Category: Fox News

Herman Cain Set to Win S.C. Debate

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Herman Cain appeared on the Neal Cavuto show Wednesday afternoon to talk about Thursday’s debate in Greenville, South Carolina. Asked about the presumed GOP 2012 candidates who are skipping the debate, Cain said: “I think they’re making a mistake by not being here.”

Indeed, the state’s new Republican governor says the same thing:

With the first 2012 GOP presidential debate Thursday in South Carolina, top Republicans in the Palmetto State are warning several hopefuls who have chosen to skip the event that it will hurt them.
“Anyone that discounts South Carolina is making a huge mistake,” said South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
South Carolina traditionally holds the first primary in the south. Since it began in 1980, no Republican has won the GOP presidential nomination without first winning the state. . . .
Gov. Haley believes skipping Thursday’s debate will put some of the candidates at odds with demanding Palmetto State voters eager to begin reviewing the candidates and their character.
“They’re gonna have to work twice as hard to prove that they’re in the game and while it is early, to show that you’re strong early makes an important difference in South Carolina,” Haley said. “So I would advise all of them get here, get here fast and make sure every part of the state notices you.”

Cain will be joined by Rep. Ron Paul, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson in Thursday’s debate (9 p.m. ET). Dave Weigel runs down the lineup, and explains why the no-shows are no-shows. The latest news from the Mitt Romney campaign is intriguing; one of his top New Hampshire supporters has quit:

Romney’s wishy-washy political identity and inability to stake out firm, consistent positions as a candidate were the reasons for his decision to cut ties with Romney. “He struggled with that in the last campaign,” [Bruce] Keough explains, “and to some extent I think he’s still struggling with it.”

Jazz Shaw at Hot Air: “For Keough to not only decline Romney’s invitation to the 2012 dance, but immediately take to the pages of Mother Jones to trash his former boss’s bona fides is fairly remarkable.” Also fairly remarkable: The Quinnipiac Poll ignores Herman Cain.

Meanwhile, back to Thursday’s debate, Carl Cameron of Fox News observes: “Retail politics is key in South Carolina. The voters here insist on meeting the candidates and kicking the tire and figuring out what the candidates are all about.” Retail politics is where Cain says he’s strongest in early primary states. As he told Cavuto in Wednesday’s interview: “Start looking at some of the results we’re getting on the ground in Iowa and New Hampshire.”

Cain mentioned his straw-poll win after Friday’s debate in Manchester, N.H., sponsored by Americans for Prosperity. Also, a poll of Hot Air readers showed Cain in a virtual tie for second place with Mitt Romney, behind front-runner Sarah Palin. Here is a video profile of Herman Cain by Brett Baier of Fox News:

Isn’t it time you joined the online grassroots army at Citizens for Cain?

REPORT: Beck to End Daily Fox Show

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Apparently, Glenn Beck has issued a press release announcing he “intends to transition off of his daily program” on Fox News Channel.

Exactly what that means, we don’t know yet.

UPDATE: The press release describes discussions about “a variety of television projects” in a vague enough way that media tea-leaf readers at both the Washington Post and NPR interpret this as a polite let-’em-down-easy way of Fox saying, “See ya later, Glenn.”

UPDATE II: HuffPo notes: “Joel Cheatwood, a senior Fox News executive who Beck hired away to his own company, will serve as the main liaison between the two networks.” The New York Times observes, “The joint statement did not specify an end date for Mr. Beck’s show.”

UPDATE III: Behold, the idiotic glee in Lizardlandia:


So, in August 2009, Charles Johnson labeled Beck a “raving freakazoid nut sandwich” and now in April 2011 — which is to say, 19 months later — claims vindication, “laughing last.”

Except that every weekday for the past 19 months, Beck has reached a national television audience of more than a million viewers, continues to draw millions of radio listeners, and has sold umpteen thousand books, earning himself many millions of dollars.

Not bad for a “raving freakazoid nut sandwich.”

Caught on Tape: Fox News Executive Privately Doubts Obama Is a Socialist?

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It’s another one of those “gotcha” moments with Media Matters as Wile E. Coyote and Fox as the Road Runner. Fox executive Bill Sammon (with whom I used to work at The Washington Times) was on a 2009 cruise sponsored by Hillsdale College and gave a speech where he said this:

“Last year, candidate Barack Obama stood on a sidewalk in Toledo, Ohio, and first let it slip to Joe the Plumber that he wanted to quote, ‘spread the wealth around.’ . . . At that time, I have to admit, that I went on TV on Fox News and publicly engaged in what I guess was some rather mischievous speculation about whether Barack Obama really advocated socialism, a premise that privately I found rather far-fetched. . . .
“Now imagine my surprise when this year, I witness President Barack Obama standing in the cross hall of the White House and having taken over the American car industry, look into the camera, and announce to the nation essentially, that he would personally vouch for the warranty on your car’s muffler. . . . All of a sudden, the debate over whether America was heading for socialism seemed anything but far-fetched.”

Eric Hananoki of Media Matters plays this up — “newly uncovered audio” of a “startling admission” — as the smoking-gun proof that BILL SAMMON LIED TO FOX NEWS VIEWERS!

Well, to start with, how did this audio become “newly uncovered”? Waaaayy down in his story at Media Matters, Hananoki explains:

Media Matters obtained audio of Sammon’s remarks by purchasing it through Hillsdale College.

Yeah: They sold audio of the speeches made by Sammon and others during this cruise. And so it wasn’t exactly hush-hush. And of course, in context, you see that what Sammon is saying about this “Barack the Socialist” meme is that it was what everybody on Fox was discussing at the time, and he took part in those discussions despite whatever private doubts he might have had about the term.

So big hairy deal. Greg Pollowitz at National Review:

There’s an old SNL skit with William Shatner playing Captain Kirk and Dana Carvey as Khan. Except in this SNL future, The USS Enterprise is now a floating restaurant in space, Kirk is the maître d’hôtel, and Khan is the health inspector. Khan sneers, during his inspection, “I have you now Kirk! There’s no sneeze-guard on your salad bar!” . . .

It’s a long run for short slide, and if this is the best Media Matters can do, George Soros should demand a refund. 

Meanwhile, I’m told that Bill Sammon is now requiring all Fox News employees to sign a pledge of their absolute 100% certainty that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ, or else they’re fired.

You believe that, right? I mean, if it’s on the Internet, it must be true.

UPDATE: As might be expected, the unhinged left-wing moonbat bloggers are jumping all over this Media Matters “startling admission” angle. And by the phrase “unhinged left-wing moonbat bloggers” of course, I mean . . .


Shepard Smith, Live From Tokyo

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“. . . blackouts across this nation . . . epic earthquake . . . monster tsunami . . . nightmare scene from Hell . . . . a quickly growing humanitarian crisis . . . an economy teetering on the brink of collapse . . .”

Fuck you, Shep. Fuck you and fuck your purple prose.

Your over-excited International Drama Queen act is starting to grate on my last nerve, and I’m not in a mood for further annoyances today.

WARNING TO JAPANESE: If Shepard Smith wants your parking space, get out of his way.

Will Fox Dump Glenn Beck?

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That’s what David Carr of the New York Times suggests: Beck’s contract is up in December and maybe he and the Fox folks don’t see eye-to-eye.

Howard Portnoy at Hot Air Green Room is dubious about this theory, citing Scott Baker at the Beck-sponsored Blaze blog.

I don’t watch Beck’s show enough to offer any definitive judgment, but it is my general impression that Beck’s show was much better in 2009 than it has been in recent months. Beck did valuable work in showing the connections between various radical elements of the organized Left and the Obama administration. 

There were a lot of people who sort of woke up after the 2008 election asking themselves, “How did we get here?” And what Beck did, with his chalkboard talks and so forth, was to provide these newly-engaged people with a very watchable seminar on the history and structure of the American Left, keyed on current events.

That was very good, but in recent months, whenever I tune into Beck on Fox, I get the idea that he’s preaching more than teaching. The show is now less about fact and more about feeling. He seems less interested in politics and history, more interested in forging an emotional connection with his viewers. But that is merely my perception, and it may be that regular Beck-watchers will say I’m mistaken.

Suggestion: Somebody at the network needs to have a sit-down meeting with Beck and explain that this is the Fox News Channel — not the Fox Patriotism Channel or Fox Faith Channel. Focus the show a bit sharper on here’s-what’s-happening-now and filling in the here’s-what-you-don’t-know background behind the headlines.

Also, a rooftop concert in London with Billy Preston on keyboards might be helpful: Get Beck!

Jeff G. Schools Shep Smith

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“Let me clue you in here, you vapid hair-do . . .”

Just in case you’re wondering when Jeff went sour on Shep, let’s go back to September 2005, when Shep’s melodramatic flair was viciously satirized here, here and here.

Shep brings to his coverage the kind of detached stoicism one usually finds on the front row of a Liz Minelli concert.

And don’t you dare get between him and a parking spot.

Anyway, Jeff’s dispute with the vapid hair-do has something to do with labor unions and Jeff isn’t toeing the Trumka line, so I guess that makes him a bad Jew.

BTW, there is already a #BadJew hashtag on Twitter, and a support group of sorts. Mazel tov!

Everybody at CPAC Likes to Have Their Photos Taken With Celebrities …

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. . . which is why some obscure dudes from a cable-TV show insisted on having their photos taken with Susannah Fleetwood and Sarah Rumpf:


Video of the obscure cable-TV dudes at CPAC:

Remember that most people tuned into cable TV at 3 a.m. are watching ads for the George Foreman grill or “natural male enhancement.”

A few of them, however, are watching Fox News and asking themselves, “Who are those guys on Andy Levy‘s show?”

Glenn Beck Wants You to Threaten Violence Against Harmless Academics

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That’s what liberals have been claiming. The Nation published several nasty e-mails professor Frances Fox Piven received because she has become “the target of a relentless campaign to demonize her.” This accusation got repeated in a New York Times story with a scary headline:

Spotlight From Glenn Beck Brings
a CUNY Professor Threats

And that leads to Beck getting write-ups by Stanley Kurtz and James Taranto and links, links, links from Instapundit.

But why should Beck get all the blame? Blame me, please. In 2006, on page 149 of Donkey Cons, I wrote:

The welfare explosion of the 1960s was the brainchild of a group of Columbia University professors, including Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward and crusading  New York anti-poverty lawyer Edward Sparer. They saw welfare as a means to shatter “patterns of servile conformity” among the poor, transforming them into a force for revolution.

See? I was demonizing Professor Piven before Glenn Beck ever heard of her. But do I get any credit when she gets hateful e-mail? No. Why? Because I don’t have a Fox News show and Beck does.

Henceforth, whenever somebody sends France Fox Piven an e-mail calling her “big doody-head,” I’m claiming credit. I need the publicity.