Censorship

Trump is Outraged Over the DHS Disinformation Board – Because He Spreads So Much of It

Posted by on May 1, 2022 at 11:26 am. 3 Comments :

Last week the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, announced to Congress that the DHS had established a new working group whose purpose is to monitor foreign sources of disinformation that pose a threat to national security. And within minutes Republicans and Fox News pundits blasted the Disinformation Governance Board (an admittedly discomforting name) as an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth” that would suppress free speech.

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Trump Lies

The predictably alarmist and fact-free response by the GOP and their own Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News) deliberately misrepresented the mission of the new group. Their response was, in fact, disinformation, although not the sort that this group would be involved with. For the record, the group’s purpose was accurately described in a report by the Associated Press:

“The Department of Homeland Security is stepping up an effort to counter disinformation coming from Russia as well as misleading information that human smugglers circulate to target migrants hoping to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border. […] DHS said in its statement that the board will ‘protect privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties’ as part of its duties.”

Clearly the role of this operation is focused on foreign sources of disinformation and has explicitly ruled out any activities that would infringe on anyone’s civil liberties. Donald Trump, however and as always, was undeterred by reality, He was also afraid of being left out of any opportunity to grasp at media attention over manufactured crises. So Trump unleashed his own hysterically over-the-top criticism saying that…

“Just revealed that the Biden administration, on top of all the other horrible things happening to our Country, will be putting a longtime political operative in charge of censoring Free Speech. They don’t go after Facebook, Instagram, China’s TikTok, or any of the others that are so unhinged, corrupt, or Radical Left. Our Fake News Media refuses to cover the facts as our Country spirals into Hell!”

Trump’s complaint was posted on his TRUTH Social twitter clone and reposted by a cult follower on Twitter. Presumably because he knows that such disinformation will be eagerly embraced there. So he’s comfortable slandering Nina Jankowicz, who will be heading the Disinfo Board.

RELATED: Trump Declares that ‘I Am Not Going Back On Twitter’ After the Elon Musk Takeover

Jankowicz has a distinguished record as a disinformation expert. Her resume on Wikipedia notes that she “was a Fulbright fellow in Kyiv, working with the foreign ministry of Ukraine. She has also served as a disinformation fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and as supervisor of the Russia and Belarus programs at the National Democratic Institute.”

White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, was asked about Jankowicz in a decidedly loaded question by Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich. Psaki defended her noting that the Board she is heading was “a continuation of work that began at the Department of Homeland Security in 2020 under former President Trump.” She also reiterated that the Board has a mandate to protect privacy and civil rights.

None of that, however, will prevent the disinformation disseminated by right-wing propagandists and professional liars like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who tweeted “Now that the Biden regime has a Ministry of Truth, what’s next?” Or Tulsi Gabbard who tweeted that “Biden is just a front man,” asserting that Barack Obama is behind all of this. She was parroting Tucker Carlson who recently ranted about a speech Obama gave that warned against the perils of disinformation.

RELATED: OH NOES! Fox News Thinks Obama is Really Running the Government – And It’s Scaring Them Witless

It’s ironic that Republicans are so zealously opposed to the Biden administration working to counter disinformation, and falsely labeling it censorship. They are the ones who are actually passing laws to ban books, prohibit protesting, and roll back civil liberties. And they, along with their media accomplices, are the ones spreading so much disinformation about everything from COVID, to Russia, to immigration, to the economy, etc.

Perhaps the real reason they are so worried about this Disinfo Board is that they know that without disinformation they really have nothing to say.

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Only on Fox News: Russian Foreign Minister Praises the Network’s Pro-Putin Propaganda

Posted by on March 18, 2022 at 1:52 pm. 7 Comments :

For anyone who wasn’t previously convinced that Fox News is serving as the U.S. bureau of the Kremlin’s Ministry of Disinformation, we now have concrete evidence that Russia has adopted the far-right network and exploits its anchors and guests to advance their propaganda mission.

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Fox News Commies

Fox’s roster of right-wing ranters have abandoned any pretense to patriotism as they shill unabashedly for Russia. Their Senior Putin Apologist Tucker Carlson, stands out for his fealty to Vladimir Putin and his cheerleading for a Russian victory in its genocidal war on Ukraine.

That devotion to an editorial ideology that favors America’s enemies has now earned Fox News the admiration of Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. In an interview on the Kremlin sponsored RT cable channel, Lavrov lavished praise on Fox News as a singular voice for Russia’s interests (starts at 3:35):

“We understood long ago that there is no such thing as an independent Western media. You could take the United States, only Fox News is trying to present some alternative point of view. But when you see, you watch other channels, and when you watch, read social networks and Internet platforms, when the acting president was blocked. as you know. And this censorship continues in very big way.”

Lavrov’s tribute to Fox’s fawning over Russia was driven by the constant drumbeat of pro-Putin programming that dominates Fox’s schedule. When Lavrov says that “only Fox News is trying to present some alternative point of view,” what he means is that only Fox News will toe the official Kremlin line that Russia is the beleaguered party in the conflict with Ukraine, and that only Fox News will lie to advance that so-called “alternative point of view.” Apparently Lavrov has bought into the “alternative facts” theme made famous by former Trump White House Director of Newspeak, Kellyanne Conway.

What’s more, for Lavrov to complain about censorship in the U.S. is utterly bizarre. First of all, he doesn’t bother to document any censorship by the U.S. government whatsoever. The decisions of private companies to moderate their own websites is actually an affirmation of freedom in a democratic society. The government is not permitted to force those companies to act according to some official mandate.

In Lavrov’s country, however, the government just passed a law that prohibits news organizations from reporting factually about the war Russia is waging against Ukraine. Media companies are being forced out of Russia, and journalists are being arrested and threatened. And what the heck does he mean by “the acting president was blocked”? Does Lavrov think that Trump still holds some official position in the U.S. government?

Lavrov went on to criticize CNN, saying that…

“If you take CNN, they they prefer to avoid analytical materials, and they more and more concentrate on some reports, which would be made of slogans. Russia is an aggressor. Russia is murdering civilians.”

Of course, the allegations of Russia being an aggressor and murdering civilians are not slogans. They are what free people refer to as facts. And Lavrov’s complaints about CNN avoiding “analytical material” makes about as much sense as Donald Trump complaining about U.S. cable companies that have ceased to carry openly pro-Russian propaganda outlets like One America News (OAN) and RT, the channel that Lavrov was interviewed on.

The harmony between the commentaries by Russia and Trump shouldn’t surprise anyone. Because they have long shared the same political objectives of suppressing free thought, destroying liberal democracies and supporting authoritarian dictatorships. No wonder Lavrov is so fond of both Trump and Fox News.

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Trump Orders His Cult To ‘Drop Off of Twitter’ and Calls For It To Be Outlawed

Posted by on January 4, 2022 at 12:24 pm. 10 Comments :

The brazenly anti-American and anti-democratic compulsions of Donald Trump continue to be exhibited with each new public pronouncement he issues. His aspirations for authoritarianism, and his affinity for brutal dictators, was recently affirmed with his “endorsement” of Hungary’s fascistic Viktor Orbán.

Donald Trump, Twitter

On the heels of that gushing embrace of tyranny, Trump is now giving voice to another of his noxious notions that negates the liberties that define America. In a tweet reacting to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s well deserved suspension from Twitter, Trump lashed out in his typically incoherent and infantile fashion, saying that…

“Twitter is a disgrace to democracy. They shouldn’t be allowed to do business in this Country. Marjorie Taylor Greene has a huge constituency of honest, patriotic, hard-working people. They don’t deserve what’s happened to them on places like low-life Twitter and Facebook. Everybody should drop off of Twitter and Facebook. They’re boring, have only a Radical Left point of view, and are hated by everyone. They are a disgrace to our Nation. Keep fighting, Marjorie!”

If you had to catalog everything that Trump has said is a “disgrace” it would require a bookshelf that spanned the length of Great Wall of China. Which would be convenient because he’s also a big fan fan of Xi Jinping. Due to his pitifully limited vocabulary, Trump has overused the word so much that is has ceased to have any meaning. And as for “democracy.” we’ve already established that that word has no meaning to Trump.

Moving on, Trump grumps that Twitter “shouldn’t be allowed to do business in this Country.” How he proposes to outlaw it isn’t explained. But it’s something that he regretted not doing when he was still occupying the White House. He is currently suing Twitter and other Internet services because that’s just what you’d expect from the King of Cancel Culture. But he is too mentally feeble to grasp that calling for a ban on the constitutional rights of social media platforms that he doesn’t like contradicts his intended, albeit disingenuous, message of free speech.

Defending Greene and her constituency of like-minded Trump cultists, Trump commands his glassy-eyed disciples to “drop off of Twitter and Facebook.” Because surrendering opportunities to express oneself is Trump’s idea of open discourse. He wants his klan to be free of any contrary opinions that might contain some kernal of truth. More likely, he just wants to harm Twitter and Facebook for not kowtowing to his supreme dictates.

However, as usual Trump is lying about Twitter having “only a Radical Left point of view, and are hated by everyone.” All of the objective studies show that these platforms actually favor conservatives. As reported by the Guardian…

“Republicans including Donald Trump have raged against Twitter and Facebook in recent months, alleging anti-conservative bias, censorship and a silencing of free speech. According to a new report from New York University, none of that is true.

“Disinformation expert Paul Barrett and researcher J Grant Sims found that far from suppressing conservatives, social media platforms have, through algorithms, amplified rightwing voices, ‘often affording conservatives greater reach than liberal or nonpartisan content creators’”.

These findings have been confirmed by repeated studies including this one by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and this one by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Finally, if Twitter is “hated by everyone,” then everyone has a funny way of showing it. The platform currently has more than 200 million users. That’s far more than anything Trump will ever have on his yet to be launched (and bona fide scam), TRUTH Social. Although if Trump wants to herd his devotees into his own disease-ridden corral, we’re all for it. A study conducted after Trump was banned from Twitter showed that “online misinformation about election fraud plunged 73 percent.” So the departure of Trump and his crackpot crusaders can only make the Internet better.

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Rittenhouse Judge Schroeder Bans MSNBC from Courtroom in Violation of the First Amendment

Posted by on November 18, 2021 at 3:40 pm. 1 Comments :

The trial of teen vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse has produced some bizarre and legally questionable moments. Many of those moments relate directly to the behavior of Judge Bruce Schroeder whose rulings have overwhelming favored the defense and been openly hostile to the prosecution.

Kyle Rittenhouse, Judge Bruce Schroeder

On Thursday this tendency of Schroeder to put his right-wing prejudices on display crossed another line of propriety for a jurist. Responding to a report that a reporter allegedly working for MSNBC News was following a bus that was transporting the jurors, Schroeder interrupted the proceedings to make this alarming declaration:

“I have instructed that no one from MSNBC news will be permitted in this building for the duration of this trial. This is a very serious matter and I don’t know what the ultimate truth of it is, but absolutely it would go without much thinking that someone who is following a jury bus, that is an extremely serious matter will be referred to the proper authorities for further action.”

This is indeed a “very serious matter,” but not for the reasons that Schroeder suggests. There are several problems with how the Judge reacted to this report. First of all, in his statement he admits that he “I don’t know what the ultimate truth of it is.” But he issues his prohibition against MSNBC News anyway. What if the truth is that the reporter was not from MSNBC? What if there was nothing untoward taking place? Then Schroeder punished the network despite it having done nothing to warrant it. That is the definition of government censorship and violates the First Amendment of the Constitution.

What’s more, Schroeder may have gotten the network wrong. Reports variously describe the reporter as having been associated with MSNBC or NBC, two different networks. So it’s pretty sloppy of the Judge to impose such severe penalties when he doesn’t even know who the suspected offender is affiliated with. In addition to that, it is ridiculous to ban MSNBC from the courtroom when reporters from NBC, who were not covered by the order, are still permitted to cover the trial. They can then appear on MSNBC to give their account of the proceedings.

Finally, Schroeder took the extreme measure of banning the entire MSNBC network, rather than just the alleged offender. At best he could have argued that the reporter who was involved should have his courtroom privileges suspended, not for the duration of the trial, but until the facts were ascertained. But Schroeder didn’t take that rational step. Instead he punished everyone at MSNBC, despite the fact that none of them had done anything wrong. It also needs to be remembered that the reporter in question wasn’t found to have done anything wrong either. NBC News released a statement saying that…

“Last night, a freelancer received a traffic citation. While the traffic violation took place near the jury van, the freelancer never contacted or intended to contact the jurors during deliberations, and never photographed or intended to photograph them”

Rittenhouse’s defense attorney has already filed a motion for a mistrial, which Schroeder has yet to rule on. But if anyone is entitled to a mistrial, it’s the prosecution. And Schroeder should be cited for judicial misconduct. He has shown bias throughout this trial. And his disrespect for the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of the press makes his malfeasance on the bench all the more reprehensible.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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Trump’s Update on His TRUTH(LESS) Social Scam is an Incoherent, Lie-Riddled Mess

Posted by on October 26, 2021 at 1:26 pm. 2 Comments :

Last week Donald Trump announced what will surely be his next humiliating business failure. Laughably dubbed “TRUTH Social” – a name that defies the reality of his documented history of pathologically lying – Trump’s stab at social media already shows signs of being a scam contrived to enrich himself and feed his gargantuan but fragile ego.

