Faux News Just Can't Help Being Faux News

[LFC]

After the disastrous Tucker Carlson interview Faux News has been doing everything in its power to avoid saying anything about Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). Underage girls, paying for sex, maybe getting them fake IDs, lying about extortion, and on and on by a sitting U.S. Representative is apparently not newsworthy ... as long as they're Republican.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) for the past two days has been engulfed by multiple bombshell reports detailing investigations into his seedy and potentially illegal behavior.

However, anyone who relies on Fox News as their sole source of information won't know about any of it because the network hasn't even mentioned Gaetz's name once since Wednesday.

CNN's Brian Stelter did a search of Fox News transcripts and discovered that the last time the network mentioned Gaetz was on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

In the time since Fox's last mention of Gaetz, reports have emerged that he allegedly shared nude photos and videos of women he slept with to impress his colleagues in Congress; that investigators have uncovered ties between Gaetz and a fake ID scheme; and even for potentially paying for sex with women using the Apple Pay mobile payment platform.

Despite all this, neither Fox News' primetime opinion shows nor its more news-oriented daytime shows have bothered to inform their viewers about Gaetz's potential legal troubles.

[LFC]

Bill Nye spoke about his appearance with Tucker Carlson which, in classic Carlson fashion, was a sham. The whole game was rigged in shameless fashion yet Nye had the presence of mind to time Carlson's interruptions.

“Oh god,” Nye says when I bring up the appearance he made on Tucker Carlson’s show a couple of years ago. As one headline put it at the time, “Bill Nye appears on Fox News and it doesn’t go well.”

“The experience was just a lot of adrenaline,” Nye tells me. He was in Washington, D.C., where Carlson tapes his show. “It was a beautiful night, gorgeous, and Tucker Carlson was on the roof of the building doing his schtick from there.” Fox invited him on to talk about climate change and he agreed, making his first appearance on that network in nearly a decade despite being a semi-frequent presence on CNN and MSNBC.

“So we were going to go on the roof, beautiful night, this will be fun,” Nye thought to himself. But then the producers told him he wasn’t going to be on the roof with the host but rather in a small room on a lower floor of the same studio. “They moved me, changed my chair three times to throw me off,” he says.

During his introduction, Carlson mocked his guest as “Bill Nye the Psychoanalyst Guy” for claiming that climate change deniers suffer from “cognitive dissonance.” The host was clearly itching for a fight.

As the segment began, Nye quickly realized that every time he started to talk, Carlson would interrupt him. “Working as fast as I could, I took my phone out and tried to show him with a stopwatch that he interrupted me every six seconds,” Nye says. “So it’s hard to make a point with him.”

By the end of their nine minutes on screen together, Carlson was shouting at Nye, “I’m open-minded, you are not!”

“Carry on, Mr. Carlson, I’m sure we will cross paths again,” Nye told him, a bit ominously. They haven’t crossed paths since.

“He’s really drifted off, with respect,” Nye says of Carlson, who has become the most prominent white nationalist voice on Fox News under President Trump. “I mean he’s gotten odder and odder.” Besides the racism, Nye was enraged by a recent show in which he attacked the metric system.

“The other thing I wonder about Tucker Carlson is, he’s got four kids,” Nye says, turning more serious. “I just wonder how his children feel about climate change. They keep a pretty low profile. I wonder about it, because it much more difficult to meet a climate change denier who is young.”

[LFC]

Classic Faux News. Go after the nnnn... most melaninned person attached in any way to the story.

Minutes after the British royal family announced that Queen Elizabeth II’s husband, Prince Philip, had died at the age of 99, the sleuths at Fox & Friends blamed their inevitable culprits: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Host Brian Kilmeade immediately linked the death of the extremely old and sickly Duke of Edinburgh to Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, which aired last month and contained shocking claims of racism and cruel treatment against Meghan by royal family members.

Kilmeade said on Friday’s show: “There are reports that [Philip] was enraged after the interview and the fallout from the interview with Oprah Winfrey, so here he is trying to recover and he’s hit with that.”

Kilmeade then went on to cite Piers Morgan, of all people, as evidence that Philip’s health was hit by the Oprah interview. Morgan resigned in disgrace from his show, Good Morning Britain, after thousands of people complained about his repeated attacks on Meghan. The low point came when he said didn’t believe her admission that she felt suicidal.

[Bact PhD]

Because, of course, just being NINETY-NINE YEARS OLD (and in deteriorating health the last several years) isn't enough!

