Media Corruption

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In Opposite Day Logic, USA Today Breathlessly Defends ‘Zuckerbucks’​

The usual suspects in the corporate media have long operated in an opposite world, believing that speaking their truth is, in fact, the truth. Take Sudiksha Kochi, the “congress, campaigns and democracy reporter” for the shortcut to thinking that is USA Today. Following this week’s rejection of “Zuckerbucks” by Wisconsin voters, Kochi wrote a CYA piece for the left demanding that “Trump and the GOP weaponized Mark Zuckerberg’s donations.”

In the reporter’s pretend world, the unprecedented $400 million-plus that Facebook founder and conservative voice silencer Mark Zuckerberg injected into the 2020 elections was simply the noble act of a Big Tech billionaire trying to save democracy from the clutches of covid-19. The piece is rich with leftist sources insisting that conservative criticism of Zuckerbucks is driven by “misinformation” and “false claims.”

What’s Missing Here?​

Kochi’s sins of omission are as breathtaking as her reliance on leftists to massage her narrative was expected. And the facts she left out are why Wisconsin just joined 27 states in banning private funding in the administration of elections.

There’s no mention of long-time former Democrat operatives like Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein, who offered to cure (or amend) ballot envelopes in Wisconsin’s largest, Democrat-controlled cities and was given the keys to the storage room that held Green Bay’s absentee ballots on Election Day 2020.


There’s no mention of the far-left voting activist “partners” who were required by suspect contracts to be involved in functions that are by law reserved for elections officials. They worked as a swell team, laughing late election night when Democrat stronghold Milwaukee, as it so often does, finally counted all the votes that gave Democrat Joe Biden victory over the left’s No. 1 nemesis, President Donald Trump.

“D-mn, Claire, you have a flair for drama, delivering just the margin needed at 3:00 a.m.,” wrote Ryan Chew of the left-leaning Elections Group in an email to the city elections chief Claire Woodall. “I bet you had those votes counted at midnight, and just wanted to keep the world waiting!”

The USA Today story mentions none of these details or suspect players. It does quote Tianna Epps-Johnson, founder of the Chicago-based Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), the “nonpartisan” nonprofit that received $328 million from Zuckerberg and his wife, Pricilla Chan, in 2020.

 

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'Why is That, Exactly?' Mario Nawfal Demands Voter ID Laws Target Black Voters in the South

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Yawn.

'Echoes of historical suppression,' he warns in hushed whispers. Although, Americans should be reminded of what the Democrats did to Americans to prevent them from legally voting over racism in the past, this just isn't it.

 

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Cuomo Frets NPR Will Target ‘Whistleblower’ Who Exposed Their Liberal Bias​

25-year NPR veteran Uri Berliner recently came forward to call out his employer and colleagues for being liberally biased in a way that was harming the credibility of their reporting. And in an appearance on NewsNation’s Cuomo, host Chris Cuomo shared his concern that NPR would target him and “kick [him] to the curb.” But Berliner said he was getting a lot of support from colleagues, including from surprising sources.

“On that issue of media trust, there was a bombshell today, a whistleblower in effect on bias in the media,” Cuomo announced at the top of the show. “Among his claims: NPR was stacked with like-minded people who appealed to an ever-narrow, progressive worldview catering to a select audience and losing its audience as a result.”

Cuomo agreed with Berliner’s assessment that “political diversity” was not something newsrooms prioritized, adding that it was one of the reasons he chose to join NewsNation:

87 Democrats, not a single Republican. Does he have a point? Yup! Do newsrooms lack diversity? Well, depends what boxes you want to check. Political diversity. It's a big at NewsNation. We've got all kinds here. The disagreement is organic and so are the common concerns.

NPR Chief Hits Back At Whistleblower Who Says Colleagues ‘Secretly Agree’​

In the piece, Berliner wrote how his network had “lost its way,” pointing to various examples, including coverage of transgender issues and the refusal to use terms like “biological sex.”

