Media

Consciousness of Guilt: Trump Chickens Out of His Own Phony ‘News’ Conference with Lame Excuses

Posted by on January 5, 2022 at 4:11 pm. 3 Comments :

On the one year anniversary of Donald Trump’s January 6th insurrection, the former reality TV game show host is revealing his abject fear of being held accountable for his flagrant crimes against America. Every day more evidence comes out exposing how Trump orchestrated an attempted coup to undermine American democracy.

Donald Trump Chicken

Both Congress and the White House planned solemn observances of the sad anniversary in order to mourn the victims, honor the heroes, and memorialize that tragic episode of our history. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that President Biden would “speak to the truth of what happened” and “lay out the significance of what happened at the Capitol, and the singular responsibility president Trump has for the chaos and carnage that we saw.” Adding that “he will forcibly push back on the lies spread by the former president.”

True to form, Trump, the malignant narcissist and wannabe dictator, sought to make the day all about himself. So he announced that he would be holding an alleged “news” conference on the same day. It was a terrible idea both politically and morally. But it was exactly the sort of noxious behavior that is expected from Trump.

However, circumstances intervened that have resulted in Trump canceling his media circus. The circumstances include pleadings from his Republican confederates to scrap the affair, as well as shocking disclosures about his Fox News flunky, Sean Hannity, that expose his communications with the Trump team during the riots. Trump’s notice that he was backing out was typically Trumpian. He began…

“In light of the total bias and dishonesty of the January 6th Unselect Committee of Democrats, two failed Republicans, and the Fake News Media, I am canceling the January 6th Press Conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, and instead will discuss many of those important topics at my rally on Saturday, January 15th, in Arizona – It will be a big crowd!”

Trump expects people to believe that he’s abandoning his news conference, where he could tell his own story, because of some unstated bias by the House Select Committee investigating the insurrection. And for good measure he threw in the tedious “Fake News” canard. That makes sense only to someone with severe brain damage. Trump more likely retreated because of the risk that no one would show up for his pseudo-news charade. Or even worse, that they would show. The truth is that Trump is scared witless of being in a position where he might face questioning about his crimes.

So Trump rescheduled his lie-fest for another of his cult rallies, where he is the sole performer before an audience of glassy-eyed disciples. That way he can brag about the attendance at his free rally for Deplorables, even though when they recently were asked to pay, they stayed away in droves.

Trump went on to disgorge wild allegations that he can’t prove. He accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of being responsible for the absence of law enforcement. Which is ironic since it was Trump who, as Commander-in-Chief, was the person who could have deployed protection for the Congress. But the evidence shows that he did nothing but gleefully watch the television reports of the riots for three terrifying hours, while even his allies on Fox News were begging him to call off his StormTrumpers.

Trump closed his rant by whining about what he called the “Democrats’ Great Cover-Up Committee and the Media is complicit.” But if he really wanted to correct the record, he could simply testify before the Committee and bring along whatever evidence he has to support his claims. Instead, Trump is suing anyone and everyone to keep everything hidden. He’s making accusations against Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schiff that he can’t prove. And he’s crying that he’s a victim (again) of the “Crime of the Century.”

It’s amazing that Trump’s devotees aren’t getting tired of these wearisome ravings. He’s spent more than a year making assertions that the 2020 election was “rigged” without providing any evidence whatsoever. He lost more than sixty court cases on the subject. And yet he comes back with the same mindlessly monotonous musings and his fans eat it up. And as has been observed many times, that is the textbook behavior of a cult.

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Fox News CRUSHED that the Media is ‘Moving On From Afghanistan’ to Cover Actual News

Posted by on September 4, 2021 at 5:50 pm. 4 Comments :

The past week has been one of profoundly significant world events. The United States finally ended a twenty year long war in Afghanistan. The COVID pandemic surged to record levels due to the Delta variant. The Supreme Court declined to block a draconian abortion rights law in the state of Texas. And a hurricane ravaged many parts of country from the Gulf Coast to New England.

Fox News Sad

Each of those stories are important to the American people and deserve coverage by the media. Unless you’re Fox News where the only stories that warrant being told are those that reflect poorly on President Biden or Democrats in general.

Which explains why Fox News posted a story on their website giddily proclaiming that “Liberal media blasted for moving on from Afghanistan crisis.” Yes, Fox News couldn’t have been happier about this criticism of what they regard as the “mainstream media.” The article griped that…

“The liberal media seems to be moving on from President Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, skipping key details and largely ignoring a bombshell report of a leaked July phone call between President Biden and then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. […] Hurricane Ida, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the Texas abortion law have seemingly pushed Afghanistan aside.”

That’s right. Fox News is appalled and saddened that the media is covering actual news. To Fox News Afghanistan should be still be the dominant story, despite the fact that there hasn’t been any breaking news from there in a week. The press was all over Afghanistan a week ago when thirteen service members, and an estimated 150 Afghans, were tragically killed in a terrorist bombing. And the press was there when the last of the American troops were evacuated from the country, along with 120,000 Afghan allies, in an unprecedented and successful airlift.

However, in the past week there have been other events that warranted coverage. The COVID pandemic was taking the lives of more than 1,000 Americans every day. The Supreme Court handed down a ruling that effectively overturned the fifty year old Roe v Wade precedent on reproductive rights. And Hurricane Ida tore a path across the Eastern United States that resulted in more than 60 American deaths (nearly five times those in Afghanistan) reported so far. But to Fox News, those are mere distractions from Afghanistan.

The reason that Fox is so obsessed with Afghanistan is that it is a “crisis” that they think they can blame on Biden. Surely Biden isn’t responsible for a hurricane, the surging pandemic that is largely due to unvaccinated Fox News viewers, or the laws coming out of Texas. Consequently, those other stories need to be set aside in favor of finding more ways to attack the President.

With that in mind, Fox set about to contrive tales to tell that would cast mud on Biden. But the only ones that they could find were stories about the few Americans still in Afghanistan, and an utterly unnoteworthy phone call between Biden and Afghan President Ghani.

Undeterred, Fox news devoted most of the article to the “blasting” they claimed that the “liberal” media was taking. However, the article quoted only five alleged blasters, all of whom were staunchly right-wing propagandists. For instance…

  • Fox News contributor Joe Concha who wrote about the media “serving at the pleasure of the White House communications team.”
  • Media Research Center vice president Dan Gainor whining that “Their bias is disgusting.”
  • Former Daily Caller columnist, Jackson Richman who prefaced his comments with “The Biden-friendly mainstream media…”
  • Federalist columnist Eddie Scarry lamenting because “The media will wound [Biden] but they will not kill him.”
  • White House press secretary-turned Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany bragging that “You can guarantee at Fox News we’ll cover when an American president tells a foreign leader to change the perception.”

Poor Fox News is very upset that the story they want to hype because they can use it to bash Biden has been overshadowed by other more urgent and current stories. They think that a week old story – while still important and still being covered – should take precedence over a national weather emergency that killed dozens of people and is still posing extreme hardships for millions of Americans who are displaced from their homes and without power, water, or food.

What’s more, Fox News was so disinterested in the Texas abortion law story that they hardly covered it all in the first few hours. And consistent with their reporting for the past year and a half, the coronavirus barely merited a mention, unless it was to applaud Republicans like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for making his state the national Hot Zone for the pandemic.

We can expect this sort of biased coverage to continue at Fox News. They have never been interested in journalism. Their foundational mission was to manufacture “news” to boost their right-wing agenda. And nothing illustrates that better than how they are covering current events this week.

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Trump Whines About Media Covering Hurricane Ida Instead of Bashing Biden On Afghanistan

Posted by on August 30, 2021 at 3:11 pm. 2 Comments :

America’s most flagrantly dishonest and flamboyantly narcissistic president, Donald Trump, is affirming just how little he cares about the American people. Apparently it wasn’t enough for Trump to preside over the deaths of more than 620,000 Americans. He still felt compelled to exploit the victims of a terrorist bombing in Afghanistan in order to advance his “Big Lie” about election fraud.

Donald Trump Sweating

And yet, that still didn’t satisfy Trump’s obsession with slandering President Biden, even at the expense of more suffering by fellow citizens.

On Monday morning Trump visited with the radical Christianist radio host, Todd Starnes, who was too over the top for Fox News, who fired him two years ago. In the course of their mutually admiring intercourse, Trump unleashed a round of the moldy oldies he has been spinning for years.

Trump railed against his omnipresent foes for having “the fake news, and they have all of the big tech, and all of the crooked politicians,” while delusionally claiming that “we have the people.” Well, except for the people in every poll and the 81 million majority who voted for Joe Biden. Then Trump hauled out this bit of inanity:

“[The people] are not taking what’s happening in Afghanistan. If you look at last night, all they talked about was the hurricane. You look at CNN, and you look at MSDNC, these are horrible … they’re way down, fortunately, they’re way down in ratings. But all they want to talk about is the hurricane, or anything else that they can talk about. Because Afghanistan is not something that can even be discussed in a rational way, The level of stupidity – and we had a great agreement.

