FRIDAY, JULY 18, 2025
Seeking the soul of the Watters: In the past, we've explained the way the nation's top program works.
We refer to the Fox News Channel program, The Five, the most-watched program in cable news. It gains its occasional but of frisson from the way the Hunger Games spin off is booked—with four stone-cold pro-Trump co-hosts arrayed against one lone Democrat.
For the record, there's nothing automatically "wrong" with being a pro-Trump player. It's the program's four-on-one booking strategy which gives it its frisson—especially when Jessica Tarlov sits in the chair as the show's one liberal panelist.
We've mentioned the gang assault which often occurs if Tarlov starts to make an unacceptably decent point. The interruptions can come think and fast, and they come in the group variety—a bit like the way other sub-humans sometimes function on programs like Wild Kingdom.
The grubby children named Watters and Gutfeld will typically lead the charge. That's especially true now that the perpetually aggrieved Judge Jeanine has been recruited away from the program.
That said, when Tarlov starts to make a point, the incels will often attack. Yesterday, this led the program's fabled "lone pilgrim" to offer a striking assessment.
At issue was the suitability, or lack of same, of Florida's new ICE facility, the so-called Alligator Alcatraz. We join the conversation in progress. When it came time for Tarlov to speak, she started off like this:
TARLOV (7/17/25): I didn't deny that there was a crisis [at the southern border]. Also, I wouldn't deny that things got better in the last year of the Biden administration, and there were rules on the books that he implemented, that Trump has continued with, that have led to these zero border crossings, which is a net positive for the country.
When Tarlov says things like that, the children politely behave. But when she began to say that the conditions at this facility are not acceptable—when she began to contradict certain claims which had already been made—Master Gutfeld was first to jump in:
TARLOV: That does not mean that it is acceptable to be running a facility that dozens of lawmakers, by the way, have reported that is not 24 hours a day air-conditioned, that it has 34 people per cage, that it has a mosquito problem—
At that point, the youngster jumped in with his wonderful snark. This is the soul of this channel:
TARLOV: That does not mean that it is acceptable to be running a facility that dozens of lawmakers, by the way, have said that it is not 13 hours air-conditioned, that it has 34 people per cage, that it has a mosquito problem—
WATTERS: [Audible laughter off-camera]
GUTFELD: Oh, not mosquitos! That's just like my lake house!
Watters was already chuckling. Gutfeld probably does have a lake house. It's paid for by the way he agrees to behave on the air.
That was the first interruption. When Tarlov tried to continue, Watters continued to add in his derisive laughter to the background noise. When he did, Tarlov finally allowed herself the pleasure of making an accurate statement about the human-appearing flies which buzz around her face during these pseudo-discussions:
TARLOV (continuing from above): And the most important thing, and the reason why this issue has swung against Donald Trump, is the fact that the people who are in this facility haven't been convicted of anything—
WATTERS: [Off-camera, laughter]
TARLOV: The Miami Herald—
WATTERS: [Off-camera, laughter]
TARLOV (briefly angry): The more you laugh, the crueler you seem. Or the more people know that you're cruel.
We're fairly sure it was Watters she meant. We don't think it was Gutfeld.
Also, oof! We'll guess that she's not supposed to say things like that on the air. As the pseudo-conversation continued from there, the interruptions were general as Tarlov tried to report what the Miami Herald had found.
As a general matter, we've made a bit of a point in the past, even though we aren't medical specialists. The provisional point of logic we've asserted is this:
Based on the bulk of what we've read, it isn't the sociopath's fault!
Sociopathy can be inherited. It can also be the result of the way a person was raised.
We've suggested that we should regret the unfortunate loss of human potential. Also, that we should try to get such unfortunate wretches removed from this nation's air.
Don't be cruel, Elvis said. Tarlov has said this to Watters.
The cruelty is the point. Why do you think he raped so many defenseless little girls?
ReplyDeleteTrump is suing Murdoch.
ReplyDeleteThe plaintiff bears the burden of proof.
Also, Murdoch and the WSJ have the advantage of the Sullivan decision. It's very hard to win a suit against a public figure. Trump would have to prove that the statement was made with "actual malice", meaning the defendant either knew the statement was false or recklessly disregarded whether it might be false. IMO Trump cannot win this suit.
DeleteThe Supremes might rule for Trump.
Delete"It's very hard to win a suit against a public figure."
DeleteCharacteristically, you have this exactly backwards. It's very hard for a public figure to sue for libel and win. It's very hard for a news outlet to lose a case involving a public figure.
The Felon can't follow through on this lawsuit, NewsCorp would kill him in discovery.
DeleteWhy is Trump suing when he has virtually no chance to win? Theories
Delete1. He's implicitly threatening anyone else who criticizes him.
2. He hopes there is some embarrassing material that could be divulged during discovery. In that case, the WSJ might settle so that the embarrassing material doesn't become public.
3. He's trying to convince the public that he didn't write that birthday card. He can always drop the suit later.
4. He's punishing Murdoch and the WSJ for not obeying his demand that they not report on this matter.
Why did Trump sue Bill Maher for claiming Trump is descended from an orangutan? Not because of the merits of the case.
Delete"Why is Trump suing when he has virtually no chance to win?" To take David's mind off the fact that the Felon likes raping little girls.
DeleteI am finding Somerby's use of language to disparage Watters and Gutfeld unnecessary and off-putting. He calls them "grubby children" and "incels". The latter word has a specific meaning (involuntarily celibate) that likely does not apply to either man. It conjures the image of an adolescent or 20-something in his parents basement wondering why girls won't date him. That isn't Watters or Gutfeld in any respect, so why does Somerby use that term (diluting its actual meaning, normalizing it)? It does not refer to just any conservative man, but to someone immersed in bro culture. There is a difference between being a misogynist like Gutfeld and being an Andrew Tate follower like the misguided young men who moon over Jordan Peterson.
ReplyDeleteWho makes you read and comment here? Are you doing penance?
DeleteWhy don't you go away instead?
DeleteSomerby is throwing the word sociopathy around pretty freely. He should perhaps have actually read Hannah Arendt's book on Eichmann. One of the themes of discussion after WWII was about whether ordinary people who are not actual sociopaths could have committed such cruel acts against other human beings, and under what circumstances.
ReplyDeleteSomerby speculates that sociopathy is inborn and that is what experts say about actual sociopaths, but labeling anyone who is callous toward others a sociopath and excusing him because of that inborn trait is wrong.
First, being a sociopath has never gotten anyone off at trial, any more than being born an incipient alcoholic excuses drunk driving. People are still responsible for their acts. And no one pities sociopaths, especially if they are so cruel to others. It is hard to see them as any kind of victim.
Somerby seems to think that any identified as a sociopath (a personality category) will treat others badly. That is not true. There are many sociopaths among surgeons, businessmen, in politics and in fields where their personality traits are not a liability and may even be an asset. For example, too much empathy might hinder a surgeon who must cut into a person or cause pain in order to help them. The combination of sociopathy plus an unfavorable upbringing may produce a monster, someone like Ted Bundy, but most sociopaths are not criminals and live normal, law abiding lives.
Trump is definitely abnormal. He was brought up to be the criminal he is. Being a sociopath does not excuse him for his wrongdoing. At some point he would have encountered people who taught him right from wrong and he chose the wrong path. For Trump, I would guess military school might have been a turning point that he rejected in order to follow his father's lifestyle.
Trump always claims victim status. Somerby is more than willing to grant that to him, without considering that others in Trump's own family did not become greedy SOBs like Trump did. If families were as deterministic as Somerby wishes to portray them, you would expect Trump's relatives to be criminals too, not professors and judges.
Trump certainly had choices and he made the wrong ones, just as he continues to do as President. We cannot let a man like Trump destroy our nation's assets by ruining the government and creating a police state. Republicans need to step up and stop Trump now before it is too late.
Why stop him if he is fucking up the lives of brown neighbors?
DeleteDo you think Trump and Epstein have brown neighbors in Palm Beach?
DeleteEpstein doesn’t have neighbors any more, but Trump might have brown neighbors. Rich brown neighbors.
DeleteAI says the city of Palm Beach is overwhelmingly white.
DeleteUp until fairly recently Palm Beach discouraged Jews. All the golf clubs banned Jews until Trump built a club that finally accepted Jews.
DeleteEat a can of dicks David. You lie almost as much as antisemitic Nazi Musk on X.
Delete8:44 Did you think Trump would own a club that excluded his best buddy, Roy Cohn?
DeleteOr Jeffrey Epstein, for that matter.
Delete"We've suggested that we should regret the unfortunate loss of human potential. "
ReplyDeleteGutfeld is 60 years old. It is hard to talk about his potential when his career is in its twilight. You use that term to talk about recent college grads, not old guys who are what they have become already.
Personally, I talk that way about grown men who enjoy raping little girls.
DeleteYou think such men have failed to realize their potential?
DeleteYes. Potentially, they could be raping grown women.
DeleteIndications are they were doing that too.
DeleteThe optics of multiple men interrupting and verbally beating up a female host may be appealing to a male audience who think women should be put in their place. The actual content of the discussion may be less important than those dynamics.
ReplyDeleteOddly, when Tarlov stands up for herself, Somerby says:
"Also, oof! We'll guess that she's not supposed to say things like that on the air. "
Is that because Somerby thinks women aren't supposed to stick up for themselves in discussion? Why would he not applaud her for saying the obvious -- that Gutfeld and Watters make themselves look like jerks with their behavior?
Somerby seems to think she is supposed to just take it, but he attributes the rule to Fox, not to his own reaction to an assertive woman speaking up during a discussion. Why doesn't her response seem more natural to Somerby?
When in doubt, fart it out.
ReplyDelete- Fanny Speaker
“ Don't be cruel, ”
ReplyDeleteThe cruelty is the point, Bob. Watters, Gutfeld, et al, revel in it and are delighted to have Tarlov around to get upset.
And by “et al” I mean an expansive group.