Faux "News" 2: U.S. State TV?

[GreyhoundFan]

Continued from here:

 

 

Edited July 27, 2019 by GreyhoundFan

[fraurosena]

Words fail me.

 

[fraurosena]

Great summary.

 

[JMarie]

On 7/27/2019 at 5:05 AM, fraurosena said:

Words fail me.

 

His dealers WANTED to lose a customer, because he was an addict (AKA repeat customer)? How awfully humanitarian of them.

[fraurosena]

Not quite state tv yet.

Chris Wallace Confronts WH Chief of Staff on Trump's Racist Baltimore Tweets: There's a 'Clear Pattern Here'

Quote

Pressed by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace on Sunday to defend President Trump recently calling Rep. Elijah Cummings’ Baltimore district a “rodent infested mess,” acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney claimed that the president’s attacks had “absolutely zero to do with race."

With the president doubling down on his tweets on Sunday morning, Wallace began his Fox News Sunday interview with Mulvaney by asking “what is the president talk about” when he says no “human being would want to live” in Baltimore, especially considering Cummings’ district is in the upper half nationally in per capita income.

Mulvaney insisted that the president was merely “fighting back” against the Maryland congressman for what he sees as “illegitimate attacks about the border” last week, prompting the Fox anchor to push back.

“Nobody objects to the president defending his border policy but this seems to be the worst kind of racial stereotype,” Wallace stated. “Black congressman, majority-black district. ‘No human being would want to live there.’ Is he saying people that live in Baltimore are not human beings?”

The top White House staffer objected, claiming it was “right for the president to raise the issue” of poverty in Baltimore. He went on to say that when he was in Congress, he would have been “fired” if his home district looked like Cummings’.

“I think the president’s right to raise that and it has absolutely zero to do with race,” Mulvaney added.

“You say it has little to do with race, there is a clear pattern here,” Wallace shot back, noting that Trump has made similar remarks about other congresspeople of color, such as Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and the so-called Squad.

“Infested,” Wallace said. “It sounds like vermin. It sounds subhuman and these are all six members of Congress who are people of color.”

Mulvaney, however, told Wallace that he was “spending too much time reading between the lines.”

“I’m not reading between the lines,” Wallace countered. “I’m reading the lines.”

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Even on Saturday morning, Fox News cannot hide"

Spoiler

There are times when the franchise program “Fox & Friends Weekend” makes news. It’s an offshoot and a slightly lower-rent version of the weekday dumbfest known simply as “Fox & Friends.” And occasionally its hosts show a remarkable lack of awareness about the world or otherwise sidestep their way into a gaffe that leaches into the following week’s news rotation.

Then there was Saturday morning, July 27, 2019. “Fox & Friends Weekend” was just minutes into its morning marathon when it invited “Republican strategist” Kimberly Klacik onto the airwaves to talk about Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland congressman whose district includes hard-hit sections of Baltimore. Never known for shrouding their political motivations, the show’s producers teed up the chat with Klacik by showing footage of Cummings, who is the chairman of the House oversight committee, laying into acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan. “What does that mean? What does that mean?" asked Cummings after McAleenan said that his people were doing their “level best” to handle the influx of migrants at the southern border. "When a child is sitting in their own feces, can’t take a shower? Come on, man. What’s that about? None of us would have our children in that position.”

Shifting from that clip, “Fox & Friends Weekend” host Jedediah Bila pronounced Cummings guilty of hypocrisy before she even brought on her star guest: “Democrats like Congressman Elijah Cummings say they care about how migrants are treated at the border. What about the families and people in their own district? Congressman Cummings was elected to represent West Baltimore. Living conditions at the border are better than most areas in his district,” said Bila, who cited no authority or source whatsoever for that claim.

