Tag Archives: Heather Cox Richardson

Lies, Lies, And Still More Lies

Posted on by under Election 2020, Free Press Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

Yesterday came big news … now hold onto your hats, ‘cause this is going to shock you … ready?

Fox ‘News’ Lies!!!

An excerpt from Heather Cox Richardson’s nightly newsletter explains …

Dominion Voting Systems is suing FNC for defamation after FNC personalities repeatedly claimed that the company’s voting machines had corrupted the final tallies in the 2020 election. The filing today shows that those same personalities didn’t believe what they were telling their viewers, and suggests that they made those groundless accusations because they worried their viewers were abandoning them to go to channels that told them what they wanted to hear: that Trump had won the election.

The quotes in the filing are eye-popping:

On November 10, 2020, Trump advisor Steven Bannon wrote to FNC personality Maria Bartiromo: “71 million voters will never accept Biden. This process is to destroy his presidency before it even starts; IF it even starts….  We either close on Trumps [sic] victory or del[e]gitimize Biden…. THE PLAN.”

FNC’s internal fact checks on November 13 and November 20 called accusations of irregularities in the voting “Incorrect” and said there was “not evidence of widespread fraud.”

On November 15, Laura Ingraham wrote to Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity: “Sidney Power is a bit nuts. Sorry, but she is.”

On November 16, Carlson wrote to his producer, Alex Pfeiffer, “Sidney Powell is lying.”

On November 19, FNC chair Rupert Murdoch wrote: “Really crazy stuff.”

Hannity later testified: “[T]hat whole narrative that Sidney was pushing. I did not believe it for one second.”

Fox Politics Editor Chris Stirewalt later testified, “[N]o reasonable person would have thought that,” when asked if it was true that Dominion rigged the election.

The filing claims that FNC peddled a false narrative of election fraud to its viewers because its pro-Trump audience had jumped ship after the network had been the first to call Arizona for Biden, and its ratings were plummeting as Trump loyalists jumped to Newsmax. “I’ve never seen a reaction like this, to any media company,” Carlson wrote to Suzanne Scott, chief executive officer of Fox News, on November 9. “Kills me to watch it.” On November 12, Hannity told Carlson and Ingraham, “In one week and one debate they destroyed a brand that took 25 years to build and the damage is incalculable.”

They went to “war footing” to “protect the brand.” For example, when FNC reporter Jacqui Heinrich accurately fact checked a Trump tweet, correcting him by saying that “top election infrastructure officials” said that “[t]here is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” Carlson told Hannity: “Please get her fired. Seriously…. What the f*ck? I’m actually shocked…. It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.”

Heinrich deleted her tweet. 

The filing says that not a single witness from FNC testified they believed any of the allegations they were making about Dominion. An FNC spokesperson today said, “Dominion has mischaracterized the record, cherry-picked quotes stripped of key context and spilled considerable ink on facts that are irrelevant under black-letter principles of defamation law.”

I have never considered Fox to be a legitimate news venue, which is why I write it as Fox ‘News’ when I refer to them, but this gives us all the evidence we need that their focus is not on accurately reporting the news, but providing entertainment in whatever form gains them the most viewers.  That, my friends, is a damn shame, but the bigger shame is that Fox is the most viewed cable ‘news’ channel in the country!  It is my hope that these latest revelations about Fox’ dereliction of duty to provide accurate, fact-based news will drive viewers back to legitimate news channels, but I’m not holding my breath.

Here is a link to a video clip from PBS Newshour with David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart talking about this.  I fully agree with Brooks’ first remarks about how every journalist will sometimes make mistakes in their reporting, but that the majority of them try to get it right.  Fox wasn’t even trying to get it right … they KNEW they were lying to the public and were only trying to hold onto their bottom line.

Stupid and Stupider

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

I have many things swirling around in my head tonight.  Each day, it seems there are new horrors and abominations coming out of the Trump administration, campaign, and Trump himself.  So many that I cannot keep up with them and I wonder if we won’t all just implode before November 3rd!  Perhaps that’s his goal.

So much stupidity … it boggles the mind!stupidityThe most recent jaw-dropper came on Wednesday when, speaking in North Carolina to a group of trumpeters, Trump said …

“If you get the unsolicited ballots, send it in, and then go — make sure it counted. And if it doesn’t tabulate, you vote. You just vote. And then if they tabulate it very late, which they shouldn’t be doing, they’ll see you voted, and so it won’t count. So, send it in early, and then go and vote. And if it’s not tabulated — you vote. And the vote is going to count.”

So many points to be made here … where do I even start?  First of all … IF I were willing to risk death by voting in person, DONNIE, I wouldn’t be using a mail-in ballot to start with!!!  Damn but that man is a portrait of stupidity!

More to the point, however, is he just told the people of this nation to break the law!  It is against the law … both federal and state … to cast two separate ballots for the same election!  And as the highest person in the law enforcement community, don’t you think he ought to know that?

And perhaps most importantly, is he saying this just to get people to break the law, to attempt to vote twice, to back his false claim about voter fraud being a huge problem?  Voter fraud isn’t even a notable problem, but he has been claiming it is since before the 2016 election, and he’s still crying ‘Wolf’ today!  Is his ‘advice’ to the people of this nation just a sorry attempt to add more chaos and turmoil to an already chaotic election?

And then, Attorney General William Barr didn’t even understand that what Trump was suggesting was illegal!  Barr’s response when being questioned about Trump’s statement by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was …

“I don’t know what the law in the particular state says.”

Duh.  And he’s the frickin’ Attorney General???  Another portrait of stupidity!barr-stupidFor the record, folks, if you try out Trump’s idea in real life, you will either be blocked from voting in person or your mail-in ballot will be “spoiled”, and it is quite possible that neither of your votes will count … AND you could be arrested on felony charges.

A few nights ago, my friend Herb introduced me to The Young Turks (TYT) videos, and last night he sent me this one to review.  Take a look and give it some thought, for there are some serious potential ramifications to the delayed counts of mail-in ballots, as well as Trump’s illegal suggestion.

It is what it is???

The doc who replaced Dr. Anthony Fauci as Trump’s top medical advisor is Dr. Richard Atlas, who predictably has no background in epidemiology or immunology.  In the past week, Dr. Atlas decided to embrace the theory of “herd immunity” as regards the coronavirus pandemic.  Never mind that the top scientists and medical experts have warned that there likely is no herd immunity for this virus, for Dr. Atlas is Trump’s latest bootlicker who will say what Trump wants us to hear, rather than what we need to hear.

Herd immunity, for those who may not fully understand, is the ideology that if we let everyone be exposed, the old and infirm will die off, and those who survive will be immune to the virus.  Hmmm … as one of those who is ‘old and infirm’, I have a bit of a problem with this philosophy!  I have spent the past six effing months stuck in my house to protect both myself and my family … I’m not about to let a knucklehead like Atlas kill me now!

Of course, those who support this theory say we will protect the old and infirm, keep them somewhere safe, but what they fail to tell you is that we have children, friends, and grandchildren who can very easily bring that virus in to us.  We are not going to be kept from the rest of the world forever!  No, I am not going to go live in some bubble just so Trump can have his bloody economy back!herd-immunityDr. Anthony Fauci, who I DO trust with my life, rang in on this ‘herd immunity’ issue on Wednesday:

“We’re not there yet. That’s not a fundamental strategy that we’re using. The fundamental strategy that we clearly articulate and go by through the task force is to try to prevent as many infections as you possibly can prevent.”

Listen to Dr. Fauci, folks, not the asshole doing Trump’s bidding.  Our lives have exactly zero value to Donald Trump and his minions, as he has proven time and time again, most notably when he was asked about the U.S. having the highest death toll on the planet, and he responded with, “It is what it is.”  What a guy, eh?

Something to ponder …

I get a daily newsletter from a writer, Heather Cox Richardson, that is typically a summary of the political news in the U.S. the previous day.  Yesterday’s post led off with an interesting question …

“As I wade through the flood of news today, all of it trying to tilt the playing field toward Trump in the upcoming election, it strikes me there is an elephant in the room that we really need to identify: why is Trump so hell-bent on reelection? He has made it clear he doesn’t particularly like the job. He has no real goals for a second term. He feels victimized by the media and his opponents. He prefers Florida to Washington, D.C., and he really likes to golf. He claims to be wealthy enough to do whatever he wants. So why on earth is he apparently determined to bend our democracy to the point of breaking in order to win reelection to a job he doesn’t seem to want to do?”

She makes some excellent points, I think … he truly doesn’t seem to enjoy actually doing the job, reading briefings, sitting in meetings, listening to experts, and seems to far prefer being at one of his luxury properties golfing and stuffing his face with expensive food.  So … why, indeed, does he lie, cheat and steal to retain the position?  Is it the power?  Is it the fear of the many criminal lawsuits that he’s sure to face once he loses the immunity Bill Barr has given him as a ‘sitting president’?  I don’t know, but it is a conundrum, if you think about it.

I find Ms. Richardson’s newsletter thoughtful and informative, so if you’re interested, you can sign up for it for free here.