CRM2 conserv RW media

SEE THREE

SEE WOD4

SEE OTHER NODE

CONSrwMEDIA923.TXT BAK

see target, scalps, hit man

see lie any means

see alt fact earth 2

see conspiracy

11/20 now refers to hardcore trumpista diaspora, see stop the steal

i have added soc med migrated to eg parler 121

SEE COVID 3 FAIL

ALL PHOBES W/ ISLAM HAMAS V ISRAEL? ANTI-SEM?

see jrnl fail, denial

see racism // talk radio

see generic conservative right

see direcTV dumps

R w tag is ppl/orgs willing to use violence

orphan 1/20

before i used GOP for generic conservatism

merri ok

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Right-wing media misleadingly used a video from a fundraiser to renew their attacks on Biden's age

06/18/24 mma

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an 5 24

with the defense and the prosecution having rested their cases, closing arguments in Donald Trump's criminal hush money/falsified business records trial are scheduled for this Tuesday, May 28 after Memorial Day Weekend. Those arguments will be followed by jury deliberations, and it remains to be seen whether a Manhattan jury will vote "guilty" or "not guilty" — or if there will be a hung jury.

Meanwhile, the three other criminal indictments Trump is facing appear unlikely to go to trial before the November election.

Right-wing media outlets — from Fox News, Fox Business, Newsmax TV and One America News to Breitbart News and Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast — have been portraying the trial as a political persecution, ignoring or downplaying the testimony that legal analysts on MSNBC and CNN have been describing in elaborate detail.

READ MORE: **What to watch for in Trump trial's closing arguments**

St. Louis-based journalist Eric Berger, in an article published by The Guardian on May 27, warns that right-wing media's trial coverage could benefit Trump politically.

According to Berger, "Trump has retained much of his political support amid his ongoing hush-money trial in part due to a combination of the courtroom's ban on cameras and conservative media echoing his claims that both the prosecutor and judge are corrupt, media analysts say. The experts suggest that the former president could retain political support on the right even if the jury determines he is guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to his reimbursements to Michael Cohen for a payment to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign."

Media Matters' Matt Gertz told The Guardian that right-wing media outlets are painting the hush money trial as a "witch-hunt ginned up by Joe Biden" — saying that Trump "will be found not guilty" but also "arguing that if he is found guilty, it will be because the jury and the judge are partisan and corrupt." Gertz describes this approach as "heads, we win/tails, you lose."

Gertz told The Guardian, "They know that every alleged infraction or crime committed by Trump is an opportunity for them to prove that they are onboard with the MAGA movement and with Trump specifically by loudly saying that he did nothing wrong and that his pursuers are in fact the real criminals."

READ MORE:[Trump suffered a 'stunning rebuke' in disastrous Saturday night speech: analyst

Howard Polskin, president of the newsletter/website The Righting, believes that the lack of cameras in Justice Juan Merchan's courtroom benefits Trump.

Polskin told The Guardian, "It's Christmas in May for Trump. It was a gift for Trump that there were no cameras in the courtroom. I think there would have been a lot more coverage on both left, right and mainstream if that were the case."

READ MORE:[Why Alito's response to inverted flag controversy is as troubling as symbol itself: analysis

Read The Guardian's full report[at this link

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crm

alternet-no lnx

When it comes to 'rage' of white rural voters, liberals may not be asking the right questions

Former President Donald J. Trump arrives to deliver remarks Thursday, August 6, 2020, at the Whirlpool Corporation Manufacturing Plant in Clyde, Ohio. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

Reverend Daniel Schultz May 16, 2024

Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman have a new book out titled White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy. It has proved controversial. There are two major objections, as I understand them. First, Schaller and Waldman may have misrepresented or misunderstood scholarship on the rural context. Second, their thesis — white rural voters pose a unique threat to American democracy — may be overstated and under-supported.

I've known of Schaller and Waldman's work for a long time, and know Tom himself at least a little. So I was a bit surprised to see the vehemence and breadth of the pushback on the new book. I was equally surprised to see other folks I know strongly defend their thesis. The authors got their own word in at The New Republic.

Is it rural or is it race?

It may surprise you to hear this, but I am neither a rural sociologist or political scientist. I decided I was in no place to give an authoritative assessment of these arguments. Then, while I was groping around for what I did want to say, Noah Berlatsky ... just went ahead and nailed it?

Democrats struggle not with rural voters in general, but with white rural voters in particular. And white rural voters do not vote for the GOP because they are rural. They vote for the GOP because they are white.

That's pretty much it. As one scholar argues, if you control for other factors, the difference between rural and urban voting patterns essentially disappears. Race is a much stronger predictor than things like income, religion or place of residence.

Let's put that more anecdotally. I've known some straight-up, stone-cold racists in rural areas. But then I've also known some in urban areas.

It's not quite as simple as saying that rural whites are a bunch of racists. But for at least some people, it's a straightforward enough syllogism:

Cities are the source of all our problems.

Black people live in cities.

Democrats run cities.

Ergo, Democrats and everything they stand for are bad and wrong.

There are variations on this theme. Illegal immigrants are overrunning our society! Democrats let them all in! Therefore, etc. Or: covid is a city problem, Democrats run cities and liberals run health departments. Therefore, we're not interested in getting vaccinated or practicing social distancing.

As with any white people, rural or urban, the supremacist elements of these formulas are more or less explicit, depending on the individual and their community. It could be that rural whites are more prone to bias due to lower levels of education. But other than that, racists are racists, no matter where you find them.

Social incentives

There is one factor particular to rural areas that deserves consideration before we look at potential answers to the "rural problem." Rural folks traditionally don't move around as much as city folks.

Deep roots feed social capital through rich networks of relations, neighbors and friends. Rural communities are able to offer impressive support to those in need or to accomplish shared goals. Think food pantries, volunteer fire companies, churches that persist with a handful of members.

But those same roots provide lots of incentives not to rock the social boat. This boils down to "Don't tick off the neighbors because you're stuck with those assholes for a long time and you never know when you might need their help." That makes it difficult to confront your loudmouth bigoted uncle. It makes it even harder to disagree with those weird dudes down the road with all the AR-15s. It also can create a "culture of bullying" that reflexively smashes down anyone who doesn't conform to gender, political or racial norms.

Asking better questions

I don't say these things to valorize or demonize rural areas. It's just that knowing them helps us to ask the right questions.

For example, Kathy Cramer, author of The Politics of Resentment, tells Tyler Austin Harper:

The question of our time is not who are the bad Americans, but what is wrong with our systems — our government, our economy, our modes of communication — that means that so many people feel unseen, unheard, and disrespected by the people in charge? And what can we do, constructively, about that?

On the surface, this seems like a decent enough question. But it falls apart when you consider its easiest answer. Some people feel unseen, unheard and disrespected because they're bigots who have been spoon-fed a diet of resentment and entitlement courtesy of rightwing media. That leads to the practical but not very satisfying conclusion that they're best ignored in any kind of political project to the left of Attila the Hun.

You might also ask, as Thomas Frank did, What's The Matter With Kansas? Or as Frank's thesis is often formulated: Why do white rural residents vote against their economic interests?

The usual hot take is that they've been hoodwinked by Republicans into voting on culture rather than cold hard cash. But that doesn't give them much credit. They're not fools. What if they know what they're doing? What if there's something they value more than economics?

To put it more exactly: What is it that white rural voters are willing to sacrifice so much for? It could be maintaining various forms of privilege, especially racial hierarchies. Or it could be saving a rural way of life that they perceive to be under threat of vanishing. (These options are not mutually exclusive.)

Getting better answers

Whatever the case, I suspect the most productive response to the situation will involve two things. They might seem like pie-in-the-sky projects at first. But I at least think there's some cause for a bit of optimism for each of them.

Democrats and progressives will need to do a lot less writing off rural districts as hopeless and a lot more intentional work on developing solidarity with them. A revived union movement such as we're currently seeing could go a long way toward meeting this goal. So could a new "green economy." It would help if there were a leftwing media ecosystem to push the good news coming out of those developments. Rural voters may not be fools, but there is evidence that messages of economic success aren't getting through to voters. There is also a desperate need for more positive racial narratives than the ones provided by Fox News and AM radio. But that might be too much to ask, given the kind of investment it would take.

And in the end the answer to overcoming divisions between rural and urban areas will have to come from within the communities themselves. They'll never accept a solution imposed from outside, and it is their community, after all.

It may very well be that cultural differences and the tensions between extractive and information economies are too big to bridge. On the other hand, maga extremism might prove finally too much even for country mice. Trump's unpopularity might create an opening for home-grown — and less extreme — leadership to emerge. And as Schaller and Waldman point out in their New Republic piece, there is a sizable rural minority population to build upon.

On the third hand, I despair.

Why bother?

But on the fourth hand, I'm pleased to see homegrown rural Democratic candidates emerging to challenge Republican hegemony. I'm also encouraged to hear of communities adopting more inclusive policies out of self-interest, if nothing else. With time and investment, I'm fairly confident liberal messages can get through to rural voters and a progressive vision can take root.

Rural white voters aren't more extreme than anyone else in my experience. Nor are they more racist. Your mileage may vary. They are, however, primed to support Republicans in a lot of ways. It would take a lot of time and investment to overcome those factors. There are legitimate arguments to be had about how worthwhile the effort would be. I've made some of the same arguments about religious outreach.

But it can be done, and I think it should at least be attempted. It won't win Democrats the next election, probably not the next few either. But if the nation is ever to emerge from the shadow of racialized politics, it will have to confront white beliefs and practices. White racism may not be all that different in the cities than it is in the country. Still, it's as good a place to start as any. Which, come to think of it, is the tacit motto of a lot of rural places.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Why do white rural voters vote for Republicans? ›

America’s second civil war? It’s already begun ›

Economist Paul Krugman: Here’s what’s driving 'white rural rage' and 'the MAGA narrative' ›

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Are White Rural Americans the Real Threat to Democracy? ›

Opinion | The Mystery of White Rural Rage - The New York Times ›

Don't sneer at white rural voters — or delude yourself about their ... ›

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Right-wing media claim that Biden’s handling of classified documents was similar or worse than Trump’s | Media Matters for America

The political press runs with Hur’s scurrilous partisan attack | Media Matters for America

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mma 2 24

Right-wing media responded to a federal appeals court ruling on Tuesday denying former President Donald Trump’s claims of absolute immunity by offering absurd legal arguments and demonstrating general confusion about the facts of the case.

The D.C. appeals court ruled that Trump can be prosecuted for his actions to overturn the result of the 2020 election, a major victory for special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation. Trump is expected to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

As Politico reported:

The judges concluded that longstanding doctrines of “immunity” for presidents from civil lawsuits related to their official duties did not extend to alleged criminal acts — and certainly not for a former president. Similarly, they concluded that the gravity of the specific charges against Trump weighed heavily against declaring him immune, even when balanced against concerns about the chilling effect it could have on future presidents.

Right-wing pundits reacted by attacking the decision, with some claiming it was partisan and that future Republican administrations should target President Joe Biden.

• OutKick’s Clay Travis claimed that if the case moved forward it would “violate DOJ precedent and put Trump on trial in the late summer and fall of an election year.”

• January 6 conspiracy theorist Julie Kelly called it the “least shocking thing ever,” painting the ruling as partisan and downplaying the charges against Trump as “vague”

• Daily Caller editor Vince Coglianese posted on X (formerly Twitter) that a sentence the order meant Trump was “not entitled to the presumption of innocence.” The very next sentence in the decision proved him wrong.

• Trump’s son and right-wing influencer Donald Trump Jr. wrote that the ruling meant future presidents would “be incapable of action for fear of future partisan reprisal,” which “endangers the United States and sets a terrible precedent.”

• Conservative judicial activist Mike Davis argued the judges “ignored the Constitution's separation of powers” and that a future Trump “Justice Department can prosecute Biden for his illegal release of dangerous migrants into the United States and the natural and probable crimes they commit.” In fact, the judges found that it was Trump’s argument that “would collapse our system of separated powers by placing the President beyond the reach of all three Branches.”

• “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist and neo-Nazi collaborator Jack Posobiec echoed Davis, writing, “This presidential immunity ruling means Biden can be indicted right now for treason by aiding an invasion.”

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Right-wing media use mistranslation of Ilhan Omar’s speech to push for her deportation and expulsion from Congress | Media Matters for America

Right-wing media have taken a couple of blatant mistranslations of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) recent speech about the Republic of Somaliland to claim Omar is not loyal to the U.S. and should be removed from Congress and deported.

Omar said that one of the mistranslations was “completely off” and posted by “propagandists,” and the other mistranslation circulating online is satirical and was pushed by a right-wing troll account. Some right-wing figures picked it up in earnest to attack Omar, a frequent target of such smears. Right-wing media have taken a couple of blatant mistranslations of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) recent speech about the Republic of Somaliland to claim Omar is not loyal to the U.S. and should be removed from Congress and deported.

Omar said that one of the mistranslations was “completely off” and posted by “propagandists,” and the other mistranslation circulating online is satirical and was pushed by a right-wing troll account. Some right-wing figures picked it up in earnest to attack Omar, a frequent target of such smears.

• ## Two mistranslated clips have gone viral of a recent speech by Ilhan Omar, who has long been a target of right-wing media attacks

• • Omar recently gave a speech in Somali to constituents at a hotel in Minneapolis to address concerns about the Republic of Somaliland giving coastline access to Ethiopia. Somalia and Ethiopia have long-standing diplomatic tensions, and the self-proclaimed but unrecognized Republic of Somaliland’s agreement to grant land-locked Ethiopia access is controversial. Somalia claims that Somiland is part of its territory and that forming an agreement with Ethiopia is an act of aggression. BBC, [1/19/24; Star Tribune, 1/31/24]

• • According to a translation of her speech posted by a Somaliland official, Omar stated that the United States government “will only do what Somalians in the US tell them to do” and that Somali people “are Somalians first, Muslims second.” Right-wing media have also claimed that Omar stated “Somalia first,” which was not part of the original mistranslation, but may stem from a parody video made by right-wing troll account Still Boneless. Twitter/X, [1/28/24, 1/29/24]

• • Omar has said that the translation of her speech was “not only slanted but completely off.” She also wrote, “Somalis in Somalia and in the diaspora are united in that effort [of protecting Somalia] and I stand in solidarity with them. No amount of harassment and lies will ever change that.” Twitter/X, [1/28/24,]

• • The Spectator spoke to a Somalia analyst and a Somali journalist who verified that the viral clip was mistranslated and stated that the speech was distorted to push a political agenda. One of the translations, provided by Abdirashid Hashi, does not include the inflammatory statements being promoted by the right. A Somali-speaking reporter from Minnesota’s largest newspaper, the Star Tribune, also reviewed the speech and found that it matched Hashi’s translation. According to Faisal Ali, a Somali journalist, Omar did not say that she threatened to “invade Somalia’s neighbors.” The Spectator, [1/30/24; Star Tribune, 1/31/24; Twitter, 1/29/24]

• • Right-wing media have previously attacked Omar as “America-hating” and an “an active threat to the United States.” She was also ousted from the House Foreign Affairs Committee by her GOP colleagues last year after right-wing media called for her to be punished. Media Matters, [12/20/23; 10/13/23; 2/2/23]

• ## Right-wing media figures are claiming Omar is loyal to Somalia and not the U.S.

• • The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh posted that Omar spoke with “pride” for Somalia, which he asserted is a “failed state” that “contributes nothing of significance to the world besides piracy and terrorism.” Walsh questioned why Americans elect representatives who “can’t muster the same affinity for our country that Somalian refugees have for the country they fled from.” Twitter/X, [1/29/24]

• • On X, right-wing influencer End Wokeness claimed that Omar “pledged allegiance to Somalia.”The account also echoed a conspiracy theory that a proposed modification of the Minnesota state flag looks similar to the flag of Somalia. Twitter/X, [1/29/24; Media Matters, 12/20/23]

• • Neo-nazi collaborator Jack Posobiec shared a clip mistranslating Omar as saying “Somalia First, yes! Down with America.” The satirically mistranslated clip also claims that Omar shouted “ Swiftie Jihad!” and said she wants Travis Kelce brought to her in Minneapolis. Twitter/X, [1/29/24]

• • Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk posted that he would say Omar has “dual loyalty, but what’s the loyalty she has besides Somalia?”Twitter/X, [1/29/24]

• • Far-right troll Laura Loomer proclaimed that it is “shameful” that Omar is able to continue her “jihadist subversion of America.”Loomer baselessly said that Omar was a “terrorist” and a “foreign subversive jihadist in Congress.” Loomer has been banned from multiple platforms for making similar claims. Twitter/X, [1/28/24; Media Matters, 12/8/22; CNN, 8/19/20].

• • BlazeTV host Steve Deace called Omar’s district “Little Somalia” while claiming that she said she’s “here on behalf of Somali interests” in her speech. Deace also claimed that “we don’t have a melting pot anymore. … We just import worldviews now.” BlazeTV, [1/29/24]

• • The National Pulse published an article titled “WATCH: Ilhan Omar Gives Treasonous ‘Somalia First’ Speech Confessing to Working for Foreign Nation in U.S. Congress.”The article claimed that Omar “was recorded telling a Somali audience they are ‘people of the same blood, people who know they are Somalians first, Muslims second, who protect each other,’ adding she is ‘here to protect the interests of Somalia from inside the U.S. system.’” The National Pulse, [1/30/24]

• • Kirk asked on his show, “Is Ilhan Omar trained by a foreign government to do the bidding of a distant far-off land?” He also claimed that “I would say she has dual loyalty, but that would require some loyalty to America, so she has one loyalty and it's not here, it's abroad.” *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [1/31/24]

• ## Right-wing figures are using the mistranslated speech and racist rhetoric to push for Omar’s investigation, expulsion from Congress, and deportation

• • Founder of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton posted: “DOJ, IRS, etc should be investigating Ilhan Omar.” He made the comment in response to one of his tweets from 2019, in which he said, “Expel her? There's substantial evidence that Ilhan Omar DID marry her brother and committed marriage, tax, immigration, and other crimes. Judicial Watch steps up and demands action from House Ethics Committee.” Twitter/X, [1/30/24]

• • On Gettr, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon reposted the National Pulse article while commenting, “Deport Her.” Gettr, [1/30/24]

• • Walsh wrote on X, “Every Republican member of congress should be calling for Ilhan Omar to be expelled from congress and deported back to where she came from.”This post was a response to End Wokeness, which wrote, “Ilhan Omar tells a crowd of Somalians that her top priority is to put Somalia first and expand its territory.” Twitter/X, [1/29/24]

• • Daily Wire host Michael Knowles claimed on his show that Omar’s speech is the “best argument for restricting immigration that I have heard in years” and that she “should be expelled from Congress over this and probably she should be deported.” He also claimed that Omar admitted to being “only loyal to Somalia,” adding: “ And at no point does she suggest that she’s loyal to America at all. The only reason she seems to like America is in as much as she can use America to benefit Somalia.” The Daily Wire, *The Michael Knowles Show*, [1/30/24]

• • YouTuber Benny Johnson posted that Omar “should be expelled from Congress and deported back to Somalia, since she loves it so much.” He also claimed that “Ilhan Omar says she will always put ‘Somalia First’. In doing so, she broke her oath of office AND she broke her oath of American citizenship.” Twitter/X, [1/30/24]

• • Right-wing commentator Liz Wheeler posted, “Ilhan Omar says she’s Somali first, Muslim second, never says she’s American, & threatens to make the U.S. bow to Somali interests. EXPEL HER, you cowards.” She also compared Omar to expelled Rep. George Santos, stating that he “was expelled from Congress—by his own party!—because he lied on his resume.” Twitter/X, [1/29/24]

• • Right-wing radio host Mark Levin posted on X, “How much you want to bet not a single House Democrat gives a damn Omar is a treasonous fraud.” He added: “How much you want to bet the media will defend her. How much you want to bet the word racism will be thrown around to kill any scrutiny.” Twitter/X, [1/30/24]

• • End Wokeness posted, “Ilhan Omar didn't just break her oath of office. She broke her oath of American citizenship. She should be expelled and deported.”Twitter/X, [1/30/24]

//

1. ### Right-wing media attack Minnesota's state flag redesign with “great replacement” theory rhetoric

12/20/23 9:26 AM EST

2. ### House GOP ouster of Ilhan Omar from Foreign Affairs committee is a big win for right-wing media

02/02/23 4:26 PM EST

3. ### Right-wing media are pushing bigoted rhetoric toward Muslims — including Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar — after recent Hamas attacks

10/13/23

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mma 1 24

Right-wing media figures are systematically attacking a variety of initiatives intended to increase racial equity and inclusion in America’s education system. Since 2021, they have attacked or rebranded certain related concepts in order to vilify them: critical race theory; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and affirmative action.

Schools in Oklahoma and Florida are even starting to partner with right-wing media’s PragerU and “parental rights” group Moms for Liberty, which spread conservative propaganda in public schools. These ongoing strategic assaults from right-wing figures and outlets are poised to make education a culture war issue for the 2024 election.

• ## Right-wing media have spent recent years making CRT and DEI in schools into culture war issues

• • Media Matters noted in 2021 that the conservative movement’s strategy took “alleged left-wing excesses in discussions of race” in the classroom and sensationalized these stories for political gain. Media Matters’ Matt Gertz wrote, “This movement’s strategy is to identify, exaggerate, or fabricate discrete local instances of alleged left-wing excesses in discussions of race; dishonestly brand them all as ‘critical race theory’; nationalize coverage of those stories as part of the broader culture war; and polarize the debate for political gain, at times using the issue as justification for changing laws or policies.” Media Matters, [8/3/21]

• • The conservative movement uses a feedback loop between think tanks, advocacy groups, right-wing media, and GOP politicians to fuel its anti-CRT strategy. Right-wing media generated enough noise around the issue to gain further national media coverage, using that attention to create incentives for Republican politicians to change education policy. Media Matters, [6/3/21]

• • :{:{Opposition to critical race theory “might not be the defining strand of this new neo-confederate resistance,” but “no anti-civil rights campaign has ever spread this fast, this effectively}:,” Media Matters observed in 2021. Panic over critical race theory “has become a new battle flag, a very effective catalyst of multiple lost causes driven by veteran right-wing operatives and funded by far-right dark money. It might not be the defining strand of this new neo-confederate resistance -- storming the U.S. Capitol in support of white nationalism is tough to top -- but no anti-civil rights campaign has ever spread this fast, this effectively.” Media Matters, [6/17/21]

}:

• • Fox News fearmongered about CRT, then promoted it as a hot-button issue in the 2021 midterm elections.Fox News whipped up a frenzy over CRT through relentless coverage, inflating its importance as a voting issue. Fox reporter Carley Shimkus even admitted that no one was talking about CRT until the network manufactured the issue. Media Matters, [5/26/21]

• • Chris Rufo, a leading figure behind the CRT scare campaign, has admitted that the “goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory.’” The frequent right-wing media guest also acknowledged that he doesn’t care about understanding the theory, an academic legal framework examining the impacts of systemic racism. Media Matters, [6/23/21]

• • No Left Turn in Education, a leading anti-critical race theory group, has compared efforts of educators to those of Pol Pot, Vladimir Lenin, and Adolf Hitler. Founder Elana Yaron Fishbein has claimed that “black bigotry towards whites”' is a “very real problem.” The group has also complained that an educational video about George Floyd's death does not cover violence by Black people and promoted anti-LGBTQ rhetoric telling transgender people to go “back to Trans-sylvania.” Media Matters, [6/22/21]

• • :{Conservatives succeeded in abolishing DEI programs at public universities in Florida, North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas by collaborating with high-level lawmakers. Bills banning DEI-related programs in these states prohibit “using federal or state funding to support DEI offices or staff at public colleges, mandating diversity training, using diversity statements in hiring and promotion, or using identity-based preferences in hiring and admissions.” Documents obtained by The New York Times “cast light on the playbook and the thinking underpinning one nexus of the anti-D.E.I. movement — the activists and intellectuals who helped shape Texas’ new law, along with measures in at least three other states.” U.S. News & World Report, [8/18/23; The New York Times, 1/20/24]
  • }:
• ## Fox News and others in right-wing media have obsessed over CRT since 2021

• • Right-wing media spent 2021 attacking CRT to sow panic among their audience and energize the Republican voting base.Conservatives spun “critical race theory” into a key phrase in the national political landscape, marking a new battle in the unceasing culture wars. Right-wing media and hundreds of right-wing Facebook groups helped, using empty but dangerous and often racist rhetoric to depict CRT as a threat and energize the Republican base. Media Matters, [12/8/21]

• • A Media Matters report found that Fox ran nearly 80 segments on “critical race theory” in a single Virginia school district.The network spent 4 and 1/2 hours of airtime decrying Loudoun County schools for teaching children about critical race theory. School board meetings in Loudoun County, a “bedroom community for GOP activists, analysts, and operatives,” became the targets for mob scenes and racist threats. Media Matters, [7/21/21]

• • Fox News mentioned “critical race theory” over 1,900 times in 3.5 months in 2021, a sharp increase over the preceding months.Media Matters, [6/15/21]

• • Right-wing media and Republican lawmakers overwhelmingly drove talk about critical race theory on Facebook. Media coverage of critical race theory has influenced discussion on right-leaning Facebook news pages as well, with nearly 90% of posts mentioning CRT — and 97% of the interactions the posts earned — coming from right-leaning pages. Media Matters, [5/20/21]

• ## Conservative media fearmongered about CRT as a supposed tool for liberal indoctrination and anti-white racism, often calling to defund colleges and universities where it is taught

• • Fox News host Jesse Watters suggested critical race theory is responsible for deaths of high school students, said “the Trojan horse” in the U.S. education system “is a Black history AP high school class,” and blamed “critical race theory consultants” for school shootings. He asked, “Is it a coincidence that when they start teaching CRT, two kids kill each other in public schools?” In another episode, he suggested CRT distracts from concerns about school safety and “the mental health crisis,” saying, “We’re spending all this money on hiring critical race theory consultants. How about hiring some school therapists instead?” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [11/28/23, 1/24/23, 5/25/22]

• • On his radio show, Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk attempted to mobilize his audience to defund colleges teaching CRT. Kirk urged, “If you are in a red state, you should defund every single one of your colleges and universities if they are teaching DEI, CRT.” Salem, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [9/20/23]

• • Conservative radio host Mark Levin: CRT is “anti-white racism,” and “Hitler himself would agree with that kind of thinking process.” Levin stated, “If you're promoting critical race theory, which is, at bottom, the promotion of anti-white racism — even if you're not white and you actually love America, you're obviously an anti-white racist between your ears, if not by skin color — but it is a horrific racist ideology.” Westwood One, T*he Mark Levin Show*, [1/23/23]

• • Fox News twisted the truth about funding from Biden’s American Rescue Plan to fearmonger about critical race theory. Fox accused over a dozen blue states including California, Illinois, and New York of using COVID-19 relief funds to promote CRT in schools, using shoddy research from a conservative dark money group to back up its claims. Media Matters, [5/2/22]

• • Citing The Daily Caller, Fox & Friends promoted a false claim that parents in Loudoun County, Virginia, are forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement to learn what their children are being taught in school, suggesting it was tied to CRT. In fact, the county partnered with Second Step, a company that provides materials for social-emotional learning to teach children about conflict resolution and understanding other people. The company’s materials are not a secret, as sample lesson plans and supporting materials are posted on both the school district and the vendor’s websites. Media Matters, [10/26/21]

• • :{Right-wing local news conglomerate Sinclair has relentlessly platformed anti-CRT activists and pushed right-wing misrepresentations about critical race theory. Sinclair began circulating conservatives’ distorted views on the topic in the summer of 2021, giving a microphone to right-wing activists Christopher Rufo and Ian Prior in an August town hall debate over CRT. Sinclair’s morning show The National Desk has also repeatedly aired unchecked GOP falsehoods about critical race theory. Media Matters, [8/30/21]

*}:

• • Telling parents to pull their kids out of schools, The Daily Wire's Candace Owens said students today are worse than the “Hitler Youth” because they are being taught to hate their country. Owens: “In fact, somebody said to me, via comment, that it feels like today it's Hitler Youth or Stalin Youth. And, actually, I said back to them no, you're wrong, because Hitler and Stalin Youth were taught to love their country. … What are the children actually learning in school today? Well, first and foremost, they are learning that America is a fundamentally backwards and racist country. They are learning that it is a good attribute, it is a virtue to hate your country.” The Daily Wire, *Candace*, [8/24/21]

*

• • Right-wing commentator Michael Savage called critical race theory “the road to the death camps.” Savage argued that “attacks on white people is exactly what was done to the Jews in Germany in the ‘30s. Don't fall for this garbage. This is the road to the death camps. Stand up to these bastards and sue them.” Newsmax, *Cortes and Pellegrino*, [6/21/21]

• • In 2021, Fox News promoted an attack on CRT that echoed the white supremacist “great replacement” conspiracy theory. The network hosted former Trump official Russ Vought and posted his pamphlet on its website accusing the left of trying to “replace you” and proposing to forbid teachers from acknowledging systemic racism. Media Matters, [6/10/21]

• • Appearing on Fox, Heritage Foundation visiting scholar Allen Guelzo claimed the Confederacy was “built on a similar kind of critical race theory and equity.” Guelzo: “The American Confederacy, for instance, the Southern Confederacy, was built on a similar kind of critical race theory and equity — but then it was about giving equity to white Southern slaveholders, who rejected the Declaration and the Constitution, and who sneered at reason and law.” Fox News, *The Story with Martha MacCallum*, [5/14/21]

• • On Fox, network contributor and New York Post columnist Miranda Devine proclaimed critical race theory a “Marxist concept” that will “warp the minds of American children.” She also argued that teaching kids not to be racist “is a recipe for social upheaval and mental illness, frankly.” Fox News, *America Reports*, [4/22/21]

• • Then-Fox host Tucker Carlson complained that “race hate” was being taught in schools and claimed that “teachers are given ‘white allies’ agenda items.” Fox News, *Tucker Carlson Tonight*, [2/19/21]

• ## Right-wing media’s anti-CRT campaign directly targeted schools, teachers, and other staff for harassment, and encouraged viewers to do the same

• • Right-wing media figures harangued Black Republican elected officials who criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new history curriculum on slavery. The new Black history standards, approved by the Florida State Board of Education on July 19, 2023, include instruction claiming that during the centuries of slavery in America, enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” After several Black GOP lawmakers including Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), and Rep. John James (R-MI) criticized DeSantis for the new standards, right-wing media attacked them, with TheBlaze’s Steve Deace accusing Donalds of “trying to race bait Ron DeSantis.” Media Matters, [7/31/23]

• • Fox's Rachel Campos-Duffy stated that Howard University students are “some pretty dumb college kids” if they believe the country “is full of white supremacists.” Co-host Pete Hegseth suggested that “most college kids across America” have never seen “real racism.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends Weekend*, [5/14/23]

• • Fox News reporter Hannah Grossman published nearly 100 articles between May 2022 and May 2023 targeting specific educators over their discussion of systemic racism, gender, and sexuality in the classroom. Multiple teachers, administrators, board members, or other staff named in her reporting have been doxxed, harassed, fired, sued, or forced to resign. Media Matters, [5/9/23]

• • Right-wing media twisted comments made by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten to falsely paint her and the teachers union as hysterical and anti-parent. In an interview regarding the conservative movement’s efforts to limit discussions of race in schools, Weingarten suggested that propaganda and misinformation are often a prelude to hatred and war. Right-wing media twisted her words to make it seem as though she said parental rights bills are “the way in which wars start.” Media Matters, [4/26/22]

• • Rufo urged viewers to continue protesting local school boards: “Do not stop, double down.” While arguing that “it's not really critical race theory or not critical race theory, masks or no masks,” Rufo asked, “Who is the ultimate authority of our public institutions? Is it the actual public, the parents and the voters, or is it the unelected bureaucrats and the unelected teachers unions that want to jam down this curriculum in all 14,000 local school districts.” Fox News, *America Reports*, [10/6/21]

• ## Conservatives smeared DEI programs in higher education and other institutions and called for their abolition

• • Right-wing media celebrated the ouster of Harvard President Claudine Gay as a victory in their prolonged assault on DEI initiatives. Gay’s resignation was the result of a right-wing pressure campaign over accusations of antisemitisim and plagiarism, amid a clearly stated strategy to target higher education and root out supposedly “woke” ideology, including a prolonged assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Media Matters, [1/5/24]

• • Conservative media figures cited pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses during the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict to call for defunding education and diversity initiatives and deporting students studying here on visas. They also claimed the protests were evidence of “indoctrination and identity politics” on college campuses. Media Matters, [12/15/23]

• • On YouTube, Chris Rufo asserted that “the next conservative administration must work to radically reshape the federal bureaucracy, defund left-wing ideological programs, abolish DEI departments and build a patronage system capable of cultivating a new establishment.” YouTube, [8/14/23]

• • The New York Times elevated Rufo by publishing his op-ed attacking DEI, amplifying the right-wing offensive against education. Other articles published by The New York Times downplayed the right’s attack on DEI in education, most notably Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ efforts to ban teaching the actual history of racism in schools. Media Matters, [7/27/23]

• • The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh called diversity “an anti-white conspiracy.”Walsh: “All diversity initiatives are anti-white initiatives. Anytime you hear about any kind of diversity initiative anywhere, whether it's in government, in corporations, in any institution at all, it is an anti-white initiative. Diversity is an anti-white conspiracy.” The Daily Wire, *The Matt Walsh Show*, [5/23/23]

• • Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer accused a day care chain of teaching “woke issues” and “indoctrinating little children.” Hemmer mischaracterized KinderCare's “diversity, equity, and inclusion” plan, which includes reading multicultural books, as teaching kids as young as six weeks that “they're an oppressor.” Fox News, *America's Newsroom*, [11/5/21]

• ## Right-wing media attacked affirmative action, celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to bar it in higher education, and smeared Black people in positions of power as diversity hires

• • Right-wing and fringe media celebrated the Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision ending affirmative action, calling the policy “unconstitutional,” “racist,” and “discriminatory.” The court ruled that the race-conscious admission policies of Harvard College and the University of North Carolina violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, effectively dismantling affirmative action in higher education. Media Matters, [6/29/23]

• • Conservative “parents' rights” activists led the charge for gutting the 14th Amendment and laid the groundwork for the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action. By demonizing long-standing efforts to redress systemic racism in education and beyond, the coalition of anti-civil rights activists and right-wing media helped to lay the groundwork for the Supreme Court to strike down affirmative action in higher education in the name of so-called colorblindness. Media Matters, [6/28/23]

• • Following the Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action, right-wing media responded by pushing for privatization and school choice. The policies referred to by the right as “school choice” promote defunding government education and instead investing in private school vouchers as part of the crusade against “woke” curricula. So-called school choice not only fails to improve educational outcomes — as writer Wajahat Ali explains, it is “all about entrenching right-wing power, control, and Christian nationalism.” Media Matters, [7/5/23]

• • Right-wing opponents of affirmative action falsely claimed it created racial “quotas” in college admissions. Media Matters, [7/6/23]

• • Conservatives responded with racist smears and vitriol following Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissent in the affirmative action decision. Attacks labeling Jackson as “racist” and belittling her as a “diversity hire” joined a long-running right-wing smear campaign against the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Media Matters, [6/30/23]

• • Then-Fox host Tucker Carlson said that affirmative action is “what the Nazis did.” Fellow right-wing personality Charlie Kirk also claimed that affirmative action policy is “evil” and “immoral,” adding that it does not address the “real problem” of “Black crime” and Black fathers abandoning their children. Fox News, *Tucker Carlson Tonight*, [11/1/22; Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 7/6/23]

• • Newsmax host Marc Lotter said ending affirmative action “fulfills Dr. King's dream.” Lotter: “You know, one of the things that many people, especially on the right, have taken away is that this, basically, fulfills Dr. King's dream of saying that you would be judged by the content of your character, not by the color of your skin.” Newsmax, *The Right Squad*, [6/29/23]

• • Fox News host Jesse Watters lectured Black Americans on affirmative action: “A white person who’s more qualified was discriminated against.” Watters: “Many Black Americans acknowledge that they never would have achieved a certain level of success if it hadn't been for affirmative action. They own the fact that they were admitted because they were Black and maybe they didn't have the perfect application and I'm sympathetic to that. I get it. But a white person who's more qualified was discriminated against and didn't get in. And when you discriminate on race, some people win and some people lose.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [6/29/23]

• • :{:{While celebrating the end of affirmative action, right-wing personality Benny Johnson called the policy “Nazi-level thinking.}:” Johnson argued that “these leftists, these libs, they really do have, like, Nazi-level thinking here. The racial quotas, … it's like eugenics-thinking. It's so backwards.” YouTube, *The Benny Show*, [6/29/23]

}:

• • Fox News contributor Leo Terrell claimed that the affirmative action decision will result in “minimizing wokeness throughout this country.” Fox News, *The Faulkner Focus*, [6/29/23]

• ## Right-wing media spread conservative propaganda through PragerU partnerships and Moms for Liberty activism, and encouraged the latter group’s efforts at taking over school boards

• • PragerU created partnerships with Republican-controlled states such as Oklahoma and Florida to put its PragerU Kids videos in schools. PragerU billed these videos — which are widely criticized for including right-wing propaganda, such as distorted histories about slavery — as a counter to “the woke and anti-American leftist narrative taught in most schools.” Oklahoma’s Department of Education, led by top education official Ryan Walters, joined Florida in treating PragerU Kids’ propagandistic work as legitimate educational content. Media Matters, [9/7/23, 10/6/23]

• • Moms for Liberty introduced right-wing propaganda into public school libraries. Moms for Liberty, a self-described “parental rights” organization advocating for the banning of books across the country and strategically harassing school officials, partnered with three conservative publishing companies and figures, including Ben Carson’s American Cornerstone Institute, to introduce right-wing propaganda into public school libraries. Media Matters, [4/22/22]

• • Moms for Liberty has also previously banned books about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and recommended a history book written by a far-right conspiracy theorist. Beyond opposing education about the history of racism in America, the organization also recommends reading an American history book by a far-right conspiracy theorist that is sympathetic to slave owners, calling them “the worst victims” and writing that “in some ways, the economic system of slavery chained the slave owners almost as much as the slaves.” The group’s co-founder Tiffany Justice also actively opposed desegregation efforts while formerly serving on her school board. Media Matters, [11/15/21]

• • As a guest on conspiracy theorist DeAnna Lorraine’s show, Walters promised to “put folks that share our conservative values” into the state’s education agency. Walters appeared on Shots Fired with DeAnna Lorraine and promised to continue “running the left wing out” and to “put folks that share our conservative values” in the state's education agency. Media Matters, [1/2/24]

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1 24 mma

In the years since the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which was spurred by then-President Donald Trump’s attempt to retain power, right-wing media figures have repeatedly whitewashed the violent attack, pushed misinformation and conspiracy theories about it, and defended its participants.

As a result, the initial consensus of the horrors of the day has disappeared, with Republicans reportedly “now less likely to believe that Jan. 6 participants were ‘mostly violent,’ less likely to believe Trump bears responsibility for the attack, and … slightly less likely to view Joe Biden’s election as legitimate.”

The following right-wing media personalities have been critical in the push to downplay January 6, and they have continued their apologia for the violent crowd that sought to overturn an election.

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Darren Beattie

Beattie was a speechwriter and policy aide for then-President Trump who was fired in 2018 for attending a white nationalist conference two years before. In 2020, he founded right-wing site Revolver News, with Trump himself praising the outlet’s commentary. Beattie has repeatedly pushed the baseless conspiracy theory that the FBI, in connection with an undercover agent named Ray Epps, helped to incite the January 6 riot.

2021: Beattie spread a conspiracy theory that Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick’s death was not a result of injuries sustained in the attack, calling his claims “the most important story Revolver has ever run.” Fox’s Tucker Carlson also highlighted the story, calling it an “exhaustive and fascinating new analysis.” [Media Matters, 2/12/21]

2022: Beattie and his news outlet, Revolver News, were crucial in pushing the false claim that Capitol rioter Ray Epps was an undercover FBI agent who duped the crowd into entering the Capitol building. Epps has sued Fox News, and his suit describes Beattie as “the principal person driving the false story that Epps was a federal agent planted as a provocateur to trigger the Capitol violence on January 6th.” [Media Matters, 1/19/22; The New York Times, 7/12/23]

2023-present: Beattie has continued to falsely allege that Epps was a federal agent, claiming he was treated leniently for that reason. In posts on X from September, Beattie claimed that “charging Ray Epps now for ‘disorderly conduct’ is not going to make the Feds' credibility problem go away.” Beattie additionally called the government’s case against Epps “a phony charge” that “will only make things worse for the Fed narrative.” He also suggested that the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was a false flag and said that the Justice Department and FBI should “at least do us the courtesy of a high effort cover up like you did with OKC” for January 6. [Media Matters, 9/21/23; Twitter/X, 9/19/23, 9/19/23, 9/19/23, 9/19/23]

DB Tweet Collage

Julie Kelly

Kelly is a prolific conspiracy theorist who has written for a number of conservative outlets, mainly American Greatness, National Review, and The Federalist. Then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) gave Kelly and former Trump adviser John Solomon special access to security camera footage from the Capitol attack, as she claimed that conservatives were being unjustly persecuted.

2021: Kelly called January 6 Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone a “crisis actor.” [Media Matters, 7/27/21]

2022: On One America News, Kelly pushed a conspiracy theory that the FBI fabricated pipe bombs that were discovered at the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C. the night before the January 6 riot. Kelly also published a book where she claimed that the Biden administration is weaponizing January 6 to persecute conservatives and criminalize political protest. [One America News, Tipping Point with Kara McKinney, 2/16/22; Google Books, accessed 1/5/23, Post Hill Press, accessed 1/5/24]

2023-present: Kelly repeatedly spread the Epps conspiracy theory, and when Epps was charged, she questioned why he wasn’t charged with more crimes, posting, “No obstruction felony? No civil disorder charge? Not even a trespassing on restricted grounds misdemeanor?” Kelly also claimed that the Biden’s Justice Department has “successfully criminalized political speech and activity.” In May, then-Speaker McCarthy reportedly gave Kelly special access to security camera footage from the Capitol attack. [Media Matters, 9/21/23, 5/31/23; The Washington Post, 6/6/23; Premiere Networks, The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, 3/23/23]

Julie Kelly claims that January 6 prosecutions are a silencing free speech and destroying lives

MARCH 23, 2023

Julie Kelly claims that January 6 prosecutions are a silencing free speech and destroying lives

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CitationFrom the March 23, 2023, edition of Premiere Networks' The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Tucker Carlson

As a Fox prime-time host, Carlson relentlessly downplayed the January 6 insurrection and promoted the conspiracy theory that Ray Epps, whom he posited was a federal agent or FBI informant, incited the riot. Carlson also repeatedly hosted Beattie and Kelly to push misinformation about the attack.

2021: Carlson put out a revisionist January 6-focused series that suggested the attack was a “false flag.” In an interview with Kelly, Carlson said the left used officer Brian Sicknick’s death “as a political weapon” and that his state funeral was “fake.” “Completely fabricated,” agreed Kelly. Carlson also hosted Beattie and cited an article in which he suggested the January 6 attack may have been orchestrated by FBI operatives. [Media Matters, 11/2/21, 11/4/21, 6/16/21, 6/17/21; Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 11/1/21]

2022: Carlson defended the rioters as “passionately patriotic Americans” “who genuinely love America” and on the one-year anniversary of January 6 he downplayed the violence as “just barely” a riot. As a guest on Carlson’s show, Beattie also called January 6 “a clear hoax” planned and carried out by “the feds.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 6/8/22, 1/6/22, 6/9/22]

Early 2023: Carlson continued to downplay the severity of the January 6 riot, calling the rioters “nonviolent … protesters” and “patriotic Americans.” He also said January 6 was “probably second only to the 2020 election as the biggest scam in my lifetime.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 3/21/23, 3/14/23]

April 2023-present: After Carlson was fired in April from Fox, he appeared on a Spaces live chat on X (formerly Twitter) and continued to downplay the insurrection. [Twitter/X, 12/12/23]

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CitationFrom a December 12, 2023, X Space

Steve Bannon

Since he left the Trump administration in 2017, Steve Bannon has hosted War Room — a podcast for Real America’s Voice — where he has frequently defended those involved in the insurrection. Bannon has also hosted both Beattie and Kelly to also push conspiracy theories about January 6.

2021: Leading up to the January 6 insurrection, Bannon bragged on his podcast about his role in working to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election. [Media Matters, 10/29/21]

2022: Bannon defended the Proud Boys ahead of one of Congress’ January 6 hearings, referring to the organization, whose leaders have since been convicted for their role in the January 6 attack, as a “rag tag beer drinking group.” Bannon also repeatedly made false claims that U.S. Senate sergeant-at-arms Michael Stenger’s death was an intentional homicide, comparing it to older right-wing conspiracy theories around the suicide of Clinton administration official Vince Foster. [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 6/9/22; CNN, 9/1/23; Media Matters, 6/29/22]

2023-present: Bannon is still hosting his podcast, War Room, where he has continued to downplay the insurrection, including dismissing Trump's role by stating that Trump was “doing his duty” to “make sure that the 2020 election had been fairly decided” and continuing to insist that the 2020 election was stolen. [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 8/2/23]

:{:{Video}:

CitationFrom the August 2, 2023, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk, who co-founded the right-wing organization Turning Point USA, has repeatedly downplayed the insurrection and accused Ray Epps of being a federal agent.

2021: In the immediate aftermath of January 6, Kirk downplayed the attack, saying that “just because you do something that is regrettable does not mean that you are planning an armed insurrection against the United States government." [Newsweek, 1/12/21]

2022: Kirk pushed the Epps conspiracy theory, posting to X that Epps “texted his nephew ‘I orchestrated it’” and claiming that he is the “only man caught on camera actively calling for people to enter the Capitol and riot.” In another post, Kirk said, “If the FBI knows who Ray Epps is, why haven't they arrested him yet?” [Twitter/X, 1/11/22, 12/30/22]

2023-present: Kirk continues to run Turning Point USA and has repeatedly promoted far-right talking points, including false claims about January 6. On his eponymous show, Kirk has primed his audience to prepare for “another January 6” over Trump’s various indictments and called on a future administration to “get some pardons done” for the January 6 insurrectionists. [Media Matters, 9/22/23, 11/21/23; Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 1/3/24, 12/7/23, 7/28/23, 1/6/23; Twitter/X, 9/19/23]

CHarlie Kirk Epps tweet 1

The Gateway Pundit

The Gateway Pundit, a right-wing website that frequently pushes conspiracy theories and hoaxes, and Editor-in-Chief Jim Hoft have repeatedly claimed that the January 6 insurrection was a false flag operation organized by federal law enforcement.

2021: The Gateway Pundit was reportedly a favorite source for Donald Trump in the lead-up to January 6. According to The Washington Post, “In the weeks before he left office in 2021, Trump brandished printouts of Gateway Pundit articles questioning the results of the election.” In May 2021, a few months after the insurrection, Hoft published an article claiming that someone inside the Capitol unlocked the doors for the rioters, citing an anonymous member of the Oath Keepers — a group with several members who have since been convicted for their roles on January 6. [The Washington Post, 1/3/24; The Gateway Pundit, 5/24/21; Politico, 1/23/23]

2022: Hoft doubled down on the claim that “someone inside the security booth at the US Capitol opened the doors” in a Gateway Pundit article titled “WE WERE RIGHT. ” In another article, Hoft claimed that instead of investigating the Oath Keepers’ involvement in January 6, “the FBI would have better luck if they looked at their trained operatives instead who were leading the charge on the Capitol building.” [Twitter/X, 6/13/22; The Gateway Pundit, 1/29/22, 8/24/22]

2023-present: Hoft and The Gateway Pundit remain a source of conspiracy theories about January 6. Hoft has penned several stories alleging that Ray Epps’ criminal charges and sentencing are proof that he was a federal agent and said President Joe Biden “will use the J6 anniversary to accuse Trump supporters of being white supremacists.” [The Gateway Pundit, 1/2/24, 9/19/23, 1/3/24]

Laura Ingraham

Fox News host Laura Ingraham has used her prime-time platform to repeatedly claim that January 6 was a “false flag operation” orchestrated by “antifa” or federal agents.

2021: Ingraham suggested “antifa sympathizers” were behind the January 6 attack, citing a Washington Times article that was later debunked. [The New York Times, 3/1/21]

2022: Ingraham cited Darren Beattie’s Revolver News on her show on Fox to argue that “Epps may have led the breach team that first entered the Capitol on January 6.” [Media Matters, 1/19/22]

2023-present: Ingraham has used her prime-time slot on Fox News to continuously defend Trump and attack those who are involved in the legal cases against him over his alleged role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. She has also whitewashed the Capitol insurrectionists as “old ladies walking through the halls of Congress taking selfies.” [Media Matters, 11/01/23; Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 10/10/23, 8/7/23, 3/29/23]

:{:{Video}:

CitationFrom the March 29, 2023, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle

Infowars

Prolific conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars co-host Owen Shroyer were part of the crowd on January 6. Shroyer has since celebrated the insurrection while Jones has claimed that any violence that occurred was caused by antifa or federal agents.

2021: Jones responded to the FBI’s investigation into his involvement in the insurrection by claiming that “we know who did it: antifa with some paramilitary groups all together, which are going to turn out to be feds with idiots they provocateured to be part of it, the Q people,” calling it “the modern Reichstag 2.0.” Shroyer stated that “we should have been proud of what happened on January 6.” [Infowars, The Alex Jones Show, 1/14/21, 5/17/21]

2022: Jones claimed that when investigated by the January 6 committee, he pleaded the Fifth Amendment “almost 100 times.” [Texas Tribune, 4/28/22]

2023-present: Jones celebrated Tucker Carlson’s revisionist history of the insurrection, claiming the footage Carlson aired showed that “January 6 was an inside job.” In the days before Shroyer was sentenced to two months in prison for leading a portion of the crowd on January 6, Jones claimed that the government was “asking for prison time for a man that did nothing and was there with me trying to stop people going to the Capitol because he still says he thinks the election was stolen.” [Media Matters, 2/28/23; Infowars, The Alex Jones Show, 9/6/23; PBS, PBS NewsHour, 9/12/23]

:{:{Video}:

CitationFrom the February 20, 2023, edition of Infowars' The Alex Jones Show

Newsmax’s Greg Kelly

In the wake of January 6, Newsmax prime-time host Greg Kelly has repeatedly whitewashed the violence at the Capitol on his show, claiming that Trump supporters were allowed into the building or set up by federal law enforcement and unfairly prosecuted.

2021: Kelly claimed that the insurrection was “a trap to make Trump supporters, the MAGA movement, look bad,” and alleged that police were “not doing anything” and had ushered insurrectionists into the Capitol. Kelly later claimed the insurrection was a “false flag operation” staged by federal law enforcement. [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 9/16/21, 11/3/21]

2022: Kelly continued to claim that Capitol Police and other federal agents “stood by” and that insurrectionists were “let in” to the Capitol. He also claimed that the rioters who called for Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged were “speaking metaphorically” and downplayed the makeshift gallow that were erected nearby. [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 6/16/22]

2023-present: Kelly doubled down with the claim that January 6 insurrectionists were invited into the Capitol by police, claiming that it is “actually not true” that rioters violently breached the Capitol. He has also repeatedly defended Trump’s increasingly hostile campaign rhetoric, dismissing comparisons of the former president to Adolf Hitler and saying he is “a madman, and that is a good thing.” [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 11/17/23, 11/13/23, 10/19/23]

:{:{Video}:

CitationFrom the November 17, 2023, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports

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...For The Daily Beast, I wrote about why Fox News will spend 2024 returning to its past role as a 24-7 propaganda network for former President Donald Trump:

Credulous reporters spent the years after Donald Trump left the White House declaring that Fox News’ love affair with the former president had gone cold. Reading too deeply into reports of Rupert Murdoch’s personal dislike of Trump and his right-wing propaganda network’s often flattering coverage of his would-be successors, they confidently asserted that Fox was moving on.

But claims of an imminent Fox-Trump breakup have aged as poorly as the similarly confident predictions that Trump himself was on the verge of a pivot. Forget the network’s brief flirtations with Ron DeSantis, Glenn Youngkin, Vivek Ramaswamy, and now Nikki Haley. Fox never fully abandoned Trump, and its biggest stars spent 2023 furiously defending him from legal jeopardy. Its political and business models demand that as the GOP field clears and leaves him as the party’s nominee, Fox will inevitably backslide into being Trump TV.

Read the whole thing here.

And in case you missed it, Media Matters named legacy media our Misinformer of the Year for 2023, citing the failure of major news outlets to sound the alarm over the former president’s dangerous rhetoric and policy aims:

The twice-impeached, four-times-indicted former president is now seeking a return to office, with a stated goal of using the federal government to exact “retribution.” He has openly toyed with the “termination” of the Constitution’s limits on presidential power, promised to unleash the FBI and Justice Department on his enemies, and said he would act as a “dictator,” albeit only on “day one” of his term.

But for much of this year, the legacy news outlets that helped usher Trump to power were complacent. Nakedly authoritarian comments from the would-be president drew relatively muted coverage, while his potentially disastrous policy proposals were often ignored. If the press’s over-coverage aided Trump’s previous ascendance, this time around he has benefited from its relative neglect.

[...]

It's possible that as the presidential primaries come to a close, reporting focusing on “not the odds, but the stakes” will become more of the norm rather than the exception.

But the job of the political press will become only more difficult over the next year. Republicans and right-wing media will pressure journalists to repeat the mistakes they made during Trump’s first general election campaign. They have spent years assembling a series of debunked conspiracy theories and bad-faith innuendoes related to the business interests of Biden’s son, Hunter, and next year they plan to leverage those phony grievances to impeach the president. Republicans recognize that they lack actual incriminating evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden — but they know that if they can stir up a scandal, they can give legacy news outlets something to talk about besides Trump’s alleged criminality.

1. // ### Misinformer of the Year: Legacy media

12/20/23

2. ### Fox News is the Republican Party. Here are over 400 examples proving it.

05/16/22

3. ### Fox’s new prime-time lineup cements its support for Trump

07/12/23

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In 2023, right-wing media kept bizarrely claiming that a fix was in to make Michelle Obama the Democratic presidential candidate | Media Matters for America

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mma 12 23

:{:{In 2023, as climate-driven disasters plagued countries around the world and the COP28 climate change conference saw the adoption of a historic (though reportedly “loophole”-ridden) agreement referencing a transition away from fossil fuels for the first time, right-wing media remained committed to hindering progress}:

. Three concerning trends emerged in their strategies, which included facilitating comebacks for long-discredited climate deniers, cheering on violence against climate activists, and attributing deadly climate-driven events to conspiracies or religious calamity.}:

Right-wing media facilitated comebacks for long-discredited climate deniers.

Discredited climate deniers like Judith Curry, Patrick Moore, Anthony Watts, and Gregory Wrightstone, who have been vocal for decades, received renewed attention in 2023 from right-wing media figures, who seemed to be turning to views that stray further and further from established science.

Judith Curry, former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, consulted for oil and gas companies during her time in academia. She resigned from Georgia Tech in 2017 citing climate “craziness” and has been called out by other climate scientists for taking public positions reliant on debunked climate change denialarguments.

Patrick Moore is a former nuclear energy consultant and climate change denier who falsely claims he is a co-founder of Greenpeace. Anthony Watts runs a junk science climate denier blog and is a senior fellow at the fossil fuel-funded Heartland Institute. Gregory Wrightstone is a geologist who worked for the natural gas industry for 20 years, started a consulting firm for energy companies, and is now the executive director of a climate change denial non-profit.

• Climate deniers found a reliable home on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight.Media Matters found that Curry and Moore appeared as guests on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight combined at least 7 times in 2023 alone.

• In 2023, these climate deniers appeared on cable news for the first time in years. Wrightstone appeared on One America News, seemingly making his first cable news appearance since 2019. Moore and Curry both appeared on Fox News for the first time since 2019, and Watts appeared on Fox News for the first time, according to Media Matters’ records. Moore and Curry were guests on Jesse Watters Primetime and Watts was a guest on The Ingraham Angle. As predicted, Jesse Watters continued Tucker Carlson’s legacy of climate denial on Fox News. Media Matters, [7/17/23]

• On X (formerly Twitter), bad actors found support and saw their audiences grow as climate scientists fled the platform. In the past year, Curry’s account grew by approximately 31,600 followers while Moore’s account grew by more than 32,500. Media Matters previously reported that climate deniers and contrarians have benefited from Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform. “Yes the number of my followers is increasing much more rapidly than over the past year or so,” Curry said in a November 2022 tweet. Moore also expressed contentment with his account growth in April 2022. Social Blade, accessed 12/15/23; Twitter/X, [11/11/22, 4/6/22; Media Matters, 12/8/22; The Guardian, 8/15/23]

Right-wing media attempted to justify violence against climate activists engaging in non-violent direct action.

In 2023, activist groups doubled down on demands for a global transition away from fossil fuels. Their tactics included throwing paint or food on famous works of art and property, infiltrating cultural events, and obstructing busy roads, provoking outrage from right-wing media.

• Right-wing media escalated a yearslong campaign to frame protesters as violent, aggressive, and mentally ill to justify state efforts to criminalize civil disobedience.Right-wing influencers described climate activists as “enemies of humanity” and compared nonviolent direct actions, such as blocking roads, to “firing a gun into the air at random targets” and committing violent crimes. This framing has also been reflected in charges filed in Georgia, where authorities repurposed a state anti-terrorism law to target environmental activists as part of a crackdown on what they claim to be violent extremism. Media Matters, [2/1/23, 11/10/23; Drilled, 12/6/23; Grist; 1/27/23]

• Right-wing pundits have called for disproportionately severe punishments for those who have engaged in controversial and disruptive — but peaceful — acts of protest.The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh and former Daily Caller writer Greg Price have suggested that activists who have thrown food and paint at famous works of art should be dismembered, “beaten with a bullwhip,” or forced into “labor camps where they spend all day drilling for oil.” Media Matters [8/7/23; Media Matters, 2/1/23]

• When motorists responded to protests with violence, right-wing media repeatedly excused and even condoned the behavior.In November, Matt Walsh and other right-wing influencers blamed two government protesters in Panama for their own deaths after a U.S. citizen allegedly killed them for blocking the road. In Europe and in the U.S., violent motorists were praised and celebrated for beating up protesters who obstruct traffic. Media Matters, [11/10/23, 8/7/23; Media Matters, 2/1/23]

Conspiracy theorists and right-wing Christian media figures spread misinformation about extreme weather events, often suggesting they were planned or indicative of a religious event.

Conspiracy theorists spread misinformation about the causes of extreme weather events, often suggesting they are orchestrated occurrences. In parallel, conservative Christian media figures reject the scientific consensus on human-driven climate change, attributing such events to divine will and interpreting them as “demonic attacks,” manifestations of biblical prophecy, or signs of the End Times.

• Conspiracy theorists and right-wing media fabricated evidence that the fires that devastated the historic town of Lahaina, Hawaii, in August were planned. Claims that the fires were started by a direct energy weapon as a ploy to raise property prices or accelerate the construction of a “smart city” circulated online, and accounts used doctored images to back up these claims. YouTube and Meta allowed these posts to be monetized. Media Matters, [8/23/23]

• TikTok was a hotbed for misinformation about climate-driven events. TikTok videos falsely claiming that catastrophic wildfires plaguing Canada over the summer were started deliberately via helicopter, drone, or “Directed Energy Weapons” proliferated across social media, garnering millions of views. The fires received little coverage in U.S. media until smoke reached the East Coast, blanketing major cities in smoke and resulting in unhealthy air quality. Media Matters, [6/14/23]

• Right-wing Christian media figures and TikTok influencers dismissed climate change and instead cited biblical prophecy, the End Times, or “demonic attack” as explanations for extreme weather events. As concern about climate change declined among young evangelicals, Christian programs and news outlets such as FlashPoint and Charisma News attributed this summer’s heatwaves and wildfires to “God’s anger” and a “decline of morality.” TikTok accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers claimed the events were signs of the return of Jesus Christ. Even more mainstream right-wing media figures like Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Pete Hegseth suggested that only God controls the weather. Media Matters, [12/11/23]

• Climate change drove extreme wildfires in 2023.An August study found that human-induced climate change made Quebec’s 2023 fire season at least twice as likely and roughly 20% more intense. In the U.S. this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tracked 25 weather or climate disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion each. World Weather Attribution, [8/22/23; NOAA, 12/8/23]

2024 will be another crucial year for climate action, with the U.S.’s climate leadership and goals hinging on the election. While a recent CNN poll found that two-thirds of U.S. adults are concerned about the impacts of climate change in their communities, we can expect to see right-wing media assist GOP efforts to delegitimize and derail Biden’s landmark climate policy, the Inflation Reduction Act. In tandem, bad actors will also likely continue to shift the focus from these devastating impacts in order to vilify those speaking out about them, creating the potential for even more violence.

1. ### Matt Walsh blames two protesters shot in Panama for their own deaths

11/10/23 4:28 PM EST

2. ### TikTok is driving conspiracy theories about Canada's wildfires

06/14/23 12:45 PM EDT

3. ### Right wing media cheers on violence against climate activists

:{:{08/07/23}:

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Fox News’ Jesse Watters reacts to the Colorado Supreme Court ruling: "The left wants violence" | Media Matters for America

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Conservative media falsely attack the Colorado Supreme Court ruling as “undemocratic" and “the ultimate election interference” | Media Matters for America

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Right-wing media equate Palestinian flag with Nazism and support for Hamas | Media Matters for America

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Right-wing media outlets resurface long-debunked myth that all migrants get $5,000 debit cards from the government | Media Matters for America

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mma 12 23

Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News star, is launching his own eponymous streaming service. The network “went live on Monday” and “will be home to multiple shows, including interviews, short-form videos and monologues,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

Carlson is the newest member of what I call the “Fox News diaspora” of network stars-turned-competitors. His streaming service is another entrant in an increasingly crowded field of right-wing outlets helmed by former Fox figures, all seeking the approval, money, and time of the same audience traditionally dominated by the right-wing outlet.

Fox has long minted right-wing luminaries, its large audience and credibility on the right converting network hosts and contributors into celebrities and even Republican Party power players. But when those figures leave the network (usually on bad terms), many end up either signing up with Fox’s existing right-wing competitors or launching their own. At this point, there is more talent in the Fox diaspora than at the network proper — and at a cheaper price to boot. The result is an increasingly fractured right-wing ecosystem that leaves Fox’s hegemony in doubt.

Glenn Beck, perhaps the network’s biggest star during Barack Obama’s first term before he was drummed out in 2011, launched TheBlaze. That outlet has waxed and waned in size and influence, but it still provides him and a cohort of ideologically aligned figures a venue through the streaming service BlazeTV.

Ben Shapiro was once a Fox fixture and hosted an ill-fated limited series about elections for the network. His podcast now appears via the outlet he founded, The Daily Wire. His Daily Wire colleagues Matt Walsh, Candace Owens, Michael Knowles, and Andrew Klavan also boosted their personal brands through frequent Fox appearances.

Greta van Susteren left Fox after a contract dispute, while Eric Bolling was fired after reportedly sending unsolicited photos of genitalia to co-workers. Both now host shows at longtime Fox competitor Newsmax, alongside former Foxers Mike Huckabee and Sebastian Gorka.

Then there are the independents. Megyn Kelly left Fox for a disastrous turn at NBC, Bill O’Reilly was fired following the public revelation of numerous sexual harassment settlements, and Lou Dobbs was apparently dropped for being too Dobbs-y. Each now reaches fans through a personal podcast show.

