Tag Archives: state-run media

The Fox is Guarding the Hen House …

Posted on by under Political commentary, Trump's Staff Picks

Back in the days when I frequently made hiring decisions, my usual venue to search for employees was the local newspaper.  In the last few years of my career, I more often used CareerBuilder or Monster.com.  On a few occasions, when hiring for a higher-level position, I used headhunters.  But never in my most desperate moments would I have dreamed of using Fox News as an employment agency!

bill-shineToday came the announcement that Trump has hired Bill Shine, formerly of Fox News, to be the new communications director, a position previously held by Hope Hicks, Anthony Scaramucci, Sean Spicer and Michael Dubke.  The position has been empty since Hicks left in March after testifying to the House Intelligence Committee that she had lied for Trump.

Shine comes with his own built-in set of controversies, as he was forced to leave Fox News in disgrace in May 2017.  Shine was accused of covering up for a number of sexual harassment cases within the network.  He had been known as Roger Ailes “fixer”, similar to the role Michael Cohen played for Trump.  Ailes was forced out amid a wave of sexual assault allegations that Shine, apparently, tried to cover up, but that later came back to bite him.  Hmmmm … it seems that he will fit right in with the immorality that exists in the White House, doesn’t it?

But this is not the first time Trump has sought to hire Fox News castoffs!

  • john-boltonNational Security Advisor, John Bolton, has been a Fox commentator/contributor for the past ten years.  When hired on by Trump, he indicated that he still considers himself a Fox contributor.

  • Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Heather Nauert, was an anchor on Fox and Friends since 2007, and was hired into the State Department in April 2017, promoted to her current position in March 2018.

  • White House Director of Strategic Communications, Mercedes Schlapp, was a Fox News contributor until her hiring in September 2017; however, she continues to appear regularly on Fox News.

  • Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Tony Sayegh, has been with Fox since 2009, and despite his duties in his new position, he still finds time to appear regularly on Fox News.

  • K.T. McFarland was hired by Trump shortly after the inauguration in January 2017, to serve as Deputy National Security Advisor under Michael Flynn.  McFarland was a Fox contributor since around 2010.  However, after Flynn’s resignation, she was asked to step down.

  • larry-kudlowAlthough this one comes from CNBC instead of Fox, it is worth noting that Director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, was hired in March 2018 to replace Gary Cohn who decided he had enough of Trump’s ways.  Kudlow had his own program, The Kudlow Report, until he left to take the position Trump offered.

Given the number of these people who continue to be ‘Fox-friendly’, I have to suggest that we do, indeed, have a state-run media in the U.S., and its name is Fox News.

Bill Shine is known to be a close confidant of Trump’s best buddie Sean Hannity, and I see, with his hiring, even stronger ties between Fox and the White House.  Donald Trump’s main ‘claim to fame’ is his old television ‘reality’ show, The Apprentice.  Trump is an entertainer, a provocateur, and he is running our government like just another freak show.  Frankly, if she weren’t suing him, it wouldn’t surprise me for him to put Stormy Daniels in the position of Director of the Office of Cabinet Affairs!  A fitting position, don’t you think?stormy-danielsWe needed a president who thought with his head, one who understood the workings of government, foreign relations, and environmental concerns, to name a few.  We needed a president who had morals, values. We needed a president who represented the best interests of the people … all the people.  We needed an intelligent, compassionate president. Instead, we got Trump and his band of entertainers.  The White House has been turned into the entertainment capital of the nation.  Eat your heart out, Hollywood!

Sinclair + Trump = State-Run Media

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

You may remember that back in April I wrote a post titled Freedom of the Press … Abused!!!. The subject of that post was Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of 193 television stations nationwide.  Sinclair struck a deal with the Trump campaign in 2016 that granted them extended access to Trump in exchange for running all his speeches without commentary.  Sinclair stations lean toward conservative ideologies as it is and have come under fire before for biased news reporting.  When I wrote in April, it was because Sinclair had come onto the radar for what Dan Rather referred to as “an assault on our democracy”.  They were sending scripted ‘must-run’ segments.  The one in April was about ‘fake news’ and implied that Sinclair stations were the only ones not biased.  How can that be true when they are tied to Trump?

Once again Sinclair is back in the news, this time because of controversy surrounding a ‘must run’ editorial by Boris Epshteyn, Chief Political Analyst at Sinclair, that each station is being forced to air (I am so glad I do not watch television!!!). This latest segment blames the media for ‘overreacting’ to the separations of immigrant children from their parents.  OVERREACTING???  Excuse me, Sinclair Broadcast Group, but there can be no reaction too strong to the horror, the abomination of 2,300 children taken from their parents for no reason!  Freedom of the press … remember that???  That is where the press is free to report the news as it sees fit.  Not to be dictated to by a corporate giant who is in bed with Donald Trump!

I am including both a clip of the forced segment, as  well as the written transcript:

“Our immigration system is undeniably broken and the discourse around this topic is toxic.

A perfect illustration of these facts is the recent firestorm surrounding President Trump’s decision to enforce a “zero tolerance” policy and prosecute all adults illegally crossing our borders.

Many members of the media and opponents of the president have seized on this issue and have worked overtime to make it seem as if those who are tough on immigration are monsters. Let’s be honest, while some of the concern is real, a lot of it is politically driven by the liberals in politics and the media.

Some have even gone as far as comparing American immigration policies to the Holocaust.

It should go without saying that keeping children in a shelter is not equal to the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews and millions of others.

President Trump has correctly decided to step in and sign an executive order that will stop the separation of children from their families at the border. The president is working to show that it is possible to balance humanity with security for our borders.

Here’s the bottom line: the view that border security and humane treatment of families are mutually exclusive is wrong. That narrative is also incredibly harmful to finding a comprehensive solution to the problem of illegal immigration.

President Trump did the right thing by addressing the separation of families from their children on his own, but it is shameful that members of Congress continue to drag their feet on addressing all of the many holes in our immigration laws.”

Toeing the party line, isn’t he?  Of course, he fails to mention a few dozen facts, but guess what else he failed to mention?  Epshteyn is a former Trump advisor who is part of the investigation by Robert Mueller and his team into the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia.  Ahem.  Epshteyn is a Russian-born republican strategist who resigned from a White House communications job under Trump after only two months. He confirmed that he has been contacted for information for the House investigation, but little is known about his suspected campaign activities.

Freedom of the Press.  Most people never realize what a tenuous thing it is, how easily it can be undermined, shattered.  Sinclair, along with Fox News, has essentially become state-run media. My personal recommendation here is to boycott all Sinclair stations completely.  Unsure which stations are owned by Sinclair?  Check it out here.  If nearly 200 stations nationwide can make false claims, eschew facts, and convince their viewers of the lie that is being promoted by none other than Donald Trump, America’s #1 liar-in-chief, then freedom of the press is in grave danger. And make no mistake, folks, without freedom of the press … well, The Washington Post logo says it best …Democracy dies in darkness