Former Anchor Chris Wallace Blasts Fox ‘News’ Programming that ‘Became Unsustainable’

The degree of disinformation that is disseminated every hour of every day by Fox News has been well documented. As a network that was concocted by an ultra-rightist media baron (Rupert Murdoch) and a Republican political operative (Roger Ailes), no rational person ever thought that it would be anything other than a mouthpiece for conservative propaganda.

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Fox News, Bullshit Factory

However, few people imagined just how far over the edge Fox News would eventually go to distort the truth and defile journalism. In recent weeks Fox News has actually sided with America’s enemies. With slimy shitstirrers like Tucker Carlson embracing Vladimir Putin, and white-wingers like Laura Ingraham attacking Ukrainian refugees, it’s no wonder that Russia’s foreign minister effusively praises the network.

RELATED: Only on Fox News: Russian Foreign Minister Praises the Network’s Pro-Putin Propaganda

The New York Times has now published an interview of former Fox News anchor, Chris Wallace. He was with Fox for nearly twenty years. This year he announced that he would be joining CNN to host a show on CNN+, their new streaming channel that will debut this month. He said at the time that his reasons for ditching Fox included some of the repugnant positions taken by his colleagues. The Times interview began by quoting Wallace saying that “I just no longer felt comfortable with the programming at Fox.” He elaborated…

“‘I’m fine with opinion: conservative opinion, liberal opinion,’ Mr. Wallace said in his first extensive interview about his decision to leave. ‘But when people start to question the truth — Who won the 2020 election? Was Jan. 6 an insurrection? — I found that unsustainable.'”

[…and…]

“Wallace also acknowledged that he felt a shift at Fox News in the months after Donald J. Trump’s defeat in 2020 — a period when the channel ended its 7 p.m. newscast, fired the political editor who helped project a Trump loss in Arizona on election night and promoted hosts like Mr. Carlson who downplayed the Jan. 6 riot.

“He confirmed reports that he was so alarmed by Mr. Carlson’s documentary ‘Patriot Purge’ – which falsely suggested the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was a ‘false flag’ operation intended to demonize conservatives – that he complained directly to Fox News management.”

RELATED: Breaking Down the Crocumentary By Tucker Carlson that Glorifies ‘False Flag’ Insurrection

Wallace’s insights about Fox News may have been a long time coming (which he addresses in the Times interview), but they are nevertheless relevant for having been derived from a couple of decades of personal experience. And it was clear that his eyes were being pried open in the months that preceded his divorce from Donald Trump’s Ministry of Disinformation and Republican Propaganda Pusher. For instance…

Sadly, Wallace’s criticisms will fall on deaf ears at Fox News. The network is being held hostage by the worst reprobates on its rat-filled roster. They are obviously too afraid of Tucker Carlson to challenge him and his traitorous rhetoric that has garnered such a devoted following of cult members. Consequently we can expect the parade of lies and anti-American tirades to continue for the foreseeable future.

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Did Chris Wallace Ditch Fox News Because of Tucker Carlson and Other Extremist Dirtbags?

At the end of this week’s episode of Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace announced that this broadcast would be his last. It was an unusually abrupt notice of an exit from an enterprise that he’s been with for eighteen years. Ordinarily, planned separations provide several weeks of notice to give both the company and the viewers time to absorb and adjust to the news.

Fox News, Chris Wallace

So what would prompt this surprise departure from one of the longest serving Fox News personalities? Wallace didn’t give any clues in his announcement. He said merely that…

“…after 18 years, I have decided to leave Fox. I want to try something new, to go beyond politics to all the things I’m interested in. I’m ready for a new adventure.”

Wallace didn’t say what form that adventure might take or where he might be headed. There is some speculation that he could join CNN+, the network’s soon to be launched streaming service. And while Fox News hasn’t had the time to consider replacements for Wallace, the early money is probably on Bret Baier. That is if Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson don’t pull rank over the weak-kneed Fox News executives who cower before them.

Speaking of Tucker Carlson, there are good reasons to suspect that he might have given Wallace a shove out the door. Wallace has been critical of Carlson’s ultra-extremist ravings of late. After the airing of Carlson’s false flag crocumentary, “Patriot Purge,” Wallace complained to Fox News executives, Suzanne Scott, Fox News Media CEO, and Jay Wallace, President of News. Wallace was also said to be troubled by Lara Logan’s nauseating comparison of Dr. Anthony Fauci to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Some other indications that Wallace and Fox News may not have been a good fit going forward…

In his farewell message Wallace recounted the changes in the media during his years at Fox News. “When I started in this business 50 years ago,” Wallace recalled, “being fair was the basic job requirement to keep you from being fired. And the idea that I stand out now because I’m fair, I think is a kind of sad commentary on the state of journalism.” Wallace isn’t being explicit in this criticism, but it is unambiguously a critique of the sort of bias that is integral to Fox News and its super-partisan editorial mission.

The landscape of cable news is changing significantly. In addition to Wallace exiting Fox News, the network has another open primetime weekday slot at 7:00pm. Brian Williams has left MSNBC. Chris Cuomo is out at CNN. And next year Rachel Maddow will be downsizing her weekday presence on MSNBC.

There is no way to predict what MSNBC and CNN will do with their roster. But we can rest assured that Fox News will become even more radically right-wing, because that’s what they’ve done with every other recent schedule opening. And with the midterm elections next year, they are sure to dig in. We could see (GASP) Jesse Watters, or Maria Bartiromo, or Peter Doocy, or Kayleigh McEnany, in the Fox News Sunday anchor chair next year. They might as well just give the job to Trump.

UPDATE: It has been confirmed that Wallace will be joining CNN+ to host a weekday talk show.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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SAVE THE DATE: MyPillow Pinhead Mike Lindell is Organizing a Protest Against Fox News

This holiday season Americans will be busy visiting with friends and family and planning festivities for Christmas and New Year’s. It is a season full of joy and comradery and hope. But Mike Lindell, the MyPillow mogul who has become Donald Trump’s foremost election fraud flouting flunky, would like you all to keep open some time for another of his screwball circus acts.

Donald Trump, Mike Lindell, MyPillow

Lindell has announced that he is organizing a public protest against Trump’s Ministry of Disinformation, Fox News:

“We are going to do something out in front of Fox News, I think we should have – you know, if people want to go down there, maybe we should give out Frank Speech signs. [Fox News is] a big part of our country being taken from us.”

Based on the record of abject failure of Lindell’s previous media events, this demonstration promises to be an affair to dismember. It will rank up there with his “Absolute Proof” crocumentary, wherein he declared that he would provide irrefutable evidence that Trump won the election. His presentation was a spectacle of hyperventilating harangues and hothead hyperbole. The only thing it was missing was the “proof” part. Although it did earn him a hysterical disclaimer from OAN prior to airing it, and a place in the billion dollar defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems.

Lindell also staged a “cyber symposium” that likewise guaranteed confirmation of election fraud. But this event was so preposterous that even Fox News refused to accept advertising for it. As a result, Lindell pulled all of his ads from Fox. Which must have upset Tucker Carlson where MyPillow was his biggest – and pretty much last – advertiser.

Lindell isn’t the only right-winger who is angry with Fox News. Trump has been bashing them regularly, despite continuing to appear with devoted Trump-fluffers like Jeanine Pirro, Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Laura Ingraham, and Mark Levin. And with the release of Tucker Carlson’s horrifically anti-American diatribe, “Patriot Purge,” – that defends the violent January 6th StormTrumper riots in Washington, D.C. – many staunchly conservative Republicans, and even Fox News staffers, are distancing themselves from the network. NPR is reporting that…

[Fox anchors] Bret Baier and Chris Wallace, shared their objections with Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and its president of news, Jay Wallace. Those objections rose to Lachlan Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of the network’s parent company.”

None of the Fox executives responded to NPR’s request for comments. However, two longtime Fox contributors, Steven Hayes and Jonah Goldberg, did respond. They just resigned citing Carlson’s pro-insurrection piece as the last straw. And their resignations touched off a wave of support from other Fox regulars.:

  • Liz Cheney: “Thank you @stephenfhayes and @JonahDispatch for standing up for truth and calling out dangerous lies.”
  • Charlie Sykes: “Good.”
  • Adam Kinzinger: “This…. Leading by example. Nice job”
  • Bill Kristol: “Kudos to @stephenfhayes and @JonahDispatch for standing up to Fox, yelling Stop, at a time when few other conservatives are inclined to do so.”
  • Stuart Stevens: “Until @FoxNews commits itself to journalism, anyone who cares about democracy shouldn’t work there or advertise. Doesn’t really hold up to say ‘I support a channel because not every show is a racist attack on democracy, just the most popular'”

This exodus from Fox News may seem like a positive development that could impact their future editorial mission. But don’t count on it. The honchos at Fox don’t appear the least bit interested in slanting back toward sanity and/or reality. And CNN’s Jim Acosta articulated that in a succinct assessment of the state of Fox News:

UPDATE: The Fox News protest was, predictably, a total bust that drew about dozen Lindell flunkies.

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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!

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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Chris Wallace of Fox News Praises Jen Psaki, Slams Peter Doocy, and Snubs Trump Shills

Every now and then, someone on Fox News does or says something that demands extra attention. Unfortunately it’s usually something stupid, insulting, dishonest, and/or dangerous. After all, it is America’s most fervently pro-COVID “news” network with a roster of Trump-fluffing propagandists who exist to find fault with Democrats generally and President Biden in particular.

Fox News, Jen Psaki

On Friday evening, though, there was a noticeable crack in the wall of wingnuttery that protects Fox’s viewers from rational thought. Chris Wallace, the long time host of Fox News Sunday, appeared on the network’s America Reports and provided some unexpected commentary on the the White House press community. Wallace told his Fox News colleagues that…

“Peter Doocy is the Sam Donaldson of this White House press corps. And since I was working the press corps when Sam Donaldson was there, that’s a very grudging compliment on my part. And Jen Psaki is one of the best press secretaries ever.”

That is about as direct a criticism of Doocy as will ever appear on Fox News. Wallace’s description of his “compliment” as “very grudging” is an acknowledgement that it isn’t really intended to be complimentary at all. And there is ample evidence of Doocy’s blatant bias and shameless incompetence.

However, the part of Wallace’s remarks that will reverberate around the rightosphere is his unqualified praise for Jen Psaki as “one of the best press secretaries ever.” It was, of course, a well deserved tribute to an intelligent, informative professional, who does her job with insight, compassion, and even humor. But it surely won’t go down well with Donald Trump’s cult followers who, along with Trump are already wary of Fox News, which they delusionally regard as part of the radical anti-Trump cabal.

There is, however, more to Wallace’s put down than meets the eye. By singling out Psaki for acclaim, he is giving the back of his hand to Trump’s press office cronies, some of whom are his comrades at Fox News. To begin with, for some reason, former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer retweeted Wallace’s remarks. Spicer, who is now a hosting a program on Newsmax, distinguished himself by lying on his very first day as press secretary. And his lies were to placate Trump’s ego by falsely asserting that his inauguration crowds were the biggest ever (they weren’t even close).

Spicer was followed to the podium by Sarah Sanders, who is now a Republican candidate for governor of Arkansas. Then came Stephanie Grisham, who now says she is terrified of [Trump] running for president in 2024.” She was succeeded by Kayleigh McEnany, who is now co-hosting Outnumbered on Fox News. And McEnany isn’t the only former GOP press secretary affiliated with Fox. Dana Perino is now a co-host of The Five. And the late Tony Snow preceded Wallace on Fox News Sunday.

So by recognizing Psaki’s excellence, Wallace is simultaneously snubbing her GOP counterparts who have gone on to populate Fox’s schedule and pursue careers in Republican politics and press. For this Wallace will be maligned as a traitor, and a “libtard,” and a leftist plant who should be fired (i.e. “canceled”). But he deserves some respect for having the courage to tell the truth about Psaki, a distinguished public servant, and for doing it on Fox’s air.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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WHUT? Fox News Fact Checks Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ Live During His 9/11 Photo-Op

On the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Donald Trump “honored” the occasion by appearing as the featured commentator for an exhibition fight between a couple of geezers at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. He also released a video that barely mentioned 9/11, but instead insulted both America and President Biden as foolish and inept.

Donald Trump, Fox News, White House

However, that didn’t satisfy Trump’s obsession with attacking Biden and glorifying himself. He spent a few minutes at a New York police station with a carefully selected group of bootlickers. While there, Trump complained that Biden had visited the three sites where planes crashed on 9/11 but didn’t speak. Perhaps because Biden preferred to make the day about paying tribute to the victims and the heroes, rather than deflecting attention to himself.

Trump, on the other hand, visited none of those sites. And when he spoke it had little to do with 9/11. He spent most of his chat with the NYPD exalting himself and maligning Biden. At the end he slipped in a “thank you” for their efforts on 9/11. But he spent far more time criticizing Biden on the exit from Afghanistan, which Trump failed to accomplish in four years, and the “rigged” election that he is still – nine months later – lying about it to anyone who will listen.

What made this episode of Trump’s whining notable, was that coverage of his remarks on Fox News were abruptly cut off by anchor Arthel Neville. As Trump launched into his “Big Lie” rant he was fact checked live. Neville broke in to say that…

“[Trump] did not miss any opportunities to air grievances including claiming that the election was rigged, which it was not. It has been proven in court multiple times.”

That’s a measure of honesty that is rarely seen on Fox News. And certainly not by any of their primetime Trump-fluffers who continue to worshipfully patronize his delusions. And Neville was not alone this week. On Thursday’s edition of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Fox’s Chris Wallace was asked about interviewing Republicans who still refuse to accept that Biden was elected fair and square. Wallace said that…

“There are plenty of people who were the leaders in Congress of challenging [the election] that I just have not had on the show ever since then. And I have purposefully not had them on, frankly, because I don’t want to hear their crap.”

These moments of rational reporting on Fox News are welcome, but they should not be regarded as any indication of a change in their core mission to slander Democrats and spread right-wing propaganda. Those are still the foundations of Fox’s editorial objectives. Sean Hannity will still kiss Trump’s – let’s say ring. Tucker Carlson will still advance the agenda of America’s racist White Nationalists. And notwithstanding these brief blips of sanity, Fox News will still work tirelessly to disinform the American people, just as it has for twenty-five years.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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GOP Rep Calls It By Its Name on Fox News: ‘A Trump-Inspired Insurrection on the Capitol’

On this Sunday morning truth got a twofer. It’s rare that honesty ever creeps into a story on Fox News. and it’s even more rare when the truth-teller is a Republican member of Congress. However, that political oddity occurred when the subject of the January 6th MAGA riots in Washington, D.C. came up during this week’s Fox News Sunday.

Donald Trump Insurrection

Chris Wallace interviewed Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who has been a frequent critic of his party confederates for sucking up to Donald Trump and promulgating the “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him. Kinzinger unleashed a flurry of honesty that is not often seen in Republicans, and almost never on Fox News (video below):

“The American people deserve the truth, and my party to this point has said things like it was hugs and kisses. It was Antifa and BLM. It was anything but what it was, which was a Trump-inspired insurrection on the Capitol. And I think now what’s gonna happen if this thing fails is that Nancy Pelosi will run a Select Committee and this could go all the way until 2024.”

That commentary is poles apart from anything that most of the GOP StormTrumpers are saying. McCarthy himself has tread on the surreal by insisting that “I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election.” Somebody should introduce McCarthy to the former reality TV game show host who is pathologically obsessed with it.

During the segment the subject of the Democratic initiative to impanel an independent, bipartisan committee came up. The purpose of the committee would be to investigate the circumstances that led to the January 6th riots. Wallace asked Kinzinger whether the objections to the committee by House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, were a conflict of interest since he was likely to be called as a witness. Kinzinger replied…

“I wouldn’t say it’s a conflict of interest because Kevin is the leader. There is probably a lot of people that are gonna be subject to be called in front of any investigation on this. Even criminal investigations.

But I do think Kevin has failed to tell the truth to the Republicans and to the American people. […] The 74 million voters who voted for Donald Trump, a number of them believe that the election was stolen, believe it because their leaders have not told them otherwise. The people they trust have either been silent or not told them the truth.”

Kinzinger added that McCarthy’s positions have been strikingly hypocritical. He pointed out that McCarthy originally criticized Trump for failing to call off his insurrectionists. On the House floor McCarthy said that “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.” But instead, Trump told the rioters that he loved them. And shortly thereafter McCarthy made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Dear Leader’s… let’s just say ring.

Now McCarthy refuses to even answer questions about whether his caucus members were in communication with the rioters during the assault. That’s how most of the GOP has fallen in line behind Trump. Which makes Kinzinger’s contrary position all the more courageous.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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Joe Biden Ends Trump’s War on Truth and the Free Press – and Zings Fox News

The not-so-old adage that “elections have consequences” has proven once again to be an insightful admonition to those who would defy democracy and the indefatigable will of the American people. Donald Trump found this out the hard way by narrowing his appeal to an impotent minority of racists and far-right extremists, rather than seeking to broaden his base by reaching out to the reality-based community.

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Donald Trump, Fox News, White House

Among the consequences that Trump will suffer, in addition to his humiliating electoral defeat, are a rapid undoing of his worst policy initiatives (i.e. climate change, immigration, healthcare, etc.), the expulsion of his most despicable appointees throughout his administration (i.e. Justice, Defense, Intelligence, EPA, etc.), and an avalanche of of both criminal and civil lawsuits (tax/financial, sexual harassment/assault, defamation, etc.). Trump may have less time available for golf and television as a private citizen than he did as the alleged “president.”

Joe Biden’s inauguration speech was surprisingly well received considering his reputation for something less than soaring oratory. Even Chris Wallace of Fox News said that it was “the best inaugural address I ever heard.” But don’t let that fool you into thinking that Fox News has turned over new leaf. Sean Hannity watched the same address and described our new president as “the weak, the frail, the cognitively struggling Biden.” Clearly Hannity was viewing it through his manure-caked eyeglasses.

While Biden touched an many subjects of great importance to the American people (i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy, international relations, and his commitment to national unity), he included some specific passages that foretold a renewed respect for the free press. Gone is Trump’s Stalinist yowl that “the media is the enemy of the people.” In Biden’s inaugural address he correctly observed that “We face an attack on democracy and on truth.” Then he pointedly made these profound remarks:

“Politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war. And, we must reject a culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.”

“Manipulated” and “manufactured” facts are another way of saying “alternative” facts (h/t Kellyanne Conway). It’s also a nod to what Fox news has done throughout Trump’s occupation of the White House.

“There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders – leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation – to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.”

This is another shout out to Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News), where “Lies told for power and for profit” is embedded in their corporate mission statement.

“But the answer is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don’t look like you do, or worship the way you do, or don’t get their news from the same sources you do.”

Here Biden is being generous by lumping Fox News in with legitimate sources of news. Even Fox doesn’t call what they do “news.” It is literally a part of their entertainment division. And it isn’t going to get any better in the post-Trump era. They have already announced programming changes that shift more airtime to their ultra-conservative opinion hosts.

For his part, Joe Biden is making good on his promise to restore truth and decency to the White House press corps and its relationship with the media. Early on in his term Trump abandoned daily press briefings. He went weeks without holding any. And when he did, they were filled with lies and self-serving blather. His press secretaries were a confederacy of dishonest spinners (Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, Kayleigh McEnany) whose flair for flagrant falsehoods was famous.

Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, held her first press briefing on Inauguration Day. She told reporters that her goal was to “bring transparency and truth back to the American government.” Elaborating, she said that…

“I have deep respect for a free and independent press in our democracy and for the role that all of you play. As I noted earlier, there will be moments when we disagree and there will certainly be days we disagree for extensive parts of the briefing even perhaps. But we have a common goal, which is sharing accurate information with the American people.”

That’s a refreshing upgrade from the bellicose bundle of belligerence that stained Trump’s hostile and childish tantrum throwing tirades whenever he engaged the press. It’s a return to the more productive encounters that provide opportunities for political leaders to communicate with the public, while simultaneously allowing journalists to confront those leaders on the public’s behalf. And if both the President and the press pursue those as their goals, the nation can only be better off for it.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
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GOP Chair Forced to Admit to Fox News There’s No Evidence of Wrongdoing By Biden

In the closing days of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump has decided that the big issue dominating the minds of the American people is emails that Trump and Rudy Giuliani and the Republican Party have dubiously attributed to Joe Biden’s son. They aren’t worried about the coronavirus pandemic that is hitting record highs in infections and fatalities, or the unemployment rate, or passing a relief bill.

Joe Biden, Donald Trump Baby, Fake News

In their desperation to find a way to dig out of the electoral ditch they dug for themselves, the Trump regime is reprising the phony email scandal that they fabricated about Hillary Clinton four years ago. What they haven’t figured out yet is that 2020 is not 2016. And their efforts are falling flat.

A prime example of that is the interview that aired Sunday morning on Fox News Sunday. Host Chris Wallace questioned the chair of the Republican Party, Ronna McDaniel, about the manufactured controversy surrounding a laptop that allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden. There are numerous flaws in this story that was first brought to light by the star of the new Borat movie, (and Trump’s personal attorney) Rudy Giuliani. During the interview there was an exchange wherein McDaniel was forced to admit that she had zero evidence of any wrongdoing by either of the Bidens (video below):

Wallace: I want to ask you one question. Do you have any proof – because he’s denied it – do you have any proof that Joe Biden ever took one penny from either a foreign country or a foreign company?
McDaniel: I think that’s incumbent upon the press to start investigating. I think what’s frightening is we should have a free and fair press that should be looking at a laptop that has not been disputed by the Biden campaign to be authentic. These emails are deeply troubling as it looks like Hunter Biden is negotiating with a Chinese energy company to profit, not just for himself, but for his father. But it warrants an investigation. That’s not my job. That’s the press’ job. That’s the FBI, those who have this laptop to look into it.

Actually, It is not the job of the press to validate wild and unsubstantiated allegations by partisan political hacks. McDaniel shouldn’t be making these charges if she admittedly has no evidence to support them. McDaniel says that it’s the duty of “those who have this laptop to look into it.” Well, Giuliani has the laptop and hasn’t provided any evidence. The FBI has it and they haven’t found anything either. And if McDaniel wants the press to investigate the laptop, why doesn’t she get Giuliani to give it to them so they can do so? Is she afraid that it will come out that there isn’t any evidence of wrongdoing? Wallace also addressed the the FBI’s role:

Wallace: The FBI has had the hard drive since December. Why haven’t they come up with any evidence?”
McDaniel: I don’t know! I’m not in the internal aspects of that investigation. But what’s more disturbing, Chris, is Twitter is censoring these stories. The press is saying this has been debunked without even investigating it. Why are they doing that? Why are they covering for this story?

So first McDaniel insists that the FBI should be the source of any credible allegations. But when reminded that the FBI hasn’t found anything, she pivots to an imaginary and paranoid assertion that Twitter is censoring the story. Of course, Twitter can’t tell any news enterprise what to publish or broadcast. Her complaints just add more noise to the debate without shedding any light on it. She knows the press doesn’t have the laptop and that Giuliani won’t give it to them.

McDaniel is just stirring up dust to cloud the eyes of the ignorant Trump cult disciples who are desperate for something to cling to. That’s probably in her job description. But she isn’t doing it very well. If she can’t even give coherent answers to questions by Fox News, she really should just hang her head and slink away to nurse her shame. Expect more of these embarrassing failures from McDaniel and her confederates for at least the next week prior to election day.

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

Trump Can’t Stop Whining About Imaginary Bias By Debate Moderator

Perhaps the most prominent of the myriad character flaws of Donald Trump isn’t his pathological lying, his infantile name-calling, his glaring ignorance, or his raging hostility. Perhaps it’s the relentless whining and victimhood that gushes from him whenever he is faced with even a mild challenge. It’s a pitiful display of the cowardice that permeates his personality, or lack thereof. No wonder Trump has bragged about being the most fabulous whiner.”

Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Debate Stage

This “feature” of Trump’s emotional frailty has been evident recently in his reaction to the upcoming and final presidential debate with Joe Biden. Note that the first of the scheduled debates resulted in Trump harassing both Biden and the the moderator, Chris Wallace, with repeated interruptions. That led to the Commission on Presidential Debates implementing a new rule wherein the mic of the opposing candidate will be muted during designated two minute periods at the beginning of each topical segment. The second debate was canceled altogether because Trump was afraid to participate remotely.

In advance of the final debate before the election, Trump is ramping up his griping about how unfair everyone and everything is to him. He has been complaining for several days that the debate, like the election itself, is “rigged” against him. And on Tuesday morning he took that complaint to Fox News so he could get some sympathy from the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends.

During the discussion, co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked Trump about the new rule for muting the mic. Trump replied by calling the Commission “ridiculous” and then segued to accusing them of purposely muting his mic in the 2016 debates with Hillary Clinton (which never happened). He said they are “not good people” and that “a lot of funny things go on with them.” Then he shifted to maligning the moderator of Thursday’s debate, Kristen Welker of NBC News, in a rambling word salad with an overflowing jug of whine:

“I just went through Savannah Guthrie. I knew what I was getting into and it worked out fine. But she was out of line. She was totally out of line. And so was Chris Wallace. I know you’ll defend him, but so was Chris Wallace. He was terrible. It was like two on one, and that was just fine with me. But at least they should admit that it was two on one.” […]

“Kristen Welker is terrible, I mean she is totally partisan. Her father and mother are big supporters of Joe Biden for a long time. They’re supporters of the Democrat Party. And she deleted her entire account. […] “Kristen Welker is far worse than [CSPAN’S Steve] Scully, but I do it anyway, I do it anyway, But this is the way it is. It’s so set up.”

For the so-called “Leader of the Free World,” Trump sure behaves like a petulant toddler who doesn’t get his way. And needless to say, he is lying about Welker. She is a straight-down-the-middle journalist who doesn’t exhibit any political bias in her reporting. The party affiliations of her parents, even if true, are irrelevant. And she did not delete her Twitter account.

Trump made no effort whatsoever to support his contention that Welker “can’t be neutral at all.” What’s more, He falsely asserted that the Commission changed plans to make foreign policy the sole topic of the debate. That notion was birthed entirely in his warped imagination. The Commission’s only reference to debate topics came in their announcement on October 16, of the topics that were chosen by the moderator.

For the record, the topics are fighting COVID-19, American families, race in America, climate change, national security, and leadership. If those topics bother Trump it’s only because he knows he can’t discuss them with anything approaching coherence. Nevertheless, he sought to disparage Biden’s debating skills by telling his Fox friends that…

“There is a chain of thought, that there are a lot of people that say let him talk, because he loses his train, he loses his train, he loses his mind, frankly.”

If Trump actually manages to muster up the discipline to let Biden talk without interrupting (doubtful), he will be sorely disappointed as Biden demonstrates far a superior grasp of the issues and a relatable empathy for the American people. In fact, Trump’s strategy would work much better for Biden. Just let Trump talk. The more people hear him, the more they despise him. Every time Trump opens his mouth Biden’s lead in the polls gets bigger. So please proceed, Donnie.

UPDATE: Trump is proceeding with his manic media maligning. He reportedly stomped out of an interview for 60 Minutes with Leslie Stahl, and is now berating her as biased.

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