Yesterday, I was critical of a segment by NBC News’ Chuck Todd that addressed the motion to dismiss the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, including the use of a statement by President Obama without noting that he was wrong on the underlying charge and wrong on the absence of precedent (including a high-profile case from his own Administration). I previously called for the motion that was filed and criticized those who have ignored the clear evidence of prosecutorial abuse, including possible violations of Brady and standing court orders. It is always unnerving when Todd starts a discussion about the Trump Administration with “it is not partisan to say . . .” During Todd’s questioning of the panel on NBC’s Meet the Press, he used a clearly deceptive clip of a statement by Attorney General Bill Barr to suggest that Barr simply justified his decision as an exercise of raw power. Both the question and carefully clipped soundbite belie the later statement from Todd’s staff that the misrepresentation of Barr’s words as “inadvertently and inaccurately” edited. However, Todd has not issued an apology and NBC has only issued this brief statement. Such expectations seem quant relics in this age of rage and echo journalism. Many in the media seem to have embraced Hunter Thompson’s rejection of “objective journalism” as “a pompous contradiction in terms.” What is a contradiction in terms is this type of inadvertent journalism. (For full disclosure, I testified in favor of Barr’s confirmation before the Senate Judiciary Committee).
Todd used a tightly clipped portion of an interview of Barr with CBS News’ Catherine Herridge in which Herridge asked him how history would judge the decision to seek the dismissal of the Flynn case. Todd showed Barr laughing: “Well, history is written by the winners, so it largely depends on who’s writing the history.” The clip was clearly designed to set up his hit on Barr as he observed how he was “struck by the cynicism of the answer — it’s a correct answer, but he’s the attorney general. He didn’t make the case that he was upholding the rule of law. He was almost admitting that, yeah, this was a political job.”
Todd was fully aware that Barr did indeed make the case for upholding the rule of law with the decision. The whole interview was on that subject. Barr stated indeed following immediately with precisely the statement that Todd decried as shockingly absent from the interview: “Well, history is written by the winner. So it largely depends on who’s writing the history. But I think a fair history would say that it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law. It helped, it upheld the standards of the Department of Justice and it undid what was an injustice.”
I have previously criticized Todd for raw partisan attacks often expressed as questions or quoting others.
Such partisan advocacy and attacks are now celebrated in many circles as the coverage devolves into a modern form of yellow journalism. The bias has been positively stifling with unrelentingly negative spins and distorted analysis. The only consistent element is the narrative from a media that seems uniformly on script in coverage. What remains is a smug cynicism reflected in the Todd segment, which NBC later shrugged off as “inadvertently and inaccurately” edited. The edit was made in obvious use to support Todd’s attack. Moreover, Todd’s question was premised on his having watched the interview so he knew that it was taken out of context. It was in other words premeditated to fit Todd’s narrative. The fact is that some in the media would prefer to distort the facts (and, in the Flynn case, even embrace prosecutorial misconduct) if it advances what has become movement journalism.
I have often criticized President Trump in columns and on this blog. Yet, even raising such clear violations of journalistic values is treated as sacrilegious in today’s mainstream media. There is an insatiable appetite for distorted legal analysis and a corresponding intolerance for any dissenting views. The Todd segment was another hit job that misrepresented facts to feed the demand of echo journalism.
“Better a good journalist than a poor assassin.” Todd made a poor journalist this week in order to be a better assassin.
Chuck Todd is a DEM/Trump hating activist. He along with the NBC staff that helps him should all be FIRED.
NBC along with many so called other news organizations are simply political hate Trump news and they are not to be trusted.
All news organizations need to see a clean sweep with new MGMT, new staff and etc. and bring back honesty and truth to the news
Sadly I hear Democrats so often spout off 1/2 truths not recognizing that makes them lies. Here’s another example. What is shocking is that NBC and Todd are too stupid to realize that someone else was actually there – a true journalist, like Catherine Herridge – who could easily see that Todd’s 1/2 truths made him the consummate scam artist and liar.
But does NBC’s audience even care??? I mean that demographic of Democrats could care less about Truth, or Reality. But, watch them still say bad things about FOXNews and its viewers. They will simply continue to live in a state of delusion.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
There is no doubt that the prosecution of Flynn was wrong, but it is more than that it is completely unbelievable. Flynn knew the FBI had listened to his phone call and Flynn knew there was nothing to hide so the whole notion that Flynn lied is preposterous on its face.
The phony story that Flynn lied did not come from the FBI. The FBI investigators said they did not believe Flynn was being deceptive. The Flynn lied to the FBI story came from the Trump DOJ which is now trying to pin the blame on the FBI.
The first instance that gave the Flynn lied to the FBI story legs was when Comey (a few days after he was fired) claimed that Trump had pressured him to not charge Flynn for lying to the FBI. At that point in time the FBI had already internally concluded that Flynn had done no wrong but that didn’t stop the phony story that Flynn lied to the FBI from coming to life because the very next day after Comey leaked that phony story to the press the Trump administration appointed Mueller and all the Russiagate stuff was taken out of the hands of the FBI and put into the hands of the Trump selected DOJ investigators. Then Mueller and Flynn made a deal but the story was still unbelievable on its face and so Trump had to jump in the next day and publicly confirm that Flynn had lied to the FBI. If Trump said it who would doubt it?
https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/pres-trump-says-he-fired-flynn-for-lying-to-pence-and-the-fbi-1108420163773
Todd’s a carney barker with a bearded lady goatee sporting a passive-aggressive personality evoking a slap down response. The literal kind. How he got a show — any show — other than on a midway is beyond me.
But Todd is just one example of the new “normal” now. It is now openly admitted by millions of Americans that they don’t expect “objectivity” from the press any more. So why not openly disarm the press of one of its most effective and culturally harmful methods of assassination: anonymous sources. We don’t need to limit the first amendment. Just publicly identify every “anonymous” scumbag that it uses. Keep democracy simple.
If I were asked to draw a picture of a weasel…it would look a lot like Chuck Todd.
Another really rotten news mis-characterization concerns the so-called “innocent jogger” who got shot in Georgia. Heck, there is video of the dude casing a house, and it is pretty obvious that he attacked the guy with the shotgun. Kind of like Mike Brown attacked Darren Wilson. But, the Left is raising money off the thing, calling the McMichael’s “white supremacists”. Because of that phony rhetoric, there may have been a revenge killing in New Jersey of two elderly white people at a cemetery.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
That’s turning into quite the political crime. Jog 70 miles from home with a hammer wearing street clothes while casing the joint is the new sport du jour.
From Shaun King email:
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Friend, I am livid. Ahmaud Arbery was out jogging when two white supremacists with deep ties to law enforcement grabbed their guns, hunted him down, and killed him.
I’m working directly with Ahmaud’s family and their attorney. I need you to raise your voice, immediately. This is clearly a hate crime, but right now Georgia doesn’t have statewide laws to help Ahmaud’s case.
—————-
There is no evidence I am aware of that makes them white supremacists, whatever that is. But the left will raise money off this.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Where did you read he lived 70 miles from where he was shot? The media have identified the area he was shot as ‘Satilla Shores’, an unincorporated spot in Glynn County. They’ve identified Arbery as a resident of Brunswick Ga. A White Pages search finds a mess of Arberys around Brunswick. They’re all in settlements between 8 and 14 miles from Satilla Shores.
TIA:
Try as I might, I can’t put my hand on where I saw that. Musta been in an article I read or a comment thereto. I’ll retract that until I can find the source. Does seem odd.
That “jogger” narrative will ultimately collapse, just like the “Trayvon” narrative.
The first clue was using a high-school picture to represent a 25-year old man.
In the meantime, there will be a spike in black-on-white violence that will be ignored by the MSM.
There has already been an incident:
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BEAR, Del. – An 86-year-old Delaware man has died after police say 29-year-old Sheldon Francis shot the victim and his wife at a cemetery on Friday.
Police say the victim’s wife, an 85-year-old woman, died at the scene after being shot. The male victim was transported to a hospital in critical condition, but died on Saturday as a result of the injuries.
The shooting happened at Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Friday around 10:13 in the morning. Around noon, police say the suspect exchanged gunfire with police in a wooded area near the cemetery. It’s in that area that the suspect was found deceased around 4:00 p.m., according to police. It’s unclear if the suspect died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, or during the exchange of gunfire with police.
https://www.wmdt.com/2020/05/update-suspect-identified-in-cemetery-shooting-that-killed-elderly-couple/
————–
The killer was black and he shot them with a rifle. I hope we find out his “reason”, but he is kaput, and will probably not be of much help.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
My spidey sense is that it won’t collapse as thoroughly.
Putting the pieces together, you could glean that Trayvon Martin could have returned home without incident but quite deliberately did not and walked 75 yards down an alleyway to attack a man loitering around waiting for the police to arrive (a man who had no idea where Martin had disappeared to). The autopsy report, crime scene photographs, and eyewitness statements made clear Zimmerman was on his back being pummeled at the time he shot Martin.
This incident is going to be a closer call.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for a correction. Not in the present-day media DNA.
And, in an Alternate Universe, filled with shame and guilt over his many betrayals of journalistic ethics, Chuck Todd gave up his lucrative job, gave away his misbegotten gains, and hied himself away to a monastery, where he scrubs stone floors and grows figs 12 hours per day, and prays another 4 hours per day. Rachel Maddow visits him once a month and goes away with a case of Fig Wine.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Yet again. The media are now composed of people who don’t have any integrity at all and the Democratic Party is composed of people who have no interest in (or, really, any understanding of) fair procedures. This makes maintaining a constitutional system something of a challenge. Again, Robert Heinlein: ““Stupidity cannot be cured. Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death. There is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.” Well, that’s a little too pat. But remember the 20th century, and compare the condition of Germany in 1914 to Germany in 1945. Those are the wages of stupidity.
Stupidity is also contagious or maybe just brings its sufferers together in one cathartic dumb fest. That’s gives you the Dm Party and their propagandists like Todd.
Luckily this Network has a
Minuscule viewership.
The problem isn’t today’s “journalists” it’s lazy Americans who find it much easier to rest on their partisan politics and the mouth pieces who propagate it. No need for further investigation.
No, today’s journalists are a problem. Of course, their audience is a problem too.
DSS, without the audience today’s journalists do not exist. Anon is a prime example. He has been wrong on virtually every significant issue and holds firm. When the proof overwhelms him he slightly twists his argument or runs away. He is NBC’s audience. Such stupidity is difficult to counteract. Nothing said on this blog and no proof seems to change his attitude (not talking about beliefs).
He isn’t totally stupid yet we are unable to define his thinking process in terms of finding an “antidote”. Likely he will die and go to his grave stupid. I’m watching Narcos and liken his behavior to the hundreds of (adult) sicario that in film do not seem to see reality and sacrifice their lives in an instant for no understandable reason. I can see that in the young but in a grandfather? Does not some degree of wisdom come with age?
Allan,
book and his ilk lay claim to being the most informed and better educated of the citizen-class. What they lack however is discernment. Without that, it doesn’t matter how educated they are or where they get their information. If they are unable to objectively analyze provable facts and how those facts relate to what they have been told are truths, then they are nothing more than sheep.
Olly, this appears to be more than discernment as fact contradicts what they believe. This is more like religious faith as if one’s ideology has become one’s religion based on faith. Therefore one has to deal with their faith rather than the facts.
This is more like religious faith as if one’s ideology has become one’s religion based on faith.
Certainly not a religion based on a power greater than man. Instead of objective truth superior to man, it relies on subject truth of man. In short, it relies on the weaknesses of man’s sinful nature. Remove God from the equation and man’s sinful nature will take its course.
Discernment — the ability to think biblically about all areas of life — is indispensable to an uncompromising life. It is incumbent upon the Christian to seize upon the discernment that God has provided for in His precious truth! Without it, Christians are at risk of being “tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14).
https://www.christianity.com/theology/what-is-biblical-discernment-and-why-is-it-important-11532182.html
This shouldn’t be understood that the only path to good governance and the security of rights is to believe in Jesus and/or God. We need to understand the only path must be through an objective truth higher than man.
“Certainly not a religion based on a power greater than man.”
Absolutely has nothing to do with the mainstream Judeo-Christian religions of today. That religion instead of being based on a power greater than man places its faith in a man, a stongman, generally one who is so power hungry that he will not share it with any faith based religion.
Spot on.
Hillary lost in spite of the Yellow Journalists supporting her.
They are irrelevant
The desperate flailings of a dying media. The MSM has achieved irrelevance. They are fast approaching comedic.
They may not die. They may just end up as philanthropic ventures of billionaires determined to pollute public life. See the machinations of Bezos and Soros.