Right-wing Media & the Lightning Fast Spreading of Lies

[LFC]

This is a classic tale of how one right-wingnut source just makes some shit up and the rest of the wingnuts latch on and run with it. The speed that lies and stupidity travel on the right is nothing short of amazing.

By Sunday afternoon, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) had dubbed President Joe Biden the “Hamburglar.” Pictures of steaks and hamburgers were rocketing around the rightwing media ecosystem, escorted by captions screaming that Biden’s climate plan would force Americans to cut 90 percent of red meat from their diets. We had entered the era of baseless meat fear-mongering.

But let’s rewind.

It all started on Thursday, when Biden delivered remarks during the “Virtual Leaders Summit on Climate.” During his speech, Biden sketched out his vision that the United States will cut its greenhouse emissions in half by 2030. His comments were short on specifics as his plan has not yet been released, more of a practice in goal-setting than a detailed outline of how to get there.

Enter: the Daily Mail. The British tabloid, known to compensate for its paltry fact-checking with all-caps sensationalism, shouldered the responsibility of filling in the blanks of Biden’s plan with shoot-from-the-hip speculation.

“How Biden’s climate plan could limit you to eat just one burger a MONTH, cost $3.5K a year per person in taxes, force you to spend $55K on an electric car and ‘crush’ American jobs,” the pithy headline exclaimed, published the same evening Biden made his remarks.

In the article, the Daily Mail cited a January 2020 study from the University of Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems that explored how various dietary changes would affect greenhouse gas emissions. The researchers ran a number of scenarios, one of which tested what would happen if beef consumption dropped by 90 percent.

“Further reducing beef by 90 percent of current levels while replacing 50 percent of other animal based foods results in a per capita decrease in [greenhouse gas emissions] of 51 percent,” they wrote.

The Daily Mail calculated that deprivation to total just one “average sized” burger per month for each American.

And with that, the GOP faux outrage Rube Goldberg machine was triggered.

By Friday morning, Fox had sunk its teeth in. Hosts slyly painted the study and Biden’s plan as related, implying that the one-and-a-half-year-old research exercise was actually part of some analysis of requirements to satisfy Biden’s plan, which has still not been released. The topic was introduced on “Fox and Friends” early that morning and hammered by Fox News and Fox Business Network throughout the day.

[LFC]

Former OAN and InfoWars employees tell us what we've always know: the pushing of lies came right from the top brass. Peddling right-wing lies is absolutely their business model.

From Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham at Fox News to Alex Jones' "Infowars," many right-wing media outlets have demonstrated that pushing lies and disinformation can be quite profitable. Former One America News Network and "Infowars" employees discussed the far-right media business model during an April 25 appearance on CNN's "Reliable Sources," telling host John Avlon (who was filling in for the usual host, Brian Stelter) that accuracy always took a back seat to profitability at those outlets.

Marty Goligan was a producer at OAN before he was fired for speaking candidly to the New York Times, while Caolan Robertson was a correspondent for "Infowars" and Rebel Media. OAN prides itself on being to the right of Fox News, and Goligan told Avlon that OAN's management encouraged him to promote fringe ideas.

Goligan said that when OAN hired him, he expected to work for an organization that had a "conservative slant" — and part of the time, he was doing "normal news rundowns" as an OAN producer. But Goligan told Avlon that he grew disenchanted with OAN when he was pressured to push "fringy" stories that had "weird sourcing."

"It was mostly coming from the top," Goligan said of the nonsense that OAN management expected him to promote.

"Infowars" is known for pushing way-out conspiracy theories, and Robertson told Avlon that the "disinformation" Jones promoted brought in tens of millions of dollars.

"I was told we should never let truth get in the way," Robertson said of the "massively funded ecosystem" he was once a part of.

[LFC]

Faux News is actually not just backing off but doing some correcting (!!!) of its fake red meat ban story. Apparently multiple days of mockery had an impact.

Various shows on Fox News covered the story, producing a graphic that then was frequently shared on social media.



On Monday, a Fox News host corrected one of those segments that had aired back on Friday.

