What’s a little slander, privacy invasion, abetting and maybe a little treason if not the cost of doing business?

The Washington Post used a front page, above the fold article, to complain that Congress and President Obama had not done as much as it would have liked to reduce the deficit. What the Post failed to reports is that many people around Washington and across the country applauded this failure as a great victory.

One of my least favorite media criticism dodges revolves around the idea that, though TV and newspaper pundits are powerful opinion leaders with massive megaphones through which they can amplify any point of view they choose, they are simultaneously powerless to resist the tastes of the public and must slavishly follow the directions of their reader and viewer masters.

With full awareness that next year could be worse (can you imagine!?) I want to wish every one of you a happy healthy New Year full of self-awareness and revolution. And here’s to less influence from right-wing bigots and the panderers thereto.

How can we possibly thank Politico’s Marin Cogan enough for compiling a list of the “most likely to . . . ” House members, with an overwhelming focus on the up and coming GOP frosh? Mind you, this is the crew that managed to push Congress’ approval numbers to record lows, tried to force a default on the US debt, and used blackmail threats of shutting down the government three times this year to extract measures that weakened the government’s ability to function in a time of national economic crisis. Who needs terrorist enemies with patriots like these?

Politifact won the “Pompous Response to Criticism of the Year” award yesterday for their rebuttal to criticism about their awarding of the Lie of the Year to the correct claim by Democrats that Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity budget would end Medicare.

Politifact just told a whopper. It declared as a “lie” the fact that Paul Ryan’s proposal to transform Medicare from a government guaranteed benefit program to a voucher for private insurance that doesn’t guarantee benefits would not end Medicare. Politifact should have given the “lie of the year” award to itself.

The information coming out of Fox News is often misleading or clearly incorrect. People ask me, “Spocko, is there anything we can do about this? Can’t the FCC do anything? What about the FTC and truth in advertising laws?”

How can Fox employees get away with calling themselves journalists when they are acting more like lobbyists or employees of a PR firm?

Are there every any negative consequences for people who intentionally lie while calling themselves journalists?

NOTE: The situation at various #Occupy locations is still being covered here. The entire purpose of Herman Cain’s candidacy — making money on the right-wing punditry circuit — has pretty much been fulfilled. So why not get out? It all depends on when the most profitable time of departure is, and whether there is a [...]

Under the LAPD’s guidelines, the OccupyLA media team–which includes photographers, videographers, livestreamers and reporters is not credentialed.

There is no Spanish-language media in the pool in a city where 4.7 million people are Spanish speaking. As Monday morning’s midnight-plus-one deadline drew near, there were news crews from the BBC and a Tokyo station present, as well as KMEX (Spanish language). I saw KTLA which was live streaming and had a helicopter overhead, KNBC, KABC, KCBS/KCAL and stringers in unmarked vans. Reporters I ran into included ones from the LA Times and USC’s Daily Trojan, and dozens of people live streaming and taking pictures for blogs and independent media. Oh and Andrew Breitbart was there talking to some dudes with scarves over their faces.