Trump Baby on Cash Pile

On Tuesday morning Trump directed Liz Harrington, his Twitter ban defying spokes-shill, to post a tediously rambling elaboration on his proposed social media (cr)app. Not surprisingly, the proclamation was littered with lies and shameless exaltations of himself. It began by asserting that his intentions transcended politics. “This is about saving our country,” Trump prevaricated. He continued saying that…

“America has always been a nation of smart, spirited, and independent people who take pride in thinking for themselves. We admire those who aren’t afraid to speak their minds, or go against the tide. Yet suddenly, we find ourselves being censored and dictated to by a small group of self-righteous scolds and self-appointed arbiters of what everyone else is allowed to think, say, share, and do.”

Oh yes. The undisputed King of Cancel Culture is very concerned about censorship. Trump rails about the alleged banning of doctors, scientists, and journalists (mostly by Trump), in a tirade that leads predictably to himself, whining that “we’ve seen a sitting president of the United States effectively silenced.” We wish! And the last people that Trump cares about are the smart, independent thinkers. As he has told us before, he “loves the poorly educated,” for the ease with which he can fleece the them.

Trump then complains about America having “fallen far down the ‘slippery slope’ of censorship.” This coming from someone who advocates for the censorship of Critical Race Theory, who prohibited the use of the phrase “climate change” by the Department of Energy, who regrets not banning Twitter and Facebook when he was in office, and who “cancels” anyone who is the least bit critical of him.

Trump goes on to unironically ask, “How many Americans no longer trust a word they hear from their leaders?” Maybe that’s because Trump lied so often that it would be easier to count the few number of times he told the truth. Then he asks “How many ordinary citizens have sadly come to resent their neighbors?” Perhaps that’s due to the most divisive public figure in modern times. Trump viciously maligns anyone who isn’t unflinchingly adoring. He insults his foes with vulgar, uninhibited, rancor. He has mainstreamed hate.

Finally, Trump promised that “there will be no shadow-banning, throttling, demonetizing, or messing with algorithms for political manipulation.” In other words, you can lie as much as you want to on Trump’s site without risk of consequences for the very real harm it can cause. For example, Trump’s tweeting about nonexistent election fraud that incited the January 6th insurrection. Or his deadly falsehoods about the coronavirus pandemic. Although the site’s agreement states that it can’t be held liable for anything that a user posts. That’s actually a provision of the Communications Decency Act’s Section 230 that Trump has vehemently opposed.

However, there are exceptions to Trump’s promised “free” speech.. And they are explicitly spelled out in the site’s terms of service that state that users cannot “disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us or the Site.” So in order to use the site you must first agree to never criticize Trump. FREEDUMB!

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
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WHUT? Tucker Carlson of Fox News Boldly Refuses to Verify that His Disinformation is Reliable

Posted by on October 14, 2021 at 12:24 pm. 3 Comments :

The Olympic grade hypocrisy at Fox News continues to shine through everything they do. And nowhere is that more evident than with matters related to the coronavirus and the tragedies it has wrought on America, largely attributable to the lies and disinformation disseminated by Fox and Donald Trump. Studies show that the nation is currently suffering through what can accurately be described as The Fox News Pandemic.

Fox News. Tucker Carlson

Leading the way down to the depths of viral hell is Fox’s Senior Deceiver, Tucker Carlson. He has already peddled dangerous and flagrant falsehoods such as his promotion of quack cures, his paranoid conspiracy theories that the vaccines don’t work, his support for the unlawful use of fake vaccination cards, and his urging of viewers to make false police reports of child abuse against parents whose children wear face masks.

Despite that record of deliberate and deadly deception, Carlson is now complaining about social media sites trying to encourage the accurate and honest sharing of information upon which lives may depend. Because who would want that? On Wednesday night’s episode he delivered a diatribe against Instagram for what he falsely said was censorship. He was triggered by a message he received when he tried to post a video that was lousy with lies:

“When we put that video on Instagram the following message appeared: “Make sure the information is reliable before sharing!” And then it attempts to redirect you to a site, “Get Vaccine Info.” From some approved site. I guess info about policies at a company they don’t work at? So if you’re not allowed to explain information that you have first hand, credible knowledge of, like your own employer’s own policies, then what rights do you have?”

So Carlson is outraged that Instagram politely asked that he be certain of the reliability of what he was about to post. How dare they care about the accuracy of critical health data? Especially when they are asking someone who is so renowned for spreading lies that his employer, Fox News, argued in court that he couldn’t be guilty of defamation because “no reasonable person” would believe him.

Carlson falsely characterized Instagram’s message as censorship, claiming that he was not allowed to post his dishonest video. He also put his complaint in a chyron that read “Big Tech Tries to Censor this Show Once Again.” However, there was no censorship because Instagram allowed him to click through the message and post his video, which he did.

Another chyron in this segment told another lie regarding the video that he did, in fact, post on Instagram. This one read “There is no Vaccine Mandate at Fox News.” The truth is that Fox News has a policy that does mandate that their employees get vaccinated. It’s a conditional mandate that requires them to be tested daily if they are not vaccinated. That’s almost exactly the same as the policy that President Biden recently announced, except that Biden’s policy is actually less strict. requiring only weekly tests for the unvaccinated.

Apparently Carlson doesn’t know the Fox News position on vaccinations, despite having “first hand” knowledge of his “own employer’s own policies.” And in his ignorance he has slandered Biden as a tyrant for “forcing” people to get vaccinated. But if Biden is “waging war” on the American people, than Fox News has escalated it. Yet, as was scathingly pointed out by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, Carlson is too cowardly to call out his bosses, or demonstrate an iota of integrity by quitting. And that goes for the rest of the Fox News roster of hypocrites who are nearly as bad as Carlson.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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Trump Whines that ‘We Don’t Have Free Speech’ as He Literally Calls for Banning Speech

Posted by on October 10, 2021 at 11:59 am. 4 Comments :

Saturday night in Des Moines, Iowa, there was yet another coronavirus super-spreader cult rally featuring the twice impeached, former reality TV game show host, and America’s Biggest Loser, Donald Trump. The event lived down to its hype as a couple of ear-bleeding hours of a malignant narcissist complaining that the election he fairly and decisively lost was “stolen” from him.

Donald Trump, Constitution

Among the innumerable absurd laments that excreted from the oral orifice of the blockhead who brags that he is the most fabulous whiner, were some commentaries on the sanctity of the First Amendment. Trump’s yammering (video below) addressed, in particular, free speech, which he claimed there isn’t any more of:

“There is no free speech, we don’t have free speech anymore. You know, it used to be automatic, free speech. We don’t have free speech. We have the opposite of free speech. And this is the beginning of communism when you hear that. This is the beginning of communism.”

In that brief rant Trump uttered the phrase “free speech” five times. Psychiatric professionals say that in some cases “this is because of problems with short-term memory caused by dementia.” Whatever the cause in Trump’s case, it is also a significant departure from reality. First of all, he is asserting that there is no free speech while he is freely speaking to an audience of his cult followers at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

Trump has never been an especially ardent defender of First Amendment rights. He has relentlessly lambasted the free press as “the enemy of the people.” He has expressed regrets that he didn’t ban Facebook and Twitter when he had the chance. He has threatened that “Something has to be done” about CNN.

However, what makes this latest assault on free speech so preposterous is what he said immediately afterward. In another repetitive rant, Trump vilified critical race theory, a field of study that he has displayed his pitiful ignorance of before. At this rally he harangued that…

“We will ban critical race theory in our classrooms. We will ban that horrible, crazy critical race theory in our military. We will ban it from our workplaces. We will ban it from our federal, state, and local government. It will be banned. Permanently banned. And will never be allowed to come back again.”

Apparently Trump doesn’t like critical race theory. He does not like it in a house. He does not like it with a mouse. He does not like it in a box. He does not like it with a fox (News?).

What Trump does like is the notion of banning free speech with respect to teaching the history of race on America and the impact of systemic racism. And he explicitly expresses his intention, should he have the opportunity, to ban it permanently from every public forum that he could think of.

