Prawn Of The Dead: Return Of The Fox News ‘Shrimp On A Treadmill’ Sham

Posted by on April 13, 2016 at 2:05 pm. 1 Comments :

The scandal mongers at Fox News must be getting bored with Donald Trump’s bitching about how the GOP is conspiring against him and their utter failure to convince anyone that Hillary Clinton should be thrown in jail. The desperation is visible in their latest recycling of an ancient story that was a core part of their propaganda back in 2011.

The venerable tale of the “Shrimp on a Treadmill” was an audience favorite for the Fox cultists. It had all the components of classic rightist mythology: It portrayed government as wasteful and stupid; it elevated Republican whiners in Congress; it disparaged scientists as greedy perpetrators of hoaxes; and most importantly, it was completely made up. There was literally no truth to the story at all.

This morning on Fox News the Scampi-Scam was resurrected in conjunction with a story about the release of the annual “Pig Book,” a publication from Citizens Against Government Waste that details what they allege are unnecessary government expenditures. Perhaps their report should include the millions of dollars in unnecessary government expenditures on useless and spiteful shutdowns, dozens of fruitless, partisan hearings on Benghazi, and fifty-plus futile attempts to repeal ObamaCare. Fox’s Eric Shawn introduced the today’s segment saying…

“So last year we had the famous shrimp on the treadmill study. There it goes. There goes the little guy. This thing costs over a number of years three million dollars, they say, in taxpayer money. And this absurdity, I mean, continues now?”

Even this many years after the story had been debunked, Fox News is still propagating the lie that it cost millions of dollars. News Corpse documented this journalistic malpractice back in 2014 in an article that include the account of the professor responsible for the experiment. This seems like a good time to reprise that article. So here it is in full:

Back in May of 2011, Fox News assigned its crack investigative reporting team to expose a case of government malfeasance on a grand scale. They claimed to have uncovered wasteful spending on scientific research that served no purpose other than to line the pockets of academics engaged in questionable studies. At the top of the list was a now infamous project that involved the absurd but adorable image of a “shrimp on a treadmill.”

Fox News Shrimp Treadmill

This story became emblematic of government’s incompetence and inability to exercise fiscal restraint. Fox News took it up in big way with hundreds of segments featuring the by now exhausted little sea creature. It was featured on nearly every Fox program with Neil Cavuto playing a prominent role in hyping it with a hefty dose of smugly delivered disgust.

Well, if you haven’t guessed yet, it turns out that this is just another fraudulent invention of the myth spinners at Fox News. David Scholnick is the professor of marine biology at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, where the notorious research was conducted. Earlier this week he published an article for the Chronicle of Higher Education that laid out for the umpteenth time what was actually being studied and the true costs involved.

On behalf of the National Science Foundation, Scholnick developed a project to ascertain “how recent changes in the oceans could potentially affect the ability of marine organisms to fight infections.” He justified the study by linking it to the very real risk of bacteria contamination to the food supply. But more to the point, he adamantly denied the accusations of any fiscal improprieties.

“Exactly how much taxpayer money did go into the now-famous shrimp treadmill? The treadmill was, in fact, made from spare parts—an old truck inner tube was used for the tread, the bearings were borrowed from a skateboard, and a used pump motor was salvaged to power the treadmill. The total price for the highly publicized icon of wasteful government research spending? Less than $50. (All of which I paid for out of my own pocket.)”

The truth is that the $3 million dollars attributed to the study was actually an aggregate sum that was used for a variety of NSF projects. It was not the amount spent on the shrimp experiment. And there is no evidence that any of the funds were misused or were not justifiable from a research perspective.

However, given the attitude of Fox News and conservative politicians toward science, it is not surprising to find them falsely accusing scientists of malfeasance. The wingnut community staunchly denies the existence of man-made climate change, evolution, and even the harmful effects of excessive sugar, salt, and tobacco. It’s only a matter of time before they begin to challenge the “theory” of gravity.

At the end of his article Scholnick takes a well deserved swipe at his right-wing critics by offering to sell his shrimp-sized NordicTrack for the bargain price of $1 million – a 67% discount on the bogusly reported cost. That’s the sort of special only found during the Black Friday sales after Thanksgiving. Some lucky buyer is going to get endless hours of satisfaction and be the envy of his friends and neighbors.

Stay tuned for the Fox News correction of their erroneous reporting, which I’m sure they will be broadcasting just as soon as they are finished spewing lies about Benghazi, IRS emails, executive amnesty, ObamaCare, the Keystone XL pipeline, voter fraud, Ebola, trickle-down economics, and – oh never mind. It may be better not to stay tuned after all.

