Faux News Just Can't Help Being Faux News

[AnBr]

How about a good class action law firm having a go at Tuckums and Faux for complicity in the Covid caused deaths of viewers who bought his anti-vax rants after the vaccine was available to them?

[Bact PhD]

Jul 22, 2021 20:17:57 GMT LFC said:

Jul 22, 2021 19:51:59 GMT goldenvalley said:

Point taken.  Must. read. more. slowly.

I really think it was the capitalization of "Black" right before the name. I skipped over it the first time myself because it looks like part of the proper name. It's sloppy writing if you ask me. A good editor should have caught that.

I’m seeing capital “B” “Black” used as a synonym for “African-American” in several newspaper pieces of late. I am wondering whether this is a more current journalistic style, i.e., the term “African-American” has fallen out of favor and the style has reverted to something akin to the 1970s—?

[goldenvalley]

Jul 22, 2021 22:47:01 GMT Bact PhD said:

Jul 22, 2021 20:17:57 GMT LFC said:

I really think it was the capitalization of "Black" right before the name. I skipped over it the first time myself because it looks like part of the proper name. It's sloppy writing if you ask me. A good editor should have caught that.

I’m seeing capital “B” “Black” used as a synonym for “African-American” in several newspaper pieces of late. I am wondering whether this is a more current journalistic style, i.e., the term “African-American” has fallen out of favor and the style has reverted to something akin to the 1970s—?

I think New York Times and Los Angeles Times (not related) announced they are using Black in the way you suggest.  

[Bact PhD]

Jul 22, 2021 23:59:18 GMT goldenvalley said:

Jul 22, 2021 22:47:01 GMT Bact PhD said:

I’m seeing capital “B” “Black” used as a synonym for “African-American” in several newspaper pieces of late. I am wondering whether this is a more current journalistic style, i.e., the term “African-American” has fallen out of favor and the style has reverted to something akin to the 1970s—?

I think New York Times and Los Angeles Times (not related) announced they are using Black in the way you suggest.  

I’ve also seen it in a piece from the Miami Herald, reprinted in my local rag.

Anyone have a new AP Style Manual handy?

[LFC]

I'll put this here since Faux News is one of the biggest offenders in spreading vaccine misinformation and fear mongering. This author says that the now well reported leftward turn towards vaccine reality by the right-wing is actually minimal and won't really move the needle because they're still spreading the same old garbage at the same time. It's a fig leaf of respectability, and the MSM has once again fallen for it.

Amid a rising media furor over the steady stream of vaccine disparagement from GOP politicians and Fox News talking heads, a number of prominent Republicans spoke up in favor of vaccines early this week.

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters, "shots need to get in everybody's arm as rapidly as possible" and asked that people "ignore all of these other voices that are giving demonstrably bad advice." House Minority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, got the vaccine after months of delay and then publicly said, "there shouldn't be any hesitancy over whether or not it's safe and effective." And Fox News host Sean Hannity, in a widely shared video, declared, it "absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get vaccinated." This was treated in the press as an unequivocal endorsement, even though the use of the word "many" was clearly meant to let the Fox News viewers feel like he's talking about other people getting vaccinated.

Is this an exciting pivot among the GOP elites? Are they abandoning the sociopathic strategy of sabotaging President Joe Biden's anti-pandemic plan by encouraging their own followers to get sick? Are the millions of Republicans who keep telling pollsters they will never get that Democrat shot going to change their minds now?

Ha ha ha, no.

All this shows is that GOP politicians and pundits still know how to manipulate the mainstream press's endless desire to believe the Republicans aren't really as bad as the #resistance tweeters are saying. But while clips of prominent Republicans saying pro-vaccine stuff might be enough to get the press off their backs — or keep Biden from accusing them of "killing people," as he did (correctly) to Facebook — it won't be enough to actually get vaccine-hostile Republican voters to change their minds. Indeed, this should be understood more as a P.R. move to quell press criticism than a sincere effort to get reluctant people to get vaccinated.

Unlike most journalists — who merely watch clips from Fox News, often ones pre-selected for them by the Fox News P.R. team — Matt Gertz at Media Matters and Aaron Rupar at Vox actually put in the miserable work of watching entire shows on the network. And both reported on Tuesday that, despite the hype around Hannity's viral clip, the overall tenor of Fox News this week has still been that getting the vaccine is a very bad thing that no red-blooded Republican worth his MAGA hat should ever do. Indeed, the out-of-context Hannity clip comes from an episode that was overall anti-vaccine. The Hannity clip "came in the middle of a segment in which he railed against colleges and universities that are requiring their students to get their shots," Gertz writes. He also points out that Hannity's show "is bracketed between those of Carlson and Laura Ingraham," and both of those hosts went hard on the vaccines-are-terrible-and-doctors-are-lying-to-you messaging.

As Rupar points out, "the viral clip of Hannity talking about vaccines came immediately before he pivoted to a story about a college athlete who was temporarily paralyzed after she took a different sort of vaccine in 2019."

Similarly, Fox morning host Steve Doocy got good press for encouraging vaccines, but, as both Rupar and Gertz point out, it was in a segment where his co-host Brian Kilmeade framed vaccine refusal in terms of "freedom" and told viewers "make your own decision." The actual message one gets from watching the whole segment: People who get vaccines are sheep, and "free" people who make their own decisions can prove it by refusing the vaccine. So while liberals and journalists were swooning over Hannity's supposedly reasonable tone from the clip they saw on Twitter, actual Fox News viewers were getting a very different message: Vaccines are dangerous and evil and unpatriotic and don't you dare get the COVID-19 shot.

Pro-vaccine messages from Republican politicians should be taken with a similar grain of salt.

[LFC]

Hannity lashed out over the MSM's mistake that he was, if only just for one moment, a decent human being. Hopefully the MSM regrets the error.

Fox News star Sean Hannity was very angry on Thursday night over the plaudits he received from liberals and mainstream media outlets for seemingly endorsing the COVID-19 vaccines this week, making it “very clear” that he “never told anyone to get a vaccine.”

Amid a noticeable shift in much—but definitely not all—of Fox News’ coverage in recent days towards a more pro-vaccine stance, complete with a new PSA featuring anchors urging viewers to get their shots, Hannity delivered a message on Tuesday night imploring his audience to “please take COVID seriously.”

“And it absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get vaccinated,” the pro-Trump host added on Tuesday. “I believe in science, I believe in the science of vaccination.”

Hannity’s remarks quickly went viral as they were seen as part of a concerted effort by many conservatives to encourage vaccine-hesitant Republicans to get immunized as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surge among the unvaccinated. The fact of the matter is, though, that Hannity had made similar remarks in the past and his Tuesday night commentary was bookended by criticism of universities mandating vaccines and a sympathetic interview with a college student who refuses to get vaccinated.

On Thursday night, Hannity wanted to set the record straight. Which, naturally, included him railing against the “media mob” for giving him credit for encouraging his millions of viewers to get a shot.

“These reports are all false for multiple reasons,” he blared while reading off a list of headlines touting his supposed pro-vaccine stance.

After insisting that he touted Operation Warp Speed from the beginning and stating that he’s always praised the efforts of scientists to get the vaccines on the market, Hannity clarified where he stood on vaccinations.

“I never told anyone to get a vaccine,” the conservative host proclaimed. “I have been very clear. I am simply not qualified.”

He added: “I am not a medical doctor. I know nothing about your medical history or your current medical condition. I think it’s inappropriate for me to do so. Instead, for over a year now I have been warning my viewers, you make my career possible.”

[goldenvalley]

He says "you make my career possible." Yup so he's seeking plausible deniability. Those who want to hear that Hannity defers to doctors will hear that; those who want to hear that Hannity thinks vaccines and COVID are nothing but made up BS will hear that too. Wins ratings!

[andydp]

Has anyone heard when FOX (or the others) are going to start their coverage of the "reinstatement" ?

[goldenvalley]

Aug 13, 2021 10:20:58 GMT andydp said:

Has anyone heard when FOX (or the others) are going to start their coverage of the "reinstatement" ?

I took a quick look at the Fox web page.  No mention of it, but I did see that Tuckums is going to have someone on his show to talk about "woke" takeover of corporate America.   A new emphasis to holler about!

[andydp]

Aug 13, 2021 15:30:06 GMT goldenvalley said:

Aug 13, 2021 10:20:58 GMT andydp said:

Has anyone heard when FOX (or the others) are going to start their coverage of the "reinstatement" ?

I took a quick look at the Fox web page.  No mention of it, but I did see that Tuckums is going to have someone on his show to talk about "woke" takeover of corporate America.   A new emphasis to holler about!

No reinstatement, no riots, no loud whining.  Must be a weekend: no messages from the Planet Twilo.  

The next reinstatment date will be: _____________________ (We can have a pool and the closest to the new date wins the undying gratitude of the webmaseter).  My bet is November 3.  

[LFC]

Another Faux News scholar. I wonder if he got his degree from Trump University.

A Fox News anchor was mocked for claiming on the conservative channel that Karl Marx wrote Mein Kampf.

Anchor Bill Hemmer got his historical figures mixed up as he forgot that Adolf Hitler wrote the book, rather than the socialist philosopher.

“I remember 20 years old going to Trier, Germany, and trying to find the home of Karl Marx, cause, you know, 1848 – he wrote Mein Kampf,” Hemmer said on America’s Newsroom.

“I want to know what it was all about.”

Later in the show Hemmer admitted his mistake, saying: “I misspoke. 1848. Karl Marx. The Communist Manifesto.”

[AnBr]

.

Attachments:

[goldenvalley]

Aug 16, 2021 14:10:57 GMT LFC said:

Another Faux News scholar. I wonder if he got his degree from Trump University.

A Fox News anchor was mocked for claiming on the conservative channel that Karl Marx wrote Mein Kampf.

Anchor Bill Hemmer got his historical figures mixed up as he forgot that Adolf Hitler wrote the book, rather than the socialist philosopher.

“I remember 20 years old going to Trier, Germany, and trying to find the home of Karl Marx, cause, you know, 1848 – he wrote Mein Kampf,” Hemmer said on America’s Newsroom.

“I want to know what it was all about.”

Later in the show Hemmer admitted his mistake, saying: “I misspoke. 1848. Karl Marx. The Communist Manifesto.”

Anyone can misspeak and say something dumb.  I don't know this guy Hemmer's history to know if that was the case.  I do know that lots of people conflate Marx, Hitler, Communism, Socialism, Nazism...all serving as merely buzz words designed to get a boo and hiss from the faithful.

[AnBr]

Aug 16, 2021 15:23:06 GMT goldenvalley said:

Anyone can misspeak and say something dumb.  I don't know this guy Hemmer's history to know if that was the case.  I do know that lots of people conflate Marx, Hitler, Communism, Socialism, Nazism...all serving as merely buzz words designed to get a boo and hiss from the faithful.

I would have never mixed the two up, but then I have never used them as "buzz words" either.

[LFC]

Well that helps explain why Laura Ingraham is so f***ed up.

Speaking on the MeidasTouch Podcast this week, the brother of Fox News host Laura Ingraham said that their father was a "Nazi sympathizer" and that he cannot "stay quiet" about their past.

"What's scary is that it's escalating," MeidasTouch founder Ben Meiselas said to Curtis Ingraham. "And you've become more outspoken about this because of her stance on COVID, attacking Dr. Fauci .... It went from, as you stated, this is the Nazi creed, right? First they came for so and so, then they came for so and so and then they came for me... was there roots of the pathology growing up?"

"I think the pathology comes from familial soil... My father was a Nazi sympathizer. There was a copy of Mein Kampf on the living room bookshelf," Curtis Ingraham replied.

"[Our father] was abusive. He was an alcoholic. So we are in a family of anger. Anger, abuse. And I think that is what has happened to my sister."

"I cannot stay quiet. We have history in common. And I know things about her that, I mean, I have to reveal the hypocrisy going on," he added.

Curtis has a history of being publicly critical of his sister and previously mentioned their father's alleged Nazi sympathies.

"We grew up with an abusive, alcoholic father who was a Nazi sympathizer. Like father like daughter?! This was the familial soil that gave bloom to my sister's anger," he wrote in a 2018 tweet. In a tweet from this January, he called his sister "pathetic."

"My sister is pathetic! Criticizing Dr. Fauci?! What is your expertise exactly Laura beyond spinning lies and conspiracies?" he wrote. "Apologies Dr. Fauci and huge thanks!!!"

[LFC]

The network most responsible for allowing anti-vaxxer cranks to push their dangerous nonsense sure doesn't seem to believe any of it. How responsible.

Every single Fox News staff member—yes, that includes you, Tucker—has been ordered to tell their bosses whether or not they’ve been vaccinated against the coronavirus.

In an internal memo obtained by CNN, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott told her colleagues that the company has “asked all employees—whether on site as part of our essential workforce or working remotely—to upload their vaccination status” into a company database. Scott also told staff that Fox News is “requiring employees to wear a mask in small, confined spaces with limited opportunities for social distancing and where there are multiple employees, including control rooms.” (The memo was an update on protocols implemented in June when Fox Corp set up FOX Clear Pass, a system similar to a vaccine passport allowing employees to submit their vaccine status to avoid certain COVID-19 restrictions.)

The policies are likely to upset some of the network’s top on-screen talent—Tucker Carlson has repeatedly been prickly about revealing his vaccine status. In May, when a reporter asked him if he’d been vaccinated, he texted back: “When was the last time you had sex with your wife and in what position? We can trade intimate details.”

[LFC]

Being a Faux News "expert" for fun and profit. Just don't let viewers know about the profit part.

Fox News has leaned heavily on retired four-star Gen. Jack Keane’s expertise since the fall of Kabul to criticize President Joe Biden for the withdrawal from, and end to, the Afghanistan War.

While Keane’s experience as the former vice chief of staff of the United States Army has been trumpeted in his dozens of recent on-air appearances, what has gone thus far undisclosed is Keane’s current role as an executive for a defense contractor that has profited a great deal from the 20-year war.

Since October 2016, Keane has served as the executive chairman of AM General, the military vehicle manufacturer that makes Humvees. As liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America reported Tuesday, AM General received a $459 million contract in 2017 to provide more than 2,000 Humvees to Afghanistan through 2023.

Keane, who is also employed by Fox News as the network’s senior strategic analyst, has appeared on Fox News or its sister channel Fox Business Network at least 33 times since Aug. 16. Neither Keane nor any of his hosts have brought up his position with the defense firm or the deal his company secured to profit directly from the prolonged engagement in Afghanistan.

While all of Keane’s recent Fox News segments have focused on the Afghanistan situation in general, there has been no discussion in any of his appearances specifically about Humvees or AM General. Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[goldenvalley]

Sept 1, 2021 15:36:17 GMT LFC said:

Being a Faux News "expert" for fun and profit. Just don't let viewers know about the profit part.

Fox News has leaned heavily on retired four-star Gen. Jack Keane’s expertise since the fall of Kabul to criticize President Joe Biden for the withdrawal from, and end to, the Afghanistan War.

While Keane’s experience as the former vice chief of staff of the United States Army has been trumpeted in his dozens of recent on-air appearances, what has gone thus far undisclosed is Keane’s current role as an executive for a defense contractor that has profited a great deal from the 20-year war.

Since October 2016, Keane has served as the executive chairman of AM General, the military vehicle manufacturer that makes Humvees. As liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America reported Tuesday, AM General received a $459 million contract in 2017 to provide more than 2,000 Humvees to Afghanistan through 2023.

Keane, who is also employed by Fox News as the network’s senior strategic analyst, has appeared on Fox News or its sister channel Fox Business Network at least 33 times since Aug. 16. Neither Keane nor any of his hosts have brought up his position with the defense firm or the deal his company secured to profit directly from the prolonged engagement in Afghanistan.

While all of Keane’s recent Fox News segments have focused on the Afghanistan situation in general, there has been no discussion in any of his appearances specifically about Humvees or AM General. Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

I doubt the Fox viewers would care.  He tells them stuff they like to hear. No one cares that he makes money from the war. After all, isn't America a capitalist country?

[LFC]

Just Faux bein' Faux.

Fox News pulled out of Thursday morning’s New York briefing on the area’s deadly storms and floods after a Democratic congressman cited climate change as a factor in the devastation, with anchor Bill Hemmer grumbling that it had turned “political quite quickly.”

Can't let your sheeple hear anything that's actually true. It's bad for business.

[llewop]

Try these guys out. I am seriously impressed.
www.business-standard.com

[LFC]

Sept 6, 2021 5:44:48 GMT llewop said:

Try these guys out. I am seriously impressed.
www.business-standard.com

That site sucks. I don’t see a single shrill, screeching oversensationalized headline on the whole page.

[andydp]

I normally NEVER watch Fox "News".  Last night I was labeling the channel listing on the TV set and had to stop at Fox to write the label.  It takes a couple of minutes to set the label up.  Sadly, I happened to be doing that during Tucker's show.  I thought my head would explode from all the "weasel words" he was using:  People say, maybe, etc etc.  His big thing was the Invermectin fad of the moment.  

How anyone with functioning neurons can watch this garbage is beyond me.

[Bact PhD]

Sept 8, 2021 11:38:30 GMT andydp said:

I normally NEVER watch Fox "News".  …

How anyone with functioning neurons can watch this garbage is beyond me.

I don’t watch of my own volition, either, but it’s sometimes foisted upon me when we eat out, especially in vacation spots. The worst of those, where very nearly every restaurant had multiple sets tuned in was Hilton Head, SC. Upon reflection, I can’t help thinking it influenced our strong negative overall opinion of the place.

I find myself nodding in agreement re the “functioning neurons” remark.

[goldenvalley]

According to Faux News, the only way the governor of California will beat the recall next week is if there is (insert ominous music here) voter fraud.  

“Yes, Gavin Newsom has raised a whole lot of money from teachers unions and special interests and tech, but that money is not going to save him,” said Lahren. “The only thing that will save Gavin Newsom is voter fraud, so as they say: Stay woke. Pay attention to the voter fraud going on in California because it’s going to have big consequences not only for that state but for upcoming elections.”

There were four other commentators on the air with Lahren. Not one of them asked her to elaborate on her claims about voter fraud.

I'm expecting to see poll "observers" interfering with voting locations and the counting.  There is already outcry about holes in the ballot return envelopes that allow visibility into whether a yes vote is cast in Los Angeles County. 

[indy]

'Keep' is polling at more than +10, so are the polling firms part of the fraud narrative as well?