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By Nicholas Fondacaro
 The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by over 1,000 points by Thursday'sclosing and the folks at ABC News were eager to place the blame on someone during World News Tonight. That someone, of course, was President Trump and the much welcomed GOP tax cuts, which were responsible for generous bonuses and wage increases across the country.
“Tonight, some economists also say the President's tax cuts could actually be adding to all of this, by stimulating an already improving economy,” claimed ABC reporter Linzie Janis. “And the question, who pays for those cuts later on?”
Their questions over who was going to pay for it wasn’t a sentiment shared during their report on the absolutely massive spending bill before the Senate to ward off against another possible government shutdown. The only thing they seemed to care about was why a deal on DACA and for the Dreamers wasn’t included in the proposal.
On top of their smears of the tax cuts, sensationalist anchor David Muir loaded up his introduction to the segment with hyperbole and fearful language. “And as the White House was riding out this latest storm, traders on Wall Street were riding out the latest plunge on the Dow. The stock market, once again, in a freefall today,” he declared. “And what does it mean for your retirement, your 401(k)?”
“The look on their faces says it all. Anxious traders on Wall Street as the Dow closed more than 1,000 points lower. Coming on top of Monday's massive selloff, the largest one-day drop in history,” Janis added.
And according to Janis, the reason the market was volatile was that the economy was doing too good. “Tonight, investors tell ABC News the fast and furious selloff is actually about anxiety the economy is doing too well too quickly. And fears the federal reserve may have to hike rates more aggressively this year in order to keep inflation under control,” she explained. But according to others, the volatility was driven by computer algorithms over analyzing the market.
Janis also seemed dismissive of President Trump's grievance with the swings: “The President tweeting after Monday's losses: ‘In the old days, when good news was reported, the stock market would go up. Today, when good news is reported, the stock market goes down. Big mistake.’”
As a Media Research Center study found earlier this week, the liberal networks mostly ignored the Dow’s history rise to above 26,000 and all the records it left busted in its wake. But now that the market was undergoing an anticipated correction, they were on top of it. And where they were hesitant to credit Trump with the success, they were quick to burden him with the perceived failure.
The relevant portions of the transcript are below:
ABC
World News Tonight
February 8, 2018
6:36:35 PM Eastern
DAVID MUIR: And as the White House was riding out this latest storm, traders on Wall Street were riding out the latest plunge on the Dow. The stock market, once again, in a freefall today. The Dow losing more than 1,000 points today, sinking below 24,000, down 10 percent in two weeks that's what's considered an official correction now. But with unemployment low and a strong economy, what's really behind this? And what does it mean for your retirement, your 401(k)? ABC's Linzie Janis tonight at the New York stock exchange.
[Cuts to video]
LINZIE JANIS: The look on their faces says it all. Anxious traders on Wall Street as the Dow closed more than 1,000 points lower. Coming on top of Monday's massive selloff, the largest one-day drop in history. The Dow is now down 10 percent from its high in January. That's considered an official correction.
Tonight, investors tell ABC News the fast and furious selloff is actually about anxiety the economy is doing too well too quickly. And fears the federal reserve may have to hike rates more aggressively this year in order to keep inflation under control.
(…)
JANIS: The President tweeting after Monday's losses: "In the old days, when good news was reported, the stock market would go up. Today, when good news is reported, the stock market goes down. Big mistake."
Tonight, some economists also say the President's tax cuts could actually be adding to all of this, by stimulating an already improving economy. And the question, who pays for those cuts later on? Still, if you put $1,000 in a 401(k) one year ago, the average investor would still be up about 12 percent, meaning that would now be worth about $1,125.
(…)
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By Curtis Houck
During Thursday’s tumultuous White House press briefing, the number one (and most important) topic was the resignation of White House staff secretary Rob Porter following serious allegations of spousal abuse and the Trump administration’s confounding response.
Other topics included government funding, North Korea, and the Olympic games, but the first non-Porter question was CBS correspondent Paula Reid shamelessly asking about comments made by former aide Omarosa on CBS’s Celebrity Big Brother.
“What is the White House's reaction to comments made by former White House aide Omarosa on Celebrity Big Brother when she said she is 'haunted' by the President’s tweets. She described the situation inside the White House as 'bad' and said it is not going to be okay,” Reid wondered to principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah.
Without hesitation, Shah hit back that they’re “not” taking her comments “very seriously.” He added amidst some audible groans in the briefing broom: “Omarosa was fired three times on The Apprentice and this was the fourth time we let her go. She had limited contact with the President while here. She has no contact now.”
Sure, one could argue that Omarosa’s comments are a story and worth covering, but for the person representing the network that airs the show to ask it is nothing more than pathetic corporate synergy. This would be like NBC asking about the Olympic games while working in a plug for their network’s primetime coverage.
Here’s the relevant transcript from February 8's White House press briefing:
White House press briefing
February 8, 2018
3:49 p.m. Eastern
PAULA REID: What is the White House's reaction to comments made by former White House aide Omarosa on Celebrity Big Brother when she said she is “haunted” by the President’s tweets. She described the situation inside the White House as “bad” and said it is not going to be okay.
RAJ SHAH: Not very seriously. Omarosa was fired three times on The Apprentice[REPORTER SHRIEKS] and this was the fourth time we let her go. She had limited contact with the President while here. She has no contact now.
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By Mike Ciandella
 To create hype for his network’s Olympics coverage, NBC’s Keir Simmons decided it would be a good idea to play bumper carsin a North Korean amusement park. “They’re ruthless, these guys,” Simmons joked in the June 6 Today segment, about the other bumper car drivers – in a country that is legitimately ruthless to its own people. Not once in the segment did Simmons use that word to describe Kim Jong Un’s regime. Simmons also went to a beer hall, to have a "local brew" and pro-regime "bar chat." Not surprisingly, Simmons reported: "everyone that we met was quick to thank one person for, well, everything -- the country's Supreme Leader."
But this isn’t the first time that NBC News has run a report that bordered dangerously close on propaganda for a foreign dictatorship.
Below are just a few of the worst examples of this inexcusably bad journalism, as documented by NewsBusters over the years.
Syria: NBC Asks Assad If He’s Worried About Trump’s Lack of Experience, Muslim Ban Offending Him
Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has brutally starved and used chemical weapons on his own people, but NBC was still interested in his personal feelings about the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Before he got around to grilling Assad on his own atrocities, NBC News Foreign Correspondent Bill Neely thought it would be worth asking the despot “from what you know of Mr. Trump, is he smart enough?” Neely kept up this line of questioning for more than nine minutes. “Mr. Trump has no experience in foreign policy. Does that worry you?”
After allowing Assad to talk up the “diversity” and “richness” of Syria under his regime, Neely asked “Mr. Trump has also made comments about Muslims and not allowing Muslims into the United States. Did that anger you, upset you?”
USSR: NBC Gets Nostalgic for USSR, When 'the Government Provided for the People'
To hear NBC tell it, communism was a beautiful success story – never mind the millions who died under it. NBC correspondent Lucy Kafanov, who cut her journalistic teeth at Russian state media RT, used an entire Nightly News segment on June 11, 2017, to pine for the days of Stalinism. "It wasn't always like this," Kafanov said as she reported on the abject poverty in parts of modern Russia. "In the Soviet era, most villagers worked on huge collective farms. Life wasn't easy, but the government provided for the people."
 She also interviewed a resident of one of these impoverished areas: "'It would be so good to live like before,' she tells me. 'Under communism, there were plenty of jobs and plenty to eat.'"
This may have been the most recent example of NBC promoting Soviet-era communism, but it is far from the only one.
