Fox News

Good News for Trump: Sexual Predator Bill O’Reilly is Defending Him on ‘The Women Issue’

Posted by on March 12, 2018 at 12:34 pm. NO Comments :

The bad news about Donald Trump’s reprehensible conduct with women continues to escalate with new revelations every day. It’s not bad enough that he has at least sixteen women making credible allegations of sexual harassment and abuse against him. Nor have his own admissions of getting away with sexually assaulting women because he’s a celebrity tipped the scales against him in the minds of his glassy-eyed disciples. Now the scandal over his affair with porn star Stormy Daniels is heating up, while he tries to censor “60 Minutes” and she’s offering to return his $130,000 and rescind the questionable contract to silence her.

Bill O'Reilly Donald Trump

In this time of dire need, Trump might be consoled by having one of his long-time pals riding to his rescue. Bill O’Reilly has taken up the cause to shield Trump from the onslaught of persecution he’s been suffering at the hands of critics in the media. O’Reilly recognizes that Trump has been the real victim in all of this and he isn’t going to stand by and allow his buddy to be bullied by the press. O’Reilly’s defense comes in the form of tweets linked to articles on his almost totally ignored website:

So O’Reilly chose to begin by demonizing the women of America who are speaking out against mistreatment by repulsive men in politics and business. He thinks he’s smart to characterize women (and men) protesting abuse and advocating for equal opportunity as “radical and hateful.” That should play well on Main Street, USA. And then there’s this:

The prescient gifts that O’Reilly is bragging about are really just expressions of his own anger. He’s still mad that he was driven from his comfortable perch at Fox News by media reports of his heinous behavior. Both he and Fox paid out millions of dollars to cover up his deviancy. And both he and Trump have been the subjects of accusations by a variety of women. But is he really really sure he wants to remind everyone about that? Or this:

That’s just weird. Does O’Reilly think that Trump only recently became aware that his past is fair game for public discourse? And does he think that “the women issue” is just a cudgel with which to beat up on poor, innocent, men who like to grab women by the pussy? But the weirdest part is that O’Reilly seems to be suggesting that Trump will now have to start attacking the media. Where the heck has O’Reilly been for the past two years? Trump has been on a mission to destroy the free press in America and beyond. Even to the point of referring to the media in Stalinist rhetoric as “the enemy of the people.”

Probably the last thing that Donald Trump needs now is Bill O’Reilly’s help. O’Reilly is just another pervert in the Trump mold who has been banished to the deserted wilds of blogland as a result of his own acts of abuse and harassment. So it’s not especially surprising that O’Reilly would adopt this particular defense strategy. He’s really just relitigating his own crimes and using Trump as a surrogate. But both of them have earned condemnation and deserve to be ostracized and exiled from decent society.

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

Another Fox News Sleazeball Has Been Caught in a Sex Scandal with a 25 Year Old Co-Worker

Posted by on March 11, 2018 at 3:40 pm. 2 Comments :

If you thought Watters World was a documentary about Donald Trump’s adventures with hookers in a Moscow hotel, you’re mistaken, but understandably so. In fact, it’s a program on Fox News featuring Jesse Watters, who is also a co-host of the daily afternoon program The Five. Watters is best known for being a smug, smartass who did ambush interviews for Bill O’Reilly and allegedly humorous segments that were overtly racist.


Now the New York Daily News is reporting that Watters’ wife has filed for divorce due to his ongoing adulterous affair with a twenty-five year old co-worker, Emma DiGiovine. Watters has admitted his infidelity which he only reported to Fox News human resources after the divorce papers were filed. He and his now-estranged wife have twin six year old daughters.

Most companies have strict prohibitions against employees engaging in romantic relationships with subordinates on their staff. Generally it mandates termination of the superior employee who is in a position to abuse their power. Presumably, Fox News has the same policy. However, the response by Fox upon discovery of the relationship was to transfer DiGiovine to another program and let Watters off the hook entirely. Now he can continue leading classy discussions wherein he describes single women as “Beyoncé voters” who “depend on government because they’re not depending on their husbands. They need things like contraception, health care and they love to talk about equal pay.”

