Fox News

h/t TPM 

Media Matters released a devastating recording today of Fox News executive Bill Sammon boasting to a cruise ship lecture audience that he repeatedly lied (or in Sammon's words,"engaged in...rather mischievous speculation") regarding Barack Obama's true socialist agenda.   Sammon admitted that he didn't believe the garbage he was spreading, but did it anyway, because he was the Fox News executive in charge of political coverage.  Here's a video with Sammon's comments, plus context, released by Media Matters today:

After the recording was made public this morning, Sammon told The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz that "he doesn’t regret repeatedly raising it on the air because, Sammon says, 'it was a main point of discussion on all the channels, in all the media' — and by 2009 he was "astonished by how the needle had moved.'"  In other words, it was okay for him to held spread the lie as a Fox executive, because a lot of people on his own network followed his lead and further spread the same lie. 

With Chris Wallace's fragile self-esteem once again intact, Fox News Sunday has invited Sen. Claire McCaskill to appear on this weekend's show.

I don't even know what to think about all this compilation of Glenn Beck's craziness from the past few weeks ago ... but I will say that I was completely unaware that the AFL-CIO was somehow tied to the ongoing violence in Egypt.   Maybe somebody should talk to Hugh McVey to see what's going on? 

I do wonder, though, if we'll see ads like this from Ed Martin in the coming months. ...

...and I wonder if we'll see any more assertions from Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer that whatever Beck is saying ""must be true because nobody's refuting it?"

Fox News has backed down in its "ridiculous" partisan lawsuit against the Robin Carnahan for Senate campaign, agreeing to a settlement with the campaign and walking away without any of the monetary damages it had sought. Fox and their lawyers are apparently unwilling to test their "dubious" and "strange" claims in court, and political speech remains protected.

As you may recall, Fox sued the Carnahan campaign in September, upset that they'd found footage of Sunday morning personal Chris Wallace committing journalism in a 2006 interview with Roy Blunt, questioning his credibility as a reformer in the House of Representatives.  Never mind that all sorts of Republican candidates, including Blunt, John McCain and other GOP candidates were allowed to use Fox footage for their campaigns without so much as a whimper from the propagandists.  (Also left unmentioned in the Fox complaint: their PAC has been donating to Blunt's campaigns for a decade.)

In the settlement, Fox News agreed to walk, and the Carnahan campaign agreed it had used more footage than a Democratic candidate for office is permitted if it wishes to avoid a retaliatory lawsuit from Fox.

No word yet on the current status of Wallace's "self esteem and dignity," which Fox alleged had been significantly damaged by the re-airing of his act of journalism.

Related:

• Post-Dispatch: "Fox v. Robin: Caught being objective, Fox News retaliates."
• Slate Magazine: Why the Fox News suit against Robin Carnahan's campaign is bogus
• TPM: Fox News Took 'Dramatic Step' In Suing Political Campaign, Says Copyright Expert
• Politico: Fox News sues Carnahan over ad
• Fired Up!: Legal Experts Call Fox Complaints "Dubious" & "Strange"
• Fired Up!: FOX and Chris Wallace Really, Really Annoyed That They Were Critical of Roy Blunt
• Fired Up!: Kraske: Fox Lawsuit A "Mystery"

The Post-Dispatch weighed in on Fox News' lawsuit against the Robin Carnahan Senate campaign this weekend, in piece headlined "Fox v. Robin: Caught being objective, Fox News retaliates."  It provides a good summary of Fox's claims in the suit, along with a number of good examples of Republican campaigns using Fox footage in their ads -- campaigns that that the propagandists at Fox haven't yet gotten around to suing, for some reason. 

"We'd hesitate to call the lawsuit frivolous," they write. "Ridiculous is more like it. With a whiff of spite."

A new University of Maryland study finds that "Fox News viewers were were 'significantly' more likely than non-viewers to erroneously believe false information about the economy, taxes, climate change, bailouts and whether President Obama was born in the United States."

Media Matters has uncovered a Fox News memo documenting what we already knew: "In the midst of global climate change talks last December, a top Fox News official sent an email questioning the 'veracity of climate change data' and ordering the network's journalists to 'refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question.' ... Contrary to [Washington managing editor Bill] Sammon's email, the increase in global temperatures over the last half-century is an established fact. As the National Climatic Data Center explains, the warming trend 'is apparent in all of the independent methods of calculating global temperature change' and 'is also confirmed by other independent observations.'

I was on the road yesterday and completely missed this: "the revolution" is on. I should call Blaine Luetkemeyer and Ed Martin to get the details.  It "must be true because nobody's refuting it."

h/t The Turner Report

This ad from the Palm Center calling for the repeal of the federal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is apparently too much for Fox News' delicate audience to handle. 

What if the commercial just read from a new CNN poll showing that 72% of Americans think people should be able to serve openly?  Would that also get turned down by the freedom lovers at Fox? 

If you don't watch the whole interview, be sure to watch the first few moments as Chris Wallace's squirms when Jon Stewart congratulates him and Fox News for "retaking control of the House of Representatives."

h/t TPM

Via the Hollywood Reporter: "Now that Carnahan has dutifully pointed out that Fox News was a bit tardy in filing its copyright registration, Fox has decided to take advantage of Rule 15(a)(1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. What's that? It basically allows a party to amend its pleading within 21 days of the other party raising a defense based on jurisdictional or procedural grounds (i.e. serving a copyright lawsuit before registering copyright). So Fox News is amending its lawsuit to include the copyright registration. In addition, the cable news network is adding new charges against the Carnahan campaign for continuing to use the commercial on its website, even after taking the ad off TV.  The move hardly will change the outcome of the case, but it allows Fox News more time."

No word yet on how the protracted legal battle is affecting Chris Wallace's self esteem and dignity.

Fox News' amended complaint is embedded below the jump.

Sen. Claire McCaskill was on Fox News Sunday this morning to help Chris Wallace rebuild some of his self-esteem. 

The Hollywood Reporter: "Carnahan has struck back, telling a Missouri District Court that Fox News sued before properly registering copyright on the clip. The Carnahan camp submitted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Friday, arguing that the popular cable news network was premature in initiating its copyright claim. Carnahan's lawyers say this is 'more than a technical failure.' Instead, the campaign contends that Fox couldn't complete a copyright application because it would have trouble claiming copyright on all elements of the clip that Carnahan used. The footage itself, it turns out, incorporates an image first broadcast on C-SPAN. The campaign says this may be proof that Fox abused the copyright registration process and filed a frivolous claim in bad faith."

From the motion:

Because the Fox Network commenced its copyright claim prematurely, the Court cannot grant the Fox Network relief on its copyright infringement claim and must therefore dismiss this claim. If this filing precondition problem is not resolved, the validity of this lawsuit and any rulings made herein may be questioned. The Carnahan Campaign has finished running, and thus ceased, television broadcasting of the advertisement in question, and if the case proceeds, it could place the Court and parties in the unusual situation of litigating a lawsuit never properly initiated as to broadcasts of a political advertisement that have already terminated.

Additionally, because no copyright registration is attached to the Complaint, the Fox Network has obscured the issue of the extent to which the materials used by the Carnahan Campaign in its television political advertisement even fall within the Fox Network's copyright.

Documents filed Friday may be found below the jump. 

h/t The Turner Report

Hey look!  Roy Blunt is using footage of Chris Wallace talking about their trumped up conspiracy allegations on Fox News in a campaign web video. 

No word yet on when Fox News plans to file suit to stop this outrageous copyright infringement and further destruction of Chris Wallace's self-esteem. 

Of course, it's entirely possible that a right-wing outfit like Fox News doesn't care at all when Republicans feed stories to Fox News and then Fox News runs said stories for the benefit of said Republicans.   But that seems unlikely, since Fox News is a completely legitimate, nonpartisan media outlet.

Ed Martin is also believed to be in legal jeopardy.