Media Bias

In Challenge to Fox News as the ‘Sexual Predator Network’, Newsmax is Courting Bill O’Reilly

Posted by on May 15, 2018 at 12:44 pm. 1 Comments :

For many years now Fox News has occupied the top of the ratings for cable news networks. Although they are getting beaten on a regular basis by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and others, they still generally outperform their competition, but by much smaller margins than in the past.

Bill O'Reilly, Donald Trump

What is not heralded as much by Fox News public relations is their uncontested position as the premiere “Sexual Predator Network.” Fox has a history with sexual deviants who were shielded, and even promoted, within their dysfunctional corporate family. They include the former CEO, Roger Ailes, and their once top star, Bill O’Reilly. Even Donald Trump, now better known as the pervert in the White House, was once another pervert on Fox News with a regular segment on Fox and Friends.

In addition to those perpetrators of sexual harassment and abuse, Fox News is crawling with infidels who cheat on their spouses with underlings on the job. Host Ed Henry was suspended for several weeks after his affair was publicized. But Trump fave Pete Hegseth and O’Reilly spawn Jesse Watters were never punished for the very same exploitative behavior.

However, Fox News may have some competition in the debauchery business. The New York Posts’ Page Six is reporting that the conservative news outlet Newsmax is in talks to bringing Bill O’Reilly back to the airwaves. Presumably because America has been missing the insights of a deviant who has paid out more than $32 million to hush up his personal sex scandals. Newmax must believe that the nation still wants to hear from people who have disgraced themselves through abhorrent mistreatment of women colleagues.

To make matters worse, Newsmax is also said to be courting former Fox News host Eric Bolling, who was fired for sending obscene photos of himself to his coworkers. Former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren is also in Newsmax’s sights as a recruitment target. Van Susteren herself has not been accused of any sexual misconduct, but she has said that such behavior at Fox News contributed to her reasons for quitting. According to Page Six, this line up (plus former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer) would form the basis for the Newsmax primetime block:

“An insider told Page Six, ‘The deals are not done yet, but talks are in the advanced stages, certainly with O’Reilly. The thinking is, following a 6 p.m. news show, Greta would anchor the 7 p.m. hour, O’Reilly would be back at 8 p.m., and Bolling could smoothly continue on at 9 p.m. Spicer and his cohorts would go on at 10 p.m., with the later slot allowing the show to be looser. But the deals are not yet signed and sealed.'”

The regrouping of these Fox News rejects is less surprising when you consider that the Newsmax Media CEO Christopher Ruddy, is a close friend of Fox News addict, Donald Trump. Ruddy previously brought in ex-Fox EVP Michael Clemente to run the his broadcast division. So it looks like they’re trying to get the band back together. [For what it’s worth, a source close to Newsmax told Brian Stelter of CNN that “there have been no negotiations at all.”].

But in reassembling some of the most repugnant characters, who were even too disgusting for Fox to continue employing, Newsmax is setting itself up to take the sexual predator crown from Fox. Perhaps they could bolster their schedule by reaching out to Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer. Maybe some comic relief with an all new Bill Cosby Hour. And all of it could be produced by Harvey Weinstein. Newsmax can probably get all of this “talent” at a considerable discount from their previous salaries. And they would surely appeal to disaffected Fox fans who don’t think the network is misogynistic enough.

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

Trump’s Dingbat ‘Friends’ at Fox News Said the ‘Failing’ New York Times Ignored a Story they Actually Broke

Posted by on May 11, 2018 at 2:39 pm. 1 Comments :

On Friday Morning Fox News aired an episode of Donald Trump’s favorite TV show, “Fox and Friends,” that was chock full of the sycophantic silliness that has become the hallmark of the program. They featured segments about a Republican congressional candidate who is predicting a “red” wave in California; an interview with pundi-clowns Diamond & Silk; and a piece blasting Democrats for actually holding CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel accountable for her record.

