Good Morning!
It’s snowing in Alexandria, Virginia!
1 Obviously,racial division works. The President of the United States quite appropriately and necessarily accepted an invitation to attend the opening on the new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum today. So many black dignitaries then announced that they would boycott the event as a result, however, that the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and the White House agreed to hold a separate private program for Trump as a compromise.
You know. Separate but equal.
The disrespect for the Presidency and democracy shown by so many black Democrats since the election, low-lighted by the Congressional Black caucus’s divisive and offensive boycott of the Inauguration has succeeded in propelling race relations in the U.S. backwards. Prime among the offenders is Rep. John Lewis, the “civil rights icon,” as he is routinely referred to in the press, an angry, bitter, hyper-partisan who sees a racism in any policy or position he doesn’t like. Lewis, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, Rep. Bennie Thompson and Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, were among the first to announce that they wouldn’t extend the courtesy to the elected President of the United States to stand with him to honor the civil rights movement and the heroes who laid the foundation of racial equality in our nation.
What is the alleged justifications for this insult, which only exacerbates the dangerous racial tensions in the U.S., which were recklessly manipulated for political gain by Democrats during the Obama administration?
The “racism” of unambiguously opposing illegal immigration and calling Islamic terrorism Islamic…
The President’s support for voter IDs and efforts to prevent voter fraud…
Trump’s refusal to be pressured into condemning a legal, First Amendment protected protest of the removal of Confederate statues after police allowed the protesters to be attacked by antifa thugs in a counter-demonstration. He said both sides were at fault. They were…
The President’s opposition to the Affordable Care Act, because opposing the signature botch of the first black President makes you a racist, and
The President’s public criticism of the incoherent Kaepernicking by NFL players.
None of these individually or collectively are evidence of a lack of support for civil rights or racial comity. Lewis and the rest are harming the nation and their own cause by their effort to “otherize” the President.
2. Nurturing a culture of contempt. Newsweek decided that the death of Vice President Pence’s beloved cat Pickle justified this headline: “Mike Pence’s Pets Won’t Stop Dying” A commenter wrote,
You are a trash publication. And in a piece that ostensibly tries to represent the fact that the Pence family has lost some old, but long beloved pets, as well as tell us who the new pets are, you bury that content under a headline that is nothing short of gloating, hateful, sociopathic, and cruel…
Ah, but “the resistance” loves it, and that’s the target audience.
3. A news media double standard note. Both President Clinton and Barack Obama promised in their campaigns to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capitol. Both failed to keep their pledges. Trump made the same promise, and kept it. The overwhelming verdict by the news media and pundits: he’s a reckless fool, because if Trump does it, it must be bad. Unless you can detect another reason…
4. Somebody tell Professor Butler. You will recall that when I explained to NPR’s Michel Martin that a woman who viewed a sexual advance as welcome decades ago could suddenly decide it wasn’t and accuse Donald trump (or Al Franken) of sexual harassment years later, my fellow panel member Georgetown Law Professor Paul Butler interjected, “Come on!”
Legendary Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue model Paulina Porizkova, whose career peaked in the Eighties, told an interviewer that sexual harassment was such an ingrained part of the modeling business that it was viewed by the models as a “compliment.” After all, if nobody was hitting on you, maybe you weren’t as hot as you thought you were. Some, though far from all, of the #MeToo mob’s witch hunt is based on a sanctification of “presentism,” imposing current standards on past conduct. It is not politically correct to admit it. Good for Paulina.
5. CNN Fake News Update. The arrogance of CNN in the wake of its misreporting of a story to make it appear as incriminating as possible for the Trump campaign is signature significance, and would be enlightening for the public if any mainstream media sources reported it. How ironic!
That’s right. President Trump is lying again. CNN isn’t sorry it falsely told the nation that there was what sure seemed like smoking gun evidence of his collusion with the Russians, and CNN didn’t apologize. Is it fair to say ABC’s Brian Ross, who sparked a Dow Jones panic by another anti-Trump false report, should have been fired, rather than banned from reporting on anything Trump related? Gee, tough question. Should a senior reporter who can’t be trusted to report accurately and fairly on the President of the United States continue to be employed by major news organization? That’s a real puzzler!
- And recall this, from yesterday..
Stelter’s CNN show, by the by, is called “Reliable Sources.” That Brian, the media ethics watchdog! Such a kidder!
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The Federalist’s Molly Hemingway has “some questions for CNN to answer to restore trust between the reporters on the story, editors on the story, the news organization itself, and viewers and readers.” If CNN was a responsible and ethical news organization, it would answer them. It won’t, of course. In fact, if CNN were ethical, it would have answered Hemingway’s questions already.
1. Did CNN ever see the email before running the story on it?
2. Does CNN believe it’s ethical to write about a document and not let readers and viewers know up front that reporters and editors haven’t seen the document?
3. If CNN didn’t see the email, who told CNN about it?
4. Why did CNN believe these sources?
5. Were they Democratic Members of Congress on the House Select Committee on Intelligence leaking information from this week’s testimony?
6. Were they staff of these members?
7. Are these sources independent or in the same office or otherwise related to each other?
8. What other stories have these individuals sourced for CNN and what dates were they published?
9. What is being done to check these stories out for inaccuracies?
10. How many of these stories related to the Russia investigation?
11. How many other stories has CNN reported where it never actually saw the documents it reported as fact?
12. Can CNN point to another big story anchored to documents that its journalists haven’t authenticated?
13. Will the reporters on this story continue to cover this beat? If so, why?
14. Which editors worked on and approved this story?
15. How will editorial processes on Russia conspiracy stories change going forward to avoid similar errors?
16. Given that the story is meaningless, as corrected, why hasn’t the story been retracted in its entirety?
17. Will CNN use these sources in the future? If so, why? If not, how can readers be sure they are not used as future sources?
18. Given the seriousness of their error and the damage they caused to the reputation of the news outlet, will CNN out the sources? If not, why not?
6. Not joking, unfortunately...On the other hand, if none of the above troubles you as a fair and patriotic American, this company will sell you this charming and inspirational ornament to crown your Christmas tree…
Each purchase comes with a priority admission to a mental heath facility.
Or should.
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Pointer: Instapundit
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