TUESDAY, JULY 15, 2025
It was divine intervention: There's nothing "wrong" with religious belief. Stating the obvious, religious belief is found all over the world.
Beyond that, there's nothing "wrong" with Christian religious belief. To cite one example, Christian religious belief lay at the heart of Dr. King's ministry—a ministry in which Dr. King repeatedly expressed his devotion to "the love ethic of Jesus."
There's nothing "wrong" with religious belief! Within the American context, there is something quite unusual about bringing religious belief into the statement of major news judgments about major news events.
With that in mind, we thought we'd take note of what we saw, this past Sunday, on three Fox News Channel programs.
It had been exactly one year since last July's assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. The anniversary was treated as a major news topic by a wide array of major news orgs, including the New York Times.
On Fox, it became another opportunity to voice an unusual news judgment—the judgment that President Trump escaped death that day due to divine intervention.
You may recall what happened on Fox & Friends Weekend on the morning after the original event. The regular co-hosts were present that Sunday, joined from the start by one co-host from the weekday Fox & Friends program:
Fox & Friends Weekend: July 14, 2024
Will Cain: co-host, Fox & Friends Weekend
Rachel Campos-Duffy: co-host, Fox & Friends Weekend
Pete Hegseth: co-host, Fox & Friends Weekend
Lawrence Jones: co-host, Fox & Friends
On that occasion, three of the four friends chose to go fully doctrinal. As we noted in this report, they specifically said that the former president's life had been saved by the intervention of "our lord and savior, Jesus Christ."
On the ground in Butler, Pa., Lawrence Jones went first:
JONES (7/14/24): There is no Donald Trump today without Jesus Christ this morning. I mean, we could be having a very different conversation this morning—
CAMPOS-DUFFY: That's right.
JONES: —going over the obituary of the 45th president this morning. And if it wasn't for the grace of God, things could have been different. So I give honor and glory to our lord and savior, Jesus Christ, for protecting the former president.
It wasn't possible that a mentally disordered young man, crawling around on a slanted roof, had simply missed a shot. To Jones, the explanation for what had occurred had to be something different.
Jones went full doctrinal that day, explicitly thanking Jesus Christ. Campos-Duffy and Hegseth explicitly followed suit. Only Cain demurred.
Again, there's nothing "wrong" with holding such a judgment as a matter of personal faith or belief. It is unusual to see the co-hosts of a major news program offering such an explicit doctrinal claim in the form of a specific news judgment.
This Sunday, the rules of the road had apparently been changed, possibly from the top. First on Fox & Friends Weekend, then on The Big Weekend Show, then on Life, Liberty and Levin, one host or co-host after another stated his or her belief that Candidate Trump had been spared that day thanks to divine intervention.
That said, no one went beyond the softer claim that the president's life had been saved "by God." Still, that belief was stated by one and all, even including the perpetually furious Mark Levin.
There's no way it was just a missed shot. On the Fox News Channel, the news judgment was ubiquitous. It could only have been the result of divine intervention.
Such judgments will be routinely expressed on expressly religious channels. Such judgments will also be expressed on Fox News Channel programs, although the word may have come down from the top this year to keep such statements non-doctrinal.
We're sorry to have to report this:
It's depressing to see this channel create its peculiar blend of themes—the performative belief in the greatness of God, mixed with the ugly, smutty, misogynist humor which increasingly dominates an array of major programs on this corporate messaging channel.
We had planned to transcribe some of the statements made on Sunday's programs. That said, it's very depressing to watch Fox News Channel shows as our flailing nation slides toward the sea—and as the finer people at Blue America's orgs choose to avert their gaze from this unusual conduct.
On Fox, the co-hosts believe in the glory of God. They also believe that liberal women are like horses, cows, pigs and dogs, generic "livestock" and whales.
That's what they know at Fox. Over at the New York Times, they know they should look away.
Steven Pinker is innocent.
ReplyDeletePinker liked little girls pulling on his poker.
DeleteAmuses me how the Christian right never quotes the nice things Jesus was quoted as saying in the new book, but harp on the nastiness of the old book. They are closer to fundamentalist Jews or Muslims than to Christians when it comes to promoting biblical understanding. But nastier.
ReplyDeleteI did save Trump,
ReplyDeleteThat's why I am an atheist.
DeleteShouldn't you apologize?
DeleteDammit GOD!
DeleteThe Trump Administration Is About to Incinerate 500 Tons of Emergency Food
ReplyDeleteFederal workers warned for months that the high-energy biscuits would go to waste.
This is why God saved Trump, so he would be in position to destroy meant for shit hole countries. This is why Dickhead in Cal voted for the felon, 3 fucking times.
so he would be in position to destroy lifesaving food meant for shit hole countries.
DeleteDamn, I am so furious
I pray that our lord and savior Jesus Christ prevent this grotesque waste of food.
DeleteGlory and praise be to God forever.
DeleteAnd may God defend Steven Pinker from calumny.
DeleteLast I heard, Pinker is not an evangelical Christian nationalist. When Jews behave like Trump, it is called zionism.
DeletePinker is not a Christian, but he should not be subject to calumny. By the way, he has thoughts about Israel and Gaza:
Deletehttps://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/opinion___steven_pinker__how_i_wish_harvard_taught_students_to_talk_about_israel.pdf
Has Pinker forgotten he works at Harvard. Is there any reason he is not involved in teaching students there?
DeleteSummer vacation.
DeleteSomerby expects the mainstream press to notice when Fox News engages in misogyny by equating women with livestock. The mainstream press has been busy making "deals" with Trump so that he will leave them alone. They know that the minute someone objects to Trump's mistreatment of women (among other people), they will be labeled DEI and fired.
ReplyDeleteRosie O'Donnell has shown that she can take care of her family and herself, by moving to Ireland. It is no coincidence that the major group now dominating Democratic party demographics is educated women.
Do you think that women reading Somerby's blog might prefer something less performative than whining about Gutfeld's bro-oriented patter? Perhaps Somerby might express some sympathy for the girls trafficked by Epstein and Trump and take a stand about the prosecution of the wealthy men who were Epstein's clients while Pam Bondi looked the other way under Trump's DOJ's non-prosecution agreement, allowing Epstein to do whatever he wanted in FL.
Somerby comes across as hypocritical when he calls out Gutfeld for his misogynist jokes while defending guys like Roy Moore and Brock Turner. How does Somerby stand on Epstein, aside from calling it a distraction from his burning Medicaid questions?
Medicaid is important, too.
DeleteIt was important before the bill passed, but now it is too late to do anything but remind voters about the cuts during the midterms. Reminding them about Texas may be less abstract.
DeleteSo Jesus deflected the bullet from Donald Trump's ear and directly into the brain of an innocent bystander and father of two daughters. A bit sloppy, don't you think.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of a bad joke...a priest goes golfing accompanied by two nuns. Priest hits the ball and it lands an inch from the hole -- almost a hole in one -- so, the frustrated priest exclaims -- "goddammit!". Nuns looked horrified and cross themselves. Next hole, same thing happens. Again, the priest screams -- "goddammit!"; and, again, nuns cross themselves. On the third hole, the ball actually goes into the hole and pops out. The priest is beside himself and screams -- "Goddammit!". All of sudden, there's lightning from clear blue sky and...the two nuns are vaporized in an instance. And then there's a voice from the sky -- "Goddammit!".
DeleteGod could only deflect the bullet; couldn't actually stop it. It must have been a DEI god.
Another form of lie is the anecdotal story Trump is constantly making up, to gratify his own self-importance. Tiedrich describes this one:
ReplyDelete"...after Mark Rutte packed up and went home, it was time for Donny to attend the White House Faith Office Luncheon, where he charmed the assembled guests with a heartwarming tale of another thing that never happened the most.
[quoting Trump] “numerous times, I’d get home, I’d say, ‘First Lady, I had the most wonderful talk with Vladimir. I think we’re finished.’ and then I’ll turn on the television, or she’ll say to me one time, ‘wow, that’s strange, because he just bombed a nursing home.’ [laughter] I said ‘what?’ [more laughter] so—”
that’s so much what the fuck in such a short clip. first of all, what the fuck are the assembled ‘faith leaders’ laughing at? Donny’s side-splitting retelling of Putin bombing a nursing home? yeah, hilarious.
secondly, we don’t even have to ask if the ‘first lady’ is in the room with us right now — she’s not. she hates Donny’s guts and is nowhere to be found.
[video of Melania refusing to ride in the same car with Trump at a funeral] look at these two love-birds. Donny is not ‘going home’ (how do you ‘go home’ when you live and work in the same building?) and having dinner-table conversation with his ‘first lady,’ because Melania is far the fuck away. Donny made the whole thing up. it’s the opposite of a ‘sir’ story — in this case, instead of some grateful, teary-eyed supplicant coming up to Donny and calling him ‘sir,’ he’s addressing his own estranged wife as ‘first lady.’
does anyone actually believe that Donny addresses his wife as ‘first lady’? “hey first lady, is my tie on straight?” if he does, it’s only because he’s too demented to remember her name — or if she’s actually present or not."
When a liar gets to the point where he can no longer tell if his stories are plausible or not, that is a symptom of dementia. The not caring is also a part of dementia.
DeleteBut seriously, why is anyone laughing about the bombing?
He actually meant "First Hooker".
DeleteHe calls her "First Lady" in his fantasy because that reminds him that he IS the president, he enjoys the sound of that. He might have asked her to call him Mr. President, but she probably refused.
DeleteAnd just like that, the Republican Congress goes all in on child sex trafficking. Who could have known, except everyone?
ReplyDeleteEven Greg Gutfield is saying calling Republicans "Nazis" is the best thing to do.
ReplyDeleteWe voted for Trump to give huge tax breaks to corporations which run child sex-trafficking rings.
ReplyDeleteElections have consequences.
Grand Old Party of sex pests.
ReplyDeleteShould raping a child be legal? Views differ.
ReplyDelete