Fox News Friends

In addition to those hard hitting examples of “real” journalism, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes also discussed a news story with profound foreign policy significance. It concerned the reported capture of five top members of ISIS. This military success was important enough to have warranted a tweet from Trump on Thursday. However, the point that co-host Pete Hegseth was most eager to make was that the “failing” New York Times ignored the story, presumably because it might reflect positively on Trump.

There’s just one problem with that. It was the New York Times who broke the story on Wednesday and was the first news outlet in the U.S. to report it. Consequently, that’s likely where Trump and Fox picked up the news and repackaged it for their audiences. But that didn’t stop Hegseth from flipping through the pages of today’s Times (video below), vainly looking for the story they published two days ago, and whining:

“I looked for the ‘five ISIS leaders captured’ in the failing New York Times, and in the print edition today, I have not seen it yet.”

Try looking in Wednesday’s paper, Einstein. It’s cute that Hegseth uses Trump’s infantile nickname for the Times, proving that the President and the network are joined in a State-TV operation that would make Vladimir Putin jealous. And never mind the fact that the Times is pulling in record profits. The purpose of Trump’s insults is not to convey any accurate information, but to baselessly malign journalists who dare to tell the truth about him. Just like he did last month when he tweeted:

Since then, Trump did add two more lawyers (Rudy Giuliani and Emmett Flood) and parted with both John Down and Ty Cobb. So the Times, as usual was right. But Trump never bothered to correct his misstatement. Nor has Fox News corrected the lie about their ISIS story. This is typical of the way Fox News operates and should be expected to continue. They are as much a disreputable stain on journalism as Trump is on government.

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

Trump’s Manic Obsession to Undo Obama’s Legacy is Helpfully Exposed By Fox News

Posted by on May 10, 2018 at 1:13 pm. 5 Comments :

The return of three Americans held as prisoners in North Korea can be celebrated by the whole country, regardless of political affiliation. We can all feel a bit of the gratitude that they and their families are feeling today. But we must not pretend that this bit of micro-diplomacy guarantees the success of the broader mission for which Donald Trump has recklessly built up expectations with comments like his tweet on Thursday flaunting an ambitious goal to “denuclearize that entire peninsula.”

Obama Fox News

We must also not forget that Trump’s strutting bravado with regard to North Korea is a symptom of the same mental defect that motivated him to violate the terms of our pact with Iran, and five other nations, to prohibit them from developing nuclear weapons. So even if he strikes a deal with North Korea (which is by no means certain), it’s one step forward, two steps back.

There is, however, an obvious string of commonality that weaves through everything Trump does. In almost every public statement he’s made about Iran, he’s inserted a jab at President Obama over the multinational agreement that Trump has called “one of the worst deals ever negotiated in American diplomatic history.” Likewise, he regularly bashes Obama for not having terminated North Korea’s nuclear weapons program during his term. Note that there are good reasons for not rewarding the Kim regimes that Obama and every other American president have observed.

Trump’s fetish with all things Obama extends to nearly every initiative he’s pursued as president. Even Fox News has noticed this all-consuming psychosis. They recently did a story calling the scuttling of the Iran deal the “latest Trump move to dismantle key Obama policies.” The story noted that:

“Donald Trump’s announcement Tuesday that the United States would withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement marks just the latest development in the president’s ongoing effort to undo predecessor Barack Obama’s legacy — including trying to dismantle Obamacare while making drastic changes to U.S. immigration and military policies. […] Since taking office in January 2017, Trump has repealed or rescinded dozens of regulations, executive orders and international agreements implemented by the Obama administration over the eight years of his presidency. That effort began three days after Trump was inaugurated.”

Indeed. Trump’s sole motivation appears to be to unravel everything that Obama successfully implemented. Although it’s a bit surreal to see Fox News articulate it so explicitly. Trump’s gnawing jealousy has him on a single-minded path of destruction. It’s why he installed cabinet heads whose sole objectives are to weaken, and eventually eliminate, the departments they run. It’s a fact that is so transparent that even Fox News is comfortable reporting it. They posted a tweet listing the deliberate damage that Trump is doing to the Obama legacy:

Ironically, the items in that list are all examples of harm that Trump is doing, not just to Obama’s legacy, but to America. Polls show that most voters are in favor of the Democratic/liberal position on every single one of the those issues. Trump is working furiously against the interests of the people. So Fox News is posting what amounts to a campaign ad for voting Democratic in 2018. And while Fox is also continuing their regular broadcasts of repulsive opinions by heinous pundits, we might just pause for a moment to thank them for this inadvertent gift. But don’t expect to get any more between now and November.

