Fox News

Donald Trump, Who Has No Time for TV, Thinks It’s ‘So Funny to Watch Fake News Networks’

Posted by on April 2, 2018 at 3:57 pm. 4 Comments :

The most anti-media president in the history of the country is once again attacking the free press. Donald Trump spent Monday morning posting racist tweets filled with lies about immigration and DACA, but that’s another story. In the midst of his tantrum he couldn’t help inserting a tweet reaffirming his aversion to the press and propping up a media enterprise that rivals Fox News for its sycophantic propagandizing.

Donald Trump

The tweet in question was utterly devoid of any factual information. It was wholly an effort to defend Sinclair Broadcasting, a right-wing tool of the administration and the GOP. Sinclair recently distributed a script to its nearly 200 stations nationwide that they forced their anchors to recite. And the folks at Deadspin put together a video collage of the groupthink editorial that went ultra-viral (video below). So of course Trump had to drop whatever he was doing (golfing? tweeting? Watching Fox News? Certainly not working) and come to Sinclair’s defense. He tweeted:

Yeah, it was hysterical. It’s always a laugh riot to see what happens when fascist media outlets order their employees to read Goebbels-inspired, Trump-approved doctrine against their will. Many of the Sinclair anchors were repulsed by the mandatory script, but fearing retribution, could only say so anonymously. One troubled reporter did however make his displeasure known in a tweet:

In case you didn’t notice, that’s a reporter from a local station in Los Angeles that’s owned by Fox News. Let that sink in. A Fox News reporter is disgusted by Sinclair for pushing biased garbage. That’s how low Sinclair has sunk with their latest homage to Dear Leader Trump. It isn’t exactly a tribute to the First Amendment. Or as comedian John Oliver says:

“Nothing says we value independent media like dozens of reporters forced to repeat the same message over and over again like members of a brainwashed cult.”

The President’s tweet may aim to support Sinclair’s journalistic integrity, but it’s actually additional proof that Sinclair is a mouthpiece for the administration. Any reputable news enterprise would find it distinctly uncomfortable to be hailed for their supplication to a political leader. That’s not their job. Real journalists are dedicated to covering government aggressively to root out corruption and self-dealing. Fox News has made a name for itself as the nation’s top Trump-fluffer and, consquently, isn’t taken seriously by their journalistic peers. Sinclair is now attempting to challenge Fox to see who adores the President more.

What’s peculiar about Trump’s tweet (besides everything about it) is that it indicates that he watches a significant amount of what he calls “fake” news. He explicitly says that watching CNN and NBC News is “funny” to him. But he still has time available to watch Sinclair broadcasts which he praises as “superior.” Which raises questions about his remarks earlier this year wherein he insisted that:

“Believe it or not, even when I’m in Washington or New York, I do not watch much television. People that don’t know me, they like to say I watch television — people with fake sources. You know, fake reporters, fake sources. But I don’t get to watch much television. Primarily because of documents. I’m reading documents. A lot.”

That contradicts what White House insiders told The New York Times. They say that Trump spends at least four hours a day watching TV, and sometimes as much as eight hours. The evidence of that is often demonstrated by Trump’s Twitter feed. It is full of instances where he’s tweeting about something that he just watched on Fox and Friends. Plus, he is in frequent communication with Fox News shills like Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro. And that’s not even counting the Fox yakkers who Trump has appointed to White House jobs.

UPDATE: Trump continued his tantrum on Tuesday with another unhinged tweet:

Says the Liar-In-Chief. Honest observers of the media know that the only fake news networks that “knowingly have a sick and biased AGENDA” are Fox News, Sinclair, and their ilk. But it’s typical of Trump to accuse others of what he and his pals are guilty.

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

For your viewing pleasure via Deadspin: How America’s largest local TV owner turned its news anchors into soldiers in Trump’s war on the media.

