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.

Source

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!

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.

Original Story

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.

Original Story

Various Fox News personalities have been fixating on what they call an attempt to “kill” their patriotic music. Here is what they had to say, then check the whole truth below.

BRET BAIER: “[T]he House of Representatives today faced the music and reversed a decision to kill the patriotic tunes callers hear when they’re put on hold.”

SEAN HANNITY: “Now, up until now, you probably have been enjoying lovely patriotic tunes. Well, that is until Nancy Pelosi had anything to say about it. Under the current Democratic leadership, patriotic music was replaced with smooth jazz elevator music.”

STEVE DOOCY: “[I]n what has got to go down as one of the most boneheaded moves of the summer, which is now concluding as we approach Labor Day, apparently Nancy Pelosi and the House leadership had said … we’re going to have a test project where, for three weeks, we’re going to get rid of the patriotic music.”

So, what’s really going on? There is no conspiracy to eliminate patriotic music. House Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Daniel Beard’s spokesman Jeff Ventura had this to say:

The music was changed during recess as a pilot program in an attempt to offer offices a choice of hold music. [...]

This had nothing to do with the leadership — not in the beginning or the final outcome.

Original Story

Fox News is reporting that American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has lost 60,000 members since July 1, 2009. Keep reading to see why the following claims are BS.

Hannity claimed loss of 60,000 members “very indicative.” On August 18, Fox News’ Sean Hannity stated: “[W]hat are we to make of the AARP? According to reports now — CBS News had a report — 60,000 members of the AARP have left. I think that’s very indicative that they’re losing seniors. There is a conservative alternative, American Seniors for Choice, which is against Obama’s plan. They gained as many as 5,000 members.” He also stated that AARP’s “love affair” with President Obama “has cost the AARP tens of thousands of members.”

Fox News’ Van Susteren: “Sixty thousand senior citizens have bolted AARP.” On the August 18 edition of her Fox News show, Greta Van Susteren stated: “They’re out — 60,000 of them. Sixty thousand senior citizens have bolted AARP since July 1.” She then interviewed an AARP member who stated that she is planning to quit the group because of her views on the AARP’s position on health care reform.

Doocy: “Sixty thousand people: that is the number of people who have left or canceled AARP.” On August 19, Fox News Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy stated: “Sixty thousand people: that is the number of people who have left or canceled AARP — the American Association of Retired Persons — since July 1st. Some members are outraged and continue to criticize the over-50 group because of their support for health care reform.” The following graphic appeared onscreen while Doocy spoke:

There are two sides to every story, and in this case the other side provides the whole truth… Let’s look at the figures, first, regarding membership numbers for AARP to see why Fox News’ claims are misleading. AARP claims that they regularly lose 300,000 members per month due to reasons including death. AARP also gained 400,000 members and 1.5 million members have renewed since July 1. AARP has around 40 million members, making that 60,000 a fraction of a percent.

Original Story

The following screen capture shows the caption, “President’s Distorted Reality? Claims there is no more terrorism” while the subject of Barack Obama’s Cairo speech was being discussed on Fox & Friends. Of course, this is hardly honest, or factual.

Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy stated, “War on terror must be over. In fact, terrorism no longer a problem because the president never, not once, mentioned war on terror.” Semantics aside, President Obama did address, at length, the topic of violent extremism in his speech at Cairo University. Just because he didn’t repeat the terror, terrorist, terrorism mantra like Bush did, ad naseum, doesn’t mean the topic wasn’t addressed, or that “there is no more terrorism. ”

Original Story