Big Baby Trump Has Nixed Nearly Every Potential Debate Moderator

Posted by on August 11, 2016 at 5:44 pm. 4 Comments :

Now that the party conventions are behind us and the presidential campaign is officially underway, the next milestone of the election season is the candidate debates. These events are generally regarded as having more impact on voters’ decisions than conventions, stump speeches, or advertising. Candidates have participated in them regularly since the 1960’s.

Baby Trump

However, Donald Trump has already begun whining about the debates and criticizing the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) that has been producing them since 1988. He tweeted last month that Hillary Clinton and the Democrats were “trying to rig the debates” in some conspiracy that he failed to explain. For the record, the current schedule was released nearly a year ago (September 23, 2015), long before any of the candidates were chosen.

Now Trump is escalating his debate phobia with suggestions that he will not participate unless his demands are met. Foremost among them is the authority to veto any moderator that he disapproves of (or more accurately, fears). So this may be a good time to take a look at who might satisfy Trump’s litmus test for fair and balanced moderators.

First of all, no one who works for CNN or MSNBC need apply. Trump has not consented to an interview on CNN since June 13, or on MSNBC since May 20. Just this morning he tweeted that “Constant phony reporting from failing @CNN turns everyone off.” What’s more, he has had a devastating falling out with his old pal on MSNBC, Joe Scarborough, who just penned an op-ed calling for the Republican Party to dump Trump.

The broadcast networks are out also, Trump has been flinging his juvenile nickname at the host of NBC’s Meet the Press for months. He calls him “Sleepy eyes Chuck Todd” and labeled Todd as “totally biased” against him. Trump wrote off ABC’s George Stephanopoulos as “a good friend” of the Clinton’s. Scott Pelley of CBS was deemed “disrespectful.”

So You may be thinking that this leaves Fox News. Not so fast. Trump has burned just about everyone on the network with the notable exception of Fox’s Senior Trump Fluffer, Sean Hannity. Trump said of Megyn Kelly that she “is the worst” and has a “terrible show.” He called Karl Rove a “total fool” and “a biased dope.” He said that George Will is a “broken down political pundit” and “boring.” Chris Stirewalt was deemed “one of the dumbest political pundits on television.” Trump laughed off Charles Krauthammer as “a totally overrated clown,” “a loser,” and “a dummy.” And wrapping up the whole network for his disapproval, he tweeted that he was “having a really hard time watching Fox News.” Then he called on his followers to boycott the network. And for good measure, Trump took a swipe at the Fox family’s newspaper saying that the writers at the Wall Street Journal are also “dummies.”

Other prominent news outlets that Trump has sworn off (literally revoking their press credentials) include The New York Times, the Washington Post, Politico, BuzzFeed, the Huffington Post, Fusion, and Univision.

Trump has already demonstrated his tendency to provoke melodrama with regard to candidate debates. He turned the GOP primary debates into feral spectacles of crass immaturity and avoidance of substance. His tantrums succeeded in forcing the Republican National Committee and the media to capitulate to his will, forcing out networks or media co-sponsors that he didn’t think were sufficiently deferential to him. The question now is: Will the CPD permit him do the same for the general election debates?

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

Recently Trump said that “I want to debate very badly. But I have to see the conditions.” Which is another way of saying that he doesn’t want to debate very badly. If he did he would have released a statement like the one Hillary Clinton released:

“Secretary Clinton looks forward to participating in all three presidential debates scheduled by the independent debate commission. […] The only issue now is whether Donald Trump is going to show up to debate at the date, times, places and formats set by the commission last year through a bipartisan process. We will accept the commission’s invitation and expect Donald Trump to do the same.”

Clearly Trump is terrified to face his opponent, Hillary Clinton. But it is also reflective of his weak character that he is too frightened to face journalists who might be less than adoring. Trump is setting up a trapdoor exit to avoid having to do the debates at all. And he’s using the moderator issue as his excuse. It is becoming increasingly evident that the only moderators left that Trump would approve of would be from the National Enquirer or his his chums at Pravda.

ADDENDUM: Fox News reported additional “demands” made by Trump to Time Magazine regarding the debates. He insisted that “certain moderators would be unacceptable, absolutely.” But we still don’t know any that would be acceptable.

