Media

Blaming the Victim: Trump is Still Attacking the Media One Day After Mail Bombs Were Sent

Posted by on October 25, 2018 at 11:05 am. 2 Comments :

There is one notable character trait that Donald Trump displays whenever he is confronted with criticism of any kind. He immediately dismisses it, rejects any responsibility, and points fingers at his critics and victims as the real problems. That holds true whether Trump is accused of fumbling on national security, committing sexual assault, or any other of his numerous failures.

Donald Trump

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Trump is already blaming the media for the mail bombs sent to the media, as well as many other Trump critics. His knee-jerk response to any negative news is to fire back at those who have suffered the most. And under no circumstances apologize or accept fault in any degree. With Donald Trump the buck stops everywhere except with him. And the latest example of that is his tweet Thursday morning:

So one day after mail bombs were sent to at least nine of his critics, Trump lashes out at the victims and blames them for the attacks. What’s more, the tweet contains heinous and unsupported lies. Beginning with his estimation of the cause of the “anger we see today in our society.” There is no one more responsible for that anger than Trump. And there is no one more angry than Trump. He is perpetually enraged and screaming invectives at all the things he hates about America, its people, and its institutions.

Trump also accuses the media of “purposely false and inaccurate reporting.” Of course, he offers no evidence of that. The truth is that any reporting that reflects negatively on him, he rejects as “fake news,” no matter how well documented and verified. Nevertheless, in Trump’s diseased brain it is the media that is “hateful.”

For Trump to continue with this sort of inflammatory rhetoric just one day after the worst attempted mail bombings in American history is both reprehensible and, from him, expected. Some news reports complimented his opening remarks at the Wisconsin cult rally on Wednesday night that called for unity. But thy must have forgotten that it only takes a few hours (sometimes minutes) for Trump to return to his typical thuggery and lash out at anyone who dares to tell the truth about him. Just moments after his wholly disingenuous and call for unity, Trump accused the media of “endless hostility.”

And he isn’t alone in attacking the victims. Naturally, State TV (aka Fox News) rushes to his defense in order to protect him from the onslaught of unbridled truth tellers. For example, the sycophantic Trump-fluffers on Outnumbered made sure to charge Maxine Waters with bringing on the mail bomb attack herself. And Fox contributor Newt Gingrich told reporters that the media has “earned” the label “enemy of the people.” Ultra-Trumpist Lou Dobbs tweeted (then deleted) “Fake News – Fake Bombs.” Even Trump’s press secretary joined in the assault on the media with a particular focus on CNN.

If anyone needs a refresher course on who is most responsible for the uncivil tone and advocacy of political violence in the nation, the video below, courtesy of Mashable, does a pretty good job of compiling the documentation that exposes Trump’s horrific record of hatred and division.

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

Khashoggi Who? Trump Delivers Disgusting Praise for Montana Rep Who Assaulted Reporter

Posted by on October 18, 2018 at 8:34 pm. 1 Comments :

This may be one of the most disgraceful, nauseating things Donald Trump has ever said. Of course, that sentence could have been written a thousand times over the past two years. And it will surely be written again in the future. But for right now this is the moment to be repulsed by what an abhorrent creature is inhabiting our White House.

Donald Trump

At another one of Trump’s now frequent cult rallies, our Cretin-in-Chief took a moment to promote the campaign of Greg Gianforte for Congress. For those who don’t recall, Gianforte is the Republican representative who attacked a reporter who had the audacity to ask him a question about the campaign. Gianforte later pleaded guilty to the assault. But none of that persuaded Trump to hold back in his effusive support for Gianforte’s reelection. Trump even lauded the assault (video below):

“Any guy who can do a body slam, he’s my guy. I shouldn’t say this because – oh there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. […] I had heard that he body-slammed a reporter. [crowd cheers] And he was way up. And I think this was like the day of the election or just before. And I said ‘Oh, this is terrible. He’s gonna lose the election.’ Then I said wait a minute. I know Montana pretty well. I think it might help him. And it did.”

This would be an appalling comment under any circumstances. But coming so soon after the barbaric murder of a journalist at the hands of Trump’s Saudi friends, it is damn near unthinkable. Has Trump already forgotten about the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a United States resident with four children, three of whom are American citizens? Is he so enamored of the tyrannical privileges of his foreign dictator pals that he’s trying to emulate them? Or is he just this unbelievably loathsome? And what are we to make of the cheering from the audience of glassy-eyed Deplorables who think this is appropriate?

