Faux News: Who Says the USA Doesn't Have State TV?

[GreyhoundFan]

Oh, hell no "Can’t Get Enough Fox News? ‘Superfans’ Can Pay $65 a Year for More"

Spoiler

Fox News viewers love Fox News. Now the network will find out if they are willing to pay for more of it.

In a first-of-its-kind test for the cable news market, Fox News said on Thursday that its stand-alone streaming service will debut next month, with subscribers paying about $65 a year.

The product, called Fox Nation and set to become available on Nov. 27, is a bid to bring the channel’s programming into the digital realm that has increasingly lured audiences away from traditional TV.

Whether Fox News devotees come along is an open question. The median age in the Fox News audience is roughly 65, according to Nielsen, a demographic that is more likely than younger viewers to stick with meat-and-potatoes cable and satellite packages.

There is also the price — $5.99 a month or $64.99 a year — which would come on top of a regular cable subscription. Unlike HBO Now, which allows stand-alone access to all HBO programming, Fox Nation will not overlap with any shows included on Fox News’s cable broadcast.

Instead, the network is producing a slate of new series exclusive to the streaming service, which will be commercial free. Among the offerings: a true-crime series hosted by Mark Fuhrman, the former detective who figured in the O. J. Simpson murder trial; “What Made America Great,” a history program with the “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade; and “The First Family,” described as a look at “the Trump family beyond the headlines.” (Eric Trump, the president’s son, is on board for the pilot episode.)

Fox Nation’s cost is roughly comparable to other networks’ web-only subscription products, like CBS All Access, which has more than 2.5 million customers. ESPN Plus, which began in April, has about a million subscribers, who pay $4.99 a month.

The marketplace for streaming TV is growing, and industry analysts say Fox Nation is one sign of Lachlan Murdoch’s efforts to modernize his family’s media empire. Fox is selling most of its entertainment assets to the Walt Disney Company, in a deal expected to be completed next year, and Mr. Murdoch, the elder son of Rupert Murdoch, is shifting focus to news and sports.

Fox News is not lacking for viewers, even as other TV brands struggle to retain audiences. The network’s prime-time shows, with hosts like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, dominate their cable-news competition. Coverage of the Trump administration has helped lift the channel’s Nielsen ratings to some of the highest levels in its two-decade history.

In a statement announcing when the service will debut, the Fox News executive John Finley said Fox Nation was aimed at “loyal superfans.” The network has pointed to heavy online traffic on FoxNews.com and the Fox News Facebook page as evidence that online-only offerings can appeal to its audience.

CNN has a streaming service, CNNgo, which offers some free original programming but also requires an existing cable subscription. NBC News announced a new streaming network, NBC News Signal, this week, with a launch scheduled for next year.

Fox News plans to market Fox Nation by offering branded products to early subscribers — including a wristwatch, a baseball cap, engraved drink glasses and a Fox Nation Founder Challenge Coin.

 

[onekidanddone]

48 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Oh, hell no "Can’t Get Enough Fox News? ‘Superfans’ Can Pay $65 a Year for More"

  Reveal hidden contents

Fox News viewers love Fox News. Now the network will find out if they are willing to pay for more of it.

In a first-of-its-kind test for the cable news market, Fox News said on Thursday that its stand-alone streaming service will debut next month, with subscribers paying about $65 a year.

The product, called Fox Nation and set to become available on Nov. 27, is a bid to bring the channel’s programming into the digital realm that has increasingly lured audiences away from traditional TV.

Whether Fox News devotees come along is an open question. The median age in the Fox News audience is roughly 65, according to Nielsen, a demographic that is more likely than younger viewers to stick with meat-and-potatoes cable and satellite packages.

There is also the price — $5.99 a month or $64.99 a year — which would come on top of a regular cable subscription. Unlike HBO Now, which allows stand-alone access to all HBO programming, Fox Nation will not overlap with any shows included on Fox News’s cable broadcast.

Instead, the network is producing a slate of new series exclusive to the streaming service, which will be commercial free. Among the offerings: a true-crime series hosted by Mark Fuhrman, the former detective who figured in the O. J. Simpson murder trial; “What Made America Great,” a history program with the “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade; and “The First Family,” described as a look at “the Trump family beyond the headlines.” (Eric Trump, the president’s son, is on board for the pilot episode.)

Fox Nation’s cost is roughly comparable to other networks’ web-only subscription products, like CBS All Access, which has more than 2.5 million customers. ESPN Plus, which began in April, has about a million subscribers, who pay $4.99 a month.

The marketplace for streaming TV is growing, and industry analysts say Fox Nation is one sign of Lachlan Murdoch’s efforts to modernize his family’s media empire. Fox is selling most of its entertainment assets to the Walt Disney Company, in a deal expected to be completed next year, and Mr. Murdoch, the elder son of Rupert Murdoch, is shifting focus to news and sports.

Fox News is not lacking for viewers, even as other TV brands struggle to retain audiences. The network’s prime-time shows, with hosts like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, dominate their cable-news competition. Coverage of the Trump administration has helped lift the channel’s Nielsen ratings to some of the highest levels in its two-decade history.

In a statement announcing when the service will debut, the Fox News executive John Finley said Fox Nation was aimed at “loyal superfans.” The network has pointed to heavy online traffic on FoxNews.com and the Fox News Facebook page as evidence that online-only offerings can appeal to its audience.

CNN has a streaming service, CNNgo, which offers some free original programming but also requires an existing cable subscription. NBC News announced a new streaming network, NBC News Signal, this week, with a launch scheduled for next year.

Fox News plans to market Fox Nation by offering branded products to early subscribers — including a wristwatch, a baseball cap, engraved drink glasses and a Fox Nation Founder Challenge Coin.

 

P.T. Barnum proved right yet again 

[Drala]

Tucker Carlson Asks How We Got So Divided. Twitter Savagely Answers.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tucker-carlson_us_5bd2efa8e4b055bc948abdf7

 

[onekidanddone]

7 hours ago, Drala said:

Tucker Carlson Asks How We Got So Divided. Twitter Savagely Answers.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tucker-carlson_us_5bd2efa8e4b055bc948abdf7

 

I ask how Tucker Carlson got to be such an ass hat.

[Howl]

Yes, it really is this bad. 

Judicial Watch.org is Soros hating, Clinton hating, uh, hatey mchateface hate group. 

[onekidanddone]

49 minutes ago, Howl said:

Yes, it really is this bad. 

Judicial Watch.org is Soros hating, Clinton hating, uh, hatey mchateface hate group. 

Judicial Watch was one of my FJ ad yesterday. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Fox News and the rest of the right-wing media can’t escape responsibility"

Spoiler

After a “lone wolf” Islamist militant attack, the media invariably ask: What inspired him to kill? Usually the answer is found in Islamist militant propaganda. We need to ask the same question about right-wing terrorism. What inspired Cesar Sayoc to allegedly send mail bombs to prominent liberals? What inspired Robert Bowers to allegedly gun down 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue? What inspired Gregory Bush to allegedly kill two African Americans in Jeffersontown, Ky., after failing to enter a predominantly black church?

To ask these questions in no way obviates the perpetrators’ ultimate responsibility for the evil that they do. But terrorists do not operate in a vacuum. So who created the environment in which right-wing terrorism has become far more commonplace — and, since 9/11, far more deadly — than Islamist terrorism in America?

President Trump — by championing “nationalism,” denouncing “globalists” such as Jewish financier George Soros, vilifying immigrants as “snakes” and “animals,” fearmongering about a refugee caravan and defending white supremacists as “fine people” — bears a substantial share of the blame.

Some of his Republican followers are even more extreme. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) brought a Holocaust denier to the State of the Union and has blamed Soros for financing a Central American immigrant caravan. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) gave an interview to a far-right Austrian website in which he endorsed the white-supremacist claim that white nations are committing “slow-motion cultural suicide” by allowing in immigrants of color.

Even GOP leaders are joining in. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) posted and then deleted a tweet accusing Soros, Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer of buying the election. (Soros and Bloomberg are Jewish; Steyer is an Episcopalian whose father was Jewish.) Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, blamed Soros for funding protests against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh.

