Tucker, Lemon, Fox, CNN, Lies, Trump, DeSantis – The American Spectator

On Apr 27, 2023

What are the odds that Fox would oust Tucker Carlson and CNN would oust Don Lemon within one hour of each other? That should set off an antitrust investigation. But of course they do not ignite antitrust concerns — because America’s media are by definition “anti-trust” — that is, you cannot trust the whole bunch of ‘em.

Below, more on Fox, but first the hen house: CNN. CNN is a repository of lies. They lie so much that I don’t even believe they are called “CNN.” (Actually they are AT&T.) Like the pathological liars at the New York Times and Washington Post, they have been gleeful over Fox’s recent legal woes, headlining the Dominion lawsuit and settlement. Yet, long before Fox and Dominion, CNN was settling a defamation lawsuit for a mega-bundle-plus with young Nick Sandmann, whom they defamed horribly. So did the Washington Post. At least Fox picked on someone their own size. CNN instead destroyed a high school kid. Later, their star, Chris Cuomo, colluded with his brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The head of CNN had to quit in shame and ignominy — both. The CNN legal expert got caught red-handed, or whatever color his hands were, playing his organ. And now Don Lemon is out — he’s apparently past his prime.

There is something so despicable in the CNN–New York Times–Washington Post hypocrisy. The New York Times helped murder millions. Walter Duranty, their correspondent, filed lies day after day, singing the praises of Joseph Stalin as the Beast of Moscow murdered millions of Ukrainians, starving them to death during the Holodomor. The same Times buried news of the Holocaust and was an accessory to the murder of millions of Jews. Mark Levin has done incredible work on this subject and even devoted an entire episode of his TV show to it. And the Washington Post is a cesspool of lies, whether covering America or Israel. Pure lies. Day after day.

So CNN’s Lemon is out. Chris Cuomo is out. Jeff Zucker is out. Brian Stelter is out. Their whole Cable Streaming Channel was dead on arrival. As James Earl Jones might say: This Is CNN.

Now to Fox: Several years ago, the Left was in a tizzy, like sharks smelling blood, circling for the kill. Fox was in trouble. Their star, Bill O’Reilly, had cost them one sexual harassment settlement too much. Megyn Kelly had abandoned them for the brave new world of riches, fame, and glory that awaited her at NBC (for a few weeks). Greta Van Susteren quit for MSNBC, convinced that, amid the Fox shakeup, she could demand anything she wanted because she believed somehow that she was bringing them viewers. The Left was filled with articles predicting an aging Rupert Murdoch would be handing his media empire to his more liberal sons, who would turn Fox into another MSNBC.

But see what transpired. Fox shifted more rightward and got stronger than before. Tucker inherited O’Reilly’s slot, built it, and shifted it more forthrightly to the right. Hannity without Colmes. Laura Ingraham instead of Megyn Kelly. The Five emerged as a successful and clever answer to a tricky time slot. New conservative voices emerged like Harris Faulkner and even Tyrus. Greg Gutfeld got to move his cynical conservative humor to better time slots than milkman hours. Mark Levin got a weekly show. Jesse Watters emerged as a strong conservative voice, not just a kibbitzer interviewing crazed woke morons on the street and at the beach. Shepard Smith and Jonah Goldberg left. Fox led cable news even with the coveted younger demographic who does not need the best night’s sleep in the whole wide world.

Tucker? Honestly, no corporation can continue employing someone who so publicly expresses his contempt for his bosses in writing. They just can’t. That was the cost of Fox failing to settle earlier, before document discovery. But the Carlson saga is not over. Wherever he goes, he will succeed. I would love to see him combining online journalism with a starring role at Newsmax, which then could give America a second conservative TV station with powerhouse viewership numbers. They need two or three more stars, and we could use a second powerhouse, just as the Left has CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, and PBS. If only they could pull in Glenn Beck, a chastened O’Reilly, and Tucker under one roof.

