WOW: Fox News Staff Are ‘Embarrassed’ By Their Network’s Coverage of Russia and Trump

The coverage by Fox News of Donald Trump has been a comically inept circus of sucking up and deflection. That’s something that any objective person would recognize after watching for a minute or two. The network’s hosts and contributors do nothing but make excuses for Trump and find new reasons to criticize Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or any of a myriad of progressive people or policies they reflexively hate.

Fox News Donald Trump

While most Americans can see through the bullshit on Fox News, it would be fair to assume that the people at Fox either didn’t see it or didn’t care. But a new report from CNN has blown that assumption wide open. Media correspondent Oliver Darcy has contacts at Fox News who have been confiding in him. And what they have to say is startling. Darcy’s article begins by noting that:

“Some employees at Fox News were left embarrassed and humiliated by their network’s coverage of the latest revelations in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling.”

From there the article delivers some choice quotes from anonymous Foxies. For instance:

“I’m watching now and screaming. I want to quit.”

“It is another blow to journalists at Fox who come in every day wanting to cover the news in a fair and objective way.”

“Fox feels like an extension of the Trump White House.”

“This kind of coverage does the viewer a huge disservice and further divides the country.”

“That segment on Outnumbered [questioning Mueller’s integrity] was absurd and deserves all the scorn it can get.”

It was “laughable seeing Hannity and [Laura] Ingraham tripping over themselves saying [Mueller’s team has] found nothing thus far.”

“It’s an embarrassment. Frankly, there are shows on our network that are backing the President at all costs, and it’s that short term strategy that undermines the good work being done by others.”

There is some small comfort knowing that there are people on the inside at Fox News who feel this way. On the other hand, it’s hard to have much sympathy for them if they continue to work there without telling off the cretins who are disseminating so much hatred and lies. At least we can be grateful that CNN managed to get them to confess their humiliation. Baby steps.

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

A Million Plus Sign Petition to Impeach Donald Trump as His Polling Hits Record Lows

The presidency of Donald Trump has been a disaster from day one. He has never had a majority of the people supporting him since his inauguration. Even before that, he lost the popular vote by about three million voters who preferred Hillary Clinton. His policies on healthcare, immigration, taxes, trade, climate change, and more, are all underwater. But it’s one thing to be unpopular and another to have most people favor impeachment.

Donald Trump

With the indictments of his campaign associates, Trump’s approval rating is bound to fall even more. The most recent surveys do not reflect this breaking news. It’s fair to say that choosing staffers who get arrested for “conspiring against the United States,” and lying to the FBI, will not boost one’s standing in the polls. Currently he has marked new lows on polls by Fox News (38%), NBC/Wall Street Journal (38%), and Gallup (33%).

That assumption was borne out by the response to a recent campaign by billionaire financier and activist, Tom Steyer. He recently launched a website and petition drive based on the “Need to Impeach” Trump for violations of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, obstruction of justice, and other high crimes and misdemeanors. And in less than ten days the petition has been signed by more than a million concerned and patriotic Americans. That’s an astonishing response to the failure of a president who hasn’t completed his first year in office.

This isn’t the first indication of Trump’s weakness as president. On the White House’s own petition site there is one that seeks Trump’s resignation. It has over 137,000 signatures to date. The website promises that all petitions getting over 100,000 signatures would receive a response from the President. It’s been more than seven months since this petition hit that goal, but there’s still no presidential reply. On a separate matter, a petition calling for Trump to release his tax returns has more signatures than any other petition on the site (1,104,746). Trump has ignored this one as well.

In addition to Steyer’s impeachment petition, a poll was just released by Public Policy Polling that asked whether Trump should be impeached. Forty-nine percent said that they support his impeachment. According to the pollsters:

“PPP’s newest national poll finds a record level of support for impeaching Donald Trump. 49% of voters support impeaching him, to 41% who are opposed to doing so. This marks the 6th month in a row we’ve found a plurality of voters in favor of impeaching Trump, and it’s the closest we’ve found to a majority.”

