Rachel Maddow

GOP Pipsqueak Madison Cawthorn Imagines that Rhodes Scholar Rachel Maddow is Afraid to Debate Him

Posted by on January 11, 2022 at 11:17 am. 4 Comments :

There is an epic battle brewing on the InterTubes between a freshman Republican congressman and a seasoned political broadcaster that threatens to leave one of them in shreds. Were this a title match in professional boxing the bout would be called off by the refs to prevent a mauling.

Rachel Maddow

Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn took the ill-advised step of taunting MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow after receiving an errant email that he totally misinterpreted. The email was sent by a producer for the The Rachel Maddow Show to an NBC News colleague, but was mistakenly cc’ed to Cawthorn. The producer asked the colleague to contact Cawthorn’s office for a comment because s/he was…

“…a little worried that if we did inquire he might ask to come on and explain. I know that is HIGHLY doubtful, but don’t want to take that risk.”

Copying Cawthorn’s office on this email was an unfortunate mistake. But Cawthorn’s conclusions as to its meaning are hysterically misconstrued. He, and much of the right-wing Twitterverse, have taken it to mean that Maddow is afraid to debate him.

Seriously? Cawthorn is a first-term representative from North Carolina. He was a D student in college until he dropped out. And he now encourages others to also quit because he says that schools are a scam.

Maddow, on the other hand, is a Rhodes Scholar and an experienced political analyst and communicator. Any intellectual contest between them would be a blood bath for little Madison. But that appears to be what he’s yearning for, based on this tweet…

The subject of the proposed debate would be a challenge just filed by a group of North Carolina voters asserting that Cawthorn should be disqualified from running due to the constitutional prohibition of candidates who have engaged in insurrection against the United States. Cawthorn’s speech at Donald Trump’s January 6th rally that preceded the insurrection at the Capitol, as well as his baseless and anti-democratic objections to the 2020 presidential election, form the basis for the legal challenge.

Cawthorn told Fox News that…

“Fake news MSNBC doesn’t want to ‘take the risk’ that I’ll come on their show and trigger the left with my America First message and burst their woke dystopian bubble.

The only thing that the left would be “triggered” to is uncontrollable laughter. Cawthorn demonstrates his cognitive deficiencies in that statement by regurgitating tedious wingnut slogans about “fake news” and “woke dystopian bubbles” (whatever the hell that is).

Cawthorn’s belief that Maddow is afraid to debate could land him in a torrent of trouble. First of all, it wasn’t Maddow who said anything about a “risk” of having Cawthorn on her program. It was a producer who was likely more concerned about booking a known liar who contributed to inciting the riots in Washington, D.C.

For her part, Maddow probably wouldn’t want to waste airtime on this mental munchkin. But if she did she’d have no trouble disposing of him. And it would almost be worth the “risk” of sitting through a televised slaughter to watch her do it.

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Fox News is On a Crusade Against the Women of MSNBC: Nicolle Wallace Edition

Posted by on December 30, 2021 at 5:36 pm. 6 Comments :

Fox News is apparently ending the year with a full court press against the women hosting programs on MSNBC. It wasn’t enough for them to have spent the year fluffing Donald Trump, by lying about the violent January 6th insurrection, and spreading deadly disinformation about the COVID pandemic.

Nicolle Wallace, MSNBC

On this last week of 2021 Fox News has already produced a hit piece on Joy Reid that was seething with hostility because she accurately reported that Fox is killing off their own audience. Then a few days later Fox posted a story attacking Rachel Maddow for being right about COVID vaccines. Both of these stories were glaringly biased and packed with ultra-conservative perspectives and flagrant lies.

At first glance it didn’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary for Fox News. Their bitter animosity toward Democratic principles and progressive politics isn’t exactly breaking news. And Fox often takes petty swipes at their cable news competitors. But it is now apparent that there has been some openly misogynistic coordination to these stories. Fox just added MSNBC’s popular daytime host, Nicolle Wallace, to their enemies list.

A new article published on the Fox News website blasted a headline that proclaimed that an MSNBC anchor was mocked as “shamelessly neurotic” and “embarrassing.” The article began saying that…

“MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace was roasted this week after referring to herself as a ‘Fauci groupie,’ in reference to her adoration of White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci.”