So does Dan Bongino, a Fox weekend host who left the network earlier this year, and Steven Crowder, a former Fox contributor who has achieved notoriety on YouTube and Rumble. Lara Logan, who was banned from Fox for comparing Anthony Fauci to the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and from Newsmax after going on a QAnon rant, is now in a similar position, publishing a docuseries pushing January 6 conspiracy theories on X.

Right-wingers who wanted a rage fix once had nowhere to turn but Fox. But now they can subscribe to cable and watch Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity, and Greg Gutfeld on the network, or they can cut the cord, sign up for some services, and watch familiar faces like Beck ($10 per month for BlazeTV+), Carlson ($9/month for Tucker Carlson Network), O’Reilly ($6.95/month for The No Spin Zone), and Kelly (free on YouTube) instead. And some members of the diaspora even share a loose alliance — Carlson used to regularly host Beck on his Fox show, and he is promoting his new venture on Kelly’s program.

Fox still has the advantage of audience inertia — many fans have been watching for years and are simply used to keeping their television tuned to the network all day or turning it on for the prime-time shows.

But the business model of the Fox diaspora benefits from lower overhead, since its outlets don’t require the pretense of an expensive newsgathering apparatus. Instead, the former Fox stars can just rant angrily about whatever is reported elsewhere. And one of the things they rant about is Fox: They have a vested interest in tearing down the network, decrying it as insufficiently anti-woke or pro-Trump in an effort to steal away its viewers, which in turn can lead the network to course-correct in their direction.

We saw a version of this play out following the 2020 election, when Fox’s executives and stars, including Carlson, promoted Trumpian conspiracy theories about voter fraud out of fears of losing market share to relatively weak rivals like Newsmax. Since then, competition for Fox’s viewers has only grown.

The new Tucker Carlson Network will doubtlessly allow Carlson and the flunkies who join him to channel the same lies and hate that fueled his Fox show, along with passion projects his old bosses may have opposed airing. If the X show Carlson has hosted in recent months is any indication, that means nodding along with lunatic conspiracy theorists who claim that they had gay sex with Barack Obama and that Joe Biden wanders the White House naked, and producing even more hagiography for international autocrats.

But it will also give Carlson, who has hobnobbed with Donald Trump and drawn attention as a possible running mate for the man he once privately claimed to despise, another platform to weigh in on the 2024 presidential election.

If Trump once again tries to subvert American democracy, and Carlson and other members of the Fox diaspora come to his aid, how will Fox respond? The question answers itself.

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Right-wing media complain that toddler was released by Hamas due to her family’s connections to Biden | Media Matters for America

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Right-wing media figures exploit anti-immigrant riots in Ireland to demonize migrants and Muslims, and attack legal immigration

Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, and others pushed the “great replacement” conspiracy theory and falsely portrayed immigrants as threats to public safety

WRITTEN BY JOHN KNEFEL

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM JACINA HOLLINS-BORGES, SOPHIE LAWTON & JACK WHEATLEY

PUBLISHED 11/30/23

Right-wing media figures reacted to anti-immigrant riots in Ireland by demonizing Muslims, falsely accusing migrants of being a risk to public safety and attacking the very idea of legal immigration. Their response is an escalation of the xenophobic rhetoric that right-wing media frequently direct at unauthorized migration, and is a clear attempt to push for policies that would drastically reduce legal immigration levels.

The riots in Dublin were sparked after early reports on November 23 that an Irish citizen who allegedly stabbed five people, including three children, was believed to have been born abroad — thus highlighting the suspect’s perceived foreignness. Subsequent reporting found that although the alleged attacker was apparently born in Algeria, he has lived in Ireland for at least 20 years, according to Irish authorities. Numerous studies have found that increased levels of immigration do not cause a rise in crime rates either in the United States or European countries.

This manufactured panic and demonization of a marginalized group echoes a similar episode from last week, when Fox News invented a terrorism scare over a car crash at the U.S.-Canada border and used the nonexistent plot to paint Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians, and their supporters as the culprits, only to retract its reporting hours later. Anti-Muslim hate incidents have also skyrocketed during Israel’s bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip after Hamas’ attack on October 7.

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon exploited the Dublin attack to spread his anti-immigrant message across multiple platforms, including his own War Room podcast as well as Tucker Carlson’s show on X (formerly Twitter) and Donald Trump Jr.’s streaming show on Rumble, a far-right competitor to YouTube. In several of these segments, Bannon and his interlocutors endorsed versions of the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which holds that liberal elites are attempting to change the demographics of white-majority countries through mass migration from the Global South to maintain political and economic dominance.

Prior to Fox News’ firing of Carlson, he was the network’s — and perhaps the entire country’s — most visible proponent of the great replacement theory. During Bannon’s appearance on Carlson’s show on November 27, both figures pushed openly nativist bigotry alongside the racist conspiracy theory.

Bannon referred to migrants to the United States and Ireland as “alien invaders,” adding that Irish politicians have “sold out the sovereignty of the Irish” and that the riots were “natural blowback.”

“The Irish government is trying to replace the population of Ireland with people from the Third World, obviously,” Carlson responded. “But why? What's the justification for that?”

“You talk about the great replacement theory and people are — oh, you know, people get very upset when you talk about it, but just look at the math,” Bannon answered.

“It’s not a theory,” Carlson interjected.

“This has happened across Europe,” Bannon continued. “It's happened in Germany.”

“In 100 years, there'll be a minority of Irish people in Ireland,” Carlson said. “That's a big change, and it's on purpose.”

Later in their conversation, Bannon endorsed mass deportations, saying: “I think illegal alien invaders are coming because they've gamed the asylum system. My belief is those people have to go home. They have to be returned, they have to leave our country or we're not going to have a country.”

Later that day, Bannon appeared on Donald Trump Jr.’s Triggered to celebrate Hungary’s far-right authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán and Irish mixed martial arts fighter Connor McGregor, who had come under police investigation following anti-migrant social media posts.

Video

CitationFrom the November 27, 2023, edition of Triggered, streamed on Rumble

Former President Donald Trump fought “for the sovereignty, not just of nation-states, but the sovereignty of the individual citizens in those nation-states,” Bannon said. “I think it's inspired Orban in Hungary. I think McGregor in Ireland standing up the other day was inspired by Donald Trump.”

The discussion then turned to the knife attack in Dublin, with the host claiming Arab and Muslim cultures celebrate anti-social violence.

“In their culture, they can stab people in the streets. It's fine. We must allow them to do that to our children,” Trump Jr. facetiously said, adding, “I mean, the government is taking an actively hostile position against their citizens in favor of, like, seemingly savages in many cases.”

Bannon returned to the subject the next day on his War Room podcast, calling for the “deportation of the 9 million — at least 9 million to 10 million — illegal alien invaders coming in the Biden regime.”

“What happened in Ireland — it's all coming here, folks,” Bannon warned ominously. “It’s all coming here.”

His guest the following hour was conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has been increasingly embraced by right-wing media in recent years. Jones falsely claimed that “illegal aliens or migrants” are responsible for “the majority of muggings, rape, and murder in every European country."

That evening, Bannon discussed the violence in Ireland in another episode of War Room, where his guest, author Michael Walsh, again pushed the great replacement conspiracy theory.

“This was the spark that set off what’s become a powder keg across the country, which is the notion — widely held among the Irish people — that they’re being replaced by foreigners,” Walsh said. He added that the Irish government “is committed to this program of quiet replacement and has demonized what we would have called Irish patriots,” referring to the far-right mobs.

Several other right-wing media figures also used the riots to spread anti-migrant bigotry.

• BlazeTV’s Steve Deace defended the mob, arguing that “the Irish Proud Boy wannabes” are “not the villain here,” suggesting they “have had enough” and feel like “I’ve already lost my culture to Islam. Now our daughters are getting raped and assaulted” by the “rape-fugees we brought in.”
• “Concerned citizens in Dublin, Ireland look on helplessly as busloads of undocumented migrants are brought into their community,” anti-LGBTQ social media account Libs of Tik Tok posted on X (formerly Twitter).
• Salem Media’s Charlie Kirk questioned “how Ireland allowed so many foreigners and Third-Worlders into the beautiful country of Ireland?"
• Self-described “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer blamed the attack on a “Muslim migrant."

"Across the West, the status quo has become intolerable,” Loomer added. “The endless waves of immigrants, the devastation of our culture, and the crackdown against anyone who dares to stand against it has all become too much to bear.”

“There can be no doubt that the average person is, at last, awake to the gravity of the situation, and their anger is brewing,” Loomer continued. “White people, in particular, have taken all of this on the chin for the last few decades, but that appears to be coming to an end.”

• Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis argued that regardless of the suspect’s citizenship status, he “was an immigrant nonetheless,” claiming the incident was further evidence that “Europe is at the precipice of falling."

Following the riots, some observers of the far right argued that anti-immigrant sentiment had become a major issue in Ireland in recent years, and that politicians needed to do more to address the rising xenophobia. Right-wing media figures are determined to stand in the way.

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mma 11 23

Several major print and broadcast news networks did not cover former President Donald Trump’s amplification of a supporter’s call to place the judge and prosecutor in one of his myriad trials under citizen’s arrest.

On Monday, Trump reposted a Truth Social post calling for the citizen’s arrest of Judge Arthur Engoron and Attorney General Letitia James, who are overseeing and prosecuting the civil trial against the former president and his companies for fraud. The post accused the pair of “blatant election interference and harassment.”

That salvo came just days after Trump described his political enemies as “vermin” that he promised to “root out,” and as the institutional right lays the groundwork for him to carry out his top priority of arresting them. It drew harsh criticism from legal experts, with Los Angeles Times columnist and former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman calling the repost “actual incitement to break the law and it greatly endangers the judge and AG,” and frequent Trump defender Jonathan Turley saying that an attempted citizen’s arrest “would most certainly constitute a criminal act.” It also follows the issuance of multiple gag orders against Trump due to what special counsel Jack Smith’s team described as the “pattern, stretching back years, in which people publicly targeted by the defendant are, as a result of the targeting, subject to harassment, threats, and intimidation.”

But the story did not break through to print coverage in any of the nation’s five highest-circulation newspapers — the LA Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, or USA Today. Nor was it mentioned on the morning, evening, or Sunday political talk shows on ABC News, CBS News, or NBC News. The repost received roughly 25 minutes of airtime on MSNBC and 3 minutes on CNN — but none on Fox News — according to a Media Matters review.

This muted coverage is part of a pattern, as I noted last week in assessing reports on Trump’s “vermin” remarks:

The editors, producers, and reporters at major national news outlets signal the relative importance of various stories through the volume and prominence of the attention they give them. During the 2016 presidential election, for example, those notables treated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s email travails as the single most important story of the cycle. President Joe Biden’s age has likewise been a fixation for news outlets this year, even though Trump is only a few years younger.

But Trump’s extremist outbursts often draw little or no coverage from major news outlets. That is remarkable, particularly given how genuinely unhinged his remarks often are, and given that right-wing institutions are laying the groundwork for a future Trump administration to carry out top priorities like arresting his political enemies.

Methodology...

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mma 11 23 j6 tapes

• ## Police suffered injuries at the hands of the rioters and allowed some movement in an attempt to de-escalate
  • The police union has said 140 police officers suffered injuries from January 6.The Washington Post, [1/27/21]
  • Police battled to keep rioters out of the Capitol but in some cases stood by because they were outnumbered or engaged politely to try to de-escalate.CNN reported:

The claim that the rioters were invited into the Capitol is false. ... There were hours-long battles between police and rioters near some entrances. CNN obtained footage from police body-worn cameras showing how dozens of officers engaged in hand-to-hand combat with rioters in a desperate effort to keep them out of the building. There are plenty of instances where rioters waltzed into the Capitol without a fight, but only after they had stormed past barricades and, in some cases, even stepped through broken windows. In some areas, police were so outnumbered by the mob that they retreated, stood aside or tried to politely engage with rioters to de-escalate the situation rather than fighting or making arrests, but that is clearly not the same as welcoming rioters into the building. CNN, [1/4/22]

• • Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger stated that Capitol Police “did their best to use de-escalation tactics to try to talk rioters into getting each other to leave the building.” In a memo to staff, Manger disputed “outrageous and false” claims that Capitol Police served as “tour guides” for Jacob Chansley, aka the QAnon Shaman. Manger wrote that “Capitol Police were badly outnumbered on Jan. 6” and that “those officers did their best to use de-escalation tactics to try to talk rioters into getting each other to leave the building.” The Washington Post, [3/7/23]
  • Capitol Police officers testified to the January 6 Committee that the day was “nothing short of brutal,” that there was “carnage” and it was a “war scene.” The committee also aired body camera footage from the officers that showed rioters shoving officers and pushing down barricades outside the Capitol. NPR, [7/27/21, 6/23/21, The Associated Press, 6/10/22]
  • Police onsite were massively outnumbered by rioters, with an estimated 2,000 people entering the Capitol building and under 200 officers at the Capitol building itself. Forbes, [12/16/21, ABC7, 1/6/22]

• ## Right-wing media claim police allowed protestors to enter the Capitol and suggest that means it wasn’t a violent insurrection
  • Newsmax host Greg Kelly stated that it is “actually not true” that rioters broke into the Capitol and instead “some people were invited inside, and the police officers seemed to welcome them there.” While showing footage of protestors entering, Kelly also asserted that “this blows open the preferred January 6 narrative.” Newsmax, *Greg Kelly Reports*, [11/17/23]
  • Newsmax host Eric Bolling said the footage shows Capitol police “escorting the protestors.” He asked his guest Rudy Giuliani, “I mean, does that look like an overthrow of the United States government to you, sir?” Newsmax, *Eric Bolling The Balance*, [11/17/23]

• • Also on Newsmax, host Rob Schmitt claimed that protesters in the Capitol looked like they were taking “a tour,” adding that the “QAnon Shaman was actually escorted into the Capitol by police.” Schmitt acknowledged that there was some violence but nevertheless told his audience, “This is a much different day than it was portrayed by the media and by your members of Congress” and called the footage “an important reminder to always, always question what you are told by your government.” In fact, as The Associated Press reported in March, court documents and video footage from the attack show that the QAnon Shaman “entered the Capitol without permission, was repeatedly asked to leave the building and was not accompanied at all times.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [11/17/23; The Associated Press, 3/7/23]
  • Conservative podcast host Kyle Becker called the footage “bizarre” for showing rioters “casually walking the halls.”He posted, “This newly released J6 video is BIZARRE. All of these dangerous ‘insurrectionists’ casually walking the halls... right next to Capitol Police and FBI agents in full riot gear. WHAT is going on here? 👀” Twitter/X, [11/18/23]
  • Right-wing personality Liz Wheeler claimed that Capitol police were “directing the insurrectionists” with a “handshake & pat on the back.” She posted, “Capitol police directing the insurrectionists who to insurrection with a handshake & pat on the back. Mark my words, the key to alllll of this lies with Nancy Pelosi.” Twitter/X, [11/17/23]
  • Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk asserted that “the J6 Committee’s violent insurrection narrative has crumbled” and called for the immediate release of rioters. He posted, “And just like that the J6 Committee’s violent insurrection narrative has crumbled. The Capitol Police facilitated the protesters passage through the building. The vast majority of J6ers should be immediately released.” Twitter/X, [11/17/23]
  • Conservative commentator Benny Johnson noted police “were giving handshakes to protestors” and determined that “this is not an insurrection.” He posted, “Capitol Police were giving handshakes to protesters. Now ask yourselves this; In which ‘insurrection’ or ‘Rebellion’ in history would this have happened in? None — because this is not an ‘insurrection.’” Twitter/X, [11/17/23]
  • Conservative commentator Rogan O'Handley, also known as DC Draino, posted, “Wow what an ‘insurrection’! Watch as J6ers slowly walk past Capitol Police who just watch. Democrats said this was worse than 9/11.” X, [11/17/23]
  • Right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer dismissed concerns of right-wing violence at the Capitol because Capitol police were “fist-bumping” rioters. She said: “Oh, if these cops are so concerned, and this was really worse than 9/11 and Pearl Harbor combined, and, you know, it's like a modern day Nazi rally in our nation's capital, why is it that the Capitol Police are fist-bumping these people?” Rumble, *Loomer Unleashed*, [11/17/23]

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Right-wing media lavish praise on Argentina’s newly elected far-right president | Media Matters for America

• rgentine President-elect Javier Milei is becoming a right-wing media darling in the U.S. due to his austere proposed economic policies and conservative ideology. Right-wing media figures have reacted to Milei’s electoral success by praising him, comparing him to former President Donald Trump, and attacking mainstream media for their critical reporting.
• ## Argentina's new far-right president has aligned himself with U.S. right-wing politics
  • Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist libertarian,” has aggressively pushed conservative positions on issues such as abortion while also promising to gut government ministries relating to issues like education, diversity, and science. Milei also proposed holding a referendum aimed at overturning Argentina’s right to abortion. Rolling Stone, [11/20/23]
  • One of Milei’s defining political positions is “dollarisation,” a form of economic shock treatment, to combat Argentina’s rising inflation and ongoing financial woes.Dollarisation involves getting rid of the Argentine peso and replacing it with the U.S. dollar. Mark Weisbrot, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, has labeled this as a “crazed, economically suicidal approach” which could majorly backfire for Argentine people. The Guardian, [11/20/23]
  • Milei’s mirroring of Trump’s right-wing populist messaging — down to “Make Argentina Great Again” hats and preemptive voter fraud conspiracy theories — has led to direct praise from the former president.After Milei’s victory, Trump personally congratulated him on Truth Social, posting, “The whole world was watching! I am very proud of you. You will turn your Country around and truly Make Argentina Great Again!" The Guardian, [11/17/23; Rolling Stone, 11/20/23]
  • Milei has also been linked to infamous anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist. In 2021, Milei promised the Argentine Taxpayers Association, sister organization to Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, that he would “cut off [his] own arm” if he raised taxes. Norquist has also gotten many Republican politicians to make similar promises by getting them to sign his organization’s “Taxpayer Protection Pledge.” The Nation, [7/21/2011; Semafor, 11/21/23; ABC News, 11/26/12]
  • Mainstream media have responded to Milei’s election by pointing out his similarities to Trump and the implications his victory could have in neighboring countries.The New York Times referred to his election as “Argentina’s Donald Trump moment.” The Washington Post, [11/19/23; The New York Times, 11/20/23]
• ## Right-wing media reacted to Milei’s victory by praising him, comparing him to Trump, spreading voter fraud conspiracy theories, and attacking mainstream media for their coverage of him
  • Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones called Milei “an anti-globalist through and through” and claimed he was an Infowars listener. Jones also praised Milei as “a follower” of former Fox host Tucker Carlson and argued his election was evidence that “people are seeing through the globalist lies at every front.” Infowars, *The Alex Jones Show*, [11/20/23]
  • Newsmax host Rob Schmitt celebrated Milei, praising him for “fighting an ideology that is destroying the world one country at a time.”Schmitt argued Milei was “fighting the same disease that our nation is fighting” and “isn’t afraid to eviscerate the cancerous tumor that is the socialist politician.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight,* [11/20/23]
  • Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk claimed that Milei’s victory was a “stimulus of hope” for the chances of Trump winning the presidency in 2024. Kirk portrayed the election as evidence that “the Western world is starting to push back against forced globalism” supposedly orchestrated by “a smaller and smaller radical group of people.” Kirk argued, “If Javier Milei can win by 11 points … Donald Trump can win next November.” Salem Media Group, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [11/20/23]
  • Fox News contributor Sara Carter posted that she “love[s] Javier Milei.” Carter posted in response to a video of Milei ripping tags off a whiteboard with the names of various governmental departments, including the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health. Twitter/X, [11/20/23]
  • Right-wing YouTuber Steven Crowder referred to Milei as “the madman geopolitics deserves.” He also called on Milei to “make Argentina great again.” Twitter/X, [11/20/23]
  • Fox Business host Charles Payne called Milei’s election “huge and super encouraging on several fronts.” Payne also alleged that “powerful global forces'' tried to prevent Milei’s victory from “happening.” Twitter/X, [11/20/23]
  • Right-wing economist Art Laffer argued Milei was “not a kook” or “far-right winger” and bet he would make Argentina “the outstanding, pro-growth economy of Central and South America” as president. Fox host Larry Kudlow concurred, adding that “the socialism they’ve been flirting with almost all over the continent hasn’t worked. … This guy might turn that around.” Fox Business, *Kudlow*, [11/20/23]
  • Right-wing X account End Wokeness complained that “Argentina hand-counted all of their ballots in a few hours, but the big blue areas in our swing states take several days with machines?” Twitter/X, [11/20/23]
  • Neo-Nazi collaborator Jack Posobiec claimed that the reason Argentina knew “the election result so fast” was because it “banned electronic voting machines.” Posobiec failed to mention that only Buenos Aires City residents were required to use paper ballots, and that was due to “significant delays” during the primary elections because of technical issues with the machines. Twitter/X, [11/20/23; Buenos Aires Herald, 10/21/23]
  • Right-wing political operative Roger Stone praised Argentina for voting “with 100% paper ballots unlike, say, Brazil.” Twitter/X, [11/19/23]
  • The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro bemoaned the “garbage press” for their coverage of Milei, calling them “international Leftist trash.” Shapiro also touted Milei’s economic policies, claiming Milei is planning to “slash spending and restore fiscal responsibility.” Twitter/X, [11/20/23]
  • Conservative blog Red State also decried the press “freak-out” over Milei, claiming mainstream media “love it when far-left socialists take power."The “fairly Libertarian” Milei, the author claimed, could not be compared to Trump, and “the press attempt to tie the two together” was therefore “transparent.” Red State, [11/19/23]
  • Stone also posted that it was “really enjoyable watching the elitist pukes at the Washington Post and the New York Times melt down over the election of pro-Freedom Anti-Globalist Javier Milei.” Twitter/X, [11/20/23]

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Right-wing media are pushing the “irresistible,” “electric” Tucker Carlson as Trump’s VP

Charlie Kirk: “Tucker understands the philosophical, intellectual base that motivates the muscular class”

WRITTEN BY BOBBY LEWIS

PUBLISHED 11/16/23

Last week, former President Donald Trump said that “I guess I would” consider former Fox host Tucker Carlson for a vice presidential nomination, setting off a wave of enthusiasm among Trump’s extremely online right-wing media fan base. Carlson, who privately said that he hates Trump “passionately,” has apparently not commented on the trial balloon.

In addition to vocal support for a Vice President Carlson from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA,) Salem radio host and close Trump ally Charlie Kirk has been a fervent proponent of the idea. Calling Carlson “tough,” “principled,” and “electric,” Kirk fantasized about the X vlogger as an “irresistible” pull for young voters and suburban women. Many voices in right-wing media also love the idea -- though some, notably including Donald Trump Jr., just don’t think Carlson would be interested.

“Who is the second most trusted, the second most popular, the second smartest and principled person in the conservative movement?” Kirk asked last week. “If he was still alive, it would have been Rush Limbaugh. I think we all agree with that. It is without a doubt Tucker Carlson.”

Kirk’s enthusiasm could be described as fanboying, and it continued throughout the show.

“Tucker Carlson might be the smartest person in the movement. He is a loyal family man.” “He’s real. He’s honest. He’s a true American.” “He is irresistible online. He’s smart. He’s tough.” Picking Carlson for vice president “would literally be a hack — it would break the matrix.” Sneering with excitement, Kirk asked, “Could you imagine Tucker Carlson at a press gaggle?”

“You’ve got the alpha beast Trump, and you got a VP that is probably the smartest, smoothest, person in the conservative movement that has our trust.”

:{:{Video}:

CitationFrom the November 10, 2023, edition of Salem Radio Network's The Charlie Kirk Show

Kirk came back to the idea on November 13, celebrating the “hundreds of thousands of tweets in favor of it over the weekend,” as well as Trump’s ringside appearance at a UFC fight, with an entourage including Carlson.

“Who else other than Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson can get this kind of hero's welcome at a UFC fight? … What Tucker and Trump present is cultural power and a cultural phenomenon in a political space,” Kirk beamed. “It’s a completely different dynamic. … Tucker understands the philosophical, intellectual base that motivates the muscular class.”

Kirk is not alone in his enthusiasm, which has begun spreading throughout conservative media:

• Sean Davis, a co-founder of The Federalist, told Kirk he loves the idea: “I love it. I love Tucker. I think it’d be great. I think it'd be great for America. He's one of the only people who says all the things that we all think but aren't allowed to citedsay.”
• Podcaster and serial plagiarist Benny Johnson “Elon’s razor” -- a reference to X owner Elon Musk -- “the most entertaining outcome is always the right one” to say that Trump and Carlson are “your ticket right there,” adding that “Tucker Carlson with Secret Service protection … and access to the military” is a “thing I want.”
• Daily Wire host Michael Knowles said that he has “floated this idea for years at this point” and “if I were Tucker, two years ago, I probably wouldn't want this,” but now that Carlson no longer has his Fox News perch and salary, “he’s got less to lose,” and “who else could run with Trump that the base loves? … He represents the Buchanan wing of the party. He represents the conservative wing of the conservative party.”
• On November 14, Johnson asked Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) about this on The Benny Show, to which Nehls responded that he likes the idea and doubts that any of the primary candidates could be Trump’s vice president, “but Tucker Carlson, he really, really could -- he just speaks a lot of truth. And he’s real. And I think the American people love him.”

Despite the excitement from some, other right-wing media voices aren’t so sure Carlson would even join the ticket. On Newsmax’s Chris Plante: The Right Squad*, guest Marc Lotter acknowledged that Carlson is “probably one of the smartest people around” and it would make an “epic” ticket, however fellow panelist and guest Jason Nichols said, “I don’t think that that’s something he wants to do. I think he likes his life.” Co-host Chris Plante agreed that Carlson likely “wouldn’t want any part” of a Trump White House.

Even one of Trump’s own children, Donald Trump Jr., sees a Trump/Carlson ticket as highly unlikely, though he does like the sound of it. Responding to viewer comments on his podcast Triggered, Trump said that “I don’t think he would” accept a vice presidential nomination, because it’s “not his thing.”

However, Trump added, if Carlson would accept, he “would be my first, second, third, fourth, and fifth choice for VP if I could decide right now.”

“He’d be great on a lot of issues,” Trump said, “and it would also drive the other side insane.”

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Right-wing media launch anti-democratic attacks on Pennsylvania’s automatic voter registration | Media Matters for America

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Right-wing media launch anti-democratic attacks on Pennsylvania’s automatic voter registration

Right-wing media continue their election misinformation crusade as another state makes it easier for residents to vote

WRITTEN BY AUDREY MCCABE

:{:{PUBLISHED 11/03/23}:

Automatic voter registration, a secure process used to increase voting accessibility and maintain accurate voter rolls, is being attacked by right-wing media after Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that the state will begin automatically registering voters at the DMV.

On September 19, Shapiro announced that Pennsylvania will start automatically registering eligible residents to vote when they get a new driver’s license or ID card at the DMV, rather than asking if they want to fill out a voter registration form. The practice, known as automatic voter registration or AVR, allows potential new voters to “opt out” rather than “opt in.” [NBC News, 9/19/23; Spotlight PA, 9/19/23]

Automatic voter registration, which is now used by 24 states, has been found to decrease fraud, make voter rolls more accurate, and increase the accessibility of voting. Research shows that “in making voting lists more complete and accurate, states may make it easier for some population groups, especially minorities and poorer citizens, to vote.” [The Washington Post, 9/23/22]

Pennsylvania’s system will not provide non-citizens or other ineligible residents the option to register to vote. Republican Secretary of State Al Schmidt stated that “he’s confident that the system is fixed to ensure that those ineligible to vote will be internally flagged and will not be offered the voter registration screens.” [The Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/19/23]

Former President Donald Trump blasted Pennsylvania’s decision to implement AVR on Truth Social, claiming that it “will be a disaster for our Nation, which is being destroyed by these Lunatics, Marxists, & Fascists, whose only real ability is to CHEAT on Elections.” He also wrote that AVR will be “a disaster for the Election of Republicans, including your favorite President, ME!” [Truth Social, 9/25/23]

Right-wing media falsely claimed that AVR could increase voter fraud and that Democrats are using it to rig elections

On Elon Musk’s X platform (formerly Twitter), Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton posted, “Leftist Pennsylvania governor decides to ‘automatically’ register ‘voters’ -- a legally-dubious and surefire way to make it easier for ineligible individuals to vote illegally.” [Twitter/X, 9/19/23]

Right-wing podcaster Kyle Becker posted, “This is unconstitutional. It is 2020 all over again. Either fight this now or be prepared to lose another election!” He also quoted Trump’s claim that “the Democrats are trying to steal Pennsylvania again by doing the ‘automatic voter registration’ scam.” [Twitter/X, 10/1/23]

Just the News reported that Pennsylvania embracing AVR “triggers new integrity fears.” The subheadline quoted the executive director of a conservative group advocating for restricted voting laws, who falsely claimed that “recent history proves that automatic voter registration is inherently problematic.” [Just the News, 10/1/23; NPR, 8/12/22]

The Gateway Pundit published an article claiming, “The steal is on in Pennsylvania. … Pennsylvania turned blue in 2020 after the Democrats violated the state’s constitution and allowed vote by mail.” The article concluded, “Democrats can’t win unless they cheat.” [The Gateway Pundit, 9/19/23]

Interviewing Republican Senate candidate David McCormick, right-wing radio host Mark Levin called Shapiro’s announcement of AVR “an edict which is intended to harm your election chances.” Levin also told McCormick that “the Democrat ruling class in Pennsylvania is frightened of you.” [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 9/29/23]

The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles agreed with Trump’s Truth Social post, saying, “I think Trump’s point is correct … that we have got to focus on making sure that the libs don’t rig the election again.” He then claimed that AVR will cause “a lot of people in this country who don’t care about our form of government” and “shouldn’t therefore weigh in” to cast ballots, and that opposing automatic registration will “protect the right to vote” of the “kind of person that I do want voting.” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 9/27/23]

Fox host Laura Ingraham called Pennsylvania’s implementation of AVR “an insurance policy” for Democrats and “a Joe and Kamala job protection plan.” The chyron during the segment read “WINNING, NOT GOVERNING, IS DEMS’ ONLY CONCERN.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 9/20/23]

Townhall published an article titled “Automatic Voter Registration Opens Door to Voter Fraud,” which falsely claimed that AVR’s history is “filled with many documented problems.” The article compared AVR to “ordering a sundae, and having the store employees just decide you want sprinkles and nuts without asking you. … Messing with my ice cream is bad enough, but for heaven’s sake, don’t mess with my freedom to choose when or if I register to vote.” [Townhall, 10/28/23]

Right-wing media cited the implementation of AVR to push bigoted rhetoric and claim that the system will allow undocumented immigrants or other ineligible residents to vote

Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s former White House press secretary, incorrectly suggested that AVR will result in “illegal immigrants … checking the box” to register to vote. Host Jesse Watters also referred to eligible residents who have not yet registered as “low-information voters.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/19/23]

Newsmax's Greg Kelly called automatic voter registration “un-American” and said that striving for universal voter turnout is bad because “Saddam Hussein had universal voter turnout. That wasn't good.” [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 9/19/23]

The day after Shapiro’s announcement, right-wing grifter Tomi Lahren posted, “Beware of any state that gives drivers licenses to illegal immigrants and also has automatic voter registration. This is a tool used to auto send mail in ballots willy fricken nilly and then just ‘hope’ for the best.” [Twitter/X, 9/20/23]

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Lara Logan posted, “Automatic voter registration is one of the easiest ways to cheat … If you are acting as if 2024 will be a real election, you are both delusional and deceived.” She also suggested “states that allow illegal immigrants to get a drivers license have another way to beef up the voter rolls - is that what the open border is for?” [Twitter/X, 9/19/23]

On his Fox News show, Sean Hannity asked McCormick, “What do you make of the governor, Josh Shapiro's plan to enact this automatic registration — is it possible, a lot of states have this, that illegal immigrants can get a license in Pennsylvania?” [Fox News, Hannity, 9/21/23]

Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk posted, “More mass mail-in ballots for Dems in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Meanwhile PA Democrats have been working for years to give illegals drivers licenses. Connect the dots.” [Twitter/X, 9/19/23]

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Right-wing media support IRS cuts even though experts say it would add to the deficit | Media Matters for America

In his first week as speaker of the House, Mike Johnson and the House GOP proposed a contentious funding bill that would finance aid to Israel by diverting tax dollars allocated to the Internal Revenue Service in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. Budget experts have warned that the proposed funding cuts to the IRS will raise the deficit and decrease revenue. Yet numerous right-wing media figures have praised Johnson’s first act as speaker, expressing their support for the proposed bill, with former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich calling it a “brilliant move” that might establish Johnson as a “historical figure.” Right-wing figures have also used the bill as an opportunity to bash the IRS, fearmongering that a well-resourced tax collecting agency would use its budget to bully middle-class Americans.

• ## House GOP proposes cutting IRS funding to provide aid to Israel, which experts say would increase the national deficit

• • Mike Johnson and the House GOP proposed a bill that would include $14.3 billion in emergency aid for Israel. The GOP proposal that passed the House would divert funds that were earmarked for the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law last year. NBC News, [10/30/23; CNN, 11/2/23]
  • According to tax expert Howard Gleckman, IRS funding cuts “would actually increase the deficit.” Gleckman, who is a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute, warned, “If you cut IRS funding [by $14 billion to $15 billion], you’re actually going to increase the deficit by about $30 billion.” The Hill, [11/1/23]
  • The Congressional Budget Office also estimates that the GOP bill will add $26.8 billion to the budget deficit. According to NBC News, “The CBO found that the IRS cuts coupled with the Israel aid would lead to a $26.8 billion decline in revenue, contradicting the stated goal of offsetting the aid. The CBO and the Treasury Department have said the funds, if left intact, would lead to tougher IRS enforcement and the collection of more tax revenues.” NBC News, [11/1/23]

• ## Right-wing media have repeatedly fearmongered that a well-funded IRS would be weaponized against average Americans
• • Right-wing media have spent years fearmongering that the Biden administration has emboldened the IRS to act as an “economic, financial militia against regular people.” Media Matters, [4/20/23; 8/8/22]
  • According to a Media Matters study, Fox News falsely claimed over 200 times that the Inflation Reduction Act would add 87,000 employees to the IRS. In 2022, several Fox News hosts claimed that IRS agents were arming themselves to “grab all the cash they can by any means necessary,” and that the IRS was being used by Biden as a “new Gestapo.” Media Matters, [8/9/22, 8/9/22, 8/25/22]

• ## A number of right-wing media figures praised Johnson’s move, expressed support for the proposed bill, and attacked the IRS

• • The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro on the proposed bill: “I’m very much in favor of that bill. I think the IRS should be cut. I think the IRS is a terrible organization.”Westwood One, *The Ben Shapiro Show,* [11/1/23]
  • Right-wing radio host Michael Knowles called Johnson “a pretty clever guy” for engineering a proposal that acts as “a good wedge issue to hit the Democrats on.” “Either they’re going to vote with Israel and lose their base, or they’re going to vote against Israel and lose their donors,” Knowles added. *The Michael Knowles Show*, [11/1/23]
  • Fox News contributor and former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich: “The bill does not increase the deficit, does not increase the debt ceiling, does not increase the inflation rate.” Gingrich also called Johnson’s proposal “a brilliant move,” adding that Johnson “may well become a historic figure in the first couple of weeks of his speakership.” When asked about President Biden’s intent to veto the bill, Gingrich said, “He’s pretty stupid.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [10/31/23]
  • Fox host Mark Levin argued that the IRS funds from the Inflation Reduction Act are being used to “go after the middle class.” Levin asserted that the Biden administration aimed to tie Israel aid to “border money, but not to secure the border,” but instead to “hire more people, administrators to rubber stamp… and get more people in here faster and faster.” Westwood One, *The Mark Levin Show*, [10/31/23]
  • Fox host Laura Ingraham said the proposal amounted to “some rays of hope breaking through the clouds in the DC swamp.” “Turns out common sense isn’t totally dead,” Ingraham added, before arguing that the Biden Administration intended to use IRS funds from the Inflation Reduction Act to “hire thousands of new agents who would essentially harass hard working Americans.” Fox News,*Ingraham Angle*, [10/31/23]
  • Right-wing radio host Glenn Beck called the proposed bill a “very smart move.” Blaze Radio, *The Glenn Beck Program*, [10/31/23]

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Right-wing media blame UAW strike on Biden administration and electric vehicle transition | Media Matters for America

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• ## Wallace and Chutkan are presiding over two Trump cases

• • Colorado District Court Judge Sarah Wallace is presiding over a 14th Amendment case against Trump, which will decide whether Trump should be disqualified from having his name on the ballot in the state in 2024 over his alleged role on January 6. Reuters, [10/30/23]
  • U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan is overseeing Trump’s litigation in D.C. and recently reinstated a gag order on the former president following a temporary freeze after Trump appealed.CNN, [10/30/23;Axios, 10/20/23]

• ## Right-wing media have attacked Colorado Judge Wallace
  • Michael Knowles of The Daily Wire suggested that Wallace’s decision to allow a lawsuit regarding Trump's eligibility for office under the 14th Amendment to move forward could result in another civil war. Knowles remarked: “Civil wars happen. And the liberals would appear to be cultivating the conditions to make it much more likely.” Media Matters, [10/24/23]

• • On X, Fox News host Mark Levin shared an NBC News article about the case, adding, “We have a real problem in America with tyrannical leftwing judges who run their courtrooms like political circuses.”Twitter/X, [10/30/23]

• • On his show War Room, Steve Bannon called Wallace “radical” while his guest, Mike Davis, a right-wing judicial activist, called on her to recuse herself from the case.Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [10/30/23]

• • Later on, Bannon claimed the case is happening in a kangaroo court that’s “every bit as deadly as the Nazi judges and Stalin show trial.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [10/30/23]

• • Davis also made an appearance on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle and called Wallace “biased” and cited a $100 donation to the Colorado Turnout Project she made prior to taking the bench. He went on: “I think she’s going to rule for these Democrat operatives and try to take President Trump off the ballot here in Colorado. And I think that Democrats are going to try to use that precedent to go to other states like Minnesota and Michigan. So, it looks like the Supreme Court of the United States is going to have to step in here and fix this eventually.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [10/30/23; Colorado Politics, 10/30/23]

• • On X, Mike Davis wrote: “New Denver District Judge Sarah Wallace, a Democrat Donor, Commits Reversible Error By Refusing to Recuse from Trump January 6th Case After Donating to Anti-Trump January 6th PAC.”He went on to ask, “Will the public reasonably believe she can give Trump a fair January 6th-related bench trial after she donated to an anti-Trump January 6th PAC ? The answer is clearly not.” Twitter/X, [10/30/23]

• • Davis also posted on X a clip of his appearance on War Room, adding, “Anyone with a brain can see that she can’t objectively be fair to President Trump given her past donation to a leftist cause.” Twitter/X, [10/30/23]
  • Replying to Davis’ post, bigoted social media personality Mike Cernovich wrote, “Judges are overtly flaunting the law as a show of force. It’s Stalin era tactics.” Twitter/X, [10/30/23]

• • On GETTR, Bannon wrote: “Crazed Left Wing Judge and Radical Secretary of State for Colorado Attempt to Remove President Trump from Ballot in 2024.” GETTR, [10/30/23]

• • Davis joined Jack Posobiec on his show Human Events Daily and called Wallace “clearly biased,” adding, “No one in their right mind thinks that this judge is going to be fair.” Posobiec described Wallace as a “left-wing judge” and called the case “a bench trial,” referring to a type of trial with no jury. Real America’s Voice, *Human Events Daily*, [10/30/23]

• • On X, previously known as Twitter, pro-Trump troll and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer called Judge Wallace “another political hack” and “a MAJOR Trump-hater.”Loomer also went after Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, calling her “a communist who was funded by George Soros.” Twitter/X, [10/30/23]

• • Loomer also took aim at Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) for not attacking Wallace, claiming she’s been “silent” about the case.She asked, “How come you don’t have any condemnation for Judge Sarah Wallace and the efforts to take Trump off the ballot in Colorado, which you supposedly ‘represent’ when you aren’t getting drunk on dates with Democrats?” In a separate post, Loomer said that if “Boebert is too dumb to see how this lawsuit will ultimately impact her race, then she doesn’t deserve to be in Congress.” Twitter/X, [10/30/23, 10/30/23]

• • In another post, Loomer described Wallace as “the radical Leftist judge overseeing the anti—Trump trial in Colorado.” She then claimed the case is “direct ELECTION INTERFERENCE” and “pure lawfare, orchestrated by partisan Democrats and their left-wing financiers to cheat the American electoral system and deprive the American voters of their rightful choice for a President.” Twitter/X, [10/30/23]

• • The right-wing publication National Pulse ran a headline on an article about the lawsuit reading, “NOW: Soros’s ‘Kick Trump Off Ballot’ Case Begins, With Far-Left, Democrat Donor Judge.” The National Pulse, [10/30/23]

• • Breitbart wrote: “Democrat-Appointed Colorado Judge Greenlights Effort to Kick Trump Off 2024 Ballot.”Breitbart, [10/23/23]

• • Sean Spicer, former press secretary and communications director for Trump and current host of The Sean Spicer Show, wrote on X, “Talk about election interference.... Colorado judge paves way for trial on whether 14th Amendment disqualifies Trump from office.” Twitter/X, [10/26/23]

• • Right-wing commentator Rogan O’Handley, or DC_Draino, complained on X that “Democrat” Wallace refused to recuse herself.He added, “FAKE SHOW TRIAL!” Twitter/X, [10/30/23]

• • On X, Catturd wrote, “The reason Democrats are trying to get Trump off the ballot in Colorado is because cheating is the only way they can win elections. It’s really that simple.” Twitter/X, [10/30/23]
• ## MAGA media figures and trolls have renewed attacks against D.C. Judge Chutkan
  • Users on 4chan have unleashed a barrage of racist images and antisemitic rhetoric against Judge Chutkan. 4chan, [10/31/23, 10/31/23, 10/30/23]

• • In a post on X, pro-Trump troll and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer called Chutkan “the Obama appointed affirmative action poster child.” Twitter/X, [10/30/23]

• • Fox News host Mark Levin posted on X calling Judge Chutkan “a disgrace.”He went on to argue, “The DC courts need to be broken up, its jurisdiction for high profile cases withdrawn, and the judicial seats and subject-matter jurisdictions should be moved to other parts of the country.” Twitter/X, [10/30/23]

• • On Fox News, host Laura Ingraham said, “The Democrats are getting a lot of help from federal Judge Tanya Chutkan.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [10/30/23]
  • Right-wing judicial activist Mike Davis called Chutkan an “obnoxiously partisan DC Obama judge” on X.Twitter/X, [10/30/23]

• • Conservative commentator Julie Kelly also posted on X that “Chutkan shouldn’t be within 100 miles of this case given her inflammatory, biased, and inaccurate statements in court about Trump and Jan 6. But here we are.” Twitter/X, [10/30/23]

• • Jim Hoft of the Gateway Pundit wrote in a headline, “Obama-Appointed Judge Chutkan Reinstates Gag Order on President Trump.” In the piece, Hoft describes her as the “Jamaican-born Obama- appointed Judge Tanya Chutkan.” The Gateway Pundit, [10/29/23]

• • On X, Tom Fitton of the conservative legal organization Judicial Watch reposted an earlier tweet of his in light of the reinstatement, saying, “Judge Chutkan has now effectively taken over Trump's presidential campaign.” Twitter/X, [10/17/23]
  • In another post, Fitton called the developments in the case “election interference by the Biden regime and anti-Trump judge.....” Twitter/X, [10/29/23]

• • Responding to a piece from Conservative Brief on the gag order, far-right political commentator Sebastian Gorka wrote, “This is no longer Republican vs Democrat. It's The People vs The Establishment. Good vs Evil.” Twitter/X, [10/30/23]

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The Bowman “insurrection” farce | Media Matters for America

Right-wing propagandists have used Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s (D-NY) local criminal charge for pulling a fire alarm to reignite their bogus claims that he is an “insurrectionist” and argue that he should spend “years” imprisoned in “the DC Gulag.”

As you may or may not recall, the right spent the end of September diligently trying to construct a major scandal out of Bowman pulling the fire alarm in a House office building. Right-wing media propagandists alleged that the congressman’s (admittedly boneheaded) move was actually a calculated attempt to stall action on the House floor, which they described as an “insurrection” comparable to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The story receded amid the chaos of the past weeks in the House of Representatives following Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) removal, but came roaring back on Wednesday, as House Republicans anointed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and prosecutors in Washington, D.C., charged Bowman with a single count of setting off a false fire alarm.

Bowman will plead guilty to that single count, agreeing to publicly apologize and pay the maximum $1,000 fine for pulling the alarm on September 30. At the time, he explained that he had been rushing from his office in the Cannon House Office Building to the Capitol for a vote, came to a door that was usually open but at that time was locked, and “activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door.” Those claims were consistent with reports that members of Congress often go outside to get from their offices to the Capitol for votes, and Cannon’s doors are closed and alarmed on weekends, when members of Congress are typically not present.

The Capitol Police investigation into Bowman’s actions further supports his statements. An affidavit by the investigator included in the charging documents states that “security camera footage showed Bowman attempting to open the door before pulling the alarm” and subsequently “attempting to get out of the building through several other exits before making his way out of the building and … to the Capitol for the vote,” Axios reported.

“Based on the evidence presented by Capitol Police, we charged the only crime that we have jurisdiction to prosecute,” a spokesperson for the D.C. attorney general’s office said.

But right-wingers have ignored or rejected all this in the hours since news of the charge against Bowman broke, instead doubling down on their initial claims. They have continued to describe the New York representative as an “insurrectionist” and complained that, unlike the January 6 defendants, he is facing “gentle treatment” when he should face serious prison time.

Video

CitationFrom the October 25, 2023, edition of Fox News' The Five.

=“He should go to jail just like the massive number of January 6 protesters,” Fox News host Greg Gutfeld claimed on The Five, adding that Bowman’s stint in prison for pulling a fire alarm should last “years.”

Co-host Jeanine Pirro argued that Bowman’s actions had been a “political thing” by Democrats.

“They wanted to shut down so they could trash the Republicans. He was trying to delay it,” she jeered. (In reality, Bowman and every other member of the Democratic caucus but one voted for the bill to avert a shutdown and fund the government through mid-November.)

Right-wing influencers chimed in on social media with a similar schtick.

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This treatment of Bowman’s fire alarm snafu shows the continuation of three general trends on the Trumpist right.

First, many influential figures are either too lazy to examine the facts before commenting, or have total contempt for their audiences and assume they will not do so.

Second, they desperately want political prosecutions. If Republicans have faced legal accountability, in their worldview, Democrats must be made to face it as well, even if they haven’t committed the same crimes.

Third, Tucker Carlson’s twisted view that January 6 was no big deal has spread throughout the movement. The insurrection is treated as either a cudgel or a joke, not a horrifying disaster that should be prevented from repeating in the future.

That's how you end up with members of Congress jeering reporters for asking the newly-minted House speaker about his past role trying to overturn the 2020 election. Donald Trump’s efforts to toss the results are simply old news that they don’t want to talk about, even as they install one of the architects of the former president’s election subversion plot at the highest level of government.

The laughable right-wing effort to compare Rep. Bowman to January 6 insurrectionists

10/01/23 3:42 PM EDT

Fox host claims Rep. Bowman thought “he could get away” with pulling fire alarm because he is the “right race”

10/01/23 10:49 AM EDT

Tucker Carlson preemptively blames Rep. Jamaal Bowman for any future attempts on his life by right-wing extremists h

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mma 10 23

As four co-defendants in former President Donald Trump’s Georgia election subversion case recently pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, right-wing media twisted the facts to further their “witch hunt” narrative.

• • Four co-defendants in the Georgia election subversion case — Scott Hall, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, and Jenna Ellis — pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Trump and the other defendants. By accepting the plea deals, they were able to avoid being charged under Georgia’s RICO act. The Hill, [10/22/23; The Washington Post, 10/24/23]
  • Testimony from these individuals will “give Willis and her prosecutors more bricks to use against Trump at trial,” which explains why the DA would be willing to drop other charges in their plea deals.The prospect of testimony from Powell, Chesebro, and Ellis is particularly “ominous” for Trump and the other co-defendants, as the three “could paint a detailed collective portrait of Mr. Trump’s activities in the postelection period.” New York magazine, [10/25/23; USA Today, 10/21/23; The New York Times, 10/24/23]
  • Legal expertise suggests that these deals are not out of the ordinary, as plea bargaining “makes up the vast majority of criminal justice transactions today.” Cynthia Alkon, a law professor at Texas A&M University School of Law, told The Conversation that “prosecutors rely on plea bargaining at times to strengthen their cases by offering deals contingent on a defendant agreeing to testify against another person,” indicating that Willis’ decision to offer pleas to Powell, Chesebro, and Hall is fairly typical. Vera Institute, [9/2020; The Conversation, 10/23/23]

• ## Right-wing media insist that the leniency of the plea deals is proof that Willis “overcharged” the defendants and that she has a “weak” case
  • National Review published an article titled “Sidney Powell’s Guilty Plea Points to a Faltering Case in Atlanta.” The article by Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy claimed, “While the media spin will be different, my first impression of Sidney Powell’s guilty plea in the Fulton County election-interference case is: It signals that District Attorney Fani Willis’s much-heralded RICO indictment — in which 19 are charged, including Powell’s famous co-defendant Donald Trump — is a dud.” National Review, [10/19/23]
  • The Washington Examiner’s Byron York suggested that Willis dropping “the super-duper grand conspiracy charge against an alleged key player” was suspicious.His full post read, “For you lawyers out there: Wasn't Sidney Powell charged with taking part in the super-duper grand conspiracy that Fani Willis alleged in the Trump election indictment? A felony, of course. And now Willis drops the super-duper grand conspiracy charge against an alleged key player?” Twitter/X, [10/19/23]
  • Former co-host of Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast Raheem Kassam posted that Powell’s plea deal “suggests their case was not as strong as they originally believed.” Kassam wrote, “Corporate media will crow about Sidney Powell's plea deal. But the fact she's being fined $6,000 and being made to write an apology letter suggests their case was not as strong as they originally believed…” Twitter/X, [10/19/23]
  • Conservative influencer Will Chamberlain claimed that Powell and Chesebro’s plea deals are a “a pretty serious embarrassment for Fani Willis.”His full post read, “So both Sidney Powell and Ken Chesebro get plea deals for zero jail time. They were facing a mandatory minimum of five years on the RICO counts and a maximum of 20 years. This is a pretty serious embarrassment for Fani Willis.” Twitter/X, [10/20/23]
  • Conspiracy theory outlet WDN, formerly WorldNetDaily, published an article titled “Prosecutor offering plea deals to Trump co-defendants to bag the 'real target.'” The article quotes William A. Jacobson, a Cornell Law School professor and founder of the conservative website Legal Insurrection: “While the prosecution’s willingness to accept plea deals may reflect they have been ‘overcharging defendants,’ Jacobson said they are keeping their eyes on the ‘real target’ — the former president.” The Daily Caller also quoted Jacobson’s claim about Willis “overcharging.” WND, [10/23/23; The Daily Caller, 10/21/23]
  • WND quoted Molly McCann Sanders, Powell’s previous co-counsel, who claimed, “The fact that Fani Willis dropped all 7 felonies tells the tale. She had no case, but she did have the coercive power of the state.” Conservative Brief also included the Sanders quote and claimed that Powell’s guilty plea “could be good for Trump.” WND, [10/22/23; Conservative Brief, 10/20/23; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/19/23]
  • The Federalist published an article titled “Sidney Powell’s Plea Proves Fulton County Prosecutor Went Nuclear To Get Trump.”The article argues, “That the Fulton County prosecutor settled for these misdemeanor charges when Powell faced seven major felony counts — including an expansive RICO conspiracy count — confirms the criminal justice system was weaponized to get Trump.” The Federalist, [10/20/23]
  • Newsmax guest and former Trump administration official Theodore Wold claimed on Wake Up America that “this isn't the architecture of a massive RICO conspiracy as they lead us to believe over the last few months,” predicting the latest plea deal “isn’t really going to harm the president’s defense strategy.” Host Michael Grimm then asked right-wing attorney Jared Roberts if “this actually proof that the DA overcharged?” Roberts answered, “I think it’s definitely proof that they overcharged. These charges have been baseless since the beginning.” Newsmax, *Wake Up America*, [10/22/23]

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MAGA media melt down over former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis’ guilty plea in election subversion case | Media Matters for America

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an ah 10 23

When Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) was running for House speaker, right-wing media figures like Fox News' Sean Hannity and "War Room" host Steve Bannon made a concerted effort to bully and coerce Republicans into voting for him. But it didn't work.

The first time Jordan's nomination for speaker came up for a full House vote, 20 Republicans voted against him. That number increased to 22 on the second vote and 25 on the third. After that, House Republicans gave up on Jordan and searched for a new nominee.

In an article published on October 23, Columbia Journalism Review's Jon Allsop examines the negative role that right-wing media played in Jordan's ill-fated run for speaker.

"As I wrote in the aftermath of that vote," Allsop explains, "(Rep. Kevin) McCarthy's ouster looked like proof, among other things, of the growing power of right-wing media over Republican politics, both in an immediate sense — media agitators, including Steve Bannon, had pushed the anti-McCarthy crusade — and over the long term, in the genre's elevation of star power over teamwork…. the fringe over the mainstream…. division over compromise, anger over action."

Allsop notes that "at a glance," Jordan's "failure to succeed McCarthy appeared to illustrate the limits of" right-wing media's "power." He adds, however, that

"even at his lowest ebb, nearly 200 of Jordan's Republican colleagues backed him for speaker — a remarkable tally for a man long perceived as a fringe rabble-rouser, and, if anything, a testament to the power of right-wing media in dragging the GOP toward him, rather than the inverse."

"Supporters of Jordan, not least in right-wing media, clearly believed that a pressure campaign appealing to the party's grass roots — who, of course, consume right-wing media — would cow the holdouts," Allsop writes. "Initially, this strategy appeared to be working, but it ultimately backfired: Several of the holdouts chafed at it, and stood firm. In the end, only two dozen or so House Republicans opposed Jordan. Given the GOP's slender majority, this was all it took to sink him."

READ MORE:How right-wing media firebrands promoted 'high-profile disruption' in House speaker debacle

*Read the Columbia Journalism Review's full report at this link.

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Update (10/16/23):The Illinois man who fatally stabbed a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy had reportedly been worried about the “day of jihad” and had “been listening to conservative talk radio about the Israel-Hamas war and became increasingly concerned about his Muslim tenants.”*}:

Right-wing media spent days fearmongering about potential mass violence happening on Friday after a former Hamas political leader was reportedly mistranslated as advocating for a “day of jihad.” Despite a lack of evidence of a related threat to the United States, some called for increased surveillance and others gave advice on how to best avoid an attack.

Homeland security officials said there was no evidence of a “specific and credible” threat to Americans, and no “jihad”-inspired attacks appeared to occur, though there was a reported anti-Muslim attack in Illinois, in which a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy was killed.

• ## A former leader of Hamas called for protests in the “Islamic world,” but officials say there was no related “specific and credible” threat to the U.S., though there was one reported anti-Muslim attack in Illinois
  • On October 11, Khaled Meshaal, a former political leader of Hamas, released a video calling for people to “head to the squares and streets” for a day of protests in “the Arab and Islamic world” on Friday, October 13. Meshaal urged followers “who teach jihad” to use this “moment for the application,” but did not explicitly use the term “day of jihad.” Wired reported: “While Meshaal very specifically made the calls for protests in ‘the Arab and Islamic worlds,’ his comments were quickly mistranslated online to become a ‘global day of jihad,’ a phrase he did not use.” Reuters, [10/11/23; Wired, 10/13/23]
  • Experts say the term “jihad” is “not a single concept” but literally means “exerted effort” or “striving.” Interfaith Alliance and Religious Freedom Project of the First Amendment Center wrote that the term “jihad” has often been misunderstood since around the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and some extremist groups have appropriated the violent meaning. National Geographic, [10/24/23; Southern Poverty Law Center, Learning for Justice, accessed 10/16/23]
  • On Friday, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security official told reporters that they do not “at present have any specific and credible intelligence that would indicate any potential threat to the United States stemming from Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel at this time.”Newsweek reported that law enforcement in major U.S. cities stepped up security measures “while stating there have so far been no credible threats of violence associated with the so-called 'day of Jihad.'" Miami Herald, [10/12/23; Newsweek, 10/13/23]
  • Although there was no apparent “day of jihad” in the U.S., there was at least one recorded anti-Muslim attack over the weekend. A Chicago-based landlord has been charged with a hate crime after attacking a Palestinian American family, killing a 6-year-old child and wounding his mother. The Associated Press, [10/16/23]
• ## Right-wing media promoted the “day of jihad” as a credible domestic threat, calling for people to “not leave your homes”
  • Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk used the “global day of jihad” to say that “we have invited some of the most disgusting people on the planet into the West” and he hopes “something bad does not happen tomorrow” but that “we shouldn’t be surprised” if it does. He stated that the U.S. has allowed in “an unlimited flow of foreigners that do not show our religion, our culture, our worldview” and that “we have imported the dynamite right into our country.” Salem Media Group, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [10/12/23]
  • Fox News host Sean Hannity claimed that October 13 has “officially been designated as a day of jihad — that means holy war — by Hamas leaders.”Hannity also said: “What, it wasn't enough for them to brutalize southern Israel — now they want to terrorize the entire world?” Fox News, *Hannity*, [10/12/23]
  • Fox News host Jesse Watters said that “Hamas is calling for a global day of jihad” and that “if I were the FBI, I'd start surveilling college campuses.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/12/23]
  • Right-wing political strategist Joey Mannarino posted that due to the call for a “Global Day of Jihad,” you should “not leave your homes that day unless there is an emergency.” Mannarino also pleaded with people to avoid “public transit," “airplanes,” and “public events.” Twitter/X, [10/11/23]
  • Conservative commentator Dana Loesch urged Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to condemn “Hamas’s call for a global day of jihad.”Twitter/X, [10/12/23]
  • On Newsmax, former CIA officer Mike Baker warned that during the supposed “global day of jihad,” people should “watch what happens around you” and “understand the areas you’re moving in and out of.” Guest host Lara Trump endorsed this warning, calling it “great advice.” Newsmax, *Eric Bolling The Balance,* [10/13/23]
  • Fox News contributor Tomi Lahren complained about the lack of law enforcement to “help monitor” the “international day of Jihad.” Lahren posted in full, “So tomorrow is supposed to be an international day of jihad and major cities are in desperate need of law enforcement to help monitor. Really too bad that law enforcement has been demonized and defunded thanks to the Left. Brilliant work, losers.” Twitter/X, [10/12/23]
  • MRC Newsbusters published an article calling ABC, CBS, and NBC “cowards” for “gently cover[ing] Day of Jihad.”The article claimed that “the ‘big three’ networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC engaged in acts of cowardice by vaguely tip-toeing through security concerns for Jewish community centers, schools, and synagogues due to what a former Hamas head demanded as a day of jihad and the rampant nature of open anti-Semitism and pro-slaughter of Jews on college campuses.” MRC Newsbusters, [10/13/23]
  • Fox News host Jeanine Pirro claimed that by “shutting down” schools and public places for the “day of rage,” the U.S. is doing “all the right things” but also showing that “we’re going to tremble if you say you are coming.” Watters responded by asking the FBI to focus on Palestinian supporters who “sound like they are about five seconds away from an act of violence.” Fox News, *The Five*, [10/13/23]
  • One America News Network host Chris Boyle falsely claimed that “the leader of Hamas has issued a call to action that Friday the 13th should be a day of jihad across the world” and asked, “How many jihadis could there really be slipping past the southern border?”He also lamented, “Should I be worried about the fact that increasingly large numbers of people on the terrorist watch list are slipping past our southern border while cries for international jihad grow louder?” One America News Network, *Nights with Chris Boyle*, [10/14/23]
  • TheBlaze’s Jason Howerton told followers to arm themselves and to “absolutely be strapped” in preparation for a “global day of jihad.” He posted in full: “Hamas founding member is calling for a ‘global day of jihad’ on Friday. He tells his followers to sacrifice their ‘blood and souls’ for Palestine. Do not be paranoid. But absolutely be strapped.” Twitter/X, [10/11/23]

1. ### After Hamas attack in Israel, right-wing media revert to post-9/11 tropes

10/13/23 10:25 AM EDT

2. ### CNN brings on warmonger John Bolton to baselessly claim that Iran directed Hamas attack in Israel

10/12/23 2:43 PM EDT

3. ### Right-wing media use Hamas’ attacks on Israel to fearmonger about immigrants in the United States

10/10/23

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How r ight-wing media firebrands promoted 'high-profile disruption' in House speaker debacle - Alternet.org

wapo

when Rep. Jim Jordan's (R-Ohio) nomination for speaker came up for a full House vote on Tuesday, October 17, the far-right MAGA Republican didn't fare well. Democrats voted overwhelmingly to make House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) speaker, and the 20 Republicans who voted against Jordan favored Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana), former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) or other members of the GOP caucus.

That vote wasn't what far-right media figures like Fox News' Sean Hannity and "War Room" host Steve Bannon were hoping for. Hannity and Bannon had waged a concerted effort to bully and coerce House Republicans into voting for Jordan.

In an article published by Washington Post on October 18, reporters Sarah Ellison and Will Sommer cite Hannity and Bannon as examples of pundits who have helped fuel the chaos plaguing the GOP's House majority.

"Hannity's effort to personally whip up votes for Jordan highlights the central role that right-wing media has played in the weeks-long drama engulfing Capitol Hill over who will wield the speaker's gavel," Ellison and Sommer observe. "At each turn, conservative media figures such as Hannity and former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon have injected high-profile disruption into a process that normally plays out quietly behind the scenes in Capitol Hill corridors."

On October 13, Hannity tweeted, "Any Member of Congress would be crazy to NOT support Jim Jordan for Speaker. He is a natural born principled leader who will lead house Republicans to unite vs the radical left on the house and senate. Call your member and tell them at 202-224-3121."

Bannon, on "War Room," urged listeners to turn up the heat on conservative Rep. Steve Womack — an Arkansas Republican and one of the holdouts — and said of the congressman, "You're in a super MAGA district. You gotta get your mind right." Womack, however, voted for Scalise on October 17.

"Over the weekend," Ellison and Sommer report, "Hannity reached out to several holdout lawmakers who were not supporting Jordan, while one of his producers contacted lawmakers with an e-mail asking why they weren’t backing him."

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1. ### How the right ran with a Fox hoax about a Marine veteran’s burial

08/28/23

...fox News published a false accusation that the Pentagon forced a Gold Star family to pay $60,000 for the transportation of remains

• As U.S. and NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, and conducted massive airlift operations to evacuate civilians fleeing the Taliban, at least one suicide bomber killed 13 American service members and as many as 170 civilians outside at crowded entry gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. One of the American Marines killed, Sgt. Nicole Gee, had previously been photographed tending to a wounded baby at the airport and had spoken positively of her role in the evacuation effort. Her remains arrived in her hometown of Roseville, California, on August 29 of that year, and were later transported to Arlington National Cemetery and laid to rest.

• • On July 25, a Fox News Digital article claimed that Gee’s family was “forced to pay to ship” the body of a slain Marine. In the article — which has since been deleted from Fox’s website — Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) told Fox that he was “enraged to learn that the Department of Defense had placed a heavy financial burden” on Gee’s family, which secured the $60,000 transportation fee from a nonprofit organization. Fox News Digital, [7/25/23 via Internet Archive]
  • Mills linked to the Fox article in a social media post and wrote, “At no time should our Gold Star families be financially responsible for burying their loved ones and American heroes.” Twitter/X, [7/25/23]
• ## Military-focused news outlets were quick to refute the claims in the Fox story
• News outlets focused on the military, veterans, and service families were the first to speak with Gee’s family directly about the false Fox story, and quickly pushed back on Mill’s false claims. Their reporting made clear that Fox neglected to fact-check or substantiate his statements.

• • Statements from the Marine’s family first reported by the military-focused publication Task & Purpose asserted that the family never contacted the Department of Defense about financing the relocation, nor received any bills. Task & Purpose contacted Gee's family and was first to report their statements refuting Fox’s story. The statements were later confirmed by The Sacramento Bee, the family's hometown newspaper. The family stated that the flight was organized and “donated” by a non-profit organization and a Pentagon representative confirmed that the military had “no record of any incurred charges or any pending requests for reimbursement associated with the transportation of Sgt. Gee’s remains to Arlington National Cemetery.” Task & Purpose, [7/26/23]
  • The Marine Corps Times repeated the family statements collected by Task & Purpose and further clarified that there was “no record of any such cost for the family” over the transportation and burial of the remains. Its coverage specifically called out both Mills and Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) for attacking the Department of Defense over the nonsense claims. Marine Corps Times, [7/27/23]
• ## Fox quietly scrubbed the false report and eventually apologized to the family
• After pressure from the Marine Corps, and nearly a month of back and forth between representatives from the network and the Department of Defense, Fox issued an apology to the fallen Marine’s family for the false story – but never published a correction.

• • Fox News, according to Military.com, edited the article’s headline and content “without noting a correction,” and later removed the entire article containing Mills’ original false claims. Military.com further reported that after Gee’s family said they were never billed by the Pentagon and refuted Mills’ false claims, he issued a statement on July 27 claiming that the family was “confused in their time of grief” and continued to attack the Department of Defense. Military.com, [7/28/23]
  • Military.com also detailed the Marine Corps’ month-long attempt to convince Fox to retract and correct its “false” story. According to Military.com, a spokesperson for the Marine Corps had requested that Fox News apologize directly to the family and insisted that Fox fully correct its false story. Maj. James Stenger wrote in an email to Fox after it changed its article, “This headline correction is still misleading and your story is still false.” He also wrote that Fox was “using the grief of a family member of a fallen Marine to score cheap clickbait points.” Military.com, [8/23/23; The Washington Post, 8/27/23]
  • On August 26, CNN reported that Fox News had finally apologized to Gee’s family, with a network spokesperson asserting that the false story had been “addressed internally.” Although Fox had scrubbed the article from its site at least a month prior, there has been no formal retraction or correction issued. Fox, in a statement, said, “We sincerely apologize to the Gee family” and said its fake story was “now unpublished.” CNN, [8/26/23]
• ## Right-wing media ran with Fox’s story before it was deleted
• Although searches of the SnapStream video database showed that Fox News never aired this false story on its cable programs, many other right-wing media outlets picked up the story and used it to attack the Biden administration. This included conservative social media figures, right-wing blogs, and Fox competitors Newsmax and One America News. Right-wing media often used the story as a vehicle to pursue their own petty criticisms of the Biden administration’s policies, including attacking health care for transgender military personnel, criticizing military aid to Ukraine to defend itself against the ongoing Russian invasion, and objecting to reimbursement for military personnel travel costs for abortion care.

• • Chronicles Magazine editor Pedro L. Gonzalez: “The family of Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan, was forced to come up with $60,000 to transport Gee’s remains to Arlington National Cemetery because the Pentagon wouldn’t pay for it.” Twitter/X, [7/25/23]
  • Talk radio host Dana Loesch: “One of the 13 Gold Star families who lost their daughter in Afghanistan was forced to pay to ship her body back — until nonprofit stepped in to pay $60,000 to move Marine Corps Sgt Nicole Gee's remains to Arlington National Cemetery.” Twitter/X, [7/25/23]
  • The Right Scoop: “HORRIBLE: Biden Pentagon FORCED Gold Star family to pay to ship fallen Marine killed in Afghan withdrawal to Arlington.” The article added: “What a freaking slap in the face!” The Right Scoop, [7/25/23]
  • The anti-LGBTQ account Libs of TikTok posted: “The Biden admin is funding drag shows in Equador but refused to pay to bring a dead Marine’s body home.” Twitter/X, [7/26/23]
  • Former Fox producer Kyle Becker: “NEW: The military community is furious at the Biden administration upon discovering a Gold Star Family was forced to bear the cost of transporting its slain daughter's remains after she was killed serving her country in Afghanistan.” Twitter/X, [7/26/23]
  • Newsmax host Chris Salcedo: “The family of a fallen service member killed during Biden's disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal says they were forced to pay thousands of dollars to move the body of their loved one to their final resting place.” Salcedo concluded, “Another sign of how far our government has fallen.” Newsmax, *The Chris Salcedo Show*, [7/26/23]
  • Newsmax host Carl Higbie introduced a segment pushing the fake story, saying, “This one’s actually near and dear to me as a veteran.” Higbie said that the fake story that Gee’s family “was forced to pay 60 grand” to bury her in Arlington National Cemetery “will permanently tarnish the reputation of our Defense Department” and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Newsmax’s Dick Morris joined in the outrage. Newsmax, *Carl Higbie Frontline*, [7/26/23]
  • OAN host Dan Ball reported the “disturbing details” that Gee’s family “had to pay to have her remains moved,” and applauded Mills “for finding this out, for bringing this to the nation’s attention.” Ball lamented that legitimate news organizations weren’t covering the story at the time, linked the false story to a decline in American patriotism, and interviewed a Republican congressional candidate about the fake story. The candidate used the false story to rant against medical care for transgender military personnel. OAN, *Real America with Dan Ball*, [7/26/23]
  • Talk radio host Lars Larson: “Joe Biden is now giving billions for Ukraine but nothing for a vet who died protecting our nation?” On his radio show, Larson repeated the lie that Gee’s family “was denied the usual support by the Pentagon for transportation of her remains to her final resting place in Arlington.” Larson added, “This is absolutely crazy,” and claimed that the Biden administration is undercutting and dishonoring military personnel. Alpha Media, *The Lars Larson Show*, [7/26/23]
  • Townhall: “Family of Marine killed in Afghanistan forced to pay $60,000 bill thanks to Biden Pentagon policy change.” Townhall, [7/26/23]
  • The Western Journal: “Family of Marine killed in Afghanistan stuck with $60,000 bill after Pentagon policy change.” The Western Journal, [7/26/23]
  • Gateway Pundit: “As Joe Biden slept: Family of slain Marine at Kabul airport was forced to fundraise $60,000 to move daughter’s remains to Arlington Cemetery.” Gateway Pundit, [7/26/23]
  • Townhall: “Biden cut a massive check to Ukraine after forcing a family to pay $60,000 to move soldier’s remains.” Townhall, [7/27/23]
  • The Federalist: “For the Pentagon, subsidizing abortions takes priority over transporting service members to their final resting place.” The Federalist, [7/27/23]
  • Salcedo returned to the fake story to discuss a lack of veterans benefits with a guest. Introducing the author of a book about veterans benefits, Salcedo asked, “Is this how far our elected leaders and our government have fallen?” Newsmax, *The Chris Salcedo Show*, [7/28/23]
• ## Numerous Republican lawmakers and officials also promoted the fake story
• Like many of the right-wing media outlets that shared the false story, Republican lawmakers used it to air their grievances about the provision of health care to military personnel, the administration’s immigration policy, and military aid to Ukraine.

• • Rep. Mark Green (R-TN): “So we are paying to fly illegal immigrants to the destination of their choice but we can’t fly a hero’s body home? This administration is totally lost.” Twitter/X, [7/25/23]
  • Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ): “Biden’s Pentagon is eager to fund abortion travel, genital mutilations & a proxy war in Europe. But when a Marine was killed during the Admin’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal, her family was forced to pay to move her body. Despicable.” Twitter/X, [7/25/23]
  • Florida GOP Chairman Christian Ziegler: “Really great work by Florida Congressman @CoryMillsFL⁩ on this!” Twitter/X, [7/25/23]
  • Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL): “The Pentagon is providing taxpayer funding for elective abortions, but not to transport our fallen heroes to their final resting place. This just shows how extreme the Pentagon’s unprecedented new abortion policy really is.” Twitter/X, [7/26/23]
  • Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL): “This is sickening. Thank you to Honoring Our Fallen, a group that stepped up amid the Biden Administration’s absence.” Twitter/X, [7/26/23]
  • Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT): “Under Biden's new Pentagon policy, a Gold Star Family was left to pay to transport and bury their loved one at Arlington National Cemetery. Absolutely despicable.” Twitter/X, [7/26/23]
  • Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA): “Unacceptable. Congress cannot allow this to happen again.” Twitter/X, [7/26/23]
  • Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA): “Sergeant Nicole Gee is an American hero who lost her life in the Afghanistan withdrawal. It is unfathomable that the Pentagon would decline to cover the cost of transporting her to her final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery.” The letter that Kiley attached to his social media post was cited by Sacramento media outlets, which mistakenly pushed the false story. Twitter/X, [7/26/23]
• ## Fox and related media outlets previously spread a hoax that veterans were kicked out of housing in New York
• Fox’s creation of this fake story near the second anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal echoes another bogus story in which the New York Post — which, like Fox News, is a Murdoch media property — falsely reported that homeless veterans were kicked out of hotels to make room for asylum-seekers.Fox widely covered that hoax before airing multiple similar retractions within days.Although multiple Fox programs aired retractions, some others continued to promote the fake story as genuine even after Mid Hudson News, a local news outlet, had completely debunked it.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-falsely-claim-biden-fell-asleep-during-ceremony-honoring-victims-hawaii

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mma 8 23

right-wing media this week responded to former President Donald Trump’s fourth criminal indictment — this time, for conspiring to subvert the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia — by arguing that the charges signal the end of American democracy and the start of a potential civil war.

• On August 14, Trump and 18 of his allies were indicted in the state of Georgia on charges of felony racketeering and conspiracy for their attempts to subvert the 2020 election. The 98-page indictment was handed down by a grand jury that reviewed evidence gathered during a two-and-a-half year investigation headed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
• Right-wing media have defended Trump using inflammatory rhetoric, accusing Democrats of sedition and totalitarianism. The extreme reactions from the right echo previous attempts by conservative media to shield the former president from accountability for his various charges.

Right-wing media bemoaned the indictment as an attack on democracy, a display of tyranny, and a constitutional crisis

• Right-wing podcaster Tim Pool responded to a post claiming that the “Fulton County DA went insane” with the comment “Civil war.” He later posted that “the only path forward is escalation. Either Trump is a cult leader trying to overthrow the US Or Democrats are engaged in seditious conspiracy to steal power.” Twitter/X, [8/15/23, 8/15/23]
• On Hannity, Fox News contributor and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich decried the consequences of the indictment for the future of the country, comparing it to “the rise of secession and the Civil War.” He said, “I think what you're seeing tonight is one tree in a forest and I think we are drifting toward the greatest constitutional crisis since the 1850s and the rise of secession and the Civil War. I don't mean that as hyperbole.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [8/14/23]
• Article III Project founder Mike Davis argued on Steve Bannon’s War Room that “there's no way they can come up with this before the election if he’s going to get a fair trial.”He then claimed that “this is going to have a very chilling effect on democracy” because “you can't get more dangerous than telling people if you dare to question elections in America, you face going to prison for many, many years.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [8/15/23]
• Fox News host Mark Levin said indictments of Trump are “an attack on the people. Every indictment is an attack on our freedom, our ability to vote.” Levin claimed, “Every indictment is an attack on our freedom, our ability to vote. The Democrats don't care about voting. They care about winning at all costs. The Democrat Party wants to be the monopoly party in this country.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [8/15/23]
• Far-right troll Mike Cernovich claimed the indictment was evidence that Democrats are forming “a totalitarian regime.” He posted, “We are occupied by the same totalitarian regime that we used to read about. It’s here. They are emboldened. Evil never stops. It’s going to get worse.” Twitter/X, [8/14/23]
• Levin similarly claimed that “Stalin would be proud. I'm sure Putin’s proud. I’m sure our enemies are celebrating.” He continued, “Congress is supposed to make all these final decisions. You're not supposed to criminalize the challenging of electors or dual electors or counting of votes and that sort of thing." Fox News, *Hannity*, [8/14/23]
• Breitbart Senior Editor-at-Large Joel Pollak decried the indictment as “political persecution of the opposition.” He posted that the indictment “recalls trials by totalitarian regimes” and that prosecutors are “doomed to fail.” Twitter/X, [8/15/23]
• Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro posted, “Whatever you think of the Trump indictments, one thing is for certain: the glass has now been broken over and over again.” Shapiro added, “Political opponents can be targeted by legal enemies. Running for office now carries the legal risk of going to jail -- on all sides.” Twitter/X, [8/15/23]
• Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk labeled Trump’s indictment as “an attempt to nullify the United States Constitution.”He also called the charges “psychological warfare.” Salem Media Group, The Charlie Kirk Show, [8/15/23]
• Former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs labeled prosecutors as “Marxist” and claimed that they have “trampled President Trump's rights and the Constitution.” He then argued that “the Left is an evil force that must be held accountable.” Twitter/X, [8/15/23]
• :{:{Failed Arizona GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake said on Steve Bannon’s War Room}:, “I think we’ll end up seeing another indictment,” before claiming that “:{they’ll eventually come for you.”}::{ She continued, “They’re going to go after grandmas and grandpas and people who were these alternate electors. }:This is :{political persecution of people who support America. … And if you don't think they'll eventually come for you, you are living in a fantasy land. They will eventually be coming after all of us}:.” :{Real America’s Voice, War Room:(style="background-color:#ff9900ff"):}:, [8/15/23]}:

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https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/trumps-media-allies-declare-he-will-win-election-even-prison

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BAK

619 belated

11/20 now refers to hardcore trumpista diaspora, see stop the steal

i have added soc med migrated to eg parler 121

SEE COVID 3 FAIL

see jrnl fail, denial

see generic conservative right

see direcTV dumps

R w tag is ppl/orgs willing to use violence

orphan 1/20

before i used GOP for generic conservatism

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MMA 8 23

The right’s most ignorant and dishonest partisans are trying to delegitimize the new Georgia charges against former President Donald Trump over his 2020 election subversion plot by claiming that the indictment from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis shows that, in the words of Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk, “watching cable TV and tweeting can now get you indicted.” This argument is nonsense: Prosecutors seeking to establish a conspiracy to further a criminal scheme use indictments to lay out the individual steps alleged participants undertook, many of which may not be themselves illegal, as the legal writer Julian Sanchez explained.

But this brand of dumb-or-lying blather inadvertently highlights a critical point: Trump’s obsessive consumption of right-wing media's lies and conspiracy theories about purported election fraud played an essential role in the effort to overturn the presidential election that ultimately triggered his indictment.

As president, Trump was fully enmeshed in the alternate reality spun by his TV propagandists. He would spend hours a day watching right-wing cable news channels and sent nearly 1,300 tweets in response to Fox News and Fox Business alone from September 2018 to the end of his presidency. Trump treated Fox hosts as members of his kitchen cabinet, enacting policy based on what he saw on their shows and seeking their counsel in private. People would go on his favorite channels seeking to influence his administration’s decision-making, at times snaring government contracts or presidential clemency because he happened to be watching.

This media diet fueled the election fraud conspiracy theories at the heart of Trump’s election subversion plot. After Election Day 2020, Trump’s top campaign advisers and his attorney general tried to tell him that he had lost the election and the claims he was making about election fraud were “bullshit.” But Trump preferred to listen to his TV advisers, who told him what he wanted to hear: that he had been the victim of election-shifting fraud.

[[NO LNX VID

Trump sent at least 76 tweets hyping right-wing TV programming about supposed election fraud in the weeks between Election Day and the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol that he helped spur. His live-tweets from that period promoted incendiary and patently ridiculous conspiracy theories, including that Joe Biden benefited from “millions of Fake Votes”; that voting machines had deleted “2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES” and “shifted 2-3% of Trump Votes to Biden”; and that the U.S. Postal Service had been “tampering with hundreds of thousands of ballots.”

The then-president used that steady stream of “bullshit” from his TV allies to keep his supporters agitated and infuriated about the supposedly “rigged” election — including in Georgia.

In response to right-wing cable news segments, Trump attacked the state’s Republican elected leaders for not supporting his lies, claimed that “signature match” would make the state “flip Republican,” baselessly lashed out at election rule changes as unconstitutional, and urged his followers to tune in to a televised hearing on the election (the last of which is highlighted in the indictment as “an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy”).

It’s worth noting that many of the people who went on TV to claim the election had been stolen did not actually believe that was the case. Filings in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox showed that top executives and big stars at the network knew the election fraud claims were baseless, but nonetheless lied to their audience in support of Trump’s plot out of cowardice and greed rather than leveling with them.

That endless stream of right-wing media disinformation gave Trump cover to build the phony justification for his efforts to throw out the 2020 election results and stay in power. His supporters, trapped in an information ecosystem in which election fraud claims were constant and validated, became convinced that the election had been stolen. That, in turn, created incentives for Republican officials to aid the then-president’s scheme, which came frightfully close to succeeding.

Three years later, Trump faces charges i]]n Washington, D.C., and Georgia courts over whether that seditious attempt to end American democracy was illegal. But he’s still obsessed with what he sees his propagandists saying on his television. And right now, the same people who told Trump that the election had been stolen are encouraging him to retaliate if he regains power by politicizing the justice system and throwing his political enemies in prison on spurious charges.

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Right-wing media falsely claim Trump's conspiracy charges in Georgia are “criminalization” of free speech

The new indictment alleges that the former president's efforts to subvert the state’s 2020 presidential election results violated state racketeering laws

WRITTEN BY ETHAN COLLIER

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM CHLOE SIMON

PUBLISHED 08/15/23

Former President Donald Trump has been indicted for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia. The nearly 100-page indictment alleges that Trump, along with 18 others, participated in a “criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election result.” Leading up to this indictment, some in right-wing media touted Trump’s free speech rights as proof of his innocence, recycling the same defenses used in their attempts to dismiss the former president’s January 6 election interference charges, despite the fact that the charges are based on his actions, not his speech. Right-wing figures like Laura Loomer and Charlie Kirk also attacked Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

AFter a two-year investigation, Fani Willis has indicted Trump on racketeering charges

Willis began her investigation two years ago after Trump’s January 2021 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was leaked. During the call, Trump directed Raffensperger “to find 11,780 votes” because “we won the state.” [The Associated Press, 1/3/21]

The investigation followed several main investigative threads.These include Trump’s call with Raffensperger, his attempt to get fake electors to certify his victory, his false claims of election fraud, his harassment of election workers, and Sidney Powell’s unauthorized access to Georgia’s election equipment. [The Associated Press, 7/31/23]

Trump and 18 others face up to 20 years in prison for racketeering, specifically violating the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. According to the indictment, Trump and more than a dozen allies, including former chief of staff Mark Meadows and lawyers Rudy Guiliani and John Eastman, “refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.” [Reuters, 8/15/23; Insider, 8/14/23]

Trump is being indicted for actions he took to interfere with the election, not for his speech or political beliefs

“The theory of the indictment is that the speech of the president and the falsehoods of the president were part of a general effort to steal the election.” First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams told The Associated Press, “If all that this was about was lies or the alleged lies of President Trump, then he’d have a pretty good legal defense based on the First Amendment.” But, Abrams said, the indictment maintains that Trump’s lies “were part of a general effort to steal the election.” [The Associated Press, 8/2/23]

“It’s not *the speech* that’s criminal. It’s what the speech *does*: constitute an element of another crime.” New York University School of Law assistant professor Noah Rosenblum debunked the free speech argument, also writing, “Here, Trump is charged with conspiracy. But the lies he made about the election are part of showing his knowing fraud — an element of a crime.” [Twitter/X, 8/1/23]

There is “no First Amendment right to use speech to subvert an election, any more than there is a First Amendment right to use speech to bribe, threaten, or intimidate.” In a piece for Slate, University of California, Los Angeles School of Law professor Richard L. Hasen also poked holes in the First Amendment defense, writing, “Trump did not just state the false claims; he allegedly used the false claims to engage in a conspiracy to steal the election.” [Slate, 8/1/23]

Right-wing media previewed their defense of Trump weeks ahead of the indictment by attacking Willis, claiming the indictment criminalizes free speech, and attempting to undermine the potential charges

Fox guest and legal analyst Phil Holloway attempted to defend Trump’s actions in Georgia as an exercise in free speech. He argued that the “efforts that he made to challenge the election — such as reaching out to the secretary of state here in Georgia and even talking to Mike Pence — those were efforts by a citizen taking their grievance to a government official, and that is specifically covered under the First Amendment. Americans have the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 8/4/23]

Article III Project founder Mike Davis appeared on Fox & Friends and claimed that Willis will indict Trump for a “noncrime, again, of objecting to a presidential election.” Davis complained that “this is all-out ‘law-fare’ against President Trump because Democrats fear that they’re not going to be able to stop him on November 5, 2024.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 8/3/23]

Republican activist and attorney Joseph diGenova called Willis a “rabid Democrat.” In a similarly melodramatic fashion, diGenova previously condemned Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation as an “assault on the Constitution” and “vengeance, unleashed retributive justice by a Democratic administration that is drunk.”[Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, 8/1/23]

Anti-Muslim extremist Laura Loomer launched a racist personal attack against Willis, calling her “a straight up THOT.” She added, “Turns out she failed to disclose a previous relationship she had with a gang banger she was supposed to be prosecuting. Baby girl belongs in a Trap House. Not a court house. #Ratchet.” [Twitter/X, 8/4/23]

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk called Willis a “complete deranged lunatic” on his show. [Salem Radio Network, The Charlie Kirk Show, 8/7/23]

Fox host Sean Hannity said on his radio show that he assumes that this indictment will be “prosecutorial overreach.” Hannity also asserted that “if it goes up to the Georgia Supreme Court, Donald Trump wins hands down.”  [Premiere Radio, The Sean Hannity Show, 8/3/23]

Following news of the indictment, right-wing media continued to amplify the “criminalizing free speech” narrative

Attorney and Fox contributor Jonathan Turley argued that Trump's free speech rights are under attack. He said that “every call, every tweet, every speech seems to be a separate criminal act that composes this conspiracy. That raises really troubling questions as to the criminalization of the challenges to elections.” [Fox News, Fox and Friends, 8/15/23]

Project Veritas operative Eric Spracklen fearmongered to his followers about their own fundamental rights. He posted: The Fulton County Grand Jury has returned TEN INDICTMENTS. They aren’t just coming for Trump, they are coming for anyone that questioned election results. Be prepared, you’re likely next. [Twitter/X, 8/14/23, Project Veritas Exposed, accessed 8/15/23]

Constitutional lawyer Mike Clancy appeared on Newsmax and called it “interesting” that RICO was being used to go after Trump, who was “just exercising his right to question the results of the election.” Clancy also questioned the RICO statute’s applicability to the case, telling host Rob Schmitt that the law is a “strange one that's usually used for criminal networks like drug dealers and prostitution rings.” [Newsmax, 8/14/23]

Daily Wire op-ed writer Tim Meads expanded the list of rights supposedly under attack, including freedom of speech. Meads posted, “So far this indictment has indicted freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” [Twitter/X, 8/14/23]

On Fox News @ Night, Republican attorney and former Trump administration official Kash Patel argued that the indictment contradicts the foundation on which the nation was built. He posed the question, “When you go to the underlying counts and the people involved, are we to believe that the United States justice system and the state court system in Georgia is going to indict counselors, lawyers, and legal scholars who are advising the president of the United States of his constitutional right of free speech to challenge an outcome?” Patel later inquired: “Are they going to start prosecuting and piercing executive privilege and attorney client privilege as they need to do to get this indictment past muster?” [Fox News, Fox News @ Night, 8/14/23]

Fox News legal analyst Greg Jarrett argued that “it's not a crime to say that the election was stolen.” He continued, “Hillary Clinton did. In fact, in Georgia, so did Stacey Abrams.” He later claimed that the “U.S. Supreme court has said repeatedly that false claims are protected speech.” [Fox News, Fox and Friends, 8/15/23]

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/study-trump-leads-2024-fox-primary-dominating-oan-and-newsmax

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not logged here but trump 15

mma 8 23

https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/right-wing-medias-talking-points-about-trumps-indictment-fake-electors-plot

no lnx many

Right-wing media’s talking points about Trump’s indictment for fake electors plot have little basis in reality

Here are the facts

WRITTEN BY JACK WINSTANLEY & PAYTON ARMSTRONG

PUBLISHED 08/10/23

In response to Donald Trump’s federal indictment for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, right-wing media have embarked on a smear campaign against the entire investigation, spreading misleading and baseless myths to obscure the nature of the charges and the evidence being presented against the disgraced former president.

Since the indictment was filed, Trump’s lawyers and right-wing media have offered flailing defenses and pro-Trump spin, as well as falsehoods about the charges.

MYTH: Trump was indicted for believing the election was stolen, which violates his free speech rights.

Right-wing media figures have claimed that Trump was indicted for believing that the election was stolen and suggested that the charges represent a criminalization of free speech rights — baseless claims that the indictment prebuts.

Fox host Greg Gutfeld said the indictment is “criminalizing thoughts and it’s criminalizing speech.” He defended Trump’s actions by arguing that “you have every right to think an election might be rigged or fixed." [Fox News, The Five, 8/1/23]

On Hannity, former Trump adviser Stephen Miller complained that “free speech,” and the “Constitution itself” are “at stake.” He called the indictment “the legal equivalent of the French guillotine, the reign of terror,” and “a mob mentality to take out Donald Trump.” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/1/23]

Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo suggested that Trump’s crime was “saying that he thought that the election was stolen.” Bartiromo cited Fox legal analyst Jonathan Turley’s claim that the indictment lacks legitimacy, stating, “A similar sentiment talked about this being free speech, so what's the charge? What's the crime? Him saying that he thought that the election was stolen: That's the crime.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 8/2/23]

Right-wing influencer Greg Price posted on social media that “Jack Smith's indictment is nothing but a criminalization of political speech.” He added that, “In the 3rd paragraph, he says President Trump ‘had a right like every American to speak publicly about the election and even to claim falsely that he had won.’ But apparently he's indicting him for it anyway.” [Twitter/X, 8/1/23]

Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich called the indictment the “criminalization … of disinformation and misinformation.” She also argued that “the left believes that you should go to prison for saying things.” [Fox Business Network, The Bottom Line, 8/1/23]

Fox prime-time host Laura Ingraham argued that the indictment was a violation of Trump’s right to free speech. Ingraham quoted the indictment to note that “the defendant had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election” and that Trump had the right “even to claim falsely there had been an outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won.” Ingraham then argued, “So they concede that he had the right to have a different opinion. But, what? So they throw that in there to try to protect themselves, Bret, but then they violate what they claim they are still protecting.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/1/23]

FACT: Trump was indicted for his actions following the 2020 election and leading up to January 6, not for spreading lies about voter fraud.

The first pages of the indictment carefully acknowledged Trump’s First Amendment protections, while emphasizing that the charges relate to alleged criminal conduct and actions unrelated to free speech. The second page of the indictment notes that Trump “had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won.” It goes on to explain that Trump was entitled to, and did, “formally challenge the results of the election through lawful and appropriate means, such as by seeking recounts or audits of the popular vote in states or filing lawsuits challenging ballots and procedures,” but it also alleges that Trump also “pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.”

While Trump’s spoken words and social media posts are used as evidence in the indictment, that evidence is used to support the motive for his actions. As noted by legal experts, “Trump is being prosecuted for his deeds, not his words,” and while Trump had the right to claim the election was stolen, he did not have the right to attempt to throw out the lawful results through a criminal conspiracy.

Trump’s own Attorney General Bill Barr has cast doubt on the claim that the indictment violates Trump’s First Amendment rights. On CBS’s Face the Nation, Barr stated that the indictment doesn’t rely on what Trump said, but on the actions he and his allies took to conspire to overturn the 2020 election results.

MYTH: The indictment will allow Trump to litigate the 2020 election and prove claims of voter fraud.

Some right-wing media figures have claimed that the indictment will provide the opportunity to relitigate claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election in federal court, which they argue will finally vindicate Trump. Such claims ignore the plethora of failed lawsuits from Trump and his team after the 2020 election.

Fox News prime-time host Jesse Watters celebrated that the indictment is going to open the door to litigate the 2020 election. He claimed that it is “going to give Donald Trump the opportunity to relitigate the 2020 election in federal court. This is what Donald Trump's been dying to do for the last two and half years.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 8/1/23]

War Room host Steve Bannon also celebrated the chance to relitigate voter fraud claims. On his show, Bannon said: “I love this. I’m highly optimistic. We finally – we’ve wanted a chance and a platform to adjudicate the 2020, and their bloodlust to take down Trump, they gave it to us.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 8/2/23]

Conservative radio host and Washington Post columnist Hugh Hewitt claimed, “The former president will be subpoenaing everyone who had anything to do with the unusual circumstances of the 2020 election in order to prove his genuine suspicion of the process.” He added that Trump’s lawyer made it clear that they are “going to explore every corner of the 2020 election with former President Trump empowered to subpoena everyone who can help prove his innocence.” [Twitter/X, 8/2/23]

On Infowars, “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley suggested the indictment will allow Trump to litigate the election. Chansley told Alex Jones: “Now all this evidence that the other courts and other states refused to hear can now be subpoenaed. It can now be made public evidence, so I kind of wonder a little bit. How much this is actually going to work out the way that the shadow government deep state wants it to.” [Infowars, The Alex Jones Show, 8/4/23]

FACT: Trump’s claims of voter fraud were repeatedly litigated in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election, and evidence for widespread voter fraud was never found.

In reality, Trump’s claims of voter fraud were litigated dozens of times after the 2020 election – and proof for the claims was never found. Trump and his allies filed at least 62 lawsuits, many of which were dismissed due to the weak merits of the voter fraud allegations and for lack of standing. Additionally, many of Trump’s lawyers reneged on the sweeping public allegations once they found themselves in a court of law under oath, and ultimately none of allegations from Trump and his team were even remotely proven. Still, conservative media are largely ignoring the plethora of failed lawsuits and claiming the latest indictment will be their chance to litigate the election.

Several Republican officials, including members of Trump’s own cabinet, have debunked his assertion that there was widespread fraud or inaccuracies during the 2020 election. Trump's Attorney General Bill Barr stated in a 2022 interview with The Associated Press that “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.” Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger also found no evidence of fraud during the 2020 election, and a prominent statehouse Republican in Pennsylvania conceded that he had no evidence to support his claims of fraud.

MYTH: In order to convict Trump, special counsel Jack Smith has to prove Trump knew he was lying about the 2020 election.

Right-wing media figures are falsely claiming that a conviction of Trump will hinge on whether prosecutors can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump knew he was lying about the 2020 election. Legal experts have disputed this claim, emphasizing that the charges are related to Trump’s actions.

On a right-wing podcast, Trump lawyer Alina Habba asserted that in order to convict him, prosecutors have to prove that Trump knew he was lying about the 2020 election. Habba told right-wing influencer and serial plagiarist Benny Johnson: “We all know he still believes that 2020 was not a fair election. … I think that that, evidentiary-wise, is going to be very problematic. They have to get into his frame of mind and prove that he actually believed it to be false and was peddling a false statement.” [YouTube, The Benny Johnson Show, 8/4/23]

Fox News host Howard Kurtz published an article on the network’s website titled “Trump’s Jan. 6 indictment turns on whether he knowingly lied about the 2020 outcome.” The article argued that, “In short, if the Trump team can persuade a jury that he truly believed the election was hijacked, then he had every right to speak out and challenge the results.” [FoxNews.com, 8/3/23]

On a podcast for the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal, editorial board member and podcast host Kim Strassel said it’s a “weakness” of the case that the prosecution has to prove Trump knew he was lying about the election. Strassel explained: “The problem with this is that you have to essentially know what Donald Trump's state of mind is. You have to claim that he knew that this was false and he did it anyway. And yeah, I think it's just difficult to make that argument, because what we don't have in this indictment is any evidence to the fact that he knew that what he was saying was untrue. It might've been wild, it might've been crazy. Let's all be clear, his behavior was deceitful and destructive, but that doesn't mean he didn't necessarily believe it. … That to me is the singular weakness of this case.” [The Wall Street Journal, Potomac Watch, 8/2/23]

Senior editorial staff at National Review wrote that the case requires prosecutors to “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump hadn’t actually convinced himself that the election was stolen from him.” The article added, “Good luck with that” because “hyperbole and even worse are protected political speech.” [National Review, 8/1/23]

On Fox & Friends, co-host Ainsley Earhardt claimed that Trump's prosecutors “have to prove that he actually believed that he lost, because you’re allowed to question an election.” Co-host Brian Kilmeade agreed, adding, “You can’t get inside his head!” [Mediaite, 8/2/23]

FACT: Trump was indicted for his actions and a conviction will hinge on demonstrating that he “pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.”

Legal experts have noted that evidence will lay out Trump’s allegedly unlawful actions and to secure a conviction, the government “does not need to prove motive.” The indictment brought against Trump notes that he “had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud,” and that he could challenge the election through “lawful and appropriate means.” However, the indictment notes that Trump “pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.” Voting rights lawyer Marc Elias reportedly noted that for a criminal trial, the government “does not need to prove motive” and that the jury will actually receive an instruction stating that the government does not need to establish a motive for the defendant's alleged crimes.

MYTH: Hawaii’s 1960 presidential election established a precedent for Trump selecting an alternate slate of electors.

Right-wing media have resurrected a bogus talking point to justify Trump’s scheme, comparing Trump’s fake electors plot to the slate of Democratic electors during Hawaii’s narrow recount in the 1960 presidential election between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy.

Fox host Jesse Watters concluded that “it’s fine” for Trump to have attempted to select an alternate slate of electors because “they did it in Hawaii in 1960.” Watters was responding to guest Harold Ford Jr.’s assertion that “no president had done that before.” [Fox News, The Five, 8/3/23]

Breitbart senior editor-at-large Joel Pollak posted that “Kennedy used alternate electors in Hawaii in 1960. Trump only did what Democrats have done before.” He concluded that “all of these prosecutions are abuses of the justice system that will have long-term consequences for the country.” [Twitter/X, 7/18/23]

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk claimed on his show that “alternate electors had legal precedent of being selected and chosen in the Kennedy/Nixon 1960 election.” He continued: “So they were trying to overthrow the government by sending in alternate electors? How does that work exactly? The Vice President could have sent it back to the states and the judge in 1960, who selected the alternate electors in the Hawaii controversy of Kennedy and Nixon, said explicitly if you had not have sent those electors it could not have been chosen. The judge said that in 1960. The 1960 election. If you had not have sent them, we would not have been able to select them.” [Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 8/2/23]

Breitbart stated that JFK set a precedent for appointing alternate electors in 1960. The article claimed that “Democrats themselves used this strategy in the 1960 election, a close race between Vice President Richard Nixon (R) and Sen. John Kennedy (D-MA).” [Breitbart, 7/18/23]

Newsmax’s Greg Kelly played and agreed with a clip of Trump attorney John Lauro arguing that the Hawaii case set a precedent and asserted, “President Trump not only had the right to raise these questions, but he had a duty.” Kelly added that Lauro “is totally right about Hawaii in 1960, a very close election. They didn't know who won. So they sent two slates of electors to Washington, D.C. It has happened before, and you're allowed to talk about this stuff. This is still America and I am allowed to point out that I've got my own concerns about the fairness of the 2020 election.” [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 8/2/23]

The Gateway Pundit cited the Hawaii case to say there is “Legal Precedent” behind the “Alternate Electors” Trump appointed in 2020. The article claimed that “legal precedent shows not only did the alternate electors not violate law, they actually took proper Constitutional action in submitting their certificates amidst a contested election, according to the Judge’s ruling in the 1960 Hawaii election dispute between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.” [The Gateway Pundit, 7/26/23]

FACT: Hawaii’s duplicate electoral votes were the result of a closely contested election.

During the 1960 election, Hawaii’s recount and alternate electors were part of a court order as the state’s election was decided on a less than 1% margin. In contrast, several of the audits and recounts that Trump and his legal team pursued in 2020 were in states where Trump lost by over 10,000, and even in excess of 100,000, votes.

The recount ultimately switched Hawaii in favor of Kennedy and then-Vice President Nixon accepted the result and certified the votes for Kennedy. There was no effort by Nixon, Kennedy, or any third parties to cast doubt on the process by which the original vote, the recount, or the certification had happened, unlike Trump’s efforts.

MYTH: Trump was merely soliciting “good-faith” legal advice from John Eastman and other apparent co-conspirators referenced in the indictment.

Trump lawyer John Lauro has asserted that the former president was soliciting various legal opinions and acting under the advice of counsel — neither of which absolves Trump from culpability. Meanwhile, many of the attorneys Trump relied on in his effort to overturn the election results are facing civil penalties and disbarment for their role in promoting the unconstitutional scheme and for publically lying about election officials and equipment companies. Claremont Institute senior fellow John Eastman is seemingly described in the indictment as Trump's co-conspirator, responsible for devising the plan to halt the vice president's certification of the election results on January 6.

On Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle, Eastman co-counsel Harvey Silverglate claimed that “Eastman’s advice was perfectly within the realm of good-faith legal advice.” He added that Eastman’s advice was “cutting edge” and “creative,” and doubled down by stating that “Eastman's advice was perfectly within the realm of good-faith legal advice. I don't have any doubt about it.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/2/23]

Earlier in the program, Ingraham stated that “Eastman made an argument that I wouldn't have made — but one I disagreed with at the time and disagree with now — but it's not a criminal act to have a novel legal theory about something. Even if it's about something like the electors and the Constitution.” She went on to erroneously evoke attorney-client privilege, adding that “advice given from an attorney used to be sacrosanct and it usually falls under the attorney-client privilege. But this is just another norm that the left will sacrifice on the altar of getting Trump.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/2/23]

The day before on The Ingraham Angle, Fox-generated presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy painted the co-conspirators as simply “lawyers who were giving good-faith legal advice to Trump,” adding that “the job of the lawyer is to actually provide legal advice. Trump was seeking legal advice.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/1/23]

Former Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz claimed that Trump’s impending trial “is a speech case, it’s also a case about right to counsel because they’re going after five of his lawyers, the unindicted co-conspirators, for advice that they gave.” He claimed that the indictment would have a chilling effect on people retaining lawyers, saying, “I’m afraid to say that this indictment may have the effect of encouraging people to take to the streets to protest elections because they’re told that if they go to the courts or go to Congress they will be indicted.” [OAN, One America News, 8/5/23]

FACT: A lawyer advising their client to break the law does not make that act legal, and there is evidence that other attorneys told Trump his scheme was illegal.

Several former White House lawyers who served under Trump testified to the House select committee that they had expressed concerns about the scheme's efficacy. Notably, former White House counsels Pat Cipollone and Eric Herschman testified that they were worried about Eastman's plan and were shut out of official discussions because of it. From the House select committee’s final report:

Cipollone also testified that he was “sure [he] conveyed” his views. Indeed, other testimony from Cipollone indicates that Trump knew of Cipollone’s view and suggests that Trump purposely excluded Cipollone from the meeting with Pence and Pence’s General Counsel on January 4th.

…

Likewise, Eric Herschmann, another White House lawyer, expressed the same understanding that Dr. Eastman’s plan “obviously made no sense” and “had no practical ability to work.”

If a lawyer advises their client to break the law, that advice does not make the act legal. Legal experts have pointed out that there are judicial avenues for candidates to pursue if they feel an election result was inaccurate, but Trump is accused of scheming to operate outside those legal processes. The American Bar Association, the administrative body that licenses lawyers to practice in the U.S., also maintains that lawyers are “personally answerable to the entire criminal law,” and the indictment alleges that Trump privately acknowledged that Sidney Powell — one of the lawyers who is reportedly one of the unindicted co-conspirators — sounded “crazy.”

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IN THIS ARTICLE

January 6 Insurrection

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After Trump’s latest indictment, Mike Pence is seen as a traitor within right-wing media

08/04/23

Right-wing media attempt to use disputed 1960 election outcome to defend Trump after third indictment

08/04/23

Right-wing media spin Trump indictment into calls to impeach Joe Biden

08/03/23

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OMG

https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/15-nonsensical-comments-made-right-wing-media-during-2023s-summer-climate-fueled

15 nonsensical comments made by right-wing media during 2023’s summer of climate-fueled extreme weather events

Special PROGRAMS

CLIMATE & ENERGY

WRITTEN BY ALLISON FISHER

PUBLISHED 08/07/23

July 2023 was the earth’s hottest month on record, punctuated by record-shattering extreme heat events, catastrophic floods, and historic wildfires. While major media outlets sounded the alarm on the climate crisis, climate denial and downplay reached a fever pitch among right-wing media outlets and influencers.

Many in the right-wing media have downplayed the record heat — suggesting that it’s normal summer weather, despite clear evidence that the intensity of this summer’s heat waves would not have been possible without climate change — or dismissed its lethal impact by arguing that more people die of cold than heat. Others have said those linking July’s extreme weather to climate change are weaponizing these events to push a radical climate agenda or call for climate lockdowns.

Here are 15 other examples that illustrate the lengths to which right-wing media are going — often deploying nonsensical arguments or outright lies that attempt to ignore the fact that there is scientific consensus that carbon emissions are heating our planet— to maintain climate denial in the face of climate-fueled catastrophes:

1 in

response to extreme weather that grounded planes in the Northeast, Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy said the left is “trying to control the weather” and “trying to be God.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 7/3/23]

Responding to calls for climate action, Newsmax host Eric Bolling denied that human activity is responsible for warming: “Real scientists, meaning those not purchased by the kings of propaganda, well, they’ll tell you there is actually no such thing as climate change.” [Newsmax, Eric Bolling The Balance, 7/11/23]

Fossil fuel shill Steve Milloy on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight: “The Earth is greener than ever before. Have we affected the planet and wildlife? Yeah, sure. But you know, in the end, it's been, I think, positive. The Earth is carrying more life now than ever before thanks to warming, thanks to CO2, thanks to fossil fuel use.” [Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, 7/11/23]

Newsmax host Greg Kelly said that “LGBTQ+IA whatever has been kind of pushed so relentlessly. … I think climate change and the whole phony debate about it has something to do with it,” suggesting the goal is to decrease population in order to reduce climate impacts. [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 7/11/23]

Fox host Jesse Watters suggested that U.S. special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry made it “impossible” to believe in climate change because according to Watters he lied about using a private plane. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 7/13/23]

Conservative radio and Fox News host Mark Levin on his radio show said climate change is a religion not based on science: “This is a religion. This is an ideology. This isn’t science. ...Don't you see how hot it is in Nevada? In the middle of the damn summer? It's what we have air conditioning for.” [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 7/13/23]

Far-right media host Steven Crowder claims that carbon dioxide is not pollution because plants use it: “Is carbon dioxide the — basically, you know, the neurotoxin atmospheric poison that people make it out to be? Because you just pointed out plants thrive on it.” [Rumble, Louder with Crowder, 7/15/23]

Fox host Greg Gutfeld attempted to downplay the record-breaking heat with bizarre logic: “The problem with using weather — like saying, ‘This place broke records’ — how many states, how many countries didn't break records? Nobody ever provides you the context. They’re going, ‘Three countries had record-breaking heat waves.’ It’s like, well, how many countries are there?” [Fox News, The Five, 7/17/23]

The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh claimed that the record heat is not a result of human activity but the sun: “The sun … that’s what calls the shots on Earth. It determines the temperature. It determines everything in terms of weather. … And until you can figure out a way to literally control the sun, there is basically nothing we can do to intentionally and significantly raise, lower, or otherwise affect the temperature on Earth.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 7/18/23]

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro: “Thank God we have this thing called air conditioning. … You know what’s a great cure for being super-duper hot outside? Being a first world country.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 7/20/23]

Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on America Reports: “This is not an overly hot July. ... Hot weather happens in some places; cooler weather happens in other places. We do not have a climate catastrophe.” [Fox News, America Reports, 7/21/23]

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on climate science and why carbon dioxide is not pollution: “The science is not solid. The science is debated. They look at science as if it is religious, irrefutable dogma.” Kirk added, “The built-in premise of the climate hoax is carbon is bad. OK, well, carbon is life, actually. … Don’t plants thrive on carbon dioxide?” [Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 7/24/23]

On The Ingraham Angle, American Majority founder Ned Ryun called climate change a “hoax”: “It is nothing more than an attempt to manipulate people into a state of fear to have them give more control over to a ruling elite who would take this hoax and enforce it through a whole host of means.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/27/23]

On America’s Newsroom, fossil fuel shill Daniel Turner deliberately conflated weather with climate: “And if you look at the weather forecast for this great city, where I’m born and raised, next Friday is mid-70s. So we are in what's called a heat wave.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 7/28/23]

Climate denier Marc Morano on Jesse Watters Primetime blamed global wildfires on arsonists, dismissing the role of climate change: “This is a global problem of people starting this. Now, is it climate change? Well, this would be the equivalent of blowing up a dam or sabotaging a dam and allowing a valley to flood and then saying, oh, look, climate change is causing more floods.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 7/28/23]

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Next page

Related

Right-wing media deny climate change in face of deadly and record-breaking extreme weather event

07/20/23

Right-wing media downplay the hottest day in modern history with the help of Twitter’s community notes feature

07/11/23

Only 5% of national TV news segments on the record-shattering heat wave that scorched Texas mentioned climate change

07/03/23

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https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/right-wing-media-attempt-use-disputed-1960-election-outcome-defend-trump

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{{  catchall same day

mma 8 23

right-wing media are attacking Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will preside over Donald Trump’s pending criminal case in Washington D.C.

Chutkan was randomly selected to preside over the case. Appointed by former President Obama, she has been described as a “tough Jan. 6 sentencer” of defendants who participated in the insurrection, though she has “avoided some of the most pointed criticisms of Trump that some of her colleagues on the federal bench in D.C. have delivered.”

Media figures on the right have leveled numerous attacks and charges against her, describing her as politically motivated, and calling for her recusal in the case against the former president.

Fox News host Mark Levin described Chutkan as “the worst, radical, left-wing, Obama judge in America” on Fox and Friends, adding that Trump would be indicted for “drinking too much orange juice.”

On his radio show, Levin reiterated his claim and called Chutkan “a whack job.” He then asked, “Do you think Trump will get a fair shot with her? Of course not.” He added, “And so the system is really truly rigged. Really truly rigged.”

On WABC’s Chat with the Mayor, alleged co-conspirator Rudy Giuliani called her “the most inhumane sentencer on the court for January 6 people.” He went on to claim, “This is the Soviet Union, Red China, or Nazi Germany. That judge should recuse herself if she has any ethics.”

Newsmax host Greg Kelly called Chutkan “a bad judge” for Trump’s case and said, “She has major conflicts.”

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro called Chutkan “a very left-wing judge” and said, “It is certainly fair to point out that Jack Smith is filing in a court in Washington D.C. with probably the most Trump-hating judge in Washington D.C.”

Newsmax host Eric Bolling called Judge Chutkan “a very harsh judge on anything surrounding January 6.”

On her SiriusXM show, Megyn Kelly predicted, “This judge is going to hate Trump, and she's not going to dismiss this case on the papers.”

Newsmax host Sebastian Gorka said, “This is their attempt to steal 2024,” and called Chutkan “the worst January 6 judge possible — an Obama appointee who has given the harshest sentences to people who walked through the velvet ropes on January 6.”

Laura Ingraham said she has “doubts about her” and said, “I want to remind you tonight that she worked for Hunter Biden's law firm at one point, Boies and Schiller.”

On Fox Business, Alan Dershowitz and Kash Patel called for Chutkan to recuse herself from Trump’s case, with Derschowitz calling her former law firm “one of the most corrupt firms” and accusing them of being “Democratic hacks.”

Dershowitz also appeared on BlazeTV’s The Glenn Beck Program and asserted that Chutkan “has a very questionable background” and “worked for years for a firm that’s highly questionable.”

On Steve Bannon’s War Room, Patel again called for Chutkan’s recusal, saying, “She’s so entrenched through her past legal representations and family to the Democratic national party and the Hillary Clinton campaign that she could not be a fair, detached … arbiter of facts.”

On Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime, an over-the-shoulder graphic featured an image of Chutkan with the words, “the Obama Punisher,” and host Jesse Watters described her as “an Obama donor.”

Turning Point USA’s Benny Johnson called Chutkan “a very nasty judge” and added, “This judge worked with Hunter Biden at a law firm. This judge should be recused, of course.”

On Newsmax, co-host Bianca de la Garza pointed to the ties between Chutkan’s law firm and the president’s son, saying, “The person who runs it is a huge donor to the Democratic party.” She predicted that Trump’s team would request a different judge to preside over the case.

On Newsmax’s special coverage of the indictment, Newsmax contributor Joe diGenova said Chutkan will be “very, very bad for Donald Trump” and suggested there’s a risk “that she will not conduct a proper jury selection process” in Trump’s case.

On his radio show, Fox News host Sean Hannity said, “The Obama-appointed judge overseeing this case once worked for the same law firm as Hunter Biden. Is anybody going to call that a conflict of any kind? I’d say that might be a conflict.”

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-spin-trump-indictment-calls-impeach-joe-biden-0

The indictment regarding Trump’s alleged criminal actions after the 2020 election, which was handed down on August 1, has sent right-wing media into a spiral as they defend the former president. Criticisms of the indictment range from questions over the legality of Jack Smith’s role as special counsel to claims that the charges criminalize free speech to comparisons of +

https://www.mediamatters.org/five/fox-news-jesse-watters-gives-passionate-defense-donald-trumps-fake-electors-scheme

https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/sean-hannity-says-government-trying-rig-donald-trumps-trial-january-6-charges-holding in DC

https://www.mediamatters.org/cnn/cnn-announces-they-wont-carry-trumps-comments-following-arraignment-live

===}}:

Right-wing media deny climate change in face of deadly and record-breaking extreme ...

https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/right-wing-media-deny-climate-change-face-deadly-and-record-breaking-extreme

Media Matters for America

Fox Business host Stuart Varney indulged climate change denier Marc Morano and said climate change is “a good debate.” When discussing extreme ...

as the climate crisis becomes more evident and destructive, even exceeding climate scientists’ earlier predictions, Fox News and other influential right-wing outlets and figures are downplaying the severity of climate-fueled events and pushing dangerous climate denial.

This summer has been marked by a series of record-breaking extreme weather events, illustrative of the rapidly intensifying effects of global warming. Unprecedented heat waves, wildfires, and floods have wreaked havoc across North America. Meanwhile, global sea surface temperatures have reached alarming levels, and the world just experienced its hottest day on record — four days in a row. These events align with scientists' warnings, but the acceleration of warming and the intensity of this summer’s extreme heat suggest that the climate crisis is unfolding faster than expected.

Last month, when smoke from hundreds of wildfires raging across Canada polluted the air over major population centers in the U.S., Fox News dismissed the link between the fires and climate change; meanwhile conspiracy theories seeking alternative explanations for Canada’s record-breaking wildfire season flourished online. In response to news that Earth had reached its hottest temperatures ever recorded, bad actors attempted to distract from the unsettling milestone by focusing on CNN’s use of the phrase “hottest day ever.”  As deadly heat continues to scorch parts of the U.S., Asia, and Europe with no end in sight, and with a 1,000-year flood event having left parts of Vermont and New York state underwater, right-wing media cling to talking points that deny climate science.

By flooding the zone with climate denial right when the climate crisis is most evident, right-wing media run cover for Republican decision-makers who are actively obstructing climate action, ward off accountability for the fossil fuel industry, and pollute information systems for those attempting to understand the link between extreme weather and our dependence on fossil fuels. This tactic, like the extreme heat, has no end in sight.

Right-wing media responded to deadly climate change-fueled heat and flooding with denial and delay

Fox Business host Stuart Varney indulged climate change denier Marc Morano and said climate change is “a good debate.” When discussing extreme heat in Phoenix, Arizona, Morano said, “This is not outside the normal bounds of hot summer weather,” and claimed that CNN, The New York Times, and others are “weaponizing hot summer heat waves to turn it into some kind of climate action.” Varney asked Morano whether “that is not the result of CO2 emissions'' and said, “It's a good debate. This is a very good debate.” [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 7/19/23]

Far-right radio host Steven Crowder hosted climate contrarian Bjorn Lomborg, who downplayed the climate crisis by arguing that more people die from cold than heat: “We are not talking about a world where most people die from heat. No, most people die from cold. Cold is fantastically more dangerous for a lot of different reasons.” [Rumble, Louder with Crowder, 7/19/23]

The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh suggests that the extreme heat is normal for summer: “Well it’s summertime and that means it's hot outside … This is when the media, as it does every year, claims that the hot weather is a sign of our impending planetary doom.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 7/18/23]

Far-right pundit James Lindsay: “Climate struggle sessions ramping up. They're going to try and fail to make that transition again. The propaganda isn't going to work this time either, though.” [Twitter, 7/18/23]

Fox News host Laura Ingraham, in response to an Axios article about extreme weather: “I'm not taking @Axios seriously until they start crusading against coal burning in China — anyone who claims to worry about carbon emissions should start there or button it. Even the ‘best states for climate change’ get hit with extreme weather” [Twitter, 7/18/23]

COVID-19 conspiracy theorist Dr. Naomi Wolf: “Oh! Conclusions: this will happen more and more often because climate change so: stay indoors, do remote work, ‘mask’. Back where we were again.” [Twitter, 7/18/23]

Right-wing Irish political activist and conspiracy theorist Ben Gilroy: “Today media continue to propagandise weather showing high temperatures in Death Valley USA — yet the park rangers wear jackets and gloves? The elites UN climate scam is really about securing a world government plutocracy, depopulation, and severely cutting your quality of life.” [Twitter, 7/18/23]

Fox host Jesse Watters downplayed the extreme heat as simply “summer”: “It's been a hot July. Some call it ‘global warming,’ some call it ‘summer.’ But what's the best way to beat the heat? Ice cream.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 7/17/23]

Lindsay mocked conditions in the southern U.S. that were so humid they had the potential to interfere with humans’ ability to sweat, pushing the limits of survivability. [Twitter, 7/17/23]

Longtime fossil fuel shill Steve Milloy: “@AP: 'Around the world, millions feel the heat of an unrelenting summer.' Two points: 1. It is summer. It gets hot. 2. There 8 billion in the world. If only 'millions' are experiencing extreme heat, that doesn't sound much like 'climate change.'” [Twitter, 7/17/23]

Misogynist influencer and alleged sex trafficker Tristan Tate: “They’re naming heatwaves like they used to name new ‘Covid variants’. Can somebody in the government give me the job of whoever makes the names up? I’ll do it for free. Watch out! The ‘lovely warm summer’ heatwave has just hit Europe.” [Twitter, 7/15/23]

COVID-19 conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine influencer Dr. Eli David: “When the weather is a bit warmer than usual: Experts™: IT'S PROOF OF GLOBAL WARMING!!!!! When the weather is colder than usual: Experts™: WEATHER AND CLIMATE ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS YOU MORONS!!!!!” [Twitter, 7/17/23]

Newsmax host Chris Salcedo mocked concern over the record heat: “Newsflash folks, it gets hot in the summer.”  He continued, “After a few particularly hot days on the Fourth of July weekend, the left — they went into full fearmongering mode.” Salcedo then interviewed Milloy, who warned that climate activists would call for climate lockdowns. [Newsmax, The Chris Salcedo Show, 7/17/23]

On The Five, Jesse Watters attacked “the left” for connecting climate change to heat waves across the globe and mocked climate activists: “The left rushing to blame global warming for that dangerous heat wave gripping the nation and the world right now. But I think the heat's getting to their heads. Climate change-obsessed liberals are actually acting crazier than usual, with eco-extremists in Germany literally gluing their hands to airport runways as a way to sound the alarm on how the planet's cooked.”  [Fox News, The Five, 7/17/23]

Fox host Greg Gutfeld also attempted to downplay the record-breaking heat with bizarre logic: “The problem with using weather — like saying, ‘This place broke records’ — how many states, how many countries didn't break records? Nobody ever provides you the context. They’re going, ‘Three countries had record breaking heat waves.’ It’s like, well, ‘How many countries are there?’” [Fox News, The Five, 7/17/23]

On America’s Newsroom, Lomborg suggested that more air conditioning is the way to address extreme heat: “The way to fix this, of course, is to make sure that people get lots of air conditioning and that they can actually afford the energy that they will run their air conditioning on. That’s one. The second one is to remember that, yes, there are many people dying from heat, but many, many more people dying from cold.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 7/17/23]

Climate change denier and former University of Alabama professor Matthew Wielicki: “We used to call this summer. Now we call this a climate crisis.” [Twitter, 7/15/23]

Milloy: “India's monsoon season is not affected by emissions. Indians have died in monsoon flooding since there have been Indians and monsoons. It is really dishonest and disgusting to surf tragic deaths for climate.” [Twitter, 7/14/23]

Right-wing British pundit Brendan O’Neill, who has been praised by anti-renewable energy activist Michael Shellenberger, wrote that “global warming could be good for humankind.” Citing Lomborg, O’Neill wrote that “the truth is that global warming could be good for humankind” because more people die from the cold than heat. “It’s pissing down in Britain,” he continued, “Where’s our global warming? Even the name of the heatwave is designed to conjure up visions of hellfire and torment.” [Spiked, 7/14/23]

On Fox News at Night, Carl Demaio, a political operative and conservative radio host, called a California campaign to warn residents about climate-driven extreme heat “wasteful spending” and “fear porn.” [Fox News, Fox News at Night, 7/12/23]

Newsmax host Eric Bolling, in response to calls for climate action after flooding in the Northeast, denied that human activity is responsible for warming: “It's raining, so we all must change our behavior. Unprecedented weather events — look flooding’s terrible, loss of property is a disaster, and our hearts go out to those affected. But just imagine, for one moment, the ridiculousness and the pompousness to think that: one, our behavior has any real impact on weather and the Earth, and two, even if that were true — which it’s not — that we could do anything about it without making things worse.” [Newsmax, Eric Bolling The Balance, 7/11/23]

Fox host Laura Ingraham also mocked the extreme heat and calls to action, suggesting that climate change is a made-up crisis: “It's hot, hot, hot all right. After all, we're in the middle of a season called ‘summer.’” Ingraham later played a clip from a previous show, arguing that “COVID lockdowns set the predicate for more to come.”  She said, “Their so-called public health experts were wrong on everything from lockdowns to masks to social distancing. And yet now we see the usual suspects lining up to exploit  another hyped crisis: of course, I’m talking about climate change.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/11/23]

Right-wing journalist and author Alex Berenson: As climate change hysteria reaches a new level of screeching (1-in-1000 this, world's hottest that), remember that weather-related deaths have PLUNGED since 1970. The wealthier the world becomes, the easier managing climate change will be. And wealth requires energy. Period. [Twitter, 7/10/23]

On Jesse Watters Primetime, guest host Pete Hegseth mocked reports of record-breaking heat and blamed media for “hyping climate insanity”: If there is one thing the mindless left loves to magically discover every year, it’s that summer is hot. Hegseth continued, “It was hotter in New York in April. And it’s not even the hottest June we’ve ever had. The data shows that the 80s and 90s … were a lot hotter.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 7/7/23]

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https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/right-wing-media-downplay-hottest-day-modern-history-help-twitters-community-notes

no lnx twt

Right-wing media downplay the hottest day in modern history with the help of Twitter’s community notes feature

Special PROGRAMS

CLIMATE & ENERGY

WRITTEN BY ILANA BERGER

PUBLISHED 07/11/23

In response to widespread mainstream coverage of what scientists say was the hottest day in modern history, right-wing media predictably downplayed extreme heat with the help of Twitter’s community notes feature.

Scientists say July 6 could have been the hottest day in some 120,000 years, reaching a global average temperature of 63.02 degrees Fahrenheit. It was the fourth straight day to set or tie that record. A wide variety of other news outlets covered the record-breaking heat, including CNN, which tweeted on June 5: “The planet saw its hottest day ever this week. The record will be broken again and again” and linked to an article.

Before long, some users were claiming that CNN was being dishonest in its wording. A community note, a feature that allows users to “add context” below “potentially misleading” tweets, appeared below it:

Image of CNN tweet: "The planet saw its hottest day ever this week. The record will be broken again and again"

But this information was already front and center in CNN’s article, right under the lede.

Reporter Laura Paddison wrote: “On Monday, the average global temperature reached 17.01 degrees Celsius (62.62 Fahrenheit), the highest in the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction’s data, which goes back to 1979. On Tuesday, it climbed even further, reaching 17.18 degrees Celsius and global temperature remained at this record-high on Wednesday.”

The note even cited the very same article that was already linked in the tweet. Nonetheless, right-wing media piled on, creating another fake “gotcha” moment:

Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Will Cain told frequent Fox News guest and climate change denier Marc Morano that CNN is dishonestly convincing climate protesters they are “living on the edge of apocalypse”:  Morano falsely claimed that warming isn’t significant because “we're on an almost nine-year no change in temperature going back to about 2014-15 now.” Cain added: “All of this climate change data that we have, it’s short term as well. We can’t go back. We don’t know. I know they suggest —we don't know the climate over every ounce, every moment of this world's history.” [Fox News, Fox News Tonight, 7/8/23]

Blogger and climate change denier Tony Heller: “According to @CNN, earth is hotter now then when palm trees grew at the poles. #ClimateScam.”  [Twitter, 7/6/23]

British conservative activist and “social media commentator” Adam Brooks: “Community notes hand CNN a big custard pie in the face… climate propaganda is out of control. Agenda.” [Twitter, 7/6/23]

Fox News contributor Joe Concha: “CNN's version of the beginning of time is apparently the year before the network launched in 1980…” [Twitter, 7/6/23]

The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis: “If you legitimately believe that yesterday was literally the hottest day IN ALL OF HISTORY, then you are too stupid to exist and you should be deported.” [Twitter, 7/5/23]

Singer and frequent Timcast guest Phil Labonte: “It wasn’t the hottest day ever.” [Twitter, 7/5/23]

Megan Kelly Show producer Steve Krakauer: “‘Hottest day ever”’* *since 1979 haha.” [Twitter, 7/5/23]

Former Fox News producer Kyle Becker wrote that the record “is an absolute lie”:  Becker highlighted the well-known fact that Earth was hotter in the Paleozoic era and that “life on earth flourished in both of these eras, despite much higher carbon dioxide levels and much higher average global temperatures.” This life did not include humans and this fact does not disprove the existence of human-caused climate change. [Twitter, 7/5/23]

Gov. Ron DeSantis press secretary Jeremy Redfern tweeted a graph of global temperature over 500 million years and wrote, “Guys… .” [Twitter, 7/5/23]

Grabien founder and radio producer Tom Elliott: “CNN: Did you know the world started 150 years ago?” [Twitter, 7/5/23]

Importantly, the fact that the current modeling used to measure the global average temperature was implemented in 1979 doesn’t mean we don’t know anything about global temperatures before then.

Paleoclimatologists use fossils and ice cores to piece together what Earth was like thousands of years ago. While precise measurements are all but impossible, there is evidence to suggest average global temperatures haven’t been this high in over 100,000 years.

