Please watch this fascinating series (part one and part two) by Australian television on the rank cynicism of Rupert Murdoch and FOX News.
Under his leadership, FOX turned into a propaganda machine for Trump. Its leading correspondents (Sean Hannity and Judge Jeanine) joined his rallies, urged people to vote for him. They ceased to be journalists.
The two parts are gripping and well worth watching. There are pending lawsuits against FOX, Rudy Guiliani, and Sidney Powell for slandering Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, another voting machine used only in Los Angeles.
Powell and Guiliani both said numerous times that the voting systems were used to hack the vote and steal the election. Powell has since said that her claims were so ridiculous that no one took them seriously.
A must watch.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Re “(Sean Hannity and Judge Jeanine) . . . They ceased to be journalists.”
Did they ever start? Just because you appear on a TV show with the word “news” in its title, doesn’t make you a journalist.
Even on left leaning news media many have ceased to be actual journalists. They have become “mouthpieces” for a political slant. Anderson Cooper and Chris Wallace have managed to retain some integrity in “the industry”. I want real news from both sides….I’m tired of “spin” and the constant gaslighting.
Very true.
But to understand this, one has to peruse the reports of news media outside the US.
News consumers within the US live largely in one of two bubbles.
The fact that an Australian news organization is reporting on the lies of Fox is not just due to the fact that Murdoch is originally from Australia.
A large part of the bias from both sides is “bias through omission.”
What is not reported by both right and left leaning media in the US is often just as important as what is reported — though the omissions are obviously different in the different cases.
A good example of omission by both right and left media is the lack of reporting on — and almost complete lack of questions about — The whole Jeffrey Epstein affair.
It’s almost as if the whole thing is radioactive.
It seems to be that Australian press still knows how to do some investigative journalism unlike so much of the press here. Other than Jeffrey Epstein, when was the last time the American press took a critical look at any of our billionaires?
I’d hesitate to call the reporting on Epstein “taking a critical look”.
More of a quick glance , followed by a quite purposeful look away.
There is a profound lack of curiosity about the whole affair, particularly about where Epstein got his money, who his clients were and why they have effectively been allowed to “skate”, why Epstein got a sweetheart deal to begin with and why, other than Jacques Brunnell (who, like Epstein also supposedly committed suicide in jail) Ghislaine Maxwell is the only one to have been prosecuted (Epstein’s sex trafficking clients have gone Scott free).
If this is what passes for “investigative reporting” we are doomed.
The right MSM makes an accurate statement and then embellishes with flat out lies and/or worse, conspiracy theories. The left MSM makes an accurate statement and them omits large parts of the story to create the spin they want their viewers to believe….lying by omission. Both are dangerous and toxic to the public. It turns off centrists (rt and lt) and riles up the crazy polar ends of each side. It’s no wonder why no one can seem to get along or get anything done.
Julie Brown of the Miami Herald is the only true investigative reporter on the Epstein affair.
Other that her, the silence from American mainstream media has been deafening.
I wonder where the Epstein tapes are? He had cameras in his mansions, recording everything. The FBI confiscated the tapes.
LisaM
I agree with your general characterization — Lies by right vs omissions by left, although there is some overlap.
As I indicated above, sometimes both right and left avoid stories ( like the Epstein one) like the plague. I find those cases most curious of all. Some might call me a conspiracy theorist, but it is almost as if some “one” has told them to stay away from the story.
Activists (both sides)are the problem….along with the Stink tanks. They are mainly funded with private $$$$ along with some fed funds, giving the impression that they are true government entities/agencies. Those who control the language, control the “spin”…..and that’s NOT a conspiracy theory.
Yes, Diane
Not only has the FbI mentioned the computer hard drives, but Virginia Giuffre and other Epstein victims have testified under oath about the existence of rooms and even entire buildings at his residences filled with surveillance equipment.
Where are the presumed tapes and hard drives and what do they show? Or more precisely, whom do they incriminate?
Why is no mainstream media outlet asking obvious questions about this, especially considering the subject?
Correction: Epstein’s coconspirator was Jean-luc Brunel, not “Jacques Brunnell”
Definitely never were journalists. Hannity has always been a talk show host (first radio, now television), and Pirro is a prosecutor who for some reason yells on tv.
