Tag: media

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

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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

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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…

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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

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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

Anthony Gockowski

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

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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

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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

Tennessee Star Staff

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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Chuck Todd Questions Senator Perdue About Kavanaugh: ‘Does Public Opinion Matter?’

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by Molly Prince   Republican Sen. David Perdue of Georgia explained Sunday morning why his decision whether or not to vote for Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court has not been swayed based on recent polling. “Does public opinion matter to you?” Chuck Todd asked Perdue on “Meet The Press.” “If more people oppose his nomination or more people don’t believe him, should that factor in to your decision-making on this?” “Well, there are two issues there. First of all, I don’t put a lot of confidence in these polls — these are the same polls that had me losing by as much as 10 percent in my race three or four years ago and we won by more than eight points,” Perdue replied. “It had [President Donald] Trump losing, so I’m not sure these polls clearly reflect the opinion of the American people.” Support to confirm Kavanaugh is down among voters following Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegations against him. More voters believe Ford’s accusations than Kavanaugh’s denials by a 6-point margin, according to a Fox News poll. However, over one-third of voters are unsure. “The other thing is that I believe that right now the information that the…

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Commentary: Media Continues Its Slow Suicide

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by Julie Kelly   After reviewing last week’s news coverage, I would encourage President Trump to come up with a more accurate taunt than “fake news.” Maybe “garbage news.” Or perhaps “bottom-feeding news.” Even try “we-are-a-collection-of-dishonest-miscreants-who-are-unworthy-of-an-ounce-of-the-American-people’s-trust news.” But “fake news” is tame in light of the media’s misleading, destructive, and willfully ignorant reporting last week that was intended further to inflame a divided body politic. Some of the lowlights featured MSNBC morning host Joe Scarborough, claiming Trump has done more damage to the country than the 9/11 terrorists; the editorial board of a major newspaper blaming Trump for Hurricane Florence; the wholesale acceptance of a highly flawed paper about hurricane deaths used to bash the president; and a despicable crusade not just to quash Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court, but to destroy his reputation and damage his young family. And it wasn’t just the dependable lunatics on the Left pushing trash commentary. Bret Stephens, the NeverTrump “conservative” columnist for the New York Times, compared Trump to a drug addict. Washington Post “conservative” blogger Jennifer Rubin warned that if Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted to confirm Kavanaugh, their names would be, “as was the case with [Nazi-era traitor] Vidkun Quisling—synonymous with ‘sellouts,’ ‘collaborators,’ or, to use a Trumpism, ‘phonies.’” As…

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EXCLUSIVE: Released Texts Messages And Emails Show Mueller Team’s Cozy Relationship With Press

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by Joe Simonson   Hundreds of pages of emails and texts messages released from the Justice Department’s special counsel office through a FOIA request document shows an ongoing relationship between Robert Mueller’s team and the press, according to an investigation by The Daily Caller News Foundation. The documents, released in September, span months of communication and include messages from reporters ranging from a variety of outlets including TheDCNF to the Washington Post and BuzzFeed. While the vast majority of correspondences between Mueller’s spokesman Peter Carr and a variety of journalists ends with a “no comment,” the messages expose that Mueller’s team was willing to meet with a number of  reporters in private meetings and over the phone. Coordinating such meetings cuts against the narrative that the special counsel has been hesitant to give information to the press, instead opting to give information only through public announcements and statements. Just in August, The New York Times ran a story poking fun at the secrecy of the special counsel, with one reporter writing that Carr’s “‘no comment’ replies have become a running dark joke among the Washington press corps.” Yet on July 21st, 2017, Adam Goldman from The Times sent an email to Carr…

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Commentary: Media Needs to Stop Hiring Young Know-Nothings

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by Julie Kelly   The American news media is quick to blame President Trump for their current woes, but they have no one to blame but themselves. A revealing poll issued Tuesday shows how much the public’s trust in the news media has tanked over the past ten years: Nearly 70 percent of Americans and 95 percent of conservatives have lost faith in the media since 2008. This year’s collective and shameful performance by the Fourth Estate will erode that trust even more. We have endured the silent acquiescence of the press as a vulgar comedian insulted the president’s press secretary; public tantrums by the White House press corps; numerous corrections to articles and cable news segments that oddly always must walk back an anti-Trump angle; the revelation of unethical and possibly illegal quid pro quo between reporters and federal law enforcement officials; the publication of a petulant opinion piece authored by an unnamed Trump official clearly miffed that Trump and not he is president; and the ongoing insane, unjustified obsession with the bogus Trump-Russia collusion plotline. It’s hard to imagine how the press could restore its lost credibility any time soon. One way to clean house would be to stop populating the newsrooms and green rooms of the top media outlets in the country with young,…

