FAR RIGHT CABLE TV STICKS WITH TRUMP’S ELECTION LOSS DENIAL

 

… Joseph diGenova, attorney, conspiracy theorist, and far-right commentator

 

Two, right-wing media operations are staying with Trump’s election strategy

 

Last week, I wrote that there were today, 69 right-wing media outlets.  I also mentioned how the upstart cable new channels Newsmax and One America News (OAN) were taking away a slice of what had been Fox News watchers. 

Now, with President Trump’s continued strategy of election denialism, both of these channels are trying to out-flank Fox News by continuing to increase their embrace on the president’s strategy.   The Newsmax approach seems to be slowly admitting that President Trump’s legal challenges have failed.  The major Newsmax host, John Bachman, actually referred to Joe Biden as the “president -elect”, and he stated during his news cast that: “The judges don’t seem to be taking up these cases. This is the reality. This is the motion set in place.”

On the smaller station, OAN, they are completely sticking with the president’s strategy.  While the Electoral College was casting their votes, OAN virtually ignored the unfolding developments.  They instead devoted about four hours of daytime programming to a live feed of a hearing by the Arizona Senate to address voting procedures.  Its 4 PM news roundup totally failed to mention the Electoral College vote at all.

While on the Newsmax’s “American Agenda,” which followed Bachman’s show, the host, Bob Sellers, seemed to treat Biden’s victory as an unsettled issue, saying that people are “waiting with bated breath” for the results of the process and asserting that “there are still some outstanding cases of irregularity.”

James Renacci, a Republican former congressman from Ohio, appeared on Sellers’s Newsmax show and said that it was possible that a member of the House of Representatives or a Senator could file a written objection to the certification process during the joint session on Jan. 6, for the vote to finalize the election results.

Around 5:30 PM on Monday, both CNN and MSNBC had declared that Biden had reached the 270-vote threshold to be confirmed as the US president.  Around the same time, a guest on Newsmax talked about alternative slates of electors meeting and said: “I think we’ve still got several weeks here for this thing to play out.” 

During one Newsmax segment, a Washington Times writer, Tim Constantine, criticized the president and his team for continuing to argue that the election is fraudulent, without offering any evidence.  But in his bid to stay politically relevant, Sellers gently chastised him saying: “Tim, it’s kind of strange that you say that.”

Newsmax has seen substantial gains in its still-small ratings since the election.  Nielsen doesn’t monitor OAN’s ratings, although most industry experts estimate that they are only a fraction of its more-established cable-news competition.

Overall, the conservative media has stayed devoted to Trump’s bogus claims of victory.  However, some cracks are starting to show, such as those at Newsmax.

Other cable channels have kept tabs on the vote as it emerged through the day, occasionally featuring video of electors meeting in their state capitals.  But OAN stuck to the Arizona hearing.  Its 4 p.m. news update led with a service outage by Google and YouTube.  That was followed later by reports about one of Trump’s angry tweets about the election, and the weekend march in Washington by pro-Trump demonstrators.

Conservative attorneys Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova, who have represented the Trump team in some of their election challenges, they made an appearance on Newsmax. “How can you certify an election with all this fraud going on?” Toensing asked rhetorically.  Of course, it wasn’t mentioned that there have been no substantiated claims of organized fraud on any scale that would affect the results in any state.

As usual, diGenova hyped the release of an audit conducted by a group called Allied Security Operations Group. The audit focused on the performance of Dominion Voting System machines in one particular county in Michigan.  That Dominion rumor was debunked a year ago, but diGenova still accused the company of fraud.  No such claims have ever been substantiated, and Dominion has rightfully denied all accusations of wrongdoing.  “There will be a lot discussed about this over the next 24 hours,” diGenova predicted.  Toensing added, “Maybe only on Newsmax.”

It will be interesting to see how both Newsmax and OAN deal with the Biden administration after Trump and his family have left the White House. 

Will they stay with the idea that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president, or will they slowly admit that he won, “fair and square”.

Nah….. that doesn’t fit with their right-wing cable audience.

Copyright: G. Ater 2020