The accusations from the Axis media that Fox News deliberately avoided informing its audience about President Trump’s bitter and triumphant Truth Social post, “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!” are not quite accurate, but close enough for what passes as journalism on those platforms now.
The Fox News website and that of local affiliates published articles that explicitly included President Trump’s widely criticized outburst that was generally considered in the “too soon!” category, but the initial reports on the air ignored it. Fox News mentioned the death of the leader of the contrived “Russiagate” scandal at least six times on TV without ever quoting Trump’s remarks and the resulting backlash. The televised segments on Fox & Friends and elsewhere featured more traditional post-mortem tributes from figures like former President George W. Bush. I happened to see periodic commentator Brit Hume criticize Trump’s whack at Mueller as pointless ugliness that “doesn’t help,” but that was more than a day after the episode occurred.
Ethics Alarms 
Trump’s comment was unworthy of any president for any reason about any person. Period.
It’s also unworthy of any sane person in general, but Trump is such an incomplete, bitter, emotionally immature man that he cannot overlook even an insignificant slight. There was never any chance he could be even remotely civil about the death of a man who tried to destroy his first presidency.
Which brings me to the elephant in the room. Mueller did as much to damage the presidency as anyone in my memory, at least as much as Trump, alongside the dancing demons of the day calling themselves Democrats as well as the Leftmedia. I can’t blame Trump one bit for hating him and wanting to urinate on his grave. I expect him to do the same thing to any of his unethical Democratic castigators who happen to shuffle off this mortal coil before he does.
What I can blame him for is further debasing the office by saying so in public. And I do. It is unworthy of the office and unworthy of any male over 12 years old. It is, in my view, a statement of weakness and insecurity — the words of a junior high school bully.
As you can no doubt tell, I’m with you here all the way, in every respect. There was no need for him to say anything about Mueller. Nobody would have expected him to express sadness or condolences.
President Trump has a very difficult time loving his enemy and offering forgiveness to those who have wronged him. He admitted as much to millions of people at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service. And while I took his words then as something of a confession, there does not seem to have been one iota of the accompanying repentance (the “changing of one’s mind”) that we would expect from such a confession. The President is a flawed man, but this is a glaring blind spot in his character that is extremely off-putting…this hard-hearted lack of forgiveness and the willingness to metaphorically “spit on the grave” of a man who was little more than a political rival.
Yes, Robert Mueller did Donald Trump significant unwarranted harm – and that harm continues to dog the President to this day. But if a person believes in a conscious afterlife that is eternal…forever…without end, doesn’t what Mueller did morph into more of a “light and momentary affliction” that will (or should) fade to nothingness?
And this is just one instance among many when President Trump had an opportunity to bury the proverbial hatchet with an opponent and extend some grace, to reach across the aisle, to put out a hand of forgiveness, to speak softer words…and chose instead to do the exact opposite.
sigh…
Clarence Darrow said, “Hate the sin, never the sinner.” He meant that in terms of public positions and statements, I’m pretty sure, but it’s still a wise operating ethics principle.
I always wondered where that phrase originated. I wonder if Darrow coined it.
“To the Falcon car!!…” …or…Google.
If I remember correctly, it was fully brought up on The Five, though that’s not exactly a “news” show, it has maybe more reach than other Fox offerings (actually their #1 show).
Aside from that, I agree with Glenn.
But it raises the question of how far avoiding tit-for-tat in real life politics will get you. Do you lie down in front of the tank of legacy MSM and hope for the best?
Jack wrote, “Dear Fox News: Stop Running Interference For the President.”
I completely agree!
FOX should do its job and REPORT relevant information whether they like it or not, you know, real journalism! But if for no other reason, the left is going to publicly smear FOX and everyone on the political right when FOX fails to report something significant about President Trump. Fox NEEDS to report things like Trump’s loose cannon unethical mouth and stop essentially whitewashing over the negative aspects of President Donald Trump. If Fox doesn’t properly report it will cause the left to loose their collective hive minds and spew hateful screeds like this one…
Trump Supporters Are Even More Stupid After Watching FOX News
Read that post all the way through if you can stand it, and then save it so you can use damn near all of it as a boilerplate to talk about the tactics used by MSNBS, MS NOW, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBS, The Nation, etc, etc. All you have to do on most of that boilerplate is replace Fox News with those other news sources I just mentioned.
I think that Gregory Humphrey likely didn’t watch FOX NEWS for three or four days straight to see how many times they mentioned that Mueller died without mentioning President Trumps statement, so that tells me that Humphrey has completely swallowed whatever statement that his hive minded narrative providers have sent his way and now he parrots them without checking the authenticity because he can use it to smear all the righties he hates.
I actually watch news from a variety of news sources and I intentionally compare what news sources report on what what they leave out of their reports. Fox needs to be aware that lack of reporting relevant news about President Trump and other Republicans is just as signature significant as the left’s lies, spinning, and brazen cherry picking; report the news straight!
Side Note: I’ve had to repeatedly subscribed to the Caffeinated Politics blog in the last week because Gregory Humphrey (the author) has intentionally gone out of his way to delete me as a subscriber. I use the same WordPress blogging system that Humphrey uses so I know exactly what has to be done to remove a subscriber. So, not only has Humphrey deleted every comment I made on his new blog, he doesn’t even want me being notified via email when he posts a new blog essay. This Humphrey fellow is a real piece of progressive indoctrination workmanship. I think Humphrey is a cowardly snowflake, that’s snowflaking really hard.
“I think Humphrey is a cowardly snowflake, that’s snowflaking really hard.”
Bravo India November Golf Oscar.
Funniest thing: He comically thinks he some sort of Warrior who’s out there, you know, like, puttin’ his bony @$$ on the line for all that is right and good.
Thing is, were he to encounter even the slightest push-back, he’d turn tail and run so fast his petite coats would fly up over his head.
PWS
Trump’s remark was graceless indeed, no question about it.
The question is how big of a news item Trump’s remark is, and how extensive the coverage at FOX should be. In my opinion this is not a news item bigger than the death of Mueller. Brit Hume mentioned Trump’s reaction, and also The Five. So FOX did cover it. I do not think there is any reason for FOX to endlessly harp on it. It is not the news media’s function to satisfy our moral indignation about every idle word coming out of the President’s mouth, just mention it once or twice and then move on.
There are much more important news items to report on, such as Iran, the fight over DHS funding in the Senate, and the accident at LaGuardia airport.
What about …
Late empires that become dominated by internal sectors of power that tend toward ‘tyranny’ and launch wars and other adventures under the hopeful pretense of ‘saving the empire’ but which are actually the gasps of a failing empire that fails to understand the position it is in?
What about Palantir in combination with vast increase in AI power to monitor populations? Some years back there were many exposes about Chinese use of technology for super-monitoring of every move of the population. Now, according to the stories, this technology has become perfected but in American hands. What about the use of these technologies by entities or power-concentrations with tyrannical objectives?
What about open and intense corruption by the presidential clique, as for example with (what has been said to be) billions of corrupt earnings by Trump and his family and associates? What about the issue, also related to late empire, that the corrupt clique does not really serve the Nation but private interests and thus, again, contributes to the destruction of that empire?
What about the loss of a sound and properly directed ‘national aim’ that is transformed into a war-culture with spectacles of military power while the interior needs and desires of the population are put to the side? What happens when the class that supported the election of the man who claimed to be their *champion* turns out to have been a fraud, a liar, a dishonest politician who is also serving (more) the interests of another state that seems to have great power over it and determines (or contributes greatly) to the determination of policy? (Which further weakens and does not strengthen our nation?) What happens when that class realizes they have been tricked and begin to voice their opinions and retract support?
What about a nation that is so far in debt, but increases borrowing and spending (recklessly) and then engages in unnecessary and ill-advised operations that (may) get it into a trap that costs more than it can afford?
What about a nation that simply makes bad decisions and not good decisions?
What about a reckless president that takes an extraordinary risk in a cultural, social and political climate where about 50% of the nation detest him (for both irrational and deeply psychological reasons and also for some possibly sound reasons), and who launches into enterprises that not only alienate the class that voted for him, but also strengthened the class that did NOTT vote for him, leading to mid-terms where the House and Senate are lost and the President is neutered and powerless?
Oh and what about the Antarctican lizard people that are kidnapping OUR BEES which is really what has me unable to sleep well at night …
The Good Alizia (GA): Why are you such an asshole?! Are you a Commie?!
Bad Bad Alizia (BBA): Society made me what I am!
GA: Well, is there an alternative to your negative, anti-American position on global politics and conflict?!
BBA: Of course! I will lay it out. Let me put my daughter to sleep, I’ll be right back!
OK, The US (under Trump and a power-sector of the US) realized that the nation was in decline and that other sectors in the System were allowing ‘managed decline’ over time and were not, so to speak, ‘standing up’ to America’s rivals (China foremost) So Trump and his administrators and generals and industrialist chiefs came up with a plan:
GA: Then you denounce the Woke Devil in all his forms and pomps and you will get back into the Good Graces of the EA forum community?!?
BBA: I would not go quite that far! However, I just want to be loved … Though it is not part of my Sephardic tradition I am attempting to master Matzo Ball Soup (maybe this will help, I don’t know).
______________________
(PS: Some of this above material was robbed from someone who writes on X).
We all are seeking *interpretive models* and this one seems quite coherent.
Jesus, if you are reading this, stay up in Heaven and don’t bother coming back, it is really an unsolvable mess down here!
Meh, I’ll worry about this when the left apologizes for the insults thrown at Rush Limbaugh, Charlie Kirk, and others. In the meantime I wonder where this guy is being buried. Code brown!