Fearful Trump Pressures Fox News to Spread His ‘Big Lie’ Despite Billion Dollar Lawsuits

Posted by Mark NC on August 11, 2021 at 11:31 am. 2 Comments :

Desperation is setting in as Donald Trump comes to realize that his whining and tantrums are not getting through to anyone but his glassy-eyed cult disciples. Having been banished from much of social media, Trump resorts to releasing statements via email that are dutifully tweeted by his spokes-shill, Liz Harrington (who is violating Twitter’s rules against circumventing a ban).

For the past several months Trump has had to rely on the low-rated, glorified video blogs of Newsmax and One America News Network. Apparently they are not achieving the results Trump hoped for with regard to building his insurrection crusade and stuffing his pockets with cash of those he’s defrauded. Meanwhile, his alternative social media efforts have been predictably disappointing.

Trump doesn’t even have Fox News to lean on anymore, as the network has refrained from their prior practice of airing everything he did or said without interruption. And it certainly doesn’t help that Trump has been bashing the Fox News Ministry of Propaganda relentlessly.

Now Trump may be having second thoughts about his seething hostility toward Fox News. On Wednesday morning he released a statement that was virtually drenched with desperation and regret at having renounced his Fox friends. He wrote that…

“Fox doesn’t understand that it is missing a rating bonanza by not covering the 2020 Election Fraud, the Crime of the Century, which is being exposed throughout many states on a daily basis. They are also doing a disservice to our Country. People have turned them off!”

NEW!

"Fox doesn’t understand that it is missing a rating bonanza by not covering the 2020 Election Fraud, the Crime of the Century, which is being exposed throughout many states on a daily basis. They are also doing a disservice to our Country. People have turned them off!" pic.twitter.com/nvcclCl6Pp

— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) August 11, 2021

Let’s be clear: What Trump is really saying is that Fox News should be helping him to disseminate his “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him. But For Trump to criticize Fox News on the basis of ratings is laughable. Even though they have recently suffered massive declines over the past year (as have most television networks), they are still the top rated cable news network. And if running with the “Big Lie” would be such a “rating bonanza,” then why are Newsmax and OAN in the dumpster?

What’s more, Trump’s assertion that there is evidence of his preposterous claims of fraud “being exposed throughout many states on a daily basis,” is simply delusional. The only thing that is being exposed more on a daily basis is Trump’s treasonous efforts to stage a coup.

Trump may discover that Fox News is not going to be as resolutely supportive of his crackpottery, particularly with regard to voter fraud. They are currently being sued for $1.6 billion dollars by Dominion voting Systems for making unfounded allegations of tampering with the the election data. The lawyers at Fox News are so sensitive to their legal liabilities that they edited one of their own programs (Dan Bongino Unfiltered) to remove potentially defamatory content before posting it online.

Consequently, it seems unlikely that Fox is going to accede to Trump’s threats and start supporting the “Big Lie” narrative. They have too much at stake and know that the legal case against them is strong. So Trump is going to have to live with the miniscule coverage he’s getting from Newsmax and OAN (who, as of this week, are also being sued). And the thought of that is filling him with dread, because he knows that won’t be sufficient to spread his ludicrous propaganda. But he apparently doesn’t know that his feeble threats are not going to get him what he wants. His influence is waning as he spirals ever downward into insignificance.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Fox News Flagrantly Lies About an NSA Probe Into Alleged Surveillance of Tucker Carlson

Posted by Mark NC on August 10, 2021 at 5:24 pm. 3 Comments :

The continuing saga of Tucker Carlson’s Adventures in Spying and Lying has just dropped its latest episode. In the the previous episode Carlson accused the National Security Agency of “monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air.” Right. Because that’s something that the NSA would devote its scarce time and resources to, rather than the international matters to which its jurisdiction is limited.

Carlson’s source for this bombshell revelation was an anonymous “whistleblower” who provided no evidence nor explanation for why the NSA would be interested in Carlson. From the outset the NSA denied that Carlson had ever “been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA never had any plans to try to take his program off the air.”

A statement from NSA regarding recent allegations: pic.twitter.com/vduE6l6YWg

— NSA/CSS (@NSAGov) June 30, 2021

Shortly after Carlson’s initial disclosure of the alleged plot, he declared victory when an NSA review concluded that there was no evidence supporting his claim, but that his name might have been “picked up in third-party communications and his identity was unmasked.” Which is not at all what he originally said. It would not be surprising if foreign operatives mentioned Carlson, considering his popularity with totalitarian dictators. But that is not the same as being a target of an investigation with the purpose of getting his show canceled.

The new wrinkle in this melodrama is that the NSA’s inspector General is reportedly looking into the matter. According to CBS News…

“Robert Storch, the agency’s inspector general, said his office has begun ‘examining NSA’s compliance with applicable legal authorities and Agency policies and procedures regarding collection, analysis, reporting, and dissemination activities, including unmasking procedures, and whether any such actions were based upon improper considerations.’

“While Storch did not explicitly name Carlson, the official familiar with the matter confirmed the host’s allegations were the focus of the review.”

This is a foreseeable and appropriate review under the circumstances. There is nothing especially alarming about it. Agencies like this are expected to keep close tabs on their operations and to respond to questions as they arise. However, Fox News has jumped to the most extreme conclusions in a statement praising the agency for things it isn’t doing:

“We are gratified to learn the NSA’s egregious surveillance of Tucker Carlson will now be independently investigated, As we have said, for the NSA to unmask Tucker Carlson or any journalist attempting to secure a newsworthy interview is entirely unacceptable and raises serious questions about their activities as well as their original denial, which was wildly misleading.”

There’s so much wrong with this statement that it requires a deeper examination. First of all, this is not an investigation of “the NSA’s egregious surveillance of Tucker Carlson.” The NSA has not found any evidence of “egregious” activity or any “surveillance” of Carlson at all. Secondly, contrary to Fox’s assertion, there is no evidence that Carlson was unmasked. In fact, the first and only disclosure of his name came from Carlson himself when he first reported his false version of the story on his program.

Finally, it is downright hysterical that Fox News would refer to Carlson as a “journalist.” This is the same guy that Fox’s lawyers argued in court – successfully – could not be guilty of defamation because no reasonable person would believe anything he says. And since there has been no proof provided regarding the purpose of any tangential appearance of Carlson’s name in an NSA report, there is no way to assume that it involved a “newsworthy interview.”

The statement by Fox News was almost entirely comprised of flagrant falsehoods. So it’s ironic that Fox is accusing the NSA of being “wildly misleading”? The truth is that Fox News is doing just what they were created to do: Tell lies about anything and everything in order to advance their ultra-rightist agenda. And this sensationalized reaction to the NSA’s routine review process just affirms that Fox News isn’t really news at all.

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

HUH? On Fox News Trump Asks ‘Imagine If There Was Coronavirus When I Was President’

Posted by Mark NC on August 8, 2021 at 11:52 am. 9 Comments :

For most of his time in the White House Donald Trump’s mental acuity was questioned. And for good reason. Despite his own hysterical references to himself as a “stable genius,” Trump also believed that stealth fighters are actually invisible, that windmills cause cancer, that we should nuke hurricanes, that George Washington’s Army took over airports, and that injecting bleach will cure COVID. It’s not exactly a record of cognitive fitness.

In his post-presidency, Trump has not fared any better. And on Saturday night he displayed a deficiency of cerebral functioning that should trigger alarm among his medical caregivers. Trump called into Fox News for a tongue-bathing “interview” by the ultra-bombastic Dan Bongino, a pundit whose experience consists of having been an NYPD officer, a three time loser for Congress, and a big mouth with which to shout down anyone who disagrees with him.

During the doting discussion Bongino sought Trump’s views on COVID mask mandates. “You didn’t have as much information when you got in office,” Bongino softballed. “It was a new virus, obviously. Where do you stand on these mandates?” Setting aside the fact that Trump knew very well the deadly severity of the coronavirus early on, he nevertheless replied with an incoherent jumble of nonsense:

“Could you imagine if I were president right now and we had this massive attack from the coronavirus – you know, now they like to call it, they have new names and they have other new names – but it’s exactly what we had, we had the same thing. If that were me, they would say ‘what a horrible thing, what a horrible job.’ I don’t ever hear that. And these are numbers in some cases that are equivalent to what it was, but we don’t hear that.”

