Stories by Eric Boehlert

Eric Boehlert is is a senior fellow at Media Matters for America. He's the author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush (Free Press, 2006) and Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press (Free Press, 2009). He worked for five years as a senior writer for Salon.com, where he wrote extensively about media and politics. subscribe to Eric Boehlert's feed

Why Fox News and the Wall Street Journal Reward Their Pundits for Being Wrong About Everything

Posted on: Nov 16, 2012, Source: Media Matters

Something is deeply amiss when completely misjudging the election can get you touted as a sharp thinker in the conservative media world.

Tucker Carlson To Journalists: Pay Attention To Me Or You're "Contemptible"

Posted on: Oct 9, 2012, Source: Media Matters for America

The bow-tied clown is angry the press didn't immediately take seriously a non-news story the right-wing media manufactured.

Right-Wing Media Hopelessly Confused About Their Race-Based Attacks On Obama

Posted on: Oct 3, 2012, Source: Media Matters for America

Some contradictory messages in their stew of racial resentment.

Why the Right-Wing Media Loves Paul Ryan (And GOP Operatives Don't)

Posted on: Aug 16, 2012, Source: Media Matters

The far-right press is convinced the selection of Ryan as VP is the boost Romney desperately needs, while GOP operatives fret Ryan just doomed any chance Romney had of capturing the White House.

Rush Limbaugh and the Right-Wing Nervous Breakdown

Posted on: Mar 7, 2012, Source: Media Matters for America

For a Republican Party already suffering from a yawning gender gap, Limbaugh's hijacking of the news cycle last week must have been unwelcome news.

How Fox News Is Destroying The Republican Party

Posted on: Jan 30, 2012, Source: Media Matters for America

It's becoming increasingly clear that Fox's programming and the radical, fear-based agenda it's setting for Republicans is now doing lasting damage to the Grand Old Party.

7 Things Fox Viewers Are Wildly Misinformed About

Posted on: Nov 25, 2011, Source: Media Matters for America

What's stunning is how many different areas of the news and public policy Fox viewers are misinformed about.

Is Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes Going to Jail?

Posted on: Feb 28, 2011, Source: Media Matters for America

Ailes, who runs Fox News as his personal fiefdom, has been thrust into the spotlight for potentially breaking the law, allegedly telling an employee to lie to feds.

"We Were a Stalin-esque Mouthpiece for Bush" -- Fox News Insider

Posted on: Feb 10, 2011, Source: Media Matters for America

"They’re a propaganda outfit but they call themselves news," says a former insider from the world of Rupert Murdoch.

Glenn Beck Limps into 2011 with Sinking Ratings

Posted on: Jan 30, 2011, Source: Media Matters for America

Just one year ago, Fox News' Glenn Beck had a nightly audience of 3 million -- now his ratings are off by a third, and his radio show dropped in New York and Philadelphia.

78-Year-Old Threatened With Death After Glenn Beck Attack Fears Violence: "It Only Takes One Person Who Is a Little Deranged"

Posted on: Jan 25, 2011, Source: Media Matters for America

"It's a big county and there's all kinds of people.," said progressive writer Frances Fox Piven in response to the violent rhetoric launched her way after being targeted by Beck.

The Right's Rising Tide of Violent Rhetoric Is Deadly

Posted on: Jan 10, 2011, Source: Media Matters for America

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords appears be the latest victim of anti-government violence that has taken hold in America since 2009.

Why Doesn't the Media Have the Guts to Attack Fox News' Hate-Filled Witch Hunts?

Posted on: Aug 24, 2010, Source: Media Matters for America

Fox's hatemongering against Muslims and African-Americans continues to mostly get a free pass in the media.

Glenn Beck's Incendiary Rhetoric Is Dangerously Close to Having a Body Count

Posted on: Jul 27, 2010, Source: Media Matters for America

Right-wing media, led by Beck, continue to stoke dangerous fires with relentlessly incendiary rhetoric. We will see more tries at vigilante violence.

For Fox, Beck, Limbaugh -- Race Baiting Has Become Standard Fare, with More to Come This Summer

Posted on: Jul 14, 2010, Source: Media Matters for America

Irrational Obama Derangement Syndrome has spread across the airwaves, frothing into pure racist paranoia and hate talk.

Why the BP Disaster Threatens to Expose Fox News' Insanity to Its Right-Wing Audience

Posted on: Jun 23, 2010, Source: Media Matters for America

"I'm wondering if Fox News isn't pressing up very closely to its tipping point; to the moment where Fox News reveals how certifiably insane it is by rushing to BP's defense."

The LA Times Insults Obama Regularly

Posted on: Jun 10, 2010, Source: Media Matters for America

Why does one of the largest newspapers in the country allow its political writer to routinely disrespect the president in a casually insulting way?

How Glenn Beck Helps Violent Right-Wing Militias

Posted on: Apr 6, 2010, Source: Media Matters for America

Glenn Beck has done more than any other person to amplify and mainstream the movement's hateful and foreboding anti-government message.

What If Fox News Actually Wants Mob Violence?

Posted on: Mar 30, 2010, Source: Media Matters for America

Fox News talkers did their best to trivialize the illegal, terrorist threats made against elected officials, and implied they were deserved.

Fox News, Health Care, and the Right-Wing Nervous Breakdown

Posted on: Mar 25, 2010, Source: Media Matters for America

How did health care go so terribly wrong for the Tea Party's true believers? They made the mistake of believing their own hype -- and Fox News.

NPR Has a Serious Fox News Problem

Posted on: Dec 17, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

For the sake of NPR's long-term health and reputation, it needs to resolve two of its hosts' long-standing ties to Fox News

Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh Stoking GOP Civil War

Posted on: Nov 10, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

The right-wing media are trying to play "king-maker." But they are incapable of picking winners and stand poised to rip the Republican Party apart.

30 Reasons Fox News Is Not Legit

Posted on: Oct 27, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

Fox News routinely, and blatantly, breaks the code to which ethical journalists are supposed to aspire.

Obama Vs. Rupert Murdoch: Fox News' Blatant Transition into GOP TV

Posted on: Oct 13, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

Fox News is now explicitly a pro-Republican channel. Now the press needs to change the way it covers Fox News.

Right-Wing Media Send Their Mobs of Crazy Fans to Go After Private Citizens -- Including Kids

Posted on: Sep 29, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

The right-wing is igniting the crazies by pushing them to snoop on everyday people.

Why Do Angry, Right-Wing Mobs Get Media Respect?

Posted on: Aug 25, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

Meanwhile, the media has always lashed out at liberal protesters.

Health Care Mobs = Swift Boat Vets... And the Press Plays Dumb, Again

Posted on: Aug 21, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

Mini-mob members being treated as deeply important newsmakers is reminiscent of August 2004.

Rush Limbaugh's "Nazi" Rhetoric: Where's the Outrage?

Posted on: Aug 11, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

Why are so many corporate news outlets silent about Limbaugh's offensive Hitler comparisons?

The New Yorker Magazine's Strange Embrace of Hate-Spewing Shock Jock Michael Savage

Posted on: Aug 3, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

A recent puff piece in the New Yorker legitimizes Savage's hate crusade.

How Lou Dobbs Scared Rush Limbaugh Off the Birther Story

Posted on: Jul 30, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

The media backlash that Dobbs set off made sure that nobody will ever take the birthers seriously again.

Crazy "Birther" Conspiracy Theories Get Boost in Mainstream Media

Posted on: Jul 23, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

The movement is a sinister attempt to paint Obama as illegitimate, foreign, and suspect. Why are pundits like Lou Dobbs taking it seriously?

It's the Right-Wingers Who Are Unloading the Harshest Critiques About Palin’s Bizarre Departure

Posted on: Jul 7, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

The split among conservatives over who's to blame for Palin’s early exit from the national stage is breaking out into the airwaves.

Is Fox So Crazy That It's Even Alienating Some Conservatives?

Posted on: Jun 16, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

The hate-filled rhetoric spewed by Fox pundits like Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly is even alarming some of the people who work there.

Right-Wing Violence Will Continue, And Fox News Will Have to Answer For It

Posted on: Jun 9, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

Agitators like O'Reilly and Beck traffic in incendiary rhetoric and it's pretty obvious where it's leading to.

The Media's Appalling Coverage of Sonia Sotomayor

Posted on: Jun 5, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

Coverage of Sotomayor's nomination has been gruesome in so many ways, as reporters fail to reflect even the most basic tenets of journalism.

Newt Gingrich Is a GOP Nobody from the '90s -- Why Is He Quoted Like the Gospel?

Posted on: May 19, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

Every time Gingrich opens his mouth, the media clings on his every word. There's no reason this man should be listened to.

Limbaugh's $400 Million Contract Is an Even Match for Clear Channel's Layoffs

Posted on: May 7, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

What does Limbaugh think when he reads about the collapse of his radio employer while lounging in his 24,000-square-foot Florida estate?

Fox News' Unhinged, Irrational Obama Attacks Stir up Violent Right-Wing Militants

Posted on: Apr 21, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

Paranoid anti-government radicals used to have to rely on crude, inefficient methods of communication. Now they have Fox News.

The Rise of Glenn Beck's Bizarre Media Militia

Posted on: Apr 7, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

Fox News is playing an increasingly erratic and dangerous game by embracing paranoid insurrection rhetoric and conspiracy theorists.

Someone Pull Off Jonah Goldberg's Press Badge Before He Makes Up Any More Stories

Posted on: Feb 11, 2009, Source: Media Matters for America

Goldberg's idea of critiquing the media goes something like this: 1) concoct some news 2) slam reporters for things they didn't write.

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