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Commentary: The New York Times Belatedly Discovers The Deep State

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by George Rasley, CHQ Editor   The New York Times recently published what it touted as a bombshell anonymous op-ed by a “senior” Trump administration official that trashed President Trump for being among other things “amoral” and showing “little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people.” The op-ed, which we have read and re-read several times, is all about Trump’s style, as opposed to the substance of his policy accomplishments. Indeed, it reads like nothing so much as a #NeverTrump manifesto ghostwritten by a NeverTrumper, like Bill Kristol or Jonah Goldberg, rather than a senior White House or administration official with inside knowledge of Trump’s decision-making process and the alleged failures thereof. It will surprise no one who voted for Donald Trump that he does not hew to the Republican establishment’s idea of “presidential” style – that’s one reason why we voted for him. And Trump understands that better than the #NeverTrump gang in and out of the halls of government. One of the more compelling (and hilarious) moments of Trump’s recent speech and rally in West Virginia was when he did an imitation of a “presidential” establishment Republican robotically walking back and forth behind the…

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NBC’s Chuck Todd Tries To Rally The Troops Against Trump And Fox News

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by Nick Givas   NBC’s “Meet The Press” host Chuck Todd urged his fellow journalists to hit back against attacks on the media and blamed Roger Ailes and President Donald Trump for the public’s negative view of the press. Todd played the victim and compared being a journalist today to working in “the segregated South in the 1950s and ’60s.” “Bashing the media for political gain isn’t new, and neither is manipulating the media to support or oppose a cause,” Todd wrote in an op-ed for The Atlantic Monday. “The closest parallel in recent American history is the hostility to reporters in the segregated South in the 1950s and ’60s.” Todd called out Fox News personalities Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, commentator Matt Drudge and others, for profiting off the fears of white people. “Some of the wealthiest members of the media … have attained wealth and power by exploiting the fears of older white people,” he wrote. “They are thriving financially by exploiting the very same free-press umbrella they seem determined to undermine.” Todd said Trump labeling the press the enemy of the people has delegitimized the media, but said the public’s antagonistic attitude predated the Trump administration. “Roger Ailes, who went on to…

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This Ohio County Swung From Obama to Trump in 2016, Here’s What Eight Fair Attendees Think Two Years Later

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Donald Trump

by Rachel del Guidice   Attendees of this 169-year-old Ohio county fair don’t come out to see politicians and politics aren’t on the forefront of their minds, but a large portion of the folks at the Stark County Fair had strong opinions on both when asked. The political climate of this county, known for its rural, farming areas and also home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, housed in Canton, has flipped in recent years. In 2008, than-candidate Barack Obama won 51.59 percent of the vote in Stark County and and former Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who died last month, won 46.14 percent of the vote. Obama won the county again in 2012 with 49.21percent of the vote, inching past presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who received 48.74 percent. But in 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received 38.68 percent of the vote, while Donald Trump received 55.85 percent of the vote. Some cities in Stark County such as Alliance, Massillon, Canton Township, East Canton, Navarre and Perry Township all went for former President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. These cities flipped to Trump in the 2016 and support for the president was strong among the attendees roaming around the fairgrounds. While harness racing, baking contests, and pavilion concerts were vastly more…

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FAKE NEWS: Mainstream Media Continues to Prove It Is Nothing but Propaganda

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Donald Trump

By Printus LeBlanc   To say the relationship between the mainstream media and President Trump is rocky would be an understatement. The mainstream media has waged a jihad against Trump since he descended from the escalator in Trump Tower on June 16, 2015, to announce his candidacy for President. The press is upset the President calls them out on their blatant bias, but when looking at the details, does the press have a leg to stand on. While the sad status of journalism began its decline generations ago, the people got a glimpse of it after the 2008 election. It was a widely held belief the mainstream media was left-leaning, but the JournoList scandal solidified it was not only left-leaning but pretty much left-wing propaganda. In February of 2007, a private google group was created containing 400 left-leaning academics and journalists. This was no big deal until after the 2008 election. The Daily Caller got a hold of some of the conversations going on in the group, and it was shocking. What they found were “journalists” colluding with one another to kill storiesthat would make then-candidate Obama look bad, while coordinating the effort to boost the future President. The attained documents were…

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Commentary: Media’s Outright Lies and Distortions Cloak True Portrait of Trump

Tennessee Star Staff
Donald Trump

by Jeffrey A. Rendall   Have you ever been shown an image and told it portrays something you just don’t see? I’m not referring to a Rorschach test (a psychological test in which subjects’ perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both); no, I’m talking about a regular run-of-the-mill photo you see in the newspaper or displayed on TV. If that’s the case then you know how half of America now feels about the ongoing jumbled witch hunt the Robert Mueller investigation has devolved into. This week supposedly marked a huge turning point in the liberals’ crusade to bring down the presidency of Donald Trump, with former campaign manager Paul Manafort being convicted in federal court (of non-campaign-related crimes) and sleazy former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleading guilty to Mueller’s charges. Through all of it the media’s painted a portrait of Trump that’s more than a little hazy – it’s downright indistinct. The figures are unclear and the actions are open to wide interpretation. One thing’s for sure – it’s a presented piece of evidence that wouldn’t hold up in court. For his part Trump initially took the legal troubles of his former…

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‘This Is Not Science:’ Scientist Rips Into The Latest Attempt To Blame Wildfires On Global Warming

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Cliff Mass

by Michael Bastasch    – The Associated Press claims that “science says” global warming increases the area of western U.S. land scorched by wildfires every year.  – Climate scientist Cliff Mass noted AP’s simple correlation is not “science” and misses other key drivers of fires.  – It’s similar to another report from early August also attempting to link wildfires to global warming. The Associated Press is out with an analysis claiming that “science says” the amount of western U.S. land scorched by wildfires every year increases as temperatures go up. However, while those things are true, simply correlating two data trends is not “science,” as AP writer Seth Borenstein claims. And one expert says the simple correlation is meant to suggest a strong relationship between global warming and western wildfires that might not be there. “This is not science,” University of Washington climate scientist Cliff Mass told The Daily Caller News Foundation. The AP’s analysis found the “five years with the most acres burned since 1983 averaged 63.4 degrees from April to September,” which is “1.2 degrees warmer than average and 2.4 degrees hotter than the years with the least acres burned.” Since 1999, “10 years have had more than 10,000 square miles…

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Commentary: Neither ‘Free’ Nor ‘Independent,’ the ‘Enemy Of The People’ Media Were On The Wrong Side In The Revolution

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Donald Trump

by George Rasley   Thursday, some 300 newspapers published editorials attacking President Trump for calling certain media figures and companies “the enemy of the people.” The effort was conceived by the Boston Globe and promoted by the American Society of News Editors, the New England Newspaper and Press Association and other groups. Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe’s deputy editorial page editor, told CNN the goal was to raise awareness in the public mind of “the importance of a free and independent press.” If that was the goal, as far as we can tell it failed to deliver. And the reason that it failed is because the American public, outside the largely coastal enclaves of the self-appointed urban elite, long ago realized that most of today’s “press” is neither free nor independent. The days of the feisty independent newspaper publisher are long gone. They have been replaced by corporate managers in thrall to next quarter’s profits, who are not rewarded for speaking truth to power or fighting for the little guy, but for how many column inches of ad space they place. And that same progressive corporate ownership of multiple newspapers must have made getting the orders to push the Boston Globe’s…

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CNN’s Van Jones: There’s No Difference Between Hateful Nazi Rhetoric And Conservative Media

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Van Jones

by Nick Givas   CNN host Van Jones compared Fox News host Laura Ingraham to a neo-Nazi on his show Saturday and said they were preaching the same message of hate. Jones played a clip of one of his CNN colleagues interviewing a white nationalist in Pennsylvania and then played a clip of Ingraham discussing demographic changes in America. “This guy actually openly wears swastikas on his shirt and he says America is his country because he’s white,” Jones said before running the clip. “To be fair, 12 of the guy’s neighbors came out immediately and told [the CNN correspondent] they don’t agree with this guy. He doesn’t represent them and their community, and they deserve a round of applause for sticking up for what’s right in this country.” Right after praising the man’s neighbors for doing the right thing, Jones attacked Ingraham and fed the fire of division by comparing her message to that of hateful Nazis. “I appreciate them for doing that. But here’s the thing that bothers me the most. Those same themes that were once considered so extreme are now becoming mainstream, at least in conservative media,” he continued. “Listen to Laura Ingraham on Fox News addressing millions of your…