On February 13, 2014 during NBC’s Today, correspondent Stephanie Gosk hyped the Moscow metro system as a gift to the people. "Stalin promised the metro would be a palace for the people, and so it is. Open architecture, mosaics, even chandeliers." From her description, Stalin sounds more like a benevolent patron or an artist, and not like one of the most brutal dictators in world history.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the U.S.S.R. also received high praise. "Well let me say how I hope history will judge him. Perhaps in time with help and work, people here will improve their everyday lives and remember Gorbachev's accomplishments and that would seem to me fair,” obviously enamored NBC reporter Bob Abernethy reported on December 24, 1992. He added, “he seems to me to have done more good in the world than any other national leader of my lifetime.”
Iran: NBC's Curry to Ahmadinejad: 'Why Do You Work So Hard?'
Few interviews with heads of state have been more glowing than Ann Curry’s September 12, 2011 interview with then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Curry asked such preposterous softball questions as “Why do you work so hard?”
Despite Ahmadinejad being in actuality a notoriously harsh and unstable foreign leader, Curry painted a picture of him as a hardworking, average guy. According to Curry: "After his 5 a.m.prayers," Ahmadinejad would go "jogging with his security team, at times seemingly 'Rocky' style, before sunrise."
Later she glowingly described how "he reaches his spacious but simple office before 7 a.m., there he works without shoes, but at 54, with reading glasses. First up, scanning local newspapers and briefs, including what western media are reporting."
Cuba: Years of Praising Castro
NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell has had a long-standing love affair with the Castro regime.
When Fidel Castro died in 2016, Mitchell praised his intelligence. “[Castro] was a voracious reader … And very, very aware of everything that was going on, very, very smart and very wedded to his revolutionary ideology.”
In 2001, a year after Elian Gonzalez was forcibly shipped back to Cuba, Mitchell commented about how the fight to turn a young boy into a political propaganda piece had empowered Fidel. “Approaching his 75th birthday this August, the world’s longest surviving leader also believes he is politically strong, partly as a result of that struggle over a seven-year-old boy.”
Jim Avila (then an NBC correspondent, now at ABC) joined Mitchell in the Castro fan club, criticizing Elian’s mother on April 8, 2000’s Nightly News for fleeing to the United States – a dangerous journey that cost her and nine others their lives. “Why did she do it? What was she escaping? By all accounts this quiet, serious young woman, who loved to dance the salsa, was living the good life, as good as it gets for a citizen in Cuba....An extended family destroyed by a mother’s decision to start a new life.”
 On December 17, 2014, NBC’s Mark Potterblamed the nation’s poor economy on the “long-standing U.S. embargo” instead of on the regime or communism. “His [Castro’s] revolution is showing its age too and Havana, known for its charm and vintage cars, is on life support, its economy crippled by the long-standing U.S. Embargo. People here now hope that will change.”
The “vintage cars” have long been a cause of media swooning. Then-anchor of NBC Nightly News Brian Williams worried on January 21, 2015 that opening the island to Americans might bring newer cars, killing the ambiance: “When Americans are here and planes and hotels and the cars are 2015 cars and not 1958 cars, what happens to the revolution?” While Williams was cringing at the idea of impoverished Cubans getting access to cars made in the last 4 decades, he was making $15 million a year as anchor of NBC Nightly News.
China: Communist Reign Was ‘The Good Old Days’
On February 13, 2000, NBC Nightly News reporter Chris Billing moaned “in the good old days, the Communist Party found a job for everyone. Now young people have to fend for themselves.... The future of the Communist Party may be in doubt if it can’t ease the pain felt by the once-pampered work force.”
Iraq: NBC Lets Peter Arnett Hype Iraqi Anti-US Propaganda
Eager to find someone to report from the front lines of the Iraq War, NBC News contracted their work out to National Geographic Explorer’s Peter Arnett. Arnett then promptly started reporting pro-Saddam regime/anti-US propaganda. Arnett’s contract was eventually terminated after he voiced these sentiments on government-run Iraqi TV, although NBC’s official statement only said blandly that it “was wrong for him to discuss his personal observations and opinions in that interview.”
During the March 30, 2003 Iraqi TV interview that eventually got him ousted from NBC’s lineup, Arnett talked about how his reporting could help to get the U.S. to abandon their plans in Iraq. "Our reports about civilian casualties here, about the resistance of the Iraqi forces, are going back to the United States. It helps those who oppose the war when you challenge the policy to develop their arguments." Arnett also told the Iraqis that Saddam’s forces were winning. “Now America is re-appraising the battlefield, delaying the war, maybe a week, and re-writing the war plan. The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance; now they are trying to write another war plan.”
Even after this disgraceful showing on Saddam-endorsed television, now-recently-fired Todayhost Matt Lauer praised Arnett: “Peter, at the risk of getting myself in trouble, I want to say I respect the work you've done over the last several weeks and I respect the honesty with which you've handled this situation. So good luck to you.” That’s how one of the network’s biggest personalities treated a man who spouted anti-U.S. propaganda on enemy-run television in a war zone.
Even before this outrageous interview, Arnett’s reporting for NBC was nothing short of propaganda. Arnett would quickly and unquestioningly repeat “facts” on the war from the Iraqi Information Minister – many of which turned out to be false. On Today on march 26, Arnett reported multiple times on the U.S using cluster bombs on civilian targets in Baghdad, painting a gruesome picture: We saw body parts being handed around by people and it was, later the Information Minister, Mr. al-Sahaf, complained that the U.S. has started using cluster bombs in the Baghdad area.” In a moment of rare clarity, NBC turned to Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski, who pointed out that there was no evidence whatsoever that the U.S. had ever used cluster bombs inside Baghdad.
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By Ryan Foley
Towards the end of Thursday morning’s edition of CNN’s Inside Politics, the panel criticized President Trump's routine of watching Fox News in the morning and argued that he lives in a "parallel universe."
The panel had discussed the fact that President Trump used the phrase “bombshell” to describe the latest batch of text messages between anti-Trump FBI employees Peter Stzrok and Lisa Page, after the morning news program Fox & Friends used the same term. President Trump has repeatedly praised Fox & Friends on his Twitter account and has had a rocky relationship with CNN. CNN White House Reporter Abby Phillip said that “It’s also fascinating to watch the President mimic back what he’s watching on television that morning.” She went on to say “He’s not going to the source of this information, he’s getting it chewed through this sort of spin machine.”
Host John King, perhaps a little jealous of the President’s admiration for Fox News, said “Forgive me, but he watches in the morning, this is the President of the United States, who has access to every bit of information in the world that U.S. intelligence can gather and that’s where he chooses to get his information.”
The Weekly Standard’s Michael Warren dismissed the emphasis of the Stzrok-Page text messages as “midwife by folks in the conservative media...who want to believe the absolute worst.” On the other hand, the liberal media want to dismiss the whole text message scandal as a “nothing burger.”
Members of the panel then gave their two cents on a clip of Kellyanne Conway reacting to one of the text messages, where Page tells Stzrok that “POTUS wants to know everything we’re doing.” President Obama had previously told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace that he “did not have any involvement in ongoing FBI investigations.” King said that “this parallel universe thing is just not healthy”, reinforcing the media narrative that the President and his inner circle are out of touch with reality.
The media can criticize the President all it wants for relying on cable news but one can’t help but wonder if they would feel slightly differently if he watched CNN in the morning.
Inside Politics
02/08/18
12:47 PM
ABBY PHILLIP: It’s also fascinating to just watch the President mimic back what he’s watching on television that morning. He used exactly the same language. He called it a bombshell, which is the language that was being used in that segment on Fox. And that’s what’s happening day in and day out with President Trump. He’s not going to the source of this information, he’s getting it sort of chewed through this spin machine, and then he is repeating it on social media to his 45 million followers.
