Comments on: Cable News: Where Being Loud Trumps Being Wrong

By: Why the Mainstream Media Never Seems to Learn Any Lessons of History | The Agitator

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 21:38:54 +0000

[...] involving alleged child molestation and rape, one often sees Wendy Murphy interviewed, and, as Radley has pointed out, Murphy has a history of telling whoppers. She is not an expert in any sense of the word, but because she is inflammatory, reporters will [...]

By: Morning Links | The Agitator

Morning Links | The Agitator — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:52:22 +0000

[...] prosecutor, frequent fabricator, and serial slanderer Wendy Murphy, best known for going on cable news and making shit up . . . apparently teaches journalism seminars at [...]

By: On Cable News | The Agitator

On Cable News | The Agitator — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 00:42:39 +0000

[...] then there’s what you might call the Wendy Murphy Problem, which is that in the world of cable news, things move so fast, the soundbites are so short, the [...]

By: On Cable News | The Agitator

On Cable News | The Agitator — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 00:42:39 +0000

[...] then there’s what you might call the Wendy Murphy Problem, which is that in the world of cable news, things move so fast, the soundbites are so short, the [...]

By: bud

bud — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:30:04 +0000

“Murphy has made demonstrably untrue statements…”

Let me illustrate, grasshopper, why this should be no surprise.

Two old jokes:

How do you know a politician is lying?
His lips are moving.

Lawyer: the larval form of politician.

By: Duncan20903

Duncan20903 — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 02:23:23 +0000

When Oswald shot Kennedy, he was insane
But still we watch the re-runs again and again
We all sit glued while the killer takes aim
“Hey Mom, there goes a piece of the president’s brain!”

-The Kinks

By: George Arndt

George Arndt — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 00:36:32 +0000

It’s just strawman after strawman on cable

By: Cable News Switcheroo | The Agitator

Cable News Switcheroo | The Agitator — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:48:17 +0000

[...] York criminal defense attorney Scott Greenfield riffs on my post about Wendy Murphy yesterday and tells this amusing tale from the cable TV trenches: Way back when MSNBC used to do 6 [...]

By: StevefromOhio

StevefromOhio — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:46:17 +0000

@Frank

Well, duh. If they didn’t commit a crime why would they be charged with one?

Turn on your TV, prole, and stop thinking. It’s dangerous.

By: tb

tb — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:35:05 +0000

Murphy threw out a statistic that only 2 percent of sex offenders are actually on sex offender registries.

If true, doesn’t this make the registries – at best – useless?

It creates a false sense of security – just like the TSA.

By: tb

tb — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:32:27 +0000

Murphy threw out a statistic that only 2 percent of sex offenders are actually on sex offender registries. I’m still not sure where she got that figure.

Rectally sourced, I’m sure.

I wonder if the opposite is true: that only 2% of those on sex offender registries are actually sex offenders.

I suspect my version is closer to correct than hers.

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:48:45 +0000

Wendy Murphy is a shrieking nut. No matter what the circumstances or evidence,the accused (particularly if it’s a man) is allways guilty.

By: josephineMO7

josephineMO7 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:00:14 +0000

I have to say she is part right.. I, many years ago before I knew better, sat in a wic office listening to South American woman talk about their kids just the way she was saying.. Now you have to understand the office I went to also pushed the depo shot hard. These woman were more than willing to get them saying they only needed the one kid. If you talked to the men, usually outside, they would mention their kids in Mexico or other countries that they hadn’t seen. They left their wives and children in S.A to be impoverished and starving to come over here and have the one baby that would get them citizenship.. They talked like they had hit the jack pot. How hard it was to get over here and how much they got from the government.. Fact are if we ended welfare and opened the borders, these people would leave and others like them would never come.. I bet we would get a good bit coming over for real work though.. Which I am all for. But to pretend that some people are coming over here, from many countries, to have babies so they can live off the system, meaning our tax dollars, isn’t doing anyone any favors. The baby is a paycheck and if you subsidize something you get more of it..

And yes I do realize that American woman get knocked up on purpose to get a paycheck from Daddy for the same reasons.. Because they can and the government helps them do it..

By: Daniel S.

Daniel S. — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:54:50 +0000

Since you cited an Investor’s Business Daily editorial as the only source you could find for the 50% of prisoners statistic, I just wanted to remind everyone that IBD is the newspaper that published an editorial claiming that that the National Health Service would have let Stephen Hawking die to save money. You know, because that is what “socialists” do. Apparently, they were confused by his computer’s lack of a British accent and thus assumed he must be an American.

By: Cynical in CA

Cynical in CA — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:43:33 +0000

Correction above: “former” should be “latter.” But really it doesn’t matter to me whether you write about cable news or watch it — it’s a free country.

Another point of clarification, my original post was a sincere compliment — concise statements of truth are things of beauty.

By: Cynical in CA

Cynical in CA — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:38:50 +0000

Interesting.

Of all the things I comment on here, this is what you choose to respond to, Radley? A one-off throw-away observation of how cable news is strictly entertainment (pandering, more like it), which should be obvious to anyone with a brain?

I thought we had an agreement — that I’d amuse myself, and occasionally others, with my narcissistic quasi-rants, and you’d pretend I didn’t exist. Guess I was wrong.

Anyhoo, you have as much chance of influencing Fox News’ programming decisions as I, or anyone else. We’ll see how much longevity your target has in this instance, I’m guessing she rates pretty well given Fox’s audience.

For the record, it was the former. Please, please, please, don’t stop writing about this stuff. I’d have to find a new host organism and all that, much too inconvenient. And I’d have to stop referring to you in my discussions with others about these very interesting subjects and helping build your web traffic.

And, I don’t mean to infer that you’re obtuse, Radley, but my theme is not hopelessness — it’s the hopelessness of electoral politics and democracy in general — it’s that your avenue of choice is hopeless. There is plenty of hope for those that eschew the State and seek non-violent solutions. Having had the displeasure of reading me these last couple of years, I would have thought that might have gotten through to you by now.

I might also take this opportunity to remind you that in this one little corner of the cyberuniverse, you are the master and may exile me at your whim forever and ever. What’s stopping you?

By: CHRISC

CHRISC — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:22:30 +0000

Seeing Murphy’s appearances before, I have learnedto turn them off so I don’t get sick in my cheerios. But she is a former prosecutor, and I always wonder if some vicious sick people aren’t drawn to that profession the same way some bad cops gravitate to SWAT. She certainly has profited at the expense of other people, both victims and the accused. I think the only place you will find the source of her statistics is the bathroom, cuz she pulls them out from someplace in there….

By: Kevin Carson

Kevin Carson — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 05:40:29 +0000

Somewhere an ex-husband wakes up humming.

By: BadExampleMan

BadExampleMan — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:12:34 +0000

#2 OT, but did you just equate this clownish harpy and a Nobel Prize-winning economist? Really?

Well, I eagerly await your long list of Professor Krugman’s totally bogus statistics.

By: Radley Balko

Radley Balko — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 03:18:46 +0000

If you don’t like the play, don’t go to the show.

I don’t know what this means.

Are you saying I shouldn’t be writing about this stuff, or going on TV to argue it?

Or that I shouldn’t watch cable news?

If it’s the latter, I really don’t. If it’s the former, where would you go to leave comments telling everyone it’s all hopeless and they should stop trying?