mediaite
sort of disambiguation, see coulter
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media its bewARE OK
The Pentagon has secretly hired military veterans with massive online followings to act as conservative influencers who can disseminate Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s warrior agenda to the masses.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that although these influencers have been placed in government and some civilian roles, the Pentagon refuses to give details on their assignments, “despite the Trump administration’s claims that they are running the most transparent Defense Department ever.”
But the report made very clear that the goal was to “amplify Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s viewpoints and attack those who scrutinize the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the matter and corroborating material.”
The Post’s sources said the influencers include Rob Maness, a retired Air Force colonel; and Kurt Schlichter, a retired Army colonel.
“Pentagon records reviewed by The Washington Post show that both have active official government email addresses as of this past week and are assigned to the office of Anthony Tata, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. The email addresses include a ‘.civ’ suffix, meaning they are labeled as civilian employees, rather than as military personnel or contractors,” the report said.
It continued:
Both served for decades in uniform and, since retiring, have turned from the military to conservative commentary. Maness has more than 135,000 followers on X, while Schlicter has nearly 620,000. Another retired Army colonel and influencer, Thomas Anderson, was listed in Pentagon records earlier this year with a “.civ” email address and assigned to Tata’s office, according to people familiar with the matter and records reviewed by The Post. An attorney, he writes online under the pen name Cynical Publius and has more than 323,000 followers on X. He was no longer listed in Pentagon records late this past week, the people familiar with the issue said.
“Pentagon spokesman Joel Valdez declined to comment to The Post about whether any of the three are drawing a taxpayer-funded salary, what roles they have or how long those jobs are expected to last,” the report said.
Tata, Maness, Schlichter, and Anderson all declined to comment for the report.
On Saturday, The New York Times reported that Democratic and Republican politicians are paying tens of thousands of dollars for influencers on TikTok and other platforms to push their agendas.
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MEDIAITE
Journalist Katie Daviscourt appeared on Fox News with a black eye on Wednesday after she was assaulted by a masked “Antifa-affiliated protester” in Portland.
“Wow, that is quite a shiner. Are you all right?” asked Fox News host Jesse Watters.
“Oh yeah, I definitely have a black eye,” she replied. “That’s what it’s been like covering Portland for the past four months. Complete lawlessness.”
Daviscourt told Watters there were now “several blocks” in Portland which were “completely controlled by Antifa-affiliated protesters who harass, assault, and threaten anyone who they perceive to be a threat to their cause, including journalists, local residents, and ICE agents,” with local police refusing to maintain law and order in the area.
“The Trump administration is absolutely correct in deploying federal troops here because Portland Police has completely abandoned this zone. They refuse to go in and everyone that shows up is on their own,” she said:
Last night, I got assaulted and I immediately ran to a Portland Police officer, hunted down the suspect, chased her through the streets and said, “This is my assault suspect, can you guys finally do something?” and I had eyes on her for about 35 minutes– Portland Police refused to come in and make an arrest and I had three officers just standing there, watching me try to hunt down the suspect. And imagine my anger when I go online, after doing all that about an hour ago, and I see Portland Police put out a BOLO asking for the public’s help in identifying my assault suspect. So that is what it’s like on the ground here in Portland, and it’s time for a federal crackdown. The Trump administration needs to start treating Antifa like ISIS, the terrorists that they are, and put an end to them here for good.
During a separate interview with Real America’s Voice host Jack Posobiec, Daviscourt explained that she was hit with a large flag pole in the face by her attacker.
“This Antifa-affiliated subject just started approaching me and waving a flag pole in my face, and then I kind of turn around and that’s when she swung it like a baseball bat and directly hit my eye,” Daviscourt recalled.
Posobiec responded, “So she was trying to blind you. She was actually trying to blind you, and you know, a flag pole like that to the ocular socket, I mean, your brain is right there. There are serious– very, very serious injuries that could happen, and look, I’m sitting here in the Charlie Kirk studio. We all know how serious these things can get.”
Portland Police put out a press release asking for help identifying the suspect in Daviscourt’s assault on Wednesday.
However, the police department denied Daviscourt’s claim that they refused to assist following the incident.
Portland Police claimed that upon being flagged down by Daviscourt, one of its Dialogue Liaison Officers “followed the suspect north on South Moody Avenue while calling in additional police resources.”
“The Dialogue Officer attempted to talk to the suspect to hear her side of the story. She would not stop, so the DLO told her she was being detained. She refused the lawful police order to stop and she fled,” the police department said in its press release. “At 8:59 p.m., patrol officers met the victim and began an investigation. They documented the incident and the case is now assigned to a detective in the Major Crimes Unit.”
The state of Oregon filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump on Sunday after the president announced he would send the National Guard to Portland to ensure public safety amid violent protests.
“At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” Trump declared. “I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary.”
Watch above via Fox News.
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medaite
no lnx
‘Children of the Corn Level Scary’: Political Pundits Respond to Greta Thunberg’s Fiery UN Speech
By Charlie Nash Sep 23rd, 2019, 1:45 pm
1337 Comments
Political pundits took to Twitter, Monday, to air their thoughts on 16-year-old environmentalist Greta Thunberg‘s fiery speech before the United Nations.
“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words … entire ecosystems are collapsing, we are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!” declared Thunberg during her speech to world leaders. “You are failing us… Young people are starting to understand your betrayal.”
Ryan Saavedra, a reporter for Ben Shapiro‘s Daily Wire, described the speech as “absolute madness,” while conservative commentator and former RedState CEO Erick Erickson claimed Thunberg and her supporters are “going to move quickly to violence to overthrow democratic governments.”
This speech by far-left activist Greta Thunberg is absolute madness pic.twitter.com/RFyIPZlajQ
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 23, 2019
Children of the Corn level scary here. They’re going to move quickly to violence to overthrow democratic governments. https://t.co/6Hia5xcC6z
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) September 23, 2019
Washington Examiner writer Tiana Lowe published an article accusing Thunberg’s parents of “child abuse,” which was in turn shared by Turning Point USA’s Chief Creative Officer Benny Johnson, who referred to Thunberg as “David Hogg 2” in reference to Stoneman Douglas school shooting survivor and activist David Hogg.
This Greta Thunberg thing is child abuse https://t.co/R8ePnW06vQ
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) September 23, 2019
David Hogg 2 pic.twitter.com/mXVBnKTj4X
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) September 23, 2019
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk branded the 16-year-old “ANTIFA climate activist Greta Von Thunburg,” while Buck Sexton, host of the Buck Sexton Show, criticized CNN for enabling her “propaganda.”
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The same people who say we can’t criticize 16-year old ANTIFA climate activist Greta Von Thunburg
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…Spent months shamelessly attacking the Covington Catholic High School kids—just because they supported our president
??
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 23, 2019
does CNN have any thoughts on her message?
or is the entire network content to provide this young woman with a massive global platform without any context, counterpoint or fact checking?
Any of its "facts first" anchors or pundits want to weigh in on this speech?
Propaganda. https://t.co/be714t0RbA
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) September 23, 2019
Those in Thunberg’s defense included actress Rose McGowan, CNN’s Ana Navarro and W. Kamau Bell, HuffPost Senior Politics Reporter Jennifer Bendery, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, and California State Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks....
==
wiki
mediaite' is a digital news site that covers political news through the eyes of mainstream media. Part of the Abrams Media Network and founded by Dan Abrams, Mediaite covers breaking news, offers opinions, and analysis across the political spectrum including reporting on top media moments from cable news channels like CNN, Fox, MSNBC, CNBC, & more.
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History
Mediaite launched in July 2009 with Founding Editor Colby Hall alongside an editorial staff that included Rachel Sklar, Glynnis MacNicol and Steve Krakauer. At launch, Mediaite's ‘Power Grid’ drew attention for weekly rankings of various media figuresacross various platforms based on data-driven metrics such as Google News mentions, Twitter followers, TV ratings, Circulation and mentions on TV transcripts.
By early 2010, Mediaite launched a more aggressive strategy for covering cable news segments, which became the progenitor for many media and political websites today.
For the month of January 2017,[3] Dan Abrams revealed that Mediaite reached 11.86 million unique visitors.
Mediaite's writers have included Noah Rothman, Philip Bump, Joe Concha,[4] Tina Nguyen[5] and many other well known reporters.
Digital News Alliance
In June 2019, Mediaite, along with sister site Law&Crime, left leaning RawStory and AlterNet, and conservative sites The Daily Caller and Washington Free Beacon announced that they formed a coalition of political news sites to offer marketers custom advertising packages that are aimed at readers interested in politics. The Alliance aims to "bring some of the ad dollars now being directed at the tech behemoths back to midsized political publishers"[6], according to Andrew Eisbrouch, COO.
Mediaite’s Most Influential In News Media
Every December, Mediaite publishes a list of the 75 most influential people in news media—compiled by all of the Mediaite editors. The publication of the list culminates in a party hosted by the site and attended by many top cable anchors and correspondents. The list is in its 4th year.
Mediaite's Most Influential - 2015[7]
Mediaite's Most Influential - 2016[8]
Mediaite's Most Influential - 2017[9]
Mediaite's Most Influential - 2018[10]
==
escalator:
https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-free-beacon/right-wing-medias-latest-elizabeth-warren-smear-shows-how-bogus-claims-will
The latest bogus scandal about 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren shows that the right-wing media echo chamber is kicking into high gear for this election season, and it reveals the playbook these bad-faith actors will use to trap mainstream media into making the same old mistakes.
In the last week, right-wing media have been teaming up in an attempt to cast Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, as a liar by pushing irrelevant information they claim refutes an anecdote she talked about in her 2014 book and has often shared on the campaign trail.
Warren has recounted that, in 1971, she lost her job teaching special education in a New Jersey public school after she became visibly pregnant. At the time (and even today), pregnancy discrimination in the workplace was common. The Supreme Court had not yet ruled that some approaches to pushing people out of teaching jobs for being pregnant were unconsititutional, and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act wouldn’t be passed in Congress for another seven years.
In recent days, right-wing media have claimed Warren was lying and was not actually fired because of her pregnancy. The central claims circling through the conservative echo chamber do not actually disprove her story, though.
They’ve offered minutes from a school board meeting showing Warren’s teaching contract was renewed that year and then later that the board accepted her resignation, but Warren has been clear that her contract was renewed months before she was visibly pregnant and that her job was given to someone else later in the pregnancy. And they’ve pointed to a 2007 interview in which she describes her short public school teaching career and does not mention being fired as evidence it didn’t happen. But they are failing to understand the historical context around pregnancy discrimination, the nuances between being blatantly fired and forced to leave in other ways, and the reality that those impacted by such discrimination may not always want to share the details. (In fact, Warren and her campaign have clarified she began to open up about the experience more as she became a public figure.)
So they’ve got nothing. But this episode is a harbinger of what’s to come this election cycle: fake, scandalous blog post after blog post cycled through the right-wing ecosystem until something sticks. As Paul Waldman wrote in The Washington Post:
This is a process of trial and error: Throw out a hundred fake “scandals” and see which one captures people’s attention, then hammer it again and again in the hope it will become all people think of when they think of the Democrat. If there’s something actually scandalous there, that’s great, but if there isn’t, that’s okay, too. … Between now and next November, they’ll float a hundred more stories like this one.
This is undoubtedly true and inevitable; the right-wing echo chamber was designed for it. It’s both coordinated enough to coalesce around a single narrative and fragmented enough to make a story look like it's garnering organic viral media attention. The end result is the story reaches different audiences: from the boomers watching Fox News to the Never Trumpers who still don’t like a Democratic alternative to the younger folks who are Very Online.
What's worse: The echo chamber is large enough in size and scope to create a swirl of stories that can con mainstream outlets into covering the claims under a false veneer of “both sides."That ultimately leads audiences into thinking exactly what the right wants them to think, or at least leaves an impression that things are more questionable than they actually are.
The smear followed a clear pathway through the right-wing media echo chamber
The spurious conservative counternarrative about Warren’s story was tested on social media and pushed to the usual outlets that are willing to publish just about anything, with zero proof. And then it was elevated by conservative outlets with reputations as more legitimate news sources. Each piece of the echo chamber had its own part to play.
This is a well-worn pathway at this point and one that will continue to mobilize at any chance to push an attack on a 2020 presidential candidate, especially one viewed as a substantial threat to President Donald Trump. (It’s likely not a coincidence this story emerged just as Warren has begun to surge in polls.)
Here’s how it happened.
The argument that Warren hadn’t mentioned her firing in a 2007 interview made its right-wing media debut on a blog called The Script on October 2.The blog cited a tweet from a writer for Jacobin magazine, and then pointed to various retellings by Warren over the years where she did not explicitly say she was fired. Ben Shapiro’s website The Daily Wire picked up the claimand published its own article the same day, citing The Script. Shapiro then promoted the piece to his substantial social media following.
A handful of right-wing clickbait sites picked up the story the following day, and the story also got its first bit of attention from a more reputable-seeming (sort of) Never Trumper outlet: the National Review.
On October 5, Mediaite published an article detailing the right-wing claims about the 2007 interview alongside video of the interview itself. The article was headlined “WATCH: Elizabeth Warren Lied About Losing Public School Teaching Job Because She Was ‘Visibly Pregnant.”
A second wave of larger right-wing outlets then latched onto the claim, citing Mediaite (which lent an air of nonpartisanship to the story) or the video it published: FoxNews.com, Breitbart, Town Hall, and others. (The Daily Caller also posted an article about the interview on October 5, though it cited only The Script.) These pieces were all simultaneously circulating through the conservative social media world; the Fox News online article alone received over 78,000 Facebook interactions according to the CrowdTangle monitoring service.
Another string of outlets posted articles citing or linking to the Fox News piece, further amplifying the story and spreading it to their own social media audiences. Niche right-wing outlets that focus specifically on anti-abortion rhetoric also seized on the claims. Right-wing and anti-abortion media outlets often rely on such spin to manufacture outrage against various Democratic presidential candidates.
On October 7, The Washington Free Beacon added a new element to the story: It cited minutes from two meetings held by the city’s Board of Education at the time. The Free Beacon argued that the minutes were further proof Warren had lied about her firing because the board had voted to extend her teaching contract in April of 1971 (before she was visibly pregnant) and because the meeting minutes two months later showed the board had “accepted with regret” her resignation from the job. (It is highly unlikely that public school board meeting minutes would state that Warren had been fired for being pregnant.) Nevertheless, the Free Beacon article spurred another round of posts from the conservative echo chamber, including The Daily Wire, Breitbart, Conservative Opinion, and Hot Air, and amplification from at least one right-wing political action committee.
The story also ginned up enough right-wing media fervor to make the jump to conservative cable. According to Media Matters’ internal database, Fox News has discussed Warren’s pregnancy discrimination anecdote in at least 24 segments from October 7 through publication time. (MSNBC has covered it twice, and CNN once.)
Another crucial part of this playbook: goading mainstream media into playing along
Eventually, so many right-wing outlets were devoting space to repeating the claims that some mainstream media outlets began covering it, framing their stories around “just asking questions.” The right knows that mainstream outlets have, at this point, been subjected to so many bogus attacks for not covering “both sides” of a story that they are eager to jump on any chance to prove they’re unbiased -- often actually leading to bias toward conservative bullshit.
After the Free Beacon published the board of education meeting minutes (which, again, do not refute Warren’s account), CBS published a longer piece digging into the so-called discrepancies in her story. It cited both the 2007 interview and the meeting minutes -- and used the passive voice multiple times (“Warren’s changes in phrasing … have sparked questions”) to paint the story as valid and widespread rather than squarely originating in the right-wing fever swamps.
As media critic Margaret Sullivan noted, the CBS article acknowledged additional historical corroboration showing that Warren’s experience was typical for the time, and even cited two retired teachers from the same school who said that being pushed out while pregnant was an unspoken trend. It also included an explanation from Warren about why her retellings in the past hadn’t always focused on the discrimination: Her rise in public life caused her to open up more about her experiences.
Yet the CBS headline was framed as though Warren alone “stands by” her account in the face of legitimate contradictions -- thereby feeding into the flames stoked by the right-wing blogosphere. Other headlines from mainstream outlets that borrow this frame sent the same message to readers scrolling through their feeds.
Absent taking the bait wholesale, mainstream media also run the risk of doing a disservice to readers by simply failing to provide crucial context. In this case, that means not just the context of where these claims originated or how they line up with reality, but also the historical moment in which Warren’s story takes place.
Any mainstream coverage of this story ought to frame it as an easily identifiable tactic of the right and should offer statistics about the continuing prevalence of pregnancy discrimination. According to The New York Times, “The number of pregnancy discrimination claims filed annually with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been steadily rising for two decades and is hovering near an all-time high.”
Besides, workplace discrimination (of all kinds) is rarely spelled out in a black-and-white, clearly illegal way. In this instance, there were plenty of unspoken messages, norms, or practices that were not as simple as blatantly firing someone, but they still amounted to job loss or unfair treatment because someone was pregnant. As Sullivan wrote, “If there is a scandal here, it’s how — in the bad-faith media world — narrowly presented facts without sufficient context can do unfair harm. They can and will be weaponized, falsely regurgitated and twisted beyond recognition.”
To ignore these realities and present this latest Warren smear in a vacuum is to give the right-wing figures exactly what they want: a convenient sound bite and a lingering air of suspicion in the public consciousness. It would also confirm, once again, how easily their echo chamber can be mobilized to game the system.
THE LATEST
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mma srch for medaite 1119
Right-wing media’s latest Elizabeth Warren smear shows how bogus claims will spread this election season
10/09/19 5:33 PM EDT
Sean Spicer on screen right speaking to Howard Kurtz on screen left, under a chyron reading "Trump rips new Kavanaugh claim, book alleges second exposure incident at party"
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07/25/19 10:06 AM EDT
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06/19/19 4:58 PM EDT
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Right-wing media push false narrative that Biden called for a “physical revolution”
06/19/19 11:18 AM EDT
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06/04/19 1:24 PM EDT
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Right-wing media's anti-abortion misinformation playbook for 2020
05/22/19 4:10 PM EDT
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Laura Ingraham mocks Pete Buttigieg's Christian faith after his Fox News town hall
05/20/19 10:27 PM EDT
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A comprehensive guide to indicted Trump ally Roger Stone, a racist, sexist conspiracy theorist
01/25/19 7:00 AM EST
==
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/05/trump-media-feedback-loop-216248
many pix twet lnx?
I've Studied the Trump-Fox Feedback Loop for Months. It’s Crazier Than You Think.
By MATTHEW GERTZ January 05, 2018
Matthew Gertz is a senior fellow at Media Matters for America.
On Tuesday night, I, along with many Americans, was shocked when President Donald Trump tweeted that his “Nuclear Button” is “much bigger & more powerful” than North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un's.
Having spent the past three months monitoring Trump’s Twitter feed professionally, I also had a good sense of why this spectacle was unfolding. After watching a recording of the previous few minutes of Fox News, my hunch was confirmed: The president was live-tweeting the network’s coverage.
Matthew Gertz
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@MattGertz
The president just threatened a nuclear strike while live-tweeting a Fox News segment.
Left, Fox, 7:37 pm
Right, Trump, 7:49 pm
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Everyone has a theory about Trump’s hyperaggressive early morning tweetstorms. Some think they are a deliberate ploy the president uses to distract the press from his administration’s potential weaknesses, or to frame the public debate to his liking. Others warn his rapid shifts from one topic to another indicate mental instability.
But my many hours following the president’s tweets for Media Matters for America, the progressive media watchdog organization, have convinced me the truth is often much simpler: The president is just live-tweeting Fox, particularly the network’s Trump-loving morning show, Fox & Friends.
It’s no secret, of course, that the president likes to tweet about what he sees on TV. Thanks to diligent reporting from the White House beat, we know Trump often watches several hours of cable news each day via the “Super TiVo” he had installed at the White House. And journalists at CNN, the Washington Post, New York magazine, among others, have compiled lists of Trump tweets they believe were inspired by Fox.
But here’s what is shocking: After comparing the president’s tweets with Fox's coverage every day since October, I can tell you that the Fox-Trump feedback loop is happening far more often than you think.There is no strategy to Trump’s Twitter feed; he is not trying to distract the media. He is being distracted. He darts with quark-like speed from topic to topic in his tweets because that’s how cable news works.
Here’s what’s also shocking: A man with unparalleled access to the world’s most powerful information-gathering machine, with an intelligence budget estimated at $73 billion last year, prefers to rely on conservative cable news hosts to understand current events.
I have long known that the president is a Fox & Friends superfan—well before he ran for office, he had a weekly guest spot on the program for years, and since his election, he has regularly held the program’s co-hosts up as model journalists. But one morning in October, a colleague pointed out that Trump had tweeted an endorsement of a book minutes after the author, appearing on Fox & Friends to promote the work, praised him. Curious if there was a pattern, I examined the rest of the president’s tweets from that morning, and found that several others seemed to line up with the program, reacting or commenting on various topics raised by the broadcast—from kneeling NFL players to negotiating with Democrats over immigration—without ever explicitly mentioning the show itself.
