{"id":411,"date":"2024-02-01T00:08:27","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T00:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/01\/irony-overdoses-reported-as-jesse-watters-accuses-msnbc-of-brainwashing\/"},"modified":"2024-02-01T00:08:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T00:08:27","slug":"irony-overdoses-reported-as-jesse-watters-accuses-msnbc-of-brainwashing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/01\/irony-overdoses-reported-as-jesse-watters-accuses-msnbc-of-brainwashing\/","title":{"rendered":"Irony overdoses reported as Jesse Watters accuses MSNBC of brainwashing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Jesse Watters wants this article to be written.<\/p>\n

This is what the Fox News host does, throws out controversial (and often false) claims and then surveys the turmoil that results. He\u2019s a troll, albeit one with a prime-time cable news show and a big audience. And on Tuesday night, he presented that audience with one of the most ironic accusations I can remember.<\/p>\n

The night before, MSNBC host Joy Reid\u2019s microphone was live as the channel aired footage of President Biden speaking about immigration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that bill were the law today, I\u2019d shut down the border right now and fix it quickly,\u201d Biden said on the tape (with someone in the audience yelling out, \u201cI know you would!\u201d). \u201c\u2026 And Congress needs to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then you hear Reid, \u201cStarting another [censored] war!\u201d<\/p>\n

From the audio, it seems as though MSNBC turned her mic back on as the video was ending and she didn\u2019t realize it. The audio was then muted quickly and turned back on as Reid began reading from the teleprompter. She later apologized for the comment.<\/p>\n

This walk-through is important when considering how Watters approached it.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time you turn on the news, you\u2019re told, don\u2019t believe your eyes,\u201d Watters said as the segment began. \u201cThe border\u2019s secure, the economy strong, and Joe Biden is on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

He showed a clip of MSNBC host Joe Scarborough praising Biden\u2019s reelection bid.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo they really believe what they\u2019re saying?\u201d Watters continued. \u201cWell, there\u2019s new evidence that they don\u2019t. Last night, we got a look behind the curtain. Joy Reid was caught on a hot mic trashing Biden, exclaiming that he\u2019s going to start \u2018another f-ing war.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He then played the clip referenced above. But notice how, already, he\u2019s out over his skis. As I think Scarborough and Reid would attest, they are different people with very different political perspectives. Scarborough was once a House Republican from Florida. Reid\u2019s career has involved working in media and advocacy for liberal causes. That Scarborough believes one thing is by no means an indicator that Reid will.<\/p>\n

More importantly, we don\u2019t know what Reid was referring to. It certainly could have been Biden; many on the left are critical of his approach to the conflict in Gaza, a conflict at risk of further escalating. But she also came into the clip talking about legislative efforts to link border changes to funding for Ukraine. Perhaps that was her focus: After all, the segment aired the day after a drone strike in Jordan killed three American service members, spurring talk of retaliation among Republicans on Capitol Hill. Just because Reid was speaking over a Biden clip doesn\u2019t mean she was speaking about him.<\/p>\n

Watters (and most others on the right) simply assumed she was talking about Biden and took it as an article of faith. (This happens a lot.) And that allowed Watters to universally decry his competitors\u2019 dishonesty.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Biden\u2019s going to start another f-ing war,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what Joy Reid says when she thinks no one\u2019s listening. \u2026 Why not just say that on the air? You\u2019re an opinion host. You get paid to share your opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d he continued, \u201cit\u2019s because MSNBC doesn\u2019t respect their audience. They\u2019re not putting on a show to inform their viewers. It\u2019s a brainwashing op. [Donald] Trump\u2019s Hitler, Biden\u2019s young, crime\u2019s down.\u201d<\/p>\n

That he included \u201ccrime\u2019s down\u201d is amusing. Crime is down, as it turns out, despite Fox News\u2019s constant efforts to insist that it is skyrocketing under Biden. When I wrote in October 2022 that Fox News was suddenly focused on rising crime as the 2022 midterms approached, despite the lack of evidence that it was, Watters disparaged me personally as a \u201cknucklehead\u201d and a \u201cliar.\u201d But it was down in 2022 and down again in 2023. A channel that respects its audience would state that.<\/p>\n

\u201cA network that respects its audience would let the audience watch live news,\u201d Watters continued. \u201cBut MSNBC doesn\u2019t let you watch Trump live, [MSNBC host Rachel] Maddow says. It\u2019s too dangerous. The network can\u2019t handle it, and neither can the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, no. The debate at MSNBC and in the traditional media isn\u2019t whether to let people hear Trump, it\u2019s whether to air him saying false things, particularly his debunked and unsubstantiated allegations about election fraud. A news organization doesn\u2019t actively choose to misinform its viewers, either.<\/p>\n

But again, irony. Fox News reached a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems for more than three-quarters of a billion dollars last year after the channel aired false claims that the company\u2019s voting machines had facilitated stealing the 2020 election. When Fox News agreed to interview Trump a few months later, those interviews were taped \u2014 most likely so that the network could ensure it wasn\u2019t airing further false information.<\/p>\n

It gets worse! Fox News, after all, is the channel that declined to air the prime-time hearings of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, with then-host Tucker Carlson using the time to instead promote conspiracy theories about it.<\/p>\n

Host Laura Ingraham even responded to critics of the channel\u2019s decision not to run the hearings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually do something called, you know, cater to our audience,\u201d she said. \u201cOur audience knows what this is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe told you last night this isn\u2019t about persuasion anymore,\u201d Watters said in concluding the segment. \u201cIt\u2019s propaganda. The digital age\u2019s MK Ultra.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then welcomed Trump\u2019s former press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, who now works as a Fox News host and contributor. A study released in 2020, while she served in the White House, found that most Americans didn\u2019t view Trump as honest and trustworthy \u2014 with the notable exception of Fox News viewers.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on The Washington Post<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesse Watters wants this article to be written. This is what the Fox News host does, throws out controversial (and often false) claims and then surveys the turmoil that results. He\u2019s a troll, albeit one with a prime-time cable news show and a big audience. And on Tuesday night, he presented that audience with one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}