This should be of concern to every American who values the Constitution and the liberties it protects. If Trump would so openly admit that he would “cancel” the First Amendment, it goes without saying that the would do the same to any other part of the document that he regarded as obstructing his authoritarian aspirations. He’s already trying to subvert the democratic process, with the help of his Republican Party confederates. But he – and they – must never get the chance to carry out their defiling of America’s constitutional republic.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
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SCAREDY FOX: Why Did Fox News Censor Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ Rant? Pending Lawsuits?

Posted by on August 8, 2021 at 5:10 pm. 6 Comments :

A startling event occurred on Sunday that may be unique in modern times. Donald Trump’s spokes-shill, Liz Harrington, posted a tweet that exposed a bona fide case of media censorship. But this assault on free speech was not the work of the usual suspects among the “fake news” purveyors. It wasn’t CNN or the New York Times that clipped Trump’s officious oratory.

Donald Trump, Fox News, White House

Nope. Harrington caught the thought police at Fox News in the act of making unauthorized edits to Trump’s divine discourse during an interview with Fox News host Dan Bongino. Most of this segment was filled with the typical Trumpian adoration by the Fox host and hysterical incoherence by Trump. But Harrington noticed something terribly wrong when she went to post Trump’s sermon on Twitter (which is a flagrant violation of their terms of service. Feel free to report it). She tweeted her discovery saying…

“WOW. So I went to post a clip from President Trump’s great interview on @dbongino last night, and lo and behold, Fox News EDITED and CHANGED what President Trump said, censoring out 45 accurately describing the Fake Election.”

First of all, it’s “former” President Trump. Secondly, it was more of a love-fest than an interview. Thirdly, what was edited out was not accurate. That said, she was quite right that some editing took place. What was excised was Trump lying again about the 2020 presidential election being “stolen” from him. He said that…

“You have a Fake Election, you have an election with voter abuse and with voter fraud like nobody has ever seen before and based on that and based on what happened they are destroying our Country.”

So the question is why would Fox News cut out this 14 second portion of a 16 minute interview? It could hardly be due to time constraints.

There are, however, a couple of plausible reasons to expunge this particular commentary. Fox News is already the subject of two multibillion dollar lawsuits (one by Dominion Voting Systems, and another by Smartmatic) for defamation as result of the network’s dishonest assertions, on Trump’s behalf, that that the election was “rigged.”

So Fox News has a strong self-interest in avoiding exposing themselves to further legal liability by providing additional evidence that supports the case against them. That would be sufficient reason to cut Trump’s incessant whining about voter fraud for which he he has never been able to provide any proof in the 60-plus court cases he lost.

What’s more, by posting Trump’s lies, Fox News could be placing themselves at risk of being banned by Twitter – just like Trump – for posting false and potentially harmful misinformation. It is Trump’s lies about the election that incited the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th.

Fox News has already shown that they are worried about being associated with Trump’s “Big Lie.” Last month Fox refused to air an ad by the MyPillow conspiracy crackpot, Mike Lindell. The ad was to promote his “cyber symposium” that he said would “prove” that Trump won the election. Needless to say, the “proof” exists only in his diseased mind. However, Fox News wasn’t going to take the chance of getting further into legal jeopardy, so they nixed the ad. And in retaliation, Lindell pulled all of his ads from Fox News. And since MyPillow is Tucker Carlson’s biggest advertiser, that leaves his show with hardly any major ads at all.

It will be interesting to see how this censorship melodrama plays out. Currently Trump’s cult disciples are in a tizzy online, lambasting Fox News as the “enemy of the people,” and pledging to boycott the network forever. Harrington is appearing on whatever mousy Fox News wannabe that will book her to bad mouth Fox for caving in to the “Deep State.” And Trump is still stuck with with his thumb in his mouth, unable to get his malicious messaging out. Could this be any more fun? Stay tuned and have plenty of popcorn ready.

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

Crybaby Trump Files Asinine ‘1st Amendment’ Lawsuit Against Twitter, Facebook, and Google

Posted by on July 7, 2021 at 12:00 pm. 5 Comments :

Last week Trump’s spokes shill tweeted that Trump would “make a huge announcement” on Wednesday, July 7, 2021. That day has come and the announcement is living down to the expectations that most people have for the one-term, twice-impeached, former reality TV game show host who is indisputably America’s biggest loser.