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

Trump Threatens to ‘Take Away Credentials’ of Media that Doesn’t Slobber Him with Praise

Posted by on May 9, 2018 at 11:21 am. 4 Comments :

Reporters Without Borders publishes an annual World Press Freedom Index. The most recent study reported that the United States fell to 45th place, a new low. Much of that decline was attributed explicitly to Donald Trump, whose open hostility to the media has been a core component of his presidency.

Donald Trump

Continuing to push forward with his aggressively anti-First Amendment agenda, Trump took to his official presidential policy platform – Twitter – and posted a comment that is a further demonstration of just how extreme his hatred of the free press is. This tweet should frighten all Americans who value constitutional principles and the indispensable role the press plays in democracy:

There is so much wrong with that tweet that it’s hard to know where to begin. First of all, the economy has been expanding for nearly ten years, and that expansion began near the beginning of President Obama’s first term. Contrary to Trump’s claim, for which he provides no factual support, the economy has largely stalled as of late. The Dow Jones is down year-to-date. And Trump has been undeservedly taking credit for an economy whose performance has trailed that of Obama’s.

Secondly, Trump is actually admitting that, in his view, any media that is negative is therefore fake. It isn’t surprising to learn that he feels that way, but it’s a little surprising that he says so publicly.

Third, Trump’s reference to network news being ninety-one percent negative about him was likely taken from Sean Hannity’s program last night. Hannity reported that statistic based on a dubious study by the ultra-rightist media watchdogs at NewsBusters. And he wrapped the biased data in the same package as Trump, fretting about his negative coverage despite the utopia he’s supposedly presiding over. This is another example of Hannity serving as a close advisor to this fumbling president (video below):

Hannity: “President Trump’s poll numbers, they’re rising. This despite a Newsbusters study showed that newtwork news broadcasts in this country featured negative stories about the President 90% of the time. Wow. And I told you journalism is dead.”

Notice the similarities between Hannity’s commentary and Trump’s tweet. But the most troubling part of Trump’s tweet is his threat to revoke press credentials for any media that fails to exalt the Dear Leader. Trump has long pined for a submissive press corps that only celebrates his every word and deed. This isn’t the first (or twentieth) time that Trump has attempted to punish the press by banishing them from the White House or worse, challenge their licenses. Last October he explicitly tweeted that threat saying:

The fact that Trump repeatedly takes this censorious position is evidence that it isn’t just an offhand remark that he doesn’t mean literally. He is deadly serious about his intention to gag any media that dares to criticize him. And in advance of that he has been avoiding any independent media for most of the last year. He’s only held one solo news conference (February 2017, just after the inauguration) during his entire presidency. And he hasn’t given an interview to a non-friendly (i.e. Fox News) outlet in the past year. What’s he afraid of?

The World Press Freedom study noticed these disturbing trends for American journalism. They addressed them specifically in their report as reasons for downgrading the U.S. position:

“In 2017, the 45th President of the United States helped sink the country to 45th place by labeling the press an ‘enemy of the American people’ in a series of verbal attacks toward journalists, attempts to block White House access to multiple media outlets, routine use of the term ‘fake news’ in retaliation for critical reporting, and calling for media outlets’ broadcasting licenses to be revoked.”

The American people need to be alert with regard to the threat that Trump represents to the freedom of the press and the sustainability of democracy. These are not idle threats made as political rhetoric. They are dangerous challenges made by a wannabe dictator who truly believes he has the right to muzzle the media and mislead the people. We the people cannot let that happen.