Where do these politicians get these noxious ideas? From a right-wing media industrial machine that includes Fox News, Breitbart, Infowars, Newsmax, the Daily Caller, Gateway Pundit and many other outlets. It was Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business Network who asked Grassley if Soros was behind the Kavanaugh protests — and after Grassley endorsed the charge, Trump gave it his imprimatur. The Wall Street Journal, in turn, ran an op-ed endorsing this calumny. Last week, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs interviewed Chris Farrell of Judicial Watch, who claimed that the Central American caravan was directed by the “Soros-occupied State Department,” echoing neo-Nazi propaganda about a “Zionist-occupied government.” (Fox Business has since apologized.)

Fox News isn’t just vilifying a major Jewish donor to liberal causes. It is also demonizing all Democrats — literally. Host Jeanine Pirro refers to them as “demon rats.”

This nonstop drumbeat of over-the-top invective and irrational conspiracy theories can drive otherwise sane conservatives to extremism — and it can drive those who were already unstable to violence. The New York Times reports that until 2016, Cesar Sayoc’s Facebook page was full of “decadent meals, gym workouts, scantily clad women and sports games. . . . But that year, Mr. Sayoc’s social media presence took on a darker and more partisan tone.” That’s when he began posting “stories from Infowars, World Net Daily, Breitbart and other right-wing websites,” which “showed a fascination with Islamist terrorism, illegal immigration and anti-Clinton conspiracy theories.”

Naturally, when Sayoc sent letter bombs to Trump’s critics, the right-wing media claimed it must be a “false flag” operation. Once the preserve of the paranoid radio host Alex Jones, this lunacy is now propagated by the likes of Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Dinesh D’Souza, Frank Gaffney, Donald Trump Jr. and Michael Savage. D’Souza tweeted: “Fake sexual assault victims. Fake refugees. Now fake mail bombs. We are all learning how the media left are masters of distortion, deflection & deception.” Trump himself appeared to give winking support to this crackpot theory by referring to “this ‘Bomb’ stuff.” Even after Sayoc’s arrest, few “false flag” theorists recanted or apologized.

There is partisanship on both sides of the political spectrum, but no left-wing outlets propagate extremism as successfully or widely as conservative media do. A new study of “Network Propaganda” by three Harvard researchers notes that liberals, by and large, get their news from sources such as The Post, the Times, NPR and CNN that, regardless of any political bias, also engage in rigorous fact-checking. Conservatives, by contrast, are being brainwashed by right-wing media that are an “echo chamber” for “rumor and conspiracy theory.”

The frightening thing is that the right-wing media will be here long after Trump and the current crop of Republican politicians are gone. These outlets have a First Amendment right to say what they want, but investors and advertisers also have a right to take their dollars elsewhere. If Rupert Murdoch and his sons won’t rein in its extremist propaganda, advertisers should flee Fox, and investors should flee its parent company, News Corp. Its stock should become as toxic as shares of mining companies that produce “blood diamonds.” The propagandists and politicians who are radicalizing the American right must not be allowed to escape responsibility for the dangerous consequences of their actions.

 

[fraurosena]

I am at a loss for words.

 

[Howl]

And then Shepard Smith on Fox says there is nothing to fear from the caravan.  Is he there as some bizarre outlier?  And seriously, leprosy?  Oddly, only 9-banded armadillos carry leprosy in the US and it seems possible that they got leprosy from humans and not the other way around.  Leprosy can be treated with antibiotics,  I think. 

And smallpox? On my first crossing into Guatemala from Mexico early 1980s, I had my passport and proof of smallpox vaccination in hand.  The border crossing guard said they didn't need the vaccination confirmation, because smallpox was "fin in el mundo" -- finished in the world.  We can all be confident that if there were any smallpox outbreaks anywhere in Mexico it would be on the news 24-7. 

Anyway, SecDef Mattis signed off on more troops to the southern border, when I understood that not all of the troops from the first round a few months ago had been deployed.  This is a grotesque form of theater, pure and simple.  Nobody knows if these troops would be National Guard, Reserves, whatever. Hopefully, they will be from units as local as possible, so less crazy disruption in the lives of the soldiers.  To be clear, they can only do support jobs and not any type of immigration enforcement. 

