Fox & Friends

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.

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?

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.

foxnews-mulvaney

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.

Watch Fox News Freak Out Over Doug Jones Victory, Pretend They Never Wanted Roy Moore Anyway

Posted by on December 13, 2017 at 10:42 am. 7 Comments :

The good people of Alabama came through on Tuesday and elected the decent senate candidate (Doug Jones) rather than the racist, crackpot, pedophile (Roy Moore). That doesn’t absolve the a-holes in Alabama who voted for Moore, but it’s an encouraging sign that positive changes are coming. The only way to characterize this outcome is as a monumental transformation for a state that hasn’t elected a Democratic senator for a quarter of century.

Fox News

But leave it to Fox News to find other ways to characterize such an obviously anti-Trump, anti-Republican event. And it only took a matter of seconds for Fox to try to recast the Jones win as something positive for the GOP. Anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum were plainly unhappy with the call. Less than a minute after announcing that Jones would win the senate seat once held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Fox went into hyper-spin mode saying this (video below):

MacCallum: “You know there was a lot of discussion about whether a Roy Moore win would be a win, really, for the GOP. And there’s some questions tonight about whether or not there’s some silver lining, perhaps, for Republicans tonight. A victory by Moore, who was embroiled in a sex scandal, might have made it more difficult for the GOP to have gained control of the Senate in next year’s midterm elections.”

There’s so much to unpack here. Let’s start with the eagerness of Fox News to abandon Moore, the candidate they have been pimping for months. They are pretending that his loss is actually what they wanted all along. If they think this will be taken this seriously, it is a bitter insult to their dimwitted viewers. However, they know their viewers best, and they are probably right. The Fox audience would need a “silver lining” or a security blanket and a binky after what happened last night.

What’s more, by virtually conceding that Moore’s “sex scandal” would have been a major obstacle to the GOP’s electoral prospects next year, they are validating the very same case against Donald Trump. Actually, not quite the same. Trump has been accused by more women of more repulsive acts of harassment and abuse. If Fox News thinks that Moore’s loss will make those crimes go away they are deeply delusional. They will surely work hard to bury Trump’s reprehensible behavior, but in the comment above they have recognized that it cannot, and will not, be dismissed.

Finally, MacCallum’s phrasing is curious. The GOP does not have to “gain control” of the Senate next year. They currently have control. What she might be worried about is the growing possibility of Democrats assuming control of both houses of Congress. And once again, whatever difficulty she thinks the GOP would have had with Moore in the Senate isn’t going to be resolved as long Trump is in the White House.

Speaking of Trump, he also made an effort to distance himself from Moore after the loss. He tweeted that:

There is no record of Trump ever saying that Moore would “not be able to win.” What record there is of Trump’s endorsement was deleted from his Twitter feed (here and here and here). He also deleted a tweet congratulating Moore and cheering him on to victory. Ever since Moore won the GOP primary, Trump has been behind him. He even recorded a robo-call and staged a rally just across the Alabama border in Florida to whip up support. But following Moore’s loss, Trump has unceremoniously kicked him to the curb and proclaimed the he was right all along (as he always is in his sociopathic, narcissistic imagination).

These weren’t the only kicks Moore suffered. Other Fox News hosts were equally as dismissive. Ainsley Earhardt on Trump’s favorite show, Fox and Friends, said that “This was not a referendum on Trump. I feel like it was a referendum on Harvey Weinstein.” Her fellow “Curvy Couch” potato, Todd Piro, added that he didn’t want to be a “Pollyanna,” noting that the Republicans still have a one seat majority in the senate. Isn’t that a little too obvious an expression of Republican bias, even for Fox News? And Laura Ingraham giddily opined that “Jones is a lame duck from day one. He has zero chance of winning in 2020. This state loves Trump. This is not an anti-Trump result.”

For the record, Trump’s approval rating in Alabama, according to exit polls, was a 48-48 percent split, with “strongly approve” at 32 percent and “strongly disapprove” at 41 percent. Those are catastrophic numbers for Trump and Republicans in Alabama. And Trump’s approval nationwide is even worse. But don’t expect Fox News to acknowledge that. They are on a mission to implant happy-talk in the minds of their glassy-eyed viewers who need some cheering up. That, however, won’t last long. Fox has already segued to renewed outrage over Hillary Clinton’s emails and denigrating special counsel Robert Mueller as treasonous abomination of justice. Just another day of shrill propaganda for Fox News.

