Trump Confirms that Fox News is State TV in Bonkers Defense of Bigotry, Pirro, Carlson, et al

Posted by on March 17, 2019 at 12:07 pm. 5 Comments :

Now there can be no further dispute. Donald Trump has made it absolutely clear that Fox News is unambiguously State TV, and that the Trump White (Nationalism) House is inextricably intertwined with the network’s mission of propaganda and right-wing tyranny.

Donald Trump

During Trump’s regularly scheduled Sunday Tweetstorm, the President unleashed one of his most deranged outbursts of all time. It was a sustained assault on the free press, freedom of speech, the First Amendment, and a democratic government that honors individual freedom. While Trump has always been an opponent of the media – which he refers to in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people” – he has taken his hostility to a new low that provides incontrovertible evidence that his regime and Fox News are conjoined partners in undermining the free society principles that the United States were founded on.

Trump began his Sunday sermonizing with an attack on Saturday Night Live, which he seems to be unaware was a rerun:

That’s right. The flailing Snowflake-in-Chief is now spending his time barking at comedians, even though there supposedly a “national emergency” in progress. But even worse, he thinks that his government agencies should have the power to investigate these comics due to their having the audacity to make fun of him. If he doesn’t like it, he shouldn’t give them so much material. But his inclination to use oppressive state measures to silence them should worry every patriotic American. And it wasn’t the first time he’s done this either.

What’s more, his impotent swings at SNL also include crazy allegations that the funny folks on late night TV are the ones colluding with Russia, a nation not well known for its sense of humor. And he follows that up with the false assertion that he enjoys a fifty-two percent approval rating. He got that from an ultra-biased Rasmussen poll that is now a moth old. Rasmussen currently has him at forty-eight percent, while most other polls put him the thirties.

However, if you think any of that was proof that Trump has lost his mind, you might want to sit down. Because he was just getting warmed up. His next tweets contained more of his psychotic whining about a “Witch Hunt,” followed by a personal attack on John McCain’s intelligence. How utterly repulsive for Trump to go after a dead senator/veteran who can’t defend himself. Especially for something that Trump is notably lacking in. Trump even had his “fixer” threaten his schools to keep his records secret.

Finally, Trump disgorged himself with a what could only be described as a slobbering suck-up to Fox News, the network that defends his every atrocity and maligns his critics with outright lies. What triggered Trump was the news that one of his adoring bootlickers, Jeanine Pirro, was bumped Saturday for a rerun of a tabloid documentary. While Fox wouldn’t comment on the preemption, it has been credibly speculated that they didn’t want her program to air so soon after the massacre at Muslim mosques in New Zealand, because of her recent Islamophobic comments. Based on that, Trump went to work on behalf of his bosses at Fox News:

Holy Crap! Trump is totally confirming that he and Fox News are locked in a political/governmental embrace that this country has never seen before. Not that we didn’t already know that, but Trump is shedding any pretense of independence that either of them might have sought to convey. And this comes at a time when Fox News has been trying to convince people that they are a legitimate news network capable of hosting a Democratic Party primary debate. Well, that’s blown all to hell now, isn’t it?

Trump has taken on the role of chief PR and marketing president for Fox News. And he’s offering advice that they “stay strong and fight back with vigor. Stop working soooo hard on being politically correct.” When exactly have they ever done that? Trump implores Fox to “fight for our Country,” by which he clearly means to fight for him. And he warns them to “Be strong & prosper, be weak & die!” Obviously Trump sees this as a war, and he expects casualties.

As with his own delusional perception of his approval, Trump thinks that America is on the side of Fox News. But MSNBC has been beating them regularly for several months. Rachel Maddow is crushing her competition, Sean Hannity, nearly every night. And because of the obsessive bigotry of hosts like Pirro and the disgusting Tucker Carlson, Fox News is losing audience, advertisers, and revenue at an alarming rate.

If it wasn’t enough that Trump is virtually drooling over his Fox sycophants, he also found it necessary to bash the few people on the network that have a modicum of integrity:

For the record, Shepard Smith just won a First Amendment award from the Radio Television Digital News Association. And in his speech he gave a backhanded slap at the “opinion” hosts on the network that he fervently tries to disassociate himself from. But if you aren’t a fawning Trump-fluffer you can expect him to bring his tiny “mushroom” hammer down on you.