Whatever the explanation, the result can only be a signal to all other despotic leaders who aspire to assassinate troublesome journalists. Trump is sending an unmistakable message that he isn’t going to respond to such hostility. In fact, he clearly approves of it. And the blood of any other journalists – abroad or at home – is on hands. At least we know that he really means it when he says that the media is “the enemy of the people.” And therefore, in his warped mind, they can be assaulted and even murdered without consequence.

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

Fox News Was Born 22 Years Ago Today to Corrupt the Free Press and Become State TV

Posted by on October 7, 2018 at 4:17 pm. 4 Comments :

It seems like only yesterday that America had a president who didn’t shout rhetoric he stole from Stalin that the media is “the enemy of the people.” But those days are long gone and have been replaced by a loudmouth ignoramus who hates the Constitution and does everything he can to turn his cult followers against it.

Fox News Lies

It was twenty-two years ago that Fox News made its debut on cable TV promising to “change the way you look at the world.” And if what they meant was that you would now look at it through the lens of lies and ultra-partisan right-wing dogma, they were right. The network was the brainchild (i.e. Rosemary’s Baby) of an Australian newspaper baron (Rupert Murdoch) and an American media consultant for the Republican Party (Roger Ailes). It took about five years before the cable channel caught on, but once it did it corralled all of the nation’s conservative viewers into a single pen where they could happily wallow in the mud of a deliberately dishonest perversion of journalism.

Today Fox News has morphed into what can only be described as the State TV arm of Donald Trump’s White House. It is a co-conspirator in his efforts to turn the United States into a dictatorship that serves the wealthy and corporatist classes of the country. And its programming appeals to a audience that has been expressly dumbed-down by two decades of pablum and soap opera style melodrama.

So Happy Birthday Fox News. And may there NOT be many more to come. The past twenty-two years has already inflicted more than enough damage on the nation and the viewers/victims (mostly our grandparents and high school dropouts) who became virtual fake news zombies. They are lost to us now, but with each new generation comes hope for a clear-thinking, propaganda-free future.

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

Now Trump Thinks that the Democratic Party is the Enemy of the American People

Posted by on October 1, 2018 at 2:03 pm. 3 Comments :

America was treated this weekend to a flurry of Trump staffers blatantly lying on the Sunday morning news programs about Donald Trump’s efforts to “plow through” the confirmation of his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Specifically, they were purposefully misleading about the President’s restrictions on the FBI investigation into allegations of Kavanaugh’s sexual assaults in his school days.

Donald Trump

Now, during a stage-managed announcement Monday morning of a new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, Trump eventually allowed a few questions about his tainted nominee. Throughout much of it he was overtly dismissive to women reporters who he repeatedly interrupted and tried to suppress. He even outright insulted Cecelia Vega of ABC News saying that “I know you’re not thinking. You never do.”

What’s more, Trump rarely answered the question that was asked. At one point a reporter asked him several times if he would withdraw Kavanaugh’s nomination if it weren’t determined that he lied during his congressional testimony (which he did). After a few obvious attempts at dodging, Trump finally said that that “I don’t think he did” lie. Which is not a response as to whether he would pull Kavanaugh IF he lied. Trump, nevertheless, lied about Kavanaugh being number one at Yale (where they do not rank the students), while calling Sen. Feinstein a liar with regard to “leaking” information about Kavanaugh’s victim, Christine Blasey Ford. He provided zero evidence of Feinstein lying, but she fully documented her proper handling of the sensitive info.

It’s difficult to pick the worst comments that Trump makes in any of his public addresses. The contenders are just too numerous and worthy of disgust. But among the most repulsive comments made at this event was when Trump pointed to the media scrum and nastily proclaimed:

“Now for you Democrats. I guess I’m including you too, the media. You’re a part of the Democrat Party.”

On the surface that appears to be just another snide display of hostile partisanship. But it goes further than that. Remember that Trump believes that the media is “the enemy of the people.” It’s a remark that he uses frequently which he borrows from Stalin’s authoritarian repertoire. And now he conflates the media and the Democrats. So simple logic suggests that Trump also believes that the Democratic Party is the enemy of the people.

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

This isn’t how a democracy is supposed to work. Trump has brought partisan rancor to new lows as he strives to spread his doctrine of hate across the nation. It’s bad enough that he has tagged the press – the only profession expressly protected in the Constitution – as America’s enemy. But now he’s expanding that to include his political opponents and, by the way, tens of millions (in fact a majority) of citizens. He’s unambiguously fomenting a civil war. It’s a horrific and dangerous denigration of democracy. But it’s something his Deplorable cult followers appear to welcome.

