The Fall of NBC News

arkansasgopwing

Thomas Lifson  "It seems that turning itself into an Obama lapdog has not worked out too well for NBC News.  The once-respected and prosperous news organization is facing cutbacks and an alienated staff. Claire Atkinson of the New York Post writes:

NBC News boss Deborah Turness is spending the last few days of the year eyeing cuts - moves that could include axing some senior on-air talent, The Post has learned.
Turness, brought on in August to shake up the moribund news division - where "Meet the Press" and "Today" had stumbled - is in the midst of a host of end-of -year buyouts and cost reductions, sources said.
The current moves are not the first time Turness has irked journalists under her command.
NBC veterans have complained privately that Turness is not serious enough, sources said.
"Instead of getting better, NBC News has been getting worse," said one executive. "It's a mess."
The grumblings are centered on Turness' more aggressive tabloid style.

"Why would the network operation turn to tabloid style? Must be that people are not watching. And in fact, both Meet the Press, the most venerable program in television history, and Today, traditionally the most profitable product of NBC News, have fallen behind the competition. So revenues lag, and costs must be cut. Somehow, audiences must be persuaded to come back, and nothing sells like sleaze.

"Nobody is yet mentioning the hard left turn NBC News made when Barack Obama took office. The network has become a laughingstock for its softball propagandist approach. That could have a lot to do with its decline (Fox News, in comparison, is doing just great). But that is unmentionable at 30 Rock, the network's headquarters.

"There is no way to know how much damage the leftist lunacy broadcast on MSNBC has done to the NBC News brand, but it cannot have helped. NBC News figures regularly appear on MSNBC, and the stain may not come out.

"NBC News fully deserves its fate, having reneged on its duty to provide hard hitting news. But as an amateur student of broadcast history, I can't help but be nostalgic just a smidgen. NBC, after all, invented network broadcasting in the days of radio. Working with its sister corporation, the now defunct (take heed, NBC Universal!) RCA, NBC pioneered technologically (it invented color television) and culturally.

"That proud history is now lying in ashes. What a shame. The current bosses have sold their souls and sacrificed their heritage on the altar of politically correct Obama worship. Barack Obama is bringing ruin to those who backed him as some kind of messiah. There may be a lesson in this, but those who need it most are incapable of learning it."

Some random, unconnected thoughts

From HopeNChange:  Santa's Twerkshop

"And so, Mr. Obama, Hope n' Change encourages you to stay in Hawaii as long as possible and wishes you a heartfelt "Mele Kalikimaka."

"God knows you've caused enough of a melee back here on the mainland." 

From Debbie Schlussel: Perfect Description of Obama on Vacation (and Every Other Day)

FLASHBACK: Islamic Cleric: Muslims Saying “Merry Christmas” Is “Worse Than Killing Someone”…  

... "When you say: “Merry Christmas,” you are saying: “Congratulations on your false religion,” “Congratulations on your false understanding of life.” You are congratulating them on the most evil of polytheism and heresy. [...]
This is worse than fornication, drinking alcohol, and killing someone."
Then all Muslims should be pleased with the Obama's Christmas, er, holiday card. shown below.

 

Where's the Liberal "Fairness" in this?

As soon as I read this first post to my wife of fifty years, she made the connection to the second post.
Enjoying irony, I can't resist putting these together here. 
The Tunnel Dweller.

British supermarket will allow clerks to refuse service to customers buying pork and alcohol
"But M&S appears to have surrendered to the notion that the religious sensibilities of their employees tops the needs of its customers. If they want to put devout Muslims on a cash register, they should also put up a sign saying "This clerk does not ring up pork or alcohol products." Can you imagine standing in line for 10 minutes and then being told you have to go to another register to be served?"  More here.

Baker must cater to same-sex weddings, or else

... "This decision sends a boding message to other small businesses, especially those in the wedding industry such as florists, bakers, photographers, and event venues, putting them in a troubling standoff between freedom of religion and anti-discrimination laws."

30,000 In IL Must Redo Their O-Care Applications

From an unfazed Associated Press:
"CHICAGO –  Illinois officials are emailing and calling thousands of people, advising them to start over on their health insurance applications if they believe the federal government mistakenly referred them to Medicaid.
"We wonder how many people were ‘mistakenly’ shunted into Medicaid by those ACORN and SEIU navigators? After all, Democrats want people to be as dependent on the government as possible.

