Bill Hemmer

HUH? Fox News Reports that the Eclipse is a Clandestine Plot to Sneak Migrants Into America

Posted by on April 8, 2024 at 1:38 pm. 4 Comments :

The “news” editors at Fox News must have been working all night to come up with an angle on the eclipse that would titillate their MAGA cult viewers. There is no way that they would be satisfied wasting untold hours reporting on a rare celestial event without some sort of propaganda to boost Donald Trump and his agenda of hate and lies.

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Fox News, Fake News

Well, all of that hard work paid off as Fox News aired a segment about the eclipse on Monday morning’s episode of “America’s Newsroom.” Rather than fiddle with irrelevancies like facts on astronomical events and history, or interviews of scientists, Fox News bravely forged an uncommon path to reveal something that the rest of the media had missed or was deliberately suppressing…

Host Dana Perino: “A rare celestial event collides with a policy failure on the ground. The southern border will be directly in the path of totality today when the moon covers the sun for nearly four minutes.”
Host Bill Hemmer: We are told that officials are bracing for higher traffic than usual. And that means a real opportunity for smugglers and cartels and migrants to come right in.”
Correspondent Bill Melugin: While everybody is gonna be looking up, if you’re looking down here at the border, here is what you’ll see. Take a look at the video from nearby New Mexico, which is seeing a surge of illegal alien evaders […] You’ll see illegal immigrants dressed in dark clothing, sometimes camouflage, trying to sneak into the United States.

That’s right! The eclipse is really a clandestine operation by liberals – probably run by the evil mastermind, President Biden, and financed by George Soros – aimed at smuggling terrorist migrants into America to vote for Biden and other Democrats. Who knew? And who but Fox News would expose this nefarious plot?

The America-haters responsible for devising this plan to create a deluge of foreign “invaders” – in a four minute cloak of darkness – have thought of everything. Including dark and camouflage clothing to keep them from being spotted in the unprecedented absence of daylight. Naturally, Fox News ignores that there are about twelve hours of darkness every day when the earth itself blots out the sun. Is Biden responsible for that too?

This kind of reporting is somehow accepted by the MAGA cult that watches Fox News. They are the same people who are asserting that the eclipse is a warning from god to repent. Which raises some interesting questions. For instance, if it is a warning from god, then why is it being thrust upon the people of Texas and other Southern states first? Wouldn’t that imply that they are the sinners?

What’s more, if the eclipse is creating an opportunity for migrants to enter the U.S., then wouldn’t it be more logical to assume that god is trying to help the migrants flee violence, poverty, and oppression, and find freedom and safety in America? That, at least, would be consistent with the bible’s advocacy of welcoming and caring for refugees.

This is where it is important to stress that searching for logic in the ravings of Fox News reporters and Republicans is likely to cause a traumatic brain injury. So remember on this day not to stare into the sun or try to decipher the irrational ravings of MAGA cult conspiracy theorists. This has been a public service announcement.

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Fox News Escalates the War on Christmas with Report on Biden’s ‘Nationwide Santa Shortage’

Posted by on December 1, 2021 at 12:53 pm. 1 Comments :

“The most wonderful time of the year…” is upon us again: The War on Christmas! This annual observance of asininity by right-wing armies of derp celebrates the imaginary assault on the winter holiday that purports revere the Christian Prince of Peace. So Fox News considers it appropriate to wage a contrived war on unsuspecting holiday revelers.

Fox News, Christmas, Coronavirus

The latest front in this battle of twits took place during Wednesday’s episode of Fox’s American Newsroom. Co-host Bill Hemmer introduced the segment saying that “Thanks to a growing shortage of Santas, HireSanta [dot com] reports a 10% decrease in Santas this year versus a 121% increase in demand. Hemmer speculated, therefore, that “Even Santa doesn’t want to work in this economy.” And of course, this is all President Biden’s fault, as was pointed out in the tweet of this breaking news by the Republican National Committee:

There’s a lot that Fox News left out of this shocking and exclusive exposé. For instance, what role did the global supply chain disruption play in the unavailability of Santas in America? And what is Biden doing to address it? Are there Santas backlogged on cargo ships in clogged port facilities?

What’s more, is Biden responsible for a decline in Christmas spirit due to this seasonally inconvenient Santa shortage? Or, conversely, does the higher demand for Santas this year mean that the spirit of Christmas is stronger during Biden’s term than during that of Donald Trump?

Fox News also failed to investigate the possible reasons for this unsettling Santa deficit. Could it have something to do with the COVID pandemic? After all, the coronavirus disproportionately impacts the demographic from which Santas are recruited: older people and those who are overweight.

There may be many of those potential Santas who succumbed to COVID in the past couple of years. The survivors may be hesitant to place themselves in jeopardy. Particularly with all of the unvaccinated children who would be sitting on their laps and possibly coughing and sneezing in close proximity.

Contrary to the framing of Fox News, the scarcity of Santas is most likely due to Fox News itself for disseminating blatant disinformation about the pandemic. And Trump and his administration’s aversion to mitigation measures, such as vaccines, masks, and social distancing is equally responsibly for the dearth of Santas. Had the public health experts been heeded, this pandemic might have ended long ago and Santas would be plentiful. Instead, Santa’s Village may be somewhat desolate this year, unless younger Santas with pillows take up the slack.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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Liz Cheney Calls Tucker Carlson’s ‘False Flag’ Lies ‘Un-American’ and ‘Dangerous’ – On Fox News!

Posted by on November 7, 2021 at 12:36 pm. 4 Comments :

Last week the Fox News Senior White Nationalist, Tucker Carlson, outdid himself by presenting an elaborate propaganda video about Donald Trump’s January 6th insurrection in Washington, D.C. Carlson’s crocumentary, “Patriot Purge” (or as CNN’s Jim Acosta retitled it, “Proud Boy Porn”,) was riddled with flagrant falsehoods and nauseating exaltations of the seditious Capitol rioters as heroes.

Fox News, Tucker Carlson, STFU

Carlson sought to absolve Trump’s violent crusaders, and even worse, to justify them, by alleging that the whole thing was a “false flag” operation orchestrated by the FBI, something he has been yammering about for months. And his Fox News produced propaganda pic was universally rejected as garbage.

On Sunday Carlson took another hit from a staunchly conservative member of Congress, Liz Cheney. She was interviewed by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday where she expressed her opinion of Carlson’s wankery:

Wallace: There is talk now that January 6th was a “false flag” operation. that it was a case of liberals and the “deep state” setting up conservatives and Trump supporters. Is there any truth to that?
Cheney: None at all. You know, it’s the same kind of thing that you hear from people who say that 9/11 was an inside job, for example. It is un-American to be spreading those kinds of lies, and they are lies. And we have an obligation that goes beyond partisanship, an obligation that we share – Democrats and Republicans together – to make sure that we understand every single piece of the facts about what happened that day and to make sure the people who did it are held accountable. And to call it a false flag operation and spread those kind lies is dangerous.

Cheney has been a reliable voice of reason from within a Republican Party dominated by Trump cult followers and brazenly dishonest purveyors of partisan bullpucky. She is a member of the House Select Committee investigating January 6th, and she rejects Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him.

Cheney didn’t mince words in her appraisal of Carlson. She openly and aptly denounced him as “un-American” and “dangerous.” That said, it is still a bit jarring to hear her righteous condemnation of Carlson, and to hear it on the same network that sponsors his deceitful disinformation. Cheney couldn’t have chosen a better platform to reveal Carlson’s scumbaggery. Carlson, however, is an easily triggered crybaby who frequently lashes out at his critics. So it will be interesting to see if he attacks Fox News or Chris Wallace for hosting this interview.

On the same program, White House Senior Advisor, Cedric Richmond, was asked by Fox’s Bill Hemmer about a blatantly partisan question that Fox’s Peter Doocy asked President Biden. Doocy’s question callously suggested that migrant families might be incentivized to come to the U.S. and have their children taken away in order to get compensated financially. Richmond replied that…

“The question was from a Fox reporter asking about whether compensation for being separated and losing a child would be an incentive to come to America. And what he was saying, that was an absurd question from the beginning. No one is coming somewhere to lose their child, to be separated from their loved one. And the question is so insensitive, disrespectful that that’s what he was commenting to. And I would ask the question of you, whether you support that?”

So Fox News got called out on Fox News twice in the same day. That isn’t going to make much difference in the great scheme of things. Fox will continue to be the primary media mouthpiece for ultra-rightist politicians and policies. But it’s encouraging to see these rare crumbs of truth slip through their conservative filter from time to time.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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Fox News (And Trump) Whines that Trump Didn’t Get Credit for Vaccine They Say Kills People

Posted by on May 14, 2021 at 3:50 pm. 2 Comments :

Historical revisionism is one of the primary functions of Fox News. They are working hard to misinform their gullible viewers on a wide range of subjects. They have already succeeded in convincing them that Donald Trump was the real winner of the 2020 presidential election. Now they are trying to peddle the blatant lie that the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol was just a day at the park.

Donald Trump, Coronavirus

In addition to those fallacies, Fox News is collaborating with Trump to make sure that Trump gets the credit he imagines that he deserves for personally creating the COVID vaccines and saving the world. On Friday morning Fox News interviewed Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito. Host Bill Hemmer managed to contort a question with a preface suggesting that President Biden had cheated Trump out of the glory that he believes is rightfully his. Hemmer asked…

“Were you struck by the fact that the President did not make a single mention of Operation Warp Speed?”

Not surprisingly, Capito replied that credit should be given where it’s due, and that means to Trump. Never mind that Operation Warp Speed played no role in the development of the first vaccine that became available in the U.S. (Pfizer). Hemmer’s loaded question not only falsely implied that Trump was entitled to recognition for the vaccines, but that Biden was rude not to have mentioned it.

The only thing Trump deserves credit for is his negligence, incompetence, and deliberate malfeasance, that resulted in the deaths of more than half a million Americans, and the illness of hundreds of thousands more. Trump downplayed the severity of the pandemic from the start. He promised that it would disappear by magic when only a few hundred people had died. He proposed treating it with bleach and ultraviolet light. And he failed to put in place a plan to distribute and administer the vaccine.

Other than that, Trump was a perfectly nauseating attention hog who had endless praise for himself. And he continues to play that demented character for his cult followers. Less than an hour after the segment on Fox News, Trump posted a comment on the hysterically lame blog that he set up because he was booted off of Twitter. He wrote that all he wanted was “Just a mention please!,” and then asked…

“Isn’t it incredible that because of the vaccines, which I and my Administration came up with years ahead of schedule (despite the fact that everybody, including Fauci, said would never happen), that we no longer need masks, and yet our names are not even mentioned in what everybody is calling the modern day miracle of the vaccines? […] The Biden Administration had zero to do with it. All they did was continue our plan of distribution, which was working well right from the beginning!”

So Trump and his administration came up with the vaccines? It wasn’t the scientists and doctors who were working on them long before Trump’s “Warped” speed sham? And notice that Trump isn’t expressing any gratitude for the lives saved by Biden’s successful inoculation project. The only thing Trump demonstrates any interest in with this comment is satisfying his own voracious ego and maligning his foes.

It’s rather odd that Trump and Fox News are now so insistent that Trump be celebrated for “his” vaccine. This is the vaccine that Trump received himself in secret. For months Fox News and the rest of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire have been scare mongering about the vaccine. Tucker Carlson is convinced that it doesn’t work, but that government overlords will force it on you. The New York Post has been publishing stories about how it is supposedly killing people.

All of that notwithstanding, Trump is now whining that he isn’t getting credit for the vaccine. He can’t understand why he isn’t being celebrated for his selfless devotion to the cure. But that’s a typical reaction for a malignant narcissist. And for Trump it’s just another day of exalting himself and disparaging others. To Trump, nothing else matters.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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Fox News Denies There Was A Post-Holiday COVID Surge In Bid To Kill More Americans

Posted by on January 25, 2021 at 12:07 pm. 2 Comments :

Fox News is struggling to construct a new foundation for the their rightist propaganda network now that they have lost Donald Trump as the deified focus of their cult movement. Not only was Trump humiliated in his decisive loss to Joe Biden, but he is now inextricably bound to the violent insurrection in Washington, D.C. that he provoked through his purposefully inflammatory rhetoric.

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Donald Trump, Fox News, Coronavirus

Consequently, Fox News has begun testing noxious strategies to maintain their media campaign of lies and hate in the post-Trump era. Most conspicuous among these trial strategies is their sharp shift from being a knee-jerk, pro-Trump network, to being an anti-Biden dispenser of contrived scandals. Unfortunately for Fox, the best they’ve been able to do so far is catching Biden wearing an expensive wrist watch (OMG!), and feigning offense to his opposition to white supremacy. Yo, Fox… If you’re offended by criticisms of racism, you’re a racist.

On Monday morning Fox News tried out a unique angle on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Host Bill Hemmer and Fox News medical analyst Marc Siegel discussed the subject in terms that typically downplayed the severity of the international health crisis that has already taken the lives of more than 420,000 Americans. Hemmer led off by brazenly lying about the recent surge in infections, hospitalizations, and fatalities (video below):

Hemmer: We were told at Christmas time everybody was gonna be getting together, we were gonna see a major spike. We were told at New Year’s we were gonna see a major spike. I check the New York Times website every morning to watch the number of cases. We’re down 33% on the 24th of January, which is yesterday. We were told it’s going the other way. Deaths are down 5%. Why were we told one thing and the opposite happened?
Siegal: Well, that happens a lot, doesn’t it, Bill? It’s because of fear mongering and we report only the scary news.

This is profoundly dishonest. What Fox News did was to wait until after the surge peaked to report numbers that have plateaued or begun to decline. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a surge wherein thousands more people died. Fox News is insulting the memory of those souls.

The truth is clear that there was a severe post-holiday surge, and they know it. The increase in cases and deaths was documented and reported in real time by the New York Times that Hemmer claimed to check:

“The anticipated surge following holiday gatherings has now arrived, leading to a stunning number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths rising every day.

“On Tuesday alone, a record 4,327 people in the U.S. died from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University. In just the past week, a New York Times tracker showed the seven-day average for deaths rose from about 2,600 per day to about 3,300. And the numbers keep climbing.”

What could be the incentive of Fox News to spread such blatant disinformation? They no longer have to back up Trump’s lies. There isn’t any ratings benefit to underreporting the statistics. There is no rational motivation for this deliberate misreporting. All it does is give their viewers a false sense of security that will lull them into complacency and make them more likely to contract the disease. is that what Fox News wants?

Well, let’s take a look at Fox’s history on this matter. Last June the Washington Post reported that three separate studies concluded that watching Fox News increased coronavirus fatalities:

“In recent weeks, three studies have focused on conservative media’s role in fostering confusion about the seriousness of the coronavirus. Taken together, they paint a picture of a media ecosystem that amplifies misinformation, entertains conspiracy theories and discourages audiences from taking concrete steps to protect themselves and others.”

Another study by the University of Chicago was more specific in naming Fox’s Sean Hannity as a COVID-19 super-spreader. It found that “Fox viewers who watched Hannity … had higher local rates of infection and death.”

This is a pattern of deception that suggests that Fox News either doesn’t care at all about the well being of their viewers, or that they have some sort of sick vendetta against. Why would Fox want to kill off their own audience? That same question could be asked of Trump with regard to killing off his supporters. None of it makes sense. It’s just the grotesque behavior of sociopaths with an agenda that is only known to them. But the rest of us need to steer clear of these wackos and work to shut down their lie factories.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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HUH? Fox News Implies Barr’s Absolution of Flynn Invalidates the 2018 Election

Posted by on May 7, 2020 at 2:26 pm. 2 Comments :

The criminal administration of Donald Trump is frantically trying to slip through as many political atrocities as it can before it is swept out office next year. And they aren’t shy about hiding behind the tragedies of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic in order to achieve their nefarious goals. In fact, it almost seems like they are deliberately making things worse by prematurely “reopening” the country economically in order to better cloak their activities.

Donald Trump, Bill Barr

On Thursday Trump’s Justice Department led by Attorney General, Bill Barr, announced that they were asking a federal judge to drop the charges against Michael Flynn, Trump’s disgraced former National Security Advisor. Flynn had pleaded guilty to an array of charges including lying to the FBI. He also promised to cooperate with federal prosecutors until he abruptly reneged and hired a new team of lawyers. The charges against him were pretty airtight, which is why he originally admitted his guilt. But more recently he concluded that by hanging tough he would be able to secure a presidential pardon or a dismissal, which is what has now occurred.

Flynn was the poster boy for the corruption that infects every cell of the Trump regime’s body. He had unsavory relations with the governments of Russia and Turkey. He was considered dirty even before Trump was inaugurated. President Obama fired him and warned Trump to steer clear. Naturally, that probably had the effect of endearing Flynn to Trump. Birds of a feather, and all that. Just last week Trump unleashed a tweetstorm of 27 tweets supporting Flynn.

The news that Barr was dropping the charges broke pretty quickly as every news network interrupted their programming with special coverage. However, the coverage on Fox News stood out for its predictably biased slant, including bizarre opinions by their “straight” news anchors, Bill Hemmer and Bret Baier. They joined to imply that Barr’s dismissal of Flynn’s charges somehow reflected on the validity of the 2018 election (video below):

Hemmer: It begs the question, what was Bob Mueller doing all this time? And were they out there looking for something that never existed? Were they trying to find a crime were they could not find one?
Baier: We’re in the middle of dealing with COVID and all of the health crisis and the economic crisis, but if you look back and you realize when Bob Mueller and his team knew that there was nothing there there, it was before the midterm election. And that raises its own questions about where that investigation went and how it proceeded.

WTF? If these guys don’t know what Mueller was doing at this point, they are either too stupid to be allowed to function outside of an asylum, or they are brazenly lying in support of their extreme right-wing agenda. Hemmer’s “questions” as to whether a crime occurred is deliberate disinformation. Mueller’s report explicitly stated that he was not able to exonerate Trump. It also enumerated several instances of felony perjury. Plus, there were several indictments and convictions in addition to Flynn’s guilty plea. All of this has been on the record for years now.

As for Baier, his preposterous speculations expose him as a bitterly partisan political hack. He asserts that Mueller at some point “knew that there was nothing there there.” That’s a flagrant lie. When Mueller testified before Congress he said that “Trump and his campaign welcomed and encouraged Russian interference,” and that they “lied about it to cover it up.” Does that sound like he knew there was no there there?

What’s more, the contention that Flynn being let off the hook now has some bearing on the 2018 election cannot be squared with reality. First of all, how can a decision to allow an admitted felon to go free by a dishonest and devotedly loyal Trump Attorney General have any such effect? Barr’s decision doesn’t make Flynn innocent and it doesn’t alter the voters’ choices to sweep corrupt Republicans out of office. Flynn’s get-out-of-jail-free card only serves as a further indictment of the corruption in Trump’s criminal syndicate. If anything, it validates what voters did in 2018.

More importantly, Barr’s Trumpist puppetry will likely spark a new level of outrage among the majority of Americans who already want Trump, and his GOP confederates, gone in November. If they think that coddling traitors is going to translate into Republican votes, they are dumber than Trump looks. Flynn’s freedom will remind every American voter that Republicans are on the side of those who betray our country. The likelihood of a Democratic tsunami at the polls in November became greater today.

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

Trump’s Campaign Manager Responds to Bleak Fox News Poll by Insulting the American People

Posted by on January 21, 2020 at 12:58 pm. 6 Comments :

In recent days Donald Trump has been frantically posting tweets that proclaim him to be the most popular president ever, leading a country that is “number one in the universe.” And he got that fact directly from the alien voices in his head, so it must be true. But Trump’s glowing review of himself is not only wrong, it’s evidence of his growing mental infirmity.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Hate Again

On Monday Trump dispatched his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, to the studio of his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. While there, Parscale met with some unexpectedly challenging questions (video below). Parscale delivered his doctrinaire dialogue that portrayed Trump and his administration as having a perfect record of nothing but success. He asserted that Trump’s standing in the polls – and in the hearts of the American people – is at an all time high. That is, of course, contrary to reality. Trump’s approval is in the low 40s in most polls. Even Trump’s favorite poll, the disreputable and biased Rasmussen poll, has Trump slumping. But these facts didn’t stop Parscale from making his blatantly false and unsupported comments.

What Parscale surely didn’t foresee was that the Fox News anchor, Bill Hemmer, would present him with some actual data that contradicted the rosy scenario he painted for Trump:

Parscale: Every standard we have to measure what’s going on with the President and trying to win victory in 2020, we’re doing better.
Hemmer: I’ve got some numbers for you. 2016 suburban voters. President Trump led Hillary Clinton by four points. Among suburban women he trailed her by only seven. Now we did a poll here at Fox about a month and a half ago, and these numbers are very different … Among suburban voters he now trails by eleven. Among suburban women he’s down by a whopping twenty-four points. How come?

Parscale struggled to explain the decline. He first resorted to a weak complaint that the numbers were different (duh). Then he returned to his robo-recitation that Trump was doing better in everything simply because he says so. After Hemmer reiterated that Trump’s poor showing was “substantial,” Parscale directly dismissed the Fox News poll (see page 19) saying that “I just don’t think those numbers are right.” Oh? Well that settles it then.

Parscale went on to claim that Trump is “far ahead” of the Democratic candidates in fundraising. But the aggregate total for the Democrats has “more than tripled [Trump’s] 2019 cash haul … No incumbent president this century has been so thoroughly outraised by a field of challengers” And in the face of those facts, Parscale sunk to belittling American voters as inattentive to their duties in a democracy:

“Right now the American people are tuned out. Because, honestly, what’s happened with impeachment and everything else, they’ve shut down. They’re enjoying the Super Bowl. They’re watching football games. Enjoying this country’s great economy. They’re not sitting around watching this stuff.”

First of all, Parscale’s derogatory remarks destroy his own assertion that Trump is flying high in the polls. Of what significance is that if voters aren’t paying attention, as he contends? But even worse, according To Trump’s campaign boss, Americans are a bunch of lazy, unpatriotic, sports slobs who don’t care about the future of their country or the election that is only nine months away.

This insulting impression of voters by the Trump team isn’t likely to pull Trump’s poll standings out of the gutter. All it does is confirm that Trump, and everyone around him, are mired in delusional perspectives of Trump as an invincible superhero who cannot be vanquished. Never mind that they have no data to support that worshipful view. It’s not like Trump ever relied on facts – or reality – for anything else he’s ever done. The only thing he relies on is the naivete of his tiny cadre of cult followers. And that’s just not gonna cut it now that the nation knows who Trump really is.

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

The Trump Sycophant ‘Softball Question of the Year’ Award Goes to Fox News – Again

Posted by on November 2, 2019 at 12:26 pm. 1 Comments :

Donald Trump is turkey-neck deep in an impeachment inquiry that is accumulating evidence faster than it can be processed. At any other time in history, this much proof of criminal behavior and obstruction of justice would have been more than sufficient to shame the president from ever showing his face in public. He would have been humiliated as well prosecuted, and would have jumped ship long ago.

Donald Trump Fox News

However, in these peculiar times we have a president who is buttressed by a propaganda network that lavishes him with undying praise, defends him from any and all criticism, and maligns his political foes as schemers, liars, and even traitors. The worshipful devotion of Fox News to Trump and his regime is unprecedented. Many of their former employees are now on the White House payroll. Likewise, many former White House staff are now working for Fox.

Making matters worse, Trump’s current Press Secretary, Stephanie Grisham (who is a certified “Deep State” conspiracy kook), has never held a single press conference. She has literally moved the media functions of the White House into the Fox News studio, which is the only place she ever appears before the public. This, of course, is fine with Fox because it gives them exclusive coverage of the Trump administration’s official disinformation. They are also the only network that still airs Trump’s lie and hate filled cult rallies in full and uninterrupted as they happen.

In an especially slobbering segment on Friday (video below), Grisham was “interviewed” by Fox’s Bill Hemmer. Naturally, the subject of impeachment came up and Hemmer forged valiantly into the fray with what is undoubtedly the softest ball thrown at a presidential spokesperson this year – maybe ever. It is truly impressive how Grisham managed to muddle through this wet kiss interrogation that began with Hemmer asking…

It seems as if you have concluded [impeachment] is a foregone conclusion. And if the president believes that as well, how has he described his feelings to you about that potential reality?

Feelings? Seriously? Hemmer is hammering Grisham by demanding that she dig deep and reveal Li’l Donnie’s unspoken feelings about becoming just the third president ever to be impeached. As if Trump has any “unspoken” feelings. And if he does, the last person to disclose them honestly is his designated disseminator of deception. Grisham responded with a flurry of robo-talking points:

He has described his feelings to the American people. You just have to look at his Twitter feed to show. This is a sham and a kangaroo court. This has been unjust and unfair. The president did absolutely nothing wrong. We released the transcript weeks ago for everybody to see. There was no quid pro quo. The Ukrainian government themselves has said they felt absolutely no pressure. Aid was eventually released to the Ukraine.

Someone needs to reprogram Grisham. She is stuck on auto-spew, and even so, is digging Trump into a deeper abyss of political and legal jeopardy. Her reference to the “transcript” (which was really just a summary memo of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky) works against Trump’s interests. Although Trump has also been obsessed with what he is lately saying is an exact, verbatim transcription of the phone call. It isn’t, and it says so on the first page. Nevertheless, Trump has repeatedly tweeted exhortations to “READ THE TRANSCRIPT!” One has to wonder if he has read it, because it indisputably incriminates him. For instance, after Zelensky raises the issue of U.S. military aid, Trump replies…

“I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.”

That’s a textbook quid pro quo. Trump talks about getting some information related to a debunked conspiracy theory about a computer server that belonged to the Democratic National Committee. But he quickly segues from that to explicit requests for dirt on Joe Biden:

“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with [Rudy Giuliani and] the Attorney General [William barr] would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me.”

That sounds horrible to a lot of people, but not for the reasons Trump is thinking. Trump recently suggested that he would like to have a nationally televised “fireside chat” wherein he would read the “transcript” to the American people. That’s a great idea, because we would then have him saying in his own voice the words that warrant his impeachment. Then Grisham could return to Fox News where they could ask her how he feels about making an ass of himself and being booted from the White House.

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

WH Dep Press Secretary on Fox News Refuses to Deny Buzzfeed Story that Trump Told Cohen to Lie

Posted by on January 18, 2019 at 12:23 pm. 2 Comments :

Thursday night saw the release of one of the most devastating stories about Donald Trump to date. Buzzfeed reported that Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, was directed by the President to lie to Congress about plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. If confirmed, that would be an airtight case against Trump for suborning perjury and obstructing justice – both impeachable offenses.

Donald Trump

So on Friday morning Trump dispatched his Deputy Press Secretary, Hogan Gidley, to what he surely assumed was the friendly territory of Fox News. However, his interview went skidding of the rails when the Fox co-hosts uncharacteristically asked him some probing questions. In the process, Gidley conspicuously avoided answering those questions and refused to even deny the allegations in the Buzzfeed report. This exchange is going to leave some visible bruises on Trump – and perhaps on Gidley as well after Trump sees it (video below):

Sandra Smith: The story coming from Buzzfeed on the President ordering Michael Cohen to lie…sources two law enforcement officials. This is the headline. Breaking: President Trump personally orders his longtime attorney, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow in order to obscure his involvement. How is the President responding to that report this morning?
Gidley: This is absolutely ludicrous that we are giving any type of credence or credibility to a news outlet like BuzzFeed. They are responsible, totally and completely, for the release of a discredited, disproven, false dossier. And now the author of the piece that you’re talking about went on air this morning and said he couldn’t corroborate any of his own evidence. He ran it anyway. This is quite frankly the problem with the press and why the President continues to call them ‘fake news’ repeatedly. There is nothing in that piece that can be corroborated.

First of all, notice that this reply was not a denial. Also, Gidley is incorrect that Buzzfeed was responsible for the infamous Steele Dossier. They simply published it after it had already circulated through the White House and the Department of Justice. And he’s lying as to the dossier being disproved. Nothing in the Dossier has been proven false, while much of it has been confirmed.

Furthermore, the Buzzfeed author didn’t say that he couldn’t corroborate his story. He only said that he didn’t see the corroborating documents, a point that Fox’s Bill Hemmer made saying that “I think the way it was characterized – the reporter did not see specifically see the evidence, but relied on one or two sources that they had trusted to this.” Gidley fumbled in an attempt to form a coherent reply and settled for just saying that “That’s not news,” and resorting to Trump’s catch phrase about “the fake Witch Hunt Russia investigation.” So Hemmer pressed him to give a more direct response to the original question about whether Trump ordered Cohen to lie:

Hemmer: You’re saying the President did not tell Michael Cohen to do that?
Gidley: I’m telling you right now this is exactly why the President refuses to give any credence or credibility to news outlets. Because they have no ability to corroborate anything they’re putting out there. Instead they’re just using innuendo and shady sources.
Hemmer: That was not a denial of my question.
Gidley: No. But the premise is ridiculous.

Once again, Gidley evaded the question. And even after Hemmer called him out on it explicitly, Gidley outright admitted that he was not offering a denial. Then he segued to a strategy of smearing his accuser, saying that Cohen is a liar and a felon. That’s true, but what Gidley isn’t saying (or denying) is that Cohen lied under orders from Trump. And then he is given one more opportunity to defend the President and deny the allegations against him:

Smith: But the headline in that report is the President personally directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations involving that Trump Tower. Is that true or false?
Gidley: Right. But the President’s attorney has also addressed this. I’m not gonna give any credence or credibility to Michael Cohen who’s a convicted felon and an admitted liar.

So Gidley’s response to whether the Buzzfeed story is true or false is “Right.” Really? When the President’s own spokesperson resorts to dodges like “I’m not gonna give any credence,” to charges that the President suborned perjury and obstructed justice, there’s a good reason. And it’s usually because the story is true. But let’s not be too hard on Gidley. After all, his boss couldn’t even deny the allegations in his response on Twitter:

For as long as Trump has been under investigation for what he calls “this Russia thing,” he has behaved exactly the way you would expect a guilty person to act. The same is true for his defenders in the White House and the media. So there’s no reason to expect them to act any differently now. And judging by this pathetic performance by Gidley, they aren’t. With each passing day, and with each new revelation, it becomes increasingly clear that Trump is headed for prosecution and impeachment. And it can’t come too soon.

UPDATE: The Special Counsel’s office has issued a statement saying that “BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony, are not accurate.” This statement doesn’t identify what precisely they are disputing, but it does say that it is specific, rather than applying broadly to the article’s main points. And Buzzfeed’s authors and editor-in-chief stand by their reporting.

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

Fair and Huh? Fox News Anchor Tells Trump Shill that She “Needs to Go on the Offensive’

Posted by on August 3, 2018 at 10:34 am. 5 Comments :

The evidence that Fox News is just Donald Trump’s in-house propaganda ministry keeps growing with each new day. The network seems to have no bottom with regard to blatantly biased support for, and adulation of, Dear Leader. And the argument that they have two separate types of programs – one that is opinion based, and one that is “news,” is repudiated on a regular basis by their own reporting.

Fox News Fair and Balanced

America’s Newsroom on Fox News is supposed to be one of their allegedly “straight” news shows. However, on Friday’s edition of the program Mercedes Schlapp, Trump’s White House director of strategic communications (whatever that is), was interviewed. The discussion included a question about the “contentious moment between Sarah Sanders and Jim Acosta of CNN.” That was when Acosta asked Sanders to acknowledge that the media is not the enemy of the people. Sanders pointedly refused to to do so – twice. And now Schlapp was being given another opportunity to set the record straight. But instead, she said this (video below):

“Fake news is dangerous. We know for a fact that many of these so-called news reporters go out there have a complete disdain for President Trump. It’s no wonder that we’ve seen that 90% of the media coverage for President Trump has been negative.”

Schlapp went on to whine about how Trump and company are helpless victims who have been mercilessly attacked by the all-powerful media. Poor babies. She cited blistering assaults with examples that they have been “called names” by journalists. Gee, Trump would never do anything so unspeakably hideous, would he? And to this pitiful rant, Fox’s host, Bill Hemmer (who is rumored to be a candidate to succeed Sanders as press secretary) said:

“I don’t think you should be defensive about this. You need to go on offense. And I know that’s a big part of why you came on today.”

Then they all had a good laugh when Hemmer asked Schlapp if she was “tired of winning.” What we have here is the Fox News anchor advising the Trump shill to be more offensive, as if that were possible. Just Thursday night at his cult assembly in Pennsylvania, Trump himself escalated his war on the press by calling them the “disgusting fake news,” and “horrendous people.”

Hemmer’s not-so-subtle coaching of Schlapp may have been an attempt to add a new clip to his audition reel for the job at the White House. After all, he’s facing stiff competition from three other Fox Newsers: Heather Nauert (currently stationed at Trump’s State Department), Kimberly Guilfoyle (Don Jr’s new girlfriend who was recently terminated by Fox for sexual misconduct), and Tony Sayegh (now on duty at Trump’s Treasury Department).

This abundance of candidates all from the same network shouldn’t surprise anyone. Trump spends much his day watching Fox News and is advised regularly by people like Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. Plus his brand, spanking new Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications is former Fox News president, Bill Shine. He was also recently jettisoned by the network for enabling and covering up the sexual misconduct of big shots like Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly. So Hemmer would fit in nicely with this wholesome group of cretins, don’t you think?

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