Media
December 7, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Earlier this year Minnesota’s ethically challenged Fifth District Rep. Ilhan Omar received a substantial cash advance — Forbes pegs it in a range from $100,00 to $250,000, but I’m told it was $300,000 — for a book someone is writing on her behalf. The book is to be published next April. Forbes picked up the Publishers Marketplace notice of Omar’s book deal in a report dated January 16, 2019. I
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December 6, 2019 — Scott Johnson
I scoured the House Intelligence Committee impeachment report prepared under the supervision of the lying lout Adam Schiff in an effort to deduce whose phone records he obtained and how he obtained them. The report itself is silent on the subject. I inferred that Schiff certainly obtained the telephone records of Rudy Giuliani and Lev Parnas. In part 2 of this series I cited reports that Schiff obtained records on
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December 6, 2019 — Scott Johnson
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi charged the House Judiciary Committee with the preparation of articles of impeachment against President Trump yesterday. From the perspective of the Star Tribune editors, it’s probably the biggest news of the day. The AP story touting it sits at the top left of the Star Tribune home page (“Democrats say Trump impeachment charges must come swiftly”). Readers, however, seem to be pursuing other interests. Below is
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December 5, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Roger Kimball wears an incredible number of hats, including those of publisher of Encounter Books and editor/publisher of The New Criterion. I wrote Roger early Tuesday morning to ask if he thought I had overlooked anything that needed to be said about the the clamorous silence I wrote about in “The Russia hoax in review.” Roger responded in an email that I am posting with his kind permission below: I
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December 3, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The Russia collusion hoax represents the biggest scandal in American political history. That’s not the way it is presented in the mainstream media, but they were active participants in the hoax. They are not inclined to look back or to try to understand what they have done. They think they are Woodward and Bernstein, but they are tools who are happy to be of use to their allies in the
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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 29, 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. Lee’s 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. One of Lee’s principal themes is the role played by the media
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November 28, 2019 — Scott Johnson
In The Plot Against the President, Lee Smith makes the case that the New York Times and the Washington Post have turned themselves into arms of the Resistance to the Trump administration that manifested in the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign undertaken by the FBI. The FISA warrant taken out on Carter Page by the FBI in October 2016 constituted a key element of the investigation. The warrant was
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November 27, 2019 — Scott Johnson
David Steinberg notes Ilhan Omar endorsing his dismissal of the story that she is a Qatari asset. The endorsement came via a retweet (below). In that David is the investigative reporter who has nailed down the story that Ahmed Elmi — the guy whom Omar married under the auspices of a Christian minister in 2009 — is Omar’s brother, it’s a notable moment. See David’s Power Line post “Tying up
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November 26, 2019 — Scott Johnson
For the past several weeks a deposition transcript has been floating around implicating Ilhan Omar as a Qatari asset. Bona fide news outlets have hesitated to report on the allegations without some confirmation. Now the Jerusalem Post has stepped forward to serve up the story without confirmation. Al Arabiya English does likewise here. A spokesman for Omar has dignified the story with an outright denial that is included by the
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November 25, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch are the principals of Fusion GPS. In April 2016 the Clinton presidential campaign and Democratic National Commmittee hired Fusion GPS “to build a Trump-Russia echo chamber,” as Lee Smith puts it in The Plot Agains the President. Simpson promptly circulated allegations of corrupt Russian ties to the Trump campaign to the mainstream media. At the same time, Simpson and Fusion worked for Russian authorities to
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November 22, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Star Tribune readers seem to have escaped the impeachment hysteria that has manifested in a big way among the Democrats and their media adjunct. I refer, of course, to Schiff impeachment theater. The Star Tribune features syndicated articles peddling the hysteria as big news every day on its home page, yet its readers continue to direct their attention elsewhere. Below are the Star Tribune’s top five most read online stories
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November 22, 2019 — Scott Johnson
In a hilarious footnote to Schiff impeachment theater, CNN’s Chris “Fredo” Cuomo conducted an on-air experiment to disprove President Trump’s doubt about the (brief) overheard phone call that somehow resulted in the 40-minute lecture on Ukraine policy by State Department official David Holmes. Video of the CNN segment is embedded in the tweet at the bottom. This, as they say, is CNN (in the age of Trump). The New York
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November 21, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The Star Tribune home page turned its online home page into a hotbed of Trump Derangement Syndrome from the first days of the administration. Of course, every jot and tittle of the Democrats’ impeachment theater has found a prominent place on it. For some reason, however, Star Tribune readers prefer stories pursuing other interests. The screenshot below captures the Star Tribune’s top 5 most read stories this morning. Go Gophers,
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November 17, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The Daily Mail has recently published two stories — here (October 21) and, most recently, here (November 12) — covering the tabloid-friendly aspects of Ilhan Omar’s life and career. These stories directly demonstrate a few of the lies that Omar is living and indirectly illustrate the protective cover provided by the Star Tribune. The Daily Mail is doing the work that the Star Tribune refuses to do, as I am
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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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