Fox News

Trump Loses to Obama Again: Gallup’s ‘Most Admired Man’ is Gonna Give Trump an Aneurysm

Posted by on December 27, 2017 at 11:50 am. 2 Comments :

The single most compelling motivation for everything Donald Trump has done as president has been his relentless mission to undo everything Barack Obama did. It’s what drives his fetish to kill ObamaCare. It’s why he has issued a frantic flurry of executive orders mainly reversing those Obama issued. It’s why he still can’t stop talking about, and disparaging, the former president after nearly a year in office.

Donald Trump

So it can be safely assumed that Trump isn’t going to take this news very well. According to Gallup’s annual poll, Barack Obama is once again the man that is “Most Admired” by the American people. It’s his tenth consecutive win. For a narcissist like Trump this would be painful no matter who beat him. But to be beaten by his arch nemesis Obama has to be devastating.

It’s notable that on Wednesday morning after the release of the survey Trump has gone silent on Twitter. As of this writing it has been twenty-two hours since his last tweet. It isn’t possible to make a direct link to the Gallup poll as a cause of this uncharacteristic hush, but neither is it inconceivable that he’s sulking and muttering to himself about how unfair life is rather than tweeting. He could be plotting some revenge to show Obama who’s boss. Or he might have had a small stroke and is gurgling soap bubbles in his gold-plated bathtub.

To make matters worse, this is the first time that a first-year president has not been named “Most Admired.” Other sitting presidents have missed out on the honor, but later in their terms after they had a chance to make sufficient numbers of people hate them. Trump didn’t need that extra time to fail. He came out of the gate with the worst approval ratings of any president since polling began.

And the pain for Trump doesn’t end there. In addition to being beaten by his predecessor, he also must face the news that his past (and surprisingly still) opponent, Hillary Clinton was named “Most Admired Woman” for the 22nd time (16th consecutively). She barely edged out Michelle Obama. Melania scored a single percentage point down in eighth place. Not that Trump cares about that. He’s only interested in his own performance and his desperate prayers for the failure of his foes.

So Trump has now lost to Obama twice. Once at the end of the year that saw him lose the popular vote to Clinton, and once after his first year in office. This is a man whose ego is so fragile that he forces his cabinet secretaries to recite humiliating love letters to him in official meetings. He resorts to paying tribute to himself on Twitter and during press avails to make sure that someone says something nice about him. And he whines incessantly about not being shown the adoration that he’s convinced he deserves.

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

Now Gallup has provided further documentation of how despised he is by the nation. And subsequently his Twitter voice has disappeared. Somebody better check on him to make sure he hasn’t done something rash. Like paint a mustache on the official Obama portrait, or launch a nuclear missile at “Rocket Man” in North Korea, or some other typically infantile behavior that we’ve all come to expect from him.

On the other hand, Trump may not even know about this poll since it doesn’t appear to have been reported on Fox News and still isn’t on the Fox News website. Since that seems to be his only source for news, this item may not have made it through to the Oval Office. Nevertheless, Trump must have some awareness of the deep dislike Americans have for him. And he must know deep inside that 2018 isn’t going to get any better.

Trump’s ALL-CAPS Post-Christmas Rant Reveals How Frightened He Is of His Bleak Future

Posted by on December 26, 2017 at 2:12 pm. 1 Comments :

The day after Donald Trump made it safe for Americans to say “Merry Christmas” again, he went straight back into the political fray. Well, he actually went straight back to one of his golf courses. But he did find the time to post a message on Twitter that expressed his innermost thoughts on the news of the day. Well, the news according to Fox News.

Donald Trump

Trump’s latest Twitter tirade was pretty much a rehash of the same nonsense that he has been disgorging for months. He has frequently yelped about the investigations being conducted to ascertain his involvement with Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. But he is clearly adding a huge helping of the horror that is overwhelming him as the investigations circle ever closer around him and his associates. Perhaps as a sort of relief valve he tweeted:

WOW, indeed. The first notable part of this presidential outburst is that Trump is, once again, identifying his source as his favorite Fox News program, Fox and Friends. So despite his access to the world’s best intelligence apparatus, Trump still relies on the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of a morning cable “news” show, that Fox doesn’t even classify as news. And to make matters worse, Trump was apparently so flustered with fear that he linked to a fake Fox and Friends Twitter account (note the “L” rather than an “I” in Friends).

