FAILING UP: CNN Boss Chris Licht Promotes Trump Town Hall Host, Kaitlan Collins, to Primetime

Posted by Mark NC on May 17, 2023 at 12:50 pm. 5 Comments :

Last week CNN aired a town hall with Donald Trump, the twice-impeached leader of a seditionist conspiracy who was recently found liable for rape and defamation, and is currently being investigated for a multitude of crimes, including financial and tax fraud, hush money payments, hoarding classified materials, election interference, and plotting a violent coup.

Click here to Tweet this article

The town hall was broadly disparaged as an infomercial for Trump’s aspirations to return to the White House in 2024. He was given wide latitude to lie, with only paltry pushback by the moderator, Kaitlan Collins. The audience was stacked with Trump supporters who applauded his most heinous remarks and laughed when he insulted the victim of his sexual assault. The program was so awful that many insiders at CNN were among the harshest critics…

SEE THIS: How Horrible Was CNN’s Lie-Riddled Trump Town Hall? Let’s See What CNN Has to Say About It

In the days following the town hall, CNN’s ratings plummeted to fourth place, below the ultra-rightist gadfly network, Newsmax. So naturally, this week CNN is rewarding Collins for her hosting of the debacle with a new primetime show:

“On the heels of her performance moderating a town hall with former President Donald Trump, CNN CEO Chris Licht named Kaitlan Collins the new host of the network’s 9 p.m. hour starting in June.”

This schedule change was actually rumored to be in the works prior to the town hall, which was to serve as both an introduction and an advertisement for Collins in her new role. Which, in retrospect, doesn’t seem like it was a very good idea.

CNN appears to be making good on the journalistically inappropriate promise of its CEO, Chris Licht, to make the network “more Republican friendly.” They are replacing the more left-leaning journalist, Don Lemon, with Collins, a former correspondent with the Tucker Carlson founded “Daily Caller.” Never mind that Collins’ primetime debut has garnered mostly criticism and ridicule. One of the few people to praise the show was Trump himself (of course), who credited it with moving Fox News more to the right.

REALTED: Ratings Envy? Trump Says that His CNN Town Hall Spurred Fox News to Cover His Iowa Cult Rally

Perhaps Licht thinks that he can scoop up the disaffected Fox News viewers who are rapidly abandoning the network for having fired their High Priest of White Nationalism, Tucker Carlson. If so, then Licht is even dumber than Carlson looks. Fox’s audience has been trained to despise CNN, and they won’t be de-programmed by a one-night special broadcast.

As for Fox News, they are implementing some program changes as well. They just announced that Sean Hannity will be moved into Carlson’s earlier timeslot. And insiders are saying that Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld are also going to be given shows in primetime.

This presents a dilemma for Fox. There aren’t enough hours in primetime for everyone currently being talked about to have a show there. Since Hannity isn’t going anywhere, if Watters and Gutfeld get promoted, then Laura Ingraham is either fired or moved out of primetime.

All of these changes are going to inject some chaos into the cable news wars. CNN is driving viewers away by sucking up to the right. Fox News is alienating their followers by terminating their heroes. And all of that is going to create opportunities for MSNBC, whose schedule is remaining relatively stable.

It may take several weeks for all of this to shake out. But if CNN and Fox News continue to battle it out for the wingnut demographic, they will both continue to lose audience share to MSNBC and the various incarnations of “Bachelors” and “Idols” that are being served up on the broadcast networks. Stay tuned.

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Mastodon.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

Find us on Google+

Trump (and Fox News) FREAK OUT After Durham Report Turns Out to Be Another GOP Nothingburger

Posted by Mark NC on May 16, 2023 at 11:33 am. 0 Comments :

Prior to losing his job as Attorney General due to Donald Trump losing his reelection bid to President Biden, Bill Barr appointed a fellow right-wing shill, John Durham, to conduct a contrived investigation of the investigators who proved that Trump had numerous unsavory associations with Russians trying to interfere with the U.S. election. Unlike Durham’s fakery, Trump’s Russian connections are actually very well documented.

Click here to Tweet this article

Now, after four years, and millions of wasted taxpayer dollars, Durham has finally issued his conclusions in a 300 page report that is little more than the sort of ultra-conservative opinions posted by the partisan Republican press. It is more clear than ever that Durham’s mission was to manufacture fake scandals in order to discredit the legitimate investigations into Trump’s myriad criminal activities.

In the hours since the Durham report was released, Trump has been desperately trying to shape a wholly false narrative that Durham actually exonerated him. Trump was up until after 2:00am frantically posting 27 hysterical comments on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, claiming vindication. Then he was up at 6:00am to post 24 more.

That’s 51 posts, mostly of links to congressional and media Trump-fluffers. Among them were five videos from Fox News (which he said “sucks” earlier the same day), alleging totally unsupported assertions that the Justice Department and the FBI engaged in “domestic terrorism” and “election fraud,” and should be defunded. So much for the GOP backing law enforcement.

Among Trump’s frenzied outbursts in response to the Durham Nothingburger were these classic commentaries that are emblematic of his derangement…

“WOW! After extensive research, Special Counsel John Durham concludes the FBI never should have launched the Trump-Russia Probe! In other words, the American Public was scammed, just as it is being scammed right now by those who don’t want to see GREATNESS for AMERICA! “

“The Durham Report spells out in great detail the Democrat Hoax that was perpetrated upon me and the American people. This is 2020 Presidential Election Fraud, just like ‘stuffing’ the ballot boxes, only more so. This totally illegal act had a huge impact on the Election. With an honest Media, we are looking at the Crime of the Century!”

