Fox & Friends

After Manic Meltdown on Fox and Friends, Trump Says He Wants to Come Back Once a Month

Posted by on April 27, 2018 at 1:24 pm. NO Comments :

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result, then Donald Trump is institutionalizing insanity as a standard operating doctrine for his presidency. Throughout his term in office he has stubbornly clung to blatant lies and policy proposals that defy logic or reason, even after he has been apprised of the errors in his alleged thinking.

Fox News, Kellyanne Conway

On Thursday morning Trump called in to Fox News to frantically unravel in a half hour interview – or more accurately, a frothing tantrum – with his fawning Fox and Friends. In the course of the spectacle, Trump admitted that he lied about how long he was Russia; threw his lawyer, Michael Cohen, under a freight train; contradicted his prior claim that he knew nothing about the Stormy Daniels affair; threatened to interfere with Justice Department activities and personnel; declared James Comey guilty of something or other; and lashed out at Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and, of course, the media. He was so deranged that the hosts actually struggled to interrupt his extended outburst and eventually cut him off.

The consensus reaction to the segment from across the media was that Trump was “unhinged,” “shocking,” “bonkers,” “bizarre,” “jaw-dropping,” “unwieldy,” “crazy,” “surreal.” And those were the more diplomatic descriptions. It was so awful that retired Four Star US Army General Barry McCaffrey tweeted that he is “Worried about health of Pres Trump.” Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’ attorney, said that “the President should appear on Fox and Friends every morning.” And he just might get his wish.

Trump’s White House counselor, Kellyanne Conway, visited Fox and Friends on Friday morning and the subject of Trump’s appearance the day before naturally came up. Ordinarily it wouldn’t be surprising for a paid shill to fiercely defend the President, but under these circumstances it might have been better to let the memory of this public breakdown subside. Instead, Conway doubled down in a bigly way. After conceding that Trump is “a tough act to follow with yesterday’s interview,” the creator of “alternate facts” proceeded directly to her alternate universe (video below):

Conway: The president had a great time bringing his case directly to the American people, as he does on social media and in these bilateral Q & A’s certainly at the south lawn, and in the press pool sprays, and with other interviews. And the president has said that he would like to, perhaps, come once a month and as news breaks.
Doocy: Wait. Come to Fox and Friends once a month? (Giggling and clapping) WOW!
Kilmeade: Alright. Fantastic. That’d be great.
Conway: He said he’d like to replicate that on pretty much a monthly basis. And you know, back in the private sector he was on every week. Every Monday.

Indeed. Trump did have a weekly call-in segment on Fox and Friends, prior to seeking the presidency, called “Mondays with Trump.” It was the launching pad that Fox News provided for Trump’s future political campaign. But after Thursday’s debacle, it’s unfathomable how anyone could suggest that they would want to “replicate” that epic embarrassment. Only in Trump World could someone get a pie in the face, slip on a banana peel, into a pile of manure, with their pants falling down, and think “Gee, we should do this once a month.”

Also during Trump’s interview, he gave himself an A+ for his performance in office. It’s that sort of self-delusion that makes it possible for him and his disciples to pretend that a nationally broadcast catastrophe was a huge PR success. But if he is determined to have a regular gig at Fox again, he should know that there’s a lot of support for him to do that – among Democrats. Go for it, Donnie.

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

https://youtu.be/hZ8eEH9xqUE

Psycho Trump Goes on Fox and Friends to Prove Conclusively that Fox News is State-Run TV

Posted by on April 26, 2018 at 2:02 pm. 7 Comments :

In the past fifteen months Donald Trump has provided abundant evidence that he is an unqualified fruitcake with crackpot tendencies. His mental health has been plausibly questioned by professionals in the psychiatric field. Much of that evidence came straight from his speeches and the few interviews he has given to friendly media. But on Thursday morning on Fox News he really outdid himself.

Fox and Friends

Trump was actually returning to his roots with a call-in interview on Fox and Friends, Prior to seeking the presidency Trump had a regular spot on the program called “Mondays with Trump.” So with this homecoming he should have been expected to feel comfortable with the “Curvy Couch” potatoes who helped launch his political career. The problem is that he may have felt too comfortable.

