On Fox News Trump Confesses that He Stole Classified Documents, Despite Hannity’s Coaching

Posted by Mark NC on March 28, 2023 at 1:40 pm. 2 Comments :

There’s a reason that most competent lawyers advise their clients to refrain from commenting during criminal investigations and prior to indictments or trials. It’s because there is more than a small chance that they will say something that incriminates them and weakens their defense.

Click here to Tweet this article

Donald Trump, however, never takes such salient advice because his malignant narcissism compels him to believe that he can’t possibly do anything wrong, and that his way of handling things will always be the best way. Consequently, he regularly shoots his big mouth off at his cult rallies and on television without any regard for the legal consequences of his bellicose babbling.

On Monday night Trump was welcomed back into the bosom of Fox News (where he has been conspicuously absent for some weeks) for some softball questions about his imminent indictments and the investigations currently in progress. True to form, Trump spent much of the interview rambling incoherently and whining about his being persecuted by all manner of evil foes.

The Trump-fluffing Hour with Hannity was typical of how Fox News coddles Trump. Hannity made sure that every question he asked had the answer embedded in it so that Trump wouldn’t have to strain himself coming up with a plausible excuse or a believable lie. Sadly, Trump was too boneheaded to grasp Hannity’s obvious coaching (video below)…

Hannity: I can’t imagine you ever saying “Bring me some of the boxes that we brought back from the White House. I’d like to look at them.” Did you ever do that?
Trump: I would have the right to do that. There’s nothing wrong with it.
Hannity: But I know you. I don’t think you would do it.
Trump: Well, I don’t have a lot of time. But I would have the right to do that. I would do that. There would be nothing wrong.

Twice Hannity tried to guide Trump into a response that simply denied that he would break the law. And twice Trump not only ignored Hannity, he explicitly contradicted him, saying that “I would do that,” meaning that he would indeed illegally take classified documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago home/hotel. He’s virtually confessing on national television. But he wasn’t finished incriminating himself…

Trump: Remember this. This is the Presidential Records Act. I have the right to take stuff. You know that they ended up paying Richard Nixon $18 million for what he had. They did the Presidential Records Act. I have the right to take stuff. I have the right to look at stuff.

It’s interesting that Trump chose to justify his crimes by associating himself with another disgraced Republican president, Richard Nixon. And Trump specifically cited Nixon for having allegedly exploited classified documents for profit. That’s just so Trump. Always grifting.

However, he was, as usual, completely wrong about whatever he was implying about the Presidential Records Act. It does not give him the powers that he claims. To the contrary, the PRA explicitly states that “Presidential records automatically transfer into the legal custody of the [National] Archivist as soon as the President leaves office.” But Trump is someone who thinks that he has magical powers to designate classification statuses mentally.

And yet, Trump still wasn’t done dooming his own legal case…

Trump: They have the right to talk, and we have the right to talk. This would have all been worked out. All of a sudden they raided Mar-a-Lago. Viciously raided Mar-a-Lago. I have tape. And I gave them tapes. You know I gave them tapes of storage areas. I gave it to them. I could have held that back. I wasn’t holding anything back that I cared about. I gave them tape. But you know the tape that they don’t want me to reveal? If possible – and they’ve asked me, and so far I’ve adhered to it. The raid itself.
Hannity: Wait a minute. I’ll take that tape.
Trump: I know you would. Everybody would take that tape.

Trump, of course, is lying again about being able to get this “worked out” before the allegedly “sudden” raid of Mar-a-Lago. Trump actually refused to cooperate, and he lied to the FBI (a felony) about having turned over everything. That’s why, after nearly a year of defiance and deception (hardly sudden), a subpoena was issued and a search warrant granted.

What’s more, Trump is claiming to have video tapes that he believes would exonerate him. But for some reason he prefers to allow his apparent guilt to fester in the mediasphere, so he hasn’t released them. That makes perfect sense only if you know that there aren’t any such tapes and you’re desperate to convince people that you’re innocent.

This will only get more interesting when Trump goes to trial and he’s asked to produce these phantom exculpatory tapes that he has now claimed publicly to possess. And this, along with all of the other times he’s foolishly spoken out, will make the prosecutor’s job much easier, and a conviction more likely. So Trump should continue to exercise his right to talk his way straight into prison.

SEE ALSO…

Trump: “I have the right to take stuff!” (Video: Fox News) pic.twitter.com/rU7hZf8qUQ

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) March 28, 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.

The Wacko in Waco: Trump Lavishes Praise on Fox News and the January 6th Insurrectionists

Posted by Mark NC on March 26, 2023 at 12:02 pm. 2 Comments :

It’s no coincidence that Donald Trump chose Waco, Texas, to hold his first official campaign rally for the 2024 Republican nomination for president. It’s a city best known as the home of a radical cult that went to war with the police and the U.S. government. Which is a pretty good description of Trump’s MAGA movement.

