witness23
Veteran Expediter
UPDATED: Most Embarrassing Failures Of The Year By Conservative Websites
Link: UPDATED: Most Embarrassing Failures Of The Year By Conservative Websites | Media Matters for America
7. Obama spends $200 million/day to go to India
In November, the President went to India. According to an online report at the Press Trust of India, the trip was going to cost "$200 million per day" and use "34 warships" for Obama's protection.
If you're thinking that sounds ridiculous, then you have more common sense than conservative bloggers, radio hosts, elected officials, and Fox News.
On November 2, Matt Drudge hyped the article from the Press Trust of India. Conservative websites like Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller, WorldNetDaily, MichelleMalkin.com, and many, many others quickly ran with it as well.
Of course, there was no way a story this absurd could stay within the confines of the conservative blogosphere, and it was picked up by, among others, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity.
Once again, conservative media outlets let their commitment to a narrative -- in this case "Obama is an arrogant, free-spending fancy man" -- trump even rudimentary attempts at fact-checking.
The White House said the numbers have "no basis in reality"; the Secret Service called them "significantly exaggerated"; and the Pentagon called the claim about the 34 warships "absolutely absurd" and "comical," pointing out that such a fleet would constitute 10 percent of the Navy.
You might think a story like this would give them pause the next time Drudge hypes a sketchy report from the foreign press, but it won't.
6. What Hawaiian Earthquake? Oh, that one.
In March, Obama was interviewed by Fox News' Bret Baier about health care reform legislation and defended a provision in the bill that would, in his words, stipulate that "if a state has been affected by a natural catastrophe, that has created a special health care emergency in that state, they should get help." Obama added that the provision "also affects Hawaii, which went through an earthquake."
Jim Hoft, who has never met a story he couldn't botch horribly, proceeded to mock the president, asking in a headline "Um...What Earthquake in Hawaii?"
Hoft claimed that the president was either "completely making stuff up now or we all missed some horrible devastating earthquake in Hawaii." It will not surprise you to find out that it was the latter.
Though Hoft was confident that there had not been an earthquake in Hawaii since 1975, the U.S. Geological Survey disagreed, noting that there was a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in Hawaii in October 2006.
While Hoft probably thinks the US Geological Survey is part of the liberal media conspiracy, President Bush himself declared that "a major disaster exists in the state of Hawaii" due to "an earthquake that occurred on October 15, 2006, and related aftershocks."
Breitbart TV, Matt Drudge, Hot Air, and Michelle Malkin all quickly picked up Hoft's attempted gotcha, as usual without bothering to see if it was right. The falsehood was even repeated by the hosts of Fox & Friends, who had actually covered the earthquake when it happened.
How many times does Hoft have to embarrass himself before conservatives learn to check his work before reprinting it? We're still waiting to find out.
This is one of my favorites:
5. Obama Bans Sport Fishing
Back in March, an ESPNOutdoors.com opinion writer took a gander at the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force's interim report on coastal and marine planning and decided that hidden within it was evidence of a federal strategy that "could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing." He provided absolutely no evidence for why this might happen (ESPN eventually acknowledged the column had "errors" and a lack of "balance") but that minor detail didn't slow down the conservative perpetual outrage machine.
Jim Hoft labeled the story "Obama's latest assault on your rights" and decided that Obama "Will Ban Sport Fishing." Fox Nation ran with Hoft's story at the top of their website, but, responsible journalists that they are, went ahead and added a question mark to the end of their headline.
Among others, Red State and Michelle Malkin also used the story as evidence of Obama's steadfast commitment to infringing on the rights of the American people.
The "story" quickly made the leap to Fox Business, where Eric Bolling claimed that Obama was going to "prohibit fishing."
Then, on March 10, Glenn Beck got a hold of it. And while this story might seem like just another drop in the bucket that is the conservative media's complete lack editorial standards, it provides a nice illustration of the absurd theater that is Glenn Beck's nightly Fox News program.
Have a look at his performance that night, keeping in mind that you are still free to go fishing.
You really need to click on the link to really appreciate the story:
Beck echoes absurd claim that Obama wants to ban fishing | Media Matters for America
4. Conservative Magic Eye: Islam Edition
Conservatives bloggers' Islamophobia is so powerful that it regularly causes them to find Islamic symbols and messages hidden in buildings, landscapes, and logos.
