Heather Nauert

Trump’s Pick of Fox News Alum Heather Nauert for the UN is More Proof that He’s Anti-American

Posted by on December 7, 2018 at 10:10 am. 3 Comments :

It seems that every time Donald Trump does something, he reminds the country – and the world – that he is incurably idiotic, self-absorbed, and uninterested in the welfare of America or its citizens. How else could he nominate Heather Nauert, formerly of Fox News, to become the United States Ambassador to the United Nations?

Fox News, Heather Nauert

Just a little over a year ago Nauert was reading news headlines on Trump’s favorite Fox News program, Fox and Friends. She has a degree in journalism which may have been an overqualification for her job at Fox News, but it is decidedly under-qualifying for the UN post. She has zero credentials in any diplomatic field. She hasn’t studied foreign policy, government administration, or international history. She has never held any position in diplomacy or where she would learn about the diplomatic processes of the UN.

And yet, Trump is putting her in position to negotiate with career professionals from around the world. To illustrate just how serious a hole this puts our country in, note that Russia’s UN Ambassador has thirty years of experience in the diplomatic corps, five of which were at the UN. But now she’s supposed to be able to play in the big leagues with foreign adversaries who are far superior at their jobs? That’s like making Steve Doocy Secretary of Defense. Or like making Donald Trump president of the United States.

If Nauert had any sense of duty or patriotism she would decline the nomination. She should know that her inexperience would disadvantage the U.S. in a body that is full of people who are more capable. A patriot would insist that the U.S. be represented by someone with comparable skills, knowledge, and experience. By taking the position she is willfully damaging the welfare of America’s status in the world.

But ultimately, it’s Donald Trump who is responsible for this travesty. He couldn’t care less about the prospects for the nation achieving its diplomatic goals. All he wants is a sycophant who will praise him and obey his directives. And if she’s a young blonde who used to brighten the lives of Fox’s geriatric male viewers, so much the better.

It should not be dismissed that Nauert is taking exactly the same path to her high level government job that Trump did. He was also a talking head on Fox News prior to running for president. He had a weekly segment on Fox and Friends called Mondays with Trump. And they aren’t the only two former Foxies in the White House. She joins National Security Advisor John Bolton, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, and worst of all, Deputy Chief of Staff Bill Shine. Shine was fired as Fox News president for having covered up the sexual misconduct of CEO Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly. So he’s a natural for Trump’s inner circle.

So Nauert is joining a team that is historically ill-equipped to perform the jobs they’ve been given. Her association with former Fox News colleagues (Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro, etc.) only makes things worse. They are now acting as Trump’s “Shadow Cabinet,” giving him media support and advice on policy. It’s a sick joke of an administration that is mirroring Trump’s own experience as a reality TV game show host. And it’s not in America’s interest. If Trump had any sense of duty or patriotism, he would resign.

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

Larry Kudlow is the Latest Contestant on Trump’s Reality TV Game Show Presidency

Posted by on March 14, 2018 at 3:06 pm. 3 Comments :

The mayhem at the White House is continuing as Donald Trump’s behavior gets ever more frantic and irrational. in the past few hours he has fired his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, the State Department’s top diplomacy aide, Steve Goldstein, and his personal assistant, John McEntee. There are rumblings from insiders that Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, and Veterans Administration director David Shulkin are also on the chopping block.

Fox News Trump Apprentice

As these vacancies open up, Trump will have the opportunity to name new appointees that will be better supplicants to his will. That has already played out with his nomination of current CIA director Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson. And the news on Wednesday is that Trump has picked CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow to succeed the fired Gary Cohn as his chief economic advisor.

By selecting Kudlow, Trump is continuing a pattern of bringing television personalities into his administration. Mostly they have been from Fox News and include K.T. McFarland, Ben Carson, Sebastian Gorka, Richard Grennell, and Jonathan Wachtel. Former Fox and Friends co-host, Heather Nauert, was also tapped by Trump to be the State Department spokesperson last year. And now she has already been promoted to replace Goldstein. Her entire career has been with Fox News and she has no diplomatic experience whatsoever.