The latest wrinkle in the troubled enrollment process for the nation’s new health insurance system was announced Wednesday, just days ahead of a key enrollment deadline.

"You see, it’s just a ‘wrinkle.’ Having health insurance isn’t a matter of life or death, after all. " ....

Al Sharpton's Chicago Town Hall Erupts into Revolt Against Machine Politics

Big Government

... "While the stated goal for Sharpton was to bring the many different groups together to discuss solutions to the city’s violence epidemic, he may not have gotten the types of responses he was looking for. Calls for more gun control laws and getting guns off the streets were nonexistent and not mentioned by residents throughout the session.
"Instead, attendees offered solutions addressing the problems facing their community as a whole rather than just taking on “gun violence” itself. Audience members addressed the need for jobs and solving the foreclosure crisis plaguing Chicago’s south and west sides. Perhaps the loudest message—and one that Reverend Al or the Chicago media have yet to report on—echoed by several different people in attendance as well as panel members was that it is time for the black community to start voting differently." ...

Hat tip to Karl P. Koenigs  at Guardian Eagles

ENYA SINGS ADESTE FIDELES

American Glob
 

"Trust is gone" --- by Dennis Prager (Cartoon update)

UPDATE:  This came out this morning and it fit perfectly with the message of Prager's article.

Investor Village  "I have been broadcasting for 31 years and writing for longer than that. I do not recall ever saying on radio or in print that a president is doing lasting damage to our country.
....

"But I have never written or broadcast that our country was being seriously damaged by a president. So it is with great sadness that I write that President Barack Obama has done and continues to do major damage to America. The only question is whether this can ever be undone.

 

 This is equally true domestically and internationally.

Domestically, his policies have had a grave impact on the American economy.

....

"Among presidents in modern American history, he has also been a uniquely divisive force. It began with his forcing Obamacare through Congress — the only major legislation in American history to be passed with no votes from the opposition party."

"He has also divided the country by economic class, using classic Marxist language against “the rich” and “corporate profits.' ”

....

"One wonders if there is a remaining ally nation that trusts him. And worse, no American enemy fears him. If you are a free movement (the democratic Iranian and Syrian oppositions) or a free country (Israel), you have little or no reason to believe that you have a steadfast ally in the United States."

Emphasis in the original.
Hat tip to fellow Marine Robert Hope, Sacramento, CA. Thanks, Bob.

Related; America’s Crisis of Trust ... "As a result, no one or no institution has credibility in America today. The dip in the president’s honesty rating is not a blip, but part of long-term decline in confidence in government and institutions that represents and unraveling of a system where nobody is trusted at all."
Douglas Schoen was a pollster for President Bill Clinton and Pat Caddell was a pollster for President Jimmy Carter.

Cracker Barrel Backtrack: Duck Back On Menu

Truth Revolt
"We made a mistake, we listened to you, and we apologize."

"Nationwide country restaurant Cracker Barrel has reversed its decision of Friday to stop selling some Duck Dynasty merchandise with Papa Phil's face prominently displayed. Thanks to fierce customer backlash and a strong anti-Cracker Barrel Twitter campaign, the restaurant tweeted on Sunday that Duck Dynasty products are back on the shelves."

Trouble is that Duck Dynasty money goes to A+E; Duck Commander income goes to the Robertsons. But A+E should get the message.

Alan Caruba: Obama Must Be Forced to Resign

Warning Signs

 

... "Not since the days of the Great Depression in the 1930s have Americans endured an economy that has failed to overcome slow growth despite Obama’s full first term in office and another year in his second term.

"Ignoring the central role of a free market prolongs bad economic conditions and high taxation to maintain an ever-expanding central government led to big problems for European nations and promises the same—or worse—for the U.S." ...

 

Remember Rodney King? Of the 50,000,000 or so voters who cast votes for Barack Obama, how many of them would you guess have shown they are capable of committing acts of violence, or at least defecating on American flags?

The Unintended Consequences of Raising the Minimum Wage

Economics 101: Minimum Wage  Simple supply and demand.
... "A decrease in the demand for workers (aka: more unemployment). For anyone who has taken an economics class, you know that when demand for something goes down, supply increases. In laymen’s terms: when businesses can’t afford to pay workers, the demand for them decreases, leaving a great number of people unemployed (greater supply). According to an article by Linda Gorman, a senior fellow at the Independence Institute, a “10 percent in crease in the minimum wage would decrease employment of low-skilled workers by 1 or 2 percent.” Pretty self explanatory."

The writer lists these consequences, which liberals do not seem to comprehend:

 

Decreased Numbers of Full-Time Jobs. For those who are lucky enough to keep their jobs, they can expect their number of hours to sink. Because employers can’t pay the increased hourly wage, employers will be relegated to giving employees less hours in an attempt to not pay as much, consequently creating more part-time employment.

Decreased Fringe Benefits. Because employers are now concerned with meeting minimum wage standards, they will be unable to afford fringe benefits on which many employers depend (Insurance, on-the-job training, vacations, etc.). Since many employers would have to transition to part-time employment, employees would not only get fewer hours but also not receive expensive insurance benefits.
Across-The-Board Increased Prices of Goods. Wages are considered an input price, or something that goes into the development/ manufacturing of the product. If wages are higher, the amount of money it costs to manufacture some good increases. In order to close the profit-loss gap, industry will be forced to raise the prices on goods in order to cover their costs. Or, of course, they can cut labor and mechanize which brings us back to the issue of further unemployment.

Hat tip to College Insurrection

The Kings College Student: Hyphenated Americanism Creates a Great Divide

From the article, Hyphenated Americanism – The Great Divide, published in The College Fix.

College Insurrection  ... "In an essay for The College Fix, Seaworth reviews the prescient words of President Theodore Roosevelt.

A century ago, hyphenated Americanism was a slur, an epithet, an insult – a means of denigrating immigrants.
President Theodore Roosevelt, in a 1915 speech to the Knights of Columbus (a Catholic fraternal organization founded by an Irish

priest to care for “Irish-Americans” during a stage in American history not far removed from the formation of an anti-Immigrant party, The Know-Nothing Party), stated: “There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. … The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.”
Teddy Roosevelt’s dire warning has unfortunately come to pass; the very embodiment of the mischief of factions, noted by President James Madison within Federalist No. 10, our government was meant to overcome, and yet so embraced and promoted by the Democrat Party.
Today Hyphenated Americanism is worn as a badge of honor by many, a distinction of sorts that separates Americans by skin pigmentation. Our sole identity as Americans has been divided into racial categories, creating a system in which White is American, and all other races are, and always will be, immigrants to this great nation.
…Like Teddy Roosevelt predicated, hyphenated Americanism is ruining this country.Being an American has nothing to do with what color your skin is, it has nothing to do with where your ancestors are from, it has nothing to do with where you were raised. You are either American, or you are not American.
Hyphens are a societal loophole that perpetuate the notion that America is run by old white men who are native to this country, but not its land. Hyphens feed into the notion that America is a country of racial divides, of racist undertones, and facades of acceptance.
If things have gone too far askew to correct, then perhaps we are looking at the wrong place to discover the roots of this acrimony and the way to equalize it. If the addition of the word American to forms is a fix, we have a duty to allow Americans of all races to declare themselves as race.
…Those who cling to their hyphenated status should join hand in hand with those who bare no hyphens and realize the dreams of Martin Luther King, Jr., putting behind the notions of a man or woman born in this country, or who were lawful immigrants, as anything other than simply American.

  

Walmart Selling Out of Duck Dynasty Merchandise After A&E Suspends Phil Robertson. Buy Duck Commander instead! (UPDATE)

Weasel Zippers

 

However, others pointed out that this support merely puts more money into A&E’s pockets as well, with one tweeting: ‘Loving that Tea People are rushing to Walmart to Duck Dynasty swag in protest of A&E who OWNS the merchandising.’Another added: ‘I better rush off to Walmart and buy up all the Phil Robertson merchandise ‘cuz it’s gonna be a collectors item one day.’ -

 

Be aware of this, however;

"BTW, another way to show your support is to purchase Duck Commander products and NOT the Duck Dynasty products. The Robertson family owns the rights to Duck Commander. A&E owns Duck Dynasty.   (Emphasis added)

 

 UPDATE: Oh, no! Say it ain't so! Cracker Barrel Bails On Phil's Products