Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 17, 2011

Yikes! No the fiery ball of death!

Maybe the helo that ended in a “fiery Ball of Death was a decoy?? You think??

Okay, weird mix of heavy and parody.

If Trudeau was going to kill off Jeff and/or Zipper, I somehow doubt he’d do it comically in a war zone.

If Trudeau were to kill off Zipper, he wouldn’t have it announced on Fox News. Jeff and Triffbumfartz remain in Berzerkistan indefinitely, or until Duke or Overkill see some advantage in extracting them. Also, the cartoonist can always play the deus ex machina and transport them to a coffee shop near Walden (as per Jeff”s original plan to hold Triff for ransom).

One report of fiery ball. Multiple reports of safely escorted.

And they went with the one witness who was able to see through the lies of the Liberal Commie Capitalistic Anarchic Fascist Conservative Centrist Socialist Politically motivated media.

I rarely look at Faux News, even though an old high school buddy, Michael Clemente, runs the show there. The semi-literate tabloid English they use on their website annoys me.

Still, I was wondering how they would cover the trouble in Japan, so a couple days ago I looked.

The first sentence I saw was:

“Top Japanese government official says a ‘partial meltdown’ is likely under way at a nuclear power plant, as nearly 170,000 evacuate the area in fear of radiation exposure and police say more than 10,000 people may have already died.”

No false statements, but a clear indication that the nuclear crisis was the cause of the 10,000 deaths, when in fact no one has yes died from radiation, although several plant workers have had serious exposure.

The above-quoted sentence isn’t just bad grammar, and the problem is not right-wing bias. (Though God knows there is an abundance of that on Fox.)

It is just BAD journalism.

Faux News may have its points, as the Daily Show does, but neither should be taken seriously as news. Though of the two, I think Jon Stewart (who attended my college) is more ‘fair and balanced.’

Not to mention funnier.

“Fiery Ball of Death” would be a good name for a rock band.

I ordered the “Fiery Ball of Death” once and had to have bathroom tissue delivered for a week.

If the “Fiery Ball of Death” scenario is what happened (which I believe unlikely,) the real tragedy isn’t that it took out Zipper (I’m assuming Jeff and the Prez-For-Life are still on the ground,) but it also took out the two (relatively) innocent chopper pilots. Regarding Zipper, when you subtract a negative value the result is positive.

Now, I believe we are going to view the continuing adventures of Jeff as he attempts to get out of Berzerkistan with a certified psychopath in tow.

I sat at a restaurant last Friday afternoon; FOX was on one of its t.v.s. FOX’s reporting of the Japanese earthquake was bombastic & shallow, and, most hilariously, FOX’s meat puppets were asking for the “thoughts” of Michael Brown, Bush-Dick’s crony who handled Katrina so well.

As with all Fox”News” reporting, the first casualty is the truth…

Indeed, Brian. The folks who handled the gulf oil spill would have been much better qualified as role models.

GT’s perspective on Fox today are actually quite complimentary. There are multiple credible sources giving different accounts, and in a Fair and Balanced way Roland accurately reported them both. Ultimately, Fox’s official position went with the dramatic story, since news drama is their (very successful) product.

The same story on any of the NBC networks would have been: “Today, President Obama authorized a planned humantarian mission of airlifting unknown poor refugees from the palace. The mission may not have been successful, but that was George Bush’s fault”.

So Fox News is going with the Fiery Ball, huh?

I’m sure the families of Red Rascal and Co. would be happy to hear that…

Some of you don’t like Fox News because it’s conservative, but it is needed to counter balance the liberal “bad journalism” of CNN and MSNBC.

And I still hold to the idea that Red Rascal is still on the ground and will become the hero of the rebels!!!

Doughfoot, perhaps you’re not aware of Fox’s segment last year when they investigated the funding of the “Ground Zero Mosque”. They traced it back to a Saudi organization called the Kingdom Foundation.

That, however, is where they stopped. Without revealing that the principal financial backer of the Kingdom Foundation, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, just happens to be the second-largest shareholder of Fox News Corporation, only behind founder Rupert Murdoch.

There are two ways you can look at that. If they didn’t know that Talal was part-owner of their bosses, then that’s just poor investigation. If they DID know and chose to distort the truth, then that’s bias. Either way, I’d never trust anything they say without independantly verifying it first.

garbage wrote: ” Some of you don’t like Fox News because it’s conservative ”

I’m authentically ultra-conservative. I don’t like Faux Noose at all. It really can’t be considered to be anything since it is merely a mouth piece for the TRILLION DOLLAR RIGHT WING DISINFORMATION MACHINE and, therefore, has nothing whatsoever to do with reality.

Some of us don’t like FOX “News” Channel, because they lie. Often and deliberately. (Not in every single case, Shep Smith seems pretty reliable, for at least one example.)

They Lie.

You’re allowed your own opinion, but not your own facts.

(For today’s strip, that FOX is going with ‘fiery ball of death’ is good news for our characters. But hey wingnuts, tell us that Roland is just “teachin’ the controversy”, like evolution, global warming, President Obama’s birthplace, or the Earth is round.)

The Daily Show never claimed to be real. Fox News on the other hand, does claim to be legit.

When Reince Priebus (sp?) was elected new Chairman of the Republican National Committee, it was announced on Fox News, “We have a new chairman.” If there was ever any doubt that Fox News was a wing of the Republican Party, this eliminated all doubts.

Interesting… it seems everytime they’ve talked about a “no fly zone,” there’s always some follow-up, mentioning helicopters still being a hazard. I’ve wondered, as Mr. Trudeau surely has, surely helicopters would be included in this restriction…

As GT correctly points out today, Fox News sells drama with a conservative right slant (not a Republican slant, although the two often coincide). A big part of their formula is to feature opposing positions.

MSNBC sells drama with an elitist left slant (not a Democrat slant, although the two often coincide), which means that it’s like Fox in some ways but without the balance. They haven’t learned (or don’t care) that good drama requires conflict, which is the real reason why they trail so far behind Fox. Everyone on right-leaning formums argues with their guests or whith each other, while nobody crosses what each other say in left-leaning outlets, making them very dull to listen to as they drone on and on about how perfect they are and how terrible everyone else is.

It’s odd to me that in a country that so cherishes its freedom of the press and has shed so much blood to protect it that some people feel it nessisary to impose censorship on themselves and then even advocate such restrictions to others. I suppose that if they realize that they lack the personal capacity to screen out fact from fiction that they would prefer to their news spoon-fed to them like baby food in tasty pre-digested chunks in the blind faith that what they’re getting is nutritious enough to sustain them.

It’s one thing to mix the Kool Aid, and quite another to deliberately drink it.

DirtyDragon, if you’re going to accuse someone else of lying, it’s much more credible if you don’t lie yourself while doing so.

Fox does not run stories that assert that the earth is not round, that Obama is not a US citizen, or that the earth was made in 7 days.

You’re allowed your own opinion, but not your own facts.

Discussing truth and falsehood in a comic strip forum is ludicrous, as G.T. no doubt appreciates. His fictions, just like Fox’s, are prima facie (i.e., the moment they appear) caricatures of reality.

Seeing things as they are is not a question of political bias or politically correct “balance.” It’s a matter of basic intelligence or judgment—the quality in which Zipper and the Teapublicans are glaringly deficient.

The missile strikes the palace as the heat from the fire throws the heat seeking missile off course and the Red Rascal is pulled through the fore and smoke by his pal Zipper and the departing helicopter.

Red Rascal will have paid his debt as recorded by his turban cam.

Faux News isn’t conservative. Faux News is a mendacious corporate tool. The entire purpose of Faux News is to dupe people, and anyone who thinks any mainstream press is truly liberal doesn’t know the meaning of the word.

