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If anyone has any recommendations for changes or additions I’m always open to suggestions.

In light of the prospective deal on the debt ceiling, all of the propaganda machines are churning at full capacity, from Huffington Post to Fox News, Obama haters of all stripes and alleged political positions are joined in a chorus of furious, self-righteous bleating, like a flock of sheep with gas pains.

It’s quite a buffet of attacks to choose from, Obama betrayed Dems, was weak, outmaneuvered, is destroying the middle class, is ignorant, incompetent, a terrible negotiator, etc.

This deal marks the death of Keynesian economics, guarantees the death of the middle class, destroys Social Security and Medicare, assures a double dip recession or another Great Depression, will kill the entire bee population in the US, create an epidemic of impotency and make zombies rise from the dead to eat our brains (clearly not a threat to Republicans).

It’s easy to be a slanted pundit, just follow these easy directions:

1. Only recognize information that supports your pre-determined opinion (facts that don’t cooperate with already held opinions are not really facts, they are “Faecties”, imaginary things that only exist if you choose to believe in them).

2. Use your mind as a magnifying glass. Use it to burn those you see as ants then place it over any information that even tangentially supports your views to distort and exaggerate it and its impact on the future.

3. Never apologize. Sure, yesterday you may have said the world will blow up by the next day but just because it didn’t, that doesn’t prove you’re wrong, you may just be one day off. Instead, insist that despite claims to the contrary, the world is blowing up then quickly turn to another outrage which will surely be an even greater disaster (somehow).

4. Talk over others and ignore what they say or ask. You’ve spent all that time creatively carving up square facts to make them fit the round hole of your opinion (I’ll let you guess where it’s located), it’s just plain rude for others to interfere and insist square pegs should fit in square holes. Drown them out or wait for them to finish talking or asking questions (while ignoring what they say and instead humming the old Supertramp song to yourself, “Bloody Well Right”). When they’re done, just spout out your talking points as if they’re the answer to the question or statement you didn’t even listen to.

5. There is no such thing as “too hysterical”. Your category may be Politics but never forget that this is Show Business, emphasis on the “Show”. You’ve got to show outrage, frustration, smugness, cynicism and indignation. Often you’ll find that the day’s events thoughtlessly deprive you of legitimate reasons for giving your audience the emotional display they rely on.

That is why the InstaHowl 3000 from Outrage Manufacturing may be the most valuable investment in your career. Just input the day’s news into it, press the big red panic button and it will manufacture a variety of outrages that you can spout to whip up your audience (requires high decibels or big red fonts – not included).

Then there is the Mini-Me to this Dr. Evil, the herpes to this Black Plague…Troll Blogging.

Troll Blogging is a public pool where everyone is welcome from every part of the community to jump on in. And peeing in the pool is not only permitted, it’s encouraged.

As to the cast of characters in Troll Blogging, on the right, there are the earnest Dittoheads and Tea Partiers who have had megaphones implanted into their heads so their GOP authority figures can speak through them at will.

Then there are the paid and unpaid Arsonist Trolls who simply try to spark fires at moderate and Progressive sites to keep them busy stomping out tiny embers and disrupt their coming together to build or accomplish something.

Next are the Concern Trolls, Republican bloggers masquerading as Democrats and generously sharing their disappointment and disgust at how Obama has failed and betrayed “them” and all other Dems. They vow to never again vote for or support Obama, just as they vow to never again ride unicorns naked. These are the electronic equivalent of Trojan Horses only once inside the gates of Dem castles, they are evacuated out of the rear end of the horse.

Coming off similarly and resembling these horse’s asses are the so-called Dem Purists. They sing in chorus with Concern Trolls and are nearly indistinguishable except for the knives they leave in the backs of others.

Purists are fighting for your Democratic values…by trying to bring down the Democratic President and prepare the way for a right wing Republican to take over the White House. Only then can we return to the purity of Democratic principles and have all of them reunited in one safe place…a wish list.

After all, if there’s anything worse than not getting all the changes you want now, it’s getting more of them later. Their motto is “All or nothing!” and they’re not too sure about keeping the “All or” in there.

If President Obama killed Bin Laden, he’d be attacked for how he did it. If he passed health care reform that would insure most of the 50 million Americans who aren’t insured and those with pre-existing conditions, he’d be attacked for betraying Democratic values. If Obama saved the nation and the world from tumbling into a Great Depression through stimulus spending and loans to major industries, he’d be attacked for not doing enough. At least, that’s my guess.

For the types of people described above, Obama is playing the Purgatory version of Jeapordy, no matter how many answers you get right, you can never win.