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

All Foxed Up: The Humiliating Attempt By Fox News to Credit Trump for Obama’s Economy

Posted by on December 9, 2017 at 4:28 pm. 2 Comments :

It’s no secret that Fox News is the official PR division of Donald Trump’s administration. They relentlessly defend the President from any and all criticism and attack his political opponents in the most vile and dishonest terms. Fox News is worse than state-run TV. They are fully involved co-conspirators to the criminal enterprise operating out of the White House.

Fox News

Another example of just how far Fox News will go to fluff Trump occurred on his favorite TV show, Fox and Friends. This episode featured a feverishly biased “economist” who managed to get through an entire interview without citing a single economic fact. The segment began with co-host Pete Hegseth introducing a thoroughly false premise (video below):

“Under President Trump the U.S. economy continues to surge. Last month alone saw 40,000 new manufacturing jobs. Big number. And that’s just one example. But a familiar face is trying to steal President Trump’s credit.”

Hegseth’s opening was hardly fair and balanced (a slogan that Fox doesn’t use anymore). Besides cherry-picking data regarding the state of the economy, he states as a matter of fact that credit is being stolen from Trump. And the thief is, predictably, an unemployed black man. Then he plays a clip of President Obama:

“As we took these actions we saw the U.S. economy grow consistently. We saw the longest streak of job creation in American history, by far. A streak that still continues, by the way. Thanks Obama.”

Upon completion of the clip Hegseth abandons any editorial independence and asks “Shouldn’t we be thanking President Trump?” That question was thrown to University of Maryland Professor Peter Morici, who unhesitatingly agrees with Hegseth that Trump deserves all the credit for the current state of the economy. His scholarly justification for that assessment is that:

“President Obama reads from a very simple textbook of economics. All the problems in the world are caused by Republicans and when Republicans are in they cause nothing but problems.”

What’s missing from that economic analysis is anything remotely related to economics. It’s a brazenly political insult that completely avoids any factual basis. In other words, Morici has done his job as a Fox News analyst perfectly. Never get bogged down with facts when smear tactics are available.

Morici went on to concede that “during the Obama administration they created jobs, for sure,” but then he falsely asserted that it was at a slow pace. He compared Obama’s record to that of Ronald Reagan. Which makes you wonder why he didn’t bother to compare it to Trump’s. Perhaps because in the past ten months of Trump’s presidency job growth has significantly slowed. In fact, it has been the slowest ten months in over five years.

Hegseth interrupted Morici to provide additional ammunition for the argument that Trump is the savior of the American economy. He cited the thirty percent growth of the stack market (but left out that it more than doubled during the Obama years). He noted that GDP had grown in a couple of quarters by three precent (which also happened during Obama’s administration). And he praised Trump for the 4.1 percent unemployment rate (a figure that was an extension of Obama’s jobs policies).

What both Hegseth and Morici ignored is that there isn’t any Trump economy. He has done literally nothing that might have impacted any economic metrics. There has been no legislation passed relating to jobs, budget, debt, or anything else economy related. Consequently, the nation is still running on the programs put in place during Obama’s administration. The only thing that Republicans can cite as evidence of their impact is a vague claim to a “mood” in the country that has allegedly advanced the economy. So their whole argument is based on a feeling. How cute.

Morici’s closing argument was rooted firmly in typical “trickle-down” economics that have been proven repeatedly to be a right-wing hoax. And he had the gall to assert that after eight years of record growth, a continuation of the Obama plan would reduce America’s economy to that of North Korea’s. Of course, he never bothered to substantiate that bit of ultra-nonsense. And then he rattled of some of the Trumpian things he said help the economy, including tax cuts, infrastructure spending, immigration reform, and cutting entitlements. None of which have been implemented.

So in the end, Morici and Hegseth relied solely on emotional irrelevancies and their political biases to celebrate Trump’s successes that don’t exist. And somehow from that they conclude that Obama was the one stealing credit. But at least they can rest easily that their audience will believe whatever unfounded crap they dish out. That’s the benefit of having Fox News around to spread propaganda to the gullible yokels who are dumb enough to watch.