This Twitter tirade is the best evidence yet that Fox News cannot be taken seriously as a news network. They certainly cannot be trusted to host a Democratic primary debate. They shouldn’t even be considered as a platform for interviews by anyone but devout Trumpists. If Trump thinks that crazed outbursts like this are helpful to Fox News, he is, as usual, pitifully mistaken. It only certifies that Fox is a brazenly partisan mouthpiece for Trump and his Republican Nationalist Party.

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

If Fox had any integrity they would repudiate Trump’s comments and insist that they don’t support such media bias. But don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen. Fox News knows that their audience is comprised mainly by loyal Trump cultists and they aren’t going to do anything that might alienate them or the racist white nationalists and neo-Nazis who wallow in this filth. These are the core components of their wretched business model.

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Trump’s Fox News Addiction is Eating Away at His (and All Fox Viewers’) Few Remaining Brain Cells

Posted by on March 16, 2019 at 11:56 am. 3 Comments :

It’s Saturday and time for another episode of The Donald Trump Weekend Tweetstorm. This is how Trump spends most of his time – Watching Fox News and posting only the most obsequious videos that mindlessly profess an undying adoration for Dear Leader.

Donald Trump, Fox News

This is the behavior of a malignant narcissist who is frightened and dependent on constant positive reinforcement to prevent him from suffering mental seizures that result in more all-caps rage-tweeting.

The morning began with a shout out to 2018’s undisputed “Most Deranged Lunatic on Fox News,” Lou Dobbs, who believes that the United Nations is trying to take over the world and that special counsel Robert Mueller is trying to kill Trump. In this clip Dobbs drools over the “emotional ceremony in the White House” where Trump vetoed the bipartisan bill to reject his unconstitutional declaration of a national emergency. His guest is a regular Fox Trump-fluffer who repeatedly exalts Trump as a “great president.”

That nauseating spectacle was followed by one that puts it to shame on the Nauseous Scale. Once again, it’s Lou Dobbs, but this time hosting those brilliant political gurus, Diamond & Silk. Does Fox really consider these helium-noggins to be legitimate news analysts? Dobbs lauds Trump’s signing of his first veto and then asks the pair of cartoonish crackpots for their loopy thoughts. This leads to a predictably smarmy display of cringeworthy bootlicking wherein Demean & Sulk lambaste the Republicans who voted against the national emergency hysteria as “swampettes.”

After that embarrassment, Trump interrupted his video montage with a dumbass statement all his own:

Note that Trump is actually bragging that he told Republican members of Congress to lie in order to “look good” since this constitutional issue is just a “game” to him. He’s also asserting that he has such complete control of his party’s congressional delegation that he can order them on how to vote. What’s more, he knew that his top sycophant in the senate, Lindsey Graham, was going to block the measure anyway when it reached that body.

So that brings us to Trump’s posting of a clip from the Fox News show they call “Outnumbered,” because it pits four ultra-rightist women against one equally wingnutty man. On this episode the token male was also a token Democrat, very rarely seen on this program. But no worries, because they wouldn’t even let him talk. And that was demonstrated in the video that Trump posted. He sat there smiling uncomfortably while co-host Kennedy ranted about the FBI not reviewing the contents of Hillary Clinton’s computers (which they actually did review).

Next up was a tweet that was just a propaganda photo-op of Trump signing his first veto. He surely regards this as a historical moment where he defies the will of the Congress and the American people who oppose both his idiotic vanity wall, and his phony national emergency to fund it.

Finally, Trump posted another video from Fox News (does he ever do anything else but watch Fox?) featuring Fox and Friends co-host Ed Henry and former GOP chair of the House intelligence Committee, Jason Chaffetz, who is now a Fox contributor. They ran through some of Trump’s favorite “Witch Hunt” fear mongering that imagined FBI conspiracies and returned to the undying GOP fantasy of Hillary Clinton’s evil empire that enabled her to escape prison. Even after hundreds of hours of hearings and testimony by Republican controlled committees, as well as the efforts of Trump’s own Department of Justice.

