O'Reilly out at FOX!

[Audrey2]

24 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Was Elvis with him?

No, but D. B. Cooper was, and they were talking to Sasquatch on a cell phone!

[AmazonGrace]

9 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Awww, poor Billy-O: "Poor Bill O’Reilly: His accusers are teaming up against him"

  Hide contents

 

I certainly didn't bother reading his comments on clothing sizes, but I would wager that he can't wear any sort of pullover, since he has such a big head, nothing would fit over it.

I saw it on my Twitter timeline because someone I follow retweeted or responded. It was "Tip of the day" or some such thing.  He said his height is Y and his weight is X and said that previously he could buy an XL but now he has to buy XXL. And of course it was someone else's fault  because he says clothing companies save on materials by making the clothes tighter and his tip was to buy clothes one size up. So there was a lot of people mocking him for getting fatter and saying that he could buy a lot of right sized clothing for $32 million and someone said Bill O'Reilly of all people should keep his tip safely tucked away.

[AmazonGrace]

You can't make this up.

 

[JMarie]

On 12/18/2017 at 5:18 PM, GrumpyGran said:

Kimberly needs to dye her hair blond and join the ranks of women who will die alone. Actually she may die alone. This had to sting.

She's filling in for Hannity tonight.  Good for her, finding a way to fill those lonely evenings without The Mooch.

[JMarie]

9 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

You can't make this up.

 

I know I'd be super pissed off if my family was on a really great, really expensive holiday vacation and my husband was constantly tweeting (because you just know he's not sitting at home watching Hallmark movies).  Lay off the twitter, Sean, and pay attention to your wife, before she finally says enough and leaves.

[Audrey2]

3 hours ago, JMarie said:

I know I'd be super pissed off if my family was on a really great, really expensive holiday vacation and my husband was constantly tweeting (because you just know he's not sitting at home watching Hallmark movies).  Lay off the twitter, Sean, and pay attention to your wife, before she finally says enough and leaves.

His wife is probably happy that she doesn't have to be "joyfully available" and that he's entertaining himself.

[Cartmann99]

On 12/20/2017 at 8:41 PM, onekidanddone said:

I saw Jimmy Hoffa at the Giant the other day. Don't believe the ebil MSM!  Jimmy is alive and well.  Oh and the moon landing is fake.

 

On 12/20/2017 at 8:50 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

Was Elvis with him?

 

On 12/20/2017 at 9:16 PM, Audrey2 said:

No, but D. B. Cooper was, and they were talking to Sasquatch on a cell phone!

Hot damn and Merry Christmas! We have three lucky winners this week on Conspiracy Theory Bingo! 

The prizes are: half a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon, three slices of olive loaf lunch meat, and a Big Wheel without the um, big wheel.

 

Congratulations to all of our winners! 

[GreyhoundFan]

Oh lovely: "Fox News website beefs up and ‘goes a little Breitbart’"

Spoiler

A sleeping media giant may be about to wake up: Fox News’ website — known for its high traffic, but not strong identity —is staffing up and sharpening its voice in hopes of equaling the impact of its increasingly pro-Trump television partner.

A website that had been more closely identified with Shepard Smith’s brand of reporting has now moved closer to the mold of Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, according to former staff members. “The approach has gone much more the way the prime-time programming works,” said one, “where it feels more agenda or opinion driven, or combative.”

According to Noah Kotch, who took over six months ago as Fox News digital editor in chief and vice president, his staff has grown to more than 100 full-time staffers, an increase of about 45 percent in the past year. The ramp-up signals that digital is now a major priority for Rupert Murdoch’s news outlet, Kotch said, adding that there is an increased focus on collaboration with TV.

“The digital side of Fox, they weren’t investing as much for many, many years, I think that’s widely known,” Kotch said. “We’re finally staffing up, we’re getting all the resources that we really need to be competitive, which we didn’t have before.”

In the process, the website has “gone a little Breitbart,” said Jonathan Albright, the research director at Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Albright studied and mapped out the online news ecosystem during the 2016 election, finding then that Foxnews.com was a “traditional conservative” site. Since, he said, “they’ve gotten more on the Trump bandwagon.”

