An Eventful Week,

and not in a good way, as Dan Rather notes, but things have been overshadowed by the Bill O'Reilly firing--long overdue--and the election in Georgia last night:





O'Reilly got shitcanned because of several sexual harassment claims against him, and these and similar allegations have dogged him for many years.

O'Reilly didn't start out so bad. He had once been a high school teacher, albeit at a private school, before turning to journalism. Unlike many commentators, he actually was a journalist who started out with local CBS stations, I believe. However, he went on to work as the original host of the television tabloid/news program Inside Edition. This was when I was first familiar with O'Reilly. I watched him nightly on this program. He generally played it straight and didn't interject his opinion on reports. By the mid-1990s, he decided to go back to school and attended Harvard, ultimately getting his master's degree in public administration. Also around this time, Fox, Murdoch, or Ailes approached O'Reilly and offered him a plum job as a host of a talking head program. O'Reilly knew which side his bread was buttered on, so he took it, and the rest is history, or infamy, as it ultimately turned out.

Details on the O'Reilly firing:

Mr. O’Reilly is departing two and a half weeks after an investigation by The New York Times revealed how Fox News and 21st Century Fox had repeatedly stood by him even as sexual harassment allegations against him mounted. The Times found that the company and Mr. O’Reilly had reached settlements with five women who had complained about sexual harassment or other inappropriate behavior by him. The agreements totaled about $13 million.

Since then, more than 50 advertisers had abandoned his show, and women’s rights groups had called for his ouster. Inside the company, women expressed outrage and questioned whether top executives were serious about maintaining a culture based on “trust and respect,” as they had promised last summer when another sexual harassment scandal led to the ouster of Roger E. Ailes as chairman of Fox News.

It didn't make sense to ditch Ailes yet keep O'Reilly around.

I don't think he will starve to death. Somebody in another network might actually pick him up.

Possibly he will turn to writing full-time. He already has a bunch of (probably bulk-bought) bestselling books.

The Nutroots Chronicles: Chapter 64,000

The blogosphere and the so-called progressives are madder than hell blogger Jane Hamsher went on Fox News today condemning the Senate's version of health care reform:





In light of how "successful" her and her blog's efforts were to get justice for Valerie Plame and to get Ned Lamont elected to the United States Senate, I strongly suspect her petition drive will see similar success.

Still More John Ensign

Fox News is denying receiving any letter from Doug Hampton (see below for letter details):

But Fox News tells The Huffington Post the letter never made it to Kelly or the network. "He might have sent it, but we never received it," said Tom Lowell, senior producer of America's Newsroom. "He did reach out to us about 24 hours before the news conference, and he sent an e-mail to a booker on my staff...We followed up with him, but he seemed evasive and not credible, thus we didn't pursue it."

Stay tuned.

Fox Criticized

This columnist chides Fox, Greta Van Susteren, and Sean Hannity for going soft on the Palins.

Of course Obama has gotten the kid glove treatment all along, but don't expect this columnist to point out the obvious.

Somebody

must have dropped Roger Ailes on his head, for how can anybody explain Fox News' telling the truth about the primaries?

The Time magazine cover is really brazen.





Somebody has been reading this blog or similar blogs.

Mark my words, this pushing Clinton out of the race ISN'T about sexism; this is about payback for Clinton I and for propping up the media's candidate, John McCain, by having an easy candidate (Obama) for him to beat.

If the Bloggers

had had an ounce of brains, they would have seen through Obama right away, just as I did.

Now they feel betrayed by the bullshit he spewed.

Liberal bloggers are expressing outrage over Barack Obama's appearance this weekend on Fox News, accusing the Democratic presidential front-runner of kowtowing to the network's conservative viewers, and throwing his online supporters to the wolves.
Obama_fox

Obama broke a self-imposed embargo on the Rupert Murdoch-owned network that lasted for more than two years when he sat for an interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace on Sunday.

Frankly Fox has more integrity than the likes of MSNBC. That's making a right-handed compliment, by the way.

You Know, Obamamann,

if you and your network weren't shitting on Hillary Clinton so damned much in your lame attempt to put up a stalking horse for John McCain, maybe Ed Rendell wouldn't have said Fox News was far more fair and balanced than most mainstream media.

Which in fact is the truth. When they did their debates this season, their broadcasts were far better than the others.

Presidential Notes.

Democratic candidates still persist in their wrongheaded campaign to boycott Fox for the debates.

How is it worse that Brit Hume or any of the other Fox people moderate debates and ask questions than the rotten job Brian Williams or Chris Matthews did for MSNBC?

Actually Fox did WAY better with the Republican debate of a couple of weeks ago. That was good.

Democrats shouldn't act chickenshit.
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Presidential Notes.

I didn't receive the satellite signal from Fox News and therefore didn't watch most of tonight's GOP debate.

What I've seen of it, though, is far better than MSNBC's debate broadcasts. It's very lively.

I hope C-SPAN will rebroadcast it.

Here

we go again.

Sorry, but this is boneheaded.

Presidential Notes II.

Dennis Kucinich is absolutely correct regarding the boneheaded decision by the Nevada Democratic Party to knuckle under the pressure by the nutroots and MoveOn.org to cancel the Fox News-hosted August debate in Reno:

"If you want to be the President of the United States, you can't be afraid to deal with people with whom you disagree politically," Kucinich said. "No one is further removed from Fox's political philosophy than I am, but fear should not dictate decisions that affect hundreds of millions of Americans and billions of others around the world who are starving for real leadership."

"I'm prepared to discuss the war, health care, trade, or any other issue anytime, anywhere, with any audience, answering any question from any media. And any candidate who won't shouldn't be President of the United States."

The nutroots pressure was stupid, even hypocritical, but it's par for the course by those who desire to be kingmakers in the Democratic Party.

More is here.

They are STILL the nutroots.
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Obama increases his support among black Democrats; however, his support may not be as much as would be expected.
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Presidential Notes.

I guess old Rudy is sneaking into Reno today; however, his visit isn't open to the public.

He is the guest of honor at a fundraiser at a private residence. It'll cost at least $1,000 to get in to see him.

Hell, I saw former President Carter for a fraction of that amount, so why would I bother to see a washed-up mayor?

If Giuliani had shown up at a free event, that would be different.
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The nutroots may claim victory over the cancellation of the Reno debate in August, but northern Nevadans are fucked over, as usual.

It pisses me off, because this entire episode was so stupid and unnecessary. The nutroots weren't bitching back in 2004.
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However, Edwards Has Made a Key

strategic blunder by kowtowing to the nutroots denizens Kos and MyDD and has declined to attend the August debate in Reno, I believe it is, hosted by Fox.

This is crazy. Sure, he was in Carson City last month at the forum, but there will be far more attention paid to the campaign by the public as the campaign progresses. Edwards CANNOT--repeat CANNOT--afford to lose media exposure, even if it is from the likes of Fox.

Fox hosted a couple of debates during the 2004 primary race, and it wasn't any worse than the major networks.

However, Bill Richardson, a candidate people had BETTER pay attention to, has accepted, and he will very possibly win the caucus next January. Edwards has basically handed him the state by default. He can't just concentrate on Las Vegas and ignore the rest of the state.

The nutroots needs to shut the fuck up and fight real battles, not stupid ones like this.