Christiane Amanpour

Fox News: Democrats Shouldn’t Allow Hillary Clinton to Talk About Deprogramming the MAGA Cult

Posted by on October 6, 2023 at 1:04 pm. 4 Comments :

Fox News must have been thrilled that their favorite political piñata, Hillary Clinton, surfaced in a new interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. They have clearly missed taking wild, albeit feeble, swings at the woman who got three million more votes than their Dear Leader, Donald Trump, and who still manages to make their blood pressure surge whenever she invades their sheltered psyches.

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Fox News, Hillary Clinton

The interview was a wide ranging discussion of current affairs and the state of the political environment. Naturally, Clinton was asked about the Republican disarray in the House of Representatives where their fringiest faction ousted their own Speaker for failing to toe the wingnut line closely enough. Although Fox News thinks they may have found an alternative more to their liking.

SEE THIS: LOLOL: Fox News is Already Hyping Trump for Speaker of the House, and He is Open To It

In the course of the interview, Amanpour asked Clinton whether there was a way going forward wherein the parties could form coalitions to advance the people’s business. Clinton began her response by noting that the passage of the Continuing Resolution that temporarily avoided a government shutdown was evidence that there there is a “common sense, sane part of the Republican caucus in the House.” However, she also observed that they are often “intimidated” by the GOP extremists. She elaborated saying that…

“Sadly, so many of those extremists, those MAGA extremists take their marching orders from Donald Trump, who has no credibility left by any measure. He’s only in it for himself. He’s now defending himself in civil actions and criminal actions, and we need a break with him. Because at some point point maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members. But something needs to happen.”

UH-OH! That was all that was necessary to trigger the outrage of Fox News. On their Friday morning episode of “Outnumbered,” co-hosts Kayleigh McEnany and Tomi Lahren were shocked by Clinton’s perfectly rational analysis of the perversely devotional attachment to Trump. They latched unto Clinton’s accurate description of the MAGA movement as a cult and her tongue-in-cheek suggestion that they be “deprogrammed.”

McEnany: You expect to hear this in the Soviet Union and communist China, and third world countries, dictatorships. But not here in the United Sates.
Lahren: She’s still so bitter about 2016 and that’s landing. She is so upset, so jaded that she lost she just cannot accept it. […] What I don’t understand is why the Democrat Party is allowing her to speak on behalf of the Democrat Party. It does nothing for them.

First of all, someone needs to tell McEnany that the Soviet Union was dissolved 32 years ago. But more to the point, Lahren wants to know “why the Democrats would continue to parade [Clinton] out.” Lahren’s complaint that the Democratic Party is “allowing” Clinton to speak is an affirmation that the Trumpist Republicans are indeed a cult and that, in their tunnel-blind perception, all political parties are cults. They can’t comprehend that Clinton is free to speak about whatever she wants, any time she wants, without getting permission from GOP-style party apparatchiks. Republicans don’t tolerate that sort of independent thought.

What’s more, at no point in the interview did Clinton suggest that she was speaking for the Democratic Party. She was offering her own opinions. However, the lock-step agreement from the other panelists on the Fox News program is further proof of the cult-like state of the GOP as represented on their propaganda network. Which, ironically, underscores the kernel of truth in Clinton’s snarky statement that the Trump Deplorables need to be deprogrammed. They just keep confirming that they are cult. Especially when they try to deny it.

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Amanpour Drops Truth Bomb On Trump Era Press: ‘I Believe In Being Truthful, Not Neutral’

Posted by on November 26, 2016 at 9:59 am. 1 Comments :

This week CNN’s chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, received the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists. It is awarded at the International Press Freedom Awards for “extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom. Her acceptance speech was an inspiring appeal to “recommit to robust, fact-based reporting” in the Age of Trump. [Video below]

Amanpour Trump

Right from the start Amanpour addressed the serious challenge posed by Donald Trump’s rancid rhetoric. She recognized the risks created by a candidate whose words literally incited violence toward reporters:

“I never thought in a million years that I’d be standing up here, after all the times I’ve participated in this ceremony, appealing, really, for the freedom and safety of American journalists at home.”