This avalanche of derp on an otherwise pleasant Saturday morning is further proof of Trump’s declining psychological state. Never mind that he insists the nation is in the midst of a national emergency due to an invasion at the southern border, that North Korea is ready to nuke us, that the Deep State is plotting a coup, or that white nationalists are murdering innocent churchgoers. These are the things that Trump is spending his time on. And these are the things that all Fox News viewers are being directed to pay special attention to.

It’s enough to convince you that there really is a national emergency, and that right at this very moment it’s laying in bed with a sweaty remote in one hand and a Big Mac in the other, trying to get Sean Hannity or Vladimir Putin on the phone.

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

LATE BREAKING: Trump dusted off his Twitter machine for one more comment that marks a new low, even for him:

So now he’s taking shots at a Senator/veteran who passed away and can’t defend himself. And what he’s upset about is the Steele dossier (much of which has been proven to be accurate), and John McCain’s principled vote to prevent Trump and the GOP from taking healthcare away from millions of Americans. You really have to try hard to be this disgusting.


Shepard Smith Brutally Roasts Fox News in First Amendment Award Acceptance Speech

Posted by on March 15, 2019 at 11:46 am. 3 Comments :

There has been one voice on Fox News who has dared to challenge the doctrinal mission of America’s most nauseatingly right-wing network. Shepard Smith is an anomaly whose continued presence is something of a mystery. As part of the so-called “news” side of Fox News (which doesn’t really exist), Smith has repeatedly exposed the lies that his own colleagues disseminate on a daily basis.

Fox News, Shepard Smith, Donald Trump

Smith has done segments where he slammed the network’s narrative on former Donald Trump advisor Michael Flynn. He ridiculed the administration’s immigration hysteria. He spelled out precisely why the Mueller investigation is legitimate and warranted. He even got into a war of words with Sean Hannity and the other “opinion” meisters on Fox, separating himself from whatever it is that they do:

“We serve different masters. We work for different reporting chains, we have different rules. They don’t really have rules on the opinion side. They can say whatever they want. If it’s their opinion. I don’t really watch a lot of opinion programming. I’m busy.”

Smith must have some pretty embarrassing photos of Rupert Murdoch locked away somewhere. His departure from the approved political Foxisms frequently contradicts the commentaries by other hosts and contributors. By provided detailed and factual reports on issues that Fox regulars routinely lie about, he’s exposing them as purposefully dishonest. But he’s getting away with it, so far.

The most recent swipe at his network pals came while Smith was receiving a First Amendment award from the Radio Television Digital News Association (video below). His remarks did not explicitly identify any individual or program, but the tone was unmistakably critical of the flagrantly biased Trump sycophants who litter most of the Fox News schedule. Smith said that:

“Being accurate and honest and thorough and fair is our primary mission. It’s our professional calling. And everyone on my team takes it extremely seriously. […] We must never manipulate or invent. We must never knowingly deceive. Because to do so is a disservice to our audience and potentially injurious to our society. I am convinced that upon those who intentionally misinform, history will poorly reflect. The times ahead will test all of us as finders and disseminators of accurate information.”

Those words must sting Hannity, and Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends, like holy water stings the devil. Their whole reason for being is to manipulate, invent, and deceive. They are Trump’s first line of defense, as well as the hostile flank assembled to malign Democrats and other Trump critics.

Fortunately, the glow of Fox News is weakening as both their audience and their advertisers are fleeing the network. They are rapidly tiring of the relentless negativity and lies. And Fox isn’t helping themselves by allowing blatant hate speech to be broadcast without any repercussions. The result is that MSNBC has been beating Fox on a regular basis for the past four months, with Rachel Maddow leading the way as the most watched program on cable news.

You have to wonder how much longer Shepard Smith will be able to make fools of his Fox associates and keep his daily program. The cult of Fox News (aka the cult of Trump) is not exactly comfortable with Smith, who they demand be fired at once. Their hostile and profane attacks are proof that the network is aimed at a hive-mind audience of blind followers who can’t tolerate any exposure to facts, or diversity of opinion. Consequently, Smith is trying their patience by providing some occasional truths and having the audacity to win awards that honor the First Amendment – something that Fox News and Trump bitterly oppose.

