BS: Truths about Fox

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 01:55 PM

Why bother??....All propaganda sources use a mixture of half truths and bull-crap!...ALL!!!..even NPR! To get an honest story, it's like eating a fish....and spitting out all the bones!..Shit, according to them, the gulf is as pristine NOW, as it was on the day of creation!
fortunately on that one, I had fantastic, independent sources, and they ALL confirmed that the pollutants, were far greater, than reported on ANY 'news' service, as well with the White House press conferences!..Same with the reactors in Japan!..Same with 911..Oklahoma City, Waco, Iraq, Iran-Contra, Mena, Vietnam, JFK, even inside stuff on the primaries, and why Obama was nominated over Hillary!..and way more!..but that being said, I'm NOT a political creature, nor will I be conformed to their lying agendas!..I'm a musician. My world refuses to buy into their crap! It's enough to 'contain the chaos', and compose really great stuff!...and to that end, you have to filter OUT, THEIR delusions of horse manure!

Fair enough?

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: saulgoldie
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 09:56 AM

GfS,
The difference between Fox and many other "news" outlets is that many of the others can be reliably fact-checked. Fox has an unacceptably high rate of "not fact." And no, I am not going to do the Internet research to corroborate my statement. You may feel free to assert Fox's "factual" record, if you like. If you do, then you support it with fact-checkable info.

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 07:31 AM

It is rumored that Raparree and Amos are going to get the band back together for one last stand!!

Does anyone here remember Breakfast in America?

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 31 May 11 - 11:27 PM

I wasn't even going to post on this one, BUT, I don't believe any singular 'news' source. They are all run by the likes of Ailes, Murdoch, Soros, Rice, Immelt among others, who are pushing one side or the other of the march toward corporate/government control!!
Not only that, the White House press conferences and press releases, ala Washington's version of 'Baghdad Bob' are just as misleading!..either by direct lies, or that of omission!

Good Luck...Oh, and try not to confuse 'political commentary' for hard news!

Use different 'news' sources.....and you might figure out, at least what they are avoiding!

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: frogprince
Date: 31 May 11 - 10:31 PM

"Think I'll just take a pss on the invite..."

Bobert, that's normally spelled with an i.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Songster Bob
Date: 31 May 11 - 10:30 PM

I just don't understand why the Right Whingers are so dead-set against paying for what this country gives them.

They should be called the FLP (Free-Loaders Party)

Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Bobert
Date: 31 May 11 - 10:19 PM

When I was in North Mississippi when Katrina hit doing some recording the guy who owned the studio was all over FOX and so to not be rude I watched it with him... I mean, Katrina was happening and so FOX reported that snipers were shooting at doctors at the local hospitals...

I remember vividly tellin' my friend that I not only didn't believe that story but also that FOX didn't tell the truth about stuff...

He got all puffy so I left it alone...

Turns out that there were no snipers shooting at doctors...

My friend has asked me to come down an' record some more stuff but, hey, I really don't want to go thru more FOX news at night...

Think I'll just take a pss on the invite...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 May 11 - 06:27 PM

I was reading the other day that Americans have had thirty years of anti-tax propaganda. We now have some of the lowest income tax rates in the world - and our deficit and our poor public services show the strain. FoxNews is one of the main channels of anti-tax propaganda, and it has been very effective.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Bill D
Date: 31 May 11 - 05:33 PM

Tony Perkins is one of the most dangerous men in this country because of his links to **extreme** right-wing demagoguery and his ability to sound convincing when proposing idiocy. His supposed basis is, as are many of this sort, ultra-conservative Christianity.

If he had his way, we'd be in a theocracy tomorrow!

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 May 11 - 05:08 PM

There is a campaign going on, right now, to boycott Orbitz because of their support for the homophobic spew which comes out of Fox News. A short clip, HERE, shows why many of us who support les/bi/gay/trans rights are supporting the boycott.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Amos
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 05:01 PM

"Anyway, I wrote all that to say this: Even compared to the manifest swindles and perversions of the past 20 years or thereabouts, the United States has never seen anything like Fox News. The closest comparison to what Fox does daily would be the party-line propaganda sheets of the far left and extreme right that made Orwell worry "that the very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world."

Recently, the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland released yet another study documenting Americans' lamentable ignorance of public events. It found that regular Fox News viewers were "significantly more likely than those who never watched it to believe" many things that are objectively false: the economy is worsening, that most Republicans opposed TARP, that the stimulus contained no tax cuts, that their own income taxes had increased, that most scientists doubt global warming, etc.

A deluded citizenry can't effectively govern itself. Yet complacency and institutional cowardice causes "mainstream" media to play along with the fiction that Fox News is an ordinarily craven, celebrity-driven news organization.

People, we're in deep trouble."

    * Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Gene Lyons is a National Magazine Award winner and co-author of "The Hunting of the President" (St. Martin's Press, 2000). You can e-mail Lyons at [e-mail]. More: Gene Lyons


The article is here. In it there is a link to an expose by Fox veteran Don Cooper. Very amusing read.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Greg F.
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 10:20 AM

I can & do blame the morons. There's a difference between being ignorant, and being uneducable once the facts are clearly presented.

And, unfortunately, it hasn't been only the Repubs slashing education funding.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 09:14 AM

Yup. That's why over half the US population supports tax cuts for the top 1 percent...at the expense of their own and their children's future security.

Dumbasses intentionally created by the greedy and immoral.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: mousethief
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 08:18 PM

Hard to blame the morons when the Repuglicans have been destroying the nation's education system for 30 years. A stupid population is easier to rule. Not lead. Not govern. Rule.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Greg F.
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 05:10 PM

I ain't lettin nobody off the hook. Nor FOX, nor the idiots that believe Fox's bullshit despite conclusive evidence to the contrary.

Symbiotic relationship between the bullshitters and the willing bullshittees.

However, the former would be nowhere without the latter.

Oh, ye generation of morons.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: mousethief
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 12:01 PM

That's half of it, Greg. In order to hoodwink people by lying, you have to lie. However much the people care. If nobody on Fox lied, it wouldn't matter if the sheeple didn't care about the truth. You can't let them off the hook that easily.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Greg F.
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 10:46 AM

The man is incredible! I don't think he knows what the truth is.

That's not the problem with him, with FOX, or with the Boobocracy.

Problem is they done CARE what the truth is.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 09:27 AM

Bingo LadyJean.

Hannity proudly claims that "every penny" from his shows goes to Vets and their families.

You may have noticed that those events have stopped happening (or at least are not as widely publicized). That's because Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and VoteVets filed papers accusing Hannity and the Fredom Alliance of deceptive advertising related to their claims about where the money goes. Full story in MotherJones (http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/03/crew-sean-hannity-freedom-concert-freedom-alliance).

Turns out that the tax returns (http://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/freedomalliancetaxes2006.pdf) show that their revenues were $10,822,785, but only $397,900 (3.7%) went to Vets and their families.

More "Truth" from a Faux News guy, n'est ce pas?

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: LadyJean
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 01:29 AM

Some weeks ago, I watched Glenn Beck tearfully display a Revolutionary War uniform he claimed had been made for his father for the bicentennial. He claimed his mother had made it, and drafted the pattern herself!!! He had the camera do a closeup on the label, where it did, indeed say, "Made For Bill Beck......BY VARSITY SHOPS"!!!!
The store name was in smaller print, but clearly readable. The man is incredible! I don't think he knows what the truth is.

Then there's Sean Hannity's concerts for veterans. Problem, most of the money raised goes to Hannity and his family, not the veterans it's supposed to help, another prevaricator.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Greg F.
Date: 22 Dec 10 - 12:23 PM

a ploy to allow the "fair and balanced" moniker to be desperately grasped?

You betcha. And the boobocracy will eat it up.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Dec 10 - 11:15 AM

Funny thing about that 9/11 responders bill is that the Repubs are doing exactly what they are going to do with Social Security... Geeze, we don't have the money so, "Tough luck, Charlie"... That's why they gleefully went along with the 2% payroll tax holiday... This is the money that is supposed to go into Social Security and if they can break Social Security then they can do this nifty little end around...

It should be pointed out that these same people were the ones who brought US not one but two unfunded wars to the tune of $1T?!?!?...

Go figure???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: mousethief
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 01:38 PM

Although I must ask -- how much did the word and actions of his co-workers at Fox undermine his stance? A single lone voice seemingly speaking out against the majority: a ploy to allow the "fair and balanced" moniker to be desperately grasped?

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: mousethief
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 01:36 PM

Wow, kudos to Stewart.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: bobad
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 11:30 AM

Shocker: Fox host calls out Republicans who blocked 9/11 responders bill

By David Edwards
Tuesday, December 21st, 2010 -- 9:54 am

At least one Fox News host is willing to hold Republicans accountable for blocking a bill that would provide health benefits to 9/11 first responders.

Fox News' Shepard Smith called out Republicans by name Thursday, placing individual responsibility for their successful filibuster of the bill but would not come on his show to talk about it.

While Smith noted that they blocked the bill "in lockstep."

