"Thuglicans" and the Tea "Federation Party"

Apparently, they even use scripted actors to call into their shows.

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Well, looky here! From the Columbia Journalism Review:

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Well, here’s a shocker: Some of the people who phone in to talk radio shows (that caller with the pitch-perfect rant, provocative comment or burning question) may actually be hired actors reading from scripts. I’m not an angry listener, but I play one on radio!

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Via Tablet Magazine:

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If [the actor] passed the audition, he would be invited periodically to call in to various talk shows and recite various scenarios that made for interesting radio. He would never be identified as an actor, and his scenarios would never be identified as fabricatedwhich they always were.

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I was surprised that it seemed so open, the actor told me in an interview. There was really no pretense of covering it up.

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Curious, the actor did some snooping and learned that Premiere On Call was a service offered by Premiere Radio Networks, the largest syndication company in the United States and a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, the entertainment and advertising giant. Premiere syndicates some of the more sterling names in radio, including Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity. But a great radio show depends as much on great callers as it does on great hosts: Enter Premiere On Call.

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Premiere On Call is our new custom caller service, read the service’s website, which disappeared as this story was being reported (for a cached version of the site click here). We supply voice talent to take/make your on-air calls, improvise your scenes or deliver your scripts. Using our simple online booking tool, specify the kind of voice you need, and we’ll get your the right person fast. Unless you request it, you won’t hear that same voice again for at least two months, ensuring the authenticity of your programming for avid listeners.

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Such honest people, these stalwart defenders of RAR!DEMOCRACY that Buz trusts so much.Maybe we should look at Politifact, a non-partisan (that's right, non-partisan, they aren't just mouthpieces for a specific party like Fox Noise, they point out when Democrats lie just as eagerly) fact-checking group? Here's Glenn's profile there.Glenn Beck is not a journalist. He does not deal in fact or truth. He is an entertainer. He started out as a morning DJ on a rock radio station. I even listened to him over a decade ago as part of the Glenn and Pat program on KC101 based out of Hamden, CT. The world would have been a better place had he stuck to making unfunny prank calls on morning radio instead of crying on TV while telling lies to people who won't bother to fact check himBeck does not care about the truth, and never has. He cares about what will get him ratings, like any effective entertainer...except that his method of drawing in audiences is to get them riled up and pissed off by feeding them lies and falsehoods.

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"Mitt Romney ... gave you government health care that is now bankrupting the state" of Massachusetts.

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False.

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Forty-five percent of doctors "say they'll quit" if health care reform passes.

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False.

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John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, "has proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population."

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Stop lying, you liar.

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"Why do we have automatic citizenship upon birth? We're the only country in the world that has it."

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Why do you keep lying? Anyone with Google can tell you're lying!

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"In the health care bill, we're now offering insurance for dogs."

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Why does anyone believe you, liar?! If this lying asshole liar told me what time it was, I'd have to check three different clocks to make sure he wasn't lying, because he's a bald-faced fucking liar.

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Less than 10 percent of Obama's Cabinet appointees "have any experience in the private sector."