“The data was accurate but a graphic and a script incorrectly implied that it was part of Biden’s plan for dealing with climate change,” anchor John Roberts said Monday afternoon of the study. “That is not the case.”

[LFC]

Another lie, another instant parroting by the right-wing noise machine.

The New York Post on Tuesday quietly removed two of its articles falsely claiming that federal officials gave Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2019 children’s book to young kids held at migrant shelters.

The baseless story spread far and wide in the right-wing media ecosphere over the weekend and was amplified by high-profile Republicans. The Post confirmed to The Daily Beast that they had removed the stories and will be putting them back up with editor’s notes.

Last week, the Post, which is owned by Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch, published a report claiming Harris’ book Superheroes Are Everywhere was included in “welcome kits” distributed by federal officials to unaccompanied minors at a shelter in Long Beach, California.

As The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, the since-removed New York Post article did not include any attribution to back its reporting. Instead, it appears the claim was solely based on a single photograph of one copy of Harris’ book propped up against a backpack. (That didn’t stop Fox News, however, from publishing a similar article the following day, attributing the claim to “photographs show.”)

In what WaPo described as a “bad game of telephone,” prominent Republicans then boosted the story on social media and it eventually made its way into the White House press briefing room as Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked press secretary Jen Psaki about the claims, citing the since-deleted New York Post article. Psaki, for her part, said she was unaware of the story and would have to look into it.

The Washington Post additionally spoke with a Long Beach city spokesman who said there was merely a single copy of Superheroes Are Everywhere donated by a community member as part of a citywide book and toy drive for the migrant children. “The book you reference is one of hundreds of books that have already been donated. The book was not purchased by HHS or the City,” the spokesman noted.

Besides the original New York Post article being pulled offline—that piece had been featured on the print edition’s front page alongside the headline “Kam On In”—the publication also appeared to take down a second piece claiming Psaki had “no answers” on the book. (Following publication of this story, that second piece was returned to the Post website, initially without an editor’s note attached, but later one affixed to note “only one known copy of the book was donated to a child.”)

Elsewhere in the Murdoch media empire, and despite acknowledging that the story had already been debunked on Tuesday morning, the hosts of Fox & Friends continued pushing the bogus claim about the veep’s book.

Co-host Ainsley Earhardt brought up the exchange between Psaki and Peter Doocy, noting that “there were rumors” about the book being given to kids. Fellow host Steve Doocy (Peter’s father) said it was “interesting” that this was something they were handing out at the facilities before airing a clip from the press briefing.

Did Steve Douchey, that lesser son of an already much, much lesser sire, get pwned by Jen Psaki yet again? Where's your pride, man boy? It sounds like you're being publicly humiliated for your stupidity multiple times a month!

[Deleted]

I have to say, after 4 years of ventriloquist dummies opening and closing their yaps, Jen Psaki is an impressive and extremely brilliant breath of fresh air ........ but unfortunately Truth will never catch up to Lies

[LFC]

Apr 27, 2021 20:59:18 GMT @islander said:

I have to say, after 4 years of ventriloquist dummies opening and closing their yaps, Jen Psaki is an impressive and extremely brilliant breath of fresh air ........ but unfortunately Truth will never catch up to Lies

True but at least the NY Post author of the Kamala Harris lie just had a crisis of conscience.

It’s arguably been a challenging week for false information peddlers who seem unable to keep from getting caught advancing fact-free claims as they mount falsehood to generate outrage over a nonexistent meat rationing policy — and now — a fictional tale that Vice President Kamala Harris’ book was part of a welcome kit for migrant children.

The New York Post has edited and republished what was originally a false story by one of its longtime reporters who claimed that copies of a 2019 children’s book written by Vice President Harris were being included in “welcome kits” given to migrant children at a shelter in Long Beach, California.

The reporter who wrote the story said Tuesday that she has resigned from the tabloid after being “ordered” to write the false story which claimed undocumented minors were being welcomed to the United States with copies of a book Harris authored before she became vice president, entitled, “Superheroes Are Everywhere.”

“The Kamala Harris story — an incorrect story I was ordered to write and which I failed to push back hard enough against — was my breaking point,” Laura Italiano tweeted Tuesday afternoon, several hours after the story was temporarily removed.

