Conservative media, a giant fog machine

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But here is their influence:

• Providing an alternative reality
  
• These then have to be taken up by politicians in primaries, as the most extremists tend to vote
  
• Then they discover it brings them power, money, fame..
  

Here's Why the Republican Party Has Abandoned Reality
It's Trump's GOP now.
By David Akadjian / Daily Kos
September 16, 2018, 7:58 AM GMT

This year, the Republican candidate for governor in Georgia was decided in a special runoff election between Brian Kemp and Casey Cagle, the top two finishers in the Republican primary. Before the runoff election, Casey Cagle was secretly recorded talking about the craziness of the Georgia Republican primary. He said:

The problem is in a primary—and you and I are just talking off-the-record frank—they don’t give a shit about those things. Okay. In the general election, they care about it. Okay. But they don’t care about it in a primary. This primary felt like it was who had the biggest gun, who had the biggest truck, and who could be the craziest.

Kemp quickly pounced on these remarks and used them to win the runoff by 40 points—which, ironically, validated Cagle’s remarks.

Here in Ohio, I saw the same thing in our race for governor. The entire race was about  who was the most conservative. Mary Taylor called Mike DeWine a “liberal” and DeWine said Taylor was a criminal, so “lock her up.” You’ve probably seen something similar in a race where you live. Conspiracy theorists are falling out of trees in Republican primaries.
So why is this going, on and what can we learn from it?  

Politicians are cowards Almost a year before the 2016 election, Devin Nunes spoke with The New Yorker about then-House Speaker John Boehner’s ouster. Nunes told the author that one of the biggest changes he’s seen since his arrival in 2002 is the rise of online media outlets and for-profit groups that spread bad or even false information:

I used to spend ninety per cent of my constituent response time on people who call, e-mail, or send a letter, such as, ‘I really like this bill, H.R. 123,’ and they really believe in it because they heard about it through one of the groups that they belong to, but their view was based on actual legislation. Ten per cent were about ‘Chemtrails from airplanes are poisoning me’ to every other conspiracy theory that’s out there. And that has essentially flipped on its head.

Today, the calls and emails are 90 percent about the bad information and conspiracy theories, and only a small percentage are about things that are actually true. Of course today, we know Nunes as the point man from the House Intelligence Committee who keeps trying to push the lie that it was Hillary Clinton who actually colluded with Russia. Nunes is also a global warming denier even as Fresno, the largest city in his California district, experienced a record consecutive days with highs that topped 100 degrees.
 
Nunes is now one of the leaders in disinformation. Why? Because Fox News and other right-wing conspiracy media outlets have made him famous. His fame has brought in $7.4 million in campaign donations, the most of any California Republican. This is also three to seven times any previous amount he’s raised. So … conspiracy away! In three years Nunes went from Freedom Party critic to one of the lead conspiracy theorists in Congress. Along the way, he threw out every principle he once might have had. He’s not a leader. He’s a Fox News puppet.
 
It’s important to understand that this is not just true for Nunes, but for most politicians

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And the same holds for journalist (see previous entry), Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, they've all gone off the deep end, simply because it brings them money, fame and power:

In a tweet, Jon Lovett of Crooked Media and Pod Save America, noted, “Tucker Carlson’s transition from conservative serious-ish writer to blustery CNN guy to Daily Caller troll to race-baiting Fox News host is like ice core data on what led to this moment in our politics.” In June, Conor Friedersdorf wrote in The Atlantic, “Carlson squandered his considerable God-given talent for scrupulously true commentary, opting instead for clickbait at The Daily Caller or dumbed-down demagoguery at Fox.” There’s something to all the liberal hand-wringing. In a speech Carlson gave to CPAC in 2009, he pleaded with conservative journalists to focus on reporting rather than punditry. He held up The New York Times as a standard bearer, begging writers “to go out there and find what is happening….not just interpret things they hear in the mainstream media.” His pleas were met with boos.

The mystery of Tucker Carlson - Columbia Journalism Review

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And if you get scared about the previous two entries, it is surprisingly easy for countries to go completely off the boil, as described here:

Given the right conditions, any society can turn against democracy. Indeed, if history is anything to go by, all societies eventually will.

Polarization in Poland: A Warning From Europe - The Atlantic

A terrifying read about Poland, going off the deep into an alternative reality and authoritarianism and it's now one of the most deeply divided countries in Europe. And that for a country that:

• Experienced a long economic boom instead of a debilitating economic crisis
  
• Has no major crime problem
  
• Hardly any immigration
  

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Trowing stuff up the wall..

Conservative defenders of Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh have already demonstrated their willingness to go after his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, but the newest attack on her credibility was even more ridiculous — and in the end, false — than we could have ever expected. Grabienews reported that Christine Ford, a California professor, had very bad reviews on Ratemyprofessor.com. Some of the views described her as "vengeful" and said there was "something wrong with her." Of course, student reviews are far from an unbiased source, and it's not clear what relevance they would have for a sexual assault allegation. But there's an even bigger problem: The news report, which was picked up by the extremely influential conservative link aggregator the Drudge Report, wasn't even about the Christine Ford who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. It was about another Christine Ford who also teaches in California.

The Latest Attack on Brett Kavanaugh's Accuser Christine Ford Just Backfired in a Spectacular Way | Alternet

Speaking about character..

One year after alleged sexual assault, Kavanaugh’s friend & alleged accomplice, Mark Judge, placed this quote in their high school yearbook 1983: "Certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs"

Kavanaugh Character Witness Mark Judge in 1983 Yearbook: ‘Certain Women Should Be Struck Regularly, Like Gongs’ | Alternet

And there is more in that story..

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The NYT just published the results of a 1.5 year study into how Donald Trump got his money. Much more from his dad than he argued, and through dodgy tax avoiding ways. Here is Fox..

Shortly after the story was published, Fox News’ Neil Cavuto dismissed tax fraud as “creative accounting,” saying, “I don’t know if there’s a there there outside of the fact the president benefited from having a rich father and a good marketing skill.” On Wednesday morning, Fox & Friends advanced a different talking point to defend the president. Host Brian Kilmeade actually spun the story as a positive, arguing it proves “there’s no financial benefit for Donald Trump running for president.” Ainsley Earhardt added that the revelations amount to “bashing his dad who has been dead for a very long time” — despite the fact that the New York Times story does not “bash” Trump’s father Fred, who died in 1999. Kilmeade’s spin isn’t even accurate. On the same day that the NYT published its investigation of Trump’s wealth, Forbes ran a piece about how Trump — who broke precedent by refusing to divest from his business interests when he took office — is trying to profit off the presidency, but largely failing..

‘Fox & Friends’ spin of damaging NYT story about Trump’s tax fraud is beyond belief – ThinkProgress

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Hannity’s appearance onstage surprised even longtime Fox’s critics. Fox has never been shy about its fondness for Trump, but Hannity’s appearance violated a basic principle in journalism: News networks should not be actively involved in campaigns they’re covering. Fox News quickly released a statement saying that the company does not condone talent appearing at campaign events, and Hannity claimed the entire fiasco had been a surprise.

But the reality is that Fox News personalities have been participating in Republican political campaigns for months. As Media Matters has documented, Fox hosts including Laura Ingraham and Jeanine Pirro have become regular fixtures at GOP campaign stops and fundraisers across the country. Hannity appeared at multiple campaign rallies in the lead-up to his appearance in Missouri, campaigning for Republicans including Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas and Ron Desantis in Florida’s gubernatorial race — both of whom went on to win their elections.

Republican candidates have noticed too, and have started using Fox’s friendliness as part of their campaign strategies. Multiple GOP candidates repackaged clips of Hannity’s softball coverage to use in campaign ads.

That kind of explicit political intervention, which Fox News executives have allowed to go on for months without consequences, means Fox isn’t just a right-wing news network anymore. It’s evolving into a massive, highly influential get-out-the-vote operation, one that’s going to play a growing role in Republican politics for years to come.

Fox News keeps breaking its own rules - Vox

Producers at "Fox & Friends" provided pre-interview questions to former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt and provided his team with discussion topics in advance, according to emails obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request by an environmental group. Emails obtained by the Sierra Club and shared with The Daily Beast show that producers at Fox News contacted Pruitt's team last year for an interview on the Fox morning show. They then show that, in a series of emails, Pruitt's team directly approved a script used by Fox hosts to introduce the administrator and discussed the topics that would be allowed in the interview.

‘Fox & Friends’ discussed script, asked pre-interview questions to Trump EPA chief: report | TheHill

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Jared Kushner let the Saudi crown prince off the hook on Jamal Khashoggi's killing in a softball interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Monday night. When asked about the "status" of the White House's view on the death of Khashoggi, who was killed inside a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in October, Kushner largely dodged the question. President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser said: "I think that our intelligence agencies are making their assessments and we're hoping to make sure that there's justice brought to where that should be." The CIA has reportedly already concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the death of Khashoggi, who was often critical of the royal family.

Jared Kushner covers for Saudi crown prince on Khashoggi killing - Business Insider

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In on it together..

Fox News host Sean Hannity appears to have acted on directives from emails between President Donald Trump’s longtime political adviser Roger Stone and an intermediary who claimed to have communicated with WikiLeaks. On Twitter, author Kurt Eichenwald points out that, among the details in the indictment of Stone, is a passage about WikiLeaks’ plan to leak emails suggesting Hillary Clinton was seriously ill and Sean Hannity’s focus on Clinton’s health in the following days.

“Would not hurt to start suggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke, neither he nor she well. I expect that much of next dump focus,” Stone’s link to WikiLeaks told him via email on August 2, 2016. Also in the email, Stone’s link to WikiLeaks told him that Wikileaks’ head Julian Assange was planning a document dump in October. A few days after the email was sent to Stone, Fox News host Sean Hannity began to focus on Hillary’s health, suggesting that she was having “seizures” and had some sort of neurological problem.

Fox News’ Sean Hannity appears to have acted on directives from newly revealed Stone-WikiLeaks emails – Alternet.org

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“CONSERVATIVES SPENT YEARS MOCKING THE IDEA OF ‘SAFE SPACES,’ AND YET THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THEIR MEDIA HAS BECOME”

How conservative media became a “safe space” - Vox

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The fog is really very very thick..

Evidence for the depth of its corrosive effect on its viewers and society as a whole emerged in a quote from a recent NBC News report, pointed out by Media Matters for America’s Matthew Gertz, about GOP Rep. Justin Amash’s calls for impeachment. The Michigan lawmaker has been making the case to his constituents for his view on President Donald Trump’s crimes and impeachable offenses as laid out in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report. He held a town hall this week where he discussed his reasoning and what Trump had done. NBC News reported: Cathy Garnaat, a Republican who supported Amash and the president said she was upset about Amash’s position but wanted to hear his reasoning. She said that she will definitely support Trump in 2020 but that Tuesday night was the first time she had heard that the Mueller report didn’t completely exonerate the president. “I was surprised to hear there was anything negative in the Mueller report at all about President Trump. I hadn’t heard that before,” she said. “I’ve mainly listened to conservative news and I hadn’t heard anything negative about that report and President Trump has been exonerated.”

This quote from a Trump voter on the Mueller report shows how deeply right-wing media has warped its viewers’ reality – Alternet.org

Simply amazing. If Fox News existed before, Nixon would have survived as President.