CNN: The Colbert News Network? ‘Late Show’ Exec Producer, Chris Licht, Hired to Helm CNN

CNN recently announced that its CEO, Jeff Zucker, had resigned due to his not having disclosed a personal relationship with one of the network’s executives. He was leaving soon anyway in the wake of the pending merger between CNN’s parent company, WarnerMedia, and Discovery Networks. But Trump got a cheap thrill from the news of Zucker’s departure and released a typically infantile statement calling him “a world-class sleazebag” and offering “congratulations to all!”

Click here to Tweet this article

Stephen Colbert & Trump Baby

However, describing Zucker as a “sleazebag” is just another example of projection by Trump, who is best known for being a twice impeached, thrice married, pussy grabbing, porn star boinking, charity scamming, business bankrupting, insurrection inciting, pathologically lying, racist, and Putin loving traitor.

Trump may have been excited by the news of Zucker stepping aside, but he’s going to be somewhat less enthused when he finds out who is replacing him. According to CNN

“Chris Licht, the producer who created ‘Morning Joe,’ revamped ‘CBS This Morning’ and revitalized ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,’ has been selected to run CNN once Discovery merges with WarnerMedia this spring, according to three sources with knowledge of the plan.”

That’s right. Licht, who is currently the executive producer and showrunner of “The Late Show,” will soon be running CNN. Now, some people may think that Stephen Colbert’s producer is an odd choice to run a news network. However, prior to joining Colbert’s program Licht had worked in television news for more than twenty years. His experience in journalism was evident as Colbert’s producer. There is plenty of politics and other news incorporated into the show, both in its comedy bits and its guest bookings. CNN’s announcement included Licht’s impressive media resume:

“Licht’s journalism roots are in local news. He worked at KNBC, the powerhouse NBC affiliate in Los Angeles, during the O.J. Simpson trial. He later worked for NBC’s affiliate in San Francisco. In 2005 he joined MSNBC as the executive producer for MSNBC’s “Scarborough Country,” hosted by Joe Scarborough. Then he built a morning show around Scarborough and colleagues, occasionally even appearing on-air from the control room. In 2011 Licht leapt to CBS and engineered “CBS This Morning,” a brand new production of CBS News. He moved to “The Late Show” in 2016 and has worked closely with Colbert ever since.”

The selection of Licht is something of a relief. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who will run the merged Warner and Discovery combo, is considered to be more conservative, and there was speculation that he would steer CNN to the right. But the selection of Licht is a pretty good sign that that isn’t the case.

Even more fun is the thought of how Licht’s appointment will impact Trump and the media hating GOP. Imagine the horror that will envelop Trump when he gets wind of this. There is something eerily timely about a producer of a comedy program becoming the head of a news network that will be covering a former comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is the head of state in Ukraine. Then again, what could be more appropriate than a comedy professional covering a joke like Donald Trump?

Just for fun, here is a clip of Colbert appearing as a guest on a Russian talk show in 2017:

UPDATE: On Monday night Stephen Colbert paid tribute to his soon to be former Executive Producer in a touching and hilarious segment. He even used the same line I did about CNN becoming “Colbert News Network.” Maybe that joke was ripe for the taking, but I’m still taking credit for it. ?

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly.

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Facebook and Instagram.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

World Class Sleazebag? Trump is Projecting Again with Asinine Assault on CNN’s Jeff Zucker

The petty vengefulness of Donald Trump is one of his most glaring personality flaws. He will lash out thunderously at anyone that he perceives as being insufficiently worshipful. It doesn’t matter if his victim is a long-time foe or a devoted ally. Trump’s mouth-foaming fury is unleashed without regard for reason at the slightest hint of criticism.

Donald Trump Angry

On Wednesday Trump took to Twitter (via his Twitter ban defying spokes-shill) to lambaste Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN Worldwide. It was just announced that Zucker is resigning from that post due to his not having disclosed a personal relationship with one of the network’s executives. Trump got a cheap thrill from this news and released a typically infantile statement saying that…

“Jeff Zucker, a world-class sleazebag who has headed ratings and real-news-challenged CNN for far too long, has been terminated for numerous reasons, but predominantly because CNN has lost its way with viewers and everybody else. Now is a chance to put Fake News in the backseat because there may not be anything more important than straightening out the horrendous LameStream Media in our Country, and in the case of CNN, throughout the World. Jeff Zucker is gone—congratulations to all!”

