On July 20, the Department of Education hosted an event called “Let’s Read! Let’s Move!” Children were given a choice of books to take home, one of which featured the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants… Fox & Friends jumped on this, spouting nonsense and falsehoods, also playing a clip of video from a SpongeBob cartoon that they said was aired at the event – The cartoon features the character Mr. Krabs saying, “Thanks to global warming, the temperature will soon go through the roof, and we’ll have an endless summer.”

CARLSON: “SpongeBob is talking a lot about global warming, and he’s only looking at it from one point of view”

CARLSON: “The government agency showed kids this cartoon and handed out books that blame man for global warming, but they did not tell kids that that is actually a disputed fact. Oops.”

DOOCY: “Clearly Nickelodeon is pushing a global warming agenda, and while there’s no disputing the fact that the earth is getting a little warmer, the big question is, is it man made, or is it just one of those gigantic climactic phases that we’re going [through]? … For a while we’re cold and then we get warmer and then we get colder and warmer, which one is it? There’s science on both sides. There are a lot of scientists who say, ‘It’s this,’ others say, ‘It’s that.’”

Apparently it wasn’t the Department of Education, but rather corporate sponsors like Target, Nickelodeon and United Way who provided the books. and, according to Tim Tuten at the Department of Education, there were no SpongeBob videos played at the event.

“We’ve never shown any videos ever, so I have no idea where that is coming from,” he said. Tuten added that participants were permitted to choose one of dozens of diverse books to take home with them and the SpongeBob book was one of those options.

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In the following clip, you’ll see Fox & Friends discussion of News of the World, also owned by Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp. At the very least they appear to portray the now defunct news organization as victims. While addressing actual hacking victims, Citicorp, Bank of America & American Express, guest Bob Dilenschneider of the Dilenschneider Group, includes News of the World, the perpetrator of the U.K. phone hacking scandal!

Dilenschneider: Why are so many people piling on at this point? We know it’s a hacking scandal. Shouldn’t we get beyond it and really deal with the issue of hacking? Citicorp has been hacked into. Bank of America has been hacked into. American Express has been hacked into. Insurance companies have been hacked into.?.?. . So we have to figure out a way to deal with this hacking problem. That’s what we have to do.

The following analogy by clockworkdiamond from Reddit puts this into perspective:

Wow, way to spin it to make news of the world out as though they are the same kind of victims as other corporations that got hacked. Lets be clear, this company was not the hacked, but the hacker. They are the criminals, not the victims. This is like saying “sure we were raping people, but rape is a serious thing in this country, so we should focus on that”.

If you can stand it, watch the end and you’ll notice that Steve Doocy mentions the “mainstream media,” of which he must have forgotten they are part of… He states that there are more important topics – Cue Casey Anthony!

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Jon Stewart appeared on The O’Reilly Factor to debate Bill O’Reilly about the singer Common being invited to the White House… Fox and Friends aired heavily edited footage of the debate video, from which Jon Stewart’s criticism of Fox News was removed.

Here’s the video from Fox and Friends:

Here’s what’s missing:

STEWART: There is a selective outrage machine here at Fox that petty fogs only when it suits the narrative that suits them. This guy is in the crosshairs in a way that he shouldn’t be, whether you agree with him or not over — you may think he is ignorant in believing that Assata Shakur is innocent. You may think he is ignorant in believing that Mumia is. But then guess what? Bono can’t go to the White House. Springsteen can’t go to the White House. Bob Dylan can’t go to the White House. You have got a lot of people that aren’t allowed to sit in the White House because they have written songs about people convicted of murder.

[...]

O’REILLY: You say that because Bono, Springsteen, and Bob Dylan wrote songs defending people who were accused of heinous things that I have to give Common a pass because he did the same thing.

STEWART: No. You have to be consistent with your outrage.

O’REILLY: All right. Let me give you -

STEWART: Be consistent.

O’REILLY: I will. Common visited, went to see.

STEWART: So what if Bono went to see Leonard Peltier?

O’REILLY: All right? In Cuba, and said – and said, quote –

STEWART: So now that’s your line? You are putting yourself in a smaller and smaller box.

O’REILLY: No, I’m not. I’m not.

STEWART: So this guy is worthy of it because he actually visited. And, by the way, I don’t agree with you that that’s what puts it over the top. I completely disagree with you.

O’REILLY: This makes it beyond a reasonable doubt.

STEWART: Oh, please.

O’REILLY: Oh, come on. You know this guy is sympathizing with two cop killers. You know that.

STEWART: I don’t know him. He believes they were unjustly convicted. That’s what I imagine this is.

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Fox News personalities are on the forefront of spreading misinformation about health care reform and here’s one example that takes the cake.

Bill O’Reilly, citing the New England Journal of Medicine stated that  “46.3% May Leave Medical Profession” and “If half of the nation’s doctors are considering bailing on the profession if Obama-care passes, that is a frightening consequence.”

Here’s what the “poll” actually stated:

46.3%of primary care physicians (family medicine and internal medicine) feel that the passing of health reform will either force them out of medicine or make them want to leave medicine.

Misleading, yes, but that’s not the most interesting part. The New England Journal of Medicine states that they never produced a health care survey!

For example, on Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade said: “The New England Journal of Medicine has published a report and did a survey, and they said the impact of reform on primary care physicians, 46 percent, they say, feel reform will force them out or make them want to leave medicine.”

This is false.

Media Matters for America contacted the New England Journal of Medicine, which confirmed it neither conducted nor published the “survey.”

NEJM spokesperson Jennifer Zeis told Media Matters that the study had “nothing to do with the New England Journal of Medicine’s original research.” She also made clear that the study “was not published by the New England Journal of Medicine,” and said that “we are taking steps to clarify the source of the survey.”

The “report” that right-wing media are citing actually appeared in Recruiting Physicians Today, which is an employment newsletter produced by “the publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine.” According to Zeis, that report actually “was written by the Medicus Firm,” the medical recruitment firm that conducted the “survey.”

UPDATE: Following inquiries from Media Matters, the “NEJM CareerCenter” website has now posted the following statement, making clear that Recruiting Physicians Today is a “free advertiser newsletter” whose content is “produced by physician recruiting firms and other independent groups involved in physician employment” and that Medicus was responsible for conducting and publishing the “survey” in question…

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Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) calls Fox & Friends hosts out for spreading lies and disinformation about health care reform… Enjoy!

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Brian Kilmeade of Fox & Friends made the following factually-challenged statement regarding economic growth and unemployment, both things he spun in George W. Bush’s favor…

KILMEADE: I did not think the President was going to do this. He said, let’s just remember what I got when I walked in the door. What I had is after eight years of tax cuts, unfunded prescription drug plans and two wars without financing, I found myself in a mountain of debt essentially. But what he also found was 50 plus months of economic growth going into that. He also found between 5 and 7 percent unemployment. President Bush had it under 5 percent during those times.

Reality called and left a message – economic growth and employment were both going down before Obama took office. Additionally, unemployment was at 7.7 in Jan ’09, not between 5 and 7 percent.

Economic Growth:

Unemployment:

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Fox & Friends questions whether Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) are defecting to the Republican party. They are retiring, Plain and simple. Only Rep. Parker Griffith (AL) has announced that he is switching parties.

This is another example of Fox News taking an obvious falsehood and putting a question mark after it to give it an air of plausibility, which is then believed to be the “truth” by their flock viewers. This is similar to the question, “Did Glenn Beck rape and murder a girl in 1990?“

It may also be important to note that in the House, 14 GOP incumbents have decided not to seek re-election, while 10 Democratic incumbents have made the same announcement. And, in the Senate, six Republican incumbents have decided not to seek re-election, while two Democratic incumbents have made the same announcement.

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As reported, Fox & Friends manipulated a Rasmussen poll to show that more people think that scientists falsified data to support Global Warming. The error was obvious and inexcusable, especially in light of the new Fox News “zero tolerance policy” for such mistakes.

Media Matters for America sent an open letter to Fox News senior vice president Michael Clemente regarding the “zero tolerance for on-screen errors.”

The erroneous percentages Fox & Friends showed in its graphic added up to 120 percent (even without the 15 percent who responded that they weren’t sure).,” wrote Ari Rabin-Havt, Media Matters’ vice president of communications and research. “More importantly, Fox News’ presentation of the data made it seem as though 94 percent of Americans think it’s at least “somewhat likely” that climate scientists falsify their research data.

Unfortunately, Fox & Friends executive producer Lauren Petterson defended the erroneous reporting.

