10 Things From Fox News Channel That Are Way Worse Than Martin Bashir’s Poop Remark

10 Things From Fox News Channel That Are Way Worse Than Martin Bashir’s Poop Remark

Bob Cesca on December 05, 2013

Today on Fox & Friends, Sarah Palin praised MSNBC for accepting Martin Bashir’s resignation after the anchor delivered a monologue in which he suggested pooping in Palin’s mouth. While in poor taste, the line was a reference to the treatment of slaves in the old South in an attempt to debunk Palin’s remarks about the national debt being like slavery.
Try not to snarf your beverage when you read this but today Palin said to talking monkeys Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, “It was refreshing to see, though, that many in the media did come out and say, ‘Look, our standards have to be higher than this.’”
And guess what? She’s right. Cable news standards should be higher. So perhaps Palin should begin with her own house: Fox News Channel. It’s well documented and a huge understatement that Fox News wallows in its own egregiously awful standards — far worse by a factor of a thousand than any other cable news outfit. The very existence of integrity-free Fox & Friends alone would make Paddy Chayefsky and Edward R. Murrow spin in their graves, say nothing of the existence of the standard-less network on which it airs.
So while Palin and others dance on Bashir’s career grave, while simultaneously demanding higher standards in cable news, here now are ten things from Fox News Channel that are way worse than what Martin Bashir said. And it’s worth noting that no one was fired or forced to resign as a consequence of these things:
1. Brian Kilmeade: “all terrorists are Muslims.”
Yes, he’s an easy target, what with the brain damage and all, but this was particularly heinous considering, you know, the long list of non-Muslim terrorists such as the IRA, Timothy McVeigh or the Unibomber, not to mention scores of so-called “pro-life” terrorists who bomb abortion clinics and murder doctors.
2. Anchor Heather Nauert: YMCA swim class for Muslim girls proves Sharia Law is “everywhere.”
While we’re on the Islamophobia topic, we might as well include this doozy. On Monday, Nauert was reporting on a nothing story about how a YMCA in Minnesota carved out a brief window of time for a swim class exclusively for Somali-American girls. Nauert, reading from a prompter, said, “Well, the minority becoming the majority at one community pool. Sharia law is now changing everything.” Yes, everything. That is if a 30 minute block of time at a YMCA pool in St. Paul is “everything.”
3. ‘The Five’ host: breast cancer awareness = the feminization of the NFL.
While chatting with proto-hominid Greg Gutfeld, Random-Anonymous-Female-Panelist-X on “The Five” went on rant about how the NFL has become feminized because some players are wearing pink cleats in recognition of breast cancer awareness. Yes, this is definitely an area that’s ripe for flippant news commentary with a not-so-vague homophobic twist. Breast cancer awareness. Comedy gold. Next week, “The Five” will dig into childhood leukemia and sudden infant death syndrome. It’ll be hilarious.
4. Fox News contributor Erik Rush: Obama should be overthrown by “any means necessary.”
Even though I wrote about this eliminationist nutball the other day, he still qualifies for the list. Fox News is infamous for hosting people like Rush who fantasize about armed revolts or even assassinating the president. Contributor Liz Trotta once said on Fox News: “…and now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama — Obama — well, both if we could.” Har-har. Even Glenn Beck hinted that we need firearms to protect ourselves from the president. He also joked about poisoning Nancy Pelosi.
5. John Stossel: Hanged Barney Frank in effigy.
A New York Magazine reporter asked Stossel, “What’s hanging above your sofa?” Stossel, always the classy one, replied, “Barney Frank in effigy.”
6. Fox News outed the identity of SEAL Team Six soldier.
As a result, websites belonging to al-Qaida affiliates, including Al-Fidaa, posted the SEAL’s photo and name. In response, Fox News’ executive vice president John Moody said the soldier should have “no expectation of privacy.”
7. Fox News contributor Liz Trotta: if you serve in the military, expect to be raped.
Speaking of the troops the network claims to support, if you’re a woman and in the military get ready to be raped one of these days because you clearly asked for it. By the way, it’s Trotta again — clearly not fired after joking about killing Barack Obama four years earlier. Here’s the exact quote: “And the sexual abuse report says that there has been, since 2006, a 64% increase in violent sexual assaults. Now, what did they expect? These people are in close contact.”
Should I go on? Hell, I haven’t even gotten to Eric Bolling yet. Here are four big ones.
8. Eric Bolling: forced vasectomies for welfare recipients.
Yes, the government should round up poor people and force them to undergo a medical procedure in which their scrotums are opened and their vas deferenses are cut in order to make sure they don’t have any more children. So much for small government conservatism.
9. Eric Bolling: President Obama is “chugging 40s.”
Now if Bolling had said “chugging poop” he totally would’ve been fired, right? Higher standards, etc. No?
10. Eric Bolling: Obama hosted “hoodlum in the hizzouse.”
Fox News hosts have really, really tried to stereotype the president as someone he’s not. But don’t you dare accuse Bolling of being racist…
11. Eric Bolling: Obama is lying about his birth certificate.
…because he’s totally not. Unless by racist you mean someone who, on numerous occasions, underscored the president’s race and ethnicity within the context of a widely debunked conspiracy theory that was invented solely as a race-baiting dog-whistle.
Okay, so that was eleven — not ten. And there are, of course, many, many more. Regardless of what Bashir said or the context in which he said it, nothing that’s been said on MSNBC comes close to joking about assassinating the president or hanging a congressman in effigy or poisoning the House minority leader. So if we’re going to address cable news standards, let’s start by addressing the Fox News assassination fantasies and go from there. Maybe at some point way down the list of resignation-worthy trespasses we’ll land on, you know, poop remarks.

