<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>McClellan: Fox News Commentators Use The ‘Talking Points’ That The White House Sends Them? On MSNBC’s Hardball last night, host Chris Matthews asked former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan if he saw “FOX television as a tool” to get the White House’s “message out” while he was in the Bush administration. “Certainly there were commentators and other, pundits at FOX News, that were useful to the White House,” replied McClellan, adding that they were given “talking points.” Making a distinction between journalists like Brit Hume and commentators like Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, McClellan admitted that “certainly” the White House used Fox News talking heads as “spokespeople” with “a script”: MATTHEWS: So, you wouldn’t use Brit Hume to sell stuff for them, but you’d use some of the nighttime guys? MCCLELLAN: Yeah, I would separate that out, and certainly I, you know, they’ll say, that’s because they agree with those views in the White House. MATTHEWS: Well, they didn’t need a script though, did they? MCCLELLAN: No, well, probably not. McClellan later told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann that “it was done frequently, especially on high-profile issues” and that Fox often gave the White House “its desired results.” Current Press Secretary Dana Perino would only tell Olbermann, “I’m not aware of that.” Watch it: Fox News’s close relationship to the Bush administration should come as no surprise to anyone, considering Fox’s Neil Cavuto once ran a segment asking if George W. Bush was “the best President.” But, as Olbermann notes, it “is one of those things you assumed to be true all along, yet you are shocked when the hard confirmation actually shows up on your door.” Not only is Fox the network the White House turned to when Vice President Dick Cheney had to explain how he shot his friend in the face, but the network has also produced sympathetic documentaries on both Cheney and President Bush.</div> Link
Okay. Now that I've stopped laughing...somewhat. This really doesn't surprise me. As I've been known to joke, Hannity doesn't have an opinion until Karl Rove tells him what it is.
I caught the end of O'Reilly's show yesterday and he flat-out denied he ever received a script or talking points from the white house. Someone in this mix is an outright liar. Who has the motive? Looks like McLellan, to me. He's being paid by MSNBC to say what their audience wants to hear... er rather what the bosses there want them to say.
This all started on "Reliable Sources" on CNN. Howard Kurtz bought this up and Scott McClellan appeared on MSNBC'S Harball to talk about it. Olbermann tried to turn this into an attack on Fox News' journalistic integrity and an attack on Bill O'Reilly. [video=youtube;G2jQENzth0s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2jQENzth0s&feature=related[/video] Did Bill O'Reilly recieve talking points? Well, as Olbermann himself would say, [video=youtube;fMyAuzKOSSE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMyAuzKOSSE[/video]. By McClellan's own admission, Bill O'Reilly didn't recieve talking points from the White House. As far as Fox News' journalistic integrity, McClellan specifically pointed out that WH did not send out talking points to reporters like Brit Hume, but sent them to "the nightime guys" MATTHEWS: So, you wouldn’t use Brit Hume to sell stuff for them, but you’d use some of the nighttime guys? MCCLELLAN: Yeah, I would separate that out, and certainly I, you know, they’ll say, that’s because they agree with those views in the White House. So if Bill O'Reilly didn't recieve talking points, that leaves only Sean Hannity. I could absolutely see Hannity recieving talking points from the White House, that would be no shock at all, his ideology fits perfectly with the Bush-neocon line of thinking. Unfortunately for Fox News though, they will be slammed for this.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chutney @ Jul 29 2008, 09:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I don't buy it, even though I can't stand a lot of Fox News' personalities.</div> Hah, same over here.
I don't know about Hannity. Never heard of a denial on his part. Plus he has a radio talk show, and that's nothing at all resembling a news channel or news channel program. One of my pet peeves with Rush Limbaugh is his show is effectively a 3 hour (is it that long still?) commercial for republican candidates, especially the presidential ones. The first amendment grants him the right to do that if he likes, but it should be kept in perspective.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Denny Crane @ Jul 29 2008, 08:28 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I caught the end of O'Reilly's show yesterday and he flat-out denied he ever received a script or talking points from the white house. Someone in this mix is an outright liar. Who has the motive? Looks like McLellan, to me. He's being paid by MSNBC to say what their audience wants to hear... er rather what the bosses there want them to say.</div> Mark this down; I am about to say something somewhat complimentary about Billo & Newscorp. Not only he is the least of all evils @ FNC. He is the most capable of independent thought... note I did not say correct or same... but, hey no one's perfect. I love the Fox Business Network or is that; Tracy Byrnes, Rebecca Gomez, Sandra Smith, & Nicole Petallides? Go ahead google 'em. I mean run their names through a search engine.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Denny Crane @ Jul 29 2008, 09:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I don't know about Hannity. Never heard of a denial on his part. Plus he has a radio talk show, and that's nothing at all resembling a news channel or news channel program. One of my pet peeves with Rush Limbaugh is his show is effectively a 3 hour (is it that long still?) commercial for republican candidates, especially the presidential ones. The first amendment grants him the right to do that if he likes, but it should be kept in perspective.</div> Yeah but the thing about talk radio is, most of the people that listen ro Rush's program are right-wing Republicans who are going to vote for these people anyway. What happens on the airwaves of CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News and CNN are far more important than what happens on Rush Limbaugh's program, because their influence extends across the entire political spectrum since they claim to be unbiased reporters of the truth, unlike people like Rush who's influence is restricted mostly, if not completely, to right-wing Republicans.