Fox News Admits That The Media Is Rooting For Donald Trump

Posted by on March 2, 2016 at 7:30 pm. 2 Comments :

Yesterday News Corpse published an article on The Trump Effect that laid out how the media has a profit motive to keep Donald Trump in the race. The article included a quote from the CEO of CBS who confessed that, with regard to Trump, “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” In other words, their lust for profit has a higher priority than their love of country.

Donald Trump News

So what happened on Fox News last night could not have happened at better time. On the Kelly File, host Megyn Kelly did a segment with the Fox News media correspondent and host of Fox’s MediaBuzz, Howard Kurtz. The discussion began with Kelly asserting that “a lot of the media, they love Trump.” That’s an understatement, particularly after exploring the Trump Effect and the profound financial incentive the media has to extend his place in the limelight. They are doing everything they can to keep his face in front of voters and maintain his electoral viability. Which led to this revealing exchange:

Kurtz: Now Cruz has made this argument in recent days, and Marco Rubio as well, that the media has focused so much attention on Donald Trump. They love Donald Trump. They’re rooting for Donald Trump. At least until the fall.
Kelly: But they do. If you look at the numbers even on the nightly newscast — the time they devoted just in the past night — last night to Donald Trump vs the other two, it was six minutes Trump, I think seven seconds, Rubio. I mean, the disparity was remarkable.
Kurtz: There’s a clear imbalance. And we’ve all had banners awaiting Trump news conference, which shows how he can hijack the news cycle. But a lot of that attention has been negative.

Kelly had finally admitted something that has been true for more than half a year – that the coverage of Trump by the media has been wildly out of proportion to the rest of the candidates of both parties. While Kurtz only mentioned that Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio had complained about this, last December Bernie Sanders told Chris Cuomo of CNN about a study that showed that Trump received 81 minutes of airtime on ABC News in 2015 while Bernie Sanders got 20 seconds.

The response by Kurtz to Kelly’s revelation, however, was painfully oblivious to reality. First of all, he tried to blame Trump for the imbalance by accusing him of “hijacking the news cycle.” Which makes you wonder if Kurtz knows the definition of “hijack.” Trump did not storm the studio and force the news producers at gunpoint to put him on the air. They did that all of their own accord. It was more of a gift from the press than a hijacking by Trump. If the media didn’t want to put him on then he wouldn’t be on, and there would be nothing he could do about it. Just ask Bernie Sanders.

Following that absurd portrayal of events, Kurtz then attempted to conflate two completely different issues. By veering off to say that “a lot of that attention has been negative,” he was changing the subject from the free airtime that Trump got to the amount of time spent discussing him. But that isn’t the problem that was raised by observing how much time Trump got every time he gave a stump speech. The cable news networks seem to cut to him live whenever he holds a rally. And, of course, they don’t do that for anyone else. That’s the problem, and Kurtz appeared not to want to acknowledge it.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

The most striking part of this whole segment, though, was how both Kelly and Kurtz spoke about the media as if it were a detached entity that had nothing to do with them. However, the truth is that Fox New is the network that is most responsible for the coverage imbalance that they both concede exists. No network gives Trump more airtime than Fox News. And on Fox, no candidate receives as much airtime as Trump. So it was a bit disorienting to hear these two pretend that the Trump Effect was just some vague theory that was floating around and impacted all of the media equally. They may have come closer to representing reality by admitting that the media roots for Trump, but they continue to lie about their decidedly prominent role in the cheering section.

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The Trump Effect: Bad For America, But ‘Damn Good’ For The Media

Posted by on March 1, 2016 at 9:15 pm. 7 Comments :

Les Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, was speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference, when he decided to reveal one of the sad truths of modern media that is well known to insiders. It’s something that is representative of the core principles (or lack thereof) of a once noble profession that has been co-opted by greed and the corporate craving for power. With reference to the campaign of Donald Trump, Moonves was caught bragging about the cash cash cow he was unashamedly milking.

