A Confused Donald Trump Posts Witch Hunt Tweet that Actually Debunks His Witch Hunt Claim

Posted by on September 3, 2018 at 8:00 pm. 6 Comments :

Nobody is going to fall out of their chair by encountering a mindnumbingly boneheaded comment from the Dotard-in-Chief, Donald Trump. To the contrary, any sign of intelligence would be more likely to require a whiff of smelling salts. But every now and then our nation’s idiocy dispenser squeezes out something that really underscores our lowest expectations of him.

Donald Trump

Monday was such a day as Trump manned his Twitter machine to rant about some perceived slight and/or yowl at his many looming enemies. When he isn’t lashing out manically at critics, he’s protesting too much about his fake innocence, or insisting that he’s a beloved figure about whom all the polls are lying. All of these harangues are disgorged on his Twitter feed, which is all too often an incoherent mess. For instance, just last week he boasted that his approval rating had climbed to fifty-two percent. But that was actually his disapproval rating. He also posted what he said was a “big story” that turned out to be a big lie from a wingnut website. And tucked into his latest tweetstorm was a little gem that truly captured the full measure of his dementia.

Let’s set aside Trump’s tiresome and false assertion that the New York Times is failing. Thanks in part to Trump’s perpetual circus of psychoses, the Times is enjoying a financial renaissance. The meat of this tweet lies in the preposterous illogic of his quotation. What he is apparently too obtuse to observe is that the existence of an FBI probe so long before he was a candidate, and two years before special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed, is proof that there was no witch hunt.

What’s more, Trump is quoting Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times from an appearance on CNN, a network that he swears he never watches. And Rosenberg himself noticed Trump’s tweet and promptly corrected it:

So in this one tweet, Trump managed to debunk his own witch hunt conspiracy theory and to exonerate all of the “Deep State” conspirators that are such a core part of his warped imagination. And, of course, by extension, he validates the credibility of the FBI’s work which only snagged him as a consequence of the evidence turned up in their prior, unrelated investigation. It takes a special kind of stupid to do all of that in one little tweet.

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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Huh? Fox News Slams Bill Clinton for Being Seated Near Farrakhan at Aretha Franklin’s Funeral

Posted by on September 3, 2018 at 1:25 pm. 5 Comments :

Last week was a difficult one for many Americans, and particularly those close to music legend Aretha Franklin and senate icon John McCain. The media was more consumed with funerals than at any other time in recent memory. And, sadly, the services for these deceased notables were exploited for political gain by media cretins like Fox News who seem to have forgotten how to show respect for the families of the fallen.

Fox News, Bill Clinton, Louis Farrakhan

However, the passage of time over the weekend did nothing to temper the madness at Fox News. They must be getting pretty desperate for disparaging material to throw at their political enemies, because the latest assault really scrapes the bottom of the barrel.

In a segment on Fox and Friends (video below), the “Curvy Couch” potatoes served up a story that criticized President Bill Clinton for his attendance at Aretha Franklin’s funeral. The objection they had was that he was seated near Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. Farrakhan is unarguably a repugnant bigot who has been inciting racial and religious hatred for decades. It was surprising to see him at the service for a woman known for her support of civil rights and her closeness to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

But for Fox News to make an issue of the seating arrangements is ludicrous. The intro to the segment had co-host Ed Henry saying that “The very controversial Nation of Islam leader who has notoriously declared that ‘Jews are my enemy’ and ‘white folks are going down,’ was seated prominently alongside former President Bill Clinton.” In fact, there were several references to Clinton sitting next to Farrakhan. But that’s a lie. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were separating Clinton from Farrakhan.

More to the point, Clinton had nothing to do with the seating arrangements. He likely didn’t know who else was attending or where they would be seated. Does Fox News think that Clinton should have stood up and stomped out of Franklin’s funeral after spotting Farrakhan in the crowd? Apparently so. They even brought in Alan Dershowitz to suggest that option. And co-host Pete Hegseth was aghast at the lack of media whining about this scandalous chair affair, saying “What about the question to the elites of our country? This is not a story? They’re not blinking an eye.”

