Fake News
November 21, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post claims that the “Black community” is angry over claims of vote fraud by President Trump and his legal team. It’s true that some of the claims of fraud center on precincts that are populated almost entirely by Blacks. However, I doubt that many Blacks care about the Trump campaign’s allegations of fraud and I suspect that even fewer are outraged by them. The Post cites five Blacks
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November 10, 2020 — Steven Hayward
We knew things at the New York Times were bad, but hoo-ey boy we had no idea just how bad! New York magazine is out with a deep dive into the internal Maoist struggle sessions going on inside the Times, and get a big bowl of popcorn ready for this long piece. The piece could be called “Annals of the Liberal Self-Obsessed,” as it contains many nuggets of pure comedy
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November 5, 2020 — Steven Hayward
You have to love this Tweet from PBS: “Trusted source.” That’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. If you have to proclaim that you are a “trusted source,” um, I have some fake news to sell you. Meanwhile, this, from comedian Angelo Tsarouchas, is worth a read: Early November is finally here. I have seen a lot of hate spewed in recent days about a man who
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November 2, 2020 — Scott Johnson
I think it was William F. Buckley, Jr. who pointed out the problem with New York Times corrections. The typical Times correction will note that an article gave the name of so-and-so’s son as Albert when it should have been given as Alfred. Buckley (if it was Buckley) observed that the problem with such corrections is that they imply everything else in the Times is accurate. Let’s call it the
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November 1, 2020 — Steven Hayward
It was over a year ago that we presented one of the first really impressive versions of “deep fake” videos, with Bill Hader transforming into Tom Cruise and Seth Rogan on Letterman. Well, now Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the geniuses behind South Park and Team America: World Police, have gotten into the game, with this 14-minute deep fake video that sends up Trump, Al Gore, and several other figures. It’s
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October 31, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Back in the late 1990s, The New Republic suffered from serial scandals with writers who made things up, most spectacularly Stephen Glass, but also Ruth Shalit, who was fired from TNR in 1999 after she was discovered to have plagiarized and “reported inaccurately.” Lately Shalit, now married and using her married name “Ruth S. Barrett” as her byline, has been attempting a comeback in journalism. Her latest feature about meritocracy
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October 7, 2020 — Scott Johnson
David Rutz and Collin Anderson tuned in earlier this week to the NBC town hall featuring Joe Biden answering questions posed by supposedly “undecided voters.” They now report in some painful detail at the Washington Free Beacon: “NBC News’ ‘Undecided’ Voters Previously Featured as Biden Supporters on MSNBC.” Please read the whole thing. They support their analysis with ocular proof in the video below.
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October 6, 2020 — John Hinderaker
The media freakout over President Trump’s 1) contracting COVID, 2) quickly recovering, apparently, from COVID, 3) returning to the White House, and 4) urging Americans not to allow our lives to be devastated by the virus, has likely been unprecedented in its absurdity. There is no point in dissecting all or any large number of the ridiculous press accounts (although you should check out CNN’s prize-winning entry), but I will
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September 22, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Trump hasn’t even named his pick to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, and already the media is stepping up to fulfill its role as the propaganda adjunct for the Democratic Party and its leftward-most pressure groups. • Like this NBC “News” story: Trump front-runners ‘antithetical” to Ginsburg’s legacy, critics say “Critics” say! Which critics? I’m surprised they don’t say “experts” just to give it that special CDC
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September 10, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, Steve discussed Bob Woodward’s bit about President Trump allegedly downplaying the Wuhan coronavirus. Calling for a shutdown of the U.S. economy seems like an odd way to downplay something, but I suppose Trump could have highlighted the threat by hiding in a bunker. Woodward wants us to believe that Trump intentionally deceived the American people. He knew how serious the virus was, but hid its seriousness from the public
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September 9, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Have you heard? Bob Woodward—pause for reverential ooohs and aaahs here—has a new book out, with the claim that Trump lied about COVID-19 when it first erupted way back in early February. “Trump admits he lied about COVID-19 threat in new Woodward book,” says the Puffington Host headline. But what did he actually say according to the story? “You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” Trump said in
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September 8, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Jeffrey Goldberg’s claim that President Trump disparaged American soldiers who died in Normandy is collapsing. As we have noted, John Bolton, no friend of Trump, was present when the president allegedly made the comment. Bolton says it didn’t happen. Similarly, former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Zach Fuentes, who was also in the room, denies that Trump made the remarks attributed to him. He says: I did not hear
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September 7, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The lead story in today’s Washington Post is called (in the paper edition) “Trump has history of disparaging military.” If you read the story — and I’m not recommending that you do — you won’t find much alleged disparagement. For example, Trump didn’t disparage the military when he said he was lucky to get a high number in the lottery that determined who would be drafted during the Vietnam War
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September 6, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Should we believe the story, reported by the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, that President Trump made disparaging comments about American soldiers who died in Normandy? I don’t. Trump has a very nasty side, but I doubt he made the nasty comments Goldberg’s attributes to him. For one thing, it’s not Trump’s practice to disparage people who haven’t disparaged him. Sure, he expressed a lack of respect for John McCain’s war
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August 27, 2020 — Steven Hayward
CNN makes itself easy to dunk on much of the time, but this week CNN has gone beyond the call of duty. This is a real screen grab from this week—and it’s so awesomely absurd that it can’t wait for Saturday morning’s regular picture gallery: The Babylon Bee writers can phone it in today. Let the mockery begin: Scott adds: The Star Tribune got the memo. In its lead editorial
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August 17, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Glancing casually at the Washington Post these days one gets the impression that it is America’s post offices, not police stations in cities like Portland and Minneapolis, that are being attacked and burned down, and that it is President Trump’s team, not BLM and Antifa gangs, that is doing the attacking and burning. “Trump’s assault on the U.S. Postal Service gives Democrats a new campaign message,” blared a Washington Post
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August 15, 2020 — Steven Hayward
We’ve commented before on disgusting “news” reporting and headlines by the supposedly “mainstream” media, and these two contrasting Post headlines put media malice on full display: And yet the “mainstream” media wonder why public esteem for and trust in them is at an all-time low—when people don’t actively hate them. UPDATE: Good grief, the New York Times played it straight:
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