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Fox News’ Shepard Smith: “Our Opinion Programming Is There Strictly To Be Entertaining”

Fox News’ Shepard Smith

File this under “Infighting is funny.”

Fox News’ Shepard Smith told TIME Magazine recently that Fox News’ evening opinion shows are meant to be “entertaining,” not “news.”

Via The Hill:

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith says opinion programming on his network doesn’t “really have rules” and exists “strictly to be entertaining,” in an interview published Thursday.

“Some of our opinion programming is there strictly to be entertaining,” Smith told Time Magazine’s Daniel D’Addario in a piece titled, “Shep Smith Has the Hardest Job on Fox News.”

“We serve different masters,” Smith, 54, added when discussing the difference between the opinion side of Fox News, including shows such as “The Sean Hannity Show,” and the network’s news division. “We work for different reporting chains, we have different rules. They don’t really have rules on the opinion side. They can say whatever they want. If it’s their opinion.”

The interview comes as the network announced today it is re-signing the veteran anchor to a multiyear contract as Fox’s chief news anchor and managing editor of breaking news.

And then Sean Hannity slapped back on Twitter:

However, Hannity has pointedly said many times in the past that he is NOT a journalist, he’s a pundit. So – which is it, Sean?

Nutjob Fox News pundit Laura Ingraham also chimed in:

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Lawyer: Stormy Daniels Was Physically Intimidated To Stay Quiet About Alleged Trump Affair

During an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo this morning, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti shared that his client was physically intimidated to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Donald Trump.

From CNN:

The lawyer representing Stormy Daniels, the porn star suing President Donald Trump, claimed Friday that she has faced physical threats.

“My client was physically threatened to stay silent about what she knew about Donald Trump,” Michael Avenatti told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.” He said more details would be forthcoming in Daniels’ upcoming interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” which is scheduled to air later this month.

“She’s going to be able to provide very specific details about what happened here,” Avenatti said.

He would not answer whether or not it was someone close to the President who threatened her, and later told CNN he couldn’t answer a question about whether he or Daniels filed a police report.

Daniels has been in the headlines for weeks now having come forward about an alleged affair she had with Trump in 2006 just months after his son Barron was born. She says she was paid $130,000 in “hush money” just days before the 2016 election.

Avenatti also shared Daniels’ interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes will air on March 25.

Additionally, Avenatti told Cuomo six more women have stepped up with similar claims about affairs with Trump.

Watch the interview below.

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News Round-Up: March 15, 2018

The Kings of Disco (not the Village People?)

Some news items you might have missed:

• Who’s the ‘real’ Village People these days? It’s pretty complicated, actually.

• Fort Lauderdale proves itself to be one of the most LGBT-friendly cities in America with the election of openly gay Dean Trantalis as mayor. The Democrat easily defeated his Republican opponent Bruce Roberts by winning 64% of the vote.

• When word broke that the Department of Housing and Urban Development ordered a $31,000 dining table for HUD Secretary Ben Carson’s offices, we got quick denials that Carson knew nothing about the purchase. Recently released emails show, however, that Carson not only knew but picked out the new luxe new furniture with his wife.

• Donald Trump’s new pick for Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has a terrible record on LGBTQ equality. From opposing marriage equality to fighting open military service by LGBTS, he’s been bad news for the community.

• Megan Rapinoe, the Olympic and World Cup champion soccer player who came out publicly several years ago, has signed a sponsorship deal with Bodyarmor sports drink.

• Ryan Worley of the Chippendales gives you an up-close peek at his totally awesome abs minutes after his Chipps calendar shoot. #Dang

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Fox News’ Hypocrisy Over Presidents Meeting North Korean Dictator “It’s A Terrible Idea/It’s Genius!”

NowThis Politics demonstrates with ease the hypocrisy over at Fox News.

Back when President Obama considered meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, it was the WORST idea in the world according to the geniuses at Fox News.

Now that Donald Trump has proposed doing the exact same thing, he’s brilliant.

Watch below as the video editors flip back and forth from the coverage of Obama then Trump.

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Trump Administration Finally Sanctions Russian Hackers

After months of inaction, the Trump administration has begrudgingly imposed sanctions on Russian actors who worked to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

From The Washington Post:

The Trump administration on Thursday imposed fresh sanctions on Russian government hackers and spy agencies to punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 presidential election and for a cyberattack against Ukraine and other countries last year that officials have characterized as “the most destructive and costly” in history.

Sanctions also were imposed on individuals known as “trolls” and the Russian organizations — including the Internet Research Agency — that supported their efforts to undermine the election. Additionally, the administration alerted the public that Russia is targeting the U.S. energy grid with computer malware that could sabotage its systems.

Taken together, the moves represent the administration’s most aggressive actions to date against Russia for its incursions against the United States, though analysts say their impact is mostly symbolic and noted that a number of the individuals and groups had already been subject to sanctions.

Nonetheless, officials hope the actions will help deter tampering with this year’s midterm elections while signaling to Russia that Washington will not allow its attacks to go unchallenged.

Most political experts are saying these sanctions will not any effect on any of the actual power players in Russia.

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Vanessa Trump Files For Divorce From Donald Trump Jr.

The New York Daily News reports that Donald Trump Jr. and wife Vanessa are heading to divorce court:

Like father, like son.

Donald Trump Jr.’s wife has filed for divorce.

Vanessa Trump married Trump Jr. in 2005. They have five children.

President Trump has been divorced twice.

The reasons for the divorce filed Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court were not clear. The divorce was listed as “uncontested,” indicating the split was amicable. Trump Jr. has been traveling extensively while running his father’s business with his brother, Eric.

The “uncontested” aspect means she’s not expecting a legal battle over custody of the couple’s five children or their assets.

I get no glee from this. I don’t think we should make fun of the parents of five children divorcing.

One last thing, though.

Some folks on Twitter have suggested the possibility that this could be a ploy to move assets out of the family name in case serious legal action against the Trumps were to occur.

Hmm…

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Special Counsel Subpoenas Trump Organization For All Documents Related To Russia

Get ready for Donald Trump’s head to explode as The New York Times has just reported Special Counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed all Russian related documents from the Trump Organization.

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, according to two people briefed on the matter. The order is the first known time that the special counsel demanded documents directly related to President Trump’s businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president.

The breadth of the subpoena was not clear, nor was it clear why Mr. Mueller issued it instead of simply asking for the documents from the company, an umbrella organization that oversees Mr. Trump’s business ventures. In the subpoena, delivered in recent weeks, Mr. Mueller ordered the Trump Organization to hand over all documents related to Russia and other topics he is investigating, the people said.

The subpoena is the latest indication that the investigation, which Mr. Trump’s lawyers once regularly assured him would be completed by now, will drag on for at least several more months. Word of the subpoena comes as Mr. Mueller appears to be broadening his investigation to examine the role foreign money may have played in funding Mr. Trump’s political activities. In recent weeks, Mr. Mueller’s investigators have questioned witnesses, including an adviser to the United Arab Emirates, about the flow of Emirati money into the United States.

Trump has previously said that a Mueller investigation into his businesses would cross a “red line.”

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New York City: HIV Diagnoses Drop To Historic Low

The New York City Department of Health has released a new study that shows new HIV diagnoses have dropped to the lowest rate in the city’s history.

The report shows that 2,279 people were diagnosed with the virus in 2016, down 8.6% from 2015.

The department first began tracking HIV statistics in 2001 which saw 5,906 new infections.

Researchers credit the decline in great part to the spread of preventative drug PrEP. The drug is available for low or no cost at the city’s eight health clinics.

At the beginning of 2016 only 5% of men having sex with men were using the drug. But by the end of the year, that figure jumped to 30%.

“The technology has landed, and implementation is moving quickly,” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the Health Department’s Deputy Commissioner for Disease Control, told Jezebel. “Finally we’re seeing that the curve of decline is statistically significant. I think this is a harbinger of really good things to come.”

It’s not all good news though. The report also showed a slight increase in new diagnoses for women, particularly black and Latina women.

Daskalakis told Jezebel, “We’re going to really energize our next campaign to be very, very women focused. We need to better with women, and so we will.”