Jay Weber and The Cult of Right-Wing Media

 

Well, holy shit! Trump got Covid!

Okay, by now, the shock has worn off, and most people have gone back to the perspective they had before. In particular, conservative screed-weavers have gone back to their usual sheep-bleating in favor of Trump, in spite of the proven failure on top of proven failure which is his Covid-19 illness.

Just for funzies, I decided to tune in to 1130 WISN radio during my morning commute to listen to Jay Weber and hear what the right-wingers might have to say. I hadn't listened to Jay Weber in years, but this was a special occasion. What would he say about Trump? I was surprised to hear - or rather NOT hear - nothing about it whatsoever! Instead, I got treated to some horrendous, bald-faced lies attempting to spin Kaylee McInerny's press conference on Wednesday into something where Trump decried white supremacists. (More on that, later.)

Really? Fucking really? Maybe I've been negligent in ignoring idiots like Jay Weber.

What I've come to realize lately, and I'm ashamed to admit that it took me this long to fully grok the concept, is that Conservative Media has become an outright cult! I, who have studied religion for decades, should have seen it much, much sooner. But now that I have, I can't UN-see it! Evidence for Conservative Media being a cult is everywhere! And nowhere more so than on the Jay Weber show on the morning of October 2nd.

Here's what I heard on the Jay Weber show last Friday morning. I shit you not, this actually happened, on the air. 

"I'd like to play for you a couple of audio cuts from yesterday's White House briefing that the average working American is never going to hear. These briefings take place, of course, during the day and, they don't get a lot of tune-in from the public, so most Americans never see the brow-beating that President Trump's press secretary takes nearly daily and what a farce these are - daily. Nor do they hear the stellar answers that come from Trump's - people. But most of what occurs in the White House briefing room never reaches the air or gets reported on because 9 times out of 10, the press person, whether it's Sean Spicer or Sarah Sanders or now Kaylee McEneny - who's really good - 9 times out of 10, they slam the question and the answer doesn't fit the reporters preconceived notion of what it would be so the don't print it. If they don't get the answer they want, they won't print it or broadcast it. They're only really going for gotcha moments in these briefings, which is why I, as a former journalist, who will always defend the right of the free and honest press, urge the Trump administration to not even have these daily briefings. I cheered when these ended because they weren't journalists looking for information, they were grand-standers looking for their moment in the sun. I don't know why McEnany went back to them, but they did. It's just left-wing activists looking for camera attention. But, yesterday following Trump's debate performance that these D.C. elites found so distasteful, the press corps was in a sour fighting mood for some reason. They wanted to continue this false narrative that the racist Trump didn't denounce white supremacists during the debate, when he absolutely did! Listen back to it. He absolutely did! Twice! He was asked 'would he do it?' twice by Chris Wallace, and he said, 'sure, sure I do!' Twice!"

Okay, no he did not. He said "sure, I will," and then DIDN'T! Weber's refusal to see the difference between Trump saying he would say it, and actually saying it, is one of the more obvious things Trump opponents have ever had to debunk. And it was SUCH A SOFTBALL QUESTION! All Trump had to do was say, "I denounce white supremacists!" And he would likely have won back some center-right voters, gone up in the polls, and possibly even put himself in a position to win!

But he couldn't do it!

And Weber? Weber's in denial about it. But he knows by voicing his denial over the airwaves he lends legitimacy to the false perception, which, of course, is the whole point.

"But the entire left-wing media complex ignored that, because he had butchered what came afterward with the Proud Boys, you know, he butchered that take with the Proud Boys..."

See? Even Weber can't ignore that part!

"...which, by the way, is not a white supremacist organization. The leader of this organization is black and Cuban. One-fifth of their members are minority. They have said forever they are not a white supremacist organization and they denounce racism, to the point where the leader of this - Proud Boys is suing Joe Biden and his campaign over calling them white supremacists! So, just another instance of which, truth and details don't matter to the Left, they're going to plow ahead with the narrative. And boy do they!"

Okay, technically the Proud Boys aren't white-supremacist. They are neo-fascist, ultra right-wing, and male-only. None of that is particularly much better. Trump could have denounced the Proud Boys right then and there. But he didn't. He didn't say, "I denounce white supremacists," and he didn't say, "I denounce the Proud Boys." Instead he said, "Stand back and stand by."

