Fox News

Teaching Old Dogs? Trump Has Learned Nothing From Having COVID-19

Posted by on October 5, 2020 at 3:19 pm. 5 Comments :

The surreal Sci-Fi adventure that American is presently stumbling through took another bizarre plot twist on Friday when Donald Trump revealed that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. He subsequently took up residency in the presidential suites of Walter Reed Medical Center. And for the next couple days he pretended that nothing was wrong as his “doctors” brazenly lied to the press.

Donald Trump Red Face

While on his COVID-cation, Trump was uncharacteristically quiet on Twitter. He posted only 14 tweets total in three days. His daily average during September was 55 tweets. Meanwhile, Fox News was promoting Trump’s ordeal as a sort of crucifixon because, as one Foxie said, “He’s doing it for us.”

After less than 72 hours Trump announced that he would be returning to the White House where he can continue infecting the rest of his staff, along with his other primary duties: watching Fox News and tweeting. For the record, the long list of Trump associates already admitting their positive diagnoses can be found here. But we can expect that list to grow. In the meantime, Trump posted this message on Twitter regarding his discharge from the hospital:

So the lesson that Trump has learned from his still ongoing battle with a deadly virus is that people need not be afraid of it. He is once again giving de facto encouragement for people to go out without face masks or social distancing. He’s even claiming that his post-COVID health is better than it was twenty years ago. Some people will conclude that it’s therefore beneficial to get the disease. At the same time, Trump is presuming that all Americans have an army of doctors to cater to every sneeze and bone spur in their private home hospital quarters. And eventually we’ll develop a “herd mentality,” after a mere two million more people die.

These are not lessons that any cognitively stable person would derive from facing a serious illness and potential death. But in Trump World these views are universal. His communications director, Erin Perrine, appeared on Fox News Monday and claimed that Trump’s COVID encounter made him better able to address the pandemic. “He has experience, now, fighting the coronavirus as an individual,” Perrine said. “Those firsthand experiences – Joe Biden, he doesn’t have those.”

So in a perverse reversal of logic, Perrine is attacking Biden for not having contracted the virus. The Trumpian view is that being able to maintain one’s health during a international pandemic is sign of deficiency and weakness. Only those who are “smart” enough to get sick can be trusted to lead.

Trump himself claimed to have “learned a lot about COVID” But if all he has learned is to tell others that they shouldn’t be afraid of a virus that has already killed more than 210,000 people, it’s a stretch to call that education. So “Don’t be afraid of Covid [and] Don’t let it dominate your life.” After all, if Trump, with his access to top-notch socialized medical care, can get through this (which he has not yet), then so can you. Even though he’s currently suing to eliminate healthcare entirely for millions of Americans who are still at risk. MAGA (Make America Grieve Again).

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

Trump’s Reality TV Hospital Video and Dwindling Tweetery Raise More Questions

Posted by on October 4, 2020 at 10:02 am. 4 Comments :

The Reality TV game show host who is currently serving as president likes to criticize Joe Biden for staying in his basement, which hasn’t been true for many weeks. Donald Trump, however, canceled all of his scheduled public appearances and is now holed up in his figurative basement at Walter Reed Medical Center. All of the information coming from Trump, his doctors, or his White House staff is so utterly lacking in credibility that it inspired Michael Che of Saturday Night Live to point out that “It’s a bad sign for America that when Trump said he tested positive for a virus, 60 percent of the people were like, ‘Prove it!'”

Donald Trump, coronavirus

Trump has abandoned his duties as both the president and a candidate for reelection. In a disturbingly incoherent four minute video that Trump posted on Twitter Saturday, he said that he was “feeling much better.” That’s consistent with his desire to always present himself as having a nearly divine invincibility (a ludicrous characterization that is supported and advanced by Fox News). But if that’s so, then it raises questions about why he’s still in the hospital and what he’s doing while he’s there? Prior to his contraction of the coronavirus, Trump spent much of his time watching Fox News and tweeting. He’s probably still glued to his State TV pacifier and the comforting adulation he receives from the network’s devoted Trump-fluffers. However, he has significantly scaled back his Twitter output.