"We called a lot of Republicans today, who are in office at the moment," he said. "These are the one who told us no: Sens. Alexander, Barrasso, Cornyn, Crapo, DeMint, Grassley, Kyl, McConnell, Sessions, Bacchus, Gregg, and Inhofe."

In addition, Sens. Bunning, Coburn, Ensign, Graham, Hatch, and McCain failed respond to his request at all.

"I'm not really surprised, but what is your take? Why does no one want to talk about this?" Smith asked former Republican Gov. of New York George Pataki.

"I can't tell you why they didn't come on and talk about it but I do believe that it's important that the Senate act and I hope they act before they break," Pataki said.

House Resolution 847, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, would provide $7 billion in benefits to workers that responded to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Many of those workers are now experiencing health problems such as cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease.

For his part, Smith seems to be the exception at Fox News, where only one other personality has gotten angry about the 9/11 first responders bill -- but he neglected to mention that Republicans were the reason for its failure.

"Shame, embarrassment, outrage, anger, all are proper reactions to the conduct of our Senators, who will now find one excuse after another to explain away the fact that they have turned their back on American heroes," Peter Johnson Jr. said last week. "Heroes whose only sin was to expect nothing for their service and were then promised the world by politicians who couldn't take enough pictures with them."

While other mainstream media outlets have yet to cover 9/11 responders during their nightly news coverage of the lame duck session, Comedy Central's Jon Stewart devoted his final show of the year to the subject.

Stewart noted that the only network that fully covered the topic was Al-Jazeera.

"Our networks were scooped with a sympathetic Zadroga Bill story by the same network Osama bin Laden sends his mix-tapes to!" he exclaimed. "This is insane!"

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/fox-host-calls-republicans-blocked-911-responders-bill/

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Greg F.
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 11:02 AM

How many times has this woman been abducted by space aliens and when will she be committed to an institution?

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: John J
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 10:53 AM

I've just returned from my Dad's in Florida. One of his neighbours swears by Fox News - she believes absolutely that it is truthful, and worryingly, completely unbiased.

She also tells me that she 'knows' that owners of PCs, laptops, netbooks etc, with cameras fitted, should be very wary as 'they' are always watching you. Accordingly she stuck opaque tape over the camera lenses of her computers.

Oh, and 'they' (presumably the same 'they') have fitted GPS devices in car tyres so 'they' always know where you are.

I learned a lot on that trip!

JJ

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 01:47 PM

waiting...

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Bobert
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 09:24 AM

The operative word in that study, Peter, is "beleive"...

That is the scariest part of this entire situation... The uneducated run on emotion and once they "believe" something then all the facts in the world won't budge them off that "belief"...

This we have an entire subculture of what Eric Hoffer coined, "True Believers"...

I just call it garbage in = garbage out...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: GUEST,Peter Woodruff
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 09:15 AM

I found this survey at AlterNet that proves Fox News makes you stupid.

News Corpse / By Mark Howard
554 COMMENTS
Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid
A new survey of American voters shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources.
December 15, 2010 |   

Yet another study has been released proving that watching Fox News is detrimental to your intelligence. World Public Opinion, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, conducted a survey of American voters that shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources. What's more, the study shows that greater exposure to Fox News increases misinformation.
So the more you watch, the less you know. Or to be precise, the more you think you know that is actually false. This study corroborates a previous PIPA study that focused on the Iraq war with similar results. And there was an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that demonstrated the break with reality on the part of Fox viewers with regard to health care. The body of evidence that Fox News is nothing but a propaganda machine dedicated to lies is growing by the day.
In eight of the nine questions below, Fox News placed first in the percentage of those who were misinformed (they placed second in the question on TARP). That's a pretty high batting average for journalistic fraud. Here is a list of what Fox News viewers believe that just aint so:
        91 percent believe the stimulus legislation lost jobs
        72 percent believe the health reform law will increase the deficit
        72 percent believe the economy is getting worse
        60 percent believe climate change is not occurring
        49 percent believe income taxes have gone up
        63 percent believe the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts
        56 percent believe Obama initiated the GM/Chrysler bailout
        38 percent believe that most Republicans opposed TARP
        63 percent believe Obama was not born in the U.S. (or that it is unclear)
The conclusion is inescapable. Fox News is deliberately misinforming its viewers and it is doing so for a reason. Every issue above is one in which the Republican Party had a vested interest. The GOP benefited from the ignorance that Fox News helped to proliferate. The results were apparent in the election last month as voters based their decisions on demonstrably false information fed to them by Fox News.
By the way, the rest of the media was not blameless. CNN and the broadcast network news operations fared only slightly better in many cases. Even MSNBC, which had the best record of accurately informing viewers, has a ways to go before it can brag about it.
The conclusions in this study need to be disseminated as broadly as possible. Fox's competitors need to report these results and produce ad campaigns featuring them. Newspapers and magazines need to publish the study across the country. This is big news and it is critical that the nation be advised that a major news enterprise is poisoning their minds.
This is not an isolated review of Fox's performance. It has been corroborated time and time again. The fact that Fox News is so blatantly dishonest, and the effects of that dishonesty have become ingrained in an electorate that has been been purposefully deceived, needs to be made known to every American. Our democracy cannot function if voters are making choices based on lies. We have the evidence that Fox is tilting the scales and we must now make certain its corporate owners do not get away with it.
Mark Howard is an artist and author and the publisher of News Corpse.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Bobert
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 08:04 AM

And wait ye shall do, TIA...

That's the part I love about righties... They love to equate MSNBC with their beloved FOX... Problem is that even righties understand that MSNBC, ahhhhhh, doesn't lie... No, the right might not like all the "inconvenient truths" that MSNBC throws at 'um but at least the right knows that, unlike FOX, MSNBC is telling the truth...

Very inconvenient indeed...

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 12:16 AM

Waiting.......

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 04:18 PM

Ahhh,
Here they are...

Enjoy.

And please, anyone who thinks MSNBC is just another side of the same coin, go ahead and supply us with a link documenting lies, lies, lies by MSNBC.

G'head. I will be waiting.

Here's the Bill O'Reilly lies about jail time in the health care bill mashup:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCYB85TySkQ

Here's the Bill O'Reilly lies about saying shut up mashup:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrNl6-j9x5w

Note that the clips focus on O'Reilly, but the lies are spewing from nearly everyone on Fox. Give a look.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 01:00 PM

The O'Reilly "the shut up thing happened maybe once" followed by dozens of shut ups, and the "we did the research and nobody at Fox News ever claimed there would be jail time for people without health care" followed by an endless string of Fox News people saying just that...

Two widely available mash-ups. Easily Googled up.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 06:37 PM

"Didn't someone a few years back say something about, "Beware of false prophets?""

Let me introduce you to "The Prophet Marginne"

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: mousethief
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 06:24 PM

At least the WSJ is up-front about supporting business.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 06:23 PM

Don't forget... Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox...also owns The Wall Street Journal now... what an interesting package!

Could this possibly indicate some tendency to manipulate BOTH financial news AND regular news? possibly...maybe....perhaps.....

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: mousethief
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 06:14 PM

Why won't FOX do a major piece on global warming and use the best science rather than the dubious bought-and-paid-for un-science...

Um, because FOX exists to shill for the super-rich, not to disseminate actual factual news?

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 04:09 PM

Didn't someone a few years back say something about, "Beware of false prophets?"

(Or was that "false profits?" Well . . . same difference, I guess.)

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Bobert
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 03:55 PM

Most recent fact about FOX is a memo that has surfaced instructing all of FOX's various announcers to add a disclaimer behind any story dealing with global warming which is worded in a manner where if one just dropped in from space would have you believe there is a some major disagreement in the science community about the causes...

Yes, there is this small minority of flat-earth lobbiest/scientists who claim that man is not responsible for global warming but these folks make up a very small minority...

Why won't FOX do a major piece on global warming and use the best science rather than the dubious bought-and-paid-for un-science...

Reminds me of my former father-in-law... He was a supposed expert on environmental matter and worked for the oil industry... He testified at the Exxon Valdez hearings... His testimony was purdy much, "Don't worry, be happy... Nature has a way of taking care of these things"... Right, Tom 'ol boy... First of all, he wasn't a real scientist... He had an undergraduate degree in horticulture... Period... Second of all, he was wrong... Third of all, God has His own ways of dealing with liars and when Tom got to be around 60 he developed allergies to all kinds of things that had petroleum in them, including the ink used in magazines and newspapers... Guess that "Don't worry, be happy" will get you a fat paycheck but it won't make myou any less an outright liar...

I mean, I'm sorry he got sick but, geeze loiuse, some folks just set5 themselves up with their greed and bullshit...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 03:26 PM

pdq, what about "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News?

ABC radio is his "primary" outlet? How do you figure?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: kendall
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 03:26 PM

It's still him. You can put a pig in a palace and it will still be a pig.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: pdq
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 03:18 PM

As far as I know, Bill O'Reilly (note spelling) has three hours every day on radio. That is fifteen hours a week. His primary outlet.

