Wha?
This was my first reaction when I saw this on Alternet:
“Oh glorious” was my reaction when I read that the Trump family is tied to the OANN acquisition, discussions which were first reported in January by the Wall Street Journal:
The Journal reported that Hicks Equity Partners, a firm belonging to the family of Tommy Hicks Jr., the RNC co-chair, was negotiating a $250 million deal with Herring Networks, the parent company of OANN, a low-impact far-right network that offers a home to the likes of Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec and has defended Roy Moore and endorsed Russian propaganda.
I doubt Donald Jr. does anything without daddy’s permission, if not under his direction. So I figure that if Junior is investing in One America News Network (OANN ) it is because his Royal Heinie (pictured above) thinks it can compete with Fox News.
I mean, let’s face it there isn’t much in the news to make us smile these days. However as I read the AlterNet article my visage took on the likeness of the Cheshire Cat.
Last month Trump accused Fox News of “being on a bad path,” and has asked twice now “what the hell is happening” at the network. He attacked Fox reporters twice last month during White House coronavirus briefings, and has taken several potshots at several of the channel’s shows and personalities, tweeting in January that Fox News was “really pathetic” and “so politically correct,” singling out Chris Wallace’s impeachment coverage.
After it was reported that Fox had fired MAGA-world luminaries Diamond and Silk for hawking ludicrous coronavirus conspiracy theories, Trump tweeted his support for the duo: “But I love Diamond and Silk, and so do millions of people!”
OANN? If you’ve manage to stifle your gag reflect and watch some Trump press conferences you know that Trump has called on the OANN “journalist” so he could at least have one fawning reporter ask a softball non-question question.
Here’s some of what Politico had to say:
One day after her employer was kicked out of the rotation to cover daily press briefings by President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force, OAN correspondent Chanel Rion was back in the briefing room at press secretary Stephanie Grisham’s request — putting her at odds with the rest of the White House press corps.
Rion also attended Tuesday and Wednesday’s briefings at Grisham's invitation, standing in the back of the room in violation of new rules put in place by the White House Correspondents’ Association.
Of course Trump has mixed feelings about Fox News. His ambivalence knows no bounds as he tries to express his outrage at them when they report about him accurately, be it his low poll ratings, Covid-19, and his lies. He knows that they are still the cable news media of choice for the vast majority of his supporters. He didn’t have OANN reporters conduct his two hour Lincoln Memorial so-called town hall.
I didn't watch the town hall and I doubt any of you did. Suffice to say it didn’t go quite as well as he probably thought it would. This is from The Washington Post:
Trump’s claim that no president has been treated worse than he came in response to a question from a supporter named Carolyn Perkins, a retired nurse and elementary school guidance counselor.
“The question I have is about your manner of presentation,” Perkins said. “Why do you use descriptive words that could be classified as bullying? And why do you not directly answer the questions asked by the press but instead speak of past successes and generally ramble? The U.S.A. needs you. Please let go of those behaviors that are turning people away from you. Please hold on to your wonderful attributes that make you our great leader and let go of other characteristics that do not serve you.”
“Look, I am greeted with a hostile press the likes of which no president has ever seen,” Trump responded. Motioning toward the statue of the 16th president, the 45th president said: “The closest would be that gentleman right up there.”
Fox News host Bret Baier wasn't wearing a MAGA hat when he said the following:
Fox anchor Bret Baier read Trump the quote from Lincoln’s second inaugural about feeling “malice toward none” and “charity for all” as he said the time had come to "bind up the nation’s wounds.” The host noted that some critics complained that the Lincoln Memorial was not the right venue for this kind of an event. Trump dismissed the criticism: “I think it’s great for the American people to see. This is a great work of art, aside from the fact that that was a great man. … And it’s one of the greatest sculptures, one of the greatest statues, to me, anywhere in the world.”
“As far as bringing America together,” Baier responded, “do you think you’re doing that?”
Trump replied with a riff on winning. “I think we were winning very big, and then we had a horrible thing happen,” he said. “We were winning bigger than we’ve ever won before, Bret, and I think that winning ultimately is going to bring this country together.”
It is my hope upon hope that Trump came away from what he envisioned as an historic event proving he was the greatest president since Lincoln (probably greater because he doesn’t admire presidents who let themselves get assassinated) with sense that it did not go as well as he was sure, in his delusional grandiose narcissism, that it would be a love-fest from both his public and Fox News sycophants.
Perhaps Trump is so needy that despite the fact that the performance was the second highest rated cable town hall ever with 3.8 million viewers that he will think he is such a draw that if he decides to boycott Fox News and the likes of Bret Baier and Chris Wallace (about whom he said "Chris Wallace is nastier to Republicans than even Deface the Nation or Sleepy Eyes”) and use OANN instead.
If Trump thinks an upstart cable network can take down Fox News it again proves the truth of what Rex Tillerson called him. He’s a moron.
I hope he does try. The effort is doomed.
The Poll: When Trump loses, and I can’t bear to think he won’t, he craves the spotlight so much that merely appearing on Fox News may not be enough. I doubt he will simply gracefully retire to surround himself with star-struck Mara a Lago simpletons. My hunch is he is likely to try to buy a controlling interest in OANN since it already exists, that is if he can get a Russian bank to float him a loan.