Bazillions of families go to Mexico to visit relatives over the holidays.  My experience with border crossings has been primarily at Laredo, and at the end of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter holidays the wait to get back into the US can be nuts.   One particularly horrible New Year's Day we spent around 7 hours in Nuevo Laredo in stop and (rarely) go traffic trying to get back to the US side after spending the week in the interior.  I can't imagine what kind of insane cluster f**k will ensue with some kind of crazy paranoiac protocol in place on the US side.  

[onekidanddone]

12 minutes ago, Howl said:

And then Shepard Smith on Fox says there is nothing to fear from the caravan.  Is he there as some bizarre outlier?  And seriously, leprosy?  Oddly, only 9-banded armadillos carry leprosy in the US and it seems possible that they got leprosy from humans and not the other way around.  Leprosy can be treated with antibiotics,  I think. 

And smallpox? On my first crossing into Guatemala from Mexico early 1980s, I had my passport and proof of smallpox vaccination in hand.  The border crossing guard said they didn't need the vaccination confirmation, because smallpox was "fin in el mundo" -- finished in the world.  We can all be confident that if there were any smallpox outbreaks anywhere in Mexico it would be on the news 24-7. 

Anyway, SecDef Mattis signed off on more troops to the southern border, when I understood that not all of the troops from the first round a few months ago had been deployed.  This is a grotesque form of theater, pure and simple.  Nobody knows if these troops would be National Guard, Reserves, whatever. Hopefully, they will be from units as local as possible, so less crazy disruption in the lives of the soldiers.  To be clear, they can only do support jobs and not any type of immigration enforcement. 

Bazillions of families go to Mexico to visit relatives over the holidays.  My experience with border crossings has been primarily at Laredo, and at the end of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter holidays the wait to get back into the US can be nuts.   One particularly horrible New Year's Day we spent around 7 hours in Nuevo Laredo in stop and (rarely) go traffic trying to get back to the US side after spending the week in the interior.  I can't imagine what kind of insane cluster f**k will ensue with some kind of crazy paranoiac protocol in place on the US side.  

If armadillos carry leprosy we have more to fear from Ted Cruz then some mom and kid crossing the border in Texas. 

I do believe small pox does still exist in a lab at Fort Detrick (in Frederick Maryland). I never understood why people aren’t vaccinated anymore when smallpox is alive and well. 

[Howl]

AND, according to what I read on the interwebs, about 95% of humans have natural immunity to the leprosy bacterium. 

But still, don't eat armadillos or play with them. 

But the pig ignorant stupidity of these people, and the desire to prey on and cultivate pig ignorant stupidity in their pig ignorant fellow citizens just chafes my chaps. Headed out for a bike ride with some awesome fellow cycling citizens.  Some awesome fellow cycling citizens won't be joining us because they are working early voting at the polls, making them even more awesome, if possible. 

SLATE has a excellent piece on how these deployment and other idiotic requests (military parade) work with the Pentagon, who apparently can really get after creative bookkeeping. 

Trump Makes a Run for the Border  The president really wants troops to stop the caravan. But there’s not much for them to do.  FRED KAPLAN, OCT 29, 2018

Edited October 30, 2018 by Howl

[AmazonGrace]

Well If it really takes 5000 soldiers to keep out unarmed women and children your high and mighty army sucks.

[Howl]

Holy Crap, this Daily Beast article lays out Faux News as a lord-of-the-flies cess pool, back stabbing free for all, last man/woman standing, battle of the titanic egos. 

Fox News Undermined Megyn Kelly Long After She Left for NBC

Edited October 30, 2018 by Howl

[wotdancer]

23 hours ago, fraurosena said:

I am at a loss for words.

 

Allow me.

Fuck faux news.

[Cartmann99]

9 hours ago, Howl said:

still, don't eat armadillos or play with them

I wish you'd said something before I spent $500 on Halloween costumes for the stray armadillos in my neighborhood.

[Howl]

My SiL waged a titanic battle against 'dillos eating her landscaping.  They finally put up a 'dillo-proof fence around the entire house. 

