watters jesse 2

---

see bad trinity

SEE THREE

he is # 1 ?! 8 24

TWO

merri ok

see debunk

mma freq

see projection rubber reverse

see strict fr ~ coddle

see racism WOMEN OF COLOR

---

TAKING LEAD ON ALT ENERGY DENIAL? SEE SHILL

offshore wind whale BS --> xo? foreign spies 10 24 trump rogan

INK 2 25

On Monday, Fox News host and Trump administration propagandist Jesse Watters laid out in explicit detail how the modern right spreads its lies. After “someone says something on social media,” Watters told Fox News viewers, “Musk retweets it, Rogan podcasts it, Fox broadcasts it, and by the time it reaches everybody, millions of people have seen it.”

MMA IRONY IS DEAD

February 13, 2025, edition of Fox News'The Five

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): There's a new DOJ in town and they're not messing around. Attorney General Pam Bondi just threw down the legal gauntlet, suing New York and its squad of lawfare junkies. Governor Kathy Hochul and AG Letitia James for straight up ignoring immigration laws and hooking up illegals with driver's licenses.

...

AG Bondi should probably look into this. AOC's office is now giving webinars for illegals on how to avoid Trump's deportation raids.

mma

2 25 watters politico pro BS

===

mma

Fox News' Dana Perino calls public sector unions a “new nemesis”

02/11/25

Jesse Watters says Palestinians “demographically, they are a threat”

02/11/25

mma see trump pardon hypoc

Jesse Watters praises Trump for issuing pardon to Jan 6 rioter arrested for “punching a cop at a rally that got out of control”

01/22/25

2. ### Jesse Watters says Trump made “Martin Luther King's dream become a reality” by ending DEI

01/22/25

[After Trump sets January 6 rioters free, Fox News changes its tune on pardons for violent offenders]

https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/after-trump-sets-january-6-rioters-free-fox-news-changes-its-tune-pardons)

1. ### Fox’s Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters mock the concept of consent in sexual relationships

01/17/25

2. ### Fox News' Greg Gutfeld says making “unwanted requests for sexual favors” is typical first date behavior

01/17/25

---

December 2, 2024, edition of Fox News' The Five

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): Jessica, how do you see Kash Patel?

JESSICA TARLOV (HOST): The good news is he's not being accused of having sex with a minor, so the bar --we're up here so that's good. He also, in good news, just put his enemies list out there. It's in his book, "Government Gangsters." His vision for reforming the FBI, I guess, is just being angry at people who worked for Barack Obama and Republicans who are mean to Trump.

WATTERS: Not a bad place to start.

TARLOV: Sure.

ROBERTS VO AD GOP WOMeN VOTES FOR HARRIS // HAVING AFFAIR // KIRK

Jesse Watters asks Hulk Hogan what role he would play in a potential Trump administration 10/31/24 MMA

twist of proj; cannot deny, so ALL do it

twist on proj; cannot deny, so ALL do it

Jesse Watters says “every politician has an enemies list” like Donald Trump

Watters: “Trump's running for president to stay out of prison”

October 29, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): Every politician has an enemies list. The only difference is that Trump hasn't prosecuted anybody on his. Biden and Harris have an enemies list, yeah. And they've prosecuted Trump, Bannon, Navarro, Rudy, Weisselberg. I could go on for an hour with the amount of Republicans they've locked up. Biden, just last week, while he was campaigning for Harris, said we have to lock Trump up. Trump's running for president to stay out of prison, because he's on Biden and Harris' enemies list. He's literally running against a prosecutor.

mma

Jesse Watters says immigrants are “poisoning the country”

06/27/24 mma 10 24 trump goes eugenics criminals

===

mma 10 24 distort vph econ policy

...* ## DISTORTION: Fox News falsely claimed Harris’ economic agenda constituted “reparations,” welfare, or bribes to Black voters

• Harris has voiced support for Congress taking the lead on investigating reparations, which she reiterated during a September 17 interview hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists, but did not include reparations in any of her proposed economic policies.

• • Fox host Jesse Watters attacked Harris’ Opportunity Agenda program as “reparations in disguise.” Watters also likened the program to “massive welfare checks” and asked, “How do you prove you're Black? I'm .1%. Do I qualify?” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/14/24]

• • Watters called Harris' proposal to help Black-owned businesses “reparations” and “welfare,” adding, “She’s like DEI Santa Claus.” Watters ranted: “A forgivable loan is a welfare check. So, that's a $20,000 welfare check to a Black entrepreneur. … They're going to give 25 grand to first-time home buyers. That's reparations. She's like DEI Santa Claus.” Fox News, *The Five*, [10/15/24]

• • On Special Report, podcast host Josh Holmes reduced Harris’ agenda to “a bunch of economic proposals that basically amount to legalizing drugs and exploring reparations.” Fox News, *Special Report with Bret Baier*, [10/15/24]

{ Watters argued that Harris’ failed promise of reparations has now led her to trying to “win the Black vote with free money and drugs.”}:Watters added: “Did Kamala even come up with this pitch? Or did her white handler sit around thinking, ‘Black people love handouts and getting high. Let's give this a shot.’” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/15/24]

===

Jesse Watters calls Gen. John Kelly's accusations that Donald Trump admired Nazis a “hoax” 10/23/24 MMA

Fox News' Jesse Watters: “Kamala wants to win the Black vote with free money and drugs”

10/15/24 mma

Jesse Watters says Kamala Harris' policies are “reparations in disguise”

10/14/24 mma

---

total shameless rubber projection

mma 10 24

October 7, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): What drives them crazy is that they can't control you. And it's why they're trying to silence Donald Trump by any means necessary because his success is an indictment of them, their incompetence, their sedition, their authoritarianism. This election's a battle for survival. It's not just about Trump. It's about the future of the country and whether it will remain free and fair as it was founded.

===

mma

right-wing media falsely and dishonestly claim that Hurricane Helene survivors are only entitled to $750 in aid

According to FEMA, survivors can also qualify for “tens of thousands more dollars” in disaster-related financial assistance

Written by Alicia Sadowski & Isabella Corrao

Published 10/04/24

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, right-wing media falsely claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris and the Biden administration are ignoring millions of Americans impacted by intense flooding. Media personalities and MAGA influencers have falsely and dishonestly claimed that victims are only entitled to $750 in aid, when in reality that is just the start of federal benefits.

FEMA can provide assistance for victims of Hurricane Helene, but chronic underfunding and climate change, not undocumented migrants, threaten future aid availability

• In addition to FEMA providing residents of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia with “a one-time $750 payment to help with essential items like food, water, baby formula and other emergency supplies,” victims can also qualify for “disaster-related financial assistance to repair storm-related damage to homes and replace personal property.” After visiting the wreckage in Georgia, Harris reiterated that “FEMA is also providing tens of thousands more dollars for folks to help them be able to deal with home repair, to be able to cover a deductible when and if they have insurance, and also hotel costs.” The White House, [10/2/24, 10/2/24]

• • After President Joe Biden signed a stopgap spending bill in September, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said FEMA can properly respond to Helene recovery efforts. FEMA spokesperson Daniel Llargués said that FEMA is in a “good position” to respond to Hurricane Helene relief efforts after the agency received $20.3 billion under the spending bill. Biden has suggested bringing lawmakers back to Washington to provide additional funding for disaster relief, but Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has claimed “there’s no necessity for Congress to come back”. The New York Times, [9/26/24, 10/2/24; Roll Call, 10/3/24; FEMA, 10/3/24]

• • Future concerns for FEMA’s funding are attributable to chronic underfunding by Congress and increased costs associated with extreme weather disturbance as a result of climate change, not aid given to undocumented immigrants. Mayorkas warned that FEMA “does not have the funds to make it through the [hurricane] season.” A DHS spokesperson clarified, however, that aid provided to undocumented immigrants through the Shelter and Services Program is “a completely separate, appropriated grant program that was authorized and funded by Congress and is not associated in any way with FEMA's disaster-related authorities or funding streams." The Associated Press, [10/3/24; Axios, 7/14/23; Bipartisan Policy Center, 7/23/24; Newsweek, 10/3/24]

• ### Fox News personalities grossly misled viewers about federal aid that Helene survivors are entitled to

• Fox’s misleading coverage of $750 payment was “one of the more dishonest omissions ever seen on Fox News – which is saying something.” Mediaite columnist Michael Luciano wrote of the misleading attack by Fox hosts Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters, and Laura Ingraham. Watters and Ingraham aired misleading clips from a speech by VP Kamala Harris suggesting that $750 was the only benefit survivors were entitled to, while Harris continued explaining that it was just the start of substantial federal aid. Hannity described the aid efforts in similarly dishonest terms:

To wit, on Thursday, Laura Ingraham and Jesse Watters aired a clip of Vice President Kamala Harris speaking in hurricane-ravaged Georgia the previous day. As Harris spoke on Ingraham’s show, the Fox News chyron read, “Kamala: Here’s $750 that’ll do the trick.”

…

As X/Twitter super-poster Acyn Torbai noted in the video below, Fox News actually carried Harris’s speech live the previous day. The vice president explained that the $750 is just the beginning of the assistance available to impacted residents. Mediaite, [10/3/24]

• • After cutting off the video of Harris in Georgia before her promise of “tens of thousands more dollars” in aid, Fox host Laura Ingraham claimed that all victims are “getting right now is a $750 check … from the federal government — the government you’ve been sending taxes to your entire life.” She asked, “Did Joe and Kamala care more about the millions of illegals coming across our border than the people struggling in the storm-ravaged Southeast?” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [10/3/24]

• • Fox host Jesse Watters lamented that Vice President Harris is “tossing a few hundred bucks at people who lost everything.” He continued, “$750. Democrats sent checks for thousands of dollars during COVID. Thousands. None of those people had their homes swept away by floodwaters.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/2/24]

• • Watters told Fox News guest and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that “Kamala Harris throwing $750 at people who lost everything — their homes, their family, their cats, their dogs, everything” is “insulting.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/2/24]

• • Watters scoffed: “$750 per person in America after you lost your entire home, all of your belongings, and you have no food, power, or water.” He complained, “When American citizens — the ones who were born here and pay taxes — deserve help, Biden and Harris are saying, ‘Ah, sorry, we give it all away to the people who broke into the country.’” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/3/24]

• • Sean Hannity blamed FEMA’s lack of funds on its provision of “free food, housing, health care, education, sex-change surgeries, debit cards, four-star hotels” to undocumented immigrants while Helene victims get “a lousy … $750.” “They've been completely abandoned by your border czar, who prioritized her unvetted illegal immigrants over the American people.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [10/3/24]

• • On his radio show, Hannity claimed that Hurricane Helene victims are receiving “a mere $750 one-time payment from FEMA because they gave all of it to Harris-Biden unvetted illegal immigrants.” He continued, “What about the people whose entire lives have been upended here? And that’s all you’re going to offer them? Is a mere 750 bucks a week after the event happened?” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [10/3/24]

• • Fox anchor John Roberts complained that the $750 payment would not be effective. He said, “If they really wanted to help people out, they’d be going up and down the street with hundred dollar bills and handing them out to folks that need to buy things immediately, and, as well, doing everything that they can to get supplies to them.” Fox News, *America Reports*, [10/3/24]

• ### MAGA media figures inaccurately blamed migrants for taking FEMA funds and lied about Helene victims only receiving a one-time $750 payment

* Anti-Muslim activist Brigitte Gabriel claimed that victims of Hurricane Helene would get “$750” but that a “criminal thug from South America” would get “a 4-star hotel with credit cards.” She posted, “If you lost your entire house during Hurricane Helene, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will give you $750. If you are a criminal thug from South America and cross the border illegally through Mexico, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will put you up in a 4-star hotel with credit cards.” Twitter/X, [10/3/24]

• • The Federalist’s Sean Davis posted that victims are not receiving aid because FEMA is “refusing to provide because you spent all the money on illegals.” Twitter/X, [10/3/24]

• • Former Trump adviser and frequent Fox guest Stephen Miller’s America First Legal posted that “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season” but “spent over $1 BILLION in taxpayer dollars on providing housing and services to illegal aliens.” The group also inaccurately wrote that, “Kamala announces victims of Hurricane Helene will get only $750.” Twitter/X, [10/3/24]

• • Townhall’s Dustin Grage repeated, “FEMA is out of cash because of illegals.”Twitter/X, [10/3/24]

• • Fox News contributor Sara Carter posted, “Yes, Harris and Biden did - they stole FEMA money from Americans and then abandoned them.” She called it “tragic and disgusting.” Twitter/X, [10/3/24]

• • Right-wing conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich claimed Mayorkas “laundered all of the money to open borders NGO’s.” Twitter/X, [10/3/24]

===

mma // deep state conspir BS

9 24

September 17, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): The Biden-Harris administration wants you to keep your nose out of their business. Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy says the feds are waging a prosecutorial turf war with the state of Florida to keep total control of the case. Why? Because Biden has his fingerprints all over this.

[...]

That's the Secret Service director admitting that president Biden is personally involved in Trump's security detail. Joe Biden, the man who can't protect our border has gotten personally involved in protecting Donald Trump. Biden is directing which assets Trump's allowed to have and not allowed to have. The same guy who raided Trump's house is in charge of protecting his life. The same guy who calls him a threat is in charge of protecting him from threats. And Trump's been shot twice -- almost twice.

If Joe Biden really wanted to provide Donald Trump with proper security, he would. But after two assassination attempts, there are still gaping holes. The Biden White House still labels him a threat. I guess it all makes sense. Why would you protect a man you consider a threat?

mma

Fox falsely linked Harris and Walz to socialism or communism over 460 times in just 50 days

Fox News and Fox Business figures have repeatedly and falsely linked VP Harris and Minnesota Gov. Walz to socialism and outright communism

Written by Harrison Ray

Research contributions from Tyler Monroe

Published 09/12/24 mma

• Fox News and Fox Business have falsely linked Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Tim Walz, their campaign, or their policies to socialism, communism, or Marxism at least 466 times since July 23, the day after Harris became the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee.

The obvious smears have been repeatedly debunked.

The attacks extended to Walz when Harris selected him as her running mate, with Fox connecting him to China to claim he’s a communist candidate. And the attacks ramped up significantly following an economic policy speech from Harris, with Fox repeatedly mischaracterizing her proposals.

• Fox News accounted for 263 of the claims while Fox Business accounted for 203.

Fox networks' hosts and anchors most often pushed the claims of socialism, led by Maria Bartiromo (32 claims), Sean Hannity (31), Elizabeth MacDonald (20), Larry Kudlow (19), Jesse Watters (17), and Stuart Varney (15).

Mornings with Maria Bartiromo (63) had the most claims of any individual program over the period, with Hannity (49), Kudlow (44), and The Evening Edit (40) close behind. Many of Fox News' so-called “news” programs also repeated the ginned up attack, with at least 52 claims over the period.

Fox News and Fox Business parroted the narrative on 49 of the 50 days reviewed by Media Matters.

• Fox's smears of Harris and her campaign ran the gamut, from comparing her to Fidel Castro and the Sandinistas to calling her a “dangerous Marxist,” and even absurdly proclaiming that “these two economically frankly illiterate radicals with a penchant for literal communism are promising to drive our economy right off the cliff.”

Former President Donald Trump repeated Fox's fabricated narrative during the September 10 presidential debate, falsely insisting, “She's a Marxist. Everybody knows she's a Marxist.”

• ## Methodology....

===

1. ### Jesse Watters calls Kamala Harris a “nervous wreck who can't be trusted with the nuclear codes”

08/28/24 mma

1. ### Newsmax host says Tim Walz “ran around looking like a crackhead” at the DNC

08/22/24 9:26 AM EDT

2. ### Newsmax host says polls showing Kamala Harris in the lead are “almost like election meddling”

08/22/24 7:50 AM EDT

3. ### Jesse Watters speculates that China has a sex tape of Tim Walz

08/21/24 mma

---

8 24 jdv remorse, kh surge dnc hit so desperate to ctr pgm

fox moves on to Comer’s Walz-China smears as his Biden impeachment inquiry collapses

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 08/20/24

Fox News hasn’t learned any lessons from the collapse of its long-sought impeachment probe of President Joe Biden. The network’s biggest stars remain eager to peddle the GOP’s politically motivated investigations of Democrats in hopes of returning Donald Trump to the White House.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) announced on Friday that his committee had opened an investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s “longstanding connections to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) entities and officials” and was seeking information from the FBI about the governor’s “problematic engagement” with China. While the connections are purportedly “longstanding,” Comer’s interest in them manifested just days after Vice President Kamala Harris named Walz as her running mate.

Comer pitched his new probe on Monday night to Fox’s Jesse Watters, who nodded along as the chairman claimed Walz “really has embraced China's view of the world, the Chinese ideology, which is communism.” Comer also cited Walz’s trips to China as an educator to claim that “it’s very possible” China had been “grooming” the Minnesota governor “to try to have a foothold in our government.”

“It says a lot about Kamala Harris that she picked this guy to be her No. 2,” concluded Watters, who is apparently incapable of subtext.

“Yes,” replied Comer, not pretending that his work is nonpartisan.

Video

CitationFrom the August 19, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime.

This is absurd. Walz is obviously not a communist; he’s a mainstream Democrat who regularly touts his work helping small business owners.

IFrame Content

Nor is Walz some sort of Manchurian candidate. Beginning in 1989, he frequently visited China as an educator in the 1990s and 2000s — first teaching in the country and later shepherding American students for visits — and has expressed admiration for its people. But as a member of Congress, Walz proved an “outspoken critic of the Chinese government,” The New York Times reported, noting his “sharp critiques of China’s human rights record” and meetings with dissidents from Tibet and Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, Trump’s companies received millions of dollars from Chinese government entities while he was in the White House, and the former president regularly praises Chinese president Xi Jinping and vouched for his efforts to contain COVID-19 as the virus spread worldwide — all without triggering concern from Comer or Fox’s hosts.

:{:{Comer’s McCarthyian turn on Fox came just hours after the chairman concluded his Biden impeachment inquiry with a whimper. House Republicans launched that investigation in response to pressure from Fox, which showered Comer with attention over his hapless probes into the business dealings of Biden’s son Hunter.}:

But the impeachment inquiry all but collapsed after the Justice Department indicted a key “informant” who had claimed the president had taken a hefty bribe for allegedly making up the story. The probe’s final report, released Monday morning, reveals “almost nothing … that wasn’t known or understood before the formal investigation began,” The Washington Post’s Philip Bump reported.}:

But Fox stars like Watters are happy to be used as a propaganda tool by the GOP, and so he’s seamlessly moved on to Comer’s next bit of nonsense.

“Please keep us posted on these developments, this is an important investigation,” Watters told Comer at the end of their interview. The House Republican will surely oblige him.

related

1. ### Sean Hannity’s response to Trump’s Chinese bribes shows staggering contempt for his audience

:{:{01/05/24}:

2. ### Fox News' failed attempt to use Hunter Biden to gin up an impeachment of his father, by the numbers

:{:{04/25/24}:

3. ### Fox News helps James Comer keep on trucking with Biden impeachment farce

12/05/23

---

mma

824

1. ### Jesse Watters promises to “get the truth” about Barack Obama's birth certificate

08/20/24

===

August 9, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): You think Democrats are going to go down that easy? That's not how they roll. They play dirty, they always have something up their sleeve. Jamie Raskin has had plan C in the works for months. Listen to this.

[...]

Disqualify him. That's what Democrats are going to do if Trump wins. If the Democrats have the House and the Senate, they will vote to disqualify him before he's inaugurated. On the grounds that he's an insurrectionist who's constitutionally prohibited under the 14th Amendment from serving. Even though he was never charged or convicted of insurrection. A preemptive coup. Not a silent coup. This time they're admitting.

===

mma

Newsmax guest lobs a racist slur at Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)

06/27/24 8:24 AM EDT

Jesse Watters claims “the CIA has interfered in the last two elections” to hurt Trump and could “go for the hat trick” in 2024

06/26/24

===

an ah may

Democratic incumbent President Joe Biden and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have agreed to two debates: the first hosted by CNN in Atlanta on June 27, the second by ABC News on September 10.

June 27 is early for a presidential debate, as the Republican National Convention won't be held until July 15-18 in Milwaukee — and its Democratic counterpart isn't until August 19-22 in Chicago. Biden's supporters view the June 27 debate as a golden opportunity for the president, as it will give him a chance to hammer Trump issue by issue and, they hope, improve his poll numbers. Many polls released in May have showed Biden narrowly trailing Trump by single digits in key swing states.

But some far-right pundits at Fox News are furious about the debates, including Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters.

READ MORE:**Biden 'heavily' investing in these 3 states that are 'key to the whole election': analysis**

Ingraham complained that Biden needs a "game changer" performance and is hoping to get it "with the help of" CNN hosts Dana Bash and Jake Tapper.

Watters sarcastically commented, "Both moderators say Trump's Hitler, so the debate will be fair and balanced. Is Tapper going to cut the cameras away from Trump to fact-check him? We'll have to see."

Watters also attacked ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, saying that he "praised the deep state and said Trump's a threat to democracy" and adding, "I’m sure they'll be calling balls and strikes.”

READ MORE:[Biden campaign hammers Trump over infamous COVID comment

Hannity slammed Tapper as a "radical left-wing partisan talk show host" who is "masquerading as a journalist" and claimed that CNN "is filled with left-wing hacks who we know hate" Trump.

The Daily Beast's William Vaillancourt observes, "It didn’t take long at all for some of Fox News' most-watched hosts to frame next month's debate between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, which was announced Wednesday morning, as unfair to the presumptive GOP nominee."

Although Fox News hosts have been attacking CNN and ABC News as too biased to be hosting the debates, they haven't had a lot to say about the controversy that surrounded the right-wing cable news channel's coverage of the last U.S. presidential election.

Fox News was sued by Dominion Voting Systems and its competitor Smartmatic after promoting the false, thoroughly debunked claim that their equipment was used to help Biden steal the 2020 presidential election from Trump. In 2023, Fox News agreed to a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion, although Smartmatic's $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News is ongoing.

READ MORE:[How Fox News' Trump trial coverage became an exercise in 'unintended hilarity': columnist

In an op-ed published on May 16, the Daily Beast's David Rothkopf doesn't agree with far-right claims that CNN and ABC News are too biased to be hosting the presidential debates. But he does argue that the debates could be a golden opportunity for Biden, as Trump is "out of practice" when it comes to debating as well as "bad at it."

Moreover, Rothkopf argues, the debates give Biden a chance to hammer Trump on issue after issue.

"In the view of those close to Biden," Rothkopf writes, "Trump's got a serious problem on the issues. He's on the wrong side of the American public on many of the policy questions most important to them. For example, Trump keeps proclaiming he is the one responsible for the repeal of Roe v. Wade. "

Rothkopf adds, "Almost two-thirds of all women and over six out of ten men support legal abortion according to a recent Pew report.… (Trump) loves Vladimir Putin, for example. In a Pew poll last year, 91 percent of Americans indicated they have an unfavorable view of Russia, with 62 percent having views that are very unfavorable."

READ MORE:**Mary Trump: Here's why Ivanka and Don Jr. haven't show up to their father’s 'tawdry' trial**

Trump still knows how to fire up his hardcore supporters at MAGA rallies. But Rothkopf stresses that the debate format is problematic for Trump given his lack of self-discipline.

"Trump's defective character is so clear, and the danger he presents is so great, that the current president will have a hard time looking worse in comparison," Rothkopf writes. "The contrasts between the two men and their beliefs could not be starker."

*Read the Daily Beast's full Fox News coverage at this link and David Rothkoph's Daily Beast op-ed here (subscription required).

READ MORE: Fox News suggests Trump 'force' court to throw him in jail — by quoting him

---

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mma

Clay Travis: “We’re in a real war. Legal warfare is afoot and it’s time to return fire.”

05/31/24 9:05 PM EDT

2. ### Laura Ingraham says Democrats could use reaction to Trump conviction to “maybe even declare martial law”

05/31/24 7:45 PM EDT

3. ### Jesse Watters predicts “there will be a revolution” if Donald Trump receives jail time

05/31/24 6:10 PM EDT

4. ### Sean Hannity calls Judge Merchan “the most corrupt judge I've ever seen in my lifetime”

05/31/24 4:09 PM EDT

5. ### Jack Posobiec endorses “reciprocity” after Trump's 34 guilty verdicts: “Get the message across by any means necessary”

05/31/24 3:17 PM EDT

6. ### Project 2025 plans to dismantle the federal agency that tracks hurricanes

05/31/24 3:07 PM EDT

7. ### Matt Walsh: “Donald Trump should immediately create and publish a list of 10 high-ranking Democrat criminals who he will have arrested when he takes office”

05/31/24 2:21 PM EDT

8. ### CNN and MSNBC fact-checked Trump's complaints about his guilty verdicts. Fox News repeated them.

05/31/24 1:01 PM EDT

9. ### MAGA figure Mike Davis fantasizes about a Trump DOJ prosecuting Biden, Garland, and legal figures in Trump's trials: “There is absolutely gonna be retribution”

05/31/24 12:42 PM EDT

10. ### Steve Bannon attacks House Republicans, calls for a “vast investigation” into Trump's 34 guilty verdicts

05/31/24

---

===}:

May 16, 2024 rww

• Adele M. Stan @ The New Republic: How FreedomWorks Paved the Way for Trumpism—and for Its Own Demise

If you’d known what to look for, you could have seen it coming miles and miles away: the demise of movement conservatism in the face of Trumpism. The only thing surprising about the collapse of FreedomWorks, the loud and splashy libertarian astroturf outfit, is that it hadn’t happened sooner.

• Bob Smietana @ Religion News Service: PCA cancels anti-polarization panel with David French for being too polarizing

Leaders of the conservative denomination canceled the discussion of dealing with polarization after online backlash.

• Chuck Tanner @ IREHR: The Radicalization of Sam Parker

This is the story of one man who went from a clean-shaven, if far-right-leaning, candidate for the U.S. Senate to a bushy-bearded white nationalist in just six years. His plunge into vicious antisemitism and racism is similar to others radicalized online, drawn to real-world far-right activism, and pulled down into the white nationalist movement.

• Marlon Ettinger @ The Daily Dot: A police investigation into Ali Alexander over allegations he groomed underage boys now extends to Texas

A police investigation into Republican operative Ali Alexander is still ongoing, a spokesperson for the Johnstown Police Department in Colorado confirmed to the Daily Dot on Wednesday, and has now extended to Texas.

• Justin Peters @ Slate: The Resting Smirk of the Bulletproof Moron

[Jesse] Watters relies on low-effort mockery and lazy analysis, delivered in a mellow tone, often paired with a mirthless laugh. It is the mean-spirited snort of the frat brother when he spies a man with long hair; the smarmy chuckle of the righteous prick, intent on mocking, rather than forgiving, all those who trespass against him—even and especially if those trespasses are purely imaginary ones.

an 5 23

during a recent segment on Jesse Watters Primetime, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy cracked a joke at the expense of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-California) husband, Paul, in reference to an incident where he was hospitalized after a home invasion.

The Daily Beast reported that Campos-Duffy made the remark while discussing President Joe Biden awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the United States' highest non-military honor — to the former speaker at a recent White House ceremony. Other recipients included Team USA Gymnastics Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, former Secretary of State John Kerry and a posthumous award for assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, among others.

At one point, guest host Pete Hegseth and Campos-Duffy bandied about other names for hypothetical future medal of freedom ceremonies they felt were more deserving. Campos-Duffy's list included conservative singer Kid Rock, anti-transgender activist Riley Gaines, members of the U.S. Border Patrol and billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, for "absolutely caring about freedom of speech" (Musk's social media platform, X, punishes users for tweeting the word "cisgender").

READ MORE:['Drop the hammer': Judge releases footage of 'violent attack' on Paul Pelosi

"It’s probably more likely to go to Paul Pelosi, Susan Rice and Gavin Newsom,” Hegseth predicted, referring to the former Obama administration official and the governor of California presumed to run for president in 2028. “So I think your list is correct but a little off-brand for ‘Big Joe.’”

"Well maybe Paul Pelosi needs the — the hammer instead of the medal," Campus-Duffy said in response, holding up her hand as if clutching a hammer.

"It's metal," said Hegseth.

"It's metal!" Campus-Duffy said with a laugh.

READ MORE:**:{Paul Pelosi's suspected attacker claimed House Speaker Nancy used 'fake evidence to spy on' Donald Trump**}:

The attack on Paul Pelosi happened in 2022. Far-right Holocaust denier David DePape was charged after the attack and eventually convicted on two felony counts: Assault on the immediate family member of a federal official, and kidnapping a federal official.

In a DOJ press release, FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert K. Tripp said that DePape's attack was the fault of his "misguided ideology," and stated he was confident that Pelosi's attacker "will face the full weight of justice."

"Our public servants and their families deserve to work and live without threats and violence. Defendant’s violent plan to kidnap then-Speaker Pelosi was rooted in his virulent disagreement with her as a result of her official position," U.S. attorney Ismail J. Ramsey said in a public statement. "His violent plan ended with the assault on Mr. Pelosi. Today’s verdict brings justice to the Pelosi family and to the idea that violence has no place in politics."

DePape due to be sentenced on May 17, and faces a maximum potential sentence of 50 years in prison.

Click here to read the Beast's report in full (subscription required).

READ MORE:[Trump lawyer writes conspiratorial post questioning Paul Pelosi hammer assault

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fox News host Jesse Watters tells QAnon influencer he loves and follows him on social media: “We'll be in touch”](https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/fox-news-host-jesse-watters-tells-qanon-influencer-he-loves-and-follows-him)

04/29/24

RSS

Jesse Watters promotes Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman for Donald Trump's “deportation czar”

04/15/24 9:32 PM EDT

RSS

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// trump calls border an open wound mma 3 24

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On February 28, Fox News host Jesse Watters hosted “James Lee” on his show to discuss the murder of Laken Riley on the campus of the University of Georgia. Watters did not disclose, however, that Lee is actually James DePaola, who has had multiple run-ins with the law himself, including when he became violent over a grilled cheese sandwich his wife had made, prompting his 12-year-old daughter to call the police.

On February 28, Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz held a press conference. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the press conference had been interrupted multiple times by protesters, includingJames DePaola.

Law-enforcement officers did not remove anybody from the room while Girtz spoke, but police asked Athens resident James Depaola several times to wait his turn to speak.

“We the people are tired of this lawlessness,” Depaola told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the press conference ended. “We are being put last.”

DePaola also spoke to Flagpole.com at the press conference.

Later that day, Watters hosted “James Lee” on his show and played footage of DePaola interrupting the press conference, praising him for his actions. (Watters’ full “migrant crime spree” segment can be viewed here. Watters likens his guest to Rick Santelli's rantin 2009 that kicked off the tea party. His guest concludes by telling Watters that “You don't get the credit you deserve as a patriot and a real journalist.”)

CitationFox News Channel, 2/28/24

He can also be seen shortly before the 4-minute mark in a video of the press conference posted by NBC News, when the camera pans away from the lectern.

James Lee certainly appears to be James DePaola, as others have begun to notice.

The Georgia Gazette has a picture of a “James Lee DePaola” related to a 2023 booking at Whitfield County jail. The picture appears to be the same man.

pix

Citationvia Georgia Gazette

The site also has a booking picture from a 2020 booking in Gwinnett county.

Citationvia Georgia Gazette

But before advising Fox News on immigration policy, DePaola was previously best known for violently threatening his wife after deciding that she had used too many slices of cheese on his grilled cheese sandwich, leading to his young daughter calling the police. As Time reported in 2016:

A man wanted just two slices of cheese on his sandwich, so when his wife used three slices in his grilled cheese sandwich, he became irate.