“See, it’s the highest honor they can give you. It means you belong to a family and crew. It means that nobody can fuck around with you. It also means you could fuck around with anybody just as long as they aren’t also a member. It’s like a license to steal. It’s a license to do anything.”

Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) in “Goodfellas”

Many Americans have thought, “What Fox News does should be illegal,” but the recent revelations in the UK about the Murdoch Family seem to unequivocally prove that it’s parent company, News Corp International, is in fact a criminal operation. Does the thug fall far from the “family” tree? Murdoch may not even admit the existence of a News Corp Mafia, he may explain to those he “puts a hit” on, “It’s nuthin’ personal, it’s just business,” but to any citizen of any nation that wishes to preserve their democracy, it’s pretty damn personal.

The fingers of the Murdoch Family reach directly into government and those in power, into 10 Downing Street and under Bush, into the White House. In the UK, they were considered both by themselves and their critics, kingmakers who dare not be crossed if one seeks to win political office. In the US, they were involved in decisions made by the Bush Administration such as going to war in Iraq and they even played a key role in declaring Bush President over Gore despite final election results not being determined (and eventually showing Gore won).

Add to that their attempt this cycle to play kingmaker/queenmaker by having under contract and promoting nearly all of the potential 2012 GOP candidates for the presidency they could envision (Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum). It was their blatant goal to have influence and control over the 2012 Presidential election and hopefully its President…you know, just like most “news” organizations attempt.

From all that’s been exposed in the UK, News Corp International appears to be a de facto criminal operation. According to reports, they conceived of, ran and financed an ongoing series of crimes to gain profit and power, just like all organized crime groups. They appear to have hired and paid criminals to perform crimes on their behalf, acting as gangsters with known criminals on their payroll. It appears that they either bought off Scotland Yard policeman to look the other way or used their criminal operation to spy on them and extort them to do so. They even succeeded in getting the original Scotland Yard investigation into their criminal phone hacking operation to be dropped, likely by using their powers of bribery or intimidation.

In the UK, politicians, police and other media entities feared the News Corp Gang and still do. It is represented as unusual and brave for politicians in the UK, even after all of this is known, to speak out against them. Yes, the tide seems to be turning but what is daunting is to consider how long their oppressive grip on UK government and society has gone on and how hard Murdoch and his crew are working to keep their “territory”.

Though at this time, there is no evidence that Fox News or other parts of Murdoch’s empire in the US participated in this criminal operation, News Corp still looks to have broken US law. Under American law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) makes it a crime for American companies to offer corrupt payments to foreign government officials. Rupert’s son James who oversaw the UK Murdoch Crime Gang, may be in the crosshairs and even Rupert could have reason to be concerned.

If all of this happened in the US, one would expect RICO (The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) laws to be vigorously pursued, just as they’ve been used against others who have run criminal organizations. On one hand, it would be horrible to discover that such crimes were being perpetrated by The Murdoch Family in the US though on the other hand, it would not be surprising and it could cleanse our democracy and media to shut down criminals exploiting our freedom of the press to corrupt both.

What is indisputable from reports so far, is that News Corp International conducted a criminal operation in the UK with full knowledge and participation of its executives and under Rupert Murdoch’s oversight. Should Americans have a reason to expect anything other from The Murdoch Mafia’s other “family” set up in this country?

Each day, more explosive revelations come out of the UK about the criminal enterprise called News Corp International. To cap this article, especially for those who haven’t been following this as closely, here’s a bit of background about some of what’s come out so far including news that just came out today:

The hacking case broadened with revelations that the tabloid’s operatives are also suspected of hacking into the phones of victims of the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks on London’s transit system that killed 52 people.

A phone-hacking scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch’s media empire grew today with claims that Britain’s top-selling tabloid may have listened to the voicemail of relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

From the reporting of Robert Mackey at The New York Times:

Sally and Bob Dowler’s 13-year-old daughter, Milly, was abducted and killed in 2002. The revelation that Milly’s voice mail was hacked into and tampered with by The News of the World during the frantic search for her that year sparked widespread revulsion last week.

Sally Dowler recalled that, during the search, she had been given hope that her daughter was still alive when she discovered that voice mails had been deleted from her account. It later transpired that News of the World operatives had deleted the messages to free up space for more voice mail to be left, to provide the newspaper with more information for stories on the girl.

In a long interview with BBC News on Tuesday, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown was asked how he reacted, as a father, when Rebekah Brooks, who was at the time the editor of the News International tabloid The Sun, called to tell him that her paper had discovered that his infant son, Fraser, had cystic fibrosis, and planned to publish the information.

Mr. Brown said that he was “in tears – your son is now going to be broadcast across the media, Sarah and I were incredibly upset about it, we’re thinking about his long-term future, we’re thinking about our family. But there’s nothing you can do about it, you’re in public life and this story appears. You don’t know how it’s appeared, I’ve not questioned how it appeared, I’ve not made any allegations about how it appeared, I’ve not made any claims about how it appeared, but the fact is, it did appear, and it did appear in The Sun newspaper.”

Mr. Brown attacked News International, the British newspaper division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, for hiring “known criminals” to spy on him and other targets:

“I’m shocked, I’m genuinely shocked to find that this happened because of their links with criminals, known criminals who were undertaking this activity, hired by investigators who were working with the Sunday Times. And I just can’t understand this: if I, with all the protection and all the defenses and all the security that a chancellor of the exchequer or a prime minister has, is so vulnerable to unscrupulous tactics, unlawful tactics, to methods that have been used in the way that we’ve found – what about the ordinary citizen? “

In a prior appearance by Ms. Brooks before the committee in 2003, during which she said: “We have paid the police for information in the past.”

The man sitting next to Ms. Brooks during that appearance in 2003 was her former deputy at The News of the World, Andy Coulson, who resigned in January as Prime Minister David Cameron’s media adviser and was arrested last week in connection with a new investigation into bribery.

After Ms. Brooks hesitated and said, “It depends,” during that appearance, Mr. Coulson interrupted her and told the committee: “We operate within the code and within the law and if there is a clear public interest then we will. The same holds for private detectives, subterfuge….”

Last week, Tom Watson, a member of Parliament, claimed that investigators working for The News of the World when it was edited by Rebekah Brooks, who is now the chief executive of News International, had interfered with a police officer’s investigation of a murder to protect a private investigator who worked for the tabloid.

Sue Akers, the deputy assistant commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police who is leading the new investigation of the phone hacking scandal, told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that only about 170 of about 4,000 suspected victims of phone hacking have been alerted so far.

John Yates, acting deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police (a/k/a Scotland Yard), telling a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that he is “99 percent certain” that his own phone was hacked in 2005 and 2006.

Two former journalists for The News of the World – the newspaper at the epicenter of the scandal, which the Murdoch family closed last weekend – said police officers had been bribed to use restricted cellphone-tracking technology to pinpoint the location of people sought by the papers in their pursuit of scoops.”

Scotland Yard also had a symbiotic relationship with News of the World. The police sometimes built high-profile cases out of the paper’s exclusives, and News of the World reciprocated with fawning stories of arrests.Within days of the raids, several senior detectives said they began feeling internal pressure. One senior investigator said he was approached by Chris Webb, from the department’s press office, who was “waving his arms up in the air, saying, ‘Wait a minute – let’s talk about this.’ ” The investigator, who has since left Scotland Yard, added that Webb stressed the department’s “long-term relationship with News International.”

That fall, Andy Hayman, the head of the counterterrorism branch, was in his office when a senior investigator brought him 8 to 10 pages of a single-spaced “target list” of names and mobile phone numbers taken from Mulcaire’s home. It read like a British society directory. Scotland Yard officials consulted with the Crown Prosecution Service on how broadly to investigate. But the officials didn’t discuss certain evidence with senior prosecutors, including the notes suggesting the involvement of other reporters, according to a senior prosecutor on the case.

Mr. Hayman, who was Mr. Clarke’s superior, joined News International, as a columnist for The Times of London, after his retirement from the police force. In 2009, after The Guardian first reported that the scale of the hacking had been far greater than initially revealed by the police, Mr. Hayman asserted in a Times column that the initial inquiry was not a “half-hearted investigation – we put our best detectives on the case and left no stone unturned as officials breathed down our neck.”

He also wrote:

“The Guardian has said it understands that the police file shows that between 2,000 and 3,000 individuals had their mobile phones hacked into, far more than was ever officially admitted during the investigation and prosecution of Clive Goodman.”

The Mirror reported:

A former New York cop made the 9/11 hacking claim. He alleged he was contacted by News of the World journalists who said they would pay him to retrieve the private phone records of the dead.

Now working as a private ­investigator, the ex-officer claimed reporters wanted the victim’s phone numbers and details of the calls they had made and received in the days leading up to the atrocity.

A source said: “This investigator is used by a lot of journalists in America and he recently told me that he was asked to hack into the 9/11 victims’ private phone data. He said that the journalists asked him to access records showing the calls that had been made to and from the mobile phones belonging to the victims and their ­relatives.