But the assertions in Italiano’s initial article published Friday, claiming that the book was being shelled out at migrant shelters had already circulated through a well-oiled machine of false information.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 28, 2021 14:58:48 GMT LFC said:

Apr 27, 2021 20:59:18 GMT @islander said:

I have to say, after 4 years of ventriloquist dummies opening and closing their yaps, Jen Psaki is an impressive and extremely brilliant breath of fresh air ........ but unfortunately Truth will never catch up to Lies

True but at least the NY Post author of the Kamala Harris lie just had a crisis of conscience.

It’s arguably been a challenging week for false information peddlers who seem unable to keep from getting caught advancing fact-free claims as they mount falsehood to generate outrage over a nonexistent meat rationing policy — and now — a fictional tale that Vice President Kamala Harris’ book was part of a welcome kit for migrant children.

The New York Post has edited and republished what was originally a false story by one of its longtime reporters who claimed that copies of a 2019 children’s book written by Vice President Harris were being included in “welcome kits” given to migrant children at a shelter in Long Beach, California.

The reporter who wrote the story said Tuesday that she has resigned from the tabloid after being “ordered” to write the false story which claimed undocumented minors were being welcomed to the United States with copies of a book Harris authored before she became vice president, entitled, “Superheroes Are Everywhere.”

“The Kamala Harris story — an incorrect story I was ordered to write and which I failed to push back hard enough against — was my breaking point,” Laura Italiano tweeted Tuesday afternoon, several hours after the story was temporarily removed.

But the assertions in Italiano’s initial article published Friday, claiming that the book was being shelled out at migrant shelters had already circulated through a well-oiled machine of false information.

Fox news and the other cable media plus social media will not mention this retraction and resignation.  And even if they did, it will be couched as "cancel culture" made this author retract the story.  These "stories" are reported not because they are the truth but because they make people pissed off.  Mission accomplished...just as it was with the Dr Suess, Mr Potato Head, etc...

[Deleted]

at least the NY Post author of the Kamala Harris lie just had a crisis of conscience ............. hooray, lfc. Chalk up one for the good guys.

it will be couched as "cancel culture" ............ I don't know about you, GV, or anybody else around here, but I'm nigh sick unto death of Newspeak v.2021. It seems designed to turn ordinary good manners into epithets and slogans: striving to understand people's pain is being 'Woke', disapproving of racism/rudeness/shaming/telling lies/mansplaining/blacksplaining is 'Cancel Culture'. Railing against Wokeness or Cancel Culture is cover for people who don't seem to have a decent bone in their bodies. I refuse to accept the use of Woke or Cancel Culture - I'm an ordinary decent human being. I'm not Woke - I have empathy for folks who are hurting or who are victims of shitty people. I don't practice Cancel Culture - I disapprove of and point out bad behaviour, vile or uncaring or dismissive language (as did my mother and her mother before her) because it's the decent, human and humane thing to do.

[LFC]

One guest decided to use the few minutes they lasted on a Newsmax interview to repeatedly smack them on the nose for lying.

Newsmax host Rob Finnerty found himself getting bamboozled on live television on Monday morning by his own guest, former Obama speechwriter David Litt, who used the interview as an opportunity to call out the conservative media outlet for fueling Trumpland’s deranged conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

The segment went off the rails immediately after it began when Finnerty asked Litt what his thoughts were on SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s performance as the host of Saturday Night Live.

“Well Rob, it’s a great question,” the guest replied. “What happened on SNL this weekend was that people made stuff up and then said it on television like it’s true, and that actually happens pretty frequently in American TV.”

Then, just seconds in, the interview took a turn.

“For example in 2020, Dominion Voting Systems sued Newsmax over its false claims about election fraud,” he continued. “Newsmax was lying to its own viewers and Newsmax had to settle that lawsuit.”

“Actually, I just need to check in: Are you still telling that lie or are you telling new lies?” Litt added.

Finnerty snapped, “I’m sorry David, do you want to talk about something completely non-related and try to catch me on a Monday morning totally off topic, or do you want to talk about Elon Musk?”

