There was a tectonic shift in FoxWorld this week when the station admitted what every sentient human has known for 2 decades: The station will no longer lie about being Fair and Balanced. Get this: Smart people teased them about the empty slogan. For a station that praises every unhinged, 140 character, bathroom evacuation from the Hater-in-Tweet, it’s worth reminding readers that Fox News Was Attacking Barack Obama for Using Dijon Mustard at This Point in His Presidency.
Fair & Balanced?!? Never has been. Gabriel Sherman, whose writing on Fox “News” has been exemplary, said it best in Fox News Is Dropping Its ‘Fair & Balanced’ Slogan:
In the annals of modern advertising, “Fair & Balanced†will be considered a classic. The slogan was Ailes’s cynical genius at its most successful. While liberals mocked the tagline, it allowed Ailes to give viewers the appearance of both sides being heard, when in fact he made sure producers staged segments so that the conservative viewpoint always won.
While Stephen Colbert took some of the credit for the mockery, he had some helpful suggestions for a new slogan:
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The shift to unfair and imbalanced came just in time for Fox to go all out in only blaming rhetoric from the Left for Wednesday’s horrendous attack on Congressional baseball players, while calling for tolerance. By Thursday morning the talking point was set in stone for the day. Prior to November 8th, there was no hate in ‘Merka. So, just who is responsible?
Trump’s media allies use attack on GOP
baseball practice to delegitimize the press
Lou Dobbs: “The secular left†and “national
left-wing media†are a “threat to domestic orderâ€
It’s hard to take Fox “News” seriously when it bears the greatest responsibility for dividing the country over the last 20 years. Media Matters cuts through all this blaming-the-Left crap in Conservatives need to cut the bullsh*t and stop exploiting a tragedy to blame the left:
Take Byron Williams and his failed plot to shoot people at the Tides Foundation and the ACLU. Williams explicitly pointed to Glenn Beck’s now-defunct TV show and Alex Jones’ websites as the information sources that prompted his violent actions on the Tides Foundation, a relatively unknown organization that Beck repeatedly vilified on his program. Or the assassination of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, which followed continuous vitriol from former right-wing star Bill O’Reilly, who told his “audience of millions over and over again†that Tiller was “an executioner.†Or the murder of three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, CO, at the hands of Robert Dear, a man whose “paranoid delusions, misogynist beliefs, and violent fantasies†matched “perfectly†the usual narratives that come out of “Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones and Bill O’Reilly and countless far-right web sites.â€
Or the racially motivated massacre that ended nine black lives in Charleston, SC, perpetrated by a habitual commenter at the Trump-supporting, neo-Nazi outlet The Daily Stormer. After a man opened fire at a Washington, D.C., family pizzeria, it was hard to forget Alex Jones asking his audience to investigate the conspiracy theory that alleged the restaurant was hiding a child sex-trafficking ring. In the same way, Jones also exhorted Trump to use force against his opponents and threatened violence against supporters of “parasitical maggot†Bernie Sanders.
That’s all beside the point for Ainsley Earhardt. Her most important Thursday Thing is to show you how brave she is by wearing [what appears to be a polyester] pants suit now that Roger Ailes is still dead. Tah dah!
Maybe this is all meant to be a distraction from:
Las Vegas Man Accused of Death
Threats to Lawyers Suing Fox News
Man Charged For Threatening Lawyers
Suing Fox News Over Racial Discrimination
By Friday morning those Foxy Friends were praising Emperor Trump and — get this! — Ted Nugent for their leadership. Then KellyAnne Conjob had 7.5 minutes to relate her death fantasy, attack the Left, and pretend her boss isn’t the Tweeter-in-Hate. Amazing how her rhetoric exactly parallels Fox’s talking points. Watch:
https://youtu.be/NlRMoYce1RA
TO BE FAIR: When he went too far, and wouldn’t take a hint, Fox host shames Newt Gingrich for blaming GOP baseball shooting on ‘vulgar’ Democrats. This after Newt Gingrich Refuses To ‘Rise Above’ Scalise Shooting And Stop Using It To Ratchet Up Political Hostilities.
IRONY ALERT!!!
As The Bible teaches, you reap what you sow. Hey! I have a slogan idea: FOX “NEWS”: Sowing doubt since 1996.
RUSSIAN UNDRESSING: As the White House is enveloped by smoke that could very well lead to bonfire, Fox has chosen to self-immolate if that should happen:
Fox & Friends Joins The War On
Robert Mueller’s Russia Investigation
Fox & Friends’ Kilmeade declares that
“collusion is in our rear view mirror”
Laura Ingraham Makes Jeff Sessions’
Testimony About Susan Rice
Refusing to admit that Frequent Fox guest and Trump’s new lawyer kicked off rumors that Trump is considering removing the special counsel, someone finally dropped some Real on the Fake Fox Friends:
Don’t tell that to Fox’s biggest conspiracy theorist Sean Hannity, [who still] Calls Hillary Clinton ‘Killary’. Hannity responds to report Trump is under investigation [by saying]: “biggest act … of retribution we have ever seen from the deep state” and uses his radio show to host the aforementioned Newt Gingrich: “Comey is part of the deep state. Comey is part of the sickness.” Free thinkers understand Hannity’s ‘Deep State’ Derangement Put’s Him at the Front of Conspiracy Crackpot Parade, while Fox viewers continue believe evil lefties are trying to bring down Emperor Trump.
So much for tolerance.
PUTTING THE PEN IN APPENDICITIS: Tucker Carlson’s colour commentary was MIA from last night’s Dem vs GOP Kumbaya baseball game. Turns out he had an attack of appendicitis and was rushed to the hospital.
This is where the kinder and gentler Fox would like us all — Left & Right alike — to wish him a rapid recovery. My only thought is the longer he’s away, the less we’ll have of:
Tucker Carlson randomly renews his feud with “problem†Lauren Duca • Mariah Carey Volunteers to Be the Face of Female Resistance Against Tucker Carlson, Other ‘Angry Men’ • Tucker Carlson: Some Guests Are ‘Abortion Enthusiasts’ • Fox guest says gay people at Pulse vigil “probably don’t know what the Second Amendment is” • Gay Conservative Journalist Chadwick Moore Spreads Fake News on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’
Watch Hornet fact check Tucker and expose his guest’s lies:
But that was last year’s shooting. Who did Tuck blame for this week’s shooting?
Some on the hard left understand this, and that’s exactly why they support it, because political violence could lead to the dissolution of a country they despise. Our country,†Carlson said.
Moments later, Carlson, in what could be considered a lack of self-awareness, cautioned, “In this volatile moment, people with megaphones ought to be responsible about what they say.â€
So much for tolerance.
Just like he can do without his appendix, we can all do without Tucker Carlson. Let him take as long as he needs to recover.
PASSAGES: Right after learning a Connecticut Anchor Lands At Fox News, I was stoked to hear that Todd Piro would be 30 minutes away. He was doing a live remote from a diner in Miami Springs this morning, just like BFF Ed Henry did the day we had breakfast together. Had this article not been on deadline, I would have gone down to make a new friend. Meanwhile, Fox News Channel Promotes Six to New Programming Roles.
Headly Westerfield will miss pointing to FAIR & BALANCED as the biggest lie Fox tells. His writing on other topics can be found at the Not Now Silly Newsroom.