That is indeed a sobering realization on the current state of media relations as practiced by Trump and his campaign. Even so, Amanpour expressed optimism that after the election Trump would moderate his hostility toward the press. Unfortunately, he did no such thing:

“I was chilled when [Trump’s] first tweet after the election was about professional protesters incited by the media.” [Because as we all know] “First the media is accused of inciting, then sympathizing, then associating. And then suddenly they find themselves accused of being full-fledged terrorists and subversives. And then they end up in handcuffs, in cages, in kangaroo courts, in prisons, and then who knows what.

On this Amanpour may be a little behind the curve. The right-wing media has been denigrating the press for years with charges of being “in the tank” for Obama or Clinton or whoever the current object of their hatred is. And as for accusing them of being terrorists, that was already done on Fox News by their “strategic analyst,” Lt. Col. Ralph Peters. In an unhinged rant he assaulted the media saying:

“Rejecting the god of their fathers, the neo-pagans who dominate the media serve as lackeys at the terrorists’ bloody altar. […] Although it seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media.”

Imagine that. Fox News actually pays that guy to advocate for military assassinations of American journalists. No wonder Amanpour is chilled. She goes on to explain why the media needs to stand firm in defense of facts and not fall into the trap of false equivalencies. What follows are some selected quotes:

“[It’s time to] recommit to robust, fact-based reporting, without fear or without favor, on the issues. Don’t stand for being labeled or called ‘lying,’ or ‘crooked,’ or ‘failing.'”

“Much of the media was tying itself in knots trying to differentiate between balance, between objectivity, neutrality, and crucially, the truth. We cannot continue the old paradigm. We cannot, for instance, keep saying, like it was over global warming. When 99% of the science, the empirical facts, the evidence, is given equal play with the tiny minority of deniers.”

“I learned a long, long time ago…never to equate victim and aggressor. Never to create a false moral or factual equivalence…So I believe in being truthful, not neutral. And I believe we must stop banalizing the truth. We have to be prepared to fight especially hard right now for the truth.”

“[Donald Trump] did a very savvy end run around us and used it to go straight to the people. Combined with the most incredible development ever, which is the tsunami of fake news, aka lies.”

“I feel that we face an existential crisis, a threat to the very relevance and usefulness of our profession. Now, more than ever, we need to recommit to real reporting across a real nation, a real world in which journalism and democracy are in mortal peril. Including by foreign powers like Russia who pay to churn out and place these false news articles, these lies, in many of our press. They hack into democratic systems.”

“I was shocked because very few ever imagined that so many Americans conducting their sacred duty in the secret ballot box, using their ballots, would be angry enough to ignore the wholesale denigration of these values. The vulgarity of language, the sexual predatory behavior, the deep misogyny, the bigoted and insulting views.”

Amanpour closed by declaring that “We must fight against the normalization of what is unacceptable.” By that she means the way the media has begun to treat neo-Nazis and racists and anti-Semites as if they were just another place-setting on the table of ideologies. They are not. And Trump’s “alt-right” Chief Strategist, Stephen Bannon, is a good example of what is unacceptable, but is getting a pass from the press.

This is not the first time that Trump has been rebuked for placing the First Amendment in Jeopardy. In October the Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement calling him “an unprecedented threat to press freedom.” And the National Press Club condemned his anti-press tactics as “unacceptable and dangerous to our democracy.” Hopefully these warnings, and Amanpour’s words, will be heeded and applied as the next administration prepares to execute its abhorrent agenda.

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

John McCain: The Bitch Is Back

Posted by on November 15, 2007 at 12:50 pm. 1 Comments :

When John McCain was asked by a supporter, “How do we beat the bitch,” referring to Hillary Clinton, McCain responded by laughing and saying that it was an “excellent question” which he then proceeded to answer. As an after thought he tosses out an expression of his “respect” for Clinton.


Now McCain’s campaign is outraged that this exchange was covered by CNN. His campaign manager Rick Davis has sent out an e-mail to supporters insisting that CNN owes McCain an apology:

“The CNN Network, affectionately known as the Clinton News Network, has stooped to an all-time low and is gratuitously attacking John McCain for not sufficiently defending Hillary Clinton enough when a South Carolina voter used the ‘B’ word to describe her when John McCain stopped into a luncheon yesterday at the Trinity restaurant in Hilton Head, S.C.”

Really? An all-time low? Lower than during the run-up to the war in Iraq when even CNN’s Christiane Amanpour said the the press had been muzzled and that…

“…my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did.”

