Cable News Channels

CNN And Chris Cuomo Vs. Fox News Channel And Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity!

Ronald 2 Comments

Cable News is in crisis, although one would not think so at Fox News Channel, while fully realistic of that fact at CNN.

Both cable news media corporations, as well as MSNBC, are far from perfect, but at least the culture around CNN is to take action when anchors at those channels become involved in “scandals” of one sort or another.

So CNN has fired Chris Cuomo, the highest ranked anchor, and brother of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in August in the midst of a sex scandal, due to his brother Chris intervening to help his brother in unseemly ways.

On the other hand, Fox News Channel has consistently over the years refused to discipline or fire its top anchors in the evenings, despite their open nativism, racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, and homophobia, all of which should be grounds for termination!

So Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity spew forth constant lies, propaganda, and support Donald Trump and the January 6 Insurrection and the “Big Lie”!

There is nothing too low and disgraceful expressed by these three anchors to incite hatred and division that is not ignored by their company’s leaders, and including bitter attacks on Dr. Anthony Fauci and the actions of the US government trying to deal with the fallout of the COVID 19 Pandemic!

No decent human being would act the way these three talk shows hosts behave, and yet millions upon millions of Americans believe Fox News Channel and its anchors are God personified, and their tactics could lead to the outbreak of bloodshed and violence yet again in America in the short term and long term future!

So yes, criticize CNN, but be thankful that they have displayed a level of ethics and accountablity, that one has never seen from Fox News Channel!

Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson “A Clear And Present Danger” To Truth And American Democracy!

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Fox News Channel has been an outlier since its creation by Rupert Murdoch in 1996.

It has the biggest audience of any cable news channel, but it has spewed forth right wing extremist propaganda for the past 25 years, including their persistent promotion of lies, mistruths, racism, nativism, misogyny and Islamophobia!

Its talk show hosts in the evenings–Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and most significantly, Tucker Carlson–are demagogues who distort and divide for personal and company profit!

Tucker Carlson presents a “clear and present danger” to truth and American democracy, and his decision to create a documentary that denies the reality of what happened on January 6, 2021 is beyond the pale!

All of us who watched on television the Insurrection as it occurred, and all of the tens of thousands of hours of video that shows the destruction and assault on the US Capitol, are a permanent record of what was going on, and yet Tucker Carlson is claiming the events of that horrific day are a “false flag”.

This is propaganda worthy of Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the authoritarian dictatorships spreading around the world in the attack on democracy that is now enveloping not just elsewhere but here!

Donald Trump is the most dangerous and demagogic political leader bar none—including such as Huey Long, Joseph McCarthy, George Wallace—in the past century!

The thought that any honorable media source would peddle such totalitarian propaganda is shocking, and Tucker Carlson is committing the ultimate felony of propaganda promoted by Joseph Goebbels in Nazi Germany, the spreading of lies that led to the massive loss of life in the Holocaust!

Happy 25th Anniversary For MSNBC: A True Treasure!

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Today marks a quarter century of an exceptional news source, MSNBC, which began on July 15, 1996.

It started as a partnership between Microsoft and NBC (National Broadcasting Corporation).

It is one of the two major cable channels, alongside CNN (Cable News Network) to be committed to promote facts and truth, and the battle for facts and truth is a constantly evolving battle, due to the rivalry of Fox News Channel, which has spent its entire history since October 1996 to promote distortion, lies, and evade the truth.

It is hard to imagine news coverage in 2021 without appreciating the people and the coverage of news that MSNBC offers. It has enriched all viewers and readers, and is an indispensable source alongside CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, the NY Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and many other online sources listed on this website, all on the right side of the page!

So congratulations to MSNBC in its constant battle against the forces of evil that are out there in the media world!

News Media, With All Their Shortcomings, Preserve Freedom And Democracy In Age Of Donald Trump Presidency

Ronald 5 Comments

The news media had been, justifiably, criticized at helping Donald Trump to become President, through their focus on the faults and shortcomings of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential Election campaign.

Particularly the electronic media, the cable channels, have been attacked for giving Donald Trump a forum through phone calls and attention to his rallies, which helped him to stage an upset victory.

With the truth of those accusations, it is also reality that it is the news media, called the “enemy of the American people” by Donald Trump, which is preserving freedom and democracy in America, as they expose the corruption, scandals, and truth about Donald Trump and his administration.

Attack the news media all you want, but without it, we would not have learned about Michael Flynn, Jeff Sessions, or anyone else around Trump, along with his own hypocrisies.

It is the news media that helped to bring down Richard Nixon, particularly the Washington Post, and it is the news media, led by the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and others that will eventually bring down Donald Trump.

This author got some notoriety for his article, available on this blog on the right from February 15 on HNN and reprinted on Newsweek on February 19, and a TV Interview on CTV News Channel in Canada on February 16; and radio interviews on the John Gaunt Show in Great Britain on February 17 and WWGH in Marion, Ohio with Scott Spears on February 22. I made the assertion that Trump would be out of office either before 199 days of James A. Garfield, or possibly as long as 392 days of Zachary Taylor, and that belief still is strongly held by this blogger.

This is not a happy assertion, as Mike Pence, while not mentally unhinged as Donald Trump is, has a greater agenda to promote Christianity and extremist right wing views, so the Trump Presidency, whether Trump remains in office or not, is a dangerous turning point to the extreme right, unseen since the 1920s.

Focus Groups Demonstrate Lack Of Understanding Of Government: A Danger To America’s Future

Ronald 13 Comments

Various cable news channels have been organizing focus groups, usually consisting of 12-15 people in places such as Iowa and New Hampshire, the locales of the first caucus and primary in February 2016.

There is no claim that these focus groups are truly representative of how the mass citizenry feels, anymore than all of the many public opinion polls.

What does come out of these focus groups, however, is a general feeling of disgust with government; failure to understand how government works; and a desire to “throw the rascals out”, and replace them with people who have zero experience in running a government that is responsible to its citizenry.

In no other profession or field of work do we have people wanting totally inexperienced individuals to take over as total “rookies”, and gamble that they will know what they are doing, and adapt to the realities of domestic and foreign affairs.

This is an indication of the total lack of knowledge, experience, and reality of what it is to run a government that serves 320 million people, which is a very complex undertaking.

There is the myth, widespread and dangerous, that government can be run as a business; that one can be ignorant of the facts and the history of our country and other nations; and somehow those who come in to power without background can “wing” it through every issue and crisis that arises.

This is very dangerous, and the ignorance and over simplification of government and its responsibilities by a large number of the population is alarming.

We may not like to understand the truth that government must tax; that there is no “free ride”; that when one earns more income, he or she has a responsibility to pay more taxes; that government cannot always do what the people want, as often, they have no clue as to the complexities of domestic and foreign policy; that tough decisions must be made; and that experience and knowledge really do matter.

Instead, we have those who could be called demagogues, who appeal to the fears and insecurities of a population which too often thinks that these people with no experience and no understanding can create magic and solve all issues, but life is not that easy and simplified.

To believe that Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Dr. Benjamin Carson are qualified to lead our country means that those who promote this are totally deluded and living in a parallel universe.

Threats Of Violence Against Barack Obama Grows: A New, Expanded Mental Illness Very Worrisome!

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Here we are ending the fifth year of the Barack Obama Presidency, and the hatred and racism and threats of assassination have not abated one iota!

Instead, it has become a new, expanded mental illness, very worrisome, all over the internet, on Facebook and Twitter, and even on cable news networks, led by Fox News Channel!

It includes so called “religious” leaders, college professors, law enforcement officials, legislators in state governments, military personnel, students, people of different racial backgrounds, and goes as far as calling for a national holiday for lynching President Obama!

This is extremely alarming, as the media reports of threats have multiplied, but it is clear that this is just the “tip of the iceberg”, and that there are a multitude of more threats than we are learning about.

The Secret Service, considered undermanned by many observers, is dealing with an estimated 30 threats per day, over 10,000 threats a year, and probably we are low balling those numbers, so they have to deal with threats 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in all forms of ways, many of them not serious, but none able to be overlooked, as a mistake could be fatal.

The President must go about his daily business of getting around, both in the country and on overseas visits, but one has to be concerned about his safety, as one can be sure, that if something tragic was to occur, there would be celebration not seen widely when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, although there were some stories of applause in classrooms in Dallas after JFK was shot, a totally deplorable situation.

It is the responsibility of our media not to give undue attention to the perpetrators of this hate, so the decision of Lou Dobbs, who once was sane but has gone bonkers in recent years, to allow Professor Michael Scheuer of Georgetown University, to spew his hate and condemnation, and endorsement of assassination of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, on the Dobbs show, should lead to a boycott of Dobbs and all other right wing talk show hosts, who will stop at nothing in their exploitation of hate and racism, and advocacy of violence against our Commander in Chief!

Freedom of speech stops when it advocates violence, and Scheuer needs to be held accountable by Georgetown University, and advertisers need to stop support of Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, et al as an indication that such poison should not be supported on radio and television, as it is a disease that can promote tragedy and disaster!

Al Jazeera America A Valuable Addition To Cable News

Ronald 15 Comments

A new cable news channel has been added to the choices offered to Americans: Al Jazeera America, which replaces Current TV, the channel owned by, and then sold by, former Vice President Al Gore.

Some would criticize the idea that a cable news channel is owned by an Arab news source, but the indications are, so far, that the channel is very straight forward in its coverage of the news worldwide, does not distort the news, and has had the good sense to hire former journalists who previously were at CNN, HLN, and other cable news networks.

At a time when print journalism is sadly in decline, having another cable news channel is a good thing, and it informs and educates the American people on issues that might not be covered otherwise, so all the best of luck to Al Jazeera America!