Posted on 02/04/2018 4:13:08 AM PST by Kaslin
This week we saw a perfect example of how corrupt journalism has become. There was an opportunity to report the news and journalists and their fellow travelers in the pundit class balked. While that wasn’t unusual, what was is how they did it in the lead up to the news, not bothering to wait until they’d seen what they were attempting to discredit. There was an unprecedented attempt to make the release of the FISA memo NOT NEWS before anyone knew what was in it.
Over the past two weeks, Democrats scrambled to “warn” the public that the release of the FISA memo would “damage national security” were it released. Journalists picked up the mantra and ran with it, unquestioningly parroting it in badgering Republicans about why they would support its release considering this charge. There was virtually no discussion as to whether or not this allegation was true or an attempted partisan distraction, it was simply accepted and repeated as if it had been carved into stone tablets by a burning bush and sent directly to the teleprompter in their TV studios.
The memo, of course, was nothing of the sort. There was nothing that was a threat in any way to national security, no remote mention of sources or methods. It was all a Democratic Party lie immediately adopted by journalists. As with past false stories that needed to be retracted or corrected, there was no comeuppance for those who spread the lie to the media, nor the media figures who regurgitated it. It happened, and when it was proven to be a lie, it was memory-holed. (This story on the subject to not even mention it.)
The lying by Democrats in the lead up to the memo’s release wasn’t surprising, nor was the complicity of journalists in spreading that lie. What was is how there was virtually no curiosity or interest in the memo and its contents in the days leading to its release from the people whose job it is supposed to be to convey information to the public. All journalists did was attempt to taint it’s release so as to foster disinterest in it in their audience when they could finally see it.
Once it was released to the public, the discussion shifted to anything but its contents or the fact that unverified Clinton campaign opposition research was used as justification to spy on an American citizen without disclosing that’s what it was.
Now, I don’t know anything about Carter Page, the subject of that spying, beyond the fact that he’s an American citizen. He could be a Russian robot, for all I know. But he’s apparently been the subject of constant government surveillance since 2013 and hasn’t been arrested. That means he’s either the world’s greatest spy who doesn’t leave a fingerprint anywhere, or he’s just some weird guy who, once the government started watching him, they couldn’t stop. I suspect it the latter since the Clinton oppo file had to be used, at least in part, to justify the continued spying.
No one in the media bothered to ask or seemed to care. (There are two very interesting threads on the FISA warrants here from a Member of Congress and especially here from an attorney. I recommend reading them.)
“Journalists” close to Fusion GPS, the Democratic Party front group that helped keep Clinton’s fingerprints off the oppo research, declared the memo a nothingburger. Liberal journalists who routinely report leaks from the left went so far as to complain that conservative outlets got a small head start. (This is a story that will never be written about NBC News or the New York Times. It’s also wild speculation, which is the exact opposite of what journalism is supposed to be.)
Democrats began leaking their claim there is evidence refuting the memo, but didn’t give any and didn’t have to in order for that claim to be reported.
Before its release, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell wasn’t interested, only “concerned” the American people finding out what our government does will “risk 40 years of congressional oversight of the agencies.” How? No need to explain, just declare it and move on. It’s not clear how the FBI and Department of Justice could cooperate less with congressional oversight than they have been, but if they did, according to Mitchell, this burning of the Constitution would be justified because we got a quick peek behind the curtain.
The media clowns came piling out of their car, too. Evan McMullin declared any potential violation of an American’s civil liberties by the government to be just fine because it involved Donald Trump. Liberal CNN conservative Matt Lewis declared the whole thing a “dud,” much to the delight of other desperate Green Room dwellers. In reading these and other poorly written pieces, it’s fairly clear these conclusions were planned before the allegations were heard. Anything for more airtime.
CNN and MSNBC had panels exclusively of liberals denouncing the memo without discussing its implications or content. If the government can award itself the power to spy on Americans simply because someone got drunk and talked themselves up in front of others (George Papadopoulos) and someone else made allegations about that person (Page), there is virtually no one in the country who couldn’t be subjected to government spying.
Journalists weren’t interested in that, or anything else associated with the memo. They, like McMullin, couldn’t care less about government abusing its power as long as it does it against people they don’t like. We saw this play out with the IRS scandal during the Obama administration – the media ignored it as long as they could, talked about it for a quick minute, then returned to repeating the lie that Obama’s tenure was “scandal-free.”
Were Trump not President, were the Oval Office occupied by any of the other candidates who ran in 2016, the story would be nearly the same. There might not be the personal ferocity or sense of urgency, but the simmering contempt would still be there and it would still dominate the actions of these people.
They don’t care. Journalism is dead. It didn’t die of natural causes, it was murdered by its practitioners in the name of attacking Republicans, in particular Donald Trump.
Should not the fake news networks be REQUIRED to register as partisan political agencies?
There should be a law...
>>I wonder how the Journ”O”list sleep at night knowing they sold their integrity and credibility for an political ideology
It’s what Howard Zinn trained them for
Some of it might be political ideaology, but I think there is systematic blackmail, bribery extortion, and payoffs throughout media, starting with the ownership of news outlets. If it would be honestly investigated, the corruption would be mind blowing.
It was clear before Watergate that the press hated Nixon. They were not as "in your face" about it as they are today.
If Trump were the one who had done this, the lefty media would have gone with torches to the WH until he was charged.
Journalism by means of bloggers/vloggers/Breitbart/FR/etc has never been better and more honest or more free. We live in the greatest age of journalism in Earth’s history.
It is just that the “traditional” outlets (like WaPo, NYT, LAT, etc) are finally being recognized for what they are - Democrat Party newsletters.
Journalism died when Operating Mockingbird killed it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird
All that is left now are simulacrums pretending to be journalists.
Next step: the intelligence agencies create AIs and put them on the air—no need for humans who keep sexually assaulting each other. :-(
90% of US media outlets are owned by Wall Street firms.
The media doesn’t even try to appear fair. It has chosen to align itself 100% with the hate-America left. It uses its resources to promote hate-America interests, including m*slim expansion into the free world.
Journalism has been dead for at least a century.
Read about the media’s support of the supremely arrogant and incompetent Woodrow Wilson and later hiding his health condition from the public.
And further evidence of the rotting carcass of journalism is the fifth-column media hawking of FDR, JFK, LBJ (and the media’s attack on Barry Goldwater), JC, Slick Willie, and Traitorobama.
That whole incident STILL fills me with fury!
The bastard excused his actions by insisting that they wouldn't be able to get any news out of Iraq if he didn't do what he did, but nobody ever bothered to ask him why you need news coming out of Iraq if it's just propaganda!
The only reason I can think is the unstated premise that CNN would still have something to sell to its viewers, so what it boils down to is betraying news consumers for the purpose of keeping revenue up.
It was a huge mistake to bring in the paper clip Nazis to help us set up and organize the CIA after WWII. Their ideology infected the intelligence community and it and the other alphabets have morphed into a 4th branch of government that is more powerful than the other three combined. It is also unelected and above any oversight, either by the other three branches or civilian.
It is a goose stepping frankenstein with a nightmarish sci-fi spy apparatus that one former NAS director, I believe it was, warned us would one day stop being used to spy on our enemies, and would be turned inward to be used against We The People.
It was clear to me back then.
I can remember sitting through the wall-to-wall coverage of "the old country lawyer" Sam Ervin's senate committee, with the old fart hammering Nixon at every turn with his folksy anecdotes.
It was enough to make any objective observer puke.
Does anyone recall the wall-to-wall media coverage of the Clinton impeachment hearings?
I think not, because it didn't happen.
Really makes me mad when I click on an article for the NY Times and they WARN me that I have only 2 free articles left.
I am crying crocodile tears cuz they are losing money and have had to consolidate their workspace due to all the journalists they can't afford to hire any longer.
Those Slimeballs can just go where the sun don't shine.
“It’s clear now the Watergate reporting was not journalism but rather a partisan attack on Nixon.”
I think what is clear is that Saints Woodward & Bernstein couldn’t have brought that story in without the copious leaking from the Deputy Director of the CIA.
Journalism died circa 2008.
5.56mm
They are essentially working for the Democratic Party and are a part of them. They should be required to register as PACs.
And there’s a simple way to prove that, too, without any opinion needed whatsoever. Whatever the Democratic politicians say, they say. Whatever line Democrats take, they take the same one. It’s that flagrant.
Again, as the article says, they didn’t have to see the memo this week. They “knew” they could automatically support Democrats against Republicans, that Democrats were being “the patriots” and Republicans were being “partisan political hacks.” That’s being wholly partisan. And they adopt the left’s terminology, even to the point of using ridiculous euphemisms like “undocumented immigrants.”
I was too young then to have more than the vaguest memories of Nixon’s presidency, but read quite a bit about it, including the “All the President’s Men” series, and believed the conventional wisdom about Nixon’s corruption. I’ve started to think more and more, though, that maybe if Nixon had been a Democrat, he would have finished out his term and “Watergate” wouldn’t be a word for scandal.
Yellow Journalism is alive and well.
Definition of journalism: writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation
Definition of propaganda: the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person
I think it is abundantly clear which is being practiced by the main stream media.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.