{"id":36713,"date":"2018-01-10T18:04:41","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T02:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=36713"},"modified":"2018-01-10T18:06:35","modified_gmt":"2018-01-11T02:06:35","slug":"trumps-fox-news-fetish-could-be-making-the-network-a-security-risk-exploitable-by-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=36713","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Fox News Fetish Could Be Making the Network a Security Risk Exploitable By Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

The relationship between Donald Trump and Fox News has always been problematic. It represents the closest thing to state-run TV that the United States has ever had. The anchors and reporters on Fox serve as dutiful sycophants to the Trump administration, advancing his self-serving agenda and defending his every fault. While Trump repays Fox by promoting the network and its personalities with free advertisements on his Twitter feed and relentless attacks on their competition.<\/p>\n

\"Fox
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

However, there may be more worrisome consequences from this political\/media marriage of propagandistic convenience. Aki Peritz, a former CIA counterterrorism analyst, just wrote an op-ed<\/a><\/strong> for the Washington Post that raises some frightening possibilities that might result from the parasitic combination of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire and the dimwitted White House. The article, headlined “Foreign spies are watching \u2014 and probably targeting \u2014 Fox News Channel”<\/em> delves into some reasonable speculation about how hostile foreign intelligence operations might benefit from monitoring – and possibly compromising – Fox News. What follows are some excerpts that provide a taste of how this problem could become a recipe for disaster:<\/p>\n

“[I]f I were a spymaster in the employ of a hostile foreign service, I\u2019d devote some significant effort to penetrating one specific private institution: Fox News Channel.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“It\u2019s no secret that Fox News \u2014 specifically, shows such as ‘Hannity,’ ‘Fox & Friends,’ ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ and ‘Justice with Judge Jeanine’ \u2014 have outsize influence on the inner workings of how certain policies are carried out by the U.S. government.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“[H]ostile foreign intelligence services are probably consuming as much Fox News as President Trump does.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Trump\u2019s unfiltered Twitter feed provides world intelligence operatives with ‘a real-time glimpse of a major world leader’s preoccupations, personality quirks and habits of mind’ – traits to be exploited in further dealings on the global stage. And what better way to determine what the president thinks – for the price of basic cable \u2014 than to watch selected Fox News programming?”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“A truly aggressive intelligence effort would not just monitor what\u2019s being said on the network. It would target the on-air talent, as well as the folks behind the scenes who make the network\u2019s programming possible: producers, bookers, associate producers, production assistants and the like. This might range from opening friendly contacts with these employees to outright recruitment.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Compared to government workers, Fox employees would make easy targets. That\u2019s because they aren\u2019t public officials \u2014 they\u2019re news and entertainment people. Also, it\u2019s television \u2014 full of trade secrets, big personalities and titanic egos. Most wouldn\u2019t expect to be compromised by a hostile intelligence power, especially on American soil. Few, if any, have the sort of counterintelligence training the U.S. government administers to people in sensitive positions, because Fox employees are not the usual targets for intelligence operations. But the president\u2019s continuing, very specific interest in the channel heightens their risk of being approached by a hostile government.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Peritz specifically mentions the risk posed by covert operations aimed at Fox News staff. For instance, Sean Hannity is known to speak frequently with Trump. So bugging Hannity’s phone or office “could provide real-time intelligence on the American president and his thoughts.”<\/em> The same could be true for others at Fox News. Trump’s chumminess with people at Fox has resulted in several of them getting jobs in the administration, including K.T. McFarland, Ben Carson, Sebastian Gorka, and Heather Nauert. Two of Fox’s current prime time lineup, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, were reported to have been candidates for press secretary.<\/p>\n

\n

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
\nFox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.<\/a>
\nAvailable now at Amazon.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The WaPo article is careful not to present this theory as anything more than informed speculation. But given what is known about how Russia conducts its spy operations, it would be prudent for all Fox News employees to be wary, even suspicious, about contacts from friendly strangers. That is, if they aren’t actively seeking out Russians for collusion on behalf of Trump, who is already deeply compromised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The relationship between Donald Trump and Fox News has always been problematic. It represents the closest thing to state-run TV that the United States has ever had. The anchors and reporters on Fox serve as dutiful sycophants to the Trump administration, advancing his self-serving agenda and defending his every fault. While Trump repays Fox by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,1200,8,13],"tags":[554,879,33,1092,43,1211,129,25,241],"class_list":["post-36713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-politics","category-propaganda","category-scandalous","tag-donald-trump","tag-fox-friends","tag-fox-news","tag-jeanine-pirro","tag-laura-ingraham","tag-russia","tag-sean-hannity","tag-tucker-carlson","tag-washington-post"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-commie.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-9y9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34401,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=34401","url_meta":{"origin":36713,"position":0},"title":"Rachel Maddow’s Brilliant Reporting on Trump and Russia Has Upset the Snowflakes at Fox News","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/15\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"For the past several weeks Rachel Maddow has been enjoying record ratings for her MSNBC program. Not only that, in the Key 25-to-54 demographic, Maddow is beating her direct Fox News competition, Tucker Carlson. The surge in viewers can be attributed to the \"gift\" of endless atrocities and absurdities courtesy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rachel Maddow Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/maddow-trump-russian-connection.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/maddow-trump-russian-connection.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/maddow-trump-russian-connection.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37718,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=37718","url_meta":{"origin":36713,"position":1},"title":"Mueller Will Find that Trump Committed Criminal or Impeachable Offenses Says – a Fox News Poll?","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/26\/2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald Trump has turned his seething hostility for the media into a familiar chant that anything critical of him is \"fake news.\" Simultaneously, he has relentlessly hyped his pals at State-Run TV (aka Fox News). 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