Meet the Paid Journalists
Maggie Gallagher | Armstrong Williams | Michael McManus | Jeff Gannon

The last time you saw a news segment that used Bush's talking points, or read an article about how great "No Child Left Behind" is, did it seem as if it was so slanted, the reporter could have been getting paid by the Bush administration? Chances are, he or she probably was.

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Cable Channel	9pm	Right-Wing Rating
	Larry King Live If you're curious about the Laci Peterson trail - would like to know more about Michael Jackson's weird pets and how often he hangs out with small children - if you want to know about the British Royal Family, what Liz Taylor is up to, or just how the hell Jennifer Aniston gets her hair to look so ...shiny - then tune into Larry King. It's like the National Enquirer got a tv show. I remember taking him somewhat seriously about a decade ago, but his show has more gossip now than 7th grade slumber party. Oh, and, for all of you mistakenly thinking this guy is liberal - whenever he has a guest on with ANY particular political ideology, his call screeners make every effort possible to let only the guest's supporters get through.
	Live with Tucker Carlson Tucker Carlson is like the nerd you used to beat the crap out of when the gym teacher wasn't looking. His bow tie, "I've never been laid" look just begs, "please, take my lunch money!." Although he does stick up for himself when confronted by less right-leaning guests, he is actually not a screaming loud-mouth idiot like some of the other pundits on this page. One of his crowning moments didn't even come from his own show - claiming that nobody blames the Pentagon for the lying and deception around Pat Tillman's death (hint: just ask Tillman's family).
	Hannity and Colmes If you've read Al Franken's latest book, or if you've watched this show for about 3 minutes, you may realize why Colmes is in much smaller font. This deceptive show pits the good-looking, well spoken Sean Hannity, against the ostrich monster with the grasshopper face Alan Colmes. The aesthetic message - conservative assholes are nobel, while progressives have never kissed a woman in their lives. Other than that, the show is set up such that Hannity has much more control than his hand picked assistant, and dominates all of the arguments during each broadcast accordingly.
	Dennis Miller What in the god damn hell happened to Dennis Miller? Miller used to be funny, but something happened right around 9/11 that made him drop about 75 IQ points, and adapt the same simple minded, fake-patriotic colon-clenching mentality that he made an entire career out of poking fun at. His conservative soufflé, airing at 9pm on MSNBC consists of on part bashing Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton, one part giving verbal oral sex to President Bush, and two parts cutting off people's sentences who don't praise the Iraq war at least three times during their interview. Dennis - you are no longer funny. You no longer use intelligent humor that used to fly over the heads of all non-intellectuals. You are in fact, dead to me.

Cable Channel	10pm	Right-Wing Rating
	News Night With Aaron Brown Aaron Brown is a strange fellow. Not entirely conservative, but kind of an ass. He's like that nerd you used to pick on in high school who actually had the balls to fight back - only to get his ass kicked again and again. Brown gets half a confederate flag because during the debates and during both conventions, he had a negative attitude toward John Kerry and the Democrats. It's like watching Jay Leno for about a half hour - he tries to hide his political ideology but he comes across as someone who doesn't take progressives very seriously. Come out of the closet Aaron - and trade those glasses for a cowboy hat and a Bible. Oh yeah - and take that damn hair piece off your head!
	Scarborough Country with Joe Scarborough Ahh yes, more liberalism from your favorite left-wing network, NBC. Joe Scarborough is a former Republican House of Representatives member from Florida, and I actually don't hate the guy. His politics are completely screwed up, but he's actually quite a nice guy both on his show and in interviews. I heard him get destroyed an in Air America interview once and I thought he was going to cry - I nearly felt bad for him. Make no mistake however, Scarborough is very conservative, and uses his slice of the liberal media to spew out Right-Wing talking points each night.
	Special Report with Brit Hume I believe Brit recently got kicked out of this time slot, but he had been in it so long, I feel like writing about him anyway. Brit Hume would be the result of Tom Brokaw, Rush Limbaugh and Frankenstein having a three way, and producing a child that has characteristics of each. He's one of the more conservative Fox hosts, which would is quite obvious to the 11 people who watch his show each night. He's a stiff, dry, boring guy, who hates flag burners and that book-readin' type. Brit's most recent and most outrageous lie can be read about in detail here, or viewed in WMV format here. In short, he actually tried to claim the FDR endorsed private social security accounts when he was alive. Brit Hume, you crack smoker, stop lying to me, I'm not your mother.
	The Big Deal with Donnie Deutsch Advertising CEO Donnie Deutsch's show will last another 3-4 weeks if he's lucky. Deutsch mainly covers the incredibly boring niche of business, gossip, and money. No one watches his show and no one cares. .

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RatherGate
And the comparison to other famous lies in recent history

Well what about Dan Rather, you ask? All this talk of conservative media and something must be said about Dan Rather's mistakes, right? Well, W. and Dan have more in common than you might think. Both have used allegedly forged documents to sway opinion or support something they were trying to accomplish. So much has been made about what Dan Rather did, entire web sites are popping up to remind us all how much Danny-boy is a lying liberal bastard. Well, W fucked up too, but in a different way. Let's take a look, and we'll even throw Bubba in the mix...

Lie Told	Utilized documents claiming to authenticate the fact that Bush did not fulfill his duties in the National Guard.	Lied about an affair in the white house.	Utilized documents claiming to authenticate the fact that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger to make an atomic bomb.
Medium Used to Deliver Lie	60 Minutes II on CBS	Press conferences, interviews, and while under oath.	State of the Union Address and Colin Powell's testimony in front of the United Nations
Event Lie Was Used to Justify	CBS news story supporting growing suspicion that Bush was a avoided Vietnam through his father's connections, and did not fulfill his national guard duty.	Covering up an extramarital affair.	The military invasion of Iraq
Information Investigation Into Lie Yielded	Documents were almost certainly forged, however the report issued from the committee headed by Bush family friend (as well as Attorney General for Bush I) Richard Thornburgh claimed there was no political bias. Further, the woman who typed the documents, Marian Carr Knox, says the documents were fake but the information contained within them are real, and must have been taken from the real documents.	Clinton porked his porky intern.	100% certainty that documents were forged, as one of the signers of the documents had not been a foreign minister of Niger for over 14 years.
Fallout From Lie	Dan Rather retired early, 4 CBS News executives lost their jobs. CBS and Dan Rather both apologized.	Impeachment.	Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who pointed out that Niger was not seeking a uranium deal with Iraq, had his undercover CIA wife Valerie Plaim outed publicly by someone in the White House - an official act of Treason, which carries a Federal penalty of death. Support for the Iraq war nearly doubled according to polls among the US population, and among members of congress.
Number of Casualties Resulting From Error	No one trusts CBS News.	Zero.	-1,714 dead U.S. Solders (and counting) -11,200 (est.) injured U.S. Soldiers - Est 60,000 dead Iraqi Civilians

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From time to time, something is revealed about the Bush administration that is so counter-democratic, you have to wonder why people are shocked when Hitler's name is mentioned alongside Bush's.

When people do make the comparison, they're obviously not taking about concentration camps, or the outright hatred for minorities (I honestly think Bush doesn't hate anyone - I think he completely misunderstands). Instead, they're drawing up the comparisons because Hitler was a master propagandist. Hitler knew that in order to control the free thinking of a nation - in order to cover up lies and get people to conform, you had to control the media. If people don't have access to free and mostly unbiased information, they don't have control over their own thoughts and opinions.

That's why when two particular discoveries of propaganda used by the White House were unveiled, it cast a light on the Bush Administration unlike we've ever really seen in American history: Fake News, and Fake Town Hall Meetings.

Fake News

What exactly is the Bush administration doing?
Cranked up to full speed in the months before the presidential campaign really got going, the New York Times published an in-depth expose shedding light on the White House's use of fake news propaganda - the bulk of which included prepackaged, carefully produced news segments that openly praised Bush administration policies, such as No Child Left Behind, the war in Iraq, and other controversial initiatives. These pieces of media were sent to various television stations, and were subsequently aired without any indication actors hired by the the White House, not genuine news subjects, were centerpieces of the footage.

Where can you see this type of thing?
Some of the segments were broadcast in some of nation's largest television markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta, typically aired on 6, 10, or 11 o'clock news.

To what extent is the White House engaging in this type of propaganda?
Over the past four years, it turns out at least 20 different federal agencies have been involved in producing hundreds – yes, hundreds – of fake TV news segments, many of which were "subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production."

Is fake news being subsidized by my Tax Dollars?
The Bush administration has spent one quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer funds to produce phony government PR. Since President Bush took office in 2001, the White House has spent at least $254 million on fake "news" segments and other public relations schemes. In a now-infamous segment by the Department of Health and Human Services, a PR official named Karen Ryan posed as a reporter interviewing then-Secretary Tommy Thompson. The Government Accountability Office found the agency "designed and executed" her segments "to be indistinguishable from news stores produced by private sector television news organizations," according to the Times.

Isn't government sponsored propaganda illegal?
The administration willfully violates government restrictions on "covert propaganda." The non-partisan Government Accounting Office, the non-partisan investigative branch of Congress, has forbidden federal agencies from creating prepackaged news reports "that conceal or do not clearly identify for the television viewing audience that the agency was the source of those materials." The administration's response? The NY Times reports that on Friday, "the Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget circulated a memorandum instructing all executive branch agencies to ignore the GAO findings."

Why doesn't the GAO do something about this?
These fake news spots are produced with taxpayer money by outside public relations firms. Federal law warns federal agencies away from doing exactly that; the U.S. Code states "appropriated funds may not be used to pay a publicity expert unless specifically appropriated for that purpose." However, the GAO, which monitors the law, has no enforcement power. That responsibility lies with Congress and the White House. U.S. federal law also contains the Smith Mundt Act of 1948, which prohibits the spread of government propaganda in the United States (although it allows groups like Voice of America to broadcast it to foreign audiences.) According to the NY Times, State Department officials claim that provision doesn't apply to them.


Fake Campaign Stops

During the 2004 campaign, the Bush administration campaigned on the road in front of pre-screened, screaming fans as if they thought the Beatles had just walked on stage for the first time. At campaign stops across the country, the Bush-Cheney campaign practiced a Republicans-only policy, barring individuals that disagree with the President from public campaign events. The Republican National Committee has even required event-attendees to sign endorsement forms that pledge their support for the re-election of Bush.

Whether you’re a World War II veteran, a pro-choice independent, a grieving mother, a FEMA worker, or even a high school student, if you questioned Bush’s leadership or didn't belong to his political party, you didn't have the right to see your president, ask him questions and understand where he stands on the issues. What follows is a sampling of stories, from across the country, of individuals banned from Bush’s campaign events:

Republican National Committee Requires Voters To Sign Loyalty Oaths
The Republican National Committee is requiring voters to sign endorsement forms before they attend campaign rallies featuring Vice President Cheney or President Bush. When Vice President Dick Cheney spoke on July 31st to a crowd of 2,000 in Rio Rancho, NM, voters were required to sign an endorsement form in order to receive a ticket to hear Cheney “Whose vice president is he?” asked a 72-year-old John Wade. “I just wanted to hear what my vice president had to say, and they make me sign a loyalty oath.” The form’s endorsement begins, “I, ___,” requiring individuals to state their name, position, hometown and state, “do hereby endorse George W. Bush for re-election of the United States.” Attendees then date and sign the form. A disclaimer box underneath the signature line states, “In signing the above endorsement you are consenting to use and release of your name by Bush-Cheney as an endorser of President Bush.”

The Secret Service Has Banned Anti-Bush Protesters Since September 2001
The Secret Service has actively barred individuals from protesting President Bush since he took office in early 2001. Individuals across the country have been banned from displaying anti-Bush messages at dozens of appearances. The ACLU filed a suit against the Secret Service in September 2003, seeking an injunction against the Bush administration from sequestering protestors at the president’s public appearances. Most recently in West Virginia, a FEMA worker and her husband were arrested for wearing anti-Bush t-shirts at a public appearance billed by Bush as a presidential visit. The couple were forcibly removed from the event and arrested. Witold Walczak, a lawyer who has filed suit against the Secret Service for the ACLU, said that since the event was a presidential visit, it made it “an even more glaring violation of the First Amendment.” [Charleston Gazette, 7/14/04; Cox News Service, 9/23/03]

Cheney Campaign Worker Demanded To Know Race of Asian American Newspaper Photographer
A Cheney campaign worker called the Arizona Daily Star to check the name, date of birth, social security number and race of a photographer assigned to cover a political event that the Vice President would attend in Tucson. The paper, which had never been questioned on the race of a journalist before, refused to answer the question. The Asian American Journalist Association’s [AAJA]national officers issued a statement saying that “the demand bordered on racial profiling.” Abe Kwok, AAJA vice president for print, said he was “troubled at published reports that the inquiry of race as made of some journalists and not others.” A Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman said the request came from the Secret Service, but reporters and photographers are usually asked to provide only name, date of birth and Social Security number when requesting access to political events. The paper was told that the journalist’s race was “necessary to allow the Secret Service to distinguish her from someone else who might have the same name.” “It was a very lame excuse,” said Terry Hayt, the paper’s managing editor. [PR Newswire, 8/3/04, Newsday, 8/3/04; Arizona Daily Star, 7/31/04]

High School Students Threatened At Bush Campaign Event: “A Sniper” Could “Take Him Out”
John Sachs, an 18-year old high school senior went to see Bush in Clive, IA. Sachs got a ticket to the event from school and wanted to ask the president about whether there would be a draft, about the war in Iraq, Social Security and Medicare. At the event, a campaign staffer pulled Sachs aside and made him remove his button that read: ‘Bush-Cheney '04: Leave No Billionaire Behind.’ “The staffer quizzed him about whether he was a Bush supporter, asked him why he was there and what questions he would be asking the president. ‘Then he came back and said, 'If you protest, it won't be me taking you out. It will be a sniper,' Sachs said. ‘He said it in such a serious tone it scared the crap out of me.’” [Des Moines Register, 10/16/04]

Family of Three Was Kicked Out Of Bush Event For Bringing A Pro-Choice T-Shirt.
The Millers, a family of three - husband, wife and daughter – were removed from a Bush-Cheney campaign event because the wife, Barbara Miller, brought a pro-choice t-shirt with her. A campaign worker confiscated the t-shirt informing the family that “We don't accept any pro-choice, non-Republican paraphernalia.” The campaign worker returned an hour later with another worker and a security guard and accused the Millers of “smuggling t-shirts.” Barbara Miller, who brought the t-shirt because she was cold and had not considered the implications of its pro-choice logo, reports that a guard grabbed their three tickets from her hand and ripped them up “violently and told her, ‘They’re no good anymore.’” A Bush campaign spokeswoman, Jennifer Millerwise, defended the right of the campaign to ask individuals who intend to “disrupt campaign events” to leave. "These events are put on ... for people of an open mind who are interested in hearing [Bush's] positive message and his vision for a future," she said. Theresa Miller, the daughter, said that was what she was there to do. “I'm not an American? I can't see my president?” she asked. [Saginaw News, 8/6/04]

Campaign Staff Prevent Democrats And Independents From Attending July 13th Bush-Cheney Rally In Duluth, MN.
Bush-Cheney campaign staff, trying to ensure a friendly crowd for Bush’s rally in Duluth, would not hand out tickets to Democrats or Independents, if they admitted that they weren’t sure they were voting for Bush. Many residents were angered that only Republicans would be given the opportunity to attend the Bush-Cheney rally. A Duluth resident, Jan Witte, questioned who Bush really represented. “He’s my president too… I just thought I should be able to hear him speak.” [AP, 7/10/04]

National Guard Veteran Asked to Leave Rally
Tim Walz, a 23 year National Guard veteran wanted to hear his commander-in-chief. He was allowed into the quarry event after the two young men he was escorting were told to leave the event because one of the young men had a Kerry sticker in his wallet. When Walz objected he was first told to leave as well. Then, a Bush official asked if he supported the President. When he said he did not, the Bush official told him he had to leave as well and he was threatened with arrest. When he informed the official that he had just returned from overseas, the official begrudgingly allowed him to stay with the admonition that the Secret Service would be watching him. [Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, 8/13/04]

Fake Town Hall Meetings

What about Fake Town Hall Meetings?
Like it's older cousins Fake Campaign stops, and Fake News, the Fake Town Hall Meetings involve deception and manipulation, and have been used by the Bush administration since the middle of his first term.

What happens at these meetings?
Typically a public, tax payer-funded building is filled with pre-screened guests, with pre-screened statements and questions for the President, who enters dramatically, banters playfully with the "audience," and exits to thunderous applause. Like the Fake News segments, issues important for the administration are discussed, spun, and eaten up by the crowed of volunteers, and in some cases, paid actors. It's like an infomercial for the President - all sponsored by the local town holding the event, and caught on film to air in nightly news spots.

Since the term "Town Hall" implies open discussion by the community, can anyone attend?
Absolutely not. As we saw with Bush's campaign speeches in 2004, audiences are typically pre-screened, and tickets are only given to Bush supporters. In fact, those with dissenting opinions have been forcibly asked to leave such town hall meetings.

How does the administration screen the attendees?
Ask Linda Coates, of Fargo North Dakota. Coates, a city commissioner with an openly liberal background, said the administration is going way beyond protecting the president from hecklers and security threats. In fact, she found herself on a list of North Dakotans "banned" from a February Bush rally days before the event. The list reportedly was found in boxes of tickets for distribution. It included two high school students, a librarian, a Democratic campaign manager and several university professors — the majority of whom had connections to a local group called Democracy for America.

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 Meet Ann Coulter   

Intro: Of all the people listed on this page, Ann is the only one who most honest, God-fearing, gay-loathing conservatives try to distance themselves from. It's not that she's the most hateful; they praise that on the right. It's that she's says things that are so completely untrue, so completely fabricated, and so completely unsupported, that she often can't defend her own points without her audience, and even some supporters laughing at her. Born in 1961 (or 1963 depending on whether or not you believe her D.C. license, or her NY licence) she is typically seen whoring around all the morning and evening talk shows, frequently appearing on conservative shows like Dennis Miller's, Joe Scarborough's, Hannity and Colmes, Brit Hume's, and Bill O'Reilly's. You know, the prime time news shows that make up the liberal media. She is not only a vile, disgusting human being - but is probably the only woman who I would punch in the face, unprovoked.

Likes: Anything Christian, throwing up after medium sized meals, lying, doing coke with Bill Maher, fetuses, defending fake journalism absolutely, unequivocally, hating herself.

Dislikes:Writing anything truthful, people of color, civil rights leaders, the New York Times.

Most Interesting Lie or Hypocrisy: Coulter once claimed in an October 28, 2004 syndicated column that there were more WMD's found in Iraq than disenfranchised black voters in Florida during the 2000 election. The independent, bipartisan United States Commission on Civil Rights had found in a recent report that numerous people of color, including blacks, were disenfranchised during the 2000 presidential election. By contrast, one small canister of saran gas was found in Iraq, leftover from 1980's war with Iran. But don't take my word for it, read the USCCR report here.

Quotes from Ann:

-"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war." -September 13, 2001

-"God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the trees. God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.'" -Hannity & Colmes, 6/20/01

-"Liberals become indignant when you question their patriotism, but simultaneously work overtime to give terrorists a cushion for the next attack and laugh at dumb Americans who love their country and hate the enemy." -Unknown Date

-“It’s not terrorism that’s bad, it’s Muslims who are bad. And Christianity will make them good. Those crusades in the 11th and 12th centuries, they were great for world peace weren’t they?” -September 13, 2001, National Review Online

-"The swing voters---I like to refer to them as the idiot voters because they don't have set philosophical principles. You're either a liberal or you're a conservative if you have an IQ above a toaster. " -Beyond the News, Fox News Channel, 6/4/00

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