Of course, the reason the press isn’t blinking is because, in fact, it isn’t a story to anyone but the craven loons at Fox News who are grasping at straws to denigrate Clinton and any other Democrat that they happen to bump into. They previously faulted Clinton for looking in the direction of Ariana Grande when she was singing. Which is something that humans do while entertainers are performing. They also complained bitterly about the eulogies at both funerals when they thought expressions of unity, civility, and respect were attacks on Donald Trump. Now why do you suppose they thought that? Perhaps because he is anathema to those honorable personality traits?

It’s noteworthy that while America was mourning, Trump was golfing and tweeting. Maybe he DM’d his BFF Vladimir Putin. And what’s really worse: Clinton sitting near, but not speaking to, Farrakhan, or Trump lavishing effusive praise on, and doing the bidding of the murderous dictator and enemy of America, Putin?

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


Fox News Attacks Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Encouraging Kids to Be Interested in Politics

Posted by on September 2, 2018 at 1:50 pm. 2 Comments :

The professional Trump-fluffers at State TV (aka Fox News) are very concerned about what is happening to innocent children. No, not the ones that Donald Trump has ripped from the arms of their immigrant parents and put in cages along the border. Fox News is worried about American children who are being indoctrinated into socialism by nefarious congressional candidates.

Fox News, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

On Sunday’s episode of Fox and Friends, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes latched onto a video that was posted by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who is running for the 14th district seat in New York. Ocasio-Cortez is seen talking to a group of kids in a park about what she’s doing. The kids are clearly interested and, when she mentions that she’s going to Congress to fight Trump, they spontaneously erupt in cheers. Several of the kids are heard volunteering that they don’t like Trump.

However, children engaged in civic affairs is viewed as a dangerous trend by the Fox News crew. Co-host Ed Henry refers to Ocasio-Cortez as a “cause celebre” on the left, and then introduces the video where he falsely says that she is “trying to rally kids to go after President Trump.”

In the video, the sin that Fox News is so rattled about is that Ocasio-Cortez asks a group of kids if they will go home and tell their parents to vote. Oh my heavens, no. What has become of the world? A candidate for Congress isn’t ignoring an exuberant group of young folks who clearly have an interest in what she’s saying. She isn’t dismissing them as waifs and then catering to the elders who can vote and donate to her campaign. She’s actually engaging them in a respectful conversation and encouraging their interest in civic affairs (see her video below). So naturally Fox News thinks this is abhorrent and must stop immediately. The Foxies continue their brazenly partisan harangue in this fear mongering exchange:

Rachel Campos-Duffy: I actually love this video because there’s so much about Alexandria that is so revealing. She’s such a novice that she really tells you the truth about socialism. This is what socialists do for kids. They don’t help kids. They organize kids. They indoctrinate kids. That’s what she’s doing. That’s what social justice warriors like her are best at.
Pete Hegseth: That’s a good point, you’re right. She’s naive. She’s talking to these kids. Go tell your parents how much you hate Trump.

So Campos-Duffy is glad that Ocasio-Cortez is a political novice because it results in her telling the truth. Unlike the propagandists on Fox News who are seasoned professionals with the experience to suppress any honest tendencies and stick to lying at all times. And Hegseth agrees that encouraging kids to engage in discourse with their parents is somehow subversive and anti-American. They are both apparently afraid that the adults in these families will be unfairly coerced into voting against Trump by their brainwashed offspring. It makes one wonder how susceptible the Fox News hosts are to what their manipulative kids are telling them to do.

Needless to say, including children in discussions about politics is a positive and educational exercise. It prepares them for when they will be old enough to participate in the civic duty of voting. But on Fox News it’s a frightening notion that evokes scary images of informed young citizens. Never mind that the notorious hypocrites at Fox regularly feature conservative kids, and even bring them on their network for extended interviews. For instance, Jesse Watters interviewed nine year old Trump fan Jacob Silva for nearly seven minutes. But they better be careful. Fox also hyped a thirteen year old conservative, Jonathan Krohn, who had the good sense to grow up and, by the time he was seventeen, was supporting Barack Obama.

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


Unpatriotic? Fox News Knocks Meghan McCain for Saying that ‘America Was Always Great’

Posted by on September 1, 2018 at 2:25 pm. NO Comments :

In Washington, D.C. today, Sen. John McCain is being remembered by his family and his many friends and colleagues. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is at his golf resort (again) tweeting manically about the failures of his own Justice Department. He’s posting ludicrously ill-reasoned quotes by the tiresome swarm of sycophants he’s watching on recorded programs from State TV (aka Fox News). Obviously he can’t watch live television for fear of being subjected to the outpouring of goodwill toward McCain, or anyone other than himself.

Fox News, John McCain Funeral, Donald Trump

Even Fox News is covering McCain’s funeral on the air, which leaves nothing else for Trump to watch but cartoons or those “sons of bitches” playing football. But on Fox’s website it’s a different story. The lead news item on their homepage is one that features the headline “Meghan McCain, Obama knock Trump at funeral as nation says goodbye to senator.” Above that is a photo that is captioned “America Was Always Great,” a line taken from the eulogy by Meghan McCain.

Notice that Fox’s headline frames the story as a “knock” on Trump, rather than a report about the McCain funeral. That tells you what they think was the most important part. The article then characterizes McCain’s comment as a “swipe” at Trump, which may be true. But it’s also an expression of patriotism and an enduring reverence for the country, which makes Fox’s complaint sound trite and disloyal. It’s an awkward position for Fox to take under the circumstances. But they didn’t limit their disapproval to just that remark:

“It was Meghan McCain who had the most searing swipes at the president however. Notably she said that her father’s passing represented the passing of ‘American greatness. The real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served.'”

It’s doubtful that Trump’s minders allowed him to hear any of that harsh articulation of the truth. It would have sent him into (even more) hysterics. Nor could his babysitters permit Trump to hear what President Obama said in his eulogy, that Fox also assumed was directed at Trump:

“Obama’s jabs were more subtle but still appeared to be directed at the current occupant of the White House. He derided those in politics who traffic in ‘bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage.’ He also attacked ‘a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born of fear.'”

These fragments of the addresses by both McCain and Obama were singled out by Fox News to create the impression that the whole affair was a just a political sideshow aimed at denigrating Trump. But in both speeches they were merely brief interludes in much longer heartfelt tributes to someone they loved and admired. The article didn’t bother to quote any other parts of these touching eulogies. Apparently Fox was determined to trivialize the funeral service, belittle the mourners, and not allow the day to pass respectfully.

And that’s why Trump loves Fox News so much. They are just as devoted to exalting him above everything and everyone else as he is. Fox is a cable television appendage to Trump’s massive and unrestrained ego.

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


Whiner-in-Chief Donald Trump is Freaking Out About Polls Because He’s at Another New Low

Posted by on August 31, 2018 at 9:18 pm. NO Comments :

It really is pathetic when the President of the United States is so obsessed with his polling that he can’t keep from whining – and lying – about it to his Dimwitted Deplorables on Twitter. But then again Donald Trump is, in his own words, “the most fabulous whiner.” It’s just too bad that he has to prove it at every opportunity, usually over something that is petty and otherwise forgettable.

Donald Trump

On Friday an ABC/Washington Post poll was released with some data that was bound to trigger Trump’s acute insecurity and malignant narcissism. The poll showed that Trump had notched a new high in his disapproval rating of sixty percent. Considering everything that has been going wrong, he’s lucky it isn’t worse. But not known for being rational enough to appreciate that reality, Trump went off on a Twitter tirade against the poll:

First of all, two weeks before the 2016 election, the ABC Washington Post poll had the race at forty-seven percent to forty-three percent in favor of Hillary Clinton. That’s right on the mark since the final election results gave Clinton a three million vote lead. This polling measures voter sentiment, not the electoral college. So Trump’s complaint that the poll was “by far the least accurate one” is just another of his innumerable untruths. Will he ever learn? Don’t bother to answer that. Just take a look at his next tweet:

Rasmussen does currently have Trump at forty-eight percent, but Rasmussen is a notoriously biased outfit that Republicans lean on for positive news when all the reputable pollsters are providing more credible numbers. And Obama’s ratings on August 31, 2010, were also forty-eight percent, so Trump was not higher, as he claimed. As for Trump’s assessment of these two pollsters, the experts at FiveThirtyEight have ABC/Washington Post at A+, while Rasmussen is much farther down the scale at a mere C+.