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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Lying Liar Donald Trump’s New Attack On Hillary Clinton Proves He Is Running Out Of Material

Posted by on April 12, 2016 at 7:52 pm. 4 Comments :

Anyone who has been paying attention to the cognitive meltdown known as the Donald Trump campaign for president already knows how immature he has been with regard to his name-calling and whining about his rivals and the mean poopyheads at the Republican National Committee who are all out to get him.

Hillary Clinton

Also apparent to conscious observers is his robo-Trump stump speeches that incessantly repeat the same nonsensical talking points and crowd pleasing hate-speech. Sing along with me: build the wall; make Mexico pay for it; waterboard ISIS; repeal ObamaCare; get ’em [protesters] outta here; I’ll pay your legal fees if you hurt them; I love the vets [when he isn’t stealing from them]; protect the 2nd Amendment; Little Marco; Lyin’ Ted; I’m leading every poll; everyone loves Trump; only I can make America great again; etc. ad nauseum.

Trump’s modus operandi is to coin juvenile slogans that disparage his opponents. It’s a type of shorthand, anti-branding designed to stick to his targets like rhetorical tar. It works because his followers are too dumb to comprehend more complex policy proposals, which Trump refuses to provide anyway. The simple-minded buzzwords make it easy for his realityTV-forged fans to follow along.

Today Trump made his first official foray into general election politicking with a swipe at Hillary Clinton. He has previously tried to tag her as “low-energy” (which he recycled from Jeb Bush) and lacking stamina. But Clinton’s obvious vitality on the campaign trail made those barbs impotent. He also tried to tarnish her with her husband’s infidelity, but since that doesn’t actually reflect on her, and his own marital peccadilloes are far worse (and creepier), that didn’t work either. So now Trump is floating this:

“Her whole life has been a lie. A big, fat, beautiful lie. Everything about her is a lie.”

First of all, Trump has already assigned this theme to his GOP challenger, Ted Cruz. So it might be hard to undo the marketing effort already underway and flip it to a new foe. But more importantly it exposes Trump as having utterly exhausted his ability to develop any new thoughts. He’s just recycling insults that have worked for him before with the GOP lightweights he has been baffling with tactics derived from Celebrity Apprentice. It’s almost as if he doesn’t even realize he has used them before as he fires them off and hopes they hit the side of the barn.

What’s more, Trump is opening himself up for criticism that is far more applicable to him. News Corpse has been cataloging Trump’s falsehoods for several months and the result is a portrait pathological lying (see the Trump Bullshitopedia). And Trump’s obsessive privacy has concealed much of his flagrant dishonesty. He still has not released a single year of his tax returns. To follow him is to rely on the sort blind faith that empowers cults.

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

Clinton, on the other hand, has been in public life for more than thirty years and no one has been able to make a charge of dishonesty stick. She has been absolved of every wingnut conspiracy theory that has been lodged against her. She isn’t a perfect person (who is), but she has led a life that is an open book and people are able to draw their own conclusions as to her veracity. Trump, however, has constructed a wall around himself and his inner dealings. And yet, the corruption and deceit that has filtered out is more than sufficient to recognize a con man when you see one. So good luck, Donnie, with your new anti-branding of Clinton. You’re gonna need it.


Donald Trump: The Aspiring Whiner In Chief

Posted by on April 11, 2016 at 8:05 pm. 2 Comments :

If there is one thing that Donald Trump has proven this election year, it’s that there is a thriving market in the Republican Party for bigotry, ignorant bluster, and overt hostility. What may not have been as predictable is the surging demand for childish tantrums and self-indulgent carping.

Donald Trump GOP

Last week Ted Cruz outmaneuvered Trump in Colorado to win win all of the state’s delegates. In response Trump has unleashed a torrent of bile aimed at both Cruz and the Republican Party. He is spewing bitter and harshly worded complaints that the system is “corrupt” and “rigged” and that delegates are being “stolen” from him. His new campaign advisor, Paul Manafort, accused Cruz of using “Gestapo” tactics Hyperbole aside, this is just another example of Trump not knowing the rules or being willing to play by them. Rules don’t apply to Trump.

The fact is that Cruz just whipped Trump’s butt. Trump never showed up in Colorado. He just sent some pamphlets and had supporters selling Trump-branded merchandise. However, Cruz shouldn’t get a swelled a head. Besting the Trump family is apparently a pretty simple task. It was just reported that two of his kids, Ivanka and Eric, cannot vote for him in the New York primary because they neglected to register as Republicans before the deadline. This is the easy part, people.