To fascists. He said that to fascists. Hey, Jay Weber? That's not much of an excuse, you turd.

"In a perfect display of what the Left-wing media do, John Roberts of Fox News decides to be an ass and ask, yet again, for, you know, does Trump denounce white supremacy?"

"[Recording of McEnany's press conference on Thursday, October 1st] {Roberts:} 'As the person who speaks for the President, does the President denounce white supremacism, and groups that espouse it, in all their forms?'

"{McEnany:} 'This has been answered, yesterday by the President himself, the day before by the President himself on the debate stage, the President was asked this, he said "sure" three times. [Oh, now it's three times?] Yesterday, he was point-blank asked, 'Do you denounce white supremacy?' and he said, 'I've always denounced any form of that.' I can go back and read for you on August 2019, 'In one voice our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.' In August of 2017, 'Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups." I have an entire list of these quotes that I can go through with you. He has condemned white supremacy more than any president in modern history.'"

The president said, "sure" when he said would make the declaration, but fell short of making the declaration itself, then seemed to give a verbal thumbs-up to the Proud Boys. Some conservatives have argued that the "sure" is enough. But it really isn't. Not when Trump has repeatedly laced his denunciations of white-supremacy with ambiguity and a "both sides" mentality. When Trump "denounced" the day before, he simply said, "I've always denounced any form of that." Of that. Meaning, he can't even bring himself to say it outright. He has to play the pronoun game! And that's the sort of thing dog-whistles are meant to do: send these subtle messages in the form of dodging the act of saying the denial directly. McEnany's quote from 2017 is precisely when Trump infamously said that there was bad behavior "on both sides." The part that McEnany leaves out from Trump's quote from 2019 is that he was goaded into finally making that statement by a mass shooting at a Walmart in Texas by a white supremacist who happened to be a big fan of Trump!

So it's quite understandable why any reporter would want a clear, unambiguous, current statement just this once.

"{Roberts:} 'Just to clear it up, this morning, can you, naming it, make a declarative statement that the President denounces it?'

"{McEnany:} 'I just did. The President has denounced this repeatedly.'

At this point, they start talking over one another, and it becomes difficult to follow.

"{Roberts:} 'You give quotes from the past. I'm just...'

"{McEnany:} 'The president was asked this. You're making, you're contriving a story line and a narrative...'

"{Roberts:} 'No, I'm not. I'm just asking you to put this to rest.'

"{McEnany:} 'I just did. I read you all of the quotes, and if you need to see them in writing... '

"{Roberts:} 'You read me past quotes. Can you do it currently?'

"{McEnany:} '...I will put them in an email. Call me.'

"{Roberts:} 'So, Kaylee, how does the - Can you, right now, denounce white supremacy and the groups that espouse it?'

"{McEnany:} 'I just did! The President has denounced...'

"{Roberts:} 'You read a bunch of quotes from the past.'

 "{McEnany:} '...white supremacy, the KKK, and hate groups in all forms. He signed a resolution to that effect. The president just last week, perhaps you all weren't covering it, but just last week, expressed his desire to see the KKK prosecuted as domestic terrorists. This president had advocated for the death penalty for a white supremacist, the first federal execution in 17 years. His record on this is unmistakable, and it's shameful that the media refuses to cover it.'"

The best defense I can come up with for McEnany's behavior here is that she didn't want to be led on. She didn't want the reporter to dictate the terms. In other contexts, that might be fine. But he was asking a legitimate question: 'That was then, this is now, can you give a denouncement NOW?' And, like her boss, Kaylee couldn't do it! The dog-whistle of ambiguity regarding the response got blown, loud and clear to the kennel!

Trump expressed his desire to prosecute the KKK AND ANTIFA as domestic terrorists. Let's be clear, Trump was doing his "both sides" bullshit again! Sure, he signed a resolution, because when a piece of paper, written by someone else, is presented to him, and all he has to do is sign it, that's easy for him. But again, this signed declaration came as a result of the 2017 Charlottesville debacle in which he verbally said something contradictory to the signed paper! And the death penalty is something Trump has long been in favor of. The fact that the first one just happened to be a white supremacist was probably meant more to silence the naysayers than it was to establish Trump as some sort of anti-racist.

Weber, of course, didn't bother to mention any of that, and sided with McEnany. "Isn't that astounding?" he said. "Just to clear it up. Just to clear it up! She just went through it! John Roberts: 'Does the president categorically deny? No hedges?' 'Yes! He's done so repeatedly.' She reads a literal laundry list of times Trump has done it, dating back to the first campaign, by the way, Trump has never expressed any support for these groups and he's denounced them every time he's been asked. McEnany cites a literal laundry-list of denials, Roberts' response is: 'But you haven't answered the question.' What?! See, this is the East-Coast media, my friends. It has been going on forever, but it really got bad under Bush and it's now out of control under President Trump. They refuse to acknowledge the reality of the facts and listen to what's being said to them, so they can preserve the narrative."

Of course, he clearly wasn't listening to the same press conference the rest of us were. Because the reporter wanted, finally, a clear and unambiguous condemnation from the President's own lips, or at the very least, from the lips of the Press Secretary. And she couldn't do it, either! She kept repeating "I just did," when she clearly hadn't! She read past denials, all of which were ambiguous, indirect or had special circumstances surrounding them. When has Trump EVER not had a string attached regarding a condemnation of white supremacists?!

The Press Gaggle knew. That's why John Roberts, of FOX NEWS, no less, pressed the issue! Even some on the Right-wing media are getting it.

Jay Weber claims to be a former journalist. Now we know why. He couldn't cut it as a truth-teller.

"After days of this Proud Boyz nonsense," begins Weber again after commercial break, "Kaylee McEneny had this to say to reporters about how they ignore Antifa:

"[Continuation of McEnany's press conference on Thursday, October 1st] 'They misreport, take out of context, ignore the verbatim words of this president when he denounced white supremacy yesterday, when he denounced it at the debate, when he's denounced it more than any other president in modern history. Um, and in fact, something else lost upon the media is the absolute turning of a blind eye to Antifa. Carrying the water for the Democrats, the media, apparently agrees with Jerry Nadler that Antifa violence is a myth. In August Senate hearings, Democrats refused to condemn Antifa. Again, no journalistic curiosity here, despite the fact that Andy Ngo, who was a victim of Antifa, said Democrats have mastered - Democrats, he should add the media, too - have mastered the art of making its violence appear innocuous. Their violence is not innocuous. Antifa is not an idea. Andy Ngo can tell you that because he was beaten by a group of protesters - Antifa protesters - suffering brain-bleed. Another man can tell you this, who in 2019, the victim, his name was Adam Kelly, suffered from a concussion and got 25 staples in his head, but still silence from Democrats ignoring this group, from Democrats. Um, and in fact, as we saw recently, there was a Trump supporter who was killed by a 100% Antifa man, that is how he described himself, and again, no reporting here, but I guess I did the job of the media by getting this information myself, this man who was 100% Antifa, this man, in fact, had been arrested before, at 2:00 a.m. on July 5th in a public protest, carrying an illegal weapon, he resisted arrest, he was taken to jail where he was merely given a citation, put back on the street, and the very next month, this 100% Antifa man was lying in wait before he killed an innocent Trump supporter. Ideas do not target police officers. Ideas do not burn down buildings. Ideas do not kill innocent Americans. Organizations do, and Democrats should condemn this shameful group in the same manner President Trump continues to condemn white supremacy.'"

Whew! Let's take a breath an dissect this one. There's too much bullshit for me to unpack in this post, or it would turn into a novella. Instead, let me start by picking apart McEnany's assertions that Trump "Denounced white supremacy when he denounced it at the debate." But he didn't. Again, when Trump was asked if he would denounce white supremacists, Trump at first said, "Sure." Now, right there, some Trump-defenders say, "That's enough." They say, "See? He denounced them!" But no, he didn't! He merely said he would, future tense, do so. So did he? NO! He then wavered, asking Wallace "What should I call them?" and Wallace clarified, among others, "Proud Boyz..." at which point Trump famously said, "Stand back and stand by."

No objective analysis of that moment can conclude anything other than that Trump not only didn't condemn white supremacists, he actually seemed to encourage them! But McEnany does not stop there! She goes on to say, "he's denounced it more than any other president in modern history."

This goes way beyond mere hyperbole. The idea, of course, is to over-exaggerate so much that the base feels that the smallest nugget must be true. "Oh, she wouldn't have said something that outrageous if there wasn't a small nugget of truth to it!" OH, YES SHE WOULD! And she did! It was a lie so incredible, so egregious, that the only term that applies is 'Pure, unadulterated horse-shit!' And the fact that a press secretary, speaking on behalf of the President of the United States, would so plainly, obviously LIE, is enough to drive one to despair.

Now, she proceeds to describe the horrible attack on Andy Ngo, and it was indeed horrible what happened to him. But that attack took place way, way back in June of 2019! Really, McEnany? You couldn't find anything more recent than that? Same thing with Adam Kelley. In fact, it was at the exact same protest on June 29 of 2019 that his attack took place as well! And what was going on in Portland back then? Why, some Proud Boyz AND Conservative activist Haley Adams of the "Him Too Movement," were staging a rally there in support of James Fields Jr., who was sentenced to life in prison in Charlottesville, Virginia, for ramming his car into counter-protesters of a “Unite the Right” rally in 2017, killing one and injuring dozens of others!

In other words, "Antifa" wasn't fighting, they were fighting back! 

And this was the most recent set of examples McEnany could come up with?

Lastly, she cites the man who killed a Trump supporter. The man she was referring to is named Michael Roenoehl, who said in an interview with VICE that he felt he had to shoot the man because he believed he and his friend were about to be stabbed!

Roenoehl never got a chance to plead his case. Federal officers shot and killed him when attempting an arrest.

Now, had this man's name been Michael Rittenhouse instead of Michael Roenoehl, the Right-wing media machine would have lionized him. "Self-defense!" they would have said. But the "Liberal Left-wing media" simply ignored him. See the difference? In balanced media, killers are not lionized!

And does any of this prove that Antifa is not "just an idea?" NO! Because these were individual acts, made by individual people! None of this proves the existence of any sort of organization! Antifa, in fact, is deliberately disorganized! It may have people who, on their own, ascribe to it, but it has no leaders, no meetings, no newsletter, no email list. It's just, as Biden said: an idea. Anti-fascism. Simple. 

McEnany says, "Ideas do not kill innocent Americans. Organizations do." Wrong again! People do! Whether they are part of an organization or not!

Now, most media outlets have heard this kind of non-stop bullshit from McEnany before during her press conferences, debunked it repeatedly, and had no interest in debunking it yet again. They know when she says "President Trump continues to denounce white supremacy," they know she's full of shit! So they rightly ignored her this time, because she's been spewing this same nonsense, and apparently the same names, for over a year, now. But Jay Weber completely blows past all that. In pure anti-journalistic fashion, Jay Weber takes McEnany at her actual word, not bothering to outline anything I just detailed above!

"But instead of reporting it," Weber says, "the members of the White House Press Corp ignored that. I swear to you! The left-wing blogs characterize this as a wild rant and a meltdown by McEnany, they use it to trash her, and the, you know, the credible news organizations, the so-called-quote "credible" news organizations that were sitting there, had reporters right there, didn't report on it. As a former journalist, that's what makes my blood boil. With the Antifa thing? It was still ignored by the so-called reporters that are sitting right there listening to it! They still didn't report a thing she said! Not even a story about how, "Well, boy, the White House sure is angry over this Antifa thing!" Total blackout! On that minute or so that you heard, there. And the only reason not to report on it, is because they are what Kaylee says they are. Honestly. For a journalist to sit through this and find none of it newsworthy, just to repor - not - even just to report on how the White House feels it's being treated unfairly, it' s just journalistic malfeasance! I've done this job. For two dozen reporters to sit in that room and watch this, and put a dark blanket over it afterward suggests one thing: They are who we say they are. They are the left-wing activists masquerading as journalists that we have long said they are."

Now, Jay Weber's listeners are likely uninformed as to how McEnany has spewed this crap before and had it totally shot down. Why should they be? If they're people who like shows like his, the odds of them being informed as to McEnany's lies are remote. So Jay Weber knows he can say this and get away with it!

But Jay Weber KNOWS McEnany has said this before, he KNOWS that it's shit, and he covers it this way regardless! And has the NERVE to say that it makes HIS blood boil!

Either that, or he's as insulated as his listeners are, and by no means can I rule that out!

He makes the signature move of any cult. Exclude the opposing opinion! Twist the truth until it's completely unrecognizable. Then ground your audience to accept only your word exclusively.

In case you aren't familiar, the primary elements of a cult are simply these:

1) Lure people into the inner circle.

2) Isolate those people from any outside world influences.

3) Emphasize loyalty only to the inner circle.

4) Excommunicate all those former members who speak out against the inner circle.

We see this constantly. Once people are lured into the Trumpism circle, a.k.a. the Church of Right-Wing Media, they are constantly told to isolate themselves against "liberal media." They are even told, on occasion, that any balanced media sources are "The enemy of the people." Remember that one? Jay Weber executes this perfectly, depicting the balanced media as not only left-leaning, but outright left-wing activists! His listeners will actually believe this! Because they likely hear no opposing opinions. They have been effectively shielded from competing ideas by their own doctrine!

What if there are apostates? What if Jay Weber's primary competition, the man who eclipsed him for decades, the one and only Charlie Sykes, speaks up and says that these people have lost their minds? Well, then they are ostracized! Condemned! The Lincoln Project? It gets declared a RINO outlet. Same thing for The Bulwark. Charlie Sykes, once the most trusted conservative on Milwaukee Radio, doesn't even count anymore. Not to them. He's a "suppressive."

Just out of curiosity, I went back to hear what Jay said earlier in the morning. Just to make sure he said something about Trump having come down with Covid. Sure enough, he said some stuff early on, like at 6:00 in the morning, and then moved on to other things. "I don't want the whole program to be about just that one thing," he said. 'Nothing to see, here!' was basically the message on that. Here are some of the highlights of what he said early on in that broadcast:

Around minute 17, you hear this:

"In fact, former White House doctor, Ronnie Jackson, has already said, 'I'll bet you that he [Trump] does not develop symptoms and he moves on and this does not become a big deal.' Well, that's why the bigger deal is how it affects the campaign. At the very least it makes the Coronavirus the preeminent issue of the campaign again. You know the  left is going to pile on. They're gonna pretend that karma got Trump. They'll claim he's an example of people who don't take it seriously, you know. 'He wasn't careful and he encouraged other people, you know, to be, to be sloppy, and he got sick. He flouted the rules!' You'll hear a torrent of crap about this, and it's going to be insufferable. But the truth is Trump has been careful. He and the people around him have been tested daily, sometimes twice, they've been doing temperature checks on everyone coming into the White House, they were doing temperature checks on everyone going into the rallies. Trump hasn't been saying, 'Don't follow the rules and don't be careful.' He's been saying, 'We can't cower in fear and we have to live our lives.' "Oh, it's just so sloppy and awful and irresponsible..." Oh, you're gonna hear that today. Who cares?! Tune it out over the weekend, by Monday it might have calmed down. But you know they're going to try and flog this all they can on the Left. You know, we can't close down an economy for two years waiting for this to go away. But the Left will twist this all around and it'll be a weekend of high-whining and ninnying and preening over this."

And this was pretty much what everybody was saying that day. "Ignore the obvious implications, don't blame Trump for his own ineptitude, ignore it, and by Monday it will all go away."

And here I thought Trump ignoring things, and his fans ignoring Trump, was the very thing which got us into this mess in the first place.

And there it is again. The primary tenets of the Cult of Conservative Media. 1) Don't trust any balanced media source. Only trust US. The cult doesn't want you to see outside opinions or have a balanced outlook.

There's more. A lot more. And I could go on with this at some considerable length. But you get the idea. And all this crap was from a small sample of the kind of bile this moron spews on the airwaves for three whole hours, every single day, every working day, out of nearly the entire year!

And this is just one out of half a dozen or so conservative pundits who are on the radio for the entire remainder of the day!

And there are dozens more of these nitwits on television!

No wonder people are so confused about someone as obvious at Trump!

It's a cult, people! These radio preachers are its "ministers," (I hate using that term, because they don't "minister" to anybody!), Hannity and Limbaugh are its Cardinals, McEnany is the High Priestess and Trump is the Golden Calf whom they all worship.

Now that we know it's a cult, let's fight it like one!

Eric

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