Usa Thread

[Coss]

 

Operation Warp Speed

 

 

[Coss]

William Barr told Murdoch to 'muzzle' Fox News Trump critic, new book says

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/22/william-barr-rupert-murdoch-muzzle-andrew-napolitano-fox-news-trump-critic-book

The attorney general, William Barr, told Rupert Murdoch to “muzzle” Andrew Napolitano, a prominent Fox News personality who became a critic of Donald Trump, according to a new book about the rightwing TV network.

Barr’s meeting with Murdoch, at the media mogul’s New York home in October 2019, was widely reported at the time, with speculation surrounding its subject. According to Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth, by CNN media reporter Brian Stelter, subjects covered included media consolidation and criminal justice reform.

“But it was also about Judge Andrew Napolitano.”

Stelter’s in-depth look at Fox News, its fortunes under Trump and its links to his White House will be published on Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a copy.

In early 2019 it was reported that Napolitano, a New Jersey superior court judge who joined Fox News in 1998, told friends he had been on Trump’s shortlist for the supreme court. But he broke ranks later in the year, labeling Trump’s approaches to Ukraine, seeking political dirt on rivals, “both criminal and impeachable behavior”.

“The criminal behavior to which Trump has admitted,” Napolitano wrote, in a column dated 3 October, “is much more grave than anything alleged or unearthed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and much of what Mueller revealed was impeachable”.

Citing an unnamed source, Stelter writes that Trump “was so incensed by the judge’s TV broadcasts that he had implored Barr to send Rupert a message in person … about ‘muzzling the judge’. [Trump] wanted the nation’s top law enforcement official to convey just how atrocious Napolitano’s legal analysis had been.”

Barr has been widely accused of riding roughshod over the rule of law, in service of Trump and his own authoritarian view of the presidency.

Though Barr’s words to Murdoch “carried a lot of weight”, Stelter writes, “no one was explicitly told to take Napolitano off the air”. Instead, Stelter reports, Napolitano found digital resources allocated elsewhere, saw a slot on a daytime show disappear and was not included in coverage of the impeachment process.

In Stelter’s telling, Napolitano thought he was being kept off air by “25-year-old producers” who didn’t think viewers could handle his analysis. Stelter, however, says an unnamed “twentysomething staffer” confirmed that one host, Maria Bartiromo, would only book Napolitano to discuss non-Trump topics, because he would upset Bartiromo too much if he criticised the president.

Fox News’ audience remains loyal to Trump as his campaign for re-election continues. Some Fox employees, Stelter writes, “justified the benching of the judge by claiming that viewers hated him: ‘Why are we going to book someone who kills our ratings?’”

On Saturday night, Kerri Kupec, Barr’s spokeswoman at the Department of Justice, said Stelter’s story was “false”, adding: “A basic factcheck would have revealed that, but Brian Stelter did not reach out to us before publishing.”

Stelter declined to comment.

Napolitano has continued to appear on Fox News and to publish opinion columns. He has remained critical of Trump, for example slamming the actions of federal officers sent to confront protesters in Portland, Oregon; opposing attempts to provide coronavirus relief without congressional involvement; and saying Senate Republicans should have called new witnesses in the president’s impeachment trial.

He has also had harsh words for Barr, for example calling his conduct in the case of Trump ally Roger Stone “Stalinistic”; blasting his handling of the Mueller report to Trump’s advantage; and hitting him for “insulting” Congress.

Napolitano did, however, back Barr’s attempt to drop charges against Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russian officials.

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[Steve]

Coss, you are being too kind about the WH. 

[buffalo_bill]

Gentlemen,

 

after watching some speeches held during  the Trump festival congratulations go out to Trump junior for having hit the top of the BuBi rating of human garbage. The man is a worthy heir of his father´s world of vomiting nothing but shite. Another remarkable speech has been held by a lady yelling complete nonsense at the crowd, I guess they put her teleprompter upside down. But they loved her anyway. There are another 3 days coming, maybe they finally find somebody who has to say something that is usable.

 

[Steve]

Non Americans may not know this guy but he was (is) a famous football player back in the 80s and 90s. He gave a very good endorsement. It was a good speech. It won't get any black votes but to be fair, it was a good speech. 

 

[Steve]

His son (I hope I am not attributing the wrong pronoun) is also far right. He is a former cheerleader. Just stating a fact. Not suggesting anything.

 

[Coss]

flagrant

[Steve]

Leave [multiple choices: him, her, it, they...seriously I've heard 'they',] alone. 

[Steve]

So, Jerry Falwell Jr, the pastor and head of evangelical mega church after taking over from his segregationist father is apparent a cuck. Nothing wrong with it. He's an adult. He can do what ever he wants in the privacy of his home. 

Just to be totally transparent, yours truly has been asked 2 or 3 times to do someone's girl (declined 2, the 3rd,  Koreans, I'd have done, cutie but a scheduling conflict  ) 

Anyway, its not clear if the 3rd party was banging only the wife or both of them. Were I Mr. Falwell, my go to defense would be a recreation of Sodom and Gomorrah in the bible. Again, I have zero issues with the cuck thing. None. What 2 or more consenting adults do in the privacy of their home is their own business. It's the hypocrisy that is the issue. 

[Coss]

Interesting - 

The couple are now speakers at the Republican convention - for pointing guns at protestors - 

On 10 July, city police searched and seized both of the guns from the couple. About a month later, St Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner charged both with "unlawful use of a weapon", which is a felony. The complaint said that both had displayed their semi-automatic weapons "readily capable of lethal use, in an angry or threatening manner".

They are characterised as rich, on the assumption that owning a house, makes them rich, how big is the mortgage?

I see they've not come far, from their hillbilly roots, having yet to learn, how to wear shoes.

Even if one were to adopt their point of view, which is presumably, "we must prepare for civil unrest, by rioters and hooligans, who will attack us, so we have to get guns and load them and be ready to shoot people",  then surely you'd want to wear shoes, to protect the feet, from the broken glass and such, in the ensuing fracas?