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

Proof That Fox News Has Been Suppressing the Stormy Daniels Story to Protect Trump

Posted by on May 8, 2018 at 2:11 pm. 1 Comments :

For the past several weeks the nation has been in the peculiar position of watching a porn star dominate much of the news concerning the American president. Stormy Daniels, and her telegenic attorney Michael Avenatti, have succeeded in holding Donald Trump’s feet to the fire and exposing his brazen dishonesty and lack of morals. The story has kept the American people enrapt due to its unique blend of political intrigue and salacious melodrama.

Fox News, Stormy Daniels

Many legal experts have said that Trump has more to fear from this litigation than from the investigations into his collusion with Russia. That’s partly due to the fact that it is not a federal matter over which Trump could have some influence. He would also find it more difficult to evade having to give depositions and testimony. And now with his new lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, gallivanting across America’s TV screens and making everything worse with his ignorant ravings, Trump is in a decidedly more precarious position than he was in when this began.

There is, however, one group of the populace that is probably not especially concerned about the Stormy affair. Fox News viewers simply don’t care about any unethical or criminal thing that Trump does. They will forgive him for whatever the “deep state,” “hate-Trump” media cooks up. But there’s another reason they won’t be troubled by Trump’s abhorrent behavior. They don’t really know much, if anything, about it.

Vox Media did an analysis of the coverage of Stormy Daniels and discovered that Fox News provided the bare minimum of airtime to the story. That’s surprising considering that Fox ordinarily would be all over a sex scandal involving a politician. Well, if the politician were a Democrat. But in this case their avoidance of the story is nothing less than deliberate suppression. It is why Fox News is so often characterized as State-Run TV. What Vox found was that Fox News covered stories mentioning Stormy, Cohen, or Giuliani a fraction of the amount as their peers in cable news. The charts reveal the extent to which Fox sought to smother this story.

In addition to the self-censorship employed by Fox, it is also notable that on those rare occasions when they did report on these topics, the spin was always in Trump’s favor. They would portray Stormy as a disreputable figure who can’t be trusted. And, conversely, Trump was always an innocent victim who did nothing wrong and was being subjected to a smear campaign. Never mind that both Trump and Giuliani were the people most responsible for disclosures that point to Trump’s guilt.

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

At the end of the day, the glassy-eyed disciple of Fox News remain blissfully ignorant of the facts surrounding these events. And to the degree that they are aware of some of the facts, they believe that they were manipulated by the evil media cabal that controls the planet. Trump, they are convinced, has been miscast by his enemies as a lying pervert who scoffs at the law. The only problem with that is that he is a lying pervert who scoffs at the law, and his tunnel-blind followers refuse to see it. And with the help of Fox News, they will continue to see only very little of the truth that is so offensive to them.

Forgetful Fox News Hack Whines That SNL is Anti-Trump Because of Stormy Daniels’ Bit

Posted by on May 6, 2018 at 6:24 pm. 1 Comments :

It goes without saying that Fox News will leap to the most extreme conclusions in order to delegitimize any entity or person they regard as less than adoring of Donald Trump. Their automatic bias is dialed up to eleven at all times, as is their phony outrage.

Fox News Stormy Daniels

However, an example of this from Sunday’s episode of Fox’s MediaBuzz jumps off the charts as host Howard Kurtz complains about Saturday Night Live recruiting Stormy Daniels to play herself in the cold opening of the program. Kurtz and his guest, Kat Timpf, were both very unhappy that SNL would demonstrate such obvious political partisanship. Here is their exchange (video below):

Kurtz: Does SNL putting on Stormy Daniels herself kind of remove any last pretense that this program is virulently anti-Trump and it’s just about comedy?
Timpf: Yeah, absolutely. It’s very, very anti-Trump. And it’s not as funny because of it. Because we already know where all the jokes are gonna be going. We don’t watch the sketch and see Alec Baldwin and say, “Oh, I wonder what the punchline is gonna be here. The punchline is gonna be “Oh, the President’s an idiot. The President’s a liar.” And the bottom line is the people who are watching it and enjoy it, they are gonna hate President Trump no matter what. But the people who support him, they don’t care about Stormy Daniels. They don’t care about any of this. So it’s not like they’re changing any minds with any of these sketches.
Kurtz: Right. It’s not like Alec Baldwin hasn’t made clear that as a person he detests President Trump.
Timpf: You can tell by the way he acts.
Kurtz: I wouldn’t have any problem with a Stormy Daniels actrress, but Stormy Daniels herself? Really?
Timpf: I’ve had enough Stormy Daniels.
Kurtz: I think our viewers might agree with you.

