Why doesn't the FCC do something about FauxNews' continued abuse of their license to operate using the public airwaves?

bkmn: Because they are cable, not on the public airways (though fox does own broadcast stations)

Fox News is where I go for all my softcore porn...uh, um...I mean in-depth exposes on cultural immorality.

Stupidity ...thy name is Kilmeade. NBC is not much better, This weekend we had Jenna Wolf repeating the Palinism
Obama wants to create a "death panel and turning to David Gregory and say "David , is it true" like it was even a valid statement.
I give up.

a major news outlet committed to making the public as dumb as humanly possible.

They are committed to making the public as Republican as possible, but then that's kind of what you said.

It always astounds to realize that we have an entire media empire that is no more than an arm of the Republican party, with the complete sanction of the FCC.

I think that calling it a "policy statement" is a bit of a stretch, to say the least. More like the rantings of someone who has lost touch with the real word.

When are you all going to learn that Kilmeade is a paid professional propagandist. He has been trained in the Goebbels big lie techniques and intends to use them. Folks, it is time we hit back with the truth and hit back hard. How about taking the bills apart and letting everybody know what is in the bill? How about demanding that Kilmeade disclose the "provisions" he is talking about? When he can't disclose them, we just pat him on the head and laugh.

This is a war for the minds and souls of the American people. It is a fight for the future of the American economy. People we aren't even fighting. Crazy is winning and will continue to win until we push back.

Really. I thought it was the Democrats who were supposed to scare seniors for political advantage. Someone show this guy the script.

had to deal with a major news outlet committed to making the public as dumb as humanly possible

Oh, I can't accept that. This is about the nature of news today, not about one outlier.

Fox is by far the worst of the bunch because of its target audience, but CNN and MSNBC and network news are all devoted to making the public as dumb -- not to mention as anxious and as angry -- as possible. It is the purpose of their product, and we do ourselves no favors by pretending that MSNBC is on the side of the angels just because it's got one or two bright people working for it.

Do we even have "a bill" at all? I thought there were several versions out of committees, and one (supposedly...) to come from Finance. Won't those get conflated and marked up into what will be a "bill" that congress will vote on and send to Obama? I may be wrong, but I thought that people hollering "read the bill" were just parroting an untrue talking point. I am happy to be corrected, however.

"I sometimes wonder what would have happened if FDR, when creating Social Security, or LBJ, when creating Medicare, had to deal with a major news outlet committed to making the public as dumb as humanly possible."

FDR and LBJ did face major mass media opposition in there respective day. Every city in the US had more than one newspaper. The conservative newspapers, including some of the largest in the country, relentlessly bashed both men as communists or fellow travelers.

The difference between then and now is that the Democratic Party was less beholden to the economic powers-that-be. Also, FDR and particularly LBJ were far, far more competent at marshalling their party than Obama appears to be (assuming Obama actually wants reform as opposed to the appearance of reform).

neither lbj nor fdr faced the nihilism that pervades this country today. the media become the national inquirer, the peeps are all just-got-into-town-jaspers with little knowledge, and those who are angry, hateful, desperate and fearful are all manipulated by a great wurlitzer of organized anger by a much stronger influence of the corporate culture on populist politics.

the corporations are fighting everything that comes up in government that loosens their power and profits. they'll keep at it forever. it aint about health care, ultimately, my friends...

Byers, if you did challenge Kilmeade to cite the exact wording in the bill[s] that calls for "death panels," it wouldn't make any difference. The kind of people he's talking to are quite capable of believing in things they can't see, from Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy to Obama's "real" birth certificate to the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which some of them are still convinced existed, but were smuggled across the border into Syria overnight before the invasion. Sane and reasonably educated people aren't going to pay any attention to Kilmeade, but they're the only ones who could be convinced by rational argument that he's lying.

Not for the last time, y'all are missing the point: news (not to mention commentary) is essentially kibitizing -- the people in the stands watching the game. They're not the players, and while what they talk about might sometimes reflect the score, even that's not certain. Hell, in most games it's easy to tell early on, often even before it starts, which team is going to win so people watching will talk about damned near anything... except What Counts.

The rougher the town meeting shouting gets, the more starkly clear the choice is for Democrats in Congress -- IF as individuals (in districts that go heavily Democratic, no less, like Greene's) they can get rolled like this, they will never do anything: and they know it.

So they're not going to get rolled this time. It's not like 1993 -- nor even 1988.

Remember, this has happened before -- and more than once: the catastrophic care bill back in 1988 (I think) was passed with sizeable majorities, and then repealed when seniors objected to... well, to precisely what it was: a way to deal with the huge costs of the last years of life. People took away lessons, yanno.

The fact is, there are a lot of politically possible ways to enact health care reform that will measurably improve the lives of many millions of Americans, precisely the way Social Security and Medicare did. That's not kibitizing. That's the score.

The current system is not sustainable: Boomers are getting older, and the Great Recession alone demonstrates that even middle class folks can lose jobs (not to mention pension issues). Who is gonna pay for Boomer health care?

The overheated opposition, which has no alternative, essentially presents Republicans and the relatively few Democrats who are on the fence with a simple choice: you can own the current system, assume full responsibility for it, and ensure that nobody can ever deal with its huge and growing costs as the Boomers retire -- including YOU, if you are so fortunate as to stay in office for long: or you can vote for some package of reforms that, face it, will make the lives of many millions of Americans better -- including all those unemployed guys showing up at town meetings to bitch.

They're never going to admit they were wrong, of course, but you don't get elected to Congress, nor re-elected, by correcting your employers. You win elections by winning votes. and you understand that issues are simply a vehicle for images: a voter who bitches about socialized medicine at a town meeting is just as likely to vote FOR the Representative who supports it two or six years from now,for precisely the same reason he's bitching about it today: he likes the image of the maverick who stands up for what's right, never mind that in this case, what's wrong is what HE is standing up for. But nobody needs to set that voter straight -- he's not a majority.

A handful of Republicans will vote for the bill; most won't. Even fewer Democrats will vote against it -- this will overwhelmingly be seen, and rightly so, as a Democratic achievement, as identified with Obama as Social Security was with FDR, or Medicare with Democrats from Truman to LBJ.

The fact is, Americans -- We, the People -- aren't particularly ideological in any effective sense. We tend to identify with slogans and loaded terms like "liberal" and "conservative", but for the most part, we couldn't care less that Medicare is socialized medcine or that Social Security is socialist: they work. That's why the imagery here isn't actually changing anything -- the whip counts are steady.

Keep your eyes on the prize: Fox doesn't move votes, and the heckling at town meetings is stiffening the Democrats' collective legislative spine.

JM is right, there were massive, vicious coordinated attacks from major media outlets against Roosevelt and Johnson.

Major newspapers and radio stations lauched broadsides constantly.

Father Coughlin (sp?) etc.

Remember the Alf Landon is going to win poll of 1936? That was generated because the readers were agreed with that vitrol.

Roosvelt blasted back, a nd LBJ well he was famous for his political manuvering.

...perhaps best known for complaining about the lack of racial "purity" in the United States...

Hey! He apologized for that. And luckily, his latest stupidity doesn't offend anyone in particular, so he doesn't have to apologize for this.

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if FDR, when creating Social Security, or LBJ, when creating Medicare, had to deal with a major news outlet committed to making the public as dumb as humanly possible.

Are you kidding? I remember Reagan said Medicare would result on us looking back at a time when people were free. I'm sure editorial boards of conservative newspapers railed about FDR's Communist agenda.

Of course, that was back before entertainment-driven TV networks combined editorializing with news and called it "punditry." Feh.

Steve Bennen: "...I sometimes wonder what would have happened if FDR, when creating Social Security, or LBJ, when creating Medicare, had to deal with a major news outlet committed to making the public as dumb as humanly possible."

They don't have to try too hard--this is a part of the public that is entirely incapable of critical thinking. I still want someone to go after and dig into Palin's experience or authority concerning geriatric health care issues, particularly hospice care.

I was listening to C-Span on the drive to work this morning and a woman called in to say that she was against health care reform because of the provisions requiring seniors to recieve counseling on suicide. When the moderator, bless his heart, asked where she had gotten her information the woman admitted that she had not read the bill but heard it on Fox News (sic). the moderator pointed out that the bill passed by the House Committee was available on line. Any bets on whether the lady will check it out?

Very interesting - on my screen the "play" icon is placed just right so that Kilmeade's chin looks exactly like the (un)hinged chin of a marionette. Hold that visual for a moment, and see how well it fits... And does anyone remember the "Twilight Zone" episode where the marionette 'comes alive' and 'disappears' the ventriloquist? Hmmmm......

Apart from the occasional article/op-ed in the local paper or a lone nut RWer on talk radio in just a few locales, I'm not aware of any major sustained media onslaught against LBJ and the Dems on Medicare.

No cable then, no Faux News propaganda outlet for the GOP/AMA. The major tv networks were, in 1965, completely in Lyndon's hip pocket. Ditto for the major newspapers like NYT and WaPo -- both backed Johnson on his foreign and domestic policies. RW talk radio did not have a Father Coughlin or Big Daddy Limbaugh dominating the airwaves 24/7.

For various reasons the political climate in 65 was ripe for major medicare legislation.

And the AMA/GOP were cleverly co-opted in the legislative process -- not by Lyndon's doing but by a smart House W&M Chair, Wilbur Mills, a major obstructionist in 62 with Kennedy's bill, who smartly incorporated the oppo's suggestions into the final committee bill. Suddenly the oppo had nothing to complain about.

It's all about bringing radical stupidity into the mainstream.

Fortunately, Fox and Friends isn't part of the mainstream of anything except the sewage disposal system.

And luckily, his latest stupidity doesn't offend anyone in particular, so he doesn't have to apologize for this.

It offends me, as a sentient human being.

, Sarah Palin argued on Facebook

That should tell you all you need to know right there...

Fox really makes me miss Uncle Walter.

Palin: HOW 'BOUT YA QUIT MAKIN' STUFF UP??!