It’s no wonder that Trump is concerned about his polling. As his presidency continues to be mired in scandal, the results on several other topics are just as bad as his approval. For instance, sixty-three percent of voters support special counsel Robert Mueller. Sixty-four percent oppose Trump firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, which he is threatening to do after the midterms. Fifty-three percent say that Trump is already guilty of obstruction of justice for interfering with the Mueller probe. And a plurality of nearly half (forty-nine percent) of Americans say that Congress should begin impeachment hearings. That includes thirty percent of conservatives.

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

Trump is a walking disaster and he knows it. So he’s trying to gaslight the public with his ludicrous Twitter tantrums. And all of this bad news is coming as Trump is preparing to hit the road to campaign for Republican candidates. You have to wonder how many of them still want him to show up. He just announced that he’ll be holding a “major rally” in Texas for Sen. Ted Cruz. That freak show ought to be a real humdinger considering all the awful things they’ve said about each other. Be sure to have plenty of popcorn on hand.


Clown Show Alert: ‘Pathological Liar’ Donald Trump Announces ‘Major Rally’ for ‘Lyin’ Ted Cruz

Posted by on August 31, 2018 at 1:48 pm. NO Comments :

Last month Donald Trump told Sean Hannity that he would go on the road for Republican candidates “six or seven days a week when we’re sixty days out.” So in effect, he’ll be taking a leave of absence from the presidency to become a full-time campaign shill. Never mind that he’s supposed to be doing president stuff, the American people are mostly relieved when he goes golfing, or otherwise refrains from doing more harm to the nation. A new poll shows his disapproval at a record high of sixty percent.

Ted Cruz, Donald Trump

Trump has already done a couple of dozen of these purely partisan Klan gatherings that require him to assemble his staff and security detail to venture from Washington on the taxpayer’s dime. That’s about three times a month that Trump is doing his Dogged Phony show before the Confederacy of Deplorables. And on Friday morning he revealed a new stop on the StormTrumpers Tour: The great state of Texas will be honored with Trump’s presence on behalf of Sen. Ted Cruz.

For the record, these two have not exactly been BFFs. So this public embrace is an obvious bend toward desperation for them both. Trump famously charged that Cruz’s father was a co-conspirator in the assassination of John Kennedy. He lifted that from the National Enquirer, published by his pal David Pecker, who was recently granted immunity to testify against Trump. The President also insulted Cruz’s wife as not meeting his porn star standard of beauty. In response, Cruz accurately called Trump out (deliciously vicious video below) for being a “pathological liar” and “utterly amoral.” But for a preview of what we might expect at the Texas Revival Meeting in October, here is what Trump said about Cruz not very long ago:

A couple of things stand out in those Twitter diatribes. First of all, Trump makes a point of questioning why any Texan would vote for a lying, do-nothing, foreign-born cad like Cruz. That’s a good question. Secondly, he goes to great lengths to characterize Cruz as a hypocrite for staking out a claim of religiosity despite his uncontrollable tendency to lie. Sound familiar? Trump and Cruz are cut from the same sackcloth. And this is the man that Trump now says has his “complete and total Endorsement.” Well, that figures.

Trump also made a point of maligning Cruz’s opponent for the senate seat. Beto O’Rourke has organized an historic campaign that is still gaining strength. The latest poll shows O’Rourke and Cruz in a virtual dead heat. It’s safe to say that all the Cruz supporters in Texas are already accounted for. Which means that turning out new, younger, and more diverse voters will be the deciding factor in this race. And considering that Cruz is the most hated man in Washington, and that all the momentum is on O’Rourke’s side, Trump’s travelling salvation show might just be the final curtain for Lyin Ted.

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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Frantic Gaslighting: Trump Accuses Lester Holt of ‘Fudging’ Interview Where He Incriminated Himself

Posted by on August 30, 2018 at 12:42 pm. 3 Comments :

Thursday morning most of the media was focused on the first public memorial service for the late Sen. John McCain. So as the nation was united in paying tribute to McCain, Donald Trump naturally took to his Twitter throne and fired off a series of frighteningly incoherent outbursts at what he regards as “the enemy of the people.” It’s his way of continuing to show contempt for a man that had the audacity to challenge him.