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


Hair Trump Threatens to Use His ‘Tough People’ – the Police, Military, Bikers – Against Democrats

Posted by on March 14, 2019 at 12:54 pm. 1 Comments :

For most his presidency, Donald Trump has demonstrated a perverse infatuation with the tyrannical despots who represent some of America’s most virulent enemies. From Vladimir Putin to Xi Jinping to Kim Jong Un to Muhammad Salman, Trump has shown an adoring preference for their brand of autocracy, and a deference to their flagrant lies over the facts provided by his own intelligence agencies.

Donald Trump

The compulsion by Trump to emulate these dictators has not been incidental. He has explicitly expressed his aspiration to command the same blind loyalty that these authoritarians insist upon. He “pined over Xi.” becoming president for life. He yearned to be “worshipped” like Kim. He has spoken openly about “revolution” if he is impeached.

Now Trump has elaborated on these anti-democratic, un-American tendencies in an interview with the ultra-rightist Breitbart website. Rather than show respect for the diversity of opinion in American politics, Trump has articulated an approach to his critics that is overtly hostile and illegal. He told Breitbart that:

“I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump – I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”

That is an unambiguous threat of the sort that mobsters (with whom Trump is well familiar) would make against their foes. But it’s even worse than that.Trump is asserting that he personally has control of the police and the military and that they will obey his singular will. That’s the talk of a crazed, third world strongman, not a democratic president. Who is he proposing to attack with this fantasy force he’s pretending to command? Nancy Pelosi? Gavin Newsom? Robert Mueller?

And for some extra added totalitarian flavor, Trump insults the very troops that he thinks are his allies. He associates the police and the military with outlaw biker gangs who have no law enforcement authority, but whom Trump regards as part of his loony defense force.

These are the martinets of the Trump regime who he expects will bear arms against their fellow citizens. It’s all part of his campaign to divide America into hostile factions. And anyone not on his side will be maligned in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people,” just has he as already been doing for years to our nation’s free press. He will be the one source of truth and the one commander of his twisted anti-patriots. He really seems to be preparing for a Jonestown-like event wherein he orders his cult followers to make the final sacrifice.

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


Trump Agrees with Nancy Pelosi, Inadvertently Making the Case for His Own Impeachment

Posted by on March 13, 2019 at 11:49 am. NO Comments :

The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, created a bit of stir this week when she weighed in on the question of impeaching Donald Trump. It’s a question that has been asked by many in political circles, as well as millions of Americans troubled by the President’s unsavory associations with Russia, obstruction of justice, financial corruption, and other pending crimes.

Donald Trump Impeach

Pelosi made a fairly conclusive statement in a response to an inquiry by the Washington Post. While many people on both sides of this issue interpreted her remarks differently, they had a distinct tone that couldn’t help but indicate an openness to impeachment under the right circumstances. She said that:

“Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.”

So Pelosi explicitly said that impeachment is on the table if there is compelling evidence and bipartisan participation. The latter would come with the disclosure of the former. She also coyly taunted Trump by saying that he isn’t worth the trouble. That could outrage him so much that he will insist on impeachment hearings just to prove that he is worth it. Which is almost what he did with his Wednesday morning tweetstorm:

Trump tweets

So Trump appreciates Pelosi’s statement. You have to wonder if he actually read it or if he was only told about the part where she was reticent to “go down that path.” But without his making any distinction, it appears that he’s cool with impeachment given the same criteria that Pelosi outlined. Which is the criteria that almost everyone supports.

Note also that Trump has the absurd opinion that a president cannot be impeached if he is (or thinks he is) popular and/or successful. Of course that has nothing to with whether or not he broke the law. Richard Nixon had real diplomatic achievements with China, and he signed the bill creating the Environmental Protection Agency. But he was still driven from office for committing flagrant crimes against the country.

What’s more, by Trump’s own standards it’s open season for his impeachment. He has not produced any significant successes other than packing the courts with ultra-rightist judges, exploding the national debt, inflaming tensions in North Korea, abandoning the environment, relieving corporations and the wealthy of their tax burdens, sabotaging healthcare, and generally creating more hatred and division. And for all of that he is sitting on the most persistently low approval ratings in modern times.

