Fox News Pushes Trump Dictatorship, Tells Critics to Shut Up and Obey Their Master

Posted by on December 17, 2017 at 12:51 pm. 3 Comments :

As the legal noose tightens around Donald Trump and his confederacy of traitors, the stench of panic grows thicker and more pungent. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation continues on its course to determine whether Trump and/or his team colluded with Russia’s documented efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. And as Mueller goes forward, the Trump faction goes batshit crazy.

Fox News Kellyanne Conway

The latest point of departure for the GOP’s sanity is the discovery that Mueller has acquired “tens of thousands” of emails from the the Trump transition operation. That news sent the right into a frenzy with bogus claims that the emails were acquired illegally. That’s hysterical considering that Trump himself begged Russia to illegally hack Hillary Clinton’s emails and make them all public on Wikileaks.

But that’s only a small window into the dementia that plagues Trump World today. On Fox News there is a concerted and coordinated campaign to smear Mueller. They began by calling it a witch hunt, despite having already scored four indictments and two guilty pleas. But now they have escalated their conspiracy outrage to a new level. They now regard the entire investigation as an attempted coup. And they are pulling out all the propaganda stops to spread that inane theory.

Fox’s Jesse Watters explicitly used the word “coup” to describe Mueller’s activities during an interview with Trump shill Kellyanne Conway. Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett suggested that the FBI is America’s version of the KGB. Fox host Jeanine Pirro demanded that FBI agents involved with the investigation be “taken out in handcuffs.” And a veritable chorus line of Foxies are calling on Trump to fire Mueller. Not surprisingly, Sean Hannity is at front of that line.

On Trump’s favorite Fox News show, Fox and Friends, the totalitarian rhetoric is as thick as mud. On Sunday morning they hosted Darrin Porcher (video below), a former New York police officer whose point of view is perfectly aligned with the Fox Doctrine. Porcher is the model of the Fox News flunky who spouts pre-chewed talking points in support of Trump. He praised the performance of the stock market and the unemployment rate, both of which are still running up under policies put in place by President Obama. Trump has done nothing to impact either. In fact, before the election he considered the stock market to be in a bubble and the unemployment rate to be fake news.

Saying that he “bleed[s] red, white and blue,” Porcher urges Americans to “stand behind our Commander-in-Chief.” He asserts that we must “acquiesce behind the political structure in play.” (Note: acquiesce means to accept something reluctantly and without protest). He’s literally telling critics of the administration to shut up and obey their masters. But where he totally succumbs to the blindness of tyranny is his statement that…

“Rooting against the president is equivalent to getting on an airplane and hoping that the plane crashes.”

That remark didn’t get so much as a sideways glance from the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. Even though they were among the Fox throng that spent eight years rooting against Obama. Rush Limbaugh even said proudly that “I hope he fails.” And every step Obama took throughout his presidency he was dogged by the overt hatred and bias emanating from Fox News. Most of them believed he was an illegitimate, gay, pot-smoking, fraud who was born in Kenya and pledged allegiance to ISIS.

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

Porcher’s advocacy of blind obedience is the opposite of patriotism. America’s democracy was built on a foundation of respect for dissent. It’s inscribed in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Acquiescence is what tyrants demand of their peasant populace. You have to wonder where Porcher was when the Tea Party (remember them?) was hammering away at Obama – with the ever faithful help of Fox News. But people like Porcher are too myopic to grasp complex political concepts. His simile of the crashing plane is just plain stupid. A better perspective of it would be to consider how to respond to a president who is in the process of deliberately crashing the plane. Would you root for him?

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Good News: Trump Plans to Spend 2018 on the Campaign Trail Helping More GOP Candidates Lose

Posted by on December 17, 2017 at 8:18 am. 2 Comments :

In the past few weeks there have been a couple of important elections that drew national attention. One was for the governorship of Virginia. The other was for a senate seat in Alabama. In both contests Donald Trump campaigned furiously for the Republican candidate. And in both cases the Democrat won. Proving that the President’s support is no guarantee of success, even in staunchly red territories of the South.