Donald Trump, Constitution

From his Bedminster, New Jersey golf resort, Trump delivered a nearly hour long address to reveal his intention to file a lawsuit against “Big Tech” companies, Twitter, Facebook, and Google. Make no mistake, this alleged litigation (there is no evidence yet that it’s been filed) is driven purely by Trump’s voracious ego and thirst for revenge.

After having his accounts on social media suspended for blatant violations of their terms of service, Trump is proposing to exploit the courts to punish the private companies who took responsible actions to stem his inflammatory rhetoric. He already incited a deadly insurrection in Washington, D.C., on January 6th, and he is continuing his bellicose “Big Lie” rants that drove his glassy-eyed disciples to riot and storm the Capitol.

Trump’s tedious dissertation on his pending lawsuit was filled with bizarre and legally preposterous assertions. He starts off describing this suit as the beginning of a much bigger initiative. “We will take this battle,” he promises, “to state legislatures, to Congress, and to the ballot box.” But the whole premise of the action is ludicrous. Trump thinks that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (which protects free speech) makes social media liable as “government actors” and subject to First Amendment prohibitions against censorship:

“Once they got Section 230 they’re no longer private companies anymore in a lot of views. […] These companies have been coopted, coerced and weaponized by government and by government actors to become the enforcers of illegal, unconstitutional censorship.

Not only is Trump’s interpretation of Section 230 completely off, he is articulating a paranoid, crackpot conspiracy theory that social media companies are in cahoots with the feds to silence him. Like his unhinged raving about election fraud, there is no evidence of these allegations either. But that doesn’t stop him from spouting off incoherently (video below) Some excerpts follow:

“Today, in conjunction with the America First Policy Institute, I’m filing as the lead class representative a major class action lawsuit against the big tech giants, including Facebook, Google, and Twitter, as well as their CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, and Jack Dorsey. Three real nice guys. We’re asking the district court for the Southern District of Florida to order an immediate halt to social media companies’ illegal, shameful censorship of the American people. And that’s exactly what they’re doing.

We’re demanding an end to the shadow-banning, a stop to the silencing, a stop to the blacklisting, banishing, and canceling that you know so well. Our case will prove this censorship is unlawful, it’s unconstitutional, and it’s completely un-American. We all know that. We know that very, very well. Our lawsuit also seeks injunctive relief to allow prompt restitution.”

Trump didn’t cite a single legal principle to support his claims. That’s because he can’t. The Constitution’s First Amendment prohibits government censorship. Hence the wording that “Congress shall make no law […] abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” Trump actually undermines his case by bragging about all the avenues of speech he has available to him that he insists are successful (they aren’t).

“We’re in a fight, we’re in a fight that we’re going to win. So many people have said to me, ‘Please sir, do something about big tech. Sue them, sir. Sue them.’ And they’ve been saying it to me for a long time. But there has never been a better time to do it. Polling released by Scott Rasmussen, highly respected, shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that big tech companies should be required to abide by the First Amendment guarantee of free speech.”

Trump always has a “sir” story wherein some beleaguered soul begs him to do something that really only benefits Trump. And his reliance on the notoriously disreputable Rasmussen for polling data doesn’t advance his legal interests. Even reputable polls are not legal arguments. Cases are decided by statute and precedent, not popularity.

“Social Media has given extraordinary power to a group of Big Tech Giants that are working with government, the mainstream media, and a large segment of a political party to silence and suppress the views of the American people. And they’ve been very, very successful at that. Not in all cases, but in many cases totally successful.”

This is more conspiracy mongering that now includes a cabal comprised of the government, tech companies, the media, and Democrats. If you ask him, Trump would probably add academia, banking, the judiciary, liberal churches, and the Girl Scouts of America.

Following his prepared, TelePrompTer remarks, Trump took questions from what was obviously an exclusive club of ultra-conservative media. Every question was framed positively for Trump, or prefaced with adoring commentary. That’s just more proof that Trump can’t be taken seriously that he cares about a free press. Which, you recall, he has repeatedly maligned in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the People.”

It’s impossible to set aside Trump’s flaming hypocrisy in all of this. After all, he’s the first one to “cancel” anyone who dares to contradict him. He is the undisputed King of Cancel Culture. He has called for dozens of boycotts of American companies. He even expressed his regret that he didn’t ban Facebook and Twitter when he mistakenly thought he could have as president. And now his buddy, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, is pushing a state law that would make it illegal for private companies to monitor their own website comments.

