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One way or another, he’s a liar.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

This blog will pay for itself.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

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If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

In my day, never was longer.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

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Fitting

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Here’s the Fox News response to a new University of Maryland study [pdf] showing that regular Fox viewers were far more likely to be misinformed on a wide range of facts:

Michael Clemente, who is the senior vice president of news editorial for the network, said: “The latest Princeton Review ranked the University of Maryland among the top schools for having ‘Students Who Study The Least’ and being the ‘Best Party School’ – given these fine academic distinctions, we’ll regard the study with the same level of veracity it was ‘researched’ with.”

The tactic of using red herring ad hominems to respond to any fact they find unappealing is the cornerstone of Fox’s coverage, so it’s no surprise that a VP trotted out this exceedingly lame one.

Also relevant: Polifact’s lie of the year just happens to be a big Fox meme.

Reader Interactions

109Comments

  2. 2.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Well, it is true that all academic studies at research universities are conducted by fraternity and sorority members during rush week, so the Fox people have a point.

  7. 7.

    dmsilev

    Gotta love the next paragraph of that story:

    For the record, the Princeton Review says the University of Maryland ranks among the “Best Northeastern Colleges.” It was No. 19 on the Review’s list of “Best Party Schools.”

    Fox News: Now telling lies to screen their other lies.

    dms

  8. 8.

    arguingwithsignposts

    FWIW, I think the “Princeton” Review (which has nothing whatsoever to do with the college of the same name) is the most worthless piece of shit related to college rankings. Their methodology is flawed, their rankings bullshit, and it’s nothing more than grifting while preying on people with little information to go on. In that sense, they are in the same league as FOXNews.

  9. 9.

    bemused

    I could email that study and the other studies and polls to all the republicans I know and they would say it was a liberal lie funded by George Soros.

  12. 12.

    scav

    Sweet Man. I’m sure he’ll agree with the proposition that it clearly follows that Fox News is utterly useless because the channel is known for its lighthearted comedy entertainment.

  13. 13.

    c u n d gulag

    Further, Clemente said, “And the President of U of MD is a big poopy-pants!”

    Clemente also strongly added, if anyone wondered, that he wasn’t any relation to that strong-arming Castro-loving Spic ballplayer.
    Roberto Clemente’s family, from Puerto Rico, was apoplectic that he shares the same name as the great ballplayer and humanitarian, and said they were thinking of changing their last name.

  14. 14.

    El Cid

    @Omnes Omnibus: I was going to say exactly the same thing before looking at the comments.

    It’s absolutely beyond stupid, which is a magical zone in which FoxNooz is a primary inhabitant.

  15. 15.

    agrippa

    Fox is a political organization. It is not in the news business. The purpose of Fox is to put out a conservative pov; that is, propaganda.

    This is no fairness doctrine and Fox can say whatever it likes.

  17. 17.

    Linda Featheringill

    I read the segment of the study devoted to source of information versus amount of misinformation. Interesting.

    The audacity of the researchers in actually performing this study is admirable. Bravo!

  18. 18.

    Pancake

    FOX is merely following the SOP established a long time ago by the loony-left, including virtually all of the front-page posters on this blog.

  19. 19.

    El Cid

    The problem with the Nobel prize in physics is that none of the administrative staff and building upkeep staff in the Norwegian Nobel Institute building are published research physicists.

    Also, Al Gore is fat, which puts into clear questions whether or not all these so-called “climate scientists” have actual college degrees.

    Anyway, college and postgraduate degrees make you dumber, as all you need is good old Real Amurkin common sense.

  20. 20.

    Chicago dyke

    i remember one of my first football games in the Big House. it was a non-conference game against the tarapins, iirc they are called. even from way up in the student section, their offensive line looked pitifully tiny, compared to the human tanks and roid robots our football program preferred. the game was effectively over by the end of the first quarter, and i think we killed their quarterback, or made him a cripple for life, or something.

    at the time, i took this to mean one simple thing: UMary must be a “study school,” for why else would they fail to put all their resources into the all important game of football? my alma mater has many fine departments and instructors and i’m proud to have experienced those, but i never kid myself. i know what a “party school” is really like and i sincerely doubt that UMary is in the top ranks of those. last time i checked, it was a school in our conference that had riots and overturned cars and burned businesses when a championship game ended favorably. i can’t recall ever reading about such at UMaryland.

  21. 21.

    El Cid

    @Pancake: Exactly. Everyone remembers how the Commonist Party USA were the ones pushing the liberals to accuse the scientists studying plate tectonics as biased against Marxism.

  22. 22.

    Dennis SGMM

    Considering that Fox makes millions by nourishing the paranoia of its viewers this study is good news for them. “Those pointy-headed college types say you’re stupid,” fits right in with the right wing’s eternal sense of being the oppressed victims of sinister forces.

  23. 23.

    In a Nutshell

    Interesting: According to Wikepedia:

    “…
    The University is ranked 56th in the latest 2011 U.S. News and World Report rankings of “National Universities” across the United States, and it is ranked 12th nationally among public universities. 29 undergraduate and graduate programs are ranked in the top 10 and 90 programs are in the top 25.[49]

    The Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked Maryland as 36th in the world as well as 8th among public flagship universities in the United States.[50] Newsweek ranked the University of Maryland as 45th in their ranking “global universities.” The THE-QS World University Rankings ranked the University of Maryland 104 on its top 400 universities in the world in 2010.[51] In 2010 QS World University Rankings[52] ranked the university 104th overall in the world. …”

    Not too shabby. Fox, surprisingly, is dead wrong.

  25. 25.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Pancake:

    C’mon you lame pig fucker, you can do better than that! Dig something really rotten and smelly from the soured, bitter dregs at the bottom of that shallow overused shitcan that you call your brain.

    Your delivery is flat. Also. Too.

  26. 26.

    David

    In much the same way E! Entertainment Network promotes the entertainment industry with fake news reports generated by publicists, fake reporters, ignoring unpleasantries, etc. Fox promotes the Republican Party.

    F! FoxNews Entertainment Network

  27. 27.

    kth

    Lame even for Fox.

    Hypothesis: at least a slight positive correlation between a university’s academic quality and the robustness of the party scene. The best public universities in each state are generally attended by the most well-off students, who also are the ones who don’t have to work while they go to school. Vocational schools and commuter universities are generally are not known either for cutting-edge research or for the frat party atmosphere.

  28. 28.

    El Cid

    @kth: Still, you’ve got to admire their ability to place in their viewers’ minds that research labs are filled with spillovers from Drunkfest 2010 or whatever.

  29. 29.

    alwhite

    Ah, who cares? The other networks could air a 30 minute gang rape of a sheep by Beck, O’ Riley, Alies (sorry for that image more than the others), Wallace and Stossel and 27% of America would KNOW it was a fake produced to discredit the fair and balanced work of that fine Fox News before they were even told what to believe. 27% would not be surprised and 46% would be unsure after listening to the he said she said bullshit the modern media would provide as way of coverage.

    Two weeks later nobody outside the blogs would remember the event and two months later the meme would be that the media was mean to Fox.

  31. 31.

    phantomist

    I demand Fox News retract and refudiate their slanderous attack on turtle mascots.

    Mitch McConnell

  32. 32.

    HL_guy

    @kth re: hypothesis- seems reasonable. Also, a population of 20-40,000 students, like they have at most ‘large conference’/major research universities, is more likely to support a neighborhood full of bars, which promote party culture, than other schools, which rarely reach that size.

  33. 33.

    WereBear

    Since it comes from pointy headed elites, it of course must be a lie.

    I am completely baffled at what people GET out of watching Fox News. While I have often felt oppressed, I have never wanted to roll in it. And yet, that is what Fox offers, and some people eat it up.

  35. 35.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @alwhite:

    Two weeks later nobody outside the blogs would remember the event and two months later the meme would be that the media was mean to Fox it was actually the Democrats and that they had been skullfucking kittens and puppies.

    Fix’t.

  36. 36.

    Barb (formerly Gex)

    “I know you are, but what am I?!?!”

    Brilliant rebuttal, Fox. And just the right maturity level for their audience.

  39. 39.

    TR

    Students party there, so the research done by the faculty is suspect?

    Jesus Christ, that’s stupid even by Fox News’s standards.

  42. 42.

    GregB

    Word has it that the University of Maryland teachers their students about Hitler and Mao.

    Tyrants! Wolverines!

  43. 43.

    wenchacha

    And no Republicans send kids to U of Maryland? If college makes you smarter, I can see the college graduating fewer Republicans than the number who entered, but still.

  48. 48.

    Linda Featheringill

    Speaking of stupid:

    McCain’s argument against repeal of DADT was really stupid. There are veterans at Walter Reed without limbs? Yes. They were injured while DADT was in force. What has that to do with sexual orientation?

    Voting now.

  50. 50.

    WarMunchkin

    Since when is it okay for Democrats to filibuster Democratic bills? This will be reported as “failed with bipartisan opposition” rather than 55-41 majority.

  58. 58.

    TR

    @Mark S.:

    Yep. They get their darkest hates and deepest fears confirmed, and get a pass to wallow in their own crapulence.

    Fox News is like a security blanket cut from a Klansman’s sheet.

  61. 61.

    batgirl

    @stuckinred: Thanks, that is what I wanted to know. I contacted his office quite a bit this week reminding him that IL likes their Republicans “moderate.”

  64. 64.

    Dennis SGMM

    @batgirl:

    The Dems who voted against cloture on the DREAM Act were:
    Pryor (Ark)
    Tester (Mont.)
    Nelson (Neb.)
    Hagan (NC)
    Baucus (Mont.)

  65. 65.

    magurakurin

    So, Obama was right not to crush Lieberman after all. Holy Joe came through on this, as much as I hate him, I have to give him props on this.

    And no thanks to the haters of the “true progressives.” They were wrong. Obama was right.

    But I’m sure there will be an endless stream of crap to tell me why Obama is a dick because of this.

  66. 66.

    Mark S.

    Thanks, MSNBC, for covering an important story about idiots suing McDonald’s over happy meals instead of the DADT vote.

    OK, now they’re on it.

  67. 67.

    stuckinred

    @batgirl: I’ve been gone from there for so Iong I can’t remember. My DuPage County repuke family was anything but moderate. “Joe McCarthy died of a broken heart”! I kid you not.

  69. 69.

    harokin

    You know what’s depressing? The numbers for the other news sources reported on the study. Fox viewers may be the most misled, but all news media are failing their consumers badly. If U.S. reporters were subjected to the same standards as teachers (annual testing of consumers to determine whether they were learning anything), they’d all be fired.

  70. 70.

    Linda Featheringill

    @J:

    “And your mother wears army boots” Nyaah Nyaah (sp.?)

    I had to chuckle. My mother did wear army boots. This was long ago and far away. She was living proof that you can be weird and still be loved.

    Anyway, you reminded me of some of the good things that have entered my life.

  71. 71.

    James E Powell

    So, what I’m getting is that the right wingers hate immigrants more than gays? Do I have that right?

  74. 74.

    Gwangung

    So, what I’m getting is that the right wingers hate immigrants more than gays? Do I have that right?

    Tradition, ya know.

  75. 75.

    harokin

    @Dennis SGMM: Hagan breaks my heart. I feel like I have done so much for her, she kept begging for my money in the last election, I called and walked and …
    …this just sucks.

  78. 78.

    RinaX

    @magurakurin:

    Eh, fuck them, too. All they’ve been doing is whine that this was never going to happen this way and that President Obama should have used an EO a long time ago, and Bully Pulpit, and they’ll still find a way to make this an indictment on what a failure he is, and bully pulpit, and did I mention fuck them?

  79. 79.

    Dennis SGMM

    I’m just ashamed of myself for missing the Senate Rules change that requires that every last piece of legislation has to go through a cloture vote.

  80. 80.

    batgirl

    @stuckinred: The best example is that Kirk barely won against a very weak Democratic candidate, Giannoulias (this Senate race was the first, and hopefully last, time I ever voted for him) while a very weak Democratic governor, Quinn, won against a very right wing Republican. If Dillard had won the Republican primary, the Republicans would have very easily won the governorship. I pointed this out to his office.

    While there are hard core right wing Republicans in this state when it comes to winning state wide races, fiscally conservative but socially moderate Republicans do better.

    ETA: the him I voted for was Giannoulias in case that wasn’t clear.

  81. 81.

    alwhite

    @harokin:

    I have the same problem with Klobuchar. I gave money and many many hours (even too election day off work to door knock for her). Then she could just not bring herself to vote against a single Bush proposal. I wrote & called repeatedly and found both her and her staff totally dismissive and willing to lie to my face about what she did.

    What are we to do about “Democrats” like these?

  83. 83.

    Morbo

    @bemused: I could email that study and the other studies and polls to all the republicans I know and they would say it was a liberal lie funded by George Soros.

    Don’t forget Tides.

  89. 89.

    Tyro

    And no Republicans send kids to U of Maryland?

    I’m sure they do. And they and their children likely resent the school for taking their money and consuming their time to be taught by people they have no respect for, but they deal with it for 4 years as the price one has to pay for a diploma. You really overestimate the amount of respect Republicans have for learning and thinking.

  91. 91.

    mikeconti

    The scene opens wherein UM has arrived on horseback to the town square having gone door-to-door asking the peasants their thoughts about the kingdom’s council and the source of their information.

    UM: I bring sad news that the jester has been passing around lies about the council throughout the kingdom.

    (Suddenly, UM sees an arrow heading toward him from the crowd of townsfolk. He instinctively flinches and the arrow grazes his side as it hits the statue behind him and falls to the ground.

    The crowd turns to see the arrows origin.)

    Jester (from the rear of the crowd, holding a bow upright in his hand): Don’t listen to UM. He stinks of bad brew and we all know his past attempts at splitting us into factions.

  92. 92.

    Judas Escargot

    @magurakurin:

    So, Obama was right not to crush Lieberman after all. Holy Joe came through on this, as much as I hate him, I have to give him props on this.

    The past 6 weeks have been… interesting. First, the Dems reaction to the tax cut compromise reminded me that there are, in fact, people to the left of me (for the first time since 2002!).

    Then Sen. Lieberman, as the ‘angel’ on DADT reminds me that not everything is as black or white as it’s seemed the past decade.

    These are probably both good things. Though I still fully expect the next 2 years to suck.

  93. 93.

    quaint irene

    McCain’s argument against repeal of DADT was really stupid. Th

    Drop in whatever topic you want in that space, and it’ll be just as true.

  94. 94.

    Mojotron

    “…we’ll regard the study with the same level of veracity it was ‘researched’ with.”

    “Level of veracity”? That makes no goddamned sense.

  95. 95.

    VJBinCT

    @pancake You know how people often warn against ‘feeding the trolls’ in comment threads?

    I have yet to see anybody telling me not to eat the trolls.

  96. 96.

    curious

    he does have a point. the princeton review is one of the country’s premier peer-reviewed journals.

  97. 97.

    curious

    @Dennis SGMM: “those pointy-headed college types say you’re stupid. and now, some commercials for gold coins, halitosis cures, and buckets of non-hybrid seeds.”

  98. 98.

    Hypnos

    When 70-90% of the electorate consistently gets it completely wrong on each and every factual issue, and base their voting decision precisely upon that wrong opinion, can you say it is still worth bothering with the democratic process?

    I would like to see similar studies replicated across the Western World. Maybe the Chinese have a point.

    The IMF just found out SCIENTIFICALLY that high inequality and a disproportionate amount of wealth going to the rich cause financial bubbles and economic collapses. Who would’ve guessed.

    http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/12/inequality-and-economic-collapses

    As matter of fact, the USA cut the top marginal tax rate three times in history. In 1924, in 1981, and in 2002.

    In 1929, 1987 and 2008, the stockmarket suffered its worst crashes, and America its worst recessions.

    But, yeah, tax cuts.

  99. 99.

    Mike Lear

    Clemente, senior vice-president of Fox News editorial,”we’ll regard the study with the same level of veracity it was ‘researched’ with.”……should not end his sentences with a preposition. I’m just saying….

  101. 101.

    The Oracle

    FOX News is a Republican and Rupert Murdoch POX on America, and unfortunately there is no cure for it, even as Fox News intentionally dumbs down citizens in our society so they can be more easily manipulated, which is what we saw in the recent midterm elections, people voting not only against their own best interests but against the best interests of our country, all in line with Fox News’ and the Republican’s corporate sponsors, some even being foreign corporate sponsors, who view American workers and our U.S. government as interfering with their quest for unlimited profits and unchecked world domination.

  103. 103.

    agrippa

    @RinaX:

    I like:

    go to hell and by the shortest road.

    Incidentally, if they need a lift, I will personally carry them there.

  104. 104.

    different church-lady

    …given these fine academic distinctions, we’ll regard the study with the same level of veracity it was ‘researched’ with we treat the rest of the news with.

    Fixed.

  105. 105.

    jjjohnson

    @Mike Lear, from beginning linguistics course:

    A man was going to read his daughter a bedtime story. Before she went upstairs he asked her whether she wanted the Red Fairy book or the Blue Fairy book. She said “the Blue.”

    When father went up, he mistakenly took the Red one. His daughter retorted,” What did you bring that book I didn’t want to be read to out of up for?

    Hint: these are not prepositions? particles? pieces of two and three word verbs.

  107. 107.

    steve williams

    @jjjohnson:
    Dad brought up the book about Australia and she said “Why did you bring up the book I didn’t want you to read to me out of about down under up for?”

  108. 108.

    Lodigo

    @In a Nutshell:

    That may be what “Wikipedia,” which “we” all know has an extreme leftist socialistic communist progressive “bias,” says, but where does “Conservapedia” rank the University of Maryland? There are “facts” and there are facts, and “we” all know that truth’s “liberal” bias is a well known “fact.” So there.

  109. 109.

    Ron

    I suspect that the interview of a successful applicant in ANY area of Fox goes something like this……:
    Interviewer: “Can you lie with a straight face?”
    Applicant: “Yes, all the time if necessary!”
    Interviewer; “Do you have any ethics?”
    Applicant: “No! Would I be applying for a job here if I had any?”

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