As for the rest of the tweet, it was feast of falsehoods that are easily disproved. The so-called Steele Dossier to which Trump refers is decidedly not bogus. While the entirety of it has not yet been affirmed, much of what has been researched has been solidly verified. CNN reported in October that:

“While the most salacious allegations in the dossier haven’t been verified, its broad assertion that Russia waged a campaign to interfere in the election is now accepted as fact by the US intelligence community. CNN also reported earlier this year that US investigators have corroborated some aspects of the dossier, specifically that some of the communications among foreign nationals mentioned in the memos did actually take place.”

Additionally, Trump’s eagerness to blame Hillary Clinton for all his problems is not only misplaced, it’s a purposeful attempt to malign his arch nemesis and shift attention from himself. He never bothers to mention that the dossier originated with the Washington Free Beacon, a right-wing news website. And Trump’s assertion that it was used “as the basis for going after the Trump Campaign” is just wholly made up.

The inspiration for Trump’s Boxing Day bluster was, as is often the case, something he saw on Fox and Friends. The segment featured Buck Sexton, a conservative radio talk show show and former CIA analyst (with a comic book name that makes it hard to take him seriously). Sexton and Fox co-host Pete Hegseth covered some of the exact subjects as Trump’s tweet (video below):

Sexton: What we really want to know is was the dossier, as you all are quite aware, was a Clinton funded opposition research document, the basis for weaponizing the intelligence community against a political campaign as it was happening. People are talking about the Russian collusion as the greatest scandal – this would be the greatest scandal certainly of my lifetime.
Hegseth: And the Washington Times reporting that the FBI admitting that it can’t verify that dossier claims of Russia. Which would further the potential problem with that.

For the record, the FBI never said they “can’t verify” the dossier’s claims. They said that they “haven’t verified” some of the claims. Which is completely different. But Fox did manage to back up their BS with the ultra-right “Moonie” Washington Times. It’s all part of the conservative media machine’s effort to discredit and delegitimize special counsel Robert Mueller and any other independent investigation of Trump’s corruption and treason. That war on the truth is also being waged by Trump’s pals in the Kremlin. Newsweek reports that Russia “is using social media to undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, a former CIA official and a former Republican congressman said Monday night.” And with that the quartet is complete: Russia, Trump, the GOP, and Fox News are all working together to sabotage Mueller and his investigation.

They must realize that the facts are against them and that their only hope is destroy the reputation of career law enforcement professionals who are doing their jobs. Think about this: if Trump, et al believed for a second that Mueller’s investigation would exonerate him, would he seek to tarnish the reputation of the man who could prove his innocence?

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

Democrats For Trump? Fox News Interviews Convicted Money Launderer Who Supports Trump

Posted by on December 23, 2017 at 4:46 pm. 1 Comments :

In its ever vigilant mission to misrepresent political discourse, Fox News frequently seeks out spokespersons for constituencies that don’t really exist. It’s a significant part of their determination to create more division and partisan rancor. One of Fox’s favorite methods of bending reality to their own prejudices is to latch onto alleged Democrats who will betray their party to back some ill-advised nonsense proposed by Donald Trump.

Fox News

Fox News is particularly good at finding such political turncoats. Some are angry about a pet project that may have been ditched. Others are simply looking for attention. By promising them segments on the cable network to broadcast their personal rage, Fox gets them to publicly oppose their peers. And Fox gets to promote their own biases as told by supposed Democrats or liberals. In some cases the association is tenuous. For instance, Fox continues to identify right-wing zealot Pat Caddell as a Democratic pollster years after he abandon any semblance of Democratic politics.

