Month: December 2017

Donald Trump and Fox and Friends Keep Mistaking Insults For Compliments

Posted by on December 22, 2017 at 6:33 pm. 4 Comments :

The power of narcissism can be awfully astonishing at times. When someone has this psychological sickness they have a distorted perspective of the real world that, one way or another, reflects on their greatness or it’s dismissed as a deliberate fiction authored by one’s enemies (fake news).

Fox News Steve Doocy

This is evident in a recent tweet by Trump concerning what he regarded as an “honor” for his pals on Fox and Friends. Mediaite published a list of the seventy-five most influential names in media for 2017. In a list that long nearly everyone you’re ever heard of made an appearance. Including folks like Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity. But the number one most influential name was not a totally illogical choice when the reasons are fully appreciated. And it wasn’t because of the program’s “quality.” Mediaite’s article explained that the show’s alleged influence resulted from a rather narrow scope of actual influence:

“The President of the United States regularly starts his day watching Fox & Friends and then tweets about whatever they cover, and however, they cover it. He promotes their show, tags them by name, and sings their praises.”

So the gist of their analysis is that Fox and Friends is influential because “they have captured the President’s attention.” That’s not exactly difficult to accomplish. Any shiny object would do the trick. Or any fawning praise or accurate criticism. Trump is notoriously obsessed with himself, and by being the Fox News program that is the most shamelessly adoring, they have burned a place in Trump’s shriveled heart. Mediaite did not intend that to be a compliment. But Trump responded by tweeting:

The formula for success employed by Fox and Friends is blind sycophancy combined with blatant lies about Trump’s foes. It’s the ability to not be embarrassed by brown-nosing the President at all times and serving as the administration’s Pravda. Fox and Friends has mastered that kind of behavior that would be humiliating to any credible journalist. And for their effort they are promoted frequently by Trump. Just since his inauguration the Fox News President has pimped Fox and Friends 152 times. That’s an average one tweet every other day for nearly a year. And it’s also advertising that would be worth millions.

This isn’t the first time that these dim bulbs have mistaken insults for praise. In July Trump tweeted about another faux honor bestowed on the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. On that occasion they were called “The Most Powerful TV Show in America“ in an article in the New York Times. In a congratulatory tweet Trump wrote that:

Wow, indeed. In one tweet Trump heralded the homage for Fox and Friends and disparaged the newspaper that gave it. Of course, to anyone who actually read the article in the Times it was apparent that they were criticizing both Trump and Fox for clinging to one another in a mockery of journalism. They called Fox’s posture toward Trump a “Romper Room-style” broadcast intended to flatter our ego-obsessed, narcissistic president. The article said that:

“President Trump is the show’s subject, its programmer, its publicist and its virtual fourth host. The stars offer him flattery, encouragement and advice. When he tweets, his words and image appear on a giant video wall. It’s the illusion of children’s TV — that your favorite show is as aware of you as you are of it — except that for Mr. Trump, it’s real.”

That’s the article that Trump and Fox and Friends quoted with such pride. They entirely missed the fact that the Times was calling the President a child and the program a bunch of unethical stenographers and Trump-fluffers. It’s as if all they could see was flattery and good news – except, of course, when it’s fake news.

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

Check Yourselves: Fox News Complains that MSNBC Stars Are ‘Cashing In’ on Trump’s Tax Scam

Posted by on December 22, 2017 at 4:57 pm. NO Comments :

Shortly after Donald Trump and his Republican cronies passed a tax reform bill that gives away millions to to the rich, a few greedy corporations jumped into the media circus to lavish praise on the president who just made them all much richer. AT&T, Boeing, and Wells Fargo were among the companies licking at Trump’s boots by pretending that they were passing on savings to their employees because of the tax reforms. Never mind that some of them had planned to give bonuses long before this bill was passed, just as they do almost every year. Most of the companies have ulterior motives for exalting Trump. Particularly AT&T who is currently battling the administration in its efforts to acquire TimeWarner.

