19
0

American journalism is officially dead. "Reporters" are now activists, overtly biased.


 invite response                
2021 Apr 10, 10:02pm   129,795 views  1,306 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (60)   💰tip   ignore  

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-cbs-scandal-you-may-have-missed-because-of-the-60-minutes-hit-job-on-ron-desantis/ar-BB1ftBVU

The CBS scandal you may have missed because of the 60 Minutes hit job on Ron DeSantis

The news network has published an article advising major companies on ways to "fight" Republican-backed voting laws. The report’s original headline read, “3 ways companies can help fight Georgia's restrictive new voting law.” Naturally, the story itself contains several tips on how businesses can protest Georgia-style legislation.

This is not journalism. This is political advocacy, and it’s all done in service of a traditional beneficiary of the press’s ethical lapses.

Imagine, for a moment, if one of the three major networks published a story advising businesses on how to “fight” ultra-permissive abortion laws. It’d be unthinkable. Yet, here, is CBS doing exactly that sort of politicking, but for bills such as the one passed recently in Georgia.

Perhaps realizing it had strayed headfirst into political advocacy, CBS amended the report’s headline eventually, softening its tone into something decidedly less partisan.

The headline as it appears online now reads, “Activists are calling on big companies to challenge new voting laws. Here's what they're asking for.”

In a way, this is actually worse than the original. At least in the original, CBS had the guts to declare its allegiance outright. The amended version chooses instead to hide behind “activists” to push an obvious political position.

As for the report itself, it remains unchanged. It still outlines various ways in which businesses can “fight” voting laws championed by Republican legislatures. It is still just as partisan as the day it first published.

“Do not donate," the report recommends. "Activists said companies should immediately stop making donations to Barry Fleming and Michael Dugan, the Georgia Republicans who co-sponsored the voting changes."

It continues, naming and shaming major businesses such as Delta and Home Depot for donating to Fleming and Dugan.

"Ending political donations is one of the most immediately impactful steps a company can take to sway lawmakers," the article reads.

The article also says companies can help fight Georgia-style voting laws by producing ads that "help stamp out efforts nationwide to pass voting laws similar to Georgia's," including in Arizona and Texas.

"Activists say it isn't enough for companies to issue tepid public statements in defense of voting rights," the CBS report reads. "Instead, companies should launch television and social media ads that oppose efforts in Georgia, Arizona, Texas and other states considering voter restrictions."

Companies, the story continues, can also support the coercive monstrosity known as the “For the People Act."

"If passed,” the CBS report reads, “the act would create same-day and online voter registration nationwide. It would also require states to overhaul their registration systems. The act seeks to expand absentee voting, limit the states' ability to remove people from voter rolls, increase federal funds for election security and reform the redistricting process.”

Though the CBS article is several days old, you likely missed it amid the network’s other major ethical lapse, when it promoted the lie that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rewarded a grocery chain with an “exclusive” deal to distribute coronavirus vaccines as part of a “pay for play” scheme involving political contributions.

If you missed all of this voting law boycott business when it happened, you can be forgiven. After all, CBS’s “report” on DeSantis is possibly the worst political hit job since Dan Rather went on-air with forgeries of former President George W. Bush's National Guard service record.

It’s obviously not a great situation when one media scandal is obscured by a concurrent scandal and all by the same newsroom. If there are adults still left at CBS, now would be a good time to take back control.


« First        Comments 931 - 970 of 1,306       Last »     Search these comments

937   Patrick   2023 Nov 7, 8:03am  




Someone whacked him on the head with a megaphone.

So, it was obviously climate change and Wuhan Virus.
938   Patrick   2023 Nov 7, 7:24pm  

https://billricejr.substack.com/p/why-excess-deaths-cant-be-a-story


I decided to write a piece asking this question: Why isn’t “excess deaths” a major story?

It occurs to me that everyone reading my newsletter already knows the answer. Many, perhaps most, of the excess deaths could, in fact, be explained by the Covid vaccines.

As it turns out, some stories can’t become “stories” … because the story would debunk a crucially-important authorized narrative. Nobody (who matters) can mention that the giant V-word is the elephant in the room.