On Saturday Fox News found another dubious Democrat to advance their promotion of Trump. Andrew Stein was once a New York City Councilman, but way back in the nineties he openly courted Republicans when he briefly ran against David Dinkins for mayor. More recently he pleaded guilty to charges related to his involvement in a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. However, as the self-declared president of “Democrats For Trump” (an organization that doesn’t appear to exist) Fox News was thrilled to give him some valuable airtime.

Stein was interviewed by Fox’s Ed Henry on Fox and Friends (video below). He began the segment by accusing Democrats of having “Trump Derangement” for not being able accept that he was elected. When Henry asked Stein what advice he would give to “his fellow Democrats,” Stein offered this:

“Democrats are making a big mistake by just ‘resisting,’ talking about impeachment. It’s nonsense. This President has one of the best records I’ve ever seen. And I’ve been around a long time.”

Stein went on to praise Trump’s tax scam bill, particularly for how it benefits corporations. As if that were ever the focus of Democratic principles. Henry noted that Stein had recently spent half an hour with Trump in the Oval Office, which is undoubtedly how he came to the attention of Fox News. And when asked how Trump might do a better job of reaching out to Democrats, this fake Dem responded that:

“I think he’s done a fantastic job with this tax bill and with cutting regulations.”

Huh? You mean the bill that not one Democrat voted for? The one they weren’t allowed to contribute to or to offer amendments? The one they weren’t even allowed to see until a few hour before the vote? The one that violates every core value that Democrats hold dear by cutting taxes for the wealthy, making everyone else pay for it, and is also another GOP attempt to sabotage ObamaCare? That’s what Stein thinks was a “fantastic job of reaching out”?

There simply are no words.

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

Donald Trump and Fox and Friends Keep Mistaking Insults For Compliments

Posted by on December 22, 2017 at 6:33 pm. 4 Comments :

The power of narcissism can be awfully astonishing at times. When someone has this psychological sickness they have a distorted perspective of the real world that, one way or another, reflects on their greatness or it’s dismissed as a deliberate fiction authored by one’s enemies (fake news).

Fox News Steve Doocy

This is evident in a recent tweet by Trump concerning what he regarded as an “honor” for his pals on Fox and Friends. Mediaite published a list of the seventy-five most influential names in media for 2017. In a list that long nearly everyone you’re ever heard of made an appearance. Including folks like Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity. But the number one most influential name was not a totally illogical choice when the reasons are fully appreciated. And it wasn’t because of the program’s “quality.” Mediaite’s article explained that the show’s alleged influence resulted from a rather narrow scope of actual influence:

“The President of the United States regularly starts his day watching Fox & Friends and then tweets about whatever they cover, and however, they cover it. He promotes their show, tags them by name, and sings their praises.”

So the gist of their analysis is that Fox and Friends is influential because “they have captured the President’s attention.” That’s not exactly difficult to accomplish. Any shiny object would do the trick. Or any fawning praise or accurate criticism. Trump is notoriously obsessed with himself, and by being the Fox News program that is the most shamelessly adoring, they have burned a place in Trump’s shriveled heart. Mediaite did not intend that to be a compliment. But Trump responded by tweeting:

The formula for success employed by Fox and Friends is blind sycophancy combined with blatant lies about Trump’s foes. It’s the ability to not be embarrassed by brown-nosing the President at all times and serving as the administration’s Pravda. Fox and Friends has mastered that kind of behavior that would be humiliating to any credible journalist. And for their effort they are promoted frequently by Trump. Just since his inauguration the Fox News President has pimped Fox and Friends 152 times. That’s an average one tweet every other day for nearly a year. And it’s also advertising that would be worth millions.

This isn’t the first time that these dim bulbs have mistaken insults for praise. In July Trump tweeted about another faux honor bestowed on the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. On that occasion they were called “The Most Powerful TV Show in America“ in an article in the New York Times. In a congratulatory tweet Trump wrote that:

Wow, indeed. In one tweet Trump heralded the homage for Fox and Friends and disparaged the newspaper that gave it. Of course, to anyone who actually read the article in the Times it was apparent that they were criticizing both Trump and Fox for clinging to one another in a mockery of journalism. They called Fox’s posture toward Trump a “Romper Room-style” broadcast intended to flatter our ego-obsessed, narcissistic president. The article said that:

“President Trump is the show’s subject, its programmer, its publicist and its virtual fourth host. The stars offer him flattery, encouragement and advice. When he tweets, his words and image appear on a giant video wall. It’s the illusion of children’s TV — that your favorite show is as aware of you as you are of it — except that for Mr. Trump, it’s real.”