If knowing what people with obvious agendas are going to say in advance negates their positions, then no one ever needs to watch anything on Fox News. We already know what the punchlines are and they aren’t the least bit funny. Although it’s interesting that Kurtz admits that his audience is a single-minded borg community who all think alike.

However, what really exposes Kurtz and his colleagues at Fox News as partisan propagandists is his deliberate blocking out any part of reality that contradicts his preconceived notions. Here’s why: He’s furious at SNL for casting Stormy, and insists that having done so is proof that the show is anti-Trump. So what did it mean in November of 2015 when Donald Trump was the host of the program for the whole hour and a half? Wasn’t that proof that SNL is hopelessly biased to the right and pro-Trump (despite the universally bad reviews)?

How Kurtz could have forgotten this infamous episode that created a huge stir in the press at the time is unfathomable. But he and his guest somehow managed to latch onto a couple of minutes in this weekend’s program and declare it evidence of a rampant liberal bias, while pretending that Trump’s hosting gig never existed. And Kurtz is the top media correspondent on Fox News. He should – and probably does – know better.

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

Rudy Giuliani Gives Fox News a Flagrantly Incoherent ‘Clarification’ of His Previous Incoherence

Posted by on May 6, 2018 at 9:33 am. 1 Comments :

The past week in Trump Land has been a roller coaster of bizarre tales and absurd explanations. Most of which were provided by Donald Trump’s newly minted lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. In a whirlwind tour of Fox News programs, Giuliani tried to offer justifications for Trump’s web of lies related to his affair with Stormy Daniels and the subsequent hush money payoff to suppress news of the incident. But he only made things worse by blurting out admissions to potential criminal activity that hadn’t been raised before.

Fox News, Rudy Giuliani, Jeanine Pirro

On Saturday night Giuliani resumed stumping for Trump with a visit to “Judge” Jeanine Pirro of Fox News. And true to form, he only succeeded in stirring up more trouble for his client who is already in a fairly deep legal bog. Giuliani’s wild-eyed raving made little sense and his grasp of the law was laughably off kilter. And if he thought he was advancing the interests of Trump, he was insane as well.

One of the first things out of his mouth was speculation that a case before the Virginia grand jury involving Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, might just be an attempt to “flip” him into providing testimony against Trump. Of course there would nothing to worry about on that account unless there was something to flip. So Giuliani introduced that notion on his own. He followed that up with the false claim that the judge in that case called it a “witch hunt.” He didn’t.

Giuliani went on for awhile about how “Attorney General Jeff Sessions should step up and dismiss this entire investigation.” He asserted that “There is no evidence of collusion with the Russians. Gone. There is no evidence of obstruction of justice.” But there have already been dozens of indictments and five guilty pleas that suggest that the investigation has merit and should continue. And then he launched into a full blown manic episode (video below):

“The President of the United States did not in any way violate the campaign finance law. Every campaign finance expert, Republican and Democrat, will tell that if it was for another purpose, other than just for campaigns, even if it was for campaign purposes, if it was to save his family, to save embarrassment, it’s not a campaign donation.

“And second, even if it was a campaign donation, the President reimbursed it fully with a payment of $35,000 a month that paid for that and other expenses. No need to go beyond that. Case over. That case should be dismissed by the Southern district of New York. At least with regard to President Trump.”

First of all, it is preposterous to say that every campaign finance expert would say that there was no campaign finance violation. Lots of them are saying that there is. Just turn on the TV like your boss does all day long. More to the point, Giuliani asserts that there is no violation even if the funds were used for campaign purposes if it was to “save his family, to save embarrassment.” Is he listening to himself? If it was for campaign purposes it was unambiguously a violation. And Giuliani’s next point asserts that even a campaign donation would have been legal because Trump paid it back. But if it was paid back without disclosing it in his campaign finance reporting, that’s illegal. And as Giuliani says, “No need to go beyond that. Case over.”

It also isn’t especially good lawyering when your counsel says on national TV that “I’m not an expert on the facts.” And repeating a previous slander of the FBI as Nazi Storm Troopers hardly seems like positive messaging. Even if he falsely claims that “the judge basically said that.” He didn’t. And asking for the case in New York to be dismissed, “At least with regard to President Trump,” makes no sense at all. That case is against Michael Cohen, not Trump.

Giuliani appears intent on proving that he’s utterly incapable of handling a parking ticket, much less a case as complex and legally hazardous as this. But one of the most peculiar comments in this interview came when Giuliani attempted to belittle testimony given by Hillary Clinton (who was interviewed by both the FBI and Congress for eleven hours). He stroked his own hand and said:

“Nice nice nice. Poor little Hillary. We gotta be nice to her. No under oath. We’ll take that now.”

Setting aside Giuliani’s embarrassing playacting, if he’s willing to agree to an FBI interview without being under oath, no doubt Robert Mueller would be as well. After all, you don’t have to be under oath to be required to tell the truth. And lying to either the FBI or Congress is crime even without taking an oath. So shut up already and present your client (who says no one wants to talk more than he does) for the interview, and we can get this thing over with. What are you all afraid of?

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

Fox and Friends Guest Blasts Adam Schiff in a Painfully Stupid Rant About Impeaching Trump

Posted by on May 5, 2018 at 12:58 pm. 1 Comments :

There is only way place to go these days if you’re looking for unrelenting, mind-numbing idiocy on television. The Fox News morning show, Fox and Friends, isn’t Donald Trump’s favorite for nothing. It features a cast of “Curvy Couch” potatoes who seem to enjoy presenting themselves as unabashed morons. And naturally, their guest line up is just as feeble-minded as they (and their audience) are.

Fox News, Dan Bongino

Fox contributor and NRA shill Dan Bongino visited Fox and Friends to whimper about an op-ed published by Rep. Adam Schiff in the New York Times. The headline reads “Democrats: Don’t Take the Bait on Impeachment.” Schiff’s position is that impeachment should not be a political goal in and of itself, independent of legal basis supported by facts. He’s concerned that Democrats might get too far in front of the issue and create a backlash:

“…if impeachment is seen by a substantial part of the country as merely an effort to nullify an election by other means, there will be no impeachment, no matter how high the crime or serious the misdemeanor.”

And he continues…

“Given the evidence that is already public, I can well understand why the president fears impeachment [but] Democrats should not take the bait.”

So Schiff unequivocally calls for a tempered approach that doesn’t politicize the very real legal matters that are being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller. However, this reasonable attitude became a target of derision by Bongino. In a feverish tirade Bongino lashed out at Schiff for being fair-minded and rational – and for agreeing with him (video below):

“Adam Schiff is a fraud. I’m sorry, he’s a fraud. And I say it and I mean it. I know those are harsh words, but Adam Schiff is not a stupid man. This is a smart guy. Adam Schiff has access to information on his Intel Committee that you and I don’t. He has known for at least a year now, if not longer, that this collusion story with the Russians is a hoax.”

Apparently Bongino has the gift of clairvoyance since he is able to discern from Schiff’s thoughts that he has knowledge that he is withholding. However, another explanation might be that Schiff does indeed have access to information that supports his position regarding Trump and Russian collusion. As he pointed out in the op-ed, the evidence that is already public is pretty damn incriminating. But Bongino prefers to rely on what he picks up telepathically while watching Schiff on TV:

“He has gone on every media channel he can – puts his make up on, does his thing – and has said that Trump has colluded with the Russians. The only reason he’s writing this op-ed now, I believe, is because he’s starting to see that the American public, based on polling data, is catching on that this is a hoax and it’s getting frustrating. Schiff is a fraud. He’s not doing the right thing. He’s doing the easy thing.”

