU and ACORN logos. Crooks and Liars has more, and the video.

GottaLaff at The Political Carnival posted a comment from her friend last week regarding his experience with McCarthyism. Below are three excerpts, but I recommend reading the entire essay. The picture above is the one mentioned below.

McCarthyism

One thing that is sure to make my blood pressure rise is the mention of Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism. Recently there have been several mentions of McCarthyism in the news.

At the 9/12 Project Rally, in Washington D.C., the media showed a picture of a young man wearing a tee shirt with “The Cure of Obama Communism, Is A New Era Of McCarthyism” printed on it. What could this young man possibly know about McCarthyism and what it stood for?

I felt it important to write about McCarthyism, as many younger people today have no idea what it was like living in America during that time…. which was one the darkest periods in the history of this nation.

…

In the early 1950s, Joseph McCarthy, through his Senate Committee on Government Operations and related sub-committee, began a witch hunt looking for infiltration by Communists or sympathizers into the State Department, other government agencies, and U.S. Army Signal Corp. It was through these witch hunts that the term “McCarthyism” was born.

The witch hunt into the Signal Corp wasn’t very successful, and it eventually led to the Army-McCarthy hearings. It was through the televised public hearings that the true meanness, brutality, and tactics used by Joseph McCarthy was exposed and seen by the American people.

….

I don’t ever want to see the rise of McCarthyism in America again in my lifetime; where just knowing someone or innocently belonging to an organization during your youth could cost you the ability to earn a living in your chosen profession, lead to financial ruin, and possibly the loss of your family and friends.

That isn’t America, that’s a Nation of Fear.

To get a sense of what life was like during that period, rent the movies “The Front”, “Guilty by Suspicion” and “Good Night & Good Luck”.

from friend of The Political Carnival -twitter user @42bkdodgr

Kevin Jennings is the assistant-deputy of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, he has a bachelors degree from Harvard, a Master’s from Columbia and a M.B.A. from New York University.
Among other accomplishments he has been a high school history teacher, published six books on gay rights and education and founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) which ’seeks to end discrimination, harassment, and bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity.’
A couple of conservative groups have been muckraking and bashing Jennings, and recently FOX joined the fray with this long and inaccurate piece and series of reports and comments by the regular cast of TV tough guys. It seems to be part of Sean Hannity’s recently proclaimed jihad against Obama’s ‘czars’. He claimed”my job starting tomorrow night is to get rid of every other ['czar'].”

In FOX’s favour they do include some balance in their article leading the punch-up of Jennings by including some quotes from Amanda Terkel, deputy research director at the Center for American Progress, although they leave this comment to the very last in the article

For a long time I think this position was largely neglected. It was seen as a throwaway position [by the Bush administration.] Now the Obama administration has made an attempt to find someone who, in many ways, seems tailor-made for this position. [Jennings] has devoted his whole career to promoting safe schools.

Earlier in the piece they quote  an attendee at a conference Jennings was also at,  who discusses rectal and vaginal fisting, and link Jennings to the quote by his disagreement that the speaker was filmed without permission. They also highlight disparaging comments on religion that Jennings, a Christian,  made when he was at a spiritually low point decades ago.

Jennings has made it clear that his interest in ‘promoting homosexuality’ stems from an interest in increasing understanding and awareness among straight and gay people and decreasing bigotry and bullying. He has many accomplishments towards these ends. FOX and friends on the right are misrepresenting these attempts as an attempt to teach sexual techniques and there is an undertone that ‘promoting’ means to somehow turn straight kids gay.

Think Progress did a Fact Check on the Family Research Council campaign against Jennings, and this is one example:

FRC Claim: Jennings is “unfit for the post to which he’s been assigned.”

FACT: Jennings, in fact, will be the first head of OSDFS in years to have a background as an educator. His predecessor, Deborah Price, received her BS degree in home economics, worked on the National Prayer Breakfast, on the Senate Republican Policy Committee, and then doing student aid in the Department of Education. Her predecessor, Eric Andell, was a judge from Texas and was eventually fired. He “pleaded guilty in federal court to one misdemeanor count of conflict of interest that included using federal money to pay for personal expenses.” Jennings has received many mainstream education awards, including the Distinguished Service Award of NASSP. ThinkProgress spoke to NASSP Executive Director Gerald Tirozzi, who wrote a recommendation letter on Jennings’ behalf. He said that he has “always been impressed with Kevin and his forthrightness. He’s a very courageous young man.” Tirozzi stressed that Jennings’ work on school bullying made him an ideal fit for this particular position.

UPDATE: Oct 1 Media Matters for America release a rundown of stories on this issue.

Fox News Launches Another Smear Campaign Against an Obama Official

Network relies on made-up charges, homophobic attacks, distorted quotes in witch hunt against Department of Education official

Washington, D.C. – Today, Media Matters for America condemned the latest Fox News-driven smear campaign, in which right-wing media figures have called for Department of Education official Kevin Jennings to be fired. Conservative media have promoted the made-up charge that Jennings “cover[ed] up statutory rape.” They have painted him as a “radical” “gay activist” and have misrepresented and distorted Jennings’ previous comments.

“Fox News’ allegations about Kevin Jennings covering up a statutory rape are wholly unsupported by the facts,” said Eric Burns, president of Media Matters. “But Fox has already proven that facts don’t matter in its campaign against Jennings. Who needs facts when your reports are built on made-up charges and anti-gay bigotry?”

UPDATE #2 Oct. 6
From The Plum Line “FOX News Corrects False Claims against Gay Obama Education Adviser-Will Hannity Do the Same”

Okay, so Fox’s news division, such as it is, has now quietly issued an online correction of the false claims the outlet had been making while waging a high-profile assault on Kevin Jennings, the gay high-level education adviser who’s reviled by conservatives for his past in gay rights activism.

…

The “statutory rape” charge is based on the assertion that the kid was 15 years old at the time, a claim originally floated, wrongly, by Jennings himself, and continuously amplified by Fox News and the right even after it had been corrected.

Fox News has now issued an online correction. But Hannity has been silent on this since Friday. It’ll be interesting to see if he corrects the record on the air. I’m checking with his producer and will keep you posted.