That’s the article that Trump and Fox and Friends quoted with such pride. They entirely missed the fact that the Times was calling the President a child and the program a bunch of unethical stenographers and Trump-fluffers. It’s as if all they could see was flattery and good news – except, of course, when it’s fake news.

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

Check Yourselves: Fox News Complains that MSNBC Stars Are ‘Cashing In’ on Trump’s Tax Scam

Posted by on December 22, 2017 at 4:57 pm. NO Comments :

Shortly after Donald Trump and his Republican cronies passed a tax reform bill that gives away millions to to the rich, a few greedy corporations jumped into the media circus to lavish praise on the president who just made them all much richer. AT&T, Boeing, and Wells Fargo were among the companies licking at Trump’s boots by pretending that they were passing on savings to their employees because of the tax reforms. Never mind that some of them had planned to give bonuses long before this bill was passed, just as they do almost every year. Most of the companies have ulterior motives for exalting Trump. Particularly AT&T who is currently battling the administration in its efforts to acquire TimeWarner.

Fox News Lies

Also on this list of sycophants is Comcast, the parent company of NBC. And that connection was all that Fox News needed to invent a story about MSNBC personalities “cashing in” in on the legislation. Fox’s media correspondent, Brian Flood, published a story on the Fox News website with the absurd headline, “NBC star journalists already cashing in on the tax plan they hate.” The article accuses Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, and others of selfishly taking advantage of a tax bill that they opposed. The article stated that:

The highly paid journalists at NBC and MSNBC who keep blasting President Trump’s tax reforms won’t have to wait for their rates to go down to benefit, since parent company Comcast likes the plan so much it is sending out $1,000 checks to employees.

Comcast announced on Thursday that it would award special $1,000 bonuses to over one hundred thousand employees because of the passage of tax reform and the FCC’s action on broadband.

The cable company’s generosity presumably extends to seven- and eight-figure stars, who have been railing nonstop against the landmark GOP reform as benefiting the rich at the expense of the poor.

The first thing that’s wrong with the headline is that Fox has no evidence that any executives or on-air talent are going to receive a cash bonus. So the whole story is based on an invented premise. Flood says that “the cable company’s generosity presumably extends to seven- and eight-figure stars.” Presumably? Apparently that’s enough to be the foundation of a critical article by the standards of Fox News. However, these sort of bonuses are almost never extended to executive personnel who have a different scale of compensation benefits. What’s more, the average amount of company bonuses (about 1,800.00) is much greater than the one these companies are now touting.

Additionally, the article notes that Comcast’s incentive to provide these bonuses was only partly due to Trump’s corporate tax cuts. It explicitly cites “the FCC’s action on broadband.” Otherwise known as the killing of Net Neutrality. Comcast was likely thanking Trump for eliminating a regulation that will net them billions in profits at the expense of a free and open Internet.

But the most startling logical lapse by Flood was his complaint that it would somehow be improper for MSNBC’s stars to take the money since they have been hammering Trump’s tax scam for weeks. WTF is he talking about. The fact that these hosts would criticize a bill that promised them a significant windfall is proof that they are motivated by principle, not greed. They opposed a bill that would put more money in their own pockets because they knew that millions of other Americas would suffer. Most people would regard that as admirable.

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

For Fox News to imply that there would be something untoward about them getting a bonus that they campaigned against is stretching the boundaries of reason beyond recognition. They didn’t want it, they didn’t ask for it, and they aren’t even known to be getting it. But Fox is determined to create scandals where none exist because they haven’t got anything truthful or honest to report. And yet, this is remarkably sloppy, even for Fox News.

