The demise of media objectivity

American media have come full circle. Newspapers, among the only media in Colonial times, were highly partisan, and truth was not a priority.  Today, newspaper and TV media have returned to that point.

CNN plus some MSNBC

 American Thinker  . . . "In the meantime, objectivity steadily had lost ground, which unquestionably was a contributing factor.  In 2016, the media dropped all pretense of it, for the most part, and have been on a rampage since then.  Several networks such as CNN and MSNBC conduct a virtual 24/7 rant against the president — and with him capitalism, conservatism, Christianity, and other aspects of traditional American culture, no matter the cost in viewership.

"Fortunately, the social media gave people more opportunity to express their own opinions and reach millions, cutting into the media monopoly.

"But as the media giants consolidate, and objectivity shrinks, the same concerns that arose 75 years ago are being revived.

"Those in the media might want to consider the warning from the Hutchins Commission:

No democracy will indefinitely tolerate concentration of private power, irresponsible and strong enough to thwart the democratic aspirations of the people.  If these giant agencies of communication are irresponsible, not even the First Amendment will protect their freedom from government control.  The Amendment will be amended.

"When you hear talk today of curbs on the media, consider this background.  It is largely a self-imposed problem."

I thought the NYTimes couldn't get worse, but it has

Phyllis Chesler

The Times is only one example - and a thoroughly reprehensible one - of the rampant, toxic anti-Semitism sweeping the entire world.

"Anti-Semitism has toxically penetrated and infiltrated the world’s every nook and cranny. Blood Libel propaganda is now far more dangerous than it was in Hitler’s time. Today’s barrage of genocidally intentioned propaganda against the Jews is intense, brazen, and increasingly being normalized on university campuses, in national and international government bodies, in the media, and in demonstrations—and in every language on earth 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- courtesy of the internet and the airwaves.

"Nearly twenty years ago, I wrote that that Anti-Zionism was, in part, now the “new” and acceptable anti-Semitism; it’s also what I believed almost fifty years ago, when I first began collecting signatures to oppose the Zionism=Racism resolution at the United Nations. As Daniel Pearl’s father, Judea, has said: “Zionism does not =Racism—Anti-Zionism=Racism.”

"The very Homeland to which Jews returned in flight from persecution in Middle Eastern, Central Asian, and European countries has, in the 21st century, rather diabolically become the excuse for again persecuting Jews both around the world and in Israel."

Leftist silliness April 9, 2019

Gender Studies Professor Says ‘White People Own Time’: ‘If Time Had a Race, It Would Be White’  . . . "When a person – “usually” a white person, according to Cooper –  accuses black people of being “stuck in the past,” they are evidencing the racial foundations of time." (Photo, right)

Welcome to Democrats 2020: “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg Regrets Saying “All Lives Matter”  . . . "On Thursday, after speaking to the largely African American audience, Buttigieg told reporters he didn’t initially realize how the phrase “all lives matter” was used to undercut and “devalue” the Black Lives Matter movement. “Since learning about how that phrase was being used to push back on that activism, I stopped using it,” the mayor said." . . .

I’m not sure what’s more appalling here. That Beto O’Rourke lied in the manner he did, by invoking Nazi Germany, or the fact that the mainstream media by and large will give him a pass on every bit of it.  . . . Apparently this is the week 2020 presidential candidate Robert “Beto” O’Rourke has chosen to veer off even further to the left.

"On Wednesday, the former El Paso Congressman kissed Rev. Al Sharpton’s ring while eagerly declaring (newfound) support for reparations. And on Thursday in Iowa, O’Rourke unequivocally compared President Trump to Adolf Hitler, taking a page straight out of the far left’s 2020 “take back the White House” playbook."

White Vermont Schools Display Black Lives Matter Flags  . . . "Thus, Vermont awaits a new school curriculum for pre-K through 12 that will incorporate the previously unrecognized contributions of queer, questioning, and transgender colonial pioneers, Civil War heroes, and 19th-century orators.  This unchallenged legislation is as vague as BLM's platform, cloaked in the magic race card." . . . There, that should put to rest all the guilt trips.

CNN: Yes, Obama Separated Families, But ‘It Was For Their Own Protection’ "You can’t even parody the nonsense they say, it’s already parody.
"Do they have an excuse for Obama turning kids over to human traffickers, a practice that Trump was able to stop after he came in?"