Moonves: Who would have thought that this circus would come to town. It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS. That’s all I got to say. So what can I say? The money’s rolling in, this is fun.

Donald Trump

Make no mistake, this is an admission by Moonves that his lust for profit is a higher priority than his love of country. Worse still, this pursuit of wealth, in Moonves’ view, is actually fun, even as it’s harmful to the rest of the nation and his fellow citizens. That is a form treason. Yet Moonves admits that despite Trump’s campaign being divisive, hostile, racist, ignorant, and detrimental to the well being of the United States, he gladly welcomes the damage it will do so long as CBS rakes in more cash.

And CBS isn’t alone in harboring these traitorous ambitions. The whole of the corporate media industry is guilty of the same self-interest. It’s why even MSNBC airs Trump’s stump speeches live in their entirety when they don’t do it for any other candidate. And it’s the result of the consolidation within the business that has thrust the profit motive over patriotism. These new multinational conglomerates have no incentive to be loyal to any nation, or to any anything other than their next quarterly earnings report. The one exception to this may be Fox News, whose owners and management are just as committed to pushing right-wing propaganda as they are to enriching their themselves.

The profit incentive for the media has a toxic effect on democracy. It produces reporting that is driven by motives other than honestly informing the public. What Moonves is putting on display for all to see is the damage that can be done when a news enterprise can be justifiably suspected of distorting their stories in order to fatten their wallets. Moonves was literally rooting for Trump specifically because his brand of melodramatic demagoguery draws more eyeballs to the advertising the network is now selling for inflated rates.

Moonves: I’ve never seen anything like this and this is going to be a very good year for us. Sorry, it’s a terrible thing to say, but bring it on, Donald, go ahead, keep going. […] “I’m not taking any sides, I’m just saying for us, economically, Donald Trump’s place in this election is a good thing.

With cheerleading like that, how can anyone watch this campaign coverage and be confidant that they are being told the truth. Clearly, the media has a profit motive to keep Trump in the race, and even boost his chances of securing the Republican nomination in order to keep the register ringing straight through to November and beyond. The other candidates are being deep-sixed because they can’t pull in the big bucks the way The Donald does.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

This isn’t democracy. There may not be a word for what this is. We could call it a capitalocracy to illustrate the fact that the worst elements of capitalism are what determines who our leaders will be. We may as well stop having elections and just give prospective candidates their own TV shows and the one with the highest Nielsen ratings becomes president. Oh wait a minute. That’s pretty much how Donald Trump got to where he is today.


SURPRISE? Journalist Assaulted By Security At Donald Trump Rally (Video)

Posted by on February 29, 2016 at 4:44 pm. 3 Comments :

What happened today at rally for Donald Trump in Radford, Virginia could have been predicted by a Psychic Hotline operator. It is the inevitable result of a steady stream of hatred coming straight from the putrid mouth of a crybaby candidate who doesn’t know when he will start “acting presidential.”

Donald Trump

Chris Morris, a photographer for Time, was covering the rally when he sought to get pictures of a protest in the audience. He was stopped by a member of Trump’s security detail (there is some confusion as to whether it was Trump’s staff or Secret Service) and words were exchanged. The incident rapidly accelerated into an assault when the security man grabbed Morris by the throat and threw him to the ground.

Trump’s supporters were cheering wildly as this was occurring, and Trump himself was on stage egging them on. He even sarcastically said “Isn’t fun being at a Trump rally?” Morris was briefly placed under arrest and ejected from the rally, but he was later allowed to return. He gave a statement to a local television reporter describing how the incident unfolded.

What is notable about this is that an outbreak of violence aimed at journalists was bound to happen. As Trump stated today, this is his idea of fun. But his feelings about reporters have been articulated on many occasions prior to this. It is a staple of his stump speech to insult the press covering him. He points to them and stirs up the hatred in his audience by calling them dummies, liars, and scum, and disparages the news operations that employ them as dishonest and failing.

Trump’s previous attacks on the media have included throwing a Univision reporter out of a rally, calling Megyn Kelly of Fox News a “bimbo,” and grotesquely mocking the physical impairment of a disabled reporter. And then there was the time that his lawyer issued a mob-style threat against a reporter to scare him off of a story. This pattern of behavior was detailed last month by Eric Boehlert of Media Matters who wrote that…

“It’s sad that Donald Trump is normalizing so many unsavory traits with his presidential push this season. He’s normalizing bigotry and xenophobia in the campaign arena, for instance. He’s also mainstreaming the manhandling of the press.”

The violence that simmers just barely below the surface at every Trump rally was bound to flare up as Trump escalates his attacks on the press. Just a few days ago Trump declared that if he were president he would “open up our libel laws” so that he could sue them like they have “never been sued before.” That amounts to a proposal to repeal the First Amendment.

Trump’s campaign has relied on a constant barrage of hatred, and the media is not exempt from that. He even said as much at a rally last month when he literally said “I hate some of these people, I hate ’em.” But it got worse when he added “I would never kill them. I would never do that.” Then reconsidering said “Uh, let’s see, uh…” before concluding that he wouldn’t. He had to think about it. And his glassy-eyed disciples thought it was all very funny.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

What we learn from all of this is that Trump is an unstable megalomaniac who isn’t shy about inciting violence. There have already been incidents wherein protesters were harmed while Trump stood by smiling and even encouraging it. Now it is journalists who are the targets. That’s a tactic that was used with some success by the Nazi regime. So Trump has made it crystal clear that hates reporters. In fact, he hates them so much that he would very likely favor using the Second Amendment to destroy the First.


Proud Racist Donald Trump Just Can’t Quit His KKK Supporters – Or Quit Lying About Them

Posted by on February 28, 2016 at 1:22 pm. 6 Comments :

The campaign of Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for president has been littered with racial prejudice and animus from the day he announced his candidacy. What’s remarkably unique about Trump is that conventional politicians, when confronted with allegations of racism, will deny the charges and defend themselves as unbiased. Needless to say, Trump is not conventional, but his tolerance of white supremacists goes way beyond his phony claims to political independence. In fact, he is openly enabling the white supremacist movement.

Donald Trump

Today on CNN’s State of the Union, Trump was interviewed by Jake Tapper who asked him about former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke’s endorsement of his candidacy. Tapper specifically inquired as to whether Trump would “unequivocally condemn David Duke and say that you don’t want his vote or that of other white supremacists in this election?” Trump answered saying that…

“Well just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, OK? I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So, I don’t know. I don’t know, did he endorse me, or what’s going on? Because, you know, I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists. And so you’re asking me a question that I’m supposed to be talking about people that I know nothing about.”

In that short and babbling statement Trump said “I don’t know” or “I know nothing” seven times. That might have been the most honest he’s ever been about himself, if it weren’t for the fact that he’s lying, something he does with pathological zeal (see the Trump Bullshitopedia). First of all, why would you need to know anything about white supremacists, other than that they are white supremacists, in order to say that you condemn them and don’t want their votes? What more does Trump need to know about them to repudiate their bigotry?

More to the point, Trump’s desperately repeated denials contradict his prior statements about David Duke. Way back in August of last year Trump was asked by Bloomberg News reporters about Duke’s endorsement and he responded saying that…

“I don’t need his endorsement; I certainly wouldn’t want his endorsement.”

Well, apparently Trump knew who Duke was after all. At least he knew last August, and he frequently boasts that he has “the best memory in the world.” At that time Trump’s response as to whether he would repudiate the endorsement was “Sure, I would if that would make you feel better.” So his “repudiation” was only an attempt to satisfy what he sarcastically thought the reporters wanted, not a sincere expression of disapproval. And the obvious explanation for that is that he doesn’t disapprove. His whole campaign is proof that he seeks out and embraces the support of avowed bigots.