Despite His Hysterical Smear Campaign, Americans Still Trust the Media More than Trump

Posted by on September 12, 2018 at 5:53 pm. NO Comments :

For more than two years now, Donald Trump has been attacking what he calls the “fake news” at every opportunity. He does it in interviews, on Twitter, and at his tedious cult rallies where he seems to be on auto-pilot, regurgitating the same old cliches that his disciples devour like nicotine candy. Even after being told that his reckless labeling of the press as “the enemy of the people” was a rhetorical remnant of Joseph Stalin, Trump continues to use the line without the least bit of shame or decency.

Donald Trump

However, after his years-long campaign of denigrating the press, as well as the Constitution’s First Amendment, Trump has gotten nowhere in terms of swaying the favor of the public. A new poll by Quinnipiac asked “Who do you trust more to tell you the truth about important issues: President Trump or the news media?” A majority of fifty-four percent chose the media. Only thirty percent chose Trump. That’s a twenty-four point margin of difference. Broken down demographically, the only group that trusts Trump more, outside of the margin of error, is Republicans. But Independents, Men, Women, and every age and ethnic group trusts the media more.

The poll also asked “Which comes closer to your point of view: the news media is the enemy of the people, or the news media is an important part of democracy?” And by an even bigger majority the media came out far ahead, with sixty-nine percent saying that the media is an important part of democracy. And once again, every demographic breakdown agreed, except for Republicans. Forty-seven percent of the Grand Ole Party actually agrees with Trump (and Stalin) that the media is the enemy of the people. This is an affirmation of the Trump rally-goers who were immortalized wearing a t-shirt that reads “I’d rather be a Russian than a Democrat.”

The poll had plenty of other bad news for Trump and the GOP. On the question of which party voters will back in the November election, a majority of fifty-two percent said Democrats, beating Republicans by fourteen points. Seventy-two percent of voters disapprove of the job the Republican controlled Congress is doing. Perhaps that’s because fifty-eight percent of them think Congress isn’t doing enough to be a check on the President. And both of those last two responses were shared by majorities of every demographic group. These survey results are in alignment with most of the recent polling on these subjects. See also:

It seems that no matter hard Trump pushes on his media bashing, the American people see through his tirades and continue to reject him. That’s reflected in the three latest opinion polls on Trump’s favorability (CNN, Quinnipiac, and NPR/Marist) that all put him in the thirties, and at new lows. Add to that the polls showing that the public trusts special counsel Robert Mueller over Trump, and the future looks bleak for Donnie and his dwindling party. Mueller, of course, has also been the victim of Trump’s persistent, but apparently impotent, outrage.

If these results hold for the next eight weeks, the much anticipated “blue wave” is going to swell into a tsunami. According to the survey statistics experts at FiveThiryEight, Democrats need an eleven point advantage to secure a takeover of both the House and the Senate. That advantage is currently at fourteen points. But these are merely estimates based on numerical analyses. The final election results rely on people actually going to polls and casting votes. So this is no time to become complacent of overly confident. It’s time to work hard every day between now and election day. That’s the only way to achieve the victory that America needs so badly.

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

Sexual Predator Donald Trump Hypocritically Threatens NBC’s ‘License’ Over Weinstein Story

Posted by on September 4, 2018 at 11:34 am. 1 Comments :

As his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, is being grilled in the Senate, it appears that Donald Trump is striving mightily to shift attention back to himself. So naturally he’s emulating the totalitarian policies of censorship and oppression, especially with regard to the media, that he admires so much. He frequently refers to the press as “the enemy of the people,” a phrase lifted straight from Stalin era tyranny. And even after being schooled on the historical horrors of his reference, Trump persists in his flagrantly anti-constitutional harangues.

Donald Trump, Censorship

On Tuesday morning, during his regularly scheduled Twitter tirade, Trump took another swipe at the press in the most appalling terms. Beginning with his incessant repetition of his now tedious “fake news” rhetoric, Trump launches into a peculiar criticism of NBC News for their handling of Ronan Farrow’s groundbreaking expose of Harvey Weinstein:

To be sure, there were some problems with how the network dealt with the allegations Farrow unveiled. NBC’s brass did not seem to be especially supportive of his efforts. Farrow charges that they tried to prevent him from proceeding with his investigation. NBC, however, claims that they just didn’t think the story was sufficiently documented. But the network didn’t try to interfere with Farrow taking the story to another publisher. In fact, according to Farrow, they suggested it. Subsequently, Farrow’s story ignited the #MeToo movement that has brought accountability to dozens of cretinous characters in the media, business, and politics. And it isn’t over.

