MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 202
The cable star smells wet garbage: With apologies, and just for the sake of history, we thought we'd establish a brief historical record concerning what happened last Thursday on the Fox News Channel—first on The Five, then on the Gutfeld! show.
The Five is the most watched show in all of American "cable news!" Also, it's a "news" show in much the same way that The Real Housewives of Catfight City belongs on a cable channel named Bravo—a cable channel which was originally designed to be about the fine arts.
As we've noted in the past, one "basic cable" channel after another dumbed its intended product way, way down once it came face to face with the preferences of the American cable news consumer. The Fox News Channel is a massively dumbed down version of whatever it was that a 24-hour "cable news" channel might originally have been intended to be.
The sheer stupidity on the channel, delivered in groups, is simply astounding. Then, along came Gutfeld, the man the channel groomed for his current role, originally starting with a show at 3 in the morning, to fold a stunningly coarse and apparently misogynistic sensibility into the stew.
That said:
Last Wednesday, Hillary Clinton appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Starting at 8 a.m. sharp, she did a pair of interview segments, lasting just over a total of 37 minutes. Here's one of the ways the appearance is summarized at the Morning Joe site:
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joins Morning Joe to discuss President Trump saying he now thinks Ukraine can win back all territory taken by Russia, the 20th anniversary of the Clinton Global Initiative, HHS Secretary RFK Jr. and vaccine access and the current fight over free speech.
For the record, the first segment ran some 20 minutes and 41 seconds. You can watch the whole thing here. The second segment ran 16 minutes and 44 seconds. This link will take you here.
Also this: Thanks to the invaluable Internet Archive, you can watch the whole interview simply by starting here.
We're not giant fans of Hillary Clinton as a political figure. Watching each segment in full, we were struck by how healing it can be for a person like Clinton to be removed from the hurly-burly of the daily political wars.
We thought Clinton was extremely articulate and notably relaxed throughout. For the record, she started out with words of support for President Trump, affirming the way he had just adjusted his rhetoric concerning Ukraine, suggesting that Ukraine could end up driving the Russians back out of its land.
(Now she'd like to see appropriate action, she added.)
Her lengthy appearance was calm and sane—until the corporate messenger children at the Fox News Channel went to work in the standard Fox News Channel fashion.
In short, producers found a tiny clip they could edit out of the 37 minutes. The various Stepfords on the various Fox News Channel shows then took turns explaining what the tiny bit of tape actually meant about the demonic former secretary of state.
Of one thing you can be certain—none of these flyweights had actually watched the 37 minutes. They knew what they were being paid to say, and they happily proceeded to say it.
We've already shown you Gutfeld's broken-headed assessment during the 5 o'clock hour. Here it is again, with the reliably horrible Kennedy chiming in:
GUTFELD (9/24/25): You know, I don't know if you know this, Kennedy. That's the first time that Hillary has been on Morning Joe since the mysterious death of that intern.
OTHER PANELISTS: [Audible chuckling]
GUTFELD: I'm not saying anything, but I have to wonder—why is this old, ugly bag still around?
KENNEDY: Don't talk about Mika that way.
GUTFELD: I mean, that is so petty. That is so petty when I call her those things. But I'm not calling her a bigot, and I'm not calling her a Nazi. I'm just saying she's old and smelly and ugly.
Please don't ask us to explain the reference to "the mysterious death of that intern." The tragic death of the intern in question isn't mysterious in any way, and all the panelists know it. But Gutfeld never tires of keeping such ugly messaging floating around inside his viewers' heads, as Kennedy chuckles along.
For whatever reason, it's the way his head currently works. We wish corporate owners would get him some help, because we feel entirely sure that he could be doing much better.
At any rate, there you see the way the concept of "cable news" has been reinvented—has been turned into a type of "Real D-Minus Flyweight Students of the Fox News Channel."
Every afternoon and then every night, Suzanne Scott pries the lid off the garbage can and the current version of Greg Gutfeld is part of what slithers out. Last Thursday night, at 10:07 p.m., he started again on his eponymous prime time propaganda program:
GUTFELD (9/25/25): And of course, if you smell wet garbage, you know Hillary's in town.
[Tiny snippet of tape]
So it went at 10:07. Hillary Clinton, 77 years old, was no longer an ugly old bag. The former first lady was now wet garbage, as you could tell from her smell.
This is the dystopian fugue the corporate bosses have created as they've dumbed the concept of "cable news" down down down down down. The sheer stupidity never ends on these utterly dimwitted "cable news" programs—and Gutfeld, more than any other figure, had added this ugly, coarse sensibility to the soul-crushing mix.
You can watch what followed that night, if you choose, by clicking here and then clicking ahead to the 7-minute mark. We'll add this odd observation:
As of last Thursday, had someone or something gotten inside this furious person's head? On each of these shows last Thursday, he offered bizarre attempts to justify the way he name-calls and slimes those with whom he disagrees in the manner we've shown you.
In Saturday's report, we showed you part of his extremely hapless apologia from that day's The Five. By clicking the link to that evening's Gutfeld! show, you can see him offer the same self-justification, five hours later.
Had someone been getting inside his head? Is that why he was suddenly trying to explain and justify, in a ludicrous way, his amazingly peculiar conduct?
We don't know who that could have been, but we ourselves went to junior high, and then to high school, just about a mile down the Alameda de las Pulgas from Gutfeld's own Serra High. We're saddened by the thought that someone from such a sunny land could have ended up the way this guy did.
That said, there's still time to get better.
His bosses, of course, are cheering him on. A segment of the public wanted Real Housewives more than fine arts. They also wanted Ancient Aliens more than they wanted actual history on the so-called History Channel.
And so on, down the road to perdition from there.
A certain segment of the public enjoys seeing Gutfeld call Clinton smelly and old. (Trust us—it gets more pathetic and worse.) He's been paid to so those things, and he plainly seems to enjoy the laughter and cheers which follow
Instead of that, we wish his corporate owners would get this "poor immigrant" some help.
Something is badly wrong with this man—or it is just an overwrought form of Sexual Politics Throwback Syndrome? We'll be discussing that potent cultural and political force as the week proceeds—but Clinton spoke for 37 minutes on Morning Joe, and the only thing this lost soul had to say was his claim about the smell of wet garbage.
The larger question is this:
Fox behaves this way to rake in the cash. Why do Blue American orgs agree on this key point:
What Greg Gutfeld says and does must never be reported or discussed!
This 61-year-old California man is badly in need of help, but so is the failing American nation. Why won't the stars at the New York Times—Brooks and French and Stephens and Douthat and Bruni and Dowd and Michelle Goldberg—do their jobs as American journalists and report, for all to hear, his astonishing change in the culture of the American "news" system?
The same thing goes for Mika and Joe! Why won't these people simply report what happens on Fox? Why won't they simply say the names of the people who do this?
Why won't someone say Suzanne Scott's name? It's Suzanne Scott, an American woman from New Jersey, who puts this trash on the air.
Is it possible that Suzanne Scott is wet garbage? Have Blue America's timorous stars ever thought about that?
Hillary said two sane sentences in a half century career of support for a rotten deranged ideology that brought us here, and hatred for those fighting against it.
BalasPadamThat's two more than you've ever come up with, Mao.
Padam"Hillary Clinton, 77 years old, was no longer an ugly old bag. The former first lady was now wet garbage, as you could tell from her smell."
BalasPadamWell, she is, by all accounts, an extremely repulsive character, wouldn't you agree? And even if you don't, trust me: this how a lot of people feel.
And people, normal ordinary people, tend to insult extremely repulsive characters, like her, this way. Unlike you, who tend to call people you despise "mentally ill" and "motherless".
Personally, I definitely prefer "ugly old bag" and "wet garbage". Much less pretentious.
Pity the poor child
PadamAs if you had a clue about normal, ordinary people.
PadamTrump is mentally ill based on his observed behavior. It's not an insult. There's no shame in being mentally ill. It's not ideal to have mentally ill or people struggling with the cognitive effects of dementia in high government posts...but here we are.
Padam"Ugly old bag" is an accurate description of the ugly old bag in question. And so is "wet garbage".
PadamMen (and boys) often try to cut a woman down to size by first objectifying her (implying she is a sex object) and then denigrating her appearance (value to men as a sex object) ignoring that a woman like Hillary would have no interest in the guys doing the judgment.
PadamWho cares how attractive Hillary might be to some random asshole? She would never have had anything to do with these trolls, even when she was young. She is so far out of these guys' league that caling her fat or ugly or lesbian is their only way to save face, as if she would look at them as anything other than a slobbish nuisance.
The anger among certain men arises because they are taught that men deserve any and every woman, as a sense of entitlement, when most women want nothing to do with such men. Women can sense their anger and reject them immediately because who wants to spend time with an abusive jerk? Inside every moron who writes stuff like this about Hillary lurks a potential rapist who thinks they don't have to be nice and earn attention from women. They hate that they cannot compete with nicer men, so they write ugly stuff like this on the internet, about Hillary, who has never done anything mean to anyone.