PETTERSON: We were just talking about three interesting pieces of information from Rasmussen… We didn’t put on the screen that it added up to 100 percent… The mistake I do see is we could have been a little clearer here

Media Matters has responded to Petterson’s statements:

Lauren Petterson clearly did not watch the segment in question. Host Steve Doocy agreed with Media Matters’ interpretation seeing as he attempted to add up these numbers as they appeared on air and said “so you get 90 – you got a lot of people.” On Fox News, percentages don’t add up to 100 and, apparently, “zero tolerance” means unless we get caught

So, there are a few possible scenarios here: 1) Lauren Petterson does not understand percentages, 2) Petterson does understand percentages but is inept at displaying data correctly, 3) Petterson did not watch the segment and responded without fact checking, or 4) Petterson, executive producer of the show that made the mistake, is an outright liar.

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Fox & Friends used a Rasmussen poll to show how people feel about scientists falsifying research to support Global Warming. Fox News then took the poll results, did some manipulation, and displayed the results… totaling 120%.

Apparently, the actual poll results were as follows: According to the poll, 35 percent thought it very likely, 24 percent somewhat likely, 21 percent not very likely, and 5 percent not likely at all (15 percent weren’t sure).

Fox News added the “very likely” and “somewhat likely” figures together, which total 59% and retained the “somewhat likely” label. They then included the 35% “very likely” in their graphic in addition to the new “somewhat likely” votes. The result shows a total of 120% and that doesn’t include the 15% who weren’t sure…

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When President Obama spoke at West Point about sending more troops to Afghanistan, there were several instances where he mentioned success. However, Fox & Friends would have you believe he didn’t:

DOOCY: Interestingly enough, of the 4,581 words in his speech, one word was missing. That word was “win.”

Similarly, The Fox Nation web site states that there was no mention of “victory.” Here’s a screenshot:

Here are a few examples from Obama’s speech that prove Steve Doocy and The Fox Nation wrong:

OBAMA: Good evening. To the United States Corps of Cadets, to the men and women of our Armed Services, and to my fellow Americans: I want to speak to you tonight about our effort in Afghanistan — the nature of our commitment there, the scope of our interests, and the strategy that my administration will pursue to bring this war to a successful conclusion. It’s an extraordinary honor for me to do so here at West Point — where so many men and women have prepared to stand up for our security, and to represent what is finest about our country.

[...]

OBAMA: Because this is an international effort, I’ve asked that our commitment be joined by contributions from our allies. Some have already provided additional troops, and we’re confident that there will be further contributions in the days and weeks ahead. Our friends have fought and bled and died alongside us in Afghanistan. And now, we must come together to end this war successfully. For what’s at stake is not simply a test of NATO’s credibility — what’s at stake is the security of our allies, and the common security of the world.

[...]

OBAMA: Third, we will act with the full recognition that our success in Afghanistan is inextricably linked to our partnership with Pakistan.

Obviously Fox News is playing a petty game of semantics. In the future, perhaps, the President and his speech writers should try and figure out what word Fox News will try to use against him and then whip out the ol’ thesaurus (i.e. Win – v.: finish first, succeed, achieve, be first, be victorious, beat, carry the day, come in first, conquer, edge, finish in front, finish off, gain, gain victory, overcome, overwhelm, prevail, run circles around, shut out, sink, take the prize, triumph, upset, walk away with, walk off with).

Or not… A better idea would be to send a thesaurus to Fox News so they can look up synonyms for “win,” or “victory,” and not keep making the same idiotic mistakes, like they did with Obama’s stance on terrorism.

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Organizing for America director Mitch Stewart has come under attack by the trio from Fox & Friends over a comparison they made involving Sarah Palin and terrorists.

Here is their discussion (emphasis added):

DOOCY: All right, meanwhile, as we talk about those Gitmo guys, you know who’s really dangerous? Is it Khalid Shaikh Mohammed? Is it –

KILMEADE: Major Hasan?

DOOCY: — any of those guys? No. There’s an organization out there called Organizing for America, which is Barack Obama’s online group. And one of the guys in charge of that is saying that something that is really dangerous is the Sarah Palin book tour.

CARLSON: Well, apparently, because they are trying to create, you know, a firestorm again. She’s an easy target, and so now she could be more dangerous than any terrorist out there. In the meantime, there’s all that confusion, too. You remember that other book was coming out at the exact same time that looked just like her book, except it’s called Going Rouge? There it is. You know, it’s very confusing. It looks very similar, so apparently some people are being confused by the two books.

KILMEADE: Harper Collins has taken out money to put out ads together so people know how to order the right book. But I’ll tell you one thing. This is why I think, tactically and politically, they should fear Sarah Palin. This book sale –

DOOCY: Absolutely.

KILMEADE: — and her popularity are so much bigger than even her supporters could imagine.

DOOCY: Right. And so it’s a little payback from Harper Collins, because they didn’t like the idea that, rather than Going Rogue, there was this Going Rouge book out. So people who type in Going Rouge will actually be redirected to buy the actual book. And that organizing group from the Barack Obama organization, what they’re doing is they’re trying to raise half a million dollars to, quote, “push back against Sarah Palin and her allies.” Push back.

Here’s the email sent by Stewart that references Palin & her book tour:

Click to enlarge

Note that the email does not contain any reference to terrorists, or terrorism, whatsoever. That is all a figment of the Fox & Friends collective imagination.

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Fox & Friends ran the caption shown below stating, “Republicans’ hope rekindled; Wins send shockwaves thru Congress.” If they were referring to Republicans’ hope that the Democrats would win both congressional seats up for grabs, then they were right… Otherwise, Fox & Friends was misleading its viewers. Again.

Here are the results of the two races:

NY-23: Democrat Bill Owens defeated Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

CA-10: Democrat John Garamendi defeated Republican David Harmer.

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Last month, George Will revealed that Fox & Friends host Gretchen Carlson‘s former babysitter is Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).

When [Bachmann] was a teenager in Anoka, Minn., she was a nanny for a young girl named Gretchen Carlson. Today, Carlson, a Stanford honors graduate who studied at Oxford, is a host of “Fox & Friends,” the morning show on — wouldn’t you know — Fox News Channel. See how far ahead the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy plans?

The two reunited on Fox & Friends to discuss and promote Bachmann’s anti-health care reform protest. Bachmann is known for her “colorful” use of words to incite fear, such as calling health care reform the “crown jewel of socialism” and the vote being the “Super Bowl of freedom.” And there was the lovely, “look at the whites of their eyes of their members of Congress and say, ‘don’t you remember? I told you don’t take away my health care.” Of course, we all know the saying that you are to see the “whites of their eyes” before shooting an enemy. Naturally, Bachmann’s rhetoric went unchallenged on FNC.

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It’s a wonder that there are still so many people who don’t question Fox News Channel’s honesty, but rather question why it’s criticized so much lately. Considering they get their news from FNC they wouldn’t know that shows like Fox & Friends get caught doing things like using an outdated poll to show that they’re “much more balanced.” Of course, these polls don’t dig too deep and definitely don’t show a full picture, but the issue here is the fact that Fox & Friends is being dishonest in their presentation.

Here is what you’d see if you watched Fox & Friends:

Here is the reality – in other words, using a poll that’s not a year old:

The survey found: “More than three times as many Republicans (34%) as Democrats (10%) say they get most of their national and international news from Fox. By comparison, Democrats are more than twice as likely than Republicans to cite CNN (29% vs. 13%). A similar pattern is evident for MSNBC, with more Democrats (9%) than Republicans (3%) citing it as a main news source.” Nineteen percent of independents said they get most of their national and international news from Fox.

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Fox & Friends hosts Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy were gabbing away with Dana Perino about how wrong they think it is that the Obama administration is finally standing up against the numerous falsehoods and manipulations aired by Fox News. Below are quotes from Steve Doocy, a video clip and an excerpt from the Newsweek article he refers to.

DOOCY: And you know it’s funny Dana, I didn’t do a thorough search, but I did do a little Google thing. The New York Times came out against it, The Nation refers to, says there’s a word for what the President and his aids are doing and that’s “whining” and refers to the President as the “Whiner-in-Chief”, the Baltimore Sun thinks it’s stupid, and the Newsweek column said that it is essentially un-American.

The Newsweek article actually states the exact opposite – that Rupert Murdoch and Fox News are un-American. Doocy showed that he couldn’t even correctly read the title of the article, The O’Garbage Factor. Fox News isn’t just bad. It’s un-American.

NEWSWEEK: What’s most distinctive about the American press is not its freedom but its century-old tradition of independence—that it serves the public interest rather than those of parties, persuasions, or pressure groups. Media independence is a 20th-century innovation that has never fully taken root in many other countries that do have a free press. The Australian-British-continental model of politicized media that Murdoch has applied at Fox is un-American, so much so that he has little choice but go on denying what he’s doing as he does it. For Murdoch, Ailes, and company, “fair and balanced” is a necessary lie. To admit that their coverage is slanted by design would violate the American understanding of the media’s role in democracy and our idea of what constitutes fair play. But it’s a demonstrable deceit that no longer deserves equal time.

So, as you can see, Doocy complains that the criticism of Fox News is un-American while floating yet another falsehood about the Obama administration.

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