[pnwguy]

Apr 9, 2021 17:19:38 GMT Bact PhD said:

Because, of course, just being NINETY-NINE YEARS OLD (and in deteriorating health the last several years) isn't enough!

What?  No mention of ANTIFA doing in the majestic god-ordained consort to the queen?

"Well, it could have been Jewish Space Lasers.  They can beam in laterally through windows now..."

[LFC]

Faux News tried to claim protected speech in the lawsuit filed by Smartmatic. They've replied calling they're "reporting" out as an intentional crime. It sounds like they've also basically accused them of conspiracy with Giuliani and Powell to spread their lies and slander the company. I'd say they have the stronger argument though there are a lot of Republican judges.

A new court filing argues that Fox News anchors cannot hide behind the First Amendment after helping former president Donald Trump and his allies spread election lies.

Voting technology company Smartmatic filed a 120 page motion asking a New York state court to reject the conservative network's attempt to dismiss a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit by claiming its coverage was protected speech, arguing those protections should not apply because anchors knew election fraud claims were untrue, reported Law & Crime.

"This is not a game. The First Amendment does not provide the Fox Defendants a Get Out Of Jail Free card," the motion argues. "The Fox Defendants do not get a do-over with their reporting now that they have been sued."

Smartmatic attorney J. Erik Connolly accused Fox News anchors, including Maria Bartiromo, Jeannine Pirro and Lou Dobbs of inviting Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell onto their programs and asking questions intended to promote the former president's claims of election fraud.

"The Fox anchors were not innocent bystanders and the disinformation generated during their interviews was no accident," the motion claims. "Prior to the interviews, the Fox anchors decided to join forces with Giuliani and Powell to disseminate disinformation about Smartmatic. The Fox anchors knew what Giuliani and Powell would say on their shows, asked questions to elicit lies about Smartmatic, and endorsed Giuliani's and Powell's investigation. The Fox anchors added their own defamatory comments about Smartmatic for good measure. This was a scripted performance by the Fox anchors, Giuliani, and Powell to defame and disparage Smartmatic for personal gain."

"The filing only confirms our view that the suit is meritless and FOX News covered the election in the highest tradition of the First Amendment," the spokesperson said.

[goldenvalley]

"This is not a game. The First Amendment does not provide the Fox Defendants a Get Out Of Jail Free card," the motion argues. "The Fox Defendants do not get a do-over with their reporting now that they have been sued.

I'm always glad to see lawyers be blunt about this nonsense instead of hiding behind legalese.  

[LFC]

Tucker Carlson just doubled down on "replacement theory." He really has found his shtick as the semi-respectable face of white supremacy. He's the voice of white people who are aggrieved that they won't be the master dominant race in America for very long.

Typically, when Tucker Carlson provokes outrage, it is a good bet that he will address the controversy by doubling down on his initial remarks. But his apparent endorsement of the racist "great replacement" theory crossed a bright red line last week. Even for those who might be desensitized to his incendiary commentary, it was shocking to watch. And it led to a bigger PR problem then usual for Fox, with the Anti-Defamation League calling for the right-wing talk channel to fire him.

Which is all to say that before Carlson went on air Monday evening, I was not so sure he would follow his usual playbook and sneer at his critics while repeating his initial remarks. Naively, I thought he might have started a fire too hot for even him to touch. Perhaps, I imagined, the Murdochs, while publicly defending Carlson, privately told him to knock it off.

I could not have been more wrong.

... goes on and on about "demographic change"
Obviously, Carlson was never going to apologize for or retract his remarks. But he could have chosen to ignore the controversy, move on, and let it die out. Instead, he did the opposite. Carlson opened up his show by first replaying the comments he made last week — comments in which he essentially endorsed the "great replacement" theory. Then he mocked critics who were outraged he had done so. "It is amusing to see them keep at it," Carlson said of those who have called for him to be removed from Fox's air, a group that now includes the Anti-Defamation League. "They get so enraged! It's a riot!"

Making a mockery of those with very real concerns about his rhetoric wasn't enough for Carlson. He then went on to recite the core element of the "great replacement" theory, describing it to his millions of viewers as accurate. "Demographic change is the key to the Democratic Party's political ambitions," Carlson said. "In order to win and maintain power, Democrats plan to change the population of the country." Carlson told his audience that the "goal" is "to make you irrelevant." He said it is "provably true." Over and over again, he referenced "demographic" change.

[goldenvalley]

"Demographic change is the key to the Democratic Party's political ambitions," Carlson said. "In order to win and maintain power, Democrats plan to change the population of the country." Carlson told his audience that the "goal" is "to make you irrelevant." He said it is "provably true." Over and over again, he referenced "demographic" change.

Not that long ago Republicans were saying the Latinx community were natural Republicans...strong on family values, work ethic, religious.  Of course that was always at odds with them being lazy, but that was just red meat.  Of course there is a segment of the Latinx community that voted for Trump...largely male.  I guess the Reps are throwing them away?  

They better be careful.  California went big anti-immigrant in the '90's.  That resulted in a number of Latino candidates getting involved with electoral politics in the state, including newly appointed Senator Padilla.   

[jackd]

It's not necessary to change the population; the current one will do just fine.  That's why Carlson and the Republicans want to strip out the ones who are likely to vote Democratic, like black people who have been here longer that Carlson's people.

[Bact PhD]

Some scary shit.

www.washingtonpost.com/media/2021/04/15/tucker-carlson-journalists-threats/

Carlson decided to devote a segment of his show to Lorenz’s complaint — in particular highlighting her claim that online harassment had “destroyed” her life, which he mocked.

Days later, Lorenz shared on Twitter an email she had received in the aftermath of the show, repeatedly urging her to “kill yourself."
“It’s not just mean tweets,” said Lorenz’s friend, video producer Sara Pearl Kenigsberg. “It’s death threats. It’s people trying to dox her, or figuring out where she lives or her family situation, or contacting and harassing her family. It’s very scary.” (Lorenz was not made available for an interview.)

And, in classic bully fashion, So. Much. Projection.

“Have you noticed that the angriest people in America are the ones with absolutely no useful skills?” Carlson asked. “People like Virginia Heffernan. No useful skills. Does not do anything.”

And, to quote andydp, what color is the sky in Lachlan Murdoch’s world??

When the Anti-Defamation League urged Fox News to fire Carlson last Friday for saying in a segment that immigration serves to "dilute the political power” of Americans, the company refused. In a response letter to the organization, which works to combat antisemitism, Fox Corporation chief executive Lachlan Murdoch defended his host and argued that Carlson actually “decried and rejected replacement theory,” despite what critics alleged.

[Deleted]

I say Carlson is doing the country a favor if he's teaching people without skills Lorentz Transform. We all could do well to see the world from a different frame of reference.

[LFC]

Laura Ingraham is yet another case of if you don't want us to call you stupid, stop saying stupid shit.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Friday night suggested that the “goofy” pro-Trump mob who stormed the Capitol in January were a much less dangerous than what she called “Biden’s insurrectionists.”

In a bizarre comparison during her Friday night program, the conservative news host took aim at President Joe Biden — calling him “the real threat” — while dismissing notions that a mob of former President Donald’ Trump’s supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 posed much danger.

“America’s most dangerous insurrectionists aren’t the goofy QAnon people in fur and face paint,” Ingraham said. “The real threat to our future is Biden and the well-heeled powerful forces who want us to lose sight of what made America great in the first place. It’s not our diversity. It’s our freedom.”

Ingraham’s effort to reimagine Capitol rioters as nonthreatening, while painting Biden and unnamed “powerful forces” as the true danger, reinforces the narratives advanced by Republican lawmakers who have sought to recast the events of Jan. 6.

[Deleted]

How dare you contest our freedom to deny you those same freedoms? How dare you question our freedom to usher in a autocracy? How dare you mock our freedom to worship at the altar of Trump? How dare you force us to confront our stupidity when we extol it as freedom?

[LFC]

Another day, another manufactured outrage.

Fox News found its latest thing to be outraged about on Monday, devoting multiple segments to complaining that Disneyland’s Snow White ride is the latest victim of liberal “cancel culture” and the “woke” mob because a single newspaper article offered mild criticism about the inclusion of a new kissing scene.

With the California theme park reopening for the first time in more than a year last week, Disneyland unveiled an updated ride based on the 1937 children’s classic, replacing Snow White’s Scary Adventures with Snow White’s Enchanted Wish. The revamped ride includes major upgrades including laser projections and new animation, as well as offering up a more cohesive storyline in line with the movie.

In what was largely a positive review of the new attraction, the San Francisco Chronicle’s digital publication SFGate published a travel piece on Friday claiming it was problematic for the ride to include a “true love’s kiss,” which features the Prince breaking Snow White’s sleeping spell by kissing her. “Haven’t we already agreed that consent in early Disney movies is a major issue? That teaching kids that kissing, when it hasn’t been established if both parties are willing to engage, is not OK,” the article’s reporters asked.

Of course, it didn’t take long for Fox to gin up an outrage cycle off of one paragraph of a digital travel write-up. Beginning with an article on Fox Business’ digital site, which said the new ride was “prompting backlash” while citing only the SFGate piece, the network mentioned the “canceling” of Snow White nine times on Fox News and five additional times on the Fox Business Network through mid-Monday morning.

On Fox & Friends, for instance, the hosts devoted several segments to the issue and even made it a focal point of their interview with Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who came armed with his usual assortment of colorful colloquialisms.

“So now they’re trying to cancel Snow White. Your thoughts?” Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked the Republican lawmaker.

[LFC]

As pointed out several times on TRS (here and the old board) Tucker Carlson is becoming a more and more blatant race-baiting white supremacist. It's clearly the shtick that plays best to Faux's target audience. Here's part of her comeback but the whole thing is worth it, especially the return dig about attending Harvard.

MSNBC host Joy Reid fired back at Tucker Carlson on Monday night after the Fox News star repeatedly labeled her the “race lady” in recent weeks, running down Carlson’s past failures and controversies while claiming the conservative host was “making America worse.”

Last week, after Reid announced on air that she was still wearing a mask despite being fully vaccinated, Carlson devoted an entire segment to mocking her. “Well, Joy-Ann Reid, the race lady over at MSNBC, took a quick break from haranguing whitey yesterday to reveal something deeply personal about herself on television,” he sneered.

Liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America later noted that Carlson has made a habit lately of referring to the Black host as the “race lady,” bringing up her Harvard education, and insisting that she’s lived “an unusually privileged life.”

Reid, who recently called Carlson a “male Karen” for urging viewers to call the cops on kids with masks, began her fiery takedown of Carlson by referencing that moment.

“At least three times in last month, Tucker Carlson took time off from badgering strangers in parks and bouncy houses to demand they show him their children’s unmasked faces to refer to moi as the ‘race lady’!” Reid said. “‘The race lady’? Why’d he call me that? I used to run track in high school but honestly, I’m not that fast. What else could it be? Hmm.”

Reacting to a montage of Carlson running her down with that insult, Reid delivered a mini-biography of Carlson’s personal and professional life.

“Did he say ‘whitey’?!” Reid declared. “Oh, honey! Tuckums! Is this really about me fixating on race or is it about you fixating on race? I mean, when you recently went off on me for continuing to mask up post-vaccine while jogging in crowded Central Park, you weirdly threw in my attending Harvard. And I don’t know, maybe I’m sensitive to this stuff, but it felt kind of like a dog whistle.”

[AnBr]

A male Karen is a Ken.

[LFC]

Classic Faux where up is down, night is day, and black is white. (Well, maybe not that last one.)

Co-hosts on Fox News' "The Five" on Monday say President Joe Biden is an anti-vaxxer while then-President Donald Trump was "ahead of the science" and supported mask-wearing.

Both claims are provably false.

Co-host Greg Gutfeld told Fox News viewers that President Joe Biden is "definitely" doing more harm than President Donald Trump by sometimes wearing a mask in situations the CDC says is not necessary, like outdoors while being socially distant.

"Donald Trump was following the science," on masks, Gutfeld lied, "and in fact was one step ahead of the science in a number of ways including the vaccine rollout," which is also false. There was not actual plan to get shots into arms when the Biden administration took over in January.

"So let's dispel that lie once and for all that Trump like ran away from masks," Gutfeld insisted, re-writing history, suggesting Trump was in support of masks because he "went further than most people when it came to shutting down the economy, his economy, I might add that he was doing pretty great at the time."

Trump actually fought shutting down the economy, then insisted it fully re-open for Easter, 2020, with massive numbers flooding churches. He spent much of the rest of the year demanding the economy fully re-open, despite the science. He also held several super-spreader events.

[LFC]

Brian Kilmeade creates his own "Are You Smarter Than a 6th Grader?" moment and proves that no, he is not.

Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade got an unpleasant surprise on Wednesday morning when a young boy he was interviewing trashed former President Donald Trump.

In a segment intended to highlight the failure to reopen schools, Kilmeade hosted several young students who have been learning from home over the last year.

At one point in the segment, Kilmeade asked one of a students, a sixth-grade boy, what he missed most about being in school.

