Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Fake News and Buggy Whip Makers

Fake news! Wow!

This is very serious. Don't laugh. The progs are atwitter, gasping, and clutching their pearls over the scourge of "fake news"!

Go ahead, type in the words "fake news" in your search bar and you will get a flood of stories about "fake news," its pernicious influence on the 2016 elections, on your brain's ability to function, and, of course, lots of advice on how to avoid "fake news" which basically comes down to read only the establishment media.

Somewhere, George Orwell is laughing.

Let's start with the obvious.

"Fake news" has been round since history began. "Fake news," you know, what your grandmother used to call lies . . . not a recent invention. And, I am not just referring to governmental or other avowedly political propaganda--we are not just talking about Hitler, Stalin, and Kim Jung-Un. Much of history, of course, is routinely denounced as "fake," or one-sided, or "the victor's account." We have a whole university-intellectual-media complex devoted to deconstructing historical accounts and rewriting them. So this is nothing new. Every generation rewrites the past. The heroes of yesterday are the villains of today, and vice-versa. Nothing new.

While this is nothing new, the progressives and their media acolytes have got what they think is a way of explaining progressivism's string of defeats in recent months, including, of course, the election of Donald Trump. So the progs do what they always do: lie, insult, berate, and, above all, try to silence the voices of dissent, all in the name of truth. If you disagree with the progressives you are a racist, a misogynist, an Islamophobic nutcase, and, now, you are a promoter of "fake news."

I have written before about how progressives try to redefine words and make them tools of progressivism. I have also written before about how progressive "journalists"feel compelled to lie and distort in their pursuit of "truth." The clamor about "fake news" is another manifestation of the totalitarian impulse in progressive thought and action, and, of course, another manifestation of the willful blindness they practice when confronted by an otherwise inexplicable narrative. As we see, "fake news" is defined as that which does not comply with the progressive narrative; "fake news" is a depiction of events that does not support the prefabricated progressive vision of the world.

Look at what the mainstream media terms as the purveyors of "fake news" and you will almost inevitably see a list of conservative commentators. I would be honored to be on that list.

As I wrote before when discussing the progressive fabulist Brian Williams,
he is a hero and a product of the Hollywood-University-Media complex which has done so much irreparable damage to our nation and Western civilization. 
Williams joins the ranks of other progressive "journalists" such as, 
Dan Rather, who tried to throw an American election by pushing a patently false story about George W. Bush; 
Janet Cook, who concocted a much-awarded narrative of an eight-year-old heroin addict; 
Jayson Blair, who fabricated a number of much-commented on stories for the New York Times
Sabrina Erdely of Rolling Stone who spread the UVA fake rape story; 
and, of course, who could forget, The Lord of Them All, Commissar in Chief Walter Duranty, New York Times apologist extraordinaire for Joseph Stalin and his mass murders in Ukraine. 
Now, of course, we have many more recent additions to that list. Should we not name as "fake news" the lachrymose Ferguson tale of "Hands up! Don't shoot!" How about the lurid accounts of the Zimmerman shooting? How about the Baltimore killer cops? How about . . . well, you get it.

The progressive overlords of the dying traditional media outlets strike me as akin to the owners of the last buggy whip factory railing against the flood of Model T's pouring from the assembly lines of Henry Ford. As happened with buggy whips, which became nothing more than an ornament on some car owner's wall, so it is with the old progressive media destined to serve as liner for the bottom of our bird cages.

Oh, and by the way, just to end on an even happier note, I bought a 1911 Colt Commander today. It, apparently, will be among the very last Colt 1911s sent by Colt to California. Beautiful gun; got to wait ten days, however, and must pick it up before the new year. The gun store, I would note, was a hive of optimism as customers and employees commented on the victory of Donald Trump.



28 comments:

  1. Newest course at the Columbia School of Journalism -- Faking the News 101 -- taught by Mike Barnicle.

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  2. I rush back to recall another one of the greatest fake news concocters of all times ... Al Sharpton ... now close adviser to our president and MSNBC luminary. (Barnicle also pontificates on MSNBC.)

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    1. For you youngsters who didn't live through this fiasco, Google "Tawanda Brawley" ...

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  3. With reference to Tim Blair...

    Next time someone complains about fake news, ask them what gender Caitlyn Jenner is.

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  4. As long as the progs continue to misdiagnose their defeat, they will continue to walk down the path of stupid. It's quite a wonderful sight to behold!

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    1. They will continue down this path. They are sitting in some sort of prog echo chamber, encouraging each other in their pathological world view.

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    2. I was watching a "Miller Time" segment on "The O'Reilly Factor" last week. Miller was egging-on celebrities to keep publicly supporting Democrat candidates and for protesters to keep marching. He said they were "doing good, keep it up!"

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    3. I see this morning that, as the door is hitting him in the ass, Harry Reid is saying that there is nothing wrong with the Democratic party and there is no need for any change. I hope that sentiment holds for awhile -- maybe there won't be the usual counter-wave midterm election in 2018.

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    4. As Reid slithers off, may the door knob hit him where the good Lord split him.

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  5. Eason Jordan. He was the head of CNN that admitted he knew Saddam was sending people thru wood chippers but looked the other way so CNN could keep their Baghdad bureau.

    Then there was The Chicago Tribune. I personally asked about AG Fitzgerald's comment thanking the Tribune for "holding the (Blago) story for over a month during his "Lincoln rolling over in his grave presser." That would put the Tribune's knowledge of Blago's wiretaps before the '08 election. The Tribune refused to elaborate any further than what they already reported.

    They knew. And they refused to tell the truth because it didn't follow the progressive narrative.

    ~M.

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    1. "he knew Saddam was sending people thru wood chippers": but didn't that turn out to be fake news anyway? So, apparently, was the story of Iraq stealing all the baby incubators from Kuwait. And so were many of the films about victims of bombs in Syria. The Middle East is wall-to-wall fake news I expect. And not just the Middle East.

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    2. you may have a point. It is the New York Times, after all.
      http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/11/opinion/the-news-we-kept-to-ourselves.html

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  6. I love the 1911; except when it needs to be broken down, cleaned and reassembled. The M&P is so much easier.

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  7. The "fake news" push isn't intended to just label certain sources as unreliable. It's intended to setup a "valid" reason for implementing censorship of those sources. The EU is pushing for Facebook to censor "fake news" and "hate speech":

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/05/31/facebook-and-twitter-sign-up-to-eu-hate-speech-policy-promise-to-promote-counter-narratives/

    Interesting that the EU got on the "fake news" bandwagon so quickly after the US progressives did. It goes to show that are all of the same ilk and coordinating behind the scenes.

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  8. It's a multi-dimensional diversion. Obama and his appointed cronies are busy burning the midnight oil secretly screwing us over as much as they can before Jan 20th. Not to mention that all over DC the shredders are running 24/7. And the media are telling us "look over here" or "did you see what Trump tweeted", etc.

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    1. I suspect the biggest question is how much money we will forfeit by withdrawing from the international climate fiasco?
      I say this because I suspect nobody would've signed onto it if Obama hadn't arranged for some big fat checks like he did with the Iran 'deal' (plane loads of cash, non-US denominations? much more like trafficking than diplomacy).
      My guess is that Obama has secretly put us into arrears on this climate disaster, with an international 'plan' that will repay his 'deposit' over time, so long as we stay with his treaty. Technically, it's not 'ratifying'... it's just "make it too expensive for a future president to leave". Would have to be trillions in existing debt/liability, or no future President's hands will be tied.
      I hypothesize this because I have no idea why anybody would take Obama any more seriously on the Paris disaster than they took Al Gore on the Kyoto travesty. Obama has to have found a way to give them *something*, and this would be analogous to a lot of municipal bond shenanigans whereby technocrats create liability for a government while making an end run around rules for taking on debt.
      Shoot.. this probably makes *no* sense whatsoever... I know what I mean.. but...

      - reader #1482

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  9. The Left's national anthem, it's not fake, really. It's also a toe tapping tune with a light touch and a positive outlook on the future, very progressive. You hear them humming it everywhere:
    https://youtu.be/VScSEXRwUqQ

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    1. James, I wish this was their "End". But they are an endless tumor.

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    2. Rust never sleeps.

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  10. A common joke under communism in Russia: The future is known. It is the past which keeps changing.

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  11. On kpfa this morning (pacifica/moonbat radio is northern california): "We need a *diverse* cabinet and representatives of all minorities. We embrace identity politics because we are our identities (ed. whatever that means??). But not just that, we don't need just any diverse people, we only need *progressive* diverse people... because diverse people are, at their hearts, progressive."

    Amazing this stuff doesn't get on the air... it's basically 'the new KKK'...

    - reader #1482

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  12. So at an event to see off Harry Reid, Hillary decried those who lie and create "fake news" to influence our Democracy.
    The very same Harry Reid who knowingly lied and created fake news (while standing on the Senate Floor where he is immune from Libel and Slander charges...aint that just convenient) about Mitt Romney not paying taxes, then justified his lies by proclaiming Romney lost the election.
    And this is the hypocrite the little snowflakes want as their Dear Leader?

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  13. Fake news yesterday from a Newsweek reporter against Trumps's supporters. HRC wants freedom of speech restricted when it comes to fake news, so will he be disciplined. I doubt it. I watched the rally and it was apparent to me just watching on TV that the Trump supporters were booing those protesting. http://www.mediaite.com/online/newsweek-writer-falsely-reports-that-trump-supporters-booed-john-glenn/

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  14. Meanwhile, (Dejavu? Coincidence? Or their first big integrated marketing campaign?) Congress just coincidentally passed a law that enables the government to train and advise media types: "The Portman-Murphy Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act " Which will "whole-of-government initiatives to expose and counter foreign disinformation operations and proactively advance fact-based narratives that support U.S. allies and interests." and will use non-gov media to do this: " a fund to help train local journalists and provide grants and contracts to NGOs, civil society organizations, think tanks, private sector companies, media organizations, and other experts outside the U.S. government with experience in identifying and analyzing the latest trends in foreign government disinformation techniques. This fund will complement and support the Center’s role by integrating capabilities and expertise available outside the U.S. government into the strategy-making process. It will also empower a decentralized network of private sector experts and integrate their expertise into the strategy-making process."
    http://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=press-releases&id=3765A225-B773-4F57-B21A-A265F4B5692C

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  15. Trump destroyed Political Correctness which had prior to his stunning victory was the foil the left used to shut down dissent, discussion or debate.

    The demise of PC gives way to Fake News.

    They, them, those of the left have lost the battle of ideas.

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