When the new Muppets movie came out Fox News claimed that the motion picture was nothing more than an anti-oil, anti-corporate propaganda film meant to influence children.

Those “fighting words” by Fox News anchor Eric Bolling led Kermit the Frog last week to release the following statement:

“It’s a funny thing, they were concerned about us having some prejudice against oil companies, and I can tell you, that’s categorically not true.”

In acting like her combative self Miss Piggy fired back that those charges were ”almost as laughable as accusing Fox News of being news.” to which Kermit the Frog concluded ”Boy that’s going to be all over the internet.”

It’s not just the Muppets that have had to fight off attacks by Fox News, film director James Bobin told the Hollywood Reporter in December:

“Cable news is 24 hours long so you have to fill it up with something. No, the Muppets are not communist. And the character of Tex Richman is not an allegory for capitalism in any way. The character is called Tex Richman.”

Here’s the Muppets video attack against Fox News:

It’s still unclear how much of their responses are scripted and how much is adlib.

I particularly like the point where Kermit The Frog mentions that the Muppets cast was driving around in a gas guzzling Rolls Royce while filming the new movie.

Do you think the Muppets Movie was an anti-oil, anti-corporation propaganda film bent on destroying the American way of life or just a fun romp down nostalgia lane?

Miss Piggy And Kermit The Frog Attack Fox News [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Maybe they’re trying to send some kind of complicated political protest message, too!

Fox News and the Wikipedia Blackout is a post from: The Inquisitr

Ron Paul may have won the SC Fox News Debate Twitter Poll but if you happened to watch the polling results on Fox News you would hardly know it.

The Fox News reporter responsible for showing results used every chance possible to show that Ron Paul wasn’t the frontrunner in the state. As the first Ron Paul results showed him far ahead in voter confidence regarding the economy the reporter quickly noted:

“Ron Paul way above the line, Ron Paul always tends to do well in these Twitter surveys, they are not scientific they are people voting for their voter candidate SOMETIMES and other times they are a good measure of what is being said.”

In the foreign policy results the reporter said Newt Gingrich did “very very well on Foreign Policy” while adding that Ron Paul “also did well in Foreign Policy.” It should be noted that Ron Paul actually beat Newt Gingrich in Foreign Policy.

While Ron Paul scored the best for “Answers vs. Dodges” in all categories including personal record, economy, race, foreign policy and social issues” the report chose to focus on a slight dip in foreign policy and social issues.

Here’s the video so you can judge the reporters responses for yourself:

Fox News might as well already start calling Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich the GOP Primary winner, they’ve made their voice heard loud and clear at this point.

Do you believe that the Fox News reporter was “unfair and unbalanced” in his reporting of Ron Paul Twitter Debate scoring?

Fox News Anchor Doesn’t Seem Happy About Ron Paul Support [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

There was plenty of news to report in 2011, from the BP Oil Spill to the successful assassination of Osama bin Laden, unfortunately for some news agencies their own gaffes made it hard to remember the news story and easier to remember the mistakes they made in reporting them.

Among one of the most talked about Gaffes was conservative news reporting agency Fox News’ incorrect news ticker following the assassination of Osama bin Laden in which they reported “Obama bin Laden” dead. The agency received a lot of negative publicity from the mistaken which may people believed was intentional after years of Fox News reporters referring to President Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama” in an attempt to attach his middle name to Islamic extremist groups.

Right behind Fox News was NPR’s Twitter account and other agencies who mistakenly reported that Gabrielle Giffords was killed from a gunshot wound to the head. Giffords is currently at home with her astronaut husband Mark E. Kelly and she has since promised a return to politics as her progress continues to improve.

In Ireland the Irish Daily Mail reported that a missing university student had been found dead in a river, it turns out that their report was false and because it undermined search efforts they were banned from the University.

One of the most hateful mistakes, which was intended as a positive sentiment came from Lilith Magazine (An Independent Jewish Women’s Magazine). A writer for the publication meant to write “I wish the world would stop hating Jews” but instead wrote “I wish the world would stop having Jews.” The publication of course apologized right after they wiped the egg from their faces.

