The About-Face: Moran on ABC’s Bubble

Terry Moran spent nearly three decades at ABC News. Last week he sat down with the hosts of The Fifth Column and said something most people inside the networks still won’t: [VIDEO]

Asked straight out whether ABC News is a liberal institution, Moran answered “Yes.” He didn’t blame individual bias so much as the absence of any real disagreement inside the building. “It’s because of lack of viewpoint diversity,” he said. “That was one of the problems in covering Trump. Nobody had voted for him.”

He described sending internal emails urging colleagues to cover Trump more fairly and getting quiet thank-yous from engineers and the occasional producer—people outside the on-air and senior editorial ranks. The bubble, he insisted, is real. Journalists who never encounter the worldview of the people who actually voted for Trump struggle to understand why those voters see someone like Stephen Miller as a defender of borders rather than a “world-class hater.”

The Repairman Calls Out Tucker Carlson

The laptop story keeps expanding.

First came Tucker Carlson’s long interview with Hunter Biden, in which Hunter said he has no recollection of dropping a laptop off at a Delaware repair shop. Then came Ben Shapiro’s sharp reaction, mocking the two men as “silver spoon rich kids” complaining about elites while floating contested claims about the laptop’s origins.

Now the man at the center of the original repair-shop story has answered.

On Thursday morning, John Paul Mac Isaac appeared on the PBD Podcast.

Watch here: [VIDEO]

Mac Isaac is the owner of the Wilmington shop where the water-damaged laptop was left in 2019.

The Fall of Scott Pelley: Old Guard vs. New Leadership at CBS News

Big changes are shaking up one of television’s most iconic news programs. Veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley was fired this week after a heated clash with new management. The story, covered sharply in this PBD Podcast video (“Bought His Own Hype”), highlights the tension between legacy journalists and the fresh direction CBS News is taking under Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss.

Here you can watch the clip from the PBD Podcast [VIDEO]

O'Reilly: Trump and reporter 'blew it' at NABJ convention

 

[VIDEO] I try to space these posts out when I do have time to post, but I have to share this.

Bill O'Reilly speaks with Chris Cuomo on NewsNation and as you probably could tell. He says Trump did himself no favors by coming to the NABJ convention in Chicago.

I have to say in 2016 I was on the phone with someone that seemed especially affected by race issues. He believed the media - or perhaps his only glance at the news if not that he deeply did any research which I doubt - that Trump was a racist. He went further than that and I'm not comfortable doing that, however, he went with the talking points about Trump in 2016.

He's likely not the only one that believes this. Now he probably would have a warped view of this. With that said I haven't spoken with him in years so only he knows. He probably would make this about the journalist here (ABC News' Rachael Scott) and never consider Trump's side.

However, O'Reilly is right. The other side will take the ammo from this and there is ammo here. The Vice President can look at this and stand one foot taller. 

The journalist may not have made herself look good by her questions here and Trump may not have helped himself here. Whether or not this matters during the 2024 race, we'll have to see.

When Conservatives don't agree

 Sometimes I forget that not everyone agrees with everything. And one reminder of that is that Ben Shapiro seems to have fired shots - well more shots - at his colleague Candace Owens from The Daily Wire.

Candace, if you feel that taking money from The Daily Wire somehow comes between you and God, by all means quit. https://t.co/qachKhAuHo

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 15, 2023

Candace Owens later took to Tucker's X/Twitter program to further discuss this. She was largely diplomatic in talking about any possible rift with Shapiro. She mentions how pro-Ukraine, pro-vax, or certainly pro-Israel Shapiro is. Although he has backed off of being pro-vax and I do recall has been heavily into the vax once it became available.

As someome who has never been vaxxed I will only say that Shapiro is entitled to his opinion as far as whether or not he thinks everyone should take that coronavirus vaccine. I would still say regardless it's your choice if you want to be vaxxed or not.

So anyway I will share Owens' appearance on Tucker on X/Twitter.

Bill O'Reilly interviewed by Tucker Carlson on X formerly known as Twitter....

 

[VIDEO] This actually dropped last nite during the GOP Presidential Debates which Donald Trump again didn't attend. The bits and pieces I have seen shows a chaotic debate where no one really stood out and it shows which candidate thought of as a threat for example a lot of back-and-forth with Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis & Vivek Ramaswany.

The best part of the debate is when the moderators attempted to play GOP "Survivor" and vote on who should drop out of this race and Gov. Ron DeSantis said that this would be disrespectful to his opponents. I know that the GOP candidates have been snappy towards each other but I respect DeSantis more for that. Just disappointed in his campaign.

Anyway I did a pivot didn't I?

Back to Tucker Carlson's interview with O'Reilly. It was an interesting discussion. O'Reilly talks a little about corporate politics at News Corp which he claimed to stay away from. He had some independence with the late honcho Roger Ailes and one Ailes left he knew his position was in trouble.

The parallel between O'Reilly and Tucker Carlson is that they both had the No. 1 rated show on cable news and both were cancelled by FOX News Channel. And worse still what helped tank O'Reilly and The O'Reilly Factor was allegations of sexual misconduct.