What makes this so unbelievable is the shocking obliviousness on Trump’s part to reignite the Weinstein scandal. Of all the people to traffic in the sewer of sexual harassment and assault, Trump would be at or near the bottom of the list. After all, there are still outstanding allegations of the most repugnant misconduct by Trump from at least sixteen women (see video below). These charges have never been properly investigated and Trump has not been held accountable, as others in public life have.

When the President of the United States is credibly charged with actual sex crimes, it ought to be addressed in the press, the Congress, and especially the courts. But Trump has been given a free pass for his assaultive acts. For him to raise the matter of similar behavior by others is an Olympic-grade feat of suppression of self-awareness and shame.

And to make matters worse, Trump adds to the remarkably amoral mindset that led to this tweet by using it as reason to punish NBC via what he calls a “Look at their license.” What exactly does he intend to look at? There is no government authority that grants licenses to news organizations permitting them to engage in journalism. In fact, the Constitution explicitly prohibits it. Perhaps Trump was aiming at the licenses of local broadcasters. But even Trump’s own FCC chief, Ajit Pai, rebuked Trump’s prior license revocation fantasies saying that “The FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content.”

So Trump is, once again, just mouthing off in total ignorance as he attempts to threaten the media and chill any effort to criticize him. That isn’t going to work any better now than it has worked in all of his previous attempts at censorship. It just certifies that he is a wannabe dictator who aspires to silence any dissenting voices, much the way his heroes, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong Un, have done in their countries, where free speech is a crime against the state. Consequently, Trump will have to be satisfied with his version of State TV, aka Fox News.

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

Today Trump Fired FBI Hero Peter Strzok, Then Disrespected Military Heroes by Exalting Himself

Posted by on August 13, 2018 at 3:39 pm. 4 Comments :

There is little doubt that Donald Trump has disgraced this nation for most his adult life. Beginning with his evasion of the draft during the Vietnam War (with five deferments for such nonsense as bone spurs), to his conspiring with Russia to interfere with a presidential election. And in between he sought only to increase his own wealth, although he failed badly at that as well (at least six bankruptcies).

Donald Trump. Defense Act

So it isn’t out of character for Trump to spend this Monday padding his resume of shame with actions that exacerbate the humiliation most Americans feel when he comes to mind. To start off, the FBI made a purely political decision today to fire special agent Peter Strzok, a man with a long record of exemplary service to his country. Whatever one thinks of his recent emails expressing his personal (and well founded) disgust with Trump, that is a small matter when juxtaposed with his two decades in the Bureau.

An internal investigation by the FBI’s Inspector General found that at no time did Strzok allow his personal opinions to affect his official duties. Nevertheless, Trump and his human shields at Fox News smeared him and demanded his head. Trump even posted some celebratory tweets following the news that Strzok was fired. For his part, Strzok behaved with restraint and honor by simply tweeting a response by his lawyer to this unfair termination, which overruled the more lenient and reasonable recommendation of the head of the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

In the meantime, Trump himself visited Fort Drum in Jefferson County, New York, to have a signing ceremony for the John S. McCain Defense Authorization Act. In a speech that dragged on for more than half an hour, Trump never mentioned McCain’s name once, and conspicuously referred to the bill as simply the Defense Authorization Act. It was a petty and deliberate insult to the veteran McCain, who Congress honored by attaching his name to the bill, and who is at home in Arizona fighting brain cancer.

Additionally, Trump took much of the credit for the bill by explicitly citing himself as having been “a big, big, part” of making it happen. He wasn’t. But he did manage to insult the troops in the audience. Referring to a recent pay hike, Trump said they didn’t really care about it and asked “Does anyone not want it?” When few raised their hands he was visibly disturbed by the rejection of his premise and asked “Are these real patriots here? What’s going on?” What’s going on is that our soldiers are already underpaid and they need more funds to support their families. They aren’t wealthy jerkwads like Trump.

What’s more, Trump turned this event into a political affair by rattling off the same old tired list of things he claims, falsely, to have accomplished. This list had nothing whatsoever to do with the defense bill or the troops at hand. Even worse, he promoted congressional Republicans who are presently embroiled in tough midterm campaigns. Obviously the only audience he was speaking to was the national one that this speech was being broadcast to in the media.

