If ever you needed proof that Fox News is more a political operation than a journalistic one, check out how not one of the five Fox News cohosts on Outnumbered was concerned about Donald Trump’s not-so-thinly veiled attack on the press today. Instead, Fox’s Meghan McCain and Eboni Williams went out of their way to help validate it.
During today’s press conference, Trump called BuzzFeed “a failing pile of garbage” that he thinks will “suffer the consequences” of publishing the salacious, blackmail material Russia may have about him. Trump’s incoming press secretary Sean Spicer also threatened CNN reporter Jim Acosta for demanding to ask a question after being attacked by Trump for its more solid, less salacious reporting that “Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.”
Underneath BuzzFeed's tabloidy revelation about Trump supposedly paying prostitutes for a “golden shower,” there are some very serious questions that have yet to be answered about Trump’s ties to Russia and particularly what contacts his campaign may have had with the country during the campaign. Today, the Guardian reported:
Senator John McCain passed documents to the FBI director, James Comey, last month alleging secret contacts between the Trump campaign and Moscow and that Russian intelligence had personally compromising material on the president-elect himself.
On today’s Outnumbered show, guest Bret Baier noted that Trump didn’t answer the last question at his presser, as to whether he or anyone with his campaign “had any contact with Russia leading up to or during the presidential campaign.”
So the comments of McCain’s daughter, Meghan, were particularly ironic when she responded to a clip of Trump saying, “If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability.”
There are many reasons that could be a liability, especially given Donald Trump, Jr.’s comments in 2008, that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” and, “we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
But Meghan McCain, like Trump, deflected to make the issue about BuzzFeed instead of Russia – while blaming BuzzFeed for her own deflection:
MCCAIN: You know, the problem with this specific news cycle is I still have legitimate concerns and questions about Donald Trump and (Secretary of State nominee) Rex Tillerson’s ties to Russia. The problem is, BuzzFeed has now turned all of this into a fake news story. It was an unsubstantiated report from an alleged MI6 agent. It’s all over the internet, completely salacious and disgusting for all of us to cover. I had to do it live on the radio last night and it really has hurt the legitimate questions that a lot of people have and when he’s talking about fake news, I take such offense at the idea that – I don’t know what BuzzFeed’s doing, I couldn’t possibly get in the head of Ben Smith but he has hurt the legitimate concerns of the intelligence community and people who have concerns about Russia by blasting all of this trash all over the internet.
Faux liberal (and Trump cheerleader) Eboni Williams jumped in to help deflect some more.
WILLIAMS: What I see BuzzFeed doing is taking us down a very slippery and dangerous slope that says … this is where we see our role in 2017. I hear them saying, … “We are not even making an effort to uphold any kind of objectivity or credibility or vetting thresholds any more. We’re going to throw everything against the kitchen sink and see what sticks."
It’s hilarious for a Fox News contributor to attack any other network about objectivity but what’s not funny at all is Williams’ allegation (which neatly dovetailed with Trump) that BuzzFeed’s actions were “a very slippery and dangerous slope.”
Meanwhile Williams completely ignored the slippery and dangerous slope that the Trump team is pushing us down with its attacks on the press.
McCain was just fine with that. She said, “It feels like karmic retribution in a weird way for all of the years of the liberal media really taking extra shots, having such incredibly biased reporting … Reporters have got to start actually doing their job and not just having a bias and a prism from which they see Republicans and conservatives.”
Project much, Meghan?
Watch Fox News toss aside real questions about treason and blackmail regarding the president-elect for the sake of attacking the “liberal media” above, from the January 11, 2017 Outnumbered.
Crossposted at Newshounds.us