The departure of Trump’s communications director, Hope Hicks, last month has set off a flurry of speculation as to who would fill her shoes. Among those being considered is Fox News co-host of The Five, Kimberly Guilfoyle. She has been on deck for a Trump slot for quite a while. And another Fox and Friends host, Pete Hegseth, is reportedly being wooed to lead the Veterans Administration should Shulkin get tossed. Prior to joining Fox, Hegseth headed up a Koch brothers front group that pretended to advocate for veterans. But he has zero experience running a massive bureaucracy like the VA, nor has he ever worked in the health services field that comprises much of what the VA does.

Trump’s National Security Advisor, McMaster, is also teetering on the brink. His successor is rumored to be another Fox News contributor, John Bolton. He served in George Bush’s state department and as Ambassador to the United Nations. Consequently Bolton played a major role in the fabricated weapons of mass destruction excuses to invade Iraq, as well as in the disastrous administration of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obviously Trump is most comfortable working with TV personalities. It seems like his entire pool of possible job applicants come from the ranks of people he’s seen on Fox or other programs. His experience is so bereft of substance that he can’t possibly know anyone that has actual credentials in the jobs he needs to fill. And he wouldn’t want them anyway because they might not be photogenic. As a result, America will be burdened with shallow, unqualified amateurs running government agencies whose work affects us all. But at least they’ll look good when they sit down for softball interviews with Sean Hannity.

This is what Fox’s Laura Ingraham considers Trump “hitting his stride,” and “getting a really strong team in place.” And coincidentally, that’s exactly how Trump sees it. On Tuesday he explained to reporters that these White House shake-ups were just the normal fine tuning of personnel. “I’m really at a point,” he said, “where we’re getting very close to having the Cabinet, and other things, that I want.” That’s after a year in office where all of his original appointments were also his choices, but apparently not what he wanted. Ironically, not having the leadership one wants is something most Americans can relate to right now.

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

Fox News Is Becoming The Propaganda Ministry Of The Trump Administration

Posted by on March 8, 2017 at 7:38 pm. 3 Comments :

The relationship between Donald Trump and Fox News goes back years. Long before he was running for president he had a regular segment on Fox and Friends called “Mondays with Trump.” It served as the launching pad for his eventual campaign and a platform from which he could attack President Obama. In addition to that free political infomercial time, Trump was close friends with Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Roger Ailes.

Donald Trump Fox News

This parasitic partnership served both the ego of Trump and the greed of Fox. Consequently, it’s not especially surprising that it would continue into his presidency. However no one could have predicted the depths it would reach. From the outset of the nascent Trump administration, he has used the right-wing network as a virtual farm team. The only other comparably rich pool of potential White House recruits was Goldman Sachs. This week two new Foxies became the beneficiaries of Trump’s job creation program.

Heather Nauert was most recently a co-host and news presenter on Fox and Friends. Now she has been tapped as spokeswoman for the State Department. This is her first government job.

Following her to Trumpville is Fox contributor Richard Grennell. He served as Director of Communications for the U.S. representative to the United Nations from 2001 to 2008 before signing on at Fox. That means he was the key spokesman throughout the Iraq war debacle. Now Trump is nominating him to be the ambassador to NATO. What’s peculiar about this is that Trump has repeatedly criticized the U.S. invasion of Iraq that it was Grennell’s job to defend. And now Trump wants to put him at NATO, an organization Trump said was outdated.

These two Foxugees are joining three former colleagues already on Team Trump. K.T. McFarland, Ben Carson, and Sebastian Gorka. There would have been four but Monica Crowley withdrew from the National Security Council after being exposed as a plagiarist. She’s back at Fox now. Appearing on Hannity Tuesday night she whined that she had been the victim of “a straight up political hit job.” She also said that her publisher backed her up but, in fact, they halted all sales of her book.

Still more Fox personnel have been considered for administration roles. Trump appears to be building a de facto Ministry of Propaganda out of the White House. All of the elements are falling into place. He’s assembled a cast of characters that has experience in developing fiction and defending the indefensible. Now on the inside they can be counted on to continue showering him with praise and deflecting criticism.