Fox News Lies

Also on this list of sycophants is Comcast, the parent company of NBC. And that connection was all that Fox News needed to invent a story about MSNBC personalities “cashing in” in on the legislation. Fox’s media correspondent, Brian Flood, published a story on the Fox News website with the absurd headline, “NBC star journalists already cashing in on the tax plan they hate.” The article accuses Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, and others of selfishly taking advantage of a tax bill that they opposed. The article stated that:

The highly paid journalists at NBC and MSNBC who keep blasting President Trump’s tax reforms won’t have to wait for their rates to go down to benefit, since parent company Comcast likes the plan so much it is sending out $1,000 checks to employees.

Comcast announced on Thursday that it would award special $1,000 bonuses to over one hundred thousand employees because of the passage of tax reform and the FCC’s action on broadband.

The cable company’s generosity presumably extends to seven- and eight-figure stars, who have been railing nonstop against the landmark GOP reform as benefiting the rich at the expense of the poor.

The first thing that’s wrong with the headline is that Fox has no evidence that any executives or on-air talent are going to receive a cash bonus. So the whole story is based on an invented premise. Flood says that “the cable company’s generosity presumably extends to seven- and eight-figure stars.” Presumably? Apparently that’s enough to be the foundation of a critical article by the standards of Fox News. However, these sort of bonuses are almost never extended to executive personnel who have a different scale of compensation benefits. What’s more, the average amount of company bonuses (about 1,800.00) is much greater than the one these companies are now touting.

Additionally, the article notes that Comcast’s incentive to provide these bonuses was only partly due to Trump’s corporate tax cuts. It explicitly cites “the FCC’s action on broadband.” Otherwise known as the killing of Net Neutrality. Comcast was likely thanking Trump for eliminating a regulation that will net them billions in profits at the expense of a free and open Internet.

But the most startling logical lapse by Flood was his complaint that it would somehow be improper for MSNBC’s stars to take the money since they have been hammering Trump’s tax scam for weeks. WTF is he talking about. The fact that these hosts would criticize a bill that promised them a significant windfall is proof that they are motivated by principle, not greed. They opposed a bill that would put more money in their own pockets because they knew that millions of other Americas would suffer. Most people would regard that as admirable.

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

For Fox News to imply that there would be something untoward about them getting a bonus that they campaigned against is stretching the boundaries of reason beyond recognition. They didn’t want it, they didn’t ask for it, and they aren’t even known to be getting it. But Fox is determined to create scandals where none exist because they haven’t got anything truthful or honest to report. And yet, this is remarkably sloppy, even for Fox News.

Watch Trump Admit That He Deliberately Hid the GOP Tax Scam’s Sabotage of ObamaCare

Posted by on December 20, 2017 at 10:33 am. 2 Comments :

It took nearly a year after the election of Donald Trump for the Republican controlled Congress to pass a significant piece of legislation. And the bill they managed to shove down America’s throat is literally the most unpopular bill in thirty years. The GOP Tax Scam will give the rich a massive tax cut paid for by millions of average Americans. And it will still balloon the debt by as much as two trillion dollars.

Fox News Donald Trump

Included in the legislation is a provision that has been mostly kept under wraps. The bill eliminates the individual mandate language of the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) that requires people to either get health insurance or pay a fee. The purpose of this requirement is to incentivize younger, healthier people to participate in the program in order to keep premiums down for everybody, as well as to be certain they were covered in the event of a medical necessity.

Well, now we have proof that the effort to repeal the individual mandate was deliberately hidden in order to deceive the American people. And that proof came straight out of the mouth of the Deceiver-in-Chief, Donald Trump. At the cabinet meeting held Wednesday morning to gloat about the bill’s passage, Trump raised the issue of ObamaCare and how this the bill addressed it:

“When the individual mandate is being repealed, that means ObamaCare is being repealed. […] We have essentially repealed ObamaCare. And we’ll come up with something that will be much better. Whether it’s block grants or whether it’s taking what we have and doing something terrific. But ObamaCare has been repealed in this bill.”

First of all, the repeal of the individual mandate does not repeal ObamaCare. To be sure, it is a serious blow that will cause premiums to go up for everybody. And apparently Trump thinks that’s worth bragging about. Yet he can’t articulate how he would replace ObamaCare, other than to lamely proclaim some mysterious “terrific” new program. It’s typical of his ignorant and childish rhetoric that employs vague language and superlatives that say literally nothing at all.

But that wasn’t even the worst part of his brief comments. He went on to make a surprising confession about the intentional swindle he incorporated into this initiative (video below):

“We didn’t want to bring it up. I tell people specifically be quiet with the fake news media because I don’t want them talking too much about it. Cause I didn’t know how people would…but now that it’s approved I can say the individual mandate on healthcare, where you had to pay not to have insurance – think of that one, you pay not to have insurance. The individual mandate has been repealed.”

Have you ever heard a president, or any national leader, say out loud that they purposefully withheld information from the public in order to fool them into supporting a dishonestly presented bill? Trump’s admission explicitly notes that he directed his administration to suppress this news by concealing it from the media. That’s an overt acknowledgement of fraud.

Trump must not be allowed to get away with this. Come November 2018 he needs to be rebuked by voters returning control of Congress to the Democrats who can then proceed with impeachment hearings. Unless, that is, special counsel Robert Mueller comes to America’s rescue before then.

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

Fox News Officially Becomes the New Infowars with Theory that the FBI Plotted to Kill Trump

Posted by on December 19, 2017 at 1:39 pm. 3 Comments :

For twenty years Fox News has obediently served the interests of the Republican Party and its wealthy, corporate benefactors. Throughout much of that time they have advanced provable lies advancing the policies and agenda of the far-right. On occasion they ventured off into Looney Tunes territory by pushing unadulterated nonsense such as charges that Obama’s birth certificate was fake, or that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex slave ring from the basement of a D.C. pizza parlor.

Fox News Infowars

However, with the election of Donald Trump, Fox News has skidded off the runway of sanity. They have embarked on a coordinated campaign to smear special counsel Robert Mueller and everyone connected with his investigation into Trump’s collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. But on Tuesday morning they sunk to new levels of delusional conspiracy mongering.

Radio talker and Fox News contributor Kevin Jackson was the allegedly “one lucky guy” on Fox’s Outnumbered. In a discussion about whether individuals at the FBI were biased against Trump, Jackson upped the ante by asserting that Trump may have been the target of an FBI assassination plot. No, really:

“Well, I think they’re going to say, is it — what was his intent, right? Because that’s exactly what FBI Director, former FBI Director [James] Comey said when he was letting Hillary Clinton off the hook. And his intent, regardless of whether it was an assassination attempt or whatever, it was definitely something. […] I’m just saying, we don’t know what it was. When you say, ‘we’ve got to make sure that this guy doesn’t get in at all cost,’ what does that mean?”

The magnitude of derp expressed in those remarks even gave co-host Harris Faulkner the heebie-jeebies. She vainly attempted to give Jackson an opportunity to walk back his lunatic comment. “I just want to make sure,” she said, “that we press in on the fact that no one has floated any sort of an idea…” But Jackson interrupted her saying “Oh, it’s been floated.”

Indeed, it has been floated. On Fox News of all places. Although they are coming to it a little behind Alex Jones of Infowars who was floating in a similar orbit just yesterday. He told his glassy-eyed disciples that:

“I think they’re going to go ahead and make their move to kill the president. I think in the next 30 days, I think they’re going to make an assassination attempt. I just — my gut — I see all of them together, they’re that desperate. They’re either going to give up or they’re going to activate their cells. And a lot of my smart sources agree with that.”

