{"id":31773,"date":"2017-10-16T21:07:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T01:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=31773"},"modified":"2017-10-16T21:07:13","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T01:07:13","slug":"the-mainstream-media-just-keeps-on-trying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=31773","title":{"rendered":"The Mainstream Media Just Keeps On Trying"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Investor's Business Daily\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Investor%27s_Business_Daily\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia noopener\">Investor&#8217;s Business Daily<\/a> posted an article today about three of the latest mainstream media&#8217;s attempts to accuse President Trump and <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Russia\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=55.75,37.6166666667&amp;spn=0.1,0.1&amp;q=55.75,37.6166666667 (Russia)&amp;t=h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"geolocation noopener\">Russia<\/a> of conspiring together in the 2016 election. Unfortunately, the facts keep getting in the way of the accusations.<\/p>\n<p>The first attempt the article reports is as follows:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Here&#8217;s the headline <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"CNN\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/cnn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"twitter noopener\">CNN<\/a> put on its &#8220;exclusive&#8221; story: &#8220;Even Pokemon Go used by extensive Russian-linked meddling effort.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>It begins: &#8220;Russian efforts to meddle in <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"United States\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=38.8833333333,-77.0166666667&amp;spn=0.1,0.1&amp;q=38.8833333333,-77.0166666667 (United%20States)&amp;t=h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"geolocation noopener\">American<\/a> politics did not end at Facebook and Twitter. A CNN investigation of a Russian-linked account shows its tentacles extended to <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"YouTube\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=37.628101,-122.426424&amp;spn=1.0,1.0&amp;q=37.628101,-122.426424 (YouTube)&amp;t=h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"geolocation noopener\">YouTube<\/a>, Tumblr and even Pokemon Go.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>By &#8220;meddle,&#8221; of course, they mean &#8220;helped elect Trump president.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>It turns out none of this had anything to do with electing Trump.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>In this case, the Russians apparently developed a campaign \u2014 called &#8220;Don&#8217;t Shoot Me&#8221; \u2014 that was designed to &#8220;exploit racial tensions and sow discord among Americans.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>The YouTube page contained news reports, amateur footage and the like that the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Black Lives Matter\" href=\"http:\/\/blacklivesmatter.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"homepage noopener\">Black Lives Matter<\/a> crowd were parading all over the web.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>If that constitutes &#8220;meddling&#8221; in the election, then Black Lives Matter, <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Hillary Clinton\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hillary_Clinton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia noopener\">Hillary Clinton<\/a> and the mainstream press are guiltier than these Kremlin trolls. They ceaselessly pushed the racist police story because they thought it would help energize the Democratic base.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>So what was Russia&#8217;s intent? &#8220;It&#8217;s unclear,&#8221; is all CNN could muster.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The second attempt also fell flat:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>&#8230;another CNN &#8220;exclusive&#8221; about how &#8220;Russian-linked <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=37.4848,-122.1484&amp;spn=0.01,0.01&amp;q=37.4848,-122.1484 (Facebook)&amp;t=h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"geolocation noopener\">Facebook ads<\/a> targeted Michigan and Wisconsin.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>This story began: &#8220;A number of Russian-linked Facebook ads specifically targeted Michigan and Wisconsin, two states crucial to <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Donald Trump\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Donald_Trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia noopener\">Donald Trump<\/a>&#8216;s victory last November, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the situation.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>It went on: &#8220;Some of the Russian ads appeared highly sophisticated in their targeting of key demographic groups in areas of the states that turned out to be pivotal.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Had CNN finally found evidence that Russia tried, and might have succeeded, in swinging the election for Trump?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Hardly.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>It was up to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/byron-york-10-reasons-to-stay-calm-about-those-russia-facebook-ads\/article\/2636711\">Washington Examiner&#8217;s Byron York<\/a> to provide the relevant facts and context.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>He found that of the 3,000 Russian ads that Facebook turned over to Congress, most of them ran <em>after<\/em> the election and so could hardly be part of any &#8220;meddling.&#8221; The vast majority didn&#8217;t mention the election or any candidate. A quarter of them <em>weren&#8217;t seen by anybody<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>What&#8217;s more, out of those 3,000 ads, only a tiny handful targeted Michigan and Wisconsin, nearly all of them ran in 2015 \u2014 well before Trump was nominated \u2014 and most had fewer than 1,000 impressions.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well, maybe the third time will be the charm:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>&#8230;the infamous &#8220;smoking gun&#8221; meeting between <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Donald Trump Jr.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.trump.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"homepage noopener\">Donald Trump Jr<\/a> and a Russian lawyer is turning out to be another nothingburger.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Newly released emails showed that the meeting was entirely focused on U.S. sanctions and adoption rules involving Russia, and had nothing to do with dishing dirt on Hillary Clinton.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>What about that promise of a meeting in a separate email from British publicist Rob Goldstone, who said the Russian lawyer had damaging evidence on Clinton? It&#8217;s likely that was a way to lure Trump people to a meeting they&#8217;d otherwise not bother with.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The article reaches the obvious conclusion:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>For nearly a year now, we&#8217;ve seen this same pattern. A headline-grabbing story about Russia &#8220;meddling&#8221; and Trump &#8220;collusion&#8221; that ends up fizzling out when the facts come in.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>If Russia&#8217;s motivation in all of this wasn&#8217;t to elect Trump, but to sow discord and hostility within the U.S. \u2014 which increasingly looks like the point \u2014 then Russia&#8217;s leaders succeeded beyond their wildest imagination. And for that, they have the liberal media, not their own efforts, to thank.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Imagine what the media could do if they investigated the uranium transfer to Russia that followed a large Kremlin donation to the Clinton Foundation?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Investor&#8217;s Business Daily posted an article today about three of the latest mainstream media&#8217;s attempts to accuse President Trump and Russia of conspiring together in the 2016 election. Unfortunately, the facts keep getting in the way of the accusations. The &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=31773\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9829,1344,712,3357,1022,1457],"class_list":["post-31773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-black-lives-matter","tag-cnn","tag-democratic-party-united-states","tag-donald-trump","tag-facebook","tag-hillary-clinton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31774,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31773\/revisions\/31774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}