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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Stupid Fox News Question: Should Liberal Martha’s Vineyard Celebs Open Their Homes to Migrants?

Posted by Mark NC on September 18, 2022 at 5:39 pm. 3 Comments :

For the past couple of weeks, Republican governors Greg Abbott of Texas and and Ron DeSantis of Florida have been staging one of the most inhumane political stunts in decades. By transporting migrants in their states to New York, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., they are demonstrating both a severe lack of compassion and overt disrespect for the law.

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Go Fox Yourself

This heartless and illegal abuse of innocent and vulnerable refugees was intended to embarrass the Democratic politicians in those destinations. As it turned out, the receiving Democratic officials and the local residents brought honor to themselves and the nation by welcoming the refugees with open arms, food, medical care, and other resources to help these victims of Republican exploitation, including children, adjust to having been used as pawns in a political game.

Meanwhile, Fox News played their customary role as apologists for right-wing atrocities. They barely covered the heartwarming hospitality that the refugees received from their hosts. But Fox did attempt to distort reality by featuring the rare critics who complained about the migrants.

Even worse, Fox News tried to manufacture controversy where there was none. In an especially dishonest and disgusting story, Fox News sent their crackhead news team to Martha’s Vineyard to stir up trouble. The story headlined “We asked Martha’s Vineyard celebs if they’d open their homes to migrants. Here’s how they responded,” was a typically hollow, and transparently hostile, piece of vile presstitution. It began…

“Former President Barack Obama and several other high-profile Democrats who own homes on Martha’s Vineyard have remained silent on whether they will open up their homes to provide comfort to any illegal immigrants sent to the island by Republican governors.” […]

“In addition, Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for prominent public supporters of President Biden who own homes on Martha’s Vineyard but did not receive a response. Those Martha’s Vineyard residents include singer James Taylor, director Spike Lee and comedian David Letterman, who all reportedly have homes on the island.”

The premise of this story was both absurd and repugnant. No wonder they didn’t get a single response from those they tried to contact. And yet, they went ahead with the non-story anyway.

What ever made Fox News think that it was appropriate to expect private citizens to house refugees who were trafficked illegally from other states? Fox News never asked Republican politicians or right-wing celebrities to take in the babies of women forced to carry them to term when Republican laws prohibited them from making their own healthcare and reproductive decisions. Nor was anyone asked by Fox News to house low income families who became homeless as a result of the callousness of conservative policies. Nor did Fox News ever ask wealthy notables to pay for medicine or hospitalization for Americans who were denied care due to the GOP’s servility to Big Pharma and other corporate interests.

Yet for some reason, Fox is suddenly interested in whether liberal individuals alone should shoulder a burden that is properly attributed to the federal government. The U.S. immigration system has been broken for a long time. And it’s the Republicans who have refused to participate in finding a bipartisan solution. Their answer now is to spend millions of dollars trafficking human victims around the country in order to create chaos.

Just think of the value those millions of dollars could have provided if spent on something useful, helpful, and driven by compassion rather than political malice. But then, that would have required Republicans to have a modicum of morality and decency. And that was just too much to ask of them. Surely Fox News would never ask it.

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WOW! Sean Hannity and Ted Cruz Agree that Trafficking Migrants Across State Lines is Illegal

Posted by Mark NC on September 17, 2022 at 1:20 pm. 4 Comments :

In the past few weeks Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, the governors of Texas and Florida respectively, have been in the news for engaging in deplorable political stunts that are deliberately cruel and probably illegal. They have been transporting migrants from their states to other states that they regard as bastions of liberalism hundreds of miles away. It is a brazenly inhumane campaign of exploitation that uses these refugees as pawns in their partisan game playing.

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These repulsive, self-serving tactics by ambitious Republican politicians are intended only to humiliate their liberal counterparts and progressive, compassionate policies. They are conducted without the slightest regard for the welfare of the their human victims, including children, or for solutions to the underlying issues. Not that Republicans in the era of Donald Trump ever really cared about people or laws.

