HOW WE GOT HERE: Jesse Watters, President Biden!

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2024

Two of the ways we got here: Last evening, Candidate Harris engaged in some rude behavior.

She was making a major address—a speech which had been billed as her "closing argument." Rudely, the candidate let her comments extend into the 8 o'clock Eastern hour.

At that point, she was devouring time reserved for the Jesse Watters. At age 47, the Fox News Channel's primetime host is widely regarded as the silliest child ever let loose on the nation's failing discourse.

To its credit, the Fox News Channel had been airing the Harris address. At 8 o'clock sharp, the channel briefly interrupted its coverage to air this important alert:

"Fox News Alert: Kamala Harris is wrapping up a pretty tedious closing message in Washington. Let's listen in."

That was the Fox News Channel's "silliest child," messaging millions of viewers. At this point, the Channel returned to the candidate's speech, airing it through its conclusion.

Why have so many experts dubbed Watters "the silliest child?" Let's take a look at the record:

During the 5 o'clock hour, Watters co-hosts The Five, the most-watched program in all of "cable news." On a regular basis, he engages in towel-snapping interludes with fellow co-host Greg Gutfeld while the other panelists sit and watch.

According to experts, these dimwitted bromantic interludes have helped establish the channel's new culture—the culture now widely described as "Incel Chic."

So behaves Watters at 5 o'clock. At 8 o'clock, he's back for the full hour, on his own, hosting Jesse Watters Primetime in the evening's premium timeslot. As an example of what transpires during these nightly hours, consider what happened last night when the Channel returned to its broadcast of the candidate's speech.

More precisely, consider the chyrons.

Last evening, Watters broke in at 8 o'clock to report what viewers should be thinking as they watched the Harris address—but sad! Even before the cameras returned to the candidate's speech, the silliest child's producers placed this chyron on the screen:

KAMALA DELIVERS DARK CLOSING ARGUMENT

That's the chyron which appeared on the screen as the silly boy offered his warning about the "pretty tedious" speech. Just that quickly, though—still during the first minute of the 8 o'clock hour—that chyron was swapped out for this:

KAMALA PLEDGES UNITY WHILE ATTACKING TRUMP

At 8:02, the chyron changed again. The chyron now said this:

KAMALA MAKES HER CASE AFTER 4 YEARS OF CHAOS

At 8:03, then at 8:05, Fox viewers were messaged as shown:

KAMALA: ELECT ME TO FIX MY MISTAKES

KAMALA VOWS CHANGE AFTER 4 YEARS IN POWER

And then, incredibly, this:

KAMALA CLOSES WITH FEAR & FASCISM

Yes, that chyron appeared on the screen! But then, with lightning speed, the undisguised clowning of this:

KAMALA: AT LEAST I'M NOT TRUMP

It was still just 8:05 p.m.! All this messaging had been delivered as the candidate continued to speak.

For the record, the rude nominee continued to speak until 8:07 p.m. In the process, she gobbled seven minutes normally reserved for Watters. 

When the candidate finally stifled herself, the silliest child came back on the air, and the chyron was switched back to this:

KAMALA: ELECT ME TO FIX MY MISTAKES

So the chyron said as the child began to speak. Quickly, though, that chyron was swapped out for these:

KAMALA'S JOY TURNED INTO ANGER

KAMALA'S MOMENTUM IS PETERING OUT

KAMALA FALLS FLAT IN THE FINAL STRETCH

At this point, it was still just 8:08 p.m. On display was the essence of the Fox News Channel's corporate enterprise: 

No Messaging Left Behind!

In the past few weeks, a certain question has been popping up in Blue America. In our view, it's an important question—one which was captured in the headlines which sat atop two recent New York Times opinion columns:

David Brooks: October 17, 2024
Why the Heck Isn’t She Running Away With This?

Stephens and Collins: October 24, 2024
How Could the Election Be This Close?

In our view, there's nothing "wrong" with asking that question. There was nothing "wrong" with those two opinion columns.

Way back in 1988, a famous skit on Saturday Night Live presaged this modern-day question. 

"I can't believe I'm losing to this guy," SNL's version of Candidate Dukakis said in the famous skit. He said that after watching a fatuous statement by SNL's version of Candidate Bush the Elder.

You can watch that part of that skit simply by clicking this. Today, a version of that bewilderment is common in our own Blue America. During the Trump years, the question posed in those two headlines has been answered in various ways.

There is, of course, no single answer to that important question. But part of the answer lies in the clownish behavior we've just described—the pseudo-journalistic behavior which holds sway on the Fox News Channel all day long and then on into the night, as members of our finer news orgs agree to avert their gaze.

Last night, as the silliest child began to speak, his producers were beclowning his viewers again. As his viewers were being beclowned, the finer people in our Blue news orgs all knew they should look away.

Over at Mediaite, Colby Hall was one exception. His report started like this:

Fox News Chyrons During Kamala Harris Speech Reveal What the Network Thinks

Vice President Kamala Harris gave her closing argument speech at The Ellipse near the White House on Tuesday night, and all networks covered it live throughout. Fox News, however, opted to offer its own derogatory opinions of Harris’s speech through a series of increasingly unhinged and absurdly biased chyrons, or lower thirds as they are called in the biz, designed entirely to undermine Harris’s campaign.

"The immediate reaction to Harris’s speech on mainstream media outlets was largely positive," Hall reported. "Fox News chyron writers, however, spent almost the entirety of Harris’s speech appending lower thirds that mocked her address."

Hall included a listing of other chyrons served up during the Harris address. We don't know when those chyrons appeared; Hall presented them without any time stamps. (We switched over to Fox just before 8 o'clock.)

With the Internet Archive still down and out, we can't link you to videotape of the start of Watters' program. (If you have the right cable arrangement, you can watch the foolishness here.)

Nothing will change because of the pseudo-journalistic stupidity captured in last night's chyrons. That said, this form of stupidity rules the imitation of discourse offered by this counterfeit "news channel" every night of the week.

As the clowning rolls along, the finer news orgs agree not to notice. This is surely one of the ways we the people have reached the current place.

How can it possibly be this close? Inquiring minds in Blue America very much want to know.

In part, it's the work of the Fox News Channel. In part, it's also the concomitant silence of the New York Times and of other such news orgs run by a much finer class.

Harris was giving a tedious speech. A silly child, in a Fox News Alert, jumped in to offer that message!

This afternoon: The president does it again