And while I haven't signed up I do like that O'Reilly like Tucker had moved from broadcast/cable news to their own thing on the internet. And the trend seems to have been growing since the 2000s the rise of independent media such as O'Reilly's No Spin News. Perhaps 24/7 cable news has had its day.

#Tucker ordered to cease & desist

I see there is another episode of Tucker on Twitter due tomorrow, Tuesday. And it was in the news today that Tucker Carlson's former employer - FOX News where he actually remains under contract - sent him a cease and desist letter. 

What's the game? Well he's breaching his contract by taking his act to Twitter. I've been seeing that he's expecting to stay off the airwaves (or be silenced) until 2025.

Next Episode of Tucker on Twitter coming Tuesday: Tucker’s response to the indictment of President Donald Trump

— Justin Wells (@justinbwells) June 11, 2023

#Tucker episode two & FOX News wants him to shut up

[VIDEO] Tim Pool on his Timcast IRL podcast discussed this recently.

As you may know even though Tucker Carlson had been yanked from his highly rated cable news program back in April he's still in fact under contract to FOX News Channel until 2025. And his new Twitter program is considered a breach of his contract by his former network. Of course who knows what deal - if he has one - that he struck with Elon Musk & Twitter.

Regardless perhaps Twitter could be considered a competing media outlet and Tucker was expected to sit out his remaining two years or so of his contact and shut up. I would love his deal to be able to sit down and do nothing for millions of dollars. 

However, I do miss his commentary and his programming. FOX News legit shot themselves in the foot with this. They were a network I would tune into and now I just keep my Apple TV on, who needs cable. I hardly watch it anymore, anyway other than wrestling.

#Tucker Carlson is back with Episode 1 of Tucker on Twitter

 He dropped this on Tuesday talking about the breaking of a dam in Ukraine which somehow is connected to a nuclear reaction which could meltdown as a result. And then of course an ongoing theme with Tucker since his departure from FOX News - and what a shame I have even less reason to watch them now - how the mainstream media lies to their audience. Perhaps even control how we think and how we see the world.

#Tucker will be back!

 He posted another video to YouTube on Tuesday and as he talks about free speech and how Twitter (owned by Elon Musk) has become a platform of free speech. And you heard it in that 2-plus minute video, Tucker is bringing back another version of his old FOX News program to twitter.

We’re back. pic.twitter.com/sG5t9gr60O

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) May 9, 2023

Can't wait to see what form that'll take. And I do wonder if this breached his contract with FOX which I understand runs through January 2025. He's still getting paid, however, this might violate a "non-compete" provision. Though he's not going to another media outlet, he's just going to social media.

Valuetainment makes $100 million dollar offer to #Tucker Carlson

 

[VIDEO] Patrick Bet David owns the operation and he's making quite a bet on Tucker Carlson who presumably is still under contract with FOX News who let him go last week. I'll share a tweet from P.B.D. and you see it on this clip above just to show exactly what he's offering Carlson who surely is plotting his next move.

Timcast IRL: FOX News loses nearly half of their audience since FIRING Tucker Carlson

 

[VIDEO] In this 21 minute video you see Tucker Carlson's first public statement since his last show this past Friday. As you know on Monday it was announced that FOX News and Tucker Carlson had parted ways. Many of us who are his loyal viewers were certainly expecting to see a new edition of his show on Monday.

Tucker didn't say much about his status or even why he's no longer with FOX News in this video on Twitter. It sounded more like one of his monologues on his show.

Red Eagle Politics: #Tucker fired from FOX News

 

[VIDEO] To be honest, I almost thought this was an April Fools joke.

Well April is almost over! Tucker Carlson is one of the hosts I enjoyed watching at FOX News when the WWE wasn't on. Now I don't know if I will be able to continue watching that network.

I can put FOX up there with CNN and MSNBC in the category of no reason to watch. I'm sure Tucker has enough of a following that he might do some independent media. Tucker also at one point ran this website known as The Daily Caller. Perhaps he'll do something similar now that he's out at FOX.

Perhaps the lawsuit that FOX settled recently regarding Dominion voting machines had something to do with this. Perhaps some of his January 6th stuff - I mean who knew about Ray Epps on that fateful day - caused a fear of lawsuits at FOX and they said Tucker got to go.

Who knows, however, if FOX represents establishment Republicans as MSNBC & CNN represents establishment Democrats what represents the populists. Who represents that hard right?

#Tucker: This open race hate should worry you

 

[VIDEO] Tucker Carlson on last nite's program discusses what he saw whenever he tunes into MSNBC, especially watching the program of Tiffany Cross. And he does primarily soundbites of Ms. Cross as opposed to the more well known Joi Reid from that network. He starts off telling the story of what happened in Rwanda in 1994 and the genocide stoked by the radio broadcasts taking place there.

How about a little balance today

 Rich Miller wrote about these "pink slime" papers in his syndicated column. I'd say give it a read, especially if you've actually seen one of these newspapers.

Daily Herald the big loser https://t.co/mBEVORMFdr

— Capitol Fax (@capitolfax) September 26, 2022

He would say in this the big loser is the Daily Herald since they had a hand in the publishing of these papers. Proft's "pink slime" rags had a contract with a printing house that was connected with the suburban Daily Herald newspaper. The Daily Herald's reputation took a hit once the connection was uncovered.

I guess the question I still have is will this affect the election in November...

Marathon Pundit discusses "pink slime" newspapers

John Ruberry makes reference to some newspapers sent to residents in some parts of the Chicago area published by a printer in association with the suburban Daily Herald. I somewhat know about this because it has been reported on the Capitol Fax.

The person who is responsible for this "pink slime" pieces is longtime conservative activist and one-time gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft who also is running TV ads in this election cycle paid for by People who play by the rules PAC. Ruberry's thesis is that:

With occasional exceptions, the newsrooms of Illinois’ major newspapers are woke echo chambers. They still claim to be the watchdogs for the public, but these so-called journalists are mostly interested in protecting and advancing leftist narratives. Contemporary reporters are a toxic combination of “the cool kids” in high school, with all of their arrogance, and the false ethical superiority of Iran’s morality police. Community newspapers usually only report on petty crime, but if you need to locate the nearest bake sale, well, you know where to find that information. These weekly papers are in fact weakly ones.

If the Illinois media performed their jobs honestly and capably, there’d be no need for “pink slime.”

So allow me to talk about the governor's race in Illinois. Once the primary election was settle in June for the most part most of the focus of the ads I've seen on TV or online had been abortion. I can't say I've seen many ads from Darren Bailey who is the Republican nominee for gov. The Pritzker campaign and I'm sure other  PACs were running ads regarding abortion and certainly using those ads to highlight Bailey's stance on abortion. Basically they emphasize that be doesn't believe in allowing for the exceptions of life of the mother or rape/incest.

Of course at the same time what are the issues of these pink slime papers. The Safe-T act, which has been derided online primarily as a PURGE act. Ever heard of The Purge movies, I have it seems so depressing and dire that a law was written to effective allow almost anything. I've seen the defenses for this act and they seem reasonable.

However, one good point to be made is that politicians from Gov. Pritzker to Attorney General Kwame Raoul are talking about making some tweaks to that law. And Ruberry notes that the law would be effective after the general election in November. So perhaps the Democrats who control this state are worried that this law could affect their electoral prospects.

So basically aside from abortion crime is an important issue. People want to be safe from the criminal element and especially true in Chicago.

Time will tell if this "pink slime" rags are in anyway effective in influencing the results of the 2022 race.

O'Reilly: Exposing media lies about the Trump raid

 

[VIDEO] Well before the defeat of Liz Cheney to represent Wyoming we had the Mar-A-Lago raid recently. A lot of things being said about it and how it wasn't justified. Bill O'Reilly discusses...

Rubin Report: MSNBC guest ugly racist reason why GOP likes this Black Republican

 

[VIDEO] I don't normally watch MSNBC, however, I often just marvel at the comments made by the various personalities on that network. Elie Mystal comments on the Georgia US Senate race between former football legend Herschel Walker and incumbent - and Morehouse Man - US Sen. Raphael Warnock.

So basically Mystal states that the Republicans want from their negroes - yes he says this out loud - a lack of independent thought. No real grasp of public policy. Just do as Republican Leader Mitch McConnell tells you to do.

I wish I had shared more of his thoughts with you all. He's outspoken though it seems he just can't look at anything beyond the veil of race. I wonder how he'd do outside of the mainstream media circuit.

Timcast IRL: Journalist blows whistle on how media got WOKE

 

[VIDEO] The journalist in question is Batya Ungar-Sargon who is an opinion editor at Newsweek discussing how media such as for example the N.Y. Times has become so woke and corrupt. Of course let's not forget the debate over how George Floyd died.

O'Reilly: More opinions than facts in today's media

 

[VIDEO] Bill O'Reilly is old school and worked for legacy media such as ABC News which used to have tight control over their content. They opted not to stray too far into opinion and just state facts, however, he highlights cable news such as MSNBC with a White House correspondent stating opinion. And then of course another White House correspondent currently working with ABC News doing the same thing. Both are commenting on the one-year anniversary of the US Capitol Insurrection.

One thing you will find from O'Reilly and others on the right is that they will claim "corporate media" owned by Disney (ABC News), Comcast (NBC News) or AT&T (CNN) for example are corrupt. They're not doing a great service to the public and they only report those facts that suit their agenda.

I wanted to write my thoughts about the pandemic just about two years in. While I don't consume much news/opinion other than for example FOX News I have more trust in them than perhaps a number of other outlets out there. I feel as if with this pandemic has caused a lot of people to freak out over something that is very survivable for those without underlying conditions.

I've always said from the outset that the responses by not only public sector (whether public health, public administrators, or even public policy) also the media as well. And it's disheartening that various media outlets have gotten extremely tribalistic to the point where I hope some of us are thinking who can we trust to give us the facts straight.

I'm not going offer an answer, I told you who I do have trust in. However the fact that perhaps it's out there than corporate media is corrupt should tell you the state of our mass communications sector.