Kotch denied any ideological slant. “We’re covering the news,” he said.

But multiple former staffers reached by POLITICO pointed to a persistent focus on Hillary Clinton and alleged flaws in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, with lead stories blaring headlines like “FUSION COLLUSION” and “HILLARY’S SLUSH FUND.”

During the day on Monday, for instance, the website provided full coverage of the Amtrak derailment in Washington state, but by evening, while most other news outlets were still focused on the deadly crash, Foxnews.com had flipped to a lead headline that read: “JUMPING THE GUN? Holder, liberal activists gear up for Mueller firing with protest plans.”

And last week, when Trump visited the FBI headquarters to deliver a speech, the lead headline on the site asked if he was entering, “ENEMY TERRITORY.”

Former staff members also described an ideological slant in the framing of stories that they don’t believe existed before Trump, or the hiring of Kotch in June.

One example came when House Republicans passed their tax bill on Wednesday. The site’s lead headline was openly celebratory, declaring, “RELIEF IN SIGHT.” Later in the day, the top story shifted to “anti-Trump bias allegations” against Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.

One former editor was particularly upset over the headline of an October story about North Korean nuclear scientists, which referred to them as, “Rocket men.” The former editor was dismayed that the site would adopt one of Trump’s favorite insults as its own language.

Kotch denied that Fox News digital has exhibited bias or done anything but cover the news. “There are some places out there, big major organizations that are very, very, very aggressively being oppositional and being very, very aggressive and sometimes shrill. We don’t want to take that tone, we don’t want to talk down to our readers,” he said.

One high-profile incident occurred the morning after Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore in Alabama’s special Senate election. Foxnews.com buried news of the result on its site, a fact that was widely noted on Twitter.

“I don’t think we would have buried a story like that back in the old days, so to speak,” said another former editor at the site, who left during the Obama administration. Previously, he said, the approach would have been to run a straight news story of interest to conservatives, similar to the one Fox led the site with later that same day — after taking heavy criticism— about Republican senators wooing Jones for his vote.

Kotch said he “didn’t notice” the story of Moore’s defeat being downplayed the day after the election. “I thought we were covering it pretty intentionally. Some other people were covering it gleefully. I think we were covering it in a serious way.”

Kotch also defended Fox News digitals’ coverage of Mueller and Clinton.

“The same legitimacy questions were being aggressively thrown at Ken Starr that are being thrown now at Bob Mueller,” he said. “This is par for the course for an independent counsel investigation … I think that the legitimacy of his operation is a legitimate story.”

As for Clinton, he said, “I don’t think we stand out in terms of the amount of coverage that’s being given to her.”

“She is the person who has continued to be in the media. She wants to be in the media. She just published a huge book. She’s doing a huge press tour of enormous interest. If you look at the Web traffic, if you look at what people are clicking on, they’re extremely interested in her. She is effectively at this point the shadow leader of her party, for want of anyone else. It’s a legitimate story that we’re going to cover,” he said.

As the de facto home page for conservatives, Fox News Digital regularly ranks as one of comScore’s most visited news outlets. This year has been Fox’s best ever, with a 29 percent increase in average monthly unique visitors and a 17 percent jump in page views, year over year. In October, 96 million unique users visited according to comScore, making it the most highly trafficked month in Fox News history.

The site still usually comes in behind rival CNN.com, though, which boasts a staff about six times larger than Fox’s, with 600 employees. In October, CNN digital reached 119 million unique users.

And a Harvard and MIT study of the digital news ecosystem during the 2016 election found that Breitbart, not Foxnews.com, was the biggest driver of social media discourse on the right. For all of Fox News’ traffic, more people were sharing and linking to Steve Bannon’s site, the researchers found.

Kotch took over the site in June, after Murdoch recruited him from NewsCorp’s libertarian site, Heat Street. He previously worked at ABC News, where he was Peter Jennings’ head writer and held several other digital and TV positions there, and NBC News, where he oversaw the key 7 o’clock hour of “Today” as a senior producer. The New York Times reported that, during that time, he became known to critics as “the trash doctor,” for his love of TMZ-esque stories. Foxnews.com has adopted a pulpier tone under his leadership; the site set off a minor Twitter frenzy last month when it published a story exploring a “wild conspiracy theory” about whether the Apollo 11 moon landing was faked.

