Tag: fake news

Feds provide anti-cannabis group a platform to bash legalization

A federal health agency on Monday hosted a leading marijuana prohibitionist group for an event focused on cannabis use trends and youth prevention, giving the organization a prominent platform for a discussion that largely promoted an anti-reform agenda.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) invited Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), to speak at a webinar on cannabis-related emergency incidents, the “potential negative impacts of state legalization” and methods of deterring youth usage.

The conversation skewed heavily toward the prohibition side of the cannabis reform debate, with Rear Admiral Christopher Jones, the director of SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, opening by overviewing data on “an upward trajectory of marijuana use” and its potential harms.

“What we hope to do today is sort of unpack some of the data that are underneath these trends,” he said. “But certainly the recent uptick is concerning as we look at past-month marijuana use.”

While Jones acknowledged that youth cannabis usage in recent years as more states have legalized cannabis have been “a little bit flatter” compared to rising use rates for adults, there was no discussion about how that might be related to the enactment of regulated markets for adults, which require IDs to ensure that underage people are not accessing the products. A question about the issue submitted by Marijuana Moment during the event was not addressed.

Sabet, for his part, accused pro-legalization advocates and industry stakeholders of selectively promoting data around youth consumption trends to demonstrate that legalization is not associated with an increase among that cohort.

“What you will find the industry often do is cherry pick some of those studies and find one or two states in the timeframe that suits them to show that there was a decrease—you know, remarkably worse there—or there was no increase, they often say, because it’s even hard for them to say there’s a decrease,” Sabet said. “That’s almost impossible. But they can finagle the numbers to say that there was no increase.”

SAMHSA’s just this summer put out data showing that youth cannabis consumption has remained stable amid the state legalization movement.

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Media Seeks to Link Nick Fuentes, Groypers to Charlie Kirk Shooter – Evidence Be Damned

The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and Reuters on Saturday all tried to link Nick Fuentes and Groypers to the Charlie Kirk shooter on the flimsiest of pretexts — all while the authorities were insisting the alleged gunman was “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology.”

The WSJ and NYT argued Fuentes and the Groypers are connected to the accused shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, because there’s a random “Groyper” playlist on Spotify that contains a “version” of the song “Bella Ciao” — lyrics from which were allegedly inscribed on one of Robinson’s bullets.

Bella Ciao is an old Italian song of unclear origins that became associated with anti-fascists over the years. The song is regularly featured in TikTok videos and has well over 1 billion views on YouTube.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox personally told the WSJ in an exclusive statement, “It’s very clear to us and to the investigators that this was a person who was deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology.”

Nonetheless, in the next sentence they try to link the shooting to Fuentes.

You could likely pick any public figure out of a hat and find one of their fans has a playlist containing the song, but they only attempted to link Fuentes and the Groypers to the shooting.

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Watch This MSNBC ‘Misinformation’ Reporter Bend Over Backwards to Obscure Charlie Kirk Assassin’s Motives

MSNBC ‘misinformation’ reporter Brandy Zadrozny recently tied herself in knots on television, trying to excuse away the motives for Charlie Kirk’s assassin. The media coverage over the last few days has been awful in general, but this moment deserves some sort of award for blatant dishonesty.

Zadrozny insists that the messages scrawled on the bullets can’t be understood as a symbol of the shooter’s motive, even going so far as to suggest that the shooter might have put those messages there to assign blame to the left.

This is a perfect example of why even NBC no longer wants anything to do with MSNBC, which will soon be rebranded as an independent entity called MSNOW.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

MSNBC Misinformation Reporter Suggests Kirk Assassin May Have Engraved ‘Hey Fascist’ on Bullet To ‘Set Up’ the Left

MSNBC reporter Brandy Zadrozny suggested Friday that Tyler Robinson, the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s assassination, could have been “trying to set up another ideological enemy for the shooting” by leaving anti-fascist references on the ammunition he used in Wednesday’s shooting.