This is just the latest sex scandal at Fox News. Previously their founder and CEO, the late Roger Ailes was fired after multiple allegations of sexual harassment and abuse. Then their star host, Bill O’Reilly, got the ax when it became publicly known that he had paid millions of dollars in settlements to silence his accusers. Gee, Donald Trump only paid $130,000 (that we know of). Fox and Friends anchor Ed Henry was suspended for several weeks for having an adulterous affair. Fox business host Charles Payne was also the subject of harassment charges. And Watters got his seat on The Five by replacing Eric Bolling, who was fired for sending explicit photos to women colleagues at Fox.

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

This obviously isn’t a case of a few bad apples. Fox News is a breeding ground for perverts. It’s a haven for men who exploit their power to demean and control women. Or as former Fox News host and victim Andrea Tantaros said in her lawsuit, “it operates like a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency, and misogyny.” And now Jesse Watters has become the latest face of the reprehensible pattern of misogynistic behavior that is nurtured by Fox and its management. But he certainly won’t be the last.

Trump’s Lawyer Tries to Deflect Crimes with Desperate and Obviously False Attacks on the Media

Posted by on March 10, 2018 at 2:21 pm. 4 Comments :

The Stormy Daniels affair is turning into one of the most persistent scandals of Donald Trump’s presidency. And given the sheer volume of scandals, that’s really saying something. It doesn’t help that this incident involves Trump’s own personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who arranged the $130,000 in hush money to keep Trump’s infidelity out of the news. Cohen is a long-time Trump toady who can always be relied on to prop up his pal, no matter how repulsive his behavior.

Michael Cohen

Having made himself the subject of the Stormy affair by asserting that he paid her from his own funds, Cohen is now as much an accomplice as he is an attorney. And his story that he ponied up the cash out of the kindness of his heart is falling apart. Consequently, he is adopting the tactics of his boss in order to deflect attention from his own potential criminal liability. On Saturday morning he tweeted this:

Cohen has somehow gotten the impression that the media is obsessed with his email account. In fact, they are just being responsible journalists by reporting that his contacts with Stormy were made using his Trump Organization email address. That’s relevant due to his prior insistence that the arrangements he made with Stormy had nothing to do with Trump and Trump knew nothing about them. By the way, that would be a violation of the New York Bar Association’s standards of conduct. An attorney may not take actions on behalf of a client without full disclosure and permission.

Having no other defense, Cohen is resorting to attacking the media on a completely different topic. And, much like Trump, his attack is rooted in deliberate falsification of reality. Cohen saying that he didn’t see reporting about the jobs numbers anywhere except for Fox News is really just a confession that he doesn’t watch anything but Fox News. Every other major news organization reported these numbers, as they do every time they are released. Just a few obvious examples:

So Cohen didn’t see or hear any of this? Is he blind and deaf? Or is he just a lying, propaganda sewer who parrots the anti-media bullshit of Donald Trump? If nothing else, he’s exposing his fear about the legal walls that are closing in around him. This painfully desperate tweet is evidence of his knowledge that he and his favorite client are going down fast. And there’s nothing he an do about it.

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

Scaramucci Tells Fox News that Rachel Maddow Needs an Anti-Anxiety Suppository

Posted by on March 9, 2018 at 1:49 pm. 2 Comments :

Well, here’s something you don’t see everyday (unless you’re watching Fox News). Donald Trump’s former communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, was a guest on Friday’s episode of Fox and Friends. This is the guy who lost his White House job a mere ten days after he was hired because of a profanity-laden meltdown attacking fellow Trump staffers. He’s a hot-head in the mold of Trump who continues to serve as a loyal surrogate.

Fox News Scaramucci

During his interview by the “Curvy Couch” potatoes (video below), the Mooch leveled another of his patented gross-outs, this time aimed at MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (who is slaughtering Fox News and Sean Hannity). It was wholly inappropriate personal insult that was devoid of substance. In other words, it was pretty much the same bullshit non-reasoning that all of the cretins on Fox News resort to. About Maddow he said that…

“You can tell she’s got a little bit of that Trump Derangement Syndrome, which I like. I’m hoping that one of these comedians will come up with anti-anxiety medication for liberals. Just take one tablet a day, maybe a suppository, and take it easy. […] The President is doing the right thing for the American people, but he’s also doing the right thing for the world.”

To be clear, Scaramucci is criticizing Maddow as being “deranged” and having an anxiety problem. The same guy who told the New Yorker that Reince Priebus is a “fucking paranoid schizophrenic,” and that Steve Bannon engages in self-fellatio, and that he wants to “fucking kill all the leakers” in the White House. That’s the guy who thinks that Maddow and other liberals should “take it easy?” Yeah, whatever. [Note: Scaramucci later tweeted an apology].

The topic of the segment was Trump’s announcement that he accepted Kim Jong Un’s invitation to meet and discuss a resolution to their juvenile slap-fight on Twitter. The Fox News crew was aghast that Maddow would have anything critical to say about that. They played a clip from her show wherein she wondered…

“Why has no sitting American president ever met with a leader of North Korea? Why has that never happened in all the decades North Korea existed as a nation? Shouldn’t I take this to mean that this might be a particularly risky, or even an unwise move?”

Those are perfectly reasonable questions. What’s more, Trump’s impulsive agreement to meet with Kim demonstrates a dangerous incompetence with regard to what Trump considers his greatest asset: dealmaking. A meeting with the President of the United States is an asset that a smart negotiator would reserve until other concessions were made by the opposing party. Trump gave it up at the very beginning. He got nothing for it, or for the legitimacy it grants to Kim. He could have at least asked that the Americans currently being held in North Korea be released as a prerequisite to a meeting.

Fox News is predictably hailing Trump’s concession to meet Kim as a historic achievement. Never mind that the meeting hasn’t taken place and there are no guarantees that anything productive will result from them. In fact, there’s a fair chance that a summit between The Dotard and Little Rocket Man might make everything worse. They are two unstable, narcissistic individuals with little respect for one another. If their common stubbornness results in a fruitless affair, it might even make military conflict more likely as the prospects for diplomacy fade.

Time will tell if Trump can attend this meeting (if it even comes to pass) without screwing up. In his meetings with Congress he has proved that his word is virtually worthless and neither Democrats nor Republicans can rely on him to follow through. In the meantime, we fan expect philistines like Scaramucci to keep showing up on Fox News slinging insults and ignorance at their dimwitted audience. And maybe the world will survive a little bit longer.

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

Trump Hypes Fox News Ratings While Ignoring the Success of Rachel Maddow and MSNBC

Posted by on March 6, 2018 at 11:58 am. NO Comments :

There is something deeply disturbing about a president who obsesses about television ratings. Especially when it’s focused so narrowly on one particular network that serves as his biggest media booster. Donald Trump has spent more time on Twitter fawning over Fox News than almost any other single subject. He frequently tweets or retweets things he just watched on Fox and Friends or Hannity as if they were his closest advisors.

Rachel Maddow

On Tuesday morning Trump retweeted a post by his son Eric that celebrated Fox’s ratings performance in February. Why on Earth was this so important to someone who is currently burdened with a nuclear standoff with North Korea, Russian interference in American elections, a trade war that he instigated, children being massacred in schools, undocumented residents who have spent nearly their whole lives in the U.S. facing deportation, and so many other serious matters? It’s almost as if his only experience for running the country came from being a TV personality.

Okay, so Fox had a pretty good month. They lost January, so it must be a relief to them – and to Trump. However, their February win wasn’t exactly a runaway. While Trump slams his arch-enemy CNN in this tweet, he neglects to mention MSNBC and Rachel Maddow. As News Corpse reported last week, Maddow had another impressive month, falling just short of beating Sean Hannity again in the key demographic of 25-54 year olds. And although her average audience was shy of an outright victory, she did win more days during the month than Hannity did.

What’s more, in January Fox News dropped fourteen percent in primetime. Now February has topped that with an additional fifteen percent decline. Meanwhile, MSNBC gained significantly in both months of this new year. February’s percentage gains were over twenty percent. Funny, Trump never mentioned any of that. But he did tweet about the ratings for the Oscar telecast on Sunday. And for some reason he took delight in the numbers having declined. Apparently our President is happy when the film industry, a major national employer and contributor to America’s domestic and export economy, is doing poorly.

