Trump, rather than release his tax returns as he promised many times, produced a letter from his law firm claiming that he has no significant income from Russia. The fact that no serious person puts any credibility in such an act shows that Trump has lost the moral authority to lead the country in a time of crisis.In short, it would be almost impossible to concoct a "no casualties" scenario which could have more blatantly exposed that Trump is unfit to hold his office. And yet, just as I predicted immediately after the firing, there has been virtually 100% support from the now effectively state-run "conservative" media. Just within the last 24 hours, each of the three most pro-Trump shows on Fox News have stepped up and embarrassingly/desperately shilled for him on this.And it isn't just the "conservative" media which has remained, so far, in lockstep with their cult leader. While the "conservative" media remain economically invested in him, it appears almost all of his voters are … [Read more...] about The Hyper-Partisan Reaction to Trumps Comey Firing Shows How Much We All Suck
opinion
Heres the Fundamental Flaw in President Trumps Justification for the Comey Firing
Last night, I wrote about my initial reactions to President Trump's shocking firing of FBI Director James Comey. One of the primary takeaways was that everyone, especially the "conservative" media, would react in an extremely hypocritical fashion to the news. While it was hardly a tough call, that prediction has certainly been very accurate. This issue of what I call "The Death of Hypocrisy," which has marked the entire political phenomenon of "Trumpsanity," is both very important and vastly underrated. For if hypocrisy is no longer a political "crime," then there is a very slippery slope down which our politics will slide precipitously into total chaos and utter meaninglessness (I know, we may already be there). But despite being keenly aware of this problem, even I was slightly taken aback when Trump tried, in his very first line of defense of Comey's firing, to play the hypocrisy card himself on Democrats. In a series of tweets, which began last night, Trump claimed, much to the … [Read more...] about Heres the Fundamental Flaw in President Trumps Justification for the Comey Firing
Chris Ruddy Has Gone Rogue – And Trump Should Start Listening
Of all Donald Trump's web of outside advisers, consultants and friends, few are more plugged in than Newsmax chief Chris Ruddy. But despite what seems to be a very close connection to the sitting president - and conservative bona fides - Ruddy has lately gone rogue on several key points of conservative conventional wisdom. The old playbook has so far delivered Trump far more setbacks than victories. Maybe it's time for the president to listen to his old pal? Ruddy, who's been on the Trump train since at least 2011, was listed by the New York Times as one of the 20 most influential people in Trump's orbit outside the White House. Because of his ubiquity, The Atlantic called him the administration's Zelig. As a Mar-a-Lago member, Ruddy has regular access to Trump who, as we all know, visits the "Southern White House" very frequently. Since Trump became president, however, Ruddy has made a number of increasingly surprising departures from the administration. With the first 100 days now in … [Read more...] about Chris Ruddy Has Gone Rogue – And Trump Should Start Listening
The Case That Trumps Presidency Is Not Much Different than Hillarys Would Have Been
Last week the biggest political debate was over the role which FBI Director James Comey played in Donald Trump pulling off his massive upset of Hillary Clinton and becoming president. I am one of those who agrees that, if Comey had done nothing in the last two weeks of the campaign, Hillary would have almost certainly won. I am in a likely smaller group, however, which is convinced that, at least as of now, it really wouldn't make much real difference if that had been the outcome. With the obvious stipulation that it is still very early in his presidency, I defy anyone - especially the members of Trump's cult - to make a rational and fact-based argument that a whole lot would be currently different if he had lost. While I doubt anyone is able to do this, I will try to here to make that case as objectively as I can, myself. Clearly had Hillary won (and everything else, specifically the makeup of Congress, been the same), Neil Gorsuch would not be on the Supreme Court right now. As a … [Read more...] about The Case That Trumps Presidency Is Not Much Different than Hillarys Would Have Been
MTV is Doing Away with Gendered Awards Because … Nothing Makes Sense Anymore
MTV not only rebooted its annual MTV Movie Awards by adding TV awards this year, but took the supposedly progressive move of eliminating male and female as separate categories from its best acting awards in movies and TV. This year, those who participated in the voting for the awards chose two British actresses - Emma Watson for her lead role in "Beauty and the Beast," and teenager Millie Bobby Brown for her acting in the Netflix series "Stranger Things." "Acting is about the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes and that doesn't need to be separated into two different categories," Watson said after accepting the best acting award for movies. The irony, of course, is despite Disney's "updating" of Belle for the live-action adaptation, Watson's character falls into an archetype that is quite traditional - a damsel in distress who ultimately has a fairy-tale ending. Fans picked Watson from a calculatedly diverse group that included two white men (Hugh Jackman in "Logan" … [Read more...] about MTV is Doing Away with Gendered Awards Because … Nothing Makes Sense Anymore
Tone-Deaf Hillary Clinton Forms Super PAC in Order to Become Part of the Resistance
In a wide-ranging interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour last week, Hillary Clinton signaled her intent to form a Super PAC as part of "the Resistance" mobilizing against President Trump. That Super PAC, officially known as "Onward Together", is a terrible idea that no one wants, so of course, it's the perfect next act in Hillary Clinton's never-ending tragicomedy of errors. For one thing, the notion that pouring millions of big-donor dollars into politics is what the country needs is proof-positive that Hillary and her clique still haven't learned a thing from their resounding defeat. The long-held progressive critique of Super PACs-that they're vehicles for corruption and the erosion of American democracy by a loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires-has become a super-majoritarian opinion held by voters across the partisan and ideological divide. But if there's a team of well-connected crackpot realists skilled at misreading the mood of the electorate better than … [Read more...] about Tone-Deaf Hillary Clinton Forms Super PAC in Order to Become Part of the Resistance
Bill Shine Fired Me, Now Im Ready to Defend Him
Bill Shine was one of the people who forced me out of my job of 20 years at Fox News. Despite that, I'm convinced that he was not an enabler of sexual harassment, but a victim. We worked together for many years, with Bill heading programming and me running editorial at FoxNews.com for the last decade, and I was one of many people close to Roger Ailes forced from the company in his wake. Bill and I were friendly, but not really friends. A toxic atmosphere? A common refrain among talking heads is that senior Fox executives "must have known" about "rampant" sexual misconduct. It's easy to believe, but it's wrong. I obviously can't speak for every employee or know what happened in every closed office, but the overall Fox environment was professional. In nearly two decades managing many Fox employees, I can count on one hand the number of harassment claims filed in my division, and I'm convinced they were all handled well. Have you seen any serious reporting about the facts behind the many … [Read more...] about Bill Shine Fired Me, Now Im Ready to Defend Him
Ghoulish: Australian Company Turns IVF Embryos Into Jewelry
The Australian parenting blog Kidspot highlighted Baby Bee Hummingbirds, an enterprise started by Amy McGlade in 2014. McGlade's company reportedly has made "over 4000 pieces of jewelry using breastmilk, placenta, hair, ashes, or cord stumps - including 50 made with embryos." The blog post featured a couple in New South Wales who didn't know what to do with the embryos that remained after undergoing IVF treatment that led to the birth of their twins. The couple rightly considered them to be their babies, but "donation wasn't an option, the annual storage fee was an added financial strain, and disposing of them unimaginable." The mother now carries "seven embryos in her heart-shaped pendant worn close to her heart, always." She underlined that "when we completed our family, it wasn't in my heart to destroy them. Now they are forever with me in a beautiful keepsake." "Except her jewelry 'babies' are dead," Wesley J. Smith pointed out in a Thursday post on National Review Online, since … [Read more...] about Ghoulish: Australian Company Turns IVF Embryos Into Jewelry
The World Doesnt Need a Breitbart of the Left