If anyone should refrain from calling other people a “world-class sleazebag” it’s Donald Trump. The twice impeached, thrice married, pussy grabbing, charity scamming, business bankrupting, pathologically lying, racist, really has too many open sores to be pointing out the scratches on others.

Naturally, Trump’s tirade is drenched in spiteful lies. For starters, Zucker was not “terminated.” He resigned. And his resignation at this time was not for “numerous reasons.” It was solely over the undisclosed relationship. What’s more, Zucker had actually announced his resignation a year ago, saying that he would leave by the end of 2021. He later extended that when CNN’s parent corporation, AT&T, agreed to spin off WarnerMedia (of which CNN is a part) in a deal with Discovery Communications. Zucker then said he would stay until the deal closed, which is expected to be in the 2nd quarter of 2022. So he only had another couple of months to go anyway.

Nevertheless, Trump’s gleefulness over Zucker’s slightly early departure couldn’t be contained. That’s partly due to his relationship with Zucker that dates back to when Zucker headed NBC while Trump’s “The Apprentice” was on the air. But due to his flaming hatred for CNN – and the media in general – Trump soured on Zucker long ago.

Trump closing his rant with “congratulations” suggests that he thinks Zucker will be replaced by someone who will run CNN more like Fox News. Of course that would mean someone like the late Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who was fired for his own sexual harassment and assaults. That is highly unlikely.

There is a massive helping of irony in Trump’s latching onto a criticism of Zucker over his sudden exit from CNN over a personal relationship. Zucker’s relationship, it should be noted, was consensual, and he apologized for not following corporate policy to disclose it. Trump, on the other hand, has been credibly accused of sexual harassment, abuse, and even rape, by dozens of women.

Trump is the last person who should be moralizing about the personal lives of others. And yet he does it relentlessly. He is utterly without shame or honor or decency. And for some unexplainable, but indisputably idiotic reason, he insists on reminding everybody of what a sleazebag he is. Which may be a symptom of his malignant narcissism, or perhaps something worse for which there is not yet a name.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly.

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Facebook and Instagram.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

Fox News Host Smugly Laughs at Death and Destruction By the Trump Terrorists He Incited

The Trump Insurrection of 2021 has resulted in the deaths of five Americans – so far. And the violent invasion of Congress as it attempted to perform its constitutional duties left many more injured. But equally disturbing is the stain it left on the fragile fabric of democracy. And yet, Donald Trump – who professed his love for the terrorists – continues to ignore the consequences and evade accountability.

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram.

Fox News, Tucker Carlson

One of the reasons that Trump gets away with his atrocities is that he has the unflinching support of right-wing media, especially Fox News. The network acts as Trump’s de facto Ministry of Propaganda, and it’s top hosts have shamelessly glorified him (and still do), no matter how appalling his actions or grotesque his behavior.

Chief among the contingent of Fox News Trump-fluffers is Tucker Carlson. And he is anxious to cement his kneeling position in the wake of the Trump Insurrection. On Friday night’s episode of his White Nationalist Hour (video below), Carlson launched a pity party by whining that it is Fox News that is under attack by media foes that he simultaneously says are weak and irrelevant. “This morning,” Carlson whined, “CNN announced that it is working to force the Fox News Channel off the air and run this company out of business.” Poor baby. He is plainly distraught and perhaps suffering from PTSD (Post-Trump Sedition Disorder). His hysterical tirade continued…

“CNN staffers have already contacted the six major cable carriers in this country – those are the companies that carry our signal into your home – and pressured them to drop Fox News. Why? On the pretext that this show and others is directly responsible for the violence at the U.S. capitol this week. ‘It is time,’ CNN announced, quote ‘that TV carriers face questions for lending their platforms to dishonest companies that profit off of disinformation and conspiracy theories. So here you have a news company calling for censorship. You have a TV network demanding that media conglomerates ban its competitor.”

That grumbling of grievances was, of course, just another litany of lies. CNN never pressured cable companies to drop Fox News. They never called for censorship. They never demanded that Fox News, or any other media outlet be banned. That was all invented in Carlson’s biased, paranoid, and wildly overactive imagination. And from that warped perspective he launched a bizarre and infantile fantasy that featured CNN’s CEO Jeff Zucker, whom he called “CNN’s blustery little dwarf king” and described as “sitting on the tiny throne in his apartment, feet dangling just above the floor, watching Fox News and getting angrier and angrier.” [NOTE: That last part sounded more like a description of Trump]. You really have to wonder how Carlson, whose emotional maturity is pre-toddler, got a primetime show on television. Although his landing on Fox News followed being fired by PBS, CNN, and MSNBC.