Angered at the sight of all the extra cheesiness, James DePaola became agitated and violent, yelling at the woman, Michele DePaola. According to WSB-TV, DePaola then ripped the landline out of the wall so his wife couldn’t call the police and reportedly screamed at her intensely. The couple’s 12-year old daughter who witnessed the incident called the police to the scene, according to Athens-Clarke County police.

James DePaola was charged with obstruction of a 911 call and criminal trespass/damage to property over what the police now refer to as “the grilled cheese incident”. DePaola has a history of “abusive behavior,” and was often “excessively critical and controlling of day to day things in life” like sandwiches, apparently.

Fox5 Atlanta posted a booking picture of DePaola at the time, making clear he is from Athens-Clarke County; the site also mentioned that two of his other young children were present when he threatened his wife.

pix]

Citationvia Fox5 Atlanta

While this may be Jesse Watters’ ideal guest, we cannot recommend that news outlets take public policy advice from someone violently triggered by an unexpected slice of cheese.

The real question is why Fox News didn’t tell its audience DePaola’s full name.

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On January 31, Fox News host and serial climate denier Jesse Watters pushed debunked misinformation to argue that climate scientists are “cooking the books.”

In an effort to disprove that 2023 was the hottest year on record, Watters repeated a bogus claim that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s placement of thermometers on urban concrete skewed temperature data.

“Concrete and asphalt attract heat and retain heat a lot more than the countryside,” Watters said. “No wonder we think the earth’s warming. We’re literally cooking the books."

:{:{Video}:

CitationFrom the January 31, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

Watters then cited a post from X user @_ClimateCraze claiming that “improperly located” thermometers “produce unrealistic warming through the Urban Heat Island effect.” Conveniently, Fox News cropped out a portion of the post — a link to a debunked “study” from junk science blogger and climate denier Anthony Watts. The 2022 report, produced by fossil fuel-funded think tank the Heartland Institute, falsely claims that 96% of U.S. climate data is “corrupted” due to thermometer placement

Multiple news outlets and fact-checkers have disproved the Heartland Institute’s bogus study as it spread across social media, with Agence France-Presse noting that past claims about biased data from urban temperature monitoring sites have been “thoroughly refuted.”

PolitiFact pointed out that Heartland’s false claim that the data is corrupted “ignores key facts” including:

First, climate scientists know that weather station data can be impacted by poor siting, and they adjust data accordingly.

Second, climate change analysis focuses on changes over time.

Further, PolitiFact noted that the scientific community has rejected this claim:

"The correct approach is to write a scientific paper and submit it to a scientific journal," said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist currently serving as research lead at Stripe, a San Francisco-based technology company. "In this specific case, the author of the report, Anthony Watts, submitted a paper on the topic around 10 years ago, but was unable to successfully convince other scientists of the validity of his findings and to pass the peer review process."

Watters’ reliance on climate misinformation is no surprise; Fox News has repeatedly proved itself to be a shameless climate denial machine.

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How Fox hosts are reacting to the collapse of their FBI “informant” story

WRITTEN BY MATT GERTZ

:{:{PUBLISHED 02/20/24}:

The right’s flagging effort to impeach President Joe Biden took another blow last week when the Justice Department said that Alexander Smirnov, an FBI informant, had made up his accusation that Biden and his son Hunter had each taken $5 million bribes from a Ukrainian oligarch, and charged him with lying to the bureau.

Smirnov’s tale, chronicled in a much-ballyhooed FBI FD-1023 report released last year, was described by House Republicans as the “heart” of their case against the president. “The most corroborating evidence we have is the 1023 form from this highly credible confidential human source,” House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) said in a January interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

Right-wing Fox propagandists like Hannity had relentlessly promoted the informant’s claims, touting his purported credibility while ignoring the flimsy, sensational nature of his Biden bribery allegations. But they aren’t responding to his arrest by leveling with their viewers or reflecting on why they were taken in by unverified claims that “proved” what they desperately wanted to believe. Here’s what they’re doing with the news instead.

1. Ignoring it

Fox provided a mere 31 minutes of coverage of Smirnov’s indictment from Thursday through Monday. That total is noticeably scant given how loudly the network previously trumpeted the informant’s allegations; Fox mentioned “Biden in the context of ‘bribe’ or ‘bribery’ more than 2,600 times” in the year before his arrest, The Washington Post’s Philip Bump reported.

Several shows that typically provide robust coverage of the Hunter Biden probe ignored it; Fox & Friends provided only a single headline read, while The Ingraham Angle did not address the story at all (the latter featured interviews with a “body-language expert” as well as purported comedian Jimmy Failla on Thursday).

2. Claiming this actually makes Republicans look good

Hannity has been pilloried by the press for his credulous treatment of the informant’s claims; he promoted them on his Fox show in at least 85 segments last year, touting them as evidence of “public corruption” and “bribery.”

When the host finally addressed the informant’s arrest on Friday, rather than acknowledging that he had served as the willing tool of the Republican politicians who sought to inject the informant’s story into the public discourse, Hannity claimed that the new developments actually make those Republicans look good.

Video file

CitationFrom the February 16, 2024, edition of Fox News' Hannity.

The Fox host acknowledged that he had “talked a lot about” the 1023, but presented it as “very damning, but a very, very small part of what is the large body of evidence in the Biden impeachment inquiry.” After rattling off a string of falsehoods familiar to his show’s regular viewers but inscrutable to normal people, Hannity claimed that Smirnov’s arrest “raises a lot of questions” — but for the FBI, not Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who released the 1023 form, or right-wing media figures like himself who promoted it.

“When presented with information from a source that the agency so trusted for what, now 14 years, the FBI, as exposed by Sen. Grassley, they sat on that 1023 document and they did so for years,” Hannity claimed. “He was still working for the FBI and without any performance of any due diligence, they never looked into it.”

“So it's clear that only after Sen. Grassley made the 1023 public that the FBI then investigate the allegations of the document,” he added.

Hannity was somewhat more candid on his radio show Friday. “I'm mad that the FBI informant, the 1023 form in this case, that now this guy has been charged,” he said. “It appears that Alexander Smirnov was not to be trusted.”

“I guess I was stupid,” he concluded.

3. Layering on more conspiracy theories

The right-wing media have spent the last several years constructing a ludicrous, overarching conspiracy theory that federal law enforcement agencies are left-wing institutions which persecute conservatives. Some of Fox’s biggest conspiracy theorists are leaning on that to explain Smirnov’s arrest, alleging that the informant’s story is true and he’s only being charged with a crime because the deep state is trying to help Biden.

Prime-time host Jesse Watters — who has promoted a lengthy list of conspiracy theories, including spreading doubt about the brutal assault of Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband during a home invasion — claimed on Friday that Smirnov had been arrested because “he was too credible.” He attributed the charges to the president directly, alleging that “this is the second informant Biden has arrested for blowing the whistle about his bribes” (it is true that this is the second indictment of a supposed “whistleblower” whose unverified, dramatic claims were previously touted by Republicans and right-wing media).

Watters went on to claim that “everyone who blows the whistle on the Biden syndicate or is connected to it has been arrested.” He then brought on former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan, who claimed that the Bidens “took out a hit on this informant, Smirnov. They have now disabled him, and now the public is going to believe, well, this guy is a liar.”

Video file

Maria Bartiromo, whose treatment of purported election fraud during the 2020 election helped put Fox on the hook for a record defamation settlement, offered a similar reaction to Smirnov’s indictment on her Fox Business show on Friday.

4. Diverting viewers to a different, similarly dubious Biden scandal

Some Fox hosts are following the right's typical cycle by moving on to a new MacGuffin after the failure of the old one.

Fox host Brian Kilmeade, for instance, presented Smirnov’s arrest as part of a “rollercoaster week” for “the Biden family business drama.” He briefly noted that Smirnov had been charged with fabricating the Biden bribery story, adding that it “turns out not to be true, but keep in mind that is an FBI informant, nothing to do with Republicans.”

Video file

CitationFrom the February 17, 2024, edition of Fox News' One Nation with Brian Kilmeade.

Having relieved Republicans and their media allies of any responsibility for endlessly promoting Smirnov’s tale, Kilmeade moved on to the new shiny object: the deposition of Tony Bobulinski, a disgruntled former business partner of Hunter Biden.

“He knows it all,” Kilmeade raved. “He testified that he has got receipts. He's got emails. He has got text messages showing that this business existed and thrived.”

“I cannot wait to see this publicly,” he concluded. “I can't wait to read the transcripts. That's all coming your way, he is going to testify.”

Sure, Bobulinski told his story on Fox’s own airwaves nearly four years ago and it dissolved under scrutiny. But this time … this time is going to be different.

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Fox News host asks if migrants are connected to a case of bubonic plague in Oregon | Media Matters for America

2 24 same day

Jesse Watters says Joe Biden is going to "drop a migrant bomb" on America | Media Matters for America

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jesse Watters says migrants are “storming the beaches of San Diego like it’s Normandy”

02/01/24

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Fox News’ highest rated evening programs spread white nationalist rhetoric in nearly half of their immigration segments | Media Matters for America

Fox News’ highest rated evening programs spread white nationalist rhetoric in nearly half of their immigration segments

Immigration segments in January on Jesse Watters Primetime and Hannity each contained white nationalist talking points in over half of the segments, at 55% and 53%, respectively. The Five spread white nationalist rhetoric in 45% of such segments.

WRITTEN BY ALICIA SADOWSKI & ISABELLA CORRAO

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ROB SAVILLO

PUBLISHED 02/13/24

Exacerbated by the upcoming presidential election, a constitutional fight over security measures in Texas, and right-wing opposition to a bipartisan border security deal, issues related to immigration received significant media coverage in January. Media Matters found that Fox News’ three highest-rated evening shows — Jesse Watters Primetime, Hannity, and The Five — spread white nationalist rhetoric in nearly half of their immigration segments that month.

Immigration segments on Jesse Watters Primetime and Hannity each contained white nationalist talking points in over half of the segments, at 55% and 53%, respectively. The Five, the most-watched cable news show in January, spread white nationalist rhetoric in 45% of such segments.

• Fox News has a history of spreading white nationalist rhetoric, including the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which warns of a nefarious plot to “replace” white citizens with nonwhite immigrants in order to ultimately threaten “the political power and culture of white people.” This theory has led to multiple acts of violence, such as the 2022 shooting in a Buffalo, New York, grocery store and the 2019 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The Five ran 5 episodes containing white nationalist rhetoric, including one on January 10 in which co-host Jesse Watters claimed that Democrats “were literally replacing American kids” after migrants were sheltered at a New York City public school. Later in the segment, co-host Jeanine Pirro warned that Democrats would give migrants “a license sooner or later” and work visas to entice them to vote. Pirro continued, “They are now talking about them voting. You want to know why? Because they're going to vote. That's why they're here.” Her co-host, Jessica Tarlov, even clarified that Pirro was endorsing the “replacement theory,” noting that the immigrants will “vote blue.”

• Video file

CitationFrom the January 10, 2024, edition of Fox News' The Five

• Fox hosts and guests have also pushed the white nationalist grievance that migrants entering the country constitute an “invasion” of national sovereignty. According to the conspiracy theory, the “invasion” is sanctioned by Democrats and “globalists”, with the intention of providing migrants pathways to citizenship in order to vote Democratic.

Jesse Watters Primetime, which the network elevated last July to the prime-time slot vacated by the network’s previous top white supremacist, Tucker Carlson, aired at least 11 immigration segments that contained white nationalist discourse, the most of any prime-time host.

Watters peddled “invasion” fear tactics when he declared that “foreign nationals are breaching our shores by boat and then sprinting through the beaches and just disappearing onto the streets.” He concluded, “What you're seeing on the screen is what every country in the world calls an invasion.” This iteration of the great replacement conspiracy theory inspired the 2019 shooting in El Paso, Texas, where a shooter targeted Latino Walmart shooters because of fears of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

• Video file

CitationFrom the January 25, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

• Closely following Jesse Watters Primetime, Sean Hannity’s prime-time show featured white nationalist talking points in 10 immigration segments. Hannity further pushed invasion rhetoric when he hosted conspiracist John Solomon to discuss a letter by former “high-ranking FBI officials” that argued current immigration was tantamount to an “invasion.” Hannity further entrenched himself in white nationalist rhetoric when he theorized that the migrants represented a threat to the country. He asked, “Do you think they're all coming here because they want a better life or are the odds likely 100 percent the terrorist cells have now entered our country as a result of unvetted Joe Biden illegal immigrants?”
• Video file

CitationFrom the January 25, 2024, edition of Fox News' Hannity

• Overall, Fox News’ evening programming featured white nationalist rhetoric in 26% of total immigration segments.

• ## Methodology.....

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Fox News hosts decried a Law & Order SVU plotline that never happened | Media Matters for America

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how transparent does the BS have to be for him to use a quaLIFIER?

Jesse Watters calls the Biden administration's immigration policies "treasonous" | Media Matters for America

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Jesse Watters: "Anyone who gets things done in Washington has to be a dictator" | Media Matters for America

Fox News' Jesse Watters says the unhoused should live in caves: “Out of sight, out of mind” | Media Matters for America

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mma 1 24

in January 5, Fox host Jesse Watters attacked AP News’ climate coverage, seemingly in response to a story dispelling offshore wind misinformation. The segment repeated the false claim — debunked by several fact checks from a variety of sources — that offshore wind development is killing whales.

The same false claim appeared on Fox News at least as early as December 2022 and proliferated on the network throughout 2023, with at least 54 segments pushing the misinformation seemingly intended to hurt support for offshore wind.

In early 2023, Fox News helped propel the false narrative into a right-wing media story which has persisted even though no evidence supports the link between the slew of whale deaths along the East Coast and offshore wind development.

An analysis by Media Matters found that:

• Fox News aired at least 54 segments suggesting that offshore wind development is causing whale deaths. At least 15 programs on the network have reported on the false link between offshore wind and whale deaths, including the network’s so-called straight news program Special Report With Bret Baier.

• 12 of the 54 (22%) segments appeared on Fox & Friends (on its daily or weekend program), 11 of the 54 (20%) segments appeared on Jesse Watters Primetime, and 9 (17%) appeared on The Story with Martha MacCullum.

• 26 of 54 segments aired in the first two months of 2023. With 14 segments, coverage peaked in February 2023. At least one segment pushing the false claim appeared on Fox every month of 2023 except May and October.

A December report by the Center for American Progress illustrates how the fossil fuel industry is bankrolling offshore wind misinformation, “with money flowing through interest groups, think tanks, and astroturf groups to achieve its ultimate goal of slowing, if not stopping, the expansion of offshore wind in the United States.”

Fox News has played a key role in the proliferation of offshore wind misinformation by regularly airing false claims about the technology and providing a platform to some of the groups identified in the report, including Protect Our Coast NJ and people associated with the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Environmental Progress, whose founder and president, Michael Shellenberger, has appeared frequently on Fox News to spread offshore wind misinformation.

Methodology...

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

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

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

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

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

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

}:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*}:

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

*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

}:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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more perf union docu frog in my pool thus apoc // agw?

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Jesse Watters says migrants are "turning their children into little bandits -- banditos" | Media Matters for America

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Jesse Watters complains that not enough "white guys" are enlisting in the military | Media Matters for America

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during a Tuesday night, October 9 broadcast, Fox News' Jesse Watters claimed that Taylor Swift is part of a "Pentagon psyop" conspiracy.

Watters told viewers, "Have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this? Well, around four years ago, the Pentagon psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting. What kind of asset? A psy-op for combatting online misinformation."

The Fox News host tried to make his case by citing a video that MAGA Republican and Donald Trump ally Jeffrey Clark reshared on X, formerly Twitter.

The Daily Beast's William Vaillancourt notes, "That video was an excerpt from the 2019 International Conference on Cyber Conflict, which was held in Estonia and organized by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence (CCD COE). The speaker in the clip is Alicia Marie Bargar, a research engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, who appears to simply mention Swift as an example of the power of influencers with large followings."

Watters and Clark aren't the only ones on the far right who have been promoting conspiracy theories involving Swift.

Former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller, on December 6, 2023, tweeted, "What's happening with Taylor Swift is not organic."

READ MORE:UC Berkeley’s Taylor Swift course will combine 'literature, economics, business and sociology'

Jack Posobiec claimed that Swift's "girlboss psyop has been fully activated."

Nonetheless, Watters acknowledged that he "obviously has no evidence" that Swift is "a front for a covert political agenda."

READ MORE:Could Taylor Swift be democracy's last best hope?

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Fox host Jesse Watters and climate contrarian Michael Shellenberger attempted to delegitimize the trusted news wire service AP News, seemingly in response to a recent story from the outlet countering disinformation that Fox regularly pushes about offshore wind projects.

Video

CitationFrom the January 2, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

On the January 2 edition of Jesse Watters Primetime, Watters claimed that “liberal money is literally getting global warming stories planted on the front page of America's papers.” AP News has received grants from various foundations with a broad array of focuses and philanthropic leanings, which AP has used to hire more journalists and produce better climate change coverage.

But the expansion, during which the news agency hired about 20 climate journalists, was announced in February 2022. Though Watters and Shellenberger targeted the news service’s climate coverage as a whole, they also zeroed in on one December story titled “Contrary to politicians’ claims, offshore wind farms don’t kill whales. Here’s what to know.”

During the segment, Shellenberger, who authors a right-wing Substack called Public, refuted the article by repeating myths about offshore wind turbines killing whales, despite a lack of evidence to support those claims.

Shellenberger alleged AP News is accepting “millions of dollars … to basically do propaganda” on behalf of foundations that have “direct investments in things like those whale-killing wind farms,” presumably because the climate reporting grant came in part from foundations that also support renewable energy development. Shellenberger also called the article “disinformation,” even though the information it presents has been widely confirmed by experts who work with marine mammals and reiterated by several fact checks from a variety of sources.

Despite having produced a documentary attempting to vilify offshore wind projects in 2023, Shellenberger has failed to offer concrete evidence that this development is responsible for the unusual mortality even**t that is affecting whales on the Atlantic coast. Scientists say that while it’s nearly impossible to link the event to a single cause, fishing gear entanglement, vessel collisions, and the changing migration patterns of whale prey due to warming waters could all be contributing to an increase in whale deaths.

Far from indicating a genuine concern about biased reporting, the segment advanced a longstanding and concerted campaign led by Fox News to spread panic about offshore wind energy and hinder the transition away from fossil fuels.

Throughout 2023, Watters helped spearhead the right’s dubious obsession with whale conservation through his early coverage of wind projects in New York and New Jersey.

In reality, the story Shellenberger and Watters are attacking is far from “propaganda.” Not only does it quote both scientists and think tanks that are opposed to offshore wind development, but it also fails to mention that these think tanks have deep ties to the fossil fuel industry, as do smaller activist groups involved in the supposed whale conservation effort in the Mid-Atlantic region. When it comes to climate change, Fox won’t settle for anything less than science denial.

related

1. ### Fox anchor and climate contrarian defend Trump's unhinged comments about whales and offshore wind

10/02/23 5:07 PM EDT

2. ### Right-wing figures are using the cancellation of two offshore wind projects to make misleading claims about renewable energy

11/14/23 2:47 PM EST

3. ### Fox News is touting a dubious new documentary repeating misleading claims about offshore wind link to whale deaths

08/29/23

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Fox News' Jesse Watters calls it a "hoax" that Donald Trump promised to rule as dictator on day one if elected president | Media Matters for America

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Jesse Watters makes bizarre joke about cartoon characters murdering migrants | Media Matters for America

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Republican congressman calls Fox News’ Jesse Watters a “tool, making millions to push conspiracies on tv" | Media Matters for America

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) launched a barrage of attacks on Jesse Watters after the Fox host accused him of “corruption” and insider trading, calling Watters a “fucking hack,” “fucking clown, desperate for clickbait,” and a “tool, making millions to push conspiracies on tv.”

Watters' show is indeed a cesspool of conspiracy theories.

During a brief segment of the January 2 broadcast of Jesse Watters Primetime, Watters displayed a graph showing that a number of lawmakers outperformed the S&P 500 in 2023. Watters singled out a few members of Congress including Crenshaw, who he said outperformed the market by 13 points.

Video

CitationFrom the January 2, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

“This is what corruption looks like,” declared Watters, “and that is why Congress still hasn’t passed a ban on insider stock trade.”

Hours later, Crenshaw took to Instagram to air his grievances against the Fox host. He addressed Watters on his Instagram story: “Hey you fucking hack, if you’re gonna accuse me of literal corruption, get your facts straight and man up and come accuse me to my face. You’re a fucking clown, desperate for clickbait.”

CitationDan Crenshaw Instagram

Crenshaw hurled too many insults at Watters to list them all, but some highlights include “wealthy elitist” who is a “mediocre entertainer,” a “loser” who “grew up with a silver spoon,” and “the type of dude who pees sitting down.” He also further rebutted Watters' claims about his portfolio.

The next day, Crenshaw returned to Instagram to claim that Fox canceled an upcoming interview on January 3 in retaliation for his profanity-filled tirade. “Guess I hurt their feelings by calling out their bullshit,” the congressman wrote.

CitationDan Crenshaw Instagram

According to The Daily Beast, a source from Fox News denied that Crenshaw had a scheduled appearance on the network for January 3. Supposedly, Fox Business canceled an interview with Crenshaw for reasons unrelated to his social media outburst.

This feud likely marks the end of a seemingly cordial relationship between the congressman and the Fox host. Crenshaw appeared on Jesse Watters Primetime for a friendly interview in March 2023, in which the two discussed the Mexican government’s response to fentanyl trafficking in the U.S. Crenshaw also invited Watters on his in 2021 to promote the Fox host’s book.

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JESSE WATTERS (HOST): The Central Intelligence Agency has been interfering in our elections for years. 1964, 1968, 2016, 2020, just to name a few. And in 2024, Biden's going to need all the help he can get. Black, Hispanic, youth support -- evaporating. And he's losing to Trump in every battleground.

...

But maybe Biden knows something we don't. Maybe he thinks it's in the bag. Maybe it is in the bag. A former CIA analyst says we can expect the intelligence agencies who've been turbocharged by diversity, equity, and inclusion to reemerge this year and subvert the Republican nominee.

...

So the deep state went woke in order to kneecap Republican presidential candidates who threaten their corporate and ideological agenda. That's what DEI has really been about: using inclusivity as an excuse to hire ideological hit men and hit women to do the dirty work. Remember, you're not allowed to ask recruits about their politics. But if you hire DEI-type recruits, you can assume what their politics are without having to ask.

Also, remember, the CIA does the bidding for corporate America. And if a Republican candidate threatens corporate America's agenda by controlling the border, starting trade wars with China, challenging the Green New Deal, they'll be dealt with by the CIA -- especially a CIA stacked with liberal recruits who think they're saving democracy, but they're only saving a CEO's bottom line.

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review mma 12 23

During his tenure at Fox News, Jesse Watters has risen from compiling blatantly racist on-the-street ambush interviews for disgraced former Fox host Bill O'Reilly to becoming one of the network’s highest-rated hosts.

That rise has been fueled in part by Watters' embrace of the network's favored conspiracy theories, including questioning the integrity of the 2020 election, casting doubt on a 10-year-old rape victim to push radical anti-abortion narratives, and baselessly scapegoating offshore wind energy development for the deaths of endangered whales.

Since the departure of top-rated Fox host Tucker Carlson, Watters has taken up his former colleague’s mantle in the Fox prime-time lineup as the network’s preeminent merchant of nonsense — which, like Carlson, he often camouflages in “just asking questions”-type language. In fact, irresponsibly floating outrageous conspiracy theories with no evidence has become a hallmark of Watters’ top-rated show.

Media Matters found that in 2023, Watters toyed with at least 24 different conspiracy theories, ranging from the threat of “transhumanism” turning everyone into mindless robots to baseless accusations of corruption at the highest levels of government.

• ## Jesse Watters has spread many of the right's favorite debunked conspiracy theories during his decades-long career at Fox News

• • Watters played a pivotal role in a smear campaign denying the existence of a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled to Indiana to receive an abortion due to Ohio’s anti-abortion laws. Watters spent multiple shows discrediting the initial report and targeting the doctor who provided the abortion, arguing that the story was a “hoax” to fearmonger about the consequences of restricted health care access. In July, the rapist that Watters said didn’t exist was sentenced to life in prison. Media Matters, [7/13/22, 7/15/22, 7/6/23; The Daily Beast, 7/14/22]

• • Watters was the first Fox News host to falsely claim that offshore wind developments resulted in whale deaths. While he had no evidence to back up his claim, Watters ran numerous segments suggesting that the recent deaths of whales across New York and New Jersey beaches were caused by the development of offshore wind turbines. This narrative became a recurring talking point used by right-wing media and conservative politicians to slow renewable energy development. Media Matters, [2/2/23, 7/17/23; NPR, 2/22/23]

• • Watters has cast doubt on election integrity in the 2020 election. Watters emphasized that Biden “allegedly” got more votes than any previous presidential candidate. Watters also pushed lies about Arizona’s election audit, claiming that tens of thousands of “questionable ballots” were found in Maricopa County. Media Matters, [10/8/22, 1/20/22]

• • Watters was instrumental in spreading doubt about the attack on Paul Pelosi, saying, “If we’ve learned anything about the Pelosis, you just gotta keep asking questions.” Watters continued to “keep asking questions” about Pelosi’s attack even after police released body cam footage that seemingly undermined Watters’ preferred — and extremely homophobic — narrative that Paul Pelosi was attacked by his leftist gay lover: “We still don’t know who opened the door. Was it Paul? Was it the cops? Did they not play that part of the footage in the courtroom? Why is this, such a simple detail, so hard to pin down?” Watters asked. Twitter/X, [10/31/22; Media Matters, 12/16/22]

• ## In 2023, Jesse Watters pushed even more outlandish conspiracy theories

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: The Biden administration is selling oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China in order to buy guns for IRS agents. Watters alleged a scheme between the Biden administration and the Chinese Communist Party to “prop up Democrats before the midterms” by selling “taxpayer oil to the Chinese, the companies with the Hunter connection, and then use the revenues to buy guns for IRS agents.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [1/2/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: The CIA is working with drug cartels to “destabilize Mexico” and ensure a cheap labor market. Watters claimed it is “suspicious” that the Biden administration seemingly “buries” stories about the threat of cartels at the southern border, then suggested the supposed leniency was due to the FBI and CIA helping Biden win the 2020 election after then-President Donald Trump threatened the cartels with a border wall. Watters cited an unnamed “journalist” to boast that this theory used to be considered a “conspiracy,” but now “everybody just assumes” the CIA is working with cartels. He warned his audience “the U.S. government's working with the narcos” to keep Mexico as an “economic puppet” and “juicy labor with natural resources that our multinationals can take advantage of.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [1/6/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: PBS gave a softball interview to Biden because he threatened to defund the network. Watters claimed that PBS did not hold Biden accountable “for being crooked” because the public broadcast network is “a government-owned channel” that “is doing interviews with their own boss.” He suggested that Biden threatened to take away the outlet’s funding if it asked uncomfortable questions, saying, “Hey, take it easy on me or I am going to cut your paycheck.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [2/9/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: Global warming is solely “corporate propaganda” encouraged by big businesses to price gouge their products.Watters downplayed the threat of global warming as “a sunburn” and argued that climate change is “more about corporate propaganda. They’re just saying, ‘You have to buy, or you’re going to die.’” Watters explained that “you’ve got to get a new car, you got to get solar panels, you got to get a new stove,” while corporations “get the money and our prices go up.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [2/1/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: Democrats colluded with the FBI, CIA, and Big Tech to censor conservatives and hijack elections. Watters touted the debunked “Twitter Files” to assert that Democrats colluded with the FBI, CIA, and Big Tech to censor conservatives and rig the 2020 election for Joe Biden. Watters claimed that instead of refuting the accusations, Democrats decided to “punish these journalists for blowing up the silent censorship arm of the Democratic Party.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [3/9/23; Media Matters, 12/15/22]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: Germany, Denmark, and Great Britain are going to use offshore windmills to spy on the U.S. In an effort to villainize green energy, Watters suggested that offshore wind would become “our biggest national security threat.” He then described how Germany, Denmark, and Great Britain “own our precious coastlines for wind” and warned that those countries could be susceptible to foreign bribes to spy on the United States. “Sure, they're our allies, but every ally can flip,” he said. “Our enemies would pay good money to these countries for a slice of our coast.” In an interview with Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), Watters said that “a couple decades ago, we were killing a lot of Nazis,” and questioned whether Germany could put “little espionage technology” into the windmills or even “launch a missile” from them. Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [3/24/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: The Biden administration is paying $100 million to “fight extremists” as a bribe to exploit African countries for their resources and ensure the implementation of the Green New Deal. Watters claimed that Biden sent Vice President Kamala Harris to pay off African countries to allow the U.S. to mine minerals needed for electric vehicle manufacturing and the Biden family could make money on “the front and the back end.” Watters called Harris “the Black face of American colonialism” and alleged that the $100 million in security aid Harris announced was a bribe to allow the United States to “plunder every inch of Africa until every American child rides an electric school bus.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [3/27/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: Joe Biden is a pivotal member of the “deep state” who orchestrated all of Trump's legal woes, including his impeachments, criminal indictments, and the FBI search in Mar-a-Lago. Watters falsely suggested Biden “spied on the Trump campaign,” sent “a political hitman into the DA’s office” to arrest him in New York, and even “personally signed off on the raid on Mar-a-Lago.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [4/4/23; CNN, 8/29/20; Media Matters, 9/6/22]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: Democrats don't want Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to debate Joe Biden because he will expose that the CIA killed President John F. Kennedy. After playing a clip in which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed he had “overwhelming evidence” that his uncle was killed by the CIA, Watters suggested that “maybe this is why the Democrats are trying to keep RFK. Jr. off the debate stage” because “they do not want him talking.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [5/8/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: Target is working with the “rainbow mafia” to fund gender-affirming surgery in schools. After suggesting that Pride Month is a “Trojan horse” to sexualize kids, Watters decried “the rainbow mafia” and attacked Target for pushing inclusivity a “little too far” by selling trans-inclusive clothing. Watters later cited a report by Fox News Digital to claim that Target is “funding the sex-change surgeries in schools behind parents’ back and the nuking of Mount Rushmore.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [6/5/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: As vice president, Joe Biden was working as “an intelligence op” for the FBI, which then installed Biden as president after blackmailing him for a decade.Watters claimed without evidence that then-Vice President Joe Biden was acting as “one of the FBI’s top informants” and “took a $5 million bribe … from a foreign national in exchange for a policy decision” without President Barack Obama’s knowledge. Watters reasoned that the FBI “put their guy in the White House” because it has blackmail over Biden, who was “installed” by the bureau “so that he can take orders.” Over the next month, Watters repeated this conspiracy theory. On the June 26, 2023, edition of Jesse Watters Primetime, the host declared, “I know Joe Biden is an intelligence op.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [6/5/23, 6/15/23, 6/26/23, 11/30/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: The Secret Service “incinerated” the cocaine found in the White House to protect Hunter Biden. Watters suggested that the incineration was intentionally planned to prevent evidence from coming forward. “Did the White House blow up the coke while they were testing it for fingerprints, or after they tested it?” Watters asked, declaring that “when you destroy evidence, you're participating in a cover-up.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/18/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: The details in the drowning death of the Obama family’s personal chef don’t add up. Citing a Daily Mail report, Watters cast doubt on the circumstances of the death of the Obama family’s personal chef, Tafari Campbell, who drowned in a pond near the ex-president’s home on Martha’s Vineyard. “There is something strange going on with the police call logs on the night Obama’s chef drowned,” Watters said. “In the section where the cops are supposed to write the reason for the call, it was left blank. Could be a mistake, but every other call that night was properly filled out.” Even though police ruled Campbell’s death an accident, Watters baselessly suggested that a conspiracy might be afoot. When police released the audio of two 911 calls reporting the drowning, Watters told his audience those calls were “heavily redacted, likely in order to protect the first family,” before raising a series of bizarre questions about why those calls did not mention the Obamas or the staffer that was supposedly with Campbell when he died. “There's no mention of the Obama's on the call. But we now know the former president arrived at the incident command post after the 911 call was placed and spoke to Secret Service and police. There's also no mention on the call of the female Obama staffer who was paddle-boarding with Tafari when he drowned,” Watters said. Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/27/23, 10/24/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: “Big trans” preys on “confused kids” for profit. Watters blamed the media pushing “gender fluid ideology on children,” which he claimed had created “a generation of kids doing harm to themselves” by seeking gender-affirming care. “Big Trans is taking advantage of confused kids and they’ve created a billion-dollar industry that preys on minors,” Watters added. Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/27/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: Russia's attacks on the Donbas region of Ukraine had something to do with a “blackmail operation” involving Ukrainian energy company Burisma and the Bidens. During an interview with Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy, Watters hinted at an apparent blackmail scheme between the Biden family and the Ukrainian government that supposedly influenced Russia to attack the Donbas region of Ukraine. Watters suggested that Burisma, the now-defunct Ukrainian energy company that once counted Hunter Biden among its board members, “had the oil and gas leases … for the Donbas region,” which supposedly indicated to Watters that a “a big blackmail operation” was underway. “We might have something on this tomorrow,” he teased. Seemingly intrigued by Watters’ vague suggestion of Biden family corruption, Campos-Duffy agreed, “We’re shoveling money there … to cover up the tens of millions of dollars that the Biden family took,” before adding, “I’m really happy you’re on that story, I really think there’s something there.” Watters never revisited the supposed blackmail scheme. Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/31/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: Grand Canyon National Monument is a Biden scheme to funnel uranium money to foreign governments.Watters claimed that President Biden declared the Grand Canyon a national monument to block uranium mining in the canyon’s surrounding areas to fund “Russia’s dangerous uranium monopoly.” Watters then speculated on Biden’s motives, questioning why the president’s “entire energy policy favors Russia and China.” “Well, does it have anything to do with the three and a half million dollars the Russians paid the Biden's? Or the Porsche Panamera that the Kazakhstanis gifted Hunter? Does it have anything to do with the three and a half carat diamond that the Chinese slipped the first son? There's something very mysterious going on in the international uranium market that involves the Bidens and the Russians.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [8/8/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: The Weather Channel is a Biden propaganda outlet.Watters claimed the Weather Channel gave Joe Biden a softball interview because “the owner of the Weather Channel is a prolific Democrat donor.” He continued, “A corrupt, confused, weak, and terrified man is being protected by the ideological professional class who runs corporate media.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime,* [8/9/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: Biden and his team are doing “absolutely nothing” to stop fentanyl trafficking because “they prefer a passive public.” “China’s sending us the fentanyl, the Mexicans are trafficking it here, and Joe’s doing absolutely nothing about it. Why?” Watters asked, before answering his own question. “The professional class decided it's okay to kill yourself. It's pro-euthanasia. They find this behavior acceptable. They prefer a passive public.” Watters added that those in power are “fine” with “tranq heads and fentanyl heads” because — unlike the “wild” people who were addicted to stimulants during the crack epidemic — “they’re not asking questions, they’re not participating, and they’re not a threat.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [8/9/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: Corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion training is a “shakedown” to encourage more racism so diversity trainers get paid. Watters argued DEI training was a “shakedown” in which diversity consultants earned “big money” training corporate employees on racism in the workplace so that their companies could publicly broadcast — and profit from — the idea that they are not racist. (“My company is not racist, please buy our products,” Watters described.) Watters’ guest, Erec Smith, a “former diversity trainer” turned supposed whistleblower, argued that diversity trainers like racism because it keeps them in business. “If you’re making all that money off racism, the last thing you want is for racism to go away. You’re going to perpetuate it. You’re going to see it where it isn’t,” Smith claimed. Summarizing Smith’s arguments for his audience, Watters said, “They were seeing racism where it never existed in order to get paid.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [8/28/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: The Biden family’s Chinese business partners paid them in diamonds to avoid the IRS. Watters baselessly claimed that a Chinese company illegally paid the Biden family in diamonds to avoid drawing the attention of the IRS. “Everybody knows diamonds [are] a time-tested way to launder money, and hide that money from IRS agents,” Watters said, adding, “Diamonds and art, both spaces that Hunter plays in. There’s no paper trail or record-keeping with diamond transactions.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [9/18/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) is the victim of a smear campaign engineered by the CIA and the Biden administration as part of a conspiracy to help Democrats. After Menendez, the former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, and extortion related to his dealings with the Egyptian government, Watters argued that the CIA was using “the same Trump playbook they used last time” to smear Menendez as a “traitor” and a spy. Watters baselessly alleged that Menendez — who has since been accused of acting as an unregistered agent of Egypt’s government — was “such a threat to Democrats” that the Biden administration and the CIA “smeared [him] as a spook” to supposedly cover up President Biden’s criminal behavior. “What does gold bar-Bob have on the Bidens? That’s the question,” Watters said. Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [9/29/23; Associated Press, 9/22/23, 10/12/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: Biden framed Menendez as a ploy to sell Turkey F-16s and grant Sweden NATO membership.Watters alleged that President Biden had hatched a scheme with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to remove “gold bar-Bob Menendez” from office because he was supposedly holding up the sale of $20 billion worth of F-16 jets to Turkey, which was in turn blocking Sweden’s entrance into NATO. “Look how nicely things fall into place for Biden and his boys, when two gold bars are found in a Senator's house,” Watters said, before adding, “Eh, it's probably a conspiracy theory.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/2/23]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: Joe Biden is installing kill switches to disable cars on Election Day and keep people from voting. Watters falsely claimed a provision in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act stipulating that new vehicles should include drunk driving prevention technology by 2026 was a ploy engineered by “big tech and big government to monitor your freedom of movement.” Watters also speculated that the Biden administration could “hit the kill switch on every pickup truck in Pennsylvania on Election Day” to keep people from voting. Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [11/8/23, Associated Press, 3/3/22]

• • CONSPIRACY THEORY: “Transhumanist” tech executives and the Biden administration want to turn you into a mindless “RoboCop.” Watters said “executives in Silicon Valley and the eggheads at the World Economic Forum” want to “transform what it means to be human” through transhumanism: the technological enhancement of human brains and bodies using microchips and other implants. “It’s not just about dominating your attention with their screens, apps, and devices, and extracting all of your information for cash. It’s also about control,” Watters declared.” Once you join their universe, you’re dependent on them — they can control you, track you, or they can turn you off.” Watters hosted Laura Aboli, whom he introduced as an “activist and entrepreneur.” Aboli claimed that President Biden had signed an executive order that would “channel funding and resources to bioengineering and biomanufacturing” for the “transhumanist agenda.” Watters asked, “Like we all get turned into RoboCop?” “I’m afraid that’s probably what they want for us,” Aboli replied. Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [11/20/23; The Guardian, 5/6/18]

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

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): Every time Trump's arrested, he becomes more powerful in the eyes of the voters. What's going to happen when they take him off the ballot? They're turning Trump into the greatest political underdog America's ever witnessed. They're setting up the greatest comeback story in American political history.

They say they're protecting us from danger, but Trump's not a danger to us, he's a danger to them. And Americans are starting to ask themselves why. It feels like the left wants violence, because that's where this is going. We're being baited so their actions are justified. That's how it feels. The more the left overplays their hand, the scarier this gets.

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12 23 dems cave to maga israel ukr $ ?

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

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MMA 12 23

Congressional Republicans have signaled their intention to find scandal in the Department of Energy’s loan program that would aid their efforts to repeal President Joe Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act and its historic $369 billion in climate and energy provisions. Now, right-wing media are assisting those GOP efforts by targeting solar energy company Sunnova in reporting that mischaracterizes its federal loan guarantee and attacks the renewable energy industry as a whole.

On November 22, The Washington Free Beacon reported, “A solar company that was awarded a $3 billion Department of Energy loan has been accused of scamming dementia patients on their deathbeds into signing five-figure, multi-decade solar panel leases.” The article noted that the accusation “comes as the DOE’s Loan Programs Office is facing scrutiny from Congress over potential conflicts of interest involving the $3 billion federal loan to Sunnova Energy,” and quoted a former Energy Department official who claimed, “This is reminiscent of the mortgages of the 2000s, just getting people to sign, with no care at all as to the consequences. … Why not just call it subprime solar?"

While the report is troubling and worthy of scrutiny, the incidents documented by The Washington Free Beacon are not evidence that taxpayer money has been wasted or misused, nor is the story representative of all residential solar programs. In fact, as E&E News reported, “A loan program office official who was granted anonymity to speak candidly emphasized that the Sunnova project is a loan guarantee and that no money has actually gone out the door.” The article also cited clean energy lobbyist Joe Britton, who pointed out the political nature and the hypocrisy of the attacks:

In lieu of have a smoking gun of taxpayer dollars going to a company and then that company going into default … they’ve gone down a host of other tributaries that they think might be worthy of political attack,” Britton said.

“The company may be really successful, they may have great technology, they may be able to scale well and create a ton of new U.S. manufacturing jobs. But they’re finding other angles of trying to attack them,” he continued, pointing to efforts to tie recipients of money to China without putting similar scrutiny on the oil and natural gas industry.

Nevertheless, congressional Republicans have seized on the reporting by The Washington Free Beacon to probe the loan guarantee awarded to Sunnova, while Fox News’ Jesse Watters has suggested “the entire solar industry is a scam” that is being funded by “400 billion of your money.”

Right-wing media targeting Sunnova

• Right-wing outlets misleadingly described the Energy Department’s loan guarantee to suggest that the Biden administration had directly paid Sunnova billions of dollars. The Washington Free Beacon wrote that GOP legislators “are probing the Biden administration's decision to grant an unprecedented $3 billion loan to a solar company accused of scamming elderly dementia patients,” while Fox News Digital reported, “Republican leaders in the House and Senate are probing the Department of Energy (DOE) over its recent $3 billion award to a solar energy company that has been accused of scamming vulnerable customers.” The Washington Free Beacon, [12/12/23; FoxNews.com, 12/8/23]

• The Daily Wire reported on the Sunnova probe on December 9, adding: “President Joe Biden has been pushing the Democrats’ leftist green energy agenda seeking to address the ‘climate crisis’ and has emphasized expanding solar energy. Earlier this year, the Biden administration launched a $7 billion ‘Solar for All’ grant competition … created by the president’s Inflation Reduction Act.”The Daily Wire, [12/9/23]

• Jesse Watters Primetime featured the story on December 11, claiming: “Democrats have been telling us for years solar is the future. A lot of times it's just a big rip-off.” Watters continued: “This spring, Joe Biden gave a huge contract to a solar company that many are calling a scam. That company is called Sunnova and the Better Business Bureau gave them an F. Normally you wouldn’t really reward bad behavior, but the Biden administration just handed the company $3 billion — billion — of your money.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [12/11/23]

• Fox Business host Elizabeth MacDonald compared Sunnova to Solyndra, a now-defunct solar energy firm that was previously a target of conservative ire during the Obama administration. MacDonald said: “The complaint has been money is flying out the door unchecked with no strings attached. That the Biden White House has a $400 billion green energy loan program overseen by an insider,” referring to Energy Department loan director Jigar Shah. She also said that the loan given to Sunnova “is about six times what the Obama White House gave green energy failure Solyndra.” Fox Business, *The Evening Edit*, [12/12/23; Media Matters, 11/13/14]

• On December 13, Watters aired a second segment suggesting that “now we’re beginning to think the entire solar industry is a scam and that Joe Biden poured 400 billion of your money into the scam,” claiming that the Energy Department’s loan guarantees were “letting solar panel companies hand out leases like we're handing out mortgages in 2008.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [12/13/23]

Led in part by Watters’ coverage, Fox News has spent the past year spreading misinformation about offshore wind turbines and misleading viewers about the Inflation Reduction Act in an effort to undermine Biden’s climate agenda.

In reality, the IRA has transformed the clean energy landscape by funding new developments and electric vehicle production across the U.S. Since its passage, 272 clean energy projects have been announced in the United States, representing $278 billion in new investment and creating over 170,000 new jobs, according to Climate Power. Meanwhile, Canary Media reports that “solar is the fastest-growing source of electricity in the U.S., making up almost half of all new power capacity in the first three quarters of 2023.”

1. ### Right-wing figures are using the cancellation of two offshore wind projects to make misleading claims about renewable energy

11/14/23 2:47 PM EST

2. ### Jesse Watters is bringing his egregious brand of climate denial to the 8pm hour

07/17/23 2:48 PM EDT

3. ### Fox has shamelessly spent 2022 bootlicking the fossil fuel industry

12/30/22

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Fox News' Jesse Watters excuses Donald Trump's declaration that he would be a dictator for a day | Media Matters for America

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Fox News' Jesse Watters suggests “CRT” is responsible for deaths of high school students | Media Matters for America

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The slow demise of green energy?

The wheels are starting to fall off the green energy bandwagon

By Kristen Walker Fox News

:{:{Published November 21, 2023}:

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Marc Morano: Biden's green energy agenda is in complete collapse

'The Green Fraud' author Marc Morano joins 'Jesse Watters Primetime' to discuss the collapsing green industry.

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The wheels are starting to fall off the green energy bandwagon. The rose-colored glasses are clearing up and reality is sinking in. AND OTHER TRITE EXPRESSIONS

The giant push toward a net zero utopia is not practical and has been a complete disservice to the American consumer. Components of the green movement are experiencing major setbacks, namely offshore wind, electric vehicles (EVs), and investments.

Offshore wind projects are struggling to secure financing and stay on track. The biggest blow came last month, when the world’s largest offshore wind developer Ørsted canceled two major projects off the New Jersey coastline, taking the wind right out of Gov. Phil Murphy’s green energy sails. Ørsted is also suspending work on offshore projects in Maryland and Delaware.

President Biden previously set a goal of ensuring 50% of car purchases are electric by 2030. The White House said EPAs recent tailpipe rules would provide a "clear pathway for a continued rise in EV sales."

The EV market is also losing steam. Sales are slumping and manufacturers are scaling back on production. (Anna Moneymaker/Pool/Getty Images | Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Among the wave of cancellations are projects in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and Connecticut. Several other projects are on the ropes and a host of companies are paying millions to break their contracts.

BIDEN ADMIN QUIETLY RELEASED STUDY SHOWING GREEN ENERGY RECEIVES FAR MORE SUBSIDIES THAN FOSSIL FUELS

The industry hit another snag recently when Germany-based Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy pulled the plug on its wind turbine blade facility in Portsmouth, Virginia. Siemens Gamesa, one of the world’s leading suppliers, says, "development milestones to establish the facility could not be met."

According to BloombergNEF, at least half of U.S. wind contracts have or are at risk of being terminated. The causes are typically due to skyrocketing inflation, high interest rates, choked supply chains and financial troubles.

Offshore wind is leaving a ‘heavy environmental footprint’ on the East Coast: CFACT’s Craig RuckerVideo

Offshore wind is costly and difficult to implement.

The EV market is also losing steam. Sales are slumping and manufacturers are scaling back on production.

EXPERT WARNS GREEN ENERGY PROJECTS ‘ARE NOT WORTH IT’ AS PRICES SPIRAL ‘OUT OF CONTROL’

Ford Motor Company stands to lose $4.5 billion on its EV business for 2023 and will be delaying many of their EV investments.

General Motors said it was restructuring EV goals, Honda shelved plans to develop affordable EVs with GM, and Hertz said it will slow their rate of purchasing them due to high repair costs. Elon Musk is even considering putting off plans for a $1 billion plant in Mexico.

Nobody wins in this push for electric vehicles besides China: Lisa BootheVideo

Most, if not all, manufacturers are reporting major losses per EV sold. Ford lost $62,000 per vehicle in the third quarter; one luxury electric vehicle company lost an astounding $430,000. Countless others are losing tens of thousands of dollars per vehicle, quarter after quarter.

Car dealers are slashing EV prices. EVs sit on lots nearly twice as long as internal combustion engines. Even industry-leader Tesla has been shaving thousands off their retail prices due to unmet sales expectations.

This kind of loss is not sustainable for any company.

EV MARKET COULD BECOME THE ‘NEXT BIG FLOP’: ECONOMIST

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President Biden pushes electric vehicles despite high pricesVideo

The EV market is niche. Those who want one have one. But the rest of America is not convinced they would be better off with an EV on account of a multitude of reliability factors. Nor can they afford the steep price tag.

Consequently, the last few months have seen stock prices drastically dropping in companies across the green spectrum. From wind to solar to EVs to fuel cells, investors are abandoning the "green" energy ship in droves. It might be sinking.

Siemens Energy stock is down 45%; Ørsted, 67%; Power Inc., a hydrogen fuel cell producer, 71%; Charge Point Holdings Inc., an EV charging company, 70%; Blink Charging Co., another EV charging company, 72%; and Nikola Corp., maker of heavy-duty EVs, has gone from $65 a share in mid-2020 to the current price of less than $1 per share.

Green energy agenda is ‘environmental nightmare’: Michael ShellenbergerVideo

A recent Wall Street Journal article noted that such companies are "finding it more difficult to secure financing than at any time in the past decade."

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

We need to read between the lines here. The green energy revolution is not working, nor is central planning. You cannot force Americans to buy cars they don’t want any more than you can force energy transitions that aren’t viable.

Green energy is wholly inadequate to meet the needs of all Americans, and turns out, is insanely expensive.

Doug Burgum: Green New Deal spending is buried in Biden's 'Inflation Creation Act'Video

The World Economic Forum says that getting to net zero by 2050 will cost an extra $3.5 trillion a year. The U.S. has already poured hundreds of billions into the effort and continues to keep shoveling. All on the backs of the American taxpayer, to save a mere fraction of temperature. Maybe.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Heritage Foundation’s chief statistician estimates that even if all fossil fuels were eliminated from the United States, not even 0.2 degrees Celsius would be salvaged.

It’s time to quit throwing other people’s money into these projects and let the market dictate the solutions.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM KRISTEN WALKER

Kristen Walker is a policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit www.theamericanconsumer.org or follow us on Twitter @ConsumerPal.

LNX

The wheels are starting to fall off the green energy bandwagon. The rose-colored glasses are clearing up and reality is sinking in.

The giant push toward a net zero utopia is not practical and has been a complete disservice to the American consumer. Components of the green movement are experiencing major setbacks, namely offshore wind, electric vehicles (EVs), and investments.

Offshore wind projects are struggling to secure financing and stay on track. The biggest blow came last month, when the world’s largest offshore wind developer Ørsted canceled two major projects

BIDEN ADMIN QUIETLY RELEASED STUDY SHOWING GREEN ENERGY RECEIVES FAR MORE SUBSIDIES THAN FOSSIL FUELS

The EV market is also losing steam. Sales are slumping and manufacturers are scaling back on production.

EXPERT WARNS GREEN ENERGY PROJECTS ‘ARE NOT WORTH IT’ AS PRICES SPIRAL ‘OUT OF CONTROL’

EV MARKET COULD BECOME THE ‘NEXT BIG FLOP’: ECONOMIST

We need to read between the lines here. The green energy revolution is not working, nor is central planning. You cannot force Americans to buy cars they don’t want any more than you can force energy transitions that aren’t viable.

The World Economic Forum says that getting to net zero by 2050 will cost an extra $3.5 trillion a year. The U.S. has already poured hundreds of billions into the effort and continues to keep shoveling. All on the backs of the American taxpayer, to save a mere fraction of temperature. Maybe.

*www.theamericanconsumer.org

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fox’s antivax propagandists come out swinging against a new COVID-19 shot

WRITTEN BY MATT GERTZ

PUBLISHED 08/29/23

Tucker Carlson may be gone from Fox News, but his former colleagues are still carrying on his war against the COVID-19 vaccines that have prevented millions of American deaths since they became widely available in 2021.

Fox’s propagandists responded to President Joe Biden’s Friday call for new funding for an updated vaccine booster that will be recommended for all Americans when it becomes available this fall by warning that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous and ineffective. Some even directly exhorted their viewers — generally seniors who are most vulnerable from COVID-19 — not to take the new booster.

“There's another shot that he's going to recommend all Americans take?” Jesse Watters, Carlson’s 8 p.m. replacement, asked Monday on Fox’s panel show, The Five. “This is another huge scamand no one is going to go along with another shot, especially if it's mandated.”

Several pharmaceutical companies are currently developing updated COVID-19 vaccines that are expected to provide increased protection from Eris, the variant currently dominant in the United States.

With COVID-19 cases on the upswing, Biden said Friday that he plans to ask Congress “for additional funding for a new vaccine” he would “tentatively” recommend “that everybody get.” The updated vaccine is expected in mid-September, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during her Monday briefing.

Fox hosts responded with ridicule and fury. Notably, several suggested that because the initial vaccines provided limited protection from infection from newer variants (even as they continued to provide strong protection from death or serious illness), people should be skeptical of the effectiveness of an updated shot specifically targeted to current strains. That’s a recipe for Fox’s viewers to once again put their health in danger by declining the shots.

Sean Hannity once garnered unearned credit from mainstream reporters over a tepid snippet about the vaccines. But since coming under fire from right-wing rivals and walking back even those remarks, he’s rarely missed an opportunity to demonstrate his vaccine skepticism.

“Straight ahead, COVID madness coming back,” he said, teasing a Monday night segment. “More draconian measures and a new vaccine that I'm sure they're going to tell you is absolutely safe. Like the last one? Straight ahead.”

Video

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CitationFrom the August 28, 2023, edition of Fox News' Hannity.

After the break, he introduced Biden’s comments by saying, “Here we go again,” then asked Fox contributor Tomi Lahren, “Isn't this the same Joe Biden, same government that said that if you got the vaccine, that you'd never get COVID, you'd never transmit COVID and that were proven dead wrong? Isn't that the same government?”

Lahren replied that “if the Biden administration and leftists everywhere were that concerned about a new COVID strain, a new COVID variant, that southern border would be closed,” adding, “If the American people are ever dumb enough to fall for this again, we deserved to fail as a country. But I don't believe we are dumb enough to fall for it again. Not this time.”

Hannity went on to say that while he was not giving “medical advice,” he was “not listening to them” about the vaccines because “I don't believe a word they say. They've been proven wrong again and again and again.”

Likewise, while guest-hosting Fox’s prime-time “comedy” show Gutfeld!, Jimmy Faila argued that Biden’s call for a new shot was unnecessary because “unlike the Clintons, the virus wasn’t nearly as dangerous as we were told.”

“Now, I'll admit it's nice to see this White House making news for a drug besides cocaine,” Faila said. “But there's no need to discuss any drugs because the vaccines didn't stop transmission.”

Faila went on to express confusion about why politicians would say COVID-19 “would have been way worse” if they hadn’t been vaccinated, adding, “Like, you're saying it didn't work, OK? The government was wrong about every single thing they pushed on us during COVID, especially mask mandates, lockdowns, and vaccines.”

Fox could have responded to the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines, which were developed under then-President Donald Trump and are remarkably effective in preventing serious COVID-19 cases (with rare side effects), by urging viewers to get the shots. But the network instead ran a multiyear campaign against the vaccines while relentlessly hyping ineffective drugs popular among right-wing influencers. Any moral responsibility its hosts felt for their audience was apparently overrun by their reflexive opposition to Biden and their recognition that antivax commentary was “great for ratings.” 

These attacks on the vaccination campaign had deadly consequences. Polls routinely show the network’s viewers were less likely to say they were, or planned to get, vaccinated than people who get their news from other sources.One recent study found that “excess mortality was significantly higher for Republican voters than Democratic voters after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults, but not before."

But Fox is undeterred by the destructive impact of its vaccine coverage. The network is doing its best to inflame viewers as its extremist competitors baselessly fearmonger over the prospect of “new lockdowns” ahead of the 2024 election. And that means more of them are going to die.

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Fox has pushed COVID propaganda for two years. The cost has been staggering.

03/01/22 8:30 AM EST

Fox’s antivax programming is a moral abomination, but at least it’s “great for ratings”

09/28/21 10:27 AM EDT

I went on parental leave. Three months later, Fox is still killing its viewers.

01/25/22 12:50 PM EST

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mma 8 23

Citation From the August 29, 2023, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

In a desperate attempt to deny the impacts of climate change, Fox’s newest prime-time darling Jesse Watters hosted Judith Curry, a disgraced climate contrarian and the co-founder of a private consulting company funded in part by oil industry groups. According to reporting from DeSmog, Curry’s clients include petroleum companies, electric utilities, and natural gas energy traders that she charges $400 an hour for consultation on weather-related risks and forecast applications.

Based on Media Matters’ internal database, it’s been four years since Curry last appeared on Fox News. She was also recently featured in another Murdoch-owned media property: The New York Post. In an August 9 article, Curry made the false claim that the consensus on climate change is manufactured and suggested that scientists are financially incentivized to push the idea that climate change is caused by human activity.

During the prime-time segment, Watters failed to mention Curry’s ties to the fossil fuel industry, as well as her history of testifying on behalf of Republican congress members to deny the importance of climate action.  Curry also frequently makes appearances with other climate

curry echoed Watters’ egregious brand of climate denial, arguing that scientists have “seriously mischaracterized” the threat of climate change and warning against “hasty decisions” to invest in wind and solar energy. She added that the “dominant factor” in climate change is “far and away” the “natural climate variability” of the earth.

Curry’s opinions are refuted by climate experts. In fact, climate impacts have been quantified in extreme weather (such as the record-shattering global heatwave in July that impacted millions across North America, Europe, and Asia), and scientists have repeatedly warned about the dire consequences of inaction.

Watters ended his interview with praise for Curry, an unsurprising gesture given his penchant for climate conspiracy theories.

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1. ### Fox News' Bret Baier runs COVID segment casting doubt on vaccine boosters and questioning the number of deaths reported

08/28/23 7:25 PM EDT

2. ### Fox News' Jesse Watters calls COVID-19 vaccine booster shots “a huge scam”

08/28/23

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mma 8 23

WATTERS (HOST): Joe Biden visited the Grand Canyon today to designate it a national monument. This would be the 130th national monument, but as always is the case with Joe Biden, you have to follow the money. When you designate something as a national monument, you automatically stop all industrial and commercial activity in the area, meaning what Joe Biden's really doing is blocking mining activity on a million acres bordering the Grand Canyon. What kind of mining? Uranium mining. Now, why would Joe Biden block uranium mining?

...

So you have to ask, why Joe Biden, who says he's anti-Russia, is funding Russia's dangerous uranium monopoly that puts America's national security and energy independence at risk? Why is our Secretary of State Antony Blinken giving Rosatom execs visas to come speak in DC? Why is the only major Russian company that Biden left off the sanctions list Rosatom? Russia is not only using the billion dollars to fund the Ukraine war, they're modernizing their own nuke arsenal and pointing more lethal weapons at us.Russia's Rosatom's building nuclear reactors in Iran and helping China ramp up its nuke program. 

So, instead of mining uranium here at home -- remember made in America Joe, union jobs Joe, no emissions Joe -- why wouldn't he starve this dirty Russian company of cash?It's like Keystone all over again. His entire energy policy favors Russia and China, why is that? 

Well, does it have anything to do with the three and a half million dollars the Russians paid the Biden's? Or the Porsche Panamera that the Kazakhstanis gifted Hunter? Does it have anything to do with the three and half carat diamond that the Chinese slipped the first son? There's something very mysterious going on in the international uranium market that involves the Biden's and the Russians.

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2x? 8 23

JESSE WATTERS (CO-HOST): This is a psyop against the American people by big business and the Democratic Party to worry you into giving you more of their money. You know, the world's going to change, everyone's going to die, "Tax me, tax me, tax me." And when someone is that anxious, they will do anything to solve the problem. And the government says, "We just need to spend more money to solve the problem," and that money goes to their donors.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-new**s-jesse-watters-**calls-department-justice-democrat-stormtroopers

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-host-links-joe-bidens-interview-weather-channel-hunter-biden

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laptop i assume watters?

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-claims-house-gops-star-witness-said-exact-opposite-everything-he-said-0

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how Jesse Watters’ 'gross attempt at humor' sent a major trade association into 'damage control': report

Alex Henderson

https://www.alternet.org/jesse-watters-2662031859/

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OMFG // antifa BLM BS oregon a couple years back?

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

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

Special PROGRAMS

CLIMATE & ENERGY

WRITTEN BY ALLISON FISHER

PUBLISHED 08/07/23

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

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

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

1 in

1. response to extreme weather that grounded planes in the Northeast, Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy said the left is “trying to control the weather” and “trying to be God.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [7/3/23]
2. Responding to calls for climate action, Newsmax host Eric Bolling denied that human activity is responsible for warming: “Real scientists, meaning those not purchased by the kings of propaganda, well, they’ll tell you there is actually no such thing as climate change.” Newsmax, Eric Bolling The Balance, [7/11/23]
3. Fossil fuel shill Steve Milloy on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight: “The Earth is greener than ever before. Have we affected the planet and wildlife? Yeah, sure. But you know, in the end, it's been, I think, positive. The Earth is carrying more life now than ever before thanks to warming, thanks to CO2, thanks to fossil fuel use.” Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, [7/11/23]
4. Newsmax host Greg Kelly said that “LGBTQ+IA whatever has been kind of pushed so relentlessly. … I think climate change and the whole phony debate about it has something to do with it,” suggesting the goal is to decrease population in order to reduce climate impacts. Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, [7/11/23]
5. Fox host Jesse Watters suggested that U.S. special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry made it “impossible” to believe in climate change because according to Watters he lied about using a private plane.:{ Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, :(style="background-color:#ffffffff"):}:[7/13/23:{]}:
6. Conservative radio and Fox News host Mark Levin on his radioshow said climate change is a religion not based on science: “This is a religion. This is an ideology. This isn’t science. ...Don't you see how hot it is in Nevada? In the middle of the damn summer?It's what we have air conditioning for.”Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, [7/13/23]
7. Far-right media host Steven Crowder claims that carbon dioxide is not pollution because plants use it: “Is carbon dioxide the — basically, you know, the neurotoxin atmospheric poison that people make it out to be? Because you just pointed out plants thrive on it.” Rumble, Louder with Crowder, [7/15/23]
8. Fox host Greg Gutfeld attempted to downplay the record-breaking heat with bizarre logic: “The problem with using weather — like saying, ‘This place broke records’ — how many states,how many countries didn't break records? Nobody ever provides you the context. They’re going, ‘Three countries had record-breaking heat waves.’ It’s like, well, how many countries are there?” Fox News, The Five, [7/17/23]
9. The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh claimed that the record heat is not a result of human activity but the sun: “The sun … that’s what calls the shots on Earth. It determines the temperature. It determines everything in terms of weather. … And until you can figure out a way to literally control the sun, there is basically nothing we can do to intentionally and significantly raise, lower, or otherwise affect the temperature on Earth.” The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, [7/18/23]
10. The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro: “Thank God we have this thing called air conditioning. … You know what’s a great cure for being super-duper hot outside? Being a first world country.” The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, [7/20/23]
11. Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on America Reports: “This is not an overly hot July. ... Hot weather happens in some places; cooler weather happens in other places. We do not have a climate catastrophe.” Fox News, America Reports, [7/21/23]
12. :{Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on climate science and why carbon dioxide is not pollution: “The science is not solid. The science is debated. They look at science as if it is religious, irrefutable dogma.” Kirk added, “The built-in premise of the climate hoax is carbon is bad. OK, well, carbon is life, actually. …:{ Don’t plants thrive on carbon dioxide?}:” :{Real America’s Voice:(style="background-color:#ffff66ff"):}:, The Charlie Kirk Show, [7/24/23]}:
13. On The Ingraham Angle, American Majority founder Ned Ryun called climate change a “hoax”: “It is nothing more than an attempt to manipulate people into a state of fear to have them give more control over to a ruling elitewho would take this hoax and enforce it through a whole host of means.” Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [7/27/23]
14. :{:{On America’s Newsroom, fossil fuel shill Daniel Turner deliberately conflated weather with climate}:: “And if you look at the weather forecast for this great city, where I’m born and raised, next Friday is mid-70s. So we are in what's called a heat wave.” :{Fox News, America’s Newsroom:(style="background-color:#6633ffff"):}:, [7/28/23]}:
15. Climate denier Marc Morano on Jesse Watters Primetime blamed global wildfires on arsonists, dismissing the role of climate change::{ “This is a global problem of people starting this. Now, is it climate change? Well, this would be the equivalent of blowing up a dam or sabotaging a dam and allowing a valley to flood and then saying, oh, look, climate change is causing more floods.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, :(style="background-color:#ffffffff"):}:[7/28/23:{]}:

…

Next page

Related

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

07/20/23

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

07/11/23

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

07/03/23

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

//

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

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

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/these-are-political-war-crimes-fox-news-jesse-watters-launches-unhinged-rant-reaction

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not ingram watters here

mma 8 23

former President Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday on multiple federal charges connected to his criminal schemes to keep himself in power after losing the 2020 election, which culminated in a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters. At this historic moment, it is also worth reexamining the public role that Fox News played in promoting one of Trump’s key efforts to stay in power — and which is now the central crime in the indictment — by creating fake Electoral College votes in states where Joe Biden had won the popular vote.

The August 1 indictment charges Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, and details the manner in which he and six unnamed co-conspirators manufactured the fake electoral votes. This scheme essentially involved a bait-and-switch, at first justifying the fake elector slates as a contingency plan in case a recount or court case were to flip a state’s election result in his favor, in line with a historical precedent from Hawaii’s presidential recount in 1960. However, even after no such results were flipped — indeed, Trump lost a state recount as well as dozens of legal challenges — he and his co-conspirators still attempted to convince then-Vice President Mike Pence to treat the fake electors as if they were real, and to reject the certification of real electoral votes for Biden.

The indictment also charges Trump with obstructing an official proceeding (the counting of the electoral votes on January 6, 2021) and engaging in a conspiracy against Americans’ civil rights to have their votes counted, based on his refusal to immediately tell his supporters to leave the Capitol, and that he and co-conspirators sought to use the violence as a means to further delay the electoral count. These further counts, in a sense, simply stem further out from the fraudulent electors scheme itself.

Two weeks ago, on July 18, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced state charges against the 16 fake Trump electors in her state, on counts of forgery punishable by up to 14 years in prison. In addition, the Trump campaign’s fake electors in Georgia could also face charges in the ongoing probe by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of Trump’s efforts to subvert his election loss in that state. Eight of Georgia’s fake electors have already accepted an immunity deal, indicating that they could potentially provide evidence against other figures in the Trump campaign.

Fox News played a major role in promoting the fake electors conspiracy at the time, including hosting the major public announcement of the scheme on the morning of December 14, 2020, the day when the Electoral College delegates voted across the country. Fox hosts and guests repeatedly invoked Trump’s false claim that Congress or the vice president could simply treat the fake electoral votes as real ones, or that they presented some legitimate rival claim despite not having the certification of any state authority.

• On Fox & Friends, former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller hyped “an alternate slate of electors in the contested states.”Miller said: “As we speak, today, an alternate slate of electors in the contested states is going to vote, and we're going to send those results up to Congress. This will ensure that all of our legal remedies remain open.” In addition to claiming that Trump could win a court case on the election results, Miller added, “And likewise, Congress has that opportunity as well to do the right thing,” suggesting that Congress might simply count the false electoral votes instead of the genuinely certified Biden slates. Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [12/14/20
• [vid 12 14]
• fox contributor and law professor Jonathan Turley on Fox & Friends coined the Trump fake elector plan as “the Death Star strategy” while talking about its history and odds of success.Turley said, “It’s very hard to do and it’s very unlikely to succeed. But they can force a question to the presiding officer, who would be Vice President Pence.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [12/14/20]

• Fox national correspondent Bryan Llenas uncritically reported that “Republican electors in Pennsylvania and Georgia met separately to cast their own votes for President Trump just to keep all legal options open.”On Fox’s Special Report, Llenas echoed Miller’s phrasing of the fake electors as a “legal” precaution, saying: “The historic Electoral College vote occurring as President Trump continues to contest the election results. In fact, Republican electors in Pennsylvania and Georgia met separately to cast their own votes for President Trump just to keep all legal options open.” Fox News, *Special Report*, [12/14/20]
• Fox anchor Martha MacCallum: Fake electors were voting “in solidarity with” Trump’s effort to “keep on fighting until the bitter end.”On her Fox “news”-side program, MacCallum said: “The Trump team says it will keep on fighting until the bitter end on January 20,” which she incorrectly said is “when Congress makes the final certification.” She continued: “In solidarity with that today, Republican electors in Pennsylvania and Georgia went ahead and cast protest votes in favor of President Trump, in hopes that a future lawsuit might succeed. This has actually worked once before in the state of Hawaii back in 1960, when Democrats challenged Richard Nixon's victory and flipped the state to John F. Kennedy.” Fox News, *The Story with Martha MacCallum*, [12/14/20]
• Then-Fox Business host Lou Dobbs legitimized the efforts of the fake electors.Dobbs uncritically reported that “Republican electors in Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Georgia meeting separately today to cast their own votes for President Trump — a procedural move that keeps all of President Trump's legal options open.” Fox Business, *Lou Dobbs Tonight*, [12/14/20]
• On his separate radio show, Fox host Mark Levin falsely claimed the fake electors were “sent by” the states, and specifically endorsed the fake Michigan electors fraudulently swearing that they met at the state Capitol. Levin said: “Now, as this process goes on, it does become harder and harder and harder to reverse course. But the final step is on January 6. January 6. Now, Pennsylvania and Georgia, the Republicans in those states have sent alternative votes, or are, to the archivist of the United States.” He then specifically legitimized the fake Michigan electors, saying: “The Michigan Republicans were going to do exactly the same thing, but the fascistic governorthere literally had state troopers block the legislative entry so the electors couldn't meet, the Republican electors, to send their electors to the archivist. I suppose they could meet somewhere else.” (The state’s Republican legislative leaders had publicly explained that the state Capitol building was closed to the public due to credible threats of violence.) Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, [12/14/20; Detroit Free Press, “Legislative office buildings in Lansing closed Monday over security concerns,” 12/13/20]

• Dobbs continued to promote the fake elector scheme and the possibility that the Republicans in the House could name Trump as president. The next day, Dobbs said: “Seven states have chosen a slate of electors for both Joe Biden and President Trump. They are Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. Now, if the House and the Senate cannot agree on which electors to accept, an untested constitutional procedure could result in each state being given one vote, which they would allocate to either Biden or Trump. And since the Republicans hold 26 of 50 statehouses, there would exist at least the mathematical possibility that President Trump could be named the constitutionally elected president.” Fox Business, Lou Dobbs Tonight, [12/15/20]
• Dobbs declared “it’s shameful” that the fake Michigan electors were barred from the state Capitol, while his guest Phill Kline promoted the fake electors scheme.After Kline complained that the Democratic governor “effectively chained the doors of the Michigan legislature and prohibited Republicans from coming in,” Dobbs said: “Putting the state police to guard the door against Republican electors. … It’s shameful.” Kline then legitimized the scheme by pointing to historic examples of different electors being presented, while calling for continued investigations of fake election fraud claims. Fox Business, Lou Dobbs Tonight, [12/15/20]

• Fox Business guest Ken Blackwell falsely claimed that Joe Biden was not the president-elect because “seven states are sending competing slates of electors to the Congress.”Blackwell continued pushing the fake elector scheme as a way to “really push this through” and reelect Trump. Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, [12/16/20]
• On Hannity, then-Trump administration press secretary and campaign spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany mentioned “an alternative slate of electors” that may change the outcome of the election. McEnany said: “In the four states that we saw a lot of problems and with those big metro areas, the only metro areas where Joe Biden beat Hillary Clinton, ironically. In those states, there has been an alternative slate of electors voted upon, that Congress will decide in January. So, we will see what happens.” Fox News, Hannity, [12/17/20]
• Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo approvingly played a video clip of online right-wing personality Christian Walker touting the fake electors. In the clip, Walker declared: “And for your information, seven states sent their GOP electors to vote for Trump today: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico. This preserves President Trump's right to remedy the fraud with his own electors. This isn’t over yet.” Bartiromo then told Walker: “I just love that.” Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, [12/18/20]

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note same time as razor wire kia texas

https://www.alternet.org/bombing-mexico-shoplifting-terrorist-activity/

an 7 23 no lnx

Fox hosts: Bombing Mexico 'a good idea' because shoplifting is 'terrorist activity'

Maya Boddie July 26, 2023

During the Wednesday, July 25, segment ofFox News' The Five, the conservative co-hosts Jesse Watters, Jeanine Pirro, Dana Perino and Greg Gutfeld suggested Mexican drug cartels are behind a shoplifting surge in America, and to combat the alleged issue — the U.S. military should bomb them.

:{:{}:

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Host Jesse Watters began the conversation saying, "While the liberal media gets a crash course on crime, we're learning that Mexican drug cartels are fueling America's shoplifting surge. They're selling the stolen stuff online and then laundering the profits through, guess where?Chinese brokers. So, Dana, CNN finally discovered crime is a crisis in San Francisco."

Dana Perino replied, "This is after they made fun of us for pointing it out last year...On this point, I think that finding out that there areMexican cartels behind this, makes me feel maybe there's hope that we could figure out a way to do something about it. So the state attorneys general are banding together and they're like let's go after it. But also they need help from the retailers. The retailers don't want to be looted like this either. But the problem, to me, is that all this stuff gets taken and then it's resold online. Like on Amazon, for example. So can Amazon help us out? Somehow, can they figure out a way to track them? We've got AI, we've got all these other tools. There must be a way to try to prevent all of this from happening."

READ MORE: Donald Trump complains that 'somebody leaked' his plans to launch Patriot missiles at Mexican cartels

In April, CNN interviewed Mission Local managing editor Joe Eskenazi about San Francisco's surge in crime, and the editor noted, "There is crime in downtown San Francisco, but there always has been.I think the notion that these businesses were driven out by crime is frankly dishonest. That's always been a factor."

Eskenazi later added, "San Francisco also has lots of property crime because there's a great divergence of wealth and people steal things. But San Francisco’s violent crime rate is at a near historic low right now."

Watters then said, "You can put up the task force, maybe with the FBI, bring in the DEA, make it transnational Greg, since the cartels are involved."

Greg Gutfeldreplied, "It's weird to see these cartels diversify. They're almost like Amazon now. They're doing drugs, smuggling and theft, pretty soon they're gonna have their own podcast. There's another thing that we said a long time ago and I bet we don't -- bombing the car-- remember we said we were talking about bombing the cartels? And people were going, 'No, no, no, that's an act of war, that's in another country.' Yeah, but we do that to terrorists as well, and this is kind of a terrorist activity. And the thing is, now, we see this at least on the Republican side, a lot of candidates are talking about doing it and I think it's a good idea. I think we need to elect a president who values a border. That's the important thing. Bomb these. And there's, like, one cartel we can cooperate with, let them kill the rest. Encourage them to kill the rest."

READ MORE: MTG says U.S. should be 'bombing Mexican cartels' and 'Antifa BLM rioters' instead of 'aiding' Ukraine

Watters then asked Pirro, "Remember when theChinesewere ripping off our DVDs and we sent the entire federal government after them and we actually were pretty effective. This is pretty similar in terms of now it's shoplifting.

She said, "Yeah, and I remember prosecuting a case for the Motion Picture Association because what they were doing was people were going in and they were just making copies of movies," to which Watters replied, "I've watched a few movies like that where the guy just holds the camcorder and the finger? I mean, my friend watched it."

Pirro added, "This is part of a, you know, global organized criminal activity. The problem is that this organization is not just doing retail theft. They're also doing human trafficking. They're doing fentanyl. They're doing all kinds of crime and so they're expanding their criminal network. And now they're going to be so powerful, I don't know if we're ever going to be able to defeat them. Because we've got a president right now, who, you know, with the border -- and they're in charge at the border -- there is nothing going on that's preventing the fentanyl from coming in. We hear about an arrest every now and then. It's usually the locals making the arrests, not the federal government. But the issue is whether or not these criminals are being prosecuted. That guy walked out, right, and then the person in the store says it's a police state for everyone. So for the victims it's a police state, with the criminal, it's not a police state.

That's the actual problem. It's low risk and it's high reward. Low risk because the employee's not gonna punch you out, you're not gonna get arrested, you're gonna make a fortune. You're gonna start this business and you're gonnalaunder your money through China. And unless we get serious about this, whether it's bombing or whatever -- you have to come up with something. These organizations are dangerous. They are absolutely dangerous. And for everybody at home, your insurance is gonna go up because of it. The cost of retail and consumer products are gonna go up. You're paying for this."

The New York Times' Maggie Haberman reported last year that "President Donald J. Trump in 2020 asked Mark T. Esper, his defense secretary, about the possibility of launching missiles into Mexico to “destroy the drug labs” and wipe out the cartels, maintaining that the United States’ involvement in a strike against its southern neighbor could be kept secret, Mr. Esper recounts in his upcoming memoir. When Mr. Esper raised various objections, Mr. Trump said that 'we could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly,' adding that 'no one would know it was us.'"

READ MORE: 'Bomb the Mexicans' is the GOP’s new 'build the wall': columnist

However, Haberman wrote experts argue that, "Patriot missiles are the primary surface-to-air missile used by the U.S. military, which is designed as anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missile interceptors.As there are no reports of airborne drug labs in Mexican air space.

Trump supporter U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) complained earlier this year that American is "not bombing the Mexican cartels who are poisoning Americans every single day. And I know that sounds extreme. I'm not talking about the Mexican government or the Mexican people. I'm talking about the cartels. They're murdering Americans."

Miami Herald columnist Jean Guerrero notes the "Calls for U.S. attacks on Mexican drug cartels, recently discussed in secret if at all, have become a loudly expressed talking point for Republicans who are trying to exploit the violent rhetoric for political gain," highlighting Trump's 2024 GOP opponent and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' "recent promises to deploy the military against drug cartels, along with his support for executing smugglers and his assertion that 'you absolutely can use deadly force.'"

She argues, "Republicans aren't making a good faith argument, and that their rhetoric has more to do with racism than finding solutions to the ongoing opioid crisis."

Axios reports earlier this year, Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) said, "If my colleagues were serious about addressing the cartels, they would start with addressing guns here in America," noting that the cartels "are able to outgun Mexican local law enforcement because of American guns."

READ MORE: 'Time to reverse course': NYT Editorial Board endorses ending the War on Drugs

Watch Media Matters' video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Lawmakers readying bipartisan bills to authorize Pentagon resources to combat fentanyl: report

CNN's full report is available at this link. Axios' report is here.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Republican senator: Mexico 'would be eating cat food' without the United States ›

Arizona GOP 'voter fraud' witness implicates Trump-loving lawmaker in drug cartel bribe claims ›

'Bomb the Mexicans' is the GOP’s new 'build the wall': columnist ›

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whadda tool

https://www.mediamatters.org/jesse-watters/fox-news-jesse-watters-left-rushing-blame-global-warming-dangerous-heatwave

https://www.mediamatters.org/jesse-watters/jesse-watters-bringing-his-egregious-brand-climate-denial-8pm-hour

fox News host Jesse Watters, whose primetime show is slated to take over the 8 p.m. slot, has successfully spun misinformation about renewable energy, decarbonization, and even public health initiatives into ubiquitous talking points that are now routinely used by climate change deniers.

Watters’ unrelenting posture of condescension falsely brands climate change mitigation as a corruption-laced grift to leech money from unsuspecting Americans, inviting fossil fuel shills and climate deniers to fill in the gaps of his outlandish theories. For Watters, the depths of the supposed lies from the environmental movement are only made more ironic by the triviality of the climate crisis and its consequences for his audience.

In the past year, Watters doubled down on feeding this delusion:

• Watters said that global warming is “more about corporate propaganda. They’re just saying, ‘You have to buy, or you’re going to die.’” He continued, “You got to get a new car; you got to get solar panels; you got to get a new stove. Who do you think has the money? They get the money and our prices go up.” Fox News, *The Five*, [2/1/23]
• In a segment on gas stoves Watters said, “They’re trying to force their green industrial revolution on us, whether we want it or not. Seems like this is just a ploy to get them to buy more stuff the Democrats are selling.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [1/10/23]
• Before an interview with renewable energy opponent Michael Schellenberger, Watters said that “climate change hysteria” is “all cash”:“It’s all a ruse. So what’s the climate hysteria really about? It’s all cash…The climate stuff sounds to me like corporate America’s making us buy new stuff, and then making us feel guilty for not buying it.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [1/3/23]
• Watters claimed that CNN modeling sea level rise of New York City is “just to scare us into paying more taxes to the government to fight global warming.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [2/16/22]
• In a segment where he claimed voters don’t care about climate change, he said, “Certain parts of the world will get a tiny bit warmer, but the United States will do just fine.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/20/22]
• Using a popular climate change denier talking point, Watters insisted that, “Nowhere though have experts been more wrong than on climate change.”Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [4/12/22]

Consequently, his show, Jesse Watters Primetime, has been a boon to various bad actors and industry executives in their efforts to hinder an economy-wide transition away from fossil fuels by vilifying wind farms without evidence.

Watters unleashed a deluge of misinformation about offshore wind and whales

Watters was seemingly the first major TV news network host to parrot misinformation peddled by a partially fossil fuel-funded campaign against offshore wind projects on the east coast. Watters’ segments on offshore wind farms along the east coast claimed they were responsible for dozens of whale deaths in New York and New Jersey. This became a recurring talking point used by right-wing media and conservative politicians to slow renewable energy development and shape public opinion about offshore wind.

On January 11, Watters platformed a fossil fuel industry-funded envoy flimsily disguised as an “ocean advocate” for Protect Our Coast NJ. His guest blamed recent whale deaths in New Jersey on offshore wind development. Notably, Protect Our Coast NJ and another group, Save Our Beach View, were created with the help of the libertarian think tank the Caesar Rodney Institute, which has a history of hostility toward climate and environmental policies. The institute has also received funding from the fossil fuel industry.

In the following weeks, Fox News followed Watters’ lead and aired numerous segmentsinsinuating that the recent deaths of whales across New York and New Jersey beaches were caused by the development of offshore wind turbines.

The influence of Watters’ segments extended to Facebook. Media Matters looked at the most popular Facebook posts mentioning offshore wind energy from Jan 1 to March 1, and found that a clip from the segment mentioned above was included in the most popular post on Facebook during that time period, garnering 19,500 interactions at the time of the study’s publication.

• Watters complained that New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is giving wind company Orsted a tax  break to build “the same windmills that kill our whales.” “Murphy’s using federal funds to give a billion-dollar tax break to a Danish wind company to build windmills off the Jersey coast. The same windmills that kill our whales. And destroy the fishing industry. And the view. All because he wants to go green.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/11/23]
• In an interview with climate change denier Patrick Moore, who falsely claims to be the co-founder of Greenpeace, Watters said that wind turbines are “not good for the Jersey shore, for the Atlantic Ocean, and, as you said, it's not great for consumers either”: “As whales are being massacred by green tech, Greenpeace has nothing to say? ... Why aren't they chaining themselves to windmills demanding they come down? They’re just sitting in their air-conditioned offices, feet up, as the whale population drops?” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [2/1/23]
• In the same episode, Watters said, “A lot of people think construction for these big windmill projects is just slaughtering these whales.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime,* [2/1/23]
• Watters falsely claimed that “experts” think offshore wind farms are killing whales:“Last month, six whales have all washed up dead on the Jersey Shore. … Something unusual is happening to these whales. Maybe this has something to do with it. New Jersey is preparing to build massive wind farms right off the coast. And the whales are paying the price probably, these experts are saying these projects are killing these whales.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [1/11/23]

Watters excels at stoking right-wing culture war outrage

Watters has escalated efforts to fearmonger over various initiatives meant to update household appliances like gas stoves, washing machines, and even ovens at New York City pizza shops. Watters encapsulates the type of coverage that has proven to be immensely successful at mobilizing right-wing outrage and placing the blame for imaginary problems squarely on policies meant to combat climate change.

In June, alongside a plethora of other right-wing influencers, Watters insisted that New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the New York Department of Environmental Protection were planning to eliminate authentic New York pizza.

The story was false. Watters and other Fox News hosts fabricated it based on a New York Post article about a new rule asking pizza shops to install smoke scrubbers when using older coal and wood-fired ovens.

One far-right activist, Scott LoBaido, stood in front of City Hall throwing pizzas as a publicity stunt. Watters had LoBaido, who has organized with the Proud Boys, on his show and called him “a hero.” Watters has attacked and distorted other policies related to climate change adaptation that could have any minor impact on the general public in order to convince Fox viewers they are victims of climate change policy rather than climate change impacts.

• Watters met up with Florida Gov. and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis at a pizza shop in New York City to complain about the non-existent effort to “ban coal-fired pizza ovens” because the city thinks “they’re causing global warming.”DeSantis said, “When they went after gas stoves, we just made gas stoves tax free in Florida, no sales tax. We will do something similar for these coal-fired ovens.” He added, “You have an itch on the left, they want to control behavior.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [6/29/23]
• Watters claimed that New York City Mayor Eric Adams wants to “split up the beautiful marriage between pizza and coal-fired ovens. He is floating the idea of banning restaurants from using wood and coal ovens because that is what is going to save the environment," Watters continued. “So the vegan mayor thinks that cooking a pizza for two minutes in a coal oven is going to destroy the planet. Wrong. … What are we supposed to do? Microwave the pizza? It is going to crush small business and it’s going to crush everybody who loves good pizza.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [6/27/23]
• In response to a study looking at how thinner, warmer air could lead to more home runs, Watters accused liberals of ruining baseball: “Now liberals want to ruin the best part of baseball. A bunch of scientists are blaming climate change for the rise in dingers. … So home runs in recent years didn't have to do with the juiced balls, better strength and conditioning, better scouting or analytics, it's about the weather, guys. So sorry Aaron Judge, you broke the home run record because it gets hotter in July now.“ Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [4/14/23]
• Discussing the Biden administration’s investment in electrification, Watters claimed that electric cars and appliances will “not change the Earth’s temperature.”“They are forcing us to get a vaccine, to wear masks, enough already with the forcing. Let us choose what we want to do. But light bulbs, don't get me started. The gas stoves, don't get me started. … It is not going to lower the Earth's temperature at all. All it does is make the donors happy because this is a religion to them, and it makes my guys in Detroit happy because they sell these things, and we pay for half of it. It is the taxpayers subsidizing this green revolution.” Fox News, *The Five*, [4/12/23]
• Watters suggested that climate advocates’ effort to ban gas stoves is an attack on progress while relying on a familiar Fox narrative that equates climate action with infringement on personal liberties: “Something Primetime is noticing is a relentless attack on progress. The internal combustion engine, natural gas, nuclear power, bottled water and even medicine. … Why would people want your life to be more difficult and more expensive?” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [2/1/22]

Watters weaves racism into his environmental monologues

Staying true to his roots as an alumnus of *The O’Reilly Factor*, and taking cues from Tucker Carlson, Watters wove casual racism into his monologues on environmental issues.

On that show, Watters was known for conducting racist ambush interviews. In an infamous 2016 segment, he went to New York City’s Chinatown and asked people if they knew karate, as well as asked them, “Am I supposed to bow to say hello?" The segment was roundly condemned as being disgraceful and offensive. Watters brings this same energy to discussions mocking environmental justice in an apparent attempt to justify the West’s role in climate degradation. He also launched personal attacks against Biden administration officials who play significant roles in climate and energy policy — particularly women of color — in an overtly racist way.

• Attacking a trip that Vice President Kamala Harris took to Ghana, he accused her of being “the black face of American colonialism.”:“Everything to power the Green New Deal with. Is Kamala Harris the black face of American colonialism? Well, she is there for the lithium and cobalt. The mother load is in the Congo, and it's being mined by children as young as four.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [3/27/23]
• Claimed that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is only in that position because “she’s Indian American”:“The salsa maker, Deb Haaland, she's in charge of the Interior, she’s also a basket weaver and probably the dumbest woman in the cabinet and that's saying a lot, has no idea of the type of rare Earth minerals we're sitting on in this country. She doesn't even care. She's an Indian American; that's why she was put at Interior.” Fox News, *The Five*, [3/30/23]
• Dismissed the idea of environmental racism:“The Chinese are the ones polluting everybody. They are the most racist, statistically.” Fox News, *The Five*, [3/10/23]
• Suggested that the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, was an intentional attempt to fight racism by “spilling toxic chemicals on poor people.”Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [2/14/23]
• During coverage of COP27, Watters said the U.S. should not have to help poor nations pay for climate change adaptation because “we industrialized first.”He complained that the European Union should not have put pressure on the U.S. to agree to a deal, saying, “How many world wars have we bailed the Europeans out of? And then they go shiv us in the kidneys?” Finally, he said that the U.S. should not help Pakistan recover from catastrophic flooding because “they kept Bin Laden there for a decade.” Fox News, *The Five*, [11/21/22]

Watters dismisses established climate science

Watters goes out of his way to push climate change denial during extreme weather events, at the moments when the reality of climate change is most evident. As other TV news outlets are increasingly making the connection between heatwaves, wildfires, floods, and climate change, Watters often seeks to do the opposite and frames accurate coverage and crucial climate solutions as destructive and alarmist. He has even railed against public health advisories during wildfires, encouraging viewers to put themselves and their families in danger.

• While several major American cities were experiencing hazardous air quality as a result of wildfires in Canada, Watters said that “it’s normal” for the Northeastern United States to be engulfed in smoke: “So this is normal and what they're doing is they're preying on ignorance. Not everybody knows that burning forests from Canada has blacked out North America dozens and dozens of times over the last 300 years. They're banking on people not knowing that.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [6/8/23]
• Watters insisted that there are fewer wildfires now than 100 years ago to dismiss the role of climate change and prop up the forest management argument:“You might be surprised to find out over the last 100 years, there have been less wildfires, not more. The Wall Street Journal says in the early 1900s about 4% of land worldwide burned every year by 2021 that was down to 2.5%. So instead of obsessing over climate change, they should take a look at forest management.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [6/7/23]
• Attacked government officials for suggesting masking to protect against wildfire smoke and said he “didn’t listen” and doesn’t care about these advisories: “Everybody is saying stay inside, but I didn't listen,” Watters said at the top of his show over the chyron “Jesse Braves ‘Hazardous’ Air Quality.” “Why? Because I love you,” he continued. “I came into the city for you tonight. I braved the smoke so you could watch your favorite show. The air quality is hazardous. ‘Worse than 9/11.’ But, I said, I don't care. The show must go on.” Later in the segment, Watter said, “Other politicians went on TV and told us to quarantine like the good old days. … COVID, stay home and wear a mask. Smoke bomb, stay home, wear a mask. Elections, stay home, wear a mask. Nuke strike, stay home, wear a mask. The government's prepared for anything.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*,[6/7/23]
• Claimed that rain bombs aren’t real because Al Gore said they were: “Never trust an angry rich guy … And what's a rain bomb? Meteorologists are supposed to coin terms like that to scare viewers for ratings. What's next, snow nukes? Every ocean I have ever swam in has been freezing.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [1/18/23]
• During a heatwave in California, Watters attacked California Gov. Gavin Newsom for his response to the heatwave: “The facts here are pretty clear and the science tells us that the biggest threat to the environment isn't climate change; it's ridiculous climate change policies.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [9/9/22]
• Watters also completely ignored the real impact of climate change on extreme heat,proclaiming that “the environment’s better than ever" because the polar bear population doubled and coral reefs are growing again. Fox News,*Jesse Watters Primetime*, [9/7/22]

Watters takes every opportunity to vilify climate activists no matter how ridiculous the accusation

Right-wing media have sought to frame climate protesters engaging in non-violent direct action as aggressive, violent, and mentally ill, in order to make excuses for state efforts to criminalize civil disobedience. Watters is no exception, insisting that these activists are dangerously influential — even though most of their demands have not been met — and that their goal is to “bring society back to the stone age.” He has likened climate activism to a religion that is being forced on the general public, while working for a company that broadcasts weekly Christian nationalist sermons on one of its channels.

• Watters mocked Greta Thunberg for an apocalyptic statement she never made:“Got some bad news. We're all about to die. You heard that right. The world is ending. It was a hell of a run. Apparently, humanity only has like four and a half hours left until we are all extinct. Nothing we can do about it. Greta Thunberg said so. Five years ago Greta shared this bold prediction, quote, A top climate scientist is warning that climate change will wipe out all of humanity unless we stop using fossil fuels over the next five years.’”  Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [6/22/23]
• Watters claimed without evidence that protesters trying to save Atlanta’s Weelaunee Forest, which is slated to be the site of a new police training facility, were “plotting to kill cops”and that they were “all card-carrying members of Antifa.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [12/16/22]
• After Alaska’s snow crab population collapsed due in part to climate change causing a decrease in seasonal ice cover, Watters blamed “climate crazies” saying they were “holding the crabs hostage.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Tonight, [10/18/22]
• While discussing climate change protests with big oil shill Alex Epstein, Watters said “the logical conclusion” to climate activism is “human sacrifice.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [4/11/22]

The shake-up at Fox News will change little about the channel’s constant stream of lies. Ultimately, Watters uses similar climate denial talking points as numerous other hosts, but he has been able to wield them in a particularly damaging way that resonates with Fox’s audience and builds out the channel’s dangerous brand of misinformation.

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an 7 23

mma

fox News host Jesse Watters' mother called into the premiere of his new show on Monday night and encouraged him to stop promoting right-wing talking points such as attacking President Joe Biden's family and defending stripping Americans of their individual bodily autonomy.

"We have a very special guest on the line, a Democrat, my mom. Mom, how have you?" Watters began.

"Hello Jesse," his mother replied.

READ MORE: 'Whatever you want to call them': Jesse Watters ridicules the NAACP’s Florida travel advisory

"Hello there, mom. How have you enjoyed the show so far?" Watters asked.

"I have enjoyed the show," Watters' mom said. "I wanna say congratulations, honey bun. We are so proud of you and your accomplishments and you've worked so hard. Now let's aim to have you keep your job. And to that end, I do have some suggestions."

Watters' mother continued, "Do not tumble into any conspiracy rabbit holes. We do not wanna lose you, and we want no lawsuits. Okay? In keeping — I have a list here. In keeping with the Hippocratic Oath, do no harm. We need you to be kind and respectful. You yourself mentioned that humble is a stretch, so I get that. Use your voice responsibly to promote conversation that maintains a narrative thread. There, there really has been enough Biden bashing and the laptop is old. Perhaps you could suggest that your people take less interest, for example, in other people's bodies and talk about that."

