Media Bias

The Plot Sickens: Sean Hannity is Revealed to Be Michael Cohen’s Secret Third Client

Posted by on April 16, 2018 at 12:43 pm. 6 Comments :

It is getting ridiculous how much the phrase “You just can’t make this up,” is applicable to Donald Trump’s administration. But the news on Monday morning definitely applies. As Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen headed back to court for a hearing to suppress materials seized during the raid on his office and home, the surprise was supposed to be the presence of Stormy Daniels. That’s not how it worked out.

Sean Hannity Fox News

Prior to this hearing Cohen was ordered by the judge to disclose the three clients that he claimed to be representing. There was some dispute as to whether Cohen was actually doing any legal work. So Cohen supplied the names of Donald Trump and Elliot Broidy. Broidy just resigned from his post at the Republican National Committee after it was disclosed that he paid $1.6 million to a Playboy Playmate to hide his affair. Cohen facilitated that payoff.

However, Cohen’s lawyers declined to reveal the name of the third client. Until now. And it turned out to be Fox News host Sean Hannity. According to reports:

In their letter to Wood, Cohen’s lawyers said he had given legal advice or handled dispute resolution for three clients since 2017: Trump, venture capitalist Eliot Broidy and another person.

Broidy on Friday resigned from his post as deputy finance chair at the Republican National Committee after it was revealed that Cohen had helped arrange Broidy’s $1.6 million payment to a Playboy model in exchange for her silence about their affair and her pregnancy, which was aborted.

“The third legal client directed Mr. Cohen to not to reveal their identity publicly,” Cohen’s lawyers wrote to Wood.

The lawyers added, “As to the one unnamed legal client, we do not believe that Mr. Cohen should be asked to reveal the name or can permissibly do so.”

Cohen’s lawyers argued that identifying the third client was “likely to be embarrassing or detrimental to the client.” No kidding. At this time it is not known what matters Cohen was representing Hannity on. But the fact that he served as the conduit for payments to mistresses for his other two clients is more than a little suspicious.

Hannity has been the most fiercely loyal Trump-fluffer on Fox News. But he has also taken positions defending Cohen since the U.S. Attorney in New York raided his offices. For instance:

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/984242895300579330

The fact that Hannity and Trump share a lawyer cuts deeply into his ability to continue reporting on the President. There has to be a complete accounting of the relationships and any legal crossover. And it has to go more in depth than it’s just the “Deep State” attacking him and Trump.

Now there will have to be some response from Fox News. Is it possible for Hannity to continue doing commentaries about Cohen and Trump considering the obvious conflict of interest and overt bias that these relationships represent? Can Fox even keep him on the air? At the very least the network has to get a more complete disclosure from Hannity in order to discern if he has been violating any network codes of conduct. Of course, it is Fox News so they may decide to do nothing simply because their ethics are no better than Hannity’s.

UPDATE: Hannity is saying that he has asked Cohen for legal advice, but he was never his client and was never billed. In effect he’s calling Cohen a liar because Cohen told the court that Hannity is his “client.”

And Hannity has actually interviewed Cohen on his show (here and here) without disclosing that he was interviewing his own lawyer.

And Hannity has been in litigation with a woman who asserts sexual misconduct.

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

SRSLY? Corey Lewandowski Tells Fox News That the ‘Situation with Assad’ is Obama’s Fault

Posted by on April 14, 2018 at 2:01 pm. 3 Comments :

It didn’t take long for Fox News to broadcast their official response to the Syrian chemical weapons crisis – or any problem that rankles Donald Trump’s administration: Obama did it! That’s right. And the reason that Trump had to renege on his campaign promises to refrain from getting America mired in any more foreign conflicts, like the one in Syria, is the same as as his excuses for all of his other lies and blunders.

Barack Obama, Donald Trump

In a segment on Fox News, Trump shill Corey Lewandowski disseminated the pre-approved White House doctrine regarding any and all scenarios that negatively impact the administration (video below). It was a prime example of the robo-speak that is emblematic of the Trump regime. It was also the very same position that Trump himself tweeted years before. Lewandowski said that:

“The reason we’re in this situation with Assad is because Barack Obama drew a line in the sand which meant nothing. There were no teeth behind it. The chemical weapons that were supposed to be a red line in the previous administration meant nothing. And we’re here today, and people lost their lives in Syria, because the previous administration did nothing to prevent it from happening.”