So according to Trump, it’s full steam ahead with impeachment. After all, he’s the only one who thinks that he’s the most successful president in history. And as for evidence, the vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee recently said that there’s plenty of it. So if it’s OK with Trump, it’s OK with me. And it’s certainly OK with the seven million plus Americans who have signed the Need to Impeach petition, and also the forty-two percent (up six points since November) who favor impeachment in recent polling. So let’s get on with it, shall we?

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


Fox News Hypes Fake Trump Front Group Formed to Conceal that the Republican Party Hates Jews

Posted by on March 12, 2019 at 1:19 pm. 2 Comments :

The conservative manufactured controversy over Rep. Ilhan Omar’s remarks concerning Israel are continuing to be inflamed by Donald Trump’s State TV division, Fox News. The House of Representatives has already passed a resolution that condemns hate of all kinds – whether directed at Jews, Muslims, or anyone else – which all Democrats voted for, but which twenty-three Republicans voted against.

Fox News, Elizabeth Pipko

The determination by Republicans and Fox News now is to slander Democrats as as anti-Semitic. That’s an absurd stretch considering that Democrats have been the most supportive party of the generally progressive views of the majority of American Jews. At the same time, Republicans have been the welcoming home of neo-Nazis and racial hate groups who are often openly lobbied by GOP candidates, including Trump.

On Monday Trump lashed out incoherently (as usual) against Democrats, saying that they are “the anti-Israel party, the anti-Jewish Party.” Never mind that Jews having been voting Democratic in overwhelming majorities (70-80%) for decades. So naturally Fox News has had to come to Trump’s rescue by participating in a fraudulent campaign to pretend that Jews are suddenly unhappy as Democrats and are leaving for the Trump Republican Nationalist Party. To that end, Fox and Friends interviewed Elizabeth Pipko (video below), a former model enlisted as the spokesperson for a group called “Jexodus.” She began her contrivance by saying that:

“I thought it was time. Obviously we saw a lot of anti-Israel policies kinda start under the Obama administration. And it got worse and worse and it was blasted on our TV screens the last month. There is anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party. They can hide it, they can do whatever they want. They failed to condemn it and now it’s there. So it’s time.”

Of course, they did condemn it. But Trump was watching (as he always does) and tweeted the above quote. During the segment Pipko conceded that Jews have been generally supportive of Democrats. But she failed to grasp that the reason for that is that Democratic policies of inclusion and compassion and equality are aligned with those of most Jewish voters. And there is also a reason why neo-Nazi and racist groups have been loyal supporters of the GOP and Trump. But Pipko seemed oblivious to the fact that Jews were already satisfied with the political judgments they’ve made:

“I thought that people would at least understand – my Jewish friends of mine – would understand why I supported [Trump]. They didn’t at first, and they never changed their mind. They stuck to the narrative that President Trump is bad and they refused to change. […] I don’t think they’re going to change.”

Exactly. The choices made by Jewish voters were based on their knowledge of the political landscape with a full understanding of the issues important to them. Pipko, Fox News, and Trump seem to think they are too stupid to make a decision regarding their own best interests. So this phony front group was formed to pretend that there is a movement of disaffected Democratic Jews. Even though Pipko admitted that her own friends were still staunchly Democratic. It is reminiscent of “Blexit,” which falsely asserted that African-Americans were also abandoning the Democrats.

There is nothing genuine about this “Jexodus” nonsense, including the name. After all, “Exodus” was already about Jews involved in a mass departure. It hardly needs a “J” added to the front. But more importantly, it’s a totally fabricated crusade to demonize Democrats – especially the Jewish ones – for their independent thinking. Pipko is just another spokesmodel for the right-wing’s exclusionary dogma. And her otherwise irrelevant project would have been deservedly ignored but for the prejudiced intervention of Fox News and Donald Trump.