Fox is not perfect, but they always have been pretty good. They have had a tricky tightrope to traverse. Although I always have been a very strong Trump supporter, I also never compromise honesty and have recognized Trump’s flaws. Lots of Trump backers exploded at Fox for calling Arizona early for the Crook from Delaware, but Fox was right. The Crook did in fact carry the reported votes from Arizona exactly as Fox projected. The real goons were not Fox, who reported professionally only after the polls closed, but the Libertarian Party jerks who took critical votes from Trump and cost him the state. Biden got 1,672,143. Trump 1,661,686. The tally gave Trump 10,457 fewer than The Crook. And the Libertarian got 51,465. That is who stole that election, if we must speak of a purloined ballot.

There is no question but that the Democrats stole the election, but not in the way Trump wrongly asserted. It was not the machines. Rather, the Democrats corrupted and perverted our very democracy itself, and Republicans were asleep at the wheel for years. The GOP allowed Democrats to corrupt our democracy by turning Election Day into a month. And by fighting voter ID. And by creating same-day registration. And by unilaterally canceling a presidential debate. And by limiting poll watchers’ access. And by promoting universal mail-in balloting. And by legalizing vote harvesting. And by extending voting for felons. And by not cracking down on suspicious signatures on envelopes and ballots in the way that is done for all other elections. No true democracy allows those deviations. Israel, for example, has a one-day Election Day only. No one gets to vote by mail except for a few discrete groups that seem obviously appropriate: soldiers on active duty stationed away from home, hospitalized patients, diplomats stationed abroad, and the incarcerated. In Israel, of course no one does vote harvesting, and people must show ID, and they need to be registered in advance. And poll watchers are everywhere. That is how almost all democracies work except for Democrat-corrupted America.

It is a shame that Fox focused on Dominion while failing to pay sufficient attention to how Democrats have perverted, corrupted, and stolen our election process. No election here is honest anymore. Democrat voters reposing in Chicago cemeteries are a fraction of the fraudulent votes cast for them by those who lie. When people vote weeks before Election Day, they have not yet even seen the main issues-based commercials or heard the main debates, as happened when Fetterman won in Pennsylvania before voters even had the chance to see him preview the depressed mess he has been in Washington. That is where Fox’s post-election focus should have been. Trump’s allies who targeted the machines did him a grave disservice. It is the first law of litigation: when you sue for damages, make sure you claim the correct tort. If you have a great claim for fraud, but you wrongly sue for defamation or breach, you will prove your facts, lose your claim, and the two wasted years in court will leave you time-barred from suing again, this time correctly.

Now Trump is going after Ron DeSantis. Fair — that is how electoral politics works. But it does not play well when he goes nasty and personal and even dirt-talks the state of Florida. Some 750,000 and more Americans have fled blue states for Florida, and DeSantis has proven himself to be America’s strongest, bravest, and most hands-on conservative governor. He is tearing up the leftist teachers’ unions, changing public school curricula to protect kids from perversions and deviations, has taken on the Woke Disney behemoth, has flown Illegals to Massachusetts, and has done a yeoman’s job keeping his state open for business and for kids’ schooling. Some of my dearest friends in California have moved to DeSantis’ Florida. (Hi, J & S. Hi, Warren. Hi, S & E. Hi …) My dear friends Cynthia and Dave are among tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews who have left New York for Florida. Heck, my shul’s High Holidays Chazan (cantor) left California for Florida. So did my assistant cantor. And they didn’t just canter — they galloped. So, as CNN sinks and as Fox regroups, as Tucker blossoms, and as Florida flourishes, I hope Trump shifts strategy to reminding us of all the amazing achievements he charted. That is ample reason for so many to support him. It does not work when he attacks DeSantis and Florida — especially since he left New York, like so many others, to seek haven and sun in Florida.

Fox Dumps Tucker to Go Woke

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