Newsmax

Newsmax Reporter’s Asinine ‘Many People Say’ Question Gets the Psaki Treatment

Posted by on May 7, 2021 at 3:22 pm. 2 Comments :

It’s becoming a nearly daily event to see President Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, thoroughly, but gently, rip the stuffing out of the pseudo-journalists from Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax, in the bright lights of the White House Press Room. You would think that these ultra-partisan poseurs would learn their lesson and take a day or two (or a month or two) off. But no.

Psaki Lightening

On Friday, the latest episode of Survivor: White House Press Corps saw Emerald Robinson of Newsmax in the dunking chair. And this wasn’t her first time. Last month she tried to pose a question that assumed a total absence of racism in American history. It didn’t go well. On this outing, Robinson was likely certain that her pre-planned gotcha question would penetrate Psaki’s cool exterior. But she obviously hadn’t anticipated the anti-missive that Psaki had ready to deploy (video below):

Robinson: Given the number of former Obama administration officials there are now in this Biden administration, and the President’s relatively light schedule, there’s the growing perception that this is really just the third term of President Obama. What do you say to people who say that?
Psaki: Who’s saying that?
Robinson: We hear that a lot in the media.
Psaki: Who in the media?
Robinson: Different people.
Psaki: Like?
Robinson: Well, there was lots of questions.

OUCH! Robinson really scored with that knockout “different people” punch. But Psaki was unfazed. She ended up ignoring the rest of Robinson’s question, which was lucky for Robinson, because the question was an impotent jab based on an utterly false premise. To begin with, there is nothing peculiar about any administration recruiting from people who have had prior White House experience. In fact, it would be foolish not to. Trump was an exception because he didn’t know anyone with relevant experience, so he recruited mostly from Fox News. And as for Biden’s schedule, here are examples of a recent Biden calendar followed by one for Trump:

We already knew that the bulk of Trump’s non-golfing time was spent watching Fox News and tweeting what he saw. Biden, on the other hand, actually attends briefings, consults with his Cabinet, and does the meticulous work required to be a productive chief executive. Which is what made Robinson’s question so ridiculous. But undeterred by humiliation, Robinson shifted gears, changing the subject entirely. She went on to babble something about Vice-President Kamala Harris, who Psaki recently defended from a phony Fox News “scandal.” Robinson was troubled by Harris greeting foreign leaders, as if that wasn’t something done by every vice-president. Psaki had to remind her that…

Psaki: The president has had dozens of conversations and calls with world leaders and it should be no surprise that the Vice-President is also playing an important role engaging with and having discussions with foreign leaders.
Robinson: But it’s more so than other vice presidents have.
Psaki: How so? I’d love to see the data if you want to send that to us.
Robinson: I’ll provide you with that sometime.
Psaki: Sure.

Sure. Sure she will. Psaki shouldn’t wait by the door for that data to arrive. Twice in less than a minute and a half, the Newsmax hack was left grasping for a coherent response when Psaki merely asked her to back up the question. And this sort of massacre is happening regularly. At some point Psaki will have to bar Newsmax from the briefing room as a gesture of mercy.

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.

Dandelion-Gate! Newsmax Wins the ‘Most Asinine Biden Conspiracy Theory’ Award

Posted by on May 1, 2021 at 11:29 am. 6 Comments :

The dedicated disciples of Donald Trump in the right-wing mediaverse have distinguished themselves many times over for their blind adulation of the twice-impeached, pathological lying, narcissistic, fake billionaire, and former reality TV game show host. It’s a love affair that transcends any coherent explanation other than cult worship.

Joe Biden, Newsmax

The efforts by the conservative press to inflate the Trump mythology is exceeded only by their efforts to demean the real world accomplishments of President Biden. But nothing to date rises to the level of lunacy as a segment that aired on Newsmax this week. Perhaps the ultra-rightist network was trying to deflect from the news that they had just settled a defamation lawsuit and admitted that their coverage of the 2020 presidential election was littered with lies. Or maybe they were trying to find some comfort after having lost half their audience since the fall of Trump.