In April, Pam Geller (of course), Jim Hoft, Fox & Friends, and the New York Post all discovered a startling fact: that, in the words of Hoft, "Obama's nuclear summit logo is an Islamic Crest." Of course, it wasn't an "Islamic Crest." It was, as pointed out by Jon Stewart, modeled on the "the Rutherford-Bohr Model of the atom that we all learned about in high school."
Apparently, conservative bloggers have short memories about these things, because two months prior to embarrassing themselves over the Nuclear Summit Logo, they caused a similarly inane kerfuffle over the Missile Defense Agency Logo. Depending on which unhinged conservative writer you were reading that week, the Missile Defense Logo either looked like an Islamic crescent, the Iranian Space Agency's logo, the Obama campaign logo, the Pepsi logo, or some unholy combination of them all.
For her part, Pam Geller has probably set the record for discovering secret messages from Islam in the world around her. In addition to finding crescents in government logos, this year she also saw an Islamic crescent in the design for the Flight 93 memorial and uncovered imaginary "Tumbling Star of Davids" in the design of the Park51 community center.
Speaking of the Park51 center, according to conservative bloggers, not only were they sending messages with the shapes on their walls, but the very fact that they shaped it like a building was a slap in America's face.
As we covered back in August, when NewsBusters' Mark Finkelstein announced that startling discovery:
Finkelstein then announced that the "ad was illuminating for another, chilling, reason," which I'll let him explain. Take it away, Mark:
It's been a particularly embarrassing year for the crew at NewsBusters.
That being said, I'm confident that no other "media criticism" from that crew encapsulated the inanity of their entire operation better than Finkelstein parsing the "certain implicit triumphalism" inherent in shaping the Park51 center like a building.
Check back tomorrow for stories 1-3.
Link: UPDATED: Most Embarrassing Failures Of The Year By Conservative Websites | Media Matters for America
7. Obama spends $200 million/day to go to India
In November, the President went to India. According to an online report at the Press Trust of India, the trip was going to cost "$200 million per day" and use "34 warships" for Obama's protection.
If you're thinking that sounds ridiculous, then you have more common sense than conservative bloggers, radio hosts, elected officials, and Fox News.
On November 2, Matt Drudge hyped the article from the Press Trust of India. Conservative websites like Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller, WorldNetDaily, MichelleMalkin.com, and many, many others quickly ran with it as well.
Of course, there was no way a story this absurd could stay within the confines of the conservative blogosphere, and it was picked up by, among others, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity.
Once again, conservative media outlets let their commitment to a narrative -- in this case "Obama is an arrogant, free-spending fancy man" -- trump even rudimentary attempts at fact-checking.
The White House said the numbers have "no basis in reality"; the Secret Service called them "significantly exaggerated"; and the Pentagon called the claim about the 34 warships "absolutely absurd" and "comical," pointing out that such a fleet would constitute 10 percent of the Navy.
You might think a story like this would give them pause the next time Drudge hypes a sketchy report from the foreign press, but it won't.
6. What Hawaiian Earthquake? Oh, that one.
In March, Obama was interviewed by Fox News' Bret Baier about health care reform legislation and defended a provision in the bill that would, in his words, stipulate that "if a state has been affected by a natural catastrophe, that has created a special health care emergency in that state, they should get help." Obama added that the provision "also affects Hawaii, which went through an earthquake."
Jim Hoft, who has never met a story he couldn't botch horribly, proceeded to mock the president, asking in a headline "Um...What Earthquake in Hawaii?"
Hoft claimed that the president was either "completely making stuff up now or we all missed some horrible devastating earthquake in Hawaii." It will not surprise you to find out that it was the latter.
Though Hoft was confident that there had not been an earthquake in Hawaii since 1975, the U.S. Geological Survey disagreed, noting that there was a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in Hawaii in October 2006.
While Hoft probably thinks the US Geological Survey is part of the liberal media conspiracy, President Bush himself declared that "a major disaster exists in the state of Hawaii" due to "an earthquake that occurred on October 15, 2006, and related aftershocks."
Breitbart TV, Matt Drudge, Hot Air, and Michelle Malkin all quickly picked up Hoft's attempted gotcha, as usual without bothering to see if it was right. The falsehood was even repeated by the hosts of Fox & Friends, who had actually covered the earthquake when it happened.
How many times does Hoft have to embarrass himself before conservatives learn to check his work before reprinting it? We're still waiting to find out.
This is one of my favorites:
5. Obama Bans Sport Fishing
Back in March, an ESPNOutdoors.com opinion writer took a gander at the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force's interim report on coastal and marine planning and decided that hidden within it was evidence of a federal strategy that "could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing." He provided absolutely no evidence for why this might happen (ESPN eventually acknowledged the column had "errors" and a lack of "balance") but that minor detail didn't slow down the conservative perpetual outrage machine.
Jim Hoft labeled the story "Obama's latest assault on your rights" and decided that Obama "Will Ban Sport Fishing." Fox Nation ran with Hoft's story at the top of their website, but, responsible journalists that they are, went ahead and added a question mark to the end of their headline.
Among others, Red State and Michelle Malkin also used the story as evidence of Obama's steadfast commitment to infringing on the rights of the American people.
The "story" quickly made the leap to Fox Business, where Eric Bolling claimed that Obama was going to "prohibit fishing."
Then, on March 10, Glenn Beck got a hold of it. And while this story might seem like just another drop in the bucket that is the conservative media's complete lack editorial standards, it provides a nice illustration of the absurd theater that is Glenn Beck's nightly Fox News program.
Have a look at his performance that night, keeping in mind that you are still free to go fishing.
You really need to click on the link to really appreciate the story:
Beck echoes absurd claim that Obama wants to ban fishing | Media Matters for America
4. Conservative Magic Eye: Islam Edition
Conservatives bloggers' Islamophobia is so powerful that it regularly causes them to find Islamic symbols and messages hidden in buildings, landscapes, and logos.
In April, Pam Geller (of course), Jim Hoft, Fox & Friends, and the New York Post all discovered a startling fact: that, in the words of Hoft, "Obama's nuclear summit logo is an Islamic Crest." Of course, it wasn't an "Islamic Crest." It was, as pointed out by Jon Stewart, modeled on the "the Rutherford-Bohr Model of the atom that we all learned about in high school."
Apparently, conservative bloggers have short memories about these things, because two months prior to embarrassing themselves over the Nuclear Summit Logo, they caused a similarly inane kerfuffle over the Missile Defense Agency Logo. Depending on which unhinged conservative writer you were reading that week, the Missile Defense Logo either looked like an Islamic crescent, the Iranian Space Agency's logo, the Obama campaign logo, the Pepsi logo, or some unholy combination of them all.
For her part, Pam Geller has probably set the record for discovering secret messages from Islam in the world around her. In addition to finding crescents in government logos, this year she also saw an Islamic crescent in the design for the Flight 93 memorial and uncovered imaginary "Tumbling Star of Davids" in the design of the Park51 community center.
Speaking of the Park51 center, according to conservative bloggers, not only were they sending messages with the shapes on their walls, but the very fact that they shaped it like a building was a slap in America's face.
As we covered back in August, when NewsBusters' Mark Finkelstein announced that startling discovery:
Finkelstein then announced that the "ad was illuminating for another, chilling, reason," which I'll let him explain. Take it away, Mark:
"Have a look at the screencap below showing the mosque's proposed design [note that the anti-mosque group wasn't misrepresenting the design. See mosque architect's rendering here]. Sure looks a lot like the WTC towers themselves, doesn't it? Hard to imagine that's a coincidence. A certain implicit triumphalism involved?"
To save you the click, here's the artist's rendering that Finkelstein links to:
Shocking, right? Look at it just standing there, mocking us with its four sides and rectangular shape - almost like a building.
It's been a particularly embarrassing year for the crew at NewsBusters.
That being said, I'm confident that no other "media criticism" from that crew encapsulated the inanity of their entire operation better than Finkelstein parsing the "certain implicit triumphalism" inherent in shaping the Park51 center like a building.
Check back tomorrow for stories 1-3.