Donald Trump

The substance of Thursdays’ tweetstorm was typically centered on his aversion to, and fear of, the free press and the Constitution. He began by taking a swipe at a perennial foe, CNN. Trump lashed out at the network’s boss, Jeff Zucker, and called on AT&T to fire him. Think about that. The president of the United States is issuing orders to a private company in order to control their executive management. That’s pretty much the definition of fascism.

But Trump didn’t stop there. The next tweet in the tantrum was aimed at NBC and their news anchor, Lester Holt. What Trump said was obviously pulled from the recesses of a deeply disturbed mind. It was based on nothing resembling reality, but it did serve to advance his mission to Make America Stupid Again:

This is a perfect example of Trump disseminating utter bullcrap to his pathetic and glassy-eyed cult followers who will believe anything Dear Leader disgorges. The interview with Holt was not “fudged” in any way, and Trump offers no evidence to support his charge. The entire interview is posted online for all to see. Trump’s sole purpose in hurling this lie is to mitigate the fact that he incriminated himself in that interview. Trump told Holt that he fired FBI director James Comey because of the Russia investigation.

So Trump literally confessed to obstruction of justice on national television. Now he’s trying to back out of it by saying the interview was doctored. But everyone knows that he’s making that up out of pure desperation. And by doing so he only makes things worse by being so transparently dishonest and by bringing attention back to his guilt. Even Fox News was taken aback by Trump’s glaringly false allegation.

Trump continued his Twitter tirade with a more generalized attack on what he called the “totally dishonest” media. He said that “Truth doesn’t matter to them,” and that “they only have their hatred & agenda.” This is coming from the man who has been documented as telling more than 4,200 lies since his poorly attended inauguration (which he lied about). And he’s also the man whose whole presidency has been marinated in hate and bigotry. He can’t go a single day without tossing around vicious and infantile insults at anyone he perceives as insufficiently worshipful.

Finally (for the time being), Trump circled back around to CNN to reiterate some completely fake allegations about a recent story concerning his troubles with his personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, had told CNN that Cohen might tell special counsel Robert Mueller that the President knew about the infamous Trump Tower meeting with the Russians before it occurred. Davis later backpedaled and said that he could not actually confirm that. Note that he did not say it wasn’t true, only that he was no longer comfortable with the comment. That’s probably because it could put his client in legal jeopardy because it contradicted what Cohen told Congress.

Subsequently, Trump, Fox News, and other rightist media began accusing CNN of flubbing the story. But they actually got it right. It was Davis who admits that he made a statement that he would no longer stand by. That isn’t CNN’s fault, especially since they also had other sources corroborating their reporting. They continue stand by the story.

The fact that Trump would take this time, as the nation is still mourning the passing of John McCain, to trot out his self-serving delusions, is indicative of his utter lack of character and class. He simply isn’t able to allow anyone else to have the spotlight for a day or two. But the ludicrous charge that Lester Holt tampered with the video of his interview shows that Trump will propound any lie, no matter how outrageous and unfounded, to deceive the nation. And that sort of dishonesty has been the hallmark of his tenure so far in the White House.

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


Fire Sean Hannity: Fox News Host Exposed Campaigning for DeSantis, Violating Journalistic Ethics

Posted by on August 29, 2018 at 2:39 pm. 3 Comments :

On Tuesday’s primary for the Republican candidate for governor of Florida, Trump favorite Ron DeSantis came away with the victory and the opportunity to face progressive Democrat Andrew Gillum in November. So the DeSantis campaign officially launched the next day when he appeared on Fox News and charged that African-American Gillum would “monkey up” the state.

Fox News, Sean Hannity, White House

That’s a pretty horrendous start to what will surely be a campaign marked by the sort of racism and invective that a Trump minion like DeSantis embraces. It will be a campaign that relies on State TV (aka Fox News) for support and free advertising. In fact, DeSantis has already received more than $9,000 000 worth of airtime from Fox.

However, that isn’t the only boost that DeSantis has enjoyed from Fox News. The top rated host on the network, Sean Hannity, has been plugging his candidacy, and maligning his opponent, for weeks. But something that DeSantis said in his victory speech stood out as peculiar and warrants more scrutiny (video below):

“We had some great surrogates. You know (Rep.) Matt Gaetz was out on the road with us raising a little hell now and then. We had people like Sean Hannity come down, and Mark Levin, which was just phenomenal.”