So now the crackpot idiocy of Alex Jones has jumped feet first into the Fox News cesspool of Trump-fluffing derangement. Jackson is a confirmed StormTrumper whose opinions border on fetishism. Just prior to Outnumbered, Jackson was a guest on Fox and Friends where he likened Trump to King Midas saying that “everything that Donald Trump is touching, for the most part, has turned to gold.” That, of course, is patently false. Trump has failed on too many levels to enumerate here. But more to the point, Jackson apparently doesn’t know that the moral of the Midas story is a warning against exactly the sort of all-consuming greed that Trump represents.

For Fox News to put on these sort of irresponsible and dangerous ravings proves that they are desperately searching for a narrative to suppress any talk of Trump’s corruption and criminality. The fact that they are stealing material from Alex Jones suggests that they have completely run out of plausible ideas. So the notion of dipping into the most far fetched conspiracy mud holes is no longer unthinkable. And we should expect more of this preposterous insanity from Fox as Trump’s prospects continue to dim.

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

Trump’s Dangerous National Security Policy Contradicts His Own Defense Sec on Climate Change

Posted by on December 18, 2017 at 4:11 pm. 3 Comments :

In a speech intended to lay out his national security agenda, Donald Trump appeared lethargic and detached. His TelePrompter reading was stunted and his voice was slurred. At one point he said that Russia was tipped off to an alleged terror attack by the “CAA” (aka the CIA). It was a performance that didn’t exactly inspire confidence and strength.

Donald Trump Climate Change

The substance of the speech was a rehash of Trump’s standard “America First” rhetoric and introduced no new initiatives or solutions to ongoing problems. However, there was an omission that is guaranteed to produce severe consequences. Trump left out the risks of climate change from a national security perspective. The only mention of it came tangentially in his proposal that called for “countering an anti-growth energy agenda.” In other words, he’s advocating more production and use of dirty fossil fuels.

Trump’s stubborn adherence to his climate denial position flies in the face of the nearly unanimous conclusions of the scientific community that climate change is a real problem that is caused by human behavior. But scientists are not the only ones concerned about the issue. Defense experts have been warning of the imminent peril posed by the effects of climate change for years. And one of those experts is currently Trump’s Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis. While Trump insists that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by China, Sec. Mattis says that it’s “a real-time issue, not some distant what-if,” and that it’s “impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today.”

Mattis isn’t the first defense secretary to warn of the perils of climate change. The military has been crystal clear for years about the very real consequences of a world where water and arable land become scarce, and nations erupt into chaos and war. A particularly notable warning came from an unexpected source. As reported in Rolling Stone:

“In 2003, under Donald Rumsfeld, former President George W. Bush’s defense secretary, the Pentagon published a report titled ‘An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security.’ Commissioned by Andrew Marshall, who is sometimes jokingly referred to within the Pentagon as Yoda — and who was a favorite of Rumsfeld’s — the report warned that threats to global stability posed by rapid warming vastly eclipse that of terrorism.”

Let that sink in. Rumsfeld views climate change as more dangerous than terrorism. In fact, six of the past Secretaries of Defense (Mattis, Ash Carter, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta, Robert Gates, and Rumsfeld) all subscribed to the policy that climate change is one of America’s top strategic risks. And four of the six are Republicans. Nevertheless, Trump insists on stepping out on his own demented ledge to dismiss the informed opinions of these respected leaders in favor of the denial championed by energy lobbyists and their political puppets. It’s a position that is rooted in greed, corruption, and ignorance. And it forebodes a dangerous future for America and the world.

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

Fox News Pushes Trump Dictatorship, Tells Critics to Shut Up and Obey Their Master

Posted by on December 17, 2017 at 12:51 pm. 3 Comments :

As the legal noose tightens around Donald Trump and his confederacy of traitors, the stench of panic grows thicker and more pungent. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation continues on its course to determine whether Trump and/or his team colluded with Russia’s documented efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. And as Mueller goes forward, the Trump faction goes batshit crazy.

