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Eric Alterman

Eric Alterman

Posted: May 6, 2010 02:46 PM

Think Again: Hekova Job, MSM

What's Your Reaction:

OK, everybody relax about the BP oil spill off the coast of Louisiana (now about the size of southern Africa). William Kristol, who, after all, has never been wrong about anything before, reassures, "The oil spill, itself, I don't think will be a huge disaster over the medium and long-term honestly."

What's more, it's not really anybody's fault. As Texas Gov. Rick Perry explains, nothing can be done in the face of an "act of God" like a piece of faulty man-made machinery failing to function. On this point, though, Gov. Perry disagrees with his fellow conservatives Rush Limbaugh and the members of "Fox and Friends" (including former Bush Press Secretary Dana Perino). El Rushbo and company think this was a plot by some environmentalists: "What better way to head off more oil drilling, nuclear plants, than by blowing up a rig?" Of course, Rush isn't accusing anyone, "just noting the timing here."

Similarly, when Perino introduces her conspiracy theory by asking, sans evidence, "if there was sabotage involved," she is "not trying to introduce a conspiracy theory" before asking, "but was this deliberate?" Next thing you know, the story has already taken off, as host Steve Doocy asked Fox Business's Eric Bolling to respond to the suggestion, apparently made frequently, that "there's a possibility this could be sabotage."

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10:33 AM on 05/09/2010
Just as the school systems require children to be vaccinated against various diseases to protect the school population as a whole, the school systems should require school children to be intellectually vaccinated against sophistry by learning rhetoric.
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FALCON72
You can see the truth in every mirror.
08:15 PM on 05/08/2010
They would rather go down in flames with the rest of us than ever admit that their party is responsible for the fire to begin with.
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01:40 PM on 05/08/2010
I consider these accusations to be a smokescreen. Who needs a diversion away from the facts? Those who enabled BP's regulatory carte blanche. Let's ask Dick Cheney if he knows??
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mizerello
Don't Believe in MIcro-Bios!
01:02 PM on 05/07/2010
The other best excuse being put forward by the right wing is that the spill is due totally to environmentalists insisting on offshore drilling as opposed to onshore drilling. Apparently, environmentalists have forced BP et al into drilling so far out in our oceans that it has put undue pressure on the poor oil companies. If only BP had been drilling closer to the shore, they argue, this would never have happened.

What world do these people live in? Do they get up every morning and take a pill that zaps their intelligence level down a few steps? I know this is wrong but I really believe the only thing that may (probably won't but hey I'm a dreamer) change some of these right wing propaganda artists is for some of that oil to sully the beach they call their own. Perhaps if they have to clean up the sludge that will cover beaches in the area soon, they will come to their senses? Oh who am I kidding!
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pecosdog
this sht writes itself
12:38 PM on 05/07/2010
bill kristol says everything will be just fine? We're f**ked.
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12:19 AM on 05/11/2010
BIG TIME
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Rogo99
Has the world changed, or have I changed?
11:03 AM on 05/12/2010
We'll see what he thinks when oil is lapping on the shore of where he has his beach house.
12:17 PM on 05/07/2010
Douchey is right, it could have been sabatoge. It might also have been an alien attack, or God's wrath, or a meteorite, or the Kraken. Who knows? Prove me wrong.
11:58 AM on 05/07/2010
Hekova?
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BBackSoon
Hello, I must be going.
11:21 AM on 05/07/2010
So one person on the Right and quite often either Fatboy Rush or some moron on FIX Gnus says something, anything, and then the rest of the FIX morons say 'People are saying . . . '.

Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to the age of innuendo News.
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Downtown
03:38 PM on 05/07/2010
uh, where ya been buddy? They've been doing that for ages, and people still fall for it. amazing!
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BBackSoon
Hello, I must be going.
04:32 PM on 05/07/2010
I know, but it amazes me it still works so well. And it disturbs me how the Echo Chamber of FIX and Right Wing Radio is still so effective.
Helloise
Healthy skeptic admires reason, trusts intuition
08:02 AM on 05/10/2010
Precisely. When I was a kid I had a nightmare and woke up shouting, "There's a monster in my room!" My sister, who shared the room with me, started screaming, too. Did the grown ups rushing in assume she also saw the monster? No. They turned on the light, did a search for the WMD's and proclaimed the area safe. Rush and Co. would have declared a "War on Monsters".
07:27 AM on 05/07/2010
The pathetic state of the mainstream media these days is evidenced by the repeated reliance on "experts" who have a demonstrated record of being wrong.

William Kristol is a perfect example of this. Many of his opinions and self-assured declarations of the wisdom of the disastrous Iraq misadventure have consistently been shown to be wrong before and after the fact.

Of course one would expect FOX to continue to trot him out regularly, since his record of being
incorrect just blends into the background there. Journalistic integrity at that network is as absent as Kristol's record of correctness.
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FirstGame72
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters
07:55 AM on 05/07/2010
Mr. Kristol is rarely "wrong" in the classic sense of being wrong.
He is a propagandist, pure and simple, and his public pronouncements are meant to mislead the public while suporting certain agendas. He is almost always well aware when he is giving false information but he is not put on the airwaves to be truthful or correct in his analysis, he is on TV and in print to push the neocon and "military-industrial complex" agenda at ALL times.
He has not become a very rich, well-connected, and (by the main stream media) well respected man by being "wrong" about current events or U.S. policy.
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pecosdog
this sht writes itself
12:43 PM on 05/07/2010
Well respected by the trolls on the right doesn't count. He has been wrong on just about everything he has spewed on. In the classic sense. About current events and US policy. Well respected by who besides neocon artists?
01:28 AM on 05/07/2010
ooorrrrr it could be that haliburton makes shoddy stuff, as has already been demonstrated in the north sea. mr. kristol is an example of someone having an opinion too early. if you're going to pontificate make sure you've got some miracles to back you up, and having the fancy costume wouldn't hurt either - or would it???
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pjwrites
03:31 PM on 05/06/2010
And the war continues. When will the truth come out?

I believe we're getting very close to the time when it truly will be every man for himself. Lies from liars won't keep you safe or warm, and we have no more truth-tellers at the top.
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10:41 AM on 05/09/2010
"we have no more truth-tellers at the top."

When the politicial system is rigged to reward the corrupt, truth-tellers are in short supply.
jack27
Freethinker
03:23 PM on 05/06/2010
Someone needs to ask this of right wing pundits in general: what is it like to live in a world where all of your pronouncements, no matter how evidence-free and/or downright loopy, are "always right"?
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12:20 AM on 05/11/2010
Bill Kristol= male version of Palin