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President Trump, New York Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger Spar Over President’s Attacks on US Media

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Donald Trump

President Trump said Sunday he recently told the publisher of The New York Times how he came to describe the mainstream news media as the “Enemy of the People,” but the news executive said he in turn told Trump his language was “inflammatory” and “increasingly dangerous” for journalists around the world. In a Twitter comment, Trump described his July 20 meeting at the White House with A.G. Sulzberger as “very good and interesting.” The U.S. leader said he “spent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media & how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, “Enemy of the People.” Sad!” Had a very good and interesting meeting at the White House with A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher of the New York Times. Spent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media & how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, “Enemy of the People.” Sad! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018 Sulzberger, perhaps the most prominent publisher in the U.S., said that in keeping with the “long tradition” of Times publishers meeting with past U.S. presidents, the conversation was “off the record,” at Trump aides’ request, meaning…

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State of New Jersey Subsidizes Local News, While Tennessee Star Thrives in Free Market

Julie Carr
Steve Gill

During Friday’s Gill Report, broadcast live on WETR 92.3 FM in Knoxville, Steve Gill contemplated the decline of the main stream news outfits and New Jersey’s new found attempt at a tax payer funded media. “Unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere, you probably have noticed that the main stream media is well, running down the tubes,” said Gill; noting, “Newspapers are closing, advertising revenue is down, we’re hearing more and more about how folks are being laid off at newspapers and you’re seeing newspapers go out of business.” He continued: “Although I will tell you, The Tennessee Star is thriving, and if you do things the right way, there are still plenty of opportunities in media. But rather than do things the right way, you’ve got the main stream media that is still devoted to promoting their personal political agenda of the left rather than actually dispensing the news and being fair and balanced and providing actual facts to folks to inform them rather than inflame them and encourage them to just be propagandized from the left. The Tennessee Star is doing fine, and we’re continuing to grow and expand because we’re filling a need that the main…

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Correcting the Media Misinformation About Arming Teachers

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armed teachers

by James D. Agresti   Misinformation can be deadly, especially when it comes to issues like school shootings. This is because it can build support for policies that increase fatalities and generate opposition to reforms that can save lives. Despite these high stakes, a wide array of media outlets have spread fictions about violence, firearms, and armed security in the wake of the armed rampage that killed 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Value of Deterrence Shortly after the Parkland massacre, President Trump said: “A ‘gun free’ school is a magnet for bad people.” “Highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches” would be a “great deterrent” to school shootings. “If a potential ‘sicko shooter’ knows that a school has a large number of very talented teachers (and others) who will be instantly shooting, the sicko will NEVER attack that school.” After reporting the last of these statements, the Washington Post countered, “Some criminologists have questioned that reasoning, pointing out that some people who plan to commit mass shootings are prepared to die in the process.” Likewise, the New York Timeseditorial board wrote that “many deranged mass murderers expect to die themselves during their killing sprees. It’s almost laughable to believe that the president’s…

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Called Out: NPR Reporter Rips Apart AP’s Story On Immigrants In The Military

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US Army

by Neetu Chandak   National Public Radio reporter Tim Mak took apart the Associated Press’s coverage of discharged immigrant military recruits in multiple tweets Friday. The AP’s article, “AP NewsBreak: US Army quietly discharging immigrant recruits,” framed the military as adopting policy changes that hurt immigrants, according to Mak. However, Mak criticized the AP for only providing “hints and anecdotes” instead of evidence that the Trump administration made such changes. “If I was the editor on this story I would have asked for more meat on the bones,” tweeted Mak. “Show me evidence of a change in policy.” Bottom line. Two things can be true: the Army needs immigrant recruits and they are proven to be above average troops Also Some of those who enlist as immigrants will not meet the background check standards and will have to be discharged — Tim Mak (@timkmak) July 6, 2018 While the AP framed immigrants as being unfairly and abruptly targeted by the military, Mak said discharges happen frequently for a variety of reasons. “I bet I could find 40 recruits discharged bf basic [sic] for being too fat,” he said. “Perhaps these immigrant recruits could not pass a background check (by the way, there are jobs in the…

