Thursday, January 21, 2021

RIGHT WING WATCH
President Biden's inauguration according to Newsmax, home to TV's most ardent Trump defenders

Stephen Battaglio
Wed, January 20, 2021
Newsmax opinion host Greg Kelly, TV's most unabashed Trump supporter, has defended the former president's unfounded claims of election fraud. (Newsmax)

Since then-President Trump's election defeat Nov. 3, the mantra for Newsmax opinion host Greg Kelly on his nightly program has been, "It's not over."

Kelly became TV's most unabashed Trump supporter as he defended the ousted president's unfounded claims of voter fraud that fueled a mob assault on the Capitol. His rants found an audience, some nights approaching 1 million viewers, enough to make him an irritant to Fox News, the established choice for conservative viewers.

“Sometimes the bank robber gets away with it,” Kelly said in a recent opening on his program. “Joe Biden stole this election. You know it. I know it. Tens of millions of Americans agree with us.”


But on Wednesday, it really was over. The country watched as President Biden was sworn in outside the Capitol where two weeks earlier pro-Trump rioters had attempted to stop the certification of the electoral college vote.

How conservative networks fare in the post-Trump era will be one of the burning media questions of the next year. Fox News is already feeling the effects of conservatives voters' despair as some of its audience has abandoned watching news altogether.

Newsmax, based in Boca Raton, Fla., has seen its audience grow thanks to Trump, who turned on Fox News in the final months of the 2020 campaign. Trump directed his fans to Newsmax and One America News, a right-wing network based in San Diego, because Fox News journalists and pollsters provided an accurate narrative of the presidential race even as its conservative commentators tore down Biden and indulged in the incumbent's voter fraud theories.

Fox News executives have privately said Newsmax is having a minimal effect on the network's ratings. After Fox News finished 2020 as the most-watched cable network, more news viewers have turned to CNN and MSNBC for coverage of the Biden transition, while some of the conservative audience Fox depends on has tuned out.

Now that the voter fraud battle is over, how did Newsmax cover the day that most of its viewers dreaded? During the inauguration ceremonies, the upstart network was mostly respectful, even as right-leaning guests turned up throughout the day to recite the talking points that are regularly used against Biden — that he'll be soft on China, will be manipulated by the left wing of the Democratic Party and that his call for unity will ring hollow unless he calls off the Senate trial after Trump was impeached for the second time.
During President Biden's inaugural ceremonies, Newsmax coverage was mostly respectful. (Newsmax)

"He could have really unified the country and called off the impeachment," Kelly told viewers in his negative critique of Biden's speech.

Other hosts and commentators said the 74 million Trump voters — a group often referred to on Newsmax — will still feel alienated under the new president.

“He did absolutely nothing to calm their fears about frankly the oppression and discrimination that conservatives and people who espouse traditional American values are subject to in this country today,” said Tom Basile, host of "America Right Now."

There were also repeated charges that the mainstream media are treating Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris gently after being pit bulls in going after Trump — a common theme on Fox News programs.

"The media fawns over him while I pray for him, and he will need our prayers because today he starts off misguided to say the least," said host Grant Stinchfield.

As the day went on, Newsmax coverage became more critical. Greg Hartley, a body-language expert, came on to analyze Biden's speech.

"He feels like no energy for a guy who becomes president," Hartley said. "His energies were low…. His body language does not command — he doesn’t control the space that he’s in.”

There were also encomiums for the policy achievements of the outgoing administration and nostalgic musings over Trump's ability to draw an audience, a contrast to the relief expressed by commentators on CNN, MSNBC and the broadcast news divisions that his term is over. (Even Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said Biden's speech was the best inauguration address he's heard).

Newsmax anchor Shaun Kraisman noted that Trump's showmanship got more people interested in politics and said it was unlikely that the Biden administration will be the same kind of attraction.

“Those who watched it from an entertainment perspective — that’s over,” Kraisman said.

Kraisman suggested that many Newsmax viewers were not going to be tuning in for its inauguration coverage, an unusual acknowledgement for a news anchor to offer to an audience.

“A lot of our normal viewers have personally reached out and said they are not interested in watching this play out today," Kraisman said.

One America News, which has been relentless in its support for Trump, apparently had those disaffected viewers in mind. The network did not carry the inauguration proceedings live, instead running a recorded tribute to Trump and his legacy.

OAN, which is not large enough to have its audience measured by Nielsen, covered the inauguration on its evening talk shows.

"Joe Biden is inaugurated even as evidence of voter fraud continues to emerge," read the ticker at the bottom of the OAN screen. Program host Stephanie Hamill described the day's events as "America's highly militarized inauguration," a dig at the National Guard's protection of the Capitol in response to the Jan. 6 riots and threats of more violence.

On Newsmax, hosts are already hopeful of a Trump comeback. "Wake Up America" host Rob Finnerty played the famous clip of Richard Nixon, after losing the 1962 California gubernatorial race, telling reporters, "You won't have Nixon to kick around any more."

"He swore after that that he would never run for office again," Finnerty said. "Six years after that he was president. As they say, anything can happen."

Kelly is longing for a Trump revival as well. "I miss him already," the host said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.


Denial, conspiracy and double-speak: Trump-loving OAN and Newsmax’s bizarre coverage of Biden’s inauguration

Alice Hutton
Wed, January 20, 2021, 
The ultra-conservative news channel Newsmax covering Joe Biden’s inauguration on 20 January, 2021 (Newsmax)

Far-right TV news outlets covered President Joe Biden's inauguration – and the early exit of Donald Trump – from the position of a soothing alternative reality.

