The ongoing feud between Donald Trump and Fox News has been a spasmodic adventure of alternating animosity and affection – mostly animosity. A few weeks ago News Corpse wrote that Donald Trump had effectively made Fox CEO Roger Ailes his“bitch” by forcing him to concede to his demands and then rubbing it in.
Well, The Donald has continued his conquest of Fox by putting its corporate master, Rupert Murdoch, in the same bitch boat. Despite recent assurances that all had been forgiven, Trump’s assault on the network and its personnel is unyielding. He is still hammering away at anchor Megyn Kelly, most recently with a tweet calling for a boycott saying “Best thing my supporters can do if you don’t like the way @megynkelly and her puppets unfairly treat ‘us’ is don’t watch her show!”
Now Trump is expanding the battlefield to include Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal. This offensive began with a question asked by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday that referenced an article in the Journal that was critical of Trump. He responded by disparaging the paper’s market value saying…
“The Wall Street Journal was bought for $5 billion. It’s now worth $500 million, OK. They don’t have to tell me what to do. The Wall Street Journal has been wrong so many different times about so many different things.”
He’s actually right that the value of the paper declined, although he doesn’t say how he came up with the lower figure. All that News Corp has stated is that they took a $2.8 billion write-down following the acquisition. That would still leave the value of the paper above $2 billion. And Trump doesn’t seem to be aware that the entire print news business has collapsed since the Internet became a viable alternative. In any case, the net worth of a news enterprise has no bearing whatsoever on the quality of its reporting, so Trump really used that as a way to avoid the criticism.
But Trump wasn’t done. He took his WSJ attacks to his Twitter page where he took several wild swings that succeeded only in salving his ego. The tirade culminated in this pathetic post:
“It’s amazing that some of the dumbest people on television work for the Wall Street Journal, in particular a real dope named Charles Lane!”
The “real dope” in this case does not work for the Wall Street Journal. Charles Lane is an editorial writer for The Washington Post. So, technically, Trump is the real dope, a position with which he must be familiar. But his broad-based blast at every WSJ asset on Fox hits several programs and regular contributors. It is a bunker-buster dropped on both Fox News and the Journal, Murdoch’s pet properties. And yet, Murdoch has not responded to defend his companies or his people. In fact, Murdoch has not tweeted in nearly two weeks, since his racist “real black president” tweet. Have his handlers suspended Twitter privileges.
Trump is a typical bully. He has a big mouth and likes to throw his weight around. But he doesn’t have any real power and would crumble if his victims would just stand up to him. Like most bullies, he’s a coward. He recently bragged that he is an armed mofo and that if “somebody attacks me, oh they’re gonna be shocked.” But now he is seeking Secret Service protection for fear of alleged death threats. What ever happened to his awesome ability to shock any would-be attacker?
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.
With his silence in the wake of Trump’s insults, Murdoch is just providing more proof that he has joined Ailes in the bitches corner. And they aren’t alone. CNBC’s capitulation to Trump’s debate demands, and NBC’s invitation to Trump to host Saturday Night Live, put them both in the same dark place. [Note: sign the petition here urging NBC to rescind the SNL offer] When will the media get some courage and start showing some integrity and principle? They are cowering to the potential ratings bonanza they assume they will get by caving in to Trump. But that isn’t journalism. It’s an embarrassing display of unprofessionalism that should yield a tsunami of shame – if they had the capacity to feel it.
Trump is the perfect example of a little learning being a dangerous thing. To screw up Charles Lane’s employer, The Washington Post as WSJ’s , is carelessness. And that’s how he treats everything. Do we want a president who is so sloppy—meeting world leaders or even Congressmen?
I can hear Trump now saying that Russian President Vladimir Futon is a loser.
[blandly] Now why would he say that? After all, isn’t Vlad the Impaler Fox Spews’ new BFF? [well, at least as long as they can consider him Barack Obama’s direct opposite.]
Donald may be sloppy but I do love the look on the faces of right wingers when he points out politically incorrect stuff like ” George Bush was president on 9/11″. Nobody has ever told Republicans anything that outrageous.
In any other case I might say that it is unfair for Trump to pick on Jeb! because of his brother. But Jeb! was governor of FL on Election Day, 2000. Now, we can only wonder what might have been without eight years of Incurious George. Just for that, Jeb! doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.