For starters, Lewandowski must have forgotten that Trump already executed a military response to a prior use of chemical weapons by Assad last year. He insisted that it would send an unmistakable message to Assad that continuing such atrocities would not be tolerated. Apparently the message was not as clear as Trump thought. Especially after he announced that he would be pulling U.S. troops out of Syria shortly.

The question that no one on Fox News is asking is: How would Obama’s actions years earlier have changed any of the outcomes following Trump’s more recent actions? If Trump’s bombing raid last year didn’t deter Assad, why would Obama’s raid five years ago have done it? Are they just admitting that Obama would have done it better?

Now let’s take a look at whether Obama did anything after Assad’s use of chemical weapons during his term. The fact is that Obama forcefully denounced Assad and advocated for a military response. However, unlike Trump, he sought congressional approval (as the Constitution requires) in order to ensure that the action had the full support of a united nation. He beseeched the GOP-controlled legislature to come together in this effort saying:

“Here’s my question for every member of Congress and every member of the global community: What message will we send if a dictator can gas hundreds of children to death in plain sight and pay no price? What’s the purpose of the international system that we’ve built if a prohibition on the use of chemical weapons that has been agreed to by the governments of 98 percent of the worlds’ people and approved overwhelmingly by the Congress of the United States is not enforced?”

The response by Congress was worse than voting down an authorizing resolution. The Republicans in charge would not even permit the measure to come up for a vote. And it was clear that if they had, a majority of Republicans would have voted against it. Which is especially interesting considering what Trump was saying at the time:

So according to Trump, Obama needed congressional approval to bomb Syria (which he tried to get), but Trump can do whatever the hell he wants? That’s the mindset of a flaming hypocrite, and a wannabe dictator.

None of these facts are likely to persuade Fox News, or their glassy-eyed viewers, to change their minds about Obama being the source of everything bad in the world. He will continue to be the excuse they cling to for any of the failings by Trump and the Republican Party of (avoiding) personal responsibility. This is just the way that the right-wing has their propaganda wired. And it’s convenient that they have a “news” network that is amenable to serving as their State-run TV outlet.

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

Trump-Fluffing Nut Job and Fox News Shill Says Root of Mueller Probe is ‘Penis Envy’

Posted by on April 12, 2018 at 12:43 pm. 8 Comments :

It had to come to this. The wingnut miscreants who suck up to Donald Trump have descended to the basest and most delusional fantasies their diseased imaginations can manufacture. It’s not enough anymore to merely smear American patriots as corrupt and dishonest. No, they are now envisioning perverse scenarios that are, in all likelihood, projections of their own psychotic defects.

Wayne Allyn Root Fox News

Wayne Allyn Root is a radio talk show host who resides on the outer fringe of the right-wing universe. He is also a frequent guest on Fox News and a contributor to their website’s editorials. And apparently he is also a sex-obsessed pervert with ludicrous ideas about the motivations of special counsel Robert Mueller. In a completely bonkers rant on Wednesday, Root attacked Mueller in the most disgustingly personal way imaginable. The tirade was triggered by news that the recent raid on the home and offices of Michael Cohen (Trump’s attorney) collected information regarding the now infamous Access Hollywood recordings of Trump bragging about committing sexual assaults.

This is just one part of the wide-ranging investigation into Trump’s improper and unlawful activities that include collusion with Russia, obstruction of justice, and financial corruption. But in Root’s mind it now comprises the whole of the inquiry. And unable to construct any rational arguments to defend Trump or support his demented theories, Root leaped head first into a totally made up story intended to malign Mueller. Here are a couple of excerpts from Root’s dementia courtesy of Right Wing Watch:

“Robert Mueller has probably never had sex in his life,” Root said. “I know he has never had sex with a beautiful woman. Did you ever see the angry look on Robert Mueller’s face? Robert Mueller needs sex badly and he is so jealous that Donald Trump was a billionaire playboy and obviously had sex with the most beautiful women in the world.” […]

“Mueller is vicious, Mueller is disgusting, Mueller is a pervert. Can you imagine what he does at home at night? Who knows what he does, watching his computer images of Donald Trump and beautiful women. I can just guess what Mueller is doing in the dark, with the light of the screen glaring on him inside is office at 12 midnight..” […]

“It’s penis envy,” Root declared triumphantly. “Mueller’s is smaller than Trump’s.”

Root must have had assistants standing by to wipe the drool from his chin. He made a big deal about how women were drawn magnetically to Trump because he was so handsome and rich. Mueller, he said, was just a nerdy, penniless virgin. And it was that contrast that made Mueller so determined to get Trump.

It goes without saying that this is ridiculous in the extreme. It hardly deserves a response. But in the interests of correcting the record, here is the truth about Robert Mueller:

Mueller was born into a life of privilege, much the same as Trump. His father was an executive with DuPont. In school he was popular and admired. He was the captain of the soccer, hockey, and lacrosse teams. He married his childhood sweetheart and remained happily married for fifty-two years (and counting). He enlisted in the Marines and served in Vietnam where he was the recipient of the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals, the Purple Heart, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. And professionally he compiled a resume of achievement that included a law degree from the University of Virginia, being a U.S. Attorney, and the longest serving Director of the FBI.

Comparing that to Trump’s life of failure is way too easy. Trump inherited his wealth and did virtually nothing to increase it. To the contrary, he claimed bankruptcy half a dozen times. He never had a happy marriage (including the current one) and cheated publicly on all three of his wives. He dodged service in Vietnam with four academic deferments and a bogus claim of bone spurs. And unlike Mueller’s life of public service, Trump was in service only to his own greed, lust, and ego.

Root’s unhinged diatribe is emblematic of the Trump cult mentality so many of the President’s supporters suffer from. Sean Hannity is every bit as deranged and dishonest as Root. But it’s no wonder that these bootlickers have won Trump’s favor. Trump even thanked Root for his slobbering sycophancy on Twitter. They are clearly made for each other. And Root’s latest blathering is sure to give Trump some solace in these trying times preceding his imminent downfall. For a taste of Root’s madness, here is a video of part of Wednesday’s show – if you have the stomach for it:

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

New York Times Shatters Trump’s Denial that He Took 150G From a Ukrainian Oligarch

Posted by on April 11, 2018 at 3:36 pm. 4 Comments :

Poor Donald Trump. He continues to be a victim of of his own ignorance and acutely deficient comprehension skills. As a result he misunderstands even the simplest subjects and then lashes out in mindless tantrums that only make him look even more foolish. It’s a downward spiral of psychotic collapse that repeats itself on a nearly daily basis. And despite all the evidence to the contrary, Trump still thinks he’s a “stable genius.”

Donald Trump

On Wednesday Trump was typically miffed at the “fake” news he perceived being published by the “failing” New York Times. Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman of the Times posted a well researched article about Trump receiving $150,000 from a Ukrainian oligarch as payment for a twenty minute video address in September of 2015. The money was “donated” to Trump’s foundation which has a notably poor record of doing any charitable work. In fact, it has been found to have unlawfully funneled money to Trump via phony transactions. In one case the foundation bought a portrait of Trump that it hung at his golf resort. On another occasion foundation funds were used to pay a legal settlement that was owed by Trump personally.

Per usual, Trump expressed his outrage at the Times via Twitter:

Trump’s tweet doesn’t in any way refute the reporting by the Times. In fact, he validates it. And Trump’s failure to grasp what’s obvious was noted by the article’s authors on Twitter here and here. In the article the authors explicitly note that:

“The special counsel is investigating a payment made to President Trump’s foundation by a Ukrainian steel magnate for a talk during the campaign, according to three people briefed on the matter, as part of a broader examination of streams of foreign money to Mr. Trump and his associates in the years leading up to the election.”

And that:

“The event, his first foray into global politics during the campaign, was set up by Doug Schoen, a veteran political consultant and pollster who works with Mr. Pinchuk, according to a person familiar with how the speech was arranged. Mr. Schoen, a frequent Fox News guest, has known Mr. Trump for years and contacted him personally to set it up at the end of August 2015, according to the person.”

So Trump is correct. It was Schoen who set up the speech. But the speech wasn’t for Schoen, nor did Schoen pay for it. How could he? He’s just a Fox News shill who pretends he’s a Democrat so he can get booked on Fox and bash Democrats. It was the Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk who was Trump’s benefactor. Schoen was a go-between. Pinchuk is a steel magnate who has been accused of dumping Ukrainian steel into U.S. markets. He engaged Schoen, who knew Trump, to facilitate the appearance.

Even more suspicious is the fact that it was Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, who solicited the donation. That’s the same Michael Cohen whose home and offices were just raided by the FBI. According to the Times, Schoen “had gotten to know Mr. Cohen by running into him in the green room at Fox News.” Well, as the Church Lady would say, “isn’t that convenient?”

Once again, Trump’s wild-eyed indignation has no basis in reality. He’s simply disgorging illogical outbursts that fail to advance any coherent objective, other than whining about the media. And in this case of Trump’s unhinging, as in most all of the others, the media was just doing its job responsibly, accurately, and honestly. Trump thinks that if he hollers and stamps his feet enough, everyone will agree with him. But he’s only pointing out how pathetic he is at comprehending a simple news story. SAD!

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

Sinclair State-TV Chairman to Trump: ‘We Are Here to Deliver Your Message’

Posted by on April 10, 2018 at 2:04 pm. 1 Comments :

As the walls close in on Donald Trump and his crime syndicate associates, the conservative propaganda networks are furiously trying to twist the facts into an unrecognizable perversion of reality. Fox News is at the top of the list of Trump-fluffing sycophants with hosts and contributors who relentlessly defend the President and smear his critics.

Donald Trump

However, Fox News is not alone on that battlefront. Sinclair Broadcasting is moving at breakneck speed to offer an alternative to Fox that is even more extreme and irresponsibly dishonest. With their “must run” segments featuring former Trump shill Boris Epshteyn, and their mandatory corporate written screeds against “fake” news, Sinclair poses a serious risk to journalism and democracy.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Sinclair’s chairman, David Smith, made a deal with Trump to provide him positive coverage if he granted them greater access. They were blatantly selling their integrity to get closer to Trump. Now the Guardian is reporting that Smith was even more servile when he secretly met with Trump at the White House. The Guardian discloses that:

“The chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group met Donald Trump at the White House during a visit to pitch a potentially lucrative new product to administration officials, the Guardian has learned.

“David D Smith, whose company has been criticised for making its anchors read a script echoing Trump’s attacks on the media, said he briefed officials last year on a system that would enable authorities to broadcast direct to any American’s phone.

“‘I just wanted them to be aware of the technology,” Smith said in an interview. He also recalled an earlier meeting with Trump during the 2016 election campaign, where he told the future president: ‘We are here to deliver your message.'”

Oh really? Promising to be there to deliver a president’s message is not the mission of a legitimate news enterprise. To the contrary, it’s the mission of journalistic lackeys with a political agenda who are brazenly and unabashedly biased. And everything that Sinclair does affirms that it is serving as a mouthpiece for Trump and the Republican Party.

The Guardian also asked Smith about the rightward leanings of his operation, which he forthrightly denied. He called assertions that the scripts he forced his anchors to read were biased in favor of Trump “the most absurd thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” That’s like Hannibal Lecter feigning offense that anyone might suggest he eats people. But his justification for that denial just made matters even worse. He said that:

“If people believe you more than they believe somebody else, they’re more likely to watch you,” he said. “And you know what that means? We might get a higher rating. And you know what that means? We will therefore make our spots worth more. And you know what that means? That means I will make more money, which means I can pay you more money.”

In summary, he’s saying that it’s his policy to convince viewers that all other sources of news are false. And the purpose of that slander is to discredit the press at large in order to get more viewers for Sinclair. That’s different than competing news organizations touting their skills and experience to appeal to their audience. It is a cult-like scheme to convince gullible people that only one truth exists and that Sinclair owns it. And it dovetails perfectly with Trump’s cultist tendencies that aim to achieve the same blind loyalty.

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

Sinclair is currently trying to expand their reach by buying their largest competitor, Tribune Media. Trump’s Federal Communications Commission is likely to approve the acquisition, despite its breach of existing regulations. The American people need to join together to preserve the integrity of our free press. And one way to do that is to visit Stop Sinclair and lobby Congress to intervene to oppose this dangerous, anti-consumer merger.

