It’s been less than 48 hours since the election has ended, and the Sarah Palin bashing and blaming is already in full force — and it’s Fox News leading the charge?!
Basically, Fox News reporter Carl Cameron went on the air with Shepard Smith yesterday to reveal all sorts of incredibly damaging “off the record” juicy secrets about Palin — like the fact she didn’t know Africa was a continent. But It gets better …
In the report, the woman who several Fox News personalities hailed as a person qualified to run the country is portrayed as someone who couldn’t pass the 4th grade.
There’s the bus — and there’s Sarah Palin being thrown under it.
Brit Hume is going into semi-retirement, Howie Kurtz reports.
Brit Hume, a top anchor and executive with Fox News since the channel was launched 12 years ago, plans to step down at year’s end. But he won’t disappear entirely.
Sources familiar with the situation say that Hume, 65, will give up his job as Washington managing editor and anchor of “Special Report.” They say he is near a deal to continue with Fox in a senior statesman role, not unlike that of Tom Brokaw at NBC, for roughly 100 days a year.
In his new role, Hume would be a senior political analyst, anchor special events, serve as a panelist on “Fox News Sunday” and occasionally substitute for the host, Chris Wallace.
This was apparently expected. Certainly, the man’s got plenty of money and has earned the right to a lighter schedule.
As I’ve noted many times, I’ve all but stopped watching television news since starting the blog. I always enjoyed Hume, though, as an anchor or as a panelist.
UPDATE: Reactions are starting to pour in.
Matt Sheffield, Newsbusters: “He’ll be missed. Special Report was a rare island of sanity in the chaotic sea of cable news.”
Matt Corley, Think Progress, reports without comment. His commenters stay classy, as always.
David Hauslaib, Jossip: “Perhaps he’ll use the opportunity to make the official transition from hard news anchor to opinionated pundit.”
Anna Faris stars in the upcoming “The House Bunny” (which features the men’s magazine mogul and his three busty blondes), and has since been spending quite a bit of time at the iconic Playboy Mansion.
I bet Holly Madison truly hates this woman.
“I was just there yesterday. Hef has been an incredible support system; it’s thrilling to see him act, I’ve been made a real-life honorary girlfriend.”
The bubbly blonde also said to keep an eye out for the September issue of Playboy (no confirmation that it is a centerfold).
But speaking of Hef and his girlfriends, it seems things weren’t quite so sunny at the annual Fourth of July bash at the mansion on Friday.
According to some partygoers, there was a bit of a tiff among the girls and Kendra wasn’t speaking to Holly or Bridget.
“They didn’t even exchange glances,” an eyewitness said. “I don’t know what happened, but Kendra made sure to keep her distance.”
It has been speculated for quite some time that 23-year-old Wilkinson is getting ready to fly the coop, having been busy focusing on building her own brand-name independent of the “Girls Next Door.”
Only time will tell, but last time we spoke to Hef, himself, just a few weeks ago, he said that it’s quite amazing they’ve all been together for this long.
“Girls will be girls, and there are moments where they will disagree,” he said. “The amazing thing, quite frankly, is that we’re all together after six years.”
source: Anna Faris Named Hugh Hefner’s Honorary New Girlfriend [fox news]
A supermodel plunged to her death Saturday afternoon by leaping from her Lower Manhattan apartment window in an apparent suicide.
Ruslana Korshunova, barely shy of her 21st birthday, apparently jumped from the balcony of her residential building in Manhattan’s Financial District, police tell the New York Post.
Authorities said there appeared to be no signs of a struggle having taken place inside the 9th-floor apartment, which the green-eyed, 5′8″ beauty had occupied for only two months.
The Kazakhstan-born “Russian Rapunzel,” as she was known, had appeared as cover girl on editions of French Elle and Russian Vogue, as well as in ads for Marc Jacobs, DKNY, Vera Wang and Christian Dior.
“Our hearts are with her family,” a spokesman for her agency, IMG (which also represents Heidi Klum and Kate Moss) told the Post.
A former boyfriend, Artem Perchenok, 24, told the paper that the two had watched the movie Ghost and that he dropped her off at home at 5 a.m. Saturday. “She was a good person,” he said.
The Daily News suggests that Korshunova had become despondent over a lost love. She poured her heart out on the Web in the months leading to her apparent suicide.
“Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably,” the sandy-haired knockout wrote in a poem that concluded: “And never regret anything that made you smile.”
The Kazakh beauty wrote that love “blinds,” “sets souls afire,” and “is always the answer” in emotion-soaked passages posted on a social networking site.
Korshunova volleyed between Russian and English in her heartfelt prose, but love was a central theme no matter the language. “Do not confuse love and desire,” she wrote in Russian in her most recent posting May 30. “Love is the sun, desire - only flash. Desire dazzles, and the sun gives life.”
The soulful note warns of the perils of sacrifice.
“Love does not take away from one in order to give to another,” wrote Korshunova, a 20-year-old thousands of miles from her native Kazakhstan. “Love - this is the essence of life. But you will not give your life to another.”
Korshunova’s most telling message came three months ago: “I’m so lost. Will I ever find myself?”
She appeared angry in some postings, brokenhearted in others.
“I’m a bitch. I’m a witch. I don’t care what you say!!!” she wrote March 11. “I know what it is. I know why my other relationships didn’t work out, ’cause I’m unpredictable. Why are you afraid of it?”
In January, she wrote, “It hurts, as if someone took a part of me, tore it out, mercilessly stomped all over and threw it out.
“My dream is to fly. Oh, my rainbow it is too high,” she wrote in a March note.
This is very, very sad.
UPDATE (James): Fox News has shown video of Korshunova’s body . I think the family could have done without that. Sad, indeed.
George Clooney didn’t just break off his romance with Sarah Larson — he did it abruptly, leaving the former cocktail waitress shocked and heartbroken and moving back to Las Vegas.
“She thought they were getting married. Instead, she got dumped,” a friend said. “She’s really upset. Devastated.”
Larson found herself teary-eyed, packing her bags and walking out the door of the home the couple had shared in Los Angeles.
Friends said the 29-year-old fled to Las Vegas, where she was working at a nightclub in the Palms Casino Hotel before Clooney swept her off her feet one year ago.
The pretty brunette, a former “Fear Factor” reality show contestant, is already back with her old crowd. Larson made her first public appearance since the breakup on Saturday at the Palms Place Hotel & Spa’s grand opening party.
As things got serious with Clooney, Larson had moved into his Los Angeles mansion, subletting her home in Las Vegas. Tongues wagged that she might be “the one” when he took her to the Oscars this year.
Less than a month ago, the couple were in New York celebrating the actor’s 47th birthday. They were taking it slow, but they were planning to eventually wed, they told friends at the time.
“She’s totally heartbroken and doesn’t deserve this,” a friend said. “It came out of nowhere. They had made all these plans.”
Frankly, the girl was foolish to think George would settle down for her. He’s made it pretty clear over the years, that marriage is not in the books for him.
Bill Murry’s wife of ten years, Jennifer Butler Murray filed for divorce and is also claiming abuse. [see documents]
According to the Charleston Post & Courier, Jennifer Murray is asking a judge to issue a restraining order that will keep Bill Murray away from her home. She’s also asked the court to determine if the couple’s $7 million pre-nup is valid — according to the agreement, Jennifer gets the big pay out if they divorce.
According to court docs, Jennifer and the couple’s four children moved out of the family home in 2006 because of what she says was her husband’s “adultery, addiction to marijuana and alcohol, abusive behavior, physical abuse, sexual addictions and frequent abandonment.”
The docs also say the star “hit his wife in the face and then told her she was ‘lucky he didn’t kill her’ ” and that this happened more than once during their marriage.
The complaint, which doesn’t specify instances of Murray’s alleged marijuana or alcohol use, alleges he would often leave without telling his wife and says he “travels overseas where he engages in public and private altercations and sexual liaisons.”
Wow! I would have never guessed Bill Murray to be a wife beater. I wonder if he was thinking about smacking her upside the head with that trophy?
source: Bill Murray’s Wife Files for Divorce [fox news]
Dunkin’ Donuts has pulled an ad spot featuring Rachael Ray wearing a scarf around her neck because some thought it was a subtle nod of support to Palestinians.
Does Dunkin’ Donuts really think its customers could mistake Rachael Ray for a terrorist sympathizer? The Canton-based company has abruptly canceled an ad in which the domestic diva wears a scarf that looks like a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men.
more stories like this
Some observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was even talk of a Dunkin’ Donuts boycott. ‘‘The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,’’ Malkin yowls in her syndicated column. ‘‘Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.’’
The company at first pooh-poohed the complaints, claiming the black-and-white wrap was not a keffiyeh. But the right-wing drumbeat on the blogosphere continued and by yesterday, Dunkin’ Donuts decided it’d be easier just to yank the ad.
Said the suits in a statement: ‘‘In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by her stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we are no longer using the commercial.’’
The terrorists have won. Or maybe we’ve just gone collectively insane.
I was blissfully unaware of both the commercial and the the controversy surrounding it until seeing a link on memeorandum this morning. But, seriously?
It’s true that wearing the keffiyah as a fashion symbol has been a recurring trend among Palestinian sympathizers and various hipsters over the years. But Ray’s scarf doesn’t look anything like Yasser Arafat’s.
Further, the terrorists wear headdresses because that’s how men throughout the Middle East and North Africa dress. It’s a protective covering for the head in brutally hot climates. In any case, none of them are paisley.
The iconic “spider-web” black-and-white keffiyeh is often displayed symbolically by members of Arafat’s Fatah party (which more generally uses yellow as its party colour), although it has never been able to expropriate it as their exclusive symbol. The zig zag style of stitching is sometimes described as symbolic of their historic struggle and their inability to progress towards their objectives without having to avoid obsticles. This is in contrast to how many members of the radical leftist PLO factions (such as PFLP, PFLP-GC DFLP) prefer the checkered red keffieyhs — red being both the traditional colour of the workers’ movement and the red scarf supposedly more indicative of a bedouin and rural (thus poorer, more popular) background. The Islamist factions, such as Hamas, use green — representative of the Islamic faith — as a party color, but for keffiyehs they stick to the traditional black-and-white or red variants, with no particular preference evident. While widely known, this color symbolism is by no means universally accepted by all Palestinians, and its importance should not be overstated — red or black-and-white scarves are used by Palestinians of all political stripes, as well as by those with no particular political sympathies.
But, just to be safe, we should assume that every white chick wearing a scarf is a terrorist or terrorist sympathizer. Ray’s lucky her ad’s just been canceled and she hasn’t been hauled off to Gitmo for questioning.
UPDATE: Via Steven Taylor, I see that Tom Grant has discovered a much more egregious example of terror chic:
These fiends are everywhere. (While Taylor is reminded of an old Monty Python sketch about communists, it seems more to me like Ray Stevens’ “Santa Claus is Watching You.”)
Meanwhile, Doug Mataconis thinks sympathy for Arafat is the least of Ray’s crimes.
(And while we’re on the subject, what’s with the extraneous “a” in Ray’s first name? Perhaps another homage to Arafat? Or . . . Al Qaeda?)
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has even caught Meghan McCain — daughter of Juan McCain, hero of the Reconquista — wearing a purple plaid scarf keffiyah! Gawker has the photographic evidence. Nick Denton’s terrorist loving staff thinks it’s funny. They won’t think it’s funny, though, when the Straight Talk Express rams into Gawker HQ and explodes!
Hilary Clinton hit up a bar in Puerto Rico on her trail to try and score herself a spot as a candidate hopeful. Why this is news is beyond me. I find it to reaffirm my assumption that she is a total freak just like Bill. Bitch barely gets her swerve on and it is all over Fox News.
Ol’ Hilary is like tuxedo t-shirt….she is here for business, but knows how to party. I bet if you gave her a tequila shooter and promised her a cheap hat her modest green blazer would come off.
What Others Said:
Drunken Stepfather- “I guess it’s kind of appropriate, because as Clinton holds onto this race as hard as she can, she’s not going to win and her job is pretty much done because it seems like the only person who wants to see tits in charge is me.”
Source: Video of Hillary Clinton drinking and dancing [Redlasso]
It’s no secret that Holly Madison is in love with Hugh Hefner (maybe his money, but…) and has been hoping to get Hugh’s wedding ring on her finger, it looks like that’s never going to happen.
“We are no closer to getting married than we were years ago,” a dejected Holly told Tarts at last week’s “Playmate of the Year” luncheon held at the iconic Mansion. “It’s like a car stalled at the side of the road.”
While the 28-year-old glamour girl may still be holding out for a miraculous jump-start, she found it difficult to deal with her boyfriend’s thoughts on the situation as she sadly turned away while he spoke.
“I love Holly very much and I think we’re going to be together the rest of my life,” Hef said. “But marriage isn’t part of my puzzle. It’s not a personal thing; I just haven’t had much luck with marriages.”
But not only is the men’s magazine mogul refusing to commit to just one woman, he’s refusing to give up his passion of perusing pictures of beautiful (yet bare) bodies.
“I have no plans to retire,” Hefner added. “It’s the perfect combination of work and play that keeps you young. If I quit work it would be the beginning of the end for me.”
Speaking of endings, could his other two “Girls Next Door,” Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson, also be getting ready to move on?
“My goal is to be hosting my own show and be happily married with children, so I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately,” Bridget said.
Kendra added that her future plans also involve motherhood and marriage while at the same time she aspires to build up her brand name, so with her own label Kdub clothing ready to launch, it seems she’s well on the way to independence.
If you thought Bill O’Reilly has the tendency to snap on camera on his Fox News show, wait until you see some vintage footage of the boisterous host from his pre-’Factor’ days.
[beware... foul language on clip]
The footage is from O’Reilly’s days as a reporter on ‘Inside Edition,’ where he worked from 1988-1995. In it, O’Reilly is reading a promo for the show, when he begins to get irritated over teleprompter problems. He goes back and forth with a producer, switching from lip-biting to flat-out screaming and cursing by the end. There’s no date given on the video to indicate what year it was filmed.
O’Reilly’s temper has been somewhat of a trademark for him through the years, especially on his Fox News show ‘The O’Reilly Factor.’ On the show, O’Reilly often gets into yelling matches with guests, sometimes resulting in him shutting off their microphones and asking them to leave.
Authorities said there appeared to be no signs of a struggle having taken place inside the 9th-floor apartment, which the green-eyed, 5′8″ beauty had occupied for only two months.
Friends said the 29-year-old fled to Las Vegas, where she was working at a nightclub in the Palms Casino Hotel before Clooney swept her off her feet one year ago.
“We are no closer to getting married than we were years ago,” a dejected Holly told Tarts at last week’s “Playmate of the Year” luncheon held at the iconic Mansion. “It’s like a car stalled at the side of the road.”