Kotch pushed back on the trash doctor characterization, saying, “I am proud of my years at 'Today,'” and “I always acted in the best interests of the show.” He also called the pushback to the moon landing story “ludicrous,” saying it never seriously suggested the landing was faked, and that, “Fox News can have fun, too.”

Kotch also disagreed that FoxNews.com lacked an identity, but said he would like to import more of the attitude of Heat Street.

“I would like to get as much of the verve and spunk that we had over there over here,” he said. “I think we’re getting more of it.”

Adding bodies will also allow Fox News to produce more digital content, he said.

“We’ve added a significant amount of staff both in the writing and producing area and on the technical and product side,” Kotch said. “We’ve been increasing the metabolism quite intensely, increasing our coordination with our colleagues on the channel side. We’re just raring to go.”

In September, the Fox News website launched a redesign, intended to more prominently feature video from the cable network.

Since that time, Kotch said, his operation has also gone for the first time to a full 24-hour schedule. And in late January, the digital staff is scheduled to move into a new shared newsroom with the TV side, the first time the two will occupy the same space. A redesigned version of the Fox News app is also scheduled to launch this spring.

“I want us to be increasingly at the forefront of breaking news, exclusive stories,” Kotch said, helping drive news cycles both digitally and on TV. “I think the more coordination we have, the better. It gets better every week.”

Yochai Benkler, a Harvard Law School professor, was part of the group with MIT that studied how readers consumed news online during the 2016 election, and said that Fox News has an incentive to move to the right.

Analyzing linking and sharing patterns of 1.25 million stories, his group found that Fox News and Breitbart formed the heart of “a relatively insular and self-referential” online news ecosystem. In other words, people reading, sharing and linking to Fox News and Breitbart were, for the most part interacting only with other right-wing news sites, and not mainstream outlets like The New York Times, Washington Post, or even Wall Street Journal. That means, Benkler said, that conservatives are Fox News’ only potential audience.

During the primary, when Fox News was more critical of Trump — and Breitbart turned against Fox, attacking it in several headlines — Benkler said the site’s influence decreased. “Fox News became less prominent, fewer Twitter shares, fewer Facebook shares,” he said. But that changed during the general election. “It’s only when they line up, after Trump essentially wins out, that they return to their position of prominence,” he said. “In many senses, it was a capitulation of Fox News to the Breitbart line.”

“If you’re seeing major changes now,” Benkler said, “it makes sense as a competitive strategy.”

Kotch dismissed the study as “ludicrous,” and said, “I have no comment about it.”

His goal, he said, is for Fox’s digital properties to be respected by users across the political spectrum.

“I would like us to be viewed as a serious competitor. We are aggressive, we want to win,” he said. “We’ve been given the resources that we need to win.”

Kotch also insisted that he is not getting orders from above.

“Nobody’s telling me about a narrative. I remember narrative from my literature class in college,” he said. “I’m coming in every day being like, ‘What’s the big story of the day? What’s really interesting? What’s compelling? What is the audience hungering for?’”

Just what the world needs: another Breitbart. (end sarcasm)

[GreyhoundFan]

Put under a spoiler because it's an unpleasant, albeit true, image;

Spoiler

 

[onekidanddone]

Forget where I saw this, but Sean baby tweeted he plans to deluge some earth shattering news about NBC or CNN when he returns from vacation. How can it be any different from what he as already told us? Hell I can do it for him.

1. But her emails
2. Obama!
3. Muller.
4. My name is Sean and I'm a fucking nut-job white nationalist apologist. 
5. Covfefe
6. All of the above

 

[GrumpyGran]

46 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Forget where I saw this, but Sean baby tweeted he plans to deluge some earth shattering news about NBC or CNN when he returns from vacation. How can it be any different from what he as already told us? Hell I can do it for him.