So thanks to this revelation by DeSantis, we now know that Hannity went down to Florida to assist the campaign of a Republican candidate for governor. At any other news network that would be considered a breach of their standards of professional conduct and cause for termination. Surprisingly, that appeared to be just such a breach at Fox News in 2016 when Hannity appeared in a campaign video for then-candidate Donald Trump. Fox noted at the time that this was improper and Hannity was sternly advised not to do it again. Sure, that’s about wrist-slappy a punishment that there could be, but it was a punishment.

There is no excuse for a “news” network host colluding with partisan candidates for public office. And this being a second offense, it ought to draw a more severe penalty. Anyone else at any other network would likely be fired. And if Fox News needs any additional incentive to invoke that sanction, they could just look at Hannity’s recent past. Earlier this year he was revealed to be a client of Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney who just pleaded guilty to eight felonies. But Hannity kept that a secret even when interviewing Cohen on his show.

What’s more, Hannity serves in the odd position of being Trump’s “shadow chief-of-staff” and reports say that he talks to the President on an almost nightly basis. But even when these reports surface, Hannity refuses to disclose the nature and extent of their relationship. That alone should be regarded as a blatant conflict of interest and a fireable offense.

FOR THE RECORD: Hannity has gone back and forth about whether he is a journalist. At times he insists he is. Other times he denies it. Here are examples of both.

But don’t hold your breath waiting for Fox News to behave honorably. After all, they are the network that gave Trump more airtime than any other network. And it was Hannity who gave Trump more airtime than any other program on Fox News. So Hannity is actually carrying out the mission of Fox News by advancing the people and propaganda that he is directed to from the executive suites – and the White House. Note that Bill Shine, former Fox News president and Hannity’s old boss, is now a top Trump White House aide. That’s how State TV works.

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


Rachel Maddow is Leading MSNBC to Record Ratings, the Only Cable News Net to Gain Viewers

Posted by on August 28, 2018 at 10:14 pm. 2 Comments :

While Donald Trump is dragging his presidency down to the depths of the abyss, he might deserve some credit for lifting MSNBC up to the heights of ratings Valhalla. For the month of August MSNBC achieved a significant milestone, becoming the the second-most-watched network across all of basic cable. And the network’s star, Rachel Maddow, had the number one show for total viewers on cable TV for the last week of August.

Rachel Maddow

This ratings bonanza took place as Trump’s world was crumbling. His campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was convicted on eight felonies. His personal attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight felonies of his own. And Trump’s inner circle suffered some serious ruptures. His long-time friend, and publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, was granted immunity by federal prosecutors. The same goes for the CFO of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg. Immunity is not handed out unless the recipients were exposed to serious legal jeopardy and had something useful to trade for their get-out-jail-free card.

These sort of news events may have brought viewers hungry for credible reporting to MSNBC resulting in their ratings wins last week. But the whole month notched gains that were noteworthy. In fact, MSNBC’s primetime rose over their draw in 2017, while both CNN and Fox News declined. Maddow’s contribution to that was scoring the top show rating in all of cable TV for the whole month in the 25-54 demographic. To be clear, she not only beat Sean Hannity head-to-head, but every other show of any type on basic cable.

The remainder of the MSNBC schedule was equally as successful with viewers. Everyone from Chris Hayes to Lawrence O’Donnell to Ari Melber to Brian Williams to Joy Reid, enjoyed record breaking numbers. The daytime crew, including Ali Velshi, Stephanie Ruhle, Hallie Jackson, Nicolle Wallace, and Katy Tur, all notched substantial gains as well.

If this is any indication of how the content of the news can affect ratings, there is sure to be more good news to come. Manafort’s next trial in Washington, D.C. is scheduled to begin in mid September. And almost every day there are new revelations that bring Trump’s dismal fate closer to realization. Much of them unveiled by his own big mouth and fat Twitter fingers. And as events continue to unfold, America’s television viewers will continue to seek out truthful accounts of the breaking news.

That’s good news for MSNBC. And as for Fox News, they can surely rely on their cult followers to keep their numbers pretty high. After all, they will need those extra doses of fake propaganda and blurred reality from State TV to anesthetize them into their cozy states of semi-consciousness.

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


Trump, the Whiner, Parrots His Senior Media Advisors, Dobbs, Diamond & Silk, Via Fox News

Posted by on August 28, 2018 at 12:04 pm. 1 Comments :

Let’s put to rest the notion that Donald Trump regards himself as an icon of strength and triumph. If there is one thing that Trump has excelled in to the exclusion of all others, it’s his relentless whining about how hopelessly impotent and powerless he is. Trump literally bragged about being “the most fabulous whiner.” So despite having majority control of all three branches of government, Trump and company persist in their pathetic whimpering that they are mercilessly oppressed, suppressed and obstructed from achieving any of their repugnant goals.

Fox News, Diamond & Silk

In his latest attempt to create a media distraction from the horrendous drubbing he took for demeaning John McCain, Trump turned to Fox News for anything that he could post to Twitter that might take the heat off for a few moments of relief. He found it in a segment from the Lou Dobbs program on the Fox Business Network. And without bothering to confirm the ludicrous assertions in the clip, Trump tweeted out that:

Needless to say, that is all Grade A bunk that has no basis in fact. The Republican controlled Congress even held hearings to ascertain whether the Internet and social media were employing any tactics to inject political bias into what are supposed to be neutral search results and news feeds. They found nothing. Instead, they reaffirmed that the algorithms used by tech companies are not based on ideology, but that they respond to what people want to see.

However, that didn’t stop Trump from threatening Google Tuesday morning. And it didn’t stop Dobbs from spewing demonstrably false charges against Google and others along with his guest experts on media and technology, Diamond & Silk. This dynamic duo has been squealing about imaginary censorship for months. The exchange they had with Dobbs was an exercise in how to dumb down America on what is supposed to be a financial news channel (video below):

Dobbs: I take it that you’re not surprised that Google is sort of banning conservatives from their search results with President Trump?
Diamond: No, it’s not surprising. And to us it looks like it’s tyranny. You have these media outlets, along with Google, taking and they’re suppressing voices of conservatives. Not only that but they’re thumbing down our pages where we can’t see President Trump’s content or good news about what’s going on in this country when it comes to this president. And I am not for big government, but I really do believe that the government should step in and really check this out. Because this is, again, the sort of [inaudible] of tyranny. We don’t need dictatorship. We don’t need people controlling what we can and cannot see.
Silk: And this also look like a form of political lynching. Insteading of using the news, what they are doing is using algorithms and a form of censorship to Trump people’s platforms out, to keep you from being able to do your search whenever you want to search for our beautiful president.

Notice that Dobbs began with a matter of fact statement that Google is “banning conservatives” even though he has no facts to support that charge. And his Looney Tunes guests join the choir with even more extremist banter about tyranny and dictatorship and lynching and the deflowering of “our beautiful president.”

Dobbs went on to charge that Google’s search technology has become shallow and political. Then he complains about the “deep, profound concentration of wealth” and the “deep, profound concentration of political power.” Which is a position that would delight America’s socialists and critics of income inequality. Except that Dobbs is only applying this rhetoric to those who he perceives as foes of the President and the ultra-rightist agenda he represents.

What’s more, these stalwart defenders of conservative values are pushing for the government to stomp its boot down on the Internet’s defilers of Trumpian goodness. Never mind that the First Amendment prohibits the regulation of speech by private companies. The Constitution is an impediment to the propagandist objectives of Trump and Fox News. They can’t merely dismiss their hypocrisy by claiming to be against big government while advocating for such regulations. Even Trump’s chief economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, warned that “We’re taking a look at it,” And the one policy measure they could pursue that would prevent bias by anyone, would be the one they are affirmatively trying to kill: Network Nuetrality.

But while pounding on the political oppression by the enemies of Trumpism, at least Dobbs is comforted by the presence of Trump saying that “If we didn’t have a president like this one I don’t know where we’d be.” Then Dobbs contradicts the whole premise of the segment by noting that Trump “has his own access to the American people” via social media. So he’s now arguing that Trump and his confederates are enjoying unprecedented success getting their message out. So where the hell is the alleged censorship?

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