Fox News

U.S. Finishes Dead Last for Media Trust Among 46 Countries, and Fox News Lies About It

Posted by on June 30, 2021 at 12:36 pm. 1 Comments :

The state of the media suffered “bigly” during the years that Donald Trump occupied the White House. He hated the concept of free press, repeatedly calling it “the enemy of the people,” and berating and insulting reporters. It was his mission to sow discord. And it was one of the few things that he was good at. At least with regard to his worshipful cult followers.

Fox News, Bullshit Factory

Trump actually admitted to Leslie Stahl that he purposefully foments distrust of the media. She asked him why he attacks the press. “You know why I do it?” he replied. “I do it to discredit you all, and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”

Mission accomplished! A new report by the Reuters Institute ranked media trust among 46 countries. The United States came in dead last:

“The United States ranks last in media trust — at 29% — among 92,000 news consumers surveyed in 46 countries. […] One explanation, though not necessarily the only one, is the extreme political polarization in the U.S. This study, like many others, found extremely high levels of distrust — 75% of those who identify as being on the right thought coverage of their views is unfair.”

So it was the deliberate slander of the press by Trump and his conservative mouthpieces at Fox News and elsewhere that produced this humiliating result for the U.S. And no one should be surprised to learn that it’s still going on. Fox News contributor Joe Concha wrote an op-ed for The Hill that brazenly misrepresented the Reuters study:

“The U.S. media is the least trustworthy in the world, according to a comprehensive new Reuters Institute survey encompassing 46 countries. Yes, you read that right. The country with among the most resources in this arena – human, technical and otherwise – finished dead last. Finland ranked the highest, with a 65 percent trust rating. In Kenya, the trust rating clocked in at 61 percent. But here in the U.S.A., the home of global media giants including the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN, we’re trusted by a whopping 29 percent of those reading and watching.’

Notice what Concha left out? The primary cause of distrust in the media, his employer Fox News. Concha’s article went on to cite stories about Trump’s collusion with Russia an example of why the media isn’t trusted. He falsely claimed that “the Mueller Report didn’t find proof” when it actually did. Concha also maligned CNN and MSNBC reporters, saying that “they’re patently partisan opinion hosts” who “share their feelings, their opinions” and that they “pass it off as objective news reporting.” Which, of course, is what Fox News does 24/7, and what Concha is doing in this op-ed.

Digging deeper into the Reuters study confirms that Fox News is the main offender. When the survey results were broken down by media brand, Fox News had the distinction of being the most distrusted at 46% and only 35% trusted. That coincides with Trump’s most zealous base of support. Meanwhile, the most frequent media targets of Trump’s animus (NBC/MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post) all placed higher than Fox by 8 to 11 points.

Fox News, Reuters, Media Brands

The fact that Fox News would so flagrantly misrepresent this information is typical of their dishonesty and bias. This week Fox also misrepresented the ratings for cable news networks. They reported on the ratings decline of CNN and MSNBC, attributing it, without evidence, to a “credibility problem.” But for some reason Fox’s article never mentioned Fox News ratings at all, or the fact that they had declines that were just as bad and, more often than not, worse.

So in less than a week Fox News blatantly lied twice (at least) about how they are received in the media marketplace. And they are doing it deliberately with the intention to deceive. Which is no less than what should be expected of a “news” network that lies about everything else all day, every day. That’s just how Fox News rolls.

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.

Obsessed Ego Maniac Trump Calls TV Ratings Declines ‘A Wonderful Thing to See’

Posted by on June 29, 2021 at 5:24 pm. 3 Comments :

Donald Trump, the former reality TV game show host, is once again obsessing over television ratings. It’s almost as if he still thinks he’s a TV personality, rather than the pathetic political loser who is now a senior resident of Palm Beach’s gaudy Mar-All-Ego retirement village in Florida.

Donald Trump TV Set

Trump’s fixation on TV ratings goes back a long ways. He has long regarded them as being a better indicator of popularity than public opinion polls. That may be because most polls consistently exposed his weakness and general disapproval with the public at large.

Trump literally said that TV ratings “are the real polls” despite the fact that Nielsen doesn’t measure popularity, just viewership. Which means they don’t record the political ideology of viewers.

Furthermore, TV ratings don’t account for the fact that Fox News only tops the ratings because it has a de facto monopoly on the cult-like right-wing audience, while the rest of the viewer universe is divided among all the other news and entertainment networks.

On Tuesday Trump issued one of his increasingly impotent statements (since he can no longer post on social media) that are mostly ignored by everyone but his dimwitted disciples. He said that…

“CNN ratings are down 70%. MSDNC is also way down. Actually, they are ALL way down. They say the news is ‘boring’ since I left D.C. Morning Joe, Joy Reid (whoever that is?), Nicole Wallace, Jake Tapper, and even Chris Wallace, at Fox, in free fall. A wonderful thing to see!”