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Do you get some perverted pleasure out of making a bunch of dog-whistle racists, Islamophobes, and political soccer hooligans* believe your lies, liar?I'm replying to you, and not to Buz, because Buz won't care. I can dredge up as many outright lies and proven false statements from Beck or Hannity or Limbaugh or O'Liely - er, O'Reilly or any of their buddies as I want, and there is no weight of fact that will convince Buz to stop trusting these known liars, these charlatans, these rabble-rousing con-men.It's all a conspiracy of the "Left," you see. The "Left" wants to force abortions on us, and take away our guns and Bibles and make us all atheists before they let those Muslims walk on over and either blow us all up or force us to convert to Islam. And then blow us up, after more forced abortions. Also, the "Left" kicks puppies for fun. They want to kill your grandma, because "end-of-life counseling" isn't really about helping people deal with the fact that they aren't immortal and when you get old and/or sick, you might want to know what to expect from the medical treatments available so that you can make an educated decision about your future. No, it's really a code word for a DEATH PANEL, where a secret council of (probably hooded and cloaked) evil "Leftists" (who are probably also Communists and Nazi Fascists, even though the Nazis and Commies hated each other, the "Left" is filled with people who are both) who will decide that it's not cost effective to keep grandma alive, so let's go ahead and stab her in the face with a knife so we don;t have to pay any more. Their headquarters totally looks like this: The only one arguing to save granny is Bizarro, but he always speaks in opposites anyway.But Beck and Limbaugh and Hannity and O'Reilly, they're the core members of the Superfriends, fighting for "truth," "justice," and the (ultra-right-wing) American Way!*"Political soccer hooligans" is a term I use to describe most Americans who follow politics. They don't think about whether a given position is ethically supportable or good for the country. They just know that everything their team says is right and true, and everything the other team says is a bunch of filthy lies. Never mind facts or numbers or projections or surveys, if the other team said it it has to be wrong!ABE: As a side note, I don't particularly like Obama. He took a massive public mandate as well as Democrat control of the House AND Senate, and squandered the opportunity. A large part of the problem is that the Dems have never been as unified as the Repubs seem to be (ie, the "Blue Dogs"), but even so he's been little more than a massive disappointment for me. I'd gladly vote for another candidate; I don't consider myself partisan, the Democrats don't effectively represent me very much better than the Republicans (they just tend to get my votes because a little better is still better, even if I'd gladly jump to a viable third party that fits me better). Unfortunately, it looks like what we're going to get is just more right-wingers from the Republicans trying to destroy the middle class and stop any form of social justice, and of course the Democrats will just have Obama again. Guess I'll be eating a turd sandwich in 2012, because I just can't stand that giant douche.Edited by Rahvin, : No reason given.

I very much prefer the BBC as well. No news source is perfect, but the BBC provides an outside perspective, while domestic news sources are hopelessly inside the box. That doesn't mean I ignore the others, of course...I find it interesting to look at the way the same story is portrayed by different outlets. When you compare them, not only with each other, but with the outside perspective of the BBC or other foreign media, biases tend to stand out much more starkly.Fox, of course, I have zero confidence in. Worse, in fact - I automatically consider anything I hear from Fox to be suspicious until I confirm it elsewhere. Even aside from their commentators, Fox pulls the "D/R" tag switching far too often to be coincidence (you'll note in initial broadcasts of scandals, when a Republican is involved the tag at the bottom of the screen very often has them listed as "D" for Democrat - happened with Larry Craig and a few others that I can remember off the top of my head).Would it truly be so damaging to free speech if a law were drafted that required any program or publication that advertised itself as reporting or commenting on the real-world news of the day be required to make true statements, and let proven, intentional falsehoods be punishable?

I'm not a foreigner. I'd like to also strongly suggest that you actually read about US history. Aren't you proud of your country, Artemis? Wouldn't a real patriot want to know about the obstacles and atrocities the US has overcome, and the ones that still face us today so that we can overcome those as well?Aren't you proud of MLK Jr and other activists who worked so hard to help America move past a major hurdle in race equality? I am.Aren't you proud of the fact that America, in its founding and since, has risen above multiple challenges of religious persecution, managing to have a clear majority religion without actually establishing a state faith? Aren't you proud of the fact that our Constitution ensconces the value of the freedom of religion, to believe however a person;s conscience dictates regardless of how many of his neighbors agree or disagree? I am, even if we aren't perfect in holding to that value.Aren't you proud that it's no longer socially acceptable in America to lynch people for the terrible crime of being born into a specific race, or marrying the wrong person, or being attracted to the wrong gender? Exceptions still occur of course, and those are shameful, but I'm proud of the progress we have made even as I eagerly anticipate the additional progress we will make. Aren't you?Every stain in America's past (or of any nation, for that matter) is an opportunity to be proud when your nation rises above the problem and wins a victory for social justice and the preservation of individual rights. Don;t you want to know about those stains, and how we as a nation overcame them, so that you can be proud as well?