For the record, every poll on the subject shows that the American people believe that Trump worked with Russia to help him get elected. They also overwhelmingly support Mueller’s investigation and want it to continue. These survey results were even affirmed by a poll conducted by Fox News. Bongino doesn’t bother to disclose the polling data he allegedly has, but it’s ironic that he’s making these ridiculous claims on the network whose own poll contradicts him.

Finally, Bongino is obviously too dense to grasp that his bitching about Schiff is an assault on logic. He’s complaining that Schiff wrote an article that argues against focusing on impeaching Trump, which is an opinion that Bongino shares. So does Bongino think that Schiff should have written an article advocating impeachment instead? Perhaps then Bongino would not be calling Schiff a fraud, but he would certainly be condemning him for advocating impeachment.

Bongino really needs to make up his mind. But you would need to have one that’s functioning to do so. On the plus side, by lacking critical thinking skills and having a rabid animosity toward all things Democratic, Bongino has secured himself a safe spot on Fox News for many years to come. And he’ll fit right in with Fox’s hosts and guests who share similar mental defects and biases.

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

Staunchly Pro-Trump Fox News Host Calls Him Out on His Lies: Mr. President, That’s Your Stink

Posted by on May 3, 2018 at 8:05 pm. 2 Comments :

It seems like every week is one that can arguably be described as Donald Trump’s worst week ever. And that surely applies to this week wherein the President had his lawyer go on Fox News and tell Sean Hannity that he reimbursed his personal attorney for the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels. And his pals at the National Enquirer went after Michael Cohen. And reports reveal the Cohen’s phone calls have been monitored by the Feds.

Fox News, Neil Cavuto, Stormy Daniels

Add to these setbacks a surprisingly critical monologue from Fox News host Neil Cavuto (video below). Cavuto has been one of the most reliable Trump supporters on the network. However, something must have clicked because this segment is bitingly harsh as he firmly renounces a cornucopia of Trump’s lies. The lecture addressed directly to Trump begins with Cavuto saying that:

“President Trump is fond of calling out the media on “fake” news. But is he the one giving them very real ammunition? Maybe not intentionally. I’ll even give you the benefit of the doubt, Mr. President, and say maybe not deliberately. But consistently. Way too consistently. So let me be clear Mr. President, how can you claim to be draining the swamp if you’re the one that keeps muddying the waters?”

Then Cavuto rattled off a series of Trump’s most recent and flagrant lies. He cites the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels; his denial of knowledge about MIchael Cohen’s activities on his behalf; his specious claims that there were no campaign finance violations. In each instance Cavuto noted that Trump stuck to his false claims until they could no longer be denied or his own party comrades debunked them.

Cavuto went on to itemize Trump’s catalog of obvious untruths such as claiming that the Russians didn’t interfere with the 2016 elections, and his subsequent denial that he ever made that claim; that his tax plan was the biggest ever; that those tax cuts would cost him a fortune; that his job approval numbers were better than his predecessors; that media reports that senior staffers (Secretary of State, Chief-of-Staff, economic advisor, political strategist, etc) were about to be fired were fake. Cavuto even brought up Trump’s denials that his lawyers (Dowd, Cobb) would be leaving, and that he denied ever considering firing Robert Mueller.

And even after that barrage of friendly fire Cavuto wasn’t done. He called Trump out for falsely saying that he signed more bills than any other president. And that he raised the national debt by over a trillion dollars despite claiming that he reduced it. And that there was massive voter fraud in New Hampshire and Virginia, and millions of illegal voters nationwide. And that his alleged electoral college landslide eclipsed those before him.

