Tag: mainstream media

BBC Tries To Frame AI Parody Images as a “Disinformation” Scoop

The BBC used to produce some of the best comedy series – but now many of the “comedians” seem to have moved to the news division.

To make things more perplexing, they appear not to – or not want to – understand humor. Now they (pretend?) not to understand content produced by obviously parody accounts, and (pretend?) to be taking them seriously.

So now, critically minded observers are not laughing with the BBC, but at them, especially when the BBC comes out with a deceptive podcast episode (based on parody content, falsely framed as “serious news).

The target: the highly likely US presidential candidate Donald Trump.

It’s one thing to not like Trump – but is it worth, so to speak, “burning your own house down?” In this case, what remains of BBC’s once commanding credibility?

And yet the situation is actually no laughing matter, in terms of free speech and free press. Unsatisfied with turning out questionable, in terms of bias, and just clickbaity content these last years, the BBC News would clearly like to establish itself as an arbiter of truth for other media to follow. Absurd, or what?

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MSNBC Cuts Off Trump Victory Speech; Claims It’s “Irresponsible” To Broadcast

MSNBC’s salty anchor Rachel Maddow once again cut away from Donald Trump giving a victory speech after winning 15 of the Super Tuesday states, reasoning that it is “irresponsible to allow” Trump to “knowingly lie.”

As Trump was speaking, Maddow interjected “Yeeeaaaah okay,” while one of the other clowns laughed in the background.

The anchor then stated, “I will say it is a decision that we revisit constantly in terms of the balance between allowing somebody to knowingly lie on your air about things they have lied about before and you can predict they are going to lie about, so therefore, it is irresponsible to allow them to do that.”

Maddow continued, “It is a balance between knowing that that is irresponsible to broadcast and also knowing that as the de facto soon to be de facto nominee of the Republican party, this is not only the man who is likely to be the Republican candidate for president, but this is the way he is running.”

MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle chimed in “Well here is how to balance it. We fact check the hell out of him.”

“Yes, and we do that after the fact,” Maddow responded, adding “That is the best remedy that we’ve got. It does not fix the fact we broadcast it.”

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WORTHY VS. UNWORTHY VICTIMS: STUDY REVEALS MEDIA’S SELECTIVE COVERAGE OF NAVALNY AND LIRA

Anew MintPress News study of media coverage of the deaths of American journalist and commentator Gonzalo Lira and Russian political leader Alexey Navalny has found that the establishment U.S. press overwhelmingly ignored the former and focussed on the latter. The New York Times, Washington Post, ABC News, Fox News and CNN collectively ran 731 segments on Navalny between February 16 and February 22, compared to just one on Lira since his death on January 12, perhaps because one was a Western-backed figure who died at the hands of an official enemy state, while the other was a pro-Russian voice who met their end at the hands of the Ukrainian government.

ROUND-THE-CLOCK COVERAGE VS RADIO SILENCE

MintPress conducted a quantitative analysis of the media coverage of two political figures who recently died in prison: Alexey Navalny and Gonzalo Lira. Both were controversial characters and critics of the governments that imprisoned them. Both died under suspicious circumstances (their families both maintain they were effectively murdered). And both died in the past six weeks, Navalny in February and Lira in January. A crucial difference in their stories, however, is that Navalny perished in an Arctic penal colony after being arrested in Russia (an enemy state), while Lira’s life ended in a Ukrainian prison, abandoned by the pro-Kiev government in Washington, D.C.

The study compared the coverage of Navalny and Lira’s death in five leading outlets: the New York Times, the Washington Post, ABC News, Fox News, and CNN. These outlets were chosen for their reach and influence and, together, could be said to reasonably represent the corporate media spectrum as a whole. The data was compiled using the Dow Jones Factiva news database and searches on the websites of the news organizations. This study takes no position on the matter of Navalny, Lira, or the Russia-Ukraine war.

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MSNBC Hosts Blast ‘White Rural Voters’ As Conspiracy-Driven ‘Threats To Democracy’

Apair of MSNBC panelists derided “white rural voters” as ignorant, conspiracy-driven rubes who present a “threat to democracy.”

Journalist Paul Waldman and University of Maryland professor Thomas Schaller went on MSNBC Monday to promote their new book, “White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy” with “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski.

“We lay out the four-fold interconnected threat that white rural voters pose to the country,” said Schaller. “They’re the most racist, xenophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-gay geodemographic group in the country.”

“Second, they’re the most conspiracist group,” Schaller continued. “QAnon support and subscribers, election denialism, Covid denialism and scientific skepticism, Obama birtherism.”

“Third, anti-democratic sentiments,” Schaller added. “They don’t believe in an independent press, free speech. They’re most likely to say the president should be able to act unilaterally without any checks from Congress or the courts or the bureaucracy. They’re also the most strongly white nationalist and white Christian nationalist.”

Schaller kept going. “Fourth,” he said, “they are most likely to excuse or justify violence as an acceptable alternative to peaceful public discourse.”

“You mentioned a lot of negative factors about this demographic,” Brzezinski responded.

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MSNBC Legal Analyst Argues for ‘Common Sense’ Speech Restrictions Live on Air

A legal analyst at MSNBC argued earlier this week that there is a need for “common sense” restrictions to the First Amendment to prevent “disinformation” online.

The comments from University of Michigan law professor Barbara McQuade underscore how many on the far left now view basic American Constitutional rights.

During an interview with network host Rachel Maddow that The New York Post flagged on Thursday, McQuade argued that current restrictions on free speech might not go far enough.

McQuade said previous arguments from the U.S. Supreme Court had set a precedent — that there are some limitations to what people can say if it is intended to create harm — but she added those might not be far-reaching enough.

One such case is 1919’s Schenck v. United States, in which it was ruled that a person could not shout “fire” while in a crowded theater if that person’s rationale for speaking was only to cause public harm.

In the context of American political discourse in the age of social media, McQuade said that the country’s “deep commitment to free speech,” a cornerstone of society, is leaving people vulnerable to being misled.

While hawking a new book she has authored called “Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America,” McQuade told MSNBC she hoped to initiate a “national conversation about truth and our commitment to [free speech].”

After Maddow asked if Americans are vulnerable to being misled more than citizens of other countries without First Amendment protections, McQuade agreed.

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NY Times Plays CIA Messenger — Turn Off The Lights, The Party Is Over

I apologize on not writing about the NY Times article by  Adam Entous and Michael Schwirtz, The Spy War: How the C.I.A. Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Putin, before now but my schedule did not give me the time I needed to do the subject justice. I was inundated with requests for a comment by several media outlets and did my best to accommodate those in radio and TV interviews.

The key thing you need to understand is that this article is a deliberate piece of misinformation that is intended to shape public and policymaking opinion in the United States. The following opening to the article, like all propaganda, is a mixture of fact and fantasy.

the intelligence partnership between Washington and Kyiv is a linchpin of Ukraine’s ability to defend itself. The C.I.A. and other American intelligence agencies provide intelligence for targeted missile strikes, track Russian troop movements and help support spy networks.

But the partnership is no wartime creation, nor is Ukraine the only beneficiary.

It took root a decade ago, coming together in fits and starts under three very different U.S. presidents, pushed forward by key individuals who often took daring risks. It has transformed Ukraine, whose intelligence agencies were long seen as thoroughly compromised by Russia, into one of Washington’s most important intelligence partners against the Kremlin today.

Yes, it is true that U.S. intelligence, along with NATO, supplied Ukraine with intelligence used to carry out missile strikes on Russian positions. Admitting this in the pages of the NY Times is reckless and dangerous. I am pretty sure the Russians already knew this but putting this on the record with U.S. intelligence sources is a casus belli for Russia. Can you imagine the reaction if Russian intelligence confirmed they provided intel to a group or country that attacked the U.S.? Do you think Washington would ignore that and not seek retribution? Of course not.

But the article starts with the big lie by claiming that the CIA relationship with Ukraine started in February 2022 and then piles on with these two whoppers:

Before the war, the Ukrainians proved themselves to the Americans by collecting intercepts that helped prove Russia’s involvement in the 2014 downing of a commercial jetliner, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The Ukrainians also helped the Americans go after the Russian operatives who meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The Maidan and the ensuing events in February and March 2014 involved what I believe was a joint U.S./U.K. intelligence operation to remove Ukraine’s President Yanukovich and install a pro-Western government that would be used to attack Russia. The fact of the matter is that the CIA has been dealing with Ukrainian opponents of Russia since at least 1947.

