Showing posts with label Birds of Bullshit Mountain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birds of Bullshit Mountain. Show all posts

A Naturalist’s Guide to the Cable News Aviary

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Within the mist-choked slopes of Bullshit Mountain lies a chirping menagerie of cable-bred creatures, each honking their ideological cry into the public square like a Dickensian town crier with a grudge. The following is a modest abridgment from the Ledger Ornithologica Absurdum, annotated for the curious, the contemptuous, and the zoologically inclined.

Further illustrations and full-field notes to be released as funding and liver function allow. Taxonomy subject to change pending future screeches.

*The Crimson Crested Crier has flown from its perch on Bullshit Mountain to Washington, D.C. - what species will replace her is unknown. Stay tuned!

 


The Birds of Bullshit Mountain

Of the Couch-Dwelling Triplets: A Note on the Fox & Friends Nest

The Fox & Friends Couch is no mere furnishing—it is a soft-power aviary, a florally-upholstered ecosystem wherein three brightly-feathered denizens chirp and harmonize in a state of televised codependence from the hours of six to nine ante meridiem.

Species Composition:

1. The Paternal Breakfast Oracle (Friendlyus obsequiosa)
Known in the vernacular as Steve Doocy, this elder male emits a calming warble that flattens controversy into breakfast-friendly platitudes. Feeds primarily on talking points soaked in maple glaze, and responds to all stimuli with a reflexive “interesting point.”

2. The Combative Sparklejay (Kilmeadius belligerentia)
Identified by its puffed chest and erratic flight pattern, Brian Kilmeade interrupts at irregular intervals, pecking at nuance and chasing shiny objects like crime stats, foreign accents, or statues. Exhibits near-total immunity to correction, reason, and irony.

3. The Blondefluff Whimsywren (Earhartia smilefluctus)
Known in the field as Ainsley, this female of the species weaves “faith-based utterances” with unverified anecdotes in a honeyed tone. At times appears sedated by glitter or dangerously close to awareness, only to self-correct with a soothing chuckle.


🛋 Habitat & Rituals:

The couch itself—a curved pastel throne of polyester and denial—serves as both roost and altar. Rituals begin with a ceremonial reading of The Scrolling Prophecy (also known as The Chyron), followed by the Circle of Outrage, in which each host takes turns expressing astonishment at current events they themselves predicted.


☕️ Diet:

  • Patriotic grievance
  • Eggs
  • Segment producer scripts
  • Sometimes a sitting governor
These birds do not migrate, preferring the comfort of climate-controlled studio light. Their mating call—“We’re just asking questions”—has been known to summon elder Trumpian entities from Mar-a-Lago, often appearing briefly via remote connection before vanishing into a puff of self-promotion.

The Birds of Bullshit Mountain

The Velvet-Tongued Tarlov Finch

Species: Tarlovia defensiva (rare)
Common Names: Liberal Tokenbird, Blue Jay of the Panel, The Polite Punching Bag

Field Description:

Tarlovia defensiva is a rare, fast-speaking bird of measured opposition. She lives, curiously, within the roost of right-wing shriekers, where she pecks softly at absurdity while surrounded by louder, brasher species. Her call is articulate, nasal, and often drowned out by the sound of other birds claiming to be "just saying what people are thinking."

She does not screech, nor soar—she endures.

Anatomical Traits:

  • Plumage: Blue with the faintest streaks of ivory—symbolic of her attempt to blend in while maintaining her ideological distinctiveness.
  • Eyes: Alert, darting slightly to the left, as though always bracing for the next interruption.
  • Beak: Precise and deft, used to deliver compact segments of reason before being cut off by the Wattersprite or Snark-Billed Grinloon.
  • Wings: Strong but folded—rarely allowed to unfurl fully on-air.

Behavior:

  • Counterpoint Coo: Delivers softly critical rebuttals to cable screeches, often introduced with “That’s just not true.”
  • Panel Perch Reflex: Tends to tilt her head defensively while flanked by birds twice as loud and half as informed.
  • Survival Chirp: Periodic reminders that she’s “the only Democrat at this table,” used to excuse the presence of rational thought.

Diet:

  • Sips from think-tank documents, polling data, and Democratic messaging memos.
  • Frequently interrupted mid-meal by hosts shouting about fentanyl or Marxism in math class.

Ecological Role:

The Tarlov Finch serves as panel ballast, a visual and auditory symbol that the program is “fair and balanced”—even as her words are drowned in a flood of commercial breaks and yelling.

She is a foil, a figurehead of dissent, a token that occasionally bites back.


The Birds of Bullshit Mountain

The Blush-Throated Yesbird

Species: Perinosa deferentia
Common Names: Dana-dove, The Coifed Co-Signer, Beltway Canary

Field Description:

The Blush-Throated Yesbird is a delicate, well-groomed avian known for its remarkable ability to emit reassurance while saying absolutely nothing at all. Rare among its kind, it flourished under the shadow of the Shrub King (George W. Bush), and has since taken to nesting on the cushioned panel of The Five, where it flits from segment to segment with an air of mournful grace and institutional enablement.

Physical Traits:

  • Plumage: Pale, soft, and never ruffled—each feather pre-approved by a publicist.
  • Eyes: Perpetually widened, as if in polite disbelief that anything too mean might happen.
  • Beak: Tiny, retractable, and often concealed behind a Mona Lisa smile or a sigh of bipartisan yearning.
  • Feet: Slippery—expert at stepping neatly around controversy and responsibility alike.

Behavior:

  • Reassurance Flutter: A rapid blinking and nodding pattern used to soothe anxious host-mates during Gutfeld outbursts.
  • The Perino Pause™: A highly evolved tactic of saying “I don’t know, I just think...” followed by an anecdote about a dog, a book, or a rural coffee shop in Idaho.
  • Soft Dissent Pecking: Rare, gentle corrections delivered at a volume that causes them to vanish before reaching the viewer’s ears.

Mating Display:

  • Displays elegance and civility while surrounded by howling rage-birds and screeching grievance gulls.
  • When flustered, invokes Missouri Charm—a reflexive appeal to heartland sensibilities and pet-owner wisdom.
  • Known to deflect attention with her companion species: the Jasper Hound, a decoy mammal bred for audience distraction and social media reposts.

Predators:

  • Direct Questions
  • Unapproved Facts from the Iraq War Era
  • Women Who Didn’t Work for Karl Rove

Ecological Role:

Acts as a Stabilizer Bird in chaotic broadcast environments. Feeds primarily on Narrative Normalization Seeds, and is known to regurgitate comforting bromides like “People just want to feel heard,” or “It’s complicated.”


 The Birds of Bullshit Mountain

The Snark-Billed Grinloon

Species: Gutfeldis maxsmugga
Common Names: The Gregling, Ha-Harpy, Clapterbeak

Field Notes:

The Snark-Billed Grinloon is a nocturnal pestbird native to the Foxian Flats, where it roosts upon a crumpled script and makes low, continuous chuckle-squawks mistaken by nearby hosts for commentary. Though flightless, it puffs its chest in displays of dominance, usually after deploying a zinger that plays best in conservative frat basements or libertarian wine caves.

Visual Description:

  • Head: Too large for its frame, adorned with premature smugness and lightly greased follicles.
  • Eyes: Squinted with self-satisfaction, like a possum who thinks it just won an argument by invoking Saul Alinsky.
  • Beak: Crooked, never quite closed, always teetering on the edge of a laugh that only it finds amusing.
  • Wings: Vestigial, used only for gesticulating while quoting his own monologue.

Behavior:

  • Mimicry: Specializes in Reverse Wit, wherein it mocks decorum by restating it with exaggerated sarcasm.
  • Territorial Call: “I’m just saying what everyone’s afraid to say.”

Usually followed by a joke involving armpits, socialism, or Joy Behar.

  • Social Structure: The Gregling often perches among a panel of lesser-known peckers, but assumes dominance through Volume Ascendancy and Smirk Encroachment.

Diet:

  • Devours canceled comedians, clickbait headlines, and discontinued Tucker segments.
  • Feeds most ravenously when attention-starved or outdone by the Wattersprite (with whom it has a one-sided rivalry and mutual grooming pact).

Courtship Display:

  • Tilts head and unleashes a barrage of one-liners meant to simulate insight.
  • Fluffs plumage and references college debate team victory from 1989.
  • Offers shallow libertarian takes on complex policy questions.

Defenses:

  • Cloaks itself in irony. Claims all attacks are proof it “hit a nerve.”
  • Retreats into a burrow labeled “comedy” if confronted with sincerity.
  • Frequently escapes responsibility by declaring, “Lighten up, it’s a joke!”

The Birds of Bullshit Mountain

The Crimson-Crested Crier

Species: Vintacis Pirroscreechii
Common Names: Box-of-Wine, The Honking Magistrate, Honora Drunkata

Field Description:

A medium-sized terrestrial screecher with an explosive vocal sac and permanently dilated pupils, V. pirroscreechii is most active during afternoons on “The Five”. Its feathers are dark and lacquered, often ruffled by outrage. The species is noted for nesting in television studios lined with legal diplomas and shattered wine glasses.

Anatomical Features:

  • Eyes: Enormous, bloodshot, and unable to blink during monologue mode.
  • Beak: Short, curved, and used exclusively for shouting at mythical enemies.
  • Crest: Wine-dark, often styled in televised defiance of gravity or taste.
  • Plumage: Deep burgundy with subtle undertones of leatherette and Old World grievance.

Behavioral Traits:

  • Screech Monologue: Delivers spontaneous orations in ascending volume, often beginning with, “Let me tell you something…”
  • Wing-Flapping of Injustice: Performs erratic arm gestures when startled by facts or Democratic process.
  • Vintner’s Stagger: Walks in zigzags when leaving courtly functions or Hannity tapings.

Courtship & Display:

In peak mating season (mid-election cycles), the Box-of-Wine emits its most piercing mating cry:

“THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE SICK OF THIS!”

followed by a fluttering of cue cards and a demand for "LAW AND ORDER" despite its own chaotic nesting habits.

She courts attention by raising her volume past OSHA-compliant levels and insisting her voice “represents the common citizen”—though no common citizen has ever had that many rhinestones on their gavel.


Diet:

  • A strict consumption of:
    • Outrage
    • Merlot
    • Fox Nation Sponsorship Packages
    • Crackers, when the crew forgets the charcuterie

Predators & Defenses:

  • Predators:
    • Subpoenas
    • Playback of her own monologues
    • Sober reflection
  • Defense Mechanism:
    • Spirals into a cyclonic “J’Accuse!” posture, where she spins 360 degrees on her barstool, invoking the Founders, the Bible, and the Constitution—all at once, and all incorrectly.

 The Birds of Bullshit Mountain

The Crimson-Cowled Clarion

Species: Faulkneria patriotica
Common Names: Harris Hawk-Take, The Liberty Warbler, Faulkbird of Prey

Field Description:

A sleek, elegant avian known for its proud silhouette and piercing calls of defiant decorum, F. patriotica is most often spotted broadcasting from the Flagpole Thickets, where American iconography grows like kudzu and nuance is unwelcome underbrush.

With its plumage gleaming red, white, and occasionally blue, this bird is admired by the uncritical and feared by nuance. Its feathers emit a faint metallic scent, believed to come from prolonged exposure to bronze eagle statuettes and stage lighting.

Anatomical Features:

  • Eyes: Razor-sharp and unblinking, capable of staring down dissenting co-hosts with calibrated frost.
  • Crest: A towering jet-black crown of lacquered resolve, impervious to wind, fact-checks, or awkward panel transitions.
  • Beak: Tapered and swift; used to punctuate questions that sound like statements.
  • Talons: Delicate yet firmly planted on both sides of the aisle—until the ratings suggest otherwise.

Behavior:

  • The Faulkner Flare: A dramatic puffing of the chest while invoking “the American people” or “the real story here.”
  • Disputation Plumage Display: Wings extend during segments where others are shouting; she remains perfectly still, occasionally tilting her head in performative balance.
  • Rhetorical Flight Loop: Circles the same issue repeatedly, always landing where she started: somewhere just right of neutral.

Calls:

  • “Let’s talk about what’s really going on.”
  • “Now I’m not saying it, I’m just asking.”
  • “But don’t you think the Left has gone too far?”

All vocalizations accompanied by a downward turn of the beak and a masterful eyebrow arc known as the Faulknerian Flinch.