[fraurosena]

27 minutes ago, Howl said:

My SiL waged a titanic battle against 'dillos eating her landscaping.  They finally put up a 'dillo-proof fence around the entire house. 

Oh dear. I read dildo instead of dillo and was quite confused for a second there... 

[Cartmann99]

39 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Oh dear. I read dildo instead of dillo and was quite confused for a second there... 

 @Howl's SIL has a fence that keeps Ted Cruz out of her yard? Awesome!

 

[MarblesMom]

14 hours ago, Howl said:

But still, don't eat armadillos or play with them. 

This might belong on the Can Cook thread, but .... I have no armadillo recipes. Not a one.

What sort of canned soup would one use with armadillo... asking for a friend 

[thoughtful]

If you must eat an armadillo, limit it to the red velvet cake type:

 

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, MarblesMom said:

What sort of canned soup would one use with armadillo... asking for a friend 

Well, cream of armadillo is best, but cream of rattlesnake works too.

My autocorrect keeps substituting Amarillo for armadillo, so now I've got this song playing in my head:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"‘Fox & Friends’ anchor accidentally confirms show’s mission: Propaganda"

Spoiler

“Fox & Friends” on Thursday morning played an instructive video clip of Axios’s Jim VandeHei pressing President Trump on his use of “enemy of the people” to describe the national media. “I have to fight back,” said Trump, noting that his fans like him more because of his anti-mediaism. Don’t you worry? asked VandeHei. “It is my only form of fighting back. I couldn’t be here if I didn’t do that,” responded Trump.

“You won!” retorted VandeHei, who must be commended for that flourish.

The back-and-forth between Trump and Axios touched off a helpful self-disclosure on Thursday morning on the set of “Fox & Friends.” After co-host Steve Doocy explained the spat, fellow co-host Ainsley Earhardt riffed:

How frustrating would it be if you’re the president of the United States and every single time you turn on the TV on most of the channels, they’re misconstruing what you say? And you know your heart and you know your words and you know your voice, and then you watch other people report on what you say and it’s completely different than what you mean. That has to be frustrating. That’s why he’s saying it’s fake news. And he’s saying, if you don’t want to be called the enemy, then get the story right, be accurate and report the story the way that I want it reported.

To unpack all the depravity in those lines would require a book. But we’ll try to keep this brief:

“How frustrating would it be if you’re the president of the United States and every single time you turn on the TV on most of the channels, they’re misconstruing what you say?”

Misconstruing? Trump is a contender for least-misconstrued politician in U.S. history. There’s rarely any room for interpretation. As his supporters love to highlight, this is a man who speaks his mind.

“And you know your heart and you know your words and you know your voice, and then you watch other people report on what you say and it’s completely different than what you mean. That has to be frustrating.”

Here’s an argument for totalitarianism: Media organizations, by this standard, are supposed to divine the benevolent intentions of Dear Leader, not the actual words that he speaks. Again: In Trump’s case, he doesn’t leave much to chance.

“And he’s saying, if you don’t want to be called the enemy, then get the story right, be accurate and report the story the way that I want it reported.”

Yes, “report the story the way I want it reported” is what Trump is saying. He wants the national press to do what the New York press once did for him: repeat his talking points, portray him as a rich stud, disseminate his business propaganda. At least one big-time news outlet is willing to do likewise — with occasional exceptions — for Trump the president.

In a recent Elle profile, Earhardt professed her good intentions. “All I really worry about is my little world,” she said. “I do want everyone to be happy and safe.” Odd priorities for someone so accommodating of Trump’s rhetoric.

 

[Howl]

On 10/30/2018 at 10:32 PM, MarblesMom said:

This might belong on the Can Cook thread, but .... I have no armadillo recipes. Not a one.

'Dilllos were referred to as Hoover Hogs during the Depression and were widely hunted and eaten in east Texas.

 

Quote

What sort of canned soup would one use with armadillo... asking for a friend 

Cream of Mushroom soup.  Goes with everything. 

Edited November 2, 2018 by Howl

[smittykins]

'Dillos a la Duggar? 

[onekidanddone]

Because of course there is