Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 10:51 pm
While Friday Fox Follies could fill every week’s column with variations on the concept that Fox News is divisive and stupid, often there are bigger fish to fry. This week that includes how Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly: [is] A Marriage of Convenience, the fact that “People Expect It”: Media Downplay NY Times Report On Trump’s Treatment Of Women. and/or how Fox Already Using Egyptian Air Disaster To Promote Donald Trump, just hours after it happened.
Yes, unfortunately this week’s FFF is Trump-centric, just like the Fox “News” Channel. Again.
But first: In last week’s Facebook Fibs & Trump’s Taxes I pointed out the hypocrisy of Fox “News” whining that any news source was biased and added, “[Y]ou can bet before next week is over Fox “News†will have convinced its unthinking audience that Facebook is not to be trusted.”
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I may have been wrong. Again.
Even before it happened you could Read What Fox News’ Dana Perino Plans to Tell Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook Bias Summit. When Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg met with conservatives over the ‘trending’ bias spat, it appears the social media giant won the PR war.
In the Facebook bias scandal: New media giant deals with traditional media problem and, really, just How serious are Facebook’s bias allegations? “Some people say” Fears of Facebook Bias Seem to Be Overblown, while others ask Is Facebook’s newsfeed really biased against conservatives – and, if not, should it be? Yet, After Trending Topics scandal, users still mostly trust Facebook; maybe because most of the press after the meeting was positive, such as Facebook, bias, and transparency: My trip to Silicon Valley.
Representing Fox “News” at the Facebook confab were Dana Perino and Tucker “With an F” Carlson, easily the whiniest partisan at the network, but, to be fair, other Fox partisans are not quite so whiny.
Immediately afterwards they gushed all about the meeting while using — of all things — the new Facebook Live feature. They only managed to make themselves look like Chicolinis. Watch:
Perino: Facebook recognizes its
‘trust problem’ with conservatives
Dana Perino: Conservatives, here are 5 reasons
why we should accept Facebook’s olive branch
Later in the evening the same duo appeared with Megyn Kelly and pretty much said all the same things, while appearing only slightly less clueless. Watch:
I started writing Fox “News” criticism 7 years ago, covering Glenn Beck for NewsHounds. I can’t believe I find myself agreeing with that crazy MoFo:
Facebook political bias? Glenn
Beck says he’s seen no evidence of it
What Glenn Beck Gets Right
About Facebook and Bias
The truth about Facebook is this: It wants to be all things to all people. Therefore, it will serve all opinions on the political spectrum — including in places around the world many ‘Merkins can’t even spell.
Fox “News” and Rupert Murdoch can only envy the reach Facebook has.
TRUMP TRUMPS KELLY: It was being billed as a cage match. It turned out to be a love fest as Megyn Kelly tried out for the part of The New Barbara Walters. The only thing she didn’t ask was, “If you were a tree…“.
Before the snoozefest:
Megyn Kelly: “I Understand”
Why Trump “Got Mad”
Megyn Kelly Slams Bill O’Reilly & Greta
Van Susteren For Not Supporting Her
‘It Was Frustrating’: Megyn Kelly’s Husband
Opens Up on Riding Out Trump Storm
Fox’s Megyn Kelly: The Goal Of
Upcoming Trump Interview
Is An “Interesting, Compelling
Except it wasn’t. It was Click Bait that never paid off. However, at the massive FFF viewing party, this got a huge laugh: Trump to Kelly: ‘You’ve been called a lot worse’ than bimbo, left unsaid was “by me when I thought no one was listening.”
It’s nearly unanimous. This interview stunk up the joint:
The Megyn Kelly Con Should End With Trump’s Softball Interview • Megyn Kelly’s Interview With Donald Trump: Softballs and Self-Promotion • VIDEO: Megyn Kelly Repackaged A Year’s Worth Of Fox Interview Questions To Trump • Washington Post’s Erik Wemple Slams Megyn Kelly’s “Unfortunate†And “Scandalous†Trump Interview • Megyn Kelly’s bankrupt interview with Donald Trump • Media Figures Roundly Criticize Megyn Kelly’s “Fluff” Interview With Trump • Megyn Kelly’s opening show a good one – for Donald Trump • As Print Critics Savage Kelly’s Trump Interview, Networks Cover For Her
Providing context is: The Charade Behind Megyn Kelly’s Trump Interview:
But this interview is an opportunity for media to put the full context of Kelly’s career on display as their recent series of laudatory profiles has failed to do. Kelly has a long history of misinformation campaigns and out-of-touch comments regarding race, LGBT issues, gender, reproductive rights, Islam, immigration, and climate change.
She’s used her prime-time Fox show to push falsehoods about the 2012 Benghazi attacks and Planned Parenthood, most recently asking whether a “political hit job” was at play in the grand jury indictment of two members of the group that released deceptively edited smear videos to attack the organization.
She regularly hosts Tony Perkins, the leader of an anti-LGBT hate group, and has shown a penchant for inflammatory rhetoric on race, ranging from claiming a 14-year-old black teenager who was the victim of a police officer’s use of excessive force “was no saint, either†to calling Black Lives Matter protesters “beyond the bounds of decency.”
As positive press highlights Kelly’s “occasionally, yet highly entertaining, bucking of the conservative party line,” they downplay the fact that her show “is made up largely of the kind of stories you’d find on many other Fox News shows.” Even the writer of Vanity Fair’s glowing cover story, after making those observations, eventually noted that Kelly’s “talent for fearmongering may be even more insidious than Trump’s own. She, after all, is considered by many to be the reasonable one at Fox.”
Uh oh!!!
Someone’s feathers were ruffled:
Fox’s Megyn Kelly Goes After Critics Of Her Softball Trump Interview On Megyn Kelly Presents • Megyn Kelly Has A Hissy Over Response To Her Milquetoast Trump Interview • Megyn Kelly Blames Media Bias For Criticism Of Her ‘Megyn Kelly Presents’
Providing more context: The Daily Show. Again.
Trevor Noah Rips Megyn Kelly:
Trump Was Nasty to You and
‘You’re Just Laughing It Off?’
Watch:
Uh oh!!! Really ruffled.
Megyn Kelly Hits Back Hard
on the Daily Show Segment
About Her Interview With Trump
That wasn’t the only interview Kelly conducted in that train wreck of a show:
Don’t Be Fooled By Megyn
Kelly’s Laverne Cox Interview
Don’t feel sorry for Megyn Kelly. She will continue to fall up. Her contract’s up for renewal and FFF was shocked to learn she already earns in the vicinity of $6 million a year. No word on whether she’ll be paid when Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly to deliver Albany Law School graduation ceremony address.
Does Kelly release her speeches?
TRUMP VS. THE TIMES: Right after FFF went to bed last week, The New York Times published an article on how Donald Trump has treated women over the years. Fox “News” went into overdrive minimizing the entire thing:
Former Trump girlfriend hits back at ‘upsetting’ NYT cover story • RNC Chair: ‘No One Cares’ About NYT’s Article On Trump’s Abuse Of Women • Megyn Kelly: NY Times Article Not A ‘Hit Piece’ On Trump And Women • Ben Carson: ‘As A Christian’ You Shouldn’t ‘Judge’ Trump For Mistreating Women
Truth be told, Fox “News” has a candidate to protect. Again.
Why Rupert Murdoch Decided to Back Donald Trump is an insightful (inciteful?) article by Gabriel Sherman, who has some of the best sources inside The Big House. That’s why we get headlines like:
Report: Rupert Murdoch And Fox News All In On Donald Trump • Rupert Murdoch (And Fox News) Now Fully Behind Donald Trump • Fox News Helps Trump Try To Con America Into Believing He’s Bernie Sanders • Media Repeatedly Pardon Trump Because He Is Not A “Conventional†Candidate • Fox’s Varney: EgyptAir Crisis ‘May Be Good Politically for Donald Trump’ • Fox’ Stuart Varney Cheerleads The EgyptAir Crash As Outstanding News For Donald Trump • Fox Guest Likens Donald Trump To General Patton • Fox Helps Spin Trump’s Fake Spokesman • First He Came For Mexicans And Muslims, Now It’s Time For Media • Donald Trump Jr.: People Love My Father For Hating On Welfare Queens • Ben Carson: ‘As A Christian’ You Shouldn’t ‘Judge’ Trump For Mistreating Women • Fox Host Says Trump Would Never Back Down From A Debate, But He Has Repeatedly • Bigot Phil Robertson Teaches Donald Trump About Christian Love and Fake History
There’s 5 more months for Fox “News” to play kingmaker. Again.
HATEGATE: In this week’s compendium of Islamophobia and Homophobia, a rare twofer for Fox’s Gutfeld: “Forget About Terror, We Have A President Who Is Declaring War On Bathrooms”. Meanwhile, Fox Doctor Keith Ablow: Being Transgender Is Like Saying You “Identify As Younger”, while Fox’s Brit Hume: Science Says Caitlyn Jenner “Might Not Qualify” As Being “Transgendered” and Fox’s Krauthammer Claims Being Transgender Is “Simply A Self Declaration” And “A Matter Of Your Choice”. Inexplicably Hannity Proposes “Liberal Bathroom Areas” Where “You Can Have All The Transgendered Back-And-Forth That You Want”, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The hate doesn’t end there:
Hannity’s Yell-At-A-Muslim Segment:
‘I Don’t Want To Hear What You Have To Say’ Edition
LOOFAH LAD LAFFS: Bill O’Reilly said a lot of ridiculous things this week. Again. Many of them covering for Trump. Again.
Bill O’Reilly’s Trump-related hypocrisy reaches stratosphere • Bill O’Reilly: Feminists Should Not Be Allowed To Report On Trump “Because Trump Is The Antithesis Of†Feminism • Wife-Abuser Bill O’Reilly Thinks Feminist Reporters Should Not Cover Donald Trump • BillO Says Feminists Shouldn’t Be ‘Allowed’ To Cover Trump • O’Reilly Doubles Down: It’s “A Legitimate Point” “That You Can’t Be A Feminist And Cover Donald Trump” • If We Follow Bill O’Reilly’s Logic, Only Trump Sycophants Can Cover Trump • O’Reilly: Trump, Obama, Hillary, Sanders Are ‘Not Evil,’ Don’t Deserve ‘Hatred’ • Bill O’Reilly Blames Black Crime In Chicago On Obama’s ‘Passive Racism’ • Bill O’Reilly and Kirsten Powers Yell Over One Another About ‘Passive Racism’ • Watch: Bill O’Reilly Suffers a Spectacular Stumble in Attempt to Sympathize with Victims of Chicago Gun Violence • O’Reilly Suggests The Movie Animal House Should Dictate Policy On Transgender Rights • Bill O’Reilly’s answer to trans restroom ‘problem’: Obama and Congress should watch ‘Animal House’
The Falafel King is the gift that keeps on giving.
THE THREE STOOGES ON THE CURVY COUCH: Fox & Friends excels at creating resentment among its audience. Even animals are not safe as Fox & Friends asks: Is making bison the national mammal part of the War on Bald Eagles?
“How do you feel? Challenger’s been buffaloed,” Doocy started off.
And when the subject turns to the amount of recognition the eagle gets from the Obama administration (apparently not enough), Kilmeade interjected: “Isn’t this the same administration that said it’s okay to start killing them?”
Speaking of The Dooce, he was on the loose again. This never seems to go well.
Educated Voters Frustrate
Dooce On The Loose
Frenchman to Fox News:
Trump Is Crazy and Europe
Wants Hillary to Win
Watch Fox’s Steve Doocy
Get Shot Down When Asking
A Passerby If “The System
Is Rigged For Hillary”
But, he doesn’t have to go outside to look like an idiot:
Steve Doocy Validates TX Gov’s
Opposition To “Unconstitutional”
Transgender Student Guidelines
TRUE STORY: Steve Doocy looks like a dipsomaniac if you mute him.
BLAMIN’ ‘BAMA:
Brit Hume: Obama Should ‘Share
Credit’ For Economy With Dubya
Fox’s Brit Hume Says Obama
Must Share Credit For Improving
The Economy With Bush Administration
Which is it? Horrible or worthy of sharing credit?
CLINTON CONTEST: No winner this week. If you see a postive story on Fox “News” of Hillary Clinton, you may already be a winner!!! This week’s losers:
Meghan McCain: ‘Hillary Clinton Is Truly Evil’ • Fox’s Rove: Clinton “Has Been Successful In Life When She Has Made Herself A Victim” • Fox Business Mocks Clinton’s Voice In KY Speech, Ignores Her $30 Billion Plan For Coal Country • Lou Dobbs Claims Hillary Clinton’s “Scant” Contributions Qualify Her To Be “On Staff” • Benghazi Chairman Contradicts Fox Report, Admits Military Could Not Have Saved Lives In Benghazi Attack • Fox & Friends Compares Hillary Clinton To Netflix’s House Of Cards
SUBHEAD: BLAMIN’ BILL:
Donald Trump Plays The
‘Rape’ Card Against Bill Clinton
Fox’s Bolling: The Reason The
Economy Under Bill Clinton
“Did So Well Is Because of Ronald
DUH-BATE: The only reason Fox “News” is pushing for a Democratic debate is it will be good for Donald Trump to have Clinton and Sanders attacking each other. Again.
Sadly they seem to be falling for it. Again.
Fox News Is Trying to Host a
Democratic Debate Before CA Primary
Bernie Sanders Campaign Agrees to
Do Fox News Democratic Debate
Fox News Tries To Close The
Deal By Offering Clinton And
Sanders Any Night For Debate
How many more months of this again?
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT’S DUE: Or even a dead clock finds a nut once in a while.
WATCH: Megyn Kelly Shreds Tx.
Lt. Governor Over His Bizarre
Remarks On Trans People
Fox Guest Rips Trump For
Calling Bill Clinton A ‘Rapist’
After Hanging Out With Him
Extra Special credit to whomever did this to Toddles Starnes:
My conservative page got blocked by Facebook
No word on whether he needed smelling salts, but you can bet there was pearl-clutching.
FOX BYTES: Fox’s Newt Gingrich Wants To “Test†Airport Employees To See If They Practice “Sharia†• On Fox & Friends: Chastity Advocate Dr. Meg Meeker Praises Trump’s Parenting • Watch Fox Business Get Schooled On The Benefits Of Overtime Expansion • Dennis Miller tells Bill O’Reilly “It’s like ESPN-O-R-T-H Korea†after Schilling • Kim Guilfoyle Spars With Juan Williams: ‘You’re Becoming Infamous and Ridiculous…’ • Gretchen Carlson Addresses #SweaterGate by Reading People’s Comments About Her Clothes
Headly Westerfield also serves up bite-sized Fox “News” snark at Fox Follies and Fallacies, just another part of his totally Left Wing Facebook experience.