So in Trump’s warped view, a catastrophic, category 4 hurricane bearing down on some of the nation’s most populated cities isn’t deserving of media coverage? This was the most severe weather crisis in the region in years. Millions of people were thrust into darkness. Homes and businesses were flooded. It’s too soon to assess the death toll because it isn’t safe enough yet for rescue and recovery operations to begin. But Trump is whining because this has allegedly interrupted the non-stop coverage of Afghanistan. He obviously couldn’t care less about the Americans currently in harms way at home.

You have to wonder what “news” Trump was watching. While there was extensive and warranted coverage of Hurricane Ida, stories about Afghanistan continued to be broadcast by all of the legitimate news networks. The only reason that Trump wasn’t satisfied is that the coverage of Afghanistan was unduly negative toward Biden, which Trump and his GOP confederates were fueling with their own disinformation and partisan criticisms. He was more interested in those attacks continuing than in the public being informed of imminent danger.

For it’s appropriate decision to focus on the hurricane, Trump lashed out at the media with his tedious complaint that they are “the enemy of the people,” adding that they are “fake and crooked and corrupt,” and that “They’ve got to hate our country.” But like almost every insult that Trump casts, these all sound like better description of his own fatal flaws. Trump is a textbook example of psychotic projection. And he is a bigger threat to the welfare of the nation than a hurricane.

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Jen Psaki: The White House Briefing Room Can’t ‘Become a Forum for Propaganda’

Posted by on June 6, 2021 at 5:59 pm. 2 Comments :

President Biden’s Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, was interviewed Sunday on CNN’s Reliable Sources by Brian Stelter. It proved to be another opportunity for her to demonstrate her intelligence, grace, and commitment to candidly informing the American people about the President’s thinking and his agenda for the country.

Fox News, Jen Psaki

Not surprisingly, the right-wing mediasphere launched into their knee-jerk condemnation of both Psaki and Stelter. They either didn’t understand what they were talking about or deliberately distorted it to create a false and negative impression. Probably the latter if their past behavior is any guide.

Much of the wingnuttery was obsessed with Stelter’s first question wherein he asked “What does the press get wrong when covering Biden’s agenda?” That was construed as a “softball” question, despite the fact that a media reporter asking a subject to critique the media is hardly playing softball. Stelter also grilled Psaki on why Biden doesn’t do more press conferences. But the rightist whiners must have tuned that out.

The conservative chorus of critics was fixated exclusively on finding fault with the interview. Fox News published an analysis on their website that featured only hard-core rightist reactions to the segment. They complained that Stelter didn’t ask Psaki about manufactured, right-wing “controversies” about Dr. Fauci or the alleged border crisis. That’s because this wasn’t a newsmaking interview. It was a discussion on a media-focused program about how the White House press team interacts with the media.

Aside from being too complicated an interview for conservative flacks to handle, it went pretty well. One of the most instructive moments was when Psaki addressed how she was portrayed in the media, and what she regards as her role.

Stelter: There’s a version on the liberal blogs, something that goes like this: Psaki smacks down, Psaki shuts down a questioner. It’s this narrative we’re seeing people celebrating for doing it. And yet that kind of reminds me of cable news and the way that cable news engages. I’m not sure it’s actually good for the country, even though it might be entertaining.
Psaki: Well look Brian, I think one, I’m not putting out those assessments. What I will tell you though is that I also have a responsibility not to allow the briefing room to become a forum for propaganda or a forum for pushing forward falsehoods or inaccurate information. […] I have a responsibility to the public to make sure they’re getting accurate information. and the premise of the questions that are propaganda pushing are not giving them inaccurate information.

Psaki clearly takes the job more seriously than Trump’s former press secretary (and current Fox News host), Kayleigh McEnany, who seemed to be more interested in scoring fashion shoots. And Psaki’s remarks on Sunday were consistent with those expressed by the White House shortly after Biden’s inauguration

“White House officials promise a sea change from how the Trump White House interacted with the press. Biden’s team plans to lay out clear criteria for qualifying for a so-called ‘hard pass’ to access the grounds in consultation with the WHCA, officials told POLITICO. If current passholders in the media continue to meet the criteria determined together with the correspondents’ association, they will continue to have hard passes. […] But Biden’s aides also promised not to allow outlets to use the briefings to spread baseless conspiracies. […]

“Organizations or individuals who traffic in conspiracy theories, propaganda and lies to spread disinformation will not be tolerated, and we’ll work with the WHCA to decide how to handle those instances moving forward.”

If the White House were to strictly impose those standards, Fox News wouldn’t be granted a press pass at all. Of Course, that’s not likely to happen. But at least they recognize the importance of downplaying propaganda and focusing on the informational needs of the American public. And they aren’t maligning the press in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.” That’s a profound improvement over the hostility and childishness of the Trump years.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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Jen Psaki Targeted in a Phony Fox News ‘Controversy’ About Biden and the Press

Posted by on May 6, 2021 at 4:50 pm. 1 Comments :

Poor Fox News. The stridently right-wing network, and Republican Party they shill for, have been having an extraordinarily difficult time finding mud to throw at President Joe Biden. Consequently, they have resorted to laughably fantastical tales of Biden plotting to eliminate meat, or phantom links on the White House website, or Vice-President Kamala Harris profiting on her books being distributed to migrant children.

Fox News, Jen Psaki

Or Dr. Suess, or Mr. Potato Head, or Snow White, or any of a dozen other ludicrous trivialities. The easily debunked book “scandal” inspired CNN’s Jim Acosta to label Fox News a “Bullshit factory.” Which is something most Americans had already concluded about Fox “News.” As a result, they wouldn’t be surprised by a new story by Fox that deliberately mischaracterizes remarks made by Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki.

The headline of the piece on Fox’s website reads: “Jen Psaki admits Biden taking impromptu reporter questions is ‘not something we recommend’” The framing in that sentence relies on the word “admits” to imply something that was previously done in secret, but has now been revealed. The problem is that Fox’s framing is typically dishonest and devoid of relevant context.

The sentence fragments that Fox obsessed over referred to Biden taking spontaneous questions from the press. Psaki was quoted as saying “that is not something we recommend. […] In fact, a lot of times we say ‘Don’t take questions,'” To Fox News that was an “admission” that Biden was incapable of handling media inquiries. Of course, he has done so quite often with a measure of clarity, accuracy, and honesty, that Donald Trump could never get close to.

Psaki also added that, despite their advice, Biden would take questions anyway because he’s “going to do what he wants to do because he’s the president.” That should have silenced Fox’s scandalizing, as it affirms that Biden is definitely not afraid of the press.

CNN provided more context to this matter in an article noting that Psaki was being interviewed by David Axelrod for his CNN podcast “The Axe Files.” A segment of that interview shows Psaki elaborating on why taking spontaneous questions wasn’t recommended. It had nothing to do with ability, but everything to do with a rational, communications driven strategy:

“You’re never gonna satisfy the White House press corps and their desires for access, and I think there have been mistakes made in the past of trying to do that. If you do a press conference every other week, or once a week, that doesn’t satisfy them, they’re going to push for more, that’s their job. What we’ve tried to do, which has also been maddening I know for the press corps at times, is kind of not get pulled in by distractions.

“He likes the press corps and likes that back and forth and that engagement. But what we’ve tried to do in general, in thinking about how we use his time, is really think about what the public cares about, right? The public cares about the pandemic, the economy.”

In other words, the Biden press team is focused on serving the public. That’s a massive departure from Trump and his press team who were focused on satisfying his voracious ego with undeserved bragging, infantile insults, and flagrant lies. Public service is something that Trump and company could never aspire to – or even comprehend. And the difference between Trump’s narcissism and Biden’s compassion is both refreshing and beneficial to the nation.

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:
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Project Veritas Unveils Its Lamest Exposé Yet on CNN’s Alleged Anti-Trump ‘Propaganda’

Posted by on April 13, 2021 at 5:04 pm. 7 Comments :

The record of James O’Keefe’s deceptively named Project Veritas is one of pathetically contrived disinformation and deliberate lies. And the reputation of O’Keefe himself is as a recidivist liar whose dishonesty cost him $100,000 in a defamation lawsuit; who was convicted for trespassing in the federal office of a Louisiana senator; and a pervert who tried to lure a reporter onto his “love boat” in a botched sting.

James O'Keefe

Now O’Keefe is back with a new video that purports to be a bombshell exposé of CNN’s hidden agenda of anti-Trump propaganda. As usual, it’s a complete dud that only exposes O’Keefe’s incompetence and commitment to flagrant falsehoods aimed at maligning any media enterprise that isn’t avowedly right-wing.

In this latest video O’Keefe serves up someone named Charlie Chester, who O’Keefe says is a technical director at CNN. There is no verification of his identity or his employment by CNN, but O’Keefe continually refers to him simply as a “director,” which is deliberately misleading. For the sake of argument, let’s say that Chester is who O’Keefe says he is. Chester’s remarks are a long ways from anything resembling a “bombshell.” Among other things he says that…

“We [@CNN] got Trump out. I am 100% going to say it, and I 100% believe that if it wasn’t for CNN, I don’t know that Trump would have got voted out.”

“Our focus was to get Trump out of office, right? Without saying it, that’s what it was, right?”

“So our next thing is going to be climate awareness. […] Climate change is gonna be the next COVID thing for CNN.”

“That’s propaganda. […] Fear sells.”

Watch O’Keefe’s teaser reel if here you have the stomach for it:

Oh my. What an explosive set of revelations. Some dude says that CNN was singlehandedly responsible for Donald Trump losing the 2020 presidential election. So it wasn’t because the election was rigged, or because of voter fraud, or the “deep State.” Or the fact that Trump was despised by millions of decent Americans. It was a plot by CNN all along. And this cable news network that the right repeatedly disparages as “failing” was so influential with a majority of the American people that they pulled off an electoral victory with 81 million votes.

It’s notable that all of the allegations directed at CNN in O’Keefe’s video fit the behavior of Fox News much more closely. Their focus has always been to defeat Democrats with propaganda, and to sell fear of the imminent destruction of America by radical socialists, uppity Blacks, and caravans of immigrants.

For the record, this Chester character has no way of knowing what he claims to know. A technical director is not in the editorial loop at a news network. He doesn’t make decisions or attend meetings that are related to the content of any news story. Nor is he likely to have inside information as to the thinking of the editors and journalists at the network. He is a behind-the-scenes technician who keeps the TV machines humming. And the fact that he’d talk to such an obvious shill only affirms that he’s too naïve or foolish or self-serving to be listened to.

{UPDATE: O’Keefe posted a second video of this Chester guy, and it’s even stupider than the first (if you can believe it). He fails to coherently define “propaganda” and demonstrates his ignorance of political strategies while discussing Matt Gaetz, the GOP representative currently being investigated for sex trafficking and drugs].

This is the source that O’Keefe is relying on for his bombshell? This is the source that excited O’Keefe so much that the day before this video was released he tweeted that “Tomorrow you guys at @CNN are going to have a loooooong day.@oliverdarcy @brianstelter @jaketapper This is the most devastating thing you’ve ever seen inside your network. Sleep tight.” Those guys at CNN must be shaking in their boots.

O’Keefe’s pitiful video had a predictable effect on Trump World. Donnie Trump Jr tweeted that “A @CNN director is caught on video admitting that the focus of CNN’s news coverage in 2020 was “to get Trump out of office” & that they engaged in “propaganda” to make it happen. CNN isn’t a news organization, they’re a Democrat Super PAC!!!” Sean Hannity tweeted that “Care to comment Humpty? Have a great day!! @brianstelter.” No one will be shocked that these dumbos would buy O’Keefe’s scam. However, the video was ignored by every reputable news organization.

Speaking of Hannity, he interviewed O’Keefe on Tuesday night. It was a predictably tedious, self-exalting segment that included O’Keefe’s announcement that he will be suing CNN for defamation. Which led to this exchange:

O’Keefe: I think a lot of people should start suing the media for disinformation. It’s disgraceful what they’re doing.
Hannity: I might be filing so myself.

That’s especially rich considering that Fox News is currently being sued for defamation by both Smartmatic and Dominion voting services companies for billions of dollars. And the Project Veritas video is full of potentially defamatory content that could justify suits against O’Keefe. Also in the segment, O’Keefe claims to have won a great legal victory over the New York Times, but in fact the Times merely failed to get a favorable ruling on a motion to dismiss, which is pretty routine in these proceedings.

And if you any Maalox left, here is the segment from Hannity:

This isn’t the first time that O’Keefe sicced his Project Veritas on CNN. In October of 2019, O’Keefe released a similarly weak and unsubstantiated video that made essentially the same criticisms. And despite the fact that there was nothing remotely credible about the project, it triggered a lawsuit by Trump for – get this – false advertising. The suit charged that CNN’s claim to practice “excellence in journalism” was false because they said things about Trump that he didn’t like, but were nevertheless true. The threatened lawsuit, not surprisingly, never came to pass.

You have to wonder how this charlatan can continue to post these feeble stabs at journalism after so many humiliating crash landings. It’s truly an obsession that is driving him to embarrass himself over and over again. You would think that knowing how hard the adults at CNN are laughing at him would cause him to step back. But that would be the mature and intelligent thing to do. So don’t hold your breath waiting for O’Keefe to do it.

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.

Fox News Obsesses Over Biden Press Conferences – That They Refuse to Air

Posted by on March 6, 2021 at 10:16 am. 3 Comments :

For four years Fox News covered virtually every public utterance by Donald Trump live and uninterrupted. They aired his cult rallies, his Coronavirus Task Force briefings, his staged, photo-op bill signings, his random and rancid rants, his lie-riddled “chopper talks,” and more. The network could have been re-branded as a 24/7 Trump Channel.

Donald Trump Fox News

Now that Joe Biden is residing in the White House, Fox News has adopted an entirely different editorial approach to covering the President of the United States. And it isn’t just the blatantly negative bias against Biden that Fox’s CEO recently admitted is the core of their mission. That bias is remarkably strained because Fox has so little of substance to complain about. Consequently they focus on absurd and irrelevant distractions like Biden’s dog, Neanderthals, Mr. Potato Head, and Dr. Seuss. That’s emblematic of Fox’s editorial priorities.

Meanwhile, there has been a flurry of verbal venom aimed at Biden for his alleged reluctance to face questions from the press. However, while he hasn’t held a formal news conference, he has taken questions on numerous occasions addressing such critical and diverse subjects as containing the COVID-19 pandemic, and providing relief and stimulus; racial equity; climate change; healthcare; and immigration.

Clearly Biden has a lot on his plate following the calamitous tenure of Trump. These are matters of profound importance that need to be tackled with an appropriate sense of urgency. There will be plenty of time for press conferences once the nation’s stability and security have been restored. Jen Psaki, Biden’s press secretary, has indicated that a press conference will be scheduled before the end of March. But that hasn’t calmed the dread that is consuming Fox News. For the past few days they have demonstrated just how obsessed they are with this non-scandal as seen in these headlines:

  • Hidin’ Biden – still no presidential press conference but Dems like basement strategy
  • White House ‘protecting’ Biden by not scheduling press conferences: Karl Rove
  • Biden team ‘has zero confidence’ that ‘absentee president’ can handle press conference
  • Biden still hasn’t held a press conference after 43 days in office
  • Psaki says Biden will hold press conference ‘before the end of the month’
  • Kayleigh McEnany: Biden vowed ‘transparency’ but has still not held a solo press conference

How many times do they have to do the same story? McEnany, Trump’s fourth and final press secretary who has already been hired by Fox News, “bragged” about Trump’s availability to the press saying that “He was always willing to take questions, always willing to go to the podium, always willing to stop on his way to the helicopter.” What she left out was that Trump spent most of that time lying and insulting the reporters.

On another segment McEnany wondered “Where’s Joe? It’s been 41 days.” Her new Fox colleague, Sean Hannity, similarly asked “Where is our commander-in-chief? You know, that new guy?” But what has the pungent stench of hypocrisy is that Fox News wouldn’t cover Biden’s press conferences if they were being held.

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. Recall that Fox News aired every similar event during the Trump administration. Fox didn’t even air the congressional hearings on the January 6th Trump Insurrection.

Given their disinterest in what President Biden has to say – unless they can distort it to make him look bad – the complaints by Fox News about press conferences are irrelevant and should be ignored. We know that when Biden does hold a press conference, Fox will be covering the “canceling” of a Muppet, or a shady pillow huckster, or some other ridiculous, politically partisan, culture war demagoguery. It’s what they do.

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.

Fox Family Values: Tucker Carlson Viciously Mocks Media and – Biden’s Marriage?

Posted by on February 17, 2021 at 10:16 am. 9 Comments :

It goes without saying that there are a lot of repulsive cretins on Fox News. But even in that maggot infested bog there is no one who competes with Tucker Carlson as the undisputed King of Sleaze. His facility for falsehoods and pious prattle is unmatched by mere mortals.

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Fox News, Tucker Carlson

On the Tuesday night episode of Carlson’s White Power Hour he sought to malign the free press that he regards as “the enemy of the people,” just like his crush Donald Trump does. Carlson bellowed maniacally that “the people who run [America’s institutions] are rotten.” Not just some of them, but “all of which are corrupt.” And he singles out one institution as “looming above the rest [as] our most corrupt institution: The mainstream news media.” He elaborates that…

“The media are more crooked than Jimmy Hoffa ever was. They’re more dishonest than your average bribe-taking building inspector in Queens and more treacherous than the Mafia. They make cops in Tijuana look trustworthy. You’ll get fairer treatment from an inner-city DMV than you would from CNN.”

Let’s set aside for the moment Carlson’s asinine analogies comparing the media to murderous organized crime figures. More repugnant is how his sanctimonious verbal assaults rely entirely on offensive stereotypes and racist dog whistles? It’s integral to his hallmark brand of hate speech.

However, Carlson’s sour soliloquy does hit some sweet spots, albeit inadvertently. In a moment of unintended self-reflection, Carlson articulates the best description of himself saying that “Dumb and conventional now pass as impressive.” He continues seemingly still determined to define himself and his Fox News confederates:

“Yes, the news media are profoundly dishonest. All of us lie from time to time, that’s the human condition. Imagine, though, if lying was your job. Imagine forcing yourself to tell lies all day about every subject in ways that were so transparent and so outlandish that there is no way the people listening to you could possibly believe anything you said. Then imagine doing that again and again and again every day of your professional life for your entire life. Could you do that? […] you’ve got to respect those skills.

You don’t need to imagine any of this. Just watch five minutes of any Tucker Carlson program if you have the stomach for it. And remember that Fox News lawyers actually argued successfully in court that Carlson cannot not be held liable for the lies he tells because he “cannot be understood to have been stating facts,” and that “given Mr. Carlson’s reputation, any reasonable viewer ‘arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism’ about the statements he makes.”

In other words, no reasonable viewer would believe Carlson’s BS. That’s according to the Fox News lawyers speaking on Carlson’s behalf. The problem is that Carlson doesn’t have any reasonable viewers. So the cult disciples he’s disinforming on a nightly basis will blindly buy into whatever he says. And among the nauseating absurdities he unleashed in the same episode was this sarcastic grotesquery:

“The Bidens affection is totally real and in no way part of a slick PR campaign devised by cynical consultants determined to hide the president’s senility by misdirection. Their love is as real as climate change.”

Technically, since climate change is undeniably real according to the vast majority of credible scientists, Carlson is actually affirming the authenticity of the Bidens heartwarming romance. Which is something that’s been conspicuously absent from the White House for four chilly years. Carlson’s smug dismissal of marital affection may be more than naked hostility. It may just be another sad and thinly veiled confession about the hollowness of his own pathetic life.

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. 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 Plans to ‘Wreck Fox News’ For Not Worshiping Him Enough

Posted by on November 12, 2020 at 12:56 pm. 15 Comments :

One of the most persistent patterns of behavior by Donald Trump is his knee-jerk reaction to anyone or anything that fails to show him unflinching adoration at all times. Trump can be relied on to launch a barrage of vicious and vengeful assaults in the wake of what he considers betrayal, even if it’s a trivial and temporary lapse in the observance of reality.

Donald Trump Fox News

Trump spent Thursday morning working hard at what he considers to be his most pressing presidential duties: posting hostile and incoherent tweets aimed at the paranoid parade of his perceived enemies. On this particular morning it was Fox News that was the subject of Trump’s ire (and not for the first time). He retweeted more than a dozen messages by random Twitter bots blasting Fox News and insisting that it was either untruthful, corrupt, or dead, and that they would never watch it again.

Following that Trump tweeted his own opinion that focused on Fox’s tumbling ratings and his narcissistic illusions of grandeur:

It’s telling that Trump believes that Fox News is obligated to promote him in a purely positive fashion at all times because he is, in his own mind, their “Golden Goose,” and the sole reason for their success. Never mind that Fox has been at the top of the cable news food chain since 2002, two years before The Apprentice aired, when he was just a failed proprietor of bankrupt casinos trying to sell the rights to his name for other developers to plaster onto their buildings.

Trump is also blaming his election loss on Fox News, citing the differences between how they covered him in 2016 (when they rapturously covered his every public utterance live and uninterrupted) and 2020 (when they employed a bit more discretion by only covering almost every public utterance). Throughout his presidency and the election campaign, Fox News was faithful to their Dear Leader, lavishing him with praise, while lambasting his critics.

Trump was nevertheless perturbed at Fox because they would occasionally interview a Democrat or allow a Democratic commentator to tell the truth about him. He also whined about Fox’s polling that often – and correctly – found him to be losing to Joe Biden. And now his anger at Fox is being channeled into a new media venture. As reported by Axios, “Trump is considering a digital media channel that would stream online.” And his intentions are not limited to the business aspects of this:

“‘He plans to wreck Fox. No doubt about it,’ said a source with detailed knowledge of Trump’s intentions.”

That’s right. Trump is acting out his revenge on the network that put him in the White House. Now Fox is just another one of the former Trump allies that fell out of favor with him and is therefore subject to his bitter wrath. But don’t mistake this for mere spite for perceived wrongs. This is also Trump’s marketing plan. He needs to diminish Fox News if he ever hopes to prevail over them. So he’s launching this scorched earth campaign to soften up the wingnut TV audience and prepare them for Trump’s debut.

What’s more, Trump’s efforts to contest the results of the election are all likely a part of the same marketing plan. By pushing hard on accusations that the election was stolen from him, and the need to fight back, Trump is keeping his fundraising operation humming. And it will not surprise anyone when most of those funds make their way into his new media startup. Similarly, his rallies, past and future, are not just opportunities to lap up the adoration of his cult followers. They are also useful in building contact lists (email and cell phones) that he can use to launch Trump TV.

In the end, all of these efforts are only likely produce the next Trump bankruptcy. It is incredibly difficult and expensive to launch a new network. And Trump doesn’t have either the work ethic or the money to do it. Furthermore, it is unlikely that he could sustain an audience for 24 hours a day and seven days a week. There is only so much that people can take of him and his trademark belligerence, childish insults, and relentless whining. And as an ex-president – and a loser – he won’t have the draw that the presidency conveys.

However, any project that pits Trump against Fox News is bound to have some entertainment value for America’s liberals and Democrats. It should be fun to see them go after each other in a war that is certain to be harmful to both. So stock up on popcorn and get ready to binge on a bizarre reality show that promises to be even more bizarre than anything Borat could dream up.

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

Trump Insults Heroes as ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’ and Says Everyone Who Criticizes Him is ‘Dying’

Posted by on September 4, 2020 at 9:57 am. 3 Comments :

The Atlantic Magazine just published a spine-chilling story about Donald Trump and his abhorrent remarks about America’s veterans and war dead. “Why should I go to that cemetery?” Trump is reported to have said. “It’s filled with losers.” He later added that the 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood were “suckers” for getting killed.

Donald Trump

The article was well researched and contained testimony from four sources. It was corroborated by at least three other news organizations. And most of all, it’s entirely consistent with Trump’s prior public statements disparaging veterans and POWs, including the late Sen. John McCain. Naturally, Trump quickly denied these reports in terms typical of his substanceless, “slash and burn” character (or lack thereof):

Notice that Trump’s denial is simply an ad hominem attack on the messenger. That’s what he always does. He has no coherent defense based on facts or reality, so he goes for the throat with defamatory rhetoric that virtually no one believes, other than his glassy-eyed cult followers. What follows is a brief history of this psychotic, knee-jerk reaction to any critical news that riles Trump:

  • Fredo’s ratings are down more than 50%. People are tired of his act. @CNN IS DYING!
  • That is because they cover your favorite President relatively well. @CNN & MSDNC are dying in the ratings!
  • The good news is that @maddow is dying in the ratings, along with @CNN!
  • So much Fake News being put in dying magazines and newspapers. Only place worse may be @NBCNews, @CBSNews, @ABC and @CNN. Fiction writers!
  • The reporting at the failing @nytimes gets worse and worse by the day. Fortunately, it is a dying newspaper.
  • FoxNews is changing their theme from “fair and balanced” to “unfair and unbalanced.” But dying @WSJ is worse.Their phony poll is a joke!
  • Dopey @Lawrence O’Donnell, whose unwatchable show is dying in the ratings, said that my Apprentice $ numbers were wrong. He is a fool!
  • NYDailyNews, the dying tabloid owned by dopey clown Mort Zuckerman, puts me on the cover daily because I sell. My honor, but it is dead!
  • NicolleDWallace is really hurting @TheView. She is boring, predictable and has zero television “it” – show no longer has ratings, dying!
  • LateNightSeth I am not surprised that Seth is absolutely dying in the ratings! He is truly an awkward, mumbling jerk. Too bad!
  • VanityFair looks like a dying magazine! Really really boring, really really thin!

If every media enterprise that Trump said was dying actually died there wouldn’t be anything left but the National Enquirer. Oh wait. That died. Trump knows that there is no defense for what he said, so he resorts to these petulant tantrums in the hopes of persuading some of his dimwitted disciples that he isn’t a cretinous traitor.

Clearly, that isn’t working. Trump’s approval ratings continue to fall, and he’s getting crushed by Joe Biden in every national poll, as well as in most of the crucial swing states. And for the most despicable president in U.S. history, it’s all downhill from here.

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