Lower than when CNN followed McCain around Baghdad as he proclaimed that there are neighborhoods where we could all take leisurely walks with security? This prompted a response from CNN’s Michael Ware:

“I don’t know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad.”

Does Davis really believe that CNN, by merely reporting McCain’s failure to object to an inappropriately derisive question, sinks to an all-time low? You may think that Davis has reached the pinnacle of hyperbole, but he is only just getting started:

“The liberal media has figured out that John McCain is the only thing that stands between a Hillary Clinton presidency, and they are therefore trying to stop the McCain comeback. Simply put, CNN is scared that John McCain will beat Hillary Clinton. They are right to be scared.”

While Davis asserts that McCain is “the only thing that stands between a Hillary Clinton presidency,” he doesn’t say “and what.” That must be what is terrifying CNN. It’s the fear of the unknown. It couldn’t be McCain’s alleged “comeback” that even Rasmussen, whose poll he cited when answering the “bitch” question, described as follows:

“the Arizona Senator now leads Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton by a statistically meaningless two percentage points.”

That’s mighty scary stuff. And leave it to McCain’s campaign to promote fear as a means to counter their perceived political enemies. They want CNN to be scared, just as they want their own supporters to be scared. Did I mention that this alarming email was sent to McCain supporters along with a pitch for donations? You better pony up patriots, because John McCain is the only thing that stands between Hillary Clinton and…..something???

Michelle Malkin: Fox News Not Patriotic Enough

Posted by on October 9, 2007 at 10:56 am. NO Comments :

The Fox television network is sponsoring a workshop with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to help young Muslim artists aspiring to work in TV and film. “Hollywood 101“ is described as an event to…

“…introduce aspiring Muslim writers, directors and actors to the entertainment industry. The event, held at FOX Studios in Century City, was also designed to help promote a positive change in Hollywood’s portrayal of Muslims and Arabs.”

Fox News has previously been taken to task by CAIR for “anti-Islamic bigotry.” The Fox Entertainment Group, under separate management, deserves some credit for making an effort to enhance understanding and opportunity. But this program, emanating from Fox’s “Diversity Department,” makes Michelle Malkin “cringe:”

“‘Diversity Department?’ How about a Patriotism Department? How about reaching out to the brave Muslim/ex-Muslim critics of jihad and sharia?”

Malkin, who is currently on a campaign to smear a 12 year-old victim of a catastrophic car accident, is taking a bold position against diversity. What’s more, she is actually castigating Fox for not being patriotic enough. The network with the ever-present flag logo waving on-screen, mandatory lapel pins, and an editorial policy that brands dissent as treason, is in need of a corporate department to advocate patriotism, according to Malkin. This is the same network whose PR spokeswoman Irena Briganti said in response to Christiane Amanpour’s charge that the media “muzzled itself” during the Iraq war:

“Given the choice, it’s better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda.”

The current philosophy at Fox is that if you practice responsible, probing journalism, you are on al-Qaeda’s team. They believe that it is an appropriate role for the press to fall in line behind the president. And both Fox and Malkin believe that patriotism is best expressed by abandoning journalistic independence and the First Amendment. And all of this in the name of denying opportunities to minority communities and quashing diversity.

Fox News Declares War On Iran

Posted by on August 22, 2007 at 8:52 am. NO Comments :

A video (posted below) from FoxAttacks really tells the story of what a corrupt tool for propaganda Fox is.

Fox News

It also should tell people that our battle lines do not end with Bush and other Republicans. Christiane Amanpour’s comment succinctly describes the real threat:

“My station [CNN] was intimidated by the administration and the foot soldiers at Fox News.”

The media is manufacturing fear and misleading the country and the world. And it all begins with Fox. We must resolve to stop being accomplices in our own downfall. This is a good time to revisit my exhortation that Fox must be shunned.

Detox from Fox: Starve The Beast

As I said before, with extensive documentation, appearing on Fox is not only pointless, it is overtly harmful to progressive causes. It is long past time for Democrats and progressives to recognize this simple fact and resolve to stop allowing themselves to be used for target practice by disingenuous pseudo-journalists whose purpose is to defame and defeat them in politics and public opinion.

No more capitulation by our representatives and Fox’s competitors. It cannot, and must not, be tolerated. Do not cooperate with Fox in any way. Just say no!

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Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
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