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.

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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.”

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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Fox News Prompts GOP Senator to Frame Clarence Thomas’ Documented Corruption as ‘Attacks’

Posted by Mark NC on May 7, 2023 at 1:03 pm. 4 Comments :

In recent weeks there have been numerous reports detailing the profoundly disturbing legal and ethical breaches by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. It paints a picture of a Justice deeply mired in schemes to enrich himself with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts from a right-wing billionaire with interests before the Court.

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The investigative work by ProPublica is thorough and well documented. It reveals that Thomas took luxury vacations provided by Harlan Crow, and sold real estate to him for inflated values. And as incriminating as all of the evidence was, Fox News conspicuously avoided any substantive reporting on it.

SEE THIS: Fox News Blacks Out Story of Clarence Thomas Secretly Taking Luxury Gifts From GOP Billionaire

And that wasn’t the only time that Fox News purposefully suppressed a story about the improprieties of Thomas and his family.

SEE THIS: Fox News Totally Ignores Story About Ginni Thomas Texting QAnon Nuttery to Mark Meadows

As this story developed and expanded, Fox has been continuing to downplay the criminal and ethical aspects of it. On Sunday Fox’s Senior Trump-Fluffer, Maria Bartiromo, interviewed Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah. and from the outset of the interview it was clear how she wanted to frame the story.

Bartiromo: Let me get your take on these attacks against Clarence Thomas and the Supreme Court…your reaction to what’s taken place to the Supreme Court.
Lee: This is absolutely dreadful. this is an attack on Justice Thomas, a good man. a good man who has risen from poverty in the Jim Crow South to a position where he is one of the most respected jurists in our nation’s history. They don’t like that. They don’t like the fact that he has the audacity to be conservative as a Black man. […] There’s not one allegation they’ve raised against him that reveals any impropriety, any wrongdoing, any violation of any law, any rule, or ethical principle.

Mike Lee on Fox News dismisses Clarence Thomas's corruption: "This is an attack on Justice Thomas … they don't like the fact that he has the audacity to be conservative as a Black man." pic.twitter.com/AV6n4Dy1gq

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 7, 2023

Bartiromo’s first question literally coached the response from Lee, asking him to comment, not on the crimes or the controversy, but on “these attacks against Clarence Thomas.” And Lee took the prompting and elaborated on it in the most brazenly dishonest manner. He completely ignored every allegation against Thomas, who he described as “a good man” despite the proof of his improper conduct.

Lee sought to deflect from the charges against Thomas by attributing them to alleged racism on the part of Democrats. Never mind that there is absolutely no evidence supporting that contrived excuse. And even if there were it wouldn’t absolve Thomas of his blatant wrongdoing. By Lee’s reasoning Black conservatives should have a free pass to commit any crimes they want with impunity.

Lee went on to say that Democrats “are doing this to attack the legitimacy of the Supreme Court so they can reimage the Supreme Court according to their own preferences.” So in one respect he’s accepting that Thomas’ actions diminish the legitimacy of the Court. But more to the point, he’s forgiving Thomas and embracing the Court’s illegitimacy as acceptable. Lee is also forgetting that it was Republicans who improperly “reimage[d] the Supreme Court” by manipulating the confirmation process to deny Democrats their right to fill vacancies on the Court.

It’s astonishing how Fox News and Lee can pretend that the issue here is political criticism of a conservative Black Justice, when the evidence of Thomas’ violations of the law and ethics are so obvious. But this is what Fox News does. They are committed to exonerating right-leaning criminals, whether they are insurrections, tax cheats, rapists, or Supreme Court Justices. Because to Fox News, political ideology “Trumps” principles. And this was recognized poignantly last year by Jon Stewart…

SEE THIS: Jon Stewart Nails It: The Supreme Court is Now the Fox News of Justice

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

Posted by Mark NC on May 5, 2023 at 12:30 pm. 4 Comments :

The fallout from Fox News firing their Senior White Nationalist, Tucker Carlson, continues to cast dark shadows on the network that tolerated and embraced his hate speech and lies for so many years. Apparently terminating Carlson after agreeing to settle the defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems for 3/4 of a billion dollars was only the beginning of their problems.

