Podcast #137 - A McDonald's Nothingburger with a Side of Fascism

The folks at Fox News knew they had one job last week and that was to coronate Donald J. Trump while trashing his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris. If this meant calling him the king garbage, then so be it. The overpaid histrionic propagandists ramped up the crazy. Jesse Watters said a number of horrible things about women. Laura Ingraham claimed Trump’s neon safety vest will end up in the Smithsonian. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden was a six-hour festival of fascism. I reduced it down to 90 minutes with brief excerpts from every single speech. Trump also included five speakers with a net worth of $500 million or more. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Donald J. Trump was lauded as a political genius for cosplaying as a minimum wage worker at a McDonald’s franchise while The New York Times published an audio interview of Gen. John F. Kelly describing Trump as a fascist and admirer of Hitler. Fox decided to bury the story in a heap of French fries prepared by the same wannabe dictator Kelly was trying to warn the American public about. Everyone clutched their pearls to dust after Kamala Harris called Trump a fascist. Stephen A. Smith verbally mopped the floor with Sean Hannity in an amusing and delightful extended rant. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Last week on Fox News the 2024 election was reduced to a battle to win over one of the smallest voting demographics in the American electorate - Black men a group normally loyal to the Democratic Party. The network also ramped up fear of the emasculating left by pushing stories of trans female athletes and government programs that pay for gender affirming surgeries for prisoners. Kamala Harris was presented as an evil shrew while Tim Walz was an ineffective effeminate even though he’s been a highly successful politician since he flipped a Republican Congressional district blue and rose to the highest office in the state of Minnesota. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Last week on Fox the term misinformation became a code word for a crackdown on free speech while Vice President Kamala Harris was vilified for not doing enough and for doing too much to help hurricane victims. Kayleigh McEnany’s friend might have met a Black person, Melania Trump was pushing her merch on ‘The Five,’ while Jessica Tarlov revealed Trump’s ‘God Bless the USA Bibles’ were printed in China. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Fox News decided to lean into the skid and scare the bejeezus out of its audience with a combination of the longshoreman strike, increased violence in the Middle East and the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Late in the week Donald J. Trump told multiple lies about the federal response to the hurricane that Fox News hosts were happy to amplify. Sean Hannity mentioned lies about FEMA over 50 times in two days. Greg Gutfeld pretended he was an expert on climate change and a Harris supporter snuck into a Breakfast with Friends segment on Fox & Friends. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

I start with “The Igraham Angle,” and pull clips from every show until “Fox News at Nigh.” Everyone on Fox was deeply concerned that the moderators fact checked Sen. J.D. Vance. Sean Hannity was obsessed with sexual change surgeries. Dana Perino and Harold Ford Jr. dropped some truth bombs and Jesse Watters focused on masculinity. It was a wild ride of rightwing propaganda. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

When Fox News doesn’t like reality it makes up its own. Fox News hosts pretended Kamala Harris was tanking in the polls when she’s actually gaining more ground on Trump. Fox also ignored the easily verifiable timeline associated with the criminal indictment surrounding New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The FBI started investigating Adams two years before the mayor started feuding with President Biden. Fox also gave up an hour of its airtime for Trump to use as a platform for his campaign. Jesse Watters compared Kamala Harris to an actual infant. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Fox made a dramatic pivot from trashing Kamala Harris to promoting Donald J. Trump. The network also obsessively covered the second assassination attempt on the former president. Fox hosts complained about heated rhetoric while ignoring Trump’s inflammatory words. The network also featured a lot of Trump including him on a n episode of “Gutfeld,” and giving away it’s primetime coverage to show a live feed of a Trump rally in Long Island, NY. Laura Ingraham whipped up fear about Haitian immigrants while Lawrence Jones claims there was no racial aspects to their harassment. Fox & Friends tried to make it seem like the recent interest rate cut by the Fed was a bad thing. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

Fox News hosts blamed ABC and the moderators for Trump’s disastrous performance in the last presidential debate. Trump called into “Fox & Friends,” and threatened to revoke ABC’s broadcasting license. The cast of The Five melted down two days in a row. Sean Hannity tried to terrify his audience while lying about positive economic data. The network also got major milage out of a comment Sen. Bernie Sanders made on “Meet the Press.” This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe