Trump is Freaking Out that the January 6th Hearings are So Effectively Illuminating His Crimes

Posted by Mark NC on June 24, 2022 at 12:08 pm. 5 Comments :

The creaky gears of Donald Trump’s primitive mental machinery have always made it simple to read his poorly veiled motives and fear driven objectives. What he is most afraid of invariably consumes his private thoughts and public outbursts. He is an open children’s book that consists mainly of stick pictures and infantile temper tantrums.

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This has never been more apparent than in his reactions to the hearings being conducted by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection that he invited. In just two weeks the Committee has exposed a multitude of ethical, moral, and legal breaches that would crush the career of any politician who hadn’t been transformed into a cartoonish cult messiah by a small but vocal congregation of crackpots. And the Committee is clearly having a profound impact on the American people.

Consequently, Trump has taken to his miserably failing social media debacle, TRUTH Social, to vent his outrage. And not surprisingly, his tirades are typically anti-social and utterly devoid of any “truth” He began by complaining that…

“The only thing not discussed by the Unselects, in any way, shape, or form, is the irrefutable evidence of massive and totally pervasive ELECTION FRAUD & IRREGULARITIES which took place during the 2020 Presidential Election. They refuse to go there.”

First of all, that’s blatantly false. The Committee’s mandate from the start has been to discuss Trump’s flagrantly fallacious claims of election fraud. And they have done so in every session. If they haven’t discussed any “irrefutable evidence” of such fraud, it’s just because there isn’t any. And if Trump wants more representation of his side, he might want to agree to testify, or stop ordering his minions not to do so. Then Trump continued to whine…

““What about the massive ballot stuffing shown, on Government Tape, by the highly respected and credible Patriots of Truth to Vote (2000 Mules)?”

Not only was there no evidence of any ballot stuffing, but Trump can’t even get the name of the highly disreputable and non-credible group right. (It’s “True the Vote”). And the crocumentary “2,000 Mules” by a convicted election fraudster, has been widely debunked. But Trump still wasn’t done yowling. He felt compelled to utter more falsehoods about the Committee, lying that…

“Their lead investigator just quit, they cancelled or postponed future hearings, the T.V. Ratings are absolutely abysmal, and Shifty Schiff continues his sanctimonious ‘interviews’ just as though he were talking about his first four failed hoaxes!”

Trump is trying desperately to malign the Committee with ludicrous assertions that he thinks will make it look bad. Let’s start with his charge that the lead investigator quit. To Trump that signals some sort of trouble. However, the investigator, John Wood, is actually a republican who is exploring a senate primary bid in Missouri to challenge the disgraced GOP candidate and “RINO hunter,” Eric Greitens, who even Republicans are embarrassed by.

Then Trump notes that future Committee hearings were postponed (not canceled). That’s true. But once again, it isn’t because of problems with the proceedings. In fact, it’s due to the Committee receiving so much new evidence against against Trump that they need more time to process it. Contrary to Trump’s phony fulminations, this will actually result in extending the hearings, and their devastating affect on Trump, into July.

Finally, Trump is deliberately lying about the TV ratings. Every session of the Committee’s hearings have garnered huge audiences. The first session, that aired in primetime, had higher ratings than the NBA championship game the night before. And the American people are paying attention. In a significant increase since the last poll, nearly 6 in 10 Americans say that Trump should charged criminally for his role in the Capitol Hill riots.

Making matters worse for Trump, even longtime conservative pollster, Frank Luntz, has noticed that “Trump is being damaged by the House Select Committee hearings.”

“Speaking on CNN, Luntz pointed to polling showing that Trump’s unfavorability among voters has spiked over the course of the hearings as evidence that they’re leaving a mark.”

The longer these hearings go on, the more proof of Trump’s criminality will be exposed, and the more people will be repulsed by his assault on democracy and the Constitution. And the only thing his petulant whining will accomplish will be to make him look all the more guilty, pathetic, and desperate. So … Please proceed, Donald.