Speaking of the media, Trump found a way to work in his usual anti-free press attacks on the media in a sickly, passive-aggressive way:

“I’m so proud of myself I didn’t call them the “fake news” media. I said to myself, ‘I will not today, in front of our great Armed Forces, call them the fake news.’ We know the real truth, but we won’t say it today”

So you’ll notice that he just called the press “fake news” – TWICE – in that bit of foolishness that didn’t actually fool anyone. And what he implied would be disrespectful to the troops were he to do it, he openly did anyway. He clearly doesn’t have the self-restraint or maturity to serve as president, and hopefully there will soon be a legal correction to that unfortunate error.

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

Donald Trump’s Sunday Morning (Not So) Funnies: The ‘Fake News Hates Me’ Edition

Posted by on August 5, 2018 at 10:30 am. 1 Comments :

If it’s Sunday, this must be time for Donald Trump to flail about wildly with desperate and wacky allegations pouring from his Twitter machine. And our pathetically incoherent president did not disappoint. He’s like Lynyrd Skynyrd coming on stage and starting off their concert with Free Bird. As they say in show business: Give the Deplorables what they want.

Donald Trump Toilet

Trump’s latest flurry of tweets is rather typical of his customary routine. Although he does seem to have stepped it up a notch. Let’s dive right into the week’s banquet of crazy.

Actually, the “fake news” loves you saying that the media is the enemy of the people. The fake news being Fox News, Breitbart, Alex Jones, National Enquirer, etc. And you’re projection of blaming the media for the division and distrust that you create is all too obvious. Escalating your rhetoric to assertions that the media “can cause war” and is “dangerous and sick”, will only increase the odds for a tragic act of violence directed at journalists who are just doing their jobs.

So are you saying that you are not concerned about your son? That would be consistent with your narcissistic personality disorder. But nobody expected you to throw your son under the bus by finally conceding that he colluded with Russians to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. Which is absolutely illegal and never done, so far as anyone can tell. What’s more, it did go somewhere (into your campaign stump speeches and the weak minds of Republican voters), and according to your personal attorney, Michael Cohen, you did know about it.

First of all, there are a lot more than seventeen angry Democrats. It’s more like 65 million. But more to the point, there weren’t any meetings between Democrats and Russians concerning the dossier that has been confirmed in many respects (and none of it has been proven false. Ask Shepard Smith). But even if there were such meetings, you just got finished saying that it wasn’t illegal for you and your family. But it is illegal for Clinton? And by the way, if the witch hunt is one-sided it’s only because all the witches are cackling from the Republican side. There have already been dozens of indictments and five guilty pleas from amongst your associates.

The problem that you’re having is that the media actually is reporting the lies and corruption having to do with your treasonous activities. If they weren’t you would have to constrain yourself to just the racism and utterly dishonest, self-exalting themes of your presidency. Which for your cult followers would probably be enough.

And that’s it for this edition of the Trump (Not So) Funnies. Well, for the time being. Trump is, once again, at one of his luxurious golf resorts for the weekend. And that’s where he often goes farthest off the rails. So stayed tuned for more deranged bluster from the now disgraced (temporarily) White House.

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

Hey Ivanka: Trump’s Press Sec Sarah Sanders Refused to Deny that the Press is the Enemy of the People

Posted by on August 2, 2018 at 12:53 pm. 2 Comments :

The crusade by Donald Trump and his administration to malign and endanger journalists continues in full force Thursday morning with what might otherwise have been a routine daily press briefing. What needs to be noted first, however, is that the White House press briefings are never really routine anymore, and they certainly are not daily. They held five briefings during the month of June, and only three in July.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump

During Thursday briefing, CNN’s Jim Acosta had to interrupt in order to be recognized because Trump’s censorious communications office has virtually blacklisted him. But he managed to get a question out that has particular significance to the media. Earlier in the day press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was interviewed by NPR. She was told about Ivanka Trump’s statement, in direct disagreement with her father, that she did not think that the media is “the enemy of the American people.” Sanders was asked to state her own position on the matter, but she conspicuously dodged the question with whining about how she and Trump were subject to criticism, poor things. So Acosta gave her another chance to provide a clear answer (video below):

Acosta: “I think that it would be a good thing if you were to say right here at this briefing that the press, the people that are gathered in this room right now doing their jobs every day, asking questions of officials like the ones you brought forward earlier, are not the enemy of the people. I think we deserve that.”
Sanders: I think that the President has made his position known. I also think it’s ironic … that not only you and the media attack the President for his rhetoric when they frequently lower the level of conversation in this country. Repeatedly the media resorts to personal attacks without any content other than to incite anger. The media has attacked me personally on a number of occasions.

