Fox, Trump And Ethics; Never The Twain Shall Meet
Fox News was having no part in televising the congressional hearings last week into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by trump supporters. The Tucker Carlsons of the frightening nest of lies that is Fox, tell us the hearings were a poorly veiled charade only to smear trump and to blame Republicans when the real culprits are antifa, Black Lives Matter and the radical left. No, the hearings will not be seen on Fox, although they can be viewed on Fox Business, which has just a teensy weensy number of viewers compared with Fox News Channel and its highly ethical, and utterly apolitical commentator, Tucker Carlson.
That is until the Fox execs saw the ratings and that more than 20 million people watched the first day of hearings on networks not called Fox News. The bean counters got to work and the decision was made that indeed, the hearings will be broadcast on Fox News because the American public has a right to see them and Fox heard the public and responded. The blasphemous thing about Fox is the company’s utter, abject absence of conscience.
Which brings me to the narcissistic, malevolent trump and the absurd reality that the more right wing Republicans learn about trump’s criminal attempts to take over the government, the more they genuflect to their leader. In the upside down logic of the right wing, the fact that the congressional panel is investigating is proof positive that it is nothing more than a political charade to get trump et al. Many Republicans say they aren’t even watching the hearings because they don’t trust the system to be fair. That’s like Yogi saying nobody goes to a restaurant anymore because it’s too crowded.
Which brings me to trump and his fulminations about the hearings. Members of his inner circle of advisors, including his daughter, all told trump that he lost the 2020 election and that there was no widespread voter fraud. His lies were discredited from here to the ends of the earth. So trump continues to headline rallies where he repeats that he would have won the election if not for widespread voter fraud. Trump knows and he continues repeating the big lie and he understands more than anyone that his continual assault on the electoral system is fodder for Putin and other totalitarians to tell the world that the U.S. is a corrupt undemocratic society and is in no place to criticize Russia. And just as corrupt and culpable and salacious are all the ghastly Republicans running for office around the nation, claiming that trump was robbed and that the electoral system is a sham. There is absolutely no question but that trump’s words literally put Vice President Pence’s life in danger as well as the lives of other members of congress as the rabble was crashing in on the Capitol. Trump nearly succeeded as he threatened Pence to reject the 2020 electoral college results or in hijacking the vice president out of Washington so that the result counting could be delayed, allowing trump time to declare martial law or worse.
And then there’s the money, always the money. Trump already has brought in more than $100 million for his phony legal fund to get to the bottom of non-existent voter fraud. And all of those right wing organizations continue to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars to support trump and his lies. Too many people and organizations owe their millions, their very survival to trump. To expect them to sacrifice it all in the name of honesty is asking them to commit political and economic suicide. It won’t happen.
The hearings are important even if many of the worst undesirables refuse to even listen. They are important if there is to be a prosecution of trump and they are important for the historical record. We cannot allow the Republicans to drag us into the hole they are in.
That hole is populated by an ever-changing, metastasis of hatred. The latest stagnation involves an intensified war on the LGBTQ+ community, whether it is the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida, labeling the LGBTQ+ community as “groomers” to be railroaded out of the schools and communities; the Proud Boys storming a Drag Queen Story Hour at a public library in California; or the U-Haul truck filled with armed Patriot Front members who were arrested on their way to riot at an Idaho Pride event. Fortunately, as the starving feral cat eats its babies, the GOP is locking the gates to keep out the Log Cabin Republicans, a loyal, hypocritical group of Republicans who happen to be gay and who were uninvited to the the Texas GOP Convention in Houston. The same story line applies to former Vice President Pence, who has been lauded for his great courage in withstanding trump’s crazed temper and threats in trying unsuccessfully to get Pence to reject the electoral college results at the 2022 session of Congress. Those lauders fail to remember the sycophant Pence whose only response to trump’s demands while in office that he bend over was to question, how far.
So in comes Pence, who parades his evangelicalism on his sleeve, and who has not missed the last five years of the annual Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual lovefest for social conservatives. Pence and has been warmly welcomed but no more, not since he rejected trump’s aggression. The former vice president was invited to the conference held last week in Nashville, Tenn., but decided not to attend, knowing he would get a milquetoast reception, at best, and booed off the stage, at worst. Poor Pence.
No tears should be shed for Pence or for the Log Cabin Republicans who love their tax cuts but take no positions on the GOP assaults on the gay community, the latest coming from the weird lawmaker from Georgia, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who claimed that trans men are causing the current tampon shortage. Speaking on her podcast, Greene repeated the transphobic rumor blaming the trans community.
“Men have taken over everything. They’re ‘women of the year’ in every category, in women’s categories. And the latest news is, there’s a shortage of tampons, and that’s probably because men are buying tampons,” Greene said on an episode of her podcast, “MTG Live.”
Reality check, the real reason for the tampon shortage is supply chain issues and consumer demand and not trans men.
While we’re on the subject of the lawmaker from Mars, most recently Greene bloviated about how unfair it was that the American public cannot see footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection by trump supporters. That does somehow contradict the fact that millions of Americans watched as the Jan. 6 uprising unfolded and hundreds of crazed insurrectionists broke through security barriers and crashed windows to plow into the Capitol building. Much of the footage along with videos not seen before were again shown and seen by 20 million people watching last week’s hearings by the House committee investigating the attempted coup.
The Georgia congresswoman was interviewed by Right Side Broadcasting on Monday and complained about why “there are lots of cameras, but you can’t see the video footage. I don’t know why you can’t.” With madness like the words of Greene, it’s no surprise that many Americans view the whole democratic process as madness.