Fox News Kellyanne Conway

The latest point of departure for the GOP’s sanity is the discovery that Mueller has acquired “tens of thousands” of emails from the the Trump transition operation. That news sent the right into a frenzy with bogus claims that the emails were acquired illegally. That’s hysterical considering that Trump himself begged Russia to illegally hack Hillary Clinton’s emails and make them all public on Wikileaks.

But that’s only a small window into the dementia that plagues Trump World today. On Fox News there is a concerted and coordinated campaign to smear Mueller. They began by calling it a witch hunt, despite having already scored four indictments and two guilty pleas. But now they have escalated their conspiracy outrage to a new level. They now regard the entire investigation as an attempted coup. And they are pulling out all the propaganda stops to spread that inane theory.

Fox’s Jesse Watters explicitly used the word “coup” to describe Mueller’s activities during an interview with Trump shill Kellyanne Conway. Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett suggested that the FBI is America’s version of the KGB. Fox host Jeanine Pirro demanded that FBI agents involved with the investigation be “taken out in handcuffs.” And a veritable chorus line of Foxies are calling on Trump to fire Mueller. Not surprisingly, Sean Hannity is at front of that line.

On Trump’s favorite Fox News show, Fox and Friends, the totalitarian rhetoric is as thick as mud. On Sunday morning they hosted Darrin Porcher (video below), a former New York police officer whose point of view is perfectly aligned with the Fox Doctrine. Porcher is the model of the Fox News flunky who spouts pre-chewed talking points in support of Trump. He praised the performance of the stock market and the unemployment rate, both of which are still running up under policies put in place by President Obama. Trump has done nothing to impact either. In fact, before the election he considered the stock market to be in a bubble and the unemployment rate to be fake news.

Saying that he “bleed[s] red, white and blue,” Porcher urges Americans to “stand behind our Commander-in-Chief.” He asserts that we must “acquiesce behind the political structure in play.” (Note: acquiesce means to accept something reluctantly and without protest). He’s literally telling critics of the administration to shut up and obey their masters. But where he totally succumbs to the blindness of tyranny is his statement that…

“Rooting against the president is equivalent to getting on an airplane and hoping that the plane crashes.”

That remark didn’t get so much as a sideways glance from the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. Even though they were among the Fox throng that spent eight years rooting against Obama. Rush Limbaugh even said proudly that “I hope he fails.” And every step Obama took throughout his presidency he was dogged by the overt hatred and bias emanating from Fox News. Most of them believed he was an illegitimate, gay, pot-smoking, fraud who was born in Kenya and pledged allegiance to ISIS.

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

Porcher’s advocacy of blind obedience is the opposite of patriotism. America’s democracy was built on a foundation of respect for dissent. It’s inscribed in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Acquiescence is what tyrants demand of their peasant populace. You have to wonder where Porcher was when the Tea Party (remember them?) was hammering away at Obama – with the ever faithful help of Fox News. But people like Porcher are too myopic to grasp complex political concepts. His simile of the crashing plane is just plain stupid. A better perspective of it would be to consider how to respond to a president who is in the process of deliberately crashing the plane. Would you root for him?

Good News: Trump Plans to Spend 2018 on the Campaign Trail Helping More GOP Candidates Lose

Posted by on December 17, 2017 at 8:18 am. 2 Comments :

In the past few weeks there have been a couple of important elections that drew national attention. One was for the governorship of Virginia. The other was for a senate seat in Alabama. In both contests Donald Trump campaigned furiously for the Republican candidate. And in both cases the Democrat won. Proving that the President’s support is no guarantee of success, even in staunchly red territories of the South.

Donald Trump

So it will come as good news to Democrats to learn that Trump is planning to hit the road in 2018 to campaign for Republican candidates across America:

“President Donald Trump is not on the ballot in 2018, but the White House is planning a full-throttle campaign to plunge the president into the midterm elections, according to senior officials and advisers familiar with the planning. […] The president has told advisers he wants to travel extensively and hold rallies and that he is looking forward to spending much of 2018 campaigning.”

