OANN

Congress Asks Cable Companies Why They Carry Disinformation By Fox News, Newsmax, Etc.

Posted by on February 22, 2021 at 11:50 am. 2 Comments :

The deliberate mission of right-wing “news” operations to deceive the public has been an ongoing threat to American democracy. Their aim has been to spread disinformation in order to advance the interests of far-right agendas and politicians. And they have demonstrated a total lack of concern as to the destructive consequences of their purposefully dishonest propaganda.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Lies

The efforts by conservative outlets like Fox News, Newsmax, One America News, and their confederates on talk radio, has contributed to a culture of rightist hostility. They seek to sow discord by propagating conspiracy theories which have resulted in tangible harm to the American people.

That harm includes exacerbating the contagion and fatalities of COVID-19 by flagrantly lying about its severity and even portraying it as a hoax. Likewise, these conservative outlets have disseminated Donald Trump’s Big Lie that Joe Biden stole the election and is thus an illegitimate president. Those repeatedly debunked allegations resulted in the deadly assault on Congress on January 6th by Trump’s Insurrectionists.

The threats posed by these factories of falsehoods are now coming under scrutiny by Congress. The Communications and Technology Subcommittee has announced that they will hold a hearing on Wednesday, February 24, entitled “Fanning the Flames: Disinformation and Extremism in the Media.” Their announcement stated that…

“‘The prolonged severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the attack on our Capitol on January 6 have driven home a frightening reality: the spread of disinformation and extremism by traditional news media presents a tangible and destabilizing threat,’ said [Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank] Pallone and [Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Mike] Doyle. ‘Some broadcasters’ and cable networks’ increasing reliance on conspiracy theories and misleading or patently false information raises questions about their devotion to journalistic integrity.'”

The Committee sent letters to cable operators such Comcast, AT&T, Spectrum, Dish, and Verizon, asking about their role in “the spread of dangerous misinformation.” According to the New York Times the Committee sought to know…

‘What steps did you take prior to, on, and following the November 3, 2020 elections and the January 6, 2021 attacks to monitor, respond to, and reduce the spread of disinformation, including encouragement or incitement of violence by channels your company disseminates to millions of Americans?’ […and…] ‘Are you planning to continue carrying Fox News, OANN, and Newsmax on your platform both now and beyond the renewal date? If so, why?'”

It’s about time this problem has been addressed by Congress. Although their inference that Fox News, et al, ever had any “devotion to journalistic integrity” teeters on the absurd. Some of these news distorters have already been named in billion dollar lawsuits for defamation. The Biden Communications Office has called into question their White House press credentials. And even a member of the Murdoch family has castigated the family business as a provider of “disinformation” and “toxic politics.”

While it’s easy to point out the offenses to journalism by these organizations, it’s much harder to craft a constitutional remedy. Nobody wants to inhibit free speech or freedom of the press. Some version of an updated “Fairness Doctrine” could be drafted if there is a way to make it applicable to cable and digital entities.

However there are free market solutions that can be implemented without the involvement of Congress. Consumers can let their cable and/or streaming providers know that they are not willing to pay for services that spread dangerous lies and encourage violence. Most of the money made by programmers like Fox News comes from cable access fees, not advertising. But advertisers could also be targeted in public preference campaigns. For more information, see UnFox My Cable Box.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Watch the Hysterical Disclaimer For the MyPillow Guy’s ‘Absolute Proof’ Doc on OAN

Posted by on February 5, 2021 at 1:17 pm. 5 Comments :

Just when you thought that the Charred-Core Wingnut Contingent of the Trumpian Republican Party couldn’t get any more distant from reality, they introduce their new star, MyPillow’s Mike Lindell, to prove just how massively you underestimated them.

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Donald Trump, Mike Lindell, MyPillow

Lindell had been promising for months to release a damning exposé of the rampant election fraud that he uncovered. He swore that it would blow the lid off of the Democratic cabal that conspired to steal the election from Donald Trump and deliver it to China’s man in Washington, “Sleepy” Joe Biden.

Finally the day has come when Lindell’s investigative bombshell was released to the public. And the best that could be said for it is that it will produce a better night’s sleep than the lumpy pillows he’s selling. Like the MyPillow scam, the “Absolute Proof” documentary is false advertising, It’s missing a key component that is featured in its title: Proof!

The propaganda video aired on the ultra-rightist One America News Network (OAN). But even the Trump-fluffing extremists at OAN were spooked by the content and its utter lack of factual basis. They are surely aware of the $2.7 billion lawsuit that was just filed by Smartmatic against Fox News. So OAN preceded their “special” with a long and brutal disclaimer:

“Michael James Lindell has purchased the airtime for the broadcast of this program on One America News (“OAN”) network. Mr. Lindell is the sole author and executive producer of this program and is solely and exclusively responsible for its content.

“The topic of this broadcast is the 2020 election. OAN has undertaken its own reporting on this topic. This program is not the product of OAN’s reporting. The views, opinions and claims expressed in this program by Mr. Lindell and other guests, producers, presenters or advertisers are theirs and theirs alone and are not adopted or endorsed by OAN or its owners. In particular, OAN does not adopt or endorse any statements or opinions in this program regarding the following entities or people: US Dominion, Inc. (and any related entities); Smartmatic USA Corp.; Brian Kemp; Brad Raffensperger; or Gabriel Sterling,

“Further, the statements and claims expressed in this program are presented at this time as opinions only and are not intended to be taken or interpreted by the viewer as established facts. The results in the 2020 presidential election remain disputed and questioned by millions of Americans who are entitled to hear from all sides to help determine what may have happened.”

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1357713334313902080

The first thing of note here is that OAN sold the time to air this nonsense to Lindell. Legitimate news networks do not sell their air time to outside parties. Especially not to biased purveyors of lies and propaganda.

The second paragraph is wholly intended to indemnifying OAN from lawsuits for libel and defamation. However, for that purpose it is utterly insufficient. A “news” network cannot defend itself from litigation if they air a program that calls your mother a prostitute, simply by stating at the outset that it isn’t their opinion. And OAN is demonstrating consciousness of guilt by identifying the victims that they know are being libeled.

Finally, OAN is making a farce of the presentation they are airing by admitting that the documentary entitled “Absolute Proof” is “not intended to be taken or interpreted by the viewer as established facts.” So why not call it “Absolute Bullsh*t” or better yet, don’t air it all?

There is nothing subtle about Lindell’s flagrant dishonesty. He says in the video that…

“The biggest thing against humanity and our country is this attack through these machines. they got – this opened up – this revealed – the machines to where we’re at right now. So what you’re gonna watch during this show is 100% proof that the big thing was the theft by these other countries that came in to attack our country through these machines that are made to steal elections.”

No wonder OAN is so scared. They are already the subject of a lawsuit by the Dominion voting technology company for defamation. Now they are just making things worse by giving Lindell a platform to spread more defamatory comments. And they can hardly pretend that Lindell’s views and their own are not in sync. OAN has aired numerous reports that make exactly the same charges against Dominion. For instance…

“It’s becoming glaringly apparent that Donald Trump absolutely crushed Joe Biden in the November election. We’ve learned enough about the Dominion machines and software to know that it is intentionally hackable, fixable. It monitors the spread of votes to alert of the needed additional votes and a host of other illicit election activities. The Democrats and never-Trumpers installed the Dominion voting system in key locations with the intent to rig elections.”

OAN also aired a multi-part program explicitly calling out Dominion that was called “One America News Investigates: “Dominion-izing the Vote” That puts the lie to their disclaimer saying that “The views, opinions and claims expressed in this program […] are not adopted or endorsed by OAN or its owners.” Having aired this program with this ridiculous disclaimer, it almost seems like OAN wants to be sued. And if so, they are very likely to get their wish.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. And you can follow this surrogate Twitter account here. Thanks for your support.

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

Trump’s Year of Vicious Bashing – and Devoted Sucking Up To – Fox News in 2020

Posted by on December 26, 2020 at 11:50 am. 8 Comments :

Let’s face it … trying to unravel the acute psychoses of Donald Trump is an exercise in futility. It’s like trying to explain why pigs prefer poetry to pedicures. Seriously, don’t bother. And it’s particularly evident in his long-running love/hate relationship with Fox News, the propaganda machine that put him in the White House.

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Donald Trump Fox News

For the past year, Trump has lashed out furiously at Fox News for a myriad of perceived offenses. He vilified their pollsters as agents of “suppression.” He castigated their producers for having the gall to book Democrats for predominantly disparaging interviews. He lumped Fox in with “fake” news disseminators like CNN and the New York Times. He whined petulantly any time a Fox shill failed to exhibit unqualified adoration or presented him in a less than worshipful fashion.

Naturally, Trump’s anger was often expressed on his favorite communications platform, Twitter, which he also loves to bash (see his incoherent tirades aimed at “Section 230“). An example of Trump’s fury at Fox was posted last week when he declared that “Fox News is dead”:

The notion that Fox News is somehow aligned with “Radical Left Democrats” is too absurd to even bother responding to. And it is typical of Trump to single out one of the few Black contributors on Fox for criticism. But can anyone figure out what he’s talking about when he complains about “unedited commercials”? However, that specimen of nonsense was just his latest outburst. Here is some of what Trump has been griping about throughout 2020:

So only Trump knows what has happened to Fox News? And he’s keeping secret? Despite that hail of hysterics, Trump still managed to lavish Fox News with love when it suited his purpose. In 2020 Trump tweeted about Fox 230 times. That’s about once every day and a half. Of those, 79 were shout-outs to Sean Hannity (20 of which announced his interviews). Another 81 tweets were aimed at Fox and Friends (of which 11 announced his interviews). Mark Levin got 67 flattering tweets. Lou Dobbs got 55. Maria Bartiromo got 39. Laura Ingraham got 27. Jeanine Pirro got 21. And Tucker Carlson trailed the pack with 17.

In addition to those praiseful mentions of Fox News flacks, Trump also lathered Fox’s competitors with compliments. The One America News Network (OANN) got 80 tweets. And Newsmax gathered 27.

You have to wonder what’s in it for Fox News. Why would they tolerate this sort of abuse from an obviously disturbed egomaniac that is headed for an epic flameout? Could it be that just the prospect of a temporary ratings boost would cause Fox to accept being Trump’s whipping boy? Are they so wrapped up in their mission to advance an ultra-conservative agenda that they’ll suffer Trump’s contempt? Does Fox News believe that they will recover from this assault after Trump is demoted to civilian rank?

Fox’s ratings have already taken a considerable hit since election day. Newsmax has been gaining viewers and CNN is regularly beating Fox. In fact, Fox is dangerously close to slipping to third place behind MSNBC. What’s more, Trump has been openly speculating about launching a cable network of his own. Given his track record for business ventures, that would probably just be his next bankruptcy. But it could also cause some further deterioration of Fox’s audience. So the question remains: Why is Fox News behaving like a battered spouse and submitting to this abuse? Are they just as brainwashed by the Cult of Trump as his dimwitted followers? Stay tuned!

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Thanks for your support.

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

Fox News Receives Demand to Retract Trump’s Defamatory Election Fraud Lies

Posted by on December 15, 2020 at 9:42 am. 3 Comments :

Throughout the bizarre misadventures of Donald Trump’s election defeat, he and his screwball legal team have launched baseless attacks on a variety of people and companies that they blamed for his humiliating loss. Their wild conspiracy theories spun tales of alleged plots against Trump by Joe Biden and other Democrats, as wells as by Dominion Voting Systems and software developer, Smartmatic. And Trump’s increasingly rabid rhetoric is crossing the line into explicit incitations of violence.

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Donald Trump, Fox News, Lies

These allegations were never supported by evidence. And the lawsuits filed by Trump’s incompetent attorneys, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, et al., failed in nearly sixty separate court cases. That has to be some sort of record. And now it has led to a legal response by Smartmatic who has sent letters demanding retractions from the Trump-fluffing, right-wing media outfits that prop up Trump’s lies. The letters went out Monday to Fox News, Newsmax, and the One America News Network (OANN). According to Mediaite…

“Smartmatic demanded the retraction of dozens of comments made by hosts Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, as well as Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who appeared frequently as guests on the network […alleging…] “a conspiracy orchestrated by George Soros and the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.”

All they need to add is Barack Obama’s birth certificate and Hillary Clinton’s emails to guarantee a spot in the Conspiracy Crackpot Hall of Fame. Mediaite also obtained a copy of the letter that Smartmatic sent to Fox News, the network that recently expressed its deep sympathy for the travails of Trump. The letter contains numerous examples of defamatory statements made by Fox News anchors, contributors, and guests, as well as Trump’s lawyers. The letter summarized its complaint saying that…

“Fox News has engaged in a concerted disinformation campaign against Smartmatic. Fox News told its millions of viewers and readers that Smartmatic was founded by Hugo Chávez, that its software was designed to fix elections, and that Smartmatic conspired with others to defraud the American people and fix the 2020 U.S. election by changing, inflating, and deleting votes. While Fox News holds itself out as a trusted news source, it has continually and repeatedly published demonstrably false information and defamatory statements about Smartmatic. Fox News used its anchors and on-air guests, including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, to spread lies about a company that had absolutely nothing to do with the voting that took place in areas at the heart of the ‘conspiracies’ discussed following the 2020 U.S. election.” […]

“Smartmatic believes Fox News had (and has) no evidence or credible source to support any of the false and misleading statements it published in the Reports. Indeed, Fox News would have easily discovered the falsity of the statements and implications being made about Smartmatic by performing even a modicum of investigation.”

Smartmatic was stating the obvious in their assessment of Fox News as not “performing even a modicum of investigation.” That’s because Fox has never been bona fide news organization. It’s mission from the beginning was to disseminate conservative propaganda to advance the extremist agenda of the Republican Party, and it’s more recent incarnation, the Trump Party.

The worshipful defense by Fox News of Trump’s preposterous claims of election “shenanigans” is the best evidence of the network’s utter lack of credibility and ethics, not to mention patriotism. And the Smartmatic lawsuit is well founded and warranted. In fact, they should add Trump to the list of defendants since he is at the root of the slanderous lies that form the basis of the lawsuit. Perhaps they will add him after he leaves office next month. But then they’ll have to get in line behind a parade of both civil and criminal cases that are sure to follow Trump into civilian life.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Thanks for your support.

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

WTF? Trump Thinks the Burden of Proof is on Biden to Prove His Votes Were Legal

Posted by on November 27, 2020 at 3:52 pm. 6 Comments :

It’s been three and half weeks since Donald Trump lost the presidential election to Joe Biden in a decisive and humiliating defeat. And in all that time Trump hasn’t stopped embarrassing himself further by making ludicrous and unsupported claims of massive voter fraud and insisting that he won by a landslide. Either he’s suffered a severe mental collapse or he’s taking way more drugs than allowed.

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Joe Biden, Donald Trump Baby, Fake News

Nobody expects Trump to actually face the reality of his loss. Like most malignant narcissists he is incapable of comprehending any news that doesn’t portray him as superior in all things. But his utterly pathetic failure to understand the complexities of fourth grade math or civics comes as a slight surprise. You would think that someone in his circle of sycophants would explain the situation he’s in. But no. Consequently we have Trump pounding out preposterous tweets like this:

First of all, Trump doesn’t get to decide when Biden can enter the White House. That’s just another manifestation of his delusions of grandeur. More to the point, Trump needs to have a lawyer school him on the fine points of the law. Biden is not obligated to provide proof that the 80 million votes he received were “were not fraudulently or illegally obtained.” That’s a precisely backwards interpretation of how election results are challenged.

Of course, it makes sense that Trump would would want to twist this process around. He has filed dozens of lawsuits to overturn the results of the election in several states and lost nearly every one. So now, out of sheer desperation, he’s trying to shift the burden of proof to Biden. That’s not going to work. No judge will entertain this ridiculous notion, and Biden will simply – and correctly – ignore it.

As if that weren’t enough ridicule for Trump in one day, he also tweeted a “report” by the Trump-fluffing One America News Network (OANN) that made a severely math-challenged allegation about Biden’s votes and popularity:

What’s so pitifully sad about this is that it’s falseness is so easy to confirm. Biden’s Thanksgiving address racked up more than 5.3 million views on Twitter alone. And that isn’t counting all the viewers who watched it live on every network news broadcast. As for Trump, he didn’t even have an official Thanksgiving address. He did post a video of some comments he made to the military, but that had only 507,000 views, one tenth the number of Biden’s address. Even worse, Trump’s reliance on OANN for data like this could not be more poorly placed. The “report” Trump referred to said this:

“Joe Biden stirred a new controversy after his Thanksgiving address failed to attract viewers. Reports Thursday found Biden’s livestream address got only 1,000 views on line. The former vice-president delivered a teleprompter address on Wednesday in another baseless attempt to pose as the winner of the recent elections. The mainstream media portrays Biden as the most popular candidate in history of US politics, giving him 80 million votes. However, Biden’s miserable viewership online does not reflect the purported popularity.”

This nonsense begins by blaming Biden for some “new controversy” that is nothing of the sort. Then it references a report that is actually just some random jerk on Twitter who doesn’t know how tweet views accumulate. Then, for no apparent reason, it mentions that Biden used a teleprompter, which everyone does for speeches like these, including Trump. Then it says that Biden’s address was “another baseless attempt to pose as the winner of the recent elections.” Of course, Biden wasn’t “posing” as the winner. He actually is the winner. And the basis for that is the certified results of the elections in enough states to produce 306 electoral votes.

It is incomprehensible that it has come this. The stupidity of Trump, and the media sources he clings to, is on a level that no one could ever have imagined would sink so low. But here we are. Sadly, we can expect Trump to sink even further in the few weeks that remain of his unfortunate presidency. And that is only made possible by the equal stupidity of Trump’s cult followers who believe whatever he says, no matter how absurd.

NOTE: News Corpse was notified by Twitter recently that its account would be suspended for repeated violations of their rules. Which is strange because it has never been cited for a single violation in 11 years and they didn’t even identify this alleged violation. They just bounced the account and its 7,000 followers. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from this website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Thanks for your support.

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

Schizo Trump Loves/Hates Fox News and Misses their Sexual Predator Boss

Posted by on May 19, 2020 at 1:51 pm. 4 Comments :

On Monday Donald Trump unleashed another in his series of desperate deflections from the COVID-19 crisis that he has tragically exacerbated by his negligence and incompetence. He volunteered to a press gaggle that he is taking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to ward off the coronavirus.

Donald Trump, Fox News

Of course, as with everything Trump says, it needs evidence before it can be regarded as truthful. If he is taking it he is exposing himself to serious health risks for a treatment that has no proven efficacy. If he’s lying he’s encouraging his dimwitted cult followers to assume those risks. Either way it is an obvious attempt to steer the news cycle away from his inept and deadly mishandling of the raging pandemic.

Media manipulation may be the one skill that Trump puts any real effort into refining. He has proven his willingness to manufacture distractions at precisely the moment he is being scrutinized for some act of idiocy or scandal. But he doesn’t really have to be any good at it because he has Fox News to refurbish his floundering PR in the wake of his incessant bumbling. Which makes Trump’s schizophrenic, flip-flopping attitude toward Fox all the more bizarre. Tuesday morning Trump took to his Twitter machine to cheerlead for his favorite Fox News morning show, Fox and Friends.

In addition to celebrating the ratings of his Foxic friends, Trump engaged in the infantile name-calling that is the hallmark of his presidency. He is especially perturbed by MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough who has been an effective critic. Recently Trump began lobbing slanderous allegations that Scarborough murdered an intern twenty years ago. But Trump’s glee over the ratings victory for Fox comes in stark contrast to a tweet he posted just a few hours before:

There is so much wrong with that tweet that it’s really going to need some deeper analysis. First of all, anyone who watches Fox knows that the network is far more pro-Trump now than ever. With a prime time line up that consists of dependable Trump-fluffers like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson, there is a unanimity of opinion that would make North Korea’s media operation jealous. A recent example is how they virtually swapped out their coronavirus coverage in order to hype the phony “Obamagate” conspiracy theory.

Secondly, Trump is not “looking for a new outlet,” he’s already found one. He has been busily promoting the One America News Network (OANN), a tiny, little-watched, video blog that is even more worshipful of Dear Leader Trump than Fox. In fact, some of Trump’s financial backers recently bought OANN, which suggests that it may become his television home after he loses in November.

As for Trump “miss[ing] the great Roger Ailes,” that’s his testimonial to the now deceased CEO of Fox News who was terminated due to mounting evidence of his sexual harassment and assault. Ailes not only committed vile acts himself, but he actively covered up the misconduct of his colleagues like Bill O’Reilly, often paying millions to secure the silence of their victims. Naturally a sexual predator like Trump would find camaraderie in an equally nauseating pervert.

Finally, Trump’s fluctuating opinion of Fox News is just further proof of his mental infirmity. He can’t seem to remember whether he loves Fox or hates it. Here is just a sampling of the frothing hatred Trump has recently aimed at Fox News;

Despite the attacks on Fox above, he has also been dishing out effusive praise to Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Greg Gutfeld, Laura Ingraham, Brit Hume, Mark Levin, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. Plus, he’s done recent interviews with Fox and Friends, Bartiromo, Hannity, and Jeanine Pirro. Nearly all of his interviews since becoming president have been on Fox. So which is it, Donnie? Is Fox News part of the liberal, Democratic, Deep State, cabal that’s out to destroy you? Or is it Trump’s loyal bastion of unflinching support and blind adulation? Well, it depends on what day it is.

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

Talk About Desperate: Trump Celebrates an OANN Poll that Doesn’t Exist

Posted by on April 16, 2020 at 12:54 pm. 4 Comments :

On Wednesday Donald Trump unleashed one of his most bizarrely unhinged performances at the Coronavirus Task Force briefing (aka Trump Campaign Rally). He produced a fictional list of corporate executives he said were members of a new economic task force. He reiterated his delusional view that he has “total authority” and threatened to shut down Congress. And of course, he bragged about imaginary achievements and yelled petulantly at reporters. Then he stomped out in huff when he didn’t like the questions.

Donald Trump Pacifier Fox

Trump’s presence at these briefings has been a waste of time from the start. He contributes nothing of substance, but distracts from the experts who actually have some relevant knowledge to impart to the public. Trump has proved that the only things he cares about are those things that advance his personal self-interest and assuaging his voracious ego. That was affirmed on Thursday as he took to Twitter with bitterly partisan posts and flagrant lies.

The first of Trump’s tweets was his celebration of a poll by the ultra right-wing Fox News wannabe One America News Network (OANN). This is the network that doesn’t have a big enough audience to be rated by Nielsen. It’s the network whose reporter was recently booted out of the White House briefings for violating social distancing guidelines, but who got a personal reprieve to stand in the back of the room by Trump’s press secretary (since fired), Stephanie Grisham. It’s a network that has even less credibility than viewers. But Trump promotes them because he can always count on them to kiss his – let’s say ring. He also uses them to needle Fox News when he doesn’t think they are being sufficiently flattering. So Trump tweeted this Thursday morning:

The first thing that makes this tweet significant is that no such OANN poll exists. This is another example of Trump mangling the facts to disseminate whatever “news” he believes will put him the best light, even if it’s fictional. It’s similar to his repeated – and false – claims that he has a 95% approval rating among Republicans. Trump often makes things up on the fly.

There does appear to be a poll that has numbers aligned to Trump’s tweet. It was conducted by the Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank in North Carolina. So even if Trump had gotten the reference correct, it is still not a reputable, non-partisan survey. The notoriously biased Rasmussen poll only has Trump with a 46% approval, 53% disapproval. What’s more, the Civitas results are hardly worth bragging about. The alleged seven point lead over Joe Biden still has Trump below 50% (49-42%). Nationally, Trump has taken a nosedive with the most recent Gallup poll showing a six point drop in approval and a nine point leap in disapproval.

To add another level of irrelevance, the poll was conducted from April 5-7, so it’s a week and a half old. A more recent poll of this North Carolina race by Public Policy Polling shows Biden with a small lead in the state (48-47%), and the Democratic candidate for the Senate, Cal Cunningham, well ahead of the GOP incumbent, Thom Tillis (47-40%).

Trump has also been obsessed with maligning his perceived foes, including, and especially, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of whom he has a mortal fear. He posted two tweets piling on as many derogatory adjectives as he could think of. He called her “crazy,” “weak,” “a poor leader,” “incompetent,” “a pathetic puppet,” and “third-rate.” The first tweet quoted the insults of Sean Hannity of Fox News. The second tweet accused Pelosi of being “responsible for many deaths.” It also accused her of deleting a tweet that she never actually posted.

In other words, Trump was suffering a severe bout of psychological projection. Because those are all characteristics that have long defined Trump himself. Particularly the one concerning responsibility for tens of thousands of deaths that are directly attributable to Trump’s criminal negligence, and incompetence. And to make matters worse, Trump is still insisting that he wants to “reopen” the country, despite the fact that every health expert says it would be disastrous and deadly to do so at this time. Not that Trump or his GOP confederates care.

For the perfect example of how callous, insensitive, and greedy they are, take a look at this clip of Dr. Oz on Hannity Wednesday evening saying that schools should be reopened now because the deaths of 2 to 3% of American children from the coronavirus would be an acceptable “tradeoff” to get the economy back on track. No, really. He actually said that while Hannity nodded approvingly. This is the so-called “pro-life” right-wing:

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

Trump ‘Loves’ Him Some Whiffleball Questions From Radical Right-Wing ‘Reporter’

Posted by on March 21, 2020 at 2:17 pm. 5 Comments :

Another day, another White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing. These daily events serve no purpose other than to provide Trump with a forum to repeat his lies and disinform the public. And there is no plausible reason for him to be there except to satisfy his craving for ego-strokes now that he can no longer hold his traveling cult rallies.

Donald Trump

Saturday’s briefing was just a rehash of previous episodes where Trump leads a chorus of hallelujahs by sycophants paying tribute to his heroic awesomeness. In the course of his remarks Trump describes every alleged achievement as a never before seen breakthrough in human endeavors. Suffice to say that none of his barely coherent ramblings provide useful, factual information. The entirety of his presentation is an exercise in glassy-eyed happy-talk that painstakingly avoids the unsettling realities that the American people know all too well. After listening to Trump one might think that there was no pandemic crisis going on at all. Everything is fine and getting better.

In order to promulgate that deceit, Trump made a point of calling on Jenn Pellegrino, a “reporter” from the far-right, conspiracy factory, One America News Network (OANN). Her question, and Trump’s response, did nothing to advance the public’s well-being. physically or mentally. But it give Trump another opportunity to attack his perennial foes in the media (video below):

Pellegrino: This morning the Washington Post ran a story suggesting that you delayed taking action on the virus in January and February. Dr. Fauci has indicated that your action in the Chinese travel ban helped America immensely. What do you say to the Washington Post?
Trump: I love whoever you’re with. Cuz I think that’s such a nice question. I think the Washington Post covers us very inaccurately, covers me very inaccurately. I saw the story. I think it’s a disgrace. But it’s the Washington Post and I guess we have to live with it.

The story that they are obliquely referencing is one wherein the Post revealed that U.S. intelligence had warned him as early as January about the coronavirus and it’s potential risks, but that he disregarded the warnings. The Post reported that even though Trump’s advisers told him that “the system was blinking red […] they just couldn’t get him to do anything about it.”

So without putting the question into context, Trump complimented the Trump-fluffing reporter and her flagrantly biased network. Then went on to insult the Post without ever citing anything in their story that was inaccurate. Trump later noted that China had ejected the Post from the country, which he seems to think bolsters his position. Is that because he thinks China is so well regarded as a beacon of press freedom? And let’s not forget that Trump ejected the Post from the White House and other government offices.

Trump’s response to this question is especially notable considering how different it was from his response to a question he received the day before. Peter Alexander of NBC asked Trump “What do you say to Americans who are watching right now who are scared?” Whereupon, Trump jumped on him like a rabid jackal, calling Alexander a “terrible reporter” and the question “nasty.” But Pellegrino’s question asking “What do you say to the Washington Post,” drew Trump’s “love” for “such a nice question.”

The lesson here is that reporters are safer asking Trump what he has to say to news organizations that everyone knows he hates, than they are asking what he has to say to the American people. That’s because he cares more about attacking those who dare to tell the truth about him, than he does about the citizens of this country, a majority of whom voted against him. And it’s his indifference – and even hostility – to the people he is supposed to be serving, that has resulted in the disastrous way he has bungled the nation’s response to the worst pandemic in generations.

Trump TV? Trump’s Billionaire Buddies Are Bidding to Buy Failing Fox News Foe

Posted by on January 12, 2020 at 12:54 pm. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump spent his morning doing what he does nearly every morning: Pounding out desperate comments in a flurry of rage-tweeting. For the most part his Twitter tantrums consisted of whining about having been impeached. Trump seems determined to establish himself as the most sniveling, cowardly, self-perceived victim who has ever occupied the White House.

Trump TV

At least Trump now seems to have correctly characterized his impeachment in a more realistic context asking “Why should I have the stigma of Impeachment attached to my name?” Poor baby. It’s interesting that someone with a such a pronounced messiah complex would associate his tribulations with the Stigmata. Perhaps someone close to him will tell him that he’s suffering this fate because he righteously earned it by breaking laws and obstructing justice. But don’t count on that.

Trump also tweeted a couple of flagrant contradictions. In one he complained that the government of Iran would not “let reporters roam free.” This is coming from the same guy who calls U.S. reporters “the enemy of the people,” revokes their credentials, and proposes banning them from the White House. He’s a real free press advocate, isn’t he?

The other contradiction came in the form of a demand that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff be forced to testify before Congress. Really? Trump has refused to allow any members of his administration to testify in the Senate impeachment hearings, even after complaining that he was denied due process (which doesn’t exist in impeachments) during the House hearings. and, of course, he’s too scared to testify on his own behalf. Trump may be first defendant who opposes the testimony of those he says will exonerate him. That’s not the behavior of an innocent man.

The more Trump whines about impeachment, the more obvious it is that he is panicking and frightened by its prospects. He is fraught with anxiety, though he tries impotently to pretend not to be. But there’s another prospect that is bubbling up from under the surface of his fear. He might already be laying the groundwork for his post-presidency later this year.

A group of Trump’s billionaire buddies is seeking to purchase the floundering One America News Network. OANN has been trying for fifteen years to mount a challenge to Fox News as the preeminent lunatic wing of conservative media. They have had some support from Trump who has tweeted about them forty-seven times. Often when he’s mad at Fox News for not being sufficiently adoring. Trump recently advised his cult followers to “start looking for a new News Outlet” because “FoxNews doesn’t deliver for US anymore.” Which, if nothing else, is a candid admission that Trump regards Fox, not as a news network, but as part of his “us.”

So why would these wealthy Trump confederates be interested in shelling out a couple hundred million dollars for OANN? It can’t be as an investment opportunity. The “network” has so few viewers that Nielsen doesn’t even track them, and they aren’t carried by any of the major cable operators.

Likewise, Trump’s pals couldn’t be interested in acquiring OANN in order to impose a more conservative editorial posture. That wouldn’t be possible. It is already a bastion of Trump-fluffing adulation and bizarre, anti-liberal conspiracy theories, including the Seth Rich murder and George Soros smears. It has notable ties to Russia, and is suing MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow because she reported that.

There is only one other plausible reason that allies of Trump would want to take ownership of a money-losing, blatantly biased, propaganda mill. They could be planning to develop it as the media platform for a former President Trump. After all, he is going to need a job after he can no longer soak the American people by directing business to his golf resorts and hotels. And his famously gargantuan ego will require that he be in the public eye.

The question is, does the the timing have any significance. There wouldn’t be any hurry to make this acquisition if the buyers thought that Trump would be serving a second four year term. So perhaps there has already been a determination made that Trump is either going to decline to run, or that his reelection is too improbable, thus making it necessary to snatch up this stinker and begin painting the walls gold and filling it with tacky furniture.

Whatever happens, OANN will remain an also-ran in the media wars even with Trump headlining. They’ll be lucky if they’re able to give the televangelists some competition. Although, that would be much more appropriate program positioning for the Cult of Trump. And as for Trump’s Sunday Morning Tweetstorm, Speaker Pelosi had some choice words when asked for her reaction: “I don’t like to spend too much time on his crazy tweets because everything he says is a projection. When he calls somebody crazy, he knows that he is.”

UPDATE: The rumors of an OANN purchase by Trump backers is more than just talk.

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