JRNL FAIL 3

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1/20</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see climate coverage 12 22</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see news desert (local media fail/fade?)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha/funny <b>no fox here, i just assume it will not do right thing, thus not news?</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">FOX MURDOCH INGRAM TUCKER HAVE  BODY COUNT</span>
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><p>=</p><p>media fail mma 30%</p><p>
</p><p><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/study-30-cable-coverage-trumps-visit-east-palestine-cited-his-role-deregulating-rail">https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/study-30-cable-coverage-trumps-visit-east-palestine-cited-his-role-deregulating-rail</a></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">note cnn swing rt // fox</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">david urban lobby</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/cnn/cnn-commentator-lobbied-norfolk-southern-network-didnt-tell-its-audience-during-east-palestine">https://www.mediamatters.org/cnn/cnn-commentator-lobbied-norfolk-southern-network-didnt-tell-its-audience-during-east-palestine</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 2 23</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ahead of former President Donald Trump's Wednesday visit to East Palestine, Ohio—where a Norfolk Southern-owned train transporting carcinogenic chemicals derailed on February 3, prompting a mass evacuation and release of pollutants—progressive critics highlighted the key role his administration played in making the fiery crash and its toxic aftermath more likely.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>During his speech, Trump—considered a leading GOP presidential candidate for 2024 despite spearheading a deadly coup attempt following his 2020 loss—criticized how President Joe Biden's administration has responded to the environmental and public health disaster unfolding in East Palestine, a poor rural town</b> of about 4,700 people located a few miles west of the Pennsylvania border.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">But as critics noted beforehand, the Trump administration's gutting of train safety rules at the behest of railroad industry lobbyists was instrumental in creating the conditions for the derailment and ensuing chemical spill and burnoff, which has provoked <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/east-palestine-ohio-water" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">fears</a> of groundwater contamination and air pollution.</span>
</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">"He should be apologizing to that community for his administration rolling back rail regulations,"</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> progressive stalwart Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator, tweeted prior to Trump's address.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch made a similar point in an <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-east-palestine-wreck" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">opinion piece</a> published earlier this week.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"If residents of East Palestine—</span><a href="https://www.daytondailynews.com/ideas-voices/marcano-the-importance-of-local-media-following-the-east-palestine-derailment/7ORSBKCMPZGLLPR6NAX3EWXNPA/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">a</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> modern</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> news desert</span></b></a><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> of downsized or disappeared news sources,</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> which allows misinformation to fester—truly knew the reality, a delegation of townsfolk would likely greet Trump with tiki torches and pitchforks," Bunch wrote, comparing the former president's visit to "the tendency of a criminal to return to the scene of his crime."</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Bunch noted that "Trump acted specifically to <a href="https://jacobin.com/2023/02/rail-companies-safety-rules-ohio-derailment-brake-sytems-regulations" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">sabotage a nascent government effort </a>to protect citizens from the growing threat posed by derailments of outdated, poorly equipped, and undermanned freight trains that were increasingly shipping both highly flammable crude oil from the U.S. fracking boom as well as toxic chemicals like the ones that would derail in East Palestine."</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">"Trump had been in office for less than a year when <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-blame-ohio-train-derailment-1781163" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">he moved to kill </a>the 2015 rule change initiated by the Obama administration that would have required freight trains to upgrade the current <b>braking technology</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b> that was developed in the 19th century</b> for state-of-the-art electronic systems," wrote Bunch, who pointed out that this came after Norfolk Southern and other rail carriers donated <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/totals.php?cycle=2022&ind=m04" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">more than $6 million</a> to Republican candidates in 2016 and spent millions more on <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/02/21/east-palestine-rail-safety-congress/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">lobbying</a>.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"With the investigation into the East Palestine wreck still in its early phases, it's not clear if the modern brakes—originally required for installation by 2021—could have prevented the toxic derailment or whether the specific Obama rule would have applied," Bunch continued. "<b>But <a href="https://www.levernews.com/rail-companies-blocked-safety-rules-before-ohio-derailment/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">experts do believe the new brakes</a> could have mitigated the wreckage—and thus the release of so many hazardous chemicals."</b></span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">"The rule reversal wasn't the only time that Team Trump sided with Big Rail over the forgotten Americans who live on the wrong side of their tracks," he added. "In 2019, for example, the Trump administration moved to not strengthen but <a href="https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/trump-administration-loosening-regulations-for-rail-transportation-of-flammable-natural-gas" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">relax regulations</a> on shipping fracked natural gas through communities like East Palestine. The same year, Trump's White House also killed an Obama-era proposal that would have required two crew members in freight-train locomotives."</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ahead of Trump's visit,<b> More Perfect Union</b> also <a href="https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1628166037714661378" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">argued</a> on social media that the ex-president's "attempt to portray himself as a friend of the town and as someone who would have stood up to Norfolk Southern... couldn't be further from the truth."</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As the progressive media outlet observed, the Trump administration "withdrew multiple rail safety recommendations and moved toward a 'self-regulatory approach' where rail companies could do as they pleased."</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"It's no surprise that the Trump years were filled with dangerous deregulation," More Perfect Union asserted, describing his decision to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wv-state-wire-north-america-donald-trump-us-news-ap-top-news-2e91c7211b4947de8837ebeda53080b9mp-us-news-ap-top-news-transportation-1936e77a11924c909880f1ef014c7ca7" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">nominate</a> top rail industry executives to lead the Federal Railroad Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration as "a prime example of the <b>revolving door between business and government.</b>"</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"The Trump approach to the rail industry was to let the companies do what they wanted, which was to avoid regulations, slash jobs, and extract profit," the outlet continued. "This approach, and <b>rail companies' greed, has led to over 1,000 derailments each year. S</b>ome are massive catastrophes like East Palestine. But every single one is harmful. And if the industry isn't regulated and forced to change, we'll soon be seeing more disasters."</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When Trump "pretends to care about rail workers, or the people of East Palestine, we can't believe him," More Perfect Union added. "His record tells a very different story, the story of his own role in creating this problem in the first place."</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Even some conservative critics of Trump have questioned the sincerity of his visit.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"It's clear that it's a political stunt," Ray LaHood, a Republican ex-member of Congress who led the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) during former President Barack Obama's first term, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/22/donald-trump-ohio-visit-questions-safety-legacy-00083885" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">told</a> Politico on Wednesday. "If he wants to visit, he's a citizen. But clearly his regulations and the elimination of them, and no emphasis on safety, is going to be pointed out."</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) wasted little time in doing exactly that, calling the GOP's indignation "fake" soon after Trump announced his travel plans.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Bunch acknowledged that "it's beyond hypocritical for Trump to bring his Harold Hill-huckster shtick to East Palestine when residents are still experiencing headaches and breathing foul air from the kind of catastrophe he didn't lift a finger to stop from the Resolute Desk."</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"But also it's a bit baffling why Biden or his <b>Transportation Secretary <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/tag/pete-buttigieg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Pete Buttigieg</a>—who seems to be channeling </b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/us/politics/pete-buttigieg-mckinsey.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><b>his inner McKinsey & Co</b>.</a> these days—haven't gone to Ohio," he argued. "Especially when Trump and any other Republicans hoping to make political hay off of East Palestine's misery are coming to town empty-handed."</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">"None of the anti-Biden critics on this issue have offered a solution, because they can't,"</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> wrote Bunch. "</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The only fix for the kind of runaway abuses of modern capitalism that cause these environmental catastrophes is<b> government regulation, aided by empowering worker safety with strong unions</b>—two things that the Trump-led GOP has opposed at every turn."</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Even in the wake of the disaster, Republican lawmakers have refused to demand stronger regulations, as HuffPost <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republicans-ohio-train-disaster-safety-reforms-trump_n_63f57ecce4b0616708de41fb" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reported</a>:</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; margin-left: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), a vocal Biden critic who represents East Palestine, on Tuesday dismissed immediate calls for stricter rail regulations, saying actions toward accountability will hinge on the findings of a National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB] investigation into the derailment</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.

'That will dictate whether there are laws, regulations that need to be changed, whether there were rules that were violated,' he said during a news conference in East Palestine. 'We don't know any of that yet, and we won't know that until NTSB releases its report.'</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-left: 20px;">Hours before Trump spoke, Buttigieg <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/buttigieg-visit-east-palestine-train-derailment-toxic-spill-rcna71812" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">announced</a> that he plans to travel to East Palestine on Thursday. His visit is expected to coincide with the publication of the NTSB's preliminary report about its ongoing probe into the crash.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>On Tuesday, Buttigieg unveiled DOT's recommendations for improving the safety of the nation's rail system, though an inter-union alliance of rail workers immediately <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/rail-workers-buttigieg-usdot-plan-insufficient" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">criticized</a> the plan as inadequate.</b></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Given the scale of the problems—and in light of the transportation secretary's ongoing refusal to exercise his <a href="https://the.levernews.com/protect-america-from-train-disasters/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">authority</a> to reinstate previously gutted rules along with his <a href="https://www.levernews.com/there-will-be-more-derailments/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">consideration</a> of an industry-backed proposal to further weaken the regulation of train braking systems—<b>union leaders have <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/rail-worker-alliance-nationalization" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">called for</a> nationalizing the railways and implementing their proposed solutions.</b></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Turner, for her part, <a href="https://twitter.com/ninaturner/status/1628460058022486016" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">emphasized</a> that she has "been outspoken about the two years the Biden administration had [to] fix these problems."</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"The Trump administration is at fault, as is the Obama administration," Turner contended, referring to the fact that the latter's regulations were also watered down in response to industry pressure.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"The Ohio GOP is to blame as well," she added, echoing recent <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/norfolk-southern-donated-mike-dewine-before-east-palestine-disaster" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reporting</a> on Norfolk Southern's campaign to influence state-level lawmakers and officials. "Failure at every level of government and multiple administrations led to this.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"</span></p></div><div><div align="left" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 1 23  cdv
</font></div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2659319649"><div class="body-description"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There is no such thing as "the liberal media."

</span></font></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

That is language concocted by the Republican Party and right-wing

consultants with the goal of bullying the American news media into being

compliant and subservient to the "conservative" agenda.

</font></span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

And they were remarkably successful in achieving that goal.

</font></span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

Decades later it is now an accepted "fact" among America's political

class, the general public, and the mainstream news media itself that

there is such a thing as "liberal bias" in the news industry. The

enduring myth of the "liberal media" is one of many examples of how the

American right has successfully weaponized language with a propaganda

campaign to shape the country's political terrain in their interests.

</font></span></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

<b>Republicans have marketed themselves as defenders of "freedom." In

reality, they are authoritarians who support a range of policies that

limit human and civil rights.

</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Republican Party has created a brand that is based upon "family values." This is fiction.

<a href="https://www.salon.com/2023/01/25/eye-massive-spending-cuts-as-ultimate-way-to-own-the-libs/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">The policies and ideology of the modern GOP are centered upon gutting the social safety net</a>

and ending the county's already very weak and still developing social

democracy. If they are successful in that agenda, the overall well-being

of American families will be greatly diminished.

</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The "conservative" movement staunchly claims to be "pro-life." This is

not true. Their policies and ideology have actually shortened the lives

of the American people as seen with health care, gun violence, the

global climate crisis and environment, the COVID pandemic, and social

inequality more generally.</span>

</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

<b>Former Rep. Newt Gingrich is one of the main architects of the strategy

that allowed the Republican Party to win the language wars and the

central role of the myth of "the liberal media"</b> in that outcome. In

1995,

<a href="https://fair.org/home/language-a-key-mechanism-of-control/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">the media watchdog group FAIR explained how</a>:

</font></p><blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

Since winning control of Congress, Rep. Newt Gingrich (R.-Ga.) has

constantly complained about "destructive" and "negative" coverage from

the "liberal elite media."… <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In fact, the new speaker of the House—who

once described his goal as "reshaping the entire nation through the news

media" (</span>New York Times, 12/14/94)—has given a great deal of thought to

the media and how to manipulate them.<b> One Newtonian axiom is "fights

make news"</b> (Boston Globe, 11/20/94). Another skill he has taught to

Republican candidates through his political organization, GOPAC, is how

t<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">o create a "shield issue" to deflect criticism…

</span>
</font>

But the clearest expression of Gingrich's philosophy of media came in a

GOPAC memo entitled "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control." Distributed

to GOP candidates across the country, the memo's list of words for

Democrats and words for Republicans was endorsed by Gingrich in a cover

letter: "The words in that paper are tested language from a recent

series of focus groups where we actually tested ideas and language."

Next time you hear Gingrich complain about media focusing on the

negative, refer back to these lists.

</font></blockquote><p>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-liberal-media/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">In a widely cited 2003 essay at The Nation</a>, media critic and author Eric Alterman said the following about the myth of "the liberal media":

</font></span></p><blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

Move over to the mainstream publications and broadcasts often labeled

"liberal," and you see how ridiculous the notion of liberal dominance

becomes. ….
</font>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I could go on, but the point is clear: Conservatives are extremely well

represented in every facet of the media. The correlative point is that

even the genuine liberal media are not so liberal. And they are no

match–either in size, ferocity or commitment–for the massive

conservative media structure that, more than ever, determines the shape

and scope of our political agenda.</span>
</font>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">In a careful 1999 study published in the academic journal Communications Research,

four scholars examined the use of the "liberal media" argument and

discovered a fourfold increase in the number of Americans telling

pollsters that they discerned a liberal bias in their news. But a review

of the media's actual ideological content, collected and coded over a

twelve-year period, offered no corroboration whatever for this view.</span> The

obvious conclusion: News consumers were responding to "increasing news

coverage of liberal bias media claims, which have been increasingly

emanating from Republican Party candidates and officials."
</font>

<b>The right is working the refs. And it's working.</b> Much of the public

believes a useful but unsupportable myth about the so-called liberal

media, and the media themselves have been cowed by conservatives into

repeating their nonsensical nostrums virtually nonstop. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As the

economist/pundit Paul Krugman observes of Republican efforts to bully

the media into accepting the party's Orwellian arguments about Social

Security privatization: "The next time the administration insists that

chocolate is vanilla,<b> much of the media–fearing accusations of liberal

bias, trying to create the appearance of 'balance'</b>–won't report that the

stuff is actually brown; at best they'll report that some Democrats

claim that it's brown."
</span></font><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">

</span><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In the real world of the right-wing media, the pundits are the

conservatives' shock troops. Even the ones who constantly complain about

alleged liberal control of the media cannot ignore the vast advantage

their side enjoys when it comes to airing their views on television, in

the opinion pages, on the radio and the Internet.</span></font></blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">In

total, the mainstream news media is inherently "small c" conservative.

As a social institution it prioritizes making money and is averse to

change. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As such, the American mainstream news media also serves an

agenda-setting and boundary-enforcing function that sets limits on the

"approved public discourse." In that role, liberal and progressives are

routinely silenced out of deference to "conservative" and right-wing

voices – however extreme the latter may be.</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Because the mainstream

news media are aligned with the powerful as a class, they prioritize

having access to them in what is a parasitic and symbiotic relationship.

In practice, this meant that access to the powerful — especially for DC

beltway journalists — is more important than bold truth-telling and

consistently speaking truth to power.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b> The conservative nature of the

American news media and its institutional bias towards "normalcy" helps

to explain why it has been so <a href="https://www.salon.com/2023/01/26/dupes-the-media--with-desantis-help-race-for-is-no-real-competition/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">unable to properly pivot and adapt to the realities of the Age of Trump</a>,

rising neofascism</b>, and the country's ongoing democracy crisis. Thus,

the continued habit of using obsolete norms such as "bothsideism," an

overempahsis on "horserace coverage," an obsession with political

personalities instead of systems and power, and an amplification of the

controversy of the day instead of on fundamental issues.</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of

the most dangerous examples of how the media has been conditioned by the

right through the myth of "liberal bias" is how it is now helping to

launder the reputations of several Trump regime members and other

Republican fascists. In a very high-profile example of reputation

laundering, The New York Times — which is routinely attacked by

right-wing media for committing the "crime" of "liberal bias" (a

baseless and absurd claim) — recently featured <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/13/opinion/donald-trump-joe-biden.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">a guest opinion essay by former Trump regime advisor and propagandist<b> Kellyanne Conway</b></a><b>. </b>Her Times op-ed contained Trump political pornography such as this:</font></p> <blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Donald J. Trump shocked the world in 2016 by winning the White House

and becoming the first president in U.S. history with no prior military

or government experience. He upended the fiction of electability pushed

by pundits, the news media and many political consultants, which

arrogantly projects who will or will not win long before votes are cast.

</span> He focused instead on capturing a majority in the Electoral College,

which is how a candidate does or does not win. Not unlike Barack Obama

eight years earlier, Mr. Trump exposed the limits of Hillary Clinton's

political inevitability and personal likability,<b> connected directly with

people, ran an outsider's campaign taking on the establishment, and

tapped into the frustrations and aspirations of millions of Americans.</b>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Some

people have never gotten over it. Trump Derangement Syndrome is real. </b>

There is no vaccine and no booster for it. Cosseted in their social

media bubbles and comforted within self-selected communities suffering

from sameness, the afflicted disguise their hatred for Mr. Trump as a

righteous call for justice or a solemn love of democracy and country. So

desperate is the incessant cry to "get Trump!" that millions of

otherwise pleasant and productive citizens have become naggingly less

so. They ignore the shortcomings, failings and unpopularity of President

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and abide the casual

misstatements of an administration that says the "border is secure,"

inflation is "transitory," <b>"sanctions are intended to deter" Vladimir

Putin from invading Ukraine </b>and they will "shut down the virus." They've

also done precious little to learn and understand what drives the 74

million fellow Americans who were Trump-Pence voters in 2020 and not in

the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.</span>
</font> </blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In her New York Times audition for a job on Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, Conway also wrote:</font></p> <blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

A popular sentiment these days is, "I want the Trump policies without

the Trump personality." It is true that limiting the name-calling frees

up time and space for persuasion and solutions. Still, it may not be

possible to have one without the other. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Mr. Trump would remind people

that it was a combination of his personality and policies that <b>forced

Mexico to help secure our border; </b>structured new trade agreements and

renewed manufacturing, mining and energy economies; pushed to get Covid

vaccines at warp speed; engaged Kim Jong-un; played hardball with China;

routed ISIS and removed Qassim Suleimani, Iran's most powerful military

commander;<b> forced NATO countries to increase their defense spending and

stared down Mr. Putin before he felt free to invade Ukraine.</b>
</span>
<b>When

it comes to Donald J. Trump, people see what they wish to see</b>. Much

like with the audio debate a few years ago "Do you hear 'Laurel' or

'Yanny'?," what some perceive as an abrasive, scornful man bent on

despotism, others see as a candid, resolute leader unflinchingly

committed to America's interests.
</font> </blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There were

thousands of comments on the New York Times website in response to

Conway's column and the publication's decision to allow her such a

privileged platform. Based on a cursory review, a good many, if not most

of these comments were negative. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/17/opinion/letters/kellyanne-conway-donald-trump.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">The Times</a> even featured one such complaint in a letter to the editor:</font></p> <blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

A diversity of opinions and perspectives is a fantastic goal, and one

reason I've been a longtime subscriber. Generally speaking, your opinion

guest essays are well written and thoughtful and provide a point of

view that makes one examine a topic with fresh eyes.

The opinion from Ms. Conway is not that.

Time

and again she employs sloganeering to sling arrows at Democrats and

non-Trumpists in an attempt to burnish the reputation of her former

boss.

She continues to attempt to turn neighbor against neighbor

by perpetuating the othering of Trump detractors and the denial of Mr.

Trump's and her attacks on voting, democracy and simple decency.

<b>Hers

is not another "opinion"; it is carefully crafted and intentional spin

to appeal to people's sense of grievance and to reaffirm the lies and

misinformation they are so ready to believe.</b>

Her inclusion in your paper diminishes the quality of debate, and galvanizes a person America would be better off forgetting.
</font> </blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conway

is representative of a larger pattern where such leading news media

outlets as the New York Times, CNN, CBS, NBC and others are deciding to

amplify and provide a platform for Trumpists, Republican-fascists, and

other right-wing anti-democracy voices. T<b>hey are doing this behind the

cover of "fairness" and "balancing" when in reality such a decision is

based on fear, profit-maximizing, and strategically positioning

themselves to be in good favor with the Republican Party,

"conservatives" and other anti-democratic forces as a type of insurance

policy and security blanket for what promises to be a very perilous and

unsettled future.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://medium.com/@wajahatmali/access-journalists-and-mainstream-media-have-failed-us-9b8ec486fa7b" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">In an essay at Medium, journalist and author Wajahat Ali</a>

warns that<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> "Even in the face of increased threats and a failed coup,

too many journalists in mainstream media outlets will continue to pave

the road toward fascism with their 'both sides' coverage</span>." He continues,

"<b>Access journalism is a parasitic relationship. </b>Some of these

journalists are like small remoras, or shark suckers, who attach to

sharks to get to their destination. If they were riding the shark in

JAWS, they'd write an article blaming the townspeople for forcing the

shark to eat them":</font></p><blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> There's a class of journalists

belonging to legacy outlets and corporate media who are incapable of

shedding their antiquated, toxic skin and adapting to the changing

political and cultural landscape where disinformation, white supremacist

conspiracy theories, and right-wing stochastic terrorism is the norm.

Instead, they chase the North Star, which isn't the truth, but rather

access to power, ratings, and a path toward personal success….

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Instead

of bending the knee to right-wing intimidation, platforming their lies,

mainstreaming their hate, and engaging in "both sides" nonsense to

create the fiction of symmetry in an utterly asymmetrical reality, these

political journalists need to be biased in favor of the truth and

democracy.</span>
</font> </blockquote> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ultimately, the American mainstream news

media needs to engage in a type of personal inventory and critical

self-reflection about its role in democracy and failings (and successes)

in the Age of Trump and beyond.In short, it must do better as it

strives to live up to the ideals of the Fourth Estate in a democracy. A

big step in that direction would be refusing to participate in the

reputation laundering and rehabilitation of Trump's regime members and

other neo-fascists and enemies of democracy in today's Republican Party

and larger right-wing and "conservative" movement.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If the American

mainstream news media does not do this necessary and hard work it is

just contributing to its own legitimacy crisis and lack of trust among

the American people, which in turn means aiding the Republican fascists

and other enemies of a free press and democracy.</font></p></div>

    </div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 1 23</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">why do this country’s most lucrative media properties spend so much

time and so many resources covering the “dangers” of political

extremism? </font>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s not because of the fear of Donald Trump and his redhat fascism. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s not because of the fear of Bernie Sanders and his cosplay socialism. </font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/donald-trump-griping-evangelical-disloyalty/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_self" title="view post: Donald Trump's griping about evangelical 'disloyalty' was an order to get in line" class="rm-stats-tracked">Donald Trump's griping about evangelical 'disloyalty' was an order to get in line</a></strong></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s because political extremes reveal something about this country’s

most lucrative media properties that they would rather not have

revealed.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Their own political extremism. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>None the wiser</strong></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bullsh*t? Not when you think about it. </font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/january-6th-social-media-platforms/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_self" title="view post: Unpublished January 6th report exposes social media platforms allowing right-wing exploitation" class="rm-stats-tracked">Unpublished January 6th report exposes social media platforms allowing right-wing exploitation</a></strong></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The difference between the country’s two major political parties is

cavernous, deeper and wider than it has ever been in our lifetimes. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Democrats, <a href="https://www.editorialboard.com/the-republican-partys-dangerous-bankruptcy-of-ideas/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">as I said last week</a>, have grown to become under Joe Biden the party of <em>statecraft</em>. The Republicans have grown to become under Trump the party of <em>stagecraft</em>. The Democrats have ideas. The GOP has Fox.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet this country’s most lucrative media properties, in their coverage

of the parties and in their choices in determining what’s news, treat

the parties, which they take to represent one-half each of this country,

as if they were equal in nature, theory and practice, though the

differences are obvious.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Taking two things that are not the same in nature, theory and

practice and making them appear the same is an act of democratic

politics, a way of persuading an audience to believe that a particular

worldview (“centrism”) is normal by comparison to parties equal in

nature, theory and practice.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Taking two things that are not the same and making them appear the

same is an act of political extremism, too</b>. There is no other credible

way to describe taking two things that are not the same and making them

appear the same for the purpose of manufacturing, by <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">comparison, an

imaginary “center”? </span></font>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How else can we describe this country’s most lucrative media

properties presenting themselves as impartial arbiters of the status quo

despite the fact that they go to extreme lengths to persuade their

audiences that a particular worldview (theirs) is normal, moderate and

“centrist.”</font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s what an act of politics looks like. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s what a warped reality, and our understanding of it, looks like. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This country’s most lucrative media properties do not want to appear

to be political entities, but nevertheless, they are. They are invested

in defining, controlling, protecting, defending and maintaining a

political status quo that has made them this country’s most lucrative

media properties.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So they focus on the far right. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They focus on the far left</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You’re none the wiser.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>“The way things are” is never natural</strong></font></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">My point

here is that “centrism” is actually a radical political ideology that

often turns observable reality upside down, backward and prolapsed.</font></span></p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">

</span><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It does that by making unequal things seem equal for the purpose of

appearing to be normal, moderate and “centrist.” One consequence is that

the “political center” overlaps with their particular kind of extreme

politics.</font></span></p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">

</span><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And “natural.”</font></span></p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">

</span><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The people who benefit most from the maintenance and advancement of

“centrism” – the beneficiaries of hierarchies of political and social

power that constitute a status quo – want us to believe that their

radical political ideology is a<b> product of nature.</b> It’s the politics of “the way things are.” </font></span></p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">

</span><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The way things are” is never natural. </font></span></p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">

</span><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The way things are” is the product of history, contingency and

choice. It’s the progressive accretion of decisions made for a

particular time, for a particular place for reasons particular to those

times and places.</font></span>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The people who benefit most from the maintenance and advancement of

“centrism” want us to believe “the ways things are” is natural and

therefore politically neutral, as a consequence of being just “the way

things are.” </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But “the way things are” is never politically neutral. The proof is

the insistence by the beneficiaries of a radical political ideology

called “centrism” that the way things are is just “the way things are.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>Beneficial incoherence</strong></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">My second point here is

that an observable reality that’s been turned upside down, backward and

prolapsed is beneficial to those who maintain and advance a radical

political ideology that they call “the way things are.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An incoherent status quo is a good thing.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As I said last week, in a separate context,<b> false equivalence

</b>is the art of forcing unequal things to seem equal and making the

morally better of the two seem not so good, the morally worse of the two

seem not so bad.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those people who benefit most from the status quo are most likely to

insist that politics has nothing to do with their being the people who

benefit most from the status quo. That, again, is a political act, a

choice made among other choices that together constitute what most say

is the way things are.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Apply this to Joe Biden’s documents “scandal.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is not equal to Donald Trump’s documents scandal. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The former lost some government secrets, found them, returned them

and conceded to an official investigation to ensure everything’s above

board. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The latter stole government secrets, lied about stealing them,

refused to give them back after his theft was revealed, gave back a few,

lied about giving back all, had to be forced to give back all, and then

cried about the injustice of an official investigation to ensure

everything’s above board. </font>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Apply this to shooting massacres.</font></span></p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">

</span><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At least 10 people <a href="https://click.email.latimes.com/?qs=c5f6ae0fff2ae02e85e38ac1d365e19c2965727576f989f38fa506598d6822fbde019a653d4799d0f88276b2eb693b6fa62299e985e35b10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">were shot to pieces</a>

during the Chinese Lunar holiday in a Chinese-American neighborhood in

Los Angeles County. It is among many shooting massacres targeting

minorities. In Charleston, it was Black people. In El Paso, it was

Hispanics. In Pittsburgh, it was Jews. In Colorado, it was LGBT-plus

people. The pattern is clear to anyone who’s willing to see it.</font></span></p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">

</span><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But this country’s most lucrative media properties don’t want to. </font></span>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They regularly find ways to balance mass death with constitutional

rights, as if one is related to the other, as if one is as important as

the other, as if one balances out the other, as if this country’s most

lucrative media properties are politically neutral arbiters of a status

quo that is also ideally suited to rationalizing this country’s most

lucrative media properties.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mass death is not equal to constitutional rights. Only an adherent of

a radical political ideology would say two unequal things are “in fact”

equal.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Apply this to any “issue” with “two sides.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/01/12/bidens-classified-documents-debacle-could-become-political-liability/11039170002/?utm_source=usatoday-NewsAlert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news_alerts&utm_term=news_alert&utm_content=USAT-8872UT-E-NLETTER01" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">USA Today’s Michael Collins</a>: “Biden said he was ‘surprised’ to learn of the discovery of the records. He had branded his predecessor … ‘irresponsible’ for <em>storing classified documents</em> at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The stress is mine. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The radical political ideology, however, is theirs.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/asinine-conservative-lawyer-republicans-documents/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="self" title="view post: 'Asinine': Conservative lawyer shreds Republicans for equating Donald Trump and Joe Biden document cases" class="rm-stats-tracked">'Asinine': Conservative lawyer shreds Republicans for equating Donald Trump and Joe Biden document cases</a></strong></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=
</font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pop info</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">for </font><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">several years, Walgreens and other major retailers have been sounding the alarm about an alleged spike in shoplifting, describing it as an existential threat to their business. These dramatic claims generated a nationwide media frenzy.</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Now, Walgreens is quietly <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/5b30b335-ecf9-4768-8bab-7c6dffbaa354?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">backtracking</a>. </b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a conference call with investors on January 6, Walgreens Chief Financial Officer James Kehoe was asked how shoplifting and related problems impacted the company's financial performance. Kehoe admitted that “maybe [Walgreens] cried too much last year” about the issue, adding that the drugstore chain probably spent “too much” hiring private security companies.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kehoe added that theft at Walgreens had “stabilized” and the company was "quite happy with where we are." Walgreens’ “shrink” — an industry term for inventory losses from theft, damage, or administrative errors — had gone down from 3.5% of sales last year to roughly 2.5% in its last quarter. Walgreens declined to specify how much of the "shrink" was due to shoplifting as opposed to other causes, like employee theft and damaged goods. Across the industry, "external theft" accounts for <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/54266003-4e0d-47a6-b3c7-4d5d86e19c9b?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">only one-third of total shrink</a>. That means shoplifting at Walgreens likely amounts to less than 1% of sales.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Kehoe’s upbeat comments gloss over Walgreens’ central role in fomenting the national panic over retail theft. Just a year ago, Kehoe said that part of the reason Walgreens’ reported lackluster earnings was because of “gangs that actually go in and empty our stores of beauty products.” </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is not petty theft,” Kehoe insisted at the time. “It's not somebody who can't afford to eat tomorrow.” </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Walgreens has been joined by other major retailers who have been echoing similar cries and drumming up fear: Walmart CEO Doug McMillion <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/9b682793-9f4f-44c9-8365-e1b5c0067860?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">warned</a> that Walmart may have to raise prices or close stores because theft was “higher than what it has historically been.” Former Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli stated on national television that retail theft was “<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/54cc74e4-271f-4d34-ab02-da8fb8f1e8bd?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">spreading faster than COVID.</a>”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Publicly available data, however, contradicts the theft-wave narrative. The number of shoplifting offenses dropped 46 percent between 2019 and 2021, according to the FBI’s <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/506d2213-3ac1-4a3b-869e-423ca866e526?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">crime data explorer</a>. The National Retail Federation (NRF), a trade group that represents retailers like Walgreens and has amplified the theft-wave narrative, has also found that shrink declined to 1.4% of total retail sales in 2021, from 1.6% in 2020. External theft, the NRF found, made up 0.5% of total retail sales in 2021. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In response to a request for comment, Walgreens sent Popular Information the following statement: "Although we are pleased to see retail shrink levels stabilize, this is still a serious national problem affecting us all and all retailers. We have taken a number of steps to address this issue and, most importantly, protect the safety of our customers and team members, including our highly-valued partnerships with law enforcement and security professionals."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So although Walgreens continues to describe retail theft as a "serious national problem," Kehoe was clear that it is not preventing Walgreens from being a profitable company. And yet the company reported a net loss of <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/30bcedc0-9269-4e20-8a72-e45afe7c1b19?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">$3.7 billion in its most recent quarter</a>. Why? The company took "a $5.2 billion after-tax charge for opioid-related claims and litigation." That litigation stems from Walgreens' role in fueling the opioid epidemic by filling illegitimate prescriptions for highly-addictive pain medication. </font></p><h3 class="yiv3994555191header-with-anchor-widget" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.16em; margin: 1em 0px 0.625em; position: relative;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What happened in San Francisco</font></strong></h3><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In May 2021, Walgreens told the <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c0883b78-3f17-4a6e-9706-e665f05b6829?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">New York Times</a> “that thefts at its stores in San Francisco were four times the chain’s national average, and that it had closed 17 stores, largely because the scale of thefts had made business untenable.”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Months later, the retailer announced the closure of an additional five stores in San Francisco and told the <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/38372433-ebe2-453b-abee-53632b26471d?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">San Francisco Chronicle</a> that “organized retail crime continues to be a challenge facing retailers across San Francisco, and we are not immune to that.” The company said it had to increase investments in private security in San Francisco by “46 times our chain average in an effort to provide a safe environment.”</font></p><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the company announced it was closing five stores in San Francisco due to rampant theft, police data obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/f27eb37a-65e7-44ed-9971-264fdbd8311b?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">revealed</a> that “the five stores slated to close had fewer than two recorded shoplifting incidents a month on average since 2018.” Moreover, the company’s claims that thefts at its San Francisco stores were four times its national average were not reflected in citywide crime data — in 2020, shoplifting had reached <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2aa085d4-ca98-4217-8273-580bcb05f2e2?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">its lowest level</a> since they began collecting data in the 1970s. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Moreover, back in 2019, Walgreens announced it would <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ee457764-ed6a-4be2-81c4-bb9151c6e24a?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">close 200 stores</a> across the U.S. as part of a larger “cost-reduction” plan.</b> The San Francisco Chronicle, in 2021, raised the question of “whether a $140 billion company was using an unsubstantiated narrative of unchecked shoplifting to obscure other possible factors in its decision." </font></p><h3 class="yiv3994555191header-with-anchor-widget" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.16em; margin: 1em 0px 0.625em; position: relative;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How Walgreens played the media</font></strong></h3><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mainstream media has historically gravitated toward sensationalist crime coverage that often obscures reality. With Walgreens, a similar pattern emerged: the drugstore chain’s dubious narrative was spread unchecked by some of the largest news organizations in the country. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the first viral stories on Walgreens’ alleged theft issue was published by the<b> </b><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c0883b78-3f17-4a6e-9706-e665f05b6829?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw"><b>New York Times’</b> San Francisco Bureau Chief Thomas Fuller</a> in May 2021. “The mundane crime of shoplifting has spun out of control in San Francisco, forcing some chain stores to close,” read the subhead. In the piece, Fuller recounts a time in 2016 he saw a man grab “a handful of beef jerky” and walk out of a Walgreens. Based on this five-year-old anecdote and a statement from Walgreens, Fuller declared a “shoplifting epidemic” and called into question a sentencing-reform measure that reduced some thefts from felonies to misdemeanors. The piece, notably, does not include any data on crime rates in San Francisco. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Times’ <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/5b30b335-ecf9-4768-8bab-7c6dffbaa354?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">coverage</a> of Kehoe’s comments acknowledged that “Walgreens received national attention in October 2021 when it announced that it was closing five stores in San Francisco, citing shoplifting as the reason for the closures.” The story acknowledges how Walgreens’ shoplifting claims “fed into political debates about crimes.” The piece, however, fails to mention the critical role the Times itself played in amplifying Walgreens’ claims without supporting evidence. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Since May 2021, the New York Times has <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/185520cf-898d-4dc9-a501-f33cb20c0ae1?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">published</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/8d45f592-1352-461b-9df3-51f49bad8ec9?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">at</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/f498900d-150b-45fd-964e-c65d4aca5853?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">least</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ec361c70-6bfc-45ae-ae64-77369ffaa0cc?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">six</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c0883b78-3f17-4a6e-9706-e665f05b6829?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">stories</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/6c387417-37ee-42ea-b645-a4fbc25b5750?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">warning</a> readers of retail theft.</b> Over the same time period, other outlets provided even more voluminous coverage of the issue. The <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/dcab40ca-3d82-4328-a3c0-ab24eb5191df?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">Wall</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c105f4d3-9ac4-42c0-8772-db915a9de480?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">Street</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/4b4f34e0-e16f-4229-8c53-435ba8eaf538?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">Journal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/0bda7cc1-7531-4766-b6fe-b45138750944?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">published</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/383e06c6-703f-4b2c-8e0b-867bcc37d6fb?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">at</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2e20bc4a-b885-4446-85b0-d8476a37495c?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">least</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/b1c2be8b-4e8d-4fbe-bc7f-00d8ed3fb2bc?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">13</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/606ce3b2-dc68-4582-9b70-fba14cd5bd2e?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">stories</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/34d1e194-5b96-4402-92d4-34a958a9030d?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">on</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/27ac6ce0-64ac-4c22-8924-61d7139e194b?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">the</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/894105ef-1985-4ec5-9b87-3eb371d09189?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">retail</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/70e0763c-371e-4678-a830-8da10bee6917?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">theft</a> “epidemic”, including four from its <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/94c34749-ec88-46c7-a93e-6ff6b98ccf56?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">editorial board</a>. CNN <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/3f66619b-0076-4f97-9194-0adce66d08a2?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">published</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/9b995e3f-924d-4103-bca3-32b2e2d5f9b1?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">at</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2a5ea889-2f91-4dbf-acfc-69fe14272ea9?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">least</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/38211c2e-0b5d-4c31-b5fe-c098786cc831?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">seven</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/8b2c5395-e313-42d7-b9fe-1f95666630a5?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">articles</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/6257276a-d1a0-4840-a29b-64300c127fbe?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">on</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c49feb00-c8d9-49ca-a56b-dc8635f38b35?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">the </a>“wave” of retail theft. And Business Insider <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c9d50c97-62a8-4434-8d53-8ed6ed69a726?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">published</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ee0270ff-3a4e-4923-a8f4-6598bc2ce3a2?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">at</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/bc990dbf-b2fc-47da-9412-497b548612ce?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">least</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/5c7b215a-2baf-482b-b419-4a4c66db5bf4?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">18</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/d61f621a-1c63-43fc-8d54-f21a5e3c021a?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">stories</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/6c337aaa-2658-47a9-8c71-d1638afc22df?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">on</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/52d3300a-bbd4-49ab-b3e9-11b149f19bad?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">how</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/8764a1f2-0498-4d3b-b154-7623875075e4?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">retail</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/b6b2c117-8266-410f-a2d2-c5d6e3021d8a?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">theft</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/398fd4fd-cfcf-43cf-88cf-4e3c513727be?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">has</a> “ballooned” into a billion dollar problem for companies. According to the Center for Just Journalism, the number of stories featuring the keywords “organized retail crime” or “organized retail theft” increased by <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/28343863-eb67-4e35-a9d4-b082d737a221?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">more than 270%</a> between 2020 and 2021. </font></p><p style="line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The overblown claims in this media coverage have political consequences. Walgreens’ theft concerns was “a flash point in a stinging criminal justice debate that helped <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/57c60f27-de57-4cf1-a2a0-42cda6cca0b2?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw">electrify the recall of former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” California Republican Chair Jessica Millan Patterson wrote in an op-ed that the Walgreens closures were evidence that “</span><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/61627e9e-285e-43c1-8c7e-783fe78a70be?j=eyJ1IjoiN3ltancifQ.i0HJl3aVWG8sHp566T-pebMssFGKcgvxVOFLuZyEDpw" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Democratic policies have created a crime spike.</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” Boudin was removed from office by voters in June 2022.</span></font></p><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma 1 23</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mainstream news outlets are already failing in their coverage of a newly created House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government by allowing false Republican claims to go unchallenged, and omitting crucial context about suppression of left-wing groups at the hands of federal law enforcement.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The new committee is chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), and was reportedly established as a concession to hardline opponents of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in his recent, rocky bid for the chamber’s top office. Jordan and his team have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/10/house-vote-republicans-committee-investigate-government/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">set their sights</a> on the Department of Justice, the FBI, the IRS, and other offices that Republicans <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/conservatives-use-trumps-mar-lago-search-scare-audiences-falling-line-behind-their" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">falsely claim</a> are specifically targeting and persecuting conservatives.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In describing the committee’s investigative prospects, several mainstream outlets allowed false or misleading claims to go unchallenged.</font></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; clear: both; list-style: none; padding: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Axios</strong> <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/01/11/republican-federal-law-enforcement-weaponization?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiossneakpeek&stream=top" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">described</a> Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY), who has announced his spot on the subcommittee, as “a libertarian-minded conservative long skeptical of the federal security apparatus,” who “pointed to I<b>RS targeting of Tea Party groups in the 2010s and Trump's sparring with the FBI as inflection points.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Axios failed to inform its readers that Massie’s claim of a partisan witch hunt by the IRS is false.</span> Although the IRS did audit some Tea Party groups, the agency also targeted “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/10/05/555975207/as-irs-targeted-tea-party-groups-it-went-after-progressives-too" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">scores</a>” of progressive groups for audits as well.</font></p></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The New York Times</strong> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/us/politics/house-republican-committee-weaponization-government.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">reported</a> that the committee is planning to investigate “allegations that the federal government encouraged Twitter to discriminate against Republicans and the treatment of conservative or right-wing protesters at school board meetings and abortion clinics.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Readers of the Times’ coverage wouldn’t know that Twitter, in fact, has shown a <a href="https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/Penn-research-Twitter-gives-conservative-news-greater-visibility-liberal-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">bias</a> toward promoting conservative content, not suppressing it</span>. Conservatives have also claimed, <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2022/04/attorney-general-never-called-concerned-parents-domestic-terrorists/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">falsely</a>, that the DOJ has targeted parents at school boards, including identifying them as domestic terrorists. Although the Times didn’t use that phrase, their coverage failed to challenge the myth that conservative parents are facing federal persecution.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the focuses of the subcommittee is likely to be an examination of the FBI and DOJ’s case against a group of men who plotted to <b>kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. T</b>he FBI used undercover agents and informants in their investigation, which conservatives have <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/08/jury-deadlocked-on-some-charges-in-whitmer-kidnap-plot-trial-00024095" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">argued</a> could amount to entrapment.</font></p></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Politico</strong>’s <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/10/house-republicans-justice-department-00077108" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">article</a> on the subcommittee, they quoted Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), who cited the Whitmer case, and asked, “Exactly what is the line on entrapment and then the law on entrapment?” </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although that is a fair question to ask in the abstract, Politico’s readers could be left thinking that the FBI specifically uses informants against right-wing movements. In fact, the FBI has been using <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/121360/fbi-keeps-overhyping-threat-would-be-isis-recruits" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">informants extensively</a> against Muslims at least since 9/11. John Miller, a high ranking police officer turned conservative pundit turned CNN analyst <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/cnn/new-cnn-chiefs-first-major-hire-retired-cop-who-recently-lied-about-nypd-spying-muslims-after" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">exemplifies</a> the right-wing impulse towards increased investigations of Muslim communities.</font></p></li></ul><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">None of these articles include broader historical context, which is that the FBI has disproportionately <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-history-policing-left-progressive-far-right-extremism-2021-3" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">targeted</a> left-wing movements since its inception</span>. None of them include more recent examples of the FBI targeting the left, either, especially FBI operations to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/08/20/1029625793/black-lives-matter-protesters-targeted" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">infiltrate</a> and <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/10/29/fbi-surveillance-black-activists/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">spy</a> on Black activists, including creating the ridiculous category of “<a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/leaked-fbi-documents-raise-concerns-about-targeting-black-people-under-black-identi-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Black Identity Extremist</a>” to justify the Bureau’s actions.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those real documented examples of FBI overreach are nowhere to be found in this overly credulous mainstream coverage. Nor are readers given an adequate sense of what this committee is likely actually about, as detailed recently by a <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump-aligned think tank called the Center for Renewing America, which released a proposed federal <a href="https://americarenewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Budget-Center-for-Renewing-America-FY23.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">budget</a> sharing almost the exact same title as the new subcommittee.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRA is run by <a href="https://twitter.com/johnknefel/status/1550458009905758208" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Christian nationalist</a> Russ Vought, who served as former President Donald Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget. His organization’s budget proposal makes clear that the conservative aim here is <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/center-renewing-america-has-plan-unleash-fbi-its-political-enemies" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">unleashing</a> the FBI on the right’s political enemies while ensuring immunity for themselves.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All of that context is crucial to understanding this new subcommittee, and the new Republican House majority writ large. Jordan and company haven’t even begun their work, but mainstream outlets are already falling short.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wildfire plus rain = mud slide</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma 1 23</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bomb cyclone and mult atmos rivers!</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><ul class="field field--name-field-stories-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden l--gutter-pull narrative-list" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px -56.2625px 1.5em; list-style: none; padding: 0px;"><li class="narrative-listitem-bullet narrative-listitem" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; padding: 0px 56.2625px 3rem; position: relative;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">b<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/atmospheric-river-floods-northern-california-rcna63902" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgb(25, 118, 210) 0px -2px 0px inset;">eginning on New Year’s Eve</a>, heavy rains resulting from two distinct weather events have inundated parts of California, breaching a levee, causing flooding and power outages, and yielding multiple<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/01/05/at-least-two-dead-and-nearly-180000-without-power-in-california-brutal-system/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"> fatalities</a>. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/03/climate/california-flood-atmospheric-river.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Climate scientist Daniel Swain explained</a> that the warmer atmosphere resulting from climate change means these weather systems can hold exponentially more precipitation.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/01/01/san-francisco-flooding-rainfall-record/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">According to The Washington Post</a>,<b> “While storms like this do periodically occur, heavy precipitation rates are made more likely by the effects of human-induced climate change, which is warming the atmosphere.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">However, a review of coverage by national TV news from December 31 through January 4 of the first atmospheric river that hit California and the second atmospheric river, </span><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/atmospheric-river-rcna64080" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">which </a><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/atmospheric-river-rcna64080" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">triggered</a><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/atmospheric-river-rcna64080" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"> a “bomb cyclone</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">,” found that with</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> one exception, cable news networks — CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC — and national broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC — failed to link these events to our warming climate.</span></font></p><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TV News failed to explain how climate change is making precipitation events, like those that have flooded parts of California, more severe and more frequent</font></h4><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Print and online news sources have contextualized the extreme weather events devastating California:</font></p><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; clear: both; list-style: none; padding: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/01/03/atmospheric-rivers-threaten-california-as-state-reels-from-deadly-storm" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Axios noted</a> in its report of the storms pummeling California that “climate change is adding even more moisture to atmospheric rivers, enabling them to dump higher rain and snow totals.”</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/03/climate/california-flood-atmospheric-river.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">New York Times</a> published a January 3 article titled “How Climate Change Is Shaping California's Winter Storms” which specifically addressed the role of a warming climate in the severity of the storms.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/atmospheric-river-rcna64080" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">NBCNews.com</a> included research by The Center for Western Weather and Extremes, which warned about the future of storms if climate change continues unabated, noting, “Flooding damage from atmospheric rivers in the West could double or triple by the end of the century.”</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; list-style: none; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-weather-climate-and-environment-storms-europe-819908345ed948e078d72e7de9fcd4bb" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">The Associated Press</a> led with climate change in its January 4 article on the storms beginning the report: “In a world getting used to extreme weather, 2023 is starting out more bonkers than ever and meteorologists are saying it’s natural weather weirdness with a bit of help from human-caused climate change.”</font></li></ul><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But TV news largely failed to explain how climate change is fueling these storms.  </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of the 60 segments aired by national TV news networks from December 31 through January 4, 2023, only 1 mentioned climate change. </font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cable news — CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC — aired a total of 33 combined segments on the California rain. CNN covered the storms the most, with 24 segments, followed by Fox News with 8 and MSNBC with a single segment. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">CNN was the only network to air a segment linking climate change to the storms impacting California. </span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">In an exchange between CNN anchor Kate Bolduan and San Francisco Mayor London Breed on the January 4 edition of <b><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">At This Hour</span>, </b>the two discussed the ongoing impacts of climate change on California, including its historic drought and worsening wildfires, and concluded that preparation for the climate crisis is not a future exercise but an imperative for a crisis that is unfolding now</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. [cnn vid]</span></font></p></div></div></li><li class="narrative-listitem-bullet narrative-listitem" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; padding: 0px 56.2625px 3rem; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">national broadcast news ABC, CBS, and NBC aired a combined 27 segments on California storms during the same time period. None of ABC’s 11 segments, NBC’s 9, or CBS’ 7 segments mentioned climate change. </font></p></li><li class="narrative-listitem-bullet narrative-listitem" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; padding: 0px 56.2625px 3rem; position: relative;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TV News must stop relegating climate-fueled extreme events to a season – they are now happening year-round</font></h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Extreme weather has become a year-round phenomenon not limited to the heat and megastorms that usually peak over a few months of the year. In 2022, <a href="https://www.kxan.com/weather-traffic-qas/texas-tornadoes-and-wildfires-is-climate-change-to-blame/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">wildfires torched Texas</a>, months before peak U.S. wildfire summer season, <a href="https://www.kxan.com/weather-traffic-qas/texas-tornadoes-and-wildfires-is-climate-change-to-blame/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">destructive unseasonable tornadoes</a> caused chaos <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/03/23/new-orleans-tornado-multivortex-rating/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">in New Orleans</a> and across parts of Texas, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/25/satellite-data-shows-entire-conger-ice-shelf-has-collapsed-in-antarctica" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">an ice shelf the size of Rome collapsed</a> in Antarctica <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/28/weather/antarctica-world-record-high-temperature-anomaly-climate/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">after temperatures reached 70 degrees above normal</a> in March. Even the hurricane that leveled <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/late-hitting-ian-keeps-expensive-and-high-risk-hurricane-season-on-track-fueled-by-climate-change-11664304818" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Florida hit later in the season</a> than storms of that magnitude usually do.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These supercharged winter storms should also be presented as an impact of our increasingly warming planet. However, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/how-broadcast-tv-networks-covered-climate-change-2021" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">climate coverage is still concentrated around the summer and fall months</a> that have traditionally constituted peak extreme weather season, with events outside of this period often left isolated instead of covered as part of the broader landscape of global climate events. The scope of how climate change impacts weather events is expanding, and TV news coverage needs to expand with it. </font></p></div></div></li></ul></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-news/how-2022s-best-extreme-weather-segments-point-way-forward-national-tv-news-extreme">https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-news/how-2022s-best-extreme-weather-segments-point-way-forward-national-tv-news-extreme</a></font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Much of 2022’s extreme weather coverage from national TV news outlets failed to connect the consequences of climate-driven events such as wildfires, hurricanes, heat waves, and megadroughts to their </span><a href="https://ugc.berkeley.edu/background-content/burning-of-fossil-fuels/" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" background-image="background-image" initial="initial" background-position="background-position" background-size="background-size" background-repeat="background-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" px="px" transition="transition" box-shadow="box-shadow" s="s" ease-in-out="ease-in-out" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" rgba="rgba" inset="inset">primary cause</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">: global warming induced primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Corporate broadcast and cable TV news reporting on extreme weather events in 2022 too often neglected to connect these disasters to the climate crisis, allowed systemic failures that are exposed by extreme climate events to go unchallenged, and failed to demand accountability for those exacerbating climate change, as well as its impacts and injustices.</b></div><div><div class="editorial-fullsummary" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 2.25rem; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 212, 221); border-top: 1px solid rgb(204, 212, 221); padding: 1.5rem 0px;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-content-summary field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">A roundup of this year’s extreme weather coverage found that national TV news shows mentioned climate change in only <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/broadcast-and-cable-tv-news-shows-mentioned-climate-change-just-17-extreme" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">17% of segments</a> about mid-June’s multiple concurrent extreme weather events, while broadcast and cable coverage of Yosemite National Park’s Washburn Fire from July 9-11 mentioned climate change in just <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-and-cable-tv-shows-mention-climate-change-37-segments" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">37% of segments</a>. Similarly, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-news/national-tv-networks-mention-climate-change-32-segments-global-extreme-heat" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">only 32%</a> of national TV news segments about the global extreme heat waves from July 16-18 mentioned climate change.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">During broadcast and cable news coverage of a record-breaking heat dome that afflicted the American West from late-August through early-September, climate change was mentioned in <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/national-tv-news-networks-barely-mention-climate-change-record-breaking-heat" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">only 12% of segments</a>. And, from August 25 through September 15, national TV news coverage of Pakistan’s catastrophic floods mentioned climate change in <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/national-tv-news-coverage-pakistans-historic-devastating-flooding-largely-lacked" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">35 of 78 segments</a>. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moving into hurricane season, broadcast and cable news coverage of Hurricane Fiona from September 14-20 mentioned climate change in only <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media-matters-studies-climate-change-coverage/tv-news-networks-mentioned-climate-change-just-3" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7 out of 233 segments</a>, while national TV news coverage of Hurricane Ian mentioned climate only <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-news/climate-denial-and-near-climate-silence-has-marred-national-tv-news-coverage-hurricane" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">46 times across 1,020 segments</a>. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>There were some notable positive examples among 2022’s extreme weather segments, however, </b>which contextualized the role of climate change, amplified voices from vulnerable communities, and demanded accountability for the polluting industries driving the climate crisis. As such, they should serve as a model for how broadcast and cable news shows should approach their coverage of extreme weather in 2023 and going forward.</font></p></div></div><div class="editorial-fullarticle" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 2.25rem;"><div class="field field--name-field-stories-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here are a few of the best extreme weather segments aired in 2022</font></h3></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Broadcast</font></strong></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of broadcast news’ better segments aired during the July 18 episode of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">CBS Mornings</em>, which demonstrated how extreme weather coverage benefits from experts who can credibly communicate climate science and the urgency of climate action to viewers. The segment, which was about the extreme heat gripping multiple places on Earth, featured an interview with Kirsty McCabe of the U.K.’s Royal Meteorological Society, who stated that “climate change has everything to do with the extreme weather that we're seeing at the moment — and it's human-induced climate change, it’s not a natural variation.” She also noted that “if we don't do something now and take drastic action, we will continue to see these things happening."[vid]</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><b><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">one of the strongest extreme weather segments on either broadcast or cable news aired during the September 20 episode of</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box">CBS Mornings</span></b><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">. Correspondent David Begnaud, who also did</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-tv-news-needs-break-its-cycle-shallow-coverage-extreme-weather-0" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" background-image="background-image" initial="initial" background-position="background-position" background-size="background-size" background-repeat="background-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" transition="transition" box-shadow="box-shadow" s="s" ease-in-out="ease-in-out" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" rgba="rgba" px="px" inset="inset">exceptional reporting</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">during and after 2017’s Hurricane Maria, used a nearly eight-minute segment about Hurricane Fiona to demand accountability from the utility company currently tasked with rebuilding and improving Puerto Rico’s grid, and to amplify the voices of vulnerable people who face immediate risk when critical infrastructure fails....</span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/ron-desantis-and-triumph-anti-vax-right">https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/ron-desantis-and-triumph-anti-vax-right</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx vid</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div><b>fox News founder Rupert Murdoch became one of the first people on Earth to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when he received his first jab in December 2020. He thanked “the amazing scientists who have made this vaccine possible,” in a statement at the time, adding, “I strongly encourage people around the world to get the vaccine as it becomes available.”</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Two years later, such unqualified gratitude and support for the miraculous medicines are scarce among American conservatives, even as a new study found that <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">COVID-19 vaccines have saved the lives of more than 3.2 million Americans and prevented more than 18.5 million hospitalizations.</span></b> <b>Instead, thanks in no small part to the paranoid rants of Murdoch’s employees, Republican anti-vaccine sentiment has spiraled to the point that former President Donald Trump’s role in their development may hurt his chances of gaining the party’s nomination in 2024.</b></div><div>
</div><div><b>Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was on Murdoch’s Fox on Tuesday night talking up his call for the state’s supreme court to impanel a grand jury to investigate “any and all wrongdoing” related to the vaccines and “bring legal accountability to those who committed misconduct</b>.” It’s unclear precisely what such a grand jury would target or the impact it might have. As a <b>signaling</b> effort, however, DeSantis’ announcement put him squarely on the side of the anti-vax kooks at Fox and the faction of the GOP they influence. </div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">DeSantis fielded softball questions from primetime host<b> Laura Ingraham, who praised him for having “fought relentlessly against [the] medical cartel’s silencing campaign.</b>” As the governor spoke, on-screen text touted him as “still leading on COVID” and drawing mainstream press outrage for “challenging Covidians.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>Video </div><div>CitationFrom the December 13, 2022, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle.</div><div>
</div><div>DeSantis is likely to challenge Trump for the GOP presidential nomination. He enjoys broad support in recent primary polls and across the right-wing media spectrum, from Fox primetime hosts to anti-anti-Trumpers at publications like National Review to, reportedly, Murdoch himself. And it is clear to everyone – including Trump’s advisers – that in preparation for that run, he is staking out ground as the vaccine-skeptical candidate. </div><div>
</div><div><b>DeSantis is following the path blazed by Fox hosts like Ingraham and Tucker Carlson.</b> Anti-vaccine sentiment would likely have become a problem for the vaccination campaign under any circumstances.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);"> But it took the network’s patented ability to manufacture grievances to turn it into a compelling primary issue for Republican politicians.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Fox spent the last two years sabotaging the U.S. vaccination effort. The network had a unique moral responsibility to try to convince their viewers to get vaccinated. Instead, its most prominent and trusted figures waged a nightly battle against the shots, stoking fears that they were useless or dangerous and that their distribution was part of a sinister plot to control Americans. The discourse was “great for ratings” – but deadly for Republicans, who were vaccinated against COVID-19 at lower rates and died from it at higher ones.</div><div>
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</b></div><div><b>Some right-wing commentators, even at Fox, tried to push back against that narrative and encourage vaccination. But ultimately, they lost the argument within the movement.</b></div><div>
</div><div><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">DeSantis followed the shift in right-wing public opinion, choosing to preserve his political viability rather than the lives of his constituents</span>. </b>DeSantis once touted his own efforts to distribute the vaccines, which he credited with “saving lives.” But once he saw which way the wind was blowing on the right, he started trying to appeal to the anti-vaccine right. <b>Meanwhile, Trump himself has been flummoxed, getting booed by a crowd for saying he got his booster and eschewing the word “vaccine” on the stump.</b></div><div>
</div><div>It is a testament to the power of Fox’s propaganda that the network was able to turn life-saving drugs into a poisoned chalice for Trump – and that perhaps his greatest rival adjusted his views on them to appeal to its viewers. </div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"don't look up" movie IRL</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/british-meteorologist-giggling-news-anchor/">
</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/british-meteorologist-giggling-news-anchor/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/british-meteorologist-giggling-news-anchor/</a></font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/how-news-outlets-handled-trumps-2020-coup-attempt-their-reports-his-2024-run">https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/how-news-outlets-handled-trumps-2020-coup-attempt-their-reports-his-2024-run</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="font-size: small;"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">yahoo mail 11 22 judd pop info</font></div><div><div class="yiv4451579149post yiv4451579149typography" style="line-height: 26px; padding: 16px 0px 0px;"><div class="yiv4451579149body yiv4451579149markup" style="line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: initial; width: 550px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">shortly after he took office, President Biden <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ffea3406-96db-43fd-b448-13311eaa4391?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">announced a goal</a> of building 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030, enough clean energy to power 10 million homes. For the administration, the offshore wind target was a part of a larger strategy of reducing carbon pollution and putting the country on track for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But, like many clean energy plans, this one was met with immediate resistance. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In August 2021, CBS News reported that Nantucket Residents Against Turbines — or ACK Rats — launched <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/70b1a3cc-f631-4169-9ad7-dbadb009f888?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">a lawsuit</a> against the administration's offshore wind plans. The Massachusetts-based resident group argued that offshore wind development “poses a threat to the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.” </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A few months later, a resident group in New Jersey launched another lawsuit against the Biden administration. Bob Stern, president of Save Long Beach Island, <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/90162522-edd1-4e3c-9d74-53e6d5afe9b5?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">told Reuters</a> that he and his fellow residents worried that the wind turbines would destroy their local tourism economy. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Within a year of announcing the goal, the Biden administration faced lawsuits from resident groups in every coastal state from Maine to North Carolina. Some groups sued over endangered whales. Others argued that the turbines would hurt their property values or the local fishing industry. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If you only read the news stories about these lawsuits, you might think this was yet another example of wealthy residents blocking clean energy development. Or you might see a familiar story of environmentalists getting in the way of environmental progress. But you’d be missing the most important part of the story. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Nearly every story neglects to mention these groups are being funded by a far-right think tank that receives funding from fossil fuel companies and billionaires.</span></font></p><h2 class="yiv4451579149header-with-anchor-widget" style="line-height: 1.16em; margin: 1em 0px 0.625em; position: relative;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Who’s behind the offshore wind lawsuits?</font></strong></h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/b83c20bf-3200-4bd8-ab27-b988cd897cc4?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">their website</a>, Protect Our Coast NJ — one of the groups opposing Biden’s offshore wind plans — is a group of “residents, homeowners, business owners, fishermen and visitors of the New Jersey coastal communities.” Media reports accept this description at face value. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In May 2022, Ashbury Park Press — the third largest newspaper in New Jersey — ran <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/8fc1d150-7d58-487e-a9e3-c452edd1547a?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">a story</a> about Protect Our Coast NJ with the headline, “Could offshore wind turbines blow away Long Beach Island tourism?” The story positions Protect Our Coast NJ as a group of residents and features many of the talking points and studies on the nonprofit’s website:</font></p><blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid rgb(237, 118, 50); margin: 20px 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ric Bertsch, an Ocean City resident and member of the group Protect Our Coast NJ, which opposes the wind projects as they are currently designed, said he worries about the impacts to communities like his own.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He said the county will suffer the consequences of New Jersey's new experiment with offshore wind turbines, which will harm the tourist experience and block large swaths of ocean from commercial fishing</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The only brand (in Ocean City) that we have to offer the world is our old-fashioned values, our quiet, our peaceful place to be," said Suzanne Hornick, also of Ocean City and leading member of Protect Our Coast NJ. "This (wind turbine project) really screws with our brand."</font></p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As of this writing, the “Donate” button on the Protect Our Coast NJ website redirects to a PayPal link that reads “<b style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Donate to Caesar Rodney Institute.” </b></font></p><div class="yiv4451579149captioned-image-container-static" style="line-height: 26px; margin: 32px auto;"><table class="yiv4451579149image-wrapper" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-collapse: collapse;" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px;"><td style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; word-break: normal; text-align: center;">
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</td></tr></tbody></table></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Caesar Rodney Institute (CRI) </b>is one of more than 50 think tanks in the State Policy Network (SPN). As The Intercept’s Lee Fang <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/a763a231-d4f4-45d2-a7a0-d80d310eab4a?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">reported</a>, CRI <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ce77b6ba-c6e0-41b4-bd11-a6886be2c24a?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">receives funding</a> from fossil fuel trade groups like the American Fuel & Petrochemical Association. The think tank also receives funding from Donors Trust, the “<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/9a9b50c1-005b-45b6-8509-bcc18264622a?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">dark money ATM of the conservative movement</a>.” </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In September 2021, CRI’s David Stevenson — a former member of President Trump’s EPA transition team —  held a press conference in front of the Massachusetts State House where he announced <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/00afbc01-c4d7-41e0-8f7c-455c69c2e141?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">a legal fund</a> for groups fighting Biden’s offshore wind plans. </span>By that point, Stevenson had raised $75,000 from his network of donors, and said he hoped to raise $500,000 for the effort. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When asked by <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2377467d-6859-4e5c-923f-aba75000c85c?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">E&E’s Ben Storrow</a> who was funding the campaign, Stevenson said, “So far there is no Koch money, not that we wouldn’t take it.” </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRI’s efforts quickly attracted the attention of much larger conservative groups like the<b> Heartland Institute and Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)</b>.</font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"> In September 2022, one year after the press conference, both organizations announced a partnership with CRI to sue an offshore wind project in Virginia.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to the Union for Concerned Scientists, the Heartland Institute and CFACT have both received <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/9439eb0d-ecd3-4dbf-8096-14dc6f86ceb6?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">about $500,000</a> in funding from ExxonMobil. </span>The Heartland Institute <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/0c004762-186a-4a13-a82a-81af1c21f6d6?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">has been called</a> “a leading force in climate change denial.” Media Matters for America named CFACT Founder Marc Morano its <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/d396748f-cc5f-4dd2-bfea-471d1b3639ec?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">climate denier of the year</a> in 2012. Marano, who began his career working for Rush Limbaugh, has said climate scientists “deserve to be publicly flogged.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a press release, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>CFACT President Craig Rucker said, “We are not only very concerned about the future of the right whal</b>e</span></font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">, which extensively uses the ocean waters affected by the wind-power project, but also concerned as to how [the federal government] will address the fact that this project, <b>despite its alleged benefits regarding carbon dioxide</b> and climate change,</font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"> will actually cause the release of more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than it will consume</font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">.” This, like most of CFACT’s statements about climate change, is false.</font></p><h2 class="yiv4451579149header-with-anchor-widget" style="line-height: 1.16em; margin: 1em 0px 0.625em; position: relative;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reporters consistently tell a misleading story</font></strong></h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">None of these connections to the country’s infamous climate denial network are mentioned in the Ashbury Park Press news story about Protect Our Coast NJ. And the local New Jersey newspaper isn’t alone. According to a Popular Information analysis<b>, 11 media outlets have covered Protect Our Coast NJ. None of them mention CRI, its donors, or the legal fund. </b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Popular Information found that reporters routinely failed to mention connections to CRI when writing about Save Our Beach View, Save Long Beach Island, and Nantucket Residents Against Turbines, three of the other resident groups in the coalition. Instead, these articles spread many of the resident groups’ misleading claims about clean energy. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In January, Reuters wrote <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/90162522-edd1-4e3c-9d74-53e6d5afe9b5?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">a story</a> about Save Long Beach Island’s lawsuit against the federal government. The article did not mention the group's ties to CRI.</font></p><blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid rgb(237, 118, 50); margin: 20px 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bob Stern, president of Save Long Beach Island, told Reuters that they are concerned by the aesthetic impacts of the turbines, and potential lost tourism due to their interference with Long Beach Island's current unobstructed seascape. The group says tourism is the community's "economic lifeblood."</font></p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2019, researchers at the University of Rhode Island published <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/303537cf-28ca-4079-b579-92f8fee2ab2a?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">a paper</a> analyzing the impacts of offshore wind farms on tourism. They used empirical data based on the United States’ only offshore wind farm off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> The researchers concluded that the wind farm resulted in more tourism, not less.</span> This study isn’t mentioned in the Reuters story. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another frequent concern mentioned by resident groups is the risk to endangered species. CBS covered this last year when <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/70b1a3cc-f631-4169-9ad7-dbadb009f888?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">they wrote</a>:</font></p><blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid rgb(237, 118, 50); margin: 20px 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The "ACK Residents Against Turbines" who filed the lawsuit said the proposed Vineyard Wind project poses a threat to the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.</font></p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Jessica Redfern, a senior scientist at Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="blank" href="https://substack.com/redirect/934bad6e-7a27-46ec-bcc1-855eb6960b38?r=7ymjw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">told Cape Cod Times</a> that the greatest threat to the North Atlantic Right Whale’s continued existence “comes from collision with vessels and entanglement in fishing gear, particularly lobster pot buoy lines.”</span> She added,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> “Another big factor is climate change</span> and one of the ways we can minimize that is adopting clean energy (policies) and offshore wind is a great source of that.” She said she had never heard of Save Long Beach Island. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to misleading readers, this poor coverage creates more opposition to offshore wind projects and funnels local residents to the nonprofits’ websites and Facebook pages, which routinely share misinformation about clean energy. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Decarbonizing America’s electric grid and economy will require support from people in every community in the country. But, letting fossil fuel companies and climate deniers control the narrative is a sure way to turn communities of supporters into groups of passionate opponents. </font></p></div></div></div></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/hurricane-ian-pummeled-florida-facebook-allowed-anti-science-content-thrive">https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers<b>/hurricane-ian-</b>pummeled-florida-facebook-allowed-anti-science-content-thrive</a></font></div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/how-fox-news-weaponized-hurricane-ian-push-its-agenda-discredit-climate-science-trash">
</a></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/how-fox-news-weaponized-hurricane-ian-push-its-agenda-discredit-climate-science-trash">https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/how-fox-news-weaponized-hurricane-ian-push-its-agenda-discredit-climate-science-trash</a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/puerto-ricos-grid-failure-climate-justice-story-national-tv-news-failed-cover-it">https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/puerto-ricos-grid-failure-climate-justice-story-national-tv-news-failed-cover-it</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/right-wing-media-are-outraged-biden-spent-tenth-his-un-speech-climate-change">https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/right-wing-media-are-outraged-biden-spent-tenth-his-un-speech-climate-change</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing media are expressing outrage that President Joe Biden mentioned climate change during his September 21 speech at the United Nations General Assembly.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Biden’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bThDV2g5Go" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">nearly-30 minute speech</a>, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/world/europe/biden-russia-united-nations.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">focused mainly on the Russian invasion of Ukraine</a>, also included <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/09/21/remarks-by-president-biden-before-the-77th-session-of-the-united-nations-general-assembly/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">calls for global cooperation</a> on important issues including food insecurity, human rights, and climate change. The climate part of his speech lasted <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3994017" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">roughly 3 minutes</a> and included celebrating the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. He <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/biden-takes-climate-law-victory-lap-at-u-n/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">also</a> touched on recent climate disasters and the need for global emissions reductions, as well as promising billions of dollars in international climate finance.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite the relatively modest amount of time he spent on climate change, many in right-wing media were outraged that he even mentioned climate at all. Their comments included climate denial and falsehoods about the importance of climate change to the global community.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing media falsely claimed that the global population doesn’t care about climate change</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Climate change is a serious concern around the world. For example, a January 2021 survey found that a <a href="https://www.undp.org/press-releases/worlds-largest-survey-public-opinion-climate-change-majority-people-call-wide-ranging-action" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">majority of people around the globe</a> want greater climate action. And a September 2021 Pew poll found that the world’s population increasingly views climate change <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/09/14/climate-change-threat/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">as a personal threat</a>. In August of this year, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/08/31/climate-change-remains-top-global-threat-across-19-country-survey/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">another Pew survey</a> found that a “median of 75% across 19 countries in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region label global climate change as a major threat.” </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Additionally, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/afrobarometer-climate-week/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">people from the global south</a> — those who have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/05/02/scientists-just-showed-why-climate-change-is-enormously-unfair/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">contributed the least to the climate crisis but disproportionately suffer its effects</a> — are often some of the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/11/11/1054809644/climate-change-cop26-loss-and-damage" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">loudest voices</a> for <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/to-strike-a-climate-deal-poor-nations-say-they-need-trillions-from-rich-ones-11634568010" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">climate action</a>. Around the same time that Biden gave his UN speech, indigenous peoples from around the world <a href="https://grist.org/global-indigenous-affairs-desk/we-will-all-die-if-we-continue-like-this-indigenous-people-push-un-for-climate-justice/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">were protesting in New York</a> for climate justice. The president of Kenya made <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/world/africa/kenyas-william-ruto-unga.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">climate change a key part</a> of his UN speech, and the prime minister of Pakistan, a country that has seen over 30 million displaced due to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/09/19/1123798981/climate-change-likely-helped-cause-deadly-pakistan-floods-scientists-find" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">climate-fueled monsoon flooding</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/22/pakistan-pm-thanks-biden-for-un-speech-urging-world-for-flood-aid" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">thanked Biden</a> for “highlighting the plight of the flood victims.” </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Climate change and poverty, meanwhile, are <a href="https://www.undp.org/blog/climate-change-and-rise-poverty" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">inextricably linked</a>, as are climate change and <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/05/19/climate-change-food-insecurity-hunger-drought/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">global hunger</a>. These facts, however, were still not enough to convince right-wing commentators in the U.S. that climate change is a significant threat to the global population.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">For example, on the September 22 edition of Newsmax’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3994096" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Wake Up America</a></em>, host Rob Finnerty stated that “there's 193 sovereign nations in that room right there. … And nobody cared about that part of the speech. They needed a lot more from the American president, with everything going on in the world right now, and they get climate change.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On Fox News’ <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3994097" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Fox & Friends</a></em>, co-host Steve Doocy insinuated that people living in poverty don’t care about climate change,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">stating, “Suddenly he’s talking about climate change. And, you know, there are 675 million people living in poverty around the world. And for the president of the United States to be talking about climate change rather than trying to figure out a way to feed them.”</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Doocy also entirely missed the fact that Biden did discuss food in his speech; he mentioned the term “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/09/21/remarks-by-president-biden-before-the-77th-session-of-the-united-nations-general-assembly/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">food insecurity</a>” 6 times, while also mentioning “feeding the world.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/09/21/biden-started-strong-at-un-then-bumbled-his-way-into-woke-irrelevance/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">editorial board of the right-wing New York Post</a> also claimed that the world's poor don’t care about climate change. They referred to climate change as part of a “laundry list of left-liberal shout-outs,” before writing that the speech focused “on climate change, which Biden claimed lists first among the ‘challenges that matter most to people’s lives.’ The planet’s 674 million people living in abject poverty don’t agree, Joe.”</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing media also dipped into one of their favorite overused talking points when it comes to climate change: U.S. action is worthless because China is the biggest polluter</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There were also criticisms claiming China does not care about climate change. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3994098" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Fox & Friends</a></em> co-host Brian Kilmeade remarked about Biden’s climate comments that “climate change is unbelievable. The fact is that China could not care less.” On <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3994099" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Wake Up America</a></em>, The Daily Caller’s Briana Lyman took this China criticism a step further, stating that if “you want to talk about climate change, then you need to talk about China because China is responsible for more than double the emissions of the United States. … I think it's a dereliction of duty when he doesn't tie China and climate change together.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kilmeade’s comments ignore the fact that China is by far the <a href="https://www.grid.news/story/global/2022/08/17/china-is-beating-the-us-in-clean-energy-can-america-catch-up-the-race-in-five-charts/#:_{:text=China%20is%20the%20world's%20biggest,biggest%20investor%20in%20clean%20energy.&text=President%20Joe%20Biden%20just%20signed,electric%20vehicles%2C%20and%20much%20more.}" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">largest market for clean energy in the world</a>, and that its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/world/asia/china-climate-change.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">pledge to become carbon neutral by 2060</a> came about a year before the U.S. passed major climate legislation. Yes, its <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-08/china-to-add-more-coal-plants-than-thought-to-ease-energy-crunch" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">coal plants (and emissions) are a huge problem</a>, but to say that the country doesn’t care about climate change (especially when an <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/26/china/china-sichuan-power-crunch-climate-change-mic-intl-hnk/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">unprecedented heat wave</a> just hit the country) <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/07/opinion/cop26-china-climate.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">is absurd</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Regarding Lyman’s comments, Biden did <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/09/21/remarks-by-president-biden-before-the-77th-session-of-the-united-nations-general-assembly/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">mention</a> that the United States “will work with every nation, including our competitors, to solve global problems like climate change.” Immediately after this, he referenced China and said the U.S. will not seek out conflict with them. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lyman also touched on a <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2014/11/china-tries-to-save-earth-republicans-furious.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">longtime</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/world/asia/china-trump-climate-change.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">right-wing trope</a> about climate change: that countries like China are the problem because they currently emit the most carbon, and because of this, it’s foolish to think that the U.S. should act on climate change. But the <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-which-countries-are-historically-responsible-for-climate-change/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">United States is the largest historical emitter</a>; <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/chart-of-the-day/2021/10/the-us-still-produces-far-higher-per-capita-emissions-than-china" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">per capita emissions in the U.S. vastly outweigh those of China;</a> and many of our <a href="https://www.euronews.com/green/2021/11/02/deeply-unfair-to-blame-climate-crisis-on-india-and-china-campaigners-say" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">products are manufactured</a> in China. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Solely blaming China while absolving the U.S. for its own pollution problems and its outsized role in spreading climate denial does nothing for solving climate change in the long run.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing media also exaggerated the time Biden spent talking about climate change, and they threw in some good-old-fashioned climate denial</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Three minutes out of 30 is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/briefing/climate-change-heat-waves-us-europe.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">arguably not enough time to devote to a problem</a> that has led to a summer of destructive extreme weather across the globe. But it was still enough to annoy right-wing media figures. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Again on <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3994100" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Wake Up America</a></em>, host Rob Finnerty stated that “the president spent <b>a lot of time</b> talking about climate change during his speech. … This, of course, coming at a crucially important time. We’re seven months into the worst war in Europe that we've seen since World War II, and the president took the opportunity to campaign for Democrats and talk about climate change.” Additionally, on the September 21 edition of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3994101" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Kudlow</a></em>, guest Steve Moore falsely claimed that <b>“he spent half the time talking about climate change.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perhaps the worst reaction came from Newsmax host Eric Bolling, who went on a climate denial rant on the September 21 edition of <span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3994102" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"><b>Eric Bolling The Balance</b></a></span>. He called climate change “another made-up crisis lurking just around the corner,” adding, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” He then <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-climate-change/fact-check-al-gore-did-not-predict-ice-caps-melting-by-2013-but-misrepresented-data-idUSL1N2RV0K6" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">blamed Al Gore for supposedly inaccurate predictions</a> about climate change and chastised former President Barack Obama for buying a house near the sea despite being concerned about rising sea levels. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The right-wing blow-up over Biden’s climate comments is not surprising. To these figures and outlets, <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/4/22/18510518/green-new-deal-fox-news-poll" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">any action on climate</a>, big or small, is akin to a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/green-new-deal-drives-conservatives-nuts-so-right-wing-media-going-attack" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">radical socialist takeover of the U.S. economy</a>. In particular, the <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-vicious-response-california-heat-wave-harbinger-things-come" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">right has increased its climate denial</a> and criticism of climate policies in recent months. As climate change worsens and global citizens come together to clamor for climate action, right-wing media will continue to<b> double down on denial and lies to <a href="https://heated.world/p/fox-is-lying-about-wind-energy-these" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">protect their polluting interests</a>.</b></font></p></div><div style=""><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style=""><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Related</span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox News’ vicious response to the California heat wave is a harbinger of things to come</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">09/16/22 </span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As a climate-fueled heat wave stresses California's electric grid, right-wing media are disingenuously attacking electric vehicles</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">09/02/22 </span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Inflation Reduction Act is not the Green New Deal no matter what Fox News says</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">08/19/22 </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3%</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media-matters-studies-climate-change-coverage/tv-news-networks-mentioned-climate-change-just-3">https://www.mediamatters.org/media-matters-studies-climate-change-coverage/tv-news-networks-mentioned-climate-change-just</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/national-tv-news-coverage-pakistans-historic-devastating-flooding-largely-lacked">https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/national-tv-news-coverage-pakistans-historic-devastating-flooding-largely-lacked</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9 22</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>a case study in RW (media)  bad faith? jrnl fail</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha hmmn 8 22 connect to target fauci // bogeyman conspir req single cause/bad guy a la soros</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/how-right-turned-dr-fauci">https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/how-right-turned-dr-fauci</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">matt g</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many vid]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.”</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div><b>While Fauci once earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then-President George W. Bush,</b> his impending retirement was not greeted with plaudits from the right. On Fox News that night, <b>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</b>.” T<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">he 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.”</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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. </span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That reputation ultimately could not survive the relentless propaganda of the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">right-wing press, which needed a coronavirus scapegoat </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">and found one in the octogenarian scientist.</span></b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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.</span> </div><div>
</div><div><b>Trump’s media supporters could not or would not try to directly challenge the president, and settled instead on targeting Fauci,</b> w<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ho 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. </span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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. </span></div><div>
</div><div><b>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.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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. </span></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div><b>In July, Trump began publicly echoing the right-wing media’s concerns about Fauci</b>. 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. </div><div>
</div><div><b>Atlas effectively displaced Fauci as Trump’s top coronavirus adviser, and used that position to promote a “herd immunity” strategy</b> 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.</div><div>
</div><div>But the right’s attacks on Fauci continued over the months and years to come.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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.”</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>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.”</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> 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.”</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>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<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> 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.” </span></div><div>
</div><div><b>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.”</b></div><div>
</div><div>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. </div><div>
</div><div>“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.”</div><div>
</div><div>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.</div><div>----</div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-promise-harass-anthony-fauci-retirement-if-republicans-win-back-control">https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-promise-harass-anthony-fauci-retirement-if-republicans-win-back-control</a></div><div>
</div><div><div>no lnx vid</div><div><b>Right-wing media promise to harass Anthony Fauci in retirement if Republicans win back control of Congress</b></div><div>Fauci’s retirement announcement was met with a new flurry of vitriol from right-wing media</div><div>
</div><div>WRITTEN BY ERIC KLEEFELD, BUSHRA SULTANA & SHELBY JAMERSON</div><div>
</div><div>PUBLISHED 08/24/22 </div><div>
</div><div>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.” </div><div>
</div><div>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.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>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 investigator</b>s.”</div><div>
</div><div>Video </div><div>CitationFrom the August 23, 2022, edition of Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto</div><div>
</div><div>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.</div><div> </div><div>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.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Claims that Fauci is stepping down to avoid oversight</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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.”</span> [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8/22/22]</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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</span>. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/22/22]</div><div><b>Right-wing radio host Buck Sexton</b> claimed, “Sociopathic liar and political hack Fauci is making a run for it before Republicans can take over the House.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]</div><div>Right-wing radio host <b>Dana Loesch claimed Fauci “</b>doesn't want that GOP-controlled House oversight.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]</div><div>
</div><div><b>Fox prime-time host Jesse Watters </b>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]</div><div>
</div><div>The <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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.</span>” [Twitter, 8/22/22]</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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</span>.” [Twitter, 8/22/22]</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Calls for congressional Republicans to investigate Fauci </b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Fox prime-time host Sean Hannity declared that “Fauci still needs to be held accountable</b> 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]</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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.</span>” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 8/23/22]</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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.</span> [Fox News, America Reports, 8/23/22; FactCheck.org, 5/19/22]</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>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. </b>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]</div><div>
</div><div><b>Calls for Fauci’s to face criminal charges and/or prison</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Stop the Steal” organizer Alex Bruesewitz</span> 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]</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk declared that Fauci “belongs in prison</b>.” 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.”</span> [Twitter, 8/22/22]</div><div>
</div><div><b>Right-wing radio host Clay Travis wrote that Fauci “belongs in prison,” claiming he is the “most destructive bureaucrat in United States history.</b>” 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]</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Right-wing podcasters Diamond & Silk: “Fauci doesn't need to just step down, he should be arrested for Crimes Against Humanity!”</span> [Twitter, 8/22/22]</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Attacks on Fauci’s character</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>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]</div><div>
</div><div><b>Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy called Fauci an “authoritarian monster.”</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">She claimed Fauci “led our country on a Chinese-style approach instead of an American-style where we look at science.</span>” [Fox News, The Five, 8/23/22]</div><div>
</div><div><b>Washington Examiner’s</b> 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]</div><div>
</div><div><b>Fox News contributor and<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen</span>: “Never has anybody been so wrong about so much for so long and been so lionized as Anthony Fauci.</b>” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 8/23/22]</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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. </span>[Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 8/23/22]</div><div>
</div><div><b>Fox News’ Katie Pavlich said it is “sickening” the way Fauci supposedly let “power and fame” go to his head. </b>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]</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz </b>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]</div><div>
</div><div><b>Right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro called Fauci “a true douchebag.</b>” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 08/23/22]</div><div>
</div><div>Right-wing media gadfly<b> Benny Johnson</b> called Fauci “the most evil and malevolent character in my lifetime.” [The Benny Show, via YouTube, 8/23/22]</div><div>
</div><div>IN THIS ARTICLE</div><div>Fox News</div><div>Coronavirus (COVID-19)</div><div>Covid-19 / Coronavirus</div><div>
</div><div>How the right turned on Dr. Fauci</div><div>
</div><div>08/23/22 </div><div>Fox reacted to Dr. Fauci's COVID-19 infection with vaccine skepticism</div><div>06/17/22 </div><div>Fox News is the Republican Party. Here are over 400 examples proving it.</div><div>05/16/22 </div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/gov-greg-abbott-refused-connect-texas-recent-devastating-rain-and-flooding">https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/gov-greg-abbott-refused-connect-texas-recent-devastating-rain-and-flooding</a></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many vids</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">gov. Greg Abbott refused to connect Texas’ recent devastating rain and flooding to climate change. National TV networks largely stayed silent as well.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Special PROGRAMS</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CLIMATE & ENERGY</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WRITTEN BY TED MACDONALD</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PUBLISHED 08/25/22</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Between August 21 and August 22, nearly 15 inches of rain fell over the Dallas/Fort Worth area, leading to severe flooding and at least one death and marking the second-highest rainfall amount ever recorded at the area's airport. This record-breaking, extreme rainfall event was bad enough for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to sign a disaster declaration on Tuesday. But he refused to connect the flooding to climate change, and in reporting on the event, national TV networks largely stayed silent as well.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over a two-day period from August 22 to 23, news shows on TV networks ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC aired 61 combined segments or weather reports on Texas’ extreme rainfall and flooding. Only 10 of them (16%) mentioned climate change. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This is despite the fact that the event is being talked about as a “1-in-1,000-year flood,”</b> and scientists are linking this event to climate change. According to the Texas Tribune:</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The rise in average temperatures brought by climate change can strongly affect extreme precipitation events by increasing the intensity of rainfall during storms, climate scientists have found. Such events could become more frequent in the coming decades as the effects of climate change worsen.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Texas, rainfall intensity has increased by about 7% since 1960. And the risk of extreme precipitation events across the state is increasing even as the Western half of the state has generally seen a flat or declining trend in precipitation totals over the past century, according to a 2021 report by the state’s climatologist.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Texas could experience 30% to 50% more events of extreme rain by 2036 compared to 1950-1999, the report found.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In general, climate change has helped worsen precipitation and flooding worldwide.</font></p><p style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">NBC was the only corporate broadcast TV news network to mention climate change while reporting on Texas’ extreme precipitation event</font></p><p style=""><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">NBC mentioned climate change in 4 of its 9 segments (44%) on Texas’ extreme precipitation event. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Of those 4, 3 came on their morning news program Today, and one was on its evening news program NBC Nightly News. A good example came from the August 23 edition of the third hour of Today, where both NBC’s Sam Brock and NBC’s weather anchor Al Roker linked the event to climate change.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Video </font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Citation From the August 23, 2022, edition of NBC's Today</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style=""><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ABC and CBS, meanwhile, aired 9 segments and 6 segments, respectively</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. None of these segments connected the event to climate change.</span></b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cable news networks CNN and MSNBC aired only a combined 6 climate segments</font></p><p style=""><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b style="">MSNBC mentioned climate in only 3 of 11 segments (27%)</b>. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A good example came during an interview with Beto O’Rourke on the August 23 edition of The ReidOut, where he stated, “We're there for those who are undergoing the worst flooding and the worst rainfall that we've seen in a thousand years in this part of Texas. But, Joy, to your point, these are the consequences of our emissions, our inaction in the face of the consequences of climate change, and our inability to take the right steps, the action necessary to confront this before it's too late.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Video </font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">From the August 23, 2022, edition of MSNBC's The ReidOut</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>CNN mentioned climate change in only 3 of its 26 segments (12%</b>) on Texas’ extreme precipitation event. Of those 3, 2 came on the August 22 and 23 editions of The Lead with Jake Tapper. The other came during the August 23 edition of New Day.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>National TV networks do a much better job of connecting climate change to extreme heat and drought events than to other extreme weather</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While all extreme weather events are deadly and carry their own climate connections, national TV news has done a much better job this year connecting climate change to extreme heat and drought events than to other extreme weather. Over a five-day period between August 12 and 16, 57% of combined segments on global extreme weather events mentioned climate change. The large majority of these climate mentions came in segments on extreme heat or drought. Additionally, over another five-day period between July 19 and 23, 40% of combined global extreme heat segments mentioned climate change.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contrast this with extreme precipitation events. Over an eight-day period between June 14 and June 21, these same networks aired 49 combined segments on flooding in Yellowstone National Park. Only 7 of these Yellowstone segments (14%) mentioned climate change.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This discrepancy occurs even though over the past five weeks, there have been five 1,000-year rain events. All of these events have hit abnormally dry areas. Writing in The Washington Post, Matthew Capucci notes that “the weather facing the nation bears the fingerprint of a warming world. While it seems contradictory, both drought and flooding are closely tied to human-driven warming and are altering our environment and how we interact with it.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These extremely rare precipitation events are not new, either. For example, extreme rainfall in Newark, New Jersey, last year due to Hurricane Ida was a 1,000-year event. Destructive Western European floods in 2020 were a 500-year event. Going further back, 2017’s Hurricane Harvey in Texas was a 1,000-year event. Given these facts, there’s just no excuse for TV news not to be connecting these extreme precipitation events to climate change. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">National TV news also shows a bias toward the Northeast legacy media and power corridor when it comes to extreme precipitation events</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While these extreme precipitation events are occurring all across the U.S., it’s generally the Northeast U.S., where major media outlets are located, that receives the brunt of coverage. Evlondo Cooper of Media Matters made this point last year while discussing Hurricane Ida:</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unlike coverage of Hurricane Ida’s landfall in Louisiana at the end of August -- which included few climate mentions, discussions about the need to shore up vulnerable infrastructure against the new climate normal, or calls for political action -- national cable news coverage of Ida’s impact on the Northeast was more substantive, and even included in-depth discussions about the need to improve and protect valuable infrastructure on the East Coast.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cable news coverage on September 2 mentioned that climate change drove Ida’s destructiveness dozens of times, and 26 segments mentioned the storm’s impact on infrastructure or the need for climate resiliency. Throughout the day, cable news hosts featured public officials from impacted communities in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania who made the case for why their areas needed more climate-resilient infrastructure.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s the poorest communities, and those that generally have contributed the least to climate change, that will be hit the hardest by climate-fueled weather events. TV networks are willing to make the rain and flooding connection to climate change in places like New York, and they need to do it in places like Texas and the Southeast too.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Greg Abbott is a climate denier. National TV news should not follow his lead on climate silence</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Abbott, like many of his fellow Republicans in Texas, is a climate denier. It’s no surprise that he ignored the climate links to the recent flooding event. However, he holds office in a state that, in addition to the recent bout of rain and flooding, has suffered through climate-fueled drought and extreme heat this summer; suffered a polar vortex two years ago that proved that the state's electrical grid is not prepared for climate change; and suffered through the deadly Hurricane Harvey in 2017.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TV networks need to do a better job of linking the climate crisis to extreme weather events and also discussing how we can solve this crisis and better prepare for these events in the future. It should not be following the lead of someone who peddles antiquated climate denial views.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Methodology</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original episodes of ABC’s Good Morning America and World News Tonight; CBS’ Mornings and Evening News; and NBC’s Today and Nightly News as well as all original programming on CNN and MSNBC for any of the terms “precipitation,” “storm,” “disaster,” or “weather” or any variations of either of the terms “flood” or “rain” within close proximity of any of the terms “Texas,” Dallas,” “Fort Worth,” or “Tarrant” from August 22, 2022, through August 23, 2022.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We counted segments, which we defined as instances when Texas’ historic rain and flooding event was the stated topic of discussion or when we found “significant discussion” of Texas’ rain or flooding event. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the rain or flooding event with one another. We also included weather reports, which we defined as instances when Texas’ rain or flooding event was the stated topic of discussion by a meteorologist in front of a green screen.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We did not include passing mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker mentioned the rain or flooding event, or teasers, which we defined as instances when the host or anchor promoted a segment about the rain or flooding event coming up later in the broadcast.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We then reviewed each segment or weather report for mentions of the terms “climate” or “global warming.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IN THIS ARTICLE</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Broadcast Networks. cable</b></font></p><p style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">National TV networks get better at linking climate change to extreme weather events, but still largely fail to mention solutions</font></p><p style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">08/18/22 2:42 PM EDT</font></p><p style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">National TV networks do a poor job of mentioning causes of (and solutions to) climate change in segments on global extreme heat</font></p><p style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">07/27/22 3:32 PM EDT</font></p><p style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">National TV networks mention climate change in 32% of segments on global extreme heat</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">07/19/22 3</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">oligarchy corp media</font></font></font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/sean-hannity-2657922552/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/sean-hannity-2657922552/</a></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Thursday, August 18, CNN announced that it had canceled the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/brian-stelter-cnn-departure-reliable-sources-8c8b4bbd2035fc84c5c6f62807bb4642" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Sunday-morning show “Reliable Sources”</a> and that host Brian Stelter would be leaving the network. Reportedly, CNN’s new CEO and chairman, Chris Licht — who has said that he wants more “straight news reporting” and less commentary at CNN — disliked “Reliable Sources” and viewed Stelter, who spent a lot of time debunking Fox News hosts, as overly opinionated.</span></font></font></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Liberal economist Robert Reich, in an <font color="#0b0d65"><span style="transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">op-ed published by The Guardian</span></font> GUK on August 24, is highly critical of CNN’s decision to cancel “Reliable Sources” — and he views it as a glaring example of CNN changing for the worse.</span> Reich, who served as secretary of labor in the Clinton Administration and teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, essentially argues that if “Reliable Sources” had been canceled because it had terrible ratings, that would be one thing. But he implies that Stelter was fired for political reasons and a misguided effort to offer “balanced journalism” at a time when extremists who are threatening U.S. democracy have no interest in balance.</font></font></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“For several years,” Reich observes, “Brian Stelter’s Sunday show on CNN, ‘Reliable Sources,’ has been a reliable source of intelligent criticism of Fox News, right-wing media in general, Trumpism, and the increasingly authoritarian lurch of the Republican Party. Last week, CNN abruptly canceled the show and effectively fired Stelter and his staff. Why? The show was commercially successful. Its ratings have suffered somewhat lately, but it was doing better than several of CNN’s prime-time shows.”</span></font></font></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/cnn-is-seeking-a-cease-fire-with-fox-news-under-its-new-president-report/" target="self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">CNN is seeking a 'cease-fire with Fox News' under its new president: report</a></strong></font></font></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reich adds that “there appears to be more to” the cancelation of “Reliable Sources” than Licht’s view of Stelter’s “opinionated style.”</font></font></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Licht has told CNN staff they should stop referring to Donald Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ because the phrase sounds like a Democratic Party talking point,” Reich notes. “Licht also wants more ‘straight news reporting,’ along with more conservative guests. What’s motivating Licht? Follow the money. CNN’s new corporate overseer is Warner <b>Brothers Discovery Inc., which now owns what used to be Time Warner, including CNN. The CEO of Warner Brothers Discovery is David Zaslav. Zaslav has been prodding Licht to reposition CNN to the center,</b> and be a network preferred by ‘everybody.… Republicans, Democrats.’ But CNN is never going to be the network preferred by Republicans. Fox News has that sewn up.”</span></font></font></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reich continues, “As Republicans move further rightward into the netherworld of authoritarianism, there’s even less possibility that CNN’s news coverage will be able to satisfy them. Nor should CNN even try. If we’ve learned anything from Trump and his lapdogs at Fox News, it’s that facts, data and logic are no longer relevant to the Republican base. Even ‘straight news reporting’ depends on what stories are featured, which facts are highlighted and the context surrounding the news. This necessitates judgment and values.”</font></font></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Liberal Washington Post opinion columnist <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/pennsylvanias-next-governor-may-be-a-full-blown-insurrectionist-journalist/" target="self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Greg Sargent</a> has stressed that when mainstream news outlets are reporting on someone as far to the right as Doug Mastriano, the GOP gubernatorial nominee in Pennsylvania, they shouldn’t normalize extremism in the name of “balance.” And Reich, similarly, argues that “straight news reporting” becomes problematic if it downplays attacks on democracy.</font></font></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/cnn-republican-strategist-both-sides/" target="self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><strong>CNN cuts off Republican strategist for blaming 'both sides' for January 6th</strong></a></font></font></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The anti-democracy movement in America, as elsewhere, is among the biggest issues confronting us today,” Reich warns. “Is reporting on it considered ‘straight news’ or ‘opinion?’ Wouldn’t failing to report on it in a way that sounded alarms be a gross dereliction of duty? Besides, how is it possible to report on (former President Donald) Trump or Rudy Giuliani or any number of today’s Republican leaders and not speak of the Big Lie, or say they’ve broken norms, if not laws? So, what’s motivating Zaslav? Keep following the money.”</font></font></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Reich adds, “The leading shareholder in Warner Brothers Discovery is John Malone, a multibillionaire cable magnate. Malone was a chief architect in the merger of Discovery and CNN. Malone describes himself as a ‘libertarian,’ although he travels in right-wing Republican circles.</span> <b>In 2005, he held 32 percent of the shares of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. He is on the board of directors of the Cato Institute. In 2017, he donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration. Malone has said he wants CNN to be <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/uncategorized/discovery-media-board-chair-john-malone-lauds-fox-news-before-saying-he-wants-cnn-to-evolve-back-to-actual-journalism/?utm_source=CJR+Daily+News&utm_campaign=357a3c7e89-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_11_11_06_33_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9c93f57676-357a3c7e89-174376817&mc_cid=357a3c7e89&mc_eid=fef816934d" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">more like Fox News</a> because, in his view, Fox News has ‘actual journalism.’ Malone also wants the ‘news’ portion of CNN to be ‘more centrist.’”</b></font></font></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the final broadcast of “Reliable Sources,” Stelter stressed that it’s “not partisan” to defend “democracy” or “stand up to demagogues” and that “we must make sure we don’t give platforms to those who are lying to our faces” — and Reich applauds that statement.</font></font></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Sadly, there are still many in America — and not just billionaires like Malone — who believe that holding Trump accountable for what he has done, and continues to do, to this country is a form of partisanship, and that such partisanship has no place in so-called ‘balanced journalism,’” Reich writes. “This view is itself dangerous.”</font></font></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/bannon-cnn/" target="self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><strong>Steve Bannon lawyer squirms as CNN host backs him into corner over damning leaked recording of his client</strong></a></font></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7 22 </font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">jrnl fail: heat wave = pix of kids w/ ice cream ; weather = climate</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.desmog.com/2022/07/29/extreme-weather-climate-disinformation-droughts-hurricanes-floods-wildfires/">https://www.desmog.com/2022/07/29/extreme-weather-climate-disinformation-droughts-hurricanes-floods-wildfires/</a></font></font></font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></p></div></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wow omg ingraham?</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 7 22</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>with thousands dying from extreme global heat in recent days, and as President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/20/1112485228/biden-climate-initiatives" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">announced</a> new executive actions to address the climate crisis, right-wing media figures and climate deniers are downplaying the heat wave and the threat from human-caused climate change.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Europe, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/18/weather/heat-records-outpace-cool-records-globally-climate/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">extreme “red” heat warnings</a> were issued in the United Kingdom for the first time, and <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-experiences-hottest-day-ever-24521070" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Wales</a> recorded its highest-ever temperature. <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/7/20/23270092/europe-uk-heat-wave-roads-trains-climate-change" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Railroad lines, major highways, and airport runways</a> in the U.K. buckled under the extreme heat. Multiple regions of Germany also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/europe-uk-heat-wave-dome-record/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">set all-time highs</a>, as did at least part of Denmark. Over 2,000<a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/18/heat-wave-europe-death-toll" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"> people</a> have died in Spain and Portugal due to the extreme heat, which has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-france-fires-heat-waves-b7c3ecaba66d9851ba0381e68d207784" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">fueled wildfires</a> there and in parts of France. These record-setting events are not contained to Europe. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/18/heatwave-europe-unitedstates-records-uk/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Parts of the U.S. and Central Asia</a> are suffering from extreme heat as well.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even though the extreme heat event in Europe is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/15/world/uk-heat-red-warning-record-climate/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">truly exceptional</a>, and its <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2022-07-18/uk-weather-how-climate-change-impacts-exceptional-heatwaves" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">connections</a> to the climate crisis are <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/19/europe-heat-wave-climate-change-uk-france" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">unquestionable</a>, multiple right-wing media figures used the extreme heat event to downplay and criticize any possible action to address the climate crisis.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing media also attacked Biden for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/18/biden-climate-emergency-manchin/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">considering</a> declaring a climate emergency during this deadly heat wave. Instead Biden unveiled much more modest steps to address climate impacts, such as putting $2.3 billion toward community resilience and infrastructure and bolstering offshore wind development. <b>The Federalist <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/19/biden-has-no-right-to-declare-a-national-climate-emergency/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=biden-has-no-right-to-declare-a-national-climate-emergency" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">falsely declared</a> that “Biden has no right to declare a ‘national climate emergency</b>,’' though The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/20/here-what-could-happen-if-biden-declares-climate-emergency/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">explained</a> that such a move would “tap a variety of long-standing emergency authorities under the National Emergencies Act and other laws.” <b>LifeSiteNews <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/biden-may-declare-national-climate-emergency-wednesday-seize-executive-power-sources-say/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">fearmongered that </a>the emergency powers would result in “climate lockdowns.”</b> And other right-wing media <a href="https://www.facebook.com/100044290341097/posts/640797340739938" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">suggested</a> that there is no crisis at all.</font></font></font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a name="if6yj63wwbo3" id="if6yj63wwbo3" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Right-wing media denied the existence of the climate emergency</a></font></font></font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox News host Dan Bongino questioned</span> whether the planet is getting warmer and whether humanity played a role in it, asking:</strong> “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.” [Fox News, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hannity</em>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991184" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/19/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton wrote on Twitter:</strong> </span>“There is obviously no ‘climate emergency'.” [Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/TomFitton/status/1549393538621882368?s=20&t=xI6NTfOuJmdD_pFK7HxMRw" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/19/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Fox host Tucker Carlson devoted a monologue to undermining the existence of climate change,</strong> </span><b>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… The entire theory is absurd and they know it. … The whole thing is a joke</b>.” [Fox News, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tucker Carlson Tonight</em>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991247" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/20/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">On Fox, conservative British political commentator Douglas Murray dismissed the urgency of the climate crisis</strong>, saying, “Whenever there is not an absolutely vital recent emergency, we can always fall back on – oh and the climate emergency.” [Fox News, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Fox & Friends</em>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991203" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/20/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox anchor Dana Perino </span>asked: “What has changed with the science that would lead a president to need to declare an emergency?”</strong> [Fox News, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">America’s Newsroom</em><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991232" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">, 7/20/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox host Todd Piro</span> said that climate impacts, particularly the ones affecting the most vulnerable communities, did not meet his criteria for an emergency:</strong> “While we all love clean air and clean water — I, in fact, use both … this is not an emergency that we need to focus on today. We got a lot of other problems in the world.” [Fox News, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Outnumbered</em>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991221" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/20/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Fox host Sean Hannity responded to new actions by the Biden administration to address climate change by dismissing the role of human influence over global warming</strong> saying, “I think these might be acts of nature, and God, and way out of the realm of something that human beings can prevent.</span>” [Fox News, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hannity</em>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991245" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/20/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a name="nwglbsgxe8" id="nwglbsgxe8" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Conservatives also downplayed the deadly extreme heat</a></font></font></font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Climate change denying author Bjorn Lomborg dismissed the dangerous extreme heat event, writing on Twitter:</strong> “Standard climate scare</span>.” [Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/BjornLomborg/status/1548650922502389761?s=20&t=WLuGM0ZwK9BX9DHKyJLlXg" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/17/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Climate denier Steven Milloy</span> on Twitter dismissed a Washington Post article linking the Europe heat wave to climate change, writing:</strong> “Hot in some places. Cool in others. Just weather. Not climate.” [Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/JunkScience/status/1549384734735847428?s=20&t=xI6NTfOuJmdD_pFK7HxMRw" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/19/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Fox & Friends</span> </span>co-host Brian Kilmeade dismissed the dangers extreme heat poses to human health, saying:</strong> “Don’t panic. It is summer. If it was December and this was happening, then I would say, this is a little weird. But it's just a little bit hotter than usual.” [Fox News, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Fox & Friends</em>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/fox-host-downplays-record-heat-wave-dont-panic-it-summer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/20/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro said on his radio show that the heat wave and wildfires were being reported so fervently because “you always know that it’s the slow season newswise when you start getting weather reports from Europe.</strong> </span>… The thing that they will never tell you, the media, is that more people die of cold every year than die of heat every year, but the cold narrative doesn’t tend to play into the climate change narrative that they wish to progmulate.” [The Daily Wire, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Ben Shapiro Show</em>,<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991180" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"> </a><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991180" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/19/22]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Fox host Jesse Watters dismissed the extreme heat event as regular seasonal weather, saying:</strong> “Joe Biden has seen more seasons than a lot of us. He knows that it gets cold in January and hot in July.” [Fox News, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Jesse Watters Primetime</em>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991253" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/20/22</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Watters followed this up with an interview during which an on-screen graphic read: “Dems worried about weather, not real problems.</span>”</strong> [Fox News, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Jesse Watters Primetime</em>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991254" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/20/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox host Greg Gutfeld said: “We are in a full-blown heat wave hysteria.</span>”</strong> He said that while he does believe “it’s getting warmer,” climate advocates should “think about the opportunity cost of all the zealotry. You know? Panic didn’t work.” [Fox News, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Five</em>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991241" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/20/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a name="8kfrknpnzp7i" id="8kfrknpnzp7i" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Right-wing media also attacked the Biden administration for considering a climate emergency declaration</a></font></font></font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed on his Infowars show that a climate emergency would be orchestrated by a “scientific global dictatorship whose aim is 90% world depopulation,” and that it would lead to a “dystopia”</span>:</strong> “You’re gonna live in a 200-square-foot coffin apartment, you’re gonna be given forced inoculations five, six times a year, you’re gonna be sterilized, you’re gonna be killed.” [Infowars, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Alex Jones Show</em>,<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991215" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"> 7/20/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The Wall Street Journal editorial board called a possible emergency declaration “a serious abuse of power.</span>”</strong> [The Wall Street Journal, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-beast-mode-presidency-joe-biden-climate-emergency-democrats-sheldon-whitehouse-supreme-court-11658268249?mod=error_page" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/19/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Kilmeade called Biden’s executive orders tone-deaf and “<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">agenda-driven</span>,”<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> insisting that they “will do nothing but hurt the price of oil and gas.</span>”</strong> [Fox News, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Fox & Friends</em>,<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991128" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"> </a><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991128" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/19/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hannity quoted <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/sean-hannitys-hurricane-harvey-expert-climate-denier" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">climate denier Joe Bastardi</a>, saying on his radio show that Democrats’ response to climate change is the “systemic dismantling of the American way of life. It’s not a rational response to a climate crisis.”</strong> [Premiere Radio Networks, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Sean Hannity Show</em>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991182" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/19/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hosts of Fox’s <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Outnumbered</span> claimed a possible<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> climate emergency declaration from Biden “could cause a global depression,” is “suicide,” and is “going to kill the economy.</span>”</strong> [Fox News, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Outnumbered</em>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991127" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">7/19/22</a>]</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">related: Tucker Carlson tells idiotic lie that “no one really believes in global warming”</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">07/20/22 </font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox contributor calls for more coal plants as a solution to extreme heat</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">07/20/22 </font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>National TV networks mention climate change in 32% of segments on global extreme heat</b></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">07/19/22 </font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Punishing extreme heat is affecting countries all across the globe this week. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/18/weather/heat-records-outpace-cool-records-globally-climate/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Extreme “red” heat warnings</a> were issued in the United Kingdom for the first time, and Wales <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-experiences-hottest-day-ever-24521070" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">recorded</a> its highest-ever temperature. At least <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/18/heat-wave-europe-death-toll" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">1,100 people</a> have died in Spain and Portugal due to the extreme heat, which has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-france-fires-heat-waves-b7c3ecaba66d9851ba0381e68d207784" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">fueled wildfires</a> there and in parts of France. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/18/heatwave-europe-unitedstates-records-uk/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Midwestern U.S. and Central Asia</a> are suffering from extreme heat as well.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The European heat is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/15/world/uk-heat-red-warning-record-climate/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">truly exceptional</a>, and its <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2022-07-18/uk-weather-how-climate-change-impacts-exceptional-heatwaves" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">connections</a> to the climate crisis are <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/19/europe-heat-wave-climate-change-uk-france" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">unquestionable</a>. As climate reporter Andrew Freedman recently <a href="https://twitter.com/afreedma/status/1548699726358495235" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">noted</a> on Twitter, “the word ‘unprecedented’ is as overused as the phrase ‘the new normal,’ but the extreme heat event underway in Europe truly is historic. And it would not be as hot without human-caused global warming.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite the <a href="https://www.c2es.org/content/heat-waves-and-climate-change/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">clear links</a> between climate change and extreme heat, corporate broadcast and cable TV news programs failed to consistently connect climate change to these global extreme heat events. Out of 62 combined segments and weather reports discussing the historic heat waves on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC, from July 16-18, only 20 (32%) mentioned climate change<b>. The vast majority of extreme heat segments mentioning climate (16) were related to the European heat wave. </b></font></font></font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">News shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC ran a combined 27 global heat segments – 37% of them mentioned climate change</font></font></font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From July 16-18, corporate broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC aired 10 mentions of climate change related to extreme heat, and 7 of those mentions were in the context of reporting on the European heat wave. </font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Climate change was mentioned in 5 of <b>ABC’s 12 extreme heat segments (42%)</b>.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <b>Four of those segments were in the context of European heat, and 1 in the context of U.S. heat</b>. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The latter mention was by meteorologist Ginger Zee on <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3991123" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">the July 18 edition</a> of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">World News Tonight</em> and represented the only climate mention in a weather report on corporate broadcast news.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, NBC aired 9 segments covering the extreme heat, with 3 of them (33%) mentioning climate change – 2 in the context of U.S. heat, and 1 in the context of European heat. CBS aired 6 extreme heat segments, with 2 (33%) mentioning climate change – both came in the context of European heat.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The July 18 edition of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">CBS Mornings</em> included a good example of how extreme weather coverage can benefit from interviews with experts in the field who can credibly communicate the science and urgency of action to viewers. CBS correspondent Roxana Saberi interviewed Kirsty McCabe of the U.K.’s Royal Meteorological Society, who stated that “climate change has everything to do with the extreme weather that we're seeing at the moment – and it's human-induced climate change, it’s not a natural variation.” She later stated that “if we don't do something now and take drastic action, we will continue to see these things happening.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[vid?  the July 18, 2022, edition of <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">CBS Mornings</span></font></span></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">broken down by region, the corporate broadcast networks aired 11 news segments on the European heat, 10 segments on U.S. heat, and 6 that combined both European and U.S. heat. </font></font></font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In June, these same networks mentioned climate in <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/broadcast-and-cable-tv-news-shows-mentioned-climate-change-just-17-extreme" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">just 9% of combined segments</a> on various extreme weather events happening around the globe. Last week, they mentioned <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-and-cable-tv-shows-mention-climate-change-37-segments" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">climate in a combined 38% of segments</a> on the Washburn Fire, which threatened Yosemite National Park and its iconic sequoias.</font></font></font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cable TV networks CNN and MSNBC ran a combined 31 segments on global extreme heat – 10 of them, or 32%, mentioned climate change</font></font></font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MSNBC aired 10 segments on extreme heat, and 7 of them (70%) mentioned climate change – making them the best-performing network reviewed in this time period. Four mentions came in segments about European heat, 2 on both European and U.S. heat, and 1 specific to extreme heat in Texas. MSNBC also featured the only mention by cable news of climate change in a weather report, which occurred while reporting on the European heat wave on the July 18 edition of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Katy Tur Reports</em>. </font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CNN ran 21 such segments, and only 3 (14%) mentioned climate change. All 3 came in the context of covering European heat. While lacking in climate mentions during its extreme heat coverage, the network featured one segment that did a particularly good job of putting these events within the context of the climate crisis and articulating the high stakes of climate inaction. During the 5 a.m. hour of the July 16 edition of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">CNN Newsroom</em>, the reporter stated that “the extreme heat and drought fuelling what scientists say is a sign of the effects of climate change,” before going to climate scientist Michael Mann to explain further. Later in the segment, the reporter stated, “As the mercury climbs, scientists again warning [that] without addressing the climate crisis, weather events like this will grow more common and more extreme."</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[vid]</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">broken down by region, these networks aired 19 segments on the European heat, 10 segments that combined both European and U.S. heat, 5 segments on U.S. heat (two of which were specific to Texas), and one segment on the heat wave currently affecting Asia.</font></font></font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In June, these networks <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/broadcast-and-cable-tv-news-shows-mentioned-climate-change-just-17-extreme" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">mentioned</a> climate in a combined 21% of segments on various extreme weather events. Last week, they <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-and-cable-tv-shows-mention-climate-change-37-segments" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">mentioned</a> climate in 37% of segments on the Washburn Fire.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Notably, Fox News ran 4 weather reports on extreme heat, and none of them mentioned climate change. Two were specific to U.S. heat, and 2 combined both U.S. and European heat. We did not include Fox’s numbers in the full dataset due to the network's long history of downplaying the severity of climate change. </font></font></font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The heat will only worsen this week (especially in parts of Europe), so these networks have an opportunity to better incorporate climate change in their reporting</font></font></font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Temperatures are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/18/britain-europe-heatwave-record-temperatures/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">expected to remain very high</a> in the U.K. and France through July 19. Numerous record-high temperatures <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/19/heat-wave-warnings-millions-89-fires-rage-us" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">may be set</a> in the Midwestern U.S. as well on this date, giving these networks an opportunity to accurately report on climate change in their extreme heat reporting throughout the rest of the week.</font></font></font></p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Methodology...</font></font></font></h4></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></p></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 7 22</font></font></font></font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Indiana's Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita told Fox News anchor Jesse Watters on Wednesday evening that he intends to open a criminal investigation into the provider who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio that had to travel to The Hoosier State to obtain the procedure.</b></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The girl was 45 days along and unable to terminate the forced pregnancy because The Buckeye State banned most abortions past six weeks – with no exceptions for rape or incest – immediately following the United States Supreme Court's right-wing majority decision retracting the constitutional right to abortion in its reversal of <em>Roe versus Wade</em> on June 24th.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Indiana allows abortions up until the 13th week <a href="https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/judge-lifts-order-against-indiana-abortion-procedure-ban/2877548/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">as long as mandated conditions are met</a>. Its rules are likely to tighten, however, when state lawmakers convene in an <a href="https://www.aclu-in.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">emergency session on July 25th to discuss post-<em>Roe</em> </a><a href="https://www.aclu-in.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">policy plans</a>.</span>
</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/a-fanciful-tale-ohio-republicans/" target="self" title="view post: 'A fanciful tale'? Ohio rape suspect arrested after Republicans cast doubt on 10-year-old girl's story" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">'A fanciful tale'? Ohio rape suspect arrested after Republicans cast doubt on 10-year-old girl's story</a></strong>
</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/a-fanciful-tale-ohio-republicans/" target="self" title="view post: 'A fanciful tale'? Ohio rape suspect arrested after Republicans cast doubt on 10-year-old girl's story" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">In Ohio, the restrictions are predicated on what legislators and anti-choice activists claim is the detection of a heartbeat. But that contention is not supported by empirical medical data. </a><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/heartbeat-bills-called-fetal-heartbeat-six-weeks-pregnancy-rcna24435" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">As an April 17th NBC News report</a> noted, embryos have no structured heart at six weeks. Instead, there is "a tube that generates sporadic electrical impulses that eventually coordinate into rhythmic pulses."</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.livescience.com/65501-fetal-heartbeat-at-6-weeks-explained.html" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Live Science also explained in detail last September</a> that "after the detection of the flutter at six weeks, the heart muscle continues to develop over the next four to six weeks, undergoing the folding and bending that needs to happen for the heart to take its final shape."</font></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">On Tuesday, a 27-year-old suspect was taken into custody and confessed to twice assaulting the child</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The arrest occurred while numerous Ohio Republicans – including Governor Mike DeWine, Attorney General Dave Yost, </span><a href="https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1547307766557155333?s=20&t=c7xhfu1k2r0i6tUauA9E5Q" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">and Congressman Jim Jordan</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> – were publicly suggesting that the story was a fabrication</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><b>. The Wall Street Journal </b>Editorial Board called the account "a fanciful tale." None of them have issued a formal apology in light of the accused rapist's capture.</span>
</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Incidentally, Yost had expressed his doubts on Monday's <b>Jesse Watters Primetime. </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">During Wednesday's broadcast, Rokita blamed President Joe Biden's immigration policies for the crime despite the alleged perpetrator <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/ohio-man-charged-rape-10-163914748.html" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">having lived in Columbus, Ohio for seven years</a>.</span>
</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/witnesses-dismember-house-republican-infanticide/" target="self" title="view post: 'That does not happen': Witnesses refute House Republican's 'outrageous' claims of 'infanticide'" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Kevin McCarthy cites disputed fentanyl overdose report to push anti-immigration rhetoric</a></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/witnesses-dismember-house-republican-infanticide/" target="self" title="view post: 'That does not happen': Witnesses refute House Republican's 'outrageous' claims of 'infanticide'" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">"I shouldn't be here. I mean, first of all, this is an illegal immigration issue because likely of Biden's lawlessness at the border and everything going on down there. That's why Indiana as a non-border state has actually filed several independent lawsuits on that," Rokita said.</a></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While justice for the victim may be served in an Ohio courtroom, Rokita is taking a much different approach in neighboring Indiana.
</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Then we have the rape, and then we have this abortion activist acting as a doctor with a history of failing to report," he continued as Fox displayed a picture of the doctor who aided the underaged victim. "So we're gathering the information, we're gathering the evidence as we speak, and we're gonna fight this to the end, including looking at her licensure. If she failed to report in Indiana, it's a crime to not report, to intentionally not report."
</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Next, Rokita fired off several conspiracy theories.
</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/house-republican-women-birth-turtles/" target="self" title="view post: House Republican asks if women give birth to turtles or tacos" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">House Republican asks if women give birth to turtles or tacos</a></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="transition-property: color, background, opacity;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/house-republican-women-birth-turtles/" target="self" title="view post: House Republican asks if women give birth to turtles or tacos" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;" /></span><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/house-republican-women-birth-turtles/" target="self" title="view post: House Republican asks if women give birth to turtles or tacos" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><b>"This is a horrible, horrible scene caused by Marxists and socialists and those in the White House who want lawlessness at the border. And then this girl was politicized – politicized – for the gain of killing more babies, alright? That was the goal,</b>" Rokita declared. "And this abortion <b>activist </b>is out there front and center. The<b> lame stream media – the fake news</b> – is right behind it and unfortunately in Indiana, the<b> paper of record is fake news</b> and they were right there jumping in on all this thinking that it was gonna be great for their abortionist movement when this girl has been so brutalized."</a></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/house-republican-women-birth-turtles/" target="self" title="view post: House Republican asks if women give birth to turtles or tacos" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Watch below or at this link.</font></a></font></font></font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/house-republican-women-birth-turtles/" target="self" title="view post: House Republican asks if women give birth to turtles or tacos" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"></font></a></font></font></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">belated  post 2x?</font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Foxic:</font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">in 2018, myriad extreme weather events wreaked havoc across the globe. Dire, authoritative reports were released, confirming unequivocally that the climate crisis is happening, that it’s driven by the burning of fossil fuels and that it requires immediate and bold action.</font></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The first half of 2019 has already delivered more of the same undeniable climate chaos.</font></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But dangerous climate denial still persists in our political institutions, funded by Big Polluters and fed to large parts of the populace by right-wing media, further contributing to ongoing and deadly inaction.</font></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">In the face of a crisis that threatens our very existence, the </span><a href="https://www.multichannel.com/news/fox-news-ends-2018-as-most-watched-cable-network" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">most watched cable news network in the country</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> — the Fox News Network — is still promoting climate misinformation and deploying tactics to distract from the urgency of the climate crisis, ensuring that its viewers’ understanding of the issue is based on deliberately distorted facts and distractions.</span></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">The millions of Americans who tune into Fox News are regularly bombarded with messages intended to undermine climate science, cast climate advocates as hysterical and frame climate policy as </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">dangerous</span> <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">and un-American.</span></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">A review of Fox News programs</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> for the first half of 2019 reveals that the network continues to give ample airtime to long debunked climate myths and fringe deniers.  Among Fox’s roster of contributors on climate issues, not one is a climate scientist, and none has appeared on any other major network to talk about climate during the period reviewed.</span></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="section1" data-scrollanchor="" style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);" /></font></font><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Methodology</font></span></font></h4><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For this analysis, we searched Fox News Network television transcripts from the first six months of 2019 that mentions of “climate change” or “global warming.”</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></span></p><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Key Findings</font></h4><ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; list-style: none; counter-reset: ordered 0; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; counter-increment: ordered 1; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">From January through June 2019, Fox News Network programs mentioned climate change or global warming 391 times, which amounts to roughly 65 mentions per month.</font></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; counter-increment: ordered 1; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of those mentions, 247 involved considerable discussion of the issue. The remaining 144 mentions were brief.</font></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; counter-increment: ordered 1; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of the 247 segments, 212 or <b>86% were dismissive of the climate crisis,</b> cast warming and its consequences in doubt or employed fear mongering when discussing climate solutions.</font></span></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; counter-increment: ordered 1; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">Two programs, “Special Report With Bret Baier” and</span> <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">“Fox News @ Night”</span> <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">together accounted for 24 of the 35 segments that were neutral when mentioning climate change or discussion of climate solutions. And four of the five segments on “Fox News Sunday”</span> <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">with host Chris Wallace were neutral.</span></b></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; counter-increment: ordered 1; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News’s three top-rated programs for the first quarter of 2019 account for 35% of segments. They are “Hannity” (3.12 million total viewers on average), “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (2.98 million viewers) and “The Ingraham Angle” (2.43 million viewers).</font></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; counter-increment: ordered 1; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox News’s three top-rated programs ran 25 more segments, or four more per month, than MSNBC’s three top-rated programs. “The Rachel Maddow Show” ran 15 segments, “The Final Word With Lawrence O’Donnell” ran 10 and “All In With Chris Hayes” ran 36</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; counter-increment: ordered 1; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">In absolute terms, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” ran the most climate denial segments with 41 or approximately seven per month, followed by “Hannity” with 32 and “The Five” with 29. </font></span></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; counter-increment: ordered 1; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">Fox News programs had 10 contributors who commented on climate related issues at least twice during the six-month period.</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">  None of these contributors is a climate scientist and none has appeared on another network.   </span></b></font></li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; counter-increment: ordered 1; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Green New Deal, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and the Democratic primary were the main drivers prompting discussion of the climate crisis on Fox programs in the first six months of 2019. Combined, they provide the context for 62% of the 247 segments.  </font></span></li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; counter-increment: ordered 1; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></li></ul><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Denial Is Alive and Deadly on Fox News</font></h4><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With 391 mentions of climate change or global warming on programs airing from January to June, Fox News Network is far from silent on climate. </font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, Fox News three most-viewed programs are discussing climate more than their liberal counterparts at MSNBC. From January through June 2019, “Hannity,” “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” and “The Ingraham Angle” collectively mentioned climate change or global warming in 86 different segments. During the same period, “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “The Final Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” and “All In With Chris Hayes” ran a combined 61 segments discussing the climate crisis.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Overall, the right-wing network ran 247 segments. The vast majority — 212 or 86% — were dismissive of the climate crisis, cast its consequences in doubt or employed fear mongering when discussing climate solutions. A mere 35 segments were neutral on the issue or represented straight reporting on the climate crisis or solutions absent editorializing.  </font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">Two programs, “Special Report With Bret Baier” and “Fox News @ Night,” accounted for 71%</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> of segments</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> t</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">hat were neutral when mentioning climate change or global warming.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox Whistles: Top Three Messages Used by Fox News to Undermine Climate Action</font></h4><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A common tactic Fox News uses to undermine climate science, action and advocacy is to frame the climate crisis as a political construct. In these cases, the host or guest assigns values to climate that are misaligned with the network’s largest demographic — those who identify as conservative and Republican. These commentators rarely, if ever, address the body of scientific evidence or climate events directly, but rather project the issue through a political lens. Viewers are left to form opinions about the issues in the absence of facts and evidence. </font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the past six months, the following three messages have been invoked repeatedly, in some form, across the majority of Fox News programs, but were highly concentrated in the network’s most popular opinion programs. They are intended to elicit a negative response to the climate crisis and those who advocate the changes needed to address it.</font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Message 1: Climate Change Is a Vehicle for the Democrats’ Radical Big-Government Agenda</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seventy-two segments discussing the climate crisis (34%) suggested that responding to climate change, especially through policies like a Green New Deal, will result in government control over our lives.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Hannity” had the most segments featuring this message with 18, or 56% of total segments, followed by “Tucker Carlson Tonight” with 13 (32%) and “The Five” with 12 (41%).</font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Message 2: Responding to the Climate Crisis would Kill Our Economy and Send Us Back to the Stone Age</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Closely associated with the “Big Government” message and often used in the same breath is the suggestion that climate action would mean extreme individual sacrifice and the demise of prosperity. Fifty-five segments (26%) equate climate action, including the transition to a clean-energy economy, with economic collapse.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Hannity” leads again, using this message 11 times (in 34% of segments on climate), followed by “The Five” using the message 10 times (34% of climate segments). “Fox News @ Night” uses the message six times (26% of climate segments). </font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Message 3: Concern About the Climate Crisis Is Liberal Hysteria</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">Rounding out the top three messages is one intended to undermine the urgency of the climate crisis by painting climate advocates or climate scientists as “alarmists”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">, “hysterical”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">, “chicken littles”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> and a “doomsday climate cult.”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> These labels not only deepen the political divide; they send a clear message to viewers to interpret the latest science on climate as exaggerated and to view scientists and advocates with distrust. Twenty-six segments, or 12% of discussions on the climate crisis used this form of name calling or used the terms “hysteria”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> or “alarmism”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> when referring to climate science.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Hannity” used these labels eight times or during 25% of segments on climate. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” used them six times or during 15% of segments and “Fox News @ Night” used them five times or during 22% of segments.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox Fallacies and Tricks</font></h4><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to these partisan signals, Fox News Network employed a number of other false arguments and tricks to keep climate denial and doubt alive during an era when climate catastrophe is becoming increasingly apparent to Americans.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ad Hominem Attacks </font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the past six months, those who advocate climate action have been subjected to personal attack by Fox News hosts.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">U.S. Rep.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) has served as a regular punching bag for Fox News hosts and their guests. In one exchange between Sean Hannity and former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile, she jabs the network for its obsession with AOC, joking that programs have mentioned ”AOC well over 3,000 times.”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> For Ocasio-Cortez’s acknowledgment of the climate crisis and  support for the Green New Deal, Fox News has accused her of</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;"> “</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">capitalizing on a fear”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> and “pushing doom and gloom day and night.”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> She’s been called a “radical nut job”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">, “Scary-o-Cortez”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> and “dumb and totally ignorant of everything.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">While Ocasio-Cortez is by far the most vilified and attacked climate advocate, she is not the only one. Another example is provided by science communicator Bill Nye. After appearing on John Oliver’s HBO program, “Last Week Tonight,” Nye was Hannity’s “Villain of the Day.”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> A guest on “The Ingraham Angle” suggested that calling Bill Nye a scientist was akin to referring to “George Clooney as a doctor or Harrison Ford as an archaeologist.”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> Tucker Carlson suggested that Nye’s appearance was just a stunt to get his own Netflix series.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">Red Herring</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A favorite distraction tactic used by Fox News hosts is to pivot any discussion about warming to the “hypocrisy” of “elites” and “liberals</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” who advocate climate solutions.</span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> The argument is that, if climate change is an existential crisis, then climate advocates would reduce their own carbon footprints to zero. But because climate champions like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) fly on private jets and Ocasio-Cortez uses Uber instead of public transportation, the crisis must not be real or very urgent.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The hypocrisy argument takes many forms, but on at least 11 occasions in the past six months, Fox News hosts have referenced the use of air travel to discredit those concerned about climate or to question the reality of human-induced warming, like this example from Tucker Carlson on January 14:</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Elites love to impose gas taxes on everyone else while flying private to conferences in Switzerland, where they worry about melting ice caps.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> That’s obviously a scam. Let’s just be honest about it.</span></font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Whether or not driving or using other forms of private transportation is hypocrisy is not the point.  In reality, while individual action on climate is important, it is wholly inadequate for addressing the scale of the climate crisis. The crisis requires, above all, systemic policy responses that can be implemented only by governments. </font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Slippery Slope </font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">Another oft-repeated argument directed at climate scientists is that “they have been wrong before, so they must be wrong now.” The most common version of this argument is the myth that climate scientists predicted in the 1970s that there would be a dramatic period of global cooling. As Sean Hannity said in a typical segment, “Look at that, the big freeze, the next Ice Age is coming.”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> That’s what they told us in the ’70s. That then evolved into, uh-oh, the world has a fever, as Al Gore said and scaring people.” The reality is that a small pocket of scientists suggested the Earth could enter a new ice age in the next few centuries.</span><a href="https://skepticalscience.com/ice-age-predictions-in-1970s-basic.htm" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;"> At the time, 62% of climate scientists predicted warming.</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> Forty years of observation and analysis have brought that number up to </span><a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">97% of climate scientists agreeing that human beings are causing global warming.</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">In the past six months, Fox News has not once referenced the scientific consensus around the climate crisis. </span><a href="https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/climate-change-in-the-american-mind-april-2019/3/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">According to recent polling</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">, one in four Americans (25%) think there is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether or not global warming is happening, and a mere 17% understand that there is a scientific consensus that human-caused global warming is happening. This lack of public understanding cannot be pinned solely on Fox News, but the media plays a role in public perception and understanding of issues. And no other major media outlet is pushing out climate doubt, to so many viewers, as often as Fox News.  </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cherry-picking</font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Frequently during the first half of 2019, Fox News hosts latched on to singular comments by Democratic politicians and what they deemed to be extreme responses to the climate crisis. These topics were brought up and mocked repeatedly in an attempt to deny the climate crisis, discredit policymakers and vilify climate policy.</font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">The most common use of this tactic is the repetitive mention and mocking of Rep.  Ocasio-Cortez’s claim that “</span><a href="https://www.inverse.com/article/52659-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-climate-change" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">the world is going to end in 12 years if we do not address climate change</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">” (a claim she later deemed “</span><a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1127604746066583552" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">dry humor + sarcasm</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">”). The comment was made in reference to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) </span><a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">, which asserts that global temperature warming will likely reach 1.5°C by the year 2030. </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">Fox News hosts referenced Ocasio-Cortez’s world-ending comment 56 times in the first six months of 2019. Out of 56 references, the IPCC report was mentioned only five times. On only two occasions did the network discuss the staggering conclusions of the report that informed Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks. A premade video segment from correspondent Peter Doocy identified that the report “doesn’t call for the end of the world in 12 years, but rather irreversible damage to the planet in a decade if emissions aren’t quickly curbed”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> and was aired on two seperate programs immediately following Ocasio-Cortez’s comment. </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The video clip of Ocasio-Cortez’s claim was played eight times during the remainder of January and continued to be replayed 12 more times, with the last showing on June 4. </font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sixteen references to the world ending in 12 years did not reference Ocasio-Cortez. These mentions were used to mock advocates of climate policy, deny the climate crisis and criticize Democrats’ attempts to enact climate policy.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News Climate “CON”tributors</font></h4><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Assisting Fox News Network in climate denial and misinformation is a roster of long discredited climate contrarians whose views are solicited only by Fox News.  None of the following men have appeared on other major television news networks to speak on matters related to climate.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">When discussing climate change in the first half of 2019, the Fox News Network repeatedly featured and legitimized contributors whose</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> climate views contradict the consensus of the climate science community.</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> Many of these contributors have ties to the fossil fuel industry and have been criticized for spreading misinformation about climate change. Notably, none are climate scientists. The following contributors each appeared on the Fox News Network to discuss climate change at least twice in the first six months of 2019.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">Joe Bastardi </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">is a meteorologist and </span><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/joe-bastardi" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">a climate skeptic</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">. He is currently the chief forecaster for </span><a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2011/03/joe_bastardi_hired_by_start-up.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">WeatherBell Analytics LLC</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">. He also works as a senior advisor at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (formerly known as American Tradition Institute), a group </span><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/stunner-joe-bastardi-joins-the-extreme-anti-scientist-crowd-3ae0e59ee6b8/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">denounced</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> by the American Association for the Advancement of Science for contributing to an “environment that inhibits the free exchange of scientific findings and ideas.” Bastardi insists that carbon dioxide is not a major player in determining global temperatures: </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160911012919/https://patriotpost.us/opinion/42312" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">“I believe the sun, ocean cycles and stochastic events play a much more significant role.</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">”</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> He has been a contributor on Fox News Network for more than a decade. </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">In March, while appearing on “Hannity,” he </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">suggested that human activity is not  “controlling the climate,”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> which is effectively contrary to the conclusion of </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">n</span><a href="http://www.opr.ca.gov/facts/list-of-scientific-organizations.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">early 200 worldwide scientific organizations</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> and the </span><a href="https://ar5-syr.ipcc.ch/topic_observedchanges.php" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">Justin Haskins</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> is an editorial director and a research fellow at the Exxon Mobil and Koch Foundation-funded</span><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;"> Heartland Institute</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">. With a background in communication and political science, Haskins is largely involved in publications and productions by Heartland. In 2017, he published a piece detailing six reasons he was a climate skeptic and was </span><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/07/26/heartlands-6-reasons-to-be-a-climate-change-skeptic-are-six-demonstrable-lies/#d3a9f361899e" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">criticized for the falsehoods</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> they presented. </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">In April 2019, </span><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2019/04/25/Fox-Business-guest-pushes-climate-denial-I-see-no-evidence-whatsoever-that-capitalism-is-c/223561" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">Haskins told a Fox Business</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> reporter that he saw “no evidence that modest warming is creating any sort of a [sic] environmental crisis.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">Chris Horner </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">is a</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20171103003441/https://eelegal.org/biography/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">senior legal fellow</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> for the</span><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/energy-environment-legal-institute" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"> <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">Energy and Environment Legal Institute</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> (E&E Legal). Horner formerly served as a senior fellow for </span><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/competitive-enterprise-institute" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">, one of Washington, D.C.’s top conservative think tanks. CEI has received at least $2.1 million from fossil fuel giant Exxon Mobil. </span><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/chris-horner#s38" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">Bankruptcy filings for Alpha Natural Resources in 2015</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> exposed Horner’s deep financial ties to the coal industry and work he has done on behalf of big polluters. </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">In March, he went on “Hannity” to revive the debunked argument, intended to discredit climate scientists, that the same scientific community that is predicting warming </span><a href="https://skepticalscience.com/ice-age-predictions-in-1970s.htm" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">predicted global cooling in the 1970s</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">Rush Limbaugh </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">is a conservative political commentator and host of the radio talk show “</span><a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">The Rush Limbaugh Show</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">.” He does </span><a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/rush-limbaugh-keeps-conflating-weather-with-climate-change/vi-BBNhUQg" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">frequent segments</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> on his radio show pushing his conspiracy theory that climate change is the creation of agenda-driven scientists who develop computer models that exaggerate scientific findings in efforts to prove climate change. He has proclaimed himself as “an expert in debunking this whole leftist political argument in man-made climate change.” </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">In February, he appeared on “Fox News Sunday” again asserting that climate change is a hoax. </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">“Climate change is nothing but a bunch of computer models that attempt to tell us what’s going to happen in 50 years or 30,” Limbaugh stated. “Notice the predictions are never for next year or the next ten years. They’re always for way, way, way, way out there, when none of us are going to be around or alive to know whether or not they were true.”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">Bjorn Lomborg </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">is a political scientist, author, and the founder and president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center. Lomborg has published three books that downplay the risk of climate change, despite having no background in climate science. Lomborg has frequently asserted that the risks of climate change are </span><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/bjorn-lomborg" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">not great enough to justify</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> large-scale policies to reduce carbon emissions, instead </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/aug/30/lombard-missing-questions-climate-change" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">arguing</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> that “drastic carbon cuts would be the poorest way to respond to global warming.” Claims made by Lomborg in his books have been frequently criticized. His first book, “The Skeptical Environmentalist,” drew criticism for failing to “</span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101224181504/http://www.ucsusa.org/ssi/resources/the-skeptical.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">meet basic standards of credible scientific analysis</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">” and his second book, “Cool It,” for being “</span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160901191201/http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/Ackerman_CoolIt.pdf" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">riddled with small inaccuracies</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">” and “displaying a pervasive bias in its coverage and evaluations of climate issues.” Lomberg has ties to both the Heartland Institute and CEI and received an award from CEI in 2003.  </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">In April, Lomborg appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show and stated, “</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">They’re telling us global warming is a problem. But it’s also a moderate one…”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">Steve Milloy</span> <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">is the founder and publisher of junkscience.com and self-described as exposing “faulty scientific data and analysis used to advance special interests and hidden agendas.” In addition to spreading doubt about the science of the climate crisis, he is a senior policy fellow at the </span><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/energy-environment-legal-institute" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">Energy & Environment Legal Institute</span></a> <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">and </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-milloy-4b59b812?trk=people-guest_profile-result-card_result-card_full-click" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">former director</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> of internal policy and strategy at Murray Energy, the largest privately held coal producer in the U.S., and the co-founder of </span><a href="https://burnmorecoal.com/about/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">“Burn More Coal.”</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> Milloy has financial ties to the tobacco, chemical and oil and gas industries, having gotten his </span><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12032015/leaked-email-reveals-whos-who-list-climate-denialists-merchants-of-doubt-oreskes-fred-singer-marc-morano-steve-milloy" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">start as a denialist</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> for the tobacco and chemical industries in the 1990s. In 1998, he helped write the American Petroleum Institute’s strategy to challenge climate science. Milloy previously served as an adjunct scholar at both the </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20041229220754/www.cato.org/people/adjunct.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">Cato Institute</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> and the </span><a href="https://cei.org/other/steven-j-milloy" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">Competitive Enterprise Institute</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> (CEI) and currently serves as a policy advisor to the </span><a href="https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/steven-milloy" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">Heartland Institute</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">. </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">In February 2019, Milloy appeared on “Special Report with Bret Baier” and claimed that climate change was just the Democrats’ </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">pretext for advancing radical political agendas. </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">“We always knew climate was a stalking horse for socialism, communism, totalitarianism, whatever you want to call it,” Milloy said.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">Patrick Moore </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">is a nuclear energy advocate and the founder of Greenspirit Strategies, a </span><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/patrick-moore" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">PR company</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> that works “with many leading organizations in forestry, biotechnology, aquaculture and plastics, developing solutions in the areas of natural resources, biodiversity, energy and climate change.” Moore self-identifies as a founding member of Greenpeace, but the organization has </span><a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/greenpeace-statement-on-patric/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">denied this claim</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">, stating that Moore “often misrepresents himself in the media as an environmental ‘expert’ or even an ‘environmentalist,’ while offering anti-environmental opinions on a wide range of issues and taking a distinctly anti-environmental stance.” Greenpeace also  identified him as “a paid spokesman for a variety of polluting industries for more than 30 years.” Moore denies the role of carbon dioxide in climate change and has previously </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160712222903/http://www.thegwpf.org/patrick-moore-should-we-celebrate-carbon-dioxide/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">encouraged the celebration</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> of carbon, stating, “carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is the stuff of life, the currency of life, indeed the backbone of life on Earth.” </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While a guest on “Fox News @ Night” in March, Moore claimed a lack of evidence that carbon dioxide in contributing to climate change, stating “the climate crisis is not just fake news, it’s fake science.”</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">Marc Morano </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">is the front man of the anti-climate-science website</span><a href="http://www.climatedepot.com/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"> <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">ClimateDepot.com</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> and author of “</span><a href="http://www.cfactstore.com/product/the-politically-incorrect-guide-to-climate-change/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">.” Morano has no scientific training nor educational background in climatology. The website is a fabrication of the </span><a href="https://www.cfact.org/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> (CFACT)</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">, a conservative and anti-regulation think-tank based in Washington, </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">D.C., </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">where Morano works as the</span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20171102012126/http://www.cfact.org/about/staff/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"> <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">communications director</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">. CFACT receives </span><a href="http://conservativetransparency.org/recipient/committee-for-a-constructive-tomorrow/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">funding</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> from the Koch Brothers, ExxonMobil and Chevron, and gets hundreds of thousands of dollars from foundations associated with </span><a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/02/scaife200802" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">dirty energy tycoon</span></a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Mellon_Scaife" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">Richard Mellon Scaife</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">. Morano was in </span><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">Rolling Stone’s </i><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">article, “</span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100111035001/http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31633524/the_climate_killers/print" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">The Climate Killers</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">,” listed as one of “17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming.” </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">In May he appeared on “Special Report With Bret Baier” attempting to discredit the United Nations’ climate reports, claiming their sole interests reside in politics and not science. He called the U.N. “</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">a self-interested lobbying organization.”</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">Mark Steyn </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">is a Canadian author and columnist of SteynOnline.com. Steyn attended the </span><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/mark-steyn" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">King Edward’s School in Birmingham</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">, U.K., leaving in 1978 when he was 18 years old. Steyn is often a featured speaker at climate denial conferences hosted by groups such as the CO2 Coalition, The New Criterion and the Heartland Institute. These events, with titles such as </span><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/mark-steyn" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">The Climate Surprise: Why CO2 Is Good for the Earth and the Tenth International Conference on Climate Change</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">, are funded by </span><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute#funding" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">Exxon Mobil, DonorsTrust and the Koch Brothers</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">. He is infamously known for attacking Michael Mann’s “Hockey Stick” graph, which predicted a sharp rise in global temperatures as carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere increased. He went on to call Mann </span><a href="http://redgreenandblue.org/2019/06/19/war-science-michael-mann-wins-round-court-vs-climate-change-deniers/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">“the Jerry Sandusky of climate science”</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> and claim he “has molested and tortured data in the service of politicized science that could have dire economic consequences for the nation and the planet.” </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While a guest on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” on April 22, Steyn deflected the climate crisis while claiming Democrats merely use it as a platform to appeal to voters. “Climate change is essentially a boutique issue, it’s almost like an accessory for Western liberal politicians to flaunt how much they care while actually doing nothing about the people and the jurisdictions for which they’re actually responsible.”</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; font-weight: bolder; box-sizing: border-box;">Daniel Turner </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">is the founder and executive director of </span><a href="https://powerthefuture.com/about-us/" target="blank" style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">Power the Future</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">, an energy advocacy organization that supports the fossil fuel industry. Despite its focus on energy, the nonprofit has no official stance on climate change. However, Turner previously told climate change campaigners in a blog post that if they </span><a href="https://archive.li/y7nKt" target="blank" style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">“are so anti-energy, don’t use it.”</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Turner is an </span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/power-future" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">alumnus</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"> of the Charles Koch Institute and previously worked for the Koch-tied non-profit, Generation Opportunity. After earning a degree in Philosophy, he went on to specialize in </span><a href="https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/daniel-turner" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">communications and public affairs</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">. He is also an affiliate of the Heartland Institute. </span></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">During a June appearance on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Turner criticized Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden’s announced climate plan which aims to achieve </span><a href="https://joebiden.com/climate/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">net-zero emissions by 2050</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">, calling it “nonsensical.” He went on to claim that “</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">every proposal that involves climate change, usually enriches their donors and their donor base, or it takes away individual rights and individual liberty.”</span></font></p><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></h4><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conclusion</font></h4><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">This year we experienced the </span><a href="https://climate.copernicus.eu/record-breaking-temperatures-june" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">hottest June ever recorded</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">. In India, deadly temperatures reached and stayed </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/its-horrid-india-roasts-under-heat-wave-with-temperatures-above-120-degrees/2019/06/05/bd713dea-877c-11e9-b1a8-716c9f3332ce_story.html?utm_term=.590807ae7ca6" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">above 120 degrees for days</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">. France experienced its most brutally hot day in recorded history, </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/world/europe/europe-heat-wave-wildfires.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; cursor: pointer; box-sizing: border-box;">at nearly 115 degrees</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;">.  </span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The rapid overheating of our planet from the burning of fossil fuels is a clear and present threat. There is no debate that the climate crisis is now.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One should be hard pressed, in this era of climate catastrophe, to find climate denial in legitimate media sources. In fact, the presence of regular deniers and dissemination of misinformation about the climate crisis should disqualify a news outlet as a fair and balanced source of information – and most importantly, should not be trusted. </font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Fox News Network and its hosts, with few exceptions, are peddling climate denial to millions of Americans on a regular basis.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This review began with the hypothesis that Fox News Network might be using newer, more nuanced and sophisticated forms of climate denial to keep audiences doubting the reality playing out before their eyes. This hypothesis was wrong. This review shows that Fox News’ denial handbook has not been updated. The misinformation the network is pushing out and the deniers it gives a platform to are long debunked and well exposed. The tactics they use, from naming calling to mockery, are transparent and inflammatory.   </font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="section3" data-scrollanchor="" style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span id="section4" data-scrollanchor="" style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span id="section5" data-scrollanchor="" style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span id="section6" data-scrollanchor="" style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span id="section7" data-scrollanchor="" style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);" /></span></span></span></span></font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; overflow-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4);"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More than that, denial, like our rapidly warming climate, is becoming increasingly dangerous. By keeping doubt alive and deniers in business, Fox New Network is contributing to U.S. climate inaction.</font></span></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">jrnl fail: 6 22</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/newspaper-coverage-record-gas-prices-missing-important-context-big-oils-record">
</a></font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/newspaper-coverage-record-gas-prices-missing-important-context-big-oils-record">https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/newspaper-coverage-record-gas-prices-missing-important-context-big-oils-record</a></font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CDV note sys</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/donald-trump-an-american-monster/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/donald-trump-an-american-monster/</a></font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">quite long]</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">...But who created this American monster? Donald Trump was not built by a deranged scientist in a secret lab. He is not an orphan, and did not emerge out of nowhere. He was the almost inevitable result of a decades-long assault by the "conservative" movement aimed at ending American democracy (especially multiracial democracy) and replacing it with a pseudo-democratic authoritarian state, perhaps organized under the <b>system political theorist Sheldon Wolin described as "inverted totalitarianism."</b></font></font></font></font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As part of that long-term assault,</b> most or all the historic victories of the civil rights movement, the women's rights movement, the gay rights movement, the labor and environmental movements and other struggles for human dignity and a more just society are being rolled back. If this project succeeds, America's already threadbare social safety net will be virtually eliminated. White Christian fascists and corporate plutocrats will forge a ruling coalition with near-total dominion over American life and society. The separation of church and state, along with the guarantee of free speech and most of the Bill of Rights, will disappear.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is no longer a "normal" or "traditional" version of the Republican Party for so-called conservatives to return to. Even those conservatives who have disavowed or denounced the Trump movement are implicated in his rise. They are like political Dr. Frankensteins, horrified by what they have created but unable to kill it. Over the course of decades, they painstakingly built the monster and created the blueprint for American fascism.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/sorry-ex-trumpers-there-is-no-team-normal-for-the-gop" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Wajahat Ali</a> wrote this week in the Daily Beast, some of Trump's "most prominent enablers" are now trying to distance themselves from the "<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/name-and-shame-white-christian-nationalism-the-ideology-behind-jan-6?ref=author" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">ongoing, concentrated, right-wing effort</a> to overturn the 2020 election":</font></font></font></font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.542px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">Even though most of these ex-Trumpers will fail up in their careers—as is often the case in Washington, D.C. — it's important for the rest of us to recognize them as utterly complicit actors who deserve to wear that MAGA hat on their heads until the end of time…</b><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">.</span>
<span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">If you believe that there is a 'team normal' in the modern GOP, then you'll also probably believe that fewer doors and </span><a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/13/1104570419/ohio-dewine-guns-teachers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">arming teachers</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);"> will reduce mass gun shootings, </span><a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/31/1089726765/these-kids-authors-are-telling-the-stories-of-trans-youth-book-bans-wont-stop-th" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">banning books</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);"> will save your child from being transgender, and </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/world/asia/china-trump-climate-change.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">climate change is a hoax created by China</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">.</span>
<span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">Either way, you're not acknowledging that the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">GOP is now a weaponized cult that no longer produces '<a href="https://thehill.com/news/administration/3520441-democrats-biden-must-drop-the-word-rational-when-talking-about-republicans/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">rational' Republicans</a>, but instead caters to the festering, fevered paranoid swamp of dangerous conspiracy theories and white supremacist</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);"> ideologies. T<b>his persistent right-wing disinformation has now radicalized its base, in which many members </b></span><b><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/poll-violence-necessary-republicans-qanon-1251245/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">believe violence is necessary to 'take back' their country.</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);"> The reality is that Team Normal and Team Crazy both play for the GOP, wear the same uniforms, and, for now, worship the golden calf known as Trump.</span></b>
</font></font></font></font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ultimately, Donald Trump is not some type of monstrous Other or outsider. He was not conjured up in some other dimension ruled by Lovecraftian demons, only to descend on America out of the ether to sow destruction, chaos, misery and death.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In reality, Donald Trump — as a man, a symbol and a political leader — and everything he embodies is the product of our society, driven by extreme social inequality, consumerism and greed, unfulfilled dreams, widespread alienation and loneliness, anti-intellectualism, racism and white supremacy, the cult of the spectacle, our fetish for violence and a range of related antisocial and anti-human values and tendencies.</b></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a recent essay for ScheerPost <a href="https://www.salon.com/2022/06/14/jan-6-committee-is-spectacle-taking-the-place-of-politics-it-will-change-nothing/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">republished at Salon</a>, <b>Chris Hedges offers a powerful diagnosis of our corrupt and failing American political system, arguing that the House Jan. 6 committee will do nothing to correct it:</b></font></font></font></font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.542px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The two established wings of the oligarchy, the old Republican Party represented by politicians such as Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the committee, and the Bush family, are now united with the Democratic Party elite into one ruling political entity. </span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">The ruling parties were already in lockstep for decades on the major issues, including: war, trade deals, austerity, the militarization of police, prisons, government surveillance and assaults on civil liberties. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">They worked in tandem to pervert and destroy democratic institutions on behalf of the rich and corporations</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">. They desperately work together now to stave off the revolt by enraged and betrayed white working men and women who support Donald Trump and the far right.</span></b>
</font></font></font></font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>There are other systemic failures as well. America's mainstream news media, through both habit and laziness, have approached Donald Trump, and American politics more generally, as a running narrative of "great men" (and, more recently, "great women"), singular figures who are the main characters in an unfolding drama largely independent of history, culture or economic reality.</b></font></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">This partly explains the media's obsession with polling and public opinion, the addiction to horserace coverage and the drive to identify "winners" and "losers" on a daily basis. Of course the mainstream media is also driven by profit, and compelled to shape the news so as not to offend advertisers or alienate the political establishment and other social and cultural elites.</font></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Media practitioners are also trained to avoid moral language when describing domestic politics, although they routinely use such language when discussing foreign affairs, and especially Americans' official enemies.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The result is that most mainstream American political journalism remains an exercise in stenography and superficial commentary, almost always bending the knee to such totems as "moderation," "normal politics," "fairness" and "balance," concepts that were likely never helpful or transparent and are now totally inadequate to the task of confronting America's democracy crisis.</span></font></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many in the media still refuse to see the Trump movement and the modern Republican Party as destructive revolutionary forces, rather than as traditional political movements with an investment in the existing system. At this point, the media's willful or compulsive refusal to comprehend the nature of the threat has become a pathology. Journalists at mainstream outlets would benefit greatly from reading <b>"<a href="https://protectdemocracy.org/project/the-authoritarian-playbook-media/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Authoritarian Playbook: A Media Guide</a>," a new report from the nonpartisan nonprofit group Protect Democracy. It offers the following advice:</b></font></font></font></font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.542px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">To the extent that the authoritarian playbook has a central theme, it is that democratic erosion is a process of power concentration and consolidation</b><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While all political actors seek to accumulate power, authoritarians, uniquely, seek to entrench that power and protect it from external checks. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Experts generally agree that democracies don't tend to die at the hands of individuals alone. Rather, contemporary attacks on democracy only succeed when they are coordinated, <b>systemic,</b> and undertaken by broad parties or movements.</span>
</font></font></font></font></blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">If Donald Trump the American monster is somehow banished from American political life — through criminal prosecution, advancing age or some other force — another such monster will rapidly appear. In fact, Ron DeSantis and other leading Republican-fascists are eagerly waiting for Trump to leave the stage, and could well turn out to be more competent and more effective than him. Trumpism is a hydra-headed movement, no longer dependent on Trump as an individual: Chop off one of its heads and another will grow.<b> The only long-term solution is to drain the swamp that birthed the monster.</b></font></font></font></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">msnbc chris hayes pt out skillful realtime edit to keep truth from fox, no ads in 2 hr so no channel surf</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/humiliation-bret-baier-and-fox-news-side">https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/humiliation-bret-baier-and-fox-news-side</a></font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></div><div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">thursday was a night of humiliation for Bret Baier and his “news side” colleagues. It was also a perfect encapsulation of the <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/timeline-decimation-foxs-news-side" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">total lack of respect</a> the Fox brass has for its “news” division, whose staff have endured waves of layoffs, reduced hours of programming, and constant signals from network leaders that they are imminently replaceable cogs with no influence compared to Fox’s right-wing propagandists. Fox is Tucker Carlson’s network, and now everyone at the network knows it</span>.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Baier, per the bio on Fox News’ <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/person/b/bret-baier" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">website</a>, is his network’s “chief political anchor.” But at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday night, Baier <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-ongoing-complicity-january-6-insurrection" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">wasn’t on Fox</a> preempting its regular programming to introduce coverage of the first hearing of the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, unlike his theoretical peers with similarly lofty titles. Instead, he and fellow anchor Martha MacCallum had been relegated to Fox Business, its lightly watched sister channel.</b> </font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Meanwhile, Carlson was airing his Fox show in its usual prime-time timeslot. “This is the only hour on an American news channel that will not be carrying their propaganda live,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/abughazalehkat/status/1535051396839788544" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">said</a> in an opening monologue. “They are lying and we are not going to help them do it. What we will do instead is try to tell you the truth.”</span> </font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson was using the royal “we,” laying down the network’s editorial line that its own right-wing agitprop was of greater value than honest coverage of the congressional investigation into the sacking of the U.S. Capitol by violent Trumpists bent on suborning the 2020 presidential election. Then he spent an hour <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/09/us/tucker-carlson-sean-hannity-fox-news-jan-6.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">regurgitating debunked lies</a> about that coup attempt.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Baier reportedly protested to top network executives seven months ago when Carlson <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-ongoing-complicity-january-6-insurrection" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">explored paranoid, “false flag” conspiracy theories</a> about January 6 in <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Patriot Purge</span>, a three-part special for Fox’s streaming service</b>. He and Chris Wallace, another longtime “news side” stalwart, “shared their objections with Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and its president of news, Jay Wallace,” NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/11/21/1052837157/fox-resignations-tucker-carlson-patriot-purge-documentary" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">reported</a>, and “those objections rose to Lachlan Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of the network's parent company, Fox Corp.” At the time, those complaints had no apparent impact</span>.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thursday’s programming shows that Carlson's victory over Baier, Wallace, and their “news side” colleagues was total.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox provided Carlson a platform to <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-counters-january-6-hearing-spreading-big-election-lie-and-endorsing" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">endorse the motives of the rioters</a> and <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-guest-calls-january-6-riot-clear-hoax-planned-and-carried-out-feds" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">push the same baseless and obscene conspiracy theories</a> that had drawn criticism from Baier. The network aired <a data-remove-tab-index="true" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-stringify-link="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1535065833311191040" delay="150" href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1535065833311191040" rel="noopener noreferrer" tabindex="-1" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">his program</a> and Sean Hannity’s during the following hour commercial-free, sacrificing advertising dollars in apparent effort to keep the audience from channel-surfing during breaks and discovering any of the <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/january-6-select-committee-hearing-revelations-fox-news-didnt-want-its-viewers-seeing-live" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">chilling revelations the committee provided</a> — even on Baier’s Fox Business coverage.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Baier, meanwhile, was relegated to Fox’s B-channel to cover the prime-time hearing. At 10 p.m. ET, while CNN and MSNBC were still <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1535081770169044993" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">providing analysis</a> of the hearing</b>,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> he signed off, and Fox Business aired a docudrama about Ben Franklin</span>. <b>Only at 11 p.m. ET, when it was time for viewers to nod off, did Baier get access to Fox’s airwaves.</b></font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The message about the relative positions of Carlson and Baier in the network hierarchy sent by these programming decisions was obvious to all. On Twitter, a Carlson guest with an accurate read on the situation dunked on Baier’s tweet promoting his hearing coverage.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[twt ned ryun]</font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">baier was left impotently touting what little access the network was giving him to its airwaves.</font></font></font></font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[twt]</font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>meanwhile, Chris Wallace was a fixture during live coverage of the hearing – but on CNN. He <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-vets-keep-leaving-network-and-saying-it-propaganda" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">decamped</a></b> to that network last year, ending his nearly two-decade career at Fox after Carlson’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Patriot Purge</em> conspiracy theories reportedly proved the final straw. Wallace has since become the <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-republican-party-here-are-over-400-examples-proving-it#paragraph--section-heading--3434109" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">latest former Fox employee</a> to criticize its programming as right-wing propaganda. “I’m fine with opinion: conservative opinion, liberal opinion,” he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/27/business/media/chris-wallace-cnn-fox-news.html?referringSource=articleShare" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">told</a> The New York Times in March. “But when people start to question the truth — Who won the 2020 election? Was Jan. 6 an insurrection? — I found that unsustainable.” </font></font></font></font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Baier, to this point, apparently finds it eminently sustainable for Carlson and his cronies to question whether January 6 was an insurrection — in prime time, on the network where he putatively serves as “chief political anchor.”</font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The declining influence of Fox’s “news side” has been underway for some time. But on Thursday, it was on display in prime time, obvious for anyone interested in seeing it. Fox’s brass may occasionally <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/timeline-decimation-foxs-news-side" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">tout the “news” division</a> as a talking point for advertisers, but they will <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/if-you-are-business-fox-news-you-are-hook-its-white-nationalism" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">yield to Carlson and his conspiracy theories</a> every time.</font></font></font></font></p></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> =</font></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma 6 22</font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">nICOLLE WALLACE (HOST): You know, I had this thought, Tim, that what I thought this signaled was the weakness internally of people like Dana Perino and Brett Baier, I guess Chris Wallace is over at CNN now, and the strength and the almost, you know, abandonment of fighting for anything resembling a news network by -- I guess Martha McCallum sometimes anchors news events. I actually thought that inside Fox, it was an interesting moment that -- where there might have been a path to have been a <b>battle between people like Chris Wallace and Brett Baier and the forces like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity. It looks -- it's not even clear that battle was waged.</b> </font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);">TIM O'BRIEN (GUEST): Well, and </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">you're leaving the most important actor out, Lachlan Murdoch. Rupert Murdoch's son runs that network.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"> The family controls the company. If they wanted that network to do something other than engage in propaganda and to delude people and to serve other goals, he could put anybody he wants in that anchor seat. <b>Tucker Carlson exists because Lachlan Murdoch wants him to exist</b>. So, the Murdochs also have to be held accountable as owners in terms of what they're putting on the air every night. </span></font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WALLACE: Eddie, I also came to the conclusion as this night wore on that we don't need 100 percent of Americans to do anything. And so I'm not -- I think, you know, Adam Kinzinger, a member of the Select Committee, sort of fixated on Fox and gave them a hard time for not carrying it. I don't think that's the point. I think it's about reassembling the coalition, the voting coalition in 2018, the voting coalition in 2020, and reminding them what President Obama reminded them today that nothing less than the state of our democracy is on the line. </font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EDDIE GLAUDE (GUEST): Right.<b> There are -- there's a segment of the American population that's concerned about government taking away their guns, government taking away their liberty, but there's also a segment of the population who's concerned about folks trying to take away our democrac</b>y. And I think this committee has to make not just simply truth claims. It has to appeal at the visceral level, at the level of the passions around our commitment to democracy.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But I should say this to connect it to our first segment, Nicolle. Remember, there are three -- there are four elements to democracy functioning. They are, of course, the legislative branch and we've experienced a gerrymandered House, a dysfunctional Senate. There's the executive branch. We've experienced the distortions of an imperial presidency. We've experienced the politicized judiciary. But there's also the fourth estate. The fourth estate. The role of the press in creating the deliberative space so citizens can engage in the back and forth exchange.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4">And so we've seen the kind of corruption of the other -- the three other various portions, our institutions of democracy. With Fox News, it's not about the fragmentation of media. It's not about social platforms or social media. With Fox prop, as it were, we're seeing the corruption of an aspect of the fourth estate that contributes to the crises of American democracy.</font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4"> That we began with, with President Obama's remarks, and we need to understand it as such. </font></font></font></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/how-broadcast-tv-news-covered-environmental-justice-2021">https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/how-broadcast-tv-news-covered-environmental-justice-2021</a></font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</div><div><b>Broadcast morning and evening news shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC aired a combined 153 segments about environmental impacts, regulations, or health hazards in all of 2021, and just 19 of them (12%) included mention of a socially marginalized community.</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">CBS aired the most environmental justice segments (13)</span>, followed by NBC (4), and ABC (2).</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While not included in the official results, PBS NewsHour aired 13 environmental justice segments.</span></div><div>
</div><div>The majority of environmental justice segments focused on government action (14) and the health impacts of pollution or chemical waste (9).</div><div>Topics such as industrial accidents (2) and disaster recovery (3) were rarely reported through an environmental justice lens.</div><div>
</div><div><b>National TV news shows missed key opportunities to apply an environmental justice lens to important national stories such as the 2021 Texas winter storm, a toxic wastewater leak in Florida, and the Colonial pipeline hack.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Even segments about obvious environmental justice stories, such as the lead water crisis in Benton Harbor, Michigan, were mostly shallow and lacked important context.</div><div><b>National TV news only aired 19 environmental justice segments in 2021, which was still an improvement from 2020</b></div><div>
</div><div>Corporate broadcast TV news networks aired 19 environmental justice segments in 2021.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> CBS, which clearly outpaced the other broadcast networks, aired the highest number of such segments (13), followed by NBC (4), and ABC (2).</span></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-news/cable-news-discussions-record-high-gas-prices-may-10-failed-hold-fossil-fuel-industry">https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-news/cable-news-discussions-record-high-gas-prices-may-10-failed-hold-fossil-fuel-industr</a></font></font></div><div><div class="editorial-fullsummary" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 2.25rem; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 212, 221); border-top: 1px solid rgb(204, 212, 221); padding: 1.5rem 0px;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-content-summary field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">amid the ongoing war in Ukraine and the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/12/eus-proposed-oil-ban-steps-up-pressure-on-russia-analysts" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">world’s response to Russian aggression</a>, energy prices have been understandably top-of-mind for both news media and the <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/03/30/public-pulse-energy" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">general public</a>. Gas prices reached <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/05/10/gas-price-record-high-inflation/9716049002/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">another record high on May 10</a>, setting off a new round of cable news coverage that coincided with President Joe Biden’s <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-blast-republicans-having-no-plan-inflation-2022-05-10/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">speech</a> on the same day about his administration’s attempts to arrest inflation. </font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although cable news shows covering these stories performed an adequate job of explaining how the price consumers pay at the pump is determined by a range of different factors in a globalized market, they also allowed the fossil fuel industry to escape accountability for its role in raising prices, despite the fact that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/24/energy/gas-prices-oil-production-wall-street/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">oil companies are intentionally restraining oil production</a> in order to return record profits for shareholders.</font></font></p></div></div><div class="editorial-fullarticle" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 2.25rem;"><div class="field field--name-field-stories-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cable news rarely connected record fossil fuel industry profits to record gas prices</font></font></h3></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC aired a combined 48 segments about record gas prices on May 10, with CNN (23) and Fox (19) airing the majority. Although MSNBC had the fewest segments (6), anchor<b> Katy Tur was the only person across all 48 cable news segments who connected record gas costs with record fossil fuel industry profits</b>. </font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the May 10 episode of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Katy Tur Reports</em>, she asked Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm about “price gouging” by the fossil fuel industry, saying: “The president said he'll focus on oil companies taking advantage of the situation. The CEO of a major oil company said they saw record prices. Do you see price gouging as part of the problem here?"</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[vid ]</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>this basic context should be part of the broader cable news coverage of gas prices.</b></font></font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other cable news segments on May 10 took pains to emphasize how the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/05/10/gas-prices-jump-to-record-highs/?sh=7fb2a0003a35" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">war in Ukraine</a>, <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/gas-prices-just-spiked-again-and-memorial-day-is-just-around-the-corner-theres-little-if-any-good-news-about-fuel-prices-heading-into-summer-11652204043" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">European Union sanctions on Russian oil</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-retail-gasoline-prices-hit-new-record-refiners-struggle-meet-demand-2022-05-10/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">demand rebound since 2021</a>, and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gas-prices-national-record-high-gallon-may-2022" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">yearly summer trends</a> have contributed to the steep rise in gas prices and could lead to future, record increases.   </font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>However, cable news analysis that day almost entirely left out a key driver of high energy prices: the fossil fuel industry. </b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although the specific role the industry played in driving the most recent record gas prices is still being puzzled out by economists, Big Oil has been <a href="https://www.desmog.com/2022/03/23/oil-gas-propaganda-war-ukraine-profiteering-climate-change/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">credibly accused by environmental activists of profiteering</a> from <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/25/will-ukraine-war-revitalize-coal-worlds-dirtiest-fossil-fuel" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">economic instability caused by the war in Ukraine</a>. In fact, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2022/05/07/oil-company-record-profits-2022/9686761002/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">multiple</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/06/climate/shell-exxon-profits-climate.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">outlets</a> <a href="https://www.offshore-energy.biz/oil-gas-firms-profits-set-to-smash-records-reaching-834-billion-in-2022-rystad-says/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">published stories</a> about record oil company profits just a few days ahead of the breaking news about record gas prices on May 10, including this from <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/05/05/oil-companies-massive-profits-first-quarter-russia-ukraine/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Fortune</a>:</font></font></p></div></div><blockquote class="block-quote block-quote--collapsable" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><div class="block-quotequote" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 1.5rem;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, subsequent <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/sanctions-drive-russian-oil-shadows" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-top: 0px;">sanctions on Russia</a> and the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/western-oil-companies-leave-russia-to-their-state-run-rivals-11646229422" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent;">exit of Western</a> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/western-oil-companies-leave-russia-to-their-state-run-rivals-11646229422" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px;">oil and gas companies</a> from the country sent prices soaring, and fossil fuel companies are reaping the rewards.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">British petroleum company <a href="https://fortune.com/company/royal-dutch-shell" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-top: 0px;">Shell</a> announced their <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/05/05/2436346/0/en/Shell-plc-publishes-first-quarter-2022-press-release.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px;">quarterly profits</a> on Thursday, posting a record $9.1 billion in earnings. That’s compared to $6.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021. </font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although Shell posted the highest profits, other major oil companies also announced major gains. </font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/investors/results-and-presentations/quarterly-results-and-webcast.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-top: 0px;">BP</a> announced it hit $6.2 billion in first quarter earnings, up from the $4.1 billion reported last quarter. French oil major <a href="https://totalenergies.com/system/files/documents/2022-04/1Q22_Results.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent;">TotalEnergies</a> also reported a $9 billion profit in the first quarter, up 32% from the last quarter of 2021. U.S.-based <a href="https://www.chevron.com/stories/chevron-announces-first-quarter-2022-results" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px;">Chevron</a> reported $6.3 billion in earnings, up from $5.1 billion last quarter.</font></font></p></div></blockquote><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A Time magazine <a href="https://time.com/6175400/oil-company-profits/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">article</a> published May 11 was even more stark in describing how oil companies plan to use their windfall profits to line their own pockets, instead of making investments to ease the pain at the pump</span>:</font></font></p></div></div><blockquote class="block-quote block-quote--collapsable" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><div class="block-quotequote" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 1.5rem;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For the most part, major oil companies aren’t going to pour these billions of dollars into climate-mitigation investments like carbon capture technologies. Nor have they signaled <a href="https://time.com/6156525/gas-prices-oil-prices-oil-and-gas-industry/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-top: 0px;">any immediate intention to bolster oil production</a>, despite calls from heads of state to do so. Their inaction has spurred U.S. and European countries, which are under pressure to keep fuel affordable, to release oil reserves and replace Russian crude oil and liquid natural gas from <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-03/u-s-sent-largest-amount-of-oil-to-europe-last-month-since-2016" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px;">other sources</a>. Despite those government efforts, oil prices have stayed above $100 per barrel, sustaining an influx of money to fossil fuel companies that are passing it on to stockholders and investors in the form of increased dividends and share buyback initiatives that drive up companies’ share values.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-prices-top-100-yet-some-big-u-s-frackers-let-their-production-fall-11651926601" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-top: 0px;">analysis</a> from the Wall Street Journal found that the nine largest U.S. oil producers spent 54% more in share repurchases and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-giants-buoyed-by-high-oil-prices-shower-investors-with-cash-11651231218?mod=article_inline" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent;">dividends</a> in the first quarter than they invested in new oil developments. Similarly, a recent <a href="https://bailoutwatch.org/analysis/big-oils-wartime-bonus" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px;">report</a> covering the 20 largest U.S. oil companies published by the environmentalist organization Friends Of The Earth and consumer watchdog organizations Public Citizen and BailoutWatch, tallied $56 billion in new share buyback authorizations in the roughly seven months since last October, compared with $11 billion announced in the nine months before that.</font></font></p></div></blockquote><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Not only is the fossil fuel industry dragging its feet on actions that could potentially alleviate high energy costs for American consumers, but it also continues to profit from the global instability caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In fact, the industry has a long and sordid history of <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/rex-tillerson-from-a-corporate-oil-sovereign-to-the-state-department" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">exacerbating</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/08/oil-fuels-war-terrorists-isis-climate-movement-peace-cop-21" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">geopolitical</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/4/10/5601062/oil-curse-explained" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">conflicts</a> for its own profit. </font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Journalistic accountability demands that Big Oil’s role in this crisis is included in every segment about rising gas prices or increased energy costs – particularly as right-wing media outlets such as Fox News continue running cover for the oil industry while placing blame for high gas prices almost solely on the Biden administration.</font></font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox is dedicated to carrying the fossil fuel industry’s water, CNN and MSNBC must do better</font></font></h3></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Since the <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-using-ukrainian-crisis-suggest-biden-administrations-climate-policies-emboldened-putin" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">beginning of the war in Ukraine</a>, Fox News has absolved Big Oil of any responsibility for energy price increases while desperately trying to blame the Biden administration</span>.<b> This included Fox figures mentioning the canceled Keystone pipeline approximately <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-mentioned-keystone-pipeline-141-times-one-week-during-networks-coverage-war" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">141 times</a></b> in segments about the Ukraine crisis from February 22-28, and mentioning <b>“</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>energy independence” or “energy security” – industry talking points</b> to promote more domestic drilling for oil and gas – at least <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-news/fox-news-pushes-energy-independence-329-times-first-two-weeks-russias-war-ukraine" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">632 times</a> from February 24 through April 24.  </span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">In reality, the factors determining what consumers pay for gas prices are very complicated, and generally, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2018/06/03/who-can-we-blame-for-higher-gasoline-prices/?sh=19b8e1b34306" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">presidents and their related policies have little effect</a> on the price at the pump and little influence over the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/11/14/1055068583/gasoline-prices-gas-energy-inflation-biden" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">complex economics of energy markets</a>, absent leading a <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/today/2022/03/15/how-rising-gas-prices-emphasize-need-renewable-energy" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">rapid transition to a clean energy economy</a>. But this hasn’t stopped Fox News from using the situation in Ukraine to bash the Biden administration’s energy policy.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>After Biden’s March 8 <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/08/biden-bans-russian-oil-imports/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">announcement</a> that the United States was banning Russian fossil fuel imports, Fox News hosts and guests <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-hosts-blamed-biden-not-restricting-russian-oil-now-theyre-criticizing-him-doing" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">blamed</a> him for instituting the same policy that they had previously demanded </b>– all while <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-host-declares-oil-and-gas-companies-are-greatest-industry-around-world" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">praising</a> oil and gas companies as “the greatest industry around the world,” <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-trump-energy-secretary-rick-perry-says-criticizing-oil-and-gas-industry-unpatriotic" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">deflecting</a> Biden’s criticism of them as “unpatriotic,” and arguing t<b>hey are “basically our national defense.</b></span><b>”</b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Meanwhile CNN and MSNBC’s recent coverage has largely failed to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for exploiting global conflicts and ramping up fuel prices amid their own record profits.</b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Their last opportunity came during the April 6 House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on the fossil industry’s role in driving record high gas prices.</span> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox News programs devoted 49 minutes of coverage to the hearing, much of which defended Big Oil and blamed the Biden administration, while CNN and MSNBC <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/fox-news-dominated-coverage-congressional-hearing-big-oil-and-gas-prices" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">covered the hearings for only 10 minutes and 4 minutes</a>, respectively. </span>This disparity in coverage effectively allowed Fox to again shape the narrative around climate and energy on cable news. Instead of CNN and MSNBC viewers learning about the myriad factors driving gas prices, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-news/tomorrows-hearing-gas-prices-opportunity-national-tv-news-hold-fossil-fuel-industry" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">including Big Oil profiteering</a>, they were told little, if anything, about the role the fossil fuel industry plays in driving the price at the pump.</font></font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cable news shows must begin holding the fossil fuel industry accountable</font></font></h3></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite the fossil fuel industry’s <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2018/07/20/fossil-fuel-industry-has-spent-nearly-2-billion-on-lobbying-to-kill-climate-laws/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">billion-dollar campaign</a> to <a href="https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/climate-denial-machine-how-fossil-fuel-industry-blocks-climate-action" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">erode the public consensus</a> on climate change and its <a href="https://www.accountable.us/news/media-beware-api-is-trying-to-cash-in-on-crisis-in-ukraine/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">exploitation</a> of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/26/us-fossil-fuel-industry-russia-ukraine-drilling" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">agitate for deepened reliance</a> on its products, public polling shows that more than two-thirds of U.S. adults <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/01/politics/renewable-energy-poll-ukraine-climate/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">support</a> “developing alternative energy, including wind and solar, over increasing production of fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas.” In addition, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/06/23/climate-change-poll-pew/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">poll</a> <a href="https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/politics-global-warming-march-2021b.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">after</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/23/us-voters-climate-change-guardian-vice-poll" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">poll</a> finds that the majority of Americans want the government to take climate action – but they rarely have the opportunity to learn from TV news <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/how-broadcast-tv-news-covered-environmental-justice-2021" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">about the fossil fuel industry’s role</a> in opposing urgently needed climate and environmental policies.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reporting on consumers facing record-high prices at the gas pump while oil companies enjoy record-high profits presents just one such opportunity for cable news outlets to inform their audiences about these connections and their links to the climate crisis.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News is a key <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-help-republicans-are-continuing-lie-and-fearmonger-about-green-new-deal" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">cog</a> in the <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/why-fox-news-tilting-windmills" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">fossil fuel industry’s</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-misinformation-and-lies-about-biden-are-dominating-cable-news-coverage-fracking" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">disinformation network</a>, so the conservative network will never cover this reality. But CNN and MSNBC can no <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-news/infrastructure-and-reconciliation-bills-are-important-climate-story-cable-news-refused" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">longer afford</a> to <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-news/cable-news-not-covering-fossil-fuel-industrys-efforts-weaken-infrastructure-and" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">miss</a> key opportunities to bring accountability to the fossil fuel industry, especially as the public demands answers and the window for meaningful climate action <a href="https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6wg2/pdf/IPCC_AR6_WGII_SummaryForPolicymakers.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">rapidly closes</a>.</font></font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Methodology</font></font></h3></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC for any of the terms “gas,” “fuel,” “pump,” “diesel,” “record,” “price,” “soar,” or “high” on May 10, 2022.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We counted segments, which we defined as instances when record gas prices were the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion that also included discussion of record gas prices. We defined significant discussion as two or more speakers in a multi-topic segment discussing record gas prices with one another. We also counted headline reports, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host read news highlights covering a range of topics. Within those segments, we then determined whether any speaker also mentioned record fossil fuel industry profits.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We did not include teasers for segments about record gas prices coming up later in the broadcast or passing mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker spoke without another engaging with the comment.</font></font></p></div></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 422 no lmx twet</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>the New York Times just discovered that <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Fox News has a Russia problem</span></b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News' Tucker Carlson speaking with attendees at the 2020 Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, Gage Skidmore]</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dartagnan and Daily Kos April 17, 2022</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   </font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You have to credit the Gray Lady: this is really quite the scoop. And I hesitate even to point it out, lest my mild criticism that follows be misinterpreted. So let me be clear, I’m all for American media outlets policing each other. I think it’s perfectly OK for one media outlet to call out another for bias or dissimulation. That’s what makes journalism such an integral part of our democracy, so much that its inherent value is literally enshrined in the Constitution. “Keeping them honest” should be the watchword governing all journalism.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That being said, you may wish to remain seated, because this is guaranteed to make you faint with shock. Hold onto your hats — here it comes.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As reported by the New York Times’ Stuart A. Thompson:</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The narratives advanced by the Kremlin and by parts of conservative American media have converged in recent months, reinforcing and feeding each other. Along the way, Russian media has increasingly seized on Fox News’s prime-time segments, its opinion pieces and even the network’s active online comments section — all of which often find fault with the Biden administration — to paint a critical portrait of the United States and depict America’s foreign policy as a threat to Russia’s interests.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When I read that I was stone-cold flummoxed. Who could have possibly imagined? Oh, wait!</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And it seems that Tucker Carlson is a Kremlin favorite. Can you believe that? They even cite examples!</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“The U.S. baselessly accused Russia of spreading disinformation about biolabs in Ukraine because they later actually confirmed their existence, TV presenter Tucker Carlson told Fox News,” Radio Sputnik wrote in an article summarizing Mr. Tucker’s lengthy segment for a Russian audience.</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But there’s more!</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Mentions of Fox News in Russian-language media grew 217 percent during the first quarter of this year compared with the final quarter of last year, as news coverage of Ukraine increased, according to an analysis by Zignal Labs</b>, a media tracking company that reviewed social media posts, broadcast media and online websites. CNN, which has about three times the global viewership of Fox News, according to the tracking company Similarweb, was mentioned more often but grew less, by 71 percent.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And the Times really put their nose to the grindstone to break this, having “reviewed nearly 500 Russian-language articles mentioning Fox News between July and late March, sourced from the two largest state news agencies in the country — RIA Novosti and TASS — along with dozens of articles from other Russian-language media</b>.” Talk about due diligence!</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Times has even broken it down by category! They’ve determined that Russia now highlights Fox News stories that tend to “Blame NATO expansion,” “Buttress Conspiracy Theories” (can you imagine???) “Question the West’s goals,” and — get this — “Criticize President Biden.”</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I am shocked, shocked, I tell you.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In all seriousness, we didn’t have to wait nearly two months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to be told they were making use of Fox News for propaganda purposes. That fact has been a staple in the media for well over a month, if not longer.<b> More importantly, as this article, one of literally dozens from Media Matters, gamely points out, the relationship between Fox and Vladimir Putin has long been a two-way street, going back well into the Trump administration, with Fox echoing Putin’s policy on a fairly repeated basis.</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But you won’t find a single word about that in the Times article. No, it’s as if Russia just suddenly discovered it had its own propaganda outlet all along.</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And probably even more importantly, Mr. Thompson, for all his analytical skill, doesn’t devote a single sentence to asking why that is. Why did Fox News spend the last five years amplifying Putin talking points?</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Exploring that question would be serious journalism. Exploring the uncomfortable question of why the Times ignored something this important, and obvious, for so long, letting relatively small, niche outlets like Media Matters do all the heavy lifting, would be even more serious journalism.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But simply reporting the data without context -- which is all the Times article really does — is not.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/fox-news-dominated-coverage-congressional-hearing-big-oil-and-gas-prices">https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/fox-news-dominated-coverage-congressional-hearing-big-oil-and-gas-prices</a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4">no lnx vid grf</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Fox News dominated coverage of congressional hearing on Big Oil and gas prices</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox’s Big Oil hearing coverage was more than triple CNN’s and MSNBC’s coverage combined</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CLIMATE & ENERGY</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">WRITTEN BY ALLISON FISHER</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">PUBLISHED 04/08/22</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Since last year, Fox News has been trying to pin the blame of rising fuel costs on President Joe Biden through its relentless coverage. The April 6 congressional hearing — by the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee — on the oil industry’s role in driving record high gas prices and earning record profits posed a threat to that right-wing media narrative. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In response, Fox News programs devoted 49 minutes of coverage to the hearing, much of which defended Big Oil and insisted that Biden’s policies are responsible for high gas prices. In comparison, CNN and MSNBC covered the hearings for only 10 minutes and 4 minutes, respectively, effectively letting Fox shape the narrative around this moment and failing to use it as a catalyst to inform viewers on the myriad factors that are driving the price at the pump.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Fox covered Big Oil hearing for over three times as long as CNN and MSNBC combined</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Fox leveraged the Big Oil hearing to defend the industry and redirect blame at Biden</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On April 6, nearly every hour on Fox News — from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. EDT — featured coverage of the congressional hearing on the oil industry and gas prices. The vast majority of this coverage ran cover for the industry while shoring up one of the network’s most dominant narratives around gas prices — that Biden is to blame.   </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The claim is false; presidents and their policies have little effect on the price at the pump in the short term and even less impact on how gas is priced in the global market</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> It also ignores the fact that prices have been rebounding since economies across the globe began reopening from the COVID-19 lockdowns last year. But that hasn’t stopped Fox News from repeatedly tethering gas price hikes to Biden’s policies.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Fox’s coverage of the hearing started with the network’s early morning program,<b> Fox & Friends First. Fox Business correspondent Cheryl Caseone </b>reported on the hearing and cited “misguided policies from the administration” as the key drivers of inflation and high energy cost. Other segments throughout the day highlighted industry talking points, including the claim that “</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>rhetoric</b> from the Biden administration” has had a “chilling effect” on oil production. Anchor Martha MacCullum began her coverage of the Big Oil hearing on The Story with Martha MacCullum by highlighting the findings of a recent Fox poll (a self-fulfilling prophecy) that “Republicans and 68% of registered voters say that the Biden administration is to blame for high prices at the pump.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video From the April 6, 2022, episode of Fox News' The Story with Martha MacCallum</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In defense of oil companies, Fox host and guests, which included oil industry executives, suggested they were a scapegoat for Biden’s failed policies. Appearing on <b>America’s Newsroom, American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers said:</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“<b>We all know that the real reason </b>for high prices are a consequence of low production because of some of these Biden administration policies, but also some other factors that are going on throughout the world. So — </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">but this is a typical blame game we see all the time on Capitol Hill. It is pretty outrageous, though, that they're hauling American executives that supply 11 million American jobs up before Congress to blame them for something that they themselves can be blamed for.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Similarly, Dan Eberhart, another oil industry CEO, appeared on America Reports and called the hearing a “big show trial.”[anti-commie]</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Earlier in the program congressional correspondent Chad Pergram began his report by saying: “Democrats who control the House, Senate, and White House are struggling to address the price surge, so they need a scapegoat. Oil companies. Attacking big business is good politics for the Democratic base.<b> They tried to focus on profits and turned on the witnesses.”</b></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In reality, the industry’s record profits and related decisions to not increase production at a time consumers are hurting from high energy costs seems to expose something wrong, if not unjust, that should be examined by policymakers.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Some segments went so far as to defend Big Oil’s record profits, including by highlighting the losses the industry faced during the early phases of the pandemic when gas demand plummeted due to nationwide stay-at-home ordinances. <b>Anchor Sandra Smith on America Reports</b> listed all the major oil companies’ losses and profits over the past two years, saying that it was important context to understand the profit loss in 2020 as the companies are being <b>“demonized”</b> for profiting in 2021.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video From the April 6, 2022, episode of Fox News' America Reports</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Notably, while oil industry profits did dip during the pandemic, CEO salaries did not. According to an analysis by BailoutWatch, reported by Gizmodo, oil executives' salaries remained intact in 2020 as the industry was laying off workers while receiving federal handouts:</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The analysis finds that at a dozen oil companies—including big names like Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Phillips 66—CEO pay in 2020 was more than 100 times that of the median worker’s pay. All of those companies laid people off last year, including the<b> nine companies that collectively got $4.8 billion in federal bailout money.</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>”</b></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CNN and MSNBC missed an opportunity to hold Big Oil accountable</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>CNN and MSNBC dedicated only 10 minutes and 4 minutes, respectively, to covering the April 6 hearing — even as the issue of high gas prices remains a mainstay of cable news</b>. One segment on CNN accounted for nearly all of CNN’s coverage — an over 7-minute joint interview on CNN Newsroom with Ana Cabrera with<b> Robert Reich, a public policy professor and former labor secretary, and Daniel Raimi, energy analyst with Resources for the Future. </b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The segment served, in part, as an example of how CNN and MSNBC could have used the hearing to more robustly cut through reductive and agenda-driven industry and right-wing media talking points to provide a more holistic understanding of why gas prices are high and what tools are available to help alleviate cost to consumers.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video From the April 6, 2022, episode of CNN Newsroom with Ana Cabrera </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The majority of MSNBC’s 4 minutes of hearing coverage was aired in the closing moments of The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle. Host Stephanie Ruhle first laid out the contrasting positions by Democrats and Republicans overseeing the hearing and then told her viewers:   </span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“This might be a good time to let you know that<b> members of this very subcommittee received a whopping $383,000 from Big Oil. And according to the FEC, 97% of that money went to Republicans.</b> So, what did the oil executives have to say about the high prices Americans are paying at the pump? They said it's not their fault.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CitationFrom the April 6, 2022, episode of MSNBC's The 11th Hour With Stephanie Ruhle</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While good, both segments only scratched the surface of the information (on gas prices) and accountability (of the oil industry). </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In fact, in October, CNN and MSNBC managed to devote a modest amount of coverage to a congressional hearing on Big Oil disinformation, providing a glimmer of what accountability journalism could look like if cable news shows began seriously interrogating the fossil fuel industry. But the sparse coverage of this latest hearing represents a failure on part of the networks to both build on that accountability and, particularly in this moment, provide necessary context around high prices. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Fox News is shaping discussion around climate and energy issues</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The April 6 hearing is not the first time Fox News has dominated coverage of key climate and energy actions or newsworthy moments. After the Green New Deal was introduced in 2019, Fox News relentlessly attacked the climate and justice actions and hammered the same messaging — tethering the proposal to radical socialism, climate alarmism, and economic devastation, while vilifying those who champion it<b>. In comparison, other TV news networks made only a cursory attempt to articulate what the Green New Deal is and what it would accomplish.</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> As a result, for Fox viewers, the Green New Deal has become synonymous with extreme socialism manifested by a fake climate crisis.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In the month following candidate Joe Biden unveiling his climate agenda in July 2019, Fox News aired 7 times the number of segments CNN aired and more than 4 times the segments aired on MSNBC. In fact, the network’s coverage of energy and climate issues in the fall months of the 2020 presidential campaign played a role shaping the related presidential debate questions. </b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>After Biden took office on January 27, 2021, Fox spent approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes that day discussing Biden’s day one executive orders (including canceling the Keystone XL pipeline). CNN spent nearly half as much time, at approximately 53 minutes, MSNBC spent 1 hour and 24 minutes discussing the topics</b>. While this data may not be as striking, it doesn’t include the amount of time Fox spent covering, for example, the canceled Keystone XL pipeline long after the other networks had moved on. Even now, Fox News has still repeatedly invoked the scrapped pipeline as one of the reasons contributing to the current energy crisis, even though the pipeline would not have had an impact on gas prices. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It is troubling to see CNN and MSNBC repeatedly yield coverage of major climate and energy stories to Fox News, and it’s time for the networks to step up.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Methodology</div></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an no twt lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4">Corporate media accused of 'cheerleading' US escalation in Ukraine</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>Jake Johnson and Common Dreams March 20, 2022</div><div>   </div><div>In the run-up to and during the Bush administration's catastrophic invasion of Iraq, corporate media outlets were accused of acting as stenographers for the White House, amplifying official justifications for the attack—which were lies—while stifling dissenting voices.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Today, having apparently learned no lessons—or the wrong ones—from Iraq, reporters for corporate newspapers and cable TV programs are yet again facing criticism for their coverage of a war, this time one in which the White House has vowed not to involve U.S. troops.</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>During briefings held at the White House over the past week as Russia ramped up its assault on Ukraine, correspondents have incessantly pushed Press Secretary Jen Psaki on President Joe Biden's refusal to escalate U.S. involvement in the war even further, questioning the administration's refusal to impose a no-fly zone and send MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine.</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>By contrast, very few questions have centered on the diplomatic talks between Russia and Ukraine and what the U.S. is doing to facilitate the ongoing negotiations.</b></div><div>
</div><div>"Even with this additional aid that you're providing today, it seems there are still other options on the table," ABC News correspondent Mary Bruce said during a press briefing Wednesday after President Joe Biden authorized another $800 million worth of weaponry for Ukraine, including drones and anti-aircraft systems.</div><div>
</div><div>"So why hold back?" Bruce asked. "Why not use every tool at your disposal now to spare additional lives?"</div><div>
</div><div>When Psaki outlined the slew of measures the U.S. has taken in concert with Western allies to cripple Russia's economy and bolster Ukraine's defenses—and noted there are additional steps the administration could take in the future—Bruce was not assuaged.</div><div>
</div><div>"But what are you waiting for?" she asked.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>That line of questioning—highlighted by The Intercept in one of two video compilations of recent press briefings—encapsulated the approach much of the White House press corps has taken during the first three weeks of Russia's deadly assault on Ukraine.</div><div>
</div><div>In one exchange on Monday, a reporter suggested to Psaki that by refusing to send American troops into Ukraine and impose a no-fly zone—which experts agree would likely spark a full-blown war between the U.S. and Russia—the Biden administration is effectively "pushing these guys [Ukrainian soldiers] to commit suicide."</div><div>
</div><div>"Can you imagine if the press covered climate change like this?" The Intercept's Ryan Grim asked during a HillTV segment on Thursday. "Or the expiration of the child tax credit? Or the Saudi and UAE war on Yemen that has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths? Or the seizure of Afghanistan's central bank reserves?"</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>In his HillTV segment, Grim pointed to a striking back-and-forth in which Gray Television's White House correspondent Jon Decker pressed Psaki on why the Biden administration is not providing "more offensive weapons" to the Ukrainian military."If a Ukrainian military officer or someone who is enlisted has one of these weapons," said Decker, "they can take out a Russian military official of some sort with these weapons."</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>The White House press corps is hardly alone in its hawkish coverage of Russia's assault, which has killed at least 816 civilians and sparked a massive humanitarian crisis.</div><div>
</div><div>As Gideon Taaffe and Chloe Simon of Media Matters noted last week, "Both right-wing and mainstream cable news have featured commentary from hosts and guests pushing the idea of a NATO-imposed 'no-fly zone' over Ukraine, sometimes without providing important context about the possibility of escalation into a hot war with Russia."</div><div>
</div><div>"On March 4, Fox News contributor and retired Gen. Keith Kellogg pushed for a no-fly zone during an appearance on Fox News' America Reports, claiming that 'no plans are perfect, but there is a way to do and we should at least explore it,'" Taaffe and Simon observed. "On the March 6 edition of Meet the Press, NBC anchor Chuck Todd pressed Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on his hesitancy to execute a no-fly zone, saying, 'Why rule out the no-fly zone? Why not make Putin think it's possible?'"</div><div>
</div><div>"This eagerness to get into a war with Russia," the pair wrote, "seems to ignore the potentially devastating consequences of the U.S. initiating that escalation, which could include nuclear fallout."</div><div>
</div><div>In a Twitter post earlier this week, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo expressed a similar sentiment.</div><div>
</div><div>"Hopefully this will remain a matter of academic and media studies interest only," he wrote. "But it is worth considering why much of cable news has become nonstop cheerleading for the U.S. to declare war on Russia, often via a 'no-fly zone.'"</div></div><div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wasn't nyt in a partnership on clinton cash?</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/09/768556474/how-a-political-hit-job-backfired-and-led-to-trumps-impeachment-peril">https://www.npr.org/<b>2019/10</b>/09/768556474/how-a-political-hit-job-backfired-and-led-to-trumps-impeachment-peril</a></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. The nation's attention is riveted on the drama unfolding in Washington, where House investigators are assembling evidence for their impeachment inquiry, and President Trump is refusing to cooperate. Our guest, Bloomberg Businessweek columnist Joshua Green, says that, ironically, Trump's impeachment peril is the unintended result of an effort to help him.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last spring, a book came out called "Secret Empires: How The American Political Class Hides Corruption And Enriches Family And Friends." Its author was Peter Schweizer, the head of the Government Accountability Institute, a think tank founded by Schweizer and Steve Bannon. The book includes information about <b>Hunter Biden,</b> the son of Joe Biden and his activities in Ukraine when his father was the vice president.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The book raises questions about possible ethical violations and corruption related to Hunter Biden's activities in Ukraine.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <b>The book received a lot of attention on Fox News,</b> where it came to the attention of President Trump and led <b>Trump to send Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine</b> to pressure the new government there to investigate the claims in Schweizer's book.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Joshua Green notes in a new article how this echoes the playbook that Schweizer and Bannon successfully used with their 2015 book "Clinton Cash</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">," which raised questions about the propriety of Hillary Clinton's financial dealings and those of the Clinton Foundation. It led to investigations by the mainstream media.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Joshua Green writes about politics for Bloomberg Businessweek and is the author of a book about Steve Bannon called "Devil's Bargain."</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> He spoke with FRESH AIR's Dave Davies.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVE DAVIES, BYLINE: Joshua Green, welcome back to FRESH AIR. You write that the allegations of corruption involving Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine were first aired in a book published last year by something called the Government Accountability Institute. What is the Government Accountability Institute?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JOSHUA GREEN: Well, the</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Government Accountability Institute is registered as a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">nonpartisan research </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">organization. It was founded in 2012 by Steve Banno</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">n, Donald Trump's former chief strategist, and Peter Schweizer, who, I believe, is now the president and still works there. And it bills itself as an investigatory outfit that investigates money and politics, corruption and that sort of thing.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: Right. Who funds it?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN: Well, we don't know all the funders, but one of its chief funders is Rebekah <b>Mercer,</b> who is part of the Mercer family, headed by Robert Mercer, the former co-chair of Renaissance Technologies, the big hedge fund. The Mercer family was and still is a major right-wing donor to various different causes, big Trump supporters, and a family that has come into the spotlight since Trump's election - also involved in Cambridge Analytica and some of the outfits that became famous and even notorious after the 2016 election.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: The funding certainly comes from partisan sources. You know, the co-founder was Steve Bannon. What's interesting, as you write, is that the work - the research that it produced and the books that it produced weren't intended particularly to reach the conservative media or core Republican voters. What was the purpose?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN: Well, the purpose of GAI originally was to, you know, investigate politicians. But given the conservative band of people like Bannon and Schweizer and their funders, the focus often tended to be Democrats. And in my book, I write about how<b> Schweizer and Bannon resolved to go after Hillary Clinton a couple of years before the 2016 election, knowing that she was likely to emerge as the Democratic nominee.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">So through GAI and its investigators, its forensic data scientists, you know, they pored over public records, corporate filings, dark Web scrapings to compile, you know, a damning book about Bill and Hillary Clinton in their work through their nonprofit, the Clinton Foundation, that was published about a month before Hillary launched her presidential campaign. And that book, "Clinton Cash," became an instant New York Times [PARTNERSHIP?!]  bestseller and <b>really tarnished Hillary Clinton's image just as she was entering the presidential fray.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: And the interesting thing is that, you know, Bannon was not interested in just generating material for the conservative media. It was important that mainstream media draw on this research and, you know, give it their imprimatur tour too.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GREEN: That's exactly right. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">You know, Bannon's critique of how Republicans deal with the media goes back to the 1990s and Bill Clinton's impeachment, when he thought that Republicans really just wound up talking to themselves in an echo chamber and they chased wild rumors and conspiracy theories and really put off ordinary voters. The media didn't listen to them. Voters didn't listen to them. <b>OPPO RESEARCH</b></span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">So with "Clinton Cash," he resolved to compile factual information that he wanted the mainstream media to pick up and amplify.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> And so he explicitly was not looking to reach a conservative audience, which is already going to be predisposed to dislike the Clintons, and was aiming to affect the votes in the views of independents and Democrats and the type of people that Hillary Clinton was counting on.<b> It was important to Bannon that GAI's work be picked up and taken seriously by mainstream media outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg News.</b></span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: And did those mainstream media organizations publish stories based on the research?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">GREEN: <b>Yeah, they did. I mean, famously, there was a New York Times story based on Schweizer's reporting.</b> And it revealed this in the story, looking at a Clinton Foundation deal in a Russian-backed company called Uranium One that really took off and, I think, poisoned the public views of Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. And, as Bannon intended, a whiff of corruption attached itself to Hillary Clinton</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Of course, that expanded as the media focused on her missing emails and Republicans pushed these ideas. </span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But the book really succeeded in what Bannon had set out to do. And that was to </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">raise doubts </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">about the ethics and morals and fitness for the presidency of Hillary Clinton.</span></b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: Right. And we should just note that there is nothing at all unusual about credible reporters getting tips and leads and information from partisan sources. They have to, of course, independently verify the information and assess its credibility. Were the books that the Government Accountability Institute writes generally accurate?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN: <b>Well, they were based on facts</b>. And what these investigators did was go out and turn out examples of foreign donors that hadn't been disclosed and examples of behavior by former President Bill Clinton that <b>seemed</b> to be conducted on behalf of donors to the Clinton Foundation.<b> You know, Schweizer's style is not to fabricate or allege illegality. Instead, he uses his reporting to lay out a suggestive timeline that leads readers to a conclusion that, hey, something is dirty here.</b> This reeks of influence peddling. Something is not right. And it raises doubts about the subjects.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: So the new book from Peter Schweizer and the Government Accountability Institute is called "Secret Empires: How The American Political Class Hides Corruption And Enriches Family And Friends." And it identified Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden as a target for some of the material. What did it find about Joe and Hunter Biden?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GREEN: Well, what it found was that Hunter Biden, the vice president's son, had become </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">a highly paid director at a Ukrainian natural gas company called Burisma</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, a position that he didn't have any obvious qualifications for. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But he did have a very famous last name, and the owner of the company was interested, I think, in building credibility.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Schweizer also took a look at a private equity fund that Hunter Biden became involved in that drew a lot of money from Chinese investors at the same time that Hunter was flying to China on Air Force Two with his father, the vice president.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So in Schweizer's reporting, you know, this is made to look very fishy and possibly illegal and raise doubts about the ethics of Joe Biden and whether or not, you know, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination really belongs in that position or, you know, is in some way corrupt because of his son's business dealings.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: No direct evidence that Joe Biden did anything to assist his son in either of those ventures, right? But there's an association.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN<b>: No. No, there isn't. And Bloomberg News, my employer, has done a lot of reporting and has turned up no wrongdoing. </b>Other outlets have taken a look. I mean, what is going on and what Schweizer is good at finding are situations like this where, you know, I think any objective reader would come to the conclusion that, you know, but for Hunter's last name, he would not be in this position. You and I would not be offered a $50,000 a month board seat at a Ukrainian gas company because our father isn't vice president.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So it's the sort of - it's what, you know, Schweizer calls corruption by proxy. There's nothing explicitly illegal, but it's sort of morally corrupt and an indictment of our system in a way that populist Republicans and Democrats like to criticize.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: The Clinton book got a ton of mainstream media attention and had an impact on the Clintons themselves. This book, did it get a lot of mainstream attention? Did it hurt harm the Bidens?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GREEN: </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">You know, it really didn't. It came out in 2018, and it kind of came and went. It - you know, it didn't attach itself to Biden. It didn't become - it didn't drive the political news cycle in the way that "Clinton Cash" drove the 2015-2016 presidential news cycle. It got a decent amount of attention in conservative media, but it never really broke out into the mainstream.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You know, and I speculated in my Businessweek piece, a couple of reasons for this - one, Joe Biden wasn't yet a candidate, and so there wasn't that kind of urgency to look into his past. There might have been had the book come out later on. <b>It also didn't focus only on the Biden's; it focused on John Kerry, Barack Obama, the Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell. </b>So I think that influenced how it was received. And of course, unlike "Clinton Cash," it wasn't focused on an actual Democratic presidential candidate; it was mainly focused on his son. And so there - it was sort of one degree removed from the primary actors.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>I think all these things together help explain why the book didn't really break out until, that is, Donald Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, became infatuated with it,</b> started trying to investigate these things themselves and now has kicked off what has become an entire impeachment proceeding and put the book and the Bidens and Schweizer himself very much in the center of the 2020 presidential news cycle.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: So when this book was launched with these stories, what were the ambitions of Peter Schweizer and the Government Accountability Institute?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GREEN: Well, I think the ambition was a reprise of what they'd seen with "Clinton Cash," that the mainstream media would look into this stuff and amplify it in the way that they had with the Clinton charges</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. You know, Steve Bannon, who kind of pioneered this model, has a phrase he likes to use - anchor left, pivot right. And what that means is you want to anchor this reporting on the left and the mainstream media - what Bannon considers the left - get them writing about it and then use the right-wing media to amplify what it is the mainstream media is saying and to kind of dominate the entire mediasphere.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So I think Schweizer and GAI were hoping that "Secret Empires," the Biden reporting, would be anchored in the mainstream media, and the whole process would repeat itself, but that never really happened with the second book.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: So what did happen? Why do we know about it now?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GREEN: Well, we know about it now - it got a decent amount of attention in the right-wing media, on</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Fox News, in the New York Post. </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And of course, some of - you know, one of the most loyal consumers of right-wing media is the president,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Donald Trump, who according to reporting watches hours and hours of Fox News every day. So he was exposed to this reporting, exposed to the charges and the insinuations that Schweizer made. He's tweeted about the book. He's tweeted about Schweizer.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And, you know, based on everything we've heard from the whistleblower report, from the White House call transcript that was released at the end of September, Trump and Giuliani took it upon themselves to pick up the phone and try and advance Schweizer's reporting into the Bidens. I mean, essentially, calling the president of Ukraine and saying, hey,<b> I know about this Biden stuff. I want you to look into this.</b> I want you to investigate my political opponent. And, you know, if you don't, we're going to withhold this military aid - setting off all the alarm bells that have now led to the impeachment inquiry.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: So it really was the president and Giuliani that took this and ran with it.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN: It really was. I mean, the remarkable thing - a lot of people watch Fox News, watch right-wing media, get upset about the Clintons and the Bidens, but only one of them had the power to pick up the telephone, call the president of the Ukraine and put pressure on him to investigate the Bidens in hopes that they could turn up more damning information about Joe and Hunter Biden, knowing that Joe Biden was very likely to be his Democratic opponent in 2020.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. And we're speaking with Bloomberg Businessweek columnist Joshua Green about the origins of the story about Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine, which drew interest from President Trump and has now led to an impeachment inquiry. Green is the author of a book about Steve Bannon called "Devil's Bargain."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So President Trump has said that Joe Biden, when he was vice president - I guess in 2016 - sought to get the Ukrainian prosecutor fired, who was, at that time, investigating the company associated with Hunter Biden, his son - in effect, kind of scotching an investigation into his son by getting the prosecutor fired. What's the truth of this?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GREEN: </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Well, it is true what Trump says, but it is wildly misleading. Vice President Biden played a central role in overseeing U.S. policy in the Ukraine. But Biden, the Obama administration, Republicans in the Senate, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union were all putting pressure on the Ukrainian government to root out corruption and, particularly, to fire the chief prosecutor at the time, Viktor Shokin, who was not - who was essentially beholden to the oligarchs, was not doing the kind of corruption investigations they wanted.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">So Biden threatened to withhold up to a billion dollars in aid from Ukraine if Shokin wasn't fired because he was so deeply corrupt.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">So Biden and the Obama administration were putting pressure on the Ukraine government to do more investigating of corruption not less, as Trump and his allies are insinuating.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">And it's also - I mean, just to be clear, they weren't in - Ukrainian prosecutors were never investigating Hunter Biden. They were investigating an oligarch who owned - who is the co-founder of Burisma, the gas company, on whose board Hunter Biden served.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: Right. And is it clear whether, at the time that he was fired,<b> this prosecutor, Victor Shokin, was actually investigating the company?</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>GREEN: You know, it isn't clear. </b>There have been conflicting reports on this. There does seem to have been an investigation into Burisma. But, you know, they paid a fine. That went away. At no point was Hunter Biden ever implicated in any kind of corruption. And part of what, I think, Trump and Giuliani were trying to do was to reopen this investigation and steer it toward Hunter Biden in hopes that they could find or maybe create damaging material around the Bidens.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: There is a new chief prosecutor in Ukraine and was quoted as saying that he had opened an audit of a bunch of old investigations, including one into Burisma Holdings, the company that Hunter Biden was associated with. What does this portend?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN: Well, it's not clear. I mean, one of the things, I think, a lot of people don't understand about the whole Ukraine situation is that Hunter Biden was never investigated by Ukrainian prosecutors. <b>What happened was that they were investigating an oligarch named Mykola Zlochevsky, who co-founded Burisma. </b>And so reopening investigations would be investigations into Burisma Holdings. But they - from what we know, that wouldn't affect or have anything specifically to do with Hunter Biden or his situation there.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the things that Trump and Giuliani are pushing for in these text messages and these - in these meetings and phone calls is for Ukrainian prosecutors to go further and specifically investigate the Bidens in hope that they can turn up dirt that can be used in the 2020 presidential campaign.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And as far as we know, there's no basis for investigating anything. There is no evidence that I'm aware of or that anybody has reported that would suggest that there was wrongdoing there. </b>And Schweizer himself, in fact, in the New York Times today, has an op-ed saying that, you know, what transpired actually wasn't illegal under U.S. law. It was unseemly. It might have been unethical - the idea of putting a politician's son on a board as a way of maybe trying to influence the political process - but there was nothing illegal here. And that's very much Schweizer's style is not to allege illegality but to insinuate that there is something corrupt going on there.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And, I think, part of the way that this entire story went sideways and went crashing into this impeachment inquiry is that Trump is very much susceptible to the insinuation that there is something, you know, perfidious going on here and took it upon himself to, you know, push and amplify and even threaten people in hopes of advancing the story.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: You mentioned that Peter Schweizer, the author of this book that was funded by the Government Accountability Institute, has an op-ed in The Times. He's arguing that there's a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it illegal for an American company operating in a foreign country to engage in, you know, bribery or nepotism to secure favor from governments in which they operate but that there's a big hole in the law in that there's nothing to prevent a foreign government from hiring the family of U.S. officials or creating relationships in order to, you know, create an appearance which helps their business. Does he have a point?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN: I think he's got a perfectly good point. And that's exactly what seems to be going on with Hunter Biden. He had no traditional, professional qualification for the job that he held with Burisma, you know, and that in itself doesn't seem right. I think that is what Schweizer is pointing to.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, Trump and Republicans have taken it a lot further, twisting a lot of the facts about what was investigated, what the Obama administration and Biden were pressuring the Ukrainian government to do in 2016. But the basic fact that Hunter Biden was on this board and was probably there for political reasons, because there weren't really any other good reasons for him to be on the board - what Scheizer has pointed out here and what he says in his New York Times op-ed is that what Hunter Biden did was perfectly legal, but that, in itself, is a problem.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GROSS: Joshua Green is a columnist for Bloomberg Businessweek. After a break, he'll talk with Dave Davies about how the controversy is affecting the Biden campaign and how Trump and his allies are fighting back with counter narratives that paint the president as the victim of Democratic attacks.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to the interview FRESH AIR's Dave Davies recorded with Bloomberg Businessweek columnist Joshua Green. In a recent column, Green argues that President Trump's impeachment worries are actually the unintended result of an effort to help him. He says Trump picked up on research about Joe Biden developed by a conservative think tank and included in a book last year.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The material was intended to harm Biden's presidential campaign. But when Trump saw the story on conservative media and began urging Ukraine to investigate Biden, he created far bigger problems for himself. Trump is now the subject of an impeachment inquiry into whether he abused the authority of his office. When we left off, Green was talking about an op-ed published in The New York Times by Peter Schweizer, the author of the book with the allegations against Biden.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DAVIES: </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Are you surprised that The New York Times would publish an op-ed by Peter Schweizer, you know, who got funding from, you know, the Mercers and have a very strong political point of view?</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN: Yeah. You know, a little bit, given the controversy it kicked up in 2016 when <b>Schweizer's reporting appeared on the front page -</b> in other words, in the news pages. This piece today is in the opinion section, which I think is a little bit more appropriate for the author and the subject and the claims that he's making.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: Right. And just going back to 2016, my understanding is that, you know, the author of the Times' reporting on the Clinton Foundations and the Uranium One story is reporting that they stand by, that they independently investigated all of this and found it credible and newsworthy. Do you disagree?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GREEN</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">: No. I don't disagree with that at all. I mean, part of what made the GAI project so effective is that they didn't do what some conservative authors do, which is to, you know, fabricate or publish rumors. I mean, they're - all of this is based in fact.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> They certainly put their own spin on those facts. They insinuated that there was maybe more going on than was actually going on. <b>But they really did turn up evidence of unreported donations, of relationships that just didn't seem right that, you know, any legitimate investigative reporter, were he or she to come across this information, would want to look into further. And that's exactly what happened.</b></span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">So the fact that there is a grain of truth in a lot of what is written is one of the things that makes it so effective and that Bannon and Schweizer understood from the outset would get the mainstream media to pay attention and amplify these charges.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> I think what happened in 2016 that upsets liberals so much is that, you know, as this stuff was being published in the mainstream media, it was also being amplified and distorted in the right-wing media. And that was having a real effect on Hillary Clinton as a presidential candidate.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Her reputation was unquestionably tarnished. She was dogged by these charges and allegations. You add in the amplifying voice of Donald Trump as a presidential candidate calling her crooked Hillary and corrupt and I don't think there's any question - but that - it affected voters' views of her in a way that ultimately proved disastrous for Clinton's own candidacy and for Democrats.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DAVIES</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">: One of the things that I think adds to the political potency is that the facts of a lot of these stories are so complicated, that it's really hard for an average reader to sort out what it all means. Was there subsequent reporting on the Uranium One story which cast the Clintons' actions in a different light?</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GREEN:</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Nothing knocked it down. You know, the subsequent reporting - I mean, I think what a lot of Democrats objected to was the fact that this, frankly, partisan outfit and author and right-wing money had produced this information that had made its way onto the</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> front page of The New York Times. </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">And I spoke to the liberal activist David Brock at the time about Schweizer and Bannon. And he shook his head. And he Said, you know, looking at it from their point of view, the </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Times is the perfect host body for the virus -</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> meaning, you know, the intention all along from these guys was to poison the public image of Hillary Clinton</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. <b>And by getting these charges onto the front pages of The New York Times, they essentially accomplished that mission. I think everything that happened subsequently with Trump's attacks and Clinton's loss in the 2016 election back that up. And this time around, with Joe and Hunter Biden, they were looking to do the same thing.</b></span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DAVIES:</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <b>In the op-ed, the Times doesn't mention Peter Schweizer's association with the Government Accountability Institute or its funders, you know, the Mercers. </b>What do you think of that?</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN: You know, if I were running the op-ed page, I think that's something I would've disclosed based on, you know, his background, the political lineage and what we saw in the 2016 presidential cycle.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: So is all of this affecting the Biden campaign?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN: You know, it's not clear that it is. I mean, Biden had been on a bit of a downward trajectory before Trump and the Ukraine charges really came into the news cycle. But, you know, he is - he's starting to slip now. I mean, in the latest averages of polls, Elizabeth Warren has nudged ahead of him. So, you know, it's not clear that this is a deadly development for Joe Biden's candidacy, but it certainly isn't helping.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: Since the whistleblower complaint emerged, there's been a lot of information and text and the summary of the phone call between President Trump and the president of Ukraine, which has led to this impeachment inquiry, which is clearly picking up steam. I mean, we're going to see, you know, testimony from other players in this including the former ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch. The Trump administration says it is not going to cooperate with this because, you know, it's a witch hunt. Where do you see this going?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GREEN: </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Well, you know, the irony here is that Trump, by involving himself, you know, essentially made this entire project blow up in his face and committed actions that, at the very least, have launched an impeachment inquiry and I think are very likely to lead to his impeachment in the House whether or not the Senate ultimately chooses to remove him.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But what the whistleblower report showed, what the subsequent text messages that have now been revealed between the U.S. ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, and Bill Taylor, a top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, that show that the U.S. apparently was withholding military aid to help a political campaign, as Taylor put it in his text. That is the quid pro quo that Democrats are alleging. And I think if there is a trial in the House, that's what it's likely to show. And the evidence we've seen so far certainly supports that.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So I think, from an impeachment standpoint, Trump is in real trouble. Whether or not he's ultimately removed from office, we'll see. I'm skeptical. But certainly this isn't the outcome that Schweizer and GAI and I think Trump and Giuliani expected to happen when they started making noise about this over the summer.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DAVIES: Right. Well, the president's defenders are aggressively promoting other narratives. I mean, </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Giuliani, a couple of weeks ago, was on the ABC weekend show waiving an affidavit from Viktor Shokin,</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> you know, the prosecutor that was fired in 2016, in which alleges that, in fact, he was investigating the company Hunter Biden's - was associated with. There are certainly reasons to doubt his credibility in the eyes of a lot of people. And then, you know, last week,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Senator Ron Johnson had a heated exchange with Chuck Todd on "Meet The Press" in which he was arguing that there's all this credible evidence that people in the Ukraine were trying to hurt Trump and help Hillary Clinton in 2016. [RUSSIAN DISINFO] </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It's a very aggressive strategy to - you know, bringing up other stuff. What do you think the effect will be?</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN: Well, I think the intention on the part of Republicans is to muddy the waters and to turn the charges of corruption against Trump that we've seen laid out in the whistleblower report and the text messages - turn them back against the Democrats.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">What is troubling to a lot of people is that a lot of these charges are based on discredited conspiracy theories. What Ron Johnson was talking about was a <b>conspiracy theory that Trump and Giuliani have propagated that it wasn't Russia that hacked the Democratic National Committee servers in the 2016 election but Ukraine. </b>That's something that's been knocked down by every intelligence official, U.S. and otherwise, who's looked into this. And yet, this is what's being propagated by Trump.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And I think a lot of Republican politicians, fearful of Trump's wrath and eager to toe the partisan line, have found themselves forced or obligated to repeat these wild charges in a way that bears no relationship to reality but is nonetheless, I think, muddying the waters and shaping public opinion in a way that is intended to mitigate the damage of the charges against Trump.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: Is Steve Bannon playing a role in stoking any of these allegations?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN: You know, he really isn't anymore. I mean, Bannon had a very public falling-out with Donald Trump in 2017, where Trump sort of publicly humiliated him and excommunicated him from the Republican Party. He lost his position as the head of Breitbart News, was essentially sent out into the wilderness.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>I mean, Bannon is still around on the scene. He is focused more on China these days and trying to, I think, strengthen Trump's resolve to conduct the trade war</b>. Trump did tweet favorably about him a couple of months ago. But there isn't a close relationship there in the way that there was during the presidential campaign.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DAVIES: Yeah. I asked because </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">you wrote a book about Steve Bannon and talked to him a lot. He was also going around Europe trying to kind of build a, you know, nationalist, populist movement. How did that go?</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">GREEN: Well, it basically failed. I mean, the nationalist movements in Europe weren't really interested in an American political strategist coming in and telling them what to do.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> They didn't perform nearly as well in the May European parliamentary elections as Bannon and some of the nationalist contingent were hoping for.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And so he's focused mainly these days on kind of beating the war drums against China, going out and publicly defending Trump's aggression against China when it comes to tariffs and the trade war and that sort of thing, and seeking to remain relevant in that way. But so far, there has been no reproach with Trump and the White House, or the Mercer family, for that matter. And so he's off on his own.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: You know, looking at the strategy of the Government Accountability Institute with this book, you know, the idea was to kind of repeat the playbook that worked with the Clinton candidacy in 2016, where you develop information, it becomes adopted by the mainstream media and becomes a scandal. And in this case, it seems like another - kind of a different weird thing happened, which is that it turned into a scandal for the president himself when he pursued a theory and then engaged in conduct which has resulted in this impeachment inquiry.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the same time, Peter Schweizer, the author of the book funded by the Government Accountability Institute, is being quoted. I mean, the story is out there. I wonder how they view this - how it's all worked out.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN:<b> Well, the irony here is that the target was supposed to be the Bidens, not the president. And by the president becoming involved, you know, the original plan has kind of blown up</b>. What may wind up happening - as you say, you know, Biden and these charges are very much in the news. That was part of the intention, even if the negative attention toward Trump wasn't part of the plan. What we could see end up happening is a kind of a murder-suicide where Trump really does take out his strongest Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, only, he winds up, in the process, getting himself impeached.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVIES: Well, Joshua Green, thanks so much for speaking with us again.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GREEN: Thank you. It's always a pleasure.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GROSS: Joshua Green is a columnist for Bloomberg Businessweek and the author of a book about Steve Bannon called "Devil's Bargain." </font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/jan-6-media/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/jan-6-media/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">media fail will not admit </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4">=</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>The scary truth about the media's reaction to right-wing authoritarianism</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/media-right-wing/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/media-right-wing/</a></div><div>
</div><div>John Stoehr January 04, 2022</div><div>
</div><div>It’s conventional wisdom among newspaper reporters that we should let readers decide. Don’t come to moral conclusions. Just present the facts neutrally, objectively. Leave the rest to the opinion pages.</div><div>
</div><div>But that conventional wisdom is running into trouble, namely a period in political history in which normal isn’t normal anymore. Indeed, the more we cling to the conventional wisdom – to these normal reporting conventions – the more harm we do to the people we claim to serve.</div><div>
</div><div>That paradox is put into sharp relief by coverage of the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection. Its one-year anniversary is Thursday. The press corps had a year for soul-searching, but it’s still treating the event – still treating treason – as if there are two sides. The result is elevating lies to the level of truth, making everything seem as good or bad as everything else, and giving the impression that nothing matters.</div><div>
</div><div>I talked about this and more with Mark Jacob. He spent 41 years in the newspapers, mostly in Chicago. He’s the former Sunday editor at the Chicago Sun-Times and former metro editor at the Chicago Tribune. Since retiring, he’s reinvented himself as the sharpest press critic on social media. If anyone knows how journalism should be done, it’s Mark. I began by asking if the press corps has learned anything.</div><div>
</div><div>READ: 'A dangerous fascist': Critics blast Josh Hawley on the anniversary of his Fox News insurrection threat</div><div>
</div><div>Mark Jacob: They're learning slowly, too slowly. You see more instances of people saying flat-out that the Republican Party is an anti-democratic movement, which has been obvious for years. Of course, it's wrong to paint the Washington press corps with one brush, because some have been far better than others.</div><div>
</div><div>The Times editorial board likened the GOP to “authoritarian movements the world over.” Is that the progress you see?</div><div>
</div><div>Yes, that's a good example. But let's remember the Times was afraid to call Donald Trump a liar in 2015. There's really no question that the timidity and lack of truth-telling by major news outlets is partly responsible for the perilous state we're in today. I think many Washington journalists became very comfortable with the “stenographic school of journalism” and didn't want to give it up. If they quoted the Democrats and Republicans in equal numbers and acted like their comments were equally valid, they could stake out a comfortable position as "objective" and the small-talk at the cocktail parties would remain congenial.</div><div>
</div><div>Reporting both sides of cancer in other words.</div><div>
</div><div>READ: Report reveals new details about Liz Cheney's attempt to hold Trump accountable for Jan. 6</div><div>
</div><div>Yep. "Melanoma might have a point there." Even when the DC news media was fact-checking Republican lies, it would do it in a tidy and ineffective manner. Often news stories would say what Trump said and then would say what the truth was. But they wouldn't start out with a direct statement saying what the truth was and that Trump was lying about it. In effect, they were laying out the facts but requiring the readers and viewers to do the math. This was a practice that worked to the benefit of lying propagandists.</div><div>
</div><div>You can call it “objective.” Or you could call it “irresponsible.” Can you explain to non-news people like us why it's the latter?</div><div>
</div><div>First, I think the news media have been misled in a quest for some mythical version of objectivity. Deciding to conduct an interview or write a story is making a value judgment. For way too long, political journalists have thought objectivity meant letting both sides have their say, even when they knew one side was lying more than the other side. They were being "objective," but they weren't being fair to their customers, who depended on them to sort out what was true.</div><div>
</div><div>A lot of current political reporting is a dereliction of duty. Editors and reporters should never let a lie get into their publications without it being aggressively called out as a lie. Sad to say, a lot of American political journalism has been defensive – designed to prevent the editors and reporters from getting angry phone calls from one side or the other. But of course, John, we both know that if you don't get any angry phone calls, that's a sign that you're not doing your job.</div><div>
</div><div>I don't think most consumers of national political reporting know how bad it is, morally and practically, compared to their hometown papers. There are just different standards in each.</div><div>
</div><div>Well, local political lying is often less sophisticated than national political lying. National Republicans are masters of the lie. I think a big mistake the news media have made is giving the American people too much credit. I don't mean that as an insult. I mean it as a sad fact.</div><div>
</div><div>When the news media carefully avoided calling Donald Trump a liar and just laid out the facts, they were assuming, or at least hoping, that the public could weigh the evidence and figure out that Trump was lying.</div><div>
</div><div>But large segments of the public didn't reach that conclusion. Perhaps the most important lesson of this era is propaganda works.</div><div>
</div><div>READ: DeSantis demands feds allow Florida to buy $1 billion in COVID treatment top donor has invested in</div><div>
</div><div>When the right wing repeats a lie enough times, many people believe it. Most of the news media and the Democratic Party think that if they say something once or twice, everybody gets it and they can move on. That's obviously wrong. It's why news media are ineffective and Democratic messaging gets mugged by Republican messaging. When you say the truth twice and someone else says a lie 1,000 times, it's just human nature to think the lie might be true.</div><div>
</div><div>One of the founding principles of the Editorial Board is that most people most of the time have something better to do than pay attention to politics. It's our responsibility to tell them what they need to know. That requires, even demands, that we be judicious.</div><div>
</div><div>I'm so glad you said that. I don't think everyone needs to be a political nerd like I am to be a good American. There's an elitism in politics and media that tends to exclude people who are too busy registering their kids for soccer to find the time to read a Washington Post op-ed.</div><div>
</div><div>The real challenge for people who want to prevent a radical fascist minority from taking over this country is to get people who "don't care about politics" to realize they need to take actions now — register to vote, give money and time to good candidates — if they don't want to see their kids grow up in a dictatorship.</div><div>
</div><div>In one of your recent posts, you address a thorny question among news people. What counts as newsworthy? Usually, it's what’s not normal. That judgment privileges the status quo, which is a problem for another day, but it also creates a rationale for ignoring lies.</div><div>
</div><div>When the Republicans flood the zone with lies, making them normal, they’re not news anymore. What can we in the craft? My two cents: stop troubling yourself with phony rules. But that's just me.</div><div>
</div><div>We definitely need new definitions of newsworthiness. We're living in unprecedented times, with a threat to our democracy that hasn't been this serious in a century and a half. Yet you hear people on cable news citing midterm election trends from decades past as if they're discussing the laws of gravity. Nothing is normal now.</div><div>
</div><div>What we need to do as a profession is identify the most admirable American values – opportunity, fairness, openness to new cultures, for example – and identify actions that most deviate from those values. Dramatic deviations from Americanism are newsworthy.</div><div>
</div><div>In your question, you're referring to something I call "ethics norming," which is the tendency to readjust the definition of normality based on recent events, even if recent events have been horrific.</div><div>
</div><div>This benefits people doing horrible things. I, for one, think that even if cannibals have devoured a classroom of children for three straight days, it's still news when it happens for a fourth day.</div><div>
</div><div>The Republicans have a right-wing media apparatus. Do the Democrats need their own? Would that benefit democracy?</div><div>
</div><div>The problem with Fox News and other propaganda outfits isn't that they speak from a Judeo-Christian view or oppose single-payer health care or want low taxes. The problem is they are systematically lying.</div><div>
</div><div>Another problem is that they are putting viewers in a cult-like cocoon from which they distrust everything. Their viewers are brainwashed.</div><div>
</div><div>It would be good to see more news organizations producing factual news from a variety of viewpoints, including from the left. As I said, objectivity is a myth. Journalists can lead with their values and still remain faithful to facts. A few organizations are doing that, such as Courier Newsroom. I'm on its advisory board. But they're way outnumbered and out-funded by the industry of untruth on the right.</div><div>
</div><div>I might agree with “leading with their values” if the press corps were not populated by the children of the children of the children of elites whose principal value is social status. Most seem indifferent to democracy's fall on account of being insulated from democracy's fall.</div><div>
</div><div>That's the scary thing – that some people in journalism today might be just fine under a dictatorship. You'd like to think they would be so vocal in their defense of democratic values that they'd be arrested if a totalitarian regime took over, not invited to an annual dinner.</div><div>
</div><div>When you talk about elitism, it reminds me that a big task for both journalists and pro-democracy advocates is to make it clear to regular citizens that their lives would be far worse under a totalitarian system -- that dictatorships are a way that the elite steals from the public.</div><div>
</div><div>This might be the most important message to get across -- that dictatorship will make everything worse for the overwhelming majority of Americans. Cheating and corruption are built into dictatorship. Opportunity dies for the talented but unconnected.</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/dozen-times-right-wing-media-said-something-ridiculous-about-climate-change-2021">https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/dozen-times-right-wing-media-said-something-ridiculous-about-climate-change-2021</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4">no lnx mant vids</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>A dozen times right-wing media said something ridiculous about climate change in 2021</div><div>Special PROGRAMS</div><div>CLIMATE & ENERGY</div><div>
</div><div>WRITTEN BY TED MACDONALD</div><div>
</div><div>PUBLISHED 12/23/21</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>1. The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro doesn’t think that 4 degrees Celsius of warming is an emergency</b></div><div>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."</div><div>
</div><div>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.</div><div>
</div><div><b>2. Fox’s Dagen McDowell thinks that cold temperatures in certain parts of the U.S. entirely disprove global warming</b></div><div>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.</div><div>
</div><div>Video file</div><div>CitationFrom the April 21, 2021, edition of Fox News' The Five</div><div>
</div><div>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.</div><div>
</div><div><b>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”</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">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.”</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Video file</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">CitationFrom the August 2, 2021, edition of<b> OAN's The Tipping Point</b></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">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</span>.</div><div>
</div><div><b>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</b></div><div>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.</div><div>
</div><div>Video file</div><div>CitationFrom the May 19, 2021, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">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.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>5. Newsmax’s Chris Salcedo doesn’t believe in “proof” that CO2 emissions are contributing to climate change</b></div><div>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.”</div><div>
</div><div>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.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>6. Fox’s Tucker Carlson rants that climate change is somehow a conspiracy to shrink your children</b></div><div>While Tucker Carlson is no stranger to promoting weird conspiracy theories about climate change, one of his segments from June went completely overboard.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> 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.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>Tucker Human Engineering</div><div>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.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>7. Dennis Prager thinks the simple solution to a warming climate is to just use more air conditioning</b></div><div>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.”</div><div>
</div><div>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.</div><div>
</div><div><b>8. On Fox News’ The Five, Greg Gutfeld claims that the data to prove climate change is “never there”</b></div><div>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.”</div><div>LOMBORGIAN? </div><div>
</div><div>Video file</div><div>CitationFrom the September 2, 2021, edition of Fox News' The Five</div><div>
</div><div>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.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>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”</b></div><div>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.</div><div>
</div><div>Video file</div><div>CitationFrom the October 25, 2021, edition of Newsmax's American Agenda</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>10. On Fox Business, Patricia Lee Onwuka of the Independent Women’s Forum claims that climate change is a “fallacy”</b></div><div>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.</div><div>
</div><div>Video file</div><div>CitationFrom the September 3, 2021, edition of Fox Business' Mornings With Maria</div><div>
</div><div>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.</div><div>
</div><div><b>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</b></div><div>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.</div><div>
</div><div><b>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,</b> 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.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>12. Fossil fuel lobbyist Daniel Turner thinks concern about climate change is “so overblown that it is hyperbolic and silly”</b></div><div><b>On the November 1 edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, Daniel Turner of the fossil fuel shill group Power the Future</b> 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.”</div><div>
</div><div>Video file</div><div>CitationFrom the November 1, 2021, edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom</div><div>
</div><div>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.</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 11 21</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an article published by Mother Jones on Thanksgiving 2021, journalist Monika Bauerlein describes <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/media/2021/11/are-you-part-of-the-exhausted-majority/8" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Americans as feeling mentally "exhausted" because of all the bad news</a> on top of bad news that they are being inundated with. And media outlets, Bauerlein stresses, are creating that climate of exhaustion because it is good for business.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bauerlein, in her Mother Jones article, writes, "Are you part of the exhausted majority?.… So many people are tired of feeling like everything is a disaster, everything is at risk, and we'll never be done fighting with unvaccinated relatives over who gets to come to Thanksgiving. And tired, too, of the news. I'm a journalist who lives and breathes news, and I get tired. So many headlines that want to get your attention. So much to worry about. Democrats in disarray, inflation, the climate — it's all at 11, all the time."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bauerlein acknowledges that "there are a lot of crises out there," but she is quick to add that the <em>world</em> has always had crises. The difference in 2021, she argues, is media outlets have a financial stake in promoting "outrage."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This is obviously not the only time of crisis the world, or America, has ever been through," the journalist explains. "It is, however, the only one in which we have lived in a 24/7 media ecosystem that depends for a significant part of its business on instant reaction and instant outrage. If you've been reading Mother Jones for a little while, you know about the basic problem: Advertising revenue for publishers and broadcasters depends in large part on both quantity — clicks, eyeballs, video views — and engagement: how long you stick around, whether you share, whether you comment. And all of those metrics are juiced when content tugs at your emotions, especially fear and outrage."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bauerlein continues, "That can take the form of sensational headlines about simple news stories, or it can take the form of opinionated hot takes. Even for newsrooms that depend less on advertising than subscriptions, as the New York Times and the Washington Post do, quick-turnaround opinion content is key in getting people to subscribe. That's why you're seeing these prestige outlets add more and more columnists and associated newsletters."</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4">no lnx twt</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>Sunday shows are a relic of a lazy low-stakes era</div><div>
</div><div>Hunter and Daily Kos October 24, 2021</div><div>   </div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">On one of the now unwatchable Sunday "news" shows, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd introduced a segment on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic by—I'm just kidding. It wasn't about the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a segment about the most favorite of all Sunday show segments, and i<b>ndeed largely the only segment any of the Sunday shows ever do: How will This Thing, the major news of the day, Affect Mah Politics?</b></span></div><div>
</div><div>"The economy's inability to fully recover from the shock of COVID-19 is both an economic story and a political one," intoned Todd.</div><div>
</div><div>The economy's inability to fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic is in large part due to anti-distancing, anti-mask, vaccine-skeptical, pro-virus-spreading policies from Republican politicians who have been using conservative frustration with safety measures as a rallying cry for their own careers, resulting in a new wave of overwhelmed hospitals and dead victims that was entirely preventable if sociopathic politicos had not turned pandemic crisis protocols into the latest spite-riddled "culture war."</div><div>
</div><div>"All those economic problems add up to a big political problem for the president. Is all of this his fault? Of course not, but it is now his responsibility. And he and fellow Democrats are in real danger of suffering some serious political consequences. Mr. Biden ran on a promise of a basic return to normal—or at least a path to normalcy. But with the midterm elections just over a year away—"</div><div>
</div><div><b>Stop. Just stop. Fine, we get it. We're doing this again. Republicans continue to get their constituents killed at elevated rates; let's now turn to our panel of experts to determine what the political implications of Republicans killing off their constituents will be for the Democrats who, uh, failed to convince them not to die to own the libs.</b></div><div>
</div><div>"Whadda think, Bob? Think all those surviving family members are gonna punish Democrats in the midterms?"</div><div>
</div><div>"I dunno, Steve, but between that and Americans quitting their dangerous bullshit pandemic poverty-wage jobs to look for better ones, there's real chaos out there on the streets. And it doesn't look good for anyone waiting for a Tickle-me-Elmo toy because the container ships are real backed up over on the left coast. And what if Republicans decide to start shooting constituents in the face? That'd look real bad for Joe Biden, who's run on a platform of not shooting people in the face."</div><div>
</div><div>And it ain't just that. Another of the Todd segments scraped up another entry in the "obsessively arch-right fascist Trump supporters still like Trump" press compulsion. Hey, the guy may have attempted to end our democracy through hoaxes and violence, but a bunch of Jesus-punchers think, if anything, that just makes him even more awesome.</div><div>
</div><div>We've been here before. This ain't new, and<b> Matt Negrin, in particular, has brought all the necessary receipts and then some to show that Chuck Todd's Meet the Press, in particular, is a relentless promoter of Republican frames, one that uses the "panel" format to mix hard-right Republican strategists and figures in with neutral journalists while studiously avoiding Democratic guests</b>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Most insipidly, Todd has been a prime rehabilitator for the Republican supporters of an election hoax that led to a violent insurrection.</span></div><div>
</div><div>[<a href="https://twitter.com/MattNegrin/status/1449747691639119873">https://twitter.com/MattNegrin/status/1449747691639119873</a></div><div>
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</div><div>
</div><div>Why? Is that "neutrality"? Is it "news"?</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>The problem with Meet the Press is the problem with all political journalism: It shouldn't exist. It's lazy. It's cheap, hackish, phone-it-in programming cobbled together because doing journalism is hard but talking about the "political implications" of any news story is easy.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Ask how the ongoing mostly Republican-state COVID-19 crisis is affecting social programs and you'll have to do research to find out. Ask whether the stance of anti-mask politicians like Ron DeSantis is morally defensible and you'll have to expose your own moral convictions.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Ask how the widespread death and economic chaos will affect the political winds when whatever-the-next-election-is rolls around, though, and you don't need to know a damn thing. It's easy. It's trivial. Pick out whichever guests will most reliably say something "exciting" and you've got yourself a show.</span></div><div>
</div><div>"Hey, Trump campaign spokesguy Jason Miller, the price of chicken went up by ten cents over the last six months. How do you think that's gonna play among [spins wheel] Evangelical voters in [throws dart] Wyoming?"</div><div>
</div><div>"I think this is great news for Donald Trump, and I'd also like to mention here that Wyoming Evangelicals are also very worried about Joe Biden's surrender to the mole people that happened last Thursday but that nobody here is reporting. Also, Joe Biden eats children."</div><div>
</div><div>"Thanks, Jason, we'll have to leave it there."</div><div>
</div><div>Anyone can opine about politics. It requires no expertise. It requires little thought. On television, where nobody in front of or behind the cameras gives a particular damn whether or not a guest just lies outright to the nation because they'll already be three lies beyond that one before anyone else can get a word in edgewise, there is absolutely no penalty for being wrong. Or lying. Or undermining democracy. Or egging on violence. Or anything else.</div><div>
</div><div><b>The Sunday shows are the worst thing politics can be: no-stakes. It is all just a game, a little game among the wealthy professional class to fill time while questions of morality and decency are pooh-poohed as the naive domain of the common rabble.</b> True political journalism covers democracy and fascism as neutral ideological combatants; considers death ancillary to poll numbers; judges economic policy based on the analysis of whoever has the most money to spend on analysis; considers false propaganda to be Reasonable, if it can be made Effective; and, above all, dodges all policy considerations in favor of meta-debate about which political figures will most have their images buffed or tarnished from the policy's defeat or acceptance.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Would it be economically wise to avoid a worldwide climate catastrophe that sinks Florida, burns much of the West to a cinder, causes widespread crop failures, and renders certain parts of the globe literally uninhabitable if the air conditioners fail? There's not even a question! Set aside every moral and environmental question, and you're still left with the unambiguous case that moving national energy policy toward less-polluting alternatives will save the country from unfathomable economic costs in the decades to come.</span></div><div>
</div><div>We're not going to get that conversation on Meet the Press, ever, because no non-journalist booked on Meet the Press knows a damn thing about it. We're not going to get the kind of hard-edged reporting that the profession idolizes in fictional stories but shudders with contempt at providing itself, reporting in which political figures are confronted about their astonishing ineptitude in managing this or any other of the existential issues of the day.</div><div>
</div><div><b>We will get an unending parade of professional know-nothings to discuss how Joe Manchin's posturing or Bernie Sanders' gruffness might bump off-year poll numbers in the span between now and the future crisis, because that's the sort of talk that allows charlatans who don't believe in anything to have opinions on everything.</b></div><div>
</div><div>I'm tired. We're all tired. These shows are astonishingly tired, shambling along like brainless zombies wandering past thickets of political violence, environmental cataclysm, mass disease, widespread government failure, and the alteration of the nation's democratic discourse into, literally, an arena of professional hoax-promotion. The old formats were designed for sleepier times when the nation could coast along, ineffective and only a little bit corrupt, with no wars that affected the Important People or economic tragedies that the Important People could not weather. Now that we have passed through decades of ambivalent puttering to come face-to-face with genuine crisis, we learn that none of the shows are built to grapple with crises. They were a child's toy, a little playground in which the powerful could snip playfully at each other on camera before going to eat in the same tony restaurants and golf at the same posh resorts. They were not meant to tackle true problems—only to provide small, timed skits showing what tackling problems might look like, according to the fictions of the day, while making sure that none of it ever truly solved anything or even moved the conversation forward.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Those are not the formats in which a nation can grapple with a pandemic that will likely kill a million of its citizens.</b> It would be farcical in the case of, say, a predicted asteroid strike or supervolcano eruption. It would be rendered so grotesquely absurd, if God Himself were to saunter down with a message or if alien life punched a hole through dimensions to invite us to dinner, that it would pass only as low comedy. Nobody on these shows gives a damn if the nation falls or the atmosphere burns. It was only meant to be a club for idle banter, nothing bold enough as to even scrape the lines of are laws based on overt bigotries bad or just a cultural choice, the sort of vapid dorm room debates on "are seat belts good" or "does unleaded gas represent government tyranny" that nobody involved would give two shits about, on their way home from the studio.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Meet the Press found itself confronting an actual insurrection—and folded. It couldn't cope. It had no tools for the job. So Chuck Todd invited the insurrectionists onto the program and helped redeem even election hoaxes, party-backed propaganda and candidate-organized insurrection as a reasonable political choice to be made. </b>Not because he or anyone else involved gave a particular damn either way, and not because they did not, but because there is no Sunday morning format that can handle violent insurrection except as fodder for the professional know-nothings to banter aimlessly about. It was never meant to have actual stakes. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Nobody, in any of the network executive suites, even knows what such a thing would look like.</span></div></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cdv 1021</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/08/30/laurence-tribe-if-garland-doesnt-prosecute-trump-the-rule-of-law-is-out-the-window/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">America remains in the grip of an existential democracy crisis</a>: Donald <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/10/01/terror-millions-of-americans-say-theyd-support-violence-to-restore-to-power/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Trump's Republican-fascists and their movement are on the march</a>, winning victory after victory while <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/09/29/democrats-have-the-playbook-they-know-how-to-fight-back-but-just-wont-do-it/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">the Democrats and the "resistance" are hunkered down, doing little if anything to fight back.</a></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet the gatekeepers among the American news media appear more interested in stories about <b>Nicki Minaj's cousin's possibly imaginary friend, who supposedly suffered swollen testicles</b> because of the coronavirus vaccine — supposedly damaging his marital prospects — than in doing the hard work of advocating for democracy and real accountability.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">America is literally amusing itself to death, even as we learn further details about how <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/09/21/revelations-are-an-indictment-of-americans-political-class-they-knew-and-did-nothing/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Donald Trump and his agents attempted a coup to overthrow American democracy after his defeat in the 2020 election</a>. The newest "revelation": Step-by-step plans for this coup were outlined in a memo written by right-wing lawyer John Eastman, who became a key Trump adviser during the latter days of his presidency.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some of the most influential voices in America's mainstream news media — with the notable exceptions of CNN and the Washington Post — have largely ignored this story. At <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/09/trump-coup-memo/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Mother Jones</a>, Tim Murphy offers these details of Eastman's memo, and the media's non-response:</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.531px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">In six concise bullet-points, the memo outlined a process by which Vice President Mike Pence could use his powers on January 6 to throw out the electors from seven states that President Joe Biden won in the 2020 election. The plan counted on Republicans in those states to submit competing sets of electors, based on the false and fabricated premise that Trump had somehow won those states … .</span>

<span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">Not knowing for sure what happens when you dissociate "peaceful transfer of power" from "a society entirely predicated on it," I sort of think this is a pretty big deal. This is a break-the-glass moment, as some have said, only someone else already broke the glass and took the axe and is running around with it.</span>

<span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">But it is not such a big deal, apparently, if you watch network TV news. On Wednesday, Media Matters' Matt Gertz</span>
<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/abc/broadcast-news-shows-ignore-trump-coup-memo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reported</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);"> that the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);"> total number of minutes devoted to the story on either the morning or evening editions of ABC, NBC, or CBS News in the first two days after the memo was published was zero. "In fact," Gertz wrote, "the only national network broadcasts to mention Trump's coup memo were the late-night variety shows hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Meyers."</span>
</font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-trump-lawyer-wrote-an-instruction-manual-for-a-coup-why-haven-e2-80-99t-you-seen-it-on-the-news/ar-AAOXPMf?ocid=uxbndlbing" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">new essay for the Washington Post</a>, Margaret Sullivan offers this warning about what the media silence surrounding this newest "revelation" reveals about <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/09/10/what-year-is-it-in-america-anyway-how-complacency-and-naivet-brought-us-to-this-crisis/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">America's democracy crisis:</a></font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.531px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a normal world, the "Eastman memo" would be infamous by now, the way "Access Hollywood" became the popular shorthand in 2016 for the damning recording of Donald Trump's bragging about groping women.
But it's a good bet that most people have never even heard of the Eastman memo.

That says something troubling about how blasé the mainstream press has become about the attempted coup in the aftermath of the 2020 election — and how easily a coup could succeed next time.</font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The news media gatekeepers would likely defend their choice to focus on Nicki Minaj's tall tale with an argument that stories about celebrities provide a way to pivot to larger issues of public concern. In essence, that a pop star's Nicki uninformed comments about vaccines offer a "teachable moment".</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the more basic and more plausible explanation is that the American people are attracted to juvenile and immature distractions, and that those impulses drive the mainstream news media's ad revenues. Those concerns should wither away in the face of an unprecedented crisis of democracy crisis. Of course, that is unlikely to happen.</font></p><p style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The news media fulfills an important agenda-setting function in a society, and this is especially true in a democracy where freedom of the press is foundational. As a practical matter, the fourth estate tells the public what they should pay attention to and how they should think about it. In that context, elevating a story about a celebrity's perhaps-invented vaccine anecdote over the details of a coup plot offers one more indictment of an American news media that continues to normalize neofascism.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Moreover, the news media's evasion of any sustained conversation about <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/09/24/fascism-is-a-mind-killer--and-version-is-destroying-americans-grasp-of-reality/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">the Republican-fascist coup attempt reflects the pathologies of an emotionally immature society, incapable of facing the crises it is now experiencing</a>.</b> Given that, how will American society possibly confront or address enormous challenges such as the global climate disaster, the continuing pandemic, mass shootings and gun violence, wealth and income inequality, profound technological disruptions to labor and the economy, racism and white supremacy, right-wing terrorism and other violence, dire threats to the rule of law and the constitutional order and so much more?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">America's democracy crisis reveals another frightening truth about our culture of distraction and immaturity: There are some in the media who actually yearn for Donald Trump's return to national office. <b>For many in the media elites — who believe themselves to be largely insulated from the day-to-day consequences of fascism, white supremacy, and other antisocial and anti-human behavior — Trump was a source of huge profits and heightened prestige.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://pressrun.media/p/they-miss-trump-so-much" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Media critic Eric Boehlert explored this</a> in a recent newsletter, writing that while "American democracy is teetering increasingly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/23/robert-kagan-constitutional-crisis/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">close to the abyss</a>," the media "continues to play a dangerous game by refusing to acknowledge the danger":</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.531px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even in the wake of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/21/eastman-memo-right-wing-media/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">newest revelations</a> of how Trump and his team aggressively tried to engineer a coup by invalidating millions of votes last year, he's still being normalized in the day-to-day coverage, as the press eagerly awaits his return to the campaign trail. ("When Will Trump Answer the Big 2024 Question?" the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/07/us/politics/will-trump-run-2024.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">asked</a>.)

<b>There's nothing Trump could do at this point that would invalidate him in the eyes of the political press, and that includes him shooting someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue…</b>.

He remains a captivating topic who provides endless <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andymeek/2021/06/27/here-comes-a-new-wave-of-devastating-trump-books-written-by-journalists/?sh=c65de247657f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">angles of intrigue</a> and who is treated as a looming star of American politics. Forget about that coup stuff; Trump's lawless, violent mob that rampaged inside the U.S. Capitol for hours, knocking officers <a href="https://twitter.com/macfarlanenews/status/1406661133344313349?s=11" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">unconscious</a> and destroying offices of Democratic members. Whatever shock Trump's deadly insurrection initially generated among Beltway journalists has since worn off. <br />
Annoyed by President Joe Biden's "<a href="https://pressrun.media/p/the-media-lash-out-at-boring-biden" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">boring</a>" administration, journalists seem eager for the chaos and clicks that Trump creates — no defeated

</font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Boehlert continues by observing that "the D.C. press can barely contain its excitement at the idea of the 2020 loser running again," adding that "everyone knows if he wins a second term, every minute of every White House press briefing would be carried live and in full, just as they were for his first term. ... A dangerous autocrat who's devoted to wrecking the American election process is waiting in the wings to become the GOP nominee in 2024, and the Beltway press can't wait."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In other words, too many in the media refuse to focus on the serious threats to American democracy and society embodied by Donald Trump and the neofascist movement, largely because they find the spectacle so enthralling.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I continue to ask myself what kind of movie this is. What version of the simulation are we stuck in as America continues to slip deeper into fascist unreality?</font></p><p style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perhaps it's as simple and complex as Mike Judge's 2006 film "Idiocracy," where the ignorant masses live in a full-on corporate dictatorship, where the most popular movie in the country consists of a naked butt farting on screen. Or perhaps America has surrendered to the prescient warnings of the 2018 film "Sorry to Bother You," where the most popular reality show on television features contestants who allow themselves to be physically abused and otherwise humiliated.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the country succumbs to fascism, the American people, for the most part, are like the moviegoers in the cover image of the classic edition of Guy Debord's "Society of the Spectacle," sitting transfixed in 3D glasses, seduced by the images on the screen and numb to the world outside. Trump's agents, allies, and followers have set the theater on fire, but to this point the audience hasn't noticed and likely would not even care if they did.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see emily wilder AP press suppression</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/lafayette-square/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/lafayette-square/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">commn dr</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The gassing of protesters at Washington's Lafayette Square in June 2020, by all appearances intended to clear the area for a photo op by then-President Trump, was witnessed in person by dozens of reporters and remotely by millions of television viewers. But a review by the inspector general (IG) of the Interior Department, the parent agency of the U.S. Park Service that administers the square, ostensibly clears the Park Service of gassing the crowd to accommodate Trump.</font></p><p style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The following headlines are typical of the major media's reporting of the finding. <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/06/09/lafayette-park-not-cleared-donald-trump-photo-opp-report-says/7622478002/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">USA Today</a> says "Police did not clear protesters from Lafayette Park for Trump photo op, inspector general finds." <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/09/politics/park-police-lafayette-square-protesters-donald-trump-bible/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">CNN</a>: "Watchdog report finds Park Police did not clear racial injustice protesters from Lafayette Park for Trump's visit to St. John's Church last June." <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/police-clear-lafayette-park-area-trump-hold-bible/story?id=78171712" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">ABC News</a>: "Police did not clear Lafayette Square so Trump could hold 'Bible' photo op: Watchdog." Does this mean exoneration for Trump and the agencies dealing with the incident?</font></p><p style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">No, not even close. Nor could it demonstrate much of anything, given both the predetermined scope of the report in question as well as the gradual deterioration of agency IG operations in general over the years.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a former career staff member for Congress, I was a major institutional "customer" of IG reports. Congress created the IGs in 1978; the intention was to have an independent watchdog in each department of the executive branch to expose waste fraud, abuse, and mismanagement.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While created with good intentions, I began to sense that the IGs had gradually succumbed to bureaucratic sclerosis and capture by their own departments. They became narrowly focused on whether the subject of their investigations adhered to established processes, while ignoring questions of the competence, judgment, or honesty. In short, the watchdog seemed toothless to me.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To test my impression, I asked Brian J. O'Malley, a retired government official who had the double benefit of working both for Congress, where he was a consumer of IG material, but also in the IG office of the Transportation Department, where he helped root out the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-massachusetts-bigdig/major-big-dig-contractor-faces-federal-charges-idUSN2139434320080621" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">waste and contractor fraud</a> behind Boston's "Big Dig" tunnel project.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He noted that there is more than one category of IG report. The first is an audit conducted in accordance to Government Accountability Office (GAO) standards found in a volume called the Yellow Book. It is an extensively documented process that has cross-referenceable workpapers for every finding in the audit and those are scrutinized by an independent team of auditors for thoroughness and lack of bias.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The second is an inspection conducted in accordance with those GAO standards found in the so-called Gray Book. It is a faster procedure, providing a snapshot of the operational condition of the reviewed agency's status with respect to any given situation. There are work papers to validate findings but they are not as extensively scrutinized, although they are reviewed for lack of bias.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then there is the case of the Special Review, such as that of the Lafayette incident: <a href="https://www.doioig.gov/reports/review-us-park-police-actions-lafayette-park" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Review of U.S. Park Police Actions at Lafayette Park</a>, Case No. OI-PI-20-0563-P. It is neither an audit nor an inspection. It is a review. There are no standards for reviews, no verification by an independent reviewer, and no review for bias. In fact, the review plainly states its extreme limitations. Here are some excerpts:</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our oversight obligations are focused on the DOI, and our authority to obtain documents and statements from non-DOI entities is more limited.

... [W]e interviewed more than 20 USPP and NPS officials involved in policing the protests in and around Lafayette Park on June 1, including then USPP Acting Chief of Police Gregory Monahan, the USPP incident commander, the USPP operations commander, and the USPP deputy operations commander. We also reviewed the USPP's administrative record, emails, text messages, and video footage from observation posts.

Finally, we reviewed U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) and USPP policies and procedures, open-source videos, media articles, and congressional testimony.
</font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Therefore, the review was only of Interior Department personnel, the department's documents and apparently some media coverage. In a footnote in miniscule font size the review points out:</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Because our review focused on the operational actions of law enforcement, we did not seek to interview protesters for this review.
</font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The principal limitation, which was rather breathtaking, was described as follows:</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Accordingly, we did not seek to interview Attorney General William Barr, White House personnel, Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officers, MPD [Washington Metropolitan Police] personnel, or Secret Service personnel regarding their independent decisions that did not involve the USPP.
</font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite this complete lack of information from any of the other agencies involved, the IG review stated unequivocally that there was no evidence that the Park Police cleared Lafayette Park to allow the President to survey the damage and walk to St. John's Church. Virtually the whole review rested on the purported issue of the Park Police clearing the area to allow the contractor to install fencing.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the Park Police would have had no idea what the other agencies were doing and what their leaders were ordering:</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Finally, we found that the USPP and the Secret Service did not use a shared radio channel to communicate, that the USPP primarily conveyed information orally to assisting law enforcement entities, that an assisting law enforcement entity arrived late and may not have received a full briefing on the rules of engagement, and that several law enforcement officers could not clearly hear the incident commander's dispersal warnings.
</font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And another tiny footnote states that the Park Police was not even running the operation:</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The USPP acting chief of police was in Lafayette Park on June 1 serving in his role as the chief of police, but he did not direct the unified command.

</font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What is one to make of this report? O'Malley told me the following: "Like many efforts by inspectors general it seeks to deflect criticism of their own department by defining problems so that they lie outside the scope of their review. It clearly does not absolve anyone in the White House or then-Attorney General Barr from meddling in the situation as a political stunt. This report is a shameful, cover-your-ass effort to throw other agencies under the bus for all the disgraceful actions on that day. It has been exploited by the malefactors of that day to provide a fig leaf of phony exoneration."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite most of the media having been bamboozled, some journalists weren't having any of it. The Washington Post's Philip Bump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/10/lingering-questions-about-clearing-lafayette-square/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">analyzed</a> the available video of the incident, and concluded that William Barr's talking with the site commanders on scene just prior to the clearance operation would certainly tend to discredit, if not altogether refute, the IG's review.</font></p><p style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">CNN's Jim Acosta, who was covering the White House at the time of the incident, <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/news/jim-acosta-rips-trump-appointed-ig-who-did-report-on-bible-photo-op-auditioning-to-be-inspector-general-at-mar-a-lago/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">was more unequivocal</a>: "And I have to say, when I read through this report, it sounded as if this inspector general was auditioning to become the inspector general at Mar-A-Lago because this is almost a whitewash of what occurred on June First." Inevitably, Acosta was attacked in personal terms by perennial crank Glenn Greenwald, who conveniently forgot his prior belief that civil servants were an insidious Deep State seeking to bring down Trump. Now, <a href="https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1402973747032776707?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1402973747032776707%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fmedia%2Fglenn-greenwald-jim-acosta-lafayette-square-trump-ig-report" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">he accused</a> Acosta of "maligning the reputation of a well-respected career civil servant."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The slipshod IG review is highly significant for three reasons.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>First, it is symptomatic of the systemic decline of both government capacity and government's role as a disinterested organ of public service. This decay been going on since at least the early 1980s, but the rot accelerated with frightening speed during the Trump presidency. </b>The disastrous response to the COVID pandemic in 2020 was a flashing red light warning us that when competence and honesty decline, and when agencies are hollowed out, people get hurt.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Second, it is a sign that the U.S. news media never learned its lesson from its four-year brush with covering an authoritarian political party in power. It seems so eager to show everyone that it is "balanced" that it cannot even take the trouble to thoroughly read a document. A similar phenomenon has just recently occurred with the lab theory of the origin of coronavirus.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is no credible evidence that the theory is true – yet. Just as the IG report "exonerated" Trump of a photo-op stunt, the media is all but declaring that the Trump administration's insistence that COVID came out of a Chinese lab "vindicates" them, although the administration had nearly a year to produce evidence and showed none.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Finally, we are now facing another scandal of huge proportions: the Trump administration's seizing the metadata of journalists, Democratic members of Congress, and their families. It hardly inspires confidence that after several months in office, Attorney General Merrick Garland did not at some point hold a press conference announcing the story and vowing that the heads of those responsible would roll. Instead, the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/us/politics/justice-department-leaks-trump-administration.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">broke the news</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is likely that after some pressure from Congress, the Department of Justice will announce that it will investigate itself. But the prospect that the department's IG will produce a more credible report than that of the Interior Department just might be a triumph of hope over experience.</font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="from-your-siteitem"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/trump-speech-lafayette-square/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Trump claimed a new report exonerated him for the attack on ... ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/cnn-tear-gas-trump/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">CNN host slams Trump for lying about tear gas use at Lafayette ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/here-are-7-disturbing-revelations-from-a-national-guard-officer-about-trumps-lafayette-square-disaster/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Here are 7 disturbing revelations from a National Guard officer about ... ›</a></li></ul></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/bret-baier/foxs-flagship-straight-news-show-has-troubling-record-climate-crisis">https://www.mediamatters.org/bret-baier/foxs-flagship-straight-news-show-has-troubling-record-climate-crisis</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many vid</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font style="" size="4"><font style="" size="4"><font style="" size="4"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox’s flagship “straight news” show has a troubling record on the climate crisis</b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><b>
</b></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Nearly 88% of Special Report’s climate segments since 2009 either spread misinformation or perpetuated false or misleading narratives</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Special PROGRAMS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CLIMATE & ENERGY</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">WRITTEN BY ALICIA SADOWSKI</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ALLISON FISHER, REBECCA MARTIN, NIKKI MCCANN RAMIREZ & JANE LEE</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">PUBLISHED 06/16/21 12:01 PM EDT</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox News Channel’s Special Report with Bret Baier is heralded as the network’s flagship “straight news” program that firmly embodies the show’s motto of “fair, balanced, and unafraid.” Under Fox chief political anchor Bret Baier’s direction, however, Special Report has failed to meet its own standards in covering the climate crisis and environmental protection, instead providing a platform for many of the same climate denier guests and fossil fuel industry talking points featured on the network’s opinion side. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Media Matters examined Special Report with Bret Baier’s coverage related to climate change and the environment between <b>January 1, 2009, and May 3, 2021</b>. We counted and analyzed segments devoted to climate change or the environment and those in which a network figure discussed the issue or engaged with a guest who brought it up. We then broadly categorized the show’s misinformation and misleading narratives into five different angles of attack -- regarding climate science, the economy, the efficacy and public demand for domestic climate action, global cooperation, and the urgency of the crisis. These narratives undermined, doubted, misrepresented, or otherwise dismissed climate science and/or drives for climate action or environmental protection. We counted each angle once per segment even if it arose multiple times; segments often included more than one angle.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jump to a section</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">KEY FINDINGS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">SPECIAL REPORT IS PART OF THE DECADESLONG AND ONGOING CAMPAIGN TO DELAY CLIMATE ACTION</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">BAIER’S “STRAIGHT NEWS” COVERAGE OF THE CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT ECHOES THE LIES OF FOX’S OPINION PERSONALITIES</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">SPECIAL REPORT UNDERMINES CLIMATE SCIENCE</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">SPECIAL REPORT SETS UP A FALSE CONFLICT BETWEEN A HEALTHY PLANET AND A THRIVING ECONOMY OR MISREPRESENTS THE EFFICACY AND PUBLIC DEMAND FOR CLIMATE ACTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">SPECIAL REPORT FUELS NATIONALISTIC AND MISLEADING NARRATIVES OPPOSING GLOBAL CLIMATE EFFORTS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">SPECIAL REPORT UNDERMINES THE SERIOUSNESS AND URGENCY OF THE CLIMATE CRISIS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CONCLUSION</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">METHODOLOGY</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Key Findings</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">From January 1, 2009, to May 3, 2021, Special Report aired at least 972 segments covering stories related to climate change or the environment.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At least 851 of those segments -- more than 87% -- featured false or misleading narratives and misinformation. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Since 2009, Fox chief political anchor Bret Baier, guest anchors, correspondents, and guests on Special Report have undermined, doubted, misrepresented, or otherwise dismissed climate science and the urgency of climate action at least 1,333 times.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Of the 851 Special Report segments that attacked or misrepresented climate change or environmental protection:</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">14% undermined climate science.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>
</b></span></div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">29% set up a false conflict between a healthy planet and a thriving economy.</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">43% misrepresented the efficacy of climate action or the public demand for environmental protections.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">8% fueled nationalistic defenses of climate inaction and/or misled viewers about global climate efforts.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">more than 5% undermined the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Special Report’s specific attacks undermining climate science were most frequent at the start of Baier’s run as anchor, which began in January 2009. The show spread nearly four times as much misinformation or false or misleading narratives attacking climate science during President Barack Obama’s first year in office (when climate legislation was being considered in Congress) than during President Donald Trump’s first year. </b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>During President Joe Biden’s first four months in office, Special Report was already spreading climate-related misinformation and false or misleading climate narratives at more than three times its weekly rate of 2020.[SO BS SIDE EFFECT COLLATERAL DAMAGE TO FOX RAISON D'ETRE ATTACK DEMONIZE LIBS/DEMS?!</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Special Report is part of the decades-long and ongoing campaign to delay climate action</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In reviewing over a decade of Special Report’s climate coverage, Media Matters found at least 851 segments that featured misinformation or false or misleading narratives that undermine efforts to address the climate crisis or environmental degradation. Many of these same attacks are also heavily promoted by Fox’s opinion shows, which points to the shared talking points of the network’s “news” division and some of its most toxic prime-time personalities.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>These attacks on science are not isolated incidents -- they can be contextualized within the clear template of industry-funded science denial</b>. As early as 1977, Exxon scientists were aware of the climate’s sensitivity to carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels, but the company spent the next two decades leading misinformation campaigns to question the scientific basis of climate change, lobbying congressional representatives to reject domestic environmental regulations and international climate treaties, and spreading narratives to falsely pit the health of the economy against the need for environmental protections. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>More than four decades after Exxon’s initial discovery, Fox News has scrupulously parrotted its successful misinformation campaigns, despite international and domestic studies overwhelmingly warning of the dire consequences of fossil fuels’ contributions to climate change. </b>Special Report’s complicity in promoting these industry narratives is part of the larger, systemic failure of the U.S. to grapple with the climate crisis, which also includes denying communities equitable access to healthy environments, often at the expense of people of color, as well as the failure to pass meaningful climate and environmental legislation in the last decade. And the same science-denial talking points featured on Special Report have even been recycled by Fox News opinion shows and other bad actors (following a similar blueprint to the fossil fuel industry’s strategy to undermine climate science) to deny the existence and seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic and to dismiss the urgency of finding solutions for this public health crisis.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Baier’s “straight news” coverage of the climate and environment echoes the lies of Fox’s opinion personalities</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Media Matters’ extensive review of Special Report’s coverage of the climate crisis and environmental protections since 2009 found a persistent theme of the program sowing doubt about the existence of climate change and the efficacy of climate solutions. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Of the 851 climate or environment-related segments on Special Report that included such instances, 477 occurred during correspondent segments, 174 occurred during guest segments, and 200 were perpetuated by Baier or guest anchors. Excluding segments featuring guest anchors, Baier himself espoused or allowed 1,116 instances of climate misinformation and false or misleading narratives during the studied time period. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Week after week, year after year, Special Report viewers -- who are promised an objective and unbiased analysis of the issues -- have been inundated with misleading statements that reflect Fox’s opinion-side rhetoric: denying climate science, shirking responsibility for environmental degradation, downplaying the severity of climate change, and recklessly casting solutions as too costly or leading toward a slippery slope of tyranny. Here are the types of attacks we found.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Special Report undermines climate science</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The overwhelming consensus from scientists, both domestic and abroad, is clear: Warming trends over the past century are extremely likely to be caused by human activities emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 2007, just two years before Bret Baier took the helm of Fox's flagship news program, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international coalition of scientists who assess peer-reviewed scientific papers to summarize knowledge of the causes of climate change, released a report stating that the “warming of the climate system is unequivocal” and that oceans and other ecosystems were “being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases.” The report said anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions were “very likely” the cause of global average temperature rise, and it also urged policymakers to consider “a wide variety of policies and instruments” to “create the incentives for mitigation action.” These findings were strengthened in the IPCC's next six-year review in 2013, emphasizing that changes in the climate since the 1950s were “unprecedented over decades to millennia.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Despite these direct warnings from the world’s scientific experts, Baier’s viewers have heard a different story: Special Report’s coverage of climate change and environmental degradation has flatly denied science, focused on debunked, concocted controversies that attempted to dismantle scientific consensus, and selectively reported cool weather events to dismiss warnings of dire climate change consequences. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Overall, 14% of the misinformation and misleading or false narratives about climate change spread by Special Report since 2009 have undermined the consensus and conclusions of climate science, with nearly half of that misinformation -- 46% -- occurring within the first three years of Baier's run. In fact, throughout Obama’s first term, Special Report spread two and a half times as many instances of misinformation and false or misleading narratives undermining climate science as it did during Trump’s term. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Within just his first month as anchor, Baier ran a misleading climate segment on January 28, 2009, which cited David Kreutzer of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank funded in part by the fossil fuel industry. </b>Kreutzer suggested that scientists were moving to use the term “climate change” instead of “global warming” to distract from cooling trends and make it “easier” to blame humans for natural environmental variation. In February 2010, Baier himself even claimed that “‘global warming,’ the phrase, has been changed really to ‘climate change’ by supporters,” and he hosted current Fox prime-time star Tucker Carlson to lament that “there’s nothing that can’t be explained by the phrase ‘climate change.’” (While Fox News is still undermining climate science by conflating weather patterns with long-term climate disruption, the term “climate change” was actually championed by longtime Republican strategist Frank Luntz in an infamous 2002 memo advising the GOP on how to cast doubt on the scientific consensus that human activity was warming the planet.) </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Baier has continued to attack the science of climate change by giving climate skeptics’ opinions equal weight to peer-reviewed scientific consensus. In February 2015, Baier ran a segment that cited a “retired accountant, blogger, and self-described climate historian” who baselessly claimed that climate data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had been modified to be “more supportive of those who say the planet is warming and that man is directly responsible.” The segment also cited another Heritage Foundation representative, Nick Loris,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> who cast doubt on the human-made drivers of climate change and falsely suggested that scientists do not believe policies restricting greenhouse gas emissions would be effective. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In October 2018, the next IPCC report estimated that human activities have caused approximately 1 degree Celsius of global warming above preindustrial levels, which is already wreaking havoc on communities, causing more extreme weather events and rising oceans. The report also gave a more dire warning of the urgency of climate change, telling policymakers they had as little as 12 years to limit warming to 1.5 C before climate change and the ensuing environmental degradation reach an irreversible tipping point. The report gave special note to a change in the “frequency, intensity, spatial extent, duration, and timing of weather and climate extremes,” yet Baier’s reporting has failed to note the potential impact of climate change on extreme weather events. The program even flatly denied the existence of climate change as recently as February 2019.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Special Report dismissed the IPCC’s warnings once again, and Baier ran a segment in May 2019 that quoted </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Marc Morano,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> a fossil fuel industry-funded climate skeptic who has been described as “a central cell of the climate-denial machine.” In the segment, Morano dismissed another U.N. report warning of mass species extinction as “politics, not science.” </span></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video file</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CitationFrom the May 6, 2019, edition of Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Between 2009 and 2021, Morano’s climate denial was highlighted in at least 10 segments on Special Report, similar to his frequent visits on Fox opinion shows such as Tucker Carlson Tonight. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Morano appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight in April of this year, responding to Carlson’s opening question on the Biden infrastructure bill: “How much of this bill is geared not toward cleaning up the environment, which we could badly use, but toward this global warming theory that they have? How much of it is climate-based?” Morano again argued that a focus on climate change was not due to necessity or scientific consensus, but claimed that it was simply a maneuver to accrue political powe</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">r.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video file</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CitationFrom the April 1, 2021, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Special Report's undermining of climate science wasn’t just left to his guests or correspondent segments -- Baier himself recently engaged in the same rhetoric to doubt climate science as a figure from Fox’s opinion side, The Five’s Jesse Watters. On May 3, Watters complained that “the worst part about the whole story” is that “Biden isn’t certain schools are gonna be open this fall, because, you know, he does not have a crystal ball. But at the same breath he says if we don't spend a trillion dollars on green energy, he knows the Earth's temperature, to a degree, in a hundred years. It’s hard to square those.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video file</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CitationFrom the May 3, 2021, edition of Fox News' The Five </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Baier attempted to make the same point in the next hour, asking why the Biden administration was being cautious in making predictions about school openings while citing scientific unknowns, but “they don’t have that same phrasing when talking about climate change.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video file</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Citation From the May 3, 2021, edition of Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Special Report sets up a false conflict between a healthy planet and a thriving economy or misrepresents the efficacy and public demand for climate action and environmental protections</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Fox News figures and other right-wing media personalities have often falsely pitted the economy against the environment, demonizing climate solutions as either too expensive or a waste of money that will not bring adequate returns in the green economy, in an effort to justify a lack of congressional action. Special Report’s coverage was no different throughout the last decade, with 29% of the misinformation or misleading narratives that it spread perpetuating that false dichotomy or failing to consider the cost of climate inaction, and 43% misrepresenting the efficacy and public demand for climate action.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Special Report often emphasized the immediate cost of climate solutions while also pushing narratives that depicted environmental regulations as ineffective or decried the supposedly “socialist” implications of climate legislation. Almost one in three of the problematic segments identified by Media Matters -- around 273 -- both undermined the efficacy of climate action and portrayed potential environmental protections as hurting the economy. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Scientists and policy experts have repeatedly warned that transitioning to a clean energy economy -- often incentivized through legislation -- is not only necessary to ensure a livable planet, but will also reduce the price of mitigation after irreversible climate impacts take hold</b>. In 2018, the Fourth National Climate Assessment warned that the “continued warming that is projected to occur without substantial and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions is expected to cause substantial net damage to the U.S. economy throughout this century, especially in the absence of increased adaptation efforts.” Another recently published study in Scientific Reports estimated that the cost of failure to keep warming to a 1.5 C threshold rose “from 1.3 trillion dollars per year of inaction in 2010 to over 5 trillion dollars per year in 2020.” </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Yet despite the long-term economic suffering promised by increasingly extreme weather and climate disasters, regional temperature changes reducing crop yields, and environmental degradation reducing tourism and recreation, much of Special Report’s climate coverage since 2009 has been fed by fossil fuel industry talking points emphasizing short-term -- and often biased -- economic costs. </b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Beginning during the Obama administration, Special Report relentlessly attacked the Environmental Protection Agency, framing its mitigation efforts as executive overreach without regard to the economy. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In April 2009, then-chief Washington correspondent Jim Angle declared on Special Report that the EPA’s finding that carbon dioxide could be restricted under the Clean Air Act “could hardly be more sweeping because it could affect everything from airliners to lawnmowers and almost every corner of the U.S. economy,” fearmongering that it “has the potential for shutting down or slowing down virtually all economic activity” without mentioning the environmental benefits of the proposed regulations</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In a June 2011 segment on Special Report, disgraced former Fox correspondent Doug McKelway cited the Heritage Foundation's Nick Loris, who argued that President Obama and then-Commerce Secretary nominee John Bryson's carbon emission reduction policies “are intended to raise energy prices, and lower-income families pay a disproportionately higher percent of their income on energy prices,” resulting in the policies “hurting those people more than helping them</b>.” In reality, Loris was pushing an oversimplified view of carbon pricing legislation. A study by the World Resources Institute found that legislation addressing either a carbon tax or cap-and-trade program does not “inherently help or hurt lower-income households.” Its impact depends on how the policy is designed; for example, a small portion of the revenue raised from carbon pricing could be offered as rebates to protect low-income households from increasing energy prices.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>A month later, Angle appeared in another segment quoting both Loris, who claimed that the Obama administration’s plan to increase fuel efficiency standards would “be a significant ramp-up,” and the former chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, who fearmongered that the change would be costly to business and result in hundreds of thousands of job losses</b>. In April 2014, Baier himself responded to the announcement that a federal appeals court upheld stricter emission standards from the EPA by citing complaints from anonymous “state and industry groups'' that the “new limits on toxins” would “cost billions of dollars annually to comply.” </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In March 2016, current Fox prime-time host Laura Ingraham appeared on Special Report and mocked people “losing sleep over the environment every night,” declaring that the Obama administration’s environmental regulations were actually “about redistributing wealth and making America poorer.” Baier failed to push back on this absurd framing.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>During the Trump administration, however, it became clear that Special Report was complicit in the demise of the network’s “news side,” serving as an echo chamber of misinformation to advance the GOP agenda.</b> In Obama’s first term, Special Report worked to oppose the administration’s efforts to curb climate change, spreading one and a half times more misinformation and false or misleading narratives about than it did during the Trump presidency, when the show championed positive coverage of the short-term economic benefits of rolling back Obama-era regulations. During Trump’s final year in office, Special Report -- seemingly sympathetic to the president’s apathetic stance on the climate -- spread the least amount of misinformation or misleading narratives about climate change during the studied time period, with only 52 instances.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One segment from December 2016 demonstrates how the show used misinformation and dubious claims to pave the way for Trump’s deregulatory agenda. Correspondent James Rosen cited the conservative <b>American Action Forum’s claim that “recent EPA rules on heavy trucks pushed the total regulatory price tag over the next 10 years over the $1 trillion mark,” requiring “every man, woman, and child in our regulation nation to cough up $3,080 a piece to satisfy it.”</b> The heavy trucks regulation in question -- an increase in the fuel efficiency standards -- would ultimately have reduced global warming emissions by 1.1 billion tonnes and saved the trucking industry $170 billion per year. Despite AAF Director of Regulatory Policy Sam Batkins admitting that the group does little research to check whether cost estimates fit reality, Rosen assured viewers that “Mr. Trump has vowed to carry a war of attrition to the regulatory beast.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Special Report’s focus on the perceived economic disruption and “<b>socialist”</b> implications of climate legislation has dogged Democratic efforts at climate mitigation, demonizing all legislation -- from Obama’s cap-and-trade proposal to the <b>Green New Deal</b> to Biden’s more moderate 2021 climate plan -- as radical attempts to wreak havoc on the American economy and livelihoods. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Attacking and spreading misinformation about the Green New Deal has been Fox News’ priority for the past two years; when it was first introduced, the network aired far more segments than its cable network counterparts on the proposal. As the flagship program of Fox’s “news” division, Special Report made no effort to differentiate itself from the network’s opinion coverage, with Baier characterizing the deal as “one of the most controversial political manifestos” and suggesting that the expensive price tag would lead to wasteful spending as part of “the Democrats' campaign against the prosperous.” </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In February 2019, Baier hosted Federalist senior editor Mollie Hemmingway to complain that “there is not really a case being made for why you would need to upend your lives, destroy life as you know it, destroy wealth, destroy job opportunities, get rid of massive industries that employ thousands and millions of people, and for what?”</b> Hemingway concluded that polls showing American support for the deal could only be attributed to pollsters asking people if they “want free things,” referring to the Green New Deal’s proposed guaranteed “economic security." <b>Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York dismissed public support for funding the deal, claiming that “the idea that most Americans would think that climate change is a World War II-like crisis is really unlikely.”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video file</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Citation From the February 7, 2019, edition of Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>These pointed attacks on the Green New Deal reflect the rhetoric often espoused on Fox opinion shows, such as by Sean Hannity, who referenced the Green New Deal in relation to Biden on April 20, 2020, claiming that “there are no moderates in today's radical, extreme Democratic socialist party.</b>” In July 2020, Hannity lambasted Biden for “taking his cues from the most radical, the most extreme socialist extremist that this party has ever embraced, the Democratic modern socialist party.” Hannity then complained about the price tag of the climate proposal, exclaiming that it would “turn America into a socialist, bankrupt hellhole.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Baier did not push back in January after Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel used language similar to Hannity’s rants to attack the incoming Biden administration and the climate bill, stating that she would not “cede our country to the far left who want to turn toward socialism, institute the Green New Deal, and remake America as we know it.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video file</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Citation From the July 14, 2020, edition of Hannity</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Special Report fuels nationalistic and misleading narratives opposing global climate efforts</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Efforts to prevent and counter the worst consequences of global climate change have to be negotiated at the international level and require unprecedented cooperation between countries in order to succeed. But in covering those efforts, such as the U.S. signing on to the Paris climate agreement under Obama, Baier and his guests on Special Report instead<b> echoed isolationist narratives to undermine global mitigation efforts.</b> Like Fox opinion-side personalities, they suggested that international mitigation efforts are detrimental to the U.S. economy, that they favor China and India over America, and that global cooperation would fail to stave off the worst effects of climate change. <b>Statements that fueled these nationalistic and misleading narratives opposed to global climate efforts constituted 8% of the total misinformation and false narratives spread on Special Report during the studied time period.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In an appearance on Special Report in December 2009, the late conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer repeated one of the most prevalent talking points used to oppose climate action, suggesting that an international climate agreement would “mean a serious constriction of the U.S. economy, a lowering of our standard of living.” This claim is false and driven by a flailing fossil fuel industry attempting to distract from its own “terminal decline” by scapegoating climate mitigation efforts. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>This line of attack was echoed on the network’s opinion side as recently as this year, when climate denier Marc Morano appeared on the January 21 episode of Fox & Friends First to claim that rejoining the Paris agreement is “climate virtue signaling” that will “hammer middle America, blue-collar America, [and] Americans on middle class and lower income.</b>” In reality, committing to Paris emission reductions and building a 100% clean energy economy would create up to 25 million well-paid American jobs, and clean energy jobs are “more likely to be unionized and come with health care and retirement benefits than the rest of the private sector.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In a May 2014 appearance on Special Report, Krauthammer pushed the idea that international agreements, specifically the Paris climate accord, would benefit China at the expense of American prosperity because China lacked a legally binding commitment to emissions reductions</b>. Krauthammer stated, “As we dismantle the coal plants in our country, China and India together are adding one coal fire plant every other week. The net effect is to shift the U.S. coal energy generating industry from here to India and China. It will have zero effect.” </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>This argument was repeated on the May 31, 2017, edition of Fox & Friends, when Fox Business host Stuart Varney denigrated the Paris climate accord as an “unequal” agreement meant to “take money and resources off Europe and America” to “give it to other countries,” including China</b>. More recently, Fox opinion host Laura Ingraham expanded upon this argument in April, characterizing global cooperation on climate as tentative at best, with each nation pursuing “what’s in its best interest.” Ingraham then dismissed Biden’s “grand” climate plans as ineffective for failing to reduce global temperatures “at all.” </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">These are bad-faith arguments and they do not account for the fact that not only has the U.S. caused more global warming than any other country and maintains the higher per capita emissions rates, but it also lags behind China on substantive commitments to renewable energy and technology. Furthermore, climate change and its disruptions transcend national borders and are intrinsically linked to the public health, socioeconomic well-being, and growth of every nation. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In yet another appearance on Special Report in May 2017 dismissing the impact of Trump’s promise to pull out of the Paris accord, Krauthammer advanced the argument that U.S. participation in the “extremely weak” agreement was inconsequential, and he claimed it only made a “marginal difference” if “we are in it or out of it</b>.” This sentiment on climate policy efficacy was also echoed this year on Fox’s opinion side by Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg on the January 21 edition of Fox & Friends. He argued that rejoining the Paris agreement would “cost a fortune and cut almost nothing, so basically achieve almost nothing to fix climate change.” </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">These arguments exploit legitimate concerns of the Paris agreement --that measures agreed to at the accord will not be enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius -- not to garner support for the strengthening of global commitments, but to gripe about the inherent complexities of any global treaty and ultimately erode support for addressing the climate crisis on any level. Despite Paris’ shortcomings, the U.S.’s participation in the agreement — as the second biggest greenhouse gas emitter — represented a critical step toward global climate mitigation. As international markets transition toward clean energy, it is imperative that the United States can advocate for American jobs and workers. Moreover, global emissions reductions work -- in 2016, global emissions flat-lined for the third year in a row even as the global economy grew, partly because the U.S. and China cut their emissions.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Special Report undermines the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Baier and his guests made statements that undermined the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis in more than 5% of Special Report’s misinformation and false or misleading narratives around climate change. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>These bad-faith arguments have also come from Fox’s opinion side, which has framed the idea of addressing climate change as requiring personal sacrifice from individual viewers.</b> Special Report suggested climate-conscious consumers should not own pets, should limit their hamburger intake, should accept rougher toilet paper, and should feel guilt for using water at hotels or pumping gas for their car. These segments’ reckless linking of personal consumer choices to environmental protection lets the real culprits -- the 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions -- escape responsibility for the worst impacts of climate change, while discouraging popular support for climate action.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Special Report also followed Fox’s signature strategy of focusing on some prominent people’s actions to deflect from those individuals’ concerns about the climate, using charges of hypocrisy as a smokescreen for climate inaction. Baier dedicated segments to personal carbon footprints, pointing to Obama traveling to an Earth Day rally; first lady Michelle Obama flying to Copenhagen to advocate for Chicago to host the Olympics; Prince Charles encouraging environmental awareness; Hillary Clinton traveling during her presidential campaign; and, most recently, Biden administration climate envoy John Kerry using a private jet. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On the February 4 edition of Special Report, correspondent Kristin Fisher noted that Kerry was “not necessarily leading by example by taking a private plane to Iceland to accept an environmental award.” Later in the episode, <b>Fox contributor Byron York said that “he's got a government plane now, and you don't marry into a billionaire family if you want to fly commercial.” </b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This coverage on Fox’s flagship “straight news” show echoed a line of attacks on Kerry from Fox’s opinion hosts, such as Sean Hannity’s January 28 statement that “it’s almost as if John Kerry isn’t that concerned about the environment after all” and Tucker Carlson’s February 3 accusation that Kerry was being “hypocritical.” These personal attacks and red herring arguments serve dual roles -- to villainize and discredit specific activists while trivializing the urgency of the climate crisis. It is a well-worn tactic, as demonstrated by Special Report, that is used across the network’s opinion and “straight news” programming.]GORE TENN HOUSE]</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video file</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CitationFrom the January 28, 2021, edition of Fox News' Hannity</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video file</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CitationFrom the February 3, 2021, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Conclusion</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Climate scientists have overwhelmingly warned for years that unless immediate action is taken to address the climate crisis, irreversible environmental consequences will impact every aspect of our daily lives -- ranging from an exacerbated refugee crisis to devastating economic impacts to irreversible environmental degradation.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The stakes for news media to cover this issue seriously and responsibly could not be higher as Biden attempts to simultaneously reestablish United States' leadership in global mitigation and advocate for bold climate legislation, while the deadline to limit global warming to 1.5 C draws closer.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Yet climate coverage on Special Report with Bret Baier has been characterized by blatantly false, biased, and desperate attempts to undermine climate change action and environmental protections. Ultimately, Special Report is another extension of Fox News’ climate denial machine, serving to sow misinformation and doubt to defend the politicians who actively prevent any climate mitigation.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Methodology</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Media Matters searched transcripts in the Nexis database for Fox News Channel’s Special Report with Bret Baier for any of the terms and any derivations of the terms climate change, global warming, climate, global temperatures, climate science, climate scientist, Paris climate, climate accord, Paris accord, climate agreement, Paris agreement, climate deal, climate crisis, environment, Environmental Protection Agency, green new deal, climate conference, climate plan, carbon emissions, greenhouse gases, green, Keystone Pipeline, Dakota Pipeline, or energy from January 1, 2009, through May 3, 2021.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We included any segment when climate change or environmental protection was the stated topic of discussion...</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 521 R Reich</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the risk of being the skunk at the picnic, I feel compelled to warn you that if we forget and move on from the tragedies of this past year, we're setting ourselves on a dangerous path. Of course I understand the desire to forget all the unpleasantness and start a new chapter. But if we do, we're inviting greater tragedies in the future.
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Let me remind you: Donald Trump lied about the results of the last election. And then – you remember, don't you? – he tried to overturn the results.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump twisted the arms of state election officials. He held a rally to stop Congress from certifying the election, followed by the violent attack on the Capitol. Five people died. Senators and representatives could have been slaughtered.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Several Republican members of Congress encouraged the attempted coup by joining him in the big lie and refusing to certify the election — even after the mob desecrated the halls of our democracy.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This was in January of this year, yet we seem to be doing everything we can to blot it out of our memory. Meanwhile, those responsible for instigating the attack haven't been held accountable in any respect — including by the media.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Washington Post hosted a live video chat with Missouri Republican senator Josh Hawley, a ringleader in the attempt to overturn the results of the election. Hawley had even made a fist-pump gesture toward the mob at the Capitol before the attack.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But the Post billed the interview as being about Hawley's new book on big tech. It even posted a biography of Hawley that made no mention of Hawley's sedition, </b>referring instead to his supposed reputation "for taking on the big and the powerful to protect Missouri workers" and as "a fierce defender of the Constitution."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>CBS This Morning interviewed Florida Republican Rick Scott, another senator who tried to overturn the election by not certifying the results.</b> But there was no mention of his sedition, either. The CBS interviewer confined his questions to Biden's spending plans, which Scott unsurprisingly opposed.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Senators Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy also repeatedly appear on major news programs without being questioned about their attempts to undo the results of the election, or their continued promotion of Trump's lies.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The media is supposed to serve as a crucial check on those in power. But in its breathless desire to cover the "news" it is failing to remind us of our recent past.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The consequences of this failure are dire.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump's big lie that the 2020 election was stolen, and that President Biden is not legitimate, is not disappearing. A majority of Republican voters believe him.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>That big lie is being used by Republican state legislatures to justify an all-out assault on the right to vote.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hours after Florida enacted new voting restrictions, Texas's Republican-led legislature pushed ahead with its own bill that would make it one of the hardest states in which to cast a ballot.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Republican-controlled Arizona Senate launched a private recount of the 2020 presidential election results in Maricopa County – farming out 2.1 million ballots to GOP partisans with no experience in ballot counting or election monitoring. At least one person involved in the recount participated in the Capitol attack.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Republican Party even purged one of its leaders, Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, for telling the truth about the election.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, Republican state legislatures are muscling their way into election administration, as they attempt to dislodge or bully local election officials who have always run our voting systems.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump's big lie will continue to flourish unless the lawmakers who went along with it and have failed to renounce it face real consequences.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That means no book promotions, no cushy interviews, no guest op-eds in the Sunday paper.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What possible excuse is there for booking them if they have not publicly retracted their election lies? If they must appear, they should be asked if they continue to deny the election results and precisely why.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It also means a thorough independent 9-11 type inquiry into what happened, whether members of Congress were involved, how Donald Trump and others were involved.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republican leaders must not duck this. History is watching.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They must be held accountable to the truth. Otherwise the trauma of 2020 will return — perhaps in even more terrifying form.</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/kamala-harris-false-story/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ny post quits</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/chuck-todd/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/chuck-todd/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Jay Rosen, a New York University journalism professor</b> who is one of the preeminent critics of the profession he teaches, on New Year's Day blasted NBC News and MSNBC's <a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Chuck+Todd" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><strong>Chuck Todd</strong></a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Everything Chuck Todd ever said about his alarm at what the Republicans are doing is hollow and meaningless," Rosen said on Twitter, about the "Meet the Press" host. "After all this, to welcome Ron Johnson back is such a pathetic surrender."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rosen was referring to news that Todd's guest on this coming Sunday's </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">"Meet the Press" will be Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), a far right pro-Trump conspiracy theorist.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[twt]</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">rosen's timely takedown of Todd comes just days after he penned a piece slamming the NBC News/MSNBC host on his PressThink website, for his "<a href="https://pressthink.org/2019/12/the-christmas-eve-confessions-of-chuck-todd/" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">strategic blindness</a>."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Three years after Kellyanne Conway <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/wh-spokesman-gave-alternative-facts-inauguration-crowd-n710466" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">introduced</a> the doctrine of 'alternative facts' <em>on his own program</em>, a light went on for Chuck Todd," Rosen wrote. "Republican strategy, he now realized, was to make stuff up, spread it on social media, repeat it in your answers to journalists — even when you know it's a lie with crumbs of truth mixed in — and then convert whatever controversy arises into go-get-em points with the base, while pocketing for the party a juicy dividend: additional mistrust of the news media to help insulate President Trump among loyalists when his increasingly brazen actions are reported as news.</span>"</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rosen slammed Todd for taking so long to see what many had already told him about the GOP, and then further ignoring it.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"You cannot call that an oversight. It's a strategic blindness that he superintended," Rosen charged, calling it "malpractice."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read Rosen's full article, "<a href="https://pressthink.org/2019/12/the-christmas-eve-confessions-of-chuck-todd/" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Christmas Eve Confessions of Chuck Todd</a>," at PressThink.</font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="from-your-siteitem"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/nbcs-chuck-todd-goes-down-in-flames-while-coaxing-buttigieg-to-blame-obama-for-the-rise-of-trump/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: lighter; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">NBC's Chuck Todd goes down in flames while coaxing Buttigieg to ... ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/democratic-rep-jim-himes-calls-out-chuck-todd-seconds-after-he-lets-rand-paul-lie-my-head-is-only-now-decombusting/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: lighter; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Democratic Rep. Jim Himes calls out Chuck Todd seconds after he ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/chuck-todd-now-realizes-hes-being-used-for-propaganda-what-happens-next/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: lighter; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Chuck Todd now realizes he's being used for propaganda. What ... ›</a></li></ul></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-election-2649628130/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-election-2649628130/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4">In the original "Star Wars" film — now known as "Episode IV: A New Hope" — Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker and the droids R2-D2 and C-3P0 are stopped by a group of stormtroopers, the elite troops of the evil Empire.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>The stormtroopers demand to see Luke and Obi-Wan's identification. With a wave of his hand, Obi-Wan Kenobi uses the mystical power of the Force to dispel their suspicions. Without doubt or hesitation, the stormtroopers say, "You can go about your business. Move along." The heroes escape to continue with their mission. The stormtroopers behave as though nothing unusual has happened.</div><div>
</div><div>When Luke Skywalker asks Obi-Wan for an explanation, the wizened Jedi knight explains that the Force can have a powerful influence on the weak-minded.</div><div>
</div><div><b>In their efforts to downplay the dangers of Donald Trump's ongoing coup against democracy, too many members of the commentariat and other "professional smart people" are attempting to use a form of the Jedi mind trick on the American people.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Based on the lack of broad public outrage about Trump's continuing effort to overturn the 2020 election, it would appear that many Americans may in fact be vulnerable to such a ploy.</div><div>
</div><div>Over the last few days, the Trump regime's coup attempts have escalated into an ever more desperate and dire stage. The New York Times reported that a cabal of Trump's conspirators met in the Oval Office last Friday where they had a "discussion" about how to overturn the 2020 presidential election by invoking martial law, using a special counsel to invalidate the election, and seizing voting machines to "inspect them" for "irregularities." Of course, the intended result of any such "investigation" would be to manufacture Trump's "re-election."</div><div>
</div><div>It should have been the headline in every newspaper and other news media outlet in the United States. But it was buried on page A28 of the print edition of the New York Times, and was also not a leading story in the online edition.</div><div>
</div><div>Predictably, Trump raged on Twitter that there were no such discussions and this was all another example of "fake news."</div><div>
</div><div>Axios added this additional reporting:</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>A senior administration official said that when Trump is "retweeting threats of putting politicians in jail, and spends his time talking to conspiracy nuts who openly say declaring martial law is no big deal, it's impossible not to start getting anxious about how this ends."</b></div><div>
</div><div>"People who are concerned and nervous aren't the weak-kneed bureaucrats that we loathe," the official added. "These are people who have endured arguably more insanity and mayhem than any administration officials in history."</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Monday evening, the Washington Post also reported on Trump's cabal, observing that the president "has turned to a ragtag group of conspiracy theorists, media-hungry lawyers and other political misfits in a desperate attempt to hold on to power after his election loss." Trump's "unofficial election advisory council now includes a felon, adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory, a White House trade adviser and a Russian agent's former lover."</span></div><div>
</div><div>Once again, this report was not among the leading stories in the online edition.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Matters have become so serious that on Friday Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville felt compelled to issue a statement that there "is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election."</b></div><div>
</div><div>This is not the first time during Trump's reign that military leaders have publicly said they will not interfere in elections. As with most other things about Trump's presidency, such an announcement has no obvious precedent in American history.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Why have the chattering classes with a few notable exceptions, continued to minimize Trump's coup attempt?</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It is easier to mock and deride the Trump regime's coup attempt as being "lazy," "failed" or "incompetent," or to describe it in some other liberal-schadenfreude language than to speak of an on-going national emergency. Likewise, calling Trump's coup attempt just a "grift" or a "con job" also minimizes the danger to the country and ignores the kleptocratic aspects of authoritarian and fascist regimes.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Moreover, it is comforting for the mainstream news media to bask in the glow of Joe Biden's victory and the absence of widespread of political violence and then to declare that democracy endures and Trump's coup attempt is a joke.</b></div><div>
</div><div>By necessity, such high-minded talk excludes Trump and his allies' efforts to suppress the votes of nonwhite people, slow down the mail and otherwise interfere with democracy.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Members of the "Church of the Savvy" and other hope-peddlers and stenographers of current events have an instinctive revulsion to speaking too much truth to power. As a group they have refused until very recently to accurately describe Donald Trump and his regime as being fascistic or authoritarian. Likewise, the mainstream news media and other public voices have been reluctant to state that Donald Trump is a compulsive liar. Instead, they have used euphemisms: The president "misspoke," or "distorted" or "misrepresented" the facts.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Despite abundant evidence, these same voices still refuse to consistently describe Donald Trump as a racist or a white supremacist. All of this reflects a desperate desire to return to perceived "normalcy," as embodied by the incoming Biden administration.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Part of this "normalcy bias" is a function of legitimate fear and anxiety, and an instinct for self-preservation given Trump and his movement's violent threats against reporters and journalists.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>This is an example of "organized forgetting":</b> The Trump regime and this version of American neofascism have traumatized not just the American people but many of the country's elites as well. Both groups, albeit in different ways, are deeply invested in reassuring fictions about our "healthy institutions" and "the democratic system." Thus, the compulsion to rapidly forget the horrors of the Trump regime and embrace the hopeful possibilities of the Biden administration.</div><div>
</div><div><b>In practice, this means that the rot in our civic, political, and cultural institutions that produced the Trump regime remains, but has been whitewashed over.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">For the mainstream news media, this organized forgetting also involves a rewriting of history in which journalists did not consistently fail in their responsibilities as guardians of democracy by normalizing Trump's politically aberrant behavior, and by downplaying the threat posed to American democracy by his movement.</span> As a practical matter, when the country's mainstream political voices finally started speaking some truth to power during the final months of Trump's first term, they sounded insincere. Where were those criticisms before? Why are they suddenly speaking up now, after Biden has been elected? What explains this sudden "courage," or the force of revelation about the dangers of Trumpism?</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">
</span></div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">In many ways, the American media is stuck in a feedback loop of credibility failure, one which its leading figures largely created. The Age of Trump was merely a tipping point that exposed long-standing institutional problems.</b></div><div>
</div><div>As media scholar Eric Alterman observes at The Nation:</div><div>
</div><div><b>We know that our democracy is at stake and that the country may be on the precipice of significant political violence. If ever the mainstream media needed to shake its <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">self-destructive addiction to false equivalence,</span> now is the time....</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Now those same network executives need to decide which side they are on: democracy or fascist rebellion. Network bookers should refuse to<b> amplify </b>the words of anyone who denies Biden's victory without immediately pointing out that that person is a liar. Nothing is "disputed." Nothing is "controversial." Nothing is "lacking in evidence." There is only truth or lies….</span></div><div>
</div><div>This should be simple. The news divisions of the major networks, together with CNN (and to a lesser extent, the liberal-branded MSNBC), have all sacrificed much of their credibility during the Trump presidency. They should welcome the opportunity to win it back.</div><div>Ultimately, the mainstream media's refusal to highlight the true danger of Trump's ongoing coup attempt, and the depths of the country's democratic crisis more generally, are a symptom of a much broader denial of truth in our society.</div><div>
</div><div>In his latest column for Scheerpost — republished by Salon — Chris Hedges warns:</div><div>
</div><div>One of the lessons I learned from covering wars and revolutions as a foreign correspondent is that the political, economic and cultural systems that are erected by any society are very fragile…. We cannot use the word hope if we refuse to face the truth. All hope rooted in self-delusion is fantasy. We must lift the filter from our eyes to see the danger before us. We must heed the warnings of our own prophets. We must destroy the centers of power that lure us and our children, like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, to certain doom. The walls, daily, are closing in around us. The radical evil we face is as real under Trump as it will be under Biden. And if this radical evil is not smashed, then the world ahead will be one of torment and mass death.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There is less than a month remaining before Joe Biden becomes president of the United States. These next weeks, however, will be some of the most unpredictable and dangerous in the country's history. As time winds down for Donald Trump, he and his cabal will become even more desperate, dangerous and destructive. Like other authoritarians and fascist leaders, Trump will attack the country and its people as revenge for being "disloyal" to him.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The American media in this moment of crisis can choose to tell the truth, which may at least help to prepare the public for the struggle necessary to reclaim the country's democracy. Or it can remain in denial about the long struggle ahead to rehabilitate our democratic institutions and public life.</span></div><div>
</div><div>The first choice could also begin to address the American news media's crisis of legitimacy. The second will make that crisis exponentially worse.</div><div>
</div><div>FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><div>Trump allies wanted a data expert to find fraud in Nevada's election ... ›</div><div>Trump's last days: Report says president personally pressured more ... ›</div><div>Trump considers Pence's role in certifying Biden's election win 'the ... ›</div><div>RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><div>Opinion: The real reason Trump is failing to overturn the election ... ›</div><div>Trump campaign brings new U.S. Supreme Court challenge over ... ›</div><div>How Trump drove the lie that the election was stolen, undermining ... ›</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cable news, particularly Fox, overstated the role of Pennsylvania fracking in the 2020 election</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11/19/20 2:25 PM EST</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Corporate broadcast TV news mentioned climate change only once during its coverage of Hurricane Zeta</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10/30/20 2:32 PM EDT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cable news overwhelmingly adopts conservative, pro-Big Oil framing of Biden's debate comments about transitioning away from oil</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10/29/20 3:45 PM </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha2: did jrnl not so much fail as soc med kicked its ass?  or trump did end run?  if can't beat on clickbait, you gotta join?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see normalizing (also scramble for tryumpistas after fox call Az</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha #1 central sacred norm is leave when you lose; mcconn and gop saying he has right to law/ct is screen for pathology</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/dont-normalize-trump/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/dont-normalize-trump/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</div><div>Chauncey DeVega and Salon November 28, 2020</div><div>   </div><div>Is Donald Trump still attempting a coup with the intention of remaining in power indefinitely? Yes. "I quit" is a phrase that does not appear in the<b> authoritarian's handbook.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Trump has announced his coup in public, which is a major reason why most people are not taking it seriously.</div><div>
</div><div>The president has repeatedly stated that the 2020 presidential election is illegitimate, and should be disregarded because he is not the winner. Given that he is a compulsive liar, on that one matter Trump has been remarkably consistent. Moreover, he signaled as early as 2016 his intent to engage in a coup, and other extralegal or illegal efforts to subvert any election where he does not win.</div><div>
</div><div>Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by more than 6 million votes, and has also received 306 votes to Trump's 232 in the Electoral College. Both outcomes are a mandate from the American people that the Age of Trump is over and its leader should be left on the ash-heap of history, a nightmare to be awakened from.</div><div>
</div><div>In response, Trump's agents and followers are staging public protests, filing lawsuits on Trump's behalf claiming that he lost because of "voter fraud," "fake ballots" and other conspiracies, They have threatened violence and an "uprising" against Biden and the Democrats. Trump has not conceded defeat and under legal pressure is now only begrudgingly offering assistance in the transition of power. He is creating an overall environment of political instability, putting his most stalwart loyalists in key national security positions. As befits a political strongman and neofascist, Trump continues punishing the American people by further damaging the nation's economy and literally killing thousands of people each day through a campaign of negligence and sabotage in response to the coronavirus pandemic.</div><div>
</div><div>As the Age of Trump shambles toward its conclusion, the United States has again shown itself to be far from exceptional. Trump's coup attempt has put the country and its democracy in a state of limbo and "zombie politics."</div><div>
</div><div>In a new essay at the New York Review of Books, Fintan O'Toole explains:</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>It is impossible not to think, in this in-between moment, of Antonio Gramsci: "The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear." Something is dying, but we do not yet know what. Is it the basic idea of majority rule or is it the most coherent attempt to destroy that idea since the secession of the Confederacy? </b>Something is trying to be born, but we cannot yet say what it is either. Is it an American version of the "managed democracy" or "electoral autocracy" that is the most rapidly expanding political form around the world? Or is it a radically renewed republic that can finally deal with the unfinished business of its history? The old is in a state of suspended animation; the new stands at a threshold it cannot yet cross. …</div><div>If Trump is eventually removed from the Oval Office, the study of revenge and immortal hate, not sober self-criticism, will be the response in Trumpworld. There will be no chastening, just a further injection of resentment and conspiracy-mongering.</div><div>
</div><div>This is zombie politics — the life-after-death of a former conservative party. And as Gothic stories tell us, it is very hard to kill the undead. One half of a two-party system has passed over into a post-democratic state.</div><div>
</div><div><b>In response to these events, the American mainstream news media and the commentariat, for the most part, are continuing with the same errors in analysis and narrative that helped to elect Trump in 2016 and then normalized his assaults on democracy and the rule of law for the next four years.</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>They are mocking Trump's defeats in the courts and describing them as though they are sporting events with a running tally of wins and losses. It is assumed to be a fait accompli that Biden is taking office in January. Trump is said to be "flailing" and "throwing tantrums"; and his behavior is "pathetic" and "embarrassing." Trump's coup attempt is "disorganized," as are his supporters with their supposed "low morale."</b></div><div>
</div><div>The possibility that Trump and his agents could find some way to alter the vote count and the assigned electors in key states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan is treated as an absurdity: "The law" and "the courts" would never allow such an outcome.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">This is a form of political comfort food or sugar high, feeding a desperate hunger from the mainstream news media, the political class and the American people for a return to normalcy. But on some basic level they must know that Trump's attacks on democracy are abnormal and very dangerous</span>.</div><div>
</div><div>Denial helped to birth Trumpism; failure to confront that denial means Trumpism will continue in America long after the man himself is gone.</div><div>
</div><div>In reality, Donald Trump, his Republican Party and their allies are playing a different game, one entirely outside of "normal politics" and the "folk theories of democracy" that the Fourth Estate and many other political elites worship like a religion.</div><div>
</div><div>Donald Trump and his movement's real goal is to make invalid any future election where Republicans do not win.</div><div>
</div><div>The attacks on the 2020 election are also part of a strategy which has shown itself to be successful in the extreme. Republican voters are being conditioned to view the Biden administration as having no legal authority because Trump was "betrayed." The net effect will be to encourage political violence and other acts of resistance by Trump's supporters and other Republican voters.</div><div>
</div><div>In a new essay for Medium, Indi Samarajiva reflects on his experience with the attempted coup in Sri Lanka in 2018 and issues a warning:</div><div>
</div><div>The tragic thing which you do not understand — which you cannot understand — is that you've already lost. You cannot know exactly what — that's the nature of chaos — but know this. You will lose more than you can bear.</div><div>
</div><div>We lost our children, playing at church. We lost our friends, sitting down to brunch. Muslims lost their dignity and rights. Y<b>our Republicans have set forces into play they cannot possibly understand and certainly cannot control. And they don't even want to. To them, chaos is a ladder. …</b></div><div>What I can tell you — what anyone who's experienced this can tell you — is that it's going to be bad. I didn't know that churches and hotels would blow up on Easter S<b>unday, but I know now. I'm trying to tell you in advance. You've opened up a Pandora's box of instability. All kinds of demons come out.</b></div><div><b>I have lived through a coup. It felt like what you're feeling now. Like watching something stupid and just waiting for it to go away. But it doesn't go away. You can forget about it, but it doesn't go away.</b></div><div>
</div><div>There's a ticking bomb at the heart of your democracy now. Your government, the very idea of governance is fatally wounded. Chaos has been planted at its heart. I don't know what this chaos will grow into, but I can promise you this. It won't be good.</div><div>American democracy is very sick. The jubilance and celebration at Trump's apparent defeat on Election Day were highly premature. Biden's victory was a drug that temporarily masked the pain of a democracy in critical condition. The patient can live "normally" until the high of the drug wears off. The crash will be extreme and horrible, almost beyond imagination, because the underlying disease has not been addressed.</div><div>
</div><div>The truth of what Trump and his neofascist movement have revealed about America's failures and vulnerabilities must be confronted if that civic disease is to be purged from the country's body politic. The reckoning must also include an assessment of the character and behavior of the tens of millions of Americans who voted for Trump and continue to support him.</div><div>
</div><div>On these questions of healing and what comes next after the Age of Trump, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a leading historian of fascism, had this to say in a recent phone conversation:</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">We are going to need a lot of grassroots education to help people understand what nefarious influence they were under with Trump. One of the saddest truths is that these men despise the people who love them. They disdain them for giving them their power. Many of us have been amazed that with the pandemic it's been very obvious he doesn't care if they die. He truly doesn't care if you live or die. Helping people to see that will be important to getting them back to the cause of good government, government that cares about public welfare. That's very different than building bridges to forgive people and saying, "OK, well we'll just put your racism behind us." That's not at all what I advocate.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Ultimately, American neofascism as mainstreamed by Donald Trump and his followers is a slow-acting poison. Trump's coup attempt is one more sign that it is working.</div><div>
</div><div>FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><div>Trump Uses 'Mein Kampf Playbook' to Normalize Tyranny ›</div><div>'This is how you normalize a madman': Scholars and press ... ›</div><div>Taunting Trump: How the Campaign to 'Not Normalize' Donald Is ... ›</div><div>Don't Let Media and Society Normalize the Neofascists Coming to ... ›</div><div>RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><div>Please don't mainstream Trump - The Washington Post ›</div><div>Remarks by President Trump Announcing Normalization of ... ›</div><div>Don't normalize Trump's America (Opinion) - CNN ›</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-mentioned-climate-change-only-once-during-its">https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-mentioned-climate-change-only-once-during-its</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">hurricane</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">when trump pulled out of 2nd debate, biden did town hall, NBC? sam guthrie did one at same time?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/why-fact-checking-may-be-futile-against-trumps-black-hole-of-lies/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/why-fact-checking-may-be-futile-against-trumps-black-hole-of-lies/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump has publicly lied <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/13/president-trump-has-made-more-than-20000-false-or-misleading-claims/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">at least 20,000 times</a> since taking office, according to the Washington Post. He does this in part because he has shown himself to be <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/11/ptsd-expert-seth-norrholm-americans-are-being-psychologically-abused-by-donald-trump/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">mentally unwell, if not a sociopath</a>. But he also lies because he is a fascist authoritarian. For such leaders, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/10/12/donald-trumps-great-performance-nears-its-dramatic-climax-stay-tuned/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">lies are a way of assaulting reality and truth</a> as a means of achieving unlimited power. These explanations are not discrete. They overlap with one another.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a season of massive death, Donald Trump and his regime's lies about the coronavirus <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/14/mueller-prosecutor-glenn-kirschner-trump-is-a-career-criminal-guilty-of-negligent-homicide/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">are a public health emergency</a> – one which has killed at least 216,000 people in the United States.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump and his regime's lies have also severely damaged America's prestige, alliances and global power. The country's enemies have also been emboldened by the Trump regime's lies and overall lack of consistency in foreign policy and principles.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most important, Trump and his regime's policy of lying (in conjunction with wanton cruelty and other evil) has undermined American democracy. A common understanding of reality is the foundation of a health democracy. The Trump regime's lies and those of its agents are rotting that foundation.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">In "<b>The Death of Truth," Michiko Kakutani</b> explains that the damage Trump has done to the country's institutions and foreign policy will take "years to repair."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">"And to the degree that his election was a reflection of larger dynamics in society—from the growing partisanship in politics, to the profusion of fake stories on social media, to our isolation in filter bubbles—his departure from the scene will not restore truth to health and well-being, at least not right away," Kakutani writes.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why is Donald Trump such a powerful and effective liar? Why has the mainstream American news media largely surrendered to his lies, and by doing so normalized them? Would more aggressive fact-checking have blunted Donald Trump and his regime's strategy of lying? What explains why the mainstream American news media as a whole refused — and for the most part, continues to refuse — to describe Donald Trump and his regime accurately as being fascist and authoritarian?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an effort answer these questions, I recently spoke with Eric Alterman, a columnist at The Nation and the author of more than 10 books, including the bestseller "<a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2464/9780465001774" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News</a>." His latest book is "<a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2464/9781541616820" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Lying in State: Why Presidents Lie and Why Trump is Worse</a>."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why are there now so many more voices in the mainstream American news media who, several weeks from Election Day, are <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">finally using language such as "fascism</span>" and "authoritarianism" to describe Trump and his regime? This was obvious several years ago. Why the delay? What were they waiting for?</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There are many disincentives to tell the truth about Donald Trump. The most obvious one is that he's the President of the United States and people consider it disrespectful to use certain words about the president, like "liar" and "racist" and "conman" and "conspiracy nut," even when they're true. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It is worse in Washington D.C. to call someone a liar than for them to actually be a liar.</span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In Washington, that rule is part of how a person makes a living. Therefore, people in the news media have to show respect for the office of the presidency. The second reason is that the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> ideology of "journalistic objectivity" does not have a framework for determining what the truth is. It has no bias for truth. "Journalistic objectivity" says <b>on the one hand, so-and-so said this; on the other hand, his opposition said that</b>, and you, the reader, you, the viewer, you, the listener, it is up to you to decide what's true.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump is an idiot in many ways, but he is a genius when it comes to media manipulation.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><strong><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Washington Post has now documented at least 25,000 or so lies by Donald Trump — and nothing has changed in his behavior. If anything, he has become more brazen.</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>I do not find fact-checking as done in that way to be very helpful, because Donald Trump is not being fact-checked as he says the lies. If a person reads the fact-checking article, they will learn what Trump said is not true. Trump's lie still has power because it is repeated by the president and circulated.</b> Again, Donald Trump has been winning this battle against the mainstream news media every day and they still have not really caught up to his strategy. The New York Times still does not really know what to do about Donald Trump in this regard and others.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Is the reluctance, if not fear, of calling Donald Trump a liar a function of the <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">corporate culture of American's mainstream news media? </span>Are reporters and journalists afraid of being punished in terms of their careers if they tell the unpolished truth about Donald Trump?</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I have a different idea of lying than most of the country's journalistic institutions do because they will almost never use the words "lie" or "liar" when it comes to the president or most politicians. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Instead most in the mainstream news media will say, "We can't know his intent. We can't know what's in his heart." They assume that a lying politician may believe the nonsense that they are saying. My position is if a politician should know what is true and he does not, then he is lying.</b></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">I do not care what the excuse is. I don't care if Trump or some other politician thinks God is talking to him. I don't care if Trump is too disengaged from reality. I don't care if Trump is so much of a narcissist that he makes up stuff and he believes it. If it's the president's job to know something and he misinforms the country, then he's lying. Worry about his motivation some other time.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">There has never been a historical moment in this country where a president, in this case Donald Trump, could be ignored because everyone knows he's so full of lies and nonsense.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump might get reelected and destroy our democracy because so many in the mainstream news media are treating Donald Trump's lies and delusions as though it is all somehow <b>normal.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why has the White House press corps been so accommodating and enabling of Trump's lies? He also uses them as props for his fascist performances. Why do the members of the White House press corps not just walk about of the briefings or stand up and turn their backs to him?</font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4">They do not know how to do their job any other way.</font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4"> Their job is defined as getting whatever information is available at the White House. So even if it's lies, even if it's daily humiliation, the press corps has to go back the next day. Those reporters need to be on good terms with the people who are giving out the information — even if they're not giving out real or otherwise substantive information. It would be nice if the job of the White House press corps was to actually go out and find news, but that's not what they're there for. They're there as conduits for the White House....</font></font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">post hosp photo op</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/katie-couric-calls-out-tv-networks-for-getting-played-by-trumps-white-house-i-find-it-infuriating/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/katie-couric-calls-out-tv-networks-for-getting-played-by-trumps-white-house-i-find-it-infuriating/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/this-is-how-you-normalize-a-madman-scholars-and-press-watchdogs-urge-corporate-media-to-treat-trump-like-the-authoritarian-threat-he-is/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/this-is-how-you-normalize-a-madman-scholars-and-press-watchdogs-urge-corporate-media-to-treat-trump-like-the-authoritarian-threat-he-is/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx twt pix </font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This is how you normalize a madman': Scholars and press watchdogs urge corporate media to treat Trump like the authoritarian threat he is</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lisa Newcomb and Common Dreams September 25, 2020</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">   </font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Major news outlets failed the American people, critics say, when they chose to bury coverage of President Donald Trump's Wednesday comment that he would not commit to a peaceful transition of power—a statement watchdogs say demanded above-the-fold, front-page headlines that simply did not materialize.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"Newsroom leaders made a considered, intentional decision not to panic after Trump was elected," Dan Froomkin, editor of PressWatchers.org, wrote in a scathing rebuke of corporate media's apparent nonchalant attitude towards the president's rhetoric. "This was an epic, obvious mistake, and everything that has happened since was in some sense entirely predictable."</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Froomkin continued, "They should have gone on a war footing—and by that I don't mean a partisan war against Trump, I mean a journalistic war against lies, ignorance, and intolerance."</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Critics weighed in on the relative non-importance corporate news outlets assigned—in print and online—to Trump's latest suggestion that he may not cede the office of the presidency should he lose in November:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some observers balked when Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for the New York Times, attempted to explain away the Times' decision to bury the news by citing print publication deadlines. One pointed to the late-evening news of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death last week, which was an above-the-fold feature in the next day's Times print edition.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Broadcast media also drew rebukes for its lack of emphasis on Trump's veiled threat at the democratic process.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Wednesday's network evening newscasts on ABC, CBS, and NBC were no better," Eric Boehlert, founder and editor of PressRun wrote. "Not only did none of them lead with Trump's stunning proclamation, none of the broadcasts even reported on Trump's comments. This is how you normalize a madman. (<b>CNN and MSNBC did a much better job covering the transfer-of-power story.)"</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At PressWatchers.org, Froomkin explained how the dynamics in corporate newsrooms have led to complacency among journalists tasked with reporting on Trump's presidency:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">One overarching problem is that our major newsrooms have simply gotten so corporate and even-keeled that our top editors value unflappability as a signal virtue. (OK, I admit I take this one a little personally, being a flappable person. A top Washington Post editor once called me "hysterical.") Flappable people don't rise through the ranks. Corporate people do.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Journalism to me is about crusading for the truth. But the notion that a serious, major news organization would pursue a crusade on behalf of its community is considered hippy shit by the people in charge these days. So is consistently standing up to a lawless con man. They've gotten used to printing lies. They barely squawk when Trump calls them the "enemy of the people." <b>They have their algorithms, and they won't give them up no matter what</b>. They just continue to "do the work."</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So yeah, their news souls are dead. There, I said it.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lawmakers and progressive advocates called out the dangerous threat to democracy uttered by the commander-in-chief—and the corporate media for treating it like any other day in Trump's scandal-laden presidency.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Great (not) to watch journalists reporting Trump's latest direct attacks on the republic as if it's all just a regular press conference," longtime journalist <b>Dan Gillmor </b>tweeted Wednesday. "Historians will see Big Journalism's business as usual in this emergency as one of the proximate causes of the American republic's death."</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) gave a speech Thursday denouncing Trump's declared refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power, saying: "This is not just an election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. This is an election between Donald Trump and democracy—and democracy must win."</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sanders also outlined steps necessary to prepare the American public and lawmakers for chaos of election night and beyond, calling on the news media specifically to "prepare the American people to understand there is no longer a single election day and that it is very possible that we may not know the results on November 3."</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Froomkin pointed out that corporate media's opinion pages are more accurately depicting the real danger of Trump's recent rhetoric than front-page headlines.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"But as usual, to capture the real drama of what's going on, you have to go to the opinion writers—and the editorial cartoonists," he wrote, sharing a link to an op-ed by Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"What really matters here is that Trump is making an actual declaration of intent," Sargent wrote, "not just to refuse to respect the outcome, but rather to try to cancel and override it, if he is able to get away with it."</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Boehlert issued a more dire warning:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Trump isn't running for re-election in the sense he's hoping to accumulate more voter support than Biden. (<b>His campaign keeps taking down ads in swing states.)</b>Trump's running to maintain power.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> He's signaling that he'll refuse to give it up and will not accept his defeat as being legitimate. He's trying to steal an election. In reality, he doesn't care what the results are—he has no intention of abiding by the nation's will, and thinks he can count on the corrupt support of the GOP, the Department of Justice, and the United States Supreme Court to win his lawless battle in the days and weeks after the election.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Our democracy is at stake," Boehlert concluded. "Trump is trying to steal an election, and the press should say so, every day until Election Day."</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record">https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-broadcast-tv-news-fails-make-crucial-connection-between-record" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Corporate broadcast TV news fails to make crucial connection between record-breaking California wildfires and climate crisis</font></span></a></h2><p class="dateline-compact" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; align-items: center; display: flex; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="dateline-compacttype" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; height: 1.5em; margin-right: 1em; width: 1.5em;"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24" class="icon icon--study" aria-labelledby="icon-label--study" /><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><use xlink:href="#study" xmlns:xlink="xlink" /></font></font></span><time datetime="2020-09-10T14:07:59-0400" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">09/10/20 2:07 PM EDT</font></time></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">hmmn minor scoop screwup?</font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GG</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/09/05/journalisms-new-propaganda-tool-using-confirmed-to-mean-its-opposite/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://theintercept.com/2020/09/05/journalisms-new-propaganda-tool-using-confirmed-to-mean-its-opposite/</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bears responsibility for BS about Portland, aND for RW coup/ civil war to follow?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">c de v
</font><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/expert-on-the-radical-right-warns-that-vigilantes-are-preparing-to-launch-a-coup" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/expert-on-the-radical-right-warns-that-vigilantes-are-preparing-to-launch-a-coup</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">in the Age of Trump, Portland, Oregon, is no longer just another city. Now it is a symbol and almost a <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/18/democratic-insider-simon-rosenberg-trump-is-being-coached-by-putin-to-seize-power/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Rorschach test for the country’s deep and explosive political divides</a>.</font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For Trumpists, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Republicans and members of the far right, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/31/biden-blames-trump-encouraging-violence-after-man-linked-to-right-wing-group-killed-in-portland/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Portland is all that is wrong</a> with “the Left” and “Liberals,” a chaotic nightmare zone where Black Lives Matter, antifa and other<b> “enemies” </b>are running amok while they attack “patriotism” and “real American values.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">To TrumpWorld, Portland and other Democratic-led big cities (which of course is virtually all of them) are hives of scum and villainy, overrun by criminals and “rioters,” which must be </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/20/vladimir-putins-prize-pupil-is-almost-ready-trumps-final-exam-in-authoritarian-rule/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">conquered by </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Trump’s enforcers</span></a><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/28/what-the-kenosha-shooter-tells-us-about-donald-trumps-america/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"> and armed vigilante supporters</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s “law and order” politics, and its inherent racism and violence, are believed by many to be his path back to the White House. In this view, Portland and other “Democrat cities” and communities are <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/03/trump-wanted-a-portland-style-war-in-chicago--in-a-second-term-hell-do-it/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">targets of opportunity for the Trump regime</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">writing at Washington Monthly, </span><a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/08/30/white-supremacists-are-invading-american-cities-to-incite-a-civil-war/" target="blank" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" transition="transition" color="color" s="s" ease="ease" cursor="cursor" pointer="pointer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">David Atkins explains</a><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> Trump’s mindset:</span></font></p><blockquote style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; border: none !important;"><p style="margin: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>He sees the violence as politically beneficial, a useful cudgel against Democratic nominee Joe Biden — even though the violence is happening while Trump himself is president, not Biden.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s election theme is that Americans won’t be safe in a Biden presidency. The opposite is true. Americans won’t be safe as long as a white supremacist president is leading a movement of bigots to incite a civil war, and attempting to ensure that the majority of Americans with cosmopolitan, egalitarian values remain politically disenfranchised and under the thumb of those who fear and despise them.</font></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Trump’s campaign of racial authoritarianism and stochastic terrorism, as well as overt threats of <b>“law and order,</b></span><b>”</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> resulted in a group of his supporters driving into Portland last weekend, armed with mace and paintball guns, to seek out confrontations with Black Lives Matter and anti-fascist protesters. During one such encounter, a member of the <b>right-wing militia group Patriot Prayer, Aaron Danielson, </b>was shot and killed. On Thursday night, the apparent shooter,<b> Michael Reinoehl,</b> was himself shot and killed by U.S. marshals in Olympia, Washington.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite this lamentable violence — for which Trump and the right must bear ultimate responsibility — for progressives and other people of conscience Portland is a symbol of resistance and hope. As part of the nationwide people’s uprising sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protesters have been outside the Portland federal courthouse for more than 100 days.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The protests were largely peaceful until <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/24/trumps-stormtroopers-crush-liberty-on-the-streets-of-portland_partner/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump and acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf deployed federal police forces to the city in July</a>. Their presence, as designed, escalated the tension and led to increasing levels of property damage and incidents of violence.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Previewing Trump’s plan for other parts of the nation, these federal shock troops made journalists and reporters a special focus of their violence. They also kidnapped protesters and other “enemies” of Donald Trump’s regime off the street as though they were operating in a banana republic</span>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b style="">Much of the mainstream American news media’s coverage of the recent events in Portland lacks meaningful context</b>.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://medium.com/@45thabsurdist/the-feds-are-coming-to-your-city-the-parachutes-will-follow-dc6d42fdbccd" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Writing at Medium, a Portland press collective describes one such example of this “parachute journalism”</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">:</span></font></p><blockquote style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; border: none !important;"><p style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One night last week, during one of the smaller demonstrations, a tall white man in a clean ballistic helmet and brand-new plate carrier emblazoned with “PRESS” strolled through the crowd in front of the Hatfield Federal Courthouse in Portland, Oregon. He stopped by a gaggle of other journalists, most out-of-towners. “I’ve only been around for the last week,” he said, “but the protests in Portland feel a lot more performative than the ones I’ve seen in other cities. Less genuine.” A local journalist mentioned having been present for over 50 nights of the protests, starting in early June. “Yeah, I can only speak for what I’ve seen this week,” said Clean Helmet. “I’m flying back to DC tomorrow.” … Clean Helmet was on the ground in Portland, by his own description, for less than a week. This means that he was present for approximately 1/10th of Portland’s BLM protests, thus far. I’m sure he got some great footage.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The Parachutes</b><b style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);"> (as we have come to know them) come with money, and zero community connections</b><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);">. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b style="">Their goal is the clip that can make the nightly news. They want a story that will dominate the news cycle. They do not know what is happening in Portland, and they do not care</b>. They are coming to a city with a vibrant, scrappy community of street-level journalists. By and large, they do not want the context that those journalists can provide. And soon they will come to a city near you. When the Feds and the Parachutes come to your town, you’ll want everyone to understand the context there, too. And they are coming. Clean Helmet is already back in DC, and on to the next assignment.</span></font></p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4">The important context which “the Parachutes” usually omit includes the way Portland is depicted as a liberal oasis in America’s popular imagination. In reality, Portland is a very race and class-segregated city.</font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4"> As historian and activist <a href="https://oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine/skin-summer-2013/a-hidden-history/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Walidah Imarisha</a> and others have richly documented, the Oregon territory passed laws in 1844 explicitly excluding Black people from the region under punishment of whippings and other violence. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/06/07/when-portland-banned-blacks-oregons-shameful-history-as-an-all-white-state/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The state of Oregon formally included white supremacy in its constitution, explicitly banning nonwhites</a>.</font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>To this day, Oregon remains a redoubt of white supremacy, where white supremacists and other right-wing extremists have a large presence in the state and surrounding region. Portland itself has a long and ongoing history of right-wing violence.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alexander Reid Ross is a doctoral fellow at the <b>Center for Analysis of the Radical Right</b>. His most recent book is “Against the Fascist Creep.” <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-vigilantes-kenosha_n_5f4822bcc5b6cf66b2b5103e" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Ross has also completed new research which documents more than 500 incidents</a> in which white vigilantes and other right-wing extremists have confronted Black Lives Matter protests. This includes hundreds of acts of intimidation and other threats as well as dozens of examples in which right-wing extremists have assaulted or attacked Black Lives Matter protesters.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In this conversation Ross shares his firsthand experiences with the recent George Floyd protests in Portland. He also provides some context for those events and the police and federal response. Ross also details the long history of right-wing paramilitaries and political street gangs in Portland and their relationship with local police and other law enforcement....</font></p></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><table class="yiv2304804704stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-width: 100%;" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td class="yiv2304804704stylingblock-content-margin-cell" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 10px; word-break: normal; border-collapse: collapse;"><table class="yiv2304804704stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; background-color: transparent; min-width: 100%;" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td class="yiv2304804704stylingblock-content-wrapper yiv2304804704camarker-inner" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-break: normal; border-collapse: collapse;"><h2 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">o<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=b574717491f73dbc5388c30492a70c49cfe4e12b3bfa9633e6af50dee0d15c8a393fac35a093769afefc5ac1a64dd61d93aca3d4e2836ca5" title="Only 4% of wildfire segments on ABC, CBS, and NBC mentioned climate change">nly 4% of wildfire segments on ABC, CBS, and NBC mentioned climate change</a></font></h2></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><table class="yiv2304804704stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; min-width: 100%;" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td class="yiv2304804704stylingblock-content-wrapper yiv2304804704camarker-inner" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 10px; word-break: normal; border-collapse: collapse;"><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px;" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-break: normal; border-collapse: collapse;" align="center">
</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><table class="yiv2304804704stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; min-width: 100%;" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td class="yiv2304804704stylingblock-content-wrapper yiv2304804704camarker-inner" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 10px; word-break: normal; border-collapse: collapse;"><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 31px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">August was a turbulent month for wildfire activity in the Western U.S. California alone suffered through two of its largest wildfires in recent history, and there are more than 80 other large, active fires burning in 15 states. Record-breaking temperatures and climate change are playing a role in the size and scale of the fires, and the coronavirus pandemic is complicating efforts to contain the blazes and safely evacuate those in their path.</font></span></span></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 31px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Media Matters <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=b574717491f73dbc60b5312e49666b022659569b0af1c20515c8454445c6c345f3b72666e08981611eccf6cb0fbbbd39f463b009aebbf761" title="found that">found that</a> ABC, CBS, and NBC aired a combined 114 segments about wildfires on their morning and evening news shows from August 1 to August 31. Only five of the 114 wildfire segments -- just 4% of them -- mentioned climate change.</font></span></span></p></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/foxs-whitewash-trumps-qanon-endorsement-helps-explain-how-it-happened-first"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/foxs-whitewash-trumps-qanon-endorsement-helps-explain-how-it-happened-first</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b> Trump’s Wednesday endorsement of the deranged and dangerous QAnon movement as people who “love this country” <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/qanon-supporters-overjoyed-after-trump-endorses-unhinged-conspiracy-theory" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">thrilled its supporters</a> while horrifying observers, who pointed out that his validation of an extremist ideology linked to violent acts would swell its ranks.</b> But during his first interview following those remarks on Thursday night, the president faced no questions about his praise for unhinged pro-Trump conspiracy theorists who claim that he is on the verge of unraveling a global pedophile ring of Satan-worshipping Democrats and celebrities. <b>As Fox News host Sean Hannity provided the president with his typical mix of sycophancy and softballs over the course of the half-hour phoner, Trump’s embrace of QAnon never came up.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hannity’s decision to ignore the story put a capstone on Fox’s lackadaisical response to the president’s praise for advocates of a bizarre conspiracy theory that the FBI has termed a domestic terror threat. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Fox News political analyst Karl Rove <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-panel-hammers-trump-for-praising-qanon" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">garnered</a> <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/karl-rove-slams-trump-for-qanon-answer-this-is-a-group-of-nuts-and-kooks-he-should-disavow-them/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">press</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/just-ridiculous-karl-rove-says-trump-failing-to-condemn-qanon-was-a-big-mistake" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">attention</a> on Wednesday for calling QAnon supporters “nuts and kooks” and saying the president “ought to disavow them</b>” on <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Special Report</em>, and that program <a href="https://video.foxnews.com/v/6183099876001" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">ran a segment</a> on the “conspiracy theory” the following day. But none of the network’s highly rated prime-time hosts have mentioned Trump’s remarks at all, and by Thursday morning, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Fox & Friends</em> was <a href="https://twitter.com/revrrlewis/status/1296391055789764608" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">decontextualizing</a> part of the president’s comment as an anodyne reference to his administration “saving the world.”</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump backing the QAnon movement seems like a natural fit -- the president is a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/one-america-news-network/trump-promotes-unhinged-oan-conspiracy-theory-about-battered-75-year-old" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">notorious</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/joe-scarborough/joe-scarborough-conspiracy-theory-donald-trump-sending-mob-boss-message" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">conspiracy</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/flashback-how-fox-news-promoted-trumps-birtherism" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">theorist</a> who finds it nearly impossible to disavow <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/03/01/donald-trump-and-david-duke-for-the-record/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">even his most reprehensible supporters</a>. But his praise for the group can’t be separated from Fox’s unwillingness to try to establish guard rails for the Republican Party by denouncing it.</b> Trump relies on Fox for news and information, and its coverage constantly shapes his worldview. If Fox’s hosts had condemned the QAnon movement in the years since it first emerged, it’s hard to imagine that the president would be praising it today -- or that it would have<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/us/politics/qanon-trump-republicans.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">metastasized through the GOP</a> to the extent that it has.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But Fox has largely kept discussions of the QAnon movement and its violent and unhinged ideology off its airwaves, even as its spread within the Republican Party has ensured that the network has repeatedly <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/definitive-guide-fox-news-treatment-qanon-conspiracy-theory" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">ended up promoting its supporters</a></b>. I noted <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/fox-news-dangerous-dance-qanon" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">last week</a>, after one of its adherents received the GOP congressional nod for a blood-red district, that QAnon has been referenced on only eight broadcasts on the network’s weekday evening programming over the previous two years -- almost all passing references that failed to describe the conspiracy theory’s dangers. The network’s on-air talent have alternately denied knowing anything about the movement and played footsie with it, engaging with its followers on social media, downplaying its extremism, and<b> even praising aspects of it on Fox shows. Meanwhile, the network’s executives <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-nation/fox-nation-host-isaiah-washington-qanon-supporter-and-conspiracy-theorist" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">hired</a> a prominent QAnon-supporting influencer to host a cooking show on Fox’s streaming service. </b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">We know what it looks like when Fox tries to destroy the credibility of a movement with its audience, and that isn’t it. Fox hosts and personalities highlighted the Black Lives Matter movement during 288 weekday evening broadcasts over the same two-year span, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/hate-group-nazis-fox-news-ramps-their-war-black-lives-matter" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">building</a> on racist and unhinged <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/how-fox-news-primetime-lineup-demonized-black-lives-matter-2015" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">smears</a> the network has deployed against its supporters since its founding</span>. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In recent months, as the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor drove new attention to Black Lives Matter’s campaign against racial injustice and police brutality, Fox <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/lou-dobbs/fox-business-host-lou-dobbs-attacks-businesses-supporting-black-lives-matter" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">hosts</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/black-lives-matter/fox-news-propped-black-lives-matter-leader-who-has-no-affiliation-official-group" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">redoubled</a> their <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/black-lives-matter/fox-news-keeps-spreading-debunked-conspiracy-theory-about-black-lives-matter" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">efforts</a> to <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/black-lives-matter/right-wing-media-vilify-black-lives-matter-movement-grows" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">delegitimize</a> it. Network star Tucker Carlson, perhaps the Fox host with the <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/how-tucker-carlson-became-fox-host-trump-listens-most" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">most influence on Trump</a> right now, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-using-nativist-conspiracy-theories-attack-black-lives-matter" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">turned his program</a> into a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/black-lives-matter/tucker-carlsons-racist-and-extreme-descriptions-black-lives-matter-movement" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">nightly assault</a> on the group. He called it a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-black-lives-matter-totalitarian-political-movement-and-someone-needs" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">“totalitarian political movement”</a> and <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/will-gop-let-tucker-carlson-control-its-police-brutality-debate" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">denounced Republican leaders</a> who expressed support for it.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump got the message. He <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/01/trump-black-lives-matter-347051" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">repeatedly</a> <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-anthem-kneeling-black-lives-matter-marxist" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">lashed out</a> at Black Lives Matter this summer, at times in direct response to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-lashes-out-at-black-lives-matter-accuses-one-member-of-treason/2020/06/25/45667ec8-b70f-11ea-a510-55bf26485c93_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">segments he was watching</a> about it on Fox</b>. The president was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/02/politics/fact-check-trump-pigs-blanket-black-lives-matter/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">particularly aggrieved</a> by an anti-police chant that members of a Minnesota-based Black Lives Matter group used during a march in 2015 -- one that Fox has <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1278439433054937088" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">highlighted dozens of times</a> in the years since. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>If Fox had devoted even a fraction of the venomous demonization it launched at Black Lives Matter activists to QAnon conspiracy theorists, the network could have warned off its millions of viewers -- including the president -- from the movement. But Fox has not chosen that path</b>, which would require trying to curb the excesses of the radicalized Republicans whose <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1296630377927389184" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">anti-Democratic fervor</a> powers the network’s ratings</span>. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="">Instead, Fox sold out its viewers to a cult.</b> The longer the network held its fire, the more vulnerable its audience was to the movement’s entreaties, and the harder it became to pry Trump supporters away from its conspiracy theories. <b style="">Now QAnon’s ranks have swelled, its supporters <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/us/politics/qanon-trump-republicans.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">have effectively become</a> a key GOP constituency, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/here-are-qanon-supporters-running-congress-2020" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">dozens are running for Congress</a>, and at least one will likely be elected to the House in the fall. With the president himself signing on as a validator, it may be too late to keep QAnon away from the levers of power.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QAnon may garner criticism here and there from some at Fox who, like Rove, find the spectacle of the president cozying up to “kooks” too much to bear. But I doubt very much that the network as a whole will engage in the full-spectrum denunciation needed to curtail QAnon’s growth. Instead, the days to come will likely bring a range of responses from Fox personalities, from ignoring the movement, to downplaying its importance and extremism, to condemning its critics for attacking Trump supporters. The press will be hammered for covering the story. Some network figures will claim that the QAnon movement makes some good points, perhaps even outing themselves as full-fledged supporters. <b>Others will rely on <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">whataboutism</span>, with the president’s defenders pushing back against reporting on QAnon by demanding to know why the media isn’t asking Democrats to condemn antifa or Black Lives Matter.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox is a Republican propaganda outlet that is deeply devoted to Trump. As long as that party and its leader are standing by the QAnon cult, the network won’t dare to stand up to it.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/voter-fraud-and-suppression/cbs-report-mail-voting-was-missing-key-details-making-it-easy-target">https://www.mediamatters.org/voter-fraud-and-suppression/cbs-report-mail-voting-was-missing-key-details-making-it-easy-target</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">also sinclair</font></div><div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">8/13</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trumps-campaign-is-quietly-getting-more-competent-but-its-age-old-strategy-still-seems-to-be-failing/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trumps-campaign-is-quietly-getting-more-competent-but-its-age-old-strategy-still-seems-to-be-failing/</font></a></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Me</font><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">re hours after former Vice President Joe Biden made history by </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/11/twitter-may-not-like-it-but-kamala-harris-was-probably-the-right-choice/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">picking Sen. Kamala Harris of California as his running mate</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> — making her the first Black and Asian woman on a presidential ticket — Donald Trump coughed up his response. A little after 10 p.m. on Wednesday night, Trump posted a tweet claiming that “Joe Biden has a racism problem.”</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The response on Twitter was, as one can imagine, contemptuous, given that Trump is an overt racist who leans heavily on white nationalist rhetoric. His niece, psychologist Mary Trump, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/17/trumps-niece-tells-rachel-maddow-that-shes-heard-him-use-the-n-word-and-anti-semitic-slurs_partner/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">says she’s heard him use the N-word</a>, an accusation that no one sincerely doubts.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Let’s be real: Trump attacking Biden as racist after Biden nominates the first woman of color for vice president in American history is beyond idiotic,” <a href="https://twitter.com/markfollman/status/1293370483576934402" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">tweeted Mark Follman</a>, the national affairs editor at Mother Jones, in a typical response.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Not to mention Trump’s ‘white power’ tweet, his boost for ‘very fine’ torch carrying neo-Nazis etc etc etc,” Follman added.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">but this wasn’t yet another case of the president of the United States, intoxicated from Fox News, idiotically lashing out on Twitter. On the contrary, the “racism problem” tweet was a well-edited video that had clearly been put together by the Trump campaign, compiling audio clips of Biden misspeaking or saying tone-deaf things about race, including comments about his 1970s relationships with segregationist senators, for which <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/06/28/kamala-harris-leaves-joe-biden-a-smoking-crater-in-second-democratic-debate/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Harris famously criticized him in a 2019 debate</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In other words, this was a strategic choice by the Trump campaign, which has quietly become more competent in recent weeks (despite having to manage an overgrown toddler as a candidate), after </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/16/trump-dumps-brad-parscale--but-the-campaigns-failures-are-all-about-him/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">dumping relative newbie Brad Parscale</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> as campaign manager in favor of the more experienced Bill Stepien. </span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This was an example of the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">false-equivalence strategy</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, and Democrats should be on alert, since earlier versions of this same strategy were used to great effect to defeat Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Al Gore in elections Democrats expected to win.</span></b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Folks who dunk on Trump on Twitter don’t understand that this strategy isn’t meant to convince anyone that Trump <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">isn’t </em>a racist, which Stepien and other campaign officials know full well is an impossible task. The point is to convince potential Democratic voters that <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">both</em> candidates are irredeemably flawed, and they might as well sit this election out rather than sullying themselves by voting for “the lesser of two evils.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">This isn’t even really a Trump innovation, but pretty standard operating procedure in Republican politics. <b>A GOP candidate’s team figures out the various strengths that the Democrat has over their candidate and then systematically starts trying to sow doubt about that with voters, often by projecting their own candidate’s flaws onto the Democrat.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">What Republicans understand, and too many political commentators don’t, is that no election is strictly a choice between two candidates. There are always other choices: Not voting at all or throwing your vote away on a third-party candidate. Republicans know they can’t win over more voters than the ones they’ve got, so they win by poisoning the well against the Democrat.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2016, the Republicans were saddled with a candidate who is a pathological liar with a long history of corruption, and who doesn’t seem to be in the greatest mental or physical condition. So they turned around and falsely accused Clinton of all these things, giving her the nickname “Crooked Hillary” and claiming she had secret health problems she was hiding from the public.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was the same story with the 2004 election, when Democrats ran Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, against George W. Bush, whose draft-dodging only made his eagerness to send other people’s kids into a quagmire of a foreign war more suspect. But the Bush campaign directly attacked Kerry’s record, falsely accusing him of embellishing his service record and implying he hadn’t earned his Purple Hearts.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Same story, again, with the 2000 election, in which the Bush campaign was successful in portraying Gore as a liar and a fabulist, and distracting from Bush’s own habit of telling lies — including the ones he unfortunately employed shortly after that, trying to justify his invasion of Iraq.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This “I know you are, but what am I” strategy </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">only works because the mainstream media — living in perpetual fear of conservatives accusing them of “bias” (which they’ll do no matter what) — is all too eager to play along with Republican efforts to wildly exaggerate Democratic flaws, all so journalists can crow about how they give it equally to “both sides,” and without quite noticing that they are abandoning their duty to the truth with these false equivalences.</span></font></p><p class="reader_view_article_wrap_9232837150391162" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The 2016 election offers a perfect example of how the media falls for this trick. <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/08/hillary-clinton-one-americas-most-honest-politicians/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Clinton is actually one of the most honest politicians in America</a>, pretty much free of any proven “corruption” despite endless harassment and investigation. Nonetheless, journalists ran with every fake Clinton scandal right-wingers threw at them, from the false accusations against the Clinton Foundation to the email server debacle, because they were more motivated by the desire to look “balanced” than they were by telling the truth. (Sexist stereotypes about female mendacity also drove much of the coverage.) Kerry and Gore got similarly unfair treatment by the press in the name of “balance.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/09/04/amid-the-rising-tide-of-gaffes-is-joe-bidens-electability-gambit-starting-to-wither/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">As I</a> <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/06/06/how-electable-is-this-guy-joe-bidens-latest-abortion-gaffe-points-to-a-major-liability/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">warned</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-electability-delusion--and-why-the-media-keep-making-the-same-mistake/2019/06/14/495c3b12-8de9-11e9-b08e-cfd89bd36d4e_story.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">repeatedly in 2019</a> — <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/06/19/trumps-2020-campaign-strategy-is-familiar-troll-the-libs-it-might-work-on-biden/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">to no avail</a> — Biden’s foot-in-mouth disease makes this an easy play for the Trump campaign. <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/11/uncle-joe-is-at-it-again--but-bidens-clumsy-comments-on-race-arent-totally-wrong/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">As my colleague Chauncey DeVega explained this week</a>, Biden possesses a “sense of affinity” with Black voters that makes him too comfortable and leads him to share “impolitic observations at inappropriate times.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the past, that kind of nuanced explanation has too often fallen on deaf ears in a media environment more driven by the need to portray “both sides” as equivalent than to explore the truth.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That said, there’s reason this time around to be mildly optimistic that Trump’s efforts at sowing a “both sides are bad, so don’t vote” narrative might not work as well as it did for him in 2016, or as well as it did for Bush in 2000 and 2004. The media just doesn’t seem as interesting in elevating nonsense this time around.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s probably because the Trump presidency has been such a massive disaster that even the journalists most devoted to both-sides-ism have, however temporarily, been shocked out of their addiction to false equivalency. As the economy collapses and the U.S. succumbs to the coronavirus pandemic in a way unmatched by the rest of the world — all because of Trump’s maliciousness and recklessness, as well as Republican opposition to competent governance — it’s become impossible to keep a straight face while asserting any moral or political equivalence between Democrats and Republicans.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A similar situation happened in 2008, when the disaster of the George W. Bush presidency finally overcame the mainstream media’s desire to pretend there was no meaningful difference between Democrats and Republicans. Oh, there were efforts to scandalize Obama with nonsense, such as when right-wingers got journalists to take the bait of painting Obama’s Chicago pastor as anti-white and anti-American. But it basically never worked, because that kind of circus sideshow seemed weak in the face of the economic disaster of 2008, the failed response to Hurricane Katrina and the ill-fated invasion of Iraq.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Compared to Donald Trump, Bush is small potatoes in the failed-presidency department. The seriousness of our current crisis makes it difficult for the press to play their silly both-sides false games. So it’s not working for Trump so far.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But it’s still two and a half months until the election, and we know it will feel longer than that. The media’s desire to appear “unbiased” is strong, even in the face of an economic catastrophe and a soaring COVID-19 death rate. Trump will keep trying to make this election about bullshit, and it’s important to stay vigilant against a press that struggles to resist the siren call of false equivalency.</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 820</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/why-arent-journalists-holding-trump-and-his-allies-accountable-for-their-lies-and-distortions/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/why-arent-journalists-holding-trump-and-his-allies-accountable-for-their-lies-and-distortions/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7/19/20</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/fox-news-peddled-misinformation-about-the-coronavirus-253-times-in-five-days-study/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/fox-news-peddled-misinformation-about-the-coronavirus-253-times-in-five-days-study/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A new study finds that Fox News <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/12/unproven-drug-treatment-for-coronavirus-championed-by-trump-and-fox-news-shows-no-benefit-study/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">peddled misinformation</a> about the coronavirus pandemic 253 times in only five days. The documented instances included <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/29/tucker-carlson-exposed-as-coronavirus-truther-how-the-fox-news-host-masks-conspiracies-in-populism/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">claims which undermined science</a> and <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/27/study-fox-news-viewership-linked-to-higher-non-compliance-with-stay-at-home-orders/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">faith in experts</a>, as well as demands that <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/16/bless-you-fox-news-stars-shower-blessings-upon-protesters-for-violating-coronavirus-restrictions/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">schools and businesses reopen at the risk of public health</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/06/17/hydroxychloroquine-truther-laura-ingraham-urges-trump-campaign-to-ignore-alarmist-covid-drivel/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Primetime host Laura Ingraham</a>, who has no medical or scientific background whatsoever, led the pack with about a quarter of <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/05/fox-news-laura-ingraham-falsely-claims-there-was-no-real-scientific-basis-for-social-distancing/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">the claims</a> — 63 total, or just more than 12 per show. Additionally, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/02/as-covid-deaths-mounted-lindsey-graham-kept-moving-the-goalposts-for-trump/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">the network’s “straight news” programs contributed</a> about 35% of the misinformation.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-pushed-coronavirus-misinformation-253-times-just-five-days" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">study</a>, published Thursday by media watchdog Media Matters for America, was conducted from July 6 to 10 — the week after a Yahoo News <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/as-coronavirus-surges-fox-news-shifts-its-message-on-masks-200834996.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">report</a> proclaimed that Fox’s coronavirus coverage had taken a “remarkable turn” for the better:</font></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However haltingly and incompletely, the president’s favorite news outlet has started to acknowledge, across various programs and its news site, that the coronavirus is a far graver threat than even [President Donald] Trump himself will acknowledge.</font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>That report cited two articles on the network’s website and two instances of Fox News personalities Sean Hannity and Steve Doocy making remarks about masks that, while stopping short of endorsements, did not mock them outright.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The article also pointed out that Fox News requires its employees to wear masks at work <a href="https://twitter.com/jeremymbarr/status/1273692843161325571" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">most of the time</a>. Additionally, the network appears to have canceled a Fox Nation show about the pandemic hosted by coronavirus conspiracy theorist Alex Berenson, though extant episodes remain available.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">new study finds that Fox News <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/12/unproven-drug-treatment-for-coronavirus-championed-by-trump-and-fox-news-shows-no-benefit-study/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">peddled misinformation</a> about the coronavirus pandemic 253 times in only five days. The documented instances included <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/29/tucker-carlson-exposed-as-coronavirus-truther-how-the-fox-news-host-masks-conspiracies-in-populism/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">claims which undermined science</a> and <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/27/study-fox-news-viewership-linked-to-higher-non-compliance-with-stay-at-home-orders/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">faith in experts</a>, as well as demands that <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/16/bless-you-fox-news-stars-shower-blessings-upon-protesters-for-violating-coronavirus-restrictions/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">schools and businesses reopen at the risk of public health</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/06/17/hydroxychloroquine-truther-laura-ingraham-urges-trump-campaign-to-ignore-alarmist-covid-drivel/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Primetime host Laura Ingraham</a>, who has no medical or scientific background whatsoever, led the pack with about a quarter of <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/05/fox-news-laura-ingraham-falsely-claims-there-was-no-real-scientific-basis-for-social-distancing/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">the claims</a> — 63 total, or just more than 12 per show. Additionally, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/02/as-covid-deaths-mounted-lindsey-graham-kept-moving-the-goalposts-for-trump/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">the network’s “straight news” programs contributed</a> about 35% of the misinformation.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The data in the Media Matters study flatly contradicts the isolated examples from the Yahoo report. Here is a quick breakdown:</font></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none;"><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">About half the incidents — 115 claims — challenged scientific consensus and undermined official government recommendations, such as social distancing and masking guidelines.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The <b>Ingraham Angle” was the clear leader of the pack, pushing misinformation 63 times, more than half of which came from Ingraham herself, who undermined science a staggering 21 times in five days</b>.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox & Friends” took second place with 45 instances; “Hannity” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight” finished in a dead heat for third, clocking 21 and 20 instances, respectively.</span></font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Straight news programs delivered more than a third of the misinformation, led by Martha MacCallum’s “The Story” with 20 claims.</b></font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Eight claims defended or endorsed unproven remedies such as hydroxychloroquine,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> days after the FDA told people </span><a href="https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-cautions-against-use-hydroxychloroquine-or-chloroquine-covid-19-outside-hospital-setting-or" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">not to take it</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> outside of hospitals or clinical trials.</span></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <b>network politicized the pandemic 63 times, including 51 claims that regulations requiring masks and closing businesses were rooted in politics and 10 false claims linking recent racial justice protests to a surge in new infections.</b></font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hosts advocated 34 times to disregard public health concerns in favor of reopening the country’s more than 100,000 K-12 schools.</font></li></ul><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The misinformation and the seeming coordination with official White House talking points has raised alarm among experts.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">For instance, in <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-says-fauci-made-lot-mistakes-n1233402" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">a “Hannity” interview July 10</a>, the last day covered in the study, Trump responded to a question about the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, by saying “he’s made a lot of mistakes.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">That interview fed an ongoing <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/13/white-house-sends-oppo-dump-im-attempt-to-discredit-fauci-after-he-disputes-trump-on-coronavirus/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">White House effort to discredit Fauci</a>, who <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/07/trump-fauci-coronavirus-pandemic-oppo/614224/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">pushed back</a> by calling such efforts “bizarre.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Ultimately, it hurts the president,” he said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then there is the matter of schools. The network and the administration, including Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, for weeks trumpeted an American Academy of Pediatrics statement advising a measured reopening of schools.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The misinformation’s momentum eventually compelled the academy — together with with the two largest educators’ unions in the country and the School Superintendents Association — to <a href="https://services.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2020/pediatricians-educators-and-superintendents-urge-a-safe-return-to-school-this-fall/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">clarify</a> its statement. It now says that reopening “will clearly require substantial new investments in our schools and campuses,” and calls on Congress and the administration “to provide the federal resources needed” to safely educate and care for students.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an earlier <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/20/fox-news-coronavirus-coverage-decreased-more-than-40-over-the-past-month-study-reveals/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Media Matters audit</a> of the cable network, Fox News posted a 20% decline in its coronavirus coverage between March and May.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But this unrelenting misinformation campaign comes amid a massive surge in COVID-19 infections, which has ravaged healthcare resources in Sun Belt states such as <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/14/texas-and-arizona-request-refrigerated-trucks-as-morgues-run-out-of-space-to-store-coronavirus-dead/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Arizona</a>, California, Florida <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/11/austin-mayor-steve-adler-on-battling-the-pandemic-when-this-virus-comes-it-comes-fast/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">and Texas</a>. In recent weeks, the U.S. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/world/coronavirus-updates.html#link-7ee57c33" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">has set</a> seven records for daily new cases, topping 68,000 on July 10, the same day which Trump, who said on numerous occasions that the virus would “miraculously” disappear in April, told Hannity that Fauci had “made a lot of mistakes.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, many states <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/29/more-states-reverse-or-slow-reopening-plans-as-coronavirus-cases-climb.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">are walking back</a> reopening measures. California closed restaurants, movie theaters and bars. Arizona <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/30/arizona-rolls-back-reopening-as-coronavirus-cases-grow-in-majority-of-us-states.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">also shuttered</a> movie theaters and bars, plus gyms and water parks.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On July 13, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs wondered “what in hell is going on” as closures increased. Dr. Marc Siegel, a Fox medical expert, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-business/fox-medical-contributor-marc-siegel-criticizes-states-covid-surges-rolling-back" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">criticized</a> the policies as “not consistent,” “punitive” and “draconian.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>However, there are some fractures within the network. A study from April showed that viewers of Hannity were more likely to die of COVID-19 than Carlson’s viewers. Now, the two seem neck-and-neck in misinformation.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson, who in June <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/02/what-tucker-carlson-is-doing-with-his-newfound-clout-attacking-republicans/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">broke Hannity’s all-time ratings record</a>, recently claimed there was “no evidence” that masks help constrain the pandemic, in contradiction of guidance from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hannity, meanwhile, took the opposite view.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I went to my grocery store every week. Guess what?” the host recently asked. “They wore masks. Nobody at my grocery store, thank God, got coronavirus.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I think they work,” he added.</font></p></div><div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">self correction?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/two-big-news-outlets-express-regret-after-letting-trump-officials-lie/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/two-big-news-outlets-express-regret-after-letting-trump-officials-lie/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">a<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">lthough President Donald Trump often rails against the mainstream media and insists that countless journalists are out to get him, he and his officials will manipulate or deceive major news outlets whenever they can get away with it. This week, two such outlets have apologized for letting Trump officials get away with lying: USA Today and National Public Radio.</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Earlier this week, USA Today published an <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/todaysdebate/2020/07/14/anthony-fauci-wrong-with-me-peter-navarro-editorials-debates/5439374002/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">op-ed by Peter Navarro</a> — one of Trump’s top economic advisers — that claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci has repeatedly been wrong about the coronavirus pandemic. But Bill Sternberg, USA Today’s editorial page editor, is now saying that some of Navarro’s anti-Fauci claims don’t hold up when fact-checked.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Sternberg, “Several of Navarro’s criticisms of Fauci — on the China travel restrictions, the risk from the coronavirus and falling mortality rates — were misleading or lacked context. As such, Navarro’s op-ed did not meet USA Today’s fact-checking standards.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">USA Today’s <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/15/fact-check-trump-adviser-navarro-claims-fauci-misleading/5443826002/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Ledyard King</a> cites some specific examples of things Navarro wrote that were inaccurate. For example, Navarro wrote:</font></p><div class="alt_ad_block true_ad_free story-page-in-content-graph-4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="alt_ad_msg" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 10px; background: rgb(234, 234, 234);"><div class="header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AD REMOVED FOR SUBSCRIBED USER</font></div></div></div><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In late January, when I was making the case on behalf of the president to take down the flights from China, Fauci fought against the president’s courageous decision — which might well have saved hundreds of thousands of American lives.</font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">King, however, explains: “Trump and his supporters have touted the restrictions on travel from China as a travel ban, but the move stopped short of that. As Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters January 31, the country was denying entry to foreign nationals, ‘other than immediate family of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, who have traveled in China within the last 14 days.’ In addition, experts said there isn’t enough data to conclude the restrictions made a significant difference. A study in the journal Science found the various travel limitations across the globe helped slow the spread of the pandemic, but more was needed to contain it.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Navarro also wrote:</font></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When I was working feverishly on behalf of the president in February to help engineer the fastest industrial mobilization of the health care sector in our history, Fauci was still telling the public the China virus was low risk.</font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But according to King: “There’s no evidence of a large-scale effort by the Trump administration to mobilize supplies for the pandemic as early as February, although experts contend that a forceful response then would likely have limited the spread and saved lives. Trump said little in public about the virus during that time period and downplayed the threat.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, on NPR’s website, Public Editor <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/publiceditor/2020/07/16/890401446/npr-let-the-us-attorney-general-tell-a-falsehood-on-the-air" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Kelly McBride</a> criticized the outlet for letting Attorney General Bill Barr get away with lying during a “Morning Edition” segment that aired on June 26 and was hosted by reporter Steve Inskeep. That day, McBride writes, NPR listeners “heard U.S. Attorney General Barr falsely declare that mail-in ballots will jeopardize the security of the upcoming presidential election.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Barr told NPR:</font></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s so many occasions for fraud there that cannot be policed. I think it would be very bad. But one of the things I mentioned would be the possibility of counterfeiting.</font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to McBride, the claim that mail-in voting promotes fraud is contradicted by “extensive reporting — including by NPR before Inskeep’s interview — fact-checking and academic research. The overwhelming consensus is that there’s no credible evidence that counterfeit mail-in ballots have posed any substantial threat to election security.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I felt it was such a ridiculous set of claims because he clearly didn’t know what he was talking about,” said Charles Stewart, a political science professor at MIT, in response to Barr’s claim that ballots could be stolen from mailboxes and counterfeited on a large scale and argued,</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McBride writes: “I agree with the audience members who have cried foul at how this was presented. While some would argue that when a powerful government (official) offers an outrageous point, listeners should get to hear it, this interview made it too easy for those listeners to come away with an incomplete understanding — or even believing that Barr’s widely debunked statement is a credible concern.”</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-tv-news-needs-break-its-cycle-shallow-coverage-extreme-weather-0" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;" /><div class="teasercontent" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex: 1 1 0%; flex-direction: column; justify-content: center;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/corporate-tv-news-needs-break-its-cycle-shallow-coverage-extreme-weather-0" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; 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background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;"><span property="schema:name" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Corporate TV news needs to break its cycle of shallow coverage of extreme weather</font></span></a></h2><p class="dateline-compact" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; align-items: center; display: flex; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="dateline-compacttype" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; height: 1.5em; margin-right: 1em; width: 1.5em;"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24" class="icon icon--article" aria-labelledby="icon-label--article" /><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><use xlink:href="#article" xmlns:xlink="xlink" /></font></font></span><time datetime="2020-07-09T10:05:00-0400" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">07/09/20 10:05 AM EDT</font></time></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha note link to conspir, also note systemic fail: </font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://onezero.medium.com/our-ability-to-process-information-is-reaching-a-critical-limit-3c761fee3259" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://onezero.medium.com/our-ability-to-process-information-is-reaching-a-critical-limit-3c761fee3259</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx </font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Our Ability to Process Information Is Reaching a Critical Limit</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The result feels like a mental DDoS attack</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eric Ravenscraft</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jun 28 · 5 min read</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BuzzFeed once called 2016 “Actually The Worst Year.” It didn’t hold the record for long. In six short months, 2020 has already delivered Australian wildfires, election controversies, the coronavirus pandemic, a massive increase to the surveillance state, the murder of yet more Black people at the hands of police, violent resistance to national protests in support of Black Lives Matter, and the list goes on.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s a lot. And our ability to process it all may be reaching a critical limit.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A growing body of research highlights the strain on our ability to read, understand, process, and take action on the flood of news with which we’re confronted. Some of the biggest events in 2020 have demanded more of our time, more direct action, and have been more emotionally taxing than we’re used to. The result feels like a mental DDoS attack that drags down our mental health, allows misinformation to thrive, and even makes the job of delivering news more difficult.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As information becomes more accessible, news cycles often struggle to keep one topic in focus for long. A political scandal on Monday that would have rocked the nation for weeks in decades past might be out of the news cycle by Tuesday now. This can sometimes be by design, as politicians learn that one of the best ways to combat breaking news is with more breaking news. It’s a strategy that former Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon referred to as “flooding the zone with shit.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As a result, news readers become overwhelmed. According to a 2019 report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 35% of respondents in the U.K., and 41% in the U.S., actively avoided the news. While news consumption briefly jumped after the pandemic hit, the Institute found a “significant increase” in news avoidance between April and May, with 59% of respondents saying they avoid the news at least “sometimes.”</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In these surveys, the primary reason for avoiding the news is relatable: It stresses readers out. Research by professor of psychology Graham Davey at the University of Sussex has shown that constant exposure to the news can have a powerful negative effect on the viewer’s mood. “Our research has shown that negatively valenced news conveys that negativity to the consumer and makes them feel more anxious, stressed, or even depressed, and this negativity then feeds into their own personal worries and concerns which makes people worry for longer and often worry catastrophically,” Davey told OneZero.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How to Stop ‘Doom Scrolling’ and Love Your Phone Again</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Not all screen time is created equal</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">onezero.medium.com]</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Too much stressful news can have a negative impact on your mental health. Sites like Twitter — which can be stressful on a good day — become overwhelming with a constant flood of new things to be upset or dismayed about. “Negative news that conveys trauma in some way can have even greater effects on mental health by triggering symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder,” Davey explains. “Especially if the stories convey violence and trauma in a vivid and visual way.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the early days of the pandemic, it was harder to avoid the news: all of it was immediately relevant to your life. But learning necessary information from the news can accelerate news exhaustion.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I’m sure that at a personal level many people had become very stressed by the continuing negative news about coronavirus,” Davey said. “Especially in the early days of lockdown when it was unclear when things would begin to improve. I suspect many people deliberately stopped watching TV news or reading newspapers because of this, and being in lockdown made it much easier to avoid news generally.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Even among those who continue to read the news, there are only so many hours in the day to process it all. It takes time to find, read, process, and share stories — time that’s usually snuck in on work breaks, while using the bathroom, or before bed. The more stories there are to read, the harder it is to process any of them.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Give someone enough time to process what they’re reading, and they’re more likely to believe the truth… But time is an increasingly rare commodity.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>While it’s possible to read more than one news article in a day, research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology shows that the less time a person has to spend comprehending a story, the less likely they are to be skeptical of a false story. Further study by researchers at Macquarie University and MIT suggested this effect was more likely to account for people believing fake news than political bias.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In other words, give someone enough time to process what they’re reading, and they’re more likely to believe the truth, even if it goes against their political beliefs. But time is an increasingly rare commodity, and it affects more than just consumers of news. As Steven Sloman, PhD, professor of cognitive, linguistic, and psychological sciences at Brown University, explained to NPR in 2018, “We just don’t have time to separate the facts from the falsities. Even fact-checkers don’t have time.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Layoffs and traffic demands have stressed newsrooms for years, but the Covid crisis only exacerbated the problem</b>. Fewer reporters are available to cover more stories for an audience that’s increasingly exhausted by the news they can’t ignore. Eventually, something has to give.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Like most problems caused by the pandemic, instead of one big dramatic breaking point, there are a lot of smaller stress fractures. Important stories — like expanded surveillance programs — that might have been major news cycles under usual circumstances can go overlooked. Conspiracy theories spread a bit faster than usual. People get more stressed than usual.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over the short term, some of these stressors relieve themselves. During the initial phases of the pandemic, distributing information about how to limit the spread of the virus was crucial, but the flood of necessary updates abates over time. While protests continue, most curfews get lifted, allowing a sense of equilibrium. Even if the story goes on, an individual’s ability to tag out for a short time increases. Beyond that, however, adapting to a flood of news might require a social change in news consumption habits.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">OneZero</font></div></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Facebook must close loophole that allows the viral spread of climate disinformation</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">06/25/20 5:06 PM EDT</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TV news' near silence on record-shattering temperatures in the Arctic is part of a disturbing trend in climate coverage</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">06/25/20 5:09 PM EDT</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Three years of corporate broadcast news hurricane coverage failed to mention specific risks to marginalized communities</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">06/01/20 10:46 AM EDT</font></div></div><div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma 520</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">as </font></div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/cbs-evening-news/trump-admits-pompeo-asked-him-fire-state-dept-ig-some-major-news-outlets-ignore" rel="bookmark" class="teaserlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; 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background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; display: flex; outline: 0px;"><span property="schema:name" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump admits Pompeo asked him to fire State Department inspector general, some major news outlets ignore the story</font></span></a></h2><p class="dateline-compact" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; align-items: center; display: flex; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="dateline-compact__type" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; height: 1.5em; margin-right: 1em; width: 1.5em;"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24" class="icon icon--article" aria-labelledby="icon-label--article" /><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><use xlink:href="#article" xmlns:xlink="xlink" /></font></font></span><time datetime="2020-05-19T11:37:00-0400" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">05/19/20 11:37 AM EDT</font></time></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-is-depending-on-the-media-to-completely-fail-at-its-job-and-it-probably-will"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-is-depending-on-the-media-to-completely-fail-at-its-job-and-it-probably-will</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>e<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ven Donald Trump can’t tell us </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/13/obamagate-trump-is-peddling-a-new-fake-scandal--but-reality-is-causing-him-big-problems/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">what “Obamagate” is</a></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b> </b>— other than his newest obsession, designed to distract from his total failure to handle the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/11/trump-doesnt-really-care-about-the-economy--he-just-wants-to-fake-it-until-november/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">economic catastrophe</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. But with a news media still and always eager to prove it’s </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/24/dont-drink-the-bleach-why-is-the-elite-press-still-covering-for-trumps-profound-stupidity/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">equally tough on “both sides,”</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> it’s conceivable that Trump can make Obamagate a thing.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eager to pretend that the <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/13/trump-pressures-cdc-to-lower-death-toll-by-changing-how-it-counts-coronavirus-fatalities-report/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">rising death tolls</a> and <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/15/us-jobless-rate-has-already-broken-great-depression-records--and-most-media-missed-it_partner/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">skyrocketing unemployment rates</a> don’t exist, Trump has pivoted back to what he always planned on doing in the 2020 campaign: Pump out a bunch of conspiracy theories about <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/02/02/trumps-smears-of-biden-have-only-started-can-the-former-veep-fight-back/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">former Vice President Joe Biden</a> and other leading Democrats. His plan has always been to get the mainstream media to elevate these baseless smears until they dominate the 2020 election cycle, sucking attention away from Trump’s extensive history of failures, scandals, lies and outright crimes.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And why not? With the help of WikiLeaks and the Russian government — <a href="https://www.salon.com/2016/12/30/james-comey-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-2016/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">along with the the spinelessness of FBI Director James Comey</a> — Trump was able to trick the media into turning a total non-scandal about Hillary Clinton using a private email account to do government business (something that <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/03/21/house-dems-probe-jared-kushner-and-ivanka-trumps-use-of-private-accounts-for-government-business/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump’s people have done on a much larger scale</a>) into a five-alarm fire that lost her the election. Even though diligent journalists discovered that Trump had been accused of <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/11/29/of-course-donald-trump-is-still-denying-the-truth-about-the-access-hollywood-tape/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">numerous sexual assaults,</a> <a href="https://www.salon.com/2016/11/23/the-trump-sleaze-factor-let-the-gop-own-the-new-expanded-culture-of-corruption-trump-promises/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">had defrauded countless people</a>, and had <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/05/07/donald-trump-finally-gets-a-bill-passed-but-his-history-of-dealmaking-is-still-full-of-failure/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">run multiple businesses into the ground</a>, voters in exit polls still <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/22/20924795/hillary-clinton-emails-new-york-times-state-department" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">thought “but her emails” was the bigger scandal</a>.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump is trying to do it again, repeating the word “Obamagate” like a wind-up toy monkey, in hopes that the media will take the hint and start to populate this empty word with details that make it sound like a real scandal. But there’s no scandal there, as Trump himself proved on Monday during an <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/12/obamagate-conspiracy-theory-falls-apart-after-a-reporter-asks-president-trump-one-question/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">amazing exchange with the Washington Post’s Philip Rucker outside the White House</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rucker noted that Trump kept saying “Obamagate” was “the biggest political crime in American history,” and asked Trump directly: “What crime exactly are you accusing President Obama of committing?”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump, shocked that the press wasn’t doing his dirty work for him (for once), was flabbergasted.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Uh, Obamagate. It’s been going on for a long time,” Trump said, rambling on without answering the question before concluding, “Some terrible things happened, and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again,” without saying what those “terrible things” were.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rucker pressed him: “What is the crime?”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump replied, “You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everybody.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">This was hilarious but telling. Trump didn’t think he needed to come up with an actual accusation, which is understandable. He’d never had to before! Insinuation and a pretense of outrage had worked well enough to send the press on a wild goose chase to generate fake scandals in the past. Consider the 2016 campaign, with story after story about<b> Clinton’s “emails,” which were always seen as “damaging,” even though no one could say what damage her emails had done to whom, or even what alleged crime had been committed</b>. (The FBI <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/state-department-probe-of-clinton-emails-finds-no-deliberate-mishandling-of-classified-information/2019/10/18/83339446-f1dc-11e9-8693-f487e46784aa_story.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">declined to prosecute her</a>, since there was literally nothing to prosecute.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2011, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/9/16/12938066/donald-trump-obama-birth-certificate-birther" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">when Trump’s multi-month project</a> of “just asking questions” about Barack Obama’s birth certificate generated enough of a media frenzy that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/04/27/obama.birth.certificate/index.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Obama was forced to release his long-form Hawaii birth certificate</a>, something no white president has ever felt compelled to do.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s assumption that he doesn’t have to say what “Obamagate” is, exactly, for the media to run with it is sadly proving correct. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/14/2016-nightmare-is-already-repeating-itself/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">As Greg Sargent of the Washington Post detailed Thursday</a>, journalists, with help from Republican senators, are starting to color in the boxes of “Obamagate” with enough detail to make it seem substantive. But even the most cursory of glances makes clear there’s no there there.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some in the mainstream press are struggling to circle in on a notion that the Obama administration acted improperly by investigating incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn’s shady conduct toward Russia during the presidential transition. But Obama didn’t do anything wrong. Trump did.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>What actually happened is simple: Obama issued sanctions against Russian leaders in 2016 for interfering with the election. After that, Flynn, before taking office with the Trump administration, <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/05/michael-flynn-unmasking-joe-biden-obamagate-donald-trump/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">had a private conversation with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak</a>, in which he assured Kislyak not to worry about the sanctions because Trump would get rid of them</b>. Intelligence officials recorded this conversation, since they had Kislyak under surveillance. Obama officials were understandably concerned about what American was making such assurances to Kislyak and wanted to know who it was. That was their legal right and, more importantly, their patriotic duty.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republicans, with great fanfare, have announced their “discovery” that Flynn’s identity was shared with a number of top Obama officials, including Biden.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This is not a scandal of any kind. Obama’s White House was in charge of maintaining the integrity of American elections. The fact that a prominent figure in the incoming administration was secretly assuring Russian leaders that their interference in 2016 was A-OK was important information. The real scandal would have been if the Obama administration had ignored the fact that Flynn was behaving in a potentially treasonous manner.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">This story is complicated, and I imagine readers’ eyes are starting to cross right about now, with simply trying to figure out what the hell is going on. That’s what Trump is counting on </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">— the details are confusing, so voters simply back away with a vague sense that maybe the Obama team did something nefarious, without exactly knowing what that was. That’s precisely what happened with “her emails.”</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Unfortunately, as Sargent notes, it’s working</b>. Headlines declaring that the Republicans have released a list of who heard what about Flynn’s underhanded behavior are seen as somehow “boosting” Trump’s narrative or helping to “discredit” the Russia investigation.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The new information <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">actually does not</em> ‘boost’ Trump’s claims about the Russia investigation or ‘discredit’ it,” Sargent writes. “And if there is ‘no evidence of wrongdoing,’ then it cannot <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">legitimately</em> be ‘turned into an election issue.'”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Remember, this is story where a high-ranking Trump official — Flynn — delivered a backstage high-five to the Russians for interfering with our election, and then lied to the FBI about it. Now the Trump administration, in a blatantly corrupt move, has tried to force the Department of Justice to <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/09/bill-barrs-decision-to-drop-michael-flynn-case-sends-shockwaves-through-the-legal-world_partner/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">drop the charges against Flynn</a>, even though he<b> pled </b>guilty to the original charges. (A federal judge has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/us/politics/michael-flynn-charge-judge.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">temporarily put that effort on hold</a>.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What Trump is currently doing is far worse than anything Richard Nixon ever did with Watergate. Yet a gullible media is working overtime to inflate the narrative that somehow it was <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Obama</em> who did something wrong, because his administration followed the law and tried to stop Michael Flynn from rewarding a foreign government for interfering with our presidential election.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why is this happening? There are a few journalists out there who are in the tank for Trump and ready to sell whatever nutty conspiracy theory he throws out. But mostly it’s because so much of the mainstream media, terrified of being accused of having a “liberal bias,” will go out of its way to minimize real Republican scandals while blowing up often-imaginary Democratic scandals, all in a bid to appear “<b>balanced.</b>”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is no balance here. Obama was a lawful and diligent president who was trying to protect our country’s democratic institutions. Trump is a grifting, cheating sleazeball who is weaponizing the DOJ to try to steal an election and who openly invites foreign interference. Any story that doesn’t offer clarity on this contrast is misleading the public and cannot be considered legitimate journalism.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This kind of distorted coverage and journalistic water-carrying can work all too well, unfortunately. In 2016, I had dinner with a friend who isn’t in politics or journalism, but is generally plugged in and follows the news far more closely than most people. Somehow the topic of Clinton’s emails came up and I asked my friend what she thought was in them. She replied that Clinton had accidentally mentioned important state secrets in unsecured emails.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">She was shocked to hear, from me, apparently for the first time, that that wasn’t true. As Fred Kaplan of Slate, and apparently no one else, carefully laid out at the time, <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/07/hillarys-email-scandal-was-overhyped.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">there was nothing in Clinton’s emails </a>that even slightly resembled a threat to national security.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Out of 30,000 emails, exactly </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">eight</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> contained information that was legally classified as “top secret.” Seven of those eight discussed information that had already been covered extensively in the press, even if the U.S. government still considered it classified. The other email discussed an inconsequential conversation with the president of Malawi, a nation no Republican could identify on a world map with 25 guesses. If any foreign spy had gotten to it — and none did, remember? — they would have walked away empty-handed.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><u>My friend is smart. She reads the news voraciously. She understand politics better than half of political journalists, probably more. She didn’t know that Clinton’s emails had <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">nothing </em>of interest in them. If she didn’t know, who could? This was a massive failure on the part of the news media.</u></b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So the sad truth is that Donald Trump isn’t wrong to believe that he can keep saying “Obamagate” over and over and the news media will do the dirty work of creating a scandal where none exists. It’s always worked before. It is starting to work again. The only hope of saving our democracy is that the press finally stops letting its bizarre theology of “balance” lead once again to the promotion of conspiracy theories over facts. As Sargent’s article shows, the Washington Post is doing a good job. But will the rest of the media choose to pursue the facts over Trump’s invented scandals, or are we doomed to repeat 2016 all over again?</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an vox 520 no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">y<span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">ou probably saw Donald Trump’s ridiculous, false and deadly claim last week: that ingesting chemical cleaners could cure humans of the coronavirus. At a White House press briefing on Thursday (4/23/20), the president said:</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4">
</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>I see disinfectant, where it knocks it [coronavirus] out in a minute—one minute—and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning. Because you see it [coronavirus] gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that.</div><div>
</div><div>He also suggested that exposing patients to bright lights could help cure them, once again confusing what works on surfaces like tables with the inside of a human body.</div><div>
</div><div>It’s worth taking a step back for a second and pausing on the fact that the person in charge of the United States thinks injecting bleach might be a good idea. Trump has consistently spread false information about the pandemic, claiming in February that it would be gone by April due to the warmer weather, and insisting that “we’ll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner.”</div><div>
</div><div>His pronouncements have already been fatal: After promoting the drug chloroquine, an Arizona man died and his wife was hospitalized after they ingested fish tank cleaner that contained the substance. Surely more deadly but harder to quantify are his outbursts proclaiming that states should “LIBERATE” themselves from oppressive lockdown measures (some of the lightest in the developed world), encouraging people to go out and demonstrate, thereby spreading the virus.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Unfortunately, for journalists stuck in a corporate media system that promotes deference to authority and finds equivalency even when there is none, the president’s dangerous ramblings need to be treated as legitimate and worthy of discussion, even in apparently adversarial media</b>. Vox (4/23/20), for example, said that it was only “highly unlikely that injecting humans with disinfectants will turn out to be a safe or effective treatment.” The Washington Post (4/24/20) described Trump’s statement as an “unsubstantiated and potentially dangerous” idea. At the risk of stating the obvious, it is not “highly unlikely” but impossible, and Trump’s idea is not merely “potentially” dangerous: No amount of bleach is safe to inject into your body. It will kill human beings, as chemical cleaning product manufacturers immediately warned. (The Post did include a disclaimer: “Do not ingest any bleach or disinfectant.”)</div><div>
</div><div><b>Despite this, USA Today (4/24/20) presented the story as a he-said she-said between two opposing views, </b>describing (4/24/20) Trump’s ludicrous outburst merely as “the latest in a pattern of questionable claims.” “We should inject bleach for our health” is not a “questionable” claim, and would not be treated as such if someone without power or influence made it.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">NYT: Trump Muses About Light as Remedy, but Also Disinfectant, Which Is Dangerous</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The New York Times </b>(4/24/20) referred to the idea that injecting bleach into your body may cure the coronavirus as an “unproven treatment.”</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Perhaps the worst offender of phony both-sidesism, however, was the New York Times (4/24/20), which described the president as “eagerly theorizing—dangerously, in the view of some experts—about the powers of sunlight, ultraviolet light and household disinfectants to kill the coronavirus.</span>”</div><div>
</div><div>In other words: “Can injecting bleach kill you? On the one hand, definitely yes. On the other, here is a dummy who thinks it will save you from Covid–19, so let’s teach the controversy.” Refusing to state categorically that ingesting known deadly substances is a bad idea, the wording of the Times article suggests that only “some experts” disagree with the idea, while there are other, pro-bleach drinking authorities out there.</div><div>
</div><div>After widespread pushback on social media, the Times amended the offending paragraph, but, if anything, made it worse, changing it to Trump “eagerly theorizing about treatments involving the powers of sunlight, ultraviolet light and household disinfectant that could be harmful if they were used to try to kill the coronavirus.” Injecting bleach “could” be harmful under certain circumstances, but who knows? Certainly not us at the New York Times.</div><div>
</div><div>This sort of reporting would be absurd beyond belief in other circumstances involving people without serious power. For example, there were no Times reports stating that, “at the Jonestown camp in Guyana, Rev. Jones eagerly theorized about the benefits of cyanide-laced Kool-Aid that could be harmful in certain circumstances.”</div><div>
</div><div>Even CNN’s Anderson Cooper (4/23/20), who has emerged as one of Trump’s most visible and aggressive critics, was anxious not to give an opinion, so strong is the culture of supposed “neutrality” in journalism. He asked his guest, “Is there any evidence about taking a disinfectant that’s used on the table where I’m sitting, and using it internally? That doesn’t seem like a good idea. Am I wrong?”</div><div>
</div><div>Cooper, like any adult, knows full well that it is a bad idea, but the spectacle of a CNN anchor asking a doctor about drinking bleach is a bizarre example of what can happen when you combine practices of deference to authority, both-sidesism, and a pretense of neutrality.</div><div>
</div><div>The failure of corporate media to call a spade a spade for fear of losing their status as objective arbiters of news has, of late, led to clearly racist actions and statements being laundered as “racially charged” or “racially tinged” or even just “race-related” (FAIR.org, 4/5/19, 11/1/19; CounterSpin, 7/23/19). Likewise, ICE concentration camps are described as “detention centers” (CounterSpin, 1/5/20), which has the effect of making them sound like places unruly school kids who fail to do their homework are sent.</div><div>
</div><div>To corporate media: It is OK. Facts are facts, even when the president of the United States disagrees. You don’t have to both-sides this one. Injecting bleach is bad.</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">420 mma</font></div><div><table class="yiv3201549088stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-width: 100%;" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td class="yiv3201549088stylingblock-content-margin-cell" style="border-collapse: collapse; padding: 0px 10px;"><table class="yiv3201549088stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="background-color: transparent; min-width: 100%;" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td class="yiv3201549088stylingblock-content-wrapper yiv3201549088camarker-inner" style="border-collapse: collapse; padding: 0px;"><h2 style="line-height: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=6052e6d64a51140b2931faa33653aec73a1be62fa60514cff6ed19e08f62ca947925861d4bd5cc5c8c24668a20d9bc4076bf883abf69cf50" title="Nightly news broadcasts covered protests against social distancing. They mostly ignored nurses protesting lack of PPE.">Nightly news broadcasts covered protests against social distancing. They mostly ignored nurses protesting lack of PPE.</a></font></h2></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><table class="yiv3201549088stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="min-width: 100%;" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td class="yiv3201549088stylingblock-content-wrapper yiv3201549088camarker-inner" style="border-collapse: collapse; padding: 0px 10px;"><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" /><div style="line-height: 31px;"><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news programs have frequently covered the right-wing protests against social distancing measures without giving necessary context from health experts that it would risk a resurgence of coronavirus infections. By contrast, the shows <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=6052e6d64a51140bb02a083f0ec8c835f3f243c62b577e67f7219bad8390410e7c4414700c50a62810a2e8b8799c9ee7f9fcb2eec2aedde9" title="all but ignored">all but ignored</a> a Tuesday protest at the White House by a major nurses union over the lack of protective personal equipment (PPE) that has put health care workers at risk.</font></p></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/study-finds-people-who-watched-sean-hannity-were-more-likely-to-die-from-covid-19/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/study-finds-people-who-watched-sean-hannity-were-more-likely-to-die-from-covid-19/</font></a></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Study finds people who watched Sean Hannity were more likely to die from COVID-19</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by <b>Igor Derysh / Salon</b> April 22, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A new study from the</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> University of Chicago’s Becker </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Friedman</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Institute for Economics</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> found that “<b>greater viewership of ‘Hannity’ relative to ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ was strongly associated with a greater number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the early stages of the pandemic.”</b></span></font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News host Sean Hannity has been heavily criticized for echoing President Donald Trump’s initial attempts to downplay the threat posed by the new coronavirus. Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson, his colleague at the right-leaning network who has framed the issue in more nationalistic terms, has been credited with convincing the president to take the pandemic seriously.</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Carlson warned viewers about the threat posed by the coronavirus from early February, while Hannity originally dismissed the risks associated with the virus before gradually adjusting his position starting late February,” the researchers wrote in the working paper.</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The two hosts diverged greatly on the issue in February. While Hannity expressed optimism that “zero people in the United States have died from the coronavirus,” Carlson warned viewers that the virus could kill 1 million people across the country.</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The researchers commissioned a poll of more than 1,000 Fox News viewers, which found that Carlson’s viewers were more likely to change their behavior earlier than Hannity’s viewers.</font></b></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We find that Hannity’s viewers on average changed their behavior in response to the coronavirus five days later than other Fox News viewers, while Carlson’s viewers changed behavior three days earlier than other Fox News viewers,” the paper said.</font></b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The researchers then compared the death rate in counties that favored either host, finding “approximately 30% more COVID-19 cases” in areas that preferred Hannity than those that watched Carlson.</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Already by mid-March, we see a statistically significant difference — that there are greater case loads in places that favor Hannity over Tucker,” researcher David Yanagizawa-Drott told The Chicago Tribune. “Then weeks later, we see a similar trajectory increase for deaths.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After Hannity’s “shift in tone,” however, “the diverging trajectories . . . began to revert,” the study said.</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The researchers argued that their findings were consistent with “misinformation being an important mechanism driving the effects in the data.</span>”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Polls have similarly found that Fox News viewers as a whole are far more likely to believe the threat of the virus is exaggerated. Another poll showed that Republicans, in general, were less likely to change their behavior in response to the threat than Democrats.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The attempts by certain Fox News opinion hosts to downplay the virus early in the outbreak came in stark contrast to steps the network’s executives and owners took to protect themselves against the virus.</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The selective cherry-picked clips of Sean Hannity’s coverage used in this study are not only reckless and irresponsible, but down right factually wrong,” a spokesperson for Fox News said in a statement. “As this timeline proves, Hannity has covered Covid-19 since the early days of the story. The ‘study’ almost completely ignores his coverage and repeated, specific warnings and concerns from January 27-February 26 including an early interview with Dr. Fauci in January. This is a reckless disregard for the truth.”</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hannity likewise defended his coverage of the virus in an interview with Newsweek earlier this month, arguing that his January interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the country, showed that his viewers were getting accurate information.</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Go to my web site, and you’ll see irrefutable evidence that I have taken this seriously way before most in the media did. I warned in January that it was dangerous because it was highly contagious, but some people were asymptomatic, so it would spread quickly,” he said, though he also argued months later that the flu was “much more dangerous” than the new coronavirus and compared the associated death rate to the murder rate in Chicago.</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hannity’s comments came in response to a letter from <b>74 journalism professors to Fox owner Rupert Murdoch and CEO Lachlan Murdoch calling on the network to stop spreading “misinformation” about the virus.</b></font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The misinformation that reaches the Fox News audience is a danger to public health. Indeed, it is not an overstatement to say that your misreporting endangers your own viewers — and not only them, for in a pandemic, individual behavior affects significant numbers of other people as well,” the letter said. “. . . Inexcusably, Fox News has violated elementary canons of journalism. In so doing, it has contributed to the spread of a grave pandemic. Urgently, therefore, in the name of both good journalism and public health, we call upon you to help protect the lives of all Americans — including your elderly viewers — by ensuring that the information you deliver is based on scientific facts.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</div><div>Why the Murdochs backed Donald Trump’s COVID-19 denialism</div><div>2020/4/17 01:00 (BST)</div><div>©openDemocracy</div><div>
</div><div>Table of Contents</div><div>
</div><div>Hammy contrition</div><div>Murdoch’s miscalculation</div><div>
</div><div>Sean Hannity, one of Fox News's biggest stars, said that the coronavirus was a "new hoax" in March. | Fox News</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Earlier this month, Fox News aired a one-hour special, ‘America Together’</b>, that featured some of its biggest stars. In a radical departure for the fiercely partisan network, the show ostensibly marked the launch of a new “editorial initiative” aimed at promoting national unity. The content of the special, however, remained typically Fox. “As we face this COVID-19 crisis, you, me, our kids, our parents and our grandparents: We can and should turn to one place for comfort – the Holy Bible,” host Peter Hegseth advised viewers with a commendably straight face.</span></div><div>
</div><div>This was the same Peter Hegseth who alleged on air on 28 February that Democrats were “rooting” for the infection. “They have yet to find a reason to drag down the presidency of Donald Trump,” he said. Sean Hannity, one of Fox’s most famous names and a close ally of Trump similarly told viewers, “If you are over the mass hysteria, if you're over politicizing and weaponizing the coronavirus, you are not alone.” With only one exception – the extreme right-wing host Tucker Carlson– Fox News repeated the line that COVID-19 was nothing to worry about, no more dangerous than the flu, or “a hoax” that was being used to “bludgeon Trump”, in Hannity’s words.</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">This was not simply a matter of a big media outlet getting the story wrong. This was the biggest, most consequential mistake of Fox News chairman Rupert Murdoch’s career, including the Hitler Diaries farce and the UK phone hacking scandal, which cost his companies well over £300 million</span>. Fox’s support for Trump’s line, from January to mid-March, that the threat from the virus was negligible and that the spread was, in any event, under control may have cost lives among its devoted viewers who, with a median age of 65, are most at risk from the often fatal outcome of the disease.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Fox not only failed to report the chaos and missteps in the White house, it also cheered the president’s denial and delay, the effects of which are writ large in the United States coronavirus figures.</b> At the time of writing, the US has had 609, 516 reported cases of COVID-19 and 26,057 deaths from the virus, a third of which have occurred in New York State. The disease is spreading rapidly from big conurbations, which are largely Democrat to the Midwest and South, which tend to be Republican.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This week, Trump clashed with state governors, including those in his own party, over who has the ultimate authority to reopen states and when. Meanwhile, protests have erupted in some conservative and rural counties demanding an end to stay-at-home measures.<b> Fox News's Laura Ingraham was among those heaping praise on protesters, tweeting that it was "time to get your freedom back".</b></span></div><div>
</div><div>Hammy contrition</div><div>
</div><div>Fox’s lets-bring-America-together-again response is reminiscent of the hammy contrition displayed by Murdoch’s News International after the phone hacking scandal, but it is unlikely to silence the anger over Fox’s coverage. MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, Boston Globe and the Washington Post regularly remind their audiences of how Trump and Fox News supported each other’s denialism. <b>Trevor Noah’s ‘Daily Show’ on Comedy Central gathered all the clips from Fox and other corona-sceptics in one item, which they called the “Heroes of the Pandumbic”. </b>More seriously, an open letter signed by 74 journalism professors criticised the company for spreading misinformation that endangered the public. In addition, Washington non-profit WASHLITE has filed a suit against the company alleging it “wilfully and maliciously deceived the public.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>Fox viewers were far less likely to take the crisis seriously... 90% said that they were not staying at home.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Since its founding under the former Nixon aide Roger Ailes, Fox News has been seen as a damaging and divisive force in journalism. But now, there seems to be striking evidence that actual, physical harm may have been caused by Fox’s editorial line on COVID-19 before its mid-March volte face. A poll by Survey 160 and Gradients Metrics carried out between 13-16 March shows that Fox viewers were far less likely to stay at home, or take the crisis seriously, which is important given that its viewership is particularly at risk from the virus.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Of those who identified as Republican and who had watched Fox News in the past 24 hours, 90% said that they were not staying at home. That fell to 70% among those Republicans who had not watched Fox News.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The link between cause and effect will never be conclusive. Nonetheless, it is significant that when asked whether the threat from COVID–19 had been exaggerated, 60% of Republicans who had watched Fox New said “yes”, while only 40% of those Republicans who hadn’t watched agreed. The difference between the two may be a measure of Fox News’s influence.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Murdoch has promised a robust defence of the case brought by WASHLITE and this, too, is reminiscent of the company’s initial response to the phone-hacking allegations, when it threw everything at the Guardian newspaper,</b> which published the allegations over several years, and its then editor Alan Rusbridger. “They went round the lobby (in Parliament) saying it was all lies,” he recalls, “issued a statement that it was all lies, published pieces in the Sunday Times and Times saying it was all lies. Let’s not forget this was a public company making dishonest statements.”</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox Corp, which owns Fox News, is also a public company, although the Murdoch family have 39% of the voting power. Rupert Murdoch, 89, executive co-chair of Fox News and his eldest son Lachlan, 48, co-chair and chief executive, have clearly decided that the only way to deal with this disaster is to pretend it never happened. That is why Fox now promotes uplifting stories of Americans helping each other. They are counting on mass forgetfulness and hope Sean Hannity, its biggest star, will be believed when he said of the journalism professors, “It’s the same Democrats, media mob and liberal professors who are so lazy they won’t even look at what I’ve said about the virus… I never called it a ‘hoax’. I said it was a hoax for them to be using it as a bludgeon on Trump.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>Hannity’s contortions are a footnote to the national tragedy. The bigger story is about Fox’s journalism and Murdoch’s credibility as a media owner. While every other established outlet can point to Trump’s record and hold him to account in the run up to the election on 3 November, Fox must abjure because of its past support for the president’s calamitous policy failings.</div><div>
</div><div>Murdoch’s miscalculation</div><div>
</div><div><b>Even though those who, like me, regard Rupert Murdoch and his interests as an international menace, still credit him with a sure judgment when it comes to using politicians to further the interests of his company.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> In the past, he has never had a problem shedding long-standing allies to catch a new political wind. He famously deserted the British Conservative Party in the mid 90s to support Tony Blair’s New Labour, despite the Tories’ support for him through his fight with the print unions. In 2016, he quickly discarded Jeb Bush in favour of Trump in the run up to the primaries, but not before tweeting in 2015, “When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?” Trump is more than an embarrassment now. The economy is tanking, a depression is threatened, thousands of Americans are dying and record numbers of them are filing for unemployment, but Fox can’t apply itself to the job of scrutiny without questioning its own role.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>When Murdoch plumped for Trump in 2016, it seemed a sensible business decision. No obstacles were placed by the Trump administration in the way of the $71 billion sale of Twenty-First Century Fox’s film and TV assets to Disney, although Trump was revealed to have tried to block a very similar merger between AT&T; and Time</b> Warner which also went through a year ago. The new Fox Corp which runs Fox News and is headed by Lachlan Murdoch is doing well financially, reporting total quarterly revenues of $3.78 billion, a 5% increase from the $3.58 billion of revenues in the prior year quarter.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Being shackled to a lunatic is all very well if it serves your purposes – until that lunatic drags you into the path of an oncoming train. For Fox, it’s too late to escape: <b>Lachlan Murdoch has failed to create a distance between his company and Trump.</b> In an article in the New York Times that pulled no punches, the media correspondent Ben Smith blamed Lachlan Murdoch. “Fox failed its viewers and the broader public in ways both revealing and potentially lethal. In particular, Lachlan Murdoch failed to pry its most important voices away from their embrace of the president’s early line: that the virus was not a big threat in the United States.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>How could Rupert Murdoch and his son make such a catastrophic error of judgment? Why are they still chained to Trump as he loses support and, in the face of the daily death toll, can only react with a repellent display of narcissism and self-interest? The answer is surprisingly simple. Supporting Trump wasn’t just a strategic choice, but Rupert Murdoch’s personal political conviction. It has all the hallmarks of the same crude conservatism evident in the editorial line pushed by his Australian media outletswhich heaped blame for last year’s bushfires on environmentalists.</div><div>
</div><div>As with climate change, Rupert Murdoch put his politics ahead of business interests by pushing coronavirus skepticism. It’s bad for him and Fox, but much, much worse for humanity.</div></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/this-is-the-real-reason-trump-is-finally-admitting-the-coronavirus-will-kill-many-americans/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/this-is-the-real-reason-trump-is-finally-admitting-the-coronavirus-will-kill-many-americans/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">despite massive covid fail 5 pt bump in polls? (govs got much more)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-is-playing-the-media-with-his-grave-and-grim-new-tone-for-some-absurd-reason-it-seems-to-be-working/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-is-playing-the-media-with-his-grave-and-grim-new-tone-for-some-absurd-reason-it-seems-to-be-working/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump is playing the media with his ‘grave’ and ‘grim’ new tone. For some absurd reason, it seems to be working</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Laura Clawson / Daily Kos April 1, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump continues to play the media and the media continues to be willing to be played. Every time he puts on his serious face and admits what he denied for so long about the seriousness of the novel coronavirus, he gets another round of headlines that help him erase months of disastrous denial of the scale of what we face.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tuesday’s press briefing was more of the same. It was an event that veteran Trump fact-checker Daniel Dale described as having “featured a dishonest overall narrative—a Trump effort to cast himself as the leader who stood strong against the faction that downplayed the severity of the virus,” in addition to “a barrage of specific false claims” that drew the coverage he was looking for from reporter after reporter.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Trump sounding different today. Scale of death appears to have changed his tone, at least,” The New York Times’ Eric Lipton tweeted</b>. According to CNN’s John Harwood, it was “the most effective job of communicating President Trump has done during this crisis.” From ABC News’ Karen Travers: “The tone at this White House coronavirus task force briefing feels different than all prior COVID-19 briefings: grave, sober, grim, realistic.” And so on.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Times also offered a full-length example of the form. Though the article acknowledges many of the times Trump downplayed the crisis, the sentence reporter Peter Baker chose to tweet was from the Trump-has-changed genre: “The grim-faced president who appeared in the White House briefing room for more than two hours on Tuesday evening beside charts showing death projections of hellacious proportions was coming to grips with a reality he had long refused to accept.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Also, we learn, it was “the starkest such effort he has made to prepare the country for the expected wave of disease and death.” The starkest such effort, or a belated attempt to memory-hole his weeks of active denial? Baker acknowledges the weeks of denial, but is credulous—in true Times political coverage style—about the reason for it.<b>Trump is worried about reelection. He’s moving the goalposts to redefine his failure as a success. </b>And when talking about his made-for-the-media tone shift as a real thing, it’s not enough to point to evidence of the ways Trump led us to this disastrous point. Reporters have to be willing to go further. This White House is carefully constructing the latest big lie and coverage of it has to show it for what it is, or the media is failing us more badly than it did in 2016.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/the-right-wing-coronavirus-deniers-want-to-kill-expertise-and-they-could-entice-trump-to-court-disaster/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/the-right-wing-coronavirus-deniers-want-to-kill-expertise-and-they-could-entice-trump-to-court-disaster/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The right-wing coronavirus deniers want to kill expertise — and they could entice Trump to court disaster</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Nancy LeTourneau / Washington Monthly March 31, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Back in 2012, Donald Trump tweeted this:</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Donald J. Trump</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>@realDonaldTrump</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">67.6K</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12:15 PM - Nov 6, 2012</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">109K people are talking about this</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Paul Krugman is right to suggest that we might experience a bit of déjà vu when we watch how the president and his enablers are responding to the coronavirus.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Let me summarize the Trump administration/right-wing media view on the coronavirus: It’s a hoax, or anyway no big deal. Besides, trying to do anything about it would destroy the economy. And it’s China’s fault, which is why we should call it the “Chinese virus.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Just as there are climate science deniers, there are a whole range of coronavirus deniers out there as well. They come in many different shapes and sizes, but the most common are those who simply deny the scope of the problem. While they accept that the virus exists, they tend to believe that Democrats, the media, or the “deep state” (pick your villain) are simply exaggerating the problem in order to make Trump look bad.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The more perverse of these folks started the Twitter hashtag, #FilmYourHospital. They take videos of the outside of hospitals and claim that the lack of activity indicates that the hype is all a hoax.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DeAnna Lorraine????</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@DeAnna4Congress</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Just went to 2 hospitals in LA to check out these “War Zones” the MSM keeps telling us about.??</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They are very quiet & EMPTY. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We are not being told the truth. Why?? Let’s get #FilmYourHospital trending. We ARE the news now. We can’t trust the news. Post pics of ur hospital here!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">32.6K</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12:16 PM - Mar 29, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">26.1K people are talking about this</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the most prominent coronavirus deniers is radio talk show host Bill Mitchell. His most recent schtick has been to rail against the “stay at home” orders being issued by governors.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bill Mitchell</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@mitchellvii</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I promise you, when we granted Governors these emergency powers, no one envisioned them shutting down their state for months at a time and imposing martial law.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1,075</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">8:19 AM - Mar 31, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">463 people are talking about this</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But it was Mitchell who initiated the right wing attacks on Dr. Anthony Fauci. It all started back on March 3rd.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bill Mitchell</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@mitchellvii</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So this Dr. Anthony Fauci is pushing the panic button today.  Always helpful. Talking about closing schools and businesses?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hell, why don't we just shut down the whole country over 104 sick, 6 dead?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sorry President Trump, but replace this crackpot.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Almost immediately Fauci was accused of being a Democratic plant. The idea that he was a member of the so-called “deep state” took hold and eventually an email from Fauci surfaced among those that had been released by WikiLeaks. In it, the doctor had praised Hillary Clinton for her testimony before the House Benghazi Committee. Now the deniers were off to the races. They were soon doing the same thing to Dr. Deborah Birx.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bill Mitchell</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@mitchellvii</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>EXCLUSIVE: Dr. Birx's Connections with the Clinton Foundation and Obama Unfortunately Indicate Conflicted Loyalties</b>https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/exclusive-dr-birxs-connections-with-the-clinton-foundation-and-obama-unfortunately-indicate-conflicted-loyalties/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=PostTopSharingButtons&utm_campaign=websitesharingbuttons …</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EXCLUSIVE: Dr. Birx's Connections with the Clinton Foundation and Obama Unfortunately Indicate...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Is Dr. Deborah Birx, the doctor with the scarf, a voice of reason or another Deep State doctor pushing economic disaster and suffering? Her past unfortunately provides the answer. Dr. Deborah Birx...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>thegatewaypundit.com</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">281</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9:48 AM - Mar 31, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">245 people are talking about this</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Isaac Stanley-Becker makes the important point about all of this (emphasis mine).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>[T]he disregard for expert guidance being pushed by some conservative and libertarian voices goes further — aimed not simply at proving Fauci wrong but at painting him as an agent of the “deep state” that Trump has vowed to dismantle</b>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The smear campaign taking root online, and laying the groundwork for Trump to cast aside the experts on his own coronavirus task force, relies centrally on the idea that there is no expertise that rises above partisanship, and that </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">everyone has an agenda.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This is something we’ve seen over and over again from right-wingers. Whenever someone says something they don’t like—especially if it challenges “dear leader”—all they have to do is find a remote connection to a Democrat (preferably Hillary Clinton), and the opposing opinion can be discarded as nothing more than partisanship</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. That is how the right is attempting to kill the whole notion of expertise—be it on anything from climate change to coronavirus. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The mainstream media provides an assist to those efforts when they assume a “both sides” approach to every issue instead of prioritizing the truth.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over the course of the last three months, Donald Trump has dallied in many of the opinions espoused by these coronavirus deniers. His decision to extend the guidelines calling for social distancing and other measures to mitigate the virus indicate that at this point, he’s still listening to the experts—even if it is merely for his own self-interest. But we’re not out of the woods yet. The deniers are waiting in the wings with their conspiracy theory guns loaded for the moment he grows impatient with the experts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">just when there was at least some talk of no longer covering tweets as news? covid crisis demands endless coverage?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/wartime-president-trump-has-found-his-2020-strategy-posing-as-the-real-thing-on-television/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/wartime-president-trump-has-found-his-2020-strategy-posing-as-the-real-thing-on-television/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‘Wartime President’ Trump has found his 2020 strategy — posing as the real thing on television</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald J. Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence and members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, delivers remarks at a coronavirus update briefing Sunday, March 15, 2020, in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Bob Cesca / Salon March 24, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Like every other petty con man, from back-alley hustlers to Wall Street fraudsters, Donald Trump is a thief and he’ll always be a thief. Now the president is clearly stealing from the George W. Bush playbook in one particularly awful way. Specifically, Trump appears to be desperately envious of Bush’s approval polls after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to the point of recently declaring himself to be a war president in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic. And it could absolutely get him re-elected.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As of the past several days, Trump’s been marketing COVID-19 as an “invisible enemy.</b>” He can’t stop repeating the bellicose platitude that America is at war against the virus, even though he spent the first two months of this catastrophe telling us it was no big deal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Yet during the Sunday edition of the Trump Show, the president said, “In a true sense we’re at war.</b>” <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On top of not understanding the definition of “war” or “true,” Trump is also struggling to present himself with a patina of unity and cooperation (which he and his people routinely contradict with obnoxious cracks and tweets about his political opponents), while conspicuously thanking “first responders,” as in the days and weeks following 9/11.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The lead-up to the Iraq war in 2002 and early 2003 saw the Republicans pick up seats in Congress, while Bush was handily re-elected in 2004 due primarily to being a war president — that whole “don’t change horses midstream” yarn. Trump is starving for some of that adoration now, and he’ll steal whatever he needs to steal in order to get it. Why? It’s what he does, and it’s because he knows that if he loses in November, there’s a reasonable chance he’ll be indicted for one or more crimes. The stakes for the president, as well as Donald Jr., Eric, Ivanka and Jared Kushner, couldn’t be greater. If winning means recycling the Bush-Cheney approach from the war on terrorism, he’ll do it. He’ll do anything.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Just in case American voters don’t particularly buy into the notion of a faceless microorganism as a terrorist-like villain, the administration is sending out the word that the human enemy in this alleged war is China. <b>Breitbart News and Donald Trump Jr. are accusing China of spreading disinformation about the virus — and even accusing the World Health Organization of being on China’s payroll.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>So if you’re keeping score, the COVID-19 virus is Trump’s al-Qaida, while China is Trump’s Taliban and/or Iraq. </b>In fact, I keep expecting Trump, during one of his daily Trump Show episodes, to crumple up a photo of COVID-19, throw it onto the ground, grab the nearest bullhorn and announce, “I can hear you, and the coronavirus will hear from all of us soon!” Cue the Lee Greenwood anthem.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In truth, this is a “war” in the same way Trump University was a “college.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Based on recent history alone, Trump knows that too many of us, the sucker demographic, will eat up his chocolate-fountain of nonsense with a giant Trump-branded ladle. It doesn’t matter whether this is an actual war. Trump has to package himself as the bone-spurred generalissimo, wrapping himself in commander-in-chief powers, because while he understands very little about the so-called enemy, he at least understands that Americans tend to re-elect presidents who fight and win wars.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>We don’t need to worry that Trump will actually launch a fighting war against China. He’s too much of a coward for that. In this case, though, he doesn’t have to. This is nothing more than a PR war. </b>All he needs to do is to declare China to be the enemy, repeat and repeat, then declare victory and stage a victory parade. At least 40 percent of us will suck it down like Trump Vodka. It’ll all happen, irrespective of whether COVID-19 cases are on the decline. In fact, the president is already talking about lifting some of the isolation orders when his randomly-designated 15-day period is over, potentially worsening the spread of the virus. Reality, in this non-war war, is totally irrelevant, just as it’s been totally irrelevant since Inauguration Day.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">At risk of burying the lede, the X-factor in Trump’s war plan, as it was during the lead-up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, once again involves the cable news networks — yes, all of them — as well as the news divisions of the four major broadcast networks. News directors across the TV dial are, for reasons that confound logic, gifting the president with free airtime, live, every single day, to spread disinformation and brag about his self-proclaimed heroism and the fighting of a war he denied even existed a few weeks ago.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>To be clear, the big four broadcast networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox (proper), are interrupting regular programming to do this. It’s not just the cable networks.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">It would be one thing if these news conferences were delivering actual news, but a good 90 percent of the Trump Show is nothing but gratuitous fluffing of the president’s brittle ego; Trump inventing non-facts about medicine and the virus, such as urging people to use untested meds; and, of course, a few minutes in which the pre-pandemic Rally Trump appears, complete with “Chinese virus” dog-whistles and the like, reassuring his bigoted fanboys that their TV-crush is still there for them.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course the TV news people know this, and they’re letting him get away with it by continuing to air these ass-kissing sessions like actual news. It’s not news, and airing it live needs to stop, now. Remember those empty-podium shots during the 2016 election, the ones that preceded the live airing of Trump’s rallies nearly every day? It’s happening all over again, now, during this election cycle. This is how Trump will win again.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A few weeks ago, I mentioned the electoral model formulated by political scientist Rachel Bitecofer, who has forecast that 2020 will be another wave election for the Democrats, barring any “shocks to the system.” Well, system? Meet shocks </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">— every day for at least an hour, while American TV viewers, locked in their homes as captive audiences, are fed bucketloads of Trump agitprop and rah-rah patriotic warmongering directed against a virus, televised live from the White House. Almost as much as the virus and the economic calamity it’s manifesting, we should be deeply concerned about this particular “shock to the system” and the way it’s fueling Trump’s re-election campaign.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These televised press conferences are extended free-of-charge campaign commercials. Nothing more.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The cruel and obvious irony here is that the alleged “enemy of the people” could help to re-elect the man who’s responsible for calling them that.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I used to believe it was valuable to show Trump for who he is: an unrepentant ghoul who, over this past weekend, gleefully mocked Mitt Romney for being in quarantine (so much for unity and cooperation). Unfortunately, I was wrong to assume that American television viewers — some of whom are wrestling strangers for toilet paper — were sophisticated enough to smell a clown-faced rat. I was also wrong to assume that cable news people wouldn’t repeat their participation in the run-up to Iraq or their empty-podium mistakes from 2016, and yet here we are again. As I wrote last week, it’s like Groundhog Day, over and over and over.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A non-war war to rally around, and a handful of TV networks to broadcast it, could be more than enough to overcome Trump fatigue, and could easily overwhelm this year’s edition of an electoral “blue wave</b>.” The semi-hopeful news is that Trump’s spent the last five years relentlessly trolling and demonizing anyone who isn’t a sworn disciple in his whine-and-rage cult, so it’s unlikely he’ll ever accumulate the kind of popular support George W. Bush received after 9/11. But he doesn’t need to. All he needs are a few thousand extra votes in several swing states — enough to game the Electoral College yet again — and our descent into fascist idiocracy will be dramatically <b>accelerated</b>, thanks in part to Donald Trump’s unwitting accomplices in TV news.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma 320</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">2018, <b>Donald Trump</b> and then-national security adviser <b>John Bolton</b> fired the “entire pandemic response chain of command” implemented by former President Barack Obama following the 2014 Ebola crisis</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Broadcast news programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=e927f96fa742d8b2720fa322512c1f0c2d28445b8a91c36585eedff80ccd28718905fe753269eee77832739643ebd3a8e823f1031d97663f" title="have ignored" style="">have ignored</a> the firings</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. In fact, Democratic presidential candidates were the only people to mention the firings -- so in practice, these networks are turning Trump's incompetence and irresponsibility into a partisan issue.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">relaTED:</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/broadcast-networks-and-major-newspapers-continue-ignore-trumps-firing-pandemic">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/broadcast-networks-and-major-newspapers-continue-ignore-trumps-firing-pandemic</a></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/finally-asked-about-firing-pandemic-leadership-teams-trump-responds-different">https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/finally-asked-about-firing-pandemic-leadership-teams-trump-responds-different</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/donald-trump-says-asking-him-about-disbanding-white-house-pandemic-office"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/donald-trump-says-asking-him-about-disbanding-white-house-pandemic-office</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">it's not great dan, we cannot afford this</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/elite-media-dismiss-voter-suppression-on-grounds-that-its-complicated"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/elite-media-dismiss-voter-suppression-on-grounds-that-its-complicated</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx pix twt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Elite media dismiss voter suppression on grounds that it’s ‘complicated’</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Julie Hollar / FAIR March 14, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some voters—disproportionately black and brown ones—waited in line for several hours on Super Tuesday to cast their ballots in the Democratic primary, and media paid attention. But their love for a good visual doesn’t always correspond with a love for connecting the dots, and so most of the coverage downplayed any suggestion that there might be voter suppression going on in 2020.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NYT: Why Did It Take So Long to Vote in Texas and California?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Times (3/4/20) assured us that voting problems were not caused by “deliberate efforts to drive down turnout.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Why Did It Take So Long to Vote in Texas and California?” asked a New York Times headline (3/4/20), which offered a reassuring answer in its subhead: “Some voters stood in lines for hours. But despite voter suppression concerns, the primary breakdowns apparently reflected snafus more than malign intent.” Reporter Michael Wines explained:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some critics complained on Twitter and elsewhere that the delays amounted to voter suppression in a state where Republicans have been frequently sued, sometimes successfully, for trying to minimize Democratic power. But Texas elections are tightly controlled by local officials, not state ones. And in big cities like Houston and Austin which had the biggest problems on Tuesday, those officials are Democrats with scant reason to depress turnout in Democratic urban strongholds.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And yet, in the very next paragraph, Wines reported that “voting machines were divided equally between Democratic and Republican voters—but many more Democrats turned out to vote on Tuesday,” later explaining that</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the imbalance stemmed from the county Republican Party’s refusal to agree with Democrats to hold a joint primary election in metropolitan Houston in which voters could cast ballots on any machine. All but a handful of the state’s 254 counties held joint primaries.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The article’s final paragraph noted that the Houston voting site at historically black Texas Southern University, where people waited up to seven hours to vote,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">allotted 10 voting machines to each party, and eventually added 14 additional machines for Democratic voters, she said. But of those who showed up on Tuesday, 1,132 voted in the Democratic primary. Sixty-eight voted for Republican candidates.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WaPo: Long voting lines in Texas spotlight concerns about access to the polls</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Washington Post (3/4/20) blamed long voting lines on ” a number of complicated factors.”</b></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s a curiously stark mismatch between evidence and conclusions, a phenomenon repeated in the Washington Post (3/4/20), where reporter Elise Viebeck likewise took issue with those suggesting voter suppression was happening:</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One of the remaining Democrats in the presidential field—Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—seized on the episode, tweeting that it revealed a “crisis of voter suppression.</span>”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, interviews with election officials, activists and voters pointed to a number of complicated factors that combined to produce the massive lines in Harris County.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>(The print version’s lead: “Voter suppression came to mind for some, but the reality was complicated.”)</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Like Wines, Viebeck noted the Harris County GOP’s refusal to hold a joint primary, and that, after the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act, Texas closed 750 polling places—more than any other state.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Houston Chronicle article (3/4/20) about the situation slightly complicated the question of responsibility for giving equal numbers of machines to each party (reporting that though Republicans refused the joint primary, which would have prevented the problem, they were given more machines than they asked for, because the Democratic county clerk’s office worried about charges of discrimination), but it also pointed out that “almost two-thirds of the county’s voting centers were in county commissioner precincts in west Harris County held by Republicans.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Sure, there were plenty of technological snafus and administrative errors—and those certainly need to be highlighted, so that pressure is put on election officials to fix them—but why pooh-pooh charges of voter suppression when voter suppression (which often masquerades as bureaucratic incompetence) is also an undeniable problem?</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MSNBC: Lawrence O'Donnell on Super Tuesday</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lawrence O’Donnell (MSNBC, 3/3/20) on long Super Tuesday lines: “They’re all kind of excited about this.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Others went so far as to celebrate the lines. On MSNBC (3/3/20), Lawrence O’Donnell reported:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">My phone is filled with texts from people, friends of mine in those lines. I have one from a Hollywood polling place where the casting director is in a conversation with a cinematographer and a math teacher and someone who was an undecided voter an hour ago in that line. And she says they just realized and only just realized that they’ve been on the line for two hours, because it’s been so much fun…. I’ve got one from a very affluent community in the Pacific Palisades, a director who’s been in line for two hours. He’s not complaining. They’re all kind of excited about this.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s charitable that the affluent aren’t complaining about standing in line for hours (as no one should face obstacles to vote)—but they’re also typically not worried about getting fired or missing a paycheck for doing so. Oblivious to this reality, O’Donnell also dismissed the idea that a city should be expected to make it possible for all of its citizens to vote:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And the infrastructure for voting in Los Angeles is a difficult one to maintain. Because on the last mayoral election, this is the election for the mayor of Los Angeles, the voter turnout was 20%. And so to build an infrastructure in Los Angeles that is capable of handling this giant surge turnout that they’re getting tonight is impossible.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To be fair, most journalists were more concerned than O’Donnell about people’s access to democracy, but they were still remarkably disinterested in asking how the concerted (and partisan) efforts to suppress turnout post-Shelby are playing out in 2020. In the Super Tuesday coverage, NBC (3/4/20) was the only broadcast network to air the words “voter suppression” (in a quote from a voter standing in line in Texas), in a segment less than two minutes long that noted the elimination of many voting centers in both Texas and California, but didn’t mention the partisan nature of that act in Texas, instead characterizing it as simply “designed to make voting easier.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>NYT: The Student Vote Is Surging. So Are Efforts to Suppress It.</b></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Times‘ earlier reporting (10/24/19) on efforts to suppress the student vote did not inform coverage of lower-than-expected youth turnout in the 2020 primaries.</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The failure to connect the dots extends to coverage of lower-than-expected turnout, in particular youth turnout. Plenty of reporters seized on early turnout numbers to point out that Bernie Sanders’ campaign is failing in its goal of mobilizing youth and other traditionally low-turnout groups, but rarely do they look at the relationship between turnout and suppression—despite the fact that those groups typically face more obstacles to voting.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And Wines’ dismissal of suspicions of voter suppression on the grounds that urban polling places are controlled by Democrats seems to willfully ignore the fact that establishment Democrats often have a strong incentive to make sure that older Democrats vote more than young ones—and have been known to manipulate the voting process to their own advantage (City & State, 11/6/18).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In fact, the Times‘ coverage was even more remarkable, given Wines’ insightful reporting months earlier about efforts to suppress the student vote in Texas</b> and several other states (10/24/19), in which he noted that recently enacted “restrictions fit an increasingly unabashed pattern of Republican politicians’ efforts to discourage voters likely to oppose them.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There surely are multiple reasons for lower-than-hoped-for turnout that no doubt intersect with each other, including both obstacles to voting and failure (or lack) of efforts to mobilize voters; it’s instructive to see where journalists instinctively turn to look for the culprit. Particularly post-Shelby, ID requirements, poll closures and voter roll purges have ramped up, inevitably taking a toll on democratic access. As Emory University’s Carol Anderson recently told Counterspin (3/3/20) about voter suppression:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To see the overall pattern, and continuing to hammer it home, about what is at stake in this democracy…requires good investigative journalism, it requires going beyond the soundbite, it requires a clarion call: This nation is in danger.</font></div></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/how-the-wapo-backing-limited-impeachment-was-constitutional-disaster/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/how-the-wapo-backing-limited-impeachment-was-constitutional-disaster/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>How the WaPo backing limited impeachment was constitutional disaster</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Joshua Cho / FAIR February 28, 2020</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">FAIR (11/26/19, 2/4/20) has covered how one flagship ResistanceTM newspaper, the New York Times, trivialized the importance of the impeachment process as a check on authoritarianism by covering it as a partisan competition, littered with false equivalences, and underplaying the danger Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican Party poses to whatever tatters of democracy the US has left. Instead of raising critical questions about impeachment that would inform their audience of the ways the Democratic Party could function as an effective opposition party, the Times merely regurgitated uncritical “he said, she said” statements, without making the effort to determine whether one side had greater credibility.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Another critical flaw with corporate media’s coverage of impeachment was how it obscured the extent of the Trump administration’s litany of impeachable offenses.</b> The political case for expanding the scope of impeachment, going beyond the Democratic establishment’s narrow attention to abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in the Ukraine case, to all of Trump’s crimes, has been made in several places (e.g., Intercept, 9/26/19; Current Affairs, 2/5/20). Renowned attorney Ralph Nader and constitutional scholars Bruce Fein and Louis Fisher presented no less than 12 impeachable offenses in the Congressional Record (12/18/19).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>They range all the way from violations of the Constitution’s Declare War and Treaty clauses, when Trump waged war in countries like Libya and Syria, and unilaterally terminated the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, to violations of the Appropriations and Appointments clauses, as when he spent billions in excess of what Congress appropriated for the US/Mexican border wall, and appointed “acting” Cabinet officials not confirmed by the Senate. </b>House Democrats impeaching Trump exclusively for his dealings with the Ukrainian president, and for preventing Congress from investigating that isolated incident, was a form of unilateral disarmament that implied Trump was not guilty of anything else, and journalists were under no obligation to stick to that script.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A look at how impeachment was covered by another crusading ResistanceTM publication, the Washington Post, shows how the paper obscured the credible case for impeaching Trump on a variety of other grounds, endorsing the Democrats’ tunnel-vision approach.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Post’s “For Impeachment, Quick and Narrow Is the Way to Go” (12/9/19), by deputy editorial page editor Ruth Marcus, argued:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Narrow is better because the president’s bad conduct with respect to Ukraine was significantly worse than his bad conduct elsewhere, including his demonstrated efforts to obstruct justice in the special counsel’s probe into Russian meddling….</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sooner is better than later, even though that means lawmakers and the public will be deprived of important, potentially revelatory, testimony that Democrats might be able to compel through court proceedings. The reason is that, even assuming such litigation would succeed, going to court to compel testimony from such recalcitrant witnesses as former national security adviser John Bolton or acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and then determining the permissible scope of that testimony, would likely take months.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Post columnist Jennifer Rubin (12/9/19) likewise argued that the Democrats’ fixation on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress was powerful precisely because it was the “tightest possible case,” and that testimonies from Donald McGahn and John Bolton were unnecessary to make a “razor-sharp case,” because the “central misdeed is provable from Trump’s own words.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another Post op-ed (12/4/19), by Watergate Era Judiciary Committee member Elizabeth Holtzman, argued that there are “good reasons” for “including non-Ukraine-related abuses in the charges against Trump,” because focusing “only on Ukraine suggests that Trump’s impeachable offenses are limited to this one matter.” But although it mentioned that Trump’s “abuses are staggering and continuous,” it suggested that other issues—her focus is on Trump’s “impeding the Russia investigation”—could be included in “a broader article of impeachment against Trump for hindering Congress in its constitutional role in conducting an impeachment inquiry.” This would obviate the need for “further investigation”—but also limit the charges against Trump to a circular complaint that he prevented Congress from bringing substantive complaints.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the Washington Post (12/10/19) explained the House’s articles of impeachment, it mentioned that the House’s allegations of abuse of power were specifically confined to Trump’s dealings with Ukraine in order to launch investigations into political opponent Joe Biden. However, the Post left out other ways Democrats could go after Trump’s abuse of power. One example that Nader, Fein and Fisher’s list of Trump’s offenses included in the category of abuse of power was Trump’s making “presidential lies as routine as the rising and setting of the sun” and “confounding civil discourse truth and public trust.” This has precedent, as the House cited Richard Nixon’s “false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States” as part of its articles of impeachment in 1974.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In another report, the Post (9/25/19) parroted the “private discussions” Democratic officials were having regarding the scope of impeachment, where they asserted that the “evidence was incriminating enough,” and “easy enough for voters to understand,” that “narrowing the investigation, if only in terms of political messaging, made sense.” Why does the Post take Democratic officials at their word when they claim to be pursuing this approach to impeachment for the sake of easing understanding, or leave their strategy unchallenged? The Post doesn’t need to rely on Democratic officials to inform their audience of the possible impeachment strategies Democrats could pursue.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Later, the Post (10/10/19) reported that “recent revelations” were “testing the limits of House Speaker Pelosi’s narrow impeachment strategy, leading some Democrats to wonder whether the probe should be expanded beyond the Ukraine scandal.” It claimed that by “solely focusing on Ukraine, Democrats could miss the opportunity to build a stronger case against the president,” but restricted the potential broadening of the case to Trump trying to enlist then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s aid in stopping the prosecution of a Turkish-Iranian gold trader, and to Trump’s public request to the Chinese government to investigate the activities of Hunter Biden. Apparently, the Post doesn’t consider things like Trump initiating the withdrawal of the US from the Paris climate agreement—and sabotaging international efforts to avoid further climate catastrophe—as a “high crime” and an impeachable offense, as legal scholar Marjorie Cohn does (Truthout, 6/6/17).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the Post (12/2/19) reported on Democratic officials potentially drafting additional articles of impeachment related to obstructing Mueller’s Russia investigation and using the presidency to enrich himself, it euphemized Trump’s unconstitutional refusal to divest himself from his businesses as an “unorthodox decision,” and uncritically parroted other Democrats absurdly claiming that “the evidence is not there to support such an indictment.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Journalist Christian Parenti (Jacobin, 1/9/20), by contrast, reported that the Democrats were uncomfortable with going after Trump on his blatant violations of the emoluments clause—forbidding him from receiving gifts from foreign powers and limiting presidential remuneration solely to the presidential salary—because it would inevitably open a discussion on the legal bribes the Democrats take from the same corporations that patronize Trump’s hotels.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This suggests that the Democrats pursued such a disastrous approach to impeachment—not out of incompetence or in good faith—but as a cynical spectacle of faux resistance</b>. When the late historian Howard Zinn discussed how the Democrats and the media handled President Richard Nixon’s impeachment, he observed that they didn’t want to emphasize elements of his behavior “found in other presidents” that “might be repeated in the future,” leaving things like “corporate influence on the White House,” and the “power of the president to do anything he wanted in the name of ‘national security,’” intact:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Valuable information came out of the investigations, but it was just enough, and in just the right way—moderate press coverage, little television coverage, thick books of reports with limited readership—to give the impression of an honest society correcting itself.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That might be why the Post’s later report (2/5/20) on the Democrats’ failure to remove Trump from office contained no insights on whether impeachment would have had more political success if the Democrats pursued a broader investigation into Trump’s crimes. Of course the Senate was never going to convict; the point was to hold the president accountable—and win over public opinion in the process—by operating as an effective opposition party possessing moral integrity.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Journalist Aaron Maté (Le Monde Diplomatique, 11/19) discussed how the Russiagate conspiracy theory and the Ukraine scandal were both focused on protecting the unsavory conduct of establishment Democratic figures, and portraying Trump as an incompetent steward of the US empire. Maté concluded that the Democrats pursued such a shallow impeachment process because </font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">in Washington, elites generally face consequences for the harm they cause not to the general population but to other members of the club.</span> The standard was laid bare in Watergate (1972–74), when Richard Nixon faced impeachment, not for mass murder in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, but for targeting the opposing elite faction and trying to cover it up. George W. Bush could have been impeached for the Iraq invasion in 2003 had this crime not been carried out with bipartisan support.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ever since the election of Donald Trump, the Washington Post has always presented itself as one of the crusading publications leading the ResistanceTM movement against the current administration. It even adopted the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” motto on its masthead as a marketing gimmick to attract more subscribers. <b>Yet it’s clear that the Post’s impeachment coverage served more to preserve the stability and legitimacy of US institutions—rather than their integrity—by obscuring the extent of the Trump administration’s crimes and impeachable offenses, and endorsing a fatally narrow scope of impeachment.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/bolivia-coup-was-based-on-false-claims-of-election-fraud/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/bolivia-coup-was-based-on-false-claims-of-election-fraud/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Bolivia coup was based on false claims of election fraud</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Eoin Higgins / Common Dreams February 28, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">A new study released by a pair of MIT researchers Thursday reveals that, contrary to claims from the U.S.-backed Organization of American States, there was no fraud in Bolivia’s Oct. 20, 2019 elections — an accusation used by the OAS and others as a pretext for supporting the coup in the country that deposed President Evo Morales and replaced him with an unelected right-wing government.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Good lord,” tweeted MSNBC journalist Chris Hayes. “Given the fact the entire Morales government was toppled over accusations of election fraud, the OAS has a lot to answer for.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Intercept’s Jon Schwarz took a similar approach to the findings and the OAS’ conclusions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jon Schwarz</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@schwarz</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In a surprising development, it appears that the same political forces and media that have lied about absolutely everything about Latin America for the past 100 years were lying again </b>https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/26/bolivia-dismissed-its-october-elections-fraudulent-our-research-found-no-reason-suspect-fraud/ …</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Analysis | Bolivia dismissed its October elections as fraudulent. Our research found no reason to...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bolivians will hold a new election in May — without ousted President Evo Morales.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">washingtonpost.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">593</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9:01 AM - Feb 27, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">248 people are talking about this</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">MIT researchers John Curiel and Jack R. Williams reviewed the OAS report on the election for the Washington Post and found that the “election irregularities” cited by the group were based on “problematic” statistical claims. The OAS report rested its claim on the assumption that these so-called irregularities gave Morales a boost in numbers that raised his results over 10% higher than any other candidate, precluding a runoff election.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The researchers say they requested a response from the OAS about their findings, but received no reply.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Curiel and Williams’ study was commissioned by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). The group’s co-director, Mark Weisbrot, said in a statement that the OAS has a lot of explaining to do after facilitating the coup through faulty information.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The OAS greatly misled the media and the public about what happened in Bolivia’s elections, and helped to foster a great deal of mistrust in the electoral process and the results,” said Weisbrot.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The orgnaization’s report bolstered the accusations of fraud in the Nov. 10 OAS report that precipitated the coup and the institution of hard-right legislator Jeanine Añez as president. The ensuing unrest and threats against he and his family, as Common Dreams reported at the time, forced Morales to flee the country for Mexico.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Curiel and Williams, the data used by OAS doesn’t line up with the organization’s conclusion:</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our results were straightforward. There does not seem to be a statistically significant difference in the margin before and after the halt of the preliminary vote. Instead, it is highly likely that Morales surpassed the 10-percentage-point margin in the first round. …</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>There is not any statistical evidence of fraud that we can find </b>— the trends in the preliminary count, the lack of any big jump in support for Morales after the halt, and the size of Morales’ margin all appear legitimate. All in all, the OAS’ statistical analysis and conclusions would appear deeply flawed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CEPR’s Weisbrot declared the researchers’ findings troubling and questioned the OAS’ credibility.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This important analysis from MIT election researchers is the latest to show that the OAS’ statements were without basis, and that simple arithmetic shows that there is no evidence that fraud or irregularities affected the preliminary results, or the official results ? the ones that actually matter,” Weisbrot said. “The OAS needs to explain why it made these statements and why anyone should trust it when it comes to elections.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“So much for that Bolivian election fraud,” tweeted the Intercept’s Ryan Grim.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The OAS is set to monitor new national elections in Bolivia set for May 3. Morales, still in exile, has effectively been barred from running.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Williams told Common Dreams that his and Curiel’s findings cast doubt on the organization’s impartiality and ability to act as a neutral arbiter.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The OAS’s report has basic methodological and statistical errors that make it difficult to see the OAS as an impartial election observer,” said Williams. “The fact that they did not respond to researchers asking about their report on Bolivia seems to suggest they know this.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">National Nurses United director of communications Charles Idelson said on Twitter that the findings throw cold water on an attack line deployed by right-wing opponents of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, who have used his statement at Tuesday’s debate that the U.S. meddles in other countries against him.</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The fraudulent right wing military coup in Bolivia was carried out with Trump administration support,” said Idelson, “but some apparently still pretend the U.S. never overthrows governments of other countries.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Curiel and Williams also point to the role in the media for uncritically regurgitating OAS claims on face value as the coup against Morales’ Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS-IPSP) party was underway.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The media has largely reported the allegations of fraud as fact,” the researchers write. “And many commentators have justified the coup as a response to electoral fraud by MAS-IPSP.”</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Utah-based progressive activist Tom Taylor called for accountability on the part of the media.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Our news outlets took what known liars like John Bolton said about Morales at face value,” said Taylor. “Zero critical thinking. The journalists were old enough to remember when we were lied into the Iraq War.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“There’s no other way to put it,” Taylor added. “Our media supported a coup.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/hotbed-of-abuses-here-are-3-seldom-discussed-news-stories-that-need-to-be-exposed/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/hotbed-of-abuses-here-are-3-seldom-discussed-news-stories-that-need-to-be-exposed/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hotbed of abuses: Here are 3 seldom-discussed news stories that need to be exposed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Ralph Nader / Common Dreams February 23, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The news is filled with stories about President Trump and his predecessors imposing sanctions on other countries, their officials, and other prominent persons. But the media rarely spells out exactly what these sanctions are, the intermediaries who enforce them, the impacts they have on innocent civilians – women, men and children – how they are countered or evaded, and whether they fulfill or undermine their diplomatic, military, or economic purposes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>For example, sanctions against Iran by Trump increase by the year.</b> They force banks and other financial institutions to cut off all decreed transactions, such as exports from Iran or purchase by Iran of critical spare parts, raw materials, even medical devices. Years ago, sanctions against Iraq under Saddam Hussein prohibited Iraq from purchasing chlorine to purify drinking water and children’s catheters. These sanctions produced deadly results for innocents. Iran’s economy is now in ruins and the brunt of the pain is suffered by innocent families. Under international law, disproportionate harm on civilians from sanctions is a serious violation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Presently, from Trump there are sanctions on individuals in numerous countries, restricting their travel, their purchases and more. When banks like Citigroup and Bank of America are told by Washington to cut off any financial transactions from any companies doing business with a sanctioned country, do the banks receive payment for their trouble, or are there other quid pro quo rewards?</span> We do not know. Secret government actions are pervasive, though sometimes a freedom of information request, followed by litigation, may pry open what is hidden.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Media alert! Sanctions are potential hotbeds for corruption and illegalities.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A little told story relates the tariffs Trump is imposing on imports from other countries, especially China. </b>There are serious questions as to whether presidents have the constitutional authority or whether Congress must maintain authority on tariffs. Veteran constitutional law litigator Alan Morrison is now contesting sweeping executive tariff power in the federal courts. Reporting on this overreaching by the President is scarce.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Digging deeper, reporters should be asking what standards control presidential discretion or whims on imposing tariffs. The “national security flag” can’t just be waved arbitrarily.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump passes out many waivers for certain U.S. companies. Why, for example, did Trump give Apple CEO Tim Cook a waiver on tens of billions of dollars in iPhones imported from China, but not provide waivers to any number of smaller U.S. companies who buy products from China for their manufacturing or retail/wholesale sales</b>?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Constitutional law specialist, Bruce Fein, says the absence of standards for giving waivers raises fundamental questions of unlawful delegation by Congress.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Media alert! Potential incentives for corruption and lawlessness in these burgeoning behind the scenes intrigues are huge.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The third hotbed of abuses relates to the charges by Washington that countries abroad tolerate “corruption,</b>” and that security and economic relations with them are either jeopardized or unworkable. Such charges are regularly made against the governments of Afghanistan and Iraq – both militarily occupied by the U.S.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Corruption involves more than high-level officials taking bribes. Low-level public servants, so woefully underpaid, take money under the table to survive. As it happens, Ashraf Ghani, the elected president of Afghanistan, a former professor at Johns Hopkins University, was a leading expert on the nuances and functions of bribery in third-world countries. He can be a worthy source of knowledge on corruption.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>U.S. agencies are a major generator of secret corruption in countries like Afghanistan. </b>For example, cargo planes full of crisp one hundred dollar bills are shipped to Kabul and then trans-shipped to places like Kandahar. It doesn’t take much imagination to frame a reporter’s investigation—of what happens to cash in occupied, desperate societies.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Books and articles on the intelligence agencies note that cash handouts, big and small, are critical to achieve their purposes. There is so much bribery cash in Afghanistan that to stop the flow would seriously affect their shaky economy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bribery is a two way street – the briber and the bribee. Secret payments and bribes have often backfired against U.S. foreign policies in many undesirable ways.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bribes to get what Washington and giant multinational corporations want from fragile countries merits more reporting, if only to show that a good deal of the bribery is under our control and within our power to reverse.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Media Alert!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/reporter-disgraced-by-ukraine-scandal-gets-scathing-review-from-his-former-outlet-but-key-details-are-missing-from-the-story/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/reporter-disgraced-by-ukraine-scandal-gets-scathing-review-from-his-former-outlet-but-key-details-are-missing-from-the-story/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</b></div><div><b>Reporter disgraced by Ukraine scandal gets scathing review from his former outlet — but key details are missing from the story</b></div><div>
</div><div>Written by Cody Fenwick February 19, 2020</div><div>
</div><div>President Donald Trump’s sprawling Ukraine scandal consumed Washington politics for months and led to the third Senate impeachment trial of a president in U.S. history. Among the casualties in the uproar was the reputation of John Solomon, a writer for The Hill and personality on its online streaming channel, who was directly implicated in spreading misinformation at the heart of the scandal.</div><div>
</div><div><b>A new piece published by The Hill on Wednesday heavily scrutinized Solomon’s work for the outlet, pointing out conflicts of interest, errors in judgment, and failures on his part and that of the editorial process. But there are key questions that remain unanswered about Solomon’s role at The Hill, questions that demand more scrutiny for the outlet itself as it enabled the disgraced reporter.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Solomon and the Biden story</div><div>
</div><div>Solomon, who no longer works for The Hill but contributes to Fox News, received a scathing review in the new piece. In particular, his writing about former Vice President Joe Biden’s connections to Ukraine demonstrate significant failures on journalistic ethics.</div><div>
</div><div>His writing played a major role in supporting the false narrative that Biden had corruptly involved himself as vice president in Ukrainian politics to protect his son, Hunter Biden, who was working for the energy company Burisma in the country. As is now well known, Biden, with the backing of President Barack Obama’s administration, intervened in Ukraine in 2016 to oust Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. Solomon’s columns, The Hill noted, supported the widely debunked notion that Biden was attempting to protect his son by undermining Shokin’s efforts to investigate Burisma. This allegation formed the basis of Trump’s demand over the course of many months in 2019 that Ukraine investigate Biden, his potential 2020 rival. The House of Representatives later determined this action to be a corrupt abuse of power, an illegitimate interference in the upcoming election, and an attempt to solicit a bribe.</div><div>
</div><div>But the claim remains unsupported and is contradicted by known facts, and Solomon’s basis for pushing the allegations appears highly dubious. Shokin, who was widely viewed as corrupt, was one of the people Solomon interviewed for his research, The Hill reported, even though his “reliability as a source is in question.”</div><div>
</div><div>“In certain columns, Solomon failed to identify important details about key Ukrainian sources, including the fact that they had been indicted or were under investigation,” the piece noted.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer who acted as his point person in the Ukraine matter, said he was a key source for Solomon’s reporting as well, though Solomon denies it. Solomon did, however, work with Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, who has since been indicted on charges of conspiracy and campaign finance law violations. The Hill said the extent and nature of Solomon’s work with Parnas “remain unclear but potentially troubling.” Parnas has turned over evidence that indicates extensive involvement with Solomon, Giuliani, and others.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Solomon also quoted or referred to lawyers Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing, who represent clients with interests in Ukraine and some of the figures in the broader scandal. But Solomon did not disclose when referencing the pair that they also represented him legally. And The Hill noted that Solomon shared a draft of one of his columns with Parnas, diGenova and Toensing, in violation of the outlet’s editorial policy.</div><div>
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</div><div>Was The Hill concerned about Solomon before his role in the Ukraine scandal was revealed?</div><div>
</div><div>In response to these and other serious problems in Solomon’s work, The Hill announced it will devote itself to implementing eight lessons learned from the episode. It also has added editor’s notes to Solomon’s columns to add more context or disclosures “that should have been highlighted at the time of his writings.” While this kind of public admission of failure and commitment to accountability is welcome and appropriate, there are some gaps in the outlet’s account.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Most notably, one event recounted in the piece remains underexplained: “Solomon also wrote numerous news articles for The Hill in 2017 and 2018. An editorial decision was made to label Solomon’s work as opinion as of May 14, 2018.”</b></div><div>
</div><div>For close followers of political journalism, this fact was always notable about Solomon’s work. Though The Hill typically has a sharp delineation between opinion pieces and news pieces, Solomon’s writing clearly blurred the line. For example, one headline read: “Ukrainian Embassy confirms DNC contractor solicited Trump dirt in 2016.” This sounds like it would be a normal news story at The Hill, but it was nevertheless labeled as an opinion piece.</div><div>
</div><div>The Hill acknowledged this problem:</div><div>
</div><div><b>While Solomon’s columns on Ukraine were labeled as opinion, they largely read like news stories. </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Adding to the potential confusion between opinion and news, Solomon was identified as “an award-winning journalist” in his column tagline. When appearing on television to discuss his Ukraine columns, Solomon was not typically labeled an opinion writer by the broadcast programs. The Hill did not contact television producers to label Solomon as an opinion columnist. It should have.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Lending further support to an impression that the columns were more like news stories, rather than opinion columns, Solomon’s Ukraine columns were longer than typical opinion pieces</b>, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">in many cases contained what could be viewed or was identified by him as original reporting, and stuck to one general topic. This may have suggested to many readers it was an investigative series, which normally resides in the news department, rather than opinion. Solomon’s subsequent appearances on Fox News where he was often identified as an investigative journalist further potentially blurred the distinction between news and opinion in the minds of some readers.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Every news outlet is free to set its own standards, and the delicate balance between news, analysis, and opinion can be handled in a variety of ways. But The Hill acknowledged that Solomon’s work violated the standards it tried to set for itself, with the effect of potentially confusing readers.</div><div>
</div><div>But most critical is that The Hill changed the way it described Solomon’s columns’ in 2018. While once they were considered news, they were afterward considered opinion. What changed? No explanation is given.</div><div>
</div><div>The change is critical because it points to The Hill’s responsibility for Solomon’s work. Were his editors suddenly concerned about the nature of his work? Did they feel he was less credible than he had been before? Did they believe his previous credibility had been overrated? Importantly, pieces by opinion contributors such as Solomon in The Hill bear the tagline: “The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill.”</div><div>
</div><div>If there were concerns about Solomon’s reliability and the accuracy of the reporting, they were certainly warranted. As the review and subsequent events have shown, Solomon’s claims and reporting in his columns were highly dubious and in violation of journalistic standards.</div><div>
</div><div>But if this was the reason for designating his columns as opinion rather than news, the switch was wholly insufficient. As the review published Wednesday noted, “opinion” pieces aren’t free from the standards of journalism; they are “vetted for accuracy, conflicts of interest, and other relevant factors; when statements of fact are found to be incorrect, or conflicts of interest are found to have been undisclosed or overlooked, The Hill routinely corrects those or adds clarifications to columns.”</div><div>
</div><div>The worry, then, is that The Hill had reason to suspect Solomon’s reporting was dodgy, but it kept printing his columns anyway. Why would it have done this? One possible reason: Solomon’s pieces were quite popular and gained traction in right-wing circles. As the review noted:</div><div>
</div><div><b>Starting in March 2019, Solomon wrote a series of columns on Ukraine, former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, as well as U.S. diplomats in Ukraine. Solomon discussed his columns on television, most notably on Sean Hannity‘s opinion show on Fox News. These appearances amplified the reach of Solomon’s work at The Hill.</b></div><div>
</div><div>The publication of Solomon’s columns was enormously consequential. It helped further a negative narrative about Biden that is, by all appearances, entirely baseless, which could have impacted his standing in the 2020 primary election. It may have even helped lead to the impeachment of Trump.</div><div>
</div><div>It’s worth asking, then, what The Hill’s editors knew about Solomon’s work and when they knew it.</div><div>
</div><div>AlterNet reached out to The Hill with questions about Solomon’s role and why his pieces were designated as opinion. This story will be updated with any response.</div><div>
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</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://fair.org/home/venezuela-coverage-takes-us-back-to-golden-age-of-lying-about-latin-america/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://fair.org/home/venezuela-coverage-takes-us-back-to-golden-age-of-lying-about-latin-america/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx pix many</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FEBRUARY 22, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Venezuela Coverage Takes Us Back to Golden Age of Lying About Latin America</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MARK COOK</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Crowd in support of the elected Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Venezuelan pharmacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Venezuelan pharmacy at a time when Time (5/19/16) was telling readers, “Basic medicines like aspirin are nowhere to be found” in Venezuela.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I was sitting in my apartment in Caracas, Venezuela, reading the online edition of Time magazine (5/19/16), which carried a report that there was not even something as basic as aspirin to be found anywhere in Venezuela: “Basic medicines like aspirin are nowhere to be found.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I walked out of the apartment to the nearest pharmacy, four blocks away, where I found plenty of aspirin, as well as acetaminophen (generic Tylenol) and ibuprofen (generic Advil), in a well-stocked pharmacy with a knowledgeable professional staff that would be the envy of any US drugstore.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A few days after the Time story, CNBC (6/22/16) carried a claim that there was no acetaminophen to be found anywhere, either: “Basic things like Tylenol aren’t even available.” That must have taken the Pfizer Corporation by surprise, since it was their Venezuelan subsidiary, Pfizer Venezuela SA, which produced the acetaminophen I purchased. (Neither Time writer Ian Bremer nor CNBC commentator Richard Washington was in Venezuela, and there was no evidence offered that either of them had ever been there.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I purchased all three products, plus cough syrup and other over-the-counter medications, because I doubted that anyone in the United States would believe me if I couldn’t produce the medications in their packages.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unrelenting drumbeat of lies</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Venezuelan Youth Orchestra in New York City, 2016</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, I myself wouldn’t have believed anyone who made such claims without being able to produce the proof, so intense and unrelenting has been the drumbeat of lies. When the Youth Orchestra of Venezuela gave a concert in New York in early 2016, before I moved to Caracas, I went there thinking, “Gee, I hope that the members of the orchestra are all well-dressed and well-fed.” Yes, of course they were all well-dressed and well-fed!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When I mentioned this in a talk at the University of Vermont, a student told me that he’d had the same feeling when he was following the Pan American soccer championship. He wondered if the Venezuelan players would be able to play, because they’d be so weakened from lack of food. In fact, he said, the Venezuelan team played superbly, and went much further in the competition than expected, since Venezuela has historically been a baseball country, unlike its soccer-obsessed neighbors Brazil and Colombia.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hard as it may be for followers of the US media to believe, Venezuela is a country where people play sports, go to work, go to classes, go to the beach, go to restaurants and attend concerts. They publish and read newspapers of all political stripes, from right to center-right, to center, to center-left, to left. They produce and watch programs on television, on TV channels that are also of all political stripes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chavismo supporters</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (photo: TeleSur)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">CNN was ridiculed recently (Redacted Tonight, 2/1/19) when it carried a report on Venezuela, “in the socialist utopia that now leaves virtually every stomach empty,” followed immediately with a cut to a demonstration by the right-wing opposition, where everybody appeared to be quite well-fed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But surely that’s because most of the anti-government demonstrators were upper-middle class, a viewer might think. The proletarians at pro-government demonstrations must be suffering severe hunger.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Not if one consults photos of the massive pro-government demonstration on February 2, where people seemed to be doing pretty well. This is in spite of the Trump administration’s extreme economic squeeze on the country, reminiscent of the “make the economy scream” strategy used by the Nixon administration and the CIA against the democratic government of President Salvador Allende in Chile, as well as many other democratically elected governments.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rival demonstrations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ultimas Noticias: Capriles: Partidos no apoyaban autojuramentación de Guaidó </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Últimas Noticias on Twitter (2/1/19): “<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Capriles: The Parties Weren’t Supporting the Auto-Inauguration of Guaidó”</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>That demonstration showed considerable support for the government of President Nicolás Maduro and widespread rejection of Donald Trump’s choice for president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó. </b>Guaidó, who proclaimed himself to be president of the country and was recognized minutes later by Trump, even though a public opinion poll showed that 81 percent of Venezuelans had never heard of him, comes from the ultra-right faction in Venezuelan politics.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The pro-Maduro demonstration suggested, not surprisingly, that Guaidó had failed to win much popular support outside the wealthy and upper-middle class. But Guaidó couldn’t even win support from many of them.</span> The day before rival rallies February 2, Henrique Capriles, the leader of a less extreme right-wing faction, gave an interview to the AFP that appeared in Últimas Noticias (2/1/19), the most widely read newspaper in Venezuela. In it, Capriles said that most of the opposition had not supported Guaidó’s self-proclamation as president. That may explain the surprisingly weak turnout at Guaidó’s demonstration, held in the wealthiest district of Caracas, and obviously outshone by the pro-government demonstration on the city’s main boulevard.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The New York Times did not show pictures of that pro-government demonstration, limiting itself to a claim by unnamed “experts” (2/2/19) that the pro-government demonstration was smaller than the anti-government one.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Readers can look at the photos of the rival demonstrations and judge for themselves. Both groups did their best to pull out their faithful, knowing how much is riding on a show of popular support. The stridently right-wing opposition paper El Nacional (2/3/19) carried a photo of the right-wing opposition demonstration:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">El Nacional Front Page</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If that was the best photo it could find, it was remarkably unimpressive compared to the photos in the left-wing papers CCS (2/2/19)….</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CCS Article on Maduro speaking to crowd</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">…and Correo del Orinoco  (2/3/19), which were only too happy to publish pictures of the pro-government event:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Correo del Orinoco front page</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unlikely humanitarian</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A huge anti-government demonstration was supposed to make possible a coup d’état, a maneuver the CIA has used repeatedly—in Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Brazil in 1964 and many more, straight through to Honduras in 2009 and Ukraine in 2015. The turnout at the Trump administration’s demonstration was disappointing, and the coup d’état never occurred. The result is that Trump has expressed a sudden interest in getting food and medicine to Venezuelans (FAIR.org, 2/9/19).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump, who let thousands die in Puerto Rico and put small children in cages on the Mexican border, seems to be an unlikely champion of humanitarian aid to Latin Americans, but the corporate media have straight-facedly pretended to believe it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CBC: How a bridge between Colombia and Venezuela became part of a propaganda fight</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The CBC (2/15/19) acknowledged that the bridge depicted as being blocked to humanitarian aid has in fact never been opened.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Most have suppressed reports that the Red Cross and the UN are providing aid to Venezuela in cooperation with the Venezuelan government, and have protested against US “aid” that is obviously a political and military ploy.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The corporate media have continued to peddle the Trump-as-humanitarian-champion line, even after it was revealed that a US plane was caught smuggling weapons into Venezuela, and even after Trump named Iran/Contra criminal Elliott Abrams to head up Venezuelan operations. Abrams was in charge of the State Department Human Rights Office during the 1980s, when weapons to US-backed terrorists in Nicaragua were shipped in US planes disguised as “humanitarian” relief.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Canada’s CBC </b>(2/15/19) at least had the honesty to acknowledge that it had been had in swallowing a lie from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the Venezuelan government had blockaded a bridge between Colombia and Venezuela to prevent aid shipments. The newly built bridge has not yet been opened: it has never been open, apparently because of hostile relations between the two countries, but the non-opening long predates the US government’s alleged food and medicine shipments.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The absurdity of $20 million of US food and medicine aid to a country of 30 million, when US authorities have stolen $30 billion from Venezuela in oil revenue, and take $30 million every day, needs no comment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‘Failed state’</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Financial Times: Venezuela Risks a Descent Into Chaos</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Financial Times (4/11/16) reported in 2016 that Venezuela was a “failed state,” “pure chaos” with “something akin to a civil war going on.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The campaign of disinformation and outright lies about Venezuela was kicked off in 2016 by the Financial Times</b>. Ironically, it chose the 14th anniversary of the 2002 failed coup d’etat against President Hugo Chávez—April 11, 2016—to claim that Venezuela was in “chaos” and “civil war,” and that Venezuela was a “failed state.” <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As with the Time and CNBC reports, the Financial Times reporter was not in Venezuela, and there was no evidence in the report that he had ever been there.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I asked right-wing friends in Venezuela whether they agreed with the Financial Times claims. “Well, no, of course not,” said one, stating the obvious, “there is no chaos and no civil war. But Venezuela is a failed state, since it has not been able to provide for all the medical needs of the population.” By that standard, every country in Latin America is a failed state, and obviously the United States too.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Times has run stories (5/15/16, 10/1/16) claiming that conditions in Venezuelan hospitals are horrendous. The reports enraged Colombians in New York, who have noted that a patient can die on the doorstep of a Colombian public hospital if the patient has no insurance. In Venezuela, in contrast, patients are treated for free.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One Colombian resident in New York said that his mother had recently returned to Bogotá after several years in the United States, and had not had time to obtain medical insurance. She fell ill, and went to a public hospital. The hospital left her in the waiting room for four hours, then sent her to a second hospital. The second hospital did the same, leaving her for four hours and then sending her to a third hospital. The third hospital was preparing to send her to a fourth when she protested that she was bleeding internally and was feeling weak.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I’m sorry, Señora, if you don’t have medical insurance, no public hospital in this country will look at you,” said the woman at the desk. “Your only hope is to go to a private hospital, but be prepared to pay a great deal of money up front.” Luckily, she had a wealthy friend, who took her to a private hospital, and paid a great deal of money up front.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Such conditions in Colombia and other neoliberal states go unmentioned in the US corporate media, which have treated the Colombian government, long a right-wing murder-squad regime, as a US ally (Extra!, 2/09).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You Tube: Por Culpa de Chavez</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Latin American Juvenile Cardiac Hospital, Caracas: It’s Chávez’s Fault!” (YouTube, 3/31/11)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Well, OK, but are the reports of conditions in Venezuelan hospitals true or grossly exaggerated? “They are much better than they were ten years ago,” said a friend who works in a Caracas hospital. In fact, he said, ten years before, the hospital where he worked did not exist, and new hospitals are now being opened. One was dedicated recently in the town of El Furrial, and another was opened in El Vigia, as reported by the centrist newspaper Últimas Noticias (3/3/17, 4/27/18).  The government has also greatly expanded others, like a burn center in Caracas and three new operating rooms at the hospital in Villa Cura.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Meanwhile, the government is inaugurating a new high-speed train line, </b>The Dream of Hugo Chávez, in March (Correo del Orinoco, 2/6/19). Since the US media have never allowed reporting on any accomplishments in the years since  Chávez took office in 1999, but only any alleged, exaggerated or, as noted, completely invented shortcomings, readers have to consult an alternative history. Here is one offered by a Venezuelan on YouTube (3/31/11): “Por Culpa de Chávez” (“It’s Chávez’s Fault”). Depicting new hospitals, transit lines, housing, factories and so on built under Chavismo, it might help many understand why the Maduro government continues to enjoy such strong backing from so many people.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Economic warfare</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is not to minimize Venezuela’s problems. The country was hit, like other oil-producing countries, and as it was in the 1980s and ’90s, by the collapse of oil prices. That failed to bring down the government, so now the Trump administration has created an artificial crisis by using extreme economic warfare to deprive the country of foreign exchange needed to import basic necessities.  The Trump measures seem designed to prevent any economic recovery.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Like any country at war (and the Trump administration has placed Venezuela under wartime conditions, and is threatening immediate invasion), there have been shortages, and products that can mostly be found on the black market. This should surprise no one: During World War II in the US, a cornucopia of a country not seriously threatened with invasion, there was strict rationing of products like sugar, coffee and rubber.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Venezuelan government has made food, medicine and pharmaceuticals available at extremely low prices, but much of the merchandise has made its way to the black market, or over the border to Colombia, depriving Venezuelans of supplies and ruining Colombian producers. The government recently abandoned some of the heavy price subsidies, which resulted initially in higher prices. Over the past few weeks, prices have been coming down as supplies stayed in Venezuela, especially as the government gained greater control over the Colombian border to prevent smuggling.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There has never been a serious discussion of any of this in the US corporate media, much less any discussion of the campaign of lies or the Trump administration warfare. There has been no comparison with conditions in the 1980s and ’90s, when Venezuela’s neoliberal government imposed IMF economic recipes, resulting in a popular rebellion, the bloody 1989 Caracazo, when wholesale government repression took the lives of hundreds (according to the government at the time) or thousands (according to government critics), and martial law took the lives of many more.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Efforts by the right-wing opposition to provoke a similar uprising, and another Caracazo that could justify a foreign “humanitarian intervention,” have failed repeatedly. So the US administration and corporate media simply resort to the most extreme lying about Latin America that has been seen since the Reagan administration wars of the 1980s.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/theres-a-corrupt-authoritarian-in-the-white-house-but-the-political-press-keeps-instigating-pointless-fights-among-dems/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/theres-a-corrupt-authoritarian-in-the-white-house-but-the-political-press-keeps-instigating-pointless-fights-among-dems/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://kpfa.org/episode/rising-up-with-sonali-february-6-2020/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://kpfa.org/episode/rising-up-with-sonali-february-6-2020/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 27px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-hveid="CAIQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwie39vQ6r_nAhVRR60KHbu1AngQFSgAMAB6BAgCEAA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.57;"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism&ved=2ahUKEwie39vQ6r_nAhVRR60KHbu1AngQFjAAegQIAhAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /></font></font><h3 class="LC20lb" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 2px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism&ved=2ahUKEwie39vQ6r_nAhVRR60KHbu1AngQFjAAegQIAhAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" /></a><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><a href="https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism&ved=2ahUKEwie39vQ6r_nAhVRR60KHbu1AngQFjAAegQIAhAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" /></a><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism&ved=2ahUKEwie39vQ6r_nAhVRR60KHbu1AngQFjAAegQIAhAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism&ved=2ahUKEwie39vQ6r_nAhVRR60KHbu1AngQFjAAegQIAhAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism&ved=2ahUKEwie39vQ6r_nAhVRR60KHbu1AngQFjAAegQIAhAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism&ved=2ahUKEwie39vQ6r_nAhVRR60KHbu1AngQFjAAegQIAhAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism&ved=2ahUKEwie39vQ6r_nAhVRR60KHbu1AngQFjAAegQIAhAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Democracy Without Journalism? Q&A with Victor Pickard ...</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h3><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden;"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.57; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><cite class="iUh30 bc" style="font-style: normal; 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Confronting the Misinformation Society, Professor <span style="font-weight: bold;">Victor Pickard</span> considers the historical ...</font></span></a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><div class="TXwUJf" style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:L-FBeBlmF_cJ:https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:L-FBeBlmF_cJ:https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/democracy-without-journalism%2B%26cd%3D1%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwie39vQ6r_nAhVRR60KHbu1AngQIDAAegQIAhAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.57; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">In underscoring these threats to <span style="font-weight: bold;">democracy</span>, the book also draws attention to ... <span style="font-weight: bold;">Victor Pickard</span> ... Associate Professor of Communication, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Annenberg School</span> for ...</font></span></a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><div class="TXwUJf" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xbRHb7SB7yMJ:https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190946753.001.0001/oso-9780190946753+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:xbRHb7SB7yMJ:https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190946753.001.0001/oso-9780190946753%2B%26cd%3D2%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwie39vQ6r_nAhVRR60KHbu1AngQIDABegQICBAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.57; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.57;">Dec 2, 2019 - </span>As local media institutions collapse and news deserts sprout up across the country, the US is facing a profound <span style="font-weight: bold;">journalism</span> crisis. Meanwhile ...</font></span></a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><div class="TXwUJf" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dv9WQF_uTfwJ:https://global.oup.com/academic/product/democracy-without-journalism-9780190946753+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:dv9WQF_uTfwJ:https://global.oup.com/academic/product/democracy-without-journalism-9780190946753%2B%26cd%3D3%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwie39vQ6r_nAhVRR60KHbu1AngQIDACegQICRAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Missing: <s>sp</s> ‎| Must include: </font></a><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=victor+pickard+%22sp%22+democracy+without+journalism+annenberg+school&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwie39vQ6r_nAhVRR60KHbu1AngQ5t4CMAJ6BAgJEAk" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">sp</font></a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.57; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Journalism</span> is essential to a <span style="font-weight: bold;">democracy</span> – can there be <span style="font-weight: bold;">democracy without journalism</span>? <span style="font-weight: bold;">Victor Pickard</span>, Associate Professor at the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Annenberg School</span> for ... His new book is The Consequential Frontier: Challenging the Privatization of Space. <span style="font-weight: bold;">SP</span> ...</font></span></a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PHjhZEstVg4J:https://www.risingupwithsonali.com/category/featurestories/capitalism/+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:PHjhZEstVg4J:https://www.risingupwithsonali.com/category/featurestories/capitalism/%2B%26cd%3D4%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwie39vQ6r_nAhVRR60KHbu1AngQIDADegQIBxAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"></font></a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div></div></div>