In case anyone still thinks that the Fox ‘news’ operation is not part of its propaganda operation, check out how Chief National Correspondent Ed Henry worked a pro-Trump ad into his reporting.
Henry sounded every bit as optimistic about Donald Trump’s “victory” on his tax bill (that Americans hate) as you’d expect from a Fox reporter:
HENRY: Some of the presidents advisors tonight are telling me they want to pivot out of this victory on tax cuts to infrastructure, immigration reform, other big issues.
Then Henry worked in this bit of sales help for the widely-hated tax scam:
HENRY: And this pro-Trump non-profit group, America First Policies, is now planning a $1 million TV ad blitz that will start on Christmas Day but, in fact, they’re giving Fox News @ Night a first look.
Actually, it’s Fox News that is doing the giving here by running an ad, for free, in a news report. And why not throw in a freebie when a lot of that ad-blitz dough will surely go right into Trump TV’s coffers? What Henry didn't tell viewers is that one of the founders of that pro-Trump group is the recently-indicted (for money laundering, among other things) Rick Gates.
As a Fox banner on the screen read, “TRUMP ON TAX BILL: ‘RESULTS WILL SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES,’” we saw a working-class-looking man (who will receive a measly portion of the tax scam’s benefits, compared to what the Trump family will rake in) say, “Thank you for cutting my taxes.” Other middle-class-looking folks said, “Thank you for fixing my economy,” “Thank you for putting America first” and “As veterans, thank you for reminding us to stand for our national anthem.”
As Karoli, at Crooks and Liars drily noted, “They’re even raising up their Hilter youth” with the ad’s supposedly tug-at-the-heart ending of a (white) child saying, “Thank you, President Trump, for letting us say ‘Merry Christmas’ again.” This was another scam, as not only did the Obamas repeatedly say "Merry Christmas," but Trump, himself, threw a "holiday party" at the White House.
Watch Fox’s Christmas present to Trump below, from the December 21, 2017 Fox News @ Night, via Crooks and Liars.
Just a moment ago he joined the rest of the curvy couch bobbleheads in mocking liberals being hysterical and predicting Armageddon over net neutrality, tax cuts, climate change. Plus, naturally Henry sat their gloating as his curvy couch buddies thanked Trump that we can now way “Merry Christmas” (because we certainly know it was banned by Obama).
Here’s a reality that Fox News has not figured out yet – most people in the country won’t actually feel any effect from the Tax Transfer next year, unless they’re smart enough to adjust their withholding to prepare for the bigger tax hits they’ll take on Tax Day in 2019. There will certainly be millions of people whose health premiums are about to skyrocket. And there will be tens of millions of people in the Blue States who will already be preparing for a big hit since their State tax deduction was brutally reduced. So this big happy glow they’re expecting to see from the country in general is unlikely to appear. But the people in the Blue States are likely to be showing real anger next year. And the people in the swing states who were promised new coal and manufacturing jobs are likely to be even angrier, since nothing has been done for them. Not to mention that the GOP will have a gigantic black eye in March when the DACA enrollees start leaving the country.
I found it interesting that a few of the big corporations are making a point of sending bonus checks to their employees. (And that Fox News commentators are demanding that liberals not cash them, natch) It’s not hard to understand why those checks were sent, or why one of the corporations is conceding that it may go ahead and pay a minimum wage of 15 bucks per hour. In one of the cases, we were hearing about 100,000 checks being sent out for a thousand dollars each – meaning that they just spent 100 million dollars. Why would a company do something like that? Because they’re about to make money in the 10s of BILLIONS. The 100 million is a drop in the bucket to them, and this is intended to forestall the very bad publicity these guys will be getting next year when they don’t bring jobs back to the US and when it becomes obvious that they’re just pocketing their own, much larger bonuses. I’d call it a nice try at changing the subject, but I don’t think it will work come next fall, when people are asking why we haven’t seen a big bump in the economy. (There was another big indicator today, when a lot of majors were actually pulling money out of investment – indicating that they are not expecting to see a big economic boost, which makes sense given everything we know about this.)
“Am rica first”?