When Mark and I say that “excess deaths” isn’t a big story what we’re really saying is this subject isn’t a big story to any of the institutions or organizations that matter.

Excess deaths is actually a huge story in the alternative media and among hundreds of contrarian Substack authors, but (as we all should know by now) stories published in these places apparently don’t matter. ...

By now, it should be obvious the mainstream news organizations and “truth-seeking” public officials will never acknowledge the number of people dying in the world for the past two years is far greater than the number who were dying before Covid.

Or, if a few people do acknowledge this fact, it isn’t considered a big deal that should qualify as a major story.

‘Excess deaths’ was once THE story …

After all, “excess deaths” was THE story of the world in the last nine months of 2020.

As I pointed out in my recent essay, the only reason “Covid” became the story of our lifetimes is because this novel virus was allegedly killing vast numbers of people. If some new virus was infecting many people but wasn’t killing anyone, news of such an event might generate a few headlines for a week or so.

With Covid, multiple times every day the public saw “Covid” case counts, hospitalization counts and, most importantly, death counts. It was the deaths in excess of normal figures that explained all the panic and justified all the draconian lockdowns and then the necessity of everyone getting a new “vaccine.”

It was death, death, death. The message was, “everyone beware death; it’s out there” … and the mainstream press was definitely not ignoring it. Nor were any of our trusted rulers, who were going to save us all from death.

The vaccines arrived … and the deaths kept occurring

However, skip forward to the last two years and it’s undeniable that all these extra deaths didn’t disappear.

The first inconvenient fact was extra deaths spiked even more dramatically … in November and December 2020, the second year of the epidemic, when every possible mititation measure and mandate had been rolled out.

These deaths continued into 2021, which shouldn’t have happened because by mid to late 2021, 60 percent of the world had been vaccinated (and the most vulnerable were vaccinated first). If one remembers, the purpose of said vaccinations was to prevent deaths.

The public later learned that the real purpose of the vaccines wasn’t to prevent infections or virus spread (although 99 percent of the world thought this was the purpose of their shots). We now know that the real reason everyone had to get vaccinated was that these shots would prevent “severe cases” .. and the most severe case is one that leads to … death.

But - the scrolls on the bottom of the TV screen don’t lie - the deaths kept piling up.

Better treatment protocols didn’t reduce the deaths; the virus didn’t become less lethal with new mutations; the fact that millions of people with serious co-morbid health conditions (the most vulnerable or “at risk” population) had already died did not result in fewer future deaths.

Nor did huge numbers of people wearing masks; nor did lockdowns and non-stop testing or social distancing or cancelled events. The deaths just kept on coming.

And, in the winter of 2020-2021, all these deaths were still a huge story. A day didn’t go by where every news organization didn’t lead with Covid death stories and every politician and public health expert continued to devote 12 hours a day, telling everyone what they had to do to stop the dang deaths.

And then excess-death fatigue kicked in …

But, at some point, the world must have reached Covid death fatigue because excess deaths quit being “a story.”

Excess deaths clearly became our “New Normal.” Now everyone just accepts the extra deaths as part of our new world. A never-ending spike in excess deaths is such an old story it no longer qualifies as a story.

If excess deaths in 2021, 2022 and now 2023 was a huge story, The New York Times would be assigning reporters to investigate the reasons for this new normal and publishing their stories at the top of Page 1. Every mainstream news organization would be doing the same thing.

TV shows like “Sixty Minutes” would devote 60 minutes to just this topic.

Politicians would be holding high-level hearings trying to figure out why so many people who, in the past, weren’t dying, were now dying.

Speaking for myself, I haven’t seen these hearings or read any of these Page-1 stories.

This leads me to conclude that “excess deaths” were a story three years ago, but, for some reason, they are not a story today.

The fact “excess deaths” is clearly not a story (to the people and organizations that matter) would seem to confirm my maxim that all “truth-searching” organizations are captured.

One would think that, say, 10 percent of “news” organizations would include editors and journalists who thought that “tons of extra deaths” should be a story the truth-seeking press should investigate and report. But not even 1 percent of these news organizations have deemed continuing excess deaths as “news fit to print.”

