The Supreme Court Justices have all filed their annual swag disclosures — except for Alito, who says he needs ‘more time.’ Rip the bandage off Sam. Grift does not improve with age.
Fox News reported on the revelations. Weighing the eight tallies, the Fox editors decide to headline their piece, “Beyoncé gave SCOTUS Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson concert tickets valued at nearly $4,000: report”
To give the MAGAs more red meat, they added the subtitle, “The Biden appointee also disclosed a $900,000 advance on her upcoming memoir.”
The story starts by reiterating the headline. Repetition is the soul of propaganda.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was gifted four concert tickets by pop superstar Beyoncé valued at $3,700, according to a financial disclosure.
The Biden appointee also disclosed a $900,000 advance for her upcoming memoir "Lovely One" out in September, and two gifts of artwork in her chambers worth $12,500.
At this point, the Fox News consumer has all they want. Evidence of the perfidy of a venal liberal justice, shoehorned onto the Court by the man who pulls the justice system’s strings, Satan’s socialist mouthpiece in the White House, the illegal President Joe Biden. Jackson is not guilty of just a penny-ante grift, mind you. But has been doused with a firehose of bribery amounting to almost $1 million.
Granted, I am filling in some of the space between the lines. But I believe it is an honest assessment of the base’s take on the piece.
The article has more for the MAGAs who have not yet moved onto the next ‘scandal.’ It continues:
While Jackson’s filing didn’t specify which concert she received the tickets for, it was during Beyoncé’s "Renaissance World Tour."
Good on Fox News for their investigative journalistic precision. It is important to know which tour the tickets were for. Then, having outlined the broad scope of Justice Jackson’s financial transgressions, Fox connects some dots.
Vice President Kamala Harris also previously filed that she was gifted tickets by Beyoncé, valuing them at $3,300, according to CNBC.
There it is. QED. Black women with their hand in the bribery jar, living large at another Black woman’s command. But wait. There’s more. The story continues.
Last year, Jackson, who was appointed to the court in 2022, also had a couple of eye-popping filings, including more than $6,500 in clothes from a photo shoot and a $1,200 flower display from Oprah Winfrey, according to The Hill.
Stop the presses. Unleash the dogs of impeachment. This is beyond the pale. It also raises the question, is Jackson the only SCOTUS Justice vacuuming up the largesse?
Fox News, to prove its even-handedness, does not shy away from putting a conservative justice under bright lights. The story continues.
Justice Clarence Thomas also amended his 2019 filing to reveal two trips to Indonesia and Sonoma County, California, that he said were paid for by Republican mega donor Harlan Crow after they were "inadvertently omitted" initially.
After that savage beating with a pool noodle, Fox can rest easy. Confident that they have fulfilled their ethical responsibility to report the whole story. Nit-pickers will point out that the Fox folks did not put a value on Thomas's gifts. They might further suggest that the cost of one luxury trip to Indonesia is north of $3,700. It might even be “eye-popping.”
They might also wonder how a Justice could accidentally forget where he has been — and who paid for him to be there. But that is to hold Thomas to an impossible standard. Clarence has a high-powered job. He is under pressure from constant unwarranted attacks on his judicial impartiality. It would take an Übermensch to remember every jot and tittle given the burdens thrust upon him.
For the few people who bother to read to the end, Fox finishes with a second example of their commitment to balance.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh also reported being paid $340,000 by Regnery Publishing company. The court confirmed Friday that he is writing a legal memoir.
Wait. Jackson is not the only justice who got an advance for writing a book? Just how common is this dubious behavior? Research shows it happens frequently. In addition to Fox’s two enumerated offenders, current Justices Gorsuch, Sotomayor, Kagan, Barrett, and Thomas have published or are writing books.
Bookstore shelves, both real and virtual, are littered with the important thoughts of many Justices. All of whom were presumably paid for their pearls.
Liberals believe that conservative news organizations are inveterate liars unable to tell the truth. When you look at the prime-time opinion celebrities, they are correct. But the news wing of Fox News has a subtler approach to muddying the truth.
It spins by highlighting the misdemeanors of liberals while downplaying the felonies of conservatives. In addition, it ignores stories it does not like. If you search Fox News for “Clarence Thomas” you will find no mention of his $4 million gift haul during his SCOTUS tenure. But you will find a piece that makes Thomas look like a hero for correcting an “inadvertent” error in his disclosures without mentioning that he only did so after a public outcry.
And if Fox cannot bury the story, they will offer quotes from reliable conservative sources who say that the damaging facts that Fox reports are, in fact, fake. Allowing them to both tell the truth while implying the truth they told is actually a lie.
Fox is like the driver who consumed two beers and eight tequila shots. And when pulled over for a suspected DUI, they tell the cop, “I had two beers." Technically, they are correct, as they did have two beers. The lie is in not mentioning the shots.