Trump debates

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LOOK! Sitting Behind Trump At Rally Is An Ex-GOP Rep Who Hit On Teenage Congressional Pages

Posted by on August 10, 2016 at 8:37 pm. 2 Comments :

Conservative media has been spending the last couple days hyperventilating about a man in the audience at a rally for Hillary Clinton. Seddique Mateen, the father of the shooter who murdered fifty people at an Orlando night club had come to the public event and was seated behind the stage. Clinton had nothing to do with it and later made it clear that she disavowed his support.

In the meantime, Donald Trump, Fox News, and other right-wing press, turned this into a major flaw that, in some unexplained way, reflected on Clinton. They insisted that there was a correlation between Mateen’s attendance and her administrative competence.

Well, this has now come back to bite them in the ass “big league.” In a rally today a man was spotted sitting behind Donald Trump’s stage who was also recognized by the media. His name is Mark Foley. He was a Republican congressman from January 1995 to September 2006. What makes his presence notable is the reason he left Congress.

Donald Trump Mark Foley

Foley resigned from Congress after he was caught sending sexually explicit instant messages and emails to teenage boys serving as congressional pages, for whom he was the House administrator. Ironically, Foley was coerced into resigning by GOP Speaker Dennis Hastert who last year pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges involving concealed payments to a man whom he had sexually abused decades earlier. Hastert admitted to being a serial child molester, but the cases had exceeded the statute of limitations so he could not be charged with those crimes. In any case, Hastert certainly knew what he had done years earlier when he was forcing Foley out of Congress.

While on stage, Trump was specifically calling out Clinton over the incident with Mateen being in her audience along with 3,000 other people she didn’t know. However, Trump made the whole thing more personal with regard to his own audience (video below). He began by congratulating the people sitting behind him because they were going to be famous as a result of being seen on TV in the background of his speech. He continued:

Wasn’t it terrible when the father of the animal that killed the wonderful people in Orlando was sitting with a big smile on his face right behind Hillary Clinton? And by the way, including a lot of the people here – how many of you people know me [Foley raises his hand]? A lot of you people know me. When you get those seats you sort of know the campaign. So when she said “Well we didn’t know…” They knew.

How did you like that picture? Him sitting – forty-nine people killed – other people will never, ever, ever, be the same. And that guy is sitting back there. And of course he likes Hillary. Because Hillary won’t even say the words “radical Islamic terrorism.”

And all the while, a notorious pedophile was sitting in plain view behind Trump with a big smile on his face. In addition, according to Trump, Foley got that seat because they know each other. Foley confirmed this later saying:

“I’ve been a friend of Mr. Trump’s since 1987. I’ve admired so much of what he’s done. He’s a different breed of leader and a different breed of candidate.”

It will be interesting to see how Trump explains this away, if he can be made to address it all. Will he change his story and say he didn’t know Foley? Will he disavow him? It will also be interesting to see how the media cover this incident. They obsessed over the audience member at Clinton’s rally. Will they spend two days doing the same over Trump’s?

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


Health Scare: Hillary Clinton Is At Death’s Door, According To Desperate Fox News ‘Experts’

Posted by on August 10, 2016 at 5:33 pm. 7 Comments :

The desperate rightists and Donald Trump sycophants at Fox News are continuing to seek a way out from under the political catastrophe they helped to create. They are now suffering with the consequences of having directed Trump’s path to the GOP nomination. While Trump makes thinly veiled assassination threats, the folks at Fox watch dolefully as his poll numbers crater and his lunatic rhetoric becomes ever more unhinged. So Fox News is embarking on a frantic effort to drag down Hillary Clinton instead.

Hillary Clinton

On Fox & Friends today, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes assembled members of their “Medical A-Team” to revel in what they portrayed as Clinton’s sickly prognosis. They rattled off a series of only seven mostly minor incidents dating back nearly two decades. Among these alleged medical crises were a stomach virus and a fractured elbow. Not exactly the sort of dire emergencies for which you would wake up the undertaker. Then they showed a photo where Clinton was being assisted walking up some stairs as if she were feeble. What Fox failed to note was that the stairs were coated with a layer of ice and her aides were merely being cautious.

Nevertheless, these were the foundation for a segment in which the Fox panel exhibited their disingenuous concern for the elderly former Secretary of State. They used their shallow research to assert that Clinton should be required to make available her full medical records. Much of the segment was spent claiming that there was a double standard that favored Clinton. As an example they referred to John McCain’s campaign in 2008. However, McCain was older than Clinton when he ran and had four separate bouts of skin cancer. More worrisome was the fact that Sarah Palin was his vice-presidential running-mate.

While complaining about this supposed double standard, there was scant mention of Donald Trump’s health status or demands for his medical records. He is also older than Clinton. The only medical information he has released was a glowing one page appraisal from a doctor who described Trump’s health as “extraordinary.” He might have added “tremendous, big league” and “the best health of anyone ever, believe me.” (Is anyone else reminded of the time Trump pretended to be his own PR man?). Not mentioned was the fact that Trump had such serious health problems in the past that they resulted in a 4F medical exemption from the draft.

The Fox News medical “experts” are quite right. There is a double standard. And the beneficiary is clearly Donald Trump. Despite the evidence of some severe psychological problems (narcissistic personality disorder, pathological lying, dementia, memory loss, delusions of grandeur, and a peculiar form of Tourette’s Syndrome where he shouts out stupid and/or violent remarks uncontrollably) no one on Fox News has set aside time for segments devoted to his medical transparency. Demands for his medical records are made faintly, if at all. Not that he would provide them. He is still refusing to release his taxes as every presidential candidate has done for more than half a century.

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

It is obvious that Fox News is raising this issue because they have little else of substance to talk about. All of the pseudo-scandals they have promoted (or invented) have fizzled under the light of honest scrutiny. And with Trump being his own worst enemy every time he opens his mouth, Fox is forced to engage in blatant muckraking in order to try to turn the tide against Clinton. Unfortunately for them, they just succeed in making themselves look even more pathetic and desperate. And Unfortunately for us, that won’t stop them from continuing to do it through November and well into the Clinton administration.


WTF: Fox News Media Critic Says ‘The Press Put Out A Mob Hit On Donald Trump’

Posted by on August 9, 2016 at 2:28 pm. 4 Comments :

There is always an unmistakable moment when desperation sets in for people or organizations that are undergoing difficult times. That moment came yesterday for Fox News and their advocacy of Donald Trump. The evidence is the commentary by their media correspondent (video below), Howard Kurtz, who hosts Fox’s MediaBuzz, has been a consistent proponent of Trump from the outset of his campaign.

Godfather

Kurtz was interviewed on Fox Monday by Abby Huntsman who introduced the segment by asking “what is going on here” with the media bias against Trump. Kurtz responded fervidly that he had “never seen anything remotely like this, and I have been saying this for months.” He was visibly roused about what he perceived as an unusually shrill display of partisanship by the press. Continuing on that path he ranted about:

“The obvious distaste, bordering on disgust, that many journalists and commentators have for Donald Trump – he was able to defeat that during the primaries – but it’s been going on for quite a while. In the last ten days it is almost like the press put out a mob hit on Donald Trump. The imbalance is so overwhelming on almost every media site and outlet that it can no longer be denied.”

Is he freakin’ serious? First of all, there is only one person responsible for the media coverage of Donald Trump and that’s Donald Trump. Granted, the last ten days has been a veritable shitstorm for Trump. But no one in the press forced him to insult the grieving parents of an American hero. He wasn’t coerced by some reporter to lie about having seen palettes of cash being unloaded from a plane. His whining about “rigged” elections didn’t come from the media. Calling Hillary Clinton the devil was his idea. Declaring his affection for Vladimir Putin and his animosity for NATO can only be attributed to him. Absolutely none of that is the fault of the media, and covering it is not an expression of distaste or disgust. It’s actually called journalism.

Secondly, the general chaos and disunity of a Republican Party led by a self-absorbed bigot was not invented by a twisted journalist obsessed with destroying Trump. It was the predictable consequence of putting a pitifully ignorant and thoroughly unhinged narcissist at the helm of the GOP. If anything, the reporting on Trump has been insufficiently critical. Reporters too frequently resort to timid descriptions of Trump as merely being wrong or mistaken when in reality he’s a pathological liar. Likewise, they characterize his frothing, infantile insults as simply negative opinions.

For Kurtz to assert that reporting on the offensive and ludicrous behavior of Trump is in any way analogous to a mob hit is not only dreadfully out of bounds, it reveals Kurtz’s own partisan prejudices. He has been serving as The Donald’s chief fluffer for over a year now. Clearly his role at Fox News is to carry forward Trump’s hostility to the press from the inside. And Trump has returned the favor by largely limiting his press availability to Fox News.

