Once again, I find myself asking, how can an alleged opinion writer issue utter crap like this and live with herself? How can a newspaper justify publishing it, or pay someone so dishonest or rock-dumb to write it? How can anyone with two brain cells to rub together read it and say, “Duhh..yup! Sound’s right to me!“?
This fraudulent authority is a trial lawyer who claims to specialize in First Amendment cases, though her screed here tells us that she doesn’t get that free speech thingy. Sabrina is also a failed Democratic candidate for Congress. Her essay is called, “Trump didn’t win; disinformation did.” If I didn’t write an ethics blog, that headline alone would be sufficient for me to eschew the pleasure of reading it.
Just listen (well, metaphorically) to this woman…
- “Rather than the mandate DonaldTrump/Elon Musk/Christo-nationalists are claiming from the election, however, U.S. voters merely reflected the same pattern emerging from around the globe, almost universally: Incumbent leaders and parties worldwide have been defeated, or their majorities reduced, in a global ‘radicalizing effect’ still lingering from the Covid economy.”
Because the American public is famous for following the leads of other cultures. I’ve heard this excuse a lot since the election. Did all those other countries have leaders who were secretly senile and propped up by a conspiracy of their party and the news media? Did all the incumbent parties run babbling, incompetent candidates nominated only because of their color and gender?
- “Americans have seemingly embraced a known monster, someone who sells political violence and hatred, and who tried to overthrow the last election.”
A monster! Trump was selling hatred! Which party’s theme was that if the other party won, it would be the last American election?
- “Trump supporters in the U.S. consume right-wing propaganda far more than the rest of the country, which means they were either not informed about Trump’s sinister plans, or Fox and Twitter/X succeeded in scaring them with a firehose of Kamala Harris disinformation.”
This belongs in the Projection Hall of Fame. Only one party decided that trying to scare voters was their primary strategy, and it wasn’t Trump’s. What scared voters about the Democrats were the four years they had just lived through. Meanwhile, what “Kamala Harris disinformation”? That she babbled on incoherently? They could see and hear that! That she wanted to ban fracking, then didn’t, then did? It’s a matter of record. That she said she supported government funded sex-change operations for illegal immigrants? That her campaign pushed “Sixty Minutes” to edit her interview to make her sound better? That she skipped all of the usual democratic processes on the way to her nomination? Nobody needed to lie about Harris to make her look like a bad bet to be President. She did it all by herself.
- “While it may feel better to think of Trump supporters as misinformed rather than hateful, the downside is that an un-informed public cannot sustain a freely elected democracy….Like a snake gorging on its own tail, domestic disrupters are weaponizing America’s First Amendment to get rid of it, so that the oligarchs funding them can drill, shoot, pollute, and defraud American consumers with impunity.”
So Democrats like Haake want to destroy the First Amendment to save it. Got it! See where she goes next…
- “Fox and Musk have gotten away with spreading disinformation because of a self-serving misapprehension of the political speech doctrine: The First Amendment protects ‘core political speech’ above all other forms of expression. But Musk purchasing Twitter, the world’s town square, only to weaponize it to support his own agenda, and Fox admittedly lying to viewers nonstop to promote Trump, isn’t political speech presumptively entitled to legal protection.”
It’s really funny. Fox is lying to viewers “non-stop.” Nobody who’s watched MSNBC or CNN for ten minutes should find that statement anything but hilarious.
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“The richest men in the world bought the election.”
And yet, somehow, Harris managed to significantly outspend the Trump campaign with most of the richest men in the country backing her.
- “We aren’t a hateful nation; we’re a nation that’s been lied to. By Fox, by Russia, by Musk. We have the strongest economy in the world, we recovered post-COVID better than any other advanced economy, unemployment is low, and the Biden stock market hit more records than Trump’s, yet Fox, Musk and Russia convinced half the country that we’re in economic peril.”
People were convinced we are in economic peril because they can’t afford a house, their grocery bills have soared, they can see with their own eyes that service is lousy and increasingly automated (badly), and the national debt is a ticking bomb.
- “Economists have observed that the gap between voters’ positive perceptions of their own financial health, compared to their negative perceptions of the country’s economic health, is mainly explained by what they are being told by the media.”
“Everything is great, you’re just too stupid to realize it” wasn’t a good campaign message, because one tends not to trust the people who say “the elephant in the room is your imagination.”
Haake’s solution to the Democrats’ problem is censoring the news media and social media. She doesn’t realize that her mindset, which emits the foul stench of totalitarianism, is one of the major reasons Harris lost (other than being a terrible candidate running a miserable campaign). It is also one of the most important reasons. If this is going to be the Left’s response to the 2024 defeat, they will go down hard. And will deserve to.
As for Haake: Get the hook.
Ethics Alarms 
Al Davis: “The quarterback must so down. And he must go down hard.”
Sabrina Haake. Angry lesbian. “Birds fly over the rainbow. Why, oh why can’t I?” Because you’re not a bird, Sabrina? Would that we had gays and lesbians in the closet instead of letting them dominate social policy.
By the way, Pearl Davis, a youtuber on The Pearly Bits, a refreshing voice on current sexual mores, is in favor of taking away women’s right to vote!
I facetiously suggested this to Grace more than once during the Clinton years.
Hook Hack Haake ?
Sounds like conjugating, doesn’t it?
I’m just glad someone liked the joke, lame as it was. 😉
BTW, researching some history on the Hook character, from his genesis as an Eton-educated sophisticate in Barrie’s play & book, to Disney and later itterations, is worth some “nothing better to do right now” time.
All sorts of trivia in there…part intended to be played by same actor as Wnedy’s father, right hand cut off instead of left, ….
Thanks so much for reading my work, and for the shout out! As they say, bad attention is better than no attention. I would offer one tiny distinction. I’m not saying eliminate false speech, I’m saying go back to the Fairness Doctrine where opinion is labeled as opinion instead of fact, so innocent consumers aren’t duped, and require “news” orgs with an FDC license to present both sides when they go on a rant. It would apply to CNN, MSNBC equally. Folks get tired of their rants too but at least they try to include opinions from the right. You all loved the 1950s, why would you kick and scream about returning to a legal norm that prevailed during that time? It actually worked, people were smarter then, partly because they didn’t consume a steady diet of pablum written at the fourth grade level.
So I have to wonder. Are you confused about the 1st A? Or are you really protesting about right wing media being called out for lying?
Kind regards,
Sabrina Haake, the lesbian who wishes she were a bird (that was actually adorable)
Thanks for responding to the post, Sabrina. (On behalf of the site and myself personally, OB was over the line with that crack, and that’s generally not how we do business here. But esteemed and veteran commenters, of which he is one, get leave to exit the margins now and then)
I watched all the channels and listened to pundits, journalists and commentators on the right and left. I am also a consultant in media ethics, government ethics and legal ethics, and a lifetime student of Presidential politics. For anyone to make the claim that Trump was the beneficiary of “disinformation” in the wake of the massive disinformation, news manipulation and biased reporting, not just during the campaign but at least since 2015, is staggering to me, and proof of the terrible power of conformation bias.
There are too many examples to list. Biden and Harris repeatedly used the outright false “bloodbath” narrative, the “good people” lie about Charlottesville, the unsourced smear that Trump called fallen American service men “losers” (Joe used that in one of his lucid moments during the debate.) I saw Harris’s ads, and saw MSNBC bolster them: there’s no indication that the usual Heritage Foundation’s wish list was an official Trump agenda, but the Democrats and many in the media and social media said it was. MSNBC was constantly fearmongering about a national abortion ban, which 1) I am reasonably certain is unconstitutional; 2) there is no indication that Trump supports it, and 3) it’s not on the agenda. Pure fearmongering. MSNBC talking heads repeatedly said that “democracy” was on the line. I have friends who believed that nonsense. If the Democrats really believed it—they don’t—then they would not have immediately shifted to politics as usual when Trump won.
Fox is biased, but it was and is created to counter with its bias the monolithic bias of ABC, NBC, CBS and the rest. If more people are watching Fox, it’s because it comes closer to being a balanced news source than the others—not close enough, but closer. (Fox and Friends is an embarrassment, but at least it doesn’t pretend to be objective, unlike, say, The Today Show and Good Morning America.)
“You all loved the ’50’s.” Bite me. People weren’t smarter then. and they weren’t allowed to have a lot of the kinds of information they can acquire now.The Fairness Doctrine suppressed opinion and was correctly struck down, and that’s why it’s suddenly popular again with the Left, which has swung to totalitarianism. It was NBC, on behalf of Harris, which intentionally violated the Equal Time requirement, the remnant of the Fairness Doctrine by giving Harris the equivalent of a free campaign ad the three days before the election.
The First Amendment doesn’t just protect political speech; it protects opinions, “hate speech” and lies—and should. I have a principle here called “Ethics Estoppel.” Anybodyy who supported a candidate who was part of a Democratic Party-news media effort to pretend Joe Biden wasn’t losing his marbles daily is estopped from complaining about “disinformation,” just as they are estopped from fearmongering about democracy when their party decided to kneecap its most powerful opponent with a wave of politically motivated prosecutions. THAT’S a threat to democracy.
I used to handle support services for the Trial Lawyers association—I know their biases, I know biases make us stupid, but blaming Trump’s victory on “disinformation” is astounding. Trump lost because the Democrats nominated a terrible candidate, undemocratically, and she ran the most incompetent campaign in US history. The conservative side of the media called it what it was…the other side, like Sixty Minutes, tried to deceive the public. As did she, by refusing to make her positions clear. Trump is an asshole, but his policies and philosophy are (relatively) clear and always have been.
I’ll write that op-ed of yours off as blowing off steam (which probably shouldn’t be done in public. I know you can do better. And writing in here speaks very well of you. Thanks.
Next time you’re in D.C., call me (703-548-5229, the Proethics office, or on my cell, 703-244-2197. I’ll take you to lunch.
Well, my friend, we’ll have to agree to disagree. I think his win was due to misinformation from the right, based on the sources and information I cite, mixed in with the global trend of voting out incumbents. I respect that you disagree, but I wasn’t just blowing off steam. Here’s something circulating on my side of the aisle to make you laugh, I hope, bc a little humor never hurts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BrCvZmSnKA
Thanks, Sabrina. You should hang out here. You would be a great asset, and we need more perspective from your point of view.
Will do! I often interact with the right, and work to see their perspective, as long as it doesn’t get ugly. (I don’t mind barbs at me, but I very much dislike when I do it back. We self-righteous lefties even virtual signal to ourselves. Ha!). Also, for what it’s worth, I was a republican for years. I started out writing press releases for the Indiana State house, on the republican side. Then I was a Governor’s Fellow for Robert Orr (R-Indiana), then I worked in his administration. He was fair, kind, brilliant, and centrist and I loved him. I’d like to see the sane GOP come back, we definitely don’t need to be ruled with one party (on either side).
Sabrina
That would make me very happy, Sabrina. And I promise to keep EA’s more vigorous combatants civil. They can get carried away.
Good morning, Sabrina.
I do hope you stay around and interact with the commenters here. You might find the posts/commenting interesting, interested, and perceptive. There is agreement on many issues but robust argument has occurred, leading to terrific posts. Our esteemed Ethics Alarmist host tries hard to keep the arguments engaging and deters invective and personal attacks.
Also, the blog is not solely focused on politics; Jack has a wide range of issues that he finds are telling about ethics, culture, and trends. He is a wealth of knowledge on baseball and theater.
jvb
And Presidential elections and Presidencies. And popular culture. And professional ethics! And an incredibly accomplished and prolific essayist on the level of Michel de Montaigne.
Interesting…
I respect that you’re actually interacting and potentially sticking around. So many questions to ask, but I’ll start with just this one:
I perused the other articles you’ve written for the Chicago Tribune (admittedly just the titles and summaries) and they all appear as histrionic as the article Jack shared above–a lot about how Trump is Hitler, his supporters are consumed by hatred, democracy will end, etc.
How do you square the views you share in your articles with how you’re treating Jack? If you honestly believed the things you wrote, how can you interact with us? Are you just such a good person that you can look past the vileness that exudes from us and take the high road?
I don’t think you’re vile at all, I think you’re misinformed (or, if you’re fully informed, we just disagree.) I have no problem interacting with people of different perspectives. I think it’s the healthiest thing to do. Reality is, however that I do think Trump is vile. I think he is an intellectual midget who has been overly indulged all his life, and I find his character repugnant. It remains to be seen whether he is also dangerous, but I’m assuming the level of incompetence demonstrated by his cabinet picks will be the silver lining.
That said, I don’t disagree with everything Republicans say and do, and I sure as hell don’t agree with everything Democrats say and do. And I do believe many Maga voters have been lied to. I also understand that human nature makes pols who want power say and do things they might not truly believe. I don’t hold it against them, I’ve been there myself, and like to think I can tell the difference. Mainly I regret the level of rancor that has consumed our civic discourse. I think it’s a grave error on both sides, and, it might not surprised you, I blame Trump not the republican party.
How can anybody be misinformed when there are news aggregators like Real Clear Politics that scrupulously provide left and right coverage and opinion right next to each other? You assume people are sheep without any critical thinking skills? It’s insulting. If you’re not a progressive, you’re stupid. Or, we have to agree to disagree, which translates as, “You’re stupid, I’m not.”
I wish your professional writing reflected the levelheadedness you project here. I think it would go a long way toward healing the rift that exists in America.
Is Sabrina simply adapting to market forces? I can understand that in the opinion field. It’s like Michael Kinsley pretending to be more doctrinaire than he was on “Crossfire.”
Yes and I almost brought it up in my post but decided against it since it seems decidedly unethical to stoke up division and, dare I say it, hatred, for personal gain.
Bravo Indigo November Golf Oscar!
PWS
I’m baaack!
“Christo-nationalists.” Nice. What quadrant of the Left did that nasty little moniker come from? You slam organized religion while making every effort to transform liberal ideology and membership in the Democratic party into the new improved secular religion where the collection box is replaced by government imposed confiscatory taxes.
“a global ‘radicalizing effect’ still lingering from the Covid economy.” And who created and then super-sized the “Covid economy”? Who gleefully attempted to bring the U.S. economy to a grinding halt and then showered the populous with the proceeds of billions of dollars of bonds purchased by the Chinese? Creating inflation not seen since the Jimmy Carter era. The Biden Democrats.
“Known monster, someone who sells political violence and hatred, and who tried to overthrow the last election.” Baloney. Pure, unadulterated DNC talking point scaremongering. Is Bill Clinton of intern blow jobs in the Oval Office labeled “a monster”? Why not? Did Trump tell the rioters to “peacefully protest”? What hatred? Hatred of Democrat party policies? Hatred of an out-of-control bureaucracy? Trump sells Jew Hate like the Democrats do?
“Trump supporters in the U.S. consume right-wing propaganda far more than the rest of the country.” What does that even mean? Of course people who watch Fox comprise a subset of the population. So what? Republican voters are obligated to watch CNN and MSNBC and CBS? Who consumes the left-wing propaganda of MSNBC and CNN?
“While it may feel better to think of Trump supporters as misinformed rather than hateful.” Spare me. A Dem talking point. Nice. Condescend to people who see things differently than you do. A great look for lefties. A lefty friend told me “Working class people who voted for Trump think he will help them. He’s never helped a working-class person in his life.” In other words, working-class people are too dumb to know what’s good for them. Nice. Keep it up there, party of the working-class.
“But Musk purchasing Twitter, the world’s town square, only to weaponize it to support his own agenda.” But Jeff Bezos buying the Washington Post and losing tons of money to keep it afloat is just fine. And of course, using tax money to keep NPR as a voice of the Democratic Party is just fine.
“Fox admittedly lying to viewers nonstop to promote Trump, isn’t political speech presumptively entitled to legal protection.” When did Fox admit to lying to promote Trump?
“The richest men in the world bought the election.” George Soros? You mean Musk taking twitter out of the control of its prior ownership that was taking explicit censorship instructions from the Biden administration bought the election? In other words, if Musk hadn’t bought twitter the Biden administration could have won the election by controlling twitter? Or do you mean Bill Gates, or Melinda Gates? Or the MacArthur Foundation or the Ford Foundation?
“We aren’t a hateful nation.” Oh baloney. Stop condescending. A classic, “We aren’t who we are” rationalization. The country is just fine. Are you going to move out of The Hoosier State because it voted for Trump? Or are you going to keep ministering to the poor unwashed of Indiana until they finally see the one true way? “We’re a nation that’s been lied to by Russia.” Russia? You mean the Russia of Barack Obama’s “The 1980s called and they want their foreign policy back”? The Russia that gave the Clintons 200 million dollars? The Russia to which Hillary Clinton provided a reset button? That Russia? The Russia of Marc Elias’s bought and paid for “Trump Dossier”? What lies had Elon Musk made?
“We have the strongest economy in the world, we recovered post-COVID better than any other advanced economy.” The vast majority of job growth comes from government jobs. The economy is handicapped by over-regulation and outright assaults by the Biden Administration. Think what it could be doing if we had a pro-business administration. “Fox, Musk and Russia convinced half the country that we’re in economic peril.” Russia? Fox? Musk? Really? We’re not in economic peril currently because the Biden Administration is on its way out. Harris represented catastrophic economic peril. Four more years of what we’ve slogged through.
“Economists have observed that the gap between voters’ positive perceptions of their own financial health, compared to their negative perceptions of the country’s economic health, is mainly explained by what they are being told by the media.” Economists have observed lots of things. Many economists are lefties. As a matter of fact, Kamaka Harris’s father is a Marxist economist. Who cares. Economists say all sorts of things all the time. One problem economists have: you can’t predict the future. You start by saying people are wrong about their perceptions of the economy without any basis in fact, and then you attribute a suspect fact to what they’re told by the media. You’re making two wild assumptions and treating that as irrefutable fact.
“Well, my friend, we’ll have to agree to disagree.” When anyone introduces anything they’re going to say to me with “my friend,” I run for cover. They are not your friend. Only Sicilians say, “my friend.” It’s the kiss of death. “Agreeing to disagree” is civility bullshit.” It translates as, “I’m smarter than you are but you’re too stupid to even realize it, so I’ll just leave it at that, you poor sucker.”
“But I wasn’t just blowing off steam.” Oh no, you were just enthusiastically and reverentially, and most importantly, mindlessly, reciting a bunch of Dem talking points.
If you want to make a point, OB, no need to mince words…..
PWS
Speaking of mincing, I deployed three of your magnificent, jumbo garlic cloves (more remain) in the batch of spaghetti sauce I made Tuesday. Spectacular. Our tomatoes continue to enlarge. We are fending off the early frost here in Baja Arizona.
Send pics of Tomatoes; the 2025 Garlic crop (~350 cloves) will be planted in the next day or two.
PWS
And I left out you wish (a standard DNC talking point) that the GOP of the past were resurrected. Okay, deal, provided the Democratic Party of the past resuscitates itself and sheds its present radical left overlords. Nowadays when Dems say they wish the GOP were “more moderate,” they’re saying, you’re saying, “if only the Republicans would be Democrats, everything would be fine.” All you want is single party rule a la the Soviet Union and Cuba.