Whatever the reason, there is really no excuse for what Newsmax host Grant Stinchfield unloaded after seeing Biden stoop to pick a flower for his wife, First Lady Jill Biden. It was a bizarre twist on what most people with actual human emotions would have felt. He said that…

“I want you to take a look at this. Joe Biden getting on Marine One and stops and picks up – I think it’s a dandelion, but the dandelion hasn’t even blossomed into a flower yet. Like it gives everybody asthma. So you blow it, it goes everywhere, and everybody starts sneezing.

“Well, he picks up the weed and gives it to Jill in what I guess is supposed to be some kind of sweet gesture – gives dandelions all over the place, I say it was a planted dandelion there. Who knows.”

Seriously? First of all, Stinchfield might want to brush up on the life cycles of dandelions. They flower first, then go to seed, which results in the floating wisps that every normal child recalls making wishes upon. The fact that he associates them solely with health problems says more about his sad childhood than anything else. And his inability to recognize the romance in the gesture by a husband to his bride of 44 years is a sad commentary on his loveless existence.

However, capping off the inanity of this yackery is Stinchfield’s allegation that the dandelion was “planted.” That’s how deranged these wacked out wingnuts have become. They actually believe there’s a White House advance team setting up staged encounters with common yard flowers to enhance the President’s charm quotient. And his isn’t the first time that right-wing hacks have sought to bash the Bidens’ marriage. In February Tucker Carlson of Fox News mocked the First Couple saying that…

“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.”

The raving right attacks Biden for absurdities because they can’t come up with any substantive criticism. All they are left with is laments about the alleged demise of Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head. They failed miserably to smear his COVID relief and stimulus plan, that even a majority of Republicans supported. The same is true with Biden’s infrastructure/jobs bill and their tone-deaf efforts to make it harder to vote. In fact, they label Biden initiatives “anti-American,” despite having broadly popular support by the American people.

As for Newsmax and Stinchfield, their take on the Biden administration can be safely disregarded. Stinchfield is a committed Trump cultist who this week posted a tweet of the Former Guy repeating his “Big Lie” BS that resulted in the Capitol insurrection. “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Trump babbled, “if they found thousands and thousands and thousands of votes,” in the Arizona scam audit. The glassy-eyed Stinchfield thanked Trump and agreed that “I think they might find a lot!”

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.

Jen Psaki Schools Newsmax Shill on the History of Systemic Racism in America

Posted by on April 16, 2021 at 12:08 pm. 9 Comments :

There really needs to be more stringent criteria for who is granted press credentials in the White House Briefing Room. Without some standard for experience and professionalism you wind up making Press Secretary Jen Psaki waste time with questions that are nothing more than pre-scripted, fact-averse hit pieces.

Jen Psaki

Friday morning provided a perfect example of this “gotcha-ism” when Psaki was confronted by the new White House correspondent for Newsmax, Emerald Robinson. She recently joined Newsmax after her stint at One America News Network (OANN). So her journalism pedigree is pitifully lacking in journalistic integrity. Robinson sought to corner Psaki with a loaded question that totally warped reality:

“The U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, talking on Wednesday said that essentially white supremacy is woven into our founding documents and principles. The statement is getting widely criticized as essentially parroting Chinese Communist Party talking point. So is the President going to remove her from her position as the representative before that body?”

The first thing you might notice is that Robinson is painfully ignorant about American history and the nation’s founding documents. Most Americans know that the this country’s originating “principles” permitted slavery and that the Constitution counted African slaves as three-fifths of person. There was also a little thing called the “Civil War” that addressed racial issues in America. And even today’s headlines are filled with examples of the systemic racism that persists.

In addition to those glaring omissions, Robinson also revealed her rookie reporting skills by trying to give her question more credibility by asserting that the Ambassador’s comments were “widely criticized.” By whom? Her bosses at Newsmax? The Republicans she shills for? Capitol insurrections out on bail?

