Creating Uninformed Voters

On Tuesday, Newsbusters reported the following:

On Thursday June 8, two massive political stories broke, but ONLY one of them got covered by the broadcast networks.

On June 8, former President Donald Trump was indicted by the Special Counsel in the classified documents case. That very same day it was reported that President Joe Biden had allegedly received $5 million dollars from an executive of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, the same company in which his son Hunter was involved.

Guess which one was exhaustively covered and which one was completely covered up by the networks?

Over four days (June 8-June 12) the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) broadcast networks predictably crammed their evening, morning and Sunday roundtable shows with a total of 291 minutes of coverage dedicated to the Trump indictment.

But how much did the Biden/Burisma alleged bribery scheme receive? 

Zero seconds

The article gives one example of the coverage:

George Stephanopoulos’s introduction, on the June 9 edition of ABC’s Good Morning America, was representative of the tone of network coverage of the Trump indictment. The moderator of ABC’s This Week, co-anchor of Good Morning America and former Bill Clinton hack, shamelessly greeted his audience this way: 

The idea that no person is above the law is a bedrock principle of American justice. And it’s being tested never before now that Donald Trump is the first former president in American history to face criminal charges from the federal government. It’s in the latest in a litany of firsts for a former President; Impeached not once, but twice. Last month, found liable for sexual abuse in a civil trial, indicted in state court for paying hush money to a porn star. His company convicted of tax fraud. And Trump still faces two more possible indictments for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Another first? That former president, defeated for reelection once, is for now, at least the front runner for his party’s nomination. Our team is covering all the angles of this astonishing legal and political story.

Where were these comments when Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Mike Pence, and Joe Biden all did what President Trump did? Is everyone but President Trump above the law? This sort of news reporting is a disgrace, and it only serves to divide our country further.

This Comment Makes No Sense

The Patriot Daily Wire posted an article today about the accidental shooting on the set of the movie “Rust.” What happened was an awful mistake on someone’s part, but the information coming from Alec Baldwin regarding the shooting makes no sense.

The article reports:

In the aftermath of the seemingly accidental and fatal shooting that happened on the set of Alec Baldwin’s movie “Rust,” there are still questions regarding exactly what happened and who is at fault.

On Oct. 21, while filming on set for his upcoming western movie, Baldwin was given a gun for his scene. The scene involved drawing a revolver and pointing it at the camera, as The New York Times reported.

But then the gun fired, and hit cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in the chest and director Joel Souza in the shoulder. Hutchins, unfortunately, died from the gunshot.

Questions around the incident immediately followed. Why was there a live gun on set? Did Baldwin know it was loaded with live rounds? Why did seemingly no one notice there were live bullets in the gun before it was handed off to Baldwin?

In an interview clip released on Wednesday, Baldwin said that he did not pull the trigger.

This is an excerpt from the interview with George Stephanopoulos:

“Well, the trigger wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger,” the actor told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

“So you never pulled the trigger?” Stephanopoulos pointedly asked him.

“No, no, no. I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them. Never,” Baldwin answered.

Baldwin said he had no idea there was a live bullet in the gun and furthermore, he had no clue how live rounds of ammo even got onto the premises.

Reuters noted the full interview with Stephanopoulos will be released on Thursday, but some clips were posted on Wednesday.

This just isn’t reality. My sympathies go out to Mr. Baldwin who is obviously having a hard time dealing with what happened and the role he played in it.

Rewriting History To Prevent A Second Trump Presidency

Today The Federalist posted an article about the media’s renewed interest in the Steele Dossier. What is happening right now with the Dossier is a shot across the bow in an effort to prevent President Trump from running for President in 2024.

The article lists four things the author learned from the Hulu documentary about the Steele Dossier.