“I can see why you don’t want to talk about Dominion Voting Systems because if you do, Newsmax could get sued and lose billions of dollars because these are lies,” Litt replied.

He didn’t let up when the Newsmax host, grumbling that “this is a very funny moment for” Litt, attempted to steer the conversation back to SNL.

“Did Dominion Voting Systems have any impact on the 2020 election?” Litt asked Finnerty.

The show producers cut his feed.

“David, we look forward to having you back on very soon again. That was a stellar interview,” Finnerty huffed after his guest was removed.

[LFC]

The RWM didn't just help fire up the insurrection but also immediately defended it. They've been spiraling down the toilet of lies ever since.

We have now arrived at an auspicious half-anniversary marking six months since a mob of angry Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, attempting to shut down the counting of Electoral College votes during a joint session of Congress — the final procedural step to confirm Joe Biden’s election victory.

What happened on January 6 was very much the result of a right-wing media propaganda operation that sought to delegitimize the 2020 election. Since then, there has been an effort to cover up what happened and to spread further conspiracy theories that would erase any semblance of accountability. Adding to this disinformation campaign, Republican politicians have almost unanimously opposed any comprehensive investigation into the events of that day.

And it’s not just about 2020, either. Behind all the smoke and mirrors is a real political battle going on for 2024.

Other than the quibble that it's a real political battle going on for 2022 that sounds about right.

Here's what they did on initial defense:

When the mob stormed the Capitol, a number of far-right commentators openly cheered on the attempted coup. These included former Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka, who declared that “patriots have taken over Capitol Hill. … God willing it will continue to be peaceful, but a message has been sent.” The right-wing site Gateway Pundit also repeatedly referred to the rioters as “patriots,” even as they fought with the police and caused members of Congress and Pence to take shelter. The Alex Jones Show guest host Harison Smith further praised the “patriots,” declaring, “This is what happens when Americans rise up.”

Fox’s “straight news” coverage also seriously downplayed the violence. Even after Trump supporters had fought their way past barricades to then climb the walls of the Capitol, anchor Bret Baier claimed, “It's not like it's a siege. ... It seems like they are protesting.” Fellow anchor Martha MacCallum also characterized the rioters as “protesters” and said the event was a “huge victory” for them. Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin also parroted the rioters’ paradoxical claims: “Aside from the things that were broken getting into the Capitol in terms of doors, they say there is no vandalism taking place.”

Fox host Sean Hannity also commented on his radio show: “I want to explain in detail if I can what today is about and why people are feeling the way they're feeling, if to the extent that I think I can. … And I would argue, and I have been arguing, that this is something that has been building and building for a long period of time.”

Newsmax host Rob Schmitt also argued at the time: “There's a tremendous amount of frustration. … I do think that a lot of it comes from a very, very logical place. I think some of it comes from somewhat of a crazy place. But I absolutely think that there were a lot of things that were unfair about this election for Donald Trump. No question.”

One of Newsmax’s guests also lauded the rioters’ bravery, in comparison to Republican members of Congress who were failing to overturn the election: “They're furious that this election has been so obviously rigged and these pussyfoot senators and congressmen in the Republican Party who fail to stand up to it. And they are saying if our elected representatives won't stand, then we will do something about it.”

In addition, some One America News personalities attempted to argue that the riot was itself a justification for Pence to come around on rejecting electors, by “sending it back” to state legislatures.

They've gone through the "antifa did it" phase and are currently in the pure denial phase.

Another track right-wing media have pursued is to deny that the clear, obvious events of January 6 even happened.

Tucker Carlson began painting an alternate reality about the event, insisting there was no insurrection and pushing the repeatedly disproven claim that white supremacists were not responsible. In Carlson’s telling, moreover, the rioters were indeed great American patriots: “A mob of older people from unfashionable zip codes somehow made it all the way to Washington, D.C., probably by bus. They wandered freely through the Capitol, like it was their building or something. … They talked about the Constitution and something called their rights.”

Carlson also fired back at the push for a special commission to investigate the event, by mockingly playing a video clip of one moment in which a crowd wandering through the Capitol spoke with members of the Capitol Police who urged them to not commit violence.