1. But her emails
2. Obama!
3. Muller.
4. My name is Sean and I'm a fucking nut-job white nationalist apologist. 
5. Covfefe
6. All of the above

 

Yeah, if he had any real information about anything he would have been screaming it from the hills instead of hiding in the bushes. Soaked in Kool Aid. Maybe he thinks Pencey will take him on? Poor Spicey, he has no self-awareness.

[onekidanddone]

2 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

Yeah, if he had any real information about anything he would have been screaming it from the hills instead of hiding in the bushes. Soaked in Kool Aid. Maybe he thinks Pencey will take him on? Poor Spicey, he has no self-awareness.

I meant Sean Hannity, but works for Sloppy Spice as well.

[GreyhoundFan]

1 minute ago, onekidanddone said:

Sloppy Spice

I think of him as Stupid Spice.

[onekidanddone]

10 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I think of him as Stupid Spice.

Or as Trump would spell it Stooopid Spice

[GrumpyGran]

2 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

I meant Sean Hannity, but works for Sloppy Spice as well.

OMG, not sure why I went to Sean Spicer instead of Hannity there but, then, it's just another one of Handjobby's fake promos. Is it weird that I'm kind of disappointed? Spicey might have some actual information. Handjob, just doin' the two-handed date.

[JMarie]

3 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

Forget where I saw this, but Sean baby tweeted he plans to deluge some earth shattering news about NBC or CNN when he returns from vacation. How can it be any different from what he as already told us? Hell I can do it for him.

1. But her emails
2. Obama!
3. Muller.
4. My name is Sean and I'm a fucking nut-job white nationalist apologist. 
5. Covfefe
6. All of the above

 

URANIUM!!!!!!!!

[onekidanddone]

12 hours ago, GrumpyGran said:

OMG, not sure why I went to Sean Spicer instead of Hannity there but, then, it's just another one of Handjobby's fake promos. Is it weird that I'm kind of disappointed? Spicey might have some actual information. Handjob, just doin' the two-handed date.

Sean Vs. Sean.  Both Trump sycophants. Both unable to tell the truth. Both make shit up and spread conspiracy theories. Both fucking ass hats.  I completely mixing them up 

[Flossie]

On 12/27/2017 at 6:29 PM, GrumpyGran said:

Handjob, just doin' the two-handed date.

So, is that like you're double dating yourself?

Or, is it a case of the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing and you're cheating on yourself?

[GrumpyGran]

9 hours ago, Flossie said:

So, is that like you're double dating yourself?

Or, is it a case of the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing and you're cheating on yourself?

One hand for himself, one hand for Dumpy.

[GreyhoundFan]

This author has a good point: "Please, ‘Fox & Friends’: Keep talking about Trump’s approval rating"

Spoiler

The publicly funded clipping service for the idiotic morning show “Fox & Friends” was at it again on Friday morning:

On a slow news week, this topic was guaranteed grist for the “Fox & Friends” propaganda mill. Rasmussen Reports on Thursday released polling that placed Trump’s approval rating at 46 percent, a significant bump above the RealClearPolitics average of 39 percent — and in the neighborhood of President Barack Obama’s 49 percent approval rating in December 2009, at a comparable point in his tenure.

In introducing the topic, “Fox & Friends” co-host Pete Hegseth noted, “The mainstream media loves to rail against President Trump’s approval ratings — Newsweek going as far as calling Trump, quote, ‘The least popular president ever.’ ” The rest of the coverage proceeded predictably, a la state media, with the crew inviting a guest — Beverly Hallberg of the District Media Group and the Heritage Foundation — to say such things as this: “So when you look at this poll, it kind of reinforces what we’ve known about what Donald Trump would refer to as the ‘fake news’ — taking a poll like this and still having the narrative that he is not doing well.”

Gauging the headwinds battering Trump, Hallberg had an interesting take. “Let’s not forget he has multiple Russia investigations through 2017. He has had an uphill battle with the news media. He has had a lot of staff turnover as well,” said Hallberg, as if all those troubles just fell from the sky into the president’s two-scoop dish of ice cream.

Enough carping, however. Please, “Fox & Friends”: By all means, keep up the coverage of Trump’s approval ratings. Sure, it’s utterly lacking in integrity, propagandistic, whatever. But it’s also harmless. Instead of brainwashing the president on consequential issues such as terrorism, health care and taxation, stick to approval ratings in 2018. The republic will thank you.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Oh yeah, I believe him...NOT: "Hannity denies collusion with Trump — by Russia, and himself"

Spoiler

After spending months and months scoffing at any notion that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, Fox News host Sean Hannity is facing a collusion allegation of his own. It comes via an excerpt from Michael Wolff’s new book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.” As Wolff recounts, President Trump was considering a big interview with “60 Minutes” last fall:

As telling, with his daughter and son-in-law sidelined by their legal problems, Hope Hicks, Trump’s 29-year-old personal aide and confidant, became, practically speaking, his most powerful White House advisor. (With Melania a nonpresence, the staff referred to Ivanka as the “real wife” and Hicks as the “real daughter.”) Hicks’ primary function was to tend to the Trump ego, to reassure him, to protect him, to buffer him, to soothe him. It was Hicks who, attentive to his lapses and repetitions, urged him to forgo an interview that was set to open the 60 Minutes fall season. Instead, the interview went to Fox News’ Sean Hannity who, White House insiders happily explained, was willing to supply the questions beforehand. Indeed, the plan was to have all interviewers going forward provide the questions.

Asked about this matter, Hannity said via email, through a Fox News spokeswoman, “I never provided questions ahead of time to President Trump.”

What a 2018 media moment: On the one hand, we have a classic bit of Wolffian writing. Parse that passage carefully, and you see that there’s no allegation here that Hannity, a Trump sycophant without peer, actually did share any questions with Trump. Just that he was “willing” to do so. Consider, too, the various credibility issues that subjects have cited over the years with Wolff’s work.

Now on to Hannity’s voluminous credibility issues. He stands behind all manner of “loosely threaded conspiracy theories,” especially when they just might boost President Trump. Among other boosterish efforts, Hannity participated in a video promotion for presidential candidate Donald Trump, drawing a rebuke from his network. That’s not all — he provided advice to Trump and paid to fly a possible vice-presidential pick to visit with Trump.

Yet there’s another dimension to this little spat that merits consideration. Let’s take Wolff’s account at face value, that “White House insiders” were happy that Hannity might provide advance questions. What does that say about White House insiders? What advantage would such a scenario provide the president, in light of the sorts of questions that Hannity actually asks when he’s face to face with the president? Have a look at this summary of Hannity’s October interview with Trump, as originally published here. Sitting with the president at a Pennsylvania event, Hannity:

• Called Trump’s tax plan “Reaganesque,” though the president said his cuts would be bigger than those of the 40th president.
• Assisted Trump in fending off criticism that his tax plan is a sop for the wealthy: “Every time I tune into anybody else in the media except Fox, [they say] ‘Tax cuts for the wealthy.’ The rate for some people goes down, but if you live in a state like New York or Illinois, New Jersey or California, you won’t be able to deduct your state or local income tax. In other words, if you elect politicians that want to raise taxes, you’re going to pay the penalty, so that’s not really true that this is a tax cut for the wealthy as they’re portraying it.”
• Whipped up the crowd for Trump. “Is he going to win Pennsylvania in 2020, too?” asked Hannity, as the crowd said, “Yay!”
• Failed to press Trump when he at one point claimed to be one vote short in the Senate on Obamacare repeal and replace, and in nearly the same breath expressed confidence that he already had enough votes.
• Provided this lovely talking point about the Russia investigation: “I interviewed Julian Assange five times; I’ve talked to him other times. He has said it’s not Russia — there was no collusion, the [Democratic National Committee] emails did not come from them. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher met with him and he says he has proof-positive evidence that would show the Trump campaign never colluded with Russia. Is it in the best interests of the country that if he has that information, he should give it? … Does the country deserve to know the truth if he has that?”
• Failed to follow up when Trump, reflecting on the 2016 election, said, “I would rather have a popular vote. For me, the popular vote is easier.”
• Soaked up this Trump rant: “I’m so proud of you, you know I did this show … I did it a lot. … You have been so great and I’m very proud of you. And you know, I’m a ratings person. Have you seen his ratings? What you are doing to your competition is incredible. Number one, and I’m very proud of you, and it’s an honor to be on your show.”

