In the Bubble with Fox and Some Friends

Just to resurrect the Fox Mushroom Farm notion for a bit, a recent survey suggests that the garbage news that the Fox Channel provides skews it's viewers more to the right, against climate change science, and pro-Trump. 

Not a shocker, there. Fox News has been in display as particularly problematic lately, regarding popular host Tucker Carlson, for instance, who is a real big hit with white supremacists for some reason, and Jeanine Pirro, who has been suspended from tv for another Saturday night after some extremely anti-Islamic comments. Also Laura "Sieg Heillo Kitty" Ingraham has been deeply suspect with regards to promoting the kind of replacement theory chanted at Charlottesville and which allegedly motivated the Christchurch shooter.  Fox also filters conspiracy theories from the fever swamps upwards to the mainstream, like promoting a Tweet from Qanon. 

Social media is often noted as a vector for radicalization, and this is both part of the strategies of such groups trucking in violence and disinfo, and part of the algorithms that control what people see online. Fox has actually been boycotting Twitter for some reason--and I have not missed them. 

I think people can be extremely online without becoming extremists. But I don't think they can be extremely fond of propagandists and do so. And it has never been more clear how much Fox is actually propaganda. 

What The Hell are You Doing? 3: CoNsErvAtIsM Edition

Reporter: Has the President ever denounced Steve King?

Sanders: He denounced him to me privately. pic.twitter.com/B5gq1bmX2q

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 11, 2019

I know Sarah Huckabee Sanders hates her job the way I hate touching the little wet bits of plate scrapings that end up stuck in the sink strainer when I do dishes. She doesn't address the press very much, and when she does, it seems a little hostile and she's pretty quick to say a lie. The above exchange isn't exactly a lie, though--it's just a deflection. But whew! Denouncing someone privately to a person whose job is to relay your message (and maybe try and make you look not-terrible) is not actually a "denunciation". An actual denunciation would be saying Steve King is a racist and what he says is not acceptable, right out loud where the people can hear. What Trump would have done if he privately let on to his press secretary that he would just rather Steve King not be so icky and embarrassing and whatnot, is a complaint. It's a wholly different, and in this case, less honorable tactic called "having it both ways". Trump would like to keep his racist cake and eat it, too.

The dishonesty of this barely touches the "infanticide" claim, though--which was made by several Republicans at CPAC and has now been repeated more than once by Sanders. (She also played about with the idea that Democrats hate Jews, which is also inflammatory and astounding.)

I do not know if the lies are the part of the job she hates, or if facing the press is the part of the job she hates, but I genuinely believe she could, if she cared to tell the truth, just do so and be fired, or fucking quit and see if someone else will let her lie to people who might not ask her annoying questions, as actual journalists do. Maybe she could teach a course in doublespeak at Liberty University or something. She just seems so unhappy, and I'm close to thinking she really damn well ought to be.