It’s from that perch of police state prohibition that Trump is heralding his campaign for free speech. So not only is Trump on swampy ground legally, he’s up to both of his chins in hypocrisy. This lawsuit, if it is ever actually filed, is going nowhere in hurry, according to most legal experts.

However, let’s hope that this suit isn’t dismissed before the defendants can conduct discovery. There is a wealth of information that can be acquired regarding Trump’s activities prior to, and during the insurrection, his relationships with right-wing media (Fox News, Newsmax, OAN, etc.), and efforts to unlawfully damage the commercial interests of private companies against whom he holds grudges. That should be fun.

UPDATE: It’s All About the Grift! David Corn of Mother Jones spells out the latest con.

“In typical Trumpian fashion, the cases were amateurishly cobbled together, with arguments and contentions that legal experts immediately derided. […] Trump has a long history of both threatening suits that never materialize and filing bogus cases that go nowhere.” […]

“Other than ginning up the Big Lie believers, there is another strong reason for Trump to proceed with this case: money. Lots of money. No sooner had Trump’s lawyers filed when his grift-machine kicked into action. A text message was sent to Trump supporters hitting them up for donations. “President Trump is filing a LAWSUIT against Facebook and Twitter for UNFAIR CENSORSHIP!” it proclaimed.”

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. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. 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.

GOP Bill Would Force Twitter to Allow Trump’s Inflammatory Lies and Disinformation

Posted by on April 30, 2021 at 11:36 am. 4 Comments :

The Republican Party has been engaging in a full court press to cripple democracy across the country. They tried to obstruct and/or overturn the 2020 presidential election (and Trump is still doing so). They passed bills aimed at suppressing and disenfranchising voters, particularly those of people of color. They are disseminating the racist “white replacement theory” to frighten their base that “others” are conspiring to replace them in the electorate.

Donald Trump, Toilet, Bathrobe

Now they are upping the ante by advocating trashing the Constitution in order to impose totalitarian control over social media companies who fail to comply with their demands. NBC News is reporting that…

“Florida is on track to be the first state in the nation to punish social media companies that ban politicians like former President Donald Trump under a bill approved Thursday by the state’s Republican-led Legislature. […] the proposal appears destined to be challenged in court after a tech industry trade group called it a violation of the First Amendment speech rights of corporations.”

Let’s be clear about this. Florida Republicans are seeking to force private companies to bend to their partisan political will. Social media services like Twitter and Facebook took the extraordinary step of suspending the accounts of Donald Trump after his reckless and dishonest posts led to deadly riots in Washington, D.C. by insurrections for whom he professed his love. The sole purpose of the new law is to placate Trump and make it easier for him to advance his self-serving, anti-democratic crusade. The article went on to note that “Republicans have called social media bans unfair censorship,” and that…

“The Florida bill would prohibit social media companies from knowingly ‘deplatforming’ political candidates, meaning a service could not ‘permanently delete or ban’ a candidate. Suspensions of up to 14 days would still be allowed, and a service could remove individual posts that violate its terms of service.

“The state’s elections commission would be empowered to fine a social media company $250,000 a day for statewide candidates and $25,000 a day for other candidates if a company’s actions are found to violate the law.”

The state has absolutely no legal authority to force private companies to provide a platform for any individual. The constitutional protection against censorship applies only to the government. But Florida’s Republicans argue that the wide influence of social media is cause for increased regulation. If that’s true, then shouldn’t the same principle apply to television and newspapers that also enjoy wide influence? By that standard, shouldn’t Fox News be forced to carry my stories and opinions, and be fined if they refuse?

Republicans used to believe in something called a “free market.” They insisted that business should be free of government intervention and that the marketplace should decide the winners. Trump even made that argument recently when he predicted that Twitter and Facebook would fail without him and he floated a proposal to start his own social media company.

That’s competition. And while Trump’s alt-Twitter would likely suffer a humiliating defeat, at least it would be decided in the free market. Florida’s bill upends all of that and puts the boot of autocracy on businesses that they regard as disobedient. Which is further proof that Republicans are flaming hypocrites who will discard any and all principles when they don’t adhere to their advantage.

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. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. 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.