Yesterday Rick Santorum made a stupid comment about how gay marriages aren’t really marriages the same way that paper towels aren’t really napkins. This lead MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell to go on an equally silly-sounding tirade about how napkins really ARE paper towels right before predicting that “Rick Santorum’s campaign will be ending soon.”
According to O’Donnell, Santorum’s tired attempts to connect same-sex marriage to polygamy (and thus, his Mormon-born opponent Mitt Romney) are almost as sad as FOX’s attempt to cut openly-gay GOP presidential candidate Fred Karger out of tomorrow’s debate in Iowa.
O’Donnell is wrong though—FOX’s move is far worse because it closes the political process purely based on sexual orientation—a direct illustration of how institutional homophobia disenfranchises queers.
My prediction: FOX won’t let Karger onstage this week and will make some false and ambiguous comment suggesting he might be in a future debate… a promise they have no absolutely intention of keeping.
Fair and balanced.
Politically Incorrect Thug
First off, Santorum was/is a nobody who seems determined to take himself out of the race, so this is no surprise (if possible, he has even less leadership experience than Obama did when he was running).
Second, Fox News isn’t ignoring Karger—they just won’t allow those who have less then 2% favorability in the polls to participate in the debate. So funny how you guys will jump up and down like sugar-filled kindergartners when you think there’s any reason to criticize Fox News—especially when you don’t even watch it. It’s like me trashing
“The View” even though I’ve never seen a minute of it. But it’s a show about evil witches plotting the end of the world, right?
Mike
@Politically Incorrect Thug: You’d be right, except for the fact that Fox News said an average of 1% in five recent national polls. But they don’t define “recent”, coincidentally enough (which could be the last few weeks or the last few months). And they say that two of his cited polls aren’t good enough, despite the fact that they’ve used these same pollsters numerous times in other news. While sometimes it is true that they might exclude a minority based upon some objective criteria that they apply to everybody, sometimes it is also true that they take these same objective criteria — even somewhat ambiguously objective — and apply them with varying degrees of rigor, depending upon whom we’re talking about.
With that being said, I think that any corporation, like News Corp, that sponsors a primary or general Presidential debate should invite everybody who’s running for that position (or everyone of that party who’s running, in the case of primaries). All voices should be heard, not just the ones who are deemed “popular enough”.
Ian
@Politically Incorrect Thug: Sorry. You don’t have to actually watch Fox News to know something of its bias. There’s plenty of research and critical analysis of journalism (including Fox and other big outlets) to read and digest, if you take the time.
christopher di spirito
I was unaware Santorum’s campaign had ever started?
tjr101
Typical of Politically Incorrect Thug, shilling for right-wing/conservative propaganda. Fox News and by extension Newcorp is not and never will be a credible news network. Rupert Murdoch and his empire of lies and deceit are the Republican’s sugar daddy!
Cam
@Politically Incorrect Thug: said….
“ond, Fox News isn’t ignoring Karger—they just won’t allow those who have less then 2% favorability in the polls to participate in the debate.”
_____________________________-
What I don’t understand is this….are you puposely lying, or do you somehow not know?
FOX said that they needed a ONE percent average in polls. Something that in the last several polls Kargar has received.
Why are you saying 2% when FOX has never used that number? Why lie?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/29/fred-karger-poll-1-percent-fox-news_n_855555.html
Riker
Santorum never had a chance and he knew it. Trust me, he never had any Presidential hopes. What he’s looking for is either a Governor’s mansion or maybe just a cushy job as a talking head on Fox News. With all the gay marriage stink he’s making, maybe Maggie Srivastav will give him a six-figure salary.
Politically Incorrect Thug
@Cam: Silly lib, as usual you read/heard what you wanted. I never said 2% qualified for the debate, I stated LESS THAN 2% fovorability in the polls. 1% = less than 2 %. I know, I know: math is HARD.
