Trump's War on Factual News Journalism.
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hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/head-of-government-media-agency-flouts-subpoena-angering-democrats-and-republicans/2020/09/24/d5aa8296-fe76-11ea-b555-4d71a9254f4b_story.html
The head of the government’s main international broadcasting agency flouted a subpoena for congressional testimony Thursday, angering both Democrats and Republicans already alarmed by his management tactics.
Michael Pack, chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America and similar institutions, was issued a subpoena by the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week after he reneged on a promise to appear before the panel citing unspecified “administrative proceedings,” according to the panel’s chairman, Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.)
Engel said Thursday that Pack “manufactured this conflict to get out of being here today.”
Spokesmen for the U.S. Agency for Global Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pack has been the subject of intense scrutiny and controversy that commenced before he was confirmed to his position less than four months ago. In his brief tenure, he has ousted the heads of VOA’s sister operations Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and the Open Technology Fund, frozen spending, and refused to renew the visas of foreign journalists — a move he has defended as an effort to root out potential spies.
Democrats have been calling for Pack’s ouster, pointing to those and other unorthodox management decisions.
Pack is the “wrong person for the job, he should resign, and if he doesn’t, the president should fire him,” Engel said Thursday, speaking before an empty chair that had been set up for Pack.
Pack’s tactics have also upset Republicans. During Thursday’s hearing, the top Republican on the committee, Rep. Michael T. McCaul (Tex.), drew attention to the consequences of Pack’s decision to freeze spending for the Open Technology Fund in particular. The fund’s leaders were reinstated by court order over the summer.
“I believe his actions damaged support during the heights of unrest in Hong Kong, and they are continuing to do so today in Belarus,” McCaul said, referring to public demonstrations against authoritarian regimes in both places. He also accused Pack of ignoring “the will of Congress” as well as “basic questions” the committee has asked him in other matters.
“This committee deserves the respect of a response,” McCaul said. “I believe there’s some reform that needs to be done . . . but I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater here.”
The head of the government’s main international broadcasting agency flouted a subpoena for congressional testimony Thursday, angering both Democrats and Republicans already alarmed by his management tactics.
Michael Pack, chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America and similar institutions, was issued a subpoena by the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week after he reneged on a promise to appear before the panel citing unspecified “administrative proceedings,” according to the panel’s chairman, Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.)
Engel said Thursday that Pack “manufactured this conflict to get out of being here today.”
Spokesmen for the U.S. Agency for Global Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pack has been the subject of intense scrutiny and controversy that commenced before he was confirmed to his position less than four months ago. In his brief tenure, he has ousted the heads of VOA’s sister operations Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and the Open Technology Fund, frozen spending, and refused to renew the visas of foreign journalists — a move he has defended as an effort to root out potential spies.
Democrats have been calling for Pack’s ouster, pointing to those and other unorthodox management decisions.
Pack is the “wrong person for the job, he should resign, and if he doesn’t, the president should fire him,” Engel said Thursday, speaking before an empty chair that had been set up for Pack.
Pack’s tactics have also upset Republicans. During Thursday’s hearing, the top Republican on the committee, Rep. Michael T. McCaul (Tex.), drew attention to the consequences of Pack’s decision to freeze spending for the Open Technology Fund in particular. The fund’s leaders were reinstated by court order over the summer.
“I believe his actions damaged support during the heights of unrest in Hong Kong, and they are continuing to do so today in Belarus,” McCaul said, referring to public demonstrations against authoritarian regimes in both places. He also accused Pack of ignoring “the will of Congress” as well as “basic questions” the committee has asked him in other matters.
“This committee deserves the respect of a response,” McCaul said. “I believe there’s some reform that needs to be done . . . but I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater here.”
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
Closer, still not quite right yet.
BORAT 2 (Trailer)
The full title of the movie is "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan". The direct sequel to the 2006 film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. ‘Borat...worldstar.com
Just to bring a little humor in here... lol This MF dresses up as Trump
That is awesome. You would think her being the press secretary to the president of the United States of America would mean that she would understand that as a journalist if he could get the name of the river these ballots Trump likely lied about, he could then do some investigative journalism and expose what is happening to the world. Her dig about them not being curious is exactly the opposite of what was taking place.
Herb & Suds
Well-Known Member
rkymtnman
Well-Known Member
sounds like the work of the Koch Brothers starting a false flag narrative about mail in balloting.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
At least likely one of their money is anyways.
rkymtnman
Well-Known Member
hell, the right blames everything on Soros so it seems only fair to blame the richest GOP
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
First 1:30 of this video is Fox John Roberts getting sick of the stupidity. I am not sure about this uploader, but for some reason it is not loaded up on many clips yet and none by credible sources yet. Still worth watching something other than Dear Leader's super spreading events.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/02/tired-it-fox-reporter-clean-up-your-own-house/
John Roberts, Fox News’s chief White House correspondent, grew frustrated with White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday when she would not give a definitive statement that President Trump denounces white supremacists after he refused to do so in the presidential debate Tuesday. He later lost patience, saying: “Stop deflecting. Stop blaming the media,” Roberts declared. “I’m tired of it!” Really?
Let’s stipulate that Roberts is not akin to the “Fox & Friends” hosts or Fox’s evening lineup of Trump sycophants when it comes to distorting reality and cheerleading Trump. (Disclosure: I am an MSNBC contributor.) However, the White House has been deflecting like this for nearly four years. It has refused to answer all sorts of questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin, about Trump’s finances, about Trump’s embrace of racists and about any topic that would reveal Trump to be clueless or malicious. McEnany is just the most egregious practitioner of the non-response or the out-and-out falsehood. Roberts cannot possibly have just figured this out.