Fox News Officially Becomes the New Infowars with Theory that the FBI Plotted to Kill Trump

Posted by on December 19, 2017 at 1:39 pm. 3 Comments :

For twenty years Fox News has obediently served the interests of the Republican Party and its wealthy, corporate benefactors. Throughout much of that time they have advanced provable lies advancing the policies and agenda of the far-right. On occasion they ventured off into Looney Tunes territory by pushing unadulterated nonsense such as charges that Obama’s birth certificate was fake, or that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex slave ring from the basement of a D.C. pizza parlor.

Fox News Infowars

However, with the election of Donald Trump, Fox News has skidded off the runway of sanity. They have embarked on a coordinated campaign to smear special counsel Robert Mueller and everyone connected with his investigation into Trump’s collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. But on Tuesday morning they sunk to new levels of delusional conspiracy mongering.

Radio talker and Fox News contributor Kevin Jackson was the allegedly “one lucky guy” on Fox’s Outnumbered. In a discussion about whether individuals at the FBI were biased against Trump, Jackson upped the ante by asserting that Trump may have been the target of an FBI assassination plot. No, really:

“Well, I think they’re going to say, is it — what was his intent, right? Because that’s exactly what FBI Director, former FBI Director [James] Comey said when he was letting Hillary Clinton off the hook. And his intent, regardless of whether it was an assassination attempt or whatever, it was definitely something. […] I’m just saying, we don’t know what it was. When you say, ‘we’ve got to make sure that this guy doesn’t get in at all cost,’ what does that mean?”

The magnitude of derp expressed in those remarks even gave co-host Harris Faulkner the heebie-jeebies. She vainly attempted to give Jackson an opportunity to walk back his lunatic comment. “I just want to make sure,” she said, “that we press in on the fact that no one has floated any sort of an idea…” But Jackson interrupted her saying “Oh, it’s been floated.”

Indeed, it has been floated. On Fox News of all places. Although they are coming to it a little behind Alex Jones of Infowars who was floating in a similar orbit just yesterday. He told his glassy-eyed disciples that:

“I think they’re going to go ahead and make their move to kill the president. I think in the next 30 days, I think they’re going to make an assassination attempt. I just — my gut — I see all of them together, they’re that desperate. They’re either going to give up or they’re going to activate their cells. And a lot of my smart sources agree with that.”

So now the crackpot idiocy of Alex Jones has jumped feet first into the Fox News cesspool of Trump-fluffing derangement. Jackson is a confirmed StormTrumper whose opinions border on fetishism. Just prior to Outnumbered, Jackson was a guest on Fox and Friends where he likened Trump to King Midas saying that “everything that Donald Trump is touching, for the most part, has turned to gold.” That, of course, is patently false. Trump has failed on too many levels to enumerate here. But more to the point, Jackson apparently doesn’t know that the moral of the Midas story is a warning against exactly the sort of all-consuming greed that Trump represents.

For Fox News to put on these sort of irresponsible and dangerous ravings proves that they are desperately searching for a narrative to suppress any talk of Trump’s corruption and criminality. The fact that they are stealing material from Alex Jones suggests that they have completely run out of plausible ideas. So the notion of dipping into the most far fetched conspiracy mud holes is no longer unthinkable. And we should expect more of this preposterous insanity from Fox as Trump’s prospects continue to dim.

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

Fox News Pushes Trump Dictatorship, Tells Critics to Shut Up and Obey Their Master

Posted by on December 17, 2017 at 12:51 pm. 3 Comments :

As the legal noose tightens around Donald Trump and his confederacy of traitors, the stench of panic grows thicker and more pungent. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation continues on its course to determine whether Trump and/or his team colluded with Russia’s documented efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. And as Mueller goes forward, the Trump faction goes batshit crazy.

Fox News Kellyanne Conway

The latest point of departure for the GOP’s sanity is the discovery that Mueller has acquired “tens of thousands” of emails from the the Trump transition operation. That news sent the right into a frenzy with bogus claims that the emails were acquired illegally. That’s hysterical considering that Trump himself begged Russia to illegally hack Hillary Clinton’s emails and make them all public on Wikileaks.

But that’s only a small window into the dementia that plagues Trump World today. On Fox News there is a concerted and coordinated campaign to smear Mueller. They began by calling it a witch hunt, despite having already scored four indictments and two guilty pleas. But now they have escalated their conspiracy outrage to a new level. They now regard the entire investigation as an attempted coup. And they are pulling out all the propaganda stops to spread that inane theory.

Fox’s Jesse Watters explicitly used the word “coup” to describe Mueller’s activities during an interview with Trump shill Kellyanne Conway. Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett suggested that the FBI is America’s version of the KGB. Fox host Jeanine Pirro demanded that FBI agents involved with the investigation be “taken out in handcuffs.” And a veritable chorus line of Foxies are calling on Trump to fire Mueller. Not surprisingly, Sean Hannity is at front of that line.

On Trump’s favorite Fox News show, Fox and Friends, the totalitarian rhetoric is as thick as mud. On Sunday morning they hosted Darrin Porcher (video below), a former New York police officer whose point of view is perfectly aligned with the Fox Doctrine. Porcher is the model of the Fox News flunky who spouts pre-chewed talking points in support of Trump. He praised the performance of the stock market and the unemployment rate, both of which are still running up under policies put in place by President Obama. Trump has done nothing to impact either. In fact, before the election he considered the stock market to be in a bubble and the unemployment rate to be fake news.

Saying that he “bleed[s] red, white and blue,” Porcher urges Americans to “stand behind our Commander-in-Chief.” He asserts that we must “acquiesce behind the political structure in play.” (Note: acquiesce means to accept something reluctantly and without protest). He’s literally telling critics of the administration to shut up and obey their masters. But where he totally succumbs to the blindness of tyranny is his statement that…

“Rooting against the president is equivalent to getting on an airplane and hoping that the plane crashes.”

That remark didn’t get so much as a sideways glance from the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. Even though they were among the Fox throng that spent eight years rooting against Obama. Rush Limbaugh even said proudly that “I hope he fails.” And every step Obama took throughout his presidency he was dogged by the overt hatred and bias emanating from Fox News. Most of them believed he was an illegitimate, gay, pot-smoking, fraud who was born in Kenya and pledged allegiance to ISIS.

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

Porcher’s advocacy of blind obedience is the opposite of patriotism. America’s democracy was built on a foundation of respect for dissent. It’s inscribed in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Acquiescence is what tyrants demand of their peasant populace. You have to wonder where Porcher was when the Tea Party (remember them?) was hammering away at Obama – with the ever faithful help of Fox News. But people like Porcher are too myopic to grasp complex political concepts. His simile of the crashing plane is just plain stupid. A better perspective of it would be to consider how to respond to a president who is in the process of deliberately crashing the plane. Would you root for him?

Women at Fox News Blast CEO Rupert Murdoch for Trivializing Sexual Abuse: ‘I’m Sick of This Sh*t’

Posted by on December 16, 2017 at 10:32 am. 4 Comments :

This week Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of Fox News and 21st Century Fox, made some shocking statements regarding sexual harassment and abuse at Fox News. His brazen distortion of reality was either a deliberate attempt to rewrite the recent and abhorrent history of the network, or signs of acute dementia. But some outraged women who experienced the misogynistic culture of Fox News first hand aren’t sitting still for this bullshit.

Fox News Rupert Murdoch

Murdoch’s comments trivialized, and even downright denied, the actual events that have been documented and admitted in public statements by Fox News. When asked about the charges leveled at Fox personnel and whether they would impact the business, he said that they were…

“All nonsense, there was a problem with our chief executive [Roger Ailes], sort of, over the years, isolated incidents. As soon as we investigated it he was out of the place in hours, well, three or four days. And there’s been nothing else since then. That was largely political because we’re conservative. Now of course the liberals are going down the drain — NBC is in deep trouble. CBS, their stars. I mean there are really bad cases and people should be moved aside. There are other things which probably amount to a bit of flirting.”