Watch below via Media Matters for America

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mma 7 23

fox News’ evening lineup reshuffle, which rolls out next week with Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld joining Sean Hannity in prime time, shows that the network’s executives are determined to stave off its recent ratings collapse by doubling down on its fealty to Donald Trump. Together, the trio secures Fox’s most-watched hours as a safe space for the former president that will help keep him on a glide path to the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

Fox’s programming typically reflects the leading elements and ideas of the Republican Party, and the new lineup reflects its reinvention as a Trumpist personality cult.

Tucker Carlson, the longtime prime-time star Fox cut ties with in April, was another Trump partisan, to a point. But he also had an independent, preexisting reputation and drew notoriety for his particular set of noxious ideas. Carlson championed foreign autocrats and the blood-and-soil nationalism undergirding their regimes, became perhaps the nation’s most prominent and pernicious opponent of COVID-19 vaccines, led the right’s vicious smears of LGBTQ people, and trumpeted white nationalist views on race and immigration, including the blood-soaked “great replacement” conspiracy theory. Carlson used his prime-time show to manipulate Trump into adopting his positions and even offered veiled criticism when he thought Trump undermined his aims. (Privately, Carlson claimed of Trump, “I hate him passionately.”)

While Watters, Hannity, and Gutfeld all have long records of toxic commentary, no one would describe them as men of ideas. Hannity is a down-the-line Republican Party propagandist, devoted to the success of his party above all else. And Gutfeld and Watters are associated more with a mean-spirited, sarcastic affect and an own-the-libs mentality than any distinct viewpoint.

What Fox’s new prime-time triumvirate demonstrates is that hardcore support for Trump remains the ingredient that unites the right. All three are Trump loyalists, albeit in somewhat different flavors, who have proved willing to defend the authoritarian former president across two impeachments, two indictments, an attempted coup, a series of attacks on the rule of law and constitutional order, and innumerable bigoted eruptions. And unlike Carlson, the three hosts are much more likely to fall in line with whatever Trump decides to do, no matter how abhorrent, rather than try to push him in any particular direction.

Sean Hannity, Trump’s “shadow” White House chief of staff

vid ]

hannity, who retains his 9 p.m. ET time slot in the shakeup, needs no introduction as anotorious Trump sycophan**t who has had Trump’s back in virtually every major controversy since Trump announced his run for president in 2015. A right-wing media mainstay billed by his network as “the longest-running current primetime host in cable news in television history,” Hannity came around to Trump early in the 2016 primary, helped him to win the nomination and then the White House, and reached new heights of power and influence as a Trump presidential adviser.

The Fox host regularly offers Trump a platform for fawning interviews and generates (occasionally contradictory) talking points in his defense at a furious rate. The sprawling conspiracy theories Hannity concocts to explain away Trump’s flaws have dominated right-wing media discourse, spurred fruitless Justice Department inquiries, and even attracted enough of a response from Trump himself to trigger his impeachment.

All the while, Hannity has served Trump as a political operative of unprecedented scope for a member of the press, to the point where he was once deemed the “shadow” chief of staff by White House staffers. If you can imagine an unethical conflict of interest a TV host might have, Hannity has done it for Trump: policy adviser and communications guru, advertisement participant and script doctor, rally speaker and secret back channel, private confidant sharing nightly phone calls with the then-president and public shill taking coverage orders from his White House.

The depth of Hannity’s bootlicking loyalty to the former president can perhaps best be seen in his reaction to a January 2018 report from The New York Times that Trump had previously tried to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Hannity spent much of his show that night claiming that the Times’ reporting was likely wrong, stressing that his own sources were “not confirming that tonight.”

But by the end of the broadcast, after Fox News published a report lining up with the Times story, Hannity backpedaled furiously. He adopted a new talking point wholly inconsistent with his old one to maintain the position that Trump had done nothing wrong.

“So we have sources tonight just confirming to Ed Henry that, yeah, maybe Donald Trump wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict,” Hannity said. “Does he not have the right to raise those questions?”

“You know, we’ll deal with this tomorrow night,” Hannity added, before changing the topic to discuss a high-speed police chase.

Hannity will now be bracketed in the Fox lineup by Watters and Gutfeld. The new prime-time hosts and longtime Fox employees share not only his penchant for incendiary conspiracy theories and toxic commentary but also his Trumpist zeal.

Jesse Watters, an O’Reilly crony turned Trump loyalist [vid]

watters joined Fox as a production assistant in 2002 and spent years stalking and harassing the subjects of ambush interview segments for Fox star Bill O’Reilly’s show. But he catapulted to prominence during the Trump years, garnering a weekend show and a slot on The Five in 2017, before landing a weeknight program in Fox’s 7 p.m. hour in January 2022.

The timing of Watters’ ascension is no coincidence: He has provided the pro-Trump commentary Fox’s viewers demand. Trump drew rebukes for launching his 2016 presidential campaign with unhinged xenophobic vitriol — even from Fox founder Rupert Murdoch. But Watters, attuned to the sentiment among the network’s audience, praised Trump for having “tapped into the collective backbone of this country” and said that as president, he wouldn't “let illegal aliens come to the country and murder our women.”

He never looked back, declaring that Trump couldn’t be racist because he has socialized with Black people, defending his most bigoted comments, praising his immigrant child separation policy, and standing up for his family, his cronies, and his responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and police brutality protests.

As the Trump presidency wound down, Watters falsely told his viewers that fraud had permeated the 2020 presidential election, adding that “we used to storm the castle over abuses of power like this.” Days later, a violent mob of angry Trumpists stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to subvert the election.

Watters continued standing by Trump following his 2020 election defeat, the subsequent insurrection he summoned, and the waves of evidence of his criminality. He called for Americans to take to the streets in protest after the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, offered thinly veiled suggestions of a violent recourse to his indictment, and urged Republicans to impeach President Joe Biden and for a reelected Trump to indict him in response.

Watters’ sycophantic commentary helped him climb the ranks at Fox, but it also gave him entry into the Fox-obsessed Trump’s social circle. He dined at the White House with the then-president, a fan of his on-air commentary. Trump congratulated him on his 2019 engagement to Emma DiGiovine, and Trump’s adult sons attended their wedding later that year. (Watters had cheated on his first wife and the mother of his twin daughters with the bride, a former low-level employee on his show who is 14 years his junior; he later said on-air that he had “let the air out of her tires” when he “was trying to get Emma to date me,” though he subsequently claimed to have been joking.)

Greg Gutfeld, a Trump critic who became his champion [vid]

unlike Hannity and Watters, who were early, stalwart Trump supporters, Gutfeld was a convert. A Trump critic during the 2016 Republican primary, Gutfeld had decried the racist former game show host as a “RINO” and a “conspiracy freak,” calling out his “crass” behavior and his mockery of Sen. John McCain’s military service.

But after Trump sewed up the primary and the general election loomed, Gutfeld’s commentary shifted. “Gutfeld was in the position he had previously warned against: the position of defending and excusing Trump,” Brian Stelter wrote in his 2021 book on Fox.

Gutfeld himself admitted in an interview earlier this year that Fox CEO Suzanne Scott had counseled him to leave himself room to evolve his view of Trump. “She was like, ‘Greg, you should maybe prepare for what happens if he wins,’” he told The New York Times.

Gutfeld flipped to become a diehard Trumpist. Like Watters, he defended Trump’s vicious immigration policies, election subversion efforts, misogyny, deadly pandemic response, and racist comments. He is particularly devoted to mainstreaming Trump’s refusals to denounce his most extreme supporters, from the Proud Boys to white supremacists, including those whomarched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. And he distinguished himself with particularly absurd remarks about the then-president, like claiming that “he’s the president, he can do whatever he wants,” and, “I can't recall a single instance of Trump actually aggressively going after an individual.”

Gutfeld is particularly clear-eyed about Fox’s relationship with Trump. He repeatedly noted on-air the influence his network had on the man he dubbed “the Fox News president.” And Trump, in turn, warmed up to the Fox host as he became increasingly pliant, touting Gutfeld on the campaign stump and in a.

“Even Greg Gutfeld; he wasn’t good to me two years ago,” Trump said in 2019. “Now he sees all I’ve done, and he said 'Would you rather have a great President or a nice guy?’ I don’t know, I think I’m a nice guy.”

Without Gutfeld’s flip to Trump, and Trump’s subsequent support for him, it is difficult to imagine that the host would have continued climbing the ladder at Fox. As Stelter wrote:

The alternative could have hit Gutfeld in the wallet. Fox made him a millionaire several times over — between his TV shows, the books he promoted on TV, his ticketed speaking gigs across the country — so “Greg has made a cynical calculation,” an insider said. “There’s no point in being anti-Trump.”

For a taste of what the prime-time newcomers bring to the table, consider a July 2019 exchange between Gutfeld and Watters on their panel show, The Five, regarding Democrats’ criticism of then-President Trump’s friendly visit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

“Let’s be honest,” Gutfeld admitted. If a Democratic president had met with Kim, “we would do the same thing.”

“How dare Obama meet with a dictator with no preconditions!” Watters replied, and the pair broke into giggles. Even they can barely believe the absurdity of their pro-Trump hypocrisy.

Fox’s Trumpist retrenchment will help him secure the GOP nomination

fox’s prime-time shakeup comes as the network faces the most sustained challenge to its dominance over the right-wing press in years. The new lineup suggests the network’s strategy for shoring up its right-wing hegemony relies on restoring its Trumpist credentials.

Fox ratings took a dive after the network cast off Carlson. Would-be rivals have responded to its weakness with relentless criticism in hopes of stealing away its viewers. Twitter’s Elon Musk seems to fancy himself as a potential successor to Rupert Murdoch as the right’s media empire builder and is amassing allies, albeit with what are at best significant growing pains.

The network's vulnerability is heightened by criticisms from Trump himself, who has used it as a foil. As I noted last month at MSNBC.com, the network’s posture toward the 2024 presidential primary has been an open question:

Fox’s alliance with Trump is currently in flux. After some initial ill will, the network’s endless promotion helped Trump to the presidency in 2016, and it effectively became state TV for his administration. Fox hosts gained unprecedented influence as the president regularly watched their shows, tweeted about their commentary in real time and took their advice. In turn, their assistance gave Trump a powerful propaganda tool. And since he left office in 2021, the network has continued rushing to the former president’s defense in his times of legal peril. But its support for his presidential bid has waxed and waned amid reports that the Murdochs prefer a fresher face for the Republican Party.

The decision by Fox executives to feature three Trumpists in what are traditionally its most-watched hours may help the network repair its relationship with the former president — but it will certainly shape the contours of the 2024 presidential race. Trump had already all but sewn up the GOP nomination, in no small part thanks to the work Fox hosts had done over the years in shoring up his vulnerabilities. A revamped Fox prime-time slate dedicated to supporting Trump at all costs now brings him ever closer to a return to the White House.

Fox prime-time hosts serve as tastemakers for the right-wing media and key validators for their large and loyal followings. Their support can make or break the Republican politicians who strive to win them over. Trump himself used hours of Fox appearances to win over viewers and seize the nomination in 2016.

Any of his GOP challengers who hope to replicate his achievement must somehow win over the network’s top talents, who owe their own prominence to the former president. That is a tall order, particularly with Trump already holding a large and steady lead in the polls. With Fox rallying behind him, Trump garnering the GOP’s nomination for the third consecutive election and running as a full-fledged authoritarian remains the most likely outcome.

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pretty sure i called it, he was clearly auditioning  no lnx an 6 23

Fox News has just announced it is revamping its primetime lineup in the wake of firing far-right host Tucker Carlson and as the 2024 presidential election approaches – and it’s handing the 8:00 PM hour to Jesse Watters, current co-host of its show “The Five.”

Variety reports the Watters move, and adds, “Fox News will also move Greg Gutfeld into the primetime block, giving him the 10 p.m. hour, while the current occupant, the conservative firebrand Laura Ingraham. takes up the reins of the early-evening 7 p.m. hour. Sean Hannity will keep his perch at 9 p.m., a slot he has held since 2017.”

Watters is the largely expected choice. A profile from Insider earlier this month revealed, “Jesse Watters likes picking fights. And he is fiercely loyal to Fox News, his professional home of two decades, starting when he was 24.Though best known as [Bill] O’Reilly’s attack dog until O’Reilly was pushed out of the network in 2017,Watters was also key to the launch of the right-wing Fox Nation blog. As cohost of ‘The Five’ and on his own 7 p.m. show, Watters delivers the network’s talking points with a grin and a touch of levity.”

READ MORE: ‘No Dead Bodies’: Fox News Hosts Suggest Trump Indicted for ‘Carelessness’ and ‘Where a Piece of Paper Goes’

Insider added, “Watters has found a far larger pool of libs to trigger” than just his parents, “but he continues to delight in the consternation his politics provoke in his mom. He’s known to occasionally read aloud the texts sent by his mom on ‘The Five.'”

“‘You end up presenting a lack of a moral compass honey,’ Watters quoted her saying in response to a 2018 segment on the Mueller investigation. ‘We all know you are a Trumpet — you need not scream it.'”

The same day as Insider’s profile of Watters ran, Variety reported on Watters’ week.

“Here’s a quick list. (1) He pissed on helping the homeless: ‘You can’t subsidize antisocial behavior you have to stigmatize it. These are people that have failed in life and they’re on their deathbed.’ 2. He casually explained that Donald Trump was just ‘sifting through [documents] and determining which were personal and which were presidential.’ 3. He compared not letting RFK Jr. come on his show to making a girl beg for a date. 4. He misidentified ‘The Five’ panel member Jessica Tarlov as ‘Katie.’ 5. In another episode, Watters cut off Tarlov, aka Katie, and threatened to ‘smack’ her with his copies of the Presidential Records Act.”

READ MORE: ‘Wrong and Dangerous’: Another Republican Former US Attorney General Lays Out the Case Against Trump

Responding to the news of Watters being promoted to the important 8 PM hour, MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan wrote, “Watters gets the Carlson slot. No reduction in racist fearmongering or Trump adulation at 8pm then.”

NPR’s David Gura posted video from 2016 that made Watters famous. It was widely criticized at the time as racist.

Watch the Watters video below or at this link.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Fox guest: 'Somebody is going to have to pull a trigger' to stop Trump prosecutions ›

'Coulda shoved this down their throats': Jesse Watters scolds Lindsey Graham over timing of abortion ban ›

Fox News’ Jesse Watters boasts about his own reporting after claiming child rape report was actually a hoax ›

==

beast

no lnx

Jesse Watters Throws Abhorrent Accusations at Obama Over Titanic Sub

‘AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE’

The former president’s recent criticism of the wall-to-wall coverage of the doomed Titanic sub had the Fox host up in arms.

William Vaillancourt

Updated Jun. 27, 2023

Fox News

The Five co-host Jesse Watters on Monday went after former President Barack Obama for criticizing the disparity in media attention on the five-person submersible that imploded during its venture to the Titanic wreck last week when compared to the sinking of a Mediterranean fishing boat that was carrying up to 750 refugees and migrants, only 104 of whom have been rescued as of Friday.

Speaking at a conference in Athens, Greece, last Thursday, Obama acknowledged the inherent drama of the submersible.

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“There is a potential tragedy unfolding with the submarine that is getting, you know, minute-to-minute coverage all around the world. And it’s understandable because we all want and pray that those folks are rescued,” he said, hours before it was announced that those on board died instantly after the craft imploded. “But the fact that that’s gotten so much more attention than 700 people who sank—that’s an untenable situation.”

The former president made similar comments in an interview Thursday with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, saying he understood the “obscene inequality in coverage.”

[Fox News Finally Reveals Its Post-Tucker Reshuffle

On Monday, the subject became fodder for discussion on Fox News.

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“When you are a citizen of the world, you always think about the world instead of the United States,” Watters began derisively. “Remember, this is a guy whose father has roots in Africa. This is a guy who spent a lot of his childhood in Southeast Asia… and then spent a lot of time in Hawaii.”

“He’s never really looking at things from an American perspective,” Watters griped of the 44th president of the United States. “He’s always speaking to the world. Even when he’s speaking to us, he’s appealing to the world.”

Watters—who Fox announced Monday will soon helm its primetime spot formerly held by Tucker Carlson—then listed several reasons why the submersible dominated coverage ”from a raw news editorial standpoint.”

For one, the capsized fishing boat off the coast of Greece had “no Titanic angle,” Watters said. Also, news networks “had guests that knew people that were submerged,” he continued, adding that there was an element of suspense due to the dwindling estimated amount of oxygen remaining in the submersible before its fate was known.

Watters’ fourth reason concerned the location of the Titanic wreck, which is about 900 miles off the coast of Massachusetts in the North Atlantic.

“If there had been a Cuban boat that had capsized and there were Cubans who were drowning off the coast of Miami, that would have been wall-to-wall coverage,” Watters claimed.

“We don’t live in Europe, Barack Obama. This is the United States of America, and it shows how naive, detached, and how snobby he is to not understand that this is the United States,” he complained. “And as sad as it is—and it was a horrible story off the coast—this is not something that concerns most Americans in their spare time.”

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-host-jesse-watters-claims-fbi-and-cia-are-using-hunters-laptop-blackmail

https://www.mediamatters.org/jesse-watters/fox-news-jesse-watters-claims-fbi-rigging-elections

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mma 6 23

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): San Francisco is on the verge of becoming a failed state. San Francisco's like a rogue nation. The city can't manage its institutions and protect its own people. The only reason the tech people haven't been run out of town is because everything is done over computers. Everything brick and mortar is hightailing it out of there. Jesse Watters Primetimeis this close to declaring martial law in San Francisco. Bring in the National Guard, bring in FEMA, save the city before it's too late. We need a San Francisco rescue plan because San Francisco is coming to a city near you. And just like we should've shut down the virus in Wuhan, we need to do the same thing in San Francisco. 

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an 6 23 no lnx

Fox host: 'Somebody is going to have to pull a trigger' to stop Trump prosecutions

Brandon GageJune 17, 2023

Retired Major League Baseball pitcher-turned-right-wing commentator Curt Schilling told Fox News host Jesse Watters on Friday that "somebody is going to have to pull a trigger" in retaliation to the criminal charges that were filed against former President Donald Trump by United States Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith.

"The problem is Jesse, you know, if you look at, you know, I love coming on this show. I love talking to you. I love what you've done, what you're doing with your voice, but the fact of the matter is, you know, I'm tired of listening to Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz and Dan Crenshaw and these people talk. Talk. Talk — that's all they're doing. They're talking," Schilling crowed on Jesse Watters Primetime.

"We're up against a side and a force that doesn't play by the rules, refuses to play by the rules, just look no further than the unconstitutional thing going with former President Trump and we're not doing anything about it. We're talking about it, and we get excited and we get emotional. That's it," Schilling carped. "They break the law and they do the things they need to do to ensure their agenda is driven forward and we're watching them gut our nation from the inside out. And I don't know where the rubber is going to meet the road because it's a true sacrifice. mean, you look at the guys, the young men that signed the Constitution and all the things that they sacrificed everything to come out from under a tyrannical government, and then eventually at some point, there was a man at Concord who decided he was going to pull the trigger. And I feel like we're getting back to a point where somebody is going to have to pull a trigger because everything we hold dear, everything this country was founded on is being just dragged through the mud and mocked and made fun of. This country was founded on Godly principles. No matter howoffensive that is to the left, it's true."

READ MORE: RNC chair deflects to Hillary Clinton when questioned about Trump indictments

Watters was momentarily taken aback.

"Well, I'm going to assume you mean 'pull the trigger' metaphorically?" he asked.

"Absolutely, well, no," Schilling replied. "I mean, it doesn't matter if I say metaphorically because they're going to run with that quote no matter how I put it. I could have phrased it in any possible way saying, 'Stand up and fight and blah blah blah,' and I would be inciting a riot while Maxine Waterssays, 'Get in their face and beat the hell out of them' publicly."

Watters concurred.

READ MORE: How MAGA Republicans use 'dangerous theories of vast major presidential power' to defend Trump

"No, I understand," Watters said. "I've said this to Jim Jordan. I've said this to these congressmen. They throw a subpoena around. They fire off a really bold letter, 'Gotcha.' Republicans need to go on the warpath. And that means that you got to use every tool necessary. They got to do what's being done to them because that's the only way this is gonna stop."

Schilling then added that "the problem is that the left's winning because they're relying — the left is relying on our morals and ethics. They know we'll play by the rules. They know we'll follow the laws. And they're not playing. It's like we're fighting our own war.

Watters responded by proclaiming that "we're too good for our own good. Yeah, I get it."

Watch below via Media Matters for America or at this link.

READ MORE: Ex-GOP congressman blasts 'feckless' RNC for refusing to amend its Trump loyalty pledge

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

'Coulda shoved this down their throats': Jesse Watters scolds Lindsey Graham over timing of abortion ban ›

Fox News’ Jesse Watters boasts about his own reporting after claiming child rape report was actually a hoax ›

'This dude is sick': Jeanine Pirro smacks down Jesse Watters for claiming that 'girls like the alcohol scene' ›

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

Curt Schilling planning Senate run against Elizabeth Warren ... ›

Curt Schilling, Rhode Island and the Fall of 38 Studios - The New ... ›

Curt Schilling Backs Pro-Trump 'QAnon' Conspiracy Theory ›

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-jesse-watters-claims-biden-family-has-been-intelligence-op-least-decade

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an 6 23

fx News host Jesse Watters on Tuesday encouraged his network's predominantly right-wing audience to "stigmatize" unhoused Americans. During his rant, Watters asserted that demonizing human beings is a necessary tactic to end what he suggested was a choice.

[Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom] "is now maybe midfield, but he has to understand homelessness isn't about lack of affordable housing. It's about drug addicts that wanna wander around and live in tents on the sidewalk. And so you can't coddle antisocial behavior. You can't subsidize antisocial behavior. You have to stigmatize it," Watters declared.

"You can't celebrate people with purple hair, with nose rings, four kids with four different men who are dressed like trash, and make them out to be some sort of cutting-edge heroes," Watters continued. "You have to call them what they are. These are people that have failed in life and they're on their deathbed, and if we're not honest about it, we're never gonna fix this problem."

READ MORE: 'Whatever you want to call them': Jesse Watters ridicules the NAACP’s Florida travel advisory

According to the nonprofit Breaktime, "Homelessness often manifests in a cycle. Without consistent access to well-paid jobs, our associates struggle to save money and build financial stability. Left unable to put money toward savings after first satiating immediate needs, like food or transportation, they in turn struggle to find stable housing. Our associates cannot access the job or financial security necessary to sustain housing, nor can they ensure the housing security necessary to access employment or financial security. This is the cycle of young adult homelessness."

Similarly, The National Alliance to End Homelessness notes that "the solution to homelessness is straightforward: housing. By connecting people experiencing homelessness to housing and services, they have a platform from which they can address other areas that may have contributed to their homelessness — such as employment, health, and substance abuse."

Watch below via Media Matters for America researcher Kat Abughazaleh

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https://www.mediamatters.org**/jesse-watters/**fox-news-welcomes**-swastika-wielding-teacher-**latest-anti-trans-culture-warrior

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promote primary 9 22 on violent rhet,pow, mofo pending

"kill shot from ambush deadly" said of fauci; 1 22 promote to prime time show

// tucker? escalator food chain? eco-niche?

bak 6 23

rww tag: Jesse Watters

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/response-wildfire-smoke-choking-new-york-city-fox-news-trots-out-tired-climate-denial

June 7, as smoke from hundreds of wildfires raging across Canada turned New York City into a dystopian climate change movie, MSNBC host Chris Hayes tweeted: “I always thought there would be *some* kind of climate reckoning when it got bad enough but Covid has taught me that, no, people will just step on the gas and happily mow people down so they never have to admit taking a wrong turn."

Too little TV news coverage connected the code red air quality in New York and other impacted U.S. cities to climate change, but Fox News and other right-wing media figures retreated even further from a reckoning, stepping on the climate denial pedal by dismissing the link between global warming and wildfires, attacking those that did, and insisting on alternative explanations for why Canada is having its worst-ever wildfire season.

In fact, at 2 hours and 41 minutes of coverage, Fox News covered the wildfire story more than either CNN (2 hours and 19 minutes) or MSNBC (41 minutes) on June 7 and mentioned climate change (to deny it) more times in its coverage than its counterparts.

Fox News dismisses the link between wildfires and climate change, mocks those that do make the connection

Scientists say wildfires are becoming more severe as “forests around the world increasingly dry out amid the warming climate”, a fact even observed by Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal. Experts further note that Canada’s wildfire season is a “harbinger of our climate future” with the United Nations warning that by 2090, “global wildfires are expected to increase in intensity by up to 57% thanks to climate change.”  But no amount of evidence, either experiential or academic, changes the tone of the reporting at Fox News when it comes to extreme weather and climate-fueled events.

Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade mocks AOC, climate change czar John Kerry, and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for connecting the dangerous air quality to climate change: “Every time it’s real hot, climate change. Every time it’s real cold, climate change. When it rains a lot it’s because of climate change. And you guessed it, Canada, with burning forests, 400 separate fires, it’s because of climate change. AOC said it. Of course climate change czar John Kerry said it, and [Karine Jean-Pierre] KJP has one note, listen.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [6/8/23]

Fox News host Laura Ingraham suggests that coverage of the event is overblown and mocks those reporting the air quality from a climate angle: “Is this really a novel occurrence for our country or is it getting the coverage of the type it’s getting because it's happening along the East Coast where all the elites live?” Ingraham continued: “The apocalyptic coverage in the New York Times today was just absolutely knee-slappingly hilarious. … CNN's Bill Weir, no stranger to hyperbole himself, used the event to call for action to electrify every car in the United States for humanity’s sake." Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, [6/7/23]

Fox News host Sean Hannity accuses Democrats, including AOC, of politicizing the crisis to push their climate agenda: “Tonight, smoke from the Canadian wildfires, they blanketed the entire East Coast of the U.S. creating a scary martian-like scene in New York City especially. And as usual, Democrats, they wasted no time. They went right to politicizing the crisis, AOC using the wildfire and heat wave in Puerto Rico to once again push her radical Green New Deal or the climate alarmist religious cult agenda.:{” Fox News, Hannity, :(style="background-color:#ffffffff"):}:[6/7/23:{]}:

On Jesse Watters Primetime, climate denier and frequent Fox guest Mark Morano dismissed climate change and accused those making the connection of weaponizing the weather while smoking a cigar:“This is exactly what you would expect to happen. This is Canadian natural disaster mismanagement and now they are trying to blame global warming which makes it, what? Our fault. It's our SUVs. It's our gas stoves which, by the way, didn't New York ban them? Shouldn't we have -- shouldn't wildfires be a thing of the past? I thought they were banning them.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [6/7/23]

On The Five, Jeanine Pirro accuses AOC and Democrats of “pumping up climate hysteria”: “While Americans choke on the smoke, the far left smells an opportunity. AOC thinks this is a great time to push her Green New Deal. She says that we must, ”Adapt our food systems, energy grids, infrastructure and healthcare to prepare for what's to come". Other Democrats are pumping up climate hysteria and bringing back, you guessed it, mask insanity.” Fox News, The Five, [6/7/23]

On Outnumbered,the panel mocks AOC for connecting the crisis to climate change while Fox contributor Kennedy suggests that because wildfires existed before “we started talking about the climate crisis” then the science is not settled: “There are a lot of reasons for wildfires. Wildfires have been happening for a long time. Before we started talking about the climate crisis. So, I want to make sure that the science is settled before we completely turf our economy and flush any innovation we have down the toilet because of a tweet from AOC.” Fox News, Outnumbered, [6/7/23]

Fox turns to its go-to explanation for catastrophic wildfires: It’s poor forest management. And it’s environmentalists’ fault.

Forest management has played some role in the unprecedented wildfire season in Canada — while the role of climate change is also evident and clear. But from watching Fox’s coverage of the fires, you would probably come away with the idea that it’s been Canada’s forest management policies alone driving the worsening fires.

Fox’s jump to shift blame to poor forest management as a tactic to downplay climate change goes back to at least 2018 when Trump first blamed California’s forestry policies while touring the aftermath of the deadly Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise. Fox revived the tactic in full force during California’s apocalyptic 2020 wildfires.

Helping drive the swift move to blame forest management and environmentalists this time around is News Corps darling, Fox News contributor, and New York Post columnist Miranda Devine who wrote a June 7 column, “Smoky New York isn’t climate change — it’s bad forest management,” which has been cited by Fox News personalities and amplified by right-wing media figures online.

:{:{Fox News host }::{Rachel Campos-Duffy on Outnumbered}::{: “The real blame is on the climate}::{ cult. }::{…}::{ They are an anti-human group and they want to shut our forests and close them off to humans and to industry who know how to manage it. And that's what's happening right now.” }::{Fox News, Outnumbered, :(style="background-color:#ffffffff"):}:[6/8/23]}:

On the Faulkner Focus, Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz insists that poor forest management is liberals' fault: I hate to tell it you folks but there have been big forest fires for eons probably since the beginning of time. It's ironic to me because the same people who claim they want the Green New Deal, they fight us every single time on the mitigation efforts to manage the forests, clear out the underbrush, clear out the dead trees and clear out the fuel that makes these things so ignite in such big fashion. They will not do that as Democrats and these left-leaning liberals. Fox News, Faulkner Focus, [6/8/23]

Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy dismissed climate change and redirected the blame to “bad forest management”: “Climate change does not start a fire. It can create dry conditions, and they have really bad dry conditions up in Canada right now. In Canada they are blaming bad forest management because of a very dry winter and they did not get a lot of snow. … Apparently behind the scenes they have not been doing the controlled burns that they should have been doing. And back in 2024 environmentalists wrote a paper and said not enough is being done to fund this kind of forest management and there is going to be hell to pay.” Fox News, Fox & Friends, [6/8/23]

Sean Hannity also suggested that forest management is the main culprit:“Here's what nobody talks about. There is a science. You can get an advanced college degree in forestry. There's something called the controlled burns that climate alarmist cult members:{are all dead set against. And you see, if you have a controlled burn that prevents the bigger fires like the one they're experiencing in little Justin's neighborhood in Canada that's now making it smoke all the way down here.” Fox News, Hannity, :(style="background-color:#ffffffff"):}:[6/7/23:{]}:

Host Jesse Watters claims that there are fewer wildfires now than 100 years ago to dismiss the role of climate change and prop up the forest management argument:  “You might be surprised to find out over the last 100 years, there have been less wildfires, not more. The Wall Street Journal says in the early 1900s about 4% of land worldwide burned every year by 2021 that was down to 2.5%. So instead of obsessing over climate change they should take a look at forest management.” Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, [6/7/23]

On The Five co-host Dana Perino blames wildfires on forest management and liberal policies: “Canada is experiencing really bad wildfires on their public lands. We have a similar problem, and it has to do with forest management. The Biden administration has policies that are in direct conflict with one another. … Wildfires can occur naturally of course, but if you are actively managing your forest, then you can prevent some of these things. The left has never wanted to do that.”  Fox News, The Five, [6/7/23]

Pirro suggests that since only half of Americans believe in climate change that Democrats shouldn’t be linking it to wildfires: Agreeing that poor forest management is the main cause of severe wildfires, Pirro questions why climate change is even part of the discussion: “We’re at a point when I think 49% of Americans believe climate change is caused mostly by human actions, the lowest reported apparently in many years.So why are Democrats, why do they keep pushing climate change over something that could’ve been prevented?" Fox News, The Five, [6/7/23] HUH?!

