Day: 7/6/2018

The Metamorphosis: Former GOP House Oversight Chair Fills In for Hannity on Fox News

Posted by on July 6, 2018 at 4:50 pm. 2 Comments :

News Corpse has documented the parade of former Fox News personnel into Donald Trump’s adminsitration. The White House is currently infested with ex-Fox News vermin including National Security Advisor John Bolton, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, HHS Secretary Ben Carson, Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, and chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow. Most recently, at the urging of Sean Hannity, Trump hired former Fox News president Bill Shine, whose experience covering up for liars and sexual predators will come in handy.

Fox News, Jason Chaffetz

However, the door swings both ways. Rejects from the White House have become familiar faces on Fox News. In recent weeks ex-Trump aides landing at Fox include Sebastian Gorka, Anthony Scaramucci, and Sean Spicer. But one of the most prominent new Foxies is the former Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, Jason Chaffetz. He resigned his seat in Congress and almost immediately signed up with Fox News. And his star at Fox is rising. On Thursday night Chaffetz was the guest host on Fox’s number one program, Sean Hannity.

The Chaffetz debut as a host was jarring to watch. He was the most conspicuously partisan member of Congress who presided over endless inquisitions intended to bring down Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. From Benghazi to emails to Planned Parenthood to Fast and Furious, Chaffetz was the leader of the anti-Hillary crusade. It was a purely political assault that produced no evidence of any wrongdoing whatsoever after years of costly hearings and phony investigations.

On Thursday’s episode of Hannity, Chaffetz interviewed his partner in crime, Trey Gowdy. It was Gowdy who took the gavel of the House Oversight Committee when Chaffetz retired. He was also the chair of the House Select Committee on Benghazi. So this “interview” was really just a televised reunion between two of Congress’ fiercest anti-Democratic partisans. They spent five full minutes just bashing Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff.

Then they segued to trying to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Trump’s collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice. From there Chaffetz led a discussion about the protester who scaled the Statue of Liberty on Independence Day. One subject that never came up was the surprise resignation of the wholly unethical and corrupt Scott Pruitt from the Environmental Protection Agency. Also not discussed were the thousands of immigrant children who are still not reunited with their parents.

The entire hour was nothing more than an extended session of the House committees they sat on in Congress. It was like watching CSPAN with better graphics and catheter commercials. And of course, only one side of every issue was offered through most of the show. It’s one thing to see Sean Hannity do the same thing every night. But when a former congressman is sitting in the anchor’s chair it just cements the impression that Fox News is not in any way differentiated from the political partisans they hype 24/7.

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

And what makes this even worse is that Chaffetz is probably a temporary pundit on Fox. He is widely expected to run for governor of Utah in 2020. So he’s using this platform to advance his candidacy. Which means that Fox is both paying him a healthy salary, and giving him millions of dollars of free promotion. It’s the merging of media with at least two branches of government, the legislative and the executive. And Trump is working furiously to add the judicial to the mix. That’s what is known in most other countries as a totalitarian dictatorship.

A Very Confused Fox News is Now Attacking a CNN Reporter – for Attacking CNN

Posted by on July 6, 2018 at 2:10 pm. 3 Comments :

When Fox News was treated badly during the Obama administration, the rest of the media would quickly come to their defense with unqualified support for the free press. And as an expression of their gratitude, Fox News has made sure to viciously slander their media colleagues at every opportunity. They are fulfilling their role as the State TV division of Donald Trump’s White House, where the media is considered to be “the enemy of the American people.”

Tucker Carlson Fox News

On Friday Brian Flood, a Fox News media reporter, did an analysis of old tweets by his counterpart at CNN, Oliver Darcy. The story was intended to reveal some sort of hypocrisy on Darcy’s part for being critical of CNN prior to joining them, but then failing to be critical of his new employer.

Really? Fox News is surprised that an employee of CNN isn’t bashing his own network? In a perfect world every media critic would hold all reporting to the same standards for ethics and professionalism. But for Fox News to lash out at Darcy for this reason is laughable. Fox is the most insulated pseudo-news enterprise ever created. Not only will they never criticize their own reporting, they won’t even correct or apologize for blatant errors of fact.

The examples Flood sited of Darcy’s criticisms of CNN were not exactly blistering They included a critique of Kathy Griffin appearing in a bra on the New Year’s Eve telecast. And mocking CNN’s use of a “Breaking News” banner that’s nearly a permanent fixture on the screen (which Fox News does as well). And a comment on CNN’s website that chided the network for posting a flurry of pro-Clinton stories. Would Flood have preferred that Darcy approved of that partisanship?

In addition to the awkward spectacle of Fox News complaining about a CNN reporter criticizing CNN, Flood also flagrantly misrepresented a tweet wherein Darcy allegedly accused CNN of letting “people just make stuff up on the airwaves.” In fact, the tweet wasn’t a hit on CNN, but was chastising a pro-Trump shill who was a guest on the network. And the charge that Darcy doesn’t criticize CNN now is also untrue. A quick search turned up this example wherein Darcy took CNN to task for taking Trump out of context. When CNN was reached for a response to Flood’s story, they said:

“Oliver was critical of CNN before, just as he is now. CNN is a place where opinions and ideas are valued. And we encourage staff to share their thoughts about the organization – both positive and critical. While this might seem like an exotic concept to you, we’d headline it ‘Media Reporter Does Job.’ This is a nothing story.”

However, if Fox News thinks it’s relevant to take old, negative comments from a network correspondent and insist that they have some significance today, then they had better look in the proverbial mirror. Fox’s newest star host in primetime is Tucker Carlson. But there was a time when Carlson had a less than flattering opinion of Fox News. In fact, he called them “a mean, sick group of people.” That’s a far worse, and far more personal assault than mocking a “Breaking News” chyron.

Perhaps even more troubling than what a current Foxie said long ago, is what former Foxies are saying right now. Lt. Col. Ralph Peters was Fox’s military strategist for many years. He recently quit the network saying that he was “ashamed” to be associated with it, and that it has become “a propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration.” He also called Carlson a Nazi apologist. I’m waiting for Fox’s searing article on those commentaries by people associated with Fox News.

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