Click here to Tweet this article

Trump opened his Waco cult rally by playing the hokey song recorded by January 6th insurrectionists currently in prison for everything from criminal trespassing to obstructing Congress to seditious conspiracy. And to make that even worse, he accompanied the song with big screen images of the riots in progress. So while he has blatantly lied that he never intended to incite the violence, he is now glorifying it, exalting the perpetrators, and fomenting more violence.

Following that opening, Trump spent much of the rest of his speech whining about the investigations of his numerous crimes. He complained about the prospect of his being indicted and lashed out viciously at the prosecutors. He spent barely any time at all on actual issues that affect the American people. If nothing else, this speech revealed what will likely be Trump’s campaign slogan for the 2024 presidential cycle. and it isn’t “Keep America Great.” It’s “Keep Me Out of Prison.”

Trump’s defense of the January 6th rioters isn’t his first foray into supporting these treasonous thugs. In December Trump promised to halt their prosecutions if he were to return to the white House. Which is just another good reason to prevent that from ever happening. But his Waco address showed that he is committed to rewarding the domestic terrorists who assaulted America’s seat of democracy…

“Under Joe Biden American patriots are being arrested and held in captivity like animals. Look at what’s happening in Washington. […] These are people that shouldn’t have been there. And when you look at the Tucker Carlson tapes from two weeks ago, and you see so many things that turned out to be false. Very important what Tucker’s done. What Sean has done. What Laura did. Laura did a piece last night that was incredible.”

Trump: When you look at the Tucker Carlson tapes and you see so many things that turned out to be false pic.twitter.com/TaRbIohAR1

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 26, 2023

It isn’t surprising that Trump would lean on his favorite Fox News sycophants to support his celebration of the January 6th assault. Tucker Carlson, in particular, has spearheaded Fox’s whitewashing of the rampaging StormTrumpers. Neither Trump, nor Carlson, nor the rest of Fox News cared at all about the 140+ law enforcement officers who were injured, or the millions of dollars of damage to the Capitol, or the harm to the very concept of democracy.

To the contrary, they all applauded the mayhem and destruction conducted on Trump’s behalf. They crave the authoritarian dictatorship that Trump aspires to. And they will distort reality to fit their grotesque lust for what America should become under Trumpism. It’s what Trump was referring to when he spoke of “the Carlson tapes,” which were actually videos from the Capitol when it was being attacked. And despite having exclusive access to 41,000 hours of video, Carlson utterly failed to present any coherent argument that the rioters were merely innocent and peaceful tourists, as he claimed.

SEE THIS: Tucker Carlson Spins January 6th Insurrection Videos to Spread Blatant Lies, Trump Praises Him

In his speech, Trump also laid out his vision for the near future as he embarks on his presidential campaign…

“2024 is the final battle. That’s going to be the big one. You put me back in the White House, their reign will be over. And America will be a free nation once again. Our enemies are desperate to stop us, because they know that we are the only ones who can stop them.”

So Trump is framing this as an apocalyptic clash that will determine the fate of humankind. He positions himself as the one and only Savior of humanity. And he calls his political opponents “enemies.” All of that is purposefully designed to rile up his glassy-eyed cult followers and prepare them to fight for his ascendency to the throne.

The good news is that Trump’s grunts are too weak, stupid, and lazy to pose any real threat. And while some individual crackpots could still cause serious harm on a small scale, Trump’s incendiary and subversive schemes are destined to fail, as long as the rest of the nation (the vast majority) remain vigilant, unified, and committed to the principles of freedom and democracy.

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.

Fox News Hack Tucker Carlson Rants that Prosecuting Trump Would Forever End Democratic Elections

Posted by Mark NC on March 21, 2023 at 12:26 pm. 2 Comments :

The pandering politicians and pundits propping up Donald Trump are storming the media with mendacious defenses of his criminal misconduct. Among the ludicrous arguments that they throw against the wall is that an indictment would benefit the twice-impeached, reality TV game show host. Perhaps there is some truth to that with regard to the Deplorables already indoctrinated into his cult. However, everyone else would be further repulsed by his recidivist criminality.

Click here to Tweet this article

If it would be such a boon to Trump, then why are so many of his glassy-eyed sycophants erupting in outrage? If they really believed that an indictment would propel him to victory, wouldn’t they be rooting for the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg (and the New York Attorney General Leticia James, and the Georgia D.A. Fani Willis, and special counsel Jack Smith) to bring on their prosecutions? Trump himself is consumed by fear, as exhibited in the flurry of frantic posts on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social.

SEE THIS: The Desperate and Dystopian Delirium of Donald Trump as He Descends Into Drooling Dementia

Naturally, Fox News is joining the crusade to absolve Trump of any responsibility for his abhorrent crime spree. And leading the pack is, as usual, Tucker Carlson. In a tedious harangue on Monday night’s tele-sermon (video below), Carlson unleashed his typically rage-fueled brand of conservative crackpottery. The subject was reporting that Trump might be indicted soon by the Manhattan District Attorney for violating financial and campaign laws, Carlson complained that Trump was – as always – a victim of the all-powerful Democratic cabal that had stolen the election in 2020, and now is determined to – as the Trumpists say – “LOCK HIM UP!”

Carlson’s interminably long tirade rambled aimlessly, flinging baseless and childish insults at Bragg as being funded by George Soros and looking like Al Sharpton (because to racists like Carlson, “they” all look alike). He dismissed the notion that Trump’s “hush money” payoff to adult film star, Stormy Daniels, and the subsequent cover up and obstruction of justice, was a crime at all. According to Carlson, “paying people not to talk about things, hush money, is ordinary in modern America.” And it’s hard to criticize him for that opinion considering that he got his current show on Fox News when his predecessor, Bill O’Reilly, was fired for sexual harassment, for which he and Fox paid out millions to sweep under the rug.

In summary, Carlson concluded that indicting Trump would result in the end of democracy. That’s not an exaggeration of his remarks. That’s precisely what he said…

“If the Democratic Party is allowed to do this, allowed to crush the presidential front-runner, the main threat to their power, with a bogus criminal case, where does that leave us? We’re done because that precedent will live forever and voters will never again determine the outcome of a presidential election. It’s remarkable when you think about it.”

Tucker Carlson is now saying that if Trump is indicted, "voters will never again determine the outcome of a presidential election": pic.twitter.com/MWR0c9grGc

— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) March 21, 2023

What’s remarkable is that Carlson can pretend that he was thinking when he came up with that. First of all, an indictment of Trump would not be done by the Democratic Party. It would be done by a Grand Jury of local citizens and an elected D.A. Secondly, Carlson’s characterization of this as “a bogus Criminal Case,” is purely his biased, dishonest, and ill-informed opinion. And finally, there is no logical path from indicting a criminal like Trump, to the assertion that elections are gone forever. It makes about as much sense as saying that if you wear a hat, your dog will stop talking to you.

Carlson is being especially worshipful of Trump these days as penitence for his recently discovered sacrilege. Internal communications released by Dominion Voting Systems in the billion dollar defamation lawsuit against Fox News reveal that Carlson told his Fox colleagues that he “hates [Trump] passionately.” And in the rarified world of Trumpism, that could not be allowed without Carlson being forced to atone. So you end up with nonsense like this. But sadly, no amount of up-sucking will ever be sufficient for Trump.

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.

UH-OH: Wait Until the GOP / Trump Cult Finds Out How Ultra Woke FOX News Is

Posted by Mark NC on March 19, 2023 at 12:33 pm. 2 Comments :

The preeminent buzzword of 2023 is indisputably “Woke.” The Republican Party has adopted it as the braindead alternative for anything that they are opposed to. They can simply apply it to whatever the outrage of the day is without the burden of having to think or construct a logical argument. It’s that freedom from thinking that makes it so profoundly stupid. Yet somehow they’re proud of it. They don’t even have to have a coherent definition of it, which, conveniently, they don’t.

Click here to Tweet this article

Consequently, the GOP mindlessly rails against woke banks, woke schools, woke justice, woke healthcare, woke climate, woke economy, woke education, woke capitalism, and more broadly wokism, the woke mind virus, and the ominous woke-ocracy.

Prominent Republicans embrace their sinister take on being woke as if it were a tangible object, or at lease a cogent ideology. But their commentaries are pitifully hollow. For instance…

Nikki Haley: Woke is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic.
[Really? So where have all these woke fatalities been buried?]
Ron DeSantis: [Florida is the state] where woke goes to die.
[To be fair, Florida is the state where lots of people go to die]
Kevin McCarthy: We’re going to pass bills to fix…woke indoctrination in our schools.
[That’s if he can find any]]
Tucker Carlson: Woke M&M’s have returned.
[Leave it to Tucker to uncover the worst of woke]
Donald Trump: Everything woke turns to shit.
[As usual, Trump articulates the problem in the most graceful and intelligent way]

What all of these anti-woke activists seem to be missing is that what they profess to be so adamantly opposed to is often ingrained in the institutions that they revere and rely on. Most notable among them is the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. That’s quite an oversight for a party that is so committed to anti-wokism that they created the first ever House Anti-Woke Caucus.

SEE THIS: GOP Creates an ‘Anti-Woke’ Caucus to Take on the ‘Greatest Domestic Threat to America Today’

Before they continue on their anti-woke crusade, they might want to take a look at the Fox News Corporate Responsibility Report that boasts that the company is “committed to diversity from the very top. […] An inclusive and diverse workplace is not merely a strategy or business objective—it is fundamentally woven in the fabric of the Company.” It goes on to elaborate more specifically that…

“Our Preventing Harassment, Discrimination and Retaliation Policy protects individuals on the basis of a person’s actual or perceived race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, family status, caregiver status, sex (including pregnancy status, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions), gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, sexual and reproductive health decisions, reproductive health decision-making, hair texture or hairstyles, military or veteran status, political affiliation, arrest or conviction record, union membership, unemployment status, credit history, status as a victim of domestic violence, stalking or sexual offenses, or any other legally protected characteristic.”

OH MY! Have the GOP Woke Police heard about this? How can any Republican appear on Fox News under these conditions? It’s almost as if Fox News supports the sort of equity and civil rights that they vilify on the air 24/7. Never mind that they have a rather bizarre definition of “equity.”

However, there is much more in Fox’s report that should concern their GOP benefactors. Such as…

“We have taken specific action as part of our strategy to mitigate environmental risks, including those related to climate change.”

And that…

“FOX is committed to accuracy and editorial independence: Our news organizations carefully vet sources and check facts, and we maintain strict separation between revenue sources and our news and opinion content.”

That’s especially laughable considering what was recently disclosed in the billion dollar defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News that revealed the extent of the brazen lies told by Fox’s executives and hosts regarding their phony allegations of election fraud on behalf of Trump and his “Big Lie” the election was “rigged and stolen” from him.

What’s more, the war against woke isn’t even an effective political strategy. A recent poll by USA Today/Ipsos found that a majority of Americans have a positive impression of the term. According to the poll…

“Fifty-six percent of those surveyed say the term means ‘to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices.’ That includes not only three-fourths of Democrats but also more than a third of Republicans.

“Overall, 39% say instead that the word reflects what has become the GOP political definition, ‘to be overly politically correct and police others’ words.’ That’s the view of 56% of Republicans.”

The only reason that Republicans latched onto the term in the first place was that it originated in the Black community as a call to be conscious of oppression and discrimination, and to work to overcome the inequities of society. So naturally right-wingers sought to appropriate it and attempt to turn it into a pejorative. It is as unambiguously racist as the right’s dishonest efforts to brand Critical Race Theory (CRT) as advocating hatred of White people, when it’s simply a fact-based educational program about the systemic racism in American institutions.

None of that, however, has deterred Republicans from pushing their woke narrative. And we can expect them to continue to do so despite its ineffectiveness as a political message. Likewise, we can expect them to ignore the hypocrisy of chastising liberals for their woke-ocity, while ignoring the very same traits at Fox News and other right-leaning entities. Because all that they really have are their lies, hypocrisy, and associated – although mostly feigned – outrage. It’s what they do.

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.

Should ICC’s War Crimes Arrest Warrant for Putin Include His American PR Flack, Tucker Carlson?

Posted by Mark NC on March 17, 2023 at 6:55 pm. 3 Comments :

The Associated Press is reporting that “The International Criminal Court said Friday that it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes.” The ICC cites Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the tactics he has employed that include targeting civilians, torture, abducting children, and other unambiguous war crimes.

Click here to Tweet this article

While many observers will regard this as the inevitable consequence of Putin’s terroristic campaign, it should be also be considered just the beginning. Putin had allies and comrades that contributed to his unprovoked hostilities. Among them is Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has served as Putin’s primary media mouthpiece in the United States.

Carlson has been disseminating Russian propaganda about the attack on Ukraine from its earliest days. And therefore, Carlson and Fox News ought to be considered as accomplices. What follows are some examples of Carlson’s commentaries that affirm his support for Putin and his imperialistic aspirations.

So It Wasn’t a Hoax After All: Tucker Carlson Admits that Russia Got Trump Elected
Carlson is finally conceding that Russia deliberately interfered in American politics on Trump’s behalf saying that “Biden has just pushed the EU to stop buying Russian oil. It’s payback for getting Trump elected.” But Carlson is criticizing Biden – not Russia or Trump – for this.

EU Bans Russian Propaganda TV Networks, While Fox News Still Peddles Putin’s Lies in the US
“Why do I care about what’s going on in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia? And why shouldn’t I root for Russia, because I am.”

Only on Fox News: Russian Foreign Minister Praises the Network’s Pro-Putin Propaganda
Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, in an interview on the Kremlin sponsored RT (Russian Television) cable channel, lavished praise on Fox News as a singular voice for Russia’s interests, saying that “only Fox News is trying to present some alternative point of view.” Alternative meaning anti-American.

Fox News Senior Putin Apologist, Tucker Carlson, Pleads to Keep the Russian Dictator in Power
“We can force Vladimir Putin from office entirely […but…] Would the next Russian president be an improvement over Putin?” Do you suppose that Carlson would have used the same argument for keeping Hitler in power?

Tucker Carlson of Fox News Rattles Off His Ridiculous Reasons for Why You Shouldn’t Hate Putin
Carlson demonstrates his habit of asking asinine questions: “Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic…” And he went on for several more minutes of that idiocy absolving Putin of any wrongdoing.

WTF? Fox News Traitor Tucker Carlson Takes Russia’s Side Against Democracy and America
“Why would we take Ukraine’s side? Why wouldn’t we have Russia’s side? I’m totally confused.”

This is the sort of collaboration that ought to earn Carlson an arrest warrant of his own.

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.

IT’S A CULT: Most Fox News Viewers Are Still Loyal After Dominion Lawsuit Discloses Their Lies

Posted by Mark NC on March 16, 2023 at 1:06 pm. 9 Comments :

Fallout from the billion dollar defamation lawsuit against Fox News by Dominion Voting systems continues to rain down on Fox with some notable consequences. In recent weeks Dominion has filed motions in court that have revealed the brazen dishonesty of Fox executives and hosts in their own words.

Click here to Tweet this article

Dominion was able to acquire internal communications from Fox News that show how they have been outright lying to their audience in support of Donald Trump and his phony election fraud lies, while privately acknowledging that they knew that there was no truth whatsoever to his baseless allegations. And their lying was deliberately intended to stay in Trump’s good graces, despite the fallaciousness.

The purposefully deceitful remarks that Fox personnel made privately included…

Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch: Really crazy stuff.
Tucker Carlson: What [Trump is] good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.
More Tucker Carlson: I hate [Trump] passionately [and he is] a demonic force.
Rupert Murdoch to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott: We don’t want to antagonize Trump further.
Suzanne Scott: You can’t give the crazies an inch right now […] The audience feels like we crapped on [them] and we have damaged their trust and belief in us.
Laura Ingraham: Sidney [Powell] is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy {Giuliani].
Sean Hannity: That whole narrative that [Sidney] Powell was pushing, I did not believe it for one second, [and that] she’s a f*cking lunatic.

Now a new poll has measured the impact that these revelations have had on Fox News viewers. and the results are disturbing, to say the least. Here are some of the surveys highlights…

While 21% of viewers say that they now trust Fox News less, 45% say that they continue to trust the network.
13% say they no longer believe the 2020 election was stolen, but 50% still believe Trump’s “Big Lie.”
16% say they have a less favorable opinion of Fox hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, but 52% still have favorable opinions.

It’s somewhat encouraging that some of Fox’s audience have embraced reality and backed away from their prior blind acceptance of everything Fox says. However, most of their viewers remain firmly attached to the Fox doctrine even after learning that they have been lying to them. That’s the behavior of a cult.

Some good news in the poll includes that Fox News viewers have about the same awareness (60%) of the Dominion lawsuit as the general public (56%). And yet they still largely trust the network. However, they must be exposing themselves to other media, because Fox News has a near total blackout on the subject.

Not surprisingly, there is a significantly greater awareness of the lawsuit among viewers of MSNBC (82%) and CNN (71%), where reporting on it has not been suppressed. Also notable is that 10% Fox News viewers who were aware of the lawsuit say that they now watch it less. But 75% say their viewing has not changed. Inexplicably, 16% say they watch Fox News more after finding out that they are dupes being mislead by propagandists.

That’s some pretty powerful cult programming right there. They actually prefer being lied to, and they reward their deceivers. Those poor souls must now be regarded as lost and irretrievable. It’s a good thing that there aren’t very many of them (16% of Fox’s highest rated program = about 500,000, which is about 0.15% of the U.S. population).

UPDATE I: Another new poll found that “Nearly two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) think Fox News should be held accountable after … spread[ing] false information about the 2020 presidential election.” That includes 41% of Republicans. Although 47% of the GOP cult do not think Fox should be held accountable.

UPDATE II: In a March 31 ruling on summary judgement, the judge found that “The evidence is ‘CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements [made on Fox News] relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.'”

UPDATE III: The judge in the Dominion case has sanctioned Fox News for withholding evidence. He also made several other rulings that hamper Fox’s ability to deflect from the issue of defamation.

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.

FOX News FINALLY Reports on the Dominion Lawsuit and is Predictably Dishonest and Biased

Posted by Mark NC on March 14, 2023 at 11:44 am. 2 Comments :

The biggest media story of the year – or even the century – is the billion dollar defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting systems against Fox News. Recent disclosures in court filings have unmasked just how brazenly Fox News has deceived their viewers by repeatedly lying on air about matters for which they privately held diametrically opposing views.

Click here to Tweet this article

For weeks following the Dominion filings, Fox News refused to even bring up the subject of the lawsuit. Then their chief media correspondent, Howard Kurtz, addressed it briefly on his Sunday program, MediaBuzz. However, his only comments were to tell his audience that he was not going to be reporting on the lawsuit because he had been forbidden to by Fox editors and executives.

MORE HERE: BANNED ON FOX NEWS: The Network Prohibits Any Reporting on the $1.6 Billion Dominion Lawsuit

Apparently that censorious edict has been revoked and Kurtz was given some sort of conditional permission to cover the story. So he did so in the most Fox-ish manner possible. Which means that he was overtly dishonest in his starkly biased presentation that looked like it was written by the Fox News PR department. What follows are some of the lowlights of Kurtz’s whitewashing coverage (video below).

Kurtz began by defending the indefensible saying that “there is a crucial First Amendment argument here involving the coverage of unsubstantiated claims of 2020 election fraud by Donald Trump and his allies.” That’s patently false. The First Amendment prohibits Congress from “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” Dominion is not Congress. Furthermore, Dominion is not seeking to censor Fox News. They are suing for damages due to Fox’s purposeful and repeated defamation, which is not protected by the First Amendment.

Kurtz then quotes from a Fox News statement saying that “Dominion has been caught red-handed using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear Fox News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press.” Nothing in that statement is true. Dominion was not “caught red-handed,” and Kurtz doesn’t bother to substantiate any of its charges of “distortions and misinformation.” Yet somehow, Kurtz asserts that his framing of the “facts” will be fair to both sides…

“Now I’m going to give you both sides, but let me say this: Fox’s critics and competitors are denouncing the network, and many of them are rooting not just for Fox to lose the suit, but to be wiped out as a company because they can’t stand the mostly conservative view of a relative handful of opinion hosts”

Notice that Kurtz immediately contradicts his own assertion to give both sides. The criticism of competitors is completely irrelevant to the misconduct that Fox has been engaging in. If Fox News were a legitimate news enterprise, they would tell the truth regardless of what their competitors are saying. And the claim that only “a relative handful of opinion hosts” are disgorging conservative views is pure fiction. Fox’s alleged “journalists” (i.e. Brett Baier) were shown to be just as dishonest as Sean Hannity in the Dominion filings. Even so, Fox’s opinion hosts are the highest rated personalities on the network, so their lies carry more weight than unknown field reporters.

Kurtz went on to soft-pedal Fox’s deceit saying that “The heart of dominion’s suit is a gap” between what hosts said on the air and what they said privately among each other. Referring to Fox’s outright lying as merely a “gap” is like referring to the Grand Canyon as a pothole. Kurtz is deliberately underplaying the severity of Fox’s corruption. And he spent the remainder of his remarks spewing defenses for it. For instance, Kurtz said that…

“There was, to be sure, straight reporting by the news division, which also caused some friction, but the fact that some people in the chain of command privately dismissed the fraud claims as nuts or outlandish or insane doesn’t necessarily mean Fox couldn’t cover and comment on the extremely newsworthy spectacle of a president saying an election was stolen.”

Actually, no reputable media organization would allow a reporter to cover a story they were caught lying about. What’s more, the problem wasn’t that Fox was “covering” what Donald Trump and others said about election fraud. The problem was that the Fox News hosts were endorsing the fraud allegations themselves. That isn’t journalism, it’s propaganda.

In conclusion, Kurtz – still claiming to be fair to both sides – closed with a comment by Fox’s CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, who said that…

“The network has an obligation to report the news fairly. I think a lot of the noise you hear about this case is actually not about the law, and is not about journalism, and is really about the politics.”

Really? For Murdoch to brag about Fox’s “obligation to report the news fairly” after what the Dominion lawsuit has revealed is preposterous. That has never been the mission of Fox News, and the recent disclosures of their internal communications proves that it isn’t now. Not when you have their hosts knowingly deceiving viewers and spreading flagrant falsehoods that undermine democracy and foment violence.

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.

REALLY? Tucker Carlson Claims the NSA Scared Him Off From Interviewing His Hero, Vladimir Putin

Posted by Mark NC on March 12, 2023 at 12:15 pm. 1 Comments :

It really seems like a day can’t go by by without Fox News Senior Propaganda Dispenser, Tucker Carlson, making ever more ludicrous claims that serve only to exalt himself or the foremost objects of his affection, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. It must be exhausting having to come up with such asininity day after day.

Click here to Tweet this article

This week Carlson had an especially strong incentive to spread his BS. He desperately needed to deflect from a couple of recent stories that cast a spotlight on his utter lack of principles.

First there was the public disclosure – via the billion dollar defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News – of his internal communications with his colleagues following the January 6th insurrection. Those communications exposed him and his fellow Foxies lying to their viewers, advancing baseless assertions of election fraud, while privately conceding that there was none. Even worse, he revealed his true feelings about Trump, saying that “I hate him passionately,” and “can’t wait…to [be] able to ignore” him. [Update: Trump finally posted a weak response to Carlson hating him, saying that “He doesn’t hate me, or at least, not anymore!”]

SEE THIS: In Dominion v Fox News, Network Cries ‘We Can’t Make People Think We’ve Turned Against Trump’

Secondly, Carlson made a pitifully unsuccessful attempt to portray the January 6th insurrection as nothing more than peaceful tourists on a sightseeing tour. He presented what he regarded as video evidence (acquired exclusively from House Squeaker, Keven McCarthy) that assertions of a violent insurrection were false because part of the time there were people observed just wandering around. Never mind that they were already criminals for having broken through police barriers, doors, and windows, in order to trespass and try to block Congress from certifying the election.

SEE THIS: Tucker Carlson Spins January 6th Insurrection Videos to Spread Blatant Lies, Trump Praises Him

With those humiliations haunting him, Carlson appeared on the ultra-rightist Fullsend podcast in order to rescue his floundering reputation (video below). In the course of that appearance, Carlson spun a preposterous story of intrigue involving his attempt to interview Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin that was allegedly scotched by the National Security Agency (NSA). He began by stating that he was “hiding my plan to go interview Putin, because it’s an interview.” Then, when asked how he knew that the NSA had interfered, he said that it was “Because they admitted it. I got a call from somebody in Washington – who would know. Just trust me”

Carlson then recounted a tale of a mysterious figure who asked him about his planned trip to Russia and appeared to know all the details. This shocked Carlson because he said that he hadn’t told anybody, including his wife. His source told him that the NSA had “pulled his texts.” Whereupon, Carlson said that “I was immediately intimidated,” and he called off the interview, which he said he was “embarrassed to admit.”

If any of this is true – a highly specious assumption – it is no wonder that he’s embarrassed. The whole story is profoundly stupid. First of all, Carlson says his reason for hiding his plan to interview Putin was because “it’s an interview.” Which isn’t actually a reason. Then Carlson introduces his source as “somebody in Washington – who would know,” and asks us to trust him on that. This, coming from a known liar who was just revealed to have been lying to his audience for years about 2020 election fraud, and his “passionate” hatred for Trump, who he’s been fawning over every night on his program.

Furthermore, why would Carlson be so astonished that the NSA was monitoring the communications of a Putin associate in Russia? That’s their job. It would be worrisome if they didn’t know about Carlson’s prospective interview.

Finally, why on Earth would he cancel the interview just because the NSA knew about it? Did he think that he could travel to Russia and meet with Putin without American intelligence being aware of it? Any legitimate reporter, who had nothing to hide, would still conduct their interview and proudly air it as a journalistic coup.

Carlson, however, may have had much to hide, considering his long adulation for, and support of, Putin. He has taken Putin’s side on the war in Ukraine. He has heralded Putin as a strong, Christian leader. He has argued that Russia should be treated as an ally. He has positioned himself as staunchly pro-Putin and anti-American.

Consequently, any meeting that he has with Putin should be regarded as suspicious and potentially harmful to U.S. interests. He is no more trustworthy in that respect than Putin’s fanboy, Donald Trump.

In a new interview, Tucker Carlson recounts how he secretly planned to go to Russia to interview Putin, but called it off when someone in DC tipped him off that the NSA had seen a text message with whoever he was setting it up with, and that intimidated him into calling it off. pic.twitter.com/9WCFmfg0WG

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) March 12, 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.

Does the White House Consider Fox News a News Organization? Let’s Ask the WH Press Secretary

Posted by Mark NC on March 11, 2023 at 12:42 pm. 3 Comments :

The question as to the legitimacy of Fox News is not one that has been difficult to answer. It was designed from the start to be a right-wing propaganda dispenser by its founders, Rupert Murdoch (an ultra-conservative newspaper baron), and Roger Ailes (a Republican media consultant). That’s not exactly a roster of reputable journalists.

Click here to Tweet this article

Twenty-seven years later, Fox News has exceeded the aspirations of its politically prejudiced founders. In recent weeks the network has been exposed as being brazenly dishonest. Internal communications made public by Dominion Voting Systems in their defamation lawsuit against Fox reveal that its executives and hosts were telling their viewers one thing, while saying the opposite to one another in private.

Those depositions affirm that Fox News knew very well that there was no truth to their “reporting” of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. While they were lying to their viewers on the air, they were discussing privately among themselves about the “crazy” and “idiotic” assertions that Donald Trump had actually won. They even openly disparaged Trump as dangerous confessed their personal hatred for him.

The subject of the Dominion vs Fox News lawsuit came up Friday on MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight.” Wagner prefaced a question addressing the matter during an interview with White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, by noting that “The White House has been fairly outspoken about what’s happening in certain Republican circles – specifically, what’s going on over at Fox News.” Which led to the following exchange…

Wagner: Does the White House consider Fox News a news organization?

Jean-Pierre: I’ll say this. When you look at the depositions that have been out there recently, it even states from FOX leadership that they do not see Tucker Carlson’s show as news or even truthful. That is coming from the FOX News leadership. That is not coming from me. That is coming from them.

I also would quote – I’ll paraphrase here – what the Chief of Capitol Police said. He said essentially when you watch Tucker Carlson as it relates to January 6th, it is misleading, and it is misinformation as with the conclusion of what happened on January 6th, the attacks that happened. As you saw from the President’s statement, nearly 140 officers were injured on that day. It was an attack on our democracy. It was an attack on our constitution. And you cannot whitewash that. Tucker Carlson cannot whitewash that.

Wagner: So, I’m gonna say that sort of sounds like the White House doesn’t think Fox is a news organization, but we gotta leave it there.

Q: Does the White House consider Fox News a news organization?
A: pic.twitter.com/nxwcvxt6Vu

— Alex Wagner Tonight (@WagnerTonight) March 10, 2023

Jean-Pierre correctly noted that Fox News itself has defended its hosts (successfully) in defamation lawsuits by arguing that “no reasonable person” would take what they say seriously. Fox News lawyers singled out Tucker Carlson saying that…

“[Carlson] cannot be understood to have been stating facts, but instead that he was delivering an opinion using hyperbole for effect. [and that] given Mr. Carlson’s reputation, any reasonable viewer ‘arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism’ about the statements he makes.”

In other words, Carlson is a known liar whose commentaries can be dismissed out of hand as the ravings of a dishonest blowhard. And the evidence from the Dominion case drives that point home. The problem with this legal argument, however, is that Fox’s viewers are not remotely reasonable. Consequently, there is real and measurable harm done to millions of feeble-minded cultists.

While Jean-Pierre didn’t give a definitive yes or no answer, the gist of her response was plainly evident. Wagner got the message and rephrased it as an affirmative. Jean-Pierre smiled knowingly, and didn’t challenge Wagner’s interpretation. What’s more, the fact that Fox News is not a news organization was an opinion that the Biden administration held from the first days of its term. And they said so explicitly…

“Biden’s aides also promised not to allow outlets to use the briefings to spread baseless conspiracies. ‘We expect reporters covering the White House to operate in good faith and tell their audience the truth, and this White House will do the same. We are moving forward with that mutual understanding,’ […] ‘Organizations or individuals who traffic in conspiracy theories, propaganda and lies to spread disinformation will not be tolerated.”

If the Biden press team, as well as the White House Correspondent’s Association, were to adhere to those principles, they would be required to ban Fox News from all White House media events, including the daily briefings. And the revelations from the Dominion case provide the strongest argument yet to impose that ban.

A pseudo-news operation like Fox should not be credentialed so that it can masquerade as legitimate journalism. At the very least, they should be required to acknowledge their lies, apologize to their audience, their peers, and the nation, and take reparative action (i.e. fire Fox CEO Suzanne Scott, as well as hosts Carlson, Sean Hannity, and other offenders) before their credentials are restored. Short of that they should be shunned and banished to the pod swamps with the likes of Alex Jones and Steve Bannon.

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.

Hannity Brazenly Lies that Trump Supports Early/Mail-In Voting, Followed By Video Proof He Lied

Posted by Mark NC on March 9, 2023 at 2:24 pm. NO Comments :

Fox News has itself been in the news lately due to the disclosures revealed in the billion dollar defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against the network. While Fox News has banned any reporting on their epic scandal, those disclosures have roiled the media ecosphere in extraordinary ways.

Click here to Tweet this article

Apparently it wasn’t bad enough that most of the Fox’s executives and hosts were caught lying to their viewers about the 2020 presidential election being “rigged and stolen,” and about their hatred and fear of Donald Trump. Internal communications revealed that everyone from Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, to propaganda spewing Tucker Carlson, considered Trump and his media mouthpieces to be “insane” and “dangerous.”

SEE THIS: In Dominion v Fox News, Network Cries ‘We Can’t Make People Think We’ve Turned Against Trump’

Among the Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferers at Fox News is Sean Hannity. Despite his on-air infatuation with all things Trump, Hannity told his colleagues privately that he “Did not believe [Trump’s election fraud ‘Big Lie’] for one second.” And that dichotomy between Hannity’s TV persona and his true feelings persists to this day. In a segment of his program on Wednesday night (video below), Hannity said that…

“According to former president Donald Trump. the best way now to counter these efforts – and Republicans, you better pay attention, you better adapt, and you better adjust. You better get over your reluctance and resistance to voting by mail and voting early. And you better meet, and probably defeat, Democratic efforts at legal ballot harvesting based on state law. These efforts, by the way, are the only way you’ll get in the game, or otherwise you start election day down 500,000 votes. That’s hard to make up on election day.”

Anyone who has been following Trump and his acute election obsession knows that he is adamantly opposed to early and mail-in voting. He has been unambiguous about his hostility toward these democracy-enhancing measures. He regards them as inherently corrupt and subject to rampant fraud, as he raged explicitly in a furious tweet…

GET RID OF BALLOT HARVESTING, IT IS RAMPANT WITH FRAUD. THE USA MUST HAVE VOTER I.D., THE ONLY WAY TO GET AN HONEST COUNT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 14, 2020

Nevertheless, Hannity falsely claimed that Trump supports voting by mail and voting early. And he played a video that Trump posted on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, as proof. The only problem with it was that it only tangentially addressed voting by mail and voting early…

“Many states have banned ballot harvesting to keep our elections honest and fair. But in the states where ballot harvesting is still legal, we have no choice but to beat the Democrats at their own game. It’s very simple. Either we start ballot harvesting or you can say goodbye to our country. You can just wave goodbye, because Democrats would win every single election.”

Trump is (sort of) right. The more people who vote, the more likely that Democrats will win. However, in this context, Trump was talking only about ballot harvesting, a practice that he has also opposed in the past, but now appears to embrace, despite his conviction that it is dishonest and unfair. It’s likely that he was persuaded to adopt this position after the trouncing that he and Republicans suffered in 2020 and 2022. However, he never mentioned any other form of early voting or voting by mail. That was all Hannity putting words in his mouth.

For the record, ballot harvesting is only permitted by law in thirty-six states. And about half of them restrict who can harvest ballots (i.e. family members) and/or strictly limit the quantity that can be collected. So while it could make a difference in some close races in swing states, the other methods of early voting are likely to be far more impactful. And although Hannity is desperate to get Republicans to embrace it, Trump is still not doing so. But that didn’t stop Hannity from saying he does. Because, as recent news has affirmed, lying is what Fox News does.

President Trump: "Many states have banned ballot harvesting to keep our elections honest and fair. But in the states where ballot harvesting is still legal, we have no choice but to beat the Democrats at their own game!" pic.twitter.com/B4xZbYXesM

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) March 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.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: