Jesse Watters' Mom, More Hunter Biden Nonsense, and a Country Song Got Canceled.
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 5/23/23
As the entire planet seemed to roast in extreme heat or was blasted by violent storms Fox News was concerned about the president’s troubled son and a country music video banned from CMT (Country Music Television).
The network insisted that the House investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax problems would finally lead to a criminal conviction or even an impeachment of President Biden. Two whistleblowers from the IRS expressed their disgust at how Hunter Biden’s tax returns were handled but neither men could provide evidence of a vast coverup or conspiracy.
The network also continued to obsess over a small bag of cocaine found in a visitor area of the White House.
An arrest in the case will affect no family’s ability to fill their gas tanks or fridges but that wasn’t going to stop Fox News anchors from insisting that a random bag of cocaine was an incredibly important story.
Fox News was downright pathetic last week.
Stories I covered last week
Fox & Friends - 1st hour
The Five
Jesse Watters Primetime
Jesse Watters’ Mom Called in to Jesse Watters Primetime
At the very end of his debut at the 8 p.m. time slot Jesse Watters introduced his mother, Anne Watters, via a phone call live on air. This would be odd for most cable news hosts but it was especially puzzling since Watters is a 45-year-old father of four.
“I want to say congratulations, Honey Bun. We are so proud of you and your accomplishments. And you've worked so hard. Now let's aim to have you keep your job . . .I do have some suggestions. Do not tumble into any conspiracy rabbit holes. We do not want to lose you, and we want no lawsuits,” said Anne.
Watters nervously laughed.
“In keeping, I have a list here. In keeping with the Hippocratic Oath, do no harm. We need you to be kind and respectful. You yourself mentioned that humble (about himself) is a stretch, so I guess use your voice responsibly to promote conversation that maintains a narrative thread there,” said Anne.
Watters rubbed his temples while shutting his eyes in a horribly awkward moment. His mother continued.
“There really has been enough Biden bashing and the laptop is old. Perhaps you could suggest that your people take less interest, for example, in other people's bodies and talk about that,” said Anne.
My guess is she was referring to a segment where her son featured a woman who identified as a de-programmer of trans youth.
“You could seek solutions versus fanning the flames. You could encourage that Bedminster friend of yours to return to his earlier career on television. Everyone in his audience could wear a red hat and I'm sure the ratings would soar. Although never as high, my darling, as yours, on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime.’ Good luck,” said Anne.
Her line about the ‘Bedminster friend’ is clearly Trump which was a creative way of referring to the former president.
“Thank you very much, Mom. I love you very much,” said Watters.
“I love you. I'm thinking that a small dinner between five and eight would be ready to go,” said Anne before her son ended the call.
It sounds like Jesse Watters’ mother was advising him to eat dinner between his appearance on “The Five,” and “Jesse Watters Primetime,” as one show starts at 5 p.m. and the other at 8 p.m.
Why would a grown man not know to eat dinner? Watters’ had his show at 7 p.m. for nearly two years so I’m not sure what a one-hour difference would make.
Watters has talked about his mother before and read from text messages she’s sent him. My guess is the bit is supposed to be humorous, but his mother appears to be in extreme denial about what her son does for a living.
Watters promotes the conspiracy theories she warned about and constantly trashes our current president.
A Country Song Got Canceled!
On July 14th Jason Aldean debuted the music video for his new song “Try That in a Small Town.” The video featured images that were presented as media coverage of the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020.
Gun reform advocates were upset about the use of the protest imagery along with the image of Aldean’s band performing in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn., where in 1927 a young Black man was lynched by a vigilante mob.
The production company that selected the location for the video said in a statement to Entertainment Tonight, “any "alternative narrative" about the reasons it (courthouse) was chosen were false.”
The lyrics of the song were also alarming.
Well, try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
Around here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won't take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don't
Try that in a small townGot a gun that my granddad gave me
They say one day they're gonna round up
Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck
The words seemed to evoke the idea of a ‘sundown town’ - communities that were purposefully all white that Black people should avoid especially at night. The unwritten rule in these communities was that Black people could face violence where they were not welcome at night or otherwise.