Donald Trump

So it will come as good news to Democrats to learn that Trump is planning to hit the road in 2018 to campaign for Republican candidates across America:

“President Donald Trump is not on the ballot in 2018, but the White House is planning a full-throttle campaign to plunge the president into the midterm elections, according to senior officials and advisers familiar with the planning. […] The president has told advisers he wants to travel extensively and hold rallies and that he is looking forward to spending much of 2018 campaigning.”

That’s right. The president with the lowest approval rating since polling began is so enamored with himself that he thinks he’d be an asset to other political aspirants. Never mind the recent evidence that an association with Trump spells doom in races where Republicans should have had the edge. His conceit is so all-encompassing that he’s convinced that his presence is beneficial, or even desirable. This is a man so utterly lacking in self-awareness that he can’t comprehend that a majority of voters cringe at the site of him. And any candidate who stands next to Trump on the political stage is going to be covered by the stench of his divisiveness, racism, ignorance, misogyny, and boorish character.

Democrats must be salivating at the prospect of Trump’s ambitious campaign plans. They would surely welcome him into the fray knowing that he is more likely to hurt their GOP opponents than to help them. At the the same time he is one of the best motivators for Democrats to get out and vote. The more Trump tries to push his GOP colleagues, the bigger the blue wave is going to be next November. And as an added benefit, if Trump is traipsing around the country dragging down Republican electoral hopes, he won’t be in Washington creating more domestic and international crises. And Trump’s focus on electioneering is more proof that the only agenda of the Republican Party is the preservation of power.

Representatives of the Trump administration’s political team are as delusional as he is regarding the value of his contribution. One insisted that “this isn’t about adulation and cheering crowds.” That ignores the evidence of his narcissistic tendencies that compel him to continue holding rallies long after the presidential campaign was over. He clearly thrives on the fawning adoration of the deplorables who flock to his personal praise-a-thons.

The risk of having Trump stump for a candidate is that the thrill he gets from his glassy-eyed disciples only exacerbates the harm he is likely to cause. That’s because the more the crowds cheer, the more he talks about himself and ignores the candidate he came to promote. And whenever Trump goes off topic he winds up creating inane controversies that overwhelm whatever message he hoped to communicate.

For these reasons Democrats will be the first to encourage Trump to campaign vigorously and often. The more he is associated with Republican candidates the better the chances of electing Democrats. And Trump’s toxicity will only increase in the new year as more revelations from the investigations of his collusion with Russia emerge. And that’s not even taking into consideration scandals related to his financial corruption and sexual harassment and abuse. So bring it on Donnie. We double dare you.

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


Women at Fox News Blast CEO Rupert Murdoch for Trivializing Sexual Abuse: ‘I’m Sick of This Sh*t’

Posted by on December 16, 2017 at 10:32 am. 4 Comments :

This week Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of Fox News and 21st Century Fox, made some shocking statements regarding sexual harassment and abuse at Fox News. His brazen distortion of reality was either a deliberate attempt to rewrite the recent and abhorrent history of the network, or signs of acute dementia. But some outraged women who experienced the misogynistic culture of Fox News first hand aren’t sitting still for this bullshit.

Fox News Rupert Murdoch

Murdoch’s comments trivialized, and even downright denied, the actual events that have been documented and admitted in public statements by Fox News. When asked about the charges leveled at Fox personnel and whether they would impact the business, he said that they were…

“All nonsense, there was a problem with our chief executive [Roger Ailes], sort of, over the years, isolated incidents. As soon as we investigated it he was out of the place in hours, well, three or four days. And there’s been nothing else since then. That was largely political because we’re conservative. Now of course the liberals are going down the drain — NBC is in deep trouble. CBS, their stars. I mean there are really bad cases and people should be moved aside. There are other things which probably amount to a bit of flirting.”

Let’s address this heinous commentary in order. First of all, Murdoch conceded that there was a “problem” with Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. But adds “sort of?” Ailes was accused of serial sexual assault by at least eleven women. And an independent review of his actions resulted in his termination. That isn’t “sort of,” a problem. And it isn’t “isolated incidents” either.