“JACK SMITH AND THE SPECIAL PERSECUTORS OFFICE ARE PLAYING THE SAME GAMES WITH ELECTION INTERFERENCE AND FAKE PROSECUTIONS AS JAMES COMEY, ONLY FAR MORE OBVIOUS. THE DOJ MUST END THIS CHARADE RIGHT NOW, AND THAT GOES TO THEIR USE OF D.A.’s & A.G’s IN ATLANTA & NEW YORK. MAGA!!!”

“THEY ARE SCUM, LIKE COCKROACHES ALL OVER WASHINGTON, D.C. Congratulations to John Durham on a Report that is being praised for its quality, importance, and professionalism, by friend and foe alike!”

Trump’s feeble attempt to connect the Durham report to the special counsel probe by Jack Smith, and the ongoing investigations of his criminal activities by prosecutors in Atlanta and New York, is particularly comical. Those investigations – that are examining Trump’s financial fraud, his election interference, the January 6th insurrection, and his theft and hoarding of classified documents – are getting closer to producing indictments than Durham ever dreamed. And they are driving him crazy(er).

SEE THIS: Trump Warns of ‘Death and Destruction’ if He is Indicted for Crimes that He Actually Committed

FOR THE RECORD: Donald Trump and his Republican Party cult claimed for years that Durham would expose the “Crime of the Century” and finally prove that the investigations of Trump were a “hoax.” They insisted that Durham would secure convictions of everyone from Hillary Clinton, to Barack Obama, to James Comey, and the rest of the evil Democratic cabal that they imagined were conspiring against Dear Leader Trump.

The crux of the conclusions by Durham state simply that “the [Justice] Department and the FBI failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law.” But Durham also noted that his own report, “does not recommend any wholesale changes in the guidelines and policies that the Department and the FBI now have in place to ensure proper conduct and accountability in how counterintelligence activities are carried out.” So what exactly was the point?

The only two cases that Durham brought to trial were low-level politicos, and resulted in acquittals for both. Contrast that with the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller that took only 22 months and resulted in 34 indictments and eight convictions, including some MAGA big shots like Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, and Michael Cohen, along with numerous Russian confederates.

What’s more, in 2019, the Senate Intelligence Committee, which at the time had a Republican chairman, produced a bipartisan report that came to very different conclusion than Durham, saying that…

“The Trump campaign’s interactions with Russian intelligence services during the 2016 presidential election posed a “grave” counterintelligence threat […] it detailed how associates of Donald Trump had regular contact with Russians and expected to benefit from the Kremlin’s help.”

Of course, nothing in Trump’s tantrums bear any resemblance to reality. Durham couldn’t even support his own conclusions with facts that would warrant indictments or corrective actions. No one but Trump’s sycophantic cultists praise the report for its quality. But that won’t stop Trump, Fox News, and other propaganda peddlers from pushing their factless views and outright lies.

RELATED TRUMP WHINING:

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Mastodon.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

GOP Senator Warns Fox News About the Lack of Aggressiveness and Gun Worship in Preschool Boys

Posted by Mark NC on May 15, 2023 at 12:25 pm. 10 Comments :

The United States is unique among the world’s nations for the frequency and fatality of assaults with guns. The NRA-theists who dominate the Republican Party and right-wing media refuse to recognize the problem or take any reasonable measures to address it. And their willful neglect results in ever higher death tolls among Americans, and especially children.

Click here to Tweet this article

The near daily recurrence of mass shootings in America is a shameful stain on our nation’s character. It represents a surrender to the greedy gun industry and to the most extreme members of Congress who support it. The reasoning behind the GOP’s acquiescence to the chronic killings is pitifully weak. They argue that the root causes of gun violence are tangential issues such as mental health or video games. But those societal factors are present in every other nation that isn’t plagued with mass shootings.

SEE THIS: GOP Senator Tells Fox News that Support for Gun Reform in Polls is Because People are Stupid

Never mind the slaughter of innocents and the grief thrust upon their loved ones. Republicans ignore the fact that majorities of the American people favor substantive, common sense gun reforms and regulations. That’s been established by virtuall every poll on the subject, including this one by Fox News…

seen on Fox News pic.twitter.com/OUza5WFiHm

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 19, 2022

Despite the overwhelming public support for reform, Fox News and the Republican Party stubbornly persist with their pro-gun biases. To that end, Fox News hack, Mark Levin, hosted GOP Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Insurrectionist) to advance their ludicrous agenda for weaponizing America’s youth.

Hawley: “You look at what our kids are taught in schools. From the time they go to preschool, for heavens sake. They’re taught that if they’re a boy, if they want to be aggressive, if they want to talk about guns — oh, that’s bad. They need to be medicated, they need to be quieted down. When they get a little older, they’re taught that manhood is inherently dangerous, that it contributes to climate change, that they need to renounce their masculinity. You see this ideology, it suffuses, permeates our media, our culture, all driven by the Left.

