Joe the Plumber Scares FOXNEWS

In the continuing saga of Joe the Unvetted Plumber, on FOX NEWS' Shepard Smith show:
"The Ohio plumber, who has no license and is actually named Samuel Wurzelbacher, spoke at a McCain campaign event in Columbus Monday. A McCain supporter asked if "a vote for Obama is a vote for the death of Israel." JTP hardly batted an eye.


"I'll go ahead and agree with you on that," Wurzelbacher said"

Smith made a statement after the show:
Anyway, five minutes with Joe The Plumber had Shepard Smith so frustrated that the Fox anchor felt compelled to issue a disclaimer, immediately following the segment, pushing back on any notion that Obama would mean the "death of Israel," saying: "I just want to make this 100 percent perfectly clear -- Barack Obama has said repeatedly and demonstrated repeatedly that Israel will always be a friend of the United States, no matter what happens once he becomes President of the United States. His words." Smith later added, "The rest of it -- man...some things -- it just gets frightening sometimes. We'll be right back." I haven't seen Shep this broken up about the state of the world since Katrina."

Bad judgment John put the Unvetted Plumber on the campaing trail.

Seneca

 

In a somewhat related story, Charles Barkely states the obvious:

"TNT basketball analyst and former NBA star Charles Barkley calls Fox News Channel "corrupt," Fox News dismisses Barkley as a "shill" for CNN
By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/29/2008 1:00:00 AM
Former NBA star, current TNT basketball analyst and possible future Alabama gubernatorial candidate Charles Barkley says he is no fan of Fox News Channel.

“I watch CNN, they’re not fucked up like Fox,” Barkley told B&C. “They are a mouthpiece for the Republican Party. I watch [Fox] a couple times when there is someone I want to see on there. But they’re corrupt."

When asked whether he is just shilling for his parent company (TNT and CNN are corporate cousins), Barkley denies that he has to stick up for his team.

“Hell no, I don’t,” he says. “I like Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper and John King. They at least try to give both sides.”

But Fox News Channel doesn’t see it that way, as a network spokesperson fired back immediately.

“It’s hardly a surprise that Charles is a shill for a Turner owned network.... He obviously needs the steady paycheck to pay off his consistent gambling debts,” the spokesperson told B&C."

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/CA6609324.html

Seneca

 

So wait a second. I'm supposed to shocked, surprised, impressed that some shine who broadcasts for a troubled competing network, a guy who just blew his fortune gambling in Las Vegas casinos (estimated 8 figure losses, he had to be threatened with jail to pay), I'm supposed to find it newsworthy that Barkley is slamming Fox? Or a de facto endorsement of Obama? Are you friggin' kidding me?

 

CNN is less streamlined on the Democrat/Republican alignment - so they get more of "both sides", yes... but they are just as flawed and run huge "media campaigns" which are deeply biased.

Anderson Cooper keep referring to William Kristol as "a leading conservative", Wolf Blitzer just added neo-conservative writer Stephen F. Hayes from The Weekly Standard to his "team" ... John King, well - he seems pretty fair and with some integrity although I don't see much of his reporting any longer.

CNN is selective in what they present - i.e they many times just present one side of things, or completely fail to ask important, central questions to participants - or raise obvious concerns. They are more about being a "medium" for official policies. For roughly 2 years, CNN has been running a smear campaign about China which they keep up with sometimes news which have no significance to the rest of the world as being "big news".

Fareed Zakaria is without doubt the best program on CNN - in terms of intellectual depth and insight. Some anchors are very supportive of any official government policy, while others are thought provoking - a mix really. Since I watch mostly CNNI, I also prefer the British anchors - since they are more balanced in their presentations, but they still kick France, Italy or Germany at times.

 

I have to agree with this -- Fareed is brilliant.