From there, Bila introduced Kimberly Klacik, who was identified as a “Republican strategist” and Maryland resident who took videos of the “crisis” in Baltimore: "I don’t think many people realize this, but Congressman Cummings represents the most dangerous district in America,” Klacik said. As Klacik discussed the conditions in emptied-out Baltimore row homes, Fox News played her videos and attributed them to her Twitter account (@kimkbaltimore).

Mind you: Fox News can afford to send one of its own TV crews into Baltimore to see for itself just how Cummings’s constituents are faring. The network, after all, measures its profits in the billions of dollars and has sent its people into the field for far more foolhardy purposes. Yet there was the network, forking over its airwaves to a “Republican strategist” with a videocamera, a Twitter account and an agenda.

Delighted with her platform, Klacik said that her tour of Baltimore’s distressed areas turned up people who are “actually on board with Trump’s immigration policies"; she said that Cummings is in his job just for the “photo ops”; and, according to her reporting, “a lot of people said he hasn’t even been there in a while,” said Klacik on the program.

All of these images and contentions crossed the Fox News screen just after 6 a.m. On a Saturday morning. In the middle of summer. According to Nielsen figures, this isn’t the network’s peak viewing time: Total viewership numbers tend toward the high 800,000s. A guest like Klacik can expect to see her comments come and go, preserved only on catch-everything TV archiving services.

Unless!

Notice the thematic overlap?

Since that Saturday morning tweetstorm, the country has been debating Trump’s continued efforts to divide the country along racial lines. On CNN, host Victor Blackwell noted how the president frequently invokes the term “infested” when referencing lawmakers of color. Supporters have cited the fact that Baltimore’s impoverished neighborhoods are impoverished. And Trump himself has pounded Twitter with topically adjacent attacks, further criticizing Cummings, denying any racism in his original tweets and attacking the Rev. Al Sharpton.

The country can thank Fox News for touching off this entire calamity. What so enticed Trump was a staple of Fox News programming over the years. It relishes any opportunity to attach the ills of major U.S. cities to Democratic politicians -— and not so much to broader forces that have hollowed out these places. When the horrors of a racist criminal-justice system come into focus, there’s always a segment to be done on “black-on-black” crime somewhere in the United States, often Chicago.

If only the sudden focus of Fox News on the residents of West Baltimore sprang from genuine concern, rather than a ploy to clear political breathing room for the president. In addition to hammering the DHS chief, after all, Cummings’s committee last week approved a subpoena for private emails and text messages at the White House that put Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, in the “cross hairs.”

The Erik Wemple Blog has asked Fox News whether the Klacik assertions met the network’s editorial standards. We also emailed Klacik a series of questions about those assertions, including the source for her claim that Cummings’s district is the most dangerous in the country. Also: What about the claim that Cummings hadn’t been around in a while? Did Klacik confirm that? Did she ask Cummings for comment? A separate set of questions went to Cummings’s office. We haven’t heard back from any party.

Klacik was delighted at the elevation that her videos received from the president:

Fox News is surely less enthusiastic about the signal boost. Once upon a time, the network could air its transparent hit pieces for its captive audience and move on to the next smear, with little interference. These days it faces the prospect that even its most obscure, not-ready-for-prime-time material will land on prime time for days on end. Just as outlets such as The Post and the New York Times have struggled to report about Trump’s racism and lies, so, too, Fox News has struggled with the implications of broadcasting to one motivated viewer.

A motivated viewer, that is, with a Twitter following of more than 60 million and a knack for accurately abridging Fox News’s tendentious content.

"Dumbfest", yeah, that pretty much nails "Fox and Friends".

[JMarie]

22 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Even on Saturday morning, Fox News cannot hide"

  Hide contents

There are times when the franchise program “Fox & Friends Weekend” makes news. It’s an offshoot and a slightly lower-rent version of the weekday dumbfest known simply as “Fox & Friends.” And occasionally its hosts show a remarkable lack of awareness about the world or otherwise sidestep their way into a gaffe that leaches into the following week’s news rotation.