So Trump has been hitting the campaign trail and with blistering condemnations of the delegate selection process. He is whining about delegate loses in Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, and Tennessee, to name just a few. He has even threatened to file lawsuits in Georgia and Tennessee to secure delegates that he is convinced belong to him. He thinks that because he has “millions of votes” that he is entitled to all of the delegates, regardless of what the rules are. In fact. Trump actually has a higher percentage of delegates than the percentage of votes he has received. So maybe he should release those extra delegates.

Ironically, today he told Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers that “I don’t love to see leaders who sit back and cry.” Yet that’s pretty much all that Trump does. He cries about what he regards as mistreatment by the GOP when he’s too stupid to follow the rules. He cries when voters reject him and belittles them for not recognizing his awesomeness. He cries about how awful America is, literally calling it a hell hole. His entire campaign is crying over his assertion that America isn’t great anymore and that he is the only human being that can restore its greatness.

Virtually everything about Trump screams infantile. He calls his rivals liars and cheaters and pussies. He calls critics dummies and losers. Then he points fingers at others saying that they started it. He brags about his alleged (and unlikely) phallic endowment. He is a pathological liar (see the Trump Bullshitopedia). It’s just a matter of time before he rails against his enemies as poopyheads who smell funny. Worst of all, he is willing to resort to violence. He encourages it at his rallies and has threatened riots at the GOP convention in Cleveland if he is denied his right to the crown.

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

And now Trump is adding persistent whining whenever he doesn’t get his way. It’s behavior that is ugly and juvenile. And yet, there are dimwitted Republicans who are still willing to support a candidate that doesn’t seem to have matured past the third-grade level (literally with regard to his speeches). What does that say about the wingnuts and Tea Party deadenders that comprise the core of Trump’s following? It says they are satisfied with a candidate who has failed to articulate a single policy with any measure of intelligence; who aspires to tyranny; and whose narcissistic ego has blown up to unprecedented proportions. Here is a video simulation of Donald Trump at ten years old – or for that matter, yesterday.


Fox News Freak Out: Sesame Street Introduces Afghan Girl Muppet

Posted by on April 9, 2016 at 12:52 pm. 6 Comments :

This week the venerable PBS children’s program, Sesame Street, made a historic addition to its cast of lovable characters. For the first time in its decades long run an Afghan girl will join the Muppets for its broadcast in the Afghanistan version of the show. Zari is six years old and is excited about the opportunities she will have to learn and make new friends. But not everyone feels the same way.

Fox News Sesame Street

The news of Zari’s debut has produced the all too predictable rash of bigotry that we’ve all come to expect from the conservative hate mongers who believe that all Muslims are terrorists. Apparently this also applies to cloth puppets of children on educational TV. What they are afraid of was announced by the producers in this press release and video:

“Sesame Workshop unveiled today its first Afghan Muppet, Zari, a curious and eager six year-old girl, who will make her debut in season five of Baghch-e-Simsim—the local co-production of Sesame Street. Zari, whose name means “shimmering,” will be featured in new, locally produced segments that focus on curriculum topics like girls’ empowerment, national identity, physical health, and social and emotional well being.”

Sounds terrifying, doesn’t it? What’s more, Sherrie Westin, Executive VP of Sesame Workshop, told reporters that Zari “is modeling for young girls that it is wonderful to go to school and that it’s OK to dream about having a career.” In a country where girls are often discouraged, or even forbidden, to attend school, this should be welcomed as progress toward a more inclusive society. It’s an example of American media having a positive influence on some of the more oppressive cultural aspects of other countries.

Unfortunately, the hatred that infects the right-wing in this country is at least as oppressive as the Taliban. A few of the headlines generated by conservative media include knee-jerk condemnations like “Sesame Street Uses New Muslim Muppet, Zari, To Indoctrinate Kids,” “Sesame Street Goes Halal, Incorporates Sharia Law & Islam Into New Episodes,” and “Sesame Street Afghanistan Gets New Female Muslim Puppet: ‘Asalaam Alaaikum'” Of course, much what they allege is simply untrue. Zari is identified as Afghan, not Muslim. And there is no indication that religion or Sharia Law will play any part in the character’s role on the program.

Some of the more heated criticisms of Zari are centered on what the wingnuts regard as hypocrisy for having a girl represented on the program despite the sexism that exists in that part of the world. This is an utterly absurd argument. First of all, if they were really worried about the place of women in Afghan society they should be thrilled that a TV show is working to improve the situation by advocating for more education and opportunity for girls and women. Secondly, it’s the wingnuts who are the hypocrites. They are as dismissive of women as many of the Muslims they castigate. Take a look at the type and tone of complaints they level at American women in politics, including Hillary Clinton. For the record, a ranking of the proportion of legislative seats held by women in 213 countries puts Afghanistan at 49. The United States is 94th – below Kenya (93), Saudi Arabia (92), and Pakistan (83), to name a few.

Nevertheless, the rightist bigots are flying off the rails with vile insults directed at a make-believe character in the form of an adorable puppet. They make insinuations about her being fitted with a suicide vest or preparing to engage in a jihad. This sort of xenophobic zealotry was particularly notable at the home of brain-dead bias, Fox Nation. As usual, the commenters there spoke for the community of American bigots with their customary flare for blind hatred (see The Collected Hate Speech Of The Fox News Community).

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

Fox Nation Sesame Street Comments


Veterans Still Getting Shafted By Phony Donald Trump Benefit

Posted by on April 8, 2016 at 12:25 pm. 2 Comments :

A couple of months ago Donald Trump put together a campaign stunt aimed at distracting the media and the public from his cowardly refusal to face Megyn Kelly in a Republican primary debate hosted by Fox News. After running away from the debate he frantically cobbled together a benefit that he said would aid various veterans’ groups.

Donald Trump

However, a month after the alleged benefit, CNN reported that most of the groups cited by Trump as beneficiaries had not received any of the money raised. A mere $800,000 of the reported $6 million was said to have been disbursed. Well now another month has gone by with little change in the situation.

According to a new report by the Wall Street Journal, “the targeted beneficiaries are still seeing a fraction of the promised money raised from the Republican’s charitable foundation and his wealthy friends.” So two months after the fake benefit, Trump is still hoarding the money he claimed was being collected for the veterans he professes to love. This is typical of Trump who is famously known as the least charitable billionaire in the United States. But this isn’t just a matter of being stingy, because this isn’t Trump’s money. It is money pledged by others for the benefit of veterans. Philanthropy experts have affirmed that these funds should have been disbursed long ago.

This may be one of the reasons that several veterans groups announced that they would refuse to take any of Trump’s money before the bogus telethon began. Many people regarded the event as a political stunt that insulted America’s veterans by using them as campaign props. What’s more, there have been reports that Trump has conditioned receipt of the donations on the recipient endorsing his campaign or appearing at his events. And even groups that have seen some benefit from the publicity have also noted that they have lost backers due to the association with Trump.

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

Once again, Donald Trump is demonstrating an utter lack of ethical conduct, in this case to the detriment of veterans. His campaign has consistently proven that he is only interested in what benefits him and he will shamelessly pander to whomever he thinks he can exploit to his own advantage. What’s really startling is that there are still people who can’t see through his obvious insincerity. That’s the sort of behavior that is observed in cults, and the Trump Cult has been pretty effective in deceiving weak-minded Americans.


Oblivious Alert: Megyn Kelly Slams Media Coverage Of Fox News Darling Donald Trump

Posted by on April 7, 2016 at 8:25 pm. 1 Comments :

There is something terribly fishy frying at Fox News. Their star primetime anchor, Megyn Kelly, has been making the media rounds and hinting at a possible separation between herself and her current employer. The rift first showed up in an interview wherein she said that she is not sure whether she will renew her contract at Fox. While Kelly says that she believes that Fox has backed her up during some recent controversies, she nevertheless is ambiguous about her future with the network. She told Variety that…

“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’ve had a great 12 years here, and I really like working for Roger Ailes. I really like my show, and I love my team. But you know, there’s a lot of brain damage that comes from the job.”

Donald Trump Megyn Kelly

Brain damage? That’s a peculiar way to characterize her work experience. Is she referring to her colleagues Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity? That would be understandable. Or is she addressing what Fox has called Donald Trump’s “sick obsession“ with her? Or is that how she feels after having to spew right-wing propaganda incessantly? She went on to say that she loves covering the news but that “I just don’t think that’s the perfect thing for me.”

Perhaps not. Judging from a subsequent interview with Katie Couric at the 2016 Women in the World Summit in New York City (video below), she seems to have some serious problems with the unprofessional conduct of her media peers, specifically with how they have covered Donald Trump. Although Kelly never directly indicts Fox News as being guilty of journalistic wrongdoing, what she describes as the failings of the press in general sound more like Fox than any other network.

For example, Couric referenced reporting that estimated the value of Trump’s free media coverage at nearly two billion dollars. She alluded to the “hand-wringing” going on at various media outlets over their responsibility for the excessive attention lavished on Trump and the impact it’s had on the race. Couric even noted comments by media executives who excused their fetish by saying that “Donald Trump is good for business,” and asked Kelly if that bothered her. Kelly answered that “It does bother me, and I don’t think it’s right.” She described some of the early coverage and then related a conversation she had with her executive producer:

“I could see all of the other media starting to do it, and I said when the post mortem is done on the coverage of Donald Trump, wherever this race goes, let’s make sure we’re on the side of the angels.”

I’m afraid that cloud has blown away. From there Kelly set about absolving herself of any of the Trump-worship that infected just about every news outlet. She said that “our show has not taken those pressers,” and that “We won’t wallpaper the show with a Donald Trump campaign event.” because “we also have to worry about our souls and journalism.” She noted that “it’s not fair” and that they “don’t do that for the other candidates.”

The problem with Kelly’s assessment is that it simply isn’t true. Donald Trump’s press events and stump speeches have been broadcast during the Kelly File’s time period. Perhaps that wasn’t a decision made by her or her producers, but she is not an innocent bystander in this. What’s more, no network has been more solicitous to Trump than Fox News. Kelly’s protestations are lame attempts to pretend that Fox didn’t create Trump. And she makes those excuses even while laying blame at her competition for making similar excuses.

“Now other journalists are trying to defend themselves by saying ‘Well we asked Ted Crux and he doesn’t say yes, we ask Donald Trump and he says yes.’ OK, that’s fine when it comes to interviews. That doesn’t explain all the phoners that the Sunday shows allow Trump and not the other candidates. Phoners! Fox News Sunday hosted by Chris Wallace is the only Sunday show that from the beginning said we’re not doing it.

Actually, Fox News Sunday did allow Trump to conduct interviews by phone, however they were the first Sunday show to put an end to it. But Kelly conveniently leaves out the fact that virtually every other program on Fox continues to this day letting Trump phone it in. Fox & Friends, Neil Cavuto, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, etc., all take Trump’s calls. Fox News Sunday is just one hour a week and it isn’t even on the Fox News Channel (its first run is on the Fox Entertainment Network). But Kelly isn’t through yet.

“And not only that, we’re talking about the campaign events. When have you ever seen news stations take campaign events? We don’t do that for anybody. We don’t do that for Hillary. We don’t do that for Cruz. We never did it for Rubio or Scott Walker. Only one candidate. And the media would sit there and say ‘It’s amazing how the polls are just up, up…’ It’s like you’re putting your thumb on the scale.”

Excellent points, Kelly. It has been patently obscene watching the media slobber all over Trump and helping him to realize his narcissistic dreams. But serious media critics have been making these points for months. Where have you been all this time? And even as Kelly says all the right things in this interview, her network is still doing all of the wrong things about which she is complaining. She seems to be totally oblivious to her own criticisms.

Fox News crafted Donald Trump from the raw clay of their partisan ideology and their desire to manipulate the news to achieve their political goals. Kelly has been an integral part of the plan from the beginning of her tenure at Fox. Now she is suddenly denouncing the business model in which she has been so much a part. And by extension she is denouncing her colleagues who continue to engage in the shoddy behavior she is railing about. They are gonna love that.

The fact that Kelly is being so openly critical of the unprofessionalism of the people she works with and for, while at the same time is glaringly vague about her intentions to remain at the network, suggests that she has other ideas. Most likely she is dreaming of being the next Barbara Walters or Oprah, and she isn’t worried about burning a few bridges behind her on the way to that destination. Unfortunately, in the process she and most of the rest of the media have saddled America with the closest thing it has ever had to a fascist leading a major political party.

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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The Fox News Audience Wants To Bomb An American City Because – MUSLIMS!

Posted by on April 6, 2016 at 8:33 pm. 3 Comments :

As the Republican primary campaign continues its march to their summer revival meeting (aka convention), the rising temperature of hostility threatens to leave the party in ashes. We have already seen Donald Trump warn that if he is denied the nomination that he considers his birthright there will be riots. Not to be outdone, Ted Cruz raised the specter of revolt if he is passed over.

Fox News

The lingering stench of violence that hovers over the GOP this election year is a constant reminder that the party that worships the Second Amendment is fully prepared to use force to achieve their ends, even against those who would otherwise be considered their ideological allies. So just imagine how they would treat those they regard as enemies.