Rashida Tlaib Attacks President Of Pro-Israel Group. He Flattens Her.

. . . "Tlaib should be ashamed of herself," Klein concluded. "Tlaib falsely accuses Jews of dual loyalty while she wraps herself in the flag of an enemy of the United States, the flag of the terrorist Palestinian authority, on the day she was sworn into office." . . .

Hirono At Hearing On Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act: Should Focus On People “Here Already” So shut up, men!

Still waiting for the Democrat clown car to lose some clowns

Rep. Eric Swalwell joins the clown car posse of Democrats running for president  
"The Bay area has produced some wacky, wild, and entertaining members of Congress.  Unfortunately for Swalwell, he ain't one of them.  He is about as obscure, as vanilla as your average Democrat can get.

"He pushed the Russian collusion narrative so forcefully that it became painfully obvious he wanted to ride that pony all the way to the White House.  With collusion fading in the rearview mirror, just what is it that Swalwell thinks he can offer?" . . .

. . . "Swalwell is an angry young man, and with most of the voters upset with someone or something, if he can tap into that anger, he could surprise.  But Bernie Sanders does the angry old man bit a lot better, and Elizabeth Warren plays the angry woman card adeptly. 

"So in the end, Swalwell will fade away and return to the obscurity he so richly deserves."

Will Elizabeth Warren be the first to be thrown from the Democrat clown car? . . . "She's a walking argument against any affirmative action privileges at all, showing how easily they can be abused by ambitious whites desperate to get a leg up on other whites, as well as Native Americans." . . .

Gillibrand announced presidential bid during appearance on 'Colbert' show. It looked awkward.

Democrats’ Clown Car of Candidates  

. . . "The Democrat 2020 Presidential candidate line-up is a race to the bottom.
"Other well known clowns who have announced their candidacy for the nation’s highest office are California Senator Kamala Harris and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. These two were an obnoxious disgrace during the Justice Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Harris bullied Kavanaugh relentlessly, even going so far as to release a heavily edited video of the then-Supreme Court nominee in an attempt to smear him. Harris deceitfully posted on her Twitter account an edited video of Kavanaugh answering a question that Texas Senator Ted Cruz asked him regarding his dissent in the case Priests for Life vs. Health and Human Services. In her tweet under the doctored video, Harris wrote that Kavanaugh was “going after birth control” and his nomination was about “punishing women”.  In Democrat World, anyone who is not in favor of killing a baby is punishing women.

. . . So, if Harris does become the first female president of the United States, it’s a comfort to know that she slept her way to the top rather than earn her positions through hard work, skill, knowledge, ethics and integrity." . . .

All the Progressive Plotters

No reporter seems to care that Hillary Clinton hired a foreign national to work with other foreign nationals to sabotage, first, her opponent’s campaign, then his transition and his presidency, along with the wink and nod help from key Obama officials at the Department of Justice, State Department, National Security Council, FBI and CIA.

Victor Davis Hanson  "Right after the 2016 election, Green Party candidate Jill Stein—cheered on by Hillary Clinton dead-enders—sued in three states to recount votes and thereby overturn Donald Trump’s victory in the Electoral College. Before the quixotic effort imploded, Stein was praised as an iconic progressive social justice warrior who might stop the hated Trump from even entering the White House.

"When that did not work, B-list Hollywood celebrities mobilized, with television and radio commercials, to shame electors in Trump-won states into not voting for the president-elect during the official Electoral College balloting in December 2016. Their idea was that select morally superior electors should reject their constitutional directives and throw the election into the House of Representatives where even more morally superior NeverTrump Republicans might join with even much more morally superior Democrats to find the perfect morally superior NeverTrump alternative.

"When that did not work, more than 60 Democratic House members voted to bring up Trump’s impeachment for vote. Trump had only been in office a few weeks. Then San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer toured the country and lavished millions on advertisements demanding Trump’s removal by impeachment—and was sorely disappointed when he discovered that billion-dollar-fueled virtue-signaling proved utterly bankrupt virtue-signaling.

"When that did not work, celebrities and politicians hit social media and the airwaves to so demonize Trump that culturally it would become taboo even to voice prior support for the elected president. Their chief tool was a strange new sort of presidential assassination chic, as Madonna, David Crosby, Robert de Niro, Johnny Depp, Snoop Dogg, Peter Fonda, Kathy Griffin, and a host of others linguistically vied with one another in finding the most appropriately violent end of Trump—blowing him up, burning him up, beating him up, shooting him up, caging him up, or decapitating him. Apparently, the aim—aside from careerist chest-thumping among the entertainment elite—was to lower the bar of Trump disparagement and insidiously delegitimize his presidency." . . .

"When that did not work . . ." "When that did not work . . ." "When that did not work . . ."....And so on and on...

The World Doesn’t Care About Groupthink

Victor Davis Hanson

Among the political classes, both being slurred or slurring others of like kind in disgusting fashion is no big deal. Apparently, it is just the usual foul water that such kindred fish always swim in.

Saint-to-Sinner Silicon Valley  

. . . "In turn, Democrats gave up their suspicions of big money, as they canonized liberal Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. Their wealth was okay, since the creators of it were progressives and dressed like Woodstock hipsters as they spread their billions freely among progressive think tanks, foundations, and political campaigns. 

From Too Little to Too Much Oil  

" Less than 15 years ago, the conventional wisdom was that we’d reached “peak oil,” or that the U.S., and indeed the world at large, had already extracted more petroleum than what remained beneath the ground.

"Then, in unheralded fashion and quite silently, American frackers and horizontal drillers made such a term entirely obsolete. The U.S. went from a superpower hobbled by an insatiable need for imported oil to the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world and, soon, the likely largest exporter of fossil fuels. In the same vein, the Middle East and especially the Persian Gulf transmogrified from being the nexus of American foreign policy to nearly irrelevant in U.S. strategic thinking. If Saudi Arabia was once accused of virtually running American foreign policy, it is now seen at the other extreme as a minor medieval bother. A few thousand people in obscurity in the fracking industry, without government grants and without the media fawning over them as they had green legends such as Al Gore, literally changed the lives of millions of Americans at home and their country’s status abroad." . . . (Emphasis mine, TD)  

The Old New Nazi Slur  

Antifa on the campuses, it appears.

"Between 2006 and 2008, George W. Bush was reduced by the anti-war Left left to a veritable Nazi. Op-eds, documentaries, plays, and novels fantasized without apology about his assassination. Mainstream politicians including Senators Robert Byrd, John Glenn, and Al Gore compared the Bush administration to Brownshirts, Fascists, and Nazis. Indeed, so hated was Bush by his critics that that they stooped to accuse him of plotting near genocide during the government’s often incompetent response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2005 that virtually destroyed large swaths of New Orleans. No slur or smear was too low to throw against the president.
"Now this world of Nazi boilerplate has been turned upside down. In the age of Trump, Bush has been rehabilitated as a sober and judicious centrist by even his left-wing critics, in part to use him as an establishment club to batter the sometimes crass Donald Trump." . . .

Reparations: Another Cynical Racial Ploy from the Democrats

In a nauseating display, one after the other of their 2020 candidates stepped forward to be blessed in his or her fealty to reparations by that racist of racists—who can forget Tawana Brawley—the Reverend Al Sharpton at his National Action Network convention in NYC.

Roger L. Simon

"They say money is the mother's milk of politics, but for the Democrats the true mother's milk is racism—that is the perception thereof. Without the belief that America is a racist country, specifically against blacks but generally against any other group they can claim to be vulnerable, the party would cease to exist, dissolving into a puddle like the Wicked Witch of the West in the "Wizard of Oz."

"That is why they work so hard to preserve this sense of a country suffused with racism, fanning the flames at every turn to make it so, even when it isn't. In so doing, they often hypnotize themselves, convincing themselves of their own belief, which in turn perpetuates the myth and continues to manufacture hatred where it doesn't exist.

"Their latest gambit in this repellent cycle is the renewal of the demands for reparations for slavery. Never mind that this country fought its most dreadful war, resulting in the deaths of 400,000 Union soldiers, to end that horror. Never mind that the population of our country—approximately 30 million at the end of the Civil War—is now 325 million, a relatively small percentage coming from families that were here during slavery. Most came in waves of immigration, many escaping from such events as the Armenian and Jewish genocides, the Ukrainian Holodomor, during which Stalin starved millions to death, and similar famines and wars in China, Southern Europe, Ireland, Scotland, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia that caused those waves. And then, obviously, so much of Central and South America, Cuba, etc. in turmoil of their own. (I'm undoubtedly forgetting a few.) Do these people—legal and, yes, illegal—owe reparations for slavery?" . . .

