Fox News

Four Things Jane Austen Actually Teaches Us About Love

Yesterday, we stumbled upon this rather horrible opinion column at Fox News (was that redundant?) in which the author explains how women are hormonally destined to like Jane Austen, and imparts four important lessons supposedly gleaned from the writer’s oeuvre, required reading “if you’re a woman who’s looking for Mr. Right and getting nowhere.” Those are: “play hard to get,” “wait for sex,” “make your guy feel important,” and “put down your sword” (because “despite what you’ve heard, men don’t love b*tches”). Wait, we think we might have been reading different books. After the jump, we clarify what Jane Austen actually teaches both men and women about love in the modern age. … Read More

Why Fox’s Election Night Coverage Was Both Entertaining and Disturbing

We’ve long passed the point where Fox News could be taken seriously as an actual news organization, where their “Fair and Balanced” tagline could be seen as anything other than a smirking, liberal-baiting in-joke, where anyone with half an understanding of reality and even-handedness could fail to see them for what they are: a disciplined, well-funded, smoothly-operated propaganda machine. And all of this is why so many have indulged in a bit of giggly schadenfreude in these hours following the decisive re-election of the network’s Kenyan/Socialist/Muslim/New Black Panther/ACORN boogeyman, President Barack Obama. We’ve had a good hearty laugh at their “dark night of the soul,” mused over their five stages of election grief, enjoyed the sad-face jpegs, and done play-by-plays of what became the most riveting television since season one of Lost. It’s fun. But even though no thinking person still believes Fox News engages in anything resembling journalism, it’s worth nothing that their odd shenanigans in the hour following the Ohio call were a rather astonishing loogie in the face of journalistic integrity and ethics. … Read More

Video of the Day: The Muppets Respond to Fox News, Hilariously

You may recall that, back in December, Fox News ran a hysterical — in both the “funny” and “histrionic” senses — segment about how The Muppets is preaching class warfare. Titled “Are Liberals Trying to Brainwash Your Kids Against Capitalism?,” the clip found Eric Bolling positively flipping out about the way the movie treats poor, innocent oil magnates and one of his guests crowing that its bottom-line message is “that mankind is a virus on poor, old Mother Earth.”

Well, it’s taken a few months, but the Muppets have gone on record with a response. In the video below, Kermit and Miss Piggy discuss Bolling’s accusations at a press conference in advance of the movie’s UK premiere. “If we had a problem with oil companies, why would we have spent the entire film driving around in a gas-guzzling Rolls Royce?” asks Kermit. But it’s Piggy who gets in the real zinger, as usual: “It’s almost as laughable as accusing Fox News of, you know, being news.” Kermit predicts, “Boy, that’s gonna be all over the Internet.” And now, thank heavens, it is. … Read More

The Year In Film: 2011's Biggest Movie Controversies

Every Wednesday in December, Flavorwire will take a look back at the year in film — the stories, the performances, the movies that we were talking about in 2011. For this week, let’s revisit some of the year’s movie controversies, shall we?

We film folk can get worked up pretty easily, so while we found plenty of things to get all a-tizzy about in 2011, the assembled list of 2011′s film controversies doesn’t exactly read like end-of-the-world, stop-the-presses stuff. But these things are important to us! We’re easily excitable! Thus, ratings and posters and Oscars and Darth Vader’s scream were well worth talking about — then, and now. Join us after the jump to relive some of the year’s very big deals. … Read More

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

1. Old Ideas, the lovely Leonard Cohen’s first studio album in seven years, isn’t due out until January, but you can already stream one of the tracks called “Show Me The Place” here.

2. Julie Delpy has signed on to direct The Right Profile, a biopic about Clash frontman Joe Strummer that will… Read More

Even Fox News Can't Tell Sarah Palin and Tina Fey Apart

Here’s one to file under “Mistakes That Will Get You Fired”: Yesterday, Fox News reported that Sarah Palin is “50-50″ on entering the 2012 presidential race. But the photo that aired with the story was of Tina Fey spoofing the likely candidate and Fox News contributor on Saturday Night Live. Now, this kind of error… Read More

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

1. The Smoking Gun has unearthed Katy Perry’s 45-page concert rider, which in general is kind of boring (hates carnations, likes egg chairs), but also includes this misspelled gem for any of her drivers: “DO NOT STAIR AT THE BACKSEAT THRU THE REARVIEUW MIRROW.”

2. In case you missed last night’s Colbert Report,… Read More

This Week in Buzz

Editor’s note: Each Friday, our internet-savvy friends over at BuzzFeed curate a post for us that’s filled with links to some of their favorite items on the web that week. Enjoy!

Charlie Sheen’s stage tour got off to a rocky start in Detroit where the former Two and a Half Men star was … Read More

A Brief History of Fake News

Tonight, IFC premieres The Onion News Network, a weekly half-hour series in which the satirical newspaper and website tries its hand at “bringing truth to cable news.” Though the execution is timely (the series is full of Fox News-style whooshing graphics, barking pundits, and aggressive slogans like “news without mercy”), the notion of parody news goes back decades. Join us for a brief history of fake news in popular culture. … Read More

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

1. Over 7,000 people in a photo taken at this year’s Glastonbury Festival in England have tagged themselves on Facebook, setting a Guinness World Record. [via Gizmodo]
2. Mel Gibson‘s reported cameo in The Hangover 2 has been canceled. According to director Todd Phillips, “I thought Mel would have been great in… Read More