Elizabeth Spiers - founding editor of Gawker and former editor-in-chief of the New York Observer - is seeking funding for a new media venture, billed as the 'Breitbart of the left', Scott Perlberg of Buzzfeed reports. That's a really terrible idea for a lot of reasons. Spiers, whose attempts to revive the Observer under Jared Kushner's ownership fell short, is reportedly working with former colleagues to pitch the new website to potential investors. While the Buzzfeed report takes care to note that "the creation of the new property isn't yet a sure thing," Spiers seemed to confirm the story in a cryptic tweet: "yes, but without the white supremacy and factually accurate." - Elizabeth Spiers (@espiers) May 3, 2017 This isn't the first time a media veteran has floated the idea for a liberal response to Breitbart: following the 2016 election, Clinton-scourge-turned-foot soldier David Brock told reporters he was seeking further funds to transform his left-wing advocacy website Shareblue … [Read more...] about The World Doesnt Need a Breitbart of the Left
Berkeley Said No to Ann Coulter But Yes to Radical Leftist Sunsara Taylor
The University of California, Berkeley essentially barred Ann Coulter from speaking on campus at the end of April; but just over a week later, an admitted Communist will be hosting an event on campus, who's asserts it's "right…to drive fascists off campus," as the sponsor put it. Sunsara Taylor of "Refuse Fascism," who is also a writer for the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA's Revolution publication, will be speaking on Thursday at Berkeley's Hearst Field Annex. Her publication's Twitter account advertised the "drive fascists off campus" theme of the planned lecture. "The Battle for Berkeley," a talk and challenge to debate by @SunsaraTaylor Thurs May 4 6 pm #FascistFreeBerkeley https://t.co/ixUHER47lA pic.twitter.com/UykElmQs5Y - revcom.us/Revolution (@tuneintorevcom) May 3, 2017 An e-mail advertising the radical leftist's event also disclosed her argument about the now-cancelled Coulter lecture: "The issue is not 'free speech.' the issue is fascism being imposed on … [Read more...] about Berkeley Said No to Ann Coulter But Yes to Radical Leftist Sunsara Taylor
A New Conservative TV Network Could be Amazing – But Its Probably Not Happening
With this week's executive shakeup, the chaos at the mighty Fox News Channel shows no sign of ebbing. Monday, reports indicated that even Sean Hannity, their last prime time host from the Roger Ailes era, may be gone from the network by the end of the week. We here at Mediaite even reported that he may end up at brand-new conservative network being contemplated with the intention to directly compete with Fox News. I am highly skeptical that such a venture will ever really happen, or be remotely successful if it does. I say this as someone who has actually long advocated for a real conservative alternative for Fox News because I have always thought their ratings-driven brand of "convenient conservatism" was not to be trusted ("Trumpsanity" certainly vindicated my suspicions) and left open a niche for a take on the news of the day based on "principled conservatism." Even with the possibility of having Bill O'Reilly and Hannity available to build such a network around, however, I now … [Read more...] about A New Conservative TV Network Could be Amazing – But Its Probably Not Happening
Blame Criminal Defense Attorneys For Paving The Way For Trump Media Attacks
It probably goes without saying that most criminal defense attorneys are going to lean left politically. Doing battle with the government on a daily basis and even being subjected to regular disparagement for defending often unsavory and frightening defendants, is hardly a recipe for conservative activism. The RNC even attacked Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine for some of the clients he has represented and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers issued a letter condemning many of Donald Trump's public statements. In fact, I would shocked if any high profile criminal defense attorneys are registered Republicans. So it is with this background that I point a finger of blame squarely at many of the highest profile defense attorneys for ushering in the era of media attacks brought to us courtesy of Donald Trump. One brief stop at the mirror and these attorneys would quickly realize that Trump simply ripped a page from their playbook with his virulent and mostly unfounded … [Read more...] about Blame Criminal Defense Attorneys For Paving The Way For Trump Media Attacks
Fox News Ad Battle Gets Uglier; CNNs Rick Sanchez Called a
CNN's Rick Sanchez said "you lie!" (seriously, he said that) - since his network and all the others did cover the protests. He also played a clip of Bill O'Reilly saying CNN covered the protests. But Fox News is sticking to their guns, and WashPost is defending the ad buy. What? (Updated, with comment from FOX) Every network defended their coverage today, and TVNewser has a rundown of those defenses, plus this from Michael Tammero, VP of Marketing for FNC. "Generally speaking, it's fair to say that from the tea party movement … to Acorn … to the march on 9/12, the networks either ignored the story, marginalized it or misrepresented the significance of it altogether." Oh okay. So in Fox News' opinion their competition didn't cover the protests (or ACORN or the movement as a whole) in a way that they approved of. It is the opinion of Fox News (not fact, mind you) that the networks "missed" the story. This clears it up, and the ad makes sense. It's not "fair and balanced" by … [Read more...] about Fox News Ad Battle Gets Uglier; CNNs Rick Sanchez Called a
Flashback: The White House Criticizing News Networks Is Old Hat
For all the talk about President Obama's White House squaring off against Fox News, it's easy to forget that it is essentially the job of any White House Press Secretary to mitigate the media's handling of the administration and "work the refs" - that is, complain a bit about bias or unfairness in the hopes that next time, they'll cut you a bit of slack. We're seeing it now, but let's remember that we've been here before, in the not so distant past, but on the other side of the aisle: President George W. Bush routinely called out NBC and MSNBC for failing to differentiate between "news" and "opinion." On May 20th, 2008, Bush's Press Secretary Dana Perino fielded a question from Fox News about "the back-and-forth between you guys [the White House] and NBC News" about the semantic issue of calling battles in Iraq a "civil war." Perino, in proto-Robert Gibbs fashion, responded by stating, "We have not heard back from them on that specific matter. We anxiously await any response that we … [Read more...] about Flashback: The White House Criticizing News Networks Is Old Hat
The Winners And Losers Of The Climategate Email Hack
You've no doubt heard the story by now: hackers recently got hold of a bunch of emails from some climate scientists and the University of Anglia. So now some have decided these emails are the smoking gun to some grand global warming conspiracy, cooked up just for sport. And the controversy broke just in time for the Copenhagen summit! So who are the Winners and Losers of the Climategate scuttlebutt? LOSER Copenhagen Reps, put on the defense in the wake of the pseudo-scandal. No, Climategate probably won't derail an international resolution at the U.N. climate change summit, but the controversy has certainly sullied the positive image of the event. Now world leaders and scientists are forced to defend the evidence of global warming instead of focusing on efforts to curb the trend. WINNER Producers and pundits, because the climate change conspiracy angle is super-talky and easily digested, which means it's made for cable. And the timing couldn't be better! As reporters await actual news … [Read more...] about The Winners And Losers Of The Climategate Email Hack
Bill OReilly Defends Against Critics Of Fox News Coverage Of Haiti
The situation in Haiti has had an interesting effect on US cable news programming: the opinion-based programming that typically dominates the ratings suddenly feels less significant with video of bleeding children trapped under rubble are getting broadcast. As such, the past week has seen more news than opinion on most news outlets. But the partisan detractors have not taken a break, and predictably, Fox News has received criticism for its coverage in Haiti. Last night, Bill O'Reilly pushed back. While Fox News hasn't had as comprehensive coverage in Haiti as CNN, they have had just as stellar reportage, led by reporter Steve Harrigan, who has been on the scene from the earliest moments. Harrigan's approach has been one of dispassionate professionalism, a welcome and stark difference from the approach from others. And on the rare occasions where opinions have seeped into the news coverage (as when Shepard Smith criticized Pat Robertson's blaming the earthquake on Haitian's "pact to … [Read more...] about Bill OReilly Defends Against Critics Of Fox News Coverage Of Haiti
Daily Beasts Top 25 Left-Wing Journalists: Redefining Journalism, One Comedian at a Time
After releasing a pretty inclusive list of the Top 25 Right-Wing Journalists in America, Daily Beast columnist Tunku Varadarajan took on the other half of the aisle, putting together a list of the most powerful and influential American liberals. In many ways, The Top 25 Left-Wing Journalists list is much more eclectic than it's conservative counterpart, and includes a much larger number of personalities that toe the line between entertainers/commentators and journalists- many, in fact, that are solidly in the entertainment or commentary camp. Preempting the criticism that many of these individuals - most notably Daily Show host Jon Stewart, who holds the top spot - are not journalists, Varadarajan presents his own definition of "journalist": "anyone whose primary vocation is to supply, edit, host, or curate information, news reporting, criticism, or opinion." A healthy base-covering word salad, but does this mean that anyone whose job it is to "host" "information" (Alex Trebek) or … [Read more...] about Daily Beasts Top 25 Left-Wing Journalists: Redefining Journalism, One Comedian at a Time
Bill Simmons Now Is Going to Lead Celtics Cheers From Twitter
THE SQUAD 66 AWARD FOR "BEST CROWD-RELATED IDEA THAT COULD POTENTIALLY CHANGE THE WAY WE WATCH GAMES" When LeBron shot his first set of free throws during Game 3 of the Boston series, I was disappointed that the Boston crowd didn't chant either "You're a fa-ker! You're a fa-ker!" (to tweak him about his injured elbow) or "You're gonna leave! You're gonna leave!" That's when I realized something: Thanks to Twitter, we could mobilize crowd chants almost to the minute during playoff games. For instance, let's say someone created a Twitter account called @CelticsChants (just for fun, I did it) and became the go-to chanting coordinator during games. Before Game 3, I post the tweet, "Chant for first LeBron FTs: 'You're a fa-ker! You're a fa-ker!'" Then, during garbage time, I post another one: "If LBJ goes to line again, chant, 'You're gonna leave! You're gonna leave!'" Even if 500 people at the game were following that account, wouldn't that be enough fans to get those chants rolling so … [Read more...] about Bill Simmons Now Is Going to Lead Celtics Cheers From Twitter
Kathleen Parkers Frilly, Giggly, Blushy, Girly President (and Stupid, Sexist, Tired, Eye-Roll of a Column)
I know Glynnis already wrote about it, but I'm so irritated by Kathleen Parker's column cocking her pretty little head and wondering if Obama's girlishness was making him an awful, terrible president that I have to add my two cents. [PAUSE TO BONK HEAD AGAINST WALL.] Glynnis wrote, "MoDo called, she wants her 2008 column back" - ha, well played. Me, I just can't believe ANY of these silly, sexists tropes are STILL getting into print from marquee columnists - marquee columnists who just scored primetime shows on CNN no less! Two years ago - June 2008 - the press was still grappling with how Hillary Clinton had been portrayed in the press. Sarah Palin was still two months away, but mainstream figures were only just admitting that there *may* have been some sexism in the coverage of the first female contender for a presidential nomination. It took Katie Couric saying so in June 2008 to shake up the media enough to wonder, gee, are those dames nattering like a first wife outside probate … [Read more...] about Kathleen Parkers Frilly, Giggly, Blushy, Girly President (and Stupid, Sexist, Tired, Eye-Roll of a Column)
Newly Leaked Memo Over Global Warming Raises Questions About Bill Sammons Future At FNC
The conventional wisdom from many TV pundits on the latest info dump from WikiLeaks was that, while they were potentially embarrassing, there was mostly nothing that people didn't already know. The same can be said of "FoxLeaks," the title given by Media Matters to a recent release of leaked internal memos from Fox News Washington managing editor Bill Sammon to staffers. Last week's published memo demonstrated how he directed coverage of the health care debate; today, leaked memo focused on the Global Warming debate. Get ready…he wanted it to reported with skepticism. Shocking! The e-mail was reportedly sent on December 8, 15 minutes after Wendell Goler had gone on air and reported the findings that the years 2000-2009 had been the warmest decade on record. In the memo, Sammon stresses that on-air personalities should make a point of mentioning the criticisms of Global Warming research like the (heavily promoted on Fox) Climategate scandal. From Media Matters: "From: Sammon, … [Read more...] about Newly Leaked Memo Over Global Warming Raises Questions About Bill Sammons Future At FNC
