Free Press

Biden Roasts ‘Mentally Unfit’ Trump While Honoring the Free Press at the Annual Gridiron Dinner

Posted by on March 17, 2024 at 1:25 pm. 1 Comments :

The Gridiron Club is a renowned organization comprised of journalists and other media professionals that hosts a dinner every year featuring pundits and politicians delivering humorous observations of the state of the media and the nation. Among the regular participants is the President of the United States. And this year President Joe Biden came prepared to mock his friends and foes alike, and even himself.

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Donald Trump

Coming shortly after Biden’s State of the Union Address (SOTU), this was another opportunity for Biden to demonstrate the fallacy of the Republican smear campaign demeaning him as cognitively impaired. The SOTU so effectively put that nonsense to rest that the GOP had to resort to accusing Biden of being pharmaceutically enhanced because they couldn’t otherwise explain his sharpness and vigor. In the meantime, their own guy, Donald Trump, made an ass of himself live “truthing” Biden’s speech…

SEE THIS: Trump’s Live-Bleating of Biden’s State of the Union Address Was Predictably Petty and Pathetic

Biden’s remarks at the Gridiron Dinner will only exacerbate the anxieties of the MAGA cult. Once again, he showed that he is on top of his game. He delivered the comedic material like a pro, and deftly segued to more serious subjects when necessary. And he wasn’t shy about referencing his opponent with what will likely be the event’s most memorable line…

“The big news this week is two candidates clinched their parties’ nomination for president. One candidate is too old and mentally unfit to be president. The other is me.”

That however, was not the only zinger in Biden’s monologue. What follows are few choice excerpts from the White House transcript…

“It’s great to be here at the Gridiron dinner, though it’s six hours past my bedtime.”

“Look, it’s been a long night. So, I’ll keep my remarks just a few minutes less than my State of the Union.”

“Kamala and I and the members of the administration here tonight are proud — proud of our accomplishments on behalf of the American people: record job growth, wages rising, rigging the Super Bowl for Taylor Swift.”

“Our big plan to cancel student debt doesn’t apply to everyone. Just yesterday, a defeated-looking man came up to me and said, ‘I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out.’ I said, “Sorry, Donald, I can’t help you.'”

“I heard House Republicans were going to do a skit tonight, but they couldn’t get a speaker.”

“And the biggest joke of the night: an impeachment inquiry. Imagine believing something so baseless that has a zero chance of succeeding. But Republicans would rather fail at impeachment than succeed at anything else.”

“I’m running against the same guy that I beat in 2020. But don’t tell him. He thinks he’s running against Barack Obama.”

“In the coming months, Kamala and I will be making the case how Americans are better off than four years ago. […] All without destroying the economy, embarrassing us around the world, or — or itching for insurrection.”

Not bad for someone that Trump and his MAGA media minions malign as a senile commie who can’t string two sentences together. And in his closing remarks Biden displayed another characteristic that he is well known for, but that his opponent lacks: Reverence for the American Constitution, and in particular, freedom of the press…

“As I said in my State of the Union Address, we live in an unprecedented moment in democracy, an unprecedented moment for history. Democracy and freedom are literally under attack. […] The lies about the 2020 election, the plots to overturn it, to embrace the January 6th insurrectionists pose the gravest threat to our democracy since the American Civil War. […]

“All the while, the other guy calls you the free press. Well, he calls you the enemy of the people, even as many of you risk your lives to do your job and sometimes even give your lives to do your jobs. […] Let me state the obvious. You’re not the enemy of the people. You are a pillar of any free society.” […]

“Good journalism holds a mirror up to a country for us to reflect the good, the bad, the truth about who we are. […] As a result, the choices you make really matter. And each story you make makes democracy stronger.”

That respect for the values articulated in the First Amendment stands in stark contrast to how Trump views this subject. In a Sunday interview on Fox News Trump clumsily slapped a backhanded compliment on the media that he despises.

“They’re like the police and frankly, they keep our country honest in a certain way if they do their job properly, and they haven’t been doing it properly.”

Describing the role of the press as that of the “police” reveals Trump’s twisted perception of the media’s function in a free society. He doesn’t see it as a “mirror,” but rather an authoritarian force to exert control. And he doesn’t think they’re doing that good enough. Were he to have his way, he would revoke the licenses of any media that isn’t sufficiently worshipful of him. And he has said so explicitly…

SEE ALSO: Herr Trump Decrees: If Media Doesn’t Air My Speeches They Should Have Their Licenses Revoked

Every American needs to remember that when they vote in November. There is one candidate who abhors the press and the Constitution; who is facing 91 felony charges for crimes against America; who has been found civilly liable for financial fraud and rape. And the other one is Joe Biden.

