Day: 8/10/2021

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

Posted by 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.

Fox News. Tucker Carlson

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.”

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.

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.

Crybaby Trump Whines Impotently About Passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

Posted by on August 10, 2021 at 12:54 pm. 2 Comments :

There aren’t many public spectacles more humiliating than a washed up politician who fails to see that his influence has dried up. That’s the state of Donald Trump today. While his devoted cult followers keep his massive ego afloat, Trump’s actual ability to impact the nation has suffered considerable shrinkage.

Donald Trump

On Tuesday morning the Senate passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill with 19 Republicans joining all of the Democrats to complete a legislative goal that Trump failed at for four years. Throughout the debate for the past several weeks, Trump repeatedly implored his GOP confederates not to cooperate with the Democratic majority. But his plaintive pleading was for naught. And when the vote for passage was concluded, Trump released a despairing statement (via his spokes-shill, Liz Harrington, (who is violating Twitter’s rules) that only served to highlight his feeble obsolescence:

“Nobody will ever understand why Mitch McConnell allowed this non-infrastructure bill to be passed. He has given up all of his leverage for the big whopper of a bill that will follow. I have quietly said for years that Mitch McConnell is the most overrated man in politics—now I don’t have to be quiet anymore. He is working so hard to give Biden a victory, now they’ll go for the big one, including the biggest tax increases in the history of our Country.

First of all, everyone but Trump understands why Mitch McConnell “allowed” this bill pass. He could hardly stop a bill that had such popular support that even Republican senators knew it would be political suicide to oppose it. And yes, this is a victory for President Biden and the Democrats, but it would have been a devastating defeat for Republicans if they had killed it. Although there is still an opportunity for the GOP to get on the wrong side of the issue when the budget reconciliation bill comes up for a vote.

Naturally, Trump uses this statement to cast blame on others and absolve himself of any responsibility for whatever he happens to be complaining about. This time it’s Senate GOP minority leader, Mitch McConnell. Trump laughably says that he “quietly” criticized McConnell in the past. As if Trump has ever done anything quietly. But as usual, Trump’s version of events doesn’t remotely resemble reality. Just this year Trump has loudly lambasted McConnell saying that…

  • “We need good leadership. Mitch McConnell has not done a great job. I think they should change Mitch McConnell.” (4/29/2021)
  • The Senate GOP leader is “a dumb son of a bitch.” (4/11/2021)
  • McConnell is a “dour, sullen, unsmiling political hack,” and that “if Republican Senators stay with him, they will not win again.” (2/13/2021)

Such a quiet man. These are the incoherent ramblings of a desperate and increasingly isolated has-been who thinks he is still a power broker. But his influence resides solely among the glassy-eyed disciples who cling to him like a miscreant messiah. Going forward, we can count on Trump continuing to fail with greater frequency. And we can also count on him continuing to whine pathetically about it.

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.