Trump is surprisingly correct for once. Ratings for all of the cable news networks have declined year over year. According to Deadline…

“In primetime, Fox News topped with an average of 2.13 million viewers, compared to 1.31 million for MSNBC and 798,000 for CNN. Compared to the same month a year earlier, Fox News was off 42%, MSNBC was down 36% and CNN dropped 57%. In the 25-54 demo, Fox News drew an average of 329,000, down 50%; compared to 179,000 for CNN, falling 68%; and 166,000 for MSNBC, off by 48%.

“In total day, Fox News averaged 1.17 million in total viewers, down 35%; MSNBC posted 763,000, down 37% and CNN was at 580,000, down 49%. In the 25-54 demo, the numbers were 195,000 for Fox News, down 42%, 133,000 for CNN, falling 59% and 99,000 for MSNBC, dropping by 48%.”

However Trump doesn’t bother to explain why ratings have suffered. He simply implies that it’s because his unceasing lunacy is no longer a part of the daily circus that consumes the press. He’s at least partially correct. There are fewer viewers for the same reason that viewership declines after any other catastrophic event. Ratings spike when a hurricane ravages the eastern shore. Then they subside when the weather returns to normal. And Hurricane Trump has petered out.

In the big picture, the ratings for all of the cable news networks were expected to fall back from this time last year. In June of 2020 the nation was in the midst of a presidential election. The party conventions were approaching. And it isn’t insignificant to note that people were confined to their homes due to a deadly pandemic. Which was another Trump catastrophe that boosted news viewing.

Trump’s statement went out of its way to identify program hosts mostly from MSNBC. And the only one that he derisively insulted was Joy Reid, a Black woman. That’s a pretty good indicator of who and what he is most afraid of. But his last comment stating that these ratings declines are “A wonderful thing to see” reveals his hostility to the media that he has repeatedly referred to in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.”

Like the totalitarian dictators he admires, Trump wants the media to fail. He regards a free press, and the Constitution that protects it, as an adversary. And any bad news for the media is good news for an aspiring tyrant like Trump. He actually confided his envy to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, telling him that he also would like to “get rid of” the press. And given the opportunity, don’t doubt that he wouldn’t try.

UPDATE: Fox News reported on the ratings decline of CNN and MSNBC, attributing it, without evidence, to a “credibility problem.” And speaking of credibility problems, for some reason Fox’s article never mentioned Fox News ratings at all, or that they had declines that were just as bad and, more often than not, worse.

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.

SRSLY? Tucker Carlson of Fox News Peddles Paranoid Plot that the NSA is Spying on Him

Posted by on June 29, 2021 at 9:55 am. 6 Comments :

Just when you thought that the conspiracy theory crackpots of the world had hit rock bottom, Tucker Carlson comes along and blasts through to previously unimaginable new lows. And with his latest lapse into lunacy he has secured for himself the title of uncontested heavyweight Freakazoid of Fox News.

Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Bullshit Factory

On Monday’s episode of Carlson’s White Power Hour, he disclosed the alleged existence of a clandestine plot to banish him from television. The architects of this evil, according to Carlson, are undercover operatives of the National Security Agency (NSA). Carlson unleashed this unhinged horror story with his trademarked scowl and furrowed brow (video below):

“It’s not just political protestors the government is spying on. Yesterday, we heard from a whistleblower within the U.S. government who reached out to warn us that the NSA – the National Security Agency – is monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air.

Now that’s a shocking claim and ordinarily we’d be skeptical of it. It’s illegal for the NSA to spy on American citizens. It’s a crime. It’s not a third world country. Things like that should not happen in America. But unfortunately they do happen, and in this case they did happen.”

That is indeed “a shocking claim.” But only because of how preposterous it is. Despite Carlson’s evidence-free insistence that it all happened, it makes no sense whatsoever. Carlson’s ego is in hyperdrive if he thinks that the NSA would waste any time trying to get his lame show canceled. And before you believe any of Carlson’s hysterics, bear in mind that he is a notorious liar. He was defended in a defamation case by his own Fox News lawyers, who successfully argued 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’s reputation sucks and no reasonable person would believe anything he says. With that in mind, Carlson continued…

“The whistleblower, who is in a position to know, repeated back to us information about a story that we are working on that could only have come directly from my texts and emails. There is no other possible source for that information, period. The NSA captured that information without our knowledge and did it for political reasons. The Biden administration is spying on us. We have confirmed that.”

