News Hounds Media Digest # 65

[Catchawave]

News Hounds Media Digest # 65
1/9/06 to 1/13/06

"They watch Fox so you don't have to"

1. Deborah: Bill O'Reilly visited John Kasich on Heartland, 1/14, to talk about his recent crusade to get the Vermont Judge removed because of the sentence given to a man who sexually assaulted a young girl repeatedly over several years. O'Reilly let it be known that if Judge Cashman is not removed, Vermont will experience "the biggest trouble in their history."
http://www.newshounds.us/2006/01/14/oreilly_threatens_vermont.php#more

2. Donna: This week on Studio B with Shepard Smith, the show was mostly taken up by the confirmation hearings for Judge Alito. On Thursday, after the hearings were over, Studio B went right to an upbeat speech by President Bush while Shepard Smith showcased the devastation that still exists on the coast of Mississippi.
http://www.newshounds.us/2006/01/12/where_is_all_the_money_going_for_the_gulf_coast_recovery.php#more

3. Ellen: Thanks to "Democratic Strategist" Michael Brown, Republicans on Hannity & Colmes largely succeeded once again in making the Alito confirmation hearings about the "meanie Democrats." With democracy in danger, Democrats dither.
http://tinyurl.com/7ce2g

4. Judy: Even some Fox News investment experts concede that Wal-Mart cannot take the "public relations hit" of moving out of Maryland in the wake of legislation requiring the nation's largest retailer to be more generous in providing health insurance coverage to its workers.
http://www.newshounds.us/2006/01/14/does_walmart_finally_get_it.php#more

5.Marie Therese: FOX & Friends' E. D. Hill interviewed Terence Scanlon, President of the Capital Research Center, and Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review. The two men spent the segment denigrating singer-activist Harry Belafonte and the AARP. Lowry was especially nasty in his commentary, claiming that the AARP (with a membership of over 35 million seniors) wants to "funnel as much of the federal treasury to the elderly as possible." Apparently Mr. Lowry (who's barely out of knee pants) thinks America's seniors should be left to their own devices after the age of 65, while Congress writes a blank check for an endless war on terror! http://tinyurl.com/bxgz6


6. Melanie: Fox News's "Senior Judicial Analyst," Andrew Napolitano has known Samuel Alito since he was 18 years old. Nonetheless, Fox permitted Napolitano to sing Alito's praises last week during his confirmation hearings.
http://tinyurl.com/borj2

7. Nancy: Wednesday ((1/11) on Special Report, anchor Brit Hume used a "picking" on his Grapevine segment to reinforce an ongoing theme: government spying on Americans trumps "personal privacy" (which used to be known as the Bill of Rights, but Fox doesn't let picky little details like that get in the way). In order to spin this Washington Post poll properly, Hume had to omit most of the findings of the poll, and completely ignore another poll reported in the same newspaper on the same day.
http://www.newshounds.us/2006/01/12/grapevine_whine_your_civil_liberties_dont_matter.php#more


8. Chrish: Fox's coverage and analysis of the Alito confirmation hearings was nothing more than Republican pep rallies and Democratic smear segments, with nothing of substance to inform viewers of Alito's prejudices. A classic example was The Big Story's 4:1 Republican:Democrat commentary on Wednesday (and the Democrat, Senator Schumer, was cut off!)
http://www.newshounds.us/2006/01/12/democratbashfest_on_the_big_story.php#more