Trump posted an average of 55 tweets per day in the month of September. But since his admission to Walter Reed Friday, Trump has posted a total of 14 tweets in three days. That would be understandable if he were suffering from the symptoms of a debilitating viral infection. But Trump is portraying his symptoms as mild and minimally constraining him from doing his job. The White House even posted photos of him allegedly working while still hospitalized. In the video (posted below) he made a point of discussing his commitment to being productive despite his grim diagnosis:

“I had no choice because I just didn’t want to stay in the White House. I was given that alternative. Stay in the White House. Lock yourself in. Don’t ever leave. Don’t even go to the Oval Office. Just stay upstairs and enjoy it. Don’t see people. Don’t talk to people. And be done with it.

“But I can’t do that. I had to be out front. This is America. This is the United States. This is the greatest country in the world. This is the most powerful country in the world. I can’t be locked up in a room upstairs and totally safe and just say ‘whatever happens, happens.’ I can’t do that. We have to confront problems. As a leader you have to confront problems. There’s never been a great leader that would have done that. So that’s where it is.”

WTF Trump he talking about? He is saying that if he were convalescing in the residence area of the White House it would be tantamount to being “locked in” to a place that he could never leave and never see or talk to anyone. Which, of course, isn’t remotely true. However, it is exactly what being confined to the private rooms of a military hospital is like. Trump is far more restricted at Walter Reed than he would be at the White House. It would be much easier for him to conduct business there, where he has ready access to communications, documents, the vast resources of governing and, of course, his Cabinet, aides, and other support staff.

How can Trump plausibly suggest that by exchanging the comfort and convenience of the White House for the sterile seclusion of a hospital that he is more “out front” or better able to “confront problems”? That makes no sense at all. If anything, it indicates a cognition failure that should warrant more serious examination. And in the end, that may be at least part of the reason he’s still hospitalized and refraining from his all-consuming Twitter habit. Which while curious and out of character, is a welcome relief from the relentless hostility, ignorance, and madness his tweets provoke.

UPDATE I: Late this afternoon Trump briefly left his hospital room to drive by the small crowd of Trump cult disciples worshiping outside of Walter Reed. He waved from the back of a limousine like the Pope blessing his flock. Some reporters suggested that he wanted to demonstrate that he was strong and healthy. But this was the selfish act of a malignant narcissist who craves attention above all else.

An attending physician at Walter Reed described Trump’s behavior as “irresponsible.” A Secret Service source called it “reckless and careless and heartless.”

But none of that mattered to Trump. As a consequence of his contracting the coronavirus he had to cancel his cult rallies. So he needed some other way to soak up the admiring cheers from his most zealous devotees. He chose, therefore, to put the lives of his staff and secret service agents at risk in order to stage this political theater. It was reminiscent of when he deployed the military to assault peaceful demonstrators to clear his way to a photo-op in front of church.

In a video Trump tweeted prior to this dangerous stunt, Trump said that he had learned a lot about COVID-19. Obviously that’s just another lie. Trump’s ego is, as usual, running the show. And to hell with the welfare of anyone else.

UPDATE II: Trump’s Twittering has resumed. On Monday morning he unleashed 19 tweets by 8:00 AM. Although most (15) of them were single line lies about why his cult followers should vote for him. Not exactly the sort of thing that will change the strong trending of support for Joe Biden.

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

Messiah Complex? Fox News on Why Trump Got COVID-19: ‘He’s Doing It For Us’

Posted by on October 3, 2020 at 1:11 pm. 6 Comments :

The cult worship of Donald Trump by his ardent and dimwitted disciples has long been a troubling indicator of the iron grip he has on America’s Most Wretched. However, that confederacy of dunces has nothing on the Trump-fluffing propagandists at Fox News, whose devotion to Dear Leader is unwavering and resolute. There is literally nothing that Trump can do or say that won’t trigger unbridled reverence from the Fox hole.

Donald Trump Messiah

Evidence of this glassy-eyed adoration can be seen in Friday’s episode of The Five on Fox News. During a segment on Trump having tested positive for the coronavirus, co-host Greg Gutfeld sought to explain how this was a selfless act of sacrifice by an unparalleled humanitarian whose only interest was the welfare of others. But his commentary devolved into a sermon that characterized Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis as akin to the crucifixion of Christ (video below):

“He didn’t hide from the virus. And the reason why he didn’t hide from the virus is he didn’t want America to hide from the virus. If he was going to ask America to get back to work, right? To get back to work and experience a risk, he was going to do the same thing.” […]

“He had to walk that walk. He had to do that. He could have scared the crap out of everybody but he refused, and it goes back to his original point about trying to make sure the positive attitude is maintained along with a sense of concern. So he took the risk, he got the virus, but it’s because he was — he was doing it for us.”