People concerned about the video contacted CMT (Country Music Television) and the network decided to pull the video from its programming.
Fox News declared this was a great injustice and dedicated an inordinate amount of coverage to the story.
It was really hard to take the network seriously on this one since Fox had enthusiastically promoted boycotts of Bud Light, Target and Maybelline over the companies’ decision to include products marketed towards transgender people and or the use of trans models in their advertising.
Some boycotts are virtuous while others are a sign of tyranny.
Segments about Aldean and the song were featured so heavily last week that it was the second most talked about topic in the shows I covered.
Greg Gutfeld - The Media Tells Us Anti-Crime Equals Anti-Black
On Thursday on “The Five,” Greg Gutfeld had a unique take on the song.
Gutfeld implied that any images of crime or rioting were automatically conflated with the Black community.
“Only in this current race baiting media culture can an anti-crime message also be seen as anti-Black. Why does your brain say Black when you see crime? And I'm not asking the people at home. I'm asking the media. Right. There was no race imagery in that video. There was no lynching imagery in that video. But the liberals and the media, they see Black people in this.
They feel Black people in this. It's because the media has said it is it is racist to condemn violence. They are the ones doing the conflation by excusing violence in the name of social justice. We've now gone to the next natural step. Anti-violence now means anti-Black. Apparently, if you if you are disgusted by looting or mob violence or smash and grabs and you think the Second Amendment protects you from that, you are a white supremacist.
You see what happened there. Who's saying this? It's the media. This is why I don't even fault people who say this video was racist, because that's not their opinion. Right? It's not their opinion. It's been drilled into them. It's an opinion that has been put into your heads. It's shaping their narrative. It's not their own. The same people that are calling out this saying that this was this was a location for a lynching,” said Gutfeld.
In Gutfeld’s addled mind systemic racism doesn’t exit. Racial divisions are merely a product of the media telling people that racism is a problem. If everyone would just stop talking about racism everyone would get along.
Jason Aldean promoted the video as featuring footage solely from the 2020 BLM protests. Aldean said in a Tweet about the video, “There isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage.”
A TikTok user, Destinee Stark, took the time to painstakingly go through the entire video frame by frame. She revealed that several of the video clips were from protests and riots outside of the United States a few that were over a decade old.
Aldean was also quoted as saying,
“Try That In A Small Town’, for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief.”
Aldean is not credited as a writer for ‘Try This in a Small Town,” and he’s originally from Macon, Georgia a medium-sized city of 153,000 people.
Aldean is also known for a song, “Rearview Town,” which included the lyrics:
I could tough it out, but what's the use?
A place that small, it's hard to do
Too much of her to run into
And so much road to somewhere new.
Coincidentally in 2017, Aldean was performing as the headliner in Las Vegas the final night of the Route 91 Harvest festival when a gunman sprayed the crowd in a hail of bullets from hotel window for over 10 minutes killing 58 and injuring over 850 people.
Jesse Watters was Against Censorship
On Wednesday on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Watters got especially self-righteous in terms of free expression.
“I was told artists shouldn't be censored. The media told us there's nothing more paramount than an artist's creative expression. We were able to make whatever movie we wanted, paint any picture we want, write any song we want, write any book we want. And that's what makes America great, right?” said Jesse Watters.
Several followers of Decoding Fox News pointed out on Twitter that another country group, the Dixie Chicks, faced a harsh public backlash and a series of bans and boycotts in 2003 after they publicly declared their disappointment with then President George W. Bush and his administration’s actions in the Iraq War.
Protesters staged events where former fans smashed the group’s CD’s and radio stations refused to play their songs. Conservative media trashed the group for years afterward.
I guess it’s only un-American to ban certain country singers.
You’d think the Dixie Chicks might have come up at least once during the many segments about Aldean last week, but they weren’t mentioned.
Pat Boone Lives in a Small Town called Beverly Hills
Watters invited on a country music legend, Pat Boone, to discuss the song.
“Boone Pat, what is happening to country music?” asked Watters.
“It's gotten sick. I can't believe it's country music. I'm thinking about Trace Adkins. You know, and of course, many of those songs were they were very supportive of opposing America's enemies. What we're not taking into account is that many of our enemies are in our own house and they're in our own countries, in our own streets.
I live in a small town called Beverly Hills, and believe it or not, just up the street, not long ago, broad daylight, three hoodlums broke into a house up the street, and the police had to remove us from our house while they searched because two of the criminals they caught. But one got away down the back alley over here, and they thought he might have gotten into our yard.
Meanwhile, a neighbor, a tough little Italian lady named Josephine Rosendo. She had taken some shooting lessons and had a gun sitting in her lap, and I called her to see if she was aware of what was happening. It was right next door here in Beverly Hills, the small town of Beverly Hills, and she said she was sitting there in the kitchen with her gun in her lap, hoping the guy would come in.
She wanted to discourage him in a very positive way. And why she gone to all the training to use that gun,” said Boone
Beverly Hills is an affluent city with a population of 31,896 people inside of Los Angeles County which has a total population of 9,861,224. Most people wouldn’t refer to it as a small town, but Boone is entitled to his opinion.
Judge Jeanine - No One Got Upset About “F*ck tha Police.”
On Thursday on “The Five,” Judge Jeanine Pirro instead the controversy about the song was part of some double standard that favored songs that promoted violence against cops.
“Let me tell you about a song that no one has protested that we certainly are not talking about at this table called F the Police by N.W.A. Well, I'll just read two of the lyrics. Two sentences. Beat up police officer out of shape, one finished. Bring the yellow tape. Tape off the scene of our slaughter. Okay, Now, I don't hear anyone talking about that right now. Why? Why is it so different now?”
When the hip hop song “F*ck tha Police,” debuted in 1988 the public reaction was harsh. The song was banned on many radio stations, public libraries and retail chains. The Secret Service and the FBI along with the LAPD and several other police unions condemned it. The group even received a letter from the FBI which read in part,
“Law enforcement officers dedicate their lives to the protection of our citizens, and recordings such as the one from N.W.A. are both discouraging and degrading to these brave, dedicated officers.”
Judge Jeanine Pirro was simply re-writing history.
Greg Gutfeld - Trump Would Won If More People Knew About Hunter Biden
Even though Hunter Biden topped this list again as the most discussed topic on Fox last week a lot of the material was the same recycled unproven claims.
There was the House investigation into Hunter Biden that included whistleblowers from the IRS, Joseph Ziegler and Gary Shapley. Although they both testified that they didn’t think Biden’s case was handled fairly they did not provide any evidence of criminal activity.
On Friday on “The Five,” Greg Gutfeld made an outrageous assumption about the president’s son.
“This is the FBI revealing that they knew the laptop was real the day the New York Post article came out and they didn't fess up. They suggested otherwise. You had that letter. You had the public believing one thing that wasn't true. And that's that. The irony of that is that's how you got President Biden. If that if that had gone the way it should have followed the truth, Trump would have won.
And then we'd be talking about, of course, Trump's 15th impeachment instead of these here all we want is the truth,” said Gutfeld.
It all just seemed like another version of “The Big Lie,” that somehow Trump was robbed of the presidency.
A Former Addict Makes Assumptions About Hunter Biden
On Monday Jesse Watters invited recovering addict, Jordan Belfort, whose life of drugs and white-collar crime inspired the film “Wolf of Wall Street,” to speak about the cocaine found in the White House on July 2nd.
Belfort doesn’t know anything about the layout of the White House or any of the security measures the Secret Service uses for visitors. Belfort was asked to come on the show as a former addict to get inside the motivation behind whomever left the cocaine.