Josh Hawley says the Left is trying to destroy traditional masculinity because every time boys in pre-school are aggressive and want to talk about guns they get put on medication. pic.twitter.com/099JFmzSjV

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 15, 2023

So in an environment wherein mostly young men are wantonly murdering people in their families, their neighborhoods, their schools, churches, shopping malls, etc., Hawley thinks that aggressiveness in preschool boys who talk about guns should be encouraged? That’s just plain sick.

Let’s not even get into Hawley’s bizarre assertions that boys are taught that manhood should be renounced because it contributes to climate change. In addition to being dangerous and nauseating, none of what Hawley said about schooling was true. It would be bad enough of Hawley were the only one embracing these views. But he isn’t…

Hawley’s advocacy of aggressive, gun-obsessed children is precisely the sort of demented prescription that would exacerbate an already dire state of affairs. He is espousing a course that would only lead to more sorrow and loss. Republicans like Hawley not only fervently oppose any affirmative action to address this epidemic of senseless bloodshed, they openly favor actions to make matters worse.

Consequently, this is not a problem that can be fixed by reasoned debate. There is an unholy bond between the gun industry and the Republican Party. Until that bond is broken, the United States will continue to suffer the most mass shootings of any nation on the planet. So the only effective path to change is to break that bond by voting out every Republican at every level of government.

The American people need to rise up against the non-representatives of the GOP who are thwarting their will. And with cretins like Hawley articulating heinous notions like those above, the opportunity to elect conscientious, compassionate leaders becomes all the more necessary – and possible.

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Mastodon.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

HOW CONVENIENT: GOP Oversight Committee Chair Says He Can’t Find His Star Witness Against Biden

Posted by Mark NC on May 14, 2023 at 11:44 am. 6 Comments :

The new and razor thin Republican majority in the House of Representatives is proving that it is wholly unfit to govern and has no real interest in doing so. For the three months that they have been in charge, they have produced nothing but transparently partisan and meritless smear campaigns against President Biden, his family, and other Democrats.

Click here to Tweet this article

This sorry state of state affairs is a result of the GOP’s deliberate and openly articulated mission to bring down the President and to buttress their own illegitimate seizure of power and perversion of democracy. From the day that they assumed their majority they have pursued political vendettas, while ignoring the needs of the nation and the American people.

SEE THIS: New GOP Subcommittee Chair Openly Admits His Only Purpose is to ‘Make Life Hell’ for Democrats

So instead of legislation protecting children from mass shooters, or maintaining women’s reproductive health rights, or resolving immigration issues, or preventing a catastrophic debt default, Republicans are desperately trying – and failing – to sabotage the Biden presidency.

Among the worst offenders is James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee. The maliciousness of his crusade to cripple the progress made by Biden and congressional Democrats has been matched by its ineptitude, dishonesty, and failure. And all of that was on display when he visited with Fox News on Sunday to spread more propaganda. In an exchange with Fox’s Senior Trump-fluffer, Maria Bartiromo, Comer announced that the star witness in his political persecution has gone missing.

Bartiromo: Hold on Congressman. Did you just say that the whistleblower, or the informant, is now be missing?
Comer: Well, we are hopeful that we can find the informant. Remember that these informants are kind of in the spy business.
Bartiromo: Stunning breaking news story this morning that some of these people now may be missing. Mr. Chairman, we’re certainly going to be covering and reporting your findings.

somebody send out an Amber Alert pic.twitter.com/Bi4QBUtCyK

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 14, 2023

First of all, Comer doesn’t actually say that the alleged informant is missing. He just says that he can’t find him. He even implies that the so-called whistleblower is merely a secret operative who could just be concealing his own whereabouts for some unspecified reason.

That, however, doesn’t stop Bartiromo from insinuating some sinister scheme that invokes the possibility that harm has come to the spook and that, of course, the evil Biden team is responsible for it. Naturally, there is no evidence whatsoever for any of that, but when has Fox News ever cared about trivialities like evidence?

A more likely scenario is that Comer doesn’t actually have a witness at all, Or he doesn’t have one who has any credibility, and who wouldn’t just embarrass the Republicans further. So all of Comer’s shocking accusations for the past several weeks could just be fabrications, and now that he is being called upon to put up or shut up, he whines that he is unable to find the witness that he promised would blow the lid off this supposed scandal.

It’s interesting that this mysterious witness disappeared just a few days after Comer released a report by his Committee that was ridiculed for it’s prodigious lack of anything incriminating related to Biden. The New Republic reported that…

“The House GOP accused Joe Biden and his family on Wednesday of engaging in business with foreign entities—but were unable to provide any actual evidence linking the president to any wrongdoing.

“House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer released a 65-page memo detailing a sprawling investigation into Biden and some of his relatives, particularly his son Hunter Biden. Nowhere in the massive document was there a specific allegation of a crime committed by Biden or any of his relatives.”

That’s typical of GOP and Fox News scandal-mongering. They make furious proclamations of alleged wrongdoing, but they have nothing to back any of it up. Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the Oversight Committee, responded to the report that Comer issued saying that…

“Once again Chairman Comer has failed to provide factual evidence to support his wild accusations about the President. He continues to bombard the public with innuendo, misrepresentations, and outright lies, recycling baseless claims from stories that were debunked years ago.” […]

“As Republicans use their oversight powers to advance this tiresome and aging smear campaign, they refuse to honor their public commitment to investigate former President Trump and former senior White House advisor, Jared Kushner, their hundreds of LLCs, and the billions of dollars they collected directly from autocratic and corrupt foreign governments.”