Finally, Kurtz’s assertion of an overwhelming imbalance that can’t be denied is downright delusional. It is especially troubling for someone who professes to be a media expert. The truth is that Trump received far more coverage, and more favorable coverage, than any of his opponents, including Hillary Clinton. This was proven by a study conducted by Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy. What’s more, this is a study that any reputable media analyst would be aware of. So Kurtz’s failure to address it marks him as either disreputable or dishonest (or both). Which makes him the perfect media correspondent for a disreputable and dishonest network like Fox News.

UPDATE: Consistent with the right’s inclinations toward violence, Donald Trump was speaking today about the prospect of Hillary Clinton nominating Supreme Court justices. He complained that there was nothing that could be done about that if she were president. Then he added that “the Second Amendment people” could stop Clinton. It was a blatant call for someone to assassinate her. I really don’t know how his campaign survives crap like this.

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


Short Circuit: Donald Trump, The GOP’s Lunatic-In-Chief, Says Hillary Clinton Is The Crazy One?

Posted by on August 7, 2016 at 3:18 pm. 6 Comments :

On Friday Hillary Clinton appeared at a conference for African-American and Latino journalists, an affair whose invitation Donald Trump declined. Following her prepared remarks she answered questions from the assembled reporters. During this Q & A Clinton used a colloquial term to characterize a misunderstanding. That led Trump to blow a gasket based on his inability to comprehend common language.

Donald Trump

The problem centered around Clinton’s response to Chris Wallace of Fox News regarding the truthfulness of her testimony to the FBI. Clinton conceded that there was a discrepancy in her response which she explained to the journalists saying that:

“I was pointing out in both of those instances, that Director Comey had said that my answers in my FBI interview were truthful. That really is the bottom line here. What I told the FBI, which he said was truthful, is consistent with what I have said publicly. I may have short-circuited and for that I will try to clarify.”

All that Clinton was saying is that she may have associated both her public statements and her FBI testimony with Comey’s affirmation of her truthfulness. However, Comey was speaking only to her testimony. And all she meant by “short circuited” was that she had awkwardly conflated the two separate matters making it appear that Comey had validated both.

Enter Donald Trump. Grasping onto the dramatic imagery of a short circuit, Trump took the remark entirely out of context to suggest that Clinton had admitted to a mental infirmity. He lashed out at her at a rally Saturday saying that she had suffered a “short-circuit in the brain.” He tweeted a similar absurdity that said:

Anybody whose mind “SHORT CIRCUITS” is not fit to be our president! Look up the word “BRAINWASHED.”

Trump might want to take his own advice, because the definition of “brainwashed” has nothing to do with short circuiting. What’s more, his inability to comprehend such simple concepts does more to prove his own unfitness for the presidency. Not that more proof was necessary. Trump has provided ample evidence of his dodgy mental state for most of the past year. The consensus of professionals is overwhelming. For instance:

When looking objectively at the symptoms commonly associated with personality disorders and dementia it is hard not to consider Trump a likely candidate for such a diagnosis. What follows is an exploration of the three most prominent symptoms of dementia and their relationship to Trump’s behavior.

Trump’s Impaired judgment

From the very beginning of his of campaign for the Republican nomination for president, Trump engaged in outbursts that were hostile and irrational. His assertion that the immigrant population in the U.S. was the result of Mexico sending over rapists and murderers was untethered to reality. And that was just the first day. Trump went on to belittle Sen. John McCain’s status as a war hero; he charged that Megyn Kelly’s questions during a Fox News debate were unfair because she was menstruating; he proposed a ban on all Muslims from entering the country; he called climate change a hoax created by the Chinese; he declined to honor the NATO treaty; he advocated committing war crimes against the innocent families of suspected terrorists; he still thinks that President Obama is not an American or a Christian; he won’t rule out nuking Europe. And there’s more where that came from.

These are all examples of behavior that is inconsistent with rational judgment. They have no basis in fact and cannot be portrayed as constructive methods of expressing oneself.

Trump’s Loss of Memory

Trump has frequently bragged that he has “one of the best memories of all time.” However, that boast has been utterly demolished by his own words and actions. One notable example was his insistence that he had seen television reporting of “thousands and thousands” of Muslims celebrating the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. That was an invented memory because there is no evidence that it occurred, despite the fact that television footage of such an event would be easily retrievable. More recently he had another invented memory wherein he imagined watching a video of palettes of cash being unloaded from an American plan in Iran.

Trump’s memory was also noticeably deficient when he called Ted Cruz “the single biggest liar” he ever met just three months after lauding him and floating him as a possible VP pick. Similarly he once praised Hillary Clinton as a “terrific” woman and a great Secretary of State. Now he is saying that she was the “worst Secretary of State in history.” And as for President Obama, Trump tweeted that he is “perhaps the worst president in U.S. history.” But this is what he wrote in his book Think Like A Champion:

“What he has done is amazing. The fact that he accomplished what he has—in one year and against great odds—is truly phenomenal.” […]

“Barack Obama proved that determination combined with opportunity and intelligence can make things happen—and in an exceptional way.” […]

“His comments have led me to believe that he understands how the economy works on a comprehensive level. He has also surrounded himself with very competent people, and that’s the mark of a strong leader.” […]

“He’s totally a champion.”

Clearly Trump has either a failing memory or mental blocks that render his memory unreliable.

Trump’s Childish Behavior

This is perhaps the symptom least in need of elaboration, but here goes anyway. Trump is the most juvenile presidential candidate in this nation’s history. He lashes out with infantile insults about people’s looks and character. If he is criticized he will punch back with baseless, often unrelated, rebuttals. And that’s when he isn’t throwing tantrums like when he ditched the Fox News debate. Now he is whining about the upcoming debates with Clinton and already alleging that they are rigged. Anyone who doesn’t exhibit unrestrained adoration is an enemy who is out to destroy him.

Trump has the ego of four year old who believes the world revolves around him. The parts of his campaign stump speeches that aren’t attacks on his rivals are comprised primarily of bragging about how great he is at everything and how high his poll numbers are. The rest of his rhetoric, when put through the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, scored at the third grade level. Of course, that’s probably still somewhat higher than most of his Tea-vangelical supporters.

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

Every day Trump validates the notion that he is mentally challenged and unfit to perform the duties of the president. His immature outbursts, his brazen narcissism, and his faulty cognition, are all indications of potential senility. And now he exhibits a classic case of projection by asserting that Clinton is the one who is crazy based on his feeble reading of Clinton’s use of the phrase “short circuit.” When all of this is taken into account, it seems obvious that there is a problem here that requires attention. Hopefully someone close to him will notice and get him the help he so clearly needs.


Pro-Censorship Fox News Says Government Should Seize Profits From Snowden Biopic

Posted by on August 6, 2016 at 5:24 pm. NO Comments :

Taking their propaganda business model one step closer to police state fascism, Fox News is now advocating government censorship of film producers for projects that challenge their right-wing world view. This became all too apparent on today’s episode of Fox & Friends during an interview with Tom Fitton, the president of the ultra-conservative Judicial Watch group.

Fox News Snowden

The “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox & Friends aired a transparently hostile segment (video below) on director/producer Oliver Stone’s upcoming biographical film about Edward Snowden, the systems administrator turned whistle-blower, who leaked documents that revealed the NSA’s mass surveillance programs. The segment began with the trio of co-hosts suggesting that Stone’s film “could violate federal law” and that “the DOJ may be able to seize [its] profits.” The first question Fitton was asked was specifically about that possibility. He responded:

“Well, if they were interested in pursuing where these profits were going and who is funding this movie, because Oliver Stone was working with Mr. Snowden who had no right to the information he had. As a fugitive he’s under indictment. And typically you can’t benefit from moneys that you may earn from stealing government property and betraying your country.”

Notice that Fitton did not offer any evidence that Snowden was benefiting from the film. He merely planted the suggestion and inferred that Stone’s working with him was in itself suspicious. Although any competent film maker would seek to get first hand accounts from the subject of a biopic if that subject were available.

Notice also that the outrage expressed by Fitton, and shared by the Foxies, for someone who “stole” information was never shown toward the thieves who hacked the Democratic National Committee. And those thieves actually were working for a foreign government (Russians) who had hostile intentions toward the U.S. Undeterred by reason or patriotism, Fitton went even further with his baseless inferences against Stone:

“Mr. Stone knew something was up with respect to Mr. Snowden because he made a point of saying that ‘I stuck to making this movie in Munich,’ because he was, quote, ‘afraid of the NSA.’ If he was doing a regular movie what would he have been afraid of?”