Oh my heavens! Wallace had the audacity to express respect for America’s foremost infectious disease expert who has been working tirelessly to save lives. He was doing this even while Fox News hacks were comparing him to the sadistic Nazi Josef Mengele, and deploying grotesquely murderous metaphors urging people to “ambush” him in public and “go in with the kill shot.”

The article by Fox News portrayed Wallace as being the object of widespread mockery for her comments. But in reality, it was only confirmed right-wing partisans who were hurling insults at her. Every single person cited in Fox’s hit piece was an unabashed wingnut. They included right-wing pundit, Ben McDonald; NewsBusters editor Tim Graham; conservative troll, Drew Holden; Daily Caller columnist, David Hookstead; conservative writer, Mark Hemingway; and right-wing actor, Nick Searcy.

It cannot be mere coincidence that Fox News has hammered out these assaults on three of MSNBC’s most prominent female personalities, all within the space of less than a week. Clearly the folks at Fox feel threatened by smart, engaging women who are effective communicators. So they are lashing out frantically to malign these intelligent, accomplished professionals. And considering the talentless hacks that litter the Fox News schedule, they are also likely writhing in jealousy. Or at least they should be.

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Fox News and Their Partisan Shills Attack Rachel Maddow for Being Right About COVID Vaccines

Posted by on December 29, 2021 at 9:38 am. 8 Comments :

The COVID pandemic in America is surging again thanks to the Omicron variant that began circulating a few weeks ago. And the Omicron variant began circulating thanks, in large part, to Fox News. The network has been the most significant purveyor of coronavirus disinformation which has resulted in studies showing that viewers of Fox News, along with supporters of Donald Trump, “have seen much lower vaccination rates and much higher death rates from COVID.”

Rachel Maddow, Fox News

The fact that watching Fox News is decidedly more life threatening than watching other news networks has not gone unnoticed at Fox. Unfortunately, they just regard it as a liberal media hoax and whine when they are righteously called out on it. Last week Fox News did a segment seething with hostility toward MSNBC’s Joy Reid because she accurately reported that Fox is killing off their own audience. This week it’s Rachel Maddow’s turn to be the victim of Fox’s misplaced fury. They posted an article on their website asserting that…

“Social media users demanded apologies from Rachel Maddow and MSNBC over the liberal host’s insistence in March that the COVID-19 vaccine stops the virus dead in its tracks and prevents further transmission.

“‘Now we know that the vaccines work well enough that the virus stops with every vaccinated person,’ Maddow said on her show the evening of March 29, 2021. […] ‘The vaccines,” she said, ‘will get us to the end of this.'”

The gist of the article was a specious criticism that Maddow was mistaken when she reported that getting vaccinated was the best protection from the virus and would eventually lead to a return to normalcy. But she was right. And in her unedited commentary Maddow correctly noted that if enough of the population were vaccinated, the pandemic could be brought under control:

“Instead of the virus being able to hop from person to person to person, potentially mutating and becoming more drug resistant along the way, now we know that the vaccines work well enough that the virus stops with every vaccinated person. A vaccinated person gets exposed to the virus, the virus does not infect them. The virus cannot then use that person to go anywhere else. It cannot use a vaccinated person as a host to go get more people. That means the vaccines will get us to the end of this, if we just go fast enough.”

Naturally, Fox News deliberately misinterpreted Maddow’s remarks. Their dishonest spin contends that she was saying that merely the existence of the vaccines would eradicate the virus. But she clearly stated that in order for the virus to be defeated, people would have to avail themselves of the vaccine, and to do so quickly. Only then would the virus be prevented from spreading and mutating.

These comments, which Maddow made nine months ago, prior to the emergence of the Omicron variant, have proved to be impressively accurate. As noted above, Fox News was instrumental in discouraging people from getting vaccinated. So they are directly responsible for creating an environment within which the virus could evolve into a form that is better able to evade the protection of the vaccines. In short, the reason we haven’t gotten past this is the purposeful lies and misguidance of Fox News.

