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Fox News Tag

On his Fox News show last night, Tucker Carlson ripped Mika Brzezinski for quoting, on yesterday's Morning Joe, unflattering things that Kellyanne Conway allegedly said about Donald Trump in private, off-the-air conversations. Tucker cited Mika as an example of journalists who have "degraded and humiliated themselves" out of their anti-Trump "hysteria." Tucker: "TV anchors almost never reveal what their guests have said off-camera, and for good reason. People come to TV studios so they can speak on TV. They do not come with the expectation that their private conversations will wind up broadcast to the country."

During today's Morning Joe discussion of the ouster of Bill O'Reilly at Fox News, Joe Scarborough asked, "Do they remake over the entire network? Is anybody else in the [Murdoch] family's crosshairs right now?" Replied New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters: "I think you have to look at somebody like Sean Hannity, and question whether or not his almost propaganda-like attitude and programming every night is going to be acceptable in the minds of the family, which is clearly trying to shift the network in a different direction."

Bill O'Reilly's Fox News career now swims with the fishes. The conventional wisdom is that after the NY Times exposed a history of sexual harassment  settlements, and two new accusers came forward, advertisers "fled" the show, forcing the hand of News Corp and the Murdochs. That conventional wisdom is only partially correct -- advertisers didn't flee, they were chased away by the same organized effort as was used against Glenn Beck once upon a time, and Rush Limbaugh in 2012. Longtime readers will recall my extensive and groundbreaking research into the StopRush operation just after Limbaugh’s comments about Sandra Fluke in 2012, for which he apologized.

A growing pile of sexual harassment allegations resulted in Bill O'Reilly's departure from Fox News. Up through Tuesday night, O'Reilly's spokesperson was assuring reporters he would return to the network April 24th.

On Wednesday night, Virgil Bernero, the mayor of sanctuary city Lansing, Michigan, told Tucker Carlson that if his police force were to enforce immigration laws, it would be seen as an "occupying force." An incredulous Tucker responded, "people come into your country illegally, your job is to enforce the laws as a police officer, and you somehow feel guilty because you're an occupying force?" Bernero then played the white privilege card,  "it's easy for white men like us . . . who enjoy what we enjoy . . . " Tucker could take no more: "I was taking you seriously at the beginning, but this is just buffoonish."

When Donald Trump sent out his series of tweets about alleged "tapping" of his phones and/or Trump Tower by Obama, the instant media reaction was that Trump made the allegation without presenting any proof. As if proof were needed at the time of an accusation for a media that has put Trump on trial for the last 6-8 months based on innuendo about Trump campaign ties to Russia. As pointed out repeatedly, there is zero proof in the public record of such media and Democrat accusations, and no proof was demanded by the media. In fact, Democratic Senator Chris Coons recently suggested there were incriminating transcripts of calls involving Trump or his associates:

Wednesday, President Trump withdrew President Obama's transgender bathroom mandates. Though the Obama administration claimed the mandates were simply guidance, failure to comply could've resulted in the loss of federal funding. Needless to say, the LGBTQ community was up in arms, leading long-time Democratic advisor Zac Petkansas to call the Trump White House "monsters."

It was a remarkable live-TV moment. During Tucker Carlson's Fox News show, reporter Griff Jenkins was at the scene of an anti-Trump demonstration in DC where a fire had been set in the street. Suddenly, a young boy [maybe 10-11] stepped up to say that he "kind of started the fire." When Jenkins asked why he started the fire, the boy, who identified himself as "Carter," said "because I felt like it and I'm just sort of saying, screw the president."

Liberal pundit Bob Beckel will reunite with Eric Bolling, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Greg Gutfeld, and Dana Perino on Fox's The Five starting today. Fox released a press statement announcing his return:
In making the announcement, Murdoch said, “Bob was missed by many fans of The Five and we’re happy to welcome him back to the show.” Beckel commented, “I’m thrilled for the opportunity to go home again and join my television family around the table of The Five. I have no doubt it will be a vigorous yet entertaining debate.”

NFL analyst and former Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann tore into the San Francisco 49ers after the team gave quarterback Colin Kaepernick the Len Eshmont Award. The team chooses the player "49er who best exemplifies the inspirational and courageous play of Len Eshmont, an original member of the 1946 49ers team." This 49ers team did not perform well at all:
“This award doesn’t mean anything to me,” said Theismann, who led the Washington Redskins to two Super Bowl appearances, winning one, in the 1980s. “Inspired and courageous? You’re 2-14. What did he inspire? You’re [1-10] as a quarterback [this season]. What [did] you possibly inspire?”
But it goes deeper than that since Kaepernick started a trend of kneeling during the national anthem.

Tucker Carlson had a strong showing in our Reader Poll of who should replace Megyn Kelly at Fox News, now that she is moving to NBC. His performance replacing Greta at the 7 p.m. slot made him a hit among conservatives. We covered many of his take-downs, the most epic of which Kurt Eichenwald.

Earlier today, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly announced she'd be parting ways with the cable news network and heading over to NBC News. Kelly's departure will leave a gaping hole in Fox's prime-time lineup. We’re just speculating here but we’ve picked potential replacements from the Fox News stable of the well-known faces, including news types and ideologues, and one total outsider, Jake Tapper. So, dear reader, we want to hear from you. Who do you think should replace Megyn Kelly?

NBC News has released a statement confirming that Fox News superstar Megyn Kelly will join its news organization:
Kelly will become anchor of a new one hour daytime program that she will develop closely with NBC News colleagues. The show will air Monday through Friday at a time to be announced in the coming months. As part of the multi-year agreement, Kelly will also anchor a new Sunday evening news magazine show and will become an important contributor to NBC’s breaking news coverage as well as the network’s political and special events coverage.

Regular Legal Insurrection readers will recognize the name Kurt Eichenwald. A senior writer at Newsweek [which apparently still exists], Eichenwald is a frequent guest on Joy Reid's MSNBC show, where he can be counted on to spout virulently anti-Republican/Trump views. We've chronicled, as here and here, his predilection to burst into disdainful laughter in the face of conservative interlocutors. On MSNBC, Eichenwald's odd nature had been sheltered in a comfortable cocoon. But on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show of Thursday evening, Eichenwald's deep weirdness was exposed. The meltdown came when Carlson pressed Eichenwald to answer a simple question: is it true, as Eichenwald had tweeted, that Donald Trump had been confined to a mental institution in 1990? Rather than answer the question, Eichenwald went off on a variety of tangents, including the stunt of hauling out a big binder he had created of Carlson's supposed "falsehoods."