“The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World”

December 2, 2013 By Dan Wilkinson 

In the West, Islam is popularly depicted as a religion rooted in hate and violence, as a belief system inherently antagonistic towards other religions — particularly Christianity — and as synonymous with terrorism and totalitarian theocratic rule.
But there is another face of Islam, a face that garners little attention on the evening news and is virtually ignored by those who traffic in — and profit from — divisive fear mongering. This is an Islam practiced by millions around the world, an Islam defined not by violence but by respect, an Islam that remains true to its founder’s revelation.
In The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World (Angelico Press), John Andrew Morrow sets out to offer concrete textual reasons, from the Prophet Mohammed himself, for an understanding of Islam that moves beyond stereotypes and reasserts the truly inclusive foundations of Islamic belief.
Morrow presents six covenants written by Muhammad to Christian communities and argues that these letters and treaties, which proclaim and define peaceful and mutually respectful relationships with Christians, have the potential to serve as a foundational source of Islamic belief and practice, on equal footing with the Koran and the hadiths.
Bringing modern historical scholarship and textual criticism to bear in his study of these rare and largely forgotten documents, Morrow refutes the notion that Muslims and Christians necessarily stand at odds with one another, instead offering “a compelling case that the original intent of Muhammad was not to create a strictly Muslim state, but rather a confederation of the People of the Book,” (xii) and presents persuasive reasons for believing that “tolerance of Christians who are at peace with Muslims forms an intrinsic part of the Islamic tradition.” (108)
Morrow opens his book with a detailed but accessible biography of Muhammad, focusing in particular on the Prophet’s formative interactions with Jews and Christians, interactions that were characterized by mutual respect. This respect didn’t stem from watered-down syncretism, but rather from a robust adherence to core beliefs and an honest acknowledgement of the similarities and the differences between the Abrahamic faiths. This tolerance was “… undoubtedly founded on the recognition that theological matters that went beyond the most fundamental tenets of monotheism … were best discussed among scholars, theologians and esoterics, in line with the wise and balanced Islamic separation between the Outer and the Inner, between that which must be accepted by all Muslims and that which will necessarily be understood only by the few.” (59)
It is against this historical backdrop that Morrow presents the six covenants, devoting a chapter to each and offering commentary and critical evaluation of these “controversial and highly disputed document[s].” (65) His discussion is even-handed, though at times overly sympathetic. Morrow interacts with textual difficulties adroitly, but invariably casts his lots in favor of authenticity, even when at times evidence supporting such a conclusion is entirely lacking. For Morrow, the spirit of Islamic belief is able to bridge such evidential gaps. Fortunately, Morrow doesn’t allow this tendency to trump the evidence itself, and he readily acknowledges shortcomings in the textual traditions.
The middle section of the book consists of the texts themselves: Arabic transcriptions, photographic reproductions of extant manuscripts and a variety of corresponding English translations. I appreciate the inclusion of actual source documents, but as a lay-person, they meant little to me — I assume that scholars will find them useful.
In the final section of the book, Morrow discusses the specific challenges facing our understanding of these texts, including the records of witnesses associated with the various covenants, the transmission of the documents themselves and the broader contextual implication of the covenants. He concludes with suggestions for areas of further study in this nascent field. The book closes with an extensive appendix, detailed bibliography, maps, photos and a detailed index.
Thoughtful, accessible and scholarly, The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World offers important evidence for understanding Islam as a religion founded on ideals of respect and tolerance, ideals that, if evinced today in the way that Muhammad originally intended, have the potential to redefine modern religious and cultural interactions.
More information about the covenants themselves can be found online at The Covenants Initiative , which also features an online petition for Muslims to sign declaring the binding nature of the covenants. More details about the book can be found on the Patheos Book Club page.
“And dispute ye not with the People of the Book, except with a means better (than mere disputation), unless it be with those of them who inflict wrong (and injury); but say, “We believe in the Revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down to you; and our God and your God is One, and it is to Him we bow (in Islam).” Qur’an 29:46

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Dan Wilkinson
Dan is a writer, graphic designer and IT specialist. He lives in Montana, is married and has two cats. He blogs at CoolingTwilight.com.

Fox & Friends Finds Proof That ‘Sharia Law is Changing Everything’ in America

by Matt Wilstein | 2:40 pm, December 2nd, 2013


Buried among a slew of short news update on Monday morning’s edition of Fox & Friends was this disturbing revelation from reporter Heather Nauert: “Sharia law is now changing everything.”
Nauert was reporting on a YMCA swim class in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota that will cater to the religious beliefs of Somali-American girls. “The minority becoming the majority at one community pool,” she said. before issuing the warning that “similar classes are now starting at towns across the Midwest.”
According to The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, “During the hourlong swim practice, all other swimmers are cleared out of the pool. The men’s locker room is locked. Female life guards are brought in.”
While the Fox segment did highlight those aspects of the story, the show did not touch on the success the program has had at building up the girls’ confidence. “We’ve moved kids from being afraid of the water to really being able to tread water,” Mary Britts, executive director for the downtown YMCA told the Star-Tribune.
Proof that Sharia law is “changing everything?” Or one community’s attempt to help some young girls attend swim class?
Watch video below, via Fox News:

The Real Fox News

 Topics mentioned include Keystone XL pipeline & G.W. Bush, Republican sex versus Democratic & Liberal sex. How GOP makes love. Sarah Palin, dumbest woman alive? 

Topics mentioned include Keystone XL pipeline & G.W. Bush, Republican sex versus Democratic & Liberal sex. How GOP makes love. Sarah Palin, dumbest woman alive?

Bachmann: 'End Times' Are Coming Because Obama Is Supporting Al-Qaeda

Igor Bobic – October 7, 2013, 6:00 PM EDT

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) claims the end of days is near, and as proof the former Republican presidential candidate cited President Barack Obama's decision last month to support Syrian rebels, which she calls al-Qaeda terrorists, with anti-chemical weapons gear and limited arms.
“This happened and as of today the United States is willingly, knowingly, intentionally sending arms to terrorists, now what this says to me, I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, as I look at the End Times scripture, this says to me that the leaf is on the fig tree and we are to understand the signs of the times, which is your ministry, we are to understand where we are in God’s end times history," Bachmann told Jan Markell, radio host of "Understanding the Times," on Saturday.

“Rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice, Maranatha Come Lord Jesus, His day is at hand,” Bachmann added later. “And so when we see up is down and right is called wrong, when this is happening, we were told this; that these days would be as the days of Noah. We are seeing that in our time. Yes it gives us fear in some respects because we want the retirement that our parents enjoyed. Well they will, if they know Jesus Christ.”
When a Fox News host raised concerns last month over a rebel's use of "Allahu Akbar," a ubiquitous Islamic phrase, during the debate over the use of force in Syria, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) quickly shot him down.
"You have a problem with that? Would you have a problem with an American Christian saying ‘thank God, thank God’?” an annoyed McCain said. "That’s what they’re saying. Come on. Of course they’re Muslims, but they’re moderates and I guarantee you that they are moderates. I know them and I've been with them. For someone to say 'Allahu Akbar' is about as offensive as someone saying 'thank God.'"
Audio of Bachmann's comments via Right Wing Watch.