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

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Why Won’t Fox News Fire Tucker Carlson? Their Deplorable Viewers Will Watch Whoever Replaces Him

Posted by on March 11, 2019 at 1:13 pm. 5 Comments :

Following a week where Jane Mayer’s exhaustive New Yorker essay exposing how Fox News has transformed from a Republican mouthpiece into the propaganda arm of Donald Trump’s White House, the network is undergoing additional hardship due to its own embrace of doctrinaire hate speech.

Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump

The primetime White Nationalist Hour of Tucker Carlson has long been a haven for bigotry dispensed by the most smugly arrogant blowhard on television. Carlson has the distinction of having been fired from three TV networks (PBS, CNN, and MSNBC). However, when he landed at Fox News (despite his previous bad blood with the network), he had truly found his TV soul mate, where he could blather incessantly about “dirty” immigrants and loving all Americans, even the Klan members.

Now Media Matters has unearthed some recordings of Carlson when he was a guest on a rather profane radio show hosted by Bubba, the Love Sponge. His rantings were among the most repulsively misogynistic tirades ever made in a public forum by a well known pundit. In the video compilation Carlson can heard blatantly defending a convicted sexual abuser and justifying child rape:

Subsequently, there has been an outcry for advertisers to boycott Fox News (which many are already doing), and for Fox to fire Tucker Carlson. For the moment, that doesn’t appear to a likely consequence of Carlson’s disgusting behavior. His response to the controversy was a brazenly unapologetic tweet that dismissed any acknowledgement of his grotesque commentaries:

“Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago. Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I’m on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.”

First of all, what Carlson said wasn’t “naughty.” It was obscene, hostile, and utterly contemptible. It was degrading and dangerous. There is no excuse for the nauseating views he disgorged over and over again. Secondly, his attempt to dismiss it as having occurred a decade ago are laughably hypocritical. He surely doesn’t have the same forgiveness for the North Carolina governor’s blackface photos in a thirty year old college yearbook. Or for the decades old philandering of Bill Clinton. Or for the forty year old remarks by Joe Biden that Carlson featured on last Friday’s show.

Finally, his suggestion that the solution to this problem is for his critics to come on his show and help boost his floundering ratings is grossly self-serving. Plus, it’s a lie that he’ll let “anyone” come on his show to confront him. His modus operandi is to entrap his guests with contrived questions of the “Have you stopped beating your wife” variety. And if they manage to get the upper hand, he interrupts them and cuts them off.

So Fox News is once again being faced with a public backlash caused by one of their noxious hosts. They are simultaneously dealing with comments by Jeanine Pirro, who delivered one of her patented teeth-gnashing, spittle-inflected assaults on Rep. Ilhan Omar that asserted she was anti-America and anti-Constitution because she’s a practicing Muslim. Fox News actually released a statement “strongly condemning” Pirro, but will likely do nothing else.

What’s funny is that they could easily fire Carlson and suffer little or no repercussions outside of the PR hit. The core Fox News audience has demonstrated through the years that they will watch whatever is on Fox, no matter what or who it is. It appears that one obnoxious, lying hate monger is the same as another. So Fox could jettison Carlson and replace him with Jason Chaffetz or Brian Kilmeade and no one would flinch. So why won’t Fox fire Tucker Carlson?

First and foremost, Fox News agrees with Carlson. The network’s mission has always been in alignment with just the sort of repellant verbal abuse that Carlson unleashed in the video above. What’s more, Rupert Murdoch has been a notoriously stubborn purveyor of right-wing media. He will hang on to failing properties for years with the expectation that sheer persistence will bring success. And he has a physical aversion to conceding that he’s ever wrong about anything.

That blind faith in always being right is something Murdoch shares with Donald Trump. And something else they share is the belief that – as Trump put it – he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any of his supporters. That appears to be the working thesis at Fox News where the carnage produced by Carlson, Pirro, and others won’t have any cost in ratings. So even though it would be easier to let Carlson go and plug in another wingnut bot, Fox will cling to his revolting personage and try to weather the storm.

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

Unfortunately for Fox News, that old method of doing business may not hold up in the future. The network has been bleeding audience, advertisers, and revenue for several months. Rachel Maddow is kicking Sean Hannity’s fat arse. And the more that Fox clutches tightly to Trump, the worse their prospects have been. So time will tell if enabling jerkwads like Carlson will pay off in the long run.


