Fox Newz prick shows us how not to respond to criticism

[click for full size]

On January 14, renown media watchdog group Media Matters for America released a report that carried a disturbing, yet not exactly surprising, revelation: in comparing the amount of air time devoted to the Haitian disaster the day after the quake by three top-rated shows from rivaling networks (Hardball, Countdown, and Rachel Maddow from the overtly progressive MSNBC; and Glenn Beck, The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity from Fox), it showed how the whilst the three MSNBC shows spent more than two hours collectively on the subject, less than seven minutes of Fox’s Three Musketeers shows were spent talking about the disaster. You see, they were too busy, what with Beck’s hour-long interview of endlessly empty-headed bimbo Sarah Palin to welcome her amongst their rank ranks (ha!), O’Reilly bitching about Jon Stewart defending Obama from ridiculous conservative attacks, and Hannity’s almost loving ass-licking of Scott Brown. Who cares about all those poor Black people dying in some distant ravaged country? They’s gots newz to attend to!

Apparently, though, this truth was a bit unpleasant for one crony in particular, who resorted to typical Faux News tactics for dealing with criticism: pure juvenile behavior, the kind that, in any reasonable world, would have sparked a ton of outrage at the very least. Full story below.

Suppose you're a late-night host on a seldom-seen Fox News Channel program, and a watchdog group has just released a rather unflattering report about your network's apparent indifference toward the fate of humanity in the wake of Haiti's cataclysmic earthquake. What would you do? Go to network executives and demand more and better coverage? Nah. If you're Greg Gutfeld, host of "Red Eye," you make a crude cartoon on your computer with a sophomoric script, whose only joke is that the CEO of the watchdog group is gay.

[…]

Two nights later, Gutfeld, whose program airs at 3am in the East Coast market, aired a very badly made cartoon titled "Red Eye Robot Theater," depicting two men meant to represent Media Matters CEO David Brock and a public relations staffer. Here's my transcript of the video:

PUBLICIST: Hey, David, have you seen the numbers since the earthquake?

DAVID: I know; it's absolutely incredible.

PUBLICIST: I believe thousands are dead.

DAVID: Yeah, whatever. I was talking about the number of minutes Fox News devoted to the quake. I think this will make a great press release.

PUBLICIST: David, don't you think that's a little crass?

DAVID: How so?

PUBLICIST: Well, using tragedy to make an ideological point seems kind of gross to me.

DAVID: You know what's gross? Your pants. Take them off.

PUBLICIST: Right now?

DAVID: Yes. And bring me my lotion. It's five o' clock somewhere.

After the video concludes, Gutfeld goes on to call Media Matters president Eric Burns "scummy" and "creepy."

Wow. That's some witty repartee.

And that's not the first Red Eye Robot Theater episode devoted to slamming Brock for being gay. The first one aired on January 6, as a more general payback for Media Matters' ongoing coverage of the utterances of Fox News personalities. In that episode, Brock is shown with his publicist preparing to meet with liberal financier George Soros, who funds progressive efforts through his Open Society Institute. (Media Matters says it has never received funding from Soros, although it has received funding from the Democracy Alliance, of which Soros is a member.) From the Red Eye Robot Theater video:

DAVID: I love George Soros.

PUBLICIST: I want to have George Soros's baby.

DAVID: I want to be his baby. Then he could breastfeed me.

PUBLICIST: I want George Soros to be my da-da and my mom so he could spank me and breastfeed me.

DAVID: My goodness, if he's coming soon, I have to shave my back.

PUBLICIST: I will bring you the lotion.

Wow. Spanking. Male breast-feeding. Back-shaving. And, again, the lotion. (Somehow, I suspect these have more to do with Gutfeld's predelictions than anyone else's.)

The scene then switches to a sauna where the publicist and the Soros figure are seen sitting across from one another.

"Hello, Media Matters lackey," the Soros figure says. "What have you been doing besides sniffing your fingers?"

Man, that is deep. So deep, in fact, that it caught the attention of Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, whose obsession with Media Matters for America is legendary. O'Reilly aired a clip (stopping just short of the breastfeeding comment—after all, "The O'Reilly Factor" is a family show) and invited Gutfeld to vent on the Factor's Back of the Book segment, in which O'Reilly called the Robot Theater cartoon "very, very creative."

On Wednesday, Gutfeld unleashed his lotion-obsessed robots again with another attempted swipe at Media Matters' report on Fox's Haiti coverage.

Gee, ya think Media Matters is getting under the thin skin of the Fox News crew?

Sure seems like it. So … keep it up, Media Matters!

(via @todayspolitics)