Trust me on this: almost all magicians are weird. I strongly suspect that they tend to be on the “neurodivergent” spectrum (that’s the new politically correct term for autistic: you know my views on linguisitic rebranding), but they have other problems as well, including the tendency to slide into more destructive unethical behavior after building their lives around deceiving people for fun.
Alakazam! Here’s David Copperfield to demonstrate how it’s done!
Philip Bump, arguably the worst of the Washington Post’s unethical reporters (but it’s a large and closely bunched field), went into full-Trump hate mode when the ex-President said, during the Democratic National Convention, “Why would somebody who’s Jewish be voting for these people? If Jewish people vote for her [Harris] and I use this expression, they ought to go out, because Kamala is a person that is very anti-Israel, and very anti-Jewish. But she solves that problem by saying her husband’s Jewish, okay? But that doesn’t…her actions are the worst that we’ve ever had.” In April, Trump made a similar statement about Jews voting for Joe Biden. “Any Jewish person that votes for Biden does not love Israel and frankly, should be spoken to,” Trump said. Ethics Alarms covered that “horrible” statement here. The ethics Alarms verdict: rhetorically sloppy and undiplomatic (as usual), but essentially correct.
So was the most recent statement. That this is true was nicely illustrated by none other than Professor Turley, who noted, as the Washington Post and most of the mainstream media did not, that while pro-Palestinian/Hamas/terrorism protesters were given a permit to demonstrate outside the convention hall, pro-Israel, anti-Hamas groups were not. The Democratic Party’s fingerprints are all over this: Chicago’s mayor is a Democrat just like it was in 1968, when Democratic Boss Mayor Daley denied anti-war demonstrators permits, and they protested anyway.
1. Item: PBS. During a Monday night segment of her PBS News program, long time progressive hack Judy Woodruff said, “The reporting is that former President Trump is on the phone with the Prime Minister of Israel, urging him not to cut a deal right now, because it’s believed that would help the Harris campaign.” It was a total fabrication. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office immediately denounced Woodruff’s reporting, and Netanyahu’s office released a statement denying an Axios’ report about a phone call between the prime minister and Trump about the Gaza hostage and cease-fire deal that the outlet claimed happened on August 14. Trump also denied both reports.
Woodruff subsequently issued an apology and retraction on Twitter/X, explaining that her false statement was “was not based on” her “original reporting,” and that she was only “referring to reports” she had read in Axios and Reuters. She was apparently lying about that, too. Nobody can locate any items either in Axios or by Reuters that Trump urged Netanyahu not to “cut a deal.” And, as several have pointed out, the Woodruff retraction was on Twitter to the fools who follow Woodruff, a far smaller group than the millions who inexplicably watch PBS news.
Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” are “baseless, you know. The people who are trying to rig this one say so.
The instant ethics train wreck, courtesy of The Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman Ethics Train Wreck, The Ferguson Ethics Train Wreck, The George Floyd Freakout, the Obama Administration Ethics Train Wreck, the DEI Ethics Train Wreck and The Great Stupid, is described by Campus Reform, thusly:
A primarily black student group at the University of Missouri was recently forced to change the name of that it is planning on hosting. The Legion of Black Collegians reportedly intended to name [a back-to-school barbecue event] the “Welcome Black BBQ,” but was forced to change the name by the university administration. The event, which is scheduled to be hosted on Friday, will now be called the “Welcome Black and Gold BBQ,” a reference to the school’s colors. The group wrote in an Instagram post on Aug. 16 that it is “heartbroken” at the name change.
Ugh.
Having gagged on the last Ethics Quiz completely, I have to clear my palate with a second try.
Those canny Democrats tried to trick young voters into watching Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech last night by feeding their propaganda agents (that is, the U.S. news media) a fake rumor that pop super-star Beyoncé was going to show up in Chicago, perform at the convention’s finale, and thus endorse KAmala Harris.
“Beyoncé to perform at Democratic convention: Sources,” stated the headline at The Hill. “Did White House political director just drop major hint about Beyoncé DNC appearance?” coyly insinuated NBC Chicago. “BEYONCÉ PERFORMING AT DNC’S FINAL NIGHT!!!” claimed TMZ. “🚨🚨SHE’S THERE!!!!!!”announced the Twitter/X account @beyoncepress at 7:16 p.m. Central time, alongside a video of a black SUV driving through Chicago’s River North neighborhood escorted by a motorcade.
All false. Harris finished her speech, balloons came down from the ceiling, and no Beyoncé. Figures aren’t in, but I assume that the planted rumor “worked,” making it “good” as the late Harry Reid will confirm if you track him down in the Lake of Fire.
“It’s a bad move to trick people into staying tuned and then denying them what they thought they’d get,” opines Ann Althouse today as she disagrees with Harry, though I don’t know what she means exactly by “bad.” Unethical? Unfair? Likely to backfire (meaning it didn’t “work”)? Columnist Laura Bassett tweeted that “teasing a huge surprise guest and leaking that it’s both Beyonce and Taylor swift just to get people to tune in is actually kind of funny.” Not unethical. Funny. Bassett is a former HuffPo pundit who now hangs out at MSNBC and CNN, so you can guess what her ethics alarms are like.
Your Ethics Alarms Ethics Quiz of the Day is this…
Well, the morning is off to a roaring start…
They need you to hate Donald Trump more than inflation. They need to you hate Donald Trump more than open borders. They need to you hate Donald Trump more than fentanyl and drugs on our streets. They need to you hate Donald Trump more than our children being killed by illegals. They need to you hate Donald Trump more than the homelessness epidemic. They need you to hate Donald Trump more than the abortion cult of death. They need you to hate Donald Trump more than the possibility of nuclear war. That’s what a vote for Kamala Harris is actually about.
(I would have added “They need to you to hate Donald Trump more than single party rule by a cabal that embraces totalitarian values, Big Lies, unaccountable leadership, state-allied journalism, and public education centered on ideological indoctrination,” but Beck’s list is good enough to start with.)
Oh yeah, this is going to be a great day…
We have clearance, Clarence. Over to you…
Maybe this one should be titled, “Tell Me What I’m Missing.”
Buhach Colony High School (California) principal Robert Nunes was placed on administrative this week after a video of an obviously planned and choreographed bit of foolery with the basketball team’s mascot “went viral.” It was a pep rally. Mascots (which I hate, but that’s another issue) frequently do these kind of routines, and bringing authority figures into the gag is standard fare, giving the human butts of the giant costumed things a chance to appear more human, show they are good sports, yada yada. I’ve seen baseball managers get in to faux fistfights with these escapees from a Disneyland parade. The crowd generally loves it, the morons. Big deal.
Your Ethics Alarms Ethics Quiz of the Day is…
Congratulations are due to South Shore Little League manager Bob Laterza. He got his name prominently mentioned in the sports media by verbally attacking baseball mega-star Aaron Judge, immediately setting off a controversy.
Judge’s Yankees played the Detroit Tigers in the MLB Little League Classic at Williamsport, Pa. The Staten Island Little League coach slammed the Shrek-like slugger afterwards, telling the media,“How about turning around or wave to New York and the kids that think you’re a hero? They are the ones who pay your salary.” Laterza alleged that Judge ignored his young players as they shouted his name from 10 feet away.
That’s Judge in the photo above, wearing the 99 jersey in the middle of a mob of admirers at the event.
The only reason the coach’s grandstanding was considered news is that his target was Judge, not only the best player alive this season but also renowned as a model baseball citizen and one of the nicest people ever to play the game, even if he does play for the Yankees. Judge signed autographs and posed for pictures with many Little Leaguers from the various teams attending the game. Laterza criticism was the ultimate cheap shot, acquiring some pitiful publicity for himself by assailing a major celebrity.
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
Judge refused to respond to Laterza’s accusations. It is that kind of abuse from entitled fans and others who believe that baseball stars owe them every second of their time that has prompted many players to announce that they won’t engage with anyone, sign autographs or anything else.
Never mind though. Bob got his name in the sports section.
…that in an election year characterized by the Democratic Party deliberately misrepresenting reality on multiple fronts to keep Americans in the dark just long enough to hold on to the power it craves and has so flagrantly abused, we just learned that the U.S. added about 818,000 fewer jobs in the 12 months ending in March than we had been told.
From the New York Times yesterday:
[M]onthly payroll figures overstated job growth…That suggests employers added about 174,000 jobs per month during that period, down from the previously reported pace of about 242,000 jobs — a downward revision of about 28 percent. The revisions, which are preliminary, are part of an annual process in which monthly estimates, based on surveys, are reconciled with more accurate but less timely records from state unemployment offices. The new figures, once they’re made final, will be incorporated into official government employment statistics early next year.
The updated numbers are the latest sign of vulnerability in the job market, which until recently had appeared rock solid despite months of high interest rates and economists’ warnings of an impending recession…This year’s revision was unusually large. Over the previous decade, the annual updates had added or subtracted an average of about 173,000 jobs…
The updated numbers are the latest sign of vulnerability in the job market, which until recently had appeared rock solid despite months of high interest rates and economists’ warnings of an impending recession. More recent data, which wasn’t affected by the revisions, suggests job growth slowed further in the spring and summer, and the unemployment rate, though still relatively low at 4.3 percent, has been gradually rising…
Oh. Being good little Axis members, the Times dutifully throws in excuses, rationalizations and other devices of modern advocacy journalism propaganda to persuade readers that this news isn’t worth getting upset about and to stop them from suspecting that they are being treated like dupes. For instance…
I don’t set out to connect these posts; sometimes it just happens.
If you thought the board-poisoning chess player was obviously unethical, how about a hospital losing a piece of a patient’s skull?
Fernando Cluster was admitted to Emory University Hospital Midtown on September 30, 2022. He was diagnosed with an intracerebral hemorrhage, a type of stroke that causes bleeding in the brain. He needed a decompressive hemicraniectomy, which meant a 12 centimeter by 15 centimeter piece of his skull would be removed to allow his brain the space it needed to swell and heal during surgery.
The “bone flap” as it is called was supposed to be reattached during a procedure called a cranioplasty. But when the operation was scheduled to proceed on November 11, 2022, Fernando’s bone flap was missing. It must bve been around here somewhere; I swear I just saw it…boy, don’t you hate it when that happens? Once, my wife lost our tickets for a Paul McCartney concert…You know, this kind of thing can happen to anybody.
Ethics Alarms 