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Real)</div><div class='quotemain'>Yeah but the thing about talk radio is, most of the people that listen ro Rush's program are right-wing Republicans who are going to vote for these people anyway. What happens on the airwaves of CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News and CNN are far more important than what happens on Rush Limbaugh's program, because their influence extends across the entire political spectrum since they claim to be unbiased reporters of the truth, unlike people like Rush who's influence is restricted mostly, if not completely, to right-wing Republicans.</div> So, there is a reasons Limbaugh's fans are called dittoheads?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thoth @ Jul 29 2008, 09:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Real)</div><div class='quotemain'>Yeah but the thing about talk radio is, most of the people that listen ro Rush's program are right-wing Republicans who are going to vote for these people anyway. What happens on the airwaves of CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News and CNN are far more important than what happens on Rush Limbaugh's program, because their influence extends across the entire political spectrum since they claim to be unbiased reporters of the truth, unlike people like Rush who's influence is restricted mostly, if not completely, to right-wing Republicans.</div> So, there is a reasons Limbaugh's fans are called dittoheads? </div> Ehh I'm not really familiar with that term in terms of Rush's viewers. I haven't heard that before. I don't listen to Rush everyday. If I'm in the car driving around and I don't feel like listening to music or the news, I'll turn on Rush if he's on, or O'Reilly, or Hannity, or Savage. If I had to pick a "favorite," I'd have to say I really like Mark Levin, not because of his views but because he always goes nuts everyday, and it's great comedic value.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thoth @ Jul 29 2008, 09:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Real)</div><div class='quotemain'>Yeah but the thing about talk radio is, most of the people that listen ro Rush's program are right-wing Republicans who are going to vote for these people anyway. What happens on the airwaves of CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News and CNN are far more important than what happens on Rush Limbaugh's program, because their influence extends across the entire political spectrum since they claim to be unbiased reporters of the truth, unlike people like Rush who's influence is restricted mostly, if not completely, to right-wing Republicans.</div> So, there is a reasons Limbaugh's fans are called <u>dittoheads</u>? </div> Dittohead 1. A person addicted to prescription painkillers 2. a fan of the Rush Limbaugh show 3. Someone who seeks to make sense of American politics, but delegates the task to a right-wing radio pundit, resulting in a chasm between what is believed to be true and objective reality.
When riding in my coworker's car, he had Michael Savage on the radio. Savage has a really hateful personality, and he misrepresents entire groups of people. He was screaming on and on about Muslims. One of the things he said that really threw up a red flag, was when he ended a sentence with, "...and we are all aware that Muslim soldiers are all homosexual..." It was just too outrageous for me to believe, so I haven't listened to him since.
I heard Savage's show a couple of times, but that was 15 years ago. He wasn't that bad then. I must say, though, that in 1992, I had to pull over my car to the side of the road to not cause an accident. I tuned to Rush's show and he was playing Napolean XIV's song "They're coming to take me away (ha ha)" but in Ross Perot's voice.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Denny Crane @ Jul 29 2008, 11:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I heard Savage's show a couple of times, but that was 15 years ago. He wasn't that bad then. I must say, though, that in 1992, I had to pull over my car to the side of the road to not cause an accident. I tuned to Rush's show and he was playing Napolean XIV's song "They're coming to take me away (ha ha)" but in Ross Perot's voice.</div> Wow man, scary. I didn't know Savage was THAT bad.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (huevonkiller @ Jul 29 2008, 11:49 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Denny Crane @ Jul 29 2008, 11:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I heard Savage's show a couple of times, but that was 15 years ago. He wasn't that bad then. I must say, though, that in 1992, I had to pull over my car to the side of the road to not cause an accident. I tuned to Rush's show and he was playing Napolean XIV's song "They're coming to take me away (ha ha)" but in Ross Perot's voice.</div> Wow man, scary. I didn't know Savage was THAT bad. </div> He starts talking with lots of venom, picks up the tempo, then slips in little nuggets like that before you even know what just hit you.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The Return of the Raider @ Jul 29 2008, 10:28 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thoth @ Jul 29 2008, 09:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Real)</div><div class='quotemain'>Yeah but the thing about talk radio is, most of the people that listen ro Rush's program are right-wing Republicans who are going to vote for these people anyway. What happens on the airwaves of CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News and CNN are far more important than what happens on Rush Limbaugh's program, because their influence extends across the entire political spectrum since they claim to be unbiased reporters of the truth, unlike people like Rush who's influence is restricted mostly, if not completely, to right-wing Republicans.</div> So, there is a reasons Limbaugh's fans are called <u>dittoheads</u>? </div> Dittohead 1. A person addicted to prescription painkillers 2. a fan of the Rush Limbaugh show 3. Someone who seeks to make sense of American politics, but delegates the task to a right-wing radio pundit, resulting in a chasm between what is believed to be true and objective reality. </div> There's a chasm between truth and reality on conservative talk radio.... I'm shocked.
I'll just say this for Savage. He has a Ph.D. from Cal-Berkeley and is part of the irrational right who has never met a wedge issue they didn't like.
