Jen Psaki

Fox News Ignores Steve Bannon Indictment to Run Jen Psaki’s Response to ‘Let’s Go Brandon’

Posted by on November 12, 2021 at 3:57 pm. 3 Comments :

The Department of Justice has finally announced that Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has been indicted by a grand jury for contempt of Congress. The contempt referral was sent to the DOJ three weeks ago. So this indictment shows that, while the wheels of justice may turn slowly, they are turning.

Fox News, Jen Psaki

According to the release by the Justice Department…

“Stephen K. Bannon was indicted today by a federal grand jury on two counts of contempt of Congress stemming from his failure to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol.

“Bannon, 67, is charged with one contempt count involving his refusal to appear for a deposition and another involving his refusal to produce documents, despite a subpoena from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.”

It is unquestionably a major news event when one of the closest associates of a former president is indicted for multiple felonies. And that is apparent by the fact that every broadcast news network (ABC, CBS, and NBC), as well as the cable news networks (CNN and MSNBC), and even Newsmax, have all placed this breaking story at the top of their websites. The only exception to this is – you guessed it – Fox News. In fact, the story didn’t even appear on the Fox News website for more than an hour after it was reported by other news sites. And when it did appear, it was pushed way down the page and consisted of a single line of text with no accompanying graphic.

Instead of this explosive legal and political development, Fox News placed a story at the top of their page about White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responding to a question about the childish and veiled vulgarity, anti-Biden chant of “Let’s go Brandon.” The headline read “HEARING THIS, ‘BRANDON’? WATCH: White House reveals Biden’s reaction to viral rallying cry sweeping the nation among his critics. Immediately below that were two related stories on the same subject.

The entire story consists of NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander asking Psaki what the President thought about the phrase that is wingnut code for “F**k Joe Biden.” Psaki’s reply was a succinct “I don’t think he spends much time focused on it or thinking about it.” Fox News characterized that as a “meltdown.”

Apparently, Fox News doesn’t want their audience to know that Bannon was indicted. But the best distraction that they could come up with was a trivial exchange about a silly, derogatory, partisan slogan. Consequently, Fox is just displaying their impotence as a propaganda outlet. Only the most ignorant consumers of media could be moved by this lame diversion. Fortunately for Fox, that’s exactly who makes up their audience.

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

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

Posted by on October 23, 2021 at 10:36 am. 3 Comments :

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

Fox News, Jen Psaki

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. 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.

Jen Psaki Reminds Fox News that Trump Corrupted the DOJ and Incited an Insurrection

Posted by on October 19, 2021 at 10:31 am. 1 Comments :

The daily White House press briefing is intended to provide a platform for the administration to outline its agenda and for the press to pose questions to the administration. Ordinarily the press would compose questions that would elicit information of interest to their readers and viewers, the American people.

Jen Psaki, Donald Trump

Unfortunately, that is almost never the case with ultra-partisan right-wing outfits like Fox News. Their correspondents routinely craft inquiries whose only purpose is to malign the President or advance their pre-chewed conservative doctrine. And there is no better example of this media malfeasance than Fox’s Peter Doocy. Every time he is called upon by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Doocy scrapes the barrel bottom of pseudo-journalism and opens himself up to well deserved ridicule.

On Monday Doocy sought to trap Psaki by asserting that President Biden had broken a promise not to interfere with how the Justice Department operates. Earlier this week Biden was asked about whether the House Select Committee on January 6th should enforce its subpoenas against witnesses who refuse to cooperate. Biden replied that he hopes “that the committee goes after them and holds them accountable.” When asked whether he believed the Justice Department should prosecute them, Biden told reporters, “I do, yes.”

That was a somewhat imprecise phrasing of the administration’s position. A Justice Department spokesperson quickly clarified that the DOJ “will make its own independent decisions in all prosecutions based solely on the facts and the law.” But unlike Donald Trump, at no time did Biden direct the DOJ to take any particular action. He was merely expressing his “hope” that the law be upheld.

