Abby Huntsman

Fox News Issues a Rare Correction For Accidentally Telling the Truth About Trump

Posted by on June 10, 2018 at 2:57 pm. NO Comments :

On Sunday morning Donald Trump’s favorite TV show, Fox and Friends, was engaged in their customary Trump-fluffing parade of propaganda. The President had just embarrassed the nation at the G7 meeting where he advocated for Russia, insulted American media, and made sure to blame all of his failures on his predecessors in the White House.

Fox News Breaking

Just prior to jetting off to Singapore for a summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Trump also tossed a rhetorical grenade back at Canada. He called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a liar and refused to join the other six member nations in a joint communique. The meeting that he previously described as “very, very successful,” was ditched as total waste of time. So naturally Fox News heartily praised Trump as a visionary leader who can do no wrong. Well, except for “Curvy Couch” potato Abby Huntsman, who had this to say as Trump arrived in Singapore:

“Regardless of what happens in that meeting between the two dictators, what we are seeing right now, this is history.”

Oh my. Dr. Freud may want to consult on this little slip. But never fear, Huntsman must have been alerted to her “mistake” by a rattled control room, and she quickly gave an on-air apology:

Ordinarily Fox News will not apologize for their obvious and egregious misstatements and deliberate lies. That’s a trait they share with the President they love so much they emulate him. When they do apologize it’s usually in a tweet or a press release that no one but newsroom insiders ever see. Fox News has still never apologized for their slanderous stories about the murdered DNC employee, Seth Rich. Just last night Fox’s Jesse Watters did a segment where he ran a video of violent right-wingers but said they were anti-fascist demonstrators. There has been no apology or correction. Neither have there been any corrections for the innumerable falsehoods of Donald Trump that Fox parrots as facts.

But Huntsman did apologize for accidentally – and some would say correctly – calling Trump a dictator. That’s because they wouldn’t want to let any negative impressions of Dear Leader go uncorrected. But all of the times they “inadvertently” disparaged Democrats or liberals are left to stand despite being alerted to the mistakes and called upon to correct them.

We’re still waiting for Abby Huntsman to apologize for saying Trump is “a phony and desperate for media attention,” in this 2015 segment when she worked for MSNBC:

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

Rachel Maddow’s Brilliant Analysis of the Niger Attack Turns Fox News Heads to Mush

Posted by on October 22, 2017 at 1:08 pm. 7 Comments :

To begin with, it must be noted that the headline above is fake news. The heads of those on Fox News, and their viewers, were already mush. That said, their exposure to Rachel Maddow’s program didn’t make that situation any better. On Saturday morning the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends spent several minutes with stunned expressions and babbling recriminations as they struggled to unwind Maddow’s commentary.

Rachel Maddow

On Friday Maddow laid out a detailed and well researched examination of what might have led up to four Green Berets being ambushed in Niger. The whole segment is must-see TV, and a demonstration of what real journalism looks like. The gist is that Donald Trump’s curious inclusion of Chad on his latest Muslim ban may have caused them to pull back on their anti-terrorism efforts in Niger. Since they were effective at suppressing groups like Al Shabaab and ISIS in the region, it left our troops vulnerable to attack.

Maddow’s report was taken up on Fox and Friends in a segment (video below) that featured a graphic declaring that “Maddow Blames Trump For Niger Attack.” And since the mission of Fox News, and especially Fox and Friends, is to defend Trump no matter the subject, the F&F crew went to work. They began by asserting that the events Maddow discussed were entirely separate and had no possible relation to one another. Of course, anyone with a functioning cerebral cortex could see the direct linkage. Lacking any substantive rebuttal, co-host Pete Hegseth attempted to mock Maddow’s thoughtful demeanor rather than her facts. Then he accuses her of spinning a wild conspiracy theory as “the leader of the left.” But perhaps the most idiotic remarks were offered by co-host Abby Huntsman, who said this”

“It’s dangerous when the media starts having conversations about this and putting in their own theories that are, as you said, completely unrelated to what actually happened. It’s dangerous, not only for us in terms of figuring out what did happen. But it’s dangerous to the families that lost loved ones over there because they’re the ones who should be the focus of this conversation and somehow we go down these roads oftentimes and it’s such a distraction and it’s such a disservice to this country and what our job is in the media.”

Really? Fox News is whining about media “putting in their own theories”? Is that supposed to be satire? And they are pretending to be upset that the families of the fallen aren’t the focus the conversation even though Trump has still not spoken of them or paid any tribute. The three co-hosts then collectively complained that Maddow is a “lazy” journalist. Never mind that she did the legwork to put together a cogent analysis that offers a possible explanation for why four American soldiers died in Niger. All the Fox Friends did was bitch about it. And they never countered a single fact that Maddow raised with “alternative facts” of their own. And then Huntsmen launched this bit of unintentional hilarity:

“I can’t tell you how many of my friends I talk to, it’s like, they have no idea where to go to figure out what’s actually going on. I hear that from my family, my friends, people I just talk to on the streets.”

