242 replies to this topic

[LFC]

We apparently need a special investigator ... to probe Hillary's emails. If you thought Faux might be going a bit closer to reality and being a real news organization, you were wrong.

Quote

“You know, John, hypocrisy in Washington is endemic,” said Fox anchor Gregg Jarrett, “and memories are quite fleeting. Yes, it was several months ago that Schumer roundly denounced James Comey for reopening the Hillary Clinton investigation just before the election.”

He went on, “And Schumer said he’s lost all confidence in Comey, which in Washington-speak means, ‘Fire the guy,’ but now all of a sudden fast-forward a couple of months and Comey’s fired and suddenly Chuck Schumer is outraged.”

If the president and his advisors have done nothing wrong, Jarrett said, they shouldn’t fear an investigation by a special counsel.

However, he said, “There should also be a special counsel appointed to re-examine the evidence in the Hillary Clinton case and decide anew whether she violated the law.”

Jarrett believes that Clinton “flagrantly violated” the Espionage Act, “Leave it to a special prosecutor and in the end perhaps a jury as to whether Hillary Clinton belongs behind bars.”

The democracy destroying propaganda continues unimpeded.

[golden_valley]

Is it really so hard to understand that the outrage over Comey's firing comes from the fact that he wasn't fired until it became clear that FBI investigations into Trump campaign surrogates and employees potential connections with Russian attempts to influence the election were continuing?

[Progressive whisperer]

golden_valley, on 10 May 2017 - 12:22 PM, said:

Is it really so hard to understand that the outrage over Comey's firing comes from the fact that he wasn't fired until it became clear that FBI investigations into Trump campaign surrogates and employees potential connections with Russian attempts to influence the election were continuing?

It isn't hard to understand that Faux reports the news their viewers want to be true.

[LFC]

Interestingly it looks like there's an internal struggle over just how far down the right-wingnut rabbit hole Faux News can go. Seriously if you went to work for them, you HAD to know what they were all about when you took the job. It's like working for a tobacco company and being shocked they publish bullshit "studies" that claim cigarettes aren't dangerous. I remember a while back we discussed if Rupert's sons wanted to try to pull the network towards legitimacy and away from insanity ... which, coincidentally, rhymes with Hannity. Maybe this is that conflict continuing to play out.

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Fox News staffers are growing increasingly dismayed as network star Sean Hannity and others continue to promote the unfounded conspiracy theory that Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer was murdered last year for talking to WikiLeaks.

The Daily Beast spoke to nearly a dozen reporters, pundits, and hosts inside Fox News who all conveyed the same sentiment: Hannity is “embarrassing” the network, and the promotion of the Rich conspiracy theory is senselessly cruel to a grieving family.

“ARE WE STILL AIRING THAT SHIT?!” one Fox News political reporter, who says they are furious that the conservative cable-news giant is entertaining the conspiracy theory, messaged The Daily Beast when informed of recent coverage.

The story was debunked, was resurrected, and quickly fell completely apart again but that didn't slow down the conspiracy crowd on Faux.

Quote

Nevertheless, the conspiracy theory has persisted on Fox News.

It gained an additional on-air advocate on Sunday when Newt Gingrich told reliably unskeptical Fox & Friends hosts: “We have this very strange story now of this young man who worked for the Democratic National Committee, who apparently was assassinated at 4 in the morning, having given WikiLeaks something like 53,000 emails and 17,000 attachments.”

The Russian Embassy in the U.K. also got in on the action last week, following Fox News’ lead. “#WikiLeaks informer Seth Rich murdered in US but MSM was so busy accusing Russian hackers to take notice,” the embassy tweeted.

Hannity angrily responded on Sunday to critics on Twitter with messages like, “Why do u and the lib media keep advancing the unhinged ‘Trump/Russia’ conspiracy? Any evidence? Do you believe the ‘robbery’ story?”

“Is it possible that one greatest lies ever told is soon exposed?” he fired off in another tweet. “How will the tin foil hat destroy Trump media and deep state deal with this.” Hannity also hinted at the real motivation for his parroting of a groundless conspiracy theory: “If Seth was wiki source, no Trump/Russia collusion.”

