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On CNN's KFile and the Cost of Media Bias
Townhall.com ^ | October 22, 2018 | John R. Lott Jr

Posted on 10/22/2018 9:52:33 AM PDT by Kaslin

Andrew Kaczynski and the rest of CNN’s so-called KFile unit ought to count their reporting as direct campaign contributions to Democrats.

Last year, in falsely accusing Sheriff David Clarke and Monica Crowley of plagiarism when the Trump administration was considering them for positions, CNN omitted the authors’ footnotes, which contained the source attributions. 

As Steven Brill, the founder of Court TV and lecturer at the Yale English department, told the Yale Daily News in 2007: “Plagiarism is when you steal someone’s words and you don’t attribute it to that person.” He went on to address the case of Yale Law School professor Ian Ayres, who copied large chunks of writing without quote marks — even more than a couple of paragraphs at a time. “I don’t think it quite rises to that, because he is attributing what he’s saying to the person [in the endnotes]. His intent could not have been terribly guilty, because he provided neon signs … for anyone to figure out what he’d done.”

By contrast, Clarke and Crowley’s paraphrases were all correctly sourced in footnotes. But CNN’s reporting left out the footnote marks, so readers would have no idea that the statements were all sourced.

What passes for hard-hitting investigations of Democrats includes Arizona Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema who intentionally doesn’t mention her party affiliation in her television advertisements because she is running as an “independent voice for Arizona.” 

Other reporters have accused Kaczynski of sitting on the story of Keith Ellison physically abusing an ex-girlfriend. And when they finally ran a story on the accusations, their story focused on Ellison’s denial.

Their No. 1 congressional target this year has been Minnesota’s second district Congressman, Jason Lewis. CNN had five articles in eight days during July, with three of them led by KFile and the follow up articles done by others. 

Apparently CNN noticed that Lewis is still in a very tight race, because they targeted him again on Friday. This time, KFile attacked Lewis for comments he made as a radio talk show host in 2012: “Lewis repeatedly made demeaning comments about women during a period of 15 months on his show, including lamenting that women could no longer be called ‘sluts.’ Lewis later defended those comments, saying being provocative was part of being on talk radio.

But again CNN didn’t provide the full story. In February 2012, Rush Limbaugh called women's rights activists and then-graduate student Sandra Fluke a "slut" because she wanted the government to pay for her birth control. Limbaugh suffered advertiser boycotts. In response to this backlash, Lewis asked his audience: “Can we call anybody a slut?” and “Have we really got to the point where you can’t refer to Madonna as a slut without being sued?”

The media construed this as Lewis singling out women for their promiscuity. But he explicitly acknowledged that men and women are perceived differently for sexual promiscuity. “I know there's a double standard,” said Lewis. His question was a general one about whether people generally could be called out for behavior that may not be advisable for themselves or for society. His monologue was not a defense of Limbaugh’s use of the term “slut,” but was an attempt to get people thinking about the ethics of shaming.

KFile also claimed that Lewis “once mocked women who felt traumatized by unwanted touching.” Lewis was commenting on Herman Cain’s denial during the 2012 presidential campaign that he had sexually harassed two women while president of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s. But Lewis did not condone sexual harassment or take a stand on Cain’s denial. Lewis was again raising a general point: that people make honest mistakes in interpreting whether a comment or a touch is welcomed.

There is a real cost to this media bias. The day after the CNN stories broke in July about Lewis’ supposedly demeaning comments about women, Lewis’ two daughters were threatened with violence. 

As if it isn’t enough that Lewis is up against an almost four million dollar political war chest in outside money funded by Gabby Giffords' gun control PAC (with money funneled by Michael Bloomberg), the Environmental Defense Fund, and liberal women’s organizations. CNN’s out-of-context claims quickly end up in attack ads.

It is bad enough that the campaign ads are filled with false claims. It doesn’t help any when the media provides the “fake news” stories that serve as the basis for those campaign ads.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: andrewkaczynski; arizona; clintonnonnews; cnn; davidclarke; demagogicparty; gabbygiffords; hermancain; ianayres; jasonlewis; karenmonahan; keithellison; kyrstensinema; marthamcsally; mediawingofthednc; michaelbloomberg; minnesota; monicacrowley; nonplayercharacter; nonplayercharacters; npc; npcs; partisanmediashills; presstitutes; rushlimbaugh; smearmachine; stevenbrill; tomperez

1 posted on 10/22/2018 9:52:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The Cuck News Network needs to be bankrupted.......................


2 posted on 10/22/2018 10:07:50 AM PDT by Red Badger (Nikki Haley is 100% Indian!.....................)
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To: Kaslin

Kudos to Townhall.com and John R. Lott Jr., an excellent article.

Kaslin...thanks for posting.


3 posted on 10/22/2018 10:14:15 AM PDT by FtrPilot
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
The FCC should ban the use of CNN in all US airports.

4 posted on 10/22/2018 11:00:38 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (and btw -- https://www.gofundme.com/for-rotator-cuff-repair-surgery)
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To: Kaslin

KFILE makes a pile of rotting, syphilis-infected dog feces look good by comparison...


5 posted on 10/22/2018 4:01:13 PM PDT by kiryandil (Never pick a fight with an angry beehive)
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To: FtrPilot

One wishes that KFILE would get an invitation to high tea at the Saudi consulate in Turkey...


6 posted on 10/22/2018 4:02:54 PM PDT by kiryandil (Never pick a fight with an angry beehive)
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