Fox News: The DeSantis Debate Dud, the Death of Henry Kissinger and More Misery from Israel-Palestine
A condensed overview of 16 hours of Fox News for the week ending 12/3/23
Last week Fox News hosts did their best to hype up a debate between a faltering Republican presidential candidate and a popular Democratic governor while whitewashing the many sins of the late Henry Kissinger and providing horribly biased coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
The network also ignored a severe winter storm in Ukraine, a stronger than expected Black Friday shopping weekend and new revision that showed even greater growth for the U.S. economy.
As always Fox pushed the narrative that President Biden was a doddering old fool wrecked with advanced dementia who would destroy the country and ultimately the world.
Shows I covered last week:
Fox & Friends
The Five
Hannity
The War Criminal Henry Kissinger Finally Died
Henry Kissinger, diplomat, political scientist, geopolitical consultant, and politician died at the age of 100 last week . Many of his critics also describe him as an immoral war criminal who cared little for human life or suffering.
A Brief Overview of Kissinger’s Bloody Foreign Policy Decisions
Vietnam
Kissinger served as secretary of state and national security advisor during the Nixon and Ford admin. while the U.S. was engaged in the Vietnam War. Some of Kissinger’s detractors have said that he needlessly prolonged the war by as much as four years resulting the deaths of countless American soldiers as well as Vietnamese soldiers and civilians.
Cambodia
During the Vietnam War Kissinger ordered illegal, secret bombings of neutral Cambodia in an effort to flush out Viet Cong forces in the Eastern part of the country. Congress and the American public were unaware of these covert operations.
According to reporting by the BBC, Ben Kiernan, a historian at Yale University and a leading scholar on Cambodia, has estimated that around 500,000 tons of U.S. bombs were dropped on Cambodia between 1969-1973. In total Kissinger approved approx. 3,875 bombing raids in 1969 and 1970.
The loss of life from the U.S. aerial attacks were estimated at 50,000 - 100,000 people. U.S. aggression emboldened the Pol Pot-led Khmer Rouge regime which ultimately engaged in a genocide that resulted in the deaths of 1.7 million people or about one quarter of the population.
Chile
Kissinger worked with the Nixon administration to help destabilize Chile after the election of Salvador Allende, a socialist who attempted to nationalize copper mines and provide free healthcare and education to his nation’s poorest citizens.
Allende was killed during a violent coup led by General Augusto Pinochet who ruled the country with an iron fist. Kissinger denied any direct involvement or knowledge of the bloody coup but declassified documents later showed that he and Nixon had branded Allende as a dangerous communist and helped lay the foundation for his overthrow.
According to reporting by The Independent the Chilean government later found 40,018 people were killed, tortured, or imprisoned on political charges during Pinochet’s regime.
Argentina
Kissinger sent U.S. support to the military junta of General Jorge Rafael Videla after he overthrew President Isabel Perón, according to State Department cables. This led to the ‘Dirty War’ between 1976 to 1983, where the military ruler disappeared 10,000 - 30,000 citizens.
Both Pinochet and Videla were known to toss political prisoners out of helicopters. Videla was later convicted of torture, kidnapping, and murder, and died in prison in 2013.
East Timor
Kissinger has also been accused of playing a role in the civil war in East Timor that left as many as 200,000 people dead. Kissinger denied any involvement with the war, but documents that were declassified in 2001 showed that Kissinger and Ford encouraged Indonesian dictator Suharto to invade East Timor.
Bangladesh
Kissinger and Nixon backed a military government in what was then West Pakistan in its genocide of the Bengali population. Independent researchers put the death toll at between 300,000 to 500,000 people, while Bangladeshi officials placed it as high as five million.
Dana Perino - Kissinger Outlived His Critics
On Thursday on “The Five,” Dana Perino seemed to say that Kissinger’s many critics were no longer relevant because they are now deceased.
“He had a very consequential life. He made some decisions or advised on some decisions that, for example, Cambodia, that if you look at the ‘Rolling Stone,’ they will say, here are all the reasons why he's a war criminal. He had critics throughout his life. What I love about him is that he didn't let that define him. He didn't let that hold him back from making decisions and having a big life.
He was still up until about six months ago writing books about consequential leaders of the world. That's an excellent book by the way. I think you would actually really like that one as well. He wrote about artificial intelligence. He was writing about the things that we need to worry about for the next 40 years because he loved this world.
He wanted to do the best for the most people that he possibly could. He said something very interesting, and I would say this to the critics. Many of the critics, by the way, he outlived them. So, there would probably be more today. So one of the one of the writers that is a correspondent who contributed to The New York Times obituary died 13 years ago,” said Perino.
The DeSantis/Newsom Showdown
Sean Hannity dedicated nearly two hours of airtime to a debate between Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA). It was billed as an epic showdown between red state and blue state government policies.
It turned into a double team match up of Hannity helping DeSantis verbally battle against a far more skilled opponent. While DeSantis repeated himself and made strange facial expressions Newsom came prepared with well researched talking points and a charm offensive.
Hannity didn’t so much ask questions as he made short speeches, some as long as two minutes, then asked either candidate, “what do you think?” Hannity’s remarks and questions took up 24 minutes of the total debate which was roughly an hour and 21 minutes long without commercials or commentary.
Even the staging of the event was meant to create a false reality as the two men were stationed at lecterns that were at least thirty feet apart with no forward shot that would indicate DeSantis’ average height compared to the towering Newsom. When the governors were featured in a side-by-side comparison on screen their heights were artificially equalized.
Height shouldn’t matter in politics but American voters have a known preference for taller candidates at least in presidential elections.
Tammy Bruce - Gavin Newsom is Slick, Smarmy, and Smug
Tammy Bruce, conservative radio host and author, gave her opinion about Newsom’s performance the day after the debate on “Hannity.”
“And especially with Gavin Newsom showing the American people that's the old way, this kind of slick, smarmy, smug smile guy who doesn't speaks like Kamala Harris. In word salads,” said Bruce.
Bruce appeared to use a classic gaslighting technique of inventing reality in terms of her description of the California governor. Newsom’s remarks were the opposite of a jumbled mess they were well thought out and effective.
I selected just a handful of well-crafted zingers Newsom lobbed at DeSantis during the debate.
Newsom on California
“California has no peers. California dominates sizable 21 state populations combined. It is the fifth largest economy in the world. We dominate. We are the number one manufacturing state. We dominate in two-way trade and research and development. Access to innovation. More scientists, more researchers, more engineers, more Nobel laureates in the state of California than any other state in the nation. The finest system of higher education. It's the birthplace of life, science and biotech and nanotechnology. We dominate in green tech, we dominate in high tech, we dominate in artificial intelligence. So with respect, I think it's an interesting campaign strategy for Ron DeSantis to be bashing the state of 40 million Americans when California simply has no peers,” said Newsom.
Abortion
“Ron DeSantis signed the most extreme anti-abortion bills in America. He signed a bill banning any exceptions for rape and incest. And then he said it didn't go far enough and decided to sign a six week ban before women even know they're pregnant, Ron before women can even access a doctor's appointment. So extreme is your ban that criminalizes women and criminalizes doctors that even Donald Trump said it was too extreme,” said Newsom.
He then directed his question directly to DeSantis.
“Will you or you or will you not support a national ban? Will you or will you not support a national ban if it lands on your desk?” after some crosstalk and no direct answer from DeSantis Newsom turned back directly to the camera and addressed viewers.
“The American people should know this. I’ll answer for Ron DeSantis because he won’t answer this. He will sign that extreme six-week ban. The American people should know that,” said Newsom.
On DeSantis’ Presidential Run
Again, Newsom addressed DeSantis directly.
“Nikki Haley's campaign is asking, when are you going to drop out and at least give Nikki Haley a shot to take down Donald Trump in this nomination?”
Later he chided the Florida governor for his poor showing in the polls.
“You’re trolling folks and trying to find migrants to play political games to try to get some news and attention so you can out Trump, Trump. And by the way, how's that going for you, Ron? You're down 41 points in your own home state.”
And finally, Newsom mocked him again.
“I know we have one thing in common is neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.”
Jessica Tarlov Mentions the Incompetence of Bibi Netanyahu
Fox News hosts generally only speak glowingly of the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Tuesday on “The Five,” Jessica Tarlov had several disparaging things to say about the Israeli prime minister.
“To know how you think about this, but it's incomprehensible to me to to blame Joe Biden for this. I mean, if you want to talk about a world leader who turned their back on a pressing concern about what's going on in the Middle East, let's talk about Bibi Netanyahu and that he spent eight or nine months before this attack happened, having to send troops to the other side of the country because he wanted to overhaul the judiciary, to keep him in office forever and completely gut their version of the Supreme Court.
Over 80% of Israelis have a negative view of him. People in his own administration have taken responsibility, saying we ignored signs, whether it's the report from Egypt or the fact that it will take you a couple of years to build up what Hamas has managed to do. So, Joe Biden, his standing on the world stage in terms of what world leaders think of him is up, what people in other countries think is up.
And I think it's dereliction of duty, this narrative that's going on in the media and certainly in the liberal media, where they just want to crap on him. Because if you look at like the morning consult poll, the first poll taken since the ceasefire began came out first major poll, Biden is up four points and is now up one over Trump.
There was a YouGov poll out last week that had Biden up over Trump. The New York Times Siena poll, which we gave it to, and we talked about the fact that Biden was down, and he was losing the swing states in the crosstabs. And The New York Times didn't even cover this part of it. The crosstabs revealed that if Trump is convicted of anything and he has 91 counts that he's facing, he loses by ten points and he loses every single swing state.” said Tarlov.
Lawrence Jones Claimed Democrats Want To Exterminate Jews
On Thursday, on “Fox & Friends,” Lawrence Jones made outrageous students about Democrats.
“Brian, they're doing that while they have people that are within their party that are spewing Hamas talking points that literally want to get rid of the Jews in this country. So, they don't get to come after Donald Trump and call him a racist. When they literally have people in their party, which is why the president is adjusting his foreign policy on the matter, that are calling for the extermination of Jews,” said Jones.
He never elaborated on which Democrats he meant, or any specific threat any Democrat had made towards Jewish people. His comment was just tossed out casually before a commercial break.
Kilmeade - Don’t Call Trump a Nazi!
On Friday on “Fox & Friends,” Brian Kilmeade complained about Nazi comparisons to former President Donald J. Trump.
“With 97% of stories written about Donald Trump that are negative, he's still beating on the real clear average. And every latest poll over the last six weeks, Lawrence, he's beating Joe Biden by two, three or four points. Nikki Haley beats him by 11. And what their attack plan is, similar to Barack Obama, with Mitt Romney, they made him the worst person in the world.
What they've going to do with Donald Trump is say that he's a fascist. They already called him Hitler. He's going to destroy democracy. So it's not like we're better than you to want to go back to that because they don't want you looking at his for years. Well, they want to mischaracterize those past four years and they want to make him unelectable and say, you're stuck with me.
And that's the question right now. Is that is that going to be enough since they've already played the Hitler card in November? Are they going to be able to do this for the next year?” said Kilmeade.
Judge Jeanine Sort of Implied Iran Nuked Iraq
On Monday, on “The Five,” Judge Jeanine Pirro seemed to get an ICBM, (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) confused with a short range ballistic missile.
“He has not sent a strong message. America is basically said you are in Iraq and Syria and your proxies can hit our soldiers whenever you want. We're not going to respond, although I think we did. We blew up a garage or something. And now on Thursday, they apparently sent an intercontinental ballistic missile. And we're not responding to this,” said Pirro.
Most ICBM’s include one or more nuclear warheads and are designed to travel high up into the atmosphere to hit far off large targets such as a city. The only countries known to have ICBM’s are the United States, Russia, China, France, India, the U.K, Israel, North Korea.
Iran and Iraq share a border. There would be absolutely no reason for any group to fire a long-range missile a few hundred miles into a neighboring country.
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 list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not.
Climate disasters
Parts of Southern and Central Ukraine were hit with a powerful winter Black Sea Storm that caused snow drifts up to six feet and knocked out power to some 2,000 towns. Experts have called it one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the region.
PBS produced a segment about how Coastal cities in Southeast Asia, including Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila, are sinking as sea levels around them are rising due to climate change.
According to the Pentagon the Israeli-owned tanker seized last week was attacked by Somali pirates not rebels from Yemen. A U.S. Navy destroyer rescued the tanker in the Gulf of Aden and the pirates were put under arrest.
Last week gunmen in the West African nation of Sierra Leone stormed a military barracks and prison where they killed 20 people. Within hours the president said calm had returned after the leaders of the group were arrested.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary chose authentic as the word of the year. The word is selected based on the number of searches for the term and its meaning.