Hellbound? Donald Trump Blatantly Lies Before Entering His Easter Sunday Church Service

Posted by on April 1, 2018 at 2:20 pm. 3 Comments :

The support that Donald Trump gets from the allegedly Christian faithful has always been peculiar and illustrative of a unique brand of hypocrisy. Trump may be the most flagrantly irreligious person to ever occupy the White House. He insists that he doesn’t have to ask God’s forgiveness because he doesn’t do anything wrong. He can’t cite a single bible verse when asked, and can’t explain the ones that are inserted into his prepared speeches. And his entire agenda goes against everything that the historical Jesus stands for.

Donald Trump Messiah

On this Easter Sunday, Trump, wife Melania, and nearly forgotten daughter Tiffany, attended church near his Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. On the way into this holiest of holidays service, Trump stopped to answer a few question from reporters. Everyone knows by now that the truth is a foreign concept to this president. But outside of church, prior to a celebration of one’s savior rising from the dead, ought to cause one to think twice before lying to the entire nation – again. But not Trump. Replying to a question about DACA (video below) he said that…

“A lot of people are coming in because they want to take advantage of DACA. And we’re gonna have to see. They had a great chance. The Democrats blew it. They had a great, great chance. But we’ll have to take a look.”

Either Trump still has no idea what DACA is or he simply doesn’t care about spewing obvious falsehoods. It’s a given that his supporters won’t catch the lies in that comment, but God probably will. First of all, DACA recipients must have been living in the U.S. continuously since 2007, and had to be sixteen or younger when they entered. No new arrivals would be covered by DACA or any of the immigration bills Republicans in Congress have already rejected.

As for those bills, after originally saying he would sign whatever bipartisan legislation Congress sent him, he reversed himself and refused to back any of the congressional bills. So it wasn’t Democrats who “blew” their chance. They cooperated with their colleagues, but Trump reneged on his promise. And it should not go unnoticed that it was Trump who killed DACA in the first place and he could reinstate it at any time if he wanted to. Earlier in the day Trump tweeted some of the same lies about DACA that he told the reporters at church:

In addition to his misrepresentation of Democrats and DACA, the President referred to a “Catch and Release” law that doesn’t actually exist. If the border patrol isn’t allowed to do its job, it’s because of Trump, to whom they report. And Trump’s choice of Easter as the day to proclaim that the DACA deal is dead confirms his callous insensitivity. Then there’s his curious talk about “caravans” of immigrants pouring into the country, which was totally unsubstantiated. Plus, it was taken verbatim from Fox and Friends forty minutes earlier. And the good Lord knows that Fox News can’t be trusted to tell the truth either. Case in point, they posted this tweet Easter morning:

Let’s set aside that this is hardly a newsworthy scoop that Fox had to rush out to their dimwitted audience. Or that they didn’t post any tweets of Nancy Pelosi or other Democrats wishing everyone a Happy Easter. What’s interesting about this is that the photo is of the Trump Klan on Easter of 2017. Apparently Fox News couldn’t find a picture of the Trumps celebrating the holiday this year (because there isn’t one), so they dredged up an old one to make it look like Trump was joining America in this year’s celebration.

Most of the country is already aware of – and fed up with – the lying from both Trump and Fox News. But if you thought that they might refrain from being so shamelessly dishonest on this of all days, you would be wrong. They have no shame, and they obviously don’t care who knows it.

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

March Maddow-ness: MSNBC Dominates Fox News in the March Ratings Championship Game

Posted by on March 31, 2018 at 3:14 pm. 4 Comments :

Two years ago, Fox News was the unchallenged king of the cable news networks with ratings that sometimes exceeded the combined total of CNN and MSNBC. Last year, Rachel Maddow showed surprising strength against her competition, Sean Hannity. But now it is becoming a regular occurrence that MSNBC beats Fox News over significant parts of the daily schedule.

Rachel Maddow

MSNBC’s ratings success is driven by Maddow’s continued surge. She is no longer a quirky thorn in Fox’s side. She regularly wins her time period in the coveted advertising demographic of 18-34 year olds. In March she beat Hannity every single day of the month except for one. Her average audience for the month was 651,000. That compares to Hannity’s average of 568,000. But even more impressive is that Maddow also bested Hannity in total viewers fourteen out of the twenty-one weekdays in the month. Her average for total viewers was 2.99 million vs. Hannity’s 2.87 million.