 JOHN KING: Right. Forgive me, but he watches in the morning, this is the President of the United States who has access to every bit of information in the world that U.S. intelligence can gather and that’s where he chooses to get his information. Good luck. Senator Johnson, just a few moments ago, asked about this and didn’t back down.
SENATOR RON JOHNSON: First of all, I encourage people to read the full report, and the texts speak for themselves. They raise a lot of questions and we are going to continue our investigation.
KING: The texts – I’m going to take issue with the Senator here. The texts don’t necessarily speak for themselves. The texts show galactically bad judgment by people in very sensitive jobs who are in a personal relationship who should not be texting about such things, even if they’re joking. They have...it’s galactically bad judgment. But you can’t, you have now members of Congress, reading these text messages and reorganizing the planets and the stars without any evidence that they took whatever views they might have expressed in these text messages and actually took them to the office and changed investigations or tampered with investigations or showed bias in the investigations. This is the United....the world’s greatest deliberative body, they used to say.
MICHAEL WARREN: Well but I think it is midwife by folks in the conservative media who are, who want to believe the absolute worst when, when there’s been no demonstration. You know, it’s not crazy to think that the Obama Administration might be, might have been doing bad things, you know, involving the Department of Justice, there has been, there was quite a bit of evidence in the Obama Administration of that happening. And as you say, the FBI agents acting, making some really, really poor judgments here and should be investigated but I think, I think that jumping to conclusions is ultimately muddying a, what might otherwise be a legitimate case, because it all has to go to the extreme level of well this, this, this sort of discredits any investigation into the President. It just was simply wrong.
KING: I’ll say the same thing I said about the Nunes memo. That if you have actual evidence of bias in law enforcement agencies, dear God, put it out. But put it out in a bipartisan way so the people can believe it as opposed to this little cherry-picking stuff. To the point where Kellyanne Conway, again paid by you, the American taxpayer, says this and says, wow.
KELLYANNE CONWAY: I saw people showing the clips of President Obama in an interview saying he does not interfere or ask about DOJ investigations so people are going to have to square there, where the truth is. It is very concerning to see two people sexting each other about this investigation, I mean texting each other about this investigation on and on, and now you see it goes all the way to the top, according to them, anyway.
KING: Sexting to texting. She’s good. Whether you agree or disagree, she knows what she’s doing and, and she’s good. Look, we make fun of this sometimes but this parallel universe thing is just not healthy.
PHILLIP: That was this morning, by the way. That was this morning, after it had been debunked.
KING: Right.
M.J. LEE: And clearly, Washington has become a little bit too trigger happy in some of these situations; the jumping to the conclusion, especially when it is beneficial to your party or it looks bad for the other party. I think, to your point about President Trump watching television and then sort of going on Twitter to immediately react, he’s also doing that not in a vacuum, he’s doing it because he feels like he’s under siege. He feels like a lot of the headlines about him and the Russia investigation, those are pouring in, those are not looking good for him. And so I think he sees something like this and wants to tell the world, wants to tell the millions of Twitter followers, you should be paying attention to this.
KING: And so you saw that Kellyanne Conway clip there. That was this morning as you noted. She was asked about that, a conspiracy theory, unfounded. Not asked about, a story we’ll come back to in just a moment. One of President Trump’s top advisors out after allegations of domestic abuse. M.J. Lee spoke to his accusers. She’ll share some of her reporting. Next.
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By Curtis Houck
 Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh took on CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein and CNN Tonight host Don Lemon during his eponymous Thursday show, thrashing Brownstein for condemning criticism of the FBI and Lemon for being “totally blind to any opposing view.”
Taking Lemon first, Limbaugh played a clip of Lemon from Wednesday suggesting that “there should be a network that is devoted to just going through the opening monologues of conservative media and fact-checking them every single night to debunk — I watch and I cannot believe this.”
“No one is fact-checking, everyone is on same page. They load the deck with people who support them. They never have a dissenting voice. It’s really unbelievable, and many Americans believe the bull crap that they’re spewing,” Lemon added.
Wasting no time, Limbaugh lambasted the liberal host’s lunacy, calling it “fascinating” that “[h]ere’s a guy that not only works at a network, but is a guy who is totally blind to any opposing view” and “in fact exactly what he’s accusing us of being.”
Limbaugh pointed out that “[t]here’s nobody fact-checking” the “monologues” of CNN hosts like Lemon. Why? It’s safe to assume in the liberal media bubbles that their claims must be true. He then continued [emphasis mine]:
They don’t have anybody from the opposition on very often, and when they do, they belittle them, they outnumber them four to one. No one’s fact-checking, everybody is on same page, they load the deck with people who support them, never a dissenting voice. He’s describing the way CNN operates, but he doesn’t see it. In his world, he is the pinnacle of objective journalism, the pinnacle of it, and all of CNN is. I mean, forget for a moment the partisan nature. To me it’s fascinating the two Americas that we have with nothing in common. There’s no bridge. There’s no way to get from one side to the other.
For the conservative host, he blasted Lemon for not only lacking the ability to possess “the slightest capability of understanding what he hears in a conservative monologue” but“the ability to understand it.”
Whether it was suggesting that Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer’s Disease while President, claiming without evidence that President Trump is mentally ill, or insinuating Trump supporters are racists, Lemon has been less than stellar in his efforts to unite people of differing viewpoints.
Switching to Brownstein, Limbaugh tore into him in light of a New Day hit in which Brownstein dismissed questions about the FBI as “talking points” in “conservative media” meant to inflict damage on the FBI.
Limbaugh responded that the media will “never...have a bond with their audience like Trump has with his supporters or I have with you in this audience.”
“[T]hey can’t understand it and so, in their view, anybody to this day who still supports Trump has gotta be sick. Anybody that still supports Trump has to be deranged, somehow, has to be emotionally not right, psychologically unbalanced. And therefore it is dangerous what Trump is doing,” he added.
To see the relevant transcript from February 8's The Rush Limbaugh Show, click “expand.”
The Rush Limbaugh Show
February 8, 2018
RON BROWNSTEIN [on CNN’s New Day, 02/08/18]: You have a Republican Party that is following the Trump lead of kind of losing interest in talking to the broad country and feeling on anything to do with Russia and the Russia probe that it is simply enough to just throw out anything over talking points of conservative media. This is all about kind of energizing the base. There is evidence in polling that they are turning portions of the Republican base against the FBI.
(....)
RUSH LIMBAUGH: They’re never going to have a bond with their audience like Trump has with his supporters or I have with you in this audience. As such, they can’t understand it and so, in their view, anybody to this day who still supports Trump has gotta be sick. Anybody that still supports Trump has to be deranged, somehow, has to be emotionally not right, psychologically unbalanced. And therefore it is dangerous what Trump is doing. Trump is actually succeeding in turning some of his supporters against the FBI as though that is simply unacceptable and what they don’t understand is that Trump’s got nothing to do with that. What is happening to Trump is why people are turning against the FBI. And they’re not turning against the whole thing. They’re not turning against the whole organization. But these people that support Trump, you people in this audience can think for yourselves, and they’re not mind-numbed robots being driven down the road and told what to say or even what to care about.
They are deeply aware, fully informed. They know full well they have enough information on their own to be suspicious of this entire investigation. They know full well what it is. It’s an effort to throw Trump out of office. It is an effort to overturn an election. But people like Brownstein can’t possibly think that you could come up with that on your own.
The only way you could think that, ’cause it’s so not true, why, they’re just trying to defend the Constitution. They’re just trying to defend the FBI. They’re just trying to defend law enforcement and government in general. And Trump is being dangerously irresponsible by telling his people the FBI is the problem in Washington. I’m sorry, Mr. Brownstein, but Trump voters know that without being told. They think it without being told. You know why? Because they can see. Because they can read. I dare say that your average Trump voter probably knows more about this investigation and all angles of it than people like Brownstein knows. Because Brownstein and others will shut themselves off from media reporting certain facts on this. Those certain facts, the Drive-Bys, the left, the Democrats, don’t even want to entertain because they’re not legitimate.
So now it’s dangerous what Trump is doing. And it’s not just Trump. The Republican Party, following the Trump lead, losing interest in talking to the country at large, simply trying to drum up opposition to the FBI. They are talking to the country at large. Mr. Brownstein, there’s an attempt here to persuade as many people as possible what you refuse to see or report. Here’s Don Lemon, CNN last night, and this is about his idea for a news network, and Ryan Lizza is on this bite.
LEMON: I shouldn’t give my idea away, but there should be a network that is devoted to just going through the opening monologues of conservative media and fact-checking them every single night to debunk — I watch and I cannot believe this. No one is fact-checking, everyone is on same page. They load the deck with people who support them. They never have a dissenting voice. It’s really unbelievable, and many Americans believe the bull crap that they’re spewing.
LIMBAUGH: This is fascinating. Take the fact that it’s Don Lemon out of it. Here’s a guy that not only works at a network, but is a guy who is totally blind to any opposing view. He is in fact exactly what he’s accusing us of being. There’s nobody fact-checking their monologues. They don’t have anybody from the opposition on very often, and when they do, they belittle them, they outnumber them four to one. No one’s fact-checking, everybody is on same page, they load the deck with people who support them, never a dissenting voice. He’s describing the way CNN operates, but he doesn’t see it. In his world, he is the pinnacle of objective journalism, the pinnacle of it, and all of CNN is. I mean, forget for a moment the partisan nature. To me it’s fascinating the two Americas that we have with nothing in common. There’s no bridge. There’s no way to get from one side to the other.
Don Lemon hasn’t the slightest capability of understanding what he hears in a conservative monologue. He doesn’t have the ability to understand it. The fact that there is a point of view other than his own is all he needs to know to reject it. And fact check conservative monologues? Have you ever heard of Media Matters for America? You know what, Mr. Lemon, they have to lie about us when they fact check our monologues. They have to make things up and lie to people about what we’re saying because they can’t refute.
And that’s why there isn’t any fact-checking, Don. You guys really can’t refute us idea to idea to idea. So you don’t even want to take us on in that realm. But just the existence of these obvious two Americas and how do they ever, ever get put together? How is this gap ever gonna be bridged? Because, folks, it is widening. We’re not getting closer together. We’re getting further away. And because that’s the reality, it’s why I keep telling people, it’s a fool’s errand to try to compromise with them. They have to be defeated. And they have to be defeated every day.
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By Nicholas Fondacaro
 After it was made public that President Trump had requested the Pentagon to plan a military parade through Washington, DC, there was a steady stream of forceful condemnation of the President in which they claimed he was imitating foreign dictators. And in an appearance on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight Thursday, Hill media reporter Joe Concha knocked them for playing up their outrage and playing to an audience.
“I know you are not a physician and I'm not either. But, do you think it's healthy to be as angry as a lot of these cable figures seem to be all the time every day,” Carlson quipped to Concha’s apparent amusement.
“Oh, I think we’re seeing a lot more performance art at this point, Tucker. I think we have talked about this,” Concha explained. “They are playing to a crowd. They know that their audience primarily is anti-Trump on some other networks. And they are just playing into their emotions. I don't even think they are angry about half this stuff. They say, “Okay, what can we do to rile up our audience today?”
After introducing Concha to his viewers, Carlson admitted that he really didn’t care whether or not a military parade was held. But he did find humor in the idea of the anti-Trump resistance trying to protest it: “A Green Party candidate for something, who said he was going to stand in front of the tanks like tank man in Tiananmen Square in '89. Would he be joined by reporters, do you think?”
Concha joked that judging from the all the clip of angry journalists he played many in the media would join the liberal man. He then went on to point out just how ridiculous it was to get all up in arms over a parade:
I go to a couple parades that go on there per year. In fact, there are actually more than 20 parades per year basically almost every week during the summer in New York … The point is we have a lot of parades in this country and even outside this country, South Korea, where the Winter Olympics are starting tomorrow they had military parades. France you mentioned that before, it’s where the President got his idea.
The Hill media reporter expertly made the observation that if one was to substitute the name “Trump” in the headlines with a Democrat the media fawned over, then all their outrage just wouldn’t be there. “And let's say Joe Biden said: “You know what would be a great idea? To honor the folks in our military July 4th, in Washington, D.C.” Would you see one snip of a reaction? I don't think so,” he said.
The relevant portions of the transcript are below, click expand to read:
Fox News Channel
Tucker Carlson Tonight
February 8, 2018
8:47:34 PM Eastern
TUCKER CARLSON: It’s a bit bad if the President likes something the press will hate it. It’s like a physics principle opposite reaction thing. Reaching new extremes on that though, this week it emerged that after visiting France the president became enthusiastic about a military parade and thought why should have one here like the one after World War II or Desert Storm. So, of course, he was labeled a tyrant almost immediately.
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CARLSON: Who let all the dumb people on TV? It’s unbelievable. Joe Concha covers the media for The Hill he joins us tonight. So, Joe, my favorite. By the way, I'm totally agnostic. I just don't have any strong feelings one way or the other, but I do love the guy—I think he was a Green Party candidate for something, who said he was going to stand in front of the tanks like tank man in Tiananmen Square in '89. Would he be joined by reporters, do you think?
JOE CONCHA: It’s sounding like it based on that montage, Tucker. Look, I'm in New Jersey. Background kind of gives that away. And in New York, I go to a couple parades that go on there per year. In fact, there are actually more than 20 parades per year basically almost every week during the summer in New York. I mean, you have the Coney Island mermaid parade, you have the Pulaski parade which honors a Polish American hero from the American revolutionary war. Then you have the big ones like Macy's and the Saint Patrick's day parade which I may or may not have been too. The details are sketchy. The point is we have a lot of parades in this country and even outside this country, South Korea, where the Winter Olympics are starting tomorrow they had military parades. France you mentioned that before, it’s where the President got his idea.
Look, I always love to play a game in these situations. Take out the name “Trump” proposes military parade and put in a name like Biden. And let's say Joe Biden said: “You know what would be a great idea? To honor the folks in our military July 4th, in Washington, D.C.” Would you see one snip of a reaction? I don't think so.
CARLSON: Can I ask you sort of a meta question here? If Trump is a dangerous authoritarian dictator, why does it seem like left-wing federal judges are making all the key decisions?
CONCHA: That's a very good point. I mean, as far as press freedoms, I can at least speak to that. We had a daily briefing today. We’ve had daily briefings almost every day. And reporters are still on Air Force One. It seems the freedom of the press in terms of the opinions and the ability to report hasn't been impeded in any way. So, the totalitarianism argument doesn't seem to really apply here.
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CARLSON: So, very quickly, I know you are not a physician and I'm not either. But, do you think it's healthy to be as angry as a lot of these cable figures seem to be all the time every day?
CONCHA: Oh, I think we’re seeing a lot more performance art at this point, Tucker. I think we have talked about this. They are playing to a crowd. They know that their audience primarily is anti-Trump on some other networks. And they are just playing into their emotions. I don't even think they are angry about half this stuff. They say, “Okay, what can we do to rile up our audience today?”
CARLSON: Good. I hope not because I'm starting to worry about Jim Acosta. Is he going to be okay? But that's reassuring. Joe, thank you very much.
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