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The January 6th Hearings are Driving Public Opinion – And Trump’s Latest Delusional Meltdown

Posted by Mark NC on June 14, 2022 at 5:12 pm. 9 Comments :

The January 6th insurrection incited by Donald Trump was an unprecedented assault on American democracy. And now that the House Select Committee investigating the deadly Capitol Hill riots has held the first two sessions of its hearings, there is concrete evidence that the public is paying attention and is appropriately disgusted by Trump’s criminal and treasonous malfeasance.

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A new Politico/Morning Consult poll has found that the American people’s opinion of the attack on Congress by the StormTrumpers is already taking a decidedly anti-Trump turn. The Committee is doing an effective job of presenting the abundant evidence of Trump’s purposeful lying about election fraud, and his fleecing of his gullible cult followers with solicitations for his so-called “Election Defense Fund” that doesn’t actually exist.

As a result of the revelations produced in just the first two sessions, Trump and the Republican Party are taking a severe hit to the gut. Mediaite reports that…

“In a poll taken after last week’s Jan. 6 hearing, a whopping 69 percent of Americans [say] it is a ‘crime’ to try and overturn election results, and similar numbers say the Justice Department should prosecute.”

When asked if “misleading Americans about the outcome of an election” is a crime, a massive majority of 69% said definitely/probably “Yes,” including 59% of Republicans. The same question on “officials attempting to overturn the results of an American election,” returned the same 69% affirmative, including 54% of Republicans.

The numbers were almost identical when respondents were asked whether “the Department of Justice should bring legal action against” the elected officials engaging in the crimes identified above.

For his part, Trump is clearly having a bad day. He has posted on his failing TRUTH Social Twitter clone website some truly bizarre rants. Such as…

“Word out that the reason the Unselects have canceled Wednesday’s Kangaroo Court is a total lack of interest leading to very poor television ratings. Could this be so? Maybe they should try getting a more talented Hollywood producer than the former President of ABC Fake News. He didn’t do so well!”

What Trump is referring to is that the Committee’s session for Wednesday has been postponed – not canceled. And the reason has nothing to do with a “lack of interest.” In fact, the first hearing that was held in primetime on Thursday drew more than 20 million viewers, which is twice what game three of the NBA Finals did. And MSNBC even beat Fox News, who refused to cover that hearing live.

MSNBC also shined during Monday’s hearings, beating Fox News and CNN combined. And while the Monday session was not in primetime, it still garnered about 10 million total viewers across several networks. Nevertheless, Trump threw an infantile tantrum whining that…

“The T.V. Ratings for the January 6th Unselect Committee were absolutely awful. Perhaps the reason is that it is being ‘sponsored’ by Adam ‘Shifty’ Schitt and the same people that brought you the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX, and that the Unselects are not interested in hearing from anyone saying the Election was Rigged and Stolen, despite the EVIDENCE being irrefutable!”

Really? Adam “Schitt”? Has Trump ever advanced past the emotional maturity of a six year old, or is he regressing? And are his Deplorables really dense enough to believe his easily debunked lie about the “absolutely awful” ratings? Apparently so, After all, they believe his pitiful wailing about the “Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX,” that is well documented. And that’s even after Tucker Carlson inadvertently conceded that it was never a hoax to begin with.

Sadly, for some time to come, the nation is going to have to deal with the deeply psychotic distortions of reality that Trump and his disciples are infected with. Hopefully they will either find a a way back to some sense of sanity, or crawl back under their rocks and stop spreading their diseased, dystopian fantasies.

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Trump Toady Lies that Fox News ‘Destroyed CNN and MSNBC’ By Not Airing the January 6th Hearings

Posted by Mark NC on June 12, 2022 at 12:08 pm. 8 Comments :

The brazenness with which Republicans lie is often an astonishing display of depraved dishonesty. There appears to be no bar too low for them to slither under when it comes to misrepresenting reality. As George Orwell wrote in “1984”: “War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.” The Cult of Trump could now add to that “Fox is news” and “Trump won!”

