Culture & Society Blog

"Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society." - George Washington

Jan 5, 2018

Fox News - And Right Wing Media - Is Nothing More Than A Conspiracy & Nazi-Style Propaganda Ring

Background:
1. KKK/Nazis: The Rise of Right-Wing Militias in America (They Are IN The Tea Party)
2. The Charlottesville Terror Incident: Conclusive Proof That The GOP & Its Media Networks Are Really Just Nazis Re-Labeled As Something Else (Such As "Nationalists", "Conservatives" etc.)
3. Trump's America: Trump, The GOP & Fox News Managed To Make Nazis Mainstream (Hitler Is Probably Laughing In His Grave At His Afterlife Win Of WW2!)
4. An Introduction To, & Overview Of, The Mainstream Corporate Media

A collection of proofs that Fox News is nothing but Nazi-style propaganda outlet;

Something Fox News has been doing for a long time...

VIDEO: How Fox News is mainstreaming white supremacists and neo-Nazis

Fox News has been trying to normalize white supremacy for years. But since Donald Trump’s election, hosts, guests, and contributors on Fox are now openly defending white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

Everyone is well aware that Trump has been continually signaling his support to white supremacists since the 2016 presidential campaign. He retweets them, refuses to immediately disavow them, and even defendsthem. And Fox News is right there to validate him at every turn.

Fox News personalities repeat his talking points without question (and he repeats theirs). They claim that Trump has done everything he can to condemn these groups and everyone should accept it. They tell viewers to be more understanding of where neo-Nazis are coming from, but don't extend the same empathy to NFL athletes who have been peacefully protesting racial injustice by taking the knee during the pre-game national anthem. They praise Trump for not jumping to any conclusions. They make ridiculous comparisons that falsely equate white supremacists with minority groups fighting for equal rights. Fox host Tucker Carlson has even promoted a social media app that’s been called “a haven for white nationalists.”

When white supremacists hear the White House and a major news network repeating and amplifying their ideas, they rejoice because, according to Heidi Beirich at the Southern Poverty Law Center, “It builds their ranks ... because instead of being considered racist kooks by the majority of people, if their ideas are verified in places like Fox News or places like Breitbart, whatever the case might be, they have something to point to say I’m not extreme.” Beirich has called Fox News “the biggest mainstreamer of extremist ideas” and explained that “the horror of this is that people turn on their TV they go to cable, [they] assume this has got to be mainstream," but “what you find is radical right ideas being pushed on Fox.”

Since white supremacists and neo-Nazis “are deeply involved in politics, [and] are a constituency that is being pandered to at the highest level of political office,” and because Fox News is elevating their movement, Beirich urges mainstream outlets to “talk about their ideas, … to talk about the domestic terrorism that’s inspired by white supremacy, and … about hate crimes.”

For example;

Fox News report on Colorado gunman ignores his white supremacist connections Gunman who killed a sheriff’s deputy reportedly had social media “filled with the icons of the white supremacist ‘alt-right’"

After a deadly shooting in Colorado on New Year’s Eve that left one Douglas County sheriff’s deputy dead and four others injured, a Fox News host omitted reports that the gunman had posted white supremacist "alt-right” memes on his personal Facebook page. While host Eric Shawn noted that the gunman had “posted videos criticizing Colorado law enforcement” on social media, he failed to note that the gunman’s personal “Facebook page is filled with the icons of the white supremacist ‘alt-right.’" Fox’s omission of the gunman’s “alt-right” sympathies echoed its reporting on a February 2017 mosque shooting carried out by an “ultranationalist white supremacist” in Canada, where the network ignored that shooter’s far-right background. From the January 2 edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom:

ERIC SHAWN (CO-HOST): There are some new details on the Colorado man who police say shot and killed a deputy and wounded four others. Police were contacted with concerns, they say, about the mental state of the shooter over a month before the New Year's Eve incident. That suspect, you see there on the right, identified as 37-year-old Matthew Riehl. He was an attorney and an Iraq War veteran. He also, they say, posted videos criticizing Colorado law enforcement. Police responded to a complaint at an apartment building south of Denver on Sunday. They say Riehl fired over 100 rounds at the responding officers who eventually shot and killed him.