MSNBC should also be proud of having better audience numbers in the demo than Fox News for most of the evening hours including primetime. Their average from 4:00pm to midnight was 458,400 vs. Fox’s 455,800. The Last Word with Lawerence O’Donnell won its time period thirteen of the twenty-one weekdays in March. And The 11th Hour with Brian Williams came out on top on nineteen days. Both of those programs scored higher than their competition (Laura Ingraham and Shannon Bream respectively) for the full month. And although Fox News generally did better during most of the daytime time periods, Deadline with Nicolle Wallace managed to beat Fox’s Neil Cavuto on eight days.

A weak point in MSNBC’s schedule is All In with Chris Hayes. Which is too bad because it’s an excellent show that has been recognized with multiple Emmys. However, it needs some juice if it’s going to be a decent leadin for Maddow and the rest of their primetime. They should think about pairing Hayes with Joy Reid as a co-host. Reid’s weekend program has been showing strength and is popular among MSNBC’s core audience. And it wouldn’t hurt to consider swapping Nicolle Wallace into Chris Matthew’s Hardball slot. Wallace has demonstrated her ability to pull in viewers, and Matthews may play better in the earlier, newsier part of the day.

The bottom line is that Fox News can no longer consider itself the number one network for cable news. It has been declining with each new reporting period. In January Fox News dropped fourteen percent in primetime. And February topped that with an additional fifteen percent decline. Meanwhile, MSNBC gained significantly in both of those months. February’s percentage gains were over twenty percent. Even worse for Fox News was their actual earnings performance. Their revenue rose less than either of their competitors – a measly seventeen percent. CNN’s rise doubled that to thirty-two percent. And MSNBC rocketed up sixty-two percent.

We can expect Fox’s earnings to fall even more in April with the advertiser exodus they are experiencing due to Laura Ingraham’s reprehensible attack on David Hogg, one of the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting in Parkland, Florida. So far there are at least eighteen major advertisers who have pulled their business from her show. And in the midst of that she just announced that she will be on “vacation” all of next week. For the record, that’s the same thing Bill O’Reilly did after his advertisers bailed en masse and just before he was canned by Fox.

UPDATE: Forbes affirms the above ratings analysis.

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

THE CALLER: Starring Donald Trump, Roseanne Barr, and Vladimir Putin with Stormy Daniels

Posted by on March 29, 2018 at 7:50 pm. 2 Comments :

This season’s steamiest melodrama has been unleashed on America. It’s a thrilling adventure into the politics and romance of Donald Trump’s White House. Just when you think you’ve heard it all, the President shows that he is always one step ahead of the fake news and the hordes of rampaging foes that hound him around every corner.

Donald Trump

In the latest episode of this bawdy soap opera it is revealed that Trump diverted his attention from supposedly being president to make a phone call to an old friend. The TV matron of the Conner family, Roseanne Barr, was the recipient of this honor due to her surprisingly successful comeback on television. After the premiere of the rebooted “Roseanne” show drew 18.2 million viewers, the President knew that he had to drop everything and get Rosie on the line. Never mind that he won’t call the families of deceased soldiers or victims of natural disasters. Trump knows exactly what his priorities are. This historical event was recounted adoringly by the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends who noted that Trump “likes his big ratings.”

Indeed, Trump does like his ratings BIG. So when he heard about Roseanne, who is a fan of Trump both in her show and in real life, he stopped tweeting and dialed her up. After all, if there is anything Trump is known for, it’s congratulating people whose achievements soar beyond the ordinary. That’s why he called Vladimir Putin last week to congratulate him on his stupendous electoral victory. Never mind that the election was a sham in which his opponents were not permitted to run, or were otherwise threatened with imprisonment or death. And speaking of death, Trump also called Philippines President Duterte recently to congratulate him on his fantastic anti-drug program that features the assassination of suspects in the streets without having to bother with messy annoyances like, you know, trials.

As the story unfolds, the love interest is introduced to steam up the screen. The sultry Stormy Daniels was also on TV this week. “Why,” she wonders, “didn’t Donald call me? My ratings were even bigger than Roseanne’s with 22 million viewers.” Perhaps he was jealous since Stormy’s ratings on 60 Minutes were far higher than Trump’s when he was interviewed in the days following the election. He managed only about 16 million viewers.

Stay tuned as the controversies and scandals continue to heat up. In upcoming episodes sparks will fly between Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks. And Mike Pence will beg “Mother’s” forgiveness for dining with a female senator without permission. And the season will conclude on a fiery note with the confrontation between Trump and his arch-nemesis, special counsel Robert Mueller. This is truly must see TV.

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

Here’s Another Fox News Sleazeball: Is Sexual Misconduct a Job Requirement at Fox?

Posted by on March 29, 2018 at 10:38 am. 6 Comments :

The list of men in powerful positions at Fox News who have engaged in acts of sexual harassment or assault continues to grow. Their legacy of deviants includes their former CEO and founder, the late Roger Ailes, their biggest star, Bill O’Reilly, host Eric Bolling, and Fox Sports President Jamie Horowitz, to name a few. Fox and Freinds co-anchor Ed Henry was suspended for several weeks for having an adulterous affair. And most recently it was discovered that the wife of host Jesse Watters filed for divorce due to his ongoing adulterous affair with a twenty-five year old co-worker

Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth

Now we can add Fox and Friends co-host Pete Hegseth to the list. This case of infidelity was also revealed in divorce papers for the sanctimonious and hypocritical family values advocate and favorite of serial sexual predator Donald Trump. APM Reports found that:

“Hegseth — a telegenic, Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan — is in the process of divorcing his second wife after having an extramarital affair and a child with a producer at Fox News. Hegseth’s second wife filed for divorce roughly a month after the girl was born. […] His first marriage also ended after Hegseth had an affair with a female work colleague.”

The fact that yet another male Fox News employee has been caught behaving badly suggests that there is something about the culture at the conservative propaganda network that encourages it, or at least doesn’t discourage it. The patterns are too consistent to regard it as coincidence.

Hegseth’s past is rife with problems that extend beyond his sexual misadventures. Prior to joining Fox News he was the director of a phony veterans group, Concerned Veterans for America, that was mainly funded by the Koch brothers. That, along with his military background, made him a candidate to replace the now-fired David Shulkin as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Never mind that Hegseth has no experience in managing an organization with a $200 billion budget and 377,000 employees. Note: Trump just announced that his nominee to head the VA is his personal White House physician, Ronny Jackson, who also has none of the management experience required.

The operations Hegseth did head were found to have serious violations of ethics, if not law. At Concerned Veterans for America he hired his brother Philip with a six-figure salary. It was his first job out of college. And the APM Reports investigation also found that:

“In 2012, Hegseth formed MN PAC, an organization aimed at supporting ‘conservative candidates in contested races.’ But an analysis of the organization’s spending — less than $15,000 — shows it spent less than half on behalf of candidates. A third of the PAC’s funds was spent on two Christmas parties and reimbursements to Hegseth.”

Clearly this isn’t a case of a few bad apples. It’s evidence that Fox News is a breeding ground for perverts. They hire and promote men who blatantly demean and abuse women. The environment was described by former Fox News host and victim Andrea Tantaros in her lawsuit as “a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency, and misogyny.” And now Pete Hegseth joins the parade of misogyny that is the distinctive “quality” of working at Fox News and mirrors the depravity of Trump’s White House.

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

Fox News and Bill O’Reilly are Still Sucking – Up to Each Other

Posted by on March 27, 2018 at 8:47 am. 3 Comments :

You have to feel a little sorry for Fox News these days. They are in the impossible position of having to defend a sleazy, ignorant, narcissistic, greedy, racist, corrupt, pathological liar. Their sycophantic propaganda on behalf of Donald Trump must be getting harder and harder to manufacture. The shills that litter their airwaves are becoming more desperate for material with each passing day.

Fox News

So it’s understandable that they’ve turned to their disgraced former star, Bill O’Reilly, to try to shore up their flagging ratings. After all, he was merely found to have committed multiple acts of sexual harassment and assault. And the President has done that repeatedly, so what’s the big deal? If Trump can consider bringing back his domestic abusing former aide, Rob Porter (which is being discussed), then Fox News surely can bring back O’Reilly.

The Daily Beast is reporting that O’Reilly’s “Lies and Legends” is once again airing on the network. NOTE: Despite the title, it is not a documentary based on Trump’s presidency. How a network that was shamed into severing ties with their top rated star can even entertain the notion of putting him back on the payroll is something only a cretinous Fox executive could justify. But almost certainly won’t bother doing.

It’s fitting that on the same day that this news was announced, O’Reilly distinguished himself with his hokey “Tip of the Day” on Twitter. This tip set out to belittle the historic “March For Our Lives” that called on Congress to enact the common sense gun reforms that overwhelming majorities of the American people support. But it also slandered Fox’s competitor, NBC.

First of all, there were several reputable analyses of the march’s attendance in Washington, D.C., that put the numbers between 800,000 and a million. But O’Reilly referenced only a single source that was cited in an article on Fox News (where else?). O’Reilly’s only basis for calling the absurd 200,000 figure the “real” number is his wishful thinking and obvious bias. What makes this even worse is that Fox News also reported the 800,000 figure on the air (see image above). So is O’Reilly advising the few remaining losers who follow him to refrain from trusting Fox News? Nah, that would require the sort of n0-spin analysis that this worm has never been capable of.

The love affair between Fox and O’Reilly is clearly not over yet. But that’s only because neither of them have any other prospects. So both are forced to rely on each other out of desperation. O’Reilly’s public profile has been reduced to near total obscurity. And Fox News has employed so many sexual predators what’s one more brought back from the past? As their messianic Deal Leader would say: SAD.

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

Fox News Turns on Donald Trump for the Worst Imaginable Reason

Posted by on March 24, 2018 at 2:12 pm. 5 Comments :

On Friday Donald Trump invited the press to an announcement that he was signing the spending bill just passed by the Republican controlled Congress. The President spent more time castigating the bill and his GOP comrades in Congress than he did explaining why he was bothering to sign it at all. It was clearly a distasteful burden that he was undertaking with great reluctance. And he isn’t the only one who felt that way.

Fox News Sean Hannity

Trump whined about having to sign a bill that was so chock-full of crap he didn’t like. Or more accurately, that it didn’t contain things that are even crappier. He said that he would never sign another bill like this one, and most Americans probably hope that’s true. Then he complained that Congress won’t give up more of their power by granting him a line-item veto. Of course, our idiot president doesn’t know that the Supreme Court ruled that unconstitutional twenty years ago.

The spectacle of Trump lambasting a bill as he was signing it is actually a rather good depiction of his pitiful proclivity for failure. Not only was he incapable of making the sort of deals that he constantly boasts would be so easy, he was admitting that Democrats beat him at every stage of this bill’s passage. If this is “winning” in his mind, let’s see more of it.

In addition to being bitterly unsatisfied with the bill, Trump also has to endure the scorn of his biggest fans – Fox News. There was a starkly atypical response by many of those who he usually relies on for blind, slobbering support. The entire primetime roster (and more) is angry that Trump signed this bill, and they said so on the air:

Sean Hannity: I personally wish the president vetoed this bill, made them stay in Washington. Make them keep their promises. What happened to the Republican party. Whatever happened to the party that believed in fiscal responsibility?

Tucker Carlson: We’re told we need this bill because of national security. But how secure is a nation that has no borders? Well about as secure as a political party that has no rationale for existing.

Laura Ingraham: It pains me to say this, but the president did have a choice. He could have called Congress back to town and make them pass a continuing resolution until his priorities were funded and we explain this mess to the American people.

Jesse Watters: This was a huge defeat for the President on a signature issue. It’s really, really bad. There’s no way to spin it.

Pete Hegseth: This is a swamp budget. A Mitch McConnell special. Democrats control the process. If Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are happy, the American people shouldn’t be.

[Late Addition] Jeanine Pirro: The omnibus bill that Republicans gave President Trump yesterday is a total betrayal of him and those who elected him.

The opposition to Trump’s approval of the spending bill was nearly unanimous among the Fox News regulars. But what makes this even more ridiculous is that they didn’t oppose the bill for what many would think were the obvious right-wing reasons. They didn’t complain about the 1.3 trillion dollar price tag. Or the expansion of the federal debt. Or the funding for Planned Parenthood. Or the additional sanctions on Russia. Or the many other budgetary increases for government agencies that Trump and Republicans have long promised to shut down.

Nope. What the Fox News critics are upset with is that Trump didn’t veto the bill due to its lack of funding for the border wall. They are actually livid that Trump didn’t keep his campaign promise to construct a ridiculous wall that would accomplish nothing. They would prefer that he had shut the government down until congress allocated funds for his precious wall. A wall that is opposed by the majority of Americans.

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

It’s actually pretty funny that the most fervent Trump-fluffers are hammering him over this stupidity. And you can bet that he is worried about it. He wouldn’t care if some experts in finance or economics were critical of his signing this bill. But if Fox and Friends and his pal Sean Hannity are slamming him for it, he’s gonna lose some sleep at Mar-A-Lago this weekend. And when he gets back to Washington it is a certainty that he will make some horrible decisions in an effort to regain their adulation. That is if he doesn’t have a stroke after watching Stormy Daniels on 60 Minutes.

Fox News Covers the March For Our Lives By Fixating on the One Parkland Student Who Supports the NRA

Posted by on March 24, 2018 at 12:50 pm. 3 Comments :

On Saturday there was a historical, nationwide demonstration in support of gun reforms and protecting the lives of America’s children – and adults too, for that matter. The demonstrators represented a broad swath of the American public, including Democrats, Republicans, young, old, NRA opponents and members. Millions of marchers turned out for this protest in 800+ cities, with more than half a million in Washington, D.C. alone.

Fox News

It is inspiring to see the passion and determination of the young people who are the catalyst for this movement. Many of them are students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the site of a shooting that took the lives of seventeen students and adults. Their efforts are having a bigger impact than most of the previous attempts to force our ineffectual congress to act on behalf of the majority of their constituents rather than the National Rifle Association and their campaign bribes.

But leave it to Fox News to deliberately distort the public discourse on these critical issues. While most other news networks are reporting continuously and live from demonstrations around the nation, Fox News “reporters” are remaining in their studios and delivering infrequent updates and interviewing opponents of those marching.

One of those opponents is Kyle Kashuv, a Stoneman Douglas student who supports the position of the NRA. That’s fine, and it’s his right to have and express his opinion. But Fox News is plastering their airwaves with this kid who represents a tiny minority of his peers – and the nation. Apparently Fox News couldn’t find any other kids who share his opinion, so they’ve been inviting him on repeatedly and hyping his appearances without interviewing anyone whose views are more consistent with the majority. For instance:

It can hardly be called “fair and balanced” to promote the views of a single individual whose views are decidedly outside of the mainstream. Yet Kashuv has been featured on just about every Fox News program throughout the day. That includes Donald Trump’s favorite show, Fox and Friends, where Kashuv and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes whined about his not being included on a recent Time Magazine cover (video below). NOTE: There were only five students on that cover so many others, including prominent movement leaders, were not in that photo. That fact notwithstanding, Fox’s Steve Doocy had the answer for why Kashuv was allegedly snubbed:

Doocy: I know why you weren’t included. I think, and according to what I’ve read, you support the Second Amendment. And the people who were featured on the cover have a different political point of view.
Kashuv: Well it’s clear that the people on the cover are pushing for gun reform. And they’re pushing for they don’t want to see weapons of war on the streets, like the AR-15. I mean, on the march itself, the march’s website, they listed how they want to ban AR-15s and I don’t agree with that.

First of all, the advocates for gun reform are not against the Second Amendment. They want the sort of common sense regulations that apply to other items in the Bill of Rights. Secondly, Kashuv reveals his own absurd position by saying that he doesn’t agree with those who want weapons of war off the streets. So he wants them on the streets?

They went on to discuss the role of the NRA in this debate. Kashuv was adamant that people who were pointing their fingers at the NRA were not helping to solve the problem. But he concluded by saying that:

“We can have all the legislation we want, but if the legislation isn’t actually being enacted or going through or doing what we should be doing, then what’s the point of legislation.”

Fox’s Pete Hegseth complimented Kashuv on making “a great point” and, in fact, he did. But what neither of them seem to grasp is that the reason legislation isn’t going through is because of the hold that the NRA has on weak, mostly Republican, politicians. You cannot have this debate without observing the toxic interference of the NRA.

This is how Fox News is filling its schedule on the day of the March For Our Lives. For them to hype a conservative opinion, to the exclusion of all other opinions, is not surprising. That’s what they do. But in this case they couldn’t even find a second source for the propaganda they want to disseminate. So they book the one source they have to the point of sheer tedium. What’s more, many of Fox’s pundits and hosts have spent the past several weeks demeaning the opinions of the kids who have been speaking out about gun violence. However, when they found one kid who has their bias, he is treated like a prophet and given an inordinate amount of airtime. It’s the same sort of hypocrisy that Fox News uses when they disparage celebrities who express themselves – except when its right-wing celebrities.

Expect to see more of Kashuv on Fox News in the coming days and weeks. And if their exploitation of this young man is carried to its logical conclusion, then expect to see him hosting his own Fox show or maybe becoming Trump’s next ATF director or even Attorney General.

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

Trump’s Brand New, Fox News Lawyer May Already Have Lost His White House Job

Posted by on March 23, 2018 at 12:41 pm. 1 Comments :

The “stable genius” in the White House is becoming less stable with each passing day. And contrary to Donald Trump’s denials that there is chaos within his administration, the rampant pandemonium is impossible to ignore. This week alone he has turned over several key positions and announced new hires that are amongst the least qualified stooges populating his staff. And that’s saying something.

Donald Trump

One of those hires, Joseph DiGenova, was just announced this week as the newest member of Trump’s legal team. He is replacing John Dowd who reportedly resigned after numerous differences of opinion with Trump over legal strategy. Dowd is said to be opposed to Trump agreeing to an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump apparently thinks he’s smart enough to scam his way through. Let’s all encourage that notion.

The acquisition of DiGenova, however, is more of a media strategy than a legal one. Trump wants someone he can dispatch to the press after he does something stupid like fire Mueller (or any of a thousand other stupid things he’s prone to doing). DiGenova fits the bill for that role given his long experience as a Fox News talking heel. There’s just one problem with this new direction, as reported by CNN:

Veteran Washington attorney Joseph diGenova’s role as part of President Donald Trump’s legal team is still in question, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

DiGenova’s hiring was announced on Monday by Jay Sekulow, counsel to the President. DiGenova, along with his wife and law partner, Victoria Toensing, had a Thursday meeting with the President, the sources said. Even so, diGenova’s role, as well as that of Toensing who is also in discussions about joining the team, are in flux. One source said no one has been officially hired.

The Thursday meeting was the first time the husband-and-wife legal team met with the President since the Monday announcement. One source said that while Trump liked their message, the President is not convinced they are right for the legal jobs.

Among the problems cited with DiGenova’s hiring is that his law firm, which includes his wife and fellow Fox News contributor, Victoria Toensing, has some significant conflicts of interest. They are already representing a couple of characters in the Trump/Russia probe who have been interviewed as witnesses by the special counsel. It would be difficult for DiGenova to represent both the President and his former associates who are testifying in the Mueller inquiry. So Joe may be gone before he even starts.