Let’s address this heinous commentary in order. First of all, Murdoch conceded that there was a “problem” with Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. But adds “sort of?” Ailes was accused of serial sexual assault by at least eleven women. And an independent review of his actions resulted in his termination. That isn’t “sort of,” a problem. And it isn’t “isolated incidents” either.

Then Murdoch stated that “there’s been nothing else since then.” Can he possibly believe that? The biggest star on his network, Bill O’Reilly was fired after the disclosure of millions of dollars in settlements to victims of his abuse. He personally shelled out $32 million to one victim. Also, numerous other Fox on-air and executive personnel were fired for sexual misconduct. The number of deviants on the Fox payroll points to a serious internal breakdown. The network was even called “a sex-fueled Playboy Mansion-like cult” by a long-time program host and victim.

Finally, Murdoch tried to dismiss the whole subject as being purely political. But in the same breath he conceded that both conservatives and liberals had their share of perverts. So he contradicted his own excuse. However, just trying to make this a partisan issue shows the depths of depravity to which he will sink. He is laser-focused on disparaging liberals in all matters, which was the founding mission of Fox News. And he proved what a despicable old coot he is by tacking on his opinion that sexual harassment and flirting are somehow synonymous.

Which brings us to the reactions of ten women contacted by Yasher Ali of the Huffington Post. Their disgust upon hearing Murdoch’s remarks was expressed with fierce determination and, as one stated, a hunger for justice. Here are some examples of their comments:

  • “I have had to put up with a hostile work environment for years, and now I’m told that it doesn’t exist by a man who doesn’t have to walk these halls every day?”
  • “Hey Rupert – stop with the lies or we’ll go public with the truth. All of it. Including about the talent and executives you still employ who have harassed us and don’t give a damn about workplace respect – only money.”
  • “What kind of company pays close to 100 million dollars to keep ‘flirting’ quiet?”
  • “Sexual harassment has nothing to do with politics. Many of us are conservative and want the truth to come out.”
  • “The harassment was persistent and ongoing. It was personally and professionally devastating for some of my colleagues and me. When the person who signs your paycheck and is responsible for promotions and demotions harasses women who rely on him, it’s more than ‘sort of’ a problem.”
  • “The culture at Fox News won’t change until you publicly accept that it has been a breeding ground for sexual misconduct over the past two decades.”
  • “I’m contacting a lawyer tomorrow. I’m sick of this shit.”

That’s a pretty damning summation of what it’s like to work at Fox News. And considering the broad corroboration among so many women who suffered, and continue to suffer, at Fox, Murdoch’s repulsive remarks ought to be reconsidered and a public apology made ASAP. And you can expect that to occur at around the same time that Donald Trump apologizes for his rampant, sexual predatory assault.

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

HUH? New Poll Shows Donald Trump’s Popularity is Falling Sharply Among – Fox News Viewers?

Posted by on December 15, 2017 at 10:35 am. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump is famous for putting himself at the top of every list of achievement. And no one can argue that when the list is: Which president has had the worst approval ratings in modern times? Trump far outpaces all of his predecessors for the most hated national leader. A recent poll showed him at an abysmal thirty-two percent. That’s another new low during what is ordinarily a president’s strongest year in office.

Donald Trump

Now another new survey has some bad news for Trump. Suffolk University asked for opinions about Trump with an interesting angle. They matched answers to the respondent’s favorite sources for news. And what they discovered was surprising:

“Trump likes what he sees on Fox, which means that what he sees depicts him favorably. And yet, according to new polling from Suffolk University, those voters who have the most trust in Fox’s reporting have increasingly begun to view Trump unfavorably.

“Over the course of Trump’s presidency, Suffolk has asked people to weigh in on their views of Trump multiple times. In March, 45 percent of Americans viewed Trump favorably, but 86 percent of those who identified Fox as their most-trusted news network said they did. By June, that number had grown to 90 percent. But in October and in the most recent poll, Trump’s favorability with Fox News viewers has plunged.

“In March, Fox viewers were 40 points more likely to view Trump positively than were voters overall. By December, they were only 24 points more likely to do so.”