Previously:

Canada’s "alt-right" mosque shooter, and what he means for right-wing media

Fox News' double standard for right-wing cop killers

White racist kills two cops in Iowa ambush and Fox News goes quiet

For Fox News, there's no collective blame when political cop killers are white

What's going on right now...

Fox News' new prime-time lineup prepares to remake the GOP in Trump's image

Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, whose prime-time Fox News program debuts in two weeks, will headline a kickoff event tonight for Arizona state Sen. Kelli Ward’s insurgent primary campaign against Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), a critic of President Donald Trump.

A ticket to the general reception at the Hilton Scottsdale Report will cost you a $75 donation to Ward’s campaign (you’ll also get a free copy of Ingraham’s new book with admission). But attendees willing to shell out $2,700 will get access to a VIP reception, a signed copy of the book, a photo with the candidate and the radio host, and a shout-out at the event.

It’s almost quaint to point out that this sort of openly partisan behavior, relatively normal for a Fox personality, wouldn’t come close to passing muster at any other network. But let’s set that aside for a moment and consider just how screwed the GOP’s leaders may be.

The GOP establishment -- including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) -- is lining up behind Flake. When Ward ran against Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in the 2016 GOP primary, she had the help of the most conspiratorial wing of the right-wing press but few resources. She’s undoubtedly hoping that supportthis time around from prominent pro-Trump media figures like Ingraham and her colleague Sean Hannity will bring enough exposure to carry the day.

Ward will not be alone. The Republican electorate is angry that the party’s promises have yet to materialize. Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is trying to channel that rage into far-right primary challenges against half a dozen Republican senators, using the resources of his benefactors the Mercers and the editorial staff of Breitbart.com. Bannon wants McConnell out as majority leader and senators he considers insufficiently loyal to the president out of office. McConnell’s allies have largely laughed off Bannon’s influence, but no one can ignore the power Fox holds over the GOP electorate.

Ingraham’s fundraising jaunt for Ward could mark the beginning of a nightmare scenario for McConnell: Fox hosts using their shows to promote primary challengers to their audience of millions and shape the future of the party. If Ingraham, Hannity, and others at Fox use the network’s airwaves to attack Republican senators, host and praise their challengers, and urge their viewers to get behind candidates like Ward, they could pull off a GOP purge that would reshape the party in Trump’s image for a generation.

The mechanism is in place; it just needs to be re-aimed.

For decades, Fox has served as the communications arm of the Republican Party. The network is an incubator for GOP talking points, a steady paycheck for former and current party officials, a launching pad for right-wing movements, and the battleground for the party’s presidential primaries. It’s also proved to be a welcoming environment for the party’s candidates to field pillow-soft questions, flog their campaign websites, and ask the Fox audience for donations.

Fox has more credibility with GOP activists and voters than virtually anyone except for Trump himself. And while Trump’s election gave the GOP unified control of all the levels of government, the party’s failure to pass key legislation and provide sufficiently unceasing support for the president has led to the possibility that the network’s power will soon be turned against Republican leaders.

Fox contributor floats conspiracy theory that the FBI might have planned to assassinate Donald Trump Serial liar and conspiracy theorist Kevin Jackson suggests "social media" sources indicated a plot against Trump

Previously:

Fox contributor accuses Colin Kaepernick of material support of terrorism

Fox contributor blames "diversity" for NYC terror attack deaths

Fox’s Kevin Jackson: Mothers of the Movement "raise thugs who try to kill cops"

Fox News contributor blames Obama for shooting of police officers

Fox exploited Kate Steinle's death for political gain. Now, the network is in a bind.

