Breaking News…beyond repair

From TPM:

Former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren will join MSNBC and host an evening news show called “For the Record with Greta” in the 6 p.m. ET timeslot, the network announced Thursday.

…snip…

The news comes just one day after Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly announced she was leaving Fox News for NBC News after a 12-year career. Kelly’s deal with NBC included a daytime program, a Sunday evening news show and regular participation in major event and political coverage.

Time for a new logo:

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I hope your Thanksgiving was peppered with happiness!

And I hope you didn’t have to eat at Megyn Kelly’s house.
Original painting (Freedom from Want by Norman Rockwell, to whom I offer my profound apology)

The Blingriches

Concord, New Hampshire (CNN) – Newt Gingrich’s campaign vehemently denied any wrongdoing following an ABC News report Tuesday that questions business practices between two of his organizations, one a for-profit business and the other a charity.

…snip…

The ABC News report said Gingrich’s charity, Renewing American Leadership (ReAL) paid $220,000 over two years to Gingrich Communications, one of the candidate’s for-profit businesses.

The story also said that the charity “also served as another avenue to promote Gingrich’s political views, and came dangerously close, some experts say, to crossing a bright line that is supposed to separate tax-exempt charitable work from both the political process and such profit-making enterprises as books and DVDs.”

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Who says there are no manufacturing jobs left in America?

From Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone:

How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory

The onetime Nixon operative has created the most profitable propaganda machine in history. Inside America’s Unfair and Imbalanced Network

The key to decoding Fox News isn’t Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity. It isn’t even News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch. To understand what drives Fox News, and what its true purpose is, you must first understand Chairman [Roger] Ailes. “He is Fox News,” says Jane Hall, a decade-long Fox commentator who defected over Ailes’ embrace of the fear-mongering Glenn Beck. “It’s his vision. It’s a reflection of him.”

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Damage (out of) Control

From TALKING POINTS MEMO:

Amidst Newt Gingrich’s attempts at damage control over his criticism of Paul Ryan’s Medicare privatization proposal, and his own past support for the individual health insurance mandate, Newt Gingrich took another step — not only publicly signing a pledge in Iowa to repeal President Obama’s health care reform law, but publishing a column in the right-wing Human Events on Wednesday, entitled, “I Signed the Pledge To Repeal Obamacare, Have You?”

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Radical Engineering of an Apology

From POLITICAL HOTSHEET at CBS NEWS:

Newt Gingrich apologized on Tuesday to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) for calling his Medicare plan “radical” and “right-wing engineering.”

Gingrich, who announced his presidential candidacy just last week, has come under fire in recent days for a series of missteps that some top Republicans believe have crippled his campaign right out of the gate.

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Crime of Opportunity

From THINK PROGRESS:

Arizona politicians who support the state’s new immigration law have spent the past few months justifying the passage of SB-1070 by pointing to the high levels of crime that undocumented immigrants have brought to their state. However, over the past few weeks, the media has countered their claims of kidnappings and beheadings with reports that the border is “safer than ever” and “one of America’s safest places.” Today, when pressed by guest anchor Harry Smith on CBS’ Face the Nation, SB-1070 supporter Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) called the reports a “gross generalization”:

SMITH: One of the things that’s come to light over the past last couple weeks is that in some of these border towns that were thought to be susceptible to lawbreaking of illegal immigrants. Crime is actually down. Crime in Phoenix for instance is down significantly over the past couple of years.

KYL: Well, that’s a gross generalization. Property crimes are up, certain violent crimes on certain parts of the citizenry are up. Phoenix is a very large source of kidnapping. It’s called the kidnapping capital of the United States…So there’s a great deal of violence and crime associated with illegal immigrants.

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HP Must Stand for Hair Pundit

From Ruth Marcus at Post Partisan at The Washington Post:

What is this, middle school? I was all set to sit down and write about women in politics, and applaud Tuesday’s results, when off pops the new Republican nominee for senator from California, Carly Fiorina, with a comment that takes you back to the cattiness of the school cafeteria.

Fiorina, all miked up but not yet ready to be on the air — and, I think it’s fair to suggest, perhaps not ready for prime time — described an aide who saw her opponent, Sen. Barbara Boxer, on television “and said what everyone says: ‘God, what is that hair? Sooo yesterday.'”

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