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MEDIA

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Maybe they will call it CNN minus By Silvio Canto, Jr.

By on April 13th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/04/maybe_they_will_call_it_cnn_minus.html

Have you received an offer to join CNN plus?   I saw one yesterday but I decided to pass.  Honestly, I’ve already got enough to see or listen to.  And I don’t watch CNN anyway. 

CNN plus is off to a rough start according to news reports:    

Fewer than 10,000 people are using CNN+ on a daily basis two weeks into its existence, according to people familiar with the matter.

The people spoke with CNBC on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss nonpublic data.

CNN+ launched on March 29. The subscription news streaming service, which charges $5.99 a month or $59.99 annually, only became available on Roku on Monday and still isn’t on Android TV. Still, the paltry audience casts doubt on the future of the application following the recently completed combination of Discovery and WarnerMedia into Warner Bros. Discovery.

To put that daily user number in perspective, CNN’s cable network suffered a sharp decline in viewership last year but still rang up an average of 773,000 total viewers a day.

“We continue to be happy with the launch and its progress after only two weeks,” a CNN spokesperson said.

CNN continues to be happy?  Well, at least the CNN spokesperson has a positive attitude.

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CROSSING A LINE IN COVERAGE OF THE TEL-AVIV CARNAGE: RUTHIE BLUM

By on April 10th, 2022

https://www.jns.org/opinion/crossing-a-line-in-coverage-of-the-tel-aviv-carnage/

Reporters rushed to Tel Aviv on Thursday night to cover the shooting at the Ilka pub on Dizengoff Street. Less than half an hour after the deadly spree, cameras and microphones flooded the vicinity, and the whole country tuned in to watch.
The hunger for information surrounding the event, coupled with a touch of voyeurism, was unavoidable. The gunning down of young people enjoying a night out at a bar would be cause for fear and curiosity under any circumstances. But the fact that this was the fourth such act of “lone wolf” carnage carried out in the Jewish state in little more than two weeks—following fatal assaults in Bnei Brak on March 29, Hadera on March 27 and Beersheva on March 22—made the entire episode even worse.
As if the incident in itself weren’t horrifying enough—particularly as Tel Aviv residents were instructed to hole up in their homes and the city’s public transportation was halted—the terrorist was on the loose. In fact, he would remain at large until early the next morning, when he was finally located in Jaffa and eliminated during a battle with Israeli forces.
This was what set apart the Tel Aviv attack from the other three. In each previous case, the terrorist was neutralized while in the process of murdering his victims. Here, the perpetrator, 28-year-old Ra’ad Hazem from Jenin, managed to slip away among the throngs of diners and passersby, some busy administering first aid to the wounded and others fleeing for dear life.
The pandemonium was palpable as various units of the Israel Police, Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) arrived en masse to scour the area for the terrorist. This was compounded by the presence of the press.
Until the TV channels ended their special broadcasts at 2 a.m., they all had reporters on the scene, who were interfering with the men and women in uniform. One correspondent went as far as to tail soldiers on a door-to-door search for the terrorist, with a camera rolling on their faces and weapons.
Another actually stepped over police tape with her cameraman, so that he could zoom in on the broken glass and blood stains on the pavement outside the pub. As a police officer grabbed her arm and pulled her away, she continued her breathless babbling.

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The Media Are Silent Over One Particular Story Relating to Kamala Harris Matt Vespa

By on April 9th, 2022

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2022/04/08/the-media-is-silent-over-one-particular-story-relating-to-kamala-harris-n2605643

When you can’t say anything good, you might as well not say anything at all, right? Vice President Kamala Harris is a trainwreck. She’s been a nightmare on television. She’s failed at every task handed down to her by Joe Biden. She’s a master chef when it comes to word salad. Regarding Ukraine, her analysis could have been drafted by a first grader. She botched the talking points on the sanctions against Russia. It all ties into the many, many stories about how she doesn’t do the work. She often ignores the briefs her staff prepare for her in a futile attempt to not make her look like an idiot. 

We all know she creates a toxic work environment. We all know she bleeds staff. All her top people have left, and the media is doing their part in not letting everyone know that by completely ignoring the story. Scott Whitlock at Newsbusters noted the media’s silence about the virtual disintegration of Harris’ office (via Newsbusters):

Well, that makes an even dozen. Not that you would know it, but Kamala Harris has lost her 12th major staffer since last June. As each one departed, the network newscasts avoided saying any of their names, saving the Vice President from embarrassment.

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Reuters Whitewashes Terrorism — Again How they Report Terrorism in Israel

By on April 8th, 2022

Those incorrigible Israelis and Palestinian are at it again — “cycle of violence” and all that. Those who did not read past the headline may never find out that the dead Palestinian, one of two, had walked down Dizengoff Street, the city’s most crowded commercial district, indiscriminately shooting people. Two Israelis were murdered, and many others are in serious condition. The attack in Tel Aviv is part of string of deadly attacks, perhaps the beginning of a third Intifada, that includes the recent murder of five people in nearby Bnei Brak.

Reuters has a long history of anti-Israel activism. I can remember writing about an incident more than a decade ago in which a Palestinian terrorist planted a bomb near a bus stop in Jerusalem — or, as Reuters might say, the “Jewish district of Jerusalem.” The explosion killed a British woman and injured 30 others. The piece explained: “Police described the explosion as a ‘terrorist attack’ — Israel’s term for a Palestinian strike.”

On the bright side, at least Reuters, unlike our Secretary of State Antony Blinken — who has no problem decrying so-called “settler violence” — can identify the nationality of the attackers. Which seems noteworthy considering that the families of both dead terrorists are likely to be paid bounties by the Palestinian National Authority, which is, in turn, generously funded by U.S. taxpayers.

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WILL HUNTER BIDEN SCANDAL FURTHER ERODE TRUST IN MEDIA? POLL BY TERRY JONES

By on April 4th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/04/04/will-hunter-biden-scandal-further-erode-americans-trust-in-media-ii-tipp-poll/

First, the good news: Public opinion of both the Traditional Media and the Alternative Media rebounded slightly in March. Now the bad news: Despite the slight gain, the media failed to arrest their slide in public opinion over the last year, data from the March I&I/TIPP Poll show.

Even worse news for the media comes as both The New York Times and Washington Post admitted in recent days that they failed for two years to cover signs of possible influence peddling by President Biden’s son Hunter, as revealed on Hunter’s lost laptop. It’s a major PR disaster for both outlets and for the mainstream media in general.

Will the public be forgiving? Or will the media’s long decline in public trust resume after March’s uptick?

First, some numbers. Each month, I&I/TIPP asks Americans two questions about the major media:

One, “Generally speaking, how much trust do you have in the traditional or established news media (Example: Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, CBS News, etc.) to report the news accurately and fairly?”

And two, “Generally speaking, how much trust do you have in the alternative news media (Example: New York Post, Washington Times, NewsMax, The Daily Caller, RealClearPolitics, etc.) to report the news accurately and fairly?”

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Donald Trump Vindicated as Yet Another ‘Blue Anon’ Conspiracy Theory Bites the Dust By Debra Heine

By on April 3rd, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/04/01/donald-trump-vindicated-as-yet-another-blue-anon-conspiracy-theory-bites-the-dust/

Corporate media outlets on Friday were forced to walk back their breathless reporting on former President Donald Trump’s “missing” January 6 phone records, as an official review of the White House switchboard records showed nothing out of order.

Earlier this week, it appeared that the “Teflon Don’s” luck had run out, and the walls were finally closing in. The Democrat’s January 6 committee had discovered a 7 1/2 hour gap in President Trump’s White House phone records on that day—which allegedly meant he was using burner phones to activate his plot to make “all hell break loose” on Capitol Hill and overthrow the 2020 election.

Initial reports had indicated that there was a gap in the phone records of more than seven hours between 11:17am to 6:54pm – a period of 457 minutes – on January 6, fueling speculation that Trump had used back channels and ‘burner phones’ to avoid scrutiny over his communication with supporters and allies.

Unfortunately for the narrative, an official review of the White House switchboard records and the presidential daily diary found that the records were complete, with no missing pages from the call log. The National Archives turned the records over to the Jan. 6 committee, and another Blue Anon hoax bit the dust.

Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald took to Twitter to hammer the media for falling for yet another Democrat conspiracy theory.

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EVEN BIG MEDIA CAN NO LONGER IGNORE BIDEN FAMILY CORRUPTION

By on April 1st, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/03/31/even-the-big-media-can-no-longer-ignore-biden-familys-corruption/

At long last, the mainstream media are paying some attention to the obvious corruption of President Joe Biden’s family and its many business partners, which include the Chinese government and Russian oligarchs. These things have been known for years. Why are the Big Media only now looking into them?

And why, not really knowing anything at all about what was going on, do Twitter and Facebook still censor those who report on the Bidens’ questionable overseas business activities?

Finally, both the New York Times and Washington Post have been forced to admit that Hunter Biden’s lost laptop is real, not a “fake” or a Russian fabrication, and that it contains a trove of damning evidence (22,000 emails “authenticated”) of Biden family corruption.

The family’s dealings with the communist Chinese government and powerful officials in both Russia and Ukraine are so numerous and so byzantine it’s not possible to describe them all in this limited space.

And they’re not new. Credible reports of corruption have circulated for years in American digital samizdat circles and on alternative media and conservative web sites.

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President Biden proposes a punitive wealth tax, and the AP dutifully publishes a puff piece saying how great Biden’s economic policies are By Jack Hellner

By on March 29th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/03/president_biden_proposes_a_punitive_wealth_tax_and_the_ap_dutifully_publishes_a_puff_piece_saying_how_great_bidens_economic_policies_are.html

Either the media is full of economic illiterates, or they don’t care about the truth as they seek to influence voters.

The proposal includes taxing unrealized capital gains which are not income. The tax would destroy investment and cause stock prices to go down. The collapse in stock prices would harm everyone because public pensions will be harmed, leaving government entities trolling for higher taxes.

It is not as if Musk, Buffet, Gates, Bezos, and other billionaires have billions sitting around waiting to pay taxes. They would have to sell assets and they would be inclined to move more investments overseas, which would contribute to economic decline.

There are two sensible, easy ways, to get more money from billionaires.

The first is to only allow the billionaires to deduct their cost, instead of market value, for charitable contributions. Allowing them to deduct market value makes us subsidize them.

The other sensible, appropriate way is to finally tax hedge fund billionaires, like George Soros, at ordinary income tax rates instead of at a lower special rate. From the Associated Press:

The fading of the pandemic and the growth has enabled the deficit to fall from $3.1 trillion in fiscal 2020 to $2.8 trillion last year and a projected $1.4 trillion this year. That deficit spending paid off in the form of the economy expanding at a 5.7% pace last year, the strongest growth since 1984. But inflation at a 40-year high also accompanied those robust gains as high prices have weighed on Biden’s popularity.

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Fit to print Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took On a World at War by Deborah Cohen reviewed by Anne Sebba

By on March 26th, 2022

https://spectatorworld.com/book-and-art/fit-to-print-hotel-imperial/

Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took On a World at War Deborah Cohen

In January 1936, Harold Nicolson, the British politician and author, reviewed Inside Europe, by the Chicago-born journalist John Gunther. He praised the “American type of wandering or perambulatory foreign correspondent” such as Vincent Sheean, H.R. Knickerbocker (known as Knick), the Mowrer brothers, John Gunther and (the only woman) Dorothy Thompson, as “one of those improvements to modern life that the British would do well to imitate.”

According to Nicolson, the virtue of the book, which famously described Adolf Hitler as a “blob of ectoplasm,” was not merely that it was exciting but “so personal that it may seem dramatic and at the same time educative.” Now Deborah Cohen has provided a rivetingly raw account of the group (with cameo appearances from others, including Rebecca West and “Mickey” Hahn) and the way they worked, switching focus at various points as she joins the dramatic global story with often painful and deeply personal accounts. From 1931 onward, this group of roving American reporters — friends and sometime lovers who occasionally fell out with each other, slept with each other’s partners, suffered tragedies and setbacks — saw what was happening in Europe with great clarity. They wrote powerfully about the rise of the fascist dictators before they were household names and warned about constant violations of the Treaty of Versailles: not always with the same viewpoint or approach.

For example, when Knick published The Boiling Point; Will War Come in Europe? in 1934, Thompson criticized her erstwhile junior for “a hasty production in which he had reported what he’d been told as if he were taking dictation unctuously rather than rendering judgment.” The most important attribute of the journalist, according to Thompson, was brains, not feet.

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The Absurd Attempt to Defend Lia Thomas’s Competing as a Woman By Jenna Stocker

By on March 24th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/03/the-absurd-attempt-to-defend-lia-thomass-competing-as-a-woman/?utm_source=recirc-

A Washington Post columnist ridiculously argues that we shouldn’t care about Lia Thomas competing as female because sports aren’t about competition anyway.

W riting in last Thursday’s Washington Post, Sally Jenkins poses several questions regarding the nature of college athletics, the purpose of the NCAA, and the role of competition in collegiate sports — all in the context of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. But what Jenkins is really doing is ignoring the essential element of sport: competition — specifically, fair competition. Removing fair competition from the debate and making it about “becomingness” obscures the inherent biological advantage of transgender women, because admitting to unfair competition means drawing the conclusion that transgender women are not women, and revealing that the whole progressive argument for gender identity being equal to immutable biological fact is a farce.

Thomas, up until the spring 2019, identified as a man and swam on the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s swimming team and just recently competed in the NCAA women’s swimming championships, where he placed in the prestigious top eight in all three of his individual events, including a first-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle.

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