Undocumented immigrant accused of murdering Kate Steinle found not guilty

NY Times: Jose Ines Garcia Zarate “was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges ... in the killing of Kathryn Steinle.” The New York Times reported on November 30 that a jury acquitted Jose Ines Garcia Zarate “of murder and manslaughter charges … in the killing of Kathryn Steinle.” Garcia Zarate was also “found not guilty of assault with a firearm.”Garcia Zarate had “acknowledged firing the weapon, but said it was an accident.” He was convicted of “being a felon in possession of a firearm.” From the November 30 report:

An undocumented Mexican immigrant was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges on Thursday in the killing of Kathryn Steinle, whose death while out walking on a San Francisco pier became a touchstone in the national debate over immigration fueled by Donald J. Trump.

The man, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, 45, who was also found not guilty of assault with a firearm, was convicted only of being a felon in possession of a firearm after a trial that lasted more than five weeks. His sentence could range from 16 months to three years. Mr. Zarate has already spent more than two years in county jail awaiting trial. A sentencing date had not yet been set.

[...]

Ms. Steinle, known as Kate, a 32-year-old medical equipment saleswoman, was walking along Pier 14 in San Francisco when she was struck by a bullet and collapsed into her father’s arms. Mr. Garcia Zarate acknowledged firing the weapon, but said it was an accident.

Evidence was presented in court that the bullet had ricocheted before striking Ms. Steinle. [The New York Times, 11/30/17]

Fox News has incessantly exploited Steinle’s death to portray undocumented immigrants as criminals and push its anti-immigrant agenda

Bill O’Reilly used Steinle’s death to propose “Kate’s Law,” an anti-immigrant bill that passed in the House of Representatives. Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly dedicated significant airtime to discussing Steinle’s tragic death, using it as justification to pass legislation, which he dubbed “Kate’s Law,” that would impose harsher sentencing for those who have entered the country illegally and been convicted of crimes. After failing to pass in 2015 and 2016, the House of Representatives passed the legislation in June. It has not yet been taken up for a vote in the Senate. [Media Matters, 6/29/17, 6/30/16, 10/21/15, 10/8/15; The Hill, 6/29/17]

Steve Doocy argued that Steinle’s death vindicated then-candidate Trump’s racist attacks on undocumented immigrants. In 2015, Fox host Steve Doocy suggested that the shooting vindicated then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s staunchly anti-immigrant agenda, saying that Garcia Zarate “was not supposed to be in the United States. And you know, whether you like Donald Trump or you don't like Donald Trump, he's talking about this particular issue, about our southern border and how, you know, something's got to be done." [Media Matters, 7/6/15]

Jesse Watters: “The left will memorialize someone … like a Mike Brown, but then they’ll ignore someone like Kate Steinle.” During a panel discussion of Kate’s Law in June, Fox host Jesse Watters complained that “the left … will ignore someone like a Kate Steinle” because it does not fit their agenda. [Fox News, The Five, 6/28/17]

Meghan McCain agreed that sanctuary cities have “the blood of dead Americans on their hands,” referencing Kate Steinle. On the April 27 edition of Outnumbered, then-Fox co-host Meghan McCain referenced Kate Steinle to cast so-called sanctuary cities as dangerous and to defend then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s claim that sanctuary cities have the “blood of dead Americans on their hands”:

SANDRA SMITH (CO-HOST): But Meghan, did the White House go too far when we just heard Sean Spicer say, "The blood of dead Americans on their hands," referencing San Francisco?

MEGHAN MCCAIN (CO-HOST): No. I think you have got to see Kate Steinle's family and people like that. And I think if you are someone living in Malibu, living in a sanctuary city, it feels like people can break laws of any kind, and there will be no ramifications. And I do think it's a very slippery slope, and we don't know where it ends. [Fox News, Outnumbered, 4/27/17]

Ainsley Earhardt suggested a sanctuary city is “putting its legal residents, its American citizens, at risk,” later invoking Kate Steinle’s death. On the March 22 edition of Fox & Friends, Fox host Ainsley Earhardt brought up “Kate Steinle’s killer” in a discussion over sanctuary cities, which she had said may be “putting its legal residents, its American citizens, at risk.”. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/22/17]

