patrick.net

Media Malpractice in 2021

... In theory, the news media was supposed to inform us so we could be responsible members of a democracy. In fact, the media delivers click-bait sensationalism and 20+ minutes of commercials each hour. On top of that, we have a world of information in our pockets. That was supposed to leave us better informed. Instead, we’re fed corporate propaganda and told what we “need” to buy. I’ve watched the media create the false impression that gun owners in the United States are dangerous. Those media inconsistencies are easy to find.

One obvious example is that the MSM calls a gun a “patrol rifle” or a “personal defense weapon” when a government employee carries it, but they call the same piece of plastic, aluminum, and steel an assault weapon if it is in my wife’s hands. We’re told that a gun is completely ineffective to affect government behavior, and yet the same gun is “much too dangerous” to be left in the hands of honest civilians. It seems the media, and some government officials, want it both ways.

The media’s lies extend beyond the hardware and include the nature of gun owners themselves.

Yes, the media lies to us about who owns guns in the United States. I think I know why. The media stereotyped gun owners for years. They call us old-white-rednecks, yet most new gun owners are women and minorities. For obvious political reasons, the media doesn’t want us to know what today’s gun owners look like. Times change and the media doesn’t want minority women to know that they are the fastest-growing segment of the gun-owning population. In 2020 and 2021, more minority women are curious about guns as they see their friends become gun owners and take training. That is called a preference cascade. The media lies to us so we won’t know what is possible for us. ...

Mass media pummels us with horrific images after a mass murder. They seldom show us the mass murders that were stopped by armed civilians. The media never shows us the good news to the same extent as the bad. One reason is that the media has to sell outrage to capture our attention. The truth is too dull, and outrage is the only way we will sit through 20 minutes of advertisements an hour.

The media tells us about the robbery at the convenience store. The media seldom shows us the story of the armed store clerk who chased away the two robbers late at night by himself. The media should give us a sense of proportion. Instead, the media feeds us sensationalized headlines. Each year, we defend ourselves millions of times with a firearm while dozens of us become the victim in a mass murder. You’d never know that from the media coverage. The media doesn’t want us to know that most robbers would rather run than get shot. That story doesn’t fit the biased narrative that the media is trying to sell.

Media bias against honest gun owners is fueled by both the preferences of the advertisers and by the political bias of the news editors. We can blame a failure of imagination on their part. They can’t recognize when guns save lives. Our social elites simply can’t imagine defending themselves, so they are blind to it. Self-defense never happens according to their view of the world. When it comes to personal safety, that is what they pay the private security guards at their condo to take care of. That is why their office has a security guard at the front door. If you wanted protection, then you’d do what they do and live where they live.. or so they think.

Since they can’t imagine protecting themselves, they think guns ought to be outlawed. They can’t admit that licensed gun owners who concealed carry are more law-abiding and non-violent than the police. It is outside their experience, and we might as well tell them that gun owners are from the moon.

Before we gun owners feel special, the elites don’t know people who own a pickup truck either. The news is corrupted by the personal and corporate bias of the news organizations. That would be of academic interest, except the media’s bias is getting our children killed.

The media elites ignore that mass murders usually occur where guns are banned. Mass murderers deliberately attack us where you and I are disarmed. We are disarmed in “gun-free” zones because we obey the law. From the media point of view, more disarmed civilians mean more stories of mass murder and more commercials for auto insurance. What is worse is that there were over 80 copycat murder plots after the mass murder at the high school in Columbine, Colorado.

These murderers said, in effect,
“I want to have may face and my name in the news. I want everyone to know who I was.
“I want the same multi-million dollar publicity campaign that the media gave the last mass murderer.”

and the media was only too eager to give them what they wanted.
We had to coin a new term to describe this media phenomenon; it is called “celebrity murder-suicide”. The media lies to make money and they lie to feel good about themselves, when in fact, they help drive the mass murder that gets us killed.

Patrick says

Why, I think AF is actually back!

Welcome back @SumatraBosch

I missed refreshing jokes by AF. @SumatraBosch

https://notthebee.com/article/reuters-blm-protests-anti-communism-protests

My enthusiasm to line up for an untold number of boosters as a young, healthy person is still pretty dang low because, well, the testing of scientific hypotheses and the data from the last 18 months.