The Wall Street Journal is conservative. They actually publish stuff worth reading at times. They may be a corporate tool, too, but they are at least not routinely embarrassing sellouts.

palin, judgement from what information? We do not gather our own news data, so we can only reason based upon what others provide to us. Without analysis from data provided from these sources, many people do not judge at all, but simply pre-judge in accordance with their own experiences and preferences and then try to pass that off as “wisdom”.

When it comes to news sources, I merely trust each to deliver information in accordance with its own objectives. Thus, even the most questionable sources will deliver the truth when it is in their own interests to do so. Pre-judging a source and thus automatically denying that truth is not critical thinking, but is the classic definition of an ad hoc logical fallacy.

Your use of the label “Teapublicans” as a blanket term against anyone against higher taxes (and subsequent greater government control of personal resources) is the hoist from which your own judgment hangs. From down here it looks a lot like your petard. How many “Teapublicans” do you personally know? Have you listened to them, as individuals? Other than their stand on taxes, there is very little that one can make credible blanket statements about.

Not agreeing with another’s reasoning on an issue is not a valid foundation for claiming that another does not have the capacity to reason. I learn from many people with whom I disagree, even here, and from you. Yes, judgment is important, but as someone said, ‘To declare that “everybody is white” or “everybody is black” or “everybody is neither white nor black, but gray,” is not a moral judgment, but an escape from the responsibility of moral judgment.’

“Fiery Ball” will sell more news (and ads) than the safer alternative. I think that’s the first rule of journalism.

Nemesys,

The general declarations you instance are not judgments. A judgment is never about generalities; it rests on our perception of a particular experience or a mathematical identity (4 + 3 = 7). Doonesbury’s fireball exists only in the imagination, outside our experience and therefore beyond the reach of judgment.

The deficit by contrast is a mathematical equation (the difference between expenditures and revenues). Teapublicans like Ryan make a false judgment when they reject the Bowles-Simpson analysis of the tax loophole that lets employers escape paying taxes on health benefits. Ryan based his rejection on an opinion or fear (not a reasoned judgment) that eliminating this tax expenditure would lead to Obamacare.

The fear-mongering at the center of Teapublicanism comes from apocalyptic visions that by their very nature preclude any use of judgment.

palin,

1) So if I substitue “a Teapublican who made a false judgment when he rejected the Bowles-Simpson analysis of the tax loophole ” for “the Teapublicans” as being “glaringly deficient” in “basic intelligence or judgment”, then your statement holds true. Uh huh. Okay, fair enough.

2) Your second point about “Teapublican Fear Mongering” seems to indicate that you’ve been reading reactionary leftist blogs which spend their time going after reactionary rightist blogs, and vice-versa. A quick Google of the term shows a lot of vapid rhetoric being copied and pasted between factions of all shapes and sizes. Let’s leave that bleeep behind while discussing the nature of truth.

I apologize for posting this, but it came to mind when mentioning a flaming helicopter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q5OSqRs98U

Lewreader, Thai place on Foothill in San Bernardino?

The sole purpose of FoxNews, like any other, is to hold your attention between commercials.

I think, ChukLitl, that you are absolutely right.

“Fiery Ball” will sell more news (and ads) than the safer alternative. I think that’s the first rule of journalism.

If it bleeds, it leads.

There is nothing elitist about MSNBC, Nemesys, and there are very few opposing positions on FOX.

MSNBC trails behind FOX in terms of viewership, because the media lean to the right, because FOX packages itself better than does MSNBC, because FOX supplies the most simplistic information, and because FOX sells fear, and fear makes good video.

Fox News and News Corp. is today’s equivalent of the Hearst Corporation under William Randolph Hearst.

Forget about the networks for credible in depth news. If you want to get to the heart of the story, look to the print media.

rickmac1937 said: “fox news isn’t on in canada because they don’t consider it a news station just opinions. to bad the US doesn’t do the same.”

That’s because so many Canadians are willing to trust regulators to decide what “opinions” the people are allowed to see and hear. I don’t think you’ll see too many Americans wanting a Canadian style telecommunications commission. It just isn’t our style.

By the way, I understand that some folks in Quebec want to start a home-grown Canadian version of FOX. That ought to be interesting.