Fox News Continues to Wage War on the Jobless

The Fox News Wall of Shame

Fox News Continues to Wage War on the Unemployed!

News Corp. (Fox News and the Wall Street Journal) are on the attack again.

WSJ: by Robert Barro: "The Folly of Subsidizing Unemployment"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703959704575454431457720188.html

Immediately 3 stories came out to refute the story:

"Fox runs with discredited theory in its assault on unemployment insurance"
http://mediamatters.org/research/201008310023

"Why a Civil Society Extends Unemployment Benefits"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/why-a-civil-society-exten_b_701131.html

"Extended Unemployment and UI Benefits"
http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2010/el2010-12.html

August 31, 2010 - Bill O'Reilly on Fox News said a "report" says that 1 out of 6 Americans are on the government dole in some way...almost 16%. (He didn't name the report or the source. Is Robert Barro the "source"?)

As his guest on "The Factor" that night, John Stossel (a commentator for Fox News), also claimed that a "survey" showed that after 99 weeks of collecting unemployment benefits, a third of the people found a job only 1 week after running out benefits. (He didn't name the survey or the source either.)

I used to be a conservative Republican and Fox fan until I lost my job in late 2008 and until I realized how much distain the GOP and Fox felt about the jobless.

Now every time I hear someone on Fox (or someone like Sharron Angle) making remarks like that, I only hear the sound of another nail being driven into my coffin. That's what makes me so damn angry...because those people are literally killing me!

Does John Stossel really believe that 1,333,333 people (1/3 of 4,000,000 who exhausted all unemployment benefits) all found jobs just 1 week after their benefits expired?

That's 50,000 new jobs every week over a period of 26 weeks (within 6 months).

Did the Bureau of Labor Statistics miss something here?

Or is John Stossel just telling us another Fox News fairy tale at the direction of his boss at News Corp., Rupert Murdoch (the Australian-born multi-millionaire media magnate)?

Isn't it odd that there's very little (if any) dissention or opposing arguments on Fox regarding this subject? I wrote Fox challenging them all to a debate on the subject, but I never received a reply.

Update: August 16, 2010 - Glenn Beck Makes His Debut - I'm sad to report that the famous Glenn Beck has stepped into the muck and got himself on the Fox News Wall of Shame. He made a scathing attack on the long-term unemployed today. (See the press release here.) I defended him as long as I could, the last time was when I thought Glenn was being falsely accused of bashing the unemployed...but today he really did cross the line. Today Glenn Beck said I was a socialist! Glenn, you're an ass! Read my blog and then tell me I'm a damn socialist!

People were holding up signs, not just asking for benefits, but for jobs too. Go here to see some photos Glenn! (Yes, there WERE normal people there!)

Glenn said on his show, "Two years is plenty of time to have lived off your neighbor’s wallet." Michael Thornton, another advocate for the unemployed, had something to say about that - so he also wrote a related article for the Rochester Unemployment Examiner that I think Mister Beck should read.

Donalee King, another advocate of the jobless in America. also wrote an article of rebuke to Glenn's misguided rants. She writes, "To castigate these Americans for exercising their right to peaceful protest should turn the stomach of even the most devoted 99er Beck Head. (And I should know, I used to be one of those devoted "Beck Heads".)

Mister Beck has lost his way...he became too "full of himself" after achieving enormous success. After becoming rich and famous himself, he TOO lost touch with the ordinary citizens of this country. I suppose that always happens to the nouveau riche...they start thinking like the elitists they once abhorred and condemned. Now he too (like Fox News' Stuart Varney) practices Class Warfare.

The Huffington Post also ran a story about Glenn's rant and one reader commented: Cindy Paoletti - "Mr. Beck, You call yourself a Christian? Christians have compassion for fellow human beings. Your comments on the 99 rally were ignorant, you have no idea what you're talking about. Being on tv and radio, I'd think you'd have imps to research information before you spew it and make yourself look like an ass. Some people in the rally were not 99ers. The ones you commented on with the Socialist banner, were from another group who joined the rally. Being the self righteous moron you are, you assumed they were Socialist 99ers. Your comment to Connie and the girl in the orange shirt, proves you showed what a downright vicious human (and I use the term human loosely) you are. You stereotyped all unemployed as being lazy, and they would rather live on 300 dollars a week instead of having a job that pays a decent wage and has health insurance. If ignorance was bliss Beckhead, you would be the most blissful moron on tv. The next time you decide to criticize your Americans, look in the mirror. You'll see a man who has no spine, no heart, and no compassion who lies and calls himself a Christian. Did you ever stop and think the reason you have been inflicted with macular dystrophy is Gods way of punishing you for being a demon in disguise? As a 99er I have to say it couldn't have happened to a bigger hypocrite then you! You're a disgrace to the human race."

Glenn, you did a good job of exposing the riff-raff in the administration, but when you start lumping the jobless and me into your collection of evil people, I must draw the line and disown you...

...but I still defend your right to speak - although, you and Fox News may be sued!

Also today, that guy who's usually on that show "Bulls & Bears' (the one that never wears a tie ) was speaking on Fox News this morning about 10:15 am. PST and said that unemployment was extended because benefits were extended. The fact that there are no available jobs has nothing to do with it? That's odd, because here I am WITHOUT benefits and I STILL can't find a job. So wouldn't I be a "MythBuster"? Maybe Fox News thinks that I'd prefer to be penniless (homeless or dead) rather than to work. They report, you decide.

Update: August 12, 2010 - Neil Cavuto tells another outright lie! See the photographic evidence debunking him at my post about the "99er Rally" in NYC today.

UPDATE: Sunday, August 8th, 2010 - It's without pleasure to add yet another member to this club. Jeffrey Miron, Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University, told Fox News when unemployment extension benefits are available, not every jobless worker would jump at the first job that comes along.

Did Jeffrey Miron jump at the first job that came along before he got his gig?

* Miron also does not agree with the notion that unemployment extension will put money in the hands of the unemployed which they will spend and therefore stimulate the economy.

* Miron said that when faced with a less desirable (i.e., less paying) job, some unemployed workers would rather choose to continue receiving unemployment extension benefits.

Jeffrey Miron can be e-mailed at miron@fas.harvard.edu

Tel: 617-495-4129
Fax: 495-8570 (Free on-line Fax web sites here)

Somebody needs to tell that@-hole that Mc Donald's does not need 15 million new employees!

UPDATE: Wednesday, JULY 28, 2010 - Fox News ran a piece about discouraged workers this morning at 7:40 a.m. PST, and twisted the facts so badly that I almost had a heart attack.

Fox made it sound as though it was OUR fault that people weren't spending money (why consumer confidence is down). They mentioned how we all just DROPPED OUT of the work force, and THAT is why we can no longer collect unemployment benefits.

When asked how we survived, the Fox commentator mentioned how we had to sell our things and use our life-savings. They said this was a "disturbing trend" (because we were not looking for work and dropping out of the work force), and also because Fox says WHEN the economy DOES begin to pick up again, these people (we) won't take jobs.

The story was the WORST I've heard to date about the jobless...equal to the insults of Ben Stein, but so twisted in the facts as Hitler's propaganda. Not once did Fox News say that we didn't take jobs because there were no jobs to take.

Fox wants it both ways - they want to bash Obama about jobs when talking about the economy, but when leaving out the "Obama Factor" (and when Fox is just discussing the jobless in general), they just want to bash the unemployed.

July 19, 2010 - Why does the GOP and Fox News want the general public to think that for the last 2 years the jobless have all been relaxing by the side of the pool drinking Marquitas?

Sunday, July 18, 2010 9:50 AM PST - You will never believe this - Fox News is now saying that being without a job can be a GOOD thing!

Fox News just ran a piece called "The Fun-Employed", showing happy unemployed people saying things like "I'm not getting rich, but I'm enjoying myself." They featured one woman in her lovely home, sitting at her dining room table making home-made jewelry, saying, "I have all this free time to do what I want and to be creative." (She was a lawyer who lost her job a year ago.)

Another woman who was interviewed said, "I don't have much to do, but it sure beats sitting in a cubicle all day." (They showed her and her husband enjoying a cup of coffee together.)

Fox News says that the unemployed now have all this free time to do all the things they ever wanted to do, but never had time for before. Another woman mentioned how she was spending all her time on-line on Facebook and Twitter. (Oh happy days!)

I can't wait for the day when Fox News features the REAL story about this jobless country...like the evictions and divorces and homelessness....or like the man slumped over his desk with a smoking hand gun and a suicide note nearby, with his bloody brain matter smeared all over the wall behind him. Now THAT would make for great dramatic video!

Karl Dinse - Liar or Paid Off? Or Both?

July 11, 2010 - This morning at 5:16 a.m. PST - Chris Wallace on Fox and Friends (Fox News) said that everyone is so concerned about budget deficits that "even the Democrats don't want to extended unemployment benefits."

ANOTHER FOX NEWS LIE! It was only ONE Democrat that voted that way the last time, and that was Ben Nelson! It's been EVERY Republican who's been blocking the jobless bills! A BOLD FACE lie Chris! You're in the news business, so get your FACTS together!

Why has Fox News been waging this war against the unemployed? I can specifically name several incidents where commentators have totally misconstrued the facts. I would be very happy to debate anybody at Fox News on every single point regarding the jobless situation in this country (After being out of work for 2 years, I've become somewhat of an expert).

I challenge them to invite me on any show (Hannity, Beck, O'Reilly, Wallace, Varney, Huckabee, etc) and I will make them look like the zealots that they are (so long as they pay for my airfare, transportation, and hotel room).

I'm tired of screaming at my TV and hearing everyone at Fox call us lazy and free-loaders, accusing us of milking the system, and generally defaming hard-working Americans who are down on their luck in this recession. Fair and balanced my ass!

FOX News Sunday (Chris Wallace) - fns@foxnews.com
FOX and Friends - friends@foxnews.com

And Fox continues to repeat this Wall Street Journal story as well.

Yesterday Fox News was still beating the same old story again about some "supposed" engineer who refused a $60,000-a-year job so he could stay at home and baby-sit (claiming he saved money doing this).

Story from Fox web site: July 8, 2010 - Fox News Your World with Neil Cavuto (Brian Sullivan was the guest host) "Recruitment Company CEO Having Trouble Filling Jobs" Cavuto on Business (cavuto@foxnews.com )

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,596343,00.html

Full story on Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704334604575338691913994892.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Karl Dinse's ugly web site- http://www.mrsacramento.com/

DOES THAT WAS ONE "STORY" SPEAK FOR 15 MILLION OTHER PEOPLE???

Why are all of these people "un-named", and they never come forward? If this was reported to his employment office, he would have been disqualified from receiving any further benefits for refusing a job, no?

The Fox news commentator on the second airing of this story (the guy with the spiffy haircut) called the story "antidotal" (antidotal : a remedy to counteract a poison; anything that works against an evil or unwanted). So does he mean unemployment benefits are "evil or unwanted" or just the jobless are?

Someone told me that the job recruiter (Karl Dinse, who told the story on Fox News and to the WSJ) was paid $25,000 by Fox News to falsely report that story. I don't know if that speaks for everyone at Fox, but it was an "antidotal" story. NOT! (But if Fox doesn't need to name names or offer proof, then why should I?)

Also, on March 2, 2010 on Fox and Friends, commentator Stuart Varney said (paraphrased) "Cut off their unemployment benefits and maybe they'll go find a job." That's ridiculous!

The day before that Martha MacCallum deliberately misconstrued a letter from one of Senator Bunning's constituents, saying he wrote "I will give up my extended unemployment benefits to lower the deficit." THAT WASN'T WHAT HE WROTE AT ALL! Play the tape back!

May 11, 2010 - Courtney Friel on Fox News regarding unemployed people who couldn't find work and exhausted their benefits: "I don't want pay freeloaders! I work hard for my money!"

http://tobuds.com/99er/fox-basher.htm

March 13, 2010 - Neil Cavuto - the commentators AGAIN continued their new-found hobby of bashing the unfortunate unemployed people of this country...

One commentator suggested that, [paraphrased] "99 weeks of unemployment checks is too much."

Another commentator claimed that, [paraphrased] "collecting unemployment checks does not encourage people to find work."

Does Fox News want 15 million people (and their families) to become homeless? How many people does Fox News want to commit suicide because they were too old and not fit enough to survive on the street?

Where's Bill O'Reilly when you need him? Who's lookin' out for us?

Contact Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77538,00.html

E-mail Sent to Karl Dinse

----- Original Message -----

From: Bud Meyers

To: karl@mrsacramento.com

Cc: allison@mrsacramento.com ; fns@foxnews.com ; friends@foxnews.com ; cavuto@foxnews.com

Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 11:41 AM

Subject: $60,000 Babysitter

Dear Mr. Karl Dinse (Mr. Sacramento):

How much money did News Corp pay you for your interviews on Fox News and the Wall Street Journal? What would you say if I would be willing to match that amount for the name of that engineer who supposedly turned down the $60,000 year job to stay home and baby-sit? (Remember, the guy who said he could stay home and save money that way on day care?)

As a good law-abiding citizen, did you report this lazy and fraudulent person to his local employment office? By law, those that turn down suitable work are disqualified from receiving any further unemployment benefits, and may be subject to a claw-back by the State in which he resides. I believe it is your duty to name him and report him to this agency...or maybe you could be considered complicit.

Did Mister Rupert Murdoch personally contact you, or did one of his producers or editors make contact with you? Or did you contact them first? I've been writing to Fox News for 9 years (2,000 times?) and never received ONE response - - - what contacts do you have with News Corp and how did you establish these connections? (There was a LOT of credible information left out of your story, and much needs to be substantiated).

How was payment made to you from News Corp, electronically by direct deposit to your bank account, or was it in cash? Were you paid 'per interview', or was it a "package deal"? Please help me clarify these details before my story is submitted to all my recipients.

What is your political affiliation and could that also be another reason why you told the WSJ what you did?

Finally: Do you believe your story is antidotal to the other 15 million unemployed Americans, and if not, why do you believe News Corp is giving this so much attention?

Thank you very much for your time sir.

Sincerely,

Bud Meyers
(He wrote back and didn't answer a single question, but only to deny receiving any momentary compensation from News Corp.)