Perhaps even more painful for Trump are the results of questions addressing who people trusted more: Trump or the media. For all six news operations included in the poll, Trump lost by wide margins.

Media Trump
ABC 54 36
CBS 54 36
NBC 54 36
NY Times 54 37
CNN 52 37
Wash Post 52 37

Trump’s tedious and dangerous attacks on the press and the First Amendment have had little effect on the public. Although he has managed to divide his Deplorables from the rest of the American family. And now, as special counsel Robert Mueller continues his investigation, Trump and his cult followers are likely to drift further into the lunatic abyss. There are reports that he is becoming unglued as legal walls close in around him. All of that could make him even more dangerous than ever. And that, of course, makes impeachment all the more justified and necessary before it’s too late.

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

Fox News Launch Party for Laura Ingraham Show Draws Ivanka Trump and Lots of GOP Suck-Ups

Monday night Fox News will premiere a new primetime program featuring ultra-rightist pundit, and radio talker, Laura Ingraham. She is the latest in Fox’s schedule shake up resulting from the terminations of Bill O’Reilly and Eric Bolling. They were jettisoned after multiple allegations of sexual harassment and abuse. Fox News also lost Megyn Kelly, who quit in part due to harassment from O’Reilly and former CEO Roger Ailes.

Rupert Murdoch Laura Ingraham

Fox News chairman Rupert Murdoch threw a party for Ingraham last week to celebrate the show’s pending debut. The guest list says a lot about what sort of program Ingraham will host, and about Fox News in general. On the Twenty-First Century Fox blog a post described the soiree saying:

“In addition to Rupert, host Laura Ingraham and some of her closest family and friends joined more than 40 members of Congress to celebrate the launch of the series. Special guests included Ivanka Trump, Sen. Roger Wicker and wife Gayle, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Orrin Hatch, Sen. Todd Young, Sen. Richard Burr, Rep. Bill Flores, Rep. Bill Johnson, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Rep. Virginia Foxx, and Rep. Scott Taylor.”

So the President’s daughter, and senior advisor, showed up to celebrate with Ingraham. She was joined by a phalanx of exclusively Republican members of Congress. Some of whom are close allies of Trump and his administration. In addition, Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul were sighted at the exclusive affair. These are just the sort of people who will likely be guests on the program in the weeks ahead. That makes parties like these wholly inappropriate for anyone pretending to practice journalism. The chumminess of these politicians and the program hosts at Fox News destroys any pretense of independence. And the absence of any Democratic guests put to rest any notion that Ingraham’s show will be “fair and balanced” (a slogan that Fox has retired).

Of course, Fox News has never been known as an impartial player in the punditry business. The primetime lineup that Ingraham is joining also features Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. The three of them will be the most sycophantic flock of Trump fluffers ever assembled on television. It’s a three hour block of non-stop GOP propaganda and lies. They have all demonstrated a devotion to the President that borders on cult worship. Ingraham herself was briefly considered for a post in the administration as chief media basher and BS disseminator communications director.

It is, therefore, more accurate than ever to describe Fox News as State-Run TV. It’s purpose is to advance the conservative agenda and to defend Trump from any and all criticism. Ingraham has already announced that she will be interviewing Trump in the near future. That would make it his twentieth interview for Fox News. For perspective, the news entity next on that list is the New York Times with only four interviews. And if Ingraham’s sit down is anything like the others on Fox it will only be good for laugh. See this compilation of the network’s suck-ups:

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

Donald Trump is in Full-Panic Mode Ahead of Mueller’s Monday Indictment Announcement

Like a lousy poker player, Donald Trump has a “tell” that broadcasts his innermost thoughts to anyone paying attention. Whenever he’s worried, or someone has dared to criticize him, he lashes out on Twitter. His thoroughly predictable routine is to focus intently on whatever is sticking in his craw at the moment. Everything else will be ignored, even pertinent matters like hurricane relief or the deaths of American soldiers.

