Extolling the overlords
by digby
The word obviously went forth over at Fox last week that it was time to pay obeisance to the overlords. It started with Megyn Kelly’s obsequious interview with Charles Koch and then followed from there on every program.
Here’s just one example of the brown-nosing sycophancy that came after:
STEVE DOOCY: Charles Koch sat down for a very rare interview with Megyn Kelly. And why exactly does he seem to support Republicans more than Democrats and what is his theory on Hillary? Here it is in 44 seconds.
(CLIP) CHARLES KOCH: The reason we tend to support Republicans is they’re taking this toward the cliff at only 70 miles an hour and the Democrats are taking us 100 miles an hour. Putting aside all the things that are said about Hillary today, my main difference with her is on the vision of what kind of society will make people’s lives better. So this is a vision of society in which people are too evil or stupid to run their own lives but those in power are perfectly capable of running everybody else’s lives because they’re so much smarter. It’s what Hayek called the fatal conceit, or William Easterly called the tyranny of experts. Because that’s what it is. It’s tyranny.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: An excellent look at really the divide there. I thought that was so — and he’s approximately going to donate $300 million dollars in the presidential race and other campaigns during this election cycle. You get insight into his mind and heart. It’s incredible.
KILMEADE: It’s hard to vilify when he comes off like that. I saw the at length interview and I also saw it on another channel. Very impressive, very down to earth. He’s hardly the villain he’s been characterized as.
DOOCY: And see, that’s just key because by the political left he and his brother have been portrayed as these awful guys who are just out to help the Republicans. That simply is not true. You heard him say the Republicans are driving the car off the cliff 70 miles an hour, and he prefers that over the 100 mile an hour version of the Democrats. Just one other thing about him. You know, while he is incredibly rich, he was trained as an engineer. He’s from Kansas, he and his brother are from Kansas, go Sunflower State. And he was trained at M.I.T. So, not only is he a generous man but he’s a real smart guy, too.
KILMEADE: Megyn did a great job.
I’ve heard he’s a great kisser too.
This is the hard-hitting “fair and balanced” journalism of Fox News.
Update: They also like Trumpie.
JUDITH MILLER: Well, I’m not necessarily convinced that more time leads to a more scintillating or enlightening debate. I mean, you can get past two hours and not only are the candidates really tired standing up, but so is the audience. On the other hand, of course CNBC wanted a three hour debate if they could sell advertising at $150,000 for a 30-second clip, that’s the Wall Street Journal estimate.
But now we see what Donald Trump would be like in negotiation with Vladimir Putin. And I can just tell you that it appears that CNBC needed Trump more than he needed them and that gives you leverage and perhaps it shouldn’t be that way but this is the marketplace and the marketplace has spoken and Trump has won. [Fox News, Happening Now, 10/16/15]
Yes, that’s the Judith Miller. And she wasn’t alone in extolling Trump’s “negotiating skills” in this silly episode.
Trump complained after the last one. It was just too looooong. And it was clear it was because he was terribly uncomfortable standing up all that time. He was hanging on to that podium for dear life:
