Res Ipsa Loquitur: Our Incompetent News Media

During today’s historic coronation of King Charles III, covered live by all of the news networks, the American reporters on ABC, NBC and CBS all referred to Charles being “coronated.”

The proper term is “crowned.” Dozens of sources would have so informed them—if they had done minimal research. No, it is not a big thing. It is just one more example of how negligently and lazily our journalists perform their jobs.

And thus once again I have to ask: Why does anyone trust these people? How can anyone trust these people? Journalism is no longer a profession in the United States. It is self-indulgent, privileged club.

If You Need Additional Evidence That Paying Attention To Celebrities’ Political Posturing Is Evidence of Crippling Gullibility—And You Shouldn’t—Here It Is

That’s Kim Kardashian above, the perfect embodiment of empty celebrity. She was one of many “glitterati” who attended the 2023 Met Gala on May 1, and willingly participated in the theme, “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.” The whole event was billed as a tribute to the late fashion icon one of the all-time great designers, who was also indisputably a terrible person, at least according to the public pronouncements and signaled values of Hollywood’s, New York’s, cosmopolitan and the fashion world’s stars.

Piers Morgan, who, like a stopped clock, occasionally is spot-on accurate, was outraged by the event’s hypocrisy, writing,

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Not Unethical, Just Narcissistic And Stupid, But Criticism Goes With The Territory

31-year-old Theresia Fischer, who starred on Germany’s “Celebrity Big Brother,” has paid $160,000 for two painful surgeries that added five and a half inches to each leg. Now she is six feet tall in her stocking feet, six-four in those platforms.

The doctors inserted adjustable telescopic rods into her tibiae. I believe that this is a violation of medical ethics, as she had no actual malady that required medical intervention, and the procedure involved risk, as all medical procedures do. However, cosmetic surgeons tend to be live on the bottom of the ethics barrel.

In her publicity campaign celebrating being turned into a freak, she extols what the operation has done for her sex life, but also complains that she has been the target of “hate” on the web, where she is well-followed on TikTok and Instagram. “Why am I subject to so much hate?” she lamented to the New York Post.

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Hear Ye: The Supreme Court Obviously Has To Follow An Official And strictly Enforced Ethics Code

Ethics Alarms has taken the position that Clarence Thomas’s unreported yearly luxury frolics with conservative power-broker Harlan Crow created a sufficiently substantial appearance of impropriety for Thomas to resign. I’ll hold to that; I don’t trust Thomas’s judgment or independence at this point, and I’m not even a dedicated Thomas critic. What has insulated Thomas, and, by extension, his colleagues, from having to respond to this scandal as seriously as they should is the fact that progressives, Democrats and much of the mainstream media have been trying to manufacture reasons for getting Thomas off the Court—he’s too conservative for them, his real crime in their eyes—since they dug up an old girlfriend of Thomas’s to ambush him during his confirmation hearings. This history, including efforts to use Thomas’s conservative activist wife as way to impugn Thomas (an approach that feminist leaders would condemn if they had any integrity themselves, which, sadly, they don’t), has made the whole issue appear to be a partisan weapon designed to wrest control of the Court. It is, but it also is legitimate, non-partisan problem of substantial import to the functioning of the government.

This week, Senate Democrats held a hearing focused on Supreme Court ethics. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.and the other eight justices presented a united front, as he declined an invitation to testify, issuing a statement of their commitment to abide by “foundational ethics principles and practices.”

Well, to put it starkly, they don’t.

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Comment Of The Day: Final Ethics Observations On The Bud Light-Dylan Mulvaney Ethics Train Wreck

When I implied that with yesterday’s post about the Bud Light-Dylan Mulvaney fiasco I was through commenting on the matter, I didn’t mean to preclude others from doing so. Here, Michael R. opens up a whole new wing of commentary that I managed to keep shuttered.

Today was also another entry on the episode’s timeline with ethical resonance: The CEO of Anheuser-Busch tried to avoid some accountability in an earnings call with investors by insisting that the whole thing was misinterpreted, was “not a campaign,” and should not have had so much attention attached to it. He also promised investors that Bud Light will triple its marketing spend this summer to undo the damage that the company was not really at fault for. “Anheuser-Busch did not intend to create controversy or make a political statement,” he said, unconvincingly. “In reality, the Bud Light can posted by a social media influencer that sparked all the conversation was provided by an outside agency without Anheuser-Busch management awareness or approval. Since that time, the lack of oversight and control over marketing decisions has been addressed and a new VP of Bud Light marketing has been announced.”

How do investors retain trust in a company with such loose and inattentive management that this could happen? Is just announcing, “Not to worry, it’s all fixed now!” sufficient to restore their confidence?

Just asking, not observing.

Here is Michael R’s Comment of the Day on the post, “Final Ethics Observations On The Bud Light-Dylan Mulvaney Ethics Train Wreck”:

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I don’t see this as a boycott. I see this as people being done with a product. People boycotting something usually have demands. Bud Light’s former customers aren’t demanding anything. They are just done with the brand.

Let’s see the timeline of events:

(1) Company hires feminist, woke, woman as ‘historic’ hire.
(2) Woke female executive finds that none of her friends use or patronize ‘her’ product.
(3) Woke female executive finds that the customers of ‘her’ product are not ‘cool’ or ‘hip’, like her friends, but are ‘frattish’ and ‘out of touch’. Some of them might have even voted for Trump!
(4) Woke female executive decides that the brand is ‘dying’ despite its great success, so she needs to turn the brand around.
(5) She decides to ‘turn the brand around’ by getting rid of the current customers and attract a new, better clientele.
(6) This turnaround is accomplished by destroying the brand for the existing customer.

Oh, I’m sorry, that was the timeline of events for the destruction of Star Wars.

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More Reasons Why Fox Was Ethically Obligated To Fire Tucker Carlson

The outpouring of conservative support for Tucker Carlson is quite nauseating, and shows an unfortunate infestation of bad judgment and ethics corruption when the necessary conduct is to recognize that an ideological ally is neither trustworthy nor honest.

One report yesterday, pointing to the Fox News’ ratings crashing with Carlson’s exit, noted that younger Fox News viewers had led the stampede. Carlson is a demagogue with dubious motives, and the young are especially vulnerable to demagogues. I regard it as unethical for a news organization to put demagogues on the air for exactly that reason. (Glenn Beck is vociferously defending Carlson. Of course he is. Demagogues stick together.)

Let’s move on from the demagoguery, however, and focus on the Carlson text message published by the New York Times earlier this week (I am about two days behind in my Times spelunking). The message was sent to one of Carlson’s producers after the January. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol:

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Weird Tales Of The Great Stupid: The Phony Women’s Poker Tournament

This whole story is so ridiculous on so many levels that it nicely encapsulates just how stupid The Great Stupid has become. Allow me to explain…

Dave Hughes, 70, entered what was advertised as an all-women poker tournament at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Florida and won $5,555. This somehow sparked outrage, but all-female poker tournaments are illegal in Florida, violating the state’s anti-discrimination laws. Any man could have entered, but for some reason, only he did. The other 82 players were female.

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Hallelujah! Sen.Kennedy Puts On The Record The Irrefutable Evidence That Democratic Climate Change Policies Are Incompetent, Dishonest, And Irresponsible…

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La) questioned Department of Energy Deputy Secretary David Turk today before the Senate committee on appropriations to discuss the 2024 budget request for the Department of Energy.

The following remarkable exchange ensued during the testimony, and it should be used to confront every climate change activist, believer, hysteric and expert, constantly and repeatedly, until they are forced to admit the truth:

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Res Ipsa Loquitur: When “Bite Me!” Is The Ethical Response

Please, God, have somebody this woke-deranged knock on my door.

The father in the video erred by continuing to tolerate this outrageous example of rude and unjustified interference with his legitimate parental authority, even to the extent, at the beginning, of huminahumina-ing justifications, of which he owed none and none were necessary. Had he been exploiting his child (as he would if he had her carrying a political message) or harming his child (by making her wear a mask), the woman would have at least had a colorable reason to intervene on the child’s behalf.

But being told that dressing the toddler in pink is somehow an offense mandates a quick and effective response: “Bite me!” followed by closing the door sharply in the meddler’s face. Anything more extensive or polite conveys gravitas to the confrontation that it does not deserve.

Who ARE these people?