Liberal Atheist

liberalforever:

hannahology:

Perfect.

Speaks for itself! 

(Source: raptorific, via reagan-was-a-horrible-president)

According to Comedy Central, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart averaged 2.3 million viewers per episode in 2011. Unlike Fox News, “The Daily Show” was up in total viewers (+7%) and all key demos: adults 18-49 (+6%); men 18-34 (+2%); men 18-24 (+4%).” The Daily Show was also the top cable late night talk show in terms of total viewers, and was generally dominant. While Fox News was losing 14% in the demo in 2011, Jon Stewart was gaining 6%.

Jon Stewart has become Fox News’ #1 media nemesis. To put Stewart’s ratings into a head to head context, The O’Reilly Factor tends to hover around the 3 million viewers range. Hannity is at around 2+ million, and On The Record with Greta Van Susteren varies between 1.1 million and 1.5 million as an average. This means that The Daily Show is more popular than both Hannity and On The Record, and trails O’Reilly by about 700,000 viewers.

The reason why Fox News feels so threatened by Jon Stewart is because his program is more popular than anything not named Bill O’Reilly on the network. Not only is Stewart popular, but he is popular with the coveted young demographics that Fox News struggles with. The average Fox News viewer is 65 years old. For years, the Fox News model of success has been powered by viewers literally aging in to watching Fox.

However, Jon Stewart has thrown a wrench in the Fox News cycle of life by educating his millions of younger viewers about Fox News. Stewart spends segments debunking the propaganda, exposing facts, and uncovering the edited video that is the bread and butter of America’s top cable news network.

Every night Stewart is teaching Americans how to not watch Fox News. The Daily Show host has become the media critic with the biggest platform and loudest voice in our country, and most often that voice is targeting Fox News for their brand of “journalism.”

(Source: azspot, via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)

think-progress:

1. The CIA is monitoring up to 5 million tweets per day.

2. Income inequality in America is worse than in Ancient Rome.

3. Twenty-three straight polls find Americans overwhelmingly want to raise taxes to pay down debt.

4. 68% of millionaires support raising taxes on millionaires.

think-progress:

think-progress:

shotgunsunday:

This. All of it.

Not sure how I missed THIS, but thanks for the shout-out! We do our best. The kittens help.

(Source: thisbitchtotally)

reagan-was-a-horrible-president:

 George W. Bush 

(Source: diadoumenos)

motherjones:

FTW. And relatedly, be sure to check out Jaeah Lee’s story on how your Halloween costume/candy/pumpkin is supporting child labor and union-busting businesses. These are the kinds of problems no one ever has with Casimir Pulaski Day.

motherjones:

File under “actual stuff she actually said just yesterday.”

think-progress:

Ever eat Chick-fil-A? The fast food company gave almost $2 million to anti-gay groups in 2009. 

savepell:

Visit http://bit.ly/savepellnow to stand up for students. When you’re done, please reblog this graphic to spread the word.

thepoliticalfreakshow:

PBS’ Judy Woodruff interviewed GOP presidential frontrunner Herman Cain on Monday night and wanted to know how the former pizza CEO would handle China should he occupy the Oval Office. Boosting the “us vs. them” mentality the GOP usually promotes when talking about China, Cain said “they’re a military threat,” particularly because — seeming to keep up his image that he doesn’t know much about foreign policy — they’re trying to get nuclear weapons:

WOODRUFF: Do you view China as a potential military threat to the United States?

CAIN: I do view China as a potential military threat to the United States.

WOODRUFF: And what could you do as president to head that off?

CAIN: My China strategy is quite simply outgrow China. … [W]e already have superiority in terms of our military capability, and I plan to get away from making cutting our defense a priority and make investing in our military capability a priority, going back to my statement: peace through strength and clarity. So yes they’re a military threat. They’ve indicated that they’re trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.

Watch the clip (starting at 10:47):

Far from “trying to develop a nuclear capability,” as Cain suggests, and at risk of insulting anyone’s intelligence, the Chinese conducted their first nuclear weapons test in 1964 and reportedly possesses around 250 nuclear weapons, including thermonuclear warheads and around 150 tactical nukes. (HT: Huffington Post)

(Source: thepoliticalfreakshow)