Media Bias

Fox News Fail: Host Flagrantly Lies that the Media Blamed Trump for Maryland Shooting

Posted by on June 30, 2018 at 10:44 am. 2 Comments :

The propaganda machine that America knows as Fox News has been working overtime to slander the media on behalf of their Dear Leader, Donald Trump. Of course Trump himself has been the leading voice in the nation castigating the press as “the enemy of the American people,” and feverishly striving to discredit any news enterprise that dares to criticize him. Furthering that goal on Friday evening was Fox’s Laura Ingraham.

Fox News, Laura Ingraham

Ingraham opened her segment on the media (video below) with a montage of clips from CNN and MSNBC that she said demonstrated their attempts to blame Donald Trump for the murders in Annapolis, Maryland. In fact, it only showed these commentators making the obvious connection between the shooter’s hostility for the journalists at the Capital Gazette and Trump’s rabid animosity toward the media in general. It did not suggest, by any stretch of the imagination, that they were blaming Trump for the deaths of the journalists.

However, it cannot be denied that Trump has fostered an anti-press tone that is unjustified, un-American, and unsafe for journalists. In one of the clips reporter Brian Karem noted the fact that there has been a spike in threats against the media since Trump’s election. That doesn’t mean that Trump was responsible for the shootings in Maryland. But it does expose the potential dangers of his hateful rhetoric.

From there Ingraham sought to elaborate on her theme that there was a “rush to judgement blaming Trump.” Never mind that she utterly failed to prove that in her opening. She then turned to Mollie Hemingway of the ultra-rightist Federalist website who said that:

“it was bad enough to see many people in the media trying to blame Donald Trump before anybody knew what was happening. What was really alarming was that they kept with it even after the facts came out showing that there was no correlation between Donald Trump’s very strong criticism of the media and the shooting at the newspaper in Annapolis.”

Again, no evidence of the media blaming Trump was provided before or after the facts of came light. This is just Fox News relentlessly pounding on a false narrative until it sinks in to their willfully ignorant viewers. The same nonsense was pushed by Fox’s chief media correspondent, Howard Kurtz who said:

“This is reprehensible. It’s guilt by association and it’s being spread by journalists who want to blame Donald Trump for everything, including rainstorms and rush hour traffic.”

What’s reprehensible? Critics noting that Trump’s assault on the free press creates a toxic environment? That’s simply the truth. And Kurtz’s snide remarks about weather and traffic don’t bring any light to the discussion. He’s just exacerbating the problem he’s pretending to be so upset over. What’s reprehensible is for a media analyst to further the lie that journalists are spreading Trump’s “guilt” even though he can’t show any evidence of it. And if that weren’t enough, he then engaged in this brief and ludicrous exchange with Ingraham:

Kurtz: Too many organizations are playing to an anti-Trump audience.
Ingraham: A shrinking audience.
Kurtz: Yes, that is true.

WTF? On what basis do these two shills for State TV get the idea that the anti-Trump audience is shrinking? Trump’s approval ratings have skirted the all-time lows for the whole of his presidency. The American people are more disgusted by his ignorance, crudeness, corruption, and criminality than ever. These Fox News hacks are delusional and devoutly committed to spreading blatant lies and propaganda. And lucky for them, there is a faction of the television audience that is just vulnerable enough to their cult tactics for them to get some traction.

Topping it off was a comment by Kurtz that wrapped up the whole segment with a lovely bow of fake concern. He lamented the fact that five journalists were dead, but that that has been “overshadowed by all of this overheated political rhetoric.” Which is funny because that’s what this entire segment was doing. It was ten minutes of overheated political blather that ignored the real world tragedy.

And it was all the more absurd considering that they completely ignored the fact that their own Sean Hannity was the first to “rush to judgment” when he blamed Rep. Maxine Waters and President Obama for the shooting within minutes of the news breaking. Such world-class hypocrisy is emblematic of Fox News who have made it their mission to Make America Gullible and Asinine.

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

Hannity Has Already Blamed Maxine Waters – and Obama – for the Capital Gazette Shooting

Posted by on June 28, 2018 at 2:39 pm. 3 Comments :

Thursday morning there has been yet another mass shooting in America. This one occurred in Annapolis, Maryland at the building housing the Capital Gazette newspaper. At his time there are five confirmed fatalities, and the suspect is in custody.

Sean Hannity Fox News

The local police are still interrogating the suspect and they are not reporting any motive yet. This could be the work of a disgruntled employee or domestic violence. But the lack of factual data hasn’t stopped rampant speculation on the part of conservative media and right-wing zealots who are quick to accuse liberals. Never mind that it is the right whose hostility toward the media is more likely to trigger violence. Wingnut troll Milo Yianopoulos said just a couple of days ago that he “can’t wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight.” And Trace Gallagher of Fox News has already checked into the Capital Gazette’s ideological bent, presumably hoping to find it conservative so that liberals could be blamed. And, of course, Donald Trump telling his unstable disciples that “the media is the enemy of the American people.”

But leave it to Sean Hannity to come roaring out of the gate with the first flagrantly accusatory allegations. In a radio rant, Hannity leveled his charges at both Rep. Maxine Waters and President Obama saying that (video below):

“I’ve been saying now for days that something horrible was going to happen because of the rhetoric. Really Maxine? You want people to create – Call your friends. Get in their faces – and Obama said that too. Get in their faces. Call ’em out. Call your friends. Get protesters. Follow them into restaurants and shopping malls, and wherever else she said.”

First of all, Obama never said any such thing, And what Waters said was strictly limited to legal protesting and constitutionally protected dissent. But Hannity is blatantly associating these comments with the motive of the shooter, despite not knowing anything about it.

That’s how these people work. It used to be the domain of fringe figures like Glenn Beck and Alex Jones who would dash immediately into irresponsible charges and conspiracy theories. But in today’s rancid right-wing media environment, it is now the top rated host on Fox News who is doing it. And let’s be clear, reckless rhetoric like this is likely to create exactly the sort of violence that it pretends to criticize. It’s an invitation to other maniacs who seek the notoriety that comes with being hailed by crackpots like Hannity. He should learn to keep his mouth shut when he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But then that would be pretty all the time.

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 So Littered with Repugnant Rage-aholics they Need Nannies to Avoid Being Offensive

Posted by on June 28, 2018 at 1:12 pm. NO Comments :

There is an unmistakable relationship between the tenor of Fox News reporting and the unhinged ravings of Donald Trump. Both engage in unrestrained hyperbole and lies floating in a pungent broth of foul rhetoric. What were once called “dog whistles” intended to subtly appeal to loathsome confederates, are now better described as bull horns bleating to faithful disciples.

Tucker Carlson Fox News

Recently Fox News has been taken to task for offensive remarks by their hosts and guests. The only thing about this that’s new is the criticism. Fox News has long been a source of racist commentaries and abhorrent outbursts on the air. Some examples that occurred in just the past couple of weeks include host Laura Ingraham comparing the immigrant child cages to “summer camps.” Or the former Trump deputy campaign chief, David Bossie, saying that the African-American he was debating was “out of your cotton-picking mind.” For these and many other instances, there has been a backlash against Fox News by advertisers.

Consequently, the new Fox News president, Suzanne Scott, called a meeting of the network’s producers to law down the law: “You are responsible as the producers. You have to protect the talent and the brand.” Notice that the admonition by Scott was not that they needed to refrain from making racist or derogatory statements, or from being insensitive to the suffering of children or other victims of injustice. It was purely a fiscal matter to prevent tarnishing the company or the reputation of its personnel. In other words, they were welcome to express the very same heinous opinions so long as they hid them within more “acceptable” language.

It should be noted that Scott could not have been surprised by the discourse on her network. She was the executive responsible for giving both Ingraham and Tucker Carlson prime time programs. Ironically, before Carlson supplicated himself to Fox he referred to them as “a mean, sick group of people.” So Scott knew exactly what she was getting into. But what’s unprecedented about this new corporate mandate is simply the fact that producers need to be told to clean up the patter of their hosts and guests. That’s actually a recognition on Fox’s part that there is a big problem with them going out of the bounds of decency and that they need to be carefully monitored – and even punished – to insure that they are constrained from acting on their natural, ugly impulses.