These are the four things:

1. At Least the Media Came Out of the Shadows

2. Steele Selected Stephanopoulos For a Reason

3. Christopher Steele Stands By His Dossier

4. He’s Crazy Like a Fox

Please follow the link to read the entire article, but here are a few excerpts:

Raddatz (ABC reporter Martha Raddatz) was not the only ABC personality interviewed during the program, and in this respect the media’s penchant for becoming the story reached a pinnacle, so much so that Hulu followed Stephanopoulos from his New York apartment en route to the airport and then to England. Once there, Steele’s screen time paled in comparison to the time Stephanopoulos devoted to interviewing his colleagues.

…Of course, Steele couldn’t have really taken the lead in the story because he remains in legal jeopardy and subject to potential civil liability. Steele needed to thread a needle: saying enough to create sympathy and shore up a legal defense while ensuring he stayed silent on anything of substance. Stephanopoulos served his purpose.

President Clinton’s former White House communications director promised the publicity Steele needed and provided a surface of seriousness to sell the story as a true piece of journalism. And Stephanopoulos was willing to travel to England, most definitely a requirement for Steele to avoid the subpoena power of the John Durham special counsel’s office.

…While Stephanopoulos’ painting of Steele as a patriotic and sympathetic character did not quite descend to the Jane Mayer level of propaganda, the generous profile of Steele nonetheless laid the groundwork necessary to soften the more serious questions that would end the show. The Hulu special’s biographical focus also served to elevate Steele, suggesting a more substantial role in British intelligence than likely and bolstering his credibility by highlighting his connection to the FBI’s investigation into the World Cup soccer bribery scandal.

Against this backdrop, a viewer unacquainted with the depth of the Spygate scandal, such as Stephanopoulos and ABC’s regular audience, might find Steele’s assurances that his sources and their stories are credible, even against the backdrop of the U.S. inspector general’s “devastating” report that “eviscerated” Steele’s reporting, according to one of the few non-ABC figures interviewed, former New York Times reporter Barry Meier.

“With respect to your work,” Stephanopoulos noted, the IG report concluded that “certain allegations were inaccurate or inconsistent with information gathered by the Crossfire Hurricane team; and that the limited information that was corroborated related to time, place and title information, much of which was publicly available.”

The article concludes:

Those well-versed in the entire Russia-collusion hoax likely watched Steele in disbelief, wondering how delusional he must be to sit calmly before a worldwide audience and defend the unbelievable. But the interview served a purpose, because the few times Stephanopoulos challenged Steele, it works to his own benefit as it provided the dossier author the opportunity to counter claims that he peddled knowingly false information to the FBI

While Steele professed in the interview that he had done nothing wrong and did not fear being charged and extradited to the United States, sometimes the best defense is an offense. What better way to counter a potential charge of making false statements to the FBI than to profess you believe the information passed on was true? Well, that, and the defense colloquially known as Orange Man Bad, which Steele seemed to also hide behind, speaking of Trump as a continuing threat to the United States and United Kingdom’s national security.

Steele may be right about one thing, though, when he said in the final minutes of the interview that he “think[s] this book is not finished by a longshot.” Hopefully, however, it will be Durham writing the final chapter.

The Hulu version of events is pure propaganda, but those who get their news via the mainstream media and watch the ‘documentary’ will  see it as truth. That is part of the reason for the divide in America, and the media bears much of the responsibility for that divide.

I Really Have My Doubts About This As Positive Parenting

Yesterday Newsbusters posted an article about an interview with Ali Wentworth, wife of George Stephanopoulos.

Here are some parenting tips put forth in the interview:

In a recent podcast interview with Will & Grace’s Debra Messing, comedian Ali Wentworth – who has been married to George Stephanopoulos since 2001 – opened up about her insane parenting methods involving educating her kids about pornography. 

There’s the normal strategy of staying vigilant as a parent and educating them about the dangers of this corruptive, and addictive medium, which profits off of violent exploitation of women and has been linked to sex trafficking. Then there’s what Mrs. George Stephanopoulos told her Hollywood friend — watching porn with her children.