On the other side of this partnership, Fox News is well positioned to take advantage of their unique circumstance. They can expect to be excluded from Trump’s tirades against “fake news.” More importantly, the network’s corporate parent can count on Trump to shepherd through regulations that benefit the company. Fox would love to have the FCC relax TV station ownership caps so they can monopolize markets by buying up more stations. Also high among the priorities of Fox’s CEO Rupert Murdoch, is scuttling the merger of competitors AT&T and TimeWarner. That’s actually a good idea, but not for the selfish reasons Murdoch harbors.

Finally, how can Fox News fairly cover an administration that’s lousy with its own former employees? This presents a conflict that is unprecedented. Those involved are closely associated with one another, and they likely expect to return to Fox after their government service. So neither will want to antagonize the other for fear of hampering future opportunities.

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

Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” is being kept by draining it right into the White House. The stench of corruption stemming from his unsavory connections to Russia now has a media machine to mask the odor. It’s the sort of thing that one observes in the regimes of dictators. There has never been anything similar in the United States. It’s up to what’s left of the independent press to make sure it doesn’t take hold. So we may be in big trouble.

On Fox News: Protest BY Police is Honorable. Protest OF Police Is Pathetic

Posted by on January 5, 2015 at 1:08 pm. 13 Comments :

In another example of the acutely schizophrenic and brazenly prejudiced approach to journalism practiced by Fox News, two recent stories have revealed just how blatantly they peddle their hypocrisy.

Fox News

When members of the New York Police Department decided to express their political grievances with New York Mayor Bill De Blasio, they orchestrated the profoundly disrespectful tactic of protesting during the funerals of murdered officers. It was a repulsive strategy that heretofore was only engaged in by the nauseating disciples of the Westboro Baptist Church, whose protests at the funerals of American soldiers were repudiated by just about everyone across the political spectrum.

For some reason, Fox News, and other conservative media, flipped 180 degrees and voiced their support for the officers who turned their backs on the Mayor, turning events that were supposed to be memorials to slain colleagues into political rallies. The majority of Fox pundits and guests (including Bernie Kerik, the former New York Police Commissioner and convicted felon) had no problem with this display of self-serving partisanship at such solemn occasions.

Cut to a town hall in Oregon where a 100 year old World War II veteran was to receive a tribute for his service. During the event a group of citizens paraded through the room chanting “I can’t Breathe,” the iconic last words of police chokehold victim Eric Garner. Video of this protest was aired on Fox News along with a scornful commentary by anchor Heather Nauert who called the spectacle “Unbelievable,” while an on-screen graphic condemned it as “Harassing a Hero.” On the Fox News community website Fox Nation, they posted the item with the headline “PATHETIC: Ferguson Protesters DISRUPT Ceremony Honoring 100-YEAR-OLD Veteran.”

It needs to be noted that the vet’s tribute was just a part of a public town hall meeting where citizens are permitted to gather and be heard on a variety of local concerns. It was not a dedicated ceremony for the vet. What’s more, Fox Nation got the story wrong with the “Ferguson Protesters” label when they were actually referring to the the Garner killing in New York. On the other hand, the funerals for officers Ramos and Liu were specifically planned to pay respects to two cops who were brutally murdered in an unprovoked ambush.

So according to Fox News, it is unthinkable for citizens to attend a public meeting and express themselves on a matter that directly impacts their lives. But it is perfectly fine to disrupt a funeral in order to complain about political differences with a city’s mayor. This is reminiscent of how Fox News would glorify, and even help promote, the protesters associated with the Tea Party, but condemned and slandered those connected to Occupy Wall Street.

Get the ALL NEW 2nd volume of
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

On Fox News a protest BY police officers attacking a liberal mayor is reported as honorable. But a protest OF police officers by citizens is condemned as pathetic. So the legitimacy of any protest as reported by Fox News is dependent on whether the participants are aligned with the network’s biases. And while Fox often complains about big government and tyrannical politicians, they seem perfectly comfortable with advocating for a police state that cannot be criticized or held to account.