Then there was Saturday morning, July 27, 2019. “Fox & Friends Weekend” was just minutes into its morning marathon when it invited “Republican strategist” Kimberly Klacik onto the airwaves to talk about Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland congressman whose district includes hard-hit sections of Baltimore. Never known for shrouding their political motivations, the show’s producers teed up the chat with Klacik by showing footage of Cummings, who is the chairman of the House oversight committee, laying into acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan. “What does that mean? What does that mean?" asked Cummings after McAleenan said that his people were doing their “level best” to handle the influx of migrants at the southern border. "When a child is sitting in their own feces, can’t take a shower? Come on, man. What’s that about? None of us would have our children in that position.”

Shifting from that clip, “Fox & Friends Weekend” host Jedediah Bila pronounced Cummings guilty of hypocrisy before she even brought on her star guest: “Democrats like Congressman Elijah Cummings say they care about how migrants are treated at the border. What about the families and people in their own district? Congressman Cummings was elected to represent West Baltimore. Living conditions at the border are better than most areas in his district,” said Bila, who cited no authority or source whatsoever for that claim.

From there, Bila introduced Kimberly Klacik, who was identified as a “Republican strategist” and Maryland resident who took videos of the “crisis” in Baltimore: "I don’t think many people realize this, but Congressman Cummings represents the most dangerous district in America,” Klacik said. As Klacik discussed the conditions in emptied-out Baltimore row homes, Fox News played her videos and attributed them to her Twitter account (@kimkbaltimore).

Mind you: Fox News can afford to send one of its own TV crews into Baltimore to see for itself just how Cummings’s constituents are faring. The network, after all, measures its profits in the billions of dollars and has sent its people into the field for far more foolhardy purposes. Yet there was the network, forking over its airwaves to a “Republican strategist” with a videocamera, a Twitter account and an agenda.

Delighted with her platform, Klacik said that her tour of Baltimore’s distressed areas turned up people who are “actually on board with Trump’s immigration policies"; she said that Cummings is in his job just for the “photo ops”; and, according to her reporting, “a lot of people said he hasn’t even been there in a while,” said Klacik on the program.

All of these images and contentions crossed the Fox News screen just after 6 a.m. On a Saturday morning. In the middle of summer. According to Nielsen figures, this isn’t the network’s peak viewing time: Total viewership numbers tend toward the high 800,000s. A guest like Klacik can expect to see her comments come and go, preserved only on catch-everything TV archiving services.

Unless!

Notice the thematic overlap?

Since that Saturday morning tweetstorm, the country has been debating Trump’s continued efforts to divide the country along racial lines. On CNN, host Victor Blackwell noted how the president frequently invokes the term “infested” when referencing lawmakers of color. Supporters have cited the fact that Baltimore’s impoverished neighborhoods are impoverished. And Trump himself has pounded Twitter with topically adjacent attacks, further criticizing Cummings, denying any racism in his original tweets and attacking the Rev. Al Sharpton.

The country can thank Fox News for touching off this entire calamity. What so enticed Trump was a staple of Fox News programming over the years. It relishes any opportunity to attach the ills of major U.S. cities to Democratic politicians -— and not so much to broader forces that have hollowed out these places. When the horrors of a racist criminal-justice system come into focus, there’s always a segment to be done on “black-on-black” crime somewhere in the United States, often Chicago.

If only the sudden focus of Fox News on the residents of West Baltimore sprang from genuine concern, rather than a ploy to clear political breathing room for the president. In addition to hammering the DHS chief, after all, Cummings’s committee last week approved a subpoena for private emails and text messages at the White House that put Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, in the “cross hairs.”

The Erik Wemple Blog has asked Fox News whether the Klacik assertions met the network’s editorial standards. We also emailed Klacik a series of questions about those assertions, including the source for her claim that Cummings’s district is the most dangerous in the country. Also: What about the claim that Cummings hadn’t been around in a while? Did Klacik confirm that? Did she ask Cummings for comment? A separate set of questions went to Cummings’s office. We haven’t heard back from any party.

Klacik was delighted at the elevation that her videos received from the president:

Fox News is surely less enthusiastic about the signal boost. Once upon a time, the network could air its transparent hit pieces for its captive audience and move on to the next smear, with little interference. These days it faces the prospect that even its most obscure, not-ready-for-prime-time material will land on prime time for days on end. Just as outlets such as The Post and the New York Times have struggled to report about Trump’s racism and lies, so, too, Fox News has struggled with the implications of broadcasting to one motivated viewer.

A motivated viewer, that is, with a Twitter following of more than 60 million and a knack for accurately abridging Fox News’s tendentious content.

"Dumbfest", yeah, that pretty much nails "Fox and Friends".

Moral of this story:  Kim Kardashian, Kimberly Klacik. All Kim K.'s get too much television coverage.

[fraurosena]

Ha! This is how to reach Faux news viewers with the truth. Ads on Faux and Friends and Hannity 

Steyer knocks Trump business record in new ad

[link to the ad in the quote]

Quote

Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer is airing an ad centered around President Trump's record as "failed" businessman during "Fox and Friends" and "The Sean Hannity Show" on Fox News, his campaign said. 

"Unlike other candidates, I can go head to head with Donald Trump on the economy and expose him for what he is — a fraud and a failure," the billionaire businessman says in the ad. 

The 30-second "Trump is a Fraud" TV ad debuted Tuesday and Wednesday as 20 of the Democratic candidates debated in Detroit. Steyer, who entered the race late, did not meet the threshold to participate. 

Steyer, a billionaire philanthropist, calls Trump a "failed as a businessman" in the ad. 

"He borrowed billions, and left a trail of bankruptcy and broken promises. He hasn’t changed," Steyer said. "I started a tiny investment business and, over 27 years, grew it successfully to 36 billion dollars."

Campaign spokesperson Heather Hargreaves said that by airing the ad on Fox News, "we are taking the fight directly to Trump."

Trump is known to watch the Fox News shows, often tweeting during its segments.

Before entering the race, Steyer had been an outspoken Trump critic and founded the group Need to Impeach aimed at getting Trump out of office. 

Need to Impeach ran an ad centered around former special counsel Robert Mueller's testimony during the latest Democratic presidential debates. 

Trump will have an apoplectic fit when he sees it.

[GreyhoundFan]

Par for the course: "‘It’s not actually a real problem in America’: Tucker Carlson calls white supremacy a ‘hoax’"

Spoiler

On Monday, President Trump condemned white supremacy after a gunman allegedly motivated by anti-immigrant hatred killed 22 and wounded dozens more in El Paso. Trump’s statements came after many Democrats and some Republicans repudiated him for his own intolerant language used against lawmakers and immigrants.

But to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Trump’s sentiment was wholly unnecessary. On Tuesday night, Carlson argued that white supremacy is a fake crisis cooked up by Democrats as a campaign ploy.

“It’s actually not a real problem in America,” Carlson said. He then added: “This is a hoax, just like the Russia hoax. It’s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power.”

Carlson’s argument is belied by many experts and seemingly contradicted by a recent wave of deadly attacks by men motivated by those views. As The Washington Post’s Greg Miller reported on Monday, violence tied to far-right ideologies has killed roughly as many Americans since 9/11 as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State combined.

Trump has faced heavy criticism for his role in stoking white racial grievances. Numerous Democratic presidential candidates denounced Trump after El Paso for boosting “white nationalism,” while polling has consistently found that most Americans believe he’s encouraged white supremacists. The president has often called Hispanic migration an “invasion” — language echoed in a manifesto police believe the accused El Paso shooter posted online decrying a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

Carlson has regularly said similar words. He’s used “invasion” rhetoric nine times on his show this year, according to liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America, including describing a surge of migrants at the southern border as “an invasion, and it’s terrifying.” Carlson has also warned that immigrants could “replace” Americans — an echo, critics say, of the “Great Replacement,” a conspiracy theory that also motivated the deadly March attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 51 people at mosques.

On Tuesday night, though, Carlson argued that claims about a larger white supremacy problem in America are bogus. Trump never should have had to address it after El Paso, Carlson said.

“In point of fact, he never endorsed white supremacy or came close to endorsing white supremacy. That’s just a lie,” he said. “But he condemned it anyway.”

Carlson framed his argument around the idea that few Americans belong to explicitly white supremacist groups, like the KKK.

“If you were to assemble a list, a hierarchy of concerns, of problems this country faces, where would white supremacy be on the list? Right up there with Russia, probably,” he said. “The combined membership of every white supremacist organization in this country would be able to fit inside a college football stadium.”

The host later added that he’d never personally met anyone who fit that bill.

“I’ve lived here 50 years and I’ve never met anybody, not one person who ascribes to white supremacy,” he said to his guest. “I don’t know a single person who thinks that’s a good idea.”

But experts say white supremacist mass killers are more likely today to be radicalized in online forums like 8chan, where the alleged El Paso killer reportedly posted his manifesto, than at organized rallies with white hoods. In July, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said the agency had arrested about 100 domestic terrorism suspects in the previous nine months, and most were tied to white supremacist beliefs.

Carlson, though, maintained that the case against white supremacy is a Democratic political strategy.

“They’re making this up,” he said. “It’s a talking point, which they are using to help them in this election cycle.”

 

[JMarie]

6 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

“The combined membership of every white supremacist organization in this country would be able to fit inside a college football stadium.”

Kind of like how the Duggars think the entire world's population can fit in Jacksonville, Florida.

[mamallama]

Since when is membership in an organization the measure of a problem.  I guess we don't need drunk driving laws and campaigns cause no one belongs to the drinking and driving club.

[GreyhoundFan]

Boy, this is so true:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[fraurosena]

Heh.

Long John Silver’s Drops Fox News After Tucker Carlson Said White Supremacy’s A ‘Hoax’

Quote

The brand is one of more than 20 that have stopped advertising during the Fox News host’s show because of his offensive rhetoric.

Fox News and host Tucker Carlson are losing more advertisers.

Long John Silver’s will no longer advertise on Fox News, as confirmed to Media Matters’ Angelo Carusone.

Nestlé and HelloFresh, which have advertised on Carlson’s show in the past, told The Hollywood Reporter they were no longer running ads on the show. Nestlé said it had no plans to do so in the future.

Earlier this week, Carlson claimed on his show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that there is no white supremacy problem in the United States and that it’s a “hoax” proliferated by the media.

“The whole thing is a lie,” said Carlson. “It’s actually not a real problem in America.”

The conservative commentator’s remarks came after two mass shootings in 24 hours last weekend. The gunman who killed at least 22 in El Paso, Texas, reportedly posted a white supremacist manifesto online shortly before the shooting. In light of that and Carlson’s history of repeatedly giving airtime to white nationalist conspiracy theories and talking points, #FireTuckerCarlson began trending on Twitter on Wednesday.

In an apparent coincidence, Carlson announced that he would be taking some time off from his broadcast that same night. He also told his critics to “calm down.” 

Fox News has stayed silent on the controversy. CNN’s Oliver Darcy reported on Wednesday night that none of the channel’s board members ― including Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch, Jacques Nasser, Anne Dias, Roland Hernandez and Paul Ryan ― agreed to comment on Carlson’s rhetoric.

HuffPost has reached out to Fox News directly, and has also asked Carlson’s remaining advertisers to comment on their partnerships with his show.

In December 2018, Carlson lost more than 20 advertisers after suggesting that immigrants are making the United States “dirtier.” He never issued an apology and later doubled down on the racist sentiment.

Carlson lost even more advertisers in March after Media Matters released audio revealing white nationalist rhetoric he used during various appearances on shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge’s show between 2006 and 2011. 

 

[smittykins]

I wish I could patronize LJS, but our nearest one closed abruptly several years ago and never reopened(rumor was that the Health Department shut it down).

[GreyhoundFan]

"Congratulations to ‘Fox & Friends’ on airing one of the worst defenses of Trump’s tariffs in history"

Spoiler

Defenders of President Trump’s trade war with China have two choices. One is to argue that the short-term pain faced by the American economy is worth it if China shifts past trade practices that have put the United States at a disadvantage. The other is to argue that the economy isn’t experiencing much pain in the first place.

In a segment on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday, reporter Jackie DeAngelis took the second approach. Over the course of a brief segment, she made a number of immediately and obviously untrue claims about the effects of increased tariffs on products imported from China.

We can walk through DeAngelis’s comments almost line-by-line to point out where she’s incorrect.

“It’s interesting,” she says at the outset, “because there’s been a narrative here with two sides. On one side, you have the president saying tariffs are a good thing. China is paying them. On the other side, you have the opposition saying, ‘Well, there’s no evidence that China is actually paying these tariffs, and we really think the consumer’s going to end up paying them.’”

We’ll evaluate the accuracy of that point-counterpoint in a second. But before we do, let’s marvel at the fact that it’s a point-counterpoint at all.

On one side, you have people saying that Earth is flat. On the other side, you have people saying that it is some sort of ball or sphere.

On one side, you have people saying that airplanes fly by virtue of airlines hiring ghosts who carry the aircraft in an ethereal satchel slung over their ectoplasmic shoulders. On the other side, you have people who say something about air pressure.

I could do this all day. These are ridiculous examples meant to highlight that it is not the job of a reporter to present something with an obvious answer as a choice between two juxtaposed lines of argument. It is, instead, to explain what’s actually happening.

Here’s the amazing thing, though: In this case, DeAngelis goes on to advocate the incorrect position.

“Well,” she continued, “the Treasury Department just released some data that actually bolsters the president’s argument. Treasury is saying that, so far this fiscal year, China has paid us $59 billion in tariffs, and that number is up about 75 percent, year on year.”

There’s a lot that’s wrong in that last sentence. The Treasury Department did release data on how much the government has collected from tariffs, which are essentially taxes imposed on imports to the United States. Fox Business, for which DeAngelis works, reported on the new numbers.

“As the U.S. prepares to implement another round of tariffs on China next month, new data shows just how much the government is collecting from the cumulative levies it has imposed on goods from other countries,” the network’s Brittany De Lea wrote. “According to a report from the U.S. Treasury Department released on Monday, for the fiscal year-to-date, the U.S. has collected $59 billion from tariffs — an increase of 75 percent from the same period last year.”

Notice the key phrase: “goods from other countries.” The $59 billion isn’t money from China. It isn’t even money from Chinese tariffs. It’s money from all tariffs.

A report from the Wall Street Journal last week (which is also owned by the parent company of Fox News) looked at tariffs collected on Chinese imports through June. Even before Trump added new tariffs, the government was taking in $2 billion to $3 billion a month from tariffs, or about $24 to $36 billion a year. In June, the government collected $3 billion on imports from China out of about $6 billion in total. The new Treasury data puts the July tariff total at $7 billion, suggesting that the amount collected last month on products from China might have been closer to $4 billion.

But this is not money paid by China. As both the Journal and Fox Business articles note, much of the cost of tariffs is incurred by importers, which often increase the cost of products to recoup costs. Analysis by the Center for Economic Policy Research found that the original round of Trump’s tariffs were costing Americans (consumers and importers) about $3 billion a month in additional tax payments. Suppliers were paying an additional $1.4 billion by shifting supply chains away from components that were now more expensive.

We’ve looked at the balance for businesses before, including in the context of a pro-Trump teddy bear that’s imported from China. Its manufacturers explained that they would simply absorb the cost of new tariffs if applied to imported stuffed animals, cutting into their already thin profits.

In some cases, Chinese companies will absorb some of the cost of tariffs in order not to lose business with American companies. But that’s only part of what’s paid — and it’s not money coming from China itself.

DeAngelis continued, framing her incorrect assessment of the tariffs in a way that more broadly reflected Trump’s rhetoric.

“Now to put this in context in terms of total federal income, it’s only about 2 percent,” she said. “But it’s still a pretty significant number. Now, the $59 billion is hopefully going to be reinvested in businesses and infrastructure to make the United States stronger and less dependent on China.”

It’s about 1.6 percent of the revenue the government is expected to raise this year, but, again, that’s all tariffs. And only somewhere around half of that amount is increased revenue from Trump’s tariffs.

As for the government reinvesting tax money in businesses? Seems like that might be problematic for Fox News personalities who consistently express concern about socialism. But it has been reinvested heavily in one industry: farming, which Trump has had to bolster with subsidies because it has been hammered by retaliatory tariffs imposed by China.

“But, of course, the fear was that Chinese companies were going to hike prices and U.S. consumers were going to be on the hook for most of it,” DeAngelis went on. “It doesn’t seem like that’s happening.”

It … does seem like that’s happening. It is happening. The Journal reported separately on a study finding that the average American household is contributing more than $800 to pay these increased tariffs — even before Trump expanded them.

“Remember, China doesn’t necessarily want to do that,” DeAngelis said of increased costs. “It can’t afford to stop selling things here in the United States, and it can’t afford a chilling effect.”

She summed things up.

“So here’s what I’m seeing from the floor: Second-quarter earnings are starting to come through, and you’re not hearing companies say that they’re worried about China or that China impacted the bottom line. And that’s really the important thread of this story. We’re taking money in. U.S. companies aren’t saying they’re being hurt by it.”

DeAngelis is talking to the wrong companies. Concerns about the trade war and the increased cost of doing business with China has spooked a number of companies, some of which are slowing down on hiring as a result. Markets have slipped over the past month. Companies reliant on imports, such as retailers, may be downgraded by ratings agencies.

She’s right that the government is taking money in — just as it does every April when people pay their income taxes.

“So this could be an interesting trade strategy that everyone pooh-poohed against, that actually plays out in real time,” DeAngelis concluded.

Not everyone pooh-poohed it, even when it deserved to be pooh-poohed.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Good grief

 

[fraurosena]

More biased coverage indeed.

 

[JMarie]

10 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Good grief

 

Yay, an opinion by Real World Rachel and Road Rules Sean 

[Howl]

Trump is ragging on the news side of Fox because they are reporting on actual poll results showing that some of the 2020 Dem candidates are even with or ahead of The Donald.  Count down 3, 2, 1 to Trump threatening to boycott Fox in favor of OAN. 

Also, is Hannity back from "vacation" yet?

[GreyhoundFan]

Good grief:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"‘We don’t work for you’: Fox News’s Neil Cavuto rebukes Trump for slamming network"

Spoiler

Fox News host Neil Cavuto delivered a scorching rebuke on Thursday to President Trump’s recent criticism that the cable network “isn’t working for us anymore,” and called out his tenuous relationship with the media.

“Mr. President, we don’t work for you. I don’t work for you,” Cavuto said in the closing monologue of “Your World with Neil Cavuto.” “My job is to cover you, not fawn over you or rip you. Just report on you.”

The host later added: “It is called being fair and balanced, Mr. President, yet it is fair to say you’re not a fan when that balance includes stuff you don’t like to hear or facts you don’t like to have questioned.”

Cavuto’s pointed comments come on the heels of Trump’s latest broadside against Fox News. Despite the network’s reputation for favorable coverage of the president and his administration, with critics going so far as to describe it as “state TV,” Fox News has increasingly become a target of Trump’s rage. The president slammed the network in tweets this week for “heavily promoting the Democrats,” adding, “We have to start looking for a new News Outlet. Fox isn’t working for us anymore!” The tirade appeared to be sparked by Fox News anchor Sandra Smith interviewing Xochitl Hinojosa, the communications director for the Democratic National Committee, and soon prompted criticism from a handful of people associated with the network.

On Thursday, Cavuto joined in, addressing Trump directly in a roughly four-minute segment that has since been viewed more than 170,000 times across Twitter and YouTube.

Cavuto, who has slammed Trump on his show before, kicked off his monologue by playing a clip of the president calling into a Fox News Radio program earlier in the day and expressing that he was “not happy” with the network. In recent months, Trump has gone after several Fox News personalities including host Shepard Smith, left-leaning pundit Juan Williams and contributor Donna Brazile, former chair of the Democratic National Committee.

“All right, well I think the president watches Fox,” Cavuto remarked. “I also think he is getting sick of Fox, which is weird because I think he gets pretty fair coverage at Fox.”

In 2017, a Harvard report analyzing the president’s first 100 days in office found that the network was “the only news outlet in our study that came close to giving Trump positive coverage overall — the split was 52 percent negative to 48 percent positive.”

Cavuto noted, however, that the president had made it “clear to fact-check him is to be all but dead to him and his legion of supporters who let me know, in no uncertain terms, I am either with him totally or I am a ‘Never Trumper’ fully.”

Perhaps, the host said, it was this “Loyal on everything or not to be trusted on anything” mentality that prompted the president to once again bash Fox News on Wednesday and urge his supporters to stop watching the channel. Interpreting the president’s criticism as a suggestion that Fox News had been operating as an extension of his administration and reelection campaign, Cavuto, like other network personalities, pushed back against the notion. Trump’s tweet also drew critical responses from Fox News political analyst Brit Hume and on-air personalities Guy Benson and Howard Kurtz.

“My job, Mr. President, our job here, is to keep the scores, not settle the scores,” Cavuto said Thursday, before launching into a description of his responsibility to report on the economy and trade talks regardless of whether the news is good or bad.

Then, Cavuto turned his attention to what he believed to be Trump’s biggest gripe with the media: Getting fact-checked.

“You’re only human, I get that. Who likes to be corrected?” the host said. “But you are the president. It comes with the job, just like checking what you say and do comes with my job.”

To prove his point, Cavuto began listing instances in which Trump made false or misleading statements (more than 12,000 during his presidency, according to the Fact Checker database), ranging from claims that Russia didn’t meddle in the 2016 election to denying that he paid off adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. While the Fact Checker generally avoids characterizing Trump’s falsehoods as “lies,” his statements about the hush-money payment made to Daniels earned the rare label.

On Thursday, Cavuto also pointed out the president’s habit of contradicting himself. The host cited Trump’s praise of former secretary of state Rex Tillerson, whom he later fired and then called “dumb as a rock,” and his apparent 180 on potential support for gun background check legislation.

These moments that have been reported on aren’t fake, Cavuto said, addressing Trump, “They’re real items and you really said them.”

“Fake is when it’s wrong, Mr. President, not when it’s unpleasant,” he added.

But, Cavuto conceded that Trump was right to complain that the media, which can be “more inclined to report the bad than anything good,” hasn’t been fair to him.

“It is no surprise you’re frustrated that more aren’t in line with you and that everyone at Fox might not be in lockstep with you,” said Cavuto, before clarifying that even if there are Fox News hosts who defend Trump, it doesn’t mean that they work for him.

“Hard as it is to fathom, Mr. President, just because you’re the leader of the free world doesn’t entitle you to a free pass,” Cavuto concluded. “Unfortunately, just a free press.”

 

[fraurosena]

Either his cognitive dissonance is tremendously strong, or he has a strong desire to keep his paycheck:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Wow