Today Barack Obama held his fifth news conference since winning the presidency, and for the fifth time, he refused to call on a reporter from FOX. Fishbowl DC has been keeping track.

As we've been documenting, Fox News hasn't gotten a question in during President-elect Barack Obama's five press conferences since the election.

Today was another. Questions instead went to such outlets as ABC, New York Times, CBS, Reuters and the Associated Press.

Despite his one appearance on The Factor, Barack Obama has made clear his disdain for everything FOX News. It's pretty refreshing to see a Democrat realize that he doesn't need to grovel to FOX, no?

Now who will Sean Hannity walk all over?!

TVNewser:

FOX News Channel's (FNC) Alan Colmes will relinquish his role as co-host of Hannity & Colmes at the end of the year.

In announcing his decision, Colmes said, "I approached Bill Shine (FNC's Senior Vice President of Programming) earlier this year about wanting to move on after 12 years to develop new and challenging ways to contribute to the growth of the network. Although it's bittersweet to leave one of the longest marriages on cable news, I'm proud that both Sean (Hannity) and I remained unharmed after sitting side by side, night after night for so many years."

Colmes will continue to have a presence on FNC as he will serve as a liberal commentator on a variety of FOX News programming, including Foxnews.com's The Strategy Room and continue hosting his radio program, The Alan Colmes Show on FOX Talk, a division of FOX News Radio. He will also begin developing a weekend program.

In all seriousness, this is a sad development. Alan Colmes is a good guy, even if he did get overshadowed by the boorish Hannity, and was one of the only effective liberal voices in all of FOXland. Like Nicole, I never watched too much H&C due to blood pressure issues, but the show will be much worse off without him. Best of luck, Alan.

Giving in to his inner lech, Bill O'Reilly decides that we should find supermodel Heidi Klum's take on spoofing Tom Cruise in Risky Business for Guitar Hero really, really offensive. My gosh, she was wearing just a bra and panties for a while there. Not like anyone who has ever received endless mailings of Victoria's Secret hasn't seen that, Bill. Like you don't know.

Kotaku has the whole O'Reilly segment...where he posits that this might upset the children who are subjected to the ad while watching those wholesome Waltons on their tv show. Um, huh? The Waltons went off the air almost 30 years ago. And somehow Heidi Klum dancing is more traumatic than the continually running ads for erectile dysfunction? Dude, I know you like to style yourself as a "culture warrior" but seriously, pick your battles.

What a nice headline from FOX.

I wonder if they got a memo from Newt Gingrich?

GINGRICH: Look, I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion. And I think if you believe in historic Christianity, you have to confront the fact.

Bill O'Reilly started off his TPM segment by being angered that Obama wants to close Guantanamo Bay and not use torture. "Where will he put those Gitmo guys." He feels the ACLU will sue him if they come to the US. BillO then asks what exactly is torture.

O'Reilly: Keeping a suspect awake, loud music, bad food? Will President Obama eliminate all stressful interrogation methods? If so, that will end most of the information flow from captured terrorists. Most of these guys are hard cases. They don't give up information easily.

Notice he never mentioned waterboarding at all and that's his favorite technique. I think the military knows how to get information without torturing detainees. I don't seem to remember BillO or his buddy Dick Morris bringing up Gitmo or McCain's stance on torture when they cheer-leaded for him during the general election. Nope. They were more interested in Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers, but I do know that Bill is just looking out for the folks.

Here's McCain on Gitmo via his own 60 Minutes interview on CBS:

PELLEY: Would you close Guantanamo Bay?

MCCAIN: Yes. I would close Guantanamo Bay. And I would move those prisoners to Fort Leavenworth. And I would proceed with the tribunals.

PELLEY: Why? What's wrong with the way it was handled?

MCCAIN: Guantanamo Bay has become an image throughout the world which has hurt our reputation. Whether we deserve it or not, the reality is Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib have harmed our reputation in the world, thereby harming our ability to win the psychological part of the war against radical Islamic extremism.

