ABC is back at it with their hidden cameras series, “What Would You Do?” They put actors in provocative situations and use hidden cameras to see how people react.

Alan Funt, this aint. “Candid Camera“ was a fun show where people laughed when caught in funny and embarrassing situations. “What Would You Do?” has a clear social agenda where they seek to find and expose people’s racial, sexual and personal prejudices.

I must say this, the reporter, John Quinones is a nice guy. We spent some time on the news set together when he came to Las Vegas while doing a story on a polygamist colony in Arizona. We talked live on air about his segment and then chatted after. You would be hard pressed to find a nicer guy in the business, but he clearly has an agenda here—he is an activist. Fine, it is what it is and that’s how the show is formatted. ABC has chosen which groups to protect and which groups to expose and they will do it in prime time.

Here are some of the recent scenarios where they used actors to get reactions from real people:

A Muslim woman attempts to buy some items from a bakery and a rude and prejudiced cashier makes bigoted comments to her.

Homosexual parents take their children to a restaurant.

Homosexual partners kiss in public.

Racial profiling of Hispanics in a restaurant in Arizona. This segment was done in opposition to Arizona’s Immigration Law (1070) and the scenario they posed would not have been allowed by the law, but not to bother, they did it anyway. They showed the security guard demanding “ID, documentation and papers” without cause. The Arizona law doesn’t allow that and ABC has to know that, but they presented the scenario as permissible under 1070.

The show admits a social agenda, but there is a clear political agenda as well.

Which reminds me, NBC used similar tactics when it sent hidden cameras and  “Muslim-looking” men to a NASCAR race to record instances of prejudice after 9/11. I can hear the producers at NBC sitting in a meeting planning that segment, “Hell, those NASCAR fans are a bunch of  drunk, fat, white guys who hate anybody who’s not like them, we’ll get some great video!” If they didn’t say it, they thought it. I’ve been in those meetings where similar things have been planned. Like the ABC show, you must first come from the position that the prejudice is there, or why would you set up these scenarios in the first place? Does that not show prejudice also?

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There was a time, probably before you were born, that the NBC News brand was the standard bearer for quality news. Granted, that bar was always low, but there was a time when they cleared it with ease. Now they have to jump up to reach it … they usually miss.

Two weeks ago news came down that MSNBC had hired Meghan McCain, daughter of Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Daily Beast “columnist,” as a contributor. That means she would now be paid to give her opinion on TV, an opinion no thinking human being has ever sought out even when offered for free online.

It was a move so puzzling that the liberal website Gawker.com titled their piece on it “‘Lean Stupid’: MSNBC Hired Meghan McCain.” In her first appearance on the payroll, McCain said “she “bets [her] career” that Newt Gingrich won’t win the GOP nomination.” Gawker added, “What career?”

To that point her “career” had consisted of saying and Tweeting embarrassing things, complaining when people pointed them out, and authoring a book so poorly written and painful to read as to make “Everyone Poops” read like Hemingway. Now she’s MSNBC’s insight offerer on Republican politics, bring to that position all the wisdom being her father’s daughter and an “art history” degree has to offer … none.

But NBC wasn’t done building up their stable of members of the “Lucky Sperm Club,” people whose greatest (or only real) accomplishment is to be born to the right people.

It used to be mostly confined to Hollywood, when children of famous parents would miraculously find themselves cast on TV shows and movies regardless of talent because someone made a phone call or a producer saw an opportunity to kiss the right butt. No more.

As network “news” bleeds from objective reporting to an agenda-driven extension of corporate entertainment divisions, more and more “golden children” find themselves with positions that were once, not so long ago, reserved for those who earned them.

Enter Chelsea Clinton.

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In “The View’s” recent interview with Herman Cain, Joy Behar made the blockbuster revelation that “the Republican Party hasn’t been black friendly over the many centuries in this country.”

Janeane Garofalo

Dang, I had it backwards all these years.  Professor Behar has now debunked the nefarious GOP conspiracy to obscure the apparent true history of Jefferson Davis and the Democrat Party as valiant freedom fighters against Abraham Lincoln and the Republican enslavement of blacks and enactment of Jim Crow laws.  Now I’m breathlessly awaiting the two hour “View Special Report: Republican Racists Exposed.”