Then Murdoch stated that “there’s been nothing else since then.” Can he possibly believe that? The biggest star on his network, Bill O’Reilly was fired after the disclosure of millions of dollars in settlements to victims of his abuse. He personally shelled out $32 million to one victim. Also, numerous other Fox on-air and executive personnel were fired for sexual misconduct. The number of deviants on the Fox payroll points to a serious internal breakdown. The network was even called “a sex-fueled Playboy Mansion-like cult” by a long-time program host and victim.

Finally, Murdoch tried to dismiss the whole subject as being purely political. But in the same breath he conceded that both conservatives and liberals had their share of perverts. So he contradicted his own excuse. However, just trying to make this a partisan issue shows the depths of depravity to which he will sink. He is laser-focused on disparaging liberals in all matters, which was the founding mission of Fox News. And he proved what a despicable old coot he is by tacking on his opinion that sexual harassment and flirting are somehow synonymous.

Which brings us to the reactions of ten women contacted by Yasher Ali of the Huffington Post. Their disgust upon hearing Murdoch’s remarks was expressed with fierce determination and, as one stated, a hunger for justice. Here are some examples of their comments:

  • “I have had to put up with a hostile work environment for years, and now I’m told that it doesn’t exist by a man who doesn’t have to walk these halls every day?”
  • “Hey Rupert – stop with the lies or we’ll go public with the truth. All of it. Including about the talent and executives you still employ who have harassed us and don’t give a damn about workplace respect – only money.”
  • “What kind of company pays close to 100 million dollars to keep ‘flirting’ quiet?”
  • “Sexual harassment has nothing to do with politics. Many of us are conservative and want the truth to come out.”
  • “The harassment was persistent and ongoing. It was personally and professionally devastating for some of my colleagues and me. When the person who signs your paycheck and is responsible for promotions and demotions harasses women who rely on him, it’s more than ‘sort of’ a problem.”
  • “The culture at Fox News won’t change until you publicly accept that it has been a breeding ground for sexual misconduct over the past two decades.”
  • “I’m contacting a lawyer tomorrow. I’m sick of this shit.”

That’s a pretty damning summation of what it’s like to work at Fox News. And considering the broad corroboration among so many women who suffered, and continue to suffer, at Fox, Murdoch’s repulsive remarks ought to be reconsidered and a public apology made ASAP. And you can expect that to occur at around the same time that Donald Trump apologizes for his rampant, sexual predatory assault.

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


HUH? New Poll Shows Donald Trump’s Popularity is Falling Sharply Among – Fox News Viewers?

Posted by on December 15, 2017 at 10:35 am. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump is famous for putting himself at the top of every list of achievement. And no one can argue that when the list is: Which president has had the worst approval ratings in modern times? Trump far outpaces all of his predecessors for the most hated national leader. A recent poll showed him at an abysmal thirty-two percent. That’s another new low during what is ordinarily a president’s strongest year in office.

Donald Trump

Now another new survey has some bad news for Trump. Suffolk University asked for opinions about Trump with an interesting angle. They matched answers to the respondent’s favorite sources for news. And what they discovered was surprising:

“Trump likes what he sees on Fox, which means that what he sees depicts him favorably. And yet, according to new polling from Suffolk University, those voters who have the most trust in Fox’s reporting have increasingly begun to view Trump unfavorably.

“Over the course of Trump’s presidency, Suffolk has asked people to weigh in on their views of Trump multiple times. In March, 45 percent of Americans viewed Trump favorably, but 86 percent of those who identified Fox as their most-trusted news network said they did. By June, that number had grown to 90 percent. But in October and in the most recent poll, Trump’s favorability with Fox News viewers has plunged.

“In March, Fox viewers were 40 points more likely to view Trump positively than were voters overall. By December, they were only 24 points more likely to do so.”

