11 Comments Add your own

• 1. Orlando Clay  |  August 15th, 2008 at 6:05 pm

  Not quite, Pat. It would be far more accurate to title this post “FAIR AND BALANCED, TO THE RIGHT.”

• 2. ljgoodie  |  August 15th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

  why the cuts made to seem like obama was talking about the question brought up by fox… this is clearly a video from an obama supporter cut togheter…..

• 3. Chadwick S. Swenson  |  August 15th, 2008 at 8:05 pm

  Where is the compilation of videos (sans sound effects and creative editing) displaying how the media traditionally slants the news to the Left? That would be fair and balanced but of course that is not a part of the Left’s agenda. To the Liberal media it would be unnecessary to ever present the opposing view of their Orwellian Media “Dupe-topia” where Conservatives are always evil and Christians and other People of Faith are mentally damaged and in need of re-education. And of course, where voters should never be allowed to think for themselves and should be shamed into voting for a person simply because of their race…

• 4. Pat Cunningham  |  August 15th, 2008 at 9:01 pm

  Oooh! Under the influence of the Fox News kool-aid, Chadwick and ljgoodie have figured out the great leftist media conspiracy. Chadwick also recognizes that the mainstream media are pushing a theme in which “Christians and other People of Faith are mentally deranged and in need of re-education.” But how is Chadwick going to reconcile the fact that Fox News is against Obama and the fact that Obama is a Christian? More to the point, if the mainstream media are anti-Christian, why aren’t they also anti-Obama? What a dilemma! I’ll bet Chadwick thinks that Obama is not a REAL Christian. Yeah, that must be it. Only conservatives are REAL Christians. The liberals are just fakers. The nerve of those devils!

• 5. Menlo Bob  |  August 16th, 2008 at 12:47 am

  So the guy who posts wrong information from left-wing websites suddenly has a problem with someone expressing an opinion?

• 6. Chadwick S. Swenson  |  August 16th, 2008 at 8:19 am

  Nice \"Kool-Aid\" jab, Pat. I\’m guessing you\’re a Bill O\’Rielly fan. For twenty years while I lived in Rockford and attended a prominent Lutheran church, I don\’t ever recall the pastor exclaiming \"God Damn America\". I also don\’t recall my pastor claiming the federal government created AIDS to kill Black People while also accepting fifteen million dollars in faith-based initiatives so the retiring pastor could build a McMansion. So thanks for pointing out that there is a difference between the churches Conservatives and Patriots attend and that Elitists and Liberals go to as they sham their way through an election…

• 7. Pat Cunningham  |  August 16th, 2008 at 8:25 am

  Bob: You’re wrong. Didn’t you notice that I agreed entirely with Chadwick? The mainstream media hate Christians but don’t hate Obama. Ergo, Obama is not a real Christian. It’s really quite simple. So, where did I indicate that I have a problem with someone expressing an opinion? I NEVER have such a problem, but I do reserve the right to express a competing opinion.

  One other thing, Bob. Upon reflection, I withdraw my concession that the site to which I linked regarding the oil spills was wrong. That site, Think Progress, said this:

  “In all, the two hurricanes caused 124 offshore spills for a total of 743,700 gallons, including six spills of 42,000 gallons or greater.”

  The site also quoted the MMS report as having said this about the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: “113 platforms totally destroyed, and 457 pipelines damaged, 101 of those major lines with 10 inches or larger diameter.”

  It also quoted Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman as having said this: “When we had Katrina and Rita, the two worst hurricanes in — at least in recent memory, in ‘05, some three years ago, there was not one case where we had a situation with oil or gas being spilled in the environment.”

  Obviously, Bodman was wrong.

  Your counterargument was this passage from the MMS report:

  “Hurricanes Katrina and Rita confirmed that our offshore oil and gas industry produces environmentally safe energy for America. Even in the face of two back-to-back major hurricanes, all subsurface safety valves held on the OCS and there was no significant spill from production. The small amounts of oil observed in the water surrounding platforms may have come from damaged pipelines or petroleum supplies for running platform machinery, but, as stated, it did not come from OCS production wells.”

  That’s pretty subjective stuff. It says, in effect, that 743,700 gallons of oil is a “small amount.”

  And it makes the point that the oil “may have come from damaged pipelines or petroleum supplies for running platform machinery, but, as stated, it did not come from OCS production wells.”

  Wells or pipelines or whatever, what’s the difference? The fact remains that oil was spilled. And the fact remains that Bodman said “there was not one case where we had a situation with oil or gas being spilled in the environment.” Not one case? Read the report, Sam.

  So, my acknowledgement of error is withdrawn. You can harangue all you want about left-wing Web sites, but I’m not buying the falsehood Bodman peddled on the right-wing Fox News.

  Therefore, Bob, you can quit bragging about having checkmated me. My only error was in having weakly caved in to you. Thanks for prompting me to revisit the issue.

• 8. Pat Cunningham  |  August 16th, 2008 at 8:33 am

  By the way, Chadwick, I’d be grateful if you’d enlighten us elitist non-patriots on the matter of exactly which of the mainstream news media are saying that “Christians and other People of Faith are mentally damaged and in need of re-education.” I’ve been around a lot of years, soaking up a lot of stuff from the mainstream news media, but I’ve never run across that kind of thing. How come you’ve noticed it when I haven’t? Tell us, great patriot.

• 9. Jason C  |  August 16th, 2008 at 10:07 am

  Hey now, I think Fox News is fair and balanced… when they actually just report the news, which is only about 5% of the time. The other 95% is commentary, in which they don’t have to be “fair and balanced”. Of course, this is now true of CNN, Headline News and MSNBC.

  Or maybe they’re considering fair and balanced to refer to the totality of media and how they represent a view opposite of the perceived bias in other media outlets. But if Fox thinks that their right wing balances the left wing of the so-called liberal news outlets, then maybe they should use a better tagline, like “fair and balancing”. That being said, I find Fox News unwatchable.

  Of course, it’s all because of the increasing commercialization of TV news. Not only does it introduce bias and sensationalism, it results in less news getting out “because the demographic doesn’t care about developments in X part of the world”. It’s self reinforcing, they give us less news about X part of the world and then use that as an excuse to give us more commentary because americans are ignorant about X part of the world. Thus, we get less actual actual news and then tons of repeats and filler, in the form of irresponsible talking heads who no normal person would listen to in real life. (Present company excluded, of course.)

  If want real news, I go to the radio and turn on WBBM.

• 10. Orlando Clay  |  August 16th, 2008 at 10:18 am

  Response to #4: Yes, Pat, the right does indeed espouse the “only conservatives can be Christians” belief. The local right-wingnut AM radio station here in Orlando has already started to spew this nonsense: “Being a Christian and a Democrat are mutually exclusive events. A vote for a Democrat is a vote for baby killers. There’s no way somebody who professes to be a Christian and votes Democrat can inherit the the Lord’s kingdom.” But, wait. It gets even better: “A vote for Obama is a vote for Osama.” “A vote for Obama is a vote for surrender in the war on terror.” “If Obama wins this election, may God have mercy on our country.” Normally, I listen to these AM hate-fests for entertainment, but these callers (who are not in the least bit discouraged by the show’s host for making such moronic statements) are totally serious. Scary stuff, to say the least.

• 11. Menlo Bob  |  August 16th, 2008 at 10:32 am

  Sauce–a damaged pipeline or destroyed platform does not mean that oil was spewing from them. As the report states, with minor exceptions, environmental safeguards on offshore oil rigs worked very well indeed. That is the issue–not a relatively small amount of oil coming from onshore sources.

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