The propaganda purpose of the article is revealed by the decision of the reporters to repeat the specious claims that Russia shot down Malaysia Airlines flight 17 and that Russia “meddled” in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. We have had a slew of revelations over the last two months, principally from Matt Taibbi and Michael Schellenberger, showing that it was the Clinton campaign with the help of the CIA and the FBI who meddled in the 2016 Presidential campaign in a failed effort to defeat Donald Trump. Entous and Schwirtz insert the bogus claim that Ukraine fingered the Russian officer responsible for “election interference.”

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Deja vu: Russia collusion is back

Anyone tuning into Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) interview with former White House press secretary and MSNBC host Jen Psaki on Monday night would be forgiven for thinking they were watching a clip from 2016. Pelosi said she believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has something” on former President Donald Trump and that it likely involves money. Sounds familiar, right?

After establishing that Trump “brought disgrace to the White House” and that “we must be sure that he does not step one foot into the White House” again, Pelosi asked, “What does he [Putin] have on Donald Trump that he has to constantly be catering to Putin? Telling Putin to go into these countries, NATO countries.”

“What do you think Putin has on him?” Psaki asked. “I mean, it sure seems like something, as you’ve said a few times, given that he refuses to criticize him, that he seems to be a fanboy of him. Are you worried at all?”

“I don’t know what he has on him, but I think it’s probably financial,” Pelosi replied. “Either something financial he has him on or something on the come. Something that he expects to get.” 

Of course, Pelosi doesn’t believe a word of what she said. Trump’s potential ties to the Kremlin, financial or otherwise, were debunked by special counsel Robert Mueller’s exhaustive 22-month investigation, which ended in March 2019. She is merely laying the groundwork for the Democrats’ plan to defeat Trump in November.

Lo and behold, the loyal foot soldiers in the legacy media are already repeating Pelosi’s words. The marching orders from the Democratic National Committee or the Biden campaign or whatever entity it is that determines party messaging has gone out. 

It is now clear that resurrecting the narrative that Trump is an agent of Russia will be an integral part of the Democrats’ 2024 strategy. And they are using it to discredit the House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden’s alleged involvement in his family’s foreign influence-peddling business. 

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Shielding US Public From Israeli Reports of Friendly Fire on October 7

Since October, the Israeli press has uncovered damning evidence showing that an untold number of the Israeli victims during the October 7 Hamas attack were in fact killed by the IDF response.

While it is indisputable that the Hamas-led attackers were responsible for many Israeli civilian deaths that day, reports from Israel indicate that the IDF in multiple cases fired on and killed Israeli civilians. It’s an important issue that demands greater transparency—both in terms of the questions it raises about IDF policy, and in terms of the black-and-white narrative Israel has advanced about what happened on October 7, used to justify its ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip.

Indeed, IDF responsibility for Israeli deaths has been a repeated topic of discussion in the Israeli press, accompanied by demands for investigations. But the most US readers have gotten from their own press about the issue is a dismissive piece from the Washington Post about October 7 “truthers.”

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The New York Times Implausibly Implicates Oklahoma’s Bathroom Law in the Death of a Nonbinary Student

Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old Oklahoma student who identified as nonbinary and preferred they/them pronouns, died on February 8, a day after a fight at Owasso High School. It is unclear whether the injuries that Nex suffered in the fight contributed to their death. But in a story published on Wednesday, The New York Times implicitly blames the altercation on an Oklahoma law that requires students to use restrooms that correspond with the sex “identified on the individual’s original birth certificate.” Details that the Times omitted cast doubt on that framing, which The Independent also pushed in a story headlined “Oklahoma Banned Trans Students From Bathrooms. Now a Bullied Student Is Dead After a Fight.”

Nex, whose given name was Dagny, was biologically female, and the fight happened in a girls’ bathroom, where Nex and another student reportedly were assaulted by “three older female students.” Although Nex apparently was bullied for identifying as nonbinary, it looks like the location of the fight was incidental.

That is not the impression left by the Times story. “Anti-Trans Policies Draw Scrutiny After 16-Year-Old’s Death in Oklahoma,” says the headline. The subhead adds that “the student, who did not identify as male or female, according to their family, died a day after an altercation in a school bathroom.” The story is illustrated by a photo of transgender rights activists during a 2023 demonstration at the Oklahoma Capitol. “Under state law,” the caption notes, “students must use the bathroom that aligns with their birth gender.”

