A lot of high-powered TV cameras on the ground for the rally for insurrectionists at the Capitol today.
Fox's sole coverage of today's rally as of 10 a.m. is a single newsbrief. On the morning of Jan. 6, Pete Hegseth was doing segments on the scene, basically serving as that event's hype man.
Turnout looks pretty meager an hour before the event starts.
Kinda seems like the way this is going to play out is:
1) Rando gets a huge amount of media attention for his fringe cause
2) Media gets dunked on by people claiming this proves there is no threat from a violent right as part of the effort to rehabilitate and minimize Jan. 6.
So help me god if the assembled press corps livetweets these speeches...
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That Breitbart column arguing the left is using reverse psychology to keep Trumpists from getting vaccinated for political gain is pretty close to my theory of a maximally effective message to get them to take the shots from a couple months ago. mediamatters.org/fox-news/anti-…
Basically we agree that his readers are so brain-poisoned by reflexive partisanship and conspiracy theories that they’ll refuse life-saving medicine for a chance to own the libs.
Of course, that isn’t an accident: He and his colleagues have meticulously stoked that right-wing paranoia for years. And now it’s literally getting their readers killed.
Here's my review of the Fox News Primary over the first 8 months of the year. Tom Cotton is working hardest to put himself in front of the Fox audience, but Ron DeSantis is better at making the network part of his wins and he rules in primetime: mediamatters.org/fox-news/cotto…
DeSantis quite literally owes his governorship to a Fox News-focused strategy, so it will be worth watching this going forward. He is very adept at using the network for best results.
By contrast, Cotton's aides are clearly putting him on Fox every chance he gets, he vastly outpaces the field (113 vs Pompeo's 55, and the latter is on the Fox payroll), but he's not a fav of Hannity or Carlson and basically just gives his take on news of the day.
I wrote about how the ivermectin debacle fits neatly into right-wing media culture of conning its viewers. mediamatters.org/fox-news/iverm…
As NBC News reported, a telemedicine website linked to a right-wing doc group is making bank by charging dupes for consultations and then prescribing them ivermectin for COVID treatment.
This scam relies on three things: High demand stoked by right-wing and contrarian personalities and social media, low supply bc credible docs won't prescribe drugs that don't work, and the drugs being safe enough not to hurt the dupes if taken at correct human dosages.
100% of concussed NFL players were wearing helmets. That doesn’t mean helmets don’t work -- they reduce, but don’t eliminate, concussions, and since 100% of players wear them, all concussions happen among the helmeted.
62% of people killed in car crashes were wearing seatbelts.
That doesn’t mean seatbelts don’t work -- they reduce, but don’t eliminate, fatalities, and since 90% of people wear them, most fatalities happen among the wearers.
Like helmets and seat belts, vaccines reduce, but don’t eliminate, COVID risk.
With 0% vaccinated, 100% of cases were among the unvaccinated. If 100% are vaccinated, 100% of cases will be among the vaccinated.
But cases/hospitalizations/deaths will be lower in the second.