Nicholas Fondacaro
Latest from Nicholas Fondacaro
All eyes were on President Trump Monday night as he addressed the nation about the country’s future actions in regard to the war in Afghanistan. And without giving too many details, the President declared that there would be some form of troop increase but noted that there were conditions to our aid and limits to the costs we were willing to bear. But that wasn’t enough for MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, who bemoaned Trump’s address and eagerly awaited White House leaks of the details.
Over the course of last week, on NBC and MSNBC, host Chuck Todd gave a leg up to the violent Antifa movement by letting them defend their assaults on the police and innocent people not once, but twice. Todd’s interviews showed just how tolerant he was of those who use violence to shut down free speech. And while Todd was absent from MTP Daily on Monday, Katy Tur picked up his torch and proudly pushed back against the First Amendment’s acknowledgment of a person’s right to free speech.
CNN host Brian Stelter really earned his ‘ridiculous figure’ moniker during Sunday’s edition of the so-called Reliable Sources, after he began his show by with a monologue asking if journalists should start questioning President Trump’s sanity and views on race. “Now, this is not a normal week so this is not a normal show,” he declared. “President Trump's actions and inactions in the wake of Charlottesville are provoking some uncomfortable conversations, mostly off the air if we're being honest.”
On Thursday, NBC’s Chuck Todd drew criticism when he decided to give Antifa -- a radical leftist group recently designated by New Jersey as a domestic terrorist organization -- a platform on his MSNBC show MTP Daily. But come Sunday’s Meet the Press, Todd doubled down and decided to have a so-called “debate” about whether their use of violence to shut down free speech was justifiable.
On Saturday, counter-protesters descended on Boston, Massachusetts to try and stop a gathering billed as a “free-speech rally,” which was attended by some white nationalists. It didn’t take long for the radical leftist element known as Antifa to bring the chaos as they violently assaulted innocent people and the police. But come Sunday, both ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Sunday Today downplayed the violence Antifa brought with them.
Heather Heyer was murdered in Charlottesville, Virginia when a white nationalist terrorist drove through a crowd of counter protesters on Saturday. Her mother Susan Bro, who has vowed to carry on her daughter’s mission, appeared on MSNBC Live on Thursday for an interview. If you thought the exchange would be about Heather or how her mother planned to continue, you’d be wrong. Out of the seven questions Tur asked in the aired portion of their taped interview, five of them were about the President.
Thursday was a terrible day for the Democratic Party as they were rocked by two major scandals. First, Missouri State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal wrote on Facebook that she wanted President Trump assassinated. Second, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s former IT staffer, Imran Awan was indicted on bank fraud among other charges. Again, it was a damaging day for the Dems but you wouldn’t know it from watching the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) who ignored all of it.
There was sad news out of Barcelona, Spain on Thursday as an apparent ISIS terrorist attack gripped the historic city. As of the writing of this piece, it had been reported that the vehicle attack had claimed the lives of 13 people and left over 100 injured. But despite the attack, and with suspects still at large, NBC Nightly News couldn’t find it in them to shake their Trump fixation. They actually gave Trump-related stories roughly 60 percent more coverage.
President Trump drew tremendous criticism from the liberal media when he noted that there was violence in Charlottesville, Virginia “on all sides.” But despite its own hammering of the President, MSNBC brought on a staunch supporter of Antifa during MTP Daily to champion their violent approach to stopping opponents, as they displayed in Charlottesville. Host Chuck Todd, a self-proclaimed political referee, offered little to no push back against his violently radical guest.
In the wake of President Trump’s wild press conference in the lobby of Trump Tower, the Big Three Networks put extra focus on Trump, along with questions about how he views race in the United States. So come Wednesday, NBC Nightly News aired a report where they sat down with a self-described white nationalist to hear him sing the praises of the President. In contrast, CBS Evening News held a small focus group where they spoke with three Republican women, two black and one white, who defended Trump.
In a jaw-dropping spectacle in the lobby of Trump Tower on Tuesday, the President went off on the media while ranting about his response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend. Trump stepped in it when he appeared to defend the alt-right and doubled down on his original comments from Saturday. The network evening newscasts spent 45 minutes and 31 seconds on Trump’s wild press conference, a stunning 77.6 percent of their total air time.
During Monday’s MTP Daily, MSNBC’s Katy Tur proved once again she wasn’t ready for prime time when she got into a heated argument with Ohio Representative Mike Tuner about whether or not President Trump had ever denounced hate groups during the 2016 campaign. “I don't think he did. I was there every day,” she chided her guest who was accurately saying Trump did.
On Monday, President Trump called out the racist hate groups involved in Saturday’s chaos in Charlottesville, Virginia. In addition to calling them “evil” and “repugnant,” Trump said: “Those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups.” This full throated denouncement was exactly what the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) craved from the President, but now that they had it, they shifted their attacks to: “What took him so long?”
In the aftermath of the Charlottesville attack, two of the Big Three Networks (ABC and NBC) were quick to cast blame on President Trump for the violence and the lives lost on Sunday. To round out the Big Three, CBS brought up the rear during Face the Nation where guest Jamelle Bouie argued that if one was looking for the “roots” of the attack, “you don’t have to look very far from the White House.”
Following the horrific domestic terrorist attack in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday, the media was on the hunt to cast blame on someone and lump them in with the racist that carried out the attack. And during Sunday’s This Week on ABC, commentator Cokie Roberts found her target in President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. According to her, they were to blame because they were sending silent signals to white supremacists to empower them.
Saturday was marked by bloodshed in Charlottesville, Virginia after an apparent white nationalist plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters in a blatant attack. And on the morning after, NBC’s Sunday Today put President Trump in their sights as they unloaded on him while appearing to pin the blame for the attack on him. At one point even claiming he “enjoys” the support he gets from the bigots who were rallying in Virginia.
The busy and eventful summer for the Trump administration was too much of a calling for NBC’s Saturday Night Live, still between seasons. Which was why, on Thursday night, the network brought back their Weekend Update skit for a half hour long comedy special. The special had some pretty humorous moments. But for good natured people, the show took a dark turn when a bit involving President Trump’s adult sons portrayed Eric Trump as a person with an intellectual disability.
In two separate addresses to the press on Thursday, President Trump doubled and tripled down on his powerful threats to North Korea. After denouncing the President’s original tough warning of “fire and fury” on Tuesday, the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) were equally bitter with him after he told them that “if anything maybe that statement wasn't tough enough.”
There was bizarre news out of the U.S. State Department on Wednesday as the Associated Press reported that U.S. diplomats had to return home from Cuba after experiencing “physical symptoms,” which included “potentially permanent hearing loss.” The mysterious incidents led to the United States expelling two Cuba officials from their Washington, D.C. embassy. Despite the stunning revelations, the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) gave the story zero time later that evening.
The war of words between the United States and North Korea continued on Wednesday, as the communist regime threatened an attack on the U.S. territory of Guam. And despite the fact that the North Koreans had successfully miniaturized a nuclear bomb to fit on a warhead, NBC Nightly News still thought it was a priority to slam President Trump for getting tough on the regime that had kidnapped American citizens.