Fellow Fox News star Geraldo Rivera embraced the conspiracy on Monday afternoon, tweeting: “1) #SethRich shot in back(2)worked for #DNC which, (3)screwed @BernieSanders 4)#WIKILEAKS screwed DNC(5)Did #sethrich leak?(6)is it related?”

Multiple sources said that hard-news reporters and staffers at the network are aghast at the network’s ongoing coddling of the baseless story and wonder why it has been allowed to continue.

Fox News staff spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity.

“The other reporters I’ve talked to [about this] are similarly pissed about the whole thing,” another Fox reporter said. “Some find it embarrassing, others downright heartless [to spread this].”

“It’s just gross,” the reporter added.

[andydp]

In other news:

Fox Retracts Story That Sparked Conspiracy About Slain DNC Staffer

From the article. (Emphasis mine) Can you find the humorous statement ?

On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich. The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting. Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed," Fox News said in a statement posted online.


http://www.nbcnews.c...staffer-n763746

[andydp]

Apparently, I was too quick to assume Fox had changed its editorial policy.
Hannity Continues Pushing Seth Rich Conspiracy Theory After Fox News Retracts Story

The Fox News commentator won’t let go of the conspiracy theory about the killing of a DNC staffer.


http://www.huffingto...4b034684b108723

Comment: we can only hope the "Editorial Review" staff will find it in its heart to remove Hannity for his "insubordination"

[LFC]

Like I said, it looks like an internal struggle between folks who want to become less Breitbartesque vs. the Hannity wing of the network. With Ailes gone, the wingnuts may have lost their biggest ally. Imagine if 10 years from now Fox actually became a real news outlet. Conservative to be sure, but real? Maybe. Just ... maybe.

[Art_Vandelay]

On a happier note:

Amid turmoil, is Fox News losing its perch as cable news leader?

Quote

O’Reilly’s departure has taken a toll on Fox News, which is showing signs that it may be losing its perch as the dominant force in cable news. Last week, Fox finished behind CNN and MSNBC among viewers ages 25 to 54, the demographic most important to advertisers who buy commercial time on the network. Fox News has not finished third in that category for a full week since Dec. 28, 2008, when the murder trial of Casey Anthony was a dominant cable news story for MSNBC and CNN’s sister channel, HLN.

[...]

Last week, MSNBC won all five weekdays over CNN and Fox News in prime time, according to Nielsen data. The NBC-owned network led by “The Rachel Maddow Show,” now the No. 1 show in cable news with an average of 2.9 million viewers last week, became the go-to destination for viewers transfixed by the unfolding White House scandal.

[Progressive whisperer]

Art_Vandelay, on 24 May 2017 - 07:24 PM, said:

On a happier note:

Amid turmoil, is Fox News losing its perch as cable news leader?

I'd assume being "the opposition" helps. I hope it isn't seen as a result of hiring ex-Foxers and even Trumpists by CNN.

[LFC]

Some advertisers are abandoning Hannity. It looks like pushing a lie too far still has consequences at least among reputable companies. I'm sure companies that sell gold and prepper kits will still stick with him.

Quote

As Fox News host Sean Hannity partially backed away from his recent promotion of a conspiracy theory about the murder of a DNC staffer, several advertisers confirmed Wednesday that they have pulled out of Hannity’s show.

“The fact that we advertise on a particular program doesn’t mean that we agree or disagree, or support or oppose, the content. We don’t have the ability to influence content at the time we make our advertising purchase. In this case, we’ve been watching closely and have recently made the decision to pull our advertising from Hannity,” Cars.com said in a statement to Buzzfeed News on Wednesday.

Leesa Sleep, a mattress company, Peloton bikes, and USAA, a financial services company, also said Wednesday that they had stopped advertising on the show.

Crowne Plaza Hotels told Buzzfeed News that they terminated their relationship with a third party company after learning that their advertisements were running on Fox News, including on Hannity’s show.

“We do not advertise on Fox News, Hannity or any political commentary show. We have a specific do not advertise list for this type of programming. Unfortunately, our expectation to adhere to this list was not met by a third-party agency. Since we learned of the airings, we addressed the issue immediately and terminated our relationship with the agency. We have no plans to advertise on Fox News for the foreseeable future,” the company said in a statement.

The flurry of advertisers announcing that they would not air ads on Hannity’s show came after the Fox News host said he would stop talking for the time being about the baseless conspiracy theory surrounding the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich. However, Hannity indicated that he would keep digging on the conspiracy theory and that he could resurface it at a later time.

[LFC]

Hannity goes on vacation and says it was pre-planned. Didn't O'Reilly do and say the same thing when he got in trouble?

Quote

News host Sean Hannity is taking an early vacation this week right as advertisers have started fleeing his show.

Hannity announced in his Twitter account Wednesday night that he was taking a “long” Memorial Day weekend starting on Thursday, and he insisted that it had nothing to do with the growing backlash against him for pushing the debunked conspiracy theory about the murder of slain DNC staffer Seth Rich.

“My ANNUAL Memorial Day long weekend starts NOW,” Hannity wrote. “Destroy Trump/Conservative media breathless coverage starts! Did Hannity do last show?”

So far, at least seven different advertisers have agreed to stop selling ads to his TV show, including Cars.com, USAA and Crowne Plaza Hotels.

[LFC]

Fox & Friends. That is all.

Quote

Although Fox News posted an eye witness report of Republican Congressional candidate Greg Gianforte’s assault on reporter Ben Jacobs, Fox & Friends covered the incident on Thursday without mentioning its own employees’ account.

Via Media Matters, Fox’s Jillian Mele reported about the Gianforte assault without making it clear that his campaign’s talking points about the incident were completely contradicted by her own network’s reporting.

Fox reporter Alicia Acuna, who witnessed the assault first hand on Wednesday night, explained that “Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him.” Acuna also pointed out that “at no point did any of us who witnessed this assault see Jacobs show any form of physical aggression toward Gianforte.”

On Fox & Friends, however, Mele simply repeated the Gianforte campaign’s talking points by noting that “the candidate says that reporter tried to push a phone in his face before this happened” and that “Gianforte’s campaign says the men both fell.”

The network also ran a chyron that simply read, “Gianforte blames reporter for incident.”

[golden_valley]

"both men fell" or reporter's face hit Gianforte's hand.

[LFC]

Hannity is back on the Seth Rich murder lies again. .

Quote

“I have to start tonight on a personal note of something that happened last week. Now, I was asked by the family of the DNC staffer that was killed in July to pull back covering the story of the death because their son and their family was hurting,” he said on his show. “Now out of respect for the family’s wishes, well, I decided for the time being not to discuss it unless there were further developments.”

“But I also promised you, my audience, my loyal audience, that I will not stop investigating. I will not stop asking questions,” he continued. “And at a very high level, the bottom line here is the family wants the truth and I think the country deserves the truth, because this impacts so much of what the narrative in this country is now about, which is the left and their conspiracy theory. Now I can report, I am making progress. We will have a lot more coming probably sooner than later.”

He then complained that he has been labeled a conspiracy theorist “because I dare to ask questions” and claimed that liberals are trying to get his show cancelled by going after his advertisers. Several companies have pulled ads from the show following his relentless coverage of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory, though USAA has said it will again begin airing ads on “Hannity.”

[LFC]

And whining ensues. After the article describes Hannity's continued lying and the impact of advertisers leaving him, it describes the attack on Rachel Maddow because she is "the biggest purveyor of lies and propaganda in the media today." Once again I invoke Right-wingers' Razor.

Quote

And while the search for Rich's killer continues, Hannity found another cause to champion: an advertising boycott of MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, who has recently bested him in prime time ratings. Although he expressed his own distaste for boycotts and profound love of the First Amendment, Hannity invited as his first guests Brian Maloney and Melanie Morgan of the Media Equality Project, a right-wing watchdog group.

Earlier in the day, the Media Equality Project had introduced Operation Fight With Fire, as well as the hashtag #StoptheScalpings, an apparent reference to liberal targeting of conservatives and their unpopular (but invariably correct) viewpoints.

"The DNC, mainstream media, George Soros, and Media Matters for America, deemed Sean Hannity’s pursuit of the facts too close for comfort. In an effort to protect their ilk, and the secrets they keep, they have created a false narrative," Morgan wrote in an online introduction of the project. The post makes clear that the Media Equality Project believes that the Rich investigation is a serious journalistic enterprise that should continue.

But the true target is Maddow, the progressive firebrand who is as grating to conservatives as Hannity is to liberals. "As long as Media Matters continues to attack conservatives, we will return them the same kindness," Morgan writes. "We begin with Rachel Maddow who has been the biggest purveyor of lies and propaganda in the media today. Like Media Matters, we will now inform the public and the advertisers about who they are financing."

Hannity reiterated, during the segment, that he is "against boycotts."

[LFC]

Nothing complements an incoherent Trump tweet like an incoherent Faux News defense of it! This guy should be embarrassed to be him right now.

Quote

Fox News host Jon Scott suggested on Wednesday that an incoherent late night Twitter message proves that Donald Trump has the “stamina to be president.”

In a tweet sent after midnight, Trump complained about “the constant negative press covfefe.” After the typo spread on social media, Trump followed up with another tweet.

Quote

Who can figure out the true meaning of "covfefe" ??? Enjoy!
6:09 AM - 31 May 2017

“People are enjoying it, you’ve got to give him that,” Fox’s Scott announced on Wednesday morning. “It was a big issue during the campaign. He often accused Hillary Clinton of not having the energy, the stamina to be president.”

“So, he was up tweeting at 12:06 a.m., even if it wasn’t exactly a, well, coherent tweet,” Scott added. “And then at 5:00 a.m., he deleted it. So, I guess the president is, as he said, a man who needs only a few hours sleep. At any rate, he got 126,000 retweets and 160,000 likes for ‘covfefe.'”

So Trump only needs a few hours of sleep a night, eh? With all of that extra time to accomplish things why does he fail so badly?

[golden_valley]

LFC, on 31 May 2017 - 01:11 PM, said:

Hannity is back on the Seth Rich murder lies again. .

I hope he gets to it right after the "Vince Foster was murdered" case is finally proved.

[Art_Vandelay]

Fox News Is Dropping Its ‘Fair & Balanced’ Slogan

Even Fox isn't able to say it any longer with a straight face.

Quote

As Fox News moves further into the post–Roger Ailes era, the network is shedding one of its most iconic elements. According to network executives, Fox News has abandoned the marketing slogan “Fair & Balanced.” The decision was made last August after Ailes’s ouster by Fox News co-president Jack Abernethy, because the phrase had “been mocked,” one insider said. Another executive explained that the tagline was “too closely associated with Roger.” Fox executives have been instructed by management to market the network by its other tagline: “Most Watched. Most Trusted.”

It is hard to overstate the significance of what shedding “Fair & Balanced” means for Fox News. (It would be like the New York Times giving up “All the News That’s Fit to Print.”) Ailes invented the slogan when he launched the network in 1996, and over the years it became a quasi-religious doctrine among Fox’s anchors and viewers. The effectiveness of Fox News as a vehicle for conservative ideologydepended on it. “If you come out and you try to do right-wing news, you’re gonna die. You can’t get away with it,” Ailes once told a reporter.

[andydp]

Art_Vandelay, on 14 June 2017 - 08:59 PM, said:

Fox News Is Dropping Its ‘Fair & Balanced’ Slogan

Even Fox isn't able to say it any longer with a straight face.

I thought "Fair and Balanced" was a dogma of infallibility in matters of utmost importance to the Republic(an). Kinda, sorta like the Pope when it came to planetary matters and Galileo.

FYI: If you have Sirius XM, the Fox News channel's slogan is "We report you decide."

[nuser]

LFC, on 23 May 2017 - 12:03 PM, said:

Interestingly it looks like there's an internal struggle over just how far down the right-wingnut rabbit hole Faux News can go. Seriously if you went to work for them, you HAD to know what they were all about when you took the job. It's like working for a tobacco company and being shocked they publish bullshit "studies" that claim cigarettes aren't dangerous. I remember a while back we discussed if Rupert's sons wanted to try to pull the network towards legitimacy and away from insanity ... which, coincidentally, rhymes with Hannity. Maybe this is that conflict continuing to play out.
Just as women are told what to wear on Fox News men are told how far they can go with a story.
Who can say not every word coming out of their mouths are not pre-approved?
Institutional traders are set a limit every day by the President of the Brokerage which sometimes is a fraction of
A cent and you as a trader can not surpass that.Hannity ,O'Reilly, Smith et al are all cut from the same cloth as
Tennessee Ernie Ford once sang about The Company Store .




The story was debunked, was resurrected, and quickly fell completely apart again but that didn't slow down the conspiracy crowd on Faux.