Faux News Just Can't Help Being Faux News

[pnwguy]

Dec 13, 2021 18:11:56 GMT goldenvalley said:

Dec 13, 2021 17:03:22 GMT pg said:

Bet the book is already in progress. Hope against all hope? That he finally falls on his own sword and admits his culpability in the role he took on at Faux. Perhaps a possibility. Stranger things have happened.

I always took him to be an arrogant person. That quality probably sustained him during the many years at Fox.  He was going to do what he wanted, the hell with the "pundits" around him, and Ailes respected that.  I don't think he'll fall on any swords.  

He learned that from his old man....give zero f*cks, except for getting the story straight.

I'm glad to see him untethered from the Evil Empire.  

[LFC]

Dec 13, 2021 18:11:56 GMT goldenvalley said:

I always took him to be an arrogant person. That quality probably sustained him during the many years at Fox.  He was going to do what he wanted, the hell with the "pundits" around him, and Ailes respected that.  I don't think he'll fall on any swords.  

Agreed. He may come out and say that Faux has devolved to a point where he couldn't take it anymore but he won't, and probably shouldn't, take blame.

[AnBr]

Dec 13, 2021 18:11:56 GMT goldenvalley said:

Dec 13, 2021 17:03:22 GMT pg said:

Bet the book is already in progress. Hope against all hope? That he finally falls on his own sword and admits his culpability in the role he took on at Faux. Perhaps a possibility. Stranger things have happened.

I always took him to be an arrogant person. That quality probably sustained him during the many years at Fox.  He was going to do what he wanted, the hell with the "pundits" around him, and Ailes respected that.  I don't think he'll fall on any swords.  

Nor do I.

[LFC]

They don't just lie and lie about telling lies, they laugh about being caught telling lies. I'm sure they're PROUD of their lies though they haven't become quite bold enough to say that publicly ... yet.

We’re Actually Laughing, Guys
After more than 24 hours of silence, Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham finally addressed on their programs last night the panicked texts they’d sent to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Jan. 6 begging for Trump to do something about the Capitol attack.

• A totally unbothered Ingraham wants to know “what’s really going on” with committee vice chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) and “the diminutive media elves.”

• Hannity wants Cheney’s texts. “Let us look at your text messages,” he said.

• Ingraham, on the other hand, actually doesn’t “care to read any” of the committee members’ texts because “they’re all so aggressively boring.” In fact, “they’re the most boring people” and “so predictable,” the Fox host snickered.

Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham try to laugh off revelations of their frantic texts to Mark Meadows on Jan. 6 pic.twitter.com/IzmuO0pC00
— TPM Livewire (@tpmlivewire) December 15, 2021

• Later on her program, Ingraham denied ever downplaying the Jan. 6 insurrection … then went on to insist that the attack “was not an insurrection” and “to say anything different is beyond dishonest and ignores the fact of that day.”

• Hannity attacked the “sham” committee on his program and insisted that what he told Meadows on Jan. 6 was “the exact same thing” he said publicly on air that day. What Hannity ignored, though, was the fact that his texts fully contradicted his efforts to shift the blame from Trump to “agitators.” In fact, Hannity doubled down yesterday on the baseless claim that there were “people that had staged certain things” on Jan. 6.

[AnBr]

[LFC]

Carlson continues to completely downplay the Jan 6 Republican Insurrection. (paywalled)

Fox News host Tucker Carlson used his recent appearance at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix as a barely-veiled soft pitch for his new “documentary” about Jan. 6, a highly produced mashup that nods toward nearly every conspiracy theory about that day festering in the far-right corners of the internet.

Carlson gave a speech at the conservative youth event, regaling the audience with a colorful anecdote about 26th U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt’s proclivity for going out to the White House lawn to speak with American citizens during his presidency … 120 years ago.

“He was a very brave person,” Carlson said, referencing Roosevelt. “He had great physical courage personally, but he also didn’t have much of a choice, because it wasn’t his house, it belonged to the people to whom the country belongs, and those are American citizens.”

“So imagine telling someone living in that country, we just arrested people for walking down the hall in the Capitol building. Not those who broke the windows, the people who literally walked down the hall of the Capitol. And we arrested a lot of them,” he continued. “Of course free them. But also pause for a second and ask yourself, ‘what the hell?’ If you said this to someone in 1905, they’d say, ‘well yeah, it’s their building, it’s their Capitol, it’s their country, they’re American citizens.'”

Tucker Carlson defends Jan. 6th saying “it’s their building, it’s their Capitol, it’s their country.” pic.twitter.com/ng7OXgfUkd
— AZ Right Wing Watch (@az_rww) December 19, 2021

He was of course speaking to his target audience there at the Charlie Kirk-run event that billed keynote addresses from the MAGA prince himself, Donald Trump Jr., and now-acquitted Kenosha killer Kyle Rittenhouse who has become a figurehead for the far-right gun lobby and a cause célèbre for the broader militia movement.

He’s been promoting his new three-part Fox Nation series “Patriot Purge” for a few weeks now, part of the broader Trumpworld effort to downplay the severity of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, a cause Carlson has taken upon himself to perpetuate for some time now. The “documentary” has been criticized by folks across the political spectrum, with some of Carlson’s own colleagues at Fox News attempting to put some distance between themselves and Carlson over the whole production. The film series sees the violent insurrection through a rose-tinted lens, casting it as a patriotic uprising against a rigged electoral system and an authoritarian deep state.

Carlson’s documentary then takes it several steps further, claiming the attack wasn’t orchestrated by a mob of violent Trump supporters, but may in fact have been a “false flag” scheme carried out by Trump’s political enemies, like antifa and the FBI.

[LFC]

Faux News is getting closer and closer to open incitement of violence. Note the subject compared to the rhetoric. This is the primary Republican fascist propaganda taking the next logical step towards autocracy, Viktor Orban style. Is it any wonder they admire the spreading autocracy in Hungary? It's the model they crave.

Infectious disease official Dr. Anthony Fauci tore into Fox News host Jesse Watters on Tuesday morning for explicitly urging people to confront him with unproven right-wing accusations in public to create fodder for conservative media.

“I’m deputizing you guys to be little James O’Keefes,” the Fox host told the crowd at the youth conservative Turning Point USA conference on Monday, referring to the infamous Project Veritas founder who’s repeatedly slipped on banana peels in his efforts to “bust” his foes undercover.

Watters went on to coach the event attendees on how to corner Fauci with cameras if he visits their college campuses and “ambush” him with a rhetorical “kill shot.”

“Boom! He is dead! He is dead!” Watters declared.

Fauci fired back at the Fox host on CNN the next day.

[goldenvalley]

Dec 22, 2021 16:50:04 GMT LFC said:

Faux News is getting closer and closer to open incitement of violence. Note the subject compared to the rhetoric. This is the primary Republican fascist propaganda taking the next logical step towards autocracy, Viktor Orban style. Is it any wonder they admire the spreading autocracy in Hungary? It's the model they crave.

Infectious disease official Dr. Anthony Fauci tore into Fox News host Jesse Watters on Tuesday morning for explicitly urging people to confront him with unproven right-wing accusations in public to create fodder for conservative media.

“I’m deputizing you guys to be little James O’Keefes,” the Fox host told the crowd at the youth conservative Turning Point USA conference on Monday, referring to the infamous Project Veritas founder who’s repeatedly slipped on banana peels in his efforts to “bust” his foes undercover.

Watters went on to coach the event attendees on how to corner Fauci with cameras if he visits their college campuses and “ambush” him with a rhetorical “kill shot.”

“Boom! He is dead! He is dead!” Watters declared.

Fauci fired back at the Fox host on CNN the next day.

Day-am that language can't be considered harmless free speech anymore.  Someone will take that as permission to do just what was suggested.  We have the guns, when do we start using them?

[LFC]

Faux should be renamed CDN, the Cognitive Dissonance Network.

Fox News offered its audience competing views of the pandemic on Tuesday, claiming that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is both "raging out of control" and "good for society."

During Tuesday's Outnumbered program on Fox News, host Kayleigh McEnany slammed President Joe Biden for suggesting that state and local governments should have a larger role in fighting Covid-19.

"Now as Covid cases rage out of control across the country despite his mask and vaccine mandates, the president is trying to avoid blame yet again," McEnany opined.

But just hours earlier, McEnany was hosting Fox & Friends when co-host Will Cain argued that the current surge in Covid-19 cases is "good for society."

"Omicron could actually be good for society," Cain asserted to McEnany. "If we have a very mild form of this disease that confers natural antibodies. That's the end of the pandemic. That was called a conspiracy theory and misinformation. But three weeks later, everyone is understanding that's the truth."

[pnwguy]

Dec 28, 2021 20:20:26 GMT LFC said:

Faux should be renamed CDN, the Cognitive Dissonance Network.

"Omicron could actually be good for society," Cain asserted to McEnany. "If we have a very mild form of this disease that confers natural antibodies. That's the end of the pandemic. That was called a conspiracy theory and misinformation. But three weeks later, everyone is understanding that's the truth."

Of course if Omicron just kills off unvaxxed MAGAts, that could indeed be good for society.  

I haven't read anything yet on what Covid is doing to the financial outlook of SSI and Medicare.  It probably improves the solvency of SSI but is crushing Medicare's balance sheet short term.

[AnBr]

Dec 29, 2021 5:27:10 GMT pnwguy said:

Dec 28, 2021 20:20:26 GMT LFC said:

Faux should be renamed CDN, the Cognitive Dissonance Network.

Of course if Omicron just kills off unvaxxed MAGAts, that could indeed be good for society.  

[AnBr]

Dec 29, 2021 5:27:10 GMT pnwguy said:

I haven't read anything yet on what Covid is doing to the financial outlook of SSI and Medicare.  It probably improves the solvency of SSI but is crushing Medicare's balance sheet short term.

What drains Medicare is the long term care that can last years. A couple weeks or so of ICU is probably a fraction of that.

[LFC]

"Fair and balanced", amiright?

The Right-Wing Media Cesspit

Fox News host Jesse Watters, who recently urged young conservatives to ambush infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci with a rhetorical “kill shot,” flatly said the quiet part out loud yesterday when he bragged about conflict between Democrats being a boon for his network:

.@jessebwatters: "I work at Fox. I want to see disarray on the left. It’s good for America. It’s good for our ratings." pic.twitter.com/m7EW0CdHaN
— Mediaite (@mediaite) January 3, 2022

[pnwguy]

They dropped the F&B tag line years ago when they saw their future as a propaganda arm for the right wing to be more profitable. The proportion of news to opinion shows began to shrink.

youtu.be/QsBqU1RzV7o

youtu.be/gWJhqOPe6rw

[LFC]

Peter Douchey, braindead wingnut welfare dependent son of braindead father Steve Douchey, keeps getting factually bitch-slapped by Jen Psaki and just keeps leading with his face. He is just SO dumb that he can't even come up with decent gotcha questions.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday easily shredded Fox News reporter Peter Doocy's criticisms of President Joe Biden for calling the COVID-19 pandemic a "pandemic of the unvaccinated."

At the start of his question, Doocy noted that both he and Psaki had come down with cases of COVID-19 even though both of them had received both vaccinations and booster shots against the virus.

"You’re triple-vaxed, still got COVID," said Doocy. "Why is the president still referring to this as a pandemic of the unvaccinated?"

Psaki didn't hesitate to take a hatchet to this argument.

"Well I think, Peter, that there's a significant difference," she said. "I had been triple-vaxxed. I had minor symptoms. There is a huge difference between that and being unvaccinated. You are 17 times more likely to go to the hospital if you're unvaccinated, 20 times more likely to die."

In fact, data released by New York hospitals late last month shows Psaki may be understating the situation, as they revealed unvaccinated people in the Empire State are 32 times more likely to require hospitalization after contracting COVID-19.

[LFC]

Laura Ingraham manages to go even lower.

[LFC]

Lara Logan gets dumped by her "talent" agency for comparing Anthony Fauci to Josef Mengele.

Lara Logan’s flair for the hyperbole has gotten her dumped by her talent agency. UTA has dropped the former “60 Minutes” correspondent after she compared Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser, to Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who performed medical experiments on Jewish prisoners during the Holocaust. She was let go over her “highly offensive” and “unacceptable” comments, Mediaite reported Monday. Logan, who has a show on Fox Nation, “Lara Logan Has No Agenda,” was appearing as a guest on “Fox News Primetime” on Nov. 29 when she made the comparison.

Interestingly I just posted about prison inmates suing the doctor who gave them Ivermectin without their permission. He's actually closer to Josef Mengele, using a drug at untested doses on unwilling people.

[Bact PhD]

Jan 18, 2022 22:28:17 GMT LFC said:

Lara Logan gets dumped by her "talent" agency for comparing Anthony Fauci to Josef Mengele.

Lara Logan’s flair for the hyperbole has gotten her dumped by her talent agency. UTA has dropped the former “60 Minutes” correspondent after she compared Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser, to Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who performed medical experiments on Jewish prisoners during the Holocaust. She was let go over her “highly offensive” and “unacceptable” comments, Mediaite reported Monday. Logan, who has a show on Fox Nation, “Lara Logan Has No Agenda,” was appearing as a guest on “Fox News Primetime” on Nov. 29 when she made the comparison.

Interestingly I just posted about prison inmates suing the doctor who gave them Ivermectin without their permission. He's actually closer to Josef Mengele, using a drug at untested doses on unwilling people.

Don't ask me how I know, but I was made aware of a meme floating around to that effect in early/mid-November, so she wasn't even being terribly original!!

[pnwguy]

Jan 18, 2022 19:26:45 GMT LFC said:

Laura Ingraham manages to go even lower.

She'll need to have a companion segment after the next elementary school mass shooting in a state that has any gun control laws.  "See they didn't work.  Why aren't those 1st graders all issued a Glock 19 for their backpacks?"

Republicans can ALWAYS go lower.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 18, 2022 19:26:45 GMT LFC said:

Laura Ingraham manages to go even lower.

A KLASS ACT!!!!  But in all seriousness, I imagine there are many on the "other" side who at least mentally applauded when a certain radio talk show host met his demise.  

[goldenvalley]

Related to nothing but I thought it was funny.  A comment on LGM about Faux News hiring:

I read somewhere that Fox News had auditions for the next host of The Hive. They narrowed it down to 3 and asked them to submit an essay of why they should get the job.

One wrote "I want to stick it to the libs!!111!!!"

Another one wrote "We have to be armed and ready to take our country back!1111!!!!

The 3rd on wrote "Jesus wants us to kill liberals who tried to overthrow TFG's biggest & most excellent election!!11!!11!!"
So, who got the job?

The one with the biggest tits.

Clearly a joke, but it does make me wonder what the attraction of Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter was to Roger Ailes back when they were hired.

[LFC]

Faux News didn't broadcast Trump's Arizona rally? Hmmmm. What's going on here?

Steve Bannon declared war on Fox News this week over the conservative cable behemoth’s lack of live coverage of Donald Trump’s unhinged Saturday evening rally in Arizona.

“The Fox scam is over!” the former Trump strategist declared Monday on his War Room podcast.

“Fox does not cover Trump at all, whatsoever,” Bannon complained of the Trump-allied network’s on-air handling of the former president’s lengthy Save America rally in Florence, Arizona.

“You’re not a news organization,” Bannon further fumed. “What the Murdochs want is the—they want a Glenn Youngkin, or they want some nice guy who will sit there and give them tax cuts and deregulation.”

Yeah, OK. That last part is obviously true.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 19, 2022 17:40:25 GMT LFC said:

Faux News didn't broadcast Trump's Arizona rally? Hmmmm. What's going on here?

Steve Bannon declared war on Fox News this week over the conservative cable behemoth’s lack of live coverage of Donald Trump’s unhinged Saturday evening rally in Arizona.

“The Fox scam is over!” the former Trump strategist declared Monday on his War Room podcast.

“Fox does not cover Trump at all, whatsoever,” Bannon complained of the Trump-allied network’s on-air handling of the former president’s lengthy Save America rally in Florence, Arizona.

“You’re not a news organization,” Bannon further fumed. “What the Murdochs want is the—they want a Glenn Youngkin, or they want some nice guy who will sit there and give them tax cuts and deregulation.”

Yeah, OK. That last part is obviously true.

I heard David Frum interviewed yesterday.  He was talking about the monied Republicans v. the Trumpublicans.  He believes that Fox tried to torpedo Trump in 2015/2016 by sic-ing Megyn Kelly on him in that one candidate forum.  But Trump turned that around by attacking her and Fox folded.  

[LFC]

Tuckums is at it again still.

Tucker Carlson treated his viewers Wednesday night to a diatribe against wearing masks, rashly asserting that the pandemic-era practice is “useless” and always has been.

Several times in his monologue, Carlson inaccurately framed news clips to try to prove his point, beginning with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson declaring that the U.K. would soon let its national mask mandate expire.

“At the same moment that Boris Johnson announced that masks don’t work,” Carlson said, “Joe Biden declared that he is going to send 400 million masks to American citizens so that every person in America can be safe for a day. It is lunacy. It is depressing to watch and has massive implications.”

To be clear, Johnson still suggested “the use of face coverings in enclosed or crowded spaces, particularly when you come into contact with people you don’t normally meet.” Secondly, there is no hard and fast rule on how many uses one can get out of N95 masks, which the Biden administration is shipping out starting next week.

But Carlson was just getting started. “Watch Biden’s own COVID adviser admit that masks don’t stop transmission,” the Fox News host said.

“We know today that many of the face cloth coverings that people wear are not very effective in reducing any of the virus movement in or out—either you are breathing out or you are breathing in—and in fact if you are in the upper Midwest right now, anybody who is wearing their face cloth covering can tell you they can smell all the smoke that we are still getting,” Dr. Michael Osterholm said in an August 2021 clip.

In fact, the CDC has long noted that facial coverings made of cloth, which Osterholm was clearly discussing, are not as effective as surgical masks or N95 masks.

Carlson then doubled down on portraying criticisms of cloth masks as knocks on masks in general.

[AnBr]

Sue the bastard for endangering peoples lives.