We have previously discussed polling showing the media at record lows in public trust. Well, the latest survey from Gallup shows that the media hit another all-time low. What is most impressive is that plummeting readers, revenues, and layoffs have done little to convince the mainstream media that the problem is not the public but themselves. The only institution with a lower level of public trust is Congress, and that says a lot. It is like beating Ebola as the preferred communicable disease.Some 69 percent of Americans now say that they have no or little trust in the media. Only 31 percent say that they have a great deal or fair amount of trust. The trending line looks like the sales of buggy whips after the introduction of the Model T Ford. Gallop put it into sharp terms:
“About two-thirds of Americans in the 1970s trusted the “mass media — such as newspapers, TV and radio” either “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to “[report] the news fully, accurately and fairly.” By the next measurement in 1997, confidence had fallen to 53%, and it has gradually trended downward since 2003. Americans are now divided into rough thirds, with 31% trusting the media a great deal or a fair amount, 33% saying they do “not [trust it] very much,” and 36%, up from 6% in 1972, saying they have no trust at all in it.”
In my book, The Indispensable Right, I discuss how journalists and journalism schools have destroyed their own profession by rejecting objectivity and engaging in open advocacy journalism. The mainstream media has long echoed the talking points of the left and the Democratic Party, particularly in its one-sided coverage of the last three elections.
While Bob Woodward and others have finally admitted that the Russian collusion coverage lacked objectivity and resulted in false reporting, media figures are pushing even harder against objectivity as a core value in journalism.
We have been discussing the rise of advocacy journalism and the rejection of objectivity in journalism schools. Writers, editors, commentators, and academics have embraced rising calls for censorship and speech controls, including President-elect Joe Biden and his key advisers. This movement includes academics rejecting the very concept of objectivity in journalism in favor of open advocacy.
Columbia Journalism Dean and New Yorker writer Steve Coll decried how the First Amendment right to freedom of speech was being “weaponized” to protect disinformation. In an interview with The Stanford Daily, Stanford journalism professor Ted Glasser insisted that journalism needed to “free itself from this notion of objectivity to develop a sense of social justice.” He rejected the notion that journalism is based on objectivity and said that he views “journalists as activists because journalism at its best — and indeed history at its best — is all about morality.” Thus, “Journalists need to be overt and candid advocates for social justice, and it’s hard to do that under the constraints of objectivity.”
The Washington Post’s former executive editor Leonard Downie Jr. and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward released the results of their interviews with over 75 media leaders and concluded that objectivity is now considered reactionary and even harmful. Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle said it plainly: “Objectivity has got to go.”
Lauren Wolfe, the fired freelance editor for the New York Times, has not only gone public to defend her pro-Biden tweet but published a piece titled “I’m a Biased Journalist and I’m Okay With That.”
Former New York Times writer (and now Howard University Journalism Professor) Nikole Hannah-Jones is a leading voice for advocacy journalism. Indeed, Hannah-Jones has declared “all journalism is activism.”
This is why the whole “Let’s Go Brandon” chant was as much a criticism of the media as President Biden. There is clearly an effort by owners like Jeff Bezos to change this culture rather than bankroll newspapers like the Washington Post vanity projects for the left.
Robert Lewis, a British media executive who joined the Post earlier this year, reportedly got into a “heated exchange” with a staffer. Lewis explained that, while reporters were protesting measures to expand readership, the very survival of the paper was now at stake:
“We are going to turn this thing around, but let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs turning around,” Lewis said. “We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”
The response from staffers was to call for the new editors to be fired. One staffer complained, “We now have four White men running three newsrooms.” The Post has been buying out staff to avoid mass layoffs, but reporters are up in arms over the effort to turn the newspaper around.
The question is whether viewers and readers can still be brought back into the fold. New media is expanding as citizens have looked elsewhere for news. In the meantime, some media outlets and organizations seem to have doubled down on the bias. Just last year, Washington Post reporter Cleve Wootson Jr. appeared to call upon the White House to censor the interview of Elon Musk with former President Donald Trump. The newspaper did not say a thing about the incongruity of one of its leading reporters calling for censorship.
After Trump was elected, NBC selected Yamiche Alcindor to return to the White House despite a history of alleged bias. Alcindor, who also worked for PBS, was criticized for often preceding questions with attacks on conservatives or over-the-top praise for Joe Biden or Democrats. While others saw raw political bias, Alcindor explained that it was her job to use journalism to bend the “moral arc toward justice.”
Recently, the White House Correspondent’s Association picked an anti-Trump comedian who promptly encouraged Trump not to come to the dinner, saying that no one wants to be in the same room with him.
In the meantime, “J schools” continue to dismiss objectivity and crank out journalists who are told to embrace activism as the public flees legacy media for new media.
For the moment, it seems like journalists are content to write for each other and about 30 percent of the public. The echo chamber is getting smaller and smaller. So are the staffs on the outlets. Without public trust, the media is just talking to itself as the public turns to citizen journalists and new media on blogs and social media.
As someone who has worked for three networks and written as a columnist for three decades, the decline of American media has been painful to watch. The industry has operated like a ship of fools with no regard for their viewers or readers. However, we need the media. The press plays a central role in our democracy as reflected in the press protections afforded under the First Amendment.
The effort to break this culture at outlets like the Post and L.A. Times is encouraging, but these polls indicate that time is of the essence.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Never thought I would hear a journalism professor talk about “the constraints of objectivity.” What a perfect example of newspeak.
I’ve read your excellent book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in the Age of Rage, and I share your deep concern over the erosion of free speech and the disturbing rise of the Censorship Industrial Complex. In February 2023, I wrote a piece for the Daily Caller (FERBRACHE: To Find Truth, Objectivity Must Go?) on this very topic — the collapse of public trust in the media, driven largely by its own abandonment of journalistic objectivity.
#74 There are good and thoughtfull comments today.
WAPO at the time of Graham, Woodward and Bernstein was an arm used by the intelligence community to remove Nixon. It’s been around for a long time.
The intelligence community couldn’t have another JFK assassination and went a different route with Nixon first removing Nixon’s VP, installing Ford and then setting the Watergate plumbers in action. A stealthy bit of chess moves.
Graham utilized two young apparatchiks to get the information leaked and published it. So it goes…
PS Obviously Zelensky is persona non gratis as he’s shown his colors. He’s a double crosser and none too bright. Perhaps Russia can purchase food from Ukraine and the EU and the EU can purchase fuel from Russia. So much for the money laundry. ..
The double cross happened when America convinced Ukraine decades ago to turn over their 3,000+ nuclear weapons to the new Russian Federation in exchange for America’s promises that after they did that to make us feel safe, the American military would be sent to serve as Ukraine’s replacement deterrent and defense.
We double-crossed Ukraine brilliantly! And we’ll probably get exclusive access to those rare earth minerals we don’t have but need with it only costing Ukrainian blood and not a drop of our American blood.
Perhaps the next promise of security Ukraine should trust should be from Putin: peace in exchange for giving all those rare earth minerals exclusively to Putin or his ally the ChiComs. And Russian military bases, facility, and weapons wherever Putin wants them along Ukraine’s other borders.
Can’t turn out worse than trusting our promises to Ukraine.
Anonymous 6:34pm-unfortunately true. They did get screwed. Does not help the present situation though. Of course the Ukraine was new as a nation and were too trusting but then giving the nukes to the Russian Federation?? Can you cite some sources to that effect.
The US – in this case Clinton brokered deals as the USSR colapsed moving USSR’s Nukes under the Russian Federation.
With the collapse of the USSR no one wanted half a dozen small nuclear nations.
I am not sure what Clinton promised and whether there were actual security guarantees. The politics at the time were Radically different and the new Ukrainian government was NOT hostile to Russia. Even today most governments neighboring Russia remain freindly to Russia – if not russian pupets.
Anonymous6:34PM-I found the information. Bill Clinton, in 2023 , said he regretted pressuring Ukraine to give up its nukes. That explains a lot. Clinton- pressured Ukraine to give up the nukes, Obama-sent Ukraine blankets when the “separatists’’ Llaunched their rebellion, Trump send hardware that allowed Ukraine to advance against the separatists, Biden-said “Don’t” then parsed money and equipment and apparently no accounting. I think I have it now. Thanks
Sorry while Nixon is unfairly reviled – he is not even close to as corrupt as LBJ was, he unfortunately brought Watergate on himself.
To the extent that WaPo should be challenged that would be because they ran with watergate using a Single source – one THEY knew was disgruntled for being passed over to head the FBI by Nixon. And they were uniquely Uncurious about why the Plumbers broke into the DNC headquarters in Watergate. To this day though there has been much speculation, there is no solid evidence to explain why that happened.
Regardless BEFORE Watergate Nixon was improperly picking fights with Graham and WaPo.
The court battle over the Pentagon papers NEVER should have happened. It was a loser from the start. Years before DOJ had dropped the lawsuit to bar publication of nuclear weapons design – becuas ethe courts signaled this was a free speech issue and they would lose.
Haig set Nixon up – Gen Haig has his fingers in far to many repugnant dealings.
There was a basis for going after Daniel Elsberg – though warantlessly breaking into his Psychiatrists office was stupid.
But NYT and WaPo were going to be allowed to publish the pentagon papers.
Further they were an embarrassment – but an embarrassment to Kennedy and Johnson – Not Nixon.
Nixon promissed to get us out of Vietnam – and while you may disagree with how he did so, he DID keep that promise.
Just as right now, Trump campaigned on ending this nonsense in Ukraine – and he is doing so – even if some do not like the process.
God alone knows Why the plumbers Bugged a secretaries phone in the Watergate. Nor does it make sense that WaPo and Woodward and Bernstein relying on a single source Ignored the WHY of the story ?
But despite questions regarding WaPo’s lack of curiosity and its reliance on a single source with an axe to grind.
There was nothing wrong with WaPo’s reporting.
Nixon could have easily survived Watergate but for his OWN bad choices.
First he vastly underestimated Graham. He thought that threatening her Television licenses would bring her to heal.
That was an actual abuse of power, and a mistaken choice. Graham stuck to her guns.
Next Nixon had NO involvment in Watergate prior to the breakin. He won in 1972 in a landslide. He was vastly popular.
He would have taken a hit from the prosecution of several members of his staff for their involvement in Watergate,
but it would NOT have touched him. Instead Nixon went on the offensive, and inarguably obstructed justice.
Ultimately the Watergate Tapes were his downfall. Not so much because of the FACTS, but because they exposed him as small and petty and vindictive.
While there are lots of unanswered questions about Watergate. There is little to suggest that it was a deep state operation to take out Nixon.
The Deep State was involved – but they were the ones working With the Nixon administration to engage in illegal acts.
It is weird that there are so many cruel people opposed to the sentiment that everyone should be free on a blog that is supposed to celebrate freedom.
Let’s you and me get our uniforms and gun up and enlist in the Ukraine freedom fight . It’s a good day to die.
Why are you making a bad point?
The point he is making is you want more war but are not willing to put your own skin in the game. And that, is a very good point. Those who always cry to fight, are the ones thousands of miles away from the real fighting. As you want to send others to do the fighting for you. Usually us, poor minorities. You talk the talk but cannot, will not walk the walk.
Upstate,
You are correct. This like a person wanting to have a steak dinner, yet not ever thinking they are eating part of an animal that has been killed, bled dry and butchered. Doesn’t meat come from the store in neat little packages? 🙂
My dad, my late father in law and numerous uncles and one aunt (Field Nurse) were combat veterans of WW2. They understood the danger, sacrifice and death involved in war. Not to mention the devastation to the population and infrastructure.
Farmers are poor minorities?
There is a split betwen those who blame the current mess on Trump and those who blame Zelensky.
But the real blame goes to those who either overtly or covertly or by implication made promises to Ukraine that were NEVER going to be kept.
Even Obama PUBLICLY stated that Ukraine was NOT and would likely never be in the US national interests.
Though that was when he was cozying up to Russia.
Regardless it was TRUE.
I can have great sympathy for Zelensky. I can understand his anger – the entire West played him for a fool and lied to him.
Biden and NATO leaders saw the Ukraine war as the means to eliminate once and for all that pesky Putin.
They were willing to Fight Putin right down to the very last Ukrainian.
Biden specifically sought the legacy of being the leader who took down Putin.
He risked nuclear war to try to secure that legacy.
But Trump did NOT lie to Ukraine of Zelensky. Frankly while Obama used Ukraine – he too did NOT lie to them.
As Trump said – Obama sent blankets I sent Javelins.
Pres Obama made CLEAR Ukraine was NOT a US interest.
Trump provided Ukraine with some defensive weapons but did NOT provide security guarantees and did NOT engage in lose talk of NATO membership.
Conversely as President Biden went out of his way to antagonize Putin with regard to Ukraine.
Zelensky was played by Biden. Further Democrats and NeoCons has been treating Ukraine as their playground for jerking arround with Putin for decades.
Zelensky has the right to be pissed. But not at Trump.
Frankly – he does NOT seem to be pissed at Trump.
His oval office question was what assurances does Ukraine have when Trump is no longer president.
And the answer is NONE. Ukraine has NEVER had a security guarantee from the US or the EU.
And was never going to get one – not from Trump, and honestly not even from Biden.
Ukraine was never in the US national security interests.
Let’s talk Ukraine out of giving up their deterrent nuclear weapons because them having those weapons terrifies us WW III will happen. And then hope that American troops don’t have to fight and die because Putin wasn’t deterred by our commitment to defend Ukraine and we actually honored our commitment by using our military to defend Ukraine as we promised.
No worries! Four successive presidential administrations – and not a single one of them honored the American promise we gave to Ukraine in exchange for them giving up those deterrent nukes that would have kept Putin being a good neighbor.
“The Press Falls to Another Record Low in Public Trust”. A self inflicted wound the evidence of which is supported by falling sales, falling subscriptions and plummeting viewership. What more needs to be said?
Jonathan: When it comes to DOGE it was never about eliminating “fraud, abuse and waste” in government agencies and programs. That’s because Elon Musk has been unable to substantiate any of his spurious claims. For Musk his goal has been all along to abolish government agencies to pay for massive tax cuts for him and his billionaire friends.
Speaking of waste and abuse what is DJT doing this weekend? He is playing golf in FL and hosting a party–all at taxpayer expense. Last weekend he used Air Force 1 to fly from West Palm Beach to MIA for an event. If DJT wanted to really eliminate waste and abuse he could have used his motorcade to travel the short distance. But taxpayers will now pay the bill. And all along DJT continues to grift off his supporters–in posts this week asking for more money–even though he is prohibited from running for office again.
In another scam DJT announced this week he is offering a new form of green card. It’s called the “Trump Gold Card”. For $5 million wealthy people can enter the US and freely travel outside the country without any restrictions. DJT thinks that “if you sell 10 million of the cards, that’s a total of $50 trillion”. DJT thinks that will help pay down the national debt. FACT CHECK: In the 12-month period ending 9/30/22 only about 8,000 rich people obtained investor visas. And this new scam comes as DJT is trying to arrest and deport other immigrants who were actually contributing to the US economy. When asked by reporters if Russian oligarchs could qualify DJT said “Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people”. Of course he does!
Finally, getting back to DOGE, Elon has been unable to show actual fraud, waste and abuse in government agencies–certainly not in USAid or the FAA. What Musk’s gremlins did discover at the FAA was that the agency had awarded a 15 yr. contract worth $2.4 billion to Verizon to overhaul the FAA’s antiquated communications system. So Musk came up with a great idea. He wants the Verizon contract cancelled and instead awarded to–hold on to your hats–to Musk’s Starlink! Any “conflicts of interest”? Not according to DJT and Musk! It’s now perfectly clear. Musk bought the election for DJT and he now wants to cash in!
Dennis McIntyre, straight man Moe of the Democrat Three Stooges: once again you’re attempting to assure us we should swallow your Democrat turd because it will be tasty – as long as we pick it up by the clean end.
Mr. Stupid, do you even read the sh!t that you copy and paste to here??? Here is an example of how fvcking stupid you are. And I quote,” Finally, getting back to DOGE, Elon has been unable to show actual fraud, waste and abuse in government agencies–certainly not in USAid or the FAA.”
Really??? That money for sex-changes in Guatamala wasn’t waste, at the very least??? Or the tranny opera in Columbia???
Do not worry! Nobody can take your Crown of Stupidness from you!
Those were money laundering and it popped right back to an internal source.
I look forward to posts from Dennis SmackInTire the same way I look forward to my dog taking a poop in the morning. Unfortunately, there’s no way to cover up Dennis the same way my dog covers up his poop with repeated back-paw motions.
Those are cats, you —–!
“That’s because Elon Musk has been unable to substantiate any of his spurious claims.”
ROFL laughing.
Nearly every president has promised to eliminate waste fraud and abuse in government.
Polls in 2011 found that voters thought there was atleast 1.6T in spending cuts in the Executive that were possible.
Harvard Economist Robert Barro – long before Trump comiled the worlds largest database of public spending and found that in OECD countries including the US each $ of govenrment spending generates about $0.25-0.35 in Value – i.e. Government spending is 65-75% wasteful.
That is compared to the private sector which MUST average 110% effeciency to have a positive growth rate after the massive waste in the public sector.
The importance to voters of reducing Government waste was so great that in 2011 – Pres. Obama formed his OWN DOGE – and placed none other than VP Biden in charge of it. The Video of Obama and Biden SAYING all the same things as Trump and Musk is available if you look for it – the internet never forgets. As are video of myriads of other politicians saying exactly the same things.
The reason that myriads of Past politicians have SAID all these things that voters KNOW are true, but not actually DONE anything about them, is because they are PART of the corrupt system and they can not survive without it.
This is the Reason that Obama promised to end the war in Afghanistan and failed. It is the reason Obama promised better relations with Putin and Failed. It is the reason that Obama promised to cut waste and Fraud in govenrment and Failed.
Obama and other politicians are OWNED by the system. Trump and Musk are not. Further TODAY a sufficient portion of elected Republicans are NOT, that some of what is necescary is also possible.
Nothing you said about Obama etc in 2011 substantiates claims made by Musk today. If Musk provided documentation for his claims, I assume you would link to that documentation to counter Dennis.
Wtf are you babbling about, you imbecile?
First, Musk is answerable to the president, like every other member of the executive – not to YOU, and not to the media.
That said Musk/DOGE has been incredibly transparent – MOST of what they have found is up on their website which gets updated regularly.
I would further not that even left wing nut judges have had to drop ex-parte granted TRO’s against Trump/DOGE when in the first hearing and in submissions by the administration it has been established that the Claims belong made by plantiffs are unfounded.
The burden of proof is on YOU, on the MEDIA, and expecially on the Plantiffs – and all of you are FAILING.
DOGE not only is NOT required to prove its claims to you – but it has CHOSEN to do so publicly and transparently.
But this is typical of the left.
In the article above Turley notes that Journalism has shifted from objective reporting of facts to advocacy.
BIAS is always a problem for journalists – ALL of us must take care to avoid bias. But especially journalists.
But advocacy undermines both our ability to avoid bias and our credibility.
Turley is noting the decline in the trust of the media.
That is self inflicted.
Just as YOUR lack of credibility is SELF INFLICTED.
YOU ASSSUMED that DOGE does not have the evidence to support what has been claimed – on SO MANY LEVELS that is a stupid assumption that undermines YOUR credibility.
But this of those of you on the left. After pardoning his whole familiy, and after following the money, demonstrating the influence pedalling, and often the quid pro quo, the left the media, are still denying Biden’s corruption.
No one can SHOW YOU THE PROOF – if you are blind.
There is plenty of proof of govenrment waste and Fraud – and much of that proof was publicly available BEFORE DOGE,
DOGE Audits have just found LOTS MORE.
But as they say – you can lead a horse to water, you can’t make them drink.
” I assume you would link to that documentation to counter Dennis.”
You can assume that you would be wrong.
What I choose to provide to counter the Idiot Dennis McInliar is up to me.
Dennis has pretty much NEVER been credible. He has driven his credibility so negative that he would be better off posting as anonymous.
There is absolutely no need to provide proof of ANYTHING to counter and established Liar with no credibility.
Sometimes I DO provide Evidence – That is MY choice. And rarely has anything to do with Dennis at ALL.
My replies to Dennis – are not actually to Dennis.
He is a complete dolt and there is no hope of his ever escaping his delusions.
Neither I nor anyone else owe him anything.
God testifying would not change Dennis’s mind about anything regardless.
Next, I do not owe ANYONE links or other proof of the OBVIOUS that they can check themselves.
I have been posting here for a LONG LONG time. I have established my credibility – just as Dennis has established himaself as a habitual liar.
That is how credibility works. People who tell the truth, and who in the rare instances they make mistakes, correct them have Earned the trust and respect of others.
This article is about the abysmal trust we have for the MSM.
That lack of Trust is because they have lied to us constantly. Their low ratings are because they have lied so much fewer and fewer people are paying any attention to them.
Conversely – Media outlets with have a reputation for reporting the truth – are entitled to respect, and credibility.
They do not need to prove every comma of what they report.
