And the lying liars get a shout out from their sponsor!
From The Guardian’s live blog:
Russia’s foreign minister praised Fox News for its coverage of the war in Ukraine. During an in-studio appearance on the Russian state-controlled RT network, Sergei Lavrov, said: “We know the manners and the tricks that are being used by the western countries to manipulate media… If you take the United States, only Fox News is trying to present some alternative point of view.”
“Acting president”? What the fuck is that? This guy is as coherent as Individual-ONE – unless it is something about a translation issue.
He’s referring to when Trump got kicked off Twitter for posting covid misinformation. I think.
um, no, @realIndividual-ONE got booted off twitter for the incitements he posted on 1/6/21. But he was never “acting president” – he was president-elect at one time and lame-duck at another but never “acting president”, which can only happen during certain intervals as presribed by 25A and could not apply to him.
Right, sorry, misremembered the cause of the Twitter banhammer. Nonetheless, I think “acting president” here is intended as “sitting president” by someone whose first language isn’t English.
Anyway, this is just more proof that Fox News, the station of choice for self-styled patriots, those neighbors who probably wave the biggest American flags and have Trump and American flags pasted all over their cars and trucks, is just a propaganda outlet for Russian misinformation.
I’ve said this in other thread, maybe even in this thread, but I’m gobsmacked that the most popular cable news station is essentially Tokyo Rose at this point.
He also never acted like a President either.
As I said in another threat (with reference to an OAN propagandist):
Is there a limit to what we will put up with when we’re in an active war against an enemy who is shelling civilians and destroying an entire country that they invaded? It seems that some in the media are simply repeating Russian propaganda verbatim. Do we just let them do/say whatever they want in the name of the Free Press?
Are there limits to allowing enemy propaganda and lies to be broadcast during a war? I know that there has been no formal declaration of war between the US and Russia… but still. Are there limits to what we will put up with in terms of lying bullshit propaganda from an enemy nation being spewed to the public by American propagandists for Russia?
I think an objective view of Biden’s approach to Ukraine would be – at worst – that he’s been handling it … okay. I might argue that he’s been handling it wisely, deftly, in an appropriately circumspect manner, and doing a reasonably good job of taking the US along with him.
Aside from the cave-dwelling, hyper-partisan troglodytes, nobody in about 60% of the country thinks he’s doing a lousy job at this unimaginably perilous situation with the stakes – literally – as high as stakes ever get.
Which – if you think about it – leaves people like Tuckyo Rose and his ilk very little to use as propaganda (read: political weaponry in advance of coming elections) except to purely humanize and overtly side with … Putin.
In which case, you have Biden doing a good job of the absolutely wrong thing.
Which, of course, is crazy talk, unAmerican, unRepublican (old school Repubs – now on the Endangered Species List) and has the overwhelmingly likelihood of proving fatal to large numbers of Ukrainians.
At least.
For now.
I’m going to say no. They are literally repeating Putin’s lies straight up, so that seems about as far as you could go.
They’re selling red meat to people who hate their fellow countrymen. Foreigners are OK now.
There is a look of pure contempt that is the goal of all the hosts when a D or a liberal or the potus is mentioned. The audience wants to see it so they give it to them.
This link explains why I am disgusted by Fox News and the other Republican Putin-loving useful idiots:
Love this quote about Madison Cawthorn:
That Cawthorn is an imbecile of epic proportions is not up for debate. Even people who voted for him must be thinking, “Man alive, this guy is a moron!” There are entry-level Roombas with higher IQs. If you handed Cawthorn a Sudoku, he would try to solve it by blasting it with an AR-15: “Keep that transgender, critical race, feminist voodoo math puzzle away from me!”
Of course there is.
But we’re not in an active war.
So there is nothing illegal going on. Despicable, yes. But under the law they’re doing nothing wrong.
I didn’t say anything was illegal. But will we continue to put up with it?
Who is “we”? And what is the alternative to “putting up with it”?
I don’t think “we” are putting up with anything. Otherwise we wouldn’t be griping about it, which is the extent of what we can do.
Furthermore, you ignored that your premise is flawed. We aren’t at war.
“we” is the public.
“putting up with it” is continuing to give Fox News eyeballs and clicks.
We’re in a proxy war. So far.
My question is: In a situation that is technically legal, how much can the fig leaf of “free speech” be used to damage the country? If we find that Tucker Carlson is getting cash payments directly from the Kremlin, do we just shrug and go “whatever”?
I think the only way to shut up FOX is to have sponsors pull their products. But that takes backbone.
If that was done though, FOX would go hat in hand to their audience that wants to be lied to, and I’m sure they would.
I doubt anyone here is giving them eyeballs and clicks. “They” are. As far as how long they’ll put up with it? They’re idiots and their loyalty is to their ideologues, not their country or neighbors. So I’m guessing they will forever.
My only hope is that “they” shrink over time until Fox, OAN, etc. are no longer sustainable. Spreading the word about the disinformation and publicly shaming them us what we’re doing, and hopefully that will help.
That hypothetical would mean Carlson is potentially guilty of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which is indeed illegal.
They are supported by the cable companies. Cable consumers need to have a union and require they not have to pay for fox.
Thanks for the thoughtful responses. My brain is getting over-stimulated lately.