Donald Trump Robert Mueller

And so it was Sunday morning with an especially protracted tweetstorm by the President. This Twitter tantrum revolved around Friday’s announcement that a Grand Jury convened by special counsel Robert Mueller is about to issue indictments. While there was no indication of the targets or the charges, it’s clear that it has spooked Trump. Consequently, he unleashed a stream of bile that exposes his own worst fears. And even though he posted them as a fractured run-on sentence, let’s address each one in sequence:


In fact, only a few ultra-rightist Republicans have bothered to comment on this. Most likely they recognize the folly of helping the Trump/Russia story to persist in the news cycle. What Trump probably meant was that he hasn’t seen such Fox News “ANGER & UNITY.” He could point to several Fox rants, including Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. But the looniest is surely that of Jeanine Pirro, who calls for Mueller to be fired and Hillary Clinton to be jailed.


Here Trump rattles off a few golden oldies from his campaign. Never mind that they have all been debunked by legitimate journalists. For instance, PolitiFact called the Uranium One allegations “Mostly False” more than a year ago.


Continuing to envelope himself in the bubble-wrap of Trumpian denial, the President dismisses the avalanche of facts associating him and his comrades with Russia. If it’s a “Witch Hunt,” it has actually found some witches. That’s what Mueller will be disclosing Monday.


Once again, Trump has asserted a Republican response that he can’t support with proof. It’s a Fox News response. And he is virtually admitting that there is no GOP pushback by posting, in all caps, “DO SOMETHING!” Why would that be necessary if they were already fighting back?


And there’s the capper. Trump thinks that Mueller’s indictments were timed to sink tax reform. That’s a spectacularly ludicrous conspiracy theory. To be true you would have to believe a flurry of unlikely events. First, that the special counsel appointed by a republican Justice Department is among the conspirators. Secondly, that the investigation was a legal time bomb intended to blow up legislation rather than bring criminals to justice. Thirdly, that it was triggered last May and set to go off whenever tax reform was taken up in Congress. Of course, no one had any idea then (or now) when that would be. Finally, why would this plot be aimed at tax reform rather than healthcare, immigration, climate change, or any other issue Trump has demagogued?

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

The quantity and quackery of these tweets is the best evidence that Trump is frightened enough to require new pants. The conspiracy component sounds like something he picked up from his pal, Alex Jones. And he even managed to get in a swipe at his favorite foe, Hillary Clinton. The whole package appears to have been crafted by Fox News, where precisely the same narrative is unfolding. It’s a lame strategy that is destined to fail. As soon as Mueller’s indictments are announced, these whining outbursts will seem comically irrelevant. But it’s all they have, and they’ll play it for all it’s worth, for as long as they can.

Fox Boos: The Holiday Battles Begin as Fox News Rolls Out Its War on Halloween

It’s still a little too soon for “visions of sugar plums” to be dancing in the heads of snugly bedded children. So the War on Christmas might be amassing troops on the border, but isn’t yet ready to invade. That, however, is not the case for All Hallows Eve. And in case you didn’t know there was a War on Halloween, you probably haven’t been watching Fox News.

Fox News Halloween

The worrywarts at Fox News have commenced hostilities against the dreaded political correctness goblins on the left. And their Fear-Monger-in-Chief is leading the way with blood-curdling conclaves of innocents. And of course, he makes sure to attack the media and raise the body anxieties of little girls by commenting on their weight problems.

Scary, isn’t it? But none of that is nearly as frightening as having the ghoulish Lord of Ego and Ignorance haunting the White House and terrifying young children around the world. Donald Trump has brought more fear to this nation than any single person in decades. He’s a walking horror story, albeit one written for the intelligence of a six year old. Hopefully we will reach the end of this nightmare before Thanksgiving.

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

Fox News is a Halloween Frightfest Featuring “President” Hillary Clinton

On the this weekend America will be wallowing in ghosts and goblins as they commemorate the annual ritual of Halloween. The horrors of the underworld will be unleashed upon all who dare to leave the safety of their abodes. This season of fear mongering is one that fits all too well with the mission of Fox News. Most of their programming is designed to terrify their already skittish and dimwitted viewers. For some reason having Donald Trump as president isn’t already scaring the pants off of them.

Fox News

So Fox News is reaching into their bag of tricks (no treats) to compose the scariest of all horror stories. And the demon most frightening to Fox’s audience is, of course, the grim and ghastly visage of Hillary Clinton. Halloween couldn’t have come at a better time. On Friday evening the news broke that a Grand Jury convened by special counsel Robert Mueller would deliver its first set of charges. Arrest warrants are expected to be issued as soon as Monday. The specific targets and violations are sealed and and will be closely held until official announcements are made.

In the meantime, Fox News is scattering chum throughout the mediaverse. Their clear intent is to deflect from the potentially devastating news that Monday’s announcement might bring. Rather than waiting to see which of Trump’s cohorts will be fingered, Fox News is fully engaged in taking Clinton down. They must have forgotten that she isn’t actually the president and holds no position from which she can be toppled. But that’s of no matter. She is still a dreadful beast to the Fox disciples and Trump cultists. She must be stopped.

Consequently, Fox is pushing a variety of fake news stories that allege various crimes Clinton is supposed to have committed. From the long ago debunked Uranium One nonsense, to the newly fashioned assertion that the Trump dossier was Clinton’s doing. There are no facts to accompany these allegations, but that never stopped Fox before. What follows are some of the frightening angles that the network is furiously working this Halloween weekend. Be prepared to shiver:

Those of you who are not quivering behind your sofas will have noticed the vast array of Fox’s most fear-inducing contributors. Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jesse Watters, Newt Gingrich, Donald Trump himself, and more are piling on the Clinton smear campaign. It’s a frenzied assault that is based on nothing but pure hatred and a bitter stew of vengeance. But it has a devious purpose. Fox News is determined to keep people from thinking about the legal calamities of Donald Trump and his traitorous comrades. That’s the only reason they dug up these zombie accusations and are hurling them at a retired grandma in Chappaqua.

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

But it is Halloween, so the rest of us can take this in good humor. If there are serious charges coming out of the Grand Jury next week, Fox’s diversions will be comically irrelevant. They simply can’t sustain this level of absurdity while Trump associates are frog-marched to jail. Time will tell. And for those seeking some respite from this devilish escapade, remember that the next big holiday is Thanksgiving. Hopefully the majority of Americans who are deeply disturbed by Trump and company will have something for which to be thankful.

Crybaby Trump Takes the Bait – Replies to “Impeach Trump” Ad that Ran on Fox News

The current regrettable President of the United States has repeatedly shown that he spends more time watching Fox News than presidenting. Coming in second is golf. Third is tweeting about Hillary Clinton and the election a year ago. In fact, being president probably isn’t in the top ten. It has been proven that Donald Trump is faithfully glued to his TV, especially in the morning, and reacts in real time with idiotic tweets.

Donald Trump Impeach

That pattern was in evidence Friday morning after an unusual advertisement aired during Trump’s favorite TV show, Fox and Friends. Tom Steyer is a billionaire who has been active in the environmental movement and liberal politics in general. He recently started a campaign to get Congress on the record with regard to Trump’s mental unfitness to serve. He launched the “Need To Impeach” website to inform and gather support. It includes a video that describes Trump as “a clear and present danger who’s mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons.” The video begins with a chilling list of particulars:

“He’s brought us to the brink of nuclear war, obstructed justice at the FBI, and in direct violation of the Constitution, has taken money from foreign governments and threatened to shut down news organizations that report the truth. If that isn’t a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president, then what has out government become?”

Steyer’s campaign began a week ago with a $10 million budget. It has gotten attention from a variety of media, with the unsurprising exception of Fox News. Trump himself has completely ignored this, despite it being precisely the sort of thing that stirs his giblets. Any attack is usually met with a juvenile retort on Twitter. But the bully-in-chief has been uncharacteristically mum on this assault from an elite lefty. Until now.