First of all, there is nothing unsavory about making a film in Munich, especially when it places you 3,000 miles closer from your home base in New York to your primary source in Moscow. Secondly, the very topic of the film validates any concern Stone might have had about interference from the NSA.

Most importantly, Fitton’s assertion that Stone should have nothing to fear if he were making a “regular” movie (whatever that is), is reminiscent of the assurance from authoritarians that, so long as you’re not doing anything wrong, it shouldn’t bother you if the government reads your email, listens to your phone calls, or searches your bedroom closet. What are you afraid of, comrade? The absurdity of Fitton’s comment even seemed to make Fox’s co-host Tucker Carlson nervous. He gingerly asked:

“So I’m not defending Oliver Stone, or of course Snowden, but the NSA did spy on Americans who had nothing to do with terrorism, so maybe Stone’s not a total paranoid. But more to the point, every news organization in America reprinted information that Snowden stole. So by the standard you just held, should every news organization also be liable for abetting a criminal?”

Fitton’s defensively knee-jerk response to this was “Not necessarily.” He reiterated that Stone’s meetings with Snowden somehow made the whole relationship an unholy conspiracy. According to Fitton “Snowden is no whistle-blower,” and his actions were tantamount to “treachery.”

At this point Fox’s co-host Pete Hegseth chimed in that “There’s no doubt that Snowden’s disclosure helped groups like Al Qaeda and others.” And once again, he provided no evidence for such a serious charge. But he did gave Fitton the opportunity to present his own wingnut theory that “The Obama administration is no fan of our nation’s security.” Fitton is obviously in the camp that regards Obama as a foreign-born Muslim terrorist sympathizer.

The notion that the federal government is empowered to confiscate profits from a filmmaker, based on the content of the film, is a blatant violation of the principles of free speech. It is a breach of constitutional liberties and merely threatening to do so would have a chilling effect on the rights of free people. It is by definition censorship.

The fact that Fox News would provide a platform for someone advocating this, and then fail to repudiate it, is indicative of Fox’s affinity for rightist tyranny. And it’s further proof that the mission of Fox News has nothing to do with the pseudo-patriotic image they attempt to manufacture for themselves and sell to their dimwitted audience.

Please do visit the Snowden film website and watch the trailer for the movie that is coming out September 16.

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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Trump Tries To Weasel Out Of Iranian Video Claims With Incoherent Tweet

Posted by on August 5, 2016 at 1:26 pm. 2 Comments :

Yesterday Fox News aired a report that alleged, without evidence, that the Obama administration had paid a ransom to secure the release of Americans imprisoned in Iran. Accompanying the report was a video that Fox implied was of the transfer of American cash to the Iranians. However, it quickly became clear that the video in fact showed a group of prisoners being released in Switzerland.

Fox News

That didn’t stop Donald Trump from repeatedly characterizing the video he saw as showing cash being unloaded at a Iranian airport. His remarks were unambiguous as he told supporters that “I’ll never forget the scene this morning. […] the tape is of the people taking the money off the plane. Right?”

Wrong. There is no such video and even Trump’s campaign spokesperson admitted that. Today Trump himself took a step toward correcting the record with a tweet:

Some people might interpret that as an admission on Trump’s part that he was wrong about having seen the video he described yesterday. And for Donald Trump that’s about as close to an admission of fault as you’re ever going to get. But when you dissect his tweet it’s clear that he’s trying to backtrack in a particularly awkward fashion.

Notice that Trump is referring to the plane he saw on television as being “the hostage plane.” He’s leaving wide open the possibility that he still saw “the plane carrying $400 million,” but that he didn’t see it on TV. In short, he doesn’t explicitly deny having seen the plane as he claimed. In addition, the people released were not hostages, a term that presumes captivity pending satisfaction of a list of demands. Since that was not the case, Trump is purposefully misleading his readers.

More to the point, Trump’s backpedaling tweet in no way explains the core remarks he made previously, even after being told he was wrong. There is nothing in the tweet that addresses his ludicrous insistence that he saw a video that was made by Iran. Neither does the tweet address his assertion that the Iranians provided the video to embarrass the United States. Read his original comments from yesterday and try to find anything in his tweet that directly refutes the bulk of it:

“I’ll never forget the scene this morning. Remember this: Iran – I don’t think you heard this anywhere but here – Iran provided all of that footage, the tape of taking that money off the airplane. Right? $400 million in cash. How does the President do that? How do you do that? We’re gonna send $400 million in cash, this is in cash, in currency.”

