Eager to obtain vindication for the pre-election falsehood they spread about the Hunter Biden story, journalists falsely claim that the CIA blamed Russia for it.
I heard this sloppily reported "story" on NPR this morning, and wondered how long it would take to be debunked . . . Ha! Less than 12 hours! I believe that's a record.
Another (very frigging) impressive chronicling of a large amount of information on the media deception occurring.
No doubt the timing (late October near the election) exposed many alleged “standards” or ethical standards of journalism to be complete and utter BS. Half of the country was willing to lie or promote lies or be complicit in lies to change an election outcome. And willing to censor anyone and anything.
I posted a similar comment today at Taibbi’s piece today, but will repeat the point here.
I think it’s near or maybe past time honest journalists like Greenwald, Taibbi and the handful of others (across the political spectrum) who still do look for evidence and cite to it in their reporting, stop paying attention to and analyzing the lies of the liars in the mainstream media and on Twitter and Facebook.
In a perverse way, highlighting their lies and how they cover for each other seems to be feeding the beast, when starving it might well be more effective at building the spaces and audiences for the truth tellers.
There is a massive audience that completely tunes out the liars, and (as part of that audience) I’d like to hear less about the liars, and more about the substantive things that coverage of the liars is stealing attention from.
I guess I just think the people who want to believe the lies will continue to believe them no matter how many times the lies are pointed out to them, and the rest of us already know the liars lie, ignore them as much as we can, seek out truth-tellers, and want to move past the liars and let them rot in their own disgusting juices in their echo chambers of irrelevancy together.
Plus I think it would be super-funny if Taibbi, Greenwald, and the handful of others more or less simultaneously announced that they’re done with media-liar-coverage and actually stopped following the liars antics on social media and in the pages of the WaPo and New York Times and HuffPost and the Atlantic and so on.
Maybe I’m totally wrong, but I think the people who care about the inbred liberal media types and their circle-jerks of lies are a tiny minority, and a very large majority is hungry for whatever is not that.
How anyone, after the lies of Iraq, including liberals can believe the reportage emanating from the corpress courtier media is beyond me. They're simply manufacturing and catering to narratives now. When MSNBC fired Phil Donahue and the NYT let Judith Miller get away with lie after government-spoon-fed lie about WMDs, I wrote off the establishment press/media for good.
At this point all of corporate media has adopted the Fox News model: Censor or ignore stories harmful to The Party and repeat convenient lies often enough to firmly cement them into the viewer/reader's mind.
The New York Times has long been derided as the Langley Times because no matter who's President, they're going to be publishing things that excuse or glorify US military interventions and/or sanctions and/or coup attempts in countries whose democratically elected leaders aren't opening up their markets and resources quickly enough for the kleptocrat/oligarch class that controls most major media outlets. The targets are invariably leftist reformist administrations or leaders of secular, reasonably well-to-do majority Islamic countries like Syria and Libya and Iraq (all of whom owe/owed much of their misery to decades of American sanctions and sabotage).
The NYT, WaPo, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, Fox and everyone else all agree on two things:
1) Aggressive US foreign policy aimed at toppling leaders of countries with things the oligarch class want.
2) Tacitly defending the surveillance state here at home by distracting the public with stories about China or North Korea.
When it comes to foreign policy reporting, literally every single one of those outlets exists to explain to their audiences the righteousness of the MIC and surveillance state and to run cover for their excesses.
That the Intercept was part of suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story is painful for me. I had such high hopes that it would take the WikiLeaks work even further. But now it's a Deep State fakes factory, like much else of the Western MSM. I thought at one point they should stop calling themselves the Intercept, as governments here in the West have nothing to fear from them intercepting anything. Then I realized that the name still applies, as now they help Intercept truthful information about government actions from the public, who needs to know what these officials are doing now more than ever. Epic Fail.
For the last 17 years I have run a small manufacturing company. I design the products and am largely responsible for their production and marketing. I guess I am fortunate that I never acquired a liberal arts degree (or any other degree), because when I have problems with my customers or my sales I make the effort to find out what is wrong and do what I can to rectify the issues. I certainly don't sit around blaming the industry in which I work.
I never had any student loans, either.
I guess I'm just privileged to have never spent much time in college, a rite of passage that seems to have completely fucked up the values of many of the elite one quarter of Americans who possess a degree. Or maybe it was something else . . .
Seems as though Trump was right: The election was rigged. Would Trump have won the election if this story had been properly reported? I don't know but it seems quite possible. Before everyone piles on, I am not a Republican or conservative, not a Trump supporter, and-why this is necessary- but, not a right-wing nationalist or white supremacist. (I am very sad that I feel the need to insert that last sentence.)
Glenn has finally (at least since the last couple of years ;p) said something I disagree with: "Indeed, when anyone, including journalists, loses their job, it is lamentable." Nope. It is incredibly pleasing and wonderful when these liars finally are held somewhat accountable and lose their jobs.
The game and the players at this point are so obvious it’s amazing anyone even listens. To see President Swalwell last night in his black mask pushing yet another “Russia collusion” narrative on MSNBC was surreal. This is the Ben Rhodes echo chamber on steroids. Totally nuts.
I’m so sorry but I have no sympathy for these awful journalists losing their jobs. I would lose my job if I was this willfully wrong. So tired of all the lies. Good riddance.
Typo at the end of para 2, Glenn, highlighted - should be "through":
"In response, Twitter banned the posting of any links to that reporting and locked The Post out of its Twitter account for close to two weeks, while Facebook, ******though****** a long-time Democratic operative, announced that it would algorithmically suppress the reporting."
Maybe the media scolds are right and Substack does need ten layers of editors to be considered journalism, after all... :)
No, in all seriousness, another timely and important piece. I'm one of the people who was, well, normal until a few years ago - I'd listen when the NYT dropped a major story, I'd instinctively put on CNN if there was something major happening, I'd say "well the major networks all say X" if I wanted to back something up. (This was *after* the Iraq War, by the way. What can I say? I'm a slow learner.) But now? I genuinely don't believe anymore that there's a single adult in the room at any of the major organs who has the slightest trace of concern for the truth. None whatsoever. It's get the narrative out there and, if needed, maybe do a bit of clean-up later.
And I can't decide if it's the dishonesty or the stenography that's more depressing.
Why are we looking at Russia for yet unproven claims of election interference when we have the smoking gun on our own media and former intelligence officials having committed verifiable election interference. Mind boggling.
While the power centers in our federal government (elected and unelected) have always lied to the public for various self-serving reasons, the check on those lies was historically a critical press, who were liberals in the true sense. In our current environment, nearly all of the liberals in media have been either marginalized, canceled or converted to the new version of liberal, which is progressive/woke.
The surviving journalists must serve their new religion, which is the far-left progressive/woke movement. Actual truth that is inconsistent with their poetic truth must be sacrificed on the alter of their new religion. They are now committed to the modern day inquisition, and they serve as the foot soldiers of the inquisition - converting or canceling all in their path.
These new progressive/woke journalists have made a Faustian Bargain with the unelected power centers within the federal government, particularly those in the “intelligence community”. And, one can’t really differentiate between current and former intelligence community “experts” as it is a revolving door between running the DOJ, FBI, CIA etc. and cushy private sector deals. Today’s former head of the CIA (who is always a CNN or MSNBC contributor) will be tomorrow’s actual head of the CIA. Further, the leadership of these agencies is a cabal that manufactures and leaks a constant torrent of self-serving lies.
But, let’s get back to the Faustian Bargain. The progressive/woke journalists want to advance their narrative and the intelligence community experts want to maintain their power and influence. So, as long as these current and former intelligence community experts continue to manufacture and then leak(always anonymously) a constant stream of lies that support the progressive/woke narrative, they will stay in power and/or have cushy “contributor” gigs. Further, they are allowed to run their agencies as corruptly as they wish with no concern that their corruption will be reported by any major national media source.
The result of all this corruption is that increasingly the only Americans who believe either the national media or their govt. are the far-left progressives. The obvious problem with this development is that a democratic republic cannot survive in an environment where the citizenry trusts neither their govt. nor their media.
How am I supposed to get any work done when you keep writing articles inevitably followed by (mostly) excellent commentary from other acolytes?
I heard this sloppily reported "story" on NPR this morning, and wondered how long it would take to be debunked . . . Ha! Less than 12 hours! I believe that's a record.
Another (very frigging) impressive chronicling of a large amount of information on the media deception occurring.
No doubt the timing (late October near the election) exposed many alleged “standards” or ethical standards of journalism to be complete and utter BS. Half of the country was willing to lie or promote lies or be complicit in lies to change an election outcome. And willing to censor anyone and anything.
It worked.
I posted a similar comment today at Taibbi’s piece today, but will repeat the point here.
I think it’s near or maybe past time honest journalists like Greenwald, Taibbi and the handful of others (across the political spectrum) who still do look for evidence and cite to it in their reporting, stop paying attention to and analyzing the lies of the liars in the mainstream media and on Twitter and Facebook.
In a perverse way, highlighting their lies and how they cover for each other seems to be feeding the beast, when starving it might well be more effective at building the spaces and audiences for the truth tellers.
There is a massive audience that completely tunes out the liars, and (as part of that audience) I’d like to hear less about the liars, and more about the substantive things that coverage of the liars is stealing attention from.
I guess I just think the people who want to believe the lies will continue to believe them no matter how many times the lies are pointed out to them, and the rest of us already know the liars lie, ignore them as much as we can, seek out truth-tellers, and want to move past the liars and let them rot in their own disgusting juices in their echo chambers of irrelevancy together.
Plus I think it would be super-funny if Taibbi, Greenwald, and the handful of others more or less simultaneously announced that they’re done with media-liar-coverage and actually stopped following the liars antics on social media and in the pages of the WaPo and New York Times and HuffPost and the Atlantic and so on.
Maybe I’m totally wrong, but I think the people who care about the inbred liberal media types and their circle-jerks of lies are a tiny minority, and a very large majority is hungry for whatever is not that.
How anyone, after the lies of Iraq, including liberals can believe the reportage emanating from the corpress courtier media is beyond me. They're simply manufacturing and catering to narratives now. When MSNBC fired Phil Donahue and the NYT let Judith Miller get away with lie after government-spoon-fed lie about WMDs, I wrote off the establishment press/media for good.
At this point all of corporate media has adopted the Fox News model: Censor or ignore stories harmful to The Party and repeat convenient lies often enough to firmly cement them into the viewer/reader's mind.
The New York Times has long been derided as the Langley Times because no matter who's President, they're going to be publishing things that excuse or glorify US military interventions and/or sanctions and/or coup attempts in countries whose democratically elected leaders aren't opening up their markets and resources quickly enough for the kleptocrat/oligarch class that controls most major media outlets. The targets are invariably leftist reformist administrations or leaders of secular, reasonably well-to-do majority Islamic countries like Syria and Libya and Iraq (all of whom owe/owed much of their misery to decades of American sanctions and sabotage).
The NYT, WaPo, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, Fox and everyone else all agree on two things:
1) Aggressive US foreign policy aimed at toppling leaders of countries with things the oligarch class want.
2) Tacitly defending the surveillance state here at home by distracting the public with stories about China or North Korea.
When it comes to foreign policy reporting, literally every single one of those outlets exists to explain to their audiences the righteousness of the MIC and surveillance state and to run cover for their excesses.
That the Intercept was part of suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story is painful for me. I had such high hopes that it would take the WikiLeaks work even further. But now it's a Deep State fakes factory, like much else of the Western MSM. I thought at one point they should stop calling themselves the Intercept, as governments here in the West have nothing to fear from them intercepting anything. Then I realized that the name still applies, as now they help Intercept truthful information about government actions from the public, who needs to know what these officials are doing now more than ever. Epic Fail.
For the last 17 years I have run a small manufacturing company. I design the products and am largely responsible for their production and marketing. I guess I am fortunate that I never acquired a liberal arts degree (or any other degree), because when I have problems with my customers or my sales I make the effort to find out what is wrong and do what I can to rectify the issues. I certainly don't sit around blaming the industry in which I work.
I never had any student loans, either.
I guess I'm just privileged to have never spent much time in college, a rite of passage that seems to have completely fucked up the values of many of the elite one quarter of Americans who possess a degree. Or maybe it was something else . . .
Seems as though Trump was right: The election was rigged. Would Trump have won the election if this story had been properly reported? I don't know but it seems quite possible. Before everyone piles on, I am not a Republican or conservative, not a Trump supporter, and-why this is necessary- but, not a right-wing nationalist or white supremacist. (I am very sad that I feel the need to insert that last sentence.)
Glenn has finally (at least since the last couple of years ;p) said something I disagree with: "Indeed, when anyone, including journalists, loses their job, it is lamentable." Nope. It is incredibly pleasing and wonderful when these liars finally are held somewhat accountable and lose their jobs.
The game and the players at this point are so obvious it’s amazing anyone even listens. To see President Swalwell last night in his black mask pushing yet another “Russia collusion” narrative on MSNBC was surreal. This is the Ben Rhodes echo chamber on steroids. Totally nuts.
I’m so sorry but I have no sympathy for these awful journalists losing their jobs. I would lose my job if I was this willfully wrong. So tired of all the lies. Good riddance.
Can you blame the CIA for taking advantage of what have to be some of the dumbest and most deranged people on the planet?
That’s like asking the scorpion to not honor his nature whilst crossing the river.
Typo at the end of para 2, Glenn, highlighted - should be "through":
"In response, Twitter banned the posting of any links to that reporting and locked The Post out of its Twitter account for close to two weeks, while Facebook, ******though****** a long-time Democratic operative, announced that it would algorithmically suppress the reporting."
Maybe the media scolds are right and Substack does need ten layers of editors to be considered journalism, after all... :)
No, in all seriousness, another timely and important piece. I'm one of the people who was, well, normal until a few years ago - I'd listen when the NYT dropped a major story, I'd instinctively put on CNN if there was something major happening, I'd say "well the major networks all say X" if I wanted to back something up. (This was *after* the Iraq War, by the way. What can I say? I'm a slow learner.) But now? I genuinely don't believe anymore that there's a single adult in the room at any of the major organs who has the slightest trace of concern for the truth. None whatsoever. It's get the narrative out there and, if needed, maybe do a bit of clean-up later.
And I can't decide if it's the dishonesty or the stenography that's more depressing.
Chinese idiom "The thief shouted for the thief". This is the best description to China Biden / Democrat / Leftist Media. They are liars and traitors.
Why are we looking at Russia for yet unproven claims of election interference when we have the smoking gun on our own media and former intelligence officials having committed verifiable election interference. Mind boggling.
While the power centers in our federal government (elected and unelected) have always lied to the public for various self-serving reasons, the check on those lies was historically a critical press, who were liberals in the true sense. In our current environment, nearly all of the liberals in media have been either marginalized, canceled or converted to the new version of liberal, which is progressive/woke.
The surviving journalists must serve their new religion, which is the far-left progressive/woke movement. Actual truth that is inconsistent with their poetic truth must be sacrificed on the alter of their new religion. They are now committed to the modern day inquisition, and they serve as the foot soldiers of the inquisition - converting or canceling all in their path.
These new progressive/woke journalists have made a Faustian Bargain with the unelected power centers within the federal government, particularly those in the “intelligence community”. And, one can’t really differentiate between current and former intelligence community “experts” as it is a revolving door between running the DOJ, FBI, CIA etc. and cushy private sector deals. Today’s former head of the CIA (who is always a CNN or MSNBC contributor) will be tomorrow’s actual head of the CIA. Further, the leadership of these agencies is a cabal that manufactures and leaks a constant torrent of self-serving lies.
But, let’s get back to the Faustian Bargain. The progressive/woke journalists want to advance their narrative and the intelligence community experts want to maintain their power and influence. So, as long as these current and former intelligence community experts continue to manufacture and then leak(always anonymously) a constant stream of lies that support the progressive/woke narrative, they will stay in power and/or have cushy “contributor” gigs. Further, they are allowed to run their agencies as corruptly as they wish with no concern that their corruption will be reported by any major national media source.
The result of all this corruption is that increasingly the only Americans who believe either the national media or their govt. are the far-left progressives. The obvious problem with this development is that a democratic republic cannot survive in an environment where the citizenry trusts neither their govt. nor their media.