Sadly, no imagination is required as the misanthropes of the right are not shy about revealing their barbaric side. A recent segment on Fox News was sufficient to draw out their inbred hatred toward fellow Americans that don’t happen to look like them. In this case it was a community in Michigan with a predominately Muslim population. An openly biased Fox correspondent, Pete Hegseth, visited the city of Hamtramck to interview the residents about how awful it is to live among heathens. But that isn’t the worst part of the story.

On the Fox News Facebook page that posted the video of the segment, commenters lived up to their reputation for bigotry and brutality. They went beyond merely insulting the peaceful citizens of Hamtramck to calling for this American city to be bombed and its people eradicated. For example…

  • “Soon we will find it necessary to start dropping bombs in towns like this.”
  • “Since Obama can’t seem to identifytargets before he sends our pilots out to drop bombs, maybe tey should practice on Hamtramck and the mosque they built in Maryland!”
  • “We need a radical militia in America to snuff these Islamic toe holds out.”
  • “So we know the coordinates to drop the next a-bomb. What’s the problem?”
  • “Put them all in the same place like that city and drop a big bomb on it.”
  • “I can’t believe we’re letting Obama get away with this. Soon it will be Obama’s folly. I see a day when we start rounding them up and forcing them out or killing them.”
  • “Drop a bomb. Be done with these barbaric savages. Disgusting.”
  • “Now we know where to drop the bomb first Detroit is already a shithole.”
  • “They spread like roaches, then the only way to get rid of the infestation is to bomb the area.”
  • “Blow the town up with a smart bomb , made to hurt the muslims only.”
  • “Kill all Muslims before they kill you they are not your friends.”

Remember, these comments are being directed at people who love America and condemn terrorism. The grotesque character (or lack thereof) of the Fox audience has been documented in detail in The Collected Hate Speech Of The Fox News Community. It is evidence of the breadth of animus that infects so much of the conservative movement for which Fox speaks. They are literally taking sides with ISIS and Al Qaeda, who also want to bomb American cities.

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

And it also explains why hostile demagogues like Trump can rise to become leaders in their party while advocating violence. Anyone who is surprised by the incidents at Trump rallies, or his hateful rhetoric that encourages it, is terminally naive. This is the modern Republican Party. And the eagerness of American bigots to bomb fellow citizens living peacefully in an American city is a sad indication of just how low these cretins have sunk.


Note To Hillary Clinton: Megyn Kelly Is NOT A Superb Journalist

Posted by on April 5, 2016 at 3:20 pm. 11 Comments :

In recent weeks Megyn Kelly has received an abundance of media attention thanks to Donald Trump’s “sick obsession“ with the Fox News host. Regardless of her strident biases and disregard for journalistic ethics, the personal attacks on her by Trump are unwarranted and offensive. They demonstrate Trump’s inbred misogyny and unfitness for any public office. Even though Kelly herself has exploited her sex appeal to boost her ratings (and income), that is no excuse for Trump’s vile chauvinism.

Megyn Kelly

This morning Hillary Clinton appeared on “The View” (video below) and addressed this topic with some potent and well-deserved criticism of Trump. She astutely pointed out that throughout his campaign he has “insulted everybody” and “demeaned everybody,” and has generally engaged in behavior that is divisive and rife with “hateful rhetoric.” She said in part…

“You know, he started, on his very first day, saying that all Mexican immigrants were rapists and criminals, right? And then he moved on to attack people with disabilities. He attacked John McCain, who’s a friend of mine, and said he wasn’t really a war hero. And then, of course, going after American Muslims and really drawing these lines.”

That’s a pretty good summary of Trump’s stump speech bigotry so far. Although she left out some significant moments like his embrace of the white supremacists who endorsed him, his acknowledgment that he isn’t bothered by being compared to Hitler, and his more recent position that women should be punished for having abortions. But Clinton should have left it at that. Unfortunately, she went on to say…

“And his attitude about, and what he has said about, so many women – the way he treated Megyn Kelly, who is a suburb journalist, right?”

No, that’s not right. Not by a long shot. Megyn Kelly is one of the most dangerous propagandists on a network that is crawling with them. She is brazenly partisan and shamelessly prejudiced. She is a more visually compelling version of conspiratorialist Glenn Beck. The stories she features are a collection of partisan tripe and manufactured outrages that have little basis in fact. From her near-obsession with the irrelevant New Black Panther Party, to her defense of an anti-Islam filmmaker as a “patsy” of the Obama administration, Kelly has been a non-stop, gushing flow of disinformation and gossip.