That's not gonna stop the totally-real journalists at CNN from telling you what's what, even if it goes against the U.S. Surgeon General!
US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy repeated that point Wednesday morning, telling CNN's Poppy Harlow, "People do not need to go out and get a booster shot."

If you are an unapproved, uncredentialed journalist, you can be jailed, as Murray is being, on a similar legal basis to the imprisonment of someone who carries out a surgical operation without the necessary qualifications. But whereas the law against charlatan surgeons is there to protect the public, to stop unnecessary harm being inflicted on the sick, Lady Dorrian’s ruling will serve a very different purpose: to protect the state from the harm caused by the exposure of its secret or most malign practices by trouble-making, sceptical – and now largely independent – journalists.

Journalism is being corralled back into the exclusive control of the state and billionaire-owned corporations. It may not be surprising that corporate journalists, keen to hold on to their jobs, are consenting through their silence to this all-out assault on journalism and free speech. After all, this is a kind of protectionism – additional job security – for journalists employed by a corporate media that has no real intention to challenge the powerful.

Its been a decade since we have watched any news on television.

Atop editor at the New York Times instructed Times staffers not to investigate the origins of COVID-19, two Times employees confirmed today.

‘In early 2020,’ a veteran Times employee tells me, ‘I suggested to a senior editor at the paper that we investigate the origins of COVID-19. I was told it was dangerous to run a piece about the origins of the coronavirus. There was resistance to running anything that could suggest that [COVID-19 was manmade or had leaked accidentally from a lab].’

The global pandemic was then in its early stages. Donald Trump was running for reelection and calling SARS-CoV-2 the ‘Chinese virus’. His secretary of state Mike Pompeo had told ABC’s This Week in May 2020 that he had seen ‘significant’ and ‘enormous evidence’ of the virus originating in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. A few weeks later, Sir Richard Dearlove, the ex-head of Britain’s MI6 spy service agreed: ‘I subscribe to the theory…that it’s an engineered escapee from the Wuhan Institute [of Virology].’

Yet the Times, according to two well-placed sources, refused to investigate the biggest story of our time.

Report: Something Bad Must Be Happening With Democrats As CNN Homepage Is Filled With Trump Articles

U.S.—According to media experts, there must be something really bad happening on the Left, as CNN's homepage is completely filled with articles about Trump and how awful he is.

"I can only imagine what kind of depraved scandals must be plaguing the Democrat party today, for them to be talking about Trump this much," said political analyst Forrest McSquat. "Did Biden sniff a child again? Did Fauci admit COVID was on purpose? Did Kamala Harris punt an immigrant on live TV? I shudder to think about all the horrific possibilities."

While the Democrat party works internally with the media to address several scandals, CNN will be reminding the world just how bad Donald Trump was for American democracy. According to an anonymous whistleblower, CNN has created a stockpile of 873,000 negative stories about Trump, which should tide them over for the next several decades of Democrat scandals.

"As the American people begin to reminisce about the time they could afford gas and have jobs and go to restaurants, we need to keep reminding them that the Trump years were actually terrible," said CNN President Jeff Zucker.

Robert W Malone, MD retweeted

wolfpack
@AgramSeth
1h
Replying to @RWMaloneMD
“Ultimately, this leads to a journalism that no longer independently researches & critically reports on geopolitical topics, but seeks to consolidate the desired narrative through appropriate editorials, commentary, and interviews.”

We’re wise to it. Your voice is key.
Thank you

They are concentrating maximum propaganda firepower on DeSantis.

Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald
2h
The world's dumbest fucking people (Media Matters liberals) are expressing bewilderment at my statement that CIA influences corporate media outlets like CNN (even though CNN employs former top CIA officials). If you don't understand this basic fact about the US, you know nothing.

Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald
Aug 19
That's how propaganda works. If the media told you how key US allies like Saudis and Egyptians treat journalists and dissidents, you'd be furious the US supports them.

But since they hide those abuses, you're not angry about it, and instead are orientated to hate Russia & Cuba

Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald
2h
The world's dumbest fucking people (Media Matters liberals) are expressing bewilderment at my statement that CIA influences corporate media outlets like CNN (even though CNN employs former top CIA officials). If you don't understand this basic fact about the US, you know nothing.

@richwicks should enjoy this. Greenwald is openly talking about the CIA running CNN and being merged with the DNC.