O'Reilly out at FOX!

[JMarie]

I've been feeling a lot better since my Lenten boycott of Hannity.  I still watch CNN and MSNBC, so I'm not avoiding the news altogether.   But I might have to do the first few minutes of Fox News' prime time shows tonight, just to see what Tucker, Sean, and Laura consider the "big news" of the day. 

[onekidanddone]

20 minutes ago, JMarie said:

I've been feeling a lot better since my Lenten boycott of Hannity.  I still watch CNN and MSNBC, so I'm not avoiding the news altogether.   But I might have to do the first few minutes of Fox News' prime time shows tonight, just to see what Tucker, Sean, and Laura consider the "big news" of the day. 

Butter E-mails.

[JMarie]

Tucker Carlson:  Rahm Emanuel has only a 25% approval rating, and there's no way he can get re-elected as Chicago's mayor next year.  But wait, Emanuel's going to start letting illegal immigrants vote, and that'll fix his problem! (first 13 minutes)  Buried at the end of the hour:  Juan Williams thinks that Michele Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Kamala Harris (senator from California) could all beat Trump.  The ten worst colleges for free speech, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, are Berkeley (protests against Milo Yiannopoulos), Drexel (suspension of prof George Ciccariello-Maher), Harvard, Los Angeles Community College, Texas State, Fordham, Evergreen State, Northwestern, Albion, and Rensselaer Polytechnic.

Hannity:  Talking about the school shooting for 29 minutes.  Criticism about a speech Obama made at MIT.  Lara Trump, the senior adviser for Trump's re-election committee, discussed media bias (surprise:  she's not a fan).  Tomi Lahren was dispatched to D. C. to ask residents about The Swamp.  And from the Hannity Hotline 

Quote

I've been a cowboy all my life.  Our creed is all cowboy, no b*******.  Your creed is all truth, and no lies.  I'm glad that you stand behind that.

Quote

Quit saying "at the end of the day."  You, like, you know, like, sound, like, a millennial, it's idiotic!

Ingraham Angle:  16 minutes on the school shooting and companies boycotting the NRA.  Talked about The Wall and NAFTA renegotiations.  Should sexting be included in sex ed class?

None of them mentioned Jared!  But, interestingly enough, Carlson and Hannity offered a explanation which countered an earlier accusation.  There was a student from Parkland high school who said CNN gave him a scripted question to ask during a town hall.  The student had a copy of the emails, but CNN had different emails.  Somehow some of what CNN sent to the student was deleted, which changed the meaning of the email.

[JMarie]

Just taking a peek at tonight's lineup, just to see what Fox News deems important

Tucker Carlson:  first 10 minutes on the "breakdown" of immigration laws, then on to Hope Hicks for a whole 3 minutes (apparently she was crying, as were many of her staffers, and Porter was referred to as "her boyfriend at the time" -- did they break up?), then over to the Florida school shooting and other "non" breaking news

Hannity:  a mishmash of Jeff Sessions, Hillary, emails, Russia, and FISA for the first 21 minutes, Fox News chief national news correspondent Ed Henry hopped over from Carlson's show to Hannity's, and he again mentioned all the crying Hope did, The Mooch said everyone tells white lies, so what Hicks did doesn't matter and she has an "incredible career ahead of her", Geraldo Rivera thinks the press treated her awful, because she's been so loyal and hardworking.  Then on to gun control, and back again to Hillary and Russia.

Ingraham Angle:  first 9 minutes on Trump's remarks about gun control, a whole 99 seconds on Hope Hicks (yes, I timed it, but no Ed Henry this time), the Mueller investigation, immigration, should teachers be armed in the classroom, 96 seconds on the accusation against Ryan Seacrest, a clarification of the emails between a student who claimed CNN gave him scripted questions to ask at a town hall (Carlson and Hannity addressed this last night)

I really need to stop.  I didn't check CNN or MSNBC, but I'm sure they spent a decent portion of each program's time on Hope Hicks.  Good grief, she's about as relevant as Ryan Seacrest, according to Ingraham.  Poor Hope, so dedicated and loyal, hardly getting any discussion time on Fox News.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Sean Hannity cranks up the gaslight"

Spoiler

For the second time in as many months, President Trump made large-type headlines on Wednesday in a televised session with top congressional lawmakers. “Trump Stuns Lawmakers With Seeming Embrace of Comprehensive Gun Control” read the headline at the New York Times. How thoroughly did the president get behind beefier regulation of firearms? Here: “He called for comprehensive gun control legislation that would expand background checks to weapons purchased at gun shows and on the internet, keep guns from mentally ill people, secure schools and restrict gun sales for some young adults. He even suggested a conversation on an assault weapons ban,” wrote the New York Times.

Fox News was on the case as well. On “The Story with Martha MacCallum” on Wednesday evening, Fox News’s Trace Gallagher reported: “And on the national level during a blunt and often surprising back and forth between the president and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, Mr. Trump appeared to embrace comprehensive gun legislation that would expand background checks, raise the age limit to buy guns, and keep weapons away from the mentally ill. Here is the president talking about the NRA. Watch this back and forth.” The broadcast proceeded to show a clip of Trump accusing a Republican lawmaker of being “afraid” of the National Rifle Association.

That particular Trump went into hiding when Fox News host Sean Hannity got around to addressing the day in gun politics. As he launched into a monologue about the policy response to the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., the host highlighted one point that Trump had made in the bipartisan session. “Ninety-eight percent of all mass public shootings in the United States since 1950 have taken place in gun-free zones. It’s terrible. Have you got to have defense, too. You can’t just be sitting ducks. And that is exactly what we have allowed people in these buildings and schools to be,” said Trump in the “Hannity” clip.

And then cable television’s most prominent Trump booster resumed, “The president is so right.” Nifty! Hannity cherry-picked a portion of Trump’s remarks that most align with the Hannity/NRA worldview. And then he did what he does best, which is blast away at gun-control-loving Democrats. In fact, Hannity showed choice clips of various lawmakers voicing support for additional restrictions.

Then he said this: “Maybe these Democrats have already forgotten the complete and utter failure of the bureaucracy.”

Um, the president of the United States apparently succumbed to that variation of amnesia as well. Expanded background checks and the various other measures that Trump advocated in that White House meeting, after all, don’t get accomplished without procedures, regulations, comment periods and so on. Yet committed viewers of “Hannity” might have come away from his program on Wednesday night unaware that those darned Democrats were agreeing quite a bit with the president.

One of the definitions of “gaslighting” stresses the act of “systematically withholding factual information from, and/or providing false information to, the victim — having the gradual effect of making them anxious, confused, and less able to trust their own memory and perception.” Hannity is a champion withholder.

The episode underscores the futility of talking about a single Fox News. There are two or three of them: One is the island of “Fox & Friends,” which has established an early-morning malarkey feedback loop with the president. Another consists of the bona fide news programs headed by folks such as Bill Hemmer, Harris Faulkner, Chris Wallace, Bret Baier and MacCallum; they cover the day’s news. Another is the prime-time contingent of Tucker Carlson, Hannity and Laura Ingraham, where Trumpism in various guises rules the night.

These hosts bring their own quirks to their shows. Carlson, for instance, has the courage to blast away at Trump when he really, really disagrees with him — as he did when Trump, in his January meeting with lawmakers on immigration, expressed too much moderation for the host’s liking. Hannity, on the other hand, apparently prefers a more passive-aggressive response. Just broadcast Trump’s betrayals out of existence, the better to avoid reckoning with the stubborn fact that Trump has no convictions other than that he’s fabulous.

 

[JMarie]

Headline stories at 9 P.M. tonight

CNN:  possible upcoming departure of McMaster (actually important!)

MSNBC:  Russia has nuclear weapons (actually important!)

Fox News:  rambling about the FBI and FISA (recycled from hundreds of previous episodes)

[onekidanddone]

5 minutes ago, JMarie said:

Headline stories at 9 P.M. tonight

CNN:  possible upcoming departure of McMaster (actually important!)