What that tells us is that Fox News is now aware of something most news consumers already knew: That Fox is a bastion of crudeness and invective and that their “talent” can’t be trusted to be civil. But to be fair, the same thing is true of Donald Trump. So if the President is doing it, and Fox News is really just a State TV asset, then maybe they need not bother with the nannies at all. Let it all out and let the viewers and advertisers decide.

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

Fox News Enabler of Sexual Predators to Become Trump’s New Communications Director

Posted by on June 27, 2018 at 12:13 pm. NO Comments :

The administration of Donald Trump is currently teeming with Fox News alumni serving in official roles and as outside advisors. They include National Security Advisor John Bolton, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, HHS Secretary Ben Carson, and Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell. Plus Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs, and Pete Hegseth are just a few of the Foxies that Trump relies upon regularly for counsel. And let’s not forget that Trump himself is a former Fox News shill. That’s right. He had a recurring role on Fox & Friends for years with his “Mondays With Trump” segment.

Fox News, Sean Hannity, White House

Now it is being reported that Trump is close to hiring former Fox News president Bill Shine to be his communications director, a post that has been vacant since Hope Hicks left almost four months ago. Shine took over as president of Fox News after CEO and founder Roger Ailes was fired for multiple allegations of sexual harassment and abuse. But shortly thereafter, Shine was also jettisoned for coddling and protecting Ailes and other Fox deviants.

UPDATE: It’s official. Former Fox News Executive Bill Shine Accepts White House Communications Role.

Shine may be the perfect communications director for Trump. They share much in common. In addition to their shared histories with Fox News, they both have long records of disrespecting women. Trump presently is facing allegations by at least sixteen women who say he harassed and/or assaulted them. Shine has not been accused of mistreatment himself, but he is widely viewed as having knowingly covered up sexual misbehavior and crimes. He’s been named in several lawsuits filed against Ailes and Bill O’Reilly. For instance, former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros charged that Shine used private information to “to intimidate, terrorize and crush her career.”

Shine is also a close associate of Trump’s favorite Fox News defender and fluffer, Sean Hannity. And Hannity is reported to have actively pushed Trump to hire Shine. Prior to joining the executive ranks at Fox, Shine was Hannity’s producer. When Shine was first rumored to be on the chopping block Hannity freaked out. In response to the news he tweeted this:

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/857693772884430849

Well, it was true, but FNC persists with an even more extremist agenda of facilitating Trump’s tyrannical aspirations and status as a racist cult leader. It is recognized by most observers that Fox News has transformed itself into a State TV enterprise serving only to advance White House propaganda. The bonds that link Fox to Trump just keep getting tied tighter with every day. Even Don Jr. has left his wife and five kids to date Fox’s Kimberly Guilfoyle.

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

In reality there is no practical difference between Fox News and Trump’s presidency. And with the possible addition of the Fox ex-president as the chief White House communications official, it is impossible to deny this unprecedented and unethical relationship between a president and the media. It is a parasitic perversion wherein Fox News slobbers over Trump with adoring tongue baths and targeted attacks on his critics. Meanwhile, Trump frequently tweets almost daily about what he’s watching on Fox News and even promotes their programming. At the same time he lashes out at all other media as “fake” news. One really has to wonder how Fox News can legitimately cover Trump considering their close personal and professional ties. But then “legitimate” would be the operative word, and one that is rarely associated with Fox News.

Trump’s Child Abuse is Politicized By Fox News Hacks in the Most Idiotic Way Possible

Posted by on June 24, 2018 at 11:46 am. 1 Comments :

The right-wing defense of Donald Trump’s heinous policy of ripping apart families of immigrants is continuing into it’s third week. And as it progresses it gets ever more callous and offensive. Just this week we’ve seen conservatives characterize the baby prisons as “summer camps,” or excusing the horror by saying that the immigrant children “aren’t our kids,” or dismissing these human rights abuses because kids aren’t being gassed, or belittling the harm by comparing them to American urban communities.


The extreme contortions that these shills have to make to twist Trump’s grotesque policy into something that his glassy-eyed disciples will embrace is a feat that defiles humanity. And when they aren’t being overtly racist, they are peddling theories so ludicrous as to be monuments to searing political stupidity.

An example of that was provided on Saturday by Jesse Watters of Fox News. On his program he engaged in an exchange with his Fox colleague Ed Henry (note: both of these paragons of virtue were recently outed for cheating on their wives) that revealed their utter disdain for decency. Henry began by casting immigration as an issue that Trump “can carry into the midterms,” falsely charging that “Democrats care sometimes more about illegal immigrants than citizens.” Then, after trying to conflate the issue of children being separated from their parents with crime, the discussion became even more political (video below):

Henry: The President is on the right side when he is talking about enforcing laws, which is pretty obvious, pretty basic. He got elected on that. And cracking down on illegal immigration. The problem is when you put the kids into the middle of it, it enables Democrats and the media to exploit the policy in a way that blows up in his face. He should have thought through that part a whole lot more.
Watters: I agree. And the Democrats think they can run on these child migrants, but I don’t think it’s necessarily gonna move votes, because it doesn’t necessarily affect the average citizen. Yes, it’s sad. It tugs at your heart strings, but it’s not like gas prices, it’s not like taking away your healthcare, it’s not like jobs. It may make you feel bad for the moment, but this isn’t a major issue that I think people, especially independents, are gonna be voting for in November.

Really? Henry thinks that the problem Republicans have is that abusing the human rights of children and families of immigrants is all about the optics, not the welfare of the children. And that Trump’s mistake was not thinking through how awful tearing families apart would look. But how it looks isn’t what is sickening the American people.

Watters went even further to openly discuss the issue in terms of how it would impact the election. And his conclusion was that it wouldn’t hurt Trump or the GOP because American voters wouldn’t care. It’s just a little heart string tugging is all. Not nearly as important as what they pay for gas, or losing their healthcare.

It’s not bad enough that Watters and Henry regard Americans as so selfish that they care more about a few pennies difference in their gas bill than they do about suffering babies. But apparently they havn’t seen what the price of gas is lately either. The national average has increased by 25.6 percent in the past year. What’s more, Trump’s deliberate sabotage of ObamaCare, combined with the GOP tax plan, is predicted to result in as many as twenty-one million Americans losing their coverage. Then there’s also the Republican efforts to do away with protection for people with preexisting conditions and cut seven billion dollars from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

So Watters and Henry are offering an analysis of the upcoming election that is startling stupid. They are arguing that Americans are heartless heathens who are only interested in their own pocketbooks. But at the same time they ignoring that the pocketbook issues they raised slant heavily against the Republicans and Trump. It’s a good thing that their analysis is only being aired on Fox News, because those viewers are the only ones sufficiently brainwashed to believe any of that crap. The rest of the country is poised to oust Republicans specifically because of their policies that hurt average people, as well as their hideous human rights abuses directed at immigrant families.

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

Fox News Shill Admiringly Compares Trump’s Child Internment Camps to American Ghettos

Posted by on June 22, 2018 at 4:17 pm. 11 Comments :

The flagrant racism of Donald Trump and his cult congregation of glassy-eyed Republicans and wingnut pundits continues to sink ever further into the abyss. On Friday we saw the repulsive spectacle of a Fox News host, Brian Kilmeade, defend Trump by saying that the kids being separated from their families were just foreigners who we can blithely disregard. “Like it or not,” Kilmeade said, “these aren’t our kids. Show them compassion, but it’s not like he’s doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas.” Get it? This would only be a real problem if the kids were from Idaho.

Fox News, Rachel Campos-Duffy

On a day when there are still a couple thousand children being held hostage by Trump’s government, the President held an event at the White House to talk about Americans killed by immigrants. Never mind that there are far more Americans killed by Americans who Trump never bothers to show any sympathy for. Including children at schools like Marjory Stoneman High whose white, Christian murderer is an American citizen. Trump never invited the parents of those victims to the White House.

Fox’s Laura Ingraham has been a reliable spokesperson for the cretins who think that ripping babies from their mothers’ arms is a justifiable form of border security. She recently dismissed the thought of any harm inflicted on the immigrant children by saying that their detention facilities were just like “summer camp.” If she attended summer camps like that it might explain how her mind got so twisted and callous.

On Ingraham’s Thursday program she interviewed Fox News contributor Rachel Campos-Duffy, who expressed an opinion that is surely widely held among conservative dirtbags. In an attempt to minimize the horror experienced by a kidnapped child, Campos-Duffy compared their incarceration to the conditions at many inner city housing communities (video below):

“I spoke to some African-Americans who say, ‘Gosh, the conditions of the detention centers are better than some of the projects that I grew up in,’ The detention centers are far safer than the journey that these children just came on. People aren’t stupid.”

However, Campos-Duffy just proved that not only are some people stupid, they are also nauseatingly heartless. It is mindnumbingly idiotic to compare urban housing to forced internment camps for children stolen from the loving care of their parents. Campos-Duffy apparently cannot comprehend the terror of a lost child who is being held by strangers who provide no comfort or care. That’s the sort of experience that can literally scar a child for life.

But Campos-Duffy made another point that she is certainly too dense to notice. She inadvertently pointed out the inhumane conditions at some of the “projects” where low income Americans live. She’s admitting, without realizing it, that those living conditions are extraordinarily harsh and that it is shameful that a nation as wealthy as the United States would permit it. That’s something that is not talked about enough in the media, especially the conservative media that Campos-Duffy calls home.

Nevertheless, the comparison is still horribly wrong. To be sure, there are hardships for low income families living in impoverished, and sometimes dangerous, neighborhoods. But they are living there with their families, friends, and other sources of support from the community. They are not minor prisoners in a state facility without parental companionship or security. And the fact that Campos-Duffy and her Fox News cohorts can’t see the difference is a sad testament to their inhumanity.

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

Fox News Host Rips Media Attacks on Women in Trump Admin – Ignores Abuse of Women By Trump

Posted by on June 21, 2018 at 4:14 pm. 2 Comments :

Kimberly Guilfoyle is one of the conservative co-hosts on the Fox News daily program “The Five.” She is a reliable mouthpiece for Donald Trump and his right-wing, Republican agenda. Last year she was even a candidate for the post of White House press secretary, but lost out to Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Fox News, Donald Trump, Kimberly Guilfoyle

In an interview for the uber-rightist website Daily Signal, Guilfoyle expressed her concern for traumatized children being separated from their parents on the border. No, wait, scratch that. How ridiculous. Actually Guilfoyle was expressing her concern for the poor, beleaguered women who work in Donald Trump’s White House. Some would say that they, too, have been traumatized. According to The Hill, Guilfoyle’s sympathies included these remarks:

“It’s sad because these are really incredible bright, strong, patriotic women serving their country, admirably, at great personal sacrifice,” […]

“They’ve been dealt an unfair hand by the media who’s just very dishonest in the way that they cover them, portray them, and really dishonor the sacrifice and the service that they give to all of us, each and every day.” […]

“I just wish [the media] were better about, in fact, being honest about what the accomplishments are, what the sacrifices are. And really, the personal attacks are just quite disgusting. I felt and experienced personal attacks myself based on beliefs and being a conservative woman.” […]

“I just think it’s unfair. It’s not building other people up, that’s for sure. I certainly don’t like it when other women do it to one another.”

First of all, the apparent purpose of both the women and the men in the Trump administration is to disseminate lies and glorify their leader. To the extent that the thanklessness and disrepute that go along with job is a sacrifice, it’s their own fault. And Secondly, when did Guilfoyle ever criticize her conservative comrades for the unfair and dishonest attacks against women like Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Hillary Clinton, Loretta Lynch, Samantha Power, or Susan Rice? Guilfoyle’s sudden sensitivity is glaringly disingenuous and hypocritical.

What’s more, Guilfoyle utterly ignores the fact Trump has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by at least sixteen women (see video below). He’s even admitted to criminal assault in the infamous Access Holywood recording. But apparently Guilfoyle thinks it’s worse to endure the criticism of partisan politics than the personal agony inflicted by a sexual predator.

What makes Guilfoyle’s complaints even more absurd is that she works for Fox News, a network whose corporate culture virtually encourages sexual harassment. Former honchos at the network (i.e. CEO Roger Ailes, President Bill Shine, Bill O’Reilly, Eric Bolling, etc.) were examples of an atmosphere that was distinctly hostile to women. However, perhaps her concern is of a more personal nature. With speculation about Sanders’ quitting, Guilfoyle may still be in the running for a job in Trump’s White House. And boosting her prospects this time is the fact that she is currently dating Don Jr. That’s a relationship that would prohibit her from doing any commentary on her boyfriend’s father at a reputable TV network. But then, the operative word there is “reputable,” which has never applied to Fox News.

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

SRSLY? Fox News is Now Promoting Itself as the Exclusive Network for Trump Propaganda

Posted by on June 21, 2018 at 9:23 am. 3 Comments :

Anyone who has watched more than a couple of minutes of Fox News knows that it is a purveyor of non-stop Trump-fluffing. The program hosts are evangelists of White House doctrine, wholly devoted to the mission of the reality TV game show host currently playing the President of the United States. Fox News has succeeded in cornering the market in ultra-rightist blather and Trumpian sycophancy.

And now they have apparently decided to take some pride in their partisan bias by bragging about it on the air. This moment of self praise came during a rally Donald Trump headlined in Duluth, Minnesota on Wednesday. The scheduling of this rally was peculiar itself considering that Trump had canceled a picnic for members of Congress earlier the same day. His reason for the cancellation was that “it didn’t feel right,” due to the still roiling controversy over his policy of ripping apart immigrant families. But apparently it felt right enough to fly to Minnesota and appear at a campaign rally where he ranted incoherently about how awesome he is and how much he hates anyone who disagrees.

During the television coverage of the rally by Fox News, the network abandoned any sense of humility – and journalistic integrity – by placing a message on screen touting their undisguised fealty to Dear Leader Trump. The chyron read “Trump Rally Live & Only on Fox News. Other Networks Ignore Presidential Rally.”

Fox News, Donald Trump

So it’s apparently official now: Fox News is the Propaganda Ministry of the Trump Regime. Not only is Fox advertising that they will air every sacred word of their White (House) Messiah, they are also disparaging their competitors who choose to respect the conventions of professional journalism. Legitimate news outlets should only air live campaign events when there is something credibly newsworthy about them. No one can make that claim about a Trump event with a straight face. For the most part Trump has been delivering the same speech for months/years as if he were a washed up oldies band trotting out his hits from the seventies: “Lock Her Up.” “Build the Wall.” “Make America…” blah, blah, blah.

While Fox News whines that other networks are ignoring a presidential rally, what they are actually doing is ignoring a painfully unpresidential public psychotic breakdown. They are avoiding poisoning the airwaves with Trump’s flagrant self-promotion and insulting diatribes. They are refusing to provide free airtime for a partisan rant before an audience of glassy-eyed disciples. Which means that Fox News, by contrast, is willingly doing all of that with an unrestrained sense of pride and self-satisfaction. They are letting everyone see their undying loyalty to Trump and commitment to his warped, divisive, and anti-American mission.

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

And then there’s this:

Fox News Defends Traumatizing Kids Because ‘President Trump is Not Gassing Children’

Posted by on June 19, 2018 at 3:34 pm. 3 Comments :

Ever since the story broke about how Donald Trump is ripping children from the arms of their mothers and fathers, Fox News has been trying very hard to help the President obfuscate the issue. They have been variously claiming that it wasn’t happening, or it that it was happening before Trump, or that it was an act of mercy, or that it was horrible but the fault of Democrats. They have been so shaken by the public reaction that they can’t seem to pick a lie and stick to it.

Fox News Todd Starnes

Now Todd Starnes of Fox News Radio has found a whole new approach to the matter. He’s delighted that he can defend Trump’s child abuse initiative by noting that the President isn’t gassing children. No, really. Here is what he said:

“President Trump is not gassing children. President Trump is not loading up train cars with illegal alien children and sending them to the death camps. Lady Liberty is in tears because the Democrats and the mainstream media would rather side with illegal alien invaders than stand alongside their fellow Americans. That’s treasonous and that’s traitorous in my book.”

When you have to sink to finding the goodness in your policies by being able to say they aren’t as bad as Nazi atrocities, you might want to rethink those policies. Unfortunately for Trump and the Republican Party, it’s too late for that. They are now married to this heinous practice after repeatedly sending out administration officials to defend it.

And Fox News may be the worst among them all. Their hosts from Fox and Friends in the morning, to Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity at night, have all taken Trump’s side. They try to portray the detention centers as “summer camps” where kids are confined by “walls of chain-link fences” which, for some reason, are not cages. They claim the kids have regular meals, televisions, and play sports. That is, when these toddlers aren’t curled up in foil blankets, crying for their mothers.

And Starnes calls critics of this cruelty “treasonous” and “traitorous” based on his perception of them as siding with “illegal alien invaders.” That’s right. He sees these children as warriors from hostile nations, and anyone who has compassion for their suffering is betraying America.

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

For the past week there have been a lot of nauseating efforts to justify what the Trump administration is doing to these kids. But Starnes may have hit peak assholiness. At the same time he has rather succinctly summed up what Trump and the GOP have wrought. They are apparently aiming for a horrendous method of terrorizing children and deterring asylum seekers without quite reaching the depths of the Third Reich. Perhaps we should congratulate them on their success.

Fox News is Literally Lobbying for Revocation of the Constitution’s Protection of the Free Press

Posted by on June 16, 2018 at 11:17 am. 3 Comments :

On Thursday Donald Trump’s Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, presided over the White House’s (no longer) Daily Press Briefing and proceeded to turn it into a farce by evading questions and outright lying. That, of course, is nothing new. It’s the Standard Operating Procedure for the Trump Communications Office. But what has transpired on Fox News since then is deeply disturbing (which isn’t really new either).

Fox NOT News

At the briefing there were numerous reporters seeking to get Sanders to explain the administration’s position on it’s own policy of ripping children away from parents of asylum seekers. She spent much of her time affirming Trump’s blatant lie that Democrats were responsible for a law that forced him to carry out this heinous practice. But there is no such law. This abuse of human rights was wholly the work of Trump and his cohorts.

When confronted with these facts, Sanders went into a bunker mentality, refusing to answer direct questions or repeating unresponsive talking points. She even descended into personally insulting reporters for merely quoting things she just finished saying. She twisted bible verses in a cynical attempt to support her unconscionable defense of child abuse. And she displayed a callous disregard for the welfare of innocents.

Naturally, Fox News praised Sanders and the Trump administration without reservation or concern for the children. But they went even further to suggest that any criticism, or even just the pursuit of answers, was unpatriotic and disrespectful to a leader they believe must never be challenged. Fox News attacked the journalists who pressed Sanders for answers as animals, which is the same word Trump uses to describe undocumented immigrants. Coincidence?

On Friday two of Fox’s most prominent hosts actually advocated openly for censorship and the suppression of independent journalism. They flagrantly campaigned to silence dissenting voices in the media by prohibiting them from doing their jobs. That’s more than an attack on the reporters, it’s an attack on the Constitution. It violates the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of the press. However, it also puts the grotesque, fascist ideology of Fox News on display for all to see. Cases in point, these commentaries by Fox’s Lou Dobbs and Jesse Watters:

Dobbs: You would think someone would be assigned to slap the hell out of somebody. We’ll talk to our panel tonight about whether it’s time the bar some of these so-called journalists from the White House briefing room permanently.

Watters: These people don’t belong there. They are jokes. They need to start ripping press passes away. If you’re going to act like a wild animal, you don’t belong there.

Remember, the reporters they are criticizing were trying to get answers about the Trump administration’s practice of tearing apart families and warehousing babies in concentration camp-like facilities. So who are the animals? And this isn’t the first time that journalists have had their jobs threatened in this manner. On Tuesday, Trump’s 2020 campaign manger, Brad Parscale, tweeted that CNN’s Jim Acosta “should immediately have his press credentials suspended.” And Trump’s senior counselor, Kellyanne Conway, appeared shortly after that on Fox and Friends to concur with Parscale’s totalitarian-friendly tweet.

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

There is something especially contemptible about an alleged “news” enterprise calling for the suppression of the rights of fellow journalists. But Fox News is unabashedly doing just that. They want all reporting to consist only of drooling adoration of Trump and anything less than that must be quashed. This is more evidence (as if it was necessary) that Fox is not a news outlet at all. They are the PR division of the Trump administration and an obedient purveyor of unvarnished propaganda. And if they are allowed to succeed with their mission to suppress free speech we can wave goodbye to the freedom and democracy upon which it relies.