As you can see from the clip, Fox News invited Sarah Palin to fire up the volunteers manning their phone banks—

Hold on… The audio’s now coming in, and apparently it’s Gregg Jarrett saying how Palin is “continuing to draw huge crowds while she’s promoting her brand new book. Take a look at — these are some of the pictures just coming into us. There’s a crowd of folks—”

Wait, wait… our producer now tells us that the footage we’re seeing is actually campaign B-roll from 2008, used to illustrate today’s large crowds.

Won’t you please give generously? Fox can’t get their library catalogued soon enough.

Fox News displays old campaign footage to claim Palin is getting ‘huge crowds’ at her book signings [Think Progress]

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We’ve always considered Wolf Blitzer more a congenial doofus than a pandering faux-populist, but we may have to revise our opinion in light of his questioning today to the lawyer representing the Fort Hood shooter:

They asked me, how could a retired U.S. military officer, a full colonel, go ahead and represent someone accused of mass murder? And I want you to explain to our viewers why you’re doing this.

Col. John Galligan (Ret.) fills in Wolf about what he missed when he skipped his high school civics class:

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Media Matters notices what caught Manchu’s attention this morning. Here’s the AP election preview:

To be sure, it’s easy to overanalyze the results of such a small number of elections in a few places. The results will only offer hints about the national political landscape and clues to the public’s attitudes. And the races certainly won’t predict what will happen in the 2010 midterm elections.

And here’s the AP election wrap-up:

To be sure, each race was as much about local issues as about firing warning shots at the politically powerful. But taken together, the results of the 2009 off-year elections could imperil Obama’s ambitious legislative agenda and point to a challenging environment in midterm elections next year.

To be sure, it’s easy to overanalyze the AP’s coverage, and wonder whether their finger is to the wind, or up their ass.

The AP vs. The AP [Media Matters]

Last time we watched Jeopardy with any frequency, Don Pardo was still the announcer. But for the record, CNN sucks at it:

Wolf was blitzed last month, coming in last with minus-$4,600, behind comic Andy Richter, a past winner who racked up $68,000 for charity…

[Michael] McKean, a previous winner, ended with $24,800 [this month], followed by Abdul Jabbar with $8,800 and [Soledad] O’Brien with $6,200.

“They are reporters, not trivia experts,” explains a CNN source. “And the buzzer is complicated.”

More complicated than holographic correspondents, apparently.

Anchors sink on ‘Jeopardy’ [NY Post]

We’ve been ignoring the Fox News fracas, figuring it’s a dog-bites-man story, even if the White House is running the Limbaugh Maneuver on them. But with the Daily Show on hiatus this week, Media Matters steps in with a cumulative backgrounder on what 300,764,724 Americans aren’t watching any given day.

Hot lunch, anyone?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phtG16FMK68

Shepard Smith to GOP Senator John Barrasso: “We the people are the ones who are getting the shaft here… Every vote against a public option is a vote for the insurance companies.”

We’re not sure what Shep has on Rupert, but it must be good. And Shep wisely asks merely for the opportunity to fuck with the heads of Fox News viewers, unlike fellow media wage slaves who want it all up front.

Fox’s Shep Smith Takes Down Fox News Talking Point On Public Option: ‘It’s Not A Government Takeover!’ [Think Progress]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrWh8VVaz60

Harry Shearer calls it the Full Ginsberg — an homage to Monica Lewinsky’s lawyer, who once made the rounds of all five Sunday talk shows in a single day. And tomorrow, Barack Obama will be matching that feat.

Almost. One show got left out. Guess which?

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