One thing paleoclimatologists know for sure, according to Richard Alley, a geosciences professor at Pennsylvania State University, is that if it was hotter in the past, it was naturally caused, while “the current rise is not natural, but caused by us.”

Community notes has a shaky track record

Crowdsourced notes on Twitter — a feature Elon Musk expanded in 2022 — have proved useful at times for rapidly adding highly visible context. But these notes aren’t always helpful for adding context to highly politicized issues like climate change and race, and can invite bigoted and misleading notes.

Twitter approves notes based on values it gives to each individual user that weighs in, not how many users find it helpful or unhelpful. A note can have few helpful votes and be approved; it just has to have ratings from people “with different points of view” that Twitter finds appropriate.

The values given to votes depend in part on how users have voted on community notes in the past. But some have pointed out that measuring “diversity” in this way can be flawed. Considering how Musk has empowered right-wing users in other ways, the balance of those who write community notes in the first place could potentially be ideologically skewed. In this case, the community note itself lacked key information and would have been more helpful if it specified that this was likely a 120,000-year record.

While significant, one broken record is far from the only indicator that global heating is a major threat

The argument over how to phrase this worrying benchmark is somewhat arbitrary in the scheme of global climate impacts.

The fact that July 6 was the hottest day on record shouldn’t bring the issue urgency by itself. The fact that over 100 people recently died in Mexico due to extreme heat, wildfires in Canada have burned an area the size of Virginia, and several major U.S. cities are still bracing for unhealthy air quality due to wildfire smoke should motivate the media to pay attention and lawmakers to act.

Right-wing media regularly respond to coverage of extreme heat with loud climate change denial. In July 2022, as a heat wave shook Western Europe, killing tens of thousands of people, climate skeptics responded with gaslighting and insisted everything was fine. How hot does it have to get and how many people have to die for skeptics to accept the fact that climate change is driving dangerously high temperatures? There is seemingly no limit.

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mma 7 23

Right-wing media figures popularized and defended the Trump team’s last-ditch effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election through a scheme to nullify the election results, which is now under investigation by a special counsel — and some of the fake electors have reportedly already testified to a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C.

The scheme, cooked up by former Trump lawyers John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani, sought to create “alternate” slates of electors in favor of former President Donald Trump in seven swing states that voted for Joe Biden. At the time, several right-wing media figures supported the scheme to undermine the 2020 election, with some calling for key states to appoint their own alternate electors. Other right-wing media figures such as One America News host Christina Bobb and “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander were directly involved in engineering the fake elector scheme.

Individuals associated with Trump’s plot to appoint fake electors to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election have begun testifying before a federal grand jury. Last week, CNN reported:

Special counsel Jack Smith has compelled at least two Republican fake electors to testify to a federal grand jury in Washington in recent weeks by giving them limited immunity, part of a current push by federal prosecutors to swiftly nail down evidence in the sprawling criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The testimony, described to CNN by people familiar with the situation, comes after a year of relative dormancy around the fake electors portion of the investigation and as a parade of related witnesses are being told to appear before the grand jury with no chance for delay.

That activity could signal that investigators are nearing at least some charging decisions in a part of the 2020 election probe, sources added.

Now that the special counsel investigation is well underway and a related jury trial over the fake electors scheme in Wisconsin is set to begin, Fox News’ Mark Levin remains a vocally adamant defender of the scheme. On his radio show earlier this month, Levin claimed that “there’s no such thing as fake electors” and that the probe is “another novelty in the law that’s created by another Democrat prosecutor.”

Levin's continued defense of Trump's fake elector scheme is just one example of a yearslong campaign by right-wing media outlets to sow distrust in our elections process — and their consistent refrain that investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election is political persecution has also primed conservative audiences to view the upcoming 2024 election with skepticism.

Right-wing media supported the fake electors scheme and presented it as a legitimate “remedy” for Trump’s 2020 loss

Right after Election Day and two days before the 2020 election was called in Biden’s favor, Fox host Sean Hannity suggested on his radio show that “the remedy” to a Trump loss would be state electors going against the popular vote. Hannity said that to his “understanding,” electors are “not required to vote in accordance with whatever the state popular vote is, if they think there is fraud that is taking place they do have the power to stop that in these states.” [Premiere Radio, The Sean Hannity Show, 11/05/20]

Mark Levin appealed directly to state lawmakers, tweeting on November 5, 2020, “Reminder to the Republican state legislatures, you have the final say over the choosing of electors, not any board of elections, secretary of state, governor, or even court.” (He would later claim in a November 12, 2020, tweet, “Again and again, I have to explain that I never said electors should be chosen by the legislatures.”) [Twitter, 11/05/20]

Writing for The Blaze on November 5, 2020, Daniel Horowitz stated that “state legislatures can have their revenge and have the final say” in the 2020 election. Horowitz also echoed Levin’s support of the scheme, adding, “Mark Levin reminded his audience today that state legislatures are the ones who choose the electors who directly vote for president in each state.” [The Blaze, 11/05/20]

In a November 21, 2020, tweet, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton claimed that a Pennsylvania court decision against the Trump campaign was a “miscarriage of justice and nakedly political.” Fitton also claimed that “under the Constitution, it is ultimately up [to] the Pennsylvania legislature to protect election integrity and appoint a clean slate of electors.” [Twitter, 11/21/20]

Christina Bobb argued on the December 14, 2020 episode of her OAN show that by “having the GOP electors cast their votes in these states, it preserves the legal remedy should Donald Trump win, either in court or in a state legislature, in the future.” She also defended the use of alternate electors because of the supposed “possibility that this state could flip or turn because there’s enough election fraud in here that it’s still contested.” [OAN, 12/14/20]

On the same day, OAN reporter Pearson Sharp showed a misleading video of Trump’s fake electors being denied entry to the Michigan Capitol, which he said was evidence that “official state electors are being barred from performing their constitutional duties.” Sharp claimed that “that video is all you need to see to understand the lengths being taken to undermine the election.” [OAN, 12/14/20]

Former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs legitimized the efforts of the fake electors on the December 14, 2020, episode of Lou Dobbs Tonight. Dobbs uncritically reported that “Republican electors in Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Georgia [are] meeting separately today to cast their own votes for President Trump — a procedural move that keeps all of President Trump's legal options open.” [Fox Business, Lou Dobbs Tonight, 12/14/20]

Speaking with Bobb on December 15, 2020, former Arizona state Sen. Kelly Townsend claimed on OAN that the scheme was “absolutely legal and it’s not unprecedented.” Townsend would go on to defend the scheme further, claiming, “So it’s not treason. Some people are saying, ‘Oh, it’s treasonous, it’s seditious.’ It’s not any of that, it’s constitutional.” [OAN, 12/15/20]

On the July 31, 2022, edition of Fox News’ Life, Liberty, and Levin, host Mark Levin passionately defended Trump's fake electors scheme, arguing that ,“you might think it's weird, you might think it's unethical, but it's not a crime.” [Fox News, Life, Liberty, and Levin, 7/31/22]

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-melts-down-over-hunter-bidens-plea-deal-were-controlled-by-communists

immediately after news broke Tuesday that Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax crimes and admit fault on a felony gun charge, likely resulting in no jail time for the president’s son, Trump supporters lost their minds.

Even though the tentative agreement was struck after a five-year federal investigation into Biden by Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump appointee, MAGA lawmakers and far-right pundits insisted that the resolution into the troubled scion’s legal issues was proof of a “two-tiered justice system.”

The plea deal suggests that federal investigators have not found sufficient evidence to bring any additional charges against Biden on other allegations of criminal wrongdoing, including money laundering, illegal foreign lobbying, and other acts of corruption. House Republicans, meanwhile, have opened probes into the foreign dealings of the Biden family, alleging that President Joe Biden was involved in a “bribery scheme” involving Ukrainian oligarchs.

At the same time, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and other top Republicans have yet to offer up any hard proof to back up these serious allegations. In recent days, they’ve even acknowledged that they “don’t know” if the supposed blockbuster “audio tapes” proving the president took bribes from a Ukrainian energy company “really exist.”

Comer Now Claims He Didn’t Link Biden Probe to Trump Polls

HEAR NO EVIL

Justin Baragona

Needless to say, with Donald Trump currently facing two criminal trials, including a 37-count indictment charging him with willfully mishandling classified documents, the twice-impeached former president feels he’s being treated unfairly while the Department of Justice is protecting the current president’s son.

“Wow! The corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere ‘traffic ticket.’ Our system is BROKEN!” Trump blared on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday morning.

“People are going wild over the Hunter Biden Scam with the DOJ,” the 2024 GOP frontrunner added.

Team Trump, indeed, went wild.

Donald Trump Jr., the ex-president’s eldest son, released a statement in which he doubled down on the MAGA refrain that Biden’s plea deal is further proof that the justice system is stacked against conservatives while liberals and Democrats receive favorable treatment.

“If you are a Republican, Biden’s DOJ will throw the book at you and try to put you in prison for 100 years, but if you happen to have the right last name like Hunter, they will protect you and treat you with kid gloves,” he wrote.

“We are no longer a nation with equal justice under the law, but rather something more akin to a 3rd world banana republic, where the law exists to protect the ruling class, while targeting the opposition,” Trump Jr. concluded.

Former Fox News star and Trump Jr.’s fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, also contrasted the former president’s criminal counts related to the Espionage Act with Hunter Biden’s charges and echoed the same talking points.

“The Biden DOJ is trying to send Donald Trump to prison for the rest of his life over a documents dispute,” she declared. “But they are giving Hunter Biden a sweetheart deal to keep him out of jail. We have a two-tiered justice system in America!”

Charlie Kirk, founder of the MAGA youth group Turning Point USA, insisted this was “always the plan” for the DOJ.

“Of course they gave Hunter a slap on the wrist,” he tweeted. “Of course it came just days after the Trump indictment to give the veneer of ‘equal justice’ and nonpartisanship. Of course they dragged it out for 5 years. Of course this was always the plan!”

Other right-wing media personalities leaned in just as hard, adding that “Republicans get draconian punishments” while the “DOJ is running cover” for the Biden family.

“This Biden regime is, by far, the most corrupt in US history,” conservative podcaster Dan Bongino grumbled. “Biden’s corrupt DOJ giving Hunter a sweetheart deal, while fabricating criminal charges against his leading political opponent, is additional evidence of their savage level of corruption.”

Comer and other GOP lawmakers said Tuesday they would continue to move forward with their congressional investigations, though Hunter Biden’s attorney said his plea deal brought resolution to the matter.

“These charges against Hunter Biden and sweetheart plea deal have no impact on the Oversight Committee’s investigation,” Comer said in a statement. “ We will not rest until the full extent of President Biden’s involvement in the family’s schemes are revealed.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a one-time moderate who has become a full-blown Trump acolyte, groused about the “two-tiered justice system” that gave only a “slap on the wrist” to the president’s son, and she promised retribution from the GOP.

“House Republicans will not rest until the full illegal corruption of the Biden Crime Family is exposed,” she said on Tuesday. “Joe Biden must and will be held accountable.”

MTG Screams ‘Liar’ at Joe Biden as Republicans Derail SOTU

SOTU STUNT

Brett Bachman

In the end, though, the most fiery remarks predictably came from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO). Boebert fumed that there was “no raid of [Hunter Biden’s] crackhouse,” referencing the presidential scion’s well-known battles with substance use.

Greene took it further with a buzzword-filled tweet about the DOJ’s “stunt,” echoing Trumpworld’s unproven claims about President Biden’s corruption schemes and portraying Trump as a helpless victim.

“Meanwhile the pathetic and weaponized DOJ who protects their puppet President and refuses to prosecute Joe Biden and Hunter for taking bribes from Ukrainian oligarchs and raking in tens of millions of dollars from foreign countries bc the Big Guy makes policy decisions to be help his customers are the real crimes the Biden’s should be charged with!” Greene raged.

“Oh but hey, look at Jack Smith trying to throw President Trump in jail for 100 years for legally possessing documents he’s allowed to posses under the Presidential Records Act,” she concluded. “We are controlled by COMMUNISTS!!”

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[[  ===

an 6 23

U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has been conducting an in-depth investigation of Hunter Biden's taxes and business activities, and the fact that he is the president's son hasn't stopped U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland from pursuing the matter.

On Tuesday morning, June 20, a court filing — according to the New York Times — showed that Hunter Biden has reached a plea deal with DOJ. The president's son, under the agreement, will plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and avoid prosecution on a gun-related charge.

Biden, the Times reports, will agree to probation for failing to pay his 2017 and 2018 taxes on time.

READ MORE: The Hunter Biden 'investigation is not dead': House Oversight to hold FBI contempt of Congress hearings

Times reporters Michael S. Schmidt and Adam Entous explain, "The Justice Department would charge Mr. Biden but agree not to prosecute him in connection with his purchase of a handgun in 2018 during a period when he was using drugs. The deal would be contingent on Mr. Biden remaining drug-free for 24 months and agreeing never to own a firearm again. The agreement must still be approved by a federal judge."

In an official statement, Hunter Biden's attorney Christopher Clark said, "With the announcement of two agreements between my client, Hunter Biden, and the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Delaware, it is my understanding that the five-year investigation into Hunter is resolved."

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predictably

https://www.mediamatters.org/ben-shapiro/after-hunter-biden-charges-right-wing-media-immediately-move-goalposts

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mma 6 23

after former President Donald Trump was indicted for his alleged mishandling of highly classified documents, right-wing media has gone into a tailspin to defend Trump from the charges while accusing Democrats of committing similar offenses.

With this indictment, Trump has become “the most high-profile person to ever face criminal charges under the Espionage Act.” The post-World War 1 legislation makes the mishandling of sensitive government documents that concern national defense illegal, and has been used to prosecute whistleblowers such as Reality Winner and Daniel Ellsberg since its passing.

Special Counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump under the section of the law that prohibits unauthorized possession of top-secret national defense information and makes it a crime to “wilfully [retain]” that information or fail to “deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it.”

The former president’s allies have attempted to divert attention from the severity of his charges by comparing alleged violations of the Espionage Act by Democrats, including former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and President Joe Biden.

The FBI, however, determined that by using her private email, Clinton did not intend to break the law and therefore did not act with “wilful retention or obstruction.”

After another investigation into classified documents at Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, residence, the FBI found that “no evidence has emerged to suggest that anyone intentionally moved classified documents or tried to impede the FBI from recovering them.” Although there are many fair criticisms of the Espionage Act and its constitutionality, Trump was not acting as a reporter or whistleblower by allegedly showing top-secret documents to civilians like Kid Rock.

In the days since his indictment was released, right-wing media have attempted to cast doubt on what charges Trump should face, citing the Presidential Records Act as a more applicable framework and claiming that the suit against the former president should therefore be a civil one.

Following his presidential defeat, Trump took 15 boxes of documents that fell under the Presidential Records Act and belonged to the national archivist with him to Mar-a-Lago. The 1978 act states that “any records created or received by the President as part of his constitutional, statutory, or ceremonial duties are the property of the United States government and will be managed by NARA at the end of the administration.” However, Trump also had 11 tranches of documents with varying classification markings, and did not return all these records, thus raising concerns related to the Espionage Act and prompting the search of Mar-a-Lago.

In a Reuters article about the indictment, lawyer Bradley Moss was cited arguing that the Presidential Records Act argument does not hold water because “the question of whether the documents were personal or presidential records is beside the point." Moss was also quoted pointing out that “the records at issue in this indictment still have classification markings and contain information relating to the national defense” and are therefore being rightfully examined under the framework of the Espionage Act.

Right-wing figures argue that the Espionage Act is the wrong framework under which to charge Trump, suggest the Presidential Records Act instead:

As a guest on Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier, Trump attorney Jesse Binnall argued that “Congress has decided to make presidents and former presidents specifically subject to [the Presidential Records Act] rather than Espionage Act” and that “Jack Smith's team has it completely legally wrong by charging crimes that quite frankly don't apply.”

On Fox News’ The Five, Jeanine Pirro called Jack Smith a “loser prosecutor, Jack Smith, who has been slapped down by the United States Supreme Court” and accused him of having a “political agenda” and said the case is “all over the Presidential Records Act, which is a civil suit.” She later whined that “what they do is they put out this narrative indictment, ‘This is a story of wrongdoing, national defense, and let's put an espionage, we’ve got to tie it into the Russia collusion.’”

Fox News legal analyst Greg Jarrett joined Fox News’ Hannity to insist that there are  “two systems of justice. … One for Donald Trump and one for everybody else,” claiming that “Garland chose to bastardize the law [ by raiding Trump's home and then seeking an indictment.”

As a guest on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime, Article III Project founder Mike Davis also suggested that “the Presidential Records Act, not the Espionage Act, applies.” Davis later said, “You know, I doubt a uniparty judge is going to go along with that, and so this will probably have to get resolved by the Supreme Court,” calling the potential charge a “bogus conviction.”

Right-wing figures allege that Democrats have committed comparable offenses without being criminally prosecuted:

Fox News host Mark Levin said Biden, former Vice President Mike Pence, and Hillary Clinton “clearly violated the Espionage Act,” bemoaning the fact that “None of them were criminally charged.”

Freshly-resigned Trump lawyer Jim Trusty argued on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle that the Espionage Act was “not in play when Hillary bleached 30,000 emails that were under subpoena,” also claiming that the prosecution has a “whole bunch of rotating theories because they can’t find the facts they want.”

An op-ed for The Federalist claimed that if “taking documents home from the White House is a crime,” there would have been a DOJ investigation of “Biden and his classified documents.” The piece went on, claiming that the case is an example of the “deep state” targeting “dissenters” like Trump and a universal, presumably conservative, “you.”

Several right-wing personalities claimed ill intent or misguided thinking motivated Trump’s indictment:

Turning Point USA’s Danny De Urbina tweeted, “The DOJ indicting Trump under the Espionage Act after they literally spied on him as a private citizen is the ultimate gaslight.”

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board published an op-ed questioning the indictment, saying that the “charges are a destructive intervention into the 2024 election” and that “the Justice Department has taken a perilous path” by indicting Trump. The board also wrote that while Trump may have been “cavalier with classified documents, Mr. Trump did not accept a bribe or betray secrets to Russia.”

Rogan O'Handley (who operates the right-wing social media account DC Draino) argued that the initial DOJ and FBI aid of Mar-a-Lago was “so they could steal back evidence of their spying on President Trump in the Crossfire Hurricane documents,” also alleging that the indictment is “all a coverup.”

A Washington Post op-ed by right-wing columnist Gary Abernathy pushed back on the indictment, saying that while there was not a “good excuse” for Trump to keep sensitive documents, “bringing charges related to the possession of classified documents against a current or former president for anything short of colluding with our enemies or selling them on the black market is unnecessary, unwise and destructive to democracy.”

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https://www.mediamatters.org/mar-lago-search/right-wing-media-melt-down-after-trump-becomes-first-former-president-be-federally

no lnx vid

Right-wing media melt down after Trump becomes the first former president to be federally indicted

Pundit Tammy Bruce: Trump’s indictment is a “punch in the face” to “not just us, but Washington and Adams and Jefferson and Hamilton and everyone who came after”

WRITTEN BY JACK WINSTANLEY & RUBY SEAVEY

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ETHAN COLLIER

PUBLISHED 06/09/23

After Donald Trump was indicted in the special counsel investigation into his mishandling of classified materials, right-wing media continued their flailing defenses of the former president by calling the whole investigation “election interference” and bemoaning the supposed end of democracy.

Following a search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home that recovered approximately 13,000 records, special counsel Jack Smith was appointed in November to investigate Trump’s potentially illegal handling of those materials. Nearly a year after the search, Trump was indicted on 37 felony charges, including 31 separate alleged violations of the Espionage Act.

Fox News hosts scrambled to defend the former president and complain about a supposed two-tiered system of justice, continuing to create a false equivalence to President Joe Biden’s supposed mishandling of classified materials.

Over the last year, right-wing media have consistently run defense for Trump as the documents scandal has unfolded, with prominent figures claiming the initial search on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was an attack on “the American public” and others calling for otherwise violent responses to the investigation and seizure.

Now, right-wing media figures are using the same playbook. From claiming the indictment is an attempt at election interference to arguing that it is a distraction from Biden’s supposed crimes and an attack on American democracy itself, here is how right-wing media have reacted to the first federal indictment of a former president:

Claim: Trump’s indictment is evidence of a two-tier system of justice and a distraction from Biden’s classified document investigation

Fox News host Jesse Watters claimed that the Biden administration was indicting Trump for something the current president is “probably five times more guilty of.” He said of Biden: “He’s just fallen, he’s been accused of taking bribes from Ukraine, China, and now he’s going to arrest his political opponent? … This does not smell right.”

On Jesse Watters Primetime, Trump attorney Alina Habba dismissed the indictment as a “coordinated dance” to distract from investigations into the Biden administration. She added, “It is so obvious that there is this dual system of justice. This is selective prosecution — selective persecution. It is absolute persecution."

Video CitationFrom the June 8, 2023, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

After former Trump lawyer Pam Bondi called the indictment “weaponization” in the “ultimate sense,” Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade scoffed that “evidently they are not investigating anything on Hunter.” Kilmeade went on to evoke other investigations into the Biden administration, adding, “They are not investigating anything on the [FBI] whistleblower with the credibility.”

On Fox & Friends, former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker declared that he thinks “the Pence case and Biden case actually are more serious,” before claiming that the documents had been declassified: “There is going to be an argument in this case that Donald Trump declassified these documents that he is being accused of illegally possessing.”

On Fox & Friends, The Five co-host Geraldo Rivera suggested that the Bidens were trying to disrupt the Trump campaign, quipping, “You can’t beat him, I believe, on a library book that was overdue.” Co-host Steve Doocy kept the focus on the Bidens, asking, “Because there are the uneven standards between Biden and his documents and the Trump documents, you know, people are going to be talking about, you know, why is it taking four-and-a-half years for the Hunter Biden thing?’”

On America’s Newsroom, anchor Bill Hemmer said, “Two tiers of justice — that is the refrain on behalf of Republicans. This as Donald Trump becomes the first former president indicted by the government that he used to run. Wow.”

On Hannity, Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley suggested that Biden’s team should feel uneasy because “Biden mishandled material for a much longer period in many more locations than did President Trump.”

Claim: The indictment against Trump should be considered election interference, but it could also help him during the 2024 election

The morning after Trump’s indictment, Rivera said he is “very upset” about Trump’s indictment and claimed that “it is an attempt, whether conscious or unconscious, to affect the election of 2024.” Rivera said the indictment won’t “affect his standing — he may still be running for president as an indicted person or even a convicted person —because there is nothing in the Constitution of the United States that bars a person under indictment or even a federal convict from running for president.”

On his daily livestream, Timcast, Tim Pool declared: “The federal indictment by the Biden DOJ is direct election interference. It is subversion of the United States election.” He added, “I don’t see how the United States stands and continues to function when you’ve got the sitting president filing an indictment against his chief rival.”

Conservative pundit Tammy Bruce argued on Hannity that Trump’s indictment is not about Trump, but rather, “it is about indicting and stopping his [Biden’s] main political opponent.” Bruce earlier argued that the FBI’s raid of Trump’s Mar-A-Lago “was obviously meant for television, obviously meant to interfere with this coming election.”

Video file

Video CitationFrom the June 8, 2023, edition of Fox News' Hannity

On Fox News Tonight, Whitaker asserted that “Donald Trump seems to always get stronger when challenged.” He continued: “These types of things that would normally melt an average human being, I think, give him strength, and he continues to fight.”

On Fox’s Hannity, Bondi declared that Trump will be stronger politically because of the indictment: “He believes more than anything this is a dark day for America, what they are doing to him. And as Pete said, if they can do this to him they can do this to anyone. And he will fight like no other human being because he loves our country.”

On Fox’s The Ingraham Angle, Article III Project President Mike Davis baselessly concluded that Trump’s indictment “was a political hit by Biden and Garland to take out Trump for the 2024 presidential election.” Davis then neglected to talk about Trump’s alleged crimes and focused on Hillary Clinton.

On Infowars’ The Alex Jones Show, host Alex Jones absurdly claimed that Trump’s indictment is “the assassination of Kennedy 2.0”: “They're assassinating him criminally and politically and taking your right to vote for who you want. Proof they stole the 2020 election. They're doing it now upfront because the landslide is gonna be so huge.

Jones calls Trump indictment "Assassination of Kennedy 2.0"

JUNE 9, 2023

Kennedy Assassination 2.0

Audio file

CitationFrom the June 9, 2023, edition of Infowars' The Alex Jones Show

Claim: Trump’s indictment signals the end of American democracy as we know it

Former Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller joined Fox News Tonight, claiming: “History will record today as the day that we ceased to be a democratic republic and we became a people ruled by an unelected government bureaucracy.”

Whitaker said on Fox News Tonight, “It's really a sad day … and it's the stuff of banana republics, quite frankly.” This came after Whitaker claimed that Trump’s indictment was politically motivated.

Fox News Tonight also hosted right-wing activist Ned Ryun, who argued that the U.S. is behaving like a “late-stage republic.” Trump’s indictment, he said, “is absolutely late-stage republic behavior. When you use the legal system as a weapon against political opponents, you’ve abandoned the rule of law. You’ve abandoned the equal application of justice.”

Bruce said on Hannity that Trump’s indictment could “destroy the entire dynamic of our system” and is a “punch in the face” to “Washington and Adams and Jefferson and Hamilton and everyone who came after.” Bruce continued: “Lincoln, everyone who died on the field at Gettysburg to save this nation. That is who is being punched in the face right now.”

Before ending a furious rant with the ominous threat “You have crossed the Rubicon twice … and we will never forgive you,” Fox host Mark Levin declared on Hannity that “June 8 is the day of the insurrection, not January 6” and compared the U.S. to stalinist Russia: “Let me say this. Today — what is today's date? June 8? June 8 is the day of insurrection, not January 6. … We have never seen anything like this in the United States. We saw it under Stalin. We have seen it in other autocracies, Marxist regimes, fascist regimes. The Third World. … You have crossed the Rubicon twice, which has never been done. And we will never forgive you. Never, ever! And that’s the bottom line. I'm done!”

Video CitationFrom the June 8, 2023, edition of Fox News' Hannity

In his opening monologue, Hannity claimed, “Our system of justice has now been weaponized beyond belief and this country is in serious trouble." He also argued that Trump’s indictment proves that “there’s no equal justice. There’s no equal application of our laws.”

On Hannity, Bondi claimed that the Constitution has “been shredded.” She went on to mischaracterize Trump’s indictment, claiming that Biden charged him with federal crimes (Biden didn’t — the Department of Justice did) and that this is only about “documents that he had the right to have.”

Radio host Dan Bongino appeared on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight to claim that American democracy is over and that “the police state’s here.” He said, “The idea that you live in a constitutional republic — take it, wipe your rump with it, and flush it down the toilet bowl.”

Later on Eric Bolling: The Balance, former New York Police Department Commissioner Bernie Kerik said Trump’s indictment “scares the hell out” of him: “My fear is if they can’t imprison Donald Trump, what's next? Assassination? … I would not put it past them at this point. This is insanity.” Kerik earlier compared the U.S. to undemocratic countries that put political opposition in prison.

Correction (6/12/23): This piece originally stated that Dan Bongino appeared on Newsmax’s Eric Bolling: The Balance. In fact, it was Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight.

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Fox News responds to federal Trump indictment with unhinged demagoguery

06/08/23 10:28 PM EDT

After Trump’s indictment, the “lock her up” brigade feigns horror over “political prosecution”

06/09/23 12:26 PM EDT

Fox News anchor disregards Fox’s own debunks of a GOP claim that an FBI document shows Biden was paid a bribe

06/09/23

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youTube’s decision to permit content promoting election conspiracy theories and misinformation is being heralded by right-wing media and figures as a win for “free speech.”

The platform confirmed to Axios on June 2 that it would allow users to upload content claiming that “fraud, errors or glitches occurred in the 2020 presidential election and other U.S. elections.” The decision reverses a December 2020 election integrity policy, which the company reportedly felt could have the effect of “curtailing political speech without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm."

On Friday, Media Matters’ Julie Millican released a statement condemning the decision: “YouTube and the other platforms that preceded it in weakening their election misinformation policies, like Facebook, have made it clear that one attempted insurrection wasn’t enough. They’re setting the stage for an encore.”

In March, YouTube reinstated former President Donald Trump’s account – which was suspended following the January 6 attack on the Capitol – despite his continued attempts to push the election misinformation that resulted in real-world violence. The decision to allow election conspiracy theories to circulate on the platform recklessly ignores social media as a major factor in the deadly insurrection.

Some right-wing media outlets and figures are celebrating the policy change, claiming that it’s a win for conservatives, who falsely claim that social media platforms are censoring them. Others have also linked the decision to Elon Musk rolling back content moderation policies on Twitter, with some saying Musk paved the way for YouTube’s decision.

Right-wing outlets and figures celebrated that election conspiracy theories will be allowed on the platform again

Reacting to the news, “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander declared on Telegram that “Stop the Steal prevails.”

Right Side Broadcasting reporter Liz Willis tweeted: “HUGE - YouTube reverses ‘election misinformation policy,’ allows people to discuss the fraudulent 2020 election.”

Former Epoch Times columnist-turned-QAnon influencer Brian Cates celebrated the news on Telegram, saying, “First they mock and ridicule you. Then they angrily call you a bigot and a liar. Then they ban you. Then they admit you were right and THEN YOU WIN.”

Notorious election deniers and founders of True the Vote Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips tweeted about the news, saying of YouTube: “Just figured out they committed billions of federal crimes? …nope just figured out they lost 1/2 of Americas eyeballs and the money that comes with them.”

Following the policy reversal, the QAnon account Badlands Media suggested the account would post election misinformation on YouTube, saying, “Let's see if YouTube is actually going to backtrack on censorship. If you're on there, be sure to subscribe to Badlands Media! We'll be putting it to the test.”

Gateway Pundit writer and Badlands Media host Brian Lupo, who is known online as “CannCon” and was allegedly banned from YouTube in June 2021 for posting election misinformation, celebrated YouTube’s policy reversal. Lupo declared on Twitter, “YouTube back in play!!!!”

Right-wing media figures and outlets praised Musk for “moving the needle” and implied his actions influenced YouTube’s decision

On Twitter, right-wing influencer ALX credited Musk for YouTube’s decision, saying, “Last week, YouTube reversed their policy on talking about election fraud just as Twitter has been focusing on long form content. … Twitter is moving the needle and forcing other platforms to swing toward Free Speech.”

Cheering on YouTube’s move, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton tweeted that the decision was a sign “of the impact of @ElonMusk's free speech reforms.”

On Twitter, former Fox Business host Trish Regan asked if YouTube made the decision because the platform is “worried about Twitter competition.”

The right-wing outlet Epoch Times emphasized Musk in coverage of YouTube’s policy reversal and parroted Musk’s framing that he is a free speech “‘absolutist’ … who took over Twitter last year with a pledge to remove political bias from the platform and make it more balanced.”

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Right-wing media are attempting to discredit mainstream coverage and reactions around the Supreme Court’s recent decision to limit bodies of water protected under the Clean Water Act.

On May 25, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of wealthy Idaho couple Michael and Chantell Sackett in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, after a 14-year legal battle in which they fought to do construction near protected wetlands without a permit. All nine justices ultimately agreed they could do so, however, their reasoning differed and concurring opinion on the scope of the case was split 5-4.

Five conservative justices ruling for the majority decided that definitions previously laid out in the 51-year-old Clean Water Act were the problem, considerably narrowing the scope of which bodies of water must be protected. According to the environmental law nonprofit EarthJustice, which filed an amicus brief in the case, the new decision means that “as many as half of the 118 million acres of wetlands in the U.S. are no longer protected by the Clean Water Act, embracing the decades-long demands of mining companies, the fossil fuel industry, reckless developers, and other big polluters.”

Mainstream media coverage of the ruling rightfully highlighted this serious outcome. Democratic lawmakers including Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called out the decision’s radical implications and suggested it was driven by a partisan conservative agenda. Other experts pointed out that the majority decision ignores the best available science on how pollutants move through ecosystems.

In response, right-wing media celebrated the decision and slammed its critics, claiming that the unanimous ruling was intentionally being ignored to mislead the public and fit the narrative that conservative, Trump-appointed justices were making controversial decisions. In reality, the outcome of Sackett v. EPA was nothing if not controversial. Even Trump-appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh opted to side with the court’s three liberal justices, saying the majority’s decision to redefine what is protected under the Clean Water Act went against scientific evidence.

Right-wing media attacks focus on the majority’s decision to gut the Clean Water Act

Right-wing media attempted to expose those who called out the very real impacts of gutting the Clean Water Act and implied that the only decision that mattered — and the only one that should be publicized — was the unanimous ruling in favor of the Sacketts. Suggesting otherwise, according to them, was a gross misrepresentation of the ruling.

These allegations started on May 25 in response to Schumer’s tweet attacking the “MAGA Supreme Court” for the decision to “erode our country’s environmental laws,” adding that “this ruling will mean more polluted water, and more destruction of wetlands.” Twitter users accused Schumer of lying by highlighting the unanimous ruling in favor of the Sacketts, and even added a community note clarifying the decision. Echoing the online backlash, right-wing media including Fox News and Newsmax piled on Schumer as well.

Trending Politics owner Collin Rugg: “I was today years old when I found out Ketanji Brown Jackson was a MAGA Republican.” [Twitter, 5/29/23]

Conservative precious metals investment influencer account Wall Street Silver pushed back on Schumer’s tweet: “It was a 9-0 unanimous opinion.” [Twitter, 5/27/23]

A Daily Wire op-ed claimed that Schumer labeling the decision as “MAGA” was a “smear” against the Supreme Court: “Democrats attempt to smear anybody who goes against their agenda as a ‘MAGA’ extremist — even if those individuals are liberal members of the United States Supreme Court.” [Daily Wire, 5/27/23]

Right-wing comedian Tom Shillue, filling in for Fox’s Greg Gutfeld, said the decision was “about as MAGA as a tofu hotdog with a Bud Light." “Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer took time out from never having a real job and slammed yesterday's Supreme Court ruling,” Shillue said. “Shockingly, Schumer described the decision as the work of a MAGA court. This despite the fact the decision was 9-0. Yeah, that’s MAGA — that’s about as MAGA as a tofu hotdog with a Bud Light.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 5/26/23]

Shillue later added that “there are plenty of liberals still on the court,” while Fox News contributor Kat Timpf asked if Schumer even bothered to look at the ruling. “It's just ‘MAGA’ and it doesn’t even make any sense,” Timpf said. “I mean, you know that. Did he not even bother to look at the 9-0?" [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 5/26/23]

Newsmax co-host Bianca de la Garza dismissed Schumer’s comment and the 5-4 split. “To be very clear, all nine judges unanimously agreed that the EPA overstepped its authorities,” she said. “I guess any reason to throw in MAGA, he’ll take.” [Newsmax, John Bachman Now, 5/26/23]

Fox News host Sean Hannity: “*IT WAS UNANIMOUS, CHUCK!* ‘All 9 judges agreed that the EPA overstepped its authority and that the plaintiffs’ property should not be subject to EPA regulation.’” [Twitter, 5/26/23]

Fox Business host Liz MacDonald accused Schumer of politicizing the ruling: “This was a unanimous ruling, so that means Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, Sonya Sotomayor joined in this unanimous ruling. So are they MAGA too? Why is this politicizing everything?” [Fox Business, The Evening Edit, 5/26/23]

Townhall accused Democrats of having “grossly misled on the outcome of the case.” “Democrats are not taking the news well, to the point that they've grossly misled on the outcome of the case,” Townhall wrote. “In a tweet from his official account, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) lamented about how the ‘MAGA Supreme Court is continuing to erode our country's environmental laws,’ despite how, again, it was unanimous.” [Townhall, 5/25/23]

National Review senior writer Dan McLaughlin mocked Schumer over the 9-0 decision: “Unanimous SCOTUS decision written by George W. Bush appointee. Outcome joined by GHW Bush appointee, 2d GW Bush appointee, 2 Obama appointees, & a Biden appointee. The 3 Dems joined a concurring opinion written by a Trump appointee. Chuck Schumer: That's so MAGA!” [Twitter, 5/25/23]

Right-wing media also attacked The Washington Post and Bloomberg for not highlighting the unanimous decision more prominently, or even falsely stated that this was not even mentioned.

Radio host Erick Erickson: “You’d never know from Bloomberg that the decision was unanimous.” [Twitter, 5/25/23]

Red State blogger known as Bonchie: “This is the first seven paragraphs of the Post's write-up. Can you tell it was actually a 9-0 unanimous decision?” [Twitter, 5/25/23]

Former New York Post columnist and Daily Wire content creator Frank Fleming: “What the hell is wrong with the Washington Post misleading people like that?” “I have to defend Schumer a bit here,” Fleming wrote. “Everyone is dunking on him for this being a unanimous decision, but the Washington Post article he links doesn't mention that and calls it a 5-4 decision (when actually, it's separate concurring opinions). What the hell is wrong with the Washington Post misleading people like that?” [Twitter 5/25/23]

Why the 5-4 split between the concurring justices matters

It’s true that all nine justices ruled in favor of the Sacketts. Specifically, they found that the Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA did not have jurisdiction over this particular property. But despite what right-wing media say, the differences in their reasoning are important.

Initially, the Sacketts filed a lawsuit against the EPA because the agency ordered them to remove sand and gravel fill from the lot where they wanted to build a house, arguing that it was on protected wetlands and they would need to return the area to its natural state. The couple brought the case to the Supreme Court for the first time in 2012 after lower courts sided with the EPA, maintaining that the property was subject to the Clean Water Act and the Sacketts did indeed need permits to continue construction. The Supreme Court at the time ruled in favor of the Sacketts’ right to challenge the EPA’s order.

Aided by the Cato Institute and Americans for Prosperity, both of which were founded by the fossil fuel billionaire Koch brothers, as well as other industry groups, the Sacketts managed to get their case in front of the Supreme Court for a second time. They were represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, which has received funding from the fossil fuel industry and its allies and also fought to weaken the Clean Water Act back in 2006.

This time, five far-right justices didn’t just rule in favor of the Sacketts — they went so far as to adopt the narrowest possible definition of which waters are protected by the Clean Water Act, completely changing how the law has functioned for the past 51 years. Kavanaugh, along with three liberal justices, argued that this decision went too far. Though they wrote a concurring opinion, he and three other justices fundamentally disagreed with Justice Samuel Alito’s reading of the law, which would not protect wetlands unless they have a “continuous surface connection” to bodies of water. Kavanaugh explained why that doesn’t make sense in his concurring opinion (citations omitted):

“Because of the movement of water between adjacent wetlands and other waters, pollutants in wetlands often end up in adjacent rivers, lakes, and other waters. Natural barriers such as berms and dunes do not block all water flow and are in fact evidence of a regular connection between a water and a wetland. … The scientific evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that wetlands separated from covered waters by those kinds of berms or barriers, for example, still play an important role in protecting neighboring and downstream waters, including by filtering pollutants, storing water, and providing flood control. In short, those adjacent wetlands may affect downstream water quality and flood control in many of the same ways that adjoining wetlands can."

Right-wing media’s gripes ignoring the concurring opinion and framing the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling as key to the case are completely bad-faith attempts to gaslight the public into thinking that the decision was less controversial than it actually was. This narrative directly benefits the industries that were so keen to help gut a bedrock environmental law while refusing to accept clear scientific evidence that is inconvenient to their bottom line. As Earthjustice puts it, the effort was part of “a coordinated push by industry polluters that want to blow a hole in the Clean Water Act, bulldoze cherished wetlands, and contaminate the country’s streams with waste from mining, oil and gas, and agro-industrial operations as they see fit, just to maximize their profits.”

This isn’t the first time this court has delivered a victory to polluters. In June 2022, the court’s conservative majority issued a devastating ruling in West Virginia v. EPA that severely limited the EPA’s power to make power plants cut the toxic pollution that is driving the climate crisis.

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as the June 5 deadline to raise the nation’s debt limit approaches, right-wing media are attacking House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for allegedly capitulating to Democrats’ demands in a tentative deal.

The Treasury expects the government to run out of cash by Monday, June 5 if Congress does not raise the debt limit. The tentative agreement to raise the debt ceiling until January 2025 would limit spending, expand work requirements for SNAP recipients, end the pause on student loans repayments and interest accrual, and amend environmental impact statements. Despite these concessions from the White House, there are still many conservatives pushing for more.

Biden and McCarthy have both touted the agreement as a bipartisan deal and are urging Congress to pass it. While some conservatives have praised the deal, many in right-wing media are willing to risk a default, urging Congress to reject the agreement and criticizing McCarthy for supposedly striking a bad deal that favors Democrats:

Fox News host Laura Ingraham complained that because the debt ceiling deal is being touted by Biden and the Chamber of Commerce, “It should be up to them to get the votes they want. There’s no reason for us to help.”

In a series of posts on Gettr, former Trump adviser and current right-wing podcaster Steve Bannon decried the deal as a “total cave” to Democrats’ wishes and called McCarthy a “Total and Complete Sell-Out.” In a statement to Newsweek, Bannon said the debt ceiling agreement was “not acceptable” for conservatives, adding, "This shows no leadership whatsoever.”

Bannon also called for conservatives to primary any Republican member of Congress that votes for the agreement: “If you vote for this, you should be and must be primaried.”

Conservative radio host Buck Sexton wrote, “With the debt ceiling deal, we’re reminded that conservatism in 2023 is making a series of goal line stands, never crossing into the opponent’s half of the field, and calling that a win.”

Appearing on Newsmax’s Eric Bolling The Balance, former Trump adviser Peter Navarro called the debt ceiling deal “the McCarthy Memorial Day Weekend Surrender,” and went on to say that McCarthy “got basically nothing” and “took the first off-ramp.” Guest host Carl Higbie urged the House of Representatives to reject the deal, saying, “I'm hoping that enough people see a problem with this and send it back and say, ‘No, no, no. Make it better.’”

Former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs criticized McCarthy, tweeting, “The Speaker went to a horse-whipping, not a negotiation! … He got nothing and is waiting for a participation trophy!”

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk tweeted, “Mad about the debt ceiling deal? It’s the neocons who were holding this entire deal hostage. They refused to budge on any cuts to our woke military. We could have had a much better deal if we had a GOP willing to limit $ we send to countries that hate us.”

Fox & Friends Sunday co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy said, “It's a win for McCarthy … but it's a loss for America because this is an unsustainable path, this printing and spending. Just look to Latin America. It doesn't end well, and I don't know how long we can keep doing this.”

Right-wing Twitter account Catturd tweeted, “If you didn't know Kevin McCarthy would cave on the debt limit - you don't know Kevin McCarthy.”

Fringe conspiracy theorist and failed GOP congressional candidate Laura Loomer wrote: “McCarthy debt ‘deal’ is a disaster,” adding that Trump’s endorsement of McCarthy “is one of the worst decisions he’s ever made.”

During an appearance on The Story, Fox contributor and former Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz said, “I would not vote for this bill. I don't think it solves the problem. I think it perpetuates where we are. I just -- I could never vote as a fiscal conservative in favor of this bill. It perpetuates the status quo, I think.”

Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked, “Should he [McCarthy] have just let it default?” She reasoned, “Everybody would have blamed Biden at that point if you are not going to get what you want.”

On his radio show, Sean Hannity denounced the debt ceiling deal for not cutting enough spending, lamenting it would still continue to fund “pet projects that the Democrats want.”

Newsmax’s Eric Bolling said McCarthy “gave away the ranch” to the Democrats with the current agreement, saying McCarthy lost all his leverage and “handed Joe Biden a second term.”

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right-wing media figures uncritically amplified a now-debunked New York Post story to demonize immigrants and attack Democratic lawmakers.

On May 13, the New York Post published a story alleging that a group of 20 homeless military veterans had been “evicted” from two upstate New York hotels to make room for immigrants who had settled in New York City. The Post claimed the supposed migrants were part of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ plans to secure temporary housing for immigrants entering the city.

After the New York Post published its story, local outlet the Mid Hudson News spoke with hotel management and service providers the Post claimed were involved in the removals. On May 18, the paper reported that not only had no homeless veterans been removed, but they were never there to begin with — one hotel manager “had never heard of” the veteran's group supposedly involved, while another said it “had not put any veterans in the hotel for ‘a long time.’” The report also discredited a receipt presented by State Assemblyman Brian Maher as supposed evidence that the group representing the homeless veterans had paid for the rooms. The Post later reported that the group’s longtime advocate had lied to the newspaper about the entire situation, and today the Mid Hudson News uncovered that 15 homeless men were paid to pretend they were veterans who had been staying at the hotel.

[twt]

by the time the story fell apart, right-wing media had already latched onto the now-debunked narrative and immediately weaponized the shoddily reported story as part of their ongoing fear campaign over a so-called “invasion” of migrants coming across the southern border.

Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt said it was “astonishing that some of these hotels are getting migrants” and having to cancel other reservations, adding, “There are two couples that booked rooms for their wedding … and 20 vets also were in that hotel, they all had to move out because these migrants moved in.”

Later on Fox & Friends, guest co-host Will Cain claimed that a “flood of illegal immigrants” are taking up hotel rooms and other resources in New York. Cain went on to remind viewers “about homeless veterans booted from a hotel so that rooms could be given to illegal immigrants,” with Earhardt adding that “Eric Adams says they’re gonna stay there for four months, so 20 veterans had to move to another hotel.”

Fox anchor Harris Faulkner claimed the story showed “the disgraceful treatment of our military veterans played out in Orange County, New York,” as the nonexistent group of “at least 20 homeless veterans, some reportedly suffering from PTSD, had to give up their hotel rooms for illegals.” Fox contributor Johnny “Joey” Jones added a jab at the Biden administration, stating, “A president that would leave Americans stranded in Afghanistan probably doesn't see the onus to take care of 20 veterans in a hotel. And I hate to say it, but that's just the absolute truth of it.”

Outnumbered co-hosts Emily Compagno and Kayleigh McEnany expressed outrage over the New York Post story, with Compagno claiming “America's heroes are now paying the price” for the “Southern border crisis.” McEnany lamented, “I can't help but notice the contrast when you have a 24-year-old — a veteran, had been in Afghanistan — kicked out of his hotel room as an Afghan national on the terror watch list is crossing the border in San Diego.”

Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum complained, “You’ve got the hotels in New York that are having to take folks in. You had one in Newburgh, New York, where they had to cancel a wedding and kick out some homeless veterans to make room for incoming migrants.”

Conservative moving company owner John Rourke appeared on One America News and ranted, “It just drives me nuts when we have veterans sleeping on the streets of this country and committing suicide in record numbers … and here we are filling up hotel rooms with illegal aliens, giving them cell phones, giving them medical attention, giving them food and water, and then putting them on planes.”

On Twitter, Donald Trump Jr. used the story to attack Democrats, stating, “Honestly, this is just infuriating! Homeless vets are being booted from New York hotels to make room for migrants. Fuck Democrats & their bullshit policies! America last isn’t hyperbole it’s their goal.”

Students for Trump founder Ryan Fournier tweeted, “Unacceptable. Nearly two dozen struggling homeless vets have been booted from NY hotels… So illegal immigrants can have space. WHAT?!”

Conservative radio host Bo Snerdley tweeted, “This is about as ruthless, coldblooded, and incredibly heinous as anything Biden and Democrats have ever done. Kicking American veterans out of their lodging to make way for illegal immigrants? What country IS this?”

Newsmax contributor Tony Shaffer later tweeted, “This tells you everything you need to understand about the progressive left cult - they are out to expand political power and a permanent underclass that will vote for them even if it means sacrificing veterans.”

Fox News contributor and former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted, “What could be more backwards than putting illegal immigrants ahead of American veterans? An insult to American sovereignty.”

2024 Republican presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley tweeted a link to the New York Post’s story, adding, “Liberal insanity at work.”

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right-wing media are yet again running to the side of an accused vigilante killer, framing Daniel Penny — who has been charged with choking Jordan Neely to death on a New York subway — as a “hero” deserving of “unwavering” political and financial support.

On May 1, Penny placed Neely in a chokehold that lasted at least three minutes. One witness who filmed the homicide claimed Neely — an unhoused Black man who had long suffered with mental illness following the murder of his mother — was restrained for as long as 15 minutes.

Bolstered by years of coverage setting the stage to legitimize extrajudicial violence, right-wing media quickly attempted to justify the killing, accusing the left of creating a “race hustle” and framing Penny as a good samaritan who protected the vulnerable. Penny was charged with second-degree manslaughter on May 12, resulting in an immediate cycle of outrage from conservative figures who have not only lionized Penny, but also launched a widespread effort to help him escape criminal charges.

With this wave of promotion — including personal donations from right-wing commentators Tim Pool, Candace Owens, and Tammy Bruce — Penny’s defense fund has raised over $2 million on GiveSendGo, a Christian fundraising site previously used by January 6 rioters.

Right-wing media figures have lionized Penny

A number of right-wing media figures engaged in outright hero worship of Penny:

On Fox News, The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld said the indictment “is political, it’s pro-criminal, it’s anti-hero.”

Fox host Laura Ingraham called Penny a “hero” and promised her “unwavering support” after warning that “the mob” pressured Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg into charging him in Neely’s killing.

Daily Wire host Michael Knowles called Penny’s manslaughter charge a “hideous miscarriage of justice” and suggested he should instead be given a “key to the city” and “a ticker-tape parade.”

Newsmax host Greg Kelly referred to Penny as “the subway hero” and suggested that he did not “technically” place Neely in a chokehold, saying, “to me, it looked like an upper-body restraint maneuver.” Guest Mark Simone then called Neely “a terrorist” and said he hoped Penny escaped charges.

Others encouraged further vigilante violence:

OAN correspondent Caitlin Sinclair claimed that “no one should be surprised at this point, here in liberal New York, when the people start to defend ourselves” from “evil in a blue city.” Sinclair also suggested that the charges against Penny mean “self-defense is no longer a right,” and said she often “wished that there was a Daniel Penny on that subway” when she was younger.

Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Will Cain called for vigilante justice against “bad people,” arguing “we need more Daniel Pennys.”

Fox News guest Chad Robichaux said Penny “did exactly what he should do. He stepped up to defend people in that car. … He did the right thing.”

Some right-wing media figures alleged that Penny was prosecuted because he is white and would have been richly rewarded otherwise:

In a video titled “The Race-Based Lynching Of A Hero Marine Veteran,” Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro claimed that Penny was a “hero” and suggested that the case only received coverage so the media could “propagate the lie that America is a systemically racist country.”

Fox contributor Leo Terrell referred to Penny as a “hero” and declared that he was being prosecuted for being white.

On Twitter, far-right personality Ian Miles Cheong said: “Daniel Penny was charged because he is white and Jordan Neely is black. If the races were reversed, or if they were both the same race, this wouldn't be an issue at all and everyone would be praising Daniel for his heroism in that train.”

Right-wing media figures contributed to and promoted Penny’s legal defense fund:

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk called on his Twitter followers to “give what you can” to support Penny in his “unjust prosecution.”

Ingraham advertised Penny’s defense fund, reading comments from donors and saying he has “enormous public support,” as a chyron underneath claimed that his donation page “reveals the true America.”

Daily Wire host Candace Owens said she would have helped the “hero” if she was on the subway with Neely and insisted that her audience follow in her footsteps by donating to Penny’s defense.

Newsmax host Rob Schmitt celebrated the fundraiser’s success, saying “Daniel Penny’s defense fund is growing as basically everybody with common sense in this country realizes that this is an atrocity against him.”

Right-wing commentator Tim Pool personally donated $20,000 to Penny’s legal fund, calling him “the Subway Good Samaritan.” Pool later said his donation was made to support “another major culture war victory,” arguing, “Daniel Penny doesn’t deserve to spend even a minute behind bars.”

Fox contributor Tammy Bruce touted a personal donation to Penny and called it a “statement” against his prosecution, which she claimed was “a message for no one to help anyone else” in New York City.

Right-wing media’s close relationship with vigilante justice

Penny is far from the first vigilante killer to receive the full backing of conservative media. After Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people, killing two, at an August 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, right-wing media figures similarly jumped to his defense, soliciting donations and painting him as a victim who engaged in justified self-defense. Drew Hernandez — a frequent Tucker Carlson guest who has worked with Turning Point USA, Steve Bannon, and Infowars — even served as a witness for Rittenhouse’s defense.

Since the Kenosha shooting, Rittenhouse has turned into a conservative icon and used his new platform to advocate for other vigilantes. Appearing on Tucker Carlson Tonight in April, Rittenhouse and Carlson petitioned Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to pardon Daniel Perry, another right-wing media darling who was found guilty of murdering a Black Lives Matter protester in July 2020 after prosecutors revealed a history of messages in which he called protesters “monkeys” and threatened to kill them.

With a campaign of support behind him, Penny has joined the ranks of George Zimmerman, Travis and Gregory McMichael, Andrew Lester, Byron Smith, and various vigilante patrols and right-wing militias whose extrajudicial violence has been excused by conservative media.

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aha doh escalator echo is amplify feedback loop

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aLICIA MENENDEZ (HOST): Angelo, I am so glad that Andy reminded us that 1/6 is a part of this continuum here. Philip Bump at The Washington Post reports, quote, "Fox News's coverage since mid-2020 has disproportionately involved clips of isolated criminal activity to generate a sense of unconstrained violence in urban areas -- despite evidence that the increase in crime since the pandemic also occurred in rural areas." You touched upon that, but what I want to come back to is the fact that this week, you had the GOP-led House leading a field hearing about crime in New York City, which then Fox News covers, and it just becomes part of this endless feedback loop where the circus becomes reality.

ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT AND CEO): Yeah, and I think the part that concerns me the most is -- I think, that it's one thing when it's just a misinformation, feedback loop, that itself is a problem, but in a way, it's actually less scary than the current scenario because a couple of years ago -- and now, it's really just fully formed -- there was a switch. And basically the Republican party, via the right-wing media, decided that they were going to organize power on what used to be considered the fringes. And so once they sort of moved those fringe and set them right and directly front and center in the Republican core, it actually basically pulls in people that are most likely to act on these types of ideas, on this misinformation feedback loop. So what they're basically doing is taking an already simmering cauldron of anxiety, of fear, of hate, of rage, and they are ratcheting up that temperature, bit by bit. And so every time they sort of misrepresent, missample the threat of crime, who's actually responsible, that it's coming for you, they are basically raising the temperature on that cauldron. So it shouldn't be a surprise that it's increasingly starting to spill over and boil over. It's kind of what they're doing. They are organizing power on the fringes. This is what you get when you move the fringes front and center.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/social-security/right-wing-media-provides-safe-space-house-republicans-call-cuts-social-security

right-wing media figures and activists continue to call for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, even as leaders of the Republican Party deny that slashing benefits for seniors is a goal. Conservative pundits are making these demands against the backdrop of ongoing debt ceiling negotiations between the White House and the Republican-controlled House, perpetuating the myth that federal spending is out of control as an excuse to push austerity policies.

Conservative orthodoxy has long held that Social Security and Medicare need to be “reformed,” a euphemism for cutting benefits or the raising eligibility age for future enrollees of either program. Nearly 90% of people over 65 were receiving Social Security checks as of  the end of last year, representing about 30% of their income, according to official figures. As of last September, more than 65 million people were on Medicare. Slashing federal spending for either of those programs is politically unpopular, and some conservatives have changed their messaging — if not their underlying ideology — as a result.

Former President Donald Trump, for example, recently released an ad attacking Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – who is expected to announce his candidacy shortly – for backing cuts to the programs. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has also promised not to include the programs in the massive spending reductions his party is seeking.

But old habits die hard, and there is no shortage of recent examples of conservative media figures, activists, and politicians who have made it clear that their goal is to weaken and undermine these programs, often under the pretext of protecting them in the long term.

Townhall editor Katie Pavlich illustrated this dynamic last week on Fox News, when she referenced the national debt as a justification for cutting benefits to seniors. “The bottom line is that for either party in Washington, if they want to actually address this $32 trillion problem, someone is going to have to propose spending -- legislation that takes on reforming social security and Medicare,” Pavlich said. “Those are the things that are driving the debt." vid]

fox News anchor John Roberts showed how the Republican talking point infiltrates the network’s so-called straight news coverage.

“There’s all this talk about how to get spending under control, and I think people on both sides rationally know there is no way to get spending under control unless you start to implement reforms to things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, but neither side wants to come forward unilaterally and say, ‘Here’s our plan to do it,’” Roberts said. “There needs to be cooperation, they need to reach out across the aisle and until they do that, that debt ceiling is just going to keep bumping up and bumping up and bumping up — look at where it is now, more than $31 trillion, it's stunning.”

Roberts’ argument rests on the unstated and incorrect assumption that the US budget is analogous to a household budget, a fallacy that has been repeatedly debunked.

Earlier this month, Fox News host Mark Levin called for cuts on his radio show, even as he denied he was doing so. “Now, this isn't about cutting them,” Levin said. “This is about changing certain variables in these programs for future generations.”

“One of the proposals that was made several years ago, and I think what DeSantis voted for, and I would have voted for it too, was to raise the retirement age to 70, to grandfather in all current beneficiaries and those who will be beneficiaries within the next 10 years, so anybody 55 and older, because it's not gonna exist,” he continued.

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk similarly advocated for reducing benefits to seniors in the future, also positioning himself as telling a harsh but necessary truth. “​​Current beneficiaries, I don't think anything should be touched, but yes, there need to be some adjustments for future retirees,” Kirk said. “And if you even say that, it's like the third rail.”

The right-wing outlet The Epoch Times positively covered presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s calls to gut Social Security and Medicare as well, with the headline: “Haley Promises Supporters She Will Address the Nation’s Huge Deficit.”

Speaking in a barn in the legislative district where she got her political start, Nikki Haley, former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor, said the nation needs to get its fiscal house in order.

…

And that work, she said, will include reforming entitlements.

“Social Security will be bankrupt in 10 years. Medicare will be bankrupt in five,” she said.

Fellow Republican presidential primary candidate Mike Pence also advocated for reductions to Social Security and Medicare, saying “we’ve got to put them on the table in the long term.”

On former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) broke from the official leadership line to consider reducing seniors’ benefits. “I believe that we have to have a discussion about raising the age of Social Security,” Gaetz said.

Right-wing site The Daily Caller was more honest than most in a story from earlier this month headlined: “Despite The Establishment’s Best Efforts, Some Republicans Want To Reform Entitlements.”

National Review, which has long positioned itself as the intellectual vanguard of the conservative movement, has also been open about their desire to weaken Social Security and Medicare.

In a blog post pegged to Trump’s attack ad, senior writer Noah Rothman defended DeSantis on the grounds that “the longtime Republican lawmaker once evinced support for longtime Republican positions: specifically, the urgent and undeniable national imperative for reforming America’s unfunded entitlement programs before they collapse.”

In another, contributor Jack Salmon called for “raising the retirement age to at least 68, indexing retirement age to life expectancy, and adopting chained Consumer Price Index [CPI] as the preferred metric for measuring annual cost-of-living adjustments.” Research shows that moving to chained CPI would reduce benefits for seniors.

Russ Vought, a Christian nationalist sympathizer and the founder of the right-wing think tank the Center for Renewing America, has been at the center of the debt ceiling debate, including pushing for massive cuts to social welfare programs. Like McCarthy, Vought’s official line is that his organization isn’t targeting Social Security or Medicare, but diverges from the House leader in acknowledging that those programs are only off the table for the short term.

“The House Republicans are not making Social Security and Medicare a fight on this debt limit,” Vought said on Fox News last month. He added that his organization’s budget targeted Medicaid, while also admitting that when it came to Social Security and Medicare, “We have to reform those programs over time.”

While Social Security and Medicare are universal programs that benefit seniors, and are incredibly politically durable as a result, Medicaid is a targeted anti-poverty program whose recipients conservatives are happy to demonize. There is no small irony that the faux-populist wing of the Republican Party — which includes Bannon and Vought — are doing their best to deny health care to the working class.

Vought frequently expresses his eagerness to slash Medicaid coverage by implementing work requirements. Public health experts call that a “terrible idea,” but it is nonetheless one that conservatives keep proposing. “You’ve been talking about the work requirements,” Bannon said to Vought on an April 24 edition of War Room.

Vought responded, arguing to get significant fiscal reductions in spending “you have to really begin to reform Medicaid, as I’ve proposed, and get people who are adults without children off of the Medicaid program.”

Bannon has repeatedly advocated for reducing the federal budget by cutting Medicaid. On April 18, he reiterated that “Medicare and Social Security are off the table,” but “you can get there” by “getting into Medicaid.” He similarly called for “massive cuts” to Medicaid earlier this year at the Conservative Political Action Conference, citing Vought’s work.

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the House GOP plan to add work requirements to Medicaid would result in 10 million people losing their coverage.

The through-line from all of these statements are clear. Conservatives in government and right-wing media are laying the foundation to eviscerate the limited but important social programs for seniors and the working class. Their denials are paper-thin, when they’re even offered at all.

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following the historic May 4 conviction of Proud Boys chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and three others for seditious conspiracy for their involvement in the violent January 6 riot at the Capitol, right-wing media have decried the ruling and asserted their innocence.

The Proud Boys have a history of violence and are known to spread hatred under the label of Western chauvinism. The jury found the four Proud Boy leaders guilty for conspiring to violently keep former President Donald Trump in power after messages and witness testimony hinted at violent action at the Capitol. Over the past two years, figures in right-wing media have frequently pointed to the lack of conspiracy charges related to January 6 as evidence that the insurrection was blown out of proportion. The Proud Boys' conviction takes that myopic argument off the table.

While Fox News has barely covered the conviction, many on the right have devoted time to undermining the seditious conspiracy charge and the Proud Boys’ acts of violence on January 6, attacking prosecutors, and defending Trump from potential similar charges. Since the conviction, right-wing media figures have also been defending the Proud Boys by attacking the courts.

Defending the Proud Boys’ innocence, undermining the charges, and calling the trial a “set-up”

Founder of the Proud Boys Gavin McInnes posted on Telegram: “Antifa and BLM burn down this country with impunity. Proud Boys wander through a riot and now they’re facing twenty years. These guys have kids. This might as well be the death penalty.”

Right-wing YouTuber Steven Crowder complained that the seditious conspiracy theory charge was too broad, asking, “Can someone give me the definition of seditious conspiracy?” He added, “We're all seditious conspiracy theorists.”

Newsmax’s Greg Kelly called the “whole damn thing” a “sham and a shame.” He also claimed that Tarrio “was just unjustly convicted of the worst possible thing.”

QAnon influencer The Patriot Voice posted on far-right social media site Gettr, “There is NO JUSTICE here.” He added, “They are being made an example of in the WORST way possible…Do this we will RUIN YOUR LIFE. SICK.”

Right-wing radio host Mark Levin suggested that the trial was a miscarriage of justice, saying, “You don't have to be big big fans of the Proud Boys to believe in civil liberties and due process.”

Infowars’ Alex Jones called the trial a “total set up,” before attacking trans people.

Proud Boys’ lawyer Norm Pattis used his appearance on Infowars to ask Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to “get that weaponization committee to subpoena the trial transcripts in this case, all of them, including the transcripts that are under seal.”

Gateway Pundit published a post titled: “JUSTICE DENIED: Proud Boys Members Guilty of Seditious Conspiracy by DC Kangaroo Court – Face 20 Years in Prison – After FBI Created and Planted Evidence in Their Chat Room.”

Right wing social media account Carpe Donktum tweeted: “The entire thing was a total set up, and the cops were in on it. YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS IN DC, THEY WILL SET YOU UP AND LOCK YOU UP.”

Conservative reporter Patrick Howley called the conviction, “a miscarriage of justice,” adding that they were found guilty by a “Soviet-style court.”

Anti-muslim activist and failed GOP congressional candidate Laura Loomer attacked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Speaker Kevin McCarthy for not issuing a statement, adding, “How many more American patriots will be charged w/ ‘seditious conspiracy’?”

Right-wing pundit DeAnna Lorraine reacted to the news saying, “DESPICABLE. Any last shred of Justice in America is DEAD.”

Suggesting that the Proud Boys’ conviction opens the door for the same charges to be brought against Trump

Conservative radio host Jesse Kelly tweeted: “What’s happened to the Proud Boys is a travesty and it would frighten you more if you realized they’re gonna do the same thing to you. First it was them. Then it will be Trump. Then it will be you.”

Right-wing influencers the Hodgetwins tweeted: “Corrupt and biased prosecutors, judge, and jurors just convicted the Proud Boys of Seditious Conspiracy, a 20 year felony, for Jan 6. They’re setting it up to indict Trump next…”

White nationalist conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec tweeted: “Clear now the Biden Admin is going to charge Trump with seditious conspiracy. This is the end goal of the Garland grand jury and the Proud Boys convictions. GOP primary challengers are telling donors they are betting on it taking him out of the race.”

On the May 4 episode of his show The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, co-host Buck Sexton hypothesized that “they're going to try to bring a seditious conspiracy charge against Donald Trump.

When asked if she thought charges would be brought against Trump on the May 5 episode of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, guest and political commentator Julie Kelly alleged that, “None of this is by accident. It is a warning shot to not just Trump, but people around him, possibly John Eastman and others, for allegedly conspiring.”

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note AT&T funding for OANN as fox-like revenue stream, [ directTV dropped oann then newsmax 1 23]

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https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/right-wing-media-and-fringe-figures-are-celebrating-rfk-jrs-run-president

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-celebrate-expulsion-tennessee-lawmakers-and-liken-it-january-6

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https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump-jr/right-wing-media-attack-daughter-judge-handling-trumps-arraignment

Right-wing media figures and outlets posted photos of the daughter of the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s arraignment today in lower Manhattan and accused her of having ties to Democratic politicians. Some commentators responded by saying that posting a judge’s family member was intended as intimidation, an argument that prosecutors took up as well. Prior to his surrender, Trump also posted information about the judge and his family on his Truth Social platform.

Judge Juan Merchan is handling Trump’s criminal case, the first ever for a former or sitting president. Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts stemming from payments made to his then-fixer Michael Cohen to allegedly cover up an affair he’d had with porn actor Stormy Daniels.

Throughout the day on Tuesday, right-wing figures and outlets accused Merchan of being a secret partisan operative for the Democratic Party. Conspiracy theory site The Gateway Pundit and far-right blog Breitbart, which credited The Gateway Pundit with breaking the story, alleged that Merchan’s daughter previously worked for Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2020 campaign and implied that this further proved that he was politically biased against Trump. Conservative tabloid The Daily Mail also wrote a lengthy piece, headlined “REVEALED: The progressive daughter of judge presiding over Donald Trump's hush money case in Manhattan who worked for Kamala Harris and Joe Biden - and is swirling speculation of bias against the ex-president.” All three outlets including photos of the judge’s daughter.

Needless to say, dubious reporting about Merchan’s family has no bearing on his ability to impartially preside over Trump’s case — but that didn’t stop right-wing actors from pushing the smear online.

Donald Trump Jr. posted the same message to Twitter and Truth Social linking to the Breitbart article, which clearly displayed a photo of Merchan’s daughter to his more than 13 million combined followers. “​​Seems relevant… yet another connection in this hand picked democrat show trial,” Trump Jr. wrote. “The BS never ends folks.” Eric Trump also posted messages to Twitter and Truth Social. “They are all hand picked,” Eric Trump wrote on Twitter. “It is all pre-arranged. This corruption is on a different level.” His post linked to The Gateway Pundit article which also featured a photo of the judge’s daughter. The tweet has since been removed.

The Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway and conspiracy theorist and neo-Nazi collaborator Jack Posobiec both criticized the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler, who tweeted out partial screenshots of the tweets of Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., excluding images of Merchan. Hemingway dubiously claimed excluding the images amounted to deceptive edits, and Posobiec directed Twitter’s crowdsourced quasi-fact checking system “community notes” to “do your thing.”

Newsmax's Ric Grennell called it “a legitimate story,” shared The Daily Mail article, and criticized an adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence for “shaming anyone who shares the story.”

Conservative media site DC Enquirer posted a story about the judge’s daughter as well, aggregating information from Breitbart and The Gateway Pundit.

Conspiracy theorist and Trump pardon recipient Dinesh D’Souza tweeted a link to the DC Enquirer story, headlined “Trump’s Indictment Judge Exposed, His Daughter Worked For Biden/Harris, Further Proving Indictment a Frivolous Witch Hunt.”

New York Post columnist Paul Sperry tweeted: “The daughter of the Manhattan judge presiding over the Trump criminal case is a Democratic political strategist who worked on the congressional campaign of Democrat Rep. ADAM SCHIFF, who led the first impeachment of Trump.”

Anti-Muslim extremist Laura Loomer tweeted a link to the Breitbart story, adding: “A BANANA REPUBLIC! THIS IS BULLSHIT!!!!! Judge should have to recuse himself.”

Team Trump, Trump’s official campaign account, tweeted the Breitbart story and accompanying photo to its more than 2 million followers.

Relentless podcast host Kyle Becker tweeted a link to TrendingPoliticsNews.com, which also relied on The Gateway Pundit’s original piece. “But wait, it gets worse,” Becker wrote. “The daughter of the judge in Trump’s case has strong ties within the Democratic party.”

Right-wing commentator Greg Price tweeted: “The judge is a Democrat whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris.”

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https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/right-wing-media-scramble-defend-trump-ahead-potential-indictment-and-arrest

mma 3 23

no twt

after former President Donald Trump predicted his own arrest and indictment, right-wing media pundits were quick to provide cover for him and attack an investigation that they claimed would help the 2024 hopeful’s reelection campaign.

On March 18, Trump posted to his Truth Social account that he was expecting the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office to indict and arrest him the following Tuesday, March 21. The posts came while a Manhattan grand jury heard testimony as part of an ongoing investigation into Trump allegedly paying hush-money to adult film actor Stormy Daniels in 2016 over an alleged affair[trmp twt caps]

in response, right-wing media have continued their pattern of defending Trump from various investigations and smearing Trump’s longtime associate-turned-witness Michael Cohen, who testified in 2019 that Trump had directed Cohen to repeatedly pay off women for their silence about their sexual relationships with him. Right-wing media outlets are claiming Bragg is backed by liberal philanthropist George Soros, accusing Bragg of running a politically motivated investigation that unfairly targets the former president, and claiming that an indictment of Trump would benefit his 2024 presidential campaign.

Right-wing media baselessly claim liberals are “weaponizing” the judicial system to punish political enemies

Right-wing podcast host Steven Crowder warned that arresting Trump would be “how you start a civil war," saying, “Not saying I want it [civil war], but I'm saying if you look throughout history, jailing political opponents is, kind of, one of the key items that pops shit off.”

Discussing a potential indictment, Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles said that “it's so obvious that the Democrats here just want to stop the people from having a chance to re-elect Donald Trump,” and he called for Republican governors state attorneys general to indict “prominent criminal libs”: “You should find every stupid little fake misdemeanor charge and you should trump it up as high as you possibly can.”

One America News Network’s chief White House correspondent Chanel Rion suggested on Twitter that Trump would be a political prisoner and compared him to Jesus, Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, and nobel laureate Nelson Mandela.

Conservative radio host Jason Rantz tweeted “Donald Trump will be arrested on misdemeanor charges next week by far-left DA Alvin Bragg, who rarely charges and prosecutes FELONIES against dangerous criminals” before asking, “We’re supposed to pretend this isn’t political?”

On Fox & Friends Weekend, guest and attorney Sol Wisenberg characterized the charges as “a hyphenated term” that “starts with chicken and then it ends with i [and] t.” Wisenberg argued that such a case would never be brought against anyone other than Trump. “The question to ask yourself in a case like this: Would a case like this be brought against anybody else, whether he or she be president, former president, or a regular citizen? And the answer … is ‘no.’”

Newsmax host Tom Basile claimed that the investigation into Trump “appears to be the weaponization of our justice system for political purposes.”

Right-wing media claim Bragg is a “radical” leftist backed by George Soros who “has to pay his master back”

On Fox and Friends Weekend, Fox host Mark Levin attacked Bragg, saying, “What would you expect from a radical left-wing legal bomb thrower who’s inserted into this position by George Soros.” He accused Democrats of trying to “destroy the law and destroy the Constitution” and claimed, “Their whole goal is to destroy the civil society and the morality that undergirds.”

On Fox Business’ Varney & Co., host Stuart Varney suggested Trump’s purported indictment and arrest were a “setup,” before adding, “I’m going to editorialize: This looks like a political charge inspired by raw Trump hatred.” Varney’s guest Fox News contributor Charlie Hurt argued that Bragg was on a “political jihad” that is “insane.”

Newsmax and Daily Caller contributor Benny Johnson smeared the investigation as a “witch hunt” while rhetorically asking, “Is it any surprise that the driving force behind the Trump indictment witch hunt is a District Attorney in New York backed by none other than George Soros?”

Fox & Friends Weekend co-hosts Will Cain and Rachel Campos-Duffy accused Bragg of prioritizing “a weak case against Trump” over Black lives. Cain asked, “How many Black lives have you sacrificed under a higher crime city with increased murder rates to devote a limited number of resources to the priority of pursuing a weak case against Donald Trump?” Campos-Duffy said the political left doesn’t “really care about Black lives or the working class or the poor” and blamed the alleged indictment on “a George Soros-funded D.A.” who “has to pay his master back” by prosecuting Trump.

Fox News host Dan Bongino told his Fox Nation audience to “get the hell out of blue states as soon as you can” because “disgusting piece of garbage” Bragg “will find you and they will hunt you down if you’re a conservative.”

Right-wing radio host Bo Snerdley baselessly claimed that “Bragg along with other Soros-funded DA's” are prioritizing investigations into Trump while “releasing repeat-offending criminals with low or no bail, and failing to prosecute real crimes.”

Right-wing media figures argue Trump arrest would backfire and benefit him politically

Crowder speculated on his podcast that pursuing legal charges against Trump would start a civil war, stating, “Frankly, some of me thinks that maybe some people up top are saying don't do this because it will backfire. But if you arrest your political opponents, people who are actively seeking the presidency -- look, do you guys want to start a civil war? Because that's how you start a civil war.”

Salem Radio’s Eric Metaxas compared a potential Trump indictment to “what the British wished to do” with the Founding Fathers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. He also claimed that indicting Trump “will dramatically clarify the narrative for anyone still on the fence. Time to choose. Tyranny will lose. Again.”

Right-wing host Todd Starnes tweeted, “The Manhattan District Attorney is about to guarantee @realDonaldTrump will win reelection in a landslide.”

On Twitter, Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich said, “To arrest a former and future President is an act of hatred and poison and will further harden support for Trump while discrediting the left. Remember Hunter Biden!”

National Review’s Rich Lowry tweeted, “Alvin Bragg is engaged in election interference, in favor of Donald Trump.”

Conservative radio host Mark Simone tweeted:  “Some now wondering if the DA is getting paid off to help Donald Trump get elected.”

Echoing a tweet shared by Twitter CEO Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr. claimed on Truth Social that arresting his father would “lead to landslide victory for Trump.”

Breitbart’s Joel Pollack predicted that a potential Trump indictment would result in a “red tsunami” in 2024. He also tweeted, “Arresting Trump over the Stormy Daniels settlement, while the serious charges against Biden et al. go unaddressed, will launch a new era of political conflict in the United States. Short of civil war, but with deep divisions that make ordinary government operations more difficult.”

On Truth Social, Students for Trump founder Ryan Fournier said, “If Alvin ‘chipmunk’ Bragg indicts President Trump.. it’s over. We will WIN in a landslide and we will handle Alvin. Choose wisely.”

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the right-wing media echo chamber pushed a completely fictional talking point that Silicon Valley Bank had supposedly donated $73 million to Black Lives Matter, based on distortions from a far-right think tank. And in Fox News’ rush to amplify the falsehoods, which fit the network’s preposterous political narrative that SVB was a “woke bank,” purported “news” personnel behaved no differently from the network’s opinion hosts.

As a prime example of Fox’s “news” personalities pushing blatantly partisan falsehoods, on the morning of March 15, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy claimed: “Roughly $73 million went to Black Lives Matter-related causes” from the bank. [vid]

and later that night, Fox host Sean Hannity said that Silicon Valley Bank “diverted a massive amount of money to left-wing causes. Now, get this, this is what we have discovered, that includes a whopping $73 million to BLM-related groups."[vid]

this is the same network that, as recently unearthed text messages and emails have shown, will actively reprimand and penalize its alleged “straight news” reporters for debunking misinformation pushed by its opinion hosts and their guests. As such, nobody in the network would have any incentive to even try to unearth the facts, because Fox News is not in any sense a real news organization.

Actual SVB donations to Black Lives Matter: $0.00

The charge itself that SVB contributed over $70 million to Black Lives Matter or closely aligned organizations is based on a supposed “BLM-funding database” maintained by the Claremont Institute, a right-wing and openly anti-democracy organization that is also closely tied to disgraced former law professor John Eastman, who was closely involved in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

The Associated Press confirmed that the database does not show any spending to Black Lives Matter, and obtained a comment in which Claremont explained it was including “reparative initiatives,” which it called “race-based, discriminatory hiring programs; race-based, sub-prime lending; partisan voter initiatives; and DEI efforts.” The AP also obtained a comment from the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, which confirmed it did not receive $70 million from the bank, and added: “Even if we did, the idea that this type of contribution would be controversial is rooted in a pathology that Black organizations don’t deserve to be funded.”

In addition, professor Rodney Ramcharan at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business explained to the AP what actual evidence of bank failure due to “woke” business practices might look like, if such a thing existed. “The bank would have suffered loan losses—writing down bad loans made to ‘woke’ firms,” he explained. “So this is not a matter of opinion, but actual data. Instead, there are no unusual loan losses or loan loss provisioning.” (Claremont had cited “sub-prime lending” as a component of such alleged “woke” practices.)

The database labels any donations that support Black people as “BLM”

Writing for the newsletter Popular Information, Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, and Tesnim Zekeria reported that the Claremont Institute’s own database shows a total of $0 in donations to any officially branded Black Lives Matter organization. Instead, the organization’s database also includes spending that it describes as being for “organizations and initiatives that advance one or more aspects of BLM’s agenda.”

Under this amorphous criteria, Popular Information found that Claremont had included a pledge that SVB made in 2021 to spend $50 million over the course of five years for the company’s internal initiative to connect women, Black people and Latinos with startup funding and leadership connections in venture capital. Nearly all the rest came from a $20 million pledge to “support additional COVID-19 relief” and establish a “full-ride, needs-based University Scholarship program to students at Arizona State University, Florida A&M University, Tulane University, and Xavier University.” Both Florida A&M and Xavier University of Louisiana are prominent historically black colleges and universities. (It’s unclear why Claremont lumped in funding for Arizona State and Tulane.)

Talking Points Memo editor-in-chief Josh Marshall also examined the rest of the database on supposed BLM-related corporate spending, and found that Claremont’s appraisal of corporate spending throughout the business world essentially boiled down to “it seems adjacent to Black people, so that’s ‘BLM.’” These included any corporate donations to such longstanding organizations as the United Negro College Fund and the NAACP, or minority-focused business groups such as the Executive Leadership Council or the Forum to Advance Minorities in Engineering, the latter of which was founded in 1976 by DuPont. (Also tagged as “BLM” spending in the Claremont’s database were corporate grants to the American Heart Association and U.S. Vaccine Adoption Grants.)

Keep in mind, Popular Information had also pointed out that the database defines the BLM agenda as allegedly being to “undermine capitalism, the nation state, and Western civilization.” By extension, Claremont is essentially accusing any corporate spending on Black education, health outcomes, or business development to be part of a plot to destroy Western civilization. This is the fabulist message that Fox’s reporters and the rest of the right-wing media ecosystem were so eager to spread.

Fox News drove the right-wing echo chamber’s amplification of false SVB claims

Fox’s alarmist coverage of the supposed link between SVB’s corporate giving and the BLM movement clearly spanned both its purported “straight news” side and opinion hosts, with the two camps voicing the exact same line over and over on Fox News, Fox Business, and the network’s digital properties.

Fox host Jesse Watters asserted that Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) “donated $74 million to Black Lives Matter." [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 3/14/23]

Fox host Tucker Carlson: “Silicon Valley Bank, brace yourself, spent more than $73 million on donations to BLM and related organizations.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 3/14/23]

Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt: SVB donated “more than $73 million to Black Lives Matter.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/15/23]

Fox Business: “Silicon Valley Bank donated millions to Black Lives Matter-related groups, social justice causes, records show.” [FoxBusiness.com, 3/14/23]

Fox White House correspondent Peter Doocy also pushed this, which Fox anchor Dana Perino failed to contradict. [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 3/15/23]

Fox host Sean Hannity: “Now, SVB was California's woke trendy bank. So, naturally, instead of safeguarding every penny deposited, SVB diverted a massive amount of money to left-wing causes. Now, get this, this is what we have discovered: That includes a whopping $73 million to BLM-related groups, five billion dollars in commitments to climate change.” [Fox News, Hannity, 3/15/23]

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo: “Silicon Valley Bank donated more than $73 million to groups tied to Black Lives Matter.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 3/15/23]

Fox Business host Larry Kudlow: “Apparently some more bad, there is such a slew of crazy left-wing stuff surrounding this Silicon Valley Bank. I mean this is some weird bank. First of all, they gave $73 million to the Marxist BLM, Black Lives Matter movement at the height of COVID and the race riots in 2020.” [Fox Business, Kudlow, 3/15/23]

Fox Business guest Vivek Ramaswamy: “We’re now seeing reports about the amount of money they committed to BLM and related movements.” [Fox Business, The Bottom Line, 3/14/23]

Fox Business guest Stephen L. Miller: “We had to bail this bank out. They’ve given millions of dollars in BLM initiatives and DEI initiatives.” [Fox Business, Kennedy, 3/15/23]

Fox Business guest Mark Tepper: SVB “had pledged $74 million to left-leaning organizations and charities, including BLM.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 3/16/23]

Fox Business host Stuart Varney expressed shock at the number, while correspondent Lauren Simonetti said “the question is were they distracted. Were executives too concerned about diversity, gender, climate that they missed the financial problem.” [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 3/16/23]

Fox Business host Larry Kudlow: “This bank in Silicon Valley was a rogue bank. They did insane things. The board was full of Hillary Clinton donors, they had one person there with banking experience, they gave $75 million to Black Lives Matter two years ago, $5 billion apparently to climate causes and diversity causes, that’s just nonsense. … This is a rogue bank.” [Fox News, America Reports, 3/16/23]

Fox Business host Larry Kudlow: “It’s a rogue bank, there is no question about that. The mistakes they made were fundamental mistakes also, you know. The duration was wrong. The asset-liability matchbook was all wrong. But you don't give $75 million to Black Lives Matter at the height of racial tensions in the middle of the pandemic. You don't commit $5 billion to all kinds of climate change, diversity, equity, and things of that sort, you don't do that.” [Fox Business, The Bottom Line, 3/16/23]

Fox was not alone in spreading this falsehood; many right-wing media outlets pushed the same lies. A New York Post headline read: “SVB donated $73M to Black Lives Matter movement, social justice causes.” An article from The Federalist was headlined: “Silicon Valley Bank Pledged Nearly $74 Million To Black Lives Matter Causes.” The Washington Times, citing The Federalist, wrote: “SVB donated more than $73 million to the Black Lives Matter movement and other social justice causes.” A Washington Examiner headline read: “SVB collapse: Bank donated over $70 million to Black Lives Matter groups before closure.” Gateway Pundit declared in its headline: “Woke Silicon Valley Bank Gave Over $73 Million to Black Lives Matter Movement.” A Daily Caller headline stated: “Silicon Valley Bank Committed Over $73 Million To BLM And Social Justice Causes Before It Collapsed.” And it went on and on and on.

In an amazing turn of events, Breitbart actually issued a correction, noting that “the Claremont Institute’s definition of ‘Black Lives Matter’ included a far wider range of organizations,” and giving credit that “left-wing writer Judd Legum appropriately flagged these issues.”

So as of now, Breitbart has exhibited more journalistic responsibility than the entire roster of Fox News, including one of the network’s White House correspondents.

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mma 3 23

As the Biden administration defends the president’s policy of canceling up to $20,000 of student debt for millions of Americans against a Republican-backed challenge before the Supreme Court, some right-wing commentators are going beyond their old arguments against the policy to make truly outrageous claims about it.

When President Joe Biden first announced his administration’s plan in August to address the very real problem of student debt doubling in the past decade, which affects tens of millions of Americans, conservatives tried arguing that the policy was unfair, would raise inflation, would favor the rich, and had no legal basis.

But when arguments about the policy reached the Supreme Court yesterday, some right-wing media figures went far beyond their previous opposition to the policy and levied some egregious new attacks:

Fox News host Mark Levin called Biden’s student loan cancellation policy “a fascistic act by an out-of-control man” who is “cheered by the Marxists in the country.”

OutKick founder Clay Travis: “This was a transparent political attempt by Joe Biden to rig in his favor the 2022 election.”

Travis again portrayed the student debt cancellation policy as a voter turnout scheme: Biden “wanted to drive up young voters’ turnout as much as he could.”

Fox contributor Liz Peek: “You can't just dole out $400 billion to get votes, which is basically what this is all about.”

Media Research Center’s Stephanie Hamill said “it’s almost like a bribery” of voters.

Newsmax host Rob Schmitt said it’s a “vote-buying scheme” to get people “on the narcotic of social welfare.”

Schmitt later portrayed student debt cancellation as Biden wanting “to dump hundreds of billions of dollars that we don't have on 8-balls, Jack Daniels, and flights to Mexico.”

Fox contributor Marc Thiessen claimed student debt cancellation is “an act of stolen valor,” and that Biden is “turning millions of Americans into people who are engaged in stolen valor.”

Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk used student debt cancellation to attack college education in general, claiming he might not be so opposed if colleges were “producing fruit that loved America.” Instead, he said, they’re the “Wuhan Institute of Virology equivalent of idea pathogens in our country” and asked, “Is this a alleged money laundering scheme to pay off colleges for their Marxist indoctrination?”

Kirk also wrote on Twitter that “college is a scam!”

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an 2 23

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday shared a "viewership report" on his Truth Social app to gloat about the media ratings of his Wednesday publicity stunt in East Palestine, Ohio, where a February 3rd Northfolk Southern freight train derailment poisoned the surrounding environment with toxic substances.

As Mediaite noted, "Trump's live remarks from East Palestine, Ohio were ignored by the three major cable news networks on Wednesday: CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News," while "Newsmax and OAN, both to the right of Fox News, carried the remarks live and offered analysis following the event. The report Trump shared noted that 'outlets like Fox News are woefully derelict' in their limited reporting on the trip."

It states:

VIEWERSHIP REPORT

President Trump’s 2/22 visit to East Palestine, OH

TOTAL PEOPLE THAT SAW COVERAGE (SOCIAL+ TRADITIONAL): 178,052,414

TOTAL SOCIAL MEDIA USERS THAT SAW COVERAGE: 144,037,338

TOTAL TRADITIONAL VIEWERS THAT SAW

COVERAGE: 34,015,076

This report searched for the term 'East Palestine' + 'Trump' what you will see is while traditional outlets like Fox News are woefully derelict in their reporting with what you did, the word is still getting out there in a big way. Specifically, when the announcement was made last week there was a bump of coverage reaching about 2 million on social channels and 10 million on other channels.

However, your numbers this Wednesday were off the charts with incredible reach, 144MM on social and 34MM in other channels. The visit meant a lot for the people of East Palestine and the surrounding communities. The trip gave them hope and raised the awareness needed to combat the incompetence of the Biden Administration. As you will see a sharp spike in the positive sentiments as well.

READ MORE: 'We're not afraid to own our policies': Pete Buttigieg hits back at Donald Trump in Ohio train crash blame game

United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg traveled to the site of the February 3rd Norfolk Souther train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio on Thursday to assess the environmental damage and human health issues caused by the toxic chemicals that were released in the crash.

On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump staged a publicity tour of the small town where he accused President Joe Biden's administration – especially Buttigieg – of not doing enough to address the ecological disaster, which is being managed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the request of Republican Governor Mike DeWine. Norfolk Southern was ordered by the EPA on Tuesday to pay for the cleanup.

Buttigieg addressed Trump's critiques at a press conference.

READ MORE: Donald Trump Jr.: Pete Buttigieg only became transportation secretary because 'he's the gay guy'

“I’m here for the work, and not for the politics. You can sense when you talk to local leaders and local residents that they’re getting sick of the politics too and this national ideological layer that’s been added into this," Buttigieg said, per Forbes. But Buttigieg also fired back at Trump's claim that "he had nothing to do with" the accident amid uncertainty over whether Trump's railway safety regulatory rollbacks led to the mess.

"Yeah, you mentioned a national political figure who's decided to get involved? It sounds like you're talking about Trump and then you said, I need your help. How can he help?" a reporter asked Buttigieg.

"Well, one thing he could do is express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch. I heard him say he had nothing to do with it, even though it was in his administration. So if he had nothing to do with it and they did it in his administration against his will, maybe he could come out and say that he supports us moving in a different direction," Buttigieg replied. "We're not afraid to own our policies when it comes to raising the bar on regulation. And I've gotta think that him indicating that this is something that everybody, no matter how much you disagree on politics and presidential campaigns, can get behind – higher fines, tougher regulations on safety, Congress untying our hands on breaking rules – all the other things that go with that."

Buttigieg then quipped that it would "be a nice thing for him to do."

READ MORE: Republicans don't care about human health regardless of who is to blame for the Ohio train disaster

Watch below or at this link.

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jok firing show hierarchy down to fever swamp?  real am voices --> oan --> newsmax?

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aha trump cato libtard GOP say dereg will revive rural blue collar economy but // EJ, poor white ppl hurt; poor white and POC endangered in covid, corps given immunity, and public health officials not allowed to report rates

see working class heroes

palestine OH neglected

ingraham

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-host-blames-diversity-initiatives-ohio-train-derailment

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palestine OH neglected

how much BS is deflection from trump incomp deregulation corruption free mkt libtard BS /grievance victim conspiracy

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT GOP DID OR WILL DO, CHECK THEIR ACCUSATIONS/ PROJECTION:

EG

projection rubber glue retaliation

vs trump dereg vs chris christie bridge shutdown

https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirk-suggests-residents-east-palestine-are-being-punished-voting-republican

https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-news/study-national-television-coverage-east-palestine-train-derailment-ignored-industry

https://www.mediamatters.org/diversity-discrimination/right-wing-media-weaponize-east-palestine-train-derailment-claim-white-0

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an 2 23

Donald Trump Junior conjured up a new conspiracy theory over the weekend regarding train derailments. His hypothesis is that hackers working on behalf of the Russian government were responsible for the February 3rd East Palestine, Ohio Norfolk Southern disaster as well as, perhaps, other incidents involving railcars disconnecting from their tracks.

Shortly after the crash that spilled toxic substances like vinyl chloride and forced thousands of residents to evacuate, many began to recall that Junior's father, former President Donald Trump, loosened regulations on braking mechanisms and safety features during his term.

But that is not the narrative that Junior was presenting.

READ MORE: 'This is why God made pipelines': GOP senator gives nonsensical explanation of Ohio train derailment

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aha? antifa blm merge

https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/fox-news-and-right-wing-media-circulate-seemingly-inauthentic-antifa-poster

pix of poster bring rocks ...

mma 1 23

protests emerged around the country following the release of police body camera footage of officers fatally beating Tyre Nichols, Fox News and other right-wing media sources promoted an “antifa poster” whose authenticity has not been proved. The poster supposedly called for protesters to “burn it all down” and bring rocks and heavy objects to riots in New York City.

The image was initially shared in a Daily Mail article, which called it “a shocking poster,” and on Twitter by user Rob O’Donnell, per disinformation researcher Caroline Orr.

On January 27, Fox News’ Jesse Watters hosted O’Donnell, who said he knows the poster was “put out by antifa” and it’s “calling for protests and riots at all police precincts across the city, to bring rocks, to bring pipes, to bring box cutters,” saying it’s “circulating in the underground of New York City.”

Video

In the next hour, Fox host Tucker Carlson showed the poster, using it to suggest there is “an organized militia encouraging organized violence across the United States of America.”

Carlson’s guest during the segment, former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, told Carlson the police should have “zero tolerance” for antifa protesters and chastised “Biden’s DOJ” for doing “absolutely nothing” about antifa, who he said are “threatening cities across this country.”

Carlson also suggested the poster was evidence of a “criminal conspiracy” by antifa.

Carlson’s commentary was circulated by right-wing blogs The Daily Caller and The Gateway Pundit, and FoxNews.com promoted his segment with Craig.

Video  1 27

With the poster on screen, Fox correspondent Christina Coleman said on The Ingraham Angle that “antifa put out this bulletin, calling for violence, even though Tyre's own family has called for peace.”

The poster was also picked up by other right-wing outlets.

On Newsmax, host Lidia Curanaj said “a police source” sent her “a flyer that showed that antifa was organizing throughout the country” but did not show it on screen. She speculated that “a lot of times these horrible incidents, like what happened to Tyre Nichols, are amplified and used by other organizations in order to achieve their political agenda.” Later on the network, Curanaj repeated that the protests must have been planned ahead of time,  accused the protests of having “professional agitators,” and called on the media to “do their due diligence and actually investigate” the situation.

The poster also appeared on far-right website The Post Millennial, in an article titled “Antifa vows to 'burn it all down' in NYC following death of Tyre Nichols,” which cites the Daily Mail as having obtained the poster. Neo-Nazi collaborator and Twitter personality Jack Posobiec shared the article on Twitter.

Right-wing commentary site Townhall shared O’Donnell’s tweet, including the image in a Friday night piece warning about “potential riots” in Memphis.

Newsmax’s Justine Brooke Murray shared the poster on Twitter, writing, “ANTIFA terrorists plan to burn down New York tonight. They’re blasting THIS out.”

Right-wing radio host David Webb on Twitter claimed the image showed that “violence is not a solution but it is a possibility.”

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mma 1 23 no vid

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/meta-fox-news-and-collapse-anti-january-6-consensus

Meta’s Wednesday announcement that it plans to let former President Donald Trump back on the Facebook account he used to encourage the January 6 insurrection is perhaps the final sign that the right’s propagandists have demolished the consensus that the Trumpist riot at the U.S. Capitol was a horrific event and that there should be accountability to prevent it from happening again.

It seemed for a brief period after the smoke cleared from the Capitol on January 6, 2021, that America’s sclerotic and oft-maligned institutions might bestir themselves to rise to the defense of the nation’s democratic principles.

In government, Republican leaders like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) — even Trumpist lickspittles like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — vocally denounced the former president’s actions, with some of the party’s governors going so far as to call for him to leave office.

In corporate America, a flood of blue-chip companies announced that they would terminate or suspend donations to the Republican members of Congress who voted against certifying the electoral votes of one or more states. Even staid trade groups like the National Manufacturers Association condemned the mob and Trump’s role in fomenting it.

In the press, journalists contemplated whether it might be appropriate to refuse TV airtime to Republican members of Congress who had encouraged the insurrectionists by denying the election results.

And in social media, platforms like Facebook and Twitter recognized the role they had played in helping Trump stoke his supporters’ ire and the devastating consequences thereof, and cut the former president and some of his most incendiary allies off from their accounts.

But Fox News and its allies on the right quickly went to work unraveling that fragile consensus. They successfully convinced the GOP to adopt the narrative that criticisms of Trump’s plot to overturn the 2020 election through lies, subversion, and finally mob violence had been overblown, and in fact that Republicans had been the real victims of Democratic overreach.

The very night of the mob attack, Fox’s stars began validating the actions of the Trumpist mob, minimizing the violence and suggesting that leftist infiltrators might have been to blame. In the weeks that followed, they downplayed the former president’s responsibility for the mob’s actions; concocted an alternate reality in which the actions of a relatively sedate crowd were being used by sinister Democrats as a pretext to punish average Republicans; and mocked the law enforcement officials who were assaulted during the attack and denounced the Democrats and Republicans who took their reports seriously.

In service of their duplicitous narrative, they lifted up from kooks and internet fever swamps false-flag conspiracy theories that the federal government was behind the attack; valorized the “patriots” jailed for their alleged participation; and shielded their viewers from contrary evidence.

This treatment of the attack by Fox and other right-wing media outlets helped create a sea change within the Republican Party. As the GOP’s volatile commentators whipped up its base, party leaders swiftly determined that there was no political future in standing firmly against Trump and the mob he had encouraged. Some backed off their prior condemnations while others who remained vocally against Trump’s attempt to unlawfully retain power were purged. The House GOP swelled its ranks in the 2022 midterms with even more election deniers; they are a power center that its leadership courts and rewards with slots on key committees.

With only one of the nation’s two major political parties willing to forthrightly oppose the attempted coup, insurrection became a partisan issue and the national consensus collapsed. Major companies abandoned their promises not to fund the campaigns of election deniers, who also found themselves invited back to major national TV news programs. And after right-wing billionaire Elon Musk took control of Twitter, he lifted Trump’s ban.

And now Trump will be back on Facebook, too. This is a manifestly terrible idea with dire potential consequences – Trump used Facebook to fuel the bigotry and violence of his hardcore supporters and channel support for the insurrection; he has shown no remorse whatsoever for his actions and in fact still claims the election was rigged against him; and he has spent his suspension from mainstream platforms using his own Truth Social to push virulent election denial and violent QAnon conspiracy theories. In allowing him back on their platform, Meta executives are making themselves responsible for any effort Trump makes to generate another January 6.

But without a national consensus that there is a public interest in preventing a recurrence of Trumpist violence, Meta’s pecuniary and political interests returned to the fore. Facebook’s user growth has stalled out, helping to send its parent company into a spiral. Trump’s return to the platform might give it a boost; so might the return of his campaign’s massive ad spending as the 2024 presidential election heats up (Trump’s personal page is the largest buyer of Facebook political ads since 2018, spending more than $113 million). And Meta’s leadership likely hoped to avoid a contentious public hearing about why the former president was not welcome on Facebook, since “we don’t want him to use it to promote a coup” was apparently no longer an effective response with insurrectionist Republicans running the House.

Fox and the broader right-wing information ecosystem manufactured dissent, helping to keep the GOP on the side of Trump and his insurrectionists and grinding away at the political consensus against the storming of the Capitol. As long as the Republican Party remains trapped within its bubble, the American public will have to reckon with the influence of these bomb-throwing propagandists.

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mma 1 23 not twt

Right-wing media just can’t seem to quit old-school climate change denial.

Even as fossil fuel companies moved away from directly questioning established science in their marketing in favor of more subtle forms of climate delay and greenwashing, media influencers on the right repeatedly suggested that climate change is a fake crisis manufactured by global elites, using the energy crisis, extreme weather events, and a general mistrust of our institutions to make the case for climate change denial.

The war in Ukraine was convenient for climate change deniers

As gas prices skyrocketed, in part due to the global energy disruption resulting from the war in Ukraine, and American families started to become frustrated, right-wing media took the opportunity to blame climate policies. They insisted that high prices were being caused by a fake crisis manufactured by the government, arguing that climate change was a hoax from the beginning.

An October 6 Wall Street Journal editorial claimed that “the White House blames the industry for high gas prices while it does everything it can to make drilling more difficult and financially risky.”

Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, Donald Trump went on Fox Business’s Mornings with Maria on March 2 and called climate change a hoax while discussing the Biden administration's energy policy, saying that “this climate situation is killing our country.”

He did the same thing in a March 21 segment of Fox Business’s Varney & Co, saying what the left does “is a climate hoax.” When asked by host Stuart Varney whether climate change is caused by human activity, Trump responded: “In my opinion, you have a thing called weather, and you go up and you go down. If you look into the 1920s, they were talking about global freezing. … The climate’s always been changing,” he continued.

Media Matters documented ample disinformation about gas prices and the Keystone XL pipeline extension during that period. Some right-wing media influencers claimed the Biden administration was adding insult to injury by allegedly driving high gas prices and lying to Americans about what could be done to fix the situation in order to carry out its agenda.

Fossil fuel shill Daniel Turner of Power the Future wrote on April 18, “There is no climate crisis and oil is back to $110 because everything @JoeBiden says is a lie.”

Kurt Schlichter, a Townhall columnist and podcast host, alleged that Biden was more committed to “the idiotic members of the climate change hoax cult” than he was to lowering gas prices for families.

Schlichter has been a loud and consistent voice for climate change denial. But for someone who believes it doesn’t exist, he certainly spent a lot of time obsessing over it in 2022. He tweeted “climate change is a hoax” or similar statements at least 145 times in 2022, or an average of nearly three times per week, and penned op-eds like “Don’t Let Them Reset Society To Make You Into a Bug-Eating Serf” and “Climate Hoax Hacks Love Putin” in which he claimed that “you cannot claim to both oppose Putin and fight global warming.”

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton was also an influential Twitter climate misinformer in 2022, voicing opposition to climate policy such as the Inflation Reduction Act, and posting climate skeptic and denialist content. “Taxes on energy, subsidies for favored corporations, dangerous drug price controls will increase inflation. And -- Fact check: There is no ‘climate crisis,’” he tweeted on July 28.

Judicial Watch is a member of the State Policy Network, which has deep ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a Koch-funded lobbying group that has most recently been working to punish fossil fuel divestment. When Biden was considering declaring a climate emergency in July, Fitton wrote, “There obviously is no ‘climate emergency’-- for Biden to dictate otherwise is a desperate abuse of power.”

The right turned reporting on natural disasters into “climate alarmism”

Last year, we clearly saw the impacts of major climate-fueled extreme weather events at home and around the world: Hurricanes Ian and Fiona, a heat wave and drought in Europe, China, and the American West, and massive flooding in Pakistan. As of October, according to insurance broker Aon, there had been 29 billion-dollar disasters in 2022. Additionally, according to the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat, the EU experienced 53,000 more deaths in July compared with that month’s averages for 2016-2019.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, which pummeled Florida and South Carolina in late September, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson implied that humans cannot influence weather events because “they’re called natural disasters. … They’re products of nature. God’s in charge.” His guest Candace Owens, who has a history of climate change denial, reiterated that climate change does not exist because “if there was no human beings that walked the face of the planet, there would continue to be hurricanes, like there would continue to be blizzards, and like there would continue to be tornadoes.”

Carlson responded to natural disasters with climate change denial on more than one occasion. On July 20, he devoted a monologue to undermining the existence of climate change, reducing climate predictions to: “It’s gonna be hot and then it’s gonna rain hard.”

“No one really believes in global warming,” he continued, “and that’s why all of the liberals in the United States live on the coasts – because they don’t believe it. That’s why many of them fly private, because the entire theory is absurd and they know it. … The whole thing is a joke.”

The day before, on July 19, Fox News host Dan Bongino questioned whether the planet is getting warmer and whether humanity played a role in it, asking: “What kind of a dunce believes that? Come on. Is it [the planet] getting warmer? The answer is maybe. … The question isn’t is it getting warmer; the question is what’s human beings' role in it.”

Even in the absence of an extreme weather event, right-wing media regularly dismissed and challenged the scientific consensus that warming is making these types of events more severe.

On an October 11 segment of The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham brought on climate change denier Tom Harris to falsely claim that the science isn’t settled: “The real underlying thing is that there is no climate crisis. … It's all based on models that don't work. … In fact, we don't even know whether it's going to be warm or cool in the future. … The only sensible approach is to get ready for it, to make our infrastructure hardened, to use solid, dependable sources of energy like coal.”

The “Great Reset” was a magnet for climate skepticism

Also in 2022, some right-wing media framed climate change as a hoax orchestrated by elites to implement the “Great Reset,” using climate policies and other measures to assert dominance and control over the general population.

These ideas got attention in July, when right-wing media attempted to blame a series of complex global conflicts and unrest on climate policy, and in November as the global community gathered in Egypt to negotiate climate action.

Former Australian journalist and key Twitter climate denial amplifier Peter Clack attacked plans made during the conference to provide financial climate support for developing nations, tweeting, “This is the reality of the Great Reset. … COP27 has approved - without dissent - reparations starting at $2 trillion because of climate-caused damage. There is none.”

On a December 12 segment of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson and meteorologist Joe Bastardi had a nearly unintelligible conversation packed with climate change denial, where Bastardi offered that climate advocates might not want to ban private air travel because “they’ve all got climate vaccines. We don't know about them, but unlike the covid vaccine, they actually work.”

Another cockamamie theory, according to Bastardi, is that climate advocates are trying to pollute the air as much as possible so that they can have an excuse to prevent others from using transportation. Bastardi claimed that another option is that “it's a phony climate war, it's fraudulent,” and it “has nothing to do with CO2.”

Though not explicitly mentioned, these accusations are consistent with the Great Reset narrative of elites controlling the masses through climate and public health policy. Carlson posited earlier in the segment, “Could it be that the climate movement is really about creating a permanent caste system where the people at the top of society, the Brahmins, can do literally whatever they want?”

Right-wing journalist Jordan Schachtel mentioned the Great Reset while celebrating Twitter’s change in ownership, tweeting, “Twitter will now become the network through which we utterly destroy the forces of The Great Reset. … This is why the power-drunk covid addicts, climate hoaxers, commies, etc are furious today.”

On the September 12 edition of Eric Bolling The Balance, host Eric Bolling encapsulated the right’s fearmongering about the Great Reset, claiming that climate change is a hoax being used “in order to make people fear the end of the world, convince us to change everything. They want to control us forever and ever.”

Climate contrarians lashed out against so-called censorship

Sometimes, climate change denial was just a drumbeat regardless of current events. Prominent right-wing culture warrior influencers used climate change denial without any context as part of their rotating script attacking different “liberal” beliefs or simply as a protest against what they view as censorship.

For example, after Twitter initially accepted  Elon Musk’s acquisition offer on April 25, right-wing contrarians and other influencers were seemingly emboldened to “test” the new environment by making statements that might reasonably be labeled as misinformation or hate speech under previous management. This occured in the days following Musk’s takeover of the platform on October 27 as well, with some tweets garnering tens of thousands of engagements.

[twt]

former Daily Wire contributor Greg Price and right-wing Twitter troll and self-described political commentator Gunther Eagleman repeatedly pushed climate change misinformation on Twitter in 2022, along with a plethora of other uncouth and conspiratorial statements. Eagleman tweeted about climate change being a hoax, scam, or similar statements 48 times this year.

[twt]

despite right-wing media’s repeated claims that climate change is a hoax, it was among the top voter concerns during the recent 2022 midterm elections, suggesting climate change denial is a losing argument.  However, as the phenomenon ramps up on Twitter and “free speech” continues to be a major point of contention in the culture wars, right-wing media may be empowered to continue pushing these types of disinformation in 2023.

Methodology ...

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sorta split oann flanked fox?

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-celebrate-kevin-mccarthys-concessions-become-house-speaker

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mma 1 23

After a historic week of messy party infighting, the Republican-led House of Representatives has finally selected a speaker, passed a rules package, and gotten to work on its agenda of making the country safer for wealthy tax cheats. There are important lessons to learn from the chaos given the likelihood of future interparty rifts over the next two years — and the centrality of the right-wing media to the GOP.

Here are some key takeaways:

The GOP’s leaders are fueled by right-wing media. Gaining prominence in the modern Republican Party virtually requires a willingness to rub elbows with the right-wing press. New House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) spent the last several years cozying up to Fox hosts, and two of his “key” supporters “helped corral surrogates – especially in the conservative media space – to act as validators” for his bid. He also benefited from the backing of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the congresswoman from QAnon and an ally of Steve Bannon, and Jim Jordan (R-OH), whose regular Fox appearances helped him ascend from back-bencher to incoming House Judiciary chair. Meanwhile, McCarthy’s most prominent opponents included Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who has gained prominence entirely on the basis of his courting of the right-wing media and reportedly sought jobs at Fox and its competitors, and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), another favorite of the fringe-right press. The right-wing media will be the key battleground for future fights between those sides.

Fox is now the GOP establishment. While Fox once aligned with the insurgent wing of the Republican Party, Donald Trump’s presidency had the effect of merging the network with the GOP’s establishment wing, and almost all of its prominent personalities lined up behind McCarthy’s bid and sought to stifle the revolt against him. Several of the pro-McCarthy network hosts have since sought to minimize the extent of the divide within the party by praising the concessions the rebels extracted during the fight. But the fracas sets a precedent for which side the party’s powerful propaganda arm will back the next time its insiders and outsiders face off.

The narratives of the right-wing press will form the core of the GOP agenda. With Democrats in control of the Senate and the White House, House Republicans are unlikely to see many of their priorities become law — but they plan to make noise, and to do so in step with their propagandists’ priorities. The initial bills proposed in the House Republican rules package were “centered on issues and themes important largely in the conservative media world,” as The Washington Post’s Philip Bump pointed out. The rules package also included not just the Tucker Carlson-sought “weaponization” panel but also a coronavirus committee which promises to put investigative muscle behind various right-wing pandemic narratives. And the first bill the House passed rolled back last year’s increased funding for the Internal Revenue Service, which became a target of right-wing conspiracy theories.

Fox’s competitors will use party fights to gun for the network’s market share. As Fox rallied behind McCarthy, its rivals in TV and digital media saw an opening. They became the propaganda support for the anti-McCarthy campaign, savaging the would-be speaker and championing his critics. They also went after Fox, denouncing the network and its top hosts for purportedly selling out in an offensive more extensive than any from the right since late 2020, when Fox declared Joe Biden the president-elect and Trump urged his supporters to switch to its competitors. Expect more of this in the future as right-wing outlets try to use internal GOP fights to build their audiences at Fox’s expense.

Tucker Carlson is the most influential right-wing media figure. Carlson’s show is a festival of white nationalism, far-right conspiracy theories, and violent rhetoric that seeks to work his viewers into a frenzy. It is also a guiding force in the modern GOP. While his colleagues were foursquare behind McCarthy, Carlson was playing all sides of the debate, criticizing the would-be speaker one moment, praising him the next, and, above all else, seeking specific concessions. It worked — Carlson got the House inquiry into the purported “weaponization” of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies that he’s been building up to for years. Now he’ll be able to spend the next two years cheering on the Republican efforts to spread his conspiracy theories about the January 6 insurrection and whatever else the panel tries to push.

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matt g

https://www.mediamatters.org/fake-news/right-wing-ecosystem-created-paul-pelosi-conspiracy-theory

mma 1122 no twt

it  took roughly 48 hours for the right-wing media ecosystem to turn a story about a man who committed political violence after becoming consumed by right-wing conspiracy theories about the depravity of the left into another right-wing conspiracy theory about the depravity of the left.

On Friday morning, a man broke into the San Francisco home of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He was reportedly carrying zip ties and duct tape and, according to law enforcement, was looking for the woman who is second in line to the presidency. She was not present, but the man did find and severely beat her 82-year-old husband, Paul, with a hammer, sending him to the hospital for emergency surgery.

The assailant, who was arrested and identified by police as David DePape, had an extensive Internet footprint that suggests a standard case of online right-wing radicalization. DePape’s writings show his adherence to a wide range of conspiracy theories that are often propped up or adopted in their entirety by prominent right-wing media figures and Republican officials. President Joe Biden on Friday night condemned the impact the Republican Party’s “vitriol” has on those who may be mentally unbalanced.

But in the days since the attack, people who get their news from right-wing sources have instead been told an absurd and baseless conspiracy theory. In this telling, there was no home invasion; instead DePape is actually Paul Pelosi’s leftist gay lover, and the police, Democrats, and the press are covering up that the assault was really a lovers’ spat. The tale was quickly adopted by influential right-wing figures – including Twitter owner Elon Musk – and, if past is prologue, will be accepted by a sizable percentage of the GOP base.

The Pelosi conspiracy theory took hold so quickly thanks to the parallel media ecosystem the right constructed over decades. That ecosystem features numerous outlets that generate conspiracy theories for partisan and financial gain; food-chain mechanisms that swiftly distribute them to millions of people; an existing right-wing audience trained to demand such fantasies; minimal internal guardrails within the right-wing press to provide more credible information; and strong external barriers against contrary information from mainstream news sources.

How the right built a Paul Pelosi conspiracy theory

The right’s conspiracy theorists went to work soon after news of Paul Pelosi’s assault broke. They create dubious but politically beneficial narratives by taking existing facts – particularly ones that emerge early in the life of a story, when initial reports are often wrong – mixing in falsehoods, and using wild logical jumps to put the result in a different context.

First, an investigative journalist at a local TV affiliate reported on Friday that the assailant was wearing only his underwear when police arrived. But the journalist retracted that reporting the same day, and no other outlet confirmed it.

Second, the dispatcher who received a 911 call from Paul Pelosi said that he had identified the intruder as a “friend.” But Pelosi, according to law enforcement, was making that call surreptitiously from the bathroom and speaking “in code” to the dispatcher in an attempt to avoid his suspicion.

Third, some alleged that there were no signs of forced entry at the Pelosi home, suggesting that Paul Pelosi had willingly let DePape inside. In fact, police say he forced entry through the rear door, and aerial photos and video show shattered glass around that entryway (in fact, other internet sleuths claim that the glass pattern is suspicious).

Fourth, Politico reported on Friday based on San Francisco Police Chief William Scott’s press conference that the first police officers responding on the scene “were let inside by an unknown person. They discovered DePape and Pelosi struggling for a hammer.” This generated speculation that a third individual had been present. But Scott did not actually say that, and the SFPD subsequently confirmed only two people, DePape and Paul Pelosi, were at the home when police arrived.

The right’s conspiracy theorists took those four pieces of evidence, mixed in Paul Pelosi’s May DUI charge, and concocted the narrative that he had been the victim of a drunken gay lovers’ spat that was subsequently covered up.

By Sunday, versions of this speculation were rampant on the right. Commentators who present themselves as credible offered a version in which they were simply asking questions because the press supposedly refused to do so.

[twt]

those who lack such airs simply claimed, as Dinesh D’Douza did, that “this guy, the assailant, is either a sexual partner or a male prostitute, and this is a sexual rendezvous that went sideways.”

[twt]

eventually, the story reached Musk, a troll beloved on the right with a penchant for conspiracy theories. And on Sunday morning, he blasted it out to his 112 million Twitter followers.

After Hillary Clinton shared an article about DePape’s promotion of conspiracy theories and commented that “violence is the result” of the right spreading such lies, Musk responded, “there is a tiny possibility there might be more to the story than meets the eye.” He provided a link to a site with the headline, “The Awful Truth: Paul Pelosi Was Drunk Again, And In a Dispute With a Male Prostitute Early Friday Morning."

[musk twt]

the website, the Santa Monica Observer, had previously alleged that Clinton died in 2016 and had been replaced by a body double for her presidential debate with Donald Trump.

At the same time, the right-wing media generated nonsensical explanations for why the assailant’s Internet footprint is forged and he’s actually a leftist. They cannot accept that the assailant believed right-wing conspiracy theories without taking on responsibility, so they’ve developed an alternate explanation instead.

Roughly 72 hours after news of the assault on Paul Pelosi had broken, the conspiracy theory had been promoted by a Republican member of Congress and by Donald Trump Jr., and “Pelosigaylover” was trending nationally on Twitter.

The conspiracy-minded ecosystem that fuels the right

The right-wing information ecosystem is built to create and propagate conspiracy theories like the latest drivel about the Pelosi attack.

On message boards and social media platforms, an army of right-wing would-be sleuths looking for political advantage or simple amusement are constantly on the hunt for raw materials that they can spin into these alternate narratives.

Hyperpartisan news sites with no journalistic standards – from local ones like the Santa Monica Observer to national players like Gateway Pundit – trawl those venues looking for stories that they can write up and monetize.

The conspiracy theories move up the right-wing media food chain, with more and more prominent influencers and outlets picking up the story and running with it, until it becomes pervasive on the right.

Sprawling conspiracy theories like 2020 election denial, QAnon, Pizzagate, and Gamergate – all of which DePape had championed – worked their way through these networks.

The right-wing audience is uniquely vulnerable to these narratives.

The right-wing press spent decades spinning out these politically convenient narratives about the diabolical nature of their perceived enemies [NEWT! fox] until the audience came to demand them. Few on the right – and none with any real degree of influence – are interested in debunking the rampant lies once they get going. Instead, powerful figures at Fox News and elsewhere end up pushing the likes of QAnon talking points and scoffing at its extremism. And decades of right-wing attacks on the mainstream press have created a bubble in which the audience is unlikely to receive or credit contradictory information from those outlets.

The result is that we consistently see the conspiracy theories come to infest the ranks of the movement, from Vince Foster’s death to QAnon.

I expect the Paul Pelosi fantasy to follow the same route. Republican politicians and prominent Fox hosts will either stand by as the conspiracy theory builds credence on the right or even give a knowing wink and nod to its supporters. Some will probably promote it entirely, perhaps suggesting that these are simply questions that the media refuses to answer.

Credible news outlets will divert resources from covering the rising tide of right-wing political violence or the GOP’s disturbing policy aims if the party gains ground in the midterm elections to pointing out that the right is peddling nonsense about Pelosi. But thanks to the right-wing media bubble, their facts won’t make it to the people inclined to believe it. And so a sizable chunk of the GOP will come to believe an absurd lie.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/right-wing-media-used-opec-oil-cuts-blame-biden-domestic-gas-price-volatility

mma 10 22

On October 5, OPEC [saudi?] and non-OPEC allies decided to impose cuts on oil production despite the fact that they were cautioned against doing so by the United States. The cartel will cut 2 million barrels, a move that could further elevate gas prices in the lead-up to midterm elections. To help ease the impact of the cuts, President Joe Biden, during remarks on gas prices and energy security delivered on October 19, announced a 3 point plan to address rising costs and global oil supplies, including the release of 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Biden also called for oil companies to increase production instead of buying back stocks and paying dividends to their shareholders, and warned these companies not to gouge gas prices as the cost of oil comes down.

Fox has painted Biden as chiefly responsible for rising gas prices in a ploy to hurt Democratic candidates in the final weeks of midterm campaigning. Other right-wing media outlets and personalities have followed suit, and criticism has been magnified by a claim made on October 12 by Saudi Arabia’s ministry of foreign affairs saying that Biden asked OPEC to postpone the oil cuts for a month.

In response, right-wing media is using the same playbook and the same series of debunked arguments and disinformation from earlier in the year when Russia first invaded Ukraine and global energy security became a concern.

Right-wing media is once again misleading voters about how the global energy market works to push a pro-fossil fuel agenda.

Conservative media outlets are pushing the idea that drastically increasing oil production in the U.S. is a quick and common-sense solution to the problem of high gas prices because it would allow the U.S. to be “energy independent," a term experts have pointed out is widely misunderstood. The U.S. has imported oil for decades and will continue to do so for economic reasons. Importing and exporting some energy is necessary to meet the needs of the market. In that sense, we will probably never be truly energy independent in a fossil fuel economy. If we understand energy independence to mean the U.S. exports more energy than we import, that is still the case. In fact, by this standard, U.S. energy independence reached its peak in 2021 when Biden was president.

Former Secretary of State under Trump and Fox News contributor Mike Pompeo: “Energy independence doesn't just mean lower costs for Americans. It means not having to beg Venezuelan dictators or the Iranian regime for more oil.” [Twitter, 10/9/22]

Host columnist for the conservative The Washington Times and Newsmax contributor Kelly Sadler on Newsmax’s Wake Up America: “They [Democrats] want to put the fossil fuel industry out of business…as a result, we are not — we are no longer energy independent.” [Newsmax, Wake Up America, 10/10/22]

Martha MacCallum, host of Fox News’ The Story: “There's no reason why we can't be energy independent. We have before.” MacCallum continued, “We scolded a lot of our energy companies out of expanding and growing their businesses because they have been told by several administrations, not the last one, that they were going to be out of business soon. [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 10/12/22]

Right-wing comedian and radio host Tim Young: “I'm so old, I remember when America was energy independent.” [Twitter, 10/12/22]

Founder of dark money group Power the Future Daniel Turner said, “Americans could use energy independence right about now.” Turner: “Gas prices are near $4.00. Core inflation has hit a new 40-year high. Average winter heating costs will rise by 28%. Americans could use energy independence right about now.” [Twitter, 10/13/22]

Fox News contributor Joe Concha: “We backed ourselves into this corner.” Concha: “The fact that we have to depend on Venezuela and OPEC+ which is basically Russia and Saudi Arabia instead of energy independence that we had here at home — gas and oil leases off of the Gulf Coast, off of the Alaska coast, ANWR, obviously XL pipeline. Now we’re dependent on all these other countries, we backed ourselves into this corner.” [Fox News, Hannity, 10/13/22]

Former Trump economic advisor Stephen Moore on America’s Newsroom suggested that Biden’s plan to reduce oil and gas production in the future is responsible for rising energy costs. Moore: “We didn't talk a lot about OPEC when Trump was president because we were the number one producer of oil and gas. This administration has come in with a radical climate change agenda, which — he even admits he wants to take our oil and gas production down to zero in the next 12 years. That's the leading factor for why the price of gasoline has gone from 2.50 a gallon under Trump to now in many places it’s like $5 a gallon.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 10/14/22]

Fox News anchor Dagen McDowell on The Five suggests that Biden is blocking the US from controlling world oil prices: “[Biden] won’t open our spigots wide open and start pumping all that delicious natural resources. … Four years ago, we were a net exporter of petroleum products, first time since 1949, we were the swing producer in the world, we controlled world oil prices. … Joe Biden could do that, but he won’t because he is obviously both a masochist because he likes taking it from Saudi Arabia and also a sadist because he likes inflicting pain on the people of the United States.” [Fox News, The Five, 10/15/22]

Right-wing media push pro-industry talking points claiming that U.S. oil producers are hindered from drilling, blame elevated gas prices solely on decisions made by Biden

Gas prices have been elevated by increased demand following the easing of pandemic restriction and by oil supply disruptions created by Russia’s war on Ukraine. Prices dipped slightly toward the end of the summer, only to rise in late September, but are currently on the downtrend once again. Aside from OPEC’s recent decision to cut supply, a refinery fire in the Midwest and facility maintenance on the West Coast have reduced inventories to record lows, and a looming European ban on Russian oil, which will take effect in December, is also contributing to price increases.

The U.S. oil industry is not being hampered by the Biden administration, as it has claimed to evade blame. In March, CEOs of major oil producers stated that they were not planning on investing in any new drilling due to pressure from investors for bigger shareholder returns. To be sure, the current climate of increased demand and global supply disruptions caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine has increased the price of oil, lavishing these companies with record profits while U.S. and global consumers have been hurt by high energy costs. In fact, U.S. oil producers are sitting on 9,000 unused drilling leases for public lands, and while right-wing media push the industry claim that Biden is suppressing domestic production, U.S. oil production on public lands is near all-time highs and is on track for record output in 2023.

Fox Business contributor Phil Flynn: “The Biden administration has made it a very toxic country to invest in when it comes to fossil fuels.” Flynn continued, “Because already, they have canceled the Keystone Pipeline, they have slowed down the permitting process.” [Fox News, America Reports, 10/5/22]

Podcaster and author of “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels” Alex Epstein blamed Biden for making the U.S. “vulnerable.” Epstein said, “The Biden Administration is calling an OPEC production cut a “hostile act.” But if it hadn’t been for the hundred+ ‘hostile acts’ toward the US oil industry of President Joe ‘I guarantee you, we’re going to end fossil fuel’ Biden we wouldn’t be so vulnerable to OPEC.” [Twitter, 10/5/22]

New York Post Editorial: “Rather than White House whining about OPEC, America needs to drill, baby, drill — but Biden refuses.” [New York Post, 10/5/22]

Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo on America’s Newsroom: “It's not just about the leases — it is about all the rules, the regulations, the bureaucracy that this administration has put in place to stop, lessen and kill the fossil fuel industry.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 10/6/22]

Fox News host Harris Faulkner claimed Biden is “suffocating” domestic oil production. “Saudi Arabia leads OPEC+ and the Biden White House has been pressuring them to do more to help us while President Biden's policies have suffocated our own oil production at home.” [Fox News, The Falkner Focus, 10/6/22]

Fox Business anchor Larry Kudlow: “What the Bidens have done with their very extreme climate radicalism, is they’ve taken the power of energy away from the United States and given it back to the Saudis and OPEC and Russia.” [Fox News, America Reports, 10/6/22]

Former Fox Nation host Lara Logan on Newsmax: “The Biden administration is at war with fossil fuels.” Logan continued, “You're going to go to war on fossil fuels. You're going to have idiots like that person that they have in California who bans combustion engines and that the oil producing countries are just gonna take it.” [Newsmax, Eric Bolling the Balance, 10/6/22]

Wall Street Journal: “The White House blames the industry for high gas prices while it does everything it can to make drilling more difficult and financially risky.” [Wall Street Journal, 10/6/22]

Climate contrarian and frequent Fox News guest Michael Shellenberger: “By working against domestic oil production, it’s Biden who has allowed the Russians & Saudis to raise gas prices.” Shellenberger: “Biden just now said gas prices are ‘inching up because of what the Russians & the Saudis just did’ and ‘there's nothing beyond the capacity if we work together.’ But by working against domestic oil production, it's Biden who has allowed the Russians & Saudis to raise gas prices.” [Twitter, 10/7/22]

Foxnews.com: “Joe Biden has hampered domestic energy industry while pleading for more foreign oil.” [Foxnews.com, 10/7/22]

One America Newsroom host Addison Smith: “[Biden] cut the Keystone XL pipeline on day one.” He went on, saying, “He's campaigned on Green New Deal policies. He eliminated American energy independence by halting drilling on federal lands. He's always groaning about how the sun monster is going to destroy us all if we don't buy electric vehicles and stop using fossil fuels.” [OAN, In Focus, 10/7/22]

Kelly Sadler: “They want to put the fossil fuel industry out of business.” Sadler continued, “Joe Biden campaigned on that. As a result, we are not — we're no longer energy independent. [Newsmax, Wake Up America, 10/10/22]

Chief National Initiatives Officer at the industry-funded Texas Public Policy Institute, Chuck DeVore: “Biden’s anti-domestic energy policies have caused oil and natural gas producers to be wary of spending money to boost production. While big banks’ woke capital restrictions are gradually starving the oil and gas sector of the money needed to drill new wells.” [Foxnews.com, 10/11/22],

On Fox News, Chuck Devore said: “They can’t have it both ways. Either they have policies that make it more difficult to produce American energy and push up energy prices, and, you know, hasten the transition to electric vehicles, or they don’t. … Let’s change the policy so that people can benefit from lower energy prices today.” [Fox News, Fox News at Night, 10/13/22]

Fox Business reporter Ed Lawrence on The Faulkner Focus: “The first day President Biden was in office canceling the Keystone Pipeline. The war on fossil fuels. No change in policy from this White House.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 10/12/22]

Right-wing radio and Fox News host Sean Hannity suggests that in order to stop climate alarmists Republicans need to stop Democrats from controlling the House and Senate: “Could you imagine if we don't stop the madness that is the climate alarmists, cultists New Green Deal, socialist movement? Can you imagine even a worst-case scenario where the Democrats get to control the House and Senate and they get a bigger majority in the Senate and they end the legislative filibuster? ” [Hannity Radio, 10/14/22]

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz: “If Joe Biden and Schumer and Pelosi get their way, gasoline…. is going to be $10 [per gallon] and then it’s going to be $12 then it’s going to be $20.” [Verdict with Ted Cruz, 10/14/22]

Fox anchor Sandra Smith on America’s Newsroom suggests that Biden is blaming oil companies instead of taking responsibility for high gas prices: “It's been OPEC, it's been now the Saudis, it's been Vladimir Putin, and most recently it's also been pinning a lot of blame on the oil companies themselves. … The president has been putting the onus on the oil companies that he told he would bring the end of the fossil fuel industry to ramp up their production.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 10/14/22]

Right-wing TV personality and former advisor to Trump Kimberly Guilfoyle said: “Gas prices are $1.44 higher under Joe Biden. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is at a 40-year low. Home heating costs will soar by 28% this winter. Brought to you by Joe Biden's war on American energy.” [Twitter, 10/20/22]

American Petroleum Institute president Mike Sommers said on Mornings With Maria that the administration is being contradictory on oil production: “This is a very precarious position we're in today at a time of dramatic geopolitical upheaval… The one thing this administration has done from the very beginning is they’ve tried to do everything they could to prevent production in the United States… This administration continues to talk out of both sides of its mouth, saying they want more production but not putting more policies in place that would actually encourage more production.” [Fox News, Mornings with Maria, 10/20/22]

Right-wing media attack Biden for Strategic Petroleum Reserve use, foreign oil imports, and efforts to stabilize global oil supply

To help manage global oil prices, Biden began releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves in March. The latest release of 15 million barrels, announced on October 19, is the last of those planned releases. Right-wing media have suggested that drawing down the reserve makes the U.S. vulnerable to other disasters where the reserve would be needed to shore up supplies while doing nothing to address gas prices. As it stands, the reserves are still more than half full. The move has modestly lowered gas prices, however, experts agree it is not a long-term solution. Biden is also considering easing sanctions on Venezuela for Chevron to resume pumping oil there, allowing the country to export to U.S. and European markets.

Right-wing media has disingenuously argued that getting oil from Venezuela would be more environmentally damaging than producing more oil in the U.S., thus, increasing production domestically would be the more ethical choice. This is a common fossil fuel industry talking point that bad actors use to encourage long-term investments in expanding domestic production, meant to delay an economy-wide transition to renewable energy and ensure that we are reliant on fossil fuels for decades to come. This would be the worst possible outcome for the environment. The same individuals who praise the U.S. for having such “clean” energy production compared to other countries are also fighting against regulations implemented by the Biden administration that are meant to protect vulnerable communities and hold the industry accountable for the extensive damage it will inevitably cause to ecosystems, the climate, and public health.

Former Trump advisor and frequent Fox News guest Stephen Miller: “You are watching an act of national sabotage, in real-time, carried out by President Biden. If a global emergency cut-off our access to foreign oil we would no longer have the strategic reserves to keep going.” [Twitter, 10/5/22]

Conservative radio host Clay Travis: “Joe Biden’s administration is begging the totalitarian [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro regime to produce more oil — unlocking tens of billions of dollars for them in Venezuela — instead of producing more oil here.” The tweet continued, “Aside from rewarding dictators, how is it better for the environment? Of course it isn’t.” [Twitter, 10/6/22]

Donald Trump Jr.: “The Wall Street Journal says Biden will ease sanctions on Venezuela to pump more oil but he won’t do anything to bring back American energy independence. … He will deal with the dictatorial regime but not Americans!” [Twitter, 10/6/22]

Newsmax host Eric Bolling on Eric Bolling the Balance: “This Strategic Petroleum Reserve is supposed to be for emergencies, for wartime. Biden is using it to try and ease some of the pain at the pump. And it's not working. Prices are still going up…we're way back to Carter years.” [Newsmax, Eric Bolling the Balance, 10/13/22]

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on Eric Bolling the Balance: “Our Strategic Petroleum Reserve that is supposed to be for legit emergencies, not these economic political games that Biden's playing. … It's that newfangled, weird, bogus green energy policy that they want to cram down our throats.” [Newsmax, Eric Bolling: The Balance, 10/13/22]

Fox host Steve Hilton on The Faulkner Focus: Democrats are “acting to prop up the Venezuelan regime.” Hilton continued, “The total basket case authoritarian regime of Maduro by trying to do an oil deal” and that this was another result of “their own stupid policies.” [Fox News, The Falkner Focus, 10/14/22]

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) on Fox Report with Jon Scott: “We do it cleaner so if you care about the environment, you should be rooting for American energy.” [Fox News, Fox Report with Jon Scott, 10/15/22]

Stephen Miller suggested Biden has jeopardized U.S. security through domestic energy policy. On Twitter, Miller said, “If every POTUS who wanted lower gas prices at election time raided our emergency stockpile there would be no emergency stockpile. Biden stands alone in his corruption & dereliction. We are now sitting ducks if an adversary disrupts our supply. And Biden still won’t drill in USA.” [Twitter, 10/19/22]

Fox’s White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich said critics doubt the efficacy of Biden’s strategy: “The president's critics worry that draining the country's emergency stockpile could leave the U.S. vulnerable in the event of a major military conflict or natural disaster. …The White House has repeatedly claimed [gas prices] in the past are out of the president's control because of external factors like Putin's war in Ukraine and more alarming to the critics the White House is prepared to draw down the reserves even lower.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 10/19/22]

Fox contributor Katie Pavlich on The Story: “The continued depletion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by this president is outrageous and it is a scandal. It is a supply that is supposed to be reserved for the United States, not for Ukraine, but for the United States or in times of natural disasters. Let's not forget this administration sold millions of barrels of U.S. Reserve oil to China over the summer, so he is putting us in a crisis situation.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 10/19/22]

Right-wing media claims Biden’s negotiations to keep OPEC+ from cutting oil supply are politically motivated and even impeachable

Despite negotiations with Biden to keep oil supplies stable, OPEC+ announced on October 5 that it would cut its oil supply by 2 million barrels a day in an attempt to push the price to $100 a barrel. The White House has called the move shortsighted, while analysts have noted that it benefits Russia and could push the global economy closer to recession. Some early right-wing reactions suggested that Biden — who in response to OPEC’s decision signaled the possibility of more releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — only cared about gas prices rising because of the looming midterms elections.

On October 12, in a rare statement to U.S. media, the Saudi government echoed these sentiments by claiming that Biden asked them to delay the cuts by one month – creating a feedback loop between right-wing media and the Saudi royal family. The White House has disputed these claims.

GOP strategist and influencer Alex Bruesewitz: “Joe Biden is emptying our strategic oil reserves ahead of the midterm elections to temporarily lower gas prices in an attempt to trick voters.” Bruesewitz also claimed this was ”another impeachable offense.” [Twitter, 10/5/22]

Former Trump appointee and right-wing media commentator Monica Crowley wrote on Twitter said that “Biden deliberately crippled our energy sector” and drove up inflation, calling these “impeachable offenses." [Twitter, 10/5/22]

On Facebook, right-wing outlet Breitbart pushed this message: “Of course, the Biden regime won't give a damn AFTER the election if gas prices soar, but heaven forbid they do so again BEFORE the midterm elections.” [Facebook, 10/5/22]

On Facebook, Fox News promoted the idea that, “The president is attempting to circumvent a possible global spike in gas prices just before the midterm elections.” [Facebook, 10/5/22]

Fox & Friends co-host Ainsely Earhardt: “He knows if price goes up again Democrats stand to lose in the elections. … Now he’s going to release these 10 million more in November when the elections are.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 10/6/22]

Larry Kudlow on America Reports: “For election year political price-fixing reasons they have depleted our Strategic Petroleum Reserve.” Kudlow continued, “That is a pathetic response and it is a response that damages our national security because we are going to need that thing over time.” [Fox News, America Reports, 10/6/22]

Sean Hannity: “[Biden’s] decision to drain our Strategic Petroleum Reserves to salvage a few votes is putting our country's national security at risk.” Hannity continued, “It is not, Joe, a national emergency when Democrats believe they are going to lose midterm elections. [Fox News, Hannity, 10/6/22]

The Gateway Pundit: “BREAKING: Saudi Arabia Foreign Ministry Confirms Joe Biden Attempted to Coerce Kingdom to Cut Oil Prices Until After Midterm Election.” [Gateway Pundit, 10/12/22]

Alt-right commentator Jack Posobiec: “BREAKING: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia confirms Biden attempted to coerce them to postpone oil cuts until after the midterms, announce they have rejected his quid pro quo.” [Twitter, 10/12/22]

Trump shill and president of conservative organization Judicial Watch Tom Fitton: “So the Biden ‘October surprise’ was to get Saudi Arabia and OPEC to put off announcement of negative oil price news until after our elections.” [Twitter, 10/12/22]

Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro also suggested Biden was engaged in shady negotiations with Saudi Arabia for political benefit: “So Joe Biden refuses to say whether he would support cutting off arms supplies to Saudi Arabia after the Saudis rejected his request to increase oil supply in a slowing economy — a request made for a specified period of time, until right after the election.” [Twitter, 10/13/22]

RedState: “It Sure Looks Like Joe Biden Is Trying to Blackmail Saudi Arabia to Interfere in the 2022 Election.” [RedState, 10/13/22]

Daily Wire: “Saudi Arabia Torches Biden For Trying To Pressure OPEC Into Not Cutting Oil Production Before Midterms.” [Daily Wire, 10/13/22]

Maria Bartiromo: “Saudi Arabia has confirmed in a statement overnight that Biden did attempt to coerce the kingdom to postpone the OPEC

• oil production cuts until after the midterm elections.” [Fox News, Morning with Maria, 10/14/22]

Fox Business’ Stuart Varney on Fox & Friends: “We suffer the embarrassment of watching our president beg for oil or beg the Saudis, ‘Don't cut oil yet but wait until after the November elections.’” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 10/14/22]

Fox News host Laura Ingraham on The Ingraham Angle: “Now with the Biden administration attempting to pressure a foreign government to influence the outcome of the U.S. election, do you think that might be a big story?” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 10/14/22]

Fox News correspondent Kevin Corke on the Fox & Friends First: “The diplomatic chill coming after the Saudis say, ‘Yeah, we rebuffed a White House request to delay our oil reduction plan until after the midterms.’ …The allegation has people thinking, this White House pretty much did what they accused former President Trump of doing.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends First, 10/14/22]

Mike Pompeo on America’s Newsroom: “This is pure politics. … Three weeks out from the election. … The point that was made earlier, we now have the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at a 40-year low.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 10/18/22]

Harris Faulkner on Outnumbered: “Less than three weeks ahead of the midterm election. His critics are calling it a desperate attempt to drive down the gas prices as the economy and inflation have emerged as a concern for voters.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 10/19/22]

The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland: “Joe Biden can’t stop spending other people’s money. Even at $72 a barrel, it will cost taxpayers over $21 billion to replace the oil he’s robbed from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for his midterm election slush fund.” [Twitter, 10/20/22]

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) Press Secretary Abigail Marone: “Saying the quiet part out loud: Biden is draining our strategic oil reserves to try and win an election.” [Twitter, 10/20/22]

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mma 10 22

after nearly five months of public testimony, the final hearing of the bipartisan House select committee investigating the insurrection at the Capitol concluded on October 13 with a unanimous vote to subpoena former President Donald Trump, sending right-wing media’s campaign to discredit the panel and downplay the insurrection into overdrive.

The panel presented mountains of evidence that displayed a clear, coordinated, and deliberate effort by Trump and his supporters to infiltrate the Capitol and overturn the results of the 2020 election. Evidence presented during Thursday’s hearing illustrated that Trump sought to sow chaos in his final days as president by authorizing the withdrawal of troops overseas; provided further evidence that Secret Service and law enforcement were aware of the threats ahead of January 6 and sought to cover up their failures; and aired footage and testimony laying out the actions of political leaders including House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and former Vice President Mike Pence on January 6, 2021.

Many right-wing figures, however, continued their longstanding campaign to brand the hearings as a politicized witch hunt and falsely accuse the panel of failing to present evidence that directly connects the violence to Trump.

The conclusion of the October 13 hearing and the vote to subpoena Trump himself was followed by a new set of attacks from right-wing outlets which have consistently pushed lies about the insurrection and its investigation in order to downplay the panel’s findings and deflect from their own potential complicity, instead painting the hearings as a flashy distraction from “real” issues leading into the midterms.

Right-wing media outlets dismissed the hearings as “political theater” and downplayed the new evidence:

Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum tried to minimize Trump’s role in the riot, claiming, “What they have not been able to do so far, although they have said that President Trump was at the center of this from the very beginning, is directly tie him to the break-in and the riot at the Capitol.”

Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy told MacCallum, “This is show biz. This is not really a hearing.”

Washington Examiner correspondent Byron York accused the committee of treating the hearings like a TV show, saying, “You know, the committee very famously hired a former president of ABC News to kind of craft their hearings into an exciting series. And each one had kind of a beginning, and a climax, and a tease for the next episode. They all did that. And this is — the subpoena of the president is entirely theatrical.”

Right-wing radio host Erick Erickson took to Twitter, claiming that the committee’s move in “subpoenaing Trump at their last televised hearing is theater designed to affect an election, not procedure to seek the truth.”

Newsmax congressional correspondent Kilmeny Duchardt claimed, “So far, what we have seen revealed in that room today has not been anything corroborating the support, or rather, claims by the former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson that there was an altercation between Trump's security detail and the former president when he demanded to be taken to the Capitol on January 6,” adding, “We don't know if this is a season finale or a series finale.”

Right-wing radio host Mark Levin tweeted, “The Jan 6 Committee hasn’t presented any evidence — NONE — linking Donald Trump to those who stormed the Capitol Building. Nothing. But there’s tons of evidence tying Joe Biden to foreign payoffs.”

Breitbart senior editor-at-large Joel Pollak tweeted, “Just in time for the midterms, the super-important January 6 show trial has resumed, touting new evidence that, once again, says nothing about anything except the desperation of Democrats to pervert justice and due process to prevent the opposition from competing fairly for power.”

Right-wing media pundits suggested Democrats are using the hearing to deflect attention from more important issues, namely, inflation:

On Fox News’ The Story with Martha MacCallum, network contributor Marc Thiessen said, “I don't think it's a coincidence that they scheduled — rescheduled this hearing for the day that the inflation numbers came out because, you know, we just found out that the record inflation continues and we got numbers on the consumer price index and they want everybody to be talking about January 6 instead of that. So I feel like it's not just political theater, it's political manipulation.”

On Newsmax’s John Bachman Now, host John Bachman said, “Another January 6 hearing is about to get underway. So why is the committee even meeting today? Does it have anything to do with these horrible inflation numbers?”

Curtis Houck, an editor for misinformation hub NewsBusters, tweeted, “The left and their so-called conservative allies don't care that you can't afford to pay rent, pay down debts, have been skipping grocery visits, and can't afford to go anywhere. They demand you care more about January 6 and Donald Trump than your livelihood.”

Former Daily Caller contributor Greg Price [twt

pundits critiqued the committee vote to subpoena Trump:

On Twitter, HotAir editor Ed Morrissey called the committee vote to subpoena Trump “an election stunt.”

Conservative nonprofit Citizens United tweeted, “Instead of doing something about Biden's 8.2 percent inflation crisis, Democrats in Congress are about to issue a subpoena for President Trump. This is a taxpayer funded political stunt designed to impact the midterm election that's coming in 26 days.”

On Telegram, conspiracy theorist and “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander posted that the subpoena was “a break from norms and separation of powers. … This was a psychological-operation by legislators who know the corporate media are too dumb to report this to the American people.”

Breitbart senior editor-at-large Joel Pollak tweeted, “Nothing says ‘apolitical’ like voting to subpoena the former president and likely future candidate less than four weeks before Election Day. Every member of this committee is a fraud.”

In a Fox News opinion piece, author Victor Davis Hanson wrote, “Frightened Democratic candidates on script are resorting to strategies of diversion. They avoid mention of their prior lockstep support for Biden agendas that induced current high gas prices, spiraling inflation, deflated 401(k) retirement plans, out-of-control violent crime, 3 million illegal aliens pouring across the southern border, and the disaster in Afghanistan and its aftermath.

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oann settle defam of Ga ruby, ran 30 sec story on how , newsflash, GA officials had ruled no voter fraud.

pearson sharp omg wacko

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gang's all here: note this earned racism tag (tho reverse)

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no lnx twt

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-weaponized-vice-president-kamala-harris-climate-equity-comments-push

Right-wing media weaponized Vice President Kamala Harris' climate equity comments to push a white grievance narrative

Special PROGRAMS

CLIMATE & ENERGY

WRITTEN BY EVLONDO COOPER

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ALLISON FISHER, ALICIA SADOWSKI & KATHERINE ABUGHAZALEH

PUBLISHED 10/03/22

Update (10/4/22): This piece has been updated with additional segments from Fox News’ evening and prime-time programming.

On September 30, as public officials assessed the catastrophic devastation Hurricane Ian caused to large swaths of southwest Florida, Vice President Kamala Harris was asked to discuss global socioeconomic disparities in climate change impact during the Democratic National Committee’s Women’s Leadership Forum. As part of her response, Harris remarked: “It is our lowest income communities and our communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions and impacted by issues that are not of their own making.”

Since then, right-wing politicians and media figures have been lying about the context of her remarks to falsely imply that the Biden administration planned to deny disaster relief to white victims of Hurricane Ian.

This white grievance narrative is inherently divisive and denies the reality that low-income communities and communities of color are on the frontlines of the climate crisis and have far fewer resources to adapt, evacuate, and rebuild before and after devastating disasters. These inequities are often compounded by discriminatory practices in receiving federal aid.

This narrative also denies the reality that a large number of poor, white Americans stand to benefit from an equity-focused approach to disaster relief. As NewsOne succinctly stated:

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, communities across Florida were slammed by the fierce storm. And without the express commitment to equity in the recovery process, flooded communities like an Orange County low-income housing complex that flooded or a North Fort Meyers trailer park might not actually get the support they need.

Everyone who suffered losses due to Hurricane Ian must be provided with the resources they need to rebuild and recover. Although Harris’ remarks were not specifically about the federal response to Hurricane Ian, her response cuts to the core of what equity is designed to achieve: Equity is not about exclusion; it's about ensuring that the most vulnerable populations are fully included in disaster relief and future climate adaptation and mitigation planning.

But the right doesn’t do nuance. And weaponizing the vice president’s anodyne comments about climate equity allows right-wing media to downplay or deny the role global warming is playing in extreme weather events, while running interference on behalf of the fossil fuel industry, the primary driver of the climate crisis. It also allows the network and its media allies to further rile up their viewership with culture war narratives ahead of the upcoming midterm election.

And both of those moves fit into Fox News' larger playbook. For much of 2022, the network has led the right-wing mediasphere in pushing a series of unrelenting narratives that sought to undermine the Biden administration’s climate actions, while absolving the fossil fuel industry from any wrongdoing.

Below is a non-exhaustive catalog of Fox News personalities and guests and other right-wing media figures advancing this false and cynical narrative:

Fox News contributor Charlie Hurt: “It's pretty disgusting.” Appearing on The Ingraham Angle, Fox News contributor Charlie Hurt attacked Harris’ equity comments, asserting, “I think it's completely transparent and people see right through it. And when you have Democrats trying to politicize a natural disaster like this, whether it's by trying to justify their crazy power scam that they want global warming to provide them, or in their effort to try to trash their political opponents, using a tragedy like this, it's pretty disgusting.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 10/3/22]

Fox host Tucker Carlson: “She has a new plan to distribute relief, of course, on the basis of race. … So this is immoral.” Fox host Tucker Carlson claimed that Harris planned to “distribute relief, of course, on the basis of race,” before continuing, “So this is immoral. Not one thing ever in American life should be distributed on the basis of race. Ever. However, as long as we’re becoming a two-tiered society with a privileged class and an underclass, how about rewarding good behavior? Why not give priority to Americans who pay their taxes? Follow the law? Raise decent children who don’t join gangs or sell drugs or spray paint things or shoot people?” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 10/3/22]

Fox host Bret Baier: “President Biden and his team are trying to clean up – at least rhetorically – from a self-inflicted wound by Vice President Kamala Harris.” Fox host Bret Baier accused the White House of trying to spin the vice president’s “self-inflicted wound” before adding, “She made a comment that most interpreted as her saying that federal aid to hurricane victims should be distributed through the prism of race and equity to make up for injustices in years past.” [Fox News, Special Report, 10/3/22]

Fox host Jesse Watters: “Kamala Harris picking the wrong time to go woke after Hurricane Ian wreaked havoc on Florida. … Is the vice president saying white Floridians should get their hurricane relief last?” During October 3, 2022, episode of The Five, co-host Jesse Watters accused the vice president of “using this tragedy to push her radical ideology'' and later claimed that “the White House is trying to clean up her mess.” The discourse further devolved into a panel discussion that featured co-host Greg Gutfeld waxing philosophical about equity. [Fox News, The Five, 10/3/22]

Fox host Kayleigh McEnany: “At a time when America came together — perhaps one of the most unifying times in our country is after a natural disaster, when the whole country comes together — she chooses to invoke such hateful, divisive, race-based rhetoric.” During the intro to Outnumbered, host McEnany attacked Harris for her comments on equity and falsely claimed she “invok[ed] such hateful, divisive, race-based rhetoric.” Later, during a panel discussion, co-host Harris Faulkner added, “Because what she’s doing is she is following Biden's footsteps in terms of dividing us along a racial line for votes.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 10/3/22]

Fox host Harris Faulkner: “Vice president Kamala Harris willing to do the unthinkable, divide Hurricane Ian victims by race. Was she trying to say she would prefer to help the ones she chooses first?” Before running down the damage Hurricane Ian did to Florida, Faulkner falsely claimed that Harris “was willing to do the unthinkable, divide Hurricane Ian victims by race.” This led to a longer segment that collected right-wing reaction to Harris’ statement about equity, which correspondent Peter Doocy described as “race-based relief.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 10/3/22]

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC): “It is incredibly racist. Can you imagine someone saying the exact opposite, that only whites and men should get hurricane resources first? I mean, that’s crazy town.” Appearing on Sunday Night in America, Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace responded to a loaded question about Harris’ equity comments by calling her statement, “incredibly racist” and added, “The fact that the vice president of the United States is making those kinds of comments shows a lack of leadership. … We shouldn’t see it through the lens of color like the vice president does.” [Fox News, Sunday Night in America, 10/2/22]

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL): “Now is not the time to be talking about who gets what based upon where you started. It's about helping people, making sure they get the resources they need to them as quickly as possible, helping them recover as quickly as possible. That's what matters. That other stuff can wait for another day.” In response to a question about Harris’ equity comments from Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo, Republican Florida Rep. Byron Donalds claimed that now was the wrong time to discuss who has access to disaster recovery. “That other stuff can wait for another day. Obviously, we're going to have elections about that stuff in about a month or so,” he said. [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 10/2/22]

Fox host Will Cain: “Unfortunately, for many of those in power, relief isn’t going to be something equally distributed, because of course now our focus is not on equality but is on equity. In other words: racism.” During the October 1 episode of Fox & Friends Saturday, host Will Cain claimed that “equity” is another word for “racism.” Later he expounded upon his understanding of equity: “What she went on to say is we want to distribute funds essentially according to — I don’t know exactly how she defined equity, underprivileged communities. In essence, what she would say — what she is saying — is Brown and Black. What she is saying is hurricane relief needs to be distributed according to the color of your skin.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends Saturday, 10/1/22]

Daily Caller: “Kamala Harris Says Disaster Relief Should Be ‘Based On Equity.’”

The Daily Wire: “Kamala Harris Blasted For Pushing ‘Racist’ Policy In Response To Hurricane Damage.”

FoxNews.com: “VP Kamala Harris says hurricane recovery should take 'equity' into account.”

The New York Post: “VP Harris slammed for saying Hurricane Ian aid will be ‘based on equity.’”

Newsmax.com: “VP Harris: Hurricane Ian Aid 'Based on Equity' and Race.”

One America News’ Caitlin Sinclair:

Conservative media figure Sadanand Dhume:

Right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong:

Right-wing personality Ryan Fournier:

Entrepreneur Elon Musk: reply to f: Should be according to greatest need, not race or anything else

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a case study in RW bad faith? jrnl fail

aha hmmn 8 22 connect to target fauci // bogeyman conspir req single cause/bad guy a la soros

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/how-right-turned-dr-fauci

matt g

no lnx many vid]

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease official and a public health adviser to seven presidents, announced on Monday that he plans to retire in December after more than 50 years of public service. President Joe Biden toasted Fauci as “a steady hand with wisdom and insight honed over decades” and praised his “unparalleled spirit, energy, and scientific integrity,” while top scientists touted his record of “sav[ing] countless lives.”

While Fauci once earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then-President George W. Bush, his impending retirement was not greeted with plaudits from the right. On Fox News that night, Tucker Carlson’s opening monologue described him as “a dangerous fraud, a man who has done things that in most countries, at most times in history, would be understood perfectly clearly to be very serious crimes.” The New York Post headlined its editorial the next day “Good riddance to dangerous Dr. Fauci,” while The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board concluded that “his legacy will be that millions of Americans will never trust government health experts in the same way again.”

Fauci, like everyone else involved in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 1 million Americans, does not have a perfect record. But he spent his career trying to remain impartial, avoid partisanship, and offer the best advice he could, and for decades, he was respected on both sides of the political aisle. That reputation ultimately could not survive the relentless propaganda of the right-wing press, which needed a coronavirus scapegoat and found one in the octogenarian scientist.

Right-wing propagandists began turning Fauci into their latest hate object in March 2020. At the time, states had imposed stay-at-home orders and other social distancing measures that were recommended by the Trump administration to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. Fox and other pro-Trump outlets consistently downplayed the threat posed by the virus and promoted a minimalistic response that dismissed such efforts in favor of snake oil miracle cures.

Trump’s media supporters could not or would not try to directly challenge the president, and settled instead on targeting Fauci, who was a face of the administration’s response. He initially drew their ire as a critic of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, the malaria drugs that Fox hosts and then the president had recommended as a coronavirus treatment (numerous studies have found the drugs ineffective) and as part of the supposed “ruling class” that could weather a long-term economic shutdown.

At the time, even right-wing pugilists like Fox’s Tucker Carlson were still pulling their punches. “Imagine another year of this,” he said on his April 3, 2020, show. “That would be national suicide, and yet, that is what Anthony Fauci is suggesting, at least.” But Carlson went on to acknowledge that Fauci wasn’t trying to “hurt America,” saying that he “seems like a very decent man” who was simply misguided.

That gentility would not last. The pro-Trump media — and Carlson in particular — became increasingly unhinged and vituperative toward Fauci as the pandemic wore on. Ultimately, the right-wing attacks on Fauci had dramatic impacts for the country.

By mid-May of 2020, Fox’s prime-time stars had decided that the crisis was over. When Fauci said in congressional testimony that it was not, and that the virus was likely to recur in the fall and winter, they began pushing for Trump to fire him. On programs that the Fox-obsessed president watched religiously, they portrayed Fauci as power-mad and using his influence to “favor what the Democrats want.” Those attacks continued over the following weeks and months.

In July, Trump began publicly echoing the right-wing media’s concerns about Fauci. The following month, the president appointed Scott Atlas, a radiologist and right-wing think tanker who caught his attention through frequent Fox appearances, to the White House coronavirus task force.

Atlas effectively displaced Fauci as Trump’s top coronavirus adviser, and used that position to promote a “herd immunity” strategy for coping with the virus. His actions ultimately helped bring about the very wave of hospitalizations and deaths Fauci had earned the opprobrium of the right for warning about months earlier.

But the right’s attacks on Fauci continued over the months and years to come.

Carlson was the scientist’s most implacable media foe. He described Fauci as an “elderly power-drunk epidemiologist”; “capricious and transparently political”; a “hypocritical buffoon”; an “oily politician on an ego trip”; and an “even shorter version of Benito Mussolini.” He denounced the scientist’s recommendations as “authoritarian,” falsely claimed that Fauci “helped to create” the coronavirus, and called for him to “never work in public policy again.”

Other right-wing pundits demonized Fauci as “one of the great criminals of our civilization” and a member of the “medical deep state” who was “on a jihad” against Trump and behaves “more like a monarch.” They called for an investigation into his purported crimes and fantasized about him being put in “leg irons” or even beheaded. They even accused him — falsely — of killing puppies, with one describing him as “the dog-murdering and orphan-killing doctor, Anthony Benito Fauci.”

Fox’s attacks on Fauci have become so habitual that they often seemed to serve as background noise on the right-wing channel. But at times, the network’s talking heads have issued comments so abhorrent that they trigger widespread public outrage and even a response from the network brass. Fox sidelined Lara Logan, a host on the network’s streaming service, after she compared Fauci to the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele during a November 2021 appearance. The following month, the network publicly defended host Jesse Watters after he drew controversy for exhorting an audience of young right-wing activists to “ambush” Fauci with a rhetorical “deadly” “kill shot.”

Amid the flurry of often violent public criticism, Fauci divulged that he regularly received threats. Earlier this month, a man was sentenced to more than three years in prison for sending Fauci emails with comments like “You and your entire family will be dragged into the street, beaten to death, and set on fire.”

Fauci’s retirement announcement has opened a debate about who might succeed him. But senior members of the U.S. medical establishment are warning that the right’s attacks on Fauci may limit the pool of applicants willing to try to fill his shoes.

“What keeps the former surgeon general [Jerome Adams] up at night is his fear that talented candidates won’t want these jobs after what Fauci and other public health officials have faced over the last few years,” Politico reported on Monday. “Fauci has received death threats, and his daughters have been harassed — and Adams worries that this vitriol is a big part of why Fauci is stepping down.”

When the next pandemic hits, the U.S. response might thus be hobbled, thanks to the right-wing media’s impulse to destroy a vital public servant for political gain.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-promise-harass-anthony-fauci-retirement-if-republicans-win-back-control

no lnx vid

Right-wing media promise to harass Anthony Fauci in retirement if Republicans win back control of Congress

Fauci’s retirement announcement was met with a new flurry of vitriol from right-wing media

WRITTEN BY ERIC KLEEFELD, BUSHRA SULTANA & SHELBY JAMERSON

PUBLISHED 08/24/22

When presidential medical adviser Anthony Fauci announced his plans to retire in December after five decades of public service, right-wing media personalities predictably attacked him, calling him a “sociopathic liar and political hack” who “needs to be held accountable for all of the lies and misdirections.”

On Monday, Fauci announced he intends to step down as President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser and as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In response, right-wing media mounted a public onslaught, claiming that Fauci is stepping down to avoid investigations if Republicans take control of Congress in November, directing the GOP to investigate Fauci if the party should take control, proclaiming Fauci should face criminal charges and be sent to prison, and generally attacking his character.

Even Fox anchor Neil Cavuto, who had previously served as a seeming voice of reason and who has previously interviewed Fauci at the network, pressed the retiring public servant about whether his retirement was really just “a way to avoid Republican investigators.”

Video

CitationFrom the August 23, 2022, edition of Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto

Right-wing media, especially Fox News, have been maligning Fauci since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Media Matters’ Matt Gertz noted, then-President Donald Trump’s “media supporters could not or would not try to directly challenge the president,” whose administration’s response included recommendations of stay-at-home orders and other social distancing measures, “and settled instead on targeting Fauci, who was a face of the administration’s response.” The smear campaign against Fauci didn’t stop; over a roughly 10-month period in 2021, Fox News personalities attacked him over 400 times.

Fauci may plan to retire at the end of the year, but the right-wing echo chamber is prepared to hound him for years to come if given the opportunity.

Claims that Fauci is stepping down to avoid oversight

Fox prime-time star Tucker Carlson speculated that Fauci may have resigned because he thinks the Republicans are going to take over Congress in the midterm elections and does not want to be investigated by them. “So it's possible that Tony Fauci might want to resign before he has to explain all of that to a new Congress,” Carlson said. “He might want to get out of town now and move to, say, Cambridge, find a safe place to hide before the reckoning. Just a thought. Because honestly, there's a lot to answer for.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8/22/22]

Fox prime-time host Laura Ingraham speculated that “Fauci thinks this retirement would save him from a congressional investigation or a subpoena.” She then interviewed Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who said congressional Republicans would want to investigate Fauci based on the conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 virus was human-made. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/22/22]

Right-wing radio host Buck Sexton claimed, “Sociopathic liar and political hack Fauci is making a run for it before Republicans can take over the House.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Right-wing radio host Dana Loesch claimed Fauci “doesn't want that GOP-controlled House oversight.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Fox prime-time host Jesse Watters claimed that Fauci “seems to think stepping down before Republicans take the House will get him off scot-free.” Watters made this pronouncement just hours after Fauci appeared on Fox and told Neil Cavuto that he would not avoid appearing before Congress. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 8/23/22]

The National Pulse’s Raheem Kassam: “BREAKING: Fauci to step down right before Republicans are expected to take control of Congress and commence investigations into his funding of the Wuhan Lab and pandemic response.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Conservative pundit Mercedes Schlapp claimed “it's no coincidence” that Fauci announced he will step down in December, noting that it “is right after Republicans will take back the House and immediately plan oversight into our pandemic response and his funding of gain of function research at the Wuhan Lab.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Calls for congressional Republicans to investigate Fauci

Fox prime-time host Sean Hannity declared that “Fauci still needs to be held accountable for all of the lies and misdirections.” He then interviewed Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who predicted that if there is a Republican-controlled Congress, it would subpoena Fauci to testify next year. [Fox News, Hannity, 8/22/22]

Fox’s “news side” presented a more respectable face for the right’s determination to investigate Fauci. Fox contributor Marc Thiessen discussed the need for an “after-action study” of the nation’s COVID-19 response, while blaming Fauci for various aspects of both the pandemic response and its economic consequences. Concluding the segment, co-anchor Bill Hemmer said that in “2023, I think we’ll see him again.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 8/23/22]

Fox anchor Sandra Smith asked Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS): “What do you want to see happen as far as holding Dr. Anthony Fauci accountable for his actions during this pandemic?” Marshall then repeatedly and falsely accused Fauci of covering up the supposed creation of COVID-19 in a lab, statements which Smith did not challenge. [Fox News, America Reports, 8/23/22; FactCheck.org, 5/19/22]

Former White House adviser Peter Navarro said on Newsmax that the government should to “take that SOB’s passport” so Fauci cannot flee a Republican-led congressional investigation. Navarro himself was recently indicted for a charge of contempt of Congress over his refusal to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. [Newsmax, Eric Bolling: The Balance, 8/22/22; NPR, 6/4/22]

Calls for Fauci’s to face criminal charges and/or prison

“Stop the Steal” organizer Alex Bruesewitz wrote that Fauci “should be investigated, and quite frankly arrested, for what he put our country through.” [Twitter, 8/22/22; Media Matters, 7/27/22]

Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk declared that Fauci “belongs in prison.” He continued, “Seize the passports. Freeze his pension, distribute it to his victims. Lawyer up. Time to hold him accountable for the last 3 years.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Right-wing radio host Clay Travis wrote that Fauci “belongs in prison,” claiming he is the “most destructive bureaucrat in United States history.” Travis also said Fauci’s “‘leadership’ on covid will — in the decades ahead — come to be seen as one of the greatest and most destructive failures in our nation’s history.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Right-wing podcasters Diamond & Silk: “Fauci doesn't need to just step down, he should be arrested for Crimes Against Humanity!” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Attacks on Fauci’s character

In his opening monologue, Fox's Carlson said, “On some level, even Tony Fauci knows that Tony Fauci is in fact a dangerous fraud.” Carlson further elaborated that Fauci “has done things that in most countries at most times in history would be understood perfectly clearly to be very serious crimes.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8/22/22]

Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy called Fauci an “authoritarian monster.” She claimed Fauci “led our country on a Chinese-style approach instead of an American-style where we look at science.” [Fox News, The Five, 8/23/22]

Washington Examiner’s Haisten Willis described Fauci as someone some people “feel is … self-promoting, unaccountable, and even liable for helping start the pandemic.” [Washington Examiner, 8/22/22]

Fox News contributor and Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen: “Never has anybody been so wrong about so much for so long and been so lionized as Anthony Fauci.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 8/23/22]

Sean Duffy, Fox News contributor and former member of Congress, repeatedly accused Fauci of having “Chinese” principles instead of American ones in his supposed use of the power of government. [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 8/23/22]

Fox News’ Katie Pavlich said it is “sickening” the way Fauci supposedly let “power and fame” go to his head. Pavlich tweeted, “In March 2020 Fauci actually told the truth about who Wuhan coronavirus was deadly for, the elderly and those with comorbidities. He said it was ‘very clear.’ He also said drug store masks don’t work. Then, he got a taste of power and fame he just couldn’t let go. Sickening.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz on Fauci: “His half-century of ‘public service’ was a disaster for us. His handling of covid should be studied in the future as a blueprint of what not to do.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]

Right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro called Fauci “a true douchebag.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 08/23/22]

Right-wing media gadfly Benny Johnson called Fauci “the most evil and malevolent character in my lifetime.” [The Benny Show, via YouTube, 8/23/22]

IN THIS ARTICLE

Fox News

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Covid-19 / Coronavirus

How the right turned on Dr. Fauci

08/23/22

Fox reacted to Dr. Fauci's COVID-19 infection with vaccine skepticism

06/17/22

Fox News is the Republican Party. Here are over 400 examples proving it.

05/16/22

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aha: important part of tribal US them enemy is having someone to BLAME for YOUR problems (and magical/macho tough guy who alone can fix it); recall conspir is to reduce all to one target eg jewish/ globalist/ antifa, commies...

2 22 an nath

During my time as a boy attending an evangelical church and then later, when I attended an evangelical seminary, it was hard not to notice an underlying misogyny that seemed consistently present. As a man, I would be the head of the household. I was like Christ to my future wife. In fact, I once heard a sermon by prominent evangelical minister Tony Evans where he declared that wives must refer to their husbands as "Lord." In my church youth groups, we were separated by sex and the boys had bizarre discussions on the type of men we should become. There was a strong emphasis on being what they considered to be manly and tough, whereas young girls, of course, were encouraged to be nurturing, submissive and, most important, sexually pure.

When contemporary evangelical leaders push a message around Christian nationalism, I can promise you it always refers back to a time when the "traditional" roles of American households held fast. Making America "great again" is truly about bringing back a time when women were subject to their husbands' wills and whims, and the husbands were lords of the house.

Someone recently wrote to me, in response to one of my previous articles, wondering why so many evangelicals chose Donald Trump, a vulgar misogynist who shows no understanding of any element of the Christian faith, over other candidates who were much closer to the evangelical movement. The difficult answer is that most evangelical men long for the days when misogyny was cool, when women were under the thumb of their husbands and sexual harassment was almost universally accepted. Trump exemplified that approach — and a great many evangelicals loved him for it. Trump remains the favorite of the evangelicals not because any commitment to Christ or the Christian way of life — since he has none — but because of the widespread desire among evangelicals to take back control over their lives, and their wives. One of the major ways this has been expressed lately is through the ideology known as Christian nationalism.

As I understand it, Christian nationalism is an idea now widely accepted within the evangelical church that the U.S. is a Christian nation founded upon Christian principles — no matter what it may say in the Constitution. This commitment to the Christian faith, as a nation, is the reason God blessed the U.S. as the greatest nation that ever existed. God will only continue to bless this nation, however, as long as it remains a Christian nation. As America becomes more progressive and increasingly secular in terms of politics, culture and faith, then in this view God will remove his blessing and protection and great evils will befall our nation.

This remarkable theory has no connection to any of the teachings of Jesus Christ or his followers, and is completely irrelevant to the Christian faith. I will certainly admit that I have a heart for American idealism. I have officiated at numerous Veterans Day and Memorial Day services, and I have felt the love of country enormously, on those days and all the days in between. None of that, however, has anything to do with Christianity. God does not play favorites when it comes to nations, people or cultures. That entire idea is morally and theologically absurd.

In truth, Christian nationalism is based not in the Bible or the teachings of Jesus Christ, but on the idea of the traditional American family. As roles for women have changed, as divorce becomes more common, as same-sex marriage gains a firmer footing, and now with the movement for transgender rights and visibility becoming more public, the panic of the Christian nationalists becomes ever more desperate. This is where all that rage among evangelicals is coming from. Understand, most people are motivated politically based on how they perceive policy decisions affecting their day-to-day life. Nothing affects our lives more than what is happening to our families. When things fall apart at home, it can feel helpful — even if it's not healthy — to blame someone or something besides ourselves. For myself, I know that all my personal failures are mine alone. I can't blame MTV or Eminem or the LGBTQI population, the evangelical church, Trump, Biden, Obama, my mom, my dad or anyone else. The problem is in the mirror, as it is for everyone. Any effort to pass that blame along to others is quite human, and quite wrong.

My final point on Christian nationalism is around all the macho tough-guy stuff that seems to be on the lips of every right-wing leader. Being "tough" seems to be the only thing conservative commentators and evangelical leaders care about. Trump is supposedly the epitome of that and his little posse loves him for it. I won't pretend to understand it. After I graduated middle school, being tough just didn't seem that important. But for people like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jerry Falwell Jr. (before his fall) and of course Trump himself, it's important to keep pretending that they are a bunch of tough guys, even though they also claim to stand with Jesus Christ, a humble, meek and homeless teacher.

I'm no tough guy but I am happy to offer a challenge to any of these fake tough guys. Debate me anywhere, anytime. I am truly blue-collar, a member of the American working class. I am a Bible-believing minister and a flaming liberal. I believe that the Christian nationalist message comes from the devil himself. I am trying to save the name of the Christian faith and to stand up for American idealism. I oppose every part of the hypocritical, fake-populist agenda of the Christian nationalists and their enablers. I double-dog dare any of them, here and now, to stand up and take me on in public debate. Odds are they never will.

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5 22

https://www.mediamatters.org/one-america-news-network/oan-ceo-praises-tucker-carlsons-real-news-he-pitches-network-charter

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see maralago go off deep end

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https://www.mediamatters.org/blazetv/right-wing-host-line-between-blazetv-fox-news-and-infowars-getting-blurred-most-healthy-way

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random rww 5 22

josh Bernstein is confident that either Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson (who is not even serving on the court yet), or Justice Sonia Sotomayor or Justice Elena Kagan is responsible for leaking the Supreme Court’s draft decision striking down Roe v. Wade and he wants these “three evil bitches” investigated for treason.

Mario Murillo is likewise outraged about the leak: “Instead of a glorious declaration by the highest court, the media delivered the best news we have heard in years on a dirty garbage can lid.”

Stew Peters revealed that his film crew and executive producer, white nationalist Lauren Witzke, are responsible for producing Georgia GOP gubernatorial candidate Kandiss Taylor’s campaign ad featuring the Georgia Guidestones.

Tony Perkins says that the Family Research Council is launching its own news operation.

Finally, Stewart Rhodes, who has been charged with seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, announced the creation of legal defense fund “to assist the legal fees and expenses of various non-violent, peaceful Americans who demonstrated and exercised their First Amendment rights in Washington, D.C. on January 5-6, 2021.”

Tags: Josh Bernstein Kandiss Taylor Lauren Witzke Mario Murillo Stew Peters Stewart Rhodes Tony Perkins Capitol Insurrection Leftovers Family Research Council

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welcome daily wire

homicide (vs crime) spike b/c of covid lockdown?

no lnx twt an 4 22

https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/ny-times/

NY Times pummeled over piece on 8 conservative men who don’t feel 'free to be themselves in the culture'

David Badash and The New Civil Rights Movement April 13, 2022

Some might say The New York Times is the king of normalizing views from the right, even views that could be considered disturbing or, in some cases, even dangerous to their fellow citizens, the nation, or the world. The Times’ pre-World War II profiles of a young Adolf Hitler are a legendary example.

In 2015 The Times republished what it calls “1922: Hitler in Bavaria,” patting itself on the back for getting “a lot of things right,” like its “description of his ability to work a crowd into a fever pitch, ready then and there to stage a coup.”

The Times that year also reported that “several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch masses of followers and keep them aroused, enthusiastic, and in line for the time when his organization is perfected and sufficiently powerful to be employed effectively for political purposes.”

History knows how that turned out.

Fast forward to 2017, when The Times published a profile commonly referred to as “The Nazi Next Door,” originally titled, “In America’s Heartland, the Nazi Sympathizer Next Door,” which was written by Richard Fausset.

Salon’s Matthew Smith described the piece, bemoaning the “creepy trend of media outlets attempting to humanize Nazis and white supremacists.”

“Tony and Maria Hovater were married this fall,” Fausset’s story begins. “They registered at Target. On their list was a muffin pan, a four-drawer dresser and a pineapple slicer.”

“Ms. Hovater, 25, was worried about Antifa bashing up the ceremony. Weddings are hard enough to plan for when your fiancé is not an avowed white nationalist.”

A caption of a photo reads: “Mr. Hovater and others in the loosely defined alt-right movement are hoping to make their ideas less than shocking, even normal.”

Some felt The Times, intentionally or not, certainly appeared as if it were trying to lend a hand. And in fact, after massive outrage, which forced a headline change (along with removing a link it included to “a webpage that sells swastika armbands,”) the Times’ editors defended publishing the piece by saying they thought “it was important to do so.”

Between 1922, and 2017, and after, no doubt the Times has published other works that normalize the radical right, extremism, and fascism.

Earlier this year a Twitter user posted his take on how the Times in 1935 covered a “large anti-Hitler protest in front of a Nazi ocean liner.”

And oh yes, 1924:

“22,000 Nazis Hold Rally in [Madison Square] Garden; Police Check Foes,” was a front-page headline in the Times about a stunningly disturbing NYC event in 1939.

Meanwhile, fast forward to today.

“These 8 Conservative Men Are Making No Apologies” is the headline in Tuesday’s Times Opinion section. The piece is by the Times’ deputy Opinion editor Patrick Healy and the Opinion section’s editorial assistant Adrian J. Rivera. And while no one should make a comparison to Hitler or Nazis, the question some are asking is why did The Times think it important to profile a group of conservative men, since conservative men have pretty much been in charge for decades?

“There was no talk of a stolen election, no conspiracy theories about voter fraud or rants about President Biden’s legitimacy. Yet listening to our 90-minute focus group with eight conservative men, you couldn’t help but worry for our democracy a bit,” it begins.

“The men didn’t see themselves fitting into American society today. They didn’t feel free to be themselves in the culture,” the piece claims. “Seven of them said they felt like a stranger in their own country. At a time when democratic institutions are under pressure — and even under attack — and the United States feels so ununited, what causes these Americans to feel so alienated from America?”

The Times, to my knowledge, has never done a focus group of, say, eight LGBTQ men over 50. Or eight LGBTQ people of any age. What about doing a focus group of eight Northeast Democrats? How about visiting a diner and listening to supporters of President Joe Biden? Or Senator Elizabeth Warren? Or Reps. Jamie Raskin or Val Demmings?

When does the paper of record start highlighting views of people from the left, rather than a Nazi from 1922 or conservatives from 2022?

Again, The Times defends its piece, claiming these are “Americans whose voices are often not heard in opinion journalism.”

The Times apparently has never heard of Fox News, Newsmax, OAN, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, The Daily Wire, or Facebook.

The Times piece includes one hour and 22 minutes of audio it titled, “8 Conservative Men On Being a Man in America Today.”

To give a taste, here are some of the men and their top concerns about America or American society:

Tony (white, 72, retired, Massachusetts): Government spending.

Derrick (Black, 63, software engineer, Georgia): Inflation.

Michael (white, 67, retired, Florida): Economy.

Christopher (Black, 51, small-business loan broker, Maryland): Elitism.

Danny (Middle Eastern, 47, Realtor, Florida): Disgraceful.

Joe (white, 37, apparel manufacturing, New York): Weak.

Joe says: “This is not the America I remember growing up in, and it’s just sad to see what’s going on.”

Robert says: “You’re not free to be yourself anymore because of crime. You’ve got to be concerned about ‘If I go out, am I going to be a victim of crime?'”

(Most crime is actually at historic lows, but you won’t hear that on TV or social media. The Brennan Center reports the “violent crime rate in the United States has decreased sharply over the past 25 years.”)

Later in the piece, Robert reveals, “I voted for Trump. I like Trump from when he was with ‘The Apprentice.’ I knew him as a businessperson. That’s why I voted for him. And then — oh, Lord — from church to every place, people just had a problem with it. You can’t have a different viewpoint.”

One interviewer asked questions like “What does it mean to be a man?” “Is masculinity important to you?” “Who would you all think of as good examples of masculinity or manliness these days? Who’s a good example?”

Responses to The Times’ piece were strong and appropriately unforgiving:

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an 3/16/ 22

no lnx

Far-right MAGA Republicans admire Vladimir Putin’s propaganda machine — and try to emulate it: report​

Alex Henderson March 16, 2022

The list of far-right MAGA Republicans who have vigorously defended and even praised Russian President Vladimir Putin is a long one, ranging from former President Donald Trump to “War Room” host Steve Bannon, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and QAnon supporter Lauren Witzke (the Delaware Republican who ran against Sen. Chris Coons in 2020). Bannon has praised Putin for not being “woke,” and Witzke recently said, “I identify more with Putin's Christian values than I do with Joe Biden.”

To Kevin Baron, executive editor of Defense One, all of the Putin worship coming from MAGA Republicans speaks volumes about their view of the world. In an article published by Defense One on March 11, Baron warns that the way Putin runs Russia is the way the far right would like to run the United States — and he stresses that MAGA media functions a lot like government-operated pro-Putin media in Russia.

“It’s hard to watch Russia's version of journalism and not think of the American far-right’s version of it,” Baron argues. “Indeed, the connections are both direct and philosophical — and of import to national security leaders. But there’s a deeper connection as well. America’s right-wing partisans wish they had what Putin has: control of the information and messages that flow to the body politic. That’s not an accusation; it is their goal.”

[twt?]

According to Baron, it's no coincidence that Carlson in the U.S. and government-operated media in Russia use the same talking points when discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“In the past few months,” Baron explains, “we’ve seen just how closely related the two are: Putin’s propaganda and our own. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, America’s far-right denied the looming threat as a wag-the-dog conspiracy concocted by deep-state Democrats and centrist Republicans, or tried to blame President Joe Biden. Russian propaganda outlets gleefully put those clips into heavy rotation. Two weeks into the invasion, far-right leaders continue to sow doubt on war reporting, claiming or implying there is an elite conspiracy to keep Americans uninformed, and often parroting Russian propagandists’ distortions and lies.”

Baron cites specific examples of far-right media outlets that conduct themselves like state-owned Russian media.

“While politicians come and go, the lasting damage is in the lingering popularity of Soviet-style agitprop propaganda from loyalist far-right media operations deliberately masquerading as journalism,” Baron observes. “These outlets —designed to look, sound, and feel like journalism — are de facto paid actors, directors, and scriptwriters of a carefully crafted fiction that would make the Kremlin proud. They call themselves reporters and operate in pretend newsrooms like Steve Bannon’s Breitbart, Carlson’s Daily Caller, Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal, and upstarts like One America News Network and Newsmax. They are different from older conservative magazines like the National Review and Weekly Standard, whose writers did not try to impersonate straight newsrooms — and, indeed, intermittently opposed Trump’s 2016 election.”

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/tucker-carlson-2656827634/

no lnx vid

Tucker Carlson tries to gaslight his way out of having pushed Putin’s anti-Ukraine propaganda for a month

David Neiwert and Daily Kos March 02, 2022

Tucker Carlson is utterly baffled that people would think he is rooting for Vladimir Putin and Russia in its war on Ukraine. “You know, it’s such an awful thing to say,” he said on his Fox News show Monday, after playing a clip of Congressman Eric Swalwell saying he and other Republicans were on Putin’s side. “We hesitated to play that, even—it’s very common, you hear it every day. The question is: Why are they saying that? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Gaslighting, of course, has become Carlson’s specialty. In reality, Carlson spent most of the month prior to the invasion praising Putin and echoing Russian propaganda: running down Ukraine, deriding it as a “State Department client state”—not a democracy, but “a tyranny”—and claiming that Russia just wants to keep its borders secure, everything the fault of Joe Biden. So much so that he became the hero of Russian state television, where his rants were translated and replayed, and he was praised as an astute American.

Now that the horror is hitting home, Carlson suddenly has realized that he backed the wrong horse and is scurrying hard to dig his way out. The first step in that, of course, is gaslighting his audience about what he had been saying just the week before, and blaming the war on Putin now—yet somehow it’s still all Joe Biden’s fault. Those clips have yet to appear on Russian TV.

The major tone shift occurred Friday, a day after the invasion: “It’s a tragedy, because war always is a tragedy, and the closer you get to it, the more horrifying it seems,” he said. He also squarely put the onus on Russia and Putin: “He is to blame for what we’re seeing tonight in Ukraine.”

“Vladimir Putin started this war, so whatever the context of the decision that he made, he did it,” [CYA?] he said. “He fired the first shots.”

It’s a sharp and complete reversal of his previous arguments. On Feb. 17, he spouted Russian propaganda in claiming that Ukraine is not a legitimate nation. He also attacked U.S. officials who provided military aid to Ukraine.

“These people are so ghoulish,” Carlson said. “Of course they’re promoting war, not to maintain the democracy that is Ukraine. Ukraine is not a democracy. It has never been a democracy in its history, and it’s not now. It’s a client state of the Biden administration.”

This narrative became a staple of Carlson’s defense of Russia’s war. On his Feb. 22 show, he again spouted Putin’s propaganda: “The point here is to defend democracy. Not that Ukraine is a democracy. It’s not a democracy. Ukraine’s president has arrested his main political opponent, he has shut down newspapers and television stations that have dared to criticize him. So in American terms, you would call Ukraine a tyranny. But Joe Biden likes Ukraine, so Putin bad, war good.”

The next day, he again dismissed Ukraine as “a State Department client state,” claiming that Democrats wanted Americans to “wholeheartedly support jumping with both feet into a highly complicated conflict in a part of Eastern Europe where we have no national interests.”

The most noteworthy part of that Feb. 22 episode, however, was how Carlson defended Putin against his “haters” by comparing him to American liberals, who he clearly saw as far more nefarious:

It might be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious, ‘What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my kids to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity? Does he eat dogs?’ These are fair questions, and the answer to all of them is no. Vladimir Putin didn’t do any of that. So do why does permanent Washington hate him so much?

The day after the invasion began, on Feb. 24, it was more of the same. The invasion, he claimed, demonstrated that Biden was a foreign-policy failure who had promised he would keep it from happening, making Putin’s war a “humiliating defeat for Joe Biden.”

Russian state media promptly began re-airing Carlson’s rants with translated subtitles, particularly the Putin-didn’t-call-me-a-racist episode. His attacks on Ukraine’s legitimacy also received heavy play. They also replayed Carlson’s Feb. 24 interview with ex-Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who told him: "Sanctions don't work. This is the whole problem with the Biden administration: They are so focused on how do we punish Putin."

The clips became the topic of Russian TV news talk shows, where Carlson was uniformly praised. “Excellent performance,” the editor of a Russian national defense journal commented. “We can only have solidarity with this view.”

Of course, Carlson is hardly alone in spreading pro-Russian propaganda on Fox News. On Feb. 24, just before bombs began falling on Ukraine, host Laura Ingraham interviewed ex-president Donald Trump by phone, who praised Putin—“I do know him very well. We’ve had many, uh, times together. I got along with him fantastically”—and ranted at length that the invasion was Biden’s fault, and the war never would have happened if the election hadn’t been stolen from him.

Near the end of the interview, Ingraham asked Trump about the speech given earlier that day by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, describing it as “a kind of really pathetic display” and described Ukraine’s United Nations ambassador as “looking like a defeated man.”

And despite the seeming change in tone, Carlson’s “pivot” still found him ardently defending Russian propaganda, and serving as its useful tool. Angry that authorities and platform owners in the U.S., Canada, and in Europe are taking action against the Kremlin-owned American news outlet Russia Today and other agitprop producers like Sputnik—both of whom also heavily replayed his pro-Russia rants—Carlson fumed that it all constituted “moral blackmail,” gaslighting away his previous remarks: “No one in America takes pride at the sight, feels anything but revulsion at the sight, of Russian troops within Ukraine.”

Sure enough, RT promptly retweeted Carlson’s clip: “Tucker Carlson defends media freedom as Senators use their power to shut down free speech on social media—especially so-called ‘Russian propaganda.’”

As Lis Wahl, a former anchor at Russia Today, explained to The Daily Beast, the distinction between a propaganda operation like RT and what’s aired on Fox News has essentially vanished:

While the American voices Russian media uses to influence Western audiences hail from the far-left and the far-right, the poison of disinformation asymmetrically originates on the ideological right. Research has demonstrated that followers of the former president stick to hyper-partisan and conspiracy-laden sources such as Breitbart, Info Wars, and Fox News. During Trump’s election and throughout his presidency, the rightwing ecosystem grew more conspiratorial, extreme, and anti-democratic. It is during this time that Russian media and right-wing media became indistinguishable.

Today, the chief purveyors of pro-Russian disinformation in the U.S. are now on Fox News. I have warned that quite often the pro-Putin claims on Fox and RT essentially mimic each other. But much of the American public, and even many in the mainstream media, fail to realize the extent to which this disinformation has become part of the fabric of the new media landscape, and therefore, American political discourse.

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mma 122  https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/alex-berensons-antivax-commentary-killing-fox-viewers-because-thats-what-network

Pandemic conspiracy theorist Alex Berenson’s latest turn on Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show, in which he called for the withdrawal of the mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 and said that “no one should get them” or “get boosted,” based on the false premises that the vaccines do not work and are “dangerous,” has rightly spurred a wave of revulsion.

As everyone from progressive MSNBC hosts to conservative National Review writers has noted, programming like this is killing Fox’s viewers by discouraging them from taking shots that are incredibly effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths from the virus.

And that’s apparently how the Fox brass likes it.

Berenson’s pattern of spreading coronavirus misinformation is well-documented – he’s been described as “the pandemic’s wrongest man” and banned from Twitter over his constant falsehoods. But his “contrarian” willingness to denounce any and all measures to contain the pandemic, from masks to vaccines, has made him a fixture on Fox: Tuesday marked his 105th appearance since January 2020, 47 of which have come on Carlson’s show.

While Carlson himself is a constant font of anti-vaccine talking points and doubtlessly wants to host people who agree with his lies, the responsibility for Berenson’s ongoing presence on the network’s most-watched programs ultimately rests with Fox’s executives, like Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch and Suzanne Scott. Even if they aren’t willing to part with Carlson for the sake of their viewers, they could dispense with Berenson in a second if they wanted to. Over the years, they have repeatedly – and effectively – banned particular guests from the airwaves based on their off-air behavior or on-air commentary. Carlson has obeyed those diktats when they have come down, just like his fellow prime-time stars.

Fox hosted Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) hundreds of times from August 2017 to March 2021, including at least three dozen hits with Carlson, according to the Media Matters guest database. But on March 30 of the latter year, The New York Times reported that he was under federal investigation for alleged sex trafficking. After one last bizarre appearance on Carlson’s show to respond to the story that night, the network apparently left him for dead.

Fox’s executives were responsible for Gaetz’s disappearance from the network, with The Daily Beast reporting a few weeks later that Fox’s executives had put the congressman “on an informal blacklist” for trying “to rope the Fox News star into the congressman’s scandal.” Gaetz regularly appears on other right-wing networks like Newsmax, but he has not returned to Fox. Carlson, who was reportedly initially “livid” with Gaetz but subsequently suggested on-air that the congressman had been treated unfairly, has not defied that corporate mandate.

Something similar appears to have happened to Republican lawyers Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing, both longtime fixtures at Fox who were apparently banished from its airwaves in fall 2019. Both of them stopped appearing on Fox News amid reporting that they were deeply involved in the genesis of the Ukrainian dirt about Joe Biden that they were often called upon to opine about. The pair continued to appear on Fox Business, vanishing from that outlet as well after diGenova was widely criticized for an odious antisemitic rant about progressive philanthropist George Soros.

Fox refused to respond to reporters’ queries about whether the pair had been formally banned in the months after they disappeared, but they have not returned in the years since – including to Carlson’s show, which had hosted diGenova at least 27 times, according to the Media Matters guest database.

Similarly, in October 2018 a top Fox executive publicly condemned the rhetoric of Judicial Watch’s Chris Farrell, and a spokesperson said he would not be allowed to return to Fox News or Fox Business, following an uproar caused by the conservative political operative using an appearance on the latter network to falsely accuse Soros of masterminding a caravan of migrants headed toward the U.S. border from Central America.

Fox does not have anything resembling a consistent standard for this type of despicable commentary – indeed, Carlson just did an odious anti-Soros special for Fox Nation – but what matters for this discussion is that the ban stuck and Farrell has not been allowed back in subsequent years. Likewise, no Fox program has violated the network’s public bans of Harlan Hill (who tweeted in 2020 that Kamala Harris “comes off as an insufferable lying bitch,” or retired Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney (who said on-air in 2018 that torture “worked” on then-Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

Fox’s executives have proved themselves to be capable of keeping unsavory guests off the air when they chose to do so. But with Berenson, they haven’t bothered trying. The network has made the calculation that keeping its viewers from needlessly dying isn’t worth it. As one Fox insider explained, the network is running anti-vaccine commentary because it is “great for ratings.”

The more than 3 million people who tuned into Carlson’s show on Tuesday heard a kook denounce lifesaving vaccines and urge them not to take them. If they listen to him, they could die. And Fox’s leadership is entirely uninterested in preventing that dire outcome.

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yay win scalp

no lnx

DirecTV just dealt a major blow to right-wing viewers

Meaghan Ellis January 15, 2022

DirecTV has announced its decision not to renew its contract with the right-wing media operation, One American News Network (OANN). On Friday, January 14, the cable service provider released a statement to Bloomberg with details about the decision.

“We informed Herring Networks that, following a routine internal review, we do not plan to enter into a new contract when our current agreement expires,” DirecTV said in a statement to Bloomberg.

Angelo Carusone, president of the left-leaning non-profit Media Matters, also released a statement on Friday commending the cable provider's decision as she acknowledged how influential OAN has been for the spread of misinformation “DirecTV made the responsible decision to drop OAN. OAN is a cauldron of misinformation and extremism,” Carusone said in a statement.

The decision comes after Media Matters' relentless campaigning in hopes of getting cable television providers to drop the right-wing operation. Although they acknowledged DirecTV's effort to make better decisions for the new year, Carusone went on to explain how the damage has already been done.

Media Matters highlighted how miscommunication continued to run rampant for the last 12 months due to the cable provider's renewal of the contract last year. In short, the organization described the 2021 contract renewal as "a negligent mistake."

“DirecTV made a negligent mistake in 2021 when it renewed its contract with OAN even after OAN spent weeks attacking the election and stoking the embers that helped fuel the Jan. 6 insurrection. They gave OAN a full year to undermine our democracy — and our country suffered for it.”

She added, DirecTV has been “functionally propping up OAN for years. Without DirecTV, OAN would certainly not exist in its current form, and possibly not at all."

Following the heightened controversy surrounding the politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 presidential election, OAN emerged as an epicenter for misinformation often echoing election falsehoods and conspiracy theories promoted by former President Donald Trump and his allies.

