A Primer on Jesse Watters Who is Replacing Former Fox News White Nationalist, Tucker Carlson

Posted by Mark NC on June 26, 2023 at 1:52 pm. 3 Comments :

In April fox News suddenly, and without explanation, fired their top rated primetime host, Tucker Carlson. His pink slip came within days of the $787 million settlement that Fox agreed to pay to Dominion Voting Systems for defamation and lying about nonexistent election fraud.

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Although neither Fox nor Carlson connected the two events, it is hard to imagine that they weren’t related. After all, Carlson’s private communications were revealed in texts and emails that showed him viciously disparaging Donald Trump, as well as his Fox News colleagues and bosses.

SEE THIS: In Dominion v Fox News, Network Cries ‘We Can’t Make People Think We’ve Turned Against Trump’

Now, after two months and a series of on-air auditions, Fox News has announced that they have chosen Jesse Watters to replace Carlson. It’s sign of weakness that they are relying on Watters, and his fellow Fox Newsers (Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and Greg Gutfeld) to rescue the network despite their historically low ratings. According to their competition at CNN…

“Fox News on Monday unveiled a revamped prime-time lineup, naming a new 8 pm host to fill the void left by Tucker Carlson’s firing and shuffling its biggest stars around to boost sagging ratings as viewers rebel to protest the popular host’s dismissal.

“The right-wing network announced that Laura Ingraham will helm its 7 pm hour; Jesse Watters will move to 8 pm; Sean Hannity will remain at 9 pm; Greg Gutfeld will slide an hour earlier to 10 pm; and Trace Gallagher will anchor 11 pm.

“The new schedule — made up almost entirely of hosts who have grown in popularity by feeding their loyal conservative audience a mixture of right-wing talking points, outrage and misinformation — will take effect on July 17.”

Jesse Watters is best known for his creepy stalking of women reporters – including some at Fox News – and for advocating shooting Dr. Anthony Fauci, telling his listeners to seek out Dr. Fauci in public and, when they find him, to confront him aggressively saying, “Now you go in with the kill shot. […and tell him…] You know why people don’t trust you, don’t you? BOOM! He is dead.

For the record, what follows is a primer of the repugnant programs that Watters has presented. It provides a clear picture of what to expect in the future.

Be prepared for more of the same lies and overt hostility as Watters takes Carlson’s place. [See Media Matters for more of Watters’ clownery] It is confirmation that Fox News has nothing else to offer their glassy-eyed viewers, and even after the Dominion debacle, they have no intention of pretending to be news enterprise. In other words, it’s monkey business as usual at Fox News.

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Where is Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson and Putin’s Puppets in the US Regarding the Russian Coup?

Posted by Mark NC on June 24, 2023 at 11:57 am. 2 Comments :

Nearly a year and a half ago, Russia invaded its peaceful neighbor, Ukraine, in a wholly unprovoked act of imperialistic aggression. Many of the “experts” at the time predicted that Russia would quickly prevail and Vladimir Putin would expand his tyrannical empire. But that isn’t exactly the way it has turned out. With the help of the United States and other Western allies, Ukraine has steadfastly held off Putin’s armies, although not without significant and painful losses.

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However, now Putin is battling not only Ukraine, but a mercenary force that he had recruited to fight on his behalf. The Wagner Group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, has turned on his Russian bosses and is marching toward Moscow in what appears to be an attempt to topple the Putin regime.

This is a complicated state of affairs. It’s difficult to know precisely what is going on as both sides are notoriously dishonest. And Prigozhin is a terrorist for hire who is no better than Putin. What we do know is that Prigozhin is undercutting Putin’s narrative about the war against Ukraine, and “has accused Moscow’s leadership of lying to the public about the justifications for invading Ukraine.”

All of this raises questions about the pro-Putin contingent in America. It’s a group that includes shameless shills in the Republican Party and on their Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. Most prominently the Putin faction features the likes of Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson. Both have fiercely defended Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and have argued for Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to surrender and give Russia everything that it wants. And both have been conspicuously silent since the coup effort began.

Early on Trump praised Putin as a “genius” for invading Ukraine. Among Trump’s other public adorations of Putin are…

Trump Claims to Have Magic Words that Will End Ukraine War in 24 Hours, But Won’t Tell Anyone
“[The war against Ukraine] would have never started had I been president. There was no chance of this war starting and, frankly, I don’t think Putin wanted to do it. I think he was sort of forced in by the statements being made by Biden.”

Blame America First: Trump Says if Putin Goes Nuclear in Ukraine ‘It’s Because of the U.S.’
“I’m reading somewhere that there’s at least a 40% chance that Putin will use nuclear weapons. How the hell did this happen? And it’s because of the United States.”

Trump’s ‘Solution’ to the War in Ukraine is to Appease Russia and Quash Any Criticism of Putin
“It doesn’t make sense that Russia and Ukraine aren’t sitting down and working out some kind of an agreement. If they don’t do it soon, there will be nothing left but death, destruction, and carnage.”

And as for Putin fanboy Tucker Carlson, who boasted explicitly that he is “rooting for Russia”…

Putin Puppet Tucker Carlson Spews Russian Propaganda in Defense of the Intelligence Leaker
“This is not Ukraine’s war. It’s our war. The United States is a direct combatant in a war against Russia. As we speak, American soldiers are fighting Russian soldiers.” (Which is totally false).

Fox News Senior Putin Apologist, Tucker Carlson, Pleads to Keep the Russian Dictator in Power
“will destroying the entire Russian economy make Putin less bad? [and] what happens to Russia after Vladimir Putin leaves?”

Tucker Carlson of Fox News Rattles Off His Ridiculous Reasons for Why You Shouldn’t Hate Putin
“It might be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious: What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity? Does he eat dogs? These are fair questions. And the answer to all of them is ‘No.'”

Meanwhile, Republicans and Fox News are floating bizarre conspiracy theories that the coup was staged by President Biden to distract from the problems of his son, Hunter. Or that the U.S. is somehow orchestrating the coup to topple Putin. Either way it assumes an astonishing measure of backbone and strategic prowess by Biden, who the GOP regards as too senile to dress himself. Needless, to say, they have no evidence for any of their conspiracy mongering.

Perhaps a better conspiracy theory would be that Putin is staging the coup as a false flag to deflect from his military bungling in Ukraine. Or maybe he’s trying to help Trump by creating a diversion from his recent indictments and upcoming trials for obstructing justice and stealing and hoarding classified documents. Or it’s a plot to cover up his secret romantic interludes with Hillary Clinton at Moscow-a-Lagostan. Sure, it sounds crazy. but it’s no crazier than what the American Putinists are dreaming up.

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Tucker Carlson’s Attempt to Malign Biden as a ‘Wannabe Dictator’ Describes Trump Much Better

Posted by Mark NC on June 16, 2023 at 12:08 pm. 3 Comments :

On Tuesday afternoon, during the Fox News coverage of Donald Trump’s arrest and arraignment on a historic 37 felony count indictment, they aired a now infamous chyron that maligned President Biden in a particularly malicious manner. It read “WANNABE DICTATOR SPEAKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE AFTER HAVING HIS POLITICAL RIVAL ARRESTED.” Most of the reputable media castigated Fox for it’s unethical bias expressed in a childish insult. But not everyone was appropriately disgusted.

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Tucker Carlson apparently concurred and, in the fourth episode of his Twitter rant-cast, he delivered a full-throated defense of the repugnant message. He claimed that it was written and approved by a Fox News producer who was later fired by Fox secretly, so as not to further inflame Carlson’s hateful fans. And there is confirmation that the chyron wasn’t the work of a rogue intern, but was actually the former producer of Carlson’s own canceled Fox News program. Which may explain why Fox has been getting crushed in the ratings lately.

Carlson’s latest Twitter tirade (video here if you can stomach it) embraced the fallacious Fox framing of Biden. He disingenuously suggested that “You’ve gotta wonder, if you’re being honest with yourself, is Joe Biden a wannabe dictator?” Then he blatantly lied that Biden was “trying to put the other candidate [Trump] in prison for the rest of his life for a crime that he himself has committed.” Carlson is trying mightily to outdo the outrageousness of the previous episode of his Twitter screed.

Of course, Biden didn’t indict Trump. That was a citizen Grand Jury in Miami. Also, Biden never committed the crimes that Trump has been indicted for, and has even confessed to. Biden never withheld any documents from the FBI. He never lied to authorities about having them. He never shared them with others. He never attempted to move and hide them. He never tampered with witnesses. And he never defied a search warrant or subpoena.

Nevertheless, Carlson raged for 13 minutes over the assertion that Biden is an aspiring totalitarian tyrant. The only problem with his harangue is that it was a far better description of Trump than Biden. If no names were mentioned, most people would associate the following with Trump…

“It is not a small thing to become a wannabe dictator. It’s quite a process. There are a lot of steps. First off there is the money. The one thing that all dictators have in common is they enrich themselves and their families, their tribe, even as the countries they govern grow steadily poorer and more desperate. They take kickbacks from businesses and other dictators. They use the official functions of their governments to funnel cash to themselves. They don’t bother to hide the fruits of this. They live in garish mansions with big lawns far from the teeming cities.

And that was just for starters. Carlson plundered on saying that…

“If Joe Biden was a wannabe dictator he’d have the family to match. Saddam Hussein had Uday and Qusay.”
You mean like Eric and Don Jr?
“He doesn’t do photo-ops in mirrored sunglasses driving a sports car.”
No, just with his private jet, Trump Force One
“Joe Biden doesn’t award ridiculous, inflated titles to his relatives, that the media are then required to take seriously. He doesn’t call people ‘doctor’ who didn’t go to medical schools.”
Or make up fake Time Magazine covers?
“A dictator would stockpile ammunition for his own bureaucrats, including his tax collectors.”
And perhaps command private militias like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers?
“He’d define what attitudes they were allowed to have about sex, and religion, and how to raise their families.”
Like banning abortion, oppressing LGBTQ people, and forcing a warped version of Christianity?

Everything that Carlson is directing at Biden is patently false. For example, his reference to arming tax collectors relates to the fallacy that Biden’s budget called for 87,000 armed IRS agents. And his allusion to fake doctors is a dig at First Lady Jill Biden (which he has done before), who does, in fact, have a PHD.

Carlson is especially fond of attacking women. In this new video he complained that “the women who run the network panicked.” He’s probably angry with Fox’s CEO Suzanne Scott, who fired him. But for the record, most of those running Fox News are men, including it’s chairman, Lachlan Murdoch, its president, Jay Wallace, and ten of the twelve members of its executive management team.

It will be interesting to see how Fox News responds to this latest Carlson video. After all, they have already sent him an official “cease and desist” letter to notify him that he is in violation of his contract’s non-compete clause. if Carlson persists it could cost him tens of millions of dollars. Although a Tucker Carlson/Fox News legal cage match would be loads of fun.

SEE THIS: Fox News Sends Tucker Carlson a Letter to Cease and Desist From His Twitter Rant-Cast

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Tucker Carlson Paints Trump as a Messianic Victim of False Apostles in His 3rd Twitter Tirade

Posted by Mark NC on June 14, 2023 at 12:05 pm. 5 Comments :

The continuing saga of Tucker Carlson is unfolding in his third installment of “Tucker on Twitter,” the social media replacement for his canceled White Supremacist Hour on Fox News. The Twitter show thus far has consisted of poorly produced, ten minute disgorgements of Carlson’s inbred hate and conservative crackpottery. The new episode is more of the same.

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Carlson’s new chapter may be even cheesier than the previous ones. He rambled for 13 interminably tedious minutes about his theory that the reason people hate Trump is because he was a peacenik who took on the war mongers of Washington. Carlson based this blather on a few seconds of Trump criticizing the war in Iraq during a 2015 Republican primary debate. And for this Carlson is risking millions of dollars in defiance of a Fox News demand to “cease and desist.

SEE THIS: Fox News Sends Tucker Carlson a Letter to Cease and Desist From His Twitter Rant-Cast

According to Carlson, Trump’s alleged antiwar stance launched eight years of unyielding animus toward Trump. Carlson is oblivious to the fact that millions of people have actually long despised Trump for his bigotry, dishonesty, and policies that hurt middle and low income Americans, and enriched corporations and the wealthy. Most people probably have no recollection of the sound bite that Carlson plucked from nearly a decade ago.

Carlson doesn’t explain why there was no such contempt for everyone else who held antiwar views way before Trump. Democrats and progressives opposed the war in Iraq and castigated the Bush administration’s false allegations of “weapons of mass destruction” long before Trump adopted it merely as a cudgel with which to bash his primary opponent, Jeb Bush.

Somehow, Carlson spins this nonsense into an incoherent defense of Trump, who he says must now be forgiven for the completely unrelated crimes of having stolen hundreds of sensitive national security documents, stashed them in bathrooms and ballrooms around his Mar-a-Lago home/hotel, defied subpoenas, obstructed justice, and lied to the FBI and other law enforcement authorities.

REALTED: Trump and His MAGA Minions in Media and Congress Go BONKERS Over His Criminal Indictments

After his perversely twisted introduction, Carlson got into what really irked him: people who he believes were deceptive and insincere Trump supporters (video here, if you can stomach it)…

“They ran toward Trump, not away from him. They sucked up to him to him. They ingratiated themselves to the man they intuitively understood was susceptible to flattery. Which Trump is. And they did this in order to subvert his new administration from the inside. There were a number of these, and you could spot them immediately.”

It’s impossible not to notice that Carlson is describing virtually everyone in the Republican caucuses in Congress and on Fox News and other right-wing media. And, of course, himself. What’s more, Carlson is conceding that Trump is “susceptible to flattery,” which makes him an easy mark for political shenanigans. A puppet for other GOP operatives to control. Even worse, it makes him a national security risk, because it isn’t just all of these domestic suck ups that were able to manipulate Trump, but every foreign leader, friend and foe. Carlson continued…

“They were flatterers. Invariably the ones who flattered Trump the most, hated him the most and disagreed the most strongly with his views. You saw them in the hallways of the White House and at press conferences. They were there slobbering over their boss with elaborate self-abasement as if they were addressing a monarch or a god. It was a scene from the Ottoman Court. And it was filthy and decadent, and it was false. Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, Lindsey Graham in the Congress. They all called Trump a visionary genius up until the moment he lost power.”

Well said, Tuckems. Except that you left out a particularly notorious and unscrupulous Trump-fluffer – Tucker Carlson. After all, you frequently “slobbered” over Trump publicly but, as we learned in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit, you privately said that you “hated him passionately” and called him a “demonic force.” Carlson, however, correctly characterizes Trump as the leader of a “filthy and decadent” cult that worships him.

SEE THIS: In Dominion v Fox News, Network Cries ‘We Can’t Make People Think We’ve Turned Against Trump’

Carlson’s Twitter show is proving to be as nauseating and deceitful as his Fox News show. At least it is much shorter in duration, minus his noxious guests, and confined to his Twitter account, where it is being mostly ignored. Don’t be fooled by his boasting about the “views” it racks up. Those numbers are grossly misunderstood. Views on Twitter are not comparable to viewers on television, as explained by Aidan McLaughlin, the Editor in Chief of Mediaite…

“According to Twitter, if you watch a video for two seconds, with only half the video player in-view, you count as one video view. The tweet view metric is even less valuable. It merely counts how many people viewed the tweet, so if you scrolled past Carlson’s video on Twitter, you counted as one of the 114 million. […] If you scrolled past the tweet multiple times, you counted more than once.”

The good news is that, like Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, and Megyn Kelly before him, post-Fox Carlson is sinking into oblivion. Right where he belongs.

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Fox News Sends Tucker Carlson a Letter to Cease and Desist From His Twitter Rant-Cast

Posted by Mark NC on June 12, 2023 at 1:19 pm. 4 Comments :

The feud between Fox News and their former top host, Tucker Carlson, has been growing rapidly more intense and bitter. It’s been seven weeks since Carlson was unceremoniously banished without notice from his Fox News perch. In the interim both have suffered significant declines in audience, as well as reputation, which was already in the gutter.

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Carlson has sought to resurface by posting poorly produced, ten minute tirades on Twitter. They have been nothing more than the sort of factless, right-wing monologues, riddled with conspiracy theories, that he used to open his program on Fox News with. Shortly after his first Twitter episode, Fox News advised him that he was in breach of his contract’s non-compete clause. Although it’s a stretch to regard what Carlson is putting out now as “competition,” given its sub-standard production values and tedious content.

Fox News has now taken the next step to send Carlson a “cease and desist“ letter. Since Carlson is still being paid by Fox, this notice is an official signal that they will file a lawsuit to get Carlson to either stop posting his videos, or lose the millions of dollars that remain in his contract, as well as additional compensatory and punitive damages. In response Carlson has apparently dismissed Fox’s warning and continued to post new material on Twitter. His attorney issued the following statement…

“Fox News continues to ignore the interests of its viewers, not to mention its shareholder obligations. Doubling down on the most catastrophic programming decision in the history of the cable news industry, Fox is now demanding that Tucker Carlson be silent until after the 2024 election. Tucker will not be silenced by anyone — whether it be Media Matters, the ADL or Fox News.”

It’s awfully thoughtful of Carlson to be concerned with the interests of Fox’s viewers and shareholders. However, that isn’t a rational legal argument for him to continue breaching his contract. It’s also cute that he regards his cancelation as “the most catastrophic programming decision in the history of the cable news.” Considering the fact that Carlson’s irresponsible lies contributed to Fox News having to shell out nearly a billion dollars to Dominion Voting Systems for defamation, canceling Carlson was a prudent decision that that should have made years sooner.

Carlson believes that his Twitter show is outperforming his old program on Fox. He boasts about the number of “views” his video has racked up. However, like pretty much everything else that he says, he is deliberately misleading his fans and the media. Views on Twitter are not comparable to viewers on television. Aidan McLaughlin, the Editor in Chief of Mediaite, provided an enlightening analysis of how those metrics are starkly different…

“According to Twitter, if you watch a video for two seconds, with only half the video player in-view, you count as one video view. The tweet view metric is even less valuable. It merely counts how many people viewed the tweet, so if you scrolled past Carlson’s video on Twitter, you counted as one of the 114 million. […] If you scrolled past the tweet multiple times, you counted more than once.”

So Carlson contends that nobody, not even Fox News, will be able to silence him. Which sounds more like a threat than a boast. But his public exposure has severely declined since becoming just another Tweeter with attitude. The only consolation for him is that his absence from Fox has hurt them just as much as it has hurt him. Fox’s primetime ratings have been cut in half since Tuckers termination. The good news is that America benefits from the decline and fall of both of them. So let the war continue, and best of luck to both sides.

SEE THIS: With Lawsuits, Lost Hosts, and Lying Pundits, the Future of Fox News Has Never Been Weaker

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After Tucker Carlson Fiasco, McCarthy Will Give January 6th Video to More MAGA Propagandists

Posted by Mark NC on June 2, 2023 at 1:09 pm. 5 Comments :

From the very start of his tenure, Republican House Squeaker, Kevin McCarthy, demonstrated just how brazenly partisan and dishonest his speakership would be. After a historic 15 attempts to secure enough votes to become Speaker, McCarthy was indebted to ultra-rightist underlings like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene to hold onto the post.

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Among the first actions by the new Speaker were the removal of Democrats Adam Schiff, Ilhan Omar, and Eric Swalwell, from their respective committees. Then he formed a bogus committee on “Responsiveness and Accountability Oversight,” whose stated purpose was to “make life Hell” for Democrats. And of course, he oversaw the creation of the House’s first “Anti-Woke” Caucus.

However, nothing was more representative of McCarthy’s radical political prejudices than when he handed over 41,000 hours of video from the January 6th insurrection, that was incited by Donald Trump, to the pro-insurrection, Putin loving poseur, Tucker Carlson. McCarthy claimed that he was making these videos public, but Carlson was the only person who was given access to them. After which, Carlson predictably produced a preposterous program that portrayed the violent MAGA rioters as peaceful tourists visiting the Capitol.

SEE THIS: Tucker Carlson Spins January 6th Insurrection Videos to Spread Blatant Lies, Trump Praises Him

Carlson’s ludicrous narrative was widely mocked and condemned. In fact, he ended up airing only a few carefully edited, and particularly boring, minutes of the 41,000 hours of video over two nights that revealed nothing of significance. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone who has seen Carlson’s other “reporting” on January 6th, wherein he glorifies the rioters and accuses the FBI of orchestrating the whole thing.

McCarthy had promised to eventually release the videos to the public at large, including other media outlets. But three months later, McCarthy is apparently making the videos available to some more well known conspiracy crackpots. According to his boss, Marjorie Taylor Greene (admittedly not the most reliable source)…

“I’m excited to share the good news that just as I promised the J6 tapes are being released!

“@SpeakerMcCarthy has given @jsolomonReports, @Julie_kelly2, and a third outlet unfettered access to the J6 tapes, and their reporting on it starts tomorrow.

“This is the transparency the American people deserve and I look forward to their reporting!”

I’m excited to share the good news that just as I promised the J6 tapes are being released!@SpeakerMcCarthy has given @jsolomonReports, @Julie_kelly2, and a third outlet unfettered access to the J6 tapes, and their reporting on it starts tomorrow.

This is the transparency the…

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene?? (@RepMTG) May 31, 2023

First of all, doling out the videos to selected conservative hacks is not “releasing” them. Nor is it “transparency” by any rational definition of the word. And what they will produce can hardly be called “reporting.” It is conspiring with confederates to manufacture more malicious propaganda.

What’s more, the people named by Greene are notorious fabricators of political fiction. John Solomon is a disgraced former Fox News contributor whose work is relentlessly slanted toward the ultra-right. Julie Kelly writes for the Trump-fluffing “American Greatness,” website, and is a prominent purveyor of conspiracy theories and slobbering Trump commentaries. The third party to whom McCarthy is giving the videos was apparently too embarrassing to even identify. Perhaps it is Rudy Giuliani or Don Trump Jr.

McCarthy’s refusal to grant access to these videos is a blatantly unethical, and possibly illegal, suppression of public materials and a breach of the First Amendment’s protection of a free press. He has already been sued by a coalition of media enterprises seeking access to the videos. They include CNN, Advance Publications, The Associated Press, CBS News, E.W. Scripps, Gannett, Politico, ProPublica and The New York Times.

Finally, there is a disturbing irony and hypocrisy in McCarthy’s aversion to sharing information. He recently threatened the FBI Director with contempt of Congress for not turning over a document that he wants in order to smear President Biden.

SEE THIS: McCarthy Threatens FBI Director with Contempt for Not Aiding His Petty Persecution of Biden

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FAILING UP: CNN Boss Chris Licht Promotes Trump Town Hall Host, Kaitlan Collins, to Primetime

Posted by Mark NC on May 17, 2023 at 12:50 pm. 5 Comments :

Last week CNN aired a town hall with Donald Trump, the twice-impeached leader of a seditionist conspiracy who was recently found liable for rape and defamation, and is currently being investigated for a multitude of crimes, including financial and tax fraud, hush money payments, hoarding classified materials, election interference, and plotting a violent coup.

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The town hall was broadly disparaged as an infomercial for Trump’s aspirations to return to the White House in 2024. He was given wide latitude to lie, with only paltry pushback by the moderator, Kaitlan Collins. The audience was stacked with Trump supporters who applauded his most heinous remarks and laughed when he insulted the victim of his sexual assault. The program was so awful that many insiders at CNN were among the harshest critics…

SEE THIS: How Horrible Was CNN’s Lie-Riddled Trump Town Hall? Let’s See What CNN Has to Say About It

In the days following the town hall, CNN’s ratings plummeted to fourth place, below the ultra-rightist gadfly network, Newsmax. So naturally, this week CNN is rewarding Collins for her hosting of the debacle with a new primetime show:

“On the heels of her performance moderating a town hall with former President Donald Trump, CNN CEO Chris Licht named Kaitlan Collins the new host of the network’s 9 p.m. hour starting in June.”

This schedule change was actually rumored to be in the works prior to the town hall, which was to serve as both an introduction and an advertisement for Collins in her new role. Which, in retrospect, doesn’t seem like it was a very good idea.

CNN appears to be making good on the journalistically inappropriate promise of its CEO, Chris Licht, to make the network “more Republican friendly.” They are replacing the more left-leaning journalist, Don Lemon, with Collins, a former correspondent with the Tucker Carlson founded “Daily Caller.” Never mind that Collins’ primetime debut has garnered mostly criticism and ridicule. One of the few people to praise the show was Trump himself (of course), who credited it with moving Fox News more to the right.

REALTED: Ratings Envy? Trump Says that His CNN Town Hall Spurred Fox News to Cover His Iowa Cult Rally

Perhaps Licht thinks that he can scoop up the disaffected Fox News viewers who are rapidly abandoning the network for having fired their High Priest of White Nationalism, Tucker Carlson. If so, then Licht is even dumber than Carlson looks. Fox’s audience has been trained to despise CNN, and they won’t be de-programmed by a one-night special broadcast.

As for Fox News, they are implementing some program changes as well. They just announced that Sean Hannity will be moved into Carlson’s earlier timeslot. And insiders are saying that Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld are also going to be given shows in primetime.

This presents a dilemma for Fox. There aren’t enough hours in primetime for everyone currently being talked about to have a show there. Since Hannity isn’t going anywhere, if Watters and Gutfeld get promoted, then Laura Ingraham is either fired or moved out of primetime.

All of these changes are going to inject some chaos into the cable news wars. CNN is driving viewers away by sucking up to the right. Fox News is alienating their followers by terminating their heroes. And all of that is going to create opportunities for MSNBC, whose schedule is remaining relatively stable.

It may take several weeks for all of this to shake out. But if CNN and Fox News continue to battle it out for the wingnut demographic, they will both continue to lose audience share to MSNBC and the various incarnations of “Bachelors” and “Idols” that are being served up on the broadcast networks. Stay tuned.

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Tucker Carlson’s New Twitter Show Announcement is a Steaming Mess of Incoherent Contradictions

Posted by Mark NC on May 10, 2023 at 10:35 am. 1 Comments :

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the Internet. Former Fox News Senior White Nationalist, Tucker Carlson, has announced that he will be launching a new “show” on twitter. He doesn’t provide any details of how he will accomplish that, or what a Twitter show would look like, but he’s got an ego just big enough to believe that this will thrust him back into the media spotlight. He’s wrong.

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Carlson’s proposed Twitter show is his attempt to remain relevant after being banished from his perch on cable news. However, he might want to check with Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck to see if there is life after Fox for hostile purveyors of dishonest, right-wing propaganda. Like them, he would become a footnote in the cyber world hollering into the void to a diminished audience of drooling deplorables.

Undaunted, Carlson is marching ahead with his arrogant aspirations. He is reported to be pursuing affiliations with Donald Trump and Elon Musk to pump up his paltry prospects. And to that end, Carlson announced that he will take his canceled TV tantrums to Twitter. [NOTE: Musk claims that “We have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever.”] In the introductory video (posted below), Carlson said that…

“You often hear people say the news is full of lies, but that’s not exactly right. Much of what you see on television or read in the New York Times is, in fact, true in the literal sense.”

Okay. So Carlson is defending the truthfulness of most of what you see and read in the news. An interesting position from someone who has been proven to have lied brazenly and literally declared that “misinformation can be true.” However, Carlson followed that up immediately by saying that while most news reports would pass fact checks, “that doesn’t make it true. It’s not true.” According to Carlson, the news is both truthful and “At the most basic level, the news you consume is a lie.” He really needs to make up his mangled mess of a mind.

Carlson says that the media’s lies are the result of withholding “perspective.” And that, as a result, “You are being manipulated.” But perspective, by definition, is opinion. It is an addendum to factual reporting that may or may not be factual. It is opinion that is most likely to be the tool of manipulation. And it is opinion that is the core of what Carlson produces. It is Carlson who is, and always has been, manipulating you.

So after asserting that the media tells the truth, except for when it lies and/or manipulates you, Carlson proceeds to insist that the media is lying virtually all the time…

“That’s what the news media are doing. In every story that matters, every day of the week, every week of the year? What’s it like to work in a system like that? After more than 30 years in the middle of it, we could tell you stories.”

Indeed, Carlson could tell us “stories,” which, ironically, is a synonym for lies. He is effectively confessing that he has lied to his audience for 30 years. And given that confession, why should he change now? So he goes on to complain that there are “limits” to freedom of speech in the media, and that “if you bump up against those limits often enough you will be fired for it.” Here Carlson is obliquely referencing his firing from Fox News without saying so explicitly. And he offers no evidence that his firing had anything to do with the limits he is alleging. To the contrary, he was terminated for reasons that had to do with his own dishonesty and hostility toward his audience, colleagues, and bosses. Carlson is manipulating you.

Carlson continues by implying that his messy separation from Fox News resulted from some sort of censorship that was imposed upon him. “You can’t have a free society,” he warned, “if people aren’t allowed to say what they think is true.” First of all, what you “think is true” is not necessarily the same as what is actually true. Once again, Carlson is confusing opinion with facts. Secondly, he had ample opportunity to say what he thought was true. In fact, that’s what got him fired. Carlson is manipulating you.

Finally, Carlson concludes with a blisteringly preposterous assertion about the state of free speech in America today:

“Amazingly, as of tonight, there aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech. The last big one remaining in the world, the only one, is Twitter [and that] Twitter is not a partisan site”

What the holy f**k? Can Carlson really believe that Twitter is the only platform in the world that allows free speech? And that it is not partisan? Under the horrifically biased mismanagement of Elon Musk, Twitter has become the platform of choice for racists, neo-Nazis, anti-Semites, and a broad array of ultra right-wing conspiracy theorists. But before you claim that that is proof that it respects free speech, consider that other more reasonable and decent voices are suppressed, shadow-banned, and tagged with so-called “community notes” that disparage those views.

Despite Carlson’s ludicrous pronouncements of Twitter’s non-partisan free for all, he closes by contradicting himself and criticizing Twitter as a place where “for the most part, the news… comes from media organizations that are themselves thinly disguised propaganda outlets. [i.e. Fox News] The result may feel like a debate, but actually, the gatekeepers are still in charge.” So Twitter doesn’t practice free speech and isn’t non-partisan after all? Carlson is manipulating you.

Carlson then calls that “a bad system,” and says that he’s “sick of it.” But then abruptly flips gears to gleefully announce that he is “bringing a new version of the show we’ve been doing for the last six and a half years to Twitter.” The bad system that he is sick of?

Carlson’s proposed Twitter show could come at great cost to him. He would likely be breaching contractual agreements with Fox News. Dylan Byers of Puck News reports that “He will forgo at least $25 million owed to him by Fox Corp. in order to break non-compete clause.” And in anticipation of a bloody battle with Fox, Axios reports that Carlson has preemptively “accused [Fox News] Tuesday of fraud and breach of contract — and made a host of document demands that could precede legal action.” Although Fox has already lobbed some bombs of their own…

SEE THIS: Fox News ‘Demands’ that Media Matters Stop Publishing Leaked Videos of Tucker Carlson

The Fox News/Tucker Carlson divorce has hurt both of them. Carlson will lose money and access to Fox’s millions of viewers. And Fox is already bleeding those viewers. In the end, Carlson is just validating why his own Fox News lawyers defended him in a defamation lawsuit by arguing that “no reasonable person” would believe anything he said. Carlson is most definitely, deliberately, and dreadfully manipulating you.

We’re back. pic.twitter.com/sG5t9gr60O

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) May 9, 2023

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Tucker Carlson Has Been a Busy Bigot Since Being Booted From Fox News – Courting Trump and Musk

Posted by Mark NC on May 8, 2023 at 12:42 pm. 2 Comments :

It’s only been two weeks since Fox News canceled their top rated White Nationalist host, Tucker Carlson. But Carlson hasn’t been wasting any time engineering his comeback. He’s surely cognizant of the descent into wingnut oblivion that engulfed his predecessors Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck.

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It only took Carlson three days to post a video reaching out to his cult followers after his Fox downfall. However, that video was conspicuously devoid of any substance. It didn’t mention his Fox News, or his firing, or his next job. It was a hollow cry for attention that looked as if he had been muzzled by Fox and either afraid or unable to speak candidly. But that didn’t stop him from attacking Fox when he thought no one was listening…

SEE THIS: Leaked Video of Tucker Carlson Bashing Fox Nation as a Site that ‘Sucks’ and ‘Nobody Watches’

This weekend Carlson reportedly went further, threatening to wage an all out war against his former employer if they didn’t release him from contractual commitments to refrain from competing with or disparaging Fox. According to Axios…

“Tucker Carlson is preparing to unleash allies to attack Fox News in an effort to bully the network into letting him work for – or start – a right-wing rival, sources close to him tell Axios.

“Bryan Freedman, the high-powered Hollywood lawyer Carlson retained for the contract dispute, told Axios: ‘The idea that anyone is going to silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond preposterous.’ […] But he needs Fox to let him out of his contract, which expires in January 2025 — after the presidential election.”

Carlson’s lawyer’s contradiction is “beyond preposterous.” If Carlson “needs Fox to let him out of his contract,” then he is actually letting Fox “silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience.” And Fox has good reason to do so, considering that a Carlson confidant says that Carlson “knows where a lot of bodies are buried, and is ready to start drawing a map.” To which a nation hungry for just such a a media melodrama shouts “Bring it on, Tucker!”

Axios also reported that “Carlson and Elon Musk had a conversation about working together.” Which affirms that Musk, despite his disingenuous claims of being a centrist, is staunchly aligned with Carlson’s brand of White Nationalism.

In addition to his budding relationship with Musk, Carlson is also pursing tighted relations with Donald Trump. The Washington Post published a reported that Carlson…

“…wants to moderate his own GOP candidate forum, outside of the usual strictures of the Republican National Committee debate system. The idea, which he has discussed with Donald Trump, the front-runner for the party nomination, would test his vaunted sway over conservative politics. And it would take a jab at his former employer.”

SEE THIS: Unemployed Racist Tucker Carlson is Talking to Trump About Hosting 2024 GOP Candidate Forums

Carlson does have plenty of family money, so he can sacrifice some his unpaid Fox compensation in order to satiate his craving for relevance and attention. And by doing so he will burn any bridges that might remain between him and Fox, a network that he once described as “a mean, sick group of people.” But if he thinks that trading down to Trump and Musk is going to be his pathway to media mega-stardom, he’s going to be sorely disappointed.

Trump’s star fell when he launched his pitifully failing Twitter scam, Truth Social. And Musk seems hell bent on destroying what’s left of Twitter. But the three of them should enjoy each other’s company as they try to blast their hateful prejudices out to the shrinking population of deplorables who still give a damn what they say.

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Fox News ‘Demands’ that Media Matters Stop Publishing Leaked Videos of Tucker Carlson

Posted by Mark NC on May 5, 2023 at 12:30 pm. 4 Comments :

The fallout from Fox News firing their Senior White Nationalist, Tucker Carlson, continues to cast dark shadows on the network that tolerated and embraced his hate speech and lies for so many years. Apparently terminating Carlson after agreeing to settle the defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems for 3/4 of a billion dollars was only the beginning of their problems.

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This week Media Matters acquired some videos of Carlson that further exposed his racism, as well as the animosity he had for his own colleagues at Fox News who he thought weren’t sufficiently repellent. These videos revealed Carlson maligning his former employer, saying “I don’t want to be a slave to Fox Nation. [and that] Nobody watches Fox Nation because the site sucks.” Additionally, there were text messages wherein he complained about having been deposed by Dominion’s lawyers and criticized violent Trump supporters because “It’s not how white men fight.”

SEE THIS: Leaked Video of Tucker Carlson Bashing Fox Nation as a Site that ‘Sucks’ and ‘Nobody Watches’

On Friday Fox News sent Media Matters a “cease and desist” letter demanding that they stop publishing these videos. The letter said…

“We write on behalf of Fox Corporation to clarify any misunderstandings Media Matters may have had regarding previously unaired footage that Media Matters has published in a series of articles headlined ‘Foxleaks.’ That unaired footage is Fox’s confidential intellectual property; Fox did not consent to its distribution or publication; and Fox does not consent to its further distribution or publication. This proprietary material was given to you without Fox’s authorization. Fox demands that Media Matters cease and desist from distribution, publication, and misuse of Fox’s misappropriated proprietary footage, which you are now on notice was unlawfully obtained. We reserve all rights and remedies.”

Fox has sent a letter to @mmfa asking the organization to stop publishing behind-the-scenes videos of Tucker Carlson pic.twitter.com/LYJ9ScROiB

— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) May 5, 2023

Seriously? First of all, Media Matters is well within their rights as a journalistic enterprise to publish these videos. Fox’s threat is empty and unsupported by the law, and particularly the Constitution.

What’s more, Fox News is a frequent exploiter of what they have insisted is their First Amendment rights to publish similarly obtained materials. They have had no problem with publishing private emails from Hillary Clinton, or text messages of FBI agent Peter Strzok, or the sort of videos that Project Veritas produced by secretly recording people that they purposefully deceived. Consequently, it is more likely that the source of these videos is actually Fox News. They have to incentive to dirty up Carlson before he lands at some other media outfit and starts smearing Fox.

Nevertheless, Fox News thinks they can intimidate Media Matters to prevent them from providing information that is relevant and important to the public regarding the state of affairs at Fox News. But Media Matters wasn’t intimidated. They released a response that brilliantly rejected Fox’s feeble threat.

“Reporting on newsworthy leaked material is a cornerstone of journalism. For Fox to argue otherwise is absurd and further dispels any pretense that they’re a news operation. Perhaps if I tell them that the footage came from a combination of WikiLeaks and Hunter Biden’s laptop, it will alleviate their concerns.”

A statement from @GoAngelo on Fox's attempt to silence free speech: pic.twitter.com/ky6bcvynNu

— Media Matters (@mmfa) May 5, 2023

OUCH! It’s unlikely that even proving that Fox News is brazenly hypocritical will “alleviate their concerns.” That’s because Fox’s concerns are rooted in their deeply held, ultra-rightist biases, and not in any logic, reason or facts. Which is one of the reasons why Fox is currently suffering the worst downtrend in their ratings in more than ten years. And ridiculous measures like this to try to censor their critics isn’t going to make anything better for them. Just imagine what would come out in any trial if Fox followed through with this threat.

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Mastodon.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

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