Tag Archives: foxnews

by

Daily Broadside | Per Curiam, Baby! U.S. Supreme Court Unanimously Slaps Colorado Silly

SCOTUS rules 9-0 that Colorado can’t remove Trump from their ballot, no matter what Colorado’s Supreme Court says.

The Supreme Court ruled on March 4 that former President Donald Trump can’t be removed from the ballot by individual states, overturning the Colorado Supreme Court decision that found him ineligible as a candidate and disqualified from the state ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

“Responsibility for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates rests with Congress and not the States. The judgment of the Colorado Supreme Court therefore cannot stand,” the per curiam order reads. “All nine Members of the Court agree with that result.”

This was not a “partisan” Supreme Court decision, with the liberal justices taking one side and the other justices taking the other. All nine of them agreed that Colorado doesn’t have the authority to remove Trump from the ballot based on Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.

“Because the Constitution makes Congress, rather than the States, responsible for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates, we reverse.”

Ed Morrisey at Hot Air says the nine justices wanted to make this stick, and quotes Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s separate concurrence that makes that point:

She emphasizes, however, that the real story here is their unanimity in regard to state action on Section 3:

Particularly in this circumstance, writings on the Court should turn the national temperature down, not up. For present purposes, our differences are far less important than our unanimity: All nine Justices agree on the outcome of this case. That is the message Americans should take home.

So Trump remains on the ballot in all 50 states and that is important particularly today — Super Tuesday. Trump won the North Dakota Republican caucus last night. Today’s contests cross these states: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and American Samoa.

New polls show that Trump is outperforming Biden. Fox News shows Trump leading Biden “in a potential rematch, the survey finds Trump receives 49% support while Biden gets 47%.  That’s pretty much where it’s been since September.  Trump’s advantage is within the margin of sampling error.”

At National Review, Rich Lowry asks a rhetorical question: “How is this survivable [for Biden]?”

That’s a rhetorical question. There are ways it could be survivable, but this finding in the new Fox News poll has to be the most disturbing result from the new bout of general-election polling. Besides the public’s belief that Biden is too old to serve again, 48 percent said that Biden’s policies are hurting them and their families, and only 25 percent said they are helping — whereas 45 percent said Trump’s policies helped and 32 percent said they hurt.

The latest CBS News / YouGov poll agrees:

As Super Tuesday makes an historic rematch all but official, voters are comparing not just two presidents, but two presidencies. 

And right now former President Donald Trump emerges from that comparison as the frontrunner. He leads President Biden by four points nationally, his largest lead to date. Here’s why:

Voters recall the economy under Trump more fondly than they rate the economy now. 

While neither gets great marks, voters today look back on Trump’s presidency with relatively better retrospective ratings than they’d rate Joe Biden’s presidency so far. 

And in a New York Times/Siena College poll, Trump leads Haley “77%-20% among registered GOP primary voters when asked which candidate they’d be most likely to vote for if the election for the Republican nominee for president were held today. The former president also has a strong lead over Haley – 76.9%-14.5% – in FiveThirtyEight’s Republican primary polling average as of March 4. Biden, meanwhile, was down 43%-48% against Trump with regard to the likely November matchup, according to the Times/Siena poll.”

This is the same feel I got watching Trump in 2020; the momentum was there, the energy was there, the voters were there. But our domestic enemies were “fortifying the election” and if you don’t think they’re making plans for November, you haven’t been paying attention, because their plans include all of the election interference we’re watching as ridiculous lawfare suits are slapped on Trump and his associates.

That’s why the SCOTUS decision yesterday was a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, Coney Barrett’s entreaty to turn down the national temperature will go unheeded by the Left.

by

Daily Broadside | Fox News and Anheuser-Busch Deserve To Be Left By Conservatives

Happy Friday and happy Cinco de Mayo. According to Wikipedia, the holiday “generates beer sales on par with the Super Bowl.” That’s unfortunate for Bud Light, which is going to miss out on that annual bonanza!

Bud Light has hemorrhaged sales in recent weeks after executives partnered with Mulvaney, a biological man who claims to be a woman, and chronicled his purported gender transition on social media. Doukeris told analysts that social media users are spreading “misinformation” about the nature of the partnership, according to a report from Fox Business.

“We need to clarify the facts,” the executive for the Belgian conglomerate remarked, adding that the controversy is about “one influencer, one post and not a campaign.”