This was not so much an interview as a half hour of unbridled lunacy, with Trump lashing out at every perceived enemy that came to mind. He blasted Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, James Comey, the Justice Department, Democrats, the Mueller investigation, and, of course, the “fake” news. If he were a transient on a downtown corner spouting off like this he would have been picked up and taken to the nearest psyche ward. It was an unprecedented and frightening spectacle.

The entire segment is worth watching if you have a strong stomach. In parts he admitted to previous lies, like how long he was Russia. He also contradicted a prior statement about his knowledge of Michael Cohen’s hush money payout to Stormy Daniels. In fact, pretty much played the “Michael who?” card by saying that the man who has been his personal attorney for years did very little legal work for him. It took federal prosecutors just a couple of hours for that statement to become testimony in pending litigation. And Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, reacted gleefully to the interview by saying that “I think the President should appear on Fox and Friends every morning.”

Perhaps the loopiest part of this unhinged departure from sanity was when Trump went on an extended rant against the media. It was a sight to behold. Equal parts hostility toward legitimate journalists and unswerving devotion to Fox News. This is incontrovertible proof that Trump and Fox have sworn a blood oath of loyalty (video below):

Trump: The people have to understand how dishonest the news is. And in all fairness to Fox, you guys don’t always treat me great. But you treat me fairly. It’s not like Fox is perfect for me. They’re not. They’re tough. But at least it’s fair. When you look at some of the others, you look at CNN, they’ll have a council of seven people, and of the seven people, every one of them is against me. I’m saying where do they even find these people?
Kilmeade: I’m not your doctor Mr. President, but I would recommend you watch less of them.
Trump: I don’t watch them at all.
Doocy: That makes it easy.

Trump thinks that Fox News is tough on him? No wonder he won’t be interviewed by anyone else. He’s frozen with fear of real questions that would require intelligence and thoughtful analysis to answer. That’s why he has not had a solo press conference in over a year. And he hasn’t given an interview to an unfriendly network in nearly as long.

It’s startling that he thinks that CNN’s political panels are all anti-Trumpers. Apparently he missed the sycophantic stylings of Jason Miller, Paris Dennard, Jack Kingston, Kayleigh McEnany, Ken Cuccinelli, Mike Shields, Ben Ferguson, etc. I’m also saying “Where do they even find these people.” And it’s cute that Brian Kilmeade suggests that Trump watch less of CNN and, presumably, more of Fox. But Trump seems to be way ahead of him. However, his assertion that he doesn’t watch CNN at all flies in the face of his own comments.

Trump: I watched last night, I tell you why. I watched leakin’, lyin’, Comey last night, and I hated to do it. You know, one of the reasons people say “You’re still lookin’ good, Mr. President. How do you do it?” Well, one of the things I’ve been able to do, which is something I never thought I had the ability – I would always watch – when I was – frankly now I don’t have time for two reasons: There’s too much, and I don’t have time.

Who is telling Trump that he looks good? That’s just cruel. But it’s interesting that Trump has two reasons that he doesn’t have time to watch CNN, and one of them is that he doesn’t have time.

Trump: But I would watch, whether it’s good or bad, I would always watch. I have an ability – I don’t watch NBC anymore. They’re as bad as CNN. I don’t – and by the way, I made them a fortune with The Apprentice. Think of that one.
Doocy: Your alma mater.
Trump: No, but I made them a fortune. You would think that these guys would treat me great. I made them a fortune, so they treat me horribly. And they treat me falsely.

Trump seems to believe that if the entertainment division of a media corporation earns money from his program, the news division is obligated to report only positive stories. Like everything else in Trump’s life, he thinks he can just buy the kind of coverage he wants. And the Fox News hosts didn’t disagree with him.

Trump: But just one thing, I don’t watch things that I can put it out of my mind. And I never, ever thought that that would be possible. And you know what that does? It keeps you on the ball. It keeps you – you keep your sanity. And it works very well. But last night I did watch a liar, leaker and his performance, by the way, was horrible.