Joking aside, I can’t decide whether Behar is pathetically ignorant or maliciously deceitful.  Either way, it is shocking that a liberal “journalist” can appear on national television and, without harsh rebuke or universal media derision, whitewash the sordid history of Democrat oppression of blacks and slander the commensurate noble history of Republican efforts to support blacks.

Race-baiting has become cliche among the Left for at least three decades.  The uglier side of that cliche is the barely masked hatred the Left reserves especially for conservative black politicians – a hatred that often appears uncomfortably close to old-time Democrat racism.  Recently it has plunged some leftwingers into spittle flying, vein popping rage, while others, such as Janeane Garofalo, engage in incoherent psycho-babbling that Republicans love Herman Cain because they secretly hate black men.   The Left incessantly chants how Cain is a stupid, unlearned, unserious Uncle Tom.  While usually incoherent and witless, the Left’s message is consistent:  Blacks are not entitled to respect if they express opinions contrary to those permitted them by the Left.

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You don’t have to pay Newsday.com’s over-priced subscription fee to see that the New York publication has gone off the rails. A quick perusal of their free content shows a troubling number of racist, sexist, and insensitive postings. One posting told Hurricane Irene victims to “suck it up and stop bitching.”

The worst hate found in Newsday.com’s postings, though, is directed at President Obama. One posting called the President a “mutt,” another declared him a “clown,” “spineless,” and a “complete loser.” The more you read, however, the more troubling the rhetoric gets. One Newsday post declares Obama “a socialist” who wants to “bring the country to its knees.”

But it’s the openly racist attacks occurring at Newsday that are the most disturbing. One of their postings accuses the President of being a glue sniffer who only speaks in “one or two word grunts.” The question: “Do your knuckles bleed from dragging them on the ground all the time?” is asked.

Chaz Bono, who recently became a man after receiving a sex change operation, isn’t spared either. One homophobic Newsday post mocks with “dude looks like a lady,” another wonders if Chaz received a “real penis and testicles.”

Why Newsday.com would post such openly hateful, racist and homophobic material is beyond explanation. But if Newsday.com is going to go out of their way to deceptively describe Big Hollywood comments as “postings” and be as staggeringly and shamelessly dishonest as this …

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Fresh from the Accuracy in Media A/V Room:

Accuracy in Media had the opportunity to sit down with Big Journalism’s fearless Editor, Dana Loesch, to discuss precisely how Conservatism is the new punk rock. Rather than simply complaining that the media is biased, she explains that a conservative’s do-it-yourself attitude can be put to good use when building our new media.

In part two, Dana and Accuracy in Media shoot holes in the tea-errorist meme passed down from the White House.

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When NBC News and Cenk Uygur “mutually agreed” to part ways last week, Uygur took to his internet news program to explain his departure. He boasted that his YouTube show had “up to a million views per day.” This suggests that the world was hungry for Uygur’s special brand of progressive political commentary.

We here at Breitbart.tv have taken a look inside the numbers and the fact is that political commentary is not what online viewers of “The Young Turks” keep clicking for. In fact, they aren’t looking for “news” either. The “up to a million views per day” are coming from folks interested in the same thing most online consumers are looking for: scantily clad women and sensationalistic viral stories.

Here is a very brief and hilarious overview of the top 50 highest rated shows presented by Uygur. These aren’t cherry-picked, these are the shows that got Uygur those ratings at YouTube that he is bragging about. Millions of people have indeed clicked on The Young Turks over the years, and these are the most popular shows according to YouTube statistics.

After viewing them you’ll be asking yourself how NBC News ever hired him in the first place.

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From everything I’ve read, the only factor remaining in Governor Palin’s decision-making process about a 2012 presidential run is the impact the campaign would have on her family — which is why I think Bill Maher went here [emphasis mine]:

Now, I’m not saying that sexism doesn’t exist and isn’t real. And we can’t, but we can’t throw around the word “sexist” just to stop people like me from pointing out that Michele Bachmann, now running second for the Republican presidential nomination, isn’t a dangerous nincompoop. And when I point out that Sarah Palin is a vainglorious braggart, a liar, a whiner, a professional victim, a scold, a know-it-all, a chiseler, a bully who sells patriotism like a pimp, and the leader of a strange family of inbred weirdos straight out of “The Hills Have Eyes,” that’s not sexist. I’m saying it because it’s true, not because it’s true of a woman.

Really, Bill, this is “true?” Who has it in them to look at this photo of Tripp and Trig Palin, two beautiful and perfect children, and make jokes about “inbred weirdos?”

There was a lot of news, outrage and commotion over the weekend over Maher and his panelists ripping Michele Bachman’s husband, the appalling hate f**k comment directed at her, and Maher’s defensiveness when it comes to being called sexist. But from everything I’ve seen — including most of the paragraph quoted above aimed at Governor Palin herself — all of those comments were directed at adults perfectly capable of defending themselves. No one will argue that any and all of those comments were in poor taste, even for a HBO program proud of such things, but the real line that was crossed Friday night was Maher’s astonishingly obscene attack on Sarah Palin’s family — which obviously includes her children.

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Our buddy Kyle Smith points out that the Daily Beast has made a laughably pathetic attempt to gin up some controversy over a line from the movie “Horrible Bosses,” which is in theaters today. From NewsBeast’s Ramin Setoode:

In the new comedy Horrible Bosses, Jennifer Aniston plays an overbearing dentist named Julia who tortures her assistant Dale (Charlie Day) by sexually harassing him. She’s one of three managers (along with Colin Farrell and Kevin Spacey) meant to be so detestable that their underlings plot to murder them. She constantly corners Dale, asking him to perform lewd sexual acts. In one scene, Aniston’s character calls him into her office, wearing nothing but a white lab coat. When he expresses discomfort, she taunts him like a high-school bully. “You’re starting to sound like a little faggot there, Dale,” she says.

[...]

ABC’s Christiane Amanpour practically begs Mitch McConnell to raise taxes:

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NY Times Columnist Carr says Kansas, Missouri “middle places,” land of “low sloping foreheads”:

“If it’s Kansas, Missouri, no big deal. You know, that’s the dance of the low-sloping foreheads. The middle places, right? …Did I just say that aloud?” – David Carr, NY Times

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In the past I’ve made my distaste for MSM fact-checkers pretty clear. No one owns the truth, no one has the right to declare what is and isn’t true. Certainly, some things are objectively true, but too often these self-appointed MSM fact-checkers are used by others in the mainstream media as cover to pretend they’re objective as they intentionally and dishonestly taint our side as liars. See: panels, death. As Mickey Kaus writes, Politifact “has no place in an open, honest democratic debate.” I couldn’t agree more. Furthermore, the more our side can work neutralize them prior to 2012, the safer our democracy will be. What sites like these can be useful for, however, is a place for research and analysis that allows you to come to your own conclusion.

And so in the case of Jon Stewart’s repeated claims on last week’s Fox News Sunday that “every poll” proves that Fox News viewers are the “most consistently misinformed,” the Daily Show host was either misinformed himself or just making something up to save his uncharacteristically defensive ass from a near-trainwreck of an interview that likely did his brand little good:

On the June 19, 2011, edition of Fox News Sunday, comedian Jon Stewart — host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central — sat down for an interview with Chris Wallace. Many readers asked us to review one of his claims. …

So we have three Pew studies that superficially rank Fox viewers low on the well-informed list, but in several of the surveys, Fox isn’t the lowest, and other general-interest media outlets — such as network news shows, network morning shows and even the other cable news networks — often score similarly low. Meanwhile, particular Fox shows — such as The O’Reilly Factor and Sean Hannity’s show — actually score consistently well, occasionally even outpacing Stewart’s own audience.

