Friday Fox Follies – Newsical Chairs

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:46 pm

2017 opens on a high note for Friday Fox Follies. Now that she’s NBC bound, Tucker Carlson, the personality I take the most delight in skewering, has been given Megyn Kelly’s show on the Fox “News” Channel. Here’s the GRAND announcement from the whiny man/boy himself, with my [partial] transcription:

We began this show at 7 two months ago we told you [sic] that people in power tend to lie. We told you that they abuse their power not because they want to — [not] because they’re bad people — but because human nature makes it inevitable. It is the job of the press to call out those abuses. Instead, though, the press often grovels at the feet of the powerful.
 
We promised you we wouldn’t do that. We promised twee [sic] would hold the powerful to account. We would pierce pomposity. We would translate doublespeak. We’d mock smugness, and we’d barbecue nonsense. We’ll try to continue to do all of that, but thanks this new opportunity [sic] from R’bert [sic . . . River? Err-ber? WTF is he saying?] Murdoch and Fox, we’ll do it 2 hours later at 9PM.

Yet, Fryer Tuck doesn’t go after the powerful. Nor does he pierce any pomposity on the Right. Rather, Smug Tucker delights in eviscerating hapless outliers he can pretend represents regular folk on the Left. They are invited merely to be attacked so that he can appear smarter than those stupid enough to accept. The New Republic article The glorious Tucker Carlson comeback no one asked for is now complete includes a glorious paragraph I wish I had written:

This is undoubtedly a step down for the network from Kelly, who despite her race-baiting was a genuine star. What they’ll get instead in Carlson is a smarmier and younger (though admittedly less angry) O’Reilly. Though Carlson was once a gifted magazine writer, his TV work is notable only for its profound disingenuousness, as Carlson’s interview of Teen Vogue writer Lauren Duca will testify. But the Carlson move also says that Fox News in the Trump era may not be so different than the old Fox News—which is to say very white and very disingenuous.

In researching today’s FFF I happened across Susan Andrews, Tucker Carlson’s Wife: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know and my first thought was, “Who cares?” Until I read it. Especially 1 & 4.

As Fox “News” says goodbye to Megyn Kelly tonight — or is that the other way around? — Media Matters reminds us that Megyn Kelly, New Face Of NBC News, Spent Election Withholding News From The Public. Yet, MMfA was wrong when it predicted that Fox News Insiders Agree: Megyn Kelly’s Replacement Will Be A Pro-Trump Woman. On the other hand, it’s right on when it reports that NBC Is Building A Trump Normalization Machine as MSNBC gives weekday time slot to Fox News reject Greta Van Susteren over Joy-Ann Reid.

Time Mag notes in What Megyn Kelly Loses by Leaving Fox News:

Kelly’s unsuccessful one-night newsmagazine on Fox made clear she has wide-ranging interests beyond politics, and pursuing those in a venue in which she’s set up to succeed (with more resources, more time to work, and the question of her future settled) will provide her a chance to develop her viewership. But presumably she’ll remain engaged with the world of politics. And now she has room to maneuver.
 
The funny thing about her infamous debate question that set off her feud with Trump and seemed to presage her difficulties with colleagues was that it wasn’t actually that harsh. It was just, as Kelly so often found to be the case, harsh by the standards of Fox News. Kelly will no longer be the most aggressive interviewer in the room, which may indeed seem like a comedown for her. But leaving seemed, to any viewer tracking Fox News’ positioning itself as safe haven for the “deplorables,” was the only real option she had.

That could be its new slogan: FOX NEWS: A SAFE HAVEN FOR DEPLORABLES.

Speaking of Time: Gretchen Carlson Named Columnist for Time Magazine’s Motto.

Let’s not forget that these dominoes started falling when Gretchen — that other Carlson — sued Roger Ailes, former CEO of the sexist, xenophobic, and racist network, for sexual harassment. Now Former Fox News Anchor Gretchen Carlson to Guest Host ‘Today’ Show, Teases ‘Announcements’.

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RACE RELATIONS: Regular viewers of the Fox “News” Channel will not be surprised by how many times it appears on this list:

Here Are The Most Racially Bigoted Right-Wing Media Segments Of 2016

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EMPEROR TRUMP OVER COUNTRY: Fox “News” is conflating several important stories to misdirect its brain-dead audience and defend Trump’s Treason.

Fox created the straw man that the Democratic Party and President Obama have blamed Hillary Clinton’s loss on Russian Hacking. Then it debunks something that no one alleges, by correctly reporting that the election polls were not hacked. Then, Fox claims John Podesta wasn’t hacked at all. Still trying to have it every which way, Fox News Figures Pretend Julian Assange Completely Denied Russian Involvement In 2016 Campaign Wikileaks and, alternately, President Obama should have been more forceful with President-In-Waiting Vlad Putin than his tepid, “Knock it off.”

The more things change, the more Fox “News” stays the same.

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THE HAPPIEST MAN AT FOX: Celebrating hardest that she’s on her way out the door is none other than Bill O’Reilly [who] ‘hated’ Megyn Kelly, claims Fox News anchor. No wonder. She was nipping at his heels in the ratings.

Breaking the irony meter: Bill O’Reilly Blames ‘Reverse McCarthyism’ For Entertainers Refusing To Participate In Trump Inauguration.

KRAUTHAMMER: They don’t want to play for Donald Trump.
O’REILLY: Bull.
 
KRAUTHAMMER: This is a republic.
 
O’REILLY: Bull.
 
KRAUTHAMMER: You are not summoned to perform for the king or for the dictator. In some places, if Kim Jong-un calls you to sing, you better show up, because otherwise you’re not gonna make it to the morning.
 
O’REILLY: You—you don’t know anything about the Hollywood industries. They will perform for Joseph Stalin, okay, if they think it is going to help their career. Okay?

Fox “News” regularly attacks Hollywood as being a colony of the loony left (read: communists). Now that’s McCarthyism. Meanwhile, ‘The View’ erupts when Whoopi refuses to let co-host blast Hollywood for left-wing version of ‘McCarthyism’. Yes, Loofah’s name came up.

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STILL WATTERS: In another Fox schedule change, O’Reilly’s gift to the world goes weakly. [Geddit?]

Fox Gives Jesse Watters A Weekly Show

As the Media Matters’ subhead notes: Fox Will Now Feature Watters’ Poor-Shaming, Sexism, And Transphobia For An Hour Every Week and gives numerous examples of Watters’ poor-shaming, sexism, and transphobia. This change was obviously in the works longer than Megyn’s Move, as he hints in ‘You may be seeing a bit more of me’: Jesse Watters discusses past controversies and his future at Fox News:

Watters also serves as an extension of O’Reilly during ambush interview segments, unafraid to get into his interview subject’s face with aggressive questions, unrelenting particularly when his questions are unwelcome.
 
“When the cause is just and there’s been injustice, then it’s easy to kind of galvanize your emotions and confront a guy,” Watters told Business Insider in an interview in December. “And it’s intense and there’s a lot of adrenaline involved, but those usually make a big splash.”
 
O’Reilly will often tease the segments, which are stacked at the back of the program, with the idea that they are a draw for viewers.
 
According to Watters, O’Reilly generates many of the ideas for the segments himself and often has visuals and locations in mind.
 
“Usually he’ll say, like, ‘This is kind of how I want you to approach it,’ and then he’ll give me one line, and then I have to fill in the rest,” Watters said. “Bill is very understanding of the backdrop of the segment. I think because he was a field guy for so many years, he’s very interested in aesthetics behind the ‘Watters World,’ where it’s being shot, why it’s being shot there.”

Shorter Watters: Blame O’Reilly for how despicable I am.

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FOXY FRIENDS: This happy hate morning yak fest is when the venom enters the Fox bloodstream daily, especially on stories like this:

Newt Gingrich Blames Obama for Chicago
Attack: Only ‘Heightened’ Racial Tension

“I don’t remember anything like this before Barack Obama was inaugurated eight years ago,” Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy replied, hammering home his guest’s thesis and putting a wide smile on Gingrich’s face.

Steve Doocy: White Men Are Punching Bags For
The Liberal Left – ‘Conservative Black Chick’ Agrees!

Fox & Friends’ Homage To Christian
Coach Includes Persecuted Christian Whine

Fox “News” hate: It’s not just for breakfast anymore. It’s 24/7 Fruit Loops in The Emperor Trump Era.

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Headly Westerfield launched the NEW! IMPROVED!! Not Now Silly Newsroom on the New Year with Not My President; Not Even My Country ►  A Manifesto.