Fox News

Trump Plans to ‘Wreck Fox News’ For Not Worshiping Him Enough

Posted by on November 12, 2020 at 12:56 pm. 15 Comments :

One of the most persistent patterns of behavior by Donald Trump is his knee-jerk reaction to anyone or anything that fails to show him unflinching adoration at all times. Trump can be relied on to launch a barrage of vicious and vengeful assaults in the wake of what he considers betrayal, even if it’s a trivial and temporary lapse in the observance of reality.

Donald Trump Fox News

Trump spent Thursday morning working hard at what he considers to be his most pressing presidential duties: posting hostile and incoherent tweets aimed at the paranoid parade of his perceived enemies. On this particular morning it was Fox News that was the subject of Trump’s ire (and not for the first time). He retweeted more than a dozen messages by random Twitter bots blasting Fox News and insisting that it was either untruthful, corrupt, or dead, and that they would never watch it again.

Following that Trump tweeted his own opinion that focused on Fox’s tumbling ratings and his narcissistic illusions of grandeur:

It’s telling that Trump believes that Fox News is obligated to promote him in a purely positive fashion at all times because he is, in his own mind, their “Golden Goose,” and the sole reason for their success. Never mind that Fox has been at the top of the cable news food chain since 2002, two years before The Apprentice aired, when he was just a failed proprietor of bankrupt casinos trying to sell the rights to his name for other developers to plaster onto their buildings.

Trump is also blaming his election loss on Fox News, citing the differences between how they covered him in 2016 (when they rapturously covered his every public utterance live and uninterrupted) and 2020 (when they employed a bit more discretion by only covering almost every public utterance). Throughout his presidency and the election campaign, Fox News was faithful to their Dear Leader, lavishing him with praise, while lambasting his critics.

Trump was nevertheless perturbed at Fox because they would occasionally interview a Democrat or allow a Democratic commentator to tell the truth about him. He also whined about Fox’s polling that often – and correctly – found him to be losing to Joe Biden. And now his anger at Fox is being channeled into a new media venture. As reported by Axios, “Trump is considering a digital media channel that would stream online.” And his intentions are not limited to the business aspects of this:

“‘He plans to wreck Fox. No doubt about it,’ said a source with detailed knowledge of Trump’s intentions.”

That’s right. Trump is acting out his revenge on the network that put him in the White House. Now Fox is just another one of the former Trump allies that fell out of favor with him and is therefore subject to his bitter wrath. But don’t mistake this for mere spite for perceived wrongs. This is also Trump’s marketing plan. He needs to diminish Fox News if he ever hopes to prevail over them. So he’s launching this scorched earth campaign to soften up the wingnut TV audience and prepare them for Trump’s debut.

What’s more, Trump’s efforts to contest the results of the election are all likely a part of the same marketing plan. By pushing hard on accusations that the election was stolen from him, and the need to fight back, Trump is keeping his fundraising operation humming. And it will not surprise anyone when most of those funds make their way into his new media startup. Similarly, his rallies, past and future, are not just opportunities to lap up the adoration of his cult followers. They are also useful in building contact lists (email and cell phones) that he can use to launch Trump TV.

In the end, all of these efforts are only likely produce the next Trump bankruptcy. It is incredibly difficult and expensive to launch a new network. And Trump doesn’t have either the work ethic or the money to do it. Furthermore, it is unlikely that he could sustain an audience for 24 hours a day and seven days a week. There is only so much that people can take of him and his trademark belligerence, childish insults, and relentless whining. And as an ex-president – and a loser – he won’t have the draw that the presidency conveys.

However, any project that pits Trump against Fox News is bound to have some entertainment value for America’s liberals and Democrats. It should be fun to see them go after each other in a war that is certain to be harmful to both. So stock up on popcorn and get ready to binge on a bizarre reality show that promises to be even more bizarre than anything Borat could dream up.

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

Pathetic ‘Both Siderisms’ Used By Fox News to Dismiss Biden’s Victory Over Trump

Posted by on November 11, 2020 at 12:01 pm. 1 Comments :

It has been more than a week since election day, and four days since every news network (including Fox News) called the race for Joe Biden. Of course the whiny baby in the White House still refuses to concede or to accept reality. There is so much that the American people won’t miss when Donald Trump is gone. Unfortunately, he has been feverishly tweeting delusional assertions that he is actually the winner. And he’s flooding the courts with frivolous lawsuits that keep getting thrown out for lack of even a sliver of evidence.

Donald Trump, Two Faced

Meanwhile, the Trump-fluffers at Fox News are contradicting the reporting by their own network. Bootlicking sycophants like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson are devoting their programs to Trump’s crackpot conspiracy theorizing that Democrats somehow rigged the election to produce hundreds of thousands of phony votes in at least six states. None of them have offered any proof of the truth for their claims, but then when has Fox News (or Trump) ever relied on truth? That’s one of the reasons that the public regards both Trump and Fox News as losers.

In addition to Fox’s primetime Ministers of Propaganda, the network’s chief media correspondent, Howard Kurtz, is joining the parade of disinformers. He published an op-ed on the Fox News website that lays out an argument that electoral denial is being disseminated by both the Trump and Biden camps equally. It’s a classic case of “both siderism.” However, the absurdity of that position is evident in how pitifully Kurtz backs it up.

Kurtz leads off by asserting that the election isn’t over and that “the world is acting like Joe Biden is the 46th president.” Where on Earth is Kurtz getting the idea that the world is “acting” like Biden won? The world is, in fact, recognizing the legitimacy of the democratic process and the utter absence of any hint of irregularities. But where Kurtz really goes off the rails is in a series of comparisons of comments made about the election’s conclusion. For instance…

“On one side, we have Whoopi Goldberg scolding Trump voters for questioning the election, telling them to ‘suck it up.’ On the other, we have Mike Pompeo dismissing as ‘ridiculous’ a question about the transition, saying: ‘There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.’

Notice that Kurtz is contrasting the opinion of Whoopie Goldberg, a TV talk show host, with an official statement by Pompeo, Trump’s Secretary of State. Because those are basically the same thing, right? Similarly bizarre comparisons were littered throughout his article. He truly seems to regard random pundits as being equal in influence to current White House staffers.

In a couple of particularly egregious examples of misplaced equivalency, Kurtz compared actual actions taken by high level administration officials as comparable to mere commentaries by TV hosts. First he noted that…

“You have the head of the General Services Administration refusing to sign a routine transition order that would allow Biden teams access to federal departments and agencies to start the customary talks with outgoing officials.”

This directive manifestly harms national security by preventing President-Elect Biden from receiving classified briefings, as well denying him access to resources necessary for the transition to proceed. And then there’s this…

“Bill Barr generated headlines when he authorized federal prosecutors to pursue election fraud allegations, breaking with the Justice Department tradition of not getting involved until the results are certified.”

Barr is not just “breaking with the Justice Department tradition.” He’s flagrantly abusing the power of his office for a fishing expedition to find imaginary cases of election fraud. And failing that, he’ll use the attempt to imply fraud where none exists. That will weaponize the Justice Department’s efforts in order for Trump’s media confederates to make empty insinuations.

Both of these extremist, unprecedented assaults on democracy were cited by Kurtz as being essentially identical to the musings of former political aides and television commentators. Apparently Kurtz couldn’t find a single example of someone with similar influence on the Democratic side of these debates to compare with the Trump flunkies. So he settled for these wholly unfair and unbalanced comparisons because he was so intent on a making a point that he really couldn’t justify.

In closing, Kurtz offered a ludicrous summation saying that “I’m surprised that some on the left are also lashing out, despite the fact that their guy won.” Really? If Kurtz can’t understand why people on the left would respond to the preposterous ranting of the reality-challenged loser in the White House who seems to be orchestrating a coup, he needs to retire to a nice Trump-branded senior community with a fully staffed nursing facility. He certainly shouldn’t be in the news business.

And if Kurtz is actually interested in observing both sides, he might want to look at both sides of the Fox News view of accepting the results of an election:

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

Stunned Fox News Anchor’s Hot Mic Swipe at Guest’s Ludicrous Defense of Trump

Posted by on November 10, 2020 at 11:37 am. 3 Comments :

To everything, there is a season. And apparently this is the season for Fox News to find itself in the confusing position of shielding Donald Trump from any and all criticism (which is their foundational mission), and recognizing a little thing called reality. Surprisingly for Fox News, on Monday reality somehow managed to prevail.

Donald Trump, Fox News

The debate over whether or not Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election exists only on right-wing media. And the leading purveyor of blatantly conservative bias is Fox News. That’s true despite the fact that Fox called the election for Biden on Saturday, as did all the other television news networks. Although Fox made the call last. Which is also where their ratings for the day were.

In the days that followed that demonstrably rational call that was supported by the data, Fox’s primetime hosts smeared their own so-called “hard news” colleagues for what they regarded as caving in to George Soros and the liberal cabal that orchestrated the “hoax” that Biden had won. Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson, have all adopted Trump’s delusional insistence that, contrary to the facts (and the votes), he “won by a lot.”

Trump is still filing lawsuits to overturn the election even though they keep getting dismissed in court for lack of merit or any evidence to support his claims. But in some selected circumstances, Fox News isn’t playing along with his fantasies. One of those circumstances occurred during an interview of Republican attorney Cleta Mitchell by Fox anchor Sandra Smith. The exchange included this dramatic hot mic episode:

Mitchell: Just because CNN says – or even Fox News says – that somebody is president doesn’t make them president.
Smith: What? What is happening. Trace, we called it.
Mitchell: I think everyone wants to know that this was done properly and legally and we can trust the results. And I think we have to look into every one of these concerns.

The look on Smith’s face says it all. She is stunned by Mitchell’s pigheaded assertion that there is still some ambiguity about the election’s outcome. But Mitchell is a fully indoctrinated Trump cultist who is only capable of regurgitating the talking points distributed by Trump’s White House Office of Propaganda. There are no credible legal analysts who regard Trump’s claims as valid. And even if they were, there wouldn’t be enough votes affected to change the results in any state.

Despite this obvious example of what some Fox News personnel are thinking, there are scant few examples of them embracing these views on the air. To the contrary, we have far more examples of Fox’s Trump-fluffers slobbering over the “president,” lashing out at his critics, and defending his lies. and that will continue for another couple of months until Trump is evicted from the People’s House. Then it will be on to full time anti-Biden programming at Fox for the next four years.

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

LOSERS: Both Trump and Fox News Came in Last on Saturday

Posted by on November 9, 2020 at 10:33 am. 3 Comments :

Misery loves company. And there are few experiences more miserable than joining the One Term Club of failed U.S. presidents. That’s where Donald Trump finds himself today, even as he frantically tries to deny reality with his frivolous lawsuits and impotent tweets pitifully claiming that he “won by a lot.” He didn’t. And the American people are not going to miss the abundant abominations of his deviant detour from democracy.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Hate Again

Along with Trump’s humiliating loss to Joe Biden, a candidate that he unsuccessfully tried to demean as a mentally deficient socialist, Fox News has also proved to be a failure in the early stages of the post-Trump era. On Saturday most news agencies called the election for Biden. CNN came first, followed by NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, the Associated Press, and bringing up the rear, a clearly reluctant Fox News.

However, even more troubling from Fox’s perspective, they came in dead last in the ratings against their cable news competition. And it was a distant last place finish at that:

“‘CNN has been the most-watched network for continuing coverage of the 2020 presidential election, and that sterling performance culminated on Saturday, as the network earned by far the most viewers’ during Biden’s victory speech, TVNewser’s A.J. Katz wrote. […]

“CNN averaged 13.6 million viewers during the live coverage; MSNBC averaged 8.5 million; and Fox News had just 3 million. This is a pattern that we’ve seen with Fox for some time — the network fares very well as the ‘voice of the opposition’ to Democrats, but when Dem leaders are speaking live or celebrating something, Fox’s audience fades.”

This is more than just an affirmation that America’s news consumers prefer the honesty of CNN, NBC, etc., to the lies and propaganda of Fox News. It also reveals that Fox’s audience is a brainwashed cult of devotees who are unconcerned with truthful reporting. The audiences for the non-Fox news organizations grew substantially on Saturday, especially for the Biden victory speech. But the three million viewers for Fox were about the same number that they would have had on any other day. So the Fox News audience is apparently just a parish of disciples who will watch no matter what is going on.

Leading those disciples is the cult’s Dear Leader himself. Trump has been conspicuously absent from the media since election day. He hasn’t made a single public appearance or spoken to the press, including his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. However, he has been feverishly tweeting video clips of his State TV sycophants. On Sunday night, in fact, he posted ten videos of the Trump-fluffers on Fox News parroting his desperate denial that had Biden had won.

That’s a lot of video posts, even for Trump. Particularly when he has recently been upset with Fox. On election day he phoned into Fox and Friends and complained that the network gave too much airtime to Barack Obama. He also called Fox “a problem” because “they’re going the way of CNN, and they’re going the way of MSNBC.” This summer Trump whined that it’s “So hard to watch @FoxNews anymore“ because “The Radical Left has scared Fox into submission.” And there is so much more of this whining due to Fox not being sufficiently worshipful at all times.

Trump, however, seems to still be glued to Fox News because he knows there is nowhere else for him to go for such devoted support with a hefty audience of dimwitted cult followers. The alternatives (i.e. Newsmax, OANN, etc.) are low rated also rans. So Trump will stick with Fox, where the two losers can continue to offer each other solace and unquestioning promotional support. That is, until after he leaves office and decides to build his own, destined to fail, media empire.

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

Fox News has Instructed Its Anchors Not To Call Joe Biden ‘President-Elect’

Posted by on November 6, 2020 at 11:24 am. 8 Comments :

The likelihood of Joe Biden advancing to the presidency is becoming more of a certainty with every hour and every release of new vote totals. And the likelihood of a mental breakdown by Donald Trump is increasing correspondingly. In fact, Trump is dangerously close to abandoning his already tenuous grasp of reality. He’s whining about imaginary “illegal” votes, as his fear and disbelief that he isn’t universally beloved threatens to boil over.

Joe Biden, Donald Trump Baby, Fake News

As the presidential race winds to a conclusion, Trump is reported to be incapable of conceiving the notion that he has lost. According to CNN, inside sources report that “Trump has not prepared a concession speech and in conversations with allies in recent days, he has said he has no intention of conceding the election.” To which the Biden campaign had a pithy reply:

“The American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House,’ Andrew Bates, a spokesperson for Biden’s campaign, said in a statement.”

In the meantime, Fox News is doing what Fox News does. As Trump’s official Ministry of Propaganda, Fox has been nursing Trump’s narcissistic psychoses. They encourage his utterly baseless allegations of election fraud and defend his brazenly dishonest public statements. And now, in a strikingly atrocious departure from journalistic integrity, they are embarking on a path of denial to avoid acknowledging Biden’s imminent victory. The nefarious intentions of Fox were disclosed by CNN’ Brian Stelter (video below):

Stelter: Two memos obtained by CNN from three different sources all around Fox News say that when Joe Biden reaches that point where he crosses the threshold of 270 [electoral votes], Fox will not identify him as “President-Elect.” […] These memos at Fox News say they will stay away from that description. These memos direct Fox stars, anchor, pundits, and talk show hosts, to avoid language like “President-Elect” because of the President’s legal challenges.

This is a blatant refusal to accept the decision of the American people and an assault on democracy. Fox News is affirming their loyalty to Trump, a despotic charlatan who is only interested in his own aspirations for unchecked power, over that of the United States. It’s a shameless concession to authoritarianism and a rejection of the principles upon which an honest media rests. As for Trump’s frivolous legal adventures…

Stelter: Of course, these are longshot legal challenges. We’ve been talking about this on the air. But Fox is taking these challenges very seriously, showing shocking deference to the President. After 25,000 false and misleading claims from this president, Fox still assumes he’s telling the truth. They’re promoting voter fraud innuendo. They’re denigrating cities like Philadelphia. And they’re treating these longshot lawsuits, these truthless suits, like they are serious pursuits.
Jake Tapper: This is so odd because there is no credible evidence of widespread fraud. None. So if you are a Fox reporter or anchor, somebody not on the opinion side, and you’re gonna abide by this crazy instruction, you might as well hand in your press credential at the same time because you can’t be taken seriously as a journalist.
Abby Phillip: Fox is acting as an arm of the Trump campaign, and the Trump campaign is treating Fox like they’re an arm of their own campaign. They’ve been on the phone all week haranguing senior people over at Fox

What Phillip is referring to are conversations Trump had with Fox News chairman, Rupert Murdoch. As reported by Vanity Fair, “Trump phoned Fox owner Rupert Murdoch to scream about the [Arizona election] call and demand a retraction. Murdoch refused, and the call stood.” Murdoch had previously predicted that Biden would beat Trump in a landslide. So it appears that there are some mixed feelings at the network. On one hand, it’s their mission to support and defend their Dear Leader at every opportunity. On the other hand, they may be concerned about their floundering reputation if they don’t realistically observe current events.

It appears that the former hand has superseded the latter. Fox News is choosing to prop up Trump, the loser in this race, because they don’t have the honesty or integrity to show respect for Biden, the winner. And they have totally lost control of their on-air disseminators of propaganda (Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends, etc.). Even their so-called “news” side anchors (Brett Baier, Martha MacCallum, etc.) are subject to this directive. Which should alert every news consumer, once and for all, that Fox is a disreputable source to be avoided at all costs.

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

NOTE: News Corpse was notified by Twitter recently that its account would be permanently suspended for repeated violations of their rules. Which is strange because it has never been cited for a single violation in 11 years and they didn’t even identify this alleged violation. The notice had no reply address and provided no way to appeal. They just bounced the account and its 7,000 followers. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from this website, please feel free. Thanks for your support.

Deflated and Defeated: Trump’s Final Pre-Election Interview on Fox News

Posted by on November 3, 2020 at 12:16 pm. NO Comments :

During a year burdened with the deadly coronavirus pandemic, a historic recession, civil unrest, and the most divisive political environment in generations, election day may have seemed like it would never arrive. But, lo and behold, here we are. And now it’s just a matter of time before the nation learns whether it will go forward in a positive direction with the sane and decent leadership of Joe Biden, or if Donald Trump will somehow stumble back into the White House for another four years of turmoil, ignorance, and hostility.

Donald Trump, Mask, Fox News

In advance of the day’s voting, Trump spent some time with his bootlicking mood boosters at Fox News for a phone-in “interview.” And the “Curvy Couch” potatoes at Fox and Friends performed their Trump-fluffing duties just as they have for the past four (plus) years. The only real difference between this appearance and those Trump has done previously was Trump himself.

The normally hyped up “president” was uncharacteristically reserved this morning. In fact, he sounded exhausted and depressed. It’s almost as if he knew that his prospects for winning were as remote as my prospects for dunking on Lebron James.

Trump’s speech patterns were slow and halting. He appeared to have trouble forming coherent thoughts. The pauses between words signaled an inability express himself without sinking into pessimism and depression. For example, early in the segment Trump was asked by co-host Steve Doocy a simple, softball question regarding speculation that he would try to declare victory long before the results were in:

Doocy: At what point will you declare victory?
Trump: When there’s victory, if there’s victory. I think we’ll have victory. You know, the polls are suppression polls. I think we’ll have victory. But only when there’s victory. There’s no reason to play games. And I think we’ll have victory. I look at it as being a very solid chance of winning. I don’t know what the chances are. I don’t know how they rate the chances. But I think we have a very solid chance of winning.

In that brief exchange Trump repeated himself incessantly, especially the word “victory” (six times) as if he was trying to convince himself. And he says that his chances are good, even while saying that he doesn’t know what the chances are or how they are arrived at. For the record, FiveThirtyEight puts his chances at ten percent, and the Economist puts them at only three percent.

Following that, Trump was asked another gimme by co-host Ainsley Earhardt:

Earhardt: What has it been like? Have you loved the job? Has it been worth it? Because you’ve been under so much attack.
Trump: Well, it’s been mean. You’ve dealt with horrible people like “shifty” Schiff and “crazy” Nancy, and “cryin” Chuck Schumer. You deal with some horrible people.

So Trump’s response to whether he considered it “worth it” to be president was to complain about the “horrible” people he had to deal with. Of course, those people are the elected representatives of the people who Trump was so disrespectful to with his infantile nicknames. But more to the point, he couldn’t articulate any reason why he might have “loved” serving the people of the United States as their president. It’s been obvious for the past four years that he has indeed hated the job. He’s done nothing but whine about having to deal with the media, our allies, and members of Congress. In fact, he elaborated in his answer to complain that dealing with the U.S. is more difficult than dealing with China, Russia, or North Korea. That’s what he calls patriotism?

Finally, Trump couldn’t resist taking a shot at Fox News right in the faces of his hosts:

Trump is whining that Fox News hasn’t been sufficiently adoring of him. But to him anything less than 110% unflinching worship is inadequate. His examples of Fox’s betrayal are mainly that the network has aired a few speeches by Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Trump says that “there are other networks for that,” affirming his view that Fox News is his personal Ministry of Propaganda.

To hear Trump in this interview one can’t come away without the feeling that he’s given up. He’s recognized that he will not be reelected and that now he has to turn his attention to the legal jeopardy that will face him as a civilian. His demeanor is dripping with despair for the bleak future that awaits him. And for the majority of the American people, it can’t come fast enough.

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

Fox News Praises Trump Terrorists Who Attacked Biden Campaign Bus

Posted by on November 1, 2020 at 11:50 am. 18 Comments :

If you thought that “It can’t happen here,” you might want to think again. The cult that Donald Trump has amassed is every bit as hostile, deranged, and dangerous as those devoted to messianic maniacs like Adolf Hitler and Jim Jones. It’s a movement that, while small in numbers and IQ, is devoted to the violent pursuit of the totalitarian principles of their Dear Leader.