The poll found that, among the people who trust Fox News the most, Trump’s approval rating is a bare majority of fifty-eight percent. For a constituency that should be his most ardent admirers that can’t be characterized as anything but dreadful. And it’s a substantial drop from the numbers in June (90%) and October (74%). Historically Trump’s appeal has failed to outperform lice or root canals among the general population (for real). But he has managed to hang on to a core base of deplorables in the Republican Party. Considering the close association between Fox News and the GOP you would think their viewers would also be Trump deadenders.

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

So what accounts for Trump’s slumping approval by Fox News cultists? It’s hard to say. Since Fox is virtually Trump’s PR division, their audience is the group of news consumers that see the most of him. Perhaps being exposed so incessantly to his wrinkled visage and grating voice has driven home what a crass and repugnant cretin he is. Maybe they just got tired of his bragging and bullying and whining and lying. He’s become a one-note recording of infantile narcissism with regard to himself and abject hostility toward his critics.

Another possible explanation is that the right-wingers who watch Fox don’t like Trump bashing the FBI, special counsel Robert Mueller, and law enforcement in general. And they may cringe when he smears the intelligence agencies for which he is allegedly responsible. Maybe they’re troubled by his cozying up to Putin and other murderous dictators. And even though Fox News presents an exclusively adoring picture of Trump, maybe their viewers have seen through it and are disgusted and weary of the charade. You know – the fake news.

Trump Shill: If You Get Your News From Fox News You Probably Like the GOP Tax Scam

Posted by on December 14, 2017 at 1:59 pm. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress are hurtling headlong into passage of tax bill that will materially alter the tax code in ways that harm most Americans. It is flagrantly biased in favor of corporations and the wealthy with toxic provisions that will sabotage healthcare and cripple Social Security and Medicare. The GOP refused to hold hearings on the bill or even allow Democrats to review it prior to voting. Much of it was written by corporate lobbyists. And without any justification for their haste, Republicans are ramming it through before the already strong opposition becomes impossible to ignore.

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As usual, whenever Republicans require a boost in propaganda they turn to Fox News. They know that they can present whatever bullshit they want and that there will be no one to challenge their lies. They took advantage of that Thursday morning when they sent Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, to the studios of Fox and Friends to pimp the tax bill. He received precisely the welcome that he expected as co-host Steve Doocy offered up a softball for Mulvaney to hit out of the park. Surprisingly, Mulvaney took a wild swing that landed in foul territory (video below):

Doocy: People don’t like to pay taxes so you would think that this would be a good story for you. And yet, Mick, the Quinnipiac poll came out and shows that fifty-five percent of Americans don’t like it, as opposed to twenty-six percent who do. Can you explain to me why people don’t like the idea of a tax cut?
Mulvaney: Sure, because if you turn to any channel besides this one, all you’re going to hear is bad news about this particular bill. […] No one is focusing, as you folks do, on what’s good for people in this bill. So if you get your news here, you probably like it because your focused on what’s good for you. But if not, you don’t.

So the only reason Mulvaney had for people not liking the bill was that they weren’t watching enough Fox News. Or worse, they drifted from their “news” teet at Fox and were exposed to actual facts and honest scrutiny. Doocy was taking a chance by citing the Quinnipiac poll which he correctly quoted as showing a historic disapproval rating, especially for something being pitched as a tax cut. The poll provided an explanation for that which Fox News left out entirely. Nearly seventy percent of those polled said the bill favors the wealthy and only twenty-one percent think that it will help the middle class. In other words, people can see through the GOP spin and recognize a fraud when it’s right in front of their faces.

However, what was most interesting about Mulvaney’s response was that he explicitly admitted that Fox News was a pit of partisan bias where viewers would get only the conservative perspective peddled by the White House. He praised the “Curvy Couch” potatoes for being sycophantic hucksters upon whom he could rely to spew the government line. Just like state-run TV outlets are supposed to do. Heaven forbid that the American people might ever get an unbiased analysis of this bill that contained actual facts derived from independent experts. That isn’t what Fox News was created for, and it surely isn’t what they did this morning. Welcome to the American Pravda, now proudly out of the propaganda closet.

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