Interesting week Sept 5 2016

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Not all is well in right-wing media land..

Wallace appeared on Fox News’ Media Buzz to discuss what his selection meant to him personally and “what it means to Fox News.” The host of the program, Howard Kurtz, asked Wallace, “What do you do if they make assertions that you know to be untrue?” “That’s not my job,” Wallace replied, without skipping a beat. “It’s not my job to be a truth squad.”

Fox News’ Presidential Debate Moderator Says He’ll Let Candidates Lie – ThinkProgress

In a comprehensive report on ex-Fox News boss Roger Ailes' downfall published online Friday, New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman reports previously unknown details about how Ailes allegedly used private investigators to obtain rival journalists’ phone records and ran the network like a “surveillance state.”

The story traces Ailes’ ascent to CEO of Fox News, where he allegedly abused female employees along every step up the corporate ladder. Sherman, whom one of Ailes' lawyers recently described as a "virus" that is trying to "suck the life" out of Ailes' family, writes that it’s “unfathomable” to think top executives at the network were unaware of Ailes’ alleged sexual harassment of dozens of women. Here are five of the most stunning developments from Sherman’s magazine piece.

5 Points On The Most Stunning Revelations In NYMag's Ailes Bombshell

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Not really a surprise (I mean, how many clamoring for Bill Clinton's impeachment had affairs themselves), but still..

He won’t admit it, but Alabama Governor Robert Bentley pretty clearly had an affair with one of his top staffers. The best proof of this is an audiotape that just surfaced of Bentley and his chief adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, having a very suggestive telephone conversation. The governor says he loves her, talks about locking the door if they’re going to repeat what they did yesterday, refers to touching her breasts, and more along the same lines.

If this isn’t proof enough for you, the source of the tape is someone in Bentley’s family who suspected an affair was going on, and who took the tape to law enforcement in an effort to get Bentley to discontinue the affair. At the same time, in August 2014, Bentley’s wife of 50 years filed for divorce. Clearly she had all the proof she needed.

While rumors of an affair have swirled for a long time, it’s coming to light now because Bentley fired Alabama’s top police officer and this police officer immediately went to the press to argue that he had proof of the affair and that he had been fired for cooperating in an investigation of the Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives. He also accused the governor of misusing states funds to conduct and hide his affair.

So, aside from what one might think about adultery (Rebekah Caldwell Mason is married), there are some potential legal questions here. Mainly, though, this is another example of hypocrisy. Gov. Bentley is a Deacon and Sunday School Teacher at the First Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa. He has served on the church’s Youth for Christ Advisory and Family Counseling Advisory boards. He was a 2009 recipient of the Christian Coalition of Alabama’s Statesmanship Award.

Back in January 2011, after he was elected but before he took office, Gov. Bentley spoke at Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. What he said offended a lot of people. “There may be some people here today who do not have living within them the Holy Spirit,” Bentley said. “But if you have been adopted in God’s family like I have, and like you have if you’re a Christian and if you’re saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister.” Bentley added, “Now I will have to say that, if we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.” Telling people who aren’t Christians that they aren’t your brothers and sisters seems pretty obnoxious but, Bentley tried to be reassuring, “We’re not trying to insult anybody.”

Washington Monthly | Alabama Governor Exposed as a Hypocrite

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Hmm, those Hannity tweets..

So the anonymous corporate voice of 21st Century Fox has issued an apology to Gretchen Carlson. But if Fox News is truly a place that treats people with “respect and dignity” shouldn’t Sean Hannity, one of the network’s most visible stars, also apologize? After all, he did effectively tell his 1.5 million Twitter followers that Carlson was a liar.

Whether Hannity is pressured to apologize depends on the outlook of Fox News. Is Fox truly interested in changing its corporate culture?
It’s hard to square the notion of a workplace that truly has no tolerance for sexual harassment with one that tolerates the public shaming of a woman who complains of sexual harassment.

Alternatively, Fox News is just trying to sweep this embarrassing incident under the rug quickly so they can resume making money. Vanity Fair, citing network sources, reports this might be what is happening:

While the Paul, Weiss investigation interviewed more than 20 women, according to two sources familiar with the process, it never officially expanded to examine the broader culture of Fox News. The firm, according to numerous people familiar with the process, was apparently never ordered to scour the company’s hard drives for all evidence of sexual harassment or bawdy culture. In some ways, according to one person familiar with the process, the Paul, Weiss investigation simply got a revenue machine back on track.