That’s right. The president with the lowest approval rating since polling began is so enamored with himself that he thinks he’d be an asset to other political aspirants. Never mind the recent evidence that an association with Trump spells doom in races where Republicans should have had the edge. His conceit is so all-encompassing that he’s convinced that his presence is beneficial, or even desirable. This is a man so utterly lacking in self-awareness that he can’t comprehend that a majority of voters cringe at the site of him. And any candidate who stands next to Trump on the political stage is going to be covered by the stench of his divisiveness, racism, ignorance, misogyny, and boorish character.

Democrats must be salivating at the prospect of Trump’s ambitious campaign plans. They would surely welcome him into the fray knowing that he is more likely to hurt their GOP opponents than to help them. At the the same time he is one of the best motivators for Democrats to get out and vote. The more Trump tries to push his GOP colleagues, the bigger the blue wave is going to be next November. And as an added benefit, if Trump is traipsing around the country dragging down Republican electoral hopes, he won’t be in Washington creating more domestic and international crises. And Trump’s focus on electioneering is more proof that the only agenda of the Republican Party is the preservation of power.

Representatives of the Trump administration’s political team are as delusional as he is regarding the value of his contribution. One insisted that “this isn’t about adulation and cheering crowds.” That ignores the evidence of his narcissistic tendencies that compel him to continue holding rallies long after the presidential campaign was over. He clearly thrives on the fawning adoration of the deplorables who flock to his personal praise-a-thons.

The risk of having Trump stump for a candidate is that the thrill he gets from his glassy-eyed disciples only exacerbates the harm he is likely to cause. That’s because the more the crowds cheer, the more he talks about himself and ignores the candidate he came to promote. And whenever Trump goes off topic he winds up creating inane controversies that overwhelm whatever message he hoped to communicate.

For these reasons Democrats will be the first to encourage Trump to campaign vigorously and often. The more he is associated with Republican candidates the better the chances of electing Democrats. And Trump’s toxicity will only increase in the new year as more revelations from the investigations of his collusion with Russia emerge. And that’s not even taking into consideration scandals related to his financial corruption and sexual harassment and abuse. So bring it on Donnie. We double dare you.

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

Women at Fox News Blast CEO Rupert Murdoch for Trivializing Sexual Abuse: ‘I’m Sick of This Sh*t’

Posted by on December 16, 2017 at 10:32 am. 4 Comments :

This week Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of Fox News and 21st Century Fox, made some shocking statements regarding sexual harassment and abuse at Fox News. His brazen distortion of reality was either a deliberate attempt to rewrite the recent and abhorrent history of the network, or signs of acute dementia. But some outraged women who experienced the misogynistic culture of Fox News first hand aren’t sitting still for this bullshit.

Fox News Rupert Murdoch

Murdoch’s comments trivialized, and even downright denied, the actual events that have been documented and admitted in public statements by Fox News. When asked about the charges leveled at Fox personnel and whether they would impact the business, he said that they were…

“All nonsense, there was a problem with our chief executive [Roger Ailes], sort of, over the years, isolated incidents. As soon as we investigated it he was out of the place in hours, well, three or four days. And there’s been nothing else since then. That was largely political because we’re conservative. Now of course the liberals are going down the drain — NBC is in deep trouble. CBS, their stars. I mean there are really bad cases and people should be moved aside. There are other things which probably amount to a bit of flirting.”

Let’s address this heinous commentary in order. First of all, Murdoch conceded that there was a “problem” with Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. But adds “sort of?” Ailes was accused of serial sexual assault by at least eleven women. And an independent review of his actions resulted in his termination. That isn’t “sort of,” a problem. And it isn’t “isolated incidents” either.

