OBSESSION: Trump Attacked Pres Biden 48 Times in His CPAC Harangue

Posted by Mark NC on March 1, 2021 at 12:20 pm. 0 Comments :

Traditionally, former presidents gracefully recede from the limelight of the presidency for at least several months as a new chief executive settles into the position. It’s period during which both the president and the people become accustomed to the change and set a course for the future.

But never let it be said that Donald Trump ever did anything traditional, graceful, or in the best interests of the people. His ego is far to bloated for that. So after taking the stage at the Conservative Political Action Cult (CPAC) on Sunday afternoon – more than an hour late – Trump proceeded to exalt himself in the familiar torrent of lies and whining that are typical of his public tirades. And true to form, this speech was a rambling outpouring of grievances and vainglorious victimhood.

Trump babbled incoherently for 90 minutes, whining about how he supposedly won the 2020 election. He was recklessly regurgitating the lies that resulted in the deadly Trump Insurrection on Capitol Hill, lies that were repeatedly debunked long ago. He ranted about immigration, his favorite vehicle of bigotry that so titillates his hateful followers. And he made the bizarre claim that no one ever said “I love you,” to any previous American president. President Obama has a ready response to that…

Trump’s CPAC sermon had one particularly conspicuous thread running through it. His obsession with President Joe Biden was evident throughout. He name-checked Biden forty-eight (48!) times. And each mention was another opportunity to lash out with wholly unsupported invectives and flagrant falsehoods. He led off with this ludicrous assessment of Biden’s term in office that has elapsed for all of one month:

“We all knew that the Biden administration was going to be bad, but none of us even imagined just how bad they would be. […] Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history.”

And Trump’s disparaging discourse was all downhill from there. Interestingly, he didn’t reserve his hostility for Biden and the Democrats. While castigating “the fake news media and their toxic cancel culture,” Trump embarked on a cavalcade of the coarsest political and cultural cancelation:

“We cannot have leaders who show more passion for condemning their fellow Americans than they have ever shown for standing up to Democrats, the media and the radicals who want to turn America into a socialist country. Instead of attacking me and more importantly, the voters of our movement, top establishment Republicans in Washington should be spending your energy and opposing Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, and the Democrats.” […]

“The Democrats don’t have grand-standers like Mitt Romney, little Ben Sasse, Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Pat Toomey; and in the House, Tom Rice, South Carolina, Adam Kinzinger, Dan Newhouse, Anthony Gonzalez. That’s another beauty. Fred Upton, Jamie Herrera Butler, Peter Meyer, John Katko, David Valadeo. And of course the warmonger, a person that loves seeing our troops fighting, Liz Cheney.”

Did he leave anyone out? Oh yeah. There were “The RINOs that we’re surrounded with [who] will destroy the Republican Party and the American worker and will destroy our country itself.” This isn’t the first time that Trump has gone after these GOP traitors.

Fox News hasn’t been spared the whip either. Even though Fox News was the only major news network that offered a live airing of Trump’s CPAC-of-lies.

For the record, despite Fox’s obedient carriage of everything Trump does and says, to date Fox News has not aired a single White House press briefing, which the Biden team has returned to doing daily. Nor have they aired a single press conference by the White House COVID-19 Response Team.

The most startling thing about this stump screech is that anyone could listen to it again. After all, it is nearly identical to every blather-fest that Trump has presided over for the past four years. It’s only been updated to include the Big Lie about the “stolen” election. But his cult disciples seem totally unaware that they are being subjected to a robo-speech on an endless loop. Which is the best evidence that they have indeed been indoctrinated into a glassy-eyed cult of Trump worshipers. Where they go one, they go all.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Trump-Fluffing CPAC Cancels Fox News Despite Its ‘America Uncanceled’ Theme

Posted by Mark NC on February 27, 2021 at 12:45 pm. 8 Comments :

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is underway in Orlando, Florida with a familiar assembly of asininnies on parade. Among them are thirty-six Republican members of the House of Representatives and ten GOP senators. These dutiful congressional swamp dwellers claimed that their absence from work was due to a “public health emergency.” And what better description is there of CPAC (aka the COVID Political Affliction Conference)?

This year’s event is particularly grotesque with panels scheduled to discuss “How Judges and Media Refused to Look at the Evidence [of voter fraud],” “The Left Pulled the Strings, Covered It Up,” and “How Government, Big Tech, and Media are Colluding to Deprive Us of Our Humanity,” They are diving head first into the Big Lie that Donald Trump and his political and press co-conspirators propagated about what he called a “stolen” election, despite having no evidence of it. It’s what led to the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th, and, by all appearances, they are yearning for more of the same.

However, the speakers roster at CPAC is exhibiting a peculiar weakness in one respect. The cable “news” network that was most responsible for propping up Trump has been conspicuously downsized. Last lear CPAC featured Fox All Stars such as Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Jeanine Pirro, Dana Perino, Katie Pavlich, and Mark Levin. But this year they the list is reduced to Sara Carter, Pete Hegseth, Larry Kudlow, Dan Bongino, Lawrence, Jones, and Jason Chaffetz. How many of those names will be recognizable to anyone but the most devoted Fox cultist?

This is likely due to the fact that Trump himself has turned against Fox. he has deemed Fox News “dead,” “unwatchable,” and “totally fake.” He even vowed to “wreck Fox News” for being insufficiently worshipful. So with Trump delivering the closing night keynote address, it simply wouldn’t do to have the network prominently represented at this affair. Never mind the Fox’s streaming service, Fox Nation, is one of the conference’s main sponsors, or that Fox News will still air much of the event live.

Will the conference attendees notice that there is no sign of Fox luminaries like Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Lou Dobbs, who was literally canceled a few weeks ago?

Perhaps the snubbing of Fox has something to do with the billion dollar defamation lawsuits filed by voting technology companies Dominion and Smartmatic that named Fox, as well as Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, and Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. Or maybe shunning Fox News was to be expected since many of Trump’s glassy-eyed cult followers have been changing channels to even more extremist fringe outfits like Newsmax and One American News Network (OANN).

The bottom line is that Fox News is clearly on the outs with Trump and the Trump loyalists at CPAC. But that hasn’t changed the editorial dishonesty or the rabidly biased propaganda emanating from the network’s Trumpian personalities. In fact, Fox has been moving even farther to the right in a desperate attempt to stem the bleeding caused by fleeing viewers and sinking ratings. It’s a downward spiral that is sure to follow Trump in a descent into irrelevancy.

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

COVIDIOTS: The Asinine Reason that CPAC Hosts Begged Reluctant Attendees to Wear Masks

Posted by Mark NC on February 26, 2021 at 1:40 pm. 0 Comments :

It’s that time of year again. Yep, the ~~COVID~~ Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is getting underway in Orlando, Florida. And once again, the roster is jam-packed with ultra-rightist attention seekers like Ted “Cancun” Cruz, Matt “goofball” Gaetz, Lauren “QAnon” Boebert, Donald Trump (two of them), and a flock of phonies from Fox News.

This year’s affair promises to be even more bat-guano crazy than years past with a bevy of panels dedicated to “The Stolen Election of 2020,” and “How to Genuflect Before the Golden Trump.” And the celebration began on a positive note as the hosts (American Conservative Union Executive Director Dan Schneider and CPAC Director Carly Patrick) welcomed the glassy-eyed cultists with a simple request:

Schneider: “At CPAC we talk about the Bill of Rights. But I also want to mention one thing. I know this might sound like a bit of a downer, but we also believe in property rights, and this is a private hotel. And we believe in the rule of law and we want to comply with the laws of this county that we’re in. But a private hotel, just like your own house, gets to set its own rules. Carly?
Patrick: “Well, as Dan mentioned, we are in a private facility and we do want to be respectful of the ordinances that they have as their private property so please, everyone, when you’re in the ballroom, when you’re seated, you should still be wearing a mask. So if everybody could go ahead and work on that.

They’re just begging people to wear masks

pic.twitter.com/4ex45ZacmQ

— Molly Jong-Fast? (@MollyJongFast) February 26, 2021

At this point the audience erupted in outrage at being asked to behave responsibly during a deadly pandemic. The CPAC hosts then repeated their reminder, as if to children, that the hotel is private property and permitted to set their own rules. Notice that he didn’t ask the attendees to wear masks for the safety of themselves, other conferees, or those back home that they might infect. He wasn’t concerned about the prospect of people spreading disease and death. The only reason he gave for apologetically requesting that masks be worn was that the rules of the evil hotel must be followed.

Watching these two gingerly tip-toe around the notion that masks were required was a sad spectacle. And their attempt to persuade people that they knew were too stupid to grasp the real reasons for wearing masks was pitifully strained. They had to pretend that it was an issue stretching from the Bill Rights to the personal property rights of free American enterprise. Although somehow that reasoning was never relevant when the wearing of masks was objected to by grocery shoppers.

As for the law, this is the same crowd that has carried guns to protests in order to express their determination to disobey any law that imposed on their right to go maskless and transmit the coronavirus to anyone within the reach of their noxious breath.

Just like last year’s CPAC, as well as dozens of Trump rallies and other wingnut gatherings, this event figures to be another Super Spreader that will leave much illness and death in its toxic wake. Because that’s just how much they love the perverse image of what they think America stands for. And we can rely on Fox News to cover this pandemic party to the exclusion of any other news. It is, after all, the network that is most responsible for increasing the number of coronavirus fatalities.

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

President Who? Fox News and Mitch McConnell Still Don’t Acknowledge that Trump Lost

Posted by Mark NC on February 26, 2021 at 8:41 am. 1 Comments :

Last November Joe Biden decisively won the presidential. He drew over eight million more votes than the loser Donald Trump, and a sweeping electoral college victory of 306 to 232. But despite that conclusive result, Trump spent months spewing incendiary allegations of an allegedly “stolen” election. His tirades were unarguably responsible for the deadly riots that occurred at the Capitol on January 6th.

Now, even after widespread condemnation of Trump and his insurrectionist brigades, even after Biden’s inauguration, Trump and his Republican cult disciples continue to pretend that Biden is an illegitimate president and that Trump is the rightful head of state. And naturally, Fox News is enabling that delusional hero worship. Sean Hannity, tucker Carlson, and other Fox hosts routinely refer to “President” Trump, while dismissively calling the actual president “Biden” or simply “Joe.” It’s a deliberate attempt to belittle President Biden, while feeding their audience’s fantasy that Trump remains on what they must believe is his throne.

Case in point: On Thursday Fox’s chief political “news” anchor, Bret Baier, interviewed the Senate’s Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, and engaged in this bizarre exchange:

McConnell: There’s no incumbent. And fun for you all to cover.
Baier: If the President was the Party’s nominee, would you support him?
McConnell: The nominee of the Party? Absolutely!

McConnell says he would support Trump if he was the Republican nominee pic.twitter.com/l0hRgpcmM8

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 25, 2021

First of all, notice that McConnell, without challenge, said that in the 2024 presidential election there would be “no incumbent.” That would only be true if Biden chooses not to run for reelection. But there’s no way that McConnell know that now.

More to the point, notice that Baier’s question addresses whether McConnell would support “the President” if he were the Party’s nominee. Well, the President is Joe Biden. While etiquette would permit the use of “President Trump,” the meaning of “the President” is always the one currently in office. So was Baier asking if McConnell would support Biden if he decided to run as a Republican? Of course not. Baier was just casually – and dishonestly – referring to Trump as the current president. And McConnell didn’t blink in replying as if he thought the same thing.

This isn’t a trivial rhetorical glitch. They are both pretending that Trump is still president and that Biden is a villainous usurper. It is the same sort of purposeful deceit that produced the violence in D.C. by Trumpian loyalists seeking to restore him to his rightful place by any means necessary.

It should also be noted that McConnell’s expression of support for Trump were he the GOP nominee in 2024 is an astonishing admission that there are absolutely no consequences for the treasonous behavior of Trump. And that’s not just the opinion of disgruntled Democrats. After voting to acquit Trump in the Senate Impeachment hearing, McConnell actually admitted that Trump was guilty because “He did not do his job. He didn’t take steps so federal law could be faithfully executed and order restored.” McConnell elaborated saying that…

“There’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. and having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”

That’s the guy for whom McConnell just declared his support. And the support for Trump by McConnell, along with a frightful majority of Weak-minded, obedient, Trump-obsessed Republicans, almost ensures more of the hostilities that Trump incited. It forgives his transgressions and enables his most dangerous followers among the racist, seditionist, anti-democratic hordes who continue to articulate threats to civil society.

And that’s what’s wrong with today’s Republican Party. It’s a personality driven cult. It is totally devoid of principle or ethics. It is addicted to the lies and propaganda of Fox News. It is wholly devoted to the maintenance of power. And nothing – not the interests of the people, or the welfare of the nation, or sustaining the Constitution and democracy – nothing else matters to them.

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

Fox News Wants Lincoln Project to ‘Shut Down’ for the Same Offenses as – Fox News!

Posted by Mark NC on February 25, 2021 at 1:52 pm. 2 Comments :

The Olympic-grade hypocrisy of Fox News continues to lap the field of ultra-rightist media hacks.
There is literally no limit to how flagrantly they will attack others for the crimes they are so conspicuously guilty of.

In recent weeks the anti-Trump Republican group, the Lincoln Project, has been embroiled in a controversy over the alleged misbehavior of one of their principles, John Weaver. He has been accused of sexual harassment and subsequently resigned from the organization. The scandal was immediately leapt upon by conservatives and Trump supporters, not because they care about sexual harassment, but as an opportunity to dispose of an effective group of Trump critics with solid Republican credentials.

One of the things that distinguishes liberals and Democrats from conservatives and Republicans is how they respond to misconduct in their ranks. The left acknowledges their failings and holds their own accountable. The right, on the other hand, defends their scoundrels, denies any wrongdoing, and embraces them even more tightly.

On Thursday Fox News joined the opportunistic rabble on the right that has been going after the Lincoln Project. They published an article on their website that called for the group to be shut down, advocating for…

“…the dissolution of the Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump political action committee that has imploded in the past month from accusations of a sexual harassment cover-up, financial skulduggery, and a toxic work environment.”

Fine. That’s not a particularly unreasonable position. And it’s one that is shared by many liberals who are appalled by the revelations of Weaver’s behavior. In fact, Fox’s article references John F. Harris’ piece on Politico as its source.

The problem is that Fox News was never so outraged by similar – and worse – behavior by their own personalities and executives. Fox’s founder, Roger Ailes, was accused by numerous women of sexual harassment and assault. So was Bill O’Reilly, Fox’s top host until he was fired in the wake of several multimillion dollar lawsuits. Fox News president Bill Shine was forced out for having covered for O’Reilly. Several Foxies (Pete Hegseth, Jessie Watters, Ed Henry) were caught in inappropriate, extramarital affairs with much younger coworkers. And Kimberly Guilfoyle, Don Trump Jr’s current girlfriend, was fired for sending her colleagues dick-pics.

Speaking of Donnie Junior, who left his wife and five children for Guilfoyle, he couldn’t resist the temptation to pile on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo with this tweet:

The credible Cuomo accusations have once again left it unclear when we “believe all women” and when we don’t. (Hint: when they accuse Democrats)

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 25, 2021

Once again, Donnie is wrong. Democrats have not been shy about criticizing Cuomo, some even calling for him to resign. But Donnie fails to mention the dozens of credible accusations of both harassment and assault against his father. Now that he is a civilian, those cases are going to start coming to court.

There is no excuse for the behavior that is alleged to have been engaged in by Weaver or Cuomo or Daddy Trump. But the remedy, according to Fox News, is questionable. The Lincoln Project doesn’t need to be shut down over conduct that was limited to one person. But if that’s the argument that Fox wants to make, then Fox News should be shut down for the conduct of multiple persons and their protectors.

And, of course, Trump should be figuratively shut down as a candidate or public figure for the remainder of his heinous life. But then, there are lots of other reasons for that besides his sexual predation. For instance, financial corruption, charity theft, academic fraud, presidential lying, enriching himself with taxpayer funds, and treason against America. If there were ever good reasons for “canceling” someone, Trump has exceeded the limit.

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

Sean Hannity of Fox News Takes Lame Swing at Joe Biden, But Whacks Himself Instead

Posted by Mark NC on February 24, 2021 at 3:51 pm. 3 Comments :

Poor Sean Hannity. Without Donald Trump as “president,” he has suffered severe shrinkage, so far as his media profile is concerned. He no longer gets bedtime phone calls from the White House. He no longer gets to pass along his goofball insights to cronies in the GOP administration. He is just another blowhard on an ultra-rightist cable “news” network begging for attention.

Case in point: On Tuesday night’s episode of the Hannity Harangue, the pitiful pundit demonstrated just how desperate he is. Before launching into a lie-riddled rant about immigration, Hannity delivered a thoroughly nauseating attack on President Biden’s mental health. His entire argument was based on a deliberately misrepresented press event where Biden read the current, exact number of COVID-19 deaths from a note card. From that perfectly reasonable prompting, Hannity alleged that “Joe seemingly can’t form a complete sentence between naps.” He elaborated saying that…

“Joe is now struggling to even form sentences and speak at times in what is a coherent way. Earlier he attempted to use a “cheat sheet” to deliver some extemporaneous remarks. It didn’t exactly go well. And the media like to attack me for saying he looks weak, frail, and he seems to be struggling cognitively.

“What’s on the not card Joe? Your name? Your address? Contact information. The name of your wife? What your address is? 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue if you get lost? A reminder not to mention the corrupt family business? In all honesty, this is now getting scary. He is supposed to be our Commander0in-Chief.”

Setting aside Hannity’s infantile demeanor, in his own video clip we see Biden actually saying what is on the note card. It’s the current number of COVID-19 fatalities, a figure that requires notation because it’s constantly changing. But even after watching his own video where Biden says what’s on the card, Hannity still has no idea what’s on the card. And he’s questioning Biden’s cognitive abilities?

This has been a frequent problem with the conservative media. They have long tried to disparage Biden as being unfit to serve. The only problem with that is that, even after an extended campaign wherein Trump and the GOP pressed that issue, Biden still won decisively. So Trump lost to someone he said was a mentally deficient socialist. What does that say about Trump? Meanwhile, the America people never bought Trump’s insulting depiction of Biden. To the contrary, polls show that voters actually believe that it’s Trump who is more mentally deficient (and that’s a Fox News poll).

The good news is that Hannity and Fox News are so bereft of legitimate criticisms of Biden that they are reduced to trotting out this sort of nonsense. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is riding a high approval rating of 60% (Trump never even hit 50% in four years), and his agenda is equally, if not more, popular. For instance, Biden’s COVID-19 relief plan, the American Rescue Act, is supported by 76% of the people, including 60% of Republicans. Maybe this is what’s driving Hannity so crazy.

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

Fox News Idiot Tucker Carlson: QAnon Doesn’t Exist Because He Can’t Find a Website

Posted by Mark NC on February 24, 2021 at 12:52 pm. 6 Comments :

It isn’t necessary to scratch more than the surface to reveal the utter stupidity of most of the cretins on Fox News. But Tucker Carlson makes it even easier than the others by putting his moronic outbursts on public display with an extra heaping of pride.

On Tuesday night Carlson devoted a significant part of his nightly White Nationalist Hour to the premise that the conspiracy crackpots known as QAnon don’t actually exist (video below). Carlson said that he did the research and arrived at the conclusion that the whole thing was a figment of the media’s imagination. And the basis for that conclusions was that…

“We spent all day trying to locate the famous QAnon, which, in the end, we learned is not even a website, If it’s out there, we could not find it.”

Well then, that settles it. Right? Carlson’s journalistic prowess surely can’t be disputed. He went even further to claim that…

“We checked [GOP Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Twitter feed because we have heard she traffics in disinformation, CNN told us, but nothing there. Next, we called our many friends in the tight-knit intel community. Could Vladimir Putin be putting this stuff out there? The Proud Boys? Alex Jones? Who is lying to America in ways that are certain to make us hate each other and certain to destroy our core institutions? Well, none of the above, actually. It wasn’t Marjorie Taylor Greene. It was cable news. It was politicians talking on TV. They’re the ones spreading disinformation to Americans. Maybe they are from QAnon.”

First of all, It isn’t unusual that a “movement” fronted by an anonymous character who makes bizarre allegations about Democrats being sex-trafficking baby eaters doesn’t have a website. But if Carlson had trouble finding them online, he either wasn’t trying very hard, or he’s borderline comatose. The fabled “Q” has been dropping his nonsense on dedicated wingnut web forums like 4chan for the past few years.

What’s more, Carlson is actually defending the likes of Vladimir Putin, the Proud Boys, and Alex Jones, as truthtellers. He mocks the very idea that they might be making up their preposterous horror stories. And he sarcastically puts down the media as being less credible than those notorious liars.

As for QAnon Rep. Greene, Carlson might not have found her tweets on the subject because she has spent the past several weeks deleting them. But anyone who was actually looking could find them. And here’s a thread of several videos of Greene talking up QAnon.

Something that Carlson fails to mention is that his Messiah, Donald Trump, has explicitly recognized the existence of QAnon. He even noted with pride his gratitude that “they like me very much, which I appreciate.” Is Carlson contradicting Trump now?

What makes Carlson’s QAnon denialism all the more ludicrous is that he has spent many televised hours acknowledging its existence himself, and even defending it. So obviously this tirade is pure bullpucky, staged to ensure that his dimwitted viewers remain ill-informed and rabid with misplaced anger. That way he and Fox News can continue to profit off of their lies while sowing division and anti-democratic propaganda.

Tucker Carlson says he couldn't find any evidence that the Qanon conspiracy theory even exists, like theres nothing out there proving that it's a thing pic.twitter.com/tqeYm73pAb

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) February 24, 2021

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

AOC and Democrats Rush Aid to Texas, Fox News Calls it ‘Capitalizing Off Storm Devastation’

Posted by Mark NC on February 23, 2021 at 2:32 pm. 1 Comments :

The rampant distortion of reality that is practiced daily by Fox News is getting worse with each new day. Apparently they have nothing of substance with which to criticize President Joe Biden (except to attack his dog), so they are going to absurd lengths to malign any Democrat, no matter how undeserving of criticism.

On Monday Fox News published an article on their website with the flagrantly biased headline, “Top Dems, AOC descend on Texas to capitalize off of storm devastation.”

The Fox News home page calls AOC’s mult-million dollar charity drive for the Texas disaster “BAD ENERGY.” pic.twitter.com/nRLajQJbpB

— Eric Kleefeld (@EricKleefeld) February 23, 2021

The article, based on content from the Associated Press, wasn’t all that bad. It covered the assistance provided by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (more than $5 million so far), Beto O’Rourke, and other Democrats, to victims of the severe winter storm in Texas. This is the storm that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz sought to escape by fleeing to Cancun, instead of staying home to help his constituents. However, the spin by Fox News was dismissive and ungrateful. It’s fair to assume that Fox added the word “radical” in this paragraph:

“Top Democrats are zeroing in on the recent winter storm devastation in Texas, calling for investigations into Republicans’ handling of the crisis and amplifying their support for radical environmental policies like the Green New Deal.”

This is also the storm that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Fox’s Sean Hannity that it “shows how the Green New Deal – a practical and beneficial package of environmental reforms – would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.” Never mind that the Green New Deal has not been enacted into law in Texas, or anywhere else. And forget that, by far, most of the energy generated in Texas comes from fossil fuels, not the windmills that Abbot and many on Fox News said caused the state’s problems. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez responded to these ludicrous accusations in a tweet saying that…

Weak on sweeping next-gen public infrastructure investments, little focus on equity so communities are left behind, climate deniers in leadership so they don’t long prep for disaster.

We need to help people *now.* Long-term we must realize these are the consequences of inaction.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 17, 2021

So Fox News showed its appreciation for the help provided by AOC and other Democrats by insulting them as only being interested in their own political welfare. Even if that were true, they still did more to help people in need than the state’s leading Republicans. That’s gratitude for ya.

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

GASLIGHTING: Fox News Shill Denies Video Evidence of White Supremacist Insurrection

Posted by Mark NC on February 23, 2021 at 10:20 am. 3 Comments :

On the eve of the Senate’s “Joint Committee Hearing Examining the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol,” Fox News host and shameless purveyor of flagrant lies, Tucker Carlson, sought to preemptively dismiss the notion that there was any attack at all. Never mind that there were at least five people killed, many more injured, and that the nation witnessed it all live on television.

Carlson’s insurrection denialism reflects how Fox News is covering the issue across the board. When they aren’t pretending that nothing happened, they are blaming Democrats for it and praising the criminals as patriots. Fox News didn’t even air much the hearings live, as legitimate news networks MSNBC and CNN did.

Donald Trump managed to get off the hook because his cowardly GOP confederates in the Senate refused to convict him on the obvious evidence of his guilt. Although most of the Republican senators acknowledged Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric as inciteful, they acquitted him on the phony technicality that a president can’t be impeached after he’s left office. For the record, that isn’t true. It’s also irrelevant since Trump was impeached while he was still president.

The subject of the Trump Insurrection came up during the confirmation hearing for President Biden’s Attorney General nominee, Merrick Garland. When asked about how he would handle the matter, Garland said that…

“If confirmed, I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government.”

That rational commentary infuriated Carlson, which he saw as an attack on his precious white nationalist comrades. Rather than concede the clearly observable fact that the Trumpian hordes who invaded Congress were a racist mob dressed in Nazi regalia and carrying Confederate flags, Carlson lashed out at Garland in an unhinged rant:

“Merrick Garland has a lot of reasonable friends who say that he is a smart and moderate person. But that was not a moderate statement. It was dishonest, completely dishonest. Dishonest enough that you should be worried about it. There’s no evidence that white supremacists were responsible for what happened on Jan. 6. That’s a lie. And contrary to what you’ve been hearing, there’s no evidence this was a – quote – armed insurrection.”

Tucker Carlson: "There's no evidence that white supremacists were responsible for what happened on Jan. 6. That's a lie. And contrary to what you've been hearing, there's no evidence this was a, quote, armed insurrection." pic.twitter.com/V1ORKI4rfD

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) February 23, 2021

Really? So all of the video showing rioters attacking Capitol Police with clubs, knives, mace, and some carrying guns, was all digitally enhanced? Carlson is asking his audience to ignore the evidence of their own eyes. And, sadly, they will probably do so.

Carlson then interviewed Julie Kelly, who is with “American Greatness,” a far-right, Trumpian blog. She tried to spin the charges against some of those arrested for their violent assault on Congress as minor infractions. The problem is that her presentation – and that of Carlson and Fox News – relies on pretending that we all didn’t see the videos of armed Trump Insurrectionists beating cops, breaking windows, and marauding through the halls of Congress yelling about killing Nancy Pelosi and hanging Mike Pence.

This is the sort of distortion of reality that led to the violence in Washington, D.C., in the first place. Trump’s Big Lie about the election being stolen and the need to “fight like hell” inflamed his cult followers to the point of engaging in a deadly rampage. Now Carlson’s perpetuation of this dangerously dishonest narrative is likely have the same tragic result. And it’s why Carlson’s continued presence on Fox News is an imminent threat to national security and an affront to the Preamble of the Constitution that seeks to “insure domestic tranquility.”

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

Congress Asks Cable Companies Why They Carry Disinformation By Fox News, Newsmax, Etc.

Posted by Mark NC on February 22, 2021 at 11:50 am. 2 Comments :

The deliberate mission of right-wing “news” operations to deceive the public has been an ongoing threat to American democracy. Their aim has been to spread disinformation in order to advance the interests of far-right agendas and politicians. And they have demonstrated a total lack of concern as to the destructive consequences of their purposefully dishonest propaganda.

The efforts by conservative outlets like Fox News, Newsmax, One America News, and their confederates on talk radio, has contributed to a culture of rightist hostility. They seek to sow discord by propagating conspiracy theories which have resulted in tangible harm to the American people.

That harm includes exacerbating the contagion and fatalities of COVID-19 by flagrantly lying about its severity and even portraying it as a hoax. Likewise, these conservative outlets have disseminated Donald Trump’s Big Lie that Joe Biden stole the election and is thus an illegitimate president. Those repeatedly debunked allegations resulted in the deadly assault on Congress on January 6th by Trump’s Insurrectionists.

The threats posed by these factories of falsehoods are now coming under scrutiny by Congress. The Communications and Technology Subcommittee has announced that they will hold a hearing on Wednesday, February 24, entitled “Fanning the Flames: Disinformation and Extremism in the Media.” Their announcement stated that…

“‘The prolonged severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the attack on our Capitol on January 6 have driven home a frightening reality: the spread of disinformation and extremism by traditional news media presents a tangible and destabilizing threat,’ said [Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank] Pallone and [Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Mike] Doyle. ‘Some broadcasters’ and cable networks’ increasing reliance on conspiracy theories and misleading or patently false information raises questions about their devotion to journalistic integrity.'”

The Committee sent letters to cable operators such Comcast, AT&T, Spectrum, Dish, and Verizon, asking about their role in “the spread of dangerous misinformation.” According to the New York Times the Committee sought to know…

‘What steps did you take prior to, on, and following the November 3, 2020 elections and the January 6, 2021 attacks to monitor, respond to, and reduce the spread of disinformation, including encouragement or incitement of violence by channels your company disseminates to millions of Americans?’ […and…] ‘Are you planning to continue carrying Fox News, OANN, and Newsmax on your platform both now and beyond the renewal date? If so, why?'”

It’s about time this problem has been addressed by Congress. Although their inference that Fox News, et al, ever had any “devotion to journalistic integrity” teeters on the absurd. Some of these news distorters have already been named in billion dollar lawsuits for defamation. The Biden Communications Office has called into question their White House press credentials. And even a member of the Murdoch family has castigated the family business as a provider of “disinformation” and “toxic politics.”

While it’s easy to point out the offenses to journalism by these organizations, it’s much harder to craft a constitutional remedy. Nobody wants to inhibit free speech or freedom of the press. Some version of an updated “Fairness Doctrine” could be drafted if there is a way to make it applicable to cable and digital entities.

However there are free market solutions that can be implemented without the involvement of Congress. Consumers can let their cable and/or streaming providers know that they are not willing to pay for services that spread dangerous lies and encourage violence. Most of the money made by programmers like Fox News comes from cable access fees, not advertising. But advertisers could also be targeted in public preference campaigns. For more information, see UnFox My Cable Box.

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

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