Comer joins House Squeaker Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan, the GOP chair of the House Judiciary Committee, as the leaders of the Bogus Scandal Caucus. Jordan was recently humiliated (for the umpteenth time) when he tried to coerce adverse testimony from Mark Pomerantz, a former New York prosecutor who had investigated Donald Trump’s hush money payments to adult film star, Stormy Daniels. That investigation eventually led to a Grand Jury indicting Trump for thirty-four felonies alleging the falsifying of financial records.

These are the sort of charlatans who are currently leading the Republican Party with the aid of their spinmeisters at Fox News. They have no interest in performing any of the duties expected of elected representatives. They are fully devoted only to embarking on hostile and futile campaigns to denigrate their opponents and, moreover, democracy itself. And unfortunately, with the regard to the latter, they are pretty damn good at it.

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Mastodon.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

Ratings Envy? Trump Says that His CNN Town Hall Spurred Fox News to Cover His Iowa Cult Rally

Posted by Mark NC on May 13, 2023 at 12:32 pm. 5 Comments :

The fallout from CNN’s ill-conceived and dreadfully executed town hall with Donald Trump last week is continuing to drench the network in criticism and shame. Rather than producing an informative forum for assessing Trump, it has been widely disparaged as an in-kind contribution to Trump’s campaign for the 2024 Republican nomination for president.

Click here to Tweet this article

There is a growing consensus among media professionals that it was foreseeable mistake for CNN to provide Trump with a platform to spread the same tedious lies he has been promulgating for years about the 2020 presidential election that he says – without a shred of evidence – was “rigged and stolen” from him. And on pretty much every other topic Trump regurgitated his familiar distortions of reality, personal insults, and meritless self-aggrandizement. It was so awful that some of the harshest condemnations came from CNN insiders.

SEE THIS: How Horrible Was CNN’s Lie-Riddled Trump Town Hall? Let’s See What CNN Has to Say About It

Another indicator of how badly CNN misjudged this event was the elation it produced in Trump and his allies in right-wing propaganda. They were bursting with joy at what they considered to be a PR triumph for Trump. And Saturday morning Trump bragged, in a post on his floundering Twitter scam, Truth Social, that the CNN debacle had led to a major media victory for him…

“FoxNews called to inform us that they will be airing the entire Iowa Rally tonight. They saw the record numbers done on CNN and want in on the action. Also, just out, I am leading DeSanctimonious by almost 30 points in FLORIDA, and leading Crooked Joe Biden BIG! See you later in Iowa.”

First of all, CNN’s numbers were hardly records. They drew about three million viewers, which is not uncommon for special news events on CNN. And while their ratings may have spiked during the town hall, they returned to their prior low standings immediately after the program was over. Still, CNN management was so tunnel-blind that they reprimanded their media correspondent, Oliver Darcy, for being “too emotional” in his accurate reporting of the town hall criticism.

Typical of Trump’s disloyalty and short attention span, just an hour after posting his delight that Fox News would offer live coverage of his Iowa rally, he posted another comment telling his cult followers to watch it on Newsmax instead.

That may be for the best since Trump’s assertion that Fox would carry it has conspicuously not been confirmed by Fox News. This, of course, wouldn’t be the first time that Trump lied about something. According to Newsweek…

“Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday morning that Fox News informed him that the network will air the entire rally, however Fox News didn’t respond to Newsweek’s request on Saturday morning for confirmation that it would broadcast the event.”

What’s more, Fox News has not bothered to promote this alleged rally coverage of Trump’s Iowa affair. However, Fox News has been hyping their live coverage of both an event with Ron DeSantis (who coincidentally will be in Iowa on the same day as Trump), and a speech by President Biden at Howard University. So the absence of any notice of Trump’s rally is, to say the least, curious.

It is still possible, of course, that Fox News will air Trump’s rally, despite the fact that haven’t been doing so for several years now. That’s because they have been been rapidly losing viewers since the disclosures of their blatant lying revealed in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit. And even worse, Fox’s firing of their MAGA, white nationalist heartthrob, Tucker Carlson, has accelerated their ratings disaster. So they may be in a state of desperation and panic.

Finally, because Trump is incapable of making any statements that contain only a single lie, he also noted in his posting that he is “leading Crooked Joe Biden BIG!” For the record, Biden is beating Trump in most recent general election polls. But if he wants to deceive his followers into believing that he’s running ahead of Biden, let’s let him do so, and they can have a big surprise come election day.

UPDATE: Due to a tornado watch being in effect, Trump has canceled his rally. Apparently god is “woke.”

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Mastodon.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

Former NY Prosecutor Righteously Rejects GOP House Judiciary Committee’s Political Theater

Posted by Mark NC on May 12, 2023 at 1:12 pm. 0 Comments :

The Republican majority in the House of Representatives has made it their mission to malign and disparage President Biden above all other political or legislative considerations. It’s an obsessive determination to poison the electoral landscape for Democrats that is succeeding only in humiliating the Republicans who are engaging in it.

Click here to Tweet this article

Foremost among the GOP persecutors is Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He is currently presiding over wholly contrived hearings into the activities of Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney whose investigations of Donald Trump’s hush money payments to adult film star, Stormy Daniels, resulted in a Grand Jury indicting Trump for thirty-four (34!) felonies accusing Trump of falsifying financial records.