Related

National TV news chokes out the climate angle in coverage of Canadian wildfires

06/08/23 2:57 PM EDT

With Canadian wildfires, Fox News follows its COVID playbook

06/08/23

Fox News host Jesse Watters says it’s “normal” for the Northeastern United States to be engulfed in smoke from Canadian wildfires

06/08/23

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why 1st?

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-anchor-disregards-foxs-own-debunks-gop-claim-fbi-document-shows-biden-was-paid

https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/fox-news-runs-ads-mike-huckabees-climate-denial-book-targeted-children

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/fox-news-responds-federal-trump-indictment-unhinged-demagoguery

former President Donald Trump has been indicted — again — and Fox News personalities are once more rallying behind him. In the hours after news broke that Trump is facing seven federal criminal charges over his mishandling of federal documents, his loyal propagandists denounced the indictment as a “dark day in America” and an attack on American democracy and the rule of law.

Trump wrote on social media Thursday evening that he had been indicted over his mishandling of classified documents. The New York Times later reported that Trump “was charged with a total of seven counts, including willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements and an obstruction of justice conspiracy, according to people familiar with the matter.”

Trump had taken government documents with him when he left office and refused to return them, leading to an August search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in which the FBI uncovered a trove of documents bearing classification markings, some at the “top secret” level. Special counsel Jack Smith has been investigating the former president’s conduct for months.

Trump is the first former president ever to face federal criminal charges and is expected to surrender in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday. The charges were not a surprise — even Trump’s own former attorney general Bill Barr had repeatedly acknowledged that the former president’s own conduct put him in serious legal jeopardy.

But on Fox, host Jesse Watters announced the news by saying that “the president, former, calls it the boxes hoax” and suggesting that the indictment was an attempt to distract attention from the House GOP’s investigations of President Joe Biden.

The situation rapidly devolved from there. Over the following hours, Fox’s hosts and the menagerie of Trump cronies and sycophants the network put on the air unleashed unhinged demagoguery.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba called it evidence that we live in a “sick world” with “a two-tier system of justice,” citing the lack of legal punishment for Biden, his son Hunter, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton.

Former Trump aide Stephen Millerclaimed that “history will record today as the day that we ceased to be a democratic republic and we became a people ruled by an unelected government bureaucracy.”

Former Trump acting Attorney General Matt Whitakercalled it “a really sad day for our country” and “the stuff of banana republics.”

For right-wing activist Ned Ryun, it was “late-stage republic behavior. When you use the legal system as a weapon against political opponents, you’ve abandoned the rule of law.”

“What’s going on here is a disgusting disgrace. It is war on Trump, it is war on the Republican Party, and it is a war on the republic,” Fox host Mark Levin screamed. “You have crossed the Rubicon twice, which has never been done, and we will never forgive you — never, ever, and that’s the bottom line,” he added.

“It is a dark day in America,” concluded longtime Trump adviser and Fox host Sean Hannity. “There is no equal justice. There is no equal application of our laws.” He added, “Our system of justice has now been weaponized beyond belief and this country is in serious trouble."

Fox’s furious denunciations may have taken the issue off the table for Trump’s would-be presidential rivals. When Fox’s Harris Faulkner brought on Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who is theoretically running for president against Trump, to discuss the indictment, she asked him, “The bottom line is, you’re a Republican, this was a Republican president, and look at what has happened. Your reaction?” Scott took the hint and issued a rambling response that avoided directly criticizing Trump.

Fox’s over-the-top response is familiar. While some have suggested that the network and its Murdoch owners have turned on the former president, Fox always rises to Trump’s defense at his moments of legal peril.

The network’s stars were similarly furious in March, when Trump was indicted on 34 charges of falsifying business records in a New York state court in connection with the $130,000 hush money payment made to an adult film actress in the closing days of the 2016 presidential campaign. They urged viewers to treat the charges as an attack on the U.S. Constitution, American democracy, the rule of law, and themselves, while denouncing the prosecutor and his purported “witch hunt.”

Likewise, when news first broke of the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, the Trumpists at Fox denounced it as “the worst attack on this republic in modern history” and part of a “preemptive coup” to prevent Trump’s reelection, among other incendiary claims, with hosts urging viewers to believe that “the real target of this investigation is you.”

The throughline is that any legal attack on Trump is inherently corrupt and a signal that America has been lost — and that, if Trump is brought down, Fox’s viewers may be next.

Trump needs the powerful propaganda apparatus of Fox to keep his supporters in line and his primary opponents at bay, and the network’s hosts and executives are happy to oblige. But we’ve seen the disastrous consequences that can come from Fox’s overheated rhetoric in the former president’s service.

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WATTERS (HOST): So, what's the president doing while half the country can't breathe? Well, Biden had lunch with Kamala and then he called the lid at 12:45. Half the country can't go outside or breathe fresh air because our stupid neighbors up north, and thepresident hasn't said a single word about it because we don't have a real president. Other politicians went on TV and told us to quarantine like the good old days.

...

COVID, stay home and wear a mask. Smoke bomb, stay home, wear a mask. Elections, stay home, wear a mask. Nuke strike, stay home, wear a mask. The government's prepared for anything.

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As NYC is inundated with wildfire smoke, Rupert Murdoch’s WSJ calmly shows link to climate crisis, while Murdoch's Fox News mocks it

WRITTEN BY JOHN WHITEHOUSE

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM SAGE HODIL

PUBLISHED 06/07/23

New York City is currently inundated with a hazardous level of wildfire smoke, making the skies appear yellowish-orange.

The smoke is from wildfires in Canada, which scientists say are “becoming bigger and more frequent” due to climate change, as reliably explained by Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal:

Wildfires like those ravaging Canada are becoming bigger and more frequent as forests around the world increasingly dry out amid the warming climate, many scientists say.

Some of the biggest fires are breaking out in the boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere such as most of the ones in Canada. That is because the Arctic region has warmed nearly four times faster than the rest of the world, said Carly Phillips, a Boston-based research scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

In the boreal areas—mostly conifer forests with long winters and short summers—of Canada and Alaska, she said the annual area burned has nearly doubled in the past 60 years, along with an increase in the frequency of large fires. Russia’s vast Siberian forests have been consumed by giant fires too. Phillips said this year’s outbreak, while unprecedented in size, is just following the trend.

“I don’t know if it’s a tipping point, but what this underscores is that the climate crisis is here and now,” Phillips said.

The link is so obvious and uncontroversial that Journal staff members have no problems tweeting it.

And yet, over at Murdoch’s Fox News Channel, this is just another reason for hosts to punch left, this time at frequent target Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who dared to point out that the country has work to do to adapt to the climate crisis.

Video file

Video CitationFrom the June 7, 2023, edition of of Fox News' Outnumbered

None of this is novel. Fox News (and the Journal’s right-wing editorial board) have for years pushed climate denial on the body politic. Now that the effects of the climate crisis are impossible to miss, the network is still refusing to recalibrate.

Like the Dominion case shows, it’s not clear if Fox’s audience — or whatever is left of it — will allow the network to speak the truth.

Either way, I’d recommend that people working at Fox News headquarters in Manhattan buy some high-quality masks. They might even still have some sitting around.

THE LATEST

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06/08/23 9:27 AM EDT

200+ things that Fox News has labeled “woke”

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Newsmax's Greg Kelly praises the smoke from Canadian wildfires: “It's a beautiful, interesting aura”

06/08/23 8:45 AM EDT

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Fox News' Jesse Watters attacks government officials for suggesting masking to protect against wildfire smoke

06/07/23 The Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal

Climate deniers

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-jesse-watters-claims-fbi-installed-joe-biden-president-intelligence-op-after

omg mm a 6 23

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): Powerful people installed Biden so that he can take orders, not give them. Joe Biden's been groomed his whole career to take orders. And now that he's literally slept his way to the top, they won't let him go anywhere. The FBI put their guy in the White House. "You think we're just going to, like, let voters decide if he should serve four more years? We can't afford to take that risk."

Joe Biden has been an intelligence op since he was vice president. One of the FBI's top informants, a guy with impeccable credentials, a great track record, reported an allegation that Joe Biden took a $5 million bribe -- right under Barack Obama's nose -- from a foreign national in exchange for a policy decision. They've been blackmailing Joe Biden with this for a decade. Well, until a whistleblower came forward. And now, James Comer wants the document released to Congress and the FBI's caught in a cover-up.

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mma 5 23

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): So, what do you call it when a foreign power interferes in our election? Well, we used to call that election interference. Democrats used to be totally against it. They said Putin cost crooked the election. Well, now the Mexican president's on tape politicking against a Republican presidential candidate, urging Americans not to vote for him, and the media is silent.

So, what's the relationship here between Joe Biden and the Mexican president? Well, Joe Biden made the cartels more money than they've ever made in history. And the Mexican president, who's controlled by the cartels, interferes in our election on behalf of Biden. Hm. And Hunter got rich in Mexico when Biden was VP.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/anatomy-smear-campaign-how-right-wing-media-neutralized-pentagon-effort-address-white

no lnx vids

Anatomy of a smear campaign: How right-wing media neutralized a Pentagon effort to address white supremacy in the military

Right-wing media smeared the Pentagon official mitigating white supremacy in the military. Now his unit has been abandoned.

WRITTEN BY JOHN KNEFEL

PUBLISHED 05/25/23

Right-wing media outlets and personalities leveled repeated attacks against a modest Pentagon initiative created in 2021 to address high levels of white supremacy in the military, ultimately neutralizing the effort and leading to the unit’s abandonment. The conservative campaign was directed atmilitary veteran Bishop Garrison, who led the Countering Extremism Working Group, which has now “vanished virtually without a trace,” according to a recent report from CNN.

Garrison was tasked with identifying and addressing the type of extremist views that would be later espoused by Jack Teixeira, who recently stole and leaked a trove of classified information to impress his private online community. Teixeira, currently in custody and potentially facing a 25-year sentence, reportedly believed that the United States was heading toward a “race war” that would pit white people against racial and ethnic minorities and LGBTQ people.

CNN reports:

As the Pentagon grapples with the aftermath of the leak, the working group’s stated objectives look eerily prescient, and, in some cases, tailor-made to zero-in on the sort of anti-government, White supremacist behavior and views espoused by Teixeira.

CNN interviews with multiple sources familiar with the working group reveal that the Pentagon largely abandoned the effort to combat extremism in its ranks, as senior officials folded under political pressure from Republicans who lashed out at the initiative as an example of so-called wokeism in the military.

The U.S. military has a long history of white supremacism in the ranks, including among veterans who have started or joined far-right terrorist groups after their service. More than 80 people charged with participating in the January 6 insurrection had ties to the military, primarily as former service members, according to CBS News.

The apparently successful right-wing effort to sideline Bishop’s group follows the standard conservative playbook of smearing Democratic government officials who are Black, LGBTQ, Muslim, or from other marginalized groups as internal enemies, and it will also likely serve as a template for future, similar campaigns. Right-wing media outlets have spent months convincing their consumers that the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the IRS are persecuting conservatives, with the clear aim of operationalizing these federal agencies against these media figures’ opponents — exactly what they wrongly accuse the Biden administration of doing. This programming dovetails exactly with Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government, which claims to be exposing a governmentwide conspiracy to throttle conservative activists and ideas. The committee has so far failed on its own terms, but Jordan remains undeterred.

Anatomy of a smear campaign

On February 16, 2021, Garrison was appointed to a newly created role to advise Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on how to reduce and mitigate the threat of white supremacy in the U.S. military. The announcement went largely unremarked upon in both mainstream and conservative media for several weeks.

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Then on May 5, conservative website Revolver published a story headlined “Meet Bishop Garrison: The Pentagon’s Hatchet Man in Charge of Purging MAGA Patriots and Installing Race Theory in The Military.” The site's founder, Darren Beattie, tweeted the piece out, highlighting the quote “​​The Biden administration has just put the equivalent of Ibram X. Kendi in charge of vetting the entire U.S. military." (Beattie was fired from the Trump administration in 2018 after CNN discovered that he had attended a white nationalist conference two years prior.)

The following day, Fox News Primetime’s host Pete Hegseth devoted a segment to Garrison’s appointment,describing Garrison’s effort as “a purge, a purge of the Defense Department led by a new, and now powerful, radical leftist, a 1619 Project activist, a hardcore social justice Democrat, a man who believes all Trump supporters are racist and extremists."

Video

CitationFrom the May 6, 2021, edition of Fox News' Fox News Primetime

Hegseth then referred to Garrison as “the Pentagon's newly minted MAGA purge man” and cribbed Revolver’s line nearly verbatim but without attribution.

“How do I put this?” Hegseth asked. “The White House just put the equivalent of Ibram X. Kendi, the author of How to Be an Antiracist, in charge of vetting the entire U.S. military, past, present, and future."

A day later, Beattie appeared on Hegseth’s program to discuss Revolver’s piece, which largely consisted of Garrison’s tweets and other writings and social media posts.

Video

CitationFrom the May 7, 2021, edition of Fox News' Fox News Primetime

Beattie framed the issue by calling Garrison’s working group an example of “the most disturbing trend in American politics,” which is “that increasing swathes of our own national security apparatus have been repurposed and redeployed domestically against American citizens.”

Days later, conservative media websiteJust the News published a story that highlighted Hegseth’s comments from his initial segment.

On May 13, Revolver published another piece on Garrison with the factually incorrect headline “‘Free Speech Is A Digital Black Plague’: Bishop Garrison is Key Mercenary in Biden’s Dark War Against The First Amendment.”

Despite the quotation marks in the headline, the piece doesn’t include any evidence that Garrison wrote or spoke that exact phrase. Instead, the piece links to an op-ed Garrison published about the dangers of ideological polarization in news consumption leading to the spread of bad information, a fitting if ironic topic given Revolver’s mischaracterization of his stance. It’s true he described what he characterized as partisan echo chambers as a “digital black plague” that poses a danger to social cohesion, a relatively pedestrian observation common among mainstream commentators.   

The next day, Beattie appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast to discuss Garrison’s purview more broadly.

Video

CitationFrom the May 14, 2021, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

Underscoring the siloed, self-perpetuating conservative media echo chamber, Bannon introduced the topic by claiming, “I’m seeing it everywhere — Just the News has got it, the great Pete Hegseth had it, then he had a second night with you on it,” before asking Beattie for an update.

Beattie then recycled his website’s misleading framing with a rhetorical sleight-of-hand, substituting Garrison’s actual point about information silos with the false claim that he opposed free speech protections more broadly.

Beattie described Garrison’s purported role “in the Biden administration’s dark war on the First Amendment. We’ve uncovered a article of his calling, basically, the free speech digital environment that would include War Room, that would include Revolver, but also in his words includes the Sinclair Network and Fox, as a ‘digital black plague’ — those are his words to describe the digital free speech environment that enables the American people to see narratives that oppose the official narratives on COVID, on the election, and now on [the insurrection of] 1/6.”

One day later, Fox News’ Jesse Watters picked up the story, interviewing Hegsethabout Beattie’s reporting, adding another link in the human-centipede-esque food chain of bad information.

Video

CitationFrom the May 15, 2021, edition of Fox News' Watters' World

Watters introduced Garrison as being “in charge of bringing critical race theory into our Armed Forces,” adding, “They’re calling him the Pentagon's hatchet man because his job is to purge patriots from the ranks.”

“This is about, Jesse, as scary as it gets,” Hegseth responded. “I mean, really this is, this truly is a purge of patriots. They're using January 6 as the ultimate justification.”

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Two days later, former Fox News marquee star Tucker Carlsondiscussed Garrison on his prime-time show. 

Video

CitationFrom the May 17, 2021, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

Carlson referenced Revolver’s posts before characterizing Garrison as “an activist type” and “a lunatic.”

“Now — and this is the point — he is one of the most powerful officials in the U.S. military,” Carlson added. “Democrats in Congress are thrilled as they watch this. Their party now has all the tanks and drones.”

The campaign against Garrison continued at that pace for weeks, misleading framing and bad information congealing into an impenetrable narrative of conservative persecution. Beattie returned to War Room, right-wing Epoch TV covered the story, Carlson aired another segment on it, and Hegseth continued to beat the drum on Fox News.

As late as October 2022, Beattie referenced Garrison on War Room as an antecedent to a supposedly even more “outrageous” Pentagon commission on recommending changes to military bases named after members of the Confederacy. 

Taken as a whole, this process clearly demonstrates how right-wing media will vigorously oppose efforts to mitigate widespread white supremacy and later defend the subsequent, predictable outcomes that ideology and set of power relations produces. As but one example, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson defended Teixeira’s actions by misleadingly casting him as a whistleblower when in fact there is no reporting to suggest he ever meant for the information he stole to be made publicly available. The fact that Teixeira’s bigoted beliefs went unnoticed and undisciplined by the military is a feature, not a bug, of this dynamic.   

There are fair criticisms to be made about the larger White House initiative, such as asking what it would mean to root out white supremacy from an institution that has been at the forefront of U.S. empire expansion, directed primarily at nonwhite populations, since at least the Mexican-American War. Needless to say, conservatives were making the exact opposite critique, arguing that attempts to decrease the spread of white supremacist beliefs among service members are inherently illegitimate.

That the boilerplate backlash was successful despite being led by such mediocrities as Pete Hegseth and Darren Beattie — whom Bannon recently derided as a man-child— does not speak particularly well of the Biden administration. It also suggests that these demonization campaigns can potentially succeed absent any shimmering talent leading the charge, instead relying on mid-level functionaries in the larger conservative ecosystem repeatedly hammering the point home.

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some lnx

Right-wing media outlets and personalities leveled repeated attacks against a modest Pentagon initiative created in 2021 to address high levels of white supremacy in the military, ultimately neutralizing the effort and leading to the unit’s abandonment. The conservative campaign was directed at military veteran Bishop Garrison, who led the Countering Extremism Working Group, which has now “vanished virtually without a trace,” according to a recent report from CNN.

Garrison was tasked with identifying and addressing the type of extremist views that would be later espoused by Jack Teixeira, who recently stole and leaked a trove of classified information to impress his private online community. Teixeira, currently in custody and potentially facing a 25-year sentence, reportedly believed that the United States was heading toward a “race war” that would pit white people against racial and ethnic minorities and LGBTQ people.

CNN reports:

As the Pentagon grapples with the aftermath of the leak, the working group’s stated objectives look eerily prescient, and, in some cases, tailor-made to zero-in on the sort of anti-government, White supremacist behavior and views espoused by Teixeira.

CNN interviews with multiple sources familiar with the working group reveal that the Pentagon largely abandoned the effort to combat extremism in its ranks, as senior officials folded under political pressure from Republicans who lashed out at the initiative as an example of so-called wokeism in the military.

The U.S. military has a long history of white supremacism in the ranks, including among veterans who have started or joined far-right terrorist groups after their service. More than 80 people charged with participating in the January 6 insurrection had ties to the military, primarily as former service members, according to CBS News.

The apparently successful right-wing effort to sideline Bishop’s group follows the standard conservative playbook of smearing Democratic government officials who are Black, LGBTQ, Muslim, or from other marginalized groups as internal enemies, and it will also likely serve as a template for future, similar campaigns. Right-wing media outlets have spent months convincing their consumers that the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the IRS are persecuting conservatives, with the clear aim of operationalizing these federal agencies against these media figures’ opponents — exactly what they wrongly accuse the Biden administration of doing. This programming dovetails exactly with Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government, which claims to be exposing a governmentwide conspiracy to throttle conservative activists and ideas. The committee has so far failed on its own terms, but Jordan remains undeterred.

Anatomy of a smear campaign

On February 16, 2021, Garrison was appointed to a newly created role to advise Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on how to reduce and mitigate the threat of white supremacy in the U.S. military. The announcement went largely unremarked upon in both mainstream and conservative media for several weeks.

Then on May 5, conservative website Revolver published a story headlined “Meet Bishop Garrison: The Pentagon’s Hatchet Man in Charge of Purging MAGA Patriots and Installing Race Theory in The Military.” The site's founder, Darren Beattie, tweeted the piece out, highlighting the quote “​​The Biden administration has just put the equivalent of Ibram X. Kendi in charge of vetting the entire U.S. military." (Beattie was fired from the Trump administration in 2018 after CNN discovered that he had attended a white nationalist conference two years prior.)

The following day, Fox News Primetime’s host Pete Hegseth devoted a segment to Garrison’s appointment, describing Garrison’s effort as “a purge, a purge of the Defense Department led by a new, and now powerful, radical leftist, a 1619 Project activist, a hardcore social justice Democrat, a man who believes all Trump supporters are racist and extremists."...

beattie framed the issue by calling Garrison’s working group an example of “the most disturbing trend in American politics,” which is “that increasing swathes of our own national security apparatus have been repurposed and redeployed domestically against American citizens.”

Days later, conservative media website Just the News published a story that highlighted Hegseth’s comments from his initial segment.

On May 13, Revolver published another piece on Garrison with the factually incorrect headline “‘Free Speech Is A Digital Black Plague’: Bishop Garrison is Key Mercenary in Biden’s Dark War Against The First Amendment.”

Despite the quotation marks in the headline, the piece doesn’t include any evidence that Garrison wrote or spoke that exact phrase. Instead, the piece links to an op-ed Garrison published about the dangers of ideological polarization in news consumption leading to the spread of bad information, a fitting if ironic topic given Revolver’s mischaracterization of his stance. It’s true he described what he characterized as partisan echo chambers as a “digital black plague” that poses a danger to social cohesion, a relatively pedestrian observation common among mainstream commentators.

The next day, Beattie appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast to discuss Garrison’s purview more broadly...

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cf naacp

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-jesse-watters-claims-florida-one-state-where-black-americans-are-thriving

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-**jesse-watters-tells-house-republicans-force-joe-biden-resign-or-were-going-blowup debt limit

https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/sean-hannity-instructs-republicans-not-be-scared-defaulting-national-debt

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not 1st x

https://www.mediamatters.org/jesse-watters/fox-news-host-jesse-watters-pushes-great-replacement-theory

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zuck and edgelord musk bring him back for bucks

https://www.mediamatters.org**/facebook/trump-used-his-reinstated-facebook-page-post-misinformation-**filled-statement-response-his indict

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-returns-barricades-indicted-donald-trump

If Donald Trump watched Fox News tonight, after a New York grand jury made him the first former president in history to be indicted, he was surely pleased with what he saw. Trump needs Fox to play its old role — run interference, denounce his foes, and thus keep the Republican Party squarely behind him — and that’s exactly what the network did in the hours after news of the indictment broke.

The indictment, which has not yet been unsealed, was the result of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s probe into the $130,000 hush money payment made in the closing weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actor who has since said that she and Trump had an affair (Trump denies it). The former president responded in a statement calling the indictment “political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history” and denouncing Bragg, the Democratic Party, and President Joe Biden.

Trump needs a powerful propaganda apparatus with a uniquely powerful hold on the GOP to hammer that message home and keep Republican politicians from abandoning him at yet another moment of disgrace.

He’s got one.

Minutes after news of the indictment broke — without seeing the indictment or knowing what Trump has been charged with — a parade of his Fox allies started furiously spinning on his behalf.

On The Five, Jesse Watters reacted to the breaking news by saying, “The country's not going to stand for it,” while Greg Gutfeld said the indictment showed Democrats are “hunting” Republicans.

On Special Report, Fox contributor Jonathan Turleycalled it a “raw political prosecution” while fellow contributor Mollie Hemingway compared it to “the Stalin era” and said that “people who care about the country need to stand up and make sure that they let it be known that they do not support this type of political prosecution.”

On Jesse Watters Primetime, Watters suggested “prosecuting Democrats the way they prosecute Republicans” when the party next gains the White House and said that in light of the Trump indictment, conservatives “can’t live in Democratic-run cities” without fear of political prosecution. Fellow Fox host Dan Bongino said it showed “we’re living in a police state” and Jeanine Pirro declared that the indictment “reeks of Third World country tactics,” adding that Trump “is being persecuted, not just prosecuted, but persecuted.”

Tucker Carlson Tonight brought the network’s biggest star saying that “there’s no coming back from this moment” as a country, describing the indictment as a “political purge” that has suspended the rule of law for his supporters and as “an assault on our system,” and running “Third-World banana republic” chyrons.

Hannity and The Ingraham Angle will surely feature more of the same.

We’ve seen this pattern play out the same way every time Trump’s actions have resulted in scandal since he became the Republican nominee in 2016.

Fox rallied to Trump’s side as he promoted lies and conspiracy theories about election fraud in 2020; amid the cornucopia of scandals involving his bigotry; when he corruptly pressured a foreign power to take action to benefit his political campaign, leading to his first impeachment; as he pardoned political cronies and war criminals; after he expressed support for white nationalists and Proud Boys; when he fired FBI Director James Comey for refusing to end the Russian interference probe; as a series of women came forward reporting he had sexually assaulted or harassed them; when a tape emerged of him discussing his sexual assaults of women; and so many more.

Each time, Fox’s support was crucial to keeping the Republican Party united behind him.

Trump’s indictment marks yet another opportunity for Fox to change course. Trump leads in polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, but he’s not the only one in the race or likely to join it. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the second-place candidate in those polls, has spent years cozying up to Fox hosts and adopting their pet interests — and he’s not under indictment. Rupert Murdoch, the chair of Fox Corp., has an iron grip on the network’s operations and said after the January 6 insurrection that Fox should try to make Trump a “non person” and “certainly don’t support him.”

But that’s not what happened.

Fox continued to protect Trump after the storming of the U.S. Capitol, concocting absurd conspiracy theories to turn the rioters Trump had incited into victims. The network supported him again after the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and residence and found hundreds of classified documents, offering incendiary claims that any criminal probe into the former president is intrinsically corrupt and part of an attack on his voters. And after Trump claimed earlier this month that he was on the verge of being indicted by Bragg, Fox personalities once again mounted the barricades on his behalf.

What we saw tonight shows that Fox won’t abandon him now either. Fox’s hosts and executives are in too deep, and they know that if he tried, Trump could destroy them with their viewers. They will have his back, no matter what, to the bitter end.

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via rww

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/offshore-wind-moratorium-whale-deaths_n_642599d9e4b02a8d518d12f0

no pix lnx twt

federal officials have repeatedly stressed that there is no evidence linking offshore wind development along the East Coast to a recent string of whale deaths.

Regardless, GOP lawmakers are citing those deaths in an effort to ban offshore wind — the latest in a growing, misinformation-rich campaign to stymie a ballooning renewable energy sector that stands to compete with America’s powerful oil and gas industry.

:{:{“The current system in place has allowed offshore wind to move forward too quickly & too recklessly in an attempt to solidify the legacies of green new deal advocates,”Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) wrote in a Twitter thread last week. “They hurt the environment, raise energy prices, & will destroy existing industry.”}:

Van Drew is part of a group of Republicans who introduced a resolution this month that calls for an immediate federal moratorium on offshore wind leasing and construction activity pending the outcome of an investigation to “determine the true impacts” of this development.}:

The resolution specifically notes that 23 dead whales have washed up along the East Coast since December and accuses regulatory agencies of having “an unclear process for determining all contributing causes of death of whales through necropsies.”

Along with Van Drew, the measure currently has five other GOP co-sponsors: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green (Ga.), Andy Harris (Md.), Chris Smith (N.J.), Scott Perry (Pa.) and Anthony D’Esposito (N.Y.).

[ pix Offshore wind energy opponents gather during a "Save the Whales" rally on Feb. 19 in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.]

To be clear, there are a lot of unknowns about how offshore wind will impact wildlife and marine ecosystems in the short and long term. Like all other offshore industries, wind development has the potential to disrupt and harm whales and otherwise negatively impact the ocean environment.

But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and independent scientists have for months been pushing back against sweeping claims that offshore wind activities, including sonar surveys, are to blame for recent whale deaths. Such misinformation has featured prominently on Fox News and other conservative media in recent months.

“When you think about this obsession with green energy — the argument is always like ‘oil and gas is so bad for the environment,’” Fox News host Laura Ingraham said on her show March 10. “How ironic that what they are doing is almost certainly killing large swaths of the whale population.”

Greene, one of Congress’ proudest conspiracy theorists, has peddled similar nonsense. In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity in February, she claimed — again, without evidence — that whales are washing up because of “wind farms that are being placed all over the ocean.”

“People are calling the alarms over how [wind farms] are not only killing unknown thousands of bird species but also causing whales to beach themselves at record numbers,” Greene said.

There are only two small wind farms in operation in U.S waters, one off the coast of Rhode Island and another off Virginia. Together, they have just seven turbines and a capacity of 42 megawatts.

More than a dozen other large-scale projects are in various stages of permitting and development, but none are currently under construction — a reality that makes the conservative narrative particularly deceitful.

As part of a broader climate agenda, the Biden administration set a goal of securing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, enough to power 10 million homes for a year and cut 78 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. So far, it has granted final approval to two major offshore wind projects: the long-stalled Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts, and South Fork Wind project off Rhode Island.

The recent whale strandings are part of what federal authorities have classified as an “unusual mortality event” that dates back to 2016.

“At this point, there is no evidence that noise resulting from wind development-related site characterization surveys could potentially cause mortality of whales, and no specific links between recent large whale mortalities and currently ongoing surveys,” reads an FAQ on the NOAA’s website.

Rather, officials have pointed to vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear— the two biggest human threats to whales, including humpbacks and the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.At least 190 humpback whales have died along the East Coast since 2016. Forty percent of the animals that underwent necropsies showed signs of being struck by a boat or an entanglement.

“Since December 1, 2022, injuries consistent with vessel strike were identified in many of the animals necropsied,” Lauren Gaches, spokesperson for NOAA Fisheries, told Inside Climate News this month.

Conservative lawmakers and media outlets are following the lead of fossil fuel-allied groups in exploiting whales to fight offshore wind. As HuffPost reported in November, anti-offshore wind groups, including some of the nation’s most hard-line climate change denial outfits, have branded themselves guardians of the endangered right whale as they threaten legal action against newly approved offshore wind projects.

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Meanwhile, these same groups have advocated for increased offshore drilling while remaining silent about the documented threats to whales posed by oil and gas development. The NOAA estimates that 22% of the population of the endangered Rice’s whale in the Gulf of Mexico was lost as a result of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.}:

[The Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island is the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States.

Those groups include the Heartland Institute and the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, better known as CFACT,both of which have long histories of peddling climate change disinformation and cheerleading for the fossil fuel industry. In one of the more ironic and laughable moves of this anti-wind crusade, Peter Murphy, a senior fellow at CFACT, labeled the Biden administration “deniers” on par with the tobacco industry.

“As with the tabacco [sic] companies of yesteryear that disputed their product caused cancer, the Biden NOAA and climate-change cohorts are deniers, claiming there is ‘no evidence’ off-shore wind sites are harming whales,” Murphy wrote in a March 18 post to CFACT’s website, without presenting evidence to the contrary. “Rather, the agency attributes some of whale fatalities to ‘pre-mortem vessel strike,’ while conceding ‘more research is needed.’”

It is no secret that the tobacco and fossil fuel industries have a shared playbook for downplaying and dismissing the harm they have caused. In fact, a trove of documents compiled in 2016 by the Washington-based Center for International Environmental Law, or CIEL, showed that tobacco and oil giants have worked collaboratively for over half a century, sharing marketing and advertising strategies, research institutes, PR firms and even scientists.

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CFACT is a member of the Cooler Heads Coalition, a group of conservative charities and nonprofits “focused on dispelling the myths of global warming,” according to its website. Between 1997 and 2007, CFACT received nearly $600,000 from oil giant ExxonMobil.}:

Few if any oil companies have done more to sow doubt about human-caused climate change than ExxonMobil.