So it’s the media that is lowering the level of conversation, not Trump’s infantile insults and boorish hostility? Sanders was merely repeating her dodge with the same laments about how she has been the victim all along. She then rattled off a series of examples of the media being mean. The problem is that none of them were examples of media behavior. She said that ICE officials were not welcome at their churches; that a comedian (Michelle Wolf) made some jokes about her; that she required Secret Service protection. The media didn’t do any of that. But regardless, she blamed the media for those inconveniences and slithered out of answering the question. So Acosta followed up:

Acosta: Sarah, if I may follow up. You did not say in the course of those remarks that you just made that the press is not the enemy of the people. Are we to take it, from what you just said – we all get put through the ringer, we all get put through the meat grinder in this town, and you’re no exception, and I’m sorry that happened to you. I wish that that had not happened. But for the sake of this room, the people who are in this room, this democracy, this country, all the people around the world are watching what you’re saying, Sarah. And the White House of the United States of America, the president of the United States should not refer to us as the enemy of the people. His own daughter acknowledges that and all I’m asking you to do, Sarah is to acknowledge that right now and right here.
Sanders: I appreciate your passion. I share it. I addressed this question. I addressed my personal feelings. I’m here to speak on behalf of the President. He’s made his comments clear.

So there you have it. She brushed off the question again, leaving the world to conclude that she repudiates Ivanka’s statement and remains aligned with Daddy’s Stalinist opposition to the First Amendment of the Constitution. What’s more, she asserts that the prior statements against the press by Trump and company were “clear” and still his policy toward journalists who are just doing their jobs. And it will remain his position until some reporter gets killed by a StormTrumper who thinks he’s carrying out the orders of Dear Leader to eliminate the enemy.

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

https://youtu.be/YBIPlWm87cQ

UPDATE: Trump’ latest tweet on the subject:

So he still thinks a “large percentage” of the media is the enemy. And that includes any media that doesn’t suck up to him (i.e. Fox News). So what’s the difference?

ON TRUST: Donald Trump Polls Way Less than CNN – and Every Other TV News Network

Posted by on July 31, 2018 at 3:17 pm. 1 Comments :

For someone who is obsessed with castigating the news media as “fake” and “enemies,” Donald Trump is sure suffering from an approval deficit by the American people. He tweets furiously at all hour of the day and night about how dishonest the press is, but all of that animus and bile has produced nothing in terms of respect from the public at large.

Donald Trump

A survey conducted for the Brand Keys Research Intelligencer rated the levels of trust for each of the major television news networks. The results placed the BBC at the top of the pile (with 90%) as the most trusted source. Fox News came in second (87%), followed by PBS (86%). It’s important to remember that this survey was conducted by surveying respondents who watched the rated network at least three times a week. So to some extent it was collecting the views of people who were regular viewers. That would explain the Fox number, whose viewers are devoted and worshipful cultists.

The placement of the rest of the broadcast and cable news networks ranged respectably from MSNBC (80%), CBS (72%), NBC (70%), ABC (69%), and CNN (69%). But the most interesting number in this survey was the one for Donald Trump. He managed to pull in a paltry twenty-nine percent who say that he is trustworthy. That’s less than a third of what the BBC did. Even more troubling from his perspective is that it’s less than half of what his arch nemesis CNN did. And when the numbers were broken down by political affiliation, Trump’s base of Republicans still only rated him at a measly thirty-five percent. Even lower, of course, were Independents (22%) and Democrats (14%).

So while Trump has spent the past two years relentlessly attacking the media in the most vicious terms, he has managed to achieve nothing but solid goose eggs in terms of respect or trust from the public. This survey affirms similar polls conducted in the past that found Trump trailing every news enterprise, TV or print, on the question of trust. And by wide margins.

It also affirms the results of a unique study published by The Economist this week that revealed that the media that Trump hates the most (New York Times, Washington Post, etc.) actually became stronger and more popular during the seventeen months since Trump was inaugurated. So despite his efforts to drag down any press operation that wasn’t unflinchingly adoring, he actually had the opposite effect of boosting their profiles with the public. What’s more, his reliance on, and promotion of, Fox News and Breitbart produced sharp downslopes for those flagrantly biased outfits. And if that’s what he means by “winning,” let’s have more of it.

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