Randi Rhodes: Stewart vs Fox

Jon Stewart was on Fox News this weekend, saying that Fox News viewers were the most consistently misinformed viewers in America. It was a self-validating statement in that it was the first accurate statement on Fox News in recent memory. Chris Wallace responded “I don’t think our viewers are the least bit disappointed with us.” Sadly he may be right. A lot of Fox News viewers don’t want to hear disturbing truths. They want to be told reassuring lies. The function of Fox News isn’t to inform people, it’s more to anaesthetize people. Fox News is where people who don’t know the facts go to get their opinions confirmed. Odd, at a time when reality shows are all the rage, Fox News is succeeding with programming that has absolutely nothing to do with reality.

This weekend featured a lot of big speakers at the Republican Leadership Conference. Somehow they all seemed to prove the point that “Republican leadership” is an oxymoron. When Rick Perry spoke, the crowd at the conference chanted “Run, Rick, run!” Oh, don’t worry, he is… from his record at Governor of Texas. Texas leads the nation in creating minimum wage jobs. Hey, somebody has to do the dirty jobs. But in Texas it seems like everybody has to do the dirty jobs.

Ron Paul won the straw poll at the conference in a landslide, with 612 votes to Jon Huntsman’s 2^nd place finish with 382 votes. That’s a pretty good indicator of how well Ron Paul would do in the general election—not the landslide, the 612 votes.

Michele Bachmann also spoke. She has a new haircut, with her hair is piled up higher in the back than in the front. Maybe she’s trying to appeal to the “sloping forehead” crowd. If so, at least that means she’s clear on who her base is. Michele delivered a rambling, rather disjointed account of the Bible story of Jonathon. If you’re not familiar with that one, you won’t be any more familiar with it after hearing Michele Bachmann’s account. I’m not too sure what the point was, but evidently the path to job creation begins with defeating the Philistines.

Today’s Homework | Discuss

Despite no evidence suggesting so, John McCain decided to blame ‘illegal’ immigrants from the Arizona wildfires…