ISIS’ propaganda machine just gained a new ally.

Conservative pundit Erick Erickson has a new piece over at Red State, where he praises Fox News and its president Roger Ailes for boldly making the decision to air the gruesome unedited version of a Jordanian pilot being burned alive by ISIS terrorists.

Erickson writes that, “Whether Fox News aired the video or not, ISIS burned alive a Jordanian pilot. We might as well all have the opportunity to see what that evil is like, to know what we are dealing with, and resolve to slay that evil. Roger Ailes and Fox News have done a valuable service to the American people.”

Actually Erick, Fox News has done an incredibly valuable service to ISIS, not the American people.

Now, there’s little doubt about why Fox News decided to air the video. The main thing that Fox News has to sell is fear. It’s a giant fear-mongering machine that works really, really well. By airing the gruesome ISIS execution video, Fox News knew that it would be building fears over ISIS in the American people.

After all, before airing graphic images from the video on the February 3rd edition of Special Report, Bret Baier said that, “The images are brutal. They are graphic. They are upsetting. The reason we are showing you this is to bring you the reality of Islamic terrorism and to label it as such. We feel you need to see it.”

But here’s the thing. Every time Fox News ramps up fears over ISIS here in the U.S., that network is giving ISIS exactly what it wants.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... The secret Saudi connection to 9/11 - Robert Parry (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Be sure to check out our new videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio

Need to Know: What is really behind the drop in oil prices?
- America's Lawyer Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire Radio

Screwed: The secret Saudi connection to 9/11
- Robert Parry, Consortium News / America's Stolen Narrative

Best of the Rest: Brittany Maynard's husband speaks out about death with dignity
- Dan Diaz, Death With Dignity Advocate / Compassion and Choices

PLUS, Why do we need black history month?
- Professor Clarence Lusane, American University / The Black History of the White House.

Thursday's Daily Stack

Hour One: What's really behind the drop in oil prices?
- Mike Papantonio, Ring Of Fire Radio

Article: "Moussaoui Calls Saudi Princes Patrons of Al Qaeda" by Scott Shane.

Article: "Is Fracking Really Dying?" by Cliff Weathers.

Article: "Oil companies are dumping waste into California’s remaining drinkable water sources" by Lindsay Abrams.

Article: "UBS faces new tax-evasion probe" by Christopher M. Matthews.

Article: "DEA using license-plate readers to take photos of US drivers, documents reveal" by Rory Carroll.

Article: "Leak Shows Sweeping Trade Deal Could Be Used to Privatize Healthcare" by Sam Knight.

Article: "End 'gross indignity', Greek FM Varoufakis tells Germany" by BBC.

The good: Bill DeBlasio: "New York City’s Mayor Calls For The Highest Minimum Wage In The Country" by Bryce Covert.

The bad: Sen. Rand Paul: "Senator Says Common Core Contains Anti-American History, But It Doesn’t Have History Requirements" by Will Ragland.

The very, very ugly: Robert Trivers: "Rutgers Professor Defends Billionaire Pedophile: 14-Year-Old Prostitution Isn’t ‘So Heinous’" by Alex Griswold.

Book: The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, Russell Kirk.

Article: "Ohio Elections Chief Tries To Tie Immigration To Voter Fraud" by Kira Lerner & Aviva Shen.

Book: "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class" by Thom Hartmann. Get "Screwed" by Thom Hartmann!

Article: "Protect the Chaco area from the Piñon Pipeline!" by Sierra Club.

Article: "The Danger of American Fascism" by Henry A. Wallace.

Article: "Law Enforcement Gaps Leave Native Women Vulnerable to Rape and Domestic Violence" by Kimberly N. Alleyne.

Article: "Paris Hilton's Brother Arrested for Going Berserk On Plane 'I Will F**king Own You Peasants'" by TMZ.

Article: "The Powell Memo or Powell Manifesto".

Book: "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson.

Book: "Unsafe at Any Speed" by Ralph Nader.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976.

Article: "Letter to Samuel Kercheval" by Thomas Jefferson, June 12, 1816. "... but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers."

Article: "Why There’s No Such Thing As A Private Facebook Chat" by Lauren C. Williams.

Article: "The End of Privacy: Unmasked" by John Bohannon.

Song: "Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Book: "Unequal Protection: The Battle to Save Democracy" by Thom Hartmann (read online).

Book: "Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became "People" - And How You Can Fight Back" by Thom Hartmann - new updated version out now!

