[UPDATE] Smear 'em live! Fox attacks impeachment witnesses and Dems in real time @spockosbrain

Smear 'em live! Fox attacks impeachment witnesses in real time 

 by Spocko

[UPDATE] Trump is tweeting attacks against Marie Yovanovitch THIS MORNING while she is testifying. Witness intimidation in real time!  More details at Crooks and Liars

Fox News had to figure out a way to subvert the live testimony of credible witnesses and control the message. They couldn't do their usual pick and choose of clips that support the President and his message, so they remembered the immortal words of serial sexual harasser Bill O'Reilly, "We'll do it live!"


Eric Kleefeld at Media Matters has a great piece on this, (Fox News uses on-screen graphics to push pro-Trump lies during impeachment hearing) with screenshots of images from the hearing showing various tactics. I annotated a few just to highlight their style. Expect variations on this during all their live streams of impeachment hearings.

Fox will smear Former Ambassador Yovanovitch live during her testimony with on screen accusations. 
Now I don't know for certain that Fox will be posting false, defaming statements during all the live testimonies of public figures. But if they, do we must officially call out the producers of these live comments. My friends at Media Matters are already keeping track, but some witness lawyers need to get on board. If Fox News is called out, and keeps doing this, when the defamation lawsuits are filed there should be email records to subpoena.

Just because a company calls itself "News" doesn't mean they are following any journalism principles. And even legitimate journalism entities, if they cross over into actual malice, can be sued by a public figure for defamation.

I'm not a lawyer, but I believe there are ways to prove that Fox producers have knowledge that some of the claims made are false. If producers are sent notice the claims are false, and they keep making them, wouldn't that be a,"reckless disregard of whether it was false or not"?

Fox is so desperate to curry favor with Trump they act like him. They are demonstrating the same vindictive behavior as Trump.  Would a jury conclude that attacking a person's reputation with known false claims using on-screen graphics during a live stream, constitute actual malice?



Fox producers have a choice about what they put on screen, they can choose to repeat Trump's defamatory claims about witnesses. They didn't have to repeat debunked claims about Biden, but they chose to repeat them.

Controlling what people see on TV (even with the sound off) was a specialty of Roger Ailes.

Control the medium, control the message.
[Ailes] watches TV, he studies TV, mostly with the sound off, so that he can observe one of the rules he does follow—if someone’s doing something to make you turn the sound on, then they’re doing something interesting. On a wall in his office, there are screens broadcasting Fox News and Fox Business Network, as well as CNN, HLN, MSNBC, and CNBC. He watches them all, from the corner of his eye, and if you give him three seconds, he’ll give you the world….
I tell my people that if they want to be artists of television, the screen is their canvas, but they have to repaint it every three seconds.” [Emphasis added.] (Why Roger Ailes watches TV on mute. link)
This is expected from Fox. This is their way of editorializing in real time. My question in these cases is often "Is there anything we can do about it?"

Fox's editorializing live during the testimony influences the MSM. Producers and news directors KNOW that these lies are being pushed, so they feel the need to bring them up again and again to debunk them. Repeating them in the process. Strengthening them.

Those stories, even when debunked, start to build in normal people's minds. People who don't follow politics closely think, "Maybe there IS something strange about Hunter Biden?" (... butter emails!)

One thing we can do is be prepared for how Fox's spin will influence their watchers. My friend, Robert Yasumura, pointed out what to listen for:
Listen to Jim Jordan's talking points; you'll be hearing them verbatim from your asshole uncle at Thanksgiving.
— Robert Yasumura (@teamyasumura) November 13, 2019
I replied with how you might respond.
Me to asshole uncle at Thanksgiving:
Do me a favor. Let me videotape you saying you regret voting for Trump & he should be removed from office. When it's published publicly on Facebook I'll pass you some turkey.
Asshole U: That's extortion!
Me: Correct, but there was no quid pro quo!
— Spocko (@spockosbrain) November 13, 2019
Most of us don't want to argue with assholes. I especially don't want to do it at Thanksgiving. MAGA hat people aren't going to change their minds over pumpkin pie. But there ARE people you can reach. People who listen to NPR, PBS and the News Hour. These people might be getting the taint of Fox News messages without realizing it.

First, check out what people are absorbing from the headlines they get from PBS and the mainstream media. Listen to what they say. They won't be believing the crazy stories, but they might be getting other  ideas, like "The senate will never vote to convict Trump" or "Trump didn't get busted by Mueller and he is going to get away with the Ukrainian deal."

This is conventional wisdom. They might be getting it from PBS and NPR. They might even be getting it from Rachel Maddow! The experts she has on to talk about what is happening right now/ Not what will happen after the next horrific Trump action.

But if you are reading progressive blogs and listening to The Majority Report you have a opportunity to remind them of how things can change and that Trump's people HAVEN'T "gotten away with it."

Yes, Trump is still in office. But Michael Cohen is in jail. If Trump wasn't President he likely would be in jail for those crimes too.


 Paul Manafort is in jail. Papadopoulos served time. Flynn, Gates and others are waiting to be sentenced. 

So when you talk about "politics" with people you think are like-minded at Thanksgiving, you might find out that even though they never watch Fox, they are still being tainted by it. Listen, remind them of who HAS gone to jail. They might bring up their fear of Democrats blowing it or not following through. When I hear that fear I remind them of two things:

1) There are multiple cases against Trump running at the same time. When the results come out they will be damning to Trump and his cronies.

2) Count on the incompetence, vindictiveness, greed and hubris of Trump and his cronies.
Maybe Trump's lawyers will be able to parse the words, delay the testimonies and withhold the documents for months.  But there are fewer people in the White House to prevent Trump violating the constitution. Letting "Trump be Trump," as we have seen with his actions abandoning the Kurds, is deadly.

Trump thinks he can walk on water, but he can't. He has been walking on the backs of sneaky lawyers, piles of his father's money and then shiploads of Russian mob money. He'll walk on the crushed bodies of the people he threw under the bus to keep walking.

Impeachment is forcing him to walk faster. That bloated body of his isn't going to respond well to more pressure. I'm a believer that the multiple methods used concurrently will bring him down.  He's either going to be taken down by the congressional evidence produced of the crimes he has committed, or he's going to trip over Rudy Giuliani's body.  If both of those fail, he will bring himself down.  The clock is ticking.  I'm hopeful.


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