Alec Baldwin

Chickensh*t Trump Blows Off White House Correspondents Dinner: Paging Alec Baldwin

Posted by on February 25, 2017 at 5:23 pm. 4 Comments :

Donald Trump has been fighting a bloody “War on the Media” for months now. His recent escalations included calling the “fake news” media the “enemy of the American people.” Shortly thereafter his press secretary, Sean Spicer, banned several news organizations from a White House briefing. The animosity from Trump gets more intense by the hour.

Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump

In his latest assault Gen. Trump has just announced that he will not be attending the White House Correspondents Dinner on April 29. The WHCD is an annual affair that is held to raise funds for scholarships. But apparently Trump’s anti-media obsession overrules any interest in helping a charity.

The truth is more likely that Trump is afraid of having a close encounter with the “enemy.” He has never been particularly good at laughing at himself. That’s a personality flaw that’s common among narcissists. So rather than fraternize with the media he so fervently hates, and being the butt of their jokes, he canceled.

What’s more, the presidential guest of honor is expected to perform his own comedy bit. Just imagine how hard he would fall on his orange, spray-tanned face if he was pressed into that situation. Actually, you don’t have to image it. He painfully bombed when he was asked to tell a few jokes at the Al Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner last October (video below). Guests at that event noted that, for the first time ever, the speaker was booed.

With Trump’s cancellation, this will be the first dinner in thirty years where a president was not in attendance. The last president to miss the dinner was Ronald Reagan. But he a darn good excuse. He was recovering from having been shot. Yet he still phoned in a joke. “If I could give you just one little bit of advice,” he said, “When somebody tells you to get in a car quick, do it.”

This may all be for the best. After all, polls show that the public overwhelming prefers the media to Trump. So the event could benefit by his absence. Parties who have been planning to bow out this year may change their minds and show up. Ratings for the TV broadcast could soar. And it might even help by increasing donations.

Additionally, the WHCA could send invites to Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton if they want some fire power on stage. Plus they could enlist an alternative Trump to sit on the dais. Something tells me Alec Baldwin would be available. And no doubt Trump himself would be home watching and tweeting about how horrible it is. SAD!

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

Watch Trump’s embarrassing “comedy” routine here:

TWEET CHALLENGE: Alec Baldwin Mercilessly Trolls An SNL-Obsessed Trump

Posted by on December 4, 2016 at 1:19 pm. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump continues to demonstrate that he is temperamentally unfit to be president. As president-elect he is still exhibiting a level of thin-skinned narcissism that portends serious trouble ahead for America. Rather than focusing on the critical issues that face the nation, Trump busies himself with Broadway play reviews, media bashing, and attacks on TV comedy shows.

Alec Baldwin Trump

On Saturday night Trump once again went after Alec Baldwin for his satirical portrayal on Saturday Night Live. The opening segment mocked Trump’s Twitter addiction as so sever that it interfered with his national security briefings. Indeed, Trump has been neglecting those briefings since Election Day. Ironically, Trump jumped onto Twitter to respond with a bitter and substanceless put-down:

Trump has called SNL “unwatchable” before, but he’s still watching. Clearly he’s preoccupied with anything and everything that has to do with himself. The good news for Baldwin is that he can’t get any worse. It’s all uphill from here. Alec.

Baldwin had an appropriate reply to Trump’s tweet that turned the humor into something more serious:

Donald Trump is the first candidate in more than half a century to refuse to release his tax returns. We have learned from other sources that he didn’t pay income taxes for eighteen years. However, we still don’t have detailed information about his unsavory business ties. Those may include gross conflicts of interest and relationships with criminals or foreign operatives.

Trump has not taken up Baldwin’s challenge. And I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for him to do so. The standard way Trump handles these sort of matters is to ignore them until he can think of a distraction. He has already posted a stream of tweets defending his atrocious deal to pay the Carrier Corp a bribe to get them to keep an Indiana plant open. For that price Carrier is still sending half the jobs from that plant to Mexico. That’s what dealmaker Trump thinks is a good deal.

Hopefully, the media that Trump despises will keep some pressure on him to release his taxes. This problem doesn’t go away just because he won the Electoral College vote. In fact, it’s even more important now because he will soon be making decisions that impact his own businesses. The American people have a right to know if their president is a crook. Now where have I heard that before?

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

Watch the SNL opening here:

SNL’s Trump Mockery Causes Fox News Clowns To Freakout: ‘Should Comedy Shows Take On Politics’?

Posted by on October 2, 2016 at 5:53 pm. 2 Comments :

There has been a meme circulating around the InterTubes for some time saying that “I get my news from Comedy Central and my comedy from Fox News.” It’s a concise way of articulating the reality that programs like The Daily Show are far more reliable sources for information than Bill O’Reilly or Fox & Friends. Expanding on that theme, Fox & Friends did a segment this weekend that asked perhaps the dumbest question of the year: Should comedy shows take on politics?

Fox News

Are they Kidding? Politics has been a staple of comedy for centuries. The desire to mock our governments and leaders is pretty much an element of being human. But from Fox’s point of view it’s easy to understand their comic anxiety. First of all, they are terrible at it. Second of all, they are thin-skinned whiny babies who can’t take a joke. The F&F segment was a preemptive strike against last night’s Saturday Night Live season debut featuring Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump.

[What follows is a reprise of an article first published last year]
But something that seems to have been developing without much notice is that Fox News is actively reshaping their programming to be more like an actual comedy network. Alone among cable news broadcasters, Fox News is airing actual comedy shows. Already on the schedule is their late night entry Red Eye. Earlier this year they premiered The Greg Gutfeld Show, spinning off the former Red Eye host. And they just recently introduced a new show starring Bill O’Reilly stalker/producer and Fox Nation editor, Jesse Watters, that will expand on his Watters’ World segments from The O’Reilly Factor. [See this epic smackdown of Watters by Steven Colbert]

Setting aside the fact that there is scarce evidence of actual humor in any of these programs, what is interesting is that Fox News is investing so much of their airtime in a form of entertainment that literally makes a mockery of their pretense to being journalists. And considering their epic failure in this genre back in 2007, the execrable “Half-Hour News Hour,” they have some measure of courage to attempt it again. For a network that whines so often about not being taken seriously as reporters, this trend will do little to enhance their already tattered reputation.

Making matters worse is the fact that Fox News has been so fiercely derisive of comedy programs that deign to direct their barbs at news subjects. Over many years there has been a constant drumbeat of outrage from Fox aimed at comedians whom they regard as unqualified to have worthwhile opinions on the news or the talent to find humor in it.

And no one has taken more abuse from Fox than Jon Stewart. Sean Hannity called him “a sanctimonious jackass.” Megyn Kelly said that “He was not a force for good.” Bill O’Reilly labeled him “a key component of left-wing television.” O’Reilly also went after Stewart’s audience saying that he has “stoned slackers watching your dopey show every night.” And this anti-Stewart doctrine comes straight from the top. Fox News CEO Roger Ailes publicly scolded Stewart saying that “He hates conservatives. He’s crazy.”

Fox News generally demeans anyone in the entertainment field who speaks out about politics, unless it’s Ted Nugent or Dennis Miller, but then it’s a stretch describing them as entertaining. If George Clooney or Sarah Silverman exercise their rights as citizens, Fox News considers it an abomination and unleashes a rancid stream of unreserved hostility. Fox contributor Laura Ingraham even wrote a book titled “Shut Up and Sing,” to advocate for silencing show biz folk who want to participate in American democracy.

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

So after disparaging entertainers, and especially comedians, for engaging in the centuries old art of satire, it is rather odd to find Fox News devoting a significant amount of time and money to doing what they hate so many others for doing. But while it is common for comedians to take on political topics, it is unheard of for news networks to commit whole programs to comedy. Certainly a news network can interview a comic or report on a humorous news story, but Fox has just launched their third comedy show. And they still want people to take them seriously as journalists? Well, that ship has sailed. If anything, Fox could continue to debut new comedy programs until they fill the schedule. Then, at least, people will be laughing at Fox for the right reasons.