Emperor Trump rode into the Offal Office on a slogan even he didn’t believe: DRAIN THE SWAMP! But D.C. has nothing on the leeches in the Fox “News” swamp, with an equally empty slogan, FAIR & BALANCE. The definition of a swamp is “an area of low-lying, uncultivated ground where water collects; a bog or marsh”, which also defines the Fox “News” Channel perfectly, especially the lying part:
Fox News said Trump spent
the weekend ‘working at the White
House.’ He was at his golf club.
IRONY ALERT LEVEL ORANGE: The station may have rid itself of its biggest leech [read: lech], the Swamp Thing also known as Roger Ailes, who gave the Trump campaign advice both before and after he was fired with a $40 million parachute. However, the aftermath may be worse. People could go to jail.
Ironically, as Michael Flynn begs for immunity, news sites are filled with stories that Federal prosecutors (in the office of former-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, recently fired by Emperor Trump) are offering immunity to former Foxites, who may want to roll over on who authorized secret payments to keep several sexual harassment scandals quiet and off the books.
Therefore, it’s probably merely a bizarre coincident that Fox “News” fired its long-time Comptroller Judy Slater, after two black women filed a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination.
However, Slater didn’t provide cover for Emperor Trump, like Judge Andrew Napolitano does. As Friday Fox Follies reported last week, Fox yanked him from the air after proffering a unhinged conspiracy theory, which was then repeated by professional liar Sean Spicer in his daily presser. Not only is he back, but he reaffirmed his whacked out conspiracy.
Nothing to see here.
SWAMP LIFE: Since 2009, long before it became a cottage industry, this reporter has been tracking the swamp dwellers. It’s good to see others turning their attention to the bog. First up, a NYT, article which should be read in full:
One nation, under Fox: 18 hours
with a network that shapes America
Many of these updates came with an underlying message: that the world can be a dark and often dangerous place, and that it is under the threat of “radical Islamic terror,” as was said with emphasis on “Fox and Friends.” (That phrase is one that Trump proudly and frequently uses.) The message of fear would resonate throughout the day, in the London coverage and later in segments on the Maryland rape case.
[…]
Kilmeade repeatedly turned his focus to London’s “Muslim mayor,” Sadiq Khan, calling on him to discuss the difference between his faith and that of the attacker. “Fox and Friends” also spent time on comments that Khan made in 2016 about how terrorism preparedness was “part and parcel” of living in a big city. After the attack this past week, Donald Trump Jr. wrote a Twitter post about Khan’s comments and was roundly criticized for taking them out of context. “Fox and Friends” did not note that.
The Guardian also has a deep dive:
Fox & Friends in the henhouse: how
Trump’s beloved show wields power
On Monday, Trump was being criticized in much of the mainstream media – as he has been for weeks – over alleged ties to Russia among his campaign aides. In the Fox & Friends studio, efforts were being made to tell viewers why Russia connections don’t matter.
Fox & Friends is the start of the pipeline where the effluent begins in the Fox to Trump, to Fox, to Trump pipeline (incidentally not made with ‘Merkin steel either). Just this morning:
Other pipeline examples this week:
Trump Promotes Fox Pal Pirro’s Show In A Tweet
Priebus Does Not Fully Deny Trump
Knew In Advance About Pirro’s
Fox Show When He Promoted It
Trump And Fox Both Attempt
“Look Over Here” Strategy To
Deflect From Russia Controversy
SWAMP PEOPLE: The Curvy Couch Potatoes are special. This week they seized on a new conspiracy theory to cover up the ballooning Russian scandal and disgorged segment after segment demonstrating Islamophobia.
The best article in which those Foxy Friends are mentioned is Fox News: The bad news network. Can you count how many times Eric Wemple used the word “idiotic”?
However, this is what got F&F and Loofah Lad in so much trouble this week:
Fox News Anchors Laugh and
Laugh After Bill O’Reilly Says Black
Congresswoman Looks Like James Brown
Those who have followed his career know the long history of clueless racism. Now there are calls for his firing — DRAIN THE SWAMP!!! — and protests outside Fox affiliates. However, long before that — almost immediately, in fact — there was a sighting of the rarest swamp critter of all: A Yellow-Tailed Apology:
O’Reilly Apologizes For Saying
Rep. Maxine Waters’ Hair Looks
Like A “James Brown Wig”
As Media Matters President Angelo Carusone [says]: Bill O’Reilly’s “Apology” Is Meaningless And He Should Be Fired, the internet laughed with righteous condemnation. Other pundits lit into him. However, Maxine Walters had no problem holding her own. Maybe that’s why:
Bill O’Reilly wants to talk about
‘political correctness’ after his
racist and sexist comments
After Apology, Bill O’Reilly
Continues Attacks on Maxine Waters
After Making Racist Remarks
Towards Her, Bill O’Reilly Attacks
Rep. Maxine Waters’ Patriotism
Putting this all into greater context is Microaggressions Are No Small Matter:
Just hours after Bill O’Reilly was widely criticized for characterizing Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters’ hair as a “James Brown wig” on Tuesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer also found himself subject to condemnation after scolding American Urban Radio Networks correspondent April Ryan in a manner many have likened to how a parent might discipline a child. The fact that both exchanges involved white men criticizing black women who are veterans in their respective fields quickly became a subject of scrutiny.
[…]
O’Reilly’s dismissal of the slight on Rep. Waters coupled with Schlapp’s “feisty” characterization of the exchange between Sean Spicer and April Ryan serve to punctuate precisely how covert racism (and sexism for that matter) operates in America. These individual incidents, taken alone, might seem harmless, but when taken together over days, weeks, months and years form the foundation of ongoing oppression. Much like a death by a thousand paper cuts, microagressions might be small in scale, but are no small matter to the women, people of color and other marginalized groups across the country who experience them on a daily basis.
Not to be outdone — or maybe just to provide Loofah Lad with cover — Bully Boy Bolling takes it one step farther:
Fox News Host Tells Black
Congresswoman To ‘Step
Away From Crack Pipe’
The racism is strong in the Fox Swamp.
JOURNALISM 101: Sean Scammity failed this week by asking a question he didn’t want to know the answer to.
It’s hard to believe he even asked this question.
But he did.
He asked Ted Koppel if he was bad for ‘Merka.
Truth Teller Ted couldn’t lie.
Snowflake Sean Hannity Is
Having A Meltdown Over His
CBS Interview With Ted Koppel
‘I’m honest you’re not’: Sean
Hannity demands Ted Koppel prove
he puts ‘ideology ahead of facts’
Listen To Sean Hannity’s
Unhinged Response To Ted
Koppel Calling Him Bad For America
Fox & Friends Attacks Ted
Koppel After He Called Out
Sean Hannity For Promoting Lies
Round 2 of Sean Hannity versus Ted
Koppel, with a cameo by Bill O’Reilly
It’s hard to know you’re part of the swamp when you’re living right in the middle of it. Or, as Pogo Possum, the most well-known denizen of the Okefenokee swamp, famously said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
Headly Westerfield invites you to read The Post-Truth Twitterer Emperor, his latest political story in the Not Now Silly Newsroom.
- Friday Fox Follies: Trump Tee Vee - Fri, Jun 23rd, 2017
- Friday Fox Follies: Fair & Balanced No More - Fri, Jun 16th, 2017
- Friday Fox Follies: Comey Comedy Cavalcade - Fri, Jun 9th, 2017
