The Rudy News Network

First, the melodrama: On Wednesday in Iowa, Rudy Giuliani dodged questions about Judith Regan's lawsuit against News Corp., Rupert Murdoch's media empire that includes HarperCollins, the New York Post, the newly-acquired Wall Street Journal, DirecTV, 20th Century Fox movie studio, the Fox network, and the house organ of the GOP, the Fox News Network, aka Faux News.

Among many items in Regan's civil action, the 70-page filing (PDF) also alleges that Judith was "asked by company officials to lie to federal investigators to protect [Rudy's] presidential bid" and that the defendants engineered a "smear campaign... necessary to advance News Corp.'s political agenda, which has long centered on protecting Rudy Giuliani's presidential ambitions." Judith probably can tell some very interesting tales that could hurt Giuliani's candidacy since she was the former mistress of Rudy's crooked pal and his hand-picked NYC police commissioner, Bernard Kerik.

Alex Koppelman and Erin Renzas at Salon have documented Rudy Giuliani's ties to Fox News. I dunno if this is a complete list but much of it explains the regular hero-worship of Rudy that occurs at Faux News. Most if not all of us in the liberal blogosphere have long understood that Murdoch's News Corp. purposely inserts a GOP political agenda into its lies, fabrications, and smear tactics "reporting" by propagandizing Repubs as the saviors of America, while at the same time unfairly denigrating Democrats and their anti-war supporters as the Enemy of the State.

Koppelman and Renzas demonstrate that Faux News "prefers Giuliani over the other GOP contenders" with a criss-cross of cozy relationships and deals that include...

Roger Ailes: The head of Fox News, Ailes was a veteran Republican operative long before he was a news executive, having worked as a media consultant in the presidential campaigns of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush. In 1989, he worked as a media consultant on the unsuccessful first mayoral campaign of a former federal prosecutor named Rudy Giuliani, with whom he had bonded at dinner parties over their shared admiration for Ronald Reagan. Since then, Giuliani and Ailes have remained good friends. Giuliani officiated at Ailes' wedding and brought presents to Ailes' room when Ailes was hospitalized in 1998. The New York Times has reported that aides to the two men say they don't see each other often, but they did sit together at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in April 2007 -- which Giuliani attended as a guest of News Corp. (Ailes has also socialized with Bernie Kerik.)

The Time Warner lawsuit: In 1994, according to the New York Times, Giuliani prepared a speech for a reception honoring Ailes in which he wrote, "Roger has played an important role in my own career." In 1996, Giuliani had an opportunity to repay the favor. Fox News was launching, with Ailes at the helm, and Time Warner, which provided cable service to 12 million homes nationwide, had decided it would not carry Fox News. Time Warner was the dominant cable operator in New York City, meaning that not only would 1.1 million city homes not get Fox, but the fledgling network would go unseen by media powerbrokers in the nation's media capital.

Three days after Murdoch learned of Time Warner's decision, a call from Ailes to Giuliani set in motion a series of unprecedented moves in favor of a cable network by the Giuliani administration. As calls and meetings continued between Fox and city officials, including Giuliani, the Giuliani administration reportedly threatened Time Warner executives with the loss of their cable franchise if the cable provider didn't accept a deal in which the city would give up one of its own government channels so Fox News could take the slot. (Some 30 other cable networks had tried and failed to win channel space on Time Warner.) When Time Warner refused to take the deal, the city announced that it would go ahead with the plan anyway and force the cable provider to carry Fox News. A legal battle ensued.

Ultimately, the two warring parties made peace and Fox won carriage, but not before a judge and an appeals panel both ruled against the city's plan. In granting Time Warner a temporary injunction, a federal district court judge issued a harsh rebuke to the Giuliani administration, saying the city had repeatedly shifted the legal justifications for its stand, indicating that "the City does not believe its own positions." The judge further wrote, "The City's purpose in acting to compel Time Warner to give Fox one of its commercial channels was to reward a friend... The very fact that the City chose Fox News out of all other news programs -- not to mention the significant number of other programs which have been denied space on Time Warner's commercial network -- is by itself substantial evidence that the City chose Fox News based on its content."

Lobbying: Giuliani's connections to News Corp. extend to his law and lobbying firm, Bracewell & Giuliani. Giuliani announced his partnership in the firm previously known as Bracewell & Patterson in March 2005. Beginning the next month, according to congressional lobbying disclosure records, the firm billed News Corp. and DirecTV, which was then a subsidiary of News Corp., for $120,000 in federal lobbying during 2005. The firm represented News Corp. on issues including regulations on violent and indecent programming and the potential re-write of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. In the years prior to Giuliani joining the firm, congressional records do not show any lobbying work performed for News Corp.

Airtime: Earlier this year, a study by the political journal Hotline found that Giuliani had been interviewed on Fox News during the first 196 days of 2007 for a total of 115 minutes, more than any other presidential contender, and 14 minutes more than the runner-up, the then-undeclared Fred Thompson.

