Gannett Newspaper to Furlough Journalists

Newspaper giant Gannett announced Monday it will begin furloughing employees across the country over the next three months to cut costs during the economic slowdown caused by the novel coronavirus.

The Hill reports, “the publisher of more than 100 newspapers, including USA Today, the Detroit Free Press, The Columbus Dispatch and The Arizona Republic, is reportedly furloughing workers who make more than $38,000 a year and they will be required to take one week of unpaid leave per month in April, May, and June, according to a tweet from investigative reporter Gregory Holman of the Springfield News-Leader in Missouri, a Gannett-owned paper.”

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Vox Scrubs China Reference from Title of Coronavirus Video

Liberal media outlet Vox removed a reference to China from the title of a video it published about the role that wildlife markets there play in the spread of infectious disease like coronavirus.

Vox’s video, which has more than 18 million views, was initially titled “Why new diseases keep appearing in China.” It is now titled: “How wildlife trade is linked to coronavirus.”

Vox acknowledged the edit in a description of the video on YouTube.

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Commentary: Tedious, Entitled, Ignoble and Mad – the Anti-Trump Circus Turns Four Years Old

by Victor Davis Hanson   We are now in the fourth year of an anti-Trump mania, and about reaching the point of caricature. The Left should have learned something after the failed celebrity appeal to undermine the Electoral College, the initial articles of impeachment, the empty invocations of the Logan Act, the Emoluments Clause, and the 25th Amendment, the 22-month, $35 million Mueller investigation deflation, the periodical silly “bombshell” announcements of perennially wrong and comical Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the pathetic palace coup attempt of Andrew McCabe, the assassination chic from the likes of Madonna, Snoop Dogg, or Kathy Griffin, or the deification of the slimy prophet Michael Avenatti. Not at all. An entire new cast of carnival characters has arrived on the scene to take up where the now imploded Left off. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) has replaced Schiff in the unhinged congressional investigative limelight. In his latest hearing, Nadler obtusely insisted on addressing former Trump White House aide Hope Hicks as “Ms. Lewandowski.” Even Democrats were puzzled – given that Nadler’s supposed “slip of the tongue” was repeated three times until Hicks finally corrected him. Even in the age of gender transitioning and speech reduced to Twitter-like grunts, sane…

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Lone Democrat Andrew Yang Expresses Support for Conservative Journalist Attacked at Antifa Rally

by Chris White   Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang expressed support Monday for conservative journalist Andy Ngo, who was brutally attacked while covering an Antifa rally in Oregon on Saturday. “I hope @MrAndyNgo is okay. Journalists should be safe to report on a protest without being targeted,” wrote Yang, who is the only Democratic presidential candidate to weigh in on the assault so far. I hope @MrAndyNgo is okay. Journalists should be safe to report on a protest without being targeted. — Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) July 1, 2019 Video from the attack on Ngo in Portland shows a swarm of masked individuals punching the journalist and pelting him with milkshakes. Ngo’s attackers are heard on video shouting “Fuck you, Andy!” and “Go home, Andy Ngo!” Ngo, who lives in Portland, frequently covers Antifa activities in the city. He has also reported extensively on fake hate crime allegations. Ngo, who is an editor at Quilette, said after the assault his camera equipment was stolen. He went to the emergency room, where his attorney said he was treated for a brain bleed. Portland police arrested three people following Saturday’s rally, but a spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation the arrests were not related to the Ngo…

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Trump Predicts Demise of Two Prominent U.S. Newspapers

Donald Trump

  President Trump contended Sunday two of the country’s top newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post, would go out of business when he leaves office. Trump attacked both newspapers, both of which often publish articles that he labels as “fake news” – stories about his chaotic White House and administration policies that he does not like. “A poll should be done on which is the more dishonest and deceitful newspaper, the Failing New York Times or the Amazon (lobbyist) Washington Post!” Trump said on Twitter, referring to the Post’s ownership by Jeff Bezos, the founder of the giant online retailer Amazon. A poll should be done on which is the more dishonest and deceitful newspaper, the Failing New York Times or the Amazon (lobbyist) Washington Post! They are both a disgrace to our Country, the Enemy of the People, but I just can’t seem to figure out which is worse? The good….. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 16, 2019 “The good news is that at the end of 6 years, after America has been made GREAT again and I leave the beautiful White House (do you think the people would demand that I stay longer? KEEP…

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Commentary: The Right Needs to Take Language Seriously

by Deion A. Kathawa   The Left’s ideas receive a major boost in ubiquity and apparent credibility because progressives control nearly all of the America’s major taste-making institutions: Hollywood, the universities, K-12 education, and the media. Such control allows progressives to set the terms of national debates, demarcating the range of acceptable opinions on any given subject. It gives rise to another ability: the power to (re)define terms by fiat. After all, when the vast majority of the most credentialed people in virtually all of the most influential organs of civil society are saying X, the average person is hard pressed to meaningfully push back and say Y. The sheer saturation of the information space is a formidable hurdle for even the most savvy to overcome. Take immigration, for example. The Left insists, night and day, that true Americans should be perfectly happy to accept virtually unlimited migrant flows through our southern border. Not only that, but compassion demands we accept virtually all comers. Only bigots could want controlled immigration. As for the national interest, surely it’s in our interest to open our country to strivers and Dreamers. See what just happened? Our historical practice of accepting large numbers of immigrants, contingent on the need to build up a young America, has…

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Survey: Americans Think Fake News Is Big Problem, Blame Politicians

  Half of U.S. adults consider fake news a major problem, and they mostly blame politicians and activists for it, according to a new survey. A majority also believe journalists have the responsibility for fixing it. Differences in political affiliation are a major factor in how people think about fake news, as Republicans are more likely than Democrats to also blame journalists for the problem. The question of how to deal with made-up or misleading stories has embroiled politicians, civil-rights organizations and tech companies in the aftermath of misinformation campaigns by Russians and others aimed at undermining democratic institutions in the U.S. and Europe. A survey from the Pew Research Center, released Wednesday, finds that 68% of U.S. adults believe fake news affects confidence in government institutions. Misinformation was cited more often as a major problem than sexism, racism, illegal immigration or terrorism. Pew typically left the definition of “made-up news and information” open-ended, though some questions specified that it was information “intended to mislead the public.” As for who’s to blame for false information, 57% pointed the finger at political leaders and their staffs, while 53% said activist groups bore responsibility. Journalists and foreign actors such as Russia each…

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High-Ranking FBI Official Leaked Sealed Information to Journalists, Accepted Gifts From Reporter

by Chuck Ross   A former FBI official accepted gifts from the media and leaked sealed court information to reporters, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog found. According to a summary of a DOJ inspector general’s report released on Wednesday, the former official, who served as a deputy assistant director, accepted a $225 ticket from a reporter to a media-sponsored event. The official, who is not identified, also allegedly provided law enforcement sensitive information to reporters on “multiple” occasions without authorization of the bureau. The official “had dozens of official contacts with the media” in violation of FBI policy, the report alleges. The inspector general also found that the former official may have been in contempt of court by allegedly disclosing the existence of information that was under a court seal. The Justice Department declined prosecution of the official. The investigation is cited in a June 2018 inspector general’s report on the FBI and Justice Department’s handling of the Clinton email investigation. Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general (IG), said in the previous report that investigators found that “dozens” of FBI employees had contacts with the press. “The large number of FBI employees who were in contact with journalists during…

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Analysis: Abortion Debate Shows How Media Deploys Language Gymnastics to Serve Left-Wing Goals

by Jarrett Stepman   “Pregnancy Kills. Abortion Saves Lives.” That was the headline on an absurd opinion article in The New York Times, deploying Orwellian language to turn the abortion debate on pro-lifers and comfort those who support abortion on demand. While the conversation over Alabama’s new abortion law has drawn out some wild arguments from the left, it’s easy to miss the less obvious ways the media reinforce the pro-abortion side. The media, cleverly and often subtly, use rhetorical adjustments to reinforce left-wing ideas under the guise of objectivity. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] It’s not just on the abortion issue that the media kowtow to the left in the terminology they use in charged public debates. For instance, The Guardian, a British outlet, recently updated its style guide to reinforce the idea that challenging prevailing left-wing ideas about man-made climate change is fundamentally illegitimate. The Guardian is updating our style guide to accurately reflect the nature of the environmental crisis. “Climate change” —> “climate emergency, crisis or breakdown” “Global warming” —> “global heating” “Climate skeptic” —> “climate science denier”https://t.co/ags5nyz3Pe — Julia Carrie…

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Commentary: The Colluders, Obstructionists, and Leakers Project Onto ‘Trump World’ What They, Themselves Do

by Victor Davis Hanson   Before the defeat of Hillary Clinton, the idea that the Russians or anyone else could warp or tamper with our elections in any serious manner was laughed off by President Obama. “There is no serious person out there who would suggest that you could even rig America’s elections,” Obama said in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election. Obama was anxious that the sure-to-be-sore-loser Trump would not blame his defeat on voting impropriety in a fashion that might call into question Clinton’s victory. After Clinton’s stunning defeat, Russian “collusion” – thanks initially to efforts by Obama holdover Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to go after Michael Flynn and the successful attempts of the CIA and FBI to seed the bogus Steele dossier among the government elite – became a club to destroy the incoming Trump Administration. Colluders, Inc. How ironic that Russian “collusion” was used as a preemptive charge from those who actually had colluded with Russians for all sorts for financial and careerist advantages. The entire so-called Uranium One caper had hinged on ex-President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and their Clinton Foundation uniting with Russian or Russian-affiliated oligarchs to ease…

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Commentary: Mainstream Media’s Agitprop Distorts Trump’s Actions to Help Protect Trillions in Crony Globalist Status Quo

by Edward Ring   Competing investigations and alternative analyses offer partisans on both sides ample fodder to feed their biases, but a presumption that guilt can be manufactured if it doesn’t exist is the common thread pushing them. Just as the Soviets knew in Stalinist Russia, if you look at anyone long enough, you’re going to find something to use against them. Instead of dispatching political opponents with bullets to the back of the head, however, we Americans fight with politicized investigations, attorneys, and political grandstanding. And on the side of America’s anti-Trump shadow government, deep state, establishment bureaucracy, the media closes ranks and takes every opportunity to distort the truth in favor of an agenda. Recent reporting provides yet another example of the establishment media’s Stalinesque anti-Trump bias. President Trump on Wednesday canceled a meeting to discuss infrastructure legislation with House leadership, because immediately prior to the meeting, he was blindsided by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) holding a meeting with pro-impeachment lawmakers, where she “emphasized that the White House is engaging in a ‘cover-up’.” Some news accounts suggest that Trump planned to cancel the meeting and hold a press conference instead, based on the fact that a “no collusion, no obstruction” sign had been…

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FAKE NEWS: Time Columnist Ian Bremmer Admits He Made Up Viral Trump Quote ‘Kim Jong Un Is Smarter and Would Make a Better President than Sleepy Joe Biden’

by Peter Hasson   Time Magazine columnist Ian Bremmer on Sunday tweeted a quote from President Donald Trump about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un that quickly went viral — but it wasn’t real. “President Trump in Tokyo: ‘Kim Jong Un is smarter and would make a better President than Sleepy Joe Biden.’” Bremmer wrote on Twitter. While Trump did praise the North Korean dictator’s insult of former Vice President Joe Biden, the president never said what Bremmer quoted him saying – because Bremmer made it up. UPDATE: @ianbremmer has now admitted that he fabricated this viral Trump quote. And yet it is being shared by journalists and congressmen as if it is real. pic.twitter.com/QgNd9DnN8g — Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) May 26, 2019 Bremmer left the false post up for several hours before conceding he made up the quote and deleting the tweet, which he defended as “plausible.” “This is objectively a completely ludicrous quote. And yet kinda plausible. Especially on twitter, where people automatically support whatever political position they have. That’s the point.” Bremmer wrote in a since-deleted correction. Bremmer’s tweet went viral among Trump critics before he took it down. “Don’t shrug your shoulders. Don’t get used to this insanity,” wrote CNN contributor Ana Navarro.…

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Commentary: The Great Green Media Machine

by Matthew Boose   Remember Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony? By now, it feels like ages ago. At the time, the media hyped what the president’s former attorney had to say into a really big deal. In just a short time, Cohen’s highly dramatized hearing proved to be entirely inconsequential. Everyone forgot about Michael Cohen and his “bombshells.” Congress recently heard from William Barr, the attorney general who has had the role of Trump’s henchman kindly foisted upon him by malicious scriptwriters at MSNBC and the Democratic National Committee (is there a difference, really?). If that isn’t enough political theater to satiate the gossips at the big networks and their delusional followers, they might hear soon from former special counsel Robert Mueller, too. It’s an odd paradox that the media, while so widely distrusted, somehow manages to wield the power to signify what is actually happening. This power to invent and erase events is also a power of legitimation, to determine what is politically and morally acceptable. This really is the media’s first role—not to report facts, but to narrate—to present moral tales, to make up villains, whether the enemy is “whiteness,” Christendom, a bunch of Catholic high school boys, or…

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House Speaker Glen Casada Provides a Statement to the Republican Caucus Regarding Media Reports and Allegations

  Nearly two weeks after the Tennessee State Capitol was roiled with reports of misconduct by House Speaker Glen Casada and his then-Chief of Staff Cade Cothren, Casada’s office has issued his most detailed response to the allegations to date. The Statement, first made available to Members of the House Republican Caucus, attempts to distinguish between claims that Casada says are true and those that are false. Cothren himself answered many of the same allegations earlier this week in an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star.  The Star has also detailed the misreporting of various “facts” by certain media outlets over the past week. In the statement, Casada points out: “In recent days, we have seen numerous false and misleading allegations and reports in the media and online related to actions taken by Speaker Glen Casada and this office. We think the public deserves to know the facts. As part of our action plan to bring greater clarity and transparency to the coverage of these issues, we have prepared this summary of some of the most outrageous and unsubstantiated charges and allegations.” Casada acknowledges that “there were a small number of inappropriate text threads privately shared between then Tennessee House…

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Commentary: Rumor and Bias, Inaccuracy and Ignorance Contribute to the Low State of Journalism

by Jeff Minick   William Tecumseh Sherman, a Civil War general not known for his delicacy of speech, once said, “If I had my choice, I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast.” Like many people today, Sherman detested reporters and journalists. On another occasion, he stated: “I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are.” Regardless of political persuasion, Americans have lost faith in today’s mainstream news media. Reporting on a 2018 poll inquiring about trust in major institutions, the Columbia Journalism Review found print and television news at rock-bottom, exceeded in the matter of distrust only by Congress. When asked why they distrusted the media, about 45 percent of responders cited factors such as bias, inaccuracy, and “fake news.” The results of the Mueller investigation have brought certain television and print outlets to new lows. Some have lost viewers or readers, while others, accused of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), have faced a barrage of criticism for their bias and for the amount of time they gave…

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Commentary: Embarrassing Gaffes Continue to Show Media’s Ignorance of Religion

by Jarret Stepman   It’s become increasingly clear that many in our nation’s elite media know little to nothing about religion—Christianity in particular. This is a disturbing trend for the future of our country. A long list of theological gaffes by The New York Times over the years was recently catalogued in an insightful New York Post editorial by Mark Hemingway. Among the Times’ errors was an article in 2013 that referred to Easter as a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection into heaven. It soon issued a correction, since Jesus did not immediately ascend to heaven after resurrection—that was weeks later. Another piece claimed that the Holy Sepulcher in Israel is where “Christians believe Jesus is buried,” even though Christians believe Jesus was resurrected and thus would not be in a tomb. And then there was the most recent blunder, in which the Times claimed that Father Jean-Marc Fournier saved a statue of Jesus from the Notre Dame fire. What Fournier actually saved was the Blessed Sacrament—which is, of course, not a statue but the bread used in Communion, believed by Catholics to be the real body of Christ. It appears that the Times struggles to understand the phrase “the body…

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House Judiciary Committee Chair Nadler Falsely Claims Don Jr. Was Offered Stolen Information in Trump Tower Meeting

by Chuck Ross   New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, falsely claimed in an interview on Sunday that Donald Trump Jr. was offered stolen information in the infamous meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016. “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd failed to correct Nadler when he made the inaccurate statement. “I do not understand why he didn’t charge Don Jr., and others in that famous meetings with criminal conspiracy,” Nadler said of Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the interview. “They entered into a meeting of the minds to attend a meeting, to get stolen material on Hillary. They went to the meeting. That’s conspiracy, right there,” he added. Despite that claim, Trump Jr. was not offered stolen material before accepting the June 9, 2016 meeting. WATCH: Should Mueller have charged anyone for meeting with Russians in Trump Tower? #MeetThePress #IfItsSunday@repjerrynadler: "I do not understand why he didn't charge Don Jr. and others in that famous meeting." pic.twitter.com/2h0c3Mfimp — Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) April 21, 2019 Trump Jr. accepted the meeting after a music publicist named Rob Goldstone emailed him on June 3, 2016 saying that a Russian attorney wanted to meet with the campaign to…

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Commentary: And Then When That Didn’t Work…

by Victor Davis Hanson   Right after the 2016 election, Green Party candidate Jill Stein – cheered on by Hillary Clinton dead-enders – sued in three states to recount votes and thereby overturn Donald Trump’s victory in the Electoral College. Before the quixotic effort imploded, Stein was praised as an iconic progressive social justice warrior who might stop the hated Trump from even entering the White House. When that did not work, B-list Hollywood celebrities mobilized, with television and radio commercials, to shame electors in Trump-won states into not voting for the president-elect during the official Electoral College balloting in December 2016. Their idea was that select morally superior electors should reject their constitutional directives and throw the election into the House of Representatives where even more morally superior NeverTrump Republicans might join with even much more morally superior Democrats to find the perfect morally superior NeverTrump alternative. When that did not work, more than 60 Democratic House members voted to bring up Trump’s impeachment for vote. Trump had only been in office a few weeks. Then San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer toured the country and lavished millions on advertisements demanding Trump’s removal by impeachment – and was sorely disappointed when he…

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Jake Tapper: CNN Didn’t Get ‘Anything’ Wrong in Russiagate Reporting

by Chuck Ross   Jake Tapper said Sunday that CNN has not gotten “anything” wrong during the course of reporting on Russiagate, even though his network has bungled numerous stories over the past two years. “I’m not sure what you’re saying the media got wrong. The media reported the investigation was going on. Other than the people in the media on the left, not on this network, I don’t know anybody that got anything wrong,” Tapper said during an exchange with acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. “We didn’t say there was a conspiracy. We said Mueller was investigating a conspiracy.” “That’s fine, if that’s your recollection of history, that’s great,” Mulvaney responded to Tapper’s defense. “Face it, the media got this wrong. It’s okay. People get stuff wrong all the time, just not at this level.” “We need to figure out what went wrong with the Mueller report, why — in all fairness to your network — why the media got it so wrong for so long,” said Mulvaney. .@MickMulvaneyOMB tells @jaketapper that ethics are not the issue when it comes to the Russia probe on #CNNSotu https://t.co/geGGK4lD1N — State of the Union (@CNNSotu) March 31, 2019…

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Minnesota’s Mainstream Media Received $330,000 Grant for Two-Day Conference on Racial Bias in Reporting

Minnesota’s “mainstream media professionals” gathered for a two-day conference this week at Hamline University to discuss the “impact that racial narratives have on individuals, communities, and trust in media—and how they can collaborate to change it.” The conference, called “Truth and Transformation: Changing Racial Narratives in Media,” was made possible by a $332,000 grant from the Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundations that was awarded to a “community-media partnership.” According to the conference website, this partnership includes Minnesota Public Radio, Hamline University, ThreeSixty Journalism at the University of St. Thomas, the Minnesota Humanities Center, Pillsbury United Communities, and KMOJ Radio. The conference ran from March 19 to March 20 and helped “participants deepen their understanding of narratives that are absented from dominant culture discourse and engage with one another through the power of story, setting the foundation for deepened relationships across organizations, generations and geographic locations.” “On day two, participants will challenge their own assumptions and practice strategies for telling more accurate racial narratives, placing value on the strength of different worldviews. They will hear first-hand accounts of Minnesotans impacted by racial narratives, and work collaboratively to identify systemic barriers and to amplify community solutions to narrative change,” the conference website…

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Analysis: Support for ‘Soaking the Rich’ Is Rooted in Media Misinformation

By James D. Agresti   Public opinion polls show high levels of support for raising taxes on the wealthy, and some people are touting these results to advance progressive tax policies. Such polls, however, are tainted by the common myth that the rich pay a lower average effective federal tax rate than the middle class. This belief has been widely spread by the media, but data from the U.S. Treasury, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Tax Policy Center prove the exact opposite is true. Politico recently published an article by Ben White titled “Soak the Rich? Americans Say Go for It.” According to White, “the prospect of 70 percent tax rates for multimillionaires and special levies on the super-rich draw howls about creeping socialism and warnings of economic disaster,” but “when it comes to soaking the rich, the American public is increasingly on board.” White bases his claim on a new Politico/Morning Consult poll “that found 76% of registered voters believe the wealthiest Americans should pay more in taxes.” He also cites a recent Fox News survey showing that “70% of Americans favor raising taxes on those earning over $10 million,” and “54% of Republicans” agree with this. Politico…

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Commentary: The Media’s Selective Curiosity

by Carson Holloway   Members of the mainstream media understandably resent President Trump’s description of them as purveyors of “fake news.” After all, they do the public a service by reporting a great deal of true and relevant information. And when they get the facts wrong, they usually correct the record. Nevertheless, the president’s criticisms of the media resonate with many Americans. For them, the “news” industry is “fake” not in the sense that it tells nothing but falsehoods, but rather in the sense that its self-presentation is fake or phony. The media claim to be disinterested reporters of the facts, but their behavior shows they are far more interested in some facts than in others. This suggests that their main concern is not in uncovering the truth but in telling a certain kind of story. The “fake news” charge sticks not because of the media’s mendacity but because of their selective curiosity. Nowhere has that selective curiosity been more evident than in the coverage of the biggest news story of the last two years: the supposed complicity of Trump and his campaign in Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. From top to bottom, this story has been shaped…

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Report: Job Slashing Hedge Fund Looking to Buy The Tennessean as Part of Gannett Purchase

The Wall Street Journal and Market Watch are reporting that Digital First Media, a hedge fund backed media company renowned for purchasing newspapers and gutting the operations through firings and drastic cost cutting, is preparing a bid to purchase Gannett, which owns The Tennessean, along with about 100 other newspapers around the country. Market Watch reported on Sunday: A hedge-fund-backed media group known for buying up struggling local papers and cutting costs is planning to make an offer for USA Today publisher Gannett Co., according to people familiar with the matter. MNG Enterprises Inc., one of the largest newspaper chains in the country, has quietly built a 7.5% position in Gannett’s stock and plans to publicly urge the McLean, Va., publisher to put itself up for sale, the people said. MNG, better known as Digital First Media, will also offer to buy Gannett GCI, +0.52% for $12 a share, they said, which would represent a 23% premium over Friday’s closing price of $9.75. The shares, which fell steeply last year, have been rising lately. Closely held Digital First is known for its contentious history with the newspaper industry in part because of its penchant for slashing costs. It has over…

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