THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2026
But why is he still on the air? It's been hard to chronicle all the surroundings—all the phenomena in the air last week in the run-up to our struggling nation's latest war.
The most difficult such undertaking involves the moral and intellectual squalor which characterizes such "cable news" programs as Gutfeld! and The Five. That's especially true of the throwback sexual politics which dominates those two propaganda messaging shows.
Sexuality has always been hard! That said, rebellion against the feminism of the past sixty years is especially powerful on those imitation "news" programs. Last Thursday night, that produced the state of affairs in which millions of viewers were subjected to the moral squalor of watching Greg Gutfeld offer this "joke," as we noted this morning:
GUTFELD (2/26/26): Rosie O'Donnell's daughter Chelsea has been accused of assault after touching a man's genitals.
Apparently, she never learned boundaries growing up watching farmers milk her mom.
The program started at 10 o'clock; he offered that at 10:01. We've always advised you to "pity the child" when you see a 61-year-old person screaming for help, but we offer a superseding question:
Why is that man on the air?
Regarding the blowhard tub of lard who performs on these shows as "Tyrus," we floated a certain suggestion this morning. We'll repost our suggestion in the form of a question:
Yesterday, as he played the fool with respect to the Clintons' depositions, did he mistakenly think that the Clintons had sat for a single joint deposition?
After watching him play the fool on The Five and then on Gutfeld!, that's the way it seemed to us. Now for the rest of the (possible) story:
After posting this morning's report, we read a new essay by Monica Hesse in the Washington Post. When we did, we wondered if we suddenly understood where "Tyrus" might have acquired that misimpression.
Headline included, Hesse's column starts as shown. As she mocks the latest foofaw from the House Oversight Committee, she includes the dumbbell videotape which might well prove misleading to an underinformed observer:
Now streaming! The Clinton depositions were the week’s best new drama.
This week on Season 250 of “America,” the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform offered up the testimonies of a former president and a former secretary of state in the manner of a broadcast network unveiling a new midseason procedural drama.
“EXCLUSIVE,” read the post on X. “Watch the depositions of President Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Clinton in front of the House Oversight Committee as part of our investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.”
A 21-second trailer followed: In split-screen, two of your favorite recurring characters—who happen to be married to each other—were each shown sitting at a conference table as an offscreen voice instructed, “Can the court reporter please swear in the witness?” The Clintons’ heads turned, they raised their right hands, and they swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth: “I do.”
At that point, Hesse inserted the "21-second trailer" the Oversight Committee had posted. You can watch that 21 seconds of videotape simply by clicking here.
Our question:
Did a certain "cable news" blowhard get fooled by that 21 seconds of tape?
It looks like the Clintons were there together! Is that what the big blowhard thought?
Sexuality has always been hard, dating all the way back to events in a famous garden. On The Five, but also on Jesse Watters Primetime and on the Gutfeld! program, Watters, Gutfeld and "Tyrus" seem to display a deep desire to return gender norms and expectations to a rather moldy old format.
These fellows seem to want to be in charge in the manner to which they seem to feel accustomed. Especially on Gutfeld!, this leads to endless ugly insults aimed at liberal women by the star of that braindead show.
We refer to the relentless purveyor of sexual insult who offered this last week:
GUTFELD (2/26/26): Rosie O'Donnell's daughter Chelsea has been accused of assault after touching a man's genitals.
Apparently, she never learned boundaries growing up watching farmers milk her mom.
At Fox, they open this garbage can every night and a tortured person comes slithering out. In Blue America, journalistic and academic elites have all agreed not to notice.
(In fairness, we've reminded you to "pity the child"—to pity the fellow who has possibly had a hard time keeping up with basic rules of decency and respect.)
Greg Gutfeld could do much better! Having said that, we'll also say this:
Why in the world—why on earth—is he still on the air?
Sadly, also this: In our view, the bulk of Lawrence's O'Donnell's program was weirdly dismaying last night.
At present, our society seems to be coming apart. On some other disordered day, we'll provide the details.
Look how Somerby rubs it in with the cow joke. And no, sexuality isn't hard and this isn't a rebellion against feminism (as if women brought this on themselves), except among the bros on the extremist right. Most men have wives and daughters are would be upset by this behavior, but Somerby applauds it by giving it more airspace.
ReplyDeleteIt is male domination in service to the patriarchy (a system of male domination built into our culture by men for their own benefit). Women who resist the dictates of patriarchy are punished in order to keep other women in line. Rosie O'Donnell is being punished and Rashida Tlaib is being punished with these attacks on their looks, as if a woman must look and be a certain way dictated by guys like Gutfeld (who is himself a gargoyle). As if only beautiful women matter and women who make their own choices are ugly and must hide in shame. Hillary was punished when she said she didn't bake cookies. The right has never forgiven her for coloring outside the lines. Harris was punished for running for president instead of staying at home to keep house for her rich husband, then she was punished again for claiming to love her step-kids, because she didn't birth them. This is how the patriarchy enforces its rules and Somerby has no shame about promoting this crap.
Somerby is an asshole.
Excusing the bad behavior of guys like Gutfeld by claiming that sexuality is hard and women messed up by taking feminism too far, thus provoking a backlash, is Somerby's way of justifying patriarchy. It makes Somerby a sexist and a misogynist.
Notice that Somerby never defends Tlaib or O'Donnell against Gutfeld's jibes. He engages in some mild name-calling and asks why Gutfeld hasn't been fired (as if Fox would fire him for doing exactly what he was put on the air to do). There is no good excuse for calling any woman a cow, no matter how you feel about her politics. Repeating this is Somerby being an asshole.
Sexuality is easy. You love who you love, without being deterred by the reactions of others outside your relationship. So easy. And you mind your own business when it comes to other people's relationships. Easy as pie.
When you love someone, you look out for their interests and treat them with respect. That means you don't engage in controlling behavior, demean them, make demands to benefit yourself that hurt them, and so on.
Mother Theresa is beautiful. Rosie O'Donnell is an old cow and Rashida Tlaib is an ugly terrorist.
DeleteWhat do their looks have to do with anything?
DeleteThe appearance a person presents tells you a lot about that person.
DeleteWhite people being devils, for instance.
DeleteAnonymouse 4:12pm: “Somerby has no shame about promoting this crap.”
DeleteIf calling attention to this crap is synonymous with “promoting” it, then you can take a bow for that too, you utter putz. You’re not only promoting it… you’re promoting it for no other reason than going after a blogger who, unlike Fox News personalities, is hardly a household name. Take a bow. No one can be more malignly idiotic than you.
“ No one can be more malignly idiotic than you.”
DeleteI can think of someone whose name starts with Cece and ends in lia.
The difference is that I don’t repeat those jokes — that is how Somerby promotes Gutfeld.
DeletePeople have almost forgotten that the government can succeed. Since the Vietnam debacle, it seems that nothing actually worked. Iraq and Afghanistan were fuckups. We didn't eliminate poverty or homelessness. We haven't gotten back to the moon. Head Start didn't bring poor children up to the norm educationally. We didn't fix climate change. We didn't fix discrimination and bigotry.
ReplyDeleteIMO consistent lack of success affected our thinking. We expect not to succeed, so much so that when I wrote that the war in Iraq succeeded, that was a source of mockery. When we do succeed, little attention is paid. E.g., closing the southern border. Third we're content to merely manage problems or make efforts in the direction of dealing with them, even though success may not not be achieved and not even in view. Perhaps that's because we care more about the ego boost from being side of righteousness more than we care about the problem actually going away.
Climate change is a good example.. People say they believe in climate change and believe in the science while advocating policies that are totally inadequate to prevent disaster, if their beliefs are right.
Republicans are incapable of governing. It’s been plain for years, at least since Nixon.
DeleteIt is insane to keep giving them power to fuck things up repeatedly
Oh bummer. The DOJ couldn’t fabricate a criminal case against President Biden. I hate it when that happens.
DeleteDOJ quietly shelves Biden autopen investigation that Trump demanded
President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed former President Joe Biden used an autopen without knowing the contents of what he signed.
Go fuck yourself, dickhead. Go troll somewhere else
DeleteDavid in Cal,
DeleteWhy are you going to come here in a few months, and tell us that it's not the federal government's job to protect citizens from being killed by terrorists, again?
I keep forgetting.
I am not sure what you're alluding to, @7:03. As you know, hundreds of American have been killed by terrorists funded or controlled by Iran. That includes victims of roadside IEDs, Americans unlucky enough to be an Israeli music festival on Oct 7, 2001, and Marines blown up by a truck bomb in 1983.
DeleteTrump's attack on Iran will protect future Americans from being killed by terrorists. More important, Trump's attack will prevent the horrific possibility of the US being attacked with nuclear weapons or even just threatened with nuclear weapons.
Those resisting the US invasion of Iraq were soldiers, not terrorists.
DeleteAnd how many Palestinians have been killed by Israeli 'terrorists' with weapons provided by the US?
This unprovoked attack on Iran by the mad king will only incentivize that nation to develop nuclear weapons
DeleteAnd one more thing: since we've never declared war on Iran (no Congressional approval), but instead pulled a Pearl Harbor-style sneak attack on them, doesn't that make us 'terrorists' with nuclear weapons?
Deletehundreds of American have been killed by terrorists funded or controlled by Iran.
DeleteThat's just made up out of whole cloth. There's no basis for this claim whatsoever. To put it another way: it's a lie.
Fact:
ReplyDeleteIsrael has killed far more American soldiers, than Iran has.
See my response above at 7:55PM
DeleteDonald Trump just did more to advance women’s rights, gay rights, and basic human rights than every democratic leader in the last fifty years of American history. This is not disputable.
ReplyDeleteKiss the lovely, flaccid flesh of his great white feet.
Liberals only care about women’s rights, gay rights, and basic human rights when these issues can be used to attack conservatives. The plight of women in Iran and throughout the Islamic world is not important to them.
DeleteOh so now this war has something to do with women’s and gay rights in Iran. Of course the clown identified as DiC here voted for the party that opposes them in the IS.
DeleteOh so now this war has something to do with women’s and gay rights in Iran. Of course the clown identified as DiC here voted for the party that opposes them in the IS.
DeleteIn the US
Delete“ Liberals only care about women’s rights, gay rights, and basic human rights when these issues can be used to attack conservatives”
DeleteLiberals have championed all of these.
Tucker Carlson has called the Iran war “absolutely disgusting and evil.”
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, the US has committed a war crime by attacking an unarmed Iranian ship that was invited by India to take place in military exercises and exhibition. Essentially, it was there for a parade.
ReplyDeleteWas it a war crime when Iran slaughtered 3200 Iranian demonstrators?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI'll let you ponder on your own, David, while crimes committed by a foreign government do not concern me quite as much.
DeleteNo, it wasn't a war crime. It was human rights violation, similar, although on much bigger scale, to what ICE and DHS have perpetrated in the US.