Which makes it somewhat surprising to hear Sean Hannity interviewing GOP Sen. Ted Cruz on Fox News about the potential criminality of these actions. The discussion included the following exchange…

Hannity: From a legal standpoint, let’s say I went down to the border and I brought a big truck with me and I picked up a bunch of illegal immigrants and I started transporting them across the country. Would I, or would I not likely be arrested for human trafficking, and would it be illegal to do that?
Cruz: For you, a citizen, you could easily be arrested. Although, to be honest, Joe Biden’s Justice Department wouldn’t arrest you.
Hannity: Oh no. I disagree. They’d arrest me. If I was a liberal I’d get away with it.

Hannity bizarrely gets Ted Cruz to admit that transporting migrants across state lines is illegal and would result in his arrest for human trafficking if he did it pic.twitter.com/uW7tZlQf7g

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 17, 2022

So there you have it. Hannity and Cruz agree that trafficking migrants across state lines, and lying to them about their destination, would be illegal and likely lead to their arrest. That’s a position that concurs with many legal experts. Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, formally requested the Department of Justice to investigate whether federal laws were broken. In his letter to the DoJ Newsom said that…

“Like millions of Americans, I have been horrified at the images of migrants being shipped on buses and planes across the country to be used as political props. Clearly, transporting families, including children, across state lines under false pretenses is morally reprehensible, but it may also be illegal.”

Elaborating on his dubious legal acumen, Cruz goes on to call President Biden “the biggest human trafficker on the face of the planet.” Naturally, he didn’t bother to supply any coherent support for that hyperbolic nonsense.

It is likely that Hannity and Cruz would justify their remarks by trying to distinguish the legal differences between private citizens like themselves trafficking migrants, and government agencies doing so. However, neither Abbott nor DeSantis attributed their migrant relocation program to any official arm of their state governments, nor did they cite any legal statute that permitted it. So they were acting as individuals, while spending (wasting) millions of taxpayer funds.

What’s more, they purposefully refused to notify the states where they sent the migrants so that preparation could be made for their arrival. But they did notify Fox News. Which is further evidence that this was a political act, not one under the auspices of the state government.

Consequently, the mutual conclusions by Hannity and Cruz that such activities would be illegal is a significant event. They are affirming that Abbott and DeSantis should be investigated for crimes and indicted if sufficient evidence is found. And unlike most of what these two cretins say, that’s a conclusion that most Americans who believe in law and order, and equal justice, would agree with.

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Trump Fumes That Fox News has ‘Gone to the Dark Side’ and Purposely ‘Botched’ His Polling

Posted by Mark NC on July 26, 2022 at 11:08 am. 3 Comments :

One of the surest signs that someone has gone completely and irretrievably bonkers is when their psychoses manifest in paranoid outbursts directed at everyone, including their closest associates. And while Donald Trump was long ago recognized as being mentally unstable, his condition only seems to get worse with each passing day.

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Clearly the pressure is getting Trump. Prosecutors in several jurisdictions are accumulating testimony and documentation of his seditious schemes to undermine democracy and overturn a fair election. The House Select Committing investigating the January 6th insurrection that he incited has exceeded expectations in exposing the ethical and criminal misconduct of Trump and his pitifully inept crime syndicate.

On Tuesday morning Trump took to his miserably failing social media website, TRUTH Social, to vent his spleen regarding his ever increasing legal and political peril. And in this episode he berated his longtime Ministry of Disinformation (aka Fox News) for failing to be sufficiently worshipful. Trump posted the following condemnation of his pals at Fox and Friends…

“@foxandfriends just really botched my poll numbers, no doubt on purpose. That show has been terrible – gone to the ‘dark side.’ They quickly quote the big Turning Point Poll victory of almost 60 points over the number two Republican, and then hammer with outliers. Actually, almost all polls have me leading all Republicans & Biden BY A LOT. RINO Paul Ryan, one of the weakest and worst speakers EVER, must be running the place. Anyway, thank you to Turning Point, the crowd & ‘love’ was AMAZING!”

That’s an impressive heap of hogwash, even for Trump. He can’t simply have a rational disagreement with a segment on the program that he was once featured on weekly. So he leaps straight into “dark side” damnation of his former friends. He asserts, without evidence, that they are purposefully “botching” his polling numbers.

What Trump is freaking out about is how Fox and Friends co-host Steve Doocy reported Trump’s victory in a survey of potential 2024 Republican presidential candidates conducted at the ultra-rightist Turning Point conference in Tampa, Florida. Rather than stopping there, Doocy went on to mention that there were other polls that had different results (video below):

“Keep in mind, Turning Point, a group of young Republican conservative activists from all across the country. So you have got people from all across the country convening in Tampa. I’m thinking about that is a little different than a couple of other polls that we have seen over the last couple of weeks, too. Weeks ago in Florida, Blueprint polling did a poll, [Gov. Ron] DeSantis leads the former president in all age groupings.

“Then there was a University of New Hampshire poll in June. DeSantis actually led Trump, 39 to 37. And that New York Times/Sienna College poll that we’ve cited quite a few times, less than half of Republican voters backed Donald Trump as their preferred choice.”

Well, that was all it took to set Trump off. Never mind that Doocy was uncharacteristically correct. Trump felt compelled to lie, as usual, about leading in “almost all polls” against both DeSantis and President Biden. The truth is that Trump’s standing has severely withered in recent weeks. DeSantis is strongly challenging him in the GOP primary, and Biden is beating in him general election polls.

pic.twitter.com/mCwzWZ9VdJ

July 3, 2022

Nevertheless, Trump may have some cause to worry. There has been a noticeable shift toward DeSantis on Fox News lately. And Fox News magnate Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has recently stepped back from Trump in significant ways. His New York Post published an editorial that concluded by saying that Trump is “unworthy to be this country’s chief executive again.” And his Wall Street Journal castigated Trump’s action and inaction during the insurrection, saying that “he fed the mob’s anger and let the riot play out.”

Trump’s descent into madness is sure to accelerate as more proof of his malicious malfeasance comes to light, and more of the rats on his vermin infested ship seek to jump overboard to save themselves. The closer Trump comes to indictments and prosecutions, the more frantically and wildly he will lash out at anyone and everyone in his warpath. For the entertainment value alone, it will be hard to find more captivating melodrama streaming on television this fall.

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Trump got angry on Truth Social over this clip from today's Fox & Friends of hosts discussing a poll finding Ron DeSantis ahead of him (1/2) pic.twitter.com/iTizdQOF3D

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 25, 2022

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WOAH! Rupert Murdoch’s Right-Wing New York Post Scorches Trump as ‘Unworthy’ to Be President

Posted by Mark NC on July 23, 2022 at 11:31 am. 2 Comments :

This has been a bad week for Donald Trump. It began with the Pulitzer Board rejecting his preposterous and impotent demand to rescind awards given to the Washington Post and the New York Times for their reporting on his unsavory connections to Russia. And it ended with the conviction of Steve Bannon, his former campaign boss and White House advisor, on two counts of contempt of Congress.

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In between, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection that Trump incited exposed his flagrant and purposeful negligence during the Capitol Hill riots. The Committee presented testimony and damning video documenting how Trump (who is fixated on the hearings) spent 187 minutes deliberately choosing to do nothing while members of Congress were under attack and law enforcement officers were violently assaulted. Well, he wasn’t exactly doing nothing. He was gleefully watching his StormTrumpers assault the seat of American democracy on Fox News.

On Friday another development took place that is sure to rattle the former reality TV game show host. The New York Post, which is owned by Fox News magnate, Rupert Murdoch, published an editorial titled “Trump’s silence on Jan. 6 is damning.” The article was profoundly critical of Trump and his future electoral prospects. It said in part that…

“As his followers stormed the Capitol, calling on his vice president to be hanged, President Donald Trump sat in his private dining room, watching TV, doing nothing. For three hours, seven minutes.”

And that…

Trump “was the only person who could stop what was happening. He was the only one the crowd was listening to. It was incitement by silence.”

And that…

“To his eternal shame, as appalled aides implored him to publicly call on his followers to go home, he instead further fanned the flames.”

And that…

“His only focus was to find any means — damn the consequences — to block the peaceful transfer of power.”

And finally that…

“It’s up to the Justice Department to decide if this is a crime. But as a matter of principle, as a matter of character, Trump has proven himself unworthy to be this country’s chief executive again.”

Wow! That’s pretty harsh condemnation of the man they’ve been propping up for years. To be clear, this was not merely an op-ed by a guest author with anti-Trump views. This was the official opinion written by the Post’s Editorial Board. And if Trump has lost the New York Post, can Fox News be far behind?

Of course, the Post isn’t altering their hardcore, ultra-rightist political bias. Neither would Fox News be, if/when they adopt this criticism of Trump. It would just be their attempt to cover their asinine worship of Trump for the past seven years as his multitude of crimes become more obvious, his putrid reputation becomes increasingly harder to defend, and his popularity plummets.

Fox News has already begun paving the way for a Trump replacement, even if their audience isn’t quite ready for it. They have been busy elevating Florida’s budding authoritarian governor, Ron DeSantis, as his Herr Apparent. So there seems to be a consensus, that includes Fox News, that the January 6th Committee’s work is having an impact on both the Trump-fluffing media and the public. Hopefully it’s having an impact on Attorney General Merrick Garland as well.

UPDATE: Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal published a similarly critical article of Trump titled “The President Who Stood Still on Jan. 6.” The Journal wrote that…

“Mr. Trump took an oath to defend the Constitution, and he had a duty as Commander in Chief to protect the Capitol from a mob attacking it in his name. He refused. He didn’t call the military to send help. He didn’t call Mr. Pence to check on the safety of his loyal VP. Instead he fed the mob’s anger and let the riot play out.”

UPDATE II: Liz Cheney drops the truth about Murdoch’s newspapers calling Trump unfit and unworthy to be president again. And she does it on Fox News:

Liz Cheney on Fox News Sunday: "It's not just me that's saying that Donald Trump is unfit for office. It's other entities owned by Rupert Murdoch. It's the New York Post in their editorial on Friday. It's the Wall Street Journal."
????pic.twitter.com/MIml1VljqP

— Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) July 24, 2022

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Fox News ‘Screeches’ at MSNBC’s Joy Reid in Misogynist Fury for Criticizing Ron DeSantis

Posted by Mark NC on April 26, 2022 at 2:18 pm. 6 Comments :

The easiest way to ascertain what or who Fox News is most afraid of is to observe what they attack with the most ferocity. That’s often apparent in their relentless assaults on President Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Black Lives Matter, and any politician, Democratic or Republican, who dares to criticize Dear Leader Donald Trump.

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A frequent target of Fox’s feces flinging is MSNBC host Joy Reid. She embodies two of the network’s primary criteria for caustic condemnation. She is Black, and she’s a woman. And on the basis of those factors Fox News posted a story on their website chastising Reid for her well-founded critique of Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ latest efforts to turn the state into a mini-autocracy.

However, it wasn’t enough to simply rebut Reid’s factual and rational arguments. Fox provided a headline for the article that was deliberately offensive and drenched with misogyny. It read: “Joy Reid screeches DeSantis’ ‘private police force’ will ‘intimidate’ Black people ‘out of being able to vote’”

“Screeches”? That’s a word that was chosen intentionally to malign Reid as both a maniac and an unstable woman. There was, however, nothing in her commentary or delivery that could be remotely characterized as screeching. Here is a portion of it…

.@JoyAnnReid leads #TheReidOut tonight critiquing the GOP embrace of authoritarianism. pic.twitter.com/tFCuhYsbcY

— The ReidOut (@thereidout) April 25, 2022

The Fox News article opened with a brazenly biased paragraph demeaning her remarks as just “another rant,” while ignoring the substance of her criticism:

“MSNBC host Joy Reid embarked on another rant against Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., on Monday, claiming that, in addition to all the ‘authoritarian’ things he’s doing in the state regarding Disney and redistricting, he now has his ‘own private police force’ meant to ‘intimidate’ Black Floridians ‘out of being able to vote.'”

The truth is that it is DeSantis who has embarked on a crusade of anti-democratic policies modeled after his hero, and fellow wannabe dictator, Donald Trump. He did attack Disney in retaliation for their opposition to his “Don’t Say Gay Bill.” He did create a private election police force intended to intimidate and obstruct primarily Black and Democratic voters. He did force his own partisan gerrymander to redistrict Black precincts out of existence.

The only screeching being done here is by the rabidly hyperbolic headline writers at Fox News. Reid was, as usual, composed and articulate and focused on the subject at hand. And it was precisely because of her her intellect and composure that Fox New felt it was necessary to lash out with insulting and utterly inappropriate language.

However, by doing so they are just admitting that they are incapable of refuting anything that Reid actually said. So they resort to the childish antics of their cult leader and role model, Donald Trump. Whose bona fide screeching is a hallmark of his noxious persona.

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Fox News Fascism: Laura Ingraham Advocates Government Punishing Corporations They Disagree With

Posted by Mark NC on April 2, 2022 at 12:42 pm. 7 Comments :

Conservative Republicans have long pretended to champion free market capitalism. It has been among their most frequently promoted political positions. But for the most part it was nothing more than another catch phrase they exploited to deceive the dimwitted rubes who didn’t bother to dig any deeper than a GOP soundbite.

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On Friday night Fox News primetime propagandist, Laura Ingraham, made it unambiguously clear that the economic “principles” espoused by the right were a fraud. They were merely bait to hook the bumpkins and buffoons into believing that by allowing corporations to walk all over them, they too could become billionaires.

Like most of the Fox News roster of bigots, Ingraham was aghast that the Walt Disney Company had taken a stance against the censorious “Don’t Say Gay” bill advanced by Florida governor, and faithful Trump-fluffer, Ron DeSantis. So Ingraham devoted a segment of her program to delivering a monologue attacking Disney in a manner that reeks of rancid totalitarianism. She not only jumped aboard the QAnon train by claiming that Disney is sexualizing children, she had a decidedly anti-democratic way of dealing with it. Ingraham said that…

“You guys have products and services that 74 million Trump voters don’t need to purchase if they don’t want to. And when Republicans get back into power, Apple and Disney need to understand one thing: Everything will be on the table – your copyright and trademark protection, your special status within certain states, and even your corporate structure itself.

“The antitrust division at [the Department of] Justice needs to begin the process of considering which American companies need to be broken up once and for all for competition’s sake, and ultimately for the good of the consumers who pay the bills.”

Ingraham: When Republicans get back into power, Apple and Disney have to understand one thing: Everything will be on the table, your copyright/trademark protection, your special status in certain states, and even your corporate structure itself… pic.twitter.com/7kKhPH07Rs

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2022

Ingraham begins this harangue by threatening to “cancel” Disney with a boycott that she mistakenly thinks millions of Americans will embrace. Let’s just aside the fact that such actions are often criticized by the right. They are nothing if not hypocritical. In fact. Donald Trump is the undisputed King of Cancel Culture.

What makes this tirade even more repugnant is Ingraham proposing that government abuse its power to punish corporations that refuse to fall in line with their partisan goals. She is pushing an oppressive authoritarian agenda. And she isn’t the least bit subtle about it. In a country where Ingraham’s Republican confederates are in charge, private businesses will be forced to subjugate themselves to the state or suffer the consequences.

Ingraham doesn’t say what constitutional means she would employ to challenge a company’s copyrights and trademarks. Probably because there aren’t any. And while antitrust laws can provide a valid protection of consumer rights. Ingraham is explicit that she wouldn’t be pursuing them on behalf of consumers, but rather only “when Republicans get back into power.”

Ingraham is not alone on Fox News fronting for fascism, and making Disney the scapegoat for their despotic dystopia. It’s a network wide initiative. Media Matter has documented that just within the past week, “Fox has been laser-focused on the story, mentioning ‘Disney’ over 350 times this week, and dedicating over 3 hours of coverage, and at least 53 segments, to it.”

By contrast, stories such as Trump asking Putin for dirt on Hunter Biden, and Madison Cawthorn’s tales of GOP cocaine fueled orgies, and Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas’ wife plotting with Trump’s chief of staff to stage a coup, received little or no coverage on Fox News. Meanwhile, Fox is busy attacking Disney – yes, Disney! – as child pornographers upon whom the government must stomp its fascist boot. That must be part of their “MAGA movement to Make America Goofy Again.”

UPDATE: How Fox News is framing the Florida vs Disney story, via Media Matters…

Fox is pouring all their on-air resources into their smear campaign accusing Disney of grooming, indoctrinating, and sexualizing children pic.twitter.com/m1uTKoZn5M

— Media Matters (@mmfa) April 1, 2022

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Trump to Spend the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 Babbling at a Boxing Match for $50 a Pop

Posted by Mark NC on September 8, 2021 at 11:22 am. 3 Comments :

This weekend it will be twenty years since the worst terrorist attack on American soil. The planes that flew into the World Trade Centers in Manhattan, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, took more than 3,000 lives and injured more than 25,000. Many more – including first responders – have suffered with lingering, debilitating and, in some cases, fatal health problems due to toxic conditions on the ground.

This is a solemn anniversary for which most Americans will be remembering the victims and their families, and paying tribute to the heroes. However, there is one uncommonly clamorous, pseudo-patriot who will be commemorating the day in an especially selfish and callous manner.

Here's how Donald Trump is spending the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks pic.twitter.com/KCh7Jcbt3C

— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) September 8, 2021

That’s right, rather than respecting the memory of a sorrowful day in America’s recent history, Donald Trump will be partying with his boxing pals at the Hard Rock Café in Hollywood, Florida. It’s not even a title match, but an exhibition staged by a couple of fight club relics.

This “entertainment” event was produced solely to put dollars in the pockets of the producers and the fighters. So naturally, Trump had to weasel his way into it to grab some green for himself. His cult followers will gladly fork over fifty bucks each to hear Trump announce the fight. And he will be doing it along with his son, Don Jr. What a bargain.

The promotion for the fight reveals that “President Trump” will provide “live in-person commentary” (that should be “former” president Trump). Trump’s picture is featured between the two fighters, Vitor Belfort and Evander Holyfield. Holyfield was a late replacement for Oscar De La Hoya, who had to cancel due to contracting COVID-19.

Ironically, there are likely to be even more COVID victims because vaccinations and face masks are not required at the Hard Rock. That’s actually the case throughout the state of Florida, that has become the nation’s Hot Zone for coronavirus infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. In fact, Governor Ron DeSantis has deprioritized measures to mitigate transmission (masks and vaccines), in favor of treating people after they get sick. Sadly, that is often too late.

Meanwhile, on 9/11 President Biden will visit all three sites where planes crashed. He will be joined by Vice-President Kamala Harris at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. So while Biden is offering a dignified and compassionate opportunity for the nation to come together and commiserate, Trump will be getting paid to provide his sappy commentary for a couple of geezers beating each other up. Could there be anything more Trumpian?

UPDATE I: To confirm the depth of Trump’s madness, he was asked who he would fight if he were in the ring. He replied “I think probably my easiest fight would be Joe Biden because I think he’d go down very, very quickly. […] I think Biden would go down within the first few seconds.” Not only is this an indication of his obsessive jealousy and hostility, it’s downright delusional that he thinks he would beat Biden who bikes and jogs regularly, while he can barely carry his morbidly obese frame down a low-incline ramp.

UPDATE II: As expected, Trump couldn’t help injecting his election fraud BS into his fight commentary in a manner that affirms his mental decline. Discussing the decision after less than one round, he blurted out that “It’s like the elections. It could be rigged.”

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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.

HUH? GOP Chair Touts DeSantis Plan to Let People Get COVID as ‘Smart Leadership’

Posted by Mark NC on August 14, 2021 at 5:07 pm. 5 Comments :

If you’re having trouble figuring out what the Republican agenda for America is, don’t worry. It’s not you. Other than tax cuts for the rich and deregulation, the Republican Party has not had an affirmative agenda for years. Their focus has been devoted almost solely to opposing the progressive policies of the Democratic Party and obstructing the popular initiatives that Democrats have proposed.

As the “Party of No,” Republicans have proven that they couldn’t care less about what the people want. The latest legislative goals of the Democrats (including the $1 trillion infrastructure bill and $3.5 trillion budget bill) are broadly favored by significant majorities of the American people. But Republicans refuse to serve the interests of their own constituents, preferring to mislead them into believing flagrant falsehoods and crackpot conspiracy theories.

The same perverse political philosophy is being pursued by the GOP with respect to managing the COVID pandemic. They have adopted Donald Trump’s position of declining any constructive action because it might benefit President Biden or upset their cult followers. And to that end, the chairwoman of the Republican Party, Ronna Romney McDaniel, expressed her approval for Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis and his strategy for addressing the pandemic surge that has made Florida the world’s top COVID hot zone. McDaniel tweeted that…

“This is smart leadership. Instead of pushing for mandates, Republican governors are getting people the treatments and resources they need.”

This is smart leadership. Instead of pushing for mandates, Republican governors are getting people the treatments and resources they need.
https://t.co/yXImie66g1

— Ronna McDaniel (@RonnaMcDaniel) August 14, 2021

McDaniel’s tweet linked to an article on Fox News that described how DeSantis “mobilized a ‘rapid response unit’ this week to administer monoclonal antibody treatments to state residents infected with COVID-19.” So what McDaniel thinks is “smart leadership” is to make an attempt to provide treatment for people who have contracted the deadly virus, rather than to prevent them from getting sick to begin with. After all, DeSantis has been fiercely fighting any efforts to deal with coronavirus transmission via tried and true methods such as masks and vaccines. Now he, and McDaniel, think it would be better just to treat them after they get sick.

There are numerous problems with that plan. First of all, Those who contract the virus will still be carriers who can infect others and exacerbate the pandemic’s spread. They will also be subject to the possible long-COVID health problems that could produce permanent disabilities.

What’s more, the monoclonal antibody therapy is less effective at mitigating the pandemic than vaccines and masks, and not effective at all after severe symptoms develop. Additionally, it is far more expensive to administer. It costs about $1,500 per dose, compared to $20.00 for the vaccine and $2.00 for a good K95 mask. Plus it requires hospitalization and medical staff to insert and monitor the IV delivery that it requires. All that to avoid getting a ten second poke in the arm.

Last week Florida reported 151,415 coronavirus cases, 15,441 hospitalizations, and 1,070 deaths. If the state were to treat all those infected with monoclonal antibodies, it would cost over $227 million dollars. However, vaccinating them would have cost only about $3 million. Plus, it would have the added benefit of preventing transmission, long-term illnesses, and possible deaths.

Republicans believe that people should have the freedom to decide whether to wear a mask or get vaccinated. Fine. But communities at large should have the freedom to decide whether those ignorant, irresponsible, and selfish louts should be permitted to mix with and endanger them in public places. The vaccine resistors complain that they aren’t comfortable getting a shot when they don’t know what’s in it or the long term effects. But they don’t know any of that about monoclonal antibodies either, yet they’re happy to get sick and shoot that up their veins.

This is what McDaniel regards as “smart leadership”? To the contrary, this is what Republicans regard as exploitable politics. All they care about is stirring up fear and inciting anger with which to attack their political foes. And if thousands more Americans die because of it, that’s just the cost of retaining power for a party that is totally devoid of ideas – or morals.

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

Fox News Seeks to Criminalize Fact-Checking to Preserve Their ‘Right’ to Lie

Posted by Mark NC on May 29, 2021 at 12:41 pm. 4 Comments :

It’s official! Fox News is declaring war on reality. They are so consumed with “alternative facts“ and constructing phony scenarios to advance their ultra-rightist agenda that they have launched an all-out assault on {gasp} fact-checkers. Because the greatest threat to a dedicated purveyor of propaganda is the truth that is embedded in facts.

To a network like Fox News, facts are subversive agents of credible journalism. So in an effort to shield themselves from the embarrassment of being exposed to honesty, Fox has taken an aggressive stance against it. An op-ed that was published on their website asserts that fact-checkers are dangerous because “they have the power to censor what journalism Americans see and consume unilaterally.” Of course, a fact-check would reveal that that isn’t true. Fact-checkers merely hold the media accountable for mistakes and/or deliberate lies. The primary argument made in the article is that…

“Nobody is checking the fact checkers, and it is time that changed. It’s time for government to regulate the fact checking industry. […] We cannot be slaves to orthodoxy if that means Americans are subject not only to lies, but also the censorship of the truth.”

Lying and censoring the truth are long-time components of the Fox News mission statement. So naturally, the notoriously conservative pundits at Fox News, who abhor government regulations, are now advocating for “government to regulate the fact checking industry.” Even worse, they are exempting fact-checkers from protection by the First Amendment. While generously conceding that the Constitution shields the press, the article claims that “third party independent fact checkers are another story entirely.” Really? Most journalists would regard fact-checkers as members of the press.

Among the complaints outlined in the column is the provably false assertion that fact-checking “all occur[s] in one direction, towards the censorship of conservative ideas.” The author doesn’t offer any support for that claim and studies show that the opposite is true. But even if the article was right, it’s only because conservatives are known to be more dismissive of the truth. Their political and ideological leader, Donald Trump, has been documented telling more than 40,000 lies during his term in office. The occurrence of presidential misstatements has declined 85% in the first 100 days of President Biden’s term. Nevertheless, Fox News favors the sledgehammer of government regulation to pound down the fact-checkers. The article highlighted this solution to the imaginary problem:

“A new bill before the Michigan House of Representatives is a move in the right direction. The bill would require fact checkers to register with the government and carry insurance to cover payment to those who suffer financial damages as a result of a bogus fact check.”

Seriously? These are the same ideologues who staunchly oppose registering assault weapons and requiring gun manufacturers to carry insurance to cover those who suffer injury or death. Now they can’t wait for the the regulators to impose an entirely unconstitutional imposition on the press.

Another fundamental absurdity in the article is the author’s constraints on what constitutes a fact. If fact-checkers don’t adhere to his definitions then “they are no longer fact checking and should not be allowed to claim the service they are selling is doing so.”

Fine. Then can we also apply that logic to journalism, and if it doesn’t adhere to the truth then they couldn’t claim to be “news”? If so, Fox would have to drop “News” from their name (a good idea in any case). And to put a cherry on top of it, the article closed with this bit totalitarianism…

“There is nothing special about fact checkers that protects them from regulations requiring them to be fair and honest in their dealings. Those that refuse to operate objectively should be punished for misrepresenting their service.”

Meanwhile, Republicans are already pursuing this censorious agenda. Florida governor Ron DeSantis just signed a bill to punish social media firms (Facebook, Twitter, etc) that ban users who violate their terms of service. That’s the sort of control that conservatives seek over free press and thought.

And all the while they are disseminating blatant lies about election fraud (particularly Trump’s Big Lie), the Capitol Hill insurrection, and the COVID-19 “hoax.”. So it’s no wonder that they are desperate to shut down the fact-checkers. They’re tired of being held to standards of truthfulness that step on their “right” to deceive their dimwitted cult followers.

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.

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