It was a brutal damning of Trump’s notorious dishonesty and aversion to the truth. Although Cavuto tried to to insert softening agents every now and then such as “Now I’m not saying you’re a liar,” and “None of this makes me a Never Trumper,” and “None of this makes you evil,” and “None of this makes what you say fake.” Why the heck not? Actually, all of that makes him a liar and what he says fake. But Cavuto can only go so far. And for him this is light years. He closed with an especially pungent censure of the President that would surely sting if his handlers ever let him hear it:

“Your base might not care, but you should. I guess you’re too busy draining the swamp to stop and smell the stink you’re creating. That’s your doing. That’s your stink. Mr. President, that’s your swamp.”

You have to wonder what happened in the editorial suites at Fox News that allowed this diatribe to make it onto the air. Perhaps there are people in the executive ranks who see the writing on the wall (which Trump will never build) and don’t want to get sunk along with the President when Mueller’s probe is completed. Fox News may be trying to hedge their bets a little in case the raid of Cohen’s offices turned up incriminating evidence. Whatever the reason, it appears that Trump might not be able to always depend on Fox News to cover his backside. Of course, this may be an anomaly, so it’s too soon to draw any conclusions. Stay tuned.

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

The Worm Turns: Fox News is Fake News According to – Sean Hannity

Posted by on May 1, 2018 at 3:05 pm. 2 Comments :

It’s more complicated every day trying to cover the rapidly crumbling administration of Donald Trump. Who his friends and enemies are change by the hour. His long-time personal attorney, Michael Cohen, appears to be cooperating with prosecutors. His Chief-of-Staff, John Kelly, reportedly thinks he’s an idiot. And he isn’t the only one.

Fox News, Sean Hannity

Now Sean Hannity of Fox News is taking an unusual position with regard to to his own network. On Monday the New York Times revealed a list of questions that were reportedly prepared by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office for an interview with Trump. The list was said to have been transcribed by Trump’s lawyers who provided it anonymously to the Times. Legal analysts describe the questions as focusing on multiple issues, including collusion and obstruction of justice.

Predictably, when Hannity’s program aired he was determined to undermine the significance of these questions and the investigation in its entirety. So he started off his segment on the subject by belittling the use of anonymous sources while asserting that his anonymous sources contradicted those of the Times.

“I am told by my sources tonight that The New York Times is full of crap. A lot of those questions are not the questions that the Special Counsel is asking. Clearly a leak by the Special Counsels’s office, again with anonymous sources.” […]

“It is a disinformation campaign. How stupid is it? They want to get in the President’s mind, ‘Did you ever think of firing Mueller?’ When he never fired Mueller. And he has every right to fire Mueller constitutionaly. This is how bad the press in this country is. They’re being fed lies, disinformation to manipulate the America people.”

So Hannity is disputing the legitimacy of the questions published by the Times. The only problem with that is that Fox News also published the questions in an article that claimed they had independently obtained the list themselves. So if the Times is full of crap, then so is Fox News.

In addition to maligning the reporting of his own network, Hannity totally mangled his analysis of the impact of these questions. First of all, he asserts falsely that their disclosure was “clearly a leak by the Special Counsel.” But the Times explicitly reported that it was Trump’s team that leaked them. Then Hannity makes several assertions that are legally unfounded. He says that it’s “stupid” to try to get into the mind of the President. But that’s exactly how prosecutors establish intent in criminal cases. Hannity also said that Trump has the right to fire Mueller, which most legal experts say is not true. Although he could fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and appoint a replacement who could fire Mueller. But Hannity wasn’t through yet. He got even more frenzied later in the segment, saying with regard to the list of questions:

“Put it in your fireplace and burn it — because we have sources — half these questions are dumb anyway. ‘Oh, what was in your mind at the time.’ You don’t punish people or charge people – not that you can charge a sitting president, and the President has the right to fire anybody he wants – for the thoughts they have in their head.”

It’s as if Hannity is determined to put his utter ignorance about the law on display for all of American to see and laugh at. And that determination is so obviously driven by his compulsion to defend his Dear Leader, Donald Trump. And by the way, Trump is no better at this legal stuff than Hannity:

Below are the videos of Hannity’s Trump-fluffing, if your stomach is strong enough to handle it.

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