Peak Stupidity: Ranking GOP Member of House Intel Committee Thinks Asking for Straws is Socialism

Posted by on March 10, 2019 at 11:45 am. 3 Comments :

The most recent polls show that the American people, particularly the young, are not generally fearful of what used to be portrayed as the scourge of socialism. In fact, a more enlightened public is now aware that some of this country’s most cherished institutions (Medicare, Social Security, public schools, etc.) were developed directly from socialist ideas. And new policies that advocate universal health coverage and tuition-free college are gaining in popularity.

Devin Nunes

Of course those views are not shared by the Fox News viewing Deplorables who still worship at the Cult of Donald Trump. Their disdain for an agenda that seeks to mitigate the historically high income inequality, and to make fairness in jobs, taxation, and education a priority, is as strong as ever. And it’s strength is rooted in the ignorance of what socialism actually is.

A perfect example of that ignorance exposed itself Sunday morning in the form of a tweet by Republican Devin Nunes. He is best known for his corrupt chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee wherein he distorted the hearings it held and colluded with Trump to shape White House propaganda. With the Democrats having taken over the majority in the House, Nunes is now the ranking member, while Adam Schiff was elevated to chairman.

The tweet Nunes posted displays his pitiful misunderstanding of socialism, while also advancing his prejudicial views. He tweeted that:

Nunes is breaking the sound barrier of dumbassedness here. He is somehow associating a policy that seeks to reduce pollution and waste with his nightmare of a government controlled society. But free citizens in a democracy frequently enact bills that produce a desired and positive effect. That’s actually a validation of freedom, not some imaginary “Straw Police State.”

Nunes must also oppose separating recyclable garbage, banning cancer causing asbestos, health warnings on cigarettes, and increasing vehicle fuel efficiency standards. Anything that actually improves the lives of the people is inherently anti-Republican, because it interferes with their right to unlimited profits despite the public harm.

What’s more, Nunes is blissfully unaware of his own embrace of socialism. As a farmer in the Central Valley of California (although that is in dispute), Nunes has received tens of thousands of dollars in government subsidies. The district that he represents has received nearly half a billion dollars since 1995. How would Nunes define those handouts to people and businesses who are already prosperous?

This is the kind of idiocy that marks the Republican aversion to, and attacks on, socialism and the new breed of proud Social Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It is the result of being uninformed and unwilling to learn. And that problem is exacerbated by Fox News, who disseminate the lies and distortions of numbskulls like Nunes. It’s one of the reasons that Donald Trump says that he “loves the uneducated.” Without them he would never have been elected and no one would show up at his cult rallies.

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


Fair and WTF? Fox News Insults Democrat as ‘Bird-Brained’, Exalts Republican as ‘Modern Marvel’

Posted by on March 9, 2019 at 11:50 am. 3 Comments :

Last week the media was abuzz over the “controversy” about whether or not Fox News should be permitted to host a Democratic primary debate. That’s a pretty easy question to resolve considering Fox’s history of bias. And a few weeks ago, Tom Perez, the chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) reversed his prior public statements on the subject and announced that Fox News would not be considered as a debate broadcast partner.

Fox News Alert

Naturally, this outraged Fox News and it’s forward flank of Storm-Trumpers who were appalled at losing their opportunity to disparage Democratic presidential candidates on national television. But their disingenuous consternation was a fraud from the start. They complained that they are a legitimate news enterprise with reputable journalists. Never mind that the vast majority of their airtime is dominated by rightist surrogates for Donald Trump who pretend to be nonpartisan reporters.

When that argument failed to persuade anyone that Fox News was an appropriate platform for a Democratic debate, they accused Democrats of being afraid of Fox. Why Fox thinks that impugning the character of Democrats as cowards is a good way to convince the party that Fox is unbiased is puzzling, to say the least. That charge is both unfair and untrue. It isn’t fear, but intelligence, that drove Democrats to decline to assist Fox in sabotaging their candidates. It makes no sense to reward a network that spends twenty-four hours a day promoting Trump as their savior, while viciously maligning Democrats and others who dare to challenge Trump’s divine right to absolute power.

Now Fox News is helpfully validating the decision by the DNC by continuing to demonstrate their abject hatred for Democrats. On their website they posted two stories next to each other that tells the tale of of Fox’s blatant political prejudices. One story featured a favorite foil for Fox News, Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She was pictured with a caption that read “Bird-Brained” and was accompanied by an article by an avowed climate denier who criticized her “Green New Deal.”

The other story was about Republican representative Dan Crenshaw. He is also a veteran who lost an eye in Afghanistan. His story had a caption reading “Modern Marvel” and was headlined “GOP Rep Reveals ‘Captain America’ Glass Eye to Avengers Star.” The accompanying piece was a short, unnarrated video of Crenshaw meeting actor Chris Evans.

Fox News, Ocasio-Cortez, Crenshaw

So Fox News chose to juxtapose a story about a Republican they portrayed as a superhero with one about a women they maligned as ignorant and evil. And this is the network that has seriously tried to argue that they should be treated like a legitimate news operation that can fairly moderate a political debate by the party they so obviously despise. What a joke. At least we can be thankful that they are so profoundly stupid that they continue to provide these examples of why they should never be taken seriously.

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


Trump’s Fox News Spawned PR Boss, Bill Shine, Flames Out, Gets Demoted to Campaign Flunky

Posted by on March 8, 2019 at 12:30 pm. 2 Comments :

It was only about eight months ago that Donald Trump reached out to the disgraced former president of Fox News, Bill Shine, and asked him to take a White House position as Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications. While many found this appointment peculiar, it actually made perfect sense. After all, Both Trump and Shine were products of Fox News and were associated with predatory sexual harassment and abuse.

Donald Trump, Bill Shine

However, for some reason this marriage made in Hades didn’t work out, and Shine has now resigned amidst speculation that Trump was bitterly disappointed with his work. Apparently, Trump expected Shine to generate positive news for a president who does nothing but whine, insult others, and lie compulsively. In Shine’s defense, no one could turn that stink bomb into a sweet smelling bouquet. According insiders as reported by CNN:

“Shine’s effectiveness inside the West Wing came with mixed results and it was unclear how much he was able to change the White House’s communications strategy. One source close to the White House told CNN that Trump had questioned Shine’s judgment on a number of issues in recent months, from the midterm election to the government shutdown.”

Indeed, the midterm election resulted in an historic forty seat gain by Democrats in the the House of Representatives. And the Trump Shutdown brought him even more disrepute and scorn than he had previously earned for his repeated failures domestically and internationally. Shine’s bumbling tenure at the White House was notable for a number of short Twitter videos that resembled nothing more than the propaganda produced by the Information Ministries of third world tyrants. They always featured the President bragging about some project that flopped thanks to his absence of knowledge and leadership. Even Trump recognized the weakness of Shine’s efforts and leaned on them to avoid placing any blame on himself:

“Trump had been down on Shine for at least a few months, believing him ineffective and not what he’d hoped for when he hired him, according to people familiar. Shine’s role basically became the person who adjusted the lighting and focused the cameras, and he showed no ability to shape a narrative or communications strategy.”

Anyone at Fox News might have been able to warn Trump about Shine. Before he was abruptly terminated, his network colleagues viewed him as a hollow “yes man” to the late Roger Ailes. And when put in a leadership role at either Fox or the White House, he has proven that he was never more than a clueless loser who rose to prominence for having been Sean Hannity’s producer. And perhaps the only White House “achievement” that Shine can point to is an anti-free press decree governing the conduct of journalists.

Now that pathetic resume has resulted in Shine getting a new job with Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign. Even though he’s still technically on the Fox News payroll. Nevertheless, you have to wonder why someone who is being kicked out the door for ineptitude would still be relied on for such a critical task. But his position with the campaign will likely bring both relief and joy – to Democrats.

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

So now the communications post at the White House is once again vacant. Shine was the sixth person to fail at this job following Jason Miller, Sean Spicer, Mike Dubke, Hope Hicks, and famously Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted ten whole days before self-destructing. And the jockeying for a replacement will soon begin. Look for a another Fox News alum (Laura Ingraham?) to step up. They are practically the only people that Trump knows or trusts.