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From Accuracy in Media’s Betsi Fores:

Keith Olbermann, America’s favorite ex-commentator, recently appeared on late night with Jimmy Fallon, criticizing the media, particularly the political media, for their response and coverage of the Anthony Weiner scandal.  In the segment, he spouted a myriad of inaccuracies, claiming:

“Democrats don’t support their own in these situations, Republicans love being on the right side of a scandal like this, because it doesn’t happen that often,”

And later continues with:

“John Boehner …all sorts of rumors about him too.”

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To understand if a person or group is on the left or the right, look no further than what outrages them. If you’re offended by how much tax revenue is squandered year after year, you’re probably on the right; if you are ticked off at the “rich” for not paying their “fair share,” you lean left. If you have a strong urge to kill or capture evildoers around the world, you’re likely conservative; but if you’re irate that detainees might be water-boarded, safe money is you’re lefty. If you drive home in your Toyota Prius to pop a Big Pharma-produced Lexapro that gives you just enough vitality to take your ungrateful kids to the Starbucks for a Java Chip Frappuccino®… only to lecture them on the evils of the corporations once you get there, there’s a good chance you’re left-wing. But if you love capitalism… you get my point.

What inspires your ire tips your hand–politically speaking–and a sanctimonious editorial on Tracy Morgan in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times tells you all you need to know about the staff of SoCal’s leading paper.

For those of you who dropped out of society for the past week, the synopsis is that during a stand-up comedy routine in Nashville, Morgan, of “SNL” and “30 Rock” fame, joked that he would stab his son if he used a “gay voice.” Word got out and all hell broke loose. The twitterverse was outraged, celebrities clamored to condemn the comment, and Morgan eventually delivered the obligatory pandering over-apology replete with a commitment to partner with America’s most ironically named advocacy organization: GLAAD.

The story is a social justice cliché.

The courageous editors at the Los Angeles Times joined the fray yesterday, unloading a bold editorial stating Morgan had crossed the line: (more…)

We seem to have come full circle in this surreal saga of junk shots and [alleged] hack jobs. It all started as a hack – and then a prank – and then a right-wing conspiracy concocted in the evil mind of Andrew Breitbart. All seemed well in Weiner World until Luke Russert applied a little heat to the situation. As we saw this week, it fell to pieces from there.

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Personally, I found Ben Shapiro’s book brilliant, well-researched, insightful, and even a page turner. What Ben’s written is a serious, scholarly work that makes a damning case against the Hollywood Left with facts, figures, history, and dozens of interviews. Nothing the MSM is doing to dismiss it, however, is at all surprising. We knew they would find a way to ignore the research and cover up for Hollywood. This is what the MSM does. This is how the MSM operates. Frog and the scorpion — especially when it comes to the water-carrying entertainment media.

And so, for the most part, what we’ve seen from the corrupt MSM since the release of “Primetime Propaganda” is Sesame Street, Sesame Street, Sesame Street… Or equally dismissive headlines that snark something along the lines of: “Hollywood Liberals Admit Liberals Run Hollywood.” Pushing a one-sided political agenda over the public airwaves is not a story. Some of the biggest names in television admitting conservatives are belittled and discriminated against … not a story.

Instead…

Two pages about Sesame Street are isolated and mocked — two pages out of a 355 page work that contains literally dozens of explosive interviews with some of television’s biggest names. Here’s the latest example:

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Is it just me, or is Martin Bashir a “Saturday Night Live” character who doesn’t know he’s a “Saturday Night Live” character? Did he really say Fox News?

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Those bastions of objectivity over at Rolling Stone magazine have taken a break from publishing off the record comments and covering the exploits of Lady GaGa to defend America against non-liberal news bias.  Their target, of course, is Roger Ailes, President of the Fox News Channel.

As Brent Bozell at NewsBusters points out, the alleged “writer” used anonymous sources to make the obvious connection that being celebrated for success at a party is almost indistinguishable from a communist dictator with 70 million deaths on his record.

via NewsBusters:

After painting a picture of employees loyally cheering the boss at a holiday party, Dickinson entertained comparisons to…Mao Zedong.

“It was as though we were looking at Mao,” said disgruntled ex-employee Charlie Reina. “It’s like the Soviet Union or China: People are always looking over their shoulders,” added “a former executive” with News Corporation. Dickinson also said Ailes runs “the most formidable propaganda machine ever seen outside the communist bloc.”

Put aside that Ailes isn’t responsible for 70 million deaths and mass cannibalism, and that his politics are essentially the philosophical opposite of communism – and OK, he’s Mao.

The anonymous sources and story of the party that celebrated the Fox News executive mass murderer were from 2002, and, other than the fact that it’s extremely old, it’s hard to determine why this would suddenly be brought up now. (more…)

Bigs contributor Ben Shaprio’s new book, Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV is out today (head over to Big Hollywood for continuing coverage of this important work), and the media is already on the case trying to take it down a peg.

From Newser:

The writer interviewed dozens of leading industry figures, some of whom “admitted” to presenting a left-wing bias in programing, Shapiro writes, as they seek to “shape America in their own leftist image.” Not very successfully, apparently.

How not very successfully, exactly?  We have abortion virtually on demand, same-sex marriage in an increasing number of states, ObamaCare, massive entitlements, the “hook-up” culture, obsessive environmentalism, Judeo-Christian values are under constant assault, etc. etc. etc.  Hollywood has without a doubt pushed America further left, and Shapiro proves that theory to be fact in his new book.

With media filter’s like Newser running interference for Hollywood, it’s easy to understand why Hollywood has gotten away with so much for so long. (more…)

…And congratulations to me, for I have won the BIG office pool.

Here at the BIGS, we all picked squares to back up our prediction of who would be the first member of the MSM to compare the upcoming Sarah Palin documentary”The Undefeated” to Leni Riefenstahl’s infamous pro-Nazi propaganda film. “Triumph of the Will.”

Looking oh-so sincere and innocent in black and white…

Personally, my gut told me this person would have to be uncommonly angry and cruel; someone willing to stoop to a level of partisan inhumanity where few fear to tread, someone so despicably desperate to destroy another they would use a political figure’s own children as weapons of attack.

Well, according to my Google Alert… Ladies and gents, Mr. Andrew Sullivan:

“If someone gives it a chance and watches it, watches the film, I think they will be surprised at the caricature that’s been drawn and the contrast to reality. I just think every aspect of it is so powerful, you cannot walk away from this film looking at Sarah Palin the same way. You just can’t,” – Meg Stapleton, on the upcoming propaganda movie, “Triumph Of The Will” “The Undefeated.”

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From KSHB:

This is what happens when local TV news goes wrong. A camel gets a little mouthy while with a reporter on location at an animal shelter.

Truth be told, watching some on our side make an issue out of Common’s lyrics/poetry kinda depressed me. It’s an argument lost before it can even begin. Artists frequently create characters in their work, most especially songwriters. Did Johnny Cash really shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die? Did Bruce Springsteen really go for a ride where ten innocent people died? Even Common’s call to “burn” Bush can be defended as metaphor. But the real reason this approach depressed me is because it was totally unnecessary. Not as as a poet, not as a singer and not as a character, it’s just a naked fact that Michelle Obama’s White House guest defends convicted cop killers and opposes interracial relationships. Which brings me to my point…

Thank you, Bill O’Reilly:

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Some, like O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, did bring up Common’s open opposition to interracial relationships and his craven support of two convicted cop killers. In other words, on top of the lyrics, there was also a discussion at FNC (and elsewhere) about the full context of this extremely divisive and sometimes repulsive “artist” the White House saw fit to stamp with their approval. But Comedy Central’s “New Murrow” only wanted to discuss Common within a safe-for-Obama context (the lyrics) and in the above video, Bill O’Reilly calls Stewart out for this act of “comedic” intellectual dishonesty.

Naturally, in their journ-o-listic quest to put the story to bed before the full truth gets out, the MSM grabbed hold of Stewart’s dishonest attack on Fox News, labeled it “epic,” pronounced it “ownage” (want to see how corrupt journ-o-lism works? Click this and this), and positioned it as the last word. But this story — and some of this is our fault for making lyrics an issue — still hasn’t been properly told. O’Reilly understands this and to his great credit has no intention of allowing Stewart, the MSM and the White House to wriggle off this hook so easily.

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