@tjr101: You speak as if Murdoch has no right to conduct a biased news network. CNN is left-of-center, MSNBC is grossly biased to the left, all the major networks news organizations lean left, and yet Fox is the impetus of all things evil becauese . . . you don’t agree with them? Hmm, seems to me that’s not how democracy works. Especially since I’m sure you have no problem with multi-millionaire George Soros pouring cash into Media Matters in an attempt to take down Fox news.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Thats ok Ricky, your “campaign” wasn’t really like a campaign also……….Basicaly was just a big ‘old frothy mess……………
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@Politically Incorrect Thug: And you have no problem with multi-millionare Rupert Murdoch of FAUX News attempting to purchase the repugnatican party????
adam
@Politically Incorrect Thug: MSNBC is partisan but honest and only developed its current model in response to years of FOX News. FOX is partisan, irresponsible and dishonest so it is apples and oranges.
CNN is not left of center by any objective fair analysis. It is simply that, as Stephen Colbert would say, “reality has a well known liberal bias”. Reporting real facts and descriptions of reality happens to support the views of American progessives not American conservatives (who are extremists way way out on the fringe when you compare them to right wing establishment in the other western democracies – American politics have moved to the right so now even the democratic party can’t be described as particularly liberal) and the lies and misrepresentations FOX is shoveling. That said, network news and CNN have spent years bending over backwards to make room for conservative views no matter how unsupported by facts, legitimate scientific evidence, and simple human dignity in response to the absurd Liberal Media Conspiracy line that right wing strategists have used so cleverly. Right wing strategists have used screams of Liberal Media Conspiracy to manipulate media coverage in damaging ways and to fill their base’s heads with paranoia and convince then to avoid, ignore and reject all coverage from everyone but FOX and a narrow few far right wing blogs and (mostly Murdoch controlled) papers parroting GOP talking points (thus controlling their base, severely limiting the information they are introduced to and take in, and making them largely “fact proof”).
mk
@Politically Incorrect Thug:
Silly lib, as usual you read/heard what you wanted. I never said 2% qualified for the debate, I stated LESS THAN 2% fovorability in the polls. 1% = less than 2 %. I know, I know: math is HARD.
Wow, you are being really obnoxious and full of yourself for someone who is totally incorrect. What you said is “they just won’t allow those who have less then 2% favorability in the polls”. If someone cannot have less than 2%, as you claimed was the case, then they must have 2% or greater to qualify. The actual required amount is 1%, which does not equal 2% or greater, so you were wrong. Honesty, accuracy and math are hard, huh?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@adam: 100% Co-Sign.
Proof positive of MSNBC being the direct opposite of FAUX News is Rachel Maddow’s show. She spends a great deal of time researching items before she allows them to leave her lips……..
Rachel uses something that is a very unfamiliar item for the GOP talking point puppets on FAUX: FACTS
ChrisC
Fred Karger has no experiance in politics (Sorry, being a consultant doesn’t cut it in my opinion) and has never held office, he has done nothing to be taken seriously, people wouldn’t even be talking about him if he wasn’t Gay. I would much rather put my support behind an LGBT presidential candidate who actually IS a politican and has experiance.
Skeloric
on the Fred Karger issue:
Its no secret that they moved the goalpost deliberately to avoid having him in the debates.
Absolutely no person with an IQ above 3 should even be remotely confused about Faux Noise’s real agenda, Ultra-repressive “conservatism” — And hey Rupert Murdoch getting flayed alive by the UK government and soon to get the same treatment by the FBI and DOJ might even get Faux Noise finally yanked off the air, if there was any justice in the world.
Abirdwillingtobeitself
@Skeloric: FYI: Faux Noise means fake noise, if you want to say that Fox News is just noise, you should just say Fox Noise.
Politically Incorrect Thug
Ah, such anger. The only reason you “tolerant” liberals are so intolerant of Fox is because you’re afraid of them. If Fox poses no threat to you or your causes, then you’d be ignoring them, not seeking childish names to call them. It would be like a conservative jumping up and down and screaming about the evil that is Current TV: not going to happen, because Current TV is irrelevant. Fox is the single most powerful news entity out there, and I do a little happy dance every time you guys realize that fact and start pulling your hair out.
Skeloric
Well at least the FBI might yet nail the channel of terrorism charges, it is part of the Murdoch criminal empire after all.