Carlson went on to chastise CNN’s Brianna Keilar’s reporting on the Trump Terrorists in Washington. He literally laughs at the description of them as “insurrectionists,” and mocks their vandalism and assault on police officers as they sought to disrupt the congressional certification of the election. He took particular offense at her reference to his show and his personal culpability for the environment that produced the seditious rioters.

Naturally Carlson, a flaming white supremacist, was most offended by any suggestion that “white privilege” played any role in how the riot unfolded and the police response to it. That obvious observation by Keilar elicited more sanctimonious laughter from Carlson. For context, here is what Keilar actually said on her CNN program:

“We regularly discuss what the Big Tech companies have done to poison the public conversation by providing large platforms to bad-faith actors who lie, mislead, and promote conspiracy theories. But what about TV companies that provide platforms to networks such as Newsmax, One America News — and, yes, Fox News?

“Somehow, these companies have escaped scrutiny and entirely dodged this conversation. That should not be the case anymore. After Wednesday’s incident of domestic terrorism on Capitol Hill, it is time TV carriers face questions for lending their platforms to dishonest companies that profit off of disinformation and conspiracy theories. After all, it was the very lies that Fox, Newsmax, and OAN spread that helped prime President Trump’s supporters into not believing the truth: that he lost an honest and fair election.

“Yes, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson and Mark Levin and others are responsible for the lies they peddle to their audiences. But the TV companies that beam them into millions of homes around the country also bear some responsibility. And yet we rarely, if ever, talk about them.”

So Keilar was addressing real problems with the partisan falsehoods that contributed to the violence at the Capitol. And she expressed the rational opinion that questions need to be asked in order to fully understand what happened, what caused it, and how to prevent it in the future. But those questions, in Carlson’s diseased brain, were out of bounds and deserving of his wrath and mockery.

The truth is that any criticism of Trump would antagonize Carlson and his Fox News confederates. They have subjugated their free will and reason in favor of worshipping the master of the Cult of Trump, to which they are devoted disciples. It’s emblematic of the descent into madness by both Fox News and the Republican Party. They have come utterly undone. And in their hypnotic state of idolatry they see no evil and speak only in glowing expressions of adoration and amazement at the perfection of Dear Leader.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. And you can follow my alternate Twitter account here. Thanks for your support.

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

Hilarity Ensues as the Trump Campaign Threatens To Sue CNN For False Advertising

The psychotic world of Donald Trump just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. The evidence of his rapidly accelerating descent into a paranoid dystopia increases with each new day. Already this week Trump has seen his Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, admit that he engaged in a quid pro quo deal to extort the Ukrainian president; selected his own Miami Doral golf resort to host the 2020 G7 summit; advanced a bizarre conspiracy theory about the 2016 election; and brokered a total surrender by our allies the Kurds to the murderous Erdogan regime of Turkey.

Donald Trump, CNN

Topping off this week from hell, one of Trump’s lawyers, Charles Harder, has just announced that Trump intends to sue CNN for what he calls “a sustained barrage of unfair, unfounded, unethical and unlawful attacks” – otherwise known as accurate journalism. Harder sent a letter advising of that intention to Jeff Zucker, the CEO of CNN’s parent company, WarnerMedia (posted below). The threatened lawsuit alleges that the network is in violation of the Lanham Act “by constituting misrepresentations to the public, to your advertisers, and others.” The Lanham Act is a federal statute that, among other things, prohibits trademark infringement and false advertising. It’s safe to say that Trump isn’t accusing CNN of trademark infringement.

The letter warns that the suit will seek “a substantial payment of damages.” But what Harder says is false advertising are merely CNN’s comments as to their reliability as a news source. For instance, they say that they “stand for excellence in journalism,” and that they are “truly fair and balanced.” These, of course, are subjective observations that are neither advertising, nor actionable in litigation. If it were possible to sue for not being “fair and balanced,” Fox News would have been bankrupted long ago by legal judgements against them.

The most preposterous part of this lawsuit is that it relies almost entirely on examples of bias taken from a hysterically bogus set of videos by professional right-wing propagandist, liar, pervert, and ex-con, James O’Keefe, and his deceptively named Project Veritas. His latest smear campaign was cited extensively in Harder’s letter. But it was just another flaming dud that proved nothing but how awful he is at his loathsome job. Harder’s letter included this reference to the O’Keefe scam:

“Recently released video footage of individuals alleged to be your employees indicates that your reporting relating to President Trump is contrary to your own mission and the aforementioned Code of Ethics. Your own employees appear to state that CNN is focused on trying to ‘takedown President Trump,’ driven by a ‘personal vendetta’ that Mr. Zucker purportedly has against him, rather than reporting the news in an objective manner.”

Note that Harder even refers to “individuals alleged to be your employees,” because he doesn’t know whether or not the people appearing in the video are actually who O’Keefe says they are. And he’s proposing to sue on that foundation of mush. Even if they are CNN employees, they are all low-level support staff with no editorial responsibilities or newsroom authority. So they don’t speak for CNN. And every comment attributed to Zucker actually affirmed his integrity as a news executive.

Should Trump go ahead with this lawsuit he will will surely be laughed out of court. But there is little reason to believe that this will go past this embarrassingly dumb letter. Trump often threatens to sue people as a bullying tactic, but rarely has the guts to follow through. He recently threatened to sue House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chair, Adam Schiff. And we’re still holding our breath for that one.

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

Hysterical Impeachment Syndrome: Now Trump is Attacking Both CNN and Fox News

The severity of Trump’s psychotic breakdown is leading him to ever more bizarre outbursts and tantrums. As his mental infirmity declines, his incoherent raving accelerates. In just the past few days this has manifested in absurd threats to sue Nancy Pelosi, nauseating mimicry of orgasms, and hypocritical assaults on the business affairs of wealthy, politically connected children.

Fox News, Impeach Trump

As the inevitability of impeachment nears, Trump is spewing inanities like a schizophrenic on the street corner shouting gibberish at passing cars. It’s a pathetic display that only reinforces how critical it is to remove him from office as quickly as possible. He even conceded it himself in a carelessly worded tweeted that said “Impeach the Pres.” Another example of his derangement was evident in a Tuesday morning tweet where he whined…

Trump is cryptically referring a so-called exposé by notorious truth distorter James O’Keefe. As usual, O’Keefe’s imaginary “blockbuster” was a colossal bust. But that didn’t stop Trump – and Fox News – from hyping the heck out of it. With specific regard to Jeff Zucker, CEO of CNN parent WarnerMedia, Trump is actually trying to start the rumor he’s tweeting about. No one else has even mentioned Zucker resigning. And it’s a far cry from Trump’s previous opinion of Zucker when he said that Zucker “would be a great choice” to take over CNN. It’s fair to say that Trump will be gone before Zucker will.

In addition to this weak thrust at CNN, Trump is also throwing impotent swings at his very own State TV network (aka Fox News). Last week Fox News released the results of a poll that showed a majority of voters (51%) favoring Trump’s impeachment and removal from office. That set off the Snowflake-in-Chief who tweeted that “Whoever their Pollster is, they suck,” and that “Fox News doesn’t deliver for US anymore.” Nevermind that the Fox poll was in line with several others released at the same time. Trump, though, is continuing to malign Fox’s polling with another tweet on Monday that said…

It goes without saying that Trump is making this up. There was no “announcement” that the poll was incorrect. Consequently, there was no need to mention any correction, or to make one. What Trump’s diseased brain was mangling was an article in the rightist New York Post that took issue with the poll’s methodology. But the Post’s analysis was as shallow as puddle in a heat wave. Fox used a breakdown that represents an accurate sampling of the electorate, and one that most other pollsters use. Furthermore, Fox’s methodology used the same breakdown they used in previous polls where Trump’s impeachment was not favored. That makes this poll useful for tracking how the mood of the electorate is changing.

With Trump firing off hostile rhetoric at both CNN and Fox News he’s revealing just how sensitive he is to any criticism, even from friendly sources. He’s also narrowing the media outlets he trusts to lavish blind praise on him. It’s a sign that he knows his coverage is bound to get worse as new evidence of his criminality comes out. At some point, Fox is going to get jealous of the other news enterprises getting all the scoops, and start reporting some of their own. So it’s just a matter of time before Trump jumps off the cliff of sanity and buries himself in a crater of wrath and rancor as his defenses are drained of any ability to affect his unavoidable downfall.

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

Trump Flunky Propagandist’s Attempt to Take Down CNN is a Flaming Pile of Failure

We haven’t heard from ultra right-wing video mangler and truth distorter, James O’Keefe, for quite a while. There’s a good reason for that. He has been busy slapping together bullshit “exposés” that no one with a functioning brain has had any interest in watching. This ethically-challenged slime merchant has done a pretty darn good job of making himself a laughing stock and an irrelevant never-was.