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THEY’RE EVIL! Wannabe Dictator Trump Says MSNBC ‘Shouldn’t Even Be Allowed’ to Be On the Air

Posted by on March 10, 2024 at 1:43 pm. 1 Comments :

The first target of every aspiring authoritarian tyrant is always the media. They regard it as an imperative to control whatever “news” is presented to the population that they are trying to plunder. In the process they manufacture flagrant falsehoods and fables intended to malign their opponents and exalt themselves. They invent scandals to denigrate their foes, and take credit for anything considered to be positive.

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Donald Trump TV Set

Sound familiar? Those are exactly the tactics currently being employed by Donald Trump and his malevolent mouthpieces in the MAGA media. Trump doesn’t hide his disdain for the Constitution’s protection of a free press. He has repeatedly referred to the press in Stalinist terms as the “enemy of the people.” His relentless attacks on journalists demean them as “lunatics” and “liars,” determined to destroy the nation, and more specifically, Trump himself. And he yearns to put them out of business, or at least under his command.

SEE THIS: Herr Trump Decrees: If Media Doesn’t Air My Speeches They Should Have Their Licenses Revoked

On Saturday Trump gave a campaign speech in Rome, Georgia, wherein he took another swipe at the media that he despises. And he resorted to the typical barrage of hyperbole and infantile insults and nicknames that are the hallmarks of his obnoxious oratory. This time his target was one of his perennial favorites, MSNBC.

“I tell you what. You take a look at MSDNC, how evil they are. They’re evil. They’re sick. They shouldn’t even be allowed to do what they do. Because it’s so corrupt. They shouldn’t be allowed to do it.

MSNBC has earned Trump’s ire mainly by reporting on what he actually says. So naturally they are evil and sick. But by continuing to advocate for blatant censorship, Trump is telegraphing what to expect should he return to his occupation of the White House. He longs to shut down media that fails to venerate him at all times. At the same rally Trump called the press covering the affair “criminals.” Their crime? Covering him and his bombastic and boneheaded ravings accurately.

This is not the first time that Trump has singled out MSNBC for his unique brand of vilification. For instance, there was this rant that revealed his ignorance of the television business (MSNBC is distributed on privately owned cable networks, not “FREE government approved airwaves”)…

Trump Threatens to ‘Come Down Hard on’ MSNBC and ‘Make Them Pay’ for Daring to Criticize Him
Nov 28, 2023: “MSNBC (MSDNC) uses FREE government approved airwaves, and yet it is nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE. […] It is the world’s biggest political contribution to the Radical Left Democrats who, by the way, are destroying our Country.”

And there was also this…

Wannabe Dictator Trump Promises to Prosecute the ‘Country Threatening Treason’ of the Media
Sep 24, 2023: “MSNBC…should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason.’ […] I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States, they and others of the LameStream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage […] They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”

So Trump is bragging “up front, openly, and proudly,” that he will abuse the power of the government to suppress his critics in the press. Not that anyone will be surprised about Trump’s penchant for abusing government power. This is not someone who should ever be permitted to hold any position of power. It doesn’t matter that he would have no legal authority to conduct the sort of oppressive operations that he is promising. He obviously doesn’t care about the law.

The law, however, cares about him. And his comeuppance has already begun with nearly half a billion dollars in civil judgments for defamation, rape and financial fraud. The criminal consequences are coming up next. And the media will exacerbate Trump’s mental meltdown by, you know, reporting on it.

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Herr Trump Decrees: If Media Doesn’t Air My Speeches They Should Have Their Licenses Revoked

Posted by on January 17, 2024 at 1:39 pm. 6 Comments :

It has long been established that Donald Trump has unwavering and unabashed aspirations of authoritarianism. He frequently expresses those ambitions himself in remarks that are reminiscent of his heroes such as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping, and other notorious tyrants and dictators. It’s a club that Trump very much yearns to be a member of.

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Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

On Monday night, Trump delivered a speech in Iowa congratulating himself on his victory in the Republican presidential primary caucus there. The speech was mostly a rehashing of the same tedious talking points that he disgorges at his cult rallies and posts on his failing social media scam, Truth Social. And true to form, Trump used the opportunity of the post-caucus address to whine about what a sorry and pathetic victim he is.

When he isn’t lying about the 2020 election being “rigged and stolen” from him, he is raging about the multitude of civil and criminal charges that he is facing. He barely had time to brag about the weakness of his predictable triumph over Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Pyrrhic Victory in Iowa Forecasts His Next Defeat When He Faces Joe Biden in November

What Trump did have time to do was to reiterate his contempt for democracy and the Constitution. In his remarks he made a point of expressing his disdain for the First Amendment’s protection of the freedom of the press…

“Last night, it was amazing. NBC and CNN refused to air my victory speech – think of it – because they are crooked, they’re dishonest and, frankly, they should have their licenses or whatever they have taken away.”

Of course, Trump would have no legal authority to shut down any news organization. Not that he cares about or respects the law. And for the record, NBC and CNN both aired a portion of Trump’s speech before cutting away when it was clear that he was just spewing nonsense and devolving into incoherent babbling. But there was a better reason to cut him off, which was explained by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who said that “His remarks will not air here live,” and then elaborated saying that…

“There is a reason that we, and other news platforms, have generally stopped giving an unfiltered live platform to former president Trump. It is not out of spite. It is not a decision that we relish. It is a decision that we regularly revisit. And honestly, earnestly, it is not an easy decision. But there is a cost to us as a news organization of knowingly broadcasting untrue things.

Exactly! The press has an obligation to insure that the truth is paramount in their reporting. When someone is known to lie profusely whenever they speak, that person’s remarks can be recorded and played later with the proper context and fact-checking. It’s what responsible journalists do.

However, in Trump’s twisted mind, any editing of his divinely inspired insights is tantamount to treason. He has actually said so in those precise terms. And if given the opportunity, he will make the traitors pay. Never mind the Constitution. Trump has repeatedly vowed to punish any and all media that is critical of him. For instance…

Trump Threatens to ‘Come Down Hard on’ MSNBC and ‘Make Them Pay’ for Daring to Criticize Him
Nov 28, 2023: “MSNBC (MSDNC) uses FREE government approved airwaves, and yet it is nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE. Brian Roberts, its Chairman and CEO, is a slimeball who has been able to get away with these constant attacks for years. It is the world’s biggest political contribution to the Radical Left Democrats who, by the way, are destroying our Country. Our so-called ‘government’ should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity. Much more to come, watch!”

First of all, MSNBC does not use “FREE government approved airwaves.” Cable programming is delivered on private distribution networks. And their editorial positions are protected by the First Amendment. If he’s upset by MSNBC’s honest, left-leaning reporting, he should be equally upset by fox News’ flagrantly false, right-wing propaganda. But in neither case does the government have the authority to “come down hard on them and make them pay” for their views. That’s how dictators operate.

And then there was this…

Wannabe Dictator Trump Promises to Prosecute the ‘Country Threatening Treason’ of the Media
Sep 24, 2023: “MSNBC…should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason.’ […] I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States, they and others of the LameStream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage […] They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! The Fake News Media should pay a big price for what they have done!”

Trump is accusing MSNBC and other news enterprises of treason for exercising their constitutional rights. And he brags “up front, openly, and proudly,” that he will abuse the power of the government to suppress his critics in the press.

Trump’s brazen hostility toward the media and the Constitution is more proof of just how dangerous it would be to allow him to have any position of power. It doesn’t matter that he would have no legal authority to conduct the sort of oppressive operations that he is promising. He doesn’t care about the law. He would impose his own unethical standards on the media – and the nation – to get whatever results he craves.

Hopefully, this November, voters will grasp the imperative to prevent him from seizing that power and destroying America’s constitutional republic. And while they are at it, voters need to oust Trump’s flunkies in the House and Senate, and all state and local offices, and elect patriotic Democrats who will honor and preserve our nation’s principles.

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Trump Threatens to ‘Come Down Hard on’ MSNBC and ‘Make Them Pay’ for Daring to Criticize Him

Posted by on November 29, 2023 at 12:58 pm. 3 Comments :

One thing you can say for Donald Trump is that he isn’t ashamed to admit his authoritarian aspirations and his intentions to reign in the mold of his tyrannical heroes Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Xi Jinping. And the American people need to believe him when he promises to replace democracy with a dictatorship with him at the helm.

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Donald Trump, Constitution

This isn’t a momentary lapse in judgement or an inadvertent gaffe. Trump has been bragging about his dictatorial dreams for years. He yearns to have the unchallenged power of Putin whose political foes seem to keep falling out of windows. Those not done in by gravity would be jailed by Trump, who has no respect for the the rule of law or the Constitution.

SEE THIS: Trump Literally Calls for Termination of the Constitution and FREAKS OUT Over Bogus Fox News Story

On Wednesday morning Trump lashed out at the press that he regards, in Stalinist terms, as the “the enemy of the people.” In a post on his failing social media scam, Truth Social, Trump raged that…

“MSNBC (MSDNC) uses FREE government approved airwaves, and yet it is nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE. Brian Roberts, its Chairman and CEO, is a slimeball who has been able to get away with these constant attacks for years. It is the world’s biggest political contribution to the Radical Left Democrats who, by the way, are destroying our Country. Our so-called ‘government’ should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity. Much more to come, watch!”

There’s a surprising quantity of bullpucky in that brief, bombastic outburst. Let’s start with the fact that Trump, as usual, doesn’t know what he’s talking about with regard to MSNBC’s programming. It is distributed on private cable networks, so there are no “government approved airwaves” involved.

As for Trump’s rant about MSNBC being biased against Republicans, the network has given four hours of every weekday morning to Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, and another two hours in the afternoon to Nicolle Wallace, who was the White House communications director for former president George W. Bush. To be sure, both are avowed critics of Trump, but as appropriately disgusted Republicans, not as “Radical Left Democrats.”

Trump is also showing his ignorance of the media business by citing Brian Roberts as MSNBC’s chairman and CEO. He is not. Rashida Jones is the president of MSNBC. Mike Cavanagh is the CEO the network’s parent company, NBC/Universal. Brian Roberts heads up Comcast, of which NBC/Universal is a subsidiary.

Furthermore, if Trump is so appalled by people on MSNBC criticizing Trump with well-reasoned and fully backed up analyses of his abhorrent positions and personality, what must he think of Fox News? After all, they slobber over him with undeserved and cultish adulation, while defaming his opponents with blatant falsehoods. Isn’t that “a 24 hour hit job” and “ELECTION INTERFERENCE?” It surely is a huge “political contribution” to Trump who actually is committed to “destroying our Country.” And it was Fox News, not MSNBC, who had to pay a nearly billion dollar settlement for their defamation and lies.

SEE ALSO: The Fox News 3/4 Billion Dollar Dominion Defamation Settlement is Also a Judgment Against Trump

The worst part of Trump’s commentary on MSNBC is his overt threat that, if given the opportunity, he would use the government to “come down hard on them and make them pay.” He is openly trying to intimidate MSNBC, as well as any other media enterprise that is less than worshipful toward him. He yearns to shut them down like Putin does in Russia.

Don’t think for a minute that he wouldn’t do it. He doesn’t believe that the media has the right to express themselves. He abhors the Constitution. Consequently, freedom of the press would become a relic of the past. And any independent reporting would be punishable by the state under his control. Which is another reason that he must never have any control or influence over this nation or the lives of its people.

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FOX News FINALLY Reports on the Dominion Lawsuit and is Predictably Dishonest and Biased

Posted by on March 14, 2023 at 11:44 am. 2 Comments :

The biggest media story of the year – or even the century – is the billion dollar defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting systems against Fox News. Recent disclosures in court filings have unmasked just how brazenly Fox News has deceived their viewers by repeatedly lying on air about matters for which they privately held diametrically opposing views.

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Fox News, Howard Kurtz

For weeks following the Dominion filings, Fox News refused to even bring up the subject of the lawsuit. Then their chief media correspondent, Howard Kurtz, addressed it briefly on his Sunday program, MediaBuzz. However, his only comments were to tell his audience that he was not going to be reporting on the lawsuit because he had been forbidden to by Fox editors and executives.

MORE HERE: BANNED ON FOX NEWS: The Network Prohibits Any Reporting on the $1.6 Billion Dominion Lawsuit

Apparently that censorious edict has been revoked and Kurtz was given some sort of conditional permission to cover the story. So he did so in the most Fox-ish manner possible. Which means that he was overtly dishonest in his starkly biased presentation that looked like it was written by the Fox News PR department. What follows are some of the lowlights of Kurtz’s whitewashing coverage (video below).

Kurtz began by defending the indefensible saying that “there is a crucial First Amendment argument here involving the coverage of unsubstantiated claims of 2020 election fraud by Donald Trump and his allies.” That’s patently false. The First Amendment prohibits Congress from “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” Dominion is not Congress. Furthermore, Dominion is not seeking to censor Fox News. They are suing for damages due to Fox’s purposeful and repeated defamation, which is not protected by the First Amendment.

Kurtz then quotes from a Fox News statement saying that “Dominion has been caught red-handed using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear Fox News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press.” Nothing in that statement is true. Dominion was not “caught red-handed,” and Kurtz doesn’t bother to substantiate any of its charges of “distortions and misinformation.” Yet somehow, Kurtz asserts that his framing of the “facts” will be fair to both sides…

“Now I’m going to give you both sides, but let me say this: Fox’s critics and competitors are denouncing the network, and many of them are rooting not just for Fox to lose the suit, but to be wiped out as a company because they can’t stand the mostly conservative view of a relative handful of opinion hosts”

Notice that Kurtz immediately contradicts his own assertion to give both sides. The criticism of competitors is completely irrelevant to the misconduct that Fox has been engaging in. If Fox News were a legitimate news enterprise, they would tell the truth regardless of what their competitors are saying. And the claim that only “a relative handful of opinion hosts” are disgorging conservative views is pure fiction. Fox’s alleged “journalists” (i.e. Brett Baier) were shown to be just as dishonest as Sean Hannity in the Dominion filings. Even so, Fox’s opinion hosts are the highest rated personalities on the network, so their lies carry more weight than unknown field reporters.

Kurtz went on to soft-pedal Fox’s deceit saying that “The heart of dominion’s suit is a gap” between what hosts said on the air and what they said privately among each other. Referring to Fox’s outright lying as merely a “gap” is like referring to the Grand Canyon as a pothole. Kurtz is deliberately underplaying the severity of Fox’s corruption. And he spent the remainder of his remarks spewing defenses for it. For instance, Kurtz said that…

“There was, to be sure, straight reporting by the news division, which also caused some friction, but the fact that some people in the chain of command privately dismissed the fraud claims as nuts or outlandish or insane doesn’t necessarily mean Fox couldn’t cover and comment on the extremely newsworthy spectacle of a president saying an election was stolen.”

Actually, no reputable media organization would allow a reporter to cover a story they were caught lying about. What’s more, the problem wasn’t that Fox was “covering” what Donald Trump and others said about election fraud. The problem was that the Fox News hosts were endorsing the fraud allegations themselves. That isn’t journalism, it’s propaganda.

In conclusion, Kurtz – still claiming to be fair to both sides – closed with a comment by Fox’s CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, who said that…

“The network has an obligation to report the news fairly. I think a lot of the noise you hear about this case is actually not about the law, and is not about journalism, and is really about the politics.”

Really? For Murdoch to brag about Fox’s “obligation to report the news fairly” after what the Dominion lawsuit has revealed is preposterous. That has never been the mission of Fox News, and the recent disclosures of their internal communications proves that it isn’t now. Not when you have their hosts knowingly deceiving viewers and spreading flagrant falsehoods that undermine democracy and foment violence.

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Ron DeSantis Seeks to Muzzle the Media with Unconstitutional Libel Law Reforms – Just Like Trump

Posted by on February 23, 2023 at 11:42 am. 5 Comments :

There is clearly something in the swamp water in Florida that makes its Republican politicians emulate the anti-American derangement of one another. That would account for how Ron DeSantis, while ostensibly preparing to challenge Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination for president is, instead, turning into an even more extreme copy of the twice impeached, former reality TV game show host.

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Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis

Politico is reporting that the majority Republican Florida legislature is drafting a bill that would severely threaten the free press were it to be found constitutional – which it surely would not be if the Supreme Court were occupied by fair-minded Justices. To be sure there are some serious problems with the media as witnessed by the lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News.

RELATED: In Dominion v Fox News, Network Cries ‘We Can’t Make People Think We’ve Turned Against Trump’

However, the reforms sought by DeSantis are dangerously oppressive and intended only to intimidate journalists and silence his critics. According to Politico…

“At the governor’s urging, Florida’s Republican-dominated Legislature is pushing to weaken state laws that have long protected journalists against defamation suits and frivolous lawsuits. The proposal is part [of] DeSantis’ ongoing feud with media outlets like The New York Times, Miami Herald, CNN and The Washington Post — media companies he claims are biased against Republicans — as he prepares for a likely 2024 presidential bid.

“Beyond making it easier to sue journalists, the proposal is also being positioned to spark a larger legal battle with the goal of eventually overturning New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limits public officials’ ability to sue publishers for defamation.”

The DeSantis proposal would make it easier to sue media for defamation. It would also remove journalists’ protection from having to reveal confidential sources, and mandate by law that such reported comments are presumed false in court proceedings. These reforms are contrary to the Constitution and 250 years of legal precedents. They would have a chilling effect on the press and discourage honest reporting.

That discouragement is, of course, precisely the goal of DeSantis. He has assumed the identical position of Trump – and their authoritarian heroes like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Xi Jinping – with regard to suppressing the media. Politico notes that DeSantis has been “refusing to conduct interviews with platforms except Fox News.” That was the same strategy employed by Trump for most his campaigns and presidency. Although lately Trump has taken to even attacking his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News.

RELATED: Trump’s 2023 New Year’s Wish: Hopefully American Newspapers Will Go Out of Business

However, DeSantis is actually taking this unconstitutional obsession even farther than Trump by committing it to law. Trump often threatened to do so, but never followed through. In January of 2018 Trump whined that…

“Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent American values or American fairness. So we’re gonna take a strong look at that.”

Perhaps the reason that Trump chickened out was because he would have opened a can of worms that would have devoured him. No one has exposed himself to more potential libel allegations than Trump. Every time he calls a reporter a liar, or asserts as fact that unnamed sources don’t exist, or alleges that a story was deliberately made up, or unleashes one of his infantile and insulting nicknames on a reporter, Trump is slandering those reporters and harming their reputations and careers.

Someone may have warned Trump to be careful what he wishes for. After all, there have been literally thousands of comments and tweets by Trump that were demonstrably false, but manifestly injured their targets. For instance, what about the sixteen women who have spoken out about Trump’s sexual abuse? He called every one of them liars? One of them, E. Jean Carroll, is currently suing him for defamation.

If DeSantis were smart (doubtful), he would abandon these ill-considered reforms. They are only likely to backfire on him. There are already plenty of safeguards in current law that protect people from deliberate slander and libel. Even if committed by the media. Just ask Dominion Voting Systems.

That, however, isn’t sufficient for Republican press haters who are more interested in censorship than freedom. Consequently, politicians like Trump and DeSantis, who are afraid of a free press, are seeking to shut it down. Trump has already gone to great lengths to do so, and in the process proved that current laws are more than adequate.

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Herr Trump Embraces Fascist GOP Threats to Regulate Twitter and Arrest Their Executives

Posted by on February 9, 2023 at 1:08 pm. 6 Comments :

During his brief but abominable occupation of the White House, Donald Trump distinguished himself from his predecessors by relentlessly expressing his aversion to the free press and the Constitution. He repeatedly referred to the media as “the enemy of the people,” and more recently literally called for termination of the Constitution.

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Donald Trump, QAnon, Dictator

On Wednesday the newly GOP-led House Oversight Committee held a hearing to finally get to the bottom of the Scandal of the Century, Hunter Biden’s stolen laptop. Specifically the Committee sought to prove that the pre-Elon Musk Twitter regime had deliberately skewed their policies to adversely affect conservatives and Republicans and, especially Donald Trump.

The Republicans staged a shamelessly shallow exercise in feigned outrage over imaginary offenses that was triggered by the embarrassingly ineffective attempt by Musk’s “Twitter Files” “exposé” to unveil political bias on the part of Twitter’s previous staff.

RELATED: OH-MY: Trump Unleashes Vile Threats in Tantrum Over Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter Files’ Farce

Notable during the avalanche of asininity on the part of Republican members of the Committee, were the remarks by Clay Higgins of Louisiana. When it was his turn to question the Twitter executives who were summoned before the Committee to testify, Higgins launched into an unhinged flurry of baseless accusations and culminating in outright threats:

“You, ladies and gentlemen interfered with the United States of America 2020 presidential election, knowingly and willingly. That’s the bad news. It’s gonna get worse because this is the investigation part. Later comes the arrests part. Your attorneys are familiar with that.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene said the same thing.

What we have here is a member of Congress threatening to have witnesses arrested for unspecified crimes for which he has no evidence ever occurred. What Higgins is asserting as criminal is the exercise of the constitutional rights of a private social media company to moderate the content on its website. It is wholly inappropriate intimidation by a government official seeking to coerce the behavior of individuals to comply with his political beliefs.

That sort of authoritarian bullying is generally reserved for tyrants and dictators, and those who seek to emulate them. And speaking of Donald Trump… He was thrilled to see how Higgins browbeat the Twitter execs. He posted a video of Higgins along with with his approval on his pitifully failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, saying that…

“Finally we have people with courage stepping forward! The Election was Rigged and Stolen, in so many ways – A mockery of our fully weaponized ‘Justice’ system.”

[For the record, the tweet that Trump was so appalled by that he wanted Twitter staff arrested was by supermodel Chrissy Teigen, who called Trump a “PAB” (look it up) for being too cowardly to tag her in his tweet that insulted her]

Of course, there was nothing in Higgins remarks – or in the entirety of the hearing – that even hinted at any evidence that the “Election was Rigged and Stolen.” To the contrary, Democrats on the Committee conclusively proved that the only bias by Twitter was in favor of Trump and the GOP. Even worse, in questioning by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) it was affirmed that only the Trump White House ever attempted to direct Twitter to censor content. And it did so with an overt threat that, “We’ll shut you down. We’ll regulate you. We Will never allow this to happen.”

That is an example of unambiguous government suppression of a free press and a violation of the First Amendment. Nevertheless, Rep. Jim Jordan tried to turn the tables by accusing the Biden campaign of censorship simply because they made a request for Twitter to review certain offensive tweets. Jordan’s argument, however, was ridiculous. He claimed that asking Twitter to review whether tweets were in compliance with their own terms of service was censorship.

Obviously, it’s not against the First Amendment to ask a company to review content based on the company’s own standards. What’s more, the Biden campaign not only didn’t accompany their requests with threats, they weren’t even in power at the time, so they had no clout with which to threaten. And yet this is the scenario in which Trump posted a comment urging his cult to “Watch the Twitter hearings going on right now in Washington. They admit that the Presidential Election of 2020 was RIGGED & STOLEN!”

Naturally Trump is lying. No such admission occurred in the hearing. But Trump’s flagrant dishonesty is precisely the sort of provocation that resulted in the riots in Washington on January 6th. And his continued presence on social media (both Twitter and Facebook recently reinstated his accounts) will predictably result in more violence.

RELATED: Why Elon Musk Restoring Trump’s Twitter Account is Ignorant, Dangerous, and Hypocritical

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FFS: Trump Calls for Arrest of Supreme Court Leak Journalists Unless They Reveal Their Sources

Posted by on January 19, 2023 at 3:53 pm. 6 Comments :

During his occupation of the White House, Donald repeatedly demonstrated his ignorance of, and disrespect for, the Constitution of the United States. He pursued an agenda that was most closely associated with fascism and other oppressive models of government. He expected unflinching loyalty to him personally, rather to the Constitution or the nation.

