I’m sure you’re familiar with the story regarding the high school kids who were accused of raaaaacism against Native Americans, which the media ran with hard, despite the full video showing something completely different. Further, you are surely aware of the Buzzfeed hitjob on President Trump, which alleged that he told Michael Cohen to lie, despite having zero evidence. And so many more hit jobs. And we get this
https://twitter.com/BuckSexton/status/1087052240823742465
Jonathan Turley has more to say
BuzzFeed story has more to say about media than the president
First there was collusion. Then there was obstruction. Then there was subornation. As the Russia investigation has migrated to every new allegation, a host of experts have proclaimed conclusive grounds for the imminent prosecution and impeachment of President Trump, soon followed by calls for immediate impeachment proceedings, only to be followed by mitigating or conflicting evidence on each allegation.
The latest allegation called a “slam dunk†followed a BuzzFeed story that special counsel Robert Mueller has proof that Trump told his attorney, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress. The same news cycle quickly began, even though the story was long on allegations and short on evidence. Then later that night, the Mueller team released a rare public statementthat proved to be the ultimate buzzkill for the breaking news: “BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the special counsel’s office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony are not accurate.â€
What is most striking about this boom and bust pattern is how it is repeated with such regularity and so little scrutiny in the media. The president may well be shown to have committed criminal or impeachable acts including subornation. That, however, will require concrete evidence and the satisfaction of the elements of a specific crime. Mueller may supply such facts or he may not. It is the seeming refusal to accept the latter possibility that has increasingly distorted media coverage.
There’s much more to this piece, but it breaks down to the “weaponization of speculation.” “If true.” If you remember back, the media was running hit jobs against John McCain in 2008 using the “just wondering” method, which is pretty much in the same ballpark. They were “just wondering” if he was eligible to be president since he was born in the Panama Canal zone. The NY Times ran several of these, including after the primaries. So the Washington Post. Outlets also were speculating about whether McCain had an affair with Vicki Iseman. They had zero proof on this. None. Not a bit. But they still ran it.
And this is why the media has lost credibility and is called biased. They either need to go the route of the UK Guardian, openly being a biased big news outlet, or become reporters again.
Good thing we have honest outlets like the Gateway Pudendum and the Daily Caller to give us unbiased information.
Did the MSM ever report anything “bad” about the Clintons or Al Gore? And Donald Trump would not be president except for the media. It was the media that gave us the Iraq invasion and occupation.
Professor Turley is correct that the media outlets are pretty horrible these days, fighting each other for the most sensational lede. Do they dislike Trump? Who doesn’t. Did they dislike Bill Clinton and Al Gore? Yep.
Big media = big money.
Good thing we have honest outlets like the Gateway Pudendum and the Daily Caller to give us unbiased information.
Sure is, because you sure can’t rely on Fake News. And Gateway had this one nailed from the start.
The only thing any news organization really sells is credibility. After the Gentle Giant, St Skittles, Brother Bret, Mule Ears, and now the kids, nobody is going to take Commie News Net’s word for anything.
Donald Trump would not be president except for the media.
The Donald wrapped Fake News around his little finger. It’s the people who made Trump President.
But at least we got Idiot Boy to admit it wasn’t the Russians.
It was the media that gave us the Iraq invasion and occupation.
Wrong on both counts.
This sums it up nicely.
PS Can’t believe Jeffery is still trying (pathetically) to try to claim he’s still in the right here. He lied from the start and still wants us to believe that the people who exposed this are the Fake News.
Go call somebody a racist on MLK Day, ya little twit. It’s all you’re good for.
When Evan Thomas was still with Newsweek he admitted that the MSM is good for +5 points for the democrats. I think he undervalued their influence. And it makes you wonder if they should have any Constitutional protections when they move from being supposedly objective to agenda-driven.
Eventually the gaslighting will stop or there will be consequences. Buzzfeed should meet the same fate as Gawker.
The rest of the story.
https://dailycaller.com/2019/01/20/maga-hat-kid-speaks-nathan-phillips/
Ah those Catholic white kids and their privilege.
Youtubers, TimCast and Jimmy Dore show are interesting watches. TimCast is a moderately left democrat and Jimmy Dore is a Young Turks consultant and progressive. Once you get past those bits of information if you actually listen to what they have to say they both spend more time bashing democrats then they do bashing trump for one very important Reason. THE LEFT HAS NO MESSAGE OTHER THAN TRUMP BAD. Orange man bad.
They both bash the media relentlessly as being in the tank for NEO-LIBERAL DEMOCRATS or to put it more succinctly. Corporatists such as Obama and Clinton and Pelosi who incidently happens to be worth 250 million dollars on a 150,000 dollar a year salary. Shrewd invest we know.
They both have also been talking about how the media has become weaponized and are obsessed over getting Trump at any costs and this includes going after any conservative as can be evidenced by the boys from the catholic church. They are now receiving death threats.
The real problem with the
BuzzKillBuzzFeed story was that the lead reporter, Jason Leopold, had a history of journalistic malfeasance, a history which was well known among the credentialed media, yet BuzzFeed hired him anyway. He was fired by The Los Angeles Times for threatening a female colleague. He had a story pulled from Salon in 2002 over plagiarism. He was the reporter who broke the story that Karl Rove had been indicted in 2006, a story which was completely false, and one in which he used fabricated sources. He was a known cocaine addict, and had a conviction for grand larceny in his past.Did Janet Cooke or Stephen Glass of Jayson Blair get second chances? No, but Mr Leopold got second, third and fourth chances.
And now, Mr Leopold’s sources turn out to not be sources at all. While we don’t know the details, it appears that he did the same thing he did with the Karl Rove story: he thought it was true, for whatever reason, and simply made up stuff. Had he published it on his own, in a blog, it wouldn’t have mattered, but now he’s taken BuzzFeed’s credibility and thrown it in the septic tank.
The obvious question: why would BuzzFeed have given him a chance in the first place? Are there no unemployed journalism graduates? Has every other laid off reporter been hired elsewhere? Why would anyone with any credibility stick his neck out for Mr Leopold?
Now, Mr Leopold has broken some real stories in the past, and has been considered a very aggressive investigative reporter. But, given his record, I have to wonder: just how many stories did he guess right on, but, not finding the real sources he needed just made them up, getting away with it because he guessed right on what the story was?
“… he thought it was true, for whatever reason, and simply made up stuff.”
No, he hoped it was true, his reason being he wanted it to be, and made stuff up to reinforce his preconceived notions. See: Jethro.
[…] Pirate’s Cove – Media Engaging In “Weaponizing Of Speculationâ€. […]