FOX did nothing different than what The National Enquirer did to boost DT in the 80’s. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous>Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams. Don the Con would make his where abouts known so that the paparazzi with their cameras were ready to roll. Tabloid TV and Tabloid Journalism at its best. Smoke and mirrors for a small minded, narcissistic man behind the curtain who needed/needs constant ego stroking and also makes those at the top a lot of the Capitalistic food chain a lot of money in the process.
Trump also pretended to be his own PR agent. He used to call NYC gossip columnists to tell them where he had been (Studio 54? 21 Club?) and which hot babe he escorted. His ego needs constant stroking. That’s why he keeps The Big Lie going. He cannot admit that he lost.
“It’s time to finally and completely smash the left’s corrupt education cartel. Our children are captives to unhinged, Marxist educators.”
–Stable Genius and Education and Political Science Theorist Donald J. Trump at yesterday’s Trumpanzee Rally in Arizona.
Yup that was my experience. Public education in America was just teeming with Marxist ideas–like the quiet fire drill and cheerleader outfits. Oh, wait. Nothing about public school had any connection whatsoever to Marxism.
Of course, Donald Trump wouldn’t know Karl Marx from Groucho.
“Marxist educators”
How can one be a “Marxist educator” when one hasn’t read any Marx? I’d bet the 99% of all public school teachers have never read any Marx.
Question of the day for our readers: How many of you have read any Marx?
If there ever was a group that were supposed “Marxist educators” I’d suspect that the readers here would be it.
To get the ball rolling. . .
I have not read any Marx other than an occasional quote.
Thank you, Duane, for making this important point. How many of these folks would have any notion what key Marxist concepts like, say, the labor theory of value or surplus value or commodity fetishism or alienation. I suspect that some tiny number of K-12 teachers have read The Communist Manifesto because it is relatively short but that vanishingly few, and those mostly high-school history teachers with master’s degrees, have read even part of Capital.
I have a recommendation for making up that deficit:
Shapiro, Stephen. How to Read Marx’s Capital. How to Read Theory Series. London: Pluto Press, 2008.
Same. And I teach history.
That’s what right-wingers do. They make up bogeymen. Remember the Satanist teenagers scare that had police departments all riled up in the 1990s? Remember, before that, in the 1960s and ’70s, the scares about LSD–that people were jumping out of windows under its influence or that it caused chromosome damage? Before that, the Red Scare, and before that, Reefer Madness? ZERO basis in fact. Reagan’s Cadillac Queens. Streets teeming with Willie Hortons. Socialist educators. Caravans of rapists and murderers organized by George Soros. Ped pizza. CRT. Furbies. The Big Steal.
Right-wing provocateurs make this stuff up, and their audience is dumb enough to believe it.
cx: Pedo Pizza
How can one be a “Marxist educator” when one hasn’t read any Marx”
Well. How about by watching his movies?
Fun way to make heads explode; whenever uses Marxist as an intended slur, respond like I do: “Whatever you may think of Marx and things done in his name, we have to be honest and admit the intent of the Communist Manifesto is pretty much the same as Luke 6:31.” Drives ’em nuts.
Just once, at least, Duane, SomeDAM, when Trump makes a remark about Marx, I would love to have a reporter ask him, “And which of Marx’s concepts do you think objectionable and why?” Or when he makes a remark about Socialism, I would love to have a reporter ask him what Socialism is. And in both cases, not accept his evasions, but continue with follow-ups. Trump talks a lot about how his favorite book is the Bible. Well, tell us which passages from which books of the Bible are particularly significant to you, Mr. Trump. And when he says that it’s personal and he doesn’t want to talk about it, I would like to hear a reporter say, just once, “Well, Mr. Trump. The truth is that it sounds as though you really don’t know the Bible at all and are just bullshitting when you say that it is your favorite book. Is that true, Mr. Trump? Are you just bullshitting?”
It’s the same with Trump’s criminality. Everybody knows. No, he hasn’t a freaking clue what a Marxist or a Socialist is. No, he is not religious. No, he has not read the Bible. In fact, he has not read much of anything, ever. Yes, he led several parallel attempts at overthrowing the 2020 election. Yes, he colluded with groups trying to overthrow the United States. Yes, for decades, he laundered money for Russian mobsters. Yes, as President, he did major payback to his handler, Putin, for interfering to get Trump elected in 2016. EVERYBODY KNOWS.
Mr. Garland. EVERYBODY KNOWS. And if you don’t act, then forget it–the whole idea of equal justice under law, of the rule of law, is a joke, and you, as head of the Department of Justice, no less, have made that completely clear.
Duane E Swacker
You don’t have to have read Marx or Adam Smith to know the basics of either system . The problem is a significant portion of the American public including teachers are clueless about both . While perhaps one can forgive them for not understanding Socialism or its final evolution to Communism. Their ignorance about Capitalism explains an awful lot about our current state of affairs. Wake me when you find a free market.
I google earthed “the free market” once a while back and this is what it flew to:
13, 33 14.99 North and 29 29 42.44 West. Pretty hard to drive there.
I’d love to hear someone ask people like Trump “Which Marx movie do you have a problem with?”
My landlord who lived upstairs from me when I was in college went to free markets every weekend. His apartment was just jam-packed with all the useless junk he bought.
Another Big Lie is that it is over.
The GOPee has a back-burner Schedule F. They plan on Purging 1,000’s of Civil Servants. Filling career posts with loyalists. Education/EPA/IRS/FBI/NSA/State/Pentagon.
Big Money is funding their vetted databases. America First policies will be installed.
Legal challenges/defenses are already strategized. Judiciary Support Arranged In Advance. There Is A New Inner Circle. They are out for Revenge.
Axios.Com
https://www.axios.com/2022/07/23/donald-trump-news-schedule-f-executive-order
Well, that was depressing. I guess I’m happy that former Foxerattchiks see the light, but the fact that they can’t see their role in the lineage of creating what they condemn. And they got to be millionaires along the way. Does anyone doubt that once the Idiot is out of the picture, they will fall in line to promote the agenda he helped enable? Ralph Peters spread some of the most vile lies about President Obama when he was a Fox contributor. Gretchen Carlson has very, very little credibility with me. Michelle Bachmann’s former babysitter parroted every lie; please recall SNL started parodying her when she was on the network.
Or my almost literal neighbors from Strongsville, OH? The woman who said, about why she was a supporter of the Idiot, “Because I love him and he’s real”, needs to understand that he wouldn’t be caught dead on opposite sides in an airplane with her, much less any closer. As the documentary makes quite clear. Again, I’ll take it. And while the people who accept and drive the big lie have no credibility whatsoever, the people like the ones on the video don’t have much more.
Living in Flor-uh-duh, I encounter this all the time, Greg. I meet someone, we chat, and a few sentences in, he or she says something like, “But of course it’s the whites that are discriminated against. The government gives the blacks everything” or “They ain’t coming near me with one of them vaccines. Lord only knows what all they put in them.” or some such imbecility.
The folks who say “They ain’t coming near me with one of them vaccines” would never even stop to chat with me because I still wear a mask indoors in public. But I can’t say as I am disappointed, because 1) the chance they might have covid is higher than if they were vaccinated and 2) It’s not worth expending a single microsecond arguing with a science ignoramus.
And these days, I am one of the few in my area who still does wear a mask, even though the test positivity rate in my state is now over 10%. Everyone seems to think that the pandemic is over.
I also wear a mask in public still. Almost alone in this. The genius who made that vaccine comment to me was my neighbor’s father. He also said, “I don’t need no vaccine. I gotta immune system.” So, he was obviously a highly qualified medical professional.
And a note for any science ignoramus: I’m not interested in arguing here, either.
You can take your “argument,” and put it where the sun don’t shine.
“I don’t need no brain. I got Fox News”
Hannity is one of the worst putrid snakes on the far right wing side, he’s been spewing his filth for years on WABC and Fox. Oh what a surprise, he’s a Trump supporter; Trump the worst pseudo-president ever, a compulsive liar on a titanic scale with now respect for the laws or the Constitution. Hannity is a shameless far right propagandist, there is really nobody on the left who is as duplicitous and depraved as Hannity. No comparison.
correction: no respect instead of now respect, whoops.
Carlson as well. Utterly depraved. And privileged.
This is great, Diane! Thanks for sharing it!
I love the opening comment, “Warning: this program contains coarse language.” I should adopt that for my blog. If I were rich and famous, I should have someone follow me out in public, six feet ahead, saying, “Warning, this program contains coarse language.”
It would be disingenuous of me to say that I was forced to start expressing myself in coarse language by the emergence of POS Donald Trump on the national political scene. Of course, it is true that one cannot accurately or appropriately discuss the likes of Trump and Guiliani and Miller without using coarse language, but the fact is that I relished coarse language long before these bozos. In fact, I have a little collection of books on how to curse in dozens of languages, and I treasure these and did long before that blin monstrosity Jabba the Trump slithered into what he was to turn into the Offal Office in the much, much Whiter House.
And no, the expression “POS Donald Trump” is redundant only in one direction. Yes, “Donald Trump” implies “POS,” but “POS” doesn’t imply “Donald Trump.” It might refer to something on your lawn, to Stephen Miller, to Greg Abbott, Matt Gaetz, or to Tzar Vlad the Great-in-His-Own-Mind, for example.
Change of topic but perhaps not.
The other day Lee Zeldin the Republican Trumpanzee seditionist running for Governor of NY gets assaulted at a rural campaign rally. The rally outside a VFW hall. He was assaulted with a deadly weapon by an Iraq War Veteran. The assailant gets released without any bail.
Well that is the story line in any event and that is the coverage in the media .
If James Okeefe was not the Cameraman he could have wrote the script .
Zeldin running a campaign all about rising crime was in the middle of his speech about out of control crime and the Democrats bail reform program responsible for it all. When this 42 year old Iraq Vet. (Vets hat on and all) approaches him with a brass knuckle in his hand shaped like cats ears threatening to “end him”. Zeldin grabs his arm ,his female Vet running mate helps subdue him with the help of the crowd . And the completely drunk vet gets hauled off by Police as Zeldin goes on with his speech about out of control crime . Within minuets the entire Right Wing propaganda circuit is taking the story of soft on crime Democrats Nation wide . Why Zeldin could not ask for a better script if he wrote it .
Down on his luck 42 year old Iraq war vet with no criminal record, who relatively recently lost his wife and has two kids, gets so plastered that he doesn’t even remember attacking a Gubernatorial candidate. He don’t remember attacking anyone else in his life because there is no record or indication he has. And of course when one gets plastered going to a Zeldin campaign stop is a high priority. The perfect candidate to be released on probation with the stipulation he enters a substance abuse program.
But this was threatened or attempted murder and Zeldin is lucky to be alive !. Therefore the ELECTED REPUBLICAN D.A. , CO CHAIR of the Zeldin Campaign charged him with a lesser offense that would not require cash bail and he was released with a court date .
Has anyone checked the assailants bank account and when will he be offered a job on the campaign .
Now I could be wrong but Antifa sympathizers don’t tend to enlist. Although I know a few who became lefties after their service. But there is no indication that this was the case.
It would be refreshing if the MSM took a little lesson from Fox. Who slanders first and asks questions later . At least ask the questions.
This could get interesting as Federal charges were just filed. I am going to speculate ,if there was a plan Federal Charges were not part of the plan for an assault that did not happen .
If you take the time to read the history of journalism in the US private sector you will learn that the news sources have almost always leaned one way or the other when it comes to politics.
Media bias in the US goes back to the 1800s. It’s just much worse today.
“Bias–an “attitude held towards a person or group that is not justified by the facts”–in U. S. media has long been present. In recent decades, however, it has exploded and caused great harm, ratcheting up political polarization. Historians understand the need for avoiding bias in their works and can contribute important insights to the general public. Whether in this age of Facebook, Fox News, and “fake news” members of the public really care about facts and wish to reject bias and prioritize truth is another matter.”
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/180223
And there was an attempt to deal with media bias. That attempt was called the Fairness Doctrine.
President Ronald Reagan and the first Bush got rid of that.
“The fairness doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that fairly reflected differing viewpoints.”
Since fascists have to be free to spread their endless BIG LIES to fool the easiest fools to fool, they had to get rid of The Fairness Doctrine.
Jason Stanley: “Right. And my book identifies the various techniques that fascists tend to adopt, and shows how someone can be more fascist or less fascist in their politics. The key thing is that fascist politics is about identifying enemies, appealing to the in-group (usually the majority group), and smashing truth and replacing it with power.”
https://www.vox.com/2018/9/19/17847110/how-fascism-works-donald-trump-jason-stanley
“People always think they are going down under the greatest forces ever amassed by God.” –Robert Frost, “Letter to the Amherst Student”
I don’t have that quotation exactly verbatim, but it’s pretty close.
Yeah, throughout its history, from the very beginning and before it was a nation, there’s been a lot of one-sided and often false “journalism.” For example. William Randolph Hearst built the first completely vertically integrated business in the US. He owned timberlands, paper mills, and newspapers. When a couple guys invented a machine that could make high-quality paper out of hemp, which could be grown cheaply and quickly, Hearst started a campaign in his newspapers to discredit marijuana as something foisted upon the country by Mexicans and used by black men to seduce white women. He introduced the term “marijuana” in his papers, to give the product a foreign-sounding name, and he funded and threw his influence behind the campaign to create the forerunner to the DEA and the first scheduled substances list. So, Murdock-level disinformation is not new. Still, it’s just abominable that smarmy rich men like Lachlan will get in public and pretend that his hands aren’t filthy with what he does for a living–the destruction of truthfulness in journalism and of democracy and the abdication from the responsibility that journalism is supposed to have as the fourth estate.
Guess I was immoderate again. My response is in moderation.
From another part of the globe, “CPAC Goes to Israel” (Vox, July 23). Bannon’s twin, Matt Schlapp, was at the event, reportedly, employing apocalyptic language. JD Vance was there. The summary of the event suggests the messages, including the ones aimed at pushing Israel toward the hard driving capitalism of American libertarians, weren’t a good fit with the audience. The main attraction was a well-known basketball player.
Thanks! I watched both segments. Sidney Powell is the star. Nothing she says sounds remotely credible.
What a bunch of nutcases around Trump!!! Total wackos.
Yes, but those nutcases comprise about half of all US voters.
That’s much scarier than Trump, DeSantis or any other fascist wannabe.
In theory, at least, our laws can effectively “remove” someone like Trump from the political equation, but as long as there are millions of wacky voters, there will be a replacement who is just as bad or worse.
I’d say it’s a lost cause.
Theory, schmerry–let’s call the whole thing off. –Merrick Garland
and yes, SDP. Agreed.
Chance Encounters of the Legal Kind
With Garland, there’s a Chance
Who likes to watch the show
The hearings do entrance
The Chauncey Garland beau
That Garland likes to
Sidney Powell’s defense in the Dominion Voting System lawsuit against her is that no reasonable person would take her statements seriously. She right about that.
That is now called the FUXNEWS defense!
FOX News is FOXEd up.
Which means about 30 million American voters do take her seriously . .
So why make them in the first place?
To be clear, Hannity and Porto haven’t ceased to be journalists because they never were journalists.
A little off-topic, but there’s an interesting, new (2022) independent film that just appeared on Hulu, “The Hater.” The only “stars” in it are Bruce Dern (an excellent, Fox News-watching-grizzly-old-veteran), Nora Dunn & Melora Walters (she was in “Big Love,” “Pen15” & some Paul Thos. Anderson movies), but the lead & the cast are great & it’s a story w/an interesting angle & a few very surprising twists. &… it’s set in Texas. I found it both entertaining & thought-provoking, & recommend you check it out. Synopsis:
“After losing her job on a U.S. Senate Campaign, a liberal returns to her TX hometown to regroup. After learning that her childhood nemesis is running for state legislature, she creates a scheme to go undercover as his opponent on the Republican ticket.”
(Ha, ha–isn’t that what Joe Manchin & Kristen Sinema have done, but as Repubs on the DEMO ticket-? Not as fun in real life, tho.) Anyway, watch the movie if you can.