News Corpse has documented prior statements by Trump that affirm, if not his racist pride, at least his acceptance of the label. On one occasion he pointedly refused to deny that he is “a racist and a neo-fascist.” And then there was the time that he said that he is “not bothered by comparisons to Hitler.” What’s more, Trump’s Twitter feed is jam-packed with racist comments and retweets, including a blatantly obvious hate monger named WhiteGenocideTM. Even today Trump retweeted approvingly a quote by the fascist dictator Mussolini from a Twitter user named IlDuce2016.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

This embrace of of the most repellent brand of hate mongering and the leading proponents of white supremacy is unprecedented in mainstream American politics. The Republican Party ought to take a stand and banish Trump from their ranks. However, that will probably not happen because the GOP has been harboring these racists for decades. They believe that these hate groups are critical to their electoral competitiveness, and they’re right. Trump did not create the affinity between the GOP and the KKK, he is merely saying out loud what they have always stood for.

Update 2/29/16: Trump is now piling lies on top of lies. In an interview today on NBC’s Today Show, Trump tried to blame his failure to disavow Duke on CNN’s “very bad earpiece.” He said…

“I’m sitting in a house in Florida, with a very bad earpiece that they gave me, and you could hardly hear what he was saying. What I heard was ‘various groups.’”

If you re-read the his response above, he explicitly mentioned David Duke and white supremacists several times. It could not be more clear that he heard every word of the question and responded to it with specificity. At no time in the interview did he appear to have had trouble hearing this or any other question. This excuse is not only brazenly dishonest, it is pathetically lame.


Hating Fox News: Now Even Republicans Think The GOP PR Network Sucks

Posted by on February 27, 2016 at 1:27 pm. 1 Comments :

Since it’s inception, Fox News has pursued its mission to advance a far-right political agenda and provide a friendly platform for Republican politicians. They openly disparaged Democrats and promoted fake “scandals” that were often invented in their own editorial meetings. Their pretensions to being “fair and balanced” were quickly revealed to be a cheap facade and, to the extent that they continue to push it, they are mercilessly ridiculed.

Fox News

Now, after twenty years of investing in their conservative propaganda machine, it turns out that the core constituency to whom they have been shamelessly pandering has an increasingly negative view of the network. A new YouGov survey of brand buzz shows that Fox News is not at all well thought of by the Teabagger contingent they covet:

“By mid February, FNC’s perception by Republican adults 18 and over had reached its lowest point in more than three years, and has declined by approximately 50% since January of this year.”

The survey places the favorability of Fox News at a mere seventeen (out of 100). And that’s just among Republicans. The ranking for the population at large is actually below zero. YouGov notes that this precipitous decline occurred simultaneously to the emergence of Donald Trump as a leading candidate in the Republican presidential primary.

That should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to the long-festering feud between Trump and Fox. He has blasted Fox as being “totally unfair” to him – a delusional complaint considering that they have given him far more airtime than any other candidate, after having created his candidacy in the first place.

Trump engaged in a painfully public quarrel with Fox’s Megyn Kelly who he called a “lightweight” and a “bimbo.” This led to his pledge not to appear on Fox News (which he has since revoked), and a call to boycott the network. Trump later refused to participate in a GOP debate on Fox because he was frightened off by Kelly’s presence as a moderator. His Twitter disciples fell in line with the boycott rhetoric and flooded his feed with promises to turn off Fox. Which, in the end, will be of benefit to everyone.