Book: Feudal Society, Volume 1: The Growth of Ties of Dependence by Marc Bloch, translated by L. A. Manyon.

Article: "Richest 1% will own more than all the rest by 2016 - Oxfam" by Jon Slater.

Article: "Federalist No. 51: The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments" by Alexander Hamilton or James Madison.

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Ellen Ratner, Bureau Chief

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Article: "Defense official: Obama closer to closing Gitmo than people realize" by Martin Matishak.

Article: "Pope Francis To Address Congress During Fall Visit" by Midori Nishida.

Article: "Dems May Skip Netanyahu’s Address" by William McDonald.

Article: "WH: Biden Will Likely Attend Pope Speech, Unsure About Netanyahu" by Justin Duckham.

Article: "GOP Announces Obamacare Alternative" by William McDonald.

Article: "California Lawmakers Seek To End ‘Personal Belief’ Exemption For Vaccinations" by Nicholas Salazar.

Article: "Obama hails Dalai Lama as 'good friend' during US prayer breakfast" by Dan Roberts.

Movie: "Dalai Lama Awakening".

Movie: "Compassion in Action (Dalai Lama Awakening Vol 2)".

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 2/4" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 2/5" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Overturning Obamacare Would Change the Nature of the Supreme Court" by Linda Greenhouse.

Article: "American Postal Workers Union to “Vigorously Oppose” Staples/Office Depot Merger" by Omaha Steve.

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010).

Article: "Koch-Supporting Texas Billionaires Explain What Richest Americans Are After" by Steven Rosenfeld.

Article: "Trans-Pacific Partnership" (TPP) by Wikipedia.

Pigeon Alert: "Pigeon Pageant Lets Underappreciated Birds Strut Their Stuff" by AP.

Article: "Gerrymandering" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Elbridge Gerry" by Wikipedia.

Article: "2nd Amendment". A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Tweet: "Today, I’m proposing rules to keep the Internet fair, fast and open and grounded in #TitleII authority" by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

Article: "This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality" by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

Law: "Communications Act of 1934", of which Title II regulates common carriers.

Friday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

It's Friday and that means it's Brunch with Bernie...America's Senator Bernie Sanders will be here talking about all the important issues of the week and he'll be taking YOUR calls too!

Plus, it's Anything Goes Friday...your turn to choose the topics we talk about...what's on your mind?

And, the best of the rest of the news...all the news and information you won't be hearing from the corporate owned media...together with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Please support the Hunter School, a unique therapeutic boarding school for young children diagnosed with ADHD, Anxiety, Sensory, Mood and related conditions...

Should the United States be approving more nuclear reactors?

Vote here!

Why the Mainstream Media Is Silent On SHAFTA

Rumble - Libertarian Restaurant - We Don’t Wash Our Hands!

Rumble - EPA Comes Down Hard on Keystone

Is the Internet Being Reclassified As A Utility?

Crazy Alert! Creature From the Bottom of the....Tuna Fish Can?

The Good - The Bad - and the Very Very Nudiustertianly Ugly

Full Show 2/4/2015: Why the Mainstream Media Is Silent On SHAFTA

In tonight’s Big Picture Rumble, Thom talks China Cap and Trade and what the U.S. needs to do at home to help save the plant. Genevieve Wood - Senior Contributor with The Daily Signal at the Heritage Foundation, Andrea Miller Executive Director for People Demanding Action and Co-Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America, Bishop Council Nedd II - Founding Member of the Project 21 Black Leadership Network debate President Obama’s 2016 budget, the EPA’s Keystone pipeline smackdown, Sen Tillis’s anti-hand washing, anti-regulation stand, and ISIS’s execution of a Jordanian pilot and why it all could have been prevented.

Matt Wood, Policy Director at Free Press talks the FCC’s siding with the White House on net neutrality. Rachel Butler of Greenpeace talks about the Koch Bro’s attack on climate change.

Thom gives his Daily Take – Why the Mainstream Media is Silent on SHAFTA

The REAL Conservative Agenda: Privatize Health Care

The Oligarchs are Taking Over the United States!

Big Pharma wins...you lose

Caller: 9/11 Physical Evidence shows Planes took Down Towers...

Another 'Marshall Plan' Could put an End to ISIS...

Turn a Red State Blue - Dump Voter Suppression Laws!

It's Time to Talk About GW Bush's Role in Creating ISIS...

A Latin Motto for Vermont?

EPA: Keystone XL an Environmental Disaster!