John Roberts: “Kate Steinle was mercilessly gunned down in San Francisco.” Reporting on Kate’s Law in June, Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts took the case out of context, saying that “Kate Steinle … was mercilessly gunned down in San Francisco.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 6/29/17]

Fox News' lies about Chuck Schumer and NYC terror attack work their way across the countryPatrons at a rural Midwest diner parroted lies spread by Fox & Friends while being interviewed on the program

A series of Fox & Friends interviews at a diner in rural Indiana this morning put the pervasive impacts of the Fox News propaganda mill on full display. Patrons some 750 miles removed from the recent terror attack in New York City reiterated the network’s misleading talking points about Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) supposed role in allowing the attack to occur.

Fox & Friends correspondent Todd Piro asked patrons of Indy’s Family Restaurant in Martinsville, IN, to share their thoughts about the October 31 truck attack in Manhattan, which he claimed is “front and center on everybody’s mind” in the tiny community. Two patrons pointedly blamed Schumer -- and his support 27 years ago for the diversity visa lottery program -- for the attack, saying that “those eight people would be alive today” if he had never supported the visa program and claiming that he has “blood on his hands”:

PATRON: It’s vital that we protect our country, and the geniuses that came up with this idea -- and I hear from the news it was Sen. Schumer and Teddy Kennedy [a senator at the time] was the one that pushed this through -- those eight people would be alive today if those geniuses had kept their thoughts to themselves.

TODD PIRO: You say the diversity visa is a horrible idea. Why do you say that?

PATRON: It's a bad idea because bad things result from it. I think when Chuck Schumer passed that bill -- we have Americans dying now because of the folks that come in because of this. We have enough of our own problems without importing more problems. And, it's just my opinion, but Chuck Schumer has got blood on his hands. And we are sacrificing our citizens on the altar of diversity, and I’m not happy about it.

These Martinsville residents may as well have been reading from the teleprompter back at Fox & Friends, which amplified the misleading attack on Schumer yesterday morning and was rewarded moments later by a tweet in which President Donald Trump echoed the show’s lies. Even the phrase “importing more problems” was directly sampled from a Fox & Friends guest whom Trump quoted. Fox continued its smear campaignagainst Schumer last night on Hannity, and now those attacks have become lodged in the consciousness of conservative-media consumers.

In reality, the diversity visa lottery program was just one part of legislation then-Rep. Schumer introduced in 1990, which enjoyed broad bipartisan support in the House and Senate before Republican President George H.W. Bush signed it into law. Furthermore, Schumer joined a bipartisan group of senators in 2013 to end the diversity visa as part of a push for comprehensive immigration reform; the proposed reforms were eventually abandoned amid intense pressure from right-wing antagonists, including Trump.

Diversity visas have helped hundreds of thousands of aspiring immigrants move to the United States, including an Egyptian Muslim man who helped prevent a terror attack in New York City, but the program has become the target of anti-immigrant backlash in the wake of this week’s attack.

White House applauds its top propagandists at Fox & Friends

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway interrupted an interview on this morning’s Fox & Friends to congratulate the program’s hosts on being named the “most influential media figures” and praise the show for helping the administration “get our message out.”

“I have to take a point of personal privilege, folks, and congratulate you,” Conway said after answering a softball question about the GOP tax bill. Pointing out that the hosts had been “ranked the number one most influential media figures” by the news reporting website Mediaite, she added, “I think influence and impact are important because we're just trying to get our message out here. And we appreciate the platform.”

Mediaite yesterday gave the co-hosts that designation, pointing out that President Trump “regularly starts his day watching Fox & Friends and then tweets about whatever they cover” ensuring that “the topics they cover essentially set the national agenda for the rest of the day.”

Indeed, the president later indicated that he had been watching Conway's appearance, tweeting:

While the president frequently attacks news outlets that provide critical coverage, he has lauded Fox & Friends, holding up their sycophantic reviews of his administration as a model for the rest of the media. In February, he credited his regular appearances on the program over the years with his election victory.