That makes this article attacking Maddow all the more despicable. It’s Fox News battering Maddow for their own fatally bad conduct. And even the article’s principle claim that “Social media users demanded apologies from Rachel Maddow and MSNBC,” is brazenly biased and dishonest. They would have been more correct had they referred to “right-wing social media,” because every example they posted was a conservative media figure:

  • Clay Travis, right-wing radio host who replaced Rush Limbaugh said…
    “It’s wild how there are no consequences for all these vaccine lies. If you wonder why many are skeptical of the covid “vaccine” it’s because they remember what they were told about how effective the vaccine was. All that Rachel Maddow says here is untrue.”
  • Dave Rubin, right-wing YouTuber said…
    “But she was so sure of it as she read the script off the teleprompter!”
  • Rachel Campos-Duffy, Fox News host said…
    “Will she retract her statement and apologize?”
  • Matt Birk, retired football player who thinks the CEO of Delta is more qualified than Dr. Fauci to shape public health policy said…
    “I’m sure she’s admitted that she was 100% wrong. After all, she’s part of the media and they have an obligation to the truth.”
  • John Dennis, Republican politician who unsuccessfully challenged Nancy Pelosi said…
    “@maddow, you owe an update to this video, don’t you think?”
  • Moms for Liberty, right-wing Twitter trolls said…
    “Declared with such certainty. Our children have suffered because of the hubris of media. #UNMASKOURCHILDREN.”

As usual, Fox News provides only one side of the story – the moronic side. It’s what they do. And don’t expect them to apologize for maligning Maddow and MSNBC, because that would require that they have some some integrity and journalistic ethics.

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Twitter Trolls are Lying About Rachel Maddow Spreading COVID Misinformation

Posted by on September 5, 2021 at 1:12 pm. 6 Comments :

Donald Trump and his Republican Party have embraced lying as an indispensable tool in their political tool chest. Their brazen disregard for honesty is demonstrated with nearly every public utterance they make. Trump alone has racked up an appalling record of more than 30,000 lies during his single term as president. All of which is obediently disseminated by their Ministry of Disinformation (aka Fox News).

Rachel Maddow

So naturally, these Olympic-grade truth manglers are anxious to project their reality warping antics onto the Democrats and liberals they so fervently despise. And, unsurprisingly, one of their primary targets would be MSNBC’s star host, Rachel Maddow.

On Sunday morning Maddow’s name was trending on Twitter. However the reason was typically devoid of facts or logic. The conservative Twitter trolls were all a flitter because they thought they had caught Maddow in a gross misrepresentation of coronavirus information. The subject concerned the dangerously inappropriate use of a horse dewormer, Ivermectin, to “cure” COVID. That’s a subject that Maddow has covered in detail. But the latest melodrama all sprung from this tweet by Maddow and the right-wing’s knee-jerk rebuttal:

The tweet by Maddow linked to a story by KFOR, a local Oklahoma television station. So right off the bat, she was not making any statements for which she could be blamed if they were inaccurate. And spoiler alert: They were not inaccurate. The station’s newscast interviewed a rural Oklahoma doctor who gave his account of how the state’s health systems were holding up during the COVID Delta variant surge that has been ravaging mostly Republican led states like Oklahoma. KFOR reported that…

“Dr. [Jason] McElyea said patients are packing his eastern and southeastern Oklahoma hospitals after taking ivermectin doses meant for a full-sized horse, because they believed false claims the horse de-wormer could fight COVID-19.

“‘The ERs are so backed up that gunshot victims were having hard times getting to facilities where they can get definitive care and be treated. […] All of their ambulances are stuck at the hospital waiting for a bed to open so they can take the patient in and they don’t have any.'”

While all of that is easily verifiable, the Twitter trolls latched unto a statement released by a hospital network with which Dr. McElyea was affiliated. The statement said that…

“Although Dr. Jason McElyea is not an employee of NHS Sequoyah, he is affiliated with a medical staffing group that provides coverage for our emergency room. With that said, Dr. McElyea has not worked at our Sallisaw location in over 2 months. NHS Sequoyah has not treated any patients due to complications related to taking ivermectin.”

From that statement the wingnut contingent immediately started blasting Maddow as the great falsifier. They charged that the entire story was sham because the doctor was not an employee of the NHS. They demanded that Twitter punish her with a suspension or a total ban for allegedly disseminating COVID disinformation. Glenn Greenwald was among those clamoring for Maddow’s head. GOP Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance ranted that “Alex Jones is a far more reputable source” than Maddow. Trump crony Sebastian Gorka railed “Hey Maddow you lie.”

There’s just one problem. The statement by the NHS was completely irrelevant. Neither KFOR nor Dr. McElyea ever mentioned the NHS or the circumstances at that particular hospital. The doctor did not claim to be speaking as an NHS employee, but instead as an observer of Oklahoma’s health system. And multiple sources affirm what Dr. McElyea said. for instance…

“Oklahoma health officials are choosing to keep hospital capacity data under wraps as some of the state’s major health systems announce they have zero ICU beds open.”

“According to Oklahoma Hospital Association President Patti Davis, ‘We know that patients are being transferred out of state for beds.'”

The situation in Oklahoma is unquestionably dire, despite the Republican governor’s efforts to hide the facts. The medical professionals in the field know exactly what’s going on, and they aren’t afraid to talk about it. That includes Dr. McElyea.

But reality has never stopped conservative deceivers from muddying the water and misleading their dimwitted followers who will never do their own research. Which is how they get roped into ingesting poisons like Ivermectin in the first place. And as usual, Fox News couldn’t care less if they live or die. And neither does Donald Trump.

UPDATE: Not surprisingly, Fox News joined the Twitter Trolls who falsely claimed that the KFOR story was false. They relied heavily on tweets by Drew Holden, an independent, right-wing “reporter” who ironically chastises Maddow and “the left” for not researching the story, when obviously he didn’t. Fox News didn’t either.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Rachel Maddow Fractures Fox News For Hawking a Horse Dewormer as a COVID Cure

Posted by on August 21, 2021 at 3:16 pm. 13 Comments :

Apparently it wasn’t bad enough that Fox News contributed to tens of thousands of deaths, and even more severe illnesses, by downplaying the severity of the coronavirus as a flu or a hoax. And apparently they weren’t satisfied with the suffering they’ve caused by convincing their glassy-eyed viewers that vaccines either aren’t necessary, or don’t work, or are constraints on their freedom imposed by autocrats intent on enslaving them.

Fox News, Cov-Aid

Fox’s efforts have led to what can now be accurately designated “the Pandemic of Fox News.” Their primetime purveyors of pandemic bullpucky are clearly determined to propagate even more pain.

To that end Fox News began prescribing another phony cure for the plague that they’ve been reluctant to admit exists. Despite the potential for having a positive impact on their audience, Fox continues to prove that they just don’t care. Previously they tried hype hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug for which there is no evidence of efficacy treating COVID, other than the grossly misinformed word of Donald Trump. But now they’ve moved on to Ivermectin, a horse dewormer.

Yes, you read that right. And you aren’t the only one to be stunned by the sheer idiocy of this media quackery. When MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow heard about it she launched into a righteous condemnation of both the reckless advice and the Fox News advisors (video below):

“The Mississippi State Department of Health confirming today that ‘At least 70% of the recent calls to poison control in Mississippi have been related to livestock or animal formulations of Ivermectin, purchased at livestock supply centers.

“Why are people taking livestock formulations of Ivermectin Mississippi? That’s a horse dewormer. Literally, people won’t take the vaccine because they’re super suspicious of that, but they’re taking horse deworming medication that they’re buying at a feed store? For COVID? Why, on top of everything else Mississippi has to deal with right now, why are they dealing with this? I don’t know, but I have a guess.”