“Listen, obviously, I don't know for sure, but here's my theory. The obvious person to point to is Hunter Biden. Why? Because the action like what people aren't focused on is why would someone take it out of their pocket and leave it somewhere? The answer is because when you're in that mindset of an addict, you want to have like little drop points so you can kind of sneak in, take a quick hit.
Leave it there for safekeeping and come back. So it was being stored somewhere. In other words, you could easily keep it in your pocket, get in and out without getting detected. So the person that put it there had to be there on a consistent basis to keep using it undetected. That's the first thing. The second thing is who's it?” said Belfort.
He then went on a tangent about how he didn’t think Hunter Biden ever hit rock bottom before continuing on his completely baseless theory.
“But you're saying if you're an addict, you don't like to have it on you all the time. You like to maybe keep it in a little spot. You will sometimes have it on. You'll have it in one spot. That's not detected by cameras. So the president didn't know where the cameras weren't looking. Right. So that's the first thing. He'll probably have two, three, four different little drop spots that he could just sneak in or she could sneak in, take a quick hit or two. And there you go.
Now, I don't think it's Joe Biden because he'd probably sound a lot sharper on this if he was using coke. But, you know, I think if you had to look at someone there, I would think and again, no proof here that Hunter is the obvious culprit,” said Belfort.
Of course, Belfort could prove absolutely nothing that he said about Hunter. What made the appearance even more absurd is he said everything with a clenched jaw, racing eyes and at a rapid manic pace. I’m also not sure how ethical it is for one recovering addict to assume anything about another addict in recovery they’ve never even met.
Doocy Goes Rogue
On Wednesday on “Fox & Friend,” Steve Doocy had another moment of seemingly straying from the Fox News preferred narrative. As Doocy and his co-hosts discussed the possible upcoming third criminal indictment of former President Donald J. Trump, he made assumptions about the possible reasons Trump might be arrested.
As Doocy pontificated, his co-hosts, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade, sat stone-faced seething with rage.
“It sounds like from what we've seen and what lawyers have said to the press behind the scenes and stuff like that, it sounds like it's more than just protesting that he lost the election. It sounds like they've assembled evidence about tactics that the former president used to try to hold on to power after he lost in 2020 assembling slates of so-called fake electors from swing states that the president had at that point lost, pressured state officials to block or delay Joe Biden's win.
And, of course, famously on January 6th, tried to persuade the vice president not to certify the election results in the Electoral College. That's just some of the stuff that could be involved. Remember,” said Doocy.
Kilmeade interrupted looking completely dejected, “We know all that.”
Doocy continued,
“All we know for sure is, according to this source at ABC, there are three federal statutes we don't know exactly the evidence. We just know that that is the case that has been levied against him in the past.”
Stories Fox News Ignored
Every week I compare five hours of the PBS NewsHour to the coverage I’ve watched on Fox News. The following is a list of stories PBS News covered that Fox did not.
A state judge blocked Iowa’s six week abortion ban. The new law will be placed on hold until the court’s final decision.
A second experimental drug has show promise in slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s. Eli Lilly Co. is seeking FDA approval for donanemab.
PBS produced an extended segment about the use of police tasers that have resulted in accidental death.
PBS also included several segments about the war in Ukraine which included the Russian strikes in Odessa and Turkey’s attempt to rebuild a deal with Russia to allow Ukraine to export grain. Russia suspended grain exports after the Ukrainians damaged a bridge to Crimea.
Younger people are facing a housing crisis in the U.K.. The country has a shortfall of over 4 million new units for younger home buyers.
Israeli Protesters blocked the Israeli stock exchange in Tel Aviv over the far-right government’s proposed judicial reform that would limit the power of the Supreme Court.
PBS produced a segment about the rights of Native American tribe’s water rights to the Colorado River and surrounding tributaries. Collectively Native American tribes own 30% of the water rights to the river which has been depleted due to overuse and climate change.
PBS interviewed SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher about dual writers (WGA) and actors (SAG-AFTRA) strike. It is the first time in 63 years the unions have gone on strike at the same time.
As part of its Women’s World Cup coverage PBS included a segment about how women athletes are far more likely experience anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears around their knees than male athletes. ACL tears are especially common in women soccer players.
Iraqi protesters angered by a planned burning of the Quran in Sweden stormed the Swedish Embassy in Iraq and started a small fire. No one was hurt during the protest.
Chinese hackers might have obtained the unclassified emails of the U.S. ambassador to China. US officials operate with the assumption that emails on the unclassified network can be hacked.
A gunman killed two construction workers in a work-related attack in Auckland, New Zealand. The shooter had previous charges for domestic violence for attacking his girlfriend. He was shot and killed by police.
New York City will pay out $13 million to hundreds of people arrested during the protests about the killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020. According to lawyers for the plaintiffs, it was the largest class action lawsuit for protesters in the United States.
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed new ethics rules for the Supreme Court amid scrutiny of justices receiving large gifts and trips from Republican donors. The new guidelines are unlikely to pass the full senate.
The Biden administration proposed new guidelines for corporate mergers, junk fees charged by landlords and launched a crackdown on price-gouging in the food industry.
As part of its new series “America at a Crossroads” produced by Judy Woodruff, PBS included a focus group of Iowa Republican voters led by Sarah Longwell. The series is based on exploring the deep political divides and polarization in the United States.
Twelve Major League Baseball teams scored in double digits on the same night last week. This is the first time this has happened since 1894.
Germany, the largest economy in the European Union, has slipped into a recession. The German economy accounts for 30% of the Euro zone. Higher energy prices due to the war in Ukraine and a downturn during COVID-19 have both contributed to the slowdown.
Dan Synder, the former owner of the Washington Commanders, will have to pay a $60 million fine to the NFL for sexually harassing an employee and withholding revenue from the league. Synder sold the team in May to an investment group led by Josh Harris.
The civil conflict in Sudan entered its fourth month, so far thousands have been killed, three million people have left their homes and 750,000 have migrated to other countries. The mass grave discovered in West Darfur two weeks ago was a direct result of the conflict.
Fifteen people have sued the state of Texas over its strict restrictions on abortion. Four women have alleged they were denied life saving emergency care due to severe pregnancy complications.
A federal judge refused to take over the NY state case against Trump in his role to pay hush money to an adult film actress.
A federal judge upheld the $5 million jury verdict against Donald Trump in the rape and defamation case brought against him by columnist E. Jean Carroll.
If Donald J. Trump wins the presidential election in 2024 he plans to expand the power of the executive branch while limiting federal agencies.
The UN Humanitarian Aid Chief warned about increased hunger in developing nations if exports of Ukrainian grain are limited.
Lawmakers in Alabama refused to draw a new second majority Black congressional district in direct defiance of a recent Supreme Court ruling ordering them to do so.
The White House announced that several companies focused on Artificial Intelligence agreed to voluntary safety guidelines.
An investigation by Futuro Investigates found hundreds of migrants reported sexual abuse at U.S. detention centers. Official records and testimonies showed details of 308 sexual assault and sexual abuse complaints filed by immigrants detained in ICE facilities nationwide between 2015 and 2021.
A new trial date has been set for, May 20, 2024, in the federal criminal classified document case involving former President Donald J. Trump.
Tony Bennett the legendary jazz singer died at the age of 96 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. Bennett’s career spanned over seven decades with more than 150 recordings. A lifelong Democrat Mr. Bennett participated in the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march in 1965 and once performed for Nelson Mandela. He toured as late as 2015 with Lady Gaga before retiring in 2021.
By the Numbers
Coming up…
This week I’ll be covering “Fox & Friends,” “The Five” and “Hannity.” I had a very distressing day on Monday after posting a horrific comment Greg Gutfeld said about the Holocaust. I can’t really explore it in this newsletter due to space but it will be addressed sometime soon. This project has never brought me to tears until today. There is no bottom to this network. Never again. Never forget.