In this July 31, 2010, file photo, a dolphin swims through an oil sheen from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill off East Grand Terre Island, where the Gulf of Mexico meets Barataria Bay, on the Louisiana coast.

In his post, Murphy concluded that “at the very least, there needs to be a moratorium on construction of off-shore wind turbines, which from a climate perspective alone are ineffective and a colossal waste, and now hazardous to the largest mammals on the planet.”

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Three days later, Republicans introduced their resolution for an offshore wind moratorium.}:

Among other things, the resolution declares that “Atlantic coast offshore wind leases represent a transformative industrialization of vital environmental and maritime resources of the United States.”

There is no question wind farms will industrialize large swaths of U.S. waters. But one of the biggest threats to global ocean health is the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels. Oceans have absorbed an estimated 93% of the excess heat from human-caused climate change. This ocean warming has come with devastating impacts, from mass bleaching of coral reefs to the collapse of fisheries.

The NOAA notes on its website that whales, including the endangered right whale, are particularly vulnerable to climate change, as warming ocean temperatures impact the availability of zooplankton and other prey.

Without a herculean global effort to shift away from fossil fuels and halt planetary warming, scientists warn the impacts to the ocean and marine life will continue to mount.

“The percentage of animal species exposed to potentially dangerous conditions increases significantly the faster the world warms,” climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe tweeted this month, summarizing a finding of the latest United Nations climate report. “In general, ocean species like coral and tropical species are most at risk.”

Offshore wind could ultimately help rein in fossil fuel emissions and combat the global crisis — if disinformation doesn’t get in the way.

Media Matters, a media watchdog group, published a report last week that found that of the 288 Facebook posts from right-wing media in January and February that mentioned wind energy, a whopping 84% included unsubstantiated claims that offshore wind farms impact whale populations. The most popular post was a clip from Fox News’ Jesse Watterstitled “Wind Surveying is KILLING our Whales.”

Related

Republican Party

renewable energy

Whales

wind power

Climate Deniers Exploit Endangered Whales In Bid To Kill Offshore Wind

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aha? antifa blm merge

https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/fox-news-and-right-wing-media-circulate-seemingly-inauthentic-antifa-poster

pix of poster bring rocks ...

mma 1 23

protests emerged around the country following the release of police body camera footage of officers fatally beating Tyre Nichols, Fox News and other right-wing media sources promoted an “antifa poster” whose authenticity has not been proved. The poster supposedly called for protesters to “burn it all down” and bring rocks and heavy objects to riots in New York City. 

The image was initially shared in a Daily Mail article, which called it “a shocking poster,” and on Twitter by user Rob O’Donnell, per disinformation researcher Caroline Orr.

On January 27, Fox News’ Jesse Watters hosted O’Donnell, who said he knows the poster was “put out by antifa” and it’s “calling for protests and riots at all police precincts across the city, to bring rocks, to bring pipes, to bring box cutters,” saying it’s “circulating in the underground of New York City.” 

Video

In the next hour, Fox host Tucker Carlson showed the poster, using it to suggest there is “an organized militia encouraging organized violence across the United States of America.”

Carlson’s guest during the segment, former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, told Carlson the police should have “zero tolerance” for antifa protesters and chastised “Biden’s DOJ” for doing “absolutely nothing” about antifa, who he said are “threatening cities across this country.” 

Carlson also suggested the poster was evidence of a “criminal conspiracy” by antifa.

Carlson’s commentary was circulated by right-wing blogs The Daily Caller and The Gateway Pundit, and FoxNews.com promoted his segment with Craig.

Video  1 27

With the poster on screen, Fox correspondent Christina Coleman saidon The Ingraham Anglethat “antifa put out this bulletin, calling for violence, even though Tyre's own family has called for peace.”

The poster was also picked up by other right-wing outlets.

On Newsmax, host Lidia Curanaj said “a police source” sent her “a flyer that showed that antifa was organizing throughout the country” but did not show it on screen. She speculated that “a lot of times these horrible incidents, like what happened to Tyre Nichols, are amplified and used by other organizations in order to achieve their political agenda.” Later on the network, Curanaj repeated that the protests must have been planned ahead of time,  accused the protests of having “professional agitators,” and called on the media to “do their due diligence and actually investigate” the situation.

The poster also appeared on far-right website The Post Millennial, in an article titled “Antifa vows to 'burn it all down' in NYC following death of Tyre Nichols,” which cites the Daily Mail as having obtained the poster. Neo-Nazi collaborator and Twitter personality Jack Posobiec shared the article on Twitter.

Right-wing commentary site Townhall shared O’Donnell’s tweet, including the image in a Friday night piece warning about “potential riots” in Memphis.

Newsmax’s Justine Brooke Murray shared the poster on Twitter, writing, “ANTIFA terrorists plan to burn down New York tonight. They’re blasting THIS out.” 

:{:{}:

Right-wing radio host David Webb on Twitter claimed the image showed that “violence is not a solution but it is a possibility.”

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mma 1 23

In an embarrassing attempt to undermine renewable energy, Fox host Jesse Watters platformed a fossil fuel industry-funded envoy flimsily disguised as an “ocean advocate” for Protect Our Coast NJ. Watters hosted self-described “Jersey Shore Lifer” Mike Dean, although he was misidentified on-screen as Mike Davis. Dean’s Twitter account demonstrates opposition to climate science, frequently retweeting Big Oil shill Steve Milloy and “#climatescam” posts.

dean – without evidence – blamed recent whale deaths in New Jersey on wind development and claimed, “The harms with these projects and the costs are limitless, and it’s really hard to find any benefits at all.” (While the cause of the deaths are not known yet, factors including oceanic plastic pollution, the presence of an anomalously large whale population in the area for this time of year due to warmer waters, and underwater sonar use by the military could all lead to these “unusual mortality events.”)

While Protect Our Coast NJ’s website boasts the group as “residents, homeowners, business owners, fishermen and visitors of the New Jersey coastal communities,” reporting has indicated that other interests are playing a part in the group’s activities. Popular Information’s Michael Thomas reported that the donation page redirects to a PayPal page for the Caesar Rodney Institute. The website also links to content from right-wing media’s favorite climate contrarian Michael Shellenberger. The Caesar Rodney Institute is a part of the State Policy Network, a network of conservative and libertarian think tanks.

The Caesar Rodney Institute has a history of hostility toward government environmental regulation and climate change mitigation policies. In 2021, the Caesar Rodney Institute’s Energy and Environment director, David Stevenson, a former member of the Trump EPA transition team, established the American Coalition for Ocean Protection (ACOP), a legal defense fund for groups to file lawsuits to fight offshore wind developments on the Eastern Seaboard. In 2022, the ACOP announced a partnership with Marc Morano’s Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow and the Heartland Institute to fend off a coastal Virginia offshore wind project.

As reported by The Intercept’s Lee Fang, the Caesar Rodney Institute has received funding from the American Energy Alliance, which in return was funded by fossil fuel insiders like the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers and Stand Together Chamber Commerce, a Koch Industries business trade group.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/jesse-watters/jesse-watters-most-egregious-attacks-against-women-2022

===

• david Mack @ BuzzFeed: A Special Counsel Will Decide Whether To Charge Trump With Crimes.
• Caroline Kitchener, Amy B Wang and Michelle Boorstein @ The Washington Post: Trump would act ‘like a little elementary schoolchild,’ former spiritual adviser says.
• Michael Luciano @ Mediaite: Jesse Watters Tells Americans to Procreate So We Don’t Need ‘Foreigners to Have the Babies’.
• Daniel Desrochers @ The Kansas City Star: Pompeo goes after Trump while mulling presidential bid, says he’s ‘tired of losing’.
• Media Matters: Matt Walsh claims genetically modified food is partly to blame for the existence of trans people.
• Liz Scheltens @ Vox: Why so many “election deniers” lost in 2022.

Tags: Donald Trump James Robison Jesse Watters Matt Walsh Mike Pompeo Round-Up

===

mma 11 22

GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): This stuff doesn't bother me anymore. I mean, if we get upset about this, then we're the snowflakes that we've been making fun of forever. I mean, what did Trump say to protesters when he came in?

JESSE WATTERS (CO-HOST): Knock 'em out!

GUTFELD: Knock 'em out! And we found that magical.

WATTERS: We did, we did. I still do.

===

===

mma 10 22

Fox News personalities and guests have long attacked Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, and now Pennsylvania lawmakers are trying to impeach him.

Earlier in September, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives sent Krasner a subpoena to hand over documents that pertain to the way he prosecutes crime, and Krasner refused to comply. Conservatives have attacked him over this and ultimately the state House voted to hold him in contempt. Krasner did partially comply with the subpoena despite calling it “undemocratic,” but he refused to hand over documents that might violate grand jury secrecy laws.

Now part of the push to impeach Krasner, who was overwhelmingly reelected in 2021, is a report that argues his policies contributed to a rise in Philadelphia’s crime rate. But criminology experts have taken issue with the report’s methodology, saying its conclusions are shaky. Texas A&M economics professor Jennifer Doleac wrote, “The errors are so egregious that publishing this article in this journal feels like malpractice.”

In reality, there does *not* seem to be a correlation between high crime rates and progressive prosecutors. In fact, one study shows that cities with progressive DAs actually saw slower growth in homicides and no correlation to high crime.

These discussions are lost in the right-wing echo chamber, where pundits relentlessly criticize progressive prosecutors. Right-wing media have singled out crime as a wedge issue to push conservative candidates onto voters, and their attacks have included district attorneys. Earlier this year, right-wing media successfully pushed for the recall vote of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, and now they are looking to Philadelphia as their next target.

Many Fox News personalities argued Krasner was failing in his role in prosecuting criminals, decontextualizing Philadelphia’s crime rate from national crime rates and citing total numbers of murders rather than per capita rates. This makes Philadelphia’s crime appear higher than it actually is since the city has a large population.

Right-wing media are calling for or justifying Krasner’s removal, blaming him for crime rates, and engaging in antisemitic fearmongering about a link to Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros:

Justifying and calling for Krasner’s removal

• Fox News’ David Lee Miller uncritically cited the discredited report in his coverage of Krasner’s impeachment, saying, “A portion of their interim report says violent crime in Philadelphia increased to unprecedented and unacceptable levels during DA Krasner's watch.”
• During an interview with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Fox anchor Harris Faulkner misleadingly cited total murder numbers as opposed to per capita numbers, saying, “The numbers don't lie. More than 380 murders in Philadelphia this year. New York and Los Angeles nearly as bad. The people want change. Those are blue cities. The people want change. Recall efforts are now underway to try to boot Krasner from his position.”
• On October 25, Faulkner again promoted the attempt to oust Krasner: “Outrage in Philadelphia over liberal District Attorney Larry Krasner. A scathing nw report details his dismal failure to keep crime under control. He has been under pressure before. Now it's really on.”
• Fox News host Jeanine Pirro attacked Krasner as “inept” and a “liar” before adding, “He should not be DA. He should be the public defender.”
• Right-wing Pennsylvania radio host Chris Stigall called for arresting Krasner for not complying with a subpoena from the state legislature: “If we had a Republican governor like DeSantis in Florida you know what we'd do? At bare minimum suspend Larry Krasner if not outright arrest him today for not complying with the subpoena.”

Blaming Krasner for high crime rates

• Fox News correspondent Bryan Llenas parroted GOP talking points, saying, “Republicans insist it has everything to do with Krasner. Since he was elected DA in 2017, the city's murder rate is up 70% while retail theft, armed robbery, property, and violent crime all continue to surge.”
• Fox News anchor Julie Banderas claimed Krasner’s policies have failed, citing one example: “The latest example of Philadelphia's progressive district attorney Larry Krasner and his soft-on-crime policies are not working out. This is horrendous. A Philadelphia man — here’s just one example — who was exonerated for a 2012 murder in Philadelphia is now the suspect in a recent deadly shooting.”
• Former GOP Senate candidate George Bochetto attacked Krasner on Fox & Friends, saying, “Larry Krasner, our district attorney, refuses to carry out his responsibilities. Refuses to enforce bail. Refuses to violate parole violators and put them back in jail.”
• Fox News correspondent Nate Foy said: “Krasner is often blamed for the murder of Philadelphia police officer James O'Connor in 2020” because “Krasner's office let him [the shooter] walk free without bail.”

Linking Krasner to George Soros

• Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed there is “an attempt, of course, to destroy the middle class” with crime, adding, “So in Philadelphia a lot of these crimes can be traced to one man, Soros-backed DA Larry Krasner. He’s decided not to charge many robbers with crimes. … If you stop charging people with certain crimes, they commit more of them. That seems like an obvious observation. And again, it's more evidence this is not an accident.”
• While discussing crime in Philadelphia, Fox News contributor Leo Terrell said: “The Democrats have abandoned the victims and for some crazy, perverted reason are backing the criminals. I can mention two words, George Soros, George Soros, George Soros, because his money is allowing these prosecutors to stay in office.”
• Along with displaying a photo of Krasner, Fox host Laura Ingraham said: “So, as the bodies keep piling up needlessly in districts run by Soros-picked DAs, is it not worth asking, ‘What would save more lives today? Gun control, or recalling every DA that George Soros funded?’”
• Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Will Cain fearmongered about Soros spending “$40 million in the past 10 years, to electing DAs like Alvin Bragg, Kim Fox in Chicago, Larry Krasner in Philadelphia. And by the way, that's only a sampling. Fifty percent of your district attorneys in the biggest cities across the country are elected with the backing of George Soros.”
• Fox News host Jesse Watters said Krasner was “funded with big bucks by George Soros,” adding, “In Philly, where under Larry Krasner — they call him Uncle Larry — the city has seen a surge in violence.”

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===

mma 1020

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): Parents already have to deal withhigh crime and inflation and now they have to worry about demonic teachers turning their classroom into a drag show? You would think Biden, who is almost 80, would know better. But he doesn't. Maybe that's why they call him creepy Joe. The president, who is already in over his head, wasted his day chatting with a transsexual activist Dillon in the Oval Office about why children should be getting sex changes without their parents' permission.

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col day white supr dunk wedge

// rachel campos-d

https://www.mediamatters.org/jesse-watters/fox-news-host-mocks-american-indigenous-populations-not-having-strong-borders-when

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https://www.mediamatters.org/jesse-watters/fox-news-host-uses-hurricane-ian-mock-action-climate-change

7 27 show

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): Florida's in a state of emergency tonight as it frantically hunkers down before Hurricane Ian makes landfall. And the storm's a big deal. So, did Joe Biden call Ron DeSantis to get on the same page?  

...

Maybe the reason Joe isn't talking with the leader of the state that's about to be devastated by this natural disaster is because he's already got the whole thing covered with the Inflation Reduction Act. Senator Amy Klobuchar laid it out for us clearly. There's no need to worry, people, because the Inflation Reduction Act and voting for Democrats is going to stop hurricanes. Listen. 

[CLIP BEGINS]

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR: We just did something about climate change for the first time in decades. That's why we've got to win this as that hurricane bears down on Florida. We got to win in the midterms. We understand that.

[CLIP ENDS]

Is it just me or is Amy saying if you vote Democrat, she'll drive to Florida and nuke the hurricane herself? Just asking.

===

mma 922

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): Remember when Congressman Matt Gaetz was smeared by the media and the Democrats? They said he was a criminal? He was a sex trafficker? But as time went on, it became clear they didn't have anything on him. There was never any evidence, and now listen to this. The Washington Post is reporting that prosecutors have advised against charging Gaetz with anything. Why? Because they don't think two key witnesses are credible.

Okay, so what happened here? Is this some just giant smear job? It doesn't even matter if they don't charge now. I mean, the damage has been done. He's got to clean up his reputation. But this is what the left always does. They'll concoct a story, feed it to the press. The media runs with it. They'll dangle charges. And then it's just done. Oh well. They did it to Trump. They did it to Kavanaugh. They did it to Gaetz. So, who's next?

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mma 922 tchr union

JESSE WATTERS (CO-HOST):Randi's a viper, isn't she? Isn't she a vicious woman? If you're supposed to be all about the children, wouldn't you want to work with every governor? And thatgovernor down there in Florida, he did right by the students. Florida students probably did the best of any of the students. He didn't shut down any of the schools. And then he let the parents decide whether or not they were going to mask or not. 

===

THE END OF strait? origin of greg g? and WATTERS?

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/blockbuster-report-fox-executives-and-top-anchor-bret-baier-tried-subvert-decision-desk

matt g

Top Fox News executives interfered with the election projections of the network’s vaunted “decision desk” due to blowback from then-President Donald Trump, according to a new book. The reports — and the actions Fox took with regard to its decision desk following the 2020 election — demolish the network’s argument that its “news side” is a credible journalistic operation walled off from the “opinion side’s” Republican Party propaganda machine.

In The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser report that while Fox’s decision desk had been comfortable with its election night call that Joe Biden had won Arizona, “Fox executives were freaking out” that week as the network came “under tremendous pressure from Trump and his allies.” Fox’s call made it more difficult for Trump to subvert the election after declaring victory on election night, and he responded by successfully encouraging Fox viewers to switch to its competitors.

Jay Wallace, Fox’s president and executive editor, took a direct action overriding the decision desk in hopes of avoiding further criticism from Trump supporters on the Friday after election day, according to Baker and Glasser.

Wallace “overruled the Decision Desk team including Bill Sammon, Arnon Miskin, and Chris Stirewalt, refusing to let them call Nevada for Biden even after other networks did, a level of interference that had been unheard of in past elections,” they write. “The reason had little to do with Nevada. Because of the Arizona projection, calling Nevada would give Biden enough electoral votes for victory. Wallace did not want Fox to be the first to call the election and declare Biden president-elect.”

Wallace’s act followed two other proposals from senior Fox employees to interfere with the decision desk for Trump’s benefit, according to the book.

First, “at 8:30 the morning after the election, Suzanne Scott, the chief executive officer, even suggested that Fox should not call any more states until they were officially certified,” they reported. As Baker and Glasser noted, “official state certifications typically took days or even weeks and no network had ever waited until then before telling their viewers who had won.”

“A couple other top executives backed up Scott,” while Sammon, the Washington managing editor who directed the decision desk, advised against the move, according to the book. (That Sammon, who slanted Fox’s reporting to the right and bragged about falsely portraying Barack Obama as a socialist during the 2008 election,was the voice of reason here shows how far the network had gone.)

But two days later, they report that Fox chief political anchor Bret Baier sent Wallace an email arguing that Fox should reverse its Arizona call and instead project that Trump had won the state — even though he trailed at the time by more than 10,000 votes.

“The Trump campaign was really pissed,” he wrote in an email to Jay Wallace, the president and executive editor at Fox. “This situation is getting uncomfortable. Really uncomfortable. I keep having to defend this on air.” He accused the Decision Desk of “holding on for pride” and added: “It’s hurting us. The sooner we pull it—even if it gives us major egg [on our faces]—and we put it back in his column the better we are in my opinion.

Fox executives sell ads by touting the purported firewall between the network’s right-wing “opinion side” and its respectable “news side.” But here we have the network’s top “news side” anchor imploring the head of “news side” programming to make the “news side” decision desk fraudulently award a state to Trump because his campaign was demanding it. That says more about Fox’s role as GOP propaganda than any “opinion side” monologue. (In a statement, Baier denied writing that the Trump campaign “was really pissed,” claiming that the quote was “from an external email that I referenced,” but complained only of the “context” of the remainder of the quotes.)

Wallace didn’t follow through on Baier’s proposal, but according to Baker and Glasser he blocked the decision desk’s Nevada call the following day. The day after that, Fox saw the writing on the wall and followed CNN, ABC, CBS, and The Associated Press in declaring that Biden had won the election.

But that wasn’t the end of it. The network’s brass subsequently established an incentive structure that would dissuade similar “news side” threats to Fox’s bottom line.

Baker and Glasser report that Sammon and Stirewalt were then “summarily fired,” with the announcement delayed until January and described as a “retirement” and part of a “restructuring,” respectively.

Over the months that followed, “opinion side” hosts Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters, who had both questioned the network’s Arizona call, were given their own weeknight shows. They each took over time slots that had previously been occupied by “news side” programs. Other prominent election deniers were also promoted and given increased prominence at the network.

Everyone who works at Fox now knows that if they help Republicans try to steal an election, they’ll be richly rewarded. If they try to interfere with that effort by accurately stating that the Democrats won, the network’s top executives may overrule them and they will find themselves looking for a new job.

Fox’s decision desk is now just another piece of the right’s election subversion machine — one its executives can deploy at will — and its projections should be treated as such. Any future Fox election calls that diverge from other networks to the benefit of the GOP should be treated with extreme skepticism.

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omg rhet

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-laying-groundwork-next-insurrection-or-worse-telling-its-viewers-biden-waging-war

9/13

mma

On Monday evening, Fox News stars Tucker Carlson and Jesse Watters each used the 21st anniversary of 9/11 to tell their millions of viewers that the Biden administration has declared war on conservatives for their political beliefs.

Carlson and Watters argued, as the network has for months, that President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice is a tyrannical force bent on persecuting Fox News viewers, and that it’s only a matter of time before Democrats criminalize all political dissent.

Both defended the election denialism that has become core to the Republican Party after Trump’s loss in 2020, reinforcing the idea not only that the election was stolen, but also that those who say the election wasn’t rigged are jackbooted authoritarians.

Carlson approached the topic by playing a clip of Chuck Todd’s interview of Vice President Kamala Harris, in which she described how dangerous it is to have at least 11 election deniers running for secretary of state positions throughout the country. Typically the top statewide election official, the office is incredibly powerful, and those races have been flooded with cash as Republicans seek to install denialists to oversee upcoming elections.

Todd framed the interview, which was pegged to the anniversary of 9/11, as a discussion of how national security issues had evolved from external dangers to “the threat within.”

“Who is this threat?” Carlson responded. “Well, of course, it's you and anyone else in the way of the Biden administration.”

“And especially, as the vice president just said, and you saw it, anyone who questions the legitimacy of the last election,” he continued.

Carlson then added his own election conspiracism, arguing without evidence that “there are reasons not to believe” the final vote count, and that if a conservative voices that belief, under Biden, “you need to be pursued by law enforcement."  [vid]

minutes later, Carlson brought up the Department of Justice issuance of roughly 40 subpoenas to top aides to former President Donald Trump, including white nationalist Stephen Miller.

Carlson argued that the Biden Department of Justice was trying to “suppress political dissent, to hobble an entire political party and to keep these people from ever participating in American politics again.”

One hour earlier, Watters had made a similar point. “This war on Republicans -- it's a war of choice,” he said. “It's a preemptive war so the Republican Party never wins another election. And that is the real threat to democracy." [vid]

fox News’ business model relies on stoking its viewers’ fears, and Monday’s segments come on the heels of months of similar coverage.

In late June, Carlson devoted an entire opening monologue to a lengthy mischaracterization of the legal cases of 14 conservatives, nearly all of whom were involved in some effort to overturn the 2020 election. “The signature tactic of the Biden administration … has been the criminalizing of American politics,” Carlson said at the time.

Carlson and others at Fox also spent part of the summer pushing a preposterous theory that Biden was hiring 87,000 new IRS agents to act as a paramilitary force against conservatives. A Media Matters study found that the network had pushed the bogus theory more than 200 times by the end of August.

Following the search of Trump’s residence and golf resort at Mar-a-Lago, Fox and other right-wing outlets and pundits characterized the DOJ’s actions as additional evidence that Biden was persecuting regular conservatives. “But the real target of this investigation isn't Trump,” Laura Ingraham said. “The real target of this investigation is you or anyone who dares to call out and take on the rank corruption of the D.C. establishment.”

Watters responded to the search by arguing that any attempt to hold Trump accountable was in reality an attack on Fox viewers. “These are bloodthirsty savages who want to see you humiliated and violated,” he said. “This is a threat to anybody who opposes them. Look what we can do to you. We can even storm into your president's home and take whatever we want.”

“They don’t need evidence,” Watters said in July, speaking broadly about various DOJ investigations into Trump. “Their goal is to scare you into submission.”

The overall implication of these arguments — that conservatives are being persecuted, and that the January 6 insurrection was really just about asking questions about vote totals — is not hard to understand. Fox News is laying the groundwork for future fascist violence, including but not limited to violence in response to elections won by Democrats.

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mma 9 22

Some of Fox News’ most influential commentators are misconstruing recent remarks from Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, falsely claiming that the Biden administration is preparing for “war” against the Republican Party as Fox continues to push the fallacy that conservatives are being persecuted.

Fox News has relentlessly attacked Harris since she joined President Joe Biden’s ticket in 2020. In addition to a constant stream of racist and sexist remarks, the network has waged a war of manufactured outrage against Harris, either by claiming she was laughing at gas prices — when in reality she was just laughing at a meme — or by inexplicably blaming the vice president for Russia’s violent escalations against Ukraine.

During the September 11 edition of NBC’s Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd asked Harris, “We are now as a nation battling a threat from within. Is the threat equal or greater than what we faced after 9/11?” Harris replied that she had taken an oath to “defend and uphold our constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic” and that “we don’t compare the two in the oath, but we know they both can exist.” Harris also noted that she wished that domestic threats were not filtered through “some partisan lens,” but notably did not say domestic threats were more dangerous than the threat of terrorism during and after 9/11.[dan ball Hoe?]

Similarly, during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union on September 11, Clinton reflected on “how important it is to try to deal with extremism of any kind, especially when it uses violence to try to achieve political and ideological goals.” (The network’s obsession with Clinton is well-documented.)

It didn’t take long for Fox News to latch on to the narrative that Harris, Clinton, and the Democratic Party writ-large had issued a “declaration of war” against MAGA Republicans.

• During his prime-time show on Fox, Jesse Watters falsely claimed that the “Biden White House used this day to politicize the worst terrorist attack in American history and declare war on you.” He then baselessly characterized Harris’ vow to “defend against all enemies foreign and domestic” as a “declaration of war,” saying, “Make no mistake, the Democratic Party, the media, and obviously the FBI have designated the Republican Party as a terrorist group.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [9/12/22]
• Tulsi Gabbard claimed that the Biden administration and the Democratic Party are “pushing our country to the brink of civil war.” Gabbard also claimed that Harris and others were “demonizing, targeting our fellow Americans as worse than Al-Qaeda terrorists” as a ploy to “hold on to their power.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [9/12/22]
• Fox host Tucker Carlson claimed that Harris’ comments about defending the constitution against domestic enemies amounted to a declaration of war against “you and anyone else in the way of the Biden administration.” Carlson also referred to the January 6 insurrection as an “election injustice protest” and called Todd a “freaking lunatic” for suggesting the United States has a “threat within.” Fox News, *Tucker Carlson Tonight*, [9/12/22]
• On Hannity, former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany claimed that Clinton had compared Republicans to terrorists during her appearance on CNN’s State of the Union. “Drawing a comparison between American citizens and the heinous monsters who committed one of the most evil acts in our country's history. That is despicable,” McEnany said. Fox News, *Hannity*, [9/12/22]

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mma 9 22

While children’s hospitals were facing a deluge of violent threats in August from an online campaign of intimidation and misinformation fueled by anti-LGBTQ trolls, Fox News repeatedly provided a platform for the individuals responsible for the harassment to amplify their attacks. Over the course of two weeks, Fox News — the most-watched cable network in the country — spent more time and ran more segments targeting three different children’s hospitals over false claims about gender-affirming care than CNN or MSNBC combined spent discussing the attacks.

Led by conservative social media figures including Chaya Raichik and Matt Walsh, an online campaign began by targeting Boston Children’s Hospital and Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., with false claims that they were providing hysterectomies for trans youth. The unsubstantiated claims were debunked by independent fact-checking websites and refuted by the hospitals, which did not stop right-wing media figures from taking up the attacks to malign all gender-affirming care for trans youth as “mutilation.”

In reality, these hospitals do not provide genital surgery to trans youth. Rather, they follow the standards of care established by national medical organizations, offering medically necessary care that is supported by every major medical organization in America.

Fox News amplified the architects of the harassment campaign that resulted in threats of violence against at least three different children’s hospitals

Amid the influx of threats against children’s hospitals, Fox News adopted the attacks as part of its ongoing effort to demonize trans health care for political points and at the expense of trans children.

Between August 18, when the network’s first segment attacking Boston Children’s Hospital aired, and August 31, when Fox aired its most recent segment, attacking Chicago’s Lurie Children’s Hospital, the network aired 7 segments and spent more than 20 minutes vilifying the hospitals. Notably, three of the Fox prime-time shows featuring the attacks are in the top 10 most-watched cable news programs in the country — Tucker Carlson Tonight, The Ingraham Angle, and Jesse Watters Primetime. 

And while other Fox News prime-time shows similarly repeated anti-trans attacks on the children’s hospitals, Tucker Carlson’s program has been the most responsible for amplifying the misinformation campaign and the figures behind it.

On August 18, the day after Vice News reported that far-right extremists were threatening to execute doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital over lies told about their gender-affirming care program, Carlson invited Chris Elston onto his show. Elston, a Canadian anti-trans extremist whose tweet kicked off the attacks on Boston Children’s Hospital, erroneously claimed gender-affirming care was “the biggest child abuse scandal in modern medicine history,” while Carlson called the care “sexual mutilation of children."

[vid]

a week later, Fox News ran 5 segments attacking D.C.’s Children’s National Hospital after it was targeted with a similar smear campaign prompted by Raichik, whose Twitter account “Libs of TikTok” has been instrumental in fueling Fox News’ anti-LGBTQ messaging. After the hospital reported its staff had received threats of violence, Carlson invited Raichik onto the August 30 edition of his show.

During the segment, Carlson falsely claimed Children’s National Hospital was “castrating young people, minors for no legitimate purpose whatsoever” and asserted that Raichik was “committing actual journalism."

[vid]

the night Carlson’s interview with Raichik aired, Boston Children’s Hospital was targeted with a bomb threat.

The next night, propagandist Chris Rufo earned a spot on Carlson’s show after falsely claiming that Lurie Children’s Hospital was promoting “‘trans-friendly’ sex toys for children” based on a resource document provided exclusively to teachers.

Carlson opened the segment by saying, “Most people trust children's hospitals implicitly. They just didn't know the details — but thanks to the internet, we now do.” He went on to claim that “some of these hospitals are performing horrifying experiments on children,” including “things you think would be crimes but that apparently aren't and that are going on in children's hospitals in the United States." [vid]

fox News’ attacks on children’s hospitals have outpaced mainstream cable network’s coverage of the threats

Coverage of the targeted harassment and threats against multiple major children’s hospitals from CNN and MSNBC lagged behind Fox News’ attacks against the same facilities. Not only did Fox spend more time (over 20 minutes) attacking and spreading misinformation on children’s hospitals over gender-affirming care than the other two networks spent covering the attacks (less than 19 minutes), but no show on either mainstream network has aired more than one segment on the attacks. Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson Tonight alone has aired 3 segments attacking the hospitals. In fact, Carlson’s show spent more time (just under 12 minutes) attacking children’s hospitals than CNN spent discussing the attacks across all programming (just over 5 minutes). MSNBC spent just over 13 minutes discussing the story.

While Carlson repeatedly hosted guests pushing anti-trans misinformation against gender-affirming care, only one show segment on either CNN or MSNBC interviewed a medical professional. The August 18 edition of MSNBC’s The 11th Hour With Stephanie Ruhle spoke with a doctor about the struggle of providing essential health care for trans youth while facing a barrage of threats.

Methodology

...

===

===

an 8 22

Moments after news broke that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had executed a search warrant at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida on Monday, Fox News pundits claimed that the raid was a politically-motivated hit to prevent Trump from getting reelected in 2024.

"You're going into the home of a presidential candidate. He hasn't announced yet but everybody assumes he's running for president. This is after they want after his campaign with wiretaps and other federal investigative raids. This is insane," host Jesse Watters said on Primetime.

Watters' guest, an ex-Central Intelligence Agency officer named Buck Sexton, responded: "it almost feels like a preemptive coup. We've heard so much about the insurrection and the coup, but this is preventing, this is meant to prevent Donald Trump from being able to run again."

READ MORE: FBI executes search warrant at Mar-a-Lago

Watch below or at this link.

===

wiki 8 22

jesse Bailey Watters (born July 9, 1978) is an American conservative^[1] political commentator on Fox News. He frequently appeared on the political talk show The O'Reilly Factor and was known for his man-on-the-street interviews, featured in his segment "Watters' World", which would become its own show in 2015. In January 2017, Watters' World became weekly, and in April 2017, he became a co-host of the roundtable series The Five. In 2022, Watters became host of Jesse Watters Primetime.

In 2021, he published his first book, How I Saved the World.

• 1Early life and education
• 2Career
• 3Controversies
  • 3.1Amanda Terkel "ambush"
  • 3.2Chinatown segment
  • 3.3John Podesta comments
  • 3.4Ivanka Trump comments
  • 3.5QAnon comments
  • 3.6Anthony Fauci comments
  • 3.7Emma DiGiovine deception
• 4Personal life
• 5Bibliography
• 6See also
• 7References
• 8External links

Early life and education

Watters was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,^[2] son of Stephen Hapgood Watters, a teacher, and child psychologist Anne Purvis, daughter of Morton Bailey, Jr., publisher of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.^[3] Her grandfather, Morton Bailey, published The Saturday Evening Post; his father was the politician Morton S. Bailey. Watters's paternal grandfather, Dr Franklin Benjamin Watters, was a cardiologist at the Veterans Administration Hospital at Newington, Connecticut, and a professor at the University of Connecticut Medical Dental School. He has some Irish ancestry on his father's side. Watters is named after his mother's great-grandfather Jesse Andrew Burnett, an associate chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court.^[4][5][6][7]

Watters grew up in the Germantown and then East Falls neighborhoods.^[8] He attended the William PennCharter School through junior year, before moving with his family to Long Island in New York.^[8] In 2001, he graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, with a B.A. in history.^[9]

Career

After his graduation, Watters began work as a production assistant at Fox News.^[10] In 2003, he moved to the production staff of The O'Reilly Factor,^[11] and in 2004 he began to appear on air in segments of O'Reilly's show.^[12]

On June 11, 2014, Watters debuted on the Fox News show Outnumbered, later occasionally appearing as a guest co-host. On November 20, 2015, Watters debuted his own monthly Fox News program, Watters' World.^[13] While Watters is characterized as an "ambush journalist",^[14][15][16] Watters has said, "I try to make it enjoyable for the person I'm interviewing. We always come away from the interview all smiles, for the most part. And it's always fun to come back and look at the footage and say, 'Oh my gosh, what just happened?'"^[8] In January 2017, Watters' World became a weekly show, airing Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET.^[17][18]

In April 2017, Watters became a co-host of the roundtable series The Five.

In April 2021, HarperCollins announced the publication of Watters's new book How I Saved the World, which was published on July 6.^[19] The book debuted at number one on *The New York Times* nonfiction best-seller list for the week ending July 10, 2021.^[20]

After serving as one of several rotating fill-in hosts in the network's 7 PM time slot, it was announced on January 10, 2022 that Watters would become the permanent host of a new primetime show, titled Jesse Watters Primetime, which debuted on January 24, 2022.^[21]

Watters' World ended on January 15, 2022, while Watters continues to serve as co-host of The Five.^[22]

Controversies

Amanda Terkel "ambush"

In 2009, on assignment for The O'Reilly Factor, Watters and his cameraman accosted journalist Amanda Terkel while she was on vacation to ask her questions about an article she wrote that was critical of Bill O'Reilly.

Seven years later, at a journalists' reception, The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim approached Watters with his phone camera running and asked him to walk over to Terkel and apologize. Watters at first said he would apologize and then said he wouldn't, adding, "I ambushed her because O'Reilly told me to get her because she said some bad shit."^[23][24][

Video of the incident shows Watters then grabbing Grim's phone and throwing it on the floor, and later grabbing it again and putting it in his pocket. Eventually, the two got into a shoving match, as Grim attempted to recover his phone. Watters later commented on the incident on The O'Reilly Factor, stating, "I was at this party trying to enjoy myself. This guy came up to me. He starts putting it in my face."^[25]

Terkel wrote that Watters's response was "surprising," considering that "Watters' way of confronting his subjects is to thrust cameras in their faces unexpectedly and pepper them with aggressive questions."^[23][25]

Chinatown segment

In October 2016, Watters was criticized for a segment of Watters' World that was widely considered racist toward Asian Americans.^[26][27] In New York City's Chinatown, Watters asked Chinese Americans if they knew karate (which originates from Japan, not China), if he should bow before he greets them, or if their watches were stolen.^[26][28] Throughout the segment, the 1974 song "Kung Fu Fighting" plays in the background, and the interviews are interspersed with references to martial arts and clips of Watters getting a foot massage and playing with nunchucks.^[27][28] New York City mayor Bill de Blasio denounced Watters's segment as "vile, racist behavior" that "has no place in our city".^[29][30] Numerous other lawmakers and journalists, including Asian Americans Mazie Hirono and Judy Chu, also condemned Watters.^[31] The segment was also criticized by the Asian American Journalists Association, which issued a statement saying, "We should be far beyond tired, racist stereotypes and targeting an ethnic group for humiliation and objectification on the basis of their race."^[32]

On October 5, Watters tweeted what Variety's Will Thorne called a "non-apology" about the segment. In the two tweets, Watters stated that "My man-on-the-street interviews are meant to be taken as tongue-in-cheek and I regret if anyone found offense. ... As a political humorist, the Chinatown segment was intended to be a light piece, as all Watters' World segments are."^[33][34][35]

John Podesta comments

In January 2017, Watters faulted John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, for the theft of Podesta's emails by Russian hackers, saying, "What happened was John Podesta gave his password to a hacker. And guess what his password was. 'Password.' It's a true story. His password was 'password.'"^[36] The fact-checking website PolitiFact rated Watters's claim "False."^[36]

Ivanka Trump comments

In April 2017, two days after joining The Five as co-host, Watters made an on-air comment about Ivanka Trump that was criticized as lewd. After viewing footage of Trump speaking on a panel about female entrepreneurship, Watters commented, "So I don't really get what's going on here, but I really liked how she was speaking into that microphone," as he parodied holding the microphone as a phallic symbol. Watters denied his comment was sexual, saying in a statement: "During the break we were commenting on Ivanka's voice and how it was low and steady and resonates like a smooth jazz radio DJ ... This was in no way a joke about anything else."^[37] In response to the criticism, Watters was not on the show for two days that week.^[38][39]

QAnon comments

In July 2020, Jesse Watters praised the conspiracy theory QAnon during his show, saying: "they've also uncovered a lot of great stuff when it comes to Epstein and it comes to the deep state. I never saw Q as dangerous as antifa." After public backlash, Watters released a statement saying: "I mentioned the conspiracy group QAnon, which I don’t support or believe in. My comments should not be mistaken for giving credence to this fringe platform."^[40][41]

Anthony Fauci comments

At Turning Point USA’s 2022 AmericaFest conference, while advocating for attendees to aggressively confront and question Dr. Anthony Fauci about his alleged funding of gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Watters said, "Now you go in for the kill shot. The kill shot? With an ambush? Deadly. Because he doesn't see it coming."^[42][43] Fauci responded that Watters's remarks were "awful" and that Watters "should be fired on the spot".^[44][45] Fox News indicated their support for Watters, saying he "was using a metaphor", and that his comments "had been twisted completely out of context".^[42]

Emma DiGiovine deception

On April 11, 2022, during an episode of The Five, Watters said that he duped his now-wife, Emma DiGiovine, into spending time with him by intentionally letting the air out of her car tires and then offering her a ride in his vehicle.

When asked if that was the first time he had used that deception, Watters indirectly answered the question by saying "It works like a charm." When asked if his wife knew about this, Watters said “Now she does”. It has been reported that Watters was married to his first wife when this occurred.^[46][47][48]

On the April 25, 2022 episode of The Five, Watters appeared to clarify his remarks by saying that he was simply "joking" and that he "never deflated anyone’s tires”. He jokingly referred to this incident as "TireGate".^[49][50]

Personal life

Watters is registered to vote as a member of the Conservative Party of New York State.^[51] He married Noelle Inguagiato in 2009 and had twin daughters with her.^[52] Noelle filed for divorce in 2018 after Watters admitted to an affair with a producer on his show, Emma DiGiovine.^[52] Inguagiato and Watters's divorce was finalized in March 2019. Watters announced his engagement to DiGiovine in August 2019 and they married in December of the same year. Their son was born in 2021.^[53][54]

Bibliography

• Watters, Jesse (2021). How I Saved the World.New York: Broadside Books. ISBN 978-0-06-304908-6. OCLC 1245249467.

See also

• New Yorkers in journalism

References

...

===

herbert london?

cpny

2020s

In 2020, the Conservative Party nominated incumbent Republican President Donald Trump for re-election to the presidency.^[75] Trump was defeated by Democrat Joe Biden.^[76] In 2021, the Conservative Party successfully teamed up with the Republican Party to raise opposition among the state's voters and defeat three ballot initiatives proposed by Democrats.^[77]

===

8 22 gone for a yr?

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/after-temporary-banishment-rep-matt-gaetz-once-again-fox-news-star-despite-his-situation

within the first three months of 2021, according to Media Matters’ internal database, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) made 37 weekday appearances on Fox News daytime and prime-time programming. At the time, Gaetz and Fox News enjoyed a symbiotic relationship: Gaetz would appear weekly to biweekly to lend his firebrand personality and shameless distortion of the truth to whatever culture or message war the network was pushing, and in turn,  the network elevated his stardom and status as one of former President Donald Trump’s top henchmen.

On March 30, 2021, the relationship between the Trump loyalist and the network dramatically shifted when The New York Times reported that Gaetz was facing a Justice Department inquiry over allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with an underage girl. Fox’s leading face, Tucker Carlson, responded to the bombshell report by hosting Gaetz for a softball interview in which the congressman professed his innocence and claimed the Times was “smearing” him based on a financial extortion plot against Gaetz and his family. (While a Florida businessman eventually pleaded guilty to wire fraud against the Gaetz family, the investigation into Gaetz’ relationship with underage women was separate, and The Daily Beast outlined the numerous falsehoods Gaetz made in the interview.)

Gaetz also attempted to implicate Carlson by comparing his situation to false allegations against Carlson and suggesting Carlson had met a “friend” involved in the plot, leading the host to call it “one of the weirdest” interviews he’s ever done. This exchange landed Gaetz an informal excommunication from the network, forcing him off Fox airwaves until Carlson hosted him again, an exact year later, on March 30, 2022, to plead his innocence. Within the two last months, Carlson’s other prime-time colleagues Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingrahamhave all followed suit, hosting Gaetz with no mention of the scandal.

The Justice Department investigation is still ongoing, yet Fox has welcomed its former star back with open arms. As Gaetz’s scandals have deepened, it’s unclear what changed in the network’s calculation of the lawmaker’s suitability for its airwaves. At best, Gaetz’s increased appearances on Fox are another tool to fuel bad-faith Republican arguments, especially amid their desperate attempts to distract from the January 6 hearings. At worst, the network’s embrace of Gaetz represents a callous disregard for serious allegations, made particularly ironic given Fox’s recent homophobic campaign against the LGBTQ+ community under the pretense of protecting children from supposed groomers.

===

===

an 7 22

no lnx

They're projecting': Fox News sparks outrage after calling teachers union the 'KKK with summers off'

Fox News host Greg Gutfield (screengrab/@justinbaragona/Twitter).

Meaghan Ellis

July 08, 2022

A co-host of Fox News’ The Five is facing deep criticism for her recent rant comparing the largest teachers union in the United States to the Ku Klux Klan.

During a recent segment of the show, Fox News' Jesse Waters and other co-hosts discussed a new published on Wednesday about the National Education Association's (NEA) latest proposal to "substitute the term “birthing parent” for the word “mother” in order to be “inclusive,'" according to The Daily Beast.

Although the association's members have not voted on the proposal, the Fox News headline displayed on the screen declared the proposal to be “woke insanity.” That's when Waters weighed in.

READ MORE: Fox News reported that Gavin Newsom violated California's travel ban. An analysis says otherwise

“You don’t change the English language to cater to 1 percent of the population, all right?” Watters said. “These people live in a very small fraction of this country, and I’m fine with it. It’s a free country. Do your thing. But that 1 percent has to accept that the whole rest of the country doesn’t do that thing. And they have to have a little humility and kind of jive with it.”

Co-host Dana Perino also chimed in with a claim about the term “birthing people” which she insists is “the new ‘Latinx.’” According to Perino, Democrats now realize that “didn’t make sense” it ultimately “alienated” potential voters.

:{:{}:

The co-hosts then moved on to discuss the actual role of the NEA as they criticized their perspective on “school choice.” That's when Greg Gutfeld attempted to compare the teachers union to the KKK.

“Anybody at this point who opposes school choice is protecting a destructive system that harms minorities who don’t have other options, and that makes them truly racist oppressors. The NEA is the KKK with summers off. It’s true. They’re racist,” claimed Gutfeld who previously expressed concern about comparisons of the KKK to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).}:

“If you are not allowing an opportunity for people who can’t afford a good education to have a good education, you are trapping kids in a life that does not get much better,” he continued. “You worry about gang crime and you worry about gun violence, but by that time it’s too late, right? Public school, man, they destroy a kid before he even gets there by opposing any kind of opportunity to escape it.”

READ MORE: Fox News could be subject to major financial setback as judge OKs lawsuit over false election claims: report

Shortly after the clip of Gutfeld's remarks began circulating on social media, Twitter users began weighing in with critical responses.

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/after-discrediting-report-10-year-old-ohio-girl-needing-abortion-foxs-jesse-watters-now

an 7 22

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.

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 Roe versus Wade on June 24th.

Indiana allows abortions up until the 13th week as long as mandated conditions are met. Its rules are likely to tighten, however, when state lawmakers convene in an emergency session on July 25th to discuss post-*Roe*policy plans.

READ MORE: 'A fanciful tale'? Ohio rape suspect arrested after Republicans cast doubt on 10-year-old girl's story

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.As an April 17th NBC News report 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."

Live Science also explained in detail last September 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."

On Tuesday, a 27-year-old suspect was taken into custody and confessed to twice assaulting the child. The arrest occurred while numerous Ohio Republicans – including Governor Mike DeWine, Attorney General Dave Yost, and Congressman Jim Jordan – were publicly suggesting that the story was a fabrication. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board called the account "a fanciful tale." None of them have issued a formal apology in light of the accused rapist's capture.

Incidentally, Yost had expressed his doubts on Monday's Jesse Watters Primetime. During Wednesday's broadcast, Rokita blamed President Joe Biden's immigration policies for the crime despite the alleged perpetrator having lived in Columbus, Ohio for seven years.

READ MORE: [Kevin McCarthy cites disputed fentanyl overdose report to push anti-immigration rhetoric

"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.

While justice for the victim may be served in an Ohio courtroom, Rokita is taking a much different approach in neighboring Indiana.

"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."

Next, Rokita fired off several conspiracy theories.

READ MORE: House Republican asks if women give birth to turtles or tacos

"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," Rokita declared. "And this abortion activist is out there front and center. The lame stream media – the fake news – is right behind it and unfortunately in Indiana, the paper of record is fake news 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."

Watch below or at this link.

====

===

Fox's Jesse Watters: Jeff Clark's crime was “he worked for Donald Trump”

06/24/22

WATTERS (HOST): Earlier this week, a former Trump justice official named Jeff Clark woke up to armed federal agents banging on his door. They dragged him outside in his pajamas and raided his house. His crime? He worked for Donald Trump. It's a longer story than that, but working for Trump may as well be a criminal offense when you look at what's happened over the last few years.Was Jeff Clark arrested and charged with anything? No. The Biden Justice Department just rummaged through his belongings and confiscated his electronics.

===

rubber glue  rt constant attributes bad behavior as defense/ reaction to dem bad acts

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/fox-news-joe-biden-kavanaugh/

ncrm

fox News propagandistJesse Watters on Wednesday alleged President Joe Biden and other top Democrats may be behind the man who was arrested earlier that day who reportedly admitted he wanted to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“This could be a little criminal conspiracy,” Watters alleges, asking, “did the orders come all the way from the top?” JUST ASKING

For more than seven minutes Watters cobbled together various benign incidents from over the past two years in a clearly fictious narrative that draws the President, the Speaker of the House, the Senate Majority Leader, the White House Press Secretary, and a top Democratic Senator into what he baselessly suggests could be a conspiracy to kill a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

Watters – who was highly criticized for using “violent rhetoric” by calling for a “kill shot” in interviews with Dr. Anthony Fauci – told Fox News viewers the man who he suggests is some high-powered hit man hired by the President, “got cold feet when he saw U.S. Marshals with arms guarding Kavanaugh’s house and called the cops on himself, telling them everything.”

“He says he was furious over Roe v. Wade possibly being overturned — remember the leak? — and was looking for purpose in his life,” Watters continues, as Media Matters reported. “So he found that purpose by going out and trying to kill a Supreme Court justice. Do you think that idea just popped into his head? Or did the orders come all the way from the top?”

Watters then tries to make his case, which amounts to “by Democrats’ own standards” there must be an investigation into this event because the left has accused Donald Trump of inciting the insurrection, Watters claims, merely by giving a speech at the January 6 rally.

By the end of his seven-minute-plus rant, Watters concludes:

“This is just the beginning, this summer is going to be ugly. That’s why we have to get to the bottom of this. This could be a little criminal conspiracy that needs to be investigated – again by the left’s own standards. We might have to appoint a commission. We might have to hold hearings,” he says, as if he is a member of Congress or DOJ official.

“We have a criminal leak,” Watters falsely claims, referring to the leak of the Supreme Court draft, which legal experts make clear was not criminal.

“We have a group that’s protesting outside [Kavanaugh’s] house. You have an attorney general that’s not doing anything about this,” he claimed, after earlier complaining that the protestors outside Supreme Court Justices’ homes should be arrested.

“You have a senator who’s agitating,” Watters claims, earlier referring to a March 2020 statement Senator Chuck Schumer made.

“You have a White House, who’s giving this license. Maybe time to put some people in leg shackles like they did to Navarro. These people incited violence possibly, we need to hold them accountable if they did. Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Liz Warren, anybody who has their hands on this should face consequences again, by the left’s own standards. Don’t call me crazy. They set the rules. We’re just following.”

Watch:

===

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/fox-news-wild-wednesday/

an 2 22

no lnx vid

Fox News descended into utter insanity on Wednesday

Maria Bartiromo ignorantly asks Kevin McCarthy to 'look at the 25th Amendment' to remove Biden

Brandon Gage February 16, 2022

Today has been a wild one over in Fox News propaganda land, even by their standards. This morning, anchor Jesse Watters urged the United States to annex Canada to save it from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whom Watters suggested is a communist. And he was serious.

“We have to finish the wall and build a fresh one in the north if this keeps up. Or we could just liberate the Canadians from their dictatorship,” said Watters. “It’s not like America hasn’t done that before. There’s room for a few more stars on the flag.”

Good luck with that.

The full eight-minute segment is below:

Watters: Trudeau getting his chance to play dictator

youtu.be

Meanwhile, on Mornings with Maria on Fox Business, host Maria Bartiromo accused President Joe Biden of manufacturing the crisis between Russia and Ukraine as a “ruse” to yank attention away from – who else? – Hillary Clinton.

Bartiromo expressed skepticism predicated on what “some Congressmen were telling me over the weekend” that Russian President Vladimir Putin would want to invade Ukraine, given the vast amount of control he has over Europe’s energy resources.

Those conversations, Bartiromo explained, were “why I questioned whether or not the whole thing was a ruse, with Jake Sullivan coming out so hysterical over the weekend telling us to get out of Ukraine, and Russia’s gonna invade today. Obviously, in retrospect, he was trying to change the conversation from Hillary Clinton and her bad behavior and her dirty tricks against Donald Trump.”

Right-wingers have baselessly convinced themselves that Clinton spied on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and presidency, citing a report from former Special Counsel John Durham in which he made no such allegation and explicitly stated that there was no evidence of that happening.

Bartiromo’s guest, Gristedes and D’Agostino Foods Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Catsimatidis, insisted that “Putin was never going to invade Ukraine” and that Putin “withdrew the troops” out of fear that Biden “would do something stupider.”

Putin has not withdrawn any of his forces, and Ukraine remains surrounded by 150,000 Russian troops.

Catsimatidis also believes that Biden has overblown the situation with Russia to get “inflation prices” and “Mexico” off the “front page of The New York Times.”

Bartiromo agreed.

“Yeah, it takes off the front page inflation and it takes off the front page Hillary Clinton and Jake Sullivan pushing the Russia collusion hoax for so many years,” she said.

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller determined in his 2019 report that it was not a hoax.

Watch below:

===

color blind means racism does not exist, esp systemic, CRT dog whistle ~ affirmative action

https://www.mediamatters.org/five/foxs-jesse-watters-praises-glenn-youngkin-claiming-hes-bringing-back-martin-luther-kings

===

121 mma

1. Fox News has a two-track business model. Its audience watches the network to see its opinion hosts spew right-wing propaganda, while its advertisers pay for access to that audience, and cable providers pay to sell that audience a package that includes the network. The unhinged rhetoric of the network’s opinion hosts has scared many advertisers away; Fox executives in turn have pointed their business partners toward the network’s “news side” to maintain plausible credibility (that credibility never holds up under any scrutiny, but the lie is useful, as people say). 

The news division turns into opinion programming: Fox News’ unprecedented ratings losses in recent weeks have led the network to turn its "news division" into advertisements for its opinion hosts. When some Fox viewers defected for fringe-right competitors like Newsmax and One America News, Fox frequently began promoting its opinion hosts during “news” segments, directly airing clips of its prime-time hosts during “news” segments, casting doubts on the election results hundreds of times, and actively supporting the president’s efforts to overturn election results.

Fox increases opinion programming:Additionally, Fox announced this week that they're reducing the number of "news" hours entirely, by replacing Martha MacCallum’s high-profile 7 p.m. show with one hosted by a rotating cast of Fox’s right-wing commentators.

By the numbers: Fox News built the lie that fueled the January 6 putsch; in the two weeks after the network itself called the election, Fox News cast doubt on election results nearly 800 times -- and that doesn't count Fox Business, which has its own stable of pro-Trump liars.

Lies upon lies: Fox News has spent months promoting and entertaining Trump's Big Lie that the election was stolen. And now it is lying to advertisers that it has a "straight news" division separate from its opinion programming.

Fox before the attack: Fox News host Jesse Watters, days before Capitol putsch: “We used to storm the castle … In 2021, let's relight that great American spirit.”

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520 mma

A new study from British medical journal The Lancet shows that the drug Fox News and President Donald Trump had relentlessly promoted may not be the miracle cure for COVID-19 that the network had made it out to be.

“A study of 96,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients on six continents found that those who received an antimalarial drug promoted by President Trump as a ‘game changer’ in the fight against the virus had a significantly higher risk of death compared with those who did not,” The Washington Post reported. “People treated with hydroxychloroquine... were also more likely to develop a type of irregular heart rhythm, or arrhythmia, that can lead to sudden cardiac death, it concluded.”

Fox News is the source of the president's belief that hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for the coronavirus. The network’s hosts and contributors promoted the drug literally hundreds of times, running with the flawed conclusions of grifters and charlatans. Trump responded by publicly promoting the drug and even saying that he was taking it personally, as his public health experts stressed that evidence supporting its use as a treatment was sparse.

Trump even changed federal policy based on Fox’s hydroxychloroquine coverage. Administration officials diverted time and resources from other potential efforts to fight the coronavirus toward the drug because of Fox’s influence. The network continued to tout the drug even as evidence mounted that it was ineffectual.

The drug Fox promoted, according to this Lancet study, actually makes things worse. Instead of listening to public health experts, the network sent the president -- and the federal government -- down a rabbit hole.

Also: Sean Hannity claimed that the worst side effect of hydroxychloroquine is “an allergic rash or upset stomach”; Fox host Jesse Watters mocked people concerned over FDA warnings on hydroxychloroquine.

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/fox-news-is-a-fascist-network-propping-up-an-incompetent-buffoon-of-a-leader-coronavirus-proved-it/

no lnx

Fox News is a fascist network propping up an incompetent buffoon of a leader. Coronavirus proved it

Written by Hunter / Daily Kos March 17, 2020

Only hours after Donald Trump on Friday gave a press conference begrudgingly admitting the scope of the COVID-19 pandemic he had been insisting was “under control” for nearly a month, Fox News’ most toxic hosts revised their own previously denial-heavy rhetoric to match. Once again, it demonstrates the status of the network as “state news” operation devoted near-exclusively to the needs of conservative propaganda.

If the line from Dear Leader is that alarm over the virus is a “hoax” intended to damage him, that is what Sean Hannity will also say—even knowing that his words will kill some of the network’s own viewers. If the line from Dear Leader is that alarm over the virus is now warranted, Sean Hannity is himself freed to declare that alarm is warranted. But this, too, will be used primarily as a launching point for further praise of the self-promoting, incompetent Dear Leader.

Here is Sean Hannity on Friday, the evening after Trump shifted tone from sneering at administration critics to declaring a national emergency, while still sneering at administration critics. “Tonight, we are witnessing what will be a massive paradigm shift in the future of disease control and prevention. A bold, new precedent is being set, the world will once again benefit greatly from America’s leadership. It will give us reason to be proud as a country. The federal government, state governments, private businesses, top hospitals all coming together, under the president’s leadership, to stem the tide of the coronavirus.”

Note the use of the word “bold,” one of the otherwise near-illiterate president’s favorite adjectives. It is Dear Leader’s “leadership” that has allowed the United States to finally do what it has done in every similar crisis; declaring a national emergency is now not a longstanding designation allowing our or any government to take specific, defined steps to combat a new threat but a “bold new precedent” from Dear Leader, for the “benefit” of the world.

Sean Hannity spent weeks lying about the virus, downplaying its dangerousness and its spread. Now that the game is up and members of his audience will, with near-certainty, be dying in large part due to Dear Leader’s inaction and Sean Hannity’s teleprompter, Sean Hannity will now spend weeks praising Dear Leader’s “boldness” with a North Korean polish and a distinctly Fox News sneer. The Washington Post notes that Hannity was matched in this new revision of state propaganda by Laura Ingraham, among others. Go only so far as Dear Leader himself is willing to; follow Dear Leader as Dear Leader meanders his mental way through each new moment of revelation. No further.

Devil-among-us Jerry Falwell Jr., a frequent Fox guest, was on the network Friday morning telling the Fox & Friends couch that his Liberty University would not be shuttering during the crisis, displaying the trademark Fox sneer while downplaying virus scares as “hype,” and saying “maybe now this is their next attempt to get Trump.” After Trump’s Friday declaration, Falwell changed his own tune to acknowledge the severity of the crisis—sort of. In practice, he defended his original decision but said that the Virginia governor’s ban on gatherings of 100 or more people “left us no practical choice.”

This week, after a “somber” Trump once again bowed to realities his advisers had never before been able to drill into his skull, Fox News hosts matched his new rhetoric as well. Useful network idiot Jesse Watters changed his tune over the weekend. Not because of the presidential about-face, certainly not. It was “mom.”

“She is suspicious that I might have coronavirus. I wore the gloves all afternoon in the house. That’s what it is. I didn’t take the social distancing that seriously Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night, I went out to dinner here in the city. And I woke up this morning I realized that was not the right move.”

Do we really believe that Watters had not noticed that the world outside the Fox News studio was incongruent with the reports from inside until a morning revelation? Or was Monday morning the first moment in which it was safe to note it without penalty?

I am tired of this. I am very, very tired of the pretense that anything this scabby sore of a network does revolves around anything but propping up the most narrow and most radical of agendas; demonization of Dear Leader’s enemies and maudlin praise for Dear Leader’s boldness. It is a fascist network using the bog-standard rhetorical tools of fascism to prop up a fascist, incompetent buffoon of a leader. They will attack anyone on Dear Leader’s behalf. They will let their audience die—they will provide the crematory, if needed—if Dear Leader needs to just one more evening of adulation to get him through the next day without full-on emotional collapse.

Sean Hannity goads his viewers into support for ignoring even a pandemic until the moment it can no longer be ignored. He will goad his viewers again, this time into believing it was Dear Leader who limited the deaths to whatever horrific number they may rise to. Very, very rich men who want just a bit more money than they already have will watch him do it, and allow him to do it, and will pay him to do it.

They will, if anything, order that more flags be added to the network graphics.

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racist Fox News host blames Chinese people for coronavirus: ‘They eat raw bats and snakes’

Walter Einenkel / Daily Kos

Fox News’ Jesse Watters went after his favorite target Monday night: Chinese people. As host of the The Five, a show on which the cumulative intelligence of the panel adds up…

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• Fox's The Five completely implode when called out for mirroring White House talking points
• Fox hosts celebrate the "opportunity" to work multiple jobs to survive: "I know people who want to work two jobs"
• Fox's Jesse Watters says the United Nations "has always been an anti-Semitic institution," and has "a history of raping, of pillaging"
• Fox host lowers the bar for Trump's conduct. Kennedy claimed the "quid pro quo" Trump is accused of is "the exact same thing" as what past presidents did and "is not necessarily illegal"
• Tucker Carlson attacks Fox colleague Shep Smith, says Smith's program is partisan opinion, "not news"

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an 519

Last weekend, Bill Nye appeared on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver for a segment about climate change. Nye issued a blunt warning that action must be taken to reign in climate change, or else there will be unavoidable dire consequences. The segment went viral, and, predictably, right-wing media lashed out at Nye:

• While an onscreen chyron read "Climate Hysteria," Fox host Jesse Watters said of Nye: "If it was a real crisis, he wouldn't be joking like that."
• Frequent Fox guest and climate-denier Joe Bastardi: "It's just crazy, are you angry?"
• NRATV's Dana Loesch: "If the planet is on 'blanking' fire, and we're all going to die in 10-12 years, then how is it that the only action you want to take is to take people's money?"
• Redstate ran the segment under the headline: "WATCH: Fake Reporter John Oliver and Fake Scientist Bill Nye Try To Sell You a Fake Crisis"
• Glenn Beck's The Blaze: "Bill Nye loses it and melts down over climate change, goes on expletive-laden rant during late-night show"

Meanwhile, climate change is still pitifully undercovered in mainstream media.

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At this very moment, Trump and allies of his administration are blocking more than 20 Democratic congressional probes. Historians, professors, and legal experts have explained that the administration's actions are unprecedented and that the administration's stonewalling of oversight could quickly set new precedent for unchecked executive power for years after Trump is gone.

Right-wing media have provided extensive cover for the Trump administration. Brian Kilmeade said, "So there are countless investigations. ... And for the most part, the White House looked at all of this and said this is out of control." Jeanine Pirro stated, "The only constitutional crisis is the one created by Obama administration officials of a false collusion." Jesse Watters, simply claimed, "All presidents refuse to hand things over to Congress."

There's a real cost to normalizing this blanket stonewalling. As law professor David Alan Sklansky said, “Our system depends on some commitment by both parties and by all public officials to continuing a constitutional order.”