It's too easy to call someone a racist these days

The word "racist" means nothing these days.  It's nothing but another talking point to distract voters.  In the meantime, I wonder which Democrat will use it next.

Shake the hand that shook
the hand of Farrakhan

Silvio Canto, Jr.  "As someone who's been called a "racista" for promoting something very radical, like the respect of immigration laws, I learned this weekend that Senator Bernie Sanders and candidate Beto O'Rourke called someone a "racist."

"Senator Sanders did it at the Sharpton meeting, when a number of Democrats went to New York to kiss the Rev's ring.

"How long can we go on?  Calling President Trump a racist to earn the blessing of a man of questionable character is pretty amazing.

"The next one is Beto O'Rourke, who decided to put his "dos centavos" in the Israeli election.  This is what he said:

. . . "We must be able to transcend his current leadership to make sure that that alliance is strong, that we continue to push for and settle for nothing less than a two-state solution, because that is the best opportunity for peace for the people of Israel and the people of Palestine," O'Rourke said.  "It is the best opportunity for the full human rights of everyone who is living in that region."

. . . "It's funny, but I've heard lots of criticism of P.M. Netanyahu, and racism is not among them.  Also, why are we interfering in another country's election?  I thought that that was a "no-no."

"As for the will of the Israeli people, we will learn soon whether P.M. Netanyahu is their choice or not.  My guess is that most Israelis will not base their vote on what Beto O'Rourke is saying in Iowa." . . .

Don’t Worry, Israelis: Beto Knows What You Want Better Than You Do . . . " As the Atlantic reported last month, while the candidate wants to offer hope that America can rise above its partisanship and hateful politics, "he hasn't landed on how he'll propose to actually make that happen."
"On Sunday, however, O'Rourke ventured into the great unknown and directly addressed an area of policy: the U.S.-Israel relationship. For his sake, maybe the presidential hopeful should stick with the vague platitudes." . . .

On the subject of Bobby O'Rourke:

Beto O'Rourke wants farmers to hand over their 'fair share' of crops to stop global warming  . . . "It also shows that he sees global warming as an instrument for increasing state power, even as he puts it in new dulcet terms such as "allowing" farmers to "contribute" their fair share.  What he means is what socialists always mean: taking other people's stuff by force.

"And like any socialist (I'm gonna call him one with a proposal like that), he always favors what he favors conditioned on himself being the one on top, doing all the "redistributing."  How'd he like some Iowa farmers to "redistribute" some of his belongings in the name of saving the Earth?  It's the same logic.

"It's vapid.  It's impractical.  And it has potential for destroying the entire farm structure of the U.S., given that farmer after farmer in such as scenario will "go Galt." 

"What it shows is that Beto hasn't a clue as to what makes economies run.  The ignorant boob's lust is solely for power over others.  Call it socialism with a boyish and syrupy face."

Fined $55,000 for Calling a Male a Male

American Family Radio

. . . "Now, in Canada, a Christian activist has been fined $55,000 for the “hateful” act of misgendering an adult male. How soon before this reaches America?"

. . . As Mass Resistance explains, “During the British Columbia elections in the spring of 2017, Christian activist Bill Whatcott passed out hundreds of flyers notifying people that one of the local candidates for Parliament, Morgane Oger — who claimed to be a woman and dressed as a woman — was actually a man named Ronan Oger. (In fact, up until five years ago, Oger lived relatively normally as a father with his wife and two children.)”

"That was it. He simply reported the truth: Morgane was a biological male.

"For that he was arrested, held in jail, and ultimately fined for committing a hate crime.

"It is absolutely true that Whatcott’s flyer also spoke out against homosexuality and transvestitism. And it is certain that many found his flyer to be offensive. (For the text of the flyer, see here, p. 104.)

"So be it. People say offensive things day and night in countless public settings, and those freedoms are protected by the law.

"You might even say, “As a Christian activist, Whatcott should simply preach Jesus and not warn voters that Oger is a not a female but a male.”

"You’re entitled to that opinion." . . .

Old Joe nuzzles the neck and whispers in the Democrat Party's ear

The man is willing to once again destroy Justice Clarence Thomas for his own political purposes along with Fed nominee Herman Cain, and you can expect Biden to do the same to Justice Kavanaugh in the process. Democrats have already shown numerous times that they will immolate our nation, her history and her people to satisfy shallow bigoted (I'm so sorry to be a white man; "men should just shut up!" , etc.) constituencies, shaped by media and - I posit - an inferior education system.
It is said that a nation gets the leaders it deserves. If so, please pray fervently that we deserve better than these. The Tunnel Dweller

One foolish remark and a presidential candidate is toast  . . . "Good old Joe is not the first politician to say something he thought was clever, or learned, and committed suicide, or something close to it, like losing election to the White House. Sometimes one remark that should never have been said is all it takes to consign the unwary to a forgotten footnote to a presidential campaign." . . .

The key is sincerity and honesty;
if  you can fake that you can make
it anywhere. TD

. . . The hugs and massages diverted the attention of the ever-dozing media to the really chilling things he said in a speech the other day at the Russian Tea Room in Manhattan. He was trying to offer a full grovel to the radical feminists for his close questioning of Anita Hill at the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings in the previous century. He’s apparently willing to sacrifice America’s crown jewels to make the benighted ladies feel better.
"The trouble with America is the white man, good old Joe said. The political culture of centuries of dreadful white men in charge has encouraged violence against women, and Joe knows why.
" 'It’s an English jurisprudential culture, a white man’s culture,” he said, “and it’s got to change.” He did not specify which of the bedrock items of the “English jurisprudential culture” he wants to throw away. The right of a trial by jury? The principle that a suspect is innocent until proved guilty? That, barring exceptional circumstances, a criminal trial must be open to the public? Must all these rights, bought by the blood of patriots, be trashed to make it up to the angry #MeToo ladies abused by a politician’s wandering hands?" . . .

Stacey Abrams says Georgia 'fetal heartbeat' bill 'bad for business'

The Washington Times

"Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said Sunday that a bill banning abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected would be “bad for business” in the state.

"The controversial bill, which would ban abortions as early as six weeks, is expected to be signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. A campaign launched by actress Alyssa Milano and signed by more than 100 celebrities threatens to boycott the state if Mr. Kemp does not veto the bill.

"Ms. Abrams, who narrowly lost to Mr. Kemp in 2018 and is floating a possible 2020 presidential run, said on MSNBC’s “AM Joy” that the bill threatens the state’s booming film business.

" 'think Georgia has to realize that while we’re enjoying an extraordinary boom in the film industry, there is nothing that says it has to stay here,” she said. “We have to be a state that is not only friendly to businesses, we have to be friendly to the women who work in businesses.

“ 'You should not have to worry about your ability to controlling your bodily autonomy because the governor has pushed such an abominable and evil bill that is so restrictive,” she added. “It’s not only bad for morality and our humanity, it’s bad for business.' ”

Ocasio-Cortez slams critics for mocking her voice

NY Post  

"Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shot back at critics on Friday who accused her of adopting a southern drawl while speaking to a majority-black audience at Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network convention.

“ 'Folks talking about my voice can step right off,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter.
“Any kid who grew up in a distinct linguistic culture & had to learn to navigate class enviros at school/work knows what’s up,” she added. “My Spanish is the same way.”
"Conservatives on Twitter and several right-leaning media outlets claimed Ocasio-Cortez forced the accent during her speech at the conference at the Sheraton Hotel in midtown Manhattan.
“ 'This is what organizing looks like,” Ocasio-Cortez said in her remarks. “This is what building power looks like. This is what changing the country looks like. It’s when we choose to show up and occupy the room and talk about the things that matter most, talking about our future.”
"Among her critics was conservative pundit John Cardillo, who works for Newsmax television.
“ 'In case you’re wondering, this is what blackface sounds like,” he wrote in a tweet.

"Ocasio-Cortez described the attacks as “hurtful” in another tweet.

“ 'As much as the right wants to distort & deflect, I am from the Bronx. I act & talk like it, especially when I’m fired up and especially when I’m home,” Ocasio-Cortez said in the tweet.

“ 'It is so hurtful to see how every aspect of my life is weaponized against me, yet somehow asserted as false at the same time,” she added."