Full tournament bracket
here.
Welcome to Day 2 of first-round action in the Right-wing Media region. Today, we're completing the first round ahead of this weekend's second-round matchups. You can cast your votes for today's matchups from
this page or follow the direct links in the game summaries below.
You're voting for whoever you think is the best poster child for Republican craziness, however you define it. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to pick the person who's crazier. For example, you might think Herman Cain is more off his rocker than Jim DeMint, but that Jim DeMint is a better poster child because he's got more clout in the GOP and conservative movement than Cain. It's entirely up to you.
With that out of the way, here are the matchups:
- #6 Sean Hannity vs. #11 Ben Shapiro: If there's any justice in the world, with this matchup the selection committee will once again be proven to be fools. Not to pick sides or anything, but Sean Hannity—while odious—is basically your garden variety right-wing hack. Breitbart.com's Ben Shapiro, on the other hand, makes Andrew Breitbart seem like Edward R. Murrow in comparison. Shapiro, you may recall, is the guy who reported on Chuck Hagel's links to the fictional Friends of Hamas organization. Not only did he never withdraw his original report, he defended it—and he's a regular guest on Fox News, spreading right-wing garbage as fact. Vote here!
- #3 James O'Keefe vs. #14 Rich Lowry: Yeah, I know James O'Keefe is coming off the embarrassment of forking over $100,000 to a former ACORN worker as a settlement for the fraudulent 2009 ACORN sting video that put him on the map. In a sane world, that would be the end of O'Keefe's career, but on the right, it's just an example of heroism, or something. Meanwhile, I'm not sure what to say about National Review's Rich Lowry. I guess he's more "respectable" than O'Keefe, but really, what has Lowry done other than edit a really boring magazine? Progressives simply don't fear Lowry. Instead, they recall when he admitted Sarah Palin gave him starbursts. Wait, did I say recall? I meant they recoil. Because, ewww! Vote here!
- #7 Tucker Carlson vs. #10 Bill Kristol: The fact that these two old school hacks are probably among the brighter bulbs in the beltway's conservative media elite says more about the stupidity of the Beltway's conservative media elite than anything else. Kristol's judgment is legendary, from helping push us into the Iraq war to encouraging John McCain to push Sarah Palin on the country. He's rarely right about anything, and when he is, it's usually for the wrong reasons. Tucker Carlson, meanwhile, is still desperately trying to recover from the thrashing dealt to him by Jon Stewart on Crossfire a decade ago. Right before the first debate of the 2012 campaign, Carlson announced he had a scoop: a brand new video of a secret speech President Obama had given getting all racist against whitey after Hurricane Katrina. Except it turns out the tape wasn't new. In fact, Tucker himself had reported it five years earlier! Plenty of media were there covering it. Oh, and by pointing out that African Americans in New Orleans had gotten screwed after Katrina, the president wasn't making a racist attack. He was pointing out the truth that everyone knows—which is why his comments were no more controversial when Carlson re-aired them than when they first appeared. Anyway, there's really no way to go wrong in this matchup. Or, I mean—there's no way to go right. Vote here!
- #2 Roger Ailes vs. #15 Ann Coulter: This is a battle of the titans: two of the most noxious right-wing media hacks around, albeit in very different ways. Ailes is a ventriloquist and puppet master, usually content to let his underlings do the talking. Coulter, on the other hand, enters battle with nothing but her mouth. As Ailes would have one of his hosts say, some question whether Coulter has faded. Whether she can hold her own—or perhaps even win—this matchup will help answer that question. Vote here!
That's it for the action in the Right-wing Media region. Remember, you can vote from a single page or follow the individual links above. As with yesterday, you've got until about 8:30 AM ET on Saturday to cast your ballot.
You can see the full tournament bracket as well as yesterday's results here.