The results were so striking that my morning routine quickly became a shadow of the president’s. I check Trump’s Twitter feed on my way into the office every day. If the president is tweeting—those tweets often beginning soon after Fox & Friends’ 6 a.m. start—when I get to my desk I pull up footage from Fox’s programming on our internal video archive, frequently comparing it with footage from CNN and MSNBC. I use Twitter as my notepad, sharing my reasoning with my followers as I go. When I change my mind about whether a Trump tweet corresponds to a particular segment, I explain why and show my work. Around 9 a.m., when Fox & Friends’ co-hosts sign off, the president usually moves on to the business of running the most powerful nation in the history of the world, and I can move on as well. (Well, until the next tweet.)
Sometimes the president’s tweets don’t correspond to cable news coverage—his boasting about the economy, for example, is usually untethered from the news cycle. Other times, they echo cable news explicitly. For example, Trump might identify a guest who was just on Fox & Friends, quote from a caption that appears on the screen, or even tag the program’s Twitter handle, making my task easier.
And sometimes the tweets fall into a gray area, covering the same broad topic as Fox’s programming but without any specific identifiers. Then I need to fall back on inference, and in those cases, it helps when Trump has tweeted several times over the morning. Do the topics of a series of tweets match the order Fox discussed them? Does one tweet in a series have a strong tie to the network, suggesting that the other tweets were also reactions to Fox?
On Tuesday morning, for instance, on his first morning back in Washington after an 11-day vacation, the president tweeted what I believe were five consecutive tweets based on Fox’s programming, though he specifically referenced Fox & Friends in only one of them. His tweet urging the imprisonment of Huma Abedin followed a Fox segment on the former Hillary Clinton aide. When he tweeted that “it was just reported” there had been no commercial aviation deaths in 2017, and took credit, the report he cited was from Fox & Friends.
@MattGertz
Taking a time-out from Trump's vacation tweets to track today's.
Left, Fox & Friends, 6:24 am
Right, Trump, 7:48 am
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Matthew Gertz
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@MattGertz
- Jan 2, 2018
Taking a time-out from Trump's vacation tweets to track today's.
Left, Fox & Friends, 6:24 am
Right, Trump, 7:48 am
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Matthew Gertz
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@MattGertz
Left, Fox & Friends, 8:17 am
Right, Trump, 8:44 am
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Matthew Gertz
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@MattGertz
- Jan 2, 2018
Replying to @MattGertz
Left, Fox & Friends, 8:17 am
Right, Trump, 8:44 am
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Matthew Gertz
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@MattGertz
"It was just reported"
Left, Fox & Friends, 7:24 am
Right, Trump, 9:13 am
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@MattGertz
- Jan 2, 2018
Replying to @MattGertz
"It was just reported"
Left, Fox & Friends, 7:24 am
Right, Trump, 9:13 am
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Matthew Gertz
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@MattGertz
Left, Fox & Friends, 8:26 am
Scalise: "You can go to my website and see a list of dozens and dozens of companies that are giving bonuses to workers."
Right, Trump, 8:49 am
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@MattGertz
- Jan 2, 2018
Replying to @MattGertz
Left, Fox & Friends, 8:26 am
Scalise: "You can go to my website and see a list of dozens and dozens of companies that are giving bonuses to workers."
Right, Trump, 8:49 am
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Matthew Gertz
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@MattGertz
Left, Fox, 9:05 am
Right, Trump, 9:08 am
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Many of the president’s most vicious tweets, which often baffle observers because they seem to come out of nowhere, make more sense when you realize that they are actually his responses to Fox’s programming. This rule can apply to his attacks on the NFL:
Matthew Gertz
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@MattGertz
- Oct 18, 2017
Replying to @MattGertz
Left, Fox & Friends, 6:29 am.
Right, Trump, 6:56 a.m.
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Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
Left, Fox and Friends, 6:28 am.
Right, Trump, 7:06 am.
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Matthew Gertz
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@MattGertz
**rushes to office**
**boots up computer**
Left, Fox & Friends, 7:27 am
Right, Trump, 7:45 am
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5:15 AM - Nov 28, 2017
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To his claim that the Uranium One deal posed a scandal for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama:
Matthew Gertz
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@MattGertz
- Oct 19, 2017
Replying to @MattGertz
Based on that gap, I'm assuming the first two Trump tweets happened when he watched segments that came earlier in the show (coming).
Matthew Gertz
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@MattGertz
Left, Fox & Friends, 6:07 am
Right, Trump, 7:17 am
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113
4:35 AM - Oct 19, 2017
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To several of his attacks on the FBI:
Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
- Dec 3, 2017
Replying to @MattGertz
Because Trump TiVos, and because Fox has been running similar segments throughout the morning, it's hard to match perfectly. I can't say for sure which one he was watching when he tweeted. But:
Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
Fox & Friends, left, 7:05 am.
Trump, right, 7:42 am
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6:05 AM - Dec 3, 2017
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Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
- Jan 2, 2018
Replying to @MattGertz
12/23
Left, Fox, 2:29 pm
Right, Trump, 3:32 pm
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Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
12/24
Left, Fox & Friends, 7:04 am
Right, Trump, 7:25 am
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5:35 AM - Jan 2, 2018
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Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
- Oct 19, 2017
Replying to @MattGertz
Left, Fox & Friends, 6:07 am
Right, Trump, 7:17 am
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Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
Left, Fox & Friends, 6:42 am
Right, Trump, 7:56 am
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132
4:36 AM - Oct 19, 2017
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But not all of the Trump tweets match with Fox segments that praise the president and thrash his perceived enemies. There are some random ones, too.