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1424195207088676865

Does Trump really think that people need to “imagine” what it would have been like if there were pandemic while he was in office? The obituaries of more than 600,000 Americans might serve as a grim reminder. And the people did say “what a horrible job.” Then they voted him out of office by a seven million vote margin that, in his reality-averse stupor, he still refuses to acknowledge.

However, Trump actually contradicted himself in the same comment. He began by suggesting that it required imagination to conceive of a viral pandemic during his term. Then follows that by conceding that it was “exactly what we had.” So which was it? And leave out the babbling about different names.

Of course, neither Trump nor Bongino recognize that the current wave of COVID is the result of the new Delta variant. Nor do they acknowledge that the horrendous surge is mainly among the unvaccinated, whose resistance has largely been driven by Trump and Fox News. If they wanted to mitigate the harm, they could, but they obviously don’t want to.

This is the reprehensible level of discourse exhibited by Trump and his fluffers on Fox News. And yet, Trump is still regarded as the de facto leader of the Republican Party. Which tells you everything you need to know about the GOP, Fox News and Trump.

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

CNN’s Jim Acosta Fractures Fox News Fascist Fanboy and Trump-Fluffer, Tucker Carlson

Posted by Mark NC on August 7, 2021 at 4:56 pm. 3 Comments :

This past week Fox News Senior White Nationalist, Tucker Carlson, made a pilgrimage to Hungary to curtsy obediently before its self-proclaimed dictator, Viktor Orban. Carlson displayed his sickly adoration as he performed PR duties for Orban’s oppressive regime. It was a shameful exercise in subservience to a notorious totalitarian strongman.

On Saturday, CNN’s Jim Acosta reported on Carlson’s trek to the totalitarian dystopia with some poignant clips of Carlson’s commentaries while he was there. Acosta and his guests. Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Oliver Darcy, had some cogent insights, but it was Carlson’s own words that tell the story of his noxious anti-democratic and even anti-American obsessions. The entire video clip of the segment is posted below, but what follows are Carlson’s chilling remarks and pro fascist views.

Acosta introduced the first clip saying that “The Soviet Union used to use gullible foreigners to spread their propaganda, but this seems different. Tucker knows exactly what he’s doing.” And Carlson said that…

“if you care about western civilization and democracy and family, and the ferocious assault on all three of those things by the leaders of our global institutions, you should know what is happening here right now. In the face of great international pressure – they called him all kinds of names, the EU called what he was doing illegal – but he did it anyway. He built a wall. We said to a Hungarian minister who was standing there, ‘It’s hard to believe that that’s your policy. When you come here illegally you’re just escorted out politely?’ And he said quote, ‘We’re a serious country.’ How embarrassing to be an American in a conversation like that.”

Darcy pointed out how outraged Carlson and the rest of right-wing America would be if Michelle Obama, for instance, had gone abroad and told an authoritarian dictator that she was embarrassed to be an American. But Carlson has no problem exhibiting his shame. Nor does he mind portraying Hungary as “democratic,” despite the fact that Orban has effectively assumed total control for life. Acosta then introduces another clip of Carlson praising the state controlled media of Hungary…

“Let’s say you lived in a big American city and you decided to loudly and publicly attack Joe Biden’s policies. His policies on immigration or COVID or transgender athletes. If you kept talking like that you would likely be silenced by Joe Biden’s allies in Silicon Valley. If you kept it up you might very well have to hire armed body guards. That’s common in the U.S. Ask around. But it’s unknown in Hungary. Opposition leaders here don’t worry that they will be hurt for their opinions.”

WTF? Carlson is actually attacking Joe Biden’s policies in these clips. And his confederates on Fox News do so every hour of every day. Not only have they not been silenced, they are the number one rated cable news network. As for the need for Hungarian critics to hire body guards, Carlson is partly correct. There aren’t any government critics who need to do that. But only because there aren’t any government critics allowed. As Ben-Ghiat noted, over 500 media media outlets “donated” their assets to a foundation run by Orban’s allies. There could never be a Fox News taking shots at the government the way they do in the U.S. Carlson is deliberately covering that up. But then he goes off on this fantasy rant…

“‘Oh, but he’s a fascist,’ scream people who are happy to imprison non-violent political protesters in Washington. ‘Oh, there’s no press freedom,’ say people who support the overwhelming censorship in the American media. ‘He’s bad!’ They haven’t accused him rigging elections yet. Maybe that’s too much even for them.”