Friday morning Steyer’s video ran as an ad during Fox and Friends. Steyer was likely not under the impression that this ad would change the so-called minds of many Fox viewers. But there was one viewer whose attention it would surely grab. The President, of course, was up watching the show and saw the ad. We know that he doesn’t watch much of anything else, and his handlers keep him in the dark as much as possible. Consequently, this is likely the first he heard of it. And it didn’t please him. Shortly after the ad aired, Trump was tweeting about it:

You’ll notice that Trump’s response consisted of two primary points. First of all, he had to unleash a typically childish insult on “whacky” Tom Steyer. Secondly, he focused on horse-race politics rather than anything of substance. What Trump did not include in his response was any refutation of the facts that Steyer laid out.

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

However, what’s most notable about this is that Steyer has demonstrated the best way to get under Trump’s thin and wrinkled skin. The President is notoriously sheltered in his wannabe dictator bubble and has little access to unfiltered criticism. His caretakers meticulously strip any bad news from the briefings they permit him to receive. But if it’s run on Fox and Friends he’s gonna see it and react. Therefore, that should become the preferred method of reaching Trump for critics, Democrats in Congress, and the media. So the next time Rachel Maddow has a question for Trump, she should just put it on video and buy a spot on Fox News.

Fox News is Scaring Off Advertisers With Their Relentless Trump-Fluffing, Lies, and Racism

The Fox News chickens are coming home to roost. Or perhaps more accurately, they are flying the coop. Since its inception, Fox News has devoutly propelled a far right-wing agenda. They have steadfastly promoted conservative politicians and policies and shamelessly defended Republicans from any and all criticism. Their reward for such partisan bias was the devotion of glassy-eyed regressives whose loyalty produced high ratings and revenue.

Donald Trump Fox News

However, there was also a price to pay. In 2011 they discovered the hard way that wingnut extremism was not a sustainable business model. That’s when they were forced to fire Glenn Beck for venturing too far into bigotry and conspiracy theories. Beck’s audience was still substantial, but advertisers were shunning him like the plague. So Fox News eventually cut the cord.

Sadly for Fox News, they don’t seem to have learned anything from that disaster. In the years that followed, Fox has continued to spew propaganda and outright falsehoods in the service of GOP politics. And since the inauguration of Donald Trump the level of bombast and junk journalism has grown precipitously. In the past year Fox News has exceeded their wildest dreams as purveyors of state-approved disinformation. Primetime on the network is stuffed with Trumpeteers, and the rest of the day’s roster is no less reverential.

Recently Fox lost some of its star power due to sexual misconduct allegations. Their biggest attraction, Bill O’Reilly was fired after multiple woman came forward with stories of harassment and abuse. Eric Bolling was also dismissed for similar reasons. Megyn Kelly chose to leave due to her own experiences with deviants like O’Reilly and CEO Roger Ailes. However, while their replacements may be free of salacious scandal (for now), they are decidedly more extreme in their politics. Consequently, the advertising prospects for Fox News are once again in decline. TVNewser is reporting that:

“Fox News has taken the most significant hit with -17 percent less spend on news programming in September 2017 vs. September 2016. CNN also saw a small decrease, down -1 percent, while MSNBC was up +2 percent.”

The fact that Fox’s competitors didn’t suffer the profound losses that Fox did is evidence that the problems at Fox News are not due to some industry-wide weakness. It’s more likely due to the reluctance of advertisers to be associated with nutcases like Sean Hannity. There’s confirmation of that in the reporting of the unit cost for ads on Fox. Newcomer Tucker Carlson is pulling in $12,200 per ad. Hannity is getting only $8,500. What makes that significant is that Hannity is the higher rated program of the two. In fact, it’s the highest rated show on Fox News.

