“There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.” – journalist Walter Lippmann. As long as the conservative media machine pushes lie after lie upon its viewers, symptoms like the shutdown will keep happening.

John Whitehouse Twitter: @existentialfish

Were They Even Paying Attention?

The Republican government shutdown of 2013 has caused at least $24 billion worth of damage to the American economy. How does Fox News respond to that? By pretending the damage doesn’t exist: http://mm4a.org/1aPendT Related: On Sunday, Megyn Kelly declared that Fox News does not lean right: http://mm4a.org/1gCvLY4 By Wednesday, Kelly was openly advocating the Republican position on the debt: http://mm4a.org/1cvp6wh

It’s Never Them, Is it?

In the wake of the failure of the radical shutdown strategy, conservatives whined that the strategy they advocated for didn’t fail, — they were betrayed. http://mm4a.org/19PJ988 Related: How did we even get here? If you’re looking for one man to blame, blame Rush Limbaugh: http://mm4a.org/17kGL5h

Treating Opinions As Facts

Schoolchildren do not get to claim that their wrong answers on a math test are just their opinions. And yet, that’s the same logic the news media uses when mainstreaming climate lies. The latest outlet to fall for this is USA Today. Shauna Theel explains their error: http://mm4a.org/19LK9u1

FEATURED VIDEO

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Juan Williams blasted the conservative “media bubble” causing hyper partisanship: http://youtu.be/PtLnrH8zg7s

AFTER IT’S NEWS

The second episode of Media Matters original web series After It’s News is live on Youtube! Check it out: http://youtu.be/XDC8XbZfviU

CHRONICALLY WRONG

Economist Dean Baker excoriates Niall Ferguson for being chronically wrong about the economy, from Ferguson’s inflation fearmongering to his attacks on the stimulus and more: http://huff.to/19TcAGD

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

Guests On The Sunday Shows Are Still White And Conservative