Do these guys never think about the fact that Bill Clinton was a babe magnet at Yale but he wooed and married Hillary? She wasn't rich or beautiful but she was attractive, very funny, had goals and a plan for achieving them (ambitious), and she was smart as hell. These are traits the idiots dissing her might not realize are important in life, more important than shallow empty-headed beauty that right wingers seem to prefer in their mates. I imagine it is too late to teach these guys life lessons.
PadamYou’re doing well, 6:17PM. You’re defined by your achievements, not your deformity.
PadamHillary was being interviewed for over an hour on a cable news show, because her views are interesting to those watching, despite being a "smelly old bag"? She must really have something to say for that to happen. No one would listen that long to Melania.
PadamCan't say the same for you, @6:17.
PadamIt could be worse. Some kid from a Republican family might not have shot Charlie Kirk to death.
BalasPadamThen where would we be?
Trump approval poll (Age 18-29)
BalasPadamApprove 49%
Disasaprove 44%
Atlasintel #A+ - RV - 9/19
Same poll, same question:
PadamCollege degree or highter:
Approve 41%
Disapprove 59%
Fortunately, people in this age group don't vote in large numbers, just like they don't pay attention to what's going on in the news.
PadamFox behaves this way to rake in the cash. Why do Blue American orgs agree on this key point:
BalasPadamWhat Greg Gutfeld says and does must never be reported or discussed!
Maybe because no one, other than you Bob considers nothing that Gutfeld says or does to be worth reporting or discussing.
TDH: Fox behaves this way to rake in the cash. Why do Blue American orgs agree on this key point:
BalasPadamWhat Greg Gutfeld says and does must never be reported or discussed!
According to Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Gutfeld, that assessment, which Somerby has repeated at least a hundred times now, is patently false:
The New York Times described his rhetoric and style as "insult conservatism", and that it has allowed Gutfeld to "frame any serious argument as a joke and any joke as a serious argument, leaving viewers to suss out the distinction".
Flegenheimer, Matt; Peters, Jeremy W. (June 27, 2023). "How Fox News (Yes, Fox News) Managed to Beat 'The Tonight Show'"
Gutfeld has been on Fox in some form since 2007. It's absurd to expect mainstream blue media to report on a daily basis his 18 years of nonsense.
I hope the context that follows will prompt TDH to reconsider its Gutfeld obsession. Somerby seems to have forgotten just how vast and ancient the right-wing media-sphere is. Rush Limbaugh went national in 1988. Glenn Beck is still on hundreds of radio stations. Listenership was and remains in the 10-20 million range, far exceeding that of Gutfeld. If you listen to one of these stations, you will frequently be told that if you’ve ever voted for a Democrat, you are demonic, a Communist, a supporter of terrorists, etc.
I was driving to get lunch when I heard Glenn Beck fantasize about killing filmmaker Michael Moore. This was 20 years ago. I immediately thought that there had to be some FCC rules that prevent radio stations from airing threats to murder a fellow citizen. I was wrong. Beck was soon promoted to CNN and then to FOX. Glenn Beck's estimated net worth is approximately $250 million. Rake in the cash indeed.
https://www.npr.org/2011/09/14/140473318/excerpt-here-comes-trouble
Re: Beck. It's a genre, Glo; look up the definition of "shock jock". You're like an old lady outraged at porno videos.
PadamAlso, take this for example; not 20 years ago, but only 4 days ago: "Hillary Clinton blames white men of a 'certain religion' for doing 'such damage' to America". Is it okay, by your lights?
I think my point was that I'm no longer outraged by what I hear in right-wing media or from right-wing politicians.
PadamHillary is a private citizen now and can say whatever she wants. Free speech, remember?
PadamNot all religions want to oppress women these days. Maybe she has a point.
PadamThe existence of shock jocks doesn't excuse Limbaugh and the hate mongers on the scene before Gutfeld.
Padam“ For the record, she started out with words of support for President Trump, affirming the way he had just adjusted his rhetoric concerning Ukraine, suggesting that Ukraine could end up driving the Russians back out of its land.”
BalasPadamThese are not words of support for Trump but for Ukraine.
Clinton was obviously on the air to promote their global initiative on its 20th anniversary. Saying nasty things about her, now that she has retired, is just malice. It reveals more misogyny than Gutfeld. Why does the right still pursue a politics of hate after Kirk was killed? Are they incapable of learning from their mistakes?
BalasPadamViewership numbers should not ignore the demographics. By 11:30 the age group targeted by late night but who have watched Fox are in bed dreaming about owning a plantation.
BalasPadamJake Tapper just teased a CNN report on Trump’s medbed.
BalasPadamThe medbed report is on now.
Padam