Then Murdoch stated that “there’s been nothing else since then.” Can he possibly believe that? The biggest star on his network, Bill O’Reilly was fired after the disclosure of millions of dollars in settlements to victims of his abuse. He personally shelled out $32 million to one victim. Also, numerous other Fox on-air and executive personnel were fired for sexual misconduct. The number of deviants on the Fox payroll points to a serious internal breakdown. The network was even called “a sex-fueled Playboy Mansion-like cult” by a long-time program host and victim.

Finally, Murdoch tried to dismiss the whole subject as being purely political. But in the same breath he conceded that both conservatives and liberals had their share of perverts. So he contradicted his own excuse. However, just trying to make this a partisan issue shows the depths of depravity to which he will sink. He is laser-focused on disparaging liberals in all matters, which was the founding mission of Fox News. And he proved what a despicable old coot he is by tacking on his opinion that sexual harassment and flirting are somehow synonymous.

Which brings us to the reactions of ten women contacted by Yasher Ali of the Huffington Post. Their disgust upon hearing Murdoch’s remarks was expressed with fierce determination and, as one stated, a hunger for justice. Here are some examples of their comments:

  • “I have had to put up with a hostile work environment for years, and now I’m told that it doesn’t exist by a man who doesn’t have to walk these halls every day?”
  • “Hey Rupert – stop with the lies or we’ll go public with the truth. All of it. Including about the talent and executives you still employ who have harassed us and don’t give a damn about workplace respect – only money.”
  • “What kind of company pays close to 100 million dollars to keep ‘flirting’ quiet?”
  • “Sexual harassment has nothing to do with politics. Many of us are conservative and want the truth to come out.”
  • “The harassment was persistent and ongoing. It was personally and professionally devastating for some of my colleagues and me. When the person who signs your paycheck and is responsible for promotions and demotions harasses women who rely on him, it’s more than ‘sort of’ a problem.”
  • “The culture at Fox News won’t change until you publicly accept that it has been a breeding ground for sexual misconduct over the past two decades.”
  • “I’m contacting a lawyer tomorrow. I’m sick of this shit.”

That’s a pretty damning summation of what it’s like to work at Fox News. And considering the broad corroboration among so many women who suffered, and continue to suffer, at Fox, Murdoch’s repulsive remarks ought to be reconsidered and a public apology made ASAP. And you can expect that to occur at around the same time that Donald Trump apologizes for his rampant, sexual predatory assault.

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

HUH? New Poll Shows Donald Trump’s Popularity is Falling Sharply Among – Fox News Viewers?

Posted by on December 15, 2017 at 10:35 am. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump is famous for putting himself at the top of every list of achievement. And no one can argue that when the list is: Which president has had the worst approval ratings in modern times? Trump far outpaces all of his predecessors for the most hated national leader. A recent poll showed him at an abysmal thirty-two percent. That’s another new low during what is ordinarily a president’s strongest year in office.

Donald Trump

Now another new survey has some bad news for Trump. Suffolk University asked for opinions about Trump with an interesting angle. They matched answers to the respondent’s favorite sources for news. And what they discovered was surprising:

“Trump likes what he sees on Fox, which means that what he sees depicts him favorably. And yet, according to new polling from Suffolk University, those voters who have the most trust in Fox’s reporting have increasingly begun to view Trump unfavorably.

“Over the course of Trump’s presidency, Suffolk has asked people to weigh in on their views of Trump multiple times. In March, 45 percent of Americans viewed Trump favorably, but 86 percent of those who identified Fox as their most-trusted news network said they did. By June, that number had grown to 90 percent. But in October and in the most recent poll, Trump’s favorability with Fox News viewers has plunged.

“In March, Fox viewers were 40 points more likely to view Trump positively than were voters overall. By December, they were only 24 points more likely to do so.”

The poll found that, among the people who trust Fox News the most, Trump’s approval rating is a bare majority of fifty-eight percent. For a constituency that should be his most ardent admirers that can’t be characterized as anything but dreadful. And it’s a substantial drop from the numbers in June (90%) and October (74%). Historically Trump’s appeal has failed to outperform lice or root canals among the general population (for real). But he has managed to hang on to a core base of deplorables in the Republican Party. Considering the close association between Fox News and the GOP you would think their viewers would also be Trump deadenders.

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

So what accounts for Trump’s slumping approval by Fox News cultists? It’s hard to say. Since Fox is virtually Trump’s PR division, their audience is the group of news consumers that see the most of him. Perhaps being exposed so incessantly to his wrinkled visage and grating voice has driven home what a crass and repugnant cretin he is. Maybe they just got tired of his bragging and bullying and whining and lying. He’s become a one-note recording of infantile narcissism with regard to himself and abject hostility toward his critics.

Another possible explanation is that the right-wingers who watch Fox don’t like Trump bashing the FBI, special counsel Robert Mueller, and law enforcement in general. And they may cringe when he smears the intelligence agencies for which he is allegedly responsible. Maybe they’re troubled by his cozying up to Putin and other murderous dictators. And even though Fox News presents an exclusively adoring picture of Trump, maybe their viewers have seen through it and are disgusted and weary of the charade. You know – the fake news.

Trump Shill: If You Get Your News From Fox News You Probably Like the GOP Tax Scam

Posted by on December 14, 2017 at 1:59 pm. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress are hurtling headlong into passage of tax bill that will materially alter the tax code in ways that harm most Americans. It is flagrantly biased in favor of corporations and the wealthy with toxic provisions that will sabotage healthcare and cripple Social Security and Medicare. The GOP refused to hold hearings on the bill or even allow Democrats to review it prior to voting. Much of it was written by corporate lobbyists. And without any justification for their haste, Republicans are ramming it through before the already strong opposition becomes impossible to ignore.

foxnews-mulvaney

As usual, whenever Republicans require a boost in propaganda they turn to Fox News. They know that they can present whatever bullshit they want and that there will be no one to challenge their lies. They took advantage of that Thursday morning when they sent Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, to the studios of Fox and Friends to pimp the tax bill. He received precisely the welcome that he expected as co-host Steve Doocy offered up a softball for Mulvaney to hit out of the park. Surprisingly, Mulvaney took a wild swing that landed in foul territory (video below):

Doocy: People don’t like to pay taxes so you would think that this would be a good story for you. And yet, Mick, the Quinnipiac poll came out and shows that fifty-five percent of Americans don’t like it, as opposed to twenty-six percent who do. Can you explain to me why people don’t like the idea of a tax cut?
Mulvaney: Sure, because if you turn to any channel besides this one, all you’re going to hear is bad news about this particular bill. […] No one is focusing, as you folks do, on what’s good for people in this bill. So if you get your news here, you probably like it because your focused on what’s good for you. But if not, you don’t.

So the only reason Mulvaney had for people not liking the bill was that they weren’t watching enough Fox News. Or worse, they drifted from their “news” teet at Fox and were exposed to actual facts and honest scrutiny. Doocy was taking a chance by citing the Quinnipiac poll which he correctly quoted as showing a historic disapproval rating, especially for something being pitched as a tax cut. The poll provided an explanation for that which Fox News left out entirely. Nearly seventy percent of those polled said the bill favors the wealthy and only twenty-one percent think that it will help the middle class. In other words, people can see through the GOP spin and recognize a fraud when it’s right in front of their faces.

However, what was most interesting about Mulvaney’s response was that he explicitly admitted that Fox News was a pit of partisan bias where viewers would get only the conservative perspective peddled by the White House. He praised the “Curvy Couch” potatoes for being sycophantic hucksters upon whom he could rely to spew the government line. Just like state-run TV outlets are supposed to do. Heaven forbid that the American people might ever get an unbiased analysis of this bill that contained actual facts derived from independent experts. That isn’t what Fox News was created for, and it surely isn’t what they did this morning. Welcome to the American Pravda, now proudly out of the propaganda closet.

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