From Wednesday morning the ultra-conservative cable networks, NewsMaxTV and One America News (OAN), appeared to be creating a “safe space” for those who remain convinced by Mr Trump’s lies that the presidential election was stolen from him.


The channel’s anchors and guests repeatedly told viewers that Mr Trump lost unfairly and that the presidential transfer of power was completed with grace. At one point, the hosts of NewsMaxTV gave the strong impression that Elton John had performed an impromptu concert in Mr Trump’s honour before he flew to Florida.





“The president is getting a rocking send-off!” yelled Sean Spicer, former White House press secretary turned Newsmax presenter, into the mic from Joint Base Andrews.

Mr Spicer is infamous for his tall tales following Mr Trump’s 2017 inauguration, when he claimed that his boss’s inauguration crowd size had far outstripped President Obama’s attendees. (They did not.)

OAN, however, went one step further. Throughout the morning the inauguration was almost entirely avoided, in favour of other foreign news stories and pre-cut features on Mr Trump's successes in office.

Though that didn’t stop them tweeting scare-mongering news stories including that Biden would focus on “domestic terror, possibly targeting Trump supporters”.

Until November, the conspiracy theory-led OAN and NewsMaxTV, tagline “Real News for Real People”, were considered fringe, Fox News-rip offs and not formidable competitors.

But when the Rupert Murdoch-owned channel admitted the Republican president’s defeat, Mr Trump pointed his followers in both of the networks' direction, as the last bastion of “truth”.


Within days NewsMaxTV's 7pm show, Greg Kelly Reports, had notched up a narrow ratings win over Fox, going from 10,000 viewers to, at one point, around one million, according to Nielsen data.

While OAN’s audiences reportedly jumped by 40 per cent, according to the network, which did not release figures. The job of news reporting on an alternative reality is not an easy one.

On Wednesday Newsmax anchors juggled the Schrödinger's cat of political stories: covering the inauguration of a new president without admitting the defeat of the outgoing one. At any one time in the programme, Mr Trump was both president and not president.

Even the outgoing White House occupant seemed to have taken the contradiction onboard, announcing in his farewell speech: "Have a nice life. See you soon!”

At around 8.30am, Newsmax’s Wake Up America show with Rob Finnerty and co-host Rachel Rollar, included fluffing Mr Trump’s legacy; assuring voters that he didn’t lose the election, and preparing them for any future President Biden “successes” as being down to the “solid ground-work” laid by his predecessor.

Below the screen, the news ticker claimed that “conservatives fear Biden’s immigration plans”…”some schools won’t show the inauguration because of fears of violence” and “Joe Exotic not on pardon list”.

Watching footage of Mr Trump flying off on Air Force One, Mr Finnerty turned to the camera and said: “I get chills every time I see it take off or land.”

Meanwhile the ticker underneath him read: “New York Times editor mocked for DC Biden ‘chills’ comment”, in reference to journalist Lauren Wolfe who, ironically, had tweeted a similar emotional response to the new president arriving, as Finnerty had in seeing the old one leave.

Over the next couple hours, the Newsmax team on the ground in DC found new ways to talk about the inauguration that didn’t involve actually talking about it.

The arrival of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of their swearing-in ceremony at the US Capitol, where special Covid-precautions meant no jubilant crowds and parades, was covered from the angle of an alleged bomb threat and the need for 20,000 members of the National Guard.

The alleged threat had been called into the Supreme Court hours before inauguration, the building was checked, nothing was found, and evacuation did not occur.

“We won’t see the sitting president attend the new president’s swearing in ceremony. It’s … different,” said the chirpy White House correspondent Emerald Robinson.

Referring to Mr Trump breaking from 152-years-of-history and intentionally not attending the inauguration, Ms Robinson claimed the outgoing president “didn’t look sad, he looked at peace ... rested and happy”.

And, like all networks, there was a never-ending panel of experts.

Betsy McCaughey, former lieutenant-governor of New York turned Trump economic advisor, credited him with “driving the terrorists out of the Middle East” and inventing the Covid vaccine.

Another guest was Mark Halperin, ex-political director of ABC News who was fired in 2017 following multiple sexual assault allegations.

He called Mr Trump a “tremendous personality” and said that the media “forced him into bad luck”.

Doug Wead, former adviser to President George HW Bush, added: “He’s got a great legacy, peace and prosperity, and they are spitting mad.”

But then Newsmax ran into a problem.

Mustafa Tameez, a former George HW Bush advisor, had been booked. He is now a Democratic strategist.

“Let me say it this way, so it’s very easy for everyone to get their heads round,” Mr Tameez said.

“He will be remembered in history as one of the worst presidents in the history of the United States.”

The presenter Mr Finnerty’s eyes froze.

Mr Tameez continued: “[Trump] leaves with the lowest approval rating since we started calculating approval ratings, so does the First Lady.

“We keep talking about President Trump’s accomplishments? People stormed the Capitol building whilst they were trying to certify the ballots. That is not the kind of history that anyone would want.”

Mr Finnerty moved swiftly to another guest before heading to a commercial break.

When the programme returned, Mr Tameez was no longer on screen.

As Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first female, Black and South Asian vice-president, the network pundits conceded it was a “historic moment”, before moving on to fears that she would “unravel ... four years of work”.

Later as crowds cheered for the newly-minted President Biden, he gave a stirring inaugural address which called for unity. “Let’s start afresh,” he urged the country.

The Newsmax host John Bachman paused for a long time, before finally mumbling: "…our president ... being welcomed by his family ... of course you'll notice Hunter Biden there of course."

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