In Defense of Fox News (?): Trust in Media Graphic Was Early, Not Censored

Posted by on April 9, 2018 at 11:44 am. NO Comments :

There is no question that Fox News is the most brazenly biased right-wing distorter of reality that has even been broadcast. It’s executives, hosts, and contributors are almost entirely devoted to disseminating conservative propaganda, much of it dictated by Donald Trump’s White House. Even worse, Trump’s positions are often dictated by Fox News.

Fox News Lies

That said, there has been a story circulating around the InterTubes that is just plain wrong. It asserts that Howard Kurtz, host of Fox’s MediaBuzz, was surprised by a graphic that showed Fox News as being the least trusted cable news network, and that he called for it to taken down in order to suppress that anti-Fox information. There is a lot wrong with that assertion.

First of all, there was a graphic that appeared during Kurtz’s program that was out of place. Kurtz did ask that it be taken down. But that’s only because it was out of sequence. When that part of the discussion came up a couple of minutes later, he showed that graphic again at the proper time. There was no attempt to censor it. (See video below).

Also, the argument that this graphic was taken down because it showed Fox News as trusted less than MSNBC and CNN is not accurate. The Monmouth University survey that was the basis for the graphic’s data did not compare the networks’ trustworthiness. It compared whether respondents trusted Trump or the media more. That’s actually worse from Trump’s perspective. Although that misreading is largely the fault of Fox News. The graphic needs to be read left to right, not top down. By highlighting the column instead of the rows Fox invited the misinterpretations. As News Corpse previously wrote about this poll:

“Like other polls before it, Monmouth found that Americans trust the media more than they do Donald Trump. That’s gotta sting the President who has been striving furiously to turn the nation against the press. The detail shows that 48 percent of Americans trust CNN more than Trump (35% trust Trump more). Forty-five percent trust MSNBC more than Trump (32% for Trump). Even 30 percent trust Fox News more than Trump (20% for Trump). Although the Fox numbers also show that a plurality of 37 percent trust both equally. This affirms that Trump’s base is still immovably stuck in the low thirties.”

The original story asserting that Fox News was embarrassed by an errant graphic and deep-sixed it appears to have been published by the Associated Press. They have since corrected their story. But it’s important that the record be correct in the progressive media so as to preserve our moral claim to being reality-based. There are more than enough legitimate examples of Fox News lying. And the findings in the poll are bad enough for Trump that they don’t need to be muddied up with misunderstandings.

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

Hannity vs Kimmel: Fox News Host’s Obsession with Other People’s Sexual Lives is Creepy

Posted by on April 7, 2018 at 2:26 pm. 4 Comments :

For the past couple of days Twitter has been the stage of an epic battle between the top dog at Fox News, Sean Hannity, and a formidable political intellectual and social scientist – oops – I mean comedian Jimmy Kimmel. And even a late night jokester has proven to be too much of challenge for Hannity’s severely limited cognitive abilities. Kimmel took the whole thing as good, not-so-clean fun. But Hannity had a cerebral spasm that threatened to burst a blood vessel in his ample forehead.

Fox News, Sean Hannity, Jimmy Kimmel

The feud began when Kimmel made a lighthearted joke about First Lady Melania Trump’s accent when reading to kids at a White House Easter event. Kimmel merely repeated her pronunciation of “dis and dat.” Dat’s it. It was hardly a sharp elbowed political jab. But it drove Hannity to distraction wherein he literally couldn’t think of anything else. Much of his day on Friday was consumed with manic tweets attacking Kimmel as a “despicable,” “perverted,” “racist asshole.” He took to calling Kimmel “Harvey Weinstein, Jr.” in a callous trivialization of a real perpetrator of sexual assault. Most of the Twitter battle can be seen here.

Later that evening, Hannity spent most of his Friday program ranting about Kimmel and vowing to destroy him. Hannity criticizes Kimmel for “losing his mind for five minutes on his show,” just before devoting almost the whole hour of his own show to Kimmel bashing. And after getting so freaked out over Kimmel’s joke directed at a First Lady, Hannity attacks Michelle Obama. His tantrum also included baseless accusations that Kimmel relentlessly bashed all Republicans 24/7 and “kissed Obama’s ass.” Actually, Kimmel has been fairly apolitical until the recent difficulties he had with his sick newborn. It was after his advocacy of healthcare reforms that the right started attacking him. And Hannity promises to escalate this one-sided war. On his program he said that…

“I am going after Jimmy Kimmel tonight. We’re gonna pound him with his own words. […] I’m throwing down the gauntlet. I’m not gonna stop. They are gonna stop by the time it’s done. […] For me this is it. I’ll just stay on this, and I’ll roll tape of Jimmy Kimmel every night for the rest of my career.”

Well, that at least would be more entertaining than having to watch Hannity. But his sanctimonious sermonizing about some Kimmel bits that Hannity dug up from the two decade old Comedy Central program “The Man Show” don’t really help him much. Mainly because it casts Hannity as the sexually obsessed pervert who finds salaciousness in what everyone else sees as just raunchy comedy. And Hannity shouldn’t be throwing stones. He’s the guy who sees secretly placed images of sperm in President Obama’s portrait. He charged CNN president Jeff Zucker with being the “scandal-plagued” “king of porn.” He’s had his own run-in with allegations of sexual harassment. And then there was the time he propositioned a “really hot looking chick in the third row” of his audience and asked if she would “Wanna meet me later?”

Remember, Kimmel’s joke had nothing to do with sex. It was about Melania’s accent. But Hannity turned the whole affair into a sleaze-fest. Because that’s what’s on his diseased mind. Every year he does a week of programs about Spring Break where he castigates America’s youth while running endless footage of bikini-clad girls.

And let’s not forget that he’s on a network that has a distinct problem with misogyny. The network’s CEO, Roger Ailes, was fired for multiple incidents of sexual harassment. Then their biggest star, Bill O’Reilly, was tossed out after the discovery of tens millions of dollars paid to secure the silence of his victims. Fox also jettisoned its president, Bill Shine; host Eric Bolling; Fox Sports President, Jamie Horowitz; and VP of Fox News Latino, Francisco Cortes, all for similarly abhorrent misconduct. Most recently the wives of Fox hosts Jesse Watters and Pete Hegseth filed for divorce due to their public infidelities.

One thing is clear: Sean Hannity is working at just the right network for his brand of perversion. It’s a network that has canonized serial predator Donald Trump and supported the senate candidacy of pedophile Roy Moore. Fox News is a breeding ground for perverts. They hire and promote men who blatantly demean and abuse women. The environment was described accurately by former Fox News host and victim Andrea Tantaros in her lawsuit as “a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency, and misogyny.” Hannity must be loving it. But he probably isn’t too happy about being beaten regularly by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. And that may be the real reason he is jumping on Kimmel. It’s a desperate and lame attempt to goose his ratings. And it isn’t going to work any better than his Pizza-Gate episodes.

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

Was EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Ambushed on Fox News Under Orders From Donald Trump?

Posted by on April 5, 2018 at 12:03 pm. 2 Comments :

Every now and then somebody on Fox News strays from the herd and does or says something critical of Donald Trump. It’s a rare event that is mostly confined to outliers like Shepard Smith or a courageous guest. In most cases it is treated as the aberration that it is and quickly buried under the rush of Fox’s typical pro-Trump propaganda.

Fox News, Scott Pruitt, EPA

On Wednesday, however, the criticism came from an unlikely source. Ed Henry, the chief national correspondent for Fox News, interviewed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, Scott Pruitt (video below). In what Pruitt must have assumed would be a friendly media encounter, he was surprised by the aggressive tone of Henry’s inquiries. The questions addressed some of the most controversial scandals that have erupted during his tenure at the EPA.

Henry asked Pruitt why he went around Trump to give two top aides raises after the President refused the request. When Pruitt said that it was staffers who did that and that he didn’t know anything about it, Henry pushed back asking Pruitt to confirm that he didn’t know what was going on in the department he was supposedly running.

Henry also asked how renting a Washington, D.C. apartment at sweetheart rates from the wife of a lobbyist with business before the EPA was “draining the swamp.” Pruitt replied that there was nothing untoward about the arrangement. So Henry offered examples demonstrating that his $50.00 a night rental was way out of line with Washington rates for residences or hotels.

This appearance of actual journalism at Fox News is peculiar in general, but downright bizarre for Ed Henry.. He is one of the most squishy Trump-fluffers on Fox News. He is a frequent co-host of Trump’s favorite Fox show, Fox and Friends. There was a time in the past when Henry passed himself off as a straight-up reporter. But then he was suspended by Fox for having had an extramarital affair. When he returned to the air it was like he had been given a new mission to serve as a Trump sycophant. Perhaps it was the price of his reinstatement.

So why would Henry suddenly show some gumption and take on Trump’s EPA boss? The most plausible theory is that he was ordered to do so. And those orders could only have come from one place: Donald Trump. Fox wouldn’t independently direct Henry to go on the attack. They would have to have had instructions. And Trump has reasons to want Pruitt to look bad in public. With the scandals he has brought to the White House, including ludicrous spending for things like first-class air travel and a $40,000.00 secure phone booth in his office, Trump might be looking for excuses to fire him.

The signs are cropping up throughout the White House. When asked about Pruitt’s status Wednesday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it was “under review.” Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley was similarly non-committal saying that he “can’t speak to the future of Scott Pruitt.” It sounds very much like Trump’s people are bailing on Pruitt. They would not do that without permission. Nor would Fox News. So it would be interesting to find out if there were any communications between Trump and his State-run TV network that directed Henry to filet Pruitt. He has been meeting with Fox Newsers much more in recent weeks, which suggests that their already close relationship is getting even closer.

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

Donald Trump, Who Has No Time for TV, Thinks It’s ‘So Funny to Watch Fake News Networks’

Posted by on April 2, 2018 at 3:57 pm. 4 Comments :

The most anti-media president in the history of the country is once again attacking the free press. Donald Trump spent Monday morning posting racist tweets filled with lies about immigration and DACA, but that’s another story. In the midst of his tantrum he couldn’t help inserting a tweet reaffirming his aversion to the press and propping up a media enterprise that rivals Fox News for its sycophantic propagandizing.

Donald Trump

The tweet in question was utterly devoid of any factual information. It was wholly an effort to defend Sinclair Broadcasting, a right-wing tool of the administration and the GOP. Sinclair recently distributed a script to its nearly 200 stations nationwide that they forced their anchors to recite. And the folks at Deadspin put together a video collage of the groupthink editorial that went ultra-viral (video below). So of course Trump had to drop whatever he was doing (golfing? tweeting? Watching Fox News? Certainly not working) and come to Sinclair’s defense. He tweeted:

Yeah, it was hysterical. It’s always a laugh riot to see what happens when fascist media outlets order their employees to read Goebbels-inspired, Trump-approved doctrine against their will. Many of the Sinclair anchors were repulsed by the mandatory script, but fearing retribution, could only say so anonymously. One troubled reporter did however make his displeasure known in a tweet:

In case you didn’t notice, that’s a reporter from a local station in Los Angeles that’s owned by Fox News. Let that sink in. A Fox News reporter is disgusted by Sinclair for pushing biased garbage. That’s how low Sinclair has sunk with their latest homage to Dear Leader Trump. It isn’t exactly a tribute to the First Amendment. Or as comedian John Oliver says:

“Nothing says we value independent media like dozens of reporters forced to repeat the same message over and over again like members of a brainwashed cult.”

The President’s tweet may aim to support Sinclair’s journalistic integrity, but it’s actually additional proof that Sinclair is a mouthpiece for the administration. Any reputable news enterprise would find it distinctly uncomfortable to be hailed for their supplication to a political leader. That’s not their job. Real journalists are dedicated to covering government aggressively to root out corruption and self-dealing. Fox News has made a name for itself as the nation’s top Trump-fluffer and, consquently, isn’t taken seriously by their journalistic peers. Sinclair is now attempting to challenge Fox to see who adores the President more.

What’s peculiar about Trump’s tweet (besides everything about it) is that it indicates that he watches a significant amount of what he calls “fake” news. He explicitly says that watching CNN and NBC News is “funny” to him. But he still has time available to watch Sinclair broadcasts which he praises as “superior.” Which raises questions about his remarks earlier this year wherein he insisted that:

“Believe it or not, even when I’m in Washington or New York, I do not watch much television. People that don’t know me, they like to say I watch television — people with fake sources. You know, fake reporters, fake sources. But I don’t get to watch much television. Primarily because of documents. I’m reading documents. A lot.”

That contradicts what White House insiders told The New York Times. They say that Trump spends at least four hours a day watching TV, and sometimes as much as eight hours. The evidence of that is often demonstrated by Trump’s Twitter feed. It is full of instances where he’s tweeting about something that he just watched on Fox and Friends. Plus, he is in frequent communication with Fox News shills like Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro. And that’s not even counting the Fox yakkers who Trump has appointed to White House jobs.

UPDATE: Trump continued his tantrum on Tuesday with another unhinged tweet:

Says the Liar-In-Chief. Honest observers of the media know that the only fake news networks that “knowingly have a sick and biased AGENDA” are Fox News, Sinclair, and their ilk. But it’s typical of Trump to accuse others of what he and his pals are guilty.

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

For your viewing pleasure via Deadspin: How America’s largest local TV owner turned its news anchors into soldiers in Trump’s war on the media.

Fox News Turns on Donald Trump for the Worst Imaginable Reason

Posted by on March 24, 2018 at 2:12 pm. 5 Comments :

On Friday Donald Trump invited the press to an announcement that he was signing the spending bill just passed by the Republican controlled Congress. The President spent more time castigating the bill and his GOP comrades in Congress than he did explaining why he was bothering to sign it at all. It was clearly a distasteful burden that he was undertaking with great reluctance. And he isn’t the only one who felt that way.

Fox News Sean Hannity

Trump whined about having to sign a bill that was so chock-full of crap he didn’t like. Or more accurately, that it didn’t contain things that are even crappier. He said that he would never sign another bill like this one, and most Americans probably hope that’s true. Then he complained that Congress won’t give up more of their power by granting him a line-item veto. Of course, our idiot president doesn’t know that the Supreme Court ruled that unconstitutional twenty years ago.

The spectacle of Trump lambasting a bill as he was signing it is actually a rather good depiction of his pitiful proclivity for failure. Not only was he incapable of making the sort of deals that he constantly boasts would be so easy, he was admitting that Democrats beat him at every stage of this bill’s passage. If this is “winning” in his mind, let’s see more of it.

In addition to being bitterly unsatisfied with the bill, Trump also has to endure the scorn of his biggest fans – Fox News. There was a starkly atypical response by many of those who he usually relies on for blind, slobbering support. The entire primetime roster (and more) is angry that Trump signed this bill, and they said so on the air:

Sean Hannity: I personally wish the president vetoed this bill, made them stay in Washington. Make them keep their promises. What happened to the Republican party. Whatever happened to the party that believed in fiscal responsibility?

Tucker Carlson: We’re told we need this bill because of national security. But how secure is a nation that has no borders? Well about as secure as a political party that has no rationale for existing.

Laura Ingraham: It pains me to say this, but the president did have a choice. He could have called Congress back to town and make them pass a continuing resolution until his priorities were funded and we explain this mess to the American people.

Jesse Watters: This was a huge defeat for the President on a signature issue. It’s really, really bad. There’s no way to spin it.

Pete Hegseth: This is a swamp budget. A Mitch McConnell special. Democrats control the process. If Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are happy, the American people shouldn’t be.

[Late Addition] Jeanine Pirro: The omnibus bill that Republicans gave President Trump yesterday is a total betrayal of him and those who elected him.

The opposition to Trump’s approval of the spending bill was nearly unanimous among the Fox News regulars. But what makes this even more ridiculous is that they didn’t oppose the bill for what many would think were the obvious right-wing reasons. They didn’t complain about the 1.3 trillion dollar price tag. Or the expansion of the federal debt. Or the funding for Planned Parenthood. Or the additional sanctions on Russia. Or the many other budgetary increases for government agencies that Trump and Republicans have long promised to shut down.

Nope. What the Fox News critics are upset with is that Trump didn’t veto the bill due to its lack of funding for the border wall. They are actually livid that Trump didn’t keep his campaign promise to construct a ridiculous wall that would accomplish nothing. They would prefer that he had shut the government down until congress allocated funds for his precious wall. A wall that is opposed by the majority of Americans.

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

It’s actually pretty funny that the most fervent Trump-fluffers are hammering him over this stupidity. And you can bet that he is worried about it. He wouldn’t care if some experts in finance or economics were critical of his signing this bill. But if Fox and Friends and his pal Sean Hannity are slamming him for it, he’s gonna lose some sleep at Mar-A-Lago this weekend. And when he gets back to Washington it is a certainty that he will make some horrible decisions in an effort to regain their adulation. That is if he doesn’t have a stroke after watching Stormy Daniels on 60 Minutes.