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This week Media Matters acquired some videos of Carlson that further exposed his racism, as well as the animosity he had for his own colleagues at Fox News who he thought weren’t sufficiently repellent. These videos revealed Carlson maligning his former employer, saying “I don’t want to be a slave to Fox Nation. [and that] Nobody watches Fox Nation because the site sucks.” Additionally, there were text messages wherein he complained about having been deposed by Dominion’s lawyers and criticized violent Trump supporters because “It’s not how white men fight.”

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

On Friday Fox News sent Media Matters a “cease and desist” letter demanding that they stop publishing these videos. The letter said…

“We write on behalf of Fox Corporation to clarify any misunderstandings Media Matters may have had regarding previously unaired footage that Media Matters has published in a series of articles headlined ‘Foxleaks.’ That unaired footage is Fox’s confidential intellectual property; Fox did not consent to its distribution or publication; and Fox does not consent to its further distribution or publication. This proprietary material was given to you without Fox’s authorization. Fox demands that Media Matters cease and desist from distribution, publication, and misuse of Fox’s misappropriated proprietary footage, which you are now on notice was unlawfully obtained. We reserve all rights and remedies.”

Fox has sent a letter to @mmfa asking the organization to stop publishing behind-the-scenes videos of Tucker Carlson pic.twitter.com/LYJ9ScROiB

— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) May 5, 2023

Seriously? First of all, Media Matters is well within their rights as a journalistic enterprise to publish these videos. Fox’s threat is empty and unsupported by the law, and particularly the Constitution.

What’s more, Fox News is a frequent exploiter of what they have insisted is their First Amendment rights to publish similarly obtained materials. They have had no problem with publishing private emails from Hillary Clinton, or text messages of FBI agent Peter Strzok, or the sort of videos that Project Veritas produced by secretly recording people that they purposefully deceived. Consequently, it is more likely that the source of these videos is actually Fox News. They have to incentive to dirty up Carlson before he lands at some other media outfit and starts smearing Fox.

Nevertheless, Fox News thinks they can intimidate Media Matters to prevent them from providing information that is relevant and important to the public regarding the state of affairs at Fox News. But Media Matters wasn’t intimidated. They released a response that brilliantly rejected Fox’s feeble threat.

“Reporting on newsworthy leaked material is a cornerstone of journalism. For Fox to argue otherwise is absurd and further dispels any pretense that they’re a news operation. Perhaps if I tell them that the footage came from a combination of WikiLeaks and Hunter Biden’s laptop, it will alleviate their concerns.”

A statement from @GoAngelo on Fox's attempt to silence free speech: pic.twitter.com/ky6bcvynNu

— Media Matters (@mmfa) May 5, 2023

OUCH! It’s unlikely that even proving that Fox News is brazenly hypocritical will “alleviate their concerns.” That’s because Fox’s concerns are rooted in their deeply held, ultra-rightist biases, and not in any logic, reason or facts. Which is one of the reasons why Fox is currently suffering the worst downtrend in their ratings in more than ten years. And ridiculous measures like this to try to censor their critics isn’t going to make anything better for them. Just imagine what would come out in any trial if Fox followed through with this threat.

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

Posted by Mark NC on May 4, 2023 at 12:08 pm. NO Comments :

Ever since Fox News announced that it had fired their Senior White Nationalist, Tucker Carlson (see this retrospective), speculation has erupted over what Carlson would do next to advance his brazenly bigoted, pro-Putin, crackpot conspiracy theories, and neo-fascist agenda.

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It’s only been a week and half since Fox pink-slipped Carlson, and in the interim even more evidence of his heinousness have been revealed. They include complimentary descriptions of “how white men fight” with regard to “Trump guys” brutally beating an “Antifa kid,” his seething anger over being deposed by lawyers for the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit, and even some swipes at Fox News.

On Thursday morning the Washington Post published a report that shed some light on Carlson’s next moves. And it is simultaneously shocking and predictable. The Post wrote that Carlson…

“…has aspirations of moving into a larger role that doesn’t limit him to a single medium, according to people familiar with his thinking. And he is willing to walk away from some of the millions that Fox is contractually obligated to pay him, if that would give him the flexibility to have a prominent voice in the 2024 election cycle.” […]

“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.”

