In “Eric Deggans Confirms Own Bias in Race Baiter Part I“, I detailed the premise of Eric Deggans book, Race Baiter: How Media Wields Dangerous Word to Divide a Nation, noting how it was more a treatise on attacking Fox News and Conservatives than an examination on how media affects public discourse. The arguments in the book had holes the size of tunnels. In part II I detail the authors response to questions I had for him during a presentation he gave about his new book.

My first question to Deggans was how he could go after Fox, but leave out MSNBC or other news outlets. His response was MSNBC does not fall into that category because they hired people and focused on a strategy that had helped increase their black viewership 60% in 2012; the implication being that MSNBC was targeting inclusion of blacks and therefore exempt from racism or divisive based journalism. This is a bit of jump in logic, considering most industry insiders know MSNBC has made a decision to be the Liberal network. Therefore, its increase in black viewership is a natural consequence of blacks being Democrats, not a secret plan to target black viewers.

I also challenged his assertion that Gingrich’s comment about President Obama being the “Food Stamp” president was racial code for blacks. Considering that Deggans is well aware that more whites are receiving food stamps and welfare than blacks, any conclusions that Gingrich meant blacks were only a sign of Deggans’ own bias, not Gingrich’s. His response was typical of liberals. He cited a scientific study by Princeton professor Tali Mendelberg that concluded whites more easily associated blacks with welfare than whites. This is a frequent tactic of left leaning writers and commentators. When in doubt, say it has been proved scientifically and therefore cannot be refuted. Ignoring the old adage statistics can be used to prove anything. Yet, if we accept the comments as coded language, what does Deggans call the statement by Obama, “They cling to their guns or religion.” Does he mean Americans who believe in God and have a gun to protect their family? Or does he mean those nasty, mean and bigoted white people?

The back and forth debate between myself and Deggans culminated in his final point of the day. The concept of confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is when you have a conclusion you believe, but ignore facts that contradict your conclusions. It was an ironic point to end the presentation, considering that all 288 pages of Deggans’ book and the bulk of his presentation was an exercise in confirmation bias.

Absent from his book is any detailed discussion of liberal news sites or other cable networks. Deggans can talk ad nausea about what he considers racist commentary and segments from O’Reilly or Sean Hannity, but where is the discussion about MSNBC’s Perry asking four white guests to tell their favorite racial joke? Can anyone not imagine the hue and cry from the main stream media, starting with Deggans himself, if Hannity had four white males on his show tell racial jokes? How is O’Reilly calling Deggans a race baiter for obsessing over race all the time any different from Deggans, Chris Matthews, or Rachel Maddow calling someone a sexist, and hater of women, because they believe a woman with a job can afford to and should be responsible for paying her own $10, $20, or $30 dollar co-payment for birth control?

Deggans even ignores that the blog post on Fox Nation he was complaining about was actually written by Politico.com, a left leaning news site.

If Deggans wants to write a book attacking Fox news and conservatives he is entitled to that right. He is not, however, entitled to selective outrage. If it is bad or destructive for Fox News, or talk radio to report in a certain way, then it is also wrong for CNN, ABC, MSNBC, etc., to do the same things. Deggans has a journalistic obligation to hold them to the same standard.

This brings us to the crux of the problem with Deggans’ book and liberals generally. They suffer from chronic bouts of intellectual dishonesty and hypocrisy. In their world, calling George W. Bush stupid is a statement of fact, but calling Obama stupid is racist. Expecting a man engaging in sexual activity to use his own money to buy condoms as birth control is obvious, but expecting the same responsibility from an adult woman is sexist. Targeting a specific demographic is racist and destructive if the demographic is white men, but targeting the black demographic (if you believe Deggans’ assertion that MSNBC is purposely doing that) is enlightened. And creating a website dedicated to the Hispanic community who may one day be spun out into a dedicated cable news site like Fox News Latino, is to be ignored, because, as you know, Fox only caters to middle, aged white men.