Doocy demonstrated his inquisitory impotence by falsely asserting in a blatantly leading question that Biden broke a promise regarding the administration of the Justice Department. Psaki asked him how Biden had broken any promise. But all that Doocy could come up with was a rewording of the same assertion that Psaki had already answered. That went on for another couple of rounds before leading up to this exchange:

Doocy: What’s changed since last year when [Biden] said ‘I will not do what former president Trump does and use the Justice Department as my vehicle to insist that something happen?’
Psaki: Since you’ve given me the opportunity here, former president Trump used his department to incite an insurrection. He put political pressure on senior DOJ officials to propagate lies about the election to the point where they threatened to resign en mass. I think there is hardly a comparison there.
Doocy: President Biden said, ‘the Justice Department and my administration will be totally independent of me,’ and he said he would not enter into any decisions about what cases the agency will bring and not…
Psaki: And he has not, and he will not .And criminal prosecutions are the sole purview of the Department of Justice. That is the President’s position. That is what he nominated the Attorney General to operate under.

It was helpful of Doocy to remind everyone that Trump had “used the Justice Department as [his] vehicle” to pursue his personal interests and acts of vengeance. Indeed, Trump had repeatedly corrupted the independence of the Justice Department by ordering it to act as if they were his private attorneys. He was even doing it after he was no longer president.

Psaki correctly pointed out to Doocy that “Trump used his department to incite an insurrection” and to “put political pressure on senior DOJ officials.” Trump tried to get the DOJ to buy into his “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him. But that still didn’t deter Doocy from reiterating his failed argument that Biden had somehow interfered with DOJ decisions. He didn’t. And Psaki affirmed that he wouldn’t.

In the end, the only thing that Doocy accomplished was to provide Psaki with an opportunity to explain in further detail the White House’s dedication to the independence of the Department of Justice. While simultaneously refreshing the public memory about Trump’s misconduct in office and his gross inability to comprehend the proper role of the presidency. So perhaps we don’t give Doocy enough credit for helping Psaki to set the record straight. Thanks Pete.

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

Jen Psaki Bats Down Fox News Reporter and ‘World Renowned Expert’ Ted Cruz in One Swing

Posted by on October 12, 2021 at 4:59 pm. 4 Comments :

Last month President Biden announced an initiative to get more Americans vaccinated, the surest method of controlling the COVID pandemic and returning to some semblance of normalcy. The core of the plan would require vaccinations or weekly testing for federal employees, school staff, and private businesses with 100 or more employees.

Jen Psaki

The Biden plan was overwhelmingly popular according to a Fox News poll. So naturally, Fox News immediately came out against the proposal. Never mind the fact that their own corporate policy is even more strict than Biden’s, requiring daily testing for the unvaccinated. The narrative at Fox news was that the Biden “mandates” would be a drag on business and employment. And to support that baseless notion, Fox ran stories about flight cancelations at Southwest Airlines being caused by the mandates. Which, by the way, have not been implemented by the federal government, but have been by private businesses.

At Tuesday’s White House press briefing, the subject was raised by Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich. Perhaps Peter Doocy was staging a sickout. Heinrich asked Press Secretary Jen Psaki a “people say” question (without mentioning that it was only people at Fox News and partisan Republicans saying anything) about the effect of mandates on the nation’s workforce. Psaki’s reply managed to silence Heinrich, as well as one of the previously unnamed people making the false claims:

Heinrich: What’s the White House response to people who say that vaccine mandates have reduced the workforce and contributed to this problem?
Psaki: Well, I know world renowned business travel and health expert, Senator Ted Cruz, has made that point, but I wouldn’t say that that is widely acknowledged or echoed by business leaders who have implemented these mandates, by health experts who have conveyed that the way to get out of the pandemic is to ensure that we are doing exactly the steps the President has announced and we are working to implement. It doesn’t mean that this isn’t hard and challenging. Of course it is. We are in the middle of a global pandemic. But ultimately, the job of the President is to lead.

OUCH! In one powerhouse swing, Psaki put to rest the falsehoods about what right-wingers have dubbed the “Freedom Flu” (which presumably is treated with Freedom Fries). She went on to note that the false reporting about flight cancelations at Southwest Airlines were not caused by any reaction to policies by the Biden administration or Southwest’s own efforts to protect the health of their employees and customers. “We now know,” she said, “that some of those claims were absolutely false and actually the issues were completely unrelated to vaccine mandates.” Then she reiterated that “this is the way to save lives, create more certainty, it’s good for the economy, and it’s something we’re looking forward to implementing.”

Predictably, Fox’s Tucker Carlson was also lying about the Southwest situation. But for the record, the president of the Southwest Pilots Union was actually on Fox News and told them that “It’s absolutely false that our pilots are engaged in any sort of job action.”

The jab at Ted Cruz for promoting the falsehoods about vaccine-triggered sickouts at Southwest, and his callous betrayal of his constituents in Texas during a deadly winter freeze, were just icing on the cake. Ms. Psaki has a way of gently dispensing some devastating snark just when it’s needed most.

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. 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.

Fox News Hack Peter Doocy Gets A Remedial Lesson in Immigration from Jen Psaki

Posted by on September 20, 2021 at 5:43 pm. 4 Comments :

Fox News might want to have their White House correspondent, Peter Doocy, examined by a mental health expert. He keeps displaying signs of masochism or other self-destructive behaviors whenever he is around President Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki.

Jen Psaki, Fox News, Peter Doocy

On Monday Doocy took his seat in the press briefing room and waited to be called upon to ask a question. When his opportunity came he proudly inquired as to certain procedures that are followed for testing refugees and migrants for the coronavirus. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to understand even the most basic differences between the handling of migrants as opposed to citizens. So Psaki had to school him like a child:

Doocy: If somebody walks into the country right across the river, does somebody ask them to see their vaccination card?
Psaki: Let me explain to you again, Peter, how our process works. As individuals come across the border they are assessed for whether they have any symptoms. If they have symptoms the intention is for them to be quarantined. That is our process. They are not intending to stay here for a lengthy period of time. [Doocy interrupts to draw parallels with people flying into the U.S.]

Psaki: I don’t think it’s the same thing. It’s not the same thing. These are individuals as we’ve noted and as has been discussed. We are expelling individuals based on Title 42, specifically because of COVID, because we want to prevent a scenario where large numbers of people are gathering and posing a threat to the community and also to the migrants themselves. Those are the policies we put in place in large part because, again, the CDC continues to recommend Title 42 be in place given we’re facing a global pandemic.

For some reason, Doocy seems to think that undocumented migrants should be processed the same as people arriving on international flights with passports. Is he really unaware that some refugees might be traveling without papers or visas or even vaccination cards? They need to be processed differently due to their unique circumstances. But Doocy’s question implies that the circumstances are the same and so the procedures should be as well.

Psaki’s patience with inane questions like these is commendable. But when they come from the same person so frequently and predictably, you would think there would be a limit. Some of Doocy’s prior exchanges include the time he tried to conflate processes involving American employees with those involving immigrants. Or the time he failed to grasp that a pandemic is a moving target that requires constant reassessment. Or the time he tried to combine completely unrelated pandemic issues into one issue that he can exploit. And those are just the questions related to COVID.

It’s troubling that these questions have to be tolerated in a briefing room full of actual journalists who have substantive questions. The time wasted on Doocy is depriving the American people of answers to questions that will actually impact their lives. But this is one of the costs of having a free press wherein the Doocys of the world get their fifteen minutes of dumbassery.

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. 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.

Jen Psaki Slams Republicans Who Stood By While Trump ‘Fomented an Insurrection’

Posted by on September 15, 2021 at 5:13 pm. 3 Comments :

The new book, Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, is sending shockwaves through the national press. Excerpts reveal how the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, was dealing with what he called Donald Trump’s “serious mental decline.”

Jen Psaki, Donald Trump

Most of the conservative Whacko Chamber has been hyperventilating over what they say is treason because Milley is reported to have had conversations with his counterparts in China. Never mind that that is a routine part of the job for people in national security posts. When reviewed in context, Milley was merely assuring China that, despite what looked like chaos and instability following the January 6th insurrection in Washington, D.C., the situation in the U.S. was under control and that there was no need to worry about psycho Trump launching a nuclear war.

Trump’s Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, was among those who were reacting to intelligence that said China was concerned about a U.S. attack. And the spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs backed up Milley’s actions saying that…

“The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs regularly communicates with Chiefs of Defense across the world, including with China and Russia. These conversations remain vital to improving mutual understanding of U.S. national security interests, reducing tensions, providing clarity and avoiding unintended consequences or conflict.

“His calls with the Chinese and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability. All calls from the Chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency.”

At Wednesday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about Milley and whether President Biden still had confidence in his service. Her answer went a bit further than merely defending Milley. She also touched on the disreputability of his critics and Trump:

Reporter: Is there a point where criticism makes Gen. Milley is unable to continue in this role because it is a new administration, it is a new day, and there are some questions if he exceeded his authority?
Psaki: The President has complete confidence in his leadership, his patriotism, and his fidelity to our Constitution. I can’t speak to the former president’s experience with him or the former president’s views of him. But this current president who follows the Constitution, who’s not fomenting an insurrection, who follows the rule of law, has complete confidence in Chairman Milley and him continuing to serve in his role.
Reporter: Even as Republicans may criticize him and have questions about his suitability to continue, would that be a factor that President Biden would consider?
Psaki: I don’t think the president is looking for the guidance of members of Congress who stood by while the President of the United States and the leader of their party fomented an insurrection and many of them were silent.

It’s pretty remarkable that a White House spokesperson is forced to make a distinction between the former president and the current one “who’s not fomenting an insurrection.” And it’s hard to ignore the significance of her rejecting “the guidance of members of Congress who stood by while [Trump] fomented an insurrection and many of them were silent.”

Clearly it was Milley who was honoring his oath of loyalty to his country and acting out of patriotism. And it was Trump and his GOP minions in Congress who tried to stage a coup and prevent Congress from carrying out its constitutionally mandated duties. Psaki’s responses effectively turned the tables on the treason accusers. And now all we need is for justice to be served to the wrongdoers.

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. 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.

Has Jen Psaki Finally Had Enough of Fox News Hack Peter Doocy’s Gotcha Questions?

Posted by on September 10, 2021 at 5:38 pm. 5 Comments :

President Biden’s initiative to increase the rate of vaccinations in America is being received by the majority of people in the country with significant support and optimism. A recent poll asking whether voters in five swing states would favor corporations requiring employees to get vaccinated or get tested weekly found that upwards of 60% were in favor of it.

Jen Psaki, Fox News, Peter Doocy

That broad-based support, however, has not deterred Fox News and Republican partisans from launching exceedingly hostile attacks on both Biden and his plan. Here’s a taste of the rancid rhetoric that Fox is regurgitating:

That last friendly fellow who was insinuating that government employees be murdered was Josh Mandel, the current Republican candidate for Senate in Ohio.

Meanwhile, at Friday’s White House press briefing, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy assumed his role as Chief of Inane Inquisitions. Seeking to trip up Press Secretary Jen Psaki (for which he has a perfect record of failure), Doocy entered into the following exchange:

Doocy: Why is it that you’re trying to require anybody with a job or anybody who goes to school to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but you are not requiring that of migrants that continue walking across southern border into the country?
Psaki: Look, our objective is to get as many people vaccinated across the country as humanly possible. And so the President’s announcement yesterday was an effort to empower businesses, to give businesses the tolls to protect their workforces. That’s exactly what we did. But certainly we want everybody to get vaccinated, and the more people to get vaccinated, whether they are migrants or whether they are workers, protects more people in the United States.
Doocy: But it’s a requirement for people at a business with more than a hundred people, but it’s not a requirement for migrants at the Southern border. Why?
Psaki: That’s correct.

Psaki’s final response was less a reply to Doocy’s question than it was a dismissal of his foolishness as a waste of time. There are stark and obvious differences between the government’s role in making the workplaces of 100 million people safer, and the role of immigration agencies managing a few thousand temporary detainees. Biden’s focus on the former is clearly a higher priority.

That said, the welfare of the detainees has not been disregarded. All of the immigrants coming across the Southern border are tested for the coronavirus and offered a vaccination. And just like American workers, they are not forced to take it. Even so, 70% of the immigrants agree to be vaccinated. That’s a significantly higher percentage of vaccine acceptance than for Fox News viewers, which is only about 62%. That compares to 83% for viewers of CNN or MSNBC. The numbers are even worse for Trump voters (50%) versus Biden voters (91%).

Doocy’s question harbors a couple of typical Fox News hypocrisies. First of all, it’s premise is that it’s wrong to mandate vaccines. But it then it suggests that, despite being wrong, such mandates should be applied to even more people, in this case immigrants. Secondly, if Fox News were aware that vaccines actually are being offered to immigrants, the network’s xenophobes would be outraged that those resources were going to foreigners rather than American citizens. America First, and all that.

So once again Doocy has demonstrated his ignorance of the issues he raises. Either that or he is so determined to manufacture controversy that he doesn’t care how ignorant he appears. And once again Psaki has spanked him for his pathetic insolence. You would think he would get tired of this after so long. Apparently Psaki is.

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. 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.

Kellyanne Conway Whines About Biden Bumping Her From Air Force Academy Advisory Board

Posted by on September 8, 2021 at 5:25 pm. 7 Comments :

In the waning days of Donald Trump’s single term in the White House he took steps to cement his abhorrent legacy by pardoning his partners in crime and burrowing others into the bureaucracy. He also sought to make a more lasting impression by appointing his confederates to serve on various advisory boards for which they were characteristically unqualified.