I have a long list of independent journalists I follow. Nearly all of them are on the left – but NOT the bat$chiff crazy WOKE left.
Not the TDS idiotic left. I do not always agree with the OPINIONS of these jounralists – though I do give weight to their oppinions because their long record for accuracy on the FACTS earned my respect.
The SAME is true HERE. I do not agree with alot of what Turley writes. But he RARELY makes factual errors, or errors on the law.
But I do not always share his opinions. Again that does NOT mean he has not earned my respect and that he is not entitled to credibility.
Beyond Turley there are posters here – myself and others who have demonstrably worked hard to get the FACTS right.
Or – because FACTS are NOT the only way to prove things – they have gotten their LOGIC and REASON correct in arguments.
I would note that formal logic is better than FACTS. If there is a conflict between formal logic and FACTS – the first place to look for problems is the FACTS.
Informal logic is strong – though alot of it here is just pointing out informal logical fallacies.
Ad Hominem might be fun. I indulge in it myself on occasion – and lots of people here have EARNED the insults they get.
But ad hominem is not an argument.
Identifying a logical fallacy does not means someone is definitely wrong, it just means their argument is invalid.
I digress, core point is that those who have lied constantly have earned our disbeleif and lost trust – and that is what is happening to the MSM. In the world of business – lack of trust ultimately means the withdraw of financial support.
The FACT that Musk is nearly self made the wealthiest man in the world means that he is entitled to our trust.
Because contra the left – you can not go far in the free market by ripping people off.
Those here who been caught CONSTANTLY lying – owe us proof of their claims.
Those who have a reputation for truth do not.
This is just some news reporting by Sky News. I do not consider the media – “best evidence” – but it is certainly evidence, the guest as well as Sky News bet their credibility on their reporting. To my knowledge Sky News is NOT cutting staff or laying people off.
There is also a bit about election fraud towards the end.
“For Musk his goal has been all along to abolish government agencies to pay for massive tax cuts for him and his billionaire friends.”
If that were true – that alone is enough. The economy grows as a result of the investment of capital.
Taxing it is the stupidest thing that any government can do.
Most of the Billionaires in the world are in the US.
Most of the economic growth in the developed world is in the US.
“Speaking of waste and abuse what is DJT doing this weekend? He is playing golf in FL and hosting a party–all at taxpayer expense.”
Nope, The government provides the president a home – that is the White House. They provide the president security – that is the Secret Service.
They provide the president Trasnportation – but only for Government purposes .
When the president plays golf – he pays his own membership, his own tee fees, etc. When the president throws a private party – even in the WhiteHouse – he pays for it. When the president travels for non-governmental purposes – he pays for it. Including reimbursement for Airforce one.
The president does not travel in motorcades when possible for NUMEROUS reasons.
First because it is not safe. It is far harder for an assassin to take out AF1 midflight that to hit a presidential motorocade.
AF1 can take whatever route it wants from one place to another with no public announcement.
When the president travels by car it is more work for Secret Service – because they must secure all parts of the route that are prdictable out to 1/2 mile.
Next because presidential motocades MASSIVELY disrupt traffic.
Any President driving through Florida would create a huge Traffic mess.
Presidential motorcades are sometimes unavoidable.
But when they can be avoided – they are.
If you wish to contribute to Trump politically – you are free to do so.
If you do not wish to contribute to Trump – then don’t.
People Freely choosing what they wish to do with what is theirs is NOT grift.
Taxpayers being forced to pay for Trans Balets in Columbia – that is grift.
“In another scam DJT announced this week he is offering a new form of green card. It’s called the “Trump Gold Card”. For $5 million wealthy people can enter the US and freely travel outside the country without any restrictions. DJT thinks that “if you sell 10 million of the cards, that’s a total of $50 trillion”. DJT thinks that will help pay down the national debt. FACT CHECK: In the 12-month period ending 9/30/22 only about 8,000 rich people obtained investor visas.”
So what ? What is your point ? 5M times 8K is still $40B
Are you actually opposed to bringing investors and their wealth into the US ?
“DJT is trying to arrest and deport other immigrants who were actually contributing to the US economy.”
Dennis – make up your mind – either the US has been in an actual recession for th past 4 years – because illegal immigrants and added governemtn workers made up more than 100% of the new Jobs Biden claims to have created,
OR Illegal immigrants were NOT contributing nearly as much to the economy as they cost.
A CLUE – if you adjust the Economic growth in the past 4 years for Inflation it was TINY – possibly even negative most of the time.
Millions got in and the economy did NOT grow consequentially.
” When asked by reporters if Russian oligarchs could qualify DJT said “Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people”. Of course he does!”
So ?
“Elon has been unable to show actual fraud, waste and abuse in government agencies”
ROFL.
Please – most people have heard of the idiocy that USAID was funding.
Did you Read Turely’s article above ? People do not trust the media – Why ? Because they have been caught lying so much.
People do not trust YOU – Why ? because you have been caught lying so much.
BTW, the FAA is just another agency that we shoudl eliminate. Oddly in most of the world Air Traffic Control is done privately.
It is part of the services provided by an airport that are paid for by the gate and landing fees charged to airlines.
As to your Starlink Vs. Version nonsense – Cell phone service and expertise is terrestrial – ground based. It works increasingly poorly with altitude. While Satelite communications systems can work throughout the world at any altitude in any weather.
In other DOGE news – Musk, his team, challenged federal employees to process departures and retuirments paperlessly in hours rather than on paper taking months – and in short order a new paperless system was created.
The federal employees who worked with DOGE to do so are clearly productive and likely now have job security.
“If DJT wanted to really eliminate waste and abuse he could have used his motorcade to travel the short distance. “
Dennis, you are an idiot. It is a bit over an hour to get to Miami. Over the years I and millions of people are stopped for an hour because the President is on the move. Not only that but some of those times it is a decoy and not the President. Air-Force 1 is a lot less expensive.
You need to start thinking.
It seems to me that the terms Journalism and Journalist have become overloaded to the point that they are now counterproductive. In the past, one didn’t have to qualify these terms with adjectives such as opinion, biased/unbiased, activist or objective. Objective, unbiased reporting was baked into the definition. The current usage just serves to lend credibility to those whose jobs or goals are merely political marketing. So, I propose a change in nomenclature. One ideas is to come up with new words to describe opinion/biased/activist Journalism and leave Journalism with its original meaning. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that the activists would adopt the new vocabulary. Alternatively, as the ‘journalism’ based vocabulary is probably irretrievably compromised, someone (more creative and persuasive than myself) needs to come up with a new set of words (not using the base phrase ‘journalism’) that can be used to describe traditional Journalistic values, spelling out the values explicitly in the definition, then only using the new words to reference those people and media who actually practice those values.
I asked one of the AI systems to suggest some vocabulary, and this was the response:
[
This is an intriguing topic! If we aim to develop vocabulary that highlights traditional journalism’s values of objectivity, impartiality, and fact-centered reporting, here are some suggestions:
For the field of traditional journalism:
Factualism – Emphasizing the central role of facts and evidence.
Neutralistics – Suggesting adherence to neutrality in reporting.
Truthcraft – Reflecting a craft devoted to uncovering and sharing truth.
For the professionals:
Factsmith – A “smith” of facts, carefully shaping unbiased narratives.
Impartialist – A professional focused on maintaining impartiality.
Objectivator – One who actively seeks and communicates objective truths.
These terms could differentiate from modern activist-oriented reporting, which might use terms like “advocacy journalism” or “narrative shaping.”
]
Frankly, I’m skeptical that my idea would work, but I’d like to see some people who believe in traditional journalistic values give it a try.
Please notice the sneering attitude whenever a “reporter” is asking a Republican a question as compared to the smiling benign attitude when questioning a Democrat.
The fact that Yamiche Alcindor has a job, let alone a very public facing position, is a testament to how biased the media is today. Not only is she a rabid ideologue, she is not very bright (judging from her questions and her inability to hide her biases), she is nasty (only against Republicans) and she has a face made for radio.
OK, my last item may not have been called for, but when someone is so ugly on the inside it makes it harder to not appear ugly on the outside. See Bahar, Joy.
A great example of that is the video I shared with you earlier, of Marco Rubio. Watch the face of the female interviewer, and her disdain is obvious.
Floyd,
In her defense, Marco Rubio was running circles around her and her attempts to trick him or “gotcha!” questions fell flat. Everything he said absolutely made sense.
Yes, I thought it was a very good interview. But if looks could kill, that chick would be in jail for first degree murder.
A “moral arc toward justice” ? Seriously ? If we’re being truly honest Jonathan, how about “well-paid political whores” because facts and objectivity are inconvenient for them. Emilio Garcia-Ruiz hit the nail on the head when he said “Objectivity has got to go.”. Hopefully their jobs will go as well…..
These are the Ones to Blame[.] for the degradation of Journalism and the Journalist whom work under the conscripts of Them;
ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, The CW, and PBS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_over-the-air_television_networks
OH! and HRC’s Sugar Anchor ~ Rachael Maddow.
A brief analogy.
At its beginning, USAID probably did some good around the world. The CIA figured out that it was a great venue for moving overseas operation funds out of the US. The politicians and bureaucrats discovered it was a great way to steal taxpayer dollars by shipping money out to foreign designates under benevolently titled programs and having the lion’s share kicked back to the crooks’ offshore accounts. This makes it very difficult to trace. The USAID host became so overburdened with parasites that it could not be saved.
Moving on to the press… a free and independent press is a key part of a free society… a public check on political activities… BUT. Corporations learned how to use it for marketing and self-protection. Politicians learned how to use it to build their own narratives. The intelligence Community learned how to use it to control the news and build support for their projects. I’m not implying that the press was never “used” before, but recent, post WWII, use and abuse is on an industrial scale thanks to advances in mass psycholgy. A topical video worth watching is Oliver Stone’s film Ukraine on Fire”
Like USAID, our main stream press is so saturated with corrupting money and information parasites that it is difficult to see how it can be saved.
OldFish,
I would say, based off their low ratings, loss of audience, loss of USAID funding, they are circling the drain as someone else put. The growing popularity of independent media is growing as fast as MSM is falling.
@Upstate
Definitely. And I agree with Oldfish, I don’t think they can be saved, they’ve simply gone too far.
It is my hope at least, that the pendulum is swinging the other way with enough magnitude that it will be easy to recognize should it happen all over again people will this time have the good sense to call it out quickly and not stand for it (which appears to be the case, for now).
James,
Some people will not be fooled again. Then, there are a few who will.
@Oldfish
I think so too. Says a lot though, that these organizations, federal and NGO alike, seem to be so easily corruptible.
Of course they are
Power Corrupts.
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.
“If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.”
― James Madison
This is HARD – which is one of the reasons that Government MUST be limited to only what is absolutely necescary.
Even in performing the most critical and essential tasks of govenrment fighting corruption will be an endless task.
Expanding govenrment beyond what only government can and must do, will always result in waste fraud and corruption.
That will grow constantly unless we are eternally vigilant.
It is stupid to waste effort vigilantly seeking corruption in govenrment, for ANY task that can be performed by the market without govenrment.
While I fully support DOGE efforts to CUT programs.
Government inefficiency is inevitable. Either you get inefficiency through Fraud and corruption, or you get inefficiency through the massive effort needed to continuously search for and root out fraud and corruption.
OldFish
Power Corrupts,
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.
Lord Acton
Contra the Left Power in free markets is with Government – only government may initiate FORCE against others.
Participants in free exchange are …. FREE. They can not be FORCED to exchange – they must CHOOSE to do so.
As such they are nearly entirely self regulating – so long as the use of FORCE and Fraud are barred by government.
We do NOT all get the choices we want – Zelensky is learning that right now. I have a great deal of sympathy for him.
I understand his outburst in the Oval Office Press conference. But as Trump said – he has no cards to play.
That is not fair. But it is reality. Regardless, Zelensky has choices – just not the ones he wants.
The same is sometimes true in free markets – though Free Markets NATURALLY are motivated to try to give us the choices we WANT.
But in a free market the POWER is with GOVERNMENT.
And that is Where the corruption is.
It does not matter if USAID or any other agency was created for some good purpose.
Without CONSTANT oversight it will inevitably be used for Corrupt purposes.
I Understand Why it was used by the CIA.
Though I have seen nothing in US (or other countries) History to conclude that these types of government covert actions have any value.
We are told that agencies like the CIA have done good for us in the past.
But we are not allowed to know what they have done – we must just Trust.
Yet whether it is recent revlations about CIA and USAID, or the past revelations – such as the mess they made in Iran, or Chile, or the long long long list of CIA – and other Deep state failures that we KNOW about
I am hard pressed to beleive that CIA or the rest of the Deep State has EVER done us any good.
Frankly the entire foreign Service and Foreign Relations of the US has a long history of being a BAD not good influence on the world.
I am constantly reminding people of “The Ugly American”. It is a work of fiction. One should REMEMBER that it was written and published BEFORE JFK and Vietnam – because as you read it, it is practically the History of the US mess in Vietnam.
Regardless, it is fiction in somewhat the same way that 1984 or Atlas Shrugged is fiction.
It tells the Truth about how the US relates to the world.
Our Government and its conduct throughout the world have Universally – from our earliest days as a nation – made us look Bad.
But our people privately interacting throughout the world ARE the reason that America has the respect of a great deal of the world.
When Iran speaks of the US as “The Great Satan” it is referencing two things.
The first is the REAL history of US government disasterous meddling in Iranian government and elsewhere
And second the very successful “ambassadorship” or private americans throughout the world whose ordinary interactions with the rest of the world are our very best ambassadorship for American Values – Values that the Ayatolah’s in Iran hate and fear.
250 years ago Adam Smith noted
“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. ”
The improvement of the entire world is the consequence of free people seeking their own self interest, solely constrained – by Government from using FORCE to do so.
Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Elon Musk Jeff Bezos have in their efforts to profit for themselves done more good for the world than all charity ever.
I do not seek to piss on private charity – except to note that it is REALLY REALLY hard. Successful Charity is extremely rare.
While at the same time people like Bezos merely seeking their own self interests inevitably make the world better for all of us.
But for all the problems of Private charity – it is 10,000 times better than Public Charity.
There are vidios of the debates of Developmental economists on Youtube from Decades ago examining the FAILURE of Foreign aide to halp developing nations – these debates were occuring LONG BEFORE DOGE.
Private charity is hard.
Public charity is impossible.
Over a Trillion in Aide to Africa over the course of 50 years has not moved the needle at all.
I Do not care if JFK’s intentions with USAID were good – 65 years ago.
USAID is a disasterous failure.
It is also unnecescary.
In 1965 Paul Ehrlich wrote and Published the Population Bomb claiming that we were headed into a period of mass starvation – that over population – the earth could not possibly support 3.5B people, would result in millions starving to death. Ehrlich’s book was instrumental in providing the impetuus to government efforts at population control. Which have not only failed – but been extremely harmful in the few places like China where they worked.
Today we use half as much land to produce food as we did in 1965, we have more than twice as many people, and they are fed twice as well overall as 1965.
There is not a country in the world that is not capable of producing enough food to feed its own people with farming technology that is 50 years old. If the entire world adopted the efficient modern farming that is practiced int the US – we would be capable of feeding a population of 50B people on the same land we use today – and we only use about 10% of the arrable land on earth for farming.
Using farming technology that we already have in the lab – you can multiply that by a factor of 10 again.
Today Hunger is ENTIRELY Political.
The control of food is a weapon of Politicians, religious zealots, war lords – there is nowhere that food aid is needed because people are unable to feed themselves.
And to a large extent US aide Empowers this.
Ignoring the massive waste fraud and abuse inside the US corruption is often essential for aide workers to deliver food in poor countries.
That often sounds reasonable – but infact that corruption EMPOWERS those who have created the problem in the first place.
Take away the aide and the corrupt governments and war lords wither.
Stay the course. Don’t change a thing. You’re going exactly in the right direction.
Well, I wish to congratulate the professor on another biting column. The press, or a great part of it, has become a basket case that is unweaving before our very eyes. It appears that the American Public has determined that the press is reactionary and harmful and is turning away. That is all to the good. It has been so biased and activist that people simply cannot stand to watch it. The preening arrogance and circular groups of self congratulating journalists has just become so unpalatable that the public becomes ill at watching it.
The public’s disgust is all the worse because they have discovered that those they trusted to deliver the news betrayed them and that usually results in anger and sometimes rage.
It’s like being a physician in your younger years, feeling empathy for your patients and the pain that they suffer and so you go overboard in trying to help them and then you find out you have been played, all to get that nice script of opiates (or viewership).
Little by little the evidence starts to roll in about inconsistencies in actions, old records that were supposed to document the suffering never show up, and pharmacies call because that prescription you gave is being sold right in the pharmacy to another person in full view of the pharmacy staff. You can’t quite describe the anger you feel.
Our modern press, is even worse as they dropped hints over the decades and then just became so much more blatant in their bias and poison that those who wanted to believe in them had eventually to turn and cast them away. The disgust grew to be stronger than the sense of loss of what you had once thought to be a friend.
It really quite awesome to watch the dam break and see all that pent up anger sweep down over the land and, hopefully, sweep away the wreckage of the MSM. Then maybe something worthwhile can be built anew. Cathartic I think is the term.
FWIW, I remember one of my clients. She was in a relationship with my doctor. While thus engaged, she stole his prescription pad from him. Wrote a bunch of scrips for painkillers.
Floyd-that does happen, unfortunately. My failure was a Professor in Medical School who taught us to always believe our patients because they would never lie to you. Worst piece of advice I ever got. Too naive for the world when I graduated but the learning curve was steep and fast. The key is not to get too cynical and remember that most of the people really want your help and are good people also.
The Cardinal sin-getting in a relationship with a patient. Bad news all around. Better to just date nurses. And never enter an exam room that has a female patient without having your nurse bodyguard with you.
Jonathan: The reason the public no longer trusts the legacy media is that the billionaires who own it have caved to the dictator’s demands. In a sign of the times MSNBC just cancelled the shows of Joy Reid, Katie Phang, Ayman Mohyeldin, Alex Wagner, Jonathan Capehart and Lester Holt–all people of color who have been critical of DJT’s policies. DJT applauded the firings. He described MSNBC as the “enemy of the people” and said Reid’s show should have been “cancelled long ago”.
It’s pretty clear. DJT wants a compliant press that doesn’t ask tough Qs. That’s why he has banned Reuters and the AP from WH press briefings. He wants the press here to be like the state controlled media in Putin’s Russia. In that bizarre and chaotic press briefing yesterday with Ukrainian President Zelensky the AP and Reuters were banned. But a Russian Tass correspondent was allowed to attend and report back the news that DJT and JD Vance attacked Zelensky for not complying with Putin’s demands for settlement of the Ukrainian war.
If DJT is allowed to have his way the press will be reduced to loyal sycophants–like Fox News, where you work, that has now become the equivalent of the state controlled press in Putin’s Russia. The gutting of the independent media in this country is DJT’s goal. You call that “encouraging”. I call that an existential threat to “free speech”!
Of course it has nothing to do with the fact that their ratings were in the toilet.
One of the reasons their ratings are in the toilet is because increasingly we ALL have access to events LIVE if we want and unedited if we want.
WE do not need MSNBC to tell us what we saw.
and BECAUSE we have learned that when we bothered to check – they had LIED we no longer trust them.
The model of Journalism that casts the journalist as an interpreter of events – telling us what to think – FAILS when we all have access tot he actual events, and increasingly learn that the interpretations of journalists are LIES.
While the left Bias of the MSM is a problem Turley’s real attack is not left vs right, but on the journalist as an elitist interpreter,
rather than an accurate summarize.
Ultimately Truth is what the media is selling – and the decline of the MSM is a direct result of the FACT that they stopped selling Truth.
Ordinary people are far smarter than the left credits them.
One of the major political revolutions of the moment is that the class warefare of communists and socialists and the left has been turned on its head. In the past the communist, socialist and other left wing leaders strove HARD to present themselves as reflections of the views of the majority of people – particularly the working classes and lower classes. In an era where those classes of people had LESS access to Truth, and where the spin of leftist leaders was less disconnected from reality – that model worked.
But today it is the LEFT that has lost its connection with and is at war with ordinary people.
They are trying to sell a “We Know What is Best for You” version of leftism to a body of people – especially working class people who are Better informed than EVER before and have the tools to take note that these left wing nuts purporting to speak for them as LIARS and FRAUDS.
We are in a starange world where a small number of Billionaires are able to earn the trust of ordinary people by speaking VERIFIABLE truth and by being their authentic selves.
“The reason the public no longer trusts the legacy media is that the billionaires who own it have caved to the dictator’s demands.”
ROFL
MSM ratings have Collapsed over the past decade – while new media ratings are skyrocketing.
Glen Greenwald, Megan Kelly, Matt Taibbi, Micheal Schellenberger, Barry Weis, Alan Dershowitz, Joe Rogan and myriads of other new media outlets are making a FORTUNE – they are NOT billionaires yet – but some likely will be.
They are doing well BECAUSE people TRUST THEM.
” In a sign of the times MSNBC just cancelled the shows of Joy Reid, Katie Phang, Ayman Mohyeldin, Alex Wagner, Jonathan Capehart and Lester Holt”
Absolutely – MSNBC is in serious trouble – no one Trusts it, ratings are in the toilet.
BTW Who is the Trump affliated Billionarie that owns MSNBC ?
Those Billionaires did NOT tell their editorial boards and reporters to fawn over Trump. They did not Tell them to change their biased policitical reporting since the election.
They have been TELLING left wing nut journalists for YEARS – that the media exists to MAKE MONEY FOR OWNERS.
Bezos would be ecstatic if WaPo was not losing hundreds of millions each year.
He would leave it entirely alone if it just broke even.
Regardless, Billionaires, Shareholders, – many of whom are ordinary people or the managers of the IRA and pensions of rdinary people are telling the MSM – Make money or get fired.
They have been saying that FOR YEARS.
They have been FAR TOO PATIENT.
Now they are starting to fire people.
They are not being fired because they are left wing nuts, or black or asian.
They are being fired because they failed to do the most important thing that EVERYONE – whether you work for someone else – or yourself must do – MAKE MONEY. Joy Reid as an example had fewer viewers than reruns of antique black and white sitcomes.
Reid had fewer viewers than show up for a Harris Rally.
The Shareholders of MSNBC do not care whether Reid is far left far right or a space alien – if you attarcts the eyeballs that get advertisers to pay the company money.
Turley’s article is about the massive loss of trust in the legacy media.
Lost trust means lost viewers, means lost advertising means lost revenue – means actual losses.
No one Owes Joy Reid or the rest of these people a job.
They got their jobs because the management of the company beleived they could make money for the company.
They have failed, and now they are dropping like flies.
All the people I mentioned who are doing incredibly well on new media – left the MSM.
Now they are doing REALLY WELL.
Joy Reid and the rest of your left wing nuts getting fired from the MSM are perfectly free to join the new media.
Many will – a few might even thrive.
But it is likely most will fail. WHY ? Because they have been caught lying far too many times and no one trusts them.
You left wing nuts still do not grasp – Trust is something you MUST earn. You are not entitled to it.
“DJT applauded the firings. He described MSNBC as the “enemy of the people” and said Reid’s show should have been “cancelled long ago”.”
All true. These are people who have lied repeatedly lost the trust of viewers who have left, and are responsible for the decline of the businesses they are part of.
“It’s pretty clear. DJT wants a compliant press that doesn’t ask tough Qs.”
It is irrelevant what DJY wants. The MSM is in troble because it is NOT delivering what ordinary people want.
People CLEARLY do not want biased advocacy journalism. And to the extent that the biased advocacy journalism of the right is thriving while that of the left is failing. That would be because the LEFT has been caught lying over and over and people no longer trust it.
“That’s why he has banned Reuters and the AP from WH press briefings.”
WaPo sued Nixon over this 50 years ago – and lost. There is no right to be in a WH press briefing.
Regardless, if the public cared – AP and Reuters would be there.
It is odd that you are ranting – Trump has probably spent more hours infront of the press in the past 30days than Biden has in 4 years.
This is the most Transparent govenrment ever.
YOU come here to rant about Trump everyday – with new petty greviances everyday.
yesterday YOU and the rest of the left wigged out over Zelensky and Trump[‘s meeting in the Oval,
But you would have NOTHING to rant about – EXCEPT that Trump invited the press into the Oval.
In the past that is incredibly rare. But Trump has had live reporting from the OVAL for Hours at a time.
YOU formed your opinion of events in the WH on Friday – and head to spray them on all of us.
I have shared my views. But ANYONE who wants can just watch the video. The last few minutes or the entire hour.
Neither I nor you need AP or Reuters or FOX or …. to explain what we can see or here with our own eyes.
Why exactly do ANY of us – need the MSM to explain to us what Trump said or did , when we can just watch what Trump said or did ?
This is ONE of the reasons for the loss of trust in thje media – and BTW why YOU don’t matter anymore.
Because we can SEE and HEAR the truth – we do NOT need MSNBC or Joy Reid or YOU to lie to us about something we can just as easily see for ouselves.
“He wants the press here to be like the state controlled media in Putin’s Russia.”
That is why an enormous amount of what he says and does is happening in front of cameras where EACH of us can Judge for ourselves.
You do not seem to get it. Trump does not want a state controlled media. He is BYPASSING the lying media and showing the people DIRECTLY what he is saying and doing.
“In that bizarre and chaotic press briefing yesterday with Ukrainian President Zelensky the AP and Reuters were banned. But a Russian Tass correspondent was allowed to attend and report back the news that DJT and JD Vance attacked Zelensky for not complying with Putin’s demands for settlement of the Ukrainian war.”
So What ?
Here is the full meeting. Rather than rant about Tass or AP or Reuters – watch as much or little as you want.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pxbGjvcdyY
Are you incable of thinking for yourself ?
Regardless, most americans are not.
It is BECAUSE – despite efforts of the left to control what people can see and hear, that we have MORE RAW access than ever before.
We do nto need talking heads – or YOU to explain what we can see for ourselves.
And WHEN we see it for ourselves over and over we have learned that YOU and your ilk have LIED over and over.
You are not lamenting the billionaries in the media, you are not lamenting SP being evicted from the WH.
You are Angry because the LEFTS near monopoly on information and its ability to falsely spin the truth have been obliterated.
“If DJT is allowed to have his way the press will be reduced to loyal sycophants–like Fox News, where you work, that has now become the equivalent of the state controlled press in Putin’s Russia. The gutting of the independent media in this country is DJT’s goal. You call that “encouraging”. I call that an existential threat to “free speech”!”
Lets assume that you are completely right. So long as we continue to have live and raw access to huge portions of what Government is doing – WHO CARES ?
It does not matter what MSNBC or AP or Reuters SAYS abotu womething that we all WITNESSed Live or can review the unedited live recordings.
CBS is in trouble because they edited the Harris interview to misreperesent her bumbling performance as competent.
The Zelensky/Trump meeting is available to you unedited. You could even have watched it LIVE if you wanted.
Do you ever stop to think how STUPID you sound ?
Given 48 hours to list 5 things that they had accomplished in the past week over a million govenrment employees FAILED TO RESPOND.
Musk noted hitting reply typing a few random characters and hitting send was considered sufficient to atleast prove you existed and were reading your work email atleast once every two days – and still 1M govenrment employees could not manage that.
While Trump/Musk are trying hard to slash the budget and get rid of non-productive staff, even they are not prepared to fire 1M govenrment employees, so aparently there will be a round two. So warn you buddies in government – they WILL be getting a work email and they are REQUIED to respond with a short list of what they have accomplished that justifies their employment.
It would be wise for them to respond this time – or there may not be a next time.
John Say,
I read where some government employee claimed the email requirement amounted to harassment and even terrorism. Over on Bluesky, there is several “altgov” threads of government employees doing everything they can to thwart Trump, Musk and DOGE.
I’ve spent much thought on this issue (of media propaganda) for a long time now; indeed, it was something that the good professor once wrote on the topic that brought me to this blog site–(his blog sight).
I’ve come to respect FOX News a great deal more because it seems to provide platform and discussion of both sides of an issue. But FOX cannot carry this burden alone. I am hoping that other independent media grow in viewership/readership, and I would contribute $$$ to that development.
But the delay in development is/was costly. Now, thanks to the Internet, we (who favor fair and comprehensive coverage) are not just fighting American media giants, we now must fight global news coverage as well.
I agree that we need a media and further that we need multiple parties. It’s heartbreaking what has happened to us, and indeed, the 31% still buying in inhabit a different reality, one constructed out of shadows and wisps of the imagination.
The MSM have become a state media, pure and simple, and the willingness or eve zeal with which they knowingly lie or gaslight for their ‘justice’ is shocking, indeed. This is not sanity.
Objectivity, quest for truth and facts are the salve needed to settle disagreements. Anything less invites the repugnant use of deceptions (self-deceptions and propaganda) to acquire and hold power. The media audience is the key to quality journalism, specifically, its self-discipline in detecting and rejecting pandering, bias, oversimplification and infotainment.
I think defamation lawsuits have had a positive impact (Nicholas Sandmann v. CNN/WaPo, Dominion v. Fox News, Sandy Hook parents v. Alex Jones Infowars). That said, the media can still get away with whoppers (public frauds where no actor is being defamed) for political advantage. There will be more Hunter’s laptop coverups (by elites trained in infowarfare) until we make that kind of political inauthenticity subject to immediate lawsuit and fast discovery processes.
I think defamation lawsuits have had a positive impact (Nicholas Sandmann v. CNN/WaPo, Dominion v. Fox News, Sandy Hook parents v. Alex Jones Infowars).
You took a sophomoric 747 flight right over the context and nuance considering that. Your usual flight pattern here – avoiding any clouds that might be context and nuance.
Dominion v. Fox News was heard a few months after another judge booted a similar defamation lawsuit against Rachael Maddow and her network out of court. Reason: the judge held that Maddow could not defame her victims because her audience knew she regularly didn’t tell the truth so there couldn’t be any defamation. Fox attempted to use that as their defense when sued on what one of their GUESTS said – and got slammed because that Obama judge didn’t agree that stare decisis from the Maddow case applied to Fox and their defense.
And how did the defamation lawsuits of Carter Page work out, after the FBI and Robert Mueller’s “investigation” forged documents to make him out as a spy and traitor, leaking that to the press?
Let me help you with that: individual citizen Carter Page wasn’t allowed to have his defamation claims against the FBI and DoJ heard in court. But hey! At least they got Alex Jones and Infowars for THAT sophomoric lie to the entire country. Pity the one that involved spending millions of taxpayer dollars to develop and spread wasn’t allowed in court…
The Democrat Different Double Standards still applies to journalism.
The passage in this article about citizens turning to outside sources etc., will lead to a total bifurcation of information. A prime example of this is Bluesky – its sole purpose is to provide a safespace for liberals to whine without the need to defend their utter nonsense and it will be ignored by all others. Advocate “pseudo-journalists” will help cement this divide in our nation that will, eventually, destroy us from inside. The answer, if it were possible, is to cleanse our media/education industries of all prog/left ideology and age out those whose minds have been irreparably damaged these past 60 years. This is a heavy lift that I share no optimism about.
Killing two birds with one stone, Katie Hopkins short video, on Zelenskyy and “people living in a lie”, and how hard it is for them to leave the lie:
Floyd,
Pretty good! Pretty sure she is taller than Zelensky.
I just wanna know: Who appointed MEDIA as the collective entity responsible for developing and effecting “social justice?”
Lin,
They, MSM, did. They have declared themselves the ultimate arbiter of truth. The problem for them, we are not buying what they are selling.
Upstate: Yup, yup, and yup. (I’m casual this a.m.) I was asking a rhetorical question!
Who runs the corporations that run the entertainment industry? Those CEOs take their orders from above or the BOD’s, look who’s on the Board. Same groups, look up the ladder and you’ll figure it out, just follow the $$.
Traveler: Who let the DOGS out???
Lin-Hello!
Apparently after yesterday it’s now, “Trump threw the Dogs out “, hold on cause a storm she be a brewin’!
Traveler: Ha ha! Good one.
(“she” equals: maybe Squeeky will come up with a new, true Brew, right on cue! for me and you! and Upstate too!)
ok I’m done here.
Hi Lin!!! I was up early slopping the chickens and getting fresh eggs. And, drinking coffee to clear my head. Yes, let me try an Irish Poem, even though I am still feeling the effects of too much Franzia — 🙂 Thank God, I am off today! Nothing to do but read and watch TV, and cook some fresh veggies!
Czar 54, Where Are You???
An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm
There once were some pigs at a trough!
Who Trump quite abruptly cut off!
Rude and ungrateful,
And totally hateful,
They’ll now fall to the Romanovs!
Note: In Russian, I am told that the ov sound at the end of Romanov, is pronounced more like off. I hope I am right on that. Because if not, then the last line should maybe be:
“Zelenskyy can now go fvck off!!!
Squeeky,
First, the Franzia reference made me LOL! Second, good one!
Thank you Upstate!!! I am glad you liked it! I did a doggerel Franzia Haiku years ago!
Franzia wine rocks!
In its little cardboard box,
Replenish your stocks!
Perfectly paired with Chicken McNuggets!
Good one Squeeky, I use to write cowboy poetry when Oblohole got elected. Weasel Zipper days..Freeman S Peach …
Back at ya!
In 2008 a mistake we did make and a man named Obama was elected
A campaign swept him on the base of a whim
By a Nation that felt quite dejected
You see in the great push to get rid of George Bush we failed to pay close attention
And now that we’re in we can see that our whim has produced quite a failed direction.
You see a right is a right whether Red Black or White, it’s something that is not to be taken
From this two sided tree it is not meant for me as we travel this road of division
Have we all veered too far in our quest for stars and fast cars
No man can provide a good answer
So I bid you ado as I step out of this poo
as the fight for States Rights does continue!
Traveler,
That is pretty good too!
Thank you USF, it was to the best of my recollection as wrote that in 2008. The original version was a bit longer but I knew what Obama was even back then. I don’t know if people on here ever used Weasel Zippers, it was a-lot of old school military.
Post-modernism has 3 pillars:
1. relativism
2. self-referentialism (referring to oneself or itself)
3. cynicism
The MSM personify the post-modernist of our times. Post-modernists are embedded in state universities leadership, faculty and curricula.
e.g.
In the 1980s and ’90s, academic advocates on behalf of various ethnic, cultural, racial, and religious groups embraced postmodern critiques of contemporary Western society, and postmodernism became the unofficial philosophy of the new movement of “identity politics.”
https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy/Postmodernism-and-relativism
Lin, below Estovir, provides a good account of post-modernism elements, but let me add one more to describe post-modernism in the media and the leftists on our blog. They reject linear cause-and-effect narratives in favor of discontinuity and ambiguity.
S. Meyer,
That is a good point.
S. Meyer: Not only are you correct, but the “discontinuity and ambiguity” is often and only achieved through a calculated dishonesty at maximum, an equally calculated silence at minimum.
Might go back to John Locke and are the physical laws of earth immutable? They are for mankind but are mutable for God ☺.