HITCHENS: The empty life of this ugly little charlatan proves only one thing: that you can get away with the most extraordinary offenses to morality and to truth in this country if you will just get yourself called Reverend.

Who would, even at your network, have invited on such a little toad to tell us that the attacks of September the 11th were the result of our sinfulness and were God's punishment if they hadn't got some kind of clerical qualification?

People like that should be out in the street, shouting and hollering with a cardboard sign and selling pencils from a cup.

Holy crap, Chris. Tell us how you really feel!

Crooks and Liars » Hitchens slams Falwell’s life

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you a new low in journalism...

Quoted below is the unedited above-the-jump text from a FoxNews story about the VT Tech shootings entitled: "Did the Devil Make Him Do it?"

When unexplained violence takes center stage, we tend to turn to modern psychology to explain it.

But there is an alternative explanation, one that has been played out in film, stage and writings since the beginning of history.

Was Cho Seung-Hui schizophrenic … psychotic … manic-depressive? Or were the shooting deaths of 32 people, including Cho himself, at Virginia Tech University part of the ongoing struggle between God and Satan … good against evil … lightness and darkness?

Could Cho have been possessed by the Devil? Could that explain the massacre at Virginia Tech?

Dr. Richard Roberts, president of Oral Roberts University, shouts an unequivocal “Yes!”

“Based on what I’ve seen in the news," Roberts said in an interview, "there’s no doubt that this act was Satanic in origin."

This surprises *anyone?* We're talking about Fox.

Just when you thought the posturing about Cho couldn't get any more stupid..

The entire quote is: "I think that nobody wants to play chicken with our troops on the ground." Why would FOX leave out the first four words? Or why not at least include "nobody"? There's plenty of room. I'd love to say that this was a mere oversight, no malicious intent. Their track record, however, doesn't assuage my suspicion.

I don't normally link to a full object at Crooks & Liars, I do read them pretty much every day, but I don't grab the whole damn thing. This one is another story. Take a look at the graphic and try to tell me FOX News, and I only use that term because that's what they've registered themselves as, isn't more useless than crap.

Sorry, "more useless than crap," isn't adequate. Actively destructive to the country. Cancerous to the public discourse. Thrown feces in the national well to cause cholera in public at large. And someone wonders why the Democrats have said go screw to a debate hosted by them.

Crooks and Liars � Open Thread

Imus initially was given a two-week suspension, to start Monday, for calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" on the air last week, but outrage continued to grow and advertisers bolted from his programs.

Oops. This is right on par with Jimmy the Greek losing his job for the slaves comment or Cosell getting the axe after "that little monkey gets loose, doesn't he." Stupid.

CBS Fires Don Imus From Radio Show | The Huffington Post

This is amazing. I was starting to wonder who was going to hit whom with a chair first.

(If anyone knows how to embed the video here, go for it, I don't)

Crooks and Liars » Bill O’Reilly’s head practically explodes as he screams at Geraldo…

High comedy, in multiple ways.

YouTube - Snoop Dogg Says: ''F*ck Bill O'Reilly!'' TBOHipHop.net

Ailes, the chairman and CEO of FOX News, will receive the 2006 First Amendment Leadership Award.

Next years nominees are John Adams for the Alien and Sedition Act, Mao Tse Tung for the Cultural Revolution, Papa Doc Duvalier for the Tontons Macoutes and Benito Mussolini for making the trains run on time. Get your votes in early!

RTNDA/F News Releases

HUME: So, you don't want to answer the question, or what?

EASTON: No. There's a reality that a president has to factor in today when you ask the American public to go to war, you need to realize and understand what --

HUME: What the news media can do, right?

EASTON: -- the role of casualties. And the media is not -- it's no longer a question of the media in Iraq. The Pentagon --

HUME: That's it for the panel.

Ah, Faux News, gotta love 'em. When Mort Kondracke and Nina Easton both go the other way and Hume chops off his own panel discussion, and this is on Faux mind you, you have to wonder just how insane the people over there are. Their own talking heads are starting to deviate from the party line.

They can't fold up shop fast enough. The couple of good reporters they have will get jobs at the real news organizations, Brit Hume and Bill Kristol can get sent back to the holes in the ground they were dug up from.

Media Matters - Only on Fox: Panel discussed video of

But Tehran was profoundly disappointed with the United States response. After the 9/11 attacks, xxx xxx xx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xx set the stage for a November 2001 meeting between Secretary of State Colin Powell and the foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s six neighbors and Russia. xxxx xxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxx xx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx xxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxx xx xxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxx xxxxx Iran went along, working with the United States to eliminate the Taliban and establish a post-Taliban political order in Afghanistan.

The x's are what the White House told the Times to chop out. A second article here talks about those deletions. This goes beyond ridiculous. George Orwell would see 1984 coming to fruition in the Bush administration.

Redacted Version of Op-Ed on Iran - New York Times

Perhaps it's because the mainstream media are too timid to declare the difference between right and wrong. Imagine if journalism consisted of more than a collage of conflicting talking points. Imagine the difference it would make if more brand-name reporters broke from the bizarre straitjacket of "balance," which equates fairness with putting all disputants on equal epistemological footing, no matter how deceitful or moronic they may be.

There's a market for news that weighs counterclaims and assesses truth value. It just hasn't kept up with demand. No wonder Jon Stewart has such a loyal audience: He has a point of view, and it's rooted in the reality-based — not the ideology-based — world.

Good call from Marty. Less "balance," more "fair," meaning make a damn call.

Does Iraq need more debate? - Los Angeles Times