Kellyanne Conway, Fox News

Among these appointees was Trump’s White House Counsel and Alternative Facts Dispenser, Kellyanne Conway, who he placed on the Board of Visitors of the United States Air Force Academy. However, on Wednesday morning Conway and the other Trumpists received their marching orders from President Biden. CNN reports that…

“The Biden administration has told 11 officials appointed to military service academy advisory boards by former President Donald Trump to resign or be dismissed, a source familiar with the situation tells CNN’s KFile. The officials asked to resign include prominent former Trump officials like former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, former senior counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster.”

It wasn’t long before Conway issued her official response to her termination. However, her response was so filled with petulant anger that it only validated her dismissal from the board. “Your decision is disappointing but understandable,” Conway began. “given the need to distract from a news cycle that has you mired in multiple self-inflicted crises and plummeting poll numbers.” Her rant then segued to more brazenly political attacks that ranged from COVID to jobs to the border, and finally to the false allegation that Biden left Americans and Afghan allies “stranded under Taliban rule.” She closed by focusing her ire on Biden and proclaiming that “I am not resigning, but you should.”

At Wednesday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about these terminations. Her reply was typically calm, concise, and deceptively devastating saying that…

“The President’s objective is what any president’s objective is – to ensure you have nominees and people serving on these boards who are qualified to serve on them and who are aligned with your values. And so yes, that was an ask that was made.” […]

“I will let others evaluate whether they think Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and others were qualified, or not political, to serve on these boards. But the President’s qualification requirements are not your party registration. They are whether you’re qualified to serve and whether you’re aligned with the values of this administration.”

Sean Spicer, Trump’s former press secretary, also complained about having been fired. And he announced that he would be filing a lawsuit to challenge his termination. In his tirade he objected to what he portrayed as a politically motivated purge, saying that none of President Obama’s appointees were fired by Trump. That might be because none of Obama’s appointees were unqualified. Also because Trump probably didn’t know that the boards existed.

The bottom line is that these are positions that serve at the pleasure of the President. And if Biden is not satisfied with his predecessor’s picks, he has the right to pick his own. And they have the right to whine about about it like the crybabies that they are. It’s no less than one would expect from people loyal to America’s biggest crybaby, Donald Trump.

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. 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.

Jen Psaki Schools Evangelical Reporter on the Complexities of Pregnancy and Abortion

Posted by on September 2, 2021 at 5:17 pm. 1 Comments :

Late Wednesday night the Supreme Court handed down an unsigned opinion that allowed Texas to implement the most extreme abortion law in the United States. It prohibits abortion after only six weeks, by which time most women don’t even know they are pregnant, allows total strangers to bring legal action, and has no exceptions for incest or rape.

Psaki Lightening

President Biden quickly announced a “whole-of-government” response to “to ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions.” But in the meantime there will be severe consequences and irreparable harm for the women and their families who the radically right-wing members of the Court so callously disregarded.

Not surprisingly, the subject came up at Thursday’s White House press briefing. Owen Jensen of the Eternal Word Television Network asked a question that was focused more on the politics than the legalities. He entered into this exchange with Press Secretary Jen Psaki:

Jensen: Why does the President support abortion when his own Catholic faith teaches abortion is morally wrong?
Psaki: He believes that it’s a woman’s right. It’s a woman’s body and it’s her choice, He believes that it’s up to a woman to make those decisions with her doctor. I know you’ve never faced those choices. Nor have you ever been pregnant. But for women out there who have faced those choices, this is an incredibly difficult thing. The President believes that right should be respected.

Anyone who has covered Biden, or any other pro-choice Democrat, for the past fifty years already knew the answer to Jensen’s question. It was a deliberate attempt to demean the President and to draw Psaki into a pointless debate. Of course, Psaki doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Just ask Peter Doocy of Fox News. So she schooled him on why American women will be more disturbed by this decision than partisan men from evangelical “news” outlets.

The question about pro-choice Catholics in politics is one that keeps getting asked no matter how many times it is answered. But for some reason no one ever asks anti-choice Republicans a similar question. For instance, Donald Trump suddenly became rabidly anti-choice when he ran for the GOP nomination for president. However, he grew up in the Presbyterian church that has a pretty liberal view of abortion. According to their website…

“[T]he artificial or induced termination of a pregnancy is a matter of careful ethical decision of the patient . . . and therefore should not be restricted by law.” […]

“When an individual woman faces the decision whether to terminate a pregnancy, the issue is intensely personal, and may manifest itself in ways that do not reflect public rhetoric, or do not fit neatly into medical, legal or policy guidelines.”

Many other denominations have a similar position, including Episcopalians and Methodists. So why don’t we ever hear a reporter ask “Why doesn’t Trump support abortion when his own Presbyterian faith teaches that abortion is a decision of personal morality?”

This is just another reason why the separation of church and state needs to be fiercely defended. Hypocrites masquerading as believers will always try to force their beliefs onto others. These are the same people who decry Big Government. They are the people who are opposing mask and vaccine mandates that actually do save the lives of actual people. But mandating women to carry fetuses to term against their will is just fine with them. Because that’s how religious fanatics roll.

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. 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.

LOL: Trump Resurrects His ‘Perfect’ Phone Call, that Got Him Impeached, to Bash Biden

Posted by on September 2, 2021 at 1:28 pm. 6 Comments :

You have to give Donald Trump credit for blind persistence. No matter how ludicrous his behavior, or how damaging to what’s left of his tattered reputation, he continues to remind everyone of just how ignorant and criminally culpable he is, even when he’s trying to chastise his enemies.

Trump Penthouse Phone

On Thursday morning Trump released another one line statement via his spokes-shill, Liz Harrington (whose proxy Trump tweeting is violating Twitter’s rules against circumventing a ban). On this occasion he was jumping on a wingnut bandwagon circling the conservative media drain. He said simply that…

“Biden pressed Afghan president to change ‘perception’ that Taliban was winning, ‘whether true or not’

What Trump was regurgitating was flotsam from the right-wing echo chamber about a phone call President Biden had with President Ghani of Afghanistan. Biden was conveying the importance of projecting strength in the battle against the Taliban prior to its take over of the nation. He wanted to encourage Ghani to carry on the fight, which showed the promise of success at the time. The full context of Biden’s remarks bear that out:

“You clearly have the best military. You have 300,000 well-armed forces versus 70-80,000 and they’re clearly capable of fighting well. […] We are going to continue to fight hard, diplomatically, politically, economically, to make sure your government not only survives, but is sustained and grows.” […]

“I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban. And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”

That was an entirely appropriate effort to motivate the Afghans to recommit to victory against their foes. But Republicans and their conservative media lackeys saw it differently. Fox News lashed out at Press Secretary Jen Psaki for declining to respond to reports about the Biden/Ghani phone call because it was unlawfully leaked to the press by an anonymous source. She told reporters that “I’m not going to get into private, diplomatic conversations or leaked transcripts of phone calls.”

Psaki’s response was immediately taken up by partisan politicians and pundits including Fox News, Newsmax, the Daily Caller, Kellyanne Conway, and GOP reps Elise Stefanik, Jody Hice, and Lauren Boebert. They all frantically tried to compare Biden’s phone call to the infamous one that Trump had with President Zelensky of Ukraine. That was the allegedly “perfect” phone call (quid pro quo) wherein Trump illegally threatened to withhold U.S. funds unless Zelensky agreed to dig up dirt on Biden.

The right-wingers pointed to a two year old tweet by Psaki that said “It is not just the call transcript. The whistleblower complaint would likely have more details. We need both. And not just the call.” They said that this request for a transcript of Trump’s phone call with Zelensky was a contradiction of her refusal to give more details about Biden’s phone call with Ghani.

There are, however, enormous and obvious differences. First of all, the information Psaki sought about Trump’s call was contained in a properly executed whistleblower complaint that went through all the appropriate channels. But the information in Biden’s phone call was illegally leaked and the sources were unknown and unvetted.

Furthermore, what Psaki was asking for was evidence of criminal activity to be considered in the impeachment of Trump. But there was nothing remotely illegal, or even improper, about Biden’s phone call. So this dust up over dueling phone calls is just a charade by Trump and his minions designed to sow confusion and lies.

For Trump to participate in this utterly dishonest media hype of a pseudo-scandal is further proof of his disreputable and deceitful intentions. But even worse, from his perspective, he is reminding people of his own crimes that got him impeached in the first place. It really does appear that Trump is committed to making a fool of himself. And at least in that pursuit, he is surprisingly adept.

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