Indeed, trust fund baby Carlson has plenty of family money, so he can forego some his Fox compensation in order to satiate his craving for relevance and attention. He seeks to wield the clout he’s accumulated from his media perch and convert it into political power. To that end, he has already discussed his king-maker forums with wannabe monarch, Donald Trump, and according to WaPo’s sources, Trump “has told Carlson he’s interested”

This is intriguing on multiple levels. First of all, it is generous on Trump’s part to work with Carlson who recently said that Trump is a “demonic force” and that he “hates him passionately.” That, however, didn’t stop Carlson from conducting a fluff-ball interview of Trump where none of that – or anything else negative – was mentioned.

What’s more, the notion of Carlson being given free reign to produce candidate forums following the disclosures of his abhorrent racism is unfathomably grotesque. That any Republican candidate could consider participating in his events is evidence that they all share his hateful prejudices. We already know that Trump does.

This news of Carlson’s aspirations of being a media mogul and a debate host comes on the heels of CNN announcing their own “town hall” featuring Trump, who is currently being investigated for numerous crimes, from rape, to financial and tax fraud, to sedition, to espionage. It is wholly irresponsible for CNN to gift a criminal like Trump valuable air time for him to rant unchallenged about his fantastical delusions and totalitarian dreams.

In the meantime, Trump has already indicated his intention to skip the GOP debates sponsored by his own Republican Party. “I see that everybody is talking about the Republican debates,” Trump said, “but nobody got my approval.” Really? Trump believes that his approval is required for Republicans to hold candidate debates. He is objecting to the first debate being run by Fox News because he is convinced that they are part of the radical, Marxist, Democratic, deep state, that is out to destroy him.

So Trump won’t debate on Fox News because it’s too liberal. Although he will appear on Fox programs hosted by Sean Hannity and Mark Levin. And he regards CNN as “fake news” that nobody watches. But he will show up for a Trump town hall moderated by Kaitlan Collins a former correspondent for Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller.

And if this is getting all too bizarre and convoluted for you, rest assured that you’re not alone. It’s by design, as Trump and his right-wing cohorts conspire to confound and confuse everyone in their cult community to keep them glassy-eyed and obedient.

UPDATE: Carlson is also threatening Fox News and talking to Elon Musk about his future endeavors.

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

Posted by Mark NC on May 1, 2023 at 1:09 pm. 5 Comments :

It’s been a week since the shocking announcement that Fox News had fired their biggest star, and most repugnant personality, Tucker Carlson. And in the interim there has been much speculation about the reasons for his termination, which were never spelled out by either Fox News. Carlson didn’t even mention it in his pathetic, post-pink-slipped video.

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Not that it requires much imagination to explain why Carlson was summarily banished from his soap box on Fox. His programs featured his blatantly racist commentaries attacking Black politicians and private citizens; his crackpot conspiracy theories accusing the FBI of orchestrating the January 6th insurrection, and M&Ms of desexualizing their cartoon mascots; his embrace of authoritarian dictators like Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán; and his propagation of Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged and stolen” from him.

Of course, none of those transgressions from reality and decency had anything to do with Carlson losing his job. They probably prevented him from losing it even sooner. His dismissal was more likely due to his trashing of his Fox colleagues and bosses. He is reported to have referred to a senior Fox News executive as a “C-word” on numerous occasions. He disparaged the “Brain Room” staff who called the state of Arizona for Joe Biden. And he generally strutted around like he was invincible and bigger than Fox.

Now a new leaked video (see below) exposes Carlson trashing the Fox Nation streaming service that runs his own programs. In the video Carlson was discussing an upcoming interview that was to appear on both his Fox News program and a longer version on Fox Nation. According to Media Matters…

“[Carlson was] doing some image rehab for misogynistic social media influencer Andrew Tate. [who is currently in Romania] being investigated on allegations of rape, people trafficking and forming an organised crime group..”

Carlson is seen saying that “I’m like a representative of the American media now, speaking to an exile in Romania and welcoming [Tate] back into the brotherhood of journalists.” Really? Journalists? That word doesn’t describe Tate or Carlson. But even worse from the standpoint of his employment status, Carlson says that…

“I don’t want to be a slave to Fox Nation. [and that] Nobody watches Fox Nation because the site sucks. So I’d really like to just put the – dump the whole thing on YouTube. [… I don’t know why they’re not fixing it. It’s driving me insane.”

This is representative of the loathsome character of Carlson. He has alienated his associates and insulted his superiors. And it was likely that – not his abhorrent, hateful, and anti-American views – that cost him his propaganda perch on Fox.

It will be interesting to see if any other media enterprise (other than Russian TV or Steve Bannon’s War Room) will be willing to risk adopting this malevolent misfit. Because no one with any credibility takes Carlson seriously. Even Carlson doesn’t doesn’t take Carlson seriously.

SEE THIS: Tucker Carlson Finally Admits that ‘I Have No Freaking Idea What Goes On in American Politics’

UPDATE: More revelations of Carlson’s heinousness were disclosed in racist text messages wherein he describes a group of “Trump guys” brutally assaulting an “Antifa kid” and remarks that “It’s not how white men fight.” He said that he hoped they would kill him. He was also captured on video whining about his deposition in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit, maligning their lawyer as “a slimy little motherf**ker” who “triggered the shit out of me.”

FOXLEAKS: Tucker Carlson slammed Fox Nation in behind-the-scenes video https://t.co/XhQlKQVHJ1 pic.twitter.com/mKqJBuWzCw

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) May 1, 2023

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Trump is Gonna Freak Out: His Name Was Uttered Only Once By Biden in His WHCD Speech

Posted by Mark NC on April 30, 2023 at 12:04 pm. 4 Comments :

One of the most remarkable things about the post-Trump era is that, despite his humiliating electoral loss, his dead weight impact on the Republican Party, and his unprecedented legal entanglements, investigations, and indictments, Donald Trump refuses to go away.

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The continuing presence of the Mar-All-Ego narcissist persists in haunting the American political scene, even though he has been resolutely rejected, even by Republicans.

No other former president has imposed himself on the nation like this following their term, especially if they suffered a decisive defeat for reelection. But Trump defies the norms in so many ways. Most significantly, he simply cannot stand it when he is not the center of attention. As a result, he will exploit any available measures to thrust himself into the spotlight to steal whatever focus he can from more important matters. And when he’s unsuccessful at that, it generally manifests as petty jealously and outrage.

Consequently, we can expect to see Trump’s anger erupt over his near exclusion from the remarks made at the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C. Sunday night. President Biden gave an entertaining presentation that was at times profound and hysterical. But to Trump’s dismay, Biden only referenced the twice impeached, indicted, former reality TV game show host, one time. And even that was a throw away line about their common ages.

Referring to reports in the New York Times, the President noted a headline saying that “Biden’s advanced age is a big issue. Trump’s, however, is not.” That was just one of the jokes Biden made about his age. The only other reference to Trump didn’t mention his name at all. Alluding to Trump’s Stormy Daniels payoff, Biden said that comedian keynoter, Roy Wood, Jr. “offered me 10 bucks if I’d keep it under 10 minutes. That’s a switch, a President being offered hush money.”

That’s it. Nothing more about Trump was said in Biden’s address. However, while almost entirely ignoring Trump, Biden did get some digs in at Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. In addition to noting that Tucker Carlson – who was unceremoniously fired by Fox – is “finished,” Biden made these salient points (video below)…

It’s great the cable news networks are here tonight. MSNBC owned by NBC Universal. Fox News owned by Dominion Voting Systems.
With that $787 million settlement, they [Fox] are here because they couldn’t say no to a free meal.
I’d call Fox honest, fair, and truthful, but then I could be sued for defamation.
[And on a more serious note] A poison is running through our democracy and parts of the extreme press. The truth buried by lies, and lies living on as truth. Lies told for profit and power. Lies of conspiracy and malice repeated over and over again, designed to generate a cycle of anger, hate, and even violence.

SEE THIS: The Fox News 3/4 Billion Dollar Dominion Defamation Settlement is Also a Judgment Against Trump

As of this writing, Trump hasn’t said anything about his absence from the festivities. He may still be nursing his despair or fueling his fury. But he is undoubtedly vexed. It’s possible he might just express it by lashing out at something unrelated to change the subject. He has already posted 48 comments on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social this morning. Most of them about his most feared opponent, Ron DeSantis. So he is apparently trying to flood the zone with bullshit as he weeps over being left out.

At the White House Correspondents Dinner, President Biden had a couple of zingers for Fox News News, including this one ?pic.twitter.com/yteXIzXrVY

— News Corpse (@NewsCorpse) April 30, 2023

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HUH? Trump Demands ‘Equal Time’ from HBO for a ‘Woke’ Segment on Bill Maher’s Comedy Show

Posted by Mark NC on April 29, 2023 at 1:03 pm. 2 Comments :

It doesn’t take much to get Donald Trump to lash out at some perceived injury to his massive yet fragile ego. The slightest criticism will send him into a furious tirade aimed at the perpetrator of what he always regards as an unwarranted offense. And it doesn’t matter if the offender is a political ally or foe. He is, in short, a world-class crybaby.

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Trump exhibited this gaping character flaw again in a Saturday morning flurry of posts on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social. It’s something of a mystery what precisely triggered Trump’s tantrum. But then again, does there really need to be a reason for unbridled bellicosity when you are, in your own words, the “most fabulous whiner”?

SEE THIS: Victim-in-Chief: Trump is the most Cowardly, Whining, Crybaby to Ever Be President

Trump began by complaining about something he saw on Bill Maher’s “Real Time” program on HBO Friday night. As usual, he doesn’t actually cite specifically what it was that upset him. He merely flings some disembodied bawling over whatever hurt his tender feelings. He raged that…

“Bill Maher should be considered a ‘campaign contribution’ to the Democrat Party, even though he’s boring, and has really BAD ratings. HBO SHOULD BE FORCED TO PUT ON COUNTER PROGRAMING, AND SO SHOULD OTHER FAKE NEWS NETWORKS!”

It’s a good thing that most people don’t expect Trump to make any sense, because that comment doesn’t. If Maher’s show is boring and no one is watching, why would Trump care what he says. And wouldn’t the value of it as a campaign contribution be insignificant? Also, Maher, whose commentaries often lean heavily to the right, is hardly an asset to Democrats

More to the point, Trump’s demand for equal time reveals his ignorance of what that means. The equal time rule applies only to content on broadcast networks involving competing political candidates. HBO is not a broadcast network, and there was no preferential content regarding any competing candidates on the program. But Trump never lets reality intrude on his hissy fits.

The featured segment on Maher’s show was an interview of Elon Musk wherein they both embraced the lunacy of the “Woke Mind Virus” rhetoric espoused by right-wing crackpots. They fear-mongered about it as being an imminent threat to civilization, rather than the vacuous ambiguity that Trump’s MAGA cultists resort to whenever they need an argument against something that they can’t craft from facts, logic or reason.

Musk invented his own definition of it as “the suppression of free speech” and synonymous to “cancel culture.” For the record, it was originally used in Black communities to describe a state of awareness and consciousness of reality. So it’s no wonder that Trump and Republicans find it repugnant.

Trump waited a full eleven minutes before demonstrating what a thoroughly hypocritical clown he is. That’s how long it took him to come up with his following post wherein he babbled that…

“Tammy Bruce was GREAT last night subbing for Sean Hannity. Something special about her – She’s got what it takes!!!”

What? No demand for equal time on Fox News? No complaint about in-kind campaign contributions? Trump’s tunnel blindness to his own hypocrisy is impressive. While he seethes over the nonexistent political partisanship he imagined on Maher’s program, he has no awareness whatsoever of the flagrant bias on Fox News every hour of every day. In fact, he embraces it. Which is just further justification for dismissing his didactic diatribes. And why is he even watching Fox News? Weren’t they supposed to be boycotting it because they fired Tucker Carlson?

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With Lawsuits, Lost Hosts, and Lying Pundits, the Future of Fox News Has Never Been Weaker

Posted by Mark NC on April 28, 2023 at 1:42 pm. 2 Comments :

For the past week the biggest story in media has been the firing of Tucker Carlson by Fox News. While that was indeed a newsworthy event, there are collateral consequences that are being ignored that will eventually have an even more profound impact on both politics and media.

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Carlson fans are actually celebrating his expulsion from Fox News and insisting that it will only make him more influential and powerful as an advocate for the neo-fascist agenda for which he has been the mainstream media’s most prominent spokesman. They foolishly believe that the number of times his post-termination video was viewed on Twitter is proof that he, as an individual, has greater clout than Rupert Murdoch’s multibillion dollar media conglomerate. But they might want to check with Murdoch before popping those champagne corks.

In the real world, Carlson can look forward to precisely the same political celebrity status that Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck have achieved since they were fired by Fox News (i.e. pathetic has-beens). There is a long trail of road kill lining the highway of sacked media stars.

However, the future doesn’t look any better for Fox News. They will surely survive the loss of a loser like Carlson, just as they did O’Reilly and Beck. In fact, they will probably find a replacement who surpasses Carlson’s capacity for crackpot conservatism. But that doesn’t mean that Fox News will have a clear path ahead.

In addition to the Carlson conundrum, Fox News also was just forced to pay 3/4 of a billion dollars to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. Another voting technology company, Smartmatic, is next in line with a similar lawsuit. That case is already shaping up as a major problem for Fox News.

SEE THIS: Judge in Smartmatic Defamation Lawsuit Orders Fox News to Turn Over ‘Missing’ Documents

What’s more, all of these ill winds for Fox are blowing while they are in negotiations to renew their cable carriage contracts. They presently receive one of the highest carriage fees in the business. But are cable companies going to be anxious to continue paying a premium for a network that is firing their top rated hosts, being sued for defamation, getting exposed as liars, and having to spend their money on court settlements rather than programming.

Furthermore, Fox’s ratings have suffered steep declines since Carlson’s banishment. his former timeslot has lost 50% of its audience in just four days. It’s getting beat by MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes.” And the abutting programs are also losing viewers.

Tucker Carlson's former timeslot has lost 50% of its audience in the four days since Fox News fired him. It's getting beat by MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes.'https://t.co/pvenRR5NU4 pic.twitter.com/g9I6O31my0

— News Corpse (@NewsCorpse) April 28, 2023

Advertisers have already checked out. Most major advertisers refused to be associated with the repulsive content that Carlson spewed. Hate speech, bigotry, and pro-Putin, anti-American totalitarianism doesn’t sell Campbell’s Soup or Ford Trucks. Carlson’s show was being almost solely supported by Mike Lindell’s MyPillow ads. And even that has been a rocky relationship.

SEE THIS: UH-OH: Tucker Carlson’s Biggest Advertiser – MyPillow – Pulls All of its Ads From Fox News

Fox News has tried to pretend that this advertiser exodus hasn’t affected their bottom line. They claim that advertisers who didn’t want their ads on Carlson’s show were moved to other shows. But there is no way that an advertiser is going to pay the same rate for some other, lower rated program, as they would have for Carlson. So Fox was obviously lying about not losing any revenue. And that was recently affirmed by none other than Rupert Murdoch’s own Wall Street Journal (as reported by Media Matters).

The confluence of lawsuit payouts. lost revenue, fired hosts, and cable carriage fee downgrades, is going to make the next few months particularly difficult for Fox News. Add to that the animosity of their former fans who are vowing to boycott the network because they believe it has now joined the radical, leftist, Soros-backed, commie, deep state, cabal that is beholden to fake President Biden, and what you have is a convergence of catastrophe. Can Fox News weather this storm? Stay tuned.

UPDATE…

Kayleigh McEnany took over Tucker Carlson’s old Fox News timeslot on Monday. The former lying Trump press secretary drew only 1.5 million viewers.

Jesse Watters (2.2 million) and Sean Hannity (1.9 million) were both down significantly.https://t.co/L9Kj7SvPy0

— News Corpse (@NewsCorpse) May 10, 2023

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
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And check out my books on Amazon:

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

Thanks so much for your support.

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