Roberts should look closer to home, if he’s “tired of it.” It is his network that allows Trump on air to spin bizarre conspiracy theories and blatant lies about his opponent. It is Fox News that has become a cesspool of anti-democratic (small “d”) and racist tropes. It is Fox News that tries to avoid — or to borrow a word, “deflects” — topics injurious to Trump, such as the New York Times bombshell about his taxes. It is his network that followed Trump’s anti-mask sneering. It is Fox News that has denigrated Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, and defended Trump’s covid-19 inanities — until he declares he was joking or being sarcastic. Even its “straight news” anchor Bret Baier went on air before the presidential debate to treat wild conspiracy theories about former vice president Joe Biden cheating at the debate as a serious story. It is Fox News that repeats Russian propaganda debunked by our intelligence community and the Senate Intelligence Committee concerning Ukraine.
It would be hard to find one entity on the planet more responsible than John Roberts’s employer for enabling Trump, keeping his base in line, misleading the public about Trump’s corruption, excusing his culpability and giving him a sense of invincibility. It is not the only one, but it certainly leads the pack of Pravda-like outlets whose job is to defend Trump by deceiving viewers and readers if need be.
And speaking of Fox News’s role in creating and sustaining the Trump phenomenon, what exactly does the network do if and when Trump loses and the story of Trump’s unfitness, incompetence and the rest comes tumbling out? I suppose it would decline to cover that as well.
But in the end (we are reaching the end, right?), Fox News aggravated Trump’s worst tendencies and put him in a feedback loop. He comfortably inhabited a parallel reality and therefore never learned to function in our reality. He could always count on Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson or “Fox & Friends” to reinforce his delusions. Fox News has encouraged him and its viewers to downplay the coronavirus, literally putting Americans’ lives at risk. Fox News might have sustained Trump for a few years, but it has left him entirely vulnerable to a real opponent with real facts. And if the goal was to bolster the views of its viewers, Fox News wound up deluding them as well.
Fox News did accomplish one thing: It made a ton of money. It might be money gained at the expense of our democracy and of thousands of American lives, but it did deliver for its stock owners. Think of it as the political equivalent of blood diamonds. I do wonder in the quiet moments whether Fox News’s board of directors, senior management and stockholders think it was worth it. Are they proud of their handiwork?
As for Roberts, if he really is tired, he might consider leaving his present position. No one would blame him for deciding not to work for a propaganda machine thinly disguised as a news network.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/02/tired-it-fox-reporter-clean-up-your-own-house/
John Roberts, Fox News’s chief White House correspondent, grew frustrated with White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday when she would not give a definitive statement that President Trump denounces white supremacists after he refused to do so in the presidential debate Tuesday. He later lost patience, saying: “Stop deflecting. Stop blaming the media,” Roberts declared. “I’m tired of it!” Really?
Let’s stipulate that Roberts is not akin to the “Fox & Friends” hosts or Fox’s evening lineup of Trump sycophants when it comes to distorting reality and cheerleading Trump. (Disclosure: I am an MSNBC contributor.) However, the White House has been deflecting like this for nearly four years. It has refused to answer all sorts of questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin, about Trump’s finances, about Trump’s embrace of racists and about any topic that would reveal Trump to be clueless or malicious. McEnany is just the most egregious practitioner of the non-response or the out-and-out falsehood. Roberts cannot possibly have just figured this out.
Roberts should look closer to home, if he’s “tired of it.” It is his network that allows Trump on air to spin bizarre conspiracy theories and blatant lies about his opponent. It is Fox News that has become a cesspool of anti-democratic (small “d”) and racist tropes. It is Fox News that tries to avoid — or to borrow a word, “deflects” — topics injurious to Trump, such as the New York Times bombshell about his taxes. It is his network that followed Trump’s anti-mask sneering. It is Fox News that has denigrated Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, and defended Trump’s covid-19 inanities — until he declares he was joking or being sarcastic. Even its “straight news” anchor Bret Baier went on air before the presidential debate to treat wild conspiracy theories about former vice president Joe Biden cheating at the debate as a serious story. It is Fox News that repeats Russian propaganda debunked by our intelligence community and the Senate Intelligence Committee concerning Ukraine.
It would be hard to find one entity on the planet more responsible than John Roberts’s employer for enabling Trump, keeping his base in line, misleading the public about Trump’s corruption, excusing his culpability and giving him a sense of invincibility. It is not the only one, but it certainly leads the pack of Pravda-like outlets whose job is to defend Trump by deceiving viewers and readers if need be.
And speaking of Fox News’s role in creating and sustaining the Trump phenomenon, what exactly does the network do if and when Trump loses and the story of Trump’s unfitness, incompetence and the rest comes tumbling out? I suppose it would decline to cover that as well.
But in the end (we are reaching the end, right?), Fox News aggravated Trump’s worst tendencies and put him in a feedback loop. He comfortably inhabited a parallel reality and therefore never learned to function in our reality. He could always count on Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson or “Fox & Friends” to reinforce his delusions. Fox News has encouraged him and its viewers to downplay the coronavirus, literally putting Americans’ lives at risk. Fox News might have sustained Trump for a few years, but it has left him entirely vulnerable to a real opponent with real facts. And if the goal was to bolster the views of its viewers, Fox News wound up deluding them as well.
Fox News did accomplish one thing: It made a ton of money. It might be money gained at the expense of our democracy and of thousands of American lives, but it did deliver for its stock owners. Think of it as the political equivalent of blood diamonds. I do wonder in the quiet moments whether Fox News’s board of directors, senior management and stockholders think it was worth it. Are they proud of their handiwork?
As for Roberts, if he really is tired, he might consider leaving his present position. No one would blame him for deciding not to work for a propaganda machine thinly disguised as a news network.
HydroKid239
Well-Known Member
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/trump-coronavirus-media-lies/2020/10/02/9b0127d6-04ba-11eb-897d-3a6201d6643f_story.html
With President Trump apparently struck by covid-19 a month before a critical election and after 200,000 American deaths from the disease, what we really need right now is an entirely credible, fact-based voice from the White House.
Good luck with that.
The Greek philosopher Diogenes was said to have wandered the streets of Athens with a lantern searching in vain for someone to speak the truth. I don’t think he’d have any better luck at the top level of the executive branch right now, despite our extraordinary need for trustworthy communication.
With the exception of Anthony S. Fauci, and maybe a few other top medical experts, there isn’t a trusted truth-teller in sight.
“Donald Trump’s way of dealing with negative news is consistent: Hide it, spin it, and always lie about it,” said Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer and now a Bloomberg Opinion columnist who was once sued, unsuccessfully, by the then-developer.
This moment, O’Brien told me, doesn’t promise to be any different despite the incredibly high stakes for national security as our allies and adversaries assess what’s happening and act accordingly, as markets react, and as more lives are threatened by exposure to the disease.
Biden tests negative for coronavirus; Trump experiencing ‘mild symptoms’ after positive test
It’s no secret that a culture of lies permeates the White House. There has been a parade of press secretaries with a remarkably consistent record of failing to tell the truth to reporters and the general public. It started on the very first day of the Trump administration, when Sean Spicer lied by insisting falsely, at the president’s behest, that his inaugural crowd was the largest of all time.
That kind of dissembling is still happening on press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s watch. At a briefing Thursday, Fox News Radio White House correspondent Jon Decker pressed her to provide details about Trump’s public claim that voters’ mail-in ballots had been “dumped in rivers.”
Where’s the river, Decker wanted to know and who is the “they” who found them there?
McEnany responded in her usual cocksure manner: “Local authorities. It was a ditch in Wisconsin.” She provided no other specifics, and let’s be clear: This is a hyperbolic tale meant to further voter mistrust in the integrity of the election.
This is the same press secretary who promised at the start of her tenure last spring that she would never lie to the press — and then immediately began to spread untruths.
The problem, to put it mildly, is widespread among administration officials. But it starts at the top with Trump himself who lies so relentlessly. As The Post’s Glenn Kessler put it in his introduction to the book “Donald Trump and the His Assault on Truth”: “The pace and frequency of Trump’s falsehoods can feel mind-numbing — and many Americans appear to have tuned out.”
In this latest crisis, the predictable cycle of dangerous obfuscation has already begun. It was only after Bloomberg News reported that Trump aide Hope Hicks had tested positive for coronavirus that the White House acknowledged it.
Years of the White House obscuring health information add instability at a tricky moment
Would we even know about Trump’s diagnosis if it weren’t for that? Maybe not. What about those he has come in contact with in recent days?
Would they know they were endangered? The indications aren’t good. Yamiche Alcindor, the PBS White House correspondent, reported Friday that there was “no contact from the Trump campaign or the White House to alert the Biden campaign of possible exposure.” The campaign learned of the situation from news reports.
And when it comes to Trump’s health, he and his minions have a history of dubious statements. His former personal physician, Harold Bornstein, confessed that Trump dictated the doctor’s glowing 2015 letter that “his physical strength and stamina are extraordinary,” and that, if elected, Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” More recently, his trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last November remains all too mysterious; reasonable questions were never satisfactorily answered.
What is the press to do?
Obviously, keep up with the kind of aggressive reporting that has revealed what’s happening. But be wary — even more wary than before — of taking any Trump or White House statements at face value and transmitting them to the public.
Reporters should be pressing for documentation, specific timelines, and statements from credible medical experts. If White House officials want to be believed about the president’s “minor symptoms,” for example, they need to “overload the system with truth,” former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart told me.
Be completely transparent and willing to document it. To use the ballots-in-river case as an example: Name the local authority in Wisconsin who found the thrown-out ballots in a river (or a creek, or a ditch, as their evolving claim suggested at various points); and tell us exactly where that took place. Give us a map.
Once upon a time, when a president or his press secretary made a statement on an crucially important matter, it was simply considered news. And reported as such.
The time for that is long past. The stakes are higher than ever, and the demand for proof should be, too.
Otherwise, Americans will reasonably come to an unavoidable conclusion: If the statement is from the president’s tweet, or from the press secretary’s mouth, there’s no reason to think it’s true.
With President Trump apparently struck by covid-19 a month before a critical election and after 200,000 American deaths from the disease, what we really need right now is an entirely credible, fact-based voice from the White House.
Good luck with that.
The Greek philosopher Diogenes was said to have wandered the streets of Athens with a lantern searching in vain for someone to speak the truth. I don’t think he’d have any better luck at the top level of the executive branch right now, despite our extraordinary need for trustworthy communication.
With the exception of Anthony S. Fauci, and maybe a few other top medical experts, there isn’t a trusted truth-teller in sight.
“Donald Trump’s way of dealing with negative news is consistent: Hide it, spin it, and always lie about it,” said Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer and now a Bloomberg Opinion columnist who was once sued, unsuccessfully, by the then-developer.
This moment, O’Brien told me, doesn’t promise to be any different despite the incredibly high stakes for national security as our allies and adversaries assess what’s happening and act accordingly, as markets react, and as more lives are threatened by exposure to the disease.
Biden tests negative for coronavirus; Trump experiencing ‘mild symptoms’ after positive test
It’s no secret that a culture of lies permeates the White House. There has been a parade of press secretaries with a remarkably consistent record of failing to tell the truth to reporters and the general public. It started on the very first day of the Trump administration, when Sean Spicer lied by insisting falsely, at the president’s behest, that his inaugural crowd was the largest of all time.
That kind of dissembling is still happening on press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s watch. At a briefing Thursday, Fox News Radio White House correspondent Jon Decker pressed her to provide details about Trump’s public claim that voters’ mail-in ballots had been “dumped in rivers.”
Where’s the river, Decker wanted to know and who is the “they” who found them there?
McEnany responded in her usual cocksure manner: “Local authorities. It was a ditch in Wisconsin.” She provided no other specifics, and let’s be clear: This is a hyperbolic tale meant to further voter mistrust in the integrity of the election.
This is the same press secretary who promised at the start of her tenure last spring that she would never lie to the press — and then immediately began to spread untruths.
The problem, to put it mildly, is widespread among administration officials. But it starts at the top with Trump himself who lies so relentlessly. As The Post’s Glenn Kessler put it in his introduction to the book “Donald Trump and the His Assault on Truth”: “The pace and frequency of Trump’s falsehoods can feel mind-numbing — and many Americans appear to have tuned out.”
In this latest crisis, the predictable cycle of dangerous obfuscation has already begun. It was only after Bloomberg News reported that Trump aide Hope Hicks had tested positive for coronavirus that the White House acknowledged it.
Years of the White House obscuring health information add instability at a tricky moment
Would we even know about Trump’s diagnosis if it weren’t for that? Maybe not. What about those he has come in contact with in recent days?
Would they know they were endangered? The indications aren’t good. Yamiche Alcindor, the PBS White House correspondent, reported Friday that there was “no contact from the Trump campaign or the White House to alert the Biden campaign of possible exposure.” The campaign learned of the situation from news reports.
And when it comes to Trump’s health, he and his minions have a history of dubious statements. His former personal physician, Harold Bornstein, confessed that Trump dictated the doctor’s glowing 2015 letter that “his physical strength and stamina are extraordinary,” and that, if elected, Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” More recently, his trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last November remains all too mysterious; reasonable questions were never satisfactorily answered.
What is the press to do?
Obviously, keep up with the kind of aggressive reporting that has revealed what’s happening. But be wary — even more wary than before — of taking any Trump or White House statements at face value and transmitting them to the public.
Reporters should be pressing for documentation, specific timelines, and statements from credible medical experts. If White House officials want to be believed about the president’s “minor symptoms,” for example, they need to “overload the system with truth,” former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart told me.
Be completely transparent and willing to document it. To use the ballots-in-river case as an example: Name the local authority in Wisconsin who found the thrown-out ballots in a river (or a creek, or a ditch, as their evolving claim suggested at various points); and tell us exactly where that took place. Give us a map.
Once upon a time, when a president or his press secretary made a statement on an crucially important matter, it was simply considered news. And reported as such.
The time for that is long past. The stakes are higher than ever, and the demand for proof should be, too.
Otherwise, Americans will reasonably come to an unavoidable conclusion: If the statement is from the president’s tweet, or from the press secretary’s mouth, there’s no reason to think it’s true.
HydroKid239
Well-Known Member
I hate that cunt
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
It is tough not to, just don't let him radicalize you to being against him so much when they slip in a good thing for Trump's cult to throw in our face about him as a fact of Dear Leader doing something ok (like bi-partisan prison reform bill) it triggers us into being defensive.
waterproof808
Well-Known Member
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
It isn't on the AP yet. So I am not going to jump the gun on believing it (is on others like newsweek), but if that does end up being real, that is what Trump gets by not being able to keep people who are exceptionally good at their jobs, they do stupid shit like that and ends up blowing Trump's obvious trolls, because they are idiots.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/frenzied-speculation-over-trumps-health-only-feeds-the-misinformation-mess-he-created/2020/10/04/2bff3688-04de-11eb-897d-3a6201d6643f_story.html
PRESIDENT TRUMP informed the country over Twitter of his positive coronavirus diagnosis at 12:54 a.m. on Friday. By morning, the Internet was already rife with conspiracy theories and other misinformation. The frenzied speculation must stop: It feeds into the insidious “infodemic” environment that the president himself helped to create.
Experts warn that last week’s revelation is fertile soil for all sorts of opportunists to plant lies, especially ahead of an election.
Adversaries abroad could attempt to destabilize democracy by suggesting, for example, an elite plot to replace the president on the ballot; domestic actors might cook up tales to serve their own partisan ends. Already, wild whispers have emerged from both sides of the political spectrum: that the White House is faking Mr. Trump’s illness to distract from other scandals, such as the release of the president’s troubling tax returns; or to avoid more damaging debates; or to “prove” after a speedy recovery that covid-19 isn’t so bad after all. Now talk has turned to the severity of his case and the timeline surrounding its disclosure.
Rumormongering is equally irresponsible no matter its source, but it is especially disheartening to see such behavior from those who have spent the past months rightly bemoaning the stream of falsehoods about covid-19 coming from the Oval Office. A recent report from Cornell University found that Mr. Trump has been “likely the largest driver of the COVID-19 misinformation ‘infodemic’ ” in traditional and online media: Almost 38 percent of articles including debunkable claims, including that hydroxychloroquine could be a miracle cure for the disease, mention the president in the context of the inaccuracies. The researchers note how damaging this misinformation can prove, whether it prompts people to attempt to treat themselves with harmful substances or reduces trust in health authorities trying to promote responsible behavior.
Of course, the president’s behavior has also had the effect of reducing trust in him. Those who today do not believe a word coming from the White House about Mr. Trump’s illness are responding to the reality that the words coming from the White House throughout this crisis have frequently been unbelievable. The problem was compounded Saturday when the president’s doctor and chief of staff offered accounts of his condition that were contradictory and incomplete. Transparency from reputable sources will prove crucial in the days to come. Yet guessing about Mr. Trump, or others infected in the administration, without any grounding in verified fact only contributes to the chaos.
Today, health misinformation and political misinformation are melding together to the detriment of our health and our politics alike.
Mr. Trump may have created this mess. But those who deplore his handiwork should take care not to make our national conversation more of a shambles.
PRESIDENT TRUMP informed the country over Twitter of his positive coronavirus diagnosis at 12:54 a.m. on Friday. By morning, the Internet was already rife with conspiracy theories and other misinformation. The frenzied speculation must stop: It feeds into the insidious “infodemic” environment that the president himself helped to create.
Experts warn that last week’s revelation is fertile soil for all sorts of opportunists to plant lies, especially ahead of an election.
Adversaries abroad could attempt to destabilize democracy by suggesting, for example, an elite plot to replace the president on the ballot; domestic actors might cook up tales to serve their own partisan ends. Already, wild whispers have emerged from both sides of the political spectrum: that the White House is faking Mr. Trump’s illness to distract from other scandals, such as the release of the president’s troubling tax returns; or to avoid more damaging debates; or to “prove” after a speedy recovery that covid-19 isn’t so bad after all. Now talk has turned to the severity of his case and the timeline surrounding its disclosure.
Rumormongering is equally irresponsible no matter its source, but it is especially disheartening to see such behavior from those who have spent the past months rightly bemoaning the stream of falsehoods about covid-19 coming from the Oval Office. A recent report from Cornell University found that Mr. Trump has been “likely the largest driver of the COVID-19 misinformation ‘infodemic’ ” in traditional and online media: Almost 38 percent of articles including debunkable claims, including that hydroxychloroquine could be a miracle cure for the disease, mention the president in the context of the inaccuracies. The researchers note how damaging this misinformation can prove, whether it prompts people to attempt to treat themselves with harmful substances or reduces trust in health authorities trying to promote responsible behavior.
Of course, the president’s behavior has also had the effect of reducing trust in him. Those who today do not believe a word coming from the White House about Mr. Trump’s illness are responding to the reality that the words coming from the White House throughout this crisis have frequently been unbelievable. The problem was compounded Saturday when the president’s doctor and chief of staff offered accounts of his condition that were contradictory and incomplete. Transparency from reputable sources will prove crucial in the days to come. Yet guessing about Mr. Trump, or others infected in the administration, without any grounding in verified fact only contributes to the chaos.
Today, health misinformation and political misinformation are melding together to the detriment of our health and our politics alike.
Mr. Trump may have created this mess. But those who deplore his handiwork should take care not to make our national conversation more of a shambles.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-virus-outbreak-joe-biden-ap-fact-check-media-d26dde4f844f02c28b521757674d133f
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
___
Video edited to remove context from Biden’s comment about Black worker
CLAIM: Video shows Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden saying the reason he has been able to stay sequestered in his home is because “some Black woman was able to stack the grocery shelf.”
THE FACTS: The video including that remark by Biden was shortened to remove the context in which it was said. A review of the full video taken during a Sept. 15 veterans roundtable Biden hosted at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida, shows the candidate was making a point about various groups stepping up as essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic. At least two heavily edited versions of the video were shared by public figures including Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and Fox News analyst Gregg Jarrett. Cleveland-area pastor Darrell Scott, who co-founded Trump’s National Diversity Coalition, posted one of the videos on Twitter with the caption,
“What???? And Black folks STILL giving him a pass!” The videos quickly amassed millions of views on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
But they lacked important context for understanding Biden’s point, which was about different groups coming together to help each other during the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden used the quote as one of multiple examples of different groups supporting each other as he explained his optimism for America’s future: “And you say, ‘Why in the hell would you say that, Biden? You just talked about all these difficulties,’” Biden said. “Well, I’ll tell you why. Because the American public, the blinders have been taken off. They’ve all of a sudden seen a hell of a lot clearer. They are saying: ‘Jeez, the reason I was able to stay sequestered in my home is because some Black woman was able to stack the grocery shelf, or I got a young Hispanic is out there, or these dreamers out there, 60,000 of them, acting as first responders and nurses and docs.’ Or, all of a sudden people are realizing, my lord, you know, these people have done so much — not just Black, white but across the board — have done so much for me. We can do this. We can get things done.”
— Associated Press writer Ali Swenson reported from Seattle.
___
Posts misrepresent Trump’s remarks from Walter Reed
CLAIM: While hospitalized President Donald Trump said, “The doctors said they’ve never seen a body kill the coronavirus like my body. They tested my DNA and it wasn’t DNA. It was USA.”
THE FACTS: There is no evidence Trump made such a statement. The president shared an update on his condition in a video message posted to Twitter on Saturday after testing positive for the coronavirus and being transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. A screenshot from the video was shared online with a false caption that included the quote. The post was shared thousands of times on Twitter and Facebook. The full video of the address shows that Trump makes no references to his DNA during his speech. The false caption was also not tweeted by the president. In his address, he thanked medical professionals and the outpouring of support he has received. “I came here wasn’t feeling so well,” he says in the video. “I feel much better now. We’re working hard to get me all the way back. I have to be back because we still have to make America great again.” The false caption was made into a meme and shared in several different languages, including Vietnamese.
— Associated Press writer Beatrice Dupuy reported from New York.
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CLAIM: Vice President Mike Pence tweeted after his debate with Democratic rival Kamala Harris that an Instagram page had released evidence Harris received the questions beforehand.
THE FACTS: The tweet was fabricated — it was not sent from Pence’s account. At the start of the Oct. 7 debate between Pence and Harris, moderator Susan Page announced, “No one in either campaign or at the commission or anywhere else has been told in advance what topics I’ll raise or what questions I’ll ask.” To date, there is no publicly available, credible evidence either candidate had advance notice of the questions. But an image of a fabricated tweet that purports to be from Pence’s account suggests otherwise. The tweet was made to look like it was sent from @VP, one of the Twitter accounts used by the vice president, and has the same photo as Pence’s actual account. It reads, “I want to thank everyone for the support for tonight’s debate. I’d say it was a success. It was also brought to my attention that the Instagram page @electionleaks released evidence of Kamala receiving the questions beforehand. This is unfair and I’d say that everyone should check out the evidence to judge for themselves.” The tweet does not appear on Pence’s @VP account. Nor does it appear on Politwoops, a ProPublica archive of politicians’ deleted tweets.
— Associated Press writer Jude Joffe-Block reported from Phoenix.
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Barr hasn’t announced that Obama launched antifa
CLAIM: Attorney General William Barr’s investigation into antifa reveals that the organization was created by former President Barack Obama and liberal financier George Soros.
THE FACTS: The claim stems from a satirical article. Barr has not opened an investigation into antifa, a term for leftist militants, although he did form a task force to examine violence around nationwide protests this summer. “Barr’s investigation of ANTIFA leads directly to Barack Obama,” says the headline of the June 8 article on a site called Obama Watcher, which is labeled as satire. Obama Watcher is part of a network of satirical sites run by America’s Last Line of Defense, a liberal site that tries to dupe Trump’s supporters with false news stories. Facebook and Twitter users continue to pass around the article as real. Antifa is not considered an organized group. FBI Director Christopher Wray has told lawmakers that it is an ideology or a movement, not an organization. The Department of Justice, which is led by Barr, has opened investigations into some violence that erupted in cities during nationwide protests calling for racial justice earlier this year.
—Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz reported from Chicago.
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Video does not show pro-Trump bikers outside Walter Reed
CLAIM: Video shows bikers praying for Trump outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
THE FACTS: The video actually shows bikers in South Africa praying during an event to protest against the attacks against farmers in the area. After news broke that Trump was being taken to Walter Reed, his supporters began gathering outside the hospital to wish the president well. Social media users are misrepresenting a TikTok video to say it shows Trump’s supporters outside the hospital praying for the president, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week. The clip, which shows motorcyclists kneeling in a park as they pray, was viewed more than a million times on Twitter as of Monday. Social media users shared the 8-second clip of the bikers and stills from the clip with a false caption. “Thousands of bikers gathered outside Walter Reed Hospital to pray for Trump,” one post on Facebook said. The video was taken months before the president was diagnosed with COVID-19. The video actually shows a biker rally in Pretoria, South Africa, in August. The clip matches with footage taken at the time of a biker protest held against the murders of farmers. The clip was widely shared on
Facebook and Twitter; the Trump War Room, the official account for the president’s campaign, shared the video with the false caption on Twitter on Saturday. Trump briefly left the hospital Sunday to drive by and wave to his supporters camped outside. The president could be seen in an SUV wearing a mask inside the armored vehicle.
—Beatrice Dupuy
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Photo does not show Fox News’ Chris Wallace without a mask
CLAIM: Photo shows Fox News’ Chris Wallace without a face mask in public.
THE FACTS: The photo is of Jonathan Karl, chief White House correspondent for ABC News. The photo has been circulating on Twitter since May. On Oct. 4, a photo surfaced on social media showing Karl without a mask. Social media users claimed the photo showed Wallace. “Notice that the only one walking around in this public place without a mask on is the extremely biased, elitist, Chris Wallace. #ChrisWallace #Trump #TrumpCovid #MAGA #ChrisWallaceTheHack,” one tweet said. The false post had over 14,000 retweets. Multiple reporters from the White House press corps recognized and pointed out Karl on social media. The photo was uploaded to Twitter in May. It shows Karl standing outside Mi Vida, a Mexican restaurant in Washington, without a mask. In May, social media users posted multiple photos of Karl outside the restaurant, criticizing him for standing in public without a mask. Wallace moderated the first debate between Trump and Biden last week. On Oct. 2, Wallace urged Fox News viewers to “wear the damn mask.”
—Associated Press
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Find all AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
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Video edited to remove context from Biden’s comment about Black worker
CLAIM: Video shows Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden saying the reason he has been able to stay sequestered in his home is because “some Black woman was able to stack the grocery shelf.”
THE FACTS: The video including that remark by Biden was shortened to remove the context in which it was said. A review of the full video taken during a Sept. 15 veterans roundtable Biden hosted at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida, shows the candidate was making a point about various groups stepping up as essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic. At least two heavily edited versions of the video were shared by public figures including Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and Fox News analyst Gregg Jarrett. Cleveland-area pastor Darrell Scott, who co-founded Trump’s National Diversity Coalition, posted one of the videos on Twitter with the caption,
“What???? And Black folks STILL giving him a pass!” The videos quickly amassed millions of views on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
But they lacked important context for understanding Biden’s point, which was about different groups coming together to help each other during the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden used the quote as one of multiple examples of different groups supporting each other as he explained his optimism for America’s future: “And you say, ‘Why in the hell would you say that, Biden? You just talked about all these difficulties,’” Biden said. “Well, I’ll tell you why. Because the American public, the blinders have been taken off. They’ve all of a sudden seen a hell of a lot clearer. They are saying: ‘Jeez, the reason I was able to stay sequestered in my home is because some Black woman was able to stack the grocery shelf, or I got a young Hispanic is out there, or these dreamers out there, 60,000 of them, acting as first responders and nurses and docs.’ Or, all of a sudden people are realizing, my lord, you know, these people have done so much — not just Black, white but across the board — have done so much for me. We can do this. We can get things done.”
— Associated Press writer Ali Swenson reported from Seattle.
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Posts misrepresent Trump’s remarks from Walter Reed
CLAIM: While hospitalized President Donald Trump said, “The doctors said they’ve never seen a body kill the coronavirus like my body. They tested my DNA and it wasn’t DNA. It was USA.”
THE FACTS: There is no evidence Trump made such a statement. The president shared an update on his condition in a video message posted to Twitter on Saturday after testing positive for the coronavirus and being transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. A screenshot from the video was shared online with a false caption that included the quote. The post was shared thousands of times on Twitter and Facebook. The full video of the address shows that Trump makes no references to his DNA during his speech. The false caption was also not tweeted by the president. In his address, he thanked medical professionals and the outpouring of support he has received. “I came here wasn’t feeling so well,” he says in the video. “I feel much better now. We’re working hard to get me all the way back. I have to be back because we still have to make America great again.” The false caption was made into a meme and shared in several different languages, including Vietnamese.
— Associated Press writer Beatrice Dupuy reported from New York.
___
CLAIM: Vice President Mike Pence tweeted after his debate with Democratic rival Kamala Harris that an Instagram page had released evidence Harris received the questions beforehand.
THE FACTS: The tweet was fabricated — it was not sent from Pence’s account. At the start of the Oct. 7 debate between Pence and Harris, moderator Susan Page announced, “No one in either campaign or at the commission or anywhere else has been told in advance what topics I’ll raise or what questions I’ll ask.” To date, there is no publicly available, credible evidence either candidate had advance notice of the questions. But an image of a fabricated tweet that purports to be from Pence’s account suggests otherwise. The tweet was made to look like it was sent from @VP, one of the Twitter accounts used by the vice president, and has the same photo as Pence’s actual account. It reads, “I want to thank everyone for the support for tonight’s debate. I’d say it was a success. It was also brought to my attention that the Instagram page @electionleaks released evidence of Kamala receiving the questions beforehand. This is unfair and I’d say that everyone should check out the evidence to judge for themselves.” The tweet does not appear on Pence’s @VP account. Nor does it appear on Politwoops, a ProPublica archive of politicians’ deleted tweets.
— Associated Press writer Jude Joffe-Block reported from Phoenix.
___
Barr hasn’t announced that Obama launched antifa
CLAIM: Attorney General William Barr’s investigation into antifa reveals that the organization was created by former President Barack Obama and liberal financier George Soros.
THE FACTS: The claim stems from a satirical article. Barr has not opened an investigation into antifa, a term for leftist militants, although he did form a task force to examine violence around nationwide protests this summer. “Barr’s investigation of ANTIFA leads directly to Barack Obama,” says the headline of the June 8 article on a site called Obama Watcher, which is labeled as satire. Obama Watcher is part of a network of satirical sites run by America’s Last Line of Defense, a liberal site that tries to dupe Trump’s supporters with false news stories. Facebook and Twitter users continue to pass around the article as real. Antifa is not considered an organized group. FBI Director Christopher Wray has told lawmakers that it is an ideology or a movement, not an organization. The Department of Justice, which is led by Barr, has opened investigations into some violence that erupted in cities during nationwide protests calling for racial justice earlier this year.
—Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz reported from Chicago.
___
Video does not show pro-Trump bikers outside Walter Reed
CLAIM: Video shows bikers praying for Trump outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
THE FACTS: The video actually shows bikers in South Africa praying during an event to protest against the attacks against farmers in the area. After news broke that Trump was being taken to Walter Reed, his supporters began gathering outside the hospital to wish the president well. Social media users are misrepresenting a TikTok video to say it shows Trump’s supporters outside the hospital praying for the president, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week. The clip, which shows motorcyclists kneeling in a park as they pray, was viewed more than a million times on Twitter as of Monday. Social media users shared the 8-second clip of the bikers and stills from the clip with a false caption. “Thousands of bikers gathered outside Walter Reed Hospital to pray for Trump,” one post on Facebook said. The video was taken months before the president was diagnosed with COVID-19. The video actually shows a biker rally in Pretoria, South Africa, in August. The clip matches with footage taken at the time of a biker protest held against the murders of farmers. The clip was widely shared on
Facebook and Twitter; the Trump War Room, the official account for the president’s campaign, shared the video with the false caption on Twitter on Saturday. Trump briefly left the hospital Sunday to drive by and wave to his supporters camped outside. The president could be seen in an SUV wearing a mask inside the armored vehicle.
—Beatrice Dupuy
___
Photo does not show Fox News’ Chris Wallace without a mask
CLAIM: Photo shows Fox News’ Chris Wallace without a face mask in public.
THE FACTS: The photo is of Jonathan Karl, chief White House correspondent for ABC News. The photo has been circulating on Twitter since May. On Oct. 4, a photo surfaced on social media showing Karl without a mask. Social media users claimed the photo showed Wallace. “Notice that the only one walking around in this public place without a mask on is the extremely biased, elitist, Chris Wallace. #ChrisWallace #Trump #TrumpCovid #MAGA #ChrisWallaceTheHack,” one tweet said. The false post had over 14,000 retweets. Multiple reporters from the White House press corps recognized and pointed out Karl on social media. The photo was uploaded to Twitter in May. It shows Karl standing outside Mi Vida, a Mexican restaurant in Washington, without a mask. In May, social media users posted multiple photos of Karl outside the restaurant, criticizing him for standing in public without a mask. Wallace moderated the first debate between Trump and Biden last week. On Oct. 2, Wallace urged Fox News viewers to “wear the damn mask.”
—Associated Press
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Find all AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/15/sean-hannity-unmasks-himself-fraud-again/
The great “unmasking” scandal has fizzled, though please do not tell viewers of the Fox News program “Hannity.”
Surely the host of that program doesn’t want to. On Tuesday night’s broadcast, Sean Hannity discussed Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s appearance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the presidential race, former vice president Joe Biden’s mental acuity and Hunter Biden. On Wednesday night, the topical lineup was pretty much the same. Everything, in other words, except for one of Hannity’s favorite stories:
“‘Unmasking’ probe commissioned by Barr concludes without charges or any public report,” reads the headline on a Tuesday Washington Post story by Matt Zapotosky and Shane Harris. The story capped more than three years of froth and speculation. It all began during the presidential transition, when officials in the Obama administration requested that a person who turned up in foreign intelligence reports be revealed — or “unmasked.” That person ended up being Michael Flynn, a close Trump ally who ended up serving for a few weeks as President Trump’s national security adviser. He resigned from his White House post under pressure in mid-February and later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States during the presidential transition.
Conservative lawmakers and media decided the “unmasking” was part of a nebulous “Obamagate” scandal — the details of which the president himself couldn’t define. In May, the Justice Department announced that Attorney General William P. Barr had assigned U.S. Attorney John Bash to investigate whether the “unmasking” was improper. As The Post reported, Bash found nothing.
That’s not surprising: By all accounts, “unmasking” has long been a standard practice in the national security realm. Intelligence reports redact names of U.S. citizens who get swept up in foreign surveillance, the better to protect their privacy. Yet U.S. officials who later read the surveillance reports may seek a more detailed understanding of the conversations. So they can make a request to provide the identity of such a person.
But there’s no one like Hannity when it comes to turning standard procedure into dastardly conspiracy. “If you have rogue intelligence people, and they’re intercepting, illegally intercepting phone calls of Americans, that’s illegal,” said Hannity in a chat with Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) shortly after Flynn’s departure. Nunes pushed the focus toward the Obama White House: “What I’m assuming is, is that this was picked up as they were tracking someone else. And if that’s the case, that would have had to go up to the highest levels of the Obama administration to get approval to unmask who that person is. And in this case, it was General Flynn,” said the congressman.
Once a conspiratorial notion this juicy finds its way into the Hannity narrative rotation, it sticks. “Hannity,” after all, is an accretive jumble of half-baked slams against liberals and Democrats. In December 2017, he warned of “all the attempts to take this president down. For example, the surveillance, unmasking of Trump and associates by the Obama administration.” The following April, he decried “unmasking, leaking, surveillance, FISA abuse, exonerations before investigations, felonies just not being prosecuted. Every one of these stories is unbelievable.” That October he declared, “And by the way, those leaks, we knew from the get-go were illegal, because that was — we all know surveillance unmasking that, never shouldn’t have happened or leaked in the first place.” And in March 2019, he wailed that “they all must be now put under oath, investigated because they weaponized the powerful tools of intelligence and resources and they literally broke the law.”
“Hannity” viewers might have thought this hype train was headed somewhere as recently as this spring. On May 7, then-acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell arrived at the Justice Department carrying a briefcase; a Fox News camera was pre-positioned to catch this newsy moment. The goods in transit: a declassified list of Obama administration officials who’d sought to unmask the person who ended up being Flynn. Two weeks later, Hannity devoted a “‘Hannity’ history special” to this alleged controversy. After declaring that he spurned the approach of the “media mob,” the host declared, “We got it right, they got it wrong. Now, we start three years ago in 2017 when we first sounded the alarm about unmasking, leaking raw intelligence and surveillance.” On May 27, DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec joined Hannity to discuss the decision to sic Bash on the “unmasking” allegations. This particular inquiry, noted Kupec, was adjacent to the inquiry of John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut who’s reviewing the Russia investigation.
Then in June, Hannity sounded exasperated with how long this whole thing was taking. “Now, I know tonight, many of you have been frustrated because the wheels of justice move painfully slow. Yours truly as well. The first — we first started on this with unmasking, illegal surveillance, leaking raw intelligence in March of 2017,” he said.
Well, this week his impatience has been rewarded. The Post’s scoop on Tuesday has now been matched by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, with the so-called straight news side of Fox News carrying the story on Tuesday evening.
We know how much Hannity likes to cite such publications — when they confirm his priors. Yet Hannity’s segment on the Bash “unmasking” review is nowhere to be seen. Why? The findings of Bash’s review have been passed along to Durham, according to reports — so perhaps Hannity is waiting for the outcome of the Durham probe to assess his approach to “unmasking?” But waiting isn’t Hannity’s style.
So why the delay in updating his viewers? Because Hannity has no respect for those viewers — the very people who’ve turned him into a millionaire many, many times over. They exist to absorb his nightly rants and boost his ratings. That’s it. Their loyalty doesn’t entitle them to honesty, integrity or introspection. Not even close.
And it’s not as though “Hannity” as a propaganda product suffers, either. There are, after all, plenty of other topics that Hannity can promote, now that “unmasking” has been all but torn from him. The cogency of Biden and the actions of his son Hunter, for example, are elastic standbys, available to fill however many minutes the host might need. Then there’s the Russia “hoax,” the sins of the Democrats and the “media mob,” and so on. In this he’ll be joined by many other voices across the network: CNN’s Oliver Darcy noted that the “unmasking” controversy permeated other precincts at Fox News.