What Carlson is referring to as political prisoners are the insurrectionists who attacked Congress on January 6th. He regards them as non-violent, despite their having broken through doors and windows, injured more than 100 police officers, and chanted their intentions to kill Nancy Pelosi and hang Mike Pence.

Furthermore, you have to wonder what Carlson is talking about when he says that there is “overwhelming censorship in the American media.” If that were true, he wouldn’t be able to say it on a highly viewed television network. Additionally, Carlson mocks those who point out that Hungary does not have a free press. He might want to refer to the study by Reporters Without Borders as reported by Voice of America…

“A press watchdog group, Reporters Without Borders, named 37 world leaders Monday as media ‘predators’ who ‘crack down massively’ on press freedom, including for the first time a Western European leader, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. […] The watchdog group said oligarchs close to Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party controls more than 80% of the media in the country, while private media is discriminated against and characterized as publishing ‘fake news.'”

Acosta closed by saying of Carlson’s Hungarian PR junket that “It’s very concerning. And I wonder where he’s going next. Maybe to Moscow to do an infomercial for Vladimir Putin. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.” Which pretty much says it all. Except that Tucker Carlson is an unpatriotic, anti-American, traitor to his country and no decent network would keep him on the air. Which explains why he’s on Fox News.

Discussing @TuckerCarlson's week-long infomercial for Hungary's authoritarian leader with @ruthbenghiat and @Acosta. pic.twitter.com/tujyX6waBB

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) August 7, 2021

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

Trump Does a Great Job of Proving How Pitifully Stupid He and His Cult Followers Are

Posted by Mark NC on August 7, 2021 at 12:25 pm. 1 Comments :

No one has ever described Donald Trump as any kind of a genius (except for Trump himself) After all, the guy who “loves the poorly educated” also believes that stealth fighters are actually invisible, that windmills cause cancer, that we should nuke hurricanes, that George Washington’s Army took over airports, and that injecting bleach will cure COVID.

Unfortunately, Trump clearly isn’t satisfied resting on his laurels of epic idiocy. His relentless and dangerous crusade to subvert democracy by promulgating the “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and/or “stolen” is producing an avalanche of new and more profoundly stupid examples of his mental infirmity.

On Saturday morning Trump’s spokes-shill, Liz Harrington, posted another of his alt-tweets (which is a flagrant violation of their terms of service and is linked here if you want to report it). In this episode of his sore loser lament Trump displayed a new low for his failing cognitive capacity. He whined that…

“Wisconsin has just canceled 205,000 voter registrations because they say they could not find the voters. Why did they wait until AFTER the election? Would this mean that we would have won Wisconsin? Congratulations!”

Is this for real, or an SNL sketch? Does Trump actually believe that these 205,000 canceled registrations could have led to his victory? Is it possible that he doesn’t know – and that no one in his camp has told him – that these are registrations for people who have not voted for at least four years? And if they haven’t voted, then they certainly didn’t vote for him or Biden or anyone else. And since they didn’t vote, it wouldn’t make any difference if the purge took place before or after the election. According to the Wisconsin Elections Commission…

“Deactivating voter registrations in Wisconsin is a routine practice, required by law every two years, as part of the state’s voter record maintenance. […] The effort identifies individuals who have not voted in the previous four years and deactivates their registrations unless they want to remain on voter rolls. A spokesperson for the commission told The Hill that none of the voters removed from rolls cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election.”

This is the level of foolishness and dishonesty that pervades every claim that Trump has made regarding the election. In another recent harangue, Trump claimed that “There is massive and unconditional evidence that the election was shattered with fraud and irregularities at a level that our Country has never seen before.” But in his tedious and lengthy tirade he didn’t bother to cite a single example.

What’s more, Trump apparently doesn’t believe his own fraud claims. We know this because when he tried to pressure the Justice Department to back him up, he didn’t ask them to find or disclose any evidence of fraud. He asked them to “just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen.”

As painfully stupid as Trump’s statements are about the election (and pretty much everything else), we cannot ignore the fact that his disciples will believe every word of his lunatic rants. That’s the nature of cult, wherein Dear Leader is always right and everyone else is lying to you. It’s a closed loop of blind devotion that fills the followers’ gaping psychological and emotional void, as well as the leader’s ego and bank account. And worst of all, it has the potential to lead more and greater violence. It already has done so.