Fox News, James O'Keefe

That said, O’Keefe just released his latest effort at maligning the media. But all he’s accomplished is to prove just how persistently stupid he is. In this episode O’Keefe purports to have planted a mole inside CNN with the intention of collecting damning video with which to slander the network. Unfortunately for the would-be news stalkers, all they collected was stale opinions of a few malcontents and some fairly routine remarks by Jeff Zucker, Chairman of CNN parent WarnerMedia News and Sports.

In a short clip that was posted on Twitter, O’Keefe discovered the shocking revelation that Zucker wanted his newsroom to “stay very focused on impeachment.” OMG! So Zucker was instructing his team to pay close attention to the biggest political story in years. And O’Keefe thinks that’s scandalous.

O’Keefe also showed video of a couple of low-level CNN employees privately expressing personal anti-Trump views. Which means that they’re aligned with the majority of the American people. They were not giving these views on the air and they had no authority whatsoever to direct news reporting. But O’Keefe wants people to believe that they represent CNN and that there aren’t any pro-Trump staffers at the network. Of course, that’s absurd. O’Keefe just edits out anyone who doesn’t advance his phony narrative.

As evidence of that, a sliver of reality managed to stick to O’Keefe’s video, contradicting his whole premise. He recorded Zucker saying that he knows that the network employs “a lot of people that are friendly with Lindsey Graham.” Exactly! They are some of the pro-Trump staffers that O’Keefe is exicising from his propaganda piece. And all Zucker said about that was that CNN reporters shouldn’t be “friendly” with Graham. Which, of course, is the ethical position for journalists to take with their subjects. So O’Keefe is actually accusing Zucker of being ethical.

The jewel of this clip appears to be a segment wherein O’Keefe’s mole clandestinely recorded Zucker making statements that O’Keefe seems think are controversial. Well, we report, you decide (video below):

Zucker: I think what’s going on in America right now is really fundamentally the result of years of fake news, conspiracy nonsense from Fox News. … The fake conspiracy nonsense that Fox has spread for years is now deeply embedded in American society. And frankly, that is beyond destructive for America, and I do not think we should be scared to say so.

The HORROR! Zucker articulated out loud a truth that every rational, objective American already knows. Fox News is a deceitful, dishonest, biased, purveyor of manufactured propaganda on behalf of Trump and the Republican Nationalist Party. And the lies that Fox disseminates promote ignorance and division. This is what O’Keefe believes constitutes hard-hitting investigative journalism.

O’Keefe pretends to be a “guerilla” journalist who is only interested in media fairness and transparency. However, his own exploits have been heavily weighted to conservative politics and conspiracy theories. He was arrested and convicted of unlawful entry into a U.S. senator’s office. He was also caught trying and failing to “seduce” a CNN reporter. He also lost a $100,000 lawsuit for libel. This is the character of the guy assaulting CNN’s reputation.

And THIS JUST IN: Trump tweeted about O’Keefe’s bogus Veritas project. Because it’s also the character of our Dumbass-in-Chief.

Naturally Trump heard about it from Tucker Carlson of Fox News who cast CNN as “State Media.” Which is weird since they’re asserting that CNN is against the current State of Trump. What’s more, Carlson made the hilariously incredulous comment that “As of Monday night, we have not independently verified the [O’Keefe] tape … But we have no reason to believe any of this is fake.” Really? No reason other than O’Keefe’s many years of being caught lying? Also, Trump’s speculation about suing (for what, exercising First Amendment rights?) follows on his asinine talk of suing Nancy Pelosi for doing her job as House Speaker.

It’s funny though, while O’Keefe, sees himself as a media crusader, he never goes after Fox News where their “reporters” feign objectivity while blatantly sucking up to Trump. Why hasn’t O’Keefe done anything about Trump’s Attorney Genuflector, William Barr, meeting privately with Fox boss Rupert Murdoch? Why hasn’t he reported that Trump himself called Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to bitch about their coverage of him? Maybe because O’Keefe is a fraud and a failure who is destined to be ridiculed for exposing nothing but his own impotent hackery.

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

The full 19 minute video is available for anyone with the stomach to sit through it.

Frantic Gaslighting: Trump Accuses Lester Holt of ‘Fudging’ Interview Where He Incriminated Himself

Thursday morning most of the media was focused on the first public memorial service for the late Sen. John McCain. So as the nation was united in paying tribute to McCain, Donald Trump naturally took to his Twitter throne and fired off a series of frighteningly incoherent outbursts at what he regards as “the enemy of the people.” It’s his way of continuing to show contempt for a man that had the audacity to challenge him.

Donald Trump

The substance of Thursdays’ tweetstorm was typically centered on his aversion to, and fear of, the free press and the Constitution. He began by taking a swipe at a perennial foe, CNN. Trump lashed out at the network’s boss, Jeff Zucker, and called on AT&T to fire him. Think about that. The president of the United States is issuing orders to a private company in order to control their executive management. That’s pretty much the definition of fascism.

But Trump didn’t stop there. The next tweet in the tantrum was aimed at NBC and their news anchor, Lester Holt. What Trump said was obviously pulled from the recesses of a deeply disturbed mind. It was based on nothing resembling reality, but it did serve to advance his mission to Make America Stupid Again:

This is a perfect example of Trump disseminating utter bullcrap to his pathetic and glassy-eyed cult followers who will believe anything Dear Leader disgorges. The interview with Holt was not “fudged” in any way, and Trump offers no evidence to support his charge. The entire interview is posted online for all to see. Trump’s sole purpose in hurling this lie is to mitigate the fact that he incriminated himself in that interview. Trump told Holt that he fired FBI director James Comey because of the Russia investigation.

So Trump literally confessed to obstruction of justice on national television. Now he’s trying to back out of it by saying the interview was doctored. But everyone knows that he’s making that up out of pure desperation. And by doing so he only makes things worse by being so transparently dishonest and by bringing attention back to his guilt. Even Fox News was taken aback by Trump’s glaringly false allegation.

Trump continued his Twitter tirade with a more generalized attack on what he called the “totally dishonest” media. He said that “Truth doesn’t matter to them,” and that “they only have their hatred & agenda.” This is coming from the man who has been documented as telling more than 4,200 lies since his poorly attended inauguration (which he lied about). And he’s also the man whose whole presidency has been marinated in hate and bigotry. He can’t go a single day without tossing around vicious and infantile insults at anyone he perceives as insufficiently worshipful.

Finally (for the time being), Trump circled back around to CNN to reiterate some completely fake allegations about a recent story concerning his troubles with his personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, had told CNN that Cohen might tell special counsel Robert Mueller that the President knew about the infamous Trump Tower meeting with the Russians before it occurred. Davis later backpedaled and said that he could not actually confirm that. Note that he did not say it wasn’t true, only that he was no longer comfortable with the comment. That’s probably because it could put his client in legal jeopardy because it contradicted what Cohen told Congress.

Subsequently, Trump, Fox News, and other rightist media began accusing CNN of flubbing the story. But they actually got it right. It was Davis who admits that he made a statement that he would no longer stand by. That isn’t CNN’s fault, especially since they also had other sources corroborating their reporting. They continue stand by the story.

The fact that Trump would take this time, as the nation is still mourning the passing of John McCain, to trot out his self-serving delusions, is indicative of his utter lack of character and class. He simply isn’t able to allow anyone else to have the spotlight for a day or two. But the ludicrous charge that Lester Holt tampered with the video of his interview shows that Trump will propound any lie, no matter how outrageous and unfounded, to deceive the nation. And that sort of dishonesty has been the hallmark of his tenure so far in 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.

CNN President Blisters State-Run TV (aka Fox News) as ‘a Pure Propaganda Machine’

Two decades ago a conservative media mogul (Rupert Murdoch) and a right-ring political operative (Roger Ailes) colluded to form America’s first overtly partisan news network devoted to advancing a regressive agenda that favored corporations and the wealthy. And ever since Fox News has faithfully served it’s masters, all the while pretending to be “fair and balanced” journalists.

Donald Trump Fox News

For most of that time the rest of the media sheepishly approached Fox News as just another competitor. They rarely spoke honestly about how Fox was deliberately staining the one profession explicitly cited in the Constitution. Consequently, Fox got away with a lot of brazenly biased propaganda and managed to corral America’s Deplorables into a media pen where they felt safe and secure.

So it was rather surprising to hear CNN president Jeff Zucker’s criticism of Fox at the Financial Times’ “Future of News” conference on Thursday. He nailed Fox News in a way that few media executives have in the past twenty years. While nothing he said would be a revelation to anyone who has watched the network for more than two minutes, coming from a corporate media honcho it is borderline breathtaking. Here’s a quick summary of the highlights as reported by The Hollywood Reporter:

    Zucker said that…

  • Fox News “is really state-run TV. It is a pure propaganda machine, and I think does incredible disservice to this country.”
  • “The idea that it’s a news channel, I think, is really not the case at all.”
  • Fox News “has nothing on” the Russian government-run TASS Russian News Agency.
  • “I think they are lost in what is a complete propaganda machine.”