Trump’s tweets on behalf of Fox News are more evidence that the network is a wholly owned and operated division of the Trump administration. Or is it the other way around? Or are both Trump and Fox News divisions of Russia’s Putin Enterprises Worldwide. All three scenarios are way too plausible. But most Americans would agree that the President has more important things to do than analyzing TV ratings and promoting programs that unfailingly exalt their Dear Leader. Jake Tapper of CNN had a pithy commentary himself on Twitter saying…

And conversely, if you’re a news organization and the folks in power are constantly maligning you, you’re doing it right. By definition. There’s a reason that Trump is relentlessly attacking CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc. He’s afraid because actual journalists are revealing his criminal activities and those of his associates. His only recourse is a campaign of smear tactics. But that is only making him look even more guilty. So keep it up, Donnie. And remember, no matter how bad the ratings are for CNN, yours are still worse.

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

This Fox News Trump-Fluffer is Right: ‘The American People Are Sick and Tired’ of Russia Probe

Posted by on March 5, 2018 at 1:47 pm. 1 Comments :

Longtime Donald Trump sycophant and Citizens United honcho, David Bossie, visited State-Run TV (aka Fox News) on Monday to further disseminate the absurdity that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation “doesn’t seem like it is going anywhere near the White House.” That’s an obvious falsehood that is easily refuted by widely available facts.

Donald Trump

Everyone knows that there have already been nineteen indictments and five guilty pleas. Among the guilty are Trump’s National Security Advisor, and his assistant campaign manage. It’s hard to get much closer to the White House than that. And yet it does. Breaking news on Monday morning reveals that Mueller’s team has issued subpoenas for numerous documents and communications with Trump insiders including Corey Lewandowski, Hope Hicks, Keith Schiller, and his personal attorney Michael Cohen.

Which may explain why the Trump surrogate army has been deployed to flood the airwaves with deceitful propaganda. Bossie is taking the lead with an interview on the Fox News program Outnumbered OT (video below). and his dishonesty and obfuscation is so apparent it must be humiliating. He said that…

“The American people are sick and tired of this two year investigation. We are getting into this scandal fatigue area where the American people are tired of it. They see the shifting around and they don’t see any evidence whatsoever that this president or the campaign did anything wrong, let alone collude with the Russians.”

First of all, Bossie is brazenly lying about the duration of the investigation. Mueller was appointed to his position in May of 2017, so it hasn’t even been in progress for one year yet. However, Bossie did inadvertently stumble over a truth with regard to the American people’s fatigue. They are surely tired of how long this scandal is being drawn out and would appreciate a swift conclusion. However, it isn’t because they think Trump and Russia are innocent, as Bossie implies. To the contrary, The American people overwhelming believe that that the investigation is warranted and that Trump is likely guilty of something. A new CNN poll found that sixty-one percent of Americans say the Russia investigation is a serious matter. Seventy-two percent are very/somewhat concerned about foreign interference in U.S. elections.

No matter how many times people like Bossie or Sean Hannity or Sarah Huckabee Sanders say there is no evidence of collusion or other wrongdoing, they cannot make it true. The known evidence is piling up, and the evidence that is known only to Mueller and his team is surely far more damning than what has been made public. And the same is true with regard to the false right-wing assertions that the people don’t care about this issue. Trump’s defenders are only exposing their desperation by distorting reality to fit their yearning for all of this to be over. And Trump himself is dong the same thing on Twitter:

Trump’s anxiety could not be more apparent. It shows who is really “sick and tired.” He’s scared and likely knows that he is in deep trouble. This tweet displays a serious cognitive collapse. He is simultaneously saying that there was no Russian election meddling, and also that President Obama did nothing about the Russian election meddling that didn’t happen. Never mind that every U.S. intelligence agency with jurisdiction has stated unequivocally that there was Russian meddling. What’s more, Obama punished Russia with sanctions and ejections of Russian operatives. He also tried to put together a bipartisan response, but Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell refused to cooperate.

The tantrums thrown by Trump and his surrogates like Bossie aren’t helping their cause. They are only making them appear guilty and frantic as they scramble for cover. And the American people see right through this pathetic charade. It’s only a matter of time before Mueller’s investigation is complete and the truth revealed. And that’s when the American people’s fatigue will be relieved. But it will be just the beginning for Trump et al.

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

Devin Nunes To Fox News: Stephen Colbert is ‘The Danger That We Have in This Country’

Posted by on March 4, 2018 at 1:07 pm. 1 Comments :

The first year of Donald Trump’s presidency has seen innumerable crises develop domestically and throughout the world. There have been several shootings on school campuses. Our elections have been tampered with by Russia, and they’re still doing it. Trump is threatening nuclear war with North Korea. And his proposal to impose tariffs (mostly on our allies) sent the stock market into a tailspin.

Stephen Colbert & Trump Baby

So what does Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Select Intelligence Committee, consider to be one of the most serious hazards facing America? Well, of course, it’s late night television comedy, and specifically Stephen Colbert. Nunes was interviewed on Fox News by their resident Financial Distortion Anchor, Neil Cavuto (video below). The segment had nothing to do with the economy, but it did get to the bottom of the frightening assault on America by radical satirists. It began withe this probing exchange:

Cavuto: You mention that the media doesn’t present a fair case of [Trump/Russia]. Maybe the indication of that is that you’ve recently become the butt of late night comic jokes. Particularly Stephen Colbert was up on Capitol Hill. I think making you the butt of some jokes. What did you think of that? Did Colbert make any effort to talk to you?”
Nunes: Well, I think that this is the danger that we have in this country. The left controls not only the universities in this country, but they also control Hollywood in this country, and the mainstream media. So conservatives in this country are under attack and I think this is a great example of it.

Exactly. Stephen Colbert absolutely is “the danger” that America faces. And kudos to Cavuto for bringing up this looming peril. Where else but on Fox News could this travesty be exposed? Nunes points out that the reason the nation is undergoing such unprecedented turmoil is that leftists have seized control of the most powerful institutions in the country – universities and Hollywood – and are using them to enslave the minds of decent citizens. However, he doesn’t explain why these scurrilous lefties allowed Republicans to control the Congress, the Supreme Court, and the White House.

Also unexplained is how the special counsel, Robert Mueller, managed to get (so far) nineteen indictments and five guilty pleas connected to his investigation of Trump’s unsavory connections to Russia. But rest assured, somehow it’s the fault of universities, Hollywood, and Colbert. And Nunes isn’t taking it laying down. He doesn’t intend to be the butt of anyone’s joke, no matter how much he deserves it. In fact, he likes it:

Nunes: So I hope they continue to do it. Because on the one hand you’ll see the left and the media running out there saying “OMG, this is the end of the world. The Russians attacked our democracy. And we have evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.” However, they can’t show it. They have no proof […] they resort to going to their friends in Hollywood to make fun of people and attack people who are trying to get to the truth. I enjoy the attacks. If they want to continue to attack me, that’s fine.”

Well, we certainly wouldn’t want to disappoint him, would we? Although it’s puzzling that he says he enjoys it while simultaneously complaining that it’s an unfair attack and a danger to the country. Is he an unpatriotic masochist?

Nunes’ remarks were rife with allegations as to the identity of the real colluders – naturally, Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. And when Cavuto asked him about allegations that he was “doing the President’s bidding,” he curiously replied “I don’t know.” Then quickly stammering to add “I mean, we don’t get any orders from the White House.” Which makes perfect sense. They are probably coming from Mar-A-Lago, where the President spends most of his time.

Nunes went on to praise his committee’s work and insisted that he “follows the facts where they lead.” So long as they lead to Clinton and the Democrats. He refused to allow his Democratic committee colleagues to call witnesses. And he wouldn’t hold White House witnesses accountable when they refused to answer questions. Nunes falsely claimed that “no one would know … that Fusion GPS was paid by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party’ but for his efforts. In fact, it was reported by the (fake?) media long before he ever got around to it.

Once again, Fox News uncovers the atrocities in Washington that are neglected by the “mainstream” media (which, for some reason doesn’t include Fox News). And heroes like Devin Nunes are permitted time to inform the American people about what is really going on in this gawd-awful country. With journalism like this we will hopefully soon be rid of fake reporters like Colbert who are working tirelessly to destroy America.

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

Here is the Fox News segment with Cavuto and Nunes:

And here is video of Colbert’s trip to Washington, D.C.:

Could Trump’s Persistent Attacks Drive Jeff Sessions Right Into Robert Mueller’s Arms?

Posted by on March 3, 2018 at 12:52 pm. 2 Comments :

Let’s be clear from the outset, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a repugnant, racist individual who should never have a role in public service. He rose from the Klan-infested South where he fit right in with the bigots of Alabama. He was rejected by the Senate for a federal judgeship due to reports of his prejudice and use of the “N” word. He was the first senator to endorse Donald Trump for president. During the campaign he he met twice with Russians and lied about it to congress. It’s a resume that ought to disqualify him from any position of respect or power.

Donald Trump Jeff Sessions

That said, Sessions is in a unique position. In one of his first appointments, Trump made him the Attorney General of the United States. But ever since then the President has lambasted him in an embarrassingly public way. The insults have flown from Twitter, as well as deliberate leaks from within the White House’s inner circle. Most recently Trump has been referring to Sessions as the blind and bumbling cartoon character, Mr. Magoo. But that’s just the latest humiliation that Sessions has had to suffer. Some of Trump’s attacks on Twitter include:

In addition to these, Trump’s state-run TV division (aka Fox News) has predictably adopted his animosity toward Sessions and piled on with fierce denunciations. Anchors like Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs have called for the Attorney General to resign or be fired. They regard his recusal from the special counsel’s investigation as treason. Consequently, Fox News and right-wing Republicans are demanding that Sessions appoint a second special counsel to look into bogus claims of FISA abuses and FBI violations of law.

There has to be a point at which a normal human being will cease to take such constant and demeaning abuse. The question is whether Sessions has reached that point already.

It’s notable that, despite Trump’s persecution, Sessions has failed to bend to his will, at least with regard to Robert Mueller. In fact, Sessions has taken several opportunities to support Mueller and the Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein. The pressure from the White House and the pro-Trump media has been intense, but Sessions has not been moved. To the contrary, it was just announced that the FBI has begun an investigation into Ivanka Trump’s business deals.

The legal action against the President’s daughter cannot be dismissed as routine. Particularly from an administration that has been so criminally partisan. Along with Sessions’ firm support for the special counsel and refusal to resign under pressure, there is reason to believe that he may have some form revenge in mind. He has been in politics a long time and may be tougher than he looks.

If Sessions retains any semblance of humanity he may be building up some resentment and smoldering rage. He might want to show Trump that he won’t tolerate such abuse. And if that’s true it would be disastrous for Trump. Sessions has the whole weight of the Justice Department to throw around. That includes the FBI and some oversight (handled discreetly) of the special counsel. He could even switch sides and start spilling what he knows about Trump to Mueller’s team. And with all of the potential legal vulnerabilities hovering over Trump’s head there’s plenty of fuel to burn the Trump Crime Family to a crisp. In other words, Trump better watch his step or he’ll piss off the one person in his administration that can do him the most harm.

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

To be sure, there is a lot speculation in this theory. Sessions’ reprehensible past and demonstrated loyalty might make him reluctant to move against his boss. But his ego and aspirations for a halfway decent legacy might take precedence. Especially if he sees Trump’s downfall as inevitable and doesn’t want to go down with the ship.

UPDATE: The Washington Post is reporting that there is “Pure Madness” and “Dark days inside the White House.” And this excerpt is particularly relevant:

“Aides tell WaPo ‘Trump seethed with anger’ over the photo of Sessions at dinner with Rosenstein and the Solicitor General. The next morning, Trump was still raging about the photo, venting to friends and allies it was an intentional show of disloyalty.”

Rachel Maddow Guides MSNBC to a Strong February 2018 – Fox News and Hannity are Scared

Posted by on March 2, 2018 at 10:40 am. 3 Comments :

In another embarrassingly weak performance, Fox News has suffered a ratings fall-off in February 2018 that signals more trouble ahead. Fox’s declining fortunes are becoming a regular event. In January the network dropped fourteen percent in primetime. Now February has topped that with an additional fifteen percent decline. Meanwhile, MSNBC gained significantly in both months of this new year.

Fox News Sad

In January Rachel Maddow outperformed Hannity, and all other cable news programs, in the key audience demographic of 25-54 year olds. She came just short of repeating that performance in February with an average of 635,000 viewers per night. Hannity edged her out with 643,000. However, of the twenty days in February, Maddow won a majority (eleven) of them.