Let that sink in. Her own friends and family tell her that they don’t know where to get reliable news. Which means they don’t think they can get it from her or Fox News either. She may have friends and family that are smarter than she and her Fox colleagues. But still not smart enough to understand Dr. Maddow.

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

Morally Bankrupt: Fox & Friends Host Couldn’t Mute These Moving Repudiations of Trump

Posted by on August 16, 2017 at 1:21 pm. NO Comments :

There’s an old saying that offers this common sense advice: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Apparently Donald Trump hasn’t heard that saying. Or maybe he just doesn’t think it applies to people who are perfect and rich and certain of their superiority. Consequently, he continues to dig himself deeper into the cesspool of white supremacy advocacy.

Fox News

On Tuesday Trump held an impromptu press conference that quickly devolved into a nauseating defense of neo-Nazis and the racism embodied by the KKK and other hate groups. He was roundly chastised by Americans from across the political spectrum. Democrats and Republicans alike are distancing themselves from his overt bigotry. A new poll shows that more people believe that Trump supports white nationalism than think that he opposes it. The fallout from his disastrous performance was nearly universal.

One area of respite for the President was, of course Fox News. With virtually every program they aired came a vigorous defense of Trump’s allegedly unyielding love for all mankind. Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson led the way in white-washing his rancid prejudices. At the same time they sought to smear those who oppose the racism espoused by Trump and company. But there were a few moments when real emotions were displayed that better represented the nation’s revulsion of Trump’s bigotry.

On Fox and Friends, co-host Abby Huntsman interviewed Johns Hopkins professor Wendy Osefo and Republican political analyst Gianno Caldwell. Her mission was clearly to guide the discussion into a redemption from Trump’s latest debacle. Prof. Osefo provided an excellent definition of the terms of the debate (video below):

“This is about hatred. It’s about white supremacy. And to have Heather Heyer killed on U.S. soil by a Nazi, Deandre Harris beaten and bludgeoned by Nazis. This is not talking points here. This isn’t partisan. This is human life. And as a mother, to hear the President of these United States not sit here and condemn what has happened. As a black woman of two black boys, my heart bleeds. This is not talking points here. This is personal. And we as a nation, as a country, have to do better.”

Huntsman’s reaction completely ignored this heartfelt plea for Trump to change course. She made a pathetic attempt to steer the conversation back to territory that was advantageous to Trump:

Gianno, to you. Do you agree with that? There are good people on both sides of this debate. We talk about keeping these statues up. People that I talk to say that this is about history. How do we move forward. How do we learn from those mistakes if we just tear everything down?

Huntsman’s pivot included the White House talking points that both sides are to blame and that there are good Nazis. She also revealed the narrow scope of people that she talks to. This isn’t about preserving history, which is well documented in libraries full of historical literature. The people Huntsman talks to actually want to preserve the honoring of traitors. But her other guest wasn’t distracted by this tactic:

“You know, I come today with a very heavy heart. Last night I couldn’t sleep at all because President Trump, our president, has literally betrayed the conscience of our country. The very moral fabric on which we’ve made progress on race relations. He’s failed us. And it’s very unfortunate that our president would say things like he did in that press conference when he said that “There’s good people on the side of the Nazis. They weren’t all Nazis. They weren’t all white supremacists.” Mr. President, good people don’t pal around with Nazis and white supremacists.”

Remember, Caldwell is the Republican on the panel. And he expressed what every decent Republican ought to admit. Republicans in Congress need to renounce Trump’s bigotry and defense of the alt-right white supremacists. His cabinet must demand he reject racism and fire those on his staff who embrace it (Bannon, Gorka, Miller, etc.). Absent that, they must resign themselves.

Caldwell concluded his remarks with a shot aimed directly at Huntsman and Fox News:

“For anyone to come on any network and defend what President Trump did and said at that press conference yesterday is completely lost and potentially morally bankrupt.”

That’s something that all politicians, pundits and journalists need to take seriously. This isn’t about talking points. It’s about human decency. And there aren’t two sides to that.

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

Fox News Retracts Their Dangerously False Food Stamp Story – And Still Gets It Wrong

Posted by on December 30, 2016 at 12:30 pm. 7 Comments :

On Tuesday Fox News broadcast an episode of their “Entitlement Nation” series that made some startling claims about the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (aka food stamps). What was not startling was that they got it all wrong (as reported here on News Corpse). Fox & Friends co-host, Abby Huntsman, asserted that “$70 million of taxpayer money was wasted on food stamp fraud.” Then she asked “Is it time to end the program altogether?” Because eliminating a program that keeps millions of kids and seniors from starving is preferable to looking for ways to reduce a minuscule amount of alleged fraud.

Fox News

Now the U.S. Department of Agriculture has weighed in to chastise Fox for their “mistakes.” They wrote to the network asking them “to correct a report from Tuesday morning’s edition of ‘Fox & Friends’ alleging new heights for food-stamp fraud in the United States.” They stated that the agency had not issued any data for 2016 and that they didn’t know where Fox was getting their info. Except to say that “We saw that there was a story on Breitbart.”

So Huntsman aired a retraction of her dangerously false food stamp story Friday, saying that the data she cited was incorrect. However, she went on to assert another falsehood saying that the “correct” number for food stamp fraud was $853 million for the three years from 2009 to 2011. In fact, that number refers to any errors (i.e. under/over payments), not just fraud. And it’s still an uncommonly low error rate. What’s more, Fox removed the original story from their website, leaving only a correction but no indication of what they corrected. That is not how ethical journalists operate.

So now that Fox has apologized for reporting false information, will they also retract their suggestion that the SNAP program be eliminated? Not likely. Fox News and the Republican Party have opposed virtually every social welfare program, including Social Security and Medicare. And they are currently obsessed with repealing ObamaCare. They are devoted to making life more difficult for people who are already undergoing hardship. While simultaneously they strive to make life easier for the wealthy by reducing taxes and regulations that benefit the population at large. So merry Christmas and happy new year from Fox News.

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

Merry WTF? Fox News Asks ‘Is It Time To End The Food Stamp Program?’

Posted by on December 28, 2016 at 11:49 am. 7 Comments :

[Note (12/30/2016): See the update to this story and Fox’s correction here.]

Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men. That’s the spirit of Christmas and the crass marketing slogan so fiercely defended by the Christmas Warriors at Fox News. Which makes the Fox & Friends segment Tuesday morning all the more shocking for its cruel indifference to human suffering.

Fox News

Co-host Abby Huntsman introduced the segment as part their recurring “Entitlement Nation” series. These are generally excuses to attack the less fortunate among our American family. Past episodes have explored such nonsense as ObamaPhones and the lazy moochers on welfare with their extravagant microwave ovens.

Tuesday’s cheery holiday discussion was about whether SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, aka food stamps) ought to be discontinued. Because what’s more Christmasy than depriving poor families of lavish indulgences like food? To that end Huntsman raised the issue with her guests, Republican Joe Borelli and Democrat Jehmu Greene. And she framed the “fair and balanced” debate saying:

“Food stamp fraud is at an all-time high […] This year it is estimated that $70 million of taxpayer money was wasted on food stamp fraud. Is it time to end the program altogether?”

Good question, Ms. Scrooge. Don’t bother trying to reduce the alleged waste, just eliminate critical funding for food that keeps working families from starving. Not surprisingly, her Republican guest answered the question in the affirmative:

Borelli: “The Republican Party can’t be either in perception or in practice as the party that is seen as throwing people to the curb and cutting off benefits when they really need it. That said said, this program, the SNAP program, the reincarnation of the food stamp program, has been rife with problems since almost its inception.”

So Borelli’s position is that the GOP must avoid looking insensitive, while still being insensitive. It’s an admittedly tricky political maneuver. But one that Republicans have many decades of experience with. The Democrat actually offered some substance in her rebuttal:

Greene: “We certainly have to have this conversation by looking at the facts. And the facts are that 45 percent of the recipients of SNAP programs are under the age of eighteen. Nine percent of them are over the age of sixty. This is a program that keeps young people and elderly people out of poverty.

Greene also pointed out that the SNAP program helps the economy. That’s because for every five dollars that’s spent, nine dollars goes right back into the local economy. Meanwhile, Borelli incorrectly said that one percent of the spending on SNAP was lost to fraud. It’s actually only one-tenth of one percent (Republicans don’t do math). That’s an uncommonly low rate of loss for any program or even for commercial businesses.

Borelli went on to complain that the cost of the program doubled in the past eight years. What he didn’t say is that the costs went up because more people needed assistance due to the Bush Recession. Also, inflation has required the benefits to increase. If the minimum wage increased at the same rate there would be far fewer families who need this to supplement their income. But Republicans oppose that as well.

The SNAP program has proven to be an essential benefit that keeps children, seniors, and other low-income Americans from going hungry. It helps the economy, and is effective and cost efficient. In fact, the overall cost of the program is falling as the economy improves. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities reports that:

“In fiscal year 2015, the federal government spent about $75 billion on SNAP. About 93 percent went directly to benefits that households used to purchase food. About 6 percent went to state administrative costs.”

Given the success of the program, it makes no sense to consider discontinuing it. But to suggest doing so during the Christmas holiday is downright cold-hearted. Fox News and the Republican Party have opposed virtually every social welfare program, including Social Security and Medicare. They are currently obsessed with repealing ObamaCare and cancelling the health insurance of 20 million people. But you might think they would withhold their most callous tendencies until after the Season of Joy. Sadly, you would be wrong.

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