“That's one view of the so-called insurrection,” Carlson declared — though he did not show other video clips or photos, such as people crushing a police officer inside a doorway, beating another police officer with an American flag pole, or entering House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) office armed with a stun gun.

Ingraham has also lied about the FBI director’s related testimony to Congress, claiming it had been “one of the big lies that this was a coordinated insurrection,” while one of her guests has claimed there “was no insurrection.” And as Ingraham said on May 5, the media, Democrats, and even some Republicans like Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) are “going to do anything … to keep that narrative alive of January 6.”

Indeed, the urgency with which Fox has urged against any comprehensive investigation of January 6 also contrasts with how fervently the network called for special inquiries in the past:

There's plenty more, most of which we know but is still staggering to read serially.

[Bact PhD]

Jul 6, 2021 21:13:05 GMT LFC said:

The RWM didn't just help fire up the insurrection but also immediately defended it. They've been spiraling down the toilet of lies ever since.

We have now arrived at an auspicious half-anniversary marking six months since a mob of angry Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, attempting to shut down the counting of Electoral College votes during a joint session of Congress — the final procedural step to confirm Joe Biden’s election victory.

What happened on January 6 was very much the result of a right-wing media propaganda operation that sought to delegitimize the 2020 election. Since then, there has been an effort to cover up what happened and to spread further conspiracy theories that would erase any semblance of accountability. Adding to this disinformation campaign, Republican politicians have almost unanimously opposed any comprehensive investigation into the events of that day.

And it’s not just about 2020, either. Behind all the smoke and mirrors is a real political battle going on for 2024.

Other than the quibble that it's a real political battle going on for 2022 that sounds about right.

Here's what they did on initial defense:

When the mob stormed the Capitol, a number of far-right commentators openly cheered on the attempted coup. These included former Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka, who declared that “patriots have taken over Capitol Hill. … God willing it will continue to be peaceful, but a message has been sent.” The right-wing site Gateway Pundit also repeatedly referred to the rioters as “patriots,” even as they fought with the police and caused members of Congress and Pence to take shelter. The Alex Jones Show guest host Harison Smith further praised the “patriots,” declaring, “This is what happens when Americans rise up.”

Fox’s “straight news” coverage also seriously downplayed the violence. Even after Trump supporters had fought their way past barricades to then climb the walls of the Capitol, anchor Bret Baier claimed, “It's not like it's a siege. ... It seems like they are protesting.” Fellow anchor Martha MacCallum also characterized the rioters as “protesters” and said the event was a “huge victory” for them. Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin also parroted the rioters’ paradoxical claims: “Aside from the things that were broken getting into the Capitol in terms of doors, they say there is no vandalism taking place.”

Fox host Sean Hannity also commented on his radio show: “I want to explain in detail if I can what today is about and why people are feeling the way they're feeling, if to the extent that I think I can. … And I would argue, and I have been arguing, that this is something that has been building and building for a long period of time.”

Newsmax host Rob Schmitt also argued at the time: “There's a tremendous amount of frustration. … I do think that a lot of it comes from a very, very logical place. I think some of it comes from somewhat of a crazy place. But I absolutely think that there were a lot of things that were unfair about this election for Donald Trump. No question.”

One of Newsmax’s guests also lauded the rioters’ bravery, in comparison to Republican members of Congress who were failing to overturn the election: “They're furious that this election has been so obviously rigged and these pussyfoot senators and congressmen in the Republican Party who fail to stand up to it. And they are saying if our elected representatives won't stand, then we will do something about it.”

In addition, some One America News personalities attempted to argue that the riot was itself a justification for Pence to come around on rejecting electors, by “sending it back” to state legislatures.

They've gone through the "antifa did it" phase and are currently in the pure denial phase.

Another track right-wing media have pursued is to deny that the clear, obvious events of January 6 even happened.

Tucker Carlson began painting an alternate reality about the event, insisting there was no insurrection and pushing the repeatedly disproven claim that white supremacists were not responsible. In Carlson’s telling, moreover, the rioters were indeed great American patriots: “A mob of older people from unfashionable zip codes somehow made it all the way to Washington, D.C., probably by bus. They wandered freely through the Capitol, like it was their building or something. … They talked about the Constitution and something called their rights.”

Carlson also fired back at the push for a special commission to investigate the event, by mockingly playing a video clip of one moment in which a crowd wandering through the Capitol spoke with members of the Capitol Police who urged them to not commit violence.

“That's one view of the so-called insurrection,” Carlson declared — though he did not show other video clips or photos, such as people crushing a police officer inside a doorway, beating another police officer with an American flag pole, or entering House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) office armed with a stun gun.

Ingraham has also lied about the FBI director’s related testimony to Congress, claiming it had been “one of the big lies that this was a coordinated insurrection,” while one of her guests has claimed there “was no insurrection.” And as Ingraham said on May 5, the media, Democrats, and even some Republicans like Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) are “going to do anything … to keep that narrative alive of January 6.”

Indeed, the urgency with which Fox has urged against any comprehensive investigation of January 6 also contrasts with how fervently the network called for special inquiries in the past:

There's plenty more, most of which we know but is still staggering to read serially.

And, dontcha know, "covid" is a hoax, too...
There's a WaPo piece I'll put up on the Coronavirus thread if it isn't there already; I'll comment further there.

[LFC]

Jen Psaki is hit with an outright lie at a press conference and leaves the nitwit dangling for a bit. She's apparently the White House Correspondent from the Christian Broadcasting Network which would explain the lack of honesty.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 28, 2022 21:05:54 GMT LFC said:

Jen Psaki is hit with an outright lie at a press conference and leaves the nitwit dangling for a bit. She's apparently the White House Correspondent from the Christian Broadcasting Network which would explain the lack of honesty.

The cute chick was just sent to ask that question.  She clearly didn't expect to be asked a question in response and whatever news director that prepped and sent her there didn't bother to anticipate it.  This isn't good faith reporting; it's just repeating a claim to see what the response might be.  No intent to gain information...just reaction.  At least the chick had to good grace to look embarrassed.

[Bact PhD]

I wasn’t sure where exactly to put this piece about Supreme Emperor’s attack dog, I mean press secretary. She really is a piece of work; I can’t help wondering what influence her former employer had on her.

www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/07/27/christina-pushaw-desantis/

The derisive tone was typical of Pushaw, 31, a state employee who earns $120,000 a year. In the 14 months since joining DeSantis’s staff, she has transformed the typically buttoned-down role of gubernatorial press secretary into something like a running public brawl — with Twitter as her blunt-force weapon. Her usual targets: Democrats, the news media and anyone else she deems insufficiently supportive of DeSantis’s agenda and her own conservative politics.

[snip]

Some political observers in Florida think Pushaw’s most important contribution to DeSantis’s team may be in strengthening his connections to stars of the online right — becoming his “right wing whisperer,” as Politico framed it. Earlier this year — Jan. 6 to be exact — she reportedly helped organize a dinner with DeSantis at the governor’s mansion and a night of drinks for nine prominent conservative social media commentators from Florida. The guest list, according to Politico, included several pundits who have downplayed the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and promoted the anti-vaccine movement.

[snip]

She was a surprising choice in any case, considering she had only been working in U.S. politics for a few years as part of a post-collegiate career that also included various jobs in Eastern Europe.
“This governor has used his communications team more like a campaign-style operation than a public-information operation,” said Mary Ellen Klas, a reporter for the Miami Herald who has covered six Florida governors. “They view reporters as their enemies. They are more antagonistic to reporters just by default, and often without cause.”

[snip]

Pushaw grew up in Malibu, the famed beach community near Los Angeles that she has described as “one of the bluest areas in the country.” She graduated from the University of Southern California in 2012 after briefly studying in Russia. After graduation, she moved to Tbilisi, Georgia, and worked as an academic adviser, consultant and editor. She earned a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University’s international relations program in 2017.

After graduating from Hopkins, Pushaw appears to have taken on various jobs in two countries.

Her LinkedIn page indicates she worked as a “donor communications manager” for a nonprofit in Washington from mid-2017 to mid-2019. Citing a copy of Pushaw’s résumé, the Tampa Bay Times reported that the organization was Stand Together, a philanthropy funded by conservative megadonor Charles Koch. According to the Times, she said the highlights of her time there included working on the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and the passage of federal tax cuts in late 2017.

During these years, Pushaw returned periodically to Georgia to advocate for Mikheil Saakashvili, the country’s then-exiled (and now imprisoned) former president, whom she has described as her onetime “boss” and “political inspiration.” She also provided campaign advice to opposition political parties in Georgia, according to her LinkedIn page, and later ran a nongovernmental organization that gave seminars about democracy and civil society to young Georgians.

[pnwguy]

George Will is a frustrating opinion writer to follow. Often he's a crank about things like climate change and campaign finance. But occasionally he nails the subject. Here's his current WaPo piece included below since they paywall.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/10/josh-hawley-broken-news-business/

Opinion Josh Hawley, senator-as-symptom of a broken news business

By George F. Will

Like an infant feeling ignored and seeking attention by banging his spoon on his highchair tray, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) last week cast the only vote against admitting Finland and Sweden to NATO. He said adding the two militarily proficient Russian neighbors to NATO would somehow weaken U.S. deterrence of China.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who is an adult and hence not invariably collegial, said: “It would be strange indeed for any senator who voted to allow Montenegro or North Macedonia into NATO to turn around and deny membership to Finland and Sweden.” That evening, Hawley appeared on Fox News to receive Tucker Carlson’s benediction.

This umpteenth episode of a senator using the Senate as a stepping stone to a cable television green room illustrates what Chris Stirewalt deplores in his new book, “Broken News.” He was washed out of Fox News by a tsunami of viewer rage because on election night 2020 he correctly said Donald Trump had lost Arizona. Now he says today’s journalism has a supply-side problem — that is, supplying synthetic controversies:

“What did Trump say? What did Nancy Pelosi say about what Trump said? What did Kevin McCarthy say about what Pelosi said about what Trump said? What did Sean Hannity say about what Rachel Maddow said about what McCarthy said about what Pelosi said about what Trump said?”

But journalism also has a demand-side problem: Time was, journalists assumed that news consumers demanded “more information, faster and better.” Now, instantaneous communication via passive media — video and television — supplies what indolent consumers demand.

More than half of Americans between ages 16 and 74 read below the sixth-grade level. Video, however, requires only eyes on screens. But such passive media cannot communicate a civilization defined by ideas. Our creedal nation, Stirewalt says, “requires written words and a common culture in which to understand them.”

In the 1830s, new printing methods radically reduced the cost of producing a culture of literate news readers. In the 1930s, however, radio — which was more transformative than what it paved the way for: television — became, Stirewalt says, a passively absorbed alternative to the comparative arduousness of literacy.

Technology — radio, television, the internet — turned journalism from reporting what had happened to reporting what was happening, and now to giving passive news consumers the emotional experience of having their political beliefs ratified. “By 1983,” Stirewalt reports, “the percentage of Americans who got their news from television alone pulled ahead of all newspaper use” by offering “a passive, more emotionally engaged product”: “Television news can be far more emotionally compelling than the written version, and does not come with the need for nearly as much cultural literacy or the challenge of … internalizing ideas.”

Between 2004 and 2020, a quarter of U.S. newspapers disappeared. Today it is much easier to get national rather than local news; this encourages the belief that the national government is all-important. Into this context came, Stirewalt says, national journalists’ embrace of the moral imperative “to go to war” with a president: “Bigtime news dove in the mud with Trump, where he had home field advantage.”

The moment was ripe for Twitter. Stirewalt calls it a platform “that both depletes the value of journalism by dribbling out coverage in an endless gurgle but also enhances reporters’ sense of their own importance by creating a large echo chamber into which they can holler affirmations of self-worth.”

Technology has produced a melding of journalism and politics, to the degradation of both, as illustrated by the seamlessness of Hawley’s Senate floor grandstanding and his cable news self-congratulation. Small wonder, says Stirewalt, that “the news business treats politics like sports” — entertaining but with no meaning deeper than the score.

The fans, consumers of emotional-impact journalism, wear, figuratively speaking, their teams’ colors — red shirts against blue shirts. This journalism’s constant attention to politics instead of government — to gaining power instead of its exercise — makes the players on the field, Stirewalt says, “want to show off to the fans in the stands instead of trying to win the game.”

Hence Hawley, the quintessential example of the politics that the new journalism encourages. And hence his absurd vote against NATO expansion — spoon clenched in infant fist, banging the highchair tray to say: “Pay attention to me!” Hawley, a.k.a. The Sprinter (savor the video of him fleeing through the Capitol, escaping the Jan. 6 mob he had exhorted), is the senator-as-symptom: Define news down, and this is the kind of newsmaker you get.

[andydp]

When last we saw Mr. O'Keefe he was acting like he knew something.  He still doesn't. Here's a blinding flash of the obvious.

Project Veritas CEO Jumps Ship After Finding ‘Evidence of Past Illegality’

Hannah Giles, the CEO of conservative nonprofit Project Veritas, announced her resignation “effective immediately” on Monday, saying she’d unwittingly “stepped into an unsalvageable mess” upon taking the job earlier this year. Giles was named the group’s chief executive four months after its messy breakup with founder James O’Keefe in February. In a statement posted to X, she claimed she’d taken over an organization “wrought with strong evidence of past illegality and past financial improprieties.” Suggesting she’d had no prior knowledge of the infamously embattled nonprofit’s alleged improprieties,

www.yahoo.com/entertainment/project-veritas-ceo-jumps-ship-205050081.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJ-sdyO85vWkohu6jRUq5I-LpRk72C0Q--BHYEPyt3VZtHGS8lV8fNFn3DV8kpOubRFv2_DqR052P1Yvq8lfk27ygqwYuqsn8pzyzXn5HHl40bes4TMFgkZ0bES1QxtAbmXBaVtI2LRnmSfIfqv2MEUt48zXl9Zn9M_P91er7AtS

[goldenvalley]

Dec 12, 2023 11:51:34 GMT andydp said:

When last we saw Mr. O'Keefe he was acting like he knew something.  He still doesn't. Here's a blinding flash of the obvious.

Project Veritas CEO Jumps Ship After Finding ‘Evidence of Past Illegality’

Hannah Giles, the CEO of conservative nonprofit Project Veritas, announced her resignation “effective immediately” on Monday, saying she’d unwittingly “stepped into an unsalvageable mess” upon taking the job earlier this year. Giles was named the group’s chief executive four months after its messy breakup with founder James O’Keefe in February. In a statement posted to X, she claimed she’d taken over an organization “wrought with strong evidence of past illegality and past financial improprieties.” Suggesting she’d had no prior knowledge of the infamously embattled nonprofit’s alleged improprieties,

www.yahoo.com/entertainment/project-veritas-ceo-jumps-ship-205050081.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJ-sdyO85vWkohu6jRUq5I-LpRk72C0Q--BHYEPyt3VZtHGS8lV8fNFn3DV8kpOubRFv2_DqR052P1Yvq8lfk27ygqwYuqsn8pzyzXn5HHl40bes4TMFgkZ0bES1QxtAbmXBaVtI2LRnmSfIfqv2MEUt48zXl9Zn9M_P91er7AtS

O'Keefe was a plain old grifter who created an organization built on lying and misrepresenting people and then sucked money out to satisfy his ego and taste for flashy living. I don't feel sorry for his donors because they were perfectly happy with the BS he was spinning. The real mystery is why anyone would want to be associated with Project Veritas once O'Keefe was ousted.

[andydp]

There's plenty of articles out there but the bottom line to all of them is:

Rudy is F&^&%* and left out to dry.

[goldenvalley]

Dec 16, 2023 17:41:15 GMT andydp said:

There's plenty of articles out there but the bottom line to all of them is:

Rudy is F&^&%* and left out to dry.

Ever since the press conference with the hair dye running down his face he's been on Trump's bad list.  And he brought in the wacko crazy crowd of Sydney Powell etc which apparently Trump didn't like though he apparently gave them the go ahead anyway. Now Trump is a defendant in the Georgia case.  I'm sure he's ticked off and saying things like if it weren't for them he wouldn't have been charged in Georgia. (A very wrong conclusion given his call to the Secy of State.)