Thomas Jefferson Wasn't an Anti-Islamic Crusader

Thomas Jefferson Wasn't an Anti-Islamic Crusader

by Caitlin Aber

Ms. Aber is an HNN intern.

Islamophobia has spiraled out of control in the United States recently.  Terry Jones, a Christian minister with a small congregation in Florida, caught the world’s attention last month in his failed bid to burn two hundred Qur’ans on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  Animosity toward Islam has not been confined to the radical fringes of Christianity; it has also infiltrated the more mainstream political right.  In response to the proposed Muslim community center and mosque near the site of the World Trade Center, Newt Gingrich told Fox News, “Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust museum in Washington.”  Protests to the construction of mosques have erupted elsewhere in the U.S., from California to Wisconsin to Tennessee.  Reflecting the growing tendency to conflate Islam and terrorism, protestors’ signs proclaim “Mosques are monuments to terror,” and “Muhammad=terrorist.”

In these times of irrationality, it is important to address history truthfully. This is precisely what Glenn Beck and others fail to do when they laud Thomas Jefferson as a warrior who battled Islamic extremism.  Discussing the Barbary Wars on his show last year, Beck claimed that Jefferson dispatched the Navy to the Mediterranean in 1801 because he realized “that America would never truly be free if it cowered to terrorists.”  In fact, Thomas Jefferson’s story is much more complicated, and it reveals an important example of religious tolerance.

As a student, the intellectually curious Jefferson purchased a copy of the Qur’an and read it, according to historian Kevin Hayes, “with an open-minded desire to learn more about Islam.”  Few know that his vision of religious freedom in America explicitly included Muslims.  Virginia’s 1779 Bill for the Establishment of Religious Freedom guaranteed, “All men shall be free to profess… their opinions in matters of religion.”  In his autobiography, Jefferson specifically stated that the bill “meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination.”  Religion was to be a universal right.

So why does Glenn Beck think that Thomas Jefferson got it right about Muslims?  False analogies.  The pundit and other conservatives have latched onto America’s early naval struggles against Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, claiming them as a precursor to today’s war on terror.

To be sure, little was defensible about the Barbary corsairs. For hundreds of years, the Barbary nations demanded tribute from European powers in exchange for allowing them to trade freely in Mediterranean waters.  When payment was withheld, they captured and enslaved European sailors, demanding ransom.  After independence from Britain, the United States was left to its own defenses in the Mediterranean.  Seizures of American ships began in 1784 and continued at irregular intervals for the next three decades. Jefferson was an early advocate of war instead of tribute and sent a fleet to combat the Barbary States upon assuming the presidency in 1801.  Although Beck has claimed that “[t]hose Marines fought bravely against Islamic terrorists for fourteen years” the Barbary Wars were actually two separate conflicts:  a war from 1801-1805 and a brief sequel in 1815.
Beck’s history lesson?  “Our enemies today are much like our enemies back then:  Barbaric Islamic terrorists who despise everything that we stand for.”  What is most dishonest about Beck’s stance is the presumed Islamic extremism of “the enemy.”

Conservatives defending this analogy point to a 1786 report written by Jefferson, which recorded a Tripolitan ambassador citing the Qur’an to justify piracy in his attempt to obtain tribute.  Even distorted forms of religion, though, had little to do with the Barbary Wars.  Both sides understood the struggle in largely economic terms.  Although Beck has claimed that “It was Islamic extremists that Thomas Jefferson was going after,” the president was really “after” the right to trade freely in lucrative Mediterranean markets.  Hence America’s peaceful relations with neighboring Morocco after it offered American ships free access to its ports.

As for the Barbary corsairs, they were, in historian Frank Lambert’s words, “capitalists who sought profits from their raids, rather than jihadists seeking a spot in paradise.”  They captured ships to enhance the treasuries of their countries, which, according to Lambert, “were military republics, not Islamic states.”  Far from being a religious fight, he reveals, “[m]any of the ‘pirate’ crews were not even Muslim but out-of-work Christian sailors from places like England.”  Indeed, most Americans considered the English, not Islamists, the insidious enemy lurking behind the Barbary attacks.

A 1796 treaty between the United States and Tripoli noted “the government of the United States… has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility of Musselmen.”  While we cannot say the same for the American people today, we can avoid the temptation of false analogies, distinguish religion from extremism, and interpret history honestly.
- See more at: http://www.hnn.us/article/132300#sthash.DLq0G7NV.dpuf