“His presumption was that they wanted the information so they could hack into the ­relevant voicemails, just like it has been shown they have done in the UK. The PI said he had to turn the job down. He knew how insensitive such research would be, and how bad it would look.

I never wanted to be a pundit.
~Robert MacNeil

Let’s get this out of the way early. Almost all of us dislike punditry for various reasons. There may be a voice or two out there that we all hold in some esteem and try to set apart from the din of noise but, admit it, they let you down on occasion too. Pundits are partisan by nature. Basically by definition. A pundit is a learned person or someone with “expert” knowledge of a subject. It derives from the Hindu term, pandit,meaning someone who is well versed in a particular subject or subjects.   They offer opinion, hopefully gained from years of study in their chosen field. We think first of news pundits but they exist in sports, music, art, science, and most other fields of human endeavor. Anywhere a learned opinion is needed for a particular subject. Commentators and critics are pundits. When you watch an NBA telecast on ESPN, you hear Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson offering opinion, criticism, and approval. Punditry. But people often disagree with them because much of what they say is opinion. True they are experts, and their opinion should be respected, but it is still just opinion.  Disagreement is common and incredibly constructive.

The problem  of late(the last decade or so), is the blurring of news and opinion. We all know Bill O’ Reilly. Papa Bear. When his show debuted over a decade ago, he took “news” in a new direction. O’Reilly had  a stint with ABC News in the 80′s, but he was from tabloid television. He dealt with opinion, controversy, and sensationalism. He was a crown jewel for FOX News President Roger Ailes.  News divisions were suppose to make profits now. And he was gonna make a shitload. O’Reilly’s smug opinions and combative nature were perfect for the direction he wanted to take “news”. Ailes had no illusions of being “fair and balanced”. He wanted attack dogs. So O’Reilly went to work and it wasn’t long before he was pulling in top ratings for his time slot. Ailes knew one simple thing: Controversy sells. No issue is obvious, don’t argue the defense, argue the controversy. O’Reilly is pretty damn good at that.

So now the anchor was the pundit as well. Guest appearances were either echo chambers or shouting matches. Most often the latter. Audiences ate it up. MSNBC and CNN rushed to get their opinio-news on the air. Today, we all accept that FOX News is a mouthpiece for the Right, MSNBC is  a mouthpiece for the Left, and CNN is….. well, GOD bless’em, they try. And it’s news by pundits. We all know that Jon Stewart and Bill Maher are pundits. They offer social and media criticism. How many of us believe they are better JOURNALISTS than most on “news” networks. Is it that bad?

Given we have an extremely partisan two Party system, it is most definitely gonna be in the political discourse. Each side constantly seeking to one up the other. We all remember O’Reilly’s “ambush interviews” a few years back. The extremely goofy cat fight between him and Keith Olbermann. Taking even 2 seconds away from what you constantly defend as a “legitimate news show” to berate a ratings opponent is douchebaggery of the highest order.  But what is to be expected of pundits parading around as actual newscasters? What was more important — The story, or the “who gives a fuck” opinion of it given by your “arch rival”? They were both behaving like spoiled children.

How much of the news is actually news? It seems to me that one side constantly berates the other but often times bends over backwards to defend one of their own. If you believe the truth lies in the middle, how can you possibly buy in to any of the garbage any of these people spill? If people on MSNBC want to admit they have a liberal network and they are the Democrat network, that’s fine. But stop  calling yourselves journalists. You won’t catch FOX admitting in any way that they are biased. They’ll shovel that bullshit for eternity. And CNN….. Look, we all know they don’t matter. There just aren’t enough wars to send a tight shirted, blue jean clad Anderson Cooper to.

Dreamy.

Take the current Anthony Wiener story. Please. People who aren’t paid a single dime, posting various info to blogs, did more journalism than people being paid WAAYYYY too much money to talk to a teleprompter. While they actually investigated the story the “news”, as is their nature, argued the controversy. Jesus Christ CNN, you let Andrew “I’ve Been Caught Lying Multiple Times, Why Am I Still On TV” Breitbart basically accuse Rep. Wiener of being a pedophile. Good stuff CNN. I smell a Pulitzer… prize for being terrible at journalism.

This is America. No one is worried with being correct, only being perceived as being correct. The number one “news” show on TV is hosted by a braying jackass who use to report on Leona Helmsley’s dogs. The country is thoroughly divided and no one is looking to unite it. Unless insults and condescension are suddenly uniting ideals. Yes, you’re very clever. I haven’t heard that teabagger joke yet. Awesome. I guess people voicing their opinion is only great and patriotic when they say what you tell them to say. Guess you showed them. Yeah, they may be wrong but they’re not the end of the fucking country.