In another “oops” moment against President Obama Mark Halperin (A top Editor at Time) was suspended from MSNBC when he outright called President Obama a “dick” during a live airing of “Morning Joe.” Here’s the Halprin video:

In yet another Fox News slipup the network included a picture of Barack Obama above the Mitt Romney name, claiming he had 17.2% of the Iowa GOP Caucus vote for the 2012 primary election. Here’s a shot of that video (I personally like that they then called it “real clear politics”):

Local paper the Greenville News also have an unfortunate mistake when an Associated Press article published in the paper had the word “Fuck” added to the article. It should be noted that the four letter word did not appear in the original article and must have been added by someone at the paper.

In one of the silliest and dirties gaffe’s of 2011 the Willoughby News-Herald sent out a friendly reminder to their readers to prepare for daylight saving time by remember to “turn your cocks back.” As my wife points out they may all live on farms with roosters who need to be quite for an extra hour each day.

In another attack against President Obama Hank Williams Jr. was appearing on the Fox News morning show Fox and Friends when he compared President Obama to Hitler. Williams was reflecting on a golf match between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner when he said, ”It would be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu.” ESPN suspended the singers popular Monday Night Football song and then dropped Hank Williams Jr. and his song all together.

Finally, Sarah Palin just months before Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head showed a map of Giffords district with a guns crosshairs over Giffords’ congressional district. While some liberal journalists blamed Sarah Palin for the shooting she quickly pointed out that there it was ridiculous and there was absolutely no evidence linking her to the crime,she then called out the media for “blood libel.” Unfortunately Palin didn’t realize that “blood libel” is a common anti-Semitic slur referring to Jews murdering Christians. Palin has never fully recovered from that round of ignorance.

In some cases it’s a simple slip of the tongue, in other instances it’s a frustrated politician, anchor or reporter, whatever the case may be we found media gaffes all over the place in 2011 and if you continue to look around you’ll find dozens, perhaps hundreds of more examples. It’s human to error, some of those errors are just funnier or more shocking than others.

What is your favorite media gaffe of 2011?

Fox News Confuses Osama bin Laden and President Barack Obama, Plus Other News Gaffes Of 2011 is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you want to be more informed than your Fox News and to a smaller extend MSNBC news watching friends a recent study by Pollsters at Farleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey suggest that you should just forgo watching the news all together.

In interviewing 612 New Jersey residents and asking them five questions about Occupy Wall Street, the Republican primary race and events in Egypt the study found that those who avoided Fox News were more informed about widely accepted facts.

When asked if protesters in Egypt had managed to bring down Hosni Mubarak only 49 percent of Fox News viewers answered Yes while 57 percent of MSNBC viewers knew the correct answer. NPR and The Daily Show viewers scored considerably higher with 68 percent answer the question correctly.

When asked if Occupy Wall Street protesters were primarily Republicans or Democrats 13 percent of Fox News respondents answered incorrectly by stating Republicans, that was compared to 14 percent by MSNBC viewers.

The University’s PublicMind Poll goes on to reveal that Fox News viewers are misinformed more than people who view no news at all and more than MSNBC watchers. According to PublicMind’s Daniel Cassino it was hard to extrapolate who actually watched “no news” at all and he says the poll used complex algorithms to strip out certain variables including education levels and geographical location of participants to ensure misinformation was to blame.

In defense of Fox News, the poll could likely be repeated against other networks who put their own slant on events that occur, on the other hand events in Egypt, specifically regarding Mubarak are easy to push home to viewers. The left-wing watchdog group Media Matters For America points to six other polls that revealed the same type of misinformation on the part of Fox News.