If you are a critic of Fox news then Race Baiter will allow you to confirm your own thoughts about the network. If you were looking for a tome that examines the way media helps to contribute to the hyper partisan divide America is experiencing, then the book is a waste of time. You would be better suited looking for other books, or evening writing one of your own. That is how useful this book by Deggans is on the subject. The problem is not his campaign against Fox or conservatives. It is that Deggans purports his book as something else. A critique on how media is dividing the country, but he does not talk about the media. He talks about what he sees as racial demons at Fox and on the Conservative right, but ignores all-over media and the liberal left.

If that is subject matter you wish to engage in you do not have to fork out thirty bucks for it. You can catch it for free on MSNBC, CNN, the Huffington Post, or any number of other media outlets.

Image credit: Eric Deggans via Facebook

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When the Central Florida Association of Black Journalists (CFABJ) invited author and journalist Eric Deggans to discuss his new book, Race Baiter: How the News Media Wield Dangerous Power to Divide a Nation, at their monthly meeting, there was little doubt I had to attend. Deggans is a media critic for the Tampa Bay Times newspaper and commenter for NPR and the Huffington Post. He is a frequent critic of Fox News and all things conservative.

In preparation for his visit I read through his book and viewed a seventy-minute presentation of Deggans recorded by CSPAN. The title is a backward handed homage to Fox news commentator Bill O’Reilly that labeled Deggans “one of the biggest race baiters in the country;” hence, the title. The book can be summed up simply: Fox News, talk radio and conservatives generally use racism and racist rhetoric to appeal to racist white males to make money, and it is dividing (read: destroying) America.

A few chapter titles in his book include: “Fox News Channel vs. MSNBC: Downgrading all Journalism in a Race to Win a Political Fight,” “Fox News Focus on Scary Black People” and “Hate Radio Why Talk Radio May Not Be a Haven for Middle Aged White Guy for Much Longer.” Within his presentation Deggans used examples like the story about a White House barbecue posted on the Fox News Nation blog page titled “Obama’s Hip-Hop Barbecue Didn’t Create Jobs.” The story was accompanied with pictures of President Obama, Chris Rock, Charles Barkley and Jay-Z, prompting Deggans to complain there was only one rapper pictured, so it is not a hip-hop barbecue. In Deggans’ mind, this is a clear case of “racial code,” because, you know, only black people go to barbecues.

Other examples Deggans used to illustrate his point were the controversial remarks Rush Limbaugh made about birth control activist Sandra Fluke, Newt Gingrich’s charge of Obama being the food stamp President, and a Brookings Institute study that found Fox viewers believe whites are as discriminated against as blacks.

So his message is clear. Fox news is racist. Conservatives are racist. Fox commentators are mostly racist, and Fox News viewers are racist. Everyone else, however…wait Deggans does not really discuss anyone else. His book is a detailed diatribe against Fox news and Conservatives, but virtually ignores other news organizations, liberals or Democrats. This is quite odd given that the tag line of Deggans book is “How Media Wields Dangerous…” At what point did Fox become the media? It is true, their ratings are higher than CNN and MSNBC combined, but that’s hardly big enough to classify them as “the media.” Where was the discussion about ABC, CBS, or NBC? Deggans thinks Hannity and O’Reilly are dangerous; okay, what about Ed Schultz or Keith Olbermann? It is no stretch to assert that either are choirboys when it comes to divisiveness. If Deggans wants to attack Fox news and conservatives, and it is clear from the content he does, then why not call the book, “How Fox News Wields Dangerous Words…”

I questioned Deggans during his presentation on this and other points. Want to know how he responded? Be sure to read part II.

Image credit: Eric Deggans via Facebook

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The recent brouhaha over pink slime (and other lovely mass meat production processes) is only the beginning. Here’s our roundup of some standout reporting about the food on your plate.

