Beet L. Jooz

Michelle Obama's former Chief of Staff, Tina Tchen, attempted to have the Jussie Smollett case transferred from the Chicago Police Department to the FBI, according to texts and emails released by the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. 

Tchen, a Chicago-based attorney, reached out on Feb. 1 to Chicago's top prosecutor Kim Foxx - telling her that the "Empire" actor's family had "concerns" about the investigation. 

Smollett was considered at the time to be the victim of an assault, however the actor was subsequently charged with disorderly conduct for filing a false police report in connection with a staged hate crime. Last week, a Chicago grand jury slapped Smollett with a 16 count indictment for lying to the police - to which he pleaded not guilty on Thursday. 

"Spoke to the Superintendent Johnson," Foxx emailed Tchen on Feb. 1, in reference to Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. "I convinced him to Reach out to FBI to ask that they take over the investigation." 

Foxx also texted with one of Smollett's relatives whose name was redacted from the text release, saying: "Spoke to the superintendent earlier, he made the ask ... Trying to figure out logistics. I’ll keep you posted." 

"OMG this would be a huge victory" the family member texted back. 

"I make no guarantees, but I'm trying" replied Foxx - who recused herself from the case on Feb. 20. 

Foxx recused herself from the investigation before Smollett was charged. Her first deputy, Joe Magats, is overseeing the case.

Foxx said in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times that Smollett's family was concerned that aspects of the police investigation were being leaked to media.

“They had no doubt about the quality of the investigation, but believed that the FBI would have a tighter lid on the information,” Foxx told the outlet.

Anthony Guglielmi, the police department's chief spokesman, said Foxx conveyed the request to Johnson that Tchen and the Smollett family member wanted the FBI to take over the investigation. -USA Today

Guglielmi said that the case was not moved to the FBI because "there was a lack of evidence" that Smollett was the victim of a federal hate crime. 

"There was no federal jurisdiction," said Guglielmi, who added that the FBI has been assisting the police investigation. "If there was ever a point where they felt it was within federal jurisdiction, it would have easily gone there."

Smollett claimed that he was the victim of a predawn hate crime on January 29 in which two men assaulted him while he was on his way home after buying a sandwich; hurling racial and antigay slurs at him, dousing him in a liquid, placing a noose around his neck (which he was still wearing when police arrived later that morning), and punching him in the face. 

Police allege that Smollett, who is black and gay, staged a Jan 29 homophobic, racist attack because he was unhappy with his salary to boost his profile. 

The incident sparked national outrage - with the left-leaning mainstream media and prominent Democrats uncritically supporting Smollett's version of events; holding it up as a prime example of violent Donald Trump supporters. 

Two suspects in the case, Nigerian-American brothers Ola and Abel Osundario - one of whom has been an extra on Empire, told police that Smollett paid them a combined $3,500 to stage the "attack," and that the three of them had practiced it beforehand. They also said that Smollett was involved in creating a racist letter containing a white substance that was sent to the actor on the Chicago set of Empire.

When the letter failed to achieve the desired level of national outrage, the Osundario brothers say Smollett concocted the hate-crime.

Two Fox News hosts issued statements over the weekend, in rapid response to their own outrageous comments from past and present. Jeanine Pirro, a Saturday night Fox News host with a passion for creepy invective, made comments about a congresswoman’s hijab that were condemned as prejudiced. Tucker Carlson, a highly-rated darling of Fox News primetime, was besieged with criticism after Media Matters unearthed and published grossly sexist comments he made on a shock jock radio show from 2006 to 2011.

“Think about it: Omar wears a hijab,” Pirro said of Rep. Ilhan Omar on Justice Saturday night. “Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?”

“I think that this is sharia adherence behavior,” Pirro added of the congresswoman. “It is somewhat disturbing if she is someone that is sharia-compliant.”

Her comments were wildly asinine for someone with the privilege of a large platform, not to mention guilty of the same sin Omar committed: claiming a religious group maintained dual loyalty to a foreign entity.

The statements came late Sunday night, kicking off with condemnation from Fox News:

“We strongly condemn Judge Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar. They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly,” the network said.

Pirro’s statement, which followed, noticeably lacked contrition:

“I’ve seen a lot of comments about my opening statement from Saturday night’s show and I did not call Rep. Omar un-American,” she said. “My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don’t support the Constitution. I invite Rep. Omar to come on my show any time to discuss all of the important issues facing America today.”

Shorter Pirro: I was just asking questions. Also, here’s a plug for the show.

Tucker Carlson‘s comments were older but no less nauseating. In series of chats with radio host Bubba the Love Sponge, while Carlson was at MSNBC and Fox News, he made degrading comments about women, defended statutory rape and called Martha Stewart‘s daughter “cunty.”

His statement, also issued Sunday night, was defiant:

“Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago,” Carlson said. “Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I’m on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.”

As the Washington Post‘s Erik Wemple noted of the statement, “Instead of dealing with the substance of the matter, Carlson tries to parlay the up-and-coming scandal into higher ratings.”

It’s a tactic pushed by the network’s former head, the late Roger Ailes, Wemple added: “Do something outrageous. Draw the scorn of liberal America. Use that scorn to bring in more non-liberal viewers.”

Both responses are also remarkably Trumpian. Recall that the now-president stormed his way through the 2016 campaign off the sheer power of unapologetic offensiveness. He only apologized once: weeks before election day, after a years-old tape was unearthed on which he bragged of groping women.

Here, it’s unclear whether these Fox hosts are following Trump’s lead or Ailes’s. Either way, we can be sure that the tried and true strategy will appeal to a relatively small but fanatical base, while repulsing the majority. That base, it should be noted, was enough to get Trump elected and enough ensure Fox’s status as the number one network in cable news for nearly two decades.

Stay tuned for the ratings release of Monday evening’s Tucker Carlson Tonight to see if the trend continues.

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Judge Jeanine Pirro (Fox News video screenshot)

The Fox News Channel is taking the rare step of “strongly” condemning one of its own talk-show hosts after controversial comments were made regarding U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

On Saturday’s airing of “Justice With Judge Jeanine,” host Jeanine Pirro said of the Muslim congresswoman:

“Think about this. She’s not getting this anti-Israel sentiment doctrine from the Democrat party … So if it’s not rooted in the party, where is she getting it from? Think about it. Omar wears a hijab, which according to the Quran 33:59, tells women to cover so they won’t get molested.

“Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to shariah law which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?”

On Sunday, the network issued a statement about Pirro’s remarks, saying: “We strongly condemn Judge Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar.

“They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly.”

In the wake of the controversy, Pirro issued her own statement.

“I’ve seen a lot of comments about my opening statement from Saturday night’s show and I did not call Rep. Omar un-American,” Pirro explained.

“My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don’t support the Constitution. I invite Rep. Omar to come on my show any time to discuss all of the important issues facing America today.”

Public reaction online is mixed, with comments including:

• “I didn’t see anything wrong with Pirro’s remarks.”

• “She said nothing wrong, Fox, so your reproof of her comments are unfounded and have no basis in truth.”

• “Will we hear Jeanine Pirro condemn Jewish women who wear head coverings? Or SiKH women, or Hindu women? What about Coptic Christian women, or Orthodox Christian women? Why is she singling out a Muslim woman? Is that Constitutional? I know I have a lot of questions, but can anybody explain how Pirro was ever [an expletive] judge?”

• “By ‘addressed the matter with her directly,’ they’re probably using legalese a**-covering code for they gave her a high-five and told her to ‘keep up the good work.'”

• “OH! So CNN and Fox News SUPPORT death sentence for gays! Also husbands can beat their wives! Wow what a reveal!”

Follow Joe on Twitter @JoeKovacsNews

The post Fox News 'strongly condemns' own popular host appeared first on WND.

Woman screams “No!” as Donald Trump is sworn in as president. (YouTube video screenshot)

A Google manager allegedly responded to an employee who questioned the company’s war on “fake news” by arguing that fake news and “hate speech” had to be stopped, because “that’s how Trump won.”

The exchange was exposed via Twitter by another Google employee, software engineer Mike Wacker, Breitbart News reported.

Wacker said he received an email in July 2017 from the Google employee who questioned the tech giant’s targeting of fake news.

According to Wacker, the email from the employee read:

“Also, I posted a comment on a meme regarding fake news on Search and someone reported it to [Human Resources]. I didn’t say I was in favor or against, just cautioned that we need to be car[e]ful. My manager brought it up in our 1:1 last week. Made me feel very uncomfortable for having an opposing view. He said we need to stop hate [speech] and fake news because that’s how Trump won the election.

