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Grease will be the word in the halls of Fox this week. The network's three-hour live telecast of the musical was a ratings success. Nielsen has the performance averaging 12.2 million viewers and a handsome 4.3 rating among adults 18-49. That's after early numbers gave the performance a 7.4 overnight rating among households. Fox easily had first-place status on broadcast for the night and saw its score in the key demo rival TV's biggest live musical in recent memory. This being the network's first live musical, its only ratings comparisons will be to NBC's last three efforts. Topping the first...

Recorded this morning at 8 AM, a lively discussion on the week's topics. 55 minutes of lively talk by activists, bloggers, journalists, and national security experts about our country and world! Topics include: > 2016 - Iowa, Candidates, Media, Debate > Fox's Open Borders Policy > US and UK Spied on Israel for 20 year ... and VICE VERSA > Middle East Update - U.S. carrier kicked out of Straits of Hormuz by Iran, close call terror attack, Israel-Greece-Cyprus pressure Turkey Listen here: http://usatransnationalreport.org/2016/01/30/usa-transnational-report-january-30-2016-campaign-2016-kicks-off/

DES MOINES, Iowa — Donald Trump won. The Republican debate lost — and so did his rivals. The Republican candidate skipped the final televised faceoff before Iowans vote in caucuses on Monday. That spared him all but glancing, humorous blows from those battling to catch up. "Let me say, I'm a maniac and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly," Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas began. "And Ben, you're a terrible surgeon. Now that we've gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way ..." Later, Cruz jokingly threatened to leave the stage if he received any more...

During Thursday night's Republican primary debate, in order to attack and bloody both Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Fox News used selectively-edited video montages of both senators saying stuff. Video is the most powerful propaganda weapon ever conceived, and not only is the use of gotcha-video in a presidential debate highly prejudicial and subjective, a debate setting is not the proper venue for any sort of gotcha question. Save the cheap gotchas for interviews. Debates are about issues, the differences between the candidates, and the differences with one another that they wish to highlight.

Donald Trump may have been conspicuously absent, but Thursday night's Republican debate on Fox News Channel nevertheless scored a 8.4 rating and 12.5 million viewers, according to early numbers from Nielsen. That's higher than the returns for the last Republican debate, Jan. 14 on sister net Fox Business Network, and marks the No. 2 telecast in FNC history. Meanwhile, all the other cable news networks were covering Trump's competing event in Iowa, during which Trump boasted he raised $5 million for veteran's charities. Those other cable news networks, neither of which blanketed the time period with the event, averaged a...

The first Republican presidential debate of the season without front-runner Donald Trump generated smaller viewer interest than all but one of this cycle's prior GOP gatherings, according to preliminary Nielsen estimates — but still drew four times as many viewers as Trump's competing event. In the metered-market overnights, which represent 56 of the nation's largest markets, Fox News Channel's debate from Iowa averaged an 8.4 household rating. This is up vs. the 7.4 overnight rating for the most recent GOP debate, on Fox Business Network earlier this month, but it stands as the second lowest-rated of the six Republican gatherings...

Donald Trump counter-programmed Thursday's GOP primary debate on Fox with his own prime time event. So whose show scored a bigger audience? Answer: Fox's debate. But it was the second lowest rated debate of the season. So Trump is certain to take credit for hurting the channel's total viewership. Fox News Channel's Trump-less debate had an 8.4 household rating, according to early Nielsen data from so-called metered markets. This means 8.4% of American metered market homes with TV sets were watching the face-off. By comparison, two of the cable channels that showed parts of Trump's event, CNN and MSNBC, had...

After the debate Megyn Kelly admitted to Cruz that after thoroughly reviewing his record on whether or not he supported legalization, she believes his record does support his argument that his amendments were really poison pill amendments and that he never actually supported legalization. Youtube video @ above link.

The parent company of Fox News has helped to finance the career of Hillary Clinton. In fact, the company has helped a lot. 21st Century Fox/News Corp. ranks ninth on the list of the top “corporate and union donors to the Clintons over two decades,” according to a little-noticed list compiled by The Wall Street Journal in 2014. The list counts donations from “companies, foundations, and employees.” 21st Century Fox also ranks as the 13th biggest contributor to Hillary Clinton during her political career, according to a database maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics. The database credits the Rupert...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, the winner of the 2012 GOP caucuses, told Breitbart News in the spin room after the undercard Fox News Channel debate that he's pleased the Fox News Channel is being exposed for being biased in favor of establishment GOP candidates for president. Specifically, Santorum ripped not just Megyn Kelly and Bill O'Reilly for refusing to put him on their shows even once since he launched his 2016 presidential campaign in May. Santorum makes the point that it's fairly outrageous Kelly, O'Reilly, and others have blacked out his candidacy, as he didn't...

Video at link. Under-card debate starts at 7pm EST, 4pm PST. Main debate starts at 9pm EST, 6pm PST.

Fox News and Google have invited three YouTube personalities to ask questions at the Jan. 28 GOP debate including a Muslim advocate who describes Donald Trump as a bigot and who visually portrayed him as being in agreement with national socialist Adolf Hitler. We have a presidential candidate whose loudest message reeks of hatred and Islamophobia… turning on the news now is scary, and oftentimes, humiliating, the Muslim woman, Nabela Noor, says in a December YouTube video.

Bill Still gives a nice summary of the FOX/Trump situation.

If you're an American conservative Fox News is NOT your friend. All of the following is sourced and linked. Muslim Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal is the second largest voting shareholder in 21st Century Fox. Alwaleed told an audience in Dubai that it took just one phone call to Rupert Murdoch - to get the Fox News crawl reporting "Muslim riots" in France changed to "civil riots."" Fox had a Muslim activist and Bernie Sanders supporter who has compared Trump to Hitler set up to sandbag him at the debate. Fox had an illegal immigrant set up to sandbag Trump....

"Well, of course immigration means change. Immigrants enrich our culture and add to our economic prosperity"... "We need to give those individuals who are already here - after they have passed checks to ensure they are not dangerous criminals- a path to citizenship so they can pay their full taxes, be counted, and become more productive members of our community,"...

Is Trump already turning to the general election? Based on the CNN commentators all thinking it was a smart move, seems like Trump is going after independents and Democrats (union members and blacks who support him). CNN also bashing Fox for the personal attack (allegedly from Ailes). Fox is on all-out Trump war mode with Megyn and even Hannity piling on.

I’m not really sure what will happen tonight. I truly hope that Donald Trump will keep his word and follow through on his decision to not attend the debate and hold a separate forum in Des Moines, but who knows. For now, C-Span says they will cover it. Sometimes it’s best to walk away from a bad deal and not look back. It’s another opportunity for Trump to “teach us.” I guess we’ll see. Hopefully we won’t get whipsawed all day long and that the Des Moines rally is on and FR people here will participate. It seems pretty clear...

We've Got The Transcript!!! Of Fox News #GOPDebate Without @RealDonaldTrump Update: Open thread: Trump versus O'Reilly. Actions speak louder than words. Trump is fearless going on O'Reilly. Why would anyone spin the line that Trump is somehow "afraid" of Megyn Kelly? Trump is on Fox News to attack Fox News! Make Fox News Great Again??? Who else would dare pull out of a debate a few days away from a close contest in Iowa then attack Fox News on Fox News? Trump has announced his appearance at Drake University for wounded veterans which will air opposite the #2 #GOPDebate. -----------------...

In all of this hubbub about Trump's choice to pull out of the Fox News debate, I think it's useful remember just how deceitful and mendacious Megyn Kelly's attempt at a "kill shot" on Trump was. After the initial attempt to torpedo him with the "party loyalty pledge" issue, here was Trump's first debate question of the 2016 Presidential campaign, asked by the supposedly "fair and balanced" Megyn Kelly: "Mr. Trump, one of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don't use a politician's filter. However, that is not without its downsides, in particular,...

News broke late yesterday that confirmed an earlier report here regarding Fox News’ plan to try and do significant damage to the Donald Trump political campaign during the scheduled Thursday GOP debate moderated by Fox News. Part of the moderating panel is network personality, Megyn Kelly, a figure with whom Donald Trump has sparred with over the last few months following a question many felt to be terribly out of line and biased in which she accused Trump of hating women. In the last few weeks heading into the this week’s Fox News debate, the Trump campaign communicated to Fox...