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NBC’s Chuck Todd Admits Trump Is ‘Winning’ While Democrats Are ‘Reeling’

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Chuck Todd

by Nick Givas   Host of NBC’s “Meet The Press” Chuck Todd said President Donald Trump is “winning” the policy war against Democrats Sunday, as the left continues to falter. “The announced retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy this week helped make one political reality clear — despite his overall unpopularity, President Trump is winning, and the Democrats right now are reeling,” Todd said. “The Supreme Court, Mr. Trump is about to shape the court for a generation by choosing a possible tie-breaking conservative justice, and he’s already filled the lower courts with like-minded conservatives.” Todd also said Trump is enjoying solid support throughout the GOP and highlighted his success in turning the term “fake news” against the mainstream press. “How about the Republican party? The president’s approval rating among Republicans is around 90 percent. Elected Republicans fear criticizing him,” Todd continued. “How about fake news? Mr. Trump has turned that phrase, which initially referred to the phony Russian generated stories designed to support his campaign in 2016, into an applause line now to discredit responsible reporting showcasing his misdeeds.” “If reporters faithfully fact check the president’s serial misstatements they risk being considered biased. If they don’t, misstatements gain traction. Either…

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Exclusive Interview: Fox News’ Kimberly Guilfoyle on Moving From Law to Media, ‘The Five,’ and a Front-Row Seat

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Kimberly Guilfoyle

by Ginny Montalbano   Kimberly Guilfoyle, co-host of “The Five” on Fox News Channel, agreed to an exclusive interview Saturday with The Daily Signal’s Ginny Montalbano during the Young Women’s Leadership Summit. Guilfoyle’s speech that day, at a conference in Dallas organized by Turning Point USA, was not open to media coverage. Guilfoyle talked to The Daily Signal about her career track, the dynamics and fans of “The Five,” media treatment of powerful women at the White House, and her advice for young conservatives who look to pursue a career in media or politics. The transcript of the on-camera interview has been lightly edited for clarity and style.    Ginny Montalbano: I want to start with how you ended up in media and politics. You’ve had a long career with several different chapters. Can you explain how you ended up at Fox News Channel? Kimberly Guilfoyle: Yes, so it’s been quite an interesting journey. I attended law school in San Francisco and worked at internships in the [San Francisco] District Attorney’s Office and really decided that that’s what I wanted to do with my life. Be a prosecutor, fight for victims, for women and children that had been abused and neglected. Domestic…

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Commentary: Should Congress Break Social Media’s Stranglehold on Free Speech?

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US Capitol at night

by Jeffery Rendall   Strolling towards the capitol on one of our recent trips to Williamsburg, Virginia, a thought struck me as we neared the reconstructed building; so much went on inside those walls but the people in the street had nary a clue about what was happening at the time. Sure, there were three newspapers in town (in the late 18th century), but they were somewhat crude enterprises by today’s standards, receiving and reprinting tidbits of intelligence from townspeople, passers through, other newspapers and let’s face it – plain gossip and hearsay. Just steps away great men were debating and deciding everyone’s future yet few common folk understood what was taking place except for what the men – or the royal governor and his council – chose to divulge. Not even the town crier was much help in this regard. Fast forward to today when practically everything that’s “official” is a matter of public record. Granted the government and its agents still keep plenty of secrets – the fallout from the Mueller investigation certainly revealed it – but we know a lot more than the Virginians of the 1760’s and 70’s did. Heck, they were about to sever ties with the…

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Top Clinton Ally: Matt Drudge Is ‘Evil Incarnate’

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Neera Taden

by Peter Hasson   Influential news aggregator Matt Drudge is the embodiment of evil itself, according to the head of a top liberal think tank. Center for America Progress President Neera Tanden, a close ally of failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, leveled the accusation while appearing on a National Review podcast, The Jamie Weinstein Show. “Evil incarnate,” Tanden said when asked her opinion of Drudge, who runs the eponymous Drudge Report. Drudge was the first to report in 1998 on former President Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Tanden also described former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon as “smart but evil.” Tanden’s organization has had its own sexual misconduct issues, BuzzFeed reported in April. Tanden later shocked Center for America Progress employees when she outed a sexual harassment victim in an all-staff meeting, according to another BuzzFeed report. Tanden, who advised Hillary Clinton during her failed 2016 presidential campaign, was slated to be secretary of Health and Human Services if Clinton had won the election. – – – Peter Hasson is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Hasson on Twitter @PeterJHasson.                       Content created by The Daily Caller News…

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America’s Right Turn, Chapter 3: The Recipe for Creating a New Mass Movement

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Tea Party Washington, DC

by Richard A. Viguerie   This is an excerpt from Chapter 3 (“The Recipe for Creating a New Mass Movement”) of America’s Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media to Take Power, by Richard A. Viguerie and David Franke. In this chapter we ask:  How can a grassroots political movement emerge and succeed in our media-dominated world?  For answers, we use the revolutions of 1517 and 1776 (Chapters 1 and 2) as laboratory examples. Then, in coming chapters, we will show how these factors resulted in the emergence, growth, and success of the conservative movement in the second half of the 20th century. In this first excerpt from the chapter, we consider two factors in creating a new mass movement—“Issues that motivate” and “A dedicated vanguard.” As you read the excerpts from this chapter, ask yourself these questions:  Did these same factors contribute to the Trump Revolution of 2016?  Indeed, did his election in 2016 signify the emergence of a new mass movement, or was it rather the evolving of the conservative movement?  I invite you to share your thoughts in the comments section that follows this article.   Chapter 3: The Recipe for Creating a New Mass Movement The media…

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In An Open Letter, Conservative Icon Charles Krauthammer Reveals His Terminal Illness, Bids Farewell

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Charles Krauthammer

Fox News published an open letter to colleagues and fans written by conservative icon Dr. Charles Krauthammer Friday that revealed the beloved pundit and Special Report regular suffers from cancer, and that he has only weeks to live. “This is the final verdict. My fight is over,” he wrote. Krauthammer took a leave of absence in August of 2017 to undergo surgery – the details of which were not discussed at the time – but a number of secondary complications plagued the 68-year-old’s recovery. As recently as February, Krauthammer reached out to say he “will be back” in a letter Special Report host Bret Baier read on camera. In his letter Friday, however, he shared that recent tests found that although the procedure to remove the malignant tumor from his abdomen was successful, the cancer had returned. “I have been uncharacteristically silent these past ten months,” his letter began. “I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end, but I’m afraid I must tell you now that fate has decided on a different course for me.” Read the full letter: Official Statement – Charles Krauthammer by Fox News on Scribd  

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Chapter 2: The Media Revolution of 1776

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Paul Revere

by Richard A Viguerie, CHQ Chairman   This is Chapter 2 (“The Media Revolution of 1776”) from America’s Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media to Take Power, by Richard A. Viguerie and David Franke “What is past is prologue,” and conservatives can learn valuable lessons from this exciting chapter of American history—lessons we can use today as we battle the new media monopolies of the Left. With this chapter, you will appreciate how the role of patriotic media started and fueled a political revolution that continues to this day:  The couriers carrying the latest news on horseback, most famously Paul Revere, where the truth is even more powerful than the legend.  And Tom Paine, the most influential pamphleteer of all time, revered by George Washington.  We learn about the first political action committee (PAC), the first war correspondents, and why the American colonials were so hungry for news and opinion.  We also see early lessons of how and why polemicists are more attuned than politicians to the needs and desires of the populace. As you read this chapter, you may want to take a notepad and list the parallels you see between the era of the American Revolution and…

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Commentary: Media Monopolies Declare War on Conservatives

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Vig Right Turn

by Richard A Viguerie, CHQ Chairman   Conservatives, wake up!  We face a problem that challenges our very existence.  Elitists want to eliminate us as a cultural and political force to be reckoned with.  To reach that goal, they will decide what news we see and which opinion viewpoints we hear.  And they have the power to do that. I’m referring to the elitists’ new information monopolies—Facebook, Google, Twitter, and YouTube.  We are in the early stages of this Information War, but be forewarned—that war has already started. Recent changes in Facebook’s rules of operation, for example, have already resulted in conservative sites losing an average of 14% of their traffic, while liberal sites have enjoyed increases.  This doesn’t mean the number of liberals is increasing while the number of conservatives is decreasing—far from it.  It means that the new rules are manipulating the news and opinions the public is allowed to see.  Let this continue, and conservatism will be “the incredibly shrinking movement.” But this is a wake-up call, not a call for despair.  Conservatives have faced elitist information monopolies before, and we beat them.  We can do it again.  It’s in our genes! The old information monopolies were known…

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Real Estate Moguls Bill Freeman, Jimmy Webb Buy Nashville Scene and Nashville Post

Jason M. Reynolds
Jimmy Webb, Bill Freeman

Multifamily real estate firm Freeman Webb Co. has entered the publishing business by buying the Nashville Post, the Nashville Scene and Nfocus. The Nashville Post made the announcement Friday after the deal with previous owner SouthComm, a holding company, closed. The sales price was not disclosed. SouthComm put the publications up for sale after a period of layoffs and other cutbacks, The Tennessean said. A month ago New York-based This purchase, first reported by the Nashville Post, comes a month CapStack Partners was negotiating to buy the publications. Former mayoral candidate Bill Freeman and business partner Jimmy Webb own the real estate company that has more than 450 workers. The media acquisition will add 35 more. The publications’ leadership team, with Publisher Amy Mularski and CFO Todd Patton, will stay, as will the editors of the Post, Scene and Nfocus. Freeman finished third in the 2015 election for Mayor of Nashville behind David Fox and eventual winner Megan Barry but decided not to run in May’s special election. “Jimmy Webb and I are thrilled to purchase the Post, the Nashville Scene and Nfocus, which are all publications that we’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading over the years,” said Freeman. “It is important to…

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Commentary: Media Hypocrites Way Off Base to Jab at Mike Pence for Doing His Job

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Mike Pence

by Jeffery Rendall   Chief among many reasons conservatives felt good about Donald Trump’s stunning victory in 2016 was the fact Mike Pence would be his vice president. Instead of tapping someone with deep establishment connections within Washington circles Trump selected Indiana Gov. Pence as his running mate, a man who hadn’t even endorsed the eventual nominee in the lead-up to his state’s Republican primary (Pence went for Ted Cruz but said nice things about Trump too – it was almost akin to a split endorsement). Up until that point Pence was well-known to national conservative groups but was still a mystery to many of the rank-and-file party members across the country. The mainstream media wondered, why Pence? He hailed from a conservative state Trump presumably would have little trouble winning; he’d been a congressman for a dozen years and had ascended to a leadership position yet was not considered a party poohbah in Congress. The humble Midwesterner was not even viewed as enough of a “team player” to merit establishment support – after all, he’d opposed George W. Bush’s big government Medicare Part D expansion… Those darn limited government conservative principles of Mike Pence – they always get in…

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‘Let Me Assault YOUR Reputation’ – MSNBC Panel Turns Into Dumpster Fire

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by Peter Hasson   An MSNBC panel quickly deteriorated on Saturday after Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz and Democratic Senate candidate Richard Painter got into a heated dispute and began slinging accusations at each other. The two panelists initially clashed over Dershowitz’s negative characterization of Robert Mueller, but the disagreement soon turned into personal attacks. Dershowitz noted “two tragedies” with regard to the Mueller investigation. “One, the way the White House has behaved and second, the way Mueller, who has a mixed reputation when I was in Boston with regard to four innocent people who spent their life and two of them died in jail — “ Dershowitz said, before Painter interrupted him. “That is not true. You cannot say that, professor. That’s a lie,” said Painter, who has made a name for himself with his hysterical attacks on President Donald Trump.” “Do not assault his reputation. That’s just not true.” “Then let me assault your reputation,” Dershowitz fired back. “Let me talk about your reputation. Painter is trying to turn — parlay his anti-Trump zealotry into a position.” The conversation further deteriorated from there, as Dershowitz — who was hard to hear because of a spotty Skype connection — accused Painter of lying “repeatedly about my background and expertise,” while Painter continued…

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Three Revelations From New York Times Reporter’s Book on Hillary Clinton

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by Katrina Trinko New York Times reporter Amy Chozick’s new book on her time covering Hillary Clinton doesn’t show either her employer, The New York Times, or Clinton herself in a particularly flattering light. Chozick, a member of the largely female press corps that followed Clinton on a near-daily basis at times, crisscrossing the country with her, reported on Clinton’s 2008 campaign for The Wall Street Journal and her 2016 campaign for The New York Times. And in “Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling,” Chozick talks about what it was really like. I’ve assembled three of the revelations I found most interesting. But first, a couple of caveats: I’m not familiar with Chozick’s reporting for the Times, so all my assessments are based on a reading of the book itself. And secondly, Chelsea Clinton is already alleging Chozick got facts wrong, although Chozick is pushing back, noting her book was reviewed by a fact-checker. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] Now to dive in … Hillary Clinton didn’t act like a feminist heroine on the campaign trail. For years, it’s…