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

Newt Gingrich Visits Fox News to Peddle the Overtly Racist ‘White Replacement Theory’

Posted by Mark NC on August 4, 2021 at 2:51 pm. 5 Comments :

Fox News has officially become the White Nationalist Network of America. Their efforts on behalf of blatantly racist philosophies and organizations makes it impossible to deny their close association and aligned goals. No better example exists than the fact that this week Fox’s top rated program host, Tucker Carlson, is in Hungary embracing their abhorrently bigoted and tyrannical Prime Minister, Viktor Orban.

Back at home, Fox News Senior Trump-fluffer Maria Bartiromo, invited Newt Gingrich to pontificate on his noxious notions of anti-immigrant hatred and xenophobia. Gingrich took the opportunity to wholly embrace the staunchly racist “white replacement theory” that Carlson is so fond of promoting. The theory proposes that Democrats are “importing” Mexicans to “replace” what conservatives regard as “traditional” Americans. Never mind that all Americans are immigrants unless they are descended from the Indigenous population that was here prior to the European invasion.

But from Gingrich’s supremacist perspective, it’s the refugees from Central America who are the invaders. He was asked by Bartiromo about a Wall Street Journal op-ed alleging that President Biden was neglecting illegal immigration. He replied by maligning the refugees, saying that…

“They don’t come all the way across Mexico for the purpose of visiting for two days. They want to be in America. And I think what’s hard for most of us to accept, is that the anti-American left would love to drown traditional classic Americans with as many people as they can who know nothing of American history, nothing of American tradition, nothing of the rule of law.

“I think that – if you go and you look at the radical left, this is their ideal model is to get rid of the rest of us because we believe in George Washington or we believe in the Constitution, and you see this behavior over and over again.”

Newt Gingrich is the latest on Fox to go full great replacement theory: The left is bringing immigrants to the United States “to get rid of the rest of us” (ht @EricKleefeld) pic.twitter.com/C0We3CgUKH

— John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) August 4, 2021

There’s a lot of loathing stuffed into that commentary. Let’s begin with Gingrich trivializing the reasons for immigrants coming to America. They are fleeing poverty and violence in their own countries. This has nothing to with with vacations or relocating to sunnier climes.

Gingrich’s rant refers to “the anti-American” and “radical left” in order to deflect from the reality that it is ultra-rightists like him who are sullying the proud tradition of American diversity that was built on immigration. Gingrich also uses phrases like “drown traditional classic Americans” to deliberately invoke violence and foment fear.

When Gingrich complains about people who “know nothing of American history, nothing of American tradition, nothing of the rule of law,” he doesn’t realize that he’s talking mostly about “the uneducated” who Donald Trump professes to love, because without them he’d have no one to attend his cult rallies or shower him with blind adulation. After all, no one is more dismissive of American laws than Trump himself.

Finally, Gingrich fires the coup de grâce with his frightening assertion that Democrats are plotting to “get rid of the rest of us.” It’s a statement that is filled with ignorance and intended to incite hostilities by those who are stupid enough to believe any of this malarkey. But that’s the purpose of segments like this on Fox News. They are unabashedly devoted to inciting hatred and division in order to maintain power for white supremacists like Gingrich and Trump.

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

Fox News Fascinista, Tucker Carlson, Cozies Up to Hungary’s Authoritarian PM Orban

Posted by Mark NC on August 3, 2021 at 2:12 pm. 4 Comments :

The saga of Fox News senior White Nationalist, Tucker Carlson, continues to sink lower into the muck with every new day. Apparently it isn’t enough that he has promulgated paranoid delusions that the National Security Agency (NSA) is spying on him? Or he has spread baseless accusations that the FBI orchestrated the January 6th insurrection? Or he has claimed that health authorities know that vaccines don’t work and they aren’t telling you? Or he has of “spewed the overtly racist white replacement theory.”