Sean Hannity: In Fox's defense, the bulk of the time Giuliani was on the network he was talking to Sean Hannity, the Long Island-bred cohost of "Hannity & Colmes." And no wonder -- though Hannity claims not to be supporting a candidate (a denial he was forced to make when Ariz. Sen. John McCain accused him on-air, albeit obliquely, of supporting Giuliani), he flew to Ohio to introduce the former mayor at a campaign fundraiser in August. When a New York Times reporter asked a Fox spokeswoman about the Hotline figures, she responded that Hannity makes his own booking decisions. Hannity has also handled post-debate anchor duties for all three Fox GOP debates held to date.

Cease-and-desist: In October, Fox lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to John McCain's campaign after he included footage from Fox's October 21 Orlando debate in a TV commercial. The ad featured a McCain quip aimed at Senator Clinton's push for a so-called "Woodstock museum." The letter demanded McCain pull the ad and remove footage of the debate from his Web site, according to Talking Points Memo.

However, similar letters were not sent to two other GOP presidential hopefuls who were also using footage from the Fox debate -- Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. After initial reports showed that only McCain had been sent such an order, a Fox spokesperson told the New York Times, "Our legal team has been alerted and there will be cease and desist orders." Letters were sent to both the Romney and Giuliani campaigns, but they are apparently not being heeded. Giuliani's Web site still makes liberal use of Fox footage, including one clip added at least a week after the date of the cease and desist letter. Romney's site also continues to feature material from the debate.

Steve Forbes: Himself a former Republican presidential candidate, the magazine magnate is now a national co-chair and senior policy advisor with the Giuliani campaign. He's also, in the words of a Giuliani campaign press release, "a frequent business commentator for Fox News Channel's 'Forbes on Fox.'" Though that show is actually hosted by a Fox News employee, David Asman, its guests come from the editorial staff of Forbes Magazine. Steve Forbes is both the editor-in-chief of Forbes Magazine and the president and CEO of its publisher, Forbes, Inc.

Rudy is code for "Bushie" and that suits News Corp. and its Faux News Network.

Wingnuts who loved George W. Bush will love Rudy Giuliani. His posse of cronies, big oil billionaires, corrupt associates, and news moguls will see to it by working hard to elect another preznut who will do their bidding.

For the rest of us sick to death of Bushies, their kind, and corporate media that promote them, we can hope that Democratic candidates will quickly embrace the use of Internet TV.

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Our Rotting Press Corpse

Our main charter here at WTWC is to hold our congress-critters and candidates accountable and to work to elect real Democrats. Yet, another critical sphere of influence to address in our public discourse -- and an urgent message to get the word out to voters -- is how our corrupt mainstream press operates in swaying opinions, and thus, elections. On that score, no one, IMO, has more consistently dissected our rotting press corpse over the years than Bob Somerby at The Daily Howler.

Yesterday, Bob's erudite commentary explained what our “mainstream press corps” won’t tell you. Read Somerby's whole post, which included the falsetto note sung by Dana Milbank on Social Security, Medicare, and retiring Baby Boomers. What motivates a Washington Post political reporter to assert that, "the 80 million-strong baby-boom generation, which, starting next year, will begin to bankrupt the nation," and imply that he knows more than Alan Greenspan might be a great cosmic mystery unless one follows the filthy lucre that prods our Beltway choir boys to croon repeatedly off-key. Or, as we might speculate in the South where I live, maybe Milbank fell cattywampus overwhelmed with a severe case of the vapors. The smell of money can make some folks swoon.

For now, turn to a few revealing quotes.

Courtesy of Bob Somerby [his emphasis in bold and full transcript at The Daily Howler link above]:

From that day to this, members of the mainstream press corps have tried to keep the public from knowing about that remarkable episode [of the "War on Gore."]. But out in the country, some observers do know what happened. Take Neal Gabler of USC’s Annenberg Center, for example. On Saturday’s Fox News Watch, the panel discussed the press coverage of Gore’s Nobel Prize. Because the segment was so illuminating, we’ll post the transcript in full. Gabler clearly understands his country’s recent presspolitical history—and Jane Hall, of the American University, quickly chimed in too....

[...]

GABLER: To me, what is interesting is last month Vanity Fair had a piece talking about the war against Gore, how the media—not the right-wing media; [Peretz] wasn't talking about Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, she was talking about Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd and Ceci Connolly—and how they went after Gore to destroy him. And that is something that's very, very interesting. The media needs to pay penance for that, for what they did to Al Gore and the country as a result.

[...]

JANE HALL: Neal is right. I wrote about this in 2000 and analyzed stories in the New York Times. Media completely differently treated Gore and Bush. They loved Bush. It's in the face of what everybody thinks. It's not true.

Now he doesn't need to run. Why would he want to invite the coverage? He's getting the praise now. The Vanna White principle, he's loved now. If he opens his mouth, everybody will go after him.

[CAL] THOMAS: Al Gore to the media is a secular messiah. He will deliver us from our flatulence and other things causing the global warming. This is the religion of much of the secular left-wing media. He's the perfect messiah figure. He doesn't require a lot of stuff out of us other than we give up our lifestyle and the way we have lived for many years.