First of all, if the NSA were spying on Carlson they would have to have had warrants to do so. That would indicate that either Carlson, or the person(s) he was communicating with, was a foreign agent or other national security threat. Which isn’t much of a stretch considering how he has aided and abetted Russian propaganda. Furthermore, if an NSA agent disclosed an active investigation to a target of the investigation, that isn’t whistleblowing. It’s a felony.

More to the point, Carlson’s ludicrous “factual” declaration that he has “confirmed” that the Biden Administration is spying on him is laughable. The notion that the information Tucker says could only have come from NSA “captured” texts and emails is just plain stupid. It could also have come from any of those he was texting and emailing. Or it could have come from a hacker, such as the Russians who are so enamored of Tucker and his anti-American propaganda. That would fit in perfectly with their efforts to foment fear and distrust of the U.S. government. But Carlson still wasn’t through…

“This morning we filed a FOIA request – a Freedom of Information Act request – asking for all information the NSA and other agencies have gathered about this show. We did it mostly as a formality. We also contacted the press office at both those the NSA and the FBI. We don’t expect to hear much back. That’s the way that usually goes.

Only Congress can force transparency on intelligence agencies. And they should do that immediately. Spying on opposition journalists is incompatible with democracy. If they are doing it to us – and again, they are definitely doing it to us – They are almost certainly doing it to others. This is scary and we need to stop it right away.

It’s cute that Carlson refers to himself as a “journalist.” However, in all probability this is just a totally manufactured and pitiful attempt on Carlson’s part to deflect from the avalanche of criticism he’s received from a recent spate of ridiculous and even brazenly unpatriotic rants. For instance, He has taken incoming from…

After that sort of maniacal misbehavior, Carlson surely needs some distractions to take the heat off. But inventing paranoid plots against him by the NSA seems like a strange strategy to get people to pay less attention to his mental breakdowns. And one has to wonder what his bosses at Fox News think of his rapidly deteriorating cerebral malfunction. No one at Fox has corroborated this “bombshell” allegation, or done any additional reporting on it. They’ve refused to reply to inquiries or even defend Carlson. But knowing Fox, they may just be considering giving him a raise.

UPDATE: The NSA has released a statement deny that they have ever monitored Carlson, which they really didn’t need to do. And, naturally, Carlson called it a “paragraph of lies” but still hasn’t provided any proof.

And this just in: Donald Trump weighed in to say that he finds Carlson’s babbling “totally believable.” Meanwhile, Press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about Carlson’s NSA delusions. She plainly noted that the NSA “focuses on foreign threats and individuals.” In other words, not Carlson.

Reporter: Tucker Carlson said that the NSA is spying on him. Is the administration aware of any espionage or listening efforts on US citizens by the NSA, and is Tucker Carlson one of them?
Jen Psaki: Well, the NSA has, I think you are well aware, everyone’s aware, everyone on this plane is aware, I should say, is an entity that focuses on foreign threats and individuals who are attempting to do us harm on foreign soil. So that is their purview, but beyond that I would point you to the intelligence community.”

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.

CANCEL CULTure: Fox News Attacks Olympic Athlete for Exercising Free Speech

Posted by on June 28, 2021 at 3:01 pm. 3 Comments :

The emergence of a new buzzword in Fox News is always a treasure trove of asininity. And as their embrace of their new and thoroughly contrived concept of “cancel culture” has spread across their airwaves, Fox News has proven that they are the foremost abusers of it.

Fox News, Censorship

Fox News has courageously stood up in opposition to the injustices suffered by esteemed, albeit imaginary, Americans like Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head. Because of Fox, they now represent the class of victims who have been “canceled” by systemic intolerance of cartoon characters and plastic toys.

However, no one is more guilty than Fox News of “canceling” real people who dare to go against the grain of whatever narrative Fox News happens to be espousing. Just ask all of the Republicans censured and cast aside for their perceived disloyalty to Donald Trump. Or check with the American companies that Trump has targeted for boycotts.

Now we can add to those casualties Olympic hopeful Gwen Barry. Upon winning a bronze medal in the recent Olympic trials, Berry took the opportunity to express her commitment to social injustice. That act of free speech earned her a mention at the White House daily press briefing. The Fox News White House correspondent, Peter Doocy, chose to use his privileged position to focus on an issue that he believes far outweighs the other petty concerns of the President of the United States, such as the resurgent COVID pandemic, or the Florida condo catastrophe, or how the pending infrastructure bill will impact the economy and jobs. Nope, Doocy wanted to know about this:

Doocy: This weekend Gwen Berry, who represents the United States as an Olympian on the hammer-throwing events, won a bronze medal at the trials, and then she turned her back on the flag while the anthem played. Does President Biden think that is appropriate behavior for someone who hopes to represent Team USA?”
Psaki: I haven’t spoken to the President specifically about this. But I know he’s incredibly proud to be an American, and has great respect for the anthem, and all that it represents, especially for our men and women serving in uniform all around the world. He would also say, of course, that part of that pride in our country means recognizing there are moments where we as a country haven’t lived up to our highest ideals. And it means respecting the right of people, granted to them in the Constitution, to peacefully protest.

Was it really necessary for Doocy to ask that particular question? Did it advance the public’s knowledge of matters that actually affect them? Didn’t he know that the obvious answer would be a defense of the Constitution? Is he really that stupid? (Don’t answer that).

And if that weren’t enough, Fox News had already addressed this critical subject on their early morning program, Fox and Friends. Co-host Ainsley Earhardt put the question to Republican congressman Dan Crenshaw:

Earhardt: [Berry] turned her back on the flag during the anthem, and she also put a black t-shirt over her face that said “activist athlete.”
Crenshaw: We don’t need anymore activist athletes. She should be removed from the team. The entire point of the Olympic team is to represent the United States of America. That’s the entire point. It’s one thing when these NBA players do it. We’ll just stop watching. But now the Olympic team? And it’s multiple cases of this. They should be removed. That should be the bare minimum requirement, is that you believe in the country representing.

So Crenshaw doesn’t believe we need “anymore activist athletes.” That implies that we have some already and that the quota has met. Which leaves one to wonder exactly how many activist athletes we need? And if we’ve exceeded that need, are the rest just canceled/removed?

Crenshaw makes the bizarre assertion that “The entire point of the Olympic team is to represent the United States of America.” Most people probably thought it has something to do with athletic competitions. And he makes a distinction between the Olympics and the NBA because you don’t have to watch basketball. Does he think that watching the Olympics is legally mandated? Plus, he’s being profoundly disingenuous because he wouldn’t support the free speech of professional athletes either. Just ask Colin Kaepernick. And Fox News can tell you something about their demands on NBA players to “Shut Up and Dribble.”

Finally, Crenshaw is asserting that a peaceful gesture of protest amounts to not believing in your country. That’s the opposite of the truth. Wanting to improve your country is an act of patriotism. If Berry didn’t care about America, she wouldn’t have felt compelled to make any statement at all. It’s the protestors who love America. It’s the “love it or leave it” types who refuse to acknowledge the nation’s flaws who really don’t care.

And that’s precisely what’s wrong with the attitude of Crenshaw, Fox News, and their audience. The same people who are offended by a woman of color peacefully protesting by turning her back to the flag, have actually defended violent protestors who used the flag as a weapon against police officers at Trump’s January 6th insurrection.

The Crenshaws and Foxists of the world wear blinders that keep them satisfied with America as it is. Don’t bother to resolve problems or help those who are not enjoying the full spectrum of the nation’s benefits. And to hell with anyone who thinks we can do better. Contrary to what Fox News and Crenshaw believe, that is not the true spirit of America.

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.

Fox News ‘Media Guy’ Plays Into OAN Host’s Proposal to Execute Trump Critics

Posted by on June 27, 2021 at 5:05 pm. 3 Comments :

Last week, the fanatically rightist One America News Network (OAN) aired an abhorrent and inflammatory commentary by host Pearson Sharp. The segment was ostensibly about the 2020 election and the crackpot conspiracy theory that it was stolen from Donald Trump. That’s the position that OAN has been peddling for months, along with Trump.

Fox News Sad

Sharp’s crazed rant devolved into a grotesque advocacy of mass executions of those he asserts were trying to “carry out a coup against” Trump. He believes that the blatantly biased and utterly disreputable ballot “audit” in Arizona by the “Cyber Ninjas” will eventually result in conclusive proof of election fraud and the unmasking of anti-Trump “traitors.” Then he asks…

“What happens to them? Well, in the past, America had a very good solution for dealing with such traitors: Execution.”

Never mind that there isn’t a smidgen of evidence for any of Sharp’s maniacal allegations. His remarks were designed to incite the sort of wild-eyed hostility that produced Trump’s insurrection in Washington, D.C. on January 6th.

On Sunday Fox News sought to cover the OAN segment on their media-focused weekend program MediaBuzz with Howard Kurtz. And it’s difficult to imagine how they could have done it worse. The entire piece (video below) ran over a chyron that read that OAN “Urges Execution Over Stolen Election,” as if the election having been “stolen” was an established fact. Meanwhile, Kurtz described OAN’s report saying that…

“One America News Host Pearson Sharp got pretty worked up over the unproven rigged election claims, saying, lots and lots of people worked to steal a victory from Donald Trump. So he would kill all the traitors who haven’t yet been identified somehow, let alone charged? Sharp says ‘Oh no,’ he wasn’t suggesting that thousands of people be executed, just pointing out the law.”

Let’s start off with Kurtz referring to “the unproven rigged election claims.” The assertions of election fraud, whether by OAN or Trump or anyone else, are not “unproven claims.” They are lies! In fact, they are the “Big Lie” that Trump and others have been peddling ever since his humiliating defeat to Joe Biden last November. To call them unproven claims implies that could be valid and eventually proved. No objective (or sane) person would assert that.

Moving on, Kurtz casually adopts Sharp’s use of the term “traitors” when there is nothing approaching reality to support that. What’s more, he seems to only be disturbed by the proposed execution of said traitors because they haven’t been identified or charged. Once again, he’s implying that there are people for whom such charges would be appropriate once identified. There aren’t. There are only public servants and election officials who have all been certified to have acted honestly and honorably by every analysis, including those done by Republicans.

Finally, Kurtz ends his critique by letting Sharp off the hook for his nauseating comments by repeating Sharp’s lame and totally disingenuous walk-back wherein he suggests he was only “pointing out the law.” A review of the video is all it takes to disabuse anyone of that feeble excuse. But Kurtz just lets it lie there unchallenged.

So this is how Fox News chose to cover what may be one of the most disgusting commentaries to ever appear on television. As such it says more about Fox News than it does about OAN, to whom Fox is trying desperately to prevent losing anymore viewers. Apparently Fox’s strategy is to go soft on OAN, and even emulate them, in order to retain the screwiest of their screwball audience.

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.

CNN’s Jim Acosta Comforts the Fox News Deplorables: The Circus is Hiring Clowns

Posted by on June 26, 2021 at 4:48 pm. NO Comments :

The Trump Cult is preparing to greet Dear Leader this evening at his first rally since he was evicted from the White House by a significant majority of the American people. Donald Trump’s devotees are all atwitter (in more ways than one) in anticipation of witnessing another tediously repetitive harangue about the “fake” news, the “crooked” Democrats and, as always, how horribly he’s been mistreated by everyone.

Donald Trump, Pennywise

How Trump’s disciples tolerate his relentless whining is a mystery. But not only do they tolerate it, they admire it. Their cognitive processes are so defective that they soak up his fear and self pity and disgorge it as some twisted form of courage. They are primed for an extravaganza that promises to fulfill their most ardent wet dreams.

However, what Trump delivers is the type of “entertainment” one would expect to behold from under the Big Top. It’s all pomp and circus stance, complete with a soundtrack by the Village People.

CNN’s Jim Acosta made the same observation in a commentary that addressed some of the recent rhetorical aberrations of Fox News cretins Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham. They both attacked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, for having defended the military’s commitment to diversity and equity. Carlson, a coward who never served, called Milley “stupid” and “a pig.” Ingraham proposed defunding the Pentagon, leaving America defenseless.

“The Trump circus is back on tour again,” Acosta began. And “the former president is certain to roll out a clown car full of lies to the outrage of supporters.” Acosta then built up to a climax that roasted Carlson and Ingraham in epic fashion (video below):

“Pvt. Ingraham, Pvt. Carlson, what is your major malfunction? The General seems to have touched a nerve. Here is what is so threatening about Trumpism. It’s not just the ‘Big Lies.’ It’s about pitting one set of Americans against another. Over the election, over Critical Race Theory, or whatever the next unserious outrage theory that comes out of Fox News or Mar-a-Lago.

“If we stop fighting each other, and start embracing the truth, these guys over here, they’re gonna run out of things to talk about. And maybe even run out of money too. But hey, they could run off and join the circus. I hear they’re hiring clowns.”

The problem with Acosta’s assessment isn’t that he’s wrong. It’s that “fighting each other” isn’t merely collateral residue of Fox’s media strategy. It’s the preplanned intention. They are determined to create as much division and irrational hatred as possible. And they are having some limited success. A recent poll shows that 30% of Republicans believe that Trump is likely to be reinstated to the presidency this year, a constitutional impossibility. That’s far from a majority, but still a disturbing minority of acutely disturbed cultists.

Hopefully, Trump’s disciples will abandon their delusions in much the same way that children learn that the circus is a fantasy world created to provide some comedy and excitement to a comparatively staid existence. But expecting Trump’s already adult cult followers to grow up may be too much to hope for. Especially while he’s still peddling his shitshow as the “The greatest Witch Hunt in US history.”

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.

On Fox and Friends Lara Trump ‘Cancels’ Fox News Poll Showing Biden with 56% Approval

Posted by on June 26, 2021 at 11:10 am. 2 Comments :

The mission of Fox News was recently disclosed by the network’s CEO, Lachlan Murdoch. He told a Morgan Stanley investor conference that it is Fox’s job to be the opposition saying that “That’s what our job is now with the Biden administration […] That’s where our audience is.”

Fox News Lies

True to form, Fox News is carrying out their mission at every opportunity. Their so-called “news” reporting is comprised almost entirely of attacks on President Biden, his administration, and the overwhelmingly popular Democratic agenda. In fact, Fox is advancing their anti-Democratic propaganda even when when it means burying the results of their own alleged journalism.

This week Fox News released the findings of a poll they conducted that apparently produced results that contradicted their right-wing narratives. The poll showed that Biden is enjoying a 56% approval rating. However, that’s the sort of truth that Fox News doesn’t want to burden their audience with. Consequently, what would ordinarily be the topline news in the story was pushed further down in an obvious attempt to bury it.

Biden’s approval rating was literally the last line in the article on Fox’s website. The headline didn’t even mention it, reading “Fox News Poll: Majority believes COVID-19 leaked from lab in China.” What’s more, Fox barely acknowledged that the poll even existed on their network. And one of the few mentions of it was this segment of Fox and Friends where Lara Trump, a Fox News contributor, described the poll as “illegitimate”:

Kilmeade: How do you explain his approval rating, according to Fox’s poll, is 54 percent? [Note that Kilmeade got the number wrong]
Lara Trump: I mean, I truly don’t believe that. I don’t think that is a legitimate number. I also think he gets totally coddled by the mainstream media. Every time you see him truly asked a question by so many of these outlets they’re these softball questions about ice cream. And really they don’t push him on anything. They don’t follow up on anything the way we know they would with Donald Trump. And he just gets glowing reviews all around from the mainstream media. So very clearly, people who tune into those outlets are not getting the full picture on Joe Biden. But I cannot believe that anybody would have his approval rating anywhere over about negative 5% at this point.

Imagine that. Trump called Fox’s poll illegitimate on Fox’s air. Co-host Steve Doocy meekly inserted his view that Fox stands behind their polls. But it wasn’t much of defense after Trump’s tirade. And we’ll just set aside the absurdity of anyone on Fox News complaining about “coddling” and “softball questions” after four years of sucking up to Donald Trump.

A previous appearance by Trump since she became an employee of Fox News caused a bit of stir when she advocated violent vigilantism by residents of border towns against refugees. “I guess they better arm up and get guns,” Lara warned, “and be ready, and maybe they’re gonna have to start taking matters into their own hands.”

The Fox News mission to disparage Democrats and democracy is in full effect. In just the past couple of weeks for example, they have been bashing Vice-President Kamala Harris for both going to, and not going to, the border. They stand behind Tucker Carlson’s nauseating conspiracy theories attacking the FBI and the U.S. military. They are deliberately misleading viewers about voting reform and Critical Race Theory. And they literally take the side of Russia’s Vladimir Putin over Biden and the U.S.A.

That’s how Fox News rolls. And their anti-America, unpatriotic, lie-riddled assault on the values and principles of the nation will continue until the people who Fox is disinforming pull the veil of deception from their eyes. Sadly, the nature of the Trumpian cult to which they are devoted is going to prevent that for the foreseeable future.

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. 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.

FLOP NEWS: Now Fox News is Very Upset that Kamala Harris Visited the Border

Posted by on June 25, 2021 at 4:20 pm. 1 Comments :

Three months ago Vice-President Kamala Harris was tasked with investigating the root causes of immigration and developing potential solutions. And every day since then Fox News has marked how many days it has been between her receiving that assignment and visiting the border. It was a thoroughly contrived criticism considering that her physical presence on the border had little to do with the task that she was assigned by President Biden.

Fox News, Fake News

However, Fox was counting with daily headlines like this one just yesterday: “Kamala Harris has gone 93 days without visit to border since being tapped for crisis role.”

To be clear, Harris’ role was to confer with leaders in the region and attempt to mitigate the reasons that compelled people to migrate to begin with. It was a humanitarian mission to help refugees, not a law enforcement function. But from the perspective of Fox News it was just an opportunity to politicize a serious problem and to callously exploit desperate, fearful people fleeing poverty and violence.

After meetings with the presidents of Guatemala and Mexico, Harris was prepared to conduct a more productive visit to the border, rather than the sort of meaningless photo-ops that Donald Trump would engage in. So you might think this would satisfy Fox News who had been relentlessly attacking her for not going. But almost immediately Fox News flipped the script and began bashing her for going.

Now that Harris has completed her trip to the border, Fox News has is demonstrating how pitifully predictable they are with an avalanche of hostile and journalistically hollow coverage. These are the headlines from a single day on Fox’s website:

  • Kamala Harris visiting border – but avoiding devastation White House caused: Homan
  • VP to visit border, will avoid worst-hit area
  • Trump had to ‘shame’ Kamala Harris into going to border: Tom Homan
  • VP Kamala Harris’ media misadventures on the border crisis
  • Former border agent: Kamala Harris ‘showing up at wrong address’ in Texas
  • RNC Chairwoman McDaniel: Biden’s border crisis — Harris caves, finally shows up for work
  • Vice President Kamala Harris finally visits border after months of criticism, experts ponder her true motive
  • Critics slam Harris for avoiding hardest-hit area of migrant crisis
  • VP Harris met by protesters in El Paso: ‘Kamala, you came a little too late’
  • Brian Kilmeade rips VP’s border visit: ‘Why doesn’t she want to solve a problem?’
  • Border Patrol Council VP: Harris’ trip a ‘dog and pony show,’ and ‘slap in the face’ to border agents
  • Texas lawmaker rips Harris’ border trip: You can’t just land somewhere for a few hours and become an expert
  • Harris parachuting into El Paso for a few hours a ‘huge flop’: Rep. Gonzales
  • RNC hits Harris on border crisis with billboards, ads as she visits Texas: ‘Too little, too late’
  • Chris Wallace: Kamala Harris did not propose solutions to stop flow of migrants

Once again, that’s all from Friday alone. Clearly, Fox News is obsessed. And their pretense of being a “news” network isn’t fooling anyone but the easily deceived disciples of their cult audience. They must have a full time propagandist composing all of those headlines and the fictional stories that accompany them. But what they obviously don’t have on their staff are any actual journalists. So, same as it ever was for Fox News.

UPDATE: Here’s one more headline from Fox News about the Harris border trip: “Harris snaps at question about border trip delay.” And for the real story, here is the video of the light-hearted, smiling reply that Fox dishonestly spins as “snapping”:

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.

Sniveling Trust Fund Baby Tucker Carlson Calls Joint Chiefs Chairman a Stupid Pig

Posted by on June 25, 2021 at 9:55 am. 4 Comments :

Did you think you’d heard it all? After Donald Trump tried to prosecute Saturday Night Live for mocking him; or that he trusts Vladimir Putin more than his fellow Americans; or that his Capitol insurrectionists posed zero threat? Well, Tucker Carlson of Fox News wasn’t about to be outdone.

Fox News, Tucker Carlson, QAnon

The Fox Network’s Senior White Nationalist has been on a streak lately. Just last week he unfurled a bizarre conspiracy theory that the FBI had orchestrated the January 6th riots in Washington, D.C. But now he’s going after the military, specifically, General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (video below):

“Mark Milley is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He didn’t get that job because he’s brilliant or because he’s brave or because the people who know him respect him. He is not and they definitely don’t. Milley got the job because he is obsequious. He knows who to suck up to, and he’s more than happy to do it. Feed him a script and he will read it. Here’s Milley yesterday, the man in charge of this nation’s weapons, explaining his working to understand a concept called “white rage.”

Whereupon, Carlson ran a video clip of Gen. Milley explaining the importance of being informed and conscious of the diversity in the ranks and the nation. Carlson dismissed it all as an attack on “white rage,” Something that, for personal reasons, Carlson wasn’t going to stand for. Milley said that…

“I do think it’s important for those of us in uniform to be open minded and be widely read. The United States Military Academy is a university. And it is important that we train and we understand. And I want to understand white rage. And I’m white, and I want to understand it. So what is it that cause thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? What caused that?”

For the record, Gen. Milley served in combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He holds advanced degrees from Princeton, Columbia, and the Naval War College. He earned the respect of his colleagues as he was promoted through the ranks over a 30 year career to his current role as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson is a trust fund baby who never served, and the heir to a frozen TV dinner fortune, who was fired from three television networks (CNN, PBS, and MSNBC) due to low ratings, before landing on Fox News where his brand of racist hate-speech finally succeeded because “he knows who to suck up to, and he’s more than happy to do it.” Carlson’s rancid rant continued…

“Notice he never defines white rage. And we should know what it is. What is white rage? Well, like drapetomania, it’s one of those diseases that only affect people with certain melanin levels. It’s a race-specific illness. […] So Mark Milley reads Mao to understand Maoism, he reads communists to understand communism. But, interestingly, he doesn’t read white supremacists to understand white supremacy. Why not? Go to the source.”

If Carlson really wants to know what white rage is, all he has to do is watch his program for a few minutes. In the comment above he literally exhorts his audience to read white supremacist literature. Carlson is using his show to actively recruit for his Ku Klux cause.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that it took Milley’s defense of the Critical Race Theory (CRT) to trigger Carlson and Fox News to descend to the point where they are attacking the military. CRT is an academic study defined as an “attempt to understand how victims of systemic racism are affected by cultural perceptions of race.” But Carlson and Fox News aren’t about to permit that sort of understanding to be taught.

Carlson wasn’t alone in his assault on Milley. Fox’s Laura Ingraham joined in to propose defunding the military because of its attempts “to weed out so-called ‘extremists,’ which just means conservative evangelicals as far as I can tell,” It’s funny how any time someone mentions extremists or racists or traitors, right-wingers like Ingraham immediately assume that they are the subject of the discussion.

Not willing to be left out (of anything, ever), Trump also weighed in. During an interview on Newsmax Thursday evening, Trump, a five-time draft dodger, complained about Milley saying that “I watched his statement, it was pathetic!” That’s Trump’s way saying “Thanks for your service.”

It’s hard to imagine how Fox News can continue to provide a platform for the sort of rhetorical excrement that is the hallmark of Carlson’s program. Like Lou Dobbs before him, Carlson has driven away virtually all of his major advertisers, leaving just the MyPillow guy and a collection of reverse mortgage lenders and personal injury lawyers.

Unlike Dobbs, Carlson’s Anti-American Hour of Hate is still on the air. Which means that the Murdoch’s must be so enamored of Carlson that they don’t even care that they’re losing money. And that tells you all you need to know about Fox News.

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.

How are Giuliani’s Lies, that Got Him Suspended, Any Different than Fox News Lies?

Posted by on June 24, 2021 at 12:24 pm. 1 Comments :

This was inevitable: Reports Thursday morning reveal that Rudy Giuliani, the personal attorney for the former reality TV game show host and evicted White House occupant, Donald Trump, had his license to practice law in the state of New York suspended.

Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump

According to ABC News, “The ruling was made in response to a complaint filed by the New York Bar Association.” Giuliani is the third Lawyer associated with Trump whose absence of legal ethics resulted in sanctions by the Bar. He joins Roy Cohn and Michael Cohen who suffered for their fealty to an amoral real estate swindler and political con man.

The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court stated in its ruling that the New York Bar “has sustained its burden of proving that respondent made knowing false and misleading factual statements to support his claim that the presidential election was stolen from his client.” The ruling went on to state that…

“There is uncontroverted evidence that respondent communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump’s failed effort at reelection in 2020.

“These false statements were made to improperly bolster respondent’s narrative that due to widespread voter fraud, victory in the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen from his client. We conclude that respondent’s conduct immediately threatens the public interest and warrants interim suspension from the practice of law, pending further proceedings before the Attorney Grievance Committee.”

There is abundant support for the court’s ruling, and it’s likely that Giuliani’s suspension will become a disbarment in time. His reckless disregard for the truth is well documented and should be punished accordingly. In the months following Trump’s decisive defeat to Joe Biden, Giuliani lost some sixty court cases in his futile attempt to overturn the will of the people.

However, Giuliani was not alone in these acts of deception. Fox News was a willing and active partner in spreading Trump’s lies about alleged election fraud for which there was never a shred of evidence. In fact, if you substitute “Fox News” for the references to Giuliani in the court ruling quoted above, it is just as valid. For instance…

  • There is uncontroverted evidence that [Fox News] communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements.
  • These false statements were made to improperly bolster [Fox News]’s narrative that due to widespread voter fraud, victory in the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen from [Trump].
  • We conclude that [Fox News]’s conduct immediately threatens the public interest.

Which makes one wonder, if Giuliani can be sanctioned for his flagrant and inflammatory misconduct, what should be the punishment for Fox News? They were at least as harmful to the public welfare as Trump (who has ben banished from social media due to his lies) and his bumbling lawyer. Probably more so considering their reach and influence among the glassy-eyed disciples who continue to be devoted to the network’s purveyors of propaganda, such as Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Jeanine Pirro, Greg Gutfeld, Maria Bartiromo, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends.

This action by the New York Bar is not the only mess Giuliani has made for himself. The voting technology company, Smartmatic, filed a billion dollar lawsuit against the proponents of Trump’s election fraud fictions, and explicitly named Giuliani as a defendant, along with Fox News (as well as Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, and another Trump attorney who’s headed for trouble, Sidney Powell).

So Giuliani will have his hands filled for a while as he fights to retain whatever shred of dignity he imagines he still has left. But Fox News will continue to deceive their easily fooled viewers for the foreseeable future. They will persist in lying about Trump and his election delusions, as well as everything from Trump’s Capitol Hill insurrection, to the voting reform initiatives by Democrats in Congress, to the COVID-19 pandemic that Fox and Trump have so grievously exacerbated. If only there was a licensing board that could suspend Fox News.

UPDATE: Trump weighed in with this hysterical response:
[Note: There has never been ANY fraud “proven,” Giuliani is NOT a patriot, and New York state had nothing to do with the court-ordered suspension]

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.