Defensive Strategies:

  • Reflects criticism using a shield of American Exceptionalism.
  • Cloaks in Dignified Neutrality Feathers™ during legal commentary, even while perched atop partisan nests.

Conservation Status:

🟤 Abundant within daytime Murdochian preserves.
Migratory between Panels, Punditry, and Patriotic Telethons.


The Birds of Bullshit Mountain

The Red-Crested Ragecock

Species: Hannitorius bombastica
Common Names: The Hannibird, Murdoch’s Rooster, The Belligerent Clucker

Field Description:

Hannitorius bombastica is a loud, territorial, monocular bird that spends its evenings crowing apocalyptic declarations across the valleys of Middle America. Its feathers are bristled with grievance; its throat sac is overdeveloped from decades of shouting into cameras and mirrors.

Despite its inability to fly or pivot, it remains a dominant creature in the cable aviary—fueled not by reason, but by the unrelenting combustion of its own certainty.

Distinguishing Features:

  • Crest: A brilliantly dyed shock of crimson arrogance that flares violently when tax brackets, immigrants, or Black voters are mentioned.
  • Eyes: One laser-focused on Clinton's emails; the other pecks at Hunter Biden's laptop, eternally.
  • Beak: Hardened from decades of pecking at strawmen. Can emit 600 words per minute with no pause for breath.
  • Plumage: Swollen, heat-sensitive, and glistening from years of proximity to rage-fueled studio lighting.

Behavior:

  • Crowing Ritual: Begins every evening at 9pm sharp with a deafening call—“Let me be clear.”
  • Dominance Dance: Circles guests until they submit or dissolve. If cornered by facts, he puffs up, changes topic, and declares victory.
  • Narrative Nesting: Constructs elaborate nests from shredded memos, Fox graphics, and handwritten notes from Donald Trump.

Diet:

  • A strict regimen of projection, selective statistics, and emotional meat by-products.
  • Will not eat nuance or irony. Those cause indigestion.

Vocalizations:

  • “I’m not a journalist, I’m a talk show host!”
  • (five years later)
  • “This is the real news the media won’t tell you!”

These are uttered in perfect contradiction, often in the same segment, with no awareness or shame.


Known Companions:

  • The Coulterngeist (for mating shrieks)
  • The Trumpeting Egret (shares nest material)
  • The Ingraham Rictus Jay (nested briefly—stormy courtship)

Predators:

  • Therapists with questions
  • Old footage from 2016
  • Basic consistency

The Birds of Bullshit Mountain

The Pale-Throated Rictus Jay

Species: Ingrahamia spitefulensis
Common Names: The White-Crested Malicebird, Freedom Harpy, Night Shrike of Suburbia

Field Description:

A lean, frost-pelted bird of prey, I. spitefulensis is distinguished by its shrill mating calls and instinctive revulsion toward compassion. Though once believed to be nocturnal, the Rictus Jay is now known to operate across time zones via syndicated venom. It is largely solitary, nesting alone in studios constructed of grievance, glass, and indoor tanning mist.

Anatomical Notes:

  • Crest: Bleached and defiant, flares upward during segments on immigration, LGBTQ+ visibility, or any mention of The Squad.
  • Eyes: Piercing, alert, and permanently narrowed in judgment.
  • Beak: Viciously curved, used to tear social programs into thin strips.
  • Plumage: White with streaks of contempt; feathers emit faint scent of hairspray and litigation.

Behavioral Displays:

  • The Smirk-Shriek Combo: Begins with tight-lipped disapproval, escalates into apocalyptic yowling.
  • Tailfeather Twitch: A rare tell, visible only when slightly outflanked on air by other predators (notably, the Coulterngeist).
  • False-Nesting: Frequently appears in patriotic nests while actively discarding foundational principles.

Calls:

  • “They hate America.”
  • “This is what the Left wants.”
  • “Back in my day…”
(Delivered with the unblinking urgency of a high-end robo-parrot programmed by Phyllis Schlafly.)


Predators & Defenses:

  • Natural Predators:
    • Basic Empathy
    • Historical Context
    • The Ghost of Her Own College Radio Tapes
  • Defensive Display:
    • Emits legal threats and sanctimony.
    • Spreads wings into the Red White & Bruise Formation™, which deflects criticism through sheer saturation of patriotism.

Mating Ritual:

Little observed. Likely occurs off-air in mutual loathing with other carrion-feeding pundits. Courtship song may consist of references to “elites,” “real Americans,” and ancient personal feuds with Joy Behar.


The Birds of Bullshit Mountain

The Spectacled Yesterbird

Species: Humidorum punditorum
Common Names: The Grumblewarbler, The Plausible Deniabilibill, Grandpa Foxus

Field Description:

A large, slouched bird with greying plumage and the distinct aroma of Scotch and qualified regret, Humidorum punditorum is a twilight species, most active during early retirement and slow news nights. Known for its Venerable Squint and Irony-Free Cloak, it often appears perched silently behind a desk, blinking only when its own party careens off a cliff.

Though once seen as a Truth Owl, its evolutionary regression into a Grumblewarbler has been hastened by the intoxicating nectar of selective memory and social media echo-calls.

Anatomical Features:

  • Eyes: Small, heavily lidded, obscured by bifocal pinions—ideal for looking backward with regret or forward with mild disdain.
  • Beak: Stooped and pensive, capable of whistling “Reagan” in 17 different tones.
  • Wings: Heavier now, seldom used—except to gesture weakly at decorum.
  • Plumage: Ash-colored, weathered, and thoroughly fact-checked by time.

Behavioral Traits:

  • Sotto Tweet-Screech: Occurs nightly after 9PM, often referencing “the old days” when news anchors wore ties and facts had dignity.
  • The Hume Hover: Frequently floats in the Background of Gravitas, offering solemn nods while letting younger creatures maul reality.
  • Elder Peck: A slow-motion correction deployed only when a fellow bird utterly combusts on air, typically followed by, “That’s not how we used to do it.”

Call Variants:

“The media used to be better.”
“Let’s have some perspective.”
“We don’t know that.”
(followed by a retweet of something that absolutely doesn’t know that.)


Predators:

  • Internet Archives
  • His Own Statements from 2004
  • Current Reality

Ecological Role:

Primarily symbolic—serves as a reminder that even once-proud birds can molt into commentary chaperones. Functions as a credibility decoy for fledgling grifters.


The Birds of Bullshit Mountain

The Soot-Breasted Bothsider

Species: Baierus equivocata
Common Names: The Tie-Knot Thrush, News Neutralis, Sir Softpedal

Field Description:

Baierus equivocata is a stocky, evenly-plumed ground bird most commonly found straddling fence posts and editorial lines. Known for its cautious gait and inability to take flight when truth is inconvenient, it often nests in leather-bound folders filled with euphemisms.

Though once mistaken for a species of truth owl, it has since been recategorized under Narratividae Suppressivum, after years of studied avoidance of calling a coup attempt a coup.

Distinctive Features:

  • Plumage: A camouflage of navy and gray; feathers naturally lie flat to avoid ruffling.
  • Eyes: Dart from teleprompter to approval rating without registering dissonance.
  • Mouth: Broad, slow-moving, and prone to repetition.
  • Tailfeathers: Fan slightly during moments of moral panic, but promptly return to "just asking questions" formation.

Behavior:

  • The “Fair Fright” Flutter: Occurs when faced with unequivocal facts—releases a cloud of bothsiderism dust and retreats into contextual ambiguity.
  • Blame Dispersal Song: A repetitive coo that concludes all crises with “both parties need to do better.”
  • Oath of the Centered Nest: Builds its home equidistant from extremity and responsibility, regardless of where the actual danger lies.

Habitat:

  • Found perched on the Anchor Branch, which hangs precariously over the Ravine of Republican Regret (see: The Trumpian Backtrack)
  • Frequently roosts in segments titled “Special Report”, which is neither

Recent Observed Behavior:

In July 2023, the Baierus briefly attempted a Moral Mewl—a soft lament about Trump’s refusal to concede and the network's role therein: “There were mistakes. It wasn’t perfect.”

This brief burst of lucidity was followed by three weeks of restorative neutrality grooming in the Studio of Strategic Silence.


Vocalizations:

  • “It’s a complicated situation.”
  • “Some people say—others disagree.”
  • “We’ll let our viewers decide.”
(Always delivered in a tone that suggests an upcoming catheter commercial, or a eulogy for nuance.)


Predators:

  • Live Microphones during off-the-record banter
  • Trump's Truth Social flocks
  • The ghost of Walter Cronkite (still pecks occasionally)

The Birds of Bullshit Mountain

The Great Horned Doocy


Species: Inquisita reductivus; subspecies: Bullshitticus nepotencia

Common Name: Stupid Son of a Bitch
Habitat: The Southern Slope of Bullshit Mountain, Press Pool Ravine

Description:

A tall, flaxen-plumed beast of middling intellect but relentless persistence, the Great Horned Doocy is the juvenile form of the more sedentary Breakfast Couch Oracle (see: Steve Doocy, Genus Friendly Propagandicus). Its coat is smooth, its eyes large and suggestive of concern, and its signature horn tufts are entirely decorative – pricked up when posing rhetorical inquiries in a frequency audible only to producers at Fox News.

Field Observation:

Usually sighted at daily briefings, the Great Horned Doocy occupies a favored perch within the Press Pool Ravine, below the jagged ridge known as Accountability Bluff. On Bullshit Mountain, the Great Horned Doocy roams freely, immune to consequence and largely indifferent to context.

Notable Behaviors:

  • Wields The Question That Isn’t, a tactic involving declarative accusations disguised as inquiry.
  • Possesses Selective Hearing Plumage, which fluffs up when answers contradict its intended chyron.
  • Upon receiving a rebuttal, the Great Horned Doocy blinks slowly and repeats the question with slightly altered phrasing, a ritual known as the Circle of Inference.
  • When startled by logic, it retreats to the arms of parental affirmation and segment replays on Fox & Friends.

Vocalization:

"So what you’re saying is—"

"Wouldn’t you agree that—"

"Isn’t the real issue—Hunter Biden’s laptop?"

Often punctuated by a hopeful glance toward the camera pod nesting on the east side of the Ravine.


Predators:

  • Jen Psaki (deployed sarcasm as an anti-aircraft mechanism)
  • Karine Jean-Pierre (uses deflection magic and The Binding Spell of Repetition Fatigue)
  • President Joseph Biden, who once, in a moment of oracular clarity, dubbed the creature: “A stupid son of a bitch.”

A benediction now etched into the Great Horned Doocy’s mythos.


Ecological Role:

The Great Horned Doocy is a vital carrier species for Outrage Spores, which it transmits through questions, smirks, and raised eyebrows. These spores are inhaled by lowland Foxites and Newsmax Grumblers, sustaining the Mountain's fragile disinformation ecosystem

Birds of Bullshit Mountain

The Wattersprite

Genus: Dipshitticus Nepotentia
Common Name: The Smarmander


A shallow-water trickster of the Murdochian marshes, the Wattersprite flits from man-on-the-street ambushes to primetime blatherings with the attention span of a caffeinated gnat. It subsists primarily on cherry-picked anecdotes and smirking innuendo, delivered with the self-satisfaction of a substitute gym teacher who just discovered libertarianism.

Courtship & Reproduction:
Notably divorced from its first mate under mysterious tabloid circumstances, the Wattersprite achieved biological notoriety by stalking & letting the air out tires of his subordinate—a maneuver known in mating studies as the Fox News Frolic or, in polite Latin, Internum Impropria.

Noteworthy Behavior:
Will insist, without irony, that it represents “traditional values,” even while emerging pantless from its second marital chrysalis
Displays an evolutionary adaptation to scandal: deflection by dumbness, wherein all accusations are laughed off as misunderstandings or "just locker room banter with cameras"

Powers:
  • Charisma Shield (Illusory): Grants the illusion of wit to the easily dazzled.
  • Reverse Oracle: Can speak with supreme confidence while knowing absolutely nothing; all prognostications are backward-facing and facts optional.
  • Mirrormancy: Sees in others only the reflections of himself—thus concludes all problems are media-created and self-solved.
  • Grievance Echo: Once offended, the Wattersprite emits a feedback loop of petty vengeance audible only to angry uncles.

Avoids:

  • Well informed people
  • Educated women
  • Unscripted situations
  • The truth


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