Donald Trump heil

On Saturday a campaign bus carrying staff and supporters of Joe Biden was attacked on the highway by a caravan of armed Trump Deplorables in pickup trucks. They surrounded the bus like an ISIS convoy and tried to bring it to a stop or run it off the road. The video is a harrowing document of a felonious attempt to intimidate a presidential candidate, frighten voters, and suppress their right to vote.

https://twitter.com/ericcervini/status/1322546782572859395

Trump himself lauded these terrorists on Twitter as well as in one of his campaign stump speeches Saturday evening. “Did anybody see the picture of that crazy bus driving down the highway?” Trump gloated. “They’re surrounded by like, hundreds of cars? They’re all Trump flags all over the place.” Notice that Trump characterizes Biden’s bus as “crazy,” but relishes the perpetrator’s vehicles swaddled in Trump flags.

Not surprisingly, Fox News weighed in on this affair to cast the most positive light on a videotaped crime in progress. On “Judge” Jeanine Pirro’s program she hosted Trump sycophant Newt Gingrich and engaged in this aberrant exchange:

Gingrich:There are these spontaneous parades and boat parades and organized get-togethers. Not done by the campaign, just people who are so energized they got to do something, so they’re out there doing it every single day.
Pirro: Well, it is stunning. And what’s even more stunning is what was just trending and that is there’s a Biden bus and it’s surrounded by pickup trucks on a highway all with Trump signs. I mean, it is ordinary Americans just taking this election into their own hands and getting out there and being real clear on what they stand for.

REALLY? So Pirro thinks that domestic terrorists threatening the lives of people with whom they have political differences are just “ordinary Americans”? More like ordinary fascists. What’s more, Pirro believes that committing an assault with a deadly weapon against citizens exercising their political rights is justifiable as “taking this election into their own hands” and “being real clear on what they stand for.” That could only be true in a totalitarian regime that practices the sort of brutal oppression that Nazi brownshirts made infamous.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly the sort of regime that Trump is intent on forging here in America. He’s openly applauding these tactics and giving encouragement to others contemplating similar atrocities. He might as well be distributing terrorist handbooks and weapons to the unhinged cretins that worship him. And he’s getting plenty of help in that regard from other ultra-rightists who think terrorizing a political foe is fair game.

The FBI is is currently investigating the bus ambush incident in Texas. If there is any justice in this country, the perpetrators will be apprehended and punished. And right next to them in prison should be those at Fox News who have been acting as their accomplices after the fact.

This is what we’re up against as the presidential election season winds down and Trump becomes more desperate. Expect more of this hostility, as well as lies and disinformation from Trump, Fox News, and the rest of the tyrannical class of crackpot conservatives. Trump has already laid the groundwork to challenge the results of the election. Trump insists that a winner be declared on election night (a demand that may come back to bite him in the ass), rather than wait until all the votes are counted. And he will incite his cult brigades to cause more havoc if he doesn’t get his way.

UPDATE: Later in the day, Trump tweeted his support for the domestic terrorists who attacked the Biden bus. “In my opinion,” Trump said, “these patriots did nothing wrong.” Never mind that the video shows them purposely ramming another car and coming dangerously close to running the bus off the road. In Trump’s “opinion” they’re “patriots.”

However, the true defenders of American values won’t be sitting on their heels, and won’t let Trump get away with his plot to undermine democracy. Hopefully we will vote in such large numbers that any attempt to dispute the results will be in vain. That is our call to duty right now.

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

Closing Rant: Fox News Publishes Trump Op-Ed Filled with Flagrant Lies

Posted by on October 30, 2020 at 12:48 pm. 2 Comments :

With four days left before election day, Donald Trump somehow managed to get Fox News to publish his closing arguments in an op-ed on their website. That should really juice his reelection prospects by putting his views in front of an audience that has heard them a thousand times and is already committed to voting for him.

Donald Trump Fox News

The article is precisely what you would expect from Trump and Fox News. It is riddled with self-serving lies and preposterous allegations against his opponent, Joe Biden. The article is headlined “Donald Trump: Reelect me and I will continue to deliver safety, prosperity and opportunity for all Americans.” So if you are a voter who wants more of the “safety” (280,000 dead), “prosperity” (a nation in recession), and “opportunity” (15 million still unemployed and thousands of businesses bankrupt), then read on. What follows is a collection of some of the ludicrous appeals Trump is throwing at his brainwashed disciples, with brief rebuttals:

“Four years ago, Americans elected me president to go to Washington, drain the swamp and produce real results for them. Now they have a choice: continue the record of prosperity that my administration delivered or return to the old Washington status quo, where Beltway insiders enriched themselves at the expense of hardworking Americans across the country.”

Trump’s idea of prosperity is putting more Americans out of work than ever before. And while his accusation that “the old Washington status quo” sought to enrich themselves has some truth to it, they had nothing on him and his corrupt family of grifters.