…Wentworth, who has two daughters with the Good Morning America anchor, claimed, “You can’t stop them, so I would watch it with them. I would look at the porn with them that one time, like, ‘They’re performing.’” Oh that’s wonderful. Though Wentworth, a comedian, explained that this was a way in which she could provide context about the practice to her kids. You see, watching it with her kids would allow her to explain how it’s exploitative of the actors in pornographic productions.

She added, “In porn, women have been conditioned to look and act a certain way… They are performing and it’s dangerous to have boys see this as something women want.” Oh wonderful. How about telling your daughters to turn it off if it’s dangerous. Also how would it not be awkward for the Stephanopoulos parents to sit in with their teenage daughters as the actors simulate sex?

The article concludes:

Porn is bad for men and women in different ways. Though many studies focus on porn’s destructive effects on males, anti-porn research group Fight The New Drug notes that “women can be just as at risk of becoming dependent upon pornography as men.” 

The group cited a German sex study published in The Telegraph which claimed, “at least 17% of women consider themselves addicted to porn, and half of the women surveyed were internet porn consumers.”

So yeah, great for Wentworth. Expose your daughters to a potential porn addiction, as long as you talk to them about their feelings afterward. Besides peddling harmful hippie BS parenting techniques, they’re also contributing viewership to an industry that utterly destroys the dignity of the performers, turning them into a sexual commodity. It’s an industry so exploitative of young girls that the internet’s largest free porn provider, Pornhub, has been accused of featuring videos of rape and sex trafficking victims.

Well as long as George and Lindsey explain why human trafficking is bad as they sit down to watch as a family.

This is not healthy for the children. It should not be promoted anywhere as a good idea. There are studies that show a link between sex trafficking and pornography. There are also studies that show a negative impact on the brain leading to addiction. This is insanity.

New Information Keeps Dripping Out

Yesterday The Federalist posted an article about some handwritten notes taken by former FBI agent Peter Strzok. The notes are suspected to be related to a meeting in the White  House on January 5, 2017. The meeting was attended by President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Comey, Yates, and then-national security adviser Susan Rice. The meeting and its substance were confirmed in a bizarre Inauguration Day email Rice wrote to herself.

The article summarizes the notes:

NSA-D-DAG = [Flynn cuts?]. Other countries

D-DAG: lean forward on [unclass?]

VP: “Logan Act”

P: These are unusual times

VP: I’ve been on the intel cmte for ten years and I never

P: Make sure you look at things + have the right people on it

P: Is there anything I shouldn’t be telling transition team?

D: Flynn –> Kislyak calls but appear legit

[illegible] Happy New Year. Yeah right

The notes probably won’t impact the Flynn case, which is already on its way to being dismissed. However, it certainly supports the idea that the Obama administration was planning to undermine the Trump administration from the beginning. If nothing else, the notes indicate that the Obama administration definitely was not interested in the smooth transfer of power that is supposed to happen in our government.

The article further reports:

According to Strzok’s notes, Biden explicitly referenced the Logan Act, an 18th-century law that forbids certain political speech from private citizens. The law, even if it were constitutional, would not apply to a national security adviser for the newly elected president of the United States. Biden had previously denied that he knew anything about the investigation into Flynn.

“I know nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn,” Biden said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” when George Stephanopoulos asked what he knew of the FBI’s operations in early 2017. He later admitted that statement was false.

The meeting to strategize against the Trump administration included just a few key law enforcement principals. Their testimony about what transpired is sometimes in conflict. Yates claimed Comey brought up the Logan Act while Comey claims Biden cited it. Rice claimed Obama directed that the anti-Trump operation be run “by the book,” but Comey claimed Obama even directed which personnel to use.

The information currently coming out confirms what many of us have suspected–there is a swamp in Washington that is dedicated to protecting itself from being held accountable for their actions. The way the swamp has behaved during the Trump administration is reprehensible. This has all the markings of an attempted coup and those responsible should be held accountable.

Will The Other Side Of The Story Get Equal Coverage?

The mainstream media has praised Representative Adam Schiff for his ‘masterful’ performance this week. The major networks have highlighted various charges Representative Schiff has made (even when those charges have already been proven false). The mainstream media has obviously taken sides. There have been many instances where that was obvious, but The Conservative Treehouse posted an article today about one particular instance.

The article reports:

A good reminder of what we can expect when President Trump’s defense team has their first opportunity in five months to defend him. During a broadcast segment on ABC news reporters in the Capitol were interviewing President Trump defense attorney Jay Sekulow.

Back in the ABC studio, Clinton operative George Stephanopoulos did not want to see ABC broadcasting statements from the defense and he is caught on camera using hand signals to tell the producers to cut-off the broadcast. Stephanopoulos realized he was caught:

The article contains video clips of the incident.

There are a few things to consider here other than the obvious. First of all, this ‘trial’ started five months ago. Saturday will be the first opportunity the defendant will have for his representatives to defend him. Would you be willing to go into court in that situation? Secondly, because of the rules of the Senate, the Senators were not able to spotlight the lies told in the presentations made this week–and there were many lies told.

I don’t know how many people will actually watch the President’s defense team on Saturday. I do know that anyone who watched the House Impeachment Managers this week and then watches tomorrow will be very surprised at how much of what they heard this week was not true. It is unfortunate that the mainstream media will probably carry very little of the defense after fawning over those making the charges all week.

When You Never Look In The Mirror

ABC News posted an article today about a shocking statement made by President Trump during an interview with ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos.

This is the controversial quote:

Asked by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos in the Oval Office on Wednesday whether his campaign would accept such information from foreigners — such as China or Russia — or hand it over the FBI, Trump said, “I think maybe you do both.”

“I think you might want to listen, there isn’t anything wrong with listening,” Trump continued. “If somebody called from a country, Norway, [and said] ‘we have information on your opponent’ — oh, I think I’d want to hear it.”

The mainstream media is shocked–simply shocked. Somehow they have overlooked the fact that the Clinton campaign actually paid for the Steele dossier.

The article continues:

President Trump lamented the attention on his son, Donald Trump Jr., for his role in the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting in June 2016. Stephanopoulos asked whether Trump Jr. should have taken the Russians’ offer for “dirt” on then-candidate Hillary Clinton to the FBI.

“Somebody comes up and says, ‘hey, I have information on your opponent,’ do you call the FBI?” Trump responded.

“I’ll tell you what, I’ve seen a lot of things over my life. I don’t think in my whole life I’ve ever called the FBI. In my whole life. You don’t call the FBI. You throw somebody out of your office, you do whatever you do,” Trump continued. “Oh, give me a break – life doesn’t work that way.”

“The FBI director said that is what should happen,” Stephanopoulos replied, referring to comments FBI Director Christopher Wray made during congressional testimony last month, when he told lawmakers “the FBI would want to know about” any foreign election meddling.

Should Hillary Clinton have called the FBI after she paid Steele for the dossier? Oh yeah, I forgot, she did call the FBI in order to make sure the information in the dossier was leaked to the press. There was never an investigation into the fact that the Clinton campaign paid for the dossier or that it was information from a foreign source. Had President Trump called the FBI with a foreign source claiming to have damaging information on Hillary Clinton, I wonder what their response would have been.

I am hoping American voters will begin to think about the implications of this question and how it reflects the bias of the press.

Who Gets The Job?

This is not an article–it is just a question. Does anyone else see the problem with Donna Brazile and George Stephanopoulos doing the coverage of the Republican convention on one of the major networks? If you don’t see a problem with this, are you willing to let Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh do the network coverage on the Democratic convention?

The Video Tells The Tale

Yesterday The Daily Caller posted an article about statements made by Hillary Clinton regarding the attack on Benghazi. The article reports that Mrs. Clinton is denying that she told the family members of those killed in Benghazi that the attack was the result of a video.

This is the video of Mrs. Clinton speaking when the bodies of those killed in Benghazi were returned home. I am embedding it in case it disappears from the internet. At marker 8:50 in the video, Mrs. Clinton states that the violence against American embassies was the result of an internet video.

I have no way of knowing exactly what Mrs. Clinton said to the families, but her statement on the video certainly illustrates the talking point of the day.

The article at The Daily Caller reports:

During an editorial board meeting with The Conway (N.H.) Daily Sun, Clinton was asked about an interview she recently had with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in which she denied that she told family members of the Benghazi victims during a Sept. 14, 2012 memorial service at Andrews Air Force Base that the film “Innocence of Muslims” was the catalyst for the attack.

The article concludes:

“I was in a very difficult position because we have not yet said two of the four dead were CIA…This was a part of the fog of war,” she added.

During her Dec. 6 interview with Stephanopoulos, Clinton specifically denied that she spoke to the families about the video or the filmmaker. She also said that she “can’t help it” that the Benghazi victims’ families believe that she fingered the video during their private conversations.

“I understand the continuing grief at the loss that parents experienced with the loss of these four brave Americans. And I did testify, as you know, for 11 hours. And I answered all of these questions,” Clinton added. “Now, I can’t — I can’t help it that people think there has to be something else there.

The one thing I will say is that Mrs. Clinton does not have the political skills of her husband.

There Really Is No Free Lunch

There really is no free lunch (unless your parents or grandparents provide you with one!). Unfortunately, a substantial percentage of American voters have not figured that out yet.

The following video is posted on YouTube. It is from “This Week with George Stephanopoulos“:

George Stephanopoulos rightly observed that all of the free things Bernie Sanders was promising would cost money.

An article at The Libertarian Republic quotes the response:

“I think if you’re looking about guaranteeing paid family and medical leave, which virtually every other major country has… that will require a small increase in the payroll tax,” Sanders said.

“That’s going to hit everybody,” the host remarked.

“That would– yeah, that would,” Bernie acknowledges.

Of course, when you’re calling for $18 trillion in new spending (around $2 trillion more than the nation’s entire GDP), you are going to get inventive with how to pay for it. Bernie will raise taxes on everyone and that’s just the kicker. If Sanders were to become president, he would severely devalue our dollar to enable spending, the results of which would be inflation and a higher cost of living for everybody.

Bernie! You’re supposed to promise them free things– now you’ve spilled the beans that people will have to pay for these things. Think of how disillusioned you supporters will be when they find out you want to tax them more

The average low-information voter would probably find a way to blame the Republicans!

This Was A Serious Mistake

The Daily Caller is reporting today on a rather serious misstep by White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough. During an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’sThis Week” today, Mr. McDonough accidentally revealed the first name of an American female aid worker being held hostage by ISIS.

The article reports:

“As it relates to our hostages, we are obviously continuing to work those matters very, very aggressively,” McDonough said. “We are sparing no expense and sparing no effort, both in trying to make sure that we know where they are and make sure that we’re prepared to do anything we must to try to get them home.”

“But [redacted] family knows how strongly the president feels about this, and we will continue to work this.”

Reached for comment by Politico, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan, said: “We don’t have anything to add, other than to request again that you not use the name of the individual.”

This is not the first time the Obama Administration has revealed information that has put Americans in danger. Let’s hope it will be the last.

Some Thoughts On That New Car Smell

Yesterday Byron York posted an article at the Washington Examiner about President Obama’s recent comments that a 2016 Democrat Presidential candidate would need that new car smell.

The article states:

President Obama set off ripples in the political world Sunday morning when he said voters in the 2016 presidential race will want “that new car smell.” Speaking with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Obama said in picking a new leader, Americans will “want to drive something off the lot that doesn’t have as much mileage as me.”

President Obama also praised Hillary Clinton’s performance as Secretary of State as he made those comments.

I would like to point out something about that ‘new car smell.’ Just for the record, it is toxic! In February 2012, CBS News reported:

(CBS) Who doesn’t love that factory fresh “new car smell”? It’s so well-liked that air fresheners and sprays have been produced in attempts to reclaim the odor.

…But according to a new study from the nonprofit Ecology Center and HealthyStuff.org, what you might actually be sniffing are toxic fumes from chemicals used to create the car interior.

Meanwhile, back to President Obama’s statement. Despite praising Hillary Clinton’s performance as Secretary of State (which isn’t a surprise, since theoretically the President controls the actions of the Secretary of State), it seems to be common knowledge in Washington that there is no great love between the Clintons and the Obamas. I believe that President Obama (either behind the scenes or obviously) will support Elizabeth Warren as the Democrat candidate for President in 2016. Senator Warren would be able to challenge Hillary Clinton from the left, despite the fact that politically they are not really very far apart. Note that the leaders of the Senate have already put Senator Warren in a leadership position.

Anyway, I am hoping that the new car smell that is toxic in automobiles will also be toxic in Democrat presidential politics.

This Is What Happens When Elected Officials Value Political Party More Than Reality

Breitbart.com posted a story today featuring a quote by Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN). On This Week With George Stephanopoulos.  During a discussion of the number of work hours Americans will lose due to ObamaCare, Congressman Ellison stated, “We are going to have parents being able to come home, working reasonable hours. People are going to be able to retire. People might actually be able to cook dinner rather than have to order out and get some takeout.”…”If you look at international comparisons country by country, Americans work way more that the average of industrialized countries around the world.”

Americans probably do work too hard, but that fact is partially responsible for the fact that America is one of the richest countries in the world. Although America has poverty, America’s poor have a higher standard of living than people in many other countries. The American work ethic is part of what makes America great.

Where is the compassion for the Americans who will have a lower standard of living because they are not working the hours they are used to working? Where is the compassion for the wife who was able to stay at home and raise her children who will now be forced to put those children in daycare because her husband’s hours have been cut?

This is probably the most ridiculous spin yet on the economic problems caused by ObamaCare, but I suspect it will not be the last spin attempted by those who voted for ObamaCare who are now running for re-election to Congress.

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The Kickoff Question For 2016

It is too early to be talking about the election of 2016, but evidently it is not too early for the press to begin demonizing the Republican contenders.

In January 2012, George Stephanopoulos asked Mitt Romney the following question at the Republican presidential primary debate (Newsbusters):

Governor Romney, do you believe that states have the right to ban contraception? Or is that trumped by a constitutional right to privacy?”

The question really made no sense–it was not related to any current issue, and some pundits on the right wondered why Stephanopoulos asked it. It became obvious later on that part of the Democrat strategy in the 2012 election was to accuse the Republicans of waging a ‘war on women’ and saying that Republicans would take away a woman’s right to birth control. The question was a preemptive strike to begin debate on a subject that was not really important, but had possible political value when dealing with an uninformed electorate.

The preemptive strike has now been aimed at Florida Senator Marco Rubio. GQ asked the Senator, “How old do you think the earth is?” What in the world does that question have to do with anything?

Shawn Mitchell at Townhall.com points out:

First is the premeditated bad faith of an upscale publication. The random question is untethered  from public policy, from issues in the US Senate, or measures Rubio might pursue. It arose from a singular goal unrelated to reporting current events: GQ wanted to conjure a killer question, something that might damage a popular potential GOP presidential candidate.  It’s easy to imagine the query came from a group brainstorm over lunch: “Think, people…how can we trip him?!”

Second on the list is the poisonous effect of unresting, perpetual attack machinery.  Scarcely had the interview hit GQ’s website and newsstands when it ricocheted across the blogosphere and commentariat, with sneers from the left and defenses from the right. Barack Obama is two months shy of putting his hand on the Bible for a second term. Yet, already an anticipated candidate for 2016 is under manufactured attack for how he might read that book’s teachings.

This is disgusting, and until America’s electorate becomes informed enough to make attacks like this ineffective, these attacks will continue. The media will not police themselves, but when Americans begin to ignore stories like this and stop buying the newspapers and magazines that publish this trash, the trash will end. It is truly up to us.

 

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