Three Tweets That Will Haunt Sean Hannity

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Vanity Fair reported that the internal investigation into sexual harassment allegations against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, launched after former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit against Ailes, has concluded with a $20 million settlement and a public apology, but without examining “the broader culture of Fox News.” This “relatively swift closure to an ugly chapter,” as Vanity Fair put it, shows that the probe was little more than a pseudo-investigation. The magazine noted that in some ways, it "simply got a revenue machine back on track." And that confirms previous concerns about the impartiality of the investigation, which was handled by Fox News’ parent company.

Confirmed: Fox News’ Sexual Harassment Investigation Was Just A PR Offensive

Schlafly, who died Monday at age 92, was one of the most important American right-wing political activists of the last century, ranking with William F. Buckley, Jr. and Roger Ailes. Best known for her unbridled anti-feminism and work in defeating the Equal Rights Amendment, Schlafly’s key contribution was to codify the central myth of the American right: that conservative Republicans are constantly being betrayed by establishment party leaders. In her popular 1964 book A Choice Not An Echo, which sold more than 3 million copies, Schlafly accused “the secret kingmakers” of the party of constantly undermining conservative champions like Robert Taft and Barry Goldwater and using back-door deals to insure the victory of compromising candidates like Wendell Willkie and Dwight Eisenhower.

The late Phyllis Schlafly taught conservatives they were stabbed in the back. | New Republic

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Here are all the Fox people that defended Roger Ailes in the sexual harrassment case

Gretchen Carlson, Howard Kurtz, Jeanine Pirro, Greta Van Susteren, Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Neil Cavuto, Bret Baier, Geraldo Rivera, Bill O'Reilly

Fox Figures Circle The Wagons Around Boss Roger Ailes Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations

And one getting promoted:

Brit Hume, the Fox News analyst replacing former host Greta Van Susteren, has a long history of downplaying sexual assault and was a fierce defender of former Fox CEO Roger Ailes from the sexual assault allegations leveled by dozens of women, including several of Hume’s Fox colleagues. Fox media critic Howard Kurtz reported September 6 that network anchor Van Susteren is leaving Fox News after 14 years and will be replaced by senior political analyst Hume. Kurtz noted that “this would be among the major programming decisions made by [head of Fox News’ parent company 21st Century Fox] Rupert Murdoch since the network’s owner stepped in as acting CEO of Fox News after Ailes’ resignation.” New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman reported that “a source close to Van Susteren … [said she] left because ‘she is troubled by the culture’ Ailes built.”

Fox Is Replacing Greta Van Susteren With Ailes-Defender And Sexual Assault Denier Brit Hume

And the 20M settlement and public excuses in perspective..

On Tuesday, Fox News announced a settlement with former host Gretchen Carlson over her lawsuit claiming Roger Ailes sexually harassed her, reportedly agreeing to pay her $20 million. That figure may pop some eyes. Many people cling to the idea that women fabricate or exaggerate sexual harassment claims as a get-rich-quick scheme at the expense of their male coworkers.

In reality, most plaintiffs wind up with far smaller settlements, if anything at all. A Rare Payday In fact, it’s unusual for a plaintiff to even break the six-figure mark, as Carlson did. Anyone who brings a lawsuit claiming sexual harassment under the protections of Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act faces hard limits on how much she can get in compensation through damages.

In the early 1990s, Congress allowed plaintiffs to seek damages — before then, plaintiffs could only seek back pay for wages missed — but capped them at $300,000 for the largest employers and even less for smaller ones. Those caps also have not been updated since they took effect, so they’ve lost value to inflation over the past quarter-century. That means even the tiny sliver of all victims who feel emboldened enough to come forward, make a formal complaint about the harassment they face, pay for a lawyer and who are actually successful in proving their cases rarely end up with millions. In fact, one study found that the median sexual harassment settlement is just $30,000.

