The Dirty Half-Dozen: Exposing Some Recent Right-Wing Fairy Tales and Deceptions
1. Myth: Rupert Murdoch and his News Corporation media possessions, The Wall Street Journal and Fox News, are the only national media outlets making money and increasing audience right now. Truth: Murdoch’s News Corp. is losing money hand over fist, $6.4 billion in the last two quarters, and cutting staff as the circulation of the WSJ and ratings for Fox News decline. Proof: Here’s an excerpt from an AP report:
“News Corp., the global media giant controlled by Rupert Murdoch, said Thursday it lost $6.4 billion in its most recent quarter because of a massive write-down in the value of its assets.
“The New York-based company, which owns The Wall Street Journal and the Fox broadcast network, also forecast a 30 percent drop in operating profits for the fiscal year to June from a year ago, when it earned $5.13 billion.” […]
“News Corp. also said it had cut 800 positions across its Fox properties, including the 20th Century Fox movie studio, in moves that it expected to save $400 million a year. The Wall Street Journal said Thursday it is cutting about two dozen newsroom positions.”
— Ryan Nakashima, AP Business Writer, “News Corp. loses $6.4 billion in 2Q,” Feb. 5, 2009.
2. Myth: “Government jobs don’t stimulate the economy.” Recently Sen. Tom Coburn (R-NotOK) was promoting this bit of balderdash on MSNBC, but I’ve heard and read it elsewhere in the right-wing media as well. Truth: This is nonsense from the days of Herbert Hoover. Proof: Under Franklin D. Roosevelt such government employment programs as the WPA and CCC reduced unemployment dramatically during the Great Depression and improved the economy, as much as many neocon economists are desperately trying to rewrite history to reflect the opposite. Just like everyone else, government employees pay taxes and buy things houses, cars, food, clothes and appliances — that stimulate the economy.
3. Myth: Rush Limbaugh never actually said about President Obama, “I hope he fails.” Truth: Yes, he did and I heard it. Proof: Here’s the audio clip. He plainly says he was asked for quote about Obama and replied, “I hope he fails.”
4. Myth: “Tax cuts are the best way to improve the economy.” Truth: No, they aren’t. Proof: The last eight years of tax cuts under Bush.
5. Myth: “Free market capitalism will regulate itself.” Truth: You’re crazy. It’s like saying a basket of vipers will regulate itself into a litter of puppies. Proof: The economic collapse engendered by the ‘hands-off’ policies of Bush as well as bankers, Wall Street, automakers and other large corporations begging for bailouts to avoid bankruptcy. Then there’s Bernie Madoff, Enron, and all of the other members of the Corrupt Bastards Club, with the latest outrageous entry being the Peanut Corporation of America, who knowingly sold salmonella-tainted nuts to poor kids enrolled in school free-lunch programs while Bush’s FDA inspectors slept on the job. (Maybe they should have tried cake instead.)
6. Myth: “Bill O’Reilly and Fox News never really got anything wrong.” Truth: Yes, they have, and the list is as long as your arm. Proof: Here are some highlights and a link:
Reviewing the accuracy of Fox News and O’Reilly over the past eight years:
— They were wrong about WMD in Iraq.
— They were wrong about the length of the occupation of Iraq.
— They were wrong about the strength and military capabilities of the Iraqi insurgents. (They even denied the insurgency was happening at first.)
— They were wrong about Ahmed Chalabi, who turned out to be providing information to Iran.
— They were wrong about Pat Tillman’s death.
— They were stupendously wrong about the economy.
— They were wrong about the torture Bush and Cheney have since admitted to — O’Reilly initially denied it happened and said it was the invention of sick fringe-left minds to bash the Bush administration.
— They were wrong in asserting Obama was a Muslim.
— They were wrong in questioning the legality of Obama’s presidency based on a few fumbled words during his swearing-in ceremony. (In fact, the law states the new president takes office at Noon on January 20, with or without being sworn in.)
— O’Reilly, much to the anger of vets and their families, on two occasions, in 2005 and 2006, erroneously claimed that German prisoners were massacred at Malmedy, Belgium, by US forces in WWII. In fact, it was the other way around: 81 unarmed American POWs were brutally gunned down at Malmedy by the Nazis during the Battle of the Bulge. O’Reilly has never apologized for getting this wrong — twice.
The right-wing can believe any fantasies it wants (until reality rears its ugly head), but the truth is that over 4,000 Americans are dead and tens of thousands permanently disabled, along with the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi casualties, thanks in large part to the lies and misinformation spread by O’Reilly and Fox News.
More of Bill O’Reilly’s lies here.
I actually heard one of these creeps claim that business jobs contributed because, unlike government jobs they weren’t “contracts” that had “a start and an end once the work is done.” Proving they know nothing about government work and as little about their beloved corporate jobs.
Unfortunate in some cases, it’s actually harder to lose a government job than flaky big biz jobs that suffer at the whim of middle managers more eager to kiss ass so they can kiss their own than getting out good product. And before anyone jumps up and claims “but gov jobs produce no ‘product,’ nonsense. You drive on it. Your house doesn’t burn all the way with it. You would be swimming in trash without it. Your old cans turn into new ones.
Why is it Neo Cons never know what they’re talking about, but the media worships their words by legitimizing their Lack of Thinking Tanks like Heritage?
Ken, I heard that Corrupt GOP Bastard and new RNC Chair Michael Steele** say that — a man who has collected a paycheck from the government for most of his adult life!
**(Steele paid over $37,000 to his sister’s defunct company for catering work never done; he paid $75,000 to a law firm that performed no services, he violated campaign finance laws by using money to pay off a prior campaign debt; and he transferred $500,000 from one campaign fund to another without proper authorization. Read the details here.)
It’s true — thanks to civil service protections, most govt. workers stay in their jobs for many years longer than the average private sector worker. Aside from that, people out of work could give a rip whether they’re getting a paycheck from the govt. or a private company as long as they have a job. Who are these idiots talking to with this nonsense?
Mainly because, except for the completely-in-the-tank-for-the-GOP Fox News, the modern media is either lazy, intimidated or in on the deal. Even in my cheap-jack journalism course, I never would have been able to get away with what passes for reporting these days. You’re supposed to report facts, not just he said/she said and leave it up to the reader to find the truth. Unfortunately, our so-called journalists usually don’t even bother to find out the facts.
As Susan Jacoby says:
This is how the GOP is getting away with saying FDR’s New Deal programs did nothing to solve the problems of the Great Depression — in fact, unemployment dropped drastically between 1933 and 1937 according to the Labor Department’s own stats, but you wouldn’t know that from the US Big Media.