And that’s the game. Two sides playing their pieces. Marching orders come down from the top and are dispersed through the media. Too vague? Each Party has set politics. Each Party has it’s own network. Put 2 and 2 together. The pundits control national discourse. As people move to the web for more and more news, they’ll lose some of their sway. But they have  a pretty tight grip right now.

Well, that’s my two cents. Punditry is a pretty old profession, but the way it runs the show now is pretty messed up. I don’t really watch the cable news networks since I’m allergic to bullshit and they’re covered in it. I don’t really care what new thing the Democrats are proposing or what tired old trick the Republicans are using ’cause it’s all bullshit. I don’t listen to their mouthpieces. No politician has brought us anything. The people did. And the people don’t really seem to have a voice right now. It’s all agendas and political posturing. I’ll close with this: “I hate you, Chuck Todd.”

The majority does not rule in America, but the minority shouldn’t hijack it. And it’s because we’re afraid. They have isolated us and made us feel as though we’re alone. We’re not.
Glenn Beck

That is, BY FAR, the most lucid quote I could find from Glenn Beck. Coming from almost anyone else I would agree. We value majority opinion, and rightly so, but the majority is not always right. The minority often uses these failings to take over an issue and cripple honest majority rule. And Glenn Beck is  a master of that game, which is what makes this quote so duplicitous. What is Glenn Beck?  A journalist? A TV personality? Is he a carnival barker or a snake oil salesman? He is definitely popular. His TV show and radio program draws huge ratings. He commands high dollar from advertisers on radio and TV. His radio program is the highest rated broadcast on many different stations all across America. His TV program is consistently one of the highest rated TV show, not just on FOX, but on all cable news channels. He is  a multiple time best seller, with 3 different books enjoying time on top of the New York Times best seller list. He has deals with companies to sell all manner of items from gold to survival kits.     Glenn Beck has become a small enterprise with a single recipient ,  Glenn Beck.  Lately, though, there has been news of unrest in Beck’s world. Some sponsors have dropped his radio program and talk of him “transitioning out of” his TV program, which has seen decreasing ratings over the last year and a half.  Is this the beginning of the end of Beck, or just a road bump on his way to whatever destiny he envisions for himself? Those questions are still to be answered but we can take a look at Beck’ s beginnings.  What made him the media force he appears to be today?

This is the least "smarmy" photo I could find of Glenn Beck. And you can still see it all over his face!

Beck’s personal history is one of sadness and hope, believe it or not. He has overcome the tragic loss of his mother as a child, divorces racked with consequences both serious and grim, and more than one occasion of  drug addiction and alcoholism. Maybe some of his personal demons explain much of his public outbursts but, to me at least, the resolve he had to pull out of that is admirable. Such things have driven many a man to ponder taking his own life(including Beck, by his own admission). So I won’t get into all that. Feel free ot read up on it though. It may give you a different view of him. But probably not. Let’s be serious, he’s  still a crazy asshole. We’ll begin at the cusp of his meteoric rise to fame and infamy.

Beck’s career had the most unassuming, Howard Sternish beginnings a star could have. Bouncing from station to station in the southwest Beck couldn’t seem to keep any long term job. Eventually he was hired away to the Midwest and  a stint in Louisville, Kentucky in 1983 ended after a fight with management and a third place finish in the ratings.  Beck’s show was largely nonpolitical and mirrored most of the programs of the time, with juvenile humor, phone pranks, and plenty of fart jokes. Beck moved back to the Southwest and began operating out of a Phoenix based station and began a rivalry with a local DJ that culminated with Beck calling the DJ’s wife on air and mocking her recent miscarriage. Beck resigned immediately afterward and continued touring the southwest. At one point, while working in Texas, he was arrested and jailed for speeding in a DeLorean.  I shit you not.

Obviously he couldn't get it up to 88 MPH.

"Hey, I'm not saying they're lying! I'm not even saying they're misrepresenting themselves. I'm just saying, the M&M melted in my hand. And that didn't happen until Obama was elected!"

"Look, I'm not saying he likes to have sex with other men. I'm just saying he's gay."

You can just see the wheels turning and genius beiong created!

GODDAMN YOU OBAMA!!!!

"Why is doom is quotation marks?! Is it an ironic doom?"

Related articles

• Glenn Beck: Stealing First And Calling It A Homerun (riehlworldview.com)
• Glenn Beck Accused Of Using Content From Conservative Bloggers Without Attribution (outsidethebeltway.com)
• FCC Complaints: Glenn Beck vs. Jon Stewart (neatorama.com)