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Bezos-Owned Washington Post Omits Amazon’s Questionable Workplace Practices

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By Natalia Castro   “Democracy dies in darkness.” This is the motto the Washington Post proudly proclaims as the guiding principle of their publication; unfortunately, if this is true, the Washington Post is an accomplice in the death of democracy. While pretending the defend journalistic integrity, the Post’s recent silence on issues regarding their parent company, Amazon, shed light on the real intentions behind their reporting. Amazon has been under fire for workforce abuse. James Bloodworth, an English writer, went undercover for six months working low wage jobs in the United Kingdom. One of this first jobs, as an Amon warehouse worker, a job he compared to a prison sentence. Bloodworth explained to Business Insider, “I’ve worked in warehouses before, but this was nothing like I had experienced. You don’t have proper breaks — by the time you get to the canteen, you only have 15 or 20 minutes for lunch, in a 10-1/2-hour working day. You don’t have time to eat properly to get a drink.” Alleging unfeasible productivity targets and strict oversight, Bloodworth explained that Amazon workers felt so much pressure to avoid bathroom breaks, they would routinely urinate in plastic bottles to avoid punishment. Bloodworth’s discoveries have only…

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The Kevin Williamson Saga Reveals The True Colors Of Journalists

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by Joe Simonson   Kevin D. Williamson, the former National Review writer and editor who was recently fired from a new position at The Atlantic for controversial comments he made about abortion, wrote an op-ed Friday in The Wall Street Journal giving his perspective on the incident for the first time. In his column, readers discover a variety of insights into the state of contemporary journalism, ranging from Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg’s admission that previous writers like Christopher Hitchens could get away from writing his unorthodox opinions because he was “in the family,” while Williamson is a foreigner to the liberal intelligentsia. We also come to learn just how out-of-touch Goldberg appears to be from the state of the left. Soon after his hiring, Williamson warned his new boss that “the campaign to have me fired will begin 11 seconds after you announce that you’ve hired me.” “It won’t be that bad,” Williams recounts Goldberg responding. “The Atlantic isn’t the New York Times. It isn’t high church for liberals.” Perhaps The Atlantic isn’t, but as much as conservatives can make jokes about the direction of liberalism with the recent Starbucks controversy, it has become abundantly clear that nothing appears off limits to American’s current…

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Filmmaker Vincent Gallo: ‘I Like Donald Trump a Lot and Am Extremely Proud He Is the American President’

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“I like Donald Trump a lot and am extremely proud he is the American president. And I’m sorry if that offends you.” That quote — surprise! — comes from one of the entertainment industry’s most unique and successful artists. Vincent Gallo, the filmmaker behind such flicks as “Buffalo ’66” and “The Brown Bunny,” has never shied away from his right-of-center beliefs and his feelings about the aggressive liberalism of most of Hollywood.

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MSNBC’s Barnicle Claims Obama Era Was ‘Virtually Scandal-Free’

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MSNBC senior contributor Mike Barnicle gushed over former President Barack Obama Tuesday on “Morning Joe,” claiming with a straight face that Obama’s eight years in the White House were “virtually scandal-free.” Barnicle was interviewing Robert Gibbs, Obama’s first White House press secretary, when he lavished President Donald Trump’s predecessor with unvarnished praise. Without attempting to disguise his less than favorable opinion of Trump and his administration, Barnicle asked Gibbs about “the damage that’s being done to the institution of the presidency today” after eight years under an “exemplary” president.

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Ten Things Megyn Kelly Actually Said. Really.

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From the moment it debuted last year, “Today with Megyn Kelly” has been met with groans and eyerolls from many viewers and those in the media — and the periodically aired “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly” . While we can all acknowledge that speaking on a regular basis in front of a live studio audience must have enormous challenges, Kelly is earning literally millions and millions of dollars for what she does — so the bar is high indeed.

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Facebook FAIL: Fact-Checkers Trigger Suspension Threat Against Satire Site for ‘Fake News’ Story About CNN’s ‘Industrial Washing Mashines’

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Facebook on Friday said it mistakenly threatened to demonetize a satirical website’s social networking account after one of its articles, “CNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine To Spin News Before Publication,” was debunked by Snopes, the fact-checking site used to help counter the platform’s fake news problem.

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