Remember that strange moment in October when Trump tried to tweet happy birthday to the country music artist Lee Greenwood? He tagged the wrong handle, deleted the tweet, and sent out a corrected version while the rest of Twitter tried to figure out what was going on. The event is easier to understand if you know that about an hour before Trump sent his initial tweet, Fox & Friends reported it was Greenwood’s birthday:
@MattGertz
- Oct 27, 2017
Replying to @MattGertz
Left, Fox & Friends, 6:25 am
Right, Trump, 7:16 am
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Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
Left, Fox & Friends, 6:29 am
Right, Trump, 7:26 am
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67
4:15 AM - Oct 27, 2017
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The timing, by the way, doesn’t always perfectly line up. That’s because, from my observations, Trump also uses his DVR vigorously, often starting at the beginning of a program even if it started hours before he sits down to watch it, then fast-forwarding through commercials and segments that don’t interest him.
Replying to @MattGertz
Left, Fox & Friends, 6:07 am
Right, Trump, 7:15 am
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Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
Left, Fox & Friends, 6:18 am
Jack Keane: "I think most of us are pretty disappointed because the Chinese envoy was just in North Korea after the president's visit."
Right, Trump, 7:25 am
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Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
- Nov 30, 2017
Replying to @MattGertz
Here's the video of Fox military analyst Jack Keane saying that the Chinese envoy was unsuccessful, which appears to have spurred Trump's tweet.
Embedded video
Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
Looks like some fast-forwarding happened after the NK tweet, he must have skipped much of the next hour.
29
5:19 AM - Nov 30, 2017
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Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
- Nov 30, 2017
Replying to @MattGertz
Looks like some fast-forwarding happened after the NK tweet, he must have skipped much of the next hour.
Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
Because this is the next one.
Left, Fox & Friends, 7:47 am
Stuart Varney says Dow will clear 24,000 as soon as the market opens, calls it the "Trump rally."
Right, Trump, 8:05 am
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:{
}:
Trump may not be trying to divert the media, but the media definitely gets distracted. Trump’s morning tweets upend the news cycle, with cable news producers and assignment editors redistributing time and resources to cover his latest comments.Statements from the president are inherently newsworthy. But the result is certainly a positive one for Fox: The network’s partisan programming gets validation from the president, and forces the rest of the press to cover Fox’s obsessions whether they are newsworthy or not.
In December, Mediaite put the co-hosts of Fox & Friends at the top of its “Most Influential in Media” list, pointing out “the topics they cover essentially set the national agenda for the rest of the day.” Mediaite is not wrong. Soon after White House counselor Kellyanne Conway congratulated the co-hosts for the designation during an interview on the show, Trump weighed in, urging the “many Fake News Hate Shows” to “study your formula for success!” He had been watching.
I had been, too.
Matthew Gertz
?
@MattGertz
FFS.
Left, 7:04 am, Kellyanne Conway praises Fox & Friends for being #1 on most influential in media list, thanks them for helping admin "get our message out" by providing a "platform.
Right, Trump, 7:45 am. https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/12/21/white-house-applauds-its-top-propagandists-fox-friends/218927 …
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6:07 AM - Dec 21, 2017
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This article tagged under:
Twitter Fox News Fox And Friends Primary Source President Donald Trump
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Media Matters | Mediaite
https://www.mediaite.com › tag › media-matters
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Media Matters Flaunts Tax-Exempt Status While David Brock ...
https://www.mediaite.com › online › media-matters-flaunts-tax-exempt-stat...
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Mediaite | Media Matters for America
https://www.mediamatters.org › mediaite
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Missing: mma | Must include: mma
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Ximena Barreto, a right-wing commentator with a history of pushing conspiracy theories and bigoted rhetoric, has finally resigned from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Barreto joined HHS in December 2017 as a deputy communications director. Media Matters first reported on April 9 that Barreto (who also goes by the surname Barreto-Rice) frequently made toxic remarks as a conservative pundit. She promoted the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, claimed that “African-Americans are way more racist than white people,” and labeled Islam “a fucking cult” that has “no place” in the United States, among other remarks.
Here is a video from Media Matters’ John Kerr of some of her worst remarks:
...[vid]
ours after Media Matters’ report, HHS issued a statement saying Barreto “has been placed on administrative leave while the matter is reviewed.”
Media Matters originally found out about Barreto’s federal employment because ProPublica added her name to Trump Town, its database of Trump administration political appointees.
CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski, Chris Massie, and Nathan McDermott reported on April 13 that Barreto “shared an image in 2017 that said ‘our forefathers would have hung’ Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for treason,” “repeatedly used the hashtag #BanIslam and twice shared conspiracy theories about the death of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich,” among other conspiracy theories.
The Trump administration decided to allow Barreto back to work in early May but said she would “not to return to the public affairs department and will serve in a different role where she will work to complete several projects.”
On June 21, Mediaite’s Caleb Ecarma reported that Barreto attacked CNN for purportedly conducting a “smear campaign” against her (CNN did not smear Barreto). Mediaite also “conducted an extensive review of her social media posts and found that the HHS appointee pushed the baseless Pizzagate conspiracy theory even more than previously reported,” finding that she tweeted variations of the conspiracy theory “at least 17 times.”
On June 22, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski reported that a copy of Barreto’s resume -- which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request -- showed that “she listed her previous conspiratorial work on her resume as a qualification for the communication position.”
Politico’s Dan Diamond reported on July 27 that she “was escorted from Health and Human Services Department headquarters Friday, according to an individual with knowledge of the situation. Barreto resigned, the individual said.”
There are numerous other people who have served in the Trump administration and have pushed toxic conspiracy theories and/or bigoted rhetoric.
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Ximena Barreto finally leaves HHS after outlets document her toxic rhetoric
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https://www.mediamatters.org/shows-and-publications/mediaitecom
“Free Democrat ad”: Right-wing media assail Jimmy Kimmel for criticizing Bill Cassidy’s lies about Obamacare repeal
Research ››› September 20, 2017 3:40 PM EDT ››› BOBBY LEWIS
508
Right-wing media figures attacked Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, after Kimmel sharply criticized Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) as having “lied right to my face” about health care in May. Kimmel pointed out that the Affordable Care Act repeal package Cassidy is co-sponsoring does not protect all children with pre-existing conditions, even though Cassidy told Kimmel he would support only those bills that passed that test.
Trump’s social media director is using Twitter to smear Trump’s political and media opponents
Research ››› June 12, 2017 9:38 PM EDT ››› JARED HOLT
122
Dan Scavino, social media director and presidential adviser to President Donald Trump, repeatedly utilized social media to smear and attack Trump’s political and media opponents and in one instance violated the Hatch Act, which prevents federal employees from engaging in political activity while in office.
If you appear as a guest on Tucker Carlson Tonight, there's a good chance you'll be a target of online harassment
Research ››› May 19, 2017 11:34 AM EDT ››› BOBBY LEWIS
609
After appearing on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, several guests have reported that they were subject to waves of harassment, usually from “alt-right” and white supremacist trolls. Tucker Carlson has become cable news’s most favored hosts among neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and those in the “alt-right.”
Trump And Allies Set Stage For Second Debate By Attacking Moderators
Research ››› October 7, 2016 8:09 AM EDT ››› BRENNAN SUEN
122
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his allies have frequently attacked the journalists slated to moderate the second presidential debate, CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC’s Martha Raddatz, as “very biased,” “unfair,” and “so unprofessional.”
These Outlets Ignored The Conspiracy Theorist Behind The New Benghazi Lawsuit
Research ››› August 9, 2016 2:41 PM EDT ››› NICK FERNANDEZ
94
Several news outlets reporting on a lawsuit brought by the parents of two Benghazi victims that blames their deaths on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton did not mention that the lawsuit is being pushed by anti-Clinton lawyer Larry Klayman, a conspiracy theorist with a long history of suing the Clintons.
A Clinton-Obsessed Conspiracy Theorist Is Behind Benghazi Lawsuit Against Hillary Clinton
Larry Klayman Has Previously Accused Clintons Of “Orchestrating The Murders Of Several Of Their Associates,” Claimed President Obama Was “Our First Muslim President”
Blog ››› August 8, 2016 7:34 PM EDT ››› BRENDAN KARET
780
Klayman
Clinton-obsessed conspiracy theorist, Larry Klayman, has filed a lawsuit on behalf of two of the families victimized by the September 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
The lawsuit, which alleges “that Clinton’s negligence was directly responsible for Smith’s and Woods’ death,” also includes charges of “defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.” Fox News has repeatedly hosted both of the family members mentioned in the lawsuit, Patricia Smith and Charles Woods, to attack Hillary Clinton and Smith was also a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention, where she said “I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son.”
Media Matters has previously documented Klayman’s litigious Clinton obsession, which includes a “dubious lawsuit accusing Hillary Clinton of racketeering,” as well as Klayman’s claims that the Clintons “orchestrated the murders of several of their associates in the 1990’s”:
In the 1990s, Klayman reportedly filed at least 18 lawsuits against the Clinton administration, accusing them of various conspiracies, and has filed "hundreds of lawsuits against federal agencies, White House officials, Cabinet secretaries, judges, journalists, former colleagues, foreign governments, dictators, presidents," his own mother, and The Washington Post.
The Week explained in 2013 that Klayman, "implied the Clintons orchestrated the murders of several of their associates in the 1990s, a prime reason he has argued Hillary is unfit to be president."
As reported by The Washington Post, in 2014, Klayman premised a lawsuit on the concept that "The Ebola virus is secretly a biological weapon allowed into the country by the Obama administration to further terrorist interests against Americans of the 'Caucasian race and Jewish-Christian religion.'" Klayman described President Obama in a lawsuit as "not even a naturalized U.S. citizen and thus is in the United States illegally," and described Obama's birth certificate as a "fraud." In order "to maintain the confidence of the American people and for the benefit of the country's democratic system," Klayman subsequently petitioned the government to "initiate removal and deportation proceedings" against the president. Klayman has referred to President Obama as "mullah in chief" and accused "Obama and his Muslim friends" of "literally 'making love' with each other." He called Obama "our first 'Muslim' president" who "has joined with Palestinians to now knock off Israel."
In a 2013 protest at the White House, Klayman told the audience that President Obama should "put the Quran down," "get up off his knees" and "come out with his hands up."
A month later, Klayman held the "Second American Revolution" rally in Lafayette Park across from the White House, which sought to force the resignation of President Obama and other top Congressional leaders.
Klayman was at one point barred from practicing law in New York City, because he suggested that an Asian-American judge was unable to rule impartially in a case due to his race.
Fox News’ initial report on the lawsuit ignored Klayman’s conspiracy theorist background, and role in this lawsuit.