MSNBC:  Russia has nuclear weapons (actually important!)

Fox News:  rambling about the FBI and FISA (recycled from hundreds of previous episodes)

I'm surprised they don't trot out the blue dress every now and then.

[JMarie]

I've been peeking at Fox News tonight, to see how much time they devote to the PA election.  And I've learned a few things, just from Laura Ingraham's show.  Rex Tillerson didn't learn about his firing via Twitter today, but from General Kelly way back on Friday.  Rick Saccone should easily win the special election (it's still too close to call as I'm typing), and there's no chaos in the White House -- instead, it's called "smart staffing".

No wonder Fox News viewers are so confused about everything.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[onekidanddone]

19 hours ago, JMarie said:

I've been peeking at Fox News tonight, to see how much time they devote to the PA election.  And I've learned a few things, just from Laura Ingraham's show.  Rex Tillerson didn't learn about his firing via Twitter today, but from General Kelly way back on Friday.  Rick Saccone should easily win the special election (it's still too close to call as I'm typing), and there's no chaos in the White House -- instead, it's called "smart staffing".

No wonder Fox News viewers are so confused about everything.

Seems like the reason why the vote was so close is because the Democrat had a 'cute' name. So says Fox and Friends.

[JMarie]

27 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Seems like the reason why the vote was so close is because the Democrat had a 'cute' name. So says Fox and Friends.

Chris Christie claims there was an "extraordinarily low turnout", along with "very motivated Democrat voters who are anti-president," and he doesn't think the win is an indicator for the future.  At least that's what he said on Good Morning America this AM.

Can any FJer, living in the 18th district, vouch for the extraordinarily low turnout?

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, JMarie said:

Chris Christie claims there was an "extraordinarily low turnout", along with "very motivated Democrat voters who are anti-president," and he doesn't think the win is an indicator for the future.  At least that's what he said on Good Morning America this AM.

Can any FJer, living in the 18th district, vouch for the extraordinarily low turnout?

Lamb's name could have been Moldy Mutton and he still would have won.

[GreyhoundFan]

2 hours ago, JMarie said:

Can any FJer, living in the 18th district, vouch for the extraordinarily low turnout?

I don't live there, but taking a look at the numbers show that 228,378 people voted in the special election and 293,864 voted in the 2016 election. I don't call that extraordinarily low, especially since this was not a presidential election year.

[JMarie]

Watching Fox News (even fast forwarding through shows) is really making me angsty, but someone has to do it, right?

Tucker Carlson:  claims that teenagers who participated in the walkouts were coached by liberal adults, because "they can't act independently, they're under the control of adults" like Michael Bloomberg's gun lobby and Planned Parenthood.  Baltimore spent more that 100K to transport students to anti-gun rally (seems kind of pricey, right?), but Baltimore can't afford trash cans or street lights.  These kids are being exploited!  "An entire generation of kids learn to believe that activism is more important than learning." (why can't kids learn about activism alongside "regular" learning??) Igor Volsky, from Guns Down America, contradicted everything Carlson said, and Carlson just looked more confused as he argued with Volsky.  It's actually kinda funny.

http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/03/14/tucker-carlson-gun-control-student-walk-outs-what-if-they-went-milo-yiannopoulos-rally

Hannity: lots of talking about gun laws, those darn snowflake high school protesters, and how Democrats are angry because the CIA director nominee was "too tough on terrorists, but what they won't tell you is that Gina Haspel saved American lives."  At the end of the hour, Hannity showed a clip of Katy Perry kissing the American Idol contestant, and called the kiss charming, nice, fun, innocent, very cool (and playfully argues with Laura Ingraham, who called the kiss "like an assault on national television")

Ingraham Angle:  the protests were the work of Empower, the "youth wing" of the Women's March ("thank god they didn't force the kids to wear those idiotic pink knits caps, that would have been bad"), and clips of Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, and other troublemakers were shown.

Nobody mentioned last night's special election in Pennsylvania, but that's not a surprise.

[Destiny]

Onward here: