Day: 5/3/2019

Trump Threatens to ‘Look Into’ Social Media Bias of Diamond and Silk, James Woods, and Infowars

Posted by on May 3, 2019 at 8:36 pm. 2 Comments :

With all of the problems that Donald Trump is dealing with now (Mueller, Barr, Venezuela, the border, Putin, Kim) it’s odd that he would take time to push the ludicrous conspiracy theory that conservatives are being discriminated against on social media. All of the evidence shows unequivocally that there is no such bias. It’s just the infantile and self-serving whining of Trump and other right-wingers who can’t accept that they are not universally beloved by zillions.

Diamond and Silk, Fox News

The phony charge of anti-conservative treatment by websites like Twitter and Facebook is nothing new. It has been alleged by Republican politicians, Fox News hosts, and paranoid wingnuts for years. First among them is the modern minstrel duo, Diamond and Silk. They even testified before Congress for a hearing on the imaginary bias. So it is not surprising to see the Fox News “personalities” on Trump’s Twitter feed getting a boost from the President who spends countless hours watching Fox News:

Reading Trump’s praise for a couple of superfans doesn’t really deserve much attention. What’s troubling about this tweet is Trump’s threat to look into how they “have been treated so horribly by Facebook.” Exactly what authority does he think he has to “look into” that? And if that weren’t bad enough, Trump expressed the same concerns for whackjob James Woods and Infowars “correspondent” Paul Joseph Watson.

These are people whose social media contributions often exacerbate the most virulent racism that appears on the Internet. They are purposefully divisive and aren’t shy about inciting potential violence. So while Trump continues to complain that he is being misrepresented with regard to his comments about the deadly right-wing riots in Charlottesville, he nevertheless promotes people with exactly the same repugnant views. These are the cretins that he feels so compelled to defend with tweets like this, currently pinned to the top of his feed:

Indeed we do have freedom of speech, not that Trump actually gives a damn. If he did he wouldn’t repeatedly refer to the free press in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.” And if his interpretation of free speech includes “monitoring” what citizens are freely posting online, his notions about the First Amendment are closer to those of his BFF Vladimir Putin than they are to anything in the Constitution. Maybe he would like it if Fox News was held to his standards of forced balance?

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

UPDATE: On Saturday morning Trump extended his tweetstorm defending social media’s most dangerous and provocative wingnuts. His bonkers retweeting included three more posts of Infowars content. He has truly bought into the deranged conspiracy world.

Fox News Shills Parrot Trump’s False and Peculiar ‘Praise’ of a New York Times Campaign ‘Spy’ Story

Posted by on May 3, 2019 at 1:00 pm. 1 Comments :

For most his presidency, Donald Trump has demonstrated a remarkable capacity for failing to understand the simplest matters that unfold in current events. Either that or he is deliberately distorting reality to conform to his preconceived delusions. This is evident in everything from his confused grasp of the economy, to his embarrassing belief that stealth fighters are actually invisible.

Fox News, Spying on Trump

On Friday morning Trump took another step into the cognitive void. He posted a tweet that offered backhanded praise to the New York Times for an article about the FBI’s investigation into his campaign’s contacts with Russia. But his comprehension of the Times article was indicative of a diseased mind:

It was thoughtful of Trump to suggest that the Times should get a Pulitzer Prize. Especially since they already got one this year for “an exhaustive 18-month investigation of President Donald Trump’s finances that debunked his claims of self-made wealth and revealed a business empire riddled with tax dodges.” But Trump’s tweet missed the whole point of the story. He also missed the headline, which his tweet falsely quoted as “Details effort to spy on Trump Campaign.” The actual headline was “F.B.I. Sent Investigator Posing as Assistant to Meet With Trump Aide in 2016.”

Notice that what Trump called a “spy,” the Times referred to as an “investigator.” And that’s precisely how Fox News helpfully sought to elaborate on Trump’s glitchy characterization. The “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends did a segment on the story by the Times that led with a gleeful Steve Doocy completely misrepresenting it (video below):

“So it’s a big story in the New York Times. Remember a couple of years ago when Donald Trump said the government was spying on him? Turns out the New York Times, in this morning’s edition, right here on the front, we’re gonna show you the headline, ‘FBI Sent Investigator Posing as Assistant to Meet with Trump Aide in 2016.'”

First of all, can anyone explain why Fox put that MAGA sign in the graphic, other than as a free advertisement? More to the point, Doocy went on to describe the story as involving Trump’s foreign policy advisor, George Papadopoulos, who the FBI was indeed investigating to ascertain his links to Russia. Doocy even acknowledge that, although he repeated Trump’s rhetoric about spying, which is not what happened. But co-host Brian Kilmeade agreed and then went full conspiracy crackpot by accusing the FBI of “covering their tracks” due some to imaginary exposé that Kilmeade wouldn’t reveal.

In reality, this was part of an investigation that had already begun. It was initiated after an Australian diplomat told the FBI about a meeting he had with Papadopoulos in a London bar. Papadopoulos revealed that he had access to damaging information about Hillary Clinton obtained by Russian hackers. That meeting took place in May of 2016. The meeting referenced in the New York Times story took place in September of 2016, several months later. So, since the investigation was already in progress, what exactly were Trump and Fox News so excited about? The Times story merely affirms prior reporting that Trump’s campaign had unsavory associations with Russia that were worthy of scrutiny.

Trump has been whining incessantly about what he calls a “Witch Hunt” and a “hoax” for much of the past two years. But his contention that he was the subject of spying is ludicrous. When law enforcement assigns officers to engage in surveillance it is routine and legal investigative work, not spying. And in Trump’s case, it was all conducted with strict oversight and lawful warrants issued by independent judges. Nevertheless, Trump managed to twist the Times’ story into something it wasn’t, and then declared some sort of deranged victory.

This is just another sorry attempt by Trump – with Fox’s help – to malign the FBI and American intelligence agencies. That’s something that he has been working hard at because he knows what he is guilty of and, therefore, needs to discredit the police agencies who are protecting the nation from criminals. Criminals like Donald Trump, who also tweeted that he spoke with Vladimir Putin Friday morning. His tweet indicated that they spoke about the “Russian Hoax.”

So now Trump is talking to our enemies about his attacks on American law enforcement? Is he still colluding with Putin to coordinate their stories that there was “no collusion, no obstruction”? Doesn’t he realize that Putin is a subject of the investigation by the FBI, and it’s entirely inappropriate for him to discuss the case with Putin? And given all of that, do we really need any more reasons to impeach Trump?

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