Kelly has, in fact, been especially vicious in her coverage of Clinton. She has spent countless hours asserting, without foundation, that Clinton lied about Benghazi. She aired numerous fact-free segments alleging that Clinton’s emails would land her in jail. She even went after Clinton on trivial pop culture matters like her interview with Lena Dunham. For more examples:

  • Kelly promulgated false accusations against then-Pennsylvania senate candidate Joe Sestak
  • Kelly asserted that Americans have “gotta get a little squeamish” about the prospect of being killed by drones.
  • Kelly told her colleague Bill O’Reilly that pepper spray used against student protesters was just “a food product, essentially.”
  • Kelly moderated a discussion that was based on a series of “Fox Facts” that were cribbed directly from a Republican National Committee press release.
  • Kelly featured a disreputable reporter with a history of violence (who was later arrested for sexually assaulting a four year old girl) in her frequent attacks on the funders of the Islamic Center that Fox derisively referred to as the “Ground Zero Mosque.”
  • Kelly misrepresented the results of a Fox News Opinion Dynamics poll to argue that Democrats are defying the will of the people.
  • Kelly helped to cover up the extra-marital affair of GOP senator John Ensign and failed to disclose her personal involvement in the story.

There is nothing wrong with Clinton holding Trump accountable for his noxious comments and ludicrous political positions. She is totally justified in castigating him for the pattern of hatred he exhibits toward women and others. However, it was completely unnecessary to throw a solicitous compliment to Kelly that she so clearly does not deserve. Clinton could easily make the point that Trump is a sexist pig without boosting the profile of a professional right-wing purveyor of disinformation. Would Clinton defend Sarah Palin from a sexist attack by praising her as a superb governor? We can only hope not. And while neither Palin nor Kelly should be subject to gender-based insults, neither should they be showered with false flattery in the process of defending them against jerkwads like Donald Trump.

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


Blackmailing Fox News: Does Donald Trump Have Dirt On Roger Ailes?

Posted by on April 4, 2016 at 3:25 pm. 11 Comments :

Ever since Donald Trump entered the Republican contest for the party’s nomination for president he has been a constant presence on Fox News. Studies of the distribution of airtime have shown that Trump’s allocation has far exceeded every other candidate. The estimated value of this gift to Trump’s candidacy is in excess of thirty million dollars through December 2016. The question is why has Fox been so generous to this one particular candidate?

Donald Trump Roger Ailes

The conventional wisdom response to this question would be that Trump is simply good business for Fox News (and pretty much every other network). He is a proven ratings draw, in the same manner as a high-speed police chase or a Kardashian wardrobe malfunction. Audiences are enrapt because of the possibility that at any time Trump might burst a blood vessel in his neck or slap an immigrant orphan. In addition to the financial incentive, Fox shares most of the political agenda articulated by Trump, even the batshit crazy stuff like Mexican border walls, dismantling NATO, and his latest absurdity that he would eliminate the national debt in eight years.

Now there is a new explanation for why the self-described “most powerful name in news” got rolled and began doling out huge portions of their valuable airtime to what otherwise might be considered a joke candidate. Gabriel Sherman, the National Affairs Editor for New York Magazine and the author of a biography of Fox CEO Roger Ailes (The Loudest Voice in the Room), just published a fascinating and in-depth story about the composition of Trump’s campaign team. But it also includes an account of how Fox Executive VP Brian Lewis got fired under mysterious circumstances (which News Corpse covered here). In the course of telling this story, Sherman revealed this startling bombshell:

“It was also thanks to some information he had gathered that Trump was able to do something that no other Republican has done before: take on Fox News. An odd bit of coincidence had given him a card to play against Fox founder Roger Ailes. In 2014, I published a biography of Ailes, which upset the famously paranoid executive. Several months before it landed in stores, Ailes fired his longtime PR adviser Brian Lewis, accusing him of being a source. During Lewis’s severance negotiations, Lewis hired Judd Burstein, a powerhouse litigator, and claimed he had ‘bombs’ that would destroy Ailes and Fox News. That’s when Trump got involved.

“‘When Roger was having problems, he didn’t call 97 people, he called me,’ Trump said. Burstein, it turned out, had worked for Trump briefly in the ’90s, and Ailes asked Trump to mediate. Trump ran the negotiations out of his office at Trump Tower. ‘Roger had lawyers, very expensive lawyers, and they couldn’t do anything. I solved the problem.’ Fox paid Lewis millions to go away quietly, and Trump, I’m told, learned everything Lewis had planned to leak. If Ailes ever truly went to war against Trump, Trump would have the arsenal to launch a retaliatory strike.”

