April 24, 2023 will go down as a very dark day for bigots, conservatives, and right-wing a-holes because it’s the day that Fox News officially said they were done with host Tucker Carlson, who had been at the network since 2009.
Reportedly, in his most recent contract with Fox, Carlson pulled down $8 million a year.
But to read the wailing and gnashing of teeth on Twitter, you’d have thought it was the end of American civilization and a harbinger of the Apocalypse.
The $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News became the top media story of last week when portions of a court filing by the company became public, including testimony from Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch, who was forced to admit under oath that some of the network’s hosts did indeed lie when they told viewers the 2020 presidential election had been “stolen” from Donald Trump.
Portions of that filing, however, were redacted (i.e. blacked out) at the request of Fox News, and that is leading some legal and media experts to suggest that things are about to get significantly worse for Fox when the redacted sections are made public.
Washington Post media critic Eric Wemple has looked closely at the redactions and writes they suggest the biggest bombshells are still hiding beneath those black boxes.
Impenetrable black expanses in the filing thwart a complete understanding of what was happening as Fox News faced down a ratings collapse. We do know what happened when White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich fact-checked a stolen election claim made by Trump: Host Tucker Carlson advocated for her firing. Similar tensions arose when anchor Neil Cavuto cut away from a news conference at which Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, was inveighing against the election. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Cavuto said on air. “She’s charging the other side as welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue showing you this.”
There are about 35 redacted passages in the “opening narrative” of Dominion’s lawsuit, Wemple notes, all of which were made at the request of Fox, and that alone tells us Fox is trying to hide something. But what, exactly?
The New York Times and NPR have filed a motion to unseal the redacted sections, and given that the lawsuit was filed in Delaware, which has very strong laws supporting press freedom, it seems we’ll know what’s behind those blacked out portions before much longer.
Dominion also wants to see those redactions made clear for all to see:
In a Feb. 17 filing, Dominion itself challenged the confidential treatment of material in three recent briefs by itself, Fox News and Fox Corp. “All the redactions across all three briefs are there at the Fox Defendants’ request,” the document notes.
Given what we already know regarding Fox’s lies in the days after the election was called for President Joe Biden, it’s safe to assume that the redactions could be what finally results in the complete financial meltdown of the Fox empire. And that would be a very good thing for American democracy.
Just a few months ago, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was a darling of right-wingers across the country due in large part to her outrageous sound bites, tweets, and online videos in which she ranted about anything and everything she claimed was wrong with the United States and the world.
But every since Greene announced her support for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to be the next Speaker of the House, the right has turned on her, with a right-wing radio host saying this week that she will “burn in hell” for daring to help McCarthy ascend to the highest office in the House of Representatives.
According to The Daily Beast, the long knives are out, and Greene is feeling the sting of those blades.
Right-wing radio host Stew Peters turned the criticism up to full blast this week with this hellacious condemnation of the Georgia Republican.
I see you’ve stopped talking about dildos and butt plugs to stand by your China/Israel Owned FTX boy Kevin. Marje – You claim you want to “Defeat the Democrats”. You haven’t ONCE demanded that Kevin get rid of Pelosi’s rules and bring back the Motion to Vacate the Chair.
I see you've stopped talking about dildos and butt plugs to stand by your China/Israel Owned FTX boy Kevin.
Marje – You claim you want to "Defeat the Democrats”.
You haven't ONCE demanded that Kevin get rid of Pelosi's rules and bring back the Motion to Vacate the Chair. https://t.co/irwDAp4pv8
But that wasn’t all Peters had to say about Greene.
In a phone interview with The Daily Beast, Peters said that Greene was “actually a threat to national security” and declared that she would “burn in hell” one day.
“Marjorie is NOT America First, but regrettably a faker and a liar who raised millions claiming she would impeach Biden, and now backs a man for Speaker who refuses to impeach Biden,” he said Friday evening. Additionally, Peters—like many other far-right pundits—engaged in an extremely sexist attack referencing the allegation that Greene had an affair with a “tantric sex guru” ahead of her recent divorce.
Peters suggested the “wholesome Christian mom” image she ran under was a farce, apparently in light of her divorce, calling her a “two-bit whore.”
White nationalist Nick Fuentes is slamming Greene (who he has nicknamed “Large Marge”) and is encouraging his fellow racist deplorables to heckle Greene at public events, though it’s too soon to know if his wishes will actually come true.
Greene is also involved in a spat with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who mocked the Georgia Republican by bringing up an anti-Semitic gaffe Greene made, firing off this shot at a Turning Point USA conference:
“I’ve been aligned with Marjorie and accused of believing a lot of the things that she believes in. I don’t believe in this, just like I don’t believe in Russian space lasers, Jewish space lasers, and all of this.”
Whether its lasers or barbs aimed at her, Greene is losing favor with the extremists who helped get her elected in 2020 and again this November. But that’s what happens when you court conspiracy theorists, idiots, and bigots. Greene has no one to blame but herself.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg made it clear Sunday that the Biden administration does indeed see the mass shooting that took place in Buffalo on Saturday as a hate crime and that some right-wingers have helped spread the sort of hatred that allegedly led Payton Gendron to shoot and kill 10 people, most of them black.
Buttigieg was a guest on “Face the Nation,” and was asked by host Margaret Brennan if there needs to be a new law that would make domestic terrorism a crime. The secretary replied:
“This would be a good day for every politician in this country — left, right and center — every media figure in this country — left, right and center — to come out and unequivocally condemn white nationalism, so-called ‘replacement theory’ and any other hateful ideology that could have contributed to something like this.”
.@margbrennan: Should there be a federal law criminalizing "domestic terrorism"?
Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg says "whether it's called that legally or not, this was terrorism" and every politician should come out and "unequivocally condemn white nationalism.” pic.twitter.com/Zv51WSKKLm
“Replacement theory” asserts that white Americans are being replaced by immigrants and minorities as some sort of master plan by Democrats to create a permanent hold on government. Among the most vocal proponents of this bogus theory are Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham.
Under the guise of the First Amendment, many on the right have been saying for years that there’s a massive conspiracy afoot to take political power away from whites in the United States. But that change has been taking place for decades as demographic changes happen and many whites have fewer children. It’s not a conspiracy, however. Despite what loons such as Tucker Carlson or his ilk say, the world is not out to get them.
Here’s a thought: If Carlson and others who push replacement theory are so worried, why don’t they start having bigger families? Carlson has four children, but maybe he and his wife should have several more.
Or perhaps Carlson and others on the right need to sit down and stop spreading dangerous lies that inspire people to kill others.
Today, for what seems like the eleven-millionth time since Jen Psaki began holding the daily White House press briefing, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy tried to tell a blatant lie and immediately got swatted down by the press secretary.
Referencing the Disinformation Governance Board at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Doocy suggested that President Joe Biden had created something that would censor things online.
The Disinformation Governance Board’s mission is to counter foreign disinformation, not domestic.
The board isn’t something that was created by the Biden White House. It started in the Trump administration and is being continued now that Biden is president, which makes it bipartisan, at least in spirit.
Despite that, Doocy waded in with both feet, asking Psaki:
“Does the President know that DHS is putting together this Disinformation Governance Board?”
As she so often does, Psaki countered Doocy with facts:
“Well, Peter, I think I would note – and I’m not sure if this has been in your reporting yet – but this is a continuation of work that was done under the prior administration, under the Trump administration, to take steps to address disinformation, address the use of disinformation and helping smugglers prompt the movement of more migrants across to the border.”
She then added:
“I would note that the first example given in the announcement about this was DHS has worked to understand how ‘misinformation’ spread by human smugglers that prey on vulnerable populations attempting to migrate to the United States. So for anyone who’s out there who may be concerned about the increase in migrants to the border, this is the kind of apparatus that’s working to address disinformation. And again, continuing the work of the Department of Homeland Security and 2020. Something we’re currently applauding.”
However, Doocy seemed to have missed every word Psaki had just said, which led him to ask an absurd follow-up question:
“Just in terms of what the President wants out of this, does he want the people on this board to start censoring information that is not helpful to him?”
Psaki:
“Well, let me be clear on exactly what this board does, or what the work they’re doing does and in their announcement, which is publicly available in the Department of Homeland Security website for anyone to read, it says, ‘the primary mission is to establish best practices to ensure that efforts to understand and respond to disinformation are done in ways that protect privacy, civil rights and civil liberties and the right to free speech.’”
Rather than accept, Doocy then tried to reframe his query to include Hunter Biden:
“Okay, there’s this woman Nina Jankowicz, who is going to be in charge of the board. She has said that she thinks the Hunter Biden laptop is Russian disinformation. So should we look forward in the future to her censoring internet traffic about the Hunter Biden laptop?”
Though no one would have blamed her if she had laughed at Doocy and never called on him again, Psaki tried once more to explain in terms the Fox reporter could understand:
“I think I noted exactly what the objective of the board is, including continuing the work of the prior administration. And the woman you noted has extensive experience and has done extensive work addressing disinformation, she has testified before Congress testified in Europe. She has done worked closely with Ukrainians and has unique expertise, especially at this moment we’re facing.”
Fox News’ Peter Doocy: “Does the president know that DHS is putting together this Disinformation Governance Board?”
WH Press Sec. Jen Psaki: “I’m not sure if this has been in your reporting yet, but this is a continuation of work that was done under the prior administration.” pic.twitter.com/kFbKcW9lYU