Authorities revealed at a press conference Friday morning that a shell casing found with the rifle used to assassinate Kirk was engraved with a message that read, “Hey fascist! Catch!” Scrawled on another shell casing were the lyrics from a prominent Italian anti-fascist folk song…

Still, Zadrozny, an award-winning misinformation and internet extremism reporter, said it’s “impossible” to decipher why the alleged assassin decided to end Kirk’s life before offering up a number of theories.

“It’s really hard to tell when you look at what he put on these shell casings, allegedly,” Zadrozny said on MSNBC shortly after Cox announced Robinson’s arrest at a press conference Friday morning. “It’s hard to decipher if he really means them, if he’s trolling, if he’s making fun, if he is trying to set up another ideological enemy for the shooting.”

“It’s just impossible to say,” Zadrozny said.

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CA Democrat Rep. Dave Min Makes False Claims About ‘Radical Right’ Violence After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination

Rep. Dave Min (D-CA) claimed on Friday there was “toxic violence” coming from the “RADICAL RIGHT” after Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

Min also claimed the suspect, who has been identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, belonged to the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

The Democrat wrote in a social media post, “Now that the Charlie Kirk assassin has been identified as MAGA, I’m sure Donald Trump, Elon Musk and all the insane GOP politicians who called for retribution against the “RADICAL LEFT” will now shift their focus to stopping the toxic violence of the RADICAL RIGHT.”

Min got major pushback for his claims, one person writing, “I would say this is unbelievable but Democrats have proven time and again that they will do and say anything, from assassinations to nonsensical lies like this.”

“Patently false. Nice try,” another user commented.

Meanwhile, National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Spokesman Christian Martinez told Breitbart News that Min was “spewing lies.”

“Unhinged conspiracy theorist Dave Min is spewing lies and exploiting a tragedy to score cheap political points,” Martinez stated. “Besides being a drunk, Min is reckless, disgraceful, and a pathetic excuse for a Congressman who will say anything to distract from his own failures. Californians deserve better.”

Star Trek actor George Takei has also pushed misinformation that Kirk’s alleged assassin was motivated by right-wing views, according to Breitbart News.

The alleged shooter was reportedly described by a high school friend as being “pretty left on everything” even though his family were “very hard Republican,” Breitbart News reported.

The individual also claimed that during sophomore year, Robinson’s views became more extreme and he would “always just be ranting and arguing about them.”

Breitbart News reported on Friday, “One of the inscriptions on an ammunition casing of alleged Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson is a clear reference to the song ‘Bella Ciao,’ which is idolized in Antifa circles.”

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George Takei Falsely Claims Charlie Kirk Assassination ‘Appears to Be Right on Right Violence’

Star Trek actor and clickbait peddler George Takei is spreading misinformation that the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s political assassination was motivated by right-wing views.

Takei wrote “Kirk’s killing appears to be right on right violence” Friday evening on the leftist echo chamber Bluesky, long after officials revealed that ammunition in the murder weapon was etched with anti-“fascist” slogans — and after a friend of detained suspect Tyler Robinson said the 22-year-old is “pretty left on everything,” “the only member of his family that was really leftist.”

Takei’s obvious falsehood is a widespread one among the online left, with several viral posts claiming without evidence (or with doctored photos) that Robinson was a groyper (fan of Nick Fuentes) or a “white Christian conservative male.” Several posts in this vein reached the front page of Reddit.

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NYT Forced To Issue Correction After Making Egregiously False Claim About Charlie Kirk

The New York Times issued a correction on Thursday after falsely accusing Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk of making an antisemitic claim on his podcast.

The Times falsely accused Kirk of stating on his podcast in 2023 that Jewish communities are “pushing the exact kind of hatred against whites” that they want people to stop using against them. However, Kirk cited a tweet making that claim and critiqued it, causing the Times’ correction to be made.

“An earlier version of this article described incorrectly an antisemitic statement that Charlie Kirk had made on an episode of his podcast. He was quoting a statement from a post on social media and went on to critique it. It was not his own statement,” the correction reads.

In actuality, Kirk clarified that not all Jews are pushing hatred onto white people. He stated that certain communities have pushed it by supporting left-wing causes such as Black Lives Matter.

“Now let me just say, this is not a very well-written tweet. It’s very confusing. I’ll go through what they’re basically saying here. Half of this tweet is true, half of it, I don’t like. You want the truth said to your face. There it is. Elon responds, and he says you have said the actual truth … But the first part is absolutely true. Let’s go to this. Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them,” Kirk said.

“Now I don’t like generalizations. Not every Jewish person believes that. But it is true, the Anti-Defamation League was part and parcel with Black Lives Matter. It is true that some of the largest financiers of left-wing anti-white causes have been Jewish Americans,” Kirk said.

After his death, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to Kirk as a “lionhearted friend of Israel” who “stood tall for Judeo-Christian civilization.”

The entirety of the article appeared critical of Kirk’s conservative views, such as his belief that teachers should not push gender ideology onto children. It also noted that Kirk criticized society’s fixation on race and George Floyd, who factually had a lengthy criminal history before his death on May 25, 2020.

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Former Trump Cabinet Member Says Marijuana Rescheduling Would Help To ‘Destroy This Country’

Ben Carson, President Donald Trump’s former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), says a move to reschedule marijuana that the administration is actively considering would play into plots to “destroy this country.”

In an interview with Fox Business on Monday, Carson reiterated his opposition to cannabis reform as Trump weighs a proposal to transfer marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Asked why he feels his “caution” against rescheduling could lead the administration to reject the reform, Carson said that “with a lot of things, it’s just a matter of common sense.”

“It’s a matter of putting the facts on the table and then making policy decisions based on what those facts are,” he said, pointing to a study he claims found a “dramatic increase in crime” in neighborhoods with cannabis dispensaries.

“It doesn’t take a great deal of intellect to recognize that when you put these substances into communities and you make them easy to obtain, you get a much worse result,” Carson said. “Also, people say, ‘Well, you know, when I was young, I smoked marijuana. It didn’t cause me to have a lot of problems.’ Recognize that the marijuana of the 60s and 70s was much less potent than the marijuana today.”

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Fake news is growing at an alarming rate during Trump’s second term in office

The Epstein case, the Trump assassination and Russian double agents being poisoned in the UK are all stories which read like spy novels. How much of these stories which we read about are actually true?

With the recent interview by prosecutors of Ghislaine Maxwell shocking some with its whitewash of Donald Trump with regards to the Epstein saga, one truth rings out for those who worry about the West’s democratic legitimacy. Fake news is unquestionably on the rise. For Maxwell to have struck a deal with Trump there must have been a media mind-set there all along which could distort a narrative so much that it makes Trump come out of the Epstein saga as innocent, despite the proven close proximity of these two men for decades.

It is believed that it was Maxwell who revealed details of a letter or note written to Epstein by Trump which included a drawing of a naked women. Trump, stupidly denied this and claimed he never did ‘doodles’ which only pushed a number of amateur hacks to dig up further examples of his doodles. But the jab at Trump was well thought out. It hit home as she was soon transferred to a lower security jail with better privileges and swiftly, it would seem, is being processed so that Trump can pardon her and she can leave the U.S.

The U.S. media, in reporting on the hours of interviews and the tome of a transcript which was leaked to them, are simply unable to do the most elementary thing that all journalists should do naturally when being offered information: be sceptical.

There is no trace of any scepticism though whatsoever which gives a clue just how journalists have sunk in the west as a profession which it was believed, once upon a time, was supposed to hold elites to account. What we are witnessing with the Maxwell interview is the most disingenuous pack of lies crafted specifically to clear Trump, Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton being packaged by journalists who know they are playing a nefarious role in re-writing the whole Epstein story. A whitewash on a grand scale which will probably work to get Trump, Clinton and Prince Andrew off the hook as it will be the media itself which repeats and endorses it over a longer period. It will stick.

Yet in recent times, such a scandal as Maxwell’s stunt, hardly stands alone. There have been a number of major media distortions to serve as a convenient support mechanism for elites both in the U.S. and in the UK.

Just recently in the US, fringe media outlets and their social media accounts have been looking at the so-called Trump assassination attempt in July 2024, questioning whether the President was actually shot at all or faked it using a trick mastered by Hollywood actors.

A retired police detective lieutenant named Duane Lee Proctor alleged U.S. President Donald Trump applied fake blood from a “blood capsule” during the assassination attempt that famously bloodied his ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

It’s hardly surprising the shooting has stirred such conspiracy theories though given the sheer level of media manipulation Trump is capable of and, perhaps also importantly, the willingness for big media to comply with the narrative offered.

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Campaign of Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat Running for Governor in Virginia, Creates Fake News Site to Promote Her Candidacy

Abigail Spanberger is the Democrat running for governor in Virginia. She was the leading candidate until about two weeks ago, when Republican Winsome Sears started catching up to her in the polls.

In an effort to boost her candidacy, Spanberger’s campaign has created a fake news website called the Commonwealth Courier, which shares positive news about Spanberger on social media sites.

The media has completely ignored this story, which should surprise no one.

David Strom writes at Hot Air:

VA Governor Candidate Spanberger Invents ‘News’ Site to Deceive Voters

Abigail Spanberger is the Democratic Party candidate for Governor in Virginia.

Automatically, that makes her suspect.

Pravda and the Democrats have promoted Spanberger as a moderate Democrat, whatever that means these days, although she tends to avoid discussing issues and is distancing herself from her radical voting record. There’s a lot of vague talk–something pretty common in politics, I admit–and lots of promises that utopia is just around the corner.

But to get an idea of what the real Spanberger is like, all you need to know can be summed up by one fact: her campaign has literally invented a fake news site to push the narrative that she is a different kind of Democrat, and that Republicans are the puppy and kitten killing party.

The “news” outlet is the Commonwealth Courier, which is a Facebook page that presents itself as a “Media/News” company. Only it isn’t a company at all. It is, in fact, an artificial creation of the Spanberger for Governor campaign.

The Commonwealth Courier doesn’t exist to get followers–it has very few–and I couldn’t even find a webpage for it. There is a “Commonwealth Couriers,” but they provide courier services, not fake news.

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Democrats Get High On A Dark, Dumb Copium

In recent days, you might have experienced a sensation while reading the political internet or watching cable news that makes you ask yourself, “Are Democrats really into this, or is it fake?” That feeling was likely caused by coming across or directly consuming copium.

Copium is any narrative or event that Democrats seize on to help numb their sore parts and cope with their sad reality. Over the course of the past two weeks, copium came in the form of Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desperate social media activity and was then followed by a dose of hopeful rumors that President Trump had either died or was otherwise severely ill.

Both storylines were hyped up by the dying news media, which are just as dependent on copium as the average sad Democrat who can’t get over the 2024 election. After all, they’re effectively one and the same.

With the Newsom copium, the media were hard at work convincing their audiences at CNN and the New York Times that the governor’s corny tweets imitating the president’s voice were comedic gold knocking Trump back on his heels. Newsom was, according to CNN, “owning the MAGAs.”

Anyone not addicted to copium knew that something was off. The tweets weren’t funny or incisive so much as just another exhausted Trump impersonation intending to signal a Democrat’s opposition. But when you depend on such a substance, you have to convince yourself that it’s great.

The death rumor copium was much darker, but just as dumb — online influencers and professional conspiratorialists looked at a sparse White House holiday weekend public schedule and, paired with photos of a bruise, determined the president had died or fallen deathly sick. To understand how potent this particular variant of the sedative was, consider that Stephen Colbert had to quiet his own audience after it booed his acknowledgement that Trump was, in fact, still alive.

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