What’s more, it is patently absurd to associate the remarks by Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield with the Chinese Communist Party. Just because a foreign adversary says something similar to an American diplomat doesn’t mean it isn’t true. If a Chinese diplomat criticized America’s early racial bigotry, they would have been stating something that is unarguably true. In fact, it would still be true if they said it today. Psaki had a quick retort that should have put the matter to rest:

“Is POTUS going to remove an African-American woman with decades of experience in the foreign service who’s widely respected around the world from her position as Ambassador to the U.N.? He’s not. He is proud to have her in that position. She is not only qualified, he believes she is exactly the right person in that role in this moment in time.

“I have not seen her comments. I will say that there is no question that there has been a history of institutional racism in this country, and that doesn’t require the U.N. Ambassador to confirm that.”

Unfortunately, Robinson wasn’t satisfied and persisted with her ludicrous line of questions to ask “does the President think our founding documents are racist?” Psaki declined to dignify the inquiry further, saying simply that “most people recognize the history of systemic racism in our country.” And if Robinson needs any additional evidence of American racism, all she has to do is watch her network and note the rampant racism that emanates from its programs every hour of every day.

Early on the Biden administration expressed its intent to manage press relations in a manner that would be starkly different from the hostile work environment fostered by Donald Trump. There would be no more barking at reporters and insulting them as “enemies of the people.” Biden “promised not to allow outlets to use the briefings to spread baseless conspiracies,” and vowed that “Organizations or individuals who traffic in conspiracy theories, propaganda and lies to spread disinformation will not be tolerated.”

It’s time to make good on those promises. There is no way that Newsmax should be entitled to a White House press pass. They don’t conduct responsible, honest journalism. And they don’t aspire to professional standards of ethics. They are unabashed purveyors of propaganda who seek only to malign their ideological foes and advance the ultra-rightists for whom they work. And by the way, all of that applies equally as well to Fox News.

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.

HOLY SHHH: Trump’s Baseball Boycott Babble on Newsmax is Totally Incoherent

Posted by on April 6, 2021 at 4:29 pm. 2 Comments :

The current news cycle is bursting with critical issues that are important to the American people. We are still in the midst of a deadly pandemic. Congress just passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill and is considering infrastructure legislation that could run up another $2.2 Trillion. A nationally significant trial is in progress in Minneapolis deciding the fate of the police officer accused of murdering George Floyd. But right-wing media has other priorities.

Donald Trump, Insane, Straight Jacket

Naturally networks like Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN are only concerned with matters that they can spin to bash President Biden and other Democrats. So their top stories aren’t any of those itemized above. Instead, they are obsessed with the notion that Biden might have had something to do with Major League Baseball moving their All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver. That relocation was wholly the decision of the MLB, due to Georgia passing a bill designed to suppress the voter rights of Democrats in general, and people of color in particular.

In an especially revealing example of the intellectual vacancy of the conservative position, Trump called in to Newsmax to rant about his displeasure with America’s pastime. Which led to this bizarre exchange:

Heather Childers: So, should we boycott baseball?
Trump: Well, I am just not interested in baseball for the last number of years. It’s just not appropriate. You want to find a game. It’s on every channel, and yet you can’t find anything. It’s the weirdest thing. It used to be a nice easy thing to follow. And you know what I mean by that. It was on one network and it was nice and good and beautiful. Today you don’t even know what the hell you’re watching. So I would say “Boycott baseball?” Why not?

WUT? So now Trump thinks that baseball is “not appropriate”? And he can’t find a game on TV because it’s on every channel? It’s abundantly clear that Trump doesn’t know what the hell he’s saying. But he still concludes that the sport must be boycotted in order to make it “nice and good and beautiful” again. This is the same guy who has been demeaning Biden as struggling cognitively. (although even a Fox News poll shows that most voters say that Trump is the one who is mentally unsound).

[NOTE: Heather Childers is a former Fox News presenter who once wondered in a tweet whether Obama threatened To kill Chelsea Clinton.]

As for Fox News, their White House correspondent, Peter Doocy, was the victim of yet another “Psaki Bomb” after he asked Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki about the MLB situation:

Doocy: Is the White House concerned Major League Baseball is moving their All-Star Game to Colorado, where voting regulations are very similar to Georgia?
Psaki: Well, let me refute the first points you made. First let me say on Colorado, Colorado allows you register on election day. Colorado has voting by mail where they send to 100% of their people in the state who are eligible. […] I think it’s important to remember the context here. The Georgia bill is built on a lie.

The right-wing press is not the least bit concerned about the voting rights aspect of this story. They are only worried about whether the corporations, that conservatives used to regard as reliable sources of support and donations, are now cowering under the weight of supposedly fearsome Democratic bullies. Consequently, people like the GOP Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, are lambasting corporations and threatening to revoke the tax benefits that Republicans have showered on them for decades.

Donald Trump has even weighed in to direct his cult followers to boycott not just baseball, but Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, JPMorgan Chase, UPS, Merck, and numerous other companies that had the audacity to stand up for voting rights when their customers demanded it.

Nevertheless, conservatives are adamant that somehow all of this is Biden’s fault. The Republican National Committee even tweeted that Biden ordered the MLB to move the All-Star Game. But the funny thing about that is that the video they posted proved that he did no such thing. He merely expressed his support for a decision that they were making themselves. But right-wingers have never let themselves be bogged down by reality before. Why should they start now?

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.

Dominion Voting Systems Files $1.6 Billion Defamation Lawsuit Against Fox News

Posted by on March 26, 2021 at 8:59 am. 10 Comments :

The bill is coming due for Fox News for having recklessly, repeatedly, and maliciously spread flagrant falsehoods to support Donald Trump’s Big Lie over election fraud. Dominion Voting Systems has just announced that they are suing Fox for defamation to the tune of $1.6 billion.

Fox News Sad

The Associated Press is reporting that Dominion’s case argues that “the cable news giant falsely claimed in an effort to boost faltering ratings that the voting company had rigged the 2020 election.” The story goes on to note that…

“The lawsuit is part of a growing body of legal action filed by the voting company and other targets of misleading, false and bizarre claims spread by President Donald Trump and his allies in the aftermath of Trump’s election loss to Joe Biden. Those claims helped spur on rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in a violent siege that left five people dead, including a police officer. The siege led to Trump’s historic second impeachment.”

This lawsuit against Fox News follows on to Dominion’s previously announced suits against Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell (who is adopting the Tucker Carlson Defense), as well as Mike Lindell, the infamous MyPillow Guy. And Fox News has also been sued by Smartmatic, a voting software services company that alleges similar defamation in Fox’s election reporting.

Fox News is going to have a hard time defending itself from these lawsuits. There is an abundance of evidence that supports the claims, and most of it consists of video from Fox News itself. Their program hosts and guests relentlessly made baseless charges against Dominion on the air. Media Matters has documented some of the more egregious episodes:

  • Dominion Was Used to Rig the Election for President Joe Biden and the Company Has Done This Before
  • Dominion Is of Venezuelan Origin, Created at the Request of Hugo Chavez to Alter Election Results in Furtherance of an International Conspiracy
  • Dominion’s Scheme Was Run by a Deputy of George Soros
  • Kickbacks Were Paid to State Officials — Including Those in Georgia – to Utilize Dominion Machines
  • Smartmatic Owns Dominion and Its Software Is Embedded in Dominion Machines
  • Dominion Machines Are Unreliable and Cannot Be Truly Audited

This video has a summary of some of just a few of the Fox News references to Dominion Voting Systems:

In addition to this lawsuit, Dominion’s lawyers say that they are continuing to explore legal options that could include naming Fox News hosts such as Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, and more. [NOTE: Dominion has added Newsmax and One America News Network (OAN) as defendants] The list of defendants could even extend to include Trump. Which would only be fair. There must be consequences for knowingly disseminating slanderous lies. And that is what Fox News does every day. This lawsuit should just be the first of many more to come.

UPDATE I: Trump tried to peddle his Big Lie about election fraud again on Laura Ingraham’s show Thursday night. But Ingraham cut him off. Ya think that had anything to do with this lawsuit?

UPDATE II: In April of 2023 Fox News settled this lawsuit for a whopping 3/4 of a billion dollars.

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.

Newsmax’s Idea of ‘Healthy’ Comedy is Ridiculing Biden’s Stutter with a Fake Laugh Track

Posted by on March 15, 2021 at 4:29 pm. 2 Comments :

Conservatives frequently complain about the prominence of left-leaning comedy. And they often try to make up for it by presenting pitifully unfunny characters on so-called “news” networks like Fox News, where goofball Greg Gutfeld just got his Saturday show promoted to five nights a week. Then again, there’s already a lot on Fox that is laughable.

Fox News Bozo

The argument that comedy has a left-wing bias (just like reality, according to Stephen Colbert) could be supported if all one looks at is the content of late night talk shows and Saturday Night Live where most of the targets of the jokes are Republicans or other right-wing figures. It is undeniable that they supply an abundance of raw material for humor.

However, there are numerous reasons for what the right believes is a conspiracy by the Comedy Overlords to suppress and malign Republicans. But you have to look deeper than the surface level evidence of TV jokesters.

Anyone who wonders why there isn’t very much conservative comedy is inadvertently acknowledging a significant truth: Conservatives just aren’t funny. Comedy is a delicate art that requires a certain finesse to pull off successfully. And the subject of the jokes is as important as the punch line. Experienced comedians will tell you that the target must always be someone of privilege. You cannot make fun of the poor without exposing yourself as callous and cruel. In other words, you don’t punch down.

Conservatives still don’t get that simple rule. And since their whole political ideology is one that is dedicated to advancing the interests of the upper-crusters, down is the only direction that they can punch. So the available targets for their humor are limited to the under-privileged who are already suffering hardships. Not only is that an empty source for comedy, it risks insulting the majority of the audience.

Even when conservatives have potential targets who are among the elite, they still manage to flub their efforts at fun-making. An example of that was conveniently supplied by Benny Johnson of the rightist “news” channel, Newsmax. He did a segment about the importance of comedy to a healthy society. And he demonstrated its use by mocking President Joe Biden, a viable target.

The problem is that, even though Biden is a member of an elite class of political power players, the joke that Johnson chose to feature was about Biden’s well-known speech impediment. That was a bad choice. You simply don’t make fun of people’s disabilities. While an able-bodied man slipping on a banana peel could be funny, no one is going to laugh at a paraplegic who fell out of his wheel chair.

With that in mind, check out what Johnson has to say about comedy in his introduction to a bit on Joe Biden. Note that most of of the “funny” parts are making fun of Biden’s stutter with an added laugh track that Johnson must have thought made it even funnier:

“Big tech censors are working in lock-step with the current administration to suppress comedy and criticism of the Biden administration. Cancel culture has eroded the joy in American culture to the point of absurdity. This is why it is more important than ever in American history to keep humor and ridicule alive. Because it is now clear that we could very well be on the verge of losing it. And lastly guys, if we can just admit, right now, together, that we are living under one of the funniest administrations in American history.”

Oh yeah. That was hilarious. A supercut of a man with a stutter, plus some random moments taken utterly out of context to make him look demented. What’s more, Johnson’s whining about imaginary “Big Tech censors” oppressing conservative comics is – well – hysterical. But as for that pressing question of the modern era: Why aren’t there any conservative comedians? Johnson has helped us answer it by his boorish and infantile example. Coming soon on Newsmax: Blind Truckers and America’s Funniest Epileptic Seizures.

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.

Newsmax Loses Half Its Addled Audience as Prophecies of Trump’s Resurrection Wane

Posted by on March 6, 2021 at 2:52 pm. 8 Comments :

As the thrill of sedition passes from the glazed-over eyes of Trump’s Insurrectionist Brigades, the appeal of ultra-rightist, Trump-fluffing “news” sources fades significantly. Newsmax had a brief dalliance in the sunlight of Trump’s ego-driven plugs, but the sun has now set and Newsmax retreated to the darkness of its wingnut lair.

Donald Trump Messiah

Not only have the hopes of the QAnon crackpots dwindled as every one of their loopy prophecies failed to materialize, but their Patron Saint of Mar-a-Lago can’t even promote the network on the social media platforms from which he’s been banished. Consequently, the fortunes of Newsmax have declined precipitously:

“In the weeks following the election, Newsmax saw ratings highs as viewers, disappointed by Donald Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden, turned to Newsmax for comfort, as the network continued to perpetuate baseless claims of voter fraud. […] But in the last week of February, Newsmax had lost 51% of its audience in total day [55% in primetime] since its viewership peaked the week of November 16, 2020.”