This is a multifaceted, perennial topic. If you think Propublica missed any, we’re happy to hear suggestions. Please email a link to MuckReads@propublica.org or tweet it with the hashtag #muckreads.

Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned, The New York Times, December 2009
A look at the development of Beef Product Inc.’s “novel” method of meat production that later became known as the infamous “pink slime.” Reporter Michael Moss won a Pulitzer Prize for his investigations into contaminated beef.

Our Dwindling Food Variety, National Geographic, July 2011
Our dwindling food variety, in a stride-stopping infographic.
Contributed by @kleinmatic

What the USDA Doesn’t Want You to Know About Antibiotics and Factory Farms, Mother Jones, July 2011
The U.S. Department of Agriculture appears to have repeatedly removed a report by a USDA-contracted researcher that summarized recent academic work, from “reputed, scientific, peer-reviewed, and scholarly journals,” on possible links between antibiotic-resistant infections and factory farm animals. Mother Jones got a permanent PDF of the researcher’s report, dubbing it the “document the USDA doesn’t want you to see.”
Contributed by @foodinteg

Asian Honey, Banned in Europe, Is Flooding U.S. Grocery Shelves, Food Safety News, August 2011

Some of the biggest U.S. honey packers knowingly bought honey of questionable quality so they could sell it on the cheap. Much of it was likely smuggled from China (honey the European Union has banned) and may have been laced with lead and illegal animal antibiotics — if it was really honey at all.

America’s Dangerous Food-Safety System, The Daily Beast/ Newsweek, September 2011
A shortage of inspectors in the U.S. food-safety system exposes Americans to the risk of illness and death.
Contributed by @StepShep

Nation’s Food Anti-terror Plans Costly, Unwieldy, Associated Press, September 2011 
An AP investigation into the United States’ $3.4 billion food counter-terrorism program found that progress had been slowed by a complex web of bureaucracy.
Contributed by @joannalin

On The Menu, But Not On Your Plate, Boston Globe, October 2011
A Globe-organized DNA test revealed scores of mislabeled fish in Massachusetts restaurants, grocery stores and seafood markets. Often, “local” fish was actually hauled from thousands of miles away, and while some chefs and store owners seemed to have no clue, others admitted to knowingly selling mislabeled food to boost profits. Experts said it reflects a nationwide trend that causes diners to unwittingly overpay, may make people sick and results in overfishing.

Contributed by @JoeYerardi

Dispute Over Drug in Feed Limiting U.S. Meat Exports, MSNBC, January 2012
The controversial drug ractopamine has sickened or killed more pigs than any other livestock drug on the market, leading the EU and China, which together produce and consume about 70 percent of the world’s pork, to refuse meat imports raised on the additive. The U.S. pork industry wants to change their minds.
Contributed by @NaomiStarkman

How Washington Went Soft on Child Obesity, Reuters, April 2012
The food and beverage industries have more than doubled their spending on lobbying in Washington in the last three years. And now Congress has declared pizza a vegetable.
Contributed by @mariancw

A History of FDA Inaction on Animal Antibiotics, ProPublica, April 2012
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Food and Drug Administration’s actions, or lack thereof, to keep antibiotics out of your food.

As Beef Cattle Become Behemoths, Who Are Animal Scientists Serving? The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 2012
A growing number of animal scientists employed by public universities are accepting payouts from pharmaceutical companies. They’re often hired to persuade farmers to use antibiotics that fatten up cattle but haven’t necessarily been proven safe. Some have been banned in the E.U. and China.
Contributed by @MelodyPetersen

Bonus points: In 1968, Nathan Kotz of the Des Moines Register and Minneapolis Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on unsanitary conditions in meat packing plants, which, according to the Pulitzer site, helped ensure passage of the Federal Wholesome Meat Act of 1967. Anybody have an online copy?

by Blair Hickman, ProPublica, May 7, 2012, 12:21 p.m.

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In addressing her audience at Mizner Park in Boca Raton, Mika Brzezinski, the co-host of ‘Morning Joe’ on MSNBC, emphasized a singular message for current and aspiring female professionals:

Always know your own value, and never let anyone else assign it for you.

Brzezinski frequently highlighted this point throughout promotion of her book, titled “Knowing Your Value,” at the park’s amphitheater on Monday, March 12.

After a humorous introduction that saw her point out the amount of Democrats, Republicans and Independents present in the audience, Brzezinski laid out the challenges inherent for women in the workplace, using her own experiences in media as reference.

One such challenge is that women have difficulty recognizing the value that they can bring to the workplace. This lack of recognition, Brzezinski points out, will not only make it easier for women to lose their value, but for others to define it for them.

“I found out the hard way that it is very easy to lose your value,” she said.

In order to maintain that value, Brzezinski emphasized that women should (1) never miss their moment when their stock is up, (2) always do your research, (3) never play the victim and (4) to not worry if people choose not to like you.

In explaining the first point, Brzezinski recalled when she refused to read a Paris Hilton news piece despite repeated prodding, as she thought that the item was not serious news. This action impressed her superiors, who in turn offered her a separate show.

“Thank you so much,” was her response, a reply that she admitted was a mistake. Women tend to be grateful for merely achieving success, without using it as a springboard for greater opportunities.

“Women are trained to be grateful and to do it all, but it is so girly to miss the moment,” she commented.

Brzezinski then mentioned the importance of doing research, especially so you know what you are getting into when you sign contracts and make agreements. She admitted to not knowing this early on, which led her to sign a contract where she would become one of the lowest paid staff members there.

She then mentioned that women should never play the victim in the workplace, and to not worry about the opinions of other individuals.

“It should never matter if others like you,” she pointed out.

In further explaining her fourth rule, Brzezinski singled out the differences between men and women in terms of negotiations. Women, to her, tend to be more emotional and feed into their own insecurities.

She also encouraged women to apologize less during discussions.

“All women should remove the words ‘I’m sorry’ from their vocabularies,” she stated proudly.

“You should know your value and be proud of it! In fact, I am 44 years old and I am only now just learning my value.”

Brzezinski concluded her speech by thanking her employer, Phil Griffin from NBC, for allowing her to present her opinions to others.

“I am proud of my story, and for my employer for allowing me to tell it,” she said.

Brzezinski then took questions from the audience. The members used this opportunity to obtain her opinions on various topics, such as the standing of women at work as well as her role on Morning Joe.

One questioner openly wondered why Mika appears to play a secondary role to her co-host Joe Scarborough during the ‘Morning Joe’ broadcasts. She reminded the audience that while Joe appears to shoulder most of the responsibility, she handles most of the action behind the scenes and plays a key role in the program’s maintenance.

“I am happy where I am on the show, and I don’t mind being #2,” she said.

When one audience member requested her opinion regarding the controversy surrounding the contraceptive provision in President Obama’s health care law; she answered by stating that while she is a strong Catholic, she is also the type of individual that does not impose her views on others.

Another questioner wanted her opinion on the employment landscape for young people. She responded by noting that individuals in their 20’s are not yet in position to heed the advice mentioned in the book.

“For those of you in your 20s, you should dial it back a bit,” she pointed out.

“You can’t own the place just yet.”

After all the questions were completed, Mika thanked the audience for their attendance and reminded everyone present to be aware of their own worth.

“If you fail to recognize your own value, you will not know it from anyone else.”

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/wacphiladelphia/

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Gasland documentary director, Josh Fox, was arrested on Wednesday, February 1, for what he claims is practicing his First Amendment right. According to usnews.com, the Wayne County filmmaker was arrested in the U.S. Capitol Building after attempting to film a congressional hearing linked with hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.

Fox says that after he filed for permission to film the hearing, he never received a response, which prompted him to attempt to film anyway. Capitol Police reported his arrest under unlawful entry, while Fox stated that he was only practicing journalism, according to media reports.

“I was not expecting to be arrested for practicing journalism. Today’s hearing in the House Energy and Environment subcommittee was called to examine EPA’s findings that hydraulic fracturing fluids had contaminated groundwater in the town of Pavillion, Wyoming.

I have a long history with the town of Pavillion and its residents who have maintained since 2008 that fracking has contaminated their water supply.” Said Fox regarding the arrest and congressional hearing, “I was arrested today for exercising my First Amendment rights to freedom of the press on Capitol Hill.”

During an interview, MSNBC host, Ed Schultz, discovered that the filming was being done in order to be featured in a follow-up documentary called Gasland II, also directed by Fox, which is said to be close to completion.  Also during the interview, Fox said that the hearing was going to be led by a Republican subcommittee and that he believed they were going to be attacking the EPA.

Fox was originally inspired to create Gasland after receiving a request to lease his land out for drilling. His website, www.gaslandthemovie.com, claims that after receiving the request, he then traveled up the coast, visiting various different fracking sites and the communities within the surrounding areas. He documented the fracking process and the possible effects the process takes on communities’ drinking water.

Fracking, as the website defines, is the act of drilling for natural gas extraction, utilizing  millions of gallons of water, sand, and proprietary chemicals blasted into deep wells. This process causes the rock and shale to fracture, thus emitting the gases within. For every frack that is completed, anywhere from 80-300 chemicals can be used.

However, due to the Haliburton Loophole, the companies involved in the drilling do not have to disclose the chemicals that are used. The website also claims that there have been over 1,000 reports by courts and governments of contaminated well water within communities surrounding fracking sites.

Fox has become a conflict ridden character within Wayne County, his home. Where some people see him as an activist, others claim he is merely using Gasland as his ride to fame and fortune. The trailer for the film here  may help you base your own opinions.

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The producers of The Third Jihad: Radical Islam’s Vision for America have a direct response to media outlets that have referred to the critically-acclaimed documentary as an “anti-Islam” or “hateful” film.

“Claims that The Third Jihad is an anti-Islam film are ignorant and misinformed,” says Raphael Shore, Producer of The Third Jihad. “These claims are meant simply to defame the filmmakers and prevent the public from judging the film for themselves.”

The film opens with the following frame in bold letters for all viewers to read: “This is not a film about Islam. It is about the threat of radical Islam. Only a small percentage of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims are radical.” The film’s message urges the Muslim community to look within itself to root out the indoctrination that affects a minority of Muslims.

Narrator Dr. Zuhdi Jasser

“The New York Times and other media outlets are conveniently choosing to overlook the fact that the film isolates a small sector of the Muslim community, and more importantly that the film is narrated by Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, the founder and president of the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy [http://www.aifdemocracy.org ],” Shore added.

Dr. Jasser is a devout Muslim and a full-time physician and has served the United States of America admirably as medical officer in the US Navy and as an attending physician to the US Congress.

The documentary is founded on credible evidence presented by the FBI of a ‘Manifesto’ published by radicals calling for the implementation of extremist ideology-both violent and politicized-within the United States.

Yet the media are blasting the film’s usage by the New York Police Department in their counterterrorism training.

“There is a very good reason the NYPD selected to show The Third Jihad to nearly 1,500 police officers, and other law enforcement agencies have done the same,” Shore said. “The film deals with the very real process of radicalization and indoctrination of anti-American ideology taking place in some sectors of the Muslim community today.”

While many media outlets are presently taking a noticeably negative stance – before even watching the film – the film has been spotlighted in over 100 interviews since its release in 2009.

The film’s narrator, Zuhdi Jasser, has consistently appeared in mainstream media outlets including MSNBC, CNN and Fox News, and has published Op-Eds in numerous mainstream publications including the Wall Street Journal to point out concerning trends within the Muslim community.