So who needs advance questions from this fellow?

 

[JMarie]

Please forgive me for fast-forwarding through Hannity tonight.  I've been frozen for the last week, and shoveled a buttload of snow tonight.  I'm so over winter!

Trump's doing awesome!  Unemployment and African American unemployment are both at a 17 year low!  Food stamp use is at a 7 year low!  Home prices are up 6%!  16 regulations are cut for every new one created! (I guess this is supposed to be a good thing, but I realize that those regulations were needed, not frivolous) 

The media will never tell you all these good things -- but Hannity will!

Because companies are getting a tax cut, employees are getting more money!  He claims that Comcast (evil owner of MSNBC) gave their employees $1000 bonuses (can any FJers confirm this??)

Sebastian Gorka and Geraldo Rivera stop by, to talk about {wait for it!} the email scandal!

John Solomon (from conservative website The Hill) and Sara Carter (from conservative website Circa News) replace Gorka and Rivera, but Hannity isn't done talking about Hillary.

Yay!  Tomi Lahren (conservative) and Jessica Tarlow (liberal) pop up.  For some reason, Jessica is always in the studio, under the harsh lights.  Tomi is always by satellite, with a dark cityscape background that highlights her bleached hair.

He then plays the audio of three calls left on his comment hotline.  All three are negative, and he giggles about them.  His number is 877-225-8587, in case you were wondering.

Oh, and here's a new one:  a commercial for Hillsdale College.  

AND NO DISCUSSION ABOUT THE BOOK!  ALMOST AN ENTIRE HOUR ON HILLARY, AGAIN!

[AmazonGrace]

Wasn't he supposed to reveal the great failings of the failing MSM or something.

[GrumpyGran]

13 hours ago, JMarie said:

Sebastian Gorka and Geraldo Rivera stop by, to talk about {wait for it!} the email scandal!

At this point, there's not even a carcass left on that dead horse. I do wonder if some of the faithful were confused that Handjob didn't have tons of proof that the book is full of lies. Of course we know that he'll start teasing "explosive" information about Wolff's connection to Hillary and Obama and the deep state next week but never produce anything.

[Cartmann99]

19 hours ago, JMarie said:

Please forgive me for fast-forwarding through Hannity tonight.  I've been frozen for the last week, and shoveled a buttload of snow tonight.  I'm so over winter!

Trump's doing awesome!  Unemployment and African American unemployment are both at a 17 year low!  Food stamp use is at a 7 year low!  Home prices are up 6%!  16 regulations are cut for every new one created! (I guess this is supposed to be a good thing, but I realize that those regulations were needed, not frivolous) 

The media will never tell you all these good things -- but Hannity will!

Because companies are getting a tax cut, employees are getting more money!  He claims that Comcast (evil owner of MSNBC) gave their employees $1000 bonuses (can any FJers confirm this??)

Sebastian Gorka and Geraldo Rivera stop by, to talk about {wait for it!} the email scandal!

John Solomon (from conservative website The Hill) and Sara Carter (from conservative website Circa News) replace Gorka and Rivera, but Hannity isn't done talking about Hillary.

Yay!  Tomi Lahren (conservative) and Jessica Tarlow (liberal) pop up.  For some reason, Jessica is always in the studio, under the harsh lights.  Tomi is always by satellite, with a dark cityscape background that highlights her bleached hair.

He then plays the audio of three calls left on his comment hotline.  All three are negative, and he giggles about them.  His number is 877-225-8587, in case you were wondering.

Oh, and here's a new one:  a commercial for Hillsdale College.  

AND NO DISCUSSION ABOUT THE BOOK!  ALMOST AN ENTIRE HOUR ON HILLARY, AGAIN!

Bless you, as always. We should all chip in and buy you one of those fancy foot baths with heat and massage for watching this dreck for us. 

Has Hannity gotten to the point where he make the tassels on his pasties spin in opposite directions while he keeps all of those plates spinning?