There is no question that Trump’s war with Fox has bled the network of its once loyal base. The YouGov survey documents a trend that has been in place for at least a couple of years. In 2013 Fox News had completely dropped out of the YouGov BrandIndex’s top ten GOP brands, when the it had been number one in 2012. News Corpse addressed that sinkhole at the time saying that…

“…a lot has taken place that has deteriorated the bonds that Republican viewers had with their daddy network. They lost an election that Fox had assured them they would win in a landslide. They launched numerous investigations into alleged scandals that, despite Fox’s endless hype, failed to catch on with the public or to prove any malfeasance on the part of the president they despise. They pursued a doomed strategy to shut down the government and threaten to throw the nation into default in an effort to reverse time and make ObamaCare disappear. And they continue to suffer through a relationship with the acutely demented Tea Party whose disintegrating appeal hasn’t stopped them from launching pernicious primary challenges that will inevitably benefit Democrats.”

Not much has changed since then. Fox News continues to belch out fringe fabrications and flagrant falsehoods intended to keep their wingnut viewers misinformed. The only real difference is that now they have in Donald Trump a candidate who is articulating their most abhorrent positions out loud.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Where Fox News once tried to disguise their elitist, racist, authoritarian biases and hate-speech with rhetorical dog whistles, Trump uses bullhorns to achieve the same ends. The problem for Fox is that Trump’s diatribes are just as often aimed at them as at the liberals that Fox was created to destroy. And the aftermath may end up being the epitaph of the GOP. So there is some good news after all.


Fact Checkers Scorch Donald Trump’s Lie-Riddled Debate Performance

Posted by on February 26, 2016 at 3:01 pm. 3 Comments :

Last night’s debate on CNN showcased once again that the field of Republicans is jam-packed with whimpering, infantile candidates who are wholly unprepared to lead a bunny hop, much less lead a nation. It’s hard to imagine that, after watching that spectacle, anyone can picture any of these colicky brats with America’s nuclear missile launch codes.

Bawl-Apalooza

As usual, Donald Trump dominated the brawl with his trademark insults and incessantly repetitive branding (“Make America build a wall of guns for Jesus, losers”). At this point it would probably be easier to list examples of Trump saying something truthful than to enumerate the many outright falsehoods he spews. But it wouldn’t be as much fun. Here are some of the blatant lies, as documented by Factcheck.org, that are contributing to the ever-growing Trump Bullshitopedia:

  1. Ted Cruz nailed Trump in an exchange where Trump denied that he had ever said he favored a health care plan that would be paid for by the government. In fact, that’s exactly what he told 60 Minutes just last year when he said that “Everybody’s gonna be taken care” and that “the government’s gonna pay for it.”
  2. Marco Rubio got his shots in by revealing that Trump had lost a million dollar lawsuit over his hiring of foreign workers. Trump whined that Rubio was “totally wrong,” except that he wasn’t.
  3. Trump claimed that he could not release his tax returns because they are being audited. This lie has several layers. First of all, he has been saying for months that he would release his tax returns “soon” without ever mentioning any audits. It seems like a convenient fabrication someone just thought of to try to get people to stop asking the question. Secondly, there is nothing preventing him from releasing his returns even if there is an audit in progress. And finally, he claims that he has been audited continuously for the past twelve years, so this lame excuse could actually mean that he will never release his tax returns because the audits could go on for years to come. – – – As an addendum to the tax return/audit lies, Trump told CNN that he believes the IRS may be auditing him because he is a “strong Christian.” Really? He thinks the IRS has it in for Christians? And how did they know he was one twelve years before he ever said anything about his alleged faith?
  4. Another feather in Cruz’s tri-corner hat was earned when he challenged Trump’s assertion that he had “never discussed” Libya or advocated removing Gadhafi from power. He apparently forgot that time he discussed it on his own website saying that “I can’t believe what our country is doing. Gadhafi, in Libya, is killing thousands of people…We should stop this guy…Immediately go into Libya, knock this guy out.”
  5. Here’s an oldie that has been debunked many times. Trump is fond of lying that Americans and American businesses pay the highest taxes in the world. That just isn’t true. It’s not even close.

As an added bonus, here is an item that isn’t technically a lie, but is frighteningly repugnant. At a post-debate rally Trump reminded his cultish followers about how bitterly he hates the media. And then he disclosed what he would do to his enemies in the press given the opportunity:

“One of the things I’m gonna do if I win… I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money…With me they’re not protected because I’m not like other people…So we’re going to open up those libel laws, folks, and we’re gonna have people sue you like you’ve never been sued before.”

In other words, Trump intends to repeal the First Amendment and, through his power as president, threaten and attack the press. Thin-skinned crybabies like Trump may not like any negative attention they get, but it is a Constitutional right for the media to have the freedom to express themselves. And like most rightist Republicans, they only revere the Constitution (or the bible) when they can interpret it to coincide with their preconceptions. It is the way cultists operate. See Fox News…

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

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The Plaintive Wailing Of A Republican Party Crumbling Under The Weight Of Donald Trump

Posted by on February 25, 2016 at 3:19 pm. 7 Comments :

As this wacky election season continues to spiral out of control, the sound of an increasingly impotent Republican Party scratching at the door is becoming ever more noticeable. The so-called establishment candidates are falling to the wayside as a creature manufactured by reality TV lumbers across the GOP landscape, flattening its hopes like cardboard models being trampled by a carrot-topped Godzilla.

Trumpzilla

In the frantic chaos that ensues, the Republican National Committee is exhibiting signs of desperation. Party chair Reince Priebus has mounted a backroom campaign to convince everyone that he has everything firmly under control, a claim that has evoked nothing but laughter. Politico is reporting that Priebus is…

“…stating in private meetings that the party has sway over its at times unwelcome front-runner because it has tools Trump will need to use to win a general election — voter data and field, digital and media operations that a nominee typically inherits from the party infrastructure.”

“Dangling access to these resources, Priebus thinks he can help steer Trump toward partywide policy goals and away from the inflammatory rhetoric that Republican officials see as divisive and dangerous.”

Well, that ought scare the savage Trumpzilla into bowing to the supremacy of the party that he has been running against for eight months. The lunacy that Priebus thinks Trump cares about the RNC’s “resources” is almost as absurd as his belief that Trump would ditch his potty-mouth politics, or that he doesn’t already espouse the wingnut policy goals of the party at large. If Trump cared about partnering with the RNC he would not be repeatedly threatening to abandon the party and run as an independent. He wouldn’t be accusing them of distributing illegal solicitations. He wouldn’t be criticizing their debate audiences as being deliberately stacked against him.

Even setting aside the hostility that exists between the RNC and The Donald, the GOP’s services are not exactly state of the art. Last year it was revealed that the Koch brothers were building their own campaign machine that includes many of the services that are typically performed by a political party. The Koch operation was said to be angling to replace the party’s electoral architects by building and distributing the voter access tools and outreach capability.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

With the Koch’s running election services and Fox News running PR, you might be wondering what purpose the RNC serves. A lot of political operatives and analysts are wondering the same thing. Under the direction of Priebus the party has become less of a factor than in previous years. It has struggled with Trump’s candidacy from the beginning when his refusal to rule out a third-party run resulted in a loyalty oath that all candidates were required to sign (and which Trump has already hinted he might break). It would be wishful thinking to imagine that Trump would suddenly buckle under to a weakened GOP that’s begging him to play nice.


Today’s GOP (aka Gross Out Party): As Seen On Fox News Everyday

Posted by on February 24, 2016 at 7:35 pm. NO Comments :

An aura of indecency has enveloped the 2016 election season with both politicians and pundits lowering themselves to levels heretofore unthinkable. This isn’t merely about the rough and tumble of bitter rivals locked in battle for electoral supremacy. It’s something far more decadent.

Donald Trump

Media Matters recently reported that notorious dirty trickster Roger Stone has been banned from CNN after his history of obscene rants directed at their staff was revealed. But this is not new behavior from Stone who once ran an anti-Hillary Clinton operation that he called Citizens United Not Timid (or C.U.N.T).

A few weeks ago Fox News slapped the hands of a couple of their contributors for “inappropriate” language on the air. Outnumbered co-host Stacey Dash slipped by saying that President Obama didn’t “give a shit” about terrorism. She was upstaged by Fox’s strategic analyst, Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, who called Obama a “pussy” (ironic coming from a guy whose name is a euphemism for penis). They received brief suspensions, but returned promptly thereafter to continue with their snotty and inappropriate commentaries.

For the most part, Fox couldn’t care less that their pundits cuss and growl at Obama and other Democrats. In fact, it’s what they get paid for. In 2012 News Corpse assembled a top-ten rogues gallery of miscreants who were at least as repulsive as Stone and who are still pundits in good standing at Fox. They include low life hate mongers like Todd Starnes who likened peaceful Occupy Wall Street protesters to terrorists; Eric Bolling who accused President Obama of engaging in class warfare that was “forged in Marxist Germany;” and Liz Trotta who joked about “knocking off Obama.” Fox also employed profane cretins like Erick Erickson who called former Supreme Court Justice David Souter a “goat-fucking child molester,” and Glenn Beck associate Dana Loesch who volunteered to urinate on the corpses of fallen Taliban soldiers.

This flight from decency has been a staple of the Fox news culture for years. So it should not come as a surprise that it has resulted in a creature like Donald Trump whose profanity flows like explosive diarrhea. He has adopted the Peters principle and called Ted Cruz a “pussy.” He told New Hampshire businesses with off-shore facilities to “fuck off.” In a fit of phony bravado he recently said that he would “bomb the sh*t out of ISIS.” In short, he has demonstrated that he is a classless buffoon who shouldn’t be allowed within ten feet of the White House.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Now I’m no prude and naughty language doesn’t make me blush. But I still wouldn’t use it on a television news program or during a speech while I’m running for president. Context is everything, and there may be children in these audiences. However, the people who watch Fox News and profess to support conservative candidates are vocal about their adherence to Christian values and their insistence on forcing them on everybody else. They have made it a hallmark of their personal and political identities. So their tolerance for these sort of obscenities is a tall order of hypocrisy. And if they can’t manage to behave themselves they should STFU.


Fear Mongering Racists At Fox News Promote Voter Fraud Lies – Again

Posted by on February 23, 2016 at 1:43 pm. 2 Comments :

The American media obsession with hair-raising tabloid journalism is responsible for lowering the political IQ of the nation. As an example, the wholly manufactured debate over voter fraud keeps popping up whenever there is a lull in stories about Hillary Clinton murdering U.S. ambassadors or if Donald Trump goes a couple of hours without saying something pitifully stupid.

Yesterday at the Fox News community website, Fox Nation, they linked to a story from the National Review that once again raised allegations of non-existent illegal voters invading polling places across the nation. This zombie myth has been debunked repeatedly but continues to surface in the conservative press that doesn’t have anything better to do than lie about fearsome minorities plotting to steal America away from its rightful, white Christianist owners. The headline blared that “The Obama Administration Wants To Make Sure Non-Citizens Vote In The Upcoming Election.”

Fox Nation

This goes somewhat beyond the run of the mill dishonesty where they merely complain that President Obama opposes unnecessary voter ID laws. In this article, by long-time voting fraud alarmist Hans von Spakovsky, the President is accused of wanting to “make sure” that illegal votes are cast by nefarious foreigners. This would make him an accomplice to the crime. Spakovsky wades into the weeds of arcane legalistic rhetoric containing baseless allegations of conflict of interest from unnamed sources. The crux of his argument centers around a wingnut lawsuit…

“…seeking to reverse a recent decision by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The Commission’s decision allows Kansas and other states, including Arizona and Georgia, to enforce state laws ensuring that only citizens register to vote when they use a federally designed registration form.”

Spakovsky characterizes the dispute as an effort to prevent non-citizens from voting illegally (something that virtually never happens) by imposing identification requirements for prospective registrants. In fact, what the lawsuit aims to achieve is to prevent Democrats from voting. What the article leaves out entirely are the specific requirements proposed in Kansas by their ultra-rightist Secretary of State Kris Kobach and other GOP-led states. The consequences of the policies advocated by Spakovsky and his ilk resulted in some 40,000 voters being removed from the voting rolls in Kansas. They justified this on the basis of having found seven names of undocumented residents on those rolls, none of whom ever cast a vote. And guess who most of those 40,000 disenfranchised voters were: minorities, students, low-income workers, and other Democratic leaning constituents.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

In addition to having no documented evidence of voter registration fraud or illegal voting, even after pouring through hundreds of thousands of votes, the voter suppressors themselves were found to be fraudulent. Both Spakovsky and Kobach were called out in a PolitiFact analysis as falsely representing data on illegal voting. This is the sort hypocrisy we are dealing with. And this is something they have been doing for years in an attempt to put up roadblocks for voters they don’t happen to like. Be watchful as November approaches because they aren’t through with this yet.


Acting Presidential? Donald Trump Says He Might Start “Pretty Soon”

Posted by on February 22, 2016 at 1:11 pm. 7 Comments :

It is safe to say that Donald Trump is the most profane, classless, cretin who ever ran for president. He is an embarrassment to his party and to the nation. His remedial English, hollow policy pronouncements, and incessant boasting, are cartoonish in nature. Even Fox News mogul, Rupert Murdoch, agreed when he tweeted “When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?”

Donald Trump Insult Comic

That question was just asked again to Trump directly by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. On yesterday’s program he broached the subject in an exchange that may be the first of its kind in American politics.

Wallace: Do you think you need to tone it down, do you think, as you become the frontrunner for the nomination, to act more presidential?
Trump: Well, probably I do.
Wallace: So, when are you going start?
Trump: Well, pretty soon.

The first notable concession in that response is that Trump himself is admitting that he is not currently acting presidential. Clearly, if he intends to start doing so at some future time, he isn’t doing so now. Secondly, Trump believes that presidential demeanor is something that you turn on and off at specified times that he has not bothered to specify. Therefore, he thinks it’s appropriate to act like a crass and boorish buffoon, as he has been doing throughout his campaign thus far. And finally, Trump didn’t really answer the question. Like he does with virtually every question he is asked, he skirted the issue with a vague non-response. By saying “pretty soon,” he has left it wide open for when he will act presidential. It could be next week (unlikely), or well into his administration (unthinkable).

Also notable is the framing of this question. To Donald Trump the matter of conducting oneself with a diplomatic bearing is just an “acting” job. He doesn’t believe that it is an element of one’s character. To him it is just an extension of his comportment as a television personality who plays whatever role advances his interests at the time. And diplomatic correctness is just an obstacle to overcome like political correctness, which he uses as an all-purpose justification for being an asshole.

Trump is someone who can be expected to demean and insult virtually everyone he encounters, particularly those with whom he disagrees. He has already insulted African-Americans, Latinos, women, Muslims, and the disabled. And many of his victims are people on his own side. He has called his GOP colleagues “losers, weaklings, liars, and pussies.” He commonly refers to the press as dishonest and aligned against him. That includes Fox News that, after essentially creating the Trump candidacy and giving him far more airtime than any other candidate, he lambastes them as biased and calls their anchors hacks and bimbos.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Just imagine how Trump would deal with Congress, citizen groups, and foreign heads of state. It would not be merely embarrassing, it would be dangerous. He has already alienated China and Mexico, two of our most important trading partners, with his bombastic attacks. It’s just a matter of time before he insults every ally America has. And yet he still appeals to a significant segment of the Republican Party. They appear ready to nominate this contemptible wannabe dictator. And if anyone were to ask when they might come to their senses (assuming they have any), the only answer we could muster would be a hopeful “pretty soon?”