PBS produced a segment about Nathaniel LaPrade the shortest U.S. Marine on record. LaPrade stands at only 4 feet seven inches tall. He hopes to eventually became a boot camp drill sargent.
After being trapped for 17 days 41 miners were rescued from a collapsed mountain tunnel in Northern India. Rescuers had to drill and bore through nearly 200 feet of rock to get them out through a series of welded pipes. No one was seriously injured. They received food and oxygen trough narrow steel tubes.
The National Retail Federation reported a strong Black Friday weekend. Shoppers spent 8% more than they did a year ago which was well above expectations.
The Texas Supreme Court heard arguments in a case brought by a group of 20 women who say they were denied emergency care during their pregnancies due to the state’s restrictive abortion laws. The case is the first time since Roe v Wade was overturned that patients denied an abortion have sued a state.
PBS produced a segment about a new federal study about half of all healthcare workers in the United States reported that they often felt burned out. Research shows that nurses suffer disproportionately from mental health conditions. The segment focused on how one hospital was trying to increase access to wellness and mental healthcare for its staff.
The remains of five Native Americans were returned to a tribe in Minnesota more than a century after they were looted from a burial site. The remains sat in a basement in Connecticut until state officials stepped in to return them to the tribe.
PBS produced a segment about the increased popularity of the sport cricket in the United States and the newly formed Major League Cricket league. Most of the interest for the sport comes from immigrants from South Asian countries that were once part of the British empire where the sport is popular.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in U.S. history, gave an impassioned speech on the Senate floor about antisemitism. He cited centuries of hatred and violence towards Jews. He also published an op-ed in the New York Times where he called the rise of antisemitism a “five-alarm fire.”
The CDC reported that life expectancy in the U.S. jumped by more than one year. A child born in 2022 could expect to live 77 years and six months which is still short of the 79 years those born in 2019 before the pandemic.
The Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development said that the global economy could slow down next year. The organization cited wars, inflation and interest rates as the reasons for slower growth. The U.S. economy is expanding faster than expected.
The growth rate for the U.S. economy in the third quarter was revised up to 5.2% annual rate. Most experts expect growth to slow in the fourth quarter.
A federal judge ruled that Georgia’s current congressional districts dilute the power of Black voters. State lawmakers have until December 8th to redraw a map that complies with the federal Voting Rights Act.
A New York appeals court has reinstated the gag order on Donald J. Trump in the civil fraud trial involving the former president and his company. Judge Arthur Engoron imposed the order after Mr. Trump posted derogatory comments about his clerk which court officials said sparked hundreds of threats.
The social media company Meta has eliminated nearly 4800 fake Facebook accounts which were designed to sow political division in the United States. They were meant to look like they were created by American citizens but originated in China.
The Supreme Court in Russia banned what it called the international LGBT movement as part of a long running effort to crackdown on gay, lesbian and transgender rights. Human rights activists have said it basically outlaws LGBT activism in the country.
Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing sates made new attempts to reduce oil production to help increase prices. OPEC+ also announced that Brazil will join the alliance in January.
The Commerce Department reported that consumer prices were unchanged from September to October. Year over year prices were up 3% the slowest pace in two and a half years.
The Labor Department said the number of people collecting jobless benefits hit a two-year high in mid-November, at nearly two million.
Hawaii became the ninth state to start requiring public and charter schools to provide free menstrual products to students.
A federal appeals court panel ruled the January 6th related lawsuits filed against former President Donald J. Trump can move forward. The former president could ask the full appeals court to rule or go directly to the Supreme Court.
Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd was stabbed 22 times by another inmate in federal prison. The suspect has been charged with attempted murder.
Ukraine’s spy agency has reported it reached deep into Russia, destroying two fuel tanker trains in Siberia. The attacks targeted a key Russian supply route with China. They followed Russian missile strikes in the Donetsk region of Ukraine which killed two people and destroyed apartment buildings.
Alexei Navalny, a jailed Russian opposition leader is facing new criminal charges. He’s currently serving more than 30 years for various crimes, all of which he denies.
Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva will stay in jail in Southwestern Russia until February. She was arrested in October for failing to register as a foreign agent. She works for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty which is funded by the U.S. government.
A new regulation by the Biden administration might make it harder for Americans to get the full $7,500 tax credit for buying electric vehicles. The new rule reduces the credit for cars that have batteries with Chinese-made materials.