Fox News Porn - the prurience of prigs

Fox News Porn is a collection of raunchy outtakes from the Fox "News" Network, where hypocritical prigs like Bill O'Reilly revel in prurience while condemning it. This condemnation is largely indistinguishable from a celebration -- as when Sean Hannity visits a brothel and asks snotty, explicit questions of the workers there while his camera lovingly pans across their bare flesh.

The site is the creation of filmmaker Robert Greenwald, whose documentary Outfoxed is a masterful takedown of the Murdoch empire. Fox News Porn created a brief but spectacular net-storm when an overzealous moderator for Digg took the site off the Digg front page and threatened to suspend Greenwald's account for violating Digg's Terms of Service. However, a day later, Digg management reversed the decision. In founder Kevin Rose's words, "Our fault. Digg on." Link (Thanks, Kevin and Pete!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Kevitivity

CNN gets caught planting Dem debate questions this week – lefties yawn. You people who harp on FOX and give CNN a pass are complete hypocrites.
Dan

Remember when Fox “News” broadcast that embattled congress-critter Foley was a Democrat?

I find it spectacularly funny to think that someone out there can actually believe that Fox “News” is somehow above being questioned when it’s been proven, time and time again, that the network would openly broadcast blatant partisan lies rather than report the verifiable truth. Indeed, the most basic principles of journalism and information gathering are comically anathema to the folks at Fox.

Fox has built an empire as a result of appealing to the most base human emotions: Desire and hate. Fox has proven time and time again that they are not above lying so as to bolster their partisan agenda, so why should anyone be surprised that they broadcast soft-core porn in between their senseless partisan hit-jobs to keep their addlepated viewers watching?

I do pity the Fox viewers for the simple reason that it’s only a matter of time before they find themselves grappling with a reality for which they are woefully unprepared as a result of being sold this shiny, golden turd of misinformation for so long.
anthropomorphictoast

Does anyone still truly take FOX news seriously? It’s kind of like the Weekly World News of all the news networks…only with less Bat Boy.
Bat Guano

Sick, sick, sick porn! Just watched the Hannity clip where he goes to “Hannitize” the ladies at the brothel. The camera ogles, the questions lead to “What services will you or won’t you provide?” Anything Nevada state law allows? WOW!

But the Hannitization starts as the twit asks if they think there is something more outside, if they aren’t being exploited, asks the owner if he believes in God, etc.

The sickness is in the combination of titillation and moralizing. Like someone jerking off while reading the more erotic parts of the Bible, then quickly turning to passages on Onan before orgasm.

The people who watch this work on base instinct, modified by outside powers jerking their chains. You can tell who they are when they start barking viciously (see post #2) when master is questioned.
malex

TSOL: “I can’t wait to read about it here!”

Oh, I see what you did there. You’re trying to dismiss the cultural criticisms of FOX’s blatantly hypocritical and prurient moralizing by sarcastically suggesting that Boing Boing has a partisan agenda, and your evidence is the lack of coverage over allegations that Democratic debate tickets were intentionally reserved for Clinton supporters.

Do I have that correct?

Would it matter if I explained to you that Boing Boing is a blog about internet and media culture, and not about every dull, irrelevant “controversy” that any old drumbeater cares to exaggerate the importance of to make their side look better?
Dan

#6 posted by tsol , November 17, 2007 9:08 AM

This is cute. Meanwhile, CNN actively distorted the Democratic debates in order to favor Hillary Clinton.

I can’t wait to read about it here

I just have to ask: What does your outburst have to do with Fox “News” broadcasting soft-core porn? Or, are you just thinking that by attacking CNN, you’re going to somehow make Fox look better in spite of their obvious hypocrisy? Are you expecting us to overlook Fox for its blatant hypocrisy while condemning CNN for something which is absolutely irrelevant to this discussion?

I love the Fox defenders’ response to this story. It’s like a bus-load of zombies tipped over on the expressway, and they’re now just sort of wandering around aimlessly looking for something to jump on in pursuit of some tasty brains. Unfortunately, all their potential targets are in fast-moving cars, and the poor uninformed zombies have been reduced to just bouncing off the windshield as reality passes them by quickly.

