Sharyl Attkisson Exposes Big Media in The Smear

Elise Cooper  "Attkisson went on: "I believe Donald Trump should be covered, as any president should, aggressively, and questioned on what he does.  Yet there has been a shocking degree of false reporting on him in this short period of time by formerly well respected news organizations that have publicly suspended their normal standards and practices to cover Trump, saying they view him as uniquely 'dangerous.'  This has also led to such practices as over-reliance on anonymous sources, who prove to be wrong time and again.  I think this has resulted in experienced journalists at formerly well respected news organizations like CNN, Time, The New York Times, and The Washington Post making rookie mistakes that would not even be accepted in journalism colleges.' "
. . . 

"As an investigative reporter, Attkisson is an expert at detecting smear campaigns.  She warns, "One smear artist I interviewed said nearly every image you run across in daily life, whether it's on the news, a comedian's joke, a meme on social media, or a comment on the internet, was put there for a reason.  It's like scenes in a movie, he said.  Nothing happens by accident.  Sometimes people have paid a great deal of money to put those images before you.  What you need to ask yourself isn't so much 'is it true,' but 'who wants me to believe it and why?'"  This is why everyone should be reading The Smear: to find out how they do it, who is doing it, and what to look for regarding these dirty tactics."  

Trump, the bull in the media shop

Monica Showalter  "Have the mainstream media finally caught on to the obvious?  Well, at least Mike Allen, and his Axios news site, have, recognizing Trump counterterrorism adviser and administration spokesman Sebastian Gorka for who he is, a rock star, as he puts it, instead of what the media's parrot-meisters, JournoListers, leftists, and echo gallery clowns claim he is. Axios writes:

But to Trump's nationalist base, and the one person who matters inside the White House, he's become a rock star in recent days. Gorka's stock has soared as President Trump has watched him on various cable channels fighting with the hosts and accusing them of being part of the "fake news industrial complex."

Before Trump left for Paris yesterday evening, he was asking West Wing staff, "Did you see Gorka? So great, I mean really, truly great." Trump loved, in particular, when Gorka told CNN morning host Alisyn Camerota that more people are interested in cartoons than CNN, and that the network's ratings are lower than "Nick at Nite."

"Long the object of calumnies and fake news – the phony Nazi claim is a real favorite of theirs – the reality is that Gorka is probably the most effective spokesman of the Trump administration.  He makes appearances on Fox News and other outlets as a spokesman for the White House, takes on the mud flung from some pampered prince of the press, and fires back with lightning-fast wit and a sharp verbal sword to the talking head." . . .

"Here's but one example of the moral bankruptcy of Gorka's attackers."

Burying Obama’s legacy

Caroline Glick 

. . . "It may very well be that this week was the week that Israel and the US put to rest former president Barack Obama’s policies and positions on Israel and the Palestinians.

"If so, the move was made despite the best efforts of Obama’s team to convince the Trump administration to maintain them.

"The details of Obama’s policies and positions have been revealed in recent weeks in a series of articles published in Haaretz regarding Obama’s secretary of state John Kerry’s failed peacemaking efforts, which ended in 2014.

"The articles reported segments of two drafts of a US framework for a final peace treaty between the PLO and Israel. The drafts were created in February and March 2014.

"The article series is predicated on the assumption that Kerry and his team were on the precipice of a historic breakthrough between PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. But a close reading of the documents shows that the opposite was the case.

"There are two reasons that Kerry had no prospects for reaching a deal.

"First, he, Obama and their advisers were too hostile to Israel and its citizens to ever convince Netanyahu that Israel’s interests would be secured.

"A February 2014 draft framework agreement, which was based on conversations Kerry and his team held with Netanyahu and his advisers, makes this clear. The draft includes Netanyahu’s demand that Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria not annexed to Israel would remain “in place” after the implementation of a peace deal, and presumably, become towns in the future Palestinian state.

"In other words, Netanyahu demanded that the Israelis in Judea and Samaria whose towns would be located in the territory of “Palestine” would enjoy the same rights and protections as Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy.

"Kerry and his team would have none of it." . . .