So Hannity is valued thirty percent less than a lower rated program. That can only be because ad buyers are scared off by Hannity’s increasingly lunatic conspiracies and brazen Trump-fluffing. The effect is likely leaking into other programs as well. As Carlson’s lunacy becomes more evident, expect his ad buys to shrink. Likewise, the Laura Ingraham Angle, which premieres next week, is already generating bad press.

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

All of this is very troubling for Fox News. But it’s heartening for America. One of the right’s favorite societal institutions, the free market, is demonstrating the folly of an alleged “news” network abandoning all pretenses of legitimate journalism. Will this force Fox News to change their ways. Doubtful. Fox’s management, Rupert Murdoch and family, have plenty of money with which to prop up their propaganda outlet. But they will be less able to disguise their deceitful intent, and will likely continue to shed advertisers and viewers.

Gee Thanks: Donald Trump and Fox News Bring Back the Russia Pee-Pee Dossier

The nation, and the world, are presently enveloped in a myriad of potential catastrophes. For example: nuclear war with North Korea; tax reform; natural disasters; terrorism, etc. Under the circumstances, you might think that Donald Trump would seek to focus on any of those critical issues. If so, you don’t know Donald Trump. True to form, the President has managed to shine a spotlight on one of his biggest embarrassments.

Sean Hannity

The now infamous Trump Dossier is a treasure trove of salacious and politically damning information. Much of it is speculative, but much has also been vetted and independently corroborated. The former British spy who compiled it is considered reliable by many intelligence agencies, including those in the United States. And if there is one scandalous controversy that Trump should be anxious to ditch, it’s the one that has him cavorting with Russian prostitutes. But for some reason, the Twitter obsessed President can’t resist his self-destructive urges:

Poor Donnie, Always the victim. And now he’s helping to remind America of his alleged escapades in Moscow with a different kind of golden shower than the one in his Manhattan penthouse. Trump is reprising this story because the Washington Post just published an article that ties Democrats to the Dossier. The only problem with this breaking news is that it was broken a year ago. In October of 2016, David Corn wrote for Mother Jones that the Dossier’s author had been “researching Trump’s dealings in Russia and elsewhere.” In his article Corn noted that:

“This was for an opposition research project originally financed by a Republican client critical of the celebrity mogul. (Before the former spy was retained, the project’s financing switched to a client allied with Democrats).”

So what began as opposition research for the GOP was taken up by Democratic operatives. That’s probably because the findings included “troubling information indicating connections between Trump and the Russian government.” Also, sources alleged “an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit.” But in any case, the Democratic connection was obviously known long before WaPo’s “scoop.” It was even known by wingnut propaganda dispensers at Fox News. Trump fluffers like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson have long been peddling this partisan snake oil.

So it’s ironic that Trump is now relying on the “fake” news purveyors at WaPo for his smear campaign info. His tweet Wednesday morning credited Fox News with the data. However, there’s a bigger question here. Do Trump and Fox News really think it’s noteworthy that Democrats might have funded opposition research against their opposition? Isn’t that what all campaigns do as a matter of routine? When Fox’s Jeanine Pirro was defending Trump, Jr. for meeting with Russians during the campaign she bragged that:

“As someone who’s run for office five times, if the devil called me and said he wanted to set up a meeting to give me opposition research on my opponent, I’d be on the first trolley to Hell to get it. And any politician who tells you otherwise is a bald-faced liar.”

In fact, Trump said pretty much the same thing:

Now suddenly it’s an abomination for Hillary Clinton’s campaign to engage in opposition research. The hypocrisy is palpable. But the objective for Trump and his pals at Fox News is to conflate this old, non-story with the more relevant allegations of Trump’s collusion with Russia to interfere with the 2016 election. And it’s a talking point that was distributed to all of the network’s programs. Already the subject has been covered by Pirro, Tucker Carlson, Bret Baier, Bill Hemmer, and, of course, Sean Hannity. For his part, Hannity helpfully stirred the recollection of the most depraved portions of the Dossier:

“The Democrats, media, they were happy to repeat, for example, that ‘Oh, Donald Trump was at the Ritz in Moscow and he had hookers urinating in his bed.’ […] All of this makes the Clinton campaign and the DNC complicit in spreading Russian propaganda and Russian lies about then-candidate, Donald Trump.

