How the media can keep from beclowning itself

This is a problem that a little actual journalism can fix.

. . . "This was the original report that sold this hoax to America: "Empire star Jussie Smollett was brutally attacked by 2 men who beat him up, put his head in a noose and screamed, "This is MAGA country.'  . . ."
"The Smollett story was Fake Noose.
"Robert Stacy McCain, a fellow ex-newspaperman, believes federal prosecutors may get Smollett.
"Meanwhile, lawyers are putting the New York Times and others Fake News artisans on the meter as the Covington Catholic Kids file their lawsuits. Good luck convincing a judge that a 16-year-old kid is a public figure.
"Journalism is not the problem with the news media today. Ignoring journalism is." . . . 

CBS’s Lara Logan on Media Bias: ‘Unless You Seek Out Breitbart,’ You Won’t See the ‘Other Side’  "Lara Logan, foreign correspondent for CBS’s 60 Minutes, said Breitbart News offers “the other side” of news media relative to what she described as a mostly left-wing and partisan Democrat news landscape in the U.S. and abroad.
"She offered her remarks in an interview published last Friday with the Mike Drop podcast, hosted by retired Navy SEAL Mike Ritland."Ritland characterized U.S. news media as “absurdly left-leaning” and supportive of Democrats, further describing the status quo of American news media’s left-wing and partisan Democrat biases as a “huge f**king problem” and “disaster for this country.” . . .

The Southern border; the last time Democrats hated a Republican President this much was when they fired on Fort Sumter.

Aftermath

The President’s Immigration Policy and the Angry Left  "The lawsuits have begun. "Still, the Democrats haven’t yet fired on Fort Sumter, as they did the last time they hated a Republican President this much." . . . (Emphasis mine, TD)

Dangerously undereducated voters and those they choose to govern us

AOC: Amateurs On Committees and what they have wrought.

The walking dead: Our ‘education’ system produces progressive zombies

. . . "They are the walking dead, more aware of gender reassignment surgery and third-wave feminism than the Holocaust." . . . 

Democrats are tearing themselves apart over Amazon "Democrats are fighting mad — at each other. For once, President Trump is not the prime target of their rage.

"Amazon’s decision to scrap plans for an HQ2 campus in New York sent the circular firing squad into action. The blue-on-blue attacks pit the far left against the far, far left in yet another front of the party’s civil war.

"In addition to sharp differences about a Green New Deal, taxes, socialism, Medicare-for-all and open borders, Dems are now split over how and whether government should work with the private sector to create jobs and boost the tax base.

"The more moderates, a very relative term in this showdown, eagerly engaged in a form of crony capitalism. The $3 billion in tax incentives that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio offered Amazon included $500 million to subsidize the salaries of construction workers." . . .

Morning Joe worried Ocasio-Cortez’s economic ignorance could hand Trump a 2020 win   “I find [her] extremely dangerous at this point.” – Donny Deutsch
. . . 

"The Washington Free Beacon has the story:

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” broke away from its daily grievances with President Donald Trump Friday to accuse Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) of economic illiteracy and helping reelect the president.

For seven minutes Friday morning, the show’s hosts and guests worried that the self-proclaimed Democratic-socialist was flaunting her ignorance and celebrating the loss of American jobs. “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough lamented that New York “was robbed of this Amazon opportunity” at the expense of the most needy.

From the comments to this article: No, Joe. YOUR party has a far worse problem.
Go to this article (I know I know it’s the Washington Compost), sort the comments by ‘most liked’ and just read comments.
The amount of liberals convinced that yes, this was actually GIVING money to Amazon, is disturbing.
AOC is a symptom of the rot in YOUR party, not the cause.

All this was revealed as far back as 2018: Ocasio-Cortez Embarrasses Herself on Firing Line  . . . "Unfortunately, this wasn’t simply the one scar on an otherwise flawless performance. Most of the time Ocasio-Cortez opened her mouth only to change feet." . . .

Dems' long knives unsheathed on Ocasio-Cortez on Meet the Press  . . . "Ignorance and simple-mindedness are no obstacles to a Democrat winning approval from party bosses." . . .

What Kind Of Jobs Should The Government Create For People Who Don’t Want To Work?

De Blasio says Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez didn’t understand Amazon deal

NY Post

"Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was wrong to have claimed the collapse of the Amazon deal would free up $3 billion to fix the city’s subways and hire more teachers.

"During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” de Blasio agreed when host Chuck Todd said that the tax breaks offered to Amazon weren’t “money you had over here. And it was going over there.”

“ 'Correct,” de Blasio said.

"He added: “And that $3 billion that would go back in tax incentives was only after we were getting the jobs and getting the revenue.”

" 'To further drive home the point, Todd said, “There’s not $3 billion in money —”

“ 'There’s no money — right,” de Blasio said.

"The exchange came after Todd suggested there was a “factual divide” that kept Ocasio-Cortez (D-Bronx) from understanding “how this deal worked.”

"He also played a video clip that showed her reacting on Thursday to Amazon’s cancellation of plans to build an office complex in Long Island City.

“ 'If we were willing to give away $3 billion for this deal, we could invest those $3 billion in our district ourselves, if we wanted to. We could " . . .

Trump's Venezuela policy isn't a case of right versus left. It's a case of right versus wrong.

Cartoons added by TD

NBC News; NBC? No, really!

"As a former Obama-era diplomat, I can and should acknowledge when this president does diplomacy correctly."

"The people of Venezuela are being held hostage by Nicolas Maduro. For years, he has denied them food, medicine and basic supplies. More than three million refugees have fled the country. In 2017, more than 280,000 children were found to be malnourished and at risk of dying. The situation in the country has only declined drastically and the statistics are likely far worse now. Alarmingly, the government denies there are any problems; it doesn’t even allow health statistics to be officially kept.

"Still, we know that newborns in Syria, which is still wracked by war, are more likely to survive than those born to Venezuelan mothers; maternal mortality rose 66 percent from 2015 to 2016. The average person in the nation lost 24 pounds in 2017.Reports indicate that nearly 80 percent of hospitals lack regular access to water, 53 percent of the nation's operating rooms are shuttered and more than 70 percent of emergency rooms cannot regularly provide services to patients.

"Maduro callously refuses to acknowledge, let alone address the suffering of his people. If America allows him to stay the course, the consequences will be catastrophic. This isn’t just a political crisis. There is a humanitarian imperative to act.

"It's true that American hasn't always been a good neighbor; Our relations with Latin America have often oscillated between indifference and ill-advised interventions. And on Wednesday, during a House Foreign Affairs committee hearing on U.S. policy toward Venezuela, many Democrats focused on that past and the possibility that any intervention in Venezuela could turn out as poorly as past efforts in the region.

"But they all but ignored the present perilous predicament of the Venezuelan people. Our past cannot hold us back from doing what is right, and required now. Inaction is not necessarily respect; in this case, it is morally wrong and reprehensible." . . .

By Brett Bruen, president, Global Situation Room, Inc.

Stop Sneering at Evangelicals for Supporting Trump

James Arlandson  "The religious left is still looking down on conservative Christian peons for supporting imperfect, feisty Trump.  Throughout social media and elsewhere, the left accuses us of compromising our faith and standards.

"Prof. Randall Balmer of Dartmouth University recently posted an opinion piece at the Los Angeles Times with the ironic title “God Is on Team Trump? Let’s take a quick check with the Bible.” The sarcasm is seen when God is on Trump’s team, not the other way around. Then he proceeds to dismantle -- at least in his mind -- evangelical support for Trump.

"He starts off with more sarcasm that God put his thumb on the scale of the election, so that Trump barely won and only by the Electoral College. Some victory for God! In reply, just because we cannot figure out the details of how God works in an ocean of humanity does not mean God does not have his purposes and works them out. Prof. Balmer seems to assume that if a victory is not a landslide, then God was not at work. Since he wrote a book about evangelicals, he must know that some of them with a more prophetic gifting predicted long before the November 2016 elections that Trump’s victory would stun the world. It did.  

"Next, Prof. Balmer tackles immigration and summarized some verses in Leviticus and one in the epistle to the Hebrews (since Heb. 13:2 is talking about household hospitality -- not on a national scale -- and the possibility that an angel could be a guest without our knowledge, let’s skip past his wrenching that verse out of context). It is difficult to find mass migration in the ancient world, but let’s assume that millions and millions of immigrants moved into ancient Israel in 20-30 years. And let’s assume that a certain percentage of them raped and assaulted women and children at the border and transported some sort of ancient, mind-altering drugs. Yes, protect the innocent, but there would be nothing wrong with building a wall back then, much as Israel has done today, to good effect. Obama and other Democrats in the past have said there was a crisis at the border. And there is nothing immoral with securing our borders today with a wall or updating the one that is already there. In any case, these are two different contexts, so let’s move on." . . .

James Arlandson’s website is Live as Free People, where he has posted Leftwing NY Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz Misses Facts on Race, and William Penn Proclaims Pennsylvania’s Charter of Privileges.

2020 contender Kirsten Gillibrand backs third gender classification at federal level

CBS News   "New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a 2020 candidate, endorsed federal implementation of a third gender listing for Americans who identify as non-binary. 

"Speaking at an LGBTQ-focused meet and greet in New Hampshire on Friday, Gillibrand emphatically said "yes" about recognizing "X" as a third gender marker. 

"Palana Belken, a transgender woman and organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, asked Gillibrand the question and applauded her quick answer.

" 'According to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ civil rights organization in the U.S., non-binary is an "adjective describing a person who does not identify exclusively as a man or a woman."  

Donkey Hotey

"Belken said her question originated from the efforts of New Hampshire State Rep. Gerri Cannon, a transgender lawmaker who recently introduced two similar identification bills at the state level to present this third option on birth certificates and driver's licenses.

"The potential federal change is important, Cannon said, because states have differing implementation of the "X" identifier.

" 'Right now, especially non-binary people, when they go to one state to another some state trooper may take a look at a license with an 'X' on it and go, 'What is this?'" Cannon said. 

"A handful of states, including Maine, Oregon, California and Colorado, plus the District of Columbia and New York City, recognize a third option for gender identity." 

"Gillibrand is on a campaign swing through New Hampshire this weekend, with stops Saturday in Exeter, Keene and Hanover "

Editorial: Presidential plotters must face punishment

Americans need to know the entire story.  If, as it appears, there was an effort to sabotage a presidency and create elaborate distractions and cover-ups using the powers entrusted to them, members of the U.S. government have involved themselves in a criminal conspiracy that dwarfs Watergate.

  Boston Herald "That Justice Department officials were having discussions about ousting a sitting president should concern every American. It is simply astonishing that these actors allegedly held conversations around the notion of seizing power from the elected head of the executive branch.

"Obviously, heads should roll, but really such a plot should result in criminal prosecutions with all the high-profile force that was used to arrest Roger Stone.

"The new revelations come to us care of former FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe, who has written a book and is shilling it on “60 Minutes.” The interview will air in full on Sunday, but the tidbits that have been released in advance are already damning.

"According to CBS’ Scott Pelley, the reporter who interviewed McCabe, after President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, McCabe jumped into action with other members of the Justice Department. McCabe was alarmed that Trump “might have won the White House with the aid of the government of Russia.” The next day, he brought the investigators together for a meeting.

“ 'There were meetings at the Justice Department at which it was discussed whether the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet could be brought together to remove the president of the United States under the 25th Amendment,” Pelley said.

“ 'I was speaking to the man who had just run for the presidency and just won the election for the presidency,” McCabe told CBS. “And who might have done so with the aid of the government of Russia, our most formidable adversary on the world stage, and that was something that troubled me greatly.”

WATCH: AOC’s 'Green New Deal' Supporters Asked To Explain How Exactly It’ll Stop Climate Change

Daily Wire  "Campus Reform took some time to talk with a few self-styled progressive students last week and learned that when they heard some of the goals spelled out in AOC's since-deleted explainer and FAQ, their confidence in her plan waned dramatically." . . .

"Elad's video follows another similar man-on-the-street video released by Campus Reform, which bases its questions off of AOC's since-deleted explainer and FAQ, a document her office has tried to dismiss as an "early draft" despite having sent it to major media outlets and posted it online before deleting it amid massive backlash.

"In the video, Campus Reform's Cabot Phillips speaks with students at the University of Miami to see how they feel about the GND. Most initially express enthusiasm, saying they thinks it's time to "cut our reliance on fossil fuels" and deeming the deal to be "a great idea" and appopriately "progressive."

" 'I think if we didn't do that, then we're going to be killing ourselves, basically," one student tells Phillips. "So we need to take care of ourselves.' " . . .

"But when Phillips begins to site goals outlined by AOC's team in the FAQ, students' tunes change. Video below: . . .

Brit Hume Takes On NBC Reporter And Obama Adviser Over Kamala Harris Coverage

Daily Caller   "Fox News Senior Political Analyst Brit Hume took issue with the way several reporters covered the Kamala Harris campaign — and defended himself when NBC’s Kasie Hunt and former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes fired back.

"It all began with a Saturday tweet from CBS political reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns, who posted a video of Harris trying on a rainbow-colored sequined jacket — apparently at the behest of CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston. Video

"Hume felt as though the reporter had possibly crossed the line with regard to objectivity.

“ 'This is just embarrassing,” he argued. “So now journalists are going shopping with Harris, helping pick out clothes and then putting out glowing tweets about it.' ” . . .

. . . 
"Former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes also attacked Hume, citing the time Fox News host Sean Hannity appeared on stage at a campaign rally.
. . . 
"But Hume pointed out the fact that Hannity is an opinion host, not a correspondent — and the fact that Hannity was rebuked by the network for his appearance at that rally. “Lame comparison,” he tweeted." . . .

Pundits Call Out Reporters Who Helped Kamala Harris Shop While Covering Her Campaign

Did The Department Of Justice Protect Brenda Snipes From Prosecution For Ballot Destruction?

Disobedient Media

. . . "In addition to Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s involvement in the Awan scandal, the Awan brother’s legal counsel had a direct connection with Bill and Hillary Clinton. The Daily Caller reported that Chris Gowen, the lawyer representing the Awans, had been a Clinton associate:

“Chris Gowen, Imran Awan’s lawyer, is a long-time campaigner for former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton… He left the Public Defender’s office to work for former President William Jefferson Clinton and then-Senator Hillary Clinton. Chris was a fact checker for President Clinton’s memoir, My Life. He also served as a traveling aid for President Clinton’s national and international trips. Chris finished his tenure with the Clintons by directing the advance operations for then-Senator Hillary Clinton during her 2008 presidential campaign.”

"Adding to all of this, Disobedient Media previously noted that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was reported to have threatened the U.S. Capital chief of police with “consequences” in a heated exchange after he refused to surrender a laptop seized from Imran Awan. Fox News also aired allegations that the Awan brothers aided Wasserman-Schultz in making bizarre voice-modulated phone calls to the offices of the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the DNC Fraud lawsuit, drawing a potential connection between the Awan scandal and the DNC Fraud lawsuit.

"In stories like this, the image painted of the Department of Justice is one of a federal agency that functions in a manner far more akin to organized crime than to a governmental body. The DOJ’s refusal prosecute the Awans, and Rosenstein’s alleged decision to prevent legal consequences for Brenda Snipes shows us that corruption allowed to stagnate in Broward County affected the whole country. The public could, therefore, be forgiven for directing a portion of their collective wrath towards the DOJ for enabling such criminal behavior.

"If the Department of Justice refuses to prosecute such crimes as detailed in the Awan scandal and as committed by Snipes, how can the public hope to hold their government accountable for election interference and other forms of corruption?"