Fake News
January 17, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Everyone is scandalized that Arizona Senator Martha McSally called a CNN reporter a “liberal hack” and refused to speak with him, but I think this falls into the category of a Michael Kinsley gaffe, that is, when someone tells the truth they’re not supposed to tell in Washington. As Paul noted yesterday, CNN completely disgraced itself in the Democratic debate Tuesday with its handling of the Warren-Sanders “he said—she said”
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January 7, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple has undertaken a retrospective series on “the media’s mishandling of the Steele dossier” in light of the recent Department of Justice Inspector General report on the FBI’s FISA-related misconduct investigating the Trump campaign and presidency. His series has reached nine parts with no end in sight. Yesterday in part 9 Wemple put CNN’s advocacy of the Steele Dossier under the microscope. Wemple urges CNN
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January 1, 2020 — John Hinderaker
I noted here that news accounts of the siege of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad conventionally refer to the Iranian or pro-Iranian force that attacked the embassy as “protesters.” This conferred a sort of legitimacy on the attack, and was wrong. But the New York Times went farther over the edge, referring to the militiamen as “mourners.” Hundreds of Iraqi mourners tried to storm the United States Embassy in Baghdad,
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December 29, 2019 — Steven Hayward
For several years now the climatistas have liked to point out that the Pentagon—the military industrial complex!—is down with climate alarmism, issuing a series of reports saying that climate change might be a serious security risk in the future. I always enjoy this celebration, because it is the first time I can remember that the left has embraced with complete credulity something coming out of the Pentagon, which they otherwise
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December 28, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple has undertaken a retrospective series on “the media’s mishandling of the Steele dossier” in light of the recent Department of Justice Inspector General report on the FBI’s FISA-related misconduct investigating the Trump campaign and presidency. Today his series has reached six parts with no end in sight. Yesterday in part 5 Wemple put MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow under the microscope. Maddow not only touted the
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December 21, 2019 — Scott Johnson
As we seek to call out the journalistic accomplices in what Lee Smith calls The Plot Against the President, I want to draw on the work of a columnist or two who are similarly interested in settling accounts in the aftermath of the Department of Justice Inspector General report on FISA abuse issued last week. Today I turn to Matt Taibbi’s Rolling Stone column “Five Questions Still Remaining After the
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December 18, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Yesterday I asked the question, derived in part from a Poynter Institute article, “Do Journalists Know Less Than They Used To?” Yes, questions with such obvious answers hardly need asking, but who knew the Washington Post would step up with an astonishing confirmation of media ignorance, with a special bonus of academic ignorance thrown in just for fun. Last week the Post ran an article by Robert C. Pianta, who
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December 17, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Yes, I know, CNN beclowns itself hourly, and as such is usually not worth noticing or commenting on, but sometimes they make it so easy that it becomes necessary as a reminder of their colossal ignorance and bias. Anchor Brian Stelter raised his eyebrow this morning that Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has appeared on TV to promote his book. OMG! Will the republic survive this breach of decorum? Except—oops:
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December 16, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
This Washington Post story is called “A moderate congresswoman went all-in for Trump. Her constituents think they know why.” The story is fake news at several levels. First, the Post didn’t take a survey of Stefanik’s constituents. Thus, the Post doesn’t know whether her constituents think they know why their congresswoman, who has a moderate voting record in the House, is backing President Trump so strongly during the impeachment process.
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December 15, 2019 — John Hinderaker
It might not be worth the effort to deconstruct articles appearing in a magazine that sold for $1, but still–when I saw this Newsweek cover on InstaPundit, I was curious: I was curious because I am a frequent reader of Fars News, which is conventionally described as the “semi-official” voice of Iran’s mullahs. One of Fars’s most insistent themes is that the United States and Israel are allied with ISIS,
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December 13, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post begins its latest front page hit piece on President Trump this way: On a day in which North Korea issued a fresh threat and a House committee set the stage for his impeachment, President Trump on Thursday found time to insult 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg after she was named Time’s Person of the Year, an honor he has coveted for years. (Emphasis added) Here’s what
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December 11, 2019 — Steven Hayward
You don’t need to be a complete cynic to be unsurprised by the announcement this morning that St. Greta of Thunberg is Time magazine’s Person of the Year. You knew it was going to be her a few days ago when the five finalists were leaked out. The five were President Trump, Nancy Pelosi (snore. . .), the “whistleblower” (seriously?), and the Hong Kong protesters, and St. Greta. The Hong
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December 11, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Mollie Hemingway performs the great service of reviewing the dueling House Intelligence Committee memos, one by Adam Schiff and one by Devin Nunes, that were released in early 2018, in light of the DOJ Inspector General’s report: “IG Report Confirms Schiff FISA Memo Media Praised Was Riddled With Lies.” Let’s stroll down memory lane to recall what Schiff claimed in the committee majority’s memo: 1. FBI and DOJ officials did
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December 10, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Cue up a Category 5 Schadenfreude Alert! The media is complaining that a forthcoming Hollywood movie might be less than accurate to the true story! The movie is Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell, which tells the story of the rush to judgment in the bombing of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. The bombing turned out to be the handiwork of Eric Rudolph (now serving a life sentence), who would otherwise be
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December 2, 2019 — Scott Johnson
In an interview with one Molly Jong-Fast of the Daily Beast, disgraced FBI lawyer Lisa Page speaks. It’s an extraordinarily tiresome interview of the “nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen” variety; she’s “done being silent.” In case you want to avoid a click on the Daily Beast, Gregg Re reports on the interview in his account of it for FOX News. The top line item in the Daily Beast and
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December 1, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Lee Smith is the author of The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in US History. The book is an invaluable companion to Andrew McCarthy’s Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency; it adds to and amplifies the case McCarthy makes. I wrote about McCarthy’s book in “All the president’s men, Obama style.”
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November 13, 2019 — John Hinderaker
The Democrats’ impeachment farce is intended to smear President Trump, in part because that party’s leaders know they don’t have a decent candidate to run against him next year. This is why Congressional Republicans prominently displayed a quote from Rep. Al Green at today’s sham hearing: “I’m concerned if we don’t impeach this President, he will get re-elected.” Unimpeachable logic. As always, the Democrats count on their media arm to
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