You have to wonder why Hannity thought that would benefit his buddy Trump. He could have simply talked about the Dossier in disparaging terms and left it at that. But no. This genius thought visualizing Russian hookers urinating on Trump had to be a feature of the broadcast. Never mind that the entire story involving who paid for some routine opposition research doesn’t even come close to the scandal of enlisting Russians to tamper with an American election. Clearly they are pretending to be more interest in who paid for it than what’s in it. But all of this just illustrates how desperate they are to deflect from the real news and to attack their perennial foe, Hillary Clinton, who holds no office and says she never will.

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

Rachel Maddow Pummels Hannity and Fox News in Primetime Ratings Victory

A few weeks ago Fox News was forced to make some drastic programming changes. They had to terminate Bill O’Reilly due to multiple allegations (and settlements) of sexual harassment. They should have seen that coming since they renewed his contract with knowledge of a massive $32 million payoff. And there was another $13 million to half a dozen other victims. Fox News also fired Eric Bolling, the host of the newly launched The Specialists, for sexual misconduct. Do you notice a pattern?

Rachel Maddow Sean Hannity

With these cancellations there were holes in the schedule that needed to be plugged. Consequently, Fox News decided to move Sean Hannity’s 10:00 pm show into O’Reilly’s slot at 9:00 pm. This put him into a head-to-head battle with MSNBC star Rachel Maddow. It also firmed up Fox’s primetime as three hours of fawning Trump-fluffing, beginning with Tucker Carlson, then Hannity, and the all new Laura Ingraham Angle. It’s been four weeks since Hannity’s move and the ratings already have a story to tell.

Hannity is, without a doubt, Donald Trump’s most cloying sycophant on Fox News. He serves as an advisor to the White House and relentlessly defends any and all Trump atrocities. As for Trump, he posts frequent promotional tweets about Hannity (seventeen just since the inauguration) and has sat for three interviews as President.

Hannity front loaded the first week in his new time slot with high profile guests chosen to spike ratings. They included Fox favorites like Steve Bannon, Bill O’Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh. The second and third weeks, however, were skewed by coverage of the tragic shooting in Las Vegas and its aftermath. But now, as the new schedule settles in, Maddow has returned to the top spot. The hopes Fox News had for toppling Maddow by moving Hannity into direct competition have not succeeded, at least so far.

One of the consequences of that failure is that other Fox News programs are getting scared and beginning to attack Maddow in an effort to blunt her success. For example, Fox and Friends did a whole segment on Maddow’s analysis of the death of four Green Berets in Niger. They never laid a glove on her. In fact, they never even bothered to substantively counter anything she said. They just made catty comments about her demeanor and complained that she has opinions. But just the fact that they talked about her is evidence they are scared. If they didn’t think that Maddow was having an impact, Fox would have ignored her. And she is definitely having an impact.

For the week of October 16, Maddow decisively beat her new competition, Sean Hannity. In the critical 24-54 demographic, she won three days out of five outright, and took the whole week’s average. On Wednesday she had the highest rated program on all of cable news. Her powerful leadin helped The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell to win his time period as well. Even Brian Williams’ The Eleventh Hour came out on top. As a result of these victories MSNBC won the entire week in primetime.

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

Television ratings are a fluid measure of popularity and can be influenced by many factors. Breaking news, popular guest bookings, and competing programs across the dial can shuffle the numbers. But the performance of Maddow’s show after being put to the test by Fox’s highest ratings draw is significant. It shows that quality journalism will find its audience. And even if Fox News has a built-in cult status for tunnel-blind partisans on the right, it isn’t enough to overcome well produced, researched, and presented reporting that is honest and touches the lives of all Americans.