There is no question that Jordan is staging these hearings purely as political retaliation. As part of his partisan crusade, Jordan subpoenaed Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan D.A.’s office. On Friday Pomerantz complied with the subpoena and showed up for Jordan’s clown show. However, he refused to answer questions, asserting his constitutional and legal ethics rights. In his opening statement Pomerantz said that…

“I am here because I respect the rule of law… What I do not respect is the use of the Committee’s subpoena power to compel me to participate in an act of political theater. This deposition is for show. I do not believe for a moment that I am here to assist a genuine effort to enact legislation or conduct legislative ‘oversight.’ We are gathered here because Donald Trump’s supporters would like to use these proceedings to attempt to obstruct and undermine the criminal case pending against him, and to harass, intimidate, and discredit anyone who investigates or charges him.”

Pomerantz goes on to explain his reasons for declining to cooperate with the “cynical histrionics” of the Committee’s GOP leaders. He cites the District Attorney’s assertions of “claims of privilege and confidentiality to protect the integrity of the pending prosecution and continuing investigation of Donald Trump.” He elaborates further saying that “The charges against Mr. Trump should be heard and decided by a judge and a jury before politicians second-guess their merits.”

Pomerantz also cites the 5th Amendment to justify not capitulating the Committee’s coercion. He maintains that he has broken no laws, but is nevertheless, “not required to answer questions if my answers might be used against me.” He adds that the law “permits me to refuse to answer questions that are not pertinent to legitimate legislative function.” He also notes that attorney-client and work product privileges may also apply to some of the Committee’s inquiries. In closing he says that…

“It gives me no joy to invoke my legal rights, but I am glad that the law allows me not to cooperate with this performance of political theater. As an American I am privileged to have the legal rights that I assert today, and I am hopeful that I live in a country that will continue to respect them.”

Jordan’s rank partisanship has been on prominent display throughout his brief tenure in the chairman’s seat. He also formed a subcommittee on the “Weaponization of the Federal Government” whose sole purpose was to weaponize his congressional power to attack Democrats and run cover for Donald Trump.

SEE THIS: New GOP Subcommittee Chair Openly Admits His Only Purpose is to ‘Make Life Hell’ for Democrats

However, Jordan’s issuance of subpoenas is particularly comical considering that when he was recently subpoenaed by Congress, he impudently ignored it. So why would he expect anyone to respect his summons? Jordan is not someone who should be taken seriously. And Pomerantz responded precisely as any honorable public servant should.

RELATED STORIES:

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Mastodon.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

Find us on Google+

How Horrible Was CNN’s Lie-Riddled Trump Town Hall? Let’s See What CNN Has to Say About It

Posted by Mark NC on May 11, 2023 at 11:03 am. 10 Comments :

The aftermath of the ill-conceived CNN town hall with Donald Trump affirmed the most pessimistic projections offered beforehand. Trump was himself. That is to say, he was a dishonest, hostile, bloviating bully. Is there any reason that CNN should have expected anything else?

Click here to Tweet this article

The town hall was bad idea from the start. A reputable news enterprise would never provide such a forum to a candidate credibly charged with sexual abuse, tax fraud, election interference, and seditious conspiracy. Yet somehow CNN was comfortable with presenting this televised Trump rally, complete with an audience of “Republicans and undeclared voters who plan to vote in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.” You have to wonder precisely what CNN offered Trump to get him to agree to appear on a network that he regards as “fake news” and insists that nobody watches.

SEE THIS: Trump Spills that CNN Made Him ‘a Deal I Couldn’t Refuse’ to Get Him to Do Their Town Hall

Predictably, the program failed on every level. It was neither informative on Trump’s policies, nor revealing of his principles. It merely rehashed everything that everyone already knows about him. The moderator, Kaitlan Collins, made some attempts to fact-check Trump, but not nearly enough. It was so useless that even some of CNN’s anchors and analysts were repulsed. Immediately following the town hall, Jake Tapper gave a scathing summation that concluded that “We don’t have enough time to fact-check every lie he told.” So why air it in the first place?

Jake Tapper sums up Trump's town hall: "He called a black law enforcement officer a thug. He said people here in Washington, D.C. and Chinatown don’t speak English. He attacked Kaitlan as a nasty woman… he made fun of [Carrol's] sexual assault and many in the audience laughed." pic.twitter.com/NSzVzVEApP

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) May 11, 2023

CNN’s media correspondent, Oliver Darcy, tweeted that “It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening.” And that was just the beginning. CNN published an article enumerating “8 takeaways from Trump’s CNN town hall.” And each one affirmed Trump’s unfitness for office. The article began by noting that Trump…

“…showed on Wednesday night that he is very much the same person Americans came to know in 2016, throughout his four years in office, and in the aftermath of his 2020 election defeat. […] When he wasn’t calling women names, airing old grievances or attempting to rewrite history, the former president largely dodged questions and follow-up inquiries [and that] Unsurprisingly, the mostly Trump-loyal audience lapped it up.”

Considering that analysis from CNN itself, what was the point of the whole thing? It didn’t advance the public’s knowledge or ability to assess Trump’s candidacy. The 8 takeaways were all examples of Trump’s ignorance and artifice. Let’s explore them little deeper…

“Trump makes dismissive comments about [E. Jean] Carroll.”
Trump “denied the accusations and again said he had never met Carroll. [and the audience] laughed at his jokes and other dismissive comments about Carroll.” He also called her a “whack job,” defaming her anew.
“Trump says GOP should be willing to blow up debt ceiling.”
Trump “insisted that default would be preferable to a result that doesn’t stop the government ‘spending money like drunken sailors.'” He also laughed off his hypocrisy about opposing using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge while he was president.
“Trump is vague on federal abortion ban.”
“Trump repeatedly ducked questions about whether he would sign into law a federal abortion ban, as well as after how many weeks into a pregnancy abortion should be made illegal.” He also lied that Democrats support infanticide.
“Trump doesn’t say if he would back Ukraine in war with Russia.”
“Trump refused to say whether he wanted Ukraine to prevail in its war with invading Russia.” He also refused to criticize his BFF, Vladimir Putin, for the war crimes of slaughtering civilians.
“Trump says he’d pardon January 6 rioters.”
“Trump demonstrated no remorse for his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol [and] said he was ‘inclined to pardon’ many of the pro-Trump rioters who were convicted for their roles in the attack on the Capitol.” He also insulted law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol as “thugs.”
“Trump suggests family separation immigration policy could return.”
Trump said “When you say to a family that if you come, we’re going to break you up, they don’t come.” He also declined to take responsibility for destroying families.
“Trump repeats election fraud lies.”
“Trump repeated his lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election [and] would not commit to accepting the results of the 2024 presidential election.” He also hyped debunked conspiracy theories about stuffed ballot boxes and fraudulent votes.
“Trump uses same name-calling tactics.”
“When Collins pressed Trump about documents he took from the White House, he said: ‘You’re a nasty person.'” He also repeated his infantile “crazy” Nancy Pelosi insult.

Not mentioned in the article was a particularly disturbing response by Trump with regard the classified documents that he stole and hoarded at Mar-a-Lago. He offered ludicrous misrepresentations of the Presidential Records Act to justify his security breach. Responding to Collins’ inquiry as to whether he had shown the documents to anyone, Trump replied, “Not really.” Which is a long ways from “No.” He elaborated that he “had the right” to show them to anyone he wanted to. This is a near confession to criminal espionage.

A good indicator of how awful the town hall was is who celebrated the event afterwards. Media Matters collected the rave reviews from elated right-wingers. And on his floundering Twitter scam, Truth Social, Trump himself expressed his delight with the appearance, along with 18 posts from his ecstatic supporters who all considered it a triumph. Congratulations, CNN.

However, it wasn’t only CNN who thought that this noxious affair was a disgraceful embarrassment to journalism. The Hollywood Reported compiled reactions from a broad array of media analysts who concurred that the network “failed journalism and our country.” And there are more critiques here via Media Matters. Even President Biden weighed in saying pointedly that “It’s simple, folks. Do you want four more years of that?”

It’s simple, folks.

Do you want four more years of that?

If you don’t, pitch in to our campaign.https://t.co/EwCflbYn22

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 11, 2023

UPDATE: CNN’s ratings for the town hall were unimpressive. They drew about 3 million viewers, which would be an average night for Fox News primetime, and not uncommon or a special news event on CNN. But those viewers are unlikely to stick around. If they came for Trump they are predisposed to hate CNN, and will be further put off by Collins’ questioning of him.

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Mastodon.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

Tucker Carlson’s New Twitter Show Announcement is a Steaming Mess of Incoherent Contradictions

Posted by Mark NC on May 10, 2023 at 10:35 am. 1 Comments :

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the Internet. Former Fox News Senior White Nationalist, Tucker Carlson, has announced that he will be launching a new “show” on twitter. He doesn’t provide any details of how he will accomplish that, or what a Twitter show would look like, but he’s got an ego just big enough to believe that this will thrust him back into the media spotlight. He’s wrong.

Click here to Tweet this article

Carlson’s proposed Twitter show is his attempt to remain relevant after being banished from his perch on cable news. However, he might want to check with Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck to see if there is life after Fox for hostile purveyors of dishonest, right-wing propaganda. Like them, he would become a footnote in the cyber world hollering into the void to a diminished audience of drooling deplorables.

Undaunted, Carlson is marching ahead with his arrogant aspirations. He is reported to be pursuing affiliations with Donald Trump and Elon Musk to pump up his paltry prospects. And to that end, Carlson announced that he will take his canceled TV tantrums to Twitter. [NOTE: Musk claims that “We have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever.”] In the introductory video (posted below), Carlson said that…

“You often hear people say the news is full of lies, but that’s not exactly right. Much of what you see on television or read in the New York Times is, in fact, true in the literal sense.”

Okay. So Carlson is defending the truthfulness of most of what you see and read in the news. An interesting position from someone who has been proven to have lied brazenly and literally declared that “misinformation can be true.” However, Carlson followed that up immediately by saying that while most news reports would pass fact checks, “that doesn’t make it true. It’s not true.” According to Carlson, the news is both truthful and “At the most basic level, the news you consume is a lie.” He really needs to make up his mangled mess of a mind.

Carlson says that the media’s lies are the result of withholding “perspective.” And that, as a result, “You are being manipulated.” But perspective, by definition, is opinion. It is an addendum to factual reporting that may or may not be factual. It is opinion that is most likely to be the tool of manipulation. And it is opinion that is the core of what Carlson produces. It is Carlson who is, and always has been, manipulating you.

So after asserting that the media tells the truth, except for when it lies and/or manipulates you, Carlson proceeds to insist that the media is lying virtually all the time…

“That’s what the news media are doing. In every story that matters, every day of the week, every week of the year? What’s it like to work in a system like that? After more than 30 years in the middle of it, we could tell you stories.”

Indeed, Carlson could tell us “stories,” which, ironically, is a synonym for lies. He is effectively confessing that he has lied to his audience for 30 years. And given that confession, why should he change now? So he goes on to complain that there are “limits” to freedom of speech in the media, and that “if you bump up against those limits often enough you will be fired for it.” Here Carlson is obliquely referencing his firing from Fox News without saying so explicitly. And he offers no evidence that his firing had anything to do with the limits he is alleging. To the contrary, he was terminated for reasons that had to do with his own dishonesty and hostility toward his audience, colleagues, and bosses. Carlson is manipulating you.

Carlson continues by implying that his messy separation from Fox News resulted from some sort of censorship that was imposed upon him. “You can’t have a free society,” he warned, “if people aren’t allowed to say what they think is true.” First of all, what you “think is true” is not necessarily the same as what is actually true. Once again, Carlson is confusing opinion with facts. Secondly, he had ample opportunity to say what he thought was true. In fact, that’s what got him fired. Carlson is manipulating you.

Finally, Carlson concludes with a blisteringly preposterous assertion about the state of free speech in America today:

“Amazingly, as of tonight, there aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech. The last big one remaining in the world, the only one, is Twitter [and that] Twitter is not a partisan site”

What the holy f**k? Can Carlson really believe that Twitter is the only platform in the world that allows free speech? And that it is not partisan? Under the horrifically biased mismanagement of Elon Musk, Twitter has become the platform of choice for racists, neo-Nazis, anti-Semites, and a broad array of ultra right-wing conspiracy theorists. But before you claim that that is proof that it respects free speech, consider that other more reasonable and decent voices are suppressed, shadow-banned, and tagged with so-called “community notes” that disparage those views.

Despite Carlson’s ludicrous pronouncements of Twitter’s non-partisan free for all, he closes by contradicting himself and criticizing Twitter as a place where “for the most part, the news… comes from media organizations that are themselves thinly disguised propaganda outlets. [i.e. Fox News] The result may feel like a debate, but actually, the gatekeepers are still in charge.” So Twitter doesn’t practice free speech and isn’t non-partisan after all? Carlson is manipulating you.

Carlson then calls that “a bad system,” and says that he’s “sick of it.” But then abruptly flips gears to gleefully announce that he is “bringing a new version of the show we’ve been doing for the last six and a half years to Twitter.” The bad system that he is sick of?

Carlson’s proposed Twitter show could come at great cost to him. He would likely be breaching contractual agreements with Fox News. Dylan Byers of Puck News reports that “He will forgo at least $25 million owed to him by Fox Corp. in order to break non-compete clause.” And in anticipation of a bloody battle with Fox, Axios reports that Carlson has preemptively “accused [Fox News] Tuesday of fraud and breach of contract — and made a host of document demands that could precede legal action.” Although Fox has already lobbed some bombs of their own…

SEE THIS: Fox News ‘Demands’ that Media Matters Stop Publishing Leaked Videos of Tucker Carlson

The Fox News/Tucker Carlson divorce has hurt both of them. Carlson will lose money and access to Fox’s millions of viewers. And Fox is already bleeding those viewers. In the end, Carlson is just validating why his own Fox News lawyers defended him in a defamation lawsuit by arguing that “no reasonable person” would believe anything he said. Carlson is most definitely, deliberately, and dreadfully manipulating you.

We’re back. pic.twitter.com/sG5t9gr60O

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) May 9, 2023

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Mastodon.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

Trump Spills that CNN Made Him ‘a Deal I Couldn’t Refuse’ to Get Him to Do Their Town Hall

Posted by Mark NC on May 9, 2023 at 12:37 pm. 1 Comments :

Last Week CNN announced that they will be hosting a town hall with Donald Trump, the twice-impeached leader of a seditionist conspiracy who is currently being investigated for a multitude of crimes, including rape, defamation, financial and tax fraud, hush money payments, hoarding classified materials, election interference, and plotting a violent coup.

Click here to Tweet this article

Trump has already been found guilty of 17 criminal felonies for falsifying business records, and was recently indicted for 34 felony charges related to his affair with porn star, Stormy Daniels. Previously his “charity” was found to be a scam and shut down, and his “university” was closed and ordered to pay $25 million in restitution to its students/victims.

In light of that rap sheet, CNN thinks it’s a good idea to give Trump an hour of valuable air time for him to lie, obfuscate, evade, and ramble incoherently. This “town hall” is being portrayed as a forum for “undeclared voters” who CNN defines as those who “plan to vote in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.” Which is the opposite of “undeclared.” And on Tuesday morning Trump posted a comment on his failing Twitter scam, Truth Social, bragging about his scheduled appearance on CNN:

“I’ll be doing CNN tomorrow night, LIVE from the Great State of New Hampshire, because they are rightfully desperate to get those fantastic (TRUMP!) ratings once again. They made me a deal I couldn’t refuse!!! Could be the beginning of a New & Vibrant CNN, with no more Fake News, or it could turn into a disaster for all, including me. Let’s see what happens? Wednesday Night at 8:00!!!”

For a change, Trump is right about CNN being “desperate” for ratings. However, he may be exaggerating his ability to produce them. He has built a puny audience of diehard cultists at his Truth Social website. Attendance at his rallies has been rapidly declining. His segments on Fox News don’t increase their viewership. And he would likely be even less of a draw on CNN, a network that his most devoted fans refuse to watch.

What’s worse is that his comment let slip that CNN “made me a deal I couldn’t refuse” in order to secure his participation. So you have to wonder precisely what CNN offered Trump to get him to agree to appear on a network that he regards as “fake news” and insists that nobody watches. A clue might be in CNN’s statement that the Trump event would be “the first of many in the coming months.”

CNN appears to be making good on the journalistically inappropriate promise of its new CEO, Chris Licht, to make the network “more Republican friendly.” However, it is wholly irresponsible for CNN to gift a criminal like Trump air time to unleash his fantastical delusions and totalitarian dreams. The media has no obligation to hand over its air to traitors whose past behavior has resulted in violence. and who has shown no indication of altering that behavior. Even if such a despicable person were running for president.

Exacerbating CNN’s poor judgment is the fact that their town hall may be one of the few public appearances by Trump not confined to situations that he controls, such as his rallies and interviews on friendly networks.

Trump has already indicated that he will not participate in GOP primary debates run by his own Republican Party. So CNN is aiding and abetting his cowardice by allowing him a platform where he is unlikely to face any challenges or fact-checking. And by doing so, CNN is shredding what’s left of their own already tattered reputation.

SEE THIS: Trump Announces that He’s Afraid to Debate Republicans for the 2024 Presidential Nomination

UPDATE: Trump was just found liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carrol. Let’s see if that’s brought up in the town hall tomorrow, or if Trump even shows up.

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Mastodon.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

Tucker Carlson Has Been a Busy Bigot Since Being Booted From Fox News – Courting Trump and Musk

Posted by Mark NC on May 8, 2023 at 12:42 pm. 2 Comments :

It’s only been two weeks since Fox News canceled their top rated White Nationalist host, Tucker Carlson. But Carlson hasn’t been wasting any time engineering his comeback. He’s surely cognizant of the descent into wingnut oblivion that engulfed his predecessors Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck.

Click here to Tweet this article

It only took Carlson three days to post a video reaching out to his cult followers after his Fox downfall. However, that video was conspicuously devoid of any substance. It didn’t mention his Fox News, or his firing, or his next job. It was a hollow cry for attention that looked as if he had been muzzled by Fox and either afraid or unable to speak candidly. But that didn’t stop him from attacking Fox when he thought no one was listening…

SEE THIS: Leaked Video of Tucker Carlson Bashing Fox Nation as a Site that ‘Sucks’ and ‘Nobody Watches’

This weekend Carlson reportedly went further, threatening to wage an all out war against his former employer if they didn’t release him from contractual commitments to refrain from competing with or disparaging Fox. According to Axios…

“Tucker Carlson is preparing to unleash allies to attack Fox News in an effort to bully the network into letting him work for – or start – a right-wing rival, sources close to him tell Axios.

“Bryan Freedman, the high-powered Hollywood lawyer Carlson retained for the contract dispute, told Axios: ‘The idea that anyone is going to silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond preposterous.’ […] But he needs Fox to let him out of his contract, which expires in January 2025 — after the presidential election.”

Carlson’s lawyer’s contradiction is “beyond preposterous.” If Carlson “needs Fox to let him out of his contract,” then he is actually letting Fox “silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience.” And Fox has good reason to do so, considering that a Carlson confidant says that Carlson “knows where a lot of bodies are buried, and is ready to start drawing a map.” To which a nation hungry for just such a a media melodrama shouts “Bring it on, Tucker!”

Axios also reported that “Carlson and Elon Musk had a conversation about working together.” Which affirms that Musk, despite his disingenuous claims of being a centrist, is staunchly aligned with Carlson’s brand of White Nationalism.

In addition to his budding relationship with Musk, Carlson is also pursing tighted relations with Donald Trump. The Washington Post published a reported that Carlson…

“…wants to moderate his own GOP candidate forum, outside of the usual strictures of the Republican National Committee debate system. The idea, which he has discussed with Donald Trump, the front-runner for the party nomination, would test his vaunted sway over conservative politics. And it would take a jab at his former employer.”

SEE THIS: Unemployed Racist Tucker Carlson is Talking to Trump About Hosting 2024 GOP Candidate Forums

Carlson does have plenty of family money, so he can sacrifice some his unpaid Fox compensation in order to satiate his craving for relevance and attention. And by doing so he will burn any bridges that might remain between him and Fox, a network that he once described as “a mean, sick group of people.” But if he thinks that trading down to Trump and Musk is going to be his pathway to media mega-stardom, he’s going to be sorely disappointed.

Trump’s star fell when he launched his pitifully failing Twitter scam, Truth Social. And Musk seems hell bent on destroying what’s left of Twitter. But the three of them should enjoy each other’s company as they try to blast their hateful prejudices out to the shrinking population of deplorables who still give a damn what they say.

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Mastodon.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

3 of 735
« Previous
1
2
3
4
5
…
735
Next »

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: