{"id":40366,"date":"2019-01-25T11:32:15","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T19:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=40366"},"modified":"2019-01-25T11:37:19","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T19:37:19","slug":"willfully-blind-fox-news-wonders-where-is-the-russia-collusion-in-roger-stone-indictment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=40366","title":{"rendered":"Willfully Blind: Fox News Wonders &#8216;Where is the Russia Collusion?&#8217; in Roger Stone Indictment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The walls continue to close in around Donald Trump and his criminal enterprise. And these aren&#8217;t the border walls over which he orchestrated history&#8217;s longest government shutdown. On Friday morning one of Trump&#8217;s longest known and closest associates, Roger Stone was arrested on seven counts that include lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice. Charges that Trump would be wise to study up on.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-stone.jpg\" alt=\"Donald Trump, Roger Stone\" width=\"550\" height=\"296\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-40367\" \/><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NewsCorpse\/posts\/2538898852791561\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Share on Facebook\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/Pix\/Advs\/fb-share-tn.jpg\" width=\"274\" height=\"20\" class=\"aligncenter\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The arrest and indictment of Stone was not unexpected. In fact, Stone himself had <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2018\/5\/20\/17373864\/roger-stone-indictment-mueller-wikileaks-russia\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">predicted it<\/a><\/strong> in May of last year. Most observant followers of the Mueller investigation have known for some time that Stone was a target of the probe and that he likely ran afoul of the law. Even Trump acknowledged Stone&#8217;s complicity and praised him for clamming up about the case in a tweet that could have been written by an old-school mob boss:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI will never testify against Trump.\u201d This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about \u201cPresident Trump.\u201d Nice to know that some people still have \u201cguts!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1069619316319035392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 3, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Fox News immediately went to work fulfilling their mission to shield Trump from any and all criticism. In a series of reports they downplayed any significance of Stone&#8217;s indictment, presenting it with exactly the same framing as Trump did in his knee-jerk tweet:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION! Border Coyotes, Drug Dealers and Human Traffickers are treated better. Who alerted CNN to be there?<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1088832908494888961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 25, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>For the record, no one <em>&#8220;alerted CNN to be there.&#8221;<\/em> They noticed some unusual activity at the Grand Jury and surmised that an indictment might be imminent, so they sent a crew to Stone&#8217;s home in Florida. And you have to wonder which drug dealers Trump was referring to who were treated better than Stone who was released a couple of hours after his arrest. As for the <em>&#8220;Greatest Witch Hunt,&#8221;<\/em> it surely is the most successful with dozens of indictments and guilty pleas, some by top officials in Trump&#8217;s campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Doocy, co-host of Trump&#8217;s favorite morning show, Fox and Friends, was dumbstruck by the charges against Stone. But more importantly, he couldn&#8217;t understand how anyone would see any hint of collusion in the charges against Stone:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>&#8220;When you look at the seven counts from the Grand Jury &#8211; obstruction of an official investigation, false statements to Congress, and perhaps witness tampering &#8211; once again, where is the Russia collusion?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Fox &amp; Friends\u2019 first takes on the Roger Stone arrest are that the investigation is in a \u201cwrap-up\u201d phase, it&#39;s just a &quot;process crime,&quot; and \u201conce again, where is the Russia collusion?\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/t2xKke5R2P\">pic.twitter.com\/t2xKke5R2P<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/revrrlewis\/status\/1088767759805235201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 25, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Where is the collusion? It&#8217;s everywhere. It&#8217;s in each and every one of the charges Doocy just itemized. The obstruction of justice is specifically related to Stone&#8217;s efforts to cover his involvement in conspiring with the Russia-affiliated WikiLeaks to acquire and publish emails stolen from Hillary Clinton and her team. The false statements to Congress were specifically related to his denials of such involvement. And the witness tampering was also connected to his attempts to intimidate his co-conspirators into keeping quiet about these crimes committed on behalf of Trump.<\/p>\n<p>The position of Fox News is remarkably tunnel-blind, even for them. Some pundits have even said that these indictments are good news for Stone and Trump. Because it&#8217;s always such good news to have one of your closest confidants arrested for multiple felonies. The narrative at Fox is that because the word <em>&#8220;collusion&#8221;<\/em> wasn&#8217;t spelled out in the text of the indictments, that there wasn&#8217;t any. But that is a fool&#8217;s interpretation considering that each of the indictments explicitly address the criminal conspiracy in Trump World.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00QSSMOES\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=B00QSSMOES&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=newscorpsecom-20&#038;linkId=TLI6JC2OYE22MUTS\" target=\"_blank\">Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.<\/a><br \/>\nAvailable now at Amazon.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>No doubt Fox&#8217;s cult-bound audience will buy into their narrative, as will Trump. But that is a small minority of the population at large, and the more new revelations about the Russia probe come out, the more the American people are turning against him. He is currently sitting at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/01\/24\/politics\/poll-of-polls-shutdown\/index.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">record lows of approval<\/a><\/strong> (37%), and even his favorite pollster, the thoroughly biased Rasmussen, has him at 54% disapproval (46% strongly disapprove). So Fox&#8217;s viewers are, once again, living in a manufactured world that bears no resemblance to reality. They are going to be shocked when all the facts are finally revealed. Unless Fox claims that they are <em>&#8220;alternative facts&#8221;<\/em> and that it&#8217;s all <em>&#8220;fake news.&#8221;<\/em> Which you can bet on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The walls continue to close in around Donald Trump and his criminal enterprise. And these aren&#8217;t the border walls over which he orchestrated history&#8217;s longest government shutdown. On Friday morning one of Trump&#8217;s longest known and closest associates, Roger Stone was arrested on seven counts that include lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstruction of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40367,"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":[1,684,1200,8,16],"tags":[554,879,33,239,1211,134],"class_list":["post-40366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-media-bias","category-politics","category-propaganda","category-wankery","tag-donald-trump","tag-fox-friends","tag-fox-news","tag-roger-stone","tag-russia","tag-steve-doocy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-stone.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-av4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38099,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=38099","url_meta":{"origin":40366,"position":0},"title":"Trump DID Collude With Russia &#8211; Says Former Fox News Chief Campaign Correspondent","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/5\/2018","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a day that ends with the letter \"Y\" so obviously Donald Trump is posting on Twitter about how the special counsel's investigation of him is just a \"Russian Witch Hunt Hoax\" designed to frame him for crimes that he is totally allowed to pardon himself for (except that he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump Vladimir Putin","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-putin-speech.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-putin-speech.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-putin-speech.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54953,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=54953","url_meta":{"origin":40366,"position":1},"title":"Tucker Carlson of Fox News Secretly Lobbied for Trump to Pardon Convicted Felon Roger Stone","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/1\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The lines dividing Fox News from the ultra-rightist Republican Party and the abominable Cult of Donald Trump were erased long ago. There is no discernible distinction whatsoever between Trump's GOP and Rupert Murdoch's propaganda network. They work hand in hand to undermine democracy and advance the authoritarian aspirations and agenda\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump, Roger Stone","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-stone.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-stone.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-stone.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":40402,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=40402","url_meta":{"origin":40366,"position":2},"title":"Trump Freaks Out Over Cliff Sims: Nothing Screams &#8216;GUILTY&#8217; Like Threatening a &#8216;Low Level Gofer&#8217;","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/29\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The walls are closing in around Donald Trump. And they aren't the walls that he is obsessed with building on the southern border. More of the criminal associates that comprise Trump's inner circle are being swept up by the long arm of justice every day. And with each new arrest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump, Cliff Sims","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-sims.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-sims.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-sims.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44125,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=44125","url_meta":{"origin":40366,"position":3},"title":"REALLY? Trump Quotes Pro-Impeachment Fox News Judge to Defend Roger Stone","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/18\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week Donald Trump fired off a flurry of tweets in defense of his longtime political guru, and now convicted felon, Roger Stone. Trump's Attorney Genuflect Bill Barr heard and obeyed the commands to seek leniency for Stone. Although Barr also made an obviously staged attempt to reclaim some of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump, Roger Stone","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-stone.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-stone.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-stone.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44147,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=44147","url_meta":{"origin":40366,"position":4},"title":"The REAL Criminal: Roger Stone Was Prosecuted for Covering Up for Trump","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/20\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"On Thursday morning the media was glued to a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. That's where Judge Amy Berman Jackson would be handing down the sentence for Donald Trump's longtime political fixer, Roger Stone, who was convicted on all seven counts of lying to Congress and witness intimidation. Stone's sentencing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump, Prison","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-prison.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-prison.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-prison.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":31610,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=31610","url_meta":{"origin":40366,"position":5},"title":"Campaign Ally Says Donald Trump Should &#8220;Turn Off&#8221; CNN&#8217;s FCC License (Which They Can&#8217;t Do)","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/17\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Advancing the already stridently fascist policy platform of Donald Trump's candidacy, one of his closest friends and political allies is now recommending that Trump put his boot down on the free press should he become president. Notorious dirty trickster, Roger Stone, has made a name for himself pushing ludicrous conspiracy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Roger Stone Clintons' War On Women","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/stone-war-on-women.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/stone-war-on-women.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/stone-war-on-women.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40366"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40371,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40366\/revisions\/40371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}