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mma 1 22

As the nation approaches the one-year anniversary of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a disturbing trend has emerged in the right-wing media ecosystem: the open approval and valorization of the event.

Such thoughts first emerged that very day, when far-right commentators like former Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka and right-wing site the Gateway Pundit cheered on the “patriots” who had “taken over Capitol Hill.” But after the coup attempt failed, right-wing media proceeded in the following days and months to come up with other explanations of what had happened. While they painted various conspiracy theories of left-wing infiltration or claimed there had been no insurrection at all, they also urged strongly against any attempts to investigate the event further — which did not exactly demonstrate much confidence in the alternative hypotheses.

But more and more, conservative media outlets are collectively ending up right back where they started, with a full embrace of the event, consistent with former President Donald Trump’s claims that “the insurrection took place on November 3rd,” and that January 6 was a “protest of the rigged election.” (This has also spread through official Republican circles, such as the local Republican Party in suburban Cobb County, Georgia, which is preparing to hold a “Candlelight Vigil for J6 Patriots.”)

This right-wing media campaign to excuse the Capitol attack is seemingly reflected by views among the rank-and-file GOP: A recent CBS News/YouGov poll finds that Republican voters have become less disapproving of the events of January 6 than they once were. While the vast majority still say they disapprove, a deeper look finds that this opinion has become spread between those who “strongly disapprove” and a plurality who only “somewhat disapprove.” Moreover, only 21% of Republicans will describe the riot as an “insurrection,” while 47% describe the people who entered the Capitol as having been motivated by “patriotism,” and 56% say they had been “defending freedom.” Moreover, 38% of Republicans say that political violence could be justified over election results.

Indeed, much of the response to January 6 has depended on the source’s view about whether such an event could succeed — or only result in ignominious defeat. Far-right activist and talk show host Charlie Kirk, in the days following January 6, deleted a tweet in which he had boasted that his organizations were sending “80+ buses full of patriots” to Washington in order to “fight for this president.” A Turning Point Action spokesperson claimed that the organization had sent only seven buses, but it also later emerged that at least one suspect in the Capitol insurrection had traveled to D.C. on one of Turning Point Action’s buses.

It is also worth looking at what Kirk now has to say about political violence. When an audience member at one of Kirk’s events asked this past October, “How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?” Kirk responded that the questioner was “playing into all their plans,” because their opponents were “trying to make you do something that will be violent that will justify a takeover of your freedoms and liberties.” (Others pointed out that Kirk’s supposed objection to violence was based on its high probability of failure instead of any moral qualms.)

Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has created a propaganda series claiming that the attack was a false flag operation mounted by government elements in order to persecute conservatives, has also for long time cultivated a parallel narrative in which the insurrectionists were just regular citizens who “talked about the Constitution, and something called their rights.” Moreover, Carlson has claimed, they “were correct” that the 2020 presidential election had been rigged against Trump — and “if a mass of people show up angry at the Capitol, you should at least pause for a second,” and “maybe we should address their concerns."  [vid]

CARLSON (HOST): What was January 6? Well, there was destruction of property, which we’re totally opposed to, but what motivated it? Why were all those people there?

Well, for the most part, a year later, it’s very clear, January 6 was essentially what it appeared to be. Thousands of ordinary American citizens, voters — people who believe in our democracy far more fervently than Liz Cheney ever has — came to Washington because they sincerely believed democracy had been thwarted.

They believed the presidential election was unfair, and they have a right to believe that and by the way, in many ways, they were correct. The presidential election was unfair and you don't have to get into anything about voting machines to believe that.

…

OK, if someone broke the law, punish that person. That applies to BLM activists as much as it does to QAnon people. We're for enforcing the law, fairly, equitably. But we also think that as you do that, if a mass of people show up angry at the Capitol, you should at least pause for a second if you believe in democracy and ask, what are they angry about? Maybe we should address their concerns.

And on New Year’s Eve, right-wing site American Greatness — whose contributors have spread lies about the 2020 election and attacked Capitol Police officers — upped the ante with a piece titled “Of Reichstags and Bastilles.” Repeating a series of false claims that there was “overwhelming evidence of widespread voter fraud in multiple swing states,” contributor Eric Lendrum declared that “thus, the protesters were justified.”

The piece also claimed that Ashli Babbitt, the QAnon conspiracy theorist who was killed by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to climb through a broken window leading to the Speaker’s Lobby, was “an actual hero … who was willing to give her life for her country—and ultimately did just that, albeit in a far more tragic way.” (Babbitt had posted online the day before the Capitol attack that “Nothing will stop us,” further adding: “They can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours… dark to light!”)

Lendrum concluded his piece with a declaration that conservatives should “stop trying to qualify their stances on January 6 with an obligatory disavowal,” and instead openly celebrate the actions of that day as “a reaction to a long train of abuses and usurpations perpetrated against the American people by an entrenched elite class that has infected our institutions.”

The only course of action at this point is to be just as firm in our stance as the Left is. If they truly want to address January 6 by making dramatic historical comparisons, then so should we. If their aim is to make January 6 their Reichstag Fire, then we should go forward celebrating the events of that day as our Storming of the Bastille; a day where a symbol of the degeneration of our ruling class into total corruption and tyranny was challenged, and the elites were shown just what happens when millions of freedom-loving citizens finally grow sick and tired of a boot perpetually stomping on their necks.

Another peculiar set of visuals and commentary came Monday night on the far-right One America News.

OAN host Natalie Harp interviewed right-wing author Lee Smith about how the events of January 6 had supposedly been used to defame Trump supporters in general, with Harp calling the date a “plot against the people.” (This phrasing was in contrast to a book that Smith published in 2019, The Plot Against the President, denouncing the Trump-Russia investigations.)

While OAN aired B-roll photos and video of the January 6 attack itself, Smith claimed that the investigations were “effectively the demonization and in some cases the criminalization of opposition” to the Obama and Biden “faction” in American politics. “It’s despicable, but that's what we're up against. We're up against a very, a very ugly faction of the American public sphere."

at [vid] the end of the segment, Harp returned to the subject of the 2020 election itself as a supposed grievance that led to the Capitol attack: “But again, they want to talk January 6 — they don't want to talk November 3. I wish the Republican Party and even the conservative media would’ve spent a week talking about November 3 on the anniversary of that.”

And in an appearance Tuesday morning on Newsmax, far-right commentator Michael Savage praised a new wave of conservative activism, such as contentious appearances at school board meetings, as “mini January 6 rebellions.”

In short, the imagery of that day is no longer something to be shied away from — but to be held up as a banner going forward.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/dozen-times-right-wing-media-said-something-ridiculous-about-climate-change-2021

no lnx mant vids

A dozen times right-wing media said something ridiculous about climate change in 2021

Special PROGRAMS

CLIMATE & ENERGY

WRITTEN BY TED MACDONALD

PUBLISHED 12/23/21

1. The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro doesn’t think that 4 degrees Celsius of warming is an emergency

On the April 14 edition of The Daily Wire’s The Ben Shapiro Show, host Ben Shapiro stated that “I do not consider it a quote-unquote ‘emergency’ if the climate were to warm 4 degrees Celsius over the course of the next century. … It’s just a way for them to create a certain level of alarmism that is unjustifiable by the facts on the ground."

It’s a good thing that Shapiro, whose publication is backed by fracking billionaires, has no authority or credibility within the climate science community: 4 C of warming would be literally catastrophic for large swaths of the globe. As The Guardian reported in 2019, at 4 C of climate change, we’d have sea levels that would be around 2 meters higher than today (which would render many coastal areas obsolete), destruction of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, oceanic dead zones, temperatures in the equatorial belt so high that would make for impossible living conditions for most of the year, and the beginning of a potential mass extinction for many species. This is not the first time that Shapiro has said something ignorant about the climate crisis; he once theorized that people affected by rising sea levels could just sell their inundated homes and move.

2. Fox’s Dagen McDowell thinks that cold temperatures in certain parts of the U.S. entirely disprove global warming

Fox News personalities regularly conflate climate with weather, and they generally do it to dismiss global warming. On the April 21 edition of The Five, co-host Dagen McDowell mockingly suggested that “they stopped calling it global warming” because of abnormally cold U.S. temperatures.

Video file

CitationFrom the April 21, 2021, edition of Fox News' The Five

In reality, our warming climate has not eradicated cold weather, and in some cases, it has even made cold weather more severe and unpredictable. Nor have abnormally cold temperatures caused a dent in the Earth’s alarming warming trend, in which the past decade was the warmest on record.

3. Ex-coal lobbyist Steve Milloy lies about warming temperatures on One America News: “The June 2021 temperature was actually below the 40-year average”

On the August 2 edition of OAN’s The Tipping Point, former coal lobbyist and Fox News contributor Steve Milloy stated: “The June 2021 temperature was actually below the 40-year average. … There’s just so much bad information going on around, and you know, you’ve just got to be careful with climate alarmists.”

Video file

CitationFrom the August 2, 2021, edition of OAN's The Tipping Point

In reality, the U.S. suffered through its hottest June on record, while it was the fifth-warmest June on record globally (followed by the hottest July ever recorded in earth’s history). Milloy is a longstanding figure in the climate denial community, and viewers have really “got to be careful” with his objectively false information.

4. Fox's Laura Ingraham suggests that climate change is really “about controlling the people” and fearmongers that climate action will lead to pandemic-style lockdowns

On both the May 18 and 19 editions of Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham theorized that Democrats will use climate change to control Americans’ lives through pandemic-style lockdowns.

Video file

CitationFrom the May 19, 2021, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle

This is a dangerous conspiracy theory being pushed by prominent climate deniers that has taken hold among far-right media figures. To be clear, the way to fight climate change is not via lockdowns (COVID-19 lockdowns “only marginally reduced greenhouse gas emissions”), but by bringing about systemic change in our energy system and reimagining our economy and the way we live.

5. Newsmax’s Chris Salcedo doesn’t believe in “proof” that CO2 emissions are contributing to climate change

There were multiple times this year when Newsmax host Chris Salcedo went on a perplexing rant claiming there’s somehow no proof that rising CO2 emissions affect temperatures in any meaningful way. On the August 18 edition of The Chris Salcedo Show, Salcedo called global warming a “religion” that “has not been proven through science” before going on to say, “There's no mathematical proof out there that states that X amount of man-made CO2 yields Y amount of temperature change.”

Then on the December 14 edition of his show, Salcedo stated: “From experts I have read and interviewed over the years, I can say that there is no proof that man's C02 emissions are destroying the planet.” Salcedo must be interviewing some pretty fringe climate deniers as “experts,” as there is effectively unanimous scientific consensus that “humans are changing Earth's climate, primarily through greenhouse gas emissions.”

6. Fox’s Tucker Carlson rants that climate change is somehow a conspiracy to shrink your children

While Tucker Carlson is no stranger to promoting weird conspiracy theories about climate change, one of his segments from June went completely overboard. On the June 22 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, the Fox prime-time host accused climate scientists of wanting to use “human engineering” to “make human children smaller than they are now” and thereby reduce their lifetime greenhouse gas emissions: “All we need to do is experiment on human children and we can solve climate change.”

Tucker Human Engineering

Carlson’s claim was based on a speech given by a bioethicist nearly five years ago. As Gizmodo reported, “The ideas are bad, but they’re utterly fringe. Activists are clamoring for transforming society, not individual humans. You’d never know that from watching the segment, though.” But taking a fringe remark out of context and repurposing it to claim that the government will take over our lives seems pretty on-brand for Fox News.

7. Dennis Prager thinks the simple solution to a warming climate is to just use more air conditioning

Conservative commentator Dennis Prager, who leads a nonprofit online “university” that promotes climate denial, among other conservative talking points, offered his own absurd “solution” to climate change during a talk on September 22: “Did you know that there is a solution to a warm climate? It's called air conditioning. It's very effective.”

Prager’s comments follow a concerning new form of climate denial in right-wing media: acknowledging the climate is changing but claiming there’s nothing we can do to prevent it -- we must learn to live with it instead. In Prager’s case, he suggests that well-off people can just adapt to the warming climate by using air conditioning when it gets hot (which would only increase emissions even further), while those without access to air conditioning will suffer.

8. On Fox News’ The Five, Greg Gutfeld claims that the data to prove climate change is “never there”

On the September 2 edition of Fox News’ The Five, co-host Greg Gutfeld criticized those who connect climate change to extreme weather events -- specifically to the destructive Hurricane Ida. He stated that the data is “never there,” and that “the severity” of such storms “has been on the decline.”

LOMBORGIAN?

Video file

CitationFrom the September 2, 2021, edition of Fox News' The Five

For one, science has shown that climate change is affecting hurricanes in a number of ways as storms are dumping more rain, moving slower, and rapidly intensifying -- all hallmarks of Hurricane Ida. Secondly, the data is indeed “there,” as climate models have been correct over the past 50 years. Additionally, Gutfeld talks about “severity” only in terms of decreasing deaths from natural disasters. However, focusing on this statistic obscures the many other reasons that climate change is a serious and deadly threat. As one scientist puts it, “climate change kills, from poor nutrition status and poor health linked to episodes of drought and harvest failures, the spread of infectious diseases, … increasing violent conflict, … and of course the impact of extreme events like tropical cyclones and flash floods.”

9. On Newsmax, Republican commentator Ford O’Connell claims that “climate change is the ultimate Trojan horse for socialism” before stating that the Earth “may or not be warming”

Newsmax had a wild year of promoting climate denial, and right-wing pundit Ford O’Connell’s claim that the Earth “may or may not be warming” on the October 25 edition of American Agenda is just another sad example.

Video file

CitationFrom the October 25, 2021, edition of Newsmax's American Agenda

The context behind this segment is noteworthy -- Newsmax was attacking its much larger rival Fox News for “going woke” and “making a permanent hard-left turn” by suggesting that the newly launched Fox Weather streaming service is taking climate change too seriously. In actuality, Fox Weather is just ignoring the issue altogether, but it’s funny to see Newsmax melt down over the fact that Fox is apparently not right-wing enough.

10. On Fox Business, Patricia Lee Onwuka of the Independent Women’s Forum claims that climate change is a “fallacy”

Discussing President Biden’s response to Hurricane Ida on the September 3 edition of Fox Business' Mornings With Maria, right-wing commentator Patricia Lee Onwuka suggested that climate change is a “fallacy” that Biden is using to advance his agenda; she also said that “the facts dispute” the idea that extreme weather events like hurricanes are connected to climate change.

Video file

CitationFrom the September 3, 2021, edition of Fox Business' Mornings With Maria

As noted above, we already know the ways in which climate change is affecting hurricanes and worsening their impacts on our warming world. Those facts don’t seem to matter to Onwuka or the Independent Women’s Forum, which has received both Koch and tobacco industry money and has a history of climate denial.

11. On OAN, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) says that “we have the cleanest environment anywhere in the world” because of the fossil fuel industry

A lot of stupid things were said by right-wing media regarding this year’s United Nations climate conference, known as COP26. One of the more head-scratching comments came from Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), who was featured on a November edition of OAN’s In Focus With Stephanie Hamill to downplay the seriousness of climate change. He went on to hype up the U.S. fossil fuel industry by stating that “we have the cleanest environment anywhere in the world” because of “clean energy practices” like fracking.

While Cawthorn was alluding to the fact that natural gas obtained by fracking is cleaner than coal (it emits much less CO2 than coal when burned), it’s important to remember that fracking also releases methane, which is about 80 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2. And like coal, there are numerous water and air pollution problems associated with its use. In any case, the side effects of fossil fuel operations involve literally polluting our air and waterways, so in no way are they responsible for making our environment clean and safe. Additionally, despite Cawthorn’s boast that “I’ll put our air [quality] up against anyone’s,” the U.S. is nowhere near the top of global environmental rankings by any metric.

12. Fossil fuel lobbyist Daniel Turner thinks concern about climate change is “so overblown that it is hyperbolic and silly”

On the November 1 edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, Daniel Turner of the fossil fuel shill group Power the Future tried to throw cold water on COP26 by claiming that “climate change panic is so overblown that it is hyperbolic and silly” and suggesting that the U.N. tries to scare people by publishing “nonsense reports.”

Video file

CitationFrom the November 1, 2021, edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom

We’re not sure what’s so “silly” about being concerned with a planet that’s on track for over 2.5 C of warming, which will have devastating consequences for billions of people around the world. Turner, who has spent almost his entire career working for Koch-backed groups, has made similar ludicrous statements in the past, including claiming that climate activists are somehow thrilled with the COVID-19 pandemic because it’s supposedly accomplishing their goals of implementing a Green New Deal.

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an 12 21

Midterms are coming. In case that phrase doesn't already inspire enough dread, it looks like this particular round will be defined by an escalation of the already gross "woke wars" going on in the Democratic ranks.

A chorus of increasingly loud voices in the Democratic Party aren't focused on the threat of gerrymandering, voter suppression, or that whole thing where Republicans plan to simply void elections when they don't like the results. Dealing with that problem is hard and requires serious actions like ending the Senate filibuster. So instead, the ire is being turned on a soft and easy target to blame: the small number of people in the Democratic caucus who use politically correct terms like "Latinx" and "pregnant people."

In a recent piece for the Atlantic, Ronald Brownstein writes about centrist critics who argue that "Democrats have steered off track on cultural issues because the party is unduly influenced by the preferences of well-educated white liberals." (Its an argument that ignores that Black Lives Matter, the movement that most angers the cultural right, is spearheaded not by white liberals, but Black activists.) In a similar piece in the New York Times, Thomas Edsall notes the evidence that "working-class defections from the Democratic Party are driven more by cultural, racial and gender issues than by economics," and that many political strategists believe "Democrats should stand down on some of the more divisive cultural issues."

A particularly humorous example of the genre arrived this week from writer Zaid Jilani's newsletter, in which he chastised the AFL-CIO for sending out a tweet celebrating International Pronouns Day. "Most Americans are probably wondering what in the world International Pronoun Day has to do with wages, benefits, or conditions," he griped.

Most Americans?

The tweet in question, as of this writing, has 32 retweets on it and 35 likes. And that really underscores the major flaw of this argument: It presumes that right-wing anger at the left is an authentic and unmediated direct reaction to anything real-life Democrats are saying and doing in the world. And the evidence for that presumption is weak indeed.

None of this is to deny that the majority of white Americans, especially non-college-educated white Americans, are in a constant fit of outrage over "wokeness." I, too, have Facebook and two working eyeballs and can see that is true. But they're mostly not reacting to anything the Democrats are actually doing. No, mostly what gets white America going is bullshit, and lots and lots of it, being heaped out at an astounding rate from a well-funded GOP propaganda machine whose reach dramatically eclipses even the fondest dreams of any Democratic communications specialist. And that bullshit-generating engine doesn't need progressives to say a single, solitary word to keep their bullshit generation systems going. All progressives could shut up forever, and the right-wing noise machine wouldn't skip a beat.

Look, for instance, at what the two biggest news stories the shameless hucksters at Fox News are hyping right now: The Jussie Smollett guilty verdict and the arson of the Fox News Christmas tree. I would absolutely bet my life savings that both stories have a lot more Americans talking than the AFL-CIO's opinion on pronouns. And both are being hung by the propagandists around the necks of Democrats, even though Democrats have literally nothing to do with either crime.

Fox News is running with a bunch of "gotcha" attacks on prominent Democrats, such as Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who initially supported Smollett in the days after he claimed, falsely, to be the victim of a hate crime. The bad faith of this is extreme, of course. Those folks are more properly understood as Smollett's victims because he took advantage of their generosity in order to perpetuate this hoax. But it doesn't matter to the liars of Fox News, because this one random man's bad actions are useful for perpetuating a hoax of their own: The claim that racism isn't real, and that it's just something Democrats make up to score political points.

The umbrage over Smollett's fake hate crime is particularly hypocritical, as Fox News is currently in the process of also falsifying a hate crime against themselves. The Christmas tree burning did happen, to be clear. But it is not a "hate crime," as multiple pundits at the network falsely claimed. (Which is a designation they refused to acknowledge for the Charleston church shooting.) And it certainly isn't comparable to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, as one Fox News yapper dramatically declared. It appears it was committed by a mentally ill homeless man who blamed the arson on "mothers who rape their daughters." But that didn't slow down the faux outrage or efforts to pin the blame on Democrats.

No doubt the right-wing propaganda machine went out of their way to make progressive Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota national figures, but it's naive to think that it's really due to anything either of those women say or do. It's because both are good-looking young women of color, and because Omar wears a head covering. Just the look of them sets off all sorts of ugly instincts in some white men, instincts that are tied up with, let's face it, a gross mix of racism and sexual desire that produces some really nasty emotional reactions. That stuff is way more powerful than words can ever be, and the GOP propaganda machine shamelessly exploits that.

The bleeding of white working-class voters from the Democratic Party has been going on for a long time — indeed, the decline started before Ocasio-Cortez and Omar were literally born — and unsurprisingly, the loss of those voters correlates strongly with the rise of right-wing media empires.

Which isn't to say that the audiences for the AM talkers and Fox News, much less the people who breathlessly share every bit of fake news generated by Russian bots they find on Facebook, are merely empty ciphers for this crap. There are very real changes going on in the United States. People of color are an ever-larger share of the population. Kids really are moving away from small towns and suburbs for college and never coming home. There's nothing that Democrats can or should do about that.

But the real problem here is a huge, well-funded machine on hand to tell aging white voters in rural and suburban areas that their resentment of these changes is justified, they are the real victims here, and they are right to be hiding in their homes, too afraid of the larger world to bother to get to know it.

Democrats can try to run away from the culture war all they like, but it won't work. It won't stop the two changes driving all of this white resentment. More importantly, it certainly won't stop the relentless churn of lies generated by Republican propagandists feeding people's worst instincts. Unfortunately, the only real way to deal with this culture war is to win it. Only by making a forceful case for progressive values and taking right-wing nonsense head-on is there any hope of defanging it.

We saw this most recently in Virginia, where a GOP hoax about "critical race theory" took over the gubernatorial race, helping GOP candidate Glenn Youngkin defeat McAuliffe. "Critical race theory," at least how Republicans use it, is just a nonsense scare term. But with only a little digging, it was easy to discover that the right-wing agenda underneath all the hype — removing all negative portrayals of slavery and Jim Crow from public schools — is utterly indefensible. Sure enough, once liberals in the state finally started to push back against the book burning posse, the right lost the argument and the left won. But by then, it was too late to save McAuliffe's campaign.

Looking further back, we saw the same thing with the debate over same-sex marriage. Republicans leveraged lies about "threats to traditional marriage" for years as a wedge issue against Democrats. But when Democrats stopped running from the issue and instead decided to fight back — and win — they defanged it completely. Now most Americans support same-sex marriage and Republicans basically gave up talking about it.

Bashing progressives and telling them to shut up is always a temptation, not because it works, but because it feels easy. It's certainly easier to tell progressives to shut up than, say, pass the Build Back Better plan so Democrats have something to run on, other than a bipartisan roads-and-bridges bill that Republicans can also take credit for. And it's a whole lot easier to tell progressives to shut up than it is to build up the kind of media empire that could compete effectively with right-wing propaganda.

But just because it's easy doesn't mean it's effective. Time spent on pursuing easy-but-useless strategies instead of rolling up sleeves and starting in on the harder-but-more-effective solutions is just time wasted.

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kellyanne says no sortage under trump but toilet paper?  pix of shelve vs reams of data/facts?

11 21 an no lnx

Economist Paul Krugman: The US economy is on the right track — yet many Americans feel 'pessimistic'

Alex Henderson November 10, 2021

On Friday, November 5, the U.S. Department of Labor released its latest economic figures — reporting that unemployment in the United States fell to 4.6% in October and that wages had increased by 4.9% from what they were a year ago. Liberal economist Paul Krugman, who has often praised President Joe Biden's economic policies and his Build Back Better agenda, is bullish and optimistic about the state of the U.S. economy in his November 9 column for the New York Times. But Krugman also points out that many Americans are feeling "pessimistic" about the economy and addresses the reasons for their concerns.

"By the usual measures," Krugman observes, "the U.S. economy has been booming this year. Employment has risen by more than five million since January. A record number of Americans say this is a good time to find a quality job — a sentiment reflected in the willingness of an unprecedented number of workers to quit. Yes, high quit rates are a good sign. Yet Americans are, or say they are, pessimistic about the economic situation."

Krugman goes on to say that while Americans' economic concerns, including "inflation," are certainly valid, it is important to look at the big picture.

The economist/Times columnist explains, "How can people be feeling so bad about a seemingly good economy? One answer is that Americans are upset about inflation and disrupted supply chains. And that's surely true. But I'd suggest that it's only part of the story — that to an important extent, when you ask people about the state of the economy, their replies don't necessarily reflect their actual experience. Instead, they respond based on what they imagine is happening to other people — a perception that can be shaped by news reports and their own political leanings."

Krugman adds that although "inflation is indeed high by recent standards and supply-chain issues are real," right-wing media outlets have been exaggerating those problems.

"Some news organizations have been doing all they can to convey the impression of a troubled economy, whatever the reality," Krugman notes. "As I suggested, while supply-chain issues are real, their impact is often overstated; empty shelves are actually fairly rare. That, presumably, is why Fox News and Newsmax have been running segments about the Biden economy featuring photos of empty shelves that were taken last year or in other countries."

Economically, the COVID-19 pandemic and the recession it triggered have been brutal for millions of Americans, especially those who need to be physically present in brick-and-mortar businesses and don't have the option of being able to work from home. And all the MAGA Republicans who engaged in coronavirus denial, discouraged social distancing measures and the use of protective face masks, and promoted anti-vaxxer lies only made matters worse....

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an 10 21

It happened three times yesterday, and I only watched or half-watched a few hours of TV news. It happens every day, it seems. Somebody wonders out loud (yesterday's most prominent was Alex Witt with Dr. Anthony Fauci) why over 60 million Americans who are eligible to be vaccinated are still refusing — including hospital workers in some parts of the country.

Everybody treats it like it's a confounding question with no easy answer. The actual answer, though, is pretty straightforward: the psychopaths running the rightwing media ecosystem dominated by Fox "News" and social media, and echoed by 1500 radio stations across the country, have decided people dying and being disabled is both profitable and politically advantageous to them.

When Joe Biden was elected president the Republican Party and their joined-at-the-hip rightwing media did a sudden about-face from praising Trump's "Operation Warp Speed" to encouraging their followers to remain unvaccinated so President Biden would struggle to get the economy back on sound footing.

That, they figured, was their best bet to take back Congress in 2022 and the White House in 2024, and they've stayed on-message ever since Biden took office on January 20th. As I noted in considerable detail back in July, death is their political strategy.

And now, as if to put a punctuation point on it, the headline at Raw Story warns: Fox News host uses Colin Powell's death to launch anti-vax rant: "Fully-vaccinated are dying of Covid."

Almost 750,000 Americans have died of Covid and recent research published by the Journal of the American Medical Association concludes that at as many as half of the 45 million Americans who've been diagnosed with the disease will suffer long term consequences, the main ones being dementia, exhaustion and damage to the heart and kidneys.

It used to be in American business that you knew where the psychopaths were: tobacco. It's an industry producing a product that, when used as directed, kills around a half-million Americans every year.

Being able to comfortably fall asleep every night knowing that the product of your workday had killed another 1,300 people is a rare competence that typically requires the mental illness of psychopathy.

About 1% of Americans are psychopaths, although such people tend to be concentrated in some areas: as many as 12% of major corporate CEOs are believed to be psychopaths, and about 15% of people in prison.

A psychopath, for all practical purposes, believes that he's quite literally the only "true human being" on planet Earth.

Everybody else is an actor of some sort, a prop, in the grand play of the psychopath's life. Everybody else is here to make him happy and meet his needs, and he doesn't have to worry about hurting them or not meeting their needs because they are not "real people" like he is.

The clinical terminology is that psychopaths "lack the ability to feel empathy." Weirdly, this lack of empathy can make them more successful in big business and politics, as well as in criminal and prison environments.

Thus, the CEO of Fox "News" — the network that daily spreads vaccine misinformation leading to deaths that are tearing apart American families — tells the Hollywood Reporter that she sleeps "well at night." Just like the tobacco CEOs.

Meanwhile, people who watch Fox and all its imitators across various media are taking the implicit advice of Fox's primetime hosts and avoiding vaccination…and getting sick and in some cases dying.

They're embracing quack cures promoted on the network and across rightwing media, including hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin, giving their viewers the false sense of security that if they get sick with this awful disease there's a ready cure at hand…so there's no need to get vaccinated.

Even worse, consumers of this media are doing their best to disrupt rational public health efforts like mask and vaccine mandates by harassing public health officials, school boards, and elected representatives across the country — all leading to even more disease and deaths.

When Americans realized, mostly as the result of massive lawsuits in the 1990s, that the CEOs of the tobacco industry were knowingly killing people (and even reaching out to addict children) we took action.

We limited access to this death-dealing product, from outlawing television advertising to limiting placement of cigarette vending machines and strict enforcement of age-limited retail sales. We also required that the product be honestly labeled: "Tobacco kills."

This isn't an option for media, and rightly so because of our First Amendment protections of the press (including this article). And nobody wants to take those freedoms and protections away.

But the most important and effective campaign our nation embarked on to cut tobacco use was the nationwide campaign to educate people about the dangers of tobacco use. We taught adults and schoolchildren alike how the industry was trying to addict them and showed them the consequences of using that deadly product.

Now that rightwing media has arguably caused more Americans to die in the past year than has tobacco, it's time to consider a similar strategy to balance the lies and misinformation streaming out of them every day.

If we can't rely on the news and social media industries' content producers or executives to stop spreading death-dealing misinformation, we can at least wake people up to the dangers of their products.

#RightwingMediaCausesDeath

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an 1021

Intelligence expert Malcolm Nance spoke to MSNBC about the ways in which the Russian government are able to wage a war against a country without even firing a shot.

Host Maria Teresa Kumar noted that President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans seem to have taken up the playbook of Russia and created their own propaganda machine. As a Russia propaganda expert, Nance agreed, saying that the plot Russia concocted in the early 2000s, the Gerasimov Doctrine, handed Trump and his team the plan.

Nance explained that it was a tactic Russians used where they combined an information warfare strategy where they flood a country with so much misinformation that a country would welcome an invasion without a war.

"That didn't really happen" in the United States, Nance explained. "What the Russians did in the year 2016 is they created an information bubble in which the Trump campaign was seen as friendly and then, the Trump data team took that information, including stolen information from the Democratic National Committee, and created their own information sphere. Once the Russian bubble was popped after the 2016 election, the Trump team took the ball and ran with it. The Russians barely have to do anything."

Nance explained that the Trump team and their control over conservative television stations like Fox News and OAN enabled them to indoctrinate their own followers into believing some of the most insane things ever crafted, "to the point where they view it."

He talked about a kind of radicalization that gives Trump's supporters the confidence their actions are not only patriotic but that "violence is the only solution and they're carrying out a second Lexington, a second Concord, as your other guests said, 1776 2.0."

"They think they're restoring the United States, despite the fact they are physically attacking the United States, and believe me, the way that ammunition prices went up within the last year on the public market, I think these people really believe they're going to affect the revolution at some point," said Nance.

Earlier in the conversation, Nance addressed Virginia Republican Glenn Youngkin holding up the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as a "peaceful protest" and treating items used in the attack as their own kind of religious relic or a "talisman" as Nance characterized. "As if it's going to give them some connection deeper to Donald Trump."

"It all flies in the face of their own storyline, their story arc in which it was Antifa and Black Lives Matter that carried out the attack," said Nance. "Now, on some signs, we see them actually not only recognizing that they've carried out this event but, as I said in the video, a peaceful protest at the Capitol and now carrying an American flag, which took part in that. It's absolutely disgraceful that any of this is happening. But what you're seeing, it is a strategy by the Republicans and Trump play out where they're now embracing the popularism of that violence."

See his full take in the video below:

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https://www.mediamatters.org/voter-fraud-and-suppression/donald-trump-fringe-right-wing-media-tour-pushing-election-fraud

no lnx vid pix

Donald Trump is on a fringe right-wing media tour pushing election fraud conspiracy theories

The former president is latching onto any newsworthy topic to push his voter fraud lies from the 2020 election

WRITTEN BY JUSTIN HOROWITZ

PUBLISHED 09/29/21

Over the past few weeks, former President Donald Trump has appeared on a number of fringe right-wing media outlets to push election conspiracy theories and other misinformation, using news events to advance his election lies while attacking President Joe Biden and laying the groundwork for another presidential campaign.

Trump has pushed election lies for almost a year now. As he starts to set the stage for a possible 2024 run, the former president is latching onto current events and the Republican-led audits to spread his conspiracy theories and evolve his self-serving narratives.

In some of his appearances, Trump suggests that the QAnon-linked Arizona “audit” should lead to decertification of the 2020 election. In reality, the results of the audit’s draft report indicate that Biden actually received more votes than Trump in Maricopa County than were previously counted, and no fraud occurred.

As recently pointed out by CNN’s Brian Stelter, decertifying an election is not an actual route to reinstating a president. Stelter explained that while Trump “might not believe” his own lies, “his fans do,” suggesting this is a tactic for right-wing media to continue living in their political “fantasy … about the 2020 election, even though it’s almost 2022.”

The former president has also attacked Biden for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan during these media hits while connecting it to his election fraud conspiracy theories. Trump regularly claims that if the election was not “rigged” or “stolen,” the outcome in Afghanistan would be different (although Trump himself negotiated an earlier withdrawal deal with the Taliban in 2020).

Trump’s attempt to tie his election fraud lies to any newsworthy story is embarrassing, but this relentless effort to spread misinformation and conservative grievances seems to be the entire point of his current right-wing media tour.

On September 27, the former president was interviewed by Real America’s Voice host and Trump adviser Gina Loudon.

Trump claimed that “the elections in our country are not fair and free” and there’s been “tremendous voter fraud.” He pointed to the Arizona “audit” as proof of voter fraud and suggested the results were “fantastic” and should lead to decertification of the state’s electors.

Video file

CitationFrom the September 27, 2021, edition of Real America's Voice's Dr. Gina Primetime

On September 24, Trump called in to an interview with evangelical media figure and conspiracy theorist David Brody.

During the interview, Trump pushed the same evidence-free election fraud lies that he pushed during his past interviews. He described the election as “so corrupt” and asserted that “possibly many states cheated” and “a lot of bad things happened [in] the so-called swing states.”

Video file

CitationFrom the September 24, 2021, edition of Real America's Voice's The Water Cooler

During a September 23 interview with Real America’s Voice anchor and avowed social media ban-evader John Fredericks, Trump pushed more of the same conspiracy theories -- beginning with the lie that he “did not lose” in 2020.

Trump claimed the only way Democrats can win is by “rigging elections” and suggested that the election is “crooked.” He continued, suggesting that simply looking at the lines on election day showed that it was “rigged.”

Video file

CitationFrom the September 23, 2021, edition of Real America's Voice's America's Voice AM

During a September 21 interview with Steve Gruber of Real America’s Voice, Trump pushed similar election conspiracy theories and lies. Trump asserted that he “won the election by a lot” and suggested that the Democrats “rigged” and “stole the election.”

Trump also attacked mail-in ballots, claiming that they “lead to fraud.” (They don’t.)

Video file

CitationFrom the September 24, 2021, edition of Real America's Voice's Real AM Voice

During a September 14 interview on Newsmax with his former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, Trump complained that the election was “absolutely rigged.”

Video file

CitationFrom the September 14, 2021, edition of Newsmax's Spicer & Co.

On September 10, Trump spoke with brothers Jim and Joe Hoft of The Gateway Pundit; a conspiratorial pro-Trump blog that consistently publishes misinformation.

During the interview, Joe Hoft claimed the 2020 election “was stolen on many counts.” The former president responded, “Absolutely,” and later asserted that Democrats “used COVID and they used mail-in ballots to rig the election. We won the election by a lot and they rigged it.” Trump went on to claim that he believes “they're going to decertify this election.”

When asked by Hoft what happens if “various states become decertified,” Trump responded by claiming that if you “rob” a jewelry store of its diamonds “and you get caught, you’re supposed to return them” -- suggesting to his right-wing audience that if states become “decertified,” he will be reinstated as president. “We caught them cheating -- you’re going to let somebody that cheated stay for three more years? I can’t imagine it.”

Video file

CitationFrom the September 10, 2021, edition of The Gateway Pundit

In another interview with Fredericks on his September 1 radio show, Trump said it was “a terrible, rigged, horrible election and it's a disgrace.” He continued, saying that if the election was not “rigged,” gas and food prices would be lower.

Video file

CitationFrom the September 1, 2021, edition of John Fredericks Radio Station Unplugged

During an August 31 interview with conservative commentators Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, Trump complained to the hosts that it was “a rigged election.”

Clay Travis & Buck Sexton interview Donald Trump

AUGUST 31, 2021

CitationFrom the August 31, 2021, edition of The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show

When Trump was interviewed by radio host and conspiracy theorist Todd Starnes on August 30, it was more of the same. Trump said “we had a rigged election” and claimed Democrats “used COVID in order to cheat.”

Video file

CitationFrom the August 30, 2021, edition of The Todd Starnes Show

Also on August 30, Trump sat down with the far-right conspiracy theory broadcaster One America News. In an interview with Real America host Dan Ball, Trump said, “??I think the whole country is running incompetently -- except for stealing elections.” Ball responded that this is “intentional.”

Trump also repeatedly and falsely claimed that “a rigged election” got Biden into the presidency and that Democrats “cheat at elections.”

Video file

CitationFrom the August 30, 2021, edition of One America News' Real America with Dan Ball

Trump's embarrassing efforts on this tour fell on the ears of a very receptive audience, who at best didn't engage and certainly never pushed back.

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/robert-kagan-2655176730/

[big lie] ignore elections]

...When Stelter asked Snyder what "role" right-wing media play in this "scenario," the historian responded, "Right-wing media, with a few honorable exceptions, is one giant safe space for the Big Lie. What's happened is that rather than facts coming up from below to shape stories, we now have one enormous fiction — which is that Mr. Trump won this election. And that one enormous fiction, rather than casting light on things, just casts a huge shadow. Anything that doesn't fit that fiction can't be talked about. Anything which seems like it might somehow support that fiction gets all the airtime."

Snyder's appearance on "Reliable Sources" came only three days after the Washington Post published a sobering essay/op-ed by Never Trump conservative Robert Kagan, who warned that "the United States is heading into its greatest political and constitutional crisis since the Civil War." Stelter mentioned Kagan's article to Snyder, who didn't find Kagan's dire warning to be the least bit alarmist. In fact, Stelter and Snyder seemed to agree that Kagan's warning is spot on.

Stelter asked Snyder if the mainstream media need to be spending more time talking about "worst-case scenarios" in the 2022 midterms and 2024 presidential election, and the historian responded, "Those aren't worst-case scenarios. That's the mainstream…. When you have a two-party system and one of the parties is lining up against democracy, we're not talking about a worst-case scenario — we're talking about a situation where democracy is not something that can be taken for granted as a background to all the other news. Democracy itself is the foreground, and the struggle as to whether this country as to whether this country will be democratic in the future…. is the main story…. The story is whether we have a democracy or not."

Echoing the warnings in Kagan's article, Snyder added that the GOP has a game plan for stealing the 2024 election.

Snyder told Stelter, "The game is we cast doubt on 2020, we pass voter suppression laws…. If we get ahold of the House and the Senate in 2022, we plan not to certify a Democrat if he wins in 2024. We pass memory laws and voter suppression laws at the state level which give the states themselves the right to allocate electors…. We do all of that to aim for an outcome in 2024 in which the guy who loses is nevertheless the winner…. That is not a worst-case scenario. That is happening before our eyes right now."

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gOP governor sounds off about vaccine hesitancy -- slamming his own political party

Meaghan Ellis

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) blasted right-wing media outlets for "propaganda" he believes has influenced the widespread vaccine hesitancy contributing to the current uptick in COV...

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tucker one man escalator?

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) is demanding the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Dept. of Justice tell Congress what they know about their own alleged "participation" in Donald Trump's January 6 insurrection, which led to at least seven deaths. Gohmert falsely claims the attack on the U.S. Capitol – which in reality was an attempted coup designed to overturn a free and fair election – was instead a "monumental entrapment scheme used as a pretext to imprison otherwise harmless protestors" and used to “frame the entire MAGA movement as potential domestic terrorists."

News organization The Recount calls Gohmert's assertions "a bullshit baseless conspiracy theory."

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) spews a bullshit baseless conspiracy theory blaming the FBI for organizing the January 6th insurrection to “frame the entire MAGA movement as potential domestic terrorists." pic.twitter.com/LZI5bQfx65

— The Recount (@therecount) June 17, 2021

The Texas Republican congressman, explained on Thursday on the floor of the House that his "friend," Fox News white supremacist host Tucker Carlson "covered this last night," called the conspiracy theory "really disturbing... because we don't like to see government agents stirring up trouble or find that there are criminal acts that would not likely have occurred had not the federal government been participating."

Having no evidence that January 6 was an "inside job," which is what Gohmert is asserting, he goes on to make up possible scenarios, again, without any basis in fact.

"Whether they were actual agents, or an undercover agents, or informants that were working for the federal government. But this is scary stuff this is, This is kind of third world stuff, this is not only third world stuff but this is like Putin-like kind of activity. So, if there were federal agents that were involved on January 6, we really need to know what the FBI knew and when they knew it, and not only that, we need to know how much participation did any of our federal friends either at DOJ, FBI, or any of the Intel Community, what kind of role were they playing?"

Gohmert, on the House floor, suggests federal agents were involved in Jan. 6: "We don't like to see govt agents stirring up trouble... This is not only third-world stuff, this is like Putin kind of activity." pic.twitter.com/Tku3tDIjbI

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) June 17, 2021

It's almost like he is demanding Speaker Pelosi form a Special Committee to investigate the January 6 insurrection.

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fox lies about tex voter bill mma621

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https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/right-wing-media-ecosystem-has-dominated-national-immigration-narrative

Since the election of President Joe Biden in November, a right-wing media ecosystem of both Fox News and right-leaning Facebook pages has dominated the national conversation on immigration. CNN, MSNBC, and left-leaning pages eventually followed in the steps of these conservative actors, most notably when attention turned to the increase in migration at the southern border in late February and early March.

According to Media Matters’ internal database, although Fox has steadily misinformed about immigration since the 2020 election, the network’s immigration programming began to significantly spike near Biden’s inauguration, relentlessly increasing through March. Fox fearmongering on immigration issues has been consistently xenophobic, biased, and inaccurate, culminating in the recent whole-hearted and unapologetic embrace of the white supremacist “replacement” conspiracy theory.

CNN and MSNBC largely ignored immigration topics throughout the transition and well into the Biden administration. Rather, these two networks dedicated significant coverage to the increase in migration at the southern border only after Fox began focusing on Biden’s “crisis,” a characterization of the increase in migration CNN and MSNBC seemingly adopted. While mentions of a “crisis” at the border began to pick up on Fox throughout February, the network went all in on the term during the week of February 28. CNN and MSNBC, which largely hadn’t been using the “crisis” framing in their conversations about the border, began to do so more heavily the week after Fox News’ oversaturated coverage.

Immigration segments on weekday cable news

Mentions of

Right-leaning Facebook pages similarly dominated the online conversation about immigration with the end of the Trump administration in late 2020 through the beginning of the Biden administration in 2021. This prevalence was also notable in pages dedicated to talk about the “crisis” of the migration increase at the border, and the conversation spiked in interactions and overall quantity at roughly the same time as the cable networks pushed this narrative in late February. Right-leaning pages’ posts about immigration and the “crisis” at the border often pushed racist tropes and stereotypes and were rife with misinformation....

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jenna attacked for saying trump can't be re-install in aug b/c you know lAW/REALITY?

621  MAGA heads go berserk over 'incompetent failure' Jenna Ellis after ... ›

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/trump-reinstated/

NO LNX TWT

On June 1, the New York Times' Maggie Haberman reported, on Twitter, that former President Donald Trump still believes that the 2020 election results will be overturned and that he will be "reinstated" to the White House by August. Haberman discussed her reporting during a June 2 appearance on CNN's "New Day," stressing to hosts John Berman and Brianna Keilar that Trump is "echoing" the false claims he is hearing from attorney Sidney Powell and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

"There is no mechanism by which this can happen," Haberman said of Trump's delusional claim that he will be returning to the Oval Office by August. But Trump's delusions, Haberman added, are being encouraged by Powell and Lindell — and he is "regurgitating" their bogus claims.

Trump has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August (no… https://t.co/0gUGozPQQR

— Maggie Haberman (@Maggie Haberman) 1622551318.0

Haberman told Berman and Keilar, "What he's doing is echoing things that are being said by Sidney Powell, who was his lawyer — although he distanced himself from her at certain points over the final months of the administration. But she was helping advise him on these efforts to overturn the election last year. This is being said my Michael Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow — who has been pushing this for some time. (Trump) is echoing what they're saying. The difference between them saying it and Donald Trump saying it is that one is the former president — one is a possible future (Republican) Party nominee…. There are people telling him things are possible that are not possible."

Powell and Lindell have been relentless far-right promoters of the Big Lie, falsely claiming that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump — who, Haberman said, has been "so laser-focused" on the recent election "audits" taking place in Arizona and other states because he "thinks they are going to overturn" the 2020 election results.

JUST NOW: "“There is a dangerous component about this conversation that's going on.” @maggieNYT on her reporting t… https://t.co/u3fuzgsHhr

— John Berman (@John Berman) 1622632941.0

Trump, Haberman warned, is trying to use the "conservative media ecosystem" to promote his fantasies of being "reinstated" to the White House this summer.

"People are in their own media ecosystems," Haberman observed.

Berman pointed out that some Trump opponents are upset with Haberman for tweeting about the former president's delusions, and the Times reporter responded that "ignoring" Trump will not make him go away in 2021 any more than it did in 2015 and 2016.

Haberman told Berman and Keilar that Trump "is in control of the Republican Party, to a big extent…. Ignoring him was not the answer in 2015."

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iou read

right-wing media is fracturing — and Fox News could lose its grip on the religious right

The Conversation

by Ryan Burge, Eastern Illinois University

Fox News possesses an “outsized influence" on the American public, especially among religious viewers....

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an 221

2021 Conservative Political Action Conference, underway on Thursday, is being covered by Right Side Broadcasting — a conservative media outlet founded in 2015. During a panel discussion that Right Side was covering, speakers promoted the debunked claim that former President Donald Trump really won the 2020 election — inspiring Right Side to cut away with an emphatic disclaimer.

Obviously hoping to shield Right Side from legal liability, a host jumped in and told viewers, "There's a lot of sensitive topics being talked about right now. We want everyone to do their own research in regards to what they're talking about in this discussion right now —anything with the election, anything like that. It's important to do your own research."

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aha alt fact/ Big Lie  = fascism = rw media [soc med bubble?]= lie win any cost

an 221

js ed bd

This afternoon will see the first leg of Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the United States Senate. The whole journey will last about a week or so. (Roll Call has an excellent item explaining the ins and outs of the proceedings.) The House Democrats will try to prove the former president's guilt in leading an attempt to overthrow the republic. The Senate Republicans will pretend they can't sit in judgment, because sitting in judgement of a former president, they have said, is unconstitutional.

Let me put this as plainly as I can. The very fact that Donald Trump's impeachment trial is happening at all, and that it will be happening over the next seven to 10 days, means it's constitutional. Full stop. The United States Congress is the first branch of the United States government. (Its constitution, after all, is Article I of the United States Constitution.) There is no higher authority. No, the United States Supreme Court is not a higher authority, not when it comes to impeachments and trials.

The very fact that Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate is happening, and that it will be happening over the next seven to 10 days, means it's constitutional. Full stop.

Quite literally, the Senate Republicans are saying it's unconstitutional to prosecute a former (Republican) president, because they want it to be unconstitutional to prosecute a former (Republican) president. But the fact that a former (Republican) president is being prosecuted—starting today—invalidates the premise of their constitutional argument. Indeed, it wasn't an argument. The truth is in plain sight. When it came to a Democratic president who lied to a grand jury, the authority of the Congress would not be denied! When it comes to a (former) Republican president involved in the attempted murder of his enemies, that authority is a bit much, don't you think?

Gerald Ford, when he was the House minority leader during the Watergate era, famously said "high crimes and misdemeanors" are "whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers them to be at a moment in history." Same thing for the question of whether it's constitutional to prosecute a former president. If a majority of the United States Senate (or rather a two-thirds supermajority of the Senate in the case of conviction) says it's constitutional, it's constitutional ipso facto. So, again, with feeling: Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate begins today. That it's happening at all, and that it could lead to conviction, means it's constitutional.

With there being zero chance of the United States Supreme Court getting involved in a dispute between the branches of the United States Congress, the question is settled. It's over. Indeed, there never was a question. (The truth has been in plain sight.) Because there never was a question, we should ask ourselves: why are the Republicans pretending there's a question when there's no question? Once you start asking yourself that question, the trial's outcome, which is not in doubt, starts to be less important than the reason the Senate Republicans are asking the question in the first place.

The reason the Senate Republicans are questioning a certainty (i.e., Jesus God, yes, it's constitutional to prosecute a former president, will you please knock it off already?) is the same reason all Republicans are so often certain about things that might actually be in question. The truth is always a threat. Deference to truth is always tyranny. What's important is authority. Their authority. Their authority over you and everyone you love. And once you start seeing the deep authoritarianism of most of the Republicans in the Congress, once you start seeing the deep authoritarianism of millions of your fellow Americans, you also start seeing lying isn't something they do merely to get what they want. Lying is something they do, because lying is the point.

Remember that Rand Paul and other Senate Republicans have something you don't. They have a global right-wing media apparatus to not only amplify their lies, but bend perception away from political reality and toward a favorable fictional one. To lie at this grand a scale is to create a world in which morality is perverted, politics is barbarous, and whole populations can be pushed around and told what to believe, and not only that: they want to believe, because the lies have become so totalizing that everything being upside down, backwards and prolapsed seems normal, rational and worthy of defended in the name of muh freedom. When everyone says the sky is green when the truth is in plain sight, everyone is not merely trying to deceive you. Everyone is maintaining a perversion in which speaking truthfully could inspire your murder.

The House Democratic impeachment managers are going to push through the Republicans' lies in order to reveal the whole truth to the American people about their former president, which is this: Donald Trump committed a heinous presidential crime worthy, at the very least, of being disqualified for life from holding public office. This is as it should be, but let's not forget what the lies themselves reveal.

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meme remix recycling?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/qanon-2650129695/

no travis view twt

Trump's QAnon fans are not giving up hope that he will be reinstalled in the White House this year, with a new theory that has them planning on celebrating his inauguration on March 4th.

According to a report from Vice, the latest theory being passed around by right-wing extremists is based upon writings from members of the fringe "sovereign citizen" movement and a unique interpretation of American history.

As the Vice report notes, "Sovereign citizens believe that a law enacted in 1871 secretly turned the U.S. into a corporation and did away with the American government of the founding fathers. The group also believes that President Franklin D. Roosevelt sold U.S. citizens out in 1933 when he ended the gold standard and replaced it by offering citizens as collateral to a group of shadowy foreign investors."

With that in mind, QAnon supporters are making common cause with the sovereign citizens -- a new development -- and focusing on the 1871 conspiracy theory to reassert their claim that Donald Trump is still president.

"Over the weekend, QAnon groups on Gab and Telegram, where most QAnon supporters have found a home since they were kicked off Twitter and Parler was de-platformed, commenters have been sharing documents describing the 1871 act, claiming it proves that Trump will be sworn in on March 4," the report states. "The source for this date is the fact that 1933 was also the year when inaugurations were changed from March 4 to Jan. 20 — to shorten the lame-duck period of outgoing presidents. QAnon followers believe that Trump will become the president of the original republic, and not the corporation that they believe the 1871 act created."

The belief that Trump might bolster the hopes of the QAnon followers who have been despondent that President Joe Biden wasn't arrested on January 20th.

A deeper explanation of this latest theory -- and its genesis -- can be found below:...

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https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-qanon-general-tracing-the-rise-fall-and-rebirth-of-michael-flynn/

no lnx vid twt

The QAnon General: Tracing the Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Michael Flynn

By Karim Zidan | December 18, 2020

RETIRED ARMY GEN. Michael Flynn was speaking to a crowd of unmasked Trump loyalists on the steps of the Supreme Court when Marine One flew overhead, soliciting cheers from the delighted audience. Flynn—a special guest speaker at the Dec. 12 rally—stopped mid-sentence and stood in awe of the helicopter while the crowd attempted to sing the national anthem.

“That’s pretty cool,” said Flynn, who served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser for 22 days before resigning and eventually pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador. “Imagine just being able to jump in a helicopter and just go for a joy ride around Washington.”

The retired Army lieutenant general continued where he left off, echoing unfounded allegations that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden because of widespread voter fraud. He called for “fair, transparent counts,” demanded that Americans get the “truth,” and called out the “media” for its supposed censorship of that truth.

“We’re waging a battle,” Flynn told the raucous crowd.

Flynn’s remarks came a day after the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit from Texas that sought to overturn Biden’s wins in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. Despite the judicial decision, Flynn encouraged the crowd to have faith in their president and to seek out “avenues” to challenge the results of the election, insisting that the “courts aren’t going to decide who the next president of the United States is going to be. We the people decide.”

“In this crucible moment of our time, we have to pray that truth triumphs over lies, justice triumphs over abuse and fraud, honesty triumphs over corruption,” Flynn said. “Our sacred honor triumphs over infamy.”

After concluding his speech, the disgraced general, who has since been pardoned by Trump, stopped to enjoy his growing fandom among Trump loyalists. He smiled as the crowd chanted “Fight like Flynn” and was even chased by ravenous fans who screamed “We love you, general!” before being stopped by his bodyguards.

Despite Flynn’s unceremonious exit from Trump’s administration in 2017, the retired general remained popular with fringe corners of Trump’s loyal fanbase, including adherents of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory. For years, Flynn has been an important component of the QAnon community, a portion of whom believe he holds pivotal secrets about the so-called “deep state.” His recent presidential pardon reinvigorated their conspiracy theories and validated his status as a hero to their cause—a cause that the general appears to have embraced himself.

“Flynn Facts”

IN JULY 2016, Michael Flynn delivered a fiery speech at the Republican National Convention targeting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over her handling of top secret information. After calling Clinton “weak,” “spineless,” and “reckless,” Flynn led chants of “Lock her up” with the crowd in attendance.

“Yeah, that’s right; lock her up,” Flynn said while clapping into the microphone.

Less than seven months later, Flynn was dismissed from his post as Trump’s national security adviser shortly after The Washington Post revealed that the general had spoken to the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, about sanctions between the two nations, and had later lied to the FBI about the conversation with Kislyak. Flynn continued to deny the accusations in the days leading up to his firing on Feb. 13, 2017.

Two months later, acting Attorney General Sally Yates testified to a Senate Judiciary panel that she believed “Gen. Flynn was compromised with respect to the Russians.”

“To state the obvious, you don’t want your national security adviser compromised by the Russians,” Yates, who was later fired for refusing to defend Trump’s travel ban, added.

By Nov. 30, 2017, Flynn had signed a plea agreement with special counsel and former FBI Director Robert Mueller, in which he acknowledged lying to the FBI about his sanctions conversation with Kislyak. Then, on Dec. 1, Flynn pleaded guilty and began cooperating with the special counsel’s investigation into the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election.

“I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right,” Flynn said in a statement that day. “My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”

Flynn’s plea agreement was a significant development in the Russia probe at the time. The retired lieutenant general was one of Trump’s top advisers during the 2016 presidential campaign. Though a registered Democrat, Flynn campaigned for Trump and attacked Clinton, even going so far as to accuse her and her aides of child-sex trafficking. Ironically, his son, Michael Flynn Jr., lost his job as one of Trump’s aides after posting similar tweets involving the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.

Flynn’s political tenure began long before Trump was campaigning for the U.S. presidency. In 2012, President Barack Obama promoted Flynn to director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, elevating him to one of the most powerful positions in U.S. military intelligence. During his time as head of the DIA, U.S. intelligence officials became concerned by Flynn’s contacts in Moscow. According to the New York Times, Flynn also made baseless assertions about Islam—he once incorrectly claimed that Islamic law, known as Shariah, is spreading in the United States—which his subordinates have labeled “Flynn Facts.” He was dismissed by Obama in 2014 and retired from the U.S. Army after 33 years of service later that year.

Michael Flynn seated two seats down from Vladimir Putin at RT gala in Moscow, Russia (Credit: Wikicommons)]

Following his retirement, Flynn founded the Flynn Intel Group Inc, a consulting agency that provided intelligence services for governments. In 2015, he attended a gala for the Russian state-owned RT media company in Moscow, Russia, where he was seated two seats down from Russian President Vladimir Putin and was paid $45,000 to give a talk during the event. Then, during the 2016 presidential campaign, it was revealed that Flynn was paid more than $500,000 to represent the interests of the Turkish government. While he did not work directly for the Turkish government, the firm that hired him is owned by a Turkish-American businessman with ties to Erdogan’s government. Flynn also failed to file paperwork registering as a foreign agent.

Despite his past role as a foreign agent and lobbyist for foreign interest in the U.S., when QAnon—a far-right, pro-Trump conspiracy theory that claims a cabal of elite pedophiles consisting of Hollywood actors, Democrats, and high-ranking officials are behind a global child sex-trafficking ring—was born was internet message boards in 2017, the retired general was seen as an ally to the cause. When he was being investigated by the FBI, many QAnon adherents expected him to be exonerated of all alleged crimes in the Russia probe. His delayed sentencing on several occasions only helped fuel the conspiracy theories regarding his innocence.

By July 2019, Flynn fired the attorneys who helped negotiate his plea agreement and hired Sidney Powell, a QAnon supporter who would later become known for filing the infamous “Kraken” lawsuit alleging widespread election fraud in the 2020 election. (Read Right Wing Watch’s in-depth reporting on Sidney Powell here). At Powell’s urging, Flynn moved to withdraw his guilty plea, citing a breach in the plea agreement, and further proclaiming his innocence. Then, following pressure from Trump who called for the charges against Flynn to be dropped, the Department of Justice filed motions to dismiss the case. The motion was then put on hold by the federal judge overseeing the case as he reviewed the request.

Despite the snag, Flynn would soon be a free man, ready to assume his figurative role as the QAnon general.

The Digital Soldiers [interesting grafix]

“IT IS MY Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon,” Trump tweeted on Nov. 25, 2020. “I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!”

The move had been expected. Trump had hinted back in March that he was “strongly considering” pardoning Flynn, despite the fact that the retired general had not yet been sentenced. The pardon was met with criticism from Democrats—Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it “an act of grave corruption and a brazen abuse of power” in her official statement—while Trump loyalists celebrated the decision to save a man they viewed as a political casualty. Even the White House described Flynn as an “innocent man” and the “victim of partisan government officials engaged in a coordinated attempt to subvert the election of 2016.”

In the weeks that followed, Flynn underwent a strategic public relations campaign, which included appearances on Fox News and the right-wing Epoch Times,public speeches (as seen at the Jericho March on Dec. 12), and even a few radio hits on “The Dan Bongino Show,” among others. His aim was not only to rehabilitate his own public image, but to stand in vehement opposition to Biden’s imminent presidency.

During media appearances, Flynn repeated baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud and Dominion Voting Systems, citing his lawyer Sidney Powell’s “Kraken” lawsuits. He alleged that “thousands” of Americans have come forward with grievances and proof regarding voter fraud and that transparency is required to ensure the sanctity of the election process. During a recent appearance on Fox News (his third since being pardoned), Flynn suggested that Americans will “not allow” Biden’s inauguration to go ahead in January 2021.

Flynn also encouraged Americans to boycott the upcoming Georgia Senate runoffs, despite the fact that the winners will help determine which party will control the Senate. “We have to get the last election right before we start talking about any other runoff election like they are down in Georgia. That’s a falsehood that people shouldn’t even be considering right now,” he said.

While much of Flynn’s arguments are rooted in references to QAnon-linked conspiracy theories, the former three-star general has also pandered to the group by appearing on podcasts hosted by QAnon influencers. During a Dec. 4 appearance on “The Matrixxx Groove Show,” a podcast that claims to have the “most red-pilled audience” and is popular within the QAnon community,  Flynn revealed that the show’s “listeners have inspired us and allowed us to fight the deep, deep corruption that we face in our government.”

“The digital army that we have is unstoppable,” Flynn continued. “The digital soldiers that we have are committed, dedicated servants of our country.”

This is not the first time that Flynn has referenced the term “digital soldiers.” The general first used the term during a November 2016 speech to the Young America’s Foundation, where he bragged about being the general of an “army of digital soldiers” that waged an “insurgency” to “take over” information and the media. The term has since been adopted by QAnon adherents, many of whom view themselves as digital soldiers fighting against the forces of the so-called deep state.

Flynn has continued to reference digital soldiers during media appearances and on social media—it is one of the main hashtags on his Twitter bio, along with #TakeTheOath, which is also a reference to QAnon. During his interview with “The Matrixxx Groove Show,” he referred to digital soldiers as the “largest law firm in the world” because they would “enlighten the people of this country and also the tactical legal team that we have, eventually led by America’s guardian angel of justice, Sidney Powell.”

To close out his appearance on the show, Flynn hinted that he is on the run from the deep state, “I’m on the move. I gotta make sure I’m a moving target because these son-of-a-guns, they’re after me, in a literal and a figurative sense at some time.”

The general’s deepening ties to QAnon have been apparent for several months now, well before he was pardoned in November. On Independence Day, Flynn posted a video of himself alongside members of his family reciting the QAnon slogan “Where we go one we go all,” making Flynn the most prominent former U.S. official to publicly stoke QAnon.

Michael Flynn taking QAnon oath with family members (Credit: screenshot)]

Flynn’s overt show of support to the QAnon movement has only helped energize a community that has been struggling to stay on message in the wake of Trump’s election loss and Q’s limited drops. While QAnon adherents would have preferred to see Flynn exonerated instead of pardoned, as the latter suggests guilt, they have used the pardon as a sign that thing are going according to plan.

“Any anons apart from myself getting goosebumps now that Flynn is free?” an admin of a QAnon channel with thousands of subscribers asked on Nov. 28. (Anon refers to anonymous users.)“My whole body is in goosebumps.”

“I am anxious to see Gen. Flynn in action,” another replied.

The lionization of Flynn within the QAnon movement emphasizes his importance to the movement. For QAnon adherents, the idea that a three-star lieutenant general and former high-ranking U.S. official supporting their community validates their efforts and proves that the deep state exists. When he refers to them as digital soldiers, he is exciting the countless QAnon followers who feel compelled to take matters into their own hands and legitimizing their undertaking.

QAnon meme referencing digital soldiers (Credit: Telegram) band of bros]

The QAnon community was further electrified on Dec. 1 when Flynn retweeted a call for Trump to temporarily suspend constitutional order and declare martial law to have the U.S. military oversee a new presidential election—a topic that had been popular within QAnon circles in the weeks following the Nov. 3 election. One QAnon follower in a private QAnon channel called for martial law after stating that Americans have “no Supreme Court, no DOJ, no FBI to protect us from the Government,” while another suggested that worldwide martial law would “fix” the “fucking fake Media.”

Not only is Flynn an important figure within the QAnon conspiracy theory, he is also a key proponent of the movement. His willingness to pander to the dangerous far-right conspiracy theory, encourage its adherents to continue tumbling down their rabbit holes, and promote totalitarian militaristic policies such as martial law raises concerns about his potential to further radicalize Trump loyalists ahead of Biden’s inauguration.

After spending 33 years as a decorated combat veteran who retired from the military with three stars, Flynn has now assumed the role he seems to have long dreamed of: the star general leading a digital army in service to Q.

Tags: Barack Obama Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Lin Wood Michael Flynn Robert Muller Sidney Powell conspiracy theories Deep State Pizzagate QAnon

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In a preview of the next four years, right-wing media refuse to admit that Joe Biden is the president-elect

Fox News has been Donald Trump’s personal propaganda outlet throughout his presidency, however he’s recently increased his criticism of the network. Trump has urged his followers to instead watch OAN and Newsmax, who in his mind, are more willing to promote delusional conspiracy theories and aid his efforts to undermine election results.

OAN and Newsmax, Fox’s right-wing competitors, refusal to refer to Joe Biden as president-elect proved to be an early point of contention between the networks, and a preview of how they will interact in the years to come. Since the early discrepancy, Fox has aggressively course-corrected in hopes of maintaining its audience.

For example, OAN’s Pearson Sharp highlighted that his network “will officially not be calling Joe Biden the president-elect.” Further, Newsmax’s highest-rated host, Greg Kelly, said that “Joe Biden is pretending that he is the president-elect” and that “at least on this opinion show” he “is not the president-elect.” Though the network has said that “as a result of the Electoral College vote Joe Biden is the president-elect and will be referred to as such on Newsmax.”

While several of Fox’s “news-side” programs have correctly referred to Biden as the president-elect, several other personalities have expressed an unwillingness to do so, in an effort to retain viewers loyal to the president. This week, Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade described Biden as “the former vice president who is, according to some, president-elect,” while his co-host Ainsley Earhart referenced “what they’re calling the President-elect Biden.” Lou Dobbs mentioned the “so-called president-elect” on Wednesday, while Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson both avoided the issue by simply calling him “Joe Biden” without any title at all.

Media Matters’ Matt Gertz explained the absurd nature of Fox’s efforts: “But Fox’s fear of crossing its competitors and its viewers over something this patently ridiculous bodes ill for how it will react when Newsmax and OAN push deranged conspiracy theories during the Biden presidency.”

Also: Fox News has already started poisoning the well for climate action under the Biden administration.

---

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-network/

after weeks of refusing to acknowledge or accept the outcome of the 2020 election, President Donald Trump's "alternative facts" news networks are clearly struggling with how to proceed. But with the meeting of the Electoral College, the reality of President-elect Joe Biden's win is creeping in. Newsmax is finally reporting the truth about Biden becoming the next president of the United States, while One America News Network has a slightly different stance.

The Washington Post reported that, unlike Newsmax, the smaller OANN downplayed the Electoral College in its television coverage. Nevertheless, the network quietly shared a retweet acknowledging the vote.

That tweet read: "BREAKING: Joe Biden has cleared the 270-electoral-vote mark to formalize his presidential victory with California's 55 votes. (Per AP)"...However, their site continues to publish pieces suggesting that widespread voter fraud is the reason for Biden's victory despite having no evidence to support those claims. The allegations of fraud are supported by misinterpretations of the facts, misunderstandings of the law, special pleading, and some outright lies.

Both conservative networks have been the main television sources airing Trump's unfounded grievances and unproven claims of voter fraud. Fox News, which played a significant role in initially calling the election for Biden, alienated many of its viewers with the truth, even as much of its coverage gave excessive credence to Trump's fraud claims.

No matter how outlandish the claim, Newsmax and OANN have enthusiastically reported the president's claims and refused to accept the outcome of the election. In fact, they have even advocated for Trump's attempts to overturn the outcome of the election. Conservative attorneys Victoria Toensinga and Joseph diGenova said on Newsmax still believe there will be more avenues to argue Trump's points.

"There will be a lot discussed about this over the next 24 hours," diGenova said, the Post reported. Toensing chimed in as she added, "Maybe only on Newsmax."

However, it appears NewsMax is generally turning a corner. The Post reported that one of the outlet's anchors tried to break the news of Biden's win gently to its audience.

"What I'm trying to do is manage everyone's expectations," host John Bachman said. "These judges don't seem to be taking up these cases. This is the reality. This is the motion set in place."

Meanwhile, the Newsmax homepage now highlights Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) remarks acknowledging Biden's win.

"Many of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result," McConnell said of Biden's win. "But our system of government has the processes to determine who will be sworn in on Jan. 20. The Electoral College has spoken."

Like the conservative networks and McConnell, a number of other Republican lawmakers have finally conceded that Trump will not be re-elected for a second term. Sen. John Thune (R-S.C) also another top-ranking Republican senator, admitted that there comes a time when you just have to move forward. For him, the official vote on Monday was a breaking point.

"At some point, you have to face the music," said Thune. "Once the Electoral College settles the issue today, it's time for everybody to move on."

==

see tucker 3 on his takeover of straight news side to stop defection to these POW 11/21/20

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/right-wing-media/

Trump was furious when, on Election Night, Fox News' decision desk called Arizona for Joe Biden — and many of Trump's followers share his sense of betrayal. Trump has been urging his MAGA base to look to sources other than Fox News or Fox Business for information, and according to Renée DiResta — a technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory — some right-wing social media outlets are happy to tell Trump devotees what they want to hear.

After Fox News called Arizona for Biden, DiResta notes this week in an article for The Atlantic, the internet was full of anti-Fox hashtags from his supporters. And Trump devotees, according to DiResta, are also angry with Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

DiResta explains, "Throughout Election Day, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube had been cracking down on a flurry of allegations about voter fraud in Arizona; the platforms quickly applied warning labels to new posts containing false or disputed information and reduced the distribution of groups spreading them. In response, pro-Trump influencers exhorted their followers to congregate on Parler."[twt]

DiResta cites the social media app Parler as one of the right-wing outlets that has been willing to help Trump promote "baseless conspiracy theories." And she points out that for some Trump supporters, Newsmax TV and One America News have become far-right alternatives to Fox News.

"For most of Trump's term, Facebook and others had been loath to crack down on even baseless conspiracy theories, including those repeated by the president himself," DiResta explains. "Freedom of expression, the argument went, covers the right to think and say even floridly false things, which were best addressed through corrections and counter-speech. Yet the major platforms concluded that misleading theories about the election were a distinct class of misinformation because of their potential to cause significant harm to the body politic."

Other Trump-friendly outlets, DiResta observes, range from the tube sites Rumble and BitChute to the social media site Gab — which has been described as a far-right equivalent of Twitter.

"People are joining Parler today to find like-minded users to validate their own beliefs, but ultimately, some percentage will get bored and move on," DiResta argues. "That subset will ultimately drift away from the app. It's less user-friendly than Facebook, and it lacks one of the primary appeals that Twitter affords its core users: the ability to criticize people at the other end of the political spectrum. For some Trump supporters, the whole point of politics is to 'own the libs,' but on Parler, there are no libs around to own."

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/trumps-coup-depends-right-wing-information-bubble

matt g no graf

Donald Trump and his supporters are actively working to overturn the results of the election he lost to President-elect Joe Biden in order to keep him in power. Their despicable plot revolves around disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of Americans, in large part voters of color, on the grounds that their ballots were fraudulent. Their claims have been thoroughly demolished in legal proceedings finding no evidence that widespread fraud took place, because it did not. Top federal, state, and local officials have said that there were no election security problems, and the president’s legal team at times has acknowledged in court that no fraud took place.

But the Trumpist effort to steal the election in broad daylight doesn’t rely on whether its arguments can stand up to scrutiny in court. It is a fundamentally political effort. Rudy Giuliani and other members of Trump’s legal team are propagating a shambling mass of lies and deranged conspiracy theories about the election. They hope to create enough confusion to give cover to Republican officials at the local, state, and federal level working to subvert the will of the electorate and use their power to preserve the president’s. They want local and state Republican officials to refuse to certify election results in key states that Trump lost, in hopes that either Republican state legislators in those states will overturn the results and hand the president a victory or the election is thrown to Congress, where Republicans can grant him a second term.

This seditious conspiracy to shatter American democracy relies on the impermeability of the right-wing information bubble: The facts are not on their side, and the law is not on their side, but the Trumpist media is on their side, so they are banging the table as loudly as they can. They will likely fail -- in no small part because the key players in the would-be coup are incompetent loons -- but the cost America pays will be high nevertheless.

GOP leaders spent decades building an elaborate disinformation network of partisan media outlets and telling their supporters not to believe reporting from mainstream news sources. It worked -- polls show that Republicans overwhelmingly trust right-wing outlets with low or nonexistent journalistic standards and scorn more credible news outlets, and the president’s most fervent supporters are Republicans who trust Fox News. A vast swath of the public is now firmly ensconced within an alternate reality, making decisions about not only politics but their personal health and safety based on propaganda and conspiracy theories.

Within that right-wing information bubble, it is virtually uncontested that Trump is correct that the 2020 election was rife with voter fraud and that he actually won if you only count the “legal votes.” The result is that polls show a majority of Republicans say that the election was stolen from Trump.

Fox declared Biden the president-elect on November 7. But since then, both its news and opinion sides have pushed conspiracy theories about the election and cast doubt on its results hundreds of times

[graf]

Fox hosts, contributors, and guests have claimed that “many are trying to steal this election from President Trump”; asserted that “many Americans will never again accept the results of a presidential election”; declared that “there's good reason here not to have confidence or not to believe this is fair”; argued that “this is a war, this is a battle for the control of our government and for the future of this nation”; attacked Republican officials for being insufficiently committed to Trump’s scheme; called for the arrests of election workers; suggested that Republican state legislators in states Trump lost should “appoint a clean slate of electors” who support him; and demanded lawsuits and congressional investigations. The network has aired promos that hype its prime-time line-up casting doubt on the election.

Fox’s work to systemically delegitimize the election is important not only because the network remains the largest and most powerful entity within the right-wing media machine, but because Trump himself frequently watches its programming and amplifies it to his Twitter followers. The president has cast doubt on the election dozens of times in response to Fox’s coverage, including by promoting deranged conspiracy theories the network’s stars pushed about computer systems changing votes to benefit Biden.

In spite of this barrage of attacks on the democratic process, Fox has actually been under fire from the president’s supporters for not going far enough. The network’s cable and digital competitors are even crazier and more propagandistic. And the social media channels bombarding Republican users are completely unhinged.

The Republican officials targeted by the president's scheme are likely to be either swimming in that fever swamp or dependent on those who do.

At the low end they look like William Hartmann, the Republican member of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers who temporarily blocked certification of the county’s election results and subsequently signed an affidavit seeking to rescind the certification. His social media feeds are filled with conspiracy theories about the election from OAN and other far-right sources.

Further up the food chain, Republican members of Congress are going on Fox to promote Trump’s election theft.

At every step in the process, at the local, state, and federal level, Republican officials can be pressured by the president’s supporters consuming this disinformation. Those are GOP primary voters who likely believe Trump actually won and can threaten the jobs of any politician who takes action to prevent him from staying in office.

This coup is likely to fail; Biden’s lead is too great, Democrats hold key offices that can foil the attempt, and the plotters are too nutty. But the Republican base is being primed to treat Biden as illegitimate -- and to question the results of any future elections the party loses. If this behavior is normalized, the next time the right-wing media machine pushes for an anti-democratic solution to an election defeat, the margin may be narrower, the playing field more favorable to Republicans, and the plotters more disciplined.

Our democracy is fragile, and it is under attack. If the truth of the election results can't break through the right-wing information bubble, it may not survive for long.

---

https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/fox-news/

Trump has been furious with Fox News, slamming the right-wing cable news outlet for calling Arizona for Joe Biden on Election Night and urging his supporters to watch Newsmax TV or One America News instead. Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, a Never Trump conservative who supported President-elect Joe Biden, discussed the evolution of Fox News during a Friday, November 20 appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." And as Steele sees it, losing viewers to other right-wing outlets might force Fox News to feature more "center-right" reporting and less commentary from the extreme right.

On November 19, Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, held a press conference in which he reiterated nonsense claims that the election was stolen from Trump and that former Vice President Biden isn't really the United States' president-elect — and some of the most aggressive debunking of Giuliani's claims came from a Fox News reporter: Kristin Fisher. According to Steele, that type of fact-based reporting from Fisher or Chris Wallace shows that Fox News is "looking at the bottom line" and the need to "fill that gap" if many Trump supporters are turning to other right-wing outlets.

Those outlets, Steele told "Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, could range from Newsmax TV to a media company that Trump might start after he leaves the White House. And the former RNC chairman said he expects to see more "center-right" reporting at Fox News, which he predicted will still have a conservative slant but be less Trumpian.

There were signs of trouble in paradise when Fox News' Rupert Murdoch predicted that Biden would win the election. But when Fox News' decision desk called Arizona for Biden, Trump's campaign was especially angry and demanded a retraction. Nonetheless, Fox News stuck by its reporting.

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https://www.cjr.org/special_report/right-wing-media-breitbart-fox-bannon-carlson-hannity-coulter-trump.php

date?

no lnx

What if the right-wing media wins?

Conservative critics of the press want more than just a louder voice. They want The New York Times and The Washington Post to go away.

It was a sweltering July afternoon in the swamp, and a small group of well-dressed, conservative college students from across the country—the next generation of Megyn Kellys, George Wills, and Tucker Carlsons—was filing into an auditorium at the Heritage Foundation’s Washington, DC, headquarters. They had come to study at the feet of Breitbart News Washington editor Matt Boyle, a zealous prophet of the new right-wing media. Boyle’s sermon was not about how to break into the mainstream media and steer the national news agenda toward conservative aims—it was about the end days of journalism itself. And he was not about to skimp on the fire and brimstone.

“Journalistic integrity is dead,” he declared. “There is no such thing anymore. So everything is about weaponization of information.” Standing behind a mahogany podium in a baggy dark suit, Boyle preached with the confidence of a true believer. In a stuttering staccato, he condemned the nation’s preeminent news outlets as “corrupted institutions,” “built on a lie,” and a criminal “syndicate that needs to be dismantled.” Boyle and his compatriots were laboring to usher in an imminent—and glorious—journalistic apocalypse. “We envision a day when CNN is no longer in business. We envision a day when The New York Times closes its doors. I think that day is possible.”

Squint at the Trump era, and it’s easy to see a conservative media in crisis. Over the past 18 months, we have witnessed the fall of Bill O’Reilly, the ouster (and death) of Roger Ailes, prominent conservative outlets from Fox News to Breitbart to The Wall Street Journal op-ed page erupt in upheaval and infighting, Milo Yiannopoulos lose his book deal, and Tomi Lahren lose her job at The Blaze (only to land at Fox). Look closer, though, and you’ll see that much of that drama was simply a function of the outlets’ increased political power (and the heightened scrutiny that’s followed)—a bit of routine turbulence accompanying the unprecedented ascent of the right-wing media.

[ICYMI: You might’ve seen the Times‘s Weinstein story. But did you miss the bombshell published days after?

While Donald Trump’s rise may have, as Politico’s Eliana Johnson recently wrote, “scrambled the pecking order” on the right—elevating Breitbartesque populists over the conservative intellectuals at the Journal and The Weekly Standard—the conservative media complex as a whole is bigger, stronger, and more influential today than it’s ever been. And with so many of its most powerful members now pursuing a scorched-earth assault on America’s journalistic institutions, it’s worth considering what they hope it will look like once they’re done burning down our villages, desecrating our temples, and howling at our lamentations.

Boyle said his goal was simple: “The full destruction and elimination of the entire mainstream media.” Breitbart played up his speech on its homepage that day, but the remarks barely registered in broader media circles. The site and its staff have become known for this kind of bluster, and most journalists have taught themselves to tune it out. Maybe we ought to be paying closer attention.

THERE IS A LONG TRADITION in Republican politics of seeking to discredit journalism. During the 1964 presidential campaign, Barry Goldwater’s press secretary distributed gold pins to reporters that read “Eastern Liberal Press.” Richard Nixon’s vice president, Spiro Agnew, in 1969 railed against the “closed fraternity of privileged men” who ran the national news broadcasts. Nixon’s presidency was ultimately felled by reporters, but the critique lived on.

In the decades since, charges of liberal bias (some of them valid, others less so) have practically become an official plank of the GOP platform. The subject has inspired scores of books, countless talk-radio rants, and the creation of an entire cable news empire whose slogan—“Fair and Balanced”—was coined as a condemnation of its competitors.

Crucially, though, for most of that period conservatives maintained a civic-minded rationale for their project. They said they believed in the importance of nonpartisan journalism; in the necessity of a strong, independent press that provided the citizenry with an accurate account of the day’s events. Ultimately, they claimed, they were practicing tough love—offering their criticisms in the spirit of reform. Bernard Goldberg—a CBS News veteran whose tell-all book Bias entered the conservative canon as soon as it was published in 2001—captured this sentiment during a segment on The O’Reilly Factor. “We all know that you can’t live in a free country without a free press,” Goldberg told host O’Reilly. “But you know what else? You can’t live in a free country for long without a fair press. We need a strong mainstream media. That’s why you and I criticize it.”

Of course, some of this stated concern for the Fourth Estate and its lack of objectivity has been disingenuous. But there was value even in the playacting. By paying lip service to the ideal of “fair and balanced” news, conservatives helped sustain the post-WWII consensus that our modern democracy works best with a robust nonpartisan press functioning as the common denominator.

It was Donald Trump who dropped this pretense. Rather than conceal his true meaning with earnest pleas for a fairer press, he fired off tweets casting the media as “enemy of the American people.” Rather than feign reverence for the First Amendment, he promised to “open up our libel laws” to make suing journalists easier. At campaign rallies, he would keep reporters confined to metal press pens, and lead his crowds in a ritualistic booing. As someone who covered dozens of those events, I always thought I could tell when he was going through the motions with his press-bashing, and when he really meant it. During particularly bad news cycles, his voice would take on a growling quality, and he’d punctuate his standard stump-speech line with an extra exclamation: “Absolute scum. Remember that. Scum. Scum. Totally dishonest people.”

Trump’s histrionics were always strategic. He was able to successfully undermine months of critical coverage and dutiful fact-checking by casting reporters as villains. Each time his campaign was in trouble, the candidate escalated the culture war on the press. By the end of the election, we were not just biased or corrupt—we were dangerous, conspiratorial, part of a shadowy globalist cabal. Just days after Trump was sworn into office, chief White House strategist Steve Bannon told The New York Times, “You’re the opposition party. Not the Democratic Party?.?.?.?.?The media’s the opposition party.”

Bannon’s first move after being dismissed from his White House posting was to huddle with the billionaire Republican donor Robert Mercer who has backed his right-wing populist media crusade. On the afternoon of his firing, he said in a statement to Joshua Green, author of Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump and the Storming of the Presidency, “If there’s any confusion out there, let me clear it up: I’m leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents—on Capitol Hill, in the media and in corporate America.”

IT DOESN’T REQUIRE AN OVERLY ACTIVE IMAGINATION to picture the post-apocalyptic news landscape that so many conservatives seem to be working toward. Media fragmentation accelerates to warp speed. Agenda-driven publishers—be they professionally staffed websites or one-man YouTube channels—churn out narrowly tailored news for increasingly niche audiences. There’s still plenty of factual reporting to turn to when you want hurricane updates or celebrity news, and adversarial investigative journalism doesn’t quite go out of style. But it’s easier than ever for news consumers to ensconce themselves in hermetically sealed information bubbles and ignore revelations that challenge their worldviews. For most people, “news” ceases to function as a means of enlightenment, and becomes fodder for vitriolic political debates that play out endlessly on social media. (Like I said, it’s not hard to imagine.) Inevitably, the rich and powerful—those who can afford to buy and bankroll their own personal Pravdas—benefit most in this brave new world.

This is, of course, a worst-case scenario. But is it really so far-fetched? Already, many of the nation’s most important outlets—the publications and networks that comprise the core of American journalism—have seen their audience shrink and splinter; their credibility plummet among vast swathes of the public; and their financial futures turn bleak. If The New York Times and ABC News were to shut down or, more likely, dwindle into shells of their former selves, would they be replaced with new mega-outlets that share their resources, their reach, and their editorial values? It’s possible. But it seems just as likely that they wouldn’t be replaced at all.

“This whole idea of media objectivity is relatively new,” says Ben Shapiro, a former Breitbart editor at large who founded and runs the right-wing website Daily Wire. Like other conservatives I talked to, he envisions a return to the media conventions of centuries past, when news was delivered largely by the organs of parties and ideological movements. “At the founding, it was a bunch of partisan press going after each other.” If Shapiro had his way, the news would be a polemical free-for-all and media outlets would give up any pretense of non-partisanship. He dismissed the Pulitzer-winning fact-check site PolitiFact as a “leftist outlet,” and generally rejected the idea that any news organizations should be held up as “grand arbiters of truth and falsity.” The very notion, he says, is “anti-democratic.”

“Basically, I think we ought to get away from drawing strict boundaries around ‘journalism,’” Shapiro told me. He pointed to James O’Keefe, a conservative activist who is famous for producing secretly recorded (and often selectively edited) videos that purport to expose the sins of academia, the media, and the government. “Is he an activist?” Shapiro asks. “Yes. Does he commit journalism? Yes. Is he a journalist? Well, it depends on whether he’s committing acts of journalism in that moment.”

Ann Coulter, the vociferously pro-Trump pundit and author, echoed these sentiments in our email exchange. She told me that virtually all news coverage of the president by the “elite” media—a group she says includes not just The Washington Post and NBC, but also many old-line conservative publications—has been dishonest, frivolous, and pack-like. “Chuck Todd agreeing with Jeff Flake about what a barbarian Trump is isn’t news!” Coulter says. “I guess what I’d like, in my ideal world, is that we all start arguing about issues and ideas.”

I asked her if there was any room in that vision for news outlets that play a neutral, referee-like role—contributing to the debate only by adding facts and debunking falsehoods. Coulter seemed uninterested in the question. The publications that have tried to serve that function, she contends, have become “too screechy and inaccurate,” and have rightly lost the public’s trust. “No serious person would trust either the NYT or WaPo’s ‘FACT CHECK’!”

[ICYMI: Former gossip columnist says there’s one fact about his past relationship with Trump that’s tough to admit

The concept of an obstinately objective press has been under assault in America for some time now, of course, and not just from the right. Critics like NYU’s Jay Rosen argue persuasively that news outlets do a disservice to their audiences when they coat their journalism in a sheen of artificial neutrality. Better to aim for transparency, the argument goes—to be honest about where you’re coming from, and to then strive for fairness and open-minded engagement. But there is a considerable difference between the proponents of this theory and those who cynically celebrate the “weaponization of information” and the rise of “alternative facts.”

The so-called marketplace of ideas only works when reality serves as a regulating force. For constructive debates to take place in a society like ours—and for national consensus to emerge on any given question—it’s essential we start from a broadly agreed-upon set of basic facts. Who will provide them if the mainstream media collapses into a melee of warring partisan publications?

LATE ONE AFTERNOON IN JULY, I met with Matthew Continetti, editor in chief of the Washington Free Beacon, in a pizzeria on the ground floor of the Watergate—the DC office complex that stands today as a concrete brutalist monument to the most iconic journalistic triumph of the 20th century. Continetti is not a bomb-thrower by nature. He is polite and cerebral and meticulous about his diction—often pausing for several seconds to consider his words before answering a question. On the day we met, he had just come from George Washington University, where he teaches a class on the history of the intellectual conservative movement.

Continetti grew up in the middle-class suburbs of northern Virginia with parents whom he describes as not “particularly political.” His conversion to conservatism came at Columbia University, while studying Plato’s Republic during an undergrad class on political philosophy. It was around this same time that he decided to pursue journalism, writing articles for the student newspaper as well as for a conservative national magazine called Campus. Aspiring journalists who lean to the right often face a choice as they prepare to enter the industry: try to carve out a career in the mainstream press, or follow the well-trod path into conservative media? Continetti opted for the latter—working as an intern at National Review while he was attending Columbia, and becoming a star writer at The Weekly Standard after graduating. (In 2012, he married Anne Kristol, the daughter of Bill Kristol, the magazine’s founder.)

The site Continetti edits today contains a fair amount of trolling—a running series of Kate Upton clickbait; winking headlines like “Greatest Living President Is Also Fantastic Painter”—but it has also earned a reputation for real-deal journalism. Its reporters run down leads, work their sources, call for comment, and issue corrections when necessary. If a partisan press really is the future, we could do worse than the Free Beacon.

I hoped Continetti might have a more optimistic outlook on the world after the mainstream media’s demise. But as we spoke, he was unremittingly bearish on the prospect that any 21st-century outlet could win the trust of a broad, diverse cross-section of news consumers. “One of the reasons there’s no common denominator in media is there’s really no common denominator in American life,” he told me. “As a general rule, we are a divided society. We have very real disagreements about values, about what’s important.”[ --> choice of "facts"]

I couldn’t help but interject: Shouldn’t facts be the common denominator? I asked, painfully aware that I was exhibiting the kind of journalistic sanctimony that the Free Beacon regularly ridicules.

Continetti exhaled, patiently, and shook his head. “I think the problem you describe is unsolvable,” he told me. “People are going to believe what they want. It’s not my job to tell them what to believe. It’s my job to edit a site that provides new information and adds value every day. Certainly, there are many people, like Howard Dean, who say it’s ‘fake news.’ But OK, I’m not going to control what Howard Dean thinks. He has every right.” A smirk appeared on Continetti’s face. “And I don’t believe a word he says, either.”

IN MANY WAYS, Donald Trump was the perfect candidate to channel the conservative media—the talk radio id personified and plopped onto a debate stage. As someone whose status as a perpetually aggrieved media critic long predated his conversion to conservatism, Trump quickly discovered that rank-and-file Republican voters were an enthusiastic audience for his gripes about the press.[recycled newt debate riposte?]  And as Trump worked to reinvent himself as a Republican political celebrity, he naturally took his cues from the popular right-wing media. His first major foray into conservative politics was as the world’s most famous “birther,” championing a conspiracy theory that was gaining steam on talk radio and right-wing blogs. Later, as a candidate, he punctuated his stump speeches with stories he’d read on Breitbart and parroted the talking points he’d picked up watching Fox & Friends.

Trump did face real opposition in the primaries from the conservative intelligentsia. Kristol and New York Times op-ed columnist Ross Douthat were early and outspoken critics, while National Review published an entire anti-Trump issue in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses. But those with the loudest megaphones—people like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity—saw Trump’s affection for them and their tribe, and rewarded it by providing the kind of boosterism that Mitt Romney would have sold one of his sons for.

And so, when Trump won in 2016, it wasn’t just a victory for him and his campaign. It was a coup for the conservative media, whose destructionist attitude toward the mainstream press can now be found at virtually every level—from the hosts of Fox News, to the ascendant internet personalities of the alt-right. “Nothing is grander, nothing is more glorious, nothing is more satisfying, nothing is sweeter, nothing is more validating, nothing is better for America than the death of the mainstream media’s political power,” John Nolte crowed in the Daily Wire the day after the election.

The Gateway Pundit flatly declared, “The mainstream media is your enemy.” And Infowars captured the sentiment by featuring an editorial cartoon depicting right-wing media figures as asteroids hurtling toward earth where news-network dinosaurs await their “extinction.”

In a decidedly dystopian spin on service journalism, some in the conservative media have begun providing their audiences with how-to guides for finishing off the journalistic establishment. Limbaugh told his listeners they should stop consuming news from the mainstream press altogether. “I’ll let you know what they’re up to,” he assured them. “And as a bonus, I’ll nuke it!” Hannity urged his viewers to start targeting individual journalists—and their bosses—on social media. And the alt-right blogger Roosh Valizadeh has called for a coordinated campaign of bullying aimed at reporters. “Make them appear as ‘uncool’ salarymen in the eyes of the public,” he wrote. “Mock their appearance, their mannerisms, and their weaknesses.”

It would be easy to dismiss all this as performative, and ultimately harmless, trolling. But if the Trump era has taught us anything, it should be that these elements of the conservative media are not to be underestimated. In 2016, they conquered the Republican Party. Now they’re coming for the press.

Mainstream’s right turn

Today’s right-wing media world didn’t surface overnight. Below, a timeline of its development.

—Pete Vernon

Magazine editor William F. Buckley, Jr. (Online Library of Law and Liberty)

1947

Henry Regnery founds conservative book and magazine company Regnery Publishing. William F. Buckley Jr. later advises him: “I would recommend that you state that in your opinion an objective reading of the facts tends to make one conservative and Christian; that therefore your firm is both objective and partisan in behalf of these values.”

Clarence Manion (State Archives of Florida)

1954

Clarence Manion begins the Manion Forum radio show, of which he bragged, “Every speaker over our network has been 100 percent Right Wing?.?.?.?.?You may rest assured, no Left Winger, no international Socialist, no One-Worlder, no Communist will ever be heard over the 110 stations of the Manion Forum network.”

1964

So frequently does Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign complain about bias in the coverage of his candidacy that his press secretary jovially hands out pins that read “Eastern Liberal [ELITE] Press” to the reporters on the campaign plane.

1969

Vice President Spiro Agnew gives a televised speech complaining about how President Richard Nixon’s Vietnam War policies are covered by the press. “Perhaps the place to start looking for a credibility gap is not in the offices of the Government in Washington,” he says, “but in the studios of the networks in New York.”

1973

Nixon supporters dismiss the Watergate scandal as a witch hunt by a liberal media. “Watergate,” says Senator Jesse Helms, “became the lever by which embittered liberal pundits have sought to reverse the 1972 conservative judgment of the people.”

1988

The Rush Limbaugh Show quickly becomes one of the country’s most popular syndicated radio programs. “In those days the mainstream liberals had a media monopoly,” Limbaugh later says. “Nobody did political talk, let alone conservative political talk.”

1996

Announcing the Fox News Channel,  its chief executive Roger Ailes says the 24-hour news network “would like to restore objectivity where we find it lacking?.?.?.?.?We just expect to do fine, balanced journalism.”

2004

Dan Rather steps down as CBS Evening News anchor after memos in a CBS report alleging George W. Bush received preferential treatment while serving in the Texas Air National Guard are revealed by conservative bloggers as fakes.

2009

Andrew Breitbart announces that his eponymous website will launch a “Big Journalism” vertical [?] with the intention to “fight the mainstream media?.?.?.?who have repeatedly, and under the guise of objectivity and political neutrality, promoted a blatantly left-of-center, pro-Democratic Party agenda.”

2016

Donald Trump makes attacks against journalists a hallmark of his presidential campaign. He bans a number of outlets from attending his rallies and events. Less than a month after taking office, Trump refers to the media in a tweet as “the enemy of the American People!”

[ICYMI: The first reporter to arrive at Vegas gunman’s house has covered the story in many ways–except one

McKay Coppins is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He was previously a reporter for BuzzFeed News, where he covered two presidential campaigns, and before that he wrote for Newsweek. He is the author of The Wilderness, a book about the battle over the future of the Republican Party.

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https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/right-wing-media-outlets-are-booming-in-the-trump-era-report/

aug 2019

Right-wing media outlets have traditionally experienced their biggest growth when a Democrat was in the White House. Many far-right outlets knew how to turn fear-mongering over President Bill Clinton in the 1990s or President Barack Obama in the late 2000s/early 2010s into major advertising revenue. But in a report for Axios, Sara Fischer explains that some right-wing outlets have been enjoying substantial growth under a Republican president: Donald Trump.

Citing a Columbia Journalism Review analysis of right-wing websites using Comscore data, Fischer reports that RedState, the Washington Times and the Washington Examiner are among the outlets that have been thriving during the Trump era. Those sites, Fischer notes, “are experiencing major growth by widening their coverage. Their goal is to cover whatever is capturing the world’s attention that day, from human interest stories to trending entertainment developments.”

Fischer notes that although the right-wing Weekly Standard folded in late 2018, other websites on the right continue to “rank high” in terms of “engagement on Facebook” — and Fox News, according to Fischer, remains “the #1 news site on Facebook” in 2019 “in terms of reader engagement,” according to the analytics company Newswhip.

Podcasts that have been thriving in the Trump era, Fischer reports, include “The Joe Rogan Experience” and “The Ben Shapiro Show.” Shapiro, she points out, has “built a megabrand aimed at targeting younger conservatives.”

Fischer stresses, however, that although “conservative media remains strong across most major media platforms,” some “left-leaning outlets” — including HuffPost — “rank highly” in the Trump era. But Trump’s presidency and the 2020 election, she writes, continue to benefit right-wing media.

“Typically, the opposition party has a media explosion in response to whichever political group is in power,” Fischer reports. “But the economic stress of the media industry, combined with the Trump-driven conservative strategy of broad messaging, has upended that dynamic.”

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

'This is a five-alarm fire': Why this reporter is disturbed by the election messages on right-wing media - Alternet.org ›

Trump-supporting media outlets turn on each other as they pick through the wreckage of his losing campaign - Alternet.org ›

---

https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/right-wing-media-fight

raw story

On Saturday, Politico reported that the right-wing news ecosystem is heading for a shakeup as pro-Trump outlets struggle for supremacy in the aftermath of the president's defeat.

Two of the big shakeups are the decline of viewership for Fox News, long the center of the right-wing media universe, and the gravitation of right-wing social media content to Parler, a self-described "pro-free-speech" website that promises not to fact-check content as Facebook and Twitter increasingly remove or flag viral fake news and misinformation.

"While Fox News still easily bests newer networks like Newsmax in viewership, a Newsmax show on Thursday night drew more than 1 million viewers for the first time, according to Nielsen TV ratings. And since Fox News network committed the ultimate heresy — being the first to declare Biden had flipped Arizona, and later acknowledging Biden's victory — the network's disenchanted viewers may now be up for grabs," reported Tina Nguyen. "So the race is on to determine which outlet — cable, radio, internet or otherwise — will embrace Trumpism the tightest. And the competition is driving the far-right MAGA echo chamber to cannibalize itself."

"At the center of it all is an impulse for confirmation bias, according to misinformation and extremist researchers," said the report. "Trump supporters, they said, are looking for a place to migrate that promotes their theories on why their candidate lost. That's why they've increasingly gravitated to places like One America News Network and Newsmax, two Trump-friendly conservative outlets that are more inclined to embrace the debunked ballot-fraud conspiracies Fox News will not touch. Similarly, Parler has fewer compunctions on fact-checking the evidence-challenged claims about fraudulent ballots that Twitter has started regularly flagging."

Adding to the chaos, according to the report, "Populist news sites like Big League Politics have attacked the organizers of Stop the Steal, a loose network of Trump-affiliated groups organizing mini-protests against the election results. MAGA influencers have razed conservative allies expressing slightly more realistic expectations."

One possible consequence of Trump's loss, said the report, is that the various far-right elements that made up MAGA culture will factionalize.

"Without Trump in office — or even in public life — it's more than likely that these disparate groups fragment back into their own separate zones online," said the report. "White nationalists, after all, can't exist in the same movement as hardline pro-Israel activists. Anarcho-libertarians don't naturally fit with more extreme evangelicals. And QAnon supporters can hardly stomach anyone reporting any unfavorable news about Trump, even if it's from Newsmax."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

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Right-wing media outlets are booming in the Trump era: report ... ›

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/bill-moyers-explains-how-the-south-won-the-civil-war/

no lnx

Written by Bill Moyers July 31, 2020

Welcome to Moyers on Democracy. If you want to understand this moment in American politics, here’s a suggestion for you: It’s the must-read book of the year — HOW THE SOUTH WON THE CIVIL WAR, by the historian Heather Cox Richardson. Yes, the Civil War brought an end to the slave order of the South and the rule of the plantation oligarchs who embodied white supremacy. But the Northern victory was short-lived. Slave states soon stripped Black people of their hard-won rights, white supremacy not only rose again to rule the South but spread West across the Mississippi to create new hierarchies of inequality. That’s the story Heather Cox Richardson tells in HOW THE SOUTH WON THE CIVIL WAR, with echoes resounding every day in the current wild and fierce campaign for the presidency. Here to talk with her about America’s ongoing battle between oligarchy and democracy is Bill Moyers.

BILL MOYERS: Will you take us on that long but vivid arc of how we got from Abraham Lincoln, describing the end of the Civil War as “a new birth of freedom,” to Donald Trump describing America as “a land of carnage, a nightmare.” From Lincoln to Donald Trump in 2016, what happened?

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: If you think about the Civil War as a war between two different ideologies, two different concepts of what America is supposed to be, is it supposed to be a place where a few wealthy men direct the labor and the lives of the people below them, the women and people of color below them, the way the Confederacy argued? Is that America? Or is America what Lincoln and his ilk in the Republican Party in the North defined the democracy as during the Civil War? Is it a place where all men are equal before the law and should have equal access to resources? And of course, I use the word man there, but that’s because that’s the language that Lincoln used. But the principle is expandable of course. It looked by 1865 as if that latter ideology, that of the Republicans and that of the idea of equality had triumphed. And certainly, the Republicans and Northerners who had fought for the United States government in that war believed that they had redefined America to mean equality before the law. They really believed that was the case. And that they had defeated what they called the “slave power,” the oligarchs who had gone ahead and taken over the system in the 1850s. After the Civil War, Easterners moved West across the Mississippi in really large numbers after 1865.

BILL MOYERS: White Southerners went too, of course, and you argue they saw the West as the final frontier ruled by elites, just as elites, with violence and intimidation, had ruled in the old South.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: And in that West, they discover a land that is already susceptible to the idea of racial and gendered hierarchies, because it has its own history of them. And it’s a place out there where the new American system happens to be a really fertile ground for the Confederate ideology to rise again. And that’s exactly what happens with the extractive industries in the West that encouraged the heavily capitalized cattle markets, for example, or mining industries, or later oil, or even agribusiness. You have in the West a development of an economy and, later on, a society that looks very much like the pre-Civil War South.

And over the course of the late 19th century, that becomes part of the American mythology, with the idea that you have the cowboy in the West who really stands against what Southerners and Northern Democrats believe is happening in Eastern society, that a newly active government is using its powers to protect African Americans and this is a redistribution of wealth from taxpayers to populations that are simply looking for a government handout. That’s language that rises in 1871, and that is still obviously important in our political discourse.

But in contrast to that, in the West, you get the rise of the image of the American cowboy, which is really our image of Reconstruction. In a weird way, people think of Reconstruction, obviously, they think of formerly enslaved people. But the image that has obtained in our textbooks and in our popular culture is the American cowboy, who is beginning to dominate American popular culture by 1866. And that cowboy — a single man, because women are in the cowboy image only as wives and mothers, or as women above the saloons in their striped stockings serving liquor and other things — is a male image of single white men. Although, again, historically a third of cowboys were people of color. It’s a single white man working hard on their own, who don’t want anything from the government. Again, historically inaccurate. The government puts more energy into the American plains than it does any other region of the country. But–

BILL MOYERS: And also on land that had been taken from Mexico after the Mexican-American War, and on land that had been stolen from the Native Americans after genocide. I mean, it’s this whole notion of, “I’m free to roam the land and become a self-made hero,” which was the cowboys’ image to those of us growing up in the ’30s and ’40s, was really a bastard idea.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: And part of that bastard idea, though, was so interesting. Because it is, in part, the Indian Wars of the Civil War and immediate post-war years that helped to both create the image of the cowboy, but also reinforce the idea that a few white men belong above subordinate groups like the Indigenous people, like Mexicans or Mexican Americans. Like Chinese Americans, like Fiji islanders, about whom they care very much in the late 19th century. And that racial hierarchy and gendered hierarchy really gets tied into the image of the American cowboy. And popularized with this backlash against activism in the East, trying to help African Americans adjust to the new free labor economy.

But that image becomes enormously important after 1880. Because in 1880, the South goes solidly Democratic. And, of course, in retrospect, we now know it’s going to stay Democratic for a very, very long time, indeed. But they don’t know that at the time. But what Republicans do note is that they must pick up Western votes if they’re going to continue to dominate the White House and the Senate. After 1888, when we get the installment of Benjamin Harrison in the White House, he loses the popular vote by about 100,000 votes. But he’s installed thanks to the Electoral College. The Republicans under Harrison between 1889 and 1890, they let in six new states in 12 months. That was the largest acquisition of new states in American history since the original 13 and it’s never been matched again. They let in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, and then Idaho and Wyoming to go ahead and make sure that they would continue to control the Senate, and the Electoral College.

And they’re not hiding this. They actually go onto their media which is their equivalent of the Fox News channel at the time and say, by letting in these states, we’re going to hold onto the Senate for all time and we’re going to make sure we hold onto the White House for all time. But what that does is it begins to shift the idea of that human freedom. All of a sudden, the Republican Party, which has tried to continue to argue that it is standing in favor of equality, although that’s negotiable. After 1888 and the admission of those new states, the Republican Party’s got to start adopting that racially charged language in order to get the West on board. And that begins the change in American history that leads to a later union between the West and the South around this idea that really white men ought to be in charge. It’s not just a Southern thing. It’s a Western thing as well. And they make up a voting bloc in Congress that manages to change a lot of the legislation of the 20th century.

BILL MOYERS: You write about how the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee in 1890, in South Dakota, was an atrocity brought on by politics. And that it played into the use of politics to reimpose inequality, and the use of force for malicious purposes.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: It did. What happens is that with the admission of these new states in 1889 and 1890, the Republicans believe that they are going to do very well in the midterm election of 1890. And the big thing on the table in America in 1890 is the tariff – high walls around the American economy that protect businesses inside America, they protect them to the degree that because they face no foreign competition, different groups can collude with each other to raise prices. So in 1860, the Republicans insist that an economic downturn that’s been happening is only because those tariffs aren’t high enough. What happens in the election of 1890 is the Republicans think they’re going to win and they lose dramatically. It turns out when these ballots are counted, a Republican Senate or a Democratic Senate hangs on the seat of South Dakota, on one Senate seat. And that Senate seat has pretty clearly been corrupted. There’s a huge fight, then, in the legislature of who actually won. So there the situation sits.

BILL MOYERS: Sits there, for sure, with President Benjamin Harris needing to shore up his support in the Dakotas. So, he sends corrupt cronies out to replace experienced Indian agents and dispatches one-third of the federal Army as well.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: And with that movement of the Army into South Dakota in the largest mobilization of the US Army since the Civil War, Lakota are trying to negotiate with the Army that increasingly wants to bring them into the reservation, to the agencies to make sure that they’re under control. And over the course of the next few months, that situation escalates until a Lakota leader, Sitting Bull, is killed in December of 1890. And then in terror after that, a group of Miniconjou Lakota move across the state. They actually find the Army, the Army doesn’t find them. And in the process of corralling them and disarming them later on that month, the soldiers start to fire. And about 250 Lakota are massacred. So, it was a massacre that was really directly attributable to whether or not the Republican Party could control the US Senate in order to protect its tariffs that promoted big business, and protected a few oligarchs.

BILL MOYERS:  When Americans moved to the wide-open spaces of the West after the Civil War, they kept alive the same vision of the world that had inspired Confederates. What was their argument?

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: They certainly were not arguing at the time for a renewal of hostilities. But they did believe that America was one in which a few good hard-working white men should dominate women and people of color. And I think that’s written all over the West, although we don’t like to see that because we love our cowboys. But inherent in Western society, Western politics, Western economy and the Western society after the Civil War was the idea that a few wealthy men should control the industries. Or at least, did control the extractive industries of mining and cattle, and agribusiness and oil. And they should also control politics. And that the legal system should defend their interests while the workers should work for the people in charge. You know, these wealthy cattlemen, for example, were somehow the salt of the earth, hardworking little guys. That image was really in contrast to what was going on, which was the creation of a society that looked, in many ways, like the society of the pre-Civil War South. And by the late 19th and early 20th century, the rise of industrialists in the North who took a lot of their power and their ideological power from the cowboy imagery and from the support that they received in the American West. And to some degree, from Southern leaders as well.

BILL MOYERS: So, the pre-Civil War South was an oligarchy.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: Yes. I was very careful with that word. Because there are obviously a lot of words we could use for a system in which a few people take over. But the way that I was using it was with the idea that an oligarchy was a small group, usually of men in that case, who controlled the money in society and therefore came to control the political system, and also the social system.

BILL MOYERS:  In order to use government policies to shore up white supremacy and prevent racial equality, right?

HEATHER RICHARDSON: And I think the echoes from that to the present are pretty clear, when you have again a small group of Americans now who define themselves that way, I think. One of the things that I found interesting is with the rise of this small elite group of large planters in the 1850s, the ways in which they came to monopolize popular culture and popular literature so that they simply didn’t say, “Well, we’re hard workers and we’ve been lucky.” But they came to believe that they deserved what they had gotten. And that they were somehow better than everybody else. And you can see that through the pulpits, ministers starting to talk about how blessed they were to have these men in their congregations. You can see it through literature, the rise of novels that talk about people who own large numbers of other people as somehow paternalistic patriarchs. And you can see it through the construction of the other, the people who are enslaved, as being somehow almost sub-human. And that’s a very deliberate construction in the 1850s. And I would argue, you can see something very similar in America in the 2000 aughts.

BILL MOYERS: In what sense?

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: The emphasis in popular culture on how the people who were at the top really belong there. That they somehow are the best people. That they know more than the rest of us. That if you have a billion dollars, you must somehow be really much more special than those of us who don’t have a billion dollars. And I think that really shows in the way that President Trump talks about the people around him. He would appoint only the best people, who by definition, knew more than the experts did. And you look at the position that Jared Kushner has in this administration. I mean, he’s a young man with really very little training in anything and he’s supposed to be solving the Middle East crisis and handling coronavirus? And I don’t even know what his portfolio looks like at this point. But I think that’s a reflection that looks very much like that of elite Southerners in the 1850s when they simply thought by virtue of who they were, they could make things work better than anybody else could.

BILL MOYERS: And you write that as this Old South ideology moved West it influenced popular culture, especially in upholding white supremacy. There were Western movies like the classic STAGECOACH, remember? A Confederate soldier joins with the US Cavalry to defeat the “savage” Apache. And novels such as LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE and GONE WITH THE WIND celebrating the union of Western and Confederate ideology.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: Yes. And isn’t it fascinating—if you think about, again, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s a great example. People tend to dismiss her because they see it as a children’s book. And yet, it’s been enormously influential, enormously influential. And she writes about a world in which Pa takes care of the women folk and dominates the native populations around him. And certainly there are passages in that book that are extraordinarily racist, not only toward Indigenous people, but toward African Americans as well. It’s gotten her in trouble lately. But the theme throughout that book is of individualism. Pa is doing it on his own. Pa is not doing it on his own. The reality of her life was that Pa was managing to keep the family together based on the fact his daughters and his wife worked because Pa could never manage to make ends meet. And they’re living in places that are habitable for white settlers like themselves only because of the protection of the US government. And, you know, even scenes like when– when Mary goes to college.

And remember, they scrimp and save for years for Mary to go to college. And the implication in that book is that they are sending Mary to college. No. They’re raising money for her train fare and her clothing. Her room and board is being paid for by the state of South Dakota. South Dakota actually, weirdly enough, had the highest rate of literacy in the country in that era. But you don’t see that in those books. Because again, you have this wedding, if you will, of individualism to racism and this concept of women being taken care of by their men. It’s a very popular trope in American history. But it doesn’t reflect reality.

BILL MOYERS: So, when a group of slave holders embraced the idea that they and they alone should control America’s economic and political system, the Americans fought back, won the Civil War, and rededicated the country to equality. But when it happened a second time, when very rich men of property mobilized to take over America again, they largely succeeded by convincing voters that equality for people of color and women and minorities destroyed the liberty of white men. That’s almost the drum beat in the background of American politics today.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON:  One of the things about that ideology that a few wealthy men should rule, it’s not new to America. It’s been around for a very long time. And what’s really radical is the idea that in fact, all of us should have the right to self-government. And the fact that we’re still fighting about it in America today suggests to me that those two fundamentally different concepts of the role of the American government at least are still absolutely the question of what America really is about. For all the frightening things that are happening in America right now, it’s also exciting to get to redefend the concept of human self-determination, which is really what we’ve been doing all along on this continent.

BILL MOYERS:  But as you write, the ideology of the Old South and its new Western allies found a powerful reactionary force to reimagine it.  Let’s go to the very opening scene of your book. It’s July, 1964. The Cow Palace outside San Francisco, packed with cheering Republicans who’ve just nominated Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona as their candidate for the presidency. They came roaring to their feet when he declares, quote–

BARRY GOLDWATER: I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice in no virtue.

BILL MOYERS: 56 years later, that scene still plays out in my head. Explain why you chose that moment to begin a story that spans America from the Civil War to now.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: Barry Goldwater at that point was known sort of as a cowboy character. And that moment when the state of South Carolina, the state that was responsible for taking the Confederacy out of the Union. When those delegates stand up, they were the ones to put Barry Goldwater over the top, as their delegate yelled when he announced the delegation’s votes, it’s that moment when you recognize that there is a new force in American politics. And it’s the force of reaction against the liberal consensus that was widely shared by Democrats and Republicans both, that in fact, the government should be of the people, by the people and for the people. And that’s the moment when you had that reactionary voice saying, “No, that’s not what America should look like.” And it’s that theory that in fact a few people should run the system and make decisions for the rest of us that has taken over America since ’64. It came across as a racial argument. But of course, his skin was in the game for the end of business regulation.

BILL MOYERS: Regulation, right.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: That’s what he really cared about. It’s interesting the degree to which they harnessed the tradition of American racism and sexism as well, to their project of destroying business regulation.

BILL MOYERS: Goldwater’s big bone was government, but that was all mixed up with opposing Civil Rights and keeping segregation, discrimination. This fear of government that Goldwater was stoking at that moment was the same fear that Southern demagogues had stoked to keep Blacks in their place, it was government that was at stake here. It was what you can do with government.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON:  Well, and I think you just hit the nail on the head there with the idea that all of this is about the proper use of government. Is the idea of the United States government to protect property, so that people can accumulate more and more of it, and thereby get the power and the education and the connections to go ahead and direct society in a way that’s good for all us, which is their theory. Or is the role of government, in fact, to protect equality before the law, and to make sure that all men, in fact, and all, you know, all people are created equal and have equal access to resources and to opportunity? And those two questions are really the central questions of America.

BILL MOYERS: Ronald Reagan gave the conservative movement its present-day mantr

RONALD REAGAN: The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

BILL MOYERS: Now just imagine using that mantra today when the pandemic is rampant. And somebody knocks on your door and says, “My name is Fauci, and I’m here to help you.” And they say, “But you’re from the government. We don’t want you.”

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: I love the way you put it earlier when you said, “This is all a question of what the government should do.” Coming out of World War II, we had a real resurgence of the idea that the government really had a responsibility to promote equality before the law, and to guarantee equal access to resources. And that was a principle that was shared across America, I think, from Republicans and Democrats both. I mean, obviously you saw it with Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the New Deal. But you also saw it with Truman, of course. And then you also saw it Eisenhower and Eisenhower’s Middle Way. And the idea was that this American democracy stood against the fascism that had drawn us into World War II. And that FDR was so articulate about fighting back against.

You know, when he talks about Italy again and again, FDR talks about how, you know, American democracy’s messy, for sure, but look, Mussolini was supposed to make the trains run on time and instead, his people are dying and they’re starving to death. And we, us messy members of a democracy, are the ones feeding them. And he says this again and again. And coming out of that war, I think Americans really stood for that. But even before that, there’s certainly a group of reactionaries who look at the New Deal and at the Middle Way and they say, “We don’t believe that the government should interfere in our businesses. We should have the liberty, the freedom to run our businesses as we see fit.” And they, in fact, really believe that the New Deal is going to be erased. They really thought it was a temporary measure, and that Americans would turn against that. But, of course, Americans loved the New Deal. It had gotten us out of out of the Depression and it had won World War II. So they didn’t have any intention of walking away from that.

BILL MOYERS: But Goldwater and Reagan were riding away from it. And both, as you know, loved casting themselves as cowboys, white hats and all. They wrapped themselves in the mythology of the cowboy as hero; a lone white man carving a new world for white people from a hostile environment. So how did we get from Barry Goldwater in 1964, Richard Nixon, a Californian in 1968, invoking the Southern strategy of stirring up the resentments and fears and hatreds of white Southerners. And Ronald Reagan who opened his campaign in 1980 in Neshoba County, Mississippi, just a few miles from where three Civil Rights volunteers had been murdered. And then George W. Bush buying a Stetson and a Texas ranch to prove he was a Westerner. Finally, to Donald Trump, the rich guy from Queens, not a part of the Southern culture or complex, who used the same racial fears, the same threats and promises that had been used in ’64, ’68, and ’80.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: Well, finally by 1951, you have that famous book by William F. Buckley Jr. called GOD AND MAN AT YALE in which he says, “Listen, we got a problem. If we keep on trying to argue against the New Deal on the merits, we keep losing. So, we should stop trying to argue it on the merits. Because when we talked about what was best for most people, people voted for the New Deal.” So, he suggests that we needed to start from a baseline, saying that the government should only protect what he calls “free enterprise.” That is, there shouldn’t be regulation. And it should protect Christianity. You could wiggle around the edges. But you needed to have those two things. Well, that doesn’t really get much traction. And, of course, William F. Buckley Jr. is the son of an oil man. And he is bankrolled by some pretty serious money there. It’s a vision of a very few wealthy men. And it really doesn’t get traction until after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision of 1954, when a unanimous Supreme Court, where this chief justice is a Republican and a former governor of California–

BILL MOYERS:  You’re talking about Earl Warren.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: Yes. He says the government needs to stand behind the desegregation of public schools. And with that, a door is open to resurrect the idea of the Reconstruction years. That any kind of government action in trying to level the playing field for African Americans in American society is a redistribution of wealth. And in 1955, we get the formation of NATIONAL REVIEW, of course, with the hiring of James Kirkpatrick, who’s a Southern editor. Who hammers again and again and again on the idea that in fact, if you let government be an active government, to go ahead and intervene in things like regulating the economy, or in this case, promoting desegregation, what you are going to get is an attack on liberty, by which they mean tax dollars, your, in coded words, “White tax dollars” are going to go to African Americans. Who, in their eyes, had not earned that sort of entree into public schools. Which is gonna cost tax dollars among other things there were– needed to be troops to have that happen.

Well, that idea, that somehow an activist government, a New Deal government, an Eisenhower government was a redistribution of wealth from hard working white people to first African Americans, and then that group of other is going to be expanded to eventually include, in the 1970s, feminist women. But that argument is really established in the 1950s. And the people who adhere to it initially are not traditional Republicans. And they’re certainly not Democrats. They self-identify as a group called movement conservatives. And they are not true conservatives. They are radical extremists. And they know it. They, a few group of capital C conservatives, are going to stand against capital L liberals. By which they mean virtually everybody else in America, Republicans and Democrats both. Because they make no distinction between the liberal consensus of FDR and Eisenhower and Chinese communism. To them, those are the same kind of redistributions of wealth. So that movement conservative argument that gets its roots in the 1950s and then is picked up by Nixon– I think he gets backed into a full-hearted embrace of movement conservatism because of the problems he’s facing in 1970, with the Vietnam War and Kent State.

But by Reagan, you have Reagan fully defending that vision. And you remember, Reagan’s initial ideas of cutting taxes were not popular. And it was not clear that that was actually going to happen. He has to put George H. W. Bush into his administration as vice president. And he had called that system “voodoo economics.” But it’s really after he’s shot that he manages to get the popular momentum in Congress to pass his first tax cut. And then he tries to cement the ability to hold those tax cuts through including Evangelicals into the political system on the Republican side, beginning really dramatically in 1986. But, also, by packing the court. So, you can see from there on, this vision snowballing.

And then in the 1990s, of course, you get Newt Gingrich becoming the Speaker of the House, and really deliberately purging the Republican Party of traditional Republicans, those he calls, RINOs, or Republicans in Name Only. By the time you get to Trump, that language is there. That whole set up is there. But Trump himself is an interesting character. Because if you remember, he was the most moderate of the Republican candidates when he was running. So he had the racism and the sexism down. But a lot of people who might have liked or might even have not liked the racism and the sexism loved the idea he was gonna make taxes fairer. He was gonna create a better health care system. He was gonna make wealthier people pay more. He was gonna promote infrastructure. All those things that went by the board. He’s put movement conservatism on steroids. And his platform in 2016 was stunning. It was William F. Buckley Jr.’s wish list, or Goldwater’s wish list. And a narrative that, by the way, has taken off, and been extraordinarily strong since the rise of Reagan.

He was elected in 1980. And you have that cowboy individualism gone wild with the STAR WARS series, which is the movie of 1977. That imagery, that one guy is going to do it on his own without the help of the government is a lovely image. It’s a mythological image. It’s one that Americans love, but it’s not reality. In fact, that image has enabled oligarchs like those really taking the reins of power under Ronald Reagan, to skew our laws in such a way that wealth has moved upward, opportunity has been taken away from the vast majority of us. The lives of most Americans, a majority of Americans, has gotten significantly worse, not better. And now under Donald Trump with the coronavirus, but also with the extraordinary dis-junction in the economy.

Now, of course, we’re looking at the recession because of the coronavirus. But even before that, with the booming stock market, and the reality that most Americans didn’t have $400 in the bank to meet an emergency. I think people are really coming to realize there is this extraordinary gap between that image and reality. And beginning more to want to root their politics in reality, both to fight the coronavirus and to fight the economic recession. But also to give credit to the essential workers of color, and to the women who are keeping this country running. I thought it was really interesting that one of the tropes from American individualism is, of course, that moms are home, right? Taking care of the kids. Over the weekend in Portland, moms went out and made a wall, a wall of moms to stand between the protesters and the federal troops.

BILL MOYERS: You say that the movement of women into politics rejects the construction of a society in which a few elite white men control the destinies of the rest of the country. And you find hope in that. But I wrote after your last sentence, “Yes, but white oligarchs and their mercenaries still have the power.”

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: Yes, they do. And I often don’t sleep at night. But people ask me what gets me up every morning, and why do I continue to be optimistic. And I am because I believe in American democracy. I believe in the concept of human self-determination with almost a religious faith. And if I lose that faith, I feel like I will have broken that faith not only with the people around me today, but with all those people who came before us, and fought in wars, and who gave up their time and their money and their energy and did everything that they could to make sure that American democracy would survive. So, we’re in a very frightening time. But there are a lot of us, I think, who believe in this great American experiment, and will give it our all to make sure it doesn’t end on our watch....

ANNOUNCER: Thanks for listening to Moyers on Democracy.  Read an excerpt from HOW THE SOUTH WON THE CIVIL WAR, a must-read book for understanding how we got to this moment. And, be sure to check out Bill’s podcast with Heather Cox Richardson, exploring how her daily LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN found a large and loyal following on Facebook and our website.  You’ll find all this and more at Billmoyers.com.

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/managing-fear-republicans-now-have-to-strategically-decide-which-threats-to-maximize-and-to-minimize/

no lnx

Managing fear: Republicans now have to strategically decide which threats to maximize and to minimize

Written by Jonathan Zimmerman / The Washington Monthly March 16, 2020

In the recent movie Bombshell, a Fox News producer played by Kate McKinnon tells a younger colleague how the network decides what to cover. “The world is a bad place,” she quips. “Ask yourself, what would scare my grandmother or piss off my grandfather? And that’s a Fox story.”

That calculus has also been the engine of Republican politics in the age of Donald Trump, who has raised fear mongering to unprecedented heights. The country was under siege fromimmigration, terrorism, and crime, Trump asserted. Only he could make it safe—and great—again. As Democrats correctly noted, Trump has been exaggerating dangers to stoke voters’ prejudices and anxieties.

But coronavirus has scrambled politics in America, just as it has upended everything else. Until he declared a national emergency on Friday, Trump and his GOP media defenders were downplayingthe crisis.And Democrats became the party of fear, warning that Americans should be afraid—very afraid—and that the GOP was in a state of denial.

In a Quinnipiac University poll released last week, roughly 60 percent of surveyed Republicans said they were not especially concerned that the coronavirus would disrupt their lives. Two-thirds of Democrats, meanwhile,said they were somewhat or very concerned about disruption from the virus. Most remarkably, Democrats were twice as likely as Republicans to say they were afraid that they or someone they knew could catch Covid-19.

In large part, that’s because of the tone set by Trump. Last month, he said that the virus “dies with the hotter weather” and that it “will go away in April.” He also said that the total number of coronavirus cases stood at 15 and would soon be “close to zero.”  Fox News host Sean Hannity quickly echoed the same sentiment, and continually hinted on his broadcast that the entire crisis might be a hoax.Rush Limbaugh likened coronavirus to a common cold.

These claims also earned a sharp rebuke from a handful of conservative media figures, including Fox’s Tucker Carlson. “People you trust, people you probably voted for, have spent weeks minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem,” Carlson told viewers last week, in a clear reference to Trump. “People you know will get sick. Some may die. This is real.”

Carlson was calling Republicans back to their customary sweet spot, as the party of fear. According to numerous research studies, Americans who perceive more danger in the world are more likely to vote Republican, while people who are more optimistic and hopeful typically pull the lever for Democrats.

That was never more obvious than in 2016, when Trump rooted his campaign firmly in fear. And it worked. Two-thirds of Trump supporters feared being a victim of terrorism, as opposed to half of all Americans. And 83 percent of people supporting Trump agreed that the American way of life needed to be protected from “foreign influence,” compared to 55 percent overall.

Never mind that foreign influence—in the form of Russian interference—helped Trump win the election. The larger moral was clear: to motivate voters, as the Fox News producer in Bombshell noted, Republicans and the conservative movement should harp on things that will scare your grandmother.

Well, coronavirus is one of those things—or, at least, it should be. The people most at risk during this crisis are the elderly, of course, who make up a big swath of the Fox News viewership. The viral infection is tailor-made for both Fox and the GOP, if they can wean themselves from their lockstep loyalty to Donald Trump.

Last week, Fox announced that most of its employees would work from home to prevent the spread of coronavirus. It also removed Fox Business anchor Trish Regan from her prime-time slot after she dismissed the crisis as “another attempt to impeach the president.”

But the president himself remains casual about coronavirus, as his behavior at Friday’s press conference made evident. Even while declaring a national emergency, Trump shook hands—something health experts have strenuously warned against—with all but one of the CEOs he invited to the White House. And despite having stood next to a Brazilian press aide who was diagnosed with coronavirus, Trump said he would not self-quarantine because has has “no symptoms whatsoever.” Of course, asymptomatic carriers of the virus can spread it to others.

In the face of Trump’s ignorance and nonchalant attitude,Democrats need to keep emphasizing the perils of the virus. Ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” we’ve been reluctant to engage fear as a political tool. Simply put, we’re afraid to make people afraid.

But sometimes, you have to do precisely that to move them in the proper direction. No matter our partisan affiliations, we should all be afraid of the coronavirus. Although most Americans who contract the virus will recover, they also threaten to infect those in greatest danger: old people and those with pre-existing health conditions. And if a huge number of people contract coronavirus in a very short span of time, they could overrun our hospitals and other medical facilities and compromise the care of those who need it most. Lives are truly at stake: if the virus itself doesn’t kill people, an inadequate response to it might.

The only thing we have to fear right now is complacency, not fear. And we need leaders—in both parties-—who aren’t afraid to say that.

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aha 1/20 new pension tag:

RWI is a [target-] rich ecosystem [JOK seeks targets proxy?]; ideological entre look for niche; revolving door part of  this system, also incubator which might expose young ppl to ideas and opportunities/funding otherwise not; pension plan also signals to ideol entre new incubator recruits that it's a hood/smart bet because fail does not matter, we got your back / gig; [fe given mktpklace meritocrisy BS]

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