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

Fox News Escalates the War on Christmas With a Fake and Hypocritical Attack on Hillary Clinton

Posted by on December 7, 2017 at 2:28 pm. 2 Comments :

The eternal struggle over the embattled Christmas holiday continues. At least on Fox News where it originated and prospers. And as the alleged birthday of Christ approaches, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends take up their battle stations to fight once more against the forces of evil who want to destroy Christmas.

Fox News Christmas

On Thursday morning Fox and Friends suited up to face a fearsome enemy of Christmas. They aired a segment (video below) about a tree ornament that featured Hillary Clinton. The bit began with co-hosts Pete Hegseth and Ainsley Earhardt introducing a Fox News reporter who valiantly sluethed this affront to the baby Jesus:

Hegseth: This Christmas season deck the halls with Hillary Clinton. A Christmas tree topper, complete with angel wings, is turning heads online, and on this couch in my brain this morning.
Earhardt: Here with a response, blowing up social media, is Fox News Headlines 24/7 reporter Carly Shimlus.
Shimkus: People are calling this “Resistmas.” Have you heard of this? Christmas is now politically charged as well? Other people on Twitter not so sure about the whole Resistmas thing. Jack [Posobiec]on Twitter says “The Left has replaced Christmas with ‘Resistmas’ as their worship of themselves continues.”

For those unfamiliar with “Jack,” Fox News just featured a tweet by a notorious alt-right, white nationalist. Why they picked him out the all the possible Twitter commenters on this subject is obvious. Just like their Messiah, Donald Trump, they have a deeply held affinity for overt racists.

Back to the segment. The Fox News Klan were clearly disturbed by what they called the “politically charged” Christmas tree ornament. But there are a couple of big problems with that reaction. First of all, the ornament was not made or sold by Hillary Clinton or anyone associated with her in any way.

Secondly, If politicizing Christmas is so offensive, why don’t they ever complain when Trump does it? After all, he incessantly yowls about “bringing Christmas back” in a transparent attempt to exploit it as a political cudgel. Christmas, of course, has never been away. But that, like all other facts, is irrelevant to Trump and his glassy-eyed disciples. The only use Trump has for Christmas is as a means of firing up the goofballs who go to his rallies and for distracting the media from his myriad scandals.

However, the most galling part of this ludicrous segment is the flagrant hypocrisy. It took about two minutes to find Donald Trump’s blatantly political Christmas tree ornament. This ornament is not being offered by some third party profiteer. It’s actually being sold on his own website. And the message has nothing to do with Christmas, Jesus, or any other theme of the holiday season. It hypes his crass commercial slogan “Make America Great Again.” Because that’s just so Christmasy. According to the website, this tacky trinket will help his deplorables to “Get in the Christmas spirit.”

Donald Trump Christmas

The MAGA Christmas tree ornament is now selling for $45.00. That’s a substantial discount from the original price advertised in a Trump campaign donation email last year, when it cost donors $149.00. Apparently it wasn’t exactly flying off the shelves.

This is another example of Fox News going into hysterics over something pitifully lame and entirely meaningless. And in the process they lash out at their standard enemies (Clinton, Obama, Soros, Pelosi, etc.), while ignoring the far more offensive activities of their Dear Leader Donald Trump, who can do no wrong. It may seem like trivial fluff given the abundance of important issues that currently face our nation: Middle East turmoil, North Korea, terrorism, tax reform, climate change, sexual abuse, natural disasters, etc. And let’s not forget Trump’s treasonous connections to Russia and the special counsel investigating him.

But that’s the point. Fox News is using this to divert the attention of their viewers from those matters to petty concerns like Christmas tree ornaments. And what’s really sad is that they do it so very badly, but their audience is too stupid to notice.

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

Fox News Issues Rare (And Obnoxious) Correction To Fake Story About MSNBC

Posted by on December 5, 2017 at 8:42 am. NO Comments :

Sunday morning’s episode of Donald Trump’s favorite cable news show, Fox and Friends, contained a flagrant error intended to smear their competition at MSNBC. Co-host Pete Hegseth reported that MSNBC failed to cover the verdict in the Kate Steinle murder trial. This story has been a staple of Fox News propaganda aimed at demonizing undocumented immigrants. The not guilty verdict became a rallying cry at Fox News to their millions of racist viewers who believe that all immigrants are criminals.

Fox News Friends

There was just one problem. MSNBC did cover the story when it broke and for two days thereafter. The false reporting by Hegseth was uncorrected for at least twelve hours despite the network being informed of the error. Hegseth’s assertion that “MSNBC did not cover the verdict one time” was first broadcast and then disseminated tens of thousands of times across the Internet. And uncorrected references are still being retweeted.

On Monday Fox News finally got around to issuing a retraction, but not without taking a sarcastic swipe at the network they were lying about. This is what they tweeted from the Fox and Friends Twitter account:

Make no mistake, the reference to “2 minutes and 15 seconds” in a “48 hour span” was intended to belittle the coverage that MSNBC provided. In reality that is sufficient time to report the salient details of the story during time periods when viewers are awake to see it. But Fox News was more interested in mocking MSNBC than they were in sincerely correcting their dishonest reporting.

Nevertheless, getting a retraction from Fox News is so rare we might want to just be grateful for the effort no matter how grossly disingenuous. However, after acknowledging that MSNBC covered the Steinle verdict, they deleted the story and the video evidence of their lies. A copy of the clip can be seen here. What’s more, they have still not issued a correction on the air at Fox and Friends where the false report originated. To the contrary, Fox and Friends hosted Trump shill Kellyanne Conway Monday morning who actually brought up the fake MSNBC criticism (on Fox News video here at about 6:45). She repeated the lie that:

“MSNBC didn’t even cover the Kate Steinle murder verdict. Not a single moment according to your own graphic.”

None of the “Curvy Couch” potatoes bothered to inform her that what she was referencing was already determined to be untrue. That’s because it serves the interest of Fox News to allow bullshit to be freely disseminated. It’s especially repulsive considering the big deal they made out of a recent reporting error by ABC’s Brian Ross. Ross was suspended without pay for four weeks. At Fox News their lie was allowed to roam free and no one was punished. And that’s the real difference between professional journalism and Fox’s deliberately malicious fake news.

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

Trump Says Reporters Should Be Punished For Inaccurate Stories – OK, Let’s Start With Fox News

Posted by on December 3, 2017 at 3:07 pm. 8 Comments :

On Friday ABC News correspondent Brian Ross misreported a story about confessed liar, and Donald Trump’s disgraced National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn. Ross said that his sources told him that Flynn was prepared to testify that candidate Trump told him to contact the Russians. As it turned out it was during the transition, not during the campaign, that Trump told Flynn to hook up with Vladimir.

ABC News corrected the story, but the mistake cost Ross four weeks of pay and a suspension from duty. Naturally, Trump and his right-wing media mouthpieces wiggled their tails and began blasting out accusations of “fake news.” Never mind that the reaction to the error actually affirms the veracity of the so-called mainstream media. They acknowledged the mistake and punished the reporter. That’s how it’s supposed to work. Even Trump recognized that ABC deserved praise for their professionalism. He tweeted:

Setting aside Trump’s infantile and false characterization of the “Russia, Russia, Russia Witch Hunt,” his suggestion that more networks demonstrate this sort of integrity is on point. And the network that spews more lies than any other is, of course, Trump’s favorite: Fox News. It is a nearly non-stop, 24/7, fiction factory that invents slanderous stories about Democrats and liberals, while fantasizing about Trump’s Messianic reign and defending him from every criticism.

For instance, Sunday morning the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends set out to smear their competition at MSNBC. Co-host Pete Hegseth began a segment that accused the network of suppressing news about the acquittal of the defendant in the Kate Steinle murder case. Hegseth said that:

“In the days following the acquittal of the illegal immigrant responsible for Kate Steinle’s death, the media has now had a mixed response in their coverage, unsurprisingly. But one network has completely ignored it. MSNBC did not cover the verdict one time on Friday or on Saturday.”

Oh really? Apparently the Foxies don’t get out of their bubble very much. MSNBC did, in fact, report this story beginning on Thursday when it broke. Their coverage continued on Friday. It would be fair to say that it lost the “breaking” aspect after that, especially since that’s when the news of Flynn’s guilty plea was announced. Ironically, it was Fox News that is actually guilty of downplaying a bombshell report. Their primetime programs barely glanced at the Flynn story, while furiously hyping the Steinle verdict.

[Update: A tweet was posted to the Fox and Friends Twitter account acknowledging that MSNBC did cover the Steinle verdict. They subsequently deleted the story and the video, but a copy of the clip can be seen here. They have not issued an on-air retraction on Fox and Friends.]

Fox News

The examples of Fox News deliberately disseminating false information are too numerous to list here. But the fact-checkers at PolitiFact have compiled the data and found that Fox News broadcasts contain at least sixty percent false content. Think about that. Significantly more than half of what you see on Fox News are lies.

Which is why I am in complete agreement with Donald Trump with regard to more networks suspending reporters whose work is found to be inaccurate. Because if Fox News were held to that standard they would go dark for the next couple of years. And that would truly Make America Great Again.

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

Fox News Hypocritically Attacks Washington Post for Something Fox Does Repeatedly

Posted by on November 26, 2017 at 10:11 am. 4 Comments :

The spectacle of anyone at Fox News complaining about media bias is always an adventure in mind-blowing hypocrisy. The network created purposefully to disseminate right-wing propaganda has devolved into full fledged State TV during the Donald Trump administration. It’s entire schedule is populated by Trump-fluffers who unabashedly fawn over his every word and fiercely defend his innumerable lies, insults, and harmful and illegal actions.

Fox News

However, they may have outdone themselves this weekend with a segment on Trump’s favorite TV show, Fox and Friends (video below). Co-host Pete Hegseth found an article by the ultra-rightist Free Beacon that pretended to discover a covert liberal plot to meet with other liberals and talk to each other. Oh.My.God! It had all the elements of a wingnut nightmare: Nancy Pelosi, George Soros, and a representative of the lefty, mainstream, “fake” news. Hegseth stared vacantly into the camera and delivered this fearsome rant:

“A Washington Post reporter is under fire after she got caught attending a top secret meeting with the Democracy Alliance where Democratic donors were outlining their future of their progressive agenda. According to the Washington Free Beacon, that reporter, Janelle Ross, gave a presentation at the California event without notifying her superiors at the Washington Post. The paper says she’s been reminded that the Post discourages participating events that can be perceived as partisan. I wonder what would happen if the same so-called journalist attended an – I don’t know – a Koch brothers session.”

Let’s unwind this cognitive mess. First of all, the Democracy Alliance event was not “top secret.” It’s an annual affair that invites Democratic political dignitaries and donors. The notion that Pelosi, the Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, could sneak off to a clandestine gathering at a fancy resort without being noticed is just plain stupid.

The presence of the Post’s Janelle Ross may have stepped over the line of journalistic neutrality, but it was hardly a conspiracy. She’s a little known beat reporter who attended the conference on her own with full disclosure in the event’s brochure. It in no way reflects on the Washington Post organization as whole.

However, the worst part of Hegseth’s tirade was when he speculated about the reaction if a reporter were to show up at a conservative conference sponsored by famous right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers. What Hegseth somehow failed to mention was that the woman sitting next to him and co-hosting the program, Lisa Boothe, is currently being promoted as a featured speaker at an upcoming conservative conference sponsored by, among others, the Koch brothers. And it bears repeating that she’s sitting right next to him.

Turning Point USA is a right-wing operation that is reaching out to millennials. It lists its partners as the Leadership Institute, Heritage Action, and the Heartland Institute. All of these are recipients of Koch funding. A glance at the event’s advertisement reveals that Fox News is deeply embedded in the affair. And it’s not just some backbenchers. The network’s anchors are proudly attending and speaking at the conference. They include, in addition to Boothe, Jeanine Pirro, Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld, and Brian Kilmeade.

What’s more, some regular Fox News contributors and frequent guests are also on the roster. Notable names such as Tomi Lahren, Ben Shapiro, Sebastian Gorka, and Guy Benson. And let’s not leave out Trump’s inner circlers Steve Bannon (of Breitbart News), Kayleigh McEnany (RNC spokesperson), even headliner Donnie, Jr. Rounding out the team are the right’s premier scumbags Dinesh D’Zousa, Joe Walsh, James O’Keefe, and Anthony Scaramucci.

Fox News is obviously an integral part of this conservative conference. You don’t have five anchors as featured speakers without having fully signed on as partners. Fox News has not issued any statement as to their participation or indicated that it violates any internal standards (I know. “standards” and “Fox News” in the same sentence is a joke). The abundance of well known Fox associates makes the actions of WaPo’s reporter seem trivial. But Hegseth and Boothe ignoring the hypocrisy of this segment is almost too ludicrous to believe were it not on video.

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