Fox News: An Impeachment Inquiry to Nowhere, Tap Dancers and Tiki Torches
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 12/17/23
While airstrikes were pummeling Gaza and Israeli hostages were being killed by friendly fire Fox News was far too distracted to mention much about the Israel-Hamas war last week. The network focused on a few colorfully costumed tap dancers, a tiki torch on the campus of Harvard, along with an impeachment inquiry into President Biden that is based on no credible evidence.
Although the folks at Fox claim to be deeply concerned about the rise of antisemitism no one at the network thought to include a segment about how European officials arrested Hamas members planning attacks on European Jews.
Fox did include the full-length press conference of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Biden appealing to Congress and the American public for more aid for Ukraine. The network only dedicated roughly eight minutes or 1.4% of total airtime to discussing the issue.
Anyone who exclusively watched Fox News last week would have also missed out on several stories involving former President Donald J. Trump’s legal problems, multiple climate disasters and a huge settlement judgment against Rudy Giuliani in a defamation trial involving two poll workers.
Shows I covered last week:
Fox & Friends
The Five
Jesse Watters Primetime
Rep. James Comer Fears Steve Doocy GOING ROGUE!
During an appearance on Newsmax last week Rep. James Comer (R-KY) said he stopped appearing on “Fox & Friends,” due to co-host Steve Doocy’s criticism of his ongoing investigation into alleged Biden family corruption.
Although Comer was adamant that he had damning evidence that led directly to President Biden he didn’t offer anything new while criticizing the morning talk show host.
Doocy didn’t even skip a beat as he repeatedly questions the validity of the impeachment inquiry last week. On Thursday on “Fox & Friends,” Doocy pointed out the lack of evidence against the president.
“This impeachment inquiry resolution actually does not accuse Joe Biden of any wrongdoing. None whatsoever. All it does is authorize these three committees to keep looking, and that was to get these 18 Republicans who are in Biden districts on board. You know, and you look at people who know a lot about what's going on and they're going to be digging for as long as they can.”
He was interrupted by his co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy.
“But don't forget, Steve, that the FBI blocked inquiries when with the whistleblowers when they came forward. The whistleblowers are the MVP's, the missing piece in this. That's right. But anything that led to Joe Biden was blocked by the FBI.”
I’m not exactly sure what Campos-Duffy is even referring to. Neither of the IRS whistleblowers in Hunter’s tax case indicated that the FBI blocked any investigation into Joe Biden. The best they could offer was that the Department of Justice slow rolled the investigation.
In transcripts from a July 17th interview with the Republican controlled committee an unidentified FBI supervisory agent actually said the opposite.
"I wasn't aware of political interference, personally," the former agent said.
Steve Doocy countered.
“I would say that the three people on Capitol Hill who know the most about this deal are James Comer, Jim Jordan and Chuck Grassley. Chuck Grassley, the Republican from Iowa, said yesterday he has seen no evidence Joe Biden was involved with Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings. He said to CNN. The facts haven't taken me to that point where I can say that the president's guilty of anything.”
Rachel Campos-Duffy is OUTRAGED that Hunter Did Business in China - Forgets about Trump’s Business in China.
Also on Thursday Campos-Duffy went on a short rant about Hunter’s business dealings with China.
“Impugning his character, his wife. It shows. Everything he complained about has been done to the Trump family in spades. And they weren't doing deals with the Chinese, with our arch enemies.”
Campos-Duffy seems to have a selective memory regarding the Trump family and China.
During her time in the White House during her father’s administration the Chinese government granted a total of 41 trademarks approved to companies that held strong links to Ivanka Trump. The trademarks were approved about 40% faster than those she requested before Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 election.
In 2018 China granted 18 trademarks to companies held by both the president and his daughter.
According to reporting by The New York Times Trump also paid $188,561 in taxes in China between 2013 and 2015 in connection to potential licensing deals. In contrast the former President only paid $750 in U.S. taxes in 2016 and 2017.
The tax records also showed Trump invested at least $192,000 in companies charged with pursuing business in China. Those firms claimed $97,400 in business expenses including payments as recent as 2018.
When Donald J. Trump and Ivanka were both shilling their own branded products many of them were manufactured in countries like China, Indonesia, Turkey and Canada.
Jesse Watters Spews a Bunch of Nonsense
On Friday on “The Five,” Jesse Watters listed a slew of things he claimed amounted damning evidence against the president. I don’t have space to go through every single absurd claim Watters makes here but I can debunk some of his main points.