This week Carlson is broadcasting his program from Hungary, a country that has been on a rapid path to totalitarianism. Carlson is there to speak at an ultra-rightist conference that advocates a xenophobic agenda and trains young conservatives who will be dispatched throughout the European Union. According to the Daily Beast…

“Tucker Carlson will deliver a speech, appropriately titled ‘The World According to Tucker Carlson,’ this coming Saturday at MCC Feszt, a far-right conference in Budapest that is backed by Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orban.” […]

“Earlier this year, The New York Times reported that Orban granted $1.7 billion—or about one percent of Hungary’s GDP—to Mathias Corvinus Collegium, or MCC, with the aim of training a new generation of conservative elite across Europe.” […]

“According to Open Secrets investigative researcher Anna Massoglia, Hungary paid a D.C. lobbying firm $265,000 in 2019, in part to arrange an interview on Carlson’s Fox News show.”

So Carlson was lobbied at great expense to cozy up to Hungary’s nascent dictator, Orban, and to become a featured speaker at an event that Orban paid for with his government’s funds. That is less surprising when you know that Carlson shares much of the same philosophies with Orban. Media Maters reported how Orban has implemented the same anti-immigrant policies that Carlson regularly promotes on his Fox News program. And the targets of Orban’s hostility and lies are often the same as those that Carlson and Fox News go after:

“Instead of helping the native population to have more children, the Hungarian government, they say, should import a replacement population from the Third World. That’s the George Soros solution. But Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has a different idea. Instead of abandoning Hungary’s young people to the hard-edge libertarianism of Soros and the Clinton Foundation, Orbán has decided to affirmatively help Hungarian families grow.”

What’s more, according to Human Rights Watch, Hungary’s parliament gave Orban rights that allow him to rule “with unlimited power for an indefinite time.” He has the power now to strike down and/or implement laws by decree. And democratic elections have been suspended. And if that isn’t bad enough, Orban was recently discovered to have been using spyware on the media in his country. A man after Trump’s diseased heart.

Under these circumstances, Carlson’s trip to Hungary says a lot about where he stands with regard to the constitutional principles and liberties of the United States. He is fully on board with the sort of tyrannical aspirations of Donald Trump, who idolizes strongman dictators like Orban, Putin, Xi, and Kim.

More evidence of Trump’s efforts to stage a violent coup are uncovered on a seemingly daily basis. He recently claimed for himself the exclusive “right to destroy America.” And his crackpot cult followers believe that Trump’s January 6th insurrectionists were “defending freedom.” So naturally Carlson would venture to Hungary to support a like-minded fascist wannabe, and bring those ideas to America, and his Fox News viewers. It’s just the next step toward the white nationalist dystopia he dreams about.

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

Here’s Proof that Fox News Could Save Thousands of Lives If They Wanted To – They Don’t

Posted by Mark NC on August 2, 2021 at 10:43 am. 7 Comments :

The year long determination of Fox News to convince their viewers that COVID-19 isn’t anything to worry about has resulted in the coronavirus officially becoming the Pandemic of Fox News. They are, of course, parroting the purposeful lies of Donald Trump who repeatedly told his cult followers that it was either a hoax, a Democratic plot against him, or a piffling malady that is no more serious than the common flu. And he’s still doing it.

Never mind that Trump has known from the start how deadly it is. His deliberate dishonesty fueled the aversion of his disciples to the vaccines that he simultaneously tried to take credit for. And Fox News backed him up all the way.

As a result, the cable news network that one watches is one of the best indicators of whether or not the viewer has been vaccinated. The percentage of Fox News viewers who have received the vaccine is 21 points lower than viewers of CNN or MSNBC. Fox’s top program hosts are staunch opponents of vaccinations that they regard as attempts by the government to control the population (by keeping them alive?).

Tucker Carlson tops the list with his frequent anti-vaccine messaging, such as his paranoia drenched claim that vaccines don’t work and “they” aren’t telling you. Likewise, Sean Hannity has sowed vaccine doubts by pretending to support the science, even while insisting that no one should listen to him. Which is actually pretty good advice.

However, if Fox News was interested in the welfare of the American people, they could have a profound impact on mitigating the suffering and fatalities of the pandemic. That impact was demonstrated recently when Tractor Supply posted a sign next to a horse dewormer they sell. The sign reads…

“A number of products we carry, including select dewormers and injectables, contain the anti-parasite active ingredient Ivermectin. Despite media report that Ivermectin could potentially be used to treat people with COVID-19, these products are not safe or approved for human use, and could cause severe personal injury or death.”

Farm stores are selling out of the horse worm drug, Ivermectin, after Fox News promoted it as a miracle COVID cure… many people have already died after taking it due to liver toxicity

(the FDA says do NOT under any circumstances take unapproved drugs outside of clinical trials) pic.twitter.com/RJ9DsJs6vF

— LeGate (@williamlegate) August 1, 2021

Both Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham have promoted the use of Ivermectin based on studies that have been discredit and retracted. Carlson “repeatedly downplayed the effectiveness of COVID vaccines while touting Ivermectin on shows in June and July.” And Ingraham hosted a dubious “expert” whose advocacy of the dewormer only served to further mislead Fox’s viewers and put their health and lives at risk.

So Trump’s MAGA devotees refuse to take recommended vaccines based on the fear mongering and admitted ignorance of Fox News pundits. They say that they’re afraid of what the vaccines might contain (microchips? Fetuses?) and what potential harm they might cause. None of which has been validated. But they will rush out to their local farm supply store to buy and consume a horse dewormer that is known to be toxic to humans?

If nothing else, this proves that Fox News has a frighteningly powerful impact on their viewers and influences what they believe and do. How many other alleged “news” purveyors could get their audience to reject medicine and swallow poison instead? Now imagine if Fox News would tell them to get vaccinated. Imagine if they reported the extraordinarily high efficacy and safety of the vaccines and how reliably they reduced the incidence of severe illness, hospitalization, and death.

The result of Fox News – and Trump for that matter – enthusiastically promoting the benefits of being vaccinated could save tens of thousands of lives. It could prevent further viral variants from developing that have to potential to defeat the protection that the current vaccines provide. And that would save even more lives among the millions who have already been vaccinated.

But in order for that to happen, Fox News would have to care about the welfare of the American people. They have to put people’s health above their own political and financial interests. In other words, don’t hold your breath. Fox News – and Trump – cannot be relied upon to do the responsible and ethical thing when they can exploit people’s suffering to advance their agenda of partisanship and greed. That’s been their mission from their inception, and it isn’t going to change now.

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

Trump is Fired Up Over ‘Massive Evidence’ of Election Fraud that Doesn’t Actually Exist

Posted by Mark NC on August 1, 2021 at 5:24 pm. 5 Comments :

The madness of Donald Trump has not subsided in the slightest amount since his humiliating loss to Joe Biden eight months ago. In fact, he has gotten perceivably worse. In recent days he has claimed for himself the exclusive “right” to destroy America. He has admitted to pressuring the Department of Justice to “Just Say the Election Was Corrupt.” He has doubled down on his deadly, sociopathic, pro-COVID agenda.

On Sunday afternoon Trump took another step off the ledge of sanity. In another of his public whine-fests tweeted by his spokes-shill, Liz Harrington (a flagrant violation of Twitter’s Terms of Service that prohibit circumventing a ban), Trump reiterated the “Big Lie” that he has been peddling to his dimwitted cult disciples for the past several months. His new claim combines his fantasy fiction about the 2020 election with his seething hatred for the free press. What follows is an annotated transcript of his lunacy marinated message (linked here for those who wish to report it).

“The New York Times, and others, always insert a clause into their stories, ‘WITHOUT EVIDENCE, that the election was decided fraudulently.’ As usual, this is FAKE NEWS.”
Appending the phrase “without evidence” is not a “clause.” It’s a statement of fact. Trump and his minions lost more than sixty court cases challenging the election due to the total absence of any supporting evidence.

“There is massive and unconditional evidence that the election was shattered with fraud and irregularities at a level that our Country has never seen before. Much of it is already public, and a great deal more is coming out in the very near future. Every time you read a statement that there is ‘no evidence of election fraud,’ about the 2020 election scam, just attribute that statement to a crooked and collusive media (they work closely together with the Radical Left Democrats) that will do anything to hide the real facts of this election fiasco.”
It is amazing how this alleged evidence is “massive” and “unconditional” (whatever that means), and occurs “at a level that our Country has never seen before,” but he can’t cite a single example of any of it. However, he instructs his devotees on how to process the fact that there isn’t any proof by simply attributing it to the “crooked” media. In other words, don’t believe lying eyes. If he really wants people to accept his claims of fraud, why doesn’t he just present some proof of it?

