FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024 There he goes again: Why was Michael Cohen sentenced to three years in prison? We'll explore that question over the weekend. We just saw Nicolle Wallace tackle the topic again. For today, we thought we'd show you one of the wonderful jokes with which Greg Gutfeld returned from his one-week vacation.  Last night, the termagant returned to his "cable news" program. Two minutes in, at 10:02, he "put a smile on your face" with this: TERMAGANT (4/25/24): A kidney from a pig was transplanted into a deathly ill New Jersey woman and it began working almost instantly ..read more

FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024 It's all about Helen of Troy: At the start of last night's show on the Fox News Channel, Laura Ingraham was puzzled. She started with the Gotham "hush money" trial. Her puzzlement took this form: We start in New York where David Pecker testified for the third day. And what's becoming less clear as the trial wears on is:  What is the crime? With what crime does Donald J. Trump stand charged in the Gotham "hush money" trial? Ingraham seemed to say that she doesn't know, and that it's becoming less clear. For ourselves, we were slightly puzzled by Ingraham's first gu ..read more

THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024 As opposed to what you might hear: Actually yes, we know what we said. Yesterday afternoon, we said we'd walk you thrown an appalling pseudo-conversation which took place on that morning's Fox & Friends. During the event in question, Lawrence Jones, on the road in Wisconsin, was completely unable to see the two young women standing right there before him. He was completely unable to hear what the two young women were saying.  As he towered over the pair of impressive, well-intentioned young women, he simply churned his agitprop at them, then went on his angry ..read more

THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024 With what is Donald Trump charged? The future president made the statement back in the early days. Joe and Mika were in the process of flipping on the candidate—a candidate over whom they had fawned all through the previous year.  It was January 2016. NPR gave this account of what the hopeful had said: Donald Trump: 'I Could ... Shoot Somebody, And I Wouldn't Lose Any Voters' With less than two weeks to go until the Iowa caucus, Donald Trump remains characteristically confident about his chances. In fact, the Republican front-runner is so confident, he says ..read more

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2024 But also, Fox & Friends conquers Wisconsin: It's very, very hard to believe the culture change which has been engineered under cover of darkness at the Fox News Channel. We're so old that we can remember when "family values" was the hook for American conservative movement and for its figurehead news org.  That was then and this is now. Last night, the channel's silliest and stupidest boy was at it all over again. We're speaking here of a very silly, very dimwitted, very undergrown child. The segment in question aired during last night's 8 o'clock hour on Jess ..read more

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2024 Or is it extremely strong? Incomparably, your Daily Howler keeps churning out results. She appeared today at 6:03 a.m. Her appearance on Morning Joe ended at 6:20. Along the way, she restated her "basic takeaway" from yesterday's Morning Joe.  Once again, she said the prosecutors may not have strong evidence showing that Donald J. Trump played an active role in the coverup of the conspiracy. She offered the same assessment yesterday, as we reported here. That said, legal analyst Lisa Rubin did no rooting today. She merely stated her view of the evidence as it's b ..read more

TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2024 Old ways disappear: Journalistically speaking, we'd call it a moment that was. Yesterday, opening statements were delivered at the Trump hush money / election corruption trial. When we left off this morning, Donald J. Trump had somehow "corrupted the 2016 election" (New York Times) by keeping the electorate from hearing a 30-year-old bogus story. How care he? He'd kept us from hearing an unflattering story which was untrue, bogus, false! According to the construction atop page one in the Times, we the people needed to hear that untrue story before we could know how to v ..read more

TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2024 The doorman knocks early and often: Journalistically speaking—and "at long last"—is it time for her to go? Journalistically speaking, we refer to Lisa Rubin. She's either "an MSNBC legal analyst" or "an MSNBC legal correspondent," depending on which part of the thumbnail you read. She's a relatively recent addition to the army of legal contributors who have clogged the airwaves at that Blue America corporate channel keeping ratings and profits high. She's also a food, decent person. That said: This morning, she appeared on Morning Joe to discuss the events which took pl ..read more

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2024 Excitement running high: There is no trial but the one true trial. All other news topics fail.  We missed the start of Deadline: White House due to an appointment. We returned at 4:15 to find excitement running high and the (uniform) desire to convict running strong. Also, we returned to hear some odd assertions. More on that tomorrow? For ourselves, our overall view is this: We regard this unfolding event as an embarrassment, but also as a major anthropology lesson. Does this help us know who we actually are? Consider: In an array of formulations, we've been told t ..read more

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2024 Our journalism, ourselves: The New York Times is a national paper of record. Based upon a recent report, that's especially true for the jurors who begin their service today in Gotham's admittedly "lurid," hush money / porn star trial. Last Friday, the newspaper offered this report about the eighteen jurors and alternates. The report concerned where they said they get their news on their pre-trial questionnaire.  Jurors were allowed to cite more than one source. According to the Times' compilation, thirteen of the eighteen jurors named the New York Times. Among all o ..read more