So all the important news organizations are captured. They are also overflowing with hypocrites as, not that long ago, everyone agreed that excess deaths was the story of our times.

I’ll take a stab at a few reasons this isn’t a story …

Maybe the thinking in newsrooms is that, yes, we still have all these extra deaths - but this is explained by the fact we still have rampant Covid.

But the reporters can’t write this story without first admitting that the vaccines - which were invented to prevent deaths - clearly didn’t work.

Even if 70 percent of the population hadn’t gotten at least a few vaccines, the deaths should have gone down because, by now, just about everyone has had Covid.

So the vaccines don’t work and … natural immunity doesn’t work either. Covid was the first respiratory virus in history that kept killing for many years. Apparently, you can get six vaccines and have had four repeat cases and this virus is still going to keep killing people in huge numbers.

Another possibility honest reporters and officials might have to consider is that maybe many of these extra deaths (that keep showing up) weren’t all caused by Covid after all.

Maybe the continuing spikes in deaths were caused, in part, by suicides, increasing rates of alcohol and drug abuse, domestic and random violence, general stress, or people who stopped getting cancer screenings or quit taking their cholesterol or diabetes medicines.

However, if one endorses these explanations, one would have to admit that many of these “extra” deaths were indirectly caused by … the Covid protocols the press endorsed and our “public health” experts mandated.

They would be tacitly admitting that the virus mitigation measures actually ensured voluminous numbers of extra deaths that would occur short, medium and long-term in the future.

Also, these people would be tacitly admitting that no serious or intelligent “risk-benefit” calculation ever occurred.

Or, if such calculations were performed, it was decided that it was a good-trade off to lock down society. In other words, they signed off on these deaths … as necessary collateral damage.

What editors, journalists and public officials are really saying - via the subjects they choose to not highlight - is that these deaths aren’t that big a deal.

Maybe everyone doesn’t know these extra deaths are occurring?

It’s possible, I guess, that no journalist or no one at the CDC, WHO or NIH … or no prominent politician has even noticed the continued incidence of “extra deaths.”

But, alas, I find this hard to believe. Deaths are deaths. People notice them and actually record them. You can count them and compare the number that are occurring in a certain period of time to the numbers that occurred in previous periods of time.

So my conjecture is that the “public health” officials and the “watchdog press” have noticed these extra deaths. While they might have noticed they are occurring, they have simply chosen to ignore them.

Ignoring reality - “Don’t investigate that which you don’t want to confirm” - seems to work every time.

Even if something terrible might be happening, if the establishment press doesn’t report this, most people aren’t going to be that concerned.

Still - theoretically at least - any number of official agencies could “investigate” the possible reasons for these deaths.

Perhaps one “policy goal” would be that that these leaders would like to prevent many of these deaths so death numbers become similar to those of pre-2020.

Given that we live in a Nanny State (where preventing deaths and injuries is the main reason for government), it’s strange that this is clearly not a policy goal. The new thinking seems to be, “Hey, excess deaths now happen.”

One might also think that journalists would win prestigious prizes for producing a series of articles that helped save lives, but this hasn’t happened either.

And it’s no longer just those 80 and over largely dying …

Like Ed Dowd and many other “science deniers” have noted, the spike in excess deaths is now occurring among all age groups, including the young and middle-aged.

Back when “excess deaths” were okay to report, most of the people dying “from or with” Covid were very old. Now we have big increases in death rates among teenagers and people in their 40s, 50s and 60s. These deaths are occurring among people who probably had decades of life in front of them.

That is, if we now have many more examples of younger people dying, “excess deaths” might be an even bigger story. But this is not the case.

Enough is enough …

I’m going to quit pretending I don’t know the answer to simple questions. Millions of sane people know exactly why “excess deaths” cannot be a story.

If it was a story - and everyone acknowledged why these extra deaths continue to happen - millions of journalists, corporate leaders, politicians and public health officials wouldn’t be able to look at themselves in the mirror.

They would have to admit that they were complicit in causing the deaths of millions of people who probably would be alive today if they hadn’t spread so much incessant (and fatal or toxic) disinformation.

Nobody wants to admit they enthusiastically signed off on policies that, directly and indirectly, killed and harmed huge numbers of people.

These people are also selfish and want to keep their jobs, status and incomes. If they admitted they were wrong, they might lose their jobs.

If some of these people had a real conscience, they might have to be placed on suicide watch after confronting truths this stark and traumatic.

But they’ll never have to confront their own complicity if everyone (who matters) simply continues to ignore these deaths.

I’ll conclude with another tidbit for our Irony Category

What we have is millions of people who are protecting their own lives by ignoring all the evidence that the policies they enthusiastically pushed ended up contributing to or causing massive numbers of unnecessary deaths.

My readers can probably see why I’m certain that continuing spikes in “excess deaths” is NOT going to suddenly become a “story.”
939   Patrick   2023 Nov 8, 9:27am  

https://www.dolorespark.pw/p/welcome-to-dolores-park?publication_id=2084929&post_id=138681803&isFreemail=true&r=6gdz


Last week, Stanford University issued a campus-wide alert following the “potential hate crime” of a Syrian graduate student reportedly struck by a driver yelling “fuck you people.” The media was incensed. This week, the student-run Stanford Review contextualized the story with further background on the alleged victim, widely considered a “pathological liar” by classmates who know him personally — and say he has previously lied about building a Syrian refugee camp with bitcoin money, turning down a massive acquisition offer from Google for his startup, and having cancer (supposedly in order to get homework help).
941   Patrick   2023 Nov 8, 2:56pm  

Patrick says




Someone whacked him on the head with a megaphone.

So, it was obviously climate change and Wuhan Virus.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12726733/College-professor-Loay-Alnaji-Palestinian-killed-Jewish-protestor-Paul-Kessler.html


College professor Loay Alnaji is named as the pro-Palestinian 'who killed Jewish protestor Paul Kessler' when rival rallies clashed in Thousand Oaks, California
Computer science professor Loay Alnaji, 50, has been identified as the man who allegedly hit Paul Kessler with a megaphone knocking him to the ground
The incident occurred when pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian rallies clashed in Thousand Oaks, California, on Sunday afternoon
Kessler died in the hospital the following day from an injury sustained when his head hit the pavement
942   Ceffer   2023 Nov 8, 3:52pm  

Patrick says

widely considered a “pathological liar” by classmates who know him personally — and say he has previously lied about building a Syrian refugee camp with bitcoin money, turning down a massive acquisition offer from Google for his startup, and having cancer (supposedly in order to get homework help).

Sounds perfect for the Biden Actor Administration. Just bypass the Soros middle man.
943   Misc   2023 Nov 9, 6:31am  

I know this is Shocking, just Shocking...but CNN, Reuters, the NYT had reporters embedded with the Hamas terrorists when they conducted their operations on October 7. So...the mainstream media knew what was going to happen.

And they are now complaining about journalists getting killed.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/free-lance-reporters-paid-by-cnn-nyt-raise-ethical-questions-after-coverage-of-hamas-attack/ar-AA1jElvl?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=e1fc50084f2e470dab976b2e16948d22&ei=45
944   Patrick   2023 Nov 9, 9:19am  

https://babylonbee.com/news/8-horrific-atrocities-and-how-nbc-news-reported-them


Passengers aboard the Titanic accidentally drink a little too much water
Citizens of Pompeii experience sudden heat wave
Abraham Lincoln dies after hitting head on a bullet
Millions of Soviet Union residents receive free housing, work opportunities in Siberia
Roman leader killed after knife accident
Malaysian flight delayed indefinitely
Joan of Arc dies after rapid onset of heat exhaustion
Jeffrey Epstein kills himself
945   Patrick   2023 Nov 9, 10:45am  




I'd like to see proof of this.
947   Patrick   2023 Nov 10, 9:30am  

Patrick says


College professor Loay Alnaji is named as the pro-Palestinian 'who killed Jewish protestor Paul Kessler' when rival rallies clashed in Thousand Oaks, California
Computer science professor Loay Alnaji, 50, has been identified as the man who allegedly hit Paul Kessler with a megaphone knocking him to the ground


https://www.jpost.com/international/islamic-terrorism/article-772683#772683


Who is Loay Alnaji?

Alnaji teaches computer science at Ventura Community College. Originally born Shannon Morris, Alnaji converted to Islam from Catholicism.

The Daily Mail reported that this was not the first time Alnaji had been suspected of murder. Alnaji was sentenced to death in Dubai for murder, which was later ruled manslaughter after he paid monetary compensation to the family of the victim. He was subsequently released from prison.


Ah, the guy had already killed someone else.
949   Patrick   2023 Nov 25, 11:19am  

https://joomi.substack.com/p/media-distortions-of-public-figures


Media distortions of public figures have always been a thing

Clickbait from 1941

You probably already know how unreliable the media can be. But imagine the press purposefully distorting someone’s suicide for the purpose of generating clickbait.

It happened to someone you’ve probably heard of: Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf was a writer, best known for works like Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and Orlando. In 1941, she filled her coat pockets with stones and drowned herself in the river Ouse near her home. She was 59 years old.

It is illustrative to see how some members of the British press distorted Woolf’s suicide letter, which had been left for her husband Leonard Woolf. ...

How the media distorted Woolf’s suicide note

According to Woolf’s husband, her statements, “I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times,” referred to Woolf’s earlier bouts of depression. But the press changed “those terrible,” to “these terrible times,” to make it sound like she was referring to World War II. ...

Notice how the title said “Can’t go on these times.” Moreover, they said that the coroner said: “Woolf was undoubtedly of an extremely sensitive nature, and was much more responsive than were most people to the general beastliness of things happening in this world to-day.”

In other words, Woolf killed herself because she was so sensitive to the world events of the day. ...

Again, she was quoted as saying “I cannot go on any longer in these terrible times,” and the article states that “She was undoubtedly of an extremely sensitive nature, and was much more responsive than were most people to the general beastliness of things happening in this world to-day.”

Woolf’s husband, Leonard Woolf, tried to fact-check newspapers with the following:

I feel that I should not silently allow to remain on record that Virginia Woolf committed suicide because she could not face the “terrible times” through which all of us are going. For this is not true… Then newspapers give her words as:

“I feel that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times.”

... But the damage had been done, and Woolf’s suicide was spun as an act of unpatriotic cowardice. Apparently, the attacks continued in the press for more than a year.

... Before she died, Woolf’s circle of friends and acquaintances had been under attack by the media because they had opposed the First World War. These were writers, artists, and intellectuals who had warned of the dangers of the Versailles Treaty, the rise of extremism and militarism, and the risks of appeasing Hitler.

In other words, they were anti-war dissidents. Does any of this sound familiar?

The media has always been full of distortions. Remember that now, whenever inconvenient people are excoriated or painted as racist or misogynistic or anti-science or whatever. It’s not that these labels never apply to anyone—of course they do. But the media’s spin on them cannot be relied upon.
956   HeadSet   2023 Dec 3, 11:51am  

Patrick says





I wish public awareness was growing.
958   Patrick   2023 Dec 7, 12:30pm  

https://slaynews.com/news/washington-post-staff-strike-mass-layoffs-outlet-suffers-major-losses/


Washington Post Staff Go on Strike amid Mass Layoffs as Outlet Suffers Major Losses

As the Washington Post suffers eye-watering losses, the embattled newspaper’s employees have just launched a major strike.

On Thursday, over 750 Washington Post employees launched a 24-hour strike.

The strike is one of the largest labor protests in decades.

The walkout comes as the Post is anticipating a loss of around $100 million in 2023.

Two individuals familiar with the Post’s finances reportedly told The New York Times in July that the outlet plans to eliminate roughly 240 jobs.

According to a Tuesday letter about the strike by The Washington Post Newspaper Guild, the company’s staff has struggled to achieve its objectives in negotiations with management on pay, flexibility, mental health, and layoffs.


It is always excellent news when propaganda outlets have difficulty.
964   Patrick   2023 Dec 15, 11:00am  

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/overthrown-friday-december-15-2023


Yesterday, Iowa ABC affiliate KCRG-9 ran a viral story headlined, “Satanic display at Iowa Capitol vandalized ‘beyond repair’; arrest made.” ...

Mr. Cassidy’s vandalism was widely reported in U.S. media. But left completely out of the clearly-coordinated mainstream stories were: Cassidy’s military background, any photos of the pushed-over statue, any quotes from Cassidy — a public figure who’s run for Congress twice — explaining his motives, nor even any picture of Cassidy! Not even his mugshot!

Nor did the U.S. stories mention anything about all his online support, which proves the story has clear public interest.

And, if they still ran Twitter, we’d be watching a metric ton of censorship landing on everybody. Of course, for safety (of papier maché dolls). And to stop misinformation — about the Satanic Temple. (Cue painfully-extreme eye roll.)

But … why? What about this story triggered the media-industrial complex so badly? They fully covered the earlier “Iowa Satan Statute” story, they couldn’t get enough of it, but when somebody finally pushed the damnable thing over, the deep state immediately strangled the media, right down to the local affiliate level.

I think it must be because the media’s original narrative was: haha, Christians, you have to sit there and take this disgusting, offensive statue in your state Capitol building. There’s nothing you can do about it. No lawsuit could even get before a judge before the display runs it two-week course. So it’s hopeless. Enjoy having your minds raped.

That’s what they wanted us to think.

But then the narrative spun wildly out of their control. One normal guy, a guy who’s nearly impossible to character assassinate as a ‘kook,’ stood up in the back and said, wait a minute. There is something I can do. It’s not hopeless. I can civilly disobey. Michael thought, I accept the consequences. I’ll be damned if that abomination stands upright in the Capitol for one more minute. I’ll go to jail or pay the fine or whatever, but I’m not putting up with that.

What the media and its deep state controllers wish to avoid more than anything is for people to wake up to their options for mild, non-violent civil disobedience. So they’ve turned the media’s shrinking machines onto this story and now they are trying to sweep it off into collective amnesia. Nothing to see here! Just a minor act of vandalism. Move along.
965   Patrick   2023 Dec 18, 7:51pm  




The morons at Snopes literally "fact-checked" this:



I got this from https://sashastone.substack.com/p/tucker-talks-to-seth-dillon-of-the

Tucker interviewed Seth Dillon of the Babylon Bee. Seth had a great line:

"The fact checkers are not protecting truth, they are protecting The Narrative."

He points out that they are very selective in what they "fact-check" and that they deliberately include false information in their own fact-checks.
970   Patrick   2023 Dec 29, 11:33am  

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/deep-dives-friday-december-29-2023


Can we agree that citing Santa Clara’s old order as a “return of mask mandates” is kind of fake news? The closest thing to a legit new mandate Newsweek cited in the article were vague, hand-wavy references to a short list of birdbrained hospital masking requirements. For example, Newsweek reported that “UW Health says it requires masks at many of its sites.” Um.

That foggy reference to “many sites” did not specify which ones, say for whom, link to any websites, clarify the source, or give any further information about the alleged “requirement.” I’m not saying I don’t trust them, but … your factual mileage may vary. Consume at your own risk.

Second, I caught them faking again! Twice in one story, and I wasn’t even trying. Newsweek included a powerful photo evidencing the “return of mask mandates,” an image either terrifying or hope-inspiring, depending on which end of the neuroticism spectrum you’re on:




But when you squinted at the greyed-out, 6-point font caption, it turned out the picture was a stock photo from 2020...

Stupid reporters. Misleaders! Why not use a current photo if mask mandates are back in three states? This misleading photo reminded me of all the fake photos they terrified Covidians with back in 2020, passing off old stock footage of bloody gurneys from some backwater Italian clinic from 2014 to evidence New York City’s “overwhelmed hospitals” in 2020.

« First        Comments 931 - 970 of 1,306       Last »     Search these comments

Please register to comment:

api   best comments   contact   latest images   memes   one year ago   random   suggestions   gaiste