{"id":12114,"date":"2017-04-20T18:35:31","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T01:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12114"},"modified":"2017-04-20T18:34:48","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T01:34:48","slug":"science-rising-oreilly-fallen-and-the-false-god-of-false-balance-bradcast-4202017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12114","title":{"rendered":"Science Rising, O&#8217;Reilly Fallen and the &#8216;False God of False Balance&#8217;: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 4\/20\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_BillOReillySpin_ScienceMarchScienceNotSilence_042017.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">On today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a>, we find Fox &#8216;News&#8217; and its twisted wingnut agenda at the center of just about all of the stories and issues we cover today, from the remarkable need for scientists to stand up for science-based facts, to a continuingly clueless President, to a disgraced Bill O&#8217;Reilly and more. [<i>Audio link to complete show follows below.<\/i>]\n<p>The Trump administration is now seemingly both <a href=\"http:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/trump-admin-iran-complying-nuclear-deal\">for<\/a> <i>and<\/i> <a href=\"http:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/rex-tillerson-iran-nuclear-deal-failure\">against<\/a> the Iran Nuclear Deal, apparently. At least they seem to be taking every side of the issue this week, despite Trump&#8217;s repeated campaign vows to rip up or renegotiate the deal and his <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realdonaldtrump\/status\/626079024373202946\">2015 charge<\/a> that it &#8220;will go down as one of the dumbest and most dangerous misjudgments ever entered into in history of our country&#8221;. But that&#8217;s what happens when everything your President seems to know about policy comes pretty much directly from the scam artists and friends of sexual harassers known as Fox &#8220;News&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Which brings us to my conversation today with my guest, <b>D.R. Tucker<\/b> <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonmonthly.com\/people\/d-r-tucker\/\">of <i>Washington Monthly<\/i><\/a> (and too-occasional <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?author=130\">BRAD BLOG contributor<\/a>). As a former rightwinger turned climate change hawk and avid media critic, he has some strong opinions and smart thoughts in <a href=\"https:\/\/mediamatters.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/ahead-marches-month-scientists-are-speaking-against-trump-and-gop-s-attacks-science\/216082\">advance<\/a> of this weekend&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/MarchForScience.com\">March for Science<\/a> and next weekend&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/peoplesclimate.org\">People&#8217;s Climate March<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For a long, long time in this country, there has been this sort of anti-intellectual, anti-science mentality. It&#8217;s been monetized, as people like [Fox &#8216;News&#8217; owner] Rupert Murdoch have proven. And it has to be resisted,&#8221; he tells me. But, he adds, while &#8220;these marches are a long overdue attempt, I would argue, to resist it, marching alone is not going to accomplish it. The march has to continue right to the ballot box to throw out people who are anti-science, and elect those who are pro-science.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He does not reserve his ire only for FNC, however. The &#8220;false gods of false balance&#8221; at other news outlets are also to blame, he charges, for the intensifying climate crisis, much of its collateral damage and the fact that Americans remain so woefully uninformed about so much of it.<\/p>\n<p>We also discuss the firing of disgraced Fox &#8220;News&#8221; star and alleged serial sexual harasser Bill O&#8217;Reilly, as he is <a href=\"https:\/\/mobile.nytimes.com\/2017\/04\/20\/business\/media\/bill-oreilly-payout.html?_r=0\">reportedly<\/a> set to receive a parting gift of as much as $25 <i>million<\/i> from his longtime enablers at FNC on the way out the door. Tucker also has some thoughts on the pretend rightwing &#8220;outrage&#8221; over the successful campaign to encourage corporations to pull their sponsorship from O&#8217;Reilly&#8217;s show (a trick, he explains, learned from those &#8220;outraged&#8221; rightwingers themselves), as well as idea on where O&#8217;Reilly may find welcome employment next. (No, not in hell, but close.)<\/p>\n<p>Finally today: Another prisoner receives a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/post-nation\/wp\/2017\/04\/20\/arkansas-plan-to-resume-executions-is-blocked-by-new-court-orders\/?utm_term=.9b8e9558cbbc\">stay<\/a> in Arkansas&#8217; unprecedented attempted killing spree; Some ironic federal court <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2017\/4\/19\/1654480\/-Breaking-Trump-s-karma-is-about-to-bite-him-right-in-the-ass\">karma<\/a> that may be about to bite Donald Trump (again); And pot activists in D.C. on 4\/20 come up with a clever way to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/newswires\/news\/national\/pro-pot-activists-plan-hand-joints-capitol-article-1.3079136\">spark up<\/a> interest for their issue among Congressional staffers and media on Capitol Hill&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\".\/Images\/Speaker_Icon_24.png\" style=\"width: 24px; float: none; vertical-align: middle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px;\"> <b><i><a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman_IranDeal_DRTucker_ScienceMarch_OReillyFired_042017.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><br \/>\n[audio:http:\/\/bradblog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman_IranDeal_DRTucker_ScienceMarch_OReillyFired_042017.mp3]<\/blockquote>\n<p><center><b>* * *<\/b><\/center><i>While we post <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><\/i>The BradCast<i><\/a> here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they&#8217;re available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/id803467610\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/stitcher.com\/s\/player.php?fid=25838&#038;src=psl\">Stitcher<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/podcastgen\/bradcast\/feed.xml\">our native RSS feed<\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-START--><\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f0e0; border:2px solid #6b5a2e; border-radius:6px; padding:10px 14px; text-align:center; font-family:Georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"display:block; margin:0 0 8px 0; color:#3a2e0e; font-size:0.95em; line-height:1.5;\"><strong>The BRAD BLOG<\/strong>, <em>The BradCast<\/em> and <em>Green News Report<\/em> are all 100% independent and 100% listener and reader supported!<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/Donate\" style=\"display:inline-block; background:#6b5a2e; color:#ffffff; padding:6px 18px; border-radius:4px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; font-family:Georgia,serif; font-size:0.9em;\">Please CLICK HERE to help support our work today!<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-END--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On today&#8217;s BradCast, we find Fox &#8216;News&#8217; and its twisted wingnut agenda at the center of just about all of the stories and issues we cover today, from the remarkable need for scientists to stand up for science-based facts, to a continuingly clueless President, to a disgraced Bill O&#8217;Reilly and more. [Audio link to complete [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,77,89,675,543,193,903,479,159,200,451,14,261,134,477,188,751,489,501,491,126],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-12114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arkansas","category-bill-oreilly","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-climate-change","category-death-penalty","category-dept-of-energy","category-donald-trump","category-eac","category-environment","category-epa","category-fox-news","category-immigration","category-iran","category-kpfk","category-mainstream-media-failure","category-marijuana","category-news-corp","category-nuclear-power","category-rick-perry","category-rights-and-freedoms"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12114"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}