If this is true, then Fox News is essentially paying off Trump, with millions of dollars of airtime, to buy his silence. Under these circumstances Fox should not be covering Trump at all. If Trump is blackmailing Fox with threats of dumping damaging information there is no telling what he might have demanded. He isn’t limited to free airtime. He could also insist on positive coverage from influential hosts like Bill O’Reilly. He could force the network to hit his opponents with dishonest smears. He could dictate the network’s narrative on the progress of the campaign, the battle for delegates, and even the reactions to his numerous controversial remarks.

One thing is certain: This would explain how Trump has gotten away with his brutal treatment of Fox News. Ordinarily, any Republican candidate would be conscious of the sway that Fox holds over the party and the fate of anyone hoping to rise up in it. But Trump, with an apparently reckless lack of concern, has spent much of the last nine months mercilessly battering the network and its staff. He 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. He even went after one of the major shareholders of the Fox’s parent corporation. I can’t say that I disagree with much of that, but then I’m not seeking the GOP nomination for anything.

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

This is behavior that only seems plausible if Trump somehow knows that he will not suffer any consequences for it. At the very least, Fox News needs to respond to these allegations. And if their response is anything less than an unambiguous denial (for which they would have to supply evidence), then they need to come clean by disclosing the blackmail bait themselves. Then they need to conduct a public review of their past coverage of Trump to provide an accounting of their time allotment and any possibility of reporting bias. What’s more, the other candidates, including those who dropped out, have a right to some answers on how they were covered and if Trump’s tactics adversely affected their campaigns. Will Fox act responsibility on this? Well, why should they start now since they haven’t for the last twenty years.


Fox News Hires Duck Dynasty’s Donald Trump Fluffer

Posted by on April 3, 2016 at 8:29 pm. 3 Comments :

If you thought that the Republican presidential primary has had the intellectually vacant stench of a reality TV show, then you have obviously been paying attention. The past nine months have been a virtual Survivor-like season with enemies and alliances and losers literally getting voted off.

Starring in this parade of idiocy is the actual host of a real life reality game show, Donald Trump. And he has milked the genre for all its worth. Trump’s demeanor has exhibited all of the juvenile melodrama that epitomizes the worst of an already pedantic television format – insults, anger, ignorance, betrayal, pandering, and transparent phoniness.

Fox News Dick Dynasty

Recognizing the tone of the campaign, Fox News has decided to give up on news entirely and adapt by reinforcing their staff with the sort of experience that is best suited to the shallowness of the GOP and their constituents. To that end they just hired Willie Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame as a contributor. I guess Honey Boo Boo must have turned them down. Still, Fox News could not have made a better choice to affirm their utter disrespect for journalism and their audience.

Robertson, of course, has no reporting credentials whatsoever, so he is no less qualified for the position on Fox than the rest of the crackpots on the network. His ultra right-wing Christianist dogma will fit in nicely with his new colleagues. And his endorsement in January of Trump makes him an ideal representative of Fox’s notorious unfairness and imbalance. As an added bit of tabloid conflict, Willie’s father Phil endorsed Ted Cruz. All of this adds up to Fox’s abandonment of journalism in favor of low-grade entertainment, a devolution that News Corpse has described previously:

“Fox News has redefined television journalism by fundamentally transforming it from an information medium to an entertainment medium. They dress up their pseudo-news segments in the same melodramatic packaging that entertainment outlets use: conflict, scandal, mystery, and hyper-charged emotions including hero worship and fear. Fox employs flashy graphics and attention-grabbing audio whooshes and gongs to decorate their reports that are presented as “ALERTS” regardless of the news value. And always there is sex. Fox’s roster of hosts has more former beauty pageant contestants that journalists. And they aren’t shy about putting their “talent” in revealing clothes and camera angles. In fact, Fox CEO Roger Ailes demands it. As for news, Fox’s concentration on tabloid thrill-fiction like Benghazi and Obama’s birth certificate is the news equivalent of porn.”

I can’t wait to see Robertson’s contribution to the circus atmosphere that is the Republican Party’s Presidential Apprentice contest. But you have to hand it to Fox News who, rather than bolstering their team with seasoned professionals as the campaign approaches the general election phase, chose to snag a duck call huckster to bring his unique insight to American democracy and to pitch for the Storm-Trumpers.

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