The president has sat for several Fox & Friends interviews this year, often praising the hosts and receiving praise in return. Earlier this week, the hosts pitched softballs at Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a member of his White House staff.

President Trump has not given a scheduled national television interview with a mainstream outlet since May.

Bill O'Reilly credits Hannity's radio and Fox News show for his book sales O'Reilly: My book wouldn't have been a New York Times best-seller "without your highlighting the book ... on TV and radio"

Previously:

Advertisers are dropping Sean Hannity

By bringing back Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity proves he's a reckless loose cannon

Hannity goes rogue, helping O'Reilly attack the women who reported him for sexual harassment and asking him to return to Fox

Rupert Murdoch's Trump support pays offDisney deal, FCC action will make the conservative mogul an even more potent force in U.S. media

On The Bill Press Show, Matt Gertz explains how Trump's FCC is helping Rupert Murdoch become more powerful

Previously:

Rupert Murdoch's Trump support pays off

The FCC’s big giveaway to pro-Trump television broadcasting groups

How Donald Trump could make Rupert Murdoch even more powerful

To watch the full interview click here.

Manafort indictment shows why conservatives have an alternative media bubble

Just before 8 this morning, The New York Times broke the news that five months into a sprawling investigation into ties between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russian officials, special counsel Robert Mueller was filing charges against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his business associate and fellow campaign aide Rick Gates. On CNN and MSNBC, the indictment and pending arrests dominated coverage for the rest of the morning, as anchors, reporters, and legal analysts explained who the pair are, what the charges could concern, and what the news could portend for the future of Mueller’s investigation.

But viewers of Fox News’ morning show, Fox & Friends, saw something very different. Co-hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade spent the last hour of their broadcast alternatively downplaying the news and looking for potential outs for the president. The program’s hosts and guests warned that the investigation was a case of the dangerous criminalization of political differences, complained that aggressive prosecutors sometimes coerce false confessions, posited that the charges might actually be good news for the president, and suggested the real scandal was that news of the indictments had been illegally leaked. They quickly changed the subject to trumped-up scandals involving Democrats. As their competitors rightfully focused on the breaking news, the show found time to discuss top Halloween candies and small-bore stories of purported liberal media bias.

On Twitter, as screenshots and video clips of the bizarre antics circulated, many reporters for more credible outlets mocked the Fox & Friends coverage for leaving their viewers ignorant of the gravity of the news. Others hoped that the Mueller news could alert Americans as to which media outlets act as propaganda tools of the president. “Also a good time for public to see which media outlets have been reporting the actual story vs which are obedient vassals of people in power,” tweeted CNN anchor Jake Tapper.

Neither response fully comes to grips with the comprehensive media bubble conservatives have constructed over the past few decades. It is not currently possible to form a consensus around what is happening in our politics. Instead, there’s a mainstream media narrative that generally conforms to reality and a counter narrative generated by right-wing media outlets that supports Trump regardless of the facts.

Fox & Friends exists to further that alternative media reality, and a day like today shows how it does that. The point of the show is to deceive the audience, not to inform them. And the hope that the viewers of this program and others like it would suddenly realize after the indictments that they had been misled, while well-meant, is far-fetched. As this morning’s Fox & Friends demonstrated, those who consume this content will receive a hefty helping of explanations saying the indictments aren’t a big deal, Democrats and Mueller himself are the real criminals, and the major news outlets are covering up the real story because of partisanship and corruption.

The paranoid right-wing opposition to the mainstream press, stoked for generations for reasons both partisan and economic, is at the heart of the problem. Conservative leaders created their own media in response and implored their followers to seal themselves off from contrary voices. As conservative commentator Charlie Sykes put it, the result was a right-wing media bubble in which people like Rush Limbaugh and the hosts of Fox News “convinced their audiences to ignore and discount anything that came from the mainstream press,” with a “cumulative effective” being that they “destroyed much of the right’s immunity to false information.” This effort has been helped along by the president’s own attempts to delegitimize critical media outlets.

For months, Fox & Friends and other parts of the pro-Trump media sphere have been preparing for a day like today. They’ve declared Mueller’s an investigation a sham, laid the groundwork for his removal, and explained that Hillary Clinton is the real criminal who needs to be locked up. They’ve primed their audienceto discount any scrap of information suggesting presidential wrongdoing. If Trump fires Mueller and pardons everyone touched by the investigation, his media propagandists will follow along and bring their audiences with them. There’s no popping the right-wing media bubble. It was built for a day like today.

Tomi Lahren accidentally reveals the real reason Fox News hounds HillaryTomi Lahren offers to stop covering an irrelevant Hillary Clinton story if regular journalists drop Trump-Russia

During her very first day at Fox News, former contributor for TheBlaze (and current Obamacare beneficiary) Tomi Lahren inadvertently suggested that she and the network are persistent in covering the Hillary Clinton email non-scandal perhaps cynical reasons

During an appearance on Sean Hannity's show last, Lahren justified the network's continuous coverage of a scandal — one that has had no newsworthy developments and pertains to a political figure who has been out of the spotlight for almost a year — by depicting it as retribution for covering President Donald Trump's potential collusion with Russia during the 2016 election.

"How about we make a deal?" Lahren suggests. "How about when the mainstream media stops covering Russia day in and day out, maybe we can drop the Hillary email scandal. But until then, I think I’m going to stay on it."

When Fox News announced that it had signed on Lahren as a contributor, both as a pundit on its digital lineup and as a commentator on programs like "Hannity," it seemed like a match made in heaven. Lahren has been toeing the pro-Trump line hard (very much like her host Sean Hannity) and cut her teeth hosting a show at TheBlaze, a conservative site run by Fox News alumnus Glenn Beck.

This is actually an old Fox news talking point which shows how close knit the right wing media really is...

Breitbart editor-in-chief: "There is no better time and place to be in poverty than in America right now

Previously:

Breitbart radio is a bigoted and misogynistic cesspool

4 ways right-wing media are shilling for tax reform (and why they're wrong)

Breitbart editor-in-chief: We had to defend Roy Moore from child molestation accusations to protect Trump from his accusers

This is a strategy straight out of Heritage Institute (Kochs)...

World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over...

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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The National Rifle Association’s first year as Trump propagandists

Standing before a raucous crowd of supporters in April 2015 during the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting, the group’s longtime leader Wayne LaPierre snarled into the microphone, “Eight years of one demographically symbolic president is enough!”

One and a half years later, LaPierre got his wish as an aging white man again captured the presidency.

In a promotional video published by the NRA on January 3, three weeks before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, LaPierre stood before a shadowy backdrop at the NRA studios, looked into the camera, and said, “We are Donald Trump's strongest, most unflinching ally. The powerful partner he needs to get things done on behalf of American freedom. Join our ranks. Donate to our cause. And together, we will truly make America great again.”

Though Trump had already won the election by that time, LaPierre still adopted a defiant and apocalyptic tone fitting of the NRA’s siege mentality; he castigated the press, called out conservative groups for abandoning Trump after he bragged on tape about sexually assaulting women, and warned viewers of enemies at every turn.

During the presidential campaign, the NRA had broken its own spending records in Trump's support and now it was time for the organization to try to cash in. In the video, LaPierre claimed that Trump was “the most openly pro-Second Amendment presidential candidate in history” -- glazing over the fact that Trump previously supported several gun safety measures that would normally be disqualifying violations of NRA orthodoxy.

Despite Trump’s past stances, the NRA and Trump were the perfect political match. The then-president-elect and the country’s foremost gun group shared an affinity for culture war rhetoric, driven by white racial grievances, retrograde views of women, and anti-immigrant, anti-free press, and pro-authoritarian sentiments. They also shared a penchant for spreading division through fearmongering and peddling conspiracy theories.

On Inauguration Day, the NRA flipped a switch, pivoting from a group that often raised the spectre of violent insurrection against a presidential administration it didn’t like to a group that now raises the spectre of violence against critics of a presidential administration it loves.

The NRA’s war on the right to protest the government

Hand-in-hand with the hateful commentary on NRATV is a pattern of attacks on basic freedoms and rights in service of Trump’s authoritarian tendencies. One of these instances was an outrageous attack on those who use their First Amendment rights of speech and assembly to speak out against Trump.

Narrated by conservative radio host Dana Loesch, an NRATV commentator who was elevated to serve as the NRA’s national spokesperson in February, the one-minute spot depicted a dark version of America that is clearly at odds with reality. Using footage of isolated incidents of property damage and police confrontations, Loesch tarred the largely peaceful resistance movement as a violent force destroying America and delivered a line that was criticized as an incitement to violence against Trump critics: “The only way we stop this, the only way we save our country and our freedom, is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth.” The message was clear: Stop complaining about Trump in the public square or face the wrath of the nation’s premier firearm group.

The Washington Post reported that the spot had angered gun owners with its extremism, although the video found a fan in conspiracy theorist and Sandy Hook truther Alex Jones, who praised the NRA’s “more hardcore” direction. In response to criticism, Loesch and Stinchfield said the group would never apologize.

The controversy seems to have only emboldened the NRA’s attacks on Trump critics, with follow-up videosemploying similarly incendiary language to attack those who use their First Amendment right to protest the president, including one that claimed opponents of Trump will “perish in the political flames of their own fires.”

Tellingly, when deadly violence was actually unleashed on peaceful protesters -- after a man who admired Hitler drove his car into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, VA, injuring 19 people and killing activist Heather Heyer -- NRATV was conspicuously silent.

NRA takes its attacks on the press to authoritarian heights

For years, the NRA has regarded the media as a participant in a conspiracy by elites to attack gun ownership. While that has continued during the Trump administration, NRATV also began to advance the narrative that critical reporting on the president is oppositional to American values and -- bizarrely enough -- incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.

Authoritarian claims about the role of the press since the launch of NRATV include:

positioning reporting on Trump’s admission of sexaul assault as part of “the mainstream media’s assault against freedom and the Constitution”;
claiming it’s “anti-patriotic” and part of a plot to “destroy our republic” to critically report on the Trump administration;
saying it was “anti-American” for media to report on Trump’s inflammatory comments on North Korea; and
wildly attacking specific outlets, including telling The New York Times that “we’re coming for you,” and claiming The Washington Post has a “role in the organized anarchy of the violent left.”

NRATV gaslights the public with pro-Trump propaganda

NRATV personalities have also been willing to serve as Baghdad Bobs for Trump by relaying patently false accounts of real world events. Among the lowlights:

purporting to offer a “direct quote” of what former FBI Director James Comey said about Trump and obstruction of justice during his testimony before Congress, but instead offering a fabricated quote that absolved Trump of wrongdoing;
advocating for the confirmation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions by telling an alternate history of a racially charged prosecution Sessions spearheaded in the 1980s; and
tarring the Women’s March as violent by playing footage of a completely different protest where some participants broke windows.

This guy is one of Donald Trump's favorites...

Video: The conspiracy theories of Alex Jones and Infowars Donald Trump praised Alex Jones’ “amazing” reputation when he appeared on his show

Alex Jones and Infowars have pushed numerous conspiracy theories over the years. Media Matters has compiled a vast number of them into one video:

Some of the conspiracy theories in the video that Jones, his coworkers, and guests have pushed:

Jones claims that “Pizzagate” (that hacked Clinton emails referring to pizza orders were secretly about an underground child molestation ring) is real.
Jones claims that the Oklahoma City and 9/11 terror attacks were false flag attacks. Flight 93 was shot down by someone who refused to go along with the false flag attack; (Jones also claims that the person who disclosed that to him was subsequently murdered.)
Jones claims that mass shootings in Newtown, Las Vegas, and Orlando were either faked or part of elaborately covered-up conspiracies.
Jones claims that though American astronauts did go to the moon, there is secret technology there that has never been disclosed. Jones also agrees with his guest that the real moon landing was never shown to the public.
Jones claims that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both smell like sulfur.
Jones claims that the Rockefeller Foundation is secretly poisoning America through vaccines.
Jones claims that young women get breast cancer from being hyper feminized by artificial chemicals in the food and water.
Jones claims that Charles Manson was part of a secret CIA mind control program.
Jones claims that Donald Trump is being secretly drugged at night (and that he is risking his life by saying so).
Jones amplifies Chuck Norris’ claim in WND that “sky criminals” are using chemtrails to wage war on Americans.
Infowars’ Owen Shroyer claims that Adolf Hitler is still alive.
Jones claims that Democrats are going to kill people; he also claims that liberals want to put people in dungeons, cut skulls open, and eat their brains.
Jones claims that Google is going to force Americans into “self-contained bubble cities.”
Jones claims that “there is a signal being sent by women that is controlling men.”
Jones claims that Al Gore flies around with a refrigerator full of blood.
Jones claims that there are humans crossed with fish; he further claims that there are humanoids that are 80% gorilla, 80% pig and are talking.
Infowars contributor Mike Cernovich claims that we are approaching the singularity because time is becoming dilated.
Jones claims that the government has secret weather weapons that can cause natural disasters like hurricanes. He also claims that there is a secret volcano/earthquake weapon.
Jones claims that top Democrats are “into black magic.”
Jones claims that the Obama White House chiefs and chefs used satanic rituals.
Jones claims that the Canadian Parliament building was built to carry out Satanic rituals.
Jones claims that the Vatican is anti-Christian, and Pope Francis is “an upside down cross.”
Jones claims that the “black pope, the Jesuit general” is now in control.
An Infowars guest claims that the Rothschilds, the Jesuit black pope, the city of London, and Wall Street -- as part of the deep state -- use pedophilia and mind control to control the Free Masons, the Knights of Malta, and other secret societies.
Jones claims that Ted Cruz’s father is linked to the JFK assassination.
Jones claims that there is an alien force attacking humanity. He further says that while he does not bash those who do endorse UFOs, he personally sees it as an interdimensional force telling everyone to kill themselves.
Jones claims that what many people think are flying saucers are actually three jumbo jets projecting an image downwards to the ground.
Jones claims that Michelle Obama is actually a man and that Joan Rivers may have been murdered for revealing it.
Jones claims that there are secret death panels for veterans.
Jones claims that U.N. wants to bring back human sacrifice.
Jones and Infowars guest Billy Corgan allege that elites and mega-wealthy are preparing to secretly go off world.
An Infowars guest claims that children are kidnapped from Earth, transported secretly to Mars where they are enslaved in a Martian colony.
Jones and an Infowars guest allege that stargates are being built, including at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland (and that it is dedicated to Shiva).
Jones claims that exposure to artificial chemicals are turning people gay.
Jones claims that the Pentagon successfully developed a gay bomb.
An Infowars guest claims that a race of part-human, part-robots will replace humans and feed on human corpses.
Jones claims that pedophiles and psychic vampires are in control of an AI system.
Jones claims that outfits worn on MSNBC are uniforms meant to fool the public as MSNBC officials meet with the CIA and top government psychiatrists.
Jones claims that Katy Perry’s Super Bowl performance was part of an Illuminati ritual.
Jones claims that Beyoncé invoked urban terrorism in her video.
An Infowars guest claims that the government secretly has teleportation and time travel technology.
Jones claims that Satan is stealing the promised ability to travel through dimensions.
Jones claims that Russian sex operatives were sent to him whom he heroically declined even though they know that Marilyn Monroe look-alikes are what is in his mind’s eye.

Donald Trump praised Alex Jones’ “amazing” reputation when he appeared on his show.

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