What Gretchen Carlson’s Multi-Million-Dollar Settlement Really Means

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Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson stunned the hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Thursday when he did not know the site of some of the fiercest fighting in Syria's civil war. In the interview, contributor Mike Barnicle asked the Libertarian presidential candidate what he would "do about Aleppo," prompting a befuddled response from Johnson. "What is Aleppo?" Johnson asked. "You're kidding," Barnicle replied. "No," Johnson said.

Gary Johnson: 'What is Aleppo?' - Business Insider

Can Gary really run for President?

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Yea..

The problem, as I have written, and as has been proven out again and again, is this election pits a normal political party and a normal presidential nominee against an abnormal political party and an abnormal presidential nominee. To put it in the simplest possible terms, one party chose a candidate who believes Vladimir Putin is praiseworthy, who thinks Ted Cruz’s father possibly participated in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and who is clearly feared and mistrusted by virtually all of the party’s top officials. The other party didn’t. 

Some journalists have responded by tossing out the conventions of automatic equivalence, a phenomenon I wrote about here. But other journalists have tried to bring the candidates into rough alignment, no matter how absurd the result. On Wednesday, NBC’s Matt Lauer showed how that’s done — by recasting Clinton's tawdry, but fundamentally normal, behaviors as shocking, while recasting Trump’s shocking behaviors as normal. Take the disastrous contrast between Lauer’s treatment of Clinton’s private email server and his treatment of Trump’s baldfaced lie about his opposition to the Iraq War, for instance.

By making a question on Clinton’s private email server the first substantive query of the night — and by framing it as a plausibly disqualifying fact of her past — Lauer signaled to his viewers that this issue is of epochal, overriding importance. But it didn’t stop there: In total, six of the first seven questions lobbed at Clinton were about the email server.

One way viewers judge how important various issues are is by assessing how much time the media gives them. Clinton went on to get one question about her vote for the Iraq War, two (and I’m counting generously here) about her proposals for fighting ISIS, and zero questions about China.

This is flatly ridiculous. Clinton was wrong to use a private email server while at the State Department. But Colin Powell used a private server and advised Clinton to do the same, and no one thinks the most important fact of Powell’s tenure was his email management practices because thinking that would be absurd.

But no one seriously believes that the best way to understand how Clinton would make decisions of war and peace is to more closely scrutinize her email setup. No one honestly believes that the toughest questions Clinton will face as leader of America’s armed forces relate to her views on retaining the use of her private Blackberry.

Last night, Clinton got 6 questions on her emails. Trump got zero on his Iraq lies. - Vox

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"What is Aleppo?" is already a legendary answer from libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, but perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on him, this stuff happens..

“I’m incredibly frustrated with myself,” Johnson said in an interview off-set after the gaffe. He said he was “guilty” of not remembering Aleppo was a central city in the Syrian conflict. “Sure it should,” he said when asked if the incident should be treated as significant. “Believe me, no one is taking this more seriously than me. I feel horrible.” "I have to get smarter and that’s just part of the process,” he said. In a written statement, Johnson said he understands the dynamics of the Syrian conflict, “but hit with ‘What about Aleppo?’, I immediately was thinking about an acronym, not the Syrian conflict. I blanked.”

Libertarian Nominee Gary Johnson Asks ‘What Is Aleppo?’ in TV Interview - Bloomberg Politics

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We’ve been living with the Republican culture of legislative hostage-taking since they took over the House in 2011, so storyline is familiar: Hardline conservatives try to attach ideological priorities to the must-pass funding bill, advancing them because of the threat of a shutdown.

Sometimes it works, as in 2014 when Congress passed a rollback of derivatives rules written by Citigroup lobbyists that was tucked inside a spending bill. Sometimes Democrats and the White House hold firm, as in 2015 when it was widely believed that conservatives got nothing for their efforts.

But this year there’s a surprising twist. The Tea Party–aligned forces are arguing for a long-term spending bill, warning of betrayal if Congress does otherwise. By contrast, the Democrats, who have traditionally sought long-term certainty, want the spending bill to only last until December.

This Year, Even the Fight Over Government Funding Is Upside Down | New Republic

It's all about the period between presidents..

In the meantime whilst Zika is marching on in Florida.., these hardline conservatives will only pass a Zika funding bill if it has anti-planned parenthood items attached to it..