“In my first three years in office, our country added more than 7 million new jobs.”

What Trump is leaving out is that in his first three years he presided over the loss of 22 million jobs. So we are still suffering a net loss of 15 million, many of which are permanent.

“My administration’s policies put America in a position to recover quickly from the unforeseen and unprecedented pandemic from China.”

Trump’s policies – or more accurately, lack of policies – have resulted in the world’s worst expansion of the coronavirus pandemic measured by cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Contrary to a recovery, we are currently getting worse, and healthcare experts predict that the worst is yet to come. This is happening as Trump keeps repeating that we have “rounded the turn.”

“Thanks to my emergency economic relief legislation, more than 159 million Americans received direct financial assistance during the pandemic.”

For the record, that emergency economic relief legislation was produced by the Democrats in Congress and was opposed by Trump and the Republicans for most of the time it was being debated. They continue to block new legislation for additional, much-need relief.

“The American economy grew at an annualized rate of 33.1 percent in the third quarter, another example of the economy beating expectations under my leadership.”

Once again, Trump is leaving out the most important part. The economy shrunk by more than 36% prior to this quarter. So we are still in a financial hole, and worse off than before the pandemic hit.

“The largest threat to our great American comeback is a Joe Biden presidency. Biden is running on a platform that would destroy all our economic progress.”

That’s not what most economists are saying. Goldman Sachs recently wrote that “a blue wave would likely prompt us to upgrade our forecasts.” Moody’s wrote that “Biden’s economic proposals, if enacted, would create 7.4 million more jobs than would Trump’s.”

“Joe Biden has openly pledged to eliminate my tax cuts for middle-income Americans, implement radical environmental regulations that would bring our domestic energy revolution to an abrupt halt, and bring back Obama’s disastrous health care calamity.”

Indeed, Biden has pledged to reverse Trump’s Tax Scam for the Rich, which didn’t help the middle-class. Biden also favors an environmental agenda and a healthcare package that Trump is actively opposing, but which the majority of Americans support.

“Biden’s scare tactics extend to America’s seniors with false claims about my record on Social Security.”

The claims about Trump’s record on Social Security come straight form his own lips. He is trying to eliminate the Payroll tax that funds Social Security, and without which it would go bankrupt by 2023.

Trump closes his op-ed with a familiar promise that “we will make America great again.” But if he hasn’t done that in the past four years, why would anyone think he’s going to do it in the next four? In fact, it’s an admission that he’s failed, which is abundantly clear even without his admission. The American people know that the only way to make America great again is to throw Trump out of office let Biden try to fix the problems Trump created. And that’s precisely what they are preparing to do next week.

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

Trump Parrots Illegal Advice By Fox News to Change Your Vote

Posted by on October 27, 2020 at 1:10 pm. 2 Comments :

There is now only one week left until election day. Not that election day has the significance it once had considering all of the opportunities to vote early or by mail. But it does still represent the end of the 2020 campaign season. And given the dreadful position that Donald Trump finds himself in, he is grasping desperately for ways to keep from suffering a historic landslide defeat.

Donald Trump, Mask, Fox News

As usual, Trump is relying on his shadow cabinet of Fox News sycophants for advice. Never mind that Trump is simultaneously bashing Fox for not being 110% adoring at all times, he still knows that he has nowhere else to go for the drooling devotion that Fox regularly provides. And on Tuesday morning he got a healthy dose of it from the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends (video below):

Co-host Ainsley Earhardt: According to Google Trends data, some people are thinking of changing their vote and they’re asking if they are able to do that. This is what’s trending right now: “Can I change my vote,” and “Hunter Biden.” Do you think that after we’ve learned the news of Hunter Biden, the alleged reports about him, people now want to change their Biden vote to Donald Trump vote?
Co-host Steve Doocy: Well, here’s the thing Ainsley. Every state has different rules. Minnesota, Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, all have specific laws where you can change your mind after you vote. If you vote, apparently, in person at an early voting place, you don’t get a do-over. But if you submit an absentee ballot, or one of those mail-in ballots, apparently you can go ahead and change it.
Earhardt: Or you can also go to the poll and vote in person and that’s the one that would count.

This is only partly true. If you voted in person already, you cannot change your vote. If you voted by mail, there are certain circumstance where you can request another ballot or vote in person. However, voting in person after casting a mail-in vote is only permitted in five states. One of them is New York. In the other 45 states you will be potentially committing felony voter fraud if you attempt to vote twice (which Trump has previously encouraged people to do).