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Not that any more evidence is necessary to prove the point, but Trump toady, and CEO of Trump’s failing Twitter clone TRUTH Social, Devin Nunes, visited with Howard Kurtz, host of Fox News’ Media Buzz. During a segment about the decision by Fox News not air the House Select Committee hearings on the January 6th insurrection, Nunes unloaded a spectacularly false assertion about the television ratings for the telecast in the following exchange:

Kurtz: Let’s talk about the January 6th hearing Thursday night, primetime. You say it was totally partisan, and you could certainly make that case given that every member is anti-Trump. But let’s go beyond that. Does that mean the media shouldn’t cover it much? Does it mean they should dismiss videotaped depositions from the likes of Bill Barr, Jason Miller, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump?
Nunes: The way that I view it, Howie, is I think we have numbers now that are in, and you covered this. To put this in primetime, the numbers were way down. So I don’t understand how these big corporations – I know it was spread across some 20 different networks – when you compare Fox News which did not air that live, I mean just destroyed CNN and MSNBC in the ratings, right?
Kurtz: Networks like MSNBC did very well covering this hearing, Obviously, it would appeal to the liberal viewers of that network.

First of all, it’s important to note that Kurtz’s question improperly argued that the Committee is partisan because “every member is anti-Trump.” In fact, the Committee is bipartisan, by definition, because it includes members of both parties. There just happens to be bipartisan agreement that Trump is a liar who incited the storming of the Capitol.

More to the point, the claim by Nunes that Fox News “just destroyed CNN and MSNBC in the ratings” is flagrantly false. MSNBC far exceeded their usual audience, averaging 4.1 million viewers during the hearings. Fox News came in second with only 3 million, which is what they get on any ordinary night. So the same cult viewers tuned in to Fox just as they have been programmed to do.

What’s more, Nunes says that the numbers were “way down” for the hearings. Actually, they were far higher than anything these news networks have achieved in many years. More than 20 million people watched live, and even more millions watched via streaming, or delayed on DVRs or recasts. It was nearly twice the audience of game three of the NBA Finals.

For his part, Kurtz meekly replied that “MSNBC did very well,” dismissing the fact that they won their time period and beat Fox News. He also belittled the ratings win as the result of MSNBC’s “appeal to the liberal viewers,” ignoring the rest of the TV audience across many networks. And furthermore, Kurtz has no idea what the ideological make up of the audience was. Many conservatives and other non-liberals likely tuned in specifically because Fox wasn’t airing it.

Finally, in addition to lying through his teeth, Nunes didn’t even come close to answering Kurtz’s question, which was whether or not the media should cover the hearings. Obviously Fox News doesn’t want to cover them because, in addition to revealing that they have been lying about Trump and the insurrection for the past year and half, their audience would also see that their biggest stars were accomplices to Trump’s crimes.

You have to wonder why Nunes was interviewed on this program in the first place. He is not a member of Congress. He runs a Trump business enterprise/scam. And on that website people who posted the truth about the January 6th insurrection were banned. Kurtz never bothered to ask Nunes about that.

Trump also weighed in on the ratings for the hearings and, true to form, he attempted to gaslight his dimwitted cult disciples by claiming that the ratings were “really BAD…far lower than anticipated.” Which, as someone who worked on TV for fourteen years, he knows isn’t true, or he’s even more stupid than we thought. He also called the hearings a “Witch Hunt” because – well, everything he doesn’t like either a witch hunt or a hoax, isn’t it?

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January 6th Hearing Ratings are Burning Up Trump and His Right-Wing Media Liars

Posted by Mark NC on June 10, 2022 at 12:42 pm. 20 Comments :

On Thursday evening the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection incited by Donald Trump held its first public hearing in primetime. The opening session disclosed never before seen video of the Capitol Hill riots, as well as testimony from a police officer who was injured and a documentary film make who was embedded with the seditionist StormTrumpers, the Proud Boys.

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Most of this debut outing was spent providing an outline of the crimes committed by insurrectionists and Trump’s role in undermining democracy and orchestrating an attempted coup. It was a compelling presentation that included numerous revelations of Trump’s criminal complicity, stomach-churning clips of violence, and incriminating commentary by Trump insiders such as Attorney General Bill Barr, Ivanka Trump, and even some Fox News hosts.

The criminal culpability of their program hosts is surely one of the reasons Fox News refused to air the hearings live. They certainly don’t want their audience to see their biggest stars being implicated in Trump’s crimes. That would only add to the humiliation of exposing how the network has been lying about the insurrection for the past year and a half. It would make it ever more evident that Fox is not – and has never been – a news network.

Prior to this historic event, Republicans on Fox News tried desperately to suppress it. In one segment Fox interviewed Rep. Jim Banks (R-Insurrectionist) who confidently predicted that the telecast would be a big flop. “The American people have already dismissed it,” he lied. “They’re tuning out. They’re gonna flip the channel.”

That’s coming from the guy who was bounced from the Committee because he is an accomplice to Trump’s crimes. Banks also employs Tucker Carlson’s son, Buckley, as his communications director. The following day Banks attested to his own failed prediction saying that “Last night’s hearing was a primetime dud. Nothing came out of it.”

On Friday morning Nielsen’s ratings were released. And despite Banks’ and Fox’s efforts to sabotage and deviously counterprogram the broadcast (Tucker Carlson ran his show commercial free in order to prevent people from switching channels), the numbers reflect solid interest by the American people:

“ABC took the largest haul of viewers, earning 4.8 million of them, while NBC and CBS carried 3.5 million and 3.3 million, respectively.

“On cable, MSNBC pulled in a whopping 4.1 million viewers during the hearings, nearly four times what the network averages on a typical weeknight.

“Usually dominant Fox News Channel came in second place on cable on Thursday night, averaging 3 million viewers from 8 to 10 p.m. CNN came in third place with 2.6 million.”

That’s a combined 18.3 million viewers, and still doesn’t include a few other networks that carried the hearings (i.e. CSPAN, Fox Business, etc.). For comparison, Game two of the NBA Finals averaged 8.2 million viewers on Wednesday, and Fox’s MasterChef got 2.1 million. Fox News averaged 2.6 million across prime time on Wednesday.

So these numbers for Thursday’s hearings show the networks performing better than the top rated cable news channel. Furthermore, there will be a lot more viewers due to streaming, social media, and coverage by news programs in the days to come.

Consequently, the loss of Fox News will be less than irrelevant. Their 2-3 million glassy-eyed viewers aren’t persuadable anyway. So who needs them? The vast majority of the American people are going to be better informed by the end the hearings, and the legal foundation for indictments will be stronger than ever. The Trump junkies will remain irredeemably deranged.

UPDATE: True to form, Trump is attempting to gaslight his dimwitted cult disciples by claiming that the ratings for the hearings are “really BAD…far lower than anticipated.” Which is 180 degrees from reality. He also calls it a “Witch Hunt” because – isn’t everything he doesn’t like either a witch hunt or a hoax in his diseased mind?

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Obsessed Ego Maniac Trump Calls TV Ratings Declines ‘A Wonderful Thing to See’

Posted by Mark NC on June 29, 2021 at 5:24 pm. 3 Comments :

Donald Trump, the former reality TV game show host, is once again obsessing over television ratings. It’s almost as if he still thinks he’s a TV personality, rather than the pathetic political loser who is now a senior resident of Palm Beach’s gaudy Mar-All-Ego retirement village in Florida.

Trump’s fixation on TV ratings goes back a long ways. He has long regarded them as being a better indicator of popularity than public opinion polls. That may be because most polls consistently exposed his weakness and general disapproval with the public at large.

Trump literally said that TV ratings “are the real polls” despite the fact that Nielsen doesn’t measure popularity, just viewership. Which means they don’t record the political ideology of viewers.

Furthermore, TV ratings don’t account for the fact that Fox News only tops the ratings because it has a de facto monopoly on the cult-like right-wing audience, while the rest of the viewer universe is divided among all the other news and entertainment networks.

On Tuesday Trump issued one of his increasingly impotent statements (since he can no longer post on social media) that are mostly ignored by everyone but his dimwitted disciples. He said that…

“CNN ratings are down 70%. MSDNC is also way down. Actually, they are ALL way down. They say the news is ‘boring’ since I left D.C. Morning Joe, Joy Reid (whoever that is?), Nicole Wallace, Jake Tapper, and even Chris Wallace, at Fox, in free fall. A wonderful thing to see!”

Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America pic.twitter.com/6RxB5Sfz9Y

— RSBN ?? (@RSBNetwork) June 29, 2021

Trump is surprisingly correct for once. Ratings for all of the cable news networks have declined year over year. According to Deadline…

“In primetime, Fox News topped with an average of 2.13 million viewers, compared to 1.31 million for MSNBC and 798,000 for CNN. Compared to the same month a year earlier, Fox News was off 42%, MSNBC was down 36% and CNN dropped 57%. In the 25-54 demo, Fox News drew an average of 329,000, down 50%; compared to 179,000 for CNN, falling 68%; and 166,000 for MSNBC, off by 48%.

“In total day, Fox News averaged 1.17 million in total viewers, down 35%; MSNBC posted 763,000, down 37% and CNN was at 580,000, down 49%. In the 25-54 demo, the numbers were 195,000 for Fox News, down 42%, 133,000 for CNN, falling 59% and 99,000 for MSNBC, dropping by 48%.”

However Trump doesn’t bother to explain why ratings have suffered. He simply implies that it’s because his unceasing lunacy is no longer a part of the daily circus that consumes the press. He’s at least partially correct. There are fewer viewers for the same reason that viewership declines after any other catastrophic event. Ratings spike when a hurricane ravages the eastern shore. Then they subside when the weather returns to normal. And Hurricane Trump has petered out.

In the big picture, the ratings for all of the cable news networks were expected to fall back from this time last year. In June of 2020 the nation was in the midst of a presidential election. The party conventions were approaching. And it isn’t insignificant to note that people were confined to their homes due to a deadly pandemic. Which was another Trump catastrophe that boosted news viewing.

Trump’s statement went out of its way to identify program hosts mostly from MSNBC. And the only one that he derisively insulted was Joy Reid, a Black woman. That’s a pretty good indicator of who and what he is most afraid of. But his last comment stating that these ratings declines are “A wonderful thing to see” reveals his hostility to the media that he has repeatedly referred to in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.”

Like the totalitarian dictators he admires, Trump wants the media to fail. He regards a free press, and the Constitution that protects it, as an adversary. And any bad news for the media is good news for an aspiring tyrant like Trump. He actually confided his envy to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, telling him that he also would like to “get rid of” the press. And given the opportunity, don’t doubt that he wouldn’t try.

UPDATE: Fox News reported on the ratings decline of CNN and MSNBC, attributing it, without evidence, to a “credibility problem.” And speaking of credibility problems, for some reason Fox’s article never mentioned Fox News ratings at all, or that they had declines that were just as bad and, more often than not, worse.

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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.

Trump Imagines ‘Thousands and Thousands of Boats’ Worshiping Him on Memorial Day

Posted by Mark NC on May 31, 2021 at 5:05 pm. 3 Comments :

This Memorial Day has suffered more than its share of political debasement by the pseudo-patriots at Fox News and other right-wing media exploitation factories. For them the day isn’t about remembering America’s fallen heroes. They see it only as an opportunity to malign their ideological foes.

The compulsion to take advantage of this holiday was evident Sunday when Fox News criticized Vice-President Kamala Harris for wishing everyone well on the long weekend. The Fox crowd was appalled that Harris allegedly demeaned this otherwise somber day of remembrance as just a chance to enjoy some time with family and friends. Which is, of course, what just about everyone does. Twenty minutes later Fox posted a tweet about how to make holiday cocktails. So hypocrisy is still alive and well at Fox News.

On Monday Trump took his turn at posting his thoughts on Memorial Day. Since he’s been banished from Twitter, he posted a comment on his pitifully lame blog He giggled like like a school child that…

“Wow! I hear they have thousands and thousands of boats parading in Jupiter, despite the fact that they tried to cancel us. Everyone is having an incredible time. On this day, we especially appreciate everyone who served and fought for our great Country. I love you all!”

First of all, Trump is lauding these MAGA boaters for “having an incredible time,” which according to the Fox dictum is verboten. And all of the boats are flying Trump flags (many of which are desecrating the American flag), but none of them say anything to commemorate Memorial Day. More to the point, Trump, in his narcissistic fog, is imagining “thousands and thousands of boats” when video of the affair shows that there are at best a couple of dozen.

JUST IN – Trump says, "I hear they have thousands and thousands of boats parading in Jupiter, [Florida] despite the fact that they tried to cancel us." pic.twitter.com/EgrxzdXOVD

— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) May 31, 2021

The small number of MAGA boaters are reminiscent of Trump’s delusional estimates of attendees at his inauguration and his cult rallies. His tendency to inflate numbers not only got him into trouble for flagrantly lying, but it’s also a factor in the criminal investigations currently in progress in New York where he has inflated and/or deflated the value of his real estate properties to defraud the IRS.

Not only is Trump’s new blog a bust, but according to The Wrap, his most recent TV interview on Newsmax got half as many viewers as a rerun of ‘Chopped’ on the Food Network. What’s more…

“MSNBC’s ‘Rachel Maddow Show’ grabbed 2.59 million total average viewers and 355,000 in the demo. Meanwhile, while Fox News’ ‘Hannity,’ a show Trump has been known to frequent, nabbed 2.318 million total viewers with an average 387,000 between 25 and 54. CNN’s ‘Cuomo Prime Time’ averaged 1.02 million viewers, with 222,000 in the key demo.”

For Trump, size has always mattered. And he will lie to benefit himself whenever he sees fit. It’s a problem that he exhibits in every facet of his personal and professional lives. But to be fair, he has to do it if he wants any positive press. The reality of his existence is downright depressing. He is, and will remain, America’s Biggest Loser.

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

Rachel Maddow Topped All Cable News Programs for the 1st Quarter of 2021

Posted by Mark NC on March 31, 2021 at 4:03 pm. 6 Comments :

One of the more pompous predictions of the former guy (Donald Trump) was that without him “all forms of media will tank.” Although there is some truth to that in the sense that he attracted eyeballs in the same way that a bloody highway crash does. He insisted on constantly being the center of attention even if that meant making a fool of himself, which he did more often than not.

However, what Trump failed to predict was the rise of progressive media and particularly MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. Her performance has been a bright light in a media environment that has been shrouded by a global pandemic. During the first quarter of 2021, Maddow rose to become the number one cable news program, beating her competition on the prior leader, Fox News. For part of the quarter Maddow was the number one program on all of cable, not just cable news. She marked that milestone on March 3rd:

We are extremely appreciative of everyone who watches and supports this show and this network. We will keep doing our best to be worthy of your time and your trust. pic.twitter.com/YTUuHOSAeC

— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) March 3, 2021

During the quarter Fox News was the biggest loser, having dropped 40 percent into third place behind both MSNBC and CNN. By comparison CNN was off 32 Percent, and MSNBC fell only 19 percent. It isn’t surprising that viewership was down this year. It was being compared to an unusually eventful prior year that was bombarded with profoundly significant developments like the pandemic, the second impeachment, and the presidential election.

This year by contrast has been languid, in the most pleasant way. President Biden has sought to make his policies the story, rather than himself. The ponderous presence of a psychotic narcissist has been banished from Washington, although it still emits it’s pitiful, emasculated roars from its new lair in Palm Beach. This sea change is a big plus for journalism. As Tom Jones at the Poynter Institute noted…

“Now, for the most part, Trump can be ignored. Which means stories that really matter can be covered. Maybe it won’t draw the audience we’ve seen in the past, but it will be important.”

The standings in the ratings are likely to be volatile in the coming months, Fox News may regain its leading post when viewers who abandoned it for more radical pastures (Newsmax, OANN) return. They may find those other outlets tiresome, specious, and devoid of substance. And Trump isn’t around to promote them anymore.

Fox’s CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, is confidant that Fox News ratings will increase because its viewers will appreciate Fox’s unethical commitment to right-wing propaganda. Murdoch recently admitted that Fox’s role is to be “the opposition” to Biden and the Democrats, saying “That’s what our job is now with the Biden administration, and you’ll see our ratings really improve from here.”

Maybe. But the fact that MSNBC and Rachel Maddow prevailed during one of the most competitive seasons in modern times is evidence that many viewers hunger for honest and informative reporting. Fox’s approach to journalism as an ultra-conservative confirmation bias generator can only succeed on a temporary basis. And its reporting will have no lasting impact anywhere other than in the minds of the indoctrinated wingnuttery.

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

Hapless Hannity Mocks CNN’s Ratings While Ignoring His Own Downward Spiral

Posted by Mark NC on March 17, 2021 at 4:16 pm. 3 Comments :

The presidential election last November heralded real change for America. And it wasn’t just by evicting Donald Trump from the White House. Almost immediately the Fox News audience cratered due to the network having bent to reality by recognizing that Joe Biden had decisively beaten Trump.

In addition to Fox’s viewers being disappointed that their formerly favorite dispenser of ultra-conservative propaganda had betrayed them by not embracing Trump’s “Big Lie” that the election was “stolen,” Fox also had to deal with some competition from a couple of upstarts to their already extreme right (who are also having ratings troubles). Consequently, for the first time in twenty years, Fox News fell to third place behind MSNBC and CNN. And you know that’s gotta hurt. According to Forbes…

“Fox News Channel, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp, has dominated the rating books since the start of the 21st-century, but over the first two weeks of 2021, it has averaged fewer viewers throughout the day than both CNN and MSNBC.”

The pain from having been crippled in the ratings clearly got to Sean Hannity. On Wednesday he posted an item on his website that celebrated that CNN was in a “Free Fall” having “Los[t] 47 PERCENT of Primetime Audience in Key Demographic Since Trump Left Office.” The article excitedly declared that…

“Without wall-to-wall coverage of all-things Donald Trump, CNN’s primetime line-up has lost nearly half of its entire audience in the 25-54 age demographic since the former President left the White House on January 20th.”

There are a couple of notable slants in Hannity’s twisted take. First of all, notice that he is only measuring the ratings decline from Biden’s inauguration day on January 20, rather than from election day on November 3rd. That’s because by January there had already been a massive spike for both CNN and MSNBC, so the subsequent drop looks considerably steeper.

Even more bizarre is Hannity’s description of CNN as having “wall-to-wall coverage of all-things Donald Trump,” when it is Fox News that wears that description so much better. Fox continued to cover every utterance of Trump during that period, which was not the case with CNN and MSNBC. They were, however, covering Biden’s public events that Fox virtually ignored. Hannity even commented on his program that he couldn’t find Biden. Obviously, he must have been looking on Fox News.

Fox News has regained some of its losses in the past couple of weeks, but it is still struggling to stay ahead of the competition. What’s more, while all three of the cable news networks saw rollercoaster ups and downs since election day, both MSNBC and CNN are averaging more viewers than they were a year ago. Rachel Maddow even rose to become the number one program in all of cable, not just cable news. Only Fox News is lower year over year. And Fox’s competitors succeeded by covering the real president and his administration. Bloomberg reports that…

“All three of the big cable news networks have seen a decline in viewers since their highs around Election Day. MSNBC, which has been broadcasting news conferences daily by Biden Press Secretary Jennifer Psaki, led in total viewers throughout the day last month. It and CNN were up year-over-year in February, while Fox saw a decline.”

However, Hannity’s article provided a hysterical analysis of the ratings landscape with a three year old quote from Ted Koppel:

“Longtime broadcaster Ted Koppel famously mocked CNN’s Brian Stelter to his face back in 2018, telling the network’s media pundit that ‘CNN’s ratings would be in the toilet without Donald Trump.'”

Let’s set aside that the fact that what Koppel said was hardly mockery. It was just an opinion that Brian Stelter likely agreed was plausible. What makes this so laughable is that Hannity must have forgotten this exchange he had with Koppel that literally mocked him to his face on his own show in March of 2017:

Hannity: Do you think I’m bad for America?
Koppel: Yes. … You have attracted people who are determined that ideology is more important than facts.

So Koppel not only told Hannity to his face that he was bad for America, but he insulted Hannity’s viewers as being ignorant cult followers who don’t care about facts. And all of this inspired Hannity to post a celebratory article full of wholly unwarranted pride. It’s hard to think of something more pathetic.

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 Mark NC 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.

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.

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

Crybaby Trump to Screen Actors Guild: You Can’t Fire Me. I Quit!

Posted by Mark NC on February 4, 2021 at 12:19 pm. 3 Comments :

America’s first (and hopefully only) reality TV game show host to have accidentally become president of the United States has provided the finishing touch to his career as a failed entertainer. And true to form, Donald Trump has made the whole affair about himself and his morbidly bloated ego. Now he has been wounded in way that is especially painful for someone so obsessed with himself.

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram.

Prior to launching his brand marketing scheme disguised as a presidential campaign, Trump was the villainous figure who arrived at the end of The Apprentice to fire some poor schnook like Gary Busey or Meatloaf because they couldn’t manage to set up a lemonade stand. Trump’s presence on the program required him to join the Screen Actos Guild (SAG-AFTRA). However, after his disastrous presidency – and particularly his responsibility for the deadly Capitol insurrection – the Guild took steps to expel Trump. Guild leaders issued these statements:

SAG President Gabrielle Carteris: “Donald Trump attacked the values that this union holds most sacred – democracy, truth, respect for our fellow Americans of all races and faiths, and the sanctity of the free press. There’s a straight line from his wanton disregard for the truth to the attacks on journalists perpetrated by his followers.”

SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director David White: “Our most important role as a union is the protection of our members. The unfortunate truth is, this individual’s words and actions over the past four years have presented actual harm to our broadcast journalist members. The board’s resolution addresses this effort to undermine freedom of the press and reaffirms the principles on which our democratic society rests, and which we must all work to protect and preserve.”

Naturally, Trump couldn’t keep his malignantly narcissistic yap shut. He hasn’t made a single public comment since being banished to Mar-a-Lago by the American people. He’s said nothing about his Seditionist Brigades in Washington or the the murder of a Capitol Hill Police officer. But he nevertheless felt compelled to announce to the world that “I no longer wish to be associated with your union,” which he baselessly accused of “promoting dangerous un-American policies and ideas.”

So after the Guild had already made clear its intention to kick Trump out, he penned a poison letter that is pure Trumpian egomania…

https://twitter.com/noozvk/status/1357398915042013184

The letter is rife with the conceit that is the hallmark of Trump’s character, or lack thereof. He could not stop talking about himself and what he regards as his invaluable contributions to human existence. For instance…

“I write to you today regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares!”

” While I’m not familiar with your work, I’m very proud of my work.”

“I’ve also also greatly helped the cable news television business (said to be a dying platform with not much time left until I got involved in politics), and created thousands of jobs at networks such as MSDNC and Fake News CNN, among many others.”

For the record, cable news was a growing media phenomenon prior to and during the Trump presidency. What’s more, the ratings for both MSNBC and CNN have skyrocketed since Trump lost decisively to Joe Biden, who has has already articulated his aversion to Fox’s propaganda and lies. And Fox News has dropped to third place for the first time in twenty years.

https://twitter.com/noozvk/status/1356979757343100929

If Trump wants to take credit for something, that would be it. He has managed to succeed at something progressive media activists have struggled with for years. He made Fox News as toxic as he is. The result is that Fox is turning even harder toward the loony right. Which will likely ensure and accelerate their descent into the ratings abyss. Thanks Donnie!

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. And you can follow this surrogate Twitter account here. 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.

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