Fox "news" Cannot Be Trusted

The only news source I trust these days is the Wall Street Journal. They have a pretty extensive range of news bureaus, decent reporters, and they partition the editorial page from the news divisions.
 
On Wednesday Donald Trump announced that he intends to file a lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter, Google, and their executives for not allowing him to disseminate dangerously inflammatory lies. It’s a laughably pathetic legal stunt populated by a clown show of disreputable attorneys making preposterous arguments.

Trump’s lawsuit has been recognized by most legal experts as a frivolous abuse of the court system that is aimed more at fleecing his cult followers than prevailing in court. But undeterred by rational legal analysis, Fox News jumped eagerly into supporting Trump’s futile legal antics. On Wednesday evening Sean Hannity invited Alan Dershowitz to comment on the litigation. Dershowitz was a member of Trump’s impeachment defense team, so his prejudices and intellectual deficiencies are apparent.

Hannity’s assertion that Trump has a “strong case” is contrary to reality. Not only does the case fail on legal grounds, it was filed in in the wrong jurisdiction – Florida rather than California – and may be dismissed on that alone. That’s just more proof that this is a charade for profit and that Trump and his lawyers don’t have any real intention of winning.

As for Dershowitz, he is making it hard to believe that he was ever regarded as a constitutional scholar. He began his remarks by portraying the case as “the most important First Amendment case of the 21st century,” when it isn’t actually a First Amendment case at all. For it to be a First Amendment case there would have to be government involvement in suppression of free speech. But Trump’s targets are all private companies. Trump’s lawyers are trying to claim that the social media companies are “government actors,” but that’s an imaginary label with no legal validity.

Where Dershowitz goes off the rails entirely is the nonsense that the “high tech giants” are claiming First Amendment protection to censor Trump. They are not. They have never asserted a First Amendment protection because they aren’t being suppressed by the government. What’s more, they have every right to monitor what appears on their websites. By Dershowitz’s standards, I should be able to force Fox News to give me airtime every night.

https://dailysoundandfury.com/clown...heir-laughable-ignorance-of-the-constitution/
 
GOP group slams 'COVID friends' Tucker Carlson and QAnon lawmakers for helping pandemic stage a comeback

On Friday, the Republican Accountability Project, an anti-Trump conservative watchdog group, released a new ad proclaiming that Fox News host Tucker Carlson and several far-right GOP freshmen are "the Covid Friends" for pushing anti-vaccine fears.

"Introducing the Covid Friends," said the ad, showing Carlson along side Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Madison Cawthorn (R-NC).

"In the studios of Fox News and the offices of MAGA, there are assembled four pro-COVID Republicans dedicated to anti-vaccine propaganda," said an announcer in a parody of the Justice League announcer. "Tucker Carlson!" It played a clip of him saying, "If vaccines work, why are vaccinated people still banned from living normal lives? So maybe it doesn't work."

"Madison Cawthorn!" said the announcer, before playing a clip of him saying, "And now they're starting to talk about going door to door, to be able to take vaccines to the people. So you know the mechanisms they would have to build to be able to actually execute that, they could go door to door and take your guns. They could take your Bibles."
"Marjorie Taylor Greene!" said the announcer, showing a clip of her saying, "Tell Biden's little posse that's going to show up at your door, they come and try to intimidate you to take the vaccine, just tell them to get the hell off of your lawn."

"And Lauren Boebert!" said the announcer, with a clip of her saying, "We're here to tell government, don't coming knocking on my door with your Fauci Ouchie. You leave us the hell alone!"

https://www.rawstory.com/tucker-carlson-vaccine-2653806602/?utm_source=push_notifications
 
Why is Tucker Carlson still on the air?

In May 2021 alone, over 18,000 Americans died of COVID-19. Of those who died, only about 150 were people who had been vaccinated. In the same month, more than 107,000 Americans were hospitalized for severe illness attributed to COVID-19. Only 1% of those people had been vaccinated.

It may be too much to charge Tucker Carlson directly with 18,000 counts of manslaughter for his actions over the course of that month, but there is one thing certain: What Carlson is doing is much closer to the actions of Branham or Carter than it is to the teens laughing over the Tide Pod challenge. The frozen food heir is fully aware of the consequences of his actions, He is fully aware of the falseness of his claims. He is fully culpable in the deaths of thousands of Americans.

This is not a case of a broadcaster repeating a mistaken claim, or someone rushing forward with information that is incomplete. Carlson is deliberately, frequently, and constantly providing disinformation to the public that generates real and lasting harm—including death on a massive scale.

There may be no prosecutor in the country willing to charge Carlson for his involvements in these days—though honestly, there should be. But if that’s too much to expect, then certainly it should be a bare minimum that Carlson be treated with the kind of seriousness that was given to a disorganized group of kids that generated 0.1% as many deaths over eight years as Carlson and his ilk produced in a single month, a month that was the least deadly month of the entire pandemic.

Every single platform should feel an obligation to not just disown Carlson, but to prominently feature material correcting his false claims. Every single news program should feel obligated to call out this threat regularly, until it no longer exists. And every single sponsor who puts up a dime for his program should be considered a co-conspirator in his acts.

https://dailysoundandfury.com/why-is-tucker-carlson-still-on-the-air/
 

Harry Dunn's Lawyers Berate Tucker Carlson for Attack on 1/6 Riot Officer


"Tonight Fox News allowed its host Tucker Carlson, who has not served a day in uniform, whether military or law enforcement, to criticize the heroism and service of African-American U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn.

"Our client has served 13 years in law enforcement and on January 6, 2021, fought against an insurrectionist violent crowd - no doubt many of them Carlson's supporters - to protect the lives of our elected officials, including Vice President Pence."

The statement continued: "Officer Dunn, who would lay down his life to protect a Member of Congress, regardless of being a Republican or Democrat, will testify next Tuesday before the House Select Committee investigating the events of the insurrection.

"Frankly, the last thing Carlson wants is for the truth to emerge of what happened that day and why."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...riot-officer/ar-AAMqCJK?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531
 
Here's the cynical reason Fox News has changed its tune on COVID-19 vaccinations

During a CNN segment on Americans who are refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 at a time when cases are exploding due to a new variant, the network's media expert was asked about rival Fox News which has done an about-face and is imploring viewers to get the shots.

Speaking with hosts Christi Paul and Boris Sanchez, CNN host Brian Stelter explained why the conservative media outlet has suddenly "changed its tune" and has been running public service announcements about vaccinations.

"Brian, in recent days it's been really surprising to watch Fox News," Sanchez began. "For months they peddled lies about COVID and in the last few days they changed their tune about the vaccine. What do you think that has to do with? Is it a fear of lawsuits or maybe trying to fix some of the insecurities we saw in financial markets earlier in the week before they rebounded? Why?"

"There has been a lot of speculation about the root causes of this," Stelter replied. "My reporting indicates there was a real concern about the delta variant, especially affecting Republican strongholds. The numbers do not lie, even though some people want them to."

"So, as a result, you saw Fox News for the first time in weeks, actually months, promoting vaccines.gov, urging viewers to go there and get information about shots," he added before warning, "But I want to be clear here. I think there was a slight change in tune. I don't think that this network -- that Fox deserves much credit on this. There are lots of irresponsible segments on the air about COVID and the vaccines. It seems like there has been this concerted effort, even if it was subtle and short-lived, among political leaders and television right-wing leaders in order to change messaging about the shots."
https://www.rawstory.com/fox-news-vaccines-2653950899/?utm_source=push_notifications
 
Eric Swalwell’s Pregnant Wife Getting Death Threats After Tucker Carlson Targets Her

This is getting to be a repetitive pattern. A right-wing pundit nut job gets a wild hair going for somebody and targets the person. The person fights back, tells the pundit to go away. Then the pundit calls out the right-wing troops and things start to get very ugly. This is not an isolated case, this is the formula.

https://politizoom.com/eric-swalwel...r/?utm_source=newsletter-174&utm_medium=email
 
A former top Fox Broadcasting executive has voiced a searing condemnation of Fox News, calling it “poison for America” and saying even the network’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, doesn’t believe its coverage.

“Rupert Murdoch, whom I served for seven years, has many business and journalistic achievements. He owes himself a better legacy than a news channel that no reasonable person would believe,” wrote Preston Padden in an op-ed for The Daily Beast.

Padden served as president of network distribution at the Fox Broadcasting Company in the 1990s and played a role in the launch of Fox News, which was started with a goal to fill “an opening for a responsible and truthful center-right news network,” he said.

But in recent years, he continued, things have gone “badly off the tracks at Fox News.”

He accused the channel, particularly its prime-time opinion programming, of making a substantial and direct contribution to: COVID-19 deaths via vaccine and mask misinformation; societal divisions by stoking racial animus and spreading falsehoods about Black Lives Matter protests; former President Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” about the 2020 election; and the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol led by his supporters.

“Fox News has caused many millions of Americans — most of them Republicans (as my wife and I were for 50 years) — to believe things that simply are not true,” he wrote.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/form...HrER476uSFn_dakClNvLxgt6PicODsdpOkdpKx5d_Y87g
 
I am sorry to report I've had more than one conversation with progressives who, despite being savvy and well-read, are under the mistaken impression that Fox News has seen the light and has started to promote the COVID-19 vaccine. I've even witnessed speculation that Rupert Murdoch, who is himself vaccinated, had a come-to-Jesus meeting with the Fox News brass about the wisdom of encouraging their own audience to contract a dangerous disease. And while I always enjoy a cheeky opportunity to tell folks they should be reading my work more, overall, it's distressing to see that people are buying into the myth that Fox News has "pivoted" to being pro-vaccine.

But can you blame folks for believing this? Someone who prides themselves on a responsible, fact-based diet of mainstream media sources like CNN, NBC News and NPR likely got exposed in mid-to-late July to misleading stories hyping an out-of-context clip of Fox News host Sean Hannity saying, "I believe in the science of vaccination" and urging viewers to "take COVID seriously." The clip also got shared widely on social media.Everyone likes a "scared straight" story, and it just felt good to believe conservatives were on the verge of giving up this anti-vaccination nonsense. Unforutantely, the story was B.S.

As I and reporters who cover right wing media for Media Matters and Vox pointed out at the time, Hannity's show that night was not only bookmarked by two other shows — Laura Ingraham's and Tucker Carlson's — that openly discouraged vaccination, but his supposedly "pro-vaccine" comments came in the middle of a segment that overall portrayed vaccines as dangerous and a threat to freedom. Even in the edited clip, Hannity instructed his viewers to "research like crazy," which is a common anti-vaxx rhetorical trick. As with creationists claiming they want to "teach the controversy," it's a way to seem reasonable while slyly directing people to engage conspiracy theories and suggesting those conspiracy theories are on equal footing, credibility-wise, as scientific fact. As Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times wrote, Hannity was basically "encouraging listeners to expose themselves to the wide variety of anti-vax conspiracy mongering accessible on social media via 'research.'"

But in case there was any doubt, a perusal of Hannity's programming in the weeks since his supposed conversion shows that, actually, Hannity is still largely focused on stoking confusion, spreading misinformation, and portraying vaccination efforts as a liberal conspiracy against his audience. As Media Matters documented on Tuesday, Hannity gave an entire hour of his radio show over to two anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists — men who use phrases like "the demon needle" and "poisonous jabs." Hannity presented them falsely as medical experts to people calling in looking for advice. He also sneered at Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical advisor, calling him "flip-flop Fauci" and declaring that his anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists were better experts. The conspiracy theorists discouraged vaccines for young people, implied that dangerous and unproven drugs are superior prevention to the vaccine, and lied about the breakthrough infection rate, implying it's high when it is not.

From the moment that his misleading "pro-vaccine" clip went viral, Hannity has aggressively downplayed the claim that he's promoting the vaccine, declaring two days after the initial clip that, "I'm not urging people to get the COVID-19 vaccine" and "I have never told anyone to get a vaccine." In the past few weeks, he's attacked vaccine passport programs, portrayed vaccine advocacy as "threats coming from Democrats," exaggerated the risks of breakthrough infections, and even claimed that vaccine passport programs are racist against Black people. (In reality, Black people are at a higher risk of dying of COVID-19, which is one reason why aggressive public health measures are necessary.)
https://www.rawstory.com/fox-news-vaccines-2654468572/?utm_source=push_notifications
 
During his segment on Friday, August 6, Hannity appeared to flip the script about all that transpired last year. With a screen prompt that read, "Biden squanders Trump's COVID-19 progress," Hannity accused Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of pushing anti-vaccination conspiracy theories for political gain.

"Let's start with the vaccines. Last year while President Trump was working with scientists and major pharmaceutical companies to cut all the red tape and expedite safe effective vaccines, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, their friends in the media mob, their press secretaries, well they were busy sewing doubt and pushing anti-vax, anti-trump conspiracy theories, of course, we know why, all for political gain."

At one point, Hannity claimed the president went back on his word. "Remember Biden then declared a new policy: vax or mask, remember that?" Hannity asked. "Now it's vax and mask, and vaccine mandates and mask mandates and other draconian new restrictions, and the possibility of yet more shutdowns."

Hannity also slammed the president as he accused him of pushing Americans to take "extraordinary measures" to combat the spread of COVID.

"We really can't trust that derelict shell of a president Joe Biden. We can't trust his administration. We can't trust the Democratic party and the media mob, he lives in their protection program," he said. "They care about politics and power clearly more than our health and our safety. They are unscientific, unprincipled, ever-changing, autocratic policies, yeah it's leading this country straight into a massive new health crisis of their making."

Almost immediately after the controversial clip started making its way around Twitter, users began weighing in to correct Hannity on his incorrect comparison of Trump and Biden. Offering Hannity a brief history lesson and timeline on the pandemic, Vox reporter Aaron Rupar tweeted, "There were 4,380 US Covid deaths on Trump's last day in office. There were 574 US deaths yesterday. Draw your own conclusions."

Another Twitter user noted how Hannity's tone and perspective of the pandemic have changed over the last several months. "So NOW it's serious? But the entire time shit was falling apart under trump...nothing?"

https://www.rawstory.com/fox-news-2654560746/?utm_source=push_notifications
 
In April of this year, Tucker Carlson got into hot water after offering an impassioned expression of the white nationalist conspiracy theory known as the "Great Replacement" during a monologue on his Fox News prime-time show. Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote to Fox News in response, citing just a small fragment of Carlson's long racist record, and noting that "Carlson has suggested that the very idea of white supremacy in the U.S. is a hoax." Greenblatt concluded, "Carlson's full-on embrace of the white supremacist replacement theory ... and his repeated allusions to racist themes in past segments are a bridge too far. Given his long record of race-baiting, we believe it is time for Carlson to go."

Predictably enough, Fox News and its ownership refused to take this seriously. Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch responded by falsely claiming that "Mr. Carlson decried and rejected replacement theory." But the only evidence he offered didn't sound like rejection, only an attempt to sanitize Carlson's remarks through denial and reframing: "As Mr. Carlson himself stated during the guest interview: 'White replacement theory? No, no, this is a voting rights question.'"

It's worth looking back at that episode now for several reasons. First, Carlson has again been pushing "Great Replacement" discourse more recently, this time by attacking the idea of bringing Afghan refugees to the U.S. in the wake of the Taliban's lightning conquest of that country. Second, because Fox News' defense of Carlson has only supported the spread of this racist conspiracy theory. Third, because that theory has a bloody record of inspiring mass murder — not incidentally, but as a logical consequence of its central argument.

"The great replacement is very simple," its originator, French conspiracy theorist Renaud Camus, has said. "You have one people, and in the space of a generation you have a different people." In this formulation, immigration is equated with genocide, which logically requires or demands genocidal violence in response.

And then there's the final reason: Because the "Great Replacement" and a family of similar, almost interchangeable conspiracy theories — claiming that Western culture and civilization are being destroyed by immigration, which is permitted or enabled by weak or malicious cosmopolitan elites, often though not always identified as Jewish — effectively defines a radical shift in conservative ideology over the last few years. Indeed, one could almost call it a great replacement of previous conservative thought.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...s-deep-roots/ar-AANzVWM?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531
 
Holy fucking fuck.

Tucker Carlson is now saying that governors, mayors, county commissioners, doctors, nurses, school principals, etc. who try to save American lives by trying limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus are "tyrants" and should be punished.

Americans are drying in waves (especially in Republican-run states) from COVID-19 and Carlson is advocating for millions of people to get forged vaccination cards do they can avoid getting the vaccine and help spread the virus that is killing people.

https://dailysoundandfury.com/tucke...limit-the-spread-of-covid-should-be-punished/
 
Last edited:
Fox News staff are divided and tensions are growing as Tucker Carlson’s support for political violence and domestic terrorism is splitting the network.

History is repeating itself at Fox News. Back in the first term of the Obama administration, Glenn Beck skyrocketed to fame with his chalkboard and Obama conspiracies. Beck was eventually undone by an advertiser boycott, but the ground that Tucker Carlson is plowing is much more fertile for divisive calls for violence and conspiracy theories.

The views of the far-right have become even more extreme since Beck left cable news. Tucker Carlson isn’t spewing his hate at 5 PM with a chalkboard. Carlson is a primetime figure with a willing audience ready to lap up his lies and justifications or racism and political violence.

Just as they were under Beck, the serious news people are troubled by Carlson, as the impossible co-existence between propaganda and news is bringing a crisis to a boil at Fox News.

https://www.politicususa.com/2021/1...s-tucker-carlson-is-wrecking-the-network.html
 
"Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home," Laura Ingraham texted Meadows. "This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy."

She knew. They all knew. They all knew the truth right away. But by the night of 1/6, Ingraham was spouting conspiracy theories about "ANTIFA" and excusing the peaceful "patriots" who, let's be clear, paraded into DC based on a lie she pushed over and over again. Fox's pro-Trump programming was partly to blame for the Big Lie, so when that lie led to violence, of course some of the hosts panicked and tried to put out the fire.

On Monday, Cheney read two other texts from Fox stars to Meadows from 1/6. One was from Brian Kilmeade: "Please, get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished." The other was from Sean Hannity: "Can he make a statement, ask people to leave the Capitol?" Cheney didn't specify what time those texts were sent. But I was struck by Hannity's casual tone about the unfolding terror. At least Kilmeade said "please, get him on TV."

The 1/6 committee has thousands of other texts and emails. Cheney shared just a tiny sampling on Monday. But the tiny sampling is deeply embarrassing for Fox and the Murdochs. As Maggie Haberman said, this "undercuts efforts by everyone whose name she read who might say Jan. 6 wasn't that bad." It "wasn't that bad" has been one of Fox's dominant themes this year. This banner on "Don Lemon Tonight" captured it perfectly: "Fox hosts and Donald Trump Jr. knew exactly what was happening and now they pretend it didn't happen."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...-6-hypocrisy/ar-AARMXis?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531
 
Fox News fails simple math.

White House defends slamming half of America as 'semi-fascist,' 'terrorists' despite Biden's unity pledge​

Fox News correspondent Mark Meredith later asked Jean-Pierre what percentage of the 74 million people who voted for Trump in the 2020 election the White House regarded as extremists.
74 million is less than one quarter of the population. Nowhere near half.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/wh...scist-rhetoric-we-understand-we-hit-nerve.amp
 
Back
Top