So if voters in New York wish to take the advice of Fox News, they can do so. But what’s the point? First of all, how many Biden voters in New York are going to switch their votes to Trump because of a phony scandal about Hunter Biden that even the GOP chairwoman couldn’t defend in an appearance on Fox? And it wouldn’t have any impact whatsoever on the outcome of the election in the solid blue state of New York.

Nevertheless, Fox’s number one viewer was watching and couldn’t resist commenting on the possibility that Biden supporters are suddenly clamoring to switch their votes to Trump:

Trump’s assumption that a trending topic on Twitter regarding changing votes refers to switching to him is ludicrous. That’s particularly true with regard to his assertion that the switch is coming after a debate that most people say Biden won. And the Hunter Biden story has utterly failed to get any traction. Consequently, by urging people to change their votes now, Trump is probably only persuading Trump voters to switch, producing more votes for Joe Biden.

What’s more, Trump didn’t make any distinction about states where this is legal and those where it isn’t. He didn’t even link to the Fox News clip that did alert people to the differences in different state laws. That could result in people putting themselves in legal jeopardy. Not that Trump cares. If the nation’s coronavirus SuperSpreader-in-Chief doesn’t care about putting people’s lives in jeopardy, he surely doesn’t care about this.

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

While Trump Whines Media is All ‘COVID, COVID, COVID,’ Fox News Gets Hit Hard

Posted by on October 26, 2020 at 12:31 pm. 6 Comments :

As the coronavirus pandemic surges to ever new highs in infections, hospitalizations, and fatalities, Donald Trump desperately wants to change the subject. He thinks the American people should be more interested in vague emails stolen from a laptop that allegedly belonged to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. That’s a “crime” that the Wall Street Journal debunked and even the chair of the GOP couldn’t confirm during questioning by Fox News.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Coronavirus

More than 225,000 Americans have already died due to Trump’s negligence, incompetence, and deliberate malfeasance. And more than 8.5 million have been infected, many of who will suffer permanently disabilities. The media is, therefore, well justified in featuring this story prominently in their coverage. It is news that people require as they seek to protect themselves and their families. But it is also news that Trump rightly believes is detrimental to his reelection prospects. Consequently, he is frantically pounding out numerous tweets like these…

Suffice to say that the claims of progress made handling the Trump virus are flagrant and dangerous lies. So is his delusional electoral analysis. He is losing to Joe Biden in every national poll, as well as in most of the crucial battleground states. But his obsessive whining about the media covering the pandemic is a self-serving and futile ploy to suppress news that he doesn’t like. And if he thinks his yelping will achieve that goal, he probably suffered more neurological damage from his own bout with COVID-19 than his doctors have let on. In fact, he his rants are actually ensuring more coverage.

The charge that the press is devoting substantial time to a deadly, out of control pandemic in order to hurt Trump’s campaign could only be thought up by a severely paranoid narcissist. But what makes this all the more ironic is that Trump’s own media Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News) is among the pandemic’s victims. A “Dear Colleagues” memo went out on Monday morning to Fox News employees from its CEO, Suzanne Scott, and President, Jay Wallace. It said in part that…

“We wanted to inform you about recent developments of a few positive COVID-19 cases at FOX News Media. This is a reminder that any employee who has tested positive will be quarantining and following all of our mandatory guidelines before they enter any of our buildings. Please know that we stay in close contact with those employees who have been affected and offer our complete support.”

The memo didn’t mention that the “few employees” impacted by this included the president, Jay Wallace, as well as anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, and two of the hosts of The Five, Dana Perino and Juan Williams. They were reportedly exposed to someone on a private flight, chartered by Fox News to bring staffers back from the presidential debate in Nashville, who later tested positive for the coronavirus. The memo also didn’t mention that many of Fox’s programs are disseminating the same lies about the virus that Trump is.

The memo went on to reaffirm that the network has been “operating under the strictest health and safety protocols throughout the pandemic.” And yet that didn’t protect them from this exposure. Additionally, the memo said that “we will be further reducing some of the workforce in our buildings and operating virtually wherever possible throughout the week.” It is important to note that “the week” referenced here isn’t just any week. It’s the week prior to the most important and hotly contested presidential election in modern times. And Fox’s president, along with the two anchors assigned to cover the returns, are going into quarantine.

So while Trump is babbling that “COVID, COVID, COVID” is a “fake news” media conspiracy against him, his pals at Fox News are hunkering down in their basements due to the surging spread of a virus that Trump says is “totally under control.” And never mind that his Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, said that they aren’t even trying to control it.

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