And in the same interview, even though McCain did vote that the CIA could use waterboarding, he talks about being against the use of torture.

PELLEY: There have been a lot of semantics over the last few years about what is torture, what isn't torture, whether American tortures prisoners.

MCCAIN: Yeah.

PELLEY: What would you bring to that as President?

MCCAIN: I would never allow any technique which would not be publicly known to be used. We are better than our enemies. We are morally superior. That's why we will win this struggle. And I am confident that we will

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Saddle up people. BillO and FOX News have "Only Just begun"

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The Republicans in Washington have just been handed a devastating setback as the majority of Americans showed by their votes that they realize that the GOP just can't govern, what's a RNC propaganda arm to do? Do an hourlong special on the Clinton presidency, or more precisely, on the Clenis.

Did you know how amazing and magical the Clenis is? It is, my friends. It's so powerful that it even got Hillary Clinton a Senate seat. You read that right. Not out of sympathy or admiration for Hillary for sticking with her man, but it was a deal struck between the Clintons:

DICK MORRIS: And the deal was ‘you take over, you defend me, you absolve me and in return you can get what you want' and she settled on that Senate seat. Some guys give necklaces, Bill gave a Senate seat.

And all this time I thought that the people of New York voted for her. But no, according to Fox News, Bill Clinton gave her the Senate seat, much the way Kobe Bryant gave his wife a $4M diamond ring. I tell you, that is one magic Clenis.

Sheppard Smith has been full of surprises lately. First he smacks down wingnut extraordinaire Joe the Plumber and then he smacks down Nick DiPaolo.

DiPaolo:...the MSM being so in the tank for Obama...

Smith: Oh, please. That's preposterous. (Why?)
The MSM reflected what was happening in this nation. It did not drive it. The blogs didn't drive this movement, the media didn't drive this movement. Barack Obama did not lose this election. It was his to lose. It was not John McCain's to win. The Republicans had no shot unless the Democrats gave it to them and they didn't and to blame the media is a cop out and ridiculous....

DiPaolo The MSM has been liberal since its inception. It's years and years of pounding...

Smith: How did George Bush win twice?

DiPaolo: I don't know. Karl Rove is a genius.

We can debate some of the merits of Smith's argument, but his central point about media bias in this election is correct. And Karl Rove embodies everything that is wrong with American politics.

Download | Play    Download | Play (h/t Heather)

Heather sent this clip from Thursday's O'Reilly Factor for the uncharacteristically honest aside Shepard Smith makes about Sean Hannity being in the business of electing Republicans. Frankly, anyone who has spent any time watching Fox News and listening to Fox Radio can glean that in about 1.35 seconds. Hannity makes no bones about his bias, although he will occasionally weasel out of his crossing journalistic ethical lines (like he even knows what journalistic ethics are) by alternately claiming to be a commentator rather than a journalist. Between you and me, let's just call him a propagandist and be done with it.

But what struck me as I was writing up the transcripts is Bill O'Reilly's state of mind. More specifically, Bill is apparently in a war within his own mind that bears little to do with the actual conversation he was having with Shep. He evokes this bravado of wanting to physically harm Barney Frank as a way to show empathy for Shepard Smith's recent calling out of Joe the Plumber and Ralph Nader, which is more than a little disturbing. He then launches into a strangely dissonant and (I guess in his mind) facetious slam that "the media" launches against Fox News after Smith says he was trying to champion the truth. I'm not sure who this "media" is for Billo, unless suddenly the liberal blogosphere has been elevated in his mind from guttersnipes to the mainstream media. But watch Billo in this clip...he never lets Smith finish a sentence and it's all about a conflict that exists nowhere but in his mind.

O’REILLY: Okay, but you work for the Fox News Channel, which is the most unfair channel, always trying to get the Republicans elected. So you can’t be doing this stuff, you can’t be challenging Joe the Plumber and Ralph Nader…
SMITH: Well, as you know, and thank you for the softball, that’s silly. That’s Sean …
O’REILLY: [laughs] It was a little facetious here…
SMITH: That’s Sean Hannity’s job. Sean Hannity…
O’REILLY: Well, Sean Hannity is a Republican…
SMITH: That’s what I said and the bottom…
O’REILLY: So what’s the beef?
SMITH: The beef…I have absolutely no beef …
O’REILLY: I have no beef with him. Calls him a Communist…
SMITH: Absolutely. But the bottom…But that’s labeled like an op-ed page opinion. Mine is labled news.
O’REILLY: But the media attacks on Fox News just fall apart when you watch Hume’s broadcast, you watch The Factor, we have just as many liberals as conservatives on here, but the media doesn’t really care, do they?

Maybe it's me, but I think Billo is right there on the abyss of a breakdown.

Transcripts below the fold:

Continue reading »

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(h/t Heather)

Never one to give up the ghost on an epic failure (see his championing of Iraq, neocon principles, Sarah Palin,etc. for proof), Bill Kristol tells the Fox News panel that it's not impossible for McCain to win, though in a strange break into reality, he admits it's not likely.

Obama has many paths to victory, McCain only has probably one narrow path to victory. But you only need one narrow path. He wins every state in which he’s ahead or even, which gets him to 200 electoral votes. He then wins Ohio and Florida, where he’s now behind in most polls, but certainly within range. A lot of people on the ground think he has a pretty good chance of Ohio and Florida. That gets him to 247 electoral votes. He snatches Pennsylvania, that’s key, I think, which would get him to 268. One short. That would be a heartbreaker, to win Pennsylvania and lose the election 270 to 268. Pennsylvania, of course, it was the small town Pennsylvanians that are so bitter, according to Sen. Obama. I thin , I think seriously, he has a better chance in Pennsylvania that a Republican would normally have. Then he needs to pick up one state, Nevada, Colorado, Virginia—which a state poll showed closing to 3 points today—or conceivably, New Hampshire, which he’s way behind in the polls, but of course, McCain has won two primaries there. It would be a poetic ending for McCain to take Pennsylvania on the bitter, small town residents’ votes, take New Hampshire out of sort of loyalty to John McCain and win the 272 electoral votes. So that’s how he does it. I’ve got it worked out. I’m not sure the voters agree, but it’s not implausible. It’s not very likely, but…it’s possible.

For a more reality-based projection of the election, let's look at Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight:

Overall, our model shows McCain closing Obama's gap in the national popular vote to about 5.4 points. His win percentage has increased to 6.3 percent, from 3.8 percent last night.

However, several cautions about reading too much into these numbers:

Firstly, I have the model programmed to be EXTREMELY aggressive this time of year. There have been relatively few 'fresh' polls conducted within the past 24-48 hours -- most of these state polls were in the field late last week. As we get more data in today and tonight, the model could very well decide that the race is not tightening at all. Moreover, polls conducted on a weekend -- particularly on a quasi- holiday weekend -- is generally unreliable.

Secondly, even with this tightening, McCain remains well short the 2/2/2 condition that we defined last week:

John McCain polling within 2 points in 2 or more non-partisan polls (sorry, Strategic Vision) in at least 2 out of the 3 following states: Colorado, Virginia, Pennsylvania.

Indeed, McCain has not come within 2 points of Obama in any polls in any of these states.

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Chris Wallace--like the rest of the Fox News world--wants the world set up in easily definable terms: Liberals vs. Conservatives, Patriots vs. Pinheads, Red States vs. Blue States. The Barack Obama presidential campaign is clearly crossing those boundaries and I think that Wallace doesn't know how to cope with that. Obama has taken Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy and shown that Democrats can be competitive in traditionally red states. In fact, so much so that Obama is actually within the margin of error in McCain's home state of Arizona. But for Wallace, it's arrogant of Obama to advertise in states that Republicans have traditionally dominated.

Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe argues (and I believe correctly) that it is more the arrogance on the part of the McCain campaign to think they didn't need to set up a ground game in these states than it is for Obama to simply believe that there were enough voters seeking change to make these states competitive:

WALLACE: First, let’s talk about the thing I brought up with Rick Davis, the fact that you have decided to make a late push in North Dakota, in Georgia and even in McCain’s home state of Arizona. Is it there a touch of arrogance here? I mean, wouldn’t it make more sense to focus your resources, focus your advertising and everything on the states that you need to lock up 270 electoral votes?

PLOUFFE: Well, Chris, we’re doing everything we can in the core battlegrounds: Ohio, where Sen. Obama will be today; Florida; Virginia; North Carolina; Indiana. All of those states we’re doing everything we think we need to do to try and win. In these three states, we’ve been organizing for some time, the reason Georgia is so competitive right now is all the organizational groundwork we’ve put in, why you’re seeing early vote numbers in such large measures. So, in North Dakota, Georgia, Arizona, we think all three of those are going to be close and there’s benefit to having the playing field to yourself. One of the reasons we’re so strong in states like Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, even in Florida, is the McCain campaign was arrogant. They were asleep at the switch and thought those states would not be competitive. So we had two-three months headstart, advertising, organizing. So in North Dakota, Georgia and Arizona, we think we have the playing field to ourselves, we think all three will be close, and we’re going to give it a shot to see how…now I think John McCain should be favored in all three of those states, but we think they’re going to be very close and if you look at Georgia, the early vote there—similar to North Carolina – is just striking in terms of its composition. And we think we’re heading to a very close finish there.

Finally, is it me or is the whole term "arrogant" a codeword for "uppity"? How dare that Democrat think he's going to get Georgia or North Dakota? Doesn't he know that those are America-loving red states?

While doing some research on O'Reilly lying about not knowing how to define the 'Bush Doctrine post,' I came across this little nugget on IMDB's website from a 2004 episode with Hans Blix.

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Here's another edition of the BillO Comedy Hour. O'Reilly is very worried that he's one of the only people who will be looking out for the folks if Obama and the Democrats win a strong majority in Congress. This is the talking point that Bill and Newt have been pushing: 'Be afraid of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, so don't vote for the Democrats,' even though Republican/Conservative rule has devastated our country and Iraq.

(rough transcript)

O'Reilly:...is, when you have a collision, say Obama wins the election of a committed left Congress and a committed left President with a committed left media, they all then meld together. I don't think this is healthy for the country. I mean, you're going to have a media that's very sympathetic to whatever Congress and the President does no matter what it is. And you're going to have very few voices, talk radio, this network, some people in dissent. I'm getting a little uneasy here, Juan.

Williams: Well, hold on. You had a Republican President, you had a Republican House and Republican Senate for most of the Bush administration...

O'Reilly: And a liberal media.

Williams: Well, but you know what, most of the media was intimidated, remember the whole idea was that this is a right-of-center country and this is a man in power. There's always deference showed to the President...

O'Reilly: It looks like the stars are aligned. {snip} But Mary Katherine, the collusion of a far left Congress to a far left media to a far left media being sympathetic to them makes me a little uneasy because there's no check and balance there, it all goes out the window. The media is supposed to be the check and balance on the Congress and there isn't any check anymore. They are actively rooting and promoting and that's what we have.

I didn't hear Bill complain when the media rolled over for Bush, allowing him to lie us into war and forgo every single campaign promise he made. You remember his "Compassionate Conservative" routine? And has Bill ever heard of the Blue Dogs? Of course everything Bill says is a complete lie in this clip, but we're used to that here at C&L. But if what O'Reilly says was actually true and the Democratic Party does achieve a solid majority after Nov. 4th then let me break down his argument.

1. Talk Radio: Rush Limbaugh and his followers will attack every single policy Obama tries to put forth that will try to help rescue this nation from the complete disaster that has been caused by Conservatism.

2. FOX News: Is an extension of right wing talk radio and so will also try to disrupt every policy decision Obama makes. And they will use every smear available to them.

3. Liberal media: Typical Conservative talking point that has been successful in intimidating the press from doing their job whenever it benefits Republicans.

4. When has O'Reilly ever worried about checks and balances?

But let's forget that. Why would Bill and the media be in "dissent" over Obama? Aren't they supposed to be covering the news as it happens? Being a watchdog of the government doesn't mean that the press has to disagree with their policy decisions from the outset, it means an eye is kept on them.

And so ends another edition of the Bill O'Reilly Comedy hour. FOX shouldn't feel too bad that The Half Hour News Hour failed so miserably. They already have a comedy show that's been running for a very long time now.

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Sarah Palin embarrassed herself pretty badly when she practically admitted on national television (in her first serious interview) that she had no clue what the Bush Doctrine was. Last night on the Late Show with David Letterman, BillO showed that he's just as brain dead as the Alaska Governor. The only difference is that he spent much of the last eight years actually defending the overarching premise of Bush's foreign policy.

"The Bush Doctrine? Remember that, when Charlie Gibson went, 'what's the Bush doctrine'? You got the nose with glasses on and all that. I'm sitting at home going 'what Bush Doctrine'? Is that the doctrine where I go to Crawford Texas five times a year? What Bush Doctrine is that? I don't know what that is. That was just ridiculous. It's all gotcha gotcha gotcha."

Is he serious? I could care less if Bill O'Reilly knows what the Bush doctrine is, even if he has been defending it for years now. But I certainly expect someone who could easily be the President in three months to have an opinion on whether or not it's right for the United States to attack countries that we think may present a threat to us sometime in the future. Call me an elitist, but things like that matter.

Download | Play    Download | Play (h/t Heather)

Poor William the Bloody. He's virtually the only one left to defend his hand picked VP candidate, Sarah Palin for spending 150K on clothes, refusing to go on any of the Sunday Talk shows, not being viewed as competent for the job and now is being called a 'Diva' and going rogue by the McCain campaign as the wheels are falling off for Kristol.

In an interview with CNN today, one McCain adviser anonymously called Palin “a diva” and said “she is playing for her own future” political prospects. She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” the advisor told CNN. “She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: divas trust only unto themselves as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.”

None of it is her fault. Nope, it's all McCain and the staff. And all his conservative pals criticizing her are just getting their information about Palin through the media. Obviously they are just lazy. I thought they all hated the librul media, Bill?

Kristol: I think Gov. Palin has been ill served by some of her staff.... I'm told she'll be happy to do a TV show, she hasn't gotten authorization, I hope she breaks free this week. She should do FNS and every other show as far as I'm concerned next Sunday. The staff has not served her well by hiding her.

I blame the campaign for not putting her out...I think it's just terrible that they're letting the image of her be that she's sort of rallying the crowds but has nothing serious to say.

Williams: If I said to you. who's being negative in all this media. Who's being so condemning of Sarah Palin, If I say David Brooks, Peggy Noonan, Kathleen Parker, Ken Adelman Mathew Dowd, who's the Democrat in there that's condemning, no those are all Republicans, Bill.

Kristol: Has any of them even read wither of those speeches. Has any of them met Sarah Palin or talked to her? There's a lot of condemnation going on that's based on second hand media accounts.

Williams: I think the reality is right now it hasn't been a help to the McCain ticket.

From June 30th, 2008...Kristol endorsing Sarah Palin on FOX....

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But he's just one of the folks, right?

Bill O'Reilly has re-upped with Fox News Channel in a multiyear deal that pays him about $10 million a year to host his top-rated news program, "The O'Reilly Factor."

O'Reilly took a shot at his detractors, saying that if he retired, "I know my friends in the elite media would miss me greatly." Meanwhile, Fox News Channel has been locking up many of its key stars, including O'Reilly, Sean Hannity (who re-signed recently) and anchor Shepard Smith, as well as luring CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck to anchor a 5 p.m. program.

No wonder he hates Obama's economic plan. And no wonder he settled very quickly with Andrea Mackris.

O'Reilly: I have something very important to tell you. All litigation has ceased that has made me the object of media scorn from coast to coast. On a personal note, this matter has caused enormous pain, but I had to protect my family and I did....This brutal ordeal is now over and I will never speak of it again.