The poll found that, among the people who trust Fox News the most, Trump’s approval rating is a bare majority of fifty-eight percent. For a constituency that should be his most ardent admirers that can’t be characterized as anything but dreadful. And it’s a substantial drop from the numbers in June (90%) and October (74%). Historically Trump’s appeal has failed to outperform lice or root canals among the general population (for real). But he has managed to hang on to a core base of deplorables in the Republican Party. Considering the close association between Fox News and the GOP you would think their viewers would also be Trump deadenders.

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

So what accounts for Trump’s slumping approval by Fox News cultists? It’s hard to say. Since Fox is virtually Trump’s PR division, their audience is the group of news consumers that see the most of him. Perhaps being exposed so incessantly to his wrinkled visage and grating voice has driven home what a crass and repugnant cretin he is. Maybe they just got tired of his bragging and bullying and whining and lying. He’s become a one-note recording of infantile narcissism with regard to himself and abject hostility toward his critics.

Another possible explanation is that the right-wingers who watch Fox don’t like Trump bashing the FBI, special counsel Robert Mueller, and law enforcement in general. And they may cringe when he smears the intelligence agencies for which he is allegedly responsible. Maybe they’re troubled by his cozying up to Putin and other murderous dictators. And even though Fox News presents an exclusively adoring picture of Trump, maybe their viewers have seen through it and are disgusted and weary of the charade. You know – the fake news.


Trump Shill: If You Get Your News From Fox News You Probably Like the GOP Tax Scam

Posted by on December 14, 2017 at 1:59 pm. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress are hurtling headlong into passage of tax bill that will materially alter the tax code in ways that harm most Americans. It is flagrantly biased in favor of corporations and the wealthy with toxic provisions that will sabotage healthcare and cripple Social Security and Medicare. The GOP refused to hold hearings on the bill or even allow Democrats to review it prior to voting. Much of it was written by corporate lobbyists. And without any justification for their haste, Republicans are ramming it through before the already strong opposition becomes impossible to ignore.

foxnews-mulvaney

As usual, whenever Republicans require a boost in propaganda they turn to Fox News. They know that they can present whatever bullshit they want and that there will be no one to challenge their lies. They took advantage of that Thursday morning when they sent Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, to the studios of Fox and Friends to pimp the tax bill. He received precisely the welcome that he expected as co-host Steve Doocy offered up a softball for Mulvaney to hit out of the park. Surprisingly, Mulvaney took a wild swing that landed in foul territory (video below):

Doocy: People don’t like to pay taxes so you would think that this would be a good story for you. And yet, Mick, the Quinnipiac poll came out and shows that fifty-five percent of Americans don’t like it, as opposed to twenty-six percent who do. Can you explain to me why people don’t like the idea of a tax cut?
Mulvaney: Sure, because if you turn to any channel besides this one, all you’re going to hear is bad news about this particular bill. […] No one is focusing, as you folks do, on what’s good for people in this bill. So if you get your news here, you probably like it because your focused on what’s good for you. But if not, you don’t.

So the only reason Mulvaney had for people not liking the bill was that they weren’t watching enough Fox News. Or worse, they drifted from their “news” teet at Fox and were exposed to actual facts and honest scrutiny. Doocy was taking a chance by citing the Quinnipiac poll which he correctly quoted as showing a historic disapproval rating, especially for something being pitched as a tax cut. The poll provided an explanation for that which Fox News left out entirely. Nearly seventy percent of those polled said the bill favors the wealthy and only twenty-one percent think that it will help the middle class. In other words, people can see through the GOP spin and recognize a fraud when it’s right in front of their faces.

However, what was most interesting about Mulvaney’s response was that he explicitly admitted that Fox News was a pit of partisan bias where viewers would get only the conservative perspective peddled by the White House. He praised the “Curvy Couch” potatoes for being sycophantic hucksters upon whom he could rely to spew the government line. Just like state-run TV outlets are supposed to do. Heaven forbid that the American people might ever get an unbiased analysis of this bill that contained actual facts derived from independent experts. That isn’t what Fox News was created for, and it surely isn’t what they did this morning. Welcome to the American Pravda, now proudly out of the propaganda closet.

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

https://youtu.be/031QXFVaEY0?t=1m45s


Roy Moore’s Alabama Trainwreck Was a Disaster for Fox News and a Big Win for MSNBC

Posted by on December 14, 2017 at 9:25 am. 1 Comments :

Alabama’s senate race became a national event due the the unique circumstances that marked the election. Roy Moore’s campaign was emblematic of a new movement to hold sexual predators accountable. And his anachronistic racial and religious rigor was reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition. Donald Trump also figured into the southern soap opera. Despite his sudden amnesia with regard to Moore, the outcome would be a referendum on the President whether Fox News liked it or not. And they really didn’t like it.

Fox News Sad

You’ll never guess who else didn’t like it. Fox News viewers voted with their remotes Tuesday. As the election returns came in, the ratings for Fox News fell off a cliff. And by the time the race was called for Doug Jones they had lost more than half their audience. In the 9:00 hour Fox’s coverage of the race was pretty strong with about 3.8 million people watching (831K in the 25-54 demo). For much of that time Moore was still leading. Rachel Maddow wasn’t far behind with 3.1 million viewers (760K in the demo).

However, the race was called (first by Fox News, oddly enough) at about 10:30. And that saw a drop off for Fox to about 3.5 million (889K demo). But, Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC took off scoring 3.745 million (1.0M demo). And CNN also spiked with 3.5 million (1.5M demo). And by the 11:00 hour, when it was clear that Jones was victorious, Fox News was pitifully defeated. They ended primetime with just 1.8 million viewers (470K demo). That’s less than half the total audience they had before the returns were in That compared to MSNBC’s 3.7 million (947 demo), about twice Fox’s numbers, and CNN’s 3.2 million (1.4M demo).

Clearly Fox News viewers were too upset to continue watching television. Seeing the pedophile they supported lose to an honorable Democrat was just too painful. Never mind that by the next morning most of them were insisting that Moore was never a viable candidate, they never really liked him, and that they are better off without him in the senate making the GOP look bad. That’s pretty much the view taken by Fox News and, not coincidentally, many Republicans and Donald Trump. Not to worry. They still have sexual predator and Russian collaborator (allegedly) Trump and his devoted Deplorables to make them look bad.

On the other hand, Doug Jones’ victory inspired viewers to tune into MSNBC and CNN en masse at the conclusion of the race. This isn’t because the Democrat won. Americans tuned in to the networks where they thought they would get truthful reporting of the results, without the desperate spin of losers trying to make excuses. That’s why the numbers didn’t increase for Fox News even when there was actual news to report. And the Fox cultists who had tuned in early weren’t going to subject themselves to what they considered bad news. A few more nights like this and Fox News will have to cease broadcasting.

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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Watch Fox News Freak Out Over Doug Jones Victory, Pretend They Never Wanted Roy Moore Anyway

Posted by on December 13, 2017 at 10:42 am. 7 Comments :

The good people of Alabama came through on Tuesday and elected the decent senate candidate (Doug Jones) rather than the racist, crackpot, pedophile (Roy Moore). That doesn’t absolve the a-holes in Alabama who voted for Moore, but it’s an encouraging sign that positive changes are coming. The only way to characterize this outcome is as a monumental transformation for a state that hasn’t elected a Democratic senator for a quarter of century.

Fox News

But leave it to Fox News to find other ways to characterize such an obviously anti-Trump, anti-Republican event. And it only took a matter of seconds for Fox to try to recast the Jones win as something positive for the GOP. Anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum were plainly unhappy with the call. Less than a minute after announcing that Jones would win the senate seat once held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Fox went into hyper-spin mode saying this (video below):

MacCallum: “You know there was a lot of discussion about whether a Roy Moore win would be a win, really, for the GOP. And there’s some questions tonight about whether or not there’s some silver lining, perhaps, for Republicans tonight. A victory by Moore, who was embroiled in a sex scandal, might have made it more difficult for the GOP to have gained control of the Senate in next year’s midterm elections.”