Whereupon Maddow plays clips of the three Fox News primetime hosts peddling Ivermectin to their viewers:

Laura Ingraham: We know that our FDA has in many ways failed us by not allowing for the use of Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, both of which are used around the world to reduce COVID hospitalizations and death.
Sean Hannity: I pelted them with questions about COVID-19 and the vaccine and therapeutics hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin … as well as other proactive treatments and practices that are already helping COVID -19 patients all across the country.
Tucker Carlson: On June 5th [Bret] Weinstein discussed the benefits of a drug called Ivermectin, which can and is used around the world to treat and prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Maddow then points out that there has only been one “significant” study connecting Ivermectin to COVID, but that it was withdrawn “because the data in it was apparently faked and the introduction to it was apparently plagiarized.” To date, no one on Fox News has withdrawn their advocacy of the drug. As Maddow noted in her closing…

“Nevertheless, Fox News is busy saying, ‘Don’t take the vaccine, but do take this horse deworming medication, trust us, it is proven.’ You could trust them or you could trust the FDA that says ‘Do not take Ivermectin for COVID.’ Or the NIH that says ‘Do not take Ivermectin for COVID.’ Or the WHO that says ‘Do not take Ivermectin for COVID.’ Even the company that makes the drug that says ‘My god, seriously people. Do not take Ivermectin for COVID.'”

You might think that that would finally be enough for Fox News to step back and retract their potentially lethal “reporting.” If so, you just know Fox News.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Trump-Fluffing Network OAN Loses Appeal of Defamation Lawsuit Against Rachel Maddow

Posted by on August 18, 2021 at 11:31 am. 2 Comments :

In September of 2019, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was sued by the network that is America’s most worshipful mouthpiece for Donald Trump and radical right politics, One America News (OAN). The suit charged Maddow with defamation because she accurately reported the network’s association with Russian connected media. From the start it was a meritless case that had no hope of success.

Donald Trump, OAN

OAN’s lawsuit was triggered by a segment on Maddow’s program that revealed that an OAN correspondent, Kristian Rouz, also reported for the Kremlin owned and operated network, Sputnik. Maddow correctly observed that…

“In this case, the most obsequiously pro-Trump right-wing news outlet in America really literally is paid Russian propaganda. Their on-air U.S. politics reporter is paid by the Russian government to produce propaganda for that government.”

In May 2020, the case was thrown out by a U.S. District judge who ruled that “there was no set of facts that could support a claim for defamation based on Maddow’s statement.” In support of that opinion the judge noted that OAN never actually alleged that the facts were defamatory or even that they were in dispute. The ruling affirmed Maddow’s protections under the Constitution’s First Amendment, stating that her commentary consisted of allowable opinion based on truthful and verifiable information.

Now OAN has lost their appeal of that ruling in a federal appeals court. What’s more, OAN has been ordered to pay $250,000 to MSNBC for legal fees. According to the Daily Beast…

“Fringe right-wing network One America News lost the appeal of its defamation suit against MSNBC and star host Rachel Maddow on Tuesday, with a panel upholding a previous federal court ruling against OAN that required them to pay $250,000 of the defendants’ legal fees.

“OAN, owned by Herring Networks, initially sued Maddow for $10 million in July 2019 after the MSNBC star said on her show that the Trump-boosting network is “paid Russian propaganda,” calling her remarks ‘malicious and utterly false.'”

Why OAN ever sought to file this suit in the first place is curious. They knew that their “reporter” was a Russian Sputnik stooge. They knew that Maddow merely reported that fact. And considering the torrent of falsehoods that are broadcast on OAN everyday, you would think they they would be hesitant to draw attention to their unsavory relationship with Russian shills.

Furthermore, OAN has been disseminating Russian propaganda in their regular programming by latching on to Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him. That’s precisely the same narrative that Russia uses to undermine faith in American democracy. Their extremism has gone so far as to actually call for the execution of Trump critics.

This failed lawsuit by OAN is not their only legal tribulation. They are also being sued by Dominion voting Systems for defamation in a multibillion dollar case that includes Fox News as a defendant.

OAN is well aware of the legal jeopardy they face, as they demonstrated when they ran a hysterical “disclaimer” prior to a program featuring the MyPillow guy, Mike Lindell, asserting that he had “Absolute Proof” of election fraud. He didn’t. And yet, OAN is still embracing Lindell and Trump and their election lies. This is going to cost them bigly before it’s through.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Devin Nunes Sues NBC Because Rachel Maddow Revealed His Affairs With Russian Agents

Posted by on August 4, 2021 at 10:30 am. 3 Comments :

Republican Rep. Devin Nunes has distinguished himself as one of Congress’ most mockable characters. He’s the sort of representative who believes that being asked if he wants a straw by a waitress is a sure sign of socialism. So what does a serially litigious Republican gadfly like Nunes do after he’s lost an embarrassing lawsuit against an imaginary cow on Twitter?

Rachel Maddow

Well, now that a court has ordered Nunes to “Don’t have a cow, man,” he is tilting at a new legal windmill that he believes is a cancer on his already tawdry reputation. Bloomberg News is reporting that…

“California Republican Congressman Devin Nunes sued NBCUniversal Media alleging that MSNBC’s liberal talk show host Rachel Maddow defamed him with on-air suggestions he’d conspired with a Russian agent to rig the 2016 presidential election for Donald Trump.

“Nunes, who is the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, says Maddow has repeatedly targeted him with defamatory statements that accuse him of obstruction of justice and treason.”

In other words, Nunes is suing NBC because Rachel Maddow reported accurately about his unsavory relationships with Russian operatives, and his complicity with using disinformation to smear Joe Biden in order to prop up Donald Trump’s dwindling election prospects. Nunes is seeking unspecified damages for “insult, pain, embarrassment, humiliation, mental suffering and injury to his reputation.” Based on that enumeration of alleged harm, Nunes should be suing himself.

For some reason Nunes filed this complaint in federal court in Sherman, Texas, despite the fact that he represents a district in California, and NBC is headquartered in New York. Do you think he’s “venue shopping” this silliness? Where else could he hope for a favorable verdict in this quixotic adventure?

Nunes must know that he doesn’t have a prayer of prevailing. Particularly when there is virtually nothing of substance on which to hang his case. The commentary Maddow delivered hewed closely to the known facts at the time of her broadcast. And the truth is a valid defense in a defamation case. Maddow correctly reported that…

“Last summer, Democrats on the Intelligence Committee in the house learned that that same guy, Derkach, had mailed a stack of unknown materials to a Republican congressman named Devin Nunes, who is the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee to this day. Andriy Derkach is sanctioned by the U.S. government as a Russian agent. He is singled out by name by the Director of National Intelligence as someone under Vladimir Putin‘s direct purview who helped run this operation targeting our election last year.

None of that is even being disputed by Nunes. His case rests on Maddow’s assertion that he failed to turn the suspicious package from the Russian agent over to the FBI, or even share it with his colleagues on the Intelligence Committee. However that was true when she reported it. Given that he has no case, it will be interesting see how discovery shakes out, if Nunes even allows it to go that far.

In addition to ludicrous and failed suits against Twitter for satirical accounts pretending to be his mother and his cow, Nunes has also filed unsuccessful, multi-million dollar suits against the Washington Post (which was dismissed), Esquire (which was thrown out), McClatchy (which was dropped), and CNN. With regard to the action against CNN, Nunes not only lost, but his attorney was sanctioned and ordered to pay CNN $21,000 for filing a frivolous defamation claim.

All of this makes the anticipation for the latest Nunes legal battle more exciting. He seems to be impervious to shame as he continues to humiliate himself in courts across the country. And in the end, all he succeeds in doing is reminding everyone about his potentially treasonous dalliances with Russia and his efforts to subvert democracy. So hopefully, he keeps it up.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Desperate and Delusional Trump Resurrects the Zombie ‘Big Lie’ of Voter Fraud

Posted by on April 23, 2021 at 5:18 pm. 7 Comments :

STOP THE MADNESS! It seems that Donald Trump is still pining away in his Mar-a-Lago bunker, trying to convince himself – and any fractured soul who will listen – that he really did win the 2020 presidential election, despite the fact every analysis in every state by every political party proves otherwise. He simply can’t handle being America’s Biggest Loser.

Donald Trump, King

Now, three months after Joe Biden was inaugurated, five months after the election, Trump continues to cling pathetically to his warped version of reality. Upon having learned that a group of conspiracy crackpots succeeded in getting the Arizona Senate to allow them to conduct a recount of the Maricopa County votes, Trump weighed in with his usual impotent bombast. In a “press release“ (since he’s been banished from most social media due to his promulgation of pathological lies), Trump wrote that…

“So many people would like to thank the brave and patriotic Republican State Senators from Arizona for the incredible job they are doing in exposing the large scale Voter Fraud which took place in the 2020 Presidential Election. Their tireless efforts have led to a massive recount, ballot examination, and full forensic audit, undertaken by experts retained by the State Senate, with results to be announced within six weeks.”

For the record, Trump’s loss in Arizona is not in dispute. There were two recounts that validated the results. The election board, consisting of four Republicans and one Democrat, certified the results. The “brave and patriotic Republican State Senators” Trump is referring to are actually just a gang of partisan thugs hoping to discredit the American electoral process. That’s a goal that Republicans share with Russian operatives who have been trying to do the same thing.

There is absolutely zero evidence of any voter fraud, large scale or not. And this recount isn’t going to find any using legitimate methods. Unfortunately, they don’t intend to use any legitimate methods. The firm hired by the Arizona GOP Senate is one that has been conspicuously involved in some of the most bizarre conspiracy theories circulating in Trump’s QAnon infested world. Rachel Maddow covered it in depth on Thursday night:

Trump went on to whine that Democrats had “sent 73 lawyers to Arizona in an effort to stop this recount,.” Which of course wasn’t true. But Democrats did file a motion to challenge it. Trump further claimed that the Arizona recount would eventually result in fraud being discovered in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. Once again, he has no shred of evidence to support any of that. However, he was pleased that the recount would be covered live by the brazenly biased purveyor of propaganda, One America News Network (OANN).

Trump’s press release went on to criticize Arizona’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, and the mostly GOP County Commissioners, who he alleged were all accomplices in the “scam 2020 Election” because, of course they are. And he insisted that “We must never allow this to happen to our Great Country again. [and that] I predict the results will be startling!”

Trump’s prediction is the surest way of knowing that the whole affair is corrupt. He certainly knows who the players are and has been given assurances that they will produce the outcome he wants. None of this, however, will change the outcome of the election. Biden will remain President and Trump remain pathetic. But it is just this sort of dishonesty that ignited the violence at the Capitol on January 6th. And Trump and his cronies seem to be anxious to have more of it.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Rachel Maddow Topped All Cable News Programs for the 1st Quarter of 2021

Posted by on March 31, 2021 at 4:03 pm. 6 Comments :

One of the more pompous predictions of the former guy (Donald Trump) was that without him “all forms of media will tank.” Although there is some truth to that in the sense that he attracted eyeballs in the same way that a bloody highway crash does. He insisted on constantly being the center of attention even if that meant making a fool of himself, which he did more often than not.

Rachel Maddow

However, what Trump failed to predict was the rise of progressive media and particularly MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. Her performance has been a bright light in a media environment that has been shrouded by a global pandemic. During the first quarter of 2021, Maddow rose to become the number one cable news program, beating her competition on the prior leader, Fox News. For part of the quarter Maddow was the number one program on all of cable, not just cable news. She marked that milestone on March 3rd:

During the quarter Fox News was the biggest loser, having dropped 40 percent into third place behind both MSNBC and CNN. By comparison CNN was off 32 Percent, and MSNBC fell only 19 percent. It isn’t surprising that viewership was down this year. It was being compared to an unusually eventful prior year that was bombarded with profoundly significant developments like the pandemic, the second impeachment, and the presidential election.

This year by contrast has been languid, in the most pleasant way. President Biden has sought to make his policies the story, rather than himself. The ponderous presence of a psychotic narcissist has been banished from Washington, although it still emits it’s pitiful, emasculated roars from its new lair in Palm Beach. This sea change is a big plus for journalism. As Tom Jones at the Poynter Institute noted…

“Now, for the most part, Trump can be ignored. Which means stories that really matter can be covered. Maybe it won’t draw the audience we’ve seen in the past, but it will be important.”

The standings in the ratings are likely to be volatile in the coming months, Fox News may regain its leading post when viewers who abandoned it for more radical pastures (Newsmax, OANN) return. They may find those other outlets tiresome, specious, and devoid of substance. And Trump isn’t around to promote them anymore.

Fox’s CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, is confidant that Fox News ratings will increase because its viewers will appreciate Fox’s unethical commitment to right-wing propaganda. Murdoch recently admitted that Fox’s role is to be “the opposition” to Biden and the Democrats, saying “That’s what our job is now with the Biden administration, and you’ll see our ratings really improve from here.”

Maybe. But the fact that MSNBC and Rachel Maddow prevailed during one of the most competitive seasons in modern times is evidence that many viewers hunger for honest and informative reporting. Fox’s approach to journalism as an ultra-conservative confirmation bias generator can only succeed on a temporary basis. And its reporting will have no lasting impact anywhere other than in the minds of the indoctrinated wingnuttery.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Fox News CEO Murdoch Admits that the Network Opposes Biden – For Ratings

Posted by on March 5, 2021 at 1:39 pm. 18 Comments :

When Fox News launched twenty-six years ago, its mission was to advance the interests of conservatives and Republicans, and to serve as a partisan counterweight to credible news enterprises and honest journalists. While that was no secret, it’s founders – right-wing newspaper magnate Rupert Murdoch and GOP media consultant Roger Ailes – pretended to be “fair and balanced,” a slogan that falsely implied that other news operations were not (and which Fox ditched four years ago).

Fox News, Joe Biden

This week Rupert’s son, Lachlan Murdoch, who is now the network’s CEO, spoke at a Morgan Stanley investor conference where he said the quiet parts out loud. Apparently, in the Era of Trump and QAnon, it is no longer necessary to veil their biases in cheesy slogans. Murdoch said that…

“‘The main beneficiary of the Trump administration from a ratings point of view was MSNBC … and that’s because they were the loyal opposition,’ Murdoch said of the rival cable network. ‘That’s what our job is now with the Biden administration, and you’ll see our ratings really improve from here.'” […]

“‘Seventy-five million people voted for a Republican president, sometimes in spite of his personality at times,’ Murdoch said. ‘That’s what we represent. We’re going to stick to the center-right. That’s where our audience is.'”

Murdoch was obviously making excuses for the fact that, since the election last November, Fox News has slipped to third place in the cable news wars, behind MSNBC and CNN. Rachel Maddow is now the number one program in all of cable, not just cable news:

However, Murdoch’s explanation is peculiar in that he is also admitting that Fox News is “the loyal opposition” to the the administration of President Joe Biden. That’s wholly inappropriate from a journalistic ethics standpoint. Plus, it implies that they were affirmatively supporting Donald Trump for the past four years. Of course, anyone with a functioning cerebrum knew this, but it was rarely stated explicitly in public by Fox News executives.

What’s more, Murdoch is also saying that the reasons for his network’s blatant bias is for ratings. That’s also improper in the news business, where truth is the standard to which honest journalists aspire. Truth, of course, was the first casualty of Fox’s mangling of the reporter’s craft.

And as if that weren’t bad enough, Murdoch went on to concede the repugnant nature of Trump’s personality, or lack thereof. Yet he is still supporting him because of the voters he hopes to keep as viewers. Murdoch outright slams Trump’s noxious demeanor and, in the same sentence, declares that that’s what Fox News represents, and will continue doing so.

The position that Murdoch is taking is not acceptable for any enterprise that purports to be in the news business. And while he seemingly spoke for MSNBC, NBC didn’t appreciate that presumptuousness:

“A spokesperson for NBCUniversal News Group, which includes NBC News and MSNBC, said in response that ‘our role, and the role of any legitimate news organization — whether it includes an ‘opinion section’ or not — is to hold power to account, regardless of party.'”

And therein lies the difference between Fox News and its competitors. While other news networks may have opinions, they are based on facts and applied uniformly. At Fox News their overt negativity is always aimed the Democrats and the liberals whom they regard as enemies (as conveniently illustrated by Tucker Carlson) this week. Fox’s extreme political prejudice has even irritated other members of the Murdoch family. Lachlan’s big brother James complained about the “toxic” politics practiced by Fox News:

“Those outlets that propagate lies to their audience have unleashed insidious and uncontrollable forces that will be with us for years. […] Spreading disinformation – whether about the election, public health or climate change – has real world consequences.”

That pretty much says it all. And it comes from a source that is embedded well inside the Fox bubble. Unfortunately, James has nothing to do with the network any more, other than being a shareholder. But when Daddy Murdoch is “off the air” that may change. And then, so may Fox.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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