“It’s frictionless — one story after another about instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad, and the dire threat of Republican policies,” Berliner said, adding that all appeared to be covered and framed in the same fashion. After George Floyd’s death, he said the message came down from the top of the network, “America’s infestation with systemic racism was declared loud and clear: it was a given.”

“In a document called NPR Transgender Coverage Guidance—disseminated by news management—we’re asked to avoid the term biological sex. (The editorial guidance was prepared with the help of a former staffer of the National Center for Transgender Equality.),” Berliner wrote.

“The mindset animates bizarre stories—on how The Beatles and bird names are racially problematic, and others that are alarmingly divisive; justifying looting, with claims that fears about crime are racist; and suggesting that Asian Americans who oppose affirmative action have been manipulated by white conservatives,” he added.

 

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NBC News Notes 'Heightened Islamophobia' After Mass Shooting at Ramadan Celebration​

Three people were shot and five arrested in Philadelphia after a shootout at a Ramadan event in Philadelphia Wednesday. We saw the news breaking yesterday but waited on writing a post until we learned something about the motive. It doesn't appear that white rage was behind the shootout, or that a white man in a MAGA hat was out to kill Muslims. NBC News says five suspects were arrested but doesn't give any indication of their race or religion.

Antonio Planas reports for NBC News:

Two factions appeared to be exchanging gunfire in the park, and police officers saw four people fleeing the scene, Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel told reporters. He said about 30 gunshots erupted in a park where about 1,000 people were gathered.
…

The Council on American Islamic Relations said in a report last week that last year marked the highest number of bias reports in its 30-year history.

The Muslim civil rights organization said it got 8,061 complaints nationally in 2023 from Muslims who reported having experienced discrimination or hate incidents. The figure is a 56% increase from 2022.

Almost half of all complaints came in the final three months of the year, after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which the report cites as the driving force of heightened Islamophobia.

So NBC News' ace reporter says "two factions" exchanged gunfire, and then cites CAIR about the increasing number of hate incidents against Muslims.

CBS News reports that "the shooting does not appear to be an ideologically driven or targeted attack" and that "the initial findings point to an armed skirmish between four to five individuals."

So basically, it was just more gang-related violence in West Philadelphia.

 

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More from NYT (emphasis added):

A closely watched measure of inflation remained stronger than expected in March, worrying news for Federal Reserve officials who have become increasingly concerned that their progress on lowering price increases might be stalling.
The surprisingly stubborn inflation reading raised doubts among economists about when — and even whether — the Fed will be able to start cutting interest rates this year.

Did you catch that?

Lowering price increases.

Not lowering prices.

Just making things more expensive slowly.

It's fine. Totally fine. Best economy ever.

Best Economy Ever, Jack! NYT Reports Inflation 'Unexpectedly' Rose Sharply in March

twitchy.com

 

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CBS Gets Some Leads for New Show About 'False Stories, Conspiracy Theories and Bad Facts'​

Right on cue is a report about a new CBS News venture that will focus on "bad facts," misinformation and conspiracy theories (you know how many of those have ended up being true these past few years):

 

[Kyle]

They can call it "Leftist Bull$hit Nightly"

 

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CBS Gets Some Leads for New Show About 'False Stories, Conspiracy Theories and Bad Facts'​

Right on cue is a report about a new CBS News venture that will focus on "bad facts," misinformation and conspiracy theories (you know how many of those have ended up being true these past few years):

Will the 1st show be all about Biden's false stories .?

 

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NPR Chief Hits Back At Whistleblower Who Says Colleagues ‘Secretly Agree’​

In the piece, Berliner wrote how his network had “lost its way,” pointing to various examples, including coverage of transgender issues and the refusal to use terms like “biological sex.”

NPR Chief Executive Says It Was 'Profoundly Disrespectful' to Out Network's Bias​

Earlier this week, The Free Press published a piece by Uri Berliner, a 25-year veteran of NPR, who said that the network had gone from liberal-leaning to straight-up activism, trying to damage Donald Trump's presidency and "find anything we could to harm him."

The first person NPR sent out to do damage control, ironically, was the same guy who wrote the piece explaining why NPR wouldn't be covering the Hunter Biden laptop story, which was just a "distraction." Berliner admitted they ignored the story to help the Biden campaign.

Now NPR chief executive Katherine Maher has come out with a statement addressing the "hurtful" piece.

 

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British Journo and Crayon-Eater Blames Trump for Iran Attacking Israel and WOWZA That's a Lotta Backfire​

We're not sure what happens to a Leftist's brain when Biden does something irretrievably stupid like he did by telling Iran, 'Don't,' and then calling a lid after they DID ... but we hope it's chemical and not something they do on purpose.

The sort of person who thinks Trump is somehow to blame for Iran attacking Israel would have to have the IQ of a moldy, bologna sandwich.

At best.

Case in point:






Ummm ... what?

To be fair though, the last time we gave a damn what the Brits think was a long long long time ago.

Peeps were less than impressed with Davis' post:

 

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Reporter Gets Bulldozed Over This Hot Take About the Hunter Biden Laptop Story​

You already knew trouble was ahead when a liberal reporter tried to rehash a story that embarrassed them. Paul Farhi of The Washington Post rehashed the “ancient history” behind the Hunter Biden laptop story, claiming that it’s hypocritical to argue that the media should have given more credence to the Hunter Biden laptop story, which he says was “a sketchy, dubiously sourced would-be bombshell a few weeks before Election Day.”

Why? Well, because conservatives were “triumphant” in weaponizing the 2004 fake news Killian documents disaster. That story got blown up when key documents were revealed to be manufactured drivel aimed at hurting the record of George W. Bush during his time with the Texas Air National Guard.

Tim Graham, who used to be my former boss at Newsbusters, was the first at-bat to counter this point, noting that no one censored the ‘Killian documents’ story, which was exposed as bogus and might have played a part in ushering Dan Rather’s retirement. Mary Mapes, a top CBS News producer, got fired. Farhi later said that the Hunter Biden laptop story wasn’t censored, leading to an avalanche of mockery and disbelief from people who witnessed it. The New York Post, who first reported on the story, was locked out of their social media accounts for days:

 

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Visit a College Campus Sometime: NBC News Sounding the Alarm on X Accounts 'Amplifying Pro-Nazi Content'​

Amid rampant anti-semitism on college campuses, and pro-Hamas protesters shutting down roadways in Chicago and elsewhere, NBC News has the real culprits of anti-semitism in their sights:





Oh no. 150 accounts. As of last April, there were 640,000 paid premium accounts, according to Statista.

They write:

Elon Musk’s X is a thriving hub for Nazi support and propaganda, with paid subscribers sharing speeches by Adolf Hitler or content praising his genocidal regime.
NBC News found that at least 150 paid “Premium” subscriber X accounts and thousands of unpaid accounts have posted or amplified pro-Nazi content on X in recent months, often in apparent violation of X’s rules. The paid accounts posting the content all consistently posted antisemitic or pro-Nazi material. Examples included praise of Nazi soldiers, sharing of Nazi symbols and denials of the Holocaust.
The pro-Nazi content is not confined to the fringes of the platform. During one seven-day period in March, seven of the most widely shared pro-Nazi posts on X accrued 4.5 million views in total. One post with 1.9 million views promoted a false and long-debunked conspiracy theory that 6 million Jews did not die in the Holocaust. More than 5,300 verified and unverified accounts reshared that post, and other popular posts were reshared hundreds of times apiece.

150 out of 630,000 is 0.23%, for the mathematically challenged out there.







The media don't like free speech, except for themselves.

 

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AP Wonders If Country Music Will Welcome Beyoncé 'Fans of Color'

twitchy.com

A couple of weeks ago, we told you how the media credited Beyoncé with 'saving' country music with her album 'Cowboy Carter', even though country music -- as a genre -- had seen good growth in 2023.

They want Beyoncé to be two things simultaneously: savior of country music, and this brave pioneer, going where no other artist has gone before, despite racism (they apparently forgot about Darius Rucker, it seems).

Now AP -- ever looking for the racial angle -- is asking the important questions here:

 

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In True Journalistic Fashion, NPR Can’t Take What It Dishes Out​

I & I Editorial Board
April 17, 2024
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Has there ever been a more hypocritically thin-skinned occupation than journalism?

Day after day these relatively uneducated writers piously dish out opprobrium on those they don’t like and then respond like whiny spoiled brats when anyone dares to criticize them.

The latest example of this involves Uri Berliner, a senior editor at National Public Radio who we learned on Tuesday was suspended without pay for having the temerity to complain that this taxpayer-supported enterprise had become hopelessly agenda-driven.

Berliner has worked at NPR for a quarter century and describes himself as a Sarah Lawrence College-educated child of a “lesbian peace activist mother” whose Spotify “listening habits are most similar to people in Berkeley.”

In other words, he’s a solid liberal. So, it’s worth listening to what he has to say.

“It’s true NPR has always had a liberal bent,” he writes, “but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed.”

That culture no longer exists, he says, a transformation that started in earnest in 2016.

“What began as tough, straightforward coverage of a belligerent, truth-impaired president veered toward efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency,” he writes. He goes on to describe how the network’s ideological blinders caused it to swallow the Russia-hoax story whole, mishandle the COVID-19 and the Hunter Biden laptop stories, and how woke dogma infects everything NPR covers.

There’s an unspoken consensus about the stories we should pursue and how they should be framed. It’s frictionless — one story after another about instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad, and the dire threat of Republican policies. It’s almost like an assembly line.

Incredibly, journalists were even “required to ask everyone we interviewed their race, gender, and ethnicity (among other questions), and had to enter it in a centralized tracking system.”

Berliner makes it clear that he went public with his complaints only after getting nowhere internally. One top executive warned him “to be careful” how he talks about “diversity of thought.”

Now, instead of praising Berliner for his honesty, for bringing transparency to NPR, and for applying the same standards to NPR that it insists everyone else follow, and rather than using his expose as an opportunity to make changes, Katherine Maher – NPR’s new and now famously leftist CEO – screeched like the child who’s been told no for the first time.

 

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Just 'Criticizing Israel' - Washington Post Whitewashes Antisemitism in @StopAntisemitism Hit Piece​

 

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The media class despises you. They sneer at your suffering, and are so out-of-touch with reality they can write things like this with straight faces. And they think you'll believe them.

Take Jonathan Chait, for example. We've written about him plenty of times in the past. He's all in on Biden, and Bidenomics, and it's you, dear reader, who are wrong.








Paul Krugman is right?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

We're gonna need a minute. Because that's hilarious.

No, he's serious, though:

One of the most uncomfortable arguments to make in America is that the people are wrong. It’s especially uncomfortable when the subject is something you experience in a more comfortable, privileged way than most people. And so when liberal economic elites insist the economy, which opinion polls consistently find the public considers terrible, is actually very good, it makes liberal economic elites come off badly.
Paul Krugman is one of those dreaded liberal elitists who believes the economy is actually good. So (at a much lower level of confidence and frequency) am I. We have developed a number of explanations for why people believe an economy that The Wall Street Journal recently called “the envy of the world” is so awful.

See? You're not really paying more for things. You're not struggling between rent and utilities and groceries. It's all in your head.

Paul Krugman. The guy who has argued the economy is great for a while now (if you exclude the cost of food, shelter, energy, and used cars) knows better about your life than you do.

'Is Your Family Tree a Wreath?": Guess Who Jonathan Chait Says Is Right and Wrong on the Economy

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