This likely is news to those who get their information from NBC or other corporate media outlets, but it’s becoming increasingly common for tens of thousands of people at sporting events, concerts, and other public places to break out in “F**k Joe Biden” chants. As best I can tell, the communal political outpouring began at college football games, but soon spread to other venues, like MetLife stadium in New Jersey during a New York Jets game, the Ryder Cup, and the Staind reunion concert in Biden’s hometown of Scranton. The trend is so pronounced that Amazon now sells “F**k Joe Biden” merchandise.
NASCAR fans on Monday broke out in “F**k Joe Biden” chants while NBC sports reporter Kelli Stavast was interviewing Xfinity Series race winner Brandon Brown at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Instead of ignoring the chants, Stavast claimed the fans were shouting, “Let’s Go Brandon.” Conservative media jumped on the story, citing it as another example of the corporate media looking to protect Biden at all costs.
I’m prepared to believe that Stavast lives in a liberal media bubble and possibly misheard the chants, but allegations that Comcast-owned NBC is a Biden propaganda network aren’t unfounded. According to Sludge, a site focused on corruption and wrongdoing, Comcast’s top management were major contributors to Biden’s campaign. As well, Comcast’s top lobbyist, David Cohen, co-hosted Biden’s kick off fundraiser and was a bundler responsible for raising $25,000 or more from others.
During the Democratic presidential primaries, MSNBC devoted considerably more coverage to Biden than any other candidate. More importantly, MSNBC’s coverage of Biden was overwhelmingly positive, while its coverage of Sanders was mostly negative. Bernie Sanders got so fed up with MSNBC he angerly confronted former MSNBC boss Phil Griffin.
What can’t be disputed is that telling the truth isn’t a core value required of NBC anchors and guests. My friend Allan Lengel, who covers law enforcement for a website called ticklethewire, recently reported that Frank Figliuzzi, a former assistant FBI director for counterintelligence who regularly appears on NBC and MSNBC, is under fire for allegedly fabricating a passage in his book released earlier this year. Lengel quoted more than six FBI agents on-the-record saying Figliuzzi’s representation that an agent mishandled seized drug money was entirely made up, possibly to justify Figliuzzi’s controversial decision to strip search the agent. The incident is known within the agency as “Stripgate.”
Figliuzzi’s book is entitled, “The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau’s Code of Excellence,” and he stands by the passage. NBC’s PR person couldn’t be bothered to respond to Lengel’s request for comment and not one media reporter has picked up the story. Given that an assistant U.S. attorney is investigating the FBI’s handling of the Trump-Russia collusion fraud, having an independent and unbiased commentator on law enforcement might seem especially essential these days, but NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt is on record as saying “fairness is overrated.” Holt believes journalists should be the arbiters of truth and aren’t obligated to provide a platform to those who don’t agree with their judgments.
MSNBC anchor Brian Williams was fired years ago as the Nightly News anchor after it was revealed he fabricated various incidents, including that he was on a Chinook helicopter that drew ground fire during the Iraq invasion in 2003. Williams was forced to apologize after various military personnel said the issue never happened.
MSNBC Joy Reid also came under fire years ago after it was revealed she routinely posted homophobic comments on her blog. Reid maintained her website was hacked and the comments weren’t hers, but even the liberal media didn’t buy that story.
Ronan Farrow, who broke the story about Harvey Weinstein’s pervasive sexual harassment for the New Yorker, accused NBC of stifling his reporting when he worked at the network. NBC “Today” anchor Matt Laurer was fired after a female employee made a detailed complaint accusing him of inappropriate behavior.
NBC posted this gushing story about Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel for throwing barbs at President Trump. Despite Nessel’s dismal approval ratings, she isn’t subjected to critical questioning during her regular MSNBC appearances. The media likes that Nessel is openly lesbian and and ignores her ineptitude, particularly on critical healthcare issues.
The Peacock network’s biggest embarrassment is Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s most popular anchor. A federal judge in June tossed a defamation lawsuit filed against her and MSNBC on the grounds that any intelligent person knows that Maddow is a purveyor of opinions not necessarily grounded in fact.
Here’s what Obama-appointed judge Cynthia Bashant wrote in her ruling tossing the lawsuit:
The point of Maddow’s show is for her to provide the news but also to offer her opinions as to that news. Therefore, the Court finds that the medium of the alleged defamatory statement makes it more likely that a reasonable viewer would not conclude that the contested statement implies an assertion of objective fact.
Maddow was among the “journalists” who were quick to tweet a story by an NBC affiliate in Oklahoma claiming that hospitals were overrun with patients taking overdoses of the controversial anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, which proved to be false. Maddow didn’t delete her tweet linking to the false story.
To be fair, NBC is no worse than Disney’s “Mickey Mouse” ABC News division which I profiled last year or Viacom’s CBS News, which I’ve previously likened to the 99 Cents Store network. AT&T’s CNN network is possibly the worst. In addition to pervasive liberal bias, Jeffrey Toobin, its legal affairs expert, was fired for masturbating on a Zoom call with colleagues when he worked at the New Yorker, anchor Don Lemon will stand trial next year for allegedly rubbing his genitalia and then shoving his index and middle fingers into a stranger’s mustache and under his nose, and a former ABC News executive has accused anchor Chris Cuomo of sexually harassing her.
The public has grown wise about the dishonesty of corporate television news reporting and the character of the people delivering the content. A Gallup survey released in July revealed that only 16 percent of the American public trusts television news. The only institution with a lower public trust rating?
Congress.