President Obama accuses Fox News of being unfair. You know, because Fox News is unfair.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:  

President Barack Obama called Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly ‘absolutely’ unfair to him during a contentious interview aired Monday night. 

The response came during the second part of an interview that originally aired during Fox's Super Bowl pregame show after O’Reilly asked if the president felt the controversial network was unfair to him and his administration. 

‘Absolutely, of course you are, Bill. But I like you anyway,’ Obama said before combatively adding ‘we just went through an interview in which you asked about health care not working, IRS, were we wholly corrupt, Benghazi.’ 

The president rattled the items off while extending a different finger for each one and cracking a sarcastic grin. 

'But these are unanswered questions,' O'Reilly insisted. 

Of course the ONLY place those questions are considered "unanswered" is among the audience of Fox News, because they don't deliver news, they simply fan the embers of faux conspiracy theories.

You know I admire that the President is always so diplomatic, but just once I would like him to lose it and tell Fox News that they are a national joke, and the worst thing to happen to journalism in this country in the last two hundred and thirty seven years.

In a attempt to further smear Obamacare Fox News blames them for layoffs at Cleveland Clinic, even after being told that the story is false.

President Obama shaking hands outside of Cleveland Clinic

Courtesy of Media Matters:  

Fox News reported that the Cleveland Clinic was instituting "massive layoffs" due to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, but when asked about the reports, a Clinic spokesperson told Media Matters, "We're not." 

On November 25, The Daily Caller published an article titled, "Top U.S. hospital laying off staff due to Obamacare." On Fox Business' Markets Now, host Connell McShane reported on the "massive layoffs." America's Newsroom host Bill Hemmer claimed that the Cleveland Clinic was going to "shed workers." Later, during the America's News HQ, Fox reporter Chris Stirewalt claimed that the layoffs "rocked the community there in northeastern Ohio." 

But there's one problem: the Cleveland Clinic is not laying off any employees. Eileen Sheil, Cleveland Clinic's Executive Director of Corporate Communications, said in an e-mail to Media Matters, "There have been several mis-reports and they keep mentioning that we're laying off 3,000 employees. We're not." Sheil explained that Cleveland Clinic is offering voluntary retirement to 3,000 eligible employees and that the Clinic is also "working on many initiatives to lower costs, drive efficiencies, reduce duplication of services across our system and provide quality care to our patients." Sheil continued, "Many of these initiatives do not impact our employees." 

Sheil told Media Matters that Fox had been notified of its error and that the Cleveland Clinic requested Fox's future reporting on the issue more accurately present the Clinic's plans. According to a Media Matters search, Fox had not corrected its mistake by the time of publication.

This is what  Eileen Sheil, Cleveland Clinic's Executive Director of Corporate Communications ACTUALLY thinks about the ACA:

We believe reform is necessary because the current state is unsustainable. The ACA is a step toward that change and we believe more changes will come/evolve as there are still many uncertainties. Hospitals must be responsible and do what we can to prepare and support the law.

Yeah, but reporting THAT, and correcting their misreporting, would not exactly fit Fox New's business model of constantly smearing Democrats and reporting bullshit now would it?

Roger Ailes think nobody likes him because he's fat. Yeah, THAT'S it!

So Jonathon Alter, Bloomberg View columnist and frequent guest commentator on MSNBC, has written a book called "The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies."

Yesterday over at HuffPo they covered the book, but they focused on the book's coverage of Roger Ailes. Especially these 12 odd facts about the head of Fox News.

1. He Once Worked Out Of A Supply Closet 

Rupert Murdoch told senior staffers one Monday that Ailes was "convinced that the whole News Corp. building was bugged: 'Roger came in over the weekend to work in the only room that he thought was secure -- a supply closet.'" 

2. He Has A Terrorist Monitor At His Desk 

Ailes "had a television monitor on his desk that showed video of the empty hall outside his office so that he would have warning if terrorists were coming to kill him." 

3. He Tried To Bombproof His Office 

Ailes "tried to order bombproof glass for his office because he thought homosexuals outside News Corp. headquarters on Sixth Avenue might shoot at him. 

4. He Flipped Over A 'Muslim-Looking' Janitor

 Ailes "demanded that security throw a 'Muslim-looking' man out of the building and the man turned out to be a janitor." 

5. Murdoch Finds Him 'Cuckoo' But 'Amusing' 

Rupert Murdoch "routinely called Ailes 'cuckoo,' 'bonkers,' 'nuts,' and crazy,' but he also found Ailes's behavior amusing." 

6. He Has 24-Hour Security At His House 

Ailes has "round-the-clock security guards outside the locked gates of his Putnam County, New York estate." 

7. He Enters The Office Through The Side Door 

Ailes "insisted on entering News Corp.'s headquarters through a side door used by no other executives, not even Murdoch, who entered through the front." 

8. He Has Two Bodyguards 

Ailes "had two bodyguards escorting him into the building," while Murdoch only had one, who "doubled as his driver and left him at the curb." 

9. He Terrifies Current & Former Staffers 

Ailes terrified both current and former News Corp. staffers, and his "apparatchiks monitored their email like the Stasi and wreaked vengeance at his command." 

10. He Thinks People Hate Him Because Of His Weight 

Ailes, who "associates described as charming but unhinged and a little pathetic," would tell colleagues, "They hate me because I'm fat." 

11. He Had Chris Christie & Rush Limbaugh Over For A Secret Lunch 

Ailes hosted a meeting at his New York estate for Chris Christie in the fall of 2011. Rush Limbaugh flew in on his private jet to join. Ailes wanted Christie to run for President, but Christie gave three reasons why it wasn't the right time. "I still like to go to Burger King and I'm not going to lose it [the weight]" was one. 

12. He Was Tough On Obama In Their One Meeting 

Ailes, Murdoch and Obama had a tense meeting in 2008, in which Obama "demanded to know why he was accused of being a terrorist on Fox every night." Ailes denied it, and claimed that his biggest concern was that he "wasn't sure Obama would defend the sovereignty of the United States." After Obama left, Murdoch told Ailes: "Boy, you were tough on him." 

13. He Threatened To Quit When Murdoch Told Him To Ease Up On Obama 

Ailes threatened to quit Fox News after Murdoch "pushed him to moderate Fox's coverage of Obama." He was given a "lucrative five-year contract" instead. (There is video interview with Jonathon Alter on HuffPo as well.)

Personally I found it interesting that Roger Ailes is afraid of a terrorist trying to kill him when Fox News has been doing everything they can to help them terrify the American people since even before the Bush administration. If anything you would think that Ailes expected to be made an honorary terrorist.

Hey maybe THAT'S why he is trying to keep them out of the building?

I was also surprised that President Obama agreed to meet with Ailes, though I imagine that the chance to confront a man who has made his job so incredibly difficult must have been compelling.

What I am NOT surprised to learn is that the same paranoia and hatred for Obama that permeates Fox News seems to emanate directly from Jabba the Roger. The organization is essentially an appendage of a man who has hated liberals since the Nixon administration.

Of course Ailes could not let this Huffington Post article stand without SOME response.

This courtesy of Mediaite: 

“Jonathan Alter is living in an altered universe. His fantasies about a man to whom he once applied for a job and was rejected, seem to carry an enormous amount of personal malice. Nearly 100% of the items he lists in his book are factually inaccurate and are in fact complete, outright fiction. This is a desperate attempt to smear Fox News and a few of the items have already been disproved in other books. He appears to have no legitimate sources for his screed. 

Ailes playfully said the only thing he’ll cop to is ‘being fat.’ As he told Zev Chafets in his recent book, Off Camera, ‘My doctor told me that I’m old, fat and ugly, but none of those things is going to kill me immediately.’ Ailes added recently, ‘I told my doctor I’m seeking a second opinion.’ Needless to say, we’re surprised that Simon & Schuster allowed this book to survive with no fact checking whatsoever. It’s sad — Jonathan Alter used to be a journalist.”

So essentially it comes down to who are you going to believe, Roger Ailes mastermind of the least ethical news organization in the world? Or Jonathon Alter?

Oh yeah, THAT'S a conundrum.

Another conspiracy story blows up in the Right Wing media's face.

Courtesy of CNN:  

Sen. Robert Menendez slammed accusations that he had paid a Dominican woman for sex and expressed hope Tuesday that those behind the claims would be exposed in the wake of the woman's notarized confession that she'd never even met the New Jersey Democrat. 

"I hope that you will all vigorously go after who was the source and purpose as you did go after the story at the time," he told reporters. 

In a notarized statement filed in court, Nexis de los Santos Santana said she was filmed without her knowledge when she claimed that Menendez had paid her to have sex. 

"I am the person in the video, that is me, and those are my words, but this statement is not true," Santana said in the statement. "I never agreed to be recorded." 

In addition to criticism over accepting unreported plane flights and allegedly advocating on behalf of a business, Menendez was accused of partying with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic -- accusations he said were "unsubstantiated." 

As he did when the claims first emerged, Menendez said Tuesday the claims are "false smears" lifted from right-wing blogs ahead of the election.

The Daily Caller, who originally "broke the story" about  Menendez's sexual liaisons on the Dominican Republic, instead of apologizing is now saying that this is not the same woman.

Well that's interesting since the FBI has been searching the Dominican Republic since February for evidence that Senator Menendez had utilized prostitutes, and have found no evidence to back up that claim.

By the way it might be worth noting that Senator Menendez may have a legitimate ethical problem:

Questions revolve around his relationship with Salomon Melgen, the Florida man who owned a plane Menendez admits having flown three times -- once on official Senate business, and twice for personal reasons -- to the Dominican Republic in 2010.

I guess the Daily Caller found these allegations too boring, and decided to "sex them up" a little bit.

Hopefully this kind of character assassination and yellow journalism will quickly usher in the end of these Right Wing online outlets, along with their television equivalent Fox News.