Right-Wing Media Attempt To Hide Trump’s Attacks On Family Of Fallen Soldier With Bogus Benghazi Comparison
Research ››› August 1, 2016 11:08 PM EDT ››› JARED HOLT
449
Right-wing media criticized the coverage Khizr Khan’s speech at the Democratic National Convention, comparing it to the lack of coverage given to Patricia Smith’s speech at the Republican National Convention. But Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump directly attacked Khizr and Ghazala Khan with anti-Muslim and personal attacks, fueling widespread outrage and blacklash.
Fox Damage Control: Network Sends Out Three More Female Staffers To Praise Ailes
Blog ››› July 12, 2016 6:49 AM EDT ››› BRENNAN SUEN
147
Fox News has continued its campaign to defend the network’s chairman and CEO Roger Ailes from sexual harassment allegations, most recently reaching out to Mediaite to interview three female contributors who denied the allegations made by former host Gretchen Carlson.
Former Fox News host Carlson filed a lawsuit against Ailes alleging that he fired her “after she rebuffed Mr. Ailes’ sexual advances and also tried to challenge what she felt was unequal treatment of her in the newsroom by some of her male colleagues.” Carlson also alleged that while a host of Fox & Friends, her co-host Steve Doocy “engaged in a pattern of severe and pervasive mistreatment” against Carlson. Incidents of sexism against Carlson have been well documented on live television, and Carlson has been a witness to years of on-air sexism from her male colleagues.
While several other women have come forward with complaints or contacted Carlson’s law firm, numerous Fox figures have rallied to Ailes’ defense, including primetime hosts Greta Van Susteren and Sean Hannity. The Five host Kimberly Guilfoyle also responded to the allegations, asserting that “nobody believed” Carlson’s allegations.
According to Mediaite, Fox News reached out to them, offering the outlet interviews with three women who work with Ailes in New York City. Fox’s Ainsley Earhardt, Martha MacCallum, and Harris Faulkner vigorously defended Ailes, calling him a “father figure,” a “terrific boss,” and claiming that Carlson’s lawsuit “brought people together” in support of Ailes:
Faulkner praised him for his pep talks, his ability to follow up on every promise he makes, and, finally, his willingness to stand behind his employees, which Carlson claimed he never did for her. Faulkner, who is a woman of color, explained where her deep respect for Ailes came from like this:
“Here’s what I know: My rise and success have been a direct result of the merits and fabulous opportunities from mentors, including Roger Ailes. Without him, my journey would be quite different. He has changed the arc of my career. He believed in me when people who looked like me were not in network news. He put me in primetime and included me in the process of developing Outnumbered. I am profoundly grateful for the opportunities he gave me and not once have I ever been ashamed to say these five words: Roger Ailes believes in me.”
Earhardt called him a “father figure” not once, but twice. She also revealed that when Carlson’s lawsuit hit the headlines, she called her bosses and told them that if the need arose, she would be happy to speak out in support of Ailes because she simply believes in him that much. One reason for her ardent support of him is simple: Where most working women are afraid to tell their bosses they are pregnant and fear losing their jobs while away on maternity leave, Ailes gave Earhardt a promotion while she was gone on her leave.
“Roger is such a terrific boss,” mused MacCallum. “I don’t like to see anything that reflects negatively on him. If anything, [Carlson’s lawsuit] sort of bonded us. It’s brought people together.”
New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman predicted that the “Fox News PR machine” would fight the sexual harassment allegations, noting that Ailes and Fox “will try to discredit Carlson’s claims and any of the other women’s claims who come forward.” Sherman also reported that the charges “could be curtains for Ailes.”
Fox has also downplayed the story on-air. Fox’s first report on the allegations only included Ailes’ statement denying the allegations and Fox’s MediaBuzz -- a show dedicated to coverage of the media world -- only dedicated a three-minute segment to the scandal and defended Ailes by attacking Carlson’s ratings.
A Comprehensive Guide To The Right-Wing Media Conspiracy Theorists That Have Influenced Trump’s Campaign
Research ››› June 16, 2016 8:09 AM EDT ››› BOBBY LEWIS
137
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump counts among his allies a stable of fringe right-wing conspiracy theorists who’ve made a name for themselves advancing conspiracy theories that include the myth that President Obama is a secret Kenyan Muslim, Lyndon Johnson assassinated John F. Kennedy, and the CIA is paying Beyonce to create mayhem. Trump’s conspiracy theorist allies also regularly wish violence upon political and media figures who they disagree with.
Warning: This post contains graphic language and sexual content.
Conservative Media Run With Misleading Report That Bill Clinton Slammed Obama
Research ››› February 14, 2016 4:42 PM EST ››› CYDNEY HARGIS
322
Right-wing media repeatedly cited a misleading Tennessee newspaper report that took former President Bill Clinton out of context to claim that he criticized President Obama during a campaign speech for not doing enough to effect change in the country. In fact, full video of Clinton's remarks reveals that he repeatedly praised Obama's accomplishments and explicitly criticized those who claim that Obama didn't accomplish enough.
Right-Wing Media's Never-Ending Freak Out Over Hillary Clinton's Health And Bodily Functions
Research ››› January 26, 2016 7:53 PM EST ››› ALEX KAPLAN, BRENDAN KARET & TYLER CHERRY
58
Right-wing media are attacking Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for coughing during a campaign event, continuing a long-standing pattern of criticizing Clinton's health.
Chris Hayes Pushes Back On Conservative Media Smear Falsely Connecting Muslim American Veteran To ISIS
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