There’s so much to unpack here. Let’s start with the eagerness of Fox News to abandon Moore, the candidate they have been pimping for months. They are pretending that his loss is actually what they wanted all along. If they think this will be taken this seriously, it is a bitter insult to their dimwitted viewers. However, they know their viewers best, and they are probably right. The Fox audience would need a “silver lining” or a security blanket and a binky after what happened last night.

What’s more, by virtually conceding that Moore’s “sex scandal” would have been a major obstacle to the GOP’s electoral prospects next year, they are validating the very same case against Donald Trump. Actually, not quite the same. Trump has been accused by more women of more repulsive acts of harassment and abuse. If Fox News thinks that Moore’s loss will make those crimes go away they are deeply delusional. They will surely work hard to bury Trump’s reprehensible behavior, but in the comment above they have recognized that it cannot, and will not, be dismissed.

Finally, MacCallum’s phrasing is curious. The GOP does not have to “gain control” of the Senate next year. They currently have control. What she might be worried about is the growing possibility of Democrats assuming control of both houses of Congress. And once again, whatever difficulty she thinks the GOP would have had with Moore in the Senate isn’t going to be resolved as long Trump is in the White House.

Speaking of Trump, he also made an effort to distance himself from Moore after the loss. He tweeted that:

There is no record of Trump ever saying that Moore would “not be able to win.” What record there is of Trump’s endorsement was deleted from his Twitter feed (here and here and here). He also deleted a tweet congratulating Moore and cheering him on to victory. Ever since Moore won the GOP primary, Trump has been behind him. He even recorded a robo-call and staged a rally just across the Alabama border in Florida to whip up support. But following Moore’s loss, Trump has unceremoniously kicked him to the curb and proclaimed the he was right all along (as he always is in his sociopathic, narcissistic imagination).

These weren’t the only kicks Moore suffered. Other Fox News hosts were equally as dismissive. Ainsley Earhardt on Trump’s favorite show, Fox and Friends, said that “This was not a referendum on Trump. I feel like it was a referendum on Harvey Weinstein.” Her fellow “Curvy Couch” potato, Todd Piro, added that he didn’t want to be a “Pollyanna,” noting that the Republicans still have a one seat majority in the senate. Isn’t that a little too obvious an expression of Republican bias, even for Fox News? And Laura Ingraham giddily opined that “Jones is a lame duck from day one. He has zero chance of winning in 2020. This state loves Trump. This is not an anti-Trump result.”

For the record, Trump’s approval rating in Alabama, according to exit polls, was a 48-48 percent split, with “strongly approve” at 32 percent and “strongly disapprove” at 41 percent. Those are catastrophic numbers for Trump and Republicans in Alabama. And Trump’s approval nationwide is even worse. But don’t expect Fox News to acknowledge that. They are on a mission to implant happy-talk in the minds of their glassy-eyed viewers who need some cheering up. That, however, won’t last long. Fox has already segued to renewed outrage over Hillary Clinton’s emails and denigrating special counsel Robert Mueller as treasonous abomination of justice. Just another day of shrill propaganda for Fox News.

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


PolitiFact 2017 Lie of the Year: Trump Calling Russia’s Election Interference a ‘Hoax’

Posted by on December 12, 2017 at 11:52 am. 7 Comments :

PolitiFact has just announced the winner of their annual “Lie of the Year” honors. It must have have been an excruciating task to whittle down the contenders from the plethora of brazen, purposeful truth manglers. They could have just given up and called 2017 “The Year of the Lie.”

Donald Trump

Nevertheless, PolitiFact persevered and came up with a worthy recipient. Donald Trump’s near inability to ever say anything truthful was bound to score a victory one way or another. The rest of the political liars stood little chance against someone who is certifiably pathological. The Washington Post has documented more than 1,600 lies told by this record-breaking prevaricator.

In 2015 Trump won his first Lie of the Year award for “The campaign misstatements of Donald Trump.” They were so numerous the fact-checkers couldn’t settle on a single lie. He didn’t take that well and, in a typically lame Trump tantrum, he responded on Fox News. Trump even got an honorable mention of sorts in 2016’s Lie of the year, “Fake News,” because he was such a frequent contributor to the fakery. However, this year PolitiFact managed to narrow down Trump’s gushing geyser of bullshit to one lie that is particularly significant in terms of its bald-faced dishonesty and its potential for severe harm: “Russian election interference is a ‘made-up story‘.” They began their analysis by saying that:

“A mountain of evidence points to a single fact: Russia meddled in the U.S. presidential election of 2016.

“In both classified and public reports, U.S. intelligence agencies have said Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered actions to interfere with the election. Those actions included the cyber-theft of private data, the placement of propaganda against particular candidates, and an overall effort to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process.”

Achieving this “honor” may be consolation to Trump after not being chosen as Time Magazines’s Person of the Year. PolitiFact noted that virtually every assessment of Russia’s activities concluded that Vladimir Putin and Company did interfere with the U.S. election in a multitude of ways. It was not a partisan observation. Republicans and Democrats alike recognized that Russia was deeply involved in election hacking and propaganda. And as PolitiFact put it, “After all this, one man keeps saying it didn’t even happen.” Indeed, Trump stood alone in denying the obvious and defending his pals in the Kremlin.

“This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story,” Trump told NBC’s Lester Holt. “It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.” And he tried desperately to shift the blame elsewhere, including to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, China, or some fat guy in a New Jersey basement. Anyone but Vlad. In fact, Trump explicitly let Putin off the hook because the Russian dictator assured him that he didn’t do it. And Trump believes Putin over his own American intelligence agencies.

PolitiFact spent little time addressing whether or not Trump colluded with Russia to impact the outcome of the election. But it’s hard to separate the two. Especially when every utterance by Trump supports the Russian version events. What’s more, Trump and his associates repeatedly denied any encounters with Russians during the campaign and after. However, they later had to admit that many of them had many meetings that they all somehow forgot for some reason. There can’t be that many blatant misstatements by that many people without there being some intent to hide something.

And just to top off this Christmas tree with a distinctly Trumpian ornament, the President tweeted about this very issue this morning:

He is still calling the Russia investigations fake news. And despite the indictments (and two guilty pleas) of four of his accomplices (so far), he stubbornly asserts that the investigations are a waste of time and money. Then he shifts from that to his desperate denials of sexual misconduct and crimes. This may be his first bid for 2018 Lie of the Year. And he’s off to great start by claiming that he doesn’t know, or never met, any of his victims. The only problem with that is that one of his accusers was a contestant on The Apprentice. Another participated in his beauty pageant. And another was placed at the scene of his abuse by his own witness.

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

PolitiFact may have to exempt Trump from any future recognition in this competition. No one else can possibly challenge such an accomplished liar and skilled reality distortion machine. Perhaps they should rename the whole affair “The Donald Trump Lie of the Year Awards” and let some other sham merchants have a chance to win.


Hannity Asked Twitter for the ‘Worst Recent Example of Fake News’ and Got Mercilessly Scorched

Posted by on December 12, 2017 at 8:45 am. 9 Comments :

No one is ever going to mistake Sean Hannity for a Rhodes Scholar. His Fox News program is nothing more than an hour of misplaced rage interspersed with unrelenting Trump-fluffing. He relies on insipid arguments embellished by goofy mugging and sycophantic guests.

Sean Hannity Fox News

So when he gets the bright idea to post a question on Twitter, it’s not surprising that he forgets that it isn’t just his equally clueless followers who are online. And the question Hannity proffered was ripe for ridicule and acute mockery. This is what he asked:

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/940415667651584000

Really? The face of Fox News, America’s premiere source for unadulterated bullshit, is asking the public at large to provide examples of the media disseminating misrepresentations and outright lies? What on Earth did he expect would be the result of that idiotic inquiry? Did he actually think that Twitter would respond with the sort of baseless blather that Trump belches out every day? If so, he must be terribly disappointed. Here are some of the typical replies that Hannity received:

The winner of Hannity’s “Worst Example of Fake News” derby was, by a landslide, Sean Hannity. Most of the Twitter responses contained the single word “You.”. Coming in second was the Seth Rich story that Hannity himself propagated for weeks, even after his comrades at Fox News admitted that it wasn’t true and deleted their story about it. That sort of admission is something that Fox has trouble doing. Even though they have no trouble with airing false reports. It will be interesting to see what Hannity does after this failed effort at crowd sourcing his research. But don’t look for him to do a penetrating exposé on the fake news he discovered emanating from the Hannity show.

AND SPEAKING OF FAKE NEWS: Today PolitiFact announced their 2017 Lie of the Year. You’ll never guess who won: Trump Calling Russia’s Election Interference a ‘Hoax’

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


Donald Trump: Stain on America! Fox News Accidentally Tells The Truth For Once

Posted by on December 11, 2017 at 9:44 am. 4 Comments :

This weekend Donald Trump was busily engaged in what he seems to think is job as president: Posting embarrassing, ignorant, and untrue comments on Twitter. He spends more time tweeting and golfing than he does governing, which is actually to the benefit of the nation and the world. We are all better off with him on the golf course than in the Oval Office where he does real harm.

Nevertheless, his obsessive twittering often leads to domestic and international crises stemming from his utter lack of knowledge and decency. The main thrust of his comments generally hit on two main subject areas: Bragging about himself and his imaginary achievements; or childish insults directed at his perceived enemies and the media. And Sunday was no exception when Trump disgorged this deranged bit of rage:

That’s a hefty barrel of bullshit that requires a detailed rebuttal. Let’s start with his lament that the media is “out of control.” That’s actually a good thing. It isn’t supposed to be under control, especially by wannabe dictators like Trump who advocate for the suppression of the free press.

The rest of his tweet is weighted down by obvious lies. First of all, there was plenty of discussion of media errors on all of the weekend news shows. For someone who watches four to eight hours of TV a day, he has abysmal comprehension and retention skills. [Note: Trump predictably disputed reports of his television habits in a tweet Monday morning]. Secondly, contrary to Trump’s blind outburst, there were several corrections made when legitimate errors were discovered. That’s something Trump never does for the literally thousands of lies he spews. And his characterization of the errors as being “purposely false” is unfounded and slanderous.

Shortly after Trump’s Twitter tantrum, Fox News came to his aid, as usual, with a story atop their website. The headline blared out “‘Stain on America!’ Trump denounces ‘Fake News Media’ after string of major reporting errors exposed.” You have to wonder why Fox News thinks that Trump denouncing the media is news after all these months. It’s actually so common it’s becoming tedious. But it’s the visual presentation of this story that stands out. It clearly wasn’t thought through very carefully, resulting in this unintentionally accurate image:

Fox News Donald Trump Stain

Well done, Fox News. The story itself, however, was terribly done. It enumerated a few minor mistakes by media outlets that Trump famously despises. But the story completely left out any mention of Fox’s own blunders, which were far worse and deliberate.

For instance, Fox News had to correct a story that falsely accused a Roy Moore victim of forgery. A week earlier they deleted and apologized for saying that MSNBC had not reported on the Kate Steinle verdict, which was untrue. On Sunday they mistakenly reported that Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel had been fired for making a mistake. And if reporting that falsehood wasn’t embarrassing enough, they did it twice twice during a discussion about – you guessed it – the media making mistakes. The reporter uncharacteristically acknowledged his error and apologized after the commercial.

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

While mistakes are to be expected in any human activity, the way that Fox News accounts for them is not a mistake. They deliberately ignore their own failures most of the time and they don’t hold people accountable for lying when those people are Fox’s ideological allies. That’s what makes the network thoroughly untrustworthy as a source for news. And worse, with regard to their relentless fluffing for Trump, they have become no better than any other authoritarian style, state-run TV operation that exists solely to disseminate propaganda. Fox News, as well as Donald Trump, are indeed stains on America. A point that Trump agreed with just last year: