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After Trump’s Huge Announcement, Something Sinister Was Uncovered About Fox News That Explains a Lot

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Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he would not be participating in Thursday night’s Fox News debate, citing differences with the network. But one news outlet claims the source of the antagonism has to do with the candidate’s stance on immigration.

As reported by Western Journalism, Trump was critical earlier this week of Megyn Kelly’s inclusion as a debate moderator, “I think she is not a professional,” Trump said of the Fox News personality. “I don’t think she’s a very talented person. I don’t think she is a good reporter. I think they could do a lot better than that.”

A feud erupted between Trump and Kelly last August after the network’s first presidential debate, when Kelly asked a sharply-worded question regarding some of the businessman’s past comments about certain women.

The Trump campaign released a statement Tuesday night, which read in part, “Unlike the very stupid, highly incompetent people running our country into the ground, Mr. Trump knows when to walk away. Roger Ailes and FOX News think they can toy with him, but Mr. Trump doesn’t play games.”

According to Breitbart, Kelly’s treatment of Trump is not the only source of the antagonism between the candidate and the network. Breitbart’s Julia Hahn writes:

Trump has shined a spotlight on one of Washington’s best kept secrets: namely, Fox’s role via its founder Rupert Murdoch in pushing an open borders agenda. The Trump campaign is a direct threat to Murdoch’s efforts to open America’s borders. Well-concealed from virtually all reporting on Fox’s treatment of Trump is the fact that Murdoch is the co-chair of what is arguably one of the most powerful immigration lobbying firms in country, the Partnership for a New American Economy (PNAE).

(Read more from “After Trump’s Huge Announcement, Something Sinister Was Uncovered About Fox News That Explains a Lot” HERE)

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GOP Candidate Lineup Announced for Prime-Time Fox Business Network Debate – You’ll Never Guess Who’s Bumped out

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By Fox News. Fox Business Network on Monday announced the candidate lineup for the Jan. 14 Republican presidential debates – and already one candidate has said he will not participate after not qualifying for the prime-time event.

The participants qualifying for the prime-time, 9 p.m. ET debate are:

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

The participants qualifying for the earlier, 6 p.m. ET debate are:

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul; former HP CEO Carly Fiorina; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. (Read more from “GOP Candidate Lineup Announced for Prime-Time Fox Business Network Debate – You’ll Never Guess Who’s Bumped out” HERE)

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Paul, Fiorina Bumped From Next Prime-Time GOP Debate

By David Jackson. The Fox Business Network announced on Monday it was inviting only seven Republican candidates to its prime-time debate later this week, relegating Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina to a preliminary session.

The main debate in North Charleston, S.C., on Thursday night will feature businessman Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Paul, a Kentucky senator who has been on the main stage in five previous debates, told CNN he will likely skip the 6 p.m. ET preliminary debate Thursday: “I won’t participate in anything that’s not first tier because we have a first-tier campaign.”

Paul and Fiorina were invited to the “undercard” debate along with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum.

Earlier in the day, the Paul campaign said in a statement that he placed fifth in a recent Iowa poll and has finished ahead of Bush, Christie, Kasich and Fiorina in other surveys. (Read more from “Paul, Fiorina Bumped From Next Prime-Time GOP Debate” HERE)

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Fox Suspends Retired Army Officer for ‘Profane’ Response to Obama Speech

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Two Fox News contributors were suspended Monday for using inappropriate language about President Barack Obama while discussing his speech on terrorism the night before in two separate episodes.

The analysts, former U.S. Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters and actress Stacey Dash, were each ordered off the air for two weeks . . .

“This guy is such a total p—-, it’s stunning,” Peters said. After he spoke some more, Varney said that while he could tell Peters was “super angry,” he shouldn’t use such language. (Read more from “Fox Suspends Retired Army Officer for Profane Response to Obama Speech” HERE)

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Fox News Anchor Sues Toy Company Over ‘Demeaning Plastic Rodent’ Doll

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150902131852-harris-faulkner-pets-780x439A Fox News anchor is suing toy company Hasbro (HAS) for millions after she said it appropriated her name and her likeness for its “Littlest Pet Shop” product line.

Harris Faulkner filed the suit in U.S District Court Monday over the toy line’s “Harris Faulkner Hamster” doll.

“Hasbro’s false suggestion that Faulkner endorsed its product directly impugns Faulkner’s journalistic integrity, by suggesting that she has entered into a business relationship with the company (when she has not) and that she has lent her good name to a demeaning plastic rodent (when she did not),” the lawsuit said.

The suit said the toy resembled her in complexion, shape of its eyes and design of its eye makeup . . .

“Faulkner is extremely distressed that her name has been wrongly associated with a plastic toy that is a known chocking hazard that risks harming small children,” the lawsuit said. (Read more from “Fox News Anchor Sues Toy Company Over ‘Demeaning Plastic Rodent’ Doll” HERE)

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Bob Beckel Responds to Fox News’ Blunt Statement About Booting Him

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Fox News fans were surprised to find out on Thursday that Bob Beckel, co-host of the network’s hit show “The Five,” had been fired – and it turns out Beckel was just as stunned.

Beckel had been a long-time, regular commentator on the network news giant. His liberal perspective would often draw the ire of right-leaning viewers, but his gruff, down-to-earth personality won many of them over.

On Thursday, Fox released a statement saying in short, “We tried to work it out with Bob for months, but we couldn’t hold ‘The Five’ hostage to one man’s personal issues.”

Beckel’s troubled past with substance abuse was no secret. After he had an extended absence from the network after undergoing back surgery, reports surfaced in April that he was once again dealing with those personal demons. (Read more from “Bob Beckel Responds to Fox News’ Blunt Statement About Booting Him” HERE)

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Is Fox News Bad for the Republican Party?

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And it came to pass that the earth turned and another campaign season spun into view and the liberal commentariat rose from its siesta to begin its usual moping about the perverse political powers wielded by the Fox News Channel.

This time, the sentinel waking the commentariat to the alleged Fox menace is not a liberal but a self-described conservative, Bruce Bartlett. Bartlett, a prolific writer on politics and economics who has worked for congressional Republicans (Ron Paul and Jack Kemp), Republican presidents, (Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush) and conservative and libertarian policy shops, broke with his party a decade ago when he leveled President George W. Bush as an opportunistic pork-barreller in his book Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy. Bartlett recently added a media component to his critique in a paper titled “How Fox News Changed American Media and Political Dynamics,” which has heated the blood of liberals to the boiling point, including the Atlantic’s James Fallows and Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, the Huffington Post and other outriders of liberalism.

Fox News isn’t just bad for America, which is the usual liberal complaint. It’s also bad for the Republican Party, the still-conservative Bartlett holds, because it has stunted the GOP’s growth with a news agenda that ships “misinformation” to the party’s far-right base. This is the so-called Fox “echo chamber” effect you’ve read so much about in ThinkProgress, the New Republic, Slate, The Week, Nicholas Kristof’s column and the Atlantic. According to chamber theorists, Fox “breeds extremism” within the Republican Party by (1) convincing viewers to reject other news feeds as biased and (2) to partake only of Fox content and like-minded conservative radio fodder. The echo chamber, so the theory goes, has deluded the party into thinking that support for its radical-right views is greater than it really is. This, in turn, has convinced the party to run radical candidates who aren’t as electable as they seem to be. And all this extremism prevents the GOP’s presidential candidates from reaching centrist voters, who are essential for victory. (Read more from “Is Fox News Bad for the GOP?” HERE)

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Paris Officials Threaten Lawsuit Against Fox News Over Muslim No-Go Zones

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By T. Becket Adams. Paris officials are reportedly planning to sue Fox News for airing now-retracted reports on supposed “no-go” Muslim zones in France, the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, announced Tuesday.

“When we’re insulted, and when we’ve had an image, then I think we’ll have to sue, I think we’ll have to go to court, in order to have these words removed,” Hidalgo said in an interview with CNN.

“The image of Paris has been prejudiced, and the honor of Paris has been prejudiced. And I think in the great discussion of truth, everyone is to play its role. And we’re going to have to be realistic and put things as they are,” she said.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour pressed Hidalgo to name one such news group that would be included in the lawsuit, prompting the Paris mayor to answer: “Fox News, that’s the name.” (Read more about the threatened lawsuit against Fox News over the alleged Muslim no-go zones HERE)

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Bobby Jindal under Fire for Highlighting Europe’s Muslim No-Go Zones

By Jordan Schachtel. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has come under fire from the left for doubling down on his assertion that France has “no-go zones” in which non-Muslims are forbidden from entering.

Jindal said at London’s Henry Jackson Society that Muslim immigrants are attempting to “colonize Western countries, because setting up your own enclave and demanding recognition of a no-go zone are exactly that.”

Some public figures argue that the “no-go zones” are areas susceptible to a sudden flare-up, depending upon the current political environment. Since 2006, Harvard Professor Daniel Pipes has kept a continually updated blog on France’s “no-go zones.” Pipes explains that while well-maintained, the areas remain “potentially dangerous” in times of heightened political turmoil. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Fox News Dropped by Dish Network

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fox-news95372WASHINGTON – No. 1-rated Fox News Channel was unceremoniously dropped by Dish Network Saturday night – surprising viewers who were told Fox had pulled the programming from the satellite TV system.

Fox climbed to the top of the ladder in cable news by offering what it calls “fair and balanced” programing – and what many progressives, including Barack Obama, call biased.

Dish used the pretext of stalled negotiations over a new distribution deal to pull the plug on both Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network – two favorites of conservatives and independent thinkers.

Dish, which has for weeks been negotiating a new carriage contract for the 21st Century Fox channels, said the channels were blocked after Fox introduced fee increases for other sports and information channels not part of the original contract.

“It’s like we’re about to close on a house and the realtor is trying to make us buy a new car as well,” Warren Schlichting, Dish’s senior vice president of programming, said in a statement. “Fox blacked out two of its news channels, using them as leverage to triple rates on sports and entertainment channels that are not in this contract.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Excluding Russia From G8 ‘Like Suspending a Vegan From a Steakhouse’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox News A “Special Report” panel today discussed how G7 leaders met in The Hague and announced that they would be excluding Russia from the G8 and boycotting a planned summit in Sochi.

Jason Riley, of the Wall Street Journal, said Russian President Vladimir Putin is rebuilding the Russian empire while President Barack Obama and our allies in Europe are sitting around discussing international law and “kicking Putin out of clubs he doesn’t care about in the first place.”

Riley said Putin knows that the administration doesn’t have the stomach for confrontation and will continue to take advantage of that.

“Suspending him from the G8 is like suspending a vegan from a steakhouse,” Ron Fournier, of the National Journal, said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Is the Obama Admin Freezing Fox News Out of Foreign Policy Interviews?

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller The Obama administration faces a difficult problem. Diplomacy has failed, despite its best efforts, and the ruthless winner-take-all attitude of its adversary now leaves them but two choices: break off relations or capitulate to its demands.

That adversary, of course, is Fox News — and President Barack Obama finally seems prepared to enforce a hard line against them. In the past week the White House has frozen the top-rated news network out of two key foreign policy interviews provided to other networks — one on Sunday with Secretary of State John Kerry, and one last week with National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

Kerry made the rounds yesterday to discuss the White House’s response to Russia’s Friday invasion of Ukraine, appearing on NBC, CBS and ABC’s Sunday shows to promise a tough (if unspecified) response to Vladimir Putin’s power grab. But Chris Wallace of ”Fox News Sunday” was shut out.

Read more this story HERE.