“After seeing the irrefutable evidence from numerous states, others are talking about doing deep forensic audits. This election was a scam and the Lamestream Media is doing everything in their power not to allow the people to see or read about what really took place. We no longer have a free and open media (they don’t cover the truth), but the word is getting out stronger than ever before.”
Once again, it is easy to refute evidence that doesn’t exist in reality. And the only states that are talking about doing audits are those with Republican legislatures who have bought into Trump’s lies. If Trump has a problem with the media not covering his alleged evidence, why doesn’t he produce it? Perhaps because it only exists in his twisted imagination?

“Even the Justice Department has no interest in the crooked and corrupt 2020 Presidential Election. They are only interested in hurting those who want to reveal how totally dishonest it was. The Justice Department should be looking at the people who rigged the election, not the Patriots of our Country who are seeking to find how our Nation was defrauded.”
For the record, Trump’s own Justice Department, with dependable sycophants like Attorney Genuflect Bill Barr, refused to validate his election fraud ranting. Barr’s opinions were eventually revealed in Jonathan Karl’s new book, Betrayal, where Barr is quoted as saying that “My suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bullsh**.” That, of course, triggered a Trumpian temper tantrum.

“We must also look to the future and fight for State Legislatures to reform their elections so that this will NEVER happen again. In the end, truth will WIN!”
Can’t really argue with that. Although, in Trump’s mind he’s actually proposing election “reforms” that suppress the vote, and “truths” that are flagrant distortions of reality that fit his delusional, narcissistic psychoses.

And there you have it. Trump’s tedious tirade about unprecedented levels of election fraud that doesn’t contain a single example. And yet, somehow his cult followers eat this up with a side of fries. It’s both pitiful and frightening that this can occur in a modern democratic society. We can only hope that spell wears off before the damage done is irreversible.

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

Sen. Collins Lets Slip that ‘There Were Many Communications with Trump’ on January 6th

Posted by Mark NC on August 1, 2021 at 11:37 am. 1 Comments :

The investigations into Donald Trump’s culpability for the riots in Washington, D.C., on January 6th have barely just begun. So far there has been a one hearing that featured four law enforcement officers who were assaulted by Trump’s Insurrection Brigades. Naturally, Fox News immediately set out to malign the officers.

There is still much be learned as the investigation continues. The documentary and testimonial evidence is growing by the day. In that regard, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine helpfully added herself to the list of witnesses. On CNN’s State of the Union, Collins was questioned by host Jake Tapper about the House Select Committee that is probing the Trump-incited mob violence that sought to disrupt Congress from carrying out its constitutional duty to certify the election.

Collins told Tapper said that she “fought very hard” for an independent, bipartisan, 9/11-style commission to investigate the January 6th insurrection. But she failed to note that it was her Republican Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, whose opposition killed it. Then she goes on to complain about the Select Committee not being bipartisan, despite Speaker Nancy Pelosi placing two Republicans on the panel. It was GOP House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, who refused to seat three other Republicans.

Tapper pointed out that two of McCarthy’s GOP picks for the Committee, Jim Banks and Jim Jordan, were “election liars,” and Jordan is likely to be called as a witness. To which Collins replied that, “There were many communications with [then] president Trump that day.”

https://twitter.com/JanNWolfe/status/1421831094656282625

Really? Who would that be? We know about Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan who, by their own admissions, spoke with Trump. Although both are declining to reveal the substance of their conversations. But if there were “many” others, then maybe Collins needs to be subpoenaed as a witness to disclose what she knows about those members of Congress. Were they calling Trump to plead with him to call off his insurrectionist brigades? Were they calling to plot strategy for the attempted coup after the assault on Congress?

These questions must be answered. And now Collins has woven herself into the investigation as a material witness. We know that Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to subvert democracy. It is imperative that he be held accountable to restore faith in the American experiment. But all of those who were complicit in the domestic terrorism that Trump incited must also be held accountable. Including members of Congress who aided and abetted Trump’s treason.

Consequently, Collins must now be required to disclose what she knows, under oath, before the Committee. The seriousness of the crimes committed by Trump cannot be overstated. He was recently described as a war criminal by Carl Bernstein. And his accomplices must not be allowed to escape responsibility.

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

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