In addition, THR reports Zucker saying that “Fox News has changed substantially in the last two years, following the departure of late founder Roger Ailes. He described the change at the network as ‘shocking.'” However the only thing that might have changed is that in the post-Ailes era the executives at Fox were much less skilled at spewing rightist bullshit. Their deceitful machinations are more visible and sleazy. That may be what drove long-time Fox contributor Ralph Peters to quit the network that he now says he is “ashamed” to be associated with. According to THR Fox News was invited to participate in the event but declined.

Fox News continues to be the mouthpiece of the Republican Party and Donald Trump’s most dedicated defender. It serves as the personnel recruiting pool for the Trump administration. Among those tapped by Trump for White House posts were Heather Nauert, K.T. McFarland, Ben Carson, Sebastian Gorka, Richard Grennell, and Jonathan Wachtel. And just today Trump announced that Fox’s John Bolton will replace H.R. McMaster as his National Security Advisor. And even his legal team is now being stuffed with Fox News personalities, including Joseph DiGenova and, maybe his wife, Victoria Toensing.

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

CNN is not without its share of journalistic failures. They were among the news outlets that plastered the airwaves with Trump’s thoroughly un-newsworthy rallies (rants) during the campaign. And they still host Trump-fluffing flacks who are only there to further disseminate Trump’s lies. However, there has never been a presidential administration that was so rife with media shills from a single source. The only people that Trump recognizes are those he’s seen on TV. And the only TV he watches is Fox News. So after a year in office he still behaves like an intellectually shallow reality TV game show host, rather than the president that our nation needs. Hopefully he will be voted off this island soon by Robert Mueller’s team of Survivors.

Trump Gives A Big F.U. To The Media And The Public With A Virtual Press Blackout

Donald Trump was declared the winner of the presidential election two weeks ago. Since that time he has failed to hold a press conference to address the nation he will be representing. This is the longest period a president-elect has gone without a post-election press conference in forty years. But it’s worse than that because he actually hasn’t had a formal press conference since July. Do you suppose there might be a reason for that?

Donald Trump

Speculation could start with the fact that Trump has been more openly hostile to the media than any politician in recent memory. At his rallies he has called them dummies, losers, sleazy, liars, and more. He has not been the least bit shy about expressing his white-hot hatred for the Fourth Estate. He overtly threatened the press with lawsuits and other retribution. That included revoking the press credentials of media outlets he felt were too critical of him. In return, media advocates condemned his reckless behavior as “an unprecedented threat to press freedom.”

However, there are more substantive motives for Trump avoiding press scrutiny. The swarming torrent of scandals swirling around him pose serious risks to his nascent presidency. It begins with his election that is tainted by allegations of voter suppression and his loss of the popular vote. It continues with at least a dozen women who are charging him with sexual assault. Then there are his unsavory connections to Russia and its efforts to interfere with the election.

And that’s not all. Just a few days ago Trump agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit to compensate the fraud victims of his phony Trump University. His cabinet and administration appointees are affiliated with radical racist organizations. And he has a growing list of ethically compromising conflicts of interest. There has never been a president who has more brazenly used the office for personal gain.

No wonder Trump is avoiding the media. By going four months without taking questions from the press corps, Trump has evaded scrutiny over these and other issues. This may benefit his efforts to silence criticism, but it is a disservice to citizens and to democracy.

Sadly, the media seems to be all too willing to go along with him. Even after the atrocious way that Trump treats the press, they continue to cater to his whims. Very little mention is made of his extended refusal to face the media. That is decidedly different from the treatment that Hillary Clinton received when she went a few weeks without holding a press conference. Even though she did conduct hundreds of interviews with individual reporters, she was hounded and criticized. Fox News displayed a running clock of the days since her last press conference. And there was rampant insinuations of her having something to hide. Where is that criticism for Trump, who is no longer merely a candidate, but president-elect?

When asked when he might hold his first post-election press conference, his spokesperson, Kellyanne Conway, would say only “Soon.” She dodged any more specific answer saying that he was too busy with his transition activities. Does she expect him to be less busy when he’s the leader of the free world? What’s more, he wasn’t too busy to convene a private, off the record meeting with the heads of the major media corporations and some leading news anchors. The New York Post revealed some of what took place in that meeting, and it wasn’t pretty:

“It was like a f–ing firing squad,” one source said of the encounter.

Trump started with [CNN chief] Jeff Zucker and said “I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed,” the source said.

The meeting was a total disaster. The TV execs and anchors went in there thinking they would be discussing the access they would get to the Trump administration, but instead they got a Trump-style dressing down,” the source added.

A second source confirmed the fireworks.

To be sure, that account was from the notoriously bombastic New York Post. Some other reports described the get together with less intensity. But while the Post may lean toward melodrama, the others may be more interested in preserving access to the administration. All things considered, the Post’s account sounds more like the Trump we have all come to know.

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

The old fallacy of the “liberal” media is further undermined by these events. Trump is getting far more favorable treatment than Clinton did under similar circumstances. More importantly, he is getting away with suppressing coverage of his scandalous activities. The media is supposed to hold politicians to account, but they are failing to do their job. If this keeps up for the next four years America will be buried in tabloid irrelevancies. Trump’s improprieties will be state secrets. And the National Enquirer and Breitbart News will become the dominant media and serve as America’s Pravda.

John Oliver Trashes Trump As ‘A Klan-Backed Misogynist Internet Troll’

It may be difficult to find the humor in last week’s election results. Americans who are appropriately terrified by the prospect of Donald Trump’s presidency may be in no mood to laugh. However, some comic relief could be just the right medicine for a nation infected by the Great Orange Plague of 2016. And who better to fill that prescription than John Oliver.

John Oliver

In the season finale of his HBO program, Oliver spent the whole show assessing the consequences of Tuesday’s debacle. He began by finding a smidgen of positivity by noticing that the promise of opportunity in this country is still alive. “America proved,” Oliver wryly observed, “that no grandpa is too racist to become leader of the free world.” Only in America. He went on to question the potential causes that led us to the edge of this political cliff:

“How the fuck did we get here? Well clearly, there are many possible answers to that question, including: misleading forecasts that bred complacency; a flawed candidate who failed to appeal to white rural and working-class voters; and — and this is worth repeating — deep racism and/or indifference to it.”

It’s impossible to argue with that assessment, as far as it goes. But Oliver then launched an assault on what is certainly one of the primary factors in Trump’s victory: The Media! He castigated it for having neglected its professional obligations to the public. He was stunned by “how a system that is supposed to catch a serial liar failed.” But he was also aware of the shameful malfeasance of the corporate press hacks who seemed to be oblivious to their ineptitude. He quoted CNN’s president Jeff Zucker:

“I’d say that if we made a mistake last year, it’s that we probably did put on too many of his campaign rallies in those early months, unedited, and just let them run. And I think, in hindsight, we probably shouldn’t have done that as much.”

Is he freakin’ kidding?! Zucker considers that an insightful reflection on his performance as a news executive? Well, how could he have known not to pander to Trump incessantly for hours on end? Other than by having been chastised for it repeatedly while he was doing it. Every respected media analyst was loudly condemning the networks for kowtowing to Trump. If this “mistake” came as a surprise to him he is either totally incompetent or in the last stages of Alzheimer’s disease. More likely he was taking the same approach as a network colleague who at least was honest enough to admit that he was in it for the ratings. Les Moonves of CBS told a media conference that “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” And that’s the same theory by which all the networks operate. Greed before patriotism.

Oliver went on to urge viewers to “stay here and fight” because the country can no longer assume that we have a president who will “stand up for the rights of all Americans.” And he pegged Trump as deceitful and opportunistic saying that:

“Trump is a masterful denier of both reality and responsibility. He is a man that would kick you in the nuts and then tell you that your penis did it. So the press is gonna face challenges. Not just because Trump’s chief strategist is Stephen Bannon of Breitbart News, but also because of yet another promise that Trump made:

“‘If I become president they are gonna have such problems. Oh, are they gonna have problems. I’m gonna 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.'”

Let that sink in. Trump, having benefited inordinately from a star-struck press corps, is also threatening to sue them into oblivion. It’s a sort of battered spouse relationship with Trump receiving all the love while meting out the abuse. Unfortunately, that perverse relationship is likely continue as Trump moves into the White House. And Oliver had some closing remarks to make sure that citizens don’t become numbed to the insanity. He urged people to “get actively involved to at least mitigate Trump’s damage” and that:

“It is gonna be too easy for things to start feeling normal, especially if you are someone who is not directly impacted by his actions. So keep reminding yourself: This is not normal. […] because a Klan-backed, misogynist, internet troll is going to be delivering the next State of the Union address. And that is NOT normal! It is FUCKED UP.”

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