Somewhere in this word salad of Trumpian blathering he thinks he represents a sane man simply observing the media. Or not doing so, as he is now insisting. He even expects people to believe that he can put negative news out of his mind. And if this interview is supposed to be an example of that, he really is out of his mind.

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

Trolling Trump? ‘Rule of Law’ Republicans Run Ad Defending Mueller During Fox And Friends

Posted by on April 11, 2018 at 12:52 pm. 1 Comments :

The Republican Party has demonstrated that they have little to no courage when it comes to mitigating the harm that Donald Trump causes to their party, the nation, and the world. At every turn they’ve had his back, whether it was regarding breaches of the Constitution, sexual harassment and assault, infantile tantrums on Twitter, and especially colluding with Russia to subvert democracy and obstructing justice.

Donald Trump Robert Mueller

Efforts by Congress to reign in Trump’s worst instincts have been suppressed by congressional leaders like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. Bipartisan bills have been drafted to insure that Trump does not move to fire special counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in a vain attempt shield himself from the consequences of his illegal activities. But those bills have been bottled up and, although there are sufficient votes for them to pass, the GOP leaders won’t allow them to come to the floor. Not only that, but Americans don’t want Mueller fired 69 percent to 13 percent. And that includes a majority (55%) of Republicans. Even a Twitter poll by Fox’s Lou Dobbs opposed firing Mueller (70% to 25%).

However, there now seems to be a growing assortment of GOP politicians and pundits whose disgust with the President can no longer be contained. They have launched an initiative seeking to protect Mueller from the vengeful Wrath of Trump. The “Rule of Law Republicans“ include some of the most prominent party members, office holders and media. Their website features quotes from many of them that strongly support the work of the special counsel, including Sen. Mike Lee, Sen. Ben Sasse, Rep. Trey Gowdy, Sen. John McCain, former Gov. Chris Christie, and National Review editor Rich Lowry, to name a few. In addition to the website, the group purchased ad time to run commercials like this one:

In a particularly inspired bit of programming, they bought airtime during Donald Trump’s favorite Fox News show, Fox and Friends, in the Washington, D.C. market. They know that Trump watches the show every morning, often live-tweeting what he sees. So it’s safe to say that Trump saw the ad. And since he relies more on Fox News than the combined resources of his White House staff, cabinet and intelligence agencies, they hope that this will be a way to influence his future behavior. That may be somewhat optimistic, but it’s as good a strategy as any other.

The urgency to protect Mueller escalated significantly after the U.S. Attorney’s office raided the home and offices of Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. He immediately tweeted that “Attorney–client privilege is dead!” and called the probe “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!” On Wednesday morning’s regularly scheduled tweetstorm, Trump lashed out saying that:

Of course the inhabitants of the Real World know that all of the top managers of the inquiry (Mueller, Rosenstein, A.G. Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Chris Wray) are life long Republicans. What’s more, they were all appointed by Trump. So his accusation that Mueller is the “most conflicted of all” is not only delusional, it should be seen as a bright, high-flying red flag declaring his desire and intention to terminate Mueller.

Democrats have been concerned about Mueller’s status for months. Only now are a significant number of Republicans joining those who worry that Trump will pull the trigger. What’s funny is that there is also new outcry among conservatives that Democrats are trying to goad Trump into firing Mueller. Apparently they think that demanding that Trump leave Mueller alone is a sophisticated reverse psychology scheme by crafty leftists to get him to do the opposite. How insidious those Democrats are. But Media Matters has compiled evidence of who is actually trying to force Trump to act against Mueller. And it’s mostly people on Fox News:

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

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

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

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

Donald Trump

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fox News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sean Hannity Lost What Was Left of His Alleged Mind in Bonkers Fox and Friends Spot

Posted by on March 19, 2018 at 3:08 pm. 4 Comments :

Some things just have to be seen to be believed – and even then it’s not always believable. Other times it takes too strong a stomach to even sit through the unbelievable thing. Sean Hannity of Fox News has generously provided examples of all of the above.

Fox News Sean Hannity

On Monday morning Hannity visited his colleagues at Fox and Friends to unload a pile defenses for his beleaguered Messiah, Donald Trump. The world around the President must seem to be falling apart as new revelations concerning his unsavory connections to Russia keep spilling out. Trump himself is in pure panic mode and is posting tweets that affirm his guilty conscience. So he is in dire need of a valiant defender to come to his aid. Unfortunately, all he has is the Doofus Squad on Fox and Friends and Sean Hannity.

Hannity’s segment with the “Curvy Couch” potatoes went off the rails from the start. What follows is his run-on, addled-brain meltdown just as it occurred on the air. Buckle in (video below):

“You’ve got the whole issue of Christopher Steele. You know, all this talk about Trump/Russia collusion, the only person that colluded in that campaign with the Russians, was Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton bought and paid for what turned out to be Russian lies. She fixes a primary election against Bernie. Then Hillary has a criminal investigation fixed for her. She tries to use Russian lies she pays for and funnels through Perkins Coie to Fusion GPS to hire a British foreign outsider who uses Russian contacts. Then the worst part of this whole story is then that unverified uncorroborated dossier is then brought before a FISA court when a FISA application, and three subsequent renewal applications to spy on a campaign associate and ostensibly the Trump campaign. Nobody told that judge, or any of those four judges, how it’s possible that Hillary paid for that. They never told them.”

And inhale. Before anyone hurts themselves trying to absorb that, here is a brief summary: Hillary Clinton bought a dossier on Trump that was mean.

That’s really all there is to it. Hannity just repeated the same issues with different words for two minutes. And none of it was true. Neither Clinton nor her campaign colluded with Russians. They did partially fund research that was started by the right-wing Free Beacon. And the firm that conducted the research hired a respected former British intelligence professional to collect information from Russian sources.

And what Hannity calls “the worst part of this whole story” was a blatant lie. Much, but not all, of the Steele dossier was verified. None of of it was found to be false. The FISA court was, in fact, told that the dossier was partially funded by political partisans. Even Devin Nunes, who chaired the hopelessly biased Intelligence Committee inquiry, admitted that in his Republican report. And it was not the sole – or even main – justification for the FISA warrant. What’s more, Hannity proves that he doesn’t understand the FISA application process. The renewals are required every ninety days and may not use justifications that were cited in previous applications. So the dossier could only have been used once, not four times.

Sadly, the people who watch Hannity and Fox and Friends will never be told about these factual details. They will only hear the rapid-fire allegations that they can’t logically follow, and the fear in Hannity’s voice. And that will be enough for them to be certain that these crackpot conspiracy theories are true. After all, the glassy-eyed disciples of Trump are no more sane than Hannity is.

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

This is ‘Real’ News? Fox and Friends Interview with Diamond and Silk Descends Into Lunacy

Posted by on March 18, 2018 at 1:35 pm. 2 Comments :

Last June Fox News retired their classic slogan “fair and balanced.’ It has taken nearly a year for them to come up with a new one. But earlier this month they revealed it to be “Real News, Real Honest Opinion.” Their promo promised that “It’s about to get REAL.” Which kind of implies that it’s been bullshit up until mow.

Trump Diamond and Silk

An example of what Fox regards as “Real News’ was on display Sunday morning on Fox and Friends. The “Curvy Couch” potatoes aired a segment about the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. That’s a serious issue and demands serious attention and thoughtful analysis. So naturally Fox and Friends turned to YouTube vloggers Diamond and Silk.

For those of you who are unaware of this dynamic duo, they are African-American sisters who were confirmed nobodies until they pledged their unquestioning allegiance to Donald Trump. At that point they were snatched up by Fox News and other right-wing media as representatives of the black Republican perspective. Since polls show that Trump is viewed favorably by only about three percent of African-American voters, D&S made a profitable choice to become among the few black supporters of Trump in the media. They join such intellectual icons as Herman Cain and Omarosa as Fox News regulars.

On Sunday’s episode of Fox and Friends, the subject of McCabe’s abrupt dismissal after more than twenty years of service to his country came up and the insight of D&S was sought out (video below). The pair, who seem to perform only as a twosome, began their predictably negative harangue in harmony by complaining that McCabe has been offered work by Democrats in congress so that he can preserve his pension:

Diamond: What we don’t understand is how is it that the Democrats wanna offer McCabe a job so he can have money in his pocket, but they wouldn’t even come to the table for law abiding Americans to make sure we had money in our pockets. What are the Democrats trying to hide? What do McCabe have over the Democrats’ head? What are they covering up? Are they colluding? Maybe we need to bring in a special prosecutor to watch the Democrats and McCabe. Because we know Mueller is gonna turn a blind eye. That’s what I think.
Silk: And it sounds like a kickback, patty whack, give a dog a bone kinda deal.

If that sounds like the Real Housewives of Trumplandia rattling off cliched talking points, that’s because it was. Most of it had nothing to do with the question at hand. They just wanted to rant about Democrats covering up – who knows what, and colluding with – who knows who. So they shoehorned it into their routine. For the record, it’s the Democrats who have been working to put money into the pockets of the American people through increases in the minimum wage and tax reform that favors the working and middle classes rather than the rich and corporations. But D&S aren’t especially concerned with facts.

The rest of the segment was spent attacking MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle for making a trivial comment that Fox Christianists blew up into an unholy abomination. Ruhle merely expressed some curiosity at Trump’s choice for chief economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, suggesting that the decision was “God’s will.” That led to a couple of minutes of of outright sermonizing. And of course, the conclusion by D&S was that Democrats “despise Christianity.”

So Fox News spent nearly four minutes interviewing these ignorant blowhards who have no qualifications whatsoever to provide political analyses. That puts them in the same boat as most of Fox’s hosts and contributors. Almost none of them came to their roles with any experience in journalism or political science. And yet Fox now wants to characterize itself as the network of “real news.” But with cartoon characters like Diamond and Silk weighing in on matters as important as the President’s collusion with Russia to tamper with our elections, and obstruction of justice, they must have a very twisted definition of reality. Stay tuned for their a riveting debate on gun reform between Sean Hannity and Ted Nugent. Followed by a probing discussion of North Korea’s nukes with Happy Days’ Chachi, Scott Baio.

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

Larry Kudlow is the Latest Contestant on Trump’s Reality TV Game Show Presidency

Posted by on March 14, 2018 at 3:06 pm. 3 Comments :

The mayhem at the White House is continuing as Donald Trump’s behavior gets ever more frantic and irrational. in the past few hours he has fired his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, the State Department’s top diplomacy aide, Steve Goldstein, and his personal assistant, John McEntee. There are rumblings from insiders that Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, and Veterans Administration director David Shulkin are also on the chopping block.

Fox News Trump Apprentice

As these vacancies open up, Trump will have the opportunity to name new appointees that will be better supplicants to his will. That has already played out with his nomination of current CIA director Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson. And the news on Wednesday is that Trump has picked CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow to succeed the fired Gary Cohn as his chief economic advisor.

By selecting Kudlow, Trump is continuing a pattern of bringing television personalities into his administration. Mostly they have been from Fox News and include K.T. McFarland, Ben Carson, Sebastian Gorka, Richard Grennell, and Jonathan Wachtel. Former Fox and Friends co-host, Heather Nauert, was also tapped by Trump to be the State Department spokesperson last year. And now she has already been promoted to replace Goldstein. Her entire career has been with Fox News and she has no diplomatic experience whatsoever.

The departure of Trump’s communications director, Hope Hicks, last month has set off a flurry of speculation as to who would fill her shoes. Among those being considered is Fox News co-host of The Five, Kimberly Guilfoyle. She has been on deck for a Trump slot for quite a while. And another Fox and Friends host, Pete Hegseth, is reportedly being wooed to lead the Veterans Administration should Shulkin get tossed. Prior to joining Fox, Hegseth headed up a Koch brothers front group that pretended to advocate for veterans. But he has zero experience running a massive bureaucracy like the VA, nor has he ever worked in the health services field that comprises much of what the VA does.

Trump’s National Security Advisor, McMaster, is also teetering on the brink. His successor is rumored to be another Fox News contributor, John Bolton. He served in George Bush’s state department and as Ambassador to the United Nations. Consequently Bolton played a major role in the fabricated weapons of mass destruction excuses to invade Iraq, as well as in the disastrous administration of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obviously Trump is most comfortable working with TV personalities. It seems like his entire pool of possible job applicants come from the ranks of people he’s seen on Fox or other programs. His experience is so bereft of substance that he can’t possibly know anyone that has actual credentials in the jobs he needs to fill. And he wouldn’t want them anyway because they might not be photogenic. As a result, America will be burdened with shallow, unqualified amateurs running government agencies whose work affects us all. But at least they’ll look good when they sit down for softball interviews with Sean Hannity.

This is what Fox’s Laura Ingraham considers Trump “hitting his stride,” and “getting a really strong team in place.” And coincidentally, that’s exactly how Trump sees it. On Tuesday he explained to reporters that these White House shake-ups were just the normal fine tuning of personnel. “I’m really at a point,” he said, “where we’re getting very close to having the Cabinet, and other things, that I want.” That’s after a year in office where all of his original appointments were also his choices, but apparently not what he wanted. Ironically, not having the leadership one wants is something most Americans can relate to right now.

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

Fox News Lies: Trump’s Border Wall Can Be Paid for By Cutting Welfare – Still Not By Mexico

Posted by on March 12, 2018 at 3:10 pm. 1 Comments :

When Donald Trump spoke at the rally in Pennsylvania for some GOP candidate whose name he barely mentioned, Trump naturally launched into a medley of his campaign’s greatest hits. One of those most clamored for by his audience of fanatics was that old familiar refrain “Build the Wall.” And Trump didn’t disappoint his fans as he once again promised that the wall would be built “100 percent.”

Fox News Trump

The following day Fox News jumped on this critical breaking story with a report on Fox and Friends First. Host Heather Childers interviewed the Trump sycophant head of the so-called National Border Patrol Council, Brandon Judd. In Childers introduction of Judd she summarized what would be the theme of the whole segment:

“A brand new report says the wall could pay for itself by eliminating the need for welfare and other taxpayer funded benefits given to illegal immigrants.”

Wow, really? Actually, no. The report cited by Childers was published by the ultra-conservative assembly of xenophobes known as the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). It concluded that undocumented immigrants in the United States were consuming sixty-four billion dollars in federal benefits from welfare, public education and refundable tax credits. Outside of education, Childers and CIS were simply making most of that up. The immigrants in question are not eligible for welfare of any type, including ObamaCare. And how can they receive refundable tax credits if they aren’t filing tax returns? The truth is that immigrants provide far more financial benefits to the the country than anything they consume.

Through a flurry of leading questions, Judd repeated the findings from the same CIS study. And he went on to say that the wall “will cut down on what the taxpayer burden will be, which will then go straight into funding the wall.” That’s an impressively delusional statement. Let’s try to follow his logic. What Judd is saying that taxpayers would be relieved from having to pay welfare benefits for illegal immigrants (we’ll set aside for the moment that there are no such benefits). But that tax revenues would instead be shifted to paying for Trump’s wall. So contrary to Judd’s comment, there is no reduction in the burden of the taxpayers at all.

Furthermore, Judd is conceding that it’s the taxpayers who are paying for the wall. So the lede in this story where Childers claimed that the wall would pay for itself was a lie. It would be paid for by the aforementioned taxpayers. And in that case, it would not be paid for by Mexico, as promised by the President. Judd called this “a brilliant way to go about it. And that’s the business strategy that President Trump brings to the American people.”

It’s rather ludicrous to characterize this idiocy as “brilliant.” But it’s pretty accurate to say that it’s characteristic of Trump’s business strategy. As a failed businessman who has declared bankruptcy at least six times, Trump can hardly qualify as a business expert. He is a practitioner if “Disaster Capitalism” (hat tip: Naomi Klein), who exploits his failures for his own gain at the expense of everyone he does business with. And as president, that means the American people are the chumps in his greedy game. And Fox News is his PR division that airs garbage like this interview in order to help Trump fleece the nation.

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