That’s right. With the crumbling of the QAnon-sense yearnings for Trump to be inaugurated for a second term blown away by the harsh winds of reality, the network that was most prominently propagating the Big Lie that Trump won the 2020 election (and is being sued for defamation) and that he would soon return victorious to the White House, has seen its viewers scamper away to their dens of idiocy.

In the last days of Trump’s Twitter tirades, he spent an inordinate amount of time and energy bashing Fox News. As an alternative, Trump offered up Newsmax and One America News Network (OANN) where the crazy was still in abundant supply. But now those days are gone. The conspiracy theories have all been exhausted, not that they ever had any credibility – or sanity.

Meanwhile, Trump is still hiding out in his Mar-a-Lago bunker. And due to his banishment from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, he can no longer prop up the screwball networks that championed his messianic mission. It’s a pathetic tale of woe that would surely tear at the heartstrings of the Trumpian cultists, if they had hearts.

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.

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

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

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

Donald Trump, Fox News, Lies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

PRIORITIES: While Texas Freezes, Lindsey Graham Stumps for Trump’s Useless Border Wall

Posted by on February 20, 2021 at 10:43 am. 6 Comments :

The Republican Party long ago distinguished itself as a haven for cravenly selfish elitists whose primary purpose is to lower taxes on the rich, eliminate regulations that save lives, suppress minorities, and advance the agenda of extremist evangelicals. This week the GOP had some outstanding opportunities to affirm their commitment to that mission.

Lindsey Graham, Donald Trump

Without question, the biggest story of the week was the devastating winter storm that bombarded Texas and much of the eastern United States. What we learned from that ongoing catastrophe was that Republicans were more interested in politicizing the tragedy than in doing anything constructive to help their suffering constituents.

For instance, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott rushed to Fox News to deflect blame for the failures of his administration to out of state Democrats and the “Green New Deal,” which has not been enacted into law anywhere, especially Texas. Meanwhile, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz jetted off to the sunny climes of Cancun, Mexico, with his family, rather than stay at home and do his job during troubled times. Humiliated by such a callous abandonment of his duty to his state, he frantically returned and immediately got to work making excuses on Fox News, where he blamed his minor children for his own poor decisions.

On Saturday, the GOP’s Senior Trump-fluffing Senator, Lindsey Graham demonstrated the same lack of human decency. After spending time with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Lindsey boarded a plane for the southern border where he could raise an issue that is topmost on the minds almost nobody: Trump’s idiotic, useless, and vain border wall. Graham’s cross-country jaunt to serve as Trump’s mouthpiece resulted in a propaganda video wherein he asserted that…

“The Biden Administration apparently has decided to stop plugging this hole here. As a result the Border Patrol is now gonna try to have a camera and people sitting up on that hill to watch them as they flow in. Wouldn’t it make more sense to put this section of the wall together? What good comes from allowing this hole to continue to exist? This wall is here for a purpose. To keep people from coming into our country illegally,”

For the record, what Graham is referring to is a thirty foot space along a double-tracked portion of the wall on a border that is 2,000 miles long. The other track at this point is complete, so if the wall is capable of preventing entry (it isn’t), it would already be doing that. Also, notice all of “them” who are flowing into the country in this video. Frightening, isn’t it?

This is what Graham dropped everything to do. Does it help the people of Texas who are freezing and dying? Does it further efforts to combat the coronavirus? Does it even address the issue of immigration, for which Joe Biden and the Democrats just introduced a comprehensive bill that Graham could be working on? Of course not. It’s ironic that, while Graham is obsessed with a wall (that Mexico was supposed to pay for) to prevent people from Mexico getting into the U.S., Ted Cruz couldn’t get out of the U.S. and into Mexico fast enough.

This is so emblematic of the Republican Party. They have a perverse set of priorities that seem to be perpetually at odds with what the American people actually want and need. And when they aren’t trying to distract the public with politically partisan culture war demagoguery, they are lashing out with vicious attacks that have no basis in fact or reality. Take for example this crackpottery by Newsmax anchor Greg Kelly who, unable to substantively criticize President Biden, he goes after one of his dogs:

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.

Newsmax: Ted Cruz Can Do More For Texas Storm Victims By Fleeing To Cancun

Posted by on February 18, 2021 at 2:07 pm. 12 Comments :

Never let it be said that Republicans are afraid to march into controversy no matter how unpopular or self-serving. They have spent decades proving that there is noting too asinine for them to pursue with gusto and shamelessness in the face of universal criticism.

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Ted Cruz, Cancun

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas helpfully demonstrated that reputation for abhorrent audacity on Thursday as he packed his bags and jetted off to the balmy climes of Cancun, Mexico, while his constituents were freezing and dying, back home. While Texans were suffering without power, heat, food, or water, Cruz was languishing in the sun at a luxurious resort. As CNN reported…

“Sen. Ted Cruz and his family flew to Cancun, Mexico, he confirmed in a statement to CNN, as a winter disaster in his home state left millions without power or water. Cruz, a Texas Republican, said in the statement he flew down for a night because his daughters ‘asked to take a trip with friends.'”

It was clever of Cruz to blame this fiasco on his minor children. He’s learned a lot from his crush, Donald Trump (aka Cadet Bone Spurs), about evading responsibilities. Likewise, Cruz is beginning to master outrageous hypocrisy. CNN also reported that “In a radio interview Monday, Cruz told people to ‘stay home’ and not ‘risk it. Keep your family safe and just stay home and hug your kids.'” Good advice – for the little people.

This sort of insensitivity is nauseating on so many levels. It is an affront to the people who made the mistake of voting for him. It exposes his callous disregard for people in distress. Just the horrid optics of this behavior alone would have prevented a decent person from boarding that plane with his privileged family.

Naturally, Cruz has his defenders and apologists. They begin with the right-wing media that has so staunchly propped up Trump for four excruciating years. Fox News has been busily blaming green energy for Texas’ problems. And the arguments trotted out to justify Cruz’s vacationing were predictably galling. Let’s start with the ultra-conservative Newsmax:

So the Newsmax crowd believes that Cruz was selflessly relocating to a better command post to help his fellow Texans? To be sure, there are problems with power and communications in the state. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t places were those resources are available. And even if they weren’t, Cruz could have gone to a neighboring state rather than a ditch the country. Not even Cruz tried to peddle that nonsense excuse. In his statement he admitted that he was going on vacation.

Moving on, Longtime Trump shill and election fraud felon, Dinesh D’Souza, had a similar take on how Cruz was acting in the interest of his constituents. “What could @tedcruz do,” D’Souza tweeted. He elaborated saying that…

“If he were here in Texas? I’m hard-pressed to say. If he’s in Cancun, that means he’s not using up valuable resources of energy, food and water that can now be used by someone else. This is probably the best thing he could do for the state right now”

Wasn’t that thoughtful? By skipping out Cruz left a bounty of power and other resources for some other fortunate family. I hope they realize how lucky they are to be in Texas consuming Cruz’s share of the food and energy, while he’s sacrificing on their behalf in Cancun.

Finally, uber-jerk Ben Shapiro managed to pound out another of his painfully illogical diatribes. He observed that…

“It’s not a real time crisis that Ted Cruz, the senator from Texas, can do anything about […] Do they expect Ted to go there with, like, a blowtorch and start defrosting all of the pipelines?”

Shapiro is right. Cruz would have been utterly useless had he remained in Texas. But then he was equally useless in Cancun. His uselessness has nothing to do with where he is physically. That’s just the way he is anywhere. For an example of a Texan who contributes to his community, see this from Beto O’Rourke:

In the end, the notion that Texas is better off when Ted Cruz is far away is difficult to argue with. But that being the case, he shouldn’t be representing the state in any official capacity. And the same goes for the rest of the Republican wankers who believe that government shouldn’t be helping people. Any political party whose philosophy rests on the jungle theory wherein everybody fends for themselves fails to understand why there are governments at all.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. 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.