Roy Moore Staff 'Manhandled' Fox News Crew

From Esquire

You know you're in trouble as a Republican if you've got a running beef with Fox News. The network has essentially transformed into state TV under the current president, relentlessly backing the Trumpian agenda. But even the folks at Fox can't go all in on supporting Roy Moore, the accused child predator and lawless theocrat running for Senate in Alabama. Last week, Moore campaign chief strategist Dean Young railed against Fox's "fake polls" that showed Moore losing after a number of women - now nine - accused the candidate of sexual misconduct. Several say they were eighteen or younger when Moore, then in his 30s, came after them. One says she was 14.

Young dismissed these allegations of child molestation Monday as "Jerry Springer stuff," but things really came to a head last night, when others on Moore's campaign physically engaged a Fox News crew outside a rally:

Here's another angle on the altercation:

The campaign chair, Bill Armistead, issued a statement that could fairly be classified as apology-adjacent:

But he also saw another opportunity to moan - to Fox News - about the media coverage of his candidate, who, again, is accused of, among other things, molesting a 14-year-old girl:

It's not entirely clear whether the officials knew the crew was with Fox News, specifically. But it's certainly confirmed that the Roy Moore campaign is melting down, and that their natural reaction is to physically attack reporters. Where could they have gotten the idea this was acceptable? President PROBABLY Man of the Year has sought to demonize and undermine the press at every opportunity, encouraging intimidation and scorn among his supporters at rallies. Even more to the point, Republican congressional candidate Greg Gianforte choke-slammed a Guardian reporter at an event in Montana. He won the election and was seated in Congress with little pushback. It emerged this week that a Gianforte spokesman lied about the attack.

Clearly the right's attitude towards the free press has taken on a toxic streak. The problem, it seems, is that the conservative narrative seems to keep running up against reality - the main interest of genuine news organizations. But Moore's clique seems particularly unhinged, perhaps because they've realized they're all-in on backing an accused child predator for Senate, and if he loses, it might be hard for them to get another good job. Apparently, even Fox News has a left-wing bias now. Only Breitbart is sufficiently Mooreish, in that it runs interference for him on the web and TV - you know, like a news organization does.

Oh, and there's Project Veritas, the ratfucking operation run by James O'Keefe that tried to smear The Washington Post by sending an operative to present false allegations against Moore, hoping the paper would report it - thereby tarnishing the rest of its fine work. Except O'Keefe and his crew were poleaxed by the Post and its reporting methods, another narrative smashed on the rocks of reality. In fact, the Post ran a story exposing the scheme instead of the false allegations. Veritas likely spent thousands in plutocrat donor money to uncover the steamy scoop that the Post has an editorial page.

At least the mainstream, Fake News Media isn't so damn embarrassing all the time. After his campaign staffers attacked members of the media outside, Roy Moore compared the allegations against him to the Russia probe.

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