In the meantime 612 viewers in New Jersey is hardly a comprehensive study regarding the worldly views of a network that garners millions of viewers. While I’m not quick to defend Fox News I also strongly believe that a similar sample could provide the same type of results against other news factions both on the left and right. I do however understand how Jon Stewart fans repeatedly answer world view questions correctly during these types of polls since Stewart tends to focus on major news events and relentlessly repeats events that led up to and involving major milestones in national and international news. Stewart’s Daily Show broadcasts also generate plenty of “water cooler” talk compared to traditional news which in turn helps inform a larger base.

I personally would have liked the poll to ask more hard pressing questions that offer fact based answers that have been “muddled” by left and right wing media’s attempts to push misinformation to their readers.

Fox News Viewers Are Less Informed Than Other News Watchers, Non-News Viewers [Study] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Do you want to know about current events? You can’t go wrong with the New York Times, NPR, or even “The Daily Show.” One thing you might want to avoid, however, is Fox News. A new poll shows that people who watch Fox News are less informed about current events than people who don’t watch any news.

Researchers at Fairleigh Dickinson University asked 612 people from New Jersey about recent current events. Dan Cassino, a Fairleigh Dickinson professor who served as an analyst for the poll, said that the poll contained questions about the Arab Spring, the current GOP candidates, the Occupy protests, and several other major news topics.

Cassino said that Fox News viewers were 18% less likely to know that Egyptians toppled their government compared to people who don’t watch any news. Fox viewers were 6 points less likely to be aware that Syrians hadn’t overthrown their government.

“Because of the controls for partisanship, we know these results are not just driven by Republicans or other groups being more likely to watch Fox News… Rather, the results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions that those who don’t watch any news at all.”

The report also notes that people who get their news from a print source like the NY Times or USA Today, were 12 points more likely to know about the situation in Egypt. NPR listeners also had good scores on the poll.

According to the poll, those who watched an Sunday morning news show were the most knowledgeable about international issues.

Cassino said:

“Sunday morning news shows tend to spend a lot more time on a single issue than other news broadcasts, and they are less likely to degenerate into people shouting at each other. Viewers pick up more information from this sort of calm discussion
than from other formats. Unfortunately, these shows have a much smaller audience than the shouters.”

Cassino also praised Jon Stewart and “The Daily Show” for being an informative program. People who watched “The Daily Show” were 12 points more likely to identify the Occupy protesters as Democrats. Cassino said:

“Jon Stewart has not spent a lot of time on some of these issues. But the results show that when he does talk about something, his viewers pick up a lot more information than they would from other news sources.”

What do you think about the poll? Is no news really better than Fox News?

No News is Better Than Fox News, Says Study is a post from: The Inquisitr

GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry has reached into his campaign warchest to purchase $1 million worth of ads on conservative network Fox News.

The announcement comes just after Perry flubbed his own debate response when he couldn’t remember one of the three government departments he planned to cut if he became president.  In case you were curious they are the departments of Commerce, Education and Energy.

The $1 million ad buy is a previously run spot that Perry aired in Iowa and New Hampshire on the Fox News network. In the ad Perry calls himself a “doer” rather than a “debater.”

In the ad Perry states:

“If you’re looking for a slick politician or a guy with great teleprompter skills, we already have that, and he’s destroying our economy,” adding, “I’m a doer, not a talker.”

It’s still unclear if the ad will be run nationally or just in select markets.

The Hill points out:

If the Texas governor is only running it in the D.C. market it is likely targeted at swaying the Republican elite, who slammed his embarrassing gaffe in Wednesday’s debate.

Here’s the ad:

In the meantime Perry might want to rethink the importance of debates, President Obama has shown poise and professionalism in his past debates and many expert have argued that the President’s skills in that area have only improved since taking office.

Do you think Rick Perry needs to prove that he can debate in order to secure the GOP nomination for the upcoming Presidential election?

Rick Perry Makes $1M Ad Buy On Fox News is a post from: The Inquisitr

Adam Levine, the frontman for Maroon 5, wasn’t happy when he heard one of his songs playing on Fox News. The singer took to Twitter to demand that Fox never play his music again.

Levine wrote on Twitter:

“Dear Fox News, don’t play our music on your evil fucking channel ever again. Thank you.”

Musicians have frequently requested politicians to stop using their songs, but it’s rare for a musician to ask an entire network to stop playing their music. Why? Well, according to Rolling Stone, a musician doesn’t normally get paid royalties when a politician uses their song in a campaign. A network like Fox, on the other hand, is probably paying Maroon 5 to use their song.

Which is probably why Levine took to Twitter, instead of a court room, to tell Fox to stop playing his music. That way he gets to voice his personal opinion while still collecting a check.

Fox didn’t comment on the legal or financial agreement that it has with Maroon 5, but Fox anchor Greg Gutfeld from “Red Eye With Greg Gutfeld,” sent a tweet back to Levine.

Gutfled said:

“Dear @AdamLevine, don’t make crappy [f---ing] music ever again. Thank you.”

It isn’t clear exactly what song was played by Fox or why Levine took particular offense to it.

Do you agree with Adam Levine actually wants to get his music off of Fox News? Or was he just expressing his personal opinion about the network?

Adam Levine Scolds Fox News For Using His Music is a post from: The Inquisitr

Fox TV personality and relentless mouthpiece Bill O’Reilly on Thursday went off his rocker calling the Occupy Wall Street protesters a bunch of “crackheads” who are dealing dope to people on the street while occupying Manhattan’s Zucotti Park.

Even O’Reilly guests and sympathizers were a bit shocked by his ignorant comments with conservative author Margaret Hoover saying:

“They’re not crackheads, Bill,” while she added “There’s soft drugs—marijuana, stuff that you inhale. I personally haven’t smelled it. My husband has.” She then added “It’s a counter culture collective.”

One aspect of the Occupy Wall Street is certain, GOP members simply don’t have a clue what is going on across the country with various protests, earlier this week Newt Gingrich said many of the participants are “sincere middle-class people who, frankly, are very close to the Tea Party people.” Gingrich then noted that they ”clean up after themselves,” unlike the left-wing “agitators” that were also attending the protests.

Of course O’Reilly had to get the last word in and when he was told that the protesters support the socialist systems found in Canada and Denmark he responded:

“I love Canada and Denmark, so maybe I should join this group.”

Here’s a better plan for you Mr. O’Reilly, move to Canada or Denmark, although I highly doubt they’d be willing to give you citizenship. In the meantime I find it amusing that GOP members such as Gingrich are attempting to align themselves with the “good people” at the rally’s while at the same time speaking out against the message found at the protests.

Bill O’Reilly Calls ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Protesters A Bunch Of Crackhead Drug Dealers is a post from: The Inquisitr

They can cut out the millionaire talk show hosts and just pay me a middle class wage to directly blame poor people.

How Fox News Spreads Lies Using Rich People [Pic] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Fox News Keeps Gay GOP Candidate Fred Karger Out Of Debate, Despite Qualified Scoring is a post from: The Inquisitr

Reports are just beginning to circulate as the blogosphere wakes up that a Fox News Twitter account has been embarrassingly hacked.

One thing no one seems to be mentioning is that the account that was hacked is @FoxNewsPolitics. The main @FoxNews account- the one with over 780,000 followers- has not been compromised. As for content, whoever hacked the account used it to extensively tweet about a spurious assassination of Barack Obama, as shown below in the screencaps.

Initial reports have speculated the hack could be linked to Anonymous as part of the #antisec push, but there’s no evidence as of yet that the information is credible. The @FoxNewsPolitics Twitter has just over 34,000 followers. As of 8:10 AM EST, the hack has not been cleared from the Fox feed, and the tweets reporting President Obama remain on the page.

Among the tweets currently on the page:

@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead

@BarackObama has just passed. Nearly 45 minutes ago, he was shot twice in the lower pelvic area and in the neck; shooter unknown. Bled out

@BarackObama shot twice at a Ross’ restaurant in Iowa while campaigning. RIP Obama, best regards to the Obama family.

#ObamaDead, it’s a sad 4th of July. RT to support the late president’s family, and RIP. The shooter will be found

BREAKING NEWS: President @BarackObama assassinated, 2 gunshot wounds have proved too much. It’s a sad 4th for #america. #obamadead RIP

We wish @joebiden the best of luck as our new President of the United States. In such a time of madness, there’s light at the end of tunnel

Fox News Hacked, Reports President Obama ‘Dead’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

Glenn Beck didn’t cry during his last show on Fox News, not even one little vicks vapo rub induced tear, instead the self proclaimed libertarian patted himself on the back for a job well done, provided a list of things he taught his audience over the last 30 months and used old faithful, also known as his blackboard.

Beck then announced to those few fans who didn’t already know that he was heading to internet and charging $10 per month to hear him rant and rave for two hours each weekend, while joking (I think):

“You will pray for the time I was only on the air for one hour a day.”

While Beck lost various advertisers over the last year and saw ratings plummet for his one time TV darling of a talk show he claims he wasn’t running away from TV:

“I didn’t run away from something, I ran to something. I knew exactly where I was supposed to be.”

He went on to add:

“I’m the only host who is supposedly the most dangerous person in America because of my influence and the least influential person in America because my ratings are supposedly declining,”

Glenn Beck Airs Final Fox News Show, Doesn’t Cry Or Anything is a post from: The Inquisitr

Bill O’Reilly is passionate to say the least, whether he’s confronting President Obama or Jon Stewart he loves to get in the face of those people he interviews and tell them why their wrong and it turns out his TV persona is all an act.

While speaking this week with Karl Rove the top rated Fox News talk show host revealed that in his personal life he’s actually quiet and reserved.

Here’s a video of the big reveal:

This news doesn’t surprise me to say the least, the guy would have no friends if he acted in real life like he does on the TV. Are you surprised by O’Reilly’s admission?

Bill O’Reilly Admits That His TV Persona Is Just An Act is a post from: The Inquisitr

This story wins the WTF category for the entire year so far.

So apparently, just so you know, the Secret Service has a Twitter account. Can anyone even begin to understand exactly what the hell the Secret Service should even be tweeting about? Are there very many more agencies that rely as much on keeping things under wraps? The word secret is right there in the name.

Anyway. Today on the Secret Service’s Twitter account, the person tasked with tweeting for the intelligence and counterintelligence agency accidentally posted something not meant to be shared. The unidentified agent said:

Had to monitor Fox for a story. Can’t. Deal. With. The. Blathering.

I know what you’re thinking… get this man a medal! But alas, the opinion wasn’t official. Although there was some speculation it was fake, the Secret Service stepped up, claimed it, and apologized in a statement:

“An employee with access to the Secret Service’s Twitter account, who mistakenly believed they were on their personal account, posted an unapproved and inappropriate tweet. The tweet contained no vulgarity, security or pertinent agency information. The tweet did not reflect the views of the U.S. Secret Service and it was immediately removed.

Hopefully, this dude didn’t get into any trouble and higher-ups saw as much humor in it as we do.

Secret Service bashes Fox News in accidental tweet, apologizes is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Associated Press has confirmed that DNA results done on the body of Osama bin Laden have confirmed the corpse of the man killed in the raid yesterday in Abbottabad, Pakistan is that of the Al Qaeda leader.

Bin Laden was killed along with two and a woman who was used as a shield by one of the unidentified combatants. DNA from bin Laden’s body was matched against that of his deceased sister in making the positive identification:

The officials said the DNA testing alone offered a “99.9 percent” certainty that bin Laden was shot dead in a daring U.S. military operation in Pakistan. Detailed photo analysis by the CIA, confirmation by other people at the raid site and matching physical features like bin Laden’s height all helped confirmed the identification.

Citing an unwillingness of any country to accept his remains, bin Laden’s body was buried at sea- a decision that some Muslim clerics have decried as an insult to Islam. It is unclear whether photographic evidence of bin Laden’s death will be released to global media.

DNA match confirmed on bin Laden body is a post from: The Inquisitr

A Twitter user in Pakistan was a bit put out by the noisy raids taking place near him in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

It turns out Sohain Athar, aka @reallyvirtual, was livetweeting the raid that resulted in the death of September 11th mastermind Osama bin Laden. Athar’s tweets were posted in chronological order by Mediaite, and are pasted below. Later in the evening, Athar became increasingly irritated at the growing worldwide interest in his tweet-witness account, but the position in which Athar finds himself is interesting. Generally social media witnessing has been through direct and intentional involvement- Athar just wanted the helicopters to STFU and had no idea he was going to become a small historical footnote via Twitter.

From @reallyvirtual (with others)via Mediaite:

Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).

Go away helicopter – before I take out my giant swatter :-/

A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S

@m0hcin all silent after the blast, but a friend heard it 6 km away too… the helicopter is gone too.

@m0hcin http://bit.ly/ljB6p6 seems like my giant swatter worked !

@m0hcin the few people online at this time of the night are saying one of the copters was not Pakistani…

han3yy Hania Ahmed  by ReallyVirtual OMG :S Bomb Blasts in Abbottabad.. I hope everyone is fine

@raihak I try, man, I try (in reply to entreaty to “be safe!”)

@raihak Funny, moving to Abbottabad was part of the ‘being safe’ strategy

Since taliban (probably) don’t have helicpoters, and since they’re saying it was not “ours”, so must be a complicated situation #abbottabad

@raihak yep, the mad power cuts have reached abbottabad – 14 hours daily – luckily I have a generator AND a UPS at the coffee shop

@tahirakram yea. *hides his giant swatter*

@kashaziz technically, it is unidentified until identified, and it is a flying object, so year, why the hell not, we have seen weirder stuff

@tahirakram they’re not saying anything

The abbottabad helicopter/UFO was shot down near the Bilal Town area, and there’s report of a flash. People saying it could be a drone.

@wqs figures, if they have the right to shoot planes flying over the president house, the must have the same instructions for PMA

@smedica people are saying it was not a technical fault and it was shot down. I heard it CIRCLE 3-4 times above, sounded purposeful.

@tahirakram very likely – but it was too noisy to be a spy craft, or, a very poor spy craft it was.

@smedica It must have been more, I started noticing the helicpoter when the noise got irritating – which part of Abbottabd are you in?

@smedica I live near Jalal Baba Auditorium

@smedica ’safer’ is a relative term that has lost its meaning in Pakistan

Here’s the location of the Abbottabad crash according to some people >>> http://on.fb.me/khjf34

Two helicpoters, one down, could actually be the training accident scenario they’re saying it was >> http://bit.ly/ioGE6O

and now I feel I must apologize to the pilot about the swatter tweets :-/

And now, a plane flying over Abbottabad…

@raihak The day there is uninterrupted electricity in Lahore for a whole month, I will start packing my bags, until then, Abbottabad is home

1 dead and 1 injured in Abbottabad for heli crashed

Interesting rumors in the otherwise uneventful Abbottabad air today
naqvi rt by ReallyVirtual I think the helicopter crash in Abbottabad, Pakistan and the President Obama breaking news address are connected.

Twitter user in Pakistan live-tweets bin Laden compound raid unknowingly is a post from: The Inquisitr

We posted a screenshot with an unfortunate misspelling announcing the death of Osama bin Laden, but this is a bit beyond the pale.

Another Fox News Freudian slip on bin Laden death is a post from: The Inquisitr

Really Fox News? I’m not exactly sure who this Obama bin Laden fellow is, but if you want a real news story you should probably try covering the Osama bin Laden execution that just happened, we’ve heard it through the grapevine that a lot of people are talking about it.

Fox News Announces: Obama bin Laden Dead [Pic] is a post from: The Inquisitr

…was quick and to be expected on Facebook.

[Failbook]

Reaction to the President’s long-form birth certificate is a post from: The Inquisitr