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Donald Trump, Constitution

Trump’s biggest heroes are dictators such as Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping, and his puppet master, Vladimir Putin. He excused their offenses against free nations and he sought to emulate them. He spoke of having “fallen in love” with Kim Jong Un and he openly stated that he believed Putin over American intelligence agencies.

RELATED: Donald Trump’s Own Words at the Treason Summit with Putin Are Dripping with His Guilt

On Thursday Trump responded to a report regarding the leaked draft of the the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v Wade. The investigation was unable to identity the leaker who provided the press with a draft of the opinion. That news triggered Trump to post a comment on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, saying that…

“The Supreme Court has just announced it is not able to find out, even with the help of our “crack” FBI, who the leaker was on the R v Wade scandal. They’ll never find out, & it’s important that they do. So, go to the reporter & ask him/her who it was. If not given the answer, put whoever in jail until the answer is given. You might add the publisher and editor to the list. Stop playing games, this leaking cannot be allowed to happen. It won’t take long before the name of this slime is revealed!”

And just in case anyone was unsure about his position, Trump followed that up with another post that said…

“Arrest the reporter, publisher, editor – you’ll get your answer fast. Stop playing games and wasting time!”

These remarks are typical of Trump’s tendency toward tyranny. They reveal his seething hatred for the Constitution and the freedom that it mandates for the press.

For the record, it is not illegal to leak drafts of Supreme Court opinions to the press, so long as the leaker didn’t gain access to the documents unlawfully, such as hacking into a private computer. But Trump isn’t talking here about arresting the leaker. He’s demanding that the reporters, editors, and publishers of the documents be arrested to coerce them to reveal their source. According to PolitiFact…

“No federal law clearly prohibits someone with legal access to a draft Supreme Court opinion, such as a justice or clerk, from leaking that document to the press, legal experts said. A draft opinion is not classified, which is usually the grounds for leak investigations.”

The journalists involved in this not only did not violate any law, but they are protected by the Constitution and a couple hundred years of subsequent affirming decisions by the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, Trump would have them incarcerated until they talk. That is the sort of tactic that would be exercised by Trump’s totalitarian mentors. It is blatantly illegal, grossly offensive, and wholly un-American.

These comments are further evidence that Trump is unfit to serve in any capacity in a free democracy. And any voter or Republican politician who would support Trump’s future electoral aspirations is embracing his treasonous anti-Americanism and his utter lack of patriotic principles.

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Trump’s 2023 New Year’s Wish: Hopefully American Newspapers Will Go Out of Business

Posted by on December 31, 2022 at 11:11 am. 8 Comments :

As 2022 winds to close, Donald Trump finds himself in an accelerating downward spiral of legal, political, and personal distress. His mood is decidedly dour and consumed by hate. And true to form, he is handling it like a colicky infant who thinks his whining and tantrums will deliver relief from the misery that is plaguing him from all sides.

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Donald Trump, Newspapers, Baby, Hate

Trump’s 2022 tribulations are bound to torment him well into 2023. They include disclosure of the financial fiascos revealed in his tax returns that were just released after years of fearful defiance; the criminal charges stemming from his incitement of the January 6th insurrection and his theft and hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago hotel/home; the ongoing probes by Special Counsel Jack Smith and the Department of Justice; and his plummeting political prospects of returning to the White House in 2024.

RELATED: Trump’s Dreary Campaign Announcement Speech Drew Dismal TV Ratings

On this New Year’s Eve Trump is fixated on the media that he despises for daring to report what he actually does and says. He is an avowed opponent of of the First Amendment. His assaults on the free press were a hallmark of his presidency, and they have continued uninterrupted in the months since his defeat for reelection.

Consequently, no one will be surprised by the yammering on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, where he posted a link to an article in the Washington Post about the hard times that American newspapers are facing. He said that…

“Many of these newspapers are going out of business because they only know how to report Fake News. Hopefully the Amazon Washington Post and the Failing New York Times will soon be among the group! Nobody will continue to sustain such losses, especially for a product undeserving of our once great Nation.”

Trump is veritably giddy that American businesses are hurting. So much for “America First.” And it’s ironic that he’s citing the Washington Post, that he thinks is “fake news,” as his source. Apparently when he sees a headline that he likes – in this case “Newspapers are disappearing where democracy needs them most“ – WaPo becomes a reputable news enterprise. However, It’s unlikely that Trump read beyond the headline, because this article laments the failures of small, conservative newspapers that mostly serve rural communities that are largely populated by Republicans.

Trump did once say once that he “loves the poorly educated,” so his aversion to the availability of news would be consistent with achieving that state of ignorance for his cult followers. Trump went on to post more attacks on the media, digging into his kindergarten bag of insults to say that…

“The Failing New York Times is Fake and Corrupt News. Their motto should be, ALL THE FAKE NEWS THAT’S UNFIT TO PRINT. They are the Enemy of the People!”

It’s nauseating how Trump is so eager to trash American businesses and so full of hope for hardship for American workers. But it’s no less than what is expected from him after establishing himself as the nation’s most anti-American politician. It’s notable, though, that Trump also took a swipe at his Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News), whining that…

“Wow!!! So while Trump Hating CNN & MSNBC (MSDNC!) RATINGS are both at record lows, numbers that they have never seen before (‘they’re toast’), Fox News Ratings are also way down because they never say ‘Trump’ or TRUTH, never talk about the Rigged Presidential Election, and is a Fake Polling Network. Our giant MAGA base, much bigger than anyone knows, does not like watching Fox play their games. Their Ratings will continue to sink. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

For the record, Trump has predicted the demise of CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and most other news organizations, for years. And as usual, his predictions have failed to comport with reality. For someone who worked on television for fourteen years, he is profoundly ignorant of how it operates. Ratings are down for virtually everything on TV due to increased competition, such as that from streaming services and the return of patrons to movie theaters.

However, Trump’s animosity toward Fox News is particularly curious considering it’s the home of devout Trump-fluffers like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. But he is known for disparaging anyone who is less than totally worshipful, so even his toadies at Fox News are targets of his wrath. Which is endlessly entertaining for the rest of America.

RELATED: Trump’s Year of Vicious Bashing – and Devoted Sucking Up To – Fox News

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WTFox? Fox News Hack Asks Press Secretary if the White House is Going to Shut Down Twitter

Posted by on December 1, 2022 at 11:27 am. 2 Comments :

The melodrama engulfing Twitter since it was devoured by the American oligarch, Elon Musk, is spinning ever more ludicrous plots. And in keeping with the themes dictated by Donald Trump, they generally involve some wealthy wingnut’s paranoid delusions of persecution and victimhood. Poor little billionaires.

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Fox News, Peter Doocy, Karine Jean-Pierre

Whenever there is some feigned offense as perceived by the uber-elites, the Fox News propaganda machine can be relied upon to pursue its mission of spreading disinformation on behalf of Trump’s Republican Cult Party. Central to that undertaking is the Fox News White House correspondent, Peter Doocy, whose role has always been to manufacture preposterous narratives for his network’s news mangling.

RELATED: WH Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to Fox News’ Peter Doocy: That’s a Ridiculous Question

On Wednesday Doocy assumed his position in the White House press room to fulfill his assignment for the day. He quickly excreted another contrived and bizarre scenario that wasted everyone’s time and forced the Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, to school him on some basic principles of communication and free speech.

Doocy: When are you guys gonna delete the White House Twitter account?
Jean-Pierre: Why would we do that?
Doocy: Well, you say that you’re keeping an eye on Twitter because it might not be a suitable platform. So why use it?

It’s difficult to comprehend just how inept and unqualified Doocy is for the job he’s allegedly doing. Unless, that is, you accept that his job is to babble incoherently in pursuit of what he thinks is a “gotcha” question. Obviously the White House can post comments on Twitter that convey their positions without embracing everything about the site that is troublesome. But Doocy needed the remedial explanation…

Jean-Pierre: I want to be very clear here. The President has always said, and he has been very clear in his belief that it is important for social media platforms to continue to take steps to reduce hate speech and misinformation. And he will continue to say that. But media platforms make independent choices about the information that they present. So I don’t have anything to share on any policy or any changes that we will be making. We have multiple platforms, as you know, that we utilize to communicate with the American people.
Doocy: You say that you’re gonna be monitoring the speech on there. If you see something that you don’t like, would you try to shut Twitter down?
Jean-Pierre: When you talk about monitoring, I hate to break it to you Peter, just like everybody else, we very much monitor the news. We pay close attention to everything that you all are reporting. And Twitter is in the news a lot. And that’s what we’re paying attention to. We’re paying attention to what is in the news and what is being reported on the misinformation that’s out there.

Doocy’s laughably illogical leap to the conclusion that the White House would consider “shutting Twitter down” is representative of the mindset of Fox News and the radical right. It’s what they would do. All Jean-Pierre was saying is that misinformation and hate speech are tangible threats to the welfare of the public, and that Twitter and other social media outlets have an obligation to conduct reasonable moderation. But Doocy failed to grasp Jean-Pierre’s clearly articulated point that it is the company’s obligation, not the government.

For the record, the only presidential administration that ever actually threatened to shut down Twitter was that of the former reality TV game show host, Donald Trump.

RELATED: WTF? Trump Regrets Not Banning Facebook and Twitter When He Was President

It is also notable that Trump filed a truly idiotic First Amendment lawsuit against Twitter (which was quickly dismissed), and beseeched his glassy-eyed cult followers to quit Twitter, which he asserted should be outlawed. For more on those execrable exploits, see the following…

Funny, neither Doocy nor Fox News ever had any problem with any of that. They are obviously pro-totalitarian dictatorship when the dictator is Trump of any other Republican.

NOTE: Twitter 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.

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