How can a media outlet credibly claim to denounce abuse of power by political officials when they defend and glorify their own anchor's participation in it?
It is such a pleasure to pay you to be a thorn of truth in the sides of all those corporate media lying liars. Your work is like a breath of fresh air in an industry that stinks to high heaven.
What can anyone say to this? CNN is a self-serving mouthpiece of the Democrats / statists in the federal government, and they are extremely well-compensated for the privilege. This is before, of course, you realize that CNN is part of the same incestuous tidal pool of media-government hybridization that has been becoming more sickly and poisonous since the Clinton administration.
No one is surprised by this. The left will ignore Mr. Greenwald's article. The right will nod and agree, because they've known the score since 2016. Everyone saw, first-hand, the ridiculous hypocrisy of the press when comparing Obama - to Clinton - to Trump - to Biden.
The left knows that the game is rigged. The right knows. Even most independents know. Go look at the polling. /EVERYONE IS AWARE./
It doesn't matter. I will out myself, to a degree. I was once part of this system, where the US government through the military and various alphabet agencies, seeks to change the behavior of target audiences to suit US Government desires.
It doesn't matter if you KNOW it's propaganda. It still alters your thinking. And they know that. It's built into how the propaganda is presented to you.
A horrifying skeleton in Kamala Harris – in addition to Tulsi Gabbard devastating critique in 2020 primaries. The police testified just how helpful both victims were in combating violence against women and child prostitution. Ms. Harris over-ruled the police and mounted unprecedented campaign for her political purpose. This resulted in sex workers becoming unprotected.
The Senate Accused Them of Selling Kids for Sex. The FBI Raided Their Homes. Backpage.com's Founders Speak for the First Time. An inside look at how indie media veterans James Larkin and Michael Lacey became the targets of a federal witch-hunt.
Kamala Harris' office accused him of pimping, including some counts involving minors. The Texas state attorney general said he was "making money off...modern-day slavery."
Lacey and Larkin were also arrested and charged with "conspiracy to commit pimping." They spent four days jailed in Sacramento, California. Harris, who at the time was running for the U.S. Senate, called them "despicable" and labeled Backpage "the world's top online brothel."
News of the arrest was covered extensively in major media outlets, with Harris quoted prominently. Her complaint was that bad actors and teenagers sometimes used the site—and her evidence that Backpage "knew" this to be true was that it reported suspected underage ads to NCMEC and cooperated with police. Harris was using Backpage's history of working with law enforcement against it.
"Make no mistake," said Lacey and Larkin in statement that month. "Harris has won all that she was looking to win when she had us arrested. Like Sheriff Arpaio, she issued her sanctimonious public statement, controlled her media cycle and got her 'perp walk' on the evening news." While such targeting was not new to them, this was the first time a state had decided it was "okay to consider the First Amendment implications after, not before, hauling people off to jail."
In early December, a Sacramento Superior Court judge dismissed the case. On December 23, with just a few days left in office, Harris tried again, filing new conspiracy-to-commit-pimping charges against Lacey, Larkin, and Ferrer, along with allegations of money laundering. Ferrer also faced 12 counts of pimping. Again, all pimping and conspiracy charges were dismissed, though the judge allowed a money-laundering case to proceed.
"We've never, ever broken the law," Larkin says. "Never have, never wanted to. This isn't really—I know this is probably heresy—this isn't about sex work to me. This is about speech."
"This is the biggest speech battle in America right now," Lacey adds. "The First Amendment isn't about protecting the rights of the McLaughlin Group to speak their mind on television. This is specifically what the fuck it's about. Unpopular speech. Dangerous speech. Speech that threatens the norm. Not only do we have that right, our readers have that right. The [Backpage] posters have that right.
"We spent 40 years doing journalism, groundbreaking journalism, and they want to take all that away," he says—because "they don't like who exercised their constitutional rights to use our advertising platform. And that has no goddamn bearing. The law doesn't say, 'You get to pick and choose who exercises their constitutional rights by whether or not you like their lifestyle.' It's just incredible."
Chris Cuomo is not a journalist. A news reader, entertainer, talking head or perhaps an opinion purveyor, but not a journalist. There are certainly plenty of journalists that deserve our criticism, but lumping Cuomo in with them just muddies the waters.
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio defends his daily walks in Prospect Park - 11 miles from his home - after Gov. Cuomo extends the statewide stay-at-home order. He also was also seen going to his gym.
Michigan Governor's plans to spend Memorial Day weekend boating on Lake Michigan, after ordering everyone else to stay out of their boats, are dashed when her husband's request to put their boat in the water is leaked (pun intended).
Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine removes her mother from a nursing home after ordering homes to accept Covid-19 patients, resulting in thousands of deaths.
Mayor Dale Holness in Broward County, Florida Mayor Brandon Whipple in Wichita, Kansas were both caught by citizen journalists violating their own orders for citizens to wear masks while in public or in circumstances where social distancing may not be possible.
Thank you for writing this. It was infuriating to watch the Cuomo brothers do their own version of the Smothers Brothers 'Mother liked you best' routine on CNN. Some people thought that was cute. I had people linking me the giant testing swab still, duped into the comedy. It was terrifically corrupt on many levels.
I have to say, back when he tested positive, I read (from his wife no less!) that Chris Cuomo's COVID pill regimen included Quinine, while every night labeling "conspiracy nuts" on anyone advocating HCQ not be dismissed outright (because of Trump's association to it)... I rolled my eyes back so hard I peeked into the 19th century
Thank you, Glenn. Imagine being someone who lost a loved one to Covid because of the Cuomos. What cocktail of hatred and helplessness must they have felt? Are the Cuomos worse than our idiot Governor Newsom? I don't think so. They are all sadists. I think they take pleasure in getting away with their corruption. Newsom destroyed the lives and dreams of small business owners. I think he took glee in keeping families apart. His regime in CA has been one entitled lie after another. His Covid laws have prohibited me from touching my beloved mother who's in assisted living - for the last year I've only been able to visit her once a week, out of doors, six feet apart under supervision. I can't even hug her. But I bet Newsom and the Cuomos hugged their elderly relatives. They are scum. But of course it's people like Tucker Carlson, James O'Keefe, Andy Ngo, Matt Taibbi and you, Glenn, who are the threat to humanity - not them.
I suppose that I have lived in eastern Europe and the former USSR for so long that everything starts to look like a nail to me, but watching Varsity Blues (college entrance scandal) or the COVID fiasco reminds me of nothing so much as the late-period Soviet Union.
There are still laws on the books, and every now and then they are used to make an example out of someone, but nobody of influence and authority believes in the system any more. They pay lip service to freedom and democracy and flags and eagles and whatnot, but mostly what the elites do is to get what they can while the getting is still good.
Nobody works for national objectives, especially if doing so might also help a rival. Instead, people focus first on enriching themselves, then on immediate family, extended family, tribe and then faction, in approximate order of priority. Only a saint or a fool plays by the rules, everyone who can cheats, and everyone expects cheating and defends cheaters, as long as the cheaters are part of Our Tribe.
If that were not enough, the COVID is much like our very own Chernobyl. Before Chernobyl, it was obvious that the Soviet elites were gasping, venal and at times viciously tribal. After Chernobyl, not even the KGB could hide the fact that they also were *incompetent*.
The interesting part of this to me is why now? There's this brouhaha and the sexual harassment scandal which have both popped up almost simultaneously. And the nursing home scandal is brewing in the background. The corporate media doesn't turn on a prominent Democrat, particularly one they were lavishing praise on just months ago, without a reason.
Certainly, the sexual harassment accusations are not new, so why were they ignored until this moment?
I can only guess. Either the nursing home scandal threatens to take down a lot of other politicians along with Cuomo and they're seeking to dethrone him before it goes further, or Harris is already eliminating the potential competition in 2024.
At some point a critical mass will be reached; those in powerful positions in our country are totally full of SH--! We have a ruling class of idiots that believe they are superior in every way to the rest of us. They are rich due to connections to power and we have let them ascend to their height of incompetence. Left, right, CNN, or MSNBC it doesn't matter. Huge lies and hypocrisy never cease. Chris will continue to lecture the public and pay no price for his actions. Someday people will wake up and a big group of morons will be out of work.
@Glenn what's sad is that the political tribalism means CNN fans will see nothing wrong with this.
Just like that same crowd saw nothing wrong with Cuomo lying about killing the elderly and covering it up.
Only when they break the tenants of the left, i.e. 'woke'-ism do they care.
That's why all the coverage of Gov. Cuomo has been about sexual misconduct, not negligent murder.
But thanks for being a voice of reason, as always.
Glenn hasn't gone after CNN this hard since he tore John King a new one in 2008: https://www.salon.com/2008/01/16/king_5/
Keep it coming.
...and now imagine how CNN would react if Ron DeSantis did this for his family members.
It is such a pleasure to pay you to be a thorn of truth in the sides of all those corporate media lying liars. Your work is like a breath of fresh air in an industry that stinks to high heaven.
This is not even a surprise. The media is largely functioning as a propaganda arm of the modern administrative state.
What can anyone say to this? CNN is a self-serving mouthpiece of the Democrats / statists in the federal government, and they are extremely well-compensated for the privilege. This is before, of course, you realize that CNN is part of the same incestuous tidal pool of media-government hybridization that has been becoming more sickly and poisonous since the Clinton administration.
No one is surprised by this. The left will ignore Mr. Greenwald's article. The right will nod and agree, because they've known the score since 2016. Everyone saw, first-hand, the ridiculous hypocrisy of the press when comparing Obama - to Clinton - to Trump - to Biden.
The left knows that the game is rigged. The right knows. Even most independents know. Go look at the polling. /EVERYONE IS AWARE./
It doesn't matter. I will out myself, to a degree. I was once part of this system, where the US government through the military and various alphabet agencies, seeks to change the behavior of target audiences to suit US Government desires.
It doesn't matter if you KNOW it's propaganda. It still alters your thinking. And they know that. It's built into how the propaganda is presented to you.
Thank you Glenn -- another alarming example is Kamala Harris - Hillary's protégé:
http://reason.com/archives/2018/08/21/backpage-founders-larkin-and-lacey-speak
A horrifying skeleton in Kamala Harris – in addition to Tulsi Gabbard devastating critique in 2020 primaries. The police testified just how helpful both victims were in combating violence against women and child prostitution. Ms. Harris over-ruled the police and mounted unprecedented campaign for her political purpose. This resulted in sex workers becoming unprotected.
The Senate Accused Them of Selling Kids for Sex. The FBI Raided Their Homes. Backpage.com's Founders Speak for the First Time. An inside look at how indie media veterans James Larkin and Michael Lacey became the targets of a federal witch-hunt.
Kamala Harris' office accused him of pimping, including some counts involving minors. The Texas state attorney general said he was "making money off...modern-day slavery."
Lacey and Larkin were also arrested and charged with "conspiracy to commit pimping." They spent four days jailed in Sacramento, California. Harris, who at the time was running for the U.S. Senate, called them "despicable" and labeled Backpage "the world's top online brothel."
News of the arrest was covered extensively in major media outlets, with Harris quoted prominently. Her complaint was that bad actors and teenagers sometimes used the site—and her evidence that Backpage "knew" this to be true was that it reported suspected underage ads to NCMEC and cooperated with police. Harris was using Backpage's history of working with law enforcement against it.
"Make no mistake," said Lacey and Larkin in statement that month. "Harris has won all that she was looking to win when she had us arrested. Like Sheriff Arpaio, she issued her sanctimonious public statement, controlled her media cycle and got her 'perp walk' on the evening news." While such targeting was not new to them, this was the first time a state had decided it was "okay to consider the First Amendment implications after, not before, hauling people off to jail."
In early December, a Sacramento Superior Court judge dismissed the case. On December 23, with just a few days left in office, Harris tried again, filing new conspiracy-to-commit-pimping charges against Lacey, Larkin, and Ferrer, along with allegations of money laundering. Ferrer also faced 12 counts of pimping. Again, all pimping and conspiracy charges were dismissed, though the judge allowed a money-laundering case to proceed.
"We've never, ever broken the law," Larkin says. "Never have, never wanted to. This isn't really—I know this is probably heresy—this isn't about sex work to me. This is about speech."
"This is the biggest speech battle in America right now," Lacey adds. "The First Amendment isn't about protecting the rights of the McLaughlin Group to speak their mind on television. This is specifically what the fuck it's about. Unpopular speech. Dangerous speech. Speech that threatens the norm. Not only do we have that right, our readers have that right. The [Backpage] posters have that right.
"We spent 40 years doing journalism, groundbreaking journalism, and they want to take all that away," he says—because "they don't like who exercised their constitutional rights to use our advertising platform. And that has no goddamn bearing. The law doesn't say, 'You get to pick and choose who exercises their constitutional rights by whether or not you like their lifestyle.' It's just incredible."
Chris Cuomo is not a journalist. A news reader, entertainer, talking head or perhaps an opinion purveyor, but not a journalist. There are certainly plenty of journalists that deserve our criticism, but lumping Cuomo in with them just muddies the waters.
Over the past few months I've compiled the following list.
I take this super-duper-scary "pandemic" just as seriously as these mountebanks and charlatans do.
No need to notice the political leanings of nearly all of them, suffice it to repeat the truism that "some pigs are more equal than others".
Oh, and remember to Mask Up™ and Stay Safe™!
*************************************************
A Rogues' Gallery of Covidian Hypocrites - Part I
** Undated **
Fauci camera off, mask off.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1363611596837257234
** April 2020 **
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio defends his daily walks in Prospect Park - 11 miles from his home - after Gov. Cuomo extends the statewide stay-at-home order. He also was also seen going to his gym.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/de-blasio-defends-defying-stay-at-home-order-to-walk-in-park-11-miles-away-from-home
https://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-mayor-bill-de-blasio-goes-ymca-announcing-closure-gyms-2020-3
Obama photographed golfing without a mask 40 miles from home when Michelle was airing a PSA telling people to stay at home.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/obama-seen-on-golf-course-days-before-michelle-told-people-to-stay-home
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot violates her own lockdown by getting a haircut.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/chicago-mayor-defends-hairstylist-visit-amid-coronavirus-outbreak-n1181546
Illinois Governor' wife violates his stay-at-home order and travels to Florida estate.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8275807/Illinois-billionaire-governor-dodges-question-wife-leaving-town-pandemic.html
CNN's Chris Cuomo violated his own highly publicized and televised "quarantine" in his basement after testing positive for Covid-19.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/chris-cuomo-inadvertently-admits-to-lying-about-his-coronavirus-quarantine
He also got into an altercation on Easter Sunday resulting in a police report against him.
https://www.pacificpundit.com/2020/04/15/police-report-filed-against-fredo-chris-cuomo-after-verbal-threat-supposed-to-be-in-quarantine/
NY Governor Andrew Cuomo hugging mayor of Savannah Ga. without a mask.
https://nypost.com/2020/07/27/video-shows-mask-less-cuomo-hugging-mayor-of-savannah-ga/
** May 2020 **
Virginia Governor Ralph "Sheets Blackface" Northam apologizes for not wearing a mask on Virginia Beach boardwalk after issuing mask mandate.
https://twitter.com/BruceLeshan/status/1265343618971324417
Michigan Governor's plans to spend Memorial Day weekend boating on Lake Michigan, after ordering everyone else to stay out of their boats, are dashed when her husband's request to put their boat in the water is leaked (pun intended).
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/25/purported-northern-michigan-boat-request-fuels-controversy-gretchen-whitmer/5254889002/
Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine removes her mother from a nursing home after ordering homes to accept Covid-19 patients, resulting in thousands of deaths.
https://nypost.com/2020/05/13/pennsylvania-health-official-moved-mother-from-nursing-home
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont busted violating his own executive order at restaurant
https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/connecticut-gov-ned-lamont-violates-his-own-executive-order/
Indiana Gov. Holcomb apologizes after selfie shows him without mask, violating social distancing
https://www.wthr.com/article/news/investigations/13-investigates/gov-holcomb-apologizes-after-selfie-shows-him-without-mask-violating-social-distancing/531-aa175522-22a7-4c7a-82be-2fb1d14ef2fe
New Mexico governor slammed for buying jewelry amid coronavirus closures
https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/new-mexico/2020/05/27/amid-coronavirus-new-mexico-governor-criticized-buying-jewelry/5270862002/
** June 2020 **
Neil Ferguson, a.k.a "Professor Lockdown", advisor to Boris Johnson, violates his own order and resigns.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newslondon/who-is-professor-neil-ferguson-and-how-did-he-breach-lockdown/ar-BB13GbmR
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti speaking and kneeling at BLM protest without a mask.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/06/10/eric-garcetti-i-wore-a-mask-when-i-took-a-knee/
Fauci masks up when on camera, takes it off when off camera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppsACDLT-60&feature=emb_logo
** July 2020 **
Anthony Fauci watches Washington Nationals game without a mask and not social distancing.
https://nypost.com/2020/07/24/anthony-fauci-denies-hypocrisy-after-watching-game-without-mask/
Anthony Fauci pulls down mask when he thinks the cameras are off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIGgvdPu0ao
CA Gov. Gavin Newsom orders wineries in 19 CA counties to close indoor operations, but not his.
https://kmph.com/news/local/central-valley-wineries-ordered-to-close-but-governors-winery-remains-open
Mayor Dale Holness in Broward County, Florida Mayor Brandon Whipple in Wichita, Kansas were both caught by citizen journalists violating their own orders for citizens to wear masks while in public or in circumstances where social distancing may not be possible.
https://nationalfile.com/evidence-broward-county-and-wichita-mayors-caught-violating-their-own-mask-orders/
** August 2020 **
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney orders restaurants closed, then goes out to dinner in Maryland.
https://reason.com/2020/09/01/philadelphias-mayor-ordered-restaurants-closed-then-he-went-out-to-eat-in-maryland/
Oregon Governor Caught Violating Her Own Mask Order
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/jeff-reynolds/2020/08/07/oregon-governor-and-her-security-detail-caught-violating-mask-order-n751178
** September 2020 **
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is caught on surveillance cameras in a salon in SF without a mask after salons had been closed to the public for almost 6 months.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-slams-nancy-pelosi-for-her-indoor-haircut-in-san-francisco-where-that-s-still-banned/ar-BB18CSck
So egregious even CNN covered it: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/02/politics/nancy-pelosi-hair-salon/index.html
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz offers explanation, admits 'oversight' on mask miscue - after threatening businesses with closure and citations.
https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/health/erie-co-executive-poloncarz-offers-explanation-admits-oversight-on-mask-miscue/71-4c4ff4e7-b40e-4566-becf-712f1aa26a64
Thank you for writing this. It was infuriating to watch the Cuomo brothers do their own version of the Smothers Brothers 'Mother liked you best' routine on CNN. Some people thought that was cute. I had people linking me the giant testing swab still, duped into the comedy. It was terrifically corrupt on many levels.
I have to say, back when he tested positive, I read (from his wife no less!) that Chris Cuomo's COVID pill regimen included Quinine, while every night labeling "conspiracy nuts" on anyone advocating HCQ not be dismissed outright (because of Trump's association to it)... I rolled my eyes back so hard I peeked into the 19th century
Thank you, Glenn. Imagine being someone who lost a loved one to Covid because of the Cuomos. What cocktail of hatred and helplessness must they have felt? Are the Cuomos worse than our idiot Governor Newsom? I don't think so. They are all sadists. I think they take pleasure in getting away with their corruption. Newsom destroyed the lives and dreams of small business owners. I think he took glee in keeping families apart. His regime in CA has been one entitled lie after another. His Covid laws have prohibited me from touching my beloved mother who's in assisted living - for the last year I've only been able to visit her once a week, out of doors, six feet apart under supervision. I can't even hug her. But I bet Newsom and the Cuomos hugged their elderly relatives. They are scum. But of course it's people like Tucker Carlson, James O'Keefe, Andy Ngo, Matt Taibbi and you, Glenn, who are the threat to humanity - not them.
What part of "the elites are our betters" do people not grasp? We exist only to serve them.
I suppose that I have lived in eastern Europe and the former USSR for so long that everything starts to look like a nail to me, but watching Varsity Blues (college entrance scandal) or the COVID fiasco reminds me of nothing so much as the late-period Soviet Union.
There are still laws on the books, and every now and then they are used to make an example out of someone, but nobody of influence and authority believes in the system any more. They pay lip service to freedom and democracy and flags and eagles and whatnot, but mostly what the elites do is to get what they can while the getting is still good.
Nobody works for national objectives, especially if doing so might also help a rival. Instead, people focus first on enriching themselves, then on immediate family, extended family, tribe and then faction, in approximate order of priority. Only a saint or a fool plays by the rules, everyone who can cheats, and everyone expects cheating and defends cheaters, as long as the cheaters are part of Our Tribe.
If that were not enough, the COVID is much like our very own Chernobyl. Before Chernobyl, it was obvious that the Soviet elites were gasping, venal and at times viciously tribal. After Chernobyl, not even the KGB could hide the fact that they also were *incompetent*.
The interesting part of this to me is why now? There's this brouhaha and the sexual harassment scandal which have both popped up almost simultaneously. And the nursing home scandal is brewing in the background. The corporate media doesn't turn on a prominent Democrat, particularly one they were lavishing praise on just months ago, without a reason.
Certainly, the sexual harassment accusations are not new, so why were they ignored until this moment?
I can only guess. Either the nursing home scandal threatens to take down a lot of other politicians along with Cuomo and they're seeking to dethrone him before it goes further, or Harris is already eliminating the potential competition in 2024.
At some point a critical mass will be reached; those in powerful positions in our country are totally full of SH--! We have a ruling class of idiots that believe they are superior in every way to the rest of us. They are rich due to connections to power and we have let them ascend to their height of incompetence. Left, right, CNN, or MSNBC it doesn't matter. Huge lies and hypocrisy never cease. Chris will continue to lecture the public and pay no price for his actions. Someday people will wake up and a big group of morons will be out of work.