And there you have it. Trump was willing to die for our sins, so that we may have eternal life. Gutfeld doesn’t accept the more logical explanation that Trump was just reckless about rejecting the safety and health guidelines of his own medical experts. Gutfeld doesn’t fault Trump for refusing to wear face masks or engage in social distancing. In the world of Fox News not only did Trump do nothing wrong, he went beyond any reasonable expectations of charity and courage to offer himself as atonement for the sins of us peasants.

In the real world, Trump’s negligent behavior is responsible for the deaths of more than 208,000 Americans, not mention a total of some seven million cases, many of which will result in permanent disabilities. Gutfeld and his Fox News comrades fail to make that obvious connection. In fact, some of his colleagues are making similarly abhorrent remarks that lavish praise on Trump or defend him from criticism. For instance:

Laura Ingraham gushed, “So while you’re recovering, Mr. President, don’t worry. We’ll take up the slack because you fought for us.” That’s true so long as what Ingraham means is that Trump “fought for us” and our families to get sick and die. He certainly never fought to preserve life or control the pandemic.

Tucker Carlson managed to construct one of the most offensive similes ever by associating criticism of Trump with sexual assault. Carlson falsely asserted that lefty Trump critics were saying essentially that Trump “asked for it. He was dressed provocatively.” So according to Carlson, observing correctly that rejecting masks makes it more likely that the virus would spread, is the same thing as justifying rape because the of the victim’s attire.

WTF is wrong with these cretins? They are not only taking sides against science and the practices that could actually mitigate the suffering and loss caused by a deadly pandemic, but instead they are celebrating the callous and dangerous agenda that Trump has pursued and that has produced nothing but misery. And they are doing all of that in the most nauseating way imaginable. Which for Fox News – and Trump – is really just business as usual.

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

Fox News is Already Speculating About Super Trump Beating COVID-19

Posted by on October 2, 2020 at 11:53 am. 2 Comments :

The news that Donald Trump and the First Lady have tested positive for COVID-19 came as a surprise Thursday night, but not because it could not have been predicted. Trump’s disregard for practicing the most rudimentary safety guidelines stipulated by his own health experts (Dr. Fauci, CDC, Surgeon General, etc.) provided a reliable foreshadowing of what has now occurred.

Donald Trump, Coronavirus

The nation sends its thoughts and prayers at this difficult time. Never mind that Trump didn’t share that concern for the more than 200,000 Americans who have already died (and seven million plus infected). This is a nation with compassion that exceeds the callousness of its current “leader.” It’s just so sad that so many had to suffer because of Trump’s negligence and vanity to refuse to promote the sort of behavior (social distancing, mask wearing, etc.) that would have saved tens of thousands of lives. Even now, his administration has still not adopted a consistent, coherent strategy for the safe reopening of businesses and schools.

Throughout the past eight months, Fox News has been Trump’s accomplice in misinforming the public about the very real risks posed by the coronavirus pandemic. And that role hasn’t changed now that the President is among its victims. On Friday morning the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends engaged in their typical banter, exalting Trump and maligning his critics. And in the course of their daily propaganda production, co-host Brian Kilmeade had this to say:

“Let me take it to another level. People think – and there’s a lot of people out there who say that ‘If I get it I die.’ Seven million people have it, it’s terrible. Now what if the most famous person in the world gets it and in ten days it’s back out? Doesn’t that also send a message that you could say whatever you want in stats and graphs but I give you an example of somebody who’s in that danger age of 74 who is out there, gets it, and beats it? Could that also send a message?”

Fox Business host Stuart Varney initially suggested that people might become more cautious about following safety guidelines and be more resistant to the opening of bars, restaurants, etc. But he quickly shifted course and agreed with Kilmeade that a rapid recovery by Trump would “mitigate concern about the virus.” And they clearly regarded such a relaxation of concern as a good thing.

There is so much wrong with that attitude. First of all, people need to be concerned about a virus that has killed 200,000 Americans and counting. Any “mitigation” of concern is a sure path to more deaths. Secondly, if Trump recovers quickly, that tells us nothing about how the virus would affect anyone else. How many Americans have teams of physicians and first-class hospital facilities catering to their exclusive needs 24/7?

What Kilmeade is suggesting is that the “message” of a rapid recovery by Trump is that it affirms the belief among his cult disciples that Trump is omnipotent; a Superman in the White House who can rescue us from any and all threats. It’s a dangerously tunnel-blind faith in the false divinity of someone who has more in common with a sociopath than a savior.

For several weeks Trump has tried to distract the nation from the tragic consequences of the pandemic that he so badly mismanaged. He’s tried to shift the public discourse to civil unrest, the Supreme Court, phony assertions of election fraud, and whatever other manufactured controversy he recently saw on Fox News. But now the coronavirus is back at the top of the news cycle, and likely will remain there for the remainder of the campaign. And if there is anything positive to take away from this, it’s that it may result in people becoming more committed to safer behavior. And that alone could save thousands of lives.

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

Trump Says He ‘Won the Debate Big’ – According to Imaginary Polls

Posted by on October 1, 2020 at 11:55 am. NO Comments :

In these increasingly divisive days of the dwindling Era of Trump, there are rarely matters that achieve anything approaching a consensus. However, the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden has managed to produce a fair amount of agreement that Trump’s behavior was disruptive, petulant, asinine, and harmful to both his candidacy and the nation’s pride.

Donald Trump

Despite the overwhelmingly negative response to Trump’s incessant and insolent interruptions, Trump himself is pleased with his performance and is celebrating the aftermath of the muddy mess he made Tuesday night. That’s to be expected of a malignant narcissist who is incapable of forming any connection to reality. Consequently, on Thursday morning Trump tweeted this…

Notice that Trump didn’t bother to cite even a single poll that reported his allegedly big win. But there’s a good reason for that. There aren’t any. He is thanking an imaginary compilation of polls that exist exclusively in his diseased brain. These pseudo-surveys are in stark contrast to the actual polls released since the debate that all show Joe Biden crushing Trump by substantial margins ranging from seven to 32 points. Here are five of those polls:

  • 538/Ipsos: “Biden got higher marks (59.7-32.9%) for his performance.”
  • CNN/SSRS: “Six in 10 debate watchers said former Vice President Joe Biden did the best job in Tuesday’s debate, and just 28% say President Donald Trump did.”
  • CBS/YouGov: “Forty-eight percent said Biden won, while 41% thought Mr. Trump was the winner.”
  • Politico/Morning Consult: “The survey, conducted the day after the candidates’ clash in Cleveland, found that 50 percent of debate watchers surveyed said Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, performed the best during the debate. Just 34 percent said the same about the Republican incumbent”
  • Vox/Data for Progress: “A new poll by Data for Progress provided exclusively to Vox shows that viewers thought Democratic nominee Joe Biden decisively won Tuesday’s first presidential debate against President Donald Trump, by a 52-39 margin.”
  • CNBC/Change Research: “A CNBC/Change Research poll conducted Tuesday night and Wednesday found 53% of likely voters nationwide said Biden did a better job in the debate, compared with 29% for Trump.”

So where did Trump get his fantasy polling results? From Fox News, of course. Sean Hannity giddily reported the “instant polls” that some media conduct by simply asking the opinions of whoever happens to be reading their tweets at the moment. “I’m sure the mainstream media will have corrupt polls,” Hannity cackled, “as they always do, but those [CSPAN and Telemundo] are the two flash polls that we have already.” And Trump’s Minister of Propaganda (aka press secretary), Kayleigh McEnany, tweeted much the same thing:

None of these numbers that the Trump toadies are touting are rooted in statistical reality. They have no scientific basis and represent nothing more than the ditzy clicking of amped up Internet Trolls for Trump. But it is all that Trump can cling to given the stinging truth that he is profoundly unpopular and widely despised. Which is what the real polls show conclusively.

With specific regard to the debate, Trump’s abysmal personality was so glaringly on display that there can be no escape from the well-deserved deluge of disgust he’s receiving. After acting out like a psychotic toddler, refusing to denounce white supremacy, lying every time he opened his mouth, and reaffirming his loathsome reputation for belligerent incoherence, Trump is lucky he wasn’t carted off to the psyche ward. Which, according to another recent poll, is something that a majority of the American people would deem appropriate.

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

Trump Is in Full Panic Mode: He Knows He’s Going to Lose the Debate

Posted by on September 29, 2020 at 1:08 pm. 1 Comments :

The first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden is tonight and the pregame is heating up to a frothing stew of crazy. While Biden has been studiously holed up preparing for the event, Trump has been tweeting and doing Fox News interviews wherein he insists he doesn’t need any preparation.

Trump Fear

For weeks Trump has been making overt but baseless suggestions that Biden is suffering from mental infirmities that would make him unfit to be president. But Trump’s campaign of nasty projections has had no effect on voters, a majority of whom actually say that it’s Trump who doesn’t have the soundness to serve. He has also been helping Biden by lowering the bar for his performance to be considered successful.

As a result of this ignorant miscalculation on Trump’s part, he is now trying to steer back 180 degrees by claiming that Biden might actually have an advantage in the debate. But this only makes Trump look even more desperate. particularly considering the excuses Trump has latched unto to explain why Biden is going to crush him. Here is what we’ve heard so far from Trump and his panic-ridden campaign:

  • Biden might wear an ear piece to get offstage coaching
  • Biden requested breaks every thirty minutes
  • Biden would be using performance enhancing drugs
  • Biden got the debate questions in advance

None of these preposterous allegations have even a hint of evidence. They are entirely manufactured by Trump & Company out of sheer desperation. The assertion that Biden got the questions in advance actually came from Infowars conspiracy crackpot, Jerome Corsi. That’s how low they are sinking to invent even these lame controversies.

As for Trump, he asked the debate commission to have the moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News, refrain from mentioning how many people have died from the coronavirus. Trump also went after Wallace last week, saying that “he’ll be controlled by the radical left.” But then, in Trump’s diseased brain, so is Rupert Murdoch and Joe Biden, and they’re all servants of George Soros.

All of this insanity is being thrown around hours before the debate has even begun. That can mean only one thing: Trump knows damn well that he’s gonna lose bigly. He knows that he can’t compete in an intellectual contest where facts and logic and an ability to discuss critical matters coherently are the components of success. All Trump is capable of is lying, whining, and casting insults like a petulant six year old.

So expect a flurry of that sort of infantilism from Trump tonight. And then expect him to declare himself the winner tomorrow. His narcissism is so pronounced that it simply doesn’t matter what actually happens. He can only see himself as the pure manifestation of human perfection and superiority (i.e. master race). And his ever-shrinking cadre of followers will drool in adoration of their infallible cult leader. All of which will make it just that much harder to face reality on November third when Trump is trounced in the election.

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

Wannabe Dictator Trump Thinks Threatening Dictatorship is Hysterical

Posted by on September 26, 2020 at 1:10 pm. 6 Comments :

For several weeks Donald Trump has toyed with the idea of extending his presidency beyond the constitutionally limited two terms. Along with all of the other insults to America’s most treasured principles, Trump is openly proposing to appoint himself President-for-Life, in the mold of his heroes Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong Un.

Donald Trump, Mocking Disability

More recently Trump has reinforced these aspirations of tyranny by refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election this November (which he knows is the most likely scenario). He is even freely discussing on his State TV network and Ministry of Disinformation (aka Fox News) his plans to arrange for the Supreme Court to effectively declare him President regardless of the outcome of the election.

Most Americans find this sort of authoritarian demagoguery repulsive, treasonous, and frightening. However, Trump himself thinks it is hysterical. The Daily Beast’s White House reporter, Asawin Suebsaeng, reveals that…

“According to two people familiar with the matter, hours after the president stepped away from the cameras, Trump continued following the fallout in the press, including on cable news, and began privately remarking how amusing it was that his answer was making media and liberal heads explode, and also predictably dominating TV coverage.”

“’He seemed to get a real kick out of it,’ one of the sources said, adding that the president seemed to relish making the press, in Trump’s words, ‘go crazy’ over his non-commitment to democratic norms and procedure. ‘[The president] wasn’t going to be playing by their rules on this just to make them feel comfortable.’”

So emulating Hitler and Mussolini is just a big joke to Trump. And fomenting chaos among the public and the press is just his way of playing by a different set rules that was employed by the fascists who preceded him. However, concern over this this isn’t just being raised by nervous liberals. Former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, Elizabeth Neumann (who has since endorsed Joe Biden), said that “I continue to be concerned that the president’s reckless rhetoric will incite violence from fringe extremists.” In fact, it already has.

Trump’s Republican confederates don’t appear to be worried about this traitorous talk. None have spoken out against it in any substantive manner. Many of them actually waive it off with the excuse that Trump should be taken – as proposed by billionaire Trump supporter Peter Thiel – seriously, but not literally. That’s difficult to do when Trump himself insists that he means what he’s saying. In a recent Trump rally and Coronavirus Super Spreader event, he said that…

“They say ‘He doesn’t wanna turn over [garbled] of course I do. But it’s gotta be a fair election. That’s another scam. They don’t mention anything about ballots […] We’re gonna win. We’re not gonna lose this, except if they cheat. That’s the way I look at it.”

To be clear, Trump is only conceding that he will accept the result of the election if he wins. He is appointing himself the arbiter of whether or not it is fair. And by asserting that the only way he could lose is if Democrats cheat, he is declaring in advance that a win by Joe Biden is inherently illegitimate. Hence, it isn’t fair and he isn’t obliged to accept the outcome.

That’s a closed loop of illogic that is akin to a “heads I win, tails you lose” proposition. It is a tactic used by power mad autocrats. And it reveals Trump’s desperation, fear, and certainty of his fate as a loser who will have to face the consequences of his criminal activities.

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

Fox News Court Ruling: No ‘Reasonable Viewer’ Takes Tucker Carlson Seriously

Posted by on September 25, 2020 at 12:20 pm. 11 Comments :

The reputation of Fox News has long been a tattered quilt of purposeful dishonesty and overtly partisan right-wing bias. And the last four years has seen Fox go even deeper into the Mariana Trench of propaganda on behalf of Donald Trump, whose authoritarian aspirations demand unflinching loyalty and obedience.

Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump

Now Fox News has affirmed their role as Trump’s Ministry of Disinformation in a court ruling that relied on the rather bizarre argument that their top rated prime time host, Tucker Carlson, can’t be taken seriously. That, of course, has been starkly evident to anyone with a functioning frontal cortex, but this ruling (actually the second such ruling) cements it in a legal decision that rests on Fox’s own arguments.

Carlson, one of Fox’s most prolific liars, was being sued for defamation by Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who was paid $150,000 by the National Enquirer on behalf of Trump in order to buy her silence about their sexual affair. Subsequently, Carlson did frequent stories aiming to discredit McDougal and defend Trump. In the course of those stories Carlson accused McDougal of “extorting” Trump and made representations that he asserted were “undisputed facts.” The only problem is that they were easily disputed and not remotely factual.

This week a court ruled in favor of Fox News citing their claim that Carlson “cannot be understood to have been stating facts, but instead that he was delivering an opinion using hyperbole for effect.” The ruling went on to state that “given Mr. Carlson’s reputation, any reasonable viewer ‘arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism’ about the statements he makes.”

In other words, Carlson is a known liar whose commentaries can be dismissed out of hand as the ravings of an unhinged crackpot. The court concludes that someone with such a pronounced reputation for dishonesty is incapable of defamation because who, other than a complete imbecile, would believe him?

The problem with the “reasonable viewer” standard is that it mistakenly assumes that Carlson has any reasonable viewers. His audience is made up of just the sort of imbeciles who buy into his fallacious babbling. Consequently, defamation is a plausible, almost certain result of Carlson’s unambiguously malicious attacks on McDougal. And therein lies the grounds for McDougal’s appeal.

In the meantime, Fox can no longer pretend that their network provides factual presentations of the news. Not after their lawyer won a defamation suit by arguing that their presenters are clowns performing for an audience that hasn’t yet reached the emotional maturity of stunted adolescents.

As if to confirm his flagrant falsifications, Carlson did a segment Thursday night that brazenly distorted reality to advance a conspiracy theory promoted by Trump about mail-in voting. None of the alleged “facts” presented by Carlson were verifiable. And when Trump tweeted a link to the segment, Twitter slapped a warning on the tweet alerting readers to where they could “Learn how voting by mail is safe and secure.”

Now, anytime someone cites a Fox News reporter as their source, they can be swiftly dismissed for believing the garbage that a court of law ruled “cannot be understood to have been stating facts.” In fact, Fox should be regarded in much the same manner that Carlson once described Trump. “Donald Trump is a salesman,” Carlson began. “He’s a talker, a boaster, a booster, a compulsive self-promoter. At times, he’s a full-blown BS artist.” That may be the one thing that Carlson ever got right.

ADDENDUM: There has been some comparison of this defense to one used by MSNBC in defense of a defamation suit filed against Rachel Maddow by the Trump-fluffing conspiracy crackpots at OAN and elsewhere. However the only similarity is that both argued that their defendant offered opinions.

The difference is that Fox’s lawyers argued that Carlson’s audience did not expect his opinions to be factually based. But MSNBC’s lawyers argued that Maddow’s opinions were “precise factual recitations that indisputably and accurately state the facts” and that her commentary was “fully protected opinion because (a) it was based on disclosed facts.” Big difference.

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

Trump Whines that Chris Wallace of Fox News is ‘Controlled By the Radical Left’

Posted by on September 24, 2020 at 12:56 pm. NO Comments :

As Election Day draws nearer, Donald Trump continues to descend into a psychotic abyss that exhibits the frantic tangle of his fear and desperation. It’s become serious enough that the American people can’t help but have noticed. Much of the evidence of his mental infirmity is revealed in his increasingly bizarre insistence that the election is rigged against him and that he will refuse to accept the results.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Fake

Adding to the cornucopia of crazy that is Trump these says is how he expresses his roller-coaster, love/hate relationship with his own Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News). Trump has been making almost daily appearances on the network, partly because his cult rallies and phony press conferences are no longer being carried live by every network.

On Thursday morning Trump got another tongue bath from Brian Kilmeade on his Fox News radio show. Among the topics discussed were his disappointment that Fox News polls show him losing to Joe Biden (as do all other polls). Fox’s pollsters are “incompetent,” Trump complained to Kilmeade. “They were one of the most far off of all polls,” Trump lied. “They don’t like me, I can tell you that. The worst polls are usually Fox.” Actually, Fox’s polls are generally pretty accurate and in line with the mainstream of credible polling.

Trump also continued his recent rash of ranting about voting by mail. Never mind that he’s currently imploring his cult followers to do so. But in his latest Fox gripe session, he told Kilmeade that “These [mail-in] ballots are a horror show.” He then went on to weave an entirely made up story about discarded ballots:

“They found six ballots in an office yesterday in a garbage can. They were Trump ballots. Eight ballots. In an office yesterday in a certain state. They had Trump written on it, and they were thrown in a garbage can. And this is what’s gonna happen. This is what’s gonna happen. And we’re investigating that.”

Notice that in a matter of seconds Trump increased the number of trashed ballots thirty percent, from six to eight? By sundown there will have been 8,000 of them. NBC News asked the White House for confirmation of this garbage story, but the response they received failed to back up Trump’s obvious fabrication.

Finally, Trump sought to suck up a bit by complimenting Fox News Sunday anchor, Chris Wallace. However, in Trump’s warped mind, a compliment is bragging about having delivered high ratings for interviews he did with Wallace. “Because,” as Trump said to Kilmeade, “it’s all about ratings.” Trump went on to say what he really thinks of Wallace:

“I would be willing to bet that he won’t ask Biden tough questions. He’ll ask me tough questions. It’ll be unfair, I have no doubt about it. But he’ll be controlled by the radical left. They control him.”

That’s right. Trump thinks Chris Wallace, a seventeen year veteran of Fox News, is controlled by the radical left. As is Rupert Murdoch. And Joe Biden. And they’re all in cahoots with George Soros. It’s conspiracy, I tells ya. And woe be to us all if Trump weren’t here to expose it.

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

Trump Reveals to Fox News His Plan to Get the Supreme Court to Declare Him President

Posted by on September 21, 2020 at 12:16 pm. 2 Comments :

This year appears to have a rather sadistic bent as it relentlessly piles on melodramas and anxieties. It’s not bad enough that we are suffering through a deadly pandemic that is being dreadfully mismanaged by Donald Trump. We are also having to deal with an economy in recession and civil unrest triggered by systemic racism. And all in an especially contentious election year.

Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

Adding to those national migraines is the tragic passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Not only has America lost an iconic figure who has made innumerable contributions to civil liberties and equal justice, but it thrusts the nation into a bitterly partisan battle to replace her. Republicans are shamelessly contradicting their previous insistence that the president shouldn’t nominate a Justice during an election year. Apparently that principle only applies to Democratic presidents. The GOP is perfectly OK with nominations by an impeached president who still has multiple criminal and civil indictments hanging over his head.

Making matters worse is Trump himself (as usual), who was “interviewed” twice in two days by Fox News. In a sit-down with Fox’s Mark Levin on Sunday night Trump whined that Fox News wasn’t sufficiently worshipful, and that they catered too much to Democrats. Are we sure that Trump even knows what channel he’s watching?

On Monday Trump visited the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. This is apparently his new regular gig that he leaked last week. It was there that he unleashed some wild speculations and disturbing revelations. When the subject to Ginsburg’s replacement came up, Trump led off with a thoroughly disgraceful allegation maligning the integrity of Ginsburg and her family:

Ainsley Earhardt: Then you have Ruth Bader Ginsburg who told her granddaughter on her death bed, allegedly, that her dying wish was to have the next president choose her successor. How do you think all this plays out?
Trump: I don’t know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff and Schumer and Pelosi. I would be more inclined to the second. Okay, it came out of the wind. It sounds so beautiful. But that sounds like a Schumer deal or maybe a Pelosi or Shifty Schiff. So that came out of the wind. Let’s see. I mean maybe she did and maybe she didn’t.”

Trump’s assertion is entirely without foundation – or decency. He is of such weak character that he can’t help politicizing this tragedy by invoking the names of his favorite foils in Congress. Rep. Schiff replied on Twitter, telling Trump that “This is low. Even for you.” But how difficult would it be to believe that Ginsburg had such feelings. She said so many times before. Unfortunately, Trump has an insatiable need to drag everything down to his loathsome level, even if it means desecrating the memory of a universally respected and honorable American. Even if it means despicably disparaging Ginsburg’s last wishes as a Democratic hoax.

Perhaps Trump can’t believe that Ginsburg would make what he curiously concedes is a “beautiful” statement (that “came out of the wind,” whatever that means) because it so far outside anything he is capable of. But he went on to expose his true agenda that reeks of the totalitarian aspirations for which he is well known:

“The bottom line is that we won the election. We have an obligation to do what’s right and act as quickly as possible. We should act quickly because we’re gonna have, probably, election things involved here, you know, because of the fake ballots they’ll be sending out. A terrible situation.”

Oh My! Our infamously inarticulate president is recognizing the threat of “election things” involved here. Never mind that those “things” are manufactured lies about mail-in voting that Trump has been telling for months without ever bothering to provide a scrap of evidence.

More importantly, Trump is confessing that his obsession with confirming a new Supreme Court Justice is rooted in his determination to steal the election. He is anticipating a legal battle for which he wants to make sure that he has a majority on the Court to rule in his favor and, if necessary, declare him the winner. This is the sort of court manipulation that is more common under dictators who pack their courts with subservients and sycophants.

What’s more, this is not an aberration or careless misstatement. Trump made similar remarks on Saturday at his latest cult rally and Super Spreader event in North Carolina. Worried about the prospect of there not being a declared winner on election night, Trump expressed his nefarious desire to put the decision in the hands of a court system that he has packed with allies:

“Now we’re counting on the federal court system to make it so that we can actually have an evening where we know who wins. Not where the votes are going to be counted a week later or two weeks later.”

This is Trump’s way of disenfranchising citizens who vote by mail. If their ballots are postmarked on or before election day, but the ballot processing and counting is not completed until some time after, Trump wants all of those votes to be invalidated. He is literally calling for the suppression of voter’s rights. And since more Democrats vote by mail, it’s easy to see why Trump is pursuing this. It is just the logical progression of his yearning for unchecked tyrannical power. And it must be vigorously challenged if America is to remain a free democratic republic.

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