The boy replied that he missed seeing friends and doing after-school activities, but then said that the school reopening process is being handled well by the Biden administration.

"I think that we're very, very close to getting back to school," he said. "And I think that the way our new president is handling things is a very good way, and we would not have gotten to this if it were still the last president."

"Really?" Kilmeade asked him. "That's hard to believe, because the last president was saying I want every kid back in school."

Great comeback, Brian. What does wanting it have to do with making it happen? Meanwhile we'll find you a 3rd grader that you can try to push around. If that doesn't work we'll move on to inanimate objects.

[andydp]

May 5, 2021 22:16:35 GMT LFC said:

Brian Kilmeade creates his own "Are You Smarter Than a 6th Grader?" moment and proves that no, he is not.

Great comeback, Brian. What does wanting it have to do with making it happen? Meanwhile we'll find you a 3rd grader that you can try to push around. If that doesn't work we'll move on to inanimate objects.

There is an old show business adage:  "Never work with kids and dogs".  Obviously Fox News didn't get the memo.  I'll leave you with this:

"There is truth in wine and children."  Plato

[LFC]

Tuckums (thx to Joy Reid for that one) is getting smacked around over his COVID vaccine stupidity.

Some of Tucker Carlson's colleagues at Fox News are objecting to his reckless anti-vaccination rhetoric. They are speaking out in small ways on Twitter -- but they are not being given the prime time platform that Carlson enjoys, and the millions of people who watch Carlson are not being given accurate information about the Covid vaccines.
On Wednesday night at least three Fox commentators, both conservatives and liberals, posted messages that rebutted Carlson's fear-mongering about the vaccines.
Carlson claimed to be asking a simple question: "How many Americans have died after taking the COVID vaccines?" But his speculative monologue was so deeply misleading that it stirred widespread condemnation. Numerous doctors spoke out on social media and said his comments were dangerous.

The 15-minute monologue began with an on-screen banner that said "EVERYONE IN AUTHORITY WANTS YOU TO GET YOUR VACCINE," and it went downhill from there.

Carlson cited data from a federal database called VAERS, short for Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, to insinuate that the Covid-19 vaccines are problematic. Though he wants his viewers to believe he offers some unique, hidden truths every night, the fact is this is an old, worn-out tactic used by anti-vaccine advocates, who pretend that correlation is causation.

The vaccines are actually incredibly safe and effective. "Millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines under the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history," the CDC notes.

(Of course, Carlson routinely and cynically argues that sources like the CDC and CNN cannot be trusted.)

As for VAERS, the database is an "early warning system" full of self-reported info, not verified accounts of adverse events. The CDC is clear that "reports to VAERS of death following vaccination do not necessarily mean the vaccine caused the death."

Common sense dictates that when tens of millions of people receive a vaccine, some of them will die in the following months from all sorts of causes that have nothing to do with a vaccine. It's an inescapable fact of life.

Unfortunately, anti-vaccination propagandists have been trying to make such a link. PolitiFact recently called the database, which does have an important purpose when used by people who actually care about science and truth, "a breeding ground for misinformation."

Carlson proved that point on Wednesday night.

He even took a valid shot from Jonah Goldberg of all the useless steamless piles. When you're getting factually bashed by the likes of Jonah then you're just swimming in an Olympic sized pool of stupid.

Another conservative contributor to the network, Jonah Goldberg, also poked holes in Carlson's illogical rant.
Openly mocking Carlson, he wrote, "FACT: Every single person who ever died blinked before they died. The vast majority — like 99% — blinked mere seconds before death. And yet, no one talks about this silent killer."

[goldenvalley]

Tuckums is running for president. This is his Obama was not born in the US bid for attention. If Trump decides to run again, Tuckums will be lined up as VP candidate.

[LFC]

May 6, 2021 21:03:48 GMT goldenvalley said:

If Trump decides to run again, Tuckums will be lined up as VP candidate.

Virulently Putrid?

[pnwguy]

May 6, 2021 21:52:37 GMT LFC said:

May 6, 2021 21:03:48 GMT goldenvalley said:

If Trump decides to run again, Tuckums will be lined up as VP candidate.

Virulently Putrid?

Violently Pathetic

[indy]

May 4, 2021 20:45:37 GMT LFC said:

Classic Faux where up is down, night is day, and black is white. (Well, maybe not that last one.)

"Donald Trump was following the science...

Not unless Science was heading into a McDonald's.