It is on ABC, not FOX.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 03:13 PM

Best ever Fox lie:
Beck claiming that George Soros "was a jewish boy helping send jews to the death camps."
Yes, he really did.
There's video.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 02:57 PM

Bill O'Reilly swore up and down that he never EVER told anyone he was interviewing to "Shut Up!!" on the air.

Shortly there followed an appearance on YouTube of a whole collage of O'Reilly telling many of his interviewees to "Shut Up!!"

I'm having some computer problems right now (using a loaner temporarily until I get my new one set up), otherwise I'd supply a link to the relevant clip on YouTube, but it shouldn't be too hard to find.

YouTube has a number of other clips of O'Reilly totally freaking out while on the air. He's about as "fair and balanced," not to mention emotionally stable, as the emperor Caligula.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Ebbie
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 02:38 PM

For the record: From snopes.com

"There was a companion story that Air Force One had been the victim of the outgoing Clintons and that numerous items from aboard the plane had been pilfered. President Bush himself told reporters aboard Air Force one on February 12, 2001, that the report was not true. According to Salon Washington correspondent Jake Tipper, Bush brought up the subject because the chief steward aboard Air Force One told him the allegations were false."

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: Bobert
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 02:11 PM

Horrors....

Clinton should indeed be brought up for War Crimes!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: GUEST,999
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 01:55 PM

Much as I had no appreciation for Mr Clinton, next ya got the worst fuckin` president the USA has ever had. Worrying about someone`s ass being photocopied--a stunt that was done over 40 years ago when a disgruntled employeee left his job (if my recollection is correct)--just ain`t worth talkin` about, imo.

You folks are gonna destroy each other. Have a nice day.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: pdq
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 01:21 PM

If the Clinton staffers had just photocopied their naked butts and not done the graffiti and vandalism, yes, it might have been funny.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: mousethief
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 01:08 PM

Okay the naked people in the photocopier is just damn funny.

Subject: RE: BS: Truths about Fox
From: pdq
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 12:02 PM

TruthOrFiction.com,

Damage at White House Offices Being Handed Over to the Bush Administration from The Clinton Staff-Truth!

Summary of eRumor:
When George W. Bush took over the presidency in 2001, his new staff arrived in the offices of the White House to find that there had been widespread pranks and vandalism by the departing Clinton staff.  Published reports said computers were left unusable, pornography was found on both computers and walls, and telephone systems were trashed by the cutting of cables and wires. 

The Truth: 
The final, official report from the Government Accounting Office was released on June 11, 2002.  The 220 page document says there was damage, although not as much as some of the early reports had suggested.  The GAO says the damage included 62 missing computer keyboards, 26 cell phones, two cameras, ten antique doorknobs and several presidential medallions and office signs.  The damage estimate was about $20,000.  Clinton critics say the report proves that the departing Clinton staff members acted recklessly and disrespectfully.  Clinton supporters say the report shows that the allegations of vandalism were exaggerated and that there were similar incidents when Clinton took over the White House from the staff of George Bush.

The GAO report concludes that even though damage was verified and that some of it appeared to have been intentional, there was not clear evidence of who was responsible for it.

This has been a subject of contention since President Bush took office.  There were reports of  vandalism, graffiti, and obscene messages in White House offices by outgoing Clinton staffers.  Bush downplayed the reports saying he wanted to move on with the presidency.  Clinton supporters, however, charged that the story was not true and that the Bush forces had made up the story  to make Bush's staff look better than Clinton's.  Former President Clinton offered to pay for any damage and his supporters called for an investigation.  

May 18, 2001 the General Accounting Office issued a three-page letter that said that it was unable confirm the damage largely to a lack of records from the White House.  The letter also said that the condition of the White House offices was "...consistent with what we would expect to encounter when tenants vacate office space after an extended occupancy."  As to any details of damage, the GAO letter said For supporters of former President Clinton, that seemed to end the matter.  They proclaimed victory, called the whole story an urban legend, and asked the White House to apologize.

In response, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer outlined the details of the damage, most of which was in the Eisenhower Execitive Office Building adjacent to the White House.  On June 3, 2001 The Washington Post quoted Fleischer as saying that the damage included the removal of the letter "W" from 100 computer keyboards, five missing brass nameplates with the presidential seal on them, 75 telephones with cover plates missing or apparently intentionally plugged into the  wrong wall outlets, six fax machines relocated in the same way, ten cut phone lines, two historic door knobs missing, overturned desks and furniture in about 20 percent of the offices, obscene graffiti in six offices, and eight 14-foot loads of usable office supplies recovered from the trash.  According to Fleischer, there was one incident in the White House itself, a photocopy machine that had copies of naked people hidden in the paper tray so they would come out from time to time with other copies.