Media Research Center writer Joseph Vazquez is a huge fanboy of Fox News talking head Charles Payne — after a 2020 interview with him, Vazquez gushed that Payne is a “great American” who offers “spot-on criticism.” No mention, of course, of the accusations that he coerced right-wing commentator Scottie Nell Hughes into a sexual relationship. Fox News briefly took him off the air for a while, though he returned, and Fox News settled a lawsuit filed by Hughes. Neither Vazquez nor anyone else at the MRC reported this story. Hughes, meanwhile, became persona non grata, getting only passing mentions between 2016 and 2024 — meaning that the MRC was effectively censoring Hughes for criticizing Payne.
But Payne is back in the game, saying all the right (wing) things — and Vazquez couldn’t be happier. He gushed in a Jan. 28 post:
There’s a new sheriff in town, as Fox Business host Charles Payne alluded to when praising President Donald Trump for sticking it to the uppity global elites at the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Trump spoke via teleconference at the WEF meeting in Davos, Switzerland January 24 and threw all political candor to the wind and basically said to heck with it. He boldly told the woke elitists that his administration was ending absurd diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measures in federal agencies, squashing government censorship, asserting U.S. policy of recognizing only two genders (male and female), and axing the Green New Deal and leaving the disastrous Paris Climate Agreement.
Trump also directly called out Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who were present, over their companies’ reported “debanking” of conservatives. Payne likened Trump’s speech to a political nuke being dropped on the world establishment during the January 24 edition of Making Money.
“Yesterday, the elite establishment — with the force of a Minuteman [missile] — Trump went after them, right? And he covered — it was like one missile but it covered all the targets like those Minutemen, with precision and power,” Payne stated.
Payne concluded that watching Trump’s speech was like watching an explosion from a Minuteman missile affixed with Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV) capacity.
Vazquez promoted his post on his X account, adding, “My professional take: @cvpayne is one of the most brilliant minds in the media and it’s not even close. Well said sir.” Yes, Vazquez apparently thinks his slobbering sycophancy is “professional.”