If this isn’t an example of chaos in the Trump camp, then what is? He is acting out so impulsively that he and his advisors can’t even spot the most obvious road blocks to their reckless plans. He is in a state of sheer panic and has no idea which way to turn. As a result he makes idiotic decisions that only make his precarious position worse.

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

We’ll have to wait and see what happens to DiGenova and whether or not he is voted off of Trump island. And then, of course, there will be the problem of who will be selected to fill the role DiGenova bombed out of. There are still a bunch of wingnut, Trump-fluffing, Fox News “lawyers” up for grabs. Alan Dershowitz, “Judge” Jeanine Pirro, Gregg Jarrett, and Kimberly Guilfoyle are all prospects that Trump might consider. And none of them would actually serve the purpose of advancing his legal interests. But they sure could get booked on Fox News to spread his lies and propaganda.

UPDATE: It’s official, DiGenova is off the Trump train.

CNN President Blisters State-Run TV (aka Fox News) as ‘a Pure Propaganda Machine’

Posted by on March 22, 2018 at 6:51 pm. 3 Comments :

Two decades ago a conservative media mogul (Rupert Murdoch) and a right-ring political operative (Roger Ailes) colluded to form America’s first overtly partisan news network devoted to advancing a regressive agenda that favored corporations and the wealthy. And ever since Fox News has faithfully served it’s masters, all the while pretending to be “fair and balanced” journalists.

Donald Trump Fox News

For most of that time the rest of the media sheepishly approached Fox News as just another competitor. They rarely spoke honestly about how Fox was deliberately staining the one profession explicitly cited in the Constitution. Consequently, Fox got away with a lot of brazenly biased propaganda and managed to corral America’s Deplorables into a media pen where they felt safe and secure.

So it was rather surprising to hear CNN president Jeff Zucker’s criticism of Fox at the Financial Times’ “Future of News” conference on Thursday. He nailed Fox News in a way that few media executives have in the past twenty years. While nothing he said would be a revelation to anyone who has watched the network for more than two minutes, coming from a corporate media honcho it is borderline breathtaking. Here’s a quick summary of the highlights as reported by The Hollywood Reporter:

    Zucker said that…

  • Fox News “is really state-run TV. It is a pure propaganda machine, and I think does incredible disservice to this country.”
  • “The idea that it’s a news channel, I think, is really not the case at all.”
  • Fox News “has nothing on” the Russian government-run TASS Russian News Agency.
  • “I think they are lost in what is a complete propaganda machine.”

In addition, THR reports Zucker saying that “Fox News has changed substantially in the last two years, following the departure of late founder Roger Ailes. He described the change at the network as ‘shocking.'” However the only thing that might have changed is that in the post-Ailes era the executives at Fox were much less skilled at spewing rightist bullshit. Their deceitful machinations are more visible and sleazy. That may be what drove long-time Fox contributor Ralph Peters to quit the network that he now says he is “ashamed” to be associated with. According to THR Fox News was invited to participate in the event but declined.

Fox News continues to be the mouthpiece of the Republican Party and Donald Trump’s most dedicated defender. It serves as the personnel recruiting pool for the Trump administration. Among those tapped by Trump for White House posts were Heather Nauert, K.T. McFarland, Ben Carson, Sebastian Gorka, Richard Grennell, and Jonathan Wachtel. And just today Trump announced that Fox’s John Bolton will replace H.R. McMaster as his National Security Advisor. And even his legal team is now being stuffed with Fox News personalities, including Joseph DiGenova and, maybe his wife, Victoria Toensing.

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

CNN is not without its share of journalistic failures. They were among the news outlets that plastered the airwaves with Trump’s thoroughly un-newsworthy rallies (rants) during the campaign. And they still host Trump-fluffing flacks who are only there to further disseminate Trump’s lies. However, there has never been a presidential administration that was so rife with media shills from a single source. The only people that Trump recognizes are those he’s seen on TV. And the only TV he watches is Fox News. So after a year in office he still behaves like an intellectually shallow reality TV game show host, rather than the president that our nation needs. Hopefully he will be voted off this island soon by Robert Mueller’s team of Survivors.