Tag: eric bolling
Grisham Gives First TV Interview To Sinclair’s Eric Bolling, A ‘Birther’

Grisham Gives First TV Interview To Sinclair’s Eric Bolling, A ‘Birther’

New White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham gave her first TV interview in the role to Sinclair’s Eric Bolling. Bolling, a former Fox News host who was fired amid sexual harassment reports, hosts a weekly online show for Sinclair. Despite Bolling’s history of pushing conspiracy theories and toxic rhetoric — and the circumstances surrounding his Fox News exit — his Sinclair program has become a regular stop for administration officials and Republican members of Congress.

Grisham was appointed White House press secretary on June 25. Since then, she has largely followed in her predecessor’s footsteps by continuing to avoid press briefings and offering weak, lie-filled defenses of the president’s actions. And she has now joined her predecessor in giving an exclusive interview to Bolling.

On the August 14 edition of Sinclair’s America This Week, Grisham sat down for an eight-minute interview with Bolling. They discussed at length a feud between President Donald Trump and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci (who appeared earlier in the program), and Grisham also took the opportunity to deny that the president is racist. Bolling asked Grisham if she would consider bringing back regular press briefings and Grisham demurred, saying, “We’re going to talk about it. … The president, also, he’s so accessible so right now I think that that’s good enough.” She concluded, “It’s not all about a press briefing, and honestly the president is his best spokesperson.”

America This Week streams on the websites of Sinclair-controlled local TV news stations across the country, and airs (in part or in full) on some of those stations after it’s released online on Wednesdays. So far, a handful of Sinclair stations have aired the same clip from the interview — Grisham discussing Scaramucci and denying the president’s racism — and directed viewers to view the full show on their websites or watch it when it airs on Sunday night.

Bolling began hosting his own show for Sinclair in April, and he had been making appearances on its national programming for months beforehand. He also hosts a streaming show on the website of right-wing outlet BlazeTV.

He was previously a host and co-host at Fox News, where he regularly trafficked in conspiracy theories, misogyny, and race-baiting; he was a central figure in pushing the racist conspiracy theory about President Barack Obama’s birth certificate. He left the network in 2017 amid reports that he sent multiple colleagues unsolicited images of genitalia.

In the months since his Sinclair show premiered, Bolling has used the platform to give embarrassingly easy interviews to President Donald Trump, numerous other Trump administration and Trump campaign officials, Republican lawmakers, and a host of right-wing media mainstays and extremist figures.

Additionally, Bolling has used the platform to elevate a variety of right-wing extremists, conspiracy theorists, and media hacks including former Breitbart chief and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon; longtime Trump adviser and racist, sexist conspiracy theorist Roger Stone (twice); Turning Point USA’s diaper enthusiast Charlie Kirkconservative darling and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell; video huckster James O’Keefe; fellow disgraced former Fox host Bill O’Reilly; discredited right-wing author Peter Schweizer; guns misinformer John Lott (twice); and the right-wing Judicial Crisis Network’s Carrie Severino.

And Sinclair contributor Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump administration official with neo-Nazi ties, regularly sits on the show’s panels.

Fox News’ Eric Bolling Is Trying — And Failing — To Cover His Bigoted Tracks

Fox News’ Eric Bolling Is Trying — And Failing — To Cover His Bigoted Tracks

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters. 

Eric Bolling, a Fox News host who is reportedly discussing a possible position in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, deleted a five-year-old racist tweet about President Obama immediately after Media Matters unearthed it.

Bolling drew criticism in May 2011 after tweeting that Obama had been “chugging 40’s” in Ireland “while tornadoes ravage” Missouri. Earlier today, Media Matters called attention to that tweet in a post exploring Bolling’s history of making bigoted commentary and pushing conspiracy theories.

Moments after I flagged Bolling’s May 2011 comment on Twitter, he deleted the tweet and blocked me.

Unfortunately for Bolling, we have a screenshot of his tweet:

bolling-tweet

And a screenshot of his identical Facebook post, which he hasn’t yet deleted:

And video of him saying the same thing on his Fox show, which he can’t delete:

Bolling is trying to hide his racism, and he’s doing a terrible job of it. He is both too bigoted and too dumb for public service.

Fox Anchor’s Advice To Trump On Hard Questions: “Dodge It!”

Fox Anchor’s Advice To Trump On Hard Questions: “Dodge It!”

Donald Trump’s horrific answer Wednesday to Chris Matthews’s question on whether women should be “punished” for having illegal abortions is perhaps the strongest evidence yet, for the conspiratorially-minded, that Trump is a liberal saboteur of the conservative movement.

While mainstream pro-lifers have always said that abortion providers should be penalized for performing illegal abortions, their policies’ impacts fall squarely on women, by restricting a healthcare option that should be free and legal nationwide.

It seems as though Trump’s lack of any real knowledge on the pro-life position sent him through some mental time warp, back to his pro-choice days:

“People in certain parts of the Republican Party, and conservative Republicans, would say ‘yes, they should be punished.'”

Exactly! Thanks for clarifying, Donald. The pro-life movement has been trying to punish women — successfully, much of the time — for wanting full control of their bodies.

The policy of punishing abortion providers — sometimes violently, though vigilante justice and terrorism — is the result of decades of paternalism from pro-life conservatives, who have said women are as much “victims” of their abortion rights as unborn fetuses. The pro-life movement has done some incredible gymnastics over the years to avoid threatening millions of people with murder charges.

Thankfully, Trump set the record straight.

After the likely Republican presidential nominee defamed the enormous pro-life constituency in his party — albeit by telling the truth — his fellow conservatives had a simple message for him: shut up!

Mike Huckabee said “it’s clear he had not thought through his answer.” Dr. Ben Carson, who endorsed Trump a few weeks ago, parroted the party line: women “are already being punished,” somehow, for having abortions.

Fox’s Eric Bolling took a simpler approach: Next time, “Dodge it.” He continued: “I wouldn’t answer a question on gay marriage, abortion, or… what was the third one? Contraception!”

Go ahead, Donald, just ignore all that stuff. Surely it won’t hurt your already dismal record with half the country.

Video courtesy Media Matters

Are These The 4 Worst Examples Of Misogyny On Fox News?

Are These The 4 Worst Examples Of Misogyny On Fox News?

Did Donald Trump finally cross a line?

Conservative media outrage was mysteriously muted after the mogul disparaged Senator John McCain’s military record. But it came out in force shortly after The Donald made lewd cracks about Fox News host Megyn Kelly — remarks widely interpreted to be a crass reference to the debate moderator’s menstrual cycle. That is ultimately what got him disinvited Saturday from a gathering organized by right-wing media big top RedState.

But if there’s one person standing by the Donald, it’s Kelly’s employer, Fox News president Roger Ailes. According to a tweet from Trump, Ailes called to say that the reality TV star and GOP frontrunner would get a fair shake from the news network and that Ailes’ “word is always good.”

Perhaps Ailes has decided that it’s expedient to bring Trump into the network’s fold — that, to paraphrase Lyndon B. Johnson, it’s better to have Trump in the Fox News tent emitting his puerile playground insults outward than sending him outside, to have him (or his alarming supporters) spew it in.

Or perhaps it’s just Ailes’ long-overdue affirmation that his network really is just in the business of casual, vile misogyny — of which the following may be four of the worst examples. We’re sure we missed a few (hundred), so please let us know in the comments.

First: “Boobs on the Ground”

1. Boobs On The Ground

In September 2014, after ripping into President Obama for not showing respect to the troops because he saluted with a latte in his hand, Fox News host Eric Bolling asked if the female U.A.E. pilot who dropped a bomb on ISIS could be considered “boobs on the ground.”

In a subsequent clip from The Daily Show, Jon Stewart laid out Bolling’s despicable hypocrisy and misogyny of the “boobs” comment:

First of all, forget the rampant sexism in that statement. Second of all, she’s a pilot, so whatever gender-specific equipment she might be carrying, it’s in the f*cking air! And thirdly, what was the quote that someone [Bolling] said earlier in your program? “These people are putting their lives on the line for us. Show respect.” So f*ck you and all your false patriotism.

Bolling’s sexist gaffe begins at 4:45 in the video below:

Via Daily Kos

Next: “Know Your Role And Shut Your Mouth.”

2. “Know Your Role And Shut Your Mouth”

In June 2013, conservative talk- show host Bill Cunningham told Fox News contributor Tamara Holder, “Know your role and shut your mouth.” He called her a “liberal stooge” and a “judicially challenged” “excuse monger” for Obama. And then — while pointing a finger in her face — screamed at her: “Get your finger out of my face.”

“What, are you gonna cry?” he snapped at her, after subjecting her to a litany of childish ad hominem attacks.

Hannity asked the two to “shake hands and make friends” — rather than, you know, ask Cunningham to apologize. “I don’t shake hands with trolls, ” Holder said.

“Name calling takes the place of reason!” Cunningham yelled. He continued: “Don’t you look at me like that!”

“I’m always honored to join Sean Hannity’s shows,” Holder said in a subsequent statement. “I have long considered Mr. Cunningham as my professional friend, so I was just absolutely shocked by how he spoke to me.”

Holder’s subsequent appearances on Hannity’s show have not been too dissimilar.

In September 2013, a few short months later, Cunningham told Holder she didn’t “look like a Catholic girl to me,” and called her a “Farrah Fawcett-wannabe.”

“Your ilk!” Cunningham screamed, “and people of your ilk — basically — are going to ruin this country. This is a predictive catastrophe.”

Smiling, Hannity just mused: “I’ve lost all control.” Yeah, Sean, it’s not like your name’s in the title of the show or anything. What could you have possibly done?

ViaMedia Matters

Next: “Women Would Be Happier At Home.”

3. Women Would Be Happier At Home

Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes went on Hannity back in May to discuss women’s pay disparity, which, luckily for us, he’s got all figured out:

The big picture here is women do earn less in America because they choose to. They would rather go to their daughter’s piano recital than stay all night at work, working on a, you know, proposal, so they end up earning less. They’re less ambitious. And I think this is sort of God’s way, this is nature’s way of saying, “Women should be at home with the kids. They’re happier there.”

The segment’s other guest, once again Tamara Holder, called the remarks “absolutely deplorable” and challenged Hannity to rebuke McInnes, who told her: “If you were a real feminist, you would support housewives and see them as the heroes and women who work [as] wasting their time.” He also affirmed that women were “less ambitious” and only “pretending that they like working,” since they’d rather be at home.

“You’re making a mistake” being on TV, he told Holder. “You would be much happier at home with a husband and children!”

Sean Hannity giggled. “Oh boy,” he said.

“Sean, this isn’t funny,” Holder said. “You should speak up.”

He didn’t.

Next: “The Emotional Difference Between Men And Women.”

4. The Emotional Difference Between Men And Women

Responding to a September 2014 UN speech given by Michelle Obama on the subject of pay inequality, Bill O’Reilly accused the First Lady of obscuring the issue. See, O’Reilly said, what “the stats cannot define is the emotional difference between men and women.”

“The First Lady should well understand the invalid comparisons that are being made in the gender economic discussion,” he said. He conceded that there was an “old boy network,” but that “life is not fair,” touting his own success bucking The Establishment.

“I do not believe there is a war on women,” he clarified. “I do not believe our capitalistic system is holding women back.”

The “progressive vision of enforced equality” leads to “gross injustice” because trying to enact such policies make companies fear women — which is why they don’t do as well as men, O’Reilly said. That, of course, and having children.

Screengrab: Media Matters