It sounds like 2003 on Fox News

[marmar]

MAGA's narrative warfare gets all mixed up by Rupert Murdoch
It sounds like 2003 on Fox News — but is MAGA listening?

By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published June 20, 2025 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) It’s an unnerving feeling to find myself in agreement with Tucker Carlson, but it’s not unfamiliar. By my count, the last time was 2003 and the U.S. was embroiled in a Middle East quagmire. “I supported the war,” the conservative commentator, who was then chasing mainstream media success in a perch at CNN, told the New York Times of the 2002 US-led invasion of Iraq, “and I now feel foolish.” This time around, the U.S. is fully backing an unprovoked Israeli attack on Iran. And Fox News, Carlson said this week of his former employer, “is trying to lay the groundwork for American intervention.”

It’s how Donald Trump, a man who pledged no new wars on the campaign trail, has ended up on the verge of entering a new war less than six months into his presidency. According to reports, Trump’s heavy consumption of Fox News coverage is increasing his appetite for direct military engagement. Since my own obsession with Fox News might rival Trump’s, I've seen how the network’s one-sided coverage has unfolded from the beginning.

....(snip)....

From the outset, MAGA media has been split on the administration’s response. Rupert Murdoch, whose Fox News has long served as a key amplifier of Trump’s messages, has “privately complained to confidants about [Middle East envoy Steve] Witkoff’s efforts [to broker a nuclear deal],” Politico reported. Murdoch’s media outlets, which also includes the Wall Street Journal, have strongly supported Israel during a period of intense global scrutiny and spent the past week uncritically parroting the country’s claims that they initiated this conflict because Iran was on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon.

....(snip)....

Backing up Carlson is none other than Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who shot back at Trump: “Tucker Carlson is one of my favorite people. He fiercely loves his wife, children, and our country. Since being fired by the neocon network Fox News, he has more popularity and viewers than ever before… That’s not kooky. That’s what millions of Americans voted for. It’s what we believe is America First.”

Greene also took to former Tea Party congressman (and current MAGA media personality) Matt Gaetz’s show on One America News to slam Fox News. “We have propaganda news on our side, just like the left does,” she said, “and the American people have been brainwashed into believing that America has to engage in these foreign wars in order for us to survive. And it’s absolutely not true.” ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/06/20/magas-narrative-warfare-gets-all-mixed-up-by-rupert-murdoch/

[Johonny]

1. Yellow cake

[EarlG]

2. Interesting

Seems to me that MAGA has able to break off quite a few former progressives since 2016 with their appeal to anti-war "America First" policies. Trump ran in 2016 and 2024 accusing Clinton and Biden (and Harris) of being warmongers who were going to get us into foreign entanglements. He said he was going to end the war in Ukraine on day one.

But now the shit is hitting the fan in the Middle East, the GOP may well find out that their party isn't the neo-con party of the early 2000s. Twenty years later, Republican patriotism is no longer defined by the "American empire" PNAC types from the Reagan era, but by the inward-looking nationalism of Trump. They could well see some major blowback from the anti-war portion of their coalition, especially if leeches like Tucker Carlson realize that there's a significant audience to be captured by appealing to those people.

[Buns_of_Fire]

3. From the article:

Trump's unpredictability and erratic shifts in rhetoric toward Iran continue to muddy the waters surrounding potential U.S. action. But what's clear is that Fox News, with its shameless push for another nation-building project, appears committed to testing his promise to be a harbinger of peace. We will soon see if Rupert Murdoch gets the war he so obviously wants.

The sooner King Taco and Price Rupert assume room temperature, the better off the world will be.

[Kid Berwyn]

4. How do you "fiercely" love someone?

Just after the news broke two Minnesota legislators had been shot in their homes, Majorly Traitor Greede posted the above.

[Basso8vb]

5. Which is exactly why I stopped watching TV news in 2003.