". . . he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him." - Jefferson
Posted on 12/28/2017 10:29:10 AM PST by Starman417
“Give (one) enough rope, and (one) will hang (one)self.”
Donald Trump's alleged war with the press has been widely assailed in the mainstream media. Newsweek called it "dangerous." The Daily Beast calls it "anti-American." SE Cupp opined that it's the stuff of dictators:
Look, you know, I was talking to Cokie Roberts, a veteran journalist, about this recently, and she said, look, the media doesn't need to be popular. That's not our job. And so we shouldn't necessarily worry about popularity or our approval in the polls.Is that a fair statement? Let's have a look at some recent media articles.But the poll that you talked about is trust, and that should matter to the media. So, when Donald Trump villainizes the press writ large, that's dangerous. It's not dangerous because it hurts our feelings. It's not dangerous because you know, people dislike us.
It's dangerous because it undermines the real importance of this pillar of democracy -- a strong, credible free press. So, and he does it with lots of different institutions to try to undermine the trust in them, so that he is the only entity that is trusted by the public.
It's the popular dictator tactic, frankly, not to sound, you know, overly dramatic. It is what people do. But with particular attention to the press, he is really trying to erode trust, and it seems to be working.
During Tuesday morning’s broadcast of MSNBC Live, MSNBC Senior National Correspondent Chris Jansing and anchor Ayman Mohyeldin brought on The Nation’s Sports Editor Dave Zirin to argue that President Trump’s attacks on NFL players protesting the National Anthem earlier this year was actually a campaign of “open, ugly racism” that was deliberately aimed at discouraging black athletes from expressing their political opinions.Newsweek: ‘How Trump and the Nazis Stole Christmas To Promote White Nationalism’Last week, Zirin published a column for The Nation that made pretty much the same case, lambasting “Donald Trump, Fox News, and their neo-Nazi-infused right-wing echo chamber” for spending “a year frothing with rabid barbarism” to shut down the voices of black athletes. Jansing and Mohyeldin promoted Zirin’s piece as both “thought-provoking” and “absolutely brilliant,” but failed to correct him as he repeatedly spread blatant misinformation on the air to support his talking points.
Trump isn’t the first political figure in history to co-opt Christmas. In fact, some see parallels between Trump’s speeches in front of Christmas trees and attempts by authoritarian regimes like the Nazis to manipulate popular celebrations to promote a political ideology. But by weaponizing Christmas in this way, Trump is bringing a dangerous tradition of politicizing religious holidays into the United States, experts say.NYT's Hess Channels Trump's Clenched Fist: 'Look What My Whiteness Allows Me to Get Away With'....
....Meanwhile, members of the religious right support Trump’s most nationalist, race-baiting form of political rhetoric, including his re-claiming of Christmas.
Likewise, Nazi Germany’s propagandists rooted their idea of Christmas in visions of ethno-nationalism....
When I see the photograph of Donald Trump holding a fist in the air on Inauguration Day, I think first of Twitter. By the time the photo arrived on my feed, it was already encrusted with commentary from people racing to ascribe meaning to the first moments of the Trump presidency. First: Was he doing … the Black Power salute? And if so, what did that mean? Was he clueless? Racist? Or funny? To those who heralded our new president as the ultimate political jester, the pose was a triumph. To others, it was a menacing taunt to his predecessor: Look what my whiteness allows me to get away with.None of that sounds remotely rational or unbiased. CNN still just can't help itself:
CNN Reporter Falsely Claims Republicans Funded Trump-Russia Dossier
CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez falsely told his network’s viewers on Tuesday that anti-Trump Republicans first funded the infamous Trump-Russia dossier, much of which remains unverified.Newsweek is vicious, not just to Trump but to Melania as wellPerez was responding to a tweet from President Donald Trump, who called the dossier a “pile of garbage.” Perez has close ties to the cofounders of Fusion GPS, the firm behind the dossier, which CNN failed to disclose.
“Look, the fact is that the dossier was compiled as part of opposition research, first paid for by Republicans who were opposed to Donald Trump and then later on by Democrats and the Clinton camp, people associated with the Clinton campaign who wanted to try to bring him down,” Perez said.
That “fact” cited by Perez — that anti-Trump Republicans originally funded the dossier — has been ruled “false” by fact-checkers.
Newsweek published a misleading headline on Tuesday that claimed First Lady Melania Trump demanded a historic Jackson magnolia tree be removed from the White House grounds, but it failed to mention that experts recommended the tree’s removal because it could fall down at any moment.And the rest of gang piled on:“Melania Trump orders removal of the near-200-year-old tree from the White House,” Newsweek tweeted from its verified Twitter account. The same text is used as the headline for the story, which is essentially fake news and paints Melania Trump as a tree-hating villain.
The First Lady did order the historic tree to be removed, but only after specialists determined that it needed to be removed. The tree has long been supported by poles and wires and posed a hazard for anyone standing near it.
Misleading. Wrong. Typical of the left wing press. Ready, shoot, aim.
It's not Trump. The press is killing itself. They have declared war on Trump, and Trump is merely giving them the rope with which they hang themselves. The war on Trump began nearly a year ago:
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...
The Main Stream Media, needs to circle their wagons and declare a TRUCE..and make peace with the duly elected person the United States Electorate chose to fill this office. Until then, we will go another year of grumbling and complaining. CNN needs to be the first to take a knee, and bow and recognize they are warmongers at heart, and would do ANYTHING or say ANYTHING to remove Trump, the one the people chose for the office.
When we will have that?
Golden oldie: February 16, 1994
ABC News correspondent Cokie Roberts and a producer were reprimanded for faking an outdoor shot at Capitol Hill. On Jan. 26 World News Tonight anchorman Peter Jennings in New York switched to Roberts in Washington for a discussion of President Clinton's State of the Union address delivered the previous night (snip)
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1994-02-16/news/9402160348_1_cokie-roberts-in-washington-capitol
Thomas Jefferson's views on the importance of a free press are well known. Nevertheless, Jefferson was well aware of the dark under belly of a segment of the press which might set itself up, as he called it, "to serve the ministers" of a "despotic government.""Nothing is so mistaken as the supposition, that a person is to extricate himself from a difficulty, by intrigue, by chicanery, by dissimulation, by trimming, by an untruth, by an injustice. This increases the difficulties ten fold; and those who pursue these methods, get themselves so involved at length, that they can turn no way but their infamy becomes more exposed. It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions." - See "Letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785," in Thomas Jefferson: Writings (New York: The Library of America, 1984), pp. 814-815.". . . he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him." - Jefferson
Note that in the last of the following quotations on the subject, Jefferson noted, "But the fact being once established, that the press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood," he declared, "I leave to others to restore it to its strength by recalling it within the pale of truth."
"[A despotic] government always [keeps] a kind of standing army of newswriters who, without any regard to truth or to what should be like truth, [invent] and put into the papers whatever might serve the ministers. This suffices with the mass of the people who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true paragraphs of a newspaper." --Thomas Jefferson to G. K. van Hogendorp, Oct. 13, 1785. (*) ME 5:181, Papers 8:632"[I have seen] repeated instances of the publication of what has not been intended for the public eye, and the malignity with which political enemies torture every sentence from me into meanings imagined by their own wickedness only... Not fearing these political bull-dogs, I yet avoid putting myself in the way of being baited by them, and do not wish to volunteer away that portion of tranquillity, which a firm execution of my duties will permit me to enjoy." --Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807. ME 11:226
"Conscious that there was not a truth on earth which I feared should be known, I have lent myself willingly as the subject of a great experiment, which was to prove that an administration, conducting itself with integrity and common understanding, cannot be battered down even by the falsehoods of a licentious press, and consequently still less by the press as restrained within the legal and wholesome limits of truth. This experiment was wanting for the world to demonstrate the falsehood of the pretext that freedom of the press is incompatible with orderly government. I have never, therefore, even contradicted the thousands of calumnies so industriously propagated against myself. But the fact being once established, that the press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood, I leave to others to restore it to its strength by recalling it within the pale of truth. Within that, it is a noble institution, equally the friend of science and of civil liberty." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Seymour, 1807. ME 11:155
Answer: never.
But look at the typical arrogance of Washington insider Cokie Roberts as she denounces Pres. Trump for supposedly undermining the public’s trust in the media.
Why doesn’t she just say “Why that impertinent upstart! How dare he criticize his betters!?”
For the damage they’ve enabled and been an active part in providing cover for, the vast majority of the mainstream media should be lined up in front of a wall and shot.
The biggest thread to America has been an irresponsible and America-hating press. It’s now being exposed.
They're losing and the smarter ones among them know it. When 140-character notes from the President become an existential threat, they've already lost it. When a Joy Reid finds out that her idiotic blather has no more weight than a blogger in pajamas, she screeches, but that's all it is.
All completely true. Really good stuff. Thanks for posting it.
The press have a Constitutional Amendment to protect them doing their job which is to report honestly.
Not like the majority of the fly-over media are now doing - making stuff up and outright lying.
I haven’t watched a Network News Channel since the day the Police and the Media pulled that Scam on Latrell Sprewell about running a chop shop.
I Lived Right Next Door and was there before,during, and after the charade. And then I watched EVERY LAST Reporter go on TV and LIE through their teeth and help perpetrate a FRAUD upon the American People.
Thanks Starman417.
NBC News Column: ‘Not a Chance’ Trump Will Be Charged With Collusion
Self | December 27, 2017 | P.J. Gladnick
Posted on 12/28/2017 12:47:02 AM PST by PJ-Comix
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3617480/posts
The media bit off more than they could chew when they started going after Trump. He's a tiger with different stripes. He bites back.
They have been shooting themselves in the d*ck ever since Trump came on the scene.
bkmk
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