Poor zombies…
malex

@ RealCatholicMen:

Perhaps I did not express myself very well. I did not mean that Boing Boing has no agenda, because they do: They are pro-science and technological innovation. They are pro-art, and are supporters of the EFF and Fair Use movements. They are anti-propaganda and anti-authoritarianism. I consider these reasonable positions, and it’s one reason I read the site.

They are not, however, Party Ideologues as some people keep insisting. I feel it’s merely a coincidence that all of the folks who promote the USA PATRIOT act, Creationism in school, the corporate stranglehold of media and culture and jackwad hypocritical puritanism just happen to be affiliated with the current Republican administration. If some Democrats next year advocate policies that similarly violate the Happy Mutant ethos, I don’t expect Boing Boing to pull any punches or try and manipulate the events out of Party allegiance. In other words, they won’t do what FOX News does.
RealCatholicMen

Tht sd t b tr, Mlx, bt ts nt bn ltly. Ths dys Bng Bng s s pltclly mtvtd tht thy hd t shttl th gdgts ff t sprt sctn f th wbst jst t mk rm. mss th ld Bng Bng, myslf.

S fr ‘v cntnd rdng n th hp tht n dy th ld Bng Bng wld cm bck. Wll t vr?

s fr Fx Nws, t hs ts ss. Mst f y dn’t knw wht’s gng n n rq nymr bcs yr lbrl wbsts wn’t tll y. gss fr sm ppl, gnrnc tht fvrs thr vwpnt s prfrbl t knwldg tht dsn’t.
Perla

Many regular Americans don’t know what’s going on in Iraq because the websites don’t tell much (liberal or conservative).

I do have the luck of also speaking French (not so well these days) and being bilingual in Spanish so I read a lot. I sometimes watched ABC news and there was a slogan saying “More Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other news source”. Hope I got it right.
But come on!!!!! HOW ON EARTH WILL YOU GET YOUR NEWS FROM ONE, ONE NEWS SOURCE??????? SHEESH.

I mean for some people it will be FOX or something else. That’s been very uninformed. I get annoyed that I don’t speak some Arabic to see what the Arabic news channels are saying.

It’s interesting to see how the same news will be reported in the UK, Spain, Latin America, France, the US, South Africa or even in Kenya. I’ve known since I was at least 12 that the media distorts everything and so try to look at many resources (excpet for the Daily Mail in the UK, god, those people can make me so mad, urgh. Fox news makes me laugh, I’m laughing just thinking about Fox News…..)

We had theory of knowledge and philosphy classes in middle and high school to analyze the media, religion, anything really, and I’m a naturally very skeptical and untrusting person. I question everything especially those in authority.
Most people I know only study these things in college if they ever. I knew logical axioms at age 12.

No wonder the world is the way it is, with people believing what they are told.
Abelard Lindsay

#31 posted by Kevitivity Author Profile Page, November 18, 2007 2:34 PM
CNN gets caught planting Dem debate questions this week – lefties yawn. You people who harp on FOX and give CNN a pass are complete hypocrites.

Nice straw man, Kev. Let me tell you what a real Lefty (TM) thinks:

The false choice of “CNN or Fox” is irrelevant. Do I discern between TASS and Pravda? One boosts the Republicans exclusively while the other sometimes boosts the Republicans and sometimes boosts the fake opposition party to the Republicans.

Liberal bias on any broadcast or cable outlet? Show me the “Noam Chomsky Weekly” show and maybe I’ll take you seriously.
Slutty McWhore – Scottish Handjob Artiste

Fox “News” would be welcome any time in my massage room where I, as an erotic masseuse working in the deep South, come across any number of Republican types who nip away for a quick handjob in their lunch-hour.

My favourite client was a married lobbyist who seemed to see no contradiction between declaring himself Christian and having my hands bring him to climax!

The escort review boards (www.aspd.net is a common one) in my part of the country are filled with reviews from Republicans who write about the hooker they were with last night in one post, and then go on a pro-life rant in the other!
jimtealiii

Ugh… I feel dirty just reading these comments. Think I’ll go watch TV instead. I wonder what’s on Fox?
Nelson.C

These days, Realcatholicman, BB’s comments sections are filled with twits trying to prove how politically-motivated every post that mentions Fox, or copyright, or voting machines, etc. In other words, the same stuff that BB has always been interessted in.

And what kind of insult is “politically-motivated” anyway? Is it illegal in Bush’s America to have a political opinion? If the politics here offend you so much… go somewhere else.
Nick D

Not too mention: when did the staff of Boing Boing ever say they weren’t partisan? This isn’t a news wire, this is a BLOG! That means they can spout their opinions any damn time they want. Feel free to disagree, but what are you trying to achieve by complaining about it?

PS: I’d like to see people disputing or supporting the article’s contentions, rather than throwing tags like “liberal” and “conservative” around, especially when they’re obviously meant perjoratively.
RealCatholicMen

ctlly t ws Mlx wh sd tht Bng Bng hd n prtsn gnd. gr wth y, Nck D, tht thy d. prfr th gdgts nd rtwrk, myslf, bt bvsly ‘m wllng t lv wth th gnd.

Fx Nws hs thr wn gnd. Prsnlly, fnd t’s mst bnfcl t rd bth cnsrvtv nd lbrl srcs. Smwhr btwn th ls f th lft nd th ls f th rght try t srt t sm trth. t’s th ppl wh nly rd n sd r th thr tht r trly bcmng lst.
MOONBAT

If I had the time or sheer political will, I would assemble a video collage of CNN clips and promote it as “CNN Porn!”

This is nothing more than an attack against FOX News by the same people who always attack FOX News, for no other reason than it is FOX News. It’s total bullshit, and it does immeasurable harm to your credibility to even mention this clip.
JakeTheSnake

Nick D -

I totally agree with your PS. I’m sick of the comments being a forum for people to either bitch about what is being posted or bitch about being “censored.”

The alternative to moderated comments is mind bogglingly ugly. Remember usenet? Without moderation, trolls take over. And cries of “hypocrisy” ignore the fact that this a private site that has been kind enough to allow us to leave our comments on. Until BB tries to take down sites they don’t like, they’re in the clear on that charge.

Okay, I just added nothing to the discussion of the post. I might be a hypocrite. I can live with that.
Cory Doctorow

Ah yes, the old, “It harms your credibility to make fun of my cherished institutions” gambit. You’re right, Moonbat, from now on, I won’t score on the open goals — it’s ungentlemanly.

(Sure hope that restores my credibility with the Fox News fans)
s5

But is the condemnation of the condemnation distinguishable from a celebration?
MOONBAT

I don’t like FOX News either. You’re playing the old “Us vs. Them” game, and that also hurts your credibility.

t lst y ddn’t dvwl my cmmnt. Y sm t b mkng prgrss.
Muppet

If you disemvowel chthulu and catholic, they’re quite similar : chthl , cthlc. Could there be a hidden link between Real Catholics and R’lieh Chthulu worshippers?

w wll nl b fr whn th lst cnsrvtv s hngd wth th ntrls f th lst librl !
Muppet

Btw before any concerned citizens and assorted yhvh victims start complaining, I DISEMVOWELLED MYSELF.

boinboing crew only supplied the inspiration for a practice that i cannot recommend highly enough!

Is your online persona getting out of hand ?
Are you concerned about insipid agendas creeping into all aspects of yr online activities ?

Slf-dsmvwlmnt mght jst b th nswr!

(Wth plgs fr n spllng mstks)
LOLcat Stevens

I don’t know about everybody else here, but I get all my news from Boing Boing. The mainstream media outlets have a well-known anti-steampunk bias.
JoshuaZ

While this is amusing, I’d be interested in seeing an actual comparison with CNN (you’d have to be careful about how to define things, like take a list of specific things (such as people in their underwear) and compare. I’d also prefer if they gave the date and context of each image and video(incidentally, the videos seem to be down at the moment).
Nick D

“You people who harp on FOX and give CNN a pass are complete hypocrites.”

Who’s giving CNN a pass? You’re making assumptions. Tsk tsk.

But please feel free to toss around words like “hypocrite” at the drop of a hat. It makes for riveting reading, and just screams “well-thought out position.”
Piove

Something that people don’t seem to have noticed is the reason for the existence of news channles/papers/blogs etc, and this includes this site.
We, the readers, are a saleable item.
Advertisers want us.
The more a blog/tv show/radio show is read/watched/listened to, the more valuable it is.

WE, the viewer, are the commodity here.

Read with cynicism.
Also read the likes of Noam Chomsky and Greg Palast.

You are being lied to constantly.

Educate yourself.
Muppet

And this is where disemvowelment comes in…. sorry, can’t help it.

How much would a disemvowelled blog be really worth, even if it’s got a lot of hits?

Could the capitalist spectacle machine accomodate, and – more importantly – sell such radical memes? The very fabric of language , reality and culture undermined thusly?

Should boingboing demonstrate its grassroots non-commerciality to its faithful readers by going totally disemvowelled?

BNGBNG
Drctr f Wndrfl Thngs

sorry, i’ll shut up now before i gt bnnd!
The Mad Hatter

I 100% sure that #2 was being sarcastic, at least, I really hope so, because, that would just make him a genius of satire.

@moonbat

How did Cory break this down to an us vs. them? When did he side with CNN? Secondly, if you honestly cannot understand the difference in hypocrisy between CNN porn and FOX porn. . .
risser

To whomever, please go ahead and make a CNN Porn snippet. The problem isn’t that Fox does this and others don’t. The problem is that Fox pretends to be ABOVE or AGAINST this, appealing to their admittedly conservative audience, which also is supposed to be appalled by stuff like this, and yet, they are as base and crass as any other ratings-oriented news entertainment source.

I’d have no problem with Hustler News covering brothels, spring break or Mardi Gras. They’d be honest about their intentions.

The hypocrisy is the problem.
GregLondon

they don’t actually want free speech. All that would give them is the freedom to call the shots on their own websites. What they really want is someone else’s audience.

This fricken nails it.

Put that in the form of a T-Shirt or bumper sticker, and you’ve got a pure gold meme.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Yo, Moonbat: If you’re so smart, how come you can’t remember who takes the vowels out of rude comments?

Nelson.C:

These days, Realcatholicman, BB’s comments sections are filled with twits trying to prove how politically-motivated every post that mentions Fox, or copyright, or voting machines, etc. In other words, the same stuff that BB has always been interested in.

Yes!

Boing Boing’s a high-visibility weblog. There are a lot of sullen, disappointed right-wingers out there who miss the old days, when they had jolly times smashing the shop windows of the early liberal blogosphere. Some of them are fixated on Boing Boing as the uppity liberal enemy that must be suppressed.

This is middling bizarre of them, seeing as how Boing Boing isn’t primarily a political weblog. It’s very effective at focusing on the political issues it does pursue, but it isn’t all politics all the time. I suspect that’s what actually brings in the wingnuts: unlike weblogs like Firedoglake or Hullabaloo or Daily Kos, Boing Boing’s entries can be understood (more or less) by someone who isn’t up on current events, and who never learned the song about how a bill becomes a law.

(I think that’s why we have so much trouble with commenters who misunderstand Cory’s take on the realities of copyright law. As a rule of thumb, just about everyone thinks they’re an expert on art, sex, traffic laws, popular music, and copyrights, and just about everyone is mistaken. I can’t vouch for their adherence to the rest of the rule, but when it comes to copyrights, these guys are definitely not an exception.)

If you want to see how much they distort the local discourse, look at the difference between a thread on global warming and one on some other complex scientific subject. These guys get their talking points dished out to them by the source feed right-wing weblogs. This means that if global warming comes up, they swarm the comment thread because they know something they can say. But if an entry’s about some scientific development that isn’t covered in their spoon-fed talking points, they’re at a loss, and so that thread will instead be full of science buffs discussing the actual entry.

And what kind of insult is “politically-motivated” anyway? Is it illegal in Bush’s America to have a political opinion? If the politics here offend you so much… go somewhere else.

You’d think, eh? But they don’t find it contradictory. They don’t even find it funny.

I think what they mean by “politically motivated” is “You are pushing your agenda, not our agenda.” They’re not real clear on this democracy thing.

I wish that being politically offended made them go away. Unfortunately, it’s a lot of the reason they’re here. I very much appreciate having commenters call them on their larger errors of fact, as has happened in this thread. It clears the air.

JakeTheSnake:

I’m sick of the comments being a forum for people to either bitch about what is being posted or bitch about being “censored.”

Bless you. I don’t know why people feel impelled to write comments about how some entry bores them. As I keep saying, it’s a big internet out there, and everyone else seems to have got the knack of moving on to something new if they’re bored.
Personally, I think it’s mere attitudinizing: they can’t think of anything interesting to say, so they accuse Boing Boing of being boring.

The alternative to moderated comments is mind-bogglingly ugly. Remember usenet? Without moderation, trolls take over. And cries of “hypocrisy” ignore the fact that this a private site that has been kind enough to allow us to leave our comments on. Until BB tries to take down sites they don’t like, they’re in the clear on that charge.

I’ve done my time and then some on Usenet. If learning to moderate online forums is like studying trolls and demons, then hanging out on Usenet is like living in Sunnydale: if you survive long enough, you’ll eventually come up against one of every kind of monster — and after a while, your reaction will change to “Bored now.”

Not enough people seem to remember that the main reason Boing Boing’s first set of forums got shut down was that the Boingers didn’t have time to moderate them, and they went septic. Every large general-interest web forum that’s worth reading is moderated, many of them far more strictly than Boing Boing.

The “come and see the violence inherent in the system, help help I’m being repressed” crew are less of a puzzle than they initially seem. Their own online activity tends to be dull and disruptive, but they think they’re entitled to the kind of large audience for their behavior you can only get by being interesting. This is why they don’t actually want free speech. All that would give them is the freedom to call the shots on their own websites. What they really want is someone else’s audience.
The Mad Hatter

@ Moonbat

You implied that you were sticking up for FOX because you actually believe FOX is worth sticking up for equally as much as Cory implied that the ‘my’ in his sentence, was you.

FOX really is just hilarious though, it is one of the only mainstream news media (including mainstream nationally syndicated newspapers) that has such a clear political bias and bothers trying to pretend it doesn’t.
chaas

Sexy stuff is good for ratings. And what is sexy covers a lot of ground. The Weather Channel always leaves some poor correspondent and camera operator on the water’s edge during a hurricane – knowing it defies all its previous warnings to the public to seek safety – simply because the audience, me, wants to see destruction. It’s “hypocritcal” in the same way as Fox spouting values and showing skin. I like values; I like skin. Glad someone made a montage. Saves me viewing hours.
Burz

News For The Sexually Frustrated (TM).

Its a very inconvenient state to be in, so why not convert some of that frustration into feelings of superiority and irrational hatred.

FNC is becoming the archetype for yellow, tabloid journalism on TV.
Bat Guano

You very well could put together clips of CNN Porn. However it wouldn’t have that same gamey flavor as Fox Porn.

Here’s a notion: Get your news from many sources outside of cable TV.
License Farm

I don’t get how anyone mistakes Fox “News” as the mouthpiece of social conservatism when it’s the sister station of Fox, the network, which carries some of the raunchiest and odious programming on broadcast TV, “Simpsons” notwithstanding. I guess it’s the same as how those who vote Republican or worship at a fire-and-brimstone altar are shocked, SHOCKED, I say, when so many of their “moral” leaders turn out to be gay and/or kiddie-fiddlers. (BTW, it’s not the gay part that’s immoral; it’s the hypocrisy. Just making sure that’s clear.)
MOONBAT

@THE MAD HATTER

“How did Cory break this down to an us vs. them?”

He automatically assumed that I must be a FOX News viewer, only because I criticized him for posting this. He broke the world down into “Us” (good people) vs. “Them” (ignorant FOX News viewers), assuming that anyone who would dare criticize him must be one of “Them.” That’s the “Us vs. Them” game.
J Davis

Typical left wing crap…. The content of the FOX News Network cannot be questioned, but nit-picking from the far left suffices for most liberals to discount the entire network. Libs are so content just getting the side of the news slanted toward their secular progressive / socialistic views that they can completely ignore anything else, especially if presented on FOX. No wonder congress is walking around in circles and not accomplishing anything, It’s almost impossible to make informed decisions if you will not let yourself become informed.
Nelson.C

“The content of the FOX News network cannot be questioned”? What world are you living in, J Davis?
EmanG

And not to forget the influence of dark matter on reality is this, via Crooks and Liars:

But hereâ€™s where you have to tighten that tin foil just a bit: in a convenient bit of timing, Digg has recently entered into a partnership with FOX parent company News Corp to offer WSJ content. And News Corp has been wooing Digg for the last year to outright acquire the site. Coincidence?

You decide…