“What about let's hold 10% for the big guy? They've never even explained the email. Or what about when your father flies you to Mexico? You get all these clients in Mexico, and then the Mexican clients come back to the United States and visit the vice president at the White House. And then Hunter demands money. What about if you fly your son to China? He meets all your clients. You come back with a bag of cash, and then your dad does favors for China,” said Watters.
He didn’t clarify what specific policies then Vice President Biden must have arranged for anyone in China or Mexico. He continued.
“And then after you leave the vice presidency, you're supposed to share an office with the Chinese guy named Dong. What is that? You're not in business. Or what about when the Chinese that he's in business with buy $23 million in diamonds and give him one of them to Hunter. How do we know it's just one where all the rest of the diamonds?” said Watters.
There is evidence that a Chinese businessperson did give Hunter Biden a diamond. There’s nothing to prove that Joe Biden had anything to do with the transaction or that any government policy was changed to benefit anyone in China.
“Or how about when Hunter takes $1.6 million in cash out of ATMs for three years? How do we know Joe doesn't have cash at his house? Because when the FBI looked at those documents that he wasn't supposed to have, they wouldn't let him go into every room. Certain rooms were not allowed to be entertained. Or how about when Joe's sister cuts him a check for 40 grand from the Chinese?” said Watters.
Again, there’s no evidence that Joe Biden changed U.S. policy to benefit anyone regarding Hunter’s business deals. The check for $40,000 was paid to Joe Biden from Sara Biden his sister-in-law for a personal loan repayment between two brothers. There is also evidence that Joe Biden wrote a check to his brother for the exact amount six weeks prior.
“And then the day before takes out 50 grand in cash? What is his sister in law doing? Taking 50 grand in cash. It wasn't even Christmas tip time. So these are like simple things that in an inquiry you'd want to ask, Why are they doing that? Why is Hunter Biden copied on all of Joe Biden's Ukraine emails when he was vice president?
Poytner broke down every transaction in detail regarding the loan repayment and the $50,000 withdrawn by Sara Biden. I don’t have the space in the newsletter to go through every transaction but there’s no evidence of illegal activity or money laundering.
Sara Biden withdrew the money from a business account associated with her husband and deposited in their personal account. On the same day she wrote the check to Joe Biden for the loan repayment for $40,000.
Finally, Watters brings up Biden’s use of an alias in emails.
“And why would the vice president use an alias? Isn't that strange? Why are the Bidens going to Saint Croix year after year after year? A notorious tax shelter? Why is Hunter Biden paying for his father's phone line for eight years? And why is he using burner phones? None of that makes any sense.”
The use of aliases in email correspondence is common among elected officials for security reasons to guard against malicious hacking. The alias emails that have been released so far by the National Archives were banal in nature and showed no hint of criminal behavior.
Jessica Tarlov Mentioned an Abortion case in Texas
On Friday on “The Five,” Jessica Tarlov managed to mention a controversial abortion case in Texas. Although the case got a lot of press coverage Fox had completely ignored it. If Tarlov hadn’t mentioned Cox’s tragic situation I doubt anyone on the shows I covered on Fox would have.
“You continue to hear about cases like Kate Cox from Texas where you live, right. A woman, a mother of two, pregnant with a wanted pregnancy. Her third pregnancy gets a diagnosis of trisomy 18. Her doctors say she needs an abortion. Lower court grants it. Then the Supreme Court of Texas overrules it, restricting her.
That's about health of the mother and preserving her fertility. This is what the pro-life movement wants, right? People who want children and should be able to have them. She has to leave the state in order to have that care. She has the means to do it, which a lot of women don't, and that will be on the ballot.
But you said there are no good polls. And I'm not saying that Biden isn't in trouble. I don't live in a fantasy land. But Reuters Ipsos had a poll of the seven biggest swing states signed up for the Harvard Kennedy poll of young people. Same margin advantage with Gen-Z and millennial voters that he had only one in 2020.”
Tiki Torches Run For Your Lives
On Thursday Jesse Watters tried to make a lot out of the fact that Harvard president Claudine Gay was holding a tiki torch as she lit a menorah on the Harvard campus. Watters left out that a rabbi at the ceremony handed Gay the exact same lit torch. It was no her personal tiki torch from home.
“Harvard's antisemitic plagiarist presidents on a roll calling gays an academic fraud who plagiarized half of her scholarly papers and allows students to scream, kill all the Jews. And now that Harvard Board doesn't have the backbone to terminate her, she's taken a little victory lap. They think she's untouchable. So she took a tiki torch to a menorah, lighting a tiki torch.
They told us tiki torches were racist. You remember the guys marching with tiki torches in Charlottesville chanting, Jews will not replace us. How dare she? We were told anybody who carries a tiki torches anti-Semitic. Wasn't this the reason Biden got in the race? The reason I got in the race is the most people close your eyes. Remember what those people look like coming out of the fields, carrying torches, their veins bulging.
Sources tell prime time that gay was heard chanting, Jews will not replace me. Jews will not replace me. As she lit the menorah. Our producers are saying that we have not actually confirmed those reports, but we will keep you posted.”
Kellyanne Conway Longs for the F*ck Christmas First Lady
On Friday on “The Five,” Kellyanne Conway criticized a dancer troupe hired by First Lady Jill Biden for a short holiday video at the White House. This was the second day Fox included segments about the brief video that featured a multicultural tap dance troupe performing a joyful routine to “Dance of the Floreadores” (Waltz of the Flowers) a section of Duke Ellington’s jazz interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker suite.
The founder of the dance group and 2015 McArthur Fellow, Michelle Dorrance, does include an extensive list of political causes on the website for Dorrance Dance. The first entry on the page titled ‘antiracism’ included instructions on how to register to vote.
There was nothing inherently political about the dance performed at the White House, it was just a variation on the classic Nutcracker ballet. The troupe performed Dorrance Dance: The Nutcracker Suite at The Kennedy Center earlier this month.
“We are now learning that a radical left wing dance group was hired for Joe Biden's bizarre White House Christmas video. The studio's website pushes every crazy leftist cause you can imagine from ‘Defund The Police’ to getting rid of prisons and anti-racism activists. You know, I really miss Melania Trump for lots of reasons in the White House, but no more so than this week. The first year that we had Christmas there, she did the preview for the press. She invited kids,” said Conway.
“Is that the blood red trees?” asked her co-host Jessica Tarlov.
“Yes, it was very, very tastefully done,” said Conway
I was reminded of an audio clip of a conversation between Melania and her then assistant Stephanie Winston Wolkoff from July 2018.
Melania: They say I'm complicit. I'm the same like him. I support him. I don’t say enough. I don't do enough.
Wolkoff: Nope I.
Melania: Where I am. I put - I’m working like a - my ass off at
Wolkoff: I know.
Melania: Christmas stuff, you know. Who gives a f*ck about Christmas stuff and decoration but I need to do it, right?
Wolkoff: 100% you had no choice.
Melania: OK and then I do it. And I say that I’m working on the Christmas planning for the Christmas. And they said, what about the children? That they were separated. Give me a f*cking break. Where were they anything when Obama did that.
Wolkoff: I know.
Melania: I was trying to reunite the kid with the mom. I didn’t have a chance. Needs to go through the process and through some law.
Wolkoff: But here's my thing hear what you just said, but instead of that - your messaging - you were so loved. You were.
Melania: They will not do the story. We put it out. They would not do the story. You would not believe it. They will not do the story. Because - they would not. They would not do the story because they, they, they are against us because they’re the liberal media. Yeah, if I go to Fox they will do the story but I don’t want to go to Fox.
Stories Fox News Ignored
Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS NewsHour. The following is a list of stories PBS covered that Fox News did not.
Climate disasters
At least 170 people have died and 600,000 have been displaced in Kenya due to flooding caused by extreme rains which started in November. Experts have called it the worst flooding in a century.
A massive blizzard hit Moscow, Russia dumping 8 inches of snow. The storm was the equivalent of one-fifth of the average December snowfall in one day.
Parts of China have been hit by a bitter wave of below-freezing temperatures. Beijing was blanketed with snow and highway travel was disrupted.
The United Nations COP28 climate summit wrapped up last week as many criticized the draft agreement as being too weak. The proposal aims to phase out fossil fuels but at a rate many experts don’t think will be fast enough.
Updates on the war in Ukraine
A U.S. Intelligence report revealed Russia has lost approx. 315,000 troops to death or injuries since its invasion of Ukraine. Russia has released far lower numbers. A disproportionate number of casualties are conscripts from Russia’s ethnic minority communities.
European Union leaders insisted they are committed to sending military aid to Ukraine despite Hungary’s veto of a $50 billion aid package. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is Russia’s biggest ally in Europe.
Members of the U.S. Senate decided to delay their holiday recess to work out a deal on immigration and aid to Ukraine and Israel.
Local elections in Hong Kong were dominated by Mainland China loyalists after opposition candidates were barred. Voter turnout was a dismal 27% of the 4.3 million registered voters.
The Consumer Price Index edged up on-tenth of a percent last month. On a year-to-year basis, the rate dropped slightly to 3.1%. The core inflation rate, excluding food and energy costs, rose three-tenths of a percent.
A suicide bomber blew himself up at a police station in Pakistan killing at least 23 people. An offshoot of the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Google said it would appeal a federal jury verdict that found its android App Store operates as an illegal monopoly. Epic Games argued the system destroyed competition and ultimately harmed smartphone users. The appeal could take years.
An investigation by The Outlaw Ocean Project of Chinese fishing fleets and processing centers found a pattern of forced labor and human rights abuses in the production of seafood sold in the United States.
Four women are suing hip-hop mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs over sexual assault allegations that date as far back as the early 90’s. The lawsuits are possible due to a now expired New York State law that allowed survivors a one-year window to sue for past abuse.
The Los Angeles Angels Major League Baseball team traded the 29-year old Japanese pitcher Shohei Ohtani to the Los Angles Dodgers in a $700 million 10-year deal the highest paying professional team sport contract in North American history.
Former President Donald J. Trump’s 2020 election interference criminal trial has been put on hold while his lawyers pursue his claim of presidential immunity. The Supreme Court is considering whether or not to fast-track a ruling on the issue.
The Supreme Court also said today that it will decide the legality of shipments of mifepristone, a drug used in medical abortions. The FDA approved the drug 23 years ago and since then more then five million people have used it.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that would decide on a specific part of obstruction of Congress could undermine not only many cases against those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but special counsel Jack Smith’s case against the former president Donald J. Trump.
The Library of Congress announced this year’s additions to the National Film Registry. They include “Home Alone,” “12 Years a Slave,” and “Apollo 13.” Other honorees include “Fame,” and “Lady & the Tramp.”
Andre Braugher, an Emmy Award-winning actor died at the age of 61 after a short illness. Braugher was born and raised in Chicago and a graduate of Stanford and Juilliard. He got his start on the police drama “Homicide: Life on the Street.”
The Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rates unchanged, but Fed Chairman Jerome Powell suggested there might be as many as three rate cuts next year.
Tesla has recalled two million cars, nearly half of all of its vehicles sold in the U.S. since 2012. The cars have issues with a self-driving feature.
Authorities in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands arrested seven people accused of plotting terrorist attacks. Three suspects were said to be members of Hamas who were plotting attacks on European Jews.
The House of Representatives passed a defense policy bill worth $886 billion. It included the biggest pay raise for troops in more than 20 years. The bill also did not include many demands made by conservative Republicans including restrictions on transgender care and abortion.
Amazon won a major legal battle in Europe and won’t have to pay $270 million in back taxes. An E.U. antitrust chief argued the company received special low tax rates in Luxembourg where Amazon’s European headquarters is located.
Retail sales rebounded in November and were up 0.3% in a surprise start to the holiday season. Most analysts expected a slight decline.
The Congressional Budget Office predicted inflation will slow to 2% next year and unemployment will rise to 4.4.%. The GDP is expected to fall to a rate of 1.5% before rounding in 2025.
Homelessness in the United States has soared to its highest levels on record to more than 650,000 people. Federal data showed a 12% increased in January from a year earlier.
Russian officials said the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been moved from a penal colony east of Moscow. His whereabouts were unknown after his lawyer lost touch with him after December 6.
Britan’s Prince Harry won a victory in court with British tabloids. A London court ruled that The Daily Mirror used phone hacking to snoop on Harry in the early 2000. He was awarded $180,000.
A 10in-thick binder containing nearly 3000 pages of material on Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 election went missing during the final days of the Trump administration.
Deja Taylor, a Virginia mother whose first grader shot and wounded his teacher, was sentenced to two years in state prison for child neglect. She’d already been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for using marijuana while owning a gun.
A federal jury in Washington ordered Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s former campaign attorney, to pay $148 million to two Georgia election workers in a defamation case involving the 2020 election.
By the Numbers
Last week Fox dedicated 19% to the impeachment inquiry while PBS dedicated 5% to the same story. In terms of the Israel-Hamas war Fox News spent 2% of its airtime to the story while PBS spent 16%.
I have combined Hunter Biden with the impeachment inquiry because they are the same story in many ways. =-