“Now, here’s the amazing thing: Over there, where that plane landed, top secret, you don’t have a lot of paparazzi. You know, the paparazzi doesn’t do so well over there, right? And they have a perfect tape, done by obviously a government camera, and the tape is of the people taking the money off the plane. Right? That means that in order to embarrass us further, Iran sent us the tapes. Right? It’s a military tape, it’s a tape that was a perfect angle, nice and steady, nobody getting nervous because they’re gonna be shot because they’re shooting a picture of money pouring off a plane.”

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

This tweet was a desperate attempt by Trump to wriggle out of a boneheaded commentary that had no basis in reality. He was humiliated by his campaign staff, his GOP colleagues, and the press. So he tried clumsily to extricate himself from his own idiocy. And most pathetic of all, he even failed at that.


Fox News Airs Phony Footage Of Iran Funds Flight – And Donald Trump Falls For It

Posted by on August 4, 2016 at 4:49 pm. NO Comments :

The Wall Street Journal recently published a story alleging to have uncovered a secret $400 million payment from the United States to Iran. Never mind that the payment was disclosed by the administration last January and was a settlement of a long standing financial dispute. The WSJ ignited a firestorm of frenzied conservatives falsely asserting that the money was a ransom paid to secure the release of Americans imprisoned in Iran.

Fox News

Among the right-wing media spinners that rushed to wield this story as a cudgel against President Obama and Hillary Clinton was, of course, Fox News. They aired a report that parroted the WSJ (also owned by Rupert Murdoch) along with video that Fox implied was of the transfer of American cash to the Iranians. There’s just one problem. The video was actually of a group of prisoners being released in Switzerland.

Not one to let a fake Fox News story go to waste, Donald Trump took to the stage in Daytona, Florida, to address the matter (video below). But he veered even further into a world of delusion as he unfolded a fable of espionage to which he alone was privy:

“I’ll never forget the scene this morning. Remember this: Iran – I don’t think you heard this anywhere but here – Iran provided all of that footage, the tape of taking that money off the airplane. Right? $400 million in cash. How does the President do that? How do you do that? We’re gonna send $400 million in cash, this is in cash, in currency.”

No, Donald, That’s not right. Iran didn’t take any of that footage, which was shot in Switzerland. And there was no cash in it at all. In fact, the claim that the U.S. loaded shipping palettes with cash was utterly false. Due to economic sanctions, the U.S. has no banking relationship with Iran. Therefore, the money was transferred to Swiss banks where it was converted by the them to currencies that they sent to Iran. Trump continued:

“Now, here’s the amazing thing: Over there, where that plane landed, top secret, you don’t have a lot of paparazzi. You know, the paparazzi doesn’t do so well over there, right? And they have a perfect tape, done by obviously a government camera, and the tape is of the people taking the money off the plane. Right? That means that in order to embarrass us further, Iran sent us the tapes. Right? It’s a military tape, it’s a tape that was a perfect angle, nice and steady, nobody getting nervous because they’re gonna be shot because they’re shooting a picture of money pouring off a plane.”

Once again, that is entirely wrong. Iran didn’t send us the tape, and it’s not from their military. So there was no attempt on their part to embarrass the U.S. There was no top secret landing since the entire affair was publicly disclosed by the government. This whole story is as fictional as Trump’s claim to have seen thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the fall of the World Trade Center towers. That never happened either.

So Trump invented a tale of intrigue wherein he observed a non-existent top secret video of Iranians receiving piles of cash from a clandestine American flight. And just to be clear, his spokesperson, Hope Hicks, was asked by the Washington Post if the video to which he was referring was the one that aired on Fox News. She responded “Yes,” it was “merely the B-roll footage included in every broadcast.” And since we know that that video was not shot in Iran, we also know that Trump’s entire account is pure fiction. Which makes it consistent with pretty much everything else that Trump says (see the Trump Bullshitopedia). and, for that matter, most of what appears on Fox News.

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

UPDATE: Trump has now admitted that he never saw the video he claimed at least twice to have seen. He gave no explanation for why he falsely claimed to have seen a video that doesn’t exist.


Fox News War Mongering EXPOSED: Former Exec Confesses ‘My Job Was To Sell The War’ In Iraq

Posted by on August 3, 2016 at 6:40 pm. 4 Comments :

The flagrantly right-wing bias of Fox News is no longer in doubt by anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the network’s aggressive propagandizing. Most of the network’s anchors, contributors, and guests lean so far to the right that Joseph Goebbels would have been proud to be associated with it. And yet, their own pride of ideological leaning is carefully hidden under a veil of phony fairness and balance.

Fox News

That’s why it was surprising to find a public admission of political spin from a high level Fox insider buried in a story on a completely different subject. Last week Gabriel Sherman of New York Magazine published another article in his investigative series that contributed to the downfall of Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes. Sherman is also the author of the Ailes biography The Loudest Voice in the Room.

The sexual harassment scandal that led to the humiliating ouster of the most powerful man in media had been steadily escalating. Dozens of women came forward to tell their painful stories of abuse. One of those women was Laurie Luhn who worked for Fox News for more than twenty years. The circumstances of her harrowing experience are spelled out in excruciating detail in Sherman’s article. But little noticed was this paragraph buried deep withing the article that revealed something unrelated to the abuse:

“As she was promoted through the ranks at Fox, Luhn worked harder and harder to please Ailes. She zealously promoted the network’s right-wing agenda. ‘I was very proud of the product. I was very proud of how we handled 9/11. Very proud of how we handled the run-up to the Iraq War,’ she said. ‘My job was to sell the war. I needed to get people on the air that were attractive and articulate and could convey the importance of this campaign. It was a drumbeat.'”

As the Director of Bookings for Fox News, Luhn saw her job as “selling the war” in Iraq. And she clearly recognized the benefits of seeking attractive, articulate salespeople to move the product. The “drumbeat” to which she refers was evident every day as the network hammered its advocacy of a war that had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11. This was much more than a typical news slant to sway public opinion. This was a blatant effort to steer the nation into an international conflict that has had disastrous results from which we are still suffering today.

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

These revelations turn the Luhn story into a much more complex affair. While she was on a daily mission to help her employer embroil the country in an immoral and illegal war, she was also a victim of unconscionable behavior from her despicable boss. There is no excuse for what Ailes allegedly did to her and the many other women making similar allegations against him. But there is a strange and sad irony that these heinous acts resulted in Luhn providing one of the most potent examples of how Fox News deliberately deceived the American people and unleashed an era of war, terrorism, and misery on the world.


Watch ‘Zoolander’ Trump Threaten To Ban The New York Times Because They ‘Don’t Write Good’

Posted by on August 2, 2016 at 11:44 am. 4 Comments :

The surest sign of desperation in a politician is when he resorts to wholly implausible and baseless conspiracy theories. These delusions are generally aimed at imaginary enemies that are perceived to be bearing down from all directions. Donald Trump crossed over into that paranoid territory months ago as he began a systematic suppression of the press that covers his campaign and abstaining from appearances on news networks that he deems to be unfriendly.

Trump Zoolander

The list of news organizations that Trump is banishing grew yesterday with the addition of what he calls the “failing” New York Times. Trump has been bashing the Times throughout his campaign, but this is the first time that he has threatened to revoke their press credentials and prohibit them from covering his public events. Trump made this threat at a rally in Columbus, Ohio, where he asserted that the Times was “very dishonest,” but failed to provide any instances to back up the charge.

Trump later appeared on Fox News and, in response to a flagrantly leading question from Sean Hannity on whether the media is acting as Hillary Clinton’s press office, he went after the Times again:

“The New York Times is so unfair. I mean they write three, four articles about me a day. No matter how good I do on something, they’ll never write good. They don’t write good. They have people over there, like Maggie Haberman and others, they don’t — they don’t write good. They don’t know how to write good.”

Well, perhaps Trump would be kind enough to provide some instructions for the illiterates at the Times on “How To Write Good,” so they can be as goodly at writing as his talking is at. The Times reporters would surely benefit from his famous collection of all the “best words“ that he tosses together with his “very good brain.” Just ask Derek Zoolander, founder of the Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good (an affiliate of Trump University?):

Should Trump carry out his threat to ban the New York Times, they would join the Washington Post, Politico, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Univision and a couple dozen other media enterprises. It would be consistent with his knee-jerk hostility to the press, and the principles of a free press, that he frequently refers to as vile scum. If his pattern of blacklisting the media continues, the only reporters covering his campaign will be those from Fox News, the National Enquirer, and his pals at Pravda.