Even though that is what Nex was doing at the time of the fight, the second paragraph again cites the law as if it explains the altercation: “Under an Oklahoma law passed in 2022, students must use the bathrooms that align with their birth gender.” The next paragraph notes that the fight happened “in a girls’ bathroom at Owasso High School” but does not acknowledge that Nex was complying with the bathroom law, perhaps because that would require acknowledging Nex’s “birth gender.” Although that information is clearly relevant in this context, the story does not mention it at all.

Reporters J. David Goodman and Edgar Sandoval return to the subject of state policy later in the story:

The death renewed scrutiny of anti-transgender laws passed in the state and rhetoric by Oklahoma officials, including the state superintendent for education, Ryan Walters, whose agency has been forceful in trying to bar what it calls “radical gender theory” in schools.

“It’s dangerous,” Mr. Walters said in a video made by the agency last year. “It puts our girls in jeopardy.”

The video highlighted a fight in a bathroom the previous year in which, according to a lawsuit, a female student was “severely” injured in a fight with a transgender student.

Advocates for nonbinary and transgender students said that the state’s policy on gender and bathrooms had led to more reports of confrontations in schools.

“That policy and the messaging around it has led to a lot more policing of bathrooms by students,” said Nicole McAfee, the executive director of Freedom Oklahoma, which advocates for transgender and gay rights. Students who do not present themselves as obviously male or female find themselves questioned by other students, they said. “There is a sense of, ‘do you belong in here?'”

The cause of Nex’s death remains unclear. The New York Post reports that Sue Benedict, Nex’s mother, said Nex fell and hit their head during the bathroom fight. The Post also quotes the mother of the other victim, who reported seeing the assailants “beating her head across the floor.” But according to a statement that the Owasso Police Department posted on Facebook yesterday, preliminary autopsy findings indicate that Nex “did not die as a result of trauma.” The statement adds that “toxicology results and other ancillary testing results” are still pending and “the official autopsy report will be available at a later date.”

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Media Blame Two-Year-Old Libs of TikTok Tweet for Teen Girl’s Death

Almost two years ago, Libs of TikTok exposed a disgusting middle school teacher’s online content. Last week, a 16-year-old girl who identified as “non-binary” (whatever that means) was allegedly beaten to death in a high school bathroom. The left is now trying to pin the fatality on…

Libs of TikTok.

No, really…

All that Libs of TikTok (LOTT) founder Chaya Raichik does is grab publicly available videos and retweet them. It’s a genius way to give normal people an insight into the dangerous and fascist madness of the extreme-left LGBTQ weirdos (and their equally insane straight, white women allies) — especially those who seek to groom small children in our public schools.

Back in 2022, LOTT came across a freak named Tyler Wrynn, an eighth-grade teacher in Owassa, Oklahoma, who posted videos aimed at young “LGBTQIA+ kids” saying things like, “If your parents don’t accept you for who you are, fuck them. I’m your parents now.”

LOTT reposted the freak’s public video. And because red America is sane, the freak was fired.

Flash-forward two years to February 8. A 16-year-old girl named Dagny Benedict, who identified as “non-binary” and called herself Nex, was involved in a sort of altercation in the bathroom of Owasso High School. Dagny died the next day.

UPDATE: Police have released a statement that “preliminary information from the medical examiner’s office is that a complete autopsy was performed and indicated that the decedent did not die as a result of trauma.”

Obviously, the death of a young and obviously troubled high school girl is tragic. If justice is required, we all hope justice is served.

But.

What does any of this have to do with a freak of a teacher who was deservedly fired two years ago?

What’s more, what does this have to do with Libs of TikTok, who only reposted the Freak Teacher’s video and never posted a thing about this 16-year-old girl?

Well, to normal people, there is no connection. The two incidents are in no way related. A great thing happened two years ago: a freak was fired from his teaching position. Two weeks ago, a terrible thing happened: a young girl died.

But the corporate media are not staffed with Normal People. Instead, corporate media are staffed with left-wing lunatics desperate to destroy LOTT because Raichik is insanely effective at what she does, which is nothing more than take a public video and amplify it through her popular Twitter feed. LOTT’s effectiveness is in the brilliance of this simplicity, and the groomer-enablers who infest the corporate media cannot stand it.

So.

The groomer-enablers in the corporate media are making total fools of themselves, blaming LOTT’s unrelated tweet from April of 2022 for the recent death of a 16-year-old girl.

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