GABLER: Secular left-wing media! Let me read something—from the, Vanity Fair quoted—Margaret Carlson said to Don Imus. "You can disprove what Bush was saying if you get in the weeds and get out your calculator or look at his record in Texas. But it's real easy and fun to disprove Al Gore as a sport, as our enterprise. Gore coming up with another whopper is greatly entertaining." It cost him the presidency of the United States.

Yes, folks. If mainstream journalists and pundits hadn't played favorites by propping up the smirking frat boy from Texas -- if they had dug up the truth about Bush as the late, great columnist Molly Ivins did instead of wagging their tongues with lies about Gore -- I daresay Al would have won Election 2000 by a landslide. Instead, look at the disastrous presidency we got!

Why does what happened seven years ago matter now? Isn't it obvious?

Don't hesitate to think for one nanosecond that our press zombies who mauled Al Gore in 2000 aren't hankering to gnaw the next Democratic presidential nominee. Remember the swift-boating of Kerry in 2004? Nary a whimper escaped from our fatted media lapdog throats. Asleep, bellies heaped full of hush puppies snagged from their corporate doggie bags, they snored. To quote Somerby from an email exchange, "Presumably, this will inevitably happen when a press corps is run by multimillionaires." Silence is truly golden. Of course, they awaken to snarl on cue when corporate masters coax, "Who wants to be a millionaire?"

I dunno how we can resurrect our fetid press corpse. What matters most now is informing the electorate what the news media isn't reporting and their distortions, lies, and petty complaints (Edwards' hair, Hillary's cackle, and Obama's middle name) that have nothing to do with choosing who's best to lead our nation.

They tarred and feathered Gore in 2000. The carnage continued against Kerry in 2004. We cannot let it happen again in 2008.

RELATED LINK: Evgenia Peretz's Going After Gore at Vanity Fair, October 2007.

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Jon Stewart Examines The Media's Reponse To V-Tech

Crooks and Liars has posted Jon Stewart's take on the response of the media, especially the Media Whores (tm) of Cable TV, to the Virginia Tech Massacre. You can follow the link to the Video. I would post it here but I don't want to run afoul of Comedy Central's copyright team. Well, actually I don't know how to do it, and saying that I am worrying about copyright makes me sound more lawyer like and less like a dolt.

Hey everybody, I added an image of Jon Stewart. Isn't that Glenn Beck over his shoulder? Cool

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Assault on Dignity

Just when I think I have reached the limits of my disgust and anger at the Walter Reed Medical Hold scandal, another outrage comes to light, and new heights are achieved.

I have avoided this topic because it just offends me on so many levels. It offends me as a healthcare professional. It offends me as the daughter, sister and wife of a Sailor, a Soldier and an Airman, respectively. It offends me as an American Citizen, ostensibly served by the sacrifices of our military. It offends me as a human being.

Honestly, I don’t believe I am in possession of a single, solitary unoffended sensibility.

The level of disgust and outrage I feel is not compatible with a reasoned discussion of the topic, and this topic is too important to me to alienate anyone with an invective-laden tirade that questions the parentage of various command level medical officers and elected officials.

Retaliation

How dare those soldiers in Building 18 talk to the press and allow the public to become aware of the conditions troops in medical hold have had to deal with and the indignities they have suffered.

The troops in medical hold have been told they will now roll out at 0600, and have their quarters ready for inspection by 0700.

These are combat veterans who have paid a heavy price with a precious coin, at the behest of their government, and they are being treated like they are back in basic training. It is outrageous. It is maddening. It is unconscionable.

And no matter how the pentagon tries to spin it from the lower levels while Gates expresses his outrage, this is a retaliatory move, and the interests of the troops are not being served.

I am curious about something and have been since the story broke. Suddenly elected officials were demanding accountability, and medical officers falling all over themselves to accept responsibility.

Well, Duh. Command knew what the deal was. Command always knows and don’t believe otherwise. Those soldiers weren’t sequestered to Bedlam, unsupervised, disintegrating to a Lord of the Flies scenario, existing entirely in a vacuum.

My first thought was to wonder where the hell they have been for the last four years?

Are they admitting that all those trips out to Walter Reed with news crews in tow were just 15-minute photo-ops; benefiting only the politicians by having pictures snapped while they look admiringly at a plucky amputee who just wants to get back to his unit?

Are they admitting, ipso facto, that those soldiers cease to matter as soon as the lens-caps go back on and the mics go dead, and their utility to the politician has been expended?

I think we should trawl the nets and find those pictures...and hang them around the necks of the media whores who send our young men and women off to fight and die in unjust and unjustified wars – the media whores who are deeply concerned for 15 minutes while the cameras roll – the media whores who allowed troops who did their duty live in squalor as they struggle to recover from war wounds.

Failing to step up and do what’s right, neglecting ones responsibilities – these are the kinds of things that prompt me to press a hot iron into your flesh to burn the word feckless into your person

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