Maddow’s practice of covering breaking news and the unfolding scandals of the scandal-ridden Trump administration has proven to be an unqualified success. Her deep dive into research and expert analysis continues to draw devoted viewers. Two years ago no one would have predicted that Fox would be a second place news network. Fox actually moved Hannity into a direct time period competition with Maddow in an attempt to blow her out with his top rated program. That didn’t go exactly according to plan and must be gnawing at Hannity and his Fox bosses.

Consequently, Hannity’s program is sinking into ever more ludicrous conspiracy theory territory. He is challenging Alex Jones as the right-wing’s most unhinged crackpot. On almost every show Hannity ignores actual news of Trump’s daily failures. Instead, he features topics exploring Hillary Clinton’s ancient and baseless controversies, or some version of the alleged “deep state” takeover of America. And of course, Hannity is serving his master in the White House with constant attempts to slander special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI.

These subjects are also spread across the Fox News schedule. It’s why Fox viewers are so often shown to be more uninformed (or ill informed) than viewers of any other news network. And it is probably contributing to the overall audience decline at Fox as people seek out actual news and information relevant to their lives. But it is consistent with the Fox News commitment to defend Trump at all costs.

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

The Fox News mission has always been to prop up the conservative, Republican agenda. But it’s more immediate objective is to discredit the investigations into Trump’s unsavory connections to Russia (and other financial corruption). And flagrant propagandists like Hannity, Tucker Carlson (who just called Democrats anti-American), and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends, are focused intently on smearing America’s law enforcement and intelligence institutions. They are putting their rancid partisanship before the interests of the country. And America’s television viewers are reacting with disgust and seeking out more credible reporting. Which is good news for Maddow and MSNBC.

The Democratic Party is Anti-American: Deconstructing Tucker Carlson’s Noxious Trump-Fluffing

Posted by on March 2, 2018 at 8:38 am. 1 Comments :

There are plenty of repugnant cretins on Fox News who devote themselves to distorting reality and misinforming their dimwitted audience. No one is more of a sycophantic disciple of Donald Trump than Sean Hannity. And Steve Doocy’s portrayal of an imbecile infatuated with the President is spot on. But Tucker Carlson has carved out his own domain as the master of indignant arrogance stewed in hypocrisy and logical dysfunction.

Fox News Tucker Carlson

On Thursday’s program Carlson set out to express a rare disappointment with his hero in the White House. It stemmed from Trump’s boneheaded assertion that guns should be confiscated from certain individuals without due process of law. That’s a position that was quickly denounced by all sides of the gun reform debate, including most fiercely by the NRA. But Carlson’s lecture (video below) was especially convoluted and managed to make Democrats the villains for what Trump said. What follows is an annotated transcript of the highlights.

“The alternatives to what we have now are scary and getting scarier. The Democratic Party is completely irresponsible and increasingly anti-American. They prefer illegal aliens to our middle-class. That’s true and it’s terrifying. Someone needs to defend the country from these people. Trump mostly does that.”

So Trump advocates violating the Constitution, but it’s Democrats who are anti-American? And Carlson’s deranged and insulting assertion that Democrats “prefer illegal aliens to our middle-class” is baseless and purposefully inflammatory. What’s true and terrifying is Carlson’s anti-American suggestion that the country needs to be defended from people he disagrees with.

“At one point the President said ‘The government should take the guns first, go through due process second.’ How honest do you want to be. Imagine if Barack Obama had said that. Just ignore due process and start confiscating guns. Obama would have been denounced as a dictator. We would have denounced him first. Trust me.”

Well, to be fair, Carlson and Fox News did denounce Obama as a dictator with predictable frequency, but never with justification. But his point was that Trump’s proposal for gun confiscation should receive the same criticism. Let’s see how that went.

“It’s important to remember that nobody should be tied to a person, but instead to principles. So with that in mind, do you think it’s worth just reminding the President – as we all need to be reminded sometimes – that there are deeper principles here?

How generous. Carlson won’t denounce Trump’s dictatorial raving, but politely remind him of the principles that he’s certain Trump has anyway. What happened to being the first to denounce dictatorship? That must not apply to your ideological crush with the long, flowing, golden locks (vainly covering his crusty bald spot). However, Carlson’s presumption of Trump’s true inner feelings were proven correct overnight as Trump tweeted that he’d made up with the NRA in an Oval Office tryst:

Here’s the video of Carlson’s Democrat-bashing, love letter to dictator Trump, if you can stomach it.

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