Experts

Jasser is not the only credible expert to appear in The Third Jihad, nor is NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

The film’s producers conducted exclusive interviews with:

-Former Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge,

- Former Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey

- Former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani

- Former Associate Director of the FBI

- Former FBI Asst. Dir. of Public Affairs John Miller

- Senator Joseph Lieberman

- Professor Bernard Lewis

- New York Times Best-selling Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali

- Former CIA Officer Clare Lopez

- Former CIA Officer Wayne Simmons

- New York Times Best-selling Author Mark Steyn

- And more (http://tinyurl.com/about3J)

Screenings

Since its release in 2009, The Third Jihad has screened and continues to be screened at several hundred locations across the United States including at the Library of Congress, Museum of Tolerance, Directors’ Screen Guild, and the National Press Club.

The film previously aired on cable television’s AmericanLife TV Network, and is currently available on Netflix and Amazon OnDemand.

Praise

The film has also received notable praise from some of the nation’s leading policy makers.

“It is imperative that The Third Jihad reaches a mass audience in the U.S. so that the urgency of this threat becomes clear to the American public,” declared US Rep. Ros-Lehtinen (FL), Chairwoman of the House Foreign Relations Committee.

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (AZ) said, “The Third Jihad alerts Americans to the dangers of Islamic radicalization in our own communities. Zuhdi Jasser is sounding the alarm before it is too late.”

Rudy Giuliani called the film, “a wake up call for America.”

“Those that have blasted the film are attempting to stifle an important debate about the internal state of the Muslim community in America, and whether politicized Islam and indoctrination pose tangible security threats,” Shore added.

“We hope that the general public will consider the sensitive content in the film, and will not simply accept the baseless innuendos being made in the media. We invite the general public to watch and judge the documentary for themselves.”

The Third Jihad is now available for free viewing online at http://www.thethirdjihad.com.

Image Courtesy of  https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Third-Jihad-Movie/55200400800

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Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is not known for biting his tongue about his feelings. And the disastrous debt ceiling debate is no different. Sanders released a statement on Wednesday with biting sarcasm about the so-called “Gang of Six” and their compromise.

Sanders congratulated the GOP members of the Gang of Six on their “very significant victory in negotiating a deficit-reduction plan which achieves their long-term goal of dismantling every major social program relevant to working families.”

The Gang of Six is the moniker given to six Republican senators that are working with Democrats to create a compromise in order to raise the debt ceiling. Among the cuts, the gang of six will cut social security and Medicare.

“While I am sure that they did not get everything that they wanted, I think it’s fair to say they won about 80 percent to 90 percent of what they fought for,” Sanders said. “Despite President Obama’s campaign promise not to cut Social Security benefits, the Gang of Six plan, which he apparently embraced, calls for massive cuts in that vitally important program.”

According to Sanders, the negotiations involve a new formula for calculating cost-of-living adjustments for social security recipients. The new plan would cut a typical 75-year-old’s yearly benefits in 10 years by $560. The proposal also cuts Medicare by $298 billion over 10 years and makes massive cuts to Medicaid.

“At a time when the wealthiest people in this country are becoming wealthier and are paying the lowest effective tax rates in modern history, when corporations are making billions of dollars and making nothing in taxes at all,” Sanders said in his statement, “at least half of a deficit reduction package should come from ending tax breaks and tax loopholes for the wealthy and large corporations.  With military spending having nearly tripled since 1997, we must take a hard look at cutting unnecessary and outdated military programs.”

In his statement, Sanders warned specifically of the danger higher taxes on the middle class could pose, saying, “there is reason to expect that some of the areas that the House and Senate will be looking at include the home mortgage deduction for middle-class families, taxes on health care benefits, and increased taxes on retirement programs such as 401(k)s and IRAs.”

Appearing Wednesday afternoon on MSNBC’s “The Dylan Ratigan Show,” Sanders reiterated his criticism of the plan’s revenue raising provisions saying, “in terms of revenue, it is very very vague as to where this revenue is going to come from.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/arbayne/5743129123/sizes/l/in/photostream/

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