For much of the past decade Fox News has been a virulent opponent of NBC. They have severely lashed out at its news division and many of the hosts on their MSNBC cable arm. The attacks have ranged from NBC being in bed with President Obama to being responsible for the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq.
Rupert Murdoch’s news empire has made it their mission to destroy NBC. In addition to castigating people like Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, they aimed their vitriol at the executive suites. Bill O’Reilly famously called GE’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt “a despicable human being.” Meanwhile, Murdoch’s New York Post trades in gossipy articles about Olbermann’s mental health and even published his home address, a despicable act whose only purpose was to incite acts of violence.
That makes it all the more curious that Fox News has not said a single derogatory word about Donald Trump’s affiliation with NBC. Does Fox know that “The Apprentice” is an NBC program? This fact seems to have evaded their attention entirely. After so many years of lambasting NBC as a bastion of liberal propaganda, why do they suddenly have no complaints? In fact, why aren’t they praising NBC for employing one of their favorite conservative prospects for the GOP nomination for president?
The only place I have heard any criticism of NBC for its affiliation with Trump is on MSNBC. That’s a rather startling turn of events as it is almost unheard of for a network to permit such intramural attacks. But MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell has been unrelenting in his denouncement of Trump’s show and of NBC for running it. He has noted its declining ratings and mocked its ludicrous presentation of iconic wackos like LaToya Jackson and Gary Busey. And O’Donnell was not the least bit reserved in saying that…
“The NBC standard for crazy people in their primetime schedule saying evil and hateful things…apparently you can do that on NBC.”
O’Donnell, like many others, believes that Trump’s prospective campaigning is only about ratings for his struggling program. If that’s true he is failing miserably. The last episode of Celebrity Apprentice drew 7.6 million viewers, down from 8.2 million the previous week and 9.7 million the week before that, right after he began his Birther spiel. That likely reflects the response of entertainment program viewers who are turned off by Trump’s politicking, particularly the ignorant, dishonest manner in which engages in it.
Both Fox and NBC are tiptoeing around whether their employees are de facto candidates for president. NBC is being coy about Trump even as he polls his Apprentice contestants on-air as to whether he should run (Meatloaf and Star Jones have endorsed him). Fox has suspended contributors Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich while permitting Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin to continue to exploit their Fox presence. [Note: Santorum and Gingrich have just one week to make their intentions known or Fox will cut them loose. No news on Huckabee or Palin]
But only Fox has demonstrated full-blown hypocrisy by completely avoiding the relationship between NBC and Trump, despite their prior obsession with bashing NBC. Could it be that they don’t want to hamper his idiotic promotion of Birtherism so that he can continue to disparage the President? Or are they just reluctant to draw attention to the fact that NBC isn’t as liberally biased as they pretend? Either way Fox is affirming their own dishonesty and lack of journalistic ethics. But then, that isn’t really news, is it?
I think I know what is going on. Trunp figures that if his phoney ”presidential campaign” can’t boost the ratings of ”The Apprentice” and get it renewed for another season on NBC, then he’ll juat move over to FUX for a new show as Glen Beck’s replacement.