“I obviously didn’t say anything and just wanted it to end. I [redacted] would like to see all managers be required to take political bias training.”

The employee also alleged Google has official training courses aimed at “bashing conservatives and Trump supporters.”

Wacker said his friend “took the course and said he was told he didn’t know how it felt to be a minority because he was a male. This came from the speaker themselves!”

Wacker explained he decided to publish the email because of “multiple incidents, multiple concerns, and many conversations.”

He said the incident “serves as a good representative example.”

“It is certainly not an isolated incident, and others have had similar experiences,” Wacker wrote.

He advocated making a “reasonable attempt to resolve such matters internally” and said he had made a “good faith attempt to do that.”

But Wacker said his attempts to address the matter did not resolve his concerns.

“Bluntly, I do not trust Google’s ability to properly prevent and handle these sorts of incidents,” said Wacker.

Bury conservative reporting

In November, the Daily Caller reported Google employees debated whether to bury the reporting of conservative media outlets in the company’s search function in response to Trump’s election. Employees similarly sought to manipulate search results to combat Trump’s travel ban, the communications showed.

In an interview with WND at the time, Robert Epstein – who was famed behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner’s last Ph.D. student at Harvard – said Google’s effort to reverse to defeat Trump confirms his extensive, peer-reviewed research over the past half decade.

“Not only does Google have the power to shift votes and opinions on a massive scale, they actually use that power,” Epstein said.

During the 2016 election campaign, Epstein concluded that Google heavily biased results in favor of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, possibly shifting as many as 3 million votes.

A video leaked in September showed Google executives at their first weekly meeting after Trump’s election exhibiting panic and dismay while expressing their determination to thwart the new administration’s agenda as well as the emerging global populist movement.

The post Google: We must stop 'fake news' as 'that's how Trump won' appeared first on WND.

Not even a full week after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted on The Joe Rogan Experience that his company was "way too aggressive" for banning people who tweeted "learn to code" as a running joke aimed at laid off journalists, the Daily Caller's Chuck Ross was temporarily suspended for just that. 

The timing of Ross's ban, however, is more than a bit suspect. 

"Learn to code" went viral in January after hundreds of journalists were let go from the likes of BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post, and were promptly given the same career advice that left-leaning outlets gave to middle American coal workers who had lost their jobs. 

After several complaints, Twitter deemed "learn to code" abusive behavior - suspending wide swaths of users who participated in the running joke. 

I am told by a person in the know that tweeting "learn to code" at any recently laid off journalist will be treated as "abusive behavior" and is a violation of Twitter's Terms of Service

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) January 28, 2019

Those banned in February included the Daily Caller's editor-in-chief Geoffrey Ingersoll. After he appealed the decision, Twitter admitted they had "made an error." 

Last week, Twitter's Jack Dorsey and Trust & Safety Lead Vijaya Gadde were taken to task by journalist Tim Pool on the Joe Rogan Experience. After Gadde danced around the subject, Dorsey admitted that Twitter had been "way to aggressive" with the bans [forward to 8:39 for Dorsey's response].

Which brings us to the Daily Caller's Chuck Ross - who was suspended for 12 hours on Sunday for tweeting "learn to code" in response to Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper's suggestion that young geologists working for ExxonMobil should be "sharpening their other skills." 

My Twitter account was suspended for 12 hours for sending this tweet, which was clearly a joke about the popular meme and John Hickenlooper's comment. I thought @jack acknowledged to @joerogan that Twitter was "too aggressive" in banning ppl over this? pic.twitter.com/3o2cptsAYK

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) March 11, 2019

Suspect timing

Ross notes that while his "learn to code" tweet was up for six hours or so - he was suspended within an hour of President Trump retweeting an article he wrote about a mysterious $2 million "dark money" donation to "The Democracy Integrity Project" - "an organization founded by a former Dianne Feinstein staffer that has contracted with Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele to investigate President Donald Trump." 

I got notified of the suspension within an hour of so of @realDonaldTrump retweeting this article: https://t.co/ossAZE9vfD

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) March 11, 2019

So was Ross banned over "learn to code" - or because President Trump retweeted an article which supports the notion that there is a mysteriously-funded organization working with Christopher Steele to continue a private investigation into President Trump?

Read Ross's article here.