Sales for draft beer products marketed by Anheuser-Busch InBev nevertheless fell in the immediate aftermath of the partnership and continues to decline weeks after the controversy as beer enthusiasts search for alternatives. Doukeris revealed that Anheuser-Busch is now “providing direct financial support” to delivery drivers, sales representatives, wholesalers, bar owners, and other workers affected by the boycott.

Doukeris is minimizing the partnership with Mulvaney, dismissing it as “one influencer, one post and not a campaign.” Gosh, good thing it was only “one post” — no telling what a full blown campaign would’ve done!

This is the kind of tone deaf response that corporations flirting with wokeness toss out in their defense. Does he actually think that consumers care whether it was “one post” or a national campaign? It was the violation of the brand bond that sunk them.

But it’s even worse than that as they ignored—or are ignorant of—a key feature of the beer drinker, the incredible bond the consumer has with the product.

Not all products have the same level of bond with their consumers as others. But the beer or booze you drink, the vehicle you drive (as an example, Ford, Dodge, or Chevy pickups), and back when it was acceptable, the cigarette you smoked, all said something about you.

Thus, these types of products have a much higher customer bond than say the bathroom cleaning products you use. Few products have a higher bond than beer.

They have thousands and thousands of interactions with the brand every year . . . for years. Parties, birthdays, going to bars, football games, NASCAR, just sitting around at home watching TV, and through good times and bad with a friend who’s always there for you.

This brand bond is a reflection of what consumers perceive themselves to be. And having a role-playing guy who says he’s a woman sitting in a bubble bath and crowing about becoming the brand ambassador of your favorite beer is not what these consumers view themselves to be. It is a jarring affront to their perception of reality. It was an almost universal, WTF moment for all Bud Light drinkers.

Thus, ABI violated this bond and set off a firestorm like none before in the beer world, most likely forever changing the beer competitive landscape.

Most analysis focuses on the guy playing a gal, but that is where they are wrong. It’s not fundamentally about Dylan Mulvaney. It’s about the violation of this bond. And the stronger the bond, the greater the feeling of betrayal.

Worse yet, Doukeris is blaming “social media users” for “spreading ‘misinformation.'” Got that? It’s your fault that this happened. But Anheuser-Busch is confident it can overcome it’s consumer’s mistakes.

“We believe we have the experience, the resources and the partners to manage this. And our four-year growth outlook is unchanged,” Doukeris said. 

“We want to reiterate our support for our wholesaler partners and everyone who brings our great beers to the market. I can tell you that we have the agility, resources and people to support the U.S. team and move forward,” he added.

“We will continue to learn, meet the moment in time, all be stronger and we work tirelessly to do what we do best: Bring people together over a beer and creating a future of more cheers.” 

That sounds just like another corporation that deliberately torpedoed it’s brand by firing its top broadcast personality. Fox News has lost nearly half its audience in what used to be Tucker Carlson’s 8:00 PM slot.

Ratings for Fox News have dropped considerably in the wake of popular anchor Tucker Carlson departing from the network.

During its 8 p.m. hour, the network has dropped from a three million viewer average to a 1.65 million viewer average since the departure of Tucker Carlson; the hour was previously filled by Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade, which will then be filled by Fox News personality Lawrence Jones. Per the Washington Post:

The disparity was most stark on Wednesday, when Kilmeade’s 8 p.m. hour received an average of 1.3 million total viewers, compared with the 3 million Carlson received a week earlier — a decline of 56 percent. Overall, the network experienced a 45 percent viewership decline last week without Carlson in the host’s chair.

When Fox announced Carlson’s forced departure April 24, the network said that “rotating Fox News personalities” will fill in until a permanent 8 p.m. host is selected. The network did something similar with the 7 p.m. hour, after it was vacated by anchor Martha MacCallum, and ultimately settled on Jesse Watters as the permanent host. “Jesse Watters Primetime” has been a major success for Fox News, and Watters, who also co-hosts “The Five,” is considered a possible candidate for Carlson’s old slot.

Beyond the 8 p.m. slot, the network has also seen a sharp decline in the 25-54 demographic in the 6 p.m., 7 p.m., and 9 p.m. time slots.

Imagine Tucker Carlson as Bud Light and Fox News as the parent company, Anheuser-Busch. Now imagine A-B cutting off production of its top-selling beer without explanation, and you begin to get a sense of what Fox News has done. Just as the abandonment of Bud Light consumers has created a halo effect on other A-B brands, so has Tucker Carlson’s firing affected other shows, notably Hannity and Ingraham, which have both lost about a third of their audiences without Carlson’s lead-in.

“The demo” is that audience bloc of 25-54-year-olds coveted by advertisers. It’s the key metric that analysts watch to gauge how well a show is doing.

Like A-B, Fox News issued a cheery and defiant statement to address concerns over the fallout of its decision.

“For more than 21 years, Fox News Channel has been cable news’ most-watched network in all categories with more Democrats, Independents and Republicans now tuning in than either CNN or MSNBC,” the company said.

“Attracting more than 50 percent of the cable news viewing audience with the top 12 programs in cable news, Fox News’ powerhouse team of journalists, analysts and opinion hosts are trusted more by viewers than any other news source,” it added.

Not if conservatives abandon the network.

So both Fox News and Anheuser-Busch are hemorrhaging consumers. I consider that good news. In fact, I want conservatives and other like-minded adults to not just boycott, but to ABANDON both companies. They need to hear from us.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the life blood of any company is money. Unless they suffer a significant financial loss that sticks, they won’t change their behavior. It’s great that by mid-April A-B had lost some $6.5 billion in value since their ill-advised attempt to break from their “fratty, kind of out-of-touch” consumers. But A-B is a beverage juggernaut with a net worth of $130.73 billion.

Fox Corporation, parent company of Fox News, lost $1 billion, or about 5 percent of its stock valuation following its announcement canceling Tucker Carlson’s show. But they, too, are a corporate behemoth, with a net worth of $16.26 billion.

Neither of these corporations are going out of business, but they need to hear from conservatives. Leftists take off the gloves and throw their weight around, demanding that companies toe their woke lines or that they fire any employee that doesn’t. Corporations fear the woke, but they don’t fear conservatives because we tend to be kind, be reserved, mind our own business, and despise hurting anyone or anything.

If Fox News loses its audience in the 8:00, 9:00 and 10:00 PM slots and they don’t come back, that sends a message. If Bud Light loses its consumers and they don’t come back, that sends a message. The message is that “we’re not going to take it.” But if consumers have a fit of pique then return to the beer or the program, that sends a message, too. The message is, “we’re offended, but also we love our beer and whatever replacement bobble head you give us.”

Other corporations will take note and act accordingly.

If you want to know how to participate in the “culture wars”, ABANDON those companies that cater to the Left. Let them know by your ABSENCE that you won’t give them money to ruin your children and our society by promoting men who pretend to be women or that if they have such contempt for you that they’d rather cut the top-rated cable host in all of television than cater to your interests that you’ll go find your news somewhere else.

It has to be done.

Have a good weekend.

by

Daily Broadside | The Destiny of Tucker Carlson Is Still Up In The Air

Tucker Carlson’s fate is still a hot topic of conversation and speculation one week after his eponymous show was unceremoniously axed from Fox News. More and more speculation about why his show was terminated is swirling, too.

On December 13, 2018, Tucker Carlson did a segment on the effects of massive, uncontrolled, and often illegal immigration from poor countries. Tucker showed videos of caravans of illegal immigrants coming to our borders, and of the piles of garbage they left behind.  Tucker explained how this was hurting America in many ways.  He criticized political leaders of both parties and business elites for ignoring the problem.

Tucker agreed that most of the immigrants themselves were “nice people”.  However, he concluded:   

“But as an economic matter this is insane. It’s indefensible, so no one even tries to defend it. Instead, our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this. We have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor, they tell us, even if it makes our country poorer and dirtier and more divided.”

Everything Tucker Carlson said was true, undisputed, and reasonable.  It had all been said many times by many political leaders and economic experts. In 2016, candidate Donald Trump won widespread, mainstream support by promising to fix these problems.  Trump promised a border wall and strict enforcement of immigration laws.  Tucker Carlson was correct to remind his viewers of how the leaders of both parties were ignoring this critical issue.

However, the Left used Tucker’s December 13, 2018 program to begin an orchestrated campaign to eliminate Tucker Carlson’s program, and possibly the entire Fox News network, from cable television. [snip]

Within days, at least 26 mainstream corporate sponsors publicly announced that they would no longer sponsor the Tucker Carlson program.

The argument is that without first-tier corporate sponsorship, a primetime slot couldn’t be indefinitely sustained, and Carlson was doomed. If that’s true, then the Leftists got another scalp, even though it took them a while.

On the other hand, I have a hard time believing that it was just a money issue. You can’t tell me that a behemoth like Fox News Corp couldn’t sustain their top rated program? There were other ways to make up the budget, I’m sure. They could cut loose any number of other personalities like, say, Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham.

Surprisingly, Carlson is still employed by Fox News, according to Carlson himself.

Fox’s firing of the most-watched host on cable news, Tucker Carlson, is still roiling Leftists and patriots alike, but now Carlson himself has said that it didn’t actually happen at all. In a text message to the news analysis site 19FortyFive, Carlson said flatly: “I’m still employed by Fox.” This doesn’t mean, however, that all is forgiven and that his show will be back on the air Monday. On the contrary, it could hinder Carlson’s plans to take his truth-telling elsewhere. [snip]

… Fox could conceivably muzzle Carlson and prevent him from being able to go anywhere else. The network could simply pay him to do nothing.

That would depend, however, on Fox having any funds to pay him with, and if it continues to lose viewers at the rate it’s been losing them since it deep-sixed Carlson’s show, it might find it more profitable to release him from his contract rather than silence him, whether out of spite or out of a desire to please the Leftist establishment.

In spite of that, TMZ is reporting that Newsmax has made overtures to Carlson, and not just with money.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … the news channel is doing everything it can to sweeten the deal for Tucker to come on board — including floating the idea of letting him program the whole channel, not just his own show.

That would be a pretty enticing deal point … in addition to having his own primetime show, Tucker would have a say over what shows lead into and out of his show, which can be key in achieving bigger TV ratings.

While our sources stress Newsmax hasn’t formally offered Tucker a job — he can’t have formal discussions due to his current Fox News contract — we’re told the network execs have made it clear to people around him, they would basically give him a big say in rebranding their channel.

I don’t know how much credibility to give what is essentially a gossip site, but if they say, “sources with direct knowledge …” it is probably credible. Newsmax’s ratings have risen since Carlson was shown the door over at Fox.

For example, the week before Carlson’s ouster, Eric Bolling’s 8 p.m. show on Newsmax drew 146,000 viewers while going head-to-head with Carlson. Last week, Bolling had 531,000 viewers and upped that on Tuesday to 562,000, putting his show at what the Times said was 80 percent of Anderson Cooper’s CNN audience that night.

With all of this still very much in play, I was impressed by Doug Wilson’s commentary as he listens to Carlson’s speech to the Heritage Foundation. Wilson suggests we all pray for Tucker Carlson. If you have the time, I highly recommend that you listen to the whole thing.

by

Daily Broadside | Carlson Pops Up With Material He Used at the Heritage Foundation and Crushes His Fox News Numbers

Tucker Carlson showed up on Twitter at 8:00 PM ET (heh heh) with an unannounced monologue last night that already had more views than his show on Fox ever got (averaged 3.2 million viewers) an hour after he posted it.

His topic was the “unbelievably stupid debates” we see on television, which are irrelevant and forgettable. Yet, he says, almost none of them concern really big topics like war, emerging science, demographic changes, civil liberties and corporate power, among them. His accusation: both political parties and their donors collude to shut down any discussion about those big topics because they aren’t in their best interests.

His conclusion: the United States is a one-party system.

His hope: our current moment is too ridiculous to last.

When honest people say what’s true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful. At the same time the liars, who’ve been trying to silence them, shrink, and they become weaker. That’s the iron law of the universe: true things prevail.

This is a theme that he offered at the Heritage Foundation on Friday, the last night of his show (unbeknownst to him at the time).

The second you decide to tell the truth about something, you are filled with this — I don’t want to get supernatural on you — but you are filled with this power from somewhere else. Try it! Tell the truth about something. You feel it every day. The more you tell the truth, the stronger you become. That’s completely real. It’s measurable in the way that you feel.

You can watch his entire speech here.

I understand what he’s describing. I think it’s that sense of relief once you stop pretending that something is true that isn’t. If you hold a lie as the truth, it creates a tension within you. Once you admit the truth, that tension is released. That “power” you feel is the freedom the truth brings.

As Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). That’s admittedly a bit of misapplication, but the principle, “the truth will set you free,” remains.

Carlson’s speech is interesting for another reason — it may be why he was fired from Fox. Here’s Matt Walsh’s take.

You can find the Vanity Fair article Walsh refers to here.

Of course, Carlson’s 8:00 PM slot at Fox News has already grown cold and thousands of viewers have canceled their Fox Nation subscriptions.

Fox must’ve thought their audience was so loyal to their brand that they could survive firing the most powerful conservative voice in cable news — in all of journalism, really. As I said on Tuesday, I’m guessing it will be a Bud Light moment, and a real head-scratcher at that.

But Carlson will be back and I hope he’ll hammer home the truth even more powerfully.

by - 2 Comments

Daily Broadside | Fox News Is All Tuckered Out

Yesterday brought news of a host of host firings and leavings, the most shocking of which was Tucker Carlson at Fox News.

Tucker Carlson, the provocative, conservative prime-time host who sustained Fox News as a ratings juggernaut, has been forced out of the network.

Fox News announced the stunning departure of its top-rated host Monday with no explanation, but people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to comment publicly said the decision to fire Carlson came straight from Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch with input from board members and other Fox Corp. executives.

According to one person familiar with the discussions, Murdoch’s son Lachlan, executive chairman of Fox Corp., and Suzanne Scott, chief executive of Fox News Media, decided late Friday that Carlson had to go.

Carlson’s last show was Friday.

“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the network said in a statement. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”

This follows the exit of Dan Bongino last week and rumors that Maria Bartiromo will go, too.

Seems like Fox is bleeding off whatever remaining conservatives are still at the network. Sure, Hannity is a conservative, but he’s a largely ineffective conservative. He’s not a movement leader. I haven’t watched him in years because he talks too much about himself and is too predictable. He’s a soft and comfortable conservative.

Greg Gutfeld is a weird dude who isn’t all that funny but has parlayed a humorous schtick into a regular show torching liberals. He also burns Geraldo Rivera during The Five, but that doesn’t mean he’s a movement leader.

Tucker Carlson was the only reason I ever tuned into Fox News anymore. He was smart, bold, and insightful. His monologues were often shared and talked about. Now that he’s gone, I can’t think of a single reason to watch. It’ll be interesting to see what happens — it sort of feels like a Bud Light moment. When you alienate your core audience, I’m not sure what they expect will happen.

Over at CNN, Don Lemon — or, as Tucker called him, Don le Mon — was fired after 17 years with the network. A boorish gay news personality, Lemon had tested the patience of new CEO Chris Licht with his antics during his demoted gig as a morning show anchor with two women.

CNN fired longtime host Don Lemon on Monday following his short and disastrous run as a morning show host, a little over two months after he apologized for on-air comments about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley being past her prime.

The move quickly turned nasty. While CNN chairman and CEO Chris Licht announced, after Lemon had co-hosted the show Monday, that they had “parted ways,” Lemon characterized it as a firing and said it was surprise to him.

“After 17 years at CNN I would have thought someone in management would have the decency to tell me directly,” Lemon said. CNN said that Lemon was given the opportunity to meet with management but released a statement on Twitter instead.

CNN offered no public explanation for Lemon’s dismissal. During a February discussion on “CNN This Morning” with co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins about the ages of politicians, he said that the 51-year-old Haley was not “in her prime.” A woman, he said, was considered in her prime “in her 20s, 30s and maybe her 40s.”

Harlow challenged Lemon, trying to clarify what he was referencing: “I think we need to qualify. Are you talking about prime for childbearing or are you talking about prime for being president?”

“Don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just saying what the facts are,” Lemon responded.

Licht apparently decided that le Mon was past his prime. I never watched CNN, so my viewing habits won’t be affected by his ouster.

I think Licht is trying to pull CNN rightward after its sojourn into Trump Derangement Syndrome on the far left during Trump’s administration. On the other hand, it looks like Rupert Murdoch is pulling Fox News leftward from a more centrist position. It has a reputation for being a “conservative” network, but guys like Bret Baier, Geraldo Rivera, Jessica Tarlov, and former hosts Shepherd Smith, Juan Williams, and Chris Wallace, to varying degrees, aren’t and weren’t true conservatives. In addition, Fox News